A MORAL OBLIGATION

Being Firm with Church Leaders

I grew up in a home where the moral grounding was simple. Put your faith in God and everything will work out. For most of my lucky life, things have gone very well. I’m no longer aligned with organized religion and churches, but I respect what they represent and what good they can do when the community comes together. I have always felt safe when visiting churches, synagogues and temples. Which brings us to COVID-19.

There are some people in America who truly feel that they can pray away diseases and disorders. Some even believe they can urge the Lord to eliminate homosexuality. In our world of science, we are sometimes asked to modify the text of holy scriptures. There are some religious leaders who believe that science is the enemy and the more we learn the more they must justify certain parts of the gospel. As I like to point out, George Washington came to an early death because the applied science of the day instructed doctors to drain pints of his blood to cure a cold. In President Washington’s case, a few good prayers may have kept him alive.

Some pertinent facts are in on this coronavirus crisis, if you get the virus, most likely you will not die. However, if you are part of the 1% that has an underlying condition, you could perish. So why are church leaders in many communities promoting services and urging their congregations to come together under one roof? Yes, people who are depressed and afraid need God right now, but what if some parishioners contract the virus while in the church? How is that possibly a good thing?

A foundation of our country is the separation of church and state. Some of our founders, like Thomas Jefferson, held that tenant more so than others, but it was also enriched by the First Amendment which clearly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… “So, the same amendment codified freedom of both speech and religion.

Many government officials, especially those who cater to the religious right, do not want to come down hard on churches. They would never demand churches STOP gathering to exercise their freedom to worship, but this brings us to a higher authority, God. Most religions have a notion of a God, and this supreme power usually protects human life. You cannot be “pro-life” and spit into the face of a virus like COVID-19. People who come to your place of worship might bring young kids and babies and they are not immune to coronavirus. Even if you are okay with exposing older Americans to the germs, why would you take the chance of killing a young person or a baby?

I believe that a priest, minister, preacher, imam, or rabbi has a moral calling to protect their flocks. Just as we have seen with mass shooter situations, the leaders of the church have endorsed methods such as armed parishioners to save their followers.

Why would they put their congregation in harm’s way? They can say that God will protect the members of the church but surely, they understand disease, illness and death. One of their main jobs is providing comfort to people who are suffering. Don’t they understand that their ignorance and disregard could create suffering? What moral standing gives the clergy a pass on protecting their people from a dangerous pathogen?

There have been plagues and pandemics throughout recorded history. The Holy Bible uses them to show the power of the Old Testament God as well as some strange vindictive curses inflicted on those who hurt Christians, but that doesn’t mean that a gathering place can protect believers from a worldly disease. What would Jesus do? Well, he would heal the sick, but he would never place the weak in a dangerous place. So, why are the mega-churches and small-town places of worship not going online and bringing their messages to the congregations in a safe way?

As a member of society, and someone who respects freedom of speech and religion, I must disagree with our leaders who don’t take a bold stance on this misplaced faith. They don’t have to use force or penalize churches and their members, but they should make a strong statement that, for the benefit of the whole society, congregants should be smart. Just as I finished writing this piece, this news broke out of Florida. A Tampa megachurch pastor was arrested after leading packed services despite the “safer-at-home“ orders by the local authorities. The charge is unlawful assembly and violating public health emergency rules. Surely, the ACLU will take up this case.

The advice might be to pray at home, go on the internet and find church videos or live streams, but stop putting people in harm’s way. I’ll even pray for you, and that is truly saying something.

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Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs shows how we’ve wasted our GOLD on bad wars and corruption. While GOD is there for many people as a spiritual enrichment and the provider of glowing feelings, the truth is just praying and believing will not change our major arc. We don’t determine who gets a GUN. We aren’t sure if we have paramilitary groups ready to storm the White House or a White Castle. There is no control of weapons. The GOOFBALLS with the power constantly try to manipulate us into spending more money on bombs and tanks and wars. When all of our institutions are infected with neglect and fall in disrepair, we will only have ourselves to blame. This book is not an antidote for the left or right, it’s an accelerant to move the middle off their collective asses to go do something positive for America.

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WOEFULLY UNPREPARED

Presidential Clarity Is Imperative Now

This is painful. It’s hard to stay inside and not get close to people. The COVID-19 crisis has placed a cloud over the world and it’s damn depressing. People are dying and medical workers are ill equipped to deal with these health emergencies. To add to this sense of malaise, Trump’s poll numbers are going up. The fact that he denied coronavirus was a problem, made fun of it at a rally and was paralyzed with inaction makes those numbers quite numbing. I believe the figures are caused by surveying the same people who are hoarding toilet paper and eggs. Of course, we cannot blame Donald Trump for the virus, but it’s important that we know as much as possible about what he did and didn’t do to help America.

It’s no big secret that I have always felt that Trump is unfit to be president of our great country, but when we turn to our leaders during horrific events, we want them to lead and succeed. There are times when people should come together and unite. There were even a few times when Trump got my attention and made me feel a little better, but all too often he screws up the message and the feelings with his attacks on people. His blatant appeal for praise and the notion that those states which treat him right would get more attention and supplies was disgusting. This is not the time for a president to take on a mafia-like philosophy of “you are either with me or against me.” Trump is too lazy to bring people together and has a serious and tragic personality disorder that makes him pick fights and cause pain.

Life is too short to demand that your fellow citizens kiss your ass for vital health services, medical supplies and coronavirus test kits. We should all be aiming to shorten the life of this virus and, when we achieve it, maybe we need to pick a different President. When the Donald lies it hurts people and impedes progress. The long inconsistent, vindictive and misleading press conferences are total bullshit! People are dying. Finally, Trump comes to his senses and extends the quarantine until April 30^th. Why did he tease Easter?

If Trump makes the mistake of opening sections of the country for commerce and trade and normal activities, he could trigger the spread of COVID-19 in those areas. What convoluted logic brought Trump to this idea? Oh yeah, the drastic stock market declines. He’s obsessed with money and truly believes a stock market failure will be his Waterloo.

Donald John has another misconception that hurts us even more. He sees territories, borders and boundaries as hard-fixed containment areas. He has told us that Mexicans were rapists and we must keep “them” all out of our country. These lies and generalizations are harmful. When he talks to people like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a small-minded man at best, he gets all tweaked up on the idea of state borders being lines of containment. The assumption is that everyone from New York is a risk and DeSantis wants to check people at the Florida border and demand those from the Empire State self-quarantine for 14 days. The checkpoint was so disruptive and caused such a traffic jam on I75, it was closed after a short while. What a waste of gasoline. The equally stupid Governor of Rhode Island, Democrat Gina Raimondo, has ordered law enforcement officers to stop cars and knock on doors in coastal communities to identify people who’ve been to New York State. Yes, that is just what the people need, Rhode Island State Police breathing right in their faces. The number of coronavirus cases in our police forces is frightening. We are the United States of America, not independent units of chemical containment.

We cannot and should not stop truckers and trades people who form the critical supply chain of food and medicine. They must be able to freely cross state borders without being delayed or stopped. Yes, they could unfortunately be spreading the virus but that is not their fault. It’s demonstrative of the virus’ disrespect of borders and walls. A virus is not a Mexican rapist, Mr. President.

I don’t care what kind of poll-bump Trump gets from his grandstanding and misinformation occasionally cloaked in care. I do love our country and want this purgatory to end soon. The fact is that America was woefully unprepared for this crisis. We didn’t plan for a pandemic because the guy at the top doesn’t focus on science and has no interest in discussing it. If you don’t understand climate change, how could you possibly wrap your head around a virus that could bring the world economy to its knees?

We will learn much more over time, but do we have time? When Trump eventually pulled back from his loosely referenced and vague quarantines of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, but not before he commanded the Centers for Disease Control and Protection to issue a 14-day travel advisory. He obviously doesn’t comprehend that most people in those areas are already sheltered-in-place and going out only to buy food or get tested for the virus. He is incapable of critical thought and information processing.

Right now, we need clarity. There is no one managing Trump’s messaging. There is no General Kelly to suggest ways to get the message out without belittling the messengers. Why spear the media, when it’s doing all it can to get the message out to all Americans? I don’t have time to wait through the long commercial breaks at Fox News to witness their viewpoints and propaganda. I want to know what to do today.

The daily press coverage of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is most helpful and sometimes inspiring. Trump’s daily cameo appearances at the Task Force press briefing only make me angry. Why is Donald Trump making anyone angry right now? He doesn’t get it. If only he could blow off his bullshit bluster right now and become a leader, he might just merit another term. If we had Trump and Cuomo in an election today, Trump wouldn’t win.

We desperately need presidential clarity right now to protect lives. Trump immediately needs to lose his negativity and over-analysis. He’s not a straight shooter and his laborious status reports dilute the useful dissemination of important information. Trump is presently overthinking the obvious actions and underthinking the quick fixes that could make a difference. He’s a deer standing in the middle of the road and staring at oncoming headlights, not knowing which way to go. Instead of standing and staring he needs to be enacting a plan to have companies manufacture medical items needed now. He’s unable to see that having both the states and FEMA compete for supplies is appalling. Trump is not the president for a crisis. He’s just a former reality star who fails to see and deal with reality. We keep saying we are in this together, but most days I don’t believe Donald Trump is with us at all.

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INVESTIGATE THIS TRAVESTY

Why are we not better prepared?

When there is a mass shooting in America, we hear some people, mostly Republicans and Second Amendment supporters say, “There will be time to talk about what to do after we mourn the deaths.” The reality is we never get around to discussing why something bad happened and how to prevent it from happening again in the future.

This global pandemic has pushed over walls and across borders and we are hearing lots of good advice, stats and opinions from the White House pandemic task force. What we aren’t hearing is clear plans, specific messages or truthful observations from the President. Trump seems unwilling and unable to go full force on this crisis, and for the life of me I don’t understand why he’s creating conflict and disagreement when the facts are so clear.

Yes, he’s trying to calm the country and, according to some early surveys and polls, he appears to be getting slightly better grades as it pertains to this pandemic. The problem is he has a blind spot in his brain that keeps him from seeing things clearly. During a task force briefing the other day, Trump talked about the importance of borders and his wall. He bragged about how much of the wall has been built, neglecting to say it was at the expense of the Department of Defense and Homeland Security purchasing much more critically needed medical equipment to protect America’s citizens and military.

Trump sees everything through the eyes of a landowner with the kind of territorial greed that infects many myopic managers. He’s pushing a narrative that he can reopen the country piece-by-piece, easing or eliminating restrictions in less vulnerable counties and Zip Codes. Really? So, we will open less vulnerable areas to make them more vulnerable? The man has no logic.

Donald Trump doesn’t believe in global economic principals. He doesn’t understand the need for migrant workers and how American agriculture works. His lack of knowledge about global trade caused the bad decision to place tariffs on China, which seriously hurt our country’s soybean farmers.

His harangue about stopping flights from China “early on” is more boast and less fact. According to the AP, “Most major airlines had already suspended flights to China prior to the announcement on Jan. 31, following the lead of several major international carriers that had stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak.” Donald was reacting to their actions, not the warnings from the World Health Organization.

We know that members of Congress, from both parties, used insider information on the coming crisis to enrich themselves by selling million of dollars of stock before the crash. We know that Trump was given briefings and suggestions that this could happen to our country. We need to call those people to Capitol Hill, place them under oath and have them tell the American people what was said and which pieces that Trump ignored. I hate to say this right now, but it’s not too late to consider his removal from office because he has placed American lives at risk. Maybe it’s too late for another Senate trial, but the 25^th Amendment is always there as a safeguard.

The real COVID-19 problem began because Trump was in the dark. His “great relationship” with President XI of China didn’t stop that country keeping vital information from us, which caused more harm. The President deals with his ineptitude by casting blame on the media, the Democrats, China and what he keeps saying was a “broken system.” We need to ask this President, hopefully under oath, why he didn’t fix the broken system then and why he isn’t fixing it now. He’s been in power for almost four years. Oh, that’s right, he was too busy golfing to get around to public health.

Trump is being enabled by poorly informed governors and far right radicals who don’t believe in climate change and who put their faith in the holy words of scripture rather than the intelligence and guidance of learned experts. My theory is that several state leaders in places like Florida, Missouri and Mississippi are afraid of saying or doing anything that will anger Donald Trump. This is malfeasance of the highest order. Learning that Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky might stop the approval of the Coronavirus Rescue Bill precisely demonstrates how our entire country can be harmed by one person. It’s interesting that one person is not Donald Trump this time. The good news is that no member of the House seconded Massie’s selfish need and the measure passed. Now it goes to Trump, who must sign it.

The harsh reality is Trump is basking in his power and grandstanding. He stupidly claims people in local communities are not accurate with their dire need of equipment. How can Trump go on TV and say that he feels that requests for ventilators are overblown? He keeps saying that he “feels” this way or that way, basing his judgements on nebulous impressions with absolutely no proof or facts. Why should the nation’s health be hijacked by Donald John Trump? Put a stopwatch on his comments and you’ll learn that about, 70% of his narrative involves the economy and why that will drive his premature opening of the country. I’m confused, I thought we were at war with a virus.

Yes, it’s too early to talk about an investigation but it’s not too early for all of us to question Trump’s moves and ask him about his true motivation. He peppers his press conferences with xenophobic troupes, vindictive stabs and false promises. It’s painfully not funny to hear experts on TV advising viewers to “STOP LISTENING TO TRUMP!” They say, “This too shall pass,” and America will come out of this. I repeat my mantra, “We are in this together,” but I would feel a whole lot better if Donald J. Trump was totally out of the equation. We don’t have time to waste listening to his abdication of accountability and his constant blame-pushing on others. A question from one of the news anchors to the administration really broke through, “Please explain why this White House was so woefully unprepared for this?” It’s the very reason we will need an investigation of Trump, his people and the true cause of this tragic breakdown.

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SOCIALISM WINS

Trump’s Mouth, Our Money

During his State of the Union speech, Donald J. Trump adamantly declared that while he is President America will never be a socialist country. Well, depending on your definition of socialism, what he was suggesting is more dogma and political slogan and less truth.

The meaning of socialism is clear: a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates for the means of production, distribution, and exchange being owned or regulated by the community. Maybe that is why President Trump was so nervous about following through on the Defense Production Act. Trump said he was invoking the power in response to predictions that the nation’s medical system will run out of masks, ventilators and hospital beds. During a press briefing however, he claimed to have signed the act to use as a threat rather employing the power and benefit of this act to help the nation. Could his resistance be based on his fear of criticism by the far-right conservatives? Shameful, if true.

When peoples’ health and welfare are at risk, the government should take control of the production and distribution of materials that can make a difference. This lack of respect for the positive benefits of federal control and the productive use of socialism keeps Trump and his administration from doing the right things. He simply changes his tune when he gets harsh criticism, rather than surveying the facts and making a reasonable, responsible, rightful decision. Trump admitted that he has not called former presidents because he believes they have nothing to teach him. He truly holds his judgement above any other human being, even experts in the health and medicine disciplines about which he is so obviously clueless.

Senate approves historic $2 trillion stimulus deal

United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin

In a remarkable sign of overwhelming bipartisan support for the legislation, the vote was unanimous – 96-0. Keep in mind that it’s not only our money but also our kids’ and grandkids’ money. They will be paying for this package long after we are gone. As of February 2020, the US debt was $23.3 trillion. Under the Trump presidency, we’ve added $990 billion every year. This new Act will increase that annual debt by $3 trillion. Whatever promise Trump had made about GDP percentages and ridding America of its debt was total bullshit, or maybe he just doesn’t understand how monetary systems and economics work. You choose.

We have decided to make loans to small businesses and bailouts for larger companies like airlines as well as direct payments to the families that need help right now. We have redistributed the federal bank’s reserves in order to keep the country moving toward more positive results. We get why Donald Trump is on TV transmitting his desires, aspirations and hopes to the public, but he must be careful not to create a bigger problem. He cannot endorse certain drugs by name. That causes panic buying of the meds or misuse that has already caused death. Our idiot-boy president is not a chemist or medical expert so he should just SHUT UP about cures.

Yes, giving checks to families making less than $150K per year is a good idea for the morale of the nation and a positive way to help people in this time of need. It will help people pay rent and buy groceries, but there are few places one can spend the cash for frivolous entertainment or luxury items. Most of those kinds of businesses are closed. Yes, online sales will happen but even Amazon is delaying deliveries of non-essential items.

This redistribution of the wealth of our nation might have to continue for a while. We may have to come back and borrow more money for the citizens of America. The harsh reality that Donald Trump faces has nothing to do with his re-election, it’s all about keeping people safe and alive. Any evidence that he has been making decisions solely for economic reasons will eventually be held against him. He’s marketing himself as a wartime president, but that’s just more hype to make himself look important. Thank goodness we aren’t in a real war; nuclear bombs would likely have already been used.

We all want the same thing. We all want this virus to go away. We can discuss when it’s all safe to get back to normal. We can argue about when this can happen, but after his seeing his actions and hearing his words, it’s clear that Donald J. Trump should not be the one to make this vital decision. He is unqualified and lacking the wherewithal to digest the facts and make a sound judgement about when getting back to normal is safe. The idea of making a fixed date a goal is not bad in business and buildings, but with people’s lives on the line we need more reasoned, responsible thinking.

We will get through this together. That is a good mantra and saying because it makes us feel better and keeps us moving with hope toward a better time. What comes out of Donald Trump’s small-round mouth is not well thought out. He rarely says the right things and his poorly constructed sentences must be repaired and explained by staffers after he speaks. One Trump supporter agreed with me that the press briefings run too long and have too much material that isn’t important to most American families. Why does it take 90 minutes to lay out what has been done and suggest what the public should be doing during this crisis? The minutia and details are defensive grandstanding with little practical use by the public. Just come out and tell us the latest, keep it short, then get back to thinking about your next golf game.

It’s okay to use socialism to help people. We have learned that rock singer Jackson Browne and Prince Charles in the UK have the coronavirus. They probably don’t need a bailout, but they may need ventilators. Why isn’t Trump taking over companies that can manufacture them and ramping up production? He’s okay with letting companies volunteer their help. “Volunteer” is a funny word; they are stepping up to get an order. Trump admires that but doesn’t have the guts to be a real “war president.” Too bad we have this bumbling buffoon right now when what we desperately need is a true leader.

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PREMATURE EVACUATION?

Trump Prepares a Wartime Retreat

The President of the United States’ lack of patience might be motivating and a way of getting things done in normal times, but now that we have this “invisible enemy,” Trump had been convinced by experts to do the right thing. However, can they keep him from overthinking, or worse, moving too fast toward a decision that would hurt people? In his moment to moment distortion of facts to please himself, it’s clear that our president favors the economy over the collective good of the citizenry. If he moves in the wrong direction, many will die.

By hyping a couple of untested and unapproved drugs that he “felt” could be a real “game changer,” Trump has endangered people. To prove this, here’s a story from TheHill.com that ran today, “Health care company Banner Health announced Monday that a patient had died and his wife was in critical condition after they apparently took chloroquine phosphate as a possible cure for coronavirus. In a statement, the company urged Americans against taking drugs not prescribed for them in response to the coronavirus pandemic.” Trump’s uncontrolled pitch of a drug not designed to treat the coronavirus has killed someone.

We also heard Trump pull back from calling the curse a “Chinese virus” and during the daily briefing said, “It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all around the world. They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form.” He didn’t apologize for his words, but at least someone explained the racist overtones his description embodied.

It has been said that a crisis brings out the best and worst of people. Yesterday, the Lt. Governor of Texas said on TV, “…the United States should go back to work,” saying grandparents like him don’t want to sacrifice the country’s economy during the coronavirus crisis. The 69-year old politician’s name is Dan Patrick and in case you want to say something to him on Twitter use this @LtGovTX. I tweeted this to the Lt. Governor today: @LtGovTX, “Hey, Dan, heard what you said on Fox News and I have to say, as a 70-year old American citizen, GO F**K YOURSELF. Dying is no fun. Coronavirus is not funny. Go visit some people in the hospital and ask them how it feels to be infected. Texas deserves better.”

There will be time to have heated arguments about what was done, but while we are in this mess we surely need to understand the facts, act intelligently and not back off virus preventive measures too soon. Trump is being pulled by those in his feedback loop who are convinced the pandemic is a strange, destructive plot against America. They are attempting to convince Trump to put more people at risk just to pad their pockets and propel the stock market. It’s not a fucking board game, it’s people’s lives. If you kill people you will never get reelected, not even for dog catcher.

Trump has shown a severe lack of ability to calm and communicate America during this global calamity. Republican Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan said, “…some of the messaging is pretty confusing. Some of the messaging doesn’t match. You have the surgeon general (Vice Admiral Jerome Adams) and (National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases Director) Anthony Fauci saying things that were almost completely opposite of what the President is saying.”

It’s clear that Trump wants to be front and center and that’s why he now commands the stage. He has pushed VP Mike Pence to the role of public announcer, decreased the public appearances of Doctor Anthony Fauci and he is now tailoring his text and adlibbing to Wall Street, not Main Street. Once again, the most informative and helpful guidance is not coming from the White House press room every day, it’s coming from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. 756 people in the State of New York are in intensive care units and those people are fighting for their lives. Cuomo gets it.

A time is coming when we will confront those who have said stupid things and harmed the health of the American people. A green governor in the state of Florida didn’t have the courage to close the beaches, and his lack of action sent hundreds of potentially infected spring break kids back to places all over the country. Leadership is needed in every state, especially those with large populations of older Americans.

Lacking vision and conviction, Donald Trump may prematurely end the smart actions we’ve put in place. He should not have this power and he must be stopped. His evacuation from science and an early retreat from this war could bankrupt the country and kill a million people. Who can talk sense to this guy? Please tell him what you think. Send him a letter, make a call, tweet him. We must force Trump to do the right thing. America must succeed in spite of the fact Donald Trump is our President.

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THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF DEATH

A Demanding Decision for Trump

You may be wondering why the President of the United States seems to be underreacting to this global pandemic. The most recent tweet from the President shows his lack of focus on this issue: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!” We will shortly hear his aides try to explain this message, and I am sure, some experts will scream a warning if the other direction is that old saying, “Let this problem run its course.”

I would like to introduce a theory about why he seems to buy into an action and then pulls away from the very idea he endorsed in public. Think back on his comments after the high school shooting in Lakeland, Florida. It appeared that he was about to lead an effort to do something about it, then he stopped in his tracks. What is this behavior all about?

I think there are two forces at work, a feedback loop and a pushback loop. The feedback loop comes from people who Trump considers his friends. In his previous life he ran with the rich and powerful. That is how he converted from Democrat to Republican. He reaches out and talks with these people at night when he’s not in his office. These people give him advice on what he should do to help them. They are rich and their one focus in remaining wealthy. So, until COVID-19 caused major damage to the stock market, they were telling him not to panic the market by bending and softening the facts of the pandemic. They were giving him advice in order to protect what they owned.

At the same time, Trump has an unrealistic desire to be loved that gets in the way of sound and reasoned judgement and that’s where the pushback loop comes in. When people push back on his ideas, theories, misinformation and policies, he takes it personally. It hurts him so much that he commits in public to doing the opposite of what his pushback loop has been selling. The press gets all ramped up with their own pushback and they try to nail Trump to the wall with his very own words.

Trump then goes back to his bedroom and calls up his feedback loop comrades who convince him that he misspoke. See, they don’t tell him he’s wrong. They give him an excuse while they maneuver him into taking back what he said. Then the press attacks Trump for flip-flopping and the cycle begins anew. Donald Trump wants so much to be right all the time that he’s bouncing like a ping pong ball between the feedback and pushback loops.

The Governor of New York, a skillful politician, has seized the moment with his nationally televised press briefings that have demonstrated exactly what can be done by a public figure to disseminate facts, dish out fatherly warnings and comfort his state, which has become ground zero for this pandemic in America. Andrew Cuomo sprinkles in just the right number of compliments to keep Trump from pushing back, while repositioning Trump as a poor communicator and leader. Trump doesn’t even get that Cuomo is doing what amounts to a daily fireside chat, just like FDR.

One of the phrases Cuomo used during his Sunday address was “the demographics of death.” I stared at the TV and my jaw dropped. What the Governor was trying to show was the difference between older people contracting the virus and the younger demographics. Yes, young people get the virus, but their death rate is much lower than older folks, especially those with pre-existing conditions and ailments. The most important decision is still in the future, when there’s an announcement that the crisis is over.

There will come a time that will warrant some kind of “all clear” command from the top. When we get near to the end of this crisis, the feedback loop will urge Trump to get everyone back to work despite, the possibility of further spread or a flare up in certain areas. He will make the decision that the health of the economy is worth more than an ongoing lower percentage of death. Moving too soon would surely end Trump’s presidency.

The pushback loop is becoming more vocal and aggressive. We have seen Trump’s frustration reach the boiling point during a press conferences where he attacked the press rather than keeping calm and being a real leader. If you don’t have a job and cannot go out of your house, you don’t want to hear your president blame the press, Democrats or Chinese people You want answers and a plan and, yes, HOPE!

Who are these people who pump up Trump’s ego and cause him to embarrass himself? The American public desperately needs a leader sharing a platform of facts, firm but thoughtful warnings and a sense of confidence. The audacity of hope is long gone with Trump. Even many of his supporters are wondering when the jokes will stop, and a plan will surface.

By saying he inherited a bad system at the CDC begs this question, “How long have you been President?” If he knew the system was bad but didn’t change it, he is incompetent. If he didn’t know about our weaknesses, then he didn’t ask the right questions. After the smoke clears, people from the intelligence community will be called to hearings in the House and Senate to admit, under oath, that they had meetings with Trump early in January and then again in February warning him of the impending doom. He just doesn’t believe what experts say and avoids the hard work of being a president.

When he says he’s not responsible for anything that has happened, then he will not be able to promote his success. He keeps bragging about his actions of blocking people from Wuhan, but he never shut down all flights from China. For thirty days after he knew there was a problem, more than a hundred flights came to our airports. When he blocked Italian flights, it was from only the areas that showed great stress, not the whole country. When he blocked all foreigners coming from the EU, he excluded the UK. Days later, after realizing the flaw, his team added the United Kingdom to the list. It’s that pushback vs. feedback that keeps him from doing the right things.

The demographics of death is a terrible expression, but it’s real. What is Trump’s next decision? Can we trust him to do the right thing? We should all pray that those in the administration who have the knowledge, expertise and reason block out both loops so we can all get better.

DEEP STATE DINGBATS

Trump’s Lack of Truth Is Killing Us

Donald Trump is a big fat liar. Most people know that he speaks mistruths so this should be no surprise, but let’s talk about words. Even though it’s offensive to fat-shame the president, it’s a fact that Donald Trump has a disproportionately large seat cushion. Just look at one of his golf photos. During a pandemic press conference, Donald Trump changed coronavirus to Chinese virus. He kept saying this virus is an invisible enemy, then he proceeded to put an offensive face on it.

Another of Trump’s insulting fabrications is his claim of imposing a travel ban of Chinese people early in the life of the virus. The timeline reveals that Trump learned about the virus in China on or about January 1, 2020, but he didn’t act on the situation until January 31. He continually bragged about his action while repeating over and over that we had everything under control. Remember that he claimed we had only 15 cases which would become zero very soon. That sounded optimistic but, once again, it showed his disconnection from reality.

Throughout the chaotic journey of the Trump presidency, his frail ego and narcissistic personality disorder point to the need of psychological analysis of future presidential candidates. For now, we have a guy who cannot deal with criticism and rants about the dishonesty of the media, while daily demonstrating his own deceitfulness. People need to continue checking Trump’s lies and confronting him about his lack of care, empathy and knowledge of this crisis. That stupid statement about the virus going away when it gets warmer was perhaps the most outrageous claim of all. Florida has been 84 degrees during this outbreak and has more than 500 cases with a dozen deaths. It’s a virus, not a tourist.

As the media blasted out last night, after a dire briefing in closed committee meetings, several Senators profited from insider trading. We now see the real problem with our representatives; they lie to us while taking profit. These swamp dwellers should be forced out now. Take no prisoners. It’s all in my latest book, Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs. I need to stop thinking they can get it together and do good work. No sooner than I start feeling positively, one of these clowns shows that selling their stocks before the market crashed was their priority, not the health of the public.

Trump fixates on the stock market, which will take years to recover from this disaster. Hopefully, lard ass will be gone by then and we can get back to a normal world. Thankfully, his reelection is now totally uncertain because he can no longer say our citizens are better off now than they were before he took office. We simply aren’t as well off.

With the economy grinding to a halt, the socialism switch has been turned on in the federal government. It’s the very thing Trump had been fighting against but it is the clear solution to help mend America. Give people money. Throw a vast fortune at the problem. Why weren’t we better prepared? When does Trump take the blame for a terrible game plan? Oh, that’s right, he never takes blame for anything.

He doesn’t care when he offends 5.6% of the US population with his “Chinese virus” troupe. He doesn’t care when he lies about a vaccine becoming available faster than safely possible. We get it. He’s trying to keep the morale of the citizens up, but in the end those uneducated promises are a weak broth to serve sick people.

Donald Trump keeps saying that no one ever saw this coming. Perhaps if he watched more movies and less Fox News he would have seen this coming. Hollywood showed us what could happen in Contagion, Outbreak and World War Z. For all the criticism from the right about the motion picture industry, they should have consumed these works of art and learned exactly how bad it could be. Movies are often predictive.

And for the one millionth time, the White House has disbanded the Pandemic Crisis group, but Trump claims he knew nothing about it. If that is true, it means he was unaware of what his White House staff was doing. If those around him didn’t tell him what they were doing, then he made some incompetent staffing decisions. However, it’s more likely he not only knew about it but ordered it and now lies about what he did.

Donald Trump promotes so many conspiracy theories and passes along misinformation to the country day after day. One of his favorite myths revolves around a “deep state” out to get him. Well, if that is the case, they got him. He’s not handling this crisis well and his retreat to old tricks in dealing with a pandemic makes him look like a deer in the headlights. In this case, though, the deer is so skittish he doesn’t see the 18-wheeler coming straight at him. By trying to blame the Chinese for this terrible situation, he will cause Asian Americans abuse from bullying and harassment by the terrible Trump sycophants. This president believes that when he blames someone else, he wins. Really?

It’s good that we are using the press briefing room for daily updates on the pandemic, but we have a long way to go before we see the light at the end of the tunnel. Along the way, don’t expect clarity or focus from Donald Trump. He’s incapable of saying anything credible unless it has been written for him. It would be best if he just SHUT UP and let the experts take care of the crisis. Governors have already proved they can do more without him. Trump is the wrong guy for this situation. He wasted billions of dollars on a big southern wall, got a zero-interest rate from the Fed and closed borders to immigration. Trump cares only about money, not people.

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UNPREPARED PRESIDENT

Trump’s Priorities Are Wrong

It would be easy for me to say, “I told you so,” but that would be as senseless as what we have heard from the “leadership” in our country. Who or what could have prepared the US for a pandemic like the one we are experiencing with the COVID-19 virus? Let’s take a broader look at what is happening and frame it historically using logic and reason.

First, the smirk that forms on this president’s face reveals that most of what scientists have said about climate change and environmental problems are nothing but a giant hoax to him. There are numerous video clips of Trump laughing at or making fun of scientific warnings. Foolish people ignore threats. It would be easily to blame Trump for this put down of science, but there are people who rail against vaccines on powerful platforms. Now that it really matters to turn to science for facts, some people who have soiled their reputations with nonsense and braggadocio are trying to guide us.

Facts eventually work their way to the surface to convince people what is most important. When people are dying, sobriety comes quickly. What we need to do in America, which will also help the rest of the world, is to adopt a “we are in this together” philosophy and work together toward solutions. One giant step would be putting the Paris Accord back on the table for America.

Protecting the planet from disease, pollution and corruption are important and our leader, the president, must act to keep us safe and be truthful when things go badly. Trump’s response to the COVID-19 crisis was slow and hampered by his desire to downplay its seriousness and even suggest that this medical emergency was a “hoax.” Yes, Donald Trump said this was just another Democratic conspiracy against him personally. While Donald Trump shook hands and met face to face with untested people, many of his loyalists believed it was not important. Really?

Not only did Trump and his administration jettison the team guarding against this possibility, he didn’t prepare the country until the threat was obvious. Public health and national security experts were shocked to hear President Donald Trump say the coronavirus “came out of nowhere” and “blindsided the world.”

Trump was criticized for dismantling a National Security Council directorate preparing for a pandemic. When Trump claimed he was not responsible for this change in 2018, those who were there know that he ordered it. His selective memory is alarming on so many levels, especially with people’s lives in the balance.

Trump’s self-award of a “ten” for his response to this crisis is much like the fox assuring the farmer his chickens will be safe when morning comes. It appears that our Idiot-in-Chief has finally awakened to the seriousness of what’s in play, yet he is more obsessed with the economic fallout instead of genuinely caring about the pandemic and its impact on the health of our nation. His use of the word “fault” is defensive and self-absorbed. The attitude of half our citizens about how Trump is handling this crisis is colored by all the lies and foolishness that came before. It’s like the story of the “boy who cried wolf.” Our asshole president told us a threat was coming from Mexico and we had to divert billions to build a wall. Of course, no wall could ever stop COVID-19. Such a poor choice of priority!

Our great orange leader says this has “never happened before,” which might be his excuse for what happened but leaves us with a question, “Why didn’t he think it could happen?” He had experts telling him it could happen and he dismissed them.

We all knew that Donald Trump was unprepared to deal with government. He was going to be a disrupter but with that came massive changes in cabinet members, high-level advisors and top sector leaders. In less than four years, more than 180 members of this administration have resigned or been hired or fired. That’s not disruption, it’s chaos, which is the norm with Trump. Now that he’s dealing with a large crisis he must become serious and keep smart people around him even when they disagree with him. How likely is that?

Can Donald Trump survive the COVID-19 crisis? Will he change his priorities and become a leader? His self-aggrandizing language indicates he won’t. Those of us who want facts and productive advice are left in the dark. Mike Pence is a poker-faced buffoon whose rhetoric is designed to kiss the fat ass of our president while not disclosing what is truly happening. This is sad on so many levels.

Trump might make it to November, but there is now a serious question about how prepared we are with him as president. His lack of action on healthcare and obvious fumbling during this intense crisis speaks volumes about his ineptitude. He told us that COVID-19 wasn’t a big deal and the real problem was our lack of a healthcare plan. Trump has failed us again and there is no one other than him to blame. He is the problem. But then, if you’ve been reading this blog, you already know where I stand.

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THE MAGNANIMITY OF THE JOB

Trump’s Inability to Understand Numbers

The baby king couldn’t count the number of people who attended his inauguration. His administration was unable to tell us how many children were separated from their parents at the southern border and, to make it worse, they didn’t know where those children were located. This week, we learned that the Center for Disease Control cannot tell us how many people have been tested for the COVID-19 virus. How can we believe Donald Trump? Remember, he’s the guy who says trade wars are good even after a trade war with oil between Saudi Arabia and Russia brought the stock market to its knees.

One of the comments on cable news that caught my ear was that most serious people are looking beyond the President now, because it’s clear he doesn’t understand what is happening with the coronavirus crisis or the economy. Public policy must be massaged and managed by the experts in the room because Donald Trump is proficient only in hyperbole. Our idiot president has only one message, when things get bad throw money at it. The problem is it’s our money he’s throwing, and more and more people are starting to question his rationale. Why does he always bail out the rich guys first?

As the coronavirus spreads across the country, we are seeing our Vice President doing mostly the right things. He’s holding daily press briefings, letting experts speak and even pulling back somewhat from the typical presidential garnishment he’s inclined to froth. Someone said, “Hey, he’s showing us how a real president would act.” Yes, this crisis is so big and so dangerous to the world economy that the Donald had to tap Mike Pence to lead the effort. Donald Trump is totally ill informed, and no one is listening to him.

Even though the recommendation is to not shake hands, Trump says he will continue doing so because that is what he does. He is the living embodiment of the stupid, selfish person who gets a severe cold but comes to work regardless because he doesn’t care about anyone else. The net result of Trump’s behavior will be more people getting sick because his followers believe it’s not important to do the right thing. Ignoring his own administration’s advice is truly the very worst thing a president could do. Mike Pence said he would also keep shaking hands because he’s a politician. Wow, the VP will do the wrong thing simply to protect Trump’s ego. What a two-faced, false prophet!

It’s no longer funny and it’s not Trump who needs to be protected. We need to be protected from bad policies that will hurt American citizens. If you’re asking why our president, a known germaphobe, would not take the advice to stop direct contact with others, please consider this. Donald J. Trump had unprotected sex with a porn star. His own pleasure trumps his fear of germs. What a crackpot. What a loser.

Time will tell how we survive this latest crisis, but every new day we learn that we cannot trust Donald Trump with the health and healthcare of our nation. We cannot trust Donald Trump with our retirement funds and pensions. We cannot trust Donald Trump in his job as President of the United States. So, get ready to vote him out. He is not worthy of the role of chief executive of this country. It’s time to focus on who will be next.

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The book that tells it like it is…

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