It's hard to imagine an American president choosing to put the public in harm's way as a pandemic rages but those expectations don't apply to the Trump administration.
With "second wave" infection rates surging, the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) moved to mandate the wearing of masks aboard aircraft, trains, buses and subways and in airports, train stations and bus depots. Guess who nixed that idea? Why, such a policy might make Donald Trump look bad.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transit in the United States, but it was blocked by the White House, according to two federal health officials.
The order would have been the toughest federal mandate to date aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, which continues to infect more than 40,000 people in America each day. The officials said that it had been drafted under the agency’s “quarantine powers” and that it had the support of the secretary of health and human services, Alex M. Azar II, but the White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, declined to even discuss it.
Pelosi is right. They really should Article 25 this dude, give him the hook. Trump politicizes everything and weaponizes whatever he can, even a pandemic. Fortunately many terminal authorities as well as airlines and other transportation companies are imposing their own mask requirements. After all they can't rely on Trump to do the right thing.
It says a lot about what has happened to the US that a President can nix that idea. This is much more worrying than just public health. When Trump took office many of us depended on adults in office to make sure things ran properly. What else can he do that we expected the adults to prevent?
ReplyDeleteIn the back of my mind is always the knowledge that the WWII Holocaust could not have happened without the active participation of a million people across Europe; it wasn't just the work of one mad man and a few supporters.
Again, what else can the lunatic in charge get away with?
Trump's stupidity is horrendous. It's hard to understand why anyone is still listening to him, Mound.
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ReplyDeleteThere's a growing apprehension, Toby, of what Trump might do after he loses the election during the weeks leading up to the inauguration in January. It may be necessary to Article 25 him. I doubt the Republican Congressional leadership would block his removal.
ReplyDeleteHe's always had a deeply cruel nature, Owen, but now he's becoming plainly unhinged, irrational and dangerously pernicious. This man is in meltdown. We've not seen the likes of this sort of presidential lunacy before. It gives credence to what Trump insiders have said that, faced with an intractable problem, Trump thinks the answer is "more Trump." That's his nature, his core instinct. Admit nothing and always double down.
" Trump thinks the answer is more Trump ." Closer to home we remember Harper, Day, Mannning and Scheer who all believed that if they just yelled louder about their failed policies , Canadians would fall into line and vote for them.
ReplyDeleteDelusional politicians are not limited to the US.
Rumley, remembering Harper, Day, Manning and Scheer, which I realize is essential, is nonetheless like remembering the time when, as a kid, you caught that really, really bad flu. Now, for no reason I can comprehend, Erin Toolbox appears intent on riding the Ghost of Preston.
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