On 4/6/2020 1:13 PM, Radey Shouman wrote:
Frank Krygowski writes:


On 4/5/2020 1:30 PM, Tom Kunich wrote:
On Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 12:45:43 PM UTC-7, jbeattie wrote:

On 3/28/2020 6:15 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
snip

In January, our President stopped inbound travel from China
before any other nation did so. Why didn't Congress act?
Because they were rabidly engaged with their failed witch hunt.

The legislative branch does not run the CDC, NIH, FEMA and all the
agencies that provide emergency response. Congress does not manage
strategic reserves. It can't nationalize industries. It can't
restrict travel without passing new laws. So, in the face of
impending disaster, the executive branch has a lot to do -- much of
it logistical. The same is true on a state level. The governors
are running the show through executive orders, and the legislatures
are providing funding and a legal frame work for delivering
economic assistance.

This administration did a less than stellar job with messaging and
logistics and continues to do a poor job with logistics.

Omniscience is denied humans. Compare anything Commie Bill
DiBlasio said this week with his early March comments about
going to dinner in Chinatown and encouraging others to do
so. Even Yogi Berra knew that 'it's hard to make
predictions, especially about the future."

Shame on him, but constantly pointing to other idiots doesn't make it better.


The police powers of Governors are much stronger than
anything the President can do. They acted much later,
rightly or wrongly, and not all in the same way. Which are
correct and which have erred? We'll know in a few years but
not this afternoon.

Yes and no. Governors are not equipped to respond to national
disasters. That's why we have federal agencies that help with a
coordinated response. Governors cannot restrict national and
international travel. They cannot coordinate the nation's supply of
respirators or move Navy hospital ships on to the coasts. They can
activate national guards and take other measures (like all the
shelter in place orders), but they cant' make vaccines or do all
the things the NIH and CDC can, and they can't federalize
industries, assuming anyone can.


As I asked Mr McNamara, what would you have him do? Given
limited knowledge and the time scale, he did what most agree
was as much as could be done.

Not lie and spend all his time in front of the camera either
deflecting or praising himself. We needed FDR and we got John
Lovitz doing Tommy Flanagan. Pull the team together, secure supply
chains, mobilize the CDC, NIH, get a solid talking head -- Mike
Esper would have been a good choice. Be serious and act the part,
which is something he can't do -- so he should out source it and
not extemporize in front of the camera about Chloroquine or mean
correspondents asking bad questions. A good chief of staff would
have managed this.

-- Jay Beattie.

What I see occurring on craigslist doesn't bode well for your
firm. People are beginning to sell off expensive bicycles, framesets
and wheelsets cheaply as they run out of spending money.

Pretty quick your "Partners" are going to see the same thing and
maybe you should ask yourself how valuable you are.

Tom's right, Jay. We hope that you don't suddenly find yourself
unemployed. Getting no offers for interviews, let alone jobs. Living
in your mother's house. Listening to gunfire in your neighborhood, but
unable to afford to move. Unable to buy groceries without complaining
about the price. Accepting financial help from a socialist program you
despise. Forced to buy discount bicycle parts from a communist country
you hate. Then finding yourself addled about how to install them or
maintain them. Reduced to shouting to the world ideas originating on
Fox News or popping up spontaneously in some other damaged brain. With
no public officials and very few individuals even pretending to
respect you, just because of a total lack of appropriate education and
qualifications.

Oh, the ignominy!

None of us knows what will happen in what remains of our lives. As
Herodotus said, "Let no man be called happy until he is dead". Perhaps,
just perhaps, a touch of humility might look good on you.

Sure, there's some tiny chance I'll end up in Tom's position. But
speaking of humility, if I did end up in Tom's position, I hope I'd
have the sense to _not_ call someone in my, or Jay's, present
condition a failure.

You have no idea; your hope is vain and foolish. The brain is an organ
like any other, and damaging just a small part of it can result in
losing any mental or emotional capacity you can name.

I have an uncle who, in stroke, lost his ability to speak. He seems
otherwise unimpaired. He can understand speech, and he can formulate
things he wants to say, they just don't come out of his mouth any more.

My sister was not so fortunate in her brain damage, caused by a stroke
during an operation. She can talk your ear off, but she cannot form a
plan, either for the rest of the day or for the rest of her life.

One of the first signs of my great aunt's senile dementia was that she
lost the ability to get along with her brother, and engaged in an
uncharacterstic feud. Seems that's not an unusual symptom.

Any of these things could happen to you, or me, or any of us, just as
surely as we can lose the use of our legs, or our livers, or our lungs.

Yes. And we're all going to die. Give thanks for what you have.


--
- Frank Krygowski