Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

Now … what about Bernie’s political future?

It seems oddly petty to talk about U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ next big political decision while Americans are fighting hammer and tong against the coronavirus pandemic that has sickened many thousands of us.

Still, I have to ask: Why doesn’t Sen. Sanders call it a campaign, step aside, cede the Democratic Party presidential nomination to Joseph R. Biden Jr., endorse the former vice president … and then make good on his pledge to do all he can to defeat Donald John Trump?

Sanders cannot win his party’s nomination. Biden has too many more convention delegates lined up than Sanders. It is impossible now for Sanders to catch up.

His campaign insists that Sanders is staying in, yet we hear of reports that the senator is “assessing” the status of his campaign. He can assess all he wants, but many of us already has issued our own assessment, which is that the fight is over.

Sanders fought hard. He has argued, with some justification, that he has won the argument over ideology. Biden has drifted a little to the left, but he’s nowhere near where Sanders is perched on the far-left end of the Democrats’ ideological ledge. That’s more than all right with me. I want a centrist to take on Donald Trump, not a candidate who calls himself a “democratic socialist” and who would be smothered by a Trump slime machine.

I don’t know what Sanders hopes to accomplish by staying in the fight. I do know what he has said is his No.  goal, which is to defeat Donald Trump. Where I come from, it looks like the better way to fulfill that mission is to bow out and line up alongside the candidate who can lead that fight.

local news, medical news

One county judge peers into a neighbor’s ‘yard’ and offers sound advice

If I were sitting in Collin County Judge Chris Hill’s chair at this moment I might be inclined to tell Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins to mind his own bee’s wax.

Then again, were I occupying Jenkins’ chair, I might respond with, “Hey, Chris, we’re all in this together. I’m looking out for everyone in the region. That includes the residents of Collin County.”

Jenkins took part in a conference call among local county judges and local health officials who were meeting to discuss the coronavirus pandemic; Hill didn’t take part. Jenkins has issued a shelter-in-place order for all Dallas County residents, essentially ordering all non-essential businesses to close; Hill has asked folks to stay at home, too, but has kept businesses open.

Jenkins seems to think that his neighboring county judge hasn’t gone far enough. So that’s why he’s admonishing Collin County residents to stay at home while scientists, doctors, first responders answer the call to battle against the coronavirus.

Hey, I live in Collin County. I am heeding the advice given by Judge Jenkins. As for Judge Hill, well, he ought to rethink his reluctance to order the closure of those businesses.

As the Dallas Morning News has reported: Asked about the call with the hospital executive, Hill said it was accurate that he didn’t participate but that he had participated in two other calls with county judges Thursday that Jenkins didn’t take part in. “We need regional cooperation right now in North Texas,” Hill said. “And I urge Judge Clay Jenkins to reconsider his position.”

I need not remind anyone that the coronavirus cases in North Texas are growing rapidly. Accordingly, as a taxpaying constituent of Chris Hill, I hereby ask him to rethink his position.

We have “regional cooperation” in North Texas, even with Clay Jenkins’ apparent scolding.

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.