Religion and politics… two topics one should never discuss in polite company. And I consider you, dear reader, to be quite polite company. But I’m gonna break the rule today. I can’t hold my tongue any longer (it’s part of the “don’t touch your face” rule). Feel free to bail out now if you’d like. I’ll be back to my usual Chuckles the Clown routine on this blog in 24 hours.
If you’re still with me, please spend 82 seconds watching this lil’ video:
Let’s review, shall we? It’s no longer one person, or 15. It didn’t “disappear, like a miracle” in April. it isn’t “totally under control.” We don’t have a vaccine.
Want more?
As of this morning, there are 713,503 confirmed cases, with 59,672 deaths. Think about that!
I could go on citing chapter and verse about the many ways our country’s president has failed the American people in a time of crisis. We needed a leader. We’re stuck with a liar.
Trump was warned about the looming pandemic in mid-January, if not sooner. On January 31st, he imposed a travel ban on foreign nationals who had been in China, because that move was right in his xenophobic wheelhouse. Then, for six crucial weeks, he did nothing other than to parrot lies.
This article from The Atlantic sums things up nicely:
The utter unpreparedness of the United States for a pandemic is Trump’s fault. The loss of stockpiled respirators to breakage because the federal government let maintenance contracts lapse in 2018 is Trump’s fault. The failure to store sufficient protective medical gear in the national arsenal is Trump’s fault. That states are bidding against other states for equipment, paying many multiples of the precrisis price for ventilators, is Trump’s fault. Air travelers summoned home and forced to stand for hours in dense airport crowds alongside infected people? That was Trump’s fault too. Ten weeks of insisting that the coronavirus is a harmless flu that would miraculously go away on its own? Trump’s fault again. The refusal of red-state governors to act promptly, the failure to close Florida and Gulf Coast beaches until late March? That fault is more widely shared, but again, responsibility rests with Trump: He could have stopped it, and he did not.
The lying about the coronavirus by hosts on Fox News and conservative talk radio is Trump’s fault: They did it to protect him. The false hope of instant cures and nonexistent vaccines is Trump’s fault, because he told those lies to cover up his failure to act in time. The severity of the economic crisis is Trump’s fault; things would have been less bad if he had acted faster instead of sending out his chief economic adviser and his son Eric to assure Americans that the first stock-market dips were buying opportunities. The firing of a Navy captain for speaking truthfully about the virus’s threat to his crew? Trump’s fault. The fact that so many key government jobs were either empty or filled by mediocrities? Trump’s fault. The insertion of Trump’s arrogant and incompetent son-in-law as commander in chief of the national medical supply chain? Trump’s fault.
For three years, Trump has blathered and bluffed and bullied his way through an office for which he is utterly inadequate. But sooner or later, every president must face a supreme test, a test that cannot be evaded by blather and bluff and bullying. That test has overwhelmed Trump. Trump failed. He is failing. He will continue to fail. And Americans are paying for his failures.
all text in Italics above from this article in The Atlantic by David Frum
Want more? I’ve got more. Here’s an excerpt from another piece in The Atlantic, written by a lifelong Republican, Peter Wehner, who worked in the three previous GOP administrations.
And when a reporter tries to call him out on the do-nothing gap, he resorts to his usual ad hominem attacks.
Peter Wehner actually wrote something very prescient in January of 2016… he recounts it in the article above. Here’s the passage:
I hope and pray that this crisis will be “totally under control.” That can start on November 3rd of this year, and maybe by January 20th of 2021, it’ll “disappear, like a miracle.”
In case you need it, here’s a video that shows you how to unsubscribe from a WordPress blog.
Thanks for speaking up, D2. Anyone who takes offense at this and is driven to unsubscribe is unworthy of your blog, your time, or your energy. It’s too bad the ignorant are too stupid to realize the depths of their ignorance.
tc
Thanks for putting this out there—and for the thought and care and references that went into its creation. I have a hard time understanding how some cannot see the thread of logic you, and many others, have shared. It drives me to (drink) and ruminate over this: How can we all come to the table to have both civil discourse and argument (in the true sense of the word) in order to come up with constructive direction? I don’t want this to be a rhetorical question.
From my perspective, this boils down to the difference between selflessness and selfishness. And so another thought: At what point does the human psyche turn from one position to the other and why?
Science proves that We humans are interdependent beings wired to be social, thus exist in society. Existence isn’t a solo activity. We won’t exist if we keep going in this direction.
What is it about God, guns and greed that divides us?
Nice work Damian. It’s certainly time to speak out. We now need to join our voices together and shout !
D2,
Very good points! The numbers you mentioned are the following;
59,672 deaths
713,503 confirmed cases.
Total population of the United States 330,641,522.
With these numbers, it equals 2% of the population affected. Many have recovered.
I have family members who work in the medical field., One is an Army doctor who has just been deployed to New York to assist in the efforts their. It seems strange to say being deployed for a virus. Others are nurses in this area who have worked with Corona. Some are on furlough. There have been nurses sent home due to not having enough patients. It all depends as to what parts of the country you are in.
i have spoken to others from the business side of the medical business.
The other thing to think about is that in some areas the appropriate testing for other diseases are not being done at normal standards or numbers. What diseases are missed due to not have proper patient contact or testing completed?
I am a level one person who would be apt to get the disease. I am a diabetic. I have an ICD implanted in my chest. A few other things as well. I would prefer to go to my doctors for my visits and NOT have facetime visits. Nothing gets accomplished.
You are a Xavier season ticket holder, Are we going to be allowed to only go to a third of the games since we have to sit every third seat?
I think this could have been handle better on all fronts. I am more in favor of the herd mentality. I am not a cold person. I do NOT want to reach a point where I have to carry certificate around to say that I am able to move about the country as I see fit.
.
Does any President do everything right?
Has every President made mistakes?
It all comes down to your point of view.
As for me, you can call me crazy or just plain ignorant. .
I do not want to live in a country where I have to carry papers…. of course said in a thick German accent.
It is actually less than 1% of the population affected.