The NTSB investigation metaphor is the perfect one for detailing how the Trump COVID response screwed the pooch, and James Fallows is the perfect reporter to detail it. He examines how the Trump administration destroyed the working relationship with China that the Obama and Bush II administration had nurtured and therefore lost the opportunity for early intelligence and intervention. He also shows that both Obama and Bush II had real, substantive plans ready to go. I’m not going to excerpt – read the whole thing.
Another good story that dropped yesterday was CNN’s piece on how Trump fucks up calls with our allies, especially those led by women. This part made me LOL:
One person familiar with almost all the conversations with the leaders of Russia, Turkey, Canada, Australia and western Europe described the calls cumulatively as ‘abominations’ so grievous to US national security interests that if members of Congress heard from witnesses to the actual conversations or read the texts and contemporaneous notes, even many senior Republican members would no longer be able to retain confidence in the President.
Those traitorous fuckers never had confidence in the President–they just have cowardly, fawning loyalty to him because to do anything else would endanger their precious little sinecures. So there’s nothing here to “lose,” and no matter what comes out about Trump, senior, junior or tween Republicans ain’t gonna change.
scuffletuffle
We citizens need to hear them, too. After all, he’s allegedly in that office to represent OUR interests, not his own. We should know what we are getting.
MattF
Ah, loyalty.
Kay
Just the size of the failure takes your breath away.
They better raise taxes. We are going to be paying for this for decades.
Nothing is free Trumpsters. You wanted a spite President and you got one. Now it’s time to pay for your mistake.
RepubAnon
The Trumpistas remind me of the management of a “unicorn” company, where the hype got them lots of stock value – but they were never able to turn a profit, or even come up with a working product. They just keep up with the hype, hiding the bad news with fraudulent numbers while hoping to bluff their way out of their problems.
The “WireCard” bankruptcy in Germany is a non-Trump company example of how this typically ends in the business world (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53222181)
mrmoshpotato
“Don’t worry. He’s a traitorous fuckup but he’s not such a traitorous fuckup that he’ll put our re-elections and tax cuts on jeopardy.”
The entire fucking party is Putin’s bitch.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay: And don’t forget closing tax loopholes and havens.
“Oh look! Mittington 47%-of-people-are-moochers’s offshore accounts! Into the federal coffers they go. Now for some bad news for John McCain.”
Keith P.
if members of Congress heard from witnesses to the actual conversations or read the texts and contemporaneous notes, even many senior Republican members would no longer be able to retain confidence in the President.
Naturally, the GOP’s response to this news will be to move heaven and earth to make sure those notest never see the light of day
frosty
@RepubAnon: Re: unicorn companies. I just finished a book on Enron and the parallels between their management and this administration were striking. Ken Lay hired his kids and thought nothing of using the company jet for personal travel. Jeff Skilling obsessed about the stock value and BS’d constantly to keep it up. Just to start with.
(Smartest Guys In The Room)
mrmoshpotato
@Keith P.: “Move them to the sooper seekret email server!”
Gin & Tonic
“if members of Congress heard from witnesses”
What a concept. Now maybe if they didn’t say “fuck you” to every goddamn subpoena, that might be possible.
Gin & Tonic
Best idea yet:
mrmoshpotato
Haha, it’s this year’s Punch A Nazi (not that Nazi-punching hasn’t been out of style since the ’30s)
PsiFighter37
@Keith P.: Seems like there are too many cowards and not a single patriot who would leak these.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@RepubAnon: This is why I can believe Trump is desperately hiding his fuckups from even the GOP. They are the real marks in Trump’s grift. And like scammed investors they are in denial because it’s to painful to admit they got scammed.
laura
Since we’re rolling up on the Independence Day holiday weekend and ad hoc neighborhood fireworks follies, I’d sure like to know more about the Republicans who spent July 4th 2018 in Russia – why’d they go, who paid, hookers & blow, business deals, campaign contributions, furs, freedom, homophobia, gas & oil, kompromat, cavier, patriotism….. Steve Daines, Jerry Moran, John face like an empty scrotum Kennedy, Kay Granger, Ron Johnson and others – let’s hear the hows, the why’s and all the gory details of how a bunch of owned craven tools betrayed their country in the service of the kremlin.
mrmoshpotato
@Gin & Tonic: Oh, the facial expressions she would make playing the foreign leaders!
Marcopolo
A bit off-topic but I live in MO & had to pass this along:
I have not looked at any of the details (like did they weight for education blah blah blah) so take this with a Dome full of salt, but whatever the accuracy of the poll is it is very delightful to see these results
Oh, and good morning everyone.
Edited to add: It’s an internal poll done for the Democrat running for Governor, Nicole Galloway.
Brachiator
@Kay:
But…but… Trump assures us that if we didn’t do those stupid tests, there wouldn’t be any cases in the US at all.
So much stupidity to undo.
Jeffro
Should be exciting when the complete collapse comes…assuming he doesn’t flee to Russia or Saudi Arabia (which would hopefully scream ‘GUILTY!’ To even the most hardcore trumper), one has to wonder what portion of the GOP base will still stick with trumpov once he starts his inevitable “I was backstabbed by these #FakeRepublicans!”
We just might get that long-overdue GOP civil war we’ve all been waiting for. 2020, I hope you’re listening…here’s a chance for you to redeem yourself ;)
KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))
As I wrote my son after reading the CNN piece last night, “I know I’ve said it before and I’ve always been wrong but, I just don’t see how he survives this.” Then at 3:00 AM I wrote, “his [main] source is clearly Fiona Hill.” I think she’s just itching to tell the proper audience the horrors she’s seen and heard. It must weigh heavily on her as a patriot, to have tried to bring it to the attention of the proper people, only to be told to, “Tell the lawyers.” Then nothing, NOTHING! is done. I’m sure she just believes that there needs to be a record, and a shared knowledge, of the damage done. Maybe a forced recognition by Republicans of just what they’ve facilitated.
Honestly, I don’t really think Ms Hill’s testimony, or the Russians paying for hits on American and allied troops scandal, or Trump capering down the street naked with little children on leashes, will end his reign of error before November, or really, before January 20.
Kay doesn’t do front page stuff anymore (I miss your front-page political Ohio insights, Kay!) so it’s time to change my nym. I’ll change to KayInMD, and for awhile I’ll be KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)).
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
I would think only two would be required:
Bruce K
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The moment they believe that their only hope of political survival is to ditch Trump, under the bus he goes, and I think on some level, Trump knows that and is going to use every means at his disposal to keep them from running. He can turn the Southern Strategy voters against anyone who breaks with him, through a tweet. He’s seized control of the national party apparatus, so he can turn that against them. And now I’m pretty sure he can turn the Justice Department against them.
Like the guy said in Chernobyl, he can’t make things better for them, but he can damn well make them worse.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The GOP know it’s a con. They think that they can safely stay in the con until they get their investment back, and a nice profit. So far, they are getting everything they ever wanted: tax cuts, rollback of regulations, a stable of right wing judges, and a reliable Bloc of voters so dumb that they are willing to let Trump kill them from the CoronaVirus. All that’s left is victory in the culture war. Trump is their dream come true.
YY_Sima Qian
I quite like James Fallows as a writer and a reporter (like his wife as a writer, too).
One of the quotes in his story that struck me was from the military official that wondered, as a thought experiment, whether the world would have been better/worse/same if the pandemic first blew up in Tennessee or Wuhan, and his assessment was that it would have worse. It matches my assessment, a counterfactual I would not have countenanced before February of this year. Also probably not something any US military official would want to be caught on record saying.
Jado
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The GOP made a deal, like they always do. They get a distracting, abrasive, know-nothing moron who they will let play President as long as he nominates the people they want for the judge vacancies they insured would stay c=vacant during the Kenyan Usurper’s invalid reign (invalid because he was elected by THOSE people, not True Americans). They tap dance around the high crimes and run the smoke and mirrors for the misdemeanors, as long as the Cheeto Benito nominates the corrupt biased partisans to the benches they will need to hold onto these awful policies for 20 more years. It’s a devil’s bargain, but in this one WE are the ones who are damned.
The GOP got exactly what they wanted for these 4 years. NONE of them care if this moron goes down in flames. And hey, if they get voted out, sure it’s not ideal, but they will land in a cushy job for one of their corporate cronies they paved the way for when they were in office. Quid pro quo, emphasis on the PRO.
frosty
@KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager)): It’s been ages since Kay was on the front page. It’s OK, at least she’s back as a commenter, with the same on-the-ground reports.
azlib
I read the entire Atlantic piece by Fallows. I did not know he was a pilot. His analogy to how the NTSB works to make flying safe and what it takes was spot on on. OTOH the dismal response to COVID-19 was infuriating, since we had the structures in place to deal with it and Trump and his sycophants threw it all away.
oatler.
Just read that Carl Reiner died at 98.
ChrisS
As I saw posted in a sports forum, “I don’t support Trump, I support the GOP”.
I’m unsure as to what policies the GOP would be running without Trump.
Miss Bianca
@Gin & Tonic: “If only the Czar’s people knew!”
Baud
@ChrisS: The policy of more effective self-marketing.
OzarkHillbilly
Carl Reiner has passed.
Marcopolo
@oatler.: May he rest in power. Thanks for all the laughs over the years, Carl. You raised a pretty decent kid as well.
Baud
Everyone’s new favorite justice Gorsuch has joined Thomas in opining that states do not have to separate themselves from church. Fortunately, the Supreme Court didn’t go that far today, although they did break down the wall of separation a bit more.
bemused
@ChrisS:
GOP hasn’t actually “governed” long before trump, afaik. Other than mega tax cuts, there’s not much that excites them enough to get off their asses.
Amir Khalid
Dr Fauci and CDC Director Robert Redfield, among other big-deal health officials, are now testifying before the US Senate. I just happened on the CNN liveblog.
zhena gogolia
@oatler.:
I just saw it. So sad. I know he was 98, but I was hoping he’d live to see the end of Drumpf.
schrodingers_cat
4th anniversary of citizenship coming up this weekend! Going to celebrate it with lobster and corn on the cob, like a boss. Also will put up a hammock and chill in my back yard.
zhena gogolia
Reiner and Brooks in BLM T-shirts
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
????????
ETA: weird. The flags appear on my phone but I get a bunch of random letters on my computer screen.
Roger Moore
@RepubAnon:
This isn’t actually how those “unicorn” companies work. They’re a long con playing on the success of companies like Google and Facebook, which took a long time to reach profitability but became very profitable indeed because they were able to monopolize their market space. The goal of the “unicorns” is to convince people they’re going to do the same thing but in a different market so they can get to their IPO and the early investors can cash out.
patrick II
As horrible as this is it won’t change many Republicans. They have the money, the myths, the communication network, and the racism to have people voting for them again after this is over.
And when I say myths, I think the most harmful one is that freedom is only granted to the individual, no one is responsible for actions that increase the freedom of the citizenry at large. “The general welfare” has been wiped out from the constitution. I won’t wear a mask, it interferes with my freedom is more than about just the mask.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Translation?
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
See my ETA. It was supposed to be four U.S. flags.
Van Buren
The Fallows article deserves a Pulitzer.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Thanks
If you were a DS rose resister you would have said @Pelosi why don’t you fix my emojis!
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I see the flags!
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
Once he is out of office and clearly covered in loser stink, he will become a RINO. Every Republican will point to the one or two documented times they disagreed with him as proof they were willing to go against him. They will line up to denounce him as a betrayer of True Conservatism and blame all their failures on him and him alone.
sdhays
@Brachiator: Those stupid tests that Obama failed to gift the Dump administration 3 years before the virus was discovered.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I too see them on my phone.
Just One More Canuck
@mrmoshpotato:
the star trek/space farce symbol is a nice touch
SiubhanDuinne
@oatler.:
98 is a fine number of years. But I was hoping for another 1,902 from him.
He was genius. RIP ?
MagdaInBlack
@schrodingers_cat:
Congratulations! May the next 4 be better, for all of us ☺
gene108
The Fallows article really does lay out the total clusterfuck created by Trump regarding our coronavirus response.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
Wow, four years already! Congratulations on this landmark.
Marcopolo
@schrodingers_cat: Sounds like an excellent plan! Congratulations!
japa21
@schrodingers_cat: I remember when it happened. Doesn’t seem like 4 years. But then conversely, the last six months seem like 4 years.
Congratulations.
schrodingers_cat
@japa21: It was 3 years ago, sorry the 4th fourth of July since I became a citizen, not the 4th anniversary.
I sent in my application a day before his Orangeness became President.
cmorenc
Actually, the same type of force that has heretofore kept many Republican Senators glued to Trump – self-preservation – is just beginning to create an erosive counter-force pushing some GOP senators in the opposite direction away from him, as they are beginning to recognize the possibility that sailing toward the 2020 elections, being aboard the S.S. Trump may be more like being aboard the S.S. Titanic than an invincible battleship. They are still staying aboard, but starting to nervously check how near they are to the lifeboats and calculate how long they can wait to see if the course electorally corrects before it will be too late to jump ship without being sucked down with it.
Of course, they’re still the same rat-bastards who gladly stuck around while Trump could help deliver the delicious RW cheese they crave, but rats will try to jump off even a ship laden with delicious cheese before it sinks and takes them down with it.
Barbara
@Roger Moore:
See, e.g., Uber, Oscar, WeWork, etc. It is a strategy that seems to have reached its sell-by date.
Redshift
@patrick II:
I feel like one thing that has of the mask situation is to make it much more obvious that “freedom!” means “I should get to do whatever I want no matter how much harm it causes other people!” It was already evident to people who paid attention to the gun debate, but there are a lot of people who could ignore that who can’t ignore covid-19.
It’s also helped that mask slackers act like whiny toddlers about it, which helps emphasize that it is actually the selfish attitude of a whiny toddler.
Mary G
@oatler.: This year sucks. RIP Carl Reiner. His Twitter game was so strong. I hope there will be a FP post.
Ninedragonspot
China under Xi Jinping is increasingly contemptuous of international norms – today’s catastrophic National Security Law, which has turned Hong Kong into a police stare, is evidence of that. I hate Trump with a passion, but the worsening of the US-China relationship cannot be laid solely laid at his feet. Taiwan (not mentioned in Fallow’s article) & Vietnam managed to control their COVID outbreaks very well with no help from China.
The US mistake lies less in the management of the US-China relationship and more in our inability to learn from small nations like Taiwan whom we consider unimportant.
Redshift
@Bruce K:
The reason they don’t is the same reason they never follow through on various post-mortems that recommend they broaden their base and appeal to minorities instead of doubling down on white supremacy and voter suppression. Lots of them know that’s the long-term path to bring a viable major party*, but it would mean deep losses for them to benefit the next generation. Most people aren’t good at that, and the GOP especially is ideologically opposed to any sacrifice for someone else.
(*And let’s not kid ourselves, lots of them support this because they are white supremacists, but most of those like money and power enough that they’d pretend not to be if it worked better.)
NotMax
@oatler.
“Psst. Don’t spread it around, Alan Brady is bald!”
raven
@schrodingers_cat: Well I’m glad you are here!
schrodingers_cat
@raven: Here as in Balloon Juice comments or here as in the United States of America.
Thanks it means a lot to me since we have crossed swords (proverbial, of course) before.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax:
? Nice memory ?
Bruce K
@Redshift: Fair. Maybe I should have said “their only hope for their own personal political survival”, because if they’ve shown any evidence of caring about the next generation, it’s escaped me.
Redshift
@Ninedragonspot:
Not so sure about that. I listened to an interview with Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group two or three months ago where he was warning to expect these kinds of actions, because the thing that had been restraining China was their desire for business and trade. That leverage was thrown away on stupid “blame China” scapegoating.
So you’re correct it’s not entirely at Trump’s feet, because it was something they wanted to do, but a big part of the change in what they feel free to do may be on Trump.
Redshift
@Bruce K: Exactly.
schrodingers_cat
@Redshift: Ian Bremmer is an idiot. Not so long ago he was writing paeans to what a reformer Modi was. His so-called expertise is a mile wide and an inch deep, so I take everything he says with a grain of salt.
columbusqueen
@NotMax: Here’s to Carl making God laugh now.
Fair Economist
@japa21:
Side effects from operations of the Obama-Clinton time machine. Disrupts the continuum.
Nelle
I’m jumping ahead to say I just got off the phone with staffers in my senators’ offices. I asked if I could regard Grassley as a leader in the Senate. “He’s President Pro-tem!” “Then why the hell hasn’t he issued a public statement about Russia putting bounties on U.S. soldiers?”
Ernst was, as she loves to tell us, in the military. But mum’s the word from her.
I told them both that my husband served three terms in Vietnam and he is beyond words in outrage. Some 4th of July, yet they’ll all have smarmy patriotic platitudes to serve up on a big platter of hypocrisy.
Anyway, please call your folks in Congress. They may not seem to respond but many calls may signal a citizen level of disgust that they have to at least fake acknowledge. I always say, people I talk to are angry. I see the R’s use that location to make it appear to have people on their side.
Now to go back and catch up.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
Congratulations! Not like a boss, like a standard issue American with a BBQ set~!!~
It seems like yesterday you told us of your citizenship swearing in ceremony… hard to believe it was actually 4 years ago. I hope the second 4 years of citizenship are happier than the first 4 years.
Ninedragonspot
@Redshift: And I’m not at all sure about Ian Bremmer, who has a lot of dicey opinions on things. And he speaks *no* Chinese.
schrodingers_cat
@Ninedragonspot: We are in agreement. He is a slightly less annoying but an equally stupid version of MoU.
frosty
@schrodingers_cat: I’ll add my congratulations too. Glad you’re here with us (and fighting Them).
Ninedragonspot
@schrodingers_cat: The David Brooks of MoUs.
Martin
@Baud: Shouldn’t. States can currently do this – CalGrants can go to religious schools. So it’s a door that was always open, this just means it’s a door that MUST be open. States should use their authority to accredit colleges to keep the grifters out, something a lot of states do a pretty shit job of.
gene108
@Ninedragonspot:
That’s not the take away I got from the article, rather if things worked as normal the USA has the ability to coordinate global efforts to keep a novel influenza strain from becoming a global pandemic.
The US-China relations could have frayed in so many ways, but in the past it did not boil over into cooperation on pandemic response, since a coordinated pandemic response is in both nations mutual self-interest.
This would have allowed greater international coordination earlier on, such as when to restrict international travel, coordinated efforts to have countries implement best practices, etc. that would have halted the spread.
The USA can learn a lot from damn near any country, since our response has been so lacking.
I feel the article was more about the USA’s abdication of leadership during this crisis.
MisterForkbeard
@OzarkHillbilly: This fucking year.
I know he was 98 and it was his time, but.. sigh.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
We’re all glad you’re here, in both senses.
Ninedragonspot
@gene108: China complained loudly about travel restrictions and the WHO (c. early February) advised strongly against them. I’m less sure than you that a better US administration would have coordinated a significantly better response on travel. ( The primary driver of the travel lockdown seems to have been airline dealing with disease risk management. )
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Aww you is sweet. Are your kittens home?
Another Scott
@laura:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-senators-tell-contradictory-stories-about-moscow-trip
Very Tense!!11ONE
Why I Never!!!11ONE
(groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
They should know that that is the standard Kremlin response to anything – it never happened.
Even if they thought that they were doing something good, the symbolism of them being there, being berated by Putin’s people for
nearly10+ hours, on Independence Day, is all wrong. They’re incompetent, in addition to advocating evil policies.“Er, you understood exactly what I said and what I meant, but I wasn’t supposed to say that out loud. Therefore, now I will say something different.”
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
YY_Sima Qian
@Ninedragonspot:
It’s worthwhile noting that health care experts from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau were allowed to join with the second team of experts sent by the China National Health Commission to Wuhan in mid-Jan., despite the cross-Taiwan Strait relations in deep freeze and all official channels dormant. Of course, the Wuhan and Hubei authorities obfuscated with them just as they did with the experts from Beijing. Nevertheless, that is an indication that some institutions for engagement remaining functional across the Taiwan Strait in a health care emergency. At nearly the same time, Beijing was refusing requests from the CDC.
Nations and regions in East and Southeast Asia (including Vietnam and Taiwan, among others) have done better against COVID-19 because the lessons from SARS, Avian Flu and H1N1 were still fresh, and they were well trained by the US CDC. The US forgot its own knowledge base, as the Fallows article amply explains. In any case, Vietnam’s approach was fairly low tech (very low testing rate until recently), and its measures would have been considered highly draconian by the US (locking down villages and districts as soon as a couple of cases appeared). Taiwan relied on strict border controls, intrusive contact tracing, and curiously low testing rate (like Japan in this regard). I am not sure their lessons are actually all that useful to a country like the US. China had the first outbreak, the largest outbreak for a long time, and therefore had the most data on the epidemiology and symptomology of COVID-19, as well as efficacy of various treatment and mitigation/suppression/eradication measures (of which China employed a broad range at different locations in the country, but only the harshest ones got all the press). Then it would have been Italy and South Korea.
I would argue it is precisely this dismissive attitude to the wealth of information coming out of China (only a small fraction via official channels) late Jan. to all of Feb. and Mar. that led to the much delayed response in Europe and North America. One only had to spend some time on Toutiao (Chinese new aggregating APP) every day to get a sense of what is going on. Most of the academic papers published from Jan. – Apr. pertaining to COVID-19 were authored by Chinese researchers in Mainland China or Hong Kong. There are plenty of Chinese speakers (and Chinese immigrants) in US government and intelligence agencies, academia and media, the information was there to be collected (without having to reply completely on the Chinese government), yet the US government and the media took a very myopic view of the developing crisis. I do not believe the US MSM took COVID-19 seriously until the major outbreaks in South Korea and Italy.
Ninedragonspot
@YY_Sima Qian: I imagine we can agree that the American and European failure to treat COVID seriously until it was too late was a byproduct of anti-Asian racism – the US ignored the knowledge base built up in East Asian as irrelevant to its own experience. The COVID response symbolizes a wider failure of American & European society. Almost all of white friends, acquaintances, and family paid little attention to COVID in Jan & Feb. Balloon Juice was a major exception.
Taiwan’s response notably featured travel restrictions, industrial PPE policy, mask-wearing, temperature-taking, and targeted testing-tracing. I keep in contact with hundreds of Taiwanese friends and none of them ever described a situation that was intrusive. This isn’t rocket science and is a program that could have been reproduced elsewhere. US managed some travel restrictions (insofar as they happily coincided with Trump’s racism), but fell down badly on PPE policy and testing-tracing (because of Trump’s concern for high case numbers). These major flaws have little to do with the US China relationship.
schrodingers_cat
@J R in WV: Thanks
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks
@MagdaInBlack: From your keyboard to Ceiling Cat’s ears.
schrodingers_cat
@frosty: Thanks much
Barney
I’m not sure if this classic use of “From Bean to Cup” is known here or not, but it’s appropriate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1rRszEYKdM
“See you, you are a fucking omnishambles … From Bean to Cup, You Fuck Up”
Stauffenberg the Antifa
I’ve been reading a history/biography of Count Stauffenberg, the man who led the failed plot to assassinate Hitler (https://www.amazon.com/Stauffenberg-Symbol-Resistance-Almost-Killed/dp/1473856833/ref=sr_1_1).
Its amazing to read about the sycophants in the German Army leadership in WWII and ponder how similar the GOP leadership is today. Stauffenberg went through a period of ‘drinking the kool-aid’ until he clearly understood what had to happen to try to save Germany. Part of this enlightenment was finally coming to terms with the fact that the plot had to come from the colonels, because the General Staff were incapable of distancing themselves from their tyrant.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat:
No, because of all the difficulties surrounding the pandemic, we sadly decided not to adopt them. I feel horribly guilty. But I couldn’t even get the special food one of them needed. Chewy.com STILL hasn’t delivered what I ordered in early March. I feel I have to turn in my cat-person badge.
Ben Cisco
@schrodingers_cat: Congratulations! Here’s hoping 2021 brings you a better country than the one you’re experiencing now.
raven
@schrodingers_cat: Both.
Bill Arnold
@mrmoshpotato:
In states with a Stand-Your-Ground law, a much stronger card could be done, citing said law and use of lethal force. It’d still be bullshit, but more convincing.
“If you’re not breathing, you’re not breathing on me!”
schrodingers_cat
@Ben Cisco: Thanks Emissary!
J R in WV
@Ninedragonspot:
Yes, but !!!
Hell, these fools ignored the US knowledge base built up inside American federal offices, at American universities… They ignored ALL the KNOWLEDGE!!!
I’m not denying that these ignorant fools were also racist towards everyone not related to them closely, they obviously are that. But they ignored our own experts, our own guidebooks and case studies for coping with international plague successfully, they ignored everything but their own opportunities to steal money while killing hundreds of thousands of their own citizens!!!
They had employees who were specifically employed to deal with international Plague, and a guide book that might as well have been titled “How to Deal with International Deadly Plague — The Idiots Guide!” which would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives just in North America. And threw all that knowledge and expertise away, because it had Kenyan Cooties on it, and was TOO HARD for any of them to understand.
I think they should all stand trial for genocide against their own population, at The Hague, just for their deliberate handling of this one disaster. Make no mistake, this was no accident, it was a deliberate act of barbarism by Trump, all of his family in the White House, and all of his stupid appointees who saw the plans prepared by the government agencies in charge of the nation’s health over many years.
Don’t forget, the Bush Presidency had the wits to prepare Global Pandemic case studies, they didn’t even have to use a nasty Democratic guide book, there was a sweet Red Republican guide book they could have used.
Monsters, all of them.
Genocide is a capital crime, if Treason isn’t available due to the lack of a formal declaration of war. The only problem with their trial being held in The Hague is that European prison food would be so much better than the food in American private prisons. And the level of medical care.