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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Opinion | America Didn’t Give Up on Covid-19. Republicans Did. - The New York Times
"Earlier this year much of America went through hell as the nation struggled to deal with Covid-19. More than 120,000 Americans have now died; more than 20 million have lost their jobs.
But it’s looking as if all those sacrifices were in vain. We never really got the coronavirus under control, and now infections, while they have fallen to a quite low level in the New York area, the pandemic’s original epicenter, are surging in much of the rest of the country.
And the bad news isn’t just a result of more testing. In new hot spots like Arizona — where testing capacity is being overwhelmed — and Houston the fraction of tests coming up positive is soaring, which shows that the disease is spreading rapidly.
It didn’t have to be this way. The European Union, a hugely diverse area with a larger population than the U.S., has been far more successful at limiting the spread of Covid-19 than we have. What went wrong?
The immediate answer is that many U.S. states ignored warnings from health experts and rushed to reopen their economies, and far too many people failed to follow basic precautions like wearing face masks and avoiding large groups. But why was there so much foolishness?
Well, I keep seeing statements to the effect that Americans were too impatient to stay the course, too unwilling to act responsibly. But this is deeply misleading, because it avoids confronting the essence of the problem. Americans didn’t fail the Covid-19 test; Republicans did.
After all, the Northeast, with its largely Democratic governors, has been appropriately cautious about reopening, and its numbers look like Europe’s. California and Washington are blue states that are seeing a rise in cases, but it’s from a relatively low base, and their Democratic governors are taking actions like requiring the use of face masks and seem ready to reverse their reopening.
So the really bad news is coming from Republican-controlled states, especially Arizona, Florida and Texas, which rushed to reopen and, while some are now pausing, haven’t reversed course. If the Northeast looks like Europe, the South is starting to look like Brazil.
Nor is it just Republican governors and state legislatures. According to the new New York Times/Siena poll, voters over all strongly favor giving control of the pandemic priority over reopening the economy — but Republican voters, presumably taking their cue from the White House and Fox News, take the opposite position.
And it’s not just about policy decisions. Partisanship seems to be driving individual behavior, too, with self-identified Democrats significantly more likely to wear face masks and engage in social distancing than self-identified Republicans.
The question, then, isn’t why “America” has failed to deal effectively with the pandemic. It’s why the G.O.P. has in effect allied itself with the coronavirus.
Part of the answer is short-term politics. At the beginning of this year Donald Trump’s re-election message was all about economic triumphalism: Unemployment was low, stocks were up, and he was counting on good numbers to carry him through November. He and his officials wasted crucial weeks refusing to acknowledge the viral threat because they didn’t want to hear any bad news."
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Pence, on loan from Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, is getting the band back together again for a Coronavirus Task Force Update today after two months. The Bunker Bitch is going golfing.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Oh is that going to be a lively presser. I'm sure Mother will be glued to the TV.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
First task force meeting in 2 months, not in the White House, orange man not present, nothing but a huge alternative clusterfuck, full on alternate reality. Pence spewing bs about about how good the fight is going, spinning statistics, giving his "thoughts and prayers" well fuck that. Repeatedly says to follow state and local guidelines but spun a question(only a few taken) with no answer regarding why these guidelines were not followed during trump's rallies in Oklahoma and Arizona(says more rallies to come in the future), then abruptly ends the questioning. Orange man tested daily but thinks national testing is way too high. No plans or strategies for going forward, record numbers of infected across the US, some states considering closing down again, so many lies, so many lies...... So it goes on and on, WTF is wrong with these sleazy criminal idiots?
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Today Florida announced a new daily record of almost 9K cases, nearly double our previous daily record from two days ago.
Miami Herald Article (hopefully accessible)
From the article:
Quote:
Over the last seven days, Florida has reported 29,163 new cases. That’s nearly a quarter of all the confirmed cases in the state so far.
But sure, we've got this totally under control and should go about our lives with minimal changes. My recommendation is that we go into full lockdown until 2 days before school starts. If we're lucky we can get to the point where kids can actually go back.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Attachment 115815
Looks like a V-shaped recovery to me.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Matthew Strongin
My recommendation is that we go into full lockdown until 2 days before school starts. If we're lucky we can get to the point where kids can actually go back.
Seems like the only reasonable course of action. There can't be anything approaching normal life again until childcare and the schools are open.
I was talking with a buddy in Dublin last night. They enforced the lockdown in April and May, and now they're resuming something like functioning, if altered, life. It was totally possible to stamp out the virus in six or eight weeks with a tight lockdown.
But now it's impossible, because we don't have the collective will for a second round. I cannot believe the absolute squandering of political will on our half assed shutdown. We incurred the vast majority of the pain of a real shutdown for very little longterm gain. Now we're basically forced to limp along until we find a vaccine. Everyone who lost a job or a business as part of all of this should be livid, because that sacrifice was wasted.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
caleb
finally someone speaks to the tremendous perseverance and can-do attitude of COVID-19!
In all seriousness, the magical thinking of much of the USA, and the refusal to accept the basic facts of how this virus spreads (despite multiple serial examples from other countries and even areas within the US) is maddening. In my life I've never seen a quicker abandonment of nationally driven effort (and marketing): going from "We are at war" to "individual choice on masking" in a matter of weeks as the virus continues to spread and kill.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jimcav
finally someone speaks to the tremendous perseverance and can-do attitude of COVID-19!
In all seriousness, the magical thinking of much of the USA, and the refusal to accept the basic facts of how this virus spreads (despite multiple serial examples from other countries and even areas within the US) is maddening. In my life I've never seen a quicker abandonment of nationally driven effort (and marketing): going from "We are at war" to "individual choice on masking" in a matter of weeks as the virus continues to spread and kill.
Our country is being “led” by a man who avoided the draft by claiming bone spurs in his heels. Is it any wonder he avoided this leadership opportunity? No leadership and a country full of citizens who have no clue how to face hardships and challenges. There is no sense of responsibility to our fellow humans and the greater good. Instead, it’s entitled morons.
Greg
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
caleb
There can't be anything approaching normal life again until childcare and the schools are open.
This. This is why I'm enraged most days. If we don't stamp this out in such a way that it's safe to send kids to school we can't resume anything resembling normalcy. Sure, I guess if "normal" for someone means being able to brunch with their pals and go shopping then we're in a great new normal. But if you have a kid and a job and a desire not to open yourself up to risk, there's no way to even fake normal.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Meanwhile the rube petri dish gives standing ovations for one handed water drinking. FFS!!!
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Matthew Strongin
This. This is why I'm enraged most days.
I'm going to adopt this as a stock response to most everything right now.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Trump was completely unable to articulate any sort of goal or agenda for a second term, even when asked by his sycophantic toadies at Fox. Rather, the bathered on about.... well, himself, at length, in a completely incomprehensible manner.
Listen to it. For God's sake listen to it. Find your media outlet of choice and listen to it. It's amazing. Not one agenda item, not one goal, nothing.
Now picture him in any attempt to head up a national response to the current crisis.
We are fucked.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
monadnocky
Trump was completely unable to articulate any sort of goal or agenda for a second term, even when asked by his sycophantic toadies at Fox. Rather, the bathered on about.... well, himself, at length, in a completely incomprehensible manner.
Sharing this as insight (?) into how the Trump-fans think [sic] ...a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend on a Facebook post defended tRump's blather in that comment (quoted below) by saying "One of the few things I like about Trump is that he is not as much of a war monger as past presidents." When pressed on the issue -- that was your takeaway from tRump's word-salad?!?! -- he pointed to the last three sentences as evidence that tRump is less hawkish than, well, Bolton at least. :::facepalm:::
https://i.postimg.cc/NfnQdCDr/Trump-Hannity.jpg
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
The Hoosier Mortician couldn't even say the word "mask" when pressed.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Trump really is an idiot. Well done Captain Obvious I hear you say. But, looking at that transcript...yes you do make mistakes. Unfortunately more often than not. 120,000 dead as a result of a hoax for example. But, no. Have a go at the bloke who wrote a book saying you were in over your head, which of course everyone who is not white, fat, wearing a flag and totting an assault rifle seems to well and truly appreciate.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
“A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.
[snip]or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); "
Our President has followed the above advice, if he can't see the virus, it isn't real.
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
I can’t believe you are all focussed on this dross. I guess being in the US you are too close and can’t see the forest for the trees.
With the luxury of a little distance, I can tell you the most important thing going on right now is protecting statues.
Jesus wept. “Look over here”. My youngest is ten and she hasn’t fallen for that for a while...
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1 Attachment(s)
Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Matthew Strongin
This. This is why I'm enraged most days. If we don't stamp this out in such a way that it's safe to send kids to school we can't resume anything resembling normalcy. Sure, I guess if "normal" for someone means being able to brunch with their pals and go shopping then we're in a great new normal. But if you have a kid and a job and a desire not to open yourself up to risk, there's no way to even fake normal.
Childcare has been open in LA for a few weeks (month?) and even though LA County has 90K plus cases (remember when China was at 80k and that was alarming) no one is attributing any spikes to kids being around kids. Maybe it's time to accept that this virus isn't a threat to children (or society)? My neighbor continues to be paranoid about having any contact with another human being but he gave up on having his 3-year-old home 24/7 and now she's at Montessori (small class sizes!).
What...you..gonna...do?
Fuck, if Bill Maher is actually right...
New Rule: I'm Here, No Fear, Get Used to It | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) - YouTube
High school kids on a Friday evening in my town of 30k where we have about 30 cases of Covid-19.
Attachment 115845
LA County Department of Public Health
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Re: Virus thread, the political one.
Surely someone with sufficient seniority can (and should be) inviting the orange nufty to resign.