i was simply asking for people to be self-reliant and not clamor for bigger and bigger government all the time. dont burden taxpayers to pay insurance on your house in a fire zone. deflect? i was directly addressing the issue. the issue is dealing with the losses from fires. i am telling you incredibly directly, without any deflection, how it should be handled. private insurance. not taxpayers. when you filter money through the government, you lose a huge amount to graft and corruption. and if you have a complain about their services, well, fuck you, there is no alternative. this kind of thing (fire insurance) should be paid for and managed by those that need it.
this is true because every single fucking thing a politician does will be contrued as racist to the extent possible. but trump has one unique skill almost no other politician has. he doesnt care if you call him racist. he knows its stupid and he doesnt give a shit. among american politicians this makes him very very unique.
He could have been a leader and unify the country rather than divide it. Rather than deny its severity. Rather that relying on false hope that it would mysteriously disappear he could have called for long term effort. He could have called for an united effort to fight the disease. He compared himself to Churchill yet acts exactly opposite of what Winston did in WWII. I know @shane0911 and others distain masks but even if they provide minimum help they do no harm and could have been used as a unifying theme. His interference in medical decisions has been as bad. He steps on regulations and guidelines he doesn’t like. He has encouraged use of untried and untested treatment and dismissed expert advice and advisers. He has let his pride prejudice and ignorance Obstruct science and medical practice.
More Than 1,000 Current and Former CDC Officers Condemn U.S. Covid-19 Response An open letter calls for the federal agency to play a more central role in addressing the pandemic More than 1,000 current and former officers of an elite disease-fighting program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have signed an open letter expressing dismay at the nation’s public-health response to the Covid-19 pandemic and calling for the federal agency to play a more central role. “The absence of national leadership on Covid-19 is unprecedented and dangerous,” said the letter, signed by current and former officers of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service of outbreak investigators. “CDC should be at the forefront of a successful response to this global public health emergency.” Signers included two former CDC directors: Jeffrey Koplan, who led the agency under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and Tom Frieden, who served under President Barack Obama. All of the signatories were writing to “express our concern about the ominous politicization and silencing of the nation’s health protection agency” during the current pandemic, said their letter, which was published Friday in the Epidemiology Monitor, a newsletter for epidemiologists. “CDC has today, as it has every day during its 74-year history, provided the best available information and recommendations to the American public,” the agency said in a response to the letter. “Since January, more than 5,200 CDC personnel have dedicated themselves to protecting the health of the American people.” Long regarded as the world’s premier public health agency, the CDC normally plays a leading role globally in a response to epidemics. The Trump administration has been deeply involved at times in the shaping of scientific recommendations at the CDC during the pandemic, raising objections to guidelines for reopening churches and schools and for wearing masks, The Wall Street Journal reported. An administration spokesman said that “the CDC occupies a critical seat on the (coronavirus) task force, which is made up of public health leaders with an array of valuable expertise.” Trust has eroded in the agency, a recent poll showed. Former agency officials and other public health professionals have spoken up in defense of the CDC, and argue it needs to resume its leading and science-based role heading the nation’s pandemic defenses. The EIS, as it is known, is a two-year fellowship at the CDC in which officers develop disease detective chops as they fight on the front lines against outbreaks like Ebola, E. coli and other dangerous pathogens. The letter was “an expression of solidarity among our community,” said Charles Rabkin, a medical epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute and member of the EIS Class of 1984. He said he spent several months contacting each EIS class, spanning nearly seven decades, to gather signatures for the letter. READ MORE A Demoralized CDC Grapples With White House Meddling and Its Own Mistakes (Oct. 15) C DC Reverses Relaxation of Covid-19 Testing Recommendations (Sept. 18) Local Health Departments Rebuke CDC’s Softened Covid-19 Testing Guidelines (Aug. 28) CDC Softens Covid-19 Testing Guidelines, Sparking Criticism (Aug. 26) T he 1,044 who signed the letter constitute more than 25% of current and former EIS officers dating back to the first class in 1951, he said. They include current CDC employees who are either working now as EIS officers or members of classes dating back to the 1980s, he said. Douglas Hamilton, a member of the EIS Class of 1991, said he signed the letter because he was concerned about protecting the CDC’s scientific credibility. “We’ve seen massive spinning or even rewriting of CDC recommendations,” said Dr. Hamilton, who retired from the CDC earlier this year. The CDC’s recommendations and leadership are critical to help often under-resourced state and local health departments respond effectively in a pandemic, said Jeanette Stehr-Green, a public-health consultant in Port Angeles, Wash., who signed the letter. Dr. Stehr-Green, a member of the EIS Class of 1984, said her team of 40 volunteer contact tracers grew confused on who to test for Covid-19 after the CDC dialed back its recommendations in August for who should get tested, saying people who didn’t have symptoms didn’t need to get tested even if they were in contact with a case. After discussing the matter, the team decided to keep testing, Dr. Stehr-Green said. The CDC later reversed course again and now says asymptomatic contacts should be tested. “A number of steps such as that have interfered with us doing the best job that we can,” said Dr. Stehr-Green, who has worked for the CDC, as well as state and local health departments. “The CDC has written the book on epidemic preparedness and how to respond. Their expertise has been ignored to the detriment of us all.” Write to Betsy McKay at [email protected] Uncertain Times Call for Trusted Facts
that doesnt mean anything. thats why we have a thread for specific policy criticism. we want real policy disputes not vague nebulous things like "he divides people". so what if he divides people. the goal isnt that we as a nation are one group with one philosophy, its to be wealthy and peaceful. also, at this point in our countries history we are already so wealthy and without real problems that the biggest fear other than war with china is growing government power taking over too much shit. like we dont need our universities and health care being managed by the feds. who knows what madness they would teach at universities that are totally "free" and funded/controlled by the feds. you would probbaly have to sign a form saying whiteness is evil. its best if we always at each others's throats and deadlocked with the government never doing anything. things are best when congress and the senate and president all hate each other and cant do anything. thats the system working. partisan division is good.
The same CDC that has flopped on their own guidelines on many occasions? The same CDC who only recently declared the virus was airborne, months well after conducting... science?? The same collection of scientist, board members, fellows and committee members who know nothing of running a country in it's entirety WITH judgement and a equal rights pandemic running for the front page??? Them, huh... I noticed in all that, there wasn't really a solution, but rather a cause. I'm over it
@CajunlostinCali theres a difference between flip flops and changing positions as you acquire more information. People so easily forget or ignore this disease was unknown 8 months ago and there was little data to go on. People including the CDC made decisions based on limited information. They didn’t know how contagious it was or exactly how it spread. The current position is based on more data and experience. So yes I’d trust their word over Trump’s ignorance any day.
