[burger]

The United States was probably one of the top 2-3 most prepared countries to deal with a pandemic. There was a 60+ page pandemic response manual prepared for the White House. When the transition from 44 to 45 happened, someone who was since fired or otherwise removed from a position of influence to use it, was really happy to have and appreciated the guidance because he planned to have the new administration use it if ever faced with the need, so he thought.

IOW, the White House had an instruction manual to follow - probably few countries had - but never took it out of the proverbial drawer and totally pissed away the first mover advantage the U.S. had. Who the hell knows why the manual was ignored, but anyone who thinks the White House hasn't failed spectacularly really needs to read this:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/25...cil-149285 

No, the virus couldn't have been completely stopped, but had recommendations that were available and produced by people who knew WTF they were doing actually been followed, which includes responding quickly and in a coordinated fashion, we wouldn't be facing the catastraf*ck on the scale we are now.  

Highlighting failures and blaming people are two sides of the same coin. This post isn't an effort to blame anyone as much as it is to highlight the value of having the best people in charge, and the importance of holding those who screw up accountable. Because without accountability, there will be nothing but more disaster ahead.

Hindsight is always 20/20. Perhaps if our government, including the House Intelligence committee that is suppose to oversee threats to our country, hadn't been laser focused on a two bit phone call during December and January, we could have avoided this whole thing. The alleged best in our country were looking at the Ukraine when they should have been looking at China.

Cardcrimson, almost every single one of your posts since this started has been a tendentious defense of the administration.  The House  Intelligence committee is not responsible for implementing pandemic response, nor does it hire/fire staff (see this article for more on that failing: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/us/po...e=Homepage).  You may be surprised to learn that government can do more than one thing at the same time.  If Trump hadn't fired the top pandemic response people in NSC/CDC, they could have been working on...wait for it...pandemic response, even if Trump himself was working 24/7 on impeachment responses (he wasn't--see: golf every weekend).  

And it's not hindsight.  The failures of response (like not implementing the defense production act to make more ventilators or PPE and not ramping up testing and contact tracing, as basically every expert is begging for) are ongoing every day. 

So please stop with the reflexive defenses of Trump and obfuscation (like "the real problem was impeachment.").  People are dying by the thousands, and the best you can do is "It's partly the democrats' fault."  Useless.

[burger]

The United States was probably one of the top 2-3 most prepared countries to deal with a pandemic. There was a 60+ page pandemic response manual prepared for the White House. When the transition from 44 to 45 happened, someone who was since fired or otherwise removed from a position of influence to use it, was really happy to have and appreciated the guidance because he planned to have the new administration use it if ever faced with the need, so he thought.

IOW, the White House had an instruction manual to follow - probably few countries had - but never took it out of the proverbial drawer and totally pissed away the first mover advantage the U.S. had. Who the hell knows why the manual was ignored, but anyone who thinks the White House hasn't failed spectacularly really needs to read this:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/25...cil-149285 

No, the virus couldn't have been completely stopped, but had recommendations that were available and produced by people who knew WTF they were doing actually been followed, which includes responding quickly and in a coordinated fashion, we wouldn't be facing the catastraf*ck on the scale we are now.  

Highlighting failures and blaming people are two sides of the same coin. This post isn't an effort to blame anyone as much as it is to highlight the value of having the best people in charge, and the importance of holding those who screw up accountable. Because without accountability, there will be nothing but more disaster ahead.

Hindsight is always 20/20. Perhaps if our government, including the House Intelligence committee that is suppose to oversee threats to our country, hadn't been laser focused on a two bit phone call during December and January, we could have avoided this whole thing. The alleged best in our country were looking at the Ukraine when they should have been looking at China.

Cardcrimson, almost every single one of your posts since this started has been a tendentious defense of the administration.  The House  Intelligence committee is not responsible for implementing pandemic response, nor does it hire/fire staff (see this article for more on that failing: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/us/po...e=Homepage).  You may be surprised to learn that government can do more than one thing at the same time.  If Trump hadn't fired the top pandemic response people in NSC/CDC, they could have been working on...wait for it...pandemic response, even if Trump himself was working 24/7 on impeachment responses (he wasn't--see: golf every weekend).  

And it's not hindsight.  The failures of response (like not implementing the defense production act to make more ventilators or PPE and not ramping up testing and contact tracing, as basically every expert is begging for) are ongoing every day. 

So please stop with the reflexive defenses of Trump and obfuscation (like "the real problem was impeachment.").  People are dying by the thousands, and the best you can do is "It's partly the democrats' fault."  Useless.