Monthly Archives: May 2020

national news

What happens if the unthinkable happens?

Donald John Trump is tempting fate … bigly!

The president of the United States continues to forgo donning a mask while key aides are coming down with COVID-19. The coronavirus has invaded the West Wing of the White House, where they make key decisions affecting all manner of U.S. foreign and domestic policy.

So, it’s fair to ask: What happens if Donald Trump tests positive for the virus? Hey, what happens also if Vice President Pence tests positive for it? I mean, his press secretary has come down with it.

Trump, Pence and other key aides are rubbing shoulders in the West Wing. Led by the president who says he would look “ridiculous” wearing a mask, many of them are ignoring guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; they include wearing a mask and keeping an appropriate “social distance” among themselves.

Let me be clear: I do not want the president to get sick. Nor the vice president. I have stated my indifference to Trump’s well-being, but that doesn’t mean I wish him ill.

It’s just that the Egomaniac in Chief has staked out a dangerous position with regard to self-protection during this time of extreme peril. No president, not even this one, should expose himself to the dangers of a potentially fatal disease. In this case, that disease has crept into the White House’s inner sanctum.

If the doctors order Trump to isolate himself, they will be acting to protect the integrity of our democratic republic. Let’s be mindful that Donald Trump is not a young man. I understand that some physicians have declared him, in effect, to be the strongest human being ever elected president. OK, I exaggerate, but you get my drift.

This clown needs to lose the “look ridiculous” argument and start demonstrating that he’s taking this matter as seriously as most of the rest of us.

I am a critic of the president. I won’t ever apologize for that. I also do not want to see my government, the one that gets my money, weakened at the center of its executive power because the chief exec doesn’t take this danger seriously.

Stand by, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

legal news, Uncategorized

Partisan bickering could cost more lives

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Oh, my goodness. The partisan bickering is filtering from Austin to county courthouses throughout Texas.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is issuing warnings to Democratic mayors and county judges to back off their local coronavirus pandemic mandates because, Paxton says, they do not conform with what Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has declared.

This is rich, man.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, one of those Democrats, has emerged as a champion in my eyes as he seeks to battle the viral infection outbreak in North Texas. Oh, I need to mention that my wife, one of our sons and his family and I reside in next-door Collin County.

Jenkins has ordered that everyone “shall” wear masks when they do business; Abbott’s order doesn’t require the wearing of masks. Thus, Paxton said that Jenkins and other get-tough local officials are overstepping their authority.

C’mon, Mr. AG. The judge is seeking to save Texans’ lives!

It’s all part of what looks like a deepening and widening of the partisan divide in Washington as Democrats and Republicans squabble over how to fight this pandemic. This won’t surprise you, but I do believe Democrats are on the correct side in that D.C. fight, with Donald Trump continuing to muddle his messages and continuing to pick fights with Democratic governors needlessly.

It’s now happening in Austin, where Republican state officials are haggling with Democratic local officials over which of them is taking the correct course. GOP officials want to reopen the economy more rapidly than their Democratic colleagues. Why are Democrats dragging their feet? Let’s see. Oh, they fear that a too-rapid reopening puts Texans’ lives in danger!

Hey, that concern is good enough for me.

So, with that, allow me this rejoinder: Mr. Texas Attorney General … back off!

medical news

Stop declaring ‘victory’ over COVID-19

President George W. Bush had his infamous “Mission Accomplished” moment aboard the aircraft carrier during the Iraq War.

The president landed on the deck of the carrier, climbed out of the jet, changed into his civvies, stood under that big sign hanging off the conning tower and then said he had accomplished our mission after we captured Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Well, it turned out we didn’t accomplish our mission. Many more Americans have died in Iraq.

Fast-forward to this week. Donald Trump stood in front of a banner that says “America Leads the World in Testing.” No. We do not.

At issue is the testing regimen being implemented to fight to coronavirus. It has killed more than 80,000 Americans.

Trump, though, keeps telling lies about our testing program. Yes, we have tested more people than any other country that is fighting the pandemic. However, the total number of tests is irrelevant.

The operative number must be the percentage of population that has been tested for the COVID-19 virus.

Donald Trump’s press briefing Monday was an exercise in deception, deflection and misdirection. He keeps boasting about the testing procedures that the administration has been ramping up. Yes, it is good that we’re getting more Americans tested for the coronavirus. However, we are way behind the curve.

This country comprises 330 million (give or take) individuals. Roughly 2 percent of them have been tested for the viral infection. How does that 2 percent figure stack up against other nations that have suffered from the virus? Not good, man.

Still, Donald Trump continues to foment yet another lie. It’s part of his modus operandi. He cannot tell the truth. It’s either a genetic disposition or a willful act. I’ll go with the latter, because I believe that Trump knows he is lying but he thinks he can get away with it.

So it goes with this idiocy about coronavirus testing.

The raw numbers tell only part of the story. This large, prosperous, powerful nation is — to borrow a phrase — leading from behind on a crisis remedy where we should be lapping the field.

national news

Trump piles on a new charge without evidence

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Donald Trump’s list of unsubstantiated allegations keeps growing.

He now has accused former President Barack Obama of committing a crime. The crime alleges something to do with former national security adviser Michael Flynn and whether President Obama conspired with the FBI to investigate whether Flynn had conspired with Russians who attacked our electoral system in 2016.

When reporters asked Trump about “Obamagate,” he said the media know the nature of the crime.

This is disgraceful.

It comes from the Imbecile in Chief who has alleged that millions of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016; he accused the Obama administration of “spying” on his campaign; now he has launched new conspiracy campaign against his immediate presidential predecessor.

Donald Trump is channeling the shady ghost of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the infamous commie-hunter from Wisconsin who smeared the reputations of dozens of public servants in the 1950s.

Only this time Trump is actually one-upping McCarthy by accusing his predecessor of committing a crime, which is tantamount to what he is alleging with this Flynn business.

He calls the Obama administration “the most corrupt” in U.S. history, which is laughable on its face, given that so many of Trump’s former associates, campaign aides have pleaded guilty to criminal activity.

Michael Flynn is one of them. He pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI about the Russian attack on our election. Then he took it back. Now he has the Justice Department seeking to have the guilty plea wiped off the books.

So now we have Donald Trump seeking yet another diversion from reality by leveling a specious allegation against Barack Obama.

Astonishing.

medical news

Stop the ‘reopening’ talk, Mr. POTUS; we’re still getting sick out here!

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Donald Trump’s push to reopen the United States of America is running into the proverbial immovable object.

It happens to be the rate of infection out here in Trump Country.

The White House has issued a report that declares that coronavirus infection rate is showing no signs of slowing in the heartland. That’s where I live, Mr. President, along with my family and a whole lot of our friends. I should add that many of our friends consider Trump to be the bee’s knees, but we still love them and worry about them.

Yet the Re-election Campaigner in Chief wants to push ahead with restarting the economy that has all but cratered in the wake of 80,000 deaths and more than 1.3 million infections from the killer viral infection.

States are reopening. Texas is phasing in a return to some semblance of “normal” life, although I have serious doubts about the wisdom of Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan.

My wife and I have no plans to walk into a restaurant for a meal; we will continue to go sparingly to the grocery store; we’ll run errands only as needed.

Full disclosure time: I did get a haircut this past weekend. I was masked, as was the salon worker who cut my locks. They were making many customers wait in their vehicles, but not all of ’em!

Still, we remain committed to the stay at home policy. We are staying away from our granddaughter, which — truth be told — pains us terribly. However, we are doing what we believe we have to do.

As for Donald Trump’s declaration that we are meeting all of our goals in containing the virus, um … no, we aren’t. Not in the least.

The White House coronavirus pandemic task force report contradicts Trump. Listen to the experts, Mr. President. They know more than you do.

medical news, national news

Trump keeps ratcheting up war against media

Donald John Trump was at his worst yet again today.

He took questions from reporters on the White House lawn after staging another round of happy talk about how fabulously the nation is doing as it fights the coronavirus pandemic.

Then came a question from CBS News White House reporter Weijia Jiang, who wanted to know why Trump keeps using the U.S. testing regimen as a global competition when more than 80,000 Americans have died from the viral infection.

“Maybe that’s a question you should ask China,” Trump said. Jiang was born in China but came to the United States at the age of 2. “Don’t ask me. Ask China that question, OK?” Jiang pushed back after Trump labeled her question “nasty.” She said it wasn’t … and she is correct. The question was a legitimate query.

Jiang also wanted to know from Trump why he would direct that response to her, given that she is, um, of Asian descent. You know?

A moment later, Trump called a halt to the press conference and fled the podium to return to the White House.

This is how the “wartime president” chooses to conduct himself. He chooses to attack the press when he should be focused on the “enemy,” which in this instance is that virus that keeps inflicting grievous suffering on the nation he took an oath to protect.

Disgraceful.

legal news

Barr joins the cabal of disagrace

I had harbored some hope that William Barr would bring some integrity to the Donald Trump administration when he accepted the president’s nomination to lead the Department of Justice.

After all, he had served as attorney general in the early 1990s near the end of President George H.W. Bush’s term in office. He served then with honor and dignity.

I was terribly and tragically wrong. The attorney general’s latest recommendation that former national security adviser Michael Flynn avoid prosecution for lying to the FBI and to Vice President Mike Pence about the Russia attack on our electoral system in 2016.

Flynn has pleaded guilty twice to committing perjury. Now we hear Barr suggest that his lying wasn’t “material” to the investigation into whether Russia interfered in our election.

Here, though, comes a stunner: Nearly 2,000 former DOJ staffers have demanded Barr’s resignation. It reminds me of something a former editor of mine used to say: If someone calls you an ass, blow it off; if others call you an ass, then you need to shop for a saddle.

So now the AG has a couple thousand former DOJ lawyers and others calling him an ass.

As NBC News reports: The letter urges the judge who is in charge of the Flynn case, Emmet Sullivan, to “take a long, hard look at the government’s explanation and the evidence.” Barr is using the Justice Department to further President Donald Trump’s personal and political interests, it says, and “has undermined any claim to the deference that courts usually apply to the department’s decisions about whether or not to prosecute a case.”

The good news is that the judge to whom Flynn entered the guilty pleas must sign off on Barr’s request. Judge Sullivan is known to be an independent thinker, which of course gets to the beauty of the federal judicial system; these judges are appointed for life and, thus, are ostensibly removed from partisan considerations.

As for Barr, the letter signed by those thousands of DOJ staffers asks Congress to censure the AG. Just think, too, that many of those who signed the letter worked in Justice Departments under Democratic and Republican administrations.

Lastly, take a good look at the picture attached to this blog post. Barr is standing in front of a bust of the man after whom the Justice Department building is named: Robert F. Kennedy, the AG from 1961 to 1964. I can say with absolute certainty that RFK would be aghast and appalled at where William Barr has taken the Department of Justice.

Donald Trump

Oh, the hypocrisy!

I just watched a video depicting a fellow named Frank Schaeffer, who describes himself as a formerly religious individual who has become a “progressive.”

He excoriates the militia who stormed the Michigan state capitol, demanding that Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reopen the state she had closed to fight the coronavirus. He also blasts Donald Trump for demanding that Whitmer meet with the armed militia, who he describes as criminals and thugs, to discuss their demands.

Schaeffer asks a perfectly pertinent question. If it’s good for Gov. Whitmer to meet with armed militia, why not allow them to storm the White House and meet with the president?

Schaeffer also noted that the White House is guarded by Secret Service sharpshooters who would shoot to kill anyone who walked onto the White House grounds.

Indeed, this individual — Frank Schaeffer — has posed a perfectly legitimate question. The armed militia festooned with swastikas and Confederate flags have no business presenting themselves in such a threatening manner to state government officials. What’s more, the president of the United States shouldn’t be enabling them to continue this outrageous behavior by suggesting they meet with an elected official.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=675447429921871

Check it out. It’s worth your time.

medical news, national news

How’s the ‘wartime president’ doing?

How does a “wartime president” spend his days?

He doesn’t spend them tweeting petty, petulant attacks against his political foes. The way I always have understood the term “wartime president,” he focuses tightly on the task at hand, which is to defeat the “enemy” with which he is at war.

Along the way, the “wartime president” unifies the nation. He speaks to our higher ideals. He puts partisan differences aside and offers words of measured wisdom.

How is Donald John “Tweeter in Chief” Trump doing as a “wartime president”? Not well … at all!

The enemy he once declared was “under control” now has killed 80,000 Americans. The coronavirus pandemic that Donald Trump once dismissed as not a serious threat to Americans has become, um, a deadly threat.

Trump called himself a “wartime president” in the mold, I suppose, of Presidents Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and for good measure, let’s throw in George W. Bush.

That’s where the comparison ends.

Trump has busied himself with Twitter messages that deal with everything but the “war” that has spiraled out of control on his watch. He attacks his immediate predecessor, Barack Obama, the media, Democrats in general, even some Republican conservatives. Trump hurls blame at every target imaginable for the pandemic that is showing no sign at all of letting up. He castigates Democratic governors.

Trump’s primary focus is on his re-election.

A “wartime president” by all rights shouldn’t have the amount of time Trump spends bellowing about matters that have nothing to do with the fight. Donald Trump is, as fellow Republican Mitt Romney once described him, a “phony and a fraud.”

medical news, national news

Time to look kindly on W’s words of wisdom

(Photo by Paul McErlane/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

I am not inclined to think of former President George W. Bush as a reasoned, rational statesman, but Donald J. Trump’s daily ration of petty partisan petulance puts the former president in yet another perspective.

Consider this Twitter message that came out May 2 from George W. Bush: “Let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat. In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants, we are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God. We rise or fall together, and we are determined to rise.”

President Bush sought to rally the nation that continues to be torn asunder by Trump’s blatant partisanship in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 80,000 Americans have died from the killer virus that has infected nearly 2 million of us.

President Bush, of course, is correct to assert that now — given the horrific crisis that has befallen us — is not the time for partisanship.

Oh, and Trump’s response to the 43rd president’s message drove home an unspoken point of his tweet. He whined that Bush didn’t rise to Trump’s defense while the U.S. House of Representatives was impeaching him for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Point made, President Bush.

Our differences are indeed “small,” as the former president notes. This is the time for unity. It is time for the only president we have to step up, to speak to all of us as one nation in distress. It is time for the whining, carping, griping to cease.

None of this will occur while Donald Trump is sitting behind that big desk in the Oval Office.