The Trump Pandemic

[JimC]

Will the November erection go ahead, or will the US just go limp?

[Scot Dutchy]

Or the Trump dictatorship?

[pErvinalia]

Well how lower can you get:

US's global reputation hits rock-bottom over Trump's coronavirus response

International relations expert warns policy failure could do lasting damage as president insults allies and undermines alliances

Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which he once dismissed as a hoax, has been fiercely criticised at home as woefully inadequate to the point of irresponsibility.

Yet also thanks largely to Trump, a parallel disaster is unfolding across the world: the ruination of America’s reputation as a safe, trustworthy, competent international leader and partner.

Call it the Trump double-whammy. Diplomatically speaking, the US is on life support.

“The Trump administration’s self-centred, haphazard, and tone-deaf response [to Covid-19] will end up costing Americans trillions of dollars and thousands of otherwise preventable deaths,” wrote Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard.

“But that’s not the only damage the United States will suffer. Far from ‘making America great again’, this epic policy failure will further tarnish [its] reputation as a country that knows how to do things effectively.”

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That’s a title the US appears on course to lose – a fall from grace that may prove irreversible. The domestic debacle unleashed by the pandemic, and global perceptions of American selfishness and incompetence, could change everything. According to Walt, Trump has presided over “a failure of character unparalleled in US history”.

Do Americans realise how far their country’s moral as well as financial stock has fallen? Perhaps at this time of extreme stress, it seems not to matter. But it will matter later on – for them and for the future international balance of power.

And he will get elected again!

But you think the response of every country is over the top! How confused are you??

[pErvinalia]

Dutchy continues to want to have it both ways. His biases are banging up against each other..

[Sean Hayden]

Jesus, let Harvard in on the bullshitting and it gets deep fast!

[Sean Hayden]

US reputation: it's almost like they've got no memory. Tell me another one Harvard!

[Sean Hayden]

Seriously, --without the usual bullshit pining for an America that never existed, and that you certainly never experienced, looking at you world outside the US-- when have we "diplomatically speaking" not been on life support? That's probably just an accidentally brilliant metaphor for diplomacy in general...

[JimC]

Seriously, --without the usual bullshit pining for an America that never existed, and that you certainly never experienced, looking at you world outside the US-- when have we "diplomatically speaking" not been on life support? That's probably just an accidentally brilliant metaphor for diplomacy in general...

To whom specifically are you asking that question?

[Sean Hayden]

I don't see the relevance of your question Jim. Do you need an invitation to engage, and since when?

[JimC]

The post did not seem to have a context without being part of a question/dialog with someone with whom you are disagreeing - otherwise, it just floats. Specifically, is this "you" a particular poster, or some sort of collective of general anti-American posting?

"...and that you certainly never experienced..."

I'm not being critical, just trying to make sense of your post. Between you and Tero, it can be tricky...

[Sean Hayden]

Being lumped together with Tero is a huge compliment.

I'm disagreeing with some of the content in Scot's link.

and that you certainly never experienced

Yeah, I assumed most people will have experienced the rather noxious way some go on about the deterioration of the US, like they're heartbroken, when opining about something new and terrible we've done. "You were really great, everyone wanted to be there..." --bullshit.

[pErvinalia]

Seriously, --without the usual bullshit pining for an America that never existed, and that you certainly never experienced, looking at you world outside the US-- when have we "diplomatically speaking" not been on life support? That's probably just an accidentally brilliant metaphor for diplomacy in general...

To whom specifically are you asking that question?

He seems to be debating himself..

[JimC]

Debating yourself is dangerous, it'll make you go blind and grow hair on your palms...

Or is that only caused by a mass debate?

[Sean Hayden]

I'm at a loss as to how my approach is different from countless other threads at ratz.

I call bullshit Jim, you've done the feigning heartbreak for 'merica before, haven't you...go on, admit it. Or, maybe you're conflicted. You know the US has consistently behaved horribly, but you're not ready to let go of the threat of what our next bit of horribleness could mean for us.

If so, then let me help you. --fuck all. That's what it'll mean.

[JimC]

Again, I fail to decipher the meaning within that post...