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Government Response to Coronavirus 4: The Reality Show From Hell


GreyhoundFan

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Hard pass from GreyhoundFan:

I have lovely masks made by a family member. I would only use a MAGA mask if I ran out of TP.

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55 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Hard pass from GreyhoundFan:

I have lovely masks made by a family member. I would only use a MAGA mask if I ran out of TP.

I did not see it in the article. I wonder if these masks are made in China.

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Wut? What are they afraid he might say? 

Fauci should show some balls and simply testify, as there are no grounds why he shouldn’t. Will he lose his job over it? Probably. But.. the truth will be known to all. And that would be Trump’s downfall. Time to choose for the greater good...

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43 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

Wut? What are they afraid he might say? 

Fauci should show some balls and simply testify, as there are no grounds why he shouldn’t. Will he lose his job over it? Probably. But.. the truth will be known to all. And that would be Trump’s downfall. Time to choose for the greater good...

I wish I believed even one of them cared about the greater good.

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6 hours ago, fraurosena said:

I double dare Trump to do it.

 

Oh, that's what happened to Trumps small (according to Stormy Daniels) dangly bits. Every time he saw a prostitute or cheated on his wives, he dumped boiling water on his bits and they shrunk!

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I didn't vote for George W. Bush. I don't think he will be seen as a great president in the grand scheme. I think the second Iraq War is one of the most disastrous U.S. foreign policy decisions in the past fifty years. 

But damn if I wouldn't take this right now over what we've got. 

Spoiler

 

I have no doubt same stock dumping malarkey and initial foot dragging would be going on, but I do think Dick Cheney and Karl Rove weren't stupid and would have known they needed to get a handle on this. And at least Bush could pretend to be an adult during press conferences and he did know how to strike a comforting tone after 9/11, as he does here. 

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On 4/26/2020 at 4:59 PM, 47of74 said:

If you're getting money from the federal government as part of the recent stimulus response to the coronavirus, you'll also get a letter from President Donald Trump explaining why.

Thank God I didn't qualify! 

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Why am I not surprised? "Trump replaces HHS watchdog who found ‘severe shortages’ at hospitals combating coronavirus"

Spoiler

President Trump moved to replace the top watchdog at the Department of Health and Human Services after her office released a report on the shortages in testing and personal protective gear at hospitals during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a Friday night announcement, the White House nominated a permanent inspector general to take the reins from Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general who has run the office since January.

The White House nominated Jason Weida, an assistant United States attorney in Boston, as permanent inspector general. The announcement said Weida was chosen because he has overseen “numerous complex investigations in healthcare and other sectors.” He must be confirmed by the Senate.

Grimm’s removal follows a purge of high-profile federal officials and inspectors general whose work has been critical of the president. Inspectors general at large agencies serve at the pleasure of the president, but they are considered independent monitors for waste, fraud and abuse.

Trump laced into Grimm at a news conference in April, after her staff report found “severe shortages” of testing kits, delays in getting coronavirus results and “widespread shortages” of masks and other equipment at U.S. hospitals.

The president demanded to know who wrote the report, calling the findings “wrong.” He then accused reporters of having withheld that Grimm had worked in the Obama administration.

“Where did he come from, the inspector general? What’s his name? No, what’s his name? What’s his name?” Trump responded on April 6, when asked about the report, which he said was politically biased. He then attacked Grimm on Twitter, writing, “Why didn’t the I.G., who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration (Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died?), want to talk to the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge, before doing her report.”

Grimm is a career investigator and auditor who joined the inspector general’s office, one of the federal government’s largest, in 1999 when Bill Clinton was president. She has served in Republican and Democratic administrations and is not a political appointee.

She took over the inspector general’s office in an acting capacity in January from another acting official, who retired.

A spokeswoman for the IG’s office said Grimm will remain in her current role as principal deputy inspector general. “HHS OIG has for more than 40 years held a deep commitment to serving taxpayers and the beneficiaries of HHS programs,” Tesia Williams said in a statement. “Our professionals have risen to a variety of challenges, including our groundbreaking work fighting the opioid epidemic and health care fraud, as well as oversight of the planning, response, and funding for COVID-19. We will continue to serve the American people by ensuring that their health and welfare are protected.”

A White House spokesman, citing personnel decisions, declined to comment.

Washington Sen. Patty Murray (D) criticized the president’s decision. “We all know the President hasn’t told people the truth about this virus or his Administration’s response, and late last night, he moved to silence an independent government official who did,” she said in a statement. “The President cannot be above oversight, no matter how he denies, attacks, and fights against it.”

Grimm’s report came as Trump was facing widespread criticism for his administration’s response to the pandemic. Its findings were based on a survey of 343 hospitals in 46 states. Auditors did their research during five days at the end of March.

The report said its findings were “not a review of HHS response to the covid-19 pandemic” but were intended “as an aid to HHS as it continues to lead efforts to address the public health emergency.”

But the auditors’ conclusions amounted to the first official critique by the federal government of the health care system’s capacity to cope with the flood of infected patients. And by substantiating complaints about inadequate equipment, the report called into question Trump’s claims that hospitals and state officials were making inaccurate claims about their needs, or being greedy.

In the past few weeks, Trump has fired a prominent inspector general who pushed to investigate a whistleblower complaint that led to his impeachment on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in the controversy over aid to Ukraine.

He nominated a White House lawyer to oversee the massive spending Congress authorized to jumpstart the economy during the pandemic, a decision critics have called a conflict of interest. The president also moved to block a prominent inspector general from assuming the leadership of a panel of federal watchdogs overseeing pandemic spending.

Trump has cleared out other officials he believed were not loyal to him in the months since his impeachment trial ended in an acquittal by the Senate, largely among party lines. Among other nominations the White House announced on Friday was a replacement for Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine. Yovanovitch was forced out a year ago, viewed as an obstacle to White House aides as they tried to pressure the Ukraine government to investigate Trump’s Democratic political rivals.

Keith Dayton, Trump’s nominee to replace Yovanovitch, serves as director of the George Marshall Center in Germany and as a senior U.S. defense adviser to Ukraine. After serving 40 years in the U.S. Army, Dayton retired in 2010 with the rank of Lt. General before accepting his latest assignments.

 

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:shock:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-drivers-test-parents-permission/

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Georgia is now allowing people to get their drivers' licenses without having to take a driving test during the coronavirus pandemic. Qualifying teenagers in the state just need their parents' permission to get one. 

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed an executive order last week that is still in effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The road test requirement has been waived for teens applying for driver's licenses, but other requirements such as completing necessary driving hours with parents is still required, according to Georgia's Department of Driver Services.

Hope I'm not being redundant, but I don't think I've seen this news posted here yet. Further proof of Kemp's disinterest in keeping people alive.

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A good commentary & analysis of tRump's daily COVID-19 pressers:

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Trump gets to be on TV, which is all he wants; the news media gets to do popular stories about the president, which is all media executives want. But it is a perfect circle of obfuscatory noise—what Trump says will always be nonsensical and self-serving because his brain is a gilded bowl of rotten nectarines, and any response pegged exclusively and expressly to covering this state of arrested cognition will inherently be similarly nonsensical—and, differently but no more helpfully, equally self-serving. It is true that Trump will never get it right, or tell the truth; he’s not up for the job, and getting it right is just not in him. There is just not very much to say about it.

JFC - tRump's brain is a "gilded bowl of rotten nectarines." Talk about nailing it.

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3 hours ago, thoughtful said:

:shock:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-drivers-test-parents-permission/

Hope I'm not being redundant, but I don't think I've seen this news posted here yet. Further proof of Kemp's disinterest in keeping people alive.

Note to self: That quick trip to the really expensive Varsity in the Atlanta airport will have to be the only time I get to eat at The Varsity, a beloved restaurant which frequently shows up in books I read that were set in Atlanta. Since they aren't testing the drivers before giving licenses, I don't want to be among that many potentially poor drivers.

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On 5/2/2020 at 6:36 AM, Vivi_music said:

I have not given updates about the situation here in Québec, because I actually have been kind of drained and stunned about how the government is handling all of this.

We still have the most cases in Canada. Here are the numbers as of totday May 1st:

28 648 cases, 2 022 deaths, 1 716 people threated in hospital care.

The worst situations are still in elderly care residences. According to the numbers, of the 28 648 cases we have in the province, roughly 23% are elderly folk living in retirement homes. Yet, people living in retirement homes account for a big portion of the deaths (I can't find the official number online now but it was something like 80%). In most residence, a lot of the staff are sick themselves and have to stay home. So a lot of residents, even if they aren't sick, are not well taken care of because the facilities are understaffed. It is really a BAAAAAD situation.

So followinf that logic, because the virus is ''controlled'' within the general population, well we can start re-opening the province slowly. Yup. The province with half the cases in the country will reopen schools in May. We will the laughing stock of the whole country. Allow me a WTF. All the other provinces seem to be controling the virus better, yet the school year is canceled.

The plan is to reopen elementary schools on may 11th for the whole of Québec, and in Montréal on may 19th (because Montreal is the epicentre of the disease). Considering the incubation period is 14 days, I don't really understand the one week delay, but hmmmm okay. It is optional, meaning children with higher risks or children living with a high-risk parent will not be forced to go back to school. They will ask schools to limit classroom numbers to 15 children, the teachers will be allowed to wear protective gear if they want to, and it will be asked to inforce social distancing  as much as possible. I'm not a teacher and I'm completly puzzled. I feel bad for them.

Our government tried tons of strategy to make sure the public would accept school reopenings. Earlier in april, they said it was because Covid didn't affect children. There was a huge public outcry. Then maybe two weeks ago, the spin was ''collective immunity''. WHO (and the Canadian gov.) said that collective immunity is not a verified theory yet for COVID19. So the spin they served us this week was: vulnerable children. Children who rely on school to provide meals, children from disfunctional families, toxic family lives, children with learning disabilities, etc.

I mean... I'm not heartless. I agree that the social consequences of lockdown can be completly awful for a child victim of neglect or mistreatment. But I think it is only a political spin. I don't think our government truly cares. Considering a child died last fall because of the poor funding of child services and lack of follow-up with social workers (a real scandal, I'm not making this up), allow me to be sceptic here. I do agree that children who are healthy might be less at risk. BUT... kids don't live in a closed off bubble. Them returning to school will mean increased interaction with tons of adults: bus driver, cafeteria employees, teachers, recess monitors. Not to mention: their parents! I really don't understand how the government thinks this will not lead to a hike in cases.

I know the true motive is the economy. Because guess what: high schools will remain closed for the rest of the year. Apparently it is because high school students can manage distance learning better than children. Which is true. But it is also because high school students can stay home safe alone while their parents go back to work. I truly doubt that reopening may 19th, when our school years usually is over by June 22th, will really make a different in the children's education and learning.

Quebec is also lifting lockdown on certain economical activities: manufacturing, construction work and retail (shops).

I don't know how I'd react if I had children. My niece and nephew (my brother's kids) won't be returing going to school. My SIL has multiple sclerosis, so she doesn't want to take any risks. She is at home so it is manageable for them.

I think we are taking a HUUUGE bargain here, with people's lives. I do wish for everyone's sake that it will work. I hope that it will be manageable, and that the healthcare system will be able to manage everything. Even if I disagree with the decision, I don't want the de-confinement to go badly. Because that would mean more deaths and that is not my wish. I'm just scared of the possible outcomes of this decision.

In the meantime, I learned today that there are cases in my dad's retirement home. And I can't go visit him. All outside visits are forbidden. I could go see him from the parking lot and wave at him maybe. But I don't have a car. I used to take the bus to go visit him. I don't feel supercomfortable taking the bus during a pandemic but I'm slowly thinking of maybe doing it. I talk to him almost everyday, but other than that, I feel really powerless. Hope for the best. ?

 

I’m so sorry :( I hope your dad is ok.

All the rhetoric about schools is very familiar - our PM (I’m in Australia) was using exactly the same arguments back in March to resist closing schools, until eventually the state Premiers made their own rules for their own states. He’s still putting pressure on states to reopen schools, and NSW has caved and said they will phase in a re-opening from May 11. Except there are two striking differences between our situation and yours: 1) the plan is to do it gradually with students only on-site 1 day per week (different students each day, so about 20% of enrolments actually there on any given day) and 2) we now have fewer than 900 active cases in Australia, most of which are from known (traceable) transmission sources. I feel like politicians all over the world are trying to reopen and I’m in one of only a handful of places where that might be a reasonable response.

Also, as a former teacher, my immediate thought at “limit classroom numbers to 15 children” was “oh, so are they magically conjuring up double the teachers and rooms so this is possible?”

13 hours ago, nausicaa said:

I didn't vote for George W. Bush. I don't think he will be seen as a great president in the grand scheme. I think the second Iraq War is one of the most disastrous U.S. foreign policy decisions in the past fifty years. 

But damn if I wouldn't take this right now over what we've got. 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I have no doubt same stock dumping malarkey and initial foot dragging would be going on, but I do think Dick Cheney and Karl Rove weren't stupid and would have known they needed to get a handle on this. And at least Bush could pretend to be an adult during press conferences and he did know how to strike a comforting tone after 9/11, as he does here. 

Remember when Dubya was the laughing stock of the world and we thought that was the worst president we were likely to see in a long time? Those were more innocent times :(

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18 hours ago, nausicaa said:

I didn't vote for George W. Bush. I don't think he will be seen as a great president in the grand scheme. I think the second Iraq War is one of the most disastrous U.S. foreign policy decisions in the past fifty years. 

But damn if I wouldn't take this right now over what we've got. 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I have no doubt same stock dumping malarkey and initial foot dragging would be going on, but I do think Dick Cheney and Karl Rove weren't stupid and would have known they needed to get a handle on this. And at least Bush could pretend to be an adult during press conferences and he did know how to strike a comforting tone after 9/11, as he does here. 

It is almost certainly a reflection of how this virus has depressed me, but his speech made me tear up. This is what we need in a president right now, someone who at least as the ability to appear human and try to make people feel better. 

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I dream about the day when we have a president who doesn't tweet stupid crap:

 

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And of course Twitler has to have an ugly reaction to the Bush video:

 

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Boy, Kudlow is truly a Branch Trumpvidian.

 

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The Tangerine Toddler is chomping at the bit to resume his ego-stroking rallies:

 

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Trump is attempting to gaslight the nation again. 

He called it a hoax on February 28:

 

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11 hours ago, Smee said:

our PM (I’m in Australia) was using exactly the same arguments back in March to resist closing schools,

A friend on Facebook is posting every single argument for reopening schools. Apparently there is enough evidence that under 12s don't transmit the virus to adults. Even if that is the case (personally I don't think we can safely say that at this point due to factors like limited testing and shutdowns) the under 12 group are the group most likely to be being dropped off and picked up by parents - so groups of adults, not all of whom will manage to socially distance - plus you would need to rearrange staffing so teachers were able to socially distance from each other. More importantly though reopening the schools I think will lead to the feeling that everything is back to 'normal' - if the schools are open then why work from home? Why not go to the beach? Why socially distance in supermarkets? Why not run AFL/NRL matches with 40,000 fans attending?

11 hours ago, Smee said:

Also, as a former teacher, my immediate thought at “limit classroom numbers to 15 children” was “oh, so are they magically conjuring up double the teachers and rooms so this is possible?”

Pretty sure this is why the Catholic system gets funded. I mean we could do it in split shifts- 15 kids do morning school, 15 kids do afternoon - but it's obvious the PM and federal education minister haven't thought about logistics. Maybe they can bring in the army again? ;)

11 hours ago, Smee said:

Remember when Dubya was the laughing stock of the world and we thought that was the worst president we were likely to see in a long time? Those were more innocent times

I am seriously wishing Dubya or Bush Snr or Reagan were President right now if it had to be a Republican. Nixon would have been better than this. 

3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Boy, Kudlow is truly a Branch Trumpvidian.

Oh Kudlow. So please tell us why the "containment" led to exponential growth of cases and an extraordinary number of deaths. I don't think that word means what you think it means.

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I'm guessing she's on the fast-track to being fired by Twitler: "Birx’s ‘Fox News Sunday’ interview lays bare the discord in Trump’s coronavirus response"

Spoiler

The Washington Post published its latest in-depth investigation into the Trump administration’s uneven response to the coronavirus pandemic on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, an interview with a leading medical expert on the White House task force reinforced it.

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Deborah Birx offered very different comments compared with President Trump’s on the projected coronavirus death toll and the protesters who recently stormed the Michigan State Capitol.

Birx was asked about Trump’s projections in recent weeks that there would be between 50,000 and 60,000 deaths, which he later increased to 60,000 to 70,000. We are at over 66,000 deaths, with little sign in recent weeks of any significant downturn.

Birx told host Chris Wallace that “our projections have always been between 100,000 and 240,000 American lives lost, and that’s with full mitigation and us learning from each other of how to social distance.”

That contradicts what Trump said. The president hasn’t just offered a more optimistic tone on the death toll; on April 20, he suggested 50,000 to 60,000 deaths had actually replaced the previous 100,000-to-240,000 goal that he had said would constitute a successful response.

“We’re going toward 50, I’m hearing, or 60,000 people,” Trump said. “One is too many. I always say it: One is too many. But we’re going toward 50 or 60,000 people. That’s at the lower — as you know, the low number was supposed to be 100,000 people. We could end up at 50 to 60. Okay?”

That first lowered estimate was passed in a matter of days, and the 60,000-to-70,000 estimate appears as though it won’t last past the early part of this week.

Birx’s most significant comments on Sunday, though, came with regard to the protesters in Michigan. They stormed the State Capitol, some brandishing guns, to urge a reopening of the state.

Birx’s message was clear: It’s a horrible development.

“It’s devastatingly worrisome to me, personally, because if they go home and infect their grandmother or their grandfather who has a co-morbid condition and they have a serious or a very — or an unfortunate outcome, they will feel guilty for the rest of our lives,” she said. “So we need to protect each other at the same time we’re voicing our discontent.”

That’s a kind of cautioning and rebuking of the protesters that we simply haven’t seen from Trump.

The president, in fact, has tacitly encouraged protesters in states like Michigan, initially tweeting “LIBERATE MICHIGAN” when the protests began and offering similar sentiments for other states.

Since then, he has been given several opportunities to suggest that the protesters should back off, but he has declined and instead suggested that he sympathizes with them and their goals.

“The governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire,” Trump said Friday of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D). “These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.”

On April 19, Trump expressly declined to give the protesters guidance and said he agreed with their cause.

“I don’t have any advice,” he said. “People feel that way. You’re allowed to protest. I mean, they — they feel that way. I watched a protest, and they were all six feet apart. I mean, it was a very orderly group of people.”

In fact, photos showed that the protesters at the time were not abiding by guidelines on social distancing or wearing masks — nor have protesters since then.

Trump added: “But, you know, some have gone too far. Some governors have gone too far. Some of the things that happened are maybe not so appropriate.”

He added the day before that some governors “have gotten carried away. They have absolutely gotten carried away.”

When pressed again on the protesters opposing and failing to practice social distancing, which he and the federal government have pushed, Trump again pointed to the governors.

“I mean, I notice there were a lot of protests out there,” he said. “And I just think that some of the governors have gotten carried away.”

While Trump hasn’t been completely explicit about encouraging the protesters, by sympathizing with their cause, accusing certain governors of overreach and urging those governors to compromise with the protesters, it’s not difficult to see how that could feed the unrest.

In cautioning those protesters about putting their own loved ones’ lives at risk, Birx offered almost a diametrically opposed message — as has often been the case between Trump and his top health officials.

 

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I'm not watching the "town hall" because I can't bear to see or hear Twitler, but I liked this response:

I don't know how much cleaner is going to be needed to clean the orange stench off the Lincoln Memorial.

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Boy, the pompous one is as insane as his lord and master, Twitler:

 

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He is crazy.

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59 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I'm not watching the "town hall" because I can't bear to see or hear Twitler, but I liked this response:

I don't know how much cleaner is going to be needed to clean the orange stench off the Lincoln Memorial.

Fuck Face could not have disrespected the memory of President Lincoln more if he had climbed up on the statute and dropped an orange deuce on it (which he probably would've insisted on being gold plated immediately). 

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More insanity.

Um, Lincoln was assassinated. I think that's a wee bit worse than having your toddler fee fees hurt.

Continued here:

 

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