Tag Archives: pandemic

national news

This is what happens when we ‘elect a sociopath as president’

The first few minutes of this video speaks volumes to me — and it should to you — about how badly Donald Trump has blown apart the government response to the pandemic that has erupted around the world.

David Brooks, the conservative New York Times columnist, said it eloquently on the “PBS NewsHour.” This is what we get when we “elect a sociopath as president” of the United States.

Brooks expresses “rage” at what he saw this week from the president and the administration he was elected to lead.

Then there’s Mark Shields, the syndicated columnist and the progressive half of this erudite tandem, who talks about Trump’s desire to leave a cruise ship adrift off the California coast rather than let it dock in Oakland. Why? Because it would it increase “my numbers” relating to those infected by the coronavirus. Trump, said Shields, is concerned only about how it affects him, and he said that Trump not only “lacks empathy,” he has an “empathy void.”

Take a look at this video. It’s only about 11 minutes long, but it lays bare the fundamental failure of the current president of the United States and his inability to muster anything resembling presidential leadership in a time of national crisis.

national news

Vote by mail in case of emergency? Hmm, let’s think about this

They’ve been voting for president by mail in the state of my birth, Oregon, since 2000.

Now the state’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Ron Wyden, has come up with an idea to nationalize this practice in case of a medical emergency that prohibits Americans from traipsing to their polling places on Election Day.

Man, oh man. This gives me fits. Here’s why.

I like what I consider to be the “pageantry” of voting on Election Day, of going to the polling place and casting my ballot. I like handing my ballot to an election judge or placing it into a bin where it’s counted once the polling place closes.

Oregon and a few other states do it differently. They send ballots to voters in the mail. Voters then fill out their ballots and send ’em in also by mail. They’re collected and then tabulated.

Sen. Wyden’s idea might be worth doing … but only if the current pandemic escalates into something far more dangerous than it is at this moment.

As The Oregonian reports: “No voter should have to choose between exercising their constitutional right and putting their health at risk,” Wyden told The Washington Post. “When disaster strikes, the safest route for seniors, individuals with compromised immune systems or other at-risk populations is to provide every voter with a paper ballot they can return by mail or drop-off site.”

Wyden is asking the federal government for $500 million to help states get ready for a vote-by-mail program if national health officials determine it’s too dangerous medically for voters to cast their ballots the old-fashioned way.

If that’s what happens, then I’m all for it. I will not surrender my right as an American patriot to do my civic duty, to perform my role as a citizen.

medical news, national news

Trump tests ‘negative’ on virus?

I might be struck by lightning for expressing this teensy-tiny bit of skepticism. If it happens, it was nice knowing y’all.

The White House has announced that Donald Trump has tested “negative” for the coronavirus. He had resisted submitting to the examination, then relented.

OK. I want to believe the president has tested negative, that the potentially deadly virus isn’t coursing through his body. I do not want the president stricken by this disease. Really. It’s true. I do not wish ill on this individual.

However, a significant portion of me continues to acknowledge a smidgen of doubt over what the White House has told us. Why? Well, it’s the president. That’s why!

He lies. About small things and big things. He cannot tell the truth. POTUS is about as untrustworthy as any public official I’ve ever witnessed. Trump is believed widely to detest being seen as weak or vulnerable. Such vulnerability belongs to others.

As the Associated Press reported: “One week after having dinner with the Brazilian delegation in Mar-a-Lago, the President remains symptom-free,” Sean Conley, the president’s physician, said in a memo.

I want the president to be well. I want my government to be fully functional. I want to believe statements that come from this White House.

If only I could … believe it unconditionally. 

media news

Media earn a shout out on pandemic coverage

I imagine you’ve heard the gripes, mostly from conservatives, who bitch about the media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

They complain that the media are covering this matter so intensely for the so political harm to Donald John Trump

Their complaints are without basis. They are dubious in the extreme.

The media have done a spectacular job covering this crisis. And it is a crisis, no matter how many times some of our political leaders — such as The Donald — might seek to understate its impact on the world.

The media coverage arc has tracked like many of these events often do: They report on an incident, give it the attention it deserves; they follow its progression, then report on increases of incidents; then the story explodes when governments start reacting to the increasing instances of illness … and death.

The World Health Organization has weighed in with a declaration that the coronavirus outbreak has reached pandemic status, which quite obviously is a major development. The media have covered the WHO involvement carefully and thoroughly.

What’s more, the media have explored the nuts and bolts, the ins and outs, the zigs and zags of this issue from damn near every angle imaginable. There are quite likely to be even more angles to cover.

As for the political impact, well, let me just declare that the media only have reported the stumbles, bumbles, bungles that have come from the U.S. government’s highest levels. There can be no way for the media to paper it over. Has it harmed Donald Trump? Yes, more than likely. Is it the media’s fault? Hell no! The media are simply the messengers delivering the news.

So it has gone. The media are charged with the responsibility of chronicling what government does for us … and to us. The Constitution protects the rights of a “free press” and the media seek to be true to the document that informs government that it cannot interfere with or manipulate them.

The media will continue to do their job as the pandemic likely worsens. They will report to the world what they see without regard to the political consequences, which are of no concern to journalists who simply are doing their job.

medical news

A new term arises from coronavirus crisis

As if we didn’t have enough terminology that still needs to be logged into dictionaries and various glossaries for the English language.

Social distancing is the newest term of art. Who comes up with these additions to our contemporary lexicon.

The coronavirus pandemic has made us all just a bit more conscious of mingling too tightly in crowds. We now have to maintain adequate “social distancing” from others around us.

I have noted already whether it’s a verb or a noun. I have concluded, at least for the time being, that “social distancing” is a noun. I haven’t heard anyone yet refer to someone keeping a proper “social distance,” which I suppose would be more surely a noun version of the term.

How would one use the term as a verb? Hmm. “Be sure you ‘distance socially’ from other people.” How’s that? Does it work for you?

All of this I suppose is my way of suggesting my reluctance to use the term in an every-day sort of manner. It’s one of those new, suddenly cool terms that arises from time to time. I’ll leave it to the medical experts to warn us about the potential hazard associated with getting too close to strangers.

We need to maintain proper “social distancing.”

medical news, science news

Trump’s crisis bumbling might have done politically mortal damage

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Donald Trump has proved to be one of the nation’s most remarkable political survivors. Concerns over his boorishness, bullying, bravado all have washed away as his base of supporters continue to hang with him.

Now comes this, the pandemic that has swept around Earth and has killed dozens of Americans while infecting thousands more.

Trump’s response has been, well, let’s just say it’s been as un-presidential as one can imagine. The difference this time as compared to earlier un-presidential responses is that lives are at stake.

Is this the turning point, the tipping point that Trump so far — until right now — has managed to avoid?

I am not going to make any predictions. I mean, this individual has proven me wrong countless times ever since he declared his presidential candidacy in 2015; my goodness, it seems like a dozen lifetimes ago!

The current president of the United States has acted time and again since the coronavirus became a household term as if his main concern centers on his re-election. At what cost? His downplaying of the pandemic’s severity while at the same time medical and scientific experts say precisely the opposite tell us all a tale of presidential incompetence.

That is precisely the kind of ineptitude that many of us saw coming. Thus, it does not surprise many of us that Donald Trump has continued to fail this fundamental test of leadership.

The Liar in Chief worries that a cruise ship docking in California will drive up the numbers of infected Americans. He likes the numbers of stricken Americans “where they are.” He continues to boast about the economy while trillions of dollars in Americans’ retirement investments are being flushed away.

Donald Trump is masquerading as president.

I take no pleasure in any of this, given the impact this crisis is having on my life and that lives of my loved ones. However, we well might be witnessing the dousing of a political career that had no business igniting in the first place.

national news

Local governments are taking lead on crisis management

The good news about the president’s national emergency declaration this afternoon is that states, counties and cities already are way ahead of the federal government in managing the coronavirus pandemic.

Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden, bragged a bit about how well he’s done, heard slobbering praise from Mike Pence and then declared he bears “no responsibility at all” for many of the federal missteps that have occurred along the way.

Meanwhile, governors and other state and local officials are making their own declarations and announcing plans on how they intend to deal with the crisis.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was one of the governors who today announced a disaster declaration in Texas. He has mobilized local authorities and has made some key executive decisions. Gov. Abbott sounded like someone in charge. The president? Well, not so much.

Counties, too, have taken action. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has ordered a ban on all activities that attract crowds of 250 people or more.

The crisis has been real since it broke some weeks ago. The president has sought to downplay what the World Health Organization has labeled a pandemic, which means it’s bad and likely to get worse.

So, with that I’ll listen more intently to messages coming from City Hall, from the county courthouse and from the State Capitol before I heed the words spewing from the White House.

Hey, I mean no disrespect. I just need guidance and steady counsel … neither of which is coming from the office of the president of the United States.

national news

Pence grovels at Trump’s feet, but believe this: Trump doesn’t give a rip

I could not help but marvel at Vice President Mike Pence’s shameless groveling today as Donald Trump announced the national emergency in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

There was the VP heaping praise all over Trump, damn near slobbering as he saluted the president for his “astounding leadership” and all the things he has done to save Americans’ lives and protect the nation from the health crisis that is enveloping the world.

Please …

What is most astonishing is how little Trump thinks of those — in addition to Pence — who piled on the bouquets.

Does any serious-minded individual who watched that spectacle this afternoon think that the president ever is going to return any of the love they hurled at him? Of course not. He thinks of no one but himself and demands that kind of blind fealty of those who work at his pleasure.

It was a disgusting and obscene display.

medical news

Waiting for the current president to lead

I am having difficulty watching and listening to the president discuss the medical pandemic that is sweeping around the world.

He portrays an image of toughness when it’s easy to do so. When the time presents itself for Donald Trump to actually perform as a leader, he chokes. As The New York Times reported today:

While he presents himself as the nation’s commanding figure, Mr. Trump has essentially become a bystander as school superintendents, sports commissioners, college presidents, governors and business owners across the country take it upon themselves to shut down much of American life without clear guidance from the president.

He has contradicted medical experts’ analysis of the coronavirus crisis. The president spoke to the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday about a travel ban he was imposing on Europe, only to have the White House “clarify” Trump’s remarks two or three minutes after he signed off. Trump acts more like a man desperate to ignite a Wall Street rally if only to help his re-election chances.

Donald Trump cannot get it right. He cannot lend an air of competence at a time when the nation desperately needs it from the center of executive power.

I have to arc back to a point I have sought to make on this blog since Donald Trump began seeking the presidency in the summer of 2015. It is simply that this man’s background has taught him nothing about the complexities of the federal government and the nuance of public service leadership.

It is absent as this individual flails and flutters while wishing for a medical “miracle” that will not occur.