People are afraid of losing their jobs, houses and life savings. Are they idiots? Nobody can disagree? I'll tell you the America I don't want and that's one where some know it all tells us what we can think. I understand what he is saying and am torn. Dismissing the economy as not a consideration is not the answer.

BTW I am sure you were one of many calling him a racist when he stopped travel from China in January. Imagine where we would be now if he followed the N.Y Times line of thinking on that one.

Two observations:

1. Republicans are immune to Coronavirus
2. Democrats have $millions in savings

Tongue planted firmly in cheek here. No easy, simple, all-pleasing solutions to this problem.

The 2020 Summer Olympics have been postponed to 2021
How I read the TX governor’s statement is, how does shutting down America & putting her citizens out of work, help contain the spread of the virus - is it better to stay at home & live in fear, or live normally in peaceful circulation while combatting it

Disrespecting no one, & am not anti science etc - but the economic damage of coronavirus will be far longer-lasting than the medical consequences imo

That’s what I thought the governor was trying to get across

[Edited on 3/24/2020 by Stephen]

People are afraid of losing their jobs, houses and life savings. Are they idiots? Nobody can disagree? I'll tell you the America I don't want and that's one where some know it all tells us what we can think. I understand what he is saying and am torn. Dismissing the economy as not a consideration is not the answer.

BTW I am sure you were one of many calling him a racist when he stopped travel from China in January. Imagine where we would be now if he followed the N.Y Times line of thinking on that one.

You don't know a thing about me nor what I think so step back.

You're the one calling people names. You should take a step back and think before speaking.

The 2020 Summer Olympics have been postponed to 2021
How I read the TX governor’s statement is, how does shutting down America & putting her citizens out of work, help contain the spread of the virus - is it better to stay at home & live in fear, or live normally in peaceful circulation while combatting it

Disrespecting no one, & am not anti science etc - but the economic damage of coronavirus will be far longer-lasting than the medical consequences imo

That’s what I thought the governor was trying to get across[Edited on 3/24/2020 by Stephen]

The man said what he said - at length. I don't think he's looking to anyone here to interpret his words. Staying at home doesn't mean not working from home. BigLaw continues to churn away w/attorneys working from their homes all over the globe as are international financial institutions. Retailers have just accelerated the inevitable decline of bricks/mortar space in favor of online sales. There are enormous consequences to both not stopping the pandemic & not addressing the economic impact. They're not mutually exclusive except in very specific industries - travel (& hotels & Trump hotels) being one of them. This is not an American problem; this is a global problem. The only economies that have RELAXED (not rescinded) contagion measures prematurely have seen a resurgence of the virus that doesn't distinguish between parties, income, and profession.

The fact that Texas, Ohio & others are dragging abortion into what is a global pandemic is deplorable.

Every hospital that receives any type of federal funding (& most of them do) have an ethics committee that either establishes policy or meets to discuss specific cases when allocation of resources is at issue. These specifically trained medical & legal professionals are tasked w/deciding does the 12-year-old cancer patient or the 49-year-old cardiac patient get the ventilator. They're nearing that critical point this week.

My point is that so far, Trump wasn't dangerous to anything beyond democratic ideals, the constitution, & military hotspots. We've now got a man who doesn't believe in science, is corrupt, & a narcissistic deciding that he wants his toy - the stock market - back. The same man who ignored the WHO, CDC, & other medical/epidemiological experts warnings for a month before actually taking action. The only thing he did was stop travel from China. One thing. The lack of immediate response plus the disbanding the NSC pandemic response team in 2018 has put us a month behind every other country. TRUMP is responsible for the lag in economic consequences because he ignored reality, touts cures that don't exist, & invoked the Defense Act powers to put medical equipment into production but hasn't ordered it to happen.

I don't want Trump or this moron from Texas telling us when we are expendable.

You're the one calling people names. You should take a step back and think before speaking.

I never called anyone a name in the original post.

I've never heard of you. I didn't call you anything. STFU to me.

Here is what he said:

Let's get back to work. Let's get back to living. Let's be smart about it. And those of use who are 70 plus, we'll take care of ourselves. But don't sacrifice the country.

The problem with his statement is he offers up no practical suggestions for how to safely get back to work. Unless he's just suggesting only seniors stay home which ignores how this virus races through densely-packed senior facilities. Everyone wants to get back to work, obviously, and many are working remotely if they can. But the virus spreads the more people it comes into contact with and the reality is that limited interaction is likely the best way to get this disease behind us as quick as possible so we can all get back to work. Everyone wants the same thing.

The 2020 Summer Olympics have been postponed to 2021
How I read the TX governor’s statement is, how does shutting down America & putting her citizens out of work, help contain the spread of the virus - is it better to stay at home & live in fear, or live normally in peaceful circulation while combatting it

Disrespecting no one, & am not anti science etc - but the economic damage of coronavirus will be far longer-lasting than the medical consequences imo

That’s what I thought the governor was trying to get
[Edited on 3/24/2020 by Stephen]

The economy and stock market have shown to very resilient, get our nation healthy!!!!! The quickest way to restore us to strength and prosperity??.......joe

Just flipped through to foxnews,(yes the horror) and low and behold there was Trumpty, pleading and whining about getting the economy restarted, if this clowns idiotic thoughts and actions are allowed to prevail, thousands of xtra Americans will be infected and many will die. Societies filled with sick and dying people do not generally have productive economies?? The WHO just announced the U.S. as the next potential epicenter!!!!...........Peace........joe

Here's more of what the TX Lt Gov said that I missed.

No one reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all Americans love for your children and grandchildren? And if that's the exchange, I'm all in.

I just think there are lots of grandparents out there in this country like me — I have six grandchildren — that's what we all care about. ... I want to live smart and see through this, but I don't want the whole country to be sacrificed. And that's what I see.

This is an overreaction. Although many have lost their jobs or business has been impacted, the lights are still on. The economy will recover eventually. The country has been through worse. Maybe he thinks he's being noble for the sake of capitalism, but offering up seniors as virus fodder just so stocks don't dive is incredibly short-sighted, never mind, crass. Also, it's not just seniors. Anyone slightly infirm with asthma or other bronchial issues is at risk.

I watch and listen to lots of different stuff too. Anyone see Lawrence O'Donnell's opening last night? Trump might want to do something, but he is not in control of anything, as O'Donnell correctly said, the Governors are in control and they will determine what happens in their states, their economies, which in turn makes up the national economy.

What I'm concerned about, this period of inactivity and financial stress is leading to a monetary and legislative response that is approaching $5 trillion when you look at the actions of the Fed, the Treasury and Congress. And how long of a bridge is that good for? If this goes beyond spring how much more money can our country throw at this?

We need to get the health crisis under control first and foremost but it is also time to think about the "pivot" to return to some semblance of normalcy. Trump is the loudest and unfortunately uniformed person saying such, however he is not alone as others have begun to think about how we emerge out of this. If we are talking about stay at home orders past the spring I'm afraid for our future. If we do this too soon I'm afraid for the now. The conversation needs to be had and all outcomes and pitfalls and gains vetted out.

We need to get the health crisis under control first and foremost but it is also time to think about the "pivot" to return to some semblance of normalcy. The conversation needs to be had and all outcomes and pitfalls and gains vetted out.

That's happening. The idea that only one or the other can be examined, re-focused, & resumed is fear-mongering. As many have pointed out, Cuomo has been one of the most articulate in getting health resources deployed where needed WHILE economic issues are addressed. It's not either-or.

The other thing that we've learned in the past weeks is that the most serious cases (aside from vulnerable populations in nursing homes & those already compromised w/other illnesses) are NOT confined to those 60 & older. This week - after the Spring Break flaunting by college kids that apparently sent Trump reeling - there have been hospitalizations of patients in their 20s and 30s. The workforce from 20-somethings through 50-somethings are all at risk.

All reasonable people are asking for is sufficient time to get medical needs served or at least equipped before relaxing containment parameters.

We need to get the health crisis under control first and foremost but it is also time to think about the "pivot" to return to some semblance of normalcy. Trump is the loudest and unfortunately uniformed person saying such, however he is not alone as others have begun to think about how we emerge out of this. If we are talking about stay at home orders past the spring I'm afraid for our future. If we do this too soon I'm afraid for the now. The conversation needs to be had and all outcomes and pitfalls and gains vetted out.

I think this is the big question on everyone's mind. I just don't think there is any way to predict how this will pass, we are in uncharted territory. Even if most countries get a hold on the virus' spread, the international travel that is the reality in our global economy could cause another flare up if just a few countries can't contain it. Everyone is at different stages of contamination. I think you just have to take it week by week, region by region. One way or another the virus will pass, either by containing it or the opposite - everyone acquiring it and the survivors picking up the pieces. But obviously we still have to put lives first (not saying you aren't, just broadly speaking to the thread), no matter how noble the Lt Gov of TX's wish to die for capitalism his fellow septuagenarians might not share it.

[Edited on 3/24/2020 by porkchopbob]

Speaking of Caligula in Chief and how he f*cked up what could have been a far quicker and vastly more effective federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic, I invite you to listen to the interview of Max Brooks on today's episode of "Fresh Air" with host Terry Gross.

https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/

For those that don't know him, he's the son of Mel Brooks and the author of "World War Z." He's also an expert on pandemic response and is a visiting lecturer at the National War college where he lectures on the subject of pandemics.

In the interview he explains, in simple detail, what the ignoramus Trump did and didn't do to worsen what is now an exploding pandemic. He also explains the Defense Production act and how Trump is not actually using it and why.....A good listen if you wish to understand just how incompetent and/or political the Trump administration was and continues to be.

[Edited on 3/24/2020 by Chain]

Pretty fascinating, Chain. There's a feature up for those who can't listen to the podcast

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/24/820601571/all-of-this-panic-could-have-been-prevented-author-max-brooks-on-covid-19

'All Of This Panic Could Have Been Prevented': Author Max Brooks On COVID-19

March 24, 20201:58 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air
Terry Gross square 2017

Terry Gross

Fresh Air
41-Minute Listen

Apocalyptic novelist Max Brooks is something of an expert on planning for pandemics and other disasters. The author, whose books include World War Z, Germ Warfare and the forthcoming Devolution, has toured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has reviewed government response plans related to various emergency situations — all in the course of research.

"We have a network in place that we as taxpayers have been funding to get us ready for something just like this," Brooks says of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, he adds, "we have been disastrously slow and disorganized from Day 1."

Brooks says the notion that the U.S. government was blindsided by the pandemic is "an onion of layered lies."

"What could have happened when this virus exploded — even when Wuhan was locked down — is we could have put the word out," he says. "The government could have put the word out to ramp up emergency supplies to get them ready and then have an information strategy in place."

Instead, Brooks says, President Trump was slow to acknowledge the virus as a real threat. And thus far, the president has resisted using the Defense Production Act to force private companies to manufacture masks, gloves and other essential supplies in the fight against the coronavirus. Many government task forces that plan for disasters have yet to be activated in this crisis.

White House Not Using Defense Powers To Boost Medical Supplies

"One of the biggest problems we're facing now is panic. You see it in the stock market. You see it in panic buying," he says. "All of this panic could have been prevented. ... If the president had been working since January to get the organs of government ready for this, we as citizens could have been calmed down knowing that the people that we trust to protect us are doing that."
Interview highlights

On the task forces that plan for situations like this

Max Brooks has researched disaster preparedness for his novels and has lectured on the subject at the U.S. Naval War College. He has also been a nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His new book, Devolution, will be published May 2020.
Michelle Kholos/Penguin Random House

I can tell you that the federal government has multiple layers of disaster preparedness who are always training, always planning, always preparing, regardless of how much their budget gets cut. I have toured the CDC and I've seen all their plans. I have witnessed what was called a "vibrant response." This is the homeland nuclear attack scenario, which was a coordination of FEMA, the Army, the National Guard, state and local officials, all working together in a massive war game to prepare us for a nuke. I have also witnessed what was called a "hurricane rehearsal of concept drill," where not only did the same players come in, but also bringing in our allies from Canada and Mexico. So I have seen that we have countless dedicated professionals who think about this constantly and they're ready to go. And they have not been activated.

On why these task forces haven't been activated yet

There is no excuse not to mobilize the full forces of the federal government right now and to centralize the response.

This all has to come from the federal government. This is why we have big government. Politically, you can argue about the role of big government in everyday society, but this is not every day. This is an emergency. The entire reason that we have these networks is when the bells start ringing — and they have not been activated. I don't know. I'm not sitting in the White House. I don't know whether the president is being lied to, whether he is holding onto a political ideology. I honestly don't know. But there is no excuse not to mobilize the full forces of the federal government right now and to centralize the response.

On how the Defense Production Act works when mobilized properly

What is supposed to happen is the federal government has to activate the Defense Production Act immediately. Now, what Defense Production Act does is it allows the federal government to step in and aggressively force the private sector to produce what we need. And what is so critical in this is timing. Because you can't simply build factories from scratch, what you can do is identify a supply chain in order to make it work.

For example, if New York needs rubber gloves, New York cannot simply build rubber glove factories overnight. However, there might be a rubber glove factory in Ohio that could produce it, but they might not have the latex. So therefore, the Defense Production Act allows the federal government to go to the condom factory in Missouri and say, "Listen, you have barrels of latex we need. We are requisitioning those. We are giving them to the rubber glove factory in Ohio. And then we are transporting the finished rubber gloves to New York." That's how it is supposed to work.

On how Trump warns about nationalizing private industry — but that's not how it works

President Trump is spinning some sort of tale about, I don't know, the federal government — black helicopters coming in and taking over factories. That's not how it works at all. What happens is the federal government has the network to identify where the production chain is and how to help the private sector work through this, because the private sector doesn't know.

And as an example, I have a World War II rifle made by the Smith Corona typewriter company. Smith Corona worked with the federal government to then partner up with the Winchester Company, to then share resources and to share tools and talent to then produce the rifles that we needed. That's how it works. It's not some sort of KGB coming in and taking over everything. It is guidance and streamlining. And only the federal government has the experience to know how to do that.

On what the U.S. military would do in a pandemic

I can tell you that the military has a vast transportation network here in the United States that is ready to go. We don't have to put truck drivers or private individuals at risk, because the military is already trained to do this. And I've watched them do this. The military spent years working out the legal framework of how to transport goods from one place to another around this country, because it's not like Afghanistan, where the army builds a road and then they own the road. The army has had to go through a tremendous amount of training and adaptation to work within state and local governments to make sure everything is done legally and safe without infringing on our rights. And they have done this. The Army's logistics corps can deliver anything that we need anywhere in this country within a matter of hours or days.

When it comes to sheer massive might, getting stuff done, getting stuff produced and getting stuff moved from point A to point B, there is no greater organ in the world than the United States military. We did it in World War II. We've done it all over the world. We can do this now. This is the thing the military is good at and we need to let them do that.

On how the pandemic is revealing flaws in our social structure

I think there are massive gaps in our systems that are being exposed right now, which, by the way, this is not news to the experts. Anybody who works in these fields could have told you years ago that we were vulnerable to this. It's going to rip through our prisons. It's going to rip through our homeless population. God willing, it doesn't rip through our nursing homes. But what no one is talking about, what terrifies me, what keeps me up at night are the secondary casualties that will occur because of hospital overflow. What I mean is we're only talking about now how many people are going to die if the coronavirus really rips through our country. What is not being talked about enough or what needs to be talked about are the people who are still going to die of cancer, of accidents, of other diseases, because they simply can't get into the hospitals because the hospitals are choked with coronavirus patients.

On how we share some of the blame for this mismanagement as voters in a democracy

In China, every single death will be laid directly at the feet of the Chinese Communist Party. They have all the power; therefore, they take all the responsibility. When we look back at this, we — all of us individual citizens — are going to have to take a measure of personal responsibility, because we are the government. If we don't like our leaders, we shouldn't have put them there. And as much as we would love to blame this historically incompetent captain of our ship of state, we have allowed the ship to rust underneath us. It's not just President Trump's fault that institutions like the CDC have been defunded for years. It's not just President Trump's fault that we have allowed anti-vaxxers to spread misinformation throughout this country. It's not just President Trump's fault that we are continuing to build a society in support of a tech world that is based on comfort and not on resilience. We as voters and we as taxpayers must accept our share of the blame.

When this is all over, when the dead are buried and the sick are healed, there will be a reckoning.

There is a massive amount of blame that will be laid at the feet of Donald Trump and his enablers. And when this is all over, when the dead are buried and the sick are healed, there will be a reckoning. But there were systemic issues way before Donald Trump. When Donald Trump was a carnival barker on a reality show, we as a people, as a nation, were dismantling the systems that were put in place to keep us safe. And we need to look at that damage, because the one thing we don't want to do is assume that when Donald Trump goes away, that the problems will go with him.

On the difference between panic and preparation

Panic never helps. Panic implies that you lose your mind, and that in a war — even a war against a microscopic enemy — gives aid and comfort to the enemy. When you panic, you don't think rationally, and in times of crisis, rational thought is the greatest weapon you could possibly have. So preparing, No. 1, means clearing your mind and thinking about what you have to do. It means making a list of what you need to buy, prioritizing what needs to come first, thinking about how you're going to take care of the people around you. That is preparing. Panicking is freaking out and getting in a fist fight in the grocery store over bottled water when you don't even need the water, when the tap is already running. That's panic.

Right now we have to be so careful about who we listen to, because panic can spread much faster than a virus.

I think right now we have to be so careful about who we listen to, because panic can spread much faster than a virus. And I think in addition to social distancing, we have to practice good fact hygiene. What I mean is, we have to be careful what we listen to, what we take in — just as if it were a virus. And we have to be careful also what we put back out, as if we were spreading the virus. So we cannot pass along rumors. We cannot pass along misinformation. We must be critically careful not to scare people into doing irrational and dangerous things. So we need to listen to experts, the CDC, Dr. Fauci [director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases], the World Health Organization, our local public health officials. These are the frontline soldiers that are doing everything to keep us safe and are literally putting their lives on the line. These are the people we need to listen to. What we cannot listen to is random facts on the Internet supposedly, things that people are passing along to us, conspiracy theories. And I'm very sorry to say this, but I think that everything our president says at this point must be fact-checked.

Pretty fascinating, Chain. There's a feature up for those who can't listen to the podcast

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/24/820601571/all-of-this-panic-could-have-been-prevented-author-max-brooks-on-covid-19

'All Of This Panic Could Have Been Prevented': Author Max Brooks On COVID-19

March 24, 20201:58 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air
Terry Gross square 2017

Terry Gross

Fresh Air
41-Minute Listen

Apocalyptic novelist Max Brooks is something of an expert on planning for pandemics and other disasters. The author, whose books include World War Z, Germ Warfare and the forthcoming Devolution, has toured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has reviewed government response plans related to various emergency situations — all in the course of research.

"We have a network in place that we as taxpayers have been funding to get us ready for something just like this," Brooks says of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, he adds, "we have been disastrously slow and disorganized from Day 1."

Brooks says the notion that the U.S. government was blindsided by the pandemic is "an onion of layered lies."

"What could have happened when this virus exploded — even when Wuhan was locked down — is we could have put the word out," he says. "The government could have put the word out to ramp up emergency supplies to get them ready and then have an information strategy in place."

Instead, Brooks says, President Trump was slow to acknowledge the virus as a real threat. And thus far, the president has resisted using the Defense Production Act to force private companies to manufacture masks, gloves and other essential supplies in the fight against the coronavirus. Many government task forces that plan for disasters have yet to be activated in this crisis.

White House Not Using Defense Powers To Boost Medical Supplies

"One of the biggest problems we're facing now is panic. You see it in the stock market. You see it in panic buying," he says. "All of this panic could have been prevented. ... If the president had been working since January to get the organs of government ready for this, we as citizens could have been calmed down knowing that the people that we trust to protect us are doing that."
Interview highlights

On the task forces that plan for situations like this

Max Brooks has researched disaster preparedness for his novels and has lectured on the subject at the U.S. Naval War College. He has also been a nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His new book, Devolution, will be published May 2020.
Michelle Kholos/Penguin Random House

I can tell you that the federal government has multiple layers of disaster preparedness who are always training, always planning, always preparing, regardless of how much their budget gets cut. I have toured the CDC and I've seen all their plans. I have witnessed what was called a "vibrant response." This is the homeland nuclear attack scenario, which was a coordination of FEMA, the Army, the National Guard, state and local officials, all working together in a massive war game to prepare us for a nuke. I have also witnessed what was called a "hurricane rehearsal of concept drill," where not only did the same players come in, but also bringing in our allies from Canada and Mexico. So I have seen that we have countless dedicated professionals who think about this constantly and they're ready to go. And they have not been activated.

On why these task forces haven't been activated yet

There is no excuse not to mobilize the full forces of the federal government right now and to centralize the response.

This all has to come from the federal government. This is why we have big government. Politically, you can argue about the role of big government in everyday society, but this is not every day. This is an emergency. The entire reason that we have these networks is when the bells start ringing — and they have not been activated. I don't know. I'm not sitting in the White House. I don't know whether the president is being lied to, whether he is holding onto a political ideology. I honestly don't know. But there is no excuse not to mobilize the full forces of the federal government right now and to centralize the response.

On how the Defense Production Act works when mobilized properly

What is supposed to happen is the federal government has to activate the Defense Production Act immediately. Now, what Defense Production Act does is it allows the federal government to step in and aggressively force the private sector to produce what we need. And what is so critical in this is timing. Because you can't simply build factories from scratch, what you can do is identify a supply chain in order to make it work.

For example, if New York needs rubber gloves, New York cannot simply build rubber glove factories overnight. However, there might be a rubber glove factory in Ohio that could produce it, but they might not have the latex. So therefore, the Defense Production Act allows the federal government to go to the condom factory in Missouri and say, "Listen, you have barrels of latex we need. We are requisitioning those. We are giving them to the rubber glove factory in Ohio. And then we are transporting the finished rubber gloves to New York." That's how it is supposed to work.

On how Trump warns about nationalizing private industry — but that's not how it works

President Trump is spinning some sort of tale about, I don't know, the federal government — black helicopters coming in and taking over factories. That's not how it works at all. What happens is the federal government has the network to identify where the production chain is and how to help the private sector work through this, because the private sector doesn't know.

And as an example, I have a World War II rifle made by the Smith Corona typewriter company. Smith Corona worked with the federal government to then partner up with the Winchester Company, to then share resources and to share tools and talent to then produce the rifles that we needed. That's how it works. It's not some sort of KGB coming in and taking over everything. It is guidance and streamlining. And only the federal government has the experience to know how to do that.

On what the U.S. military would do in a pandemic

I can tell you that the military has a vast transportation network here in the United States that is ready to go. We don't have to put truck drivers or private individuals at risk, because the military is already trained to do this. And I've watched them do this. The military spent years working out the legal framework of how to transport goods from one place to another around this country, because it's not like Afghanistan, where the army builds a road and then they own the road. The army has had to go through a tremendous amount of training and adaptation to work within state and local governments to make sure everything is done legally and safe without infringing on our rights. And they have done this. The Army's logistics corps can deliver anything that we need anywhere in this country within a matter of hours or days.

When it comes to sheer massive might, getting stuff done, getting stuff produced and getting stuff moved from point A to point B, there is no greater organ in the world than the United States military. We did it in World War II. We've done it all over the world. We can do this now. This is the thing the military is good at and we need to let them do that.

On how the pandemic is revealing flaws in our social structure

I think there are massive gaps in our systems that are being exposed right now, which, by the way, this is not news to the experts. Anybody who works in these fields could have told you years ago that we were vulnerable to this. It's going to rip through our prisons. It's going to rip through our homeless population. God willing, it doesn't rip through our nursing homes. But what no one is talking about, what terrifies me, what keeps me up at night are the secondary casualties that will occur because of hospital overflow. What I mean is we're only talking about now how many people are going to die if the coronavirus really rips through our country. What is not being talked about enough or what needs to be talked about are the people who are still going to die of cancer, of accidents, of other diseases, because they simply can't get into the hospitals because the hospitals are choked with coronavirus patients.

On how we share some of the blame for this mismanagement as voters in a democracy

In China, every single death will be laid directly at the feet of the Chinese Communist Party. They have all the power; therefore, they take all the responsibility. When we look back at this, we — all of us individual citizens — are going to have to take a measure of personal responsibility, because we are the government. If we don't like our leaders, we shouldn't have put them there. And as much as we would love to blame this historically incompetent captain of our ship of state, we have allowed the ship to rust underneath us. It's not just President Trump's fault that institutions like the CDC have been defunded for years. It's not just President Trump's fault that we have allowed anti-vaxxers to spread misinformation throughout this country. It's not just President Trump's fault that we are continuing to build a society in support of a tech world that is based on comfort and not on resilience. We as voters and we as taxpayers must accept our share of the blame.

When this is all over, when the dead are buried and the sick are healed, there will be a reckoning.

There is a massive amount of blame that will be laid at the feet of Donald Trump and his enablers. And when this is all over, when the dead are buried and the sick are healed, there will be a reckoning. But there were systemic issues way before Donald Trump. When Donald Trump was a carnival barker on a reality show, we as a people, as a nation, were dismantling the systems that were put in place to keep us safe. And we need to look at that damage, because the one thing we don't want to do is assume that when Donald Trump goes away, that the problems will go with him.

On the difference between panic and preparation

Panic never helps. Panic implies that you lose your mind, and that in a war — even a war against a microscopic enemy — gives aid and comfort to the enemy. When you panic, you don't think rationally, and in times of crisis, rational thought is the greatest weapon you could possibly have. So preparing, No. 1, means clearing your mind and thinking about what you have to do. It means making a list of what you need to buy, prioritizing what needs to come first, thinking about how you're going to take care of the people around you. That is preparing. Panicking is freaking out and getting in a fist fight in the grocery store over bottled water when you don't even need the water, when the tap is already running. That's panic.

Right now we have to be so careful about who we listen to, because panic can spread much faster than a virus.

I think right now we have to be so careful about who we listen to, because panic can spread much faster than a virus. And I think in addition to social distancing, we have to practice good fact hygiene. What I mean is, we have to be careful what we listen to, what we take in — just as if it were a virus. And we have to be careful also what we put back out, as if we were spreading the virus. So we cannot pass along rumors. We cannot pass along misinformation. We must be critically careful not to scare people into doing irrational and dangerous things. So we need to listen to experts, the CDC, Dr. Fauci [director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases], the World Health Organization, our local public health officials. These are the frontline soldiers that are doing everything to keep us safe and are literally putting their lives on the line. These are the people we need to listen to. What we cannot listen to is random facts on the Internet supposedly, things that people are passing along to us, conspiracy theories. And I'm very sorry to say this, but I think that everything our president says at this point must be fact-checked.

Fascinating indeed.....Trump should be called out every day for his mishandling of this pandemic. As Mr. Brooks so aptly put it, the time for coddling this president has got to end and it's time those in the Republican party who have the power to do so should step forward.

Fascinating indeed.....Trump should be called out every day for his mishandling of this pandemic. As Mr. Brooks so aptly put it, the time for coddling this president has got to end and it's time those in the Republican party who have the power to do so should step forward.

Good luck with the coddling to end. In the last 3 plus years, that statement could have been stated many many times for various deplorable actions. Why would anyone think that a pandemic would be a trigger to do this? His enablers have been along for the ride. None are getting off of their horses now. They are all invertebrates. Fear the tweet.

I say let the 4% die off. It happens with species all the time. The strong will survive and the weak won't make it.

To kill the economy off is insane. The death of the American way of life will be more tragic than losing a few lives.

In war, which the media likes to equate this too, people die.

We are killing the economy over a cold. This will turn out to be a huge mistake.

Watch it fall

But don't worry the state will take care of you. Free rent, free utilities, free food, and free money. Welcome to the new Amerika. It's going to be a hoot.

Everyone will have a front seat in their living room as this thing unravels. Trump has issued the warning about the economy, that way he can say he told you so. It isn't that hard to see what is coming and it is arrogant of most Americans to think this can't happen to them. What is coming is going to make the great depression look like a party.

..

[Edited on 3/25/2020 by joyful_noise]

Good ol’ jerryphilbob. Desperately hoping for the collapse of America for over 10 years now.

Gotta hand it to ya, you are incredibly consistent.

If only we would had Obama ,Hilary or Pee Paw Joe in office they would have saved us from this wretched illness no doubt.

If only we would had Obama ,Hilary or Pee Paw Joe in office they would have saved us from this wretched illness no doubt.

I don't think anyone is suggesting anyone else would have saved us from this illness (I'm certainly not), but rather that the federal response would have been far more effective, timely, and efficient thus far.

Instead we have in idiot man child who's so worried about his own self interests that he ignores the experts around him and the tools he has at his disposal to better manage the pandemic.

If only we would had Obama ,Hilary or Pee Paw Joe in office they would have saved us from this wretched illness no doubt.

Clearly other countries are suffering from the disease, but there's a reason people are swooning over NY's Gove Cuomo right now - he's getting things done and taking charge rather than attacking reporters, contradicting experts, nor setting arbitrary timelines to open back up by.

I say let the 4% die off. It happens with species all the time. The strong will survive and the weak won't make it.

I'd hate to be with you on a sinking ship.

I say let the 4% die off. It happens with species all the time. The strong will survive and the weak won't make it.

I'd hate to be with you on a sinking ship.

Do you ever wonder when people make a statement like this is if they have ever considered they might be in that 4%

I say let the 4% die off

Anyone with this mentality should sign a waiver declining treatment, including ventilators should they become sick. I'lll give ya your own pen to keep.

Thanks for suggesting that interview Chain, and thanks for posting the text Bob. I'm not sure all panic could've been avoided, but no doubt things should've been done differently then and now.

Thanks for suggesting that interview Chain, and thanks for posting the text Bob. I'm not sure all panic could've been avoided, but no doubt things should've been done differently then and now.

Yes, thanks for posting it for reading & listening. Brooks presents a good & FAIR summary of what experts have been saying daily since January.

This is a GLOBAL crisis. No one is blaming Trump for causing it or suggesting it wouldn't have happened if someone else was president. The point is Trump's unique egomania has put the US behind in containing the virus. Trump's being blamed for 1) pretending it wasn't happening in January - remember he didn't want the 14 cruise ship passengers to disembark because it would double the number of cases to 28 & now we're at 55,000 of which 25,000 are in NY, 2) making absurd claims about containment, the ready availability of testing, a miracle drug (that was part of a combination of drugs tested on 20 people in France, 4 of whom dropped out), promising 1st responder equipment that has yet to show up, and 3) wants it to go away & the best way to do that is declare it over & allow contamination to spread.

There seem to be some trolls out making provocative comments. They have a total of about 100 posts between them & joined in 2017. Must be REALLY bored in isolation. They clearly aren't working from home.

Thanks for suggesting that interview Chain, and thanks for posting the text Bob. I'm not sure all panic could've been avoided, but no doubt things should've been done differently then and now.

You're welcome, Nebish....I agree, some panic would have occurred and no president could have avoided much of the inevitable fallout. However, Trump has shown yet again just how ignorant and incompetent he is with his failure to learn the most rudimentary things about how the federal government operates in times of crisis. We saw the same behavior during the hurricane response a few years ago.

Instead, he immediately thinks first about how this crisis affects him and his reelection and his business empire. Truth is, he really doesn't need to do anything but listen to the advice of the long serving professionals around him and act on their advice. But no, his giant ego convinces the rest of his brain that he's a genius and so just operate on whims and feelings spinning around in his head.

Sadly, those whims and feelings are always narcissistic and so always come back around to what benefits him and usually him alone.

Truth is, he really doesn't need to do anything but listen to the advice of the long serving professionals around him and act on their advice. But no, his giant ego convinces the rest of his brain that he's a genius and so just operate on whims and feelings spinning around in his head.

He can't help himself. There was a day a few weeks ago (I've lost track of this timeline) that Trump announced that Pence was the COVID19 czar, declared a state of emergency, & introduced the team of experts that would be leading - Drs. Fauci & Birx.

Great. Massive sigh of relief. Trump is out of the details he hates so much. The press would hear from experts. That literally lasted one day before Trump himself was back on the podium - surrounded by an entourage - spouting nonsense that Dr. Fauci would politely & increasingly frustratingly correct & screaming hysterically at reporters tossing him softballs. No wonder people are tuning in to Cuomo's calm solo daily briefings no matter where they live.