When Trump was elected, my sister and I agreed that perhaps our biggest fear about him was how he would react in an emergency/time of crisis. We were leaning more toward the issue of WW III, but our fears have been realized in a more insidious enemy: not Korea, not the Mid-East, but a virus.
Trump has no coping skills; he has always managed crises by getting rid of the people who caused the crises and who threatened him. Viruses have no fear of being fired or being taken out by heavy handed men. They have no fear of being sued. In fact, they have no fear at all. Viruses are an army unto themselves and, as yet, we have no ammunition to kill them.
Experts agree that action should have been taken earlier, but while Rome began to smoke, Nero ignored it. When Rome began to burn, Nero fiddled. Trump did and has done the same.
And so, we sit, sitting in our homes, preparing for the worst as best we can, hoping for the best, and fearing the worst. We might well not get Covid 19 but it will hardly be considered a victory considering the lives that have been and will be lost.
We have no leadership. We have no one to tell us that all we have to fear is fear itself. No one to say that this is a time that will live in infamy. No Mother Mary who can say that in times of trouble, we just need to let it be.
If I were religious, I would claim that Trump is the anti-Christ, but I am not religious. I can say that Trump is an evil, selfish, stupid, ignorant, delusional man. His henchpeople are the same and/or are weak and ineffective.
And Trump supporters are weak and ineffectual. If you live under rocks, you get covered in scum and slime. No matter how kind one is to dogs, cats, and children, if that person is a Trump supporter, that person is an advocate of evil and incompetency. Those people bear the blame as much as Trump does. They stand and applaud as Trump fiddles us to our doom.
No shit, Sherlock
@Gwendolyn2018 elementary my dear Sherlock.
Thank goodness for Most state governors, they seem to be filling the void. Today CT 's Lamont proposed asking doctors to come out of retirement
You can see actual leadership in some of the governors, especially Cuomo
@Gwendolyn2018 But have they closed all the year round shows just down the road in Branson yet?
@Gwendolyn2018 personally , I'd rather take a beating than go to Branson, but I've noticed that this bug has been spreading through the area along hwy 65.
@Gwendolyn2018 it was easy ( and predictable) to trace it down 65. to cross to Mississippi. and down to Gulfport. Where there is a hotspot. Came in on the freighters and spread via the tourists. So much for relying on limited air travel to stop the bug.
The era of TrumpOLINI may end like MUSSolini hanging by his heels from an Italian gas station riddled with revenge bullets....his insane plan to order people back to work like an easter egg hunt that will NOT BE CANCELED can only escalate the transmission of "the invisible enemy" he sez ....while it is named corona due to the shape observed under a microscope..... AN IMAGE this murderous zionist war profiteering bankster TrumpOLINI ignores for his worship of MONEY IN gawds HE TRUSTS
@Gwendolyn2018 if he doesn't wear gloves anywhere Senator Rand Paul has been.... TrumpOlini will start having symptoms April Fools Day....but fucked up theocrat Pence has been holding hands in official group government prEyer sessions making it likely Pelosi will take over for the incapacitated TrumpOLINI & Pence
@Gwendolyn2018 the virus is over 10% fatal to oafs TrumpOLINI age and habits so maybe Las Vegas is taking bets 10-1 he is on a ventilator replaced on the job according to the SUCCESSION AMENDMENT
@Gwendolyn2018 this war criminal fool TrumpOLINI has claimed malaria drugs will save him .... keep up your narcissistic deafness boy President and the White House will be sanitized after Melania and Baron are moved out
@Gwendolyn2018 remember DAVE ? KEVIN KLEIN poses as President while fuckwad is on a ventilator
No doubt Trump sucks but this has come on so fast itβs hard to see if anyone else in charge could have made much of a difference up to this point. Moving forward will be the real test for Trump.
Ummm, Korea? Your remarks are Untrue at best! And BTW we would have had this happen with SARS if not for Obama's quick & decisive actions, using a CDC that had not yet been gutted by drump.
@AnnWimsey: Hindsight is always 2020. A country like So. Korea was in a vastly better position to respond quickly to this. Thereβs way to many Americans that need to be hit over the head with the proverbial hammer before they get it. Just my humble observation.
Maybe you are the one living under a rock because he is giving daily briefings 1 and 2 hours long and taking all questions...
He was being called racist by the left because he immediately shut down travel from China at least sign people turned right back around and accused him of not acting soon enough...
I think you have a trouble spotting evil lock the Democrats that will kill a baby in the mother's womb and pull it out and if it were to survive they just wrap it up and leave it on the table to die you should learn the meaning of true evil...
He did not immediately shut down travel t from China, he didn't even shut it down . He placed a restriction on incoming travel from china for non US citizens or their families....a full month after the virus was known, but he was still busy trying to convince everyone that it was a democratic hoax .
What do expect from a slumlord who steals from his own charityβs, files false insurance claims, has gone through Bankruptcy six times, owes $$millions to contractors and banks he has never paid back, lost money on five Casinos, destroyed an profitable East Coast jet Air service.
Then as a scripted TV reality show host who was a sexual predator!!!
Too many describe him as a successful business man who lost close to three Billion dollars of other peopleβs money!!!
Who is now propped up by Putin and his oligarchs who have bought overpriced properties at upwards of 1000% above value!!!
Deutsche bank controls trumps loans which in turn is own by Putin Oligarchs!
But Putin and his oligarchs had no influence on the 2016 election even when they spent $$ millions on misinformation and discord according to trump this was not a factor in his election!,,
trump and his family are nothing more than petty criminals who keep pushing the legal boundaries, yet still getting away with felonious fraud, thief, All out embezzlement, money laundering, commercial loan fraud, Bond and Security fraud, insider trading!!!
Ah give Nero a break, The fire was an accident that occurred while Nero was in Antium.
Trump aside for 1 sec.
Novel viral outbreaks always result in two reactions from the population initially unless the person has trained or otherwise has some understanding of Novel Virus.
That is either a panic or a denial reaction. This is a facet of human psychology every outbreak faces. People think "this can't be real" or it can't happen here, or to me"
OR
They think they are already infected or otherwise doomed.
It takes time to adjust to the reality that a new life form, which thinks your quite tasty, has evolved and is amok. C-19 will require a lifestyle change for everyone until we have a vaccine.
Trump had the denial reaction, but being Trump also has a reflex of not believing anything negative about him (fake news) or anything against his personal desires/agenda. Thus for Trump it was all three.
That is why its not making a dent, all those experts, all the data, none of that will outweigh his pre-conceived bias. Worse when someone else voices the idea that the economic impact will be worse, which he fears, they inadvertently reinforce his denial response.
Trump is unfit for such a crisis.
@Gwendolyn2018 Was it Piney the Elder who wrote he played lyre? Payback for blaming the christians cheering thinking it was the last days?
I'm an old cold war vet. Putin was in the KGB when I was in uniform.
Russia has 400 cases.
Part of my mind has alarms ringing, as if Putin (in a resort to hammer out the new constitution) which is approved by the Oligarchs (also in resorts), set to stay in power til 2036 now, is just waiting for Trump and western liberal democracy to come apart at the seams under this duress.
The truly paranoid part of my brain thinks "Could the Rus" and I let it go no further without data.
BUT
As an old cold war NBC NCO I would assume YES and act as if that were so.
I see Putin like a vulture waiting to pick our bones . . .
@Gwendolyn2018 He blew that last week when he failed to take national action and left it up to the Govs. He did not shut things down, and cannot order them to start up because he failed to act.
He wants to be a king who lets the other people work, can't be any such thing in a crisis. YOU have to be on it then, and he is never on anything but himself or the John.
@Gwendolyn2018 they have cheap and nice ones on Amazon.
Well said
You did well. Be safe.
We started teaching online, but was ordered to desist. So I am home, but in a protected valley.
The District realized that there was no way they could give accommodations to those with IEP's. Plus a good portion of our Resrvation does not have access to the Internet, and many families cannot afford Smartphones. So the Dostrict decided that if they could not provide services equitably to every student that it was better to offer none until this pandemic is over.
I'm not sure if I agree. Teachers spent a furious weekend learning a new online platform. I learned how to use EDMOODO.com. Our students a furious week trying to figure how get connected, how to do the assignment and send it.
I had about 75% successfully connected in some form or fashion,. I had about 25% who successfully submitted the first assignment before we cut it off and decreased teaching.
I teach high school science on a Native American Reservation including a concurrent college course in Geology. This is my 31 year on front of the classroom. I probably have 4 to 5 years left if the classroom. I qualify for retirement now, but not ready to quit, I enjoy too much.
I was just getting a handle Edmodo when we quit. This virus episode I fear will change brick and mortar schools forever. More education will become online with parents and students choosing this option. We are already becoming a socially dysfunctional society and I fear this will only widen the gap.
I am lucky. I have only one College class. but I have established my expectations and creds. I have students in there that really do not belong in a college class. I make accommodations when possible and appropriate without bringing my standards down too much. I always tell them that I give the work, they do the work and gets points and pass. They do not the work, they will not pass.
No kidding. I've been giving them college article, numbering the paragraphs, the labeling the questions with the paragraph number. It is helping their reading skills because they still have to read the paragraph. I usually have a least one questionpercparagraph on general.
I have been gsentences short essay questions, but I have a rubric. 1-2 sentences nets an F regardless how good the sentences are. 3-4 the maximum you can get is a D; 5-6 you are approaching the C if your content is strong; 7-8. Maximum is a B. And 9 or greater can net them an A if their content is strong. I give two grades for each eaday; 1) for what I call structure. Which basically means I count the semtences. 2) is a content grade fir quality of information and evidence to support their argument.
Previously, I would give them a short essay and I would get back one or two sentences and they were convinced they covered the subject. The rubric is on the test sheet at the tip of the first page. My students have risen to the challenge are finally giving substantive answer.
Whew. Sorry I ran on.
For any Trump supporters reading this thread....
I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'm looking to unload if you're looking to buy.
I was always more concerned about international relations and security too.
Thankfully, other people behind the scenes are apparently taking over.
I wonder how long Dr. Fauci will be allowed to speak.
@Gwendolyn2018 I give it maybe another day.
He'll be on the bus shortly. Can't get away with having informed opinions in trump's inner circle
It's okay. It's all gonna be okay now. We'll have Joe Biden as our warrior come November! He'll save us!
We're screwed.
Don't kill the messenger.
I wonder how many people are kicking themselves for having chosen the "safe" option
We live in totally bizarre times. Now we have Republicans suggesting old and sick people die all the time, so who really cares as long as we don't damage the economy (subtext: Trump won't get reelected if the economy is still bad in November, so we need to throw old people and sick people under the bus, while also ignoring millions of people who probably won't die may require hospitalization in beds we don't have under the care of doctors and nurses we don't have). Remember not so long ago when they said Democrats had (nonexistent) death panels to kill grandma with health insurance? Now they're telling grandma and grandpa they should sacrifice themselves for grandchildren who apparently value Spring Break over the lives of the elderly anyway. I cannot keep up with all these 180 degree turns.
What's worse is Trump almost certainly got this idea from Fox News, and immediately floated it out there. What will be truly awful is if we just start to get the numbers under control, and Trump tells everyone to open everything up again, thus starting the problem all over again, but probably worse. If the economy tanks again (if it recovers from these levels), what else can we do?
Trump's seventh bankruptcy will be the entire country. (At least he seems to have got it through his skull that telling everyone to return to business as usual on Monday is not possible. Now he's floating Easter, April 12. By then, my fear is it will be much worse, and he'll have no choice but to back of THAT date also.)
Come off it. He's not that bad
Comparing him to Trump is an insult to Nero.