“You wasted precious months when you could’ve taken action to protect Americans & Illinoisans. You should be leading a national response instead of throwing tantrums from the back seat.
“Where were the tests when we needed them? Where’s the PPE? Get off Twitter & do your job.”
—Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, in his own Twitter message to Donald Trump critical of the federal government’s slow response to COVID-19.
Louisiana Voice 
Impressive. Governor Cuomo is even more so. I just watched his daily presentation. He speaks from the heart, presents factual information and doesn’t appear to need any notes – a true leader.
Criticism of Trump is essential if we are to keep him from over extending his reach and doing great harm to our democracy. It is the only way of exerting some control on his impulses and dictatorial desires. Like the tiger he cannot change his stripes or like the leopard he cannot change his spots. He is unwilling, incapable, and unable to change. Who he is is embedded in his nature and his character. Only negative press coverage prevents him from totally going out of control. The man is mentally and emotionally ill. We can be certain of one thing and that is we can continue to see him act and behave in the same way until he is removed from office and prosecuted for his crimes. And Ms. Zoe, you are correct. I cannot help but take a “little slap” at the man. What I would like to do, however, is deliver a knock out punch.
To my point about criticism being the only restriction on Trump’s overreach, yesterday, March 24, 2020 he said, in the Rose Garden in an interview with Fox, “I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” He went on to say he “wasn’t happy about” his public health experts’ recommendations, but he reluctantly accepted two weeks of restrictions because “we would have been unbelievably criticized for not doing it.”
The esteemed Governor of Illinois must be correct. After all, the President should have compelled industry to accelerate the manufacture of PPE way back to early January. Perhaps, just maybe, our President may have been distracted by the eroneous impeachment effort foisted upon him ( and covered extensively by the main stream media ) by the Democratic party and its “leaders” who were, at that point, more interested in slinging mud onto our legally elected leader than they were protecting the American people. As has been said often, hindsight is 20/20. It most certainly is for the Governor of Illinois, or Governor Cuomo…and of course, Joe Biden who holds a COVID-19 news conference from his home and can’t even remember what he is meaning to say…since his teleprompter was out of action. If the people of Illinois were so “protected”, they would not have a murder rate among the highest in the nation, nor would they have the reputation of political corruption that sets a standard for nafarious public intercourse. Since the national pollsters marked a +55% approval rating for President Trump at the end of last week, adding even the esteemed Gov. Cuomo and Illan Omar to his side as supporters of Trump ‘s actions, the media has gone out of its way to slam our President…instead of trying to calm the public and adding to social discourse regarding the COVID-19 panic. Then again, that is what the TDS crowd will always do.
Perhaps you might try what many of us are actually doing…help a less fortunate neighbor, do some errands for those shut in with kids, or just support those older folks that are terrified to even go to the food store.
Then again, if you did any of those things you wouldn’t have time to slam our duly elected President…you would only have time to scare those he is trying to help.
Outlaw, you sure make a lot of assumptions about what we are doing to help others. You don’t know me; you don’t know how old I am, what I do for a living, where I live, or who my neighbors are, but you can make a snap judgment about whether or not I or Mr. Aswell or anyone else who dares criticize your hero are doing our part in helping the elderly or our neighbors. And it’s ironic that you would be so critical of Biden’s speaking deficiencies after watching the pitiful performance of Trump stumbling through his written script.
(Sigh), it would be comical to watch the Trump defenders were he not so dangerous for the entire country. Oh well…
And DJ, Outlaw did not assume anything. He just said you might try to be positive in a bad situation..He did not say Trump was his “hero”, nor have I, so why do you say that ?
And you state that Trump is a “danger” to the country ?!? How so ? Compared to who? At least he has not yet gotten us into and “adventures” abroad, and if anything, he has tried to extricate us, unlike both Bush’e, Clinton, and Obama.
Are you proud of your party ? Are you proud that we needed to slip in funding for Planned Parenthood in a bill to help hourly workers survive ? Do we really need “diversity” funding in this bill ? Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and company are the real comedy in this tragedy.
Now that Vice President Pence has stepped out of the shadows into a position of responsibility, I would like to dream he would initiate the steps necessary to invoke the 25th amendment. I truly believe President Trump does more harm to this country every day he is in office.
As an aside, I believe many of us are helping our neighbors in this crisis – we just aren’t bragging about it.
CJ, what a guy; You want to knockout punch a 73 year old man; you might be able to, because if Uncle Joe tried like he threatened, the outcome would not be pretty. I do agree with your first statement. All Presidents should be criticized. We should have learned when Obama was given a pass because if one commented, it had to be about his race, not his policy. If you were honest, you would despise what Obama did with our Justice Department and Intelligence Agencies, but of course it would only be bad if Trump did it.
Well, I am not sure where all this wasted time you speak of happened. He banned travel within days of learning about this virus and was lambasted by the press because ban was “racist”.Obama nor Bush banned travel when perhaps they should have. I suppose Trump should have played golf like a previous President did, but it matters not. Trump could walk on water and you would complain that he cannot swim.
As for Governor of Illinois. Look who is standing behind him in the photo. That should tell you all you need to know. As for Cuomo, he is as bombastic as Trump, so apparently, you just like his party (and he thanked Trump for his help), not really about the man.
And where does all of this dictatorial B.S. come from ? And why should he change ? To please people like you who simply hate him because he is messing with the nightmare in Washington D.C.rather than playing along with it ?
And then there’s the Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick saying that elderly people will be glad to get sick and die from COVID-19 so their kids and grandchildren can have a great economy. He says to open everything up so we can have America back again. What a leader…wonder how many Texans are lining up behind that talk? And that is the garbage trump listens to. Thank God that governor and mayors are the responsible adults in this situation.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/24/covid-19-texas-official-suggests-elderly-willing-die-economy/2905990001/
We are at that age that makes us vulnerable to coronavirus. So we’re doing everything we can to stay safe. I’m going to die some day, but our adult children have made it very clear that they would rather their parents be safe, well and alive than out and about. They are not inclined to sacrifice their parents for the economy or anything else.
We can provide food for people have lost their paychecks, through food banks, churches and other relief organizations. Getting sick is another matter. Anyone who says money is more important than lives is truly sick. And no big surprise, Dan Patrick (and trump) claims to be “pro life.” I guess already-born people are not important to him – just money. Hmmmmm….
oh, and about those beautiful, perfect coronavirus test kits that were going to be distributed two weeks ago, nationwide, so everyone who wanted to be tested could be…and then it was last week…still waiting…
and if medical supplies are hoarded somewhere in a national emergency stockpile to send to stricken areas, where are they? Why are we asking industry to retool now to manufacture supplies if such an emergency supply exists? And why haven’t the captains of industry in our capitalist country already voluntarily ramped up production of medical supplies? Big money to be made. Just wondering, since “business people” are in charge.
In answer to my own questions above, click the link below. This is today. Not weeks ago when test kits were supposedly on their way to nationwide delivery.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/489200-fema-chief-says-defense-production-act-will-be-used-for-coronavirus-test-kits
Trump now wants everyone to go back to work. What an asinine idea in wake of the severity of this virus. It appears he is more concerned about wealth than he is the American people.
Earthmother, you did not hear what the man said or you refused to listen to what was being said. He did not say he wanted older people to die, he said older people would work if it meant preserving our way of life because shutting everything down will kill our (and world) economy. He simply wants to preserve our way of life for future generations and said he would sacrifice himself and was sure others would do same.
I work in a hospital and am exposed to more than you can imagine, on a daily basis, so people like you can live safely. There are thousands like me who are willing to take that risk. Evidently you are unaware that people actually put themselves in harm’s way just so you and people like you can be safe ( Police, Sheriff’s, jail personnel as well as medical and other first responders as well)..
Furthermore, there is no “stockpile” of testing kits sitting around. The FEMA man stated (i went to your source) they were being produced as fast as possible. As for the masks (which we are short of as well), they cannot be stockpiled inasmuch as there is a useful life span on these products and they would have to be replaced every few years. Who would pay for that ?
And if you think food banks and church can feed the army of recently unemployed (through no fault of their own) you must live in seclusion.I suggest you listen more carefully and perhaps do not listen through a predetermined focus.
And to WildBill, If Congress will not take care of business, how will these people survive ? It was not Republicans padding legislation with non-related items (carbon credits for airlines? Planned Parenthood funding ? Voter registrations for illegals ? In fact, remember “swine flu” or “Ebola” crisis ? I do not recall anyone requiring mass quarantine, although it may have been helpful. In fact, I do not recall constant news about either virus like we have right now. Could there be a political motive ?
Zoe great comments. Good luck dealing with Aswell Hateful Dozen.
I do not call them a “hateful dozen”. We seem to just disagree. Tom has stated he strongly dislikes Trump. I have read and appreciated some of Tom’s expose’ material so I started following this column. We strongly disagree on the current national political situation. Many of those who post, as it would seem,are predominantly Democrat supporters who simply dislike Trump no matter what he does and regardless of what is accomplished.
I believe Trump will easily defeat Biden in general election, primarily because Biden has dementia and he is going to choose a running mate like Kamala Harris or Karen Handel (?) from Georgia to appease the party leftists. That is a recipe for political disaster. That means this bashing will continue for 4+ more years.
I expect investigations to reveal exactly how corrupt the prior administration was. I expect many of the people who are anti-Trump do so for fear of exposure; some Dems, some Republican (Romney in Ukraine and China for example). This country cannot and should not keep electing people to go to Washington and rape the Treasury, get rich, use our money to curry favor amongst certain “block voters” and stay in power. I mean really, how can anyone support open borders in this age of terrorism ? None of the Dems supported that until Trump got elected and the Dems realized that was another potential voting block.Defending China’s role in this virus epidemic ? And in closing, Governor Pritzker is an idiot. I saw a quote from Schumer castigating Trump for his travel ban as being racist and premature, so how did Trump waste time ? Governor, take care of your people and what precious months are we talking about ?
The Pritzgers have a history with Trump in real estate. An instance of Trump weaponizing the law. Also Cuomo’s closest friend (bag man?)is currently locked up along with other state contractor associates-bribery of course. Andrew of questionable integrity-but doing this job.Taking his due.
Jack, the Clinton’s have a history with Trump. So does most of the Hollywood actors that hate him now. So did Schumer. So did Cuomo. When you donate money, these people are like houseflies.
CJG,
The knockout punch should come Nov 03, 2020; in the meantime, start training and don’t let your guard down.
Zoe, it has been reported that Marco Rubio at the behest of the Florida Family Policy Council plans to use the stimulus package that the Senate is working on to provide grants to churches and other non-profit organizations in order to meet payroll and pay bills during the current economic crisis. Then you wonder why Pelosi and Schummer have been in negotiations?
When this is said and done, everyone and their grandma will get a piece of the pie, with some getting bigger pieces (it has been rumored that Trump propeties stand to benefit given that he has had to close his golf courses and hotels). The airline industry should not be bailed out at taxpayers’ expense, the same folks they have been ripping off for the last twenty years or so. Loans, maybe; grants, no.