Month: March 2020

COVID-19: Armchair Quarterbacking

There’s a ton of anger toward Donald Trump for his mishandling of the present outbreak.  I understand it; at present, I myself am quite disappointed.  There’s a few things that ought to have been done much sooner, and we should examine them.

We have too few doctors, nurses, nurse’s aides, people trained in hazmat disposal, (more…)

It’s An Ill Wind

[Today’s Theme Music]

Yes, there’s a plague.  And for some of us, today really sucks.  Doctors and nurses are getting burned out — and worse, sick — and things are still just ramping up.  The numbers look bad and tomorrow they’ll look worse and a week from now we’re going to look back on today and wish it was still only as bad as this.

It’s tempting to focus on this (more…)

Brazil Jumps On Grenade

We’re getting used to world leaders making decisions that appear Quixotic, even a bit insane.  In the face of a world that’s shutting down due to a virus, North Korea is running missile tests every couple of days, rogue Iraqi militias keep firing missiles at American bases, Russia’s doing a curious diplomatic maneuver with Venezuela… and Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has decided that his countrymen are tough enough to survive COVID-19 without any protection.

Over the past few weeks, Bolsonaro has downplayed fears of a global pandemic, (more…)

China’s Report On USA Human Rights Violations

OK; to be fair, we deserved this:

“The remarks of US politicians have completely exposed their hypocrisy of adopting double standards on human rights issues and using them to maintain hegemony.”

We’re constantly interfering in China’s domestic policy — the raids on Hong Kong and imprisoning protestors, slavery-level factory conditions, selling political prisoners for their organs — and we’ve got the gall to lecture them on how they run their own country.  Meanwhile, even our headlines are full of our own sins.  Touché, China.  Touché. (more…)

You Don’t Need A COVID-19 Test

…probably.  Yes, one or two of you do, but if so you’re in the hospital right now because you can’t breathe, and so you’re probably not reading this.

Bear in mind:  I’m writing this with a persistent sore throat, bad lungs, and a massive case of paranoia.  It might just be the damned cherry blossoms and the annual pollen dump; it might be the coronavirus.  I have no (more…)

F&L: The Secret Of PersistPAC

Now that the news has broken (props to Lee Fang of The Intercept), it’s finally OK for me to write this.  It’s been killing me for weeks, knowing that I’d never get confirmation.

A week before Super Tuesday, the big news was the formation of two SuperPACs designed to inject life into campaigns that had started to founder:  PersistPAC and (more…)

F&L: Tulsi Gabbard Suspends Campaign

I thought it would never happen.  Either Gabbard or Yang was going to stay in way too long and then endorse Sanders, was my prediction.  And now they’ve both let me down.

I mean, yeah, sure, nobody could have predicted the election would pivot to be about the Coronavirus.  Taking down Trump I can see, and I even anticipated that the Democratic establishment would fear a Sanders presidency even more than a Trump (more…)