COVID-19 Megathread 4: Grandma Got Run Over by the Dow Jones

[Brittain33]

I don't see anything here about his masterful, groundbreaking decisiveness in banning travel from China that one time three months ago. We have no right to criticize him when he took that singular transformative decision. 

Five Weeks ago:

Trump Accuses Media and Democrats of Exaggerating Coronavirus Threat

Mr. Trump said that news outlets like CNN were “doing everything they can to instill fear in people,” while some Democrats were “trying to gain political favor by saying a lot of untruths.” His acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, went even further, telling conservative activists that journalists were hyping the coronavirus because “they think this will bring down the president; that’s what this is all about.”

At a campaign rally on Friday evening in South Carolina, the president denounced Democrats, describing the concerns they have expressed about the virus as “their new hoax” after the Russia investigation and then impeachment. “Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” he said. “We did one of the great jobs. You say, ‘How’s President Trump doing?’ They go, ‘Oh, not good, not good.’ They have no clue. They don’t have any clue. They cannot even count the votes in Iowa.”

Of the three officials, Mr. Azar went the furthest in suggesting that the United States might face a difficult next phase of the coronavirus, if it spreads. Mr. Trump has repeatedly told advisers he is concerned that Mr. Azar and others in the administration are presenting an “alarmist” view.

Following the president’s lead, Mr. Mulvaney also minimized concerns over the virus. “The flu kills people,” he said. “This is not Ebola. It’s not SARS, it’s not MERS. It’s not a death sentence; it’s not the same as the Ebola cris

[Brittain33]

The small business loans, which are absolutely vital to get fully functional immediately to prevent a massive wave of small business failures, are... a clusterf***
...
There are 30 million small businesses, a huge % of which need this to work, and need it now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next month. Now.

I can't hold the Trump Administration directly responsible for this - it was laughable to think you could launch a massive new program like this overnight. This is why you need items like this planned in advance so you can launch when it's needed. Unfortunately on its best days the Trump administration is merely reactive, whereas on most days it's actively destroying any knowhow and planning put there by previous leaders.

[Brittain33]

A taste of what could happen, if Hillary won. Reducing of flights from China likely would be considered xenophobic and US would have gotten (ten?) thousands of additional imported cases. A 1,000 new cases become a 1,000,000 in a month under the assumption that doubling rate time is ~3 days.

If Hillary Clinton had won, she never would have disbanded the Pandemic response team in the White House, let maintenance on ventilators lapse, and hollowed our all of the Cabinet departments and installed 4th rate kleptocrats as secretaries. She wouldn’t have spent two months ignoring scientists and calling Coronavirus a hoax in order to prop up the stock market. She would have led the country into a national shutdown earlier, saving countless lives, while using her bully pulpit to share scientific updates and truths about the pandemic.

We still would have had hundreds, maybe thousands of deaths. Republicans would be raving and raging against her for 100 Benghazis, holding hearings about how she let Americans die while endangering our freedoms with unconstitutional public health shutdowns. If the stock market fell, Republicans who voted for trillions in stimulus in this timeline would be calling for austerity and punishing the unemployed, causing the economy to slip further into recession as global trade and travel slumped. And Donald Trump would have won in a landslide on an “I told you so” platform, bringing in over 60 Republicans and a massive House majority.

[Brittain33]

Whether a President Clinton would have reduced casualties by 98-99% or merely 70-80% compared to the deaths from Trump’s shambolic leadership, we can all agree that a Republican-led Congress and Fox News led by Sean Hannity, Trish Regan, and other leading lights would have absolutely savaged her for not taking it seriously from the very beginning, and she would have been hauled before Congress for hearings and probably impeached. It would have been a United Republican front just like on Ebola on 2014.

[Brittain33]

Not interested in arguing with the Internet Research Agency, it’s beyond dispute that community spread in the U.S for months while Trump downplayed the crisis is why so many people will needlessly die.

[Brittain33]

“I’m going to imagine Hillary Clinton doesn’t ban travel from China and poof, everything is worse than the worst case scenario we’re already living” when:

1. Trump had Inksed up so many other things in the last three months, he’s already needlessly inflated the totals
2. Travel from China is just one of many possible sources of transmission, and once the virus is here, you have to tackle all of them—including community spread
3. Travel bans made things worse when all Americans came home to immigration and customs unprepared for the rush, causing them to infect each other in airports before flying home
4. In my imagination, Clinton bans travel from China too, so she saves even more lives. After all, if it’s the right thing to do, the Pandemic response team in the White House Trump dissolved would have recommended it. Unless we don’t believe experts matter, still.

[Brittain33]

https://twitter.com/AngrierWHStaff/status/1248299586600517632

They can use the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh again, this time as a hospital.

[Brittain33]

While many including myself are skeptical about trying to quickly reopen everything so soon
Ultimately it is Trumps call.

It's not, though, except in the states like Florida and Iowa where Republican governors are dependent on his goodwill. It's up to the governors.

[Brittain33]

Why was Nevada left out of the West Coast compact? It's a D trifecta that's pretty typically progressive aside from Sisolak. Is it because Sisolak was sluggish in getting started with emergency responses?

Nevada doesn't want California dictating about Las Vegas. Newsom probably hates people moving to Nevada because of high taxes and living costs. There is also a nasty puritanical streak in some progressives.

Are you seriously suggesting that Nevada wasn't invited out of dislike for gambling and prostitution? 

For several months, the poster argued that the ballot fraud conducted in NC-9 in 2018 was actually done for the benefit of Democrats.

[Brittain33]

It’s reactions like this as to why there are downplayers of climate change. Prediction after prediction wrong. It’s hard to make sensible policy decisions when models continue to be wrong.

The predictions about climate change have mostly been too optimistic compared to the reality we're already seeing. A lot of Republicans who say there are false predictions about climate change, are usually pointing to word choice by layman reporters in news articles rather than actual predictions. We are well and truly Inksed on climate change and are already halfway there.

[Brittain33]

"The act would expand relief to more Americans and includes a $2,000 monthly payment to every qualifying American over the age of 16 until employment returns to pre-COVID-19 levels."

I'm not against UBI, but having this in place until unemployment re-achieves historic 50-year-lows is quite a high bar. I think we'd be happy if it gets within a few points of 3.5%!

[Brittain33]

Guys, remember when jimrtex was a respected and knowledgeable poster who mostly focused on the nuts and bolts of redistricting? Me too.

We have always gotten this kind of contribution from him along with the maps and deep knowledge. It just hasn't happened on this subforum before.

[Brittain33]

You actually can't. This map simply shows which states were hit first. That is a factor almost entirely out of the governor's control.

It does correlate with South Dakota and Iowa having bad governors on coronavirus, though.

[Brittain33]

Revised further downward to 60,000 deaths.

Never should have shut the economy. Stupid overreaction.

THIS 👏 IS 👏 WHY 👏 IT 👏 WAS 👏 REVISED 👏 DOWN!