Your excuse is invalid
I just want to underline this, even though I said it yesterday when he did the press rally. ABC News reports:
Concerns about what is now known to be the novel coronavirus pandemic were detailed in a November intelligence report by the military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), according to two officials familiar with the document’s contents.
The report was the result of analysis of wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images. It raised alarms because an out-of-control disease would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia — forces that depend on the NCMI’s work. And it paints a picture of an American government that could have ramped up mitigation and containment efforts far earlier to prepare for a crisis poised to come home.
Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,’ one of the sources said of the NCMI’s report. ‘It was then briefed multiple times to’ the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the White House.
November. Huh.
The Guardian, quoting this story, comments:
This news follows reports that Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, wrote memos starting in late January warning of a potential coronavirus pandemic with catastrophic consequences for Americans’ health and finances.
The president claimed yesterday that he had never seen Navarro’s memos, but their existence undermines his defense of the federal government’s early response to the pandemic, which has been widely criticized.
Here’s what I want to underline: Trump seems to think that claiming he never saw the memos lets him off the hook. It does the opposite. It’s his job to see them, and to take them in and understand their meaning and act accordingly. That’s what he’s there for. That’s the job he decided to go after, and it is his obligation to do it. He swore an oath to do it. He’s not there to compose angry stupid tweets and shout at reporters and tell evil lies. He’s there to read the memos and do what needs to be done. His claim that he never saw them is simply an admission that he’s not even slightly doing the job he swore an oath to do.
Harry Truman: The buck stops here.
Trump: That’s right, the buck stops over there.
And off topic, somewhat, RIP John Prine.
Let’s bring John Prine on topic then:
Dear Abby, Dear Abby,
Can you please help me?
The media all hate me, their questions are mean.
I can’t read all these memos, ’bout viruses such,
Because I’ve been golfing and tweeting too much
Signed, Mr. Orange.
Dear Orange, Dear Orange,
You have no complaint
You are what you are and you ain’t what you ain’t
So listen up Buster and listen up good,
Hold one more press conference
and resign for Mike Pence
Signed, Dear Abby
We know that Hilary Clinton would have seen the memo and the situation would be really different now.
I bet the reason all those people are lining up to vote in Winconsin is because they know it too. Biden will win in November because of all this.
I wonder how long it will take to replace all the experts in their fields who have been sacked or resigned. It’s so scary that people who have no idea what they are doing- and have no intention of learning- are in charge.
I look at all the other democratic countries implementing lockdowns and extra payments etc etc. There’s a degree of comfort in knowing your government is acting competently and is planning ahead. Trump brings me out in a cold sweat every time I see him.
Exactly, it’s his job to see them, and he will refuse to take responsibility for that too (or anything else).
Dammit, Screechy, are you trying to make me cry again?
Aside from just the fact that it sucks that JP died, what’s really unfair is that he got the virus while so far DJT hasn’t.
learie,
Sure, Hillary Clinton would have read the memo, but what if she read it on… (gasp!) A PRIVATE EMAIL SERVER?!!!!! (You know, like the kind Kushner and his “advisors” are using constantly to conduct government business.)
Maroon,
If it’s any consolation, tell yourself that if Trump got the coronavirus, there’s a good chance he’d survive it, maybe even with mild symptoms, and then we’d hear nothing about how TRUMP IS SO MANLY HE PERSONALLY KICKED THAT VIRUS’S ASS! and low-information voters would decide to re-elect him on that basis. (If anyone thinks that’s silly, just remember how many voters decided that Trump was a brilliant executive because on television he could decide which celebrity to fire for running the less-successful lemonade stand.)
It’s like a driver saying they didn’t see a stop sign they drove through because they were too busy texting and drinking coffee to notice.
Just reading an excellent article from The Atlantic by David Frum:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/americans-are-paying-the-price-for-trumps-failures/609532/
I remember back on January 26 watching this you-tube video (posted on Jan. 24 by investment analyst Chris Martenson, who’d originally trained as a microbiologist) and posting a link to it on Facebook:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk5P_iRYwTY
This was at the time that the Chinese were trying to build instant hospitals in Wuhan to deal with the outbreak. Plug this date iof January 24 nto the timeline outlined by Frum in the Atlantic article to get a sense of just how damningly out of step Trump was, and has been on this. Not that this is news to any of us herel, useful information for the prosecution nonetheless.
It’s interesting that I’m citing sources I may not have normally paid attention to. Frum was one of the people behind Bush II’s “Axis of Evil” speech: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/28/usa.iran
I’d never heard of Martenson before seeing the above video. He’s an investment analyst/guru. He’s got a website called Peak Prosperity. He’s got a product to sell; his tips and advice. Even before the current pandemic, he’d seen the alarming trends in energy, economics and environment in which are already underway. Despite this awareness, he sees things in a rosier “here’s how to invest wisely to come out ahead, despite the collapse,” sort of way. I’ve been reading Derrick Jensen, so Martenson’s Crash Course seems laughably optimistic. Still, he called a number of things in that video that did come to pass, including the virus being classified as a pandemic.
Strange times.
Screechy,
I’m not convinced that Trump would survive the virus–he’s in a few relatively high-risk groups (elderly, male, probably has a lot of underlying health issues). But on the other hand, I’d like to see him suffer the humiliation of a landslide defeat in November. I just hope it happens.
What puzzles me particularly are the many, many Trump supporters who believe God specifically chose Donald Trump as president in order to lead our country well, and in the right direction. A man chosen and supported by God would certainly have read the early memos and acted on them. What someone might expect an ordinary person to miss because his advisers did a bad job would NOT be missed by someone who is basically being advised and guided by God.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult for pro-Trump Evangelicals to keep insisting the dangers of the Coronavirus have been exaggerated by the Democrats. So how are they going to shift blame away from someone God sent to keep us safe when doing something to head off the pandemic was clearly an option?
Oh that’s easy enough, isn’t it? God’s will, god chasteneth whom he loveth, The Flood, god recognizes his own, etc etc. There’s always some story that covers it.
If only…
My dog would have done a better job, and he can’t even read.
I highly recommend listening to The NY Times podcast The Daily for April 1st. A doctor in Germany heard about the virus in late December on social media, then, when the genome was published in January, she and her team started working toward a vaccine—of course, no one knew then quite >how< bad it could be.
I won’t try to summarize the ‘cast, but one juicy bit is that Trump offered her company a billion dollars to move to the US…