Outrage du jour--updated

or maybe we are all struggling to find a silver lining right now. Who knows?

Finger-pointing galore and much of it rightfully pointing at Trump goes on every day. Yet it shouldn’t all be at Trump. Again he deserves his fair share and I love it when Diamond and Silk came on Fox and says the whole media thing about the Coronavirus is to make Trump look bad. No, the media isn’t making Trump look bad, he does that well all by himself.

One issue is the media cannot make an objective comment about Trump anymore. I saw a story yesterday where I watched I think it was on CNN actually take something out of context and yet they kept going. They were so busy all patting each other on the back telling us this horrible statement Trump made. And they even showed a good portion of the whole statement but fixated on one sentence.

More proof the Democrats and the left-leaning media are clueless. You don’t have to go full barrel at Trump. He will hurt himself, overly exaggerating his missteps only makes them look bad. Yet they go on and on.

I also posted multiple times, do not impeach him. Stick to an issue-based campaign in 2020. Hit him hard over and over again on his issues especially the infrastructure, wages, the environment, etc because once you get him in a debate he would falter tremendously. The Democrats should be spending this whole year highlighting his lack of morals and his corrupt actions and also fill the airways with his failed policies and promote better ideas. And then, unfortunately, this Pandemic came on, but I hate saying this, it would have been a golden opportunity to display his shortcomings. 

Grotesquely sad but true. I don’t want people suffering, but Trump blew helping this country big time. And yet he can still save face if he does what he needs to do. Too many people have short memories and if the country is mending in October there will be people who will credit Trump. And the Democrats are in no position to stop it. And they are stuck behind this in the news cycle. The Democrats better come up with a game plan of immense proportion and get it out quickly because if they don’t Trump will dominate the headlines even as he fails.

After I wrote this I saw Snopes.com had done a fact check on Trump calling the virus a hoax. They gave it a half-truth. And if you read their reasoning you see again the media being fixated to an extreme. Folks you have to make sure you keep it 100%.

feeling a bit half baked philosophically

It helps if the police set the example, however going to the grocery store this morning there were five of them talking all within about two feet of each other. It just makes you wonder how do you encourage others to social distance.

Some things look good and even to me, but you have to wonder. Was taking a walk the other day, came across a restaurant that had set up a pick-up stand or station right off the street. There was a small driveway or extra lane that was already there so people could pick up the food without blocking traffic. And not quite sure how this worked, but they also had a bar set up on the street and were offering drinks. For those of you who don’t know Texas frowns on serving drinks and letting people walk around, I think there are a couple of tourist areas that allow this, but I am not even sure about that. So it looks like people could come up and have a drink while they were waiting for their food. Not sure, but not sure either if people coming up and having a drink or two while waiting on their food in their car is a good look. It was cool to walk right past an open-air bar set up like a grandiose lemonade stand on the sidewalk in Texas.

It was bad enough before when there were thousands trying to be youtube stars, now sheesh. 

Of course, when the better half is home for weeks on end the vacuum cleaner goes down. We changed the belt and it still wasn’t picking anything up so the better half goes into diagnostic mode. She finds the problem, there is a huge and we were later to discover a very huge clog in the tubing. So we unhook and unclasp everything then pull the tube out. Now, this was smack dap in the middle of the for lack of a better word or laziness to get a thesaurus out an accordion-type tubing that could stretch a good distance. So we played around with it for a while even sticking the long handle of a mop through the tubing and somehow manage to get this clog closes to one end. Finally, after thirty minutes of digging with a simple drain snake, we are able to get the clog out. Our bathtub full of mud, more hair and dog hair than you can imagine only to find a small plastic clip with glue on it in the middle of all that hair. How that simple piece of plastic got stuck I do not know, yet it managed to create more aggravation on a Saturday than I can remember. It wasn’t larger than your whole fingernail.

Hard to go to work even when you know you need to get somethings done. Everything is a distraction it seems. Some people are able to focus, yet still, there is always that feeling in the air that something is going to happen for everyone. 

And what irks me the most right now is every decision you make creates a 15-day wait to know if you made a mistake. I walk significantly and it seemed no one ever bothered me. Or maybe I just didn’t notice it as much. I work downtown so I see homeless people regularly, but overall people leave you alone. Now it seems everyone wants help or wants to help you. I certainly understand, but unfortunately, this isn’t the time. It amazes me how many people aren’t taking this seriously enough. So every time someone gets close or there are too many people rushing to get on the elevator, or some unknown person shows up in the office unexpectantly or did you touch your face while shopping in the grocery store you have to restart that 15-day window in the back of your mind. 

I do not live in fear, but I do live cautiously. Too many people are way too casual for my blood. And people are filling up the various parks and hike and bike trails all day long. So much so it makes news headlines. This happens in  Dallas and too many other places. 

Finally one interesting stat I did see recently. We all know there is a political divide, there are red states and blue states, rural and urban, etc... so it made sense that the reason Trump supporters, outside of the alt right’s misinformation campaign, disbelieve how dangerous is this is because they are not affected as much as the cities. Many Trump supporters are rural folk and the virus hasn’t hit them as much so the impact is still negligible for them. The story broke down how people felt by counties across the country, whether red or blue and then the number of cases for that county. It just isn’t that they support Trump and are listening to him only, it just hasn’t hit home for them to be concerned. Unfortunately because of the political divide, they do not understand how damaging this is going to be to the whole country since they hate democrats and do not believe the media. Trump has backed us into a new corner without even trying. 

Stumbling through the days trying to make sense of my own head. Nothing comes out coherent. Stay safe, keep washing hands and use that hand lotion too. Nothing like excessive soap and alcohol to dry out your skin. 

And I swear my face has itched like it never has before. There is always this excruciating itch that flares up randomly. It is some psychological hysteria somewhere in my brain, but it is the most annoying itch you can imagine.  

And I knew I was going to ramble around, yet this is even too much for me. 

Cheers 

Wow Mr. President Wow

Why are you not implementing the Defense Production Act?

How many times must people say the corporations are in good shape and to quit listening to them? They made a fortune selling stocks during the downturn and should be flush with cash. If they aren’t that is on them.

Mr. President, we are a consumer society and for us to work we need consumers. Mr. President, start saving lives now by buying the ventilators, PPEs and other much needed medical equipment now.

Mr. President, your legacy is going to be defined by how you handle this crisis. Are you going to step up and do what is right for this country?

The paranoia in me fears the worst. Please allay my fears.

Turn in your pro-life card now

Mr. President, Vice President Pence, and Texas Lt. Governor Patrick you need to be first in line.

I have always known many Republican politicians were pro-life in name only for votes. Some aren’t, however, some are. The comments made by these three individuals prove without argument that their God is money. 

How can any human who says they support life even begin to say what they have said over the last few days? If there ever was a time for VP Pence to stand up and prove he is a man it was yesterday. Instead, he warbled around trying to say something out of one side of his mouth while trying to disguise his complete lack of self-respect out of the other side of his mouth by trying to agree with President Trump we need to restart the economy now. Sheesh

A couple of weeks ago I thought maybe he might step up and become the leader of the pandemic fight. Oh how woefully wrong I was and he met all my pre-pandemic expectations of him without fail. He failed. Now a “man” who says he fights hard for pro-life values is now succumbing to the greed and narcissism of his boss all while pandering to his boss’ complete lack of respect for human life. I always knew Trump wasn’t pro-life. I thought I was about to see a glimmer that Pence actually was pro-life. Sadly I was right the first time around.

If you hear any person that says they are pro-life and then goes on to support President Trump’s restart of the economy no matter how it may affect people’s health, demand their pro-life card instantly and burn it. 

We are still facing the pandemic of the decline of integrity in this country.

Mr. President, do you want to be re-elected?

If you do, then the first thing you need to do is put the health of all Americans first.

I know there is a conspiracy theory myth that dead people vote for Democrats, but that is not true and dead people cannot vote for you. Why you ask? Because they are dead. It is not because they are broke. It is because they are dead. 

You keep people alive then eventually the economy will come around. Maybe not tomorrow, but eventually. Dead people cannot buy stocks, nor cars, nor groceries, nor shoes, nor get haircuts, nor go out to eat, nor go to the movies, nor buy gasoline, nor clean houses, nor do nails, nor make computers, nor drive trucks, nor build houses, nor build roads, nor pay bills, nor take care of children, nor answer phones,  basically they cannot do anything. And if they are alive and are eating up resources because they cannot breathe on their own anymore, or their health is affected another way and they have to go on Medicaid because they cannot work anymore, then they eat up government resources and fill up nursing homes which eat up more resources so the government cannot help billionaires buy more stock and have less taxes. 

So if you want to do the billionaire’s club a favor, work on the pandemic first, keep people well, save us from ourselves because if not then people might get a bit ticked off at you and then they won’t vote for you. 

Simple Mr. President, one alive person equals one vote and one million alive people equal one million votes and so on. Excessive amounts of dead relatives mean excessive amounts of people not too happy. Maybe not in your family, maybe so, who knows, but for many families, they happen to love and cherish their parents, spouses, and children. A Mom with two or three children and no husband/Dad because he went back to work too soon because you and your billionaire’s club convinced everyone it was okay to go out may not be too happy. A family watching their beloved Mother and Grandmother on a video stream suffer horribly for two weeks then die and they never get to say goodbye may remember come election day.

Just in case it matters Mr. President the stock market has come back every time. Only once has someone come back from the dead. And speaking of that guy who came back from the dead, not too many people are going to be able to get dressed up in a couple of weeks to celebrate the feast. That is going to weigh heavy on many souls. 

Just some thoughts in case you actually do want to get re-elected.

in 2020

Don't find yourself married and listening to the Talking Heads “this must be the place Naive Melody”  ends up being a bit much for what is going on nowadays and surpasses “Life during Wartime” 

Cheers

Social distancing ughhhhhhh

I never knew how much I appreciated normal till there wasn’t normal. 

So how do you feel? We made it through week one. Hopefully, only 6-7 to go.

I have washed my hands and used hand sanitizer so much they are a dry and bloody wreck. Yes, I keep forgetting to put hand cream on at night.

And the fear runs deep. Every little feel of a chill or warm temperature change is scary, do I have an upset stomach, was that last breath a bit short, all these sensed feelings which in normal times you never notice are so amplified in your brain the paranoid like me can barely survive being healthy. 

My youngest is happy because now everyone else is practicing better hygiene. I love my children, yet they have their personalities and the youngest has some very definitive feelings about people’s personal practices.

So where do we go from here? Right now everyone is focused on today and tomorrow. And yes tomorrow, not the future, just tomorrow. 

One side note here. I have recommended you read a website called Pitchforkeconomics before. I was listening to some of the podcasts last night and one caught my attention because I have tried to espouse ideas that we need to come up with better programs to address poverty. (Is the American Dream a lie? is the specific episode) My ideas are attempts at functional ways to improve people’s plight. The specific entry last night discussed specifically how poverty affects the brain. The guest on this episode, Christian Cooper, has written on this topic and his discussion was eye-opening. Please give it a listen. It is good to understand some of the effects poverty has on people when you want to draw up plans to combat it. Mr. Cooper has also written on this topic and what he has to say is powerful. The better half works in an environment where she helps parents of distressed children. I asked her to listen to the episode this morning and she is spending the day reading in depth what he wrote and more. 

Today I am going to do a quick rehash of some of my ideas from the 2010 crisis for you to ponder on.  And my ideas are meant to continue our country in the best light possible which means we still need to keep our society open, growing and prosperous. I have also talked about what it means to be prosperous before and will address this in a future post. 

I could say much about what our government can do right now, but we also need to think about how we transition past this, what do we do in six or eight weeks if we are lucky. 

I will make a quick hit list for now of things to do. And this list is an economic plan to get people back to work and move us forward in the 21st century to fight off a possible recession as soon as possible. I understand sending checks out so people can survive, but once we get past this we need to make better decisions going forward.

And I have this reference page I started to help me find old posts to share. I looked at it the other day and realized I haven’t worked on it in over a year. Sheesh on myself. 

Anyway for economic development to get us moving forward again

We need to develop desalination plants. And we need to work with Mexico on developing these in the Gulf of California. Both countries' agriculture could thrive as we include building large greenhouse complexes in the Sonora desert. This creates new sources of clean water, new food supplies that can be exported so you have both domestic and trade benefits and a host of jobs developing and maintaining all this for years to come.

The airline industry is going to take a hit. Some airlines may not make it past this year. That means some capacity is going to fall off. Great time to build electric trains relying on green energy. These trains would be for short trips like Austin to Dallas or Phoneix to Los Angeles. The East already has a large train structure in place, but the west is still wide open. Large solar plants creating more energy could fuel short trips and let the airlines concentrate on the long haul flights that still will be needed. Basically, airline jobs just move to the trains and there will be many construction jobs as you build this out over time.

This was just a couple of quick-hit ideas. I know right now many of you are focused on your immediate needs and so am I, however we blew the opportunity last recession to change our thinking which to me includes retraining to go along with the unemployment benefits we will need, focusing on reward-based taxation for corporations that actually invest in future business and not their own hoarding of wealth and high taxation for those that sit on their hands or don’t take care of their employees, expanding the education we give our children, helping people relocate to where jobs might spring up and open eyes in general that we cannot use the same ole solutions for the new problems facing us. One problem will be how do we improve healthcare moving forward. This will be a priority.

One quick idea and not mine since some of this is already being addressed by state workforce organizations and that is virtual hiring fairs for service workers affected by current events so they can get jobs where needed in the supply chain or grocery stores where there is a temporary need for people. This is how we need to think. 

Anyway I do not want to overwhelm you in one post so I will be assessing life and spitting out new ideas and rehashing other ideas as time permits.

Wash your hands folks and believe it or not rainy or cloudy days are good. Keeps you want from wanting to get out.

Cheers

Today’s PSA

All you young Millenials use to hate to hear us old boomers say: “now share Johnnie, share your toys, your french fries, your candy” etc... growing up that is all you heard, well....

Since you will be spending the next eight weeks at home, maybe you shouldn’t share your blunt or joint or bong or beer bong, or whatever else you may find yourself doing with all your friends to make it through the night so to speak. You don’t want to be hacking up half your lung all over the place with all your buds, well at least for the foreseeable future...

just sayin’

How do I feel?

A question many of you are asking yourself?

How do I feel physically?

How do I feel emotionally?

How do I feel financially?

How do I feel about my job?

How do I feel about my doctor?

How do I feel about my grocery store?

How do I feel about my government?

And I know you can add a hundred more questions at the drop of your hat.

Shoot you may even be asking yourself how do I feel about my cracked toenail.

The issue is we all have questions, very little answers and watching the news can either scare you or cause you to want to believe the President a week ago or month ago when he said it wasn’t going to be bad. All of us do not want this to be bad or horrible. We definitely want that, yet where does all this stand?

And now with many people staying home, the bad actors will be flooding the net with the divisiveness we do not need, the hate we do not need, the misinformation we do not need, yet it will happen which will only add to either the panic or the head in the sand attitude we do not need.

So what do you do? Hard to say. Heck, it is allergy season here in Texas. Is a sneeze the virus or a speck of pollen? Are my aches and pains arthritis or the first signs of a fever? Do you drive mindlessly for 24 hours to get a child to bring home from college since classes are online and the airports are insane based on news pictures? Do you wait? My thought is yes because at some point there will be a better handle on things, yet do you trust that thought?

How do you feel? Are you paranoid? Are you hiding? Are you spending endless hours watching the news or posting on Facebook?

Have you been to Church? Can you go to Church? Have you eaten out? Can you eat out? Movies? We all know sports are out of the equation for quite a while. Do you reach to scratch an itch on your face and stop with your hand in the air trying to think what to do? Are you tired of washing your hands? The answer to most of these questions is probably yes. Because we aren’t paying attention, no because we are human. Change doesn’t happen overnight.

Is there too much politicization? Yes! Yet, we need to listen to our government. So now is the time to call your Representative, your Senator, your State Representatives etc...and get to know them. Go visit them, but uh maybe wait a few weeks. We need to take back our government and make it responsive to us again and what is going on right now is proof positive of the need to engage.

As you know I have posted many different public policy ideas over the years, all with the intent of making the government accountable to main street, not Wall Street, but now we need to force that issue. Healthcare, paycheck care, supply chain care, childcare, doctor care, home care, education care, all care are now slapping our government upside the head. The government actually needs us to help them get back on track. 

Today we are unsure who to believe the President or the “fake news” or the “fake President” and science. It doesn’t matter your past political stripe you are an American, so you need to avoid the hype coming at you from all directions and pay attention to only the most basic of facts. And the facts are coming too few and too far in between except common sense, wash your hands well and long, wipe down everything and leave on the surface for a few minutes, wash wash wash, sneeze and cough into your inner elbow, “chicken wing” and go to your government healthcare websites to get info, not Facebook, Twitter, etc, use those to speak to friends and check on them, not for information.

How do you feel? Hopefully, you are overwhelmed and not sick. If you are sick, follow all the instructions you are given. Someone in your family is probably not well enough today to be sick tomorrow.

Remember pro-life means to respect life from conception to natural death, let us help all life live to a normal natural death.

Take care all. 

Read my post, it’s the healthcare stupid.

Read my post, it’s the healthcare stupid.

Don’t you love a bad mashup of two overworked phrases from past politicians, except it seriously applies.

President Trump spent the day with executives from the various Wall Street banks, while VP Pence gets to play an attempt at the good guy working on the administration’s response to what is now called a pandemic.

Propping up Wall Street should not be the goal, basically this is the equivalent of the overly insecure schoolgirl putting on too much makeup to make herself feel better.

Americans need a more overall response that addresses many issues. Dealing with those will take much of the fear out of the markets and hence getting the result Trump really wants and that is the market back on an upward swing before the election.

If Americans know they can get healthcare, not lose out on paychecks, can protect their parents and grandparents, and a host of other items already discussed in the news and media then this will pass for the markets.

Yet, if people start watching their parents and grandparents die without access to care, or because the people around them were sick and no one was tested, or for any cause related to the Coronavirus then the market will be mean nothing to Trump’s Presidency. And as per the stories I have been reading Trump is so far removed from this reality that this is probably going to be what happens.

And for worse case scenarios imagine watching your parents die while laid off and you have no income and no healthcare. The anger towards Trump will be astronomically higher than the feel good moments of his political rallies.

Let’s hope someone in the White House is strong enough to actually sit the President down and get him to realize if he wants this to be about him he needs to make it about everyone else.

Yet here we are piecemealing reactions, some events are closed and cancelled, some go on, some schools are closed some aren’t, different cities have different levels of preparedness. And add in all the conspiracy theories passing along fake or incorrect information, 20 plus years of Fox Entertainment News wearing people’s trust down to the bone, yet these are the Trump supporters, distrust of “liberal media” and not just by Fox viewers, science discounted, our government giving conflicting information with Trump contradicting the healthcare experts up until now, how can the average American sort all this madness out. Can we get a clue from him?

And the very people that Trump needs to vote for him in November may be dying in droves if worse case scenarios play out.

So who has the cajones to tell Trump the truth, after three years of building a yes man team I doubt there is anyone left. I saw an article Trump will be addressing the nation, however, I didn’t see what time so hopefully by sometime this evening this blog’s premise will be laughable because if not, damn if we do, damn if we don’t because the forecasts on how much this is going to spread is not funny.

And yes I know this is not ground breaking news, but we are at a tipping point and I am bookmarking this moment by this post to see if Trump turns around his attitude and makes real changes or the meeting I heard he was having today with Wall Street will be the moment when his Presidency begins its downward spiral.

I would say hate to kick a good man when he is down, but I never thought Trump was a good man. Hopefully he can change because the country needs him to change.

Wash your hands, folks

random thoughts of perspective

So which is worse for the market? The Coronavirus or the deficit and debt?

Well in the short term Covid-19 or Coronavirus is going to reek some market havoc, maybe cause some business slow down for 1-3 quarters, overall Asia may have significant economic slow down, but eventually things will settle down. Unless we are being grotesquely lied to, the market effect will past within a year or sooner easily. The real concern is people’s health and taking care of the ones who are adversly affected by this disease. That is where our worries and energies should be, not the market. 

The debt and deficit quietly rage on. And if you add into the ever growing wealth gap there is a real recipe for disaster. I know there are still rational people out there that see this rising tidal wave coming. Why their voices are drowned out I can only guess. And my guess doesn’t offer much hope. Could even the rational people have drowned themselves in the current orgy of market greed? Or are they afraid to speak for fear of the President calling them names? Really and truly that is all he has. He has no policy, no plan, no path forward, only bullying and a hyped up group of angry old white people who were lied to for so long by Fox they cannot tell fact from fiction even if their lives and livelihoods depended on it. And unfortunately it does. 

Bernie is not the answer, but he has a bunch of scared young people who have half a clue about the worst case scenario facing this planet and their economic futures. 

And whether or not it becomes Bernie v. Donnie in November that dynamic will continue to play out for years to come. The Democrat establishment continues to ignore the problem, hoping some moderate will win the day.

Unfortunately no Democrat “moderate” (ie Biden or maybe Klobuchar) has a plan. They just hope you think they have an answer so they can beat Trump. We need Trump out, but we need something different also. Our outstanding debt and deficit cannot handle Bernie’s plan. And no the market won’t crash completely if he is elected and probably 90% of his ideas won’t pass Congress, but four years of ineffective leadership even well intentioned leadership is not going to help.

Are we past the point of no return? No. We do not need any of the current answers though. We are at a unique crossroad in history so we need unique answers. It doesn’t have to be radical, but it does have to be creative.

One example, all the oil people say the world will end and you won’t make any money in the stock market if we get off oil. The world will be here and you will make money even when we wean ourselves off oil. The how we make the transition is the key. This is where we need creative leadership. I have spouted ideas on this blog before and I am not afraid to do it again. Yes, the infamous ficiticious third party platform for 2020 is coming soon. As I always say, if I can get creative on my living room couch, there are others much more intelligent than me that can do the same. And probably be effective.

The question is will they get off their duff and step up to the plate. There are many out there who have the talent, resources, and connections to do the job, so someone please go kick them in the back end and lets get this party started.

And if you are bored, Super Tuesday is coming so get out and vote for Bill Weld in the Republican Primaries. Why not? It definitely can’t hurt. And if enough people do it, the Trump meltdown will be interesting to watch. 

Otherwise spring is here, the weather will be getting better till it gets hot enough for us to begin complaining about the weather again. 

The Mavs are still keeping me engaged and excited, but inconsistency on defense is driving me crazy. 

And speaking of basketball, some of the best weekends in sports are right around the corner.

Cheers