An Illusory Promise

The sickness pervading America was rampant well before the coronavirus ever appeared.  However, its arrival has ripped the cloak of concealment from several nasty symptoms of a society that has a lot more wrong with it than we ever imagined.  A pandemic has no guile.  It strikes and all efforts to ‘happy talk’ it into submission fail simply because illness and death have no allegiance to a political party.

Such is the case in today’s America, and perhaps one of the most glaring symptoms of failure to date is the fallacious promise to rescue our economy by supporting small business.  There is no support for small business, or if there is, it is only a public relations mirage.  Over the past 6 weeks since our national nightmare began, Congress has passed legislation that purportedly was going to sustain small businesses in America to the tune of $650 Billion by offering payroll protection so small businesses could maintain their staffs and try to ride out the economic devastation.  This "rescue" loan funding has brought out the very worst of a corporate cultural that is sick to the very core of its being.

First of all, the CARES PPP legislation falsely defined small businesses as any enterprise with less than 500 employees.  How many ‘small businesses’ can you name with 500 employees?  It was a mistake, or maybe a planned ruse, so that major companies and the banks who charged exorbitant fees to place these loans could greedily lap up the money that most of them didn’t really need.  Ask around!  How many small businesses in your immediate universe have gotten any of these so-called payroll protection loans?  I couldn’t learn of any where I am living.  And this salvation was supposed to arrive in time to prevent really small businesses from having to declare bankruptcy or simply close their doors.  After the public outcry that the major banks were giving preference to their major depositors after the initial tranche of money ran out, Congress came back and allocated another tranche of cash.  We are supposed to see this subsequent effort begin next week to support the beleaguered small businesses desperate for the money to sustain them.  Critics are predicting that that pot o’ dough will disappear just as fast into the clutches of the entities that need it the least.  We’ll see…..

I applied for the PPP from 4 different banking entities as soon as the program was announced at the end of March:  Bank of America( who first told me that they wouldn’t accept my application because I didn’t have a loan with them—even though I had been a faithful customer for the past 5 years); a regional local bank FFIB, who advertised immediately that they would accept new customers; a small local bank in central Florida called Fountainhead Bank; and the Achieva Credit Union.  I figured at least one of these entities would deliver what would be 2 ½ months of payroll for my small company.  I carefully completed the applications and delivered all the documents to each of them.

Here we are 5 weeks later and one by one they each were ‘sorry to inform me’ that the funds had all run out before my application could be processed.  Really?  So now I will patiently wait to see what other greedy ‘small’ businesses will inhale the newly provided funds. 

How many small entities like me do you suppose have the same story?  Well here are some stats that should give you some insight into what this kind of ‘support’ means:

-- There are 15,000,000 business entities in the US with less than 100 employees and 100,000 businesses between 100 and 500 employees.

-- 45% of the relief funds went to 4% of the businesses who applied, all of whom have over 100 employees.

-- The top 15 banks will pocket over $1 Billion in processing fees.

Congress approves giving these same banks more money with the same rules in place.

-- The vast majority of small businesses who tried to apply were kept in limbo and didn’t see a dime of relief (86% still waiting for relief).

And here is an article from this morning's New York Times that highlights all of this:

https://tinyurl.com/ybwqty2o

So much for our country supporting the individual entrepreneur! 

Here is another symptom and failure: the debacle of the unemployment claim mechanism.  All of us who work, pay unemployment insurance taxes.  In my case I have been paying those taxes for 50 years.  I have never claimed unemployment relief.  Because the new rules allowed claims by owners and independent contractors, the time has come for me to do so, at least while I wait for the PPP loan to materialize.  In Florida, unemployment relief amounts are less than 40% of whatever your current salary is on a weekly basis up to a maximum of $275 /week, and then only for 13 weeks.  The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Re-employment Program requires that you complete their online registration and claim form to be eligible to receive benefits.

Florida’s FDEO reported Friday that just under 22% of the nearly 702,000 unique claims filed since March 15 were being paid -- just under 154,000 people. That's up from Monday, when the share was only 6.2%.  While many states have struggled to handle the crush of the more than 26 million Americans filing initial jobless claims amid the coronavirus pandemic, Florida has faced particular problems. A recent Associated Press analysis showed Florida ranked at or near the bottom of all states in its speed of processing claims. 

People attempting to navigate the website for registration are terribly frustrated.  The site, which former governor and now Senator Rick Scott is responsible for creating (at the low, low price of $77million!) repeatedly crashes.  Applicants literally spend hours and hours waiting for the site to progress through all the pages, dutifully filling out the information, only to be crashed out of the site before they can submit the forms.  Then they have to start all over again from the beginning!  No one ever answers the phone at FDEO, so there is no human to offer information or support.

This kind of experience is not unique to Florida either.  Unemployment claim systems nationwide are struggling to handle the demand of 26 million citizens trying to find support and solace from a mechanism that is designed to help them, but instead fails.

While Congress and the President throw bouquets at themselves, exclaiming how wonderful they are for supporting the economic community, we are all still waiting to see any tangible result.  It seems the only ones they are truly interested in supporting are the companies who contributed the most to their political campaigns.  The ‘little guys’ out there are still standing in the rain with their hands out waiting for the much touted financial relief.

So what is the moral of this little story?  I think the Coronavirus pandemic is going to change our society.  If we can at least salvage our right to vote (which is by no means certain!), we are going to see a change in what the general populace considers fairness and good governance, come the election this fall.  With the failures and lies of the past three years as a backdrop, the majority of Americans are beginning to understand what government is supposed to do and what kind of people are supposed to be there to do it.  They are looking at the legislators and all the representatives who are only interested in lining their own pockets, and coming to the realization that we have been ‘played’ for years. 

This fall’s election hopefully will usher in a new era.  We have a chance to change our government; to wipe away the gangrenous rot and mold that has disfigured the model that the founders created 250 years ago.  We can choose to remake our democratic society with more people like Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo, Barak Obama, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, et al.  We can rid ourselves of people like Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy, Devin Nunes, et. al.

And whatever you think, please don’t try injectable Lysol!

Blues on Beale

Most of you know that my whole professional life has been all about making TV.  For 30 years I toiled in NY doing really wonderful work making wholesome television for kids for a national audience.  Then 18 years ago we moved to Florida and started the visitor channel here in SW Florida.  So, in November of 2019 when the opportunity arrived to spend a week in Memphis, Tennessee and produce a musical documentary about the 36^th Annual International Blues Challenge, Cecily and I and our dear friends of 40 years Lynne and Jeff Ganek, agreed to tackle this challenge.  It was a peak life event for me, and I daresay all who participated.

I knew that the Blues were the foundation of almost every genre of music that we all listen to today, but I really didn’t have a grasp on the genre itself, what makes it special, how it makes you feel, how to really describe it.  What we are trying to do in the documentary is to answer those exact questions.

In the last week of January of this year we went to Memphis to experience it first-hand.  There were 14 of us that formed the crew for this production, and for me and Cecily and our other friend Steve Zink (all of us started together in the biz in the early 80s with Reading Rainbow), it was a reunion of sorts.  The old team was back together---with some younger, eager and talented people to be part of the team.

The experience was like getting back into an old rocket ship where you know where all the controls are—except that you’re 70 years old and not 40!  It was hard work, but eagerly engaged in by us all.  It felt good to be back in the saddle!!

As with all the production experiences I have had over the years, the opportunity to completely immerse yourself in something as rich as the Blues, with all its characters and talented musicians was a blissful time, only truly appreciated in retrospect.   But it was the nature of the music and the environment on Beale Street in Memphis which added the spice that is going to make this program we are making a really rich stew!

Beale Street, for those of you not familiar with it, is in the heart of downtown Memphis.  Imagine a street that slopes down from the highlands along the Mississippi River through several blocks of office buildings, then suddenly flattens out and  is alive with 100+ flashing and 'chase' neon signs

advertising  25 Blues Music Clubs, places to eat BBQ and anything and everything fried, and throngs of people in the middle of the closed off 4 blocks with guitars, harmonicas, wild garb, tumblers (yeah I ain’t kiddin’).  The place was jumpin’, especially at night when the music was going full blast.  In fact during the week when we were there, music was constant.  When you walked down those blocks you could hear music coming out of every door on both sides of the street—a magnificent stereo effect.

230 different bands and soloists from all over the world attended this event.  Individual Blues societies in major cities across the US, Europe, the Far East,  even Australia held competitions and the winners were the contestants in Memphis for this Challenge.  So they were there along with Blues aficionados and major Blues talent to celebrate this genre of music….and we were there to capture it.

In advance of the event, we listened to samples of all 230 bands and artists, and then as a group, selected our 10 top picks for who we thought might be finalists.  These were the bands and soloists we chose to focus on as they competed for the top slots and awards.  Out of the 10 we picked, 3 made it to the finals and at the final concert at the famous Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, two of our picks won awards for their innovation and talent.

We listened to a lot of music during that week and there is no doubt in my mind anymore about what makes the Blues so original and foundational.  There are many different flavors of the Blues that these competitors brought to this event, and in the next post I will describe some of the stories these talented people shared with us.

Save Us From the Ignorant!

It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the physical science of virus transmission.  Even

people of average intelligence, certainly those who hold the position of mayor or governor, cannot deny the science of virus transmission.  The Covid-19 virus has shown its transmission ability to be at lightning speed with superior ability to infect.  Surely it makes sense then, that if people who are potentially infectious without any symptoms come into contact with additional people, the virus will continue to roll on, effectively rushing along any vector provided to its next host/victim.

What would be the only way to follow and control its inevitable, invisible paths?  You must TEST everyone, and then trace their contacts to quarantine them.  Doesn’t that make sense to most intelligent people?  And yet, there is governor after governor and mayor after mayor who somehow don’t see the connection between the virus and the people.  Who are they getting their information from?  Who has said that we don’t really need to TEST?    It was President Trump who said,  "All we need to do is relax the measures that prevent the virus from spreading in places where there are less people and there is plenty of room."  

So then why is Sioux Falls, SD a hotbed of virus?  The Smithfield Pork plant in Sioux Falls has over 800 cases of Covid-19 out of their 3000 employees.  Don’t you think those 800 people at the end of their shift went to the dry cleaner’s, stopped for a Big Mac, went to the barber shop, dove into the Piggly Wiggly for a loaf of bread or some fried chicken, stopped for gas, went into Target to get a baby gift, and then came home for a birthday party for their kid?  How many people do you think they came into close contact with?........X 800! 

Sioux Falls has a major problem on its hands because the governor of South Dakota has done nothing to make people shelter in place.  And so, the result is that there will be major death in Sioux Falls because those who should be smart enough to know better, aren’t.

How about other leaders?  Are they deaf and blind to the condition of the hospitals and health care systems that surround them?  Covid patients have depleted virtually all hospital supplies of PPEs, masks, ventilators in most major medical centers where there are increasing numbers of cases....places that have not hit their peak yet.    Aren't they watching the first person accounts from health workers on the front lines as they struggle emotionally and physically?   These leaders want us to ‘open the states’ for the sake of the economy.  How much more infection will that spread, and what do you think will happen to the hospital’s supplies and readiness and effectiveness when those patients start showing up in the ER?

And then there are those pseudo doctors like “Dr. Phil” and “Dr. Oz”.  They are making comparisons to death rates and calling them comparable.  The only trouble is that fatal auto accidents, lung cancer and pool drownings aren’t contagious.

Here is what is necessary to fight this pandemic and what we should be expecting our national government to do, which they are NOT doing:

1. Appoint a Covid Czar who will organize a logistical solution to manufacturing and distributing enough test kits nationally based on needs and projections.  Let that person follow medical guidelines provided by Fauci, Birx, and others who fully understand the testing paradigm.  The Czar needs to create and publicize a schedule for manufacture and deployment nationally of diagnostic and antibody tests, and then draft whomever or whatever is necessary to make that project happen.

2. Then appoint another person to do logistical analysis and create comprehensive nationwide plans to insure supply lines for PPEs, Masks, ventilators, and whatever support supplies are needed.  Then they need to make it happen using whatever federal instruments need to be brought to bear.

This plan is so obvious, and yet we have a President who simply doesn’t feel the responsibility to do it.   After abandoning his claim that he was the ‘final authority’ and delegating control of the opening of the country’s economy to the governors,  he is now taunting them by encouraging his gun-toting, demonstrating supporters to ‘liberate Michigan’ or ‘liberate Minnesota’!  He is fomenting rebellion against civil authority which he just assigned to the governors of the states!  This guy is unbelievable!  We have no federal government serving the needs of the citizens any more.    Thank goodness the states are already organizing to achieve some of these goals!

All that can be said is that we have no coherent leadership in this administration.  Trump is repeating his incompetent failures that will subject us to an impending new wave of viral attack.  His push to disregard the science is a rush to re-ignite the economy, and his only concern is to try to avoid blame by making any future failure appear to be the governors’ faults.  He is only worried about being untarnished so he can be re-elected. 

I hope the people of the United States all agree it is too late for that.

The Times of Covid-19

Lately we expend so much energy talking about our political condition, that we are not paying attention to the evolution of our selves and how are lives are changing.  These are not normal times.  In fact, these times of Covid-19 are a catalyst for introspection and evaluation of where our lives have taken us and where we now want our lives to go.  It is always some cataclysmic event or circumstance that stops us short and offers a moment for contemplating the whole of our lives.

I find that my routines have all changed.  It is both refreshing and unnerving.   Interacting with friends, family and acquaintances is now primarily with screens:  tv, internet, I-phone.  Suddenly we are making dates for cocktails or dinner by Zoom.  It is reassuring to see and be with all these people in my life electronically, but there is a critical ingredient in all these interactions that is missing.  The presence of another ‘life force’ in close physical proximity to our bodies adds a certain zest that is missing in these screen relationships.  However it is one of the more pleasurable side effects that has resulted from this crisis.  It is reassuring and comforting to have these moments with close friends and family.

My life has always been preoccupied with work or our company.  Our new existence has suddenly made all that basically irrelevant.  There is no work, and all the pseudo lists of things to do are actually not pressing at all.  The only thing that is pressing is the making of a plan to go forward in a new reality.   I am living in moments when my emotions take precedence because the minutia of my work experience has evaporated.  Maybe it is the stress we are all under, but I have moments when my anxiety and stress are almost overwhelming.  Sometimes I am angry without a discernible cause other than a pervasive sense of ennui.  My realization of that calms me down……most times---other times I reach for the Xanax!

So what now, I ask myself.  Is this the time to fold the tents and really ‘retire’?  Do we sell the house; or rent the guest house; or move to a place ½ the size in the mountains?  How much do we really need to live on?  If we moved, would we really:  a) be safer;  b) be content to start over again; c) lose all our friends and connections made here in the 18 years we have lived in Naples?  These are big questions!  And I have to believe that we are not the only ones searching for those answers.  We have been fortunate in life—we have our health; we have our skills which will always allow us to do what we do best; we have our family that has shown itself to be intact and solid.  What more is there in life, really??  

Once you realize that your personal inventory of risk factors is manageable, then you analyze the environment you are living in or through. 

I am a patriot.  I am anguished at what has happened to our country.  The condition of our government is appalling.  This global crisis has shown me how dysfunctional the US Government is.  All the ‘Never Trumpers’ always warned that his Presidency would be a real disaster in a global crisis, and now we have ample evidence that their fears were justified.  This Covid 19 crisis has shown that the most powerful and richest country in the world in the hands of a man like Trump cannot mount a coordinated campaign to bring our vast economic, scientific and public health resources to bear.  There is NO plan for how to allocate resources; NO plan to institute nationwide testing to control the virus epidemic; NO real plan for economic recovery.  Does Trump’s rambling, sociopathic, narcissistic behavior give any of us real confidence in our federal government’s ability to be ahead of developing events?   The Republicans and Trump have spent the past 4 years disassembling the tools and safeguards that  would have enabled that ability.

 

But what is also revealed is that one of the two major political parties in power does not believe in democracy.  It has become apparent that as a party they fully support autocracy, and are willing to surrender their ethics and morality.  Republicans do not believe in everyone’s right to vote.  Republicans believe in gerrymandering voting districts to control state legislatures.  What happened in Wisconsin this past week is the template they intend to use for the national election in November.  Voter obstruction and disenfranchisement is their ticket to remaining in power.  They have already declared their opposition to voting by mail…and with the administration's ability to defund the US Postal Service in May, they will achieve their goal of inhibiting our ability to vote using the most obvious method to insure voter accessibility--the US Mail.  Their claim of postal fraud is unsupported and unwarranted!

Republicans do not believe that science should determine our path in this public health emergency.  Rather, their only concern, to the apparent exclusion of any scientific evidence, advice or projections, is to ‘open’ the economy.  Do they care that their actions might result in a second more intense wave of virus infection?  No.  They don’t seem to care that the death of more people might be the result.  We should all come to the realization that the Republican Party in the United States of America is the party of …….death.

So now the country’s choice in November is pretty clear….do we want another four years of what we are living through now; what even Trump's most ardent supporters are getting a clear-eyed view of?  If the American people choose another four years of ‘this’, then democracy will die, along with thousands more of our citizens.  The American experiment will have failed, and we will be the ones that the history books will declare surrendered it.  My soul will be shamed.

Can I live in a place where a President Trump, and those like him who see my life in those terms, control my destiny?  What about my children’s future?  These are the questions that seem to preoccupy my thoughts.   Seems pretty weighty to be sure.

In the meantime, the days blend together in a stream of ‘being’ that has no mileposts.  It all seems to be flowing faster (or slower) with no real apparent conclusion.  The nature of this emergency does not have hard and fast boundaries, only the slow agonizing procession of sickness consuming the most vulnerable.  It’s a kind of limbo, a suspension of animation, you might say.  I want it to end, yet I am not sure I want it to end.   I want the clouds to part and the vista beyond to appear, as I imagine we all do…..

Wonderfully, what seems to be happening is that we as a people are becoming more aware of each other.  This is important for two reasons.  Seeing the courageous actions of our countrymen, feeling the empathy on display by our frontline heroes and essential workers gives all of us hope and belief in the intrinsic goodness of the average American.  So unfortunate that our leaders don't display the same courage and empathy.  And secondly, our awareness of the incompetence of our leaders will forge a new majority of those who want a change of control to help us out of this mess.  

What Comes Next?

While all of us look expectantly on TV or the newspapers every morning for signs that the pandemic is weakening, I wonder if anyone is looking ahead to what I would call the ‘recovery’ period.  I think what most people are thinking is that when the death rates go down and hospitals seem to be thinning out a bit, there will be this automatic rush to pick up where we left off before the fear set in.  I am not sure that is going to happen.

What I think will happen instead is going to be a prolonged period of very tentative re-emergence from the lockdown.  When the pressure eases, do you think everyone will simply emerge and go about their business as usual?  I truly doubt it.  I certainly won’t. There is no plan for universal testing—in fact we have been lied to so much about the availability of testing, why would we emerge without the confidence to identify where all new cases are coming from?  Without the ability to fully analyze the risk and trends with comprehensive testing, I will be very tentative about un-distancing.  At the first and slightest uptick in the number of cases of Covid 19, we will all retreat immediately to our homes again.  This kind of fear does not evaporate overnight.  Imminent death dampens any rush to freedom from self-isolation.

What I fear most is a very slow recovery that will be fraught with the underlying fear of relapse.  This is going to result in a much slower economic recovery.  That will be a disaster for small businesses.  In fact, the relief that everyone is expecting from the SBA relief funds is already depressingly slower in arriving than we expected.    The ‘immediate’ relief touted by the Trump administration is still not here, and won’t be for weeks, perhaps months.  Many businesses exist like the majority of individual Americans—from paycheck to paycheck.  I am guessing that by the time the SBA disaster loans arrive, it will be too late for 50% or more of existing small businesses.  They will be gone and so will the jobs attached to them. 

And the much touted individual relief from the $1200 check promised by the government probably won’t arrive for many workers for 3-5 months.  What are they supposed to do in the meantime, sing the Jeopardy Theme Song?   State unemployment relief is a shambles.  Websites and disbursement mechanisms are crashing and unable to serve their constituents.  We are going to see real economic hardship on the faces of much of our citizenry over the next 3-6 months….hardship that our country has not experienced since the Depression of the 1930s.

Then there is the prospect of societal unrest.  What do you think will happen when we have 40% unemployment and families that cannot pay the rent or buy food?

Next, take a look at the orange man who arrives uninvited into our living rooms every night with his reality show about himself and how we should all congratulate him for the marvelous job he is doing.  I hope the people who think he is so wonderful are smart enough to remember when it comes time to vote (that is, if we have an election) that the reason so many got sick and died was because he completely failed to prepare the country for this disaster.  He would rather blame it all on Obama.  His cadre of appointees and sycophantic Republican supporters will have left us a mess if he is defeated in November.  It will take years to undo the damage their time in office has wrought.

Perfect example:  The Republicans in Wisconsin wouldn’t let the Democratic Governor postpone the primary election yesterday because  a) they counted on reduced voter turnout to advantage incumbent Republicans; and b) they would rather risk poll workers and voters lives to gain advantage in an election where their strategy was to depress voter participation to insure retention of an arch conservative Wisconsin supreme court candidate.  The concept that Republicans are willing to sacrifice voter’s lives to further their quest for power is frightening and evil…. Those people are evil! 

In fact, there are so many evil people who are in government now that I am not hopeful for anything like intelligent planning……  And that includes plans for the November general election?  President Trump is not in favor of mail in voting.  Why?  Why do you think that is?--  perhaps because Donald Trump is so concerned that Covid 19 can be transmitted through the mail??--I think NOT!---maybe he should pour some liquid hydroxychloroquine into all the mailboxes in America!

Or maybe he wants to do everything he can to disenfranchise as many voters as he can.  That’s the only way he can be re-elected…..God Bless America!

If concerned rational democrats don’t start pushing really hard for a plan to accomplish a secure voter-mail-in election mechanism, we will face the coup-de-gras to our democracy.    Perhaps our only hope is Andrew Cuomo!

Ah well, maybe I am just having a ‘down’ day.  I will try to be a bit more optimistic in my next blog! 

Sleep well, everyone!

A Passover Wish

This coming Wednesday, April 8^th, is a day that will have special meaning for me.  It is the 7^th anniversary of the day I lost my only sister, Paula,  to cancer, and it is the first night of Passover.  This will be a Passover like no other that any of us has experienced.  Passover is a celebration that brings families together…to remember…to tell again the story of how the Jews were liberated by God from bondage in Egypt…to pass that story on to our children…to continue the thousands of years old thread that links all Jews together all over the world.  But this Passover, Covid-19 has stolen the rich moments of togetherness and joy that is the hallmark of this holiday.

And yet strangely, I feel closer to my sister this year.  Maybe it is because my mortality, usually fuzzy and out of focus, now seems crystal clear.  As I remember the helpless feeling we all felt as my sister drifted away from us, the clarity of what we are all going through now helps me perceive the crossover point that we all must navigate at the end of our lives.  In a heartbeat I could be there, and with her. 

I don’t want to be maudlin, but this Covid thing is making us all stop and take stock of our lives.  Things will not be the same when this is over.  The truly important things in life will stand out in stark relief from the lives we led up until this March.  That is a good thing.  I look at Cecily, my wife of 40 years with a new appreciation for us being together.  I talk with my kids, Shaune and Caitlin, and listen to their fear and worry for me, and try to be strong for them….and am surprised when I see them being strong for me!  On the other side of this I think we will all be more aware of the importance of family, and the connections which we take for granted.  The preciousness of life and our loved ones has new meaning.  So many families are going to be crushed by this pandemic. 

There will be many losses and much grief that we will all feel as a result of this experience.

So, my wish to all of you, my dear friends, is that especially this next week and all the weeks that follow, you will treasure and hold close all those you love.  As we celebrate this Passover, we must remember to treasure our families and thank God for all the good things in our lives…

At the end of the Passover seder, we always say, “L'Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim”—“Next Year in Jerusalem”.  This year let us say, “Next year in our homes with our families held close”

.

….and by the way, you might try some lambs blood around or on your front door posts ….you never know!

I am Angry!

Yesterday I forced myself to watch the 5pm ‘press conference’ giving us the latest information about the progress of efforts to fight the Covid-19 virus.  What I saw made me sick with fear and loathing for the Trump administration.  The most sickening moments were when this ‘expert’ (he was never identified) stood there and kept turning around (as a proper toadie should always do!) and praised Trump up one side and down the other for his brilliant proclamations and decisions.  Good God I felt like I was trapped in some sort of bizarre tv drama somewhere between ‘We love the Dear Leader and Game of Thrones!’  In all my years watching Presidential news conferences I have NEVER seen such obsequious behavior for someone so incompetent and ignorant!  Have you ever seen a president treated with such sycophantic admiration by all who speak in his presence?  Makes me gag….

It would be one thing if there was great success in all the blabber, but to the contrary, this federal effort has been so botched that our health care system is about to crash because there is no federal implementation of supply chain networks; our mortality figures are the highest in the world because of the inability and unwillingness of the federal government to mandate ‘stay at home’ restrictions.

The country is filled with ignorant public officials.  The Governor of Georgia finally implemented a forced shutdown and shelter in place directive after he discovered for the first time yesterday that the virus could be transmitted without symptoms!  Has he been under a rock somewhere?  We have known that for weeks!  Governor Rick De Santis of Florida finally issued a similar directive because he was watching the President and was amazed at Trump’s demeanor as he announced the staggering possibility of several hundred thousand deaths over the short term.  Seriously?  DeSantis was relying on Trump’s demeanor to make a decision??  What about science and facts?  Doesn’t he read?  Other Republican governors in Missouri, Texas and Arkansas are plodding along behind the other sycophants in lockstep with all the ignorant fools.

Folks, we are in deep doo doo.  Our country has been taken over by fools and fascists.  The people in charge are nefarious, incompetent, suspicious, and stupid.  This whole ‘Dear Leader’ complex that all of Trump’s appointees exhibit tells me that Trump has successfully degraded our democracy to the point where the only thing standing in his way toward complete autocracy is martial law and indefinite postponement of elections this fall…..wait for it…..I predict that it is possible sometime before this virus debacle is over.

Because of the delay in forceful intelligent planning and action there is blood on the hands of  Trump, DeSantis, and all the others…...because of their stupidity, people will die.

And then there is the ‘fake news’ of “amazing support and money being sent to millions of people”—Bullshit!  I applied 10 days ago for an SBA Disaster EIDL loan, four days ago for the SBA Advance of $10,000, and am attempting to file for the new and highly touted Paycheck Protection Plan (new CARES legislation).  My commercial bank, Bank of America, doesn’t know anything about how to apply for the PPP even though they are designated as the portal for these loans,  and then BofA sent me back to the SBA website, which has no way to log in.   I have had no indication from the SBA that they have received my applications.  It’s a joke.  It’s another example of the executive branch’s inept attempt to deliver anything. 

BTW, where are all the millions of testing kits?  Has anyone seen where they are plentiful enough to get tested without waiting for days for a callback.  BTW, where are all the PPEs and Ventilators and gloves and facemasks?  Why is the executive branch holding back the national stockpile of supplies and saying that they won’t give them up to NY or Detroit or New Orleans because as they say, “they are for use by us and not the individual states”---who the hell is ‘us’?  I know!... it means they can give them out to red states….perfect!

And finally, can we please stop this daily press conference broadcast of Trump’s replacement for his rallies?  It is taking advantage of the public’s thirst for real knowledge and assistance.

The broadcast networks owe it to the American people to deliver the unvarnished truth.  Anything Trump says is about as far from truth as it gets.