burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Such a shame, that we would hold others’ credibility in disregard over their party affiliations, rather than their actions.

I assure you, I’m no maniac. I’m a mild mannered guy who threads the path right down the middle. I don’t trust many on the left, or the right. I don’t suffer extremists from any party. I believe in synthesis of opposing viewpoints.

Yes, Trump is a problem child. Did you watch the linked video? The guy has told thousands and thousands of proven lies since he was elected. Fact check him. He is a pathological liar, a bully, and a cheater. The very people who elected him are the ones he screws the most.

jaycoffman Loc: San Diego

This is exactly what's wrong with today and the great divide--you are now casting him has a villain and everything he does is suspect--not just someone you don't agree with politically. How on earth can you equate his statement about the state of the nation/world with his photographic advice (which, btw, to me he is one of the people I always listen too about photographic advice).

The funny thing is that I agree with him in so many ways even though I am a left-wing Berkeley educated flaming liberal. He no longer trusts the Republican president and I no longer trust the Democratic Party--since 1968. He says he's a fiscal conservative and I'm a fiscal liberal (Socialist Democrat) yet I believe he and I could have a very sane and friendly discussion and frankly I'd love to hear what he has to say because I simply don't know it all.

Again, I know this is in the non-photo part of the forum but I simply can't follow your logic.

luvmypets Loc: Born & raised Texan living in Fayetteville NC

The focus should be that this country was not prepared. Not prepared with medical equipment and supplies, not prepared with strategies ready to be implemented at a moments notice. Strategies that should have been created years ago; before Trump, Obama, the Bushes and been re-evaluated and updated along with getting people trained that would know what to do and would set things in motion instead of everyone standing around wondering what to do.

We as individuals were not prepared, hence, the panic buying. Consider the years of fear that Cuba would launch their missiles. Students were taught to dive under desks. Families had basements and bunkers outfitted and stocked for living in for weeks or months. The Great Depression taught people to make do with little. The only thing most people are prepared for now is severe diarrhea.

Who is to blame for this lack of preparedness? Who should we hold responsible....the democrats, the republicans, the liberals, the conservatives? They should all be blamed, they should all be held accountable....each and every one of them and for generations before them..... for failing to prepare this nation with supplies, knowledge and training for what ever disaster comes our way.

It's also our fault, the individual, to not have the food and supplies we need on hand to take care of ourselves for 30, 60, 90 days so that we aren't cleaning out every store of every necessary item leaving others with nothing.

The solutions for today's problems should not have one thing to do with political affiliation. The solutions should be based on the needs of the people. If you judge an individual by his political standing you will miss the true person. If you present yourself with your political position first, you deny the world the true you.

Bottom line....keep yourselves stocked and prepared for whatever could come your way. Viruses, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes; there's a lot of situations that we should prepare for. It's true that when this is over we will be different but will we be better? That should be what we strive for.

Dodie

tomcat

This is the best, most mature response that I have read to-date on any forum. Thanks for publishing. I will be sure to give you credit.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Excellent point. It is human nature to want to forget the hard times, the ugly truths, and the unfortunate circumstances. Sometimes, you just have to summon the sense to prepare for grim realities. Once upon a time, we did.

In the 1960s, there were many more "preppers" (we didn't call them that). I remember a neighbor with a large bunker a few feet underground. He invited select families to share it in the event of a tornado or a nuclear attack.

In my second grade year, 1962, there was a little incident known as the Cuban missile crisis. We watched film after film telling us how to "duck and cover," as if that would do any good at all against the shockwave and heat from a 50 megaton H-bomb blast.

The next year, my parents bought a book called, "Let There Be a World," by Felix Greene.

https://propagandaphotos.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/let-there-be-a-world-felix-greene/

I found it on the coffee table and had nightmares for decades. But I'm glad I read it. I still have it. It's one of the best photo essay propaganda pieces ever assembled, as effective in its time as the (arguably unfair, but spectacularly effective) 1964 Lyndon Johnson TV ad that scared us away from Barry Goldwater (with a little girl counting as she was picking petals off a daisy, leading to a mission control countdown. She looks up to see the flash of a bomb).

https://youtu.be/riDypP1KfOU

In the early 1970s, we still had bomb shelters at Davidson College. They were still stocked with 15-year old biscuits and medical supplies and Geiger counters. But in the mid-1970s, they needed those rooms for extra dorm space, so they were converted.

In Charlotte, WBT radio has an early 1960s doomsday bunker at its tower site. They have a generator, a control room, a spare transmitter, and spare parts, in addition to all the supplies that might keep a person or two alive for "a while".

https://www.npr.org/2013/02/19/172398326/cold-war-bunker-network-repurposed-for-21st-century-threats

https://www.rbr.com/from-nab-wbt-studio-waited-for-bombs-to-fall/

These days, I'm quite sure Charlotte is a prime target for nuclear destruction, since it has one of the busiest airports in the country, a couple of nuclear power stations nearby, and the second largest banking center in the USA. It's also an intersection of two MAJOR Interstates, I-77 and I-85. But there's more purpose for tornado and hurricane preparedness there than anything. In 1989, Hurricane Hugo left a quarter million of us without power for 10 days to two weeks.

It is probably time for all of us to start planning for the next disasters. Global warming is changing the weather. More energy trapped in the atmosphere leads to more severe storms than we are used to seeing. Hurricanes that were once 100-year events are becoming seasonal encounters. Tornados are more common. Blizzards are more acute, even in the midst of milder winters. We're seeing greater extremes.

We're also detecting errant asteroids and comets coming our way, and predicting when they might slam into Earth and make us as extinct as the dinosaurs. Various teams are intent on detecting and deflecting them or destroying them before it's too late.

Fascism and dictatorships are on the rise again. Putin and Trump are adding to the nuclear missile stockpiles again. Who knows? Bomb shelters may become popular again.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of us just try to escape. We usually just consume fossil fuels to go party at the beach, eat nutrition-less foods supplied in polluting plastic, watch movies or TV, surf the web, and do as much as possible to entertain ourselves and make ourselves look good when not working our fat hineys off or telling the kids to believe in fairy tales.

So right now, as we dodge viruses, it's a good time to reassess everything in our lives, what's important, what's not, and what we want to do to move forward when it is safe to breathe and hug again.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Right now I am reading thread in the chit-chat section turning into an attic ambiance.

For info, my opinion is simple:
- Being able to read a book and syntheses it succinctly and vulgarize information in order to make it available to all is a great thing. Is it 'visionary? No. Is it a public service? yes. (You disagree with speaker way of doing things, fine, it does not invalidate the message. Personally I learn from folks I disagree with, one way or another).
- Did the two previous administration take the threat of pandemic illness seriously? Yes. One was concerned with chemical and biological threat more then anything else (terrorism). The other was looking at a natural yet human sourced pandemic linked viruses. Each addressed a different threat with different tools.
- Was there a cell created to evaluate and support/advise their respective government? Yes.
- Was this preventive/informative cell dismantled by the present administration? Yes.
- Was there an effort to produce respirators made? Yes. A company was selected to build the said ventilator. It was then sold a couple of times to the highest bidder. The highest bidder complained that the contract would not allow them to make enough profit and demanded to be paid more*. (common occurrence in the government procuration system that leads to way too many cost over run)
- The contract was terminated by the Obama administration. It is now criticized for this as it would have been had it accepted the corporate blackmail at the time. (you are guilty of something regardless of what you do).
- A new bid was launched and never came to fruition (current administration did not follow through). We can blame this administration but the medical stuff would not be ready anyway, not enough time. This is not an absolution here as this demonstrates a lack of care and foresight. This is in par with a deliberate effort to eradicate what the previous administration did.
- The Defense Production Act allows a president to force the US industry to produce whatever is need in defense of the country and national interest. It has been invoked by the present administration but has not been used as it should be. Only one company has been instructed to produce medical equipment. During WWII All corporations were made on the war footing. Comparing then and now? Why even bother invoking the DPA?

--------------
* The company that effectively killed the contract was making respirators sold at about 10k each and making 3~4 k profit on each. By killing the contract they prevented the production and sale of a product that would have driven them out of business. Corporate greed once again acts against the public interest. Their product is 'superior' (more bells and whistles) but not competitive against a simple cheap alternative that could go to everyone's home. Instead of mass marketing they saw medical institutions that does really cares about controlling cost - another example of corporate greed -.

Please note that is created from data I collected and reflects my opinion based on the data collected.
If you want to challenge this, go right ahead, leave off the usual insults that really demeans you, the insult thrower.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Sounds close to what I've read about the situations over the years...