Trump Will Eventually Disappear - Al Franken

[marble falls]

Trump Will Eventually Disappear
July 23, 2020

https://alfranken.com/uncategorized/trump-will-eventually-disappear



<snip>

There were the six weeks to two months that Trump assured us that everything was “totally under control.” That our cases would soon be down to zero. That the coronavirus would magically disappear.* All this was in direct contradiction to what he was being told by his team. On January 18, when Health and Human Services Secretary Azar warned Trump about the grave threat posed by the virus, Trump called him “an alarmist,” and moved onto what he wanted to talk about – “that f*cking vaping thing.” That’s right – vaping. The president was very, very angry that he had been dragged into banning fruity and mint-flavored vaping products. Of late, he had been receiving a lot of political blowback from that decision, one that he bitterly regretted.

We know that there were similar warnings in the Presidential Daily Brief during that period. But, then again, this president doesn’t read the PDBs. Recently, Joe Biden announced that, as president, he will read the Presidential Daily Brief. And get this. He promised to read them daily!

When pressed about his months-long dismissal of the coronavirus, Trump explained that he was being “a cheerleader” for the American people. Alright. OK. Thing is – I’ve been to a lot of high school football games, and I have never seen the cheerleaders turn around and fire AK-47s into the bleachers. We have lost more than 140,000 Americans to Covid-19. There is no question that had Trump acted – as any president before him would have – tens of thousands of Americans who have died from this horrible disease would still be alive today. This is American Carnage. And Donald Trump is responsible for it.

I was in the Senate during the Ebola crisis. I saw first-hand how the United States led the global response to Ebola. Because the CDC was on the ground in Africa at the time of the outbreak in Liberia, we identified it before it got out of control and sent medical teams there to treat people and staunch the epidemic. The Trump administration cut 80% of the CDC’s funding for just that kind of presence in 39 countries – including a huge cut in our footprint in…China.

Before Trump, most of the world thought of America as the indispensable nation. And so did Americans. Now, after three-and-a-half years of Trump, neither is true. Not only did Trump choose not to lead a global response to Covid-19 – he decided against a national response. Instead, he kicked it down to the states. It’s as if, after Pearl Harbor, FDR said, “This is really Hawaii’s problem now.”

<snip>

Three months ago, a bipartisan group, including former Trump administration Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb and former Obama head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Andy Slavitt, put together a comprehensive plan for contact tracing and isolation. It cost a lot – an estimated $46.5 billion. But it included $12 billion to expand the contact tracing workforce by 180,000 people and $4.5 billion for using vacant hotels as self-isolation facilities. Testing, tracing, and isolation is the only way we can start to safely reopen and begin to get our economy back on track. In the end, the program would pay for itself and more. And, yet, Trump has insisted that Congress reduce the funding for testing that is in its latest coronavirus relief package.

<snip>

But, of course, It would be completely irresponsible for schools to open in those areas of the country where Covid-19 has been spiking. The idea of a blanket national policy is just another example of the insanely backasswards way this president has been approaching everything in this crisis. PPE? Let every state fend for themselves and have to bid against each other for masks and for ventilators. But schools? Open or no funding from the federal government.

There are actual rational, intelligent, measured ways to approach these problems. But we have been held hostage by a malignant narcissist. And not just any malignant narcissist. This one. Yes, it would be nice if the president had empathy. But I’d settle for a malignant narcissist who couldn’t give a fig about anybody, but who at least was smart enough to understand that he (and the country) would be a lot better off if he had just followed the science. Who knows? Maybe that malignant narcissist would have had a good shot at being reelected.

___

*Trump continues to defend that statement, insisting that at some point, the coronavirus will indeed disappear. Of course, on that score, Donald Trump is absolutely correct. Then again, eventually, the sun will also disappear – in the sense that it will burn out. In about five billion years.

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. I want him to disappear into a dark prison.

[RobertDevereaux]

2. In a pestilential prison with a life-long lock...

Awaiting the sensation of a short sharp shock
From and cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block.

[TheRickles]

22. G&S remains relevant to this day. Thanks! n/t

[Warpy]

29. Oh, I'm meaner than you are

I want him to go bankrupt paying lawyers, trying to stay out of prison and hopelessly suing everybody he thinks was mean to him during these 4 years. I want him in debt. I want him despised and shunned, alone with himself, no one to distract him from the stink of his own fetid soul. And I want it to last: poverty and isolation.

I know the costs of both of these conditions in healthy people. They will be a lot higher for him.

I will never forgive him for pissing me off enough to think along these lines.

[Ferrets are Cool]

30. Those are all nice thoughts, but

IMO, as long as he is not in prison, the lowlife will find a way to lie or steal his way to a life of luxury. Either way, his days are numbered. He wont live much longer...each day is one day too many.

[diva77]

34. where he can have 2 scoops a day...

of maggots for lunch

[Thekaspervote]

3. Love Al Franken

[LakeArenal]

4. Al Franken for a position somewhere.

He deserves it more than anyone who was part of his “departure”.

[marble falls]

6. Public office of some sort, Governor, Congress or Senate or the Biben cabinet.

[LakeArenal]

14. Commerce Secretary,Labor Secretary, Treasury.

[Trumpocalypse]

18. Governor of Minnesota?

[DFW]

31. That is actually one position he was not down on

He was never seriously interested in the White House, and for reasons we all know, his enthusiasm for returning to the Senate can be considered lukewarm at best. But he is extremely popular back home in Minnesota, and he really does feel at home there. You have definitely hit upon one position about which he sees little in the way of a downside.

[LuvNewcastle]

16. I was hoping he would run for President

this year. A brilliant comedian against that conman would be too beautiful. He probably doesn't want to deal with the shit, and who can blame him there.

[LakeArenal]

17. Oh I think he would have loved to be in on the impeachment.

I will never forgive those who railroaded Al until some sort of position is found for him.

That includes everyone who signed that letter. Not just Gillibrand.

[LuvNewcastle]

21. I'm with you there.

[Trumpocalypse]

36. So Warren and Harris

are not on your VP short list.

[Celerity]

40. every Democratic Senator but 5 told him to resign, either in public or private

Christopher Coons, Brian Schatz, and Jeanne Shaheen were on the Senate Ethics Committee and could not say anything (they all would have told him to resign I am sure)

Bob Menendez was under federal indictment and trial for corruption and chose to not say anything. (The case was eventually dropped after a mistrial due to the jury unable to reach a unanimous guilty verdict, and he then received an official Senate letter of severe admonishment and reprimand.)

The only one who said he should not resign as Manchin.

[LakeArenal]

46. Why on earth would you say the very ethics committee, of whom Al requested an investigation

Tell him to resign? That seems pretty unethical.

Which had he had that investigation would have found connections to the Republican smear campaign.

[Celerity]

48. they could not say anything, it was an a priori conflict of interest, but the odds are very, very

high they (and Menendez too) would have done the same (either in public or private) as all others did, save for Manchin.


Even Senator Klobuchar told him to resign in private and called his resignation the right decision

'The right decision,' Amy Klobuchar, others say of Franken's resignation

https://www.twincities.com/2017/12/07/amy-klobuchar-mark-dayton-others-react-to-al-franken-resignation-announcement/

U.S. SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR

“Today Senator Franken acknowledged that he could no longer serve in the Senate and resigned. As he and I discussed yesterday, this is the right decision. Senator Franken has worked for years on behalf of the people of Minnesota and he has been a leader on issues that are fundamental to Americans’ lives, including education, privacy, healthcare and mental health. He has been a friend to me and to many in our state.

“As the women who have come forward to tell their stories across America have made clear, sexual harassment is never acceptable. In every workplace in America, including the U.S. Senate, we must confront the challenges of harassment and misconduct. Nothing is easy or pleasant about this, but we all must recognize that our workplace cultures — and the way we treat each other as human beings — must change.

“For Franni, the Franken family, Senator Franken’s friends and supporters in our state, it’s a very tough day. I want you to know I remain as committed as ever to working together and standing up for people, for common decency, and for our democracy during an incredibly difficult and divisive time in our country. And as we go forward together, we must never forget the words of Senator Paul Wellstone, whom Senator Franken quoted in part today, ‘Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people’s lives.”

snip



https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/08/politics/amy-klobuchar-senate-al-franken-minnesota/index.html

"I had condemned his conduct early on when the first allegation was made," she told CNN's Dana Bash on "Inside Politics." "I felt I was in a different role as his colleague, that I'm someone that has worked with him for a long time, there's a lot of trust there, and I felt it was best to handle it in that way."

In a coordinated effort, female Democratic senators called for Franken's resignation in rapid fire Wednesday. Klobuchar did not join in that effort and said in a statement at the time that she spoke with him privately. By Wednesday evening, more than two dozen senators -- including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer -- had called for Franken's resignation.

"I talked to him about the fact that you had reached the situation with the mounting allegations and the fact that there was an ethics investigation going on," Klobuchar told CNN Friday.

snip


When asked about the ramifications of Franken's decision to resign, which Bash said was "under duress" -- and Klobuchar agreed -- the senator said it's "not about just toppling men." "This is about guaranteeing we will have better workplaces where people treat each other fairly," she responded. "And there is a lot of good men in the workplace. You know some of them. I think the key here will be due process."

snip


https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2017/12/why-democrats-pushed-franken-out.html?page=all

snip

A contrast is just what Democrats likely want to focus on, according to The Washington Post. Forcing out Franken, along with Rep. John Conyers, shows the party is “willing to sacrifice their own in the interest of staking out the higher ground,” per The Post.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar called Franken Wednesday and privately urged him to step down, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. While she plans to uphold Franken’s legacy and the work he’s done for the state, she thought his speech was “short.”

“I know that he didn’t really apologize to the people and that would have been nice,” Klobuchar said, per the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

snip


http://www.startribune.com/sen-amy-klobuchar-says-franken-s-legacy-will-last-but-adds-he-should-have-apologized/462628583/

snip

As for the farewell speech itself, Klobuchar said: “I thought the speech was short. ... I know that he didn’t really apologize to the people and that would have been nice.

“I think the bigger deal for me was that he was able to talk ... with a lot of love for our state, what he liked about his job and what he wanted to be his legacy.”

That legacy, she said, would include Franken’s work on issues like health care and privacy.

But the legacy will also be shadowed by more than half a dozen sexual harassment allegations against Franken. On Wednesday, Klobuchar said, as a seventh accuser came forward and other Senate Democrats began calling for his resignation, she called Franken to privately urge him to do the “right thing” and step down.

snip

[LakeArenal]

51. Anyway you want to portray it.

It was the wrong thing.
Every member of his staff disputed the lies.
None of those “harassment” suits turned out to be credible. But then we never had that investigation did we.
They were all wrong.
They now know they were wrong
MN were the ones that should decide
Senate Democrats fell for a Republican smear.
Only one apologized to him. That is unconscionable to me.
Tried to do it to Joe. Didn’t work. Why? Because hindsight knows that it’s fabricated or embellished. But no apologies. To me says: said future candidates can not admit a mistake. A huge mistake that cost a beloved innocent Senator lose his job. One that he did superbly.

Gillibrand was thrown under the bus.

I perhaps wish others might have paid mightily as well.

[DFW]

33. He was never seriously interested in the White House

He loved being in the Senate, and was devastated when he was hounded out of it. Franni is about ten times as down on the “Stone Democrats” as Al ever was, and she wastes no words in saying so.

If he was reluctant go through the crap necessary to run for president before, you can imagine how much less interest he has now. Of course, it is conceivable that some of his Senate detractors saw him (erroneously) as a potentially powerful rival in the presidential race. At least one of them tried to crash an event later held in Al’s honor—not to apologize to Al, but rather to try to meet with some top donors who were present (cynical enough for you?). Don’t ask me who if you don’t know already, I’m only allowed to say after the 2024 election unless said person is the one to acknowledge it publicly.

[LakeArenal]

38. Yeah.. conjecture. But he was really into being a Senator.

As trump got worse and more of us made the call to Al, you have no idea what he may or may not have been up to.

I will say one thing, I think certain people thought he was a threat to them and that’s why people are unforgiving. Quite of few of them had the presidency in their eye.
Proof has been the primary.

[DFW]

39. Conjecture?

I was told this by the smiling man at the left in this photo within minutes of the photo being taken (December 31 of last year).
Personally, I always found him to be a very reliable source for whatever Al Franken was thinking.



If that's conjecture, well, I guess, then..........

[LakeArenal]

41. You don't know what if people really wanted him what he might do.

But without that it doesn’t change that he was really into being a Senator.
And

Other Senators believed the same as I and saw him as a threat to their ambition proven by the primary.

[DFW]

43. I agree that Gillibrand, Harris and Warren saw him as a threat to their presidential ambitions

The fact that he had none, and said so, apparently didn't convince them in the slightest. To me, that says more about them than it does about Al. I don't feel he was under any obligation to go out of his way to try and convince them. He was always pretty direct about his positions on just about anything, and felt no urge to act coy or sneaky. I think a few of his fellow Senators may have been projecting their own mindsets onto him, which indicates laziness on their part. It never took anyone who bothered to get to know Al long to figure out that he was always rather direct about things. It's why he always demolished Republicans in the Senate--he never provided them with any insincerities to attack. It's not a mindset they were used to dealing with, but that's hardly his fault.

As to whether he might have been convinced to run if the "right" people had urged him to--now THAT is conjecture, because they never did.

[LakeArenal]

45. Yes it is conjecture. And yes it says more about them.

That is exactly why they remain unforgiven. Which brings us full circle. Have a good day.

[LakeArenal]

47. Booker, Sanders othets

[Lifelong Protester]

49. Yes!

I miss him in the Senate.

[grumpyduck]

5. Darn, I was hoping this was about literally disappearing.

As in what happened years ago in Argentina or may still be happening in Russia.

[artemisia1]

7. Hurricane Katrina disappeared as well. The damage remained... /nt

[marble falls]

8. But Katrina wasn't followed by Democrats.

[Silent3]

9. Like a miracle? n/t

[marble falls]

11. The miracle is he's as stupid as he is. If he'd been smart we'd be in much worse trouble right now.

[Silent3]

23. He'd have to have been both smart and smart enough to act stupid...

Last edited Thu Jul 30, 2020, 12:17 AM - Edit history (1)

...because stupid has obviously become a huge plus for many (most?) Republican voters.

I thought the supposed "guy I'd like to have a beer" with "appeal" of Bush junior was already sinking low enough.

But Trump makes W look like a scholar, a statesman, and a genius.

[marble falls]

26. It could have been much worse. We can fix this.

[alphafemale]

10. Dragged away by a pulsing swarm of dusty, scratchy things

Like the villain at the end of "Ghost"

[marble falls]

13. To me that's one of the scariest scenes I've ever seen. I'd pay to seen him dragged off like that.

[renate]

12. It's as if, after Pearl Harbor, FDR said, "This is really Hawaii's problem now."

Great analogy! Al is so brilliant.

[marble falls]

15. Its no exaggeration

[warmfeet]

19. I would love for Al Franken to reappear.

tRump needs to suffer humiliations galore in the bowels of a correctional facility for remainder of his pathetic, weak life.

Lock that tRump up for good.

[BootinUp]

20. Akways liked his writing, ty for the post. nt

[quakerboy]

24. I mean, that kinda depends

On whether other countries start letting Americans travel there in time for him to escape before the DOJ produces enough evidence to take him into custody.

[LudwigPastorius]

25. "Trump will eventually disappear."

So will we all...eventually. However, I remember Olbermann saying just about the same thing when he ended his GQ video series. The last installment was entitled, "Trump is Finished". He made that almost three years ago.

I mention this, not to denigrate Olbermann's prognostication, but to remind us all that Trump can still win in November.

Of course, his indifferent pandemic response should be the final nail in his coffin, as the specter of 200,000 dead by November looms. But, there are many people in this country who do not possess the intelligence or decency to place the blame for that where it squarely lies. They will vote for Trump, and Trump will receive help from Putin and God knows who else that he has made sleazy deals with.

To paraphrase a Hunter Thompson quote and apply it to Donald Trump's political career, I'll believe Trump's career as Traitor-in-Chief is dead when I can gnaw on its skull with my very own teeth.

[mountain grammy]

27. Only when he dies and hopefully that will be soon

[marble falls]

54. Whatever it takes. Never in a million years did I ever think I'd feel that way about a POTUS.

[zentrum]

28. Come back Al!

[DallasNE]

32. Here Was My Encounter With Covid Testing

About 2 months ago my daughter woke up with a temp of 101.7 and was vomiting (3 times). We sought out an in-network provider that could get her in that day for a test. It was a drive up facility and when we showed up at the appointed time there was, surprisingly, no long line. 4 1/2 days later we got the test results back. By then she was no longer sick and the result was, thankfully, negative. They said, most likely she had the stomach flu.

Then yesterday there was a letter from the provider. Insurance rejected the claim, even though it was in-network. No reason was provided. The amount for the test: $240. Apparently the guidelines determined the test was not necessary. It seems that everything about this process is just totally fucked up. But I know that everybody getting tested is not paying $240 out of pocket so what gives. If there were then 50 million test times $240 equals $12,000,000,000.

[Rhiannon12866]

35. Good Grief! That really sucks! And the cost could prevent sick people from being tested!

When this first started my dentist got tested (she was negative) and she told me where to go if I was interested, about an hour away from me, and she said it cost $89. I didn't bother since I had no symptoms.

[sandensea]

37. Sure. He's a medical basket case.

Democrats, frankly, should make an issue of the fact that anyone voting for Cheeto, is actually voting for Dense Pence.

[Sunlei]

42. Even if he drops dead today, republican policies with pence will continue.

to much focus on the conman, everything he does is backed by the entire republican party.

[Blue Owl]

44. Could it be, like -- really quickly?

n/t

[smirkymonkey]

50. K&R

[lagomorph777]

52. Excellent piece. Somebody should have him writing for campaigns or something.

[RussBLib]

53. Al needs to run for office again

He has paid his penance. We need his brain, logic and humor. This blog post makes me think he will run again. Soon perhaps.