Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

Yes, Mr. POTUS, they are worth ‘time and effort’

1 Comment
(Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Donald John “Braggart in Chief” Trump has declared that the daily “briefings” that take place to tell Americans what’s happening with the coronavirus pandemic are no longer “worth the time and effort.”

So he’s thinking about backing out of them.

Allow me this rebuttal.

These rants certainly would be worth the “time and effort” if the president of the United States would refrain from mindless bragging about what a “fantastic job” he says he is doing to fight the viral infection.

They would be worth the time and effort if he would simply open event with some sort of preview of what is to come and then step aside to let the experts speak to the nation. I would even settle on hearing from Vice President Mike Pence — chairman of the White House pandemic task force — but only if he would forgo the slathering, blathering brown-nosing he throws at Trump’s back side.

These events would be worth the time and effort if they delivered anything of value to us. Instead we have received daily doses of brickbat-tossing, of self-congratulations and outright lies. Virtually all of what I have just described has come from Donald Trump.

None of what I have offered in this rhetorical wish list is going to happen for as long as Donald Trump is president. He cannot deliver the kind of compassion and empathy that tragedies such as this demand of our head of state. Nor can he stand aside while actual experts deliver the hard facts about what we’re facing. Moreover, he cannot take the time needed to study the impact of this pandemic on rank-and-file Americans.

This individual, who boasts of knowing the “best words” and of surrounding himself with the “best people” simply is not wired to lead a nation in distress. He doesn’t possess a single strand of compassion nor does he empathize at any level with the suffering that is under way out here, even in the middle of Trump Country.

So, here we are. A president who could have offered something of value at actual “briefings” aimed at educating and consoling a nation of frightened citizens is left to say that those events are not worth the “time and effort.”

Donald Trump continues to fail a nation he was elected to lead.

medical news

Trump bowing out of daily rants provides confusing reactions

Oh, the confusion I am feeling at this moment trying to digest the news that Donald Trump might not be delivering his daily rants inside the White House press briefing room.

I stopped calling them “briefings” because they long ago ceased providing any useful information related to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

So now we hear that after Trump’s disastrous off-the-cuff riff about ingesting “disinfectants” to get rid of the deadly viral infection, the White House has reportedly persuaded POTUS to cool it with the daily appearances. Trump put out a Twitter message that suggested it’s his idea, that the media are asking too many nasty questions.

The confusion treks along several lines of thought.

Trump’s poll numbers appear to be slipping. Donald Trump’s daily rants are hurting his re-election chances, according to pundits, pollsters and politicians. Accordingly, given my disdain for this fellow, I am torn between wanting him to keep blathering and babbling incoherently to create for the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden a clearer path to defeating this clown.

Trump is prone to say something dangerous if he continues. Thus, if he keeps delivering nonsense, he might say something that puts more American lives in dire peril. You see what I mean here? I don’t give a damn about Trump’s poll numbers, other than to see them continue to slide. I do give a damn, though, about whether this idiot will say something even more stupid than he did when he was “thinking out loud” about whether applying “disinfectants” would kill the virus “in a minute.”

Leave it to the medical experts to tell us what we need to know. I’m all in there. Donald Trump has some first-rate medical and scientific minds at his disposal. Dr. Anthony Fauci is a first-class infectious disease expert. Dr. Deborah Birx has done great work on HIV/AIDS research. Dr. Robert Redfield runs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Surgeon General Jerome Adams is a clear-headed thinker. Trump doesn’t listen to them. He prefers to hog the spotlight and say things that, well, make millions of us cringe; one of them, Dr. Birx, was caught on camera struggling mightily to control her facial muscles while Trump ran off at the mouth about disinfectants. 

I guess where I land is for Donald Trump just to keep his trap shut. Don’t discuss issues about which he knows nothing. He has inflicted enough damage already. I hope the damage is enough to doom his re-election. Meanwhile, the medical team working inside the White House can keep us informed on ways to protect ourselves and those we love.

local news

Here’s how you make it right, Mme. Mayor

Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames has asked residents of the Southeast Texas city she governs for forgiveness. Why? She got caught getting a nail treatment in a salon, in violation of the order she issued to residents to stay away from such businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Ames’ letter of apology was forthright and, I believe, sincere.

But … this thought occurred to my wife this morning at the breakfast table and I want to share it here.

You see, Ames might be prosecuted by the Jefferson County district attorney’s office for violating the order. The maximum fine if she is convicted is $1,000. I already have said in an earlier post that Ames ought to be pay the fine if the DA, Bob Wortham, determines sufficient cause for prosecution and conviction.

Ames ought to pony up the dough anyway, if she isn’t prosecuted, and contribute at least a thousand bucks to a worthwhile charity in Beaumont. Hmm, who or what might get such a donation? Food banks? A retirement center? Emergency medical services providers? The Beaumont police or fire departments? A service employee union office?

Mayor Ames’ request for forgiveness from her constituents would be honored in full, my wife and I happen to believe, were she to take a proactive stance … even if local authorities decide against slapping her on the wrist with a fine. She might even consider doing so in addition to the wrist-slap sentence.

Voters can be forgiving if their elected leaders demonstrate true contrition.

State news

Mayor learns first-hand lesson on trial of leadership

Beaumont (Texas) Mayor Becky Ames certainly knows what it means to be an elected leader of a city under duress.

It means, to those who might be unaware, that you must do what you order others to do, or in the case of Ames’s recent misstep … not do what she tells others they shouldn’t do.

Ames was seen in a nail salon getting a nail treatment the other day. As the saying goes: oops. Beaumont is under a shelter in place/stay at home order that the mayor issued. You know the story. The coronavirus pandemic has forced us all to keep our “social distance” and we must not use services that put us too close to other human beings.

Ames was caught violating the city’s mandate.

Ames has issued an apology. According to MSN.com:

“I promise there was no malice intended,” she wrote in a statement. “I should never have entered the salon last Tuesday. I did not intend to take personal privilege while asking others to sacrifice and for that I am truly remorseful.”

Ames concluded by asking for forgiveness. “As an elected official I am held to a higher standard, I regret my action that day. I am honestly sorry and I pray that you will forgive me,” she said.

I worked in Beaumont for nearly 11 years as editor of the Beaumont Enterprise opinion page. I barely know Becky Ames, who’s been mayor since 2007. She served as an at-large member of the Beaumont City Council from 1994 until she became mayor; I left Beaumont in early 1995.

That all said, I want to suggest that Ames’s apology sounds like the real thing. There’s none of that “If I offended anyone” qualifier in it.

I also suggest that elected leaders of all stripes, at all levels, should heed the embarrassment that has befallen Mayor Ames. She knew better than to do what she did. She got caught.

As for whether she ought to be prosecuted for getting a manicure, Jefferson County District Attorney Bob Wortham is looking into it. My gut tells me that there ought to be some punishment. An apology doesn’t expunge the record of a crime being committed. She won’t go to jail, but could face a fine of as much as $1,000.

The mayor can afford to pay the fine.

medical news

‘Disinfectant’ means ‘medicine’? Sure it does

Here come the rationalizations, the excuses, the covering of Donald Trump’s rear end over the president’s use of the term “disinfectant” to describe how one might treat the coronavirus that has killed tens of thousands of Americans.

I ran across an item from a guy who calls himself a “respiratory therapist” who says he is “not registered to vote and I don’t vote. I am neutral.”

Are we clear? I’ll proceed.

Trump mused nonsensically this week about how we could apply “disinfectant” to individuals suffering from the deadly viral infection. He didn’t say “Lysol” or didn’t declare one should guzzle “bleach.” He did, though, suggest one could “ingest” a “disinfectant.” Where I come from, when I hear disinfectant, my mind goes immediately to a household product used to, um, scrub surfaces clean. 

This individual suggests Trump, being a “layman,” used the term “disinfectant” incorrectly. He meant to say “medicine” or “medicinal products.” That’s what this guy suggests. Do you buy it? Me, neither.

Here is part of what he posted on social media:

(Trump) is basically brain storming for an idea to help the lungs. He stated that the disinfectant kills the virus in one minute, so he proposed the question can we inject disinfectant (not Lysol), he used the word “disinfectant” … in the lungs, but that is for the doctors to figure out.

Now a lay person like Trump will say disinfectant and a medical person would say “medicine”. Medicine dumped into the lungs happens all the time! I personally have dumped respiratory medicine down an Endotracheal tube directly into the lungs. When babies are born prematurely, guess what? Yes we “inject” the lungs with a medicine called surfactant that helps keep the alveoli open to oxygenate the lungs. Antibiotics are sometimes injected into infected parts of lungs through a chest tube.

… His statement was so twisted around and misinterpreted, and this is coming from a Respiratory Therapist that has injected medicine in people’s lungs.

There isn’t much more I can add to this other than to remind our respiratory therapist that I haven’t yet encountered a single individual who would sub the word “medicine” with “disinfectant.” Furthermore, Donald Trump calls himself — with words to this effect — the smartest man in human history.

Would someone with Trump’s alleged intellectual wattage use such clumsy language when talking about something so grim and serious as a deadly infection?

I’ll just have to sigh and echo the folks at Lysol: Don’t drink this stuff … it’ll kill you!

medical news

If he was being ‘sarcastic,’ what does that say about POTUS?

Let’s assume for the sake of discussion that Donald John “Knee Slapper in Chief” Trump was being “sarcastic” when he mused aloud about the possible benefits of injecting or ingesting cleaning fluid as a way to fight the COVID-19 virus.

He said such a hideous thing this week at one of those White press room rants. Trump has been ridiculed — with justification — for saying such a thing.

He then tried to take it back by suggesting he was, well, joking. He didn’t mean it. He mentioned that he sought to employ a little sarcasm while responding  to a question from a “reporter like you.” He said he wanted to see what kind of reaction he would receive. What a crock!

If that’s true — and I do not believe it to be so — then that begs another question about Donald Trump’s ghastly lack of presidential temperament. What kind of individual — faced with a viral infection that has killed more than 50,000 Americans in the span of two months — would make a “sarcastic” statement dealing with a matter of life and agonizing death.

I will stand by my assertion that Trump made that ridiculous suggestion without a hint of sarcasm. What kind of individual, then, would use that dodge to bob-and-weave his way out of the criticism that has been leveled at him?

Donald Trump is a kook.

local news

COVID crisis creates confusion

I am full of contradictory emotions at this moment in light of the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic.

Although I miss doing many of things I cannot do at the moment, I am in no rush to return to doing them. I fear contamination. I don’t want to get sick. Nor do I want my family members and others I love to become sickened by the virus.

I miss going to the gym each morning. I miss the occasional meal in a restaurant where the waiter/waitress serves us at a table. I miss shaking hands with friends I encounter. I miss being able to hug my granddaughter.

You get my drift, right?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reportedly is going to issue an executive order this coming week that begins to loosen the restrictions he has placed on us. He reportedly also is getting pushback from his conservative political allies who want him to move more quickly; they want a more aggressive reopening of the economy than I think — or at least I hope — the governor favors.

Don’t listen to ’em, Gov. Abbott. For that matter, I wouldn’t object if the governor were to delay the reopening for another couple of weeks, or maybe a month, or even longer. I want to see more progress made in the stemming of the infection and death rates. I want there to be more testing available for Texans; hey, we rank near the bottom of the states in the testing for the viral infection.

I damn sure don’t want Abbott to act on any hint he might be getting from Donald J. “The Waffler in Chief” Trump, who said he liked Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s strategy of reopening his state and then the very next day said Kemp was moving too rapidly.

This virus is still killing and sickening too many of us. If Abbott is going to reopen the state’s economy, I want him to do it ever so slowly … and I still might wait a while longer before I am ready to return to the way it used to be.

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!