Donald Trump is an egocentric person. Of that, there is no doubt. He is constantly looking for appreciation for the things he’s done to fulfill the promises he made to get elected.

We often hear him declare, ” I did this.” or “I did that.” This upsets democrats. They are quick to point out, “There is no “I” in SOLIDARITY!”

shhh…I know, but don’t tell them. they’ll just get upset.

CNN reporter, Kaitlan Collins, was seated in the front row at a recent White House press conference. She was told to exchange seats with Chris Johnson of “the Washington Blade”, who was seated in the sixth out of the seven rows. She, Kaitlan, had gotten into a little sparring with The Donald at a previous news conference; and we know the president is a little sensitive when it comes to that sort of thing. Note: Verbally sparring with the President (any President) is unprofessional, arrogant and disrespectful of the office of the President. Save that for an Op-Ed. Anyway, both reporters refused to move (even when told the Secret Service would become involved…it didn’t become involved. Empty threat.). The press conference went on without further discussion regarding seating arrangements. If anyone stuck pout  their tongue or raised a middle finger in defiance, it wasn’t noted or reported.

The White House Correspondents’ Association determines the seating arrangements. This association is separate from the White House (as well it should be). Supposedly, the WHCA determines seating locations according to the particular news agency’s audience size or readership, how cooperative the agency has been with other agencies when being tasked as a news pool member and the frequency the reporter travels with the President. We know, of course, that is a load of crap.

The reason a reporter is given preferential seating is for more TV face time and a better chance of having the President address their questions. It helps the reporter become more famous and boosts his network’s ratings. The reasons a reporter isn’t afforded better seating are: 1) Wearing a face mask as an athletic supporter. 2) Not wearing shoes. 3) A history of attempting to swat away invisible birds. 4) If they are prone to verbally spar with the President This system is clearly unfair. It needs to be revised.

There is no reason to believe an unfamiliar, cross-eyed, flatulent (oh yeah, two more reasons to not be seated up front) reporter is incapable of asking a more intelligent, more pressing, more relevant question than a reporter who has just spent hours getting his/her/whatever’s makeup and hair done. In fact, it’s probably more likely.

I think there are a couple of ways to address this problem. One would be to seat reporters “first come-first served”. The other would to be to rotate reporters’ seating assignments so that the ones farthest back move to the front at the next press briefing. In doing so, perhaps a reporter could be assigned to sit upon the President’s lectern with the responsibility of waving to the parents of the other reporters in attendance who might be watching, hoping to see their offspring on TV.

Does this seem a bit too childish? I ask you, what about Trump’s and the media’s behavior isn’t?

In my last post of a week ago I mentioned that society will, at some time, begin to rebel against the social distancing rules the government has imposed if those rules remain in place for a long time. Since then, protests have begun in Michigan and Ohio. The democrat mayor of Las Vegas has called for the release of the lockdown on “sin city”. The feelings seem to be that the virus mitigation policy (fear of death) is trumped by the need for freedom to socialize and that money in Las Vegas takes priority over loss of life ( not a big surprise in a city founded by the mob) . Anyway, this happened quicker than I imagined.

Also, at the time of my last post, I had gone into a supermarket to find all the workers wearing surgical gloves and a couple wearing masks. Most of the shoppers were wearing both. I went to the same supermarket yesterday and found all of the employees wearing both gloves and masks. One shopper was wearing a mask. The rest of the shoppers weren’t wearing any protective equipment. I must assume the employees were following a newer, more stringent store policy and the shoppers were fed up with the governmentally imposed restrictions (which are still in force).

Trump has said he has the power to unilaterally open the country. The liberal media and others started calling him King Trump. Apparently they don’t know that when one refers to a king, it’s by first name. England doesn’t call her  Queen Mountbatten-Windsor.  King “the” Donald is providing guidelines, but is leaving the actual lifting of restrictions to state governors.

I actually believe Trump would love to be considered royalty. He even named his youngest son “Barron”. Using the first name rule, his son’s full name would be rather long, “Barron Barron bo-Barren mo-Marron Marren mo-Marron fee-fi-fo-Farron… Barron… Trump. But, allow me to digress.

The country has been watching Dr. Fauci (Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) during daily White House COVID-19 briefings. At one point, the good doctor said  had restrictions been put in place earlier, many lives would have been saved. The media immediately blamed Trump for not following health experts’ recommendations. Fauci later clarified his remark as a general comment on logic and noted that Trump had instituted health experts’ recommendations immediately each time he received them. Maybe we will learn in the future whether or not that was wise on Trump’s part. Either way, the original, liberal reports were partisan and spurious.

CNN reported California governor Gavin Newsom’s complaint that Elon Musk’s promise to provide a large number of ventilators to hospitals in California had gone completely unfulfilled. No ventilators had arrived. Musk, in return, provided proof (in numbers) of deliveries of ventilators to hospitals all over the country (including California) with letters of appreciation from hospital staffs. He also noted Tesla is manufacturing high-tech valves for some devices.  There is a question of definition of the word  ventilator and if it only describes  “invasive type” forced O2 ventilators or increased pressure “CPAP style” BIPAP equipment. In any case, Musk was ungratefully demeaned in the report. CNN countered by saying it only reported the information it was given by Newsom’s office and was therefore  blameless for the false report. After all, reporters shouldn’t be required to check the veracity of the information they deliver. That’s hard. I’m left wondering how well CNN checks the accuracy of reports coming from the White House before twisting a partisan skew to them.

Weather: It will be dry this afternoon, unless it rains. And now for sports.

…um…oh yeah, according to Bob Sims (KFBK Radio), the Sacramento River is still open to anglers, if they maintain a minimum, arbitrary distance of 6 feet from other people. Striped Bass are in season.

    In the midst of this current pandemic, I think it’s possible there are a certain number of liberal/progressives who are saying to each other, “I told you so!. I told you the general public’s behavior can be manipulated.”

    So many proposed policies of the left will only work if the public’s behaviors can be manipulated. Much of this has already been accomplished for the time being. People have put aside the views they and their forebearers have held…many times for the better. As long as the new views don’t clash with human nature, these things are workable.

An entire nation (and world) has changed its normal behaviors in the attempt to stem the ravages of COVID-19. This is the fear of death at work. But it can’t last.

History has proven that the fear of death will eventually be trumped by the individual’s need to be free of governmental manipulation. It has never failed. If this pandemic continues long enough, I expect to see the public rebel against social distancing and the fear of shaking another’s hand, etc. to the demise of many and the silent acquiescence of human nature and the benefit of public sanity.

When COVID-19 first made its appearance in China, much about the disease was held from public knowledge. Maybe China didn’t want to admit  yet another virus began within its borders. Well, as we know, viruses don’t understand borders. They understand “hosts”. They climb on board and wherever the host travels, the virus is sure to go (kind’a like “Mary”s little lamb.)

COVID-19 is a new virus, and just like youthful cruise ship passengers, it likes to jump ship and wreak havoc in every port it can find. But, unlike Mary having only one little lamb, or a cruise ship having a number of  youthful passengers, these virus “critters” (and I use the term very loosely), are of a number beyond imagination.

I don’t pretend to know much about medicine or viruses beyond what I learned in high school, but I think I have common sense (which I didn’t learn in high school.) I know viruses, when you catch them, make you sick, and it is a sickness no medicine can cure. The sick person’s body must create antibodies to fight off the illness. Once you’ve been sick and have the antibodies, you become immune to the virus and are unlikely to catch it again. The virus can’t hurt you anymore. It’s a little like A.O.C.’s chances of being reelected (I hope.)

There are a few other things that I think I know due to common sense. When the government tells us, on one hand,  that wearing protective masks in public isn’t helpful in protecting us from catching the virus; and,  on the other hand, says healthcare workers need them, I know someone’s either not telling the truth or they’re just plain stupid.

When the government tells us that staying 6 feet away from others,  as we are trying to socially distance ourselves, will protect us from catching the virus; common sense tells me that isn’t necessarily the truth, either. I don’t think viruses carry tape measures, (I may be wrong. As I said, I’m no expert.) It’s strange how, now, the government is telling us that masks actually could help us stay healthy. I’m not stupid. I get it. Doctors’ and other health care professionals’, as well as first responders’ health is more important than the average Joe’s because they are expected to do the life saving during this crisis. Hmm….that actually makes sense.

The parts of this that distress me are that the government doesn’t trust the average Joe to selflessly deny himself/herself/whateverself the protection when supplies of masks are low… and that the government is right! God, I hate to admit that. Hey, look at the toilet paper hoarding if you don’t believe me. Just think of how many folks who really needed bathroom stationary, but couldn’t find any, had to rely on squares of newsprint, pillow cases or sandpaper. Doctors have fewer choices when it comes to masks (except maybe the pillow cases…but that scares the patients and when worn while driving to the hospital, can lead to traffic accidents)

Yes, I think the government is probably justified in lying to the public in its manipulation of common sense. This is because common sense is so astoundingly uncommon. Again, I’ll refer to electing A.O.C..

The Spanish Flu (H1N1) pandemic occurred in 1918, killing an estimated 50 million people. My father was born in 1926, so he didn’t really know much about it.

I was born in 1952 and was 16 years old when the H3N2 pandemic killed 1 million folks worldwide in 1968.

AIDS struck in 1981 and by 2018 had killed 32 million. I was 29 at the time, (her age when she was elected). I didn’t try to meddle and kept my opinions to myself and observed what the experts were doing (that’s how one learns).

The Bird Flu killed a great number of poultry and 6-10 people in 1997. 774 people died of SARS in 2002-2003. 2009 saw 575,400 people die of the return of H1N1. These were lower in scale to the earlier pandemics.

Now we have COVID-19, a pandemic that’s killed 40,000 as of this writing. It’s estimated 200,000 could die in the U.S. alone before this thing has run its course.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born 10/13/1989), in her arrogant, youthful ignorance has a great deal to say about how this pandemic and the economics surrounding it should be handled. Yet she’s never lived through nor witnessed how people with experience work under the pressure of something of this scale. It would do her well to step back, watch and learn how experienced adults deal with this and shut her flapping yap.

As senators and representatives fall ill and self-quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they are unable to vote on legislation. I wonder when Congress will address this issue and allow remote voting (perhaps via Skype). Or, will either side of the aisle take unethical advantage of the situation? Shenanigans in Congress? Who’s ever heard off such a thing?

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich) has the answer to how the government can rescue citizens from financial ruin and stimulate the economy. She suggests the Treasury Secretary direct the U.S. Mint to issue two $1 trillion dollar coins to be sold to the Federal Reserve, which, in turn, would credit the U.S. Mint’s account wit $2 trillion in reserves. The Fed would permanently own the two coins to make sure its books balanced with the Treasury. Then the Treasury would move the “newly created” reserve funds from the Mint’s account into the General Treasury account. At that point, the Treasury would make the money available to the Bureau of Fiscal Service which, in turn, would provide citizens with pre-paid U.S. Debit Cards that can be up-funded whenever. BRILLIANT!!!!!

One question. If they can do that, why only two $1 trillion coins? Why not “newly create” a whole lot more money? Why not pay off the federal deficit for years to come, as well? Please read on…

For as ridiculous as this scheme sounds, it can legally be done and has been considered before when the government overspent (more logical heads nixed the idea). Platinum coins of any size or arbitrary denomination can be minted and used. Unlike paper money, there’s no limit….but there is one pesky sticking point. FISCAL REALITY.

It’s a novel, rationalized and ridiculous way to not only address the current situation, but to redistribute wealth. That is Rep. Tlaib’s great desire. Understanding reality isn’t.

I just got a couple of texts from family warning that the nation would be shut down by the military in response to COVID-19. Everyone nationwide would be forced to quarantine themselves in their homes. All businesses nationwide would be forced to close. Trump invoked the Stafford Act to do this and would announce it over the weekend. The problem with this, (aside from it being hilariously impossible), is that the Stafford Act only involves funding for FEMA and the lifting of restrictions on the medical community…not quarantine. Not Martial Law.

I went to a reliable source (REUTERS) to learn that this farce originated from a Facebook post by Jasmine Morgan of Richmond, Virginia at 8:16am on Monday morning. I went to Jasmine’s Facebook page to confirm this and there was the warning, supposedly from a friend in the military and advising everyone to buy and hoard two weeks worth of food and supplies. Just what we needed to hear when shelves are already bare. NOTE: Actually, the language in this particular post displays far better grammar than her other posts, so I wonder if SHE actually wrote it or whether they are someone else’s words posted to her account.

Jasmine (or whomever) has the right to free speech, just like every other citizen, but this post doesn’t fall into that category. It falls into the category of yelling “FIRE” in a crowded theatre. But this is even worse. The supremely stupid behavior can easily be considered treasonous due to the enormous damage and possible loss of life it may cause by those who believe the lies.

Trump also invoked the Defense Production Act ( a wartime tool) to address COVID. After all, we are at war with this virus. Treason during wartime is punishable by…guess what?

Jasmine (or whomever) should certainly be arrested and charged. The person responsible is, of course, entitled to due process. If convicted, I’d have my own opinion as to their punishment and it wouldn’t stop at the loss of a Facebook page.

Trump warned of getting information from reputable sources. He warned about the likelihood of disinformation being spread through social media. He gave good counsel.

Bernie Sanders is a bit confused. He has declared free healthcare, shelter and education are human rights. They are not. They don’t pass the litmus test for human rights. When they are offered , they are social entitlements paid by taxes. Human rights are tax free.

Governments have no decision making powers regarding human rights…except to violate them.

Perhaps Bernie is dealing with the subject on a semantic level, which cannot be logically done. The concepts of human rights vs. entitlements are too different. It would be like comparing an idependent bear in the wild, making a living for itself without kind-hearted intervention to a dependent bear being fed and cared for in a zoo (at no “financial” cost to the bear). Bears don’t have human rights but captive ones are entitled to our care, which is why we buy tickets to pay for their care and are able to see them in zoos.