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[Lord Shonus]

We'll get a social reconstruction when 4Chan decides to elect a social reconstructionist for the lulz. Biden is recognizable for his meme presence. Trump rose to prominence through his meme presence and an online grassroots campaign of weaponized nihilistic irony.


In other news, WWE Vince McMahon (among many glorious others) named as economic adviser, also what the shit even is this URL

Question, why aren’t economists on the list of economy advisors? This is like putting people that aren’t scientists on science advisor positions

That list of 20 names is just the most notable. The actual full list is much larger. Really, given the scope of the group it would have been more surprising to leave a WWE representative out. The article has a link to the full list, but there are economists.
From the (divided by groups but sadly otherwise uncommented) list I found Art Laffer which should refer to Arthur Laffer of the Laffer curve and Larry Lindsey as economists.
There is also Steve Forbes of Forbes (barring homonyms: list is just names, so I could be wrong) who is not an economist but surely has access to some.

If the purpose of advising economy, why have people who aren’t economists on the advisory in the first place? It sounds like it should be filled with economists

To put this another way, economists are theorists by definition. You need theorists in any field - they're very important- but you also need applied work.

You can't design an aircraft with only aeronautical engineers - you need input from pilots, assembly workers, maintenance personnel, and flight attendants. By the same token, you need people who actually work in an industry to see how you can reopen said industry, no matter what the theoretical economists say.

To use an analogy, I've seen (they were part of my high school curriculum) dozens of beautiful machine designs where the theoretician designing it, but were never built because the machinists looked at a critical part and responded with "how the fuck am I supposed to make that?"

[Naturegirl1999]

Question, why aren’t economists on the list of economy advisors? This is like putting people that aren’t scientists on science advisor positions

That list of 20 names is just the most notable. The actual full list is much larger. Really, given the scope of the group it would have been more surprising to leave a WWE representative out. The article has a link to the full list, but there are economists.
From the (divided by groups but sadly otherwise uncommented) list I found Art Laffer which should refer to Arthur Laffer of the Laffer curve and Larry Lindsey as economists.
There is also Steve Forbes of Forbes (barring homonyms: list is just names, so I could be wrong) who is not an economist but surely has access to some.

If the purpose of advising economy, why have people who aren’t economists on the advisory in the first place? It sounds like it should be filled with economists

To put this another way, economists are theorists by definition. You need theorists in any field - they're very important- but you also need applied work.

You can't design an aircraft with only aeronautical engineers - you need input from pilots, assembly workers, maintenance personnel, and flight attendants. By the same token, you need people who actually work in an industry to see how you can reopen said industry, no matter what the theoretical economists say.

To use an analogy, I've seen (they were part of my high school curriculum) dozens of beautiful machine designs where the theoretician designing it, but were never built because the machinists looked at a critical part and responded with "how the fuck am I supposed to make that?"

thank you for clarifying

[Frumple]

Though to further clarify many/most of the people on that advisory council are pretty dogshit for one reason or another. Thing reads like a who's-who of "People who are going to advise doing shit that gets extra people killed." There's sarcastic stuff floating around replacing notables from it with well known supervillians and horror flick monsters, and sometimes they produce a list less likely to get the american public killed.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Not really a new page from Trump's playbook though, he's had Musk and other various shitheads on councils before. I'm not sure what exactly in Trumpology terms it means about him - perhaps when he doesn't know what to do, like with the industry council? But it's an old move, just about a more damaging thing.

[misko27]

There's an amusing article with a headline to the effect "Trump promised a huge announcement. Then he started listing names." Just name after name, dozens upon dozens upon dozens, no explanation or context just a gigantic exercise in name-dropping.

As I hear it it serves a few political purposes. For one, tries to create a competing narrative about "We gotta open up the economy" to go against the epidemiologist argument that ending mitigation would cause nightmarish destruction, which, since there is no convenient group going saying just that, means it needs to be made, and who would be more likely and reliable to do such a thing than a bunch of industrial bigshots? Two, it gives the administration cover, which is very, very important to Trump (both politically and, I imagine, psychologically), as it then puts the onus for the success or failure of this policy onto them, or at the very least gives an easy accessible target for blameshifting. It's also a great way of just, you know, namedropping and making himself look good, which is as much of a necessity for a narcissist as breathing. "These people are advising me!"

It also is just a way of projecting himself as being in control and taking control back from the governors saying their unamerican governor things like "Trump does not tell us when to reopen the economy." Which is, I guess, another way to think about the council: Trump actually can't really force businesses to reopen any more than he can force states, but if he throws them into a council he might manage to bully at least some of them into it.

Now the main problem for Trump will be when this council gets together (If it gets together? It's unclear how exactly it's supposed to function either...) if they suggest, as many have in fields from banking to retail, that the focus should be fighting the virus...

[Dunamisdeos]

Found it, the name list article - https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/14/trump-economic-task-force-187224

[wierd]

Fearless leader *STILL* operating under the misguided assumption that social distancing and stay at home orders can be rescinded by the end of the month, because "CURVE LEVELING OFF! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! TIME TO GO BACK TO WORK!"

https://nypost.com/2020/04/15/trump-says-coronavirus-has-peaked-some-states-will-reopen-before-may-1/



I find myself seriously wishing for this orange clown to catch this thing, suffer accute respiratory distress, and NOT have fucking ventilators on hand for him, because of his dumbfuckery in jumping the damn gun on this.  You have to wait for group immunity figures to be acceptable before reopening economic activities-- NOT "oh, look! the curve is going down! TIME TO GO BACK TO WORK! HERPA DERPA!'


How can this twit be so ... ... Incompetent?

[MrRoboto75]

How can this twit be so ... ... Incompetent?

He does not have negative consequences for his actions.

[ZBridges]

I don't think he will actually attempt it, but at earlier today's COVID-19 briefing, Trump threatened to suspend both houses of congress in order to speed up confirmation of his appointees.

[wierd]

Just overheard some fantastic "news" on fox in a resident's room.

Dr Ben Carson was advocating the move to reopen the country by May 1, citing "counties that are virus free", strawmen about "We could wait until there is no risk of the virus whatsoever but the economy is in ruins." and other absurdities, with a smooth, even, reassuring keel.

Mother fucker needs to shut the fuck up, he does not know what he is talking about, and now is not the time to be feeding the public dangerous as fuck messages like that.


1) Those "Virus free" counties are because THERE IS NO TESTING. 
2) The insistence from experts is to wait for "antibody positive, but healthy" percentages to be sufficient that there will not be a ready, vulnerable population for a massive spike in cases-- NOT complete eradication of the virus.  Guy is a fucking spindoctoring whore who is perfectly calm and cool, with a nice smile on his face, likely willfully (since I very much doubt that faucci is down with this bullshit) engaging in political doubletalk that FUCKING **WILL** get people killed, all for the sake of those precious precious financial reports.


GOD FUCKING DAMNIT-- Stop electing the people that enable this shitshow!

[hector13]

I don’t think Carson is elected? I thought he was just the... housing dude.

*quick google*

Housing and Urban Development dude.

I always thought he came across as a bit dim. Was very surprised to learn he was a leading neurosurgeon in his time.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Ben Carson is my foremost proof that intelligence is compartmentalized. This is a man who fully pioneered neurosurgery, arguably was number one when he was practicing, and in literally every other area of life including things related to but not strictly necessary for neurosurgery he believes in nothing but magic and bullshit.

Also, since we're talking about him, I'm obligated to mention that I'm one degree of separation from Ben Carson

EDIT: Oh jesus christ, only now do I realize that means I'm two degrees of separation from Trump and everyone in his administration. I feel unclean.

[Iduno]

Ben Carson is my foremost proof that intelligence is compartmentalized. This is a man who fully pioneered neurosurgery, arguably was number one when he was practicing, and in literally every other area of life including things related to but not strictly necessary for neurosurgery he believes in nothing but magic and bullshit.

That, and the hidden curriculum that affects far too high of a percentage of doctors (luckily not all, but far too many).

[Naturegirl1999]

Ben Carson is my foremost proof that intelligence is compartmentalized. This is a man who fully pioneered neurosurgery, arguably was number one when he was practicing, and in literally every other area of life including things related to but not strictly necessary for neurosurgery he believes in nothing but magic and bullshit.

That, and the hidden curriculum that affects far too high of a percentage of doctors (luckily not all, but far too many).

hidden curriculum?

[TamerVirus]

it's hidden for a reason