Trump v DeSantis: Round 2 - Immunity to Kung Flu Panic


Posted On: Friday - September 23rd 2022 10:50AM MST
In Topics: 
  Elections '16 - '24  Trump  Kung Flu Stupidity  President DeSantis

(Series began with Part 1 - Personalities.)



This may be a better way to compare these guys - I'll look at the few major issues that they both have dealt with in office. There are 2 big ones I'm thinking of. The Immigration Invasion is the existential issue and should be primary - I'll get into that soon. These two men's handling of the Kung Flu PanicFest, though, is a good window into who would be (or second time around would be) a better President, if it's not too late to begin with, due to that #1 issue.

Hopefully there won't be another PanicFest, but precedents have been set for the Totalitarianism that has been introduced to us on that pretext. Maybe it won't be a virus but something else.. I have no idea.... It's worth recalling how these two government leaders handled it though.

For most readers this won't be any kind of spoiler, so let me say right away that President Trump was a failure in handling this PanicFest and Governor DeSantis was one of, and probably the best of, the anti-panickers in an official capacity. Sure, DeSantis was probably hesitant and unsure for that first couple of weeks or a month, as I was. It was hard to keep from thinking "hey, do these people know something I don't?" for a week or two. That shouldn't have lasted long for people. Once the Totalitarianism started, it seemed pretty obvious that this "pandemic" was being used for ill motives. The Totalitarian measures were wrong even if this had been the Black Death 2.0! However, common sense told anyone possesing that quality that it obviously wasn't.

Let's go back to President Trump. Early on, he was savvy about tying in this Pandemic Panic to global travel, hint, stopping even more Moslems and other extreme foreigners from coming here, if only for a spell. It was a small thing, but that was making use of the Panic, as the other side did for their uses. I give him credit for his political savvy there. Yet, as for the disease itself, well, Trump is not a doctor, much less an infectious disease doc or virologist. He didn't need to be.

What Trump needed to be was a good delegator of power and advisement. He sucked at that badly, as we all know. Instead of using Javanka and Swamp Creatures as his advisors and delegated officials, he should have had, for the issue of immigration, for example, Ann Coulter LIVING in an alcove inside the freaking White House! As for the Kung Flu, the grandiose fool Anthony Fauci was in an advisory position. Trump had no obligation to follow anything this flip-flopping, lying "expert" had to say.

Trump was caught in a tough place, or so he figured. If he didn't clamp down on the country (or go along with it), he'd be accused of "killing millions of people!" [/Ron Unz] He does seem to have a lot of common sense, normally, which was probably telling him, after a few months at least, that all this was going way overboard. Yet, he didn't use it. Instead, he trusted the Panickers (whether stupid or evil) because he didn't trust himself.

Now, I see that I left out a good one from Part 1 on these two men's personalities: Confidence President Trump exudes confidence, but I think he was missing that confidence when delegating authority and advisement. Here's my guess on his thought process: I know real estate. I get the best guys on my team. I know who knows real estate better than me even. What I don't know, is anything about running these Washington, FS departments full of bureaucrats. I don't know anyone personally who does. I'd better get people who know what they're doing, some guys who've been here a long time. They must be good if they've been here a long time... am I right? NO, you've been so damned wrong on that!

So, we had "well, this guy Fauci has a medical degree, and he's pretty worked up about this, so ..." If not that, he was having public arguments with these guys. OK, but it was time to take a stand and make decisions, not just argue, feeding into the PanicFest Infotainment. The President, through the DOJ, could have taken some action, and at least the higher-up bureaucrats who pushed the Panic should have been fired.

There's another personality trait, that I did discuss in Part 1, that comes into play here. Trump has no real principles. It was never about the mandatory shutting down of people's businesses or curfews or forced masking is highly unConstitutional and plain WRONG. It was only a matter for Trump of the feelings. "People are tired of this." vs."Yeah, this disease is contagious and deadly!" So, he was wishy-washy for the two years of this.

Then, there was Trump's push for the vaccines, as he thought of himself as some kind of hero for that "moon shot". It doesn't seem that his ego will let him back off that stance either, after nearly 2 years now ...

During this time, the good Governor DeSantis of Florida used his common sense, stood on principles, and took a damn stand. He governed on behalf of the people of Florida, as he should.

There were 2 important factors regarding the Kung Flu in Florida:

1) It's a State that has been widely known for half a century as being a retirement destination, hence there are lots of old people, especially in south Florida. Yet, Governor DeSantis did not join the PanicFest out of either his own fear, or (as would have been more likely for other politicians) his taking the easy way, going along to get along, with the rest of the Totalitarians.

2) It's a big tourist destination. Tourism is Florida's biggest 2nd biggest "industries", at right about half the size of its agriculture industry*. Of course, it would have behooved all State officials to play down the Kung Flu Panic, but then (1) should result in the opposite.

Governor DeSantis could have taken the easier road. He could have gone along with the edicts, while in the meantime asking subserviently for a bunch of that Covid "Cares Act" money from the Feds, cause, you know, the tourism and old people and all. As for support, there are a lot of decent Conservative Floridians still left (a chunk of the State is still in The South even). Most would have the common sense to agree with Governor. Peak Stupidity and family and friends have spent time out in the sunshine since this PanicFest started in March of '20. Being out in that Florida sunshine is good for you!**

Then the President more so had, and still has, loads of very loyal supporters, most of whom would have followed his recommendations***.

No doubt, President Trump was under more pressure than Governor DeSantis was. DeSantis had his idiot Grim Reaper Lawyer**** calling him a Fascist, but Trump had the ctrl-left of the whole country against him. Yet, they would be against him no matter what he did (their flip-flop on vaccines is an example). He knows that.

Governor DeSantis fought against Federal efforts to make him comply and lay down restrictions on the good people of Florida. His understanding of the concept of Federalism (State's Rights) is something that would do us all a lot of good were he President. I really hope the story is true (and, if I ever get to meet him at an event, I will be sure to ask) that DeSantis told President Bai Dien "go fuck yourself!" during one of his disagreements with the Feds.

It's likely the freedom seen in Florida these last couple of years was part of bringing even more people from LOCKDOWNed blue State to the Sunshine State. No, it's not like that's a good thing, result-wise, but it shows that there was no real contest between the Federal response with Trump as leader v the State of Florida response to the dreaded. Covid one-niner.

In Round 2 of Trump v DeSantis, it's Ron DeSantis by a knockout!


* As of '18, seen here.

** Sure, you may have to take shelter sometime between 3 and 5 PM each day, but then the sun is back... along with that 90% RH ... and the skeeters...

*** I give Trump some credit also for pushing the non-big-Pharma drugs HCQ and Ivermectin as solutions. The problem was he wouldn't take a solid stand and stick with his stance.

**** See more on that sicko here.

Comments:
Hail
Sunday - September 25th 2022 11:23AM MST
PS

For your reference, the Sean Hannity interview in all its segments, and first time Dernald Jay Blompf has appeared on the Fox airwaves in many months (by company policy):

Part I
Donald Trump reacts to New York attorney general's civil lawsuit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG4NrxKARv0

Part II
Trump reveals what he thinks of Biden's green energy agenda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETJKm19g58Y

Part III
Trump opens up about his Middle East strategy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fwgjex1uuA

Part IV
Donald Trump speaks out on the FBI's raid on Mar-a-Lago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC7cVrDXtA8

Part V
Donald Trump responds to attacks on the MAGA agenda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M86tIHzmLw0

Part VI
Donald Trump on potential 2024 comeback bid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn3LIrvYarM
Moderator
Saturday - September 24th 2022 5:04PM MST
PS: Mr. Hail, I watched the rest of that Trump interview video. As soon as it resumed, it got to more of that "I know everyone in New York." "I didn't know enough people in Washington." (Paraphrase on the 2nd one) This guy doesn't get it. It's all about people to him. That's NOT what it's all about.

I think I'll write a post on this, but, to be fair, I should watch the whole thing - in its parts, as you noted.
Moderator
Saturday - September 24th 2022 5:00PM MST
PS: As you know, Mr. Alarmist, we were in England a month or so back. I concur with your observations. There were the usual maskers that seem to still hang on to that stupidity - I would say from 1 in 10 to 2 in 10, depending on the venue. I told my son already "hey, there's no law against looking like a dork."

The Kung Flu was a non-issue. I was especially glad at London Heathrow, as we (I) had enough trouble with the security bullshit, and more Covid crap would have exacerbated things.

I always like your business meeting stories. Additionally, the parrot line really rings true. Thanks. I'll look at the substack link later on.
Moderator
Saturday - September 24th 2022 4:56PM MST
PS: Mr. Blanc, I also don't. know for sure. Ron DeSantis could turn out to be just like the rest of them, as many people suggest, going ever toward the UniParty line, first after the primary and then more after the election.

However, he could have sucked up to the UniParty during the PanicFest and got his exposure by going the other way. I suppose he wouldn't have stood out as he has, though, and Floridians and tourist would have rightfully hated his ass.

We'll have to see, and I do respect your opinion that voting is probably a waste of time anyway. It's hard for me to let go of the system completely.

I'd forgotten about the Disney thing. That showed some guts, as Disney is Big Biz. Then again, DeSantis' common sense would tell him which way most people would lean on this, especially the ones with kids (no longer) going to Disneyworld!
The Alarmist
Saturday - September 24th 2022 2:41PM MST
PS

If Trump wasn’t co-opted, he could very easily have kept Atlas and fired the rest.

The speech to give in March 2020 was, “You people on the other sode of the aisle keep telling us about all things good coming out of Sweden and how we should follow their example ... Well, Sweden has decided to not take any extraordinary measures. If that is good enough for Sweden, it’s good enough for the USA.”
The Alarmist
Saturday - September 24th 2022 2:34PM MST
PS

I spent a week in London doing a shit-load of meetings. For the most part, London and much of the rest of the UK is done with COVID, though I don’t know if COVID via their jailers is done with them. The consensus of my colleagues and interlocutors at other companies alike seems to be that the government won’t try lockdowns again. One thing for sure was that masks were largely out of sight, even on the Underground. Those wearing them tended to be young, and many of those were east Asian.

What was truly interesting, though, was that in nearly every meeting out of a dozen or so with six to twelve participants each, there were at least three or more people coughing from time to time rather frequently. I kind of took polls by talking to them, and all were “jabbed,” some “fully,” i.e. the full five. All of them had at least one bout of COVID, most after taking the jab. Many will get the next series of jabs, but a sizeable number won’t.

All were surprised to hear I was unjabbed. When asked why, I responded, “Why would I take something with no long-term safety testing? That’s like a Darwinian Intelligence Test.”

Actually, the Death Stabs are the opposite of blood over Jewish doors at the first Passover in Egypt ... by taking the poison into your heart, you are inviting the demon into your soul.

Every time I hear someone say the Death Stabs are safe & effective, I see and hear a parrot saying, “Safe & effective... safe & effective ... wahhh!”

Thanks to Governor DeSantis for keeping his corner of the world Sane in the darker days of Covidiocy.

Trump was a sell-out, and to this day continues to hype his “Unsafe at any speed” Warp-Speed roll out of the Satanic Death Stabs as if they were a good thing. Trump is on the dark side.

https://secularheretic.substack.com/p/donald-j-trump-the-story-no-one-wants
MBlanc46
Saturday - September 24th 2022 11:43AM MST
PS We don’t know, at least, I don’t know, what Mr DeSantis’s motives were. Did he take the path that turned out to be the correct one re the virus out of principle, opportunism, or sheer dumb luck? The stripping of Disney’s tax privileges when they mouthed off about his anti-groomer law is another data point. It indicates that he is willing to take on the Left, for whatever reason. If nothing else, it pretty strongly indicates electoral political ambition on his part. For those of you with an interest in electoral politics, for whatever reason, you might start paying more attention to Mr DeSantis. And perhaps less to Mr Trump. But, whilst the Left might not hate Mr DeSantis as much as they hate Mr Trump—yet—he won’t be treated any differently. He has shown that he is off the reservation. Those who are off the reservation are considered enemies of Their Democracy. Those who are enemies of Their Democracy will be dealt with.
Moderator
Saturday - September 24th 2022 8:40AM MST
PS: Well, Mr. Hail, as for the climax of this comparison, I already blew my wad, if I may, with the quick paragraph last time on what Trump's and DeSantis' roles ought to be for the best outcome for the country.

Sorry for the crudeness, there, but I am LOLing right now. I wanted to insert that "if I may" (same as "if you will", but the former makes more sense) that the professor in the hilarious "Negro Space Program" video done in fake Ken Burns-style used. Believe it or not, Steve Sailer included that video in his post. I gotta say, contrary to those who think he yearns to be more mainstream, attention-wise, that does not help at all, haha! I guess he couldn't help himself.

(I put that video in a post long ago. Good luck finding stuff on here...)

Anyway, that's for that comment too.
Hail
Saturday - September 24th 2022 8:27AM MST
PS

Moderator wrote: "Thanks, Mr. Hail. I don't have the kind of details that you put into your posts (on this subject it would be excerpts, links, videos, etc.) I'm afraid that I don't have the time/energy to put into that most of the time. I do have a memory for the basics of what was happening at the time, and it goes back quite a ways for other political events too."

Synthesis is highly useful. Your summary or synthesis here is of more value than had the same somehow been crammed full of source-links to data (whatever that would be in a comparison of personalities).

I wonder how many other parts of this you plan. The anti-climax will be when you reveal you are for DeSantis (over Trump); as is often the case, the journey is worth it for more than off-loading at the end-destination.
Hail
Saturday - September 24th 2022 8:23AM MST
PS

Mr. Anon wrote that Trump "should have sidelined that slimy little weasel, Fauci, at the outset."

This is not the way Trump ever ran his reality-tv presidency.

I'll tell you the way, the only way, Blumpf would have fired Fauci. It is this: If Fauci had feuded with him over some triviality or personality-clash BEFORE the "Covid crisis." (Reports suggest that is why he fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state in 2018, and other cases.)

The portrait of Fauci's behind-the-scenes operating in the Scott Atlas book is of a man as slippery as butter, way too savvy to upset the Orange Man, able to juggle being a junta leader within the royal court when the opportunity arose (the rapid rise of a Virus Cult), while not upsetting the king or other courtiers. That this new man from the royal court is suddenly a religious leader, the king is impressed and intimidated and has to wait for the religious wave or mania to pass, if he acts at all.

Fauci's political skill (or office-politics skill) is relatively rare as a skill, combining elements of male and female strengths in the area. Maybe his skills amount to the essence of the political. Greatness, though, is not made from such material. More likely the opposite, ruination.
Hail
Saturday - September 24th 2022 8:13AM MST
PS

Moderator wrote: "I just watched the 1st couple of minutes of the 8-minute Hannity interview"

The latest Hannity-Trump interview is actually around 60 minutes of total (released) interview content. It aired, as best I can tell, over two or three days on the Sean Hannity evening Fox show, and posted in clips of 5m to 15m on the Fox News Youtube channel.

I have only seen a small portion of the 65m total and cannot say whether any of the rest is worth seeing or not. You seem to have seen the most important parts.

The titles of other clips: "Donald Trump reacts to New York attorney general's civil lawsuit"; "Donald Trump reacts to New York attorney general's civil lawsuit"; "Donald Trump responds to attacks on the MAGA agenda"; "Donald Trump speaks out on the FBI's raid on Mar-a-Lago."

The 'political' significance of this interview is it partially breaks the months-long Fox policy (confirmed by insiders) that there was a ban in place against Trump appearing on the network. "Partially" because it was pre-taped and not live.
Moderator
Saturday - September 24th 2022 6:25AM MST
PS: Mr. Anon. I agree with your picks. I really think Trump has or had the common sense to see that the Lyin' Press and government Totalitarians were making bad use of this next virus out of the Orient. He didn't trust his instincts. Even if not, you should get a good sampling of opinion, at least.

Oh, but we must be on the safe side(?) The idea of America, as the Founders created the Federal Gov't for, was that respecting freedom is being on the safe side. That's been forgotten by most Americans over the last 1/2 century.

Finally, I don't agree with RFK Jr's take-down, because I am seeing a lot to like about J. Edgar Hoover from the book "Blacklisted by History" that I've been continually reading. (Note, "continually", not "continuously") Perhaps Hoover has not been treated near fairly by historians in the same way as Joe McCarthy.
Moderator
Saturday - September 24th 2022 6:19AM MST
PS: Thanks, Mr. Hail. I don't have the kind of details that you put into your posts (on this subject it would be excerpts, links, videos, etc.) I'm afraid that I don't have the time/energy to put into that most of the time. I do have a memory for the basics of what was happening at the time, and it goes back quite a ways for other political events too.

Your paragraphs about what DeSantis would have done had he somehow had that cast of characters to deal with is right on the money. Trump spends too much time arguing, often publicly. Those against him don't care so very much what names Trump calls them, as they are still continuing with their agenda.

I just watched the 1st couple of minutes of the 8-minute Hannity interview. I wanted to comment on something before I forgot, and I'll watch the rest in a minute (looking forward to it - it's very interesting). Trump is, above all, a people person. He thinks that getting people to like him - he had to take the time to praise Hannity (ugh) and a few other Lyin' Press people - will get them on his side. That's his policy some of the time: "Well, I said good things about so-and-so and, though I don't like illegal immigration, I said 'but, they're good people' a lot of times, so ..." It's just bloviating.

The first time Javanka advised him on anything that did not match his campaign promises, he should have told them to go rent an apartment somewhere else in Washington, FS.
Hail
Friday - September 23rd 2022 9:18PM MST
PS

Re: The Trump video on his mistakes,

For those with shortest attention spans or time, see especially 1:15 to 2:45:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn3LIrvYarM

(a lot of the rest of this segment is of lesser value; I haven't seen the full interview.)

You notice, though, that he doesn't say, and still has never said, that his Covid policy was a mistake, nor the experimental-injections.
Mr. Anon
Friday - September 23rd 2022 9:14PM MST
PS

@Hail

"DJT's failures on most fronts during the Panic cannot be excused."

Exactly. In his response to the pandemic, Trump fashioned a lethal weapon to be used against and then handed it to his enemies. More importantly, his actions were stupid and they harmed the country. They harmed us.

He should have sidelined that slimy little weasel, Fauci, at the outset. No man should run a government agency for four decades. The best take-down I've ever heard of him was by Robert Kennedy Jr., who described Fauci as "The J. Edgar Hoover of Public Health".

Imagine how much better the pandemic would have gone in this country if, for medical and public health advice, Trump had relied on Atlas, Battacharya, Ioannidis, etc.
Hail
Friday - September 23rd 2022 9:08PM MST
PS

It's come to my attention that a new Trump interview has been recorded and released, aired by FOX about a day ago. Trump used his favorite news-talker, Sean Hannity, for the deed.

On this topic of Trump's many weaknesses, a portion of it is worth a watch.

Hannity surprisingly presses Trump to talk about his weaknesses and mistakes, and he does a bit. Trump says many of the same things said in this PEAK STUPIDITY post about his weaknesses.

Maybe he doesn't believe those things, maybe he's been told these are the right lines by others, but it's the first time I've hear him say he made mistakes by surrounding himself with conmen and Kushners:

The relevant 8 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn3LIrvYarM
Hail
Friday - September 23rd 2022 8:59PM MST
PS

Of DJT's 11 months in power during the Panic, being about early February 2020 to January 7th, 2021 (by that latter date, a defacto Regime coup totally neutralized him for his final two weeks in nominal office):

Panic-Month 1 was build-up;

Panic-Months 2 and 3 were the breakthrough of the major mass-psychosis-and-delusion event at its peak (probably caused by the effects of technology in certain ways, an unfortunate result of conditions of our time).

Jumping ahead, months 8 and 9 were busy with election-campaigning.

Then months 10 and 11 were totally absorbed in the disputed election results. (DJT had scattered forces of questionable quality on his side, against the entirety of the Regime notably including Fox News in its entirely, and including even the much-loved Tucker Carlson, who mostly ignored but even essentially denounced the "Stop the Steal" side in the election dispute as dangerous, deluded maniacs [later, when it no longer mattered, Carslon claimed he has often hinted he found religion and saw the light on that]...).

The period in which DJT could have made a real difference are only a matter of a few months, but still he failed. The heroic Scott Atlas was a close advisor starting about the end of Month 6 and through about month 11, as I recall his timeline.

What would DeSantis have done with a team of misfits like Scott Atlas and Debbie Birx (who hated each other), and the slimy Fauci who delighted in elevating himself to god status, and the scheming Kushner who "ran" the White House Covid Task Force (red flag! Kushner! red flag! Kushner alert!).

I'll tell you what DeSantis would have done if he somehow had this gaggle of people in power: he'd identify Scott Atlas as the only guy with sense, find a way to terminate the whole Fauci/Birx axis-of-panickers, appoint Scott Atlas nationwide Corona-czar, and begin an offensive against the forces of the Panic, Florida-style but with the full weight of the U.S. government's executive branch. The Corona-Panic-monster had burrowed its tentacles in too deep to have vanquished it easily just by terminating the worst of the insiders (and Kushner), but DJT could have fought anyway--and basically didn't.

DJT's failures on most fronts during the Panic cannot be excused.
Hail
Friday - September 23rd 2022 8:36PM MST
PS

Excellent summation.

I enjoyed reading this as a form of review of the worst two years of living memory, the period starting circa Feb 2020.

Trump was president eleven months of that 24-or-so months, and even his most loyal defenders are often seen saying he was duped and at his worst in handling the Panic.
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