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Ulysses S. Grant would like a WORD


Or Teddy Roosevelt. Or Dwight Eisenhower. Or Andrew Jackson. Or Abraham Lincoln. Or George Washington. Or Zachary Taylor. Or any of numerous presidents who were honest-to-goodness battle-hardened warriors.

James Monroe fought the Hessians at Trenton and nearly died of wounds sustained there, then wintered in Valley Forge, then fought until Monmouth, then repeatedly tried to raise new regiments for the war until he went bankrupt doing it.

James Monroe, of the Era of Good Feelings, longest serving president of all time.... was in the boats crossing the icy Delaware.

Andrew Jackson was in a duel. He was shot in the chest right by his heart.

But he didn't go down. He stood there and, while bleeding out, steadily took aim and killed the dude who shot him.

Stone cold.
1) The danger and tragedy is that people have been told by Trump, McCarthy, Cruz and others in responsible positions that there is reason to doubt the validity of the election; then whipped up by social media promising Trump will eventually be declared the winner...


2) When, after all that, Biden is being inaugurated, many will go nuts: the cognitive discord is just too great and they will be convinced that Biden must be stopped. Yes, the fault lies with crazy conspiracy peddlers; but they were given support and legitimacy by the officials.

3) who enabled Trump and supported his lies about the election being stolen FOR MONTHS. What they should have done is spent the last two months defending the elections, telling people the only challenges should be in the courts, preparing people to ACCEPT that Trump fairly lost.

4) By keeping alive popular hopes that Trump could somehow win; by talking up empty court challenges, saying the courts didn't really hear the evidence; by refraining from criticizing Trump's broadcasting of even crazy conspiracy theories; GOP officials THEMSELVES gave reason and

5) motivation for people to riot against certifying Biden's becoming President, and even more to fight the inauguration of a "false" President. It will be very hard to undo months of lies to this effect coming from the top levels of the GOP and US Government. ALL GOP who did
Here's a thread documenting the epic incompetence of the Trump administration + the GOP in dealing with the pandemic. Some Democratic politicos deserve severe critiques also (Cuomo and DeBlasio being the poster children there) but a national problem requires a national response.

Remember, that for pandemics as well as for climate change, "Speed trumps perfection". Stop obsessing about "optimality". There is nothing optimal about responding to a pandemic or to climate change, just move as fast as you can.


Hey look, the GOP (not Trump) hamstrung the Obama Administration's effort to build up strategic reserves to fight pandemics going as far back as 2011:

Hey look, there was a pandemic response plan developed by national security officials in 2016, which Trump and the GOP ignored:


Hey look, Trump and the GOP disbanded the pandemic response unit in 2018: