Trump Uses the Government to Meet His Needs

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump, a man who inherited some wealth and the notion that he was a businessman, is, in fact, a colossal doofus when it comes to understanding how businesses actually work.   Several of his businesses have failed due to Trump's ineptitude (How in the hell can a casino fail?), and of the ones that have survived, some are said to have done so through the Trump family laundering money for Russian oligarchs.  The fact that he has been so aggressive in keeping his tax returns and business records away from public scrutiny adds to the perception that all that glitters in the Trump world may not be as golden as it seems.

Aside from bankruptcies, the Trump family has also been sanctioned by courts for stealing from a children's charity that they set up, and for Trump University, a supposed institute of higher learning which also proved to be just a scam.

So when it comes to business, Donald Trump lacks credibility - and the professor from Wharton Business School who referred to Trump as being "the dumbest son-of-a-bitch" that he ever taught, was likely giving a fairly accurate assessment of his former student's academic abilities and business leadership potential.

But, setting his lifetime of failures aside, Donald Trump still regards himself as having a "big" brain, and he still feels that he has an instinct for business - among many other things.  Add to that the fact that he is a bully, and we have a situation in which a person in a position of power makes rash decisions bused on a gut feeling and then pushes those decisions into policies that affect real people.

Early in his administration Trump moved to incite the rabble in his political base by instituting a travel ban from several Middle Eastern countries, something the press rightly dubbed a "Muslim ban."  As that political ploy was being kicked about in the courts and began  to lose steam with the public, he again donned his racist robes and went after the Chinese.  Trump, to the shock and dismay of even some in his own party, suddenly decided that the US trade imbalance with China was hurting our country, and that he could fix it with the simple solution of placing tariffs on several items that were being imported from China - though certainly not on any items that were being imported by businesses belonging to his daughter, Ivanka.

And so he decreed that tariffs would take immediate effect on certain Chinese goods.

However, there were a couple of major problems with Trump's rash decision.   First, those evil Chinese responded in kind with tariffs on American goods - and second, in some cases they even cancelled pre-existing orders of American goods and produce.  American soybean growers saw their markets in China disappear overnight as the Chinese quickly found new suppliers.  Trump, the businessman with the big brain, then had to put a large sector of American agriculture on a welfare program to correct his impetuous blunder.

And there was another problem with the tariffs on Chinese goods.

Trump argued that the tariffs would be paid by China and would thus help the US economy by making up for a trade shortfall that had existed for many years.  But in reality, the tariffs are actually incorporated into the end sales prices of the products - and paid by consumers.  Americans shopping at places like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target were paying the tariffs that Trump had enacted during one of his Twitter rampages.

Way to go, genius!

And now Trump is trying to tell the U.S. Postal Service how to run its business.  Donald Trump is known for being a bully and for being petty.  He has an outspoken animosity toward billionaire Jeff Bezos over things that The Washington Post, a newspaper owned by Bezos, has printed about him, and Trump seems intent on using the power of the presidency to get back at Bezos.

Another company that Jeff Bezos owns, the one that made him the world's richest person, is Amazon.com.  Donald Trump has decided that the U.S. Postal Service should be charging Amazon - and presumably other on-line retailers as well - more for delivering their packages.  Trump alleges that Amazon has a sweetheart deal with the post office that actually results in the post office losing money on every package that it delivers for Amazon.

So, to screw with Amazon and Jeff Bezos, Trump is also screwing with the U.S. Postal Service.  He is saying that he will block stimulus assistance to the post office until it raises its package rates.  He also never passes up an opportunity to disparage America's most popular government institution - the post office - and referred to it recently as "a joke."   And there is a notion floating about that the reason some Republican politicians are so opposed to voting by mail is that process would ultimately benefit the post office.

Of course, as with tariffs, the raise in postal rates on packages would not come out of Bezos's pocket.   It would be American consumers bearing the heavier costs.

Thanks again, genius!

But all of that does not mean that Donald Trump is one hundred percent anti-post office.  He recently made a big fuss about getting his name and signature on all of the government stimulus checks to individuals, an overt campaign ploy, and then when somebody informed him that many of the checks were directly deposited to banks and the people who benefitted from those were not seeing his name, he decided to send out letters to all of those poor souls - via the United States Postal Service - informing them that he had put money in their bank accounts.

A con-man's gotta do what a con-man's gotta do!

First and foremost, Donald Trump uses his position as the head of the government of the United States of America to meet his personal needs.  If Americans want a president who puts their needs first, they are going to have to put someone else in the White House.

November is coming!

A Racist Monster

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Having a person like Donald Trump in the White House has consequences that ripple across society.  Don't ever believe that he doesn't bring out the absolute worst in us, because he does.

There is a horrific video currently all over Twitter that shows a large white cop, in uniform, on the ground beating the holy hell out of a black child.  The kid is small, thin, and probably somewhere between the ages of ten and thirteen.  Supposedly the incident came about as the result of the child having a cigarette - and supposedly it occurred in California.

The policeman in the video was a big man - tall and stout - and probably in his late thirties or early forties.  He was not some gung-ho novice to the police force who was just beginning to learn how to use his power responsibly, but rather he was a man who had been wearing that uniform for several years and should have had some self-control.  In the video he slammed the child from side to side, viciously banging the kid's head on the sidewalk, and then he would take an occasional break from wrestling with his victim, who was at most a quarter of the man's size, and begin punching him in the torso and head with his fists.

It was a frenzied, brutal attack perpetrated by a raging maniac against a small human being who had absolutely no way of defending himself.

It was sickening.

And it was a clear reflection of a racist America that has been enabled and emboldened by Donald John Trump.

Please go to Twitter and see what we have become - if you dare.  It is an ugly, sickening sight.

Notes on the Democratic Veepstakes

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

With the massive impact that the pandemic is having across the land and around the globe, it is hard to focus on the fact that this is also an election year - and that in just over six months Americans will be going to the polls to choose a President.   At this point it looks as though the presidential candidates of both major political parties will be elderly white men, and any youth or diversity that makes its way onto the ticket will have to enter at the vice-presidential level.

Trump has said that he intends to run again with Mike Pence, something that would not only save money on signage but should also serve to keep the rabid right-wing of the GOP happy with an all white-male ticket.  Trump, of course, is known for his volatility, and he could change his mind on a running mate during a quick trip to the john.

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has announced that he intends to choose a female as his running mate, a wise political move that immediately opens the party to the half of the population being ignored by the Republicans.

Vice-Presidential candidates have a history of being chosen to add balance to the ticket - to complement the presidential candidate by adding qualities that he lacks (youth, a particular knowledge or background, etc), or to help carry particular demographics (gender, race, religion, etc), or to help carry a certain state or region of the country (the Rust Belt, Bible Belt, Sun Belt, etc).

 Trump enters the race with a political advantage in the hard South and in a few midwestern states as well as some of the large, basically empty states of the American West.  Biden should have smooth sailing along the Left Coast as well as in Illinois, New York and most of New England.  The rest of the country will tell the tale.

Mike Pence, from Indiana - a state Trump ought to win regardless of who his running mate is, and one with a relatively small electoral footprint - adds nothing to the GOP ticket except for confirming the party's starchy old conservative preference for white males as national leaders.  But the Democrats, on the other hand, have an opportunity to really expand the map with their choice of a running mate for Biden.

There are several outstanding possibilities currently being bandied about in the press.  Some of the ladies being talked about had their hats in the ring for the presidential nomination and have already proven their chops at campaigning, and some others have made positive names for themselves in the political arena without  running for President - yet.

Elizabeth Warren, the junior senator from Massachusetts has publicly stated that if Biden were to tap her for the spot, she would accept.  Warren is a whip-smart policy wonk who has a long history of being a thorn-in-the side of Wall Street.  She would add a strong dose of gutsy intellect to a Biden ticket, and her presence would help to get the progressive wing of the party on board with his candidacy - but from a geographic perspective Warren would add little because Biden should carry Massachusetts regardless of with whom he chooses to run.

Kamala Harris, the junior senator from California, has also made herself a prominent voice in the Senate.  Harris, a black woman, has a natural charm and sense of humor that comes across well in her statements and dealings with the public.  But, again from a geographic perspective, Biden will win California regardless of who is on his ticket.

Amy Klobuchar, the senior senator from Minnesota, has a formidable record in the Senate and was an adequate campaigner in the primary phase of the Democratic campaign - and she does represent a state that will not be a sure thing for Biden or Trump, so her presence on the ticket could help add her state to the Biden column in November.

A fourth possibility from the Senate, and one that has received minimal press speculation, is Tammy Duckworth of Illinois.   The former military fighter pilot who lost her legs in combat, has also become a powerful voice in the Senate.   Duckworth did not enter the presidential primary free-for-all and may have no interest in national politics at this time, but she would bring intellect, energy, and youth to the ticket - and she would personify veterans and their issues onto the ballot.

There has been some concern in the press of late as to the dangers of running a Democratic senator for Vice-President because this year the party with be focused on establishing a majority in the Senate - and it would be unwise to risk a seat.  Massachusetts law says that a Senate vacancy from their state would be filled by a special election, so Warren's seat would be at risk if she were to be promoted into the vice-presidency.   (Though Massachusetts generally leans Democratic, the state currently has a moderate Republican governor.)   The other three states, however - California, Minnesota, and Illinois - would initially fill a vacancy with an appointment by their governors - and all three governors of those states are currently Democrats.

And there are some other highly qualified and capable Democratic females beyond the confines of the Senate.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan has been drawing Republican fire for the past few weeks over her formidable advocacy for her state during the pandemic crisis.  Donald Trump became so enraged at her demands for assistance from the federal government - and the good press that was bringing her - that he ordered Mike Pence not to return her telephone calls.  Governor Whitmer is smart, articulate, and stands tall and forceful for the citizens of her state.

Stacy Abrams is a former state legislator from Georgia who was cheated out of becoming the state's first black female governor by a conniving secretary of state who controlled voting eligibility and the process of voting in the state to his benefit.  She is an assertive campaigner who would be an asset to the ticket, and she has stated that if Biden gives the nod to her, she will accept.

And there are others, but those six certainly give Joe Biden and his staff a comfortable place from which to begin their search.  Joe Biden will turn seventy-eight just a couple of weeks after the election this November, and that advanced age makes the selection of a running mate even more of a critical issue than it would be under normal circumstances.

Any of those six -  Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Tammy Duckworth, Gretchen Whitmer, and Stacy Abrams -  have right stuff to run the United States of America - and run it well!

Learning from These Terrible Times

by Pa Rock
Social Isolate

There are pessimists among us who lament that we have brought this biological catastrophe upon ourselves through the constant and deliberate abuse of our planet, her creatures, and her resources. They proclaim that due to our long-term ravaging of our home, we will, from this day forward, be at her mercy through increased famines, floods, fires, and biological maelstroms such as the one we are currently enduring.  They warn that we are entering a new era, one we clearly deserve.  Welcome to the new normal.

That argument is that we are actively and greedily bringing about our own demise, and we, as a species, do not have the necessary intellect or will to survive.  We have had our run as masters of the planet, and it is coming to an end.

A flip side to that bleak view is that our current situation, while admittedly terrible, is actually just a blip in history, an anomaly, an historical outlier much like the Black Plague of the Middle Ages - or the Great Flu of the early 20th century - or the Third Reich - something that we, as a species, will endure, survive, and live to see relegated to the dusty pages of history.

But if this crisis does eventually pass into history without taking us with it, what will we have learned form this very unique experience, and how will we pass that knowledge along to those who come after us?

There will be all manner of  discoveries related to the pandemic - medical, scientific, sociological,  you name it.   New vaccines will be available as a direct result of this experience, and new medicines and medical practices will become part of our daily lives.    We may begin arranging our lives differently, in ways that allow more space between individuals and more time between events, and we will likely develop more of an interest in cleaning and fighting germs.    In all probability we will also begin storing more groceries and necessary items in our homes, and budgeting with an eye toward dealing with the unexpected.

There will be massive amounts of first-hand experiences and practical knowledge recorded and preserved in social media.  While much of the daily minutia and horror from the Black Plague has been mercifully forgotten over time, millions of world citizens are preserving their thoughts and experiences regarding our current global disaster in tweets and blogs and Facebook postings.  The amount of personal knowledge of this pandemic and its ramifications is almost incalculable.  Anyone researching the time and seeking stories and details from individuals will massive and endless amounts of recollections to explore.

A few days ago in this space I gave a brief update of what my grandchildren were up to during the time of our plague.  They are staying busy trying to keep their education going at home, but they are also showing signs of boredom and fatigue and distress at not being able to run and play with their friends and enjoy the lives that they had just a few weeks ago.  After posting those observations, a stranger tweeted to me that he (or she) was encouraging his (or her) grandchildren to concentrate of what they are experiencing so that they will have some clear memories to share with their grandchildren when they ask about what life was like during the Great Pandemic of 2020.

Perhaps parents who are home with the kids and trying to facilitate their continuing education could promote journaling as one more component in their daily lesson plans.  Keeping a journal would help a child process what he (or she) is experiencing in these troubling times, possibly serve to generate ways to combat the boredom of being stuck at home, and provide one more very personal record of the times - one that they could pull out and review when their grandchildren start asking questions.

And if not journaling, perhaps something called video blogging - which is way beyond this old man's ken!

We are in terrible times - and we shouldn't waste them.

"Such Pretty Toys"

by Pa Rock
Reader

(Note:  Last month my sister, our cousin, and I had to scrap a long-planned trip to Nantucket due to the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic.  As an acknowledgment of that missed trip, my daughter sent me a couple of Nantucket-related items for my birthday - which also happened to fall at the time that we would have been on the trip.  

One of those items that my daughter sent was an old hardback mystery novel entitled "Nantucket Soap Opera" by S.F.X. Dean, a mystery writer with whom I was unfamiliar.  I read the novel - and reviewed it in this blog on April 3rd - and then did some basic research on the writer.  I learned that S.F.X. Dean was the pseudonym of a writer who was also a college professor in Amherst, Massachusetts, by the name of Francis "Frank" Smith.  I leaned as well that his entire mystery output consisted of just six novels - all written in the 1980's.

I had enjoyed "Nantucket Soap Opera," the sixth and final novel in S.F.X. Dean's series, all featuring a college professor from Massachusetts as the amateur sleuth, to the point that I decided to try to track down the other five novels and read them as well.  So far I have been able to procure four of the six.

The second Dean novel that I acquired and read was "Death and the Mad Heroine" which I reviewed here on April 12th.  It was actually the fifth book in the series.  Today I will be reviewing the second in the series, "Such Pretty Toys."  I have one more on the shelf waiting to be read, and am still looking for the other two.

Obviously I am enjoying the series immensely!)

"Such Pretty Toys" begins as Professor Neil Kelly is closing down his faculty home on the campus of Old Hampton College in Massachusetts (a fictional school) and preparing to head to England for a long-planned sabbatical where he intends to write a biography of John Donne.  But with just minutes to go before the cab is supposed to arrive to take him to the airport in Boston, an old friend from his undergrad days shows up.  The surprise visitor, who now works for the CIA, tells Neil that a mutual acquaintance - who was a Neil's first girlfriend in college - is in a Boston hospital after being blinded in a bomb blast in Santa Fe.  That friend, whose husband was killed in the same blast, also works for the CIA, and Neil has had an on-going involvement with their family over the years - to include dating their daughter.

The couple had a tradition of buying each other gag gifts for April Fool's Day, and this year the wife had bought the husband a jack-in-the box at a Santa Fe toy store.  When the package arrived she was looking over his shoulder as he opened it, and it blew up!  (Hence, the novel's title.)

Neil accepts CIA help in quickly postponing his plans and catches a ride with his visitor to the hospital in Boston to see his injured friend.  The patient, who is drifting in and out of consciousness when he arrives, manages to slip him a two-word note, "EMS LINN," before entering a medically-induced coma.  Neil keeps the note hidden from the CIA agents who are present at the hospital, and later that night he manages to surreptitiously make it to the airport on his own where he boards a plane to Santa Fe.

Neil had recognized EMS LINN as a reference to Linn, a grown daughter of his blinded friend's half-sister Emily, who also lives in Santa Fe.  Emily's husband, Doan, is a construction mogul who has projects going all over the world and is a party to several government contracts.  Linn, the daughter, is his company's computer expert.  Linn has a twin brother who is is involved in some anti-establishment activities, and she is engaged an older man works in her father's construction company at a high level and has a questionable past.

And some construction equipment disappears - and a military base loses a missile - and another person is killed by a bomb blast, a young man who works for Doan's construction company but is also connected to the radical son - and FBI and CIA agents show up in such numbers that they are literally tripping over one another.   And through all of the high drama and calamitous confusion comes the steady probing of Professor Neil Kelly as he deliberately and calmly sifts through the bomb detritus and desert dust to determine which facts are relevant to unmasking the traitors and murderers, and which are merely distractions.

The end result is a clever and satisfying murder mystery that is tricked out with state-of-the-art (for the 1980's) computer crime and decorated with a colorful assortment of government spooks and spies.  The late author had a gift for describing his characters in such careful detail that they have survived the past forty years almost totally unscathed, and his descriptions of Santa Fe could slip seamlessly into contemporary travel guides.

The Professor Neil Kelly mysteries are well plotted who-dunnits that also happen to have a strong literary bent.  The tales entertain, and the beautiful writing and literary allusions educate.  They are a treat!

The big mystery with S.F.X. Dean is why this very talented writer suddenly stopped writing mystery novels thirty years before his death.  That's a story that needs to be unearthed and told.

The Post Office Is America!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I have a long and happy history with the United States Postal Service, one that extends back well into the 1950s - a time when peace and sanity prevailed in the White House under a Republican named Dwight Eisenhower, and a three-cent stamp would take a letter any place in the whole United States - and postcards could be mailed for a penny.

I was born in 1948, and I know that I was personally using the services of the "post office" (the name the USPS went by at that time) because my fifth grade teacher, a wonderful woman by the name of Boonetta Davis, had a class project where each student chose a city in the United States and sent a letter to that city's Chamber of Commerce asking for information about the city.  We then mailed those letters from home and ran to the mailbox each day checking for replies.   After the materials arrived we set up a classroom display.  That lesson taught us how to write business letters, and it also provided a wealth of geographical information about our country.

(My city was Palm Springs, California, and their Chamber of Commerce sent a ton of good stuff!)

Invitations to birthday parties came and went in the mail, as did letters from friends and relatives, newspapers, advertisements - and even the occasional package.  What fun it was to run to the house carrying a package that the postman had just delivered!

In the 1970's after I had finished my four years in the Army, I even worked for the post office for a few months as a substitute mail carrier.  I was living in a very rural part of southwest Missouri (McDonald County) and my route took me down several secluded dirt lanes that were little more than cowpaths.  But the post office had a responsibility through the Rural Free Delivery initiative of the New Deal, to get the mail to as many people as humanly possible.  Today it still travels those same cow paths and has some daily deliveries that must be accomplished by boat - or even plane.

Now I am a ripe old seventy-two, and I still keep one eye peeled for the mailman each afternoon.  The arrival of the mail is literally one of my daily highlights.

Getting the mail out each day requires considerable skill and commitment on the part of postal employees, but it is a duty that they take very seriously - and it is one on which almost all Americans depend.  In a very real sense, the post office is America!

But now, unbelievably, we have a President who refers to the post office as "a joke" and openly roots for its demise.

Donald Trump's anger with the post office is rooted in the fact that he has a long-standing personal grudge against Jeff Bezos, a true billionaire and the richest human on the planet with an estimated worth of over $116 billion.  Bezos owns Amazon.com and the Washington Post newspaper.  The Washington Post and several other major U.S. newspapers have been critical of Donald Trump and his actions and policies on numerous occasion, and Trump, known to be exceedingly petty, does not take criticism well.

As the major mail retailer in the nation, Amazon has struck deals with all of the large carriers - companies like FedEx, UPS, and the United States Postal Service - for special rates in shipping its massive volume of packages.  Early on Trump saw the Amazon arrangement with the postal service as a way to get at Bezos, and from that point onward he has been relentless in his criticism of that agency for what he termed a losing proposition with Amazon.

Here is a Trump tweet from 2017:

Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!

And yesterday Trump once again exploded publicly regarding the U.S. Postal Service, calling it "a joke" and saying that he would block stimulus loans to the agency that have already been approved by Congress unless it quadruples shipping rates on packages shipped by large retailers. And again he mentioned Amazon by name. Increased shipping rates would ultimately fall on consumers - and at a time when more people are relying on shopping by mail than ever before, thanks in large measure to the current pandemic that has left so many Americans stranded at home.
There may come a time when every household in the United States is blessed with a totally reliable and affordable internet connection, and there are enough private package delivery services to reach every home in the country - but that time is not yet at hand. Today America needs the postal service far more than it needs the ravings of Donald John Trump.
When Trump attacks our postal system in an attempt to get at Jeff Bezos, he is degrading one of the best and most cherished institutions in the history of our nation, and he is impugning the character and work ethic of hundreds of thousands of good and faithful Americans who dedicate their lives to delivering our mail in a timely and efficient manner.
If Trump wants to challenge Bezos to a pissing contest on the National Mall, that's his business - but if he wants to get at Bezos by screwing with the U.S. Mail - well, that's OUR business, and Trump had best think long and hard before he goes down that road.
If the mail quits running, there will be consequences!

Donald Trump: Crazy or Just High?

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

There is a debate working its way through social media this morning that asks a basic question about Donald Trump's bizarre performance at his daily coronavirus press briefing yesterday.   Some are citing Trump's musings about curing the deadly virus with a massive blast of light or consumption of disinfectant as proof of his mental derangement, while others argue that he was simply high - very, very high.

The daily press briefings began several weeks ago as forums to keep the press and the public informed about the deadly pandemic and progress in the fight to contain it, but Trump quickly inserted himself into the shows and now they more closely resemble campaign events in which all pandemic news is filtered through Trump's political needs and his oddball personal views on the situation.  Yesterday his personal views reached new levels of weirdness.

The briefing began with remarks by Bill Bryan, the head of Homeland Security's science and technology division.   He discussed research that the and his team have conducted which shows that the virus doesn't live as long in warmer and more humid temperatures.  He explained that the virus dies quickest in sunlight.

That remark caused Trump's very big brain to kick into gear.  He pondered aloud whether it would be possible to bring the light "inside the body."

According to NBC News - and various other major news outlets - he then speculated aloud:

"So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous - whether it's ultraviolet or just a very powerful light - and I think you said that hasn't been checked because of the testing.  And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you said you can do either through he skin or some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that, too."

(And the internet went mad speculating that Trump was suggesting shining a very powerful flashlight either "up" or "down" some bodily orifice - but that is neither here nor there.)

Trump then rambled even further afield:

"I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute.  And is there a way we can do something like that by injection or almost a cleaning?  As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."

Trump did not stipulate any particular brand of disinfectant, but Lysol quickly issued a warning for the public not to use its cleaning product internally.

Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist, global health policy expert, and NBC contributor, warned against Trump's "improper health messaging,"   He added that  "This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it's dangerous.  It's a common method that people utilize when they want to kill themselves."

Donald Trump has drawn a great deal of public criticism recently over his promotion of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, as a possible preventative for coronavirus.  Trump's promotion of this untested "remedy" produced a high demand for the drug - even by a couple of federal agencies - that resulted in a shortage for those seeking it for its legitimate and proven uses.  Now recent studies are demonstrating that use of hydroxychloroquine is not only ineffective in fighting off coronavirus, but can actually be harmful to people who use it for that purpose.  (One man in Arizona reportedly died from using the drug for protection from the virus.  His wife said that he had taken it after watching Trump tout the drug on television as a possible preventative measure.)

One senior official with the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Rick Bright, said that he was fired from his job this past week for resisting demands to sign off on treatments involving hydroxychloroquine.

But for today, at least, the pandemic news focus - as determined by the ravings of Donald John Trump - is off of hydroxychloroquine and has moved on to the miraculous possibilities associated with the use of bright lights and disinfectant.

Without being restrained in a locked room and subjected to a world-class mental health evaluation, it may be impossible to determine if the leader of the free world is a raving lunatic or just an out-of-control drug abuser.

Obviously more testing is needed.

Ragnarok

by Pa Rock
Streamin' Demon

For those of you who enjoy heroic stories about the Norse Gods that spurred the Vikings on to ravage much of the known and unknown world - and let's face it, who doesn't? - here is something to satisfy that itch while being stuck at home with our 21st century plague.  I am speaking of Ragnarok, a Netflix original series that is set and filmed in the mountains of beautiful Norway.

The first season, six episodes, is now available and streaming on Netflix, and a second season is reportedly about to be released.  Watching the series requires some effort on the part of American viewers because it was filmed almost entirely in Norwegian - with occasional snatches of English - and requires the use of subtitles.

On August 26th of 2018 I ran a review in this space of the book Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman.  That book is a well written guide to understanding some of the basic characters in the panoply of Gods who populate the legends of the ancient Scandinavians.  Chief among those are Odin, the one-eyed king of the Gods, Odin's son, Thor, the hammer-swinging God of Thunder, and Loki, the "trickster" whose antics finally brought about an end to the time of the Gods.  Some of the material covered in Gaiman's book involves Thor's interactions with the Giants, a race of very large people in a neighboring land who stole Thor's hammer and set up a raging feud between themselves and the angry God of Thunder.

Ragnarok, the television series, begins as Turid Seier and her two high school-age sons, Magne and Laurits, are moving back to the (fictional) Norwegian town of Edda, a place they had left years before when the boys' father had been killed in an accident.  They had been living in the capital city of Oslo, and it is obvious that the boys are not happy about returning to rural Edda - but the move is necessary in order for their mother to find work.  She has a job waiting with an industry owned by the Jutul family, the primary employer in the area.   The Jutul's factory is being blamed for the rapidly increasing pollution in the once pristine lakes and streams surrounding the town.

The Jutul family live in a very large house on the mountain that has overlooked the town for generations.  They are the social and economic giants of the community.

As the Seier family is driving into town on that first day they come up behind an old man who is having trouble steering his electric vehicle.  Turid stops the car and Magne gets out to help the man.  The man's wife is at the store across the street.  She walks over and joins her husband where she tells Magne that he is a good person - and then touches his forehead with her hand.  As she touches Magne, there is a flicker in his eyes that seems to indicate that he has just awakened to something important.

The Seier boys enroll in the local high school which is run by the principal, Ran Jutul, the wife of the factory owner where Turid will be working.  Also attending that high school are Ran's own kids, Fjor, her son, and Saxa, her daughter.  Another student at the school is Isolde, the daughter of a teacher at the school.    Isolde is a green activist who is informally investigating the Jutul's factory as a part of a school assignment.   Magne gets paired with Isolde in working on that assignment.

Isolde and Magne spend a day walking up into the mountains to look at a retreating glacier and collect water samples, and they plan on returning to town that evening by flying off of the mountain on a double hang-glider.  A situation develops that causes Magne to return to town early, on foot, and that evening he watches in horror as Isolde, drifting down to town, crashes her hang-glider into a power line and is killed.

As night is falling, an angry Magne picks up a very large hammer that his mother has been using to drive posts into the ground, and in his rage he flings the hammer skyward - and it disappears into the clouds.

Can you see where this is headed?

This is old story of good and evil, gods and giants, greens and polluters, dressed in modern times and set in a breath-taking location.  Ragnarok is grand escapism in a time in which we all yearn to be free of our homebound confinement.  I enjoyed the first six episodes immensely and am looking forward to the next season.

Thank you, Netflix, for opening a window on the complex culture and beautiful land of Norway!

Testing: It's About Knowing the Odds

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The GOP and other right-wing extremist groups have been organizing (and funding) protest rallies in several states over the past couple of weeks with the aim of pressuring governors and state legislatures into re-opening their states' businesses, schools, and economies - but many governors have been resisting while citing the need for much more testing of the general population.    The reluctant governors are noting that young people in particular can be carriers of the virus while appearing to be completely asymptomatic.   In order to ascertain how far the virus has actually spread, a compressive testing program that includes wide swaths of asymptomatic individuals would need to be put in place.   Without more testing, they fear that a return to the old ways might prove to be premature and a second spike in active cases and fatalities would develop.

But Trump has resisted testing all along.   A more comprehensive testing approach would reveal more people who are carrying the virus, and Trump does not want to do anything which would acknowledge higher numbers.  His strategy is to reduce the numbers, minimize the bad press, and do victory laps until the election in November.

Donald Trump wants to massage our panic with snake oil and get everything back to looking and feeling like it used to, in the good old days before his administration ignored and then bungled the threat of the deadly coronavirus.  And while he vocally acknowledges that he has "no responsibility" whatsoever in the creation or upkeep of the monstrous medical mess, he certainly would not mind it if voters saw him as the person who resolved it and got America back to work.

Those insolent governors, however, are blocking his march to glory with their incessant demand for more testing.    The Attorney General of the United States is threatening to become involved if the governors continue to try and protect the health and well being of the citizens of their states.  But the escalating conflicts between the state capitals and Washington, DC, may be about to ease somewhat because the stimulus funding bill that passed Congress yesterday set aside $25 billion for additional testing.  Of course, money authorized by Congress and then run through the White House grinder does not always get to where it was intended to be spent.

Yesterday I spoke with a physician at a local clinic and asked about testing for the virus.  He said that his rural clinic was currently able to test anyone who is symptomatic.  I pressed and asked when wider testing would be available to check more of the asymptomatic population, and he responded, "Who knows?"  He did agree that more comprehensive testing - to include asymptomatic individuals - was going to be necessary to determine how far the virus has spread - and he added that currently, as a "rule of thumb," doctors estimate the total infected population of an area to be ten to fifty times the number of known positive cases.

As of today (and as far as I know) there are five confirmed positive cases of the virus in my rural county.  That is not overly concerning, but it would indicate that, by the doctor's "rule of thumb," that there are likely fifty to two-hundred and fifty actual cases in the county - and that is more concerning.

My state of Missouri had 5,941 positive cases as of yesterday - along with 220 deaths.   Using the "rule of thumb" to expand that to the number of positive cases likely to be present in the state at this time comes to a far more significant 59,410 to 297,050!   Missouri's Republican governor, Mike Parson, is currently making noises about "re-opening" the state's businesses on May 4th, a week from next Monday, a move that will likely be more popular with the Trump administration than it will be with be with Missourians - real people who may not be as anxious to risk their lives and the lives of their families for Trump's re-election effort.

Confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States now top 800,000 with around 45,000 reported deaths.    If those 800,000 cases are extrapolated out using the doctor's "rule of thumb," there are likely between 8 million and 40 million positive cases of coronavirus in our country alone!

Is it any wonder that Trump is resisting efforts to increase testing and get a more accurate picture of the true extent of this monster pandemic?

Most people want to know the odds before they gamble.

Trump Writes Another Headline

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Say what you will about the shortcomings of Donald John Trump, and they are plentiful, the man has one extraordinary ability that few can match.  Trump is a master at controlling headlines.  When the news cycles begin to hammer him, as they have the past few days over is inept responses to the current pandemic that has derailed the American - and world - economies, and his seeming reticence to do even basic testing to determine how far the coronavirus has spread,  Trump simply ramps up his rage factor, grabs up his non-government telephone, and begins tweeting.

And the news storyline changes.

Donald Trump told America and the world early on that he took "no responsibility" whatsoever for the cascading medical crisis.   To emphasize his innocence in the catastrophe he started flinging blame-crap in all directions.  It was Obama's fault, Trump lied.  His predecessor had done nothing to prepare for this crisis and had left him with just "junk" to handle the pandemic.  (The truth, of course, was that Trump had dismissed the team that the Obama administration had set up to deal with just such a situation, the Trump administration had given or sold supplies that could have been used to fight the pandemic to other nations, and he had steadfastly ignored several reliable warnings about the impending crisis and wasted valuable response time.)

Next Trump tried to blame China - the crisis had started there.  Trump and his parrots began referring to it as the "Chinese Virus" and overt efforts were made to fan the flames of anti-Asian bigotry.

Then it was the United Nation's World Health Organization (WHO) that was at fault.  The WHO monitors disease outbreaks around the globe and offers recommendations and supplies to national governments, but it has no direct function in the hands-on handling of diseases.  But Trump, being Trump, felt compelled to punish the WHO by withdrawing US funding for the organization.   It made big headlines and took the focus off of our inept leader for a few more days.  It also undoubtedly endeared him to backwoods armed "patriots" who despise and fear the United Nations almost as much as they do the federal government.

But there is an election coming up in less than two hundred days that is extremely important to Donald Trump.  If he loses it, he will also lose all of the protections of the presidency and likely wind up in numerous courts defending himself against years of shady business practices and tax maneuverings.  If Trump is going to win this critical election, he absolutely must keep his base fired up - and if he can do that while again deflecting blame for any aspect of the pandemic - well, that would just be gravy.

So last night Trump did whatever he does to ramp up his rage - and then he took to Twitter to announce that he would soon be signing an executive order to temporarily halt all immigration to the United States.  He wouldn't just be banning Mexicans, or Central Americans, or Muslims - but every damned foreigner in the world.  Donald Trump - a man with international business interests and a wife who was immigrant to these shores - and an ex-wife who was also an immigrant - would be totally banning immigration to the United States of America.  

And he was doing it in response to the pandemic.    The fact that it would make the Proud Boys  prouder, the evangelicals more self-righteous, and give Stephen Miller more sexual gratification than a speaking role at a Klan rally - well, extra gravy couldn't hurt - especially in an election year!

Once again Trump had written the headline.

Grandkids at a Distance

by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa

Yesterday I walked to the local park and was able to find a nice private spot at a picnic table.  There I relaxed for a few minutes and then decided that it would a good opportunity to try and call some of my grandchildren.

Sebastian, my twelve-year-old grandson in Oregon has his own phone, so I began with him.  We talked about school lessons which all of the kids are doing at home during this world health emergency.  He said that he has been studying "exponents" in math, but I did not aggressively pursue that  bit of information for fear of exposing my ignorance.  Then he told me that he has learned all of his state capitals - and that I did want to talk about.

Three summers ago (2017) when Sebastian and his family visited my home in Missouri, I had tried to interest him in learning state capitals, but the effort had not gone well - and now suddenly he said that he has mastered all fifty.  He further said that he had learned them with a song.  It didn't take much encouragement to get him singing.  He quickly rattled off a song that contained all fifty states and their capitals.  It was sung to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw."

Judah, my ten-year-old grandson, got on the phone next and told me that he had been playing "Minecraft" and that it was made in the year 2009.  (Judah, as it so happens, was also made in the year 2009!) Willow, the boys' younger sister, picked up the phone next.  She told me that she was keeping up with her school work and that she missed her friends from school.

After chatting with all three Oregon grandchildren - who live in the state's capital of Salem - which is mentioned in Sebastian's song - I called my eight-year-old granddaughter, Olive, in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City.  Olive, like Sebastian, has her own telephone.   Olive thanked me for sending her a copy of "The Diary of Anne Frank," (which her daddy had suggested).  She said that she was reading it and enjoying it.  Her parents will undoubtedly incorporate that important book into her at-home schooling.

Olive's little brother, Sully, did not get on the phone.  He is understandably very bored with staying home, and he constantly finds ways to stay active which leave his poor parents exhausted!

I didn't try to call Boone - who will be twenty-one in May and who, like Sully, is growing increasingly bored with staying at home.  This pandemic interrupted Boone's junior year in college and disabled his social life.  We have exchanged several lengthy emails lately, and I have sent him a couple of my favorite books to help pass the time in a semi-productive manner.

So the good news is that all of the grandkids are safe and making the best out of the current situation - and the bad news is that they are growing frustrated and bored with having no social lives and being stuck at home.  They are facing a challenge unlike any that their parents or grandparents ever had to endure, and they will get through it.

But their childhoods have been wounded.

Darwin Will Out

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Congress called for ramped-up coronavirus testing in the first relief package that it passed on March 4th, yet now, six weeks later, that necessary component in the battle to defeat the virus and the disease, COVID-19, still has not happened.  In fact, our government has so far failed to devise and implement a plan to test all of those individuals who are symptomatic for COVID-19, much less begin testing the larger asymptomatic general populace - people who might unknowingly be carrying the virus.

Now Congress is again trying to dramatically increase testing with the newest stimulus package, but Trump and the GOP machine are prattling on and telling America that the states already have what they need for adequate testing when they clearly do not.

Without testing a much greater portion of the population, it is impossible to tell how far the virus has spread - or to know if the situation is leveling off, getting better, or worsening.

In addition to a much more rigorous testing regimen, a program will also need to be put in place to trace the contacts of all people who have tested positive so that those contacts can be directed into self-quarantining.  It will be a complicated and arduous process, but only after comprehensive measures such as those have taken place will much of our nation's population feel even remotely comfortable in resuming the lives that they were leading before the pandemic manifested itself on our shores.

But Donald Trump and many of his political and economic persuasion want to skip all of that hard work, flip a switch, and declare the problem to be over.  They argue that maintaining a robust economy takes priority over the lives of ordinary working Americans.  Others, of course, disagree.

Testing seems to be a particular hang-up with Trump, and there is some sense abroad in the land that he opposes large-scale testing out of a fear that it would reveal that the coronavirus has taken a much greater hold in the nation than has been known up to this point.  They feel that Trump wants to keep the number of positive cases artificially low in order to make him and his administration look better.

However, it may take even more than adequate testing and a tracking program to put the minds of many at ease regarding the pandemic.   There are many for whom even those measures won't be sufficient.  Yesterday I spoke with a young, upwardly mobile suburban professional, someone whom I respect, and he told me that his family would not be fully re-integrating into society until a vaccine becomes available - something that is reportedly at least a year in the future.  And, in particular, he noted that he and his wife would not be sending their children back to school until they had been vaccinated for the coronavirus.

The politicians can posture and proclaim until the cows come home, but in the end it will be the American public who decides when this crisis is over.  And, by and large, they will listen to doctors and scientists over windbag politicos, and they will seek out the best medical practices before they put their families and themselves back into their pre-pandemic routines.  Some of the new practices that Americans have adopted during this emergency will, in fact, likely live on into their post-pandemic lives - and things like stockpiling more groceries and essential items, more hand-washing, and wiping down surfaces with disinfectant wipes will become the new normal.

Many who survive this catastrophe will walk away from it stronger and better prepared for the next one - and there will be a next one.   On the other hand (the unwashed one), those who choose to wallow in denial and self-interest will continue to be swept along into the dark void by the maelstroms of their own ignorance.

And in the end, Darwin will out.

Doctors and Scientists Will Decide When this Crisis has Passed

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

A series of "spontaneous" rallies have broken out in a few state capitals, public attempts to pressure governors and legislatures into "reopening" state economies.   These events are not, of course, spontaneous, but rather they are carefully planned protests by groups with political agendas using social media to stir people into action.

Michigan has been the epicenter of these ragged affairs over he past week.  "Operation Gridlock" was supposed to be an in-car protest of people driving around the capitol building blowing their horns and yelling, but those mobile protesters quickly began parking and congregating, shoulder-to-shoulder, on the capitol grounds.  Other groups, including some unsavory militia-type organizations, joined in, turning the entire event into even more of a circus, one with the added excitement not only of guns, but with a deadly communicable disease wafting through the air as well.

The Michigan protest was planned by two political groups:  the Michigan Conservative Coalition, a group with strong ties to Trump's re-election campaign, and the Michigan Freedom Fund, an organization that Michigan's Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, describes as being funded "in large part" by the DeVos family, the founders of the Amway pyramid sales scheme.

Governor Whitmer, who has become a personal target of the Michigan protesters, lamented the involvement of Trump's billionaire Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and declared,  "I think it's really inappropriate for a sitting member of the United States president's cabinet to be waging political attacks on any governor."

But for the time-being the rabble in Michigan are making noise and putting their own lives and the lives of others at risk, all the while hallucinating that they represent the majority of real Americans.    All they want is for someone to flip a switch and return things to normal.

But that isn't going to happen.

Donald Trump is spurring these protests forward with imbecilic tweets about "liberating" various states that happen to have Democratic governors, but even he has set aside the idea of just arbitrarily declaring the economy to be switched back on.  Now he wants the governors to take that risky step in his stead - so they can absorb the blame if the death tolls start rising - as will likely happen if the great unwashed (and untested) masses once again begin mingling socially and at work.

Restarting the economy is far more complicated than flipping a switch.  Sure, people can be coerced back to work through economic pressures and government policies, but the government lacks to power to get everyone to suddenly start spending again.

Many of us have developed new routines during these days of "social distancing" and we can now go longer without shopping.    We also have a clearer understanding of the difference between what we "need" and other things that are unnecessary extravagances.    And some of us are becoming a lot more comfortable with shopping on line, a practice that negatively impacts the economy at the local level.

We are going to be far more careful in planning shopping trips regardless of whether the economy switch is "on" or "off," mindful for months and months that the medical crisis could return and that this time we might become victims of the virus.   Things like travel will also be delayed.   Grandparents have grandchildren who need to be visited.  But who among us would risk the health of those grandchildren - or of ourselves - by getting on an airplane too soon when a couple of more weeks or months of separation would make everyone safer?

Flip that switch until it breaks - but some symbolic speech or stunt will not end this social and economic slowdown.  For that to happen, confidence in our government and in the health of the nation and of the world will have to rebound.  That will take massive amounts of testing and affirmation from real doctors and scientists that the worst is behind us and that it is relatively safe to resume life as normal.

Trump and a bunch of politicians and big political donors may be able to convince Americans with double-digit IQ's that it's safe to resume their old lives, but the rest of us are going to be far more cautious and await hard, scientific proof.

Roll that in your Amway deposit slip and smoke it, Betsy!

Trump Has Become Our Picture of Dorian Gray

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is vain beyond measure, steeped in rage and revenge, and seems almost proud of his willful ignorance.  His personality, in sum total, is deeply flawed and appears to be getting worse on an almost daily basis.

The past several days have highlighted Trump's drift away from reality.   His primary focus for the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be how it is effecting his hopes for re-election.  Trump got into a loud confrontation with some of the nation's governors last week when he declared that HE would soon be deciding on how and when to reopen the economy.  The governors who even bothered to respond to his bluster informed Trump and the country that they would be making those decisions - not him.

And then, as if to add another layer of confusion to the situation, Trump decided to create a "task force" on re-opening the economy.  He appointed 32 House members to his committee, including a few Democrats, and 64 Senators, including a dozen Democrats.    Trump's task force also included every Republican United States senator, save one.  He declined to make Mitt Romney of Utah a member of the elite group.  Romney had voted to remove Trump from office on one article of impeachment, and Trump is nothing if not vengeful.

But  some others in the White House got the presidential ear and reminded Trump that if he made a big show about opening the economy back up, and then death numbers from the pandemic began surging, people would blame him.   Trump who loves to wallow in glory and adulation - but never, ever accepts blame or responsibility for anything, rethought his position and announced that he was going to "allow" governors to make the decisions on when and how to get the nation working again.

In the end it was all sound and fury - signifying nothing.

Trump had also been trying to find a fall guy for the pandemic, someone to take the onus of the catastrophe off of himself.  At first he blamed China with a vengeance, trying to stoke some strong anti-Asian bigotry among his already bigoted base.  But this week he landed on a new target and pointed the finger at the UN's World Health Organization, a group that monitors pandemic situations and is key to making recommendations to combat them - but has no actual control of medical decisions in any country.  Trump blames the WHO for somehow letting the situation get out of control, and he announced that he was going to begin withholding US aid to the vital organization.  The US is the largest funder to the WHO, and the loss of US aid could be devastating to the health of peoples around the globe - particularly during a pandemic.

There was also a big Trump ordeal about the stimulus checks for individuals that was approved with the first stimulus package.  The Treasury Department made deposits into the accounts of 80 million individuals last week - those on which it had banking information, but the remainder will have to go out in the form of official checks to households.  That process was reportedly slowed when Trump insisted on having his name and signature printed on each of the checks, something which not only served to stroke his vanity but also make it appear to voters that he was responsible for the most welcome windfall - a nice - and free - re-election ploy.

(When Congress passed the stimulus package, it neglected to include a provision to protect the emergency funds from being confiscated by banks with claims against the individuals.   Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin, himself a banker, gave banks a wink and a nod and basically encouraged them to grab the relief funds.  The banks were being stimulated, the people screwed.)

Trump, of course, kept trying to run the daily pandemic briefings where he sought to shape and spin the news that was released - while enjoying more free time in front of the voting public.

Just in case the confusion began to wane, Trump opened up an assault on Congress with a threat of summarily "adjourning" the institution so that he could get some of his cracker judge appointees  onto the bench as "recess" appointments.  While both chambers of Congress are not technically working, both have skeleton crews on duty.  The Senate "gavels in" a pro forma session each day even if only a few members are present.  Perhaps Trump is sensing that his time in the White House is rapidly approaching its end and along with it his opportunity to foul the nation with his dirty deeds.

And then earlier this morning Trump posted a series of three tweets encouraging people to "liberate" three states which happen to have Democratic governors.  Those tweets read:  "LIBERATE VIRGINIA!  and save your great 2nd Amendment.  It's under siege."  "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!"  (whose capitol building is currently surrounded by armed White Supremacists and neo-Nazis), and "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" (whose governor's mansion is currently surrounded by its own White Trash militia.)   One would almost have reason to suspect that the President of the United States of America was encouraging uprisings against some of the nation's member states.

Vanity, rage, revenge, and ignorance.  It's not a pretty picture, but then again neither is Donald John Trump.   He's our very own picture of Dorian Gray, but he isn't hidden away in the attic - he's front and center on the world stage representing the once proud United States of America.  His flaws are grotesquely evident, and they demean us all.

The United States of America must move boldly and with great speed to reclaim its dignity and respect.  November cannot com soon enough!

The Can Man Marches On

by Pa Rock
Road Hazard

The next time you're barreling down one of this quiet country lanes with the radio blasting and come across the little old man climbing out of a ditch proudly holding the Budweiser can that you threw away the evening before, slow down and show some respect.  It might be me!

Last fall I had a streak of more than sixty days in which I put 10,000 or more steps on the old pedometer - and times were good.  My weight stayed in check and my blood sugar stayed at a decent level.  With winter, however, that all changed for the worse.  My daily steps decreased to around 5,000-6000 each day and the weight and blood sugars began rising.  My old bones just don't enjoy creaking along in inclement weather.

But now things are warming up and I am back out pounding the pavement.  For the past ten days I have managed to do more than 10,000 steps per day - with a couple of days over 11,000 - and yesterday I ended the day with 12,607!

Yesterday was particularly grueling.  I put about 5,000 steps on the pedometer just puttering around the house and doing a few outdoor chores in the morning, and then in the afternoon I had to ride the mower for two hours - an activity that doesn't add anything to my step count.  When I finished mowing at around 3:30 p.m. I set out walking toward the park in an effort to get back on track toward the daily goal.

I didn't intend to go all the way to the park - a distance of about a mile or 2,000 steps one-way - because I was already tired out from bouncing around on the mower for a couple of hours, but as I walked along I just kept going.  I not only reached the park, but even walked one of the several trails while I was there.  I wasn't until I finally turned for home that I realized how really tired I was.  By the time I finally dragged myself back to my freshly mowed yard I had added 6,000 steps (three miles) to the pedometer!  And I still hadn't put the chickens up or fed the cats - and the big half of the yard was still waiting to be mowed on the morrow!

My blood sugar was a shockingly low 65 - and the following morning my weight was down by a full pound.

But all of that health stuff is just part of the good news.  I carry a plastic bag as I walk, and I pay myself for walking by picking up (and smashing) aluminum cans as I walk.  (In the last four days alone I have bagged sixty-six cans.)  I have been saving aluminum cans since moving to the farm in 2014, and now I have bags of them stacked in the barn and garage.  Some day I will cash them all in and be rich - rich, I tell you - rich!

Either that, or I will fall down dead in a ditch somewhere - or get run over by a drunk as he swerves to throw out his beer can - and my kids will have a really big party!

But for now I walk - and pick up a few cans - and try to stay ahead of the Grim Reaper!

Virginia Knocks Down Barriers to Voting

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Marcus Simon, a Democrat who serves in Virginia's House of Delegates, recently noted that when Republicans take over a state legislature one of the first things they do is to make it harder for people to vote.   They do that, he argued, in order to hold onto their power by eliminating voters whom they deem likely to vote for Democrats.  Virginia, a nominally southern state, was no exception to that rule.  But last November Virginia elected its first Democratic legislature (House of Delegates and State Senate) in nearly a quarter of a century, and those good Democratic legislators along with Democratic Governor Ralph Northam immediately moved to eliminate obstacles to voting that were put in place by their GOP predecessors.

The Virginia legislature recently passed - and Governor Northam has signed - a series of laws that could serve as a model for increasing public participation in elections nationwide.

The Commonwealth of Virginia will now allow early in-person voting for forty-five days preceding any election - and no excuses are necessary.  If a person simply does not like standing in line on election day, he or she may choose to go to the clerk's office and cast a ballot early.  Lying to election officials is no longer necessary.

Starting with the general election of 2022, people may register to vote in Virginia at any time, including when they go to their polling place on Election Day itself.   Citizens of the Commonwealth will also be automatically registered to vote when they visit the state's Department of Motor Vehicles to get car tags or have their driver's licenses renewed - unless they specifically decline to be registered to vote.

The legal requirement to present a legal state ID when voting has also been repealed.  Now voters who do not have a valid ID will be required to simply sign a statement attesting that they are who they say they are.

Election Day, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, will now be an official state holiday, a change that will give some workers the day off and will permit schools to close, all in an effort to give more people an opportunity to get to the polls.  The legislation was balanced on the calendar by cancelling the Lee-Jackson Day, a Confederate remembrance holiday.

Another way to suppress voting, particularly voting by racial minorities, has been to deny the vote to convicted felons - even after they had completed  their prison terms.  Virginia incorporated a voting ban on ex-felons into its constitution, with a stipulation that only the governor could restore a felon's voting rights.  Terry McAuliffe, the Virginia governor prior to Northam - and also a Democrat - tried to restore the voting rights to 200,000 former felons who had completed their sentences through one mass restoration, but the courts rejected that move.  McAulliffe then grabbed a pen and began restoring voting rights on an individual basis.  He was able to complete 173,000 before leaving office, more than any other U.S. governor in history.  Since coming into offie, Governor Northam has restored voting rights to an additional 22,000 former convicted felons.

One party curtails the rights of people to vote in order to stay in power, and the other party knocks down barriers to insure that everyone has a right to go to the polls and cast their ballots.  

Democracy is historically a very good thing - and it appears to be gaining strength in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Virginia has it going on!

The Good People of Wisconsin Have Spoken!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

A few years ago things were fairly bleak on the Wisconsin political scene.   Scott Walker, a right-wing Republican was governor, the legislature was controlled by the GOP, and the state supreme court had a conservative majority.  It was all red, deep red, in a state that had spawned famed progressive "Fighting Bob" La Follette, one of the most influential senators in the entire history of the United Stagtes Senate - and been a hotbed of left-wing political unrest during the college protests of the 1960's.

But now the dark days of the Walker years seem to be finally drawing to a close.

First, Walker himself is out of office. He was defeated for a third term in 2018 by the state's director of public instruction, Tony Evers, by just over one percent of the vote.  In fact, the GOP lost very Wisconsin statewide seat that was up for election in 2018.  The Republican legislature passed a series of last minute bills to severely limit the powers of the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general, and Walker signed those before he left office.

Last Tuesday there was an election in Wisconsin, one in which the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries were being held - and a state supreme court seat was also up for grabs.  The state's high court, which is technically non-political, nevertheless is extremely political and as of last week had five conservative justices who leaned far to the right and two progressive judges with a pronounced left lean.

One of the conservative judges, Dan Kelly, was defending his seat.  He was being challenged by a progressive circuit judge from Dane County named Jill Karofsky.  Donald Trump had stuck his nose into the race and endorsed the re-election bid of Kelly.

With the election drawing close and the coronavirus pandemic gaining steam, Governor Evers made a last-minute decision to postpone the election and issued an order to that effect.  Republican functionaries in Wisconsin set up a howl, and a challenge went to the state's supreme court.  That court overruled the governor's order and said that the election was to be held on Tuesday, April 7th, as originally planned.

Meanwhile over a million people had requested absentee ballots, and many had not received those ballots in the mail.  A federal judge ruled to extend the deadline for casting absentee ballots, but the state GOP, smelling blood in the water, quickly challenged that ruling in the US Supreme Court.   The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in the Republicans' favor and thwarted the effort to extend the absentee voting deadline.  If people did not have their ballots, they could go stand in line and vote the old fashioned way - in person - and coronavirus be damned!

On Election Day in Wisconsin, one week ago today, many thousands of people risked their lives and stood in long lines in order to cast their ballots.   Polling places were limited because:  a.) GOP officials had closed many and were intentionally limiting access to the polls, and b.) many election workers were either ill or refused to work the polls during a pandemic.   Added to the dangers of the pandemic in general was the fact that the weather was inclement across much of the state causing voters to stand for long periods of time in the rain.

The people who voted last Tuesday in Wisconsin really, really wanted to cast their ballots.  They were exercising their basic constitutional right, and by standing vigilant in the face of extreme personal risk, they were also protecting the rights of everyone else to maintain their voices in a representative democracy.  Regardless of how they ultimately voted, every person who physically went to the polls in Wisconsin last Tuesday sent a message that their votes were important - and they would not be denied their rights to cast ballots by petty politicians and political judges scheming to control the outcome.

And yesterday the Wisconsin election results were announced.  Trump won the GOP presidential primary, Biden won the Democratic presidential primary, and progressive Jill Karofsky defeated the incumbent conservative supreme court judge, Dan Kelly - bigly - by close to 10 percentage points!

Several court challenges have already been filed, presumably by parties on both sides of the issue, and the will of the people could still ultimately be overturned by the courts.  But this whole experience has taught a lot of people about the importance of the democratic process, and it is doubtful if the people - especially the tough people of Wisconsin - will let the courts have the last word on this important race.

The people of Wisconsin risked their very lives to vote in last Tuesday's election, and by God, they have been heard - and they will be heard!

Senator La Follette would be very proud!

Powerball Draws in Its Fangs

by Pa Rock
Lottery Player

I play the Missouri state lottery.  I'm not proud of that, but every day I usually manage to make it into one of our many area quick-stops and buy two one-dollar lottery tickets - not to support education, which I do ardently support - but rather to have a chance of winning some easy money. One of the tickets that I buy is "Missouri Lotto," a draw game with a minimum prize of one million dollars that usually advances one hundred thousand dollars with each draw when there is no grand prize winner.  The other game that I play is "Show Me Cash" which is also a draw game with a minimum price of $50,000 that usually advances $5,000 after each drawing where the grand prize is not claimed.

That's when times are good.  But now, thanks to the Trump Virus which still runs rampant across the land, social distancing and staying at home have curtailed my lottery experience.  In fact, I haven't bought a ticket in more than two weeks.

Apparently there are lots of other lottery addicts who also are not currently playing, a situation that is undoubtedly placing many state budgets in financial peril.

And the lack of sales has decreased the prizes on some of the biggest games, a situation which could further depress sales of tickets.  Take for instance, Powerball, a game that is played in forty-five states, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.   Powerball sold one winning ticket on April 8th.  A lucky player in New Jersey hit the jackpot and won a cool $190 million!

Normally after a big win, the Powerball grand prize resets at $40 million and then advances a minimum of $10 million after each drawing in which there is no jackpot winner.  Now with the new lottery reality, Powerball officials had to back off of the big money.   The new prize when the jackpot resets is a paltry $20 million, and it only advances a minimum of $2 million each time a drawing fails to produce a grand prize winner.

If the Powerball gods think they can get me to cough up two dollars for literally no chance at all to win $20 million when two weeks ago the same two dollars would have bought me literally no chance at all to win $40 million . . . well, then . . . they're nuts!

My mama didn't raise no dummies!

But for those who still have the itch to play, most states seem to have deemed lottery retailers as "essential," so there a plenty of places to risk one's life in order to play!

Monday's Poetry: "Family Vacation"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Annual vacations are a time-honored tradition in many families - those with the time and financial means to flee their normal routines for some family-together time at a hideaway far away from home.

Normally family vacations take place in the summer when the kids are home from school.  This year, of course, is different.  The kids have already been home from school for several weeks due to the on-going coronavirus pandemic, and, in many cases, so have their loving parents.  And, at this point at least, the promise of any getaway during the summer months seems to be little more than a pipe dream.

The kids are going stir-crazy, the parents are going stir-crazy, and there seems to be no relief in sight.  In these strange and troubled times, many parents might identify with the plight of the weary traveler in the following poem as he seeks refuge in a stall in the men's room of a Roy Rogers Restaurant.


Family Vacation
by John Kenney

This is relaxing
I think to myself
on the first day
of our vacation
as I hide
in the men's room
of a Roy Rogers 
at a rest stop
just off bumper-to-bumper I-95
while the kids
continue fighting
with tennis racquets
in the back seat.
And only five more hours to go.
I don't want to leave this place
I whisper aloud.
Neither do I
says the man in the next stall.

Death and the Mad Heroine

by Pa Rock
Reader

Several weeks ago I received, as a gift, a copy of an old mystery novel that had been published in the 1980's.  That book, Nantucket Soap Opera, was by S.F.X. Dean, a pseudonym used by a college professor by the name of Francis (Frank) Smith.  I reviewed that book in this space on April 3, 2020.

I was impressed with that book to the point that I did some basic research on the author and sought to find his other works.  I learned that Frank Smith had fought on Iwo Jima, graduated cum laude from Harvard, and was a founding member of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts where he served as the first dean of faculties.  Smith had written one general work of fiction in the late 1950's under the name "Franc Smith," and then spent the next twenty years undoubtedly focused on teaching, running the humanities faculty at Hampshire College, and helping his wife raise their eight children.  But in the 1980's he resumed writing and authored six mystery novels under his pen name of S.F.X. Dean.

After that significant burst of writing energy, the author did not publish any other works of fiction, or at least no more Neil Kelly mysteries under the name of S.F.X. Dean.

Smith's six mystery novels all involve the same amateur sleuth, a college literature professor named Neil Kelly who seems to bear a strong resemblance to the author.  Kelly is Catholic, and presumably Smith (who passed away in 2017) was Catholic as well.  That led me to surmise, on little more than a hunch, that the pseudonym "S.F.X. Dean" likely was a comic shorthand for "Smith, Francis Xavier, Dean" - but I could be wrong, and I often am.

The six Neil Kelly novels tell a continuing tale in the life of the central character and it would probably be of benefit to the reader to tackle them in order - but I did not have that luxury.  The first one that I was able to access, Nantucket Soap Opera, was actually the final book in the series.  The second that I have acquired is Death and the Mad Heroine, the fifth of the six-volume series.  I am, it would seem, reading the series in reverse order - but I am an adult and I can handle life in whatever order it presents itself.

Death and the Mad Heroine is, like Nantucket Soap Opera, not a traditional mystery.  The thrust of both novels is to spend much more time exploring who the characters are and how they interact before any actual murders are committed or revealed.   It is not until the final pages of Mad Heroine that it even becomes certain that there has been a murder.  But, nevertheless, suspects and subplots abound and interweave throughout the novel to form a compelling read.  It is a clever writing style that firmly pulls the reader into the unfolding tale.

The action of Death and the Mad Heroine all takes place on and around a small liberal arts college campus in New England in the 1980's.  Professor Neil Kelly has returned from a sabbatical in England for one week so that he can host an engagement party for his former student and now a teaching colleague, Dick Colrane.   Dick is about to marry Jill, the daughter of his department chair who will soon be the new president of the college - and Dick will move up to fill the departmental chair position.

While Neil has been on sabbatical - writing a book on Ben Jonson and falling in love with Dolly, his editor - his home on the campus and his office have been occupied by his visiting replacement professor, Dewi Morgan-Evans, from Wales, a man who is desperately seeking a full-time teaching position in the United States.  Dewi, an expert on Dylan Thomas, has recently married a local lady, Margaret Mary Murphy, a plain-spoken firebrand whom he refers to as "Murphy."

Murphy grew up with her sister and her mother - and her occasional "drop-in" father, a local religious oddball named Dan Murphy.  Murphy's father disappeared under strange circumstances twenty years earlier, and she hatches the notion of writing a book about his disappearance with the ultimate goal of finding out what happened to him.  And, since it is a mystery, she forces herself upon Neil Kelly during his brief visit in an effort to learn how to be a detective.

Dick Colrane, the professor who is about to marry the daughter of the next college president, was a star football player at the college twenty years before.  In fact, he was expected to be a first round draft pick for the NFL.  Dick was out riding his bicycle on a trail in the woods twenty years earlier, after graduating but before the NFL draft, when he was shot in the kneecap, an event that ended his football career.  State police were brought in to investigate and they found evidence that the shooting might have been an accident perpetrated by Dan Murphy who had been out hunting squirrels that morning.   The hapless hunter disappeared that day, never to be seen again, and the police assumed that he had observed the consequences of his careless shot - and had run off.

Most people believed that version of events, except, of course, Margaret Mary Murphy.  And now here was Professor Neil Kelly asking to use her home to host an engagement party for Dick Colrane, a party that would bring together many of the people who might have had a reason to shoot Colrane and cause her father to disappear.

And from there it gets really good!

S.F.X. Dean (Francis Smith) had a broad familiarity for campus life and the social and political connections of a college faculty, and he also had a great ear for dialogue.  The chapter in this book which takes place at the engagement party of Dick and Jill is a masterwork of storytelling that is achieved solely through many snippets of conversation between various groups of guests.  Though randomly disconnected, they wind up forming. crazy quilt of information that moves the story along toward its ultimate surprise conclusion.

This is another great read from S.F.X. Dean.  If you like your mysteries on the literary side, I highly recommend this one.

Trump's Rush to get America Back to Work

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

No one is denying that the nation's economy is in a tailspin as a result of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.  Many businesses have had to limit the services or goods that they would normally provide, and many others have closed completely.   More than 16 million people have filed unemployment claims over the last three weeks, and that number is likely to keep climbing for the foreseeable future.

Donald Trump doesn't personally get out and shop, nor does he walk down America's Main Streets and along its strip malls counting businesses which have been boarded-up.  Trump measures the nation's economy by how the stock market - and undoubtedly his own stock portfolio - are doing, and that measure also paints a troubled picture.  While the stock market indices showed some lift and stability last week, overall they are still down about a third from their record highs of just a few weeks ago.

And Trump knows that a wounded economy is tantamount to a wounded presidency, and he also knows that he could lose his re-election bid in November - and losing the White House would cost him all of the legal protections that he has willfully wallowed in over the past three-plus years.  Trump is desperate to remain in office so he can maintain the protections and privileges of the presidency.

To that end, Donald Trump is very anxious to declare this emergency to be over and to get those stock market numbers back up - and those unemployment numbers back down.

During this extreme national emergency Donald Trump has shown no interest at all in casualty and death figures, nor in the real individuals represented by those still-rising numbers.   He has commandeered the health briefings put on by the nation's medical experts and turned them into infomercials for his random thoughts on diseases, cures and politics - often countermanding the information that the experts try to present.  Trump, a man who lies as much as he speaks, has, with malice aforethought, dissembled and distorted much of the information that the government should be providing to its citizens with regard to the on-going health crisis - all in an attempt to make himself look good and with the aim of getting the economy back on track regardless of the human costs.

Here are just a few of the facts:    As of today, more than 1.6 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus, and over a hundred thousand people have died.  There are over half-a-million confirmed cases in the United States - and very few Americans have even been able to get tested at this point.  More than 2,000 people died of the virus in the United States yesterday, and more than 19,000 Americans have died of it so far.  The United States now has more reported COVID-19 deaths than any nation on earth - surpassing even Italy and Spain.

The federal response to the situation in the United States has been minimal.  The US Congress managed to pass a stimulus package that pumped money into large corporations, struggling businesses, and (eventually) the pockets of many American citizens - a maximum of $1,200 for those individuals lucky enough to qualify.

States were left on their own to figure out how to manage their populations in response to the rapidly spreading pandemic, as well as how to meet the medical needs of the victims.  States found themselves bidding against one another for desperately needed medical equipment and supplies, and fighting to keep the federal government from grabbing those supplies before they reached safe harbor in the states.

The team set up by President Obama to manage the emergency of a national pandemic was disbanded by the Trump administration months ago as a part of its purge of all things Obama, and the federal stockpile of emergency supplies and equipment was pronounced by the president's son-in-law to be for federal use only and not available to meet the needs of the states.

Donald Trump, a man who never accepts blame, was quick to wash his hands of all responsibility for the ensuing mess.  It was the states' problem, let them deal with it.  His part in the whole show would be to run the national briefings where he would cast himself in a positive light and campaign relentlessly.

But now Trump's daily briefings are beginning to receive more ridicule than praise, even from some Republicans - and the Democrats have settled on a candidate to face Trump in November.  Things are tightening up, and Trump needs to be able to claim a personal triumph in all that the country has endured.  He once talked of getting the country 'back to work' by Easter, but Easter is tomorrow and the numbers are still rising.  Now he is putting out broad hints of some type of celebratory re-opening of the United States, possibly by May 1st.

Trump needs to be able to proclaim a victory and then have several months of getting people back on the job before the November elections.  He intentionally did not shut the country down with any federal orders that kept people from going to work - he let the governors do that, and he did not get involved in problems of medical treatment of the masses - that was on the governors, too.  But, by God, he could 're-open' the country when he saw fit.

Yesterday Donald Trump talked to the press about HIS upcoming decision to re-open the country:

"I don't know that I've had a bigger decision.  But I'm going to surround myself with the greatest minds.  Not only the greatest minds, but the greatest minds in numerous different businesses, including the business of politics and reason.  And we're going to make a decision, and hopefully it's going to be the right decision.  I will say this.  I want to get it open as soon as we can."

(He wants to get it open with enough lead time to get the stock numbers up and the unemployment numbers down before the election rolls around in November.)

When a reporter asked what metric Trump would use in making the final decision, Trump pointed to his head.   (God save us!)

Here are a few of my thoughts on Trump's plan:

• Rudy Giuliani is not a "great" mind, even when he is sober and well rested.
• Jared and Ivanka are not great minds.  One is a slumlord and both are shady business operators.
• Stephen Miller is not considered a great mind by anyone other than extreme fascists and Neo-Nazis.
• Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo, Betsy DeVos, Steve Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, Sonny Perdue and most of the other members of Trump's cabinet are greed-head corporatists, but definitely not great minds.
• There are no great minds at Fox News - now or ever.
• What the hell is the "business of politics and reason"?  Does Trump even know what he is  saying?

Laurence Tribe is a law professor at Harvard University and a scholar on Constitutional law.  Here is his response to Trump's planned edict on re-opening the country and its economy (as tweeted earlier today):

"Memo to POTUS:  Your claim to have "absolute authority" to force states to end social distancing and reopen shuttered businesses is sheer nonsense.  That's purely a state prerogative under our Constitution.  You might try reading it sometime." 

At some point Trump will assemble a kangaroo committee of head-nodders and make a "decision" to send America back to work, and if deaths increase and pandemonium ensues, he will blame that committee and perhaps Obama and the Clintons for his abject failure to lead.

Trump takes the glory and passes the blame along to others - always.

Pa Rock's Memo to POTUS:  This disaster occurred on your watch, Mr. Trump, and it snowballed out of control because you chose to lower our defenses, sell our medical supplies abroad, ignore warnings, play political games with providing help to the states, and not offer any clear and decisive leadership.  The mess is yours.  Our nation's governors - and Congress - took on the responsibility of dealing with this almost impossible situation when they realized that little or no help would be coming from Washington, DC.

So you may say what you want about the emergency being over, but know this - damned few of us will be paying attention to anything you say - now or ever!