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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBoston Globe: A president unfit for a pandemic
Much of the suffering and death coming was preventable. The president has blood on his hands.The United States, long a beacon of scientific progress and medical innovation with its world-class research institutions and hospitals, is now the hub of a global pandemic that has infected at least 745,000 people and already claimed more than 35,000 lives worldwide. Now that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States more than 140,000 has surpassed that of any other nation, Americans are consigned for the coming weeks to watching the illness fell family members and friends, and to fearing for their own fate as they watch death tolls rise.
While the spread of the novel coronavirus has been aggressive around the world, much of the profound impact it will have here in the United States was preventable. As the American public braces itself for the worst of this crisis, its worth remembering that the reach of the virus here is not attributable to an act of God or a foreign invasion, but a colossal failure of leadership.
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What we have instead is a president epically outmatched by a global pandemic. A president who in late January, when the first confirmed coronavirus case was announced in the United States, downplayed the risk and insisted all was under control. A president who, rather than aggressively test all those exposed to the virus, said hed prefer not to bring ashore passengers on a contaminated cruise ship so as to keep national case numbers (artificially) low. A president who, consistent with his mistrust and undermining of scientific fact, has misled the public about unproven cures for COVID-19, and who baited-and-switched last week about whether the country ought to end social distancing to open up by Easter, and then, on Saturday, about whether hed impose a quarantine on New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A president who has pledged to oversee the doling out of the $500 billion in corporate bailout money in the latest stimulus package, some of which will go to the travel industry in which his family is invested. A president who spent a good chunk of a recent press conference complaining about how hard it is for a rich man to serve in the White House even as Americans had already begun to lose their jobs, their health care, and their lives. A president who has reinforced racial stigma by calling the contagion a Chinese virus and failed to collaborate adequately with other countries to contain their outbreaks and study the disease. A president who evades responsibility and refuses to acknowledge, let alone own, the bitter truth of National Institutes of Health scientist Dr. Anthony Faucis testimony: that the countrys testing rollout was a failing.
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Its not too much for Americans to ask of their leaders that they be competent and informed when responding to a crisis of historic proportions. Instead, they have a White House marred by corruption and incompetence, whose mixed messages roil the markets and rock their sense of security. Instead of compassion and clarity, the president, in his near-daily addresses to the nation, embodies callousness, self-concern, and a lack of compass. Dangling unverified cures and possible quarantines in front of the public like reality TV cliffhangers, he unsettles rather than reassures. The pandemic reveals that the worst features of this presidency are not merely late-night comedy fodder; they come at the cost of lives, livelihoods, and our collective psyche.
Many pivotal decision points in this crisis are past us, but more are still to come. For our own sake, every American should be hoping for a miraculous turnaround and that the too-little, too-late strategy of the White House task force will henceforth at least prevent contagion and economic ruin of the grandest scale. But come November, there must be a reckoning for the lives lost, and for the vast, avoidable suffering about to ensue under the presidents watch.
more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/30/opinion/president-unfit-pandemic/?event=event25
Botany
(70,504 posts)Last edited Wed Apr 1, 2020, 04:38 AM - Edit history (1)
n/t
fwvinson
(488 posts)bdamomma
(63,849 posts)I second your comment.
He will contract it. He will be punished.
CrispyQ
(36,463 posts)~Michelle Obama
MyOwnPeace
(16,926 posts)too many of us knew who DJT was when he rode down that escalator.
It was also unfortunate that too many others did not know or listen.
lindysalsagal
(20,682 posts)and it should bury the gop in november.
leftieNanner
(15,089 posts)Because your "fuck this" cat makes me laugh EVERY TIME!!
Thanks for the
lindysalsagal
(20,682 posts)The best thing about DU is stealing things like the fu cat.
flying_wahini
(6,594 posts)I can hear the Republicans now, well we didnt know....
Kaiserguy
(740 posts)Its more like they didn't care.
colorado_ufo
(5,734 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,457 posts)crickets
(25,976 posts)The killer in chief has got to go.
iluvtennis
(19,852 posts)DENVERPOPS
(8,820 posts)unfit for even breathing air and taking up space on this planet. He and the entire rest of the Republican cabal......
Look up cabal in the dictionary, the best word to describe this Republican Party and it's entire administration.
SunSeeker
(51,550 posts)hkp11
(275 posts)Thanks!
The thing with this monstrosity Drumpf & Repukes is that when Drumpf is angry, he takes revenge - takes revenge on journalists, media, governors, anyone who is Democrat, anyone who questions his previous statements, anyone asking questions that make him look bad, so he lashes out, calls names, doesn't send the medical equipment to the necessary states because they are "D" and/or not praising him, he asks the same of Pence, and others to not work with or call these governors, etc. He bans journalists, he calls them names, he takes revenge on MSM, that if they don't show his wh briefings, that his administration will not show up on those networks to answer Qs. He will do anything - to assure he gets his rally wh briefings to be shown - do it during other governor briefings.
A psychopath president, with no empathy at all, except for himself, is going to do anything to win again, even if this pandemic in US reaches 100,000+ deaths.
It is up to us to vote him & repukes out!!
Response to hkp11 (Reply #14)
maddiemom This message was self-deleted by its author.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)This happened before, in 2000, and it can happen again, since only a few individual states have done anything.
duforsure
(11,885 posts)from all major groups, parties, and organizations should start now. Every minute going forward people allowing this to happen by silence are guilty for this too.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)just the way he is. Refusing to hear testimony at the "impeachment trial" was a dead giveaway that there was no way he would be removed from the WH. Moscow Mitch got all the gop votes even before the trial began. Roberts went along with the entire sham "trial". tRump had long ago proved that he is unfit for the office, plus his relatives are unqualified for their positions. This grifting family all needs to be thrown out, then prosecuted to the full extent of the law. So busy filling their own bank accounts that there is no time to do their JOBS. How this country went from CLASS with the Obama administration, to TRASH with the low-life tRumps. Unbelievable.
bdamomma
(63,849 posts)congress like McConnell and the rest of those thugs I hope they contract it. They deserve too.
They are killing Americans. No amount of money will save them I hope they choke on it.
fwvinson
(488 posts)notdarkyet
(2,226 posts)bdamomma
(63,849 posts)has shown us in the past, this would be a fitting end to him. But guess what idiot boy probably does not know or does not care what the future holds for him. He will be rocked off that pedestal.
He is in for a world of hurt, too bad he deserves it.
Jarqui
(10,124 posts)People looks for reasons why their loved ones had to die. Trump is not going to escape that scrutiny no matter how much he lies.
If the red states carry on going to church and ignoring this, there will be a lot of death in those states which will further erode his base.
How can the conman explain the "perfect job" he did when China, with 4.3 times the population and without the benefit of notice the US got, will be under 4,000 deaths while the US has 200,000 dead? Even some of the deadhead MAGAts can comprehend that sort of math while suffering the heartache of personal loss.
tclambert
(11,085 posts)now and not during the Cuban missile crisis.
Ha! Had you going there for a moment, didn't I?
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)virus, cockroaches would be worried maybe, but not us.
MyOwnPeace
(16,926 posts)Would not have wanted him then, do not want him now.
I DO want him gone - NOW!
FailureToCommunicate
(14,014 posts)His brain is so addled, I hope no one around him happens to accidentally mention it. He's so nuts he might decide he could nuke the virus somehow.
Trump, and his zombie Republicans, just want to see the world burn.
la-trucker
(283 posts)spread this news to people.
The stench of incompetence and lack of empathy is worse than a rotting corpse
Blue Owl
(50,361 posts)No more kissing the naked emperor's ass bullshit
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)He's fit to dispatch Chris Christie to fetch his McDonald's orders so he cn shove them down his pie hole to nourish his "239" pound ass.
As always, Donald Trump is an idiot and an ass hat.
#notmypresident
RESIST