Tag Archives: coronavirus

media news

Memo to media: Stop calling ’em ‘briefings’

I have made a command decision regarding High Plains Blogger, which I am entitled to do since it’s, well … my blog.

I am no longer going to refer to the White House press room sessions as “briefings” that were called initially to offer the world an update on how Donald Trump’s administration is dealing with the response to the coronavirus pandemic. I want the media to cease using the “b” word as well.

These sessions have turned into campaign rallies. It’s that simple. Donald Trump no longer provides an ounce of new information. He no longer offers a ray of hope. He never has exhibited a scintilla of empathy or grief over the loss of life from the deadly viral infection.

It has killed more than 51,000 Americans. The death toll is going to surpass in a week or so the number of Americans who died during the Vietnam War; it already has killed more Americans than those who died during the Korean War. Donald Trump doesn’t say a word to mourn the loss of life.

Instead, he rails against the media, against Democrats, against (mostly Democratic) governors who criticize the administration’s response to the pandemic.

Thus, these sessions no longer qualify as “briefings.”

I will call them “rants” or “riffs.” I just wanted to let you know that I have had enough of Trump’s ignorant assertions about the “fantastic” he says he is doing to fight the virus.

That might change if he ever steps aside to let the medical experts he has enlisted to serve — so far — as mostly window dressing during these White House events.

To be clear, I consider the experts to be worth hearing. But only if they are allowed to offer their advice, their analysis and their assessment — without being interrupted by the Imbecile in Chief.

If that happens, then perhaps the media can resume calling these events “briefings.”

medical news

Trump keeps inflicting grievous damage

Donald Trump’s daily White House press room rant was an abbreviated affair today. He and Vice President Mike Pence spoke for about 20 minutes and then — poof! — they were gone.

No answers to questions from reporters. No scolding the media for doing their job. No attempts to happy talk his way past the misery and tragedy caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

No sweat. I didn’t need to hear any more from the Moron in Chief. I have heard enough.

What I do need to say without any equivocation is that Donald Trump continues to inflict grievous damage on the country he was elected govern.

The abbreviated rant today does not dismiss the idiocy that poured out of Trump’s pie hole Thursday, when he mused aloud about whether ingesting bleach or other disinfectants might kill the coronavirus inside the body of the individual who ingests it. Is there anything you’ve heard come from the president of the United States that is more certifiably insane than that? I didn’t think so. This one tops the charts, man!

So now we hear that Trump might start reducing his TV exposure at these daily rants. He might not appear each day. Trump might have gotten the message — finally! — that he is doing himself more harm than good by blathering dangerous rhetoric.

I quit long ago taking a single thing that comes from Donald Trump with any semblance of seriousness. He is a serial liar who now has entered a dangerous new zone of danger: His absolute and astonishing ignorance is now threatening the lives of Trump adherents who might actually take this man seriously.

In spite of my obvious dismay and disgust over Trump’s latest disastrous rhetorical rant, I am even more dismayed by the medical experts’ surrounding him. They should be resigning en masse and they should condemn the moronic suggestion that swallowing, injecting or snorting poison might serve as a cure for a deadly viral infection.

Drs. Deborah Birx, Robert Redfield and Anthony Fauci are brilliant infectious disease experts. They are a key part of the White House pandemic response team. Why in the world can they stand by while Donald Trump throws out such idiocy?

I am shaking my head. I am slapping my forehead. I am beyond flabbergasted at the moronic blathering that keeps pouring out of Donald Trump’s yapper. What in the world is it going to take before we as a nation decide we have had enough of this imminently dangerous imbecile?

medical news

Sarcasm, Mr. POTUS? Stop, you’re killin’ us!

Can there be a more graphic and profound display of just why we must disregard incoherent ramblings of Donald John “Imbecile in Chief” Trump than what he rolled out this week?

Trump said on Thursday in a rambling soliloquy in the White House press room how ingesting disinfectants, such as, oh, Lysol, can kill the coronavirus inside the human body. Yep. There you have it. The president suggesting we could snort, swallow or inject cleaning fluid … the stuff labeled with warnings about the danger of such behavior.

Then we hear just today from Trump that he said he was offering a “sarcastic” response to a reporter’s question.

There you have it. Trump is talking on one day about how to kill a virus that has claimed more than 50,000 American lives in a global pandemic. The next day he says, in effect, that he was just kidding.

What the name of imminent danger is the matter with this guy? What’s more, what in the name of electoral stupidity is wrong with those who continue to stand behind this fellow’s moronic rambling?

Here is part of what he said Thursday: “And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds, it sounds interesting to me.”

That’s sarcasm, says Trump.

Dang, that must explain why I was laughing so damn hard when I heard of what he said.

This guy is scaring me sh**less!

national news

We saw it coming from Donald Trump

Many of us saw it coming when Donald Trump first announced his campaign for the presidency of the United States.

A fellow with no public service experience in his background, no military experience, not a hint of self-deprecation was running for the nation’s highest office.

His entire professional life had been aimed at one goal only: to enrich an already rich guy with even more loot, earned from allegedly shady business dealings.

So he runs for the presidency in 2016 vowing to shake up the government. He needed to vow to first learn something about how government works. He didn’t know then anything about the federal government operation he would inherit and he damn sure doesn’t know anything now that the government is in crisis trying to do battle with the COVID-19 virus that has killed tens of thousands of Americans.

Yep, some of us saw it coming. I don’t want to say “I told you so,” but … well, you know.

Trump’s response to the pandemic has been a classic cluster fu**. His daily rants long ago ceased delivering any useful information. He uses the White House press room as a forum to campaign for re-election.

He boasts about the “great job” his administration is doing, and then he lies constantly about what he has said previously and then about his denials.

There are so many aspects of Donald Trump’s time as president I find disheartening, so I’ll settle on just two key elements.

This man lacks any semblance of empathy. His White House rants — and I no longer will call them “briefings” — never contain a single expression of sincere empathy for the victims of COVID-19. They never speak to loved ones’ suffering, let alone to the suffering of those afflicted by the killer infection.

The other element deals with Trump’s inability or unwillingness to tell the truth. He lies about big things and small things. He lies about what he knew of the pandemic early on and lies about “friends” who have been stricken by the illness. He once lied about all the “friends” who died on 9/11, but there is no record of Trump ever attending a single funeral of anyone who perished on that terrible day in 2001.

Donald Trump has built his version of the presidency using the same blocks on which he cobbled together the business that was started for him by his wealthy father. He cannot resist seeking self-aggrandizement even in the face of the world’s dire health crisis.

Some of us saw this coming long ago. We couldn’t have predicted it would present itself in this particular context, but truth be told, we aren’t surprised in the least to see Donald Trump behaving in this hideous fashion.

medical news

Trump says he ‘never heard’ of reassigned COVID aide? C’mon!

Rick Bright is spilling the beans on the inner workings of Donald Trump’s coronavirus pandemic response team.

He says he was reassigned because he wouldn’t buy into Trump’s pitching of a drug he says works “miracles” in getting rid of the COVID-19 virus. Bright happened to be the president’s go-to man on the virus vaccine research effort. Trump has been singing the praises of hydroxychloroquine, contending that it does miraculous work on snuffing out the deadly infectious virus.

Bright wasn’t buying it. He said hydroxychloroquine isn’t sufficiently tested and that its results were spotty at best.

Trump reportedly got rid of him.

The president’s reaction to Bright’s sudden dismissal, though, is utterly priceless. He told reporters this week that he had “never heard” of Rick Bright. Is that for real? How does the president of the United States form a task force, put someone in charge of researching a possible vaccine for a killer disease and not know who he is?

OK, I will venture out on that limb and say that Trump is lying — once again! — about a key virus response aide. Imagine that, if you can.

I have mentioned already on this blog that Donald Trump is the most untrustworthy man ever elected president of the United States. For that matter, he might be the most bald-faced liar ever elected to any office, maybe at any level of government.

Dr. Bright, a well-educated immunologist, isn’t taking his reassignment quietly. He issued a scathing statement that blasts the Health and Human Services Department, saying he was ordered to direct funds toward hydroxychloroquine by those who were close to Trump.

The president isn’t being quite so vocal about hydroxychloroquine these days. Maybe he got the message that his pitching of the drug was putting to many Americans at risk. “What do you have to lose?” he asked during his one of riffs in the White House press room. Well, some reports suggest that patients who take hydroxychloroquine are losing their life.

So now, Dr. Rick Bright is emerging as the latest in a growing list of fall guys who get the axe for, um, telling the truth.

State news

Reporting a ‘pleasant’ consequence of the pandemic

INTERSTATE 35, Texas — There’s little positive or pleasant elements to report on a global pandemic that has killed and sickened millions of human beings around the world.

However, my wife and I can report one borderline positive aspect of this pandemic — which has shut down the Texas economy and kept a lot of Texans at home.

We drove from Princeton to Dripping Springs in Texas. It took us about four hours, which is what our fancy I-phone said it would take.

But here’s the thing. We cruised through downtown Dallas on Interstate 35 during what normally would be considered the morning “rush hour.” Except that there was no “rush hour traffic” in Dallas.

We zoomed through the heart of Big D and headed south along I-35, the highway known during normal traffic times as a demolition derby. Traffic usually is bumper-to-bumper between Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio. Not today.

Oh, but it gets better. We breezed into the north end of Austin around noon. When we usually drive into the People’s Republic of Austin we will be forced to stop when traffic gets stalled. Again, not today. We swooshed through the city, hung a quick right turn westbound on U.S. 290 and cruised into Dripping Springs.

I want to mention this as a way to perhaps brighten what might another gloomy day of worry over the coronavirus pandemic. I am not dismissing the misery that still occurs 24/7 around the world.

I merely want you to know that despite the bitching, griping and protesting that’s occurring in some places — including right here in Texas — about the orders being handed out that many millions of others are obeying the stay at home mandates handed out by our government.

It makes for a quite pleasant travel experience. Now we will hope for the same circumstance when we go home.

medical news

Trump now fighting openly with CDC boss

Welcome to the fray, Dr. Robert Redfield.

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on one day that the coronavirus pandemic could spring up again this fall and/or winter and it could be worse than what we’ve experienced already.

Then the nation’s top politician, Donald John Trump, sought to dispute the newspaper report that quoted Dr. Redfield.

Oh, but then Dr. Redfield said the Washington Post quoted him correctly, that, yep, he made that statement about a possible return of the viral infection that’s already killed nearly 50,000 Americans.

I am going to side with the doctor. The politician is looking only after his own political future. The CDC boss is motivated more by caring for the rest of us.

Donald Trump — as I have stated already many times in this blog — needs to keep his mouth shut. He is putting us in danger. This is a dangerous individual.

medical news

‘Tyranny’ is not the enemy; the enemy is a killer disease

The nimrod in this picture has it wrong, along with the rest of the nimrods who protested the restrictions imposed on Virginia residents by that state’s governor, Ralph Northam.

The enemy that should arouse this clown’s ire isn’t “tyranny.” It is a disease that could kill this clown if he isn’t careful. Thus, Gov. Northam as well as many other governors has imposed restrictions that seek to protect the people he was elected to serve.

Of course, we’re hearing from our share of dips***s too in Texas. Some of them descended on Austin to protest the measures that Gov. Greg Abbott has imposed. Abbott is about to lift some of them, but he insists that he will rely on “data and doctors” to guide his decisions.

I remain committed instead to protecting my health along with my wife’s health, not to mention the health of my children, their loved ones, my grandkids. I also want to add that a significant majority of Americans oppose any lifting of the restrictions until there is certainty that the coronavirus is on the wane; we aren’t there yet.

Do I want to return to some semblance of normal? Sure I do. I also happen to believe in good government and my definition of good government compels elected officials to take occasionally dramatic measures to protect us against disease. The coronavirus that has killed nearly 45,000 Americans is deadly in the extreme.

Some of the protesters are marching under signs that say “Give me liberty or give me death.” Think about the hideous irony of that message. If someone wants “liberty” as defined by protesters’ demands that governors relax the restrictions they have imposed, they well could also get “death” if the restrictions are taken away prematurely.

Liberty and death in this context are not mutually exclusive, my fellow Americans … if you get my drift.

local news

Masks becoming a way of life

That’s me behind the mask. The mask itself is a repurposed curtain that used to hand in a room in our former home in Amarillo. My wife has turned it into the uniform of the day.

It’s functional, even though my glasses fog up when I don the mask and am forced to breathe while my nose and mouth are covered.

I want to show this to you to launch a brief blog post that suggests these masks are going to become a part of our lives for the foreseeable future as we take measures to stave off the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is likely to begin lifting some of the restrictions imposed on Texans. The Princeton City Council, which governs the city where we live, has laid down restrictions on top of what Abbott has declared. Restaurants are closed to dine-in customers; churches aren’t having in-person services on Sunday; assorted services are closed, such as hair salons, nail parlors, coffee shops.

The masks have become a ubiquitous presence in Princeton. I see them on all grocery store employees, as mandated by their corporate bosses. Most customers are masked up; my wife and I wear our masks.

We’re all keeping our distance, even while we wear the masks.

I guess this is my way of saying that I actually am beginning to get used to donning the mask when I exit our truck.

It would do us all well to get used to it, too.

local news, national news

Disease reveals partisan divide

I never thought I would see such a thing.

A viral infection sweeps around the world, killing hundreds of thousands of human beings; nearly 50,000 Americans have died. It’s the kind of international tragedy that transcends partisan politics. Isn’t that right?

Hah! Hardly.

The argument in this country on how to battle this disease is being split along partisan lines. Democrats are arguing in favor of continued restrictions, seeking to protect citizens’ health and their very lives. Republicans argue that the restrictions are strangling our economy, that we need to revive the business and manufacturing to jumpstart our way of life.

I am going to side with the Democrats. I know. That’s no surprise. It’s where I line up.

Republican governors are moving to relax restrictions. Democratic governors are staying the course. Republican governors think the economy is more vital, I guess, than human lives. Democratic governors seem to think the reverse is true.

Now comes this tidbit from right here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex: Colleyville is getting ready to allow businesses to reopen, apparently in direct violation of Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to maintain the shelter in place policy at least until April 30; the Colleyville decision also runs counter to what Tarrant County has imposed. Colleyville Mayor Joe Newton plans to relax the restrictions beginning this weekend.

This makes me nervous. It might prompt cities in nearby Collin County, where we live, to follow suit. I am not ready to make that leap. My wife and I are wearing masks on the rare occasions we do venture out. We wipe down every surface we touch and we wash our hands with sanitizer.

I do not have a job. Neither of us has been deprived of household income. So the economy is not a part of our personal decision making.

I just had hoped we could have rallied as one nation to fight this pandemic. Alas, it isn’t happening. The disease has widened the already huge great divide. Nice!