Trump's Response to COVID-19

Yeah--and I'm actually much cuter than I appear to be.

 

Especially when you consider that 67% of the statistics you see on the web are fabricated on the spot.

 

Maybe, but you gotta admit the whole "lock her up" issue was so "Goebbels-esque", was it not.



Yeah... I know you would never admit to that. But fuck that reality shyt, right?

 

Actually I agree.

I don't know the origins, but I heard it one day, and the next week it was like "The Wave" at a stadium. So I don't buy the spontaneity until it became fully ingrained, about a month later. But in the mass media age, it could also have spread because of the way the left-leaning press instantly started whining about it. This drove the far right into "kick 'em when they're down" mode. The rest just fell into place.

The weird thing is that we don't have a single person leading the propaganda effort for either side. It has become a mainstream occupation to create and direct the flow of propaganda. Even on yootoob you see this. While Hitler kept a certain distance from most of the propaganda, it was still assumed to be his mandate. Especially since so much of it was "interpretive" Mein Kampf.

 

He was listening to what the minister of everything, Jared Kushner, was telling him.

 

So, if I'm honest...

The response was way too slow. But now it looks like there is bipartisan participation in drafting an economic bailout. That's the good news. The bad news is it might not solve the problem(s).

 

Yeah, like that.

 

I agree. There seemed to be an initial attempt on the part of Trump and his allies, somewhat slowed by the critical reaction, to pin this on China. This fits their reflexive xenophobic scapegoating approach: if you can't blame it on Obama, Hillary, or the Democrats (which they also tried) blame it on the ferriners. I do think, though, that the involvement of China in pandemics might be addressed without racism. I've read that the Sars corona virus pandemic back in 2002-3 was also caused by Chinese horseshoe bats from Yunnan province. Apparently some Chinese actually eat the bats, not because they're starving, but because traditional Chinese medicine indicated they have medicinal properties. But more likely, exposure came from intermediary hosts: civets, in the case of SARS; pangolins, in the case of Covid-19, which were somehow contaminated by bat contact, probably through droppings or saliva. These animals were sold in wild animal markets.
Tracking SARS back to its source
New Coronavirus 'Won't Be The Last' Outbreak To Move From Animal To Human

Belatedly, China has tried to close the wild animal markets.
China has shut all of its wild animal markets – it was long overdue
I have no problem criticizing China for its early handling of this crisis, but the blame game seems unproductive at this point. China is probably less totalitarian than it seems to be, tries to be and would like to be. Dealing with 1.5 billion people, naturally ornery like the rest of us, is even a challenge for God.

 

Yet everyone knows it came out of a china. They also know that the chinese community do not have good personal hygiene hence why people around the world are getting this horrible illness.

 

The vast majority of China is a third world country, the powers that be want to portray it as a 1st world country, and it is to some extent.
Where would China be without their manufacturing base?

 

The face of a man when he's forced to help the common man, instead of helping his wealthy donors...

 

They are a communist country. It just tells us how fucking feral their leader is.

 

Yeah and because of china being a communist government and refusing to do something about their own virus and hygiene everyone gets their sickness.

 

Imagine if america stunk like a toilet and refused to fix up it's hygiene.
That's the issue in china. Some of their towns stink like a toilet because of the lack of hygiene in them. So people become ill. People look to go on holiday to other countries. Chinese people travel when unwell. That's what causes the virus.

 

When the need to facepalm outweighs the need to not touch your face during the pandemic...

 

Pick a major city. Start with San Francisco.

 

Some people have their own towns that might have this problem.
Ok. We will start with San Francisco.

This place seems to be ok now but i remember when i was over there for a few days it did stink like people had pissed in public there.
Not healthy.

Now compare San Francisco to all of China and you will find that China is worse.
There is a lot of smog in china.
Not good for people's health.

Look at china's dietry habits
Eating live animals isn't good.
Eating animals that are considered pets is not good either.

Look at the great wall of china.
There are no public toilets there.
This is what my parents noticed when they walked over this. They had to go past people who were peeing and shitting on this wall.
Gross.

Next you look at the Chinese and the way how they look after themselves as tourists.
They have never heard of toilets before and will drink the toilet water.

They spit everywhere. They leave their snot everywhere. (which is more disgusting).
They piss on things that they shouldn't and will continue to pee in public.

They have poor hygiene.

 

I don't see the connection between their being communist and not doing anything about the virus and hygiene, unless you're trying to say that since they're communist and can order people around more easily they should be able to do it and can be blamed for not being more totalitarian . Government incompetence played a part with COVID-19, but that goes along with many different forms of government and economic systems. Being authoritarian probably played and initial role, when the government tried the Trumpian approach of denying the problem and was able to follow it up for awhile by suppressing information. Once it acknowledged reality, it was able to mobilize a shelter in place response that went beyond what most industrial democracies would be able to implement. And it seems to have been effective.

As for the hygiene you're talking about, yes indeed that's a problem in a country of 1.5 billion people, that even a totalitarian government is hard pressed to solve. Like SARS, this virus seems to have begun with the horseshoe bat population in the caves of Wuhan, China. It's unlikely the people ate the bats directly, but in the case of SARS, the intermediate hosts were civets and for Covid-!9 it may be pangolins, sold in the wild animal markets of southern China. The Chinese government has belatedly acted to close those markets. Changing the dining habits of the population may be a more difficult task, especially where irrational beliefs in folk medicine are involved.

So what exactly is your beef? Communism? That this would not happen under a capitalist system, or a capitalist system could do it much better? I agree that Communism is a rotten system, but in dealing with this particular problem, it would be hard to demonstrate ours is superior. We have yet to see how this plays out, and Italy and Spain aren't encouraging examples. Is it Chinese society and culture? China is still in many respects a developing country, with historically lax environmental standards that made it attractive to foreign investors. Concepts of basic hygiene are still wanting, and there are many believers in traditional folk remedies that including eating things that are risky. Some Chinese believe wild animals have more nutritional values than domesticated ones, or can boost male virility. Public education campaigns challenging such unscientific beliefs are underway by the government, but superstitions die slowly.

Or just China? We should just blame China. Where exactly does that lead? Diverting responsibility from the governments that need to deal with the problem here? Playing the blame game ? And what, if anything, should we do to China to punish it for "giving us the virus"? We need to focus on the problem at hand, and how to deal with it effectivley.