(Editor's note: the author of this post has been socially isolated in his home for 12 days, and has already had 2 quarantinis. Just saying.)
I can't help reading and watching the news, here in the age of pandemic. Things are not good in the world. People are sick; people are dying. Businesses are closed and many will not survive. Governments at every level are working hard to contain the outbreaks and flatten the typical exponential infection curve.
And then there is the United States of America. Donald Trump, the man I call the Dick in the Oval, is doing everything he can, every day, to contradict the experts. The U.S. government response to the pandemic is, to be kind, very screwed up. Trump and his minions, since taking power, have decimated the agencies and departments and working groups that would/should be dealing with this global crisis. Trump, in his typical me-me-me narcissistic way, holds a daily press briefing, surrounded by cabinet members and agency experts who are required to praise Mr. President on the Great Job He Is Doing, and then try to - gently - correct his lies. Trump is an unhinged madman. He rules over a country that is the wealthiest in the world, and yet doctors and nurses treating COVID-19 patients have to reuse PPE (personal protection equipment) as often as possible - things such as masks, gowns, gloves that truly should only be used once. Starting with his "Oh gee, this will be over in a few days; we have 15 cases today, tomorrow it will be 5, then it will be zero - like a miracle, and besides, this is a huge hoax by the Chinese that the Fake News and the Democrats are using to try to get me, but too bad for them, I'm building a big, beautiful WALL and LOCK HER UP!!!"
Anyone...ANYONE...who votes for this ignoranus, narcissistic, mean, evil.....oh hell, there aren't enough words to describe the a**hole; any person who votes for this man is a total...f-ing...idiot. Full Stop.
---
Whatever is on my mind: politics, the news, philosophy, poetry and satire. VISIT MY WEBSITE (click on The Some Times button, below) PRIVACY NOTICE/GDPR: SEE JAN. 4, 2019
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Friday, March 20, 2020
THE TOILET PAPER SHORTAGE
First of all...why? There is no valid reason for people to be buying and hoarding toilet paper during the coronavirus pandemic. TP does not kill virus, and does not cure COVID-19. This is simply bizarre.
What will happen if this TP crisis is not abated in the very near future? There could be mass rioting, burning and looting by wipe-deprived mobs seeking out the secret stashes of TP kept in dark caverns by the Deep State. People will be hurt by bands of TP zombies roaming the streets.
Why hasn't Donald Trump done anything about this? Why has he not opened the Federal Toilet Paper Reserve rumored to be deep below ground in the mountains of Utah? What is he keeping it for, after all? Perhaps he plans to TP the homes of liberals, Democrats and Sanctuary City residents!
Do we have alternatives? What about DIY toilet paper alternatives? How about:
I'm not sure which will wipe us out first, the virus or The DOTUS!
----
What will happen if this TP crisis is not abated in the very near future? There could be mass rioting, burning and looting by wipe-deprived mobs seeking out the secret stashes of TP kept in dark caverns by the Deep State. People will be hurt by bands of TP zombies roaming the streets.
Why hasn't Donald Trump done anything about this? Why has he not opened the Federal Toilet Paper Reserve rumored to be deep below ground in the mountains of Utah? What is he keeping it for, after all? Perhaps he plans to TP the homes of liberals, Democrats and Sanctuary City residents!
Do we have alternatives? What about DIY toilet paper alternatives? How about:
- Sears catalogues (oh, they went out of business)
- photos of Trump clipped out of newspapers
- political lawn signs from last year that still have not been picked up for recycling
- miracle cloths (hey....it's a miracle)
- the carpet where your dog drags it's rear when it itches
- photos of Trump clipped out of newspapers (I know I already used this one, but I like it)
- a DIY bidet using the garden hose
- all the U.S. currency that will soon be worthless
- just let it dry in place
- _________________ (you fill in the blank)
I'm not sure which will wipe us out first, the virus or The DOTUS!
----
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
WHAT BERNIE AND HIS SUPPORTERS NEED TO DO NOW, IMHO
I think it is game over for Bernie in the primaries; Joe Biden's delegate lead is insurmountable in the real world. What he needs to do now is drop out of the race, put his full support behind Joe Biden, something he has repeatedly said he will do, and urge - no, command - his supporters to do the same.
This is not what die-hard Bernie supporters want to hear. I am a Bernie supporter, but will easily slide over to the Biden camp for a number of reasons. What bothers me a lot is hearing that some young voters will choose to not vote at all rather than vote for Joe Biden in the general election (déjà vu 2016?). This is absolutely the wrong thing to do! Let me explain why.
I understand the passion of young Bernie-supporting voters (and, actually, all Bernie supporters) for a political revolution. I have written about that in this blog. I was young and radical a half century ago (now I'm old and radical). In my younger years, the existential threat to human and other life on Earth was nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. It didn't happen; we're still here. My wife and I were co-chairs of the first Earth Day teach-in in 1970 at University of California, Irvine. I look at the schedule of talks and panels from that event 50 years ago, and I wonder if much has changed since then. Some things are better, some are worse, and climate change has become the existential threat for the present and future generations.
We protested the Viet Nam war, and we felt responsible for the decision of President Lyndon Johnson not to run for re-election. We were activists for civil rights, women's rights, labor unions and other "radical" causes. More recently we supported LGBTQ rights and freedom of marriage.
The point is, I understand the passion of Bernie supporters to make fundamental changes to the American system in the name of justice and equality. But what I want to say to young people is that, because of my age and experience, I also understand politics better than I did as a young activist. Unfortunately, no young person wants to hear that from an old man!
I know now that change is usually incremental, even though it sometimes can be faster. I now know that we need to be careful what we ask for. For example, we got rid of Lyndon Johnson, but what we got was Richard Nixon. And in retrospect, most of us realized that Johnson, for all his warts, was one of the best political operators in our nations history; in other words, he knew how to get things done, and he got a lot of important things passed.
At this very moment in time in America, the man who occupies the presidency is an existential threat to American democracy. We certainly can all agree that Donald Trump needs to lose the 2020 election. If the Democratic Party, and all no-Trump voters are divided in November, if a significant number of no-Trump voters decide to not vote instead of vote for Biden, Trump has a better chance of being re-elected, and the damage to America and the world will be worse than anything we have seen since 2016 under Trump and the Trump Republicans.
Joe Biden is a good person and a very experienced politician. He has the potential to be a good President. He is not a Democratic Socialist like Bernie Sanders; however, he is a liberal who has been tugged to the left on a number of issues by Bernie and Elizabeth Warren.
Here is the best game plan for Bernie supporters after Bernie drops out of the race:
Joe Biden is not the candidate you want, I get it. But dropping out of the political system by shirking your responsibility to vote is a cop-out. How would you react if the players on your favorite sports team stopped playing in the middle of a game and walked out because they were losing?
This is not what die-hard Bernie supporters want to hear. I am a Bernie supporter, but will easily slide over to the Biden camp for a number of reasons. What bothers me a lot is hearing that some young voters will choose to not vote at all rather than vote for Joe Biden in the general election (déjà vu 2016?). This is absolutely the wrong thing to do! Let me explain why.
I understand the passion of young Bernie-supporting voters (and, actually, all Bernie supporters) for a political revolution. I have written about that in this blog. I was young and radical a half century ago (now I'm old and radical). In my younger years, the existential threat to human and other life on Earth was nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. It didn't happen; we're still here. My wife and I were co-chairs of the first Earth Day teach-in in 1970 at University of California, Irvine. I look at the schedule of talks and panels from that event 50 years ago, and I wonder if much has changed since then. Some things are better, some are worse, and climate change has become the existential threat for the present and future generations.
We protested the Viet Nam war, and we felt responsible for the decision of President Lyndon Johnson not to run for re-election. We were activists for civil rights, women's rights, labor unions and other "radical" causes. More recently we supported LGBTQ rights and freedom of marriage.
The point is, I understand the passion of Bernie supporters to make fundamental changes to the American system in the name of justice and equality. But what I want to say to young people is that, because of my age and experience, I also understand politics better than I did as a young activist. Unfortunately, no young person wants to hear that from an old man!
I know now that change is usually incremental, even though it sometimes can be faster. I now know that we need to be careful what we ask for. For example, we got rid of Lyndon Johnson, but what we got was Richard Nixon. And in retrospect, most of us realized that Johnson, for all his warts, was one of the best political operators in our nations history; in other words, he knew how to get things done, and he got a lot of important things passed.
At this very moment in time in America, the man who occupies the presidency is an existential threat to American democracy. We certainly can all agree that Donald Trump needs to lose the 2020 election. If the Democratic Party, and all no-Trump voters are divided in November, if a significant number of no-Trump voters decide to not vote instead of vote for Biden, Trump has a better chance of being re-elected, and the damage to America and the world will be worse than anything we have seen since 2016 under Trump and the Trump Republicans.
Joe Biden is a good person and a very experienced politician. He has the potential to be a good President. He is not a Democratic Socialist like Bernie Sanders; however, he is a liberal who has been tugged to the left on a number of issues by Bernie and Elizabeth Warren.
Here is the best game plan for Bernie supporters after Bernie drops out of the race:
- Actively support the campaign of Joe Biden in ways that are comfortable for you.
- Vote in the 2020 election, and vote for Joe Biden.
- Encourage everyone you know to vote, for Biden.
- (This is critical) Don't stop being politically active. The advance of Democratic Socialist ideas and policies has never been as recognized and popular in America as they are right now, thanks to Bernie and all of you. Don't squander that progress; build on it. Put pressure on a Biden administration to do the right things. Elect more progressives and socialists to Congress. Continue to build the movement - don't turn your backs on it.
Joe Biden is not the candidate you want, I get it. But dropping out of the political system by shirking your responsibility to vote is a cop-out. How would you react if the players on your favorite sports team stopped playing in the middle of a game and walked out because they were losing?
Bernie Sanders has accomplished amazing things as a candidate in 2016 and 2020. He has set a very critical policy agenda for the political revolution that is desperately needed in this country. I hope he stays in the game of politics as a leader in the progressive, Democratic Socialist movement. I think President Joe Biden will have to pay attention to Bernie and his base. His voice will be your voice in the Senate and party politics for awhile; however, at some point in the near future, Bernie will retire. Who will pick up his mantle? Your voice needs to be heard. The power of your vote is needed.
Don't give up. Don't lose the gains made by the Bernie-led movement. Keep your head, and your vote, in the game. You can do this (and you don't have to tell anyone that you heard it from an old man!).
---
Sunday, March 15, 2020
THINGS WE COULD - SHOULD - LEARN FROM THIS PANDEMIC
This post is not about the things we should learn regarding how to respond to and deal with the novel coronavirus pandemic in terms of the medical system and staying healthy; there is already a lot of that in the media.
I have been thinking about lessons we could, and IMHO should learn from this experience. My wife and I are "social distancing;" in other words, we are staying home and laying low until the worst part is over. There are many benefits to this, and we are seeing examples from around the world. Cities are less noisy, less congested, and the pace of life is slower. People in Chinese cities have written about how they are suddenly aware that they can hear birds singing instead of traffic noise, the air is cleaner and, therefore, the sky more blue. People everywhere are paying more attention to those around them, their neighbors, and finding ways to help those who need it. We seem to be more tuned in to community.
Large numbers of people are working from home. Many large events have been cancelled. Fewer people are going out to eat and recreate. There is a serious downside to this regarding the economy and the ability of people to make a living. On the other hand, people are spending more family time and having to find ways to entertain themselves and their children at home. There are numerous benefits from this.
We have had a few virtual happy hours and nightcaps (OK, alcohol involved) with friends and family using video call services like Skype, Facetime and Zoom. I think many people are rediscovering the telephone part of smartphone. In other words, people might be communicating more face-to-face (online) and voice-to-voice, instead of texting and emailing and facebooking. I find this type of communication more satisfying that writing and reading back and forth.
So what I am feeling and writing about is, in a sense, a return to what some might call the old-fashioned ways of life. By this I mean more personal interactions, more time to think and read and create and discuss.
The down side to this, of course, is that many people will get ill, and some people will die. And for too many people in our society, staying home from work, or having your kids out of school raises a whole set of serious issues.
There are major political lessons we could and should learn from this pandemic. Because America is the only wealthy nation that does not provide health care for everyone, not everyone will get health care. People who are ill and have no insurance, or are undocumented, will not seek the health care they need. This will not only be bad for them, it will be bad for all of us. Yes, this underscores the great need for something like Medicare for All.
Very many working people, especially those in low wage jobs and those in the gig economy, do not get paid sick leave, and will have no income if they are too ill to work, or are laid off or furloughed because businesses are slowing or closing. Once again, the United States, unlike most wealthy nations, does not mandate paid sick leave. Some states have recently mandated paid sick leave, but there is no over-arching law or standard. Recent research has shown that paid sick leave costs employers very little, increases productivity, and actually reduces the spread of flu outbreaks.
I could go on and talk about education, poverty, transportation and many other aspects of our society that are impacted by the pandemic in ways that they would not if we had different systems in place. And these different systems are what detractors would call socialism!
I hope huge numbers of people in America think about these lessons and also think about how we can move forward after the pandemic, and not just go back to business as usual. Certainly during this election season we will hopefully also think about politics, how we are governed, and how we can make the changes that are very much needed. If this were a political post, I would now say "Vote for Bernie," but it isn't, so I won't say it. (Oh, I did....)
---
I have been thinking about lessons we could, and IMHO should learn from this experience. My wife and I are "social distancing;" in other words, we are staying home and laying low until the worst part is over. There are many benefits to this, and we are seeing examples from around the world. Cities are less noisy, less congested, and the pace of life is slower. People in Chinese cities have written about how they are suddenly aware that they can hear birds singing instead of traffic noise, the air is cleaner and, therefore, the sky more blue. People everywhere are paying more attention to those around them, their neighbors, and finding ways to help those who need it. We seem to be more tuned in to community.
Large numbers of people are working from home. Many large events have been cancelled. Fewer people are going out to eat and recreate. There is a serious downside to this regarding the economy and the ability of people to make a living. On the other hand, people are spending more family time and having to find ways to entertain themselves and their children at home. There are numerous benefits from this.
We have had a few virtual happy hours and nightcaps (OK, alcohol involved) with friends and family using video call services like Skype, Facetime and Zoom. I think many people are rediscovering the telephone part of smartphone. In other words, people might be communicating more face-to-face (online) and voice-to-voice, instead of texting and emailing and facebooking. I find this type of communication more satisfying that writing and reading back and forth.
So what I am feeling and writing about is, in a sense, a return to what some might call the old-fashioned ways of life. By this I mean more personal interactions, more time to think and read and create and discuss.
The down side to this, of course, is that many people will get ill, and some people will die. And for too many people in our society, staying home from work, or having your kids out of school raises a whole set of serious issues.
There are major political lessons we could and should learn from this pandemic. Because America is the only wealthy nation that does not provide health care for everyone, not everyone will get health care. People who are ill and have no insurance, or are undocumented, will not seek the health care they need. This will not only be bad for them, it will be bad for all of us. Yes, this underscores the great need for something like Medicare for All.
Very many working people, especially those in low wage jobs and those in the gig economy, do not get paid sick leave, and will have no income if they are too ill to work, or are laid off or furloughed because businesses are slowing or closing. Once again, the United States, unlike most wealthy nations, does not mandate paid sick leave. Some states have recently mandated paid sick leave, but there is no over-arching law or standard. Recent research has shown that paid sick leave costs employers very little, increases productivity, and actually reduces the spread of flu outbreaks.
I could go on and talk about education, poverty, transportation and many other aspects of our society that are impacted by the pandemic in ways that they would not if we had different systems in place. And these different systems are what detractors would call socialism!
I hope huge numbers of people in America think about these lessons and also think about how we can move forward after the pandemic, and not just go back to business as usual. Certainly during this election season we will hopefully also think about politics, how we are governed, and how we can make the changes that are very much needed. If this were a political post, I would now say "Vote for Bernie," but it isn't, so I won't say it. (Oh, I did....)
---
Saturday, March 14, 2020
BERNIE - BIDEN: TRYING TO RECONCILE MY GLAD AND MY SAD
I couldn't understand why I had an overwhelming sense of sadness recently as the results of the latest primary voting came in, and Joe Biden was the big winner. As I plumbed this feeling, I realized that it was mixed with gladness, and so I need to write about that.
I jotted some notes - yes, pencil on paper:
Glad -
I jotted some notes - yes, pencil on paper:
Glad -
- the Democrats are coalescing around one candidate
- Joe Biden would be a good President
- Biden is day to the Trump night, light to dark, hope to despair
- Democratic Socialism is out of the shadows and discussed openly, even if to attempt to repudiate it
Sad:
- a Biden presidency means that the Sanders agenda (Democratic Socialism) has no chance of being implemented
- the "revolution" America desperately needs will have to wait
- going back to the way things were before Trump (the Biden agenda) is going in the wrong direction
- at age 76, I might never see another Democratic Socialist candidate for President.
The remarkable ascendency of Joe Biden from a runner-up to the leading candidate is easily explained: Bernie Sanders scares the poop out of moderates and establishment Democrats. Revolution - really?
In 2005 I wrote a post here asking if it was time for a revolution, and I used this definition: "a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving." At that time, I was reacting to the G. W. Bush administration, and the effect it was having on what America is. Too many people forget the damage the Cheney/Bush folks did to this country and the world. And here we are, the age of Trump, and dealing with the Trump/Republican Party revolution.
If Bernie Sanders scares you, find and watch the March 4 interview by Rachel Maddow, MSNBC. It's too bad that, based on the so-called debates, Bernie is often seen as a red-faced, shouting and pointing old man. In the interview, Bernie is seen as he is, a thoughtful, intelligent, experienced politician who has spent his career trying to move a progressive agenda forward in a world of complacency and corruption. Everything in Bernie's menu of policies is common sense and, quite frankly, desperately needed in this country and the world.
So what is it that scares the establishment and moderates? We don't need a revolution, and just the thought is too scary? That opinion demonstrates the immaturity of Americans. Most people understand and can articulate the very large, serious issues we have in America, and yet doing what needs to be done about them (revolution of thought and behavior) is way too scary to think about.
What does the future of America look like? If the Trump Republicans stay in control, it will be very grim, indeed. If Joe Biden becomes President, the Trump agenda will be dismantled and we will be...where? Back to the future? The same old same old? America needs to move forward, not backwards, and not treading water. We have major institutional problems that can be solved, but not by incremental moderation. The power of corporations and their associations - military/industrial, drug companies, financial firms, insurance companies, big tech/internet, and others is too much for incrementalism to overcome. Only revolution, the kind defined above, by a majority of citizens, has a chance to change the system, and it's not a certainty by any stretch of the imagination.
Can Bernie, or a Bernie-like President make the needed changes? Not easily, and very likely not. But we will never know if someone doesn't try. And given the state of the nation and the world, the time to try is now.
The sad and the glad. I was not happy that Bernie Sanders ran for President again; I would have rather seen someone like Elizabeth Warren carry the Democratic Socialism (or similar) banner forward. I was also not happy that Joe Biden jumped in. But here we are, and it's down to Bernie - Biden. So let's get on with it and see what we can do. On a "glad" note, Bernie has dragged the Democratic Party a long way to the left, and his ideas have been aired and debated. I truly hope that progressive Democrats continue to build a movement and continue to fight for the revolutionary changes desperately needed in America.
Hope springs eternal.
---
Saturday, March 07, 2020
THE STOCK MARKET AND THE DONALD
It is no surprise that Donald Trump is more concerned about his re-election than he is about the people of the United States. One reason he has acted so cavalierly about the coronavirus epidemic is that he wants to minimize it’s effect on the stock market. He sees his re-election tied to the condition of the U.S. economy. It is an historic fact that incumbent POTUS’ in a strong economy get re-elected. And so The Donald cannot admit, in public at least, that the epidemic is serious and we should all be concerned about it.
The point of this is that the market was amazing over the past year, and so far, the decline is relatively small compared to the 12-month gain. Yes, this kind of rapid decline is not good, but I feel no need to panic or be too concerned. Put another way, I’m OK losing paper value if it keeps Trump from being re-elected. (By the way, changes in the stock market are generally not easy to tie to the actions, or inactions, of a President. The market was gaining value for a number of years before Trump was in office, yes, under Obama.)
How bad is the market slump over the past week or so? Well, it is a serious decline, and it has the potential to get worse. Some analysts are saying that the market was in trouble before the epidemic, and this has simply hastened the inevitable.
I generally don’t look at our retirement portfolio very often. I learned years ago that the short-term volatility of the market is normal, and being concerned about declines in portfolio value is an exercise in futility in most cases. This time, however, I had to take a look. Here is what our portfolio value looks like over the past 1 year (I cropped out the dollar values along the left side; there were no deposits and some withdrawals over this time period):
The point of this is that the market was amazing over the past year, and so far, the decline is relatively small compared to the 12-month gain. Yes, this kind of rapid decline is not good, but I feel no need to panic or be too concerned. Put another way, I’m OK losing paper value if it keeps Trump from being re-elected. (By the way, changes in the stock market are generally not easy to tie to the actions, or inactions, of a President. The market was gaining value for a number of years before Trump was in office, yes, under Obama.)As usual, Trump only thinks about his own image, brand, wealth, and re-election, and the rest of us be damned. If you have not seen it yet, find on-line the video of Trump at the CDC yesterday, a brief stop on his way to play golf at Mar-a-Lago. He not only looks like a buffoon, he acts like one, too. In fact, he is a buffoon. If the reason for his visit were not so very serious, a major viral epidemic, we would laugh ourselves to tears. Instead, we look on in horror as a maniacal clown tells lies and minimizes the seriousness of the situation.
Sometimes, clowns just aren’t funny.
—-
Tuesday, March 03, 2020
COVID-19: BLAME TRUMP (and for everything else, too!)
OK, the title is misleading; The DOTUS (The Donald of the United States) did not cause the COVID-19 coronavirus. The blame does fall on him, however, for lack of preparedness of the federal government to have a coherent plan for an epidemic or pandemic.
To understand this, we need to look at the Donald Trump playbook, "The Art of the Con." Fortunately for you, dear readers, I have secured photos of every page in the book, and have compiled them below:
You might think this is a joke, but it isn't. Since taking office, The DOTUS has systematically cancelled, revoked, reversed and otherwise nullified almost everything accomplished by the Obama Administration in the areas of environment, education, public land conservation, public health, worker health and safety, food safety, drug safety and prices, housing, and more.
And now we have the coronavirus, COVID-19. It turns out that in February, 2018, the CDCP (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) announced that it was cutting back by 80% on a program established under Obama to prevent global disease outbreaks. The funding for the program was initially authorized during the Ebola crisis, and the Trump administration, in early 2018, appeared not to continue the program.
Also in 2018, the Trump administration axed the executive branch team responsible for coordinating a response to a pandemic, the health security team within the National Security Council, and did not replace it (Snopes).
If it has seemed that the federal government has been scrambling to deal with the coronavirus epidemic, it has been, because of the cuts made by Trump and his team in the White House.
So much for national security concerns by The DOTUS regarding epidemics/pandemics. The only epidemic Trump is concerned with is all those "killers and rapists" streaming north from Mexico. We don't need a pandemic response team, all we need is a big, beautiful WALL!!
Should I hope The DOTUS doesn't wash his hands and touches his face?
----
To understand this, we need to look at the Donald Trump playbook, "The Art of the Con." Fortunately for you, dear readers, I have secured photos of every page in the book, and have compiled them below:
You might think this is a joke, but it isn't. Since taking office, The DOTUS has systematically cancelled, revoked, reversed and otherwise nullified almost everything accomplished by the Obama Administration in the areas of environment, education, public land conservation, public health, worker health and safety, food safety, drug safety and prices, housing, and more.
And now we have the coronavirus, COVID-19. It turns out that in February, 2018, the CDCP (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) announced that it was cutting back by 80% on a program established under Obama to prevent global disease outbreaks. The funding for the program was initially authorized during the Ebola crisis, and the Trump administration, in early 2018, appeared not to continue the program.
Also in 2018, the Trump administration axed the executive branch team responsible for coordinating a response to a pandemic, the health security team within the National Security Council, and did not replace it (Snopes).
If it has seemed that the federal government has been scrambling to deal with the coronavirus epidemic, it has been, because of the cuts made by Trump and his team in the White House.
So much for national security concerns by The DOTUS regarding epidemics/pandemics. The only epidemic Trump is concerned with is all those "killers and rapists" streaming north from Mexico. We don't need a pandemic response team, all we need is a big, beautiful WALL!!
Should I hope The DOTUS doesn't wash his hands and touches his face?
----
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