Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

Pence servitude ignores Trump’s early denial

Whenever I have the misfortune of listening to Vice President Mike Pence’s slobbering praise of Donald Trump’s “leadership” in handling the coronavirus pandemic, I cannot help but circle back to Trump’s initial reaction to the outbreak.

He all but denied the existence of the outbreak, which had felled people in Wuhan, China. Trump called it a “Democrat hoax.”

Then he reported that the nation had about 15 cases of COVID-19, but soon would melt away to zero. Trump said a “miracle” would occur.

Trump has continued to insist — as the death toll in the United States has topped 1,000 victims — that he has done a “fantastic” job. The United States is now the most infected country on Earth, surpassing the former epicenter nations of China and then Italy.

The president says we’ll have a vaccine ready to go shortly, only to be contradicted openly by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading medical/science expert working on the Trump administration response team.

Donald Trump’s “leadership” has been MIA since the beginning. It is still missing in action at this moment. He blames the media for fomenting panic, for disrupting the economy … all for the purpose of undermining Trump’s re-election chances.

Mr. President, your political future is in your hands and yours alone.

I am just sickened beyond measure at the extent that this president’s alleged “leadership” is aimed for one purpose, which is to advance his own effort to win re-election.

Leadership? It hasn’t revealed itself in the White House.

national news

It’s official: Will ignore Trump’s ‘briefings’

It’s official. I am going to ignore Donald Trump’s blathering incoherent rants whenever he calls these White House “briefings.”

If only he would do the right thing — which is impossible on its face, given the ego and pathological narcissism that afflicts this individual  — and stay away from these White House spectacles. He won’t. He cannot. He feels it’s his right to stand in front of the nation and walk us down some blind alley as it regards the coronavirus pandemic.

He is pushing for an Easter reopening of the nation. He just cannot stand the thought of the nation plunging into recession. He keeps laying blame on the media for allegedly hyping the pandemic as a way to cast aspersions on his re-election effort.

I happen to have as much right to turn the TV to another channel as he does to lie to our faces.

So … I will do exactly that.

Someone needs to let me know when he turns the microphone over to the real experts — the doctors, the national security team, the scientists. Until he does so, I’m out.

local news

Glimmer shines through the gloom

It’s not all gloomy out there. Yes, we’re struggling with a monumental health crisis, the likes of which none of us has experienced.

There is plenty to smile about in this time of trouble, turmoil and tempest.

My wife and I essentially are following all the rules laid down by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other local officials. We’re keeping our distance from the rest of the world; we venture out only to go to the grocery store; we wave at our neighbors from across way out yonder; we are Facetiming with our sons, our daughter-in-law and granddaughter. No touchy-feely, not even with them!

We also are taking time to complete some household tasks.

We finished one today: We cleaned and rearranged our garage. That’s one item crossed off my wife’s to-do list.

There will be more.

We also are spending some time reinforcing each other, talking about issues, associated problems that might occur. We also are worrying terribly about all of our loved ones.

We have siblings who live a good distance away and they all have underlying health issues that cause us concern. They’re all smart enough to do the right thing to ensure they remain coronavirus-free. We remain hopeful that we’ll all be intact when we come out on the other side.

So … we trudge on with smiles on our faces while looking for the glimmer peeking through the gloom.

local news, medical news, national news

Is this crisis making us a bit nicer to each other?

Maybe it’s just me, but I have this feeling in my gut that the coronavirus pandemic is helping create a society that is just a bit more courteous.

I kind of feel it when I go to the grocery store, or to fill my truck with fuel, or when I meet folks on the street. I find myself smiling a little more broadly at total strangers and they are returning likewise smiles to me. Our neighbors here in Princeton are offering to help us if we need it; we are returning the offer to them.

Is this what’s happening?

Our local TV stations are full of public service announcements that remind us that “we’re all in this together.”

My wife and I went to a supermarket in Farmersville the other day. We ventured about six miles east along U.S. Highway 380 to see for ourselves what we had heard from an acquaintance, that this store was doing an exemplary job of keeping their shelves stocked while so many of us are hoarding certain products.

We were standing near the stand-up freezers, watching store employees rushing to fill them with frozen vegetables. I was struck by the thought: You know, these folks might be performing one of the most valuable jobs in this community. They were hustling with broad smiles on their faces.

No one, as near as I can tell, welcomes the restricted movements we are enduring, or welcomes the rules that governments are imposing on our daily lives.

The medical personnel at our local hospitals, I am absolutely certain, do not welcome the stress they are facing as they perform heroic acts treating those afflicted with the coronavirus. They deserve our gratitude, our thanks and our best wishes as they struggle to keep our community healthy.

I hope I do not have to thank them personally while they treat me or any member of my family. I am more than willing to express my thanks to them all through this forum.

All of this just might be an unintended, but welcome, consequence of this serious crisis. It’s bringing out the best in us.

local news

Parks are open … just don’t go there

What you see in this picture is a kids park with playground equipment in Collin County, Texas, where the county judge issued a confusing order regarding the coronavirus pandemic that has struck down hundreds of thousands of human beings around the world.

Judge Chris Hill declared that parks shall remain open. Businesses can continue to operate in Collin County as well.

But wait! Gov. Greg Abbott has imposed a 10-person maximum limit for all gatherings, indoors and outdoors alike!

So, I guess this all means that if your children want to go to the park, they can do so legally, but they have to stay away from their pals, that they have to practice “social distancing” by staying more than six feet away. Have you ever tried to enforce such a rule with a toddler, or even a kindergartner?

Judge Chris Hill had a chance this week to impose a countywide shelter in place rule; he could have closed businesses the way many cities have done in the county and throughout the state. He didn’t.

I attended a Farmersville City Council meeting Tuesday night and the consensus among city officials there is that Chris Hill’s ruling was long on confusion but maddeningly short on clarity.

Leadership? It’s lacking at the Collin County courthouse … just as it’s lacking in the White House.

religious news

Trump wants to fill church pews before virus is eradicated

This is a tough message to deliver, but I’ll do so anyway.

Donald Trump could be complicit in the deaths of potentially thousands of Americans if churches across the country open their doors for worshipers on Easter. Why? Because there is no way in the world that the worldwide coronavirus pandemic will be over by then.

And yet the president of the United States is calling on the United States to get back to its “normal” living and he has targeted Easter as the date when that should happen. That’s a “beautiful deadline,” Trump has said. He wants church sanctuaries to fill up with worshipers on Easter. Yep … go ahead and cram yourselves into those pews, sitting right next to someone who might carry the virus.

Ah, but here’s the good news: The president has virtually no actual power to mandate such a dangerous, reckless and thoughtless order. That power rests in the hands of governors, who have the authority to resist calls to allow churches and other houses of worship — as well as schools and assorted businesses — to reopen.

However, should a governor be foolish enough to follow the president’s lead, then they, too, would join Trump in his complicity in the deaths of possibly thousands of Americans.

Donald Trump is fixated on the nation’s economy. He needs to focus at least as much attention on the safety, health and well-being of those he swore an oath to protect against all enemies. Hasn’t he called the coronavirus an “invisible enemy”? Well, yes he has.

The president is neglecting the oath he took. I’d say he “should be ashamed,” except that this clown has no shame.

State news

Not afraid to die for the economy?

1 Comment

Dan Patrick does not make me proud. On the contrary, the Texas lieutenant governor makes me ashamed that most Texans have elected and re-elected this bozo to what arguably is the most powerful office in Texas government.

He presides over the Texas Senate. He wields his power with maximum confidence. He can punish senators who don’t toe the line, such as what he did prior to the 2019 Legislature when he stripped state Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo of key committee assignments. For what reason? Because Seliger was the lone Republican senator to decline to sign a letter endorsing Patrick for re-election in 2018.

Now Patrick has popped off, saying that old folks are willing to die from the coronavirus if it means the nation’s economy gets jump-started. What has this clown been swilling?

Patrick apparently thinks that old folks are expendable. As a 70-year-old Texas resident, I deeply, profoundly and categorically resent and reject that idiocy.

Moreover, the 69-year-old Patrick also seems to be willing to take one for the team.

According to NBC News: Patrick, who said he will turn 70 next week, said that he did not fear COVID-19, but feared that stay-at-home orders and economic upheaval would destroy the American way of life.

Well, I’ll just offer this: His fear of “stay-at-home orders” is so much horsesh**. 

Thanks a lot, Dan Patrick. This great state of ours deserves much better than what we are getting from you.

Moron.

media news

In need of a respite from this madness

I am in desperate need of a respite, a break, a breather from the madness that has overtaken Planet Earth.

We’re caught up in this pandemic crisis. The coronavirus is killing thousands of human beings each day now. We hear glimmers of good news: the death rate is slowing in Italy, as are the new cases of infection; China is reporting no new cases; same with South Korea.

Here, though, in the U.S. of A., our infection rate is still accelerating. So is our death rate.

All in all, the media are doing a stellar job of reporting it to us. We’re being kept informed. I want to stay informed. I need to know whether my family is safe from this disease and I am relying on the media to tell me.

That all said, I need some relief from what is inundating us.

The Internet keeps me plugged in 24/7. I’m fine with that. I can turn it on — or off — as the spirits move me.

At this moment, the spirits are telling me to turn it off for a while.

Heaven knows the president of the United States, the fellow elected to lead us through crises such as this, isn’t doing his job. He’s blathering, spitting out lies and half-truths while expecting us to ignore their obvious fakery. Maybe that’s the source of my need for a break. I cannot listen to him.

So, I’m going to take a break. I don’t know how long it’ll last. Probably not long. I could return damn near any minute after I post this item. It’s a combination of what I call “pandemic fatigue” and profound disgust at the lies I keep hearing from Donald Trump.

For now … I’m out. See you on the other side.

national news

Olympics delayed … but Trump wants to reopen the United States

The juxtaposition of two compelling stories is mind-boggling in the extreme.

Donald John Trump says he wants to get the U.S. reopened by Easter, that it’s time to juice up our economy and get it “rarin’ to go.” The pandemic be damned, according to the president of the United States. We need to get our businesses restarted, he says.

Meanwhile …

The International Olympic Committee and the Japanese Olympic organizers today announced that the Summer Games in Tokyo will be delayed for at least a year. Why? Because the IOC and the Japanese government don’t want to expose spectators and athletes to unnecessary and possibly deadly harm by exposing them to individuals who might be carrying the coronavirus.

Do you get my point?

Donald Trump doesn’t give a crap about public health. He is more keen on revving up the economy. Olympic organizers are so concerned about public health that they are willing to take an unprecedented action by delaying the Summer Olympics for as long as it takes for everyone involved to be safe from potentially deadly illness.

On whose side are you?

I’ll stand with those who want to ensure public safety during this very perilous time. The current president of the United States is on the wrong side.

national news

Trump is writing a prescription for disaster

Donald John Trump is full of sh** if he thinks reopening the nation’s businesses by Easter is smart, given the still-accelerating rate of infection by the coronavirus.

That isn’t derailing the president’s rush to get the economy up and “rarin’ to go” by the time the Easter Bunny shows up.

Good grief.

Trump’s stated aim is coming in light of medical experts’ advice to the precise contrary. They want to keep the lid on business as usual for a while longer. Americans are still getting infected by the coronavirus. Oh, and they’re still dying.

What is Trump trying to do here?

He can count me as one who is far more interested in preserving human lives — and avoiding contamination — than in juicing up the economy.

Do I enjoy watching my retirement account disappear? Of course not. However, I also am enough of a realist to know that the fund will restore itself eventually.

Local officials here in North Texas are invoking shelter in place policies. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is imploring us to be careful, to put our health concerns first. Governors such as New York’s Andrew Cuomo are trying to beat some sense into us about the danger that still lurks with this disease.

Then we hear from the president of the United States urging us to get back to business. That pandemic response team that stands with him at those moronic White House briefings is quite likely telling Trump to slow down, dummy up on the “rarin’ to go” nonsense.

If only he would listen to someone who knows more about these risks than he does.