The Leadership Question

Dear Mr Crawford,

I write to you because you know and have worked with actual news hawks. I am a bit down on some of these friends and colleagues of yours right now. Some of them show up daily at the televised trump campaign rant that masquerades as a C19 Update. trump has advised them that he takes no ‘responsibility’ in the matter of this plague, and that it’s not his job to do anything but be a ‘back up’ for the governors. I take this to mean that trump is the self-designated benchwarmer, who spits at the news hawks, blames a fellow who retired from his position 3 1/2 years ago, and loudly takes credit for every run the team scores.

When is some news hawk going to ask, “Why are we here, asking you questions when you take no responsibility ? We should be out there (pointing) questioning the guys who are leaders.”

Someone ought to be brave enough to ask trump what it’s like to play 3d string and sit on the bench. Someone should ask where Americans should look for an actual leader, rather than an empty suit with an amplified megaphone. Someone should arise who can do channel Edward R. Murrow, and unmask the fraud.

Yours truly,

Xrepublican

Xrepublican, one word: Amen! – – Craig

STAY HOME STUPID!

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82 thoughts on “The Leadership Question”

  1. X-R, kudos to  karl on the issue

     

    realclearpolitics:

     

    As ABC News’ chief White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl has a close-up view of these dynamics, which he describes in his new book, “Front Row at the Trump Show.” Karl joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.
    Karl said there are two questions people should have about the White House coronavirus briefings: Should networks air them from start to finish and should White House reporters be covering them. Karl said the second question is easy because reporters ask “important questions” and they combat “disinformation” that has come out of the White House.
    […]
    “And whether or not they’re carried live, I think that’s a legitimate debate that should be held — done in newsrooms at all of the networks.”

  5. The much hyped USN Comfort has only 20 patients in NYC, restrictions require only patients who test negative and that can’t be done in a timely way. It’s a freaking joke. 

  7. Zoom is the best virtual meeting platform I’ve used yet. The security issues have existed For at least a year or two and have been published With directions to correct computer settings to avoid the security issues. 

    Zoom security bug lets attackers steal Windows passwords

    https://mashable.com/article/zoom-vulnerability-windows-passwords/
     

    As far as security vulnerabilities go, this one is pretty bad, as it doesn’t require a lot of knowledge to exploit. It does require the victim to actually click on a link, and it can be mitigated by tinkering with Windows’ security settings, but it’s definitely something Zoom should fix by changing the way the platform’s chat handles UNC links. 

    In the meantime, for a quick fix, go to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options -> Network security: Restrict NTLM: Outgoing NTLM traffic to remote servers and set to “Deny all”.

    Make those changes and don’t click links if prompted while using that program. 

  8. I read so many tweets a day which go “this should happen” or “that should happen “ and we all know that precisely none of these “shoulds” will happen or will stand a chance of happening until hubris runs its course, or we win an election so massively that the assholes get run outa town on rails, which are currently on back-order. 

  9. I move that “should” be stricken from the lexicon, to be replaced by “shall”and “will”. 

  10. sturge, don’t forget to order a substantial amount of tar and feathers to go with the rail back-orders

  11. Sturg, Twitter is one thing (along with Facebook) that I visit less than weekly. If I get an email telling me someone I’m interested in enough to check in on (there are probably half a dozen at best) I’ll visit. Aside from that I don’t bother and they don’t bother me. Cuts down dramatically on the number of WTFs I post. 

    And in news today, experts, including Dr. Fauci (Tony as I call him) say the best case/worst case numbers floated by trumpco through Debra Birx aren’t worth shit. 

     

    At a task force meeting this week, according to two officials with direct knowledge of it, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told others there are too many variables at play in the pandemic to make the models reliable: “I’ve looked at all the models. I’ve spent a lot of time on the models. They don’t tell you anything. You can’t really rely upon models.”

    Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the vice president’s office have similarly voiced doubts about the projections’ accuracy, the three officials said.

    More trumpco management of expectations to make chickenshit look like chicken salad. 

  12. variations on a theme

    so why wouldn’t heavy duty paper bag (big grocery bags with eye holes) masks also work? at least they’re biodegradable

  13. Stupid fuck said yesterday about an advisory about wearing fabric face coverings (scarves, etc.) in COVID-19 hot spots, the guidelines won’t be mandatory because “some people don’t want to do it.” Great. New advisory: “If you want to wear face coverings you can, but if you don’t want to, fuhgeddaboudit.”  

  14. BiD, the other day you said some seem to look at your mask disapprovingly.  perhaps it was more out of fear that you were wearing it because you were sick and they were scared to be anywhere near.  a bandana or a scarf might not cause as much anxiety (or disapproval that you were taking away from 1st responders/med folk).   

  15. Patd, you might have a point – for the 3 Or so people in the US who understand that masks protect others much more so than the person wearing them. 

  16. I didn’t take a mask away; I bought them for my asthmatic condition at least 2 years ago.  Bandannas don’t work well.  They’ve said tying material mask could actually exacerbate the problem, as droplets just soak into the material and hang out by your face.   
     

  19. xrep – That was brilliant.   I’m sure Trump has his Sharpie at the ready, to ~correct~ the US line on that chart.   Can’t you just hear him?   We actually have a negative number of C19-positive Americans and none of them have died. In fact, more are alive than ever before. It’s incredible. Never seen anything like it.

  21. March jobs report – 701,000 jobs lost and unemployment rate up to 4.4%. This does not include the 10 million new unemployment claims in the last 2 weeks. Buckle your chin straps. 

  22. Nice to see the old man dropping by,  if ever so fleetingly,  at  a time like this. Nice to know the old man is still out there, throwing his darts.
    The old man abides; Brakeman on the hell bound train.

  23. BiD, no one is suggesting you took masks needed by healthcare workers away. You explained that you bought them a couple years ago. Use them if you feel you need to and btw, Fuchk ‘em if they can’t take a joke. 

  24. It would be hard to have an Edward R. in the press corps, facing Trump at a daily briefing, because he doesn’t want anyone else to control the conversation.  Yesterday, he was back at “witch hunt,” which happens every time someone calls him out on his failings/wrongdoings.
    Olbermann, if he still has an outlet, is as good as any.  Does he have a show?   Kimmel and others have been great about holding Trump’s feet to the fire, but they are comedians, not journalists.
    I don’t know if a lone, journalist can shine the light on his misdeeds.  They are already so glaring, that it seems redundant.   

  26. A little kid has collected shower caps from hotels to give to hospitals to use as PPE, since they have to cover their hair, as well.  He got in excess of 9,000 for them.   Medical could definitely use repurposed water bottles as face shields.
    For the rest of us, sanitary  pads over the nose & mouth would probably be more effective than thongs, but not as stylish.   
     

  28. Mueller should’ve
    Rosenstein should’ve
    Bernie should’ve 
    Shuprene Quartz should’ve 
    Shoulda woulda ka-dooda
    yada ya dah, ya dada doo dah

  30. above reminded me to post last week last night from last sunday…. forgot to do it monday

  31. john oliver gave a good shout out about ky gov andy starting at 5:07 in on above video

    also some pot shots at FL & TX govs

  32. I bought some masks about 25 yrs ago because while weaving small particles of fiber float in the air.  I had a weaver tell me he always wore a mask while weaving.  I tried it…  hated it…  put the masks away in a drawer in my studio.  Bet they’re still there.
     
    Watched a bit of Lawrence O’Donnell last night….  trumpco and that Navy admiral….  pieces of shit!

  34. Goddamnit.  Thank you, Bill Withers.

    Well, listening to “Lovely Day” ironically kinda sucks. if you can hold that note as long as him you don’t have C-19

  35. …wore my improvised hazmat suit to the local infection hub grocery store.  Helps keep people away!  Some idiots still got way too close, though.

  37. Only essential businesses allowed to open in SC .   Construction and landscaping are considered essential businesses. 

  39. Schumer really gets under his skin, and he’s powerless about it.  Yay Chuck.
    I eagerously await Chuck’s reply.

  40. The reason the Trump administration is now telling all of us to wear masks is that is shifts the burden of dealing with Covid-19 from them to us.  Now, if you get infected, it’s your fault.

  42. Ms Dallas,
     
    Yours of 8:38AM catches the trump manner perfectly. Would you be willing to take his place ?

  43. Mr Sturgeone, 
     
    You’re right, and I should know better. Shoulding on people is abusive behavior. I the future I should reserve the word for fictional characters, such as myself.

  44. Your X-ness, it ain’t no big deal, I spose, I’ve just been feeling a growing umbrage at all the Twitter “should” tweets which, to the current crop of elected officials, are either impossible or just so much water on the old criminals’ duckback.  

  45. xrep – Ha! I think we’ve all heard Trump’s lies so often, that it’s easy to copy his patter.

  49. the hill:

    The Trump administration quietly changed an online description of the country’s Strategic National Stockpile following a press briefing with White House advisor Jared Kushner. 
    Previously, according to the federal public health emergency website, the Strategic National Stockpile was described as “the nation’s largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out.”
    The description continued: “When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency.”
    That definition disappeared from the site on Friday. 
    The new, one paragraph description says the stockpile is meant as a “short-term stopgap.”
    “The Strategic National Stockpile’s role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available,” the website now says.

  50. Mr Surgeone, I don’t disagree at all. I am also frequently browned off by the word should, especially when the should is dumped on me. 
     

  51. “…it’s supposed to be our stockpile. It’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use.”
     
    We are storing these national treasures at Carinhall. 

  56.  
    I should have written ‘coronavirus co-tsar mikhail pence and his coronavirus co-tsar jared the terrible.’ We need two coronavirus tsars because the response hasn’t been chaotic enough yet.
     
    On the good side the Strategic National Stockpile has developed a New and Improved Definition of itself. It’s good to see that under the two coronavirus co-tsars, they’ve finally gotten something done, besides dumping their trash heap of broken respirators in New York.
     

  57. Chris Christie knows EXACTLY what is happening. Gee, if he just hadn’t hugged Obama.

  58. corey gardner is so desperate that he’s willing to savage the trump-operated National Strategic Stockpile : https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-senator-calls-for-investigation-into-mismanagement-of-strategic-ventilators/ar-BB12869Y?ocid=spartanntp
     

  59. The shattering incompetence of this administration on every front, from virus tests to small business loans, is intolerable. Trump must resign! Resign. #TrumpPlague

  63. I have a clear rain bonnet that I was going to wear for this incessant pollen. But…I think  I’ll add that to the face thing and the hands thing.  And then there’s the eyes. Glasses or goggles…ski kind?

  64. I talked with my son who’s ICU critical care in NYC & Brooklyn.  He was unnervingly calm compared to the social media videos shown on cable news. I remembered that he said a few weeks ago that his hospitals were pretty well stocked before this happened. His is a private, education & research hospital. The videos are from public hospitals. This virus brings out yet  another disparity…between public & private hospitals. 

  69. XR – I know Cory and he is a trumpist down to his hairy ankles (had to ride in an elevator with him in the summer a couple times – at least he rode in the box with me, other r’s refused to).
     
    The whole mask, mouth covering, pretty nose job thing is getting nutty.  First is the material, it is holy.  Lots of holes.  The virus just goes in and out through the holes.  Unless it is a mouth and nose cover designed to trap small things and fits correctly the tiny little virus can get through.  bId, masks are important to trap pollen and cxrap in the air and work for that purpose, I have had to wear masks.  I have even had to wear masks in “no contact” isolation due to an unknown thingy I had (double pneumonia). 
    Is the mask wearing to make us feel like we are contributing to the solution?  There has been no information about changing masks frequently and washing them in hot soapy water after use.  One of the funniest was seeing a woman wearing her “mask” over her mouth, but under her nose!  Yeah, that works good.  And, it was at a grocery store.
     
    Here is a real kick in the teeth.  The latest numbers crunching has the peak hitting the D.C. region in July.  YaHoo. That should cause a bit of indigestion in the White House as hundreds of thousands of federal employees need to continue teleworking.  And, even better – SFB can’t have his campain rally on the 4th of July.

  72. Oh, the news had to clarify the new order. Lockdown is only extended to April 30th at this point, but the judge has authority to extend it through May 20th.  

  73. A nursing home in Portland Oregon now has 29 cases of Covid-19 among residents and staff.
     
     

  74. Craig: 
    As long as Trump’s base remains solidly in support of him, he’s not going anywhere.  The economy will crash and hundreds of thousands of people will die, and he could still get 45% of the popular vote.
    Why? Because he’s an overt racist and they love him for that.  
     

  75.  
    Embattled trump promises help for “embattled oil industry” but embattled states have to go it alone : Dow Jones :
     
    Trump Pledges Support for Embattled Oil Industry — Update
     
    6:36 pm ET April 3, 2020 (Dow Jones) Print
     

    By Timothy Puko and Christopher M. Matthews
    WASHINGTON — President Trump promised oil-industry leaders the government would help revive the sector during a much anticipated White House meeting Friday.

     

  76. ”Why [does trump’s base support him]? Because he’s an overt racist and they love him for that.” -Nash
     
    Also, self-aware dumb people are proud to have one of their own in charge.
     
     

  77. JUST SO WE ARE CLEAR ON THE TIMELINE (December 2019-April 2020):
     
    Dec 18th – House Impeaches TrumpJan 8th – First CDC warningJan 9th – Trump campaign rallyJan 14th – Trump campaign rallyJan 16h – House sends impeachment articles to SenateJan 18th – Trump golfsJan 19th – Trump golfsJan 20th – first case of corona virus in the US, Washington State.Jan 22nd – “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”Jan 28th – Trump campaign rallyJan 30th – Trump campaign rallyFeb 1st – Trump golfsFeb 2nd – “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”Feb 5th – Senate votes to acquit. Then takes a five-day weekend.Feb 10th – Trump campaign rallyFeb 12th – Dow Jones closes at an all time high of 29,551.42Feb 15h – Trump golfsFeb 19th – Trump campaign rallyFeb 20th – Trump campaign rallyFeb 21st – Trump campaign rallyFeb 24th – “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”Feb 25h – “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”Feb 25h – “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”Feb 26th – “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.”Feb 26th – “We’re going very substantially down, not up.” Also “This is a flu. This is like a flu”; “Now, you treat this like a flu”; “It’s a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for. And we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner.”February 27: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”Feb 28th – “We’re ordering a lot of supplies. We’re ordering a lot of, uh, elements that frankly we wouldn’t be ordering unless it was something like this. But we’re ordering a lot of different elements of medical.”Feb 28th – Trump campaign rallyMarch 2nd – “You take a solid flu vaccine, you don’t think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”March 2nd – “A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”March 4: “If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work — some of them go to work, but they get better.”March 5th – “I NEVER said people that are feeling sick should go to work.”March 5th – “The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!”March 6th – “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”March 6th – “Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. And the tests are beautiful…. the tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”March 6th – “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it… Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”March 6th – “I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn’t our fault.”March 7th – Trump golfsMarch 8th – Trump golfsMarch 8th – “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on CoronaVirus.”March 9th – “This blindsided the world.”March 13th – [Declared state of emergency]March 17th – “This is a pandemic,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”March 18th – “It’s not racist at all. No. Not at all. It comes from China. That’s why. It comes from China. I want to be accurate.”March 23th- Dow Jones closes at 18,591.93March 25th – 3.3 million Americans file for unemployment.March 30th – Dow Jones closes at 21,917.16April 2nd – 6.6 million Americans file for unemployment.

  78. I think the chance that trump can get as high as 45% is only 50-50. I agree with my distinguished colleague from Oregon that the nation is awash with racists. I also think that others support trump, not from racist opinions but from greed and illusions that the health and economic catastrophes will be over as quickly as they hit. By November the latter groups will probably be either disabused of their baseless opinions or dead.
     

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