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“So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics,” Trump tweeted. “In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!”
The genocidal GOP is the last organization on earth to care about this or do something about it.
There are countless idiots here in Mesa AZ who are denying the entire thing on Facebook up to and including conspiratorial healthcare workers crying wolf to somehow make themselves richer - it is so crazy, weird and twisted that, once I get past the anger, I just want to cry. It is almost beyond comprehension. I guess if you can deny the shooting deaths of children you can do anything, but still.
There are tribes in Africa that kill and eat albinos, thinking magical powers transfer to them. Reading about it makes me think “What superstitious monsters, I’m so glad I live in a nation much more advanced than one practicing such savagery.” Then I have to remind myself I’m mistaken in my assurances.
This blaming and distrust of professionals is not unique to healthcare. The same thing happens to scientists, with climatologists being a major target. The criticisms are the same, that somehow the people who study climate are going to get rich by reporting the results of their work, but with no explanation of how that might happen. I really feel badly for healthcare workers, they are being worked to exhaustion, exposed to a deadly virus the entire workday, and then criticized for it. I would hope that a lot of the people on the wrong side of this get COVID and die but that would just put more of a burden on healthcare workers. The idiots would do everyone a favor by just staying home and dying there if they get it but that won’t happen.
We need leadership so badly right now.
Like millions of people, watching Obama speak at John Lewis’ funeral was almost disorienting after 4 years of daily tantrums, ignorance, and threats. It was hard for me to identify what was so shocking to me, then I realized it was the sanity of it all.
Is it actually possible to lead this nation in these times? It’s akin to herding cats. Fully 100 million adults view their role in society as being sand in the gears. For all of them 2+2=4 is a hoax.
To Urquiza, who earned her master’s in public affairs from the University of California, Berkeley, and works as an environmental advocate in the San Francisco area, “the parallels between the AIDS crisis and what is happening now with COVID are just mind-boggling [in terms of] the inaction by governments and the failure to prioritize public health.”
Now can you remind me of who was President when the AIDs crisis started?
“distrust of professionals”
Yeah, there was a lot of that in the anti-nuke business, too. If one had a degree or certification for something “nukuler” or worse yet worked in the industry, nothing that person said could be trusted. Ever.
Yes I say verily yes it is possible to lead this nation through the crisis at hand. While that person may not get everyone on the correct path there are people who are persuadable, they just need to hear the voice of a leader and not a louse.
There is a reason professional political observers assert Trump’s base is locked in, and he has to work on people at the margins to cobble together a coalition that might vote for him. “Locked in” as in unpersuadable. There are probably 40% of the electorate that will not listen to or believe, much less follow, anyone other than Trump. If Biden wins the very best he can hope for is having roughly 55% of the citizenry on board with him, as in addition to having no sway with Trump loyalists he’ll have people on his side of the ledger equally dubious about his Presidency. Bernie-Bros come to mind for starters.
Tackling all the Herculean tasks and challenges at hand with barely more than a plurality of the populace behind you is not an ideal paradigm for leadership.
I remember when AIDS first appeared, there were people of a particular religious orientation claiming that it was God punishing gays for violating his teachings. I wonder how they feel about COVID19. Is it the same God’s punishment for electing Trump, which resulted in the institutionalization of multiple crimes against humanity and the environment. We are clearly being punished by having Trump as POTUS, with the way he has (mis)handled the pandemic.
I respectfully disagree. We have persuaded sufficiently large majorities to do a lot of things – don’t drive drunk, wear a seat belt, support same-sex marriage,. Does everyone agree/adhere? Of course not. But they become the outliers – and it’s not a 50/50 split – or even 70/30. If politicians – from the President on down – wore masks, modeled the proper behavior, stayed factual and calm – more people would do the same. Paul Krugman got it right – the Cult of American Selfishness is killing us. Those attitudes have been encouraged by too many market makers .
Bingo.
Nobody is immune to the wrath of Republican/Conservative/Trump cult. If you somehow anger them, no matter how illogical that anger is, they will lash out with any and every lie or distortion possible.
Our country has a lot to be ashamed of in this era of tRump, and not having the will to protect our health care workers is high on the list. And for those who survive this pandemic, despite the relentless hours and pitiful lack of PPE, there will be long-term emotional and mental issues from seeing so many of their patients die in front of them; it will be just another opportunity for the country to call health care workers “heroes” and then ignore their needs.
