Thanks to our governor, Charlie Baker, and the Kraft family, Massachusetts was able to acquire thousands of masks for health workers all over the state.
...............................................
Massachusetts governor launches effort to trace coronavirus cases in state
"Baker said Massachusetts is the first state in the country to create such a tracking program, which will be staffed by roughly 1,000 people who will contact patients to check on their recent activities and confirm they have not spread the highly infectious illness. “The call center will get contact information for as many people as possible, that they have come in contact with, and potentially exposed,” Baker said. “People will be contacted and informed, so that they can stay healthy, isolate when appropriate, and prevent further spread.”
Partners-In-Health, the Boston-based nonprofit that is teaming up with the state government, has done public health interventions during previous crises such as Ebola and will oversee hiring, training and supervision of the virtual call center. Joia Mukherjee, the group’s chief medical officer, said the effort will help people “to isolate themselves” if they appear at risk and will reach out to people who may have contracted the virus but appear asymptomatic."
***********************
In a long ago time, in a country that once had a conservative political party -- before the present GOP lost its mind and decided that a serial adulterer, liar, cheat, fraud, and malignant narcissist would be a great representative of Conservatism, the Republican Party would have been begging Charlie Baker to run as their presidential nominee.
Baker is the most popular governor in America. He has an 84% approval rating in one of America's bluest states, and he has NEVER supported Trump. Why? Because Baker is an honest, decent, and competent public servant.
But because the current GOP has been taken over by cultists, it will continue to favor a rotten-to-the-core damaged, incompetent man-child instead of a Republican who puts his people before himself.
Bravo, Governor Baker. Proud to have you as my governor!
20 comments:
Shaw... your governor is from another age. As was our prior governor, Brian Sandoval, another Republican who retired as one of the most appreciated governors in Nevada history. Except by the Tea Party extremist crowd.
Sandoval improved child health care, lowered childhood malnutrition and lowered abortions. All by using Medicare expansion and through Obamacare. And when the results came in, he trumpeted it in his state of the union, earning the ire of the GOP as it had come to be constituted here in the Silver State. Instead of applauding the lower abortion rates the party wanted, they sat on their hands, because they did not like his method.
That was a huge lesson to me. It wasn't the results the GOP wanted. They wanted it done a certain way and Sandoval wouldn't do it.
And that marked a turn for Nevada from reliably red to blue.
In the next election, longtime State Senator Bill Raggio was targeted by his own party because he would not support a know nothing Sharron Angle in her run against Harry Reid. Raggio knew that losing Reid would be a huge blow to Nevada. But that mattered little to what the GOP had become.
Sadly, governors like Baker and Sandoval are pariahs in the current Republican Party. RINOs if you will. But they are from a long tradition, also marked by Montana Dems like Steve Bullock and Brain Schweitzer who both served as Governors in a massively Republican state.
Too bad the politics of at least one party, makes those folks harder to find.
This just shows that limited federal government is a good thing. The massive bureaucracy of the federal government promotes slow action, waste and fraud. States are quicker to act and put the priorities of it's citizens first.
Rev, you mentioned slimy as being great for Nevada but he worked for ALL the American people, or at least he should have.
There are a number of outstanding governors from both parties and there are a number of duffeses. Newsom, Whitmer, Ducey, Stitt, Baker are some of the better ones who are smart and appear to do whats right for their citizens and in some cases their illegals.
On the other side you have Cuomo, Grisham and Kemp who are looking for the spotlight to advance their career and couldn't run anything except a campaign.
The federal government should do what they were formed to do. Protect us and deliver the mail. Everything else should be governed by the state. If you don't like the policies of a particular state, don't live there or move.
Well all we need to know about the Trumpanzees can be found on a certain blog that spreads hatred, lies, and stupidity every day. And this is what he has up today about Dr. Fauci and the scientists advising to sheltering in place:
May These Stupid, Blind EVIL Bastards SINK and DROWN in an OCEAN of COVID-19 INFECTED SPIT.
The guy's clearly mentally unstable and the biggest hypocrite Christian because he write hateful garbage like that then tells his readers what a good Jesus lover he is. Hahahaha! I guess you can't really fault someone whose a shut=in and has loss his mind!
It's amusing to read skudrunner saying Gov. Cuomo is looking to advance himself by holding briefings every day. What skudrunner ignores is that THE EPICENTER OF THE DAMNED VIRUS is New York, and Cuomo is the governor of the state with THE MOST INFECTED AND DYING AMERICANS.
Perhaps what bothers skud is that Cuomo is more articulate, better informed, and magnitudes smarter in answering questions than Trump? That must sting, I know, but governors who can speak intelligibly with facts will tend to make Trumpers uneasy and attach selfish motives to him or her. Trumpers are painfully aware of how incompetent and ignorant their idol is. Their only defense is to slander and attack the people who know what they're talking about.
PS, skud, in times of war, I wonder if your criticism of how the government "bureaucracy" protects our collective asses would still be true.
Meanwhile, as I said, things like this must be painful for Trumpers to read and internalize:
"President Donald Trump ignored reports from US intelligence agencies starting in January that warned of the scale and intensity of the coronavirus outbreak in China, The Washington Post reported Friday.
Citing US officials familiar with the agencies' reports and warnings, the Post reported that intelligence agencies depicted the nature and global spread of the virus and China's apparent downplaying of its severity, as well as the potential need for government measures to contain it -- while Trump opted to dismiss or simply not address their seriousness.
"Donald Trump may not have been expecting this, but a lot of other people in the government were -- they just couldn't get him to do anything about it," the official noted to the Post. "The system was blinking red."
"The system was blinking red." And Trump held rallies and went golfing. What a guy!
Ray, See what I wrote to skud. Right wingers KNOW that Trump is grossly inadequate and has failed the biggest test of his presidency. There's nothing they can say to refute that, so they attack, attack, attack. SAD!
And don't forget those right wingers are anti-science and anti-rational. Whoever wrote that is clearly a nutcase!
Here's more facts for skud to read and internalize.
"430,000 People Have Traveled From China to U.S. Since Coronavirus Surfaced
There were 1,300 direct flights to 17 cities before President Trump’s travel restrictions. Since then, nearly 40,000 Americans and other authorized travelers have made the trip, some this past week and many with spotty screening.
ince Chinese officials disclosed the outbreak of a mysterious pneumonialike illness to international health officials on New Year’s Eve, at least 430,000 people have arrived in the United States on direct flights from China, including nearly 40,000 in the two months after President Trump imposed restrictions on such travel, according to an analysis of data collected in both countries.
The bulk of the passengers, who were of multiple nationalities, arrived in January, at airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Newark and Detroit. Thousands of them flew directly from Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus outbreak, as American public health officials were only beginning to assess the risks to the United States."
A bit of too little too late, I'd say. But that's all Trump has to defend his poor record on this catastrophe -- he closed the border to China. Well, even that is now shown to be too little too late and inadequate.
The individual you are referring to Ray is actually projecting every once of evil that exists in HIM into others that do not share his demented evil views. He wished death on those who dare to vocalize the truth about him. He's a lot like the Dotard he worships.
Skud... your view of states rights, and their ability to do what they want is what made it illegal for a guy like me to marry a woman like my wife, in many states. It took the federal government to right that wrong. Your view of states rights is what allowed many states to bar people of color from educational opportunities. Your view of states rights is what allowed restaurants to bar people of color from sitting at the same lunch counter as whites.
These people didn't have the resources to move. And before the Civil War, if they left, they were hunted down and lynched.
All that terrible history was a result of states rights.
How do you propose a state be brought into line if they have a preponderance of laws that are clearly discriminatory? Or are you arguing the libertarian idea that the market will fix that as people leave the state? Thus effectively saying the federal government has no right to intervene?
Trump took time during his TV Covid rally to heap denigration on the Carrier commander who followed the military officer maxim: complete the mission and take care of your people. He did that and was summarily fired. Navy brass are the most political of the armed forces (sorry, I was Army), but the one time they got it right was to Court Martial the dimwit warrior Seal who slit the throat of a teenager on film. Despite an air tight case (his squad testified against him),
Trump pardoned him and paraded him around his Nuremburg Rallies. Donald does not
meet the standards of a human being, yet leads a minority ruled country, while thousands die. What's wrong with us?
Dotard has only been president 3 years. He has been very busy watching teevee, golfing, tweeting about Democrat witch hunts and hoaxes, holding self-aggrandizing rallies, talking to Sean Hannity and other Fox Nooz personalities on the phone, colluding with Toady Barr to spin the (very damning) Mueller report, trying to steal a 2nd term and getting impeached for it, not responding to subpoenas, doing Putin's bidding and other very important things. What you've got to remember that this is all China, the state governors, and (most of all) Obama's fault.
You are an EVIL representative of SATAN, the enemy of America
The exact opposite of the virtue you spend your time conning people into believing that you have.
The failures of the Donald Administration have never been more obvious than when all 50 states have to go it alone and compete for critical medical supplies. Coordinating needs of the country during times of crisis is one of the basic functions of the federal government. Planning for such emergencies is a basic function of the federal government. Donald has failed on both fronts. In fact he has shut down such programs and gotten rid of experts who know what to do. Instead, he has put in charge political hacks who have no experience except for kissing his ass. Thank goodness some states at least have leaders that know how to lead and tell their citizens the truth!
To Anonymous, I have only a few minutes to reply to your comment. I'm busy stoking the fire for my weekly Sunday afternoon kitten and puppy roast. Mmmmmm. Tastes like chicken.
*Evil laugh* Mwahahahahaha!
To the rest of my sane commenters here. I'll get back to you as soon as the weekly roast is consumed!
Skud said... "States are quicker to act and put the priorities of it's citizens first."
Well... that's the theory anyways. But the ongoing questions for Skud and other conservative/libertarian folks are these...
1. Are their limits to states rights? Or are they always guaranteed?
2. Can the federal government overrule those rights if it is in the national interest?
3. What if your state, under states rights, enacts policies that negatively impact my state. Is that legal?
The folks that extol the beauty of states rights. my Florida living brother among them, are usually at a loss to think about real world issues in this area. For ppl claiming the states rights mantle, it is incumbent on them to answer the above, so us federal power ppl can better understand how and when to act.
Can you do it Skud?
Ms. Shaw, In case you misread my post I said the federal government should protect us and most would interpret that as time of war. Sorry if I was confusing. There has been more affected in NYC because of the dense population and cuomo is just grandstanding just like trump. Neither of them have a medical education and they need to leave it to those who do. Trump misrepresents most things but he has tried to project optimism instead of pessimism. If it were anyone else the media would report the whole story instead of just the bad. Remember Jack Nicholson. You want the truth, You can't handle the truth. That pretty much sums up the majority of the American Public.
Rev, I do realize that states rights is a touchy subject for those who believe the federalists are omnipotent. You do know that civil rights is part of protecting us don't you. As to the actions during the civil war, I was not alive then so have no comment as to what really went wrong. I was however raised in the south when racial separation was the norm. We had colored restrooms and drinking fountains but we moved away from that. I was not born when the Northern whites killed the native Americans and drove them from their land. Inequality is something every country has experienced and has moved past it.
I do believe trump should be held accountable for the deaths from corona virus, he should be held accountable for the 35.5 million illnesses from the flu and the 34,500 deaths. Obama should be held accountable for the 56,000 deaths from the flu in 2014/2015. He is actually responsible for more deaths than trump because he had eight years to stop it and he didn't.
Rev, There has always been limits to what a state can do and the federal government can overrule any state or local government if it is in the national interest. You knew the answer to those questions but there you go.
As to the third question, what are you referring to because it is confusing. If you affect another state than you are not enacting your states rights. Look at the water issue with NV, AZ and CA. One state affects the other but federal law prevails they just do a terrible job of it.
A lot of states rights advocates just ignore the other part of the equation. Which is, with every right comes corresponding responsibilities. One of which is to not trample on the rights of others. A reasoned sensible balance is what is needed. It really boils down to mutual respect. Something in shorter supply these days. Thank the Tea Party, fringe rightwingers and leftwingers, and Donald Trump for pouring gas on on the flames of discontent and the resulting divisiveness. Divide and Connquer really has become an ingrained political modus operandi in the USA today.
We are facing many threats in the USA. This may very well turn out to be the greatest. IMNHO.
Difficult to discuss states rights without involving slavery and the Civil War.
Post a Comment