Tag: Politics

I’ve got the coronavirus blues

“We have contained this” doesn’t work.

coronavirusI’ll admit that I am now terrified about the coronavirus spreading in the United States. But it’s not just the unknown nature of the disease. It’s the abysmal United States strategy in dealing with it from the very beginning.

The administration has known about coronavirus since at least December 27, 2019. “It did nothing until January 29, when the White House posted a memo announcing President Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force.”

Then Vice-President Mike Pence adds top economic advisor Larry Kudlow and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin to the Task Force, making clear what the actual goal is. That is to spin the news so that the stock market might be bolstered.

At the CPAC conference, chief of staff Mick Mulvaney Accused the Media of Hyping Coronavirus to Bring Down Trump: ‘That’s What It’s All About’.

Junior’s rant

Trump Jr. Accuses Democrats of Hoping Coronavirus ‘Kills Millions’ to End President’s ‘Streak of Winning’. THIS is why I’m worried about the potential pandemic. The people in and around the administration seem more obsessed with the politics of the issue than of the health concerns.

To DT Jr.’s idiotic comment, let me make it clear that I don’t want “millions” to die in order to make anyone look bad politically. I want a robust response from the medical community, bolstered by the government. I’m not seeing that yet.

Here’s an economic truth. If we actually contain the coronavirus virus, the stock market, which tanked all last week, will rebound. No spin from the White House will work.

“In a muddled, dishonest, rambling news conference from the White House press briefing room…Trump…lied. He twisted the truth, [and] displayed little grasp of basic facts.” As usual, “he didn’t let the experts run the show. He instilled no confidence Wednesday night. The markets on Thursday rewarded his efforts with the DOW posting the largest single-day loss in history.”

Hey, I want the market to keep going up. I’m a retiree. My 401(k) took a bath at the end of February. But trotting out Larry Kudlow to say “we have contained this” doesn’t work. When he lies, “I won’t say ‘air-tight,’ but it’s pretty close to air-tight,” it creates greater fear, not less.

Dismantling units designed to protect against pandemics

This is a government that has regularly shown it doesn’t believe in science. In fact, according to the hardly-liberal Foreign Policy site from late January, the current administration has sabotaged America’s coronavirus response. “As it improvises its way through a public health crisis, the United States has never been less prepared for a pandemic.”

If Bush (either one), or Obama, or Clinton (either one) had been in charge, I wouldn’t be nearly as nervous. Meanwhile, A Guide to COVID-19 for Public Libraries.

Limit political stress for better health

essential strategyDr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Mike Roizen, MDs, posted an email ad, Limit Political Stress for Better Health, I’m a not a devotee of Oz and don’t know Roizen, but it sounds about right, especially with US Thanksgiving coming up.

“A University of Nebraska survey found that nearly 40% of people say politics are stressing them out; 20% are losing sleep or are fatigued or suffering depression because of politics; and 20% report that political discussions have damaged friendships. This worries health professionals.”

ONLY 20% report damaged friendships?

They lay out a plethora of ailments including depression, anxiety, headaches and chronic pain syndromes. “It can exacerbate asthma and COPD; damage the circulatory system and heart; disrupt your hormone balance and immune system; increase your risk of dementia and cancer; cause digestive upset; and even alter fertility.”

Altered fertility? Maybe this explains the diminishing birth rate, not just in the United States.

“That’s why it’s important to find a way to de-escalate anxiety, anger, and conflict about political events (while remaining committed to every American’s involvement in the political process — including that uncle you disagree with).”

Even HIM? OK.

Avoiding political stress

“Here are some tips to avoid the stress of politics:
• Limit time spent watching and reading news coverage.
I fail.

• Turn off your phone’s news alerts.
I think this is a GREAT idea, actually.

• Ask friends to drop the subject, and talk about movies, books, or food instead.
I see the first two as problematic. For instance, I can see someone recommending “Why Trump Deserves Trust, Respect and Admiration,” a real book title with blank pages. Someone responses with the newest book by conservative author Dinesh D’Souza.

Do you really want to discuss a Michael Moore film with half of your relatives?
And heck, food’s dangerous too. It can engender debates about foie gras, meat, or food produced from farther than 100 miles away, to name just a few topics.

• Use physical activity (60 minutes daily) and meditation to calm your stress response and mind.
Yes, walk away from these discussions and discuss the weather. “Climate change is killing us!” “There’s no such thing!”
Or, ah, er…

With Thanksgiving at hand, what are now SAFE conversation starters?

Preachers, politics, and the Christian Left

“This need not be our normal.”

Love thy neighborPeople of faith have been, and ought to be involved with small-p politics, in terms of feeding the hungry, but also pointing out injustice, opposing immoral wars, and the like.

I’m fascinated that the Washington National Cathedral, the closest thing the US has to a national house of worship, issued a strong statement about the White House resident. “The racial overtones are clear, and they are building,” says Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde. “This need not be our normal.”:

The new DC Archbishop, Wilton Gregory, and the only black archbishop in the nation, said 45 is “diminishing our national life,” by attacking non-white members of Congress. “I have stressed that I am a pastor and fellow disciple of Jesus, not a political leader,” Gregory, the former archbishop of Atlanta, said in a statement to the Catholic Standard. “There are, however, sometimes, when a pastor and a disciple of Jesus is called to speak out to defend the dignity of all God’s children.

“Our faith teaches us that respect for people of every race, religion, gender, ethnicity and background are requirements of fundamental human dignity and basic decency,” Gregory said. “This include newcomers to our country, people who have differing political views and people who may be different from us. Comments which dismiss, demean or demonize any of God’s children are destructive of the common good and a denial of our national pledge of ‘liberty and justice for all.'”

You can tell these comments were made reluctantly, lest their intentions be misunderstood, their parishioners offended, their sincerity attacked.

Someone, I wish I remembered who, noted recently that Paul Tillich, one of the most important theologians of the 20th century, said c. 1960 that we should declare a 100-year moratorium on the use of the word “God.” “He’d simply grown weary of people dropping the name to support their utterly non-scriptural, usually bigoted, fundamentalist agenda, and wanted time for the air to clear, and to let real theologians set the record straight.”

I’m not crazy about the term Christian left, because it seems to suggest a primarily electoral agenda. Still, John Pavlovitz lays it out correctly. “The loudest people get to write the story that everyone hears, the one they come to believe is the only story. In this way, they get to define what is true for those looking on, who may not hear anything else.

“Right now there is a story being written about Christians in America; a story saturated with cruelty and absent of compassion, and because the authors’ volume is so great and their profile so high and their political position so unrivaled—that is becoming the singular story. It is becoming true for all of us.

“But that is not our story.” And he goes into great deal about what IS an alternative narrative. This important to me personally, because those louder, more Politically connected, but less spiritually compassionate have been a stain on my faith for WAY too long.

Finally, an old IRL friend of mine said recently, “You know, Roger, so many ‘good’ people who claim to follow Jesus Christ also support racism in this country. Do they really think they won’t burn in hell for their greed and bigotry?!” To which I can safely answer, these things are WAY above my pay grade.

Wilmington, NC coup d’etat of 1898

The mob broke out windows and set the building on fire

Wilmington
Richmond (VA) Planet newspaper, 19 Nov 1898
The only coup d’etat In U.S. history took place in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898. “Almost two-thirds of its population was black, with a small but significant middle class.” There were a number of black businesspeople and civil servants. “A good feeling between the races existed as long as white Democrats controlled the state politically.”

In the Jim Crow south, the race relations were practically idyllic. “But when a coalition of predominately white Populists and black Republicans defeated the Democrats in 1896 and won political control of the state, Democrats vowed revenge” two years later.

The outbreak stemmed “from an editorial published by the Wilmington Daily Record, an African American newspaper edited by Alexander Manly. In response to an appeal for the lynching of black rapists made by crusader Rebecca Felton in Georgia, Manly wrote that white women ‘are not any more particular in the matter of clandestine meetings with colored men than are the white men with colored women.’

“Moreover, Manly argued, many accusations of rape were simply cases where a black man was having an affair with a white woman. Because it involved the sensitive issue of interracial sexual relations, the editorial struck a raw nerve with many whites and led to bitter denunciations of Manly in the Democratic press.”

“On November 10th, Alfred Moore Waddell, a former Confederate officer and a white supremacist, led a group of townsmen to force the ouster of Wilmington’s city officials… Waddell led 500 white men to the headquarters of the Daily Record on 7th Street. The mob broke out windows and set the building on fire. Manly and other high profile African Americans fled the city; however, at least 14 African Americans were slain that day.

“When their criminal behavior resulted in neither Federal sanctions nor condemnation from the state, Waddell and his men formalized their control of Wilmington. The posse forced the Republican members of the city council and the mayor to resign and Waddell assumed the mayoral seat.

November 10, 1898 is considered a turning point in post-Reconstruction North Carolina politics. The event initiated an era of more severe racial segregation and effective disenfranchisement of African Americans throughout the South, a shift already underway.

Read The Lost History of an American Coup D’État in The Atlantic magazine.

For ABC Wednesday

Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – AOC

Almost immediately, well before the November general election, when AOC was actually elected, the 29-year-old organizer and former bartender, became a cause celebre.

AOCSome weeks ago, when I roughly plotted my ABC Wednesday for this round, I decided on O is for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I thought it’d be simple. HA!

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ran for Congress in 2018. She entered the Democratic primary in New York’s 14th House District, representing parts of northern Queens and eastern Bronx.

Her opponent was the incumbent, Joseph Crowley. She campaigned hard, while Crowley, who had not been primaried since 2004, only started taking the challenge seriously in the latter stages. On June 26, she won the primary.

Almost immediately, well before the November general election, when she was actually elected, the 29-year-old organizer and former bartender, became a cause celebre. From Vanity Fair: It appears Republicans have finally learned that criticizing social-media-savvy freshman [AOC] only makes her stronger. And She Quotes Watchmen in Response to Critics.

Are the attacks because of anxiety, as one neuroscientist who studies such things suggests? Something is driving faux scandals such as a fake nude photo or dancing in college (horrors!) or not being “hot” enough.

Perhaps it is their fear of her support of a high marginal tax rate for rich people, which is supported by people such as Peter Diamond, Nobel laureate in economics “and arguably the world’s leading expert on public finance…

And “it’s a policy nobody has every implemented, aside from… the United States, for 35 years after World War II — including the most successful period of economic growth in our history.” She is on Financial Services Committee, and Banks Are Afraid.

The New York Democrat has been met with warm welcomes from working people in red states, such as Kentucky, where poor communities would benefit from progressive policies, such as the Green New Deal, a framework for environmental considerations.

The Onion kiddingly said that Fox News debuted a premium channel for 24-hour coverage of AOC. Fox News’ Laura Ingraham actually did rant about AOC’s “Minority Privilege”. Rush Limbaugh complains
the Member of Congress is too “uppity.” James Woods calls her “The Most Dangerous Person” in the nation.

On the other hand, her lightning-round exploration of government ethics limits was brilliant as was her questioning of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney. Her explanation of a broken system was spot-on. She encourages people to “shake the table” in pursuit of justice.

Even an AIER writer believed that The Amazon Deal Was An Outrage From the Beginning, something AOC opposed for NYC.

As a novice political entity, she’s been told to “wait her turn,” advice which she has largely ignored. Noam Chomsky says she and other newcomers are rousing the multitudes. And don’t we want an engaged electorate?

Film director Michael Moore dubbed AOC the leader of Democratic Party now. Surely, she is challenging the Democratic establishment.

As a result, a least one House Democrat is trying to recruit someone to run against her in a primary in order to make her a ‘one-term congresswoman.

AOC says “I’m not a superhero. I’m not a villain.” Well maybe; there IS a comic book about her. She’s normal enough to gush at meeting Bill Nye, the science guy.

For ABC Wednesday

Ramblin' with Roger
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