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  1. Totus Porcus Inactive
    Totus Porcus
    @TotusPorcus

    Obama’s Katrina.

    • #1
  2. Vance Richards Inactive
    Vance Richards
    @VanceRichards

    Peter Robinson:Posted without comment, because, really, what is there to add?

    Um . . .yeah you’re right. I got nothing.

    • #2
  3. Totus Porcus Inactive
    Totus Porcus
    @TotusPorcus

    Well, we know their whole “we know how to deal with this” line is playing so poorly that Obama actually cancelled a fundraising trip today.

    When he cancels a golf game, we’ll know it’s really time to go to the mattresses.

    • #3
  4. Casey Inactive
    Casey
    @Casey

    Peter, Peter, Peter….

    You start a conversation website that charges people for the right to converse, then you put up a post that says “Hey, there’s no conversation to be had here!”

    Don’t they have business classes at Dartmouth?

    (just pulling your leg, Peter)

    • #4
  5. Peter Robinson Contributor
    Peter Robinson
    @PeterRobinson

    Casey:Peter, Peter, Peter….

    You start a conversation website that charges people for the right to converse, then you put up a post that says “Hey, there’s no conversation to be had here!”

    Don’t they have business classes at Dartmouth?

    (just pulling your leg, Peter)

    Casey, you make a very good point.  So, uh, well, let’s see.  Oh, I know!  What do you make of that font?  Wouldn’t “Get a Grip” have looked better in serif?

    • #5
  6. Peter Robinson Contributor
    Peter Robinson
    @PeterRobinson

    Totus Porcus:Well, we know their whole “we know how to deal with this” line is playing so poorly that Obama actually cancelled a fundraising trip today.

    When he cancels a golf game, we’ll know it’s really time to go to the mattresses.

    Beautiful!  The line of the day on the headline of the day!

    • #6
  7. Casey Inactive
    Casey
    @Casey

    There you go, Peter. Fonts are worth 20 comments from Lileks alone.

    • #7
  8. AIG Inactive
    AIG
    @AIG

    There’s a disturbing trend to be seen over the last couple of years in conservative websites and news sources in general: the adoption of the Alex Jones/Glenn Beck style of hysteria.

    Now I get it why some places like Drudge do it (Drudge went off the deep end about a year ago when they started linking to Alex Jones on a regular basis)…it attracts viewers. Fox News seems to be sucumbing to this sort of “derangement syndrome” lately too, although fortunately its contained only to a handful of their reporters, and some still seem to retain their sanity. The Daily News has been a rag for quite some time, so it’s no surprise they have these sort of headlines quite regularly.

    But overall, this is “bad for business” for the Republican/conservative brand.

    Fabricating outrage and hysteria over everything, and turning everything into a political ploy, appeals to the lowest common denominator. In fact, it seems to be attracting the lowest common denominator.

    So, maybe the “get a grip” headline might better be applied to people who have gone over into hysteria over the last 2 years over everything. Of course, it is entertaining to see some “conservatives” flip flop at every opportunity on lots of these fabricated hysterical over-reactions…whatever Obama does…they recommend the opposite. And when he does that, then they proclaim to support the opposite yet again.

    The problem becomes, you cry wolf too many times, people tune out.

    But overall, it shows precisely the opposite of what “conservatives” and Republicans always proclaim to be: the reasonable grown ups in the room. Certainly, there hasn’t been much evidence of that in the last 2 years.

    And we see this now at Ricochet, with the 2 dozen Ebola scare stories and…frankly…fabricated stories on it, or the numerous other fabricated “scandals” which mystify us as to why “the media isn’t reporting on them” (like the one we had here a few days ago on the supposed BLS manipulation of unemployment numbers, or the usual supposed Fed manipulation).

    So get a grip conservatives.

    • #8
  9. Mark Belling Fan Inactive
    Mark Belling Fan
    @MBF

    And cue the “Ebola Hysteria Concern Trolling” posts…

    • #9
  10. She Member
    She
    @She

    AIG:There’s a disturbing trend to be seen over the last couple of years in conservative websites and news sources in general: the adoption of the Alex Jones/Glenn Beck style of hysteria.

    Now I get it why some places like Drudge do it (Drudge went off the deep end about a year ago when they started linking to Alex Jones on a regular basis)…it attracts viewers. Fox News seems to be sucumbing to this sort of “derangement syndrome” lately too, although fortunately its contained only to a handful of their reporters, and some still seem to retain their sanity. The Daily News has been a rag for quite some time, so it’s no surprise they have these sort of headlines quite regularly.

    But overall, this is “bad for business” for the Republican/conservative brand.

    Fabricating outrage and hysteria over everything, and turning everything into a political ploy, appeals to the lowest common denominator. In fact, it seems to be attracting the lowest common denominator.

    So, maybe the “get a grip” headline might better be applied to people who have gone over into hysteria over the last 2 years over everything. Of course, it is entertaining to see some “conservatives” flip flop at every opportunity on lots of these fabricated hysterical over-reactions…whatever Obama does…they recommend the opposite. And when he does that, then they proclaim to support the opposite yet again.

    The problem becomes, you cry wolf too many times, people tune out.

    But overall, it shows precisely the opposite of what “conservatives” and Republicans always proclaim to be: the reasonable grown ups in the room. Certainly, there hasn’t been much evidence of that in the last 2 years.

    And we see this now at Ricochet, with the 2 dozen Ebola scare stories and…frankly…fabricated stories on it, or the numerous other fabricated “scandals” which mystify us as to why “the media isn’t reporting on them” (like the one we had here a few days ago on the supposed BLS manipulation of unemployment numbers, or the usual supposed Fed manipulation).

    So get a grip conservatives.

    So you’re saying that the President should not have cancelled his fund-raising trip in order to take a look at this issue?

    And if that’s not what you’re saying, what, in your estimation, is the line between ‘our President’s measured response’ and ‘over-the-top conservative hysteria?’

    The problem at the moment is not people ‘crying wolf.’  It is those whose minds are so open that their brains have fallen out, and it is  those ‘experts’ and ‘authorities’ who talk so often and so much that it’s evident that they haven’t got a flaming clue what’s going on, so that every time they speak, they are saying something different (with authority, of course).

    • #10
  11. dittoheadadt Inactive
    dittoheadadt
    @dittoheadadt

    How about “…and then, get a clue.”?

    • #11
  12. user_1152 Member
    user_1152
    @DonTillman

    Like the grip on a… Harry’s shaver.

    • #12
  13. Eeyore Member
    Eeyore
    @Eeyore

    Peter, you’ve so missed this page. It is our Dear Leader, chastising those around him. He’s saying both “Get your act together,” as well as “You’re overreacting” Whichever your point of view, Obama is addressing it. After all, Obama knows more about Ebola than all the Ebolaists.

    • #13
  14. Casey Inactive
    Casey
    @Casey

    Hold on… something missing…

    Don Tillman:Like the grip on a… ROB: WOW!  … Harry’s shaver.

    There.  I think I’ve got everyone covered now.

    • #14
  15. Totus Porcus Inactive
    Totus Porcus
    @TotusPorcus

    AIG:There’s a disturbing trend to be seen over the last couple of years in conservative websites and news sources in general: the adoption of the Alex Jones/Glenn Beck style of hysteria.

    . . .

    So get a grip conservatives.

    I don’t see the slightest bit of hysteria here.  (That term is sexist, BTW.)  And even paranoids have real enemies.  The “disturbing trend” you identify is the product of the growing perception that the government is frequently both dishonest and corrupt or incompetent.

    How does a small problem become a big problem?  By pretending it’s no problem and telling everyone you’ve got it covered in any event, when in fact it isn’t and you don’t.

    Ebola, like ISIS just before it, is a nice example.  The JV is now on the outskirts of Baghdad, and the highly contagious, highly lethal disease that we were told somebody can’t just get on a plane and bring here is here after somebody just got on a plane and brought it here.  At least two trained medical personnel have contracted the disease after we were assured that “the protocols” ensured that would not happen.  One of them, with a fever, got on a plane, after which we learn that when the CDC says “fever” they really mean 100.4 degrees and not 99.5, or even 100.1 I suppose.

    I’m now waiting for the explanation of whether someone who has been exposed to Ebola and has a fever of 99.9 degrees is symptomatic in the view of the CDC and therefore poses a risk of transmission to others, since they’ve been telling us that the disease can’t be transmitted unless the infected person is symptomatic.

    The President assured us there’s not a “smidgen” of corruption at the IRS, when that’s plainly false.  The unemployment rate inexplicably fell below the fatal 8% rate right before the 2012 election.

    Nothing to see here, and you’re nuts to think otherwise!  We are experts, and we know what to do, like Obama’s Ebola people have been telling us.  All the while things are happening that they’ve assured us won’t happen.

    Peggy Noonan wrote a great piece about this phenomenon a couple of weeks ago.  The bureaucracy doesn’t care what you think.  This Administration is primarily concerned with getting you to shut up, calm down and realize they’re doing a great job.

    I’m not buying it.

    • #15
  16. AIG Inactive
    AIG
    @AIG

    She: So you’re saying that the President should not have cancelled his fund-raising trip in order to take a look at this issue? And if that’s not what you’re saying, what, in your estimation, is the line between ‘our President’s measured response’ and ‘over-the-top conservative hysteria?’ The problem at the moment is not people ‘crying wolf.’  It is those whose minds are so open that their brains have fallen out, and it is  those ‘experts’ and ‘authorities’ who talk so often and so much that it’s evident that they haven’t got a flaming clue what’s going on, so that every time they speak, they are saying something different (with authority, of course).

    Obama’s response is quite irrelevant here, unless we’re interested in scoring cheap political points ahead of the mid-term elections.

    Which seems to me to be what we’re doing.

    As for the actual response of the CDC, and the “criticism” from “conservatives”, which is actually unreasonable hysteria, finger-pointing and crying wolf…the problem is primarily a lack of understanding of how complex organizations like this work and how they respond to crises situations.

    The “criticism” can be categorized into a few types:

    1) The fact that there wasn’t 100% safety guarantee on a…completely… unprecedented event. I.e. all the criticism that somehow some hospital in Dallas wasn’t prepared to handle…a West African disease.

    2) The supposed “lack of resources” to supposedly deal with this problem.

    3) Accusations of political meddling on the appropriate response at a global level.

    The…hysterical response…to the first criticism comes from a fundamental lack of understanding of how organizations work and how they respond to crises. There’s hundreds of studies in psychology and organizational studies looking at similar events.

    It’s a universal problem with all organizations involving people, in complex and inter-dependent situations, dealing with an unexpected crises, that biases and mistakes will exist. It has nothing to do with this being a government organization. It is not incompetence, misinformation, lying, etc etc which conservatives keep accusing the CDC of. It’s basic human behavior in organizations. In any organization. Mistakes will happen. Errors will happen. Unexpected situations will never be dealt with a 100% success rate.

    So it’s pure hysterical over-reaction to attribute…normal events…to “incompetence”.

    The second criticism is again a pointless one. Resources to deal with an unexpected and highly unlikely event, aren’t available before the event occurs. They shouldn’t be, in fact. So the lack of “money” or “resources” is just hysterical over-reaction to the way we actually…want…government agencies to operate (or any other organization). We don’t want them, and shouldn’t expect them to waste resources on things which have a close to 0% likelihood of happening.

    The third criticism simply ignores how diseases spread, and the best way to control it. That’s a technical issue for people who are qualified to answer it. Not an issue for armchair epidemiologist.

    Of course, we all know the over-arching points this hysteria wants to make is that:

    1) Government sucks

    2) Obama is at fault.

    None of the criticisms applied here are unique to “government organizations”, however. They are features of all complex organizations with humans, dealing with a crises. So it’s a really bad idea to start making criticisms if you’ve got no idea what 1) the actual problem is, and 2) what the better alternative is.

    The second point is silly. We’ve seen these agencies respond to similar epidemics both under Democratic and Republican administrations. There doesn’t appear to be a difference in reaction.

    But if we’re interested in scoring very cheap political points ahead of the election, then this is a really good idea. But please don’t pretend to be doing this from the position of “reasonableness” or “common sense”. It’s neither.

    • #16
  17. AIG Inactive
    AIG
    @AIG

    Totus Porcus: How does a small problem become a big problem?  By pretending it’s no problem and telling everyone you’ve got it covered in any event, when in fact it isn’t and you don’t.

    1) Where is the “big problem” here?

    See, that’s the point here: confounding the lack of 100% success, with the existence of a “big problem”.

    And then extending this into an argument for why “government is the problem”, even though the lack of 100% success is a normal expected outcome of all organizations dealing with unexpected situations.

    Imagine applying the same logic here to, for example, police departments. A lack of 100% success in preventing crime isn’t evidence of anything. Not being prepared to handle a tank…isn’t evidence of lack of efficiency by the police. Mistakes or errors aren’t evidence of lack of efficiency.

    Try applying this logic to other situations and other organizations. You’ll see why it’s neither “reasonable” nor “common sense”.

    • #17
  18. Totus Porcus Inactive
    Totus Porcus
    @TotusPorcus

    AIG:

    Totus Porcus: How does a small problem become a big problem? By pretending it’s no problem and telling everyone you’ve got it covered in any event, when in fact it isn’t and you don’t.

    1) Where is the “big problem” here?

    See, that’s the point here: confounding the lack of 100% success, with the existence of a “big problem”.

    Well, I’m not sure who is making that error, but I didn’t.

    Ebola is not yet a big problem in the US.  Didn’t say it was.  It is, however, a problem.

    ISIS is a big problem.  It was once a small problem.  Like Ebola, we were told that it was no problem.

    Commonality:  Relax, Obama’s got it covered!

    • #18
  19. DrewInWisconsin Member
    DrewInWisconsin
    @DrewInWisconsin

    When I saw it this morning, my first thought was that the Daily News was passing along a message from Obama to us: “Get a grip, people!”

    But then I saw commentary from folks suggesting that it was the Daily News telling Obama to “Get a grip.”

    To me, the second interpretation doesn’t make sense unless they were afraid to address him specifically for fear of retribution: e.g. “For God’s Sake, Mr. President, Get a Grip!”. I’m reserving judgment until someone reads the headline article to me.

    • #19
  20. She Member
    She
    @She

    AIG:

    She: So you’re saying that the President should not have cancelled his fund-raising trip in order to take a look at this issue? And if that’s not what you’re saying, what, in your estimation, is the line between ‘our President’s measured response’ and ‘over-the-top conservative hysteria?’ The problem at the moment is not people ‘crying wolf.’ It is those whose minds are so open that their brains have fallen out, and it is those ‘experts’ and ‘authorities’ who talk so often and so much that it’s evident that they haven’t got a flaming clue what’s going on, so that every time they speak, they are saying something different (with authority, of course).

    Obama’s response is quite irrelevant here, unless we’re interested in scoring cheap political points ahead of the mid-term elections.

    Which seems to me to be what we’re doing.

    As for the actual response of the CDC, and the “criticism” from “conservatives”, which is actually unreasonable hysteria, finger-pointing and crying wolf…the problem is primarily a lack of understanding of how complex organizations like this work and how they respond to crises situations.

    The “criticism” can be categorized into a few types:

    1) The fact that there wasn’t 100% safety guarantee on a…completely… unprecedented event. I.e. all the criticism that somehow some hospital in Dallas wasn’t prepared to handle…a West African disease.

    2) The supposed “lack of resources” to supposedly deal with this problem.

    3) Accusations of political meddling on the appropriate response at a global level.

    The…hysterical response…to the first criticism comes from a fundamental lack of understanding of how organizations work and how they respond to crises. There’s hundreds of studies in psychology and organizational studies looking at similar events.

    It’s a universal problem with all organizations involving people, in complex and inter-dependent situations, dealing with an unexpected crises, that biases and mistakes will exist. It has nothing to do with this being a government organization. It is not incompetence, misinformation, lying, etc etc which conservatives keep accusing the CDC of. It’s basic human behavior in organizations. In any organization. Mistakes will happen. Errors will happen. Unexpected situations will never be dealt with a 100% success rate.

    So it’s pure hysterical over-reaction to attribute…normal events…to “incompetence”.

    The second criticism is again a pointless one. Resources to deal with an unexpected and highly unlikely event, aren’t available before the event occurs. They shouldn’t be, in fact. So the lack of “money” or “resources” is just hysterical over-reaction to the way we actually…want…government agencies to operate (or any other organization). We don’t want them, and shouldn’t expect them to waste resources on things which have a close to 0% likelihood of happening.

    The third criticism simply ignores how diseases spread, and the best way to control it. That’s a technical issue for people who are qualified to answer it. Not an issue for armchair epidemiologist.

    Of course, we all know the over-arching points this hysteria wants to make is that:

    1) Government sucks

    2) Obama is at fault.

    None of the criticisms applied here are unique to “government organizations”, however. They are features of all complex organizations with humans, dealing with a crises. So it’s a really bad idea to start making criticisms if you’ve got no idea what 1) the actual problem is, and 2) what the better alternative is.

    The second point is silly. We’ve seen these agencies respond to similar epidemics both under Democratic and Republican administrations. There doesn’t appear to be a difference in reaction.

    But if we’re interested in scoring very cheap political points ahead of the election, then this is a really good idea. But please don’t pretend to be doing this from the position of “reasonableness” or “common sense”. It’s neither.

    Thanks for clarifying, in a response that some might find ‘hysterical’ in its intensity, that I’m too just stupid to understand what’s going on.

    Perhaps you can clear up for me the statements today from Tom Frieden, that I shouldn’t be concerned about catching Ebola by sitting next to someone on a plane, but that I shouldn’t get on a plane if I have Ebola, because I might give it to someone.

    Doubtless a brilliant person can understand why this is not obfuscation, but that it is merely another demonstration of the complexities and inter-dependencies of ‘systems.’  I also realize that to criticize such a learned and erudite man is ‘pointless’ (who am I to have an opinion, after all?), but these are two opposing viewpoints that I, in my ignorance and stupidity, am having trouble reconciling.

    Maybe if a few of these fools authorities had kept their mouths shut, and if they had not become the communicable disease equivalent of Baghdad Bob, there would be less concern and confusion today.

    P.S.  I agree with you that “mistakes will happen.”  I’d check a few of my assumptions at the door, if I were you, and stick to the facts.

    P.P.S.  You didn’t answer my question.

    • #20
  21. Jimmy Carter Member
    Jimmy Carter
    @JimmyCarter

    And Citizens still ain’t signing up for Obamacare. All the more reason to repeal it.

    • #21
  22. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    It’s quite clear the headline was referring to Obama’s golf game.  “Get a Grip” either refers to 1) the way he holds the club, or 2) the worn grip on the end of his putter . . .

    By the way, does anyone know what Obama’s handicap is?  With the amount of practice he gets, he should be a scratch golfer by now.

    You know Obama’s a good golfer if he can shoot his bowling score . . . ba-da-BING!

    • #22
  23. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    When I think of President Bush 43, I think of a picture I once saw of him taken during his first term. He was walking up the steps of Air Force 1, and his head was down, his shirt was soaked with sweat, and he was clearly exhausted.

    What a difference from the cool, detached, “intellectual” Obama.

    • #23
  24. Paul A. Rahe Member
    Paul A. Rahe
    @PaulARahe

    It strikes me that AIG needs to calm down, abandon the boldface type, and read around. Conservatives are not alone in suggesting that we ought to put a stop to people coming to the US from the regions affected by this epidemic. Consider, for example, this from The New Republic. Opting for a quarantine of sorts is, as I have said repeatedly here and here, is a matter of common sense — the sort of thing that a fourteen-year-old can understand. It is also the policy followed in virtually every country of Africa where there has not yet been an outbreak, and it has worked.

    We have a right to expect that the responsible authorities –the CDC and ultimately the President of the United States — anticipate trouble and head it off. That is what this President has repeatedly failed to do. Consider the Russian invasion of the Crimea and of Ukraine. Consider the rise of ISIS. Consider the Veterans Administration scandal. Barack Obama was talking about the sorry state of the VA when he was a candidate in 2008. About this he did nothing. We have a right to expect a measure of competence from those we elect to high office, and that is not what we are seeing. What we are seeing instead is “damage control” in every sphere. I have not seen any indication of hysteria on this website — except on the part of AIG.

    As for the Republicans . . . they should hold the President and his party responsible for the mess they have made. In a democracy, the task of the opposition is to insure accountability; and we hold elections to allow for a change of course. AIG, is your point that we do not need a change of course? That quarantining does not help in cases such as the one we face? Are you happy with Fast and Furious? Do you admire the current head of the IRS? Do you think that the destruction of Lois Lerner’s hard drive was an honest mistake? I could go on, but there is no point.

    • #24
  25. Paul A. Rahe Member
    Paul A. Rahe
    @PaulARahe

    DrewInWisconsin:When I saw it this morning, my first thought was that the Daily News was passing along a message from Obama to us: “Get a grip, people!”

    But then I saw commentary from folks suggesting that it was the Daily News telling Obama to “Get a grip.”

    To me, the second interpretation doesn’t make sense unless they were afraid to address him specifically for fear of retribution: e.g. “For God’s Sake, Mr. President, Get a Grip!”. I’m reserving judgment until someone reads the headline article to me.

    You should perhaps read the main headline in light of the headlines above it: “March–Ebola Outbreak Revealed. Oct.– U. S. Response Still Chaotic.”

    • #25
  26. Totus Porcus Inactive
    Totus Porcus
    @TotusPorcus

    I hope Obama and his new Ebola Czar are not hysterical.

    • #26
  27. Casey Inactive
    Casey
    @Casey

    Paul A. Rahe: It strikes me that AIG needs to calm down, abandon the boldface type, and read around.

    Oooh…. friction!

    Sorry, Peter.  I was just wrong, wrong, wrong.

    • #27
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