ConwayGamecock

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i remember in early March asking liberals if they thought Trump should have declared martial law to shut down major urban, coastal areas and they were AGHAST at the possibility of that sort of dictatorial action

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This is what is so pathetically dumbfounding about you Trumptards.

Donald Trump considered himself to be a master deal maker and negotiator. He considers himself to be a master at recognizing opportunity. He wrote the book titled, "The Art of the Deal".

But Trump was so stupid and self-insecure to see a GREAT political boon. To be a true political HERO. To lock down 2020, and perhaps even position himself to change federal law and give himself a 3rd or more terms.

Trump KNEW that the United States was depleted in PPE stocks for the next viral pandemic. He's had just about every nook and cranny of his Administration telling him this since 2016.

Dan Coates stated the biggest threat to the U.S. was a viral pandemic, even more than a nuclear attack.

Alex Azar stated what keeps him up at night, is a pandemic outbreak in the U.S.

Trump's own intelligence community - Coates, Wray, the CIA, the NSC were ALL telling him the U.S. was poorly prepared for a pandemic.

The HHS, under Azar, ran an pandemic exercise and gave Trump a report that essentially prophesied EXACTLY what we're going through. Right now. That report was in October of last year.


So Trump had all the ammo he needed. This is a bipartisan position in Congress. Trump had a TON of data to back him up.

Trump could have seized the day - gotten all these issues addressed pro-actively. Gotten PPE supplies replenished. Established branches of coordination and communication from his Administration to the state level. Formulated plans.

If the COVID-19 never happened, it was still a WIN - everyone was saying it needed to be done, and Trump would be able to claim that he did it. Because he did.

But if the COVID-19 DID happen, then Trump would be a true political HERO. It would have been true, documented LEADERSHIP - not fabricated, cooked-up claims of same. He would have saved countless LIVES.

Trump right now would be riding that train straight through 2020, instead of looking like the bumbling incompetent he is.

All it needed, was for Donald Trump to get his fat, orange arse out of his own way.

But Trump couldn't do even that, with his entire Administration in his ear. He couldn't close that deal, sitting in his lap.

You idiots here breaking your backs trying so hard to cover and lie for him. It's beyond words.... :lol: :bow:

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yes but he's MMQBing that argument and it makes no rational sense

the issue is EARLY appropriation of tests, b/c that's when fedgov was still in control. those tests weren't going to non-infected states much

however, AFTER testing was opened up to private industry, it exploded in those areas. that's not "appropriation" b/c it was out of the government's hands at that point

he/she is using data from after the government ceded control to argue about the situation when the government was in full control

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The "fedgov" is still supposed to be in full control, because the law states they are. The CDC has federal control over what state governments can/cannot do in regards to infectious disease.

The FDA has federal authority over drugs and testing devices and other medical devices that may be used or may be developed in times of pandemic infection.

It requires waivers and EUAs from the FDA, or they have the lawful right and authority to shut down state attempts to address infection and treatment at the state level. Even the CDC can be shut down by the FDA - a sister agency - if they do not follow approved methods.

Your implication that the "fedgov" handed over authorities on how to deal with this COVID-19, as if they have no more say in the matter, is cute in it's quaintness and naivety. Trump would NEVER give up authority of ANYTHING. The only thing he has given up is the responsibility. Not the same thing.


The CDC's first tests that had the negative control contamination were sent as kits to pre-CDC approved subordinate state labs to confirm their efficacy. These kits were designed to support 700 sample tests per kit, and 200 kits were sent out in early February (Feb. 5). They were NOT used to test patient samples, but only used to trial samples.

Once the defective negative controls were determined, the tests were sent back to CDC to determine why they failed. In the meantime, the CDC worked to fix the issue, which took most of February. Once they fixed the defect, they began sending out test kits to pre-approved state government labs, and by-passed the trial confirmation, allowing for those kits to be used to test actual patient samples. The # of test kits were still very low, some 250 a day.

By the end of February, the FDA agreed to drop regulations of pre-approving state testing labs, and allowed for private, commercial, and institutional labs to begin developing and conducting tests. These labs however were still heavily dependent on available supplies of needed test components from outside sources.

By mid March, the FDA (or CDC, not sure right now) dropped another regulation requiring all test results to be sent to the CDC offices in Atlanta, GA for confirmation, which was drastically slowing and bottle-necking test results, and creating a backlog of waiting samples.

Again, this was in middle March. Go check Chromedome's thread and see where the daily test cases start kicking upwardly. It was middle March. THAT was when we finally stopped running in place on top of the water, and starting progressing forward in testing. The middle of March.

The "fedgov" has had it's fingers in this pie the whole way. It hasn't given up "control" of anything - it merely started getting out of everyone's way. It's still not out the whole way, however.

But the private industry has still struggled to ramp up manufacture of all the test components - swabs, vials, reagent compounds, extraction chemicals. There's still been a huge depletion of PPE supplies for other protective gear that is needed for safe application of the tests.

Again, it is the "fedgov" - the President of the United States - that has sole authority to enact the Defense Production Act. The state governments do not have this power. The President could have invoked this authority from the start, since his administration knew for years that PPE stockpiles for such a viral pandemic was depleted.

Still, Trump waited until March 18 to declare his intention to use the DPA, but didn't actually use it until Mar. 27th for General Motors, and then April 2nd for several companies to manufacture N95 masks, nearly a month later after it was well known there were few supplies of such masks available. Just 5 days ago, they announced they would use the DPA to ramp up manufacture of swabs.

Again, this is FEDERAL GOVERNMENT control, not state government. A State Governor in Wyoming cannot do a damned thing to make a business in New Mexico manufacture emergency supplies for them.

AGAIN, there has been ZERO concession of control. The ONLY thing Trump has sought to do from the beginning, is deny responsibility.

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So again, for the slow learners, Fauci, Johns Hopkins, Scott Gottlieb, every pandemic "expert" in the country told Trump the CDC was the world's most capable organization in addressing an epidemic. The CDC said the quality of tests was critical, and the CDC needed oversight of uniform quality. What would you have had Trump do? Say "screw you guys, I don't trust the CDC. I'm gonna do my own thing" ?

Of course not!
Had he done that you be pitching conniption fits about it.

Meanwhile Congress was doing what?
Perhaps you've forgotten?

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So again, for the slow learners, Fauci, Johns Hopkins, Scott Gottlieb, every pandemic "expert" in the country told Trump the CDC was the world's most capable organization in addressing an epidemic. The CDC said the quality of tests was critical, and the CDC needed oversight of uniform quality. What would you have had Trump do? Say "screw you guys, I don't trust the CDC. I'm gonna do my own thing" ?

Of course not!
Had he done that you be pitching conniption fits about it.

Meanwhile Congress was doing what?
Perhaps you've forgotten?

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So again, for the brain-dead Trumptards here.

Fauci is considered one of the the - if not THE - foremost U.S. expert on infectious diseases and viral pandemics.

Fauci was this under the Obama Administration.

Fauci was this under the W. Bush Administration.

Fauci was this under the Clinton Administration.

Fauci was this under the H.W. Bush Administration.

Fauci was becoming this under the Reagan Administration.


The other experts don't earn their accolades from the bottom of cracker-jack boxes. Just like you morons don't earn your ignorance from any higher-learning institutions.

The fact is, the CDC was in fact the world's most capable organization in addressing pandemics. They didn't exactly lie or exaggerate.

But unfortunately, the CDC is STILL a sub-department of a cabinet-level department of the federal government, and as such serves at the pleasure of the President of the United States.

Even if the pleasure of that President falls along the lines of a 5th-grader....

I would expect Trump - being the President - to be a leader. You talk like it was the CDC who was advising Trump that the COVID-19 was going to be nothing. You talk like it was Trump who was constrained by Redfield from taking COVID-19 seriously a month sooner, and from getting a proper test out to the masses in sufficient numbers, and from restocking a dangerously depleted federal stockpile of PPE equipment, and communicating to the state governments to do the same themselves.

You talk like you have no clue what you're talking about....

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By design.

Officially, it is called These United States

Fedgov was never intended to be a central ruler.

The premise that Washington DC has the Constitutional authority to micro manage this is false.

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That design was called the Articles of Confederation. It hasn't been our nation's constitution since the late 1700s. You need to catch up.


Then why are U.S. tax payers paying their hard-earned money to a FEDERALLY-CONTROLED AND GOVERNED Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Why does it exist? You dumb Repubs are supposed to decry big federal government - now we have this federal agency that YOU SAY doesn't have a mission statement? Are YOU fine with that?

Why is the President of the United States doing daily pressers about this? Why hasn't he had ONE SINGLE STATE GOVERNOR appear at even ONE SINGLE one of his pressers? It's their show, right? What the hell is Trump doing?

Regardless of whether or not Washington DC has Constitutional authority to micro manage this is a little after the fricking fact that they sure as hell micro-managed this into the ground to begin with, despite what you say. HELLO! Have you been vacationing on a deserted island for the last 3 months?

They prevented those states from developing their own tests for over a month, which is a YUGE reason why we've been behind in this race since the starting gun fired.


Please. Just return to the little kids' table. This discussion is above your head....

It was WAAAY LOOONG over due. Trump has been using these pressers as his "I am Iron Man" moment, when his aides have been trying to get him to keep to the cards.




Trump is NOT Iron Man. He is Iron Brain Man.....

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Contact Tracing seems like a colossal waste of effort. By the time you found out someone was infected, especially in an urban area, they would have interacted with too many people for it to be at all useful.

It’s also disturbing from a freedom and privacy standpoint.

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Yeah, like its not so much of a disturbance of privacy when the coroner splits open your bodies' breastplate and cracks open your ribcage as he/she performs their mandated autopsy....


Contact tracing - like asymptomatic preventative mass testing - was REALLY effective early on in the initial stages of COVID-19 spread, but of course Trump screwed that pooch into the ground.

Utah is one of the bottom states in the U.S. in terms of cases and deaths, so perhaps the spread is not already a foregone conclusion there.

But for ALL states, it's already consensus medical opinion that increased testing will be needed for the re-opening of local economies throughout the nation. Businesses and community leaders MUST have knowledge that if they re-open businesses, they won't be sending healthy people into close-quarter activities with others who are infected with the COVID-19.

Contact tracing is easy, simple, and is a system that has been used now for decades. Unlike past flu epidemics, or really any other past viral pandemic outbreak, the country is largely in a shut-down mode right now, with most states conducting various stay-at-home and social distancing practices. Practices again, that we have not really ever done before.

This actually makes your above opinion - like 99.999% of opinions posted on this forum - largely ignorant and uneducated. As people are actively practicing social distancing, it currently makes it easier and more effective to contact trace for the COVID-19 now than it has to contact trace for any other past virus.

People who are sick or have been infected with the COVID-19 in recent past, are much better able to list any and all other people that they have been in contact with in recent days, even weeks. For past flu seasons, as an example, people sick with the flu continued to go to work, go shopping at malls, and socialize with others. They have a harder time listing all of those people.

Likewise, if you did come into contact with someone else, and you gave them the COVID-19, THAT person was less likely to then mix and mingle with others, because they are also practicing social distancing right now.

So the chances of rapid infection is much lesser right now than with any past viruses, and therefore the ability to more accurately trace contacts is much greater.....

Yeah hahahahahahaha yeah. Like, remember that time Obama said.......and remember that one time that Bush said......and remember those 218,514 times Trump said.......






yeah heh heh.....

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Keep cheering those 1st downs, moron....

It amazes me how STUPID and dishonest you Lefties are.

Isn't it obvious now that SUPPOSED high-intellect does not necessarily a good President make?

Let's say for example that us Trumpkins WERE to cede the notion that Obama was a much smarter man (altho' I don't buy the hype) than Trump.

That still doesn't help you guys because the FACT is Trump is inarguably a much better President and leader of men than Obama ever dreamed.

This silly obsession with Trumps' foibles speaks volumes about your own insecurities.

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LOL at how MAD you are that your man also seems like he has dementia, but he actually doesn't, that is just how he rolls.

Are you envious wishing that you could say your man sounds like he had dementia, because he actually does? You're on the outside, looking in?? Did you know that people who actually suffer from dementia, feel that same way?

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I voted for Trump. I will again. I watched his comments live. He sounded like an idiot.

But the alternative has dementia.

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People with dementia sound like idiots.


So you choose a guy who sounds like an idiot. Or you choose a guy who sounds like an idiot, and has a good reason to.

To each their own, I guess..... :dunno:

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Its about time for the silent majority to get loud.
Every middle of the road, non extreme person in this country need to get off their arse and say "enough is enough".
I have a terrible feeling that we will see bloodshed in this country over this situation, no matter how it turns out. There will be extremists from one side or another that won't agree and it will get out of hand.
The only light at the end of the tunnel, is that might be what it takes to get us back on the right path as a country.

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I have felt for a long long time, that if elections for state and federal governments were patriotically supported to the point that we regularly saw 80%+ voter turnouts year after year, that 90% of this nation's problems would be solved.

As it is, we regularly struggle to get more than 50% voter turnouts, even for presidential elections. Regardless of what political party affiliation you identify with, with that kind of turnout at the ballot boxes, NO ONE truly gets who they vote for, and our country ends up being governed by the wrong people....