Tag Archives: pandemic

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.

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.

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

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.

medical news

Why put the muzzle on these medical experts?

This must be the “chaos” that Barack H. Obama referred to in that leaked phone call to the Obama Alumni Association.

The former president of the United States has categorized Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as “chaotic.” Yep. He said it. I believe it.

So now we have this: Drs. Antony Fauci and Deborah Birx, two of the nation’s leading infectious disease experts, reportedly are being shoved aside while Trump seeks to concentrate on cheerleading the nation back to economic vitality.

It matters not a damn bit to Trump that Fauci and Birx have actual expertise to offer the nation as it seeks answers to the pandemic that has killed 80,000 Americans and is threatening to kill many thousands more of us.

As Politico reports: The broader turn away from the health issues at the core of such a all-encompassing national emergency is just the latest chapter in a communications strategy that’s long confounded and frustrated public health experts.

Trump is more interested in his own political future than in the health of his fellow Americans. That is the major takeaway I am getting from all of this back and forth.

We are dealing first and foremost with a health crisis. Americans are being felled by the thousands each day. Many of those sickened are dying, for crying out loud! Yes, we also have an economic crisis with which to deal. However, Donald Trump must not shun the experts who are supposed to offer clear-headed, objective analysis of the health risks to a nation that needs it far more than it needs cheerleading and exhortations to get back to work.

And it’s the chaos that serves as the common thread that runs through Donald Trump’s mish-mash approach to solving a problem that needs maximum focus … which needs to fix itself on the health of Americans.

local news, military news, national news

USAF to send B-1 bomber on a loud fly-by

The Navy has its Blue Angels acrobatic flying team; the Air Force has its Thunderbirds.

The Navy and the Air Force have been sending their teams to cities across the land to honor health care workers and other responders for their heroism during the coronavirus pandemic. The Blue Angels just this week flew over the Dallas-Fort Worth area … which my wife and I missed because we happened to be out of town on that day — dang it!

Now we hear of another salute from an iconic airplane. A B-1 bomber based out of Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene is going to fly over the Thomas Creek Veterans Administration Medical Center in Amarillo on Friday; then it will head south to fly over the Lubbock VA center before returning home to Dyess.

If you’ve never watched a B-1 bomber fly overhead, you need to understand that this airplane is real loud and I guarantee that if it’s flying low enough off the deck that it will set off car alarms and get dogs to barking for miles around.

Still, these tributes are so richly deserved and I am proud of the Air Force and the Navy for arranging these magnificent tributes to the men and women who work heroically every waking minute of every day to protect us from the killer viral infection.

Our heroes deserve all these tributes and so much more.

The B-1 will fly over the Creek VA Center at 11:21 a.m. on Friday and then visit the Lubbock center at 11:40. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges those who want to watch to practice “social distancing.” By all means.

And prepare for some serious noise. It’ll thrill you to no end. I promise.

medical news, national news

He brings out the worst in me … in us

I am not the least bit proud of what I am about to admit, but … here goes. Donald J. Trump brings out my worst instincts.

Here is the example I want to cite: When word came out this weekend that several members of the White House staff have tested positive for the coronavirus, I was filled with overwhelming indifference over the prospect of the president of the United States becoming infected by the virus.

There you go. I admit to feeling not a twinge of fear for Donald Trump. Why not? I only can point to the indifference he has exhibited toward others who have suffered at the hands of the virus.

This individual is reaping what he has sown in my conscience about him in this time of dire national peril.

Do I want him to become deathly ill and suffer the agony that others have suffered in this country? No. My religious upbringing and my faith instructs me to cast aside such a hideous wish on any human being. It’s just that the indifference toward the elected leader of my beloved country is something I never have felt … until now!

Trump has declared the virus is “under control.” He was slow to mobilize the medical and scientific forces needed to do battle against this “invisible enemy.” Yet he wants to be known as a “wartime president.” He is a bad joke masquerading as a leader.

He now is known to have dismissed wearing a protective mask because it would make him look “ridiculous” and that it would give his political foes ammunition to use against him in negative campaign ads. Seriously? If anything, the sight of the president of the United States wearing a mask while visiting medical workers or patients would be a sign of strength, of caring, of leading by a positive example.

This guy can’t bring himself to do the very thing that millions of the rest of us are doing to protect ourselves while we venture into the great unknown, which I shudder to think happens to be the grocery store around the corner or to a service station to purchase fuel for our motor vehicles.

I take no comfort, either, in believing that I am not alone in this feeling of burning indifference toward Donald Trump. I know others share my view, just as other Americans are deeply concerned for him.

That’s a call we make individually. I have made mine.

national news

Obama weighing in — finally! — on the 2020 election

Barack Hussein Obama is speaking out, labeling Donald John Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as “chaotic,” and criticizing the Justice Department decision to forgo prosecuting an admitted perjurer.

So, you might ask: What is a former president doing here? Isn’t it “normal” for a president to remain quiet about how his successor is doing? Sure it’s normal. Indeed, President Obama has been quiet.

Except for this: Donald Trump keeps invoking his immediate predecessor’s name, criticizing his policies and declaring — mostly without justification — that he has fixed the things that Obama got wrong.

A leaked phone call to a group called the Obama Alumni Association has the former president describing Trump’s response to pandemic as “chaotic” because Trump has been too preoccupied with “what’s in it for me?” rather than fixating on the problem and the suffering of his fellow Americans. Obama also is going all-in for Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee and vows to work as hard as he can to ensure Biden’s election this fall.

I normally would take some alarm at a former president playing such an active role in a campaign involving his immediate successor. However, Trump — as I have noted — brought all this on himself by continually seeking to denigrate the service that Obama rendered during his two terms as president.

A quick review: Obama inherited an economy in free fall; he pushed Congress to enact stimulus packages to rescue the economy; the nation began a 10-year job-growth climb; he ordered the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden; the State Department negotiated a deal to deny Iran access to nuclear weapons; he reduced the annual federal budget deficit by two-thirds; he handed Trump a robust economy.

Trump, though, doesn’t see it that way. So he keeps seeking to criticize Obama.

Now it appears that it’s game on for the former president.

Hey, I don’t hide my affection for the former president and my disdain for the current clown masquerading as president. Thus, if the current White House occupant wants to invoke President Obama’s name continually, well … bring it. I’m quite sure Barack Obama can find plenty more to say in response.

national news

How can Trump justify any of this?

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I am running out of ways to explain to myself — let alone to others — how Donald J. Trump continues to bob and weave his way out of political trouble.

On this man’s presidential watch we are witnessing a pandemic that I will acknowledge immediately he did not create. However, his nonresponse early on has led to the deaths that have caused unspeakable tragedy for tens of thousands of American families.

He is focusing mainly on the economic devastation. He says he wants to restart the economy. He is placing his emphasis on that desire. Meanwhile, the jobless rate today was reported to have surpassed 14 percent and non-farm private-sector jobs declined by — gulp! — more than 20 million in just the past month.

He blows it off! It was expected, he said. No worries, Trump said. The economy will bounce back bigger and better than ever. When? He doesn’t know. He cannot possibly know. Yet he pretends to know it’ll happen “soon.”

The Trump cultists buy into this clap trap.

The video and audio record is full of example after example of Trump declaring the pandemic was “under control.” That it would vanish like a “miracle.” My goodness! It has gone in precisely the opposite direction.

Americans are suffering. Business is shattered. In my entire life I’ve never witnessed anything like this. I tend to look toward Washington for some inkling that the president actually cares about me, my family, my friends, all Americans. This guy? He doesn’t give a sh**!

And yet …

He keeps showing signs that he just might wiggle his way back to a second term as president.

How does this clown do this?

The Democratic Party has a presumptive nominee, Joe Biden, who is laying low at the moment. He faces an allegation from a woman who accuses him of a sexual assault. Donald Trump has several such female accusers out there, so it behooves Trump to keep his mouth shut on this particular issue.

My hope is that Biden is able to make the coronavirus pandemic a campaign issue that he can hang around Trump’s neck. My loathing of Trump is well known to readers of this blog. He needs to go. He has disgraced the high office he occupies and continues to bring shame to the nation.

First things first. Joe Biden has to step off the sidelines and get back onto the field of play.