Warning: This column is highly partisan and intended to offend some offenders.
Since this country’s conversation switched from impeachment to coronavirus, some people think they are still back in the good old days. While people are dying from a highly-contagious disease and millions are thrown out of work to extinguish said virus, some folks just can’t control themselves. It was cute and quaint when everyone knew your efforts were going to fail and we had more jobs than we had people to fill them. The reality has changed and you need to get with it for the American people or just shut your mouths.
That doesn’t mean that our government is not above constructive criticism. I read it every day. There will be mistakes made and there will be mid-course corrections necessary, but your constant hectoring comments are despicable. The armchair quarterbacks with zero life experience constantly attacking the people attempting to accomplish something to save the lives and financial well-being of our fellow citizens is downright Un-American. As I tweeted out in the beginning, if you are an elected official there is really only one thing to say “What do you need? I am here to help.”
What do you think healthcare professionals who must daily face near-certain patient deaths – not to mention possible infection for themselves — think when their elected officials are running to cameras to bitch about something that is better communicated in private? That must be inspiring.
Get it straight. This is a proverbial s___ show. People are attempting to do things never before tried. The Treasury and the SBA are rolling out a completely new loan program for which 30 million small businesses are eligible and have started their applications. It is massive. Yet Tory Newmyer who writes the Finance 202 column for the Washington Post wrote “Small-business owners desperate for a federal lifeline seem poised to instead encounter chaos and a slew of questions about accessing loans aimed at keeping them running during the coronavirus pandemic.” This comes from a guy whose biggest organizational event experience is probably arranging an office softball game. But he has a BA in American history from Columbia University, so he is “qualified” to analyze the operation of this massive program. Yes, Tory — there are going to be massive mishaps and you will be able to find many whiners who complain about the process. But in the end the financial institutions of this country in coordination with the financial arm of our federal government will get most of it correct and you should be grateful. Why don’t you volunteer at your local bank to help process the loan applications? Oh, sorry; you have no qualifications.
Then there is the entire narrative being built that Trump fiddled while America burned. The Democrats keep wanting to go there because they think that is the magic formula to destroy him come November. Their friends in the Press are carrying the load for them. They ignore that people like Pelosi and Andrew Cuomo (their latest perceived savior from the candidacy of Joe Biden) were encouraging their residents to exhibit improper behavior at late dates in February.
They say that Trump doesn’t follow science (and they do only when it is convenient for their narrative). That is despite having Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx at most news conferences. That is despite Fauci being on tape on January 20th saying COVID-19 is no threat to America. In addition, Fauci making statements in interviews later that downplayed any threat from this virus. Also, Fauci stated that President Trump has taken this issue seriously from the beginning. When in discussion with one of these Trump-hating souls, I told him that what he just said was countered by Birx in the daily news conference. He immediately blurted out that Trump told her to say that. Their hatred consumes them.
A special moment was in the news conference this past Tuesday where Dr. Birx was explaining the current exposure and the possibility based on models (those ever present models) that 100,000 Americans will die. Jim Acosta (CNN) asked a question (in a gentlemanly manner), but he was acting more like a prosecuting attorney and he was on his recurring mission to prove Trump had fiddled. He wanted Dr. Birx to acknowledge that if action was taken sooner then this entire curve would have been flattened. He kept asking while Birx was trying to explain that could not have happened. Then Fauci jumped in and said there was no earlier information that this disaster was going to happen. The curve could not have been flattened. Damn Trump — off the hook again.
There is a reserved place in Hell for people making these accusations. Like when Chuck Todd asked his guest if there was blood on Trump’s hand. But that happens virtually daily in the Washington Post. Can’t you people control yourselves? There is a national emergency and you can’t stop the attacks? It is a sickness.
There is this special case of hatred. Mr. Trump tells the story of cutting through our ossified government layers and getting things done. He has been harping about why do these masks need tossing after a single use. Gov. Mike DeWine (OH) gets a call from a company in his state saying they have machines to clean these masks (120,000 per day per machine and the masks can be reused up to 20 times) and he can’t get it through the FDA bureaucracy. DeWine tells Trump, Trump calls the new head of the FDA (three months into the job) who probably has no idea this machine exists and the approval of it is in a stack with hundreds of other things that could save our lives. FDA head, Dr. Stephen Hahn, calls back Trump in two hours and the machines are approved and one is immediately shipped to NYC. Good story. Things are working well. Nope, not if you are one of those who have a special place in Hell.
James Hohmann in his Daily 202 column in the WAPO can’t bear the sight of President Trump doing anything well. He writes a column on March 31st with the heading: A Phone Call with Trump Can Open the Door for Executives, Celebrities with Coronavirus asks. What a disgusting header. He makes it sound as if these people are calling to get some special favor for themselves and the column follows that line. These people are calling to help their fellow Americans get through this debacle. They are calling to help unlike Hohmann and his ilk working to destroy. In addition, Governor DeWine is an elected leader doing his job. Hohmann goes on to write about how this good story (maybe excellent story) is just another sordid side of Trump. How sick do you have to be?
I can regale you with hundreds of these stories of sick people infected with the disease of hatred. After all, if Trump says something, they take the opposite position just because. But I will move on to the big one. The defense of China, you know the despotic, lying, cheating country that these disgusting people seem to love simply because it is not America. It is akin to their defense of Muslim states that like to kill homosexuals and keep women in bondage. Anything that is run by anyone who is not Christian or Jewish has to be good. One might think this episode would awaken them. These people must be having a particularly vexing moment since China is serially abusing their Muslims. What is a good leftist to do?
Answer: Peter Beinart in the Atlantic on March 28th writes a long column lauding China in this entire fiasco despite that they are the source of and cause of the spread around the world of COVID-19 because of their lies and deceit. His column is entitled Trump’s Break with China Has Deadly Consequences. Beinart goes on to detail how because Trump has taken it to China the U.S. wasn’t there to stop deadly breakouts from this malignant country like we helped with SARS. Beinart ignores the fact the Chinese turned down help from America and the WHO that was offered this time.
He goes on to tell how they worked with us to cure other problems as if they added something to the equation. He then contradicts himself by saying “the United States was China’s tutor. Now America’s doctors and scientists are desperate to learn how their Chinese counterparts vanquished the coronavirus in Wuhan.” As if that really happened. As if their body count is accurate. He continues: “If America’s factories were the arsenal of democracy during World War II, it is more and more clear the Chinese factories will be the arsenal of global public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.” You have to be a real sick puppy to write that crap. He leaves out that the Chinese factories shipped dysfunctional COVID-19 tests to Italy and Spain. It will be our factories converted by our free enterprise system that will be the arsenal. We will never allow them to control elements of our health system again. They can’t be trusted.
And understand something that will break their hearts: If there is a cure for this it will come from either the United States or Israel where the best scientists in the world work unrestrained by government bureaucrats and a free society to develop a vaccine and/or anti-body treatment. The only way that China will do this is if they steal the science from us. They haven’t had an original thought for half a millennium.
Lastly, a positive note. Two Democrats (the governors of New York and California) have been doing the right thing in the face of the media trying to guide them toward Trump attacks. Governors Newsom and Cuomo have been doing what they are supposed to do – call the President or V-P and lay out a problem and ask for help. They say they have been getting it. Newsom told Jake Tapper (who was trying his darndest to create controversy) “Let me just be candid with you. I’d be lying to you to say that he hasn’t been responsive to our needs. He has.” Applause for these two for acting like leaders and grown-ups.
I have not delineated some of the elected officials like Speaker Pelosi who can’t control her hyper-partisan instincts. But some were already rotting in Hell. It is disgusting that some just can’t focus on the needs of Americans while we are in crisis and keep their hatred to themselves. It is sad. Very sad.