is the situation in those states all Trump's fault? of course not. it's a combination of the republican strategy of "state's rights" as a way to get around federal legislative gridlock that they've been employing for decades and Trump's general strategy of doubting experts. so you have governors, senators, congressmen, etc in these states that are seeing support for doubting experts and are being given leeway to do things in their state.

but make no mistake states like Cali, with strict state and local law restrictions, are still seeing a massive increase.

really it's a chicken vs egg thing. the chicken is covid unpreparedness, the egg is an overweight population with a nonstandard access to healthcare that's penalized for calling in sick with docking vacation. should we have prepared more because of these factors, or are the factors something we couldn't possibly prepare for fast enough? chicken, egg, chicken, egg.

its like a broke person that has been told for years to clean their act up, like yes u did just lose your job, but you've also been underemployed for a decade and bad with saving money. but hey, the DJJ hit historic highs, so vote Trump because "once this is all over" he'll be good for the economy. facts are we need to get started on fixing these deficiencies as a country, from a federal level. we dont need Sanders type changes, because those wont get passed. snowballs dont start out at a 5 foot diameter, they get there by rolling a fist sized ball.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Jul 16 2020 07:43am

Yes, similar rule in Germany: masks are required in shops, supermarkets and public transport, plus in outdoor settings where keeping a distance is impossible - but NOT outdoors when a distance of 2 meters can be kept.

The mask requirement is still disastrous for retail, people just dont enjoy shopping non-essential things when they have to wear a mask (myself included) - but it's probably inevitable. And like I already said a couple of days ago: if the virus spirals out of control again, retail would suffer even more.

personally i dont mind mask wearing when shopping. im not there to shoot the shit anyways i like to be in and out. im debating getting a spiderman mask to make it more interesting

it's funny how every time republicans mess up (like this time, by defying scientists and experts, and putting their stock portfolios and corporate owners above american lives), you people are like: well, i guess BOTH sides messed up - let's not point fingers and use this for cheap political points.
the simple truth is: your 'president' is the idiot, who decided to make it a partisan issue in the first place, out of some cynical political (mis)calculation. now that it backfires so badly, you all of a sudden cry about bringing politics into this. that's truly mindblowing levels of hypocrisy.

Governors Newsom (D) in California and DeWine (R) in Ohio did follow the scientists and experts - and now the situation is spiraling out of control in their states anyway, necessitating new restrictions or even lockdowns. The problems in the U.S. run deeper than just "Trump is an idiot, and if he wasnt so incompetent and reckless, everything would be fine".

that'd only be a valid point if trump and his republican cult hadn't undermined those efforts from day one. you know that ohio and california are states within the US, right? literally millions of republicans live there. the whole messaging of what should be done by experts and reasonable people was undermined from the get go by trump's cynical efforts to save face and stock portfolios, engaging in flippant dismissal, appeasement, and conspiracy theories - now you're trying to tell me that had no impact, just because some governors had a more science based approach?

seriously, get out of here with your lazy hackery... there is no way you can spin to distract from the fact that trump's lack of leadership, as well as his open defiance of science and expertise, is directly responsible for the death of probably tens of thousands of americans, multiple 9/11s for sure, a couple of thousand benghazis.

but hey, now since the CDC doesn't get the data anymore, i'm sure we will see a rapid decline of cases, and great success stories. /s

americans live in a country where if there was an order for all citizens to shelter in place or else be fined people would drive a big truck around just to get ticketed as a badge of honor and college kids would host a keg party. california, alabama, dc, doesnt matter the state. and we have a president who supports this type of behavior vocally, and doubts any plans that might hurt his election chances so he makes up b.s. excuses to sow doubt.

its not all his fault, he's just a conduit for absolute fucking idiots. and he likes it.

So you're saying it's the Republicans living in California who are to blame for the state's problems? The young folks crowding the beaches in LA and ignoring any social distancing - a D+70 demographic that hates Trump and doesnt give a shit about what he has to say - have nothing to do with it, it was only the 10-20% of young Republicans living in the region? Come on!


Just for the record: I dont dispute that Trump has failed in his leadership on coronavirus and has to bear disproportionate blame for the country's failure to deal with the virus. What I vehemently disagree with, however, is the notion that he bears the sole responsibility and everything would have been fine without him.




Ok, that was funny.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jul 16 2020 08:28am

no, i'm not saying that it's exclusively republicans' fault, i'm sure there are many democrats who bought into the conspiracy theories and appeasement rhetoric around the pandemic, or who simply don't give a shit about their fellow citizens.
my post was a reply to your attempt to minimise trump's and his party's role in this by acting like the only factor for a state's numbers is the policies of their respective governor, which is of course complete bullshit. if you don't have a clear course nationwide, a competent leader, and a united message, then a flippant / ignorant / defiant populace will be the inevitable result.

states that TRIED to do the right thing but still failed don't exist in a vacuum. they are NOT at all proof of trump's rhetoric and actions not being that detrimental, but actually of the opposite - as proven by many countries who took similar approaches as those governors and were significantly more successful.

We have a state full of dumb hillbillys who love Donald Trump and have followed his anti-mask movement. QAnon is pretty big here now. We just have a bunch of flat earthers.

Potus is undermining our governor, and our governor doesn't want to resort to authoritarian measures.

It might sound weird to a european but personal responsibility is important here for our leadership.

A lot of black people are somewhat afraid to be wearing masks into places because if things like the kid in Dayton being murdered for holding a product from the store, they remember the times that lead up to our race riots in cincinnati, Ray Tensing the cop who was wearing Confederate logos when he killed a black citizen, etc. They are at fault as well.

The reason it is getting worse is poor decision making with individuals who tend to be uneducated or ideologues.

Georgia passed a law stating masks cannot be mandated in their state. That is something to criticize.



Seen a gas mask at home depot last night lol.

This post was edited by Skinned on Jul 16 2020 09:07am