Tag Archives: pandemic

economic news

It was inevitable, one should suppose, that crisis would produce scandal

I suppose it was expected, that we shouldn’t be surprised at the news flying out of Washington, D.C.

The world is reeling from a deadly pandemic. Now we hear that some members of the U.S. Senate sought to take advantage of their power, their influence, their access to classified information to — allegedly! — score huge profits.

What is it about crises that they seem to attract this kind of potentially scandalous behavior?

We are saluting the heroes and Good Samaritans among us who are performing acts of kindness, empathy and care for those who need help coping with the coronavirus.

It’s also good to condemn those who potentially could use their influence to (a) mislead the public regarding the severity of the crisis and (b) profit from their misdirection.

Several senators allegedly have sought to do profit from the confusion and chaos brought by the pandemic.

One of them allegedly is Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C. He attended a classified meeting in January where he and other senators were told of the dangers that the coming pandemic posed to the economy, as well as to people’s health. Burr then soft-pedaled the threat, telling the public that all would be just fine.

Meanwhile, he allegedly sold millions of dollars of stock just prior to the stock market’s shocking collapse. Do you get it? Sen. Burr got his while the gettin’ was still good, leaving millions of other Americans in the lurch while their retirement accounts were flushed away as investors started to panic.

Is this how it’s supposed to go? Of course not! It’s just a sickening symptom — again, allegedly — of behavior that those in power too often exhibit.

There needs to be a full, frontal investigation into what Burr and some other senators knew and when they knew it. If they are determined to have committed illegal acts, they need to be prosecuted aggressively … for violating their sacred public trust.

None of us should be surprised that this scandal has been revealed.

medical news

Witnessing a heartwarming reaction to pandemic crisis

My heart is filling up with good feelings as I watch the news … all of which is dealing these days with the coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having on human beings around the globe.

I am sure you all have noticed the same thing that has not escaped my attention, which is the huge number of public service announcements from corporate sponsors declaring the same thing: If you’re in trouble and you cannot cope with the crisis, we’re hear to help.

Now, to be sure I fully understand that these messages aren’t entirely altruistic. Automakers are offering “interest free” financing for seven years if you buy one of their products, for example. Still, one of the underlying messages is that the pandemic affects everyone and that we all should draw strength from our neighbors and our family members, all of whom are being forced to make changes in their lives.

By all means I hope this won’t be a long-term disruption of people’s routines. I am not even sure how I would define “long-term,” whether it’s weeks or months or — God forbid — even years.

However, the PSAs and the messages of comfort from Corporate America do fill me with hope as well as a good measure of resolve to do my part to stem the outbreak.

As the saying goes: We’re all in this together.

national news

When given a chance to lead, Trump chooses to attack

I can’t let this story go, but I likely will do so after I finish this brief blog post.

Donald Trump performed a most disgraceful act today in the White House briefing room. When given a chance to show presidential leadership, he exhibited un-presidential petulance.

NBC News’s Peter Alexander to explain to Americans what he would say that would bring comfort to them as we do battle against the coronavirus pandemic. “I would say that you’re a terrible reporter,” Trump snapped.

Utterly, profoundly and unequivocally hideous.

As Politico reported: “What the president did to Peter Alexander is reprehensible,” CNN anchor John King declared after Friday’s press conference.

“It was striking that this came, this, forgive me, bullshit attack on fake news came just moments after the secretary of State said the American people have to be careful about where they get their information and go to sources they can trust.”

It’s too much to ask that Donald Trump ever learn how to behave in moments of crisis. We are in that moment now. The nation is full of citizens who are frightened, out of sorts, anxious and worried. They need the president to give them comfort and to tell them the truth at every turn. They are getting none of it.

Americans deserve far better than what we’re receiving from this individual who is a president in name only.

national news

This won’t happen, but it’s worth asking for it

We need to see the stock trades of President Trump and his family in the month of February.

This is a tweet fired off just a day ago by David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and, yes, a noted critic of Donald John Trump.

Frum has raised a legitimate issue with regard to the pandemic virus and the scandal that has erupted in the U.S. Senate regarding senators who sold stock in companies in which they were invested on the eve of the stock market collapse.

You see, the senators allegedly had inside knowledge of what was about to happen, so they — again, allegedly — dumped the stock at a huge profit before it lost a ton of its value.

They were engaging in happy talk about the market and everyone’s retirement accounts. Except they allegedly knew the bottom was about to collapse on the market’s value.

Hmm. Didn’t Donald Trump also engage in that kind of low-balling of the coronavirus pandemic threat? Um, yeah, I believe he did.

Hence, we have David Frum raising the pertinent issue regarding the Trump family’s investments. The public’s ability to see such activity is likely to be fought hammer and tong by Trump, just as he has fought like hell to keep his tax returns away from public review.

medical news, national news

Oh, how POTUS could have answered that question

Donald John Trump’s ineptitude as president of the United States was on full display today as he excoriated a reporter for asking him a simple, straightforward and totally relevant question.

Trump’s tenure as president is being pummeled by the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

So, at a White House briefing today, Trump took a question from NBC News’s Peter Alexander, who asked the president what he would say to Americans that would comfort them in this time of trial and anxiety in the face of this pandemic.

“I would say that you’re a terrible reporter,” Trump told Alexander.

Wow! Isn’t that simply special?

There he stood at the podium. A reporter asked him to deliver a statement that could lend an air of confidence in the government’s response to the pandemic. Trump then decided to reignite his war against the media, the press that the U.S. Constitution protects against government interference or coercion.

How might Donald Trump have answered the question in a way that could serve a legitimate and valid purpose? Hmm. Let’s try this:

I would tell Americans that your government is working diligently to fix the things that are wrong with its response. We’re trying our best to protect you. We all took an oath to protect Americans against the forces that would do us harm. This “force” is invisible, but it’s an enemy that needs to be destroyed and I, as your president, will commit my waking hours to fulfilling that mission.

Did the president go there? Oh, no! Not even close!

He was given a grooved fastball straight down the middle of the plate … and he whiffed! He threw his bat into the crowd. He did far more harm than good by going after a serious journalist who was doing his job.

I’m going to say this for as long as I am able: Donald Trump is unfit at every level imaginable to be president of the United States.

medical news, national news

Trump is coming apart … piece by piece

Peter Alexander is a competent, well-trained, highly respected broadcast journalist who works for NBC News. So, when he asks what he has called essentially a “softball question” of the president, one could expect the president to answer the question forthrightly.

Except that the president happens to be Donald John “Liar in Chief” Trump.

Alexander asked Trump today whether the president’s soft-pedaling of the coronavirus pandemic was giving Americans “false hope” given that the evidence suggests there is reason for Americans to be afraid. “What would you tell Americans?” Alexander asked.

Trump said he would tell them “that you’re a terrible reporter” and “that’s a very nasty question.”

Good grief, man!

Donald Trump today — once again — has shown his utter and categorical unfitness for the job he occupies. He is supposed to be the voice of calm, reassurance, empathy at a time when the public demands it of their president. Instead, we saw another example of the petulance that Trump exhibits when the chips are down, when circumstance requires wisdom.

Americans are dying of coronavirus. Millions of other Americans are concerned to the point of fright over the prospects that they might test positive. The nation still needs more testing equipment. We need more hospital beds. We need a coordinated national response that complements the response that cities, counties and states are mounting to fight this pandemic.

Most of all we need a president who can lead a nation full of citizens who are worrying about their loved ones.

Instead, we have a president who insults a respected reporter who is just doing his job.

Disgraceful.

national news

Do as we say, not as we do?

You may accuse me of nitpicking if you wish. That’s fine. I don’t give a pile of rat sh** if you do.

The picture you see with this blog post shows the president of the United States along with members of his coronavirus response team. Donald Trump and others have been briefing the pubic on measures the government is taking to stem the infection rate.

They’ve talked a whole lot about “social distancing,” which reminds us to maintain a certain distance from other people; the coronavirus is transmitted easily from person to person. It’s what they call “community transmission” or “community spread.”

What’s wrong with this picture? It shows that the brainiacs comprising the pandemic response team members aren’t doing what they’re telling the rest of us to do.

Donald Trump even has chided media members for “sitting too close to each other” while he blathers on incoherently.

C’mon, folks! Get with the program! If you’re going to issue stern warnings and advice on how to avoid getting a potentially disease, you should at least have the common sense, decency and smarts to demonstrate the thing you’re telling us to do.

national news

They throw ’em in jail for this kind of thing, senators

What do you know about this?

Four U.S. senators, three Republicans and a Democrat, allegedly have been caught doing something that gets many of the rest of us tossed in the slammer.

GOP Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, along with Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, allegedly dumped a whole lot of stock immediately before its value tanked. A coincidence?

Many of us are quite skeptical of the timing of it all.

It’s called “insider trading,” which is what some individuals are able to do when they get information about investment value that isn’t known widely to the rest of the public.

Burr has asked for a Senate Ethics Committee probe into the matter. He also denies doing anything wrong. Sure thing, senator. That’s what they all say.

Feinstein is the Senate’s senior Democrat; Burr chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee; Inhofe has been in the Senate for many years; Loeffler is a GOP newbie, having just taken office in recent weeks after being appointed to succeed Sen. Johnny Isaakson, who retired.

This doesn’t look good for any of them.

Calls are beginning to mount for a full-blown investigation into what they knew and when they knew it. Others are calling for all of them to resign.

This is infuriating, if true. Part of me wants to grant them all the due process they deserve; they are, after all, citizens just like the rest of us and they deserve the presumption of innocence. Another part of me, though, tends to believe the allegations. They need not quit the Senate just because someone has leveled a serious charge against them.

However, all Americans — millions of whom are suffering terrible financial pain as a result of this pandemic — need and deserve answers into what these so-called “guardians” of the public trust knew before they dumped their stock and made all that dough.

national news

Pandemic crisis spurs renewed hope in our future

And now … for a healthy dose of uplifting news at a time when we all could use a bit of cheer.

If you’re worrying about the future of our nation — and, for that matter, our planet — consider all the stories we are hearing about the acts of kindness being performed by young people as they help their neighbors during the coronavirus pandemic.

I am struck and frankly a bit stunned at the stories we keep hearing, reading and grasping. Young people are running errands for their elderly neighbors, or even complete strangers. They grasp the notion that some Americans need a helping hand, but lack the mobility that others possess. So they step up, lend a hand — and they do with no strings attached. They realize, to borrow the phrase that’s sweeping the land, that “we’re all in this together.”

“Good Morning America” today featured an organization that sprung up as the pandemic began taking its toll; the organization is called “Invisible Hands.”

Liam Elkind is a 20-something New York City resident who co-founded Invisible Hands. He shops for food and other essentials for neighbors. He is on a state-ordered break from college. He can’t go to the beach or hang out in bars with his pals. So he is extending a helping “invisible hand” to those who need help.

That is just one example of young folks answering the call.

I want to mention this merely to convey what I believe is an example of our nation’s future is in good hands. Sure, the kindness and compassion isn’t limited to young folks. Many millions of Americans of all ages are responding with open hearts as well.

Let’s just be mindful of what is transpiring. It’s a national emergency. States are beginning to lock themselves down. California is the most notable example of the kind of drastic, but necessary, measures that we’re seeing implemented.

Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered every one of the state’s 40 million residents to “stay at home,” and to leave only if they have business that requires them to venture out. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered severe restrictions on the number of people who can gather indoors, a move that has closed restaurants, bars, gymnasiums. These decisions are occurring across the nation.

Young people and others who are physically able are stepping into the breach to lend a much-needed hand.

We’ll get through this. Yes, it might take a good bit of time. The response we’re seeing all over this great land tells me, though, that we’re going to be just fine … and that our future is in good hands.

This, I declare, provides incontrovertible proof of America’s longstanding greatness.

national news

Mike Pence: most obsequious VP ever

Of all the characters and assorted reprobates who answer to the Reprobate in Chief, Donald Trump, the one who astounds me the most daily is Mike Pence, the vice president of the United States.

It’s getting to where I cannot listen to the vice president speak to the nation while standing just a few feet from Donald Trump.

Why? The VPOTUS is the most obsequious individual ever to occupy the office that is next in line to the Big Job.

It’s not enough for Pence, I guess, to listen to Trump heap praise on himself, calling himself the most consequential president in human history, taking credit for things he never has done. Oh, no. Pence has to pour it on. He stands there in front of the nation and the world and continually slathers the president with fawning praise.

I get that VPs are required to be loyal to the individual who asks him or her to run with them. It’s just that when Pence speaks of Donald Trump, he sounds so shallow, so callow, so hollow. 

I keep reminding myself that Pence bills himself as a devout Christian, a man of deep and abiding religious faith. He won’t meet in the same room with women who aren’t his wife. He has told us that his faith guides his public service.

But how in the world does this individual continue to slobber all over a president who is the very antithesis of the beliefs for which Pence believes? Donald Trump has admitted to never seeking forgiveness. He never exhibits an ounce of grace. Yet there is the vice president, continually telling us about the “outstanding leadership” that Donald Trump has shown, particularly during the current pandemic that is scaring the daylights out of millions of Americans.

All the policy initiatives that Pence supposedly is leading? It’s not enough for him merely to report on them. Heavens no. He has to tell us over and over again how much Donald Trump cares for us all, how he “puts Americans’ interests first.” No! He doesn’t!

I can’t listen to this baloney.