Well. how about THAT for an October Surprise?
I would point out the ironies here but there really aren’t any. It’s basically the opposite of irony: Dude downplays the danger, doesn’t wear a mask and hangs out with other people not wearing masks, all because he thinks he’s a genetically superior human who’s immune to disease. Well, turns out he isn’t.
I have no idea how this is going to play out. This tweet pretty much sums it up:
Yep.
Open thread!
Follow me on Mastodon.
Send tips to dfutrelle at gmail dot com.
We Hunted the Mammoth relies on support from you, its readers, to survive. So please donate here if you can, or at David-Futrelle-1 on Venmo.
WaPo is reporting that Trump is experiencing “mild symptoms” so he does have COVID and is likely to have the blood-clot damage that COVID brings. I’m not sure what to hope for with respect to his prognosis.
@Ohlmann
What makes you think morbid obesity has to do with being unable to walk? I am morbidly obese According to my clinician (and I am carrying extra weight without dispute), but a poll of 5 doctors without knowing put me at 70-100 pounds less than I actually weigh without fail when asked to guess. However, when you then tell your GP that you work out 3 hours a day, it gets marked down as “moderate exercise”. Because if you really exercised hard, you wouldn’t be that high BMI, you wouldn’t weigh that much.
I also caught corona back in Feb/March, and for me it was like the most horrific flu and wracking muscle pain for a week where my left eyeball felt like it was going to fall out, and then an extremely disturbing recovery period where I couldn’t smell anything.
Morbid obesity is not a death sentence for coronavirus.
@Big titty demon : I didn’t refer to BMI exactly because of people like you. I take the litteral sense for morbid obesity : the point where it’s really a short term life threatening problem, and not just an arbitrary cutoff on an index who is supposed to be a rough indicator and not the all say all of weight ratio. That mean, in general, being significantly past the point where someone have trouble moving.
Also, refering to mobility for obesity avoid the very common problem of people who are very muscular and a bit fat to be considered obese. I know that some people try to use the fat ratio for that, except that even for that there is a ton of special cases where that don’t work (boxers, endurance runner for example ; and there’s more).
To say it otherwise : “morbid obesity” is supposed to be for extrem cases. Trump is extrem in a lot of way, but he don’t scream extrem overweightness to me. He only look out of shape, and for a 70 year old, not even that out of shape.
@PoM
Death before November? Pence would be unlikely to win the election.
Re: health factors, I think the thing more likely to determine Trump’s outcome is the fact that he’s old and male. That seems to have much more bearing than weight.
O/T: So much for saying Merry Christmas again.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/audio-leaked-melania-trump-complaining-decorating-wh-who-gives-about-christmas-stuff-064308560.html
@Naglfar
Just so you know, “invoking the 25th” can be done temporarily. I agree that they’re unlikely to end his presidency, but the 25th can be invoked for a couple hours during a brief surgical procedure (and has been used that way).
My confusion is that you may very well know this, so I’m curious as to whether it’s your opinion that they won’t even invoke the 25th’s power to temporarily transfer legitimate power to Pence? or are you just saying that you don’t think that they end Trump’s presidency altogether?
If the latter, then I agree with you. If the former, I think it depends and there are a lot of different levels of severity, etc. that are possible and would affect their decisions.
At least some of the people who work in the White House are competent after all, and if they want Pence to be able to issue executive orders or muster the military while Trump is on a ventilator, they might reasonably fear getting arrested for breaking various laws unless they follow the law in issuing such orders. Or they might just want to make sure instructions coming from the White House are obeyed. In either case invoking the 25th would make sense for them.
(Also I think that Trump himself is the biggest proponent of lying the WH has, and if he was incapacitated then there would be less motivation to lie. Not none, of course, but less.)
@Crip Dyke
That’s what I was thinking of, as that’s usually what people mean with regards to the 25th. I am aware of the former part, but hadn’t considered it for this specific circumstance.
Do one thing for me, Sredni Vashtar.
Watch this suddenly become the worst thing in the world since he has it now, but the rest of the American people dying from it is fine.
if anything this is nature keeping us in check. Virus don’t care who you are, whether you are a good person or not, or poor or not. This fucker is going to find out that all his money, all his delusional power, he is still human and is bound to the same rules of nature as the rest of us, so all the harm he has done to America by not taking this seriously, by not taking it seriously for himself, is gonna come back and bite him. He’s going to find out all the money in the world can’t save him.
Also trump is for sure out of shape, not taking care of himself, and over all fat. but he’s not morbidity obese. That is for more of the people who their weight is dangerously high and is killing their bodies. Like the people who are so heavy it limits their mobility and so forth. Not just someone who has some extra fat because they have a poor diet and are in their senior years.
there isn’t anything morally wrong with being either, to many people link body weight with the morality of a person. Trumps just an asshole who happens to be unhealthy and it’s going to make his chances less.
This is maybe a long shot, but do we know if there’s any connection between anger and COVID prognosis? Trump appears to be perpetually angry, but I’m not sure how that affects his odds.
BTW, I laughed my ass off when I saw this:
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1311984193539321856
I hope he chokes slowly and painfully and with nobody around him.
And then the world throws a fucking party.
I think this is my favorite take I’ve seen so far on this.
https://twitter.com/tankarchist/status/1312058790020349952
@Naglfar
Thanks! I have actually just been busy.
I look forward to Trump being unable to get his narcissistic supply.
Really goes to show just how much of an asshole the Coronavirus is. Trump is the virus’s best friend and an ever loyal political ally, and this is how he’s repaid.
He’ll probably survive, even for his age and sex a majority do IIRC. But gods, dying from the disease he weaponized as a tool of genocide would be poetic justice.
I’m not going to pray for that, but only because I don’t want to jinx it.
@Naglfar
If Trump were to die before November they would not be obligated to run Pence; they could choose another candidate. Of course, that would probably make Pence all sad and that would be terrible. /s
@Schnookums
Who else would they choose? They put all their eggs in one basket, and that basket has COVID.
See also Trump’s recent rhetoric on how Covid-19 “affects virtually nobody”. I guess now he’s confirmed as a virtual nobody.
Oh? We’re all celebrating and nobody is being sanctimonious about wishing for the death of that absolute malignant piece of shit?
Well then!
I really wish I could see his chart. That Walter Reed visit … was it for anything that could affect his response to COVID-19? I remember seeing he’s on lisinopril, so there’s hypertension as a risk factor, on top of his age and gender.
I gotta admit, I’d have a song in my heart if we ended up having to swear in Nancy Pelosi to finish out Trump/Pence’s term.
@ naglfar
I think under Thunderdome rules they have to choose the virus.
I’m with everyone else who is thinking he’ll be fine with the best of medical care and no concern about bills, then turn around and talk about it being no big deal.
Many of his supporters already think it is blown out of proportion anyway, so that will just fan the fire…
Also under Necromonger rules. All hail Lord Marshal SARS-CoV-2!
“And what would be the odds of that?”
@Nequam: ROFL, and stealing.
@Diego
I know you’re being sarcastic, but I am getting tired of that sentiment being unironically said by liberals though.
“But if you are mean to him you’re just as bad!”
No, by not wishing well for a FASCIST who has caused 210,000+ deaths I am not just as bad as said fascist.
ETA: I really like Mona Eltahawy’s take on the matter. She explains better than I can.
@VP
According to the CNN article I linked early he has a high plaque level in his coronary artery, so it looks like he has heart disease. That is not in his favor.
@Alan
Probably a better president.