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Do you honestly think that any administration, past or present, has been completely open with the American people when it comes to revealing something that would cause mass hysteria? NO, they ease into it and let the people acclimate. Come on man, you are smart enough to know that's how the game is played. As managers that's even how we're taught to present the hard news to our employees. Don't want to cause a panic.

I agree with this EXCEPT downplaying the problem in public while building supplies in the background would prove your case for trump. Instead trump downplayed it openly and behind the scenes when he denied the funding Azar was asking for. If trump was taking it seriously and building gloves, masks, testing equipment while at the same time trying to calm nerves that's one thing. He wasnt doing that.
 
I agree with this EXCEPT downplaying the problem in public while building supplies in the background would prove your case for trump. Instead trump downplayed it openly and behind the scenes when he denied the funding Azar was asking for. If trump was taking it seriously and building gloves, masks, testing equipment while at the same time trying to calm nerves that's one thing. He wasnt doing that.
You obviously dont respect Trump. Do you respect Dr. Fauci? I assume you do. In late January Dr. Fauci was downplaying the impact of the virus as well based on the information they all were getting from China who lied to us. Less than a week later Trump began travel restrictions from China. I get you hate the dude with every ounce of your being and everyone had an opinion but you are 100% dead wrong. The medical supply issue was not his fault. If you werent so biased against Trump you could do the DD to figure this out for yourself but you ate t going to do that.....
 
I agree with this EXCEPT downplaying the problem in public while building supplies in the background would prove your case for trump. Instead trump downplayed it openly and behind the scenes when he denied the funding Azar was asking for. If trump was taking it seriously and building gloves, masks, testing equipment while at the same time trying to calm nerves that's one thing. He wasnt doing that.

Honest question and I don't want to get political but where were you going to get the supplies? The global PPE supply chain started to collapse in January and the realistic first domino to fall was likely in Q4 of 2019 when there was no coronavirus and companies were preparing for Q1 2020 and a built in global service disruption from Chinese New Year. Could we have started producing more domestically? Absolutely, but with CNY and the virus in China you are going to run into shortages on raw material. Could we have sourced from other countries? Maybe, but they are building up their own stock. The available PPE was and is a daily finite number if we had a blank check or $20 bill to buy with if only X amount of goods are available what can you do. To me the bigger elephants in the room are the lack of a diversified global marketplace and a woeful unpreparedness domestically and globally to respond to something of this magnitude.
 
Honest question and I don't want to get political but where were you going to get the supplies? The global PPE supply chain started to collapse in January and the realistic first domino to fall was likely in Q4 of 2019 when there was no coronavirus and companies were preparing for Q1 2020 and a built in global service disruption from Chinese New Year. Could we have started producing more domestically? Absolutely, but with CNY and the virus in China you are going to run into shortages on raw material. Could we have sourced from other countries? Maybe, but they are building up their own stock. The available PPE was and is a daily finite number if we had a blank check or $20 bill to buy with if only X amount of goods are available what can you do. To me the bigger elephants in the room are the lack of a diversified global marketplace and a woeful unpreparedness domestically and globally to respond to something of this magnitude.
I would like this ×1000 if I could. The important thing is that we fix the problem for the future
 
Honest question and I don't want to get political but where were you going to get the supplies? The global PPE supply chain started to collapse in January and the realistic first domino to fall was likely in Q4 of 2019 when there was no coronavirus and companies were preparing for Q1 2020 and a built in global service disruption from Chinese New Year. Could we have started producing more domestically? Absolutely, but with CNY and the virus in China you are going to run into shortages on raw material. Could we have sourced from other countries? Maybe, but they are building up their own stock. The available PPE was and is a daily finite number if we had a blank check or $20 bill to buy with if only X amount of goods are available what can you do. To me the bigger elephants in the room are the lack of a diversified global marketplace and a woeful unpreparedness domestically and globally to respond to something of this magnitude.

If we had left the pandemic team in place we would have had better eyes on our preparedness to this event. Are we going to suggest our federal govt and its relevant agencies didnt notice the "empty shelves" over the last 3 years? Building ppe wasnt somethin we should have been worrying about as this unfolded it should have already been in place.
 
You obviously dont respect Trump. Do you respect Dr. Fauci? I assume you do. In late January Dr. Fauci was downplaying the impact of the virus as well based on the information they all were getting from China who lied to us. Less than a week later Trump began travel restrictions from China. I get you hate the dude with every ounce of your being and everyone had an opinion but you are 100% dead wrong. The medical supply issue was not his fault. If you werent so biased against Trump you could do the DD to figure this out for yourself but you ate t going to do that.....

Its pretty simple man. Calming fears and preparing at the same time or calming fears and refusing the funds needed to prepare......which one did trump do?
 
Its pretty simple man. Calming fears and preparing at the same time or calming fears and refusing the funds needed to prepare......which one did trump do?
There are scores of people you can blame. Our "country" wasnt as prepared as we could have been. But you choose to cherry pick of course based on your blind hatred of 1 PERSON. Thats weak and petty. I have other words that im sure go against the board rules so I will defer.....
 
It’s been all the past administrations. Many years back for not preparing and also all the other countries. None were prepared. So not one administration is to blame.
 
Then why did the trump admin spend the entire month of Feb pretending it was no big deal....if they knew it would be that bad on Jan 28th it boggles the mind that Trump would say and do the things he did for the next
month and a half.

Because Dr Fauci apparently didn’t think it would be a big deal and the China coverup made it seem like it wouldn’t be as bad?


 
If we had left the pandemic team in place we would have had better eyes on our preparedness to this event. Are we going to suggest our federal govt and its relevant agencies didnt notice the "empty shelves" over the last 3 years? Building ppe wasnt somethin we should have been worrying about as this unfolded it should have already been in place.

I really wish people would stop with the falsehoods..

"As we explained in a March 3 story, the administration did eliminate a key position at the NSC but that doesn’t mean the entire “team” was “fired,” as then-Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg said, or that all of the functions of the office were eliminated."

 
This is obviously difficult for some to decipher.
2 things:

1. There is extensive reporting that we had intelligence indicating that China was underplaying the severity of the situation. Trump chose to publicly praise China’s response instead and ignore that intelligence.

2. Dr. Fauci was clearly wrong on Jan 21 but this is hardly a defense of Trump downplaying the situation constantly for the next month and a half. That’s an eternity with something like this.
 
Everyone needs to remember this. The incoming administration inherits both the good and the bad from the outgoing administration.

Going to Reagan leaving office and GHWB coming into office, the economy was poised for a downturn and the inevitable raising of taxes to offset the imbalance. That in turn caused GHWB to raise taxes and the start of turning the economy around. It also led to his loss to... WJC. Clinton’s first two years in office were slow going as far as the economy went, but it was on the rise. The economy under WJC hit new heights. The winning continued with a balanced budget (first one many years) and continued into the presidency of GWB. Bush II then gave out refund checks from the surplus of government funds to the taxpayers. The inevitable downturn in the economy hit during his last term in office and carried over into Obama. Now Obama had a crap economy that he inherited. The stabilization of that crappy economy began in the last year of GWB. The stabilization continued and prosperity began to increase under Obama with the bills passed under GWB and then Obama’s own bills and executive orders. The economy under Obama remained in a stable state (neither a downturn or an upturn). We move to 2016 and DJT who inherits a decent economy and turns it even better. We see heights in the stock market that have never been seen before. Good things must end and the inevitable downturn has happened now in 2020.

The economy is cyclical. Ups and down. They happen on a 10-20 year cycle. Look to the past and you can see this.

Recent memory:

1987- Black Friday Crash (start of a down economy)

1991- economy starts to recover

1997- Dotcom bust (blip in the grand scheme of things)

2001- Government Surplus checks to taxpayers

2007- Housing bubble burst and Wall St. collapse

2011- economy starts to recover

2017- economy begins a huge upswing

2020- economic downturn

If I’m wrong in any of this, please tell me. I’m pulling off of my Micro and Macro Economics courses.
 
I really wish people would stop with the falsehoods..

"As we explained in a March 3 story, the administration did eliminate a key position at the NSC but that doesn’t mean the entire “team” was “fired,” as then-Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg said, or that all of the functions of the office were eliminated."


You can spin it however you want, there was a team of people whose focus was preparing the US for a pandemic, then some restructuring happened and there was no longer a pandemic response team.....there was also a playbook that was largely ignored.

Here is what happened:

" Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer abruptly departed from his post in leading the global health security team on the National Security Council in May 2018 amid a reorganization of the council by then-National Security Advisor John Bolton, and Ziemer’s team was disbanded."

So now I ask if there was a pandemic team led by Rear Adm Ziemer and then he is removed/reassigned from that position and the team disbanded how is what Shaggy said inaccurate. This doesnt mean that there were not people looking at this problem within the new NSC it just means that there was at a point in time a specific team of people whose role was to prepare the US with a plan to deal with a pandemic and they were in fact disbanded and the playbook they developed was largely ignored.
 
2 things:

1. There is extensive reporting that we had intelligence indicating that China was underplaying the severity of the situation. Trump chose to publicly praise China’s response instead and ignore that intelligence.

2. Dr. Fauci was clearly wrong on Jan 21 but this is hardly a defense of Trump downplaying the situation constantly for the next month and a half. That’s an eternity with something like this.
1. I have plenty of contacts in the intelligence community that suggest otherwise
2. Downplaying is in the ear of the beholder. Based on those same contacts mentioned above, Dr Fauci has been one of if not Trumps closest adviser since January. But as Dr Fauci has made clear, he doesnt have to worry about the affects on the economy
 
2 things:

1. There is extensive reporting that we had intelligence indicating that China was underplaying the severity of the situation. Trump chose to publicly praise China’s response instead and ignore that intelligence.

2. Dr. Fauci was clearly wrong on Jan 21 but this is hardly a defense of Trump downplaying the situation constantly for the next month and a half. That’s an eternity with something like this.

There was a meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Jan 24th, after that meeting several of the senators in that meeting started selling off stocks.....they knew in late Jan this was going to blow up.

I agree its amazing that people really think the US does not have enough foreign intelligence ability to know what was going on on the ground in Wuhan, hell it was all over the internet that China was lying and leaked videos etc all showed the truth, do people really believe the CIA etc did not have reliable actionable intelligence of what was really happening.

The head of HHS didnt ask for 2 billion in PPE etc in early Feb out of the blue.....Trump took a gamble, he chose to go the downplay route, but like Shaggy said he could have done way more to make the US ready....he wanted to protect his precious stock market and now that is crapped out and he is holding the bag and has a month and a half of clips of him downplaying this problem to answer for in Nov.
 
1. I have plenty of contacts in the intelligence community that suggest otherwise
2. Downplaying is in the ear of the beholder. Based on those same contacts mentioned above, Dr Fauci has been one of if not Trumps closest adviser since January. But as Dr Fauci has made clear, he doesnt have to worry about the affects on the economy
So your contacts are disputing both the widespread reports of what the intelligence community knew AND what we know from the Senate Intelligence Committee briefing on January 24th? That seems utterly implausible.
 
So your contacts are disputing both the widespread reports of what the intelligence community knew AND what we know from the Senate Intelligence Committee briefing on January 24th? That seems utterly implausible.
What I am telling you is that no intelligence was ignored......Your "opinion" of the response doesnt match what was actually known and how the administration chose to react to it while engaging the public and state governments
 


I give it 5 days before Georgia's beaches are closed again. Maybe less.

I'm actually in shock at this one. Governor overruling local government to enact more restrictions is one thing. But overruling to remove them as a means of public safety? Seems like political suicide.
 
This is happening here. Different opinions and if you want to live your life wo fear and you are practicing social distancing it’s still not enough. Another board I’m on it’s spilt. Some shut everything down and other half open Up. Everyone on that board respects the other. No chastising or calling them mentally ill. One person said he’s going to wear a hat that says “make handshakes great again”! No one disrespected him. I posted this on that board. No one disrespected me.

I understand the position we are all in but we can’t shut down for 6-8 weeks. If we do then the depression America will enter will be far worse than 100-200k dead if that many do die. 90% of American businesses are small business. That is 90% of the economy. We have most likely 3 weeks before things turn really ugly. By then 50% of Americans are broke. Flat out broke. I am hearing a lot of target practicing going on around me. My neighbors and I have all exchanged numbers in case social unrest starts breaking out. I am not at all trying to make anyone panic. Just saying it’s possible. Riots are not uncommon with just simple things such as teams winning championships or a Rodney king type case. I read today they are releasing more federal inmates. No money, inmates released, gangs, drug users, and hunger and poverty all are recipes for not good times. My mom who is a cancer survivor at 72 went out today to get groceries. She wore gloves and mask. She practiced social safe distancing. She said I can’t live in fear of getting it. She said my days are limited anyway. She understands when it’s ones time it’s time. How many will survive this but yet pass away tomorrow? Living 6-8 weeks in fear and when some come out of hiding they may pass away from an accident that very next day. That would be sad to have missed out on 6-8 weeks of living. My niece is an RT. Said she is not scared. Her job is to help people. If medical personnel do not want to help then no one is forcing them. A lady I know whose an RN her husband is ugly to her and tells her she should quit. That she is not thinking of him and her kids. She told him you are a selfish man. She is spot on. Do what makes you happy and comfortable. Plenty of food and supplies can be delivered. Stay safe and healthy to everyone here!

I’m sure many in here disagree and that is fine. Just remember we’re all human and calling people idiots because they choose to go out to beaches or parks is not right. You never know that one day at beach with family might be last time they get to go to beach with their family. At end of April if small businesses want to open up they should be allowed to. The people that go to those places know they risks. That’s the choice of Freedom that was fought for! No govt should be able to take that away.
 
@Mathew70 you must be living in a different America. I was out today for food and it was mostly business as usual. No roving gangs of released prisoners or violence. If people are broke they sure have a weird way of showing by packing the academy sports, EVERY fast food store was packed. I actually pulled out of the line at Chic-fil-a because the line was so long and slow.

You must be in a different America. My neighborhood has an unspoken pact. It's one way in the first houses report any unusual activity so we are well informed. We arent exchanging numbers in case of civil unrest. We are planning to decorate each others yards on easter morning to surprise all the kiddies.

You have determined how this will play out in a panic of devolving society and it seems to be consuming every thought you have of this ongoing crisis.
 
@Mathew70 you must be living in a different America. I was out today for food and it was mostly business as usual. No roving gangs of released prisoners or violence. If people are broke they sure have a weird way of showing by packing the academy sports, EVERY fast food store was packed. I actually pulled out of the line at Chic-fil-a because the line was so long and slow.

You must be in a different America. My neighborhood has an unspoken pact. It's one way in the first houses report any unusual activity so we are well informed. We arent exchanging numbers in case of civil unrest. We are planning to decorate each others yards on easter morning to surprise all the kiddies.

You have determined how this will play out in a panic of devolving society and it seems to be consuming every thought you have of this ongoing crisis.

I swear. The doom and gloom from him is over the top. I get it. You want life back to normal. You want everyone to keep doing like they were doing two months ago. This is the problem. People keep doing without thinking of others. It’s not the infected in hospitals we need to worry about. It’s not the people that test positive and are told to self quarantine. It’s the people that have this virus, don’t know it, are asymptomatic, and are unknowingly spreading it. If they’d stay home like they’re supposed to, the curve will flatten and everyone will get back to normal soon enough.
 
@Mathew70 you must be living in a different America. I was out today for food and it was mostly business as usual. No roving gangs of released prisoners or violence. If people are broke they sure have a weird way of showing by packing the academy sports, EVERY fast food store was packed. I actually pulled out of the line at Chic-fil-a because the line was so long and slow.

You must be in a different America. My neighborhood has an unspoken pact. It's one way in the first houses report any unusual activity so we are well informed. We arent exchanging numbers in case of civil unrest. We are planning to decorate each others yards on easter morning to surprise all the kiddies.

You have determined how this will play out in a panic of devolving society and it seems to be consuming every thought you have of this ongoing crisis.
No where did I say it was happening now Shaggy. It is a POSSIBILITY that is what I said. Read it again Shaggy. I thought you were saying Trump and the administration should be prepared? So am I and my neighbors wrong for just preparing? Was it wrong for so many to go by ammo and guns before? The people that chose to buy extra food. That was their choices not for you to decide for them. You act like nothing could ever go wrong. That is fine I look at all possibilities and don’t live in fear and don’t fault or call you names for it. We just live and prepare in different ways. That’s all. If nothing happens then great. No complaints from me. You believe what you want to about the virus and I will believe what I want to. We can agree to disagree. I don’t need govt or others trying to live my life or make my decisions.
 
I swear. The doom and gloom from him is over the top. I get it. You want life back to normal. You want everyone to keep doing like they were doing two months ago. This is the problem. People keep doing without thinking of others. It’s not the infected in hospitals we need to worry about. It’s not the people that test positive and are told to self quarantine. It’s the people that have this virus, don’t know it, are asymptomatic, and are unknowingly spreading it. If they’d stay home like they’re supposed to, the curve will flatten and everyone will get back to normal soon enough.
No doom and gloom. It’s all possibilities. Jus Iike war is always a possibility. What happens when the lockdown is lifted and it’s starts spreading again. If it does? Lockdown again? Every state should do what fits them best. Why should TN do what NY is doing? So when cargo ships arrive from over seas will we still quarantine those people off the ship? Airplanes? That’s the whole point I’m trying to make. You slam me because I don’t believe like you do. Then do you buy ammo or any extra food? If did why? Why ammo? Nothing will ever happen. I am not going to call names. As I said to Shaggy. We can agree to disagree.
 
Logan’s announcing they are closing for good. Bankruptcy.
Not because of the virus though.
 
If we had left the pandemic team in place we would have had better eyes on our preparedness to this event. Are we going to suggest our federal govt and its relevant agencies didnt notice the "empty shelves" over the last 3 years? Building ppe wasnt somethin we should have been worrying about as this unfolded it should have already been in place.

You're going to have to go back much further than 3 years for your "blame game"; plenty of missteps to go around; not to mention if anybody has ever dealt with the government the sheer incompetence and bureaucracy at even the lower levels would absolutely amaze, stun, and sadden you..

The glaring weakness in all of this is the globalization of the supply chain and how we as a country are woefully unprepared. Need to bring more back in house and quit outsourcing. Companies should be penalized not incentivized and that goes for their hiring employees; it's going to be critically important going forward as our unemployment skyrockets and the longer this drags on the more the economy craters.

Of course China is cheaper because they don't give a crap about their people, the environment, or even quality control. There's always a price to pay for cheap.
 
You're going to have to go back much further than 3 years for your "blame game"; plenty of missteps to go around; not to mention if anybody has ever dealt with the government the sheer incompetence and bureaucracy at even the lower levels would absolutely amaze, stun, and sadden you..

The glaring weakness in all of this is the globalization of the supply chain and how we as a country are woefully unprepared. Need to bring more back in house and quit outsourcing. Companies should be penalized not incentivized and that goes for their hiring employees; it's going to be critically important going forward as our unemployment skyrockets and the longer this drags on the more the economy craters.

Of course China is cheaper because they don't give a crap about their people, the environment, or even quality control. There's always a price to pay for cheap.

No argument there.

At the same time each new admin has a chance to change the misdeed of their predecessors. Each failure to do so is a missed oppurtunity.
 
I was talking to my Iranian American friend yesterday. He was telling me the exact thing I’ve said here: he can’t remember a time when the US had been so divided. He said to me that so many of the red and blue hate each other like the worst enemies on the planet...worse than anyone in any unfriendly countries! That’s exactly what I’ve said. He noted that we’re supposed to be the “United States” of America but that America is no longer anywhere close to being united any more. Everything is unfortunately seen in terms of blue or red by so many folks. He’s really worried about the future of our country.

By the way, he’s an independent and not much into politics because of this ugliness. He’s highly intelligent. He’s very much into philosophy.
 
No doom and gloom. It’s all possibilities. Jus Iike war is always a possibility. What happens when the lockdown is lifted and it’s starts spreading again. If it does? Lockdown again? Every state should do what fits them best. Why should TN do what NY is doing? So when cargo ships arrive from over seas will we still quarantine those people off the ship? Airplanes? That’s the whole point I’m trying to make. You slam me because I don’t believe like you do. Then do you buy ammo or any extra food? If did why? Why ammo? Nothing will ever happen. I am not going to call names. As I said to Shaggy. We can agree to disagree.
Can I share something with you? Every time I read a post of yours, my blood pressure goes up.

Why do you think that is?
 
I was talking to my Iranian American friend yesterday. He was telling me the exact thing I’ve said here: he can’t remember a time when the US had been so divided. He said to me that so many of the red and blue hate each other like the worst enemies on the planet...worse than anyone in any unfriendly countries! That’s exactly what I’ve said. He noted that we’re supposed to be the “United States” of America but that America is no longer anywhere close to being united any more. Everything is unfortunately seen in terms of blue or red by so many folks. He’s really worried about the future of our country.

By the way, he’s an independent and not much into politics because of this ugliness. He’s highly intelligent. He’s very much into philosophy.
I agree with him.
 
Can I share something with you? Every time I read a post of yours, my blood pressure goes up.

Why do you think that is?
Well that could go both ways for many of us. I read others posts and could let it make my -- go up. I read and listen to what everyone says. So tell me why?
 
@Matthew70

All the things you say are ruining us are what's getting us through this. In NC we have turned this around already. We have to keep our foot on the gas and we need to push through and finish this.

Taking our foot off the gas could be exactly what pushes us into the situation you seem to fear most.

 
I was talking to my Iranian American friend yesterday. He was telling me the exact thing I’ve said here: he can’t remember a time when the US had been so divided. He said to me that so many of the red and blue hate each other like the worst enemies on the planet...worse than anyone in any unfriendly countries! That’s exactly what I’ve said. He noted that we’re supposed to be the “United States” of America but that America is no longer anywhere close to being united any more. Everything is unfortunately seen in terms of blue or red by so many folks. He’s really worried about the future of our country.

By the way, he’s an independent and not much into politics because of this ugliness. He’s highly intelligent. He’s very much into philosophy.
This can be squarely blamed on the media, mainly social media. They thrive on the division to push an agenda and give people an easy platform to voice angst and disdain because there are no repercussions. People dont talk to people, they talk to screens.
 
Well that could go both ways for many of us. I read others posts and could let it make my -- go up. I read and listen to what everyone says. So tell me why?
I will answer this in good faith.

Because it seems like you are always thinking of the worst case scenario. I realize you believe you're just telling us the possibilities, but in my opinion it always seems to skew towards doom and gloom.

I don't know how old you are, but I am barely old enough to remember when the Soviets were the enemies during the Cold War, and people thought World War 3 was inevitable, and one day something would happen, and we'd both launch the missiles and blow each other up. Are you old enough to remember that and worry about it? Because if you did, it didn't matter. If those missiles had flown, there was nothing we could've done.

A lot of the things you have mentioned and worry about, we have no control over, and probably won't happen. Focus on what we can control. Reality is more than often the mean between two extremes.
 
This can be squarely blamed on the media, mainly social media. They thrive on the division to push an agenda and give people an easy platform to voice angst and disdain because there are no repercussions. People dont talk to people, they talk to screens.

We both believe the internet is largely to blame. He noted that there is so much false info out there that it makes it hard to know what the truth is even for intelligent people. He wishes there were some way to police the internet for false info but knows that that is not going to happen.
 
We both believe the internet is largely to blame. He noted that there is so much false info out there that it makes it hard to know what the truth is even for intelligent people. He wishes there were some way to police the internet for false info but knows that that is not going to happen.

I always thought the internet was gonna unite the world and bring everyone together with knowledge......boy was I wrong.
 
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