Tag Archives: coronavirus

local news

Happy Trails, Part 181: On the road again … finally!

LAKE MURRAY STATE PARK, Okla. — It took far longer than we wanted, but we finally pulled our fifth wheel out of storage.

We awoke the vehicle we nicknamed “Sally” from her winter of hibernation and arrived at a wonderful state park near Ardmore. We flushed the anti-freeze out of the plumbing and have enjoyed a brief respite from the housebound life in this era of the coronavirus pandemic.

To be sure, we are keeping our distance from our campsite neighbors. We holler at ’em from some distance, extend greetings and good wishes. We discovered that two of our neighbors right next door, a husband and wife, hail from Frisco, a mere chip shot away from us in Princeton.

Indeed, a key discovery I’ve made during our visit to this marvelous place is the enormous number of Texas license plates on the back of the RVs through the park. The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department remains closed to overnight campers, while opening only for day use. I reckon those other Texans skedaddled across the Red River to a state that hasn’t shut down its park system.

The Oklahoma state park system isn’t exactly wide open, though. If you travel into Oklahoma from a state such as, oh, New York or New Jersey — which have huge numbers of COVID-19 infection — then you will be quarantined for two weeks. Fortunately, we ventured just a little way and near as I can tell we’ll be able to hook up and head for the house in the morning.

It is good to get out of the house. It is good to come to a quiet place. It is good to relax and to prepare for the next stint of homebound living. A return to “normal” isn’t in the cards for us just yet, although this brief outing has been quite therapeutic.

national news, national security

DNI pick one of the ‘best people’? C’mon, man!

I cannot help but circle back to one of the many idiotic promises Donald Trump made while he campaigned for the presidency.

He kept telling us he would surround himself with the “best people” to help him protect us against our enemies and enact all manner of public policy.

The nominee to be our next director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, is so far from the “best people” category, it is laughable on its face. Still, he is likely to be confirmed by the Republican-led U.S. Senate.

Ratcliffe got the call to be the DNI in 2019. Then we learned he had fudged on his background. The East Texas congressman had little of the requisite national security experience on his record. He had instead a reputation of being a loyal Donald Trump sycophant, which he demonstrated amply during the impeachment hearings in the U.S. House of Representatives. That qualifies him for the job as the nation’s top spook. Ridiculous! Then he backed out of that earlier battle.

The previous DNI, Dan Coats, left office after disagreeing with Trump over, um, national security issues. Coats was one of the few grownups Trump picked at the beginning of his presidential term. He said the Russians attacked our electoral system in 2016, while Trump defended the Russians. Coats didn’t do what Trump demanded, so he was out.

Now comes Ratcliffe — again! Oh, brother!

Added to all of this are questions about whether Trump ignored the obvious national security threat posed by the coronavirus that has killed more than 70,000 Americans. He got the briefing that the virus posed an imminent threat in January. He looked the other way.

Would a DNI Ratcliffe have insisted Trump listen to the advice of the medical experts? Would a DNI Ratcliffe pitch a fit if Trump didn’t act more proactively earlier? Based on what I watched as Ratcliffe — along with other Republican lackeys on the House intelligence and judiciary committees — did to defend Trump against obvious high crimes, well, I doubt it … seriously!

Donald Trump’s version of the “best people” is going to get the sternest test imaginable if John Ratcliffe gets confirmed to become the next director of national intelligence.

We all should say a prayer for the nation.

medical news

It’s official: I will ignore the return to ‘business as usual’

I am in dire need of a haircut. I miss cutting into a medium-rare steak at a nice restaurant. I want to return to the gym and to my daily workout regimen.

All of that is going to wait for the foreseeable future, no matter what Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declares as he seeks to reopen the state for business.

He said hair salons are back in business. Gyms will reopen in a few days. Restaurants have been open for a few days now, although the governor ordered ’em to operate at 25 percent of capacity.

Fine. Go for it, y’all. I am staying away. I do not like seeing the news about infection and death rates continuing to climb in Texas, and in North Texas, where I live along with some members of my family. The picture isn’t any prettier in the Panhandle, where the rest of my family and many of our friends reside.

I haven’t checked in on the Golden Triangle, where my wife and I still have many dear friends.

From what I have read, polling suggests most Texans and other Americans believe as I do, that governors are acting too hastily to reopen their states. They are putting too much emphasis on the economy and not enough of it on the health of the people they represent.

Gov. Abbott has moved too quickly to suit my sensibilities. I am glad he had the good sense to close Texas public school classrooms for the rest of the academic year.

And what in the world is going on with our Texas public universities? They want to return to in-person classwork this fall. I’m OK with that … but Texas A&M, the University of Texas and Texas Tech University systems plan to play football. Are they going to play those games in empty stadiums? Yeah … good luck with that.

You may count me as one Texas resident who wants to see a substantial and recurring decline in the infection and death rates before I make my return to what we used to think of as “normal.”

Hey, maybe I can make a fashionably late entrance.

For now? I am out.

national news

The non-pol sounds like a … pol!

It occurred to me a while ago, but I haven’t said so until right now, but the guy who campaigned for president of the United States as a non-politician is sounding like an actual politician … only he is so bad at playing the role of pol.

Donald Trump cannot resist the temptation to politicize everything, and that includes a pandemic that is infecting and killing thousands of Americans every day.

Now he says that Democratic-run states asking for federal help are doing harm to Republicans because those Democratic states have been “mismanaged for a long time.” Translation: They don’t deserve the help they are seeking from the feds.

What a cheap, petulant, petty and disgraceful point of view!

Donald Trump continues to exhibit his fundamental failure as a leader of a nation in the throes of a serious medical crisis.

The economy has tanked. We are entering Depression-era jobless reports. Businesses are declaring bankruptcy. And, yes, Americans are suffering grievously at almost every level imaginable.

Throughout all of this, Donald Trump speaks in terms of political outcomes and whether his own re-election campaign will rise or fall.

Yep, this is the non-pol who won election to the only public office he ever sought. He tried to sell us on the ruse that he was a self-made man, that he built this gigantic business empire all by his own self and that he would bring that expertise to the White House.

It turns out that was a lie. Imagine that.

He is now turning the blame machine on others. He failed to respond to repeated national security warnings about a pandemic. The dithered and dawdled. He looked the other way. Trump didn’t cause the pandemic and I won’t lay blame there.

However, he damn sure did accelerate the suffering by his non-response early on. Meanwhile, those “Democrat-run states” took proactive measures all on their own. They need the help from the federal government because — and this is the stark reality that Trump doesn’t understand — we’re all part of the same great nation.

Meanwhile, the non-politician plays politics.

Despicable.

economic news

How will POTUS react to the horrific job-loss news that’s coming?

You know by now the way Donald John “Stable Genius” Trump rolls.

He gets good news, he unlimbers his Twitter fingers to declare that only he could produce such joyous information; I can’t think of the last time he did it, but we all know that’s how he reacts.

What about the bad news? He still unlimbers the Twitter digits, but then declares that it’s someone else’s fault; Barack Obama is a favorite foil, given the intense envy he displays over Obama’s sophistication.

This brings me to the news that every economist in the country says is going to bring a huge gas around the world. The U.S. Labor Department will release the job figures for April. Projections tell us that in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re going to experience a job loss of around 20 million. That number will dwarf the 710,000 non-farm jobs that disappeared in March as a result of the killer virus and the shutting down of the national economy.

I now am officially wondering how Trump is going to respond to that bit of hideous news.

This guy wants desperately to be re-elected this November. He had been touting the supposedly “historic” economic success he had enjoyed until the fecal matter hit the fan with the pandemic. What on Earth is he going to say when confronted with a jobless rate that is projected to exceed 15 percent.

I want to be clear. Donald Trump did not cause the pandemic. However, his clearly negligent initial (non)response to its severity has contributed mightily to the health and economic crises that have gripped the country by its throat.

He likely is going to find all manner of ways to blame others for his failure. My belief that he lacks what I call “presidential temperament” leads me to worry that he might go apoplectic.

When the March jobs report came out, we all knew it would get worse. I wasn’t aware at that time that it would plummet to the level we likely are about to witness.

We might need to get ready for a presidential implosion from Donald Trump.

State news

Beachgoers tempt fate

You are looking at a beachful of goobers who ought to know better than to do what they are doing.

They are congregating along the Texas coast, apparently heeding Gov. Greg Abbott’s declaration that it’s OK to venture to the beach without regard to the restrictions he had imposed on Texans since early April.

You can count me out. What in the world is going on here?

Planet Earth is still in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. It has killed hundreds of thousands of people and nearly 70,000 Americans. Yet some states, such as Texas, are being run by governors who seem to think it’s OK to reopen their economies that had been shut down by the pandemic.

Abbott said he would let “doctors and data” determine how to loosen the restrictions. Did he really have this in mind? If he didn’t, then the goobers on the beach need to know better. If he did, these numbskulls still should pay attention.

Many governors are proclaiming that social distancing is having a profoundly positive effect on the infection and death rates by the COVID-19 virus. I don’t see a whole lot of social distancing in the picture I have attached to this blog post. What I do see is a crowd of nitwits who are endangering themselves or worse, endangering others.

What I wish would happen is that Abbott reimpose the restrictions. Good grief. He needs to tell those who want to go to the beach to follow the rules they have been following already.

Or, he could deputize Texas Parks & Wildlife rangers to work alongside Department of Public Safety troopers to issue citations to those they see clustering like these yahoos.

We are witnessing a rush to potential disaster and it gives my family me all the justification we need to keep doing what we’ve been doing to avoid getting caught by the killer virus.

local news

Feds send force to ‘attack’ virus outbreak in our former city of residence

I want to feel comforted by this news, but given the dismal performance so far by our federal government in response to the coronavirus pandemic, well … let’s just say it doesn’t settle my nerves.

Federal health officials are being dispatched to Amarillo to “attack” a huge spike in COVID-19 infection at a Moore County meatpacking plant. Potter County, which comprises roughly half of Amarillo’s land area, is registering an infection rate that is significantly greater than the rates in Dallas or Harris County.

My wife and I lived in Amarillo for the 23 years. We have plenty of friends there. More importantly, though, our older son still lives there. He remains healthy. He has a public service job, but his employer is restricting heavily his contact with the clientele he serves and for that we are grateful beyond all measure.

At issue is the huge spike in infection at the JBS Beef meatpacking plant in Moore County, which has an viral infection that dwarfs the rate in Potter County.

According to the Texas Tribune: Meat and poultry plants nationwide have emerged as incubators for coronavirus spread. More than a dozen have been forced to shutdown temporarily as the number of cases and deaths tied to those facilities rose; others have scrambled to ramp up health and safety precautions in facilities where meatpackers often must work shoulder to shoulder.

The report I have seen doesn’t specify how officials will “attack” the outbreak. I just remain skeptical that anything associated — at this moment — with the federal government is guaranteed to produce success.

I want desperately to be proven wrong.

national news

‘They are good people’

These four men are among the “good people” to whom Donald Trump referred the other day.

They were among those who protested the government restrictions imposed in the wake of the killer virus that has claimed nearly 70,000 American lives. The COVID-19 virus has forced state governments to order businesses to close, imposed shelter in place and stay at home orders, mandated gatherings should not exceed 10 people, and ordered “social distancing.”

The aim of the government restrictions is as noble as it gets: to save lives and prevent illness.

However, some Americans have stormed into state capitol buildings in several states. Donald Trump calls them “good people,” yes, even the fellows pictured with this blog, the guys who are packing assault rifles and wearing masks … that are intended to hide their identity as opposed to protecting them from the killer virus.

We have come to this, ladies and gentlemen. Americans who want to reopen the economy are willing to risk their lives and worse, to risk others’ lives by rushing toward a premature return to what they used to think of as a “normal” life.

I can think of few images that are more frightening than what we have seen coming from these protests. They include individuals waving Confederate flags, even swastikas! — and yet the president of the United States declares them to be “good people.”

This is all a disgraceful display of protest running amok.

We have witnessed political protest mixed with coercion and intimidation. No sane individual wants the economy to collapse; no one wants Americans to suffer from economic deprivation; no one wants economic tragedy. Neither should a sane person want to expose other Americans to the threat of a deadly virus.

We keep hearing from the Trump administration that we need to witness two weeks of decline in the rate of infection to start moving toward normalization. We aren’t there yet.

In the meantime, protesters brandishing assault weapons are demanding that government lift the restrictions it has designed to protect our health … enabling us to continue our “Pursuit of Happiness.”  

Go figure.

national news

Bush calls for end to ‘partisanship’; Trump blasts Bush … wow!

Leave it to Donald John “Partisan Hack in Chief” Trump to find some way to trash a fellow Republican for saying what needed to be said about the political climate in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Former President George W. Bush issued a video statement this weekend that called for an end to partisanship. “In the end we are not partisan combatants,” President Bush noted in his message about the fight against a shared “invisible enemy.” He said the pandemic only illustrates “how small” our political differences have become.

Trump, of course, fired back. He tweeted some idiocy about how Bush didn’t call for an end to partisanship while Trump was being impeached by the House of Representatives and put on trial by the Senate.

Here’s my guess on that: I am guessing that Bush believes that Trump should have been convicted of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress and removed from office. He just didn’t have the guts to say so out loud. Indeed, the former president’s silence during that entire ordeal spoke volumes to me.

However, the ex-president is correct to assert that the pandemic should overshadow partisan concerns. If only Donald Trump would understand the need to focus exclusively on a dire matter and ignore the partisanship that keeps getting in the way.

That won’t happen. Not with this president. Not … ever!

local news, Sports news

Looking toward a possible grim reality: no baseball in Amarillo

I am trying to equivocate as much as I can, using the word “possible” in front of “grim reality.”

I am fearing the worst for my former neighbors up yonder in Amarillo, where they are waiting for the start of the minor league season featuring the defending Texas League champion Amarillo Sod Poodles.

The worst is that there might not be a season to celebrate.

I watch the “Sod Squad” fan club on my Facebook page. It is full of hopeful statements from fans. I want their hope to be well-founded. I want them to be able to cheer the Sod Poodles into their second season in existence. Their first one was epic, winning the Texas League title against the defending champion Tulsa Drillers.

It’s just that the coronavirus pandemic has spooked athletic leagues and associations everywhere. Major League Baseball is trying to figure out how to play a 100-game schedule, how to split the two leagues into three divisions and how to play all their games in Florida, Arizona and Texas … with few if any fans watching in person.

Minor league ball isn’t that far along.

I want there to be baseball this spring and summer. I am leery of it returning this year given the loss of life that is occurring at this very moment.

The Sod Poodles have what must be one of the more devoted fan bases in all of minor league baseball. I love reading their Facebook posts. I draw from their enthusiasm.

Now that I live a good bit distant from Amarillo, I am hopeful to see the Sod Poodles play when they venture to nearby Frisco to play the Roughriders. Trust me when I say I would cheer loudly for them even as I am surrounded by Roughrider fans.

My gut is telling me it might not happen this year. Let’s start preparing for the worst.