When the correct question is, ‘Are you insane?’

I want to know when the news media is going to start asking the right questions.

As readers of this blog know, I was a journalist for 13 years and worked with journalists as a public relations practitioner for another 20 or more, so I have some knowledge of the profession. It’s my opinion that after 4+ years of the Trump administration, including the campaign, reporters still do not ask the questions that need to be asked to truly inform the American people.

Here are some recent examples:

* In a press briefing yesterday, the president suggested that people might ingest disinfectants such as Lysol or bleach to kill the coronavirus from inside their bodies. He tried to get one of his medical experts, Dr. Deborah Birx, to back him up. When she hedged by saying it was “not a treatment,” someone in the media gallery should have asked her these follow-up questions: “Dr. Birx, why don’t you tell the American people who are watching right now on television that drinking or injecting disinfectant would most likely kill them, and that some people use this kind of chemical to commit suicide? Why don’t you tell them that before someone goes out and tries it?”

* Or, here’s a good one. Trump had previously suggested that the virus would magically disappear when the weather got warm, and he re-emphasized that belief yesterday. So here’s the correct follow-up question: “Mr. President, isn’t it warm in Florida right now, and yet the virus continues to infect and kill people? What about Singapore? Or countries south of the equator? The virus is killing people in every country on earth, some of which are very hot. They are certainly warmer than, say, Minnesota right now, so why doesn’t your theory apply to warm weather countries?”

* Another reporter, Philip Rucker of the Washington Post, asked Trump why he was spreading rumors instead of using the briefings to present information, guidance and facts. Trump replied with, “Hey Phil, I'm the president and you're fake news.” He went on to call Rucker “a total faker.” So the follow-up question should have been this: “Mr. President, you’ve been standing up there for two hours a day every day for a month now, offering fake forecasts and fake numbers and fake treatments and fake cures and misleading people into thinking a vaccine is almost ready and pushing medications that are untested and have been shown to kill certain patients and urging governors to reopen their states and then criticizing them after they do, and yet you have the balls to stand behind that podium and call me a ‘total faker’? You’re the one who’s a faker, Mr. President, and everybody in this room knows it. In fact, the reporters may be the only people in this room who are NOT fake.”

All of that happened in just one day. I could find dozens more examples of the press letting Trump off the hook for lies, half-truths, conspiracy theories, Fox News talking points, rumors and innuendos that go unchallenged during these press briefings, cabinet room interviews and those press gaggles in the back driveway of the White House, but I think I’d be preaching to the choir and besides, you’ve heard it all before.

Now I realize that any time Trump speaks, in any context and any medium, the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC (and the responsible print media) are eager to dissect his words and fact check his statements after the fact, and then talk about it all night long, but the people who need to hear those pronouncements aren’t watching the liberal talk shows that follow a Trump briefing so they never hear about the lies and misinformation. They need to hear it during the briefings, which many people do watch, but the questions aren’t being put to the president during real time. Also, those same people are most likely getting their post-briefing analysis from Fox News, which has helped to create the alternate universe in which this president and his administration exist.

I could write another thousand words or more on this subject, but I want to wrap it up with one more question that I think someone needs to ask. When Trump goes off on a rant about ingesting Lysol or shining a light inside the human body or windmills causing cancer or America “shooting down” Iranian boats or how the airports were captured during the Revolutionary War or how water comes down wet and is called rain or how he is a stable genius with a very good brain—and on and on—somebody has to stand up and say, “Excuse me, Mr. President, but are you insane?”

And with that, the entire press corps should get up and file quickly out of the room.

If we can’t make it a month, can we make it at all?

By now we’ve all seen the photos of health care workers in Denver blocking protesters who had gathered there to challenge stay-at-home orders issued by the governor of Colorado – orders designed not to take away people’s rights but to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus and keep the state’s citizens alive.

Protesters have also shown up in Michigan, Minnesota and other places demanding the right to return to work and go back to schools, shopping malls, theaters and anywhere else they used to hang out before the deadly pandemic hit. I just saw a video of today’s protest in Harrisburg, Pa., involving hundreds if not thousands of people, some of whom were not wearing masks or any kind of protective gear. They certainly weren't six feet apart.

Meanwhile, governors in some southern states are reopening beaches and people are flocking to them with no regard for themselves or others. It’s almost too much to comprehend why people are so eager to put their lives – and the lives of everyone else they might contact – at imminent risk of death.

I get it that people are frustrated because they can’t move around freely like they used to. I’m frustrated, too. I get it that some of them may be out of work and facing financial hardship or worse, and I empathize with their plight. I get it that many of them are simply uninformed or misinformed, especially if they are getting their news from the talking dullards at Fox News, which has downplayed the severity of the coronavirus since Day One. And I get it that many of them are following the lead of our reckless, science-denying, chaos-loving president who is encouraging civil disobedience to support his call to reopen the country for commerce…and thus enhance his chances of re-election.

I get all of that, but give me a friggin’ break. These stay-at-home orders haven’t been in effect all that long and people have already lost their minds. (For the record, California went first on March 19. New York’s was issued March 22. West Virginia’s was issued March 24.)

As for me personally, I fall into five risk categories and I’m trying to do the right thing. I’ve been keeping a list of every time I leave the house since we were first advised to stay home. Two days ago I filled my car’s gas tank. I wore a glove to handle the pump and a rubber fingertip to press the buttons on the touch screen, then threw them away when I was finished. I came home and washed my hands. My wife thinks I should have worn a mask, too, and she’s probably right about that.

Prior to that, other than walking my dog, I had been to a drive-up ATM at the bank, the mailboxes on the sidewalk outside the post office, a drug store drive-through line and a supermarket pickup site without ever getting out of my car. Each time, I wiped my hands with a disinfecting cloth before driving away. The last time I actually got out of my car and went inside a store was March 19, when I went grocery shopping at 10 p.m. to avoid any crowds. (I was surprised to discover yesterday that was exactly one month ago. It seems like a lot longer than that.)

The point is, I’m puzzled why people can’t go more than 30 days at home before rushing out to expose themselves to a killer pandemic, ignoring guidelines put in place for everyone’s protection. Every one of those people is now at greater risk, and when they go home, they’ll endanger friends and family as well. I suspect a lot of them will go to church on Sunday and who knows where else after their protest events are done.

Even more to the point, I'm trying to see the connection between a "peaceful" demonstration in support of our Constitutional freedoms and the need to wear swastika armbands, wave Confederate flags and strap on military-style assault weapons. One of the Harrisburg protesters even carried a huge sign that read, “Make America Great Again / Ban Homo Marriage.” What does any of that have to do with the threat of contracting COVID-19 and the importance of social distancing?

I say I'm trying to see the connection but actually I’m afraid I do. Asked about the protests, president Trump at first said the demonstrators were “responsible” citizens and yesterday he called them “great people.” Does the word “Charlottesville” ring any bells?

This is the president of the United States, who watches television all day when he’s not getting free air time to stage his faux-briefing campaign rallies. He has to see the gun-toting, swastika-wearing, stars-and-bars-waving terrorists posing as protesters and claiming to be defenders of the Constitution. That’s not who they are and he knows it. They’re Trump’s base voters, and he needs them badly, so he refuses to disparage them in any way…and that’s both frightening and sad.

As for the rest of them, maybe they are legitimate protesters who feel like their rights are under attack (I’m being kind). All I can say to them is this: There’s a virus going around that would like to kill every human on the planet. We were starting to see a possible breakthrough when you took to the streets en masse to complain about the government. When the second wave of the virus comes along – and history says it will – the people who die from it will be partly on your heads.

This is the United States of America, as the so-called patriots like to say. We’re supposed to be the richest, smartest, most advanced and most sophisticated nation on earth, but if our citizens can’t make it more than a month without putting our lives at risk, I have to question whether this country can make it at all.

I continue to have my doubts.

Riding the coronavirus seesaw

So I’m envisioning a seesaw. Can you see it? On one end of the lever, to the left of the fulcrum, is public health. On the right end of the lever is the economy. Like any seesaw, when one end of the lever goes up, the other one goes down, and vice versa. Equilibrium is achieved when the seesaw is balanced and sits level across the center.

I can apply that principle to COVID-19.

Those of us who are concerned about public health are staying home, for the most part, avoiding crowds, social distancing, wearing masks in public, canceling doctor and dental appointments, watching our hair grow wildly, buying groceries online and wiping down the handles of shopping carts when we must go into a store. We’re concerned about the economy, of course, but more importantly, we don’t want to get sick and die.

We’re the ones on the left side of the seesaw.

On the other side are the president of the United States and his enablers, his son-in-law, his wealthy donors, some business leaders, a bunch of millionaires, Fox News and OANN, people who are heavily invested in the stock market and members of Congress who put their own greedy quest for political power ahead of what’s good for the country.

They’re the group sitting on the right side of the seesaw.

Now, putting all of this into a rational context, I see two possible scenarios:

(1) The nation continues to exercise caution with regard to the coronavirus and waits patiently for the world medical community to develop an effective treatment for people who contract COVID-19 and, eventually, a vaccine that will prevent us from catching the disease. We do this no matter how long it takes and without regard for the condition of our investments and retirement accounts.

(2) We follow the president’s lead and jump back into action “sooner rather than later” by reopening schools, beaches and businesses, staging sporting events, allowing Sunday church services and pretending that we have flattened the curve and defeated “the invisible enemy.” When this happens—at least at first—the economy starts to recover, which helps Trump in his never-ending campaign to be re-elected. The risk here, of course, is that before we can bring the economy all the way back, a second wave of COVID-19 hits because we’ve abandoned all prudent precautions and people start dying once again.

While walking my dog yesterday, I had an epiphany. I applied the two scenarios mentioned above to myself, my family and my friends, and this is what I saw:

Scenario 1: By continuing to take appropriate steps to avoid the coronavirus, which is a good idea for someone in five risk categories, I have a chance to get through this nightmare and come out on the other side still alive and well. My retirement account has taken a hit, but it’s now possible that I will live long enough to see the economy rebound. I don’t need my retirement funds right now anyway, so it doesn’t matter that much if I lose some value. The market will come back like it always has because that’s what the market does. In the meantime, my family and I are still alive and that’s what’s most important.

Scenario 2: I take Trump’s advice and go back to my old life, shopping in supermarkets and drug stores, attending sporting events with a few hundred of my closest friends and maybe even taking a vacation to a popular (read “crowded”) resort. A few weeks after Trump reopens everything, I catch the second round of the virus, infect my family and friends and we all die. The good news is, my retirement account is climbing off the charts. The bad news? I don’t need it any longer because I’m dead.

It seems so simple to me: Alive and financially damaged on the one hand, somewhat wealthier but dead on the other. Such is a ride on the coronavirus seesaw. 

(In the interest of full disclosure, I realize that millions of people are in a far worse economic condition than I am. They are not retired and collecting a pension and Social Security checks. They have lost their jobs indefinitely, have no insurance, can’t pay their bills, don’t even have a retirement account and don’t know how they’re going to survive from one week to the next. I feel terrible for their condition and I wish the government (or some of our billionaires) would do more to help them through this pandemic—which is a subject for another time. These are not the people I’m talking about.)

I am talking about the people who are chomping at the bit to “open up the country” so they can start making buckets full of money again by sending their low-wage employees back into the virus field to sell hamburgers, shoes, hardware, widgets and gidgits and goods and services that ultimately benefit those who own the businesses and not the people who work in them.

I’m hoping this doesn’t happen. I’m really afraid that Round Two of COVID-19 or COVID-20 or whatever we call it is just sitting out there waiting for crowds to reconvene so it can start infecting us all over again. We’re in this mess because the president and his administration were slow to react to warnings about the virus the first time around.

Now is not the time to get in a hurry.

John Prine

I just wanted to say a few words about John Prine.

If my memory is correct—which it rarely is these days—the first John Prine song I ever heard was “Paradise,” possibly performed by a local singer in a nightclub in Hagerstown, Md., or maybe played for me by some friends I worked with in Parkersburg, W.Va. In either case, it inspired me to go out and buy his 1971 self-titled album, “John Prine.”

I bought other records of his and listened to them periodically over the years. I even made a John Prine mix tape to play in my car on one of my 45-minute one-way commutes to work. Many people consider John to have been one of the country’s greatest song writers. The diversity of his work was remarkable and the quality of it was unquestioned in my mind.

John wrote songs that made me laugh, such as:

“The Accident”

It was a four way stop dilemma

We all arrived the same time

I yielded to the man to the right of me

And he yielded it right back to mine

Well, the yield went around and around and around

Till Pamela finally tried

Just then the man in the light blue sedan

Hit Pamela's passenger side

“Linda Goes to Mars”

Oh my stars! My Linda's gone to Mars

Well I wish she wouldn't leave me here alone

Oh my stars! My Linda's gone to Mars

Well, I wonder if she'd bring me something home.

“Dear Abby”

Dear Abby, Dear Abby

Well I never thought

That me and my girlfriend would ever get caught

We were sitting in the back seat just shooting the breeze

With her hair up in curlers and her pants to her knees

Signed, Just Married

Just Married, Just Married

You have no complaint

You are what you are and you ain't what you ain't

So listen up buster, and listen up good

Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood

Signed, Dear Abby

And “That’s the Way That the World Goes Round,” in which he substituted the words “happy enchilada” for “half an inch of water” because a fan misunderstood the lyric.

That's the way that the world goes 'round.

You're up one day and the next you're down.

It's a happy enchilada and you think you're gonna drown.

That's the way that the world goes 'round.

He also wrote songs that made me cry, like “Sam Stone” and “Hello in There.”

You know that old trees just grow stronger

And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day

Old people just grow lonesome

Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello"

The song “Paradise” made me angry.

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County

Down by the Green River where Paradise lay

Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking

Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

And songs like “Angel from Montgomery,” “Donald and Lydia” and “Grandpa Was a Carpenter” brought John’s cast of creative and colorful characters to life.

John Prine wrote a lot of songs, some of which I don’t know, but all of them have one thing in common: Every song of his that I ever heard stirred some strong emotion in me, whether it was joy, sadness, anger, empathy or understanding. I can’t say that about every song writer who passed into and out of my life.

I learned recently that a lot of people didn’t know John Prine, which really doesn’t surprise me. He was kind of an acquired taste—one part folk, one part rock and two parts country—but I’d suggest, now that we’re all staying home and hiding from the COVID virus with little else to do, that you google up some of his music and give John Prine a listen. You might find, like I did, that he was one of a kind, a great song writer with a vivid imagination and a sense of humor to match.

His death this week has saddened me, but the consolation comes in the fact that his music will always live on. Thanks, John. Rest in peace.    

How many deaths, Trump? How many deaths?

Starting some time in 2018, if I recall correctly, Donald J. Trump began detaining migrant children along our southern border, separating them from their parents and locking them in cages, where some of them eventually died. As far as we know, a lot of them are still there, and if the COVID-19 virus ever gets in, more of them could die there. It was Trump’s strict zero-tolerance border policy that locked them in cages like discarded shelter animals as a way to discourage more migrants from coming to America.

Every one of those deaths belongs to Donald J. Trump.

In August 2017, Donald Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who — emboldened by the implied support of the president of the United States — held a rally in Charlottesville, Va., in which a 32-year-old woman was killed.

Her death belongs to Donald J. Trump.

In October, Trump pulled U.S. troops from the border between northeastern Syria and Turkey, abandoning our allies the Kurds who had been fighting terrorists on our behalf. That allowed Turkish forces to overrun the area, forcing 130,000 Kurds to evacuate their homes. A day later, 60 civilians and more than 100 Kurdish fighters had been killed as a result of the offensive. I don’t know what has happened since, but I don’t think it has been good.

Those Kurdish deaths belong to Donald J. Trump.

In a broader context, Trump and his administration from Day 1 have been rolling back government regulations designed to protect the health and safety of Americans. For example, they have allowed coal mine operators to dump waste material into nearby streams; encouraged the production of fossil fuels while discouraging clean energy sources; replaced the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have set strict limits on carbon emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants, with a new version that would let states set their own rules; revoked California’s power to set its own more stringent emissions standards for cars and light trucks; and rescinded water pollution regulations for fracking on federal and Indian lands.

That’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Trumpites have rolled back or weakened 25 air pollution and emissions regulations, 19 more relating to drilling and extraction, eight pertaining to toxic substances and 10 involving water pollution. The New York Times has compiled a comprehensive list. Click here to read more.  

Admittedly I have no way of knowing how many people have died or will die as the result of Trump’s regulation rollback, but whether the number is 1 or 100 million, those deaths will belong to Donald J. Trump.

And now comes COVID-19. The deadly illness sweeping the globe was first detected in China in December 2019. The U.S. became aware of it in early January of this year, probably around or before January 7 when the World Health Organization (WHO) identified the outbreak as a new coronavirus. On January 21, the first confirmed case was reported in Washington State. The WHO declared a global emergency on January 30.

Skipping through February to March 8, the U.S. had 500 confirmed cases. Sporting events were canceled, schools and businesses were closed and people were advised to avoid crowds. On March 13, a full 74 days or two-and-a-half months after the disease was first reported, President Trump finally declared a national emergency. Here’s what he said publicly before that:

Jan. 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. We have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” – CNBC interview.

Jan. 30: “We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five — and those people are all recuperating successfully. But we’re working very closely with China and other countries, and we think it’s going to have a very good ending for us … that I can assure you.” — Speech in Michigan.

Feb. 10: “Now, the virus that we’re talking about having to do — you know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April. We’re in great shape though. We have 12 cases — 11 cases, and many of them are in good shape now.” — At the White House.

Feb. 14: “There’s a theory that, in April, when it gets warm — historically, that has been able to kill the virus.  So we don’t know yet; we’re not sure yet. But that’s around the corner.” — Speaking to Border Patrol Council.

Feb. 23: “We have it very much under control in this country.” — Speaking to reporters.

Feb. 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” — Tweet.

Feb. 26: “So we’re at the low level. As they get better, we take them off the list, so that we’re going to be pretty soon at only five people. And we could be at just one or two people over the next short period of time. So we’ve had very good luck.” — White House briefing.

Feb. 26: “And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” — Press conference.

Feb. 26: “I think every aspect of our society should be prepared. I don’t think it’s going to come to that, especially with the fact that we’re going down, not up. We’re going very substantially down, not up.” — Press conference, when asked if U.S. schools should prepare for a spreading coronavirus.

Feb. 27: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” — White House meeting.

March 4: “We have a very small number of people in this country [infected]. We have a big country. The biggest impact we had was when we took the 40-plus people [from a cruise ship]. … We brought them back. We immediately quarantined them. But you add that to the numbers. But if you don’t add that to the numbers, we’re talking about very small numbers in the United States.” — White House meeting with airline CEOs.

March 9: “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” — Tweet.

March 10: “And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” — After meeting with Republican senators.

A day later, on March 11, the WHO declared the global outbreak a pandemic.

Setting aside the fact that most of what Trump said in those quotes was a lie, it’s clear to see how unprepared, unqualified and uninformed he was in dealing with a global health emergency. As everyone should know by now, virtually everything the president said and did during January, February and early March was orchestrated to keep the Stock Market high, which Trump sees as his ticket to re-election. Translation: He was protecting himself while risking the lives of 320 million Americans.  

To date, at 11 a.m. on April 4, a total of 279,500 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the United States and 7,457 Americans have died. The number is rising by the hour. (Click here for real-time data.) Estimates now range from 100,000 to 250,000 deaths before the current crisis subsides, and health experts say we should be prepared for a second wave next fall.

So my question is this: How many people have to die before someone does something? More to the point, what is the acceptable death toll before people stop supporting this president or, better yet, refuse to vote him back into office in November? Is 250,000 the tipping point? What if the body count goes higher, say, to 500,000…or a million…or two million. What is the magic number that will finally convince people to vote against Donald Trump when the next election rolls around?

Hillary Clinton was hounded for years because four people died at Benghazi under her watch as Secretary of State, even though there was little she could have done to prevent it. That was a tragedy for sure, but in my mind, if only one person had died from COVID-19 because of the president’s incompetence and neglect, because he waited too long to act while trying to protect both the Stock Market and his reputation, that should be enough to make me want to vote for someone else.

Put another way, if you go out in November and vote for Donald Trump again after the thousands of deaths that are on his head – from kids in cages to Charlottesville to Syria to COVID-19 – then every one of those deaths belong to you, too. Is that too harsh? I don’t think so. Like the president’s people say now when trying to duck responsibility, “We’re all in this together.”

If that’s true, then you have to take the bad with the good. Sleep well.