Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

Coronavirus ‘briefings’ = campaign rallies

I want to be clear.

I cannot stand to watch Donald Trump campaign rallies when I am told that’s what I am watching. I especially cannot stomach them when we are told he is going to “brief” the nation on the ongoing fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

And yet …

We get campaign rally-style riffs from Donald Trump at the White House. He keeps yapping about what a “great” and “fantastic” job he says he’s doing to fight the virus. He keeps hammering at Democrats for their alleged “obstruction” and at the media for their “fake news” reporting of the facts.

It’s all part and parcel of a typical Donald Trump rally.

I attended an actual Trump rally this past year at the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. I actually had a good time visiting with assorted Trumpkins who waited in line with me to get into the arena. The rally itself was, oh, the typical rant. So, I left.

I just am weary of turning on the TV and seeing POTUS’s mug looking at me while he’s supposedly offering the latest news on the fight against the pandemic.

That is why I normally turn the channel away from it. Strangely, though, I am lured to watch it hoping (foolishly) that there might be a nugget of important information coming from Donald Trump.

How silly of me.

medical news

Pelosi speaks great truth about relying on knowledge, facts

The blistering critique of Donald Trump delivered by Nancy Pelosi clearly had one major goal, which was to point out — in Pelosi’s view — the ineptitude demonstrated by Trump in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the speaker of the House of Representatives’ letter to congressional Democrats also spoke to a larger issue that bears a brief examination. It is that we need to rely heavily on the knowledge of individuals educated specifically in the field of fighting the pandemic that is sweeping around the world.

Yes, the speaker spoke of Trump’s lies, his ignorance, incompetence, his confusion, chaos, mixed messaging, bullying … all of that and more. The president displays it in abundance every time he stands before a microphone and talks about the pandemic.

He politicizes this crisis in ways that sicken many of us. The issue at hand is the safety of human beings. Americans are longing for a president who can speak with authority on his caring for his countrymen and women. Donald Trump cannot exhibit that caring. He simply is not wired that way.

So we are left to depend on the experts. Trump has no shortage of them at his disposal. You’ve seen them and heard them. They are learned men and women who’ve spent their entire professional lives studying and battling these diseases. They are the individuals who need to be heard. Not the politicians … and damn sure not the nation’s top pol, the president of the United States.

Let me be clear about this point: Not every politician speaks with the vacuous volume that comes from Donald Trump. We’ve heard from governors and mayors who express sincere empathy with those who are suffering. However, these individuals are not inclined to delve into scientific details about which they are not as informed as the experts with whom they are surrounded. One cannot say such a thing about the president who continues to insist he knows far more than he does.

So, with that I want to suggest that the greater truth that came from Nancy Pelosi should resonate with all Americans who want to hear unvarnished facts about the fight against coronavirus. They won’t get them from the Politician in Chief.

local news

Farmersville council recognizes ‘hazardous duty’

BLOGGER’S NOTE: This blog item was published originally on KETR-FM’s website, at ketr.org

You know it and I know it, too. When police officers and firefighters suit up for duty, when they honor their oath to “protect and serve” the public, they are performing hazardous duty.

We also know that as far as police work is concerned that there is no such thing as a “routine traffic stop.” Firefighters know all too well that every emergency call they get – be it a medical or a fire emergency – that there’s certainly nothing routine about what they do.

But we’ve entered a new phase of hazardous duty and this week the Farmersville City Council acted on a request from Police Chief Mike Sullivan to compensate police officers with extra pay for extraordinarily hazardous duty related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The council approved an extension to an ordinance that declared a mayoral emergency declaration in Farmersville. The ordinance is now set to expire on May 15. However, the council agreed to pay police officers and two fire department officials extra money for the calls they answer while the nation is fighting the health outbreak.

Farmersville reports 11 residents have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, although that number might change rapidly. When police and firefighters respond to a call, they well might be dealing up close with someone who is infected with the virus. That is why Sullivan sought the extra hazardous duty pay for his officers; Sullivan also included Fire Chief Kim Morris and Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Linsman among those first responders who should get the extra pay. Farmersville’s fire department is a volunteer force, with just two paid full-time firefighters, Morris and Linsman.

The city has approved a $13,000 payout over the next month to compensate the responders for the hazardous duty they are performing on behalf of the city’s residents. The council will revisit the budget amendment over the next month; it might extend the hazardous duty pay if the city maintains its emergency declaration.

This is a sound call. It speaks well of the City Council that it would respond readily to Chief Sullivan’s request.

I want to point out, too, that Sullivan didn’t say a single self-serving word during his presentation about the potential danger his officers or the firefighters face when they suit up during this perilous time. He didn’t need to say it. Indeed, everyone knows and certainly should appreciate what they do in service to the public.

medical news, national news

Pelosi puts it out there: Trump shows weakness

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is giving Donald Trump a taste of what he has dished out to her, meaning that she has declared that the president is exhibiting signs of weakness and not strength while floundering in his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pelosi has delivered a blistering critique of Trump in a letter to her Democratic House colleagues. She says Americans should ignore Trump and listen exclusively to the learned scientists and physicians who have the knowledge and expertise to explain the pandemic to a worried public.

Pelosi wrote: The truth is, from this moment on, Americans must ignore lies and start to listen to scientists and other respected professionals in order to protect ourselves and our loved ones.

I will quibble with one point: The time to ignore the “lies” began long before “this moment.” Still, the speaker is spot on in her assessment of Trump’s inability or unwillingness to lead a nation in distress.

She said that Trump continues to “obfuscate” and lies openly when he says the United States is testing more than any other nation on Earth for the COVID-19 virus; the truth is that we’re testing only a tiny fraction of Americans.

Trump would have us believe the response has gone swimmingly. The reality is that our hospital workers are drowning under the weight of the pressure they are feeling, as are ambulance crews, police officers, firefighters, nursing home employees, grocery store clerks, truck drivers …  you name it. Yet they’re all answering the call with true heroism.

Trump has dished out a boatload of insults at Pelosi stemming from the House impeachment effort earlier this year. The speaker is now giving some of it back.

I believe the speaker when she says she prays for Trump. I will join her in praying for the president and I’ll save a healthy dose of good will and prayer for the speaker as well.

medical news

Trump takes it out on WHO at worst possible moment

Donald Trump is so darn angry with the World Health Organization that he’s decided to pull back a huge amount of U.S. money … while WHO is trying to fight off the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Is it me or does the timing of this bit of presidential pique seem cruel and dangerous?

Trump announced his decision to withhold money for WHO this week because of what he says is a mishandling of the pandemic when it began to alarm the world. He has accused WHO of being too “China centric,” even though the pandemic has its origins in China.

Meanwhile, the United Nations-based WHO is trying to gather data, trying to coordinate the international response to this pandemic, but now it must do so without a large chunk of money on which it relies to pay for its myriad functions. The United States kicks in about $400 million annually to WHO.

This is an international emergency. If there was a time for WHO to be fully funded and able to do its job, now is the time. However, we now hear from Donald Trump that he is turning off that financial spigot just as WHO needs all the support it can get.

Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, who contributes huge sums from his enormous fortune to fight infectious disease, calls Trump’s decision “as dangerous as it gets.” Other medical officials also are worried that Trump has acted hastily.

My own view is that a suspension of money from the United States to WHO could have come after the pandemic had been brought under control. Then we could have established a firm after-action examination of where WHO fell short.

This isn’t the time to strip WHO of much of its ability to fight this deadly health crisis.

national news

Pandemic turns traditional political dogma upside down

Do you want another goofy example of how political norms can be twisted beyond all recognition?

Consider this: Conservatives for decades have been fond of relying on the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as an argument against ham-handed federal intervention. The amendment reads: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Got that? Good!

These days, though, we hear progressives/liberals holding up the 10th Amendment against what they determine to be Donald Trump’s ham-handedness in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

You see, Trump declared that as president he has “sole authority” to order state governors to relax restrictions they have placed on residents of their states. I should point out that Trump has reneged a bit on that bodacious assertion. Still, it’s out there.

The reality, though, is quite different as explained in the10th Amendment. The president has no authority over health issues per se. That authority rests in state capitols. Trump, though, believes he can just tell the governors what to do and that they are obligated to do what he says.

Oh, no.

Governors, mostly Democrats among them, are quick to remind Trump that he was elected “president” and not anointed “king” in 2016. Therefore, he is restricted by the Constitution’s clearly written limits on executive power.

Yes, the Donald Trump Era has changed many once-staid political norms. It’s how he fashioned the presidency once he took office. He’s fine with ruffling it all up, or so he implies.

Except that the U.S. Constitution is a document that shouldn’t be trifled with. The founders got it mostly right when they drafted it in the late 18th century. Yes, they’ve done some tinkering with it over the many years since the nation’s founding.

The 10th Amendment, though, is written with as much clarity as any of those amendments that spell out our Bill of Rights. The only difference these days is the change in those who support and those who oppose its message.

Donald Trump

Trump wants his name to appear on stimulus checks? Huh?

This just in: That rotten SOB who masquerades as our president wants to ensure his name appears on the paper stimulus checks that will be mailed out to millions of Americans.

It turns out that Donald Trump is not authorized to sign the checks, which means that they will be delayed in getting to Americans. Why? Because the president insists on putting his name on them.

What is this guy trying to do?

Good grief! This petty bit of self-aggrandizement only inflicts more hardship in this health crisis/pandemic on those who need the money sooner rather than later to help them through job loss, pending mortgage payments, car payments, student loan payments.

And for what purpose? Because the president wants his name on a document he isn’t authorized to sign.

What an astonishing piece of sh**!

medical news

Why isn’t there more bipartisan outrage and fear?

I usually am not inclined to ascribe partisan motives to varying responses to monumental tragedies, such as what we’re experiencing at this moment with the coronavirus pandemic.

But then there is this unmistakable trend we keep witnessing: Republican governors appear to be less inclined to invoke statewide measures to cope with the pandemic than their Democratic colleagues; a GOP congressman, Trey Hollingsworth of Indiana, has said that people dying would be preferable to allowing the U.S. economy to tank from the pandemic; Texas GOP Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick recently said old folks should sacrifice their lives if it means the economy would survive this crisis.

GOP-leaning talking heads on conservative media keep suggesting the fear is the product of the “mainstream media” overhyping the danger brought by the COVID-19 virus. Donald Trump reserves his criticism of governors to the Democrats among them; he remains silent on his fellow Republicans.

Is there a trend here? Well, it looks like it to me.

The nation’s top Republicans spent a good deal of time and effort when the pandemic first exploded downplaying its severity. His fellow Republicans appear to be following his lead. Only by mid-March did Donald Trump finally acknowledge the onset of a grim outcome caused by the pandemic.

Democratic state governors, meanwhile, are teaming up. The governors of three West Coast states — California, Oregon and Washington — have formed a coalition among them to coordinate their responses to the pandemic. The same thing is occurring in the Northeast, with New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island governors — all Democrats — forming a similar partnership; to be fair, a GOP governor in Massachusetts has joined them … so it’s not all bleak if you’re a Republican officeholder.

What’s going on here. Has the GOP machinery become clogged up by Donald Trump’s ignorance, fecklessness and imbecilic feuds with the media and Democrats?

This is way bigger than partisan differences, folks. How about everyone pulling together? As near as I can tell, Democrats are on the right side of this fight by taking a more proactive approach to fighting this “invisible enemy.” Republican governors need to get into the game … right now!

national news

Gov. Cuomo says he won’t ‘engage’ with Trump, but then again …

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

— 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

I listened this morning to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo declare that he has no intention to of getting into a political battle with Donald John Trump over how to quell the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.

Good call, governor. I applaud the Democrat’s intent to take the high road, to concentrate on the health of his constituents, who have suffered mightily under the assault by the COVID-19 virus.

However, I have trouble squaring Gov. Cuomo’s high-minded rhetoric with what he said earlier, which is that if Trump tries to exert presidential authority over the nation’s governors that we might have a “constitutional crisis on our hands.”

Cuomo, who admits to jousting with Trump when he’s felt it necessary — along with endorsing him when he earns that, too — is trying to speak nobly. I fear that Trump’s impulses will drive him to don the brass knuckles and fight the president for all he’s worth.

Trump continues his assault on the nation’s governors — the Democratic governors, I should add — over what he alleges is their delays and foot-dragging in the wake of the health crisis. He failed to respond proactively at the front end of the crisis, saying that governors held the authority to act. Now that we might be approaching the back end of the crisis, he wants to exert authority he doesn’t possess to put the nation back to work.

Cuomo is concerned that Trump is more concerned about his re-election prospects than he is in the health and well-being of New Yorkers and other Americans.

Given that Trump has no real constitutional power or authority to act, we are presented with a puzzling question: What precisely can Trump do to ignite the constitutional crisis that governors such as Andrew Cuomo say would result? Cuomo said governors could resist a federal edict to reopen the government and then we would have a constitutional likes of which “we haven’t seen in decades.”

OK. I applaud Gov. Cuomo’s stated intent to refuse to “engage” Trump in an open dispute. However, the absence of impulse control within Donald Trump — along with his ignorance — might force the nation’s governors to fight back … with all due vigor.

State news

Gov. Abbott needs to defend Texas

I know what I am about to ask will be tantamount to waiting for hell to freeze over, but it’s worth asking anyway.

When are you going to challenge Donald Trump’s profound ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and defend for your own executive authority as governor of one of our 50 United States?

There the president was on Monday, proclaiming that he has “absolute authority” to order states to relax their own governor’s executive orders issued in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump declared that he makes the call as president of the United States, that he can dictate when the country can get back to business as usual.

Meanwhile, some governors — almost all of them Democrats — have begun to push back on that. Chief among them is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has emerged as the real political superstar in this drama while he deals with the death and illness brought to his state by the pandemic. Cuomo reminded Trump that he is an “elected president” and is not a king.

Oh, and where is Abbott? The Republican governor is silent … so far. Good grief. He knows better than to accept Donald Trump’s ridiculous assertion of “absolute authority.” Abbott took an oath to defend the Constitution when he became governor in 2015. Indeed, he is lawyer, a former trial judge in Houston, a former Texas Supreme Court justice and a former Texas attorney general. He knows the law.

Federal law — along with the 10th Amendment to the Constitution — do not allow the president to intercede in such a ham-handed fashion.

Abbott is planning to release his own directive later this week on how he intends to proceed with possible relaxation of stay at home guidelines for Texans. Trump in effect has declared that Abbott’s pending announcement is irrelevant, that the president can exert whatever authority he deems fit to force states to follow his bidding.

He does not have that authority.

Gov. Abbott needs to make that fact abundantly clear to the ignoramus who is posing as president of the United States.