"God protects fools, drunkards, and the United States": Here's Hoping.

In his new USA Today column, Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit produces a tidy and edited list of the current crises in the Middle East:

In reverse order: ISIL is winning in Iraq, and we are losing. Airstrikes — quite modest ones compared to those unleashed against Saddam Hussein's armies over a decade ago — aren't doing the job, and the Defense Department doesn't seem to be able to round up enough (any?) of those much-touted "moderate" Syrian rebels to form a serious opposition force. The Kurds are stressed, and we're not getting them enough supplies. Meanwhile, the Kurds' long-term enemies, the Turks — Turkey is a NATO ally of the United States — are actually bombing the Kurds rather than ISIL.

Then there's Ebola, of course:

We don't seem to be doing very well at treating the handful of cases of Ebola we already have. Dallas patient Thomas Duncan has infected at least two nurses who treated him, and about 1,000 people are being monitored. The Dallas hospital that treated Duncan is hemorrhaging patients and money as no one else wants to stay there. And this is just the consequence of one imported case of Ebola….

As quite a few people have remarked, the most troubling thing about the Ebola crisis isn't even the Ebola, but rather the widespread incompetence it has revealed among people who are supposed to take threats to the nation seriously. And that incompetence, alas, isn't limited to Ebola.

Read the whole thing.

Comments

[Hugh Akston]

Klain is a smart guy, and a competent political fixer, but it says something disquieting that the Obama administration has chosen a political fixer to take charge of a public health emergency. It suggests that the White House sees the Ebola problem as a political problem to be managed, not a public health problem to be solved.

Every problem is a messaging problem to the Obama Administration.

[Suthenboy]

"Every problem is a messaging problem to the Obama Administration."

George Lakoff , a brilliant cognitive psychologist and vile sack of shit, outlined this approach in his "The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic". Thats right, he tells them what to think.

Obumbles has never done anything except follow the precepts of Lakoff and Alinsky. He says what his told to say, thinks what he is told to think, and does what he is told to do.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadly politics is run by a combination of people who are incapable of rational thought and people who made the terrible mistake of becoming marketing or communications majors.

They don't deal in solving problems because that would either a)cost somebody their job; b)piss off someone they need; or c) take money out of a fellow TEAM member's pocket.

[Ken Shultz]

The incompetence of the Obama Administration has only been brought into sharper focus by ISIS and Ebola. But it was always there. And if I had to pick the most incompetent things the Obama Administration is doing right now, high on the list would be sending 3,000 troops to Liberia, and working so hard to keep the option to fly Ebola patients by the thousands into the U.S. for treatment...

The latter of which is so profoundly stupid, people can't understand what the administration is saying. What?! Surely he doesn't mean that! He must mean something else.

None of this incompetence should be surprising given so many of the other stupid moves we've seen them make over the years. Heaping regulation on banks even as the housing market was starving for refinance loans and ObamaCare itself are both excellent examples of the same incompetence. But even the establishment Republicans seem to think Obama's stupid moves are all part of some big master plan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1KyQ-1kDbk

We're dealing with a President who doesn't know anything about management, how the economy works, or foreign policy. Stupid is as stupid does, and just about everything this president does is stupid. I wouldn't hire him to run a single fast food franchise. How he came to be the president of anything is astounding.

[Suthenboy]

"What?! Surely he doesn't mean that! He must mean something else."

This is all I have been hearing from his voters/supporters since the day the fuckwit came on the scene.

If you want to see it in action, play the video of him saying "...under my plan energy prices would necessarily skyrocket...". Then sit back and watch anyone who supported him squirm around and deny that they heard what they just heard, or that it doesn't mean what it means.

[PRX]

or when he proudly explained he didn't know how auto liability insurance worked. I guess under his plan, your beater would be fully covered for $600 a month with oil changes included and a $10,000 deductible.

[Malkavian]

"Meanwhile, the Kurds' long-term enemies, the Turks ? Turkey is a NATO ally of the United States ? are actually bombing the Kurds rather than ISIL."

Well, technically, Kurds are Marxist terrorists, so it is not unexpected. US is currently backing Commies and Al Qaeda (Nusra) to fight ISIS. Head spins.

[The Late P Brooks]

the most troubling thing about the Ebola crisis isn't even the Ebola, but rather the widespread incompetence it has revealed among people who are supposed to take threats to the nation seriously. And that incompetence, alas, isn't limited to Ebola.

Nobody in the upper echelons of the government will get ebola. And that's what really matters.

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

Brooks. Nails. It.

[Idle Hands]

If that chick who threw up in the tour bus outside the pentagon had or if someone had it croaked in front of the fda building, you can bet your ass there would a fully synthesized vaccine on the market tomorrow.

[Pro Libertate]

Government in general is inefficient, which was by design, anyway, but I can't think of one positive accomplishment of this administration. At very best, they've jumped on a few popular bandwagons, but, even then, solely to the extent that such jumping is politically expedient.

[Tony]

Let me guess, this thread is gonna be a bunch of small-government libertarians bitching that the federal government isn't enacting vast and expensive bureaucratic changes to protect us from something that isn't a threat to this country.

[Idle Hands]

Um. No. I would wager the consensus here would be that the globalization of the world is such that if something like Ebola posed as much of a hysterical threat as the media is portraying it as no bureaucratic fix would help us unless that fix happened to be the dismantling of the fda.

[Idle Hands]

and even than due to the scarcity/cost of a synthisized vaccine many people would die. Mostly we are laughing at a classic example of dunning-krugar effect.

[Tony]

The last time I was on an Ebola thread most people were bitching about there not being a travel ban.

[Idle Hands]

There were also plenty of people arguing against one as well, who as I recall presented a much better case than you. As your main argument seemed to be because "the administration says so" without any justification of that argument.

[Tony]

Well, the relevant experts, not all from government (but government would contain some of those).

[antisocial-ist]

For the eight hundredth god damned time appeal to authority is a fallacy you mendacious fucktard.

[Ken Shultz]

"Let me guess, this thread is gonna be a bunch of small-government libertarians bitching that the federal government isn't enacting vast and expensive bureaucratic changes to protect us from something that isn't a threat to this country."

You talking about ISIS, Tony?

You don't think ISIS represents a substantial threat to this country?

Finally, we agree on something, Tony.

You've come a long way, baby! Now, if you can just channel that observation into some real opposition to Obama's stupid foreign policy, you'll really be making progress.

[Tony]

I was talking about Ebola, of course. I'm not sure about ISIS. They aren't until they blow something up, I guess. I'm not convinced that this will be the one time that bombing extremists gets rid of extremism.

[Stormy Dragon]

As quite a few people have remarked, the most troubling thing about the Ebola crisis isn't even the Ebola, but rather the widespread incompetence it has revealed among people who are supposed to take threats to the nation seriously.

Personally, I think the most troubling thing about the Ebola "crisis" is the revelation of how many complete pussies are living in this country.

[The Late P Brooks]

Let me guess, this thread is gonna be a bunch of small-government libertarians bitching that the federal government isn't enacting vast and expensive bureaucratic changes to protect us from something that isn't a threat to this country.

Your mom used to tell you you were smarter than those other kids, didn't she?
That is what is known as a "white lie".

[The Late P Brooks]

Three cases, one death- that's some epidemic!

[db]

Hey! Who's the barber here?