I worry my comment wasn't substantive, but in this case I refer specifically to confiscation of _medical supplies_ during a _pandemic_. It disincentivizes being a well prepared or resourceful organization if your stuff will get taken anyway. When do those disincentives break the whole system?

You have to just remind yourself what signals come in during a crisis (esp new kinds people aren't trained for) takes a while to make sense off. Nothing will make sense initially.

Even for decision makers up and down the hierarchy. Most of the time people, even responsible people with good intent, have no clue what the right move is. But they have to make moves for all kinds of reasons. And problems compound.

It takes time for mistakes to surface and unwind things. So give it time.

Assuming good intent only works if you trust the top decision makers to foster that kind of organizational culture. Unfortunately, in the US, we have a president who has burned most of his bridges, and has lost a lot of “benefit of the doubt”.

And remember is not a dual choice between malice and good. The administration could simply be incompetent, obsessed with control, and afraid to look weak by having states take decisions on their own.

They have not so far since day one. It is irrational and highly suspect to pick today to start claiming there is any doubt to grant any benefit of.

I feel the same way about your position.

" people, even responsible people with good intent"

True, but also true for irresponsible people with malicious intent, and those benefit massively from confusion and opacity.

Fuck that. The federal government is stealing PPE from NYC to “own the libs”. This is not ok.

That's the intended point.. mismanagement to form a self-fulfilling prophecy to justify and destroy government to allow more corruption and theft by the 1%; the libertarian wet dream.

I'm not a libertarian, but "federal seizure of goods" isn't a particularly libertarian idea.

Of course not if limited to strict, inflexible ideological dogma, but the net effect serves the "higher" goal via realpolitik: Make government the "enemy" to be destroyed like how Reagan believed or like how libertarians wish

True, though ironic in this case since "vote for us because the government is broken (btw we broke it)" is an odd look.

Of course, it's also possible that government already is broken, they did win, and now they are reaping the rewards of corruption. I tend to think this is pretty likely.