Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

Mail-in voting far better than not voting at all

I offer this recommendation with a hint of trepidation, given my often-stated preference for traditional Election Day voting.

Given the option of facing an election later this year threatened by potentially fatal viral infection, I choose instead to endorse a revolutionary reform in the way we elect our presidents: Let’s go to a mail-in system.

Donald Trump doesn’t want this to occur even under the threat of the coronavirus pandemic. The president says, without a hint of evidence, that mail-in balloting is corrupt, that it invites voter fraud.

We all know what’s going on inside Trump’s thick and vacuous skull: He sees a system that would boost voter turnout and it poses a threat to his re-election.

Five states conduct their elections by mail. One of them is Oregon, the state where I was born and where mail-in voting was first begun. All the states report that their systems are secure. Moreover, they all report that incidents of fraudulent voting constitute a tiny, infinitesimal portion of the total number of ballots cast.

Mail-in voting can be done nationally on a state-by-state basis.

Texas isn’t one of the mail-in election states. A state judge recently issued a ruling that opens the door to more expansive mail-in voting in Texas. State Attorney General Ken “The Indicted One” Paxton has said he plans to appeal the ruling; the AG doesn’t want mail-in voting, either.

Americans are faced with a potentially frightening dilemma this November if they are forced to go to their polling places while the pandemic is still sickening and killing us. How do they venture to the polls and expose themselves to possibly being infected by the COVID-19 virus?

What’s the option? Staying at home and filling out a ballot that comes to them via the Postal Service and then sending the ballot back to the county election office where it will be stored until it’s counted on Election Day.

The turnout among residents who face that threat would increase dramatically. Indeed, states with mail-in voting report voter turnout that far exceeds the national average.

What, I must ask, is wrong with allowing more rather than fewer Americans the chance to cast their ballots? Isn’t a representative democracy built from a framework that encourages greater participation? Of course it is!

My version of The Perfect World would be an election system that allows us to vote on Election Day at the polling place of our choice. Moreover, such a world would produce voter turnouts that outpace the sometimes dismal turnouts we experience.

I cannot achieve electoral perfection. Moreover, I certainly can’t achieve it with the potentially dire threat posed by a killer virus.

A reasonable and workable alternative is to allow American citizens the chance to vote by mail for president of the United States.

national news

Mnuchin takes one for the team?

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has come clean … I guess.

He told CNN’s Jake Tapper today that putting Donald Trump’s name on the stimulus checks that are coming to millions of American households was, um, his idea.

Yep. Mnuchin said he brought up the idea of putting Trump’s name on the checks, given that the Treasury boss’s signature already is on the checks. Trump’s name appears on the memo line.

Hmm. I’m trying to digest that one.

It looks to me as if Mnuchin is throwing himself in front of the proverbial bus on that one. My own belief since this matter came to light was that Trump wanted to put his name somewhere on the document as if to remind recipients — many of whom are, uh, voters — that the president is somehow responsible for the money that will land in people’s mail boxes soon. Trump is responsible for the relief coming in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

I’m still waiting for someone on the Trump team to spill more beans, revealing who, indeed, came up with this nutty notion. You see, I consider Mnuchin to be a serious Trump toadie.

None of this really amounts to anything more than just idle gossip, except for the potentially political consequence of Trump’s name showing up on these government checks in what has been called an “unprecedented” event.

medical news, national news, political news

Protests mar effort to save lives

Economic hardship has run face-first into physical hardship.

Governors across the nation have imposed stay at home, shelter in place and social distancing orders in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Their intent is to save lives, to prevent the virus from infecting people and exposing them to possible death.

These actions have invoked clear economic consequences. Business is hurting badly. People have lost their jobs. Businesses have gone under; those that survive are doing so … barely.

Now we see protests mounting in capital cities. Americans want their governors to rescind those orders. They want the nation to get back to work.

And then we have Donald John Trump weighing in with his ridiculous Twitter tantrums and tirades, sowing the seeds of discontent.

He sent out messages that urge us to “LIBERATE” three state: Virginia, Minnesota and Michigan. The Twitter mantra takes aim at states governed by Democrats. Our pseudo-Republican president wants them scorned by their residents. He wants those residents to vote for him this November when Trump stands for re-election, most likely against Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

While everyone understands that dissent is as American as any political act imaginable, we also must understand that dissent must have limits. People’s physical well-being sits squarely on the other side of that barrier.

So, when those folks protest against governors’ orders to protect them against a killer virus, and when Donald Trump tweets his desire to “LIBERATE” certain states, this great American concept of political dissent puts Americans’ health — and their very lives — in potentially mortal danger.

media news

Media deserve praise and credit, not criticism and condemnation

Earth to Donald John “Liar in Chief” Trump: The media do not deserve the constant vilification heaped upon them during your so-called marathon “briefings” in the White House press room.

Trump did it again this past week, telling reporters assembled to hear him talk ostensibly about the administration’s coronavirus pandemic response that the media have ignored certain elements of the virus spread.

Specifically, he said the media haven’t reported on China’s misleading infection and death rates. Really? Is this individual serious?

The media have reported constantly on the misrepresentation being disseminated by China and for Trump to use that as an example of what he calls “fake news” is in itself, well, fake news.

Every single president who came before this one has suffered through “issues” with the media. However, they all understood — and he living former presidents still understand — the importance of a “free press” to the vitality of our political system.

The media work to keep government accountable. If they ask tough questions, then that just goes with the job of public service. Our elected leaders sign on to serve the public’s interests. If they fall short it falls on the media to report when and where those moments occur.

Donald Trump doesn’t see it that way. He wants the media to serve his interests exclusively. He demonstrates daily his ignorance of the media’s role and the importance the nation’s founders gave to it by guaranteeing that a “free press” shall not inhibited by government mandate or edict.

Still, the president’s penchant for lying to the public cannot go unchallenged. The media see their role as reporting that, too … as they most certainly should do.

State news

Idiocy finds its way to Texas

The demonstrations that erupted in places like Michigan, where protesters are griping about mandates for folks to stay at home and practice “social distancing” while we fight the coronavirus pandemic have found their way to Texas.

Idiocy is alive and well in Austin.

The morons who suggest, as they did in Austin, that the pandemic is some sort of “hoax,” need to have their heads examined. They are spewing conspiracy bullsh** about all of this being some sort of phony element contrived to defeat Donald John Trump in the presidential election.

As The Guardian reported: In Texas, where the anti-shutdown protest was organized by conspiracy theorists, the rhetoric was more extreme, with an organizer referring to the “coronavirus hoax,” and the “narratives” of the “Deep State”.

Alex Jones, the InfoWars founder, stood at the center of a packed crowd of hundreds of people on Saturday afternoon and bellowed into a bullhorn, praising attendees for resisting tyranny. Few of the Texas protesters were wearing masks.

The defiance exhibited at demonstrations such as these — not to mention the arrogance and ignorance — reminds me of the truism that you shouldn’t tempt fate … because fate has a way of hitting back much harder than one ever expects.

entertainment news

Will this feeling of community outlive the pandemic?

The world is looking for a glimmer of hope in this time of darkness.

Believe it or not, I think we can see it out there. Indeed, the coronavirus pandemic that has gripped the planet is producing plenty of shining lights.

One of them must be this sense of community many of us are feeling. I am at this moment watching the “One World Together” special on TV. The message has been delivered loudly and with crystal clarity: We need to keep loving each other once this crisis passes into history.

The medical experts are telling us it will pass. They guarantee it. Yes, we are grieving at the death and sickness that has felled so many of our fellow human beings. However, efforts by celebrities, medical experts and scientists remind us of what might be considered a cliché, that “We’re in this together.”

I will take that message with me long past the time we can return to some semblance of a normal life.

Yes, we are responding well as a human community. We all understand the social distancing requirements, and we’re adhering to them; we are devoting greater attention to personal hygiene; we’re learning how to spend more time at home; we’re helping our neighbors, our friends, our loved ones.

We also are responding with a sense of love that we don’t usually express out loud. Frankly, it’s a feeling I enjoy experiencing. I don’t want it to end even if we get the “all clear” that we’ve defeated the pandemic.

My sincerest of hopes right now — at this defining moment — is that the sense of community and oneness we’re feeling lives well past the crisis that has gripped us hard.

I believe it will.

medical news, national news

Trump seeks to lie his way to re-election

Donald Trump lied his way to election as president of the United States in 2016.

He wants to employ the same tactic as he campaigns for re-election in 2020.

But as saying goes, facts can be stubborn things. Given the president’s abysmal response to the coronavirus pandemic, this individual is facing a set of facts that — one can hope — stand directly in the way of his attempt to lie his way into another four years as our head of state.

It’s all on video.

The virus broke out in Asia. A few individuals brought the deadly virus with them into the United States. Trump dismissed the early signs. He told us we had 15 cases and that they would vanish just like that. Then he continued to deny the existence of the pandemic. He called it a “Democrat hoax” while bellowing at a campaign rally. The federal government stood idly by while governors began the battle against the deadly killer.

But now he keeps telling us what a great job he did. He lies without understanding the profound irony of his untruths. Trump denies what the whole world heard him say in real time. He breezes past the “Democrat hoax” nonsense.

All the while, he continues to blame others for their alleged failures. He tosses out baseless accusations of hospitals “hoarding” masks and ventilators. He blames President Obama for enacting rules and regulations that hinder the response.

He denies that his office disbanded the pandemic response office within the White House.

All of it — every single bit of it — are proven facts that not even the Liar in Chief should be able to deny. Rest assured that he will seek to deny what the whole world knows happened, what the world knows he said, what the world has witnessed in real time.

He said he has “total authority” to tell governors what to do. Then he backed off, announcing guidelines he said would enable governors to use their own discretion.

See where this is going? Donald Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing from day to day. He lacks any understanding of how government works and yet he tells us that he’s on top of the situation.

Still another lie!

What’s most maddening of all is that he has gotten away with it. Until now … or so many of us hope.

national news

What’s with the Stars and Bars at the anti-pandemic restriction rally?

This picture was snapped at a rally today in Wisconsin, where some folks are seemingly angry about the restrictions being imposed on them by that state’s governor.

The issue? It’s the coronavirus pandemic. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, has declared a state of emergency. The shut down orders have frozen the state’s economy, as similar orders have done throughout the nation. Indeed, the entire nation has been frozen economically in place.

Worse, though, is that Americans are being felled by the deadly virus. Thousands of Americans are dying … still!

Here’s what is puzzling me: the presence of the Confederate flag. What in the name of civil violence is that all about? It appears to be a classic TEA party dodge. You remember those folks. They argue for less government, fewer taxes. They want government to get the heck out of people’s lives.

Some of these TEA party fanatics have been known to fly the ol’ Stars and Bars at their rallies. I saw a rebel flag pictured at a similar rally in Lansing, Mich. Do you know what that flag symbolizes to me? I am about to tell you.

It symbolizes high treason, a Civil War, a call for a return to the old days when white Americans could own black Americans and treat them like property … you know, sorta the way they treat their, oh, livestock.

Is this what we’ve come to in this country as we fight a deadly worldwide pandemic? That it’s OK to march under a banner that symbolizes — in my view — the darkest time in our nation’s history?

This bizarre juxtaposition appears to validate my own long held notion that those who want to rush the country back to the “old normal” are as insane as those who wanted the nation to go war with itself over slavery.

national news

Noticing a partisan pattern on alarm levels

I noticed it early on during the coronavirus pandemic crisis.

Democrats across the nation began sounding the alarm about the potential for mass illness and death; Republicans were, um, a bit more serene about it.

The pattern has continued even as the nation’s economy has ground to a halt, even as governors take varying degrees of steps to fight the virus. Democrats have declared statewide mandates to stay at home, maintain social distance, closing off indoor and outdoor activities; Republicans have expressed more openly their concerns about the impact of all these measures on the economy.

I am not suggesting that Republicans do not care about the health of Americans. I am suggesting that their publicly stated comments focus more on economic health than on individuals’ physical health.

From whom or what are they taking their cue? Gosh, my best guess is that it’s coming from president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

You heard Trump say early on that the nation had 15 cases of the COVID-19 infection and that it would vanish to zero. As they say … oops! Not so!

We’ve logged nearly 40,000 deaths in the United States. We have a full-blown health crisis on our hands. Yet we keep hearing from Republican governors that they want to reopen their states as quickly as possible. Democrats, meanwhile, suggest a go-slower approach to this, seeking more testing, more data, more science to guide their decisions.

Are members of one political party smarter than members of the other one? I won’t go there. I just am concerned about the partisan divide that even a crisis as massive and dangerous as the one we’re experiencing cannot erase.

In truth, though, I am siding with the Democrats on this one. Their concern is the more appropriate response to this worldwide crisis.

national news

House GOP starting to ‘eat’ one of its own?

The late Texas state Sen. Teel Bivins of Amarillo used to lament the Legislature’s task of reapportioning legislative and congressional districts, saying it gave Republicans a “chance to eat their own.”

I’m not sure what he meant in that context. However, the comment is worth dredging up today as we hear that congressional Republicans are angry with one of their own over his efforts to block the bipartisan economic stimulus package signed into law by Donald Trump; the package is aimed at helping Americans weather the economic storm brought by the coronavirus pandemic.

Rep. Thomas Massie sought to block the House voice vote. He exhibited an extreme case of contrarian impulse. The Kentucky Republican wanted a roll call vote, believing members of Congress needed to put their votes on the record. He angered Democrats and Republicans alike, not to mention the president.

Now the House GOP caucus is mad as hell at Massie. Republican members of Congress are donating money to his primary challenger. They want the guy out of their hair, out of Congress, away from Capitol Hill. They want him gone, man!

U.S. Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, donated to Massie’s opponent while tweeting to Massie he gave money to his opponent “because I believe that you don’t belong in Congress.”

Ouch! Feel the burn.

The effort by Massie would have delayed the payments that have begun arriving in Americans’ bank accounts. And for what purpose? To assuage the nebulous concerns of a House back bencher. That is not what I call “good government.”

Massie has had a reputation for years of being an obstructionist, of seeking to upset what the late U.S. Sen. John McCain used to call “regular order.” Massie’s fellow Republicans are saying that they’ve had enough of this guy’s gamesmanship.

Now they are seeking to consume him, figuratively of course.

Bon appetit.