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As President Donald Trump jetted across the country holding campaign rallies during the past two months, he didn’t just defy state orders and federal health guidelines. He left a trail of coronavirus outbreaks in his wake.
The president has participated in nearly three dozen rallies since mid-August, all but two at airport hangars. A USA TODAY analysis shows COVID-19 cases grew at a faster rate than before after at least five of those rallies in the following counties: Blue Earth, Minnesota; Lackawanna, Pennsylvania; Marathon, Wisconsin; Dauphin, Pennsylvania; and Beltrami, Minnesota.
Together, those counties saw 1,500 more new cases in the two weeks following Trump’s rallies than the two weeks before – 9,647 cases, up from 8,069.
...Although there’s no way to determine definitively if cases originated at Trump’s rallies, public health experts say the gatherings fly in the face of all recommendations to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
True, correlation is not automatically causation, but don't dismiss correlation as irelevant.
Now, about entertainment part of it 'He's a salesman': why rallies are Trump's last best hope of clinging to presidency
For Donald Trump, surviving coronavirus has become just another punchline on the campaign trail.
“I had so many doctors and each one of them studied different parts of the body,” the president told supporters in Waukesha, Wisconsin, last weekend.
A roar of laughter.
“And I had a moment where almost every one of them was touching me simultaneously.” More laughter. “I didn’t like it!”
More laughter.
“I said, ‘Doc, I wanna to get out of here, I’ve gotta campaign, I’m in the midst of a campaign against ‘Sleepy Joe’. Can you imagine losing to this guy!?”
Cries of “No!” followed by Trump parodying the voice of a doctor, comparing himself to Superman and referencing “Barack Hussein Obama” – cue a chorus of boos.
...
Yet on the trail he continues to project the image of a happy warrior cruising to re-election, regaling big crowds with selective poll numbers, bogus conspiracy theories and his own brand of humor. And his base remains loyal to the end with cheers, merriment and chants of “Four more years!”, “Lock him up!” and “Build that wall!”
Can I be picky and ask for, I don't know, maybe Ozzy Osbourne for POTUS instead? I mean, look, he managed his entertainer career way better than Trump, he's also both a better iron man and paranoid than Trump (or Kanye West) was or will ever be.
Some consequences for being a fan don't limit only to the risk of being infected with Covid. One may end in hospital because of cold or hot weather.
Regardless on consequences the show must go on
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Saturday October 31 2020, @04:58AM (5 children)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-H0uIH5HHQ [youtube.com]
if only it were only about entertainment.
if only lives didn't actually depend on the US elections.. who will be invaded next? Where will get the next drone strike? [snopes.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @06:31AM
It's this fall's killer reality TV sensation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @03:13PM (2 children)
I'm hoping for cul0's house in Australia.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2020, @12:18AM (1 child)
Can't! Australia has voted to ban all Murdock news outlets. Beginning of the end for the reduction to absurdity of the Reagan Revolution.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday November 01 2020, @03:02AM
I'd wish [aph.gov.au]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 3, Informative) by canopic jug on Saturday October 31 2020, @07:00PM
if only lives didn't actually depend on the US elections.. who will be invaded next? Where will get the next drone strike?
Well, the orignal title of the album Paranoid was supposed to be War Pigs, and War Pigs [azlyrics.com] was still the opening track even after toning the politics of the title. So betgween that and other songs he does have a better documented history than the other candidates on that one topic.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @06:56AM (10 children)
If he could bring along some actual talent, to, you know, perform. Kid Rock, doesn't count. Instead we get copyright violations of the Village People? And endless "cease and desist" demands from any actual artist with talent. Playing music on an iPhone. So, Trump is no longer entertaining. His ratings are in the toilet. He can't remember the punch lines, his timing is off, and everyone is tired of sticking it to the libs. The Act is old, passe, finished. Where is the hook to pull this no talent off stage?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @07:05AM
No hook, just a trapdoor lever. The rope around his neck is already on, he himself put enough of it over the last 4 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @07:08AM (1 child)
Kanye West? Still no?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday October 31 2020, @01:55PM
He did say "actual talent?" :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 31 2020, @07:43AM (5 children)
Nope. Not yet. Maybe next time around, depending on who they nominate. Bernie is just too fucking old to consider, but maybe they'll let Gabbard have it. If they insist on promoting establishment nobodies, then fuck 'em.
Besides, I want two or three more conservative justices to be appointed before Trump leaves office.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday October 31 2020, @08:09AM (2 children)
Where's my Irrelevant mod when I need it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 31 2020, @08:21AM (1 child)
Relevance, your honor? It's the justices who are going to stick it to the libtards!! Guns are legal in schools, churches, hospitals and police stations, but not in movie theaters. And, stupid is going to be made illegal, like in Seattle where the mayor allows anarchists to run the city. All that shit's relevant!!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday October 31 2020, @08:40AM
Let's put it in terms you may get.
What you want is useless - that is: redundant in any amounts greater than zero.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @06:28PM
> before Trump leaves office.
It occurred to me the other day that the finest thing we could expect from a second term for him was that he could be the first POTUS in history to be twice impeached. That would cement his standing in history.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2020, @12:26AM
Gabbard is at the least a survivor of an actual cult, the Jagad Guru [wikipedia.org] of Lanikai, former surfer and Hari Krishna, Chris Butler of the Science of Identity Foundation. Not much of a step from an incarnated Hindu deity to the Great Orange Huckster, for someone as dumb and naive as Runaway. You are damaged goods, Runaway! Conservative Justices? And you are not just a racist, misogynist, neo-confederate yahoo redneck hillbilly asshole? BTW, Jerry Jeff Walker just passed. [npr.org] "Up against the wall, you redneck mother!"
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday October 31 2020, @11:03PM
I'm pretty sure you can get deported for saying that. His music's hands down the most definitively American stuff out there. Blues, rap, country, and rock (all American) melded into multi-platinum album badassery.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday October 31 2020, @01:01PM (2 children)
Ahem [apnews.com]
Now, as a thought, how about giving these people a feeling of self-respect of being able to stand on their own, not the surrogate of fandom?
Make no mistake, "just standing up for my country" is a particular form of "just standing".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @03:25PM
With all those horse-drawn buggies around, why would they want to stand in line to see another horse's ass?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 01 2020, @12:29AM
Strange, that is almost verbatim what Heinrich said, after attending his first Nueremberg Nazi Rally!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @01:30PM (4 children)
Never any "surges" after BLM rallies! Saint Biden and Holy Hillary protect true believers!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @03:15PM
And give us today our daily Fauci.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @05:37PM (2 children)
I'm going to put forward a completely crazy hypothesis.
Rallies by people who have trouble with external, objective reality and believe that a virus that's killing hundreds of thousands is just a hoax are more susceptible to transmitting it at their rallies, since they actively discourage any precautions.
On the other hand, rallies by people who understand the danger this virus represents and use precautions like masks, hand sanitizer, self-quarantine, etc tend to not create surges in transmission, demonstrating that these precautions are effective.
However, I am taking your conjecture that protests by the politically disoriented proles and sorta-left do not cause spikes in transmission for granted. An alternative explanation could be that they do cause equally bad spikes in transmission, but the MSM does not report on that for obvious political reasons. Yet it floors me that the anti-conservative Republican Party instead of being able to separately consider MSM bias (the "dempanic") and the objective reality of the pandemic takes the MSM bias as "proof" that there is no pandemic!
And so they go to rallies eschewing precautions and lo and behold the obvious happens.
Now granted I'm talking out of my ass as concerns the virus itself, and IANAEpidemeologist. What interests me are the sociological aspects of a formerly conservative party that used to pride itself on its objectivity and comprehension of the "real world" turning anti-conservative, away from objectivity to subjectivity, and the process of replacing analysis with memes and cool bro stories within the context of increasing inequality due to the systemic behavior of capitalism.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @07:27PM (1 child)
All people who can handle objectivity, now had more than enough time to gather facts, compare numbers, and reach their own conclusions. Quite naturally, such people also gather observable facts on other phenomena, and observing the tactics "the left" use to deceive the emotion-driven people, apply counter-propaganda targeted to same.
It is rather foolish to expect your rivals to play a giveaway game when your stated objective is their complete destruction.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @10:46PM
There are fewer people who want the "complete destruction" of conservatives than there are conservatives willing to cause "complete destruction" of their chosen enemies.
Stop sucking the Fox & Co. fear teat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 31 2020, @04:40PM
And if Ozzy was president, he'd be just as incomprehensible in public speaking. So at worst we'd still have leadership that can't be understood.