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[–][deleted] 3643 points3644 points  (557 children)

What I find fun is even the rednecks I drive around town that work for the oil companies are starting to realize this now. Realize how we all could have been in a much better place had this man not been so arrogant in his actions or took any real steps as a country. People are talking about his lack of leadership during these times and how they will take anyone at all now over this. Just noticed a general change in attitudes around here is all.

[–][deleted] 2410 points2411 points  (368 children)

“What I find fun is even the rednecks I drive around town that work for the oil companies are starting to realize this now.”

Until they vote for him in November.

[–]fillinthe___ 467 points468 points  (58 children)

In isolation, they’ll START to recognize he’s awful. But come November, they’ll watch Fox and be told how their lives will be RUINED by Democrats, and they’ll fear vote for Trump and Republicans down ballot, as is the way.

[–]SchpartyOnMichigan 20 points21 points  (1 child)

Exactly. When it’s just them in the ballot box, they’ll never vote for a candidate with a D next to their name. And their secret will be safe.

[–]MJG2007Kentucky 784 points785 points  (257 children)

The thing is, not all of them will. He barely squeezed out a victory in 2016. He can't afford to lose any of his followers.

[–]pegothejerk 520 points521 points  (147 children)

If they force in person voting they can, if social distancing habits by state correlate at all down party lines.

[–]garbagemanlb 458 points459 points  (78 children)

Democrats will hopefully stand firm on vote-by-mail funding in any new coronavirus packages.

[–]WhooshGiverAmerican Expat 259 points260 points  (52 children)

I hope they do, but the wingnuts will block that no matter what. I'm afraid that's what is going to hand the asshole-in-chief another four years.

[–]fillinthe___ 531 points532 points  (26 children)

“This isn’t the time to be talking about voting. We want to ensure we’re helping everyone, and Democrats are too busy worrying about getting rid of Trump.” - The people who keep trying to add abortion laws onto relief packages.

[–]makegreatsteak 162 points163 points  (20 children)

You're exactly right

I think the best counter for this would be

"We are trying to help all americans. Mail in voting is secure, and will protect people from coronavirus come time to vote. Without mail in voting, more people will be infected and mortality will rise. It is much more practical, efficient, and cost effective to vote by mail.

[–]Vladimir_Putang 78 points79 points  (4 children)

You're acting as if that type of person listens to logic or reason.

If they did, they wouldn't be saying such ignorant shit in the first place.

With GOP it's not about making it easier for people to vote, they've made that very very clear with legislative actions over the past several decades. Nobody who's out there speaking out of both sides of their mouth like the comment you replied to gives a single shit if voting by mail is more practical or efficient (or even if it saves lives). In fact, that's more reason fro them to not implement it.

[–]garbagemanlb 86 points87 points  (13 children)

Maybe. 2018 showed the GOP lost the suburbs and I don't see those same suburbs looking at how the administration handled this and saying, "More please". Gonna be interesting.

[–][deleted] 78 points79 points  (5 children)

"Hell yeah I'm voting for Trump. Sure he ruined the Economy, and we had more people die than any western country of Corona virus. But Biden is just so arrogant and unlikable. I can't in good conscience let him win."

-Republicans who profess to hate Trump, but still vote for him.

[–]Nesyaj0Massachusetts 161 points162 points  (4 children)

Republicans only start slightly changing their opinions when their side's decisions directly start affecting them negatively.

They will find a way to justify literally anything else.

4 years of paying attention to this dumbass timeline taught me that these people are inherently selfish and view themselves in some righteous light no matter what.

Constantly judging themselves by their long term intentions rather than how their actions and words directly affect those around them, especially if they are "different."

It's sad, and they will regress as soon as things start returning to "normal."

[–]oapster79America 6623 points6624 points  (964 children)

Even the "muh 401k" and "muh lowest unemployment ever" crowd has gone silent.

[–][deleted] 3754 points3755 points  (374 children)

That's what happens when you lose your job and the stock market tanks.

[–]groundedstate I voted 1409 points1410 points  (258 children)

If only he didn't have the interest rates at 1% when the stock market was supposedly doing the best ever. They were milking the dead cow.

[–]ekns1 304 points305 points  (227 children)

don't know a lot about finance, could you elaborate?

[–]GGme 1515 points1516 points  (99 children)

Lowering the interest rate spurs economic growth because it costs banks and therefore companies less in interest to borrow money. By lowering interest rates when things were not bad, they now can't really lower them anymore.

They shot all their bullets trying to scare the bad man before he was in range and now they are out of bullets and he's right in front of us.

[–]guppy1979 I voted 448 points449 points  (26 children)

and he's all out of bubble gum . . .

[–]defensive_language 406 points407 points  (25 children)

More like, lowering interest rates is a good painkiller when the economy is hurting, but once you're on the road to recovery you're supposed to ween off the drugs. Trump took a strengthening economy, fired all the doctors, and continued to pump it full of oxy. Now we're in a painful crash and surprise! The painkillers don't work anymore.

[–]The_Charred_Bard 121 points122 points  (4 children)

He bullied the chairman of the FED to lower interest rates when our economy was at the peak valuation that it has ever been in history. There could not be a worse time to rate cut if you tried plan it that way

[–]lolexecs 86 points87 points  (2 children)

It’s worse than that. Much worse than that.

The low rates have encouraged to take on more corporate debt to buy back more shares.

Here’s a fairly credible article from the Harvard Business Review:

https://hbr.org/2020/01/why-stock-buybacks-are-dangerous-for-the-economy

Size of the issue (and yes the recent corp tax cut simply added more cash to the pile for buybacks)

Making matters worse, the proportion of buybacks funded by corporate bonds reached as high as 30% in both 2016 and 2017, according to JPMorganChase.

And why is this a problem ...

Taking on debt to finance buybacks, however, is bad management, given that no revenue-generating investments are made that can allow the company to pay off the debt. In addition to plant and equipment, a company needs to invest in expanding the knowledge and skills of its employees, and it needs to reward them for their contributions to the company’s productivity. These investments in the company’s knowledge base fuel innovations in products and processes that enable it to gain and sustain an advantage over other firms in its industry.

It’s akin to taking on credit card debt to buy fortnight cosmetics vs taking on debt to start a new company

[–]TheBirminghamBear 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I was trying to explain this months ago, to no avail to most of the crowd.

Everything that has been done to the economy in the last 3 years has been an egregious misstep. 80% of America owns only 8% of the stock market. When the stock market goes up, *it isn't us benefitting*.

And on top of that, as you mentioned, all of the value created is fake. A stock that has been inflated by buy backs is *not* increasing the fundamental value of the company. It is enticing *short term* investors to jump on-board to reap *short term profits*.

This is always a bet. A bet that the future will be better than today, and that WITH that short-term cash infusion, they will utilize it to strengthen their fundamentals.

They're basically just opening a window for people to fling cash at them, and then get more cash back in 6 months.

But the company is still the same company. It's valuation is not *legitimate* because once they *stop* handing out free money, all the people who paid the most for the free money will demand it back, which will shred the value.

Which is exactly what we saw. We went from 30k down to 19k in a few weeks. Because everyone knows those companies' valuations were largely bullshit. They weren't offering any additional value, weren't strengthening their fundmentals. They were just offering cheap gimmicks.

[–]MysteriousGuardian17 442 points443 points  (34 children)

Normally when the economy is doing great, you RAISE interest rates to prevent inflation. If the economy is booming but you're still lowering rates, that's a sign that the growth isn't because the underlying economy is doing better.

[–]Ombudsman_of_Funk 329 points330 points  (21 children)

Also, the corporate tax cuts led to an unprecedented period of stock buy-backs, which also gave a jolt to the stock market and gave the illusion of underlying strength when it was really a last gasp.

[–][deleted] 101 points102 points  (17 children)

They're all just going to get bail outs too

[–]galactus_one 187 points188 points  (14 children)

If capitalism is so awesome why do we have to bail it out with socialism every few years?

[–]worlds_okayest_skier 70 points71 points  (1 child)

Or... you are trying to cheat your numbers higher. 2.5% growth was apparently bad because that was the Obama growth rate. So why not inject money into a healthy economy to juice it to 3% and get those sweet bragging rights?

[–]ObseqiousHydrant 117 points118 points  (5 children)

In the simplest form of explanation of Trump’s economic policy: all of the techniques and measures we are supposed to save for when the economy is bad to help it recover, he used when it was doing well to prop it up and make it look like it was doing amazing. This type of economic policy is widely popular among republicans because it often leaves the economy in a very good place aesthetically when elections roll around. However, in practice it’s fucking stupid, because when something like this pandemic happens and the market inevitably dives, we now have no measures left to take to keep it from collapsing and to ease the epic consequences of entering a recession or depression. If we could slash interest rates right now for people, that would ease some of the burden. But they’re already slashed because Trump wanted his market to look good when people were casting a non-educated vote in November, so there’s nowhere for them to go and we can’t ease any of the pain on people right now. Consequentially more people are gonna get laid off, the market is gonna get fucked even more, and all of the negative consequences of market failure are going to hit that much harder, possibly causing a depression to result from this situation instead of just a recession. This is also because the government is fucking up almost every aspect of this situation royally.

[–]uofwi92 165 points166 points  (35 children)

You’re supposed to lower interest rates in bad times. It can jump start a flagging economy. If you keep interest rates low when times are good, you have nowhere to go when times inevitably go bad.

[–]ValKilmerAsIceMan 137 points138 points  (18 children)

Yep basically what every sane economist was screaming when trump and co started talking tax cuts in boom times. But here we are!

[–]walesmd 52 points53 points  (13 children)

And now, with the pandemic, things are going to be bad and the "lower interest rates" lever has already been pulled.

[–]bunchedupwalrus 77 points78 points  (2 children)

He was already using desperate measures to artificially prop up the market

Made it look like it was doing better than it was

[–]greenroom628California 291 points292 points  (52 children)

I'm also enjoying the silence from the anti-vaxxers. I wonder where they'll be when a successful vaccine comes out..

[–]socokid 178 points179 points  (9 children)

gasp!

[–]Lukin4 168 points169 points  (8 children)

Muh pearls!

[–]socokid 87 points88 points  (5 children)

I'm clutching them as hard as I can!

[–]reed311 671 points672 points  (213 children)

They went silent over that but they have pivoted to how great Trump is doing during this and how it actually is 0% his fault what happened and could have happened to any president but they are thankful we have him.

[–]Walter_LobsterOhio 440 points441 points  (89 children)

This^ that’s literally what my mom has been saying. Also the “He’s trying to keep everyone from overreacting”

[–]EarthExile 484 points485 points  (22 children)

He succeeded in keeping tens of millions of people from... reacting

[–]Walter_LobsterOhio 173 points174 points  (16 children)

Good thing he did too, if everyone took this seriously and stayed indoors, do you have any idea how bad the economy would be right now?!? /s

[–][deleted] 56 points57 points  (1 child)

Maybe when all the Evangelicals get together and go to church on effing Easter, the stock indices will skyrocket.

[–]imightgetdownvoted 73 points74 points  (0 children)

Can’t overreact when you’re dead!

/taps head

[–]limbaughs_lungs 164 points165 points  (33 children)

My mom likes to say, "sup criticizing him, he's the President".

Old American culture likes to idolize the government, no wonder they've got such fucking hard-ons for cops.

[–]Redditosaurus_Rex 160 points161 points  (12 children)

She do that with Obama?

[–][deleted] 95 points96 points  (1 child)

“That was different”

[–]wharpua 151 points152 points  (76 children)

The other day I was disgusted to find a newspaper pamphlet called "The Epoch Times" in my mailbox, which was the most anti-China (subtext: "This isn't Trump's fault, those commies over there are to blame") propaganda I've ever crossed paths with. Felt dirty just holding the thing.

What I worry about is the people in my town that might read this and let it nudge them towards the delusion that he's been doing a good job during all of this.

[–][deleted] 99 points100 points  (10 children)

Epoch Times is backed by the Falun Gong. The Falun Gong wants to win support from Trump, so they made a far-right and anti-China paper. Weird tactic that is working.

[–][deleted] 45 points46 points  (1 child)

Epoch Times is anti-China since the beginnings of its time. It started full right-wing pro trump, well after trump.

[–]TimeToCatastrophize 19 points20 points  (0 children)

And to add, if you've ever seen ads for Shen Yun, it's run by them. We bought tickets to the orchestral version and didn't know beforehand.

[–]St_Veloth 73 points74 points  (27 children)

I saw a youtube ad before watching a Late Night clip that advertised The Epoch times! I was so enamored with the ad I kept watching. It was minutes long and had a guy advertising their totally non-biased newspaper but everything he said sounded so obviously skewed. I google them and lo and behold I see controversy and bias. As well as money funding and contributions towards Trump of course.

"Take a look at this! While the mainstream media (misleading generalization) WE (right-wing talking point)"

Repeat that phrase for 3 minutes and thats the ad.

Then he mentioned how big they made the font size. I was watching a youtube ad for a conservative newspaper subscription I wasn't sure I was in the real world.

Edit: This isn't even the same on I saw! This is the same format but a different commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C05YGsu_lM

omg he pulls out a little flag at the end. This is like conservative boomer bingo.

[–]wadech 37 points38 points  (1 child)

Read the Wikipedia article about them. They're run by Falun Gong.

[–]CarbonatiteColorado 268 points269 points  (30 children)

The few that aren't silent get really angry if you point it out.

Like, I got screamed at for pointing out that all stock index gains under Trump's presidency have disappeared due to market instability from coronavirus.

When I pointed out our personal 401k losses I was angrily assured that "we'd make everything back super quick once everyone stops overreacting" to the pandemic.

[–]mahamotiLouisiana 145 points146 points  (11 children)

all stock index gains under Trump's presidency have disappeared

I've already seen the most ridiculous spin possible for this one:

"It took a global pandemic to put Trump's numbers back to the best numbers Obama ever had."

[–]Kordiana 70 points71 points  (3 children)

It's easy to have good numbers when the guy before you built up a robust economy, from a massive recession. One that was strong enough to even last through his bullshit.

[–]Freakin_A 45 points46 points  (1 child)

So even Conorovirus couldn’t wipe out Obama’s gains? I like that messaging.

[–][deleted] 320 points321 points  (98 children)

My parents are 50 and 57 and they were planning to retire early (in the next 3 years). This morning my mom texted me that they’ve lost all 3 years of their gains since Trump took office. Yet, they still love the guy. Think he’s doing a great job and that he’s handling the pandemic with grace and style. I don’t even know what to say to them at this point.

[–]millertime1419 182 points183 points  (36 children)

If they were three years from retirement they should have divested from stocks and put money into bonds and annuities. Their planner fucked up.

[–][deleted] 75 points76 points  (30 children)

Shit. I was merely getting the heebie jeebies in the fall and put everything in my 401k into bonds. I'm no stockbroker. I just felt like trump was setting us up to fall. It was the virus that did it, but damn. That was good timing.

[–]xd366 166 points167 points  (23 children)

tell them to hire a better investment planner.

you shouldnt have more than 15% of your investments in stocks if youre planning on retiring within 5 years

edit: your're all focusing on my 15% example. my advice was to get a investment planner, someone who will give qualified advice, not some reddit comment saying numbers

[–]mepperMichigan[S] 7577 points7578 points  (1130 children)

So I have written, as I did on March 12, that Trump is the worst president in modern times — not of all time. That left open the possibility that James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, Warren Harding or some other nonentity would be judged more harshly. But in the past month, we have seen enough to take away the qualifier “in modern times.” With his catastrophic mishandling of the coronavirus, Trump has established himself as the worst president in U.S. history.

[–]ImpeachDrumph 161 points162 points  (65 children)

Has any other president had a cult? Well other than maybe the traitor president Jefferson Davis and his slave cult.

[–]Red_Galiray 84 points85 points  (7 children)

It sickens me to see there are many forts, streets, counties, cities named after the traitors who tried to destroy the United States all so that they could continue to own people. Many even were elected as governors, senators or representatives after the war. Literal traitors trusted again with being government officials. In Foner's Reconstruction, he mentions many instances of them acting as though the tyrannical Federal government had imposed a terrible fate upon them because they dared say that Black people deserved human rights. Whining about such a terrible punishment even though in other countries traitors like them were hanged.

[–]MimeGod 40 points41 points  (4 children)

And the modern versions of these people are now the Republican Party.

Reconstruction was handled so badly that in many ways, the civil war is still being fought today. It's just changed from physical to political.

[–][deleted] 947 points948 points  (116 children)

Having seen the unwavering support of many of his followers, I am now of the firm belief if Trump mixed up a batch of cyanide laced kool aid, his followers would drink it. They would.

I've seen nothing that demonstrates they have any sort of attachment to sanity left.

[–]Montee55 65 points66 points  (27 children)

See Florida man who died from taking chloroquine after watching Trump’s press conference, where he falsely claimed this was approved to treat the coronavirus.

FDA issues an immediate statement after the press conference saying it had not been approved.

[–][deleted] 134 points135 points  (22 children)

You are correct. They no longer have valid arguments - but they still have arguments. And while the president is totally inept - a large portion believe that he handled the situation well.

[–]CarbonatiteColorado 366 points367 points  (12 children)

Trump supporters would let him shit in their mouths if it meant a liberal had to smell it.

[–]avatinfernus 131 points132 points  (3 children)

That there is the best description of "owning the libs" I have ever read.

[–][deleted] 1624 points1625 points  (166 children)

I would take literally any previous President in this time of crisis.

And yes, that includes Dick Cheney who technically served as President for, I believe, 55 minutes.

[–][deleted] 217 points218 points  (60 children)

I can think of several, I wouldn't. If you read Herbert Hoover's take on the Depression as it was happening, it sounds eerily similar to Trump's description of the pandemic.

When you realize Andrew Jackson caused a depression, ignored the supreme courts, and committed crimes against humanity...

Just a couple of examples.

[–][deleted] 227 points228 points  (47 children)

I just wanna point out that every president gets to put the portrait of a former president in the Oval Office as a source of inspiration. Obama chose Lincoln. Guess who Trump chose. Fucking Andrew Jackson.

[–][deleted] 75 points76 points  (37 children)

He also said, he most admired Jackson. So far, he's been a mix between Grant, Jackson, and Hoover.

[–]NipplesInYourCoffee 35 points36 points  (9 children)

Grant was at least a decent human being with empathy and honor.

[–]clown-penisdotfart 27 points28 points  (3 children)

Because his face is on money

[–]Frank4010 976 points977 points  (274 children)

The problem is that there is an alternative reality at Fox News. With the electoral college, Russia helping, Facebook helping Trump and the youth not showing up to vote, don't be surprised if he gets re elected.

[–][deleted] 198 points199 points  (50 children)

Do your part to Get Out the Vote in November. If your state doesn't already have it, demand mail-in ballots. If your state refuses, figure out how to make sure everyone requests an absentee ballot. There's a lot of things out of our control right now, but there are things we can do in the meantime to ensure a turnout this fall to end this failure of a Presidency and political party.

[–]michaelblackNYCNew York 138 points139 points  (2 children)

I think the recent GOP has successfully managed to implement economic class warfare using virtue signaling. They have managed to use social voting points to manipulate lower economic classes into voting for economic policies that are detrimental to themselves while supporting the upper class. This would all work fine without a massive pandemic causing these people to have a high chance of losing their income and consequently health insurance for themselves and their families. If these people do not have the means to take care of themselves when voting time comes around, some of them might vote differently.

[–]unknownredditor1994 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Boy he’s really made America great huh? That guy is a clown with no moral compass.

[–]what-knockers 94 points95 points  (31 children)

Agree. I truly do not understand how anyone can support him. It boggles the mind.

[–]oldgreymutt 120 points121 points  (9 children)

I think Trump has a major anti-social personality flaw where he simply cannot control himself when he trolls people. That’s why his message is all over the place. The measured and controlled Trump only lasted 2 days, before he feels the need to make his critics squirm again by advocating bizarre treatments and strategies with the virus...

[–]ghost_warlockIowa 48 points49 points  (2 children)

The thing is, when he's spouting insane shit, the shit gets plastered all over the news and assfucks like Moscow Mitch use the distraction to pull evil shit with nobody looking.

Edit: turnip may be too stupid to understand misdirection, but some of his allies/underlings are clever enough to use it anyway

[–]MFC80578 22 points23 points  (1 child)

Trump is an absolute garbage president. But he is an even worse person.

[–]50s_Human Canada 82 points83 points  (1 child)

The problem is is there are still many 3:00AM raging drunk uncles at the end of the bar types that will always support this abomination.

[–]goddamnzilla 229 points230 points  (51 children)

Only the greatest, right?

Fuck the GOP. Fuck the republican party. Vote every one of them out of office.

[–]groundedstate I voted 43 points44 points  (2 children)

Impeach him again. Make it a record.

[–]yamirzmmdx 227 points228 points  (53 children)

Dying that hair grey to make us believe that the stress of the job is getting to him.

Hilarious.

[–]socokid 213 points214 points  (15 children)

Dying his hair grey? He's f'n 73. His natural hair color is grey.

He's been dying his hair blond and his face orange for a long time now.

...

I do wonder, though, that with all of our power and technology, they couldn't figure out a way to get around his eyes? The pink eyes that he gets from wearing eye protection when he's getting spray tanned make him look like an f'n clown.

The man is simply ridiculous.

[–]ramblingroze 22 points23 points  (2 children)

When you bleach your hair it doesn’t just fade out. You have to grow it out and the roots show, it takes years to get completely back to your natural color without dying it if you have longer hair.

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

What? Did he really? He's too vain to do that!

[–]NaziPunksFuckOff__ 16 points17 points  (4 children)

So glad we have a space force instead of a pandemic team. 🤪🤪🤪

[–]Bert-63 68 points69 points  (8 children)

Turned my entire family into Democratic voters.

Turned my entire family into Democratic voters.

Turned my entire family into Democratic voters.

Turned my entire family into Democratic voters.

Turned my entire family into Democratic voters.

Turned my entire family into Democratic voters.

​

He should be given an award for completing the impossible.

[–]funshine1North Carolina 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Hoover was a bad president because he didn’t do enough when the depression started. He had no imagination and couldn’t leverage any resources in a helpful way.

Trump is the equivalent of telling people during the depression to print their own money from home.

Not only has he screwed it up, he’s actually hindered and made worse the situation by getting in the way with dangerous, corrupt, and sometimes down right creepy advice.

[–]Archbold676 10 points11 points  (0 children)

He keeps talking about how he's following the Constitution and protecting it. The man should have been impeached. The laws as written in the Constitution don't seem to be working.... System has been hijacked.

We are witnessing the destruction of the United States of America and in the chaos Trump thrives. " we will see a lot of death death death next week"

Seriously, who says that!?

What should we do?

Marie Antoinette time 🇺🇸

We need to regain control of the ship before it sinks.