Most of all, here — I want to highlight how utterly unserious Tangerine 2.0 and RFK, Jr. are — about epidemic abatement bio-science. For a few weeks now, Trump has imposed a 21 day waiting period on AIR travelers, entering the US after leaving DRC. But over-land entry remains completely lawful. At least, according to his published reports, from minions at the US State Dept.
So, apparently about 14 US citizens arrived from DRC into Canada, by air (lawfully) — and then (lawfully) rented cars, and drove to a border station just inside northern Vermont (lawfully — and as it happens, I was inside this cute facility last summer, while returning to South Hero Island, from a night in Montreal — it is full of New England’s charms!) — and were held overnight — then diverted, under threat of arrest, to NY’s Ft. Drum army base for up to 21 days of isolation.
This, despite the fact that none of them showed any worrisome symptoms (some were never near Ituri province, moreover) — and the fact remains that driving in from Canada or Mexico is perfectly lawful, if one is a US citizen. Tangerine’s maddeningly-irrational chaos is… debilitating. Each of these 14 people ought to sue the federal government, for failing to cut square corners, when dealing with healthy returning travelers. Here’s what is known — to this point:
…According to published reports, U.S. health officials quarantined 14 Americans at Fort Drum after returning from a country where an Ebola outbreak is underway.
Reuters reports that the American citizens flew from the Democratic Republic of Congo into Canada and tried to enter the U.S. through points of entry in New York and Vermont.
According to the article, the travelers had no symptoms consistent with Ebola — and were deemed to not be at risk of of transmitting the disease.
Reuters points out there is no U.S. order preventing citizens from returning to the U.S. via land, although a “do-not-board” order issued this month requires U.S. citizens in Congo to quarantine for at least 21 days before they can return via a commercial flight….
Reuters reports that a Pentagon official said Fort Drum accepted the families “to provide a temporary, isolated assessment facility and life support[?!],” and that they received medical evaluations from the CDC.
The article quoted a Fort Drum spokesperson as saying, “There is a unique, deeply personal significance when we are called to serve on the home front,” and that the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, stationed at the fort, is “prepared to step in whenever called upon by the Department of War….”
R-i-i-i-i-ight [lipstick on a pig reply]. This. is. sheer. idiocy. Air restrictions are meaningless without land-travel-based ones — and it is my estimation that neither one, nor both — will prevent an ebola outbreak in the USA. Damnation.
नमस्ते
Not at all surprising — but Paul would much rather complain about a few stray cards and some two pages of display copy in a local DC museum, than directly address the fact that Trump is once again committing war crimes against the civilian population — in Iran — in our name.
So this is now the enduring way of things on the frothy hard right: the guys who once claimed to be muckrakers against people who lie… Now simply try to hide the fact that they have elected the liar in chief. Twice. 
