TOPIC:

Hello Scotch,
Actually The Donald is no hero of mine but your characterization of Donald Trump as an uncaring, incompetent ship's captain is not fair.
Neither is your statement fair that the “… U.S's mismanagement of this health care crisis, … is going to drag-out this epidemic, globally, for far longer then if it were managed correctly.”
Managed correctly? The US has done no worse than other countries at protecting our citizens, perhaps Taiwan, excepted.
So we've run short on N-95 masks. I'm pretty sure that statement applies the world over.
The globalists have maneuvered us (all of us) into believing free trade is going to solve all our problems. Actually I believe that as well. The problem is that today’s trade policies are not free. Many workers are not able to stand up for their rights and many nations do not allow their markets to work as they should and few nations have environmental protections as the US does.
We need to bring living wage jobs back to our home countries while the political systems in these underdeveloped come up to par with our expectations.
Just my thoughts as a member here.
Bill

Hi Bill. Appreciate your comments and will respectfully comment:
The Washington Post reported that U.S. intelligence agencies were warning Trump and his administration of the dangers of the coronavirus in January and February, when Trump was publicly downplaying and even denying the potential threat of the virus, calling it a “hoax” at a February 28, 2020, rally in South Carolina.
When questioned about the feds ability to supply PPE and ventilators donalds reply was: "Governors are supposed to be doing a lot of this work. The federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items, and then shipping. We're not a shipping clerk." No apparent leadership here.
South Korea and the United States had their first confirmed COVID-19 case on the same day in January. South Korea took the threat seriously and by the beginning of March had tested 100,000 people for the virus. The United States under Donald didn’t take it seriously and had tested just 1,000 people by the start of March.
Trump has spent the better part of his term dismantling the federal government’s pandemic fighting infrastructure. In 2005, the US Agency for International Development created a program to help detect and research infectious diseases. This program, which was set up in response to the H1N5 bird flu scare, continued through the rest of the Bush administration and through the entire Obama administration. The Trump administration shut it down last fall.
And then there's the "Testing":

Yesterday Trump declared he has “total” authority to order states to relax social distancing and reopen their economies, and warned that governors who refuse would face political consequences. Yet, he conveniently accepts no responsibility for delays in issuing COVID warnings and actually engaged in a campaign of disinformation to downplay the significance of the virus and overplay his personal success in keeping it at bay.
Typically, Presidents ask hard questions, want various views, insist on a variety of options to consider, and will weigh potential outcomes. Trump does nothing of the sort. Despite commanding the most sophisticated intelligence-gathering agencies in the world, he prefers to be briefed by Fox News, arrives at decisions without input from others, tweets his ass off, and will (predictably) the next day deny everything; insinuating that the press is Fake news.
In late January, when a CNBC reporter asked if there were “worries about a pandemic” spreading from China, where it was first reported in December, he replied, “No, not at all. We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” Then did his usual about face when all hell was starting to break loose by stating: "This is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic."
I guess our definitions of uncaring and incompetent are somewhat separated ! Remember, this is the same guy who by phone told the mother of a soldier killed in action "Well, I guess he knew what he was getting into. "
So....I respectfully agree that we may have to disagree, for now.

Thanks Scotch,
Political discussions are generally problems for sites like this one. However, you folks have shown that we can have conversations about hot topics without descending into flame wars, pretty much. Facts are the answer.
I looked around and found something which supports my previous assertion that the USA hasn't mismanaged this outbreak as badly as some believe. Here's a per-capita of death rates for a few countries. The source of this information was here:
www.nationalreview.com/corner/coronaviru...-or-per-capita-data/.
Regards
Bill

I appreciate the dialogue !
Regarding the Mortality chart: The numbers per capita are misleading. You must take into account that most of the countries on this chart have multiple borders and/or have economies that can't support "typical" basic health care, let alone deal with C19. These countries exposure from their neighbours and/or their inability to initiate protocols and manage their own outbreaks translates (in my opinion) to a far more serious situation in the US then the chart suggests. So when I look at the US mortality rates and consider it borders only on Canada (AND THAT"S MY CONCERN) and Mexico; the U.S.'s situation is critical and reflects directly to the political chaos, executive indecisiveness and Trumps absolute disdain for those states which are not republican. It's notable that Calif., Oregon and Washington (just to name one group) are now coordinating their own strategies due to the lack of any from the Capital.
The "Numbers" may look lower......for now !

Disappointed today. Yesterday I thought for sure Donald was going to go full-on, head-to-head with some of the Senators and I was looking forward to that.
Today? - the "trump 180" ; now announcing that he is "authorizing" the separate States to implement their own plans to restart. And of course with his usual candor that (in his mind) makes it look like this was his idea, exclusively.
At his Podium, he announced this morning that the U.S. is withholding it's funding to the W.H.O. while a "review" is undertaken.
......and the best one yet !: The support cheques that are being mailed are going to bear trumps name ! The first time a president’s name has appeared on an IRS disbursement.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, tweeted: "You are getting your money late because the President thinks it is more important that his name be on the check than that you are able to pay your bills on time."
Walter Shaub Jr., who resigned as director of the independent Office of Government Ethics in July 2017, tweeted that Trump was using the relief checks to promote himself. "Where you see the dying and suffering of your fellow Americans, Donald Trump sees another opportunity to promote himself — and his re-election campaign" , Shaub wrote.
In "normal" times this would be absolutely hilarious. Given the current situation, it's simply pathetic. Trump has no shame, no conscience and his actions and inactions are exacerbating, confusing and delaying an effective course to change the curve.
So; does "Das Boot" have a captain ! Trump is trying to look through the Snorkel and is loading the torpedoes backwards so the conclusion is up to the individual.

I'm just getting really tired of hearing the word "Trump" He dominates the news like no other has in my lifetime. I'm so tired of hearing Trump that I'm considering not playing Bid Euchre for the next 4 years so I don't have to hear the question "What's Trump again? "
We need a break. I'm more interested in hearing about breaking news like no more new Covid cases this week, or "We've found a new drug to combat Covid" or finally, Old Age Homes have now gone to full time employees so there's no need for workers to work at 2 facilities to pay the bills, or we can finally stop playing collision avoidance in the grocery stores, or final testing of an antiviral is under way. I've been hiding in the house 98% of the time in last 5 weeks and I really need to hear that something good is happening rather than more bad.
I find it hard to believe that a virus has taken down the entire world and crippled us for probably the next 2 years before we get back to normal but it has happened and how we responded did not meet the need this time but its done now. I just pray to God that we pull our collective asses out of the ditch in a reasonable time frame but the pain will hit all of us and we won't forget it for a very long time. I'm sure that the decision makers that blew it this round will pay the ultimate price once the dust settles and the real pain of how things were managed hits our pocket books.
Going to take a "Chill Pill" now.
Stay Safe,
KB