You all know I'm no faan of Orangeman, but WHY is every member of the media saying we're in

[napi21]

this mess because of failure of leadership. I KNOW we have no leadership, but as a Country, are we that inept that we can't at least begin to prepare for what the medical community knew was coming? There's a guy on MSNBC now telling Rachel we are grossly underprepared. Not enough testing, not enough hospital beds, the list is LONG! I agree a good leader would have instructed the proper agencies to get on it, but I think there should be other leaders who should have stepped forward to get the ball rolling on the right track.

[msongs]

1. because trump fired people and dismantled protective agencies that could

have gotten us a big head start on containment

[RKP5637]

3. Absolutely!!! K&R!!! n/t

[rzemanfl]

5. + 1,000. n/t

[malaise]

18. THIS

[uponit7771]

19. K&R, China reported CV19 genetic sequence on Jan 12!! We still don't have WHO's mass test kits !!

[littlemissmartypants]

24. Trump refused to take the test kits offered from the WHO, fyi. nt

[uponit7771]

26. WOW !!!

[littlemissmartypants]

35. Yep. nt

[secondwind]

36. Because he wanted to make money by investing in

private companies who are making test kits.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. There are no other leaders. Everyone who has the power to do these things is a Trump stooge,

and they are afraid to take a dump without His Lardship's permission.

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. Cuts, cuts and more cuts

Yes, there has been a huge lack of leadership.

[at140]

6. Yes failure in leadership in many places, but buck stops where?

at the president's desk.

[leftstreet]

7. We were grossly under prepared decades ago

When healthcare is a profit-first business, that's what happens

[58Sunliner]

8. How many hospitals are run as non-profits? Don't forget bureaucracy. It's a killer. Literally.

[marybourg]

28. Far fewer than there used to be.

[Hekate]

31. Hospitals started consolidating quite awhile ago. There's far fewer of them as a result...

...and mostly for-profit.

[cyclonefence]

9. Because Trump insisted

on giving public statements that directly contradicted what his own administration's medical experts said about the severity of this illness. He was overtly more interested in keeping "his" numbers down for political purposes than in helping the country combat this illness. Because he lied about the availability of testing. Because he himself ostentatiously ignored medical advice and has continued to do things like shaking hands (of course, he also stared at the solar eclipse with eye protection). Etc.

[uponit7771]

20. +1, Trump empirically made things worse

[RockRaven]

10. Repukes want POTUS to be a god-king (when he's one of them anyway), so what do you get?

You get this delusional sadist killing Americans by actively stopping the relevant experts from preparing, coordinating, communicating, and all-around doing their jobs, or worse when he outright eliminates their jobs.

That's why we are unprepared. And the right-wing's fellation of the unitary executive and emboldening of Trump by submitting to his every abuse and transgression means there is no available means for ANYONE who knows better to actually DO BETTER when Trump is determined to stop them.

Trump owns this entirely. AND SO DOES EVERY REPUBLICAN. They've been building up to this, brick by brick, for half a century.

[TexasBushwhacker]

11. It's a failure of the American healthcare system

which the Democrats have been trying to improve and the Republicans have done everything they can to dismantle the ACA, cut Medicare and Medicaid and help the FOR PROFIT system we have. Capitalism works great for some things, but healthcare isn't one of them.

[GulfCoast66]

13. Not quite. We don't have a healthcare system. We have a healthcare industry.

[MoonlitKnight]

33. Sickcare Industry

It’s certainly not about health.

[gristy]

12. All those things would cost money.

And none of it was to be had. Because of this administration.

[stillcool]

14. Federal agencies used to work

No more. State governments are our only hope.

[VOX]

15. We are ALL Puerto Rico now. The Republicans have finally "drowned the government in the bathtub."

We have a ZERO functioning federal government. 45, Moscow Mitch and the entire Republican Party have slashed, cut, left posts vacant, vouchered, run up the debt to “feed the wealthy”— effectively turning the U.S. into a “shithole country.”

The blame for the current state of affairs rests SOLELY with fuck-everyone-but-the-rich Republicans.

[gibraltar72]

16. All Trump wanted to control was the message.

[ReformedGOPer]

17. Remember when we were inundated with the Ebola virus, under Obama in 2014?

No, me either. Pres Obama, along with his team, showed true leadership by preparing for the crises to come. We got through it because of Obama's leadership.

[herding cats]

21. They should have been allowed to stockpile much needed PPE gear.

Not to mention supportive equipment like respirators. However, there was no funding, thus no stockpiles.

It all comes down to being underfunded. Non-profit hospitals, which service most in this country, can't do such because they don't have the means and depend on the federal government to assist them in such. There was zero assistance. Literally, zero in what should have been out preparatory phase.

Don't even get me started on the fight about testing. Some day this will all come to light and it will add yet another vile layer to the rotten onion that has been the Trump administration.

[napi21]

22. Thanks for mentioning that. I should have known re the non-profits but never put 2+2 together. I

knew DT eliminated the group BO had established to fight problems like that and certainly blame him for trying to eliminate everything with Obama attached to it. but I forgot the feds fund all the extra equipment & supplies needed for an emergency. All the critics are right. This disaster IS the fault of worse than lack of leadership. It's BAD leadership!

[herding cats]

25. You're fine. You asked an honest question.

I respect that. I gave an honest answer.

We're in a mess, not of either of our making. We're both just doing our best to muddle through.

[SlogginThroughIt]

23. Really?

Now we don’t expect the president to lead when we are facing a crisis? We just sort of let him off the hook for completely lying to the country and refusing to take steps that we should have?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

27. See your point. We can't just blame trump. Look

at Inslee and Cuomo - they are leading.

[uponit7771]

30. Yes we can, he fired the Pandemic response team, rejected the WHO spec test, spread fake news ...

... about the lethality of the disease and then refused to correct and give guidance outside of economics going forward.

These things he did ..DIRECTLY .. by himself

[Laura PourMeADrink]

39. No argument there. The point is the we have to rely

On other people to step up.

[uponit7771]

41. ..👍🏼

[Laura PourMeADrink]

40. Love this tweet response to Malcolm

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Hekate]

29. Trump deliberately hollowed out the government, especially of career civil servants...

...the so-called Deep State. He started this on Day One. Also, he fires and persecutes anyone who disagrees with him.

Steve Bannon called it "deconstructing the administrative state" and it was a pet project of his.

For instance, Barack Obama built up two programs to be responsible for pandemic research and response. I think they were in the NIH and CDC. He put brilliant people in charge.

In 2018 Donald Trump gutted those programs, fired the scientists, and defunded them.

So when people talk about disastrous lack of leadership, they are using that as a euphemism for Trump's deliberate destruction of the federal government.

The current catastrophe is MIHOP on the part of Trump, with lots of help from the Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell.

[mr_lebowski]

32. Spot on and very well said ...

[Caliman73]

34. That is not how Federalism works.

States and counties can take some measures on their own, but are HEAVILY dependent on the Federal government for funding and for mandates. States rely on the CDC for accurate information on spread, patterns, tracking, movement, and other logistical data.

Why is it that States declare states of emergency during disasters? To allow them to access federal money and expertise.

As others have said, Trump cut the budgets of the very agencies that are meant to deal with situations like this. He fired the pandemic response team AND he has placed stupid sycophantic cronies in positions that should be filled by sober, professionals.

Most of large counties like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Clara, etc... are expending their resources to try to prevent the spread, but they still rely on their States to help and the states rely on the Federal government. As of now, that Federal Government is muzzled and gutted so they cannot be relied on. Smaller counties and state even, do not have the resources to cope.

[lunatica]

37. Because he fired the people who knew how to do the jobs

and then never filled the positions. Or, he hired people like you and me to the job of those officials. Speaking for myself, I don’t have a clue about medical shit. How about you?

[KY_EnviroGuy]

38. Because of Republicans and their beloved unfettered libertarian capitalism.

Leadership is top-down and Federal leadership is key to all, whether we like it or not. The same (and in parallel) applies to leadership in major business groups such as banking.

Example 1:
Republicans, whether local city or in the U.S. Congress, follow religiously in lockstep with Trump and the right-wing bureaucracy across the board. For example, it's known that many Rethug governors are following Trump's quenching of public info and his down-playing of the seriousness of this crisis.

Example 2:
Our legislature in KY is totally Rethug controlled which seriously limits what our new Democratic governor can do, although he is trying and is setting a great example. This is the case in several states and Rethug legislators morbidly fear upper level Party leadership and right-wing media.

Example 3:
Unfettered, poorly regulated capitalism has closed hundreds of small local clinics and hospitals around the nation due to M&A and gutting of local, state and federal tax bases across the board. Many locations that were operating break-even or at a slight loss were closed because profits were low despite crucial social functionality. Our general public has become completely enamored with the stock market (rather than savings accounts) so everything having to be at a profit is now OK.

Example 4;
The ultra-wealthy, corporate leaders and Federal politicians are mostly shielded from the effects of public disaster and their wealth is always hedged against losses. Therefore, it's easy for them to care only about profits and disregard social consequeces.

---------

Civil preparedness is a non-profit function. So, our unpreparedness goes back to decades of tax and civil agency cutting from top to bottom and the destruction of the foundations of government by Republicans.

That's been with us so long now, the public perceives it as normal and the right way.

KY rant done......

[Fresh_Start]

42. 90 days ago WHO offered us tests...and we refused

and that came from the top

yesterday we installed flight restrictions...but excluded flights which were convenient to Trump properties in europe

someone in the administration decided that coronavirus briefings should be classified..

that is the leadership we have...and that is why he is being blamed

[spanone]

43. No republicans will challenge trump. It's sad, lame and dangerous People are dying.