President Trump told reporters Monday that more states should be easing their restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, as some governors and local leaders facing rising cases and death tolls tighten their rules and ponder new stay-at-home orders.Well, that's definitely a "special" opinion. The restrictions in states that have not swung the doors wide is why those states have gotten a handle on the spread of the pandemic. The states that opened widely, like Texas, Florida and Arizona, are having crisis-level hospitalizations.
“I really do believe a lot of the governors should be opening up states that they’re not opening,” Trump said as he answered questions at a biotech company in Morrisville, N.C.
A number of the states that were hard-hit early on have since seen in the Trump states what happens when you say "OK, we don't have a lot of cases, so let's open the bars and not encourage social distancing and not require masks." They're not going to do that stupid shit. They've seen first-hand what it's like to flood the ICUs, to have to erect pop-up hospitals to handle the cases, to have reefer trucks parked outside of the morgues to hold the overflow. There is no appetite to repeat that experience.
But that's what Trump, in his infinite awfulness, would have them do.
This pandemic has shown that Trump, and the GOP's version of the national government, has made America into a global laughing stock. We are on the road to becoming a failed state, thanks to them.
But that's a subject for another time.
14 comments:
America is almost a failed state. Red States are ungovernable tribal regions. Between anti vaxxers, moon landing hoaxers, Kenyon Obama assholes, Corona virus is a hoax assholes, Sandy Hook was a crisis actor fake, 9/11 was either done by Saddam or a fake, or both, and all the other bull shit that Republicans pretend to believe, I'm not sure there is enough common ground to hold the nation together.
The Biden Truth and Reconciliation panels will have much to do.
The things that are supposed to hold the nation together - liberty and freedom at the individual level - have been labeled as "whiteness" and rejected by a significant portion of the populace. We are now seeing ungovernable tribal rioting, but if it is a "Red" component it is communist, not Republican. Democrat strongholds, all.
Nothing Keaaukane lists is of great importance. A conspiracy nut will make bad decisions on their pet topic, but if they are patriotic Americans they can be there when it counts. The stupidity doesn't have to extend to general civic incompetence. They can still share in our core values.
I cannot say the same of someone looking to...government reeducation panels? Am I reading that correctly? To fix tin-hatters?? A Faustian bargain for a trinket. I don't expect K has enough in common with the rest of the nation to hold together with them. I pity the residents of any state that "passes" the implied standard. The learned helplessness that must accompany having to agree with every piece of the official party line. "Oh, but it's okay - the party line is actually true, on these points." Not reliably: shutting down discourse removes any check on keeping the line accurate. And it's still not sufficient. The learned helplessness still happens, and communication atrophies, and the republic falls.
The cure for bad speech is more speech, not less. That's the American way. It's not the rest of the worlds' way, and they laugh at us for it - so long as their governments permit them to.
Oh, they're laughing at us, all right, but not for our freedom of speech.
A lot of this can be laid at the feet of what Steve Benen calls the "post policy party" that the Republicans have become, where they have little interest in or aptitude at governing and don't care about much besides obtaining and holding onto power.
A rational person might wonder why they want all of that power when they have no interest in governing with it, but I see it as more of an addiction, like you find with drugs or propaganda.
Either way, they haven't been up to the task, and don't seem to care to get that way.
Any politician worth their salt would have capitalized on the opportunity to use the virus as the common enemy and unite the parts of the country (and world) that still remain sane enough to be united.
As a way to become a hero, it seems like a pretty easy one, by comparison, but Fergus seems to believe that heroes are for suckers and would much rather gather up clout than do anything useful or helpful.
In that way he utterly fails the trust he said he wanted to have.
This administration can't be over soon enough, and the damage will be lasting, but I remain hopeful that we're not too far gone to salvage a society worth living in.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
B P Reconciliation and reeducation are two different words. One is patching up differences and the other is to change someone to your way of thinking.
If the GOP and Norquist insists on drowning in the bathtub, that's fine, but I don't want to be there with them. Funny how they want to tell the rest of the world how to govern, but can't be bothered at home to do anything but sit in the middle of the road with their ears plugged, eyes closed and screaming NONONO
Drink some more Kool-Aid BP, you're almost coherent, a rare thing indeed amongst your kind.
Generally I thing the white privilege meme is over sold.
I had to work for everything I have. The only advantage
I know of is I had two parents that gave a shit and taught
me useful stuff. They died with nothing.
Religion, All I learned is what hypocrisy and a healthy dose
of what situational morality means from it. I avoid it where
possible.
As to the general condition of the country every time I hear
about anti-fa I realize there are Fascists or would be fascists
saying that. Simpler, if you have anti-fa there must be Fa
around!
The general group think is Red states commies and fascists
and Blue socialists and feral left. Reality is more like
idiots right and and assholes on the left. The larger
population is neither, they are trying to make ends meet
and school their kids.
That brings me to the koolaid drinkers and conspiracy theory
hangers on. Most of what they spout is from a lack of
thinking or worse wishful thinking. Their story is so far
out I just can't make that shit up.
AS to Drumpf, I believe he is moving to a burn the
bridges, land, and buildings in a russian retreat.
He seem to see anything but him and his as the only
worthy leaders and leaving anything useful to the other
is failure. He will kill, its not his responsibility.
He is a failed leader. He is failing the country.
Eck!
Someone, please Define a "failed country" for me. In my mind, I don't see we have to wait, but what is the definition of it? High unpaid bills, a populace in upheaval, a broken or non-existent justice system, a failing financial market, lack of any leadership? What have I not listed?
Are we "great again" yet?
w3ski
W3ski.
Yes, to all of those and the fake it great again fans.
We are failing, failed is possibly yet to come....
The bigger ones is internal violation of its own tenants of
fairness and being a total ass in the world forum. Those are
a result of leadership that is both partizan and incompetent.
Somewhere it was forgotten "Government is by, for, and of
the people".
So no we are less great still. Can we be great again... TBD.
Depends on the people!
Eck!
This probably won't be a popular opinion here but our country can't stay locked down indefinitely. This Chinese plague isn't going to magically go away and in the mean time people have to work to make supplies we need to survive. More people have died from the flu this year than they have from Covid and we haven't shut the entire country down because of the flu. Granted, some people will not survive this, but nobody will survive if we don't get the economy up and running again.
Alan, that is not a popular opinion here because it is stupid. 2018-2019 flu deaths were about 34K. 2019-2020 flu deaths are estimated to be in the 30-45K range. Covid 19 has killed 150K in 4 months. You need to sharpen your survival skills.
Chinese plague? Israeli plague more the likely. Cincinnati plague, though we settled upon Trump Virus quite some time ago. He left the door open, gave it time to spread. Still is, is in fact encouraging its spread. It's the Trump Flu. The Trump Virus; Trump Plague, Trump Pandemic. When it walks like a duck...
Unless it's got alien DNA.
Al, have you signed the Covid Waiver yet?
Took a while Capn, but it made the mainstream: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/07/cnns-don-lemon-wonders-what-trump-would-do-if-we-started-calling-it-the-trump/
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