Month: April 2020

Yesterday Vice President Mike Pence visited the Mayo Clinic to do a photo op with recovering Covid-19 patients. Despite being advised by Clinic administration that all patients, staff, and visitors must wear face masks at all times, the Vice President opted not to wear one and be seen on TV defying the hospital rules.

Seriously?

What kind of message does that send to Americans about this pandemic? That we should disregard the advice of our medical professionals? That Covid-19 is not really a health threat?

Seriously?

Almost 60,000 of our citizens have died from this virus in a little over two months…and that happened despite lockdowns, “stay in place”, and “social distancing” measures. More people have died from this scourge in 60 days than died in battle during the seven long years of the War in Vietnam.

And, we’re not done with this “war”: two thousand Americans are still dying each day.

Of course, Pence and his boss, President Trump, have never taken the coronavirus pandemic seriously. For two months, in January and February, the Administration denied that there was a problem at all. Then, in March, the official line was “it’s one guy from China”, “we’ve got this under control”, and “it will just go away in the Spring”.

It didn’t go away, and it’s not going away anytime soon.

It appears that the Trump Administration’s standard operation procedure of lying and machismo is, in fact, the Federal “plan” to defeat this biological threat.

“We will just pretend that it doesn’t exist and we’ll convince citizens of that by not wearing face masks” appears to be Step 1 of the Plan.

Step 2 is apparently the Trump’s public posturing that there is sufficient testing going on to determine the extent of the pandemic. The Administration is now bragging that the United States has tested more people than any other country…which is blatantly false. Only 1 percent of Americans have been tested thus far, and medical professionals throughout the country are BEGGING for test kits, swabs, and reagents to accomplish their mission. Trump has lateraled the testing football to the states…without adequate Federal assistance…and then declared victory.

Step 3 of the Trump plan was for the Coronavirus Task Force to adopt recommendations on how States should cautiously re-open the economy, and, then…immediately begin public pressure on State governors to re-open the economy without following the Task Force recommendations.

Seriously.

That is the kind of leadership that we’ve all come to expect in this country during the past three years: “Winging it”, blowing off science in favor of quackery, and making decisions based on belief and “gut” instead of facts.

And, then, having the President of the United States act like a fool on TV spouting whatever nonsense comes to his head while talking to the American people.

Wear a face mask? The President announced a long time ago that he would not do so…but the rest of us should, he noted…with a wink.

More and more people are out in public right now, following the example set by our President and Vice President. The message is clear…they don’t take the coronavirus threat seriously.

What will it take? 100,000 dead? 150,000? A million?

The evening news this week shows thousands of people at the beach, 200 people partying in a house, an airplane full of passengers without face masks, a huge mob of Orthodox Jews congregating in Brooklyn for a funeral in defiance of “stay at home” orders, and numerous protest rallies at State capitols. They, like the President, are saying “Fuck it!”, as if Mr. Covid-19 can hear them…or cares.

Woe unto us if this pandemic starts to flare up again. With all the effort, sacrifice, and valor that our medical professionals have applied to this disaster, it would be unthinkable that we would have to ask them, once again, to put themselves out there on the front lines for us.

If we don’t take this pandemic seriously, how can we expect them to do so?

Yesterday I threw caution to the wind and went hiking with my buddies Mac and Lloyd up on the local mesa. We did a little over nine miles and I’m a bit sore today. The hip did fine, though.

Here’s Lloyd:

Flowers were blooming up there, and there were a lot of large lizards and horned toads running about. We’ve never seen so many of them. Lots of freshly-dug desert tortoise holes, too. It’s rare to see one of those fellows out and about.

There were also numerous tracks of Sidewinder rattlesnakes in the sandy roadbeds. We’ve never seen an active Sidewinder in the daytime; evidently, they come out in the evenings and hunt lizards and rodents.

Here’s a photo of a Sidewinder track in the sand:

Here’s a close-up where you can see impressions of his scales:

Hiking, walking, riding a bike, and exploring the BLM lands with an Off-Road Vehicle are the only activities going on in Mesquite right now. Golf courses, casinos, and restaurants are still closed.

I did some trail biking the other day:

We’ve had a few backyard B.S. sessions with neighbors over drinks while keeping socially distant, of course.

According to the Mayor, there have only been seven confirmed cases of Covid-19 in our city of 21,000. No deaths that we know of.

It’s a good thing that the pandemic has not taken root here, because the local hospital sucks. If Charlie or I were to come down with any symptoms, we’d hop in the car and drive 40 miles up to St. George, Utah where there is a major league medical center.

“Re-opening the Economy” was the big topic of discussion during our 3-1/2 hour hike. Both Mac and Lloyd feel like it’s time to give it a shot and have those folks who are most at-risk continue to shelter in place for their own protection. That would, of course, include a majority of the old geezers (like Mac, Lloyd, and I) in Mesquite.

The three of us are in good shape, with no underlying medical conditions. We might survive a Covid-19 infection, although we’re not out looking for one. Charlie probably wouldn’t survive, so she doesn’t need me bringing any germs into the house. I’ll have to wear a mask and do the hand sanitizer routine for the foreseeable future, while Charlie hunkers down in our casa. I may try some of Doctor Trump’s recommendations, as well…just to be safe.

But, seriously, I’m probably like most Americans right now: I’m leery of crowded situations where virus droplets may be wafting in the air.

So, even if Governor Sisolak opens things up a bit, I’ll probably be reluctant to have a sit-down meal in a restaurant or go into the local casinos. This poll pretty much agrees with our feelings right now.

The big question with Charlie and I right now is whether or not we will hit the road in the RV in the Summer. We have a two-month trip planned (and reserved) for the Oregon and Northern California coasts beginning on June 25^th and running through Sept 7^th.

Charlie is fearful that she will contract the coronavirus “on the road”.

I’m thinking that she will be as safe in the RV as she is in our house. And, besides, after suffering from cabin fever for six months, we’ll be anxious to get the Hell out of Mesquite before the place turns into a frying pan in July and August.

At this point, I don’t know if the RV parks on our itinerary will be open for business by late June. So, l’m holding out on making a decision and trying to keep Charlie informed and flexible in attitude. I know for sure that our dogs would be very uncomfortable here in the boiling hot Summer and much prefer the cool coastal climate. So, right now, I’m sure it’s 3 votes to 1 for hitting the road.

With nothing much else to do here during the lockdown, I’ve been re-jiggering our landscaping a bit. We have a large property with pretty lush Desert landscape installed already. I’ve filled in some of the sparser areas with ice plant, cacti, small shrubs and such. I’m getting proficient at drip irrigation, as well.

I put in this accent area last week: two large urns with cacti, some ice plant, and an agave…all drip-irrigated.

Today we took delivery of a couple of large rocks for our front yard. They were delivered and placed with a skip loader.

Here’s one:

Here’s the other:

2020 has been a particularly bad year for weeds. I blew it and didn’t put down any pre-emergent herbicide, so I’ve spent the past month picking weeds. Yesterday I picked 384 of them and Charlie picked another 100 in the entryway garden. It’s a weed pandemic, I tell ya’.

Flowers have been blooming on our cacti. Here are some pics:

I hope that America’s urge to escape quarantine in a phased manner works out. No one wants our economy to wilt on the vine; we need to re-start and adjust to the new normal, as best we can. Hopefully, society doesn’t forget the pain we’ve just endured…and how easy we could return to the “stay at home” situation if people get reckless.

Who knows what’s “safe”? Sometimes your instincts tell you that everything’s OK…when it isn’t. Let’s hope that most of us stay safe.

I am now a Nevadan.

I live in Mesquite, which is 70 miles north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15. There are about 2.7 million people who live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, while there are only about 21,000 residents of Mesquite. In between, along those 70 miles of Interstate, there are maybe 100 people and a whole lot of sagebrush, cactus, rocks, and dirt.

We like it that way, particularly in this Covid-19 world.

We also like the Governor of Nevada, Steve Sisolak. He does a weekly televised press conference and seems to be on top of the coronavirus situation. The Governor has had the state shut down for a month now, and the infection and death rates are very low. Sisolak appears to be staying the course, i.e. the guidance provided by the Trump Administration.

Economically, the State of Nevada is taking a fearsome beating. A great deal of the economy of the State is generated by hotels, casinos, entertainment venues, restaurants, and the like. All of them are empty right now, as they require crowds of people to function.

The Mayor of Las Vegas is Carolyn Goodman.

She is in her third tour as Mayor, and she succeeded her husband, Oscar Goodman, who was Mayor from 1999 to 2011.

Oscar was a slimy defense attorney in Las Vegas before his political career, helping legendary organized crime figures like Meyer Lansky, Nicky Scarfo, and Tony “The Ant” Spilotro stay out of jail when the Mob ran Vegas.

Needless to say, the Goodmans are Las Vegas diehards who helped build the city into the spectacle that it is today.

Yesterday, Mayor Carolyn Goodman volunteered her city to be a petri dish for Covid-19. She suggested on a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper that the city should re-open and “see what happens”. Her proposal, which Governor Sisolak would have to approve, is based upon the low infection and death rates that Las Vegas has experienced during the past month.

Of course, as Anderson Cooper noted, those low infection/death rates were achieved with all non-essential businesses shuttered and 2.7 million citizens were under a “stay at home” lockdown. Had the city gone about its business in the normal fashion, who knows what would have happened?

That’s exactly what Mayor Goodman wants to know. She said that she wants her city to be a “control group” that could test the effectiveness of preventative restrictions. In a gambling city, she wants to throw the dice with the city’s workforce and visitors in the hotels, casinos, restaurants, night clubs, bars, and entertainment venues.

Of all the reckless proposals that have surfaced in the past month, this one takes the cake.

Las Vegas is no normal city: it’s a 24/7/365 version of Florida’s Spring Break, New Orleans’s Mardi Gras, and Times Square’s New Years Eve celebration. People come from all over the world to crowd together in hotels, casinos, nightclubs, bars, entertainment venues, convention facilities, restaurants, and the like. And, then, return home.

Covid-19 loves crowds, and it also likes to be disseminated.

The Mayor’s proposal is so outlandishly reckless because the tens of thousands of potentially infected patrons will return to their homes in other states and countries after their fun-filled visit to Sin City. If infected, they will then re-start the pandemic all over again in cities, towns, states, and countries that thought they’d beaten the plague.

Needless to say, Mayor Goodman’s proposal went over like a fart in church. Anderson Cooper said, “Wow, that’s really ignorant.” Governor Sisolak wasn’t amused at all: “We’re clearly not ready to re-open.”

Mayor Carolyn Goodman isn’t the only elected official who’s reckless.

Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia is loosening restrictions on businesses in his state this week, even as the infection and death rates in Atlanta and nearby cities are spiking. The Governor’s “plan”, if one could call it that, is to allow the re-opening of nail salons, bowling alleys, gyms, and restaurants. Health officials are aghast.

Kemp is the imbecile who realized that there were asymptomatic cases of Covid-19…two months after everyone else in America. What do you expect from Georgia?

President Trump originally egged Governor Kemp into “liberating” his State.Then, when epidemiologists and the Mayor of Atlanta rained scorn on the idea, Trump reversed course, claiming that he told Kemp, in a phone call, that it was a “horrible idea”.

Of course, who knows what was said, and who knows if there was even a phone call. Sounds like the old “wink and nod” game to me.

Not to be one-upped by Governor Kemp, at his televised press conference yesterday President Trump mused about the possible efficacy of injecting household disinfectant to kill coronavirus in the lungs.

“Doctor” Trump seemed to be advancing fake science that for decades has been peddled as a cure for autism and HIV. Actual medical professionals immediately responded to the quack proposals: “It’s demoralizing”, “It’s irresponsible and dangerous”, “it’s a common method that people use when they want to kill themselves”, and, “It’s exceptionally dangerous…because there’s people who hang on to every word spoken by the President.” After the press conference, the maker of Lysol issued a statement warning against any internal use of the cleaning product.

“Doctor” Trump also advanced his old theory that the warming weather would knock out the virus, despite the fact that it has flourished in warm climates such as in Indonesia and Singapore.

The next day, after virtually everyone panned the President’s dumb ideas, he stated at his press conference that he was only being “sarcastic” and that he was misquoted, etc. That’s news to the millions of viewers who saw him utter the inane medical proposals, and news to Dr. Birx, who visibly cringed when he threw out his preposterous ideas.

In other scientific (or, pseudo-scientific) news, it was learned that one of the nation’s top-ranked virologists, Rick Bright, was demoted for his refusal to validate the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment. This drug has been repeatedly championed by President Trump and Fox News talking heads as a potential “game changer”, despite limited clinical trials, most of which (to this point) do not validate any beneficial effect of the drug on Covid-19.

The daily televised press conferences of Trump and his Coronavirus Task Force members have become fact-less pep talks by the President and a means for Trump to disseminate goofy ideas about medicines, potential treatments, “breakthroughs”, optimistic hypotheses, and such. The medical experts like Drs. Fauci, Birx, and Surgeon General Adams are basically stage props who are, by now, gun-shy about giving any legitimate medical opinions lest the President admonish them for contradicting him.

I am surprised that Fauci, Birx, and Adams haven’t had the professionalism and courage to publicly denounce the President’s lame and, in some cases, dangerous “scientific” pronouncements based on his natural genius. At least Rick Bright had the guts to “out” the politicization of his agency by the Trump Administration. I’m hoping that one day, at the press conference, one of the humiliated task force members will take the mike and say, “Mr. President, you lying sack of shit…you can take this job and shove it!”

Given that the American public is daily served a baloney sandwich at the official Covid-19 pep talk, it is not surprising that many citizens don’t take the pandemic seriously. I was at Costco last week in St. George, Utah where there were maybe 500 customers in the warehouse, with only perhaps 100 wearing face masks. Here in Mesquite, Nevada, at the local supermarket, I would estimate that maybe half the customers wear masks.

This compares to virtually 100 percent mask utilization in China, South Korea, and Japan, where they’ve successfully “flattened the curve” of infection in a few months. America might be the “greatest Nation on earth”, but it is undoubtedly one of the dumbest.

More and more, as the economic impact of the pandemic worsens, people are voicing the concept that, perhaps, the “cure is worse than the problem”. Of course, these folks ignore the fact that the problem would have been significantly more acute had the curatives of “stay at home” and “social distancing” not been in place.

Would they be anxious to re-open the economy if 150,000 Americans had died in two months instead of 50,000?

Protests have erupted in a number of states, as unemployment has risen to historic levels. Approximately one-sixth of American workers have lost their jobs in the past month. Businesses are failing right and left. Mental depression is setting in. It’s a tough, unprecedented blow to the Nation’s psyche.

As this pandemic drags on, utilitarian ideas keep being referenced by activist politicians. Utilitarianism is a doctrine that actions are right if they are useful or for the benefit of the majority. For the utilitarian, all that matters is the net gain of happiness.

The idea that we should simply let the coronavirus run its course, unhindered, because “only” the elderly, the infirm, the poor, and minorities would die while the majority of the population would live…is a utilitarian position. “Thinning the herd”, “There are more important things than living”, and “The cure is worse than the problem” are logical extensions of this philosophy.

Many younger Americans seem to have adopted this idea, which is a take on “what have you done for me lately?” In other words, telling the old folks they need to take one on the chin for the youngsters so that the “economy” survives. That begs the question, though, “Whose economy?” It’s those old codgers who created the economy that they and the young folks are enjoying. What have the young folks contributed lately?

Just sayin’.

Despite the pain we’re going through, polling suggests that most people believe that we must “stand our ground” against the coronavirus. I think that says a lot about the value that humans place on other humans, particularly their loved ones. Family is important, and, maybe, the most important thing. Recent polling suggests that Americans think, by a 70 to 30 margin, that fighting the coronavirus is more important than the state of the economy.

We are, eventually, going to beat back Covid-19. It may be this year or the next. A drug will be developed to treat the virus or a vaccine will be invented. But, what will society look like when that happens? The “new” normal could be very different from what we’ve grown accustomed to.

For quite awhile, I think, people are going to be wary of crowding. Traveling by airplane, where the fat guy next you “flops” some of his blubber onto your 18-inch seat was already creepy and abhorrent; now, with people feeling unsafe is someone is within six feet, how many folks are going to want to get packed like sardines in an airplane? Or, an elevator? Or, attend a concert or a Las Vegas show?

I am thinking that, even if Mayor Goodman of Las Vegas got her wish and the city was re-opened for “business as usual”, a good portion of the regular Sin City customers will not return. The same goes for professional sports held in ball parks, stadiums, and arenas. There’s going to be drop-off in attendance, for sure. For some, the idea of tens of thousands of people, sandwiched together, will not be that appealing anymore…in any venue.

Of course, reckless individuals won’t care about potential health risks. Young people are reckless by nature, gamblers don’t worry about bad odds, and many Americans are filled with “machismo”, seemingly unafraid in the face of danger. And, there are a lot of just plain stupid folks who assume that bad things like Covid-19 only happen to “the other guy”.

It will be interesting to see if stupid, reckless people have their way when the college football season arrives in the Fall.

There is going to be intense political pressure put on elected officials in the South and Midwest where college football is part of the fabric of life. Pre-game bonfires, “tailgate parties”, and stadiums filled with 50,000 to 100,000 fans are the norm in those locales. It will be very difficult, politically, to modify an important way of life in these, mostly, rural communities.

Unfortunately for public health officials, those rural areas where college football is King are also hotbeds of Trump support. It will be interesting to see what position the Administration’s Coronavirus Task Force takes on college football.

If those games are allowed to proceed, a second wave of Covid-19 spreading is virtually guaranteed…

…unless we all adhere to a strict regimen of chlorox injections and warm weather.

Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump tweeted, “Once we OPEN UP OUR GREAT COUNTRY…our Economy will BOOM, perhaps like never before!!!”

Unfortunately for all of us, this prediction is unlikely to come true.

Since the President made those remarks, 28,000 additional Americans have died of Covid-19, and that total is rising by an average of 2,000 per day. Current White House modeling puts the low estimate of pandemic deaths in the United States at 100,000 and the high estimate at 240,000 souls.

I read an interview with a noted epidemiologist this morning in which he projected a death toll of 800,000 Americans if a second wave of the virus occurs in the Fall. That’s pretty scary.

Our President blames this misfortune on everyone but himself, and believes that it is overblown, in any case.

Epidemiologists feel that Covid-19 will continue to plague America until a viable vaccine or therapeutic drugs are developed. Those medical breakthroughs are not expected for many months, probably not until 2021. Thus, “stay at home” and “social distancing” measures are expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

One can only imagine the carnage had these restrictions, both official and voluntary, not been followed during the past thirty days. Joe Citizen and his family deserve medals for their patriotism. Great job!!!

The Covid-19 coronavirus is extremely contagious, and each infected person, who may be asymptomatic, transmits the virus to an average of 2.5 people. Without social quarantining, that means that one person’s infection can transmit to 640 infected people within ten days.

That explains the catastrophe in crowded New York City: by the time the City realized it was in jeopardy, the public health problem was nearly insurmountable. Almost 11,000 people have died there in the past forty days from Covid-19.

(That is three times the number of lives lost in the 9/11 attack. Americans were outraged at that loss of life.)

Sobering statistic: Today or tomorrow the Covid-19 death toll in our country since February will surpass the number of American soldiers lost in the Vietnam War over a 7-year period.

Thus, it seems inconceivable, given the degree of contagiousness of this virus, that any public official would recommend lifting societal restrictions until the coronavirus is either extinguished by vaccine or can be treated effectively by a drug.

Yet, the President of the United States is actively encouraging states to disregard his own Administration’s Covid-19 recommendations.

Not surprisingly, the Governors of a number of “Red” states, many in the Trump-friendly South, are making plans to lift the public health protection measures before the end of April. Their constituents have cabin fever, infection totals have been lower in their rural states, and they want the economy to re-start ASAP. They’re hoping for that “Boom” that Uncle Donald has been promising.

Besides, as Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said this week, “There are more important things than living”.

This supposed patriot may think that, but innocent folks who become infected by “liberated” Texans and other Southerners might not agree. I wonder what Lt. Governor Patrick’s position would be if his wife contracted the virus: “I love you Honey, but keeping the economy going is my top priority. I’ll donate your clothes to Goodwill.”

The economy that Lt. Governor Patrick, President Trump, and the Red state “liberators” intend to re-ignite this Spring is going to look a lot different than the muscular one they remember from February. The “ON” switch that they think they’ll be throwing to resume speed will be much more like… a dimmer toggle.

Many businesses that were on “life support” before the pandemic will not survive. That includes big businesses and small. Lots of stores in malls were already suffering from Amazon-it is, and now, when the malls re-open, there will likely be much-reduced foot traffic. Most anchor tenants, like Sears, Neiman Marcus, Kohls, JC Penney, and Macys were barely hanging on pre-pandemic.

Some businesses which traditionally crowd patrons together, like beauty salons, bars, night clubs, restaurants, arenas, convention centers, casinos, sports arenas and stadiums, concert halls, theaters, theme parks, cruise ships and such will have to surmount public skepticism about health safety in those venues. It may take many months, if not years, for people to feel comfortable in crowds.

Many of the above businesses rely on low-paid labor to thrive. Lots of these folks are on “unemployment” now, and they are making more receiving those benefits than when they were working. It may take awhile for those critical workers to return to their former jobs. Some can’t get back into the U.S. because of border closures.

Those same businesses are “leisure” in nature; they are wants, not needs. Twenty-five million Americans area now out of work, so there is a lot less discretionary income in the economy. Something like a trillion dollars vaporized in March and April; it’s gone, off the table, not in circulation, etc. People will be eating more meals at home, taking a lunch bag to work, and drinking alcohol by themselves in front of their TV set.

Fewer consumers are going to be able to afford big ticket purchases like cars and homes. Auto dealerships, new home builders, and construction contractors are going to suffer a significant decline in revenue. The decline in these industries will ripple through the entire economy.

Agriculture got hit hard by this economic collapse. Much of the consumer demand from those leisure businesses fell off, and the pandemic public health restrictions kept crops from being harvested. This double-whammy leaves farmers in jeopardy of going bust, or, if they survive, not knowing how much planting they should do.

The airline industry has bottomed out; hardly anyone is flying right now. Orders for new planes are “on hold”. Consumers will take far fewer vacations this year. Hotels and resorts will suffer big declines in patronage.

Fuel needs for the airlines and automobile travel are dramatically reduced in America and throughout the world. Accordingly, there is an oversupply of oil, which has dropped the price like a stone. The economy of Texas, the Nation’s largest supplier of crude oil, is in tatters. With the price of crude dropping to all-time lows, energies derived from shale oil and coal are cost prohibitive, and those industries may fail.

Large manufacturing industries will be wary of re-opening or ramping up production until they are sure that workers believe that they will be safe from the coronavirus. And, then, they much guess how much consumer demand there will be, given the depth of the economic recession and the prospect that the coronavirus could re-emerge in the Fall.

The Nation’s largest banks are bracing for a deluge of loan defaults. JPMorgan Chase has set aside $6.8 billion worth of reserves to insulate itself from such defaults, and are estimating that the bank’s profits will be down 69 percent this year. Wells Fargo has similarly set aside $4 billion for potential losses, estimating that their net income will drop 90 percent this year.

All of these factors will, sorry to say, result in a slow re-start to the economy.

Plus, the major population centers of the country, which are the most susceptible to a re-emergence of Covid-19 infections, will be cautious in their approach to re-booting their economic engines.

The Governors of New York and California, in particular, will take baby steps based upon facts, not Presidential rhetoric. New York City is the financial capitol of the world, and California’s economy is the world’s fifth largest. Their cautious response to the pandemic will drive the train, not Mr. Trump, his task forces, and his press conference pep talks.

Speaking of our over-anxious Chief Executive, the miracle cure that he has been touting for the past month or so (hydroxychloroquine) has not turned out to be the “game changer” that he promised. Another study surfaced yesterday, the largest to date, which suggests that the drug, at best, has no beneficial effect on Covid-19, and, at worst, may harm infected patients. Other small studies have come to the same conclusion.

In other news, horror stories about the dispensing of Small Business Administration bailout funds are filling the airways. Ruth’s Chris Steakhouses got $10 million, Shake Shack got $10 million, and Harvard University, which has an endowment of $40 billion, got $8 million to help out struggling geniuses and trust fund kids.

Meanwhile, actual small businesses have struggled to get any money from the pot.

Class action lawsuits have been filed against the nation’s largest banks alleging that they “shuffled” SBA applications (which were supposed to be “first come, first served”) to give priority to bigger customers, hence larger loans, hence larger loan origination fees. Accordingly, the original SBA pot of $320 billion was exhausted in a couple of days.

Congress is about to re-infuse the SBA bailout pot with another $350 billion, but who knows where that funding will go. As of today, the Trump Organization is angling for some of the money to support its hotels. I wonder if they’ll get some?

And, so, we’re not out of the woods with Covid-19, medical experts’ advise is being thrown to the wind by the President and his supporters, and the largest Federal bailout of the economy is beginning to look like another Republican pork barrel project for rich Americans.

Our President spends his day watching Fox News propaganda, eating cheeseburgers, Tweeting, and practicing his afternoon press conference cheerleading routines: “Sis Boom Bah, Rah Rah Rah!”

(Which reminds me of Johnny Carson’s epic gag as Carnac the Magnificent. One night, Ed McMahon handed Carnac the sealed envelope, Carnac put it to his head, and answered, “Sis Boom Bah”. He then proceeded to open the envelope and read the question: “Describe the sound made when a sheep explodes.”)

President Trump and his followers in the Red states had better hope and pray that a second wave of Covid-19 doesn’t erupt while they are recklessly re-opening the economy.

It would be a “boom” of unimaginable consequences.

The pathetic downward spiral of the American Presidency reached new lows in the past week.

Tacticians in the White House have been desperately trying to re-cast the Administration’s actual dismissive and sluggish pandemic response as totally competent considering the World Health Organization’s “failure to adequately warn the U.S.” back in January.

However, America was warned early. The W.H.O. learned of the potential pandemic threat in late- December, 2019. At that time, our C.D.C. had a dozen staff embedded in the W.H.O. team sent to China. They knew as soon as anyone. They reported back to their superiors in Washington D.C. In January, top Administration officials knew of the potential pandemic and briefed the President and his Cabinet.

In January and February, the President publicly dismissed the potential pandemic, “There’s one guy coming from China. That’s all.” He followed up in subsequent public pronouncements that “it’s a Democratic hoax”, and, “it’s like the flu, it will be gone by Spring”.  In press conferences, our President assured Americans that “we’ve got this under control”, and he praised the Chinese Premier a dozen times for his deft handling of the situation.

Fast forward to “Spring”, after 41,000 American deaths: President Trump now claims that the W.H.O. let us down, the Chinese were lying to us, and, besides, the States are in-charge of this pandemic, not the Federal government.

Flip-flop.

As the pandemic-caused slide of the U.S. economy headed toward a modern Depression, desperate President Trump tossed caution to the wind and announced that he intended to “re-open” the economy within a few weeks. This announcement, running contrary to what his public health advisors were saying publicly, shocked beseiged health first responders across the Nation.

Flip-flop.

Trump said, on TV, that he was “calling the shots” on this, and that he had “total authority” to do what he felt, instinctively, had to be done. On the day he made this bold assertion, the Covid-19 death toll was averaging between 2,500 and 3,000 souls per day. Many states like New Jersey, Louisiana, and Michigan were seeing their numbers spiking upwards.

Governors of severely impacted states immediately responded that the President had no such authority. In the absence of Federal leadership, they had enacted “stay-at-home” prohibitions under their health and safety police powers, and they, not the Federal government, would be rescinding them when health and safety could be assured. Governors from three regions (West, Midwest, and Northeast) announced that they were working together to develop strategies in their regions.

The President then flip-flopped and said, “We’ll work with the Governors” on re-opening the economy.

The Administration then announced a proposed set of guidelines on how to gradually re-start the economy as the pandemic slowed in various regions. The Governors seemed to be pleased with this idea, as it was consistent with the staged-approach that they had been urging, with the immediate focus on public health instead of the economy. The President said, but “you’ll be calling the shots on this.”

The very next day, a large mob arrived in Lansing, Michigan to publicly protest the “stay-at-home” orders there. The theme was “Liberate our citizens”, “we have the right to leave our homes”, “let us get back to work”, “the Governor is a Nazi”, and similar themes. Trump 2020 campaign flags were in abundance.

The President of the United States then Tweeted his support of the demonstrations: “LIBERATE MICHIGAN”. He then added, “LIBERATE MINNESOTA” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA”.

All three of these states were then, and are now, following the Administration guidelines announced on television the day before by the President.

A flip-flop from a guy who supposedly supports States’ rights.

It appears that the Trump re-election strategy is boiling down to this: (1) Applaud the President for his brilliant strategy of marshalling Federal forces to combat the coronavirus, despite being “sandbagged” by W.H.O. and the Chinese; (2) Blame the infections and deaths on incompetent State Governors; (3) Blame the State Governors for over-reacting by issuing “stay-at-home” orders; (4) Side with unemployed workers and closed businesses by blaming the State Governors for not “re-opening” the economy soon enough; and, (5) Take 100% credit for Federal funding approved by Congress to ameliorate the economic collapse.

As is his standard operating procedure, the President insists on not taking responsibility for anything that happens on his watch…unless it is a positive accomplishment. Administration failures are someone else’s fault. He’s “in-charge”, but he conveniently denies knowing what his employees are doing.

Like this past week, when the economic stimulus checks went out to Americans with Donald Trump’s signature on them. At the C.A.R.E.S. stimulus signing ceremony in the White House last month, the President commented that it would be nice if his signature was on the checks. When those checks arrived in people’s mailboxes last week, they were signed by Donald Trump, the first checks ever signed by a President.

When the tacky stunt was raised by the media, Trump claimed that he didn’t know about it, hadn’t approved it, etc., despite publicly suggesting it on national television.

Flip-flop.

One wonders what the Trump Administration is doing day-to-day to kill the time.

It would seem, just from their titles, that several departments under Donald Trump should be actively involved in protecting Americans from a global pandemic. Some examples: “Homeland Security”, “National Institute of Health”, “Center for Disease Control”, “Food and Drug Administration”, “Federal Emergency Management Agency”.

These are the Federal agencies which are, theoretically, tasked with protecting our Nation’s borders, planning for National pandemic response, testing for exotic viruses which have invaded our Nation, developing and approving drugs and vaccines for Nationwide use, and handling the logistics of National and regional disaster response. Their responsibility is National in scope; there are no corresponding agencies at the State level.

Yet, we are being asked by the President to believe that they have no role or responsibility in this crisis, that it is the States’ responsibility to rescue all of us. The States say, “We need more ventilators and masks”, the Administration says, “Find your own”, or, “We’ll give you some if you ask nicely”.

When someone runs for President, and wins, they take on the job of running a Federal government. This involves doing many things nationally that the States cannot handle on their own, like Interstate highways, border protection, regional disaster response, aviation management, etc. It is not the President’s option to decline to administer these tasks, which were established and funded by Congress. Those functions are what make us the United States of America.

President Trump took an oath to faithfully execute those laws. Now, he wants to pretend that they don’t apply to him, that the States need to pick up the slack.

Flip-flop.

What actually happened in the past four months? A pandemic started, President Trump ignored it, then minimized it, the Federal agencies tasked with handling things like this were caught flat-footed, the pandemic got a foothold in the U.S., the Federal government wasn’t nimble enough to keep pace, the States took matters into their own hands, the economy crashed, and tens of thousands of people are now dying, week by week.

The “greatest nation in the world” appears to the rest of the world as a bunch of clowns, scurrying about, as their country dissolves into itself. It almost appears as if we are trying to Make America Un-Great.

And, then, we get the political spin.

Lie, exaggerate, blame.

Repeat as necessary.

President Trump says he trusts his gut over science, facts, etc. According to him, his native instincts on important matters are “perfect”. It’s the primary reason why he doesn’t need expert advisors.

I trust my gut, too, but am not that cocksure that the thing is right 100 percent of the time. I voted for George W. Bush, for God’s sake.

I am going out on a limb here, but I have a building feeling in my gut that President Trump will not seek re-election in the Fall.

Go ahead…laugh.

My gut says that most Americans believe that the Trump Administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been flaccid, at best, and inept, at worst.

Many thousands of Americans are going to die because of poor White House leadership, and most voters are going to accept this fact by summertime. Let’s face it, Seinfeld’s George Costanza could have done better.

The routine Trump technique of blaming others for his mistakes is not going to work this time. As Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”

Unfortunately for Donald Trump, there was a pandemic, which was no one’s fault, but it occurred on his watch…so he’s responsible for how it was handled by the Federal government. “The CDC, the NIH, FEMA…they blew it!”, he will say. Unfortunately, they all work for him; there’s no changing that.

The Prez is now trying to blame the World Health Organization for not alerting the U.S. sooner about the pandemic.

That argument doesn’t hold water, though, because other countries heeded the W.H.O. alerts, while Trump didn’t, and now the countries that paid attention have flattened the infection and death curves while our Covid-19 casualties dwarf all other countries. And, each day of the passing week sported a new daily death toll high in the United States. The epidemic is still in full swing here, and yet testing for the virus is, still, unavailable to most people. And we’re supposed to be the “greatest country in the world”! How can this happen?

The pandemic buck stops at the White House.

My gut tells me that America has yet to see the bottom of the economic collapse. I wish it weren’t so, but the indicators are bleak. This hurts Donald Trump to the core of his being, because he has championed prosperity under his Administration. He claimed the economy as his own. And, then, he got Hoovered.

As of mid-April, in an election year, our tribal Chief has pretty much emptied his quiver of economic stimulus arrows: prime interest rate of zero; cash sent to most American households; promises of bailout funds to small businesses; and, billions of dollars in bailout for major corporations.

Trump is now leading a Socialist government only a few months after accusing Bernie Sanders of being a Communist. His Republican Party is getting far too comfortable with printing money to solve problems. Private enterprise is on the dole and bread lines are forming. Bold ideas are lacking.

My gut informs me that there is going to be some nasty fall-out when voters realize how the $2.5 trillion in economic triage was distributed by Trump’s Small Business Administration to needy businesses. Already, less than two weeks after the $350 billion in assistance for “small businesses” was authorized, it is gone…all used up.

No one knows yet where it went, but the twelve small businesses that Charlie helped to apply for funds haven’t yet sniffed a dime.

However, on the news this morning, we heard that Ruth’s Chris Steakhouses received $20 million from the SBA pot. (If you don’t know about Ruth’s Chris, be advised that a person would go there if he could afford to pop for a $500 meal. Probably 90 percent of Americans can’t afford to step into one of these restaurants, and very few communities have one.)

On the other hand, one of our clients, a doctor who owns and operates an Urgent Care hospital which serves a large community and sports a bi-weekly payroll of $76,000 has received $0, as in bupkis, nada, zilch..

It is our doctor client’s suspicion, as well as mine, that banks’ largest customers got first crack at those emergency funds, not the “small businesses” that populate Main Streets in every city and town.Something like 50 percent of American workers are employed at those small establishments. They are dying right now, with no help forthcoming from Uncle Sam.

Congress is hesitating to re-fill the SBA rescue funding pot, partially because they’re not happy with the way that this is playing out. They must answer to constituents in November, many of whom used to work for those struggling small businesses. Relief is needed…yesterday.

Of equal concern is the destination of the remaining $2 trillion in funds authorized by Congress. Quite a large portion of that money was allocated for distribution to large businesses that are suffering, like airlines. With the amount of bailout funds so large, and so much discretion allowed to the Administration to distribute it, Congress was wary about “politics” playing a major role, so they insisted on a “watchdog” entity to report on the payouts. President Trump almost immediately indicated that there would be no independent watchdog; it would be him.

Okay, but this puts a very heavy political onus on the President. If any of these funds are found to have been distributed to “friends of the President”, it will be fodder for his opponent in November. And, knowing Mr. Trump, politics are going to play a major role in how he doles out those funds. He can’t help it; he will shoot himself in the foot, and there will be a public outcry like there was when the folks who caused the mortgage banking collapse in 2008 used bailout monies to buy-back stock.

My gut noticed today that the Trump Re-Election committee has filed a lawsuit against a television station that aired Democratic ads pillorying the President by using actual film clips of dismissive public statements made the Chief Executive as the coronavirus drama escalated. Heck, that sucks when you can’t even deny that you made dishonest, misleading, and/or stupid statements. The candidate ends up running against himself, while the other party can run a campaign on issues and look…grown up.

My gut tells me that the G.O.P. is fearful that Trump’s own big mouth will be his demise. The President can look forward to six more months of being made to look the fool. He’s going to hate that and will probably do some rash things…causing himself to be even more foolish and less Presidential than before.

My gut instinct is that Trump, who prides himself as a “winner”, will tire of the relentless pounding from the pandemic and economic collapse, and from being beaten up by opponents and the press. He will see that, even if re-elected, the next four years are going to be miserable, particularly for a guy who promised voters that, if he was elected, America would get “tired of winning”.

This year, and the next four, are going to be hard work. That’s not particularly promising for a guy who likes to golf, watch TV, Tweet, snack on cheeseburgers, and conduct rallies promoting his supposed accomplishments.

People who are out of work and can’t feed their families are not going to give a shit how Donald Trump’s “wall” is progressing. Millions of MAGA supporters are among those who are now unemployed; they’re going to want to get back to work, and they’re going to need action, not promises. Snake oil won’t cut it.

My gut is also reminding me that Donald Trump didn’t want to run against Joe Biden. The former V.P. was the most experienced Democratic candidate from the get-go, which was apparent as the G.O.P. spent a lot of time trying to get him to abandon his candidacy. Republican agents used most of the Impeachment drama trying to make it a referendum on mysterious Joe Biden & Son shenanigans in the Ukraine.

The G.O.P. basically unloaded a shotgun at Biden, from close range, and failed to wound him. Recent polls find Biden running a very competitive race with Trump, and some have him with a decisive lead six months from election day.

Of course, the G.O.P. could, and probably will, play some voter suppression hardball and try to steal the election. They’re pretty accomplished at this in the South and Midwest.

However, the states that are going to determine the next President are those swing states where the pandemic and economic collapse have been severe…the ones with the most affected people.

My gut envisions some sort of scenario where the President privately acknowledges to the G.O.P. brass that he just doesn’t have the stomach for another four years, Republican Party big-wigs secretly ready Vice President Pence or some other fall guy for the role, and then a big announcement comes, prior to the Republican Convention, that the President has a medical condition and he has been advised by his doctors to drop from consideration in 2020. Or, he has been offered to host a reality TV show on the Fox Network which he simply cannot pass up.

This would enable Donald Trump to declare yet another imagined victory and ride off into the sunset.

I think that this scenario is 50-50 right now. If the pandemic lingers, and the economic re-opening falls flat, I would up the odds on this prediction to 70-30 by the end of May.

I could be wrong, but my gut says, “Don’t count on it.”

Yesterday, when I was walking my dog, I came across three gentlemen (one of whom was my friend, Tom) who were talking about the upcoming Presidential election and were poking fun at Joe Biden’s age. I recall one saying, “He’s senile”, and another saying, “He doesn’t even know who he is”. “HaHaHa”.

That’s pretty funny. Of course, the same thing could have been said about Ronald Reagan in his second term. (And, I voted for him…twice!)

But, wait a minute…I’m old, and those guys who were poking fun at Biden were also old farts, too. Are we senile just because we’re over 70?

Actually, my MAGA neighbor friends probably haven’t done much research on this subject. I wonder if they know who was the oldest President to ever be elected? It was…DONALD TRUMP…who was 70 years old when he took office. He will be 74 if he gets elected to a second term, only four years younger than Joe Biden would be in January, 2021.

I think the important question is not how old someone is, but how many brain cells are still working in their heads. Warren Buffett, is 89 years old, and is considered the savviest investor in the world.

Joe Biden sometimes gets confused, but publicly presents himself as a guy who is sincere, knowledgeable, and dedicated to democracy. He’s experienced and will likely surround himself with experts who will help him govern, if elected. He can still talk in an articulate manner while chewing gum.

President Trump confuses himself, his staff, and the American public on a regular basis. He comes off as totally insincere, knows little about the Constitution that he’s sworn to defend, and appears uncommitted to our democratic form of government. He thinks he is the government, and he surrounds himself with third-rate supplicants. His public speaking is hard to watch; he can’t even read a prepared speech on teleprompter in a convincing manner.

The question is: Which one of these two candidates exhibit the superior mental health?

This morning, one neighbor friend of mine pooh-poohed coronavirus modeling efforts and another hyped the supposed curative properties of hydroxychloroquine. I could tell they had just absorbed the morning’s Fox News propaganda.

My friend Galen told me that the infection/death modeling “curves” had all been too pessimistic, that’s there’s no way that we will see 200,000 deaths or anything like that in America. The implication: let’s “re-open the economy”.

I think he’s right about those models, thank Goodness. Of course, the early modeling was done when the outbreak first hit our shores and “stay-at-home” restrictions were not in place. The modeling at that time, back in February, was alarmingly dire…because the American response had been minimal, and the Trump Administration was publicly denying that anyone was in danger. Epidemiologists were panicked; there was no assurance that America would respond in the way it did.

It was only when the States began employing quarantine measures, and the Trump Administration reluctantly followed by suggesting “stay-at-home” and “wear masks” guidelines, that epidemiologists could re-calibrate the models downward because of anticipated changes in societal behavior. They were elated to do so. As the restrictions tightened, the dire predictions lessened. That’s good news.

This argument about over-hyped modeling is disingenuous. If a family is starving to death, and a good Samaritan sends them food to save them, were they never starving in the first place? Obviously, the mitigation changed the outcome of the original prediction (starvation).

This story is not yet complete, as the pandemic has not ended it fateful run in the United States. We are currently experiencing over 2,000 deaths per day; at that rate, grieving citizens will have buried another 60,000 relatives by mid-May. That would put the death toll at about 85,000, which is twice the number of good men we lost in Vietnam. And, according to epidemiologists, who study pandemics, we can expect this cursed plague to drag on into the Summer.

If we, as a country, do something foolish, like re-open the economy too quickly, we could experience a “second wave” of infection, similar to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. If that happens, those early Covid-19 modeling efforts will look optimistic.

My neighbor Jim was touting hydroxychloroquine this morning, mentioning some guy who’d recovered from Covid-19 and was sure that its use saved his life. I saw the same story on Fox News.

The fellow in question was lying in the hospital, not doing well at all, and was Web-surfing prayer sites when he found someone who was touting hydroxychloroquine. To make a long story short, he asked his doctors to be treated with it, he recovered from Covid-19, and he credits it with his miraculous healing.

This is the type of anecdotal “facts” that Fox News is famous for. Hydroxychloroquine may have had something to do with his recovery, and so could the prayers he was offering. And, it is also possible that he would have recovered without either of those miracles, because 95 percent of people with Covid-19 infection recover from the virus.

The scientific jury on hydroxychloroquine vs. Covid-19 is still out. There has been no legitimate, large-scale study on the subject, although several are on-going.

 A recently-announced study of 150 patients in China (half using the drug, the other half getting a placebo) determined that hydroxychloroquine did not have curative powers, could have had an impact in relieving some symptoms, and impacted some patients with side effects.

Another study, by French doctors, studied the records of 181 patients. It found no statistically significant difference in death rates or chances of being admitted to the ICU between patients who were afforded hydroxychloroquine and those who were not.

Of course, these limited studies have not been quoted by President Trump nor hyped by Fox News, because they don’t advance the cause…of finding a justification for the economy being re-opened as soon as possible.

Larger studies are on-going, and it would be wonderful if it could be proven that hydroxychloroquine was the answer. The vast majority of doctors aren’t believers, but, of course, they don’t have the medical pedigree of the President. Maybe he’s right…for once.

The earlier, much-hyped French study that “Doctor” Trump labeled a “game changer” was found, upon close inspection, to be flawed, and was removed from the scientific literature.

As of today, there is no laboratory, clinical, or hospital evidence that hydroxychloroquine is any more effective in curing Covid-19 than prayer or wearing a rabbit’s foot. Like a lot of things that get publicity on Fox News, the information disseminated has more to do with propaganda than truth. Boiled down to its essence, it’s political entertainment.

My friend Galen and his wife Sherrie dropped by yesterday to have drinks with us out in the backyard, separated by our fire pit. They were excited about the prospect of the “stay-at-home” orders being relaxed soon. He again reiterated his view that the pandemic had been overblown and that people need to get back to work.

But, then, the four of us talked about how this pandemic had changed our attitudes about living…in the near future. We all agreed that it would take some time for us to feel safe engaging in social activities like going to a theatre, a sporting event, a big restaurant, a casino, a neighborhood potluck dinner, a theme park, or even getting into an elevator. Charlie and I mentioned going on a cruise…not going to happen. I believe that Sherrie raised the specter of flying in a crowded aircraft…would seem very unsafe.

These thoughts are probably not unique to us. And, that is one reason why the economic recovery that we all hope for will be… slow.

Today is Thursday, April 16^th. Yesterday afternoon, President Trump apparently had a conference call with a bunch of business leaders about his plan to “re-open the economy”. One participant in the conference call didn’t even know that the Prez would be calling. It appears that this impromptu “meeting” was the task force event that Trump had been promising. In it he basically reviewed what he was considering and apparently asked for feedback. The same guy who was surprised by being called said he was not comfortable with a rapid re-opening of the restricted economy: it was too soon.

Anyway, the news this morning is that President Trump is going to press state Governors hard to re-open the economy, which is discouraging considering that yesterday was America’s deadliest day of the pandemic, with over 2,500 fatalities.

If a terrorist blew up a New York hotel and killed 100 people, Trump would be apoplectic. But, evidently, he is comfortable when 25 times that many people are succumbing to disease each day. It’s no big thing.

It is hard to see how allowing people to mingle will help ease this horrendous slaughter.

And, it is difficult for me to imagine the American public just shaking off the memory of the pandemic and flooding into football stadiums, high-rise buildings, and political conventions.

I believe that the return to normal behavior will be a slow transition, particularly since the Covid-19 menace is still out there, doing Evil, in the absence of a vaccine. This means that economic vitality will be slow to rebound.

I hate to even bring this up, but I think something silly is helping to push society/Trump toward the early lifting of restrictions.

That “something” is sports.

Professional baseball, football, and basketball, and college sports, particularly football and basketball, are part of the fabric of American society. They are absent now. This leaves a large void in many peoples’ lives.

In many places, like Green Bay, Birmingham, and Chapel Hill, the local sports team is the heart and identity of the city. Particularly in the Midwest and South, where there’s not a wide variety of things to do, going to a sporting event, cheering one at the local bar, or having friends over to scream at “bad calls” in the confines of your man cave, is a societal ritual. There’s a huge void in these locales right now. Sports junkies have nothing to watch on TV.

Many cities in the Midwest and South are itching to resume normal activity, because college football season is coming. Not coincidentally, these locales are: (a) areas where the pandemic has had the least impact thus far; and, (b) states where Donald Trump has strong political support. Professional and college sports are also HUGE drivers of programming on the Fox Network.

Just sayin’

I can’t think of a worst nightmare for an epidemiologist than the vision of a jam-packed college football stadium amidst a viral pandemic. Conversely, I can visualize Mr. Covid-19 licking his chops, like Bin Laden and his associates when they thought of the vulnerability of the Twin Towers.

Please Mr. President and the state Governors: please don’t get ahead of yourselves!

A lot of people in the United States hoped it would come to this. Many more feared that it would happen. I’m with the latter group.

Last night, April 13, 2020, perhaps a second “date which shall live in infamy”, President Donald Trump implied that he was King of the United States.

At a press conference in which the President aired grievances, insulted reporters, and ran a tacky campaign video, he also spoke out strongly about his ability to “open up the U.S. economy” whenever he sees fit.

When reporters questioned him about his authority to overrule state Governors who imposed stay-at-home restrictions to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump said, “The President of the United States calls the shots…They can’t do anything without the approval of the President of the United States.”

The President added that there were “numerous provisions” in the Constitution that give him that power…but he didn’t name any. Besides, he said, “When somebody’s the President of the United States, the authority is total.”

Gee, that assertion would certainly surprise the Founding Fathers, who gave the Chief Executive no such powers.

Virtually every legal scholar of merit agrees that the President has the powers articulated in Article II of the Constitution, but the Congress, the judiciary, and the states have many powers, as articulated in the rest of the original Constitution and the 10^th Amendment.

(We can probably expect, any day now, for the President’s errand boy, Attorney General William Barr, to come up with a novel Constitutional opinion that the President can do anything he damn well wants to.)

Under the 10^th Amendment, the states are given the authority to promote public health and welfare. And, in this Covid-19 pandemic, most of them have used that authority and their police powers to impose and enforce stay-at-home restrictions. They imposed them and they will decide when to un-impose them.

Question: If the Federal government (i.e. the Trump Administration) had enjoyed those powers, why didn’t they use them back in February or March?

Answer: It fell to the States to do the political heavy lifting, at a time when President Trump was downplaying the potential severity of the pandemic. The State Governors took the heat, and are still taking it, while the Trump Administration is now taking bows for the “flattening of the curve”.

What’s happened lately is a very perverse interpretation of the role of the President of the United States. Thirty day ago, when questioned about the Administration’s slow response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the President said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” Last night, when questioned about his intent to re-open the American economy, he asserted that his “authority is total”

That is a neat trick: to have total authority but bear no responsibility. I’m sure every President would like that…particularly at election time.

It’s a wet dream that is only accorded kings and dictators, not heads of democracies. Of course, our President has almost daily expressed his disdain for the American model of government, so his startling assertions in Monday’s news conference were probably a Freudian slip.

By the way, Trump’s bold assertion of “total authority” was immediately challenged by several Governors, and the very next morning the President announced that he will be “working with the Governors” on the relaxation of the stay-at-home restrictions.

No shit.

The President’s clear goal is to get the wounded economy back into gear quickly, even if public health might suffer. He’s been furiously cobbling together a new task force of supposed geniuses to figure out how he might justify such an action, despite thousands of Americans dying each day from the pandemic.

Trump is having some difficulty finding legitimate “superstar” candidates for this task force. Thus far, he’s resorted to naming a bunch of folks who already work for him in the Administration (Cabinet members, White House lapdogs, and some social climbers in the Federal bureaucracy).

The President’s new “Reopening” Task Force will, according to Trump, include, “Not only the greatest minds, but the greatest minds in numerous different businesses, including the business of politics and reason.” For example, he said, “Very, very great doctors.”

Uh, how about some Governors, Mr. President?

There’s an interesting thing about this Presidency that often gets overlooked:

When Donald Trump was a candidate, he was asked about who he would bring into his Administration to help him govern. Candidate Trump promised that he “would only hire the best and most serious people”. Presumably, that is exactly what he did when he became President. In fact, in January 2017, when he took office, he claimed that his Cabinet “had the highest IQ of any cabinet in history”.

That’s’ encouraging, isn’t it? It’s nice to have smart people advising the President: I’m sure George Washington appreciated having Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams in his cabinet.

However, where are these smart people now that we (and the Administration) need them?

Well, hardly any of the people that incoming President Trump brought with him still work for the Federal government. Of the 100 top officials in the Administration in January 2017, four of them (including 3 of the original Cabinet members) still hold their jobs, the others having been fired or resigned.

So much for the “best and most serious people”!

Of course, that begs the question: “Who are these not-so-best and less-serious people that currently surround President Trump?”

The answer to that question is pretty obvious: they are people who this President can intimidate and who’s loyalty to him outweighs their public service responsibility.

(Example: Today, Kellyanne Conway, the President’s senior campaign spokesperson, defended Trump’s threat to defund the World Health Organization, blamed by the President for not giving him enough warning about the impending pandemic.

She said, “Look, this was not Covid-1…it was Covid-19. The WHO had 18 opportunities to warn people that it was coming.” That sounds about right to a moron, which was Conway’s audience on Fox News. Except, that, Covid-19 was given its name because that coronavirus (Covid) was discovered in 2019. Once again, we have the “not-so-best and less-serious” people assisting the President of the United States. You get what you pay for.)

A good example of the continuing tragi-comedy was yesterday’s Presidential press conference. One day before, the Administration’s superstar pandemic briefer, Dr. Anthony Fauci, when asked if an earlier and more robust pandemic effort by the Administration would have saved lives, answered in the affirmative. That evening the President re-Tweeted a comment from one of his fans which included the hashtag “Fire Fauci”.

And, the next day, Dr. Fauci trooped to the podium under the President’s withering gaze and recanted his comments. Then, the President said that he had no plans to fire Fauci.

As is demonstrated every day on television, appointed officials in the Trump Administration are expected to fawn over “the Emperor’s new clothes” and refrain from making any factual statements whatsoever while the President continues to lie about everything and blame others for his failures.

I’m not expecting much serious contemplation from the proposed “Re-Opening” task force. After all, the members, whoever they turn out to be, know from the get-go what the President wants; their job is to reverse-engineer his decision to make it sound logical and prudent.

Will Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, or Warren Buffett serve on this task force? Unlikely, because they will not want to be tarred and feathered when a second wave of Covid-19 envelops the country and causes more misery.

Or, which is more likely, our President will make some repulsive comments about a politician, a reporter, a foreign head of state, or an American citizen that they can’t stomach and they’ll be ashamed that they’re “working for him”.

Also likely: Trump will call-out one of his new task force members as “disloyal” when they buck the foregone conclusion of the fact-finding groupl

That latter reason is why so many of the “best and most serious people” no longer work for President Donald Trump.

And, of course, no genius American businessman would want to be part of a supposed “think tank” where thinking is not allowed and the outcome is known before the folks take their seats around the conference room.

It is quite apparent that the Prez wants this “re-opening” to happen yesterday. One wonders, “Why the rush? People are still dying in droves.”

Could the answer be that there is some personal reason that The King is hiding?

I have a theory as to why to President is SO ANXIOUS to re-open quarantined states:

His normal routine for the past three years has been to hold “rallies” in Trump-friendly communities, where he can exaggerate his accomplishments and blame failures on others. He then will play a few rounds of golf at Trump resort hotels, and spend the rest of his “work week” watching Fox News, being interviewed by Fox News, and Tweeting outrageous things to his millions of fellow Twitter imbeciles.

With stay-at-home restrictions in most States, Trump is not able to campaign via his staged rallies. He also can’t golf.

He’s frustrated and he feels powerless.

Trump’s outlet for his frustration has been the daily Presidential news conference regarding the pandemic. Those have substituted for the rallies, in his mind. Except for the fact that, sometimes, reporters will challenge the lies that he is telling, and this will result in days of retractions, animosity towards the media, and blame-casting on subordinates. All of this is embarrassing to the Prez, who looked toward these PR events to boost his re-election prospects.

He desperately wants to resume his normal routine, including outdoor rallies and golf. They make him feel good.

Thus, we have the President’s hard-to-comprehend, out-of-control urge to re-open the country and get back to normal…while a pandemic is raging.

The King’s gut is telling him, “Great idea, Your Majesty!”

The President is running out of ideas how he can spin the Administration’s performance from bad to good. Yesterday saw the worst daily death toll from Covid-19…some 2,300 poor souls.

So, it appears that some genius in the King’s entourage suggested that Trump sign the stimulus checks going out to in-need folks from the Treasury. This is exactly the kind of thinking that excites Donald Trump, getting credit for things he didn’t personally accomplish.

Actually, Congress has the role under the Constitution to fund programs such as this stimulus, and it did so in this case. The President merely signed the legislation.

Interestingly, it is the first time this grandstanding has been done in the history of the United States. In fact, there has been a long-standing policy in the Treasury Department that all government checks going out to citizens/voters bear the signature of a Treasury bureaucratic functionary, to keep partisanship out of the equation.

This is what we’ve come to expect from narcissist Donald Trump, who is desperately trying to wring some sort of success out of this national tragedy.

“Sorry to hear about your grandparents. Here’s $1,200 from Uncle Donald.”

There used to be a term-for this kind of political stunt: vote buying.

I have been a news junkie from as far back as I can remember.

Some people don’t want to know what’s going on, because there’s so much crime, war, social unrest, and politics bombarding them from all sides. These folks want to put their heads in the sand, like an ostrich; what they don’t know won’t bother them, and they want to keep an upbeat, cheerful attitude. Life is short: enjoy it.

Other people, like me, want to absorb all the information they can to try and understand …”WHY?” I can’t help myself: I’m an analyst and problem solver. And, so, I’m constantly on the lookout for information that I can put in my toolkit for future us. I think that I enjoy life as much as the next guy, but part of my enjoyment is being aware of the world around me, what’s happening, and what lessons are to be learned.

As philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

I read the news each day from dozens of sources, watch the morning news, and top it off with the “Evening News” on CBS. This drama that we’re going through is the “story of our lifetime”; there’s something interesting about it just about every day. Some of it makes the hair on my neck stand up.

Like today, when I read about the World Health Organization (WHO) investigating reports out of South Korea that 91 patients who were thought to have recovered from the coronavirus tested positive again.

Health officials there are not sure yet whether these cases represent a re-activation of the initial infection or a situation where the recovered patient got re-infected from another source. Needless to say, South Korean and WHO health officials are looking carefully at the lab results to make sure there are no errors and to determine exactly what has happened to these patients.

This is scary stuff, particularly since South Korea has been touted as a model case of aggressive containment of Covid-19…seemingly they’ve done everything right. If what they’ve uncovered is part of the dreaded “second wave” of infection, it is very bad news for the world.

The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, consisted of three “waves” of misery that lasted about two years, with the virus apparently becoming more lethal as it moved through countries and continents. In all, the Spanish Flu infected an estimated 500 million, and killed 15 to 50 million, human beings.

Let us all hope that our political leadership in America is paying careful heed to history and the lessons learned thus far about Covid-19.

There is a fervent political urge in Washington D.C. right now to re-open the U.S. economy, despite the cautions expressed by epidemiologists. These experts, almost to a man, predict additional waves of coronavirus after the initial infection/death curve is flattened. It would be an unforgiveable tragedy if our political leaders “spiked the ball” before reaching the end zone.

Not that our Nation needs any more confused about this catastrophe, but now we’re hearing about charlatans and scam artists who are using the pandemic to defraud good people. Can you believe it?

Sure, it’s not unexpected, but what kind of person manufactures a fake Covid-19 test kit and sells it over the Internet to unsuspecting/scared people? Evidently, there are quite a number of these fake kits, manufactured by different companies. Also on the market are fake cures, including special toothpaste, silver, and essential oils, and fake N-95 masks. It has been estimated that this kind of fraud has already cost consumers $12 million.

I read today about a coronavirus scam which advertised a smartphone “app” which promised to detect contact with an infected person. Once loaded to the cellphone, the wonder “app” actually froze the device and demanded a bitcoin ransom. Jesus, Joseph and Mary…how depraved can one get!!!

The tragedy in a lot of this is that the legitimate CDC-approved testing that we all need so badly to determine what’s going on in our country…is still not available, even while 2,000 people are dying per day and the economy is shut down. WTF!

Covid-19 test kits are hitting the market right now, but they’re not CDC- or FDA-approved, so there’s no way of knowing whether they are accurate. What is worse? Not having had a test, keeping quarantined, and staying scared? Or, having been “tested” with an unapproved, possibly defective lab kit, and then confidently re-entering society and going back to work…while you may actually be infected?

How tragic would it be for someone who takes and “passes” one of these bogus tests to assume that he is immune or no longer spreading the virus, and then goes home and kisses his 90-year-old grandmother?

This seems to be one area where the Federal government needs to get its act right ASAP. First, there should be a mandate that all test kits for sale in the U.S. need to be CDC/FDA-approved. And, second, anyone selling an unapproved version is subject to a large fine and jail time. President Trump should ask Congress to enact these laws this week.

If not, certainly this should be one of the first tasks to be tackled by the newest coronavirus task force that the President says he will be announcing next week.

That’s right, folks, there apparently will be a fourth coronavirus task force. The other three are supposedly still operating and doing whatever they do. However, despite all the task-forcing going on, the Federal effort on Covid-19 seems to be very disjointed to this point…perhaps because there are too many cooks in the kitchen.

There is the official task force led by Vice President Pence, which meets daily and is, probably, responsible for the half-assed Federal effort thus far. Then, there is a “doctors group”, an offshoot of the larger task force, which huddles daily to discuss medical issues and provide some cover for the President’s ludicrous attacks on legitimate experts. A third task force is the one that reports to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, whose purpose, apparently, is to keep tabs on the other two task forces. The fourth task force, to be named next week, is going to be called the “Opening Our Country Council”. This one will advise the President on when it will be safe to rescind the “stay at home” and “wear a mask” recommendations to that the economy can resume speed.

There’s, of course, a fifth task force. It’s called Donald Trump’s “gut”, and it overrules the other task forces, facts be damned. That task force is the reason the Nation is floundering right now.

Public health experts say that, before returning to normalcy, we should have nationwide virus testing (to determine who has the virus), serological testing (to allow those who have been exposed to the virus and developed immunity to return to work), and contact tracing (quickly tracking all the contacts of an infected person, to halt further spread). All of data gathered will help elected officials make informed decisions about public health.

This is the game plan that South Korea used so effectively to halt the spread of the virus in its tracks.

The United States’ game plan, thus far, is no game plan. As one former senior administration official said, “Everything they’re doing is responding to something that’s already happened”. And, “Coordination (by) this White House has never been a particularly strong suit.”

There may be no seamlessly-executed game plan emerging from the many task forces, but the White House has a desired outcome that overrides all other tasks and activities. One senior administration official worried that some in the Administration are trying to reverse-engineer the re-opening of the economy. “They already know what they want to do and they’re looking for ways to do it.” And, added, “They think it’s time to reopen because some thought it was never time to close, and they’ve made that up in their minds.”

As in, “Okay, folks, we’ve observed the obligatory quarantines and grieving. Now, it’s time to get back to business. Let’s Make America Great Again!”

It’s been several weeks since the Trump Administration recommended that all Americans wear face masks to help halt the spread of the coronavirus.

I am wearing one now when I leave my house to go to the grocery store, the post office, or the hardware store. I feel it is the courteous thing to do; in case I have an asymptomatic case, I won’t accidentally spread it to others. In this community, that’s especially important, since we are all age-wise and health-wise high risk to be harmed by Covid-19.

However, most people that I see out and about are not wearing masks. I wonder what they’re thinking, or if they’re even thinking at all.

They could be receiving their cue from the President and his staff, who brief the country almost every day on the pandemic…without face masks…and who were the officials who recommended the safety measure in the first place.

They could alternatively be taking the dismissive attitude of Fox News talking heads, who have tended to downplay the seriousness of the epidemic and, then, pandemic

This so-called “news” organization seems to want to view the Covid-19 catastrophe as primarily a political and economic matter, rather than a medical and human crisis. Fox News is the most-watched cable TV news program, so its opinions and treatments of the pandemic hold a lot of sway with viewers. If “flattening the curve” isn’t important to Fox News, it is understandable if their audience isn’t receptive to health experts’ recommendations.

(As of yesterday, there have been 18,637 deaths and 500,000 reported Covid-19 infections in the United States. And, both figures are undoubtedly low, because of the lack of testing availability and processing.)

Some hoax!

Or, these mask-less citizens could just be reckless: there’s no law against being stupid.

The Trump Administration’s orchestration of America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been inept by any standard. It only takes a straightforward comparison of the U.S death toll with that of Asian countries to understand the scale of the failure. The U.S. now has experienced 62 deaths per million people. Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan all have less than 1 death per million. China, South Korea, and Singapore each have less than 5 deaths per million. India, thus far, has 0.2 deaths per million. Except for America, these countries took immediate, strong actions to combat the spread of the virus. The Trump Administration, on the other hand, lost a couple of months arguing whether the pandemic was even a real threat.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming weeks.

Although the United States is experiencing 2,000 deaths per day from Covid-19 right now, the Administration is chomping the bit to relax the social distancing measures sooner rather than the “later” that health experts recommend. The President seems fixated on May 1^st, which is only 19 days from now.

(BTW, “May Day”, May 1st, is big in Russia. I think they hold a big military parade in Moscow, something President Trump has been publicly envious of. He also has political connections with that country; i.e. the 2016 election. Maybe that’s why he’s so focused on that date?)

The President says, “It’s the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make as President.” But, actually, HIS decision would be to recommend an action.

In fact, Governors will be the elected officials who re-activate the economies in their respective States, and, thus far in this drama, they’ve made their own decisions. Some rural states haven’t imposed draconian measures, and others have issued “stay at home” guidance less than enthusiastically. Those states, mostly Republican, will probably be anxious to follow the President’s lead. Other states, the more urban ones where the medical crisis has been severe, will probably be very slow to relax quarantine measures, wanting to make sure to avoid a second wave of infections.

(In 1918, the Spanish Flu killed millions in a world-wide pandemic. It, like Covid-19, started in the Spring (the first wave). A second-wave of the flu was more deadly, occurring in the Fall of 1918. Babe Ruth, who then played for the Boston Red Sox, got a mild case of the virus in the Spring and then acquired a stronger dose in the Fall. Luckily for Ruth, and baseball history, The Bambino survived two doses of the Spanish Flu.)

President Trump wants desperately to kick-start the economy soon because it’s an election year, and he measures his success (and, he wants voters to do the same) by the stock market. It’s down right now, some 20 percent below its peak in February. Nearly 17 million Americans have filed unemployment claims since mid-March. Government stimulus efforts to halt the slide into recession have not yet taken hold.

I am a cynical guy, I’ll admit it.

I hope I’m wrong, but I’m thinking that something dicey might be in the works regarding the President’s upcoming “decision”.

First, he is itching to re-ignite the economy; it’s going to “boom”, he keeps saying.

Second, he’s putting together a “task force” to advise him on the timing. If it’s like any other task force he’s put together, the players will be “yes” men, and the recommendations will be tailored to whatever notions the President has prior to the task force meeting.

Third, although epidemiologists are universally in favor of mass testing to enable the eventual extinguishment of the virus, the President is not. He’s publicly pooh-poohed the idea several times. I think the reason is that, if we don’t know how widespread the virus epidemic is, rationalizing the re-opening of the economy is easier. Without an actual measurement, the President can claim that we’ve whipped Covid-19, even if we haven’t.

Example: The Miami Herald reported today that the State of Florida is under-reporting its Covid-19 test backlog. The State claims that there is a 1,400 test backlog; however, those numbers don’t include the 90 percent of all tests conducted in the State by private labs. This is an example of half-hearted test reporting by a State that was reluctant to issue “stay at home” orders, and which is extremely anxious to end them. If Governor DeSantis, a big Trump booster, under-reports his State’s epidemic, it will appear to have eased, and the political decision to re-open the economy will be easier.

As with most things Donald Trump does, his focus is short-term gain. Problems that may arise from prematurely re-opening the economy can be dealt with later…in his mind.

Something that may derail the President’s intentions on this matter would be the actions of two Governors: Cuomo of New York and Newsom of California. Cuomo is going to be reluctant to relax restrictions, given the tremendous toll the epidemic has had on his jurisdiction. He’s not going to want a second wave of infection. Newsom is going to be driven by data, not politics, which is the opposite of President Trump. California’s economy is the fifth largest in the world, and Newsom is going to be careful not to screw it up by acting rashly. Both Cuomo and Newsom govern strongly-Democratic states, and they are very popular right now, so the President has little political leverage over them.

Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida (see above) will be key in the coming two weeks. Covid-19 infection is well-established in those states, and the worst is yet to come for them. It is hard to envision the epidemic “curve” flattening out in those states before the end of April.

I predict more political gamesmanship in the Spring and Summer with regard to this Covid-19 situation. Infection rates are going to be minimized by actors in Republican states, expert advise is going to be ignored, and the Covid-19 exposure to many Americans will be continued for longer than necessary because some governmental leaders will put personal political goals above those of the citizens who elected them.

(UPDATE: On April 14, an organization funded by the family of Cabinet member Betsy DeVos (Secy of Education), threatened a suit against the State of Michigan for its stay-at-home restrictions because it limited citizens right to freely move about. On the same day, Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas and father of former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, filed a suit against the State of Florida for restricting property owners on Florida beaches from congregating on the beach during the stay-at-home quarantines. The gamesmanship has begun.)

The worst thing that could happen to us all is a U-shaped curve (of infection). That would occur if, after the epidemic peaks and declines, the nation relaxes its guard, and Covid-19 infections spike again. Epidemiologists strongly recommend that we stay the course and kill the beast before high-fiving ourselves. If we don’t, our Nation will have to endure several “shut-downs” of society and the economy. It would be a demoralizing outcome, considering how much we have suffered already.

Let’s hope the political gamesmanship doesn’t result in a “second wave” of Covid-19.

I’m not like Babe Ruth: one batch of this shit is enough for me!

(BAD NEWS UPDATE: Sunday, Apr 13th, Japan’s Hokkaido prefecture, which was a hot spot of infections when the pandemic swept through Asia a few months ago, and where the stay-at-home directives were lifted on March 19th, has experienced a “second wave” of Covid-19 infections. The Governor of Hokkaido yesterday issued a State of Emergency, re-instituting restrictions on public gatherings and closing schools until May 6th. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has also issued a state of emergency for several other prefectures, in and around Tokyo and Osaka.)