Trump, Biden and COVID-19

 A letter to the editor I wrote. 

UPDATE 8/23/24 Was never published.

Editor,

From what I’ve read a big part of the fall in President Biden’s popularity has been the resurgence of Covid-19. Although it made sense in many ways to partly blame former President Trump for how bad the COVID-19 crisis was in 2020, it doesn’t make any sense to blame Biden for how bad it is now.

At the beginning of the pandemic Trump tried to ignore it and at the end of Feb. 2020 he  said it was a “hoax” He didn’t use the Defense Production Act right away to make sure there were enough masks, other PPE, ventilators and testing supplies. To be fair we never ran out of ventilators, but the failure to make enough masks at the beginning I believe contributed to the Trump administration initially DISCOURAGING the use of masks by the general population, there were always shortages of PPE for health care professionals and we didn’t test anywhere near as much as we should have (I believe) because there weren’t enough supplies. He largely discouraged mask-wearing and when he did sort of encourage it it was half-hearted. He kept saying it was almost over which contributed to his supporters not taking it seriously.

Biden has always taken COVID-19 seriously and promoted masks when Trump was making fun of people for wearing them. If it wasn’t for a massive chunk of the population that overlaps heavily with Trump supporters, the vaccine effort in this country would be incredibly successful. Biden’s vaccine mandate policies will help (and they’re ethical- we have for decades mandated vaccines for school kids). His administration is helping Florida school districts defying a Republican ban on mask mandates. The Delta variant isn’t his fault. It’s likely it would have gone nowhere if more Americans had gotten vaccinated earlier, and once again, Trump can be blamed for that.

Don’t blame President Biden for COVID-19. If anyone deserves blame for it here in America, it’s Trump.

Tom Shelley
Boulder

LTE On Anti-Asian Racism and Donald Trump

Below is a letter to the editor that I sent to a couple papers. I got the info about unemployment rates here. (UPDATE 4/2/21 The unemployment rates I looked at are not OFFICIAL figures, they are adjusted by Pew Research and I assume they're more accurate than the official figures) UPDATE 8/23/24 this was published April 25th 2021 in the Daily Camera and March 25th in the Boulder Weekly.

 

Editor,

 

Even if the recent shootings of Asian-Americans in Atlanta, GA were not racially motivated, there is a serious problem with violence towards and harassment of that part of our population in the last year. And it’s not just violence- economically Asian-America has been in decline, more so than the general population (they went from having an unemployment rate roughly the same as that of white people, to having one in May of 2020 that was more than 1.5 times the white one.

 

This hostile environment is largely the product of Donald Trump’s insistence on blaming China for COVID-19. He insists on calling it the China virus, the Wuhan Virus, or the “Kung Flu.” A lot of Trump supporters probably would say that objecting to use of that last one is evidence that one doesn’t have a sense of humor. But it’s very offensive. It goes further than calling it the China virus. It implies that there’s is something culturally Chinese about the virus. Going back to the less offensive terms, I don’t think anyone called “Mad Cow Disease” the “English disease” (I don’t think that even Irish republicans called it that).

 

Some people who call it “Kung Flu” might say that the absolutely serious nature of this public health emergency justifies the hostility towards Asian-Americans, but it’s the opposite. I’m sure it’s very upsetting for Asian-Americans to think about how so many Americans blame part of their community for COVID-19 deaths.

 

Tom Shelley

Trump's Loss and COVID-19

Below is first what I submitted to CNN when they asked people to respond to Biden's win, and below that is another note about Trump and COVID-19. The first one hasn't been edited by me since I submitted it to CNN.

1. I'm really glad. I had a lot of anxiety about it, which won't completely leave until Trump either concedes or it's clear that he's isolated and alone. But Trump is worse than George W. Bush and Bush was worse than his Dad and most republicans. In addition to everything else, Trump has been a disaster in relation to the pandemic. He would actually make fun of people for wearing masks. We have suffered disproportionate to our numbers as a nation. At the end of May we had lost 100,000 people. At the same time, at that point Israel had lost just 284 people- in America, 30 times bigger, that's 8,520 people. As much as I dislike Netanyahu, if he were our President in the early months of the pandemic, we would have lost 8,520 people instead of 100,000. I'm sure something similar can be said about the time since late May. He predicted a pandemic while Trump was calling it a media hoax, he was putting his foot down about social distancing while Trump was prematurely talking about re-opening. I write at greater length about this at- https://theblackandthegreen2.blogspot.com/2020/04/trump-netanyahu-and-covid-19-coronavirus.html     But the main thing is that we had a horrible President when we needed, more than ever, a good one, and now (what will hopefully be) the final months of COVID-19 will be more bearable and less anxiety producing if we have a President who encourages mask-wearing, who doesn't seek political favors in exchange for desperately-needed medical supplies, who doesn't push us too far as far as re-opening, who will allow the scientists and doctors to develop a vaccine that is safe and effective without political interference, etc.

2. Somewhere in my COVID-19 posts I need to put something. I am a very strong believer in masks and I also respect Dr. Fauci. Trump likes to point out that in the very early weeks of COVID-19 Dr. Fauci opposed the idea of encouraging the general public to wear masks. Dr. Fauci's main or only argument was that there weren't enough masks for medical personnel AND the general public. Now, in hindsight and maybe for some people at the time, opposing mask use by the general public was a stupid mistake. There would have been fewer deaths in the Spring if we had all been wearing masks. I understand that medical personnel were a priority, but this is another example of Trump failing to use the Defense Production Act like a sledgehammer. We could have had enough masks in early March if he had. I don't know how Netanyahu did on this question, but Trump failed. Before he started making fun of people for wearing a mask, at one point in April or May he made some half-hearted suggestion that people "might" want to wear a scarf over their mouth and nose. And he seems to think that masks are primarily for the benefit of the wearer, when it's for the people around them. He also doesn't understand that you should wear a mask when no one's around but there's a decent chance someone will come up to you unexpectedly, instead of just when there ARE people around you. We all forget sometimes to wear a mask when we go out, but if you plan on putting one on when you leave the house instead of just when someone unexpectedly comes up to you outside, it’ll work out better.

Trump, Masks and Conspiracy Theories

Two miscellaneous thoughts about Trump. The first about masks and the second one about right-wing conspiracies.

 1. First, Trump has said (three times with large audiences) that a recent CDC study found that 85% of people who wear a mask get COVID-19. I’m going to rely primarily on a CNN article to refute that and add a couple things. First, the CNN article is here. Second of all, this shows that trump, like many Americans, still doesn’t get it- a mask isn’t supposed to offer more than partial protection to the wearer. It protects people around the wearer in case they are pre-symptomatic  or asymptomatic- in case they have COVID-19 and don’t know it. You can still  get it with a mask because the mask doesn’t protect your eyes, but the only way for the virus to get out is through your noes and mouth (well you also sort of have to worry about your hands as well to some degree). Third, I can only imagine how much damage he did tossing around that fake information. Bearing in mind what CNN says about its accuracy, he must have strengthened the resolve of mask skeptics like a steel beam placed in their spine. I mean, if 85% of mask wearers get COVID-19, who in the world would wear a mask?

2. In the NBC Trump Town Hall that partly replaced the second debate, Trump was asked to reject a popular conspiracy theory. Referred to as QAnon, it is basically saying that Democrats are part of a satanic conspiracy based on pedophilia. I’m not sure how connected it is to the Pizzagate conspiracy theory or if it is separate. Pizzagate resulted in an incident of armed violence and QAnon could, too. Pedophilia (a sexual attraction by adults or adolescents towards pre-pubescent children) is a serious problem. And Trump refuses to say this conspiracy theory is nonsense. Instead he says that all he knows about them is that they’re against pedophilia and apparently that makes it okay. He also emphasizes that he only RE-tweets QAnon stuff. But A) he has the FBI and the rest of the intelligence community at his fingertips- he knows that QAnon is slanderous, politically-motivated nonsense, B) Who ISN’T against Pedophilia? and C) when you retweet something you are, to one degree or another, endorsing it.

Roseanne Reviews C

This is a set of reviews of Roseanne episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I will focus only on the political aspects and will mention what percent of lines spoken by non-family members are spoken by people of color.

“Canoga Time” Episode 11, Season 1. Wikipedia summary is: “Roseanne proposes a deal when Dan cannot bear to part with his old "junk" that Roseanne wants to donate to a rummage sale. Darlene forges a passing grade on her report card.”

There’s about 15 lines spoke by a non-family member, but they’re all by a white person.

“Bridge Over Troubled Sonny” Episode 13, Season 1. Wikipedia Summary: “Crystal still struggles to cope with her first husband's death, Sonny, whose body was accidentally buried inside the bridge that Jackie drove them over on their way to work. Roseanne is unsure whether she should tell Crystal about Sonny's infidelities. Crystal finally confronts her emotions and reveals that she knew about Sonny's cheating and had her own affair to spite him. Darlene decides it is cool to smoke until Roseanne finds her pack of cigarettes.”

First, this is the episode I referred to earlier about work-place safety. Unfortunately, they make it sound like he just screwed up, but I would say that there may have been some kind of safety measure that could have prevented his death, and I still think it illustrates how most or at least many working-class jobs are more physically dangerous than all or at least almost all middle-class jobs. And that should be taken into consideration when we look at (in addition to safety measure) rates of compensation and things like breaks during work and hours (i.e. forced over-time) (considering that fatigue can contribute to accidents happening). Every year on the 28th of April, the global labor movement (and apparently many outside the labor movement as well) mark Workers Memorial Day, remembering all those killed or injured on the job. There is more information here and here.

In the COVID0-19 era, there is a new dimension to the issue of workplace safety. I won’t go into it much, but although I once found myself frustrated that Best Buy wasn’t doing work on computers, I overwhelmingly am concerned about people who have had to and are continuing to work in this situation. I can’t believe that we weren’t all wearing masks a long time ago, that would have increased the safety of everyone including workers at, for example, meat-packing plants. I’ve worn a mask 99% of the time that I’m outside a home and my car since about March 15th.

Also, out of about 40 lines by non-family members, all are by white people.

“Mall Story” Episode 16, Season 1. Wikipedia summary is: “It is time for the annual Landford Mall-A-Thon, and Roseanne and her brood scout out the deals during a Saturday in retail heaven. Roseanne makes Dan buy a new pair of shoes he does not want. Becky finds the perfect dress for the high school dance that Roseanne says is too expensive. Roseanne asks Dan to return the shoes so she can afford to buy the dress for Becky.”

The only thing worth noting is that out of about 40 lines by non-family members, none are by people of color.

“Becky’s Choice” Episode 17, Season 1. Wikipedia summary is: “Becky must decide between her first crush, Chip, and the infamous "Tongue Bandit". The decision worsens when Roseanne and Dan invite Chip's parents for dinner. During the evening, Roseanne catches Becky in the backyard with the other guy.”

The only thing worth noting is that out of about 40 lines by non-family members, none are by people of color.

“The Slice of Life” Episode 18, Season 1. Wikipedia summary is: “Becky prepares for a slumber party, and Darlene practices to pitch in a baseball game. Darlene is extremely moody, and storms out of the house after arguing with Roseanne. Later, Roseanne gets a phone call that Darlene was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. Roseanne is wracked with guilt after Darlene develops complications; Roseanne and Dan anxiously wait for the doctor's prognosis.”

This raises the issue of health-care insurance, although not very critically. I think the only thing critical is it says that parents shouldn’t have to worry about health-care insurance when they’re also worrying about their child being in emergency surgery. It’s not a bad point, and there’s a little bit about dealing with health insurance bureaucracy, but it could be more critical of that industry and/or it could have said something about Roseanne having insurance as part of a union’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.

In this episode about 50% of the lines by a non-family member are by people of color. One of the two people of color, the one with about 45% of all such lines is a surgeon who is a black woman. In some ways that’s pretty cool. The only way I dissent from that is that I have heard that the TV show The Cosby Show actually fueled racism in this country because it gave people the impression that black people had equality in financial terms and had nothing to complain about. I watched it fairly often as a kid and remember one episode that probably didn’t help at all. Cliff wants to buy a car and at the dealership he tries to act like he's down on his luck in order to get a better deal. I’m not making that up.

In general though it’s awesome that 45% of the lines by non-family members were by a black female surgeon.

The other thing I should say about health-care is that the COVID-19 situation just makes health-care reform even more important in multiple ways. The main thing is that although the period of late March and early April wasn’t the apocalyptic disaster it could have been, there would have been less of a disaster and maybe fewer deaths if we had had a health-care system set up for the entire population instead of just for those wealthy enough or lucky enough to have health-care insurance. There would have been plenty of ventilators and ICU beds if we had a system with the capacity to help everyone who needs health care.

COVID-19, Blaming China, and Churches: Two More Thoughts

Two more thoughts about COVID-19.

1. After I read an article here (about Trump blaming China for COVID-19), I posted a comment almost totally reflected below:

A good response to this is to point to other countries that did a better job of responding to COVID-19 than Trump did. They also would have been affected by whatever bad actions China engaged in. Also, there were intelligence reports in Jan. and Feb. about the virus, so even if China was not forthcoming (to be honest I haven't looked at that very much), Trump knew anyway. But there are certainly many countries that did a better job than Trump, with the same or less information about what was happeing in China (they probably didn't have the intelligence reports that Trump had). One country is Israel. For more about that, see this (remember that on Feb. 29th Trump said it was a hoax) and for more see this.

As far as criticizing China for letting people leave the country, at what point did TRUMP ban Americans from leaving this country?

As far as what Trump knew and when he knew it, see this, and this.

UPDATE 10/24/20 An article about an increase in anti-Asian-American racism in connection with COVID-19 is here. 

 UPDATE 2/16/21 A CNN video story about anti-Asian-American racism is here.

2. After reading an article here (about lock-down orders and places of worship), I posted the following comment:

Although I haven't been to Church in roughly 19 years, I have spoken with a senior church employee about coming back (it's complicated, but I have done more than just think vaguely of going to Mass again) and I am a religious person. But I have no problem at all telling places of worship that there are serious limits on what they can do right now for public health reasons. And when they compare the limit on them and the limit on businesses, that at least sort of doesn't make sense. A lot of the businesses letting more than 10 people in at a time are much larger than the average church. Some, maybe a lot of, businesses DO limit how many people can come in, and I'm fine with that. And going to a place of worship is not essential. A lot of people live where there is no place of worship for them, and they worship at home. We have fire department regulations about occupancy for public safety. I'm not sure if anyone was asked to leave or was denied entry, but I have been at City Council meetings where fire-fighters have kept an eye on occupancy numbers, and we certainly have a right to attend city council meetings.

Trump Doesn't Understand the Need for Widespread Testing

This focus exclusively on health workers when it comes to testing and masks is ridiculous. Yes, I am concerned about them. But testing them and giving them masks is not going to slow the spread of COVID-19. And they'll be safer if we slow the spread, by testing everyone at least once a week and doing whatever is needed to get everyone to effectively cover their mouth and nose. What we needed 1-2 months ago was for Trump to use the Defense Production Act like a sledgehammer and get tons and tons of what we need made. It sounds like he's still dragging his feet on that, for the most part.

Testing just those who are sick is ridiculous. Before they get tested, before the are symptomatic, they can spread it. Trump seems to think that a test is an inoculation, but days after you get tested you could get it.

Also, read this, about the failure of Trump's idea of a treatment for COVID-19. He is finished.

There are Confederate flags at anti-lockdown/pro-Trump protests. I found several articles that briefly refer to it, but since it's such a small part of the articles, I'm not going to link to them. Do a search and you'll find them. I AM going to link to this, because it de-bunks a claim that a photo of a protester with that flag was doctored. Also, two such examples were in Wisconsin and Michigan, states that weren't in the Confederacy.

*****IMPORTANT*******

There is more evidence that Trump is a fascist. Read this. They aren't planning on replacing the entire Federal workforce with Trump loyalists for just 4-8 years. This is supposed to be permanent. Someone should ask them if they believe that every time someone moves into the White House, the entire Federal workforce should be replaced.

As Michael Farrell (the popular Irish civil rights/civil liberties lawyer) said, a characteristic of fascism is "the total identification of party and state."

UPDATE 4/22/20 I just wrote most of the following to a friend who thinks that fascist is the wrong word:

**He is supported by a right-wing populist movement. This thing with the federal workforce is, as I said, wanting to make the State an extension of the Party. He is bigoted, believes in an INCREIBLY imperial presidency, is thuggish (in 2016 he had his supporters assault protesters at his rallies), and is slightly imperialistic and militaristic. And there is a cult of personality involved.**

See this and this as examples of his recent, BROAD assertion of the President having more authority than he has. Also, see this as far as him purging Inspectors Generals in a way that is worrying not just Dems but GOPers as well. And he doesn't believe in an independent judiciary. First, at some point at least once he said that judges he appointed should side with his administration, and there's also this about how he thinks that judges who don't like him should recuse themselves from cases involving his administration.

 
UPDATE 4/23/20 Bearing in mind that criminal "justice" reform is a issue of racism, see this.

With the unavoidable depression and the lack of funding for local and state governments (which will happen if we don't start taxing the rich and maybe corporations more than they are taxed now) we will see economic insecurity skyrocket. And the Republicans, especially the hard-core Trump fans who are right-wing populists, will not blame capitalism for this increased economic insecurity, they will blame people of color. That is my solid prediction.

**************

That's Michael Farrell, the Irish activist not the actor. As I wrote elsewhere:

Michael Farrell is one of my top political heroes. He wrote an amazing book “Northern Ireland: The Orange State.” It’s a great book- it’s fairly introductory at the beginning and is a history of N. Ireland ending at some point in the 1970s depending on which edition you read. It’s also almost a labor history of N. Ireland, offers a lot of analysis, exposes the sectarian, brutal and near-authoritarian nature of the Northern state. It highlights the contributions made by Protestants and leftists to the struggles for justice, equality, and freedom. It exposes the role that capital played in creating and maintaining N. Ireland and the ways that capital benefited from the partition of Ireland and Orange rule in N. Ireland. Farrell was a leading member of People’s Democracy whose politics and activities I describe in the first half of this post (starting in the very early 1970s they expressed support for the Provisional IRA).

According to his wikipedia page:

After moving to Dublin and becoming a solicitor, Farrell was co-chairperson of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties from 1995 to 2001. He was appointed a member of the Irish Human Rights Commission in 2001 and reappointed in October 2006, serving until 2011. In 2005 he was appointed to the Steering Committee of the National Action Plan Against Racism [according to his ECRI page, it was 2001-2003- TS]. He is currently working for Free Legal Advice Centres, Dublin, and has brought cases to the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee. In 2011 he was appointed to the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, and in 2012 he was appointed to the Irish Council of State by President Michael D. Higgins.

I can confirm pretty much all of it (including the Council of State part), and there’s also the fact that people who were (between 1970 and 1990) very vocal and active Northern supporters of the Provisional IRA are not appointed to the Council of State (by a mainstream Labour politician) 20 years later without being (for example) a ridiculously well respected human rights/civil liberties lawyer.

Some Thoughts About the Republican Party, COVID-19 and Democracy

When it comes to a few voting reforms like vote-by-mail, they claim there is potential for the almost non-existent problem of voting fraud (that they believe is common) to get worse. Apparently there is a little more than almost zero potential for fraud with voting-by-mail, but in at least in some states it is so tiny. There is also a history of mail-in ballots being challenged more often than regular ballots.

READ THIS AS FAR AS WHY VOTE-BY-MAIL MIGHT BE A BAD IDEA.

But there is apparently even less possibility of fraud or challenges with early voting (perhaps no more than voting in person on election day) and the GOP hates that as well.

The thing that vote by mail and early voting do is reduce lines on election day outside polling places in precincts that don’t have enough stations (I just looked it up to be sure and a station is sometimes defined as "A place where one performs a task" and I wasn't sure if "machine" is the right word because I think that sometimes there is no machine involved). So many people in such precincts end up leaving the line because, (and this is more common with working-class people), they have to go to sleep so they can get up and go to work. And if they’re people of color they’re more likely to have a boss who will penalize them for being late for work than if they’re white. (UPDATE 11/5/20 There's also a class dimension as self-employed and professional people often have more control over their schedule than everyone else does and can make arrangements to sleep late the day after the election in case they're in line to vote late at night)

With COVID-19 early voting is also an important option, and one that can be set up pretty easily, easier than setting up vote-by-mail. If there’s early voting about 8 hours a day (everyday and on work days, 12-8 PM or something like that) for 1-2 months before the election, we’ll have plenty of time to vote, we can do it a small number at a time (depending on how big the room is, so we can be six feet apart). If you go there one day a month before election day and there’s a line stretching around the block because of social-distancing, just come back another day.

(For all I know it *MIGHT* be necessary for a county to have greater security (including cameras?) where the ballots are stored, but that would only be for 1-2 months’ and it wouldn’t be a lot of extra security. I haven’t heard of any problems with the accumulation of ballots due to vote-by-mail and/or early voting, although this would be different and MIGHT require new arrangements like extra security)

It’s not absolutely perfect, I was thinking as I typed the paragraph about security, but I think it might be best, especially with COVID-19, if we have both vote-by-mail as available as possible, and also have extensive early voting. We are rapidly approaching a point where it will be too late for Congress to effectively mandate vote-by-mail for everyone in every state (that has to be mandated soon, so states can have all the materials needed printed, which takes a long time) and last I heard, the GOP is totally against that. There might be a massive number of challenges in the event of universal vote-by-mail, which would seriously delay the results, maybe for months.

What Trump Was Told and When He Was Told It (COVID-19 (Coronavirus))

You should read an article here. It's largely an expose of the fact that Trump was warned about the seriousness of COVID-19 in January and February. Very soon I'll add a couple more relevant links.

UPDATE Another relevant article.

One thing that the first article touches on reminds me of something else. When people say we lose a similar number of people each year from the flu, they're ignoring a couple things. First, early on there was plenty of evidence that COVID-19 is VERY communicable and more likely to result in death than the flu. Second, COVID-19 deaths are IN ADDITION to earlier flu deaths in the 2019/2020 flu season.

Masks and Social Distancing and Test, Test, Test For a Long Time

I posted most of this comment on Politico.

Why the hell did NO ONE at the beginning talk about wearing masks for EVERYONE who had one? Other countries did that and some of them are among the most successful at responding to COVID-19. Why were we only worrying about medical people getting them? Why weren't we keeping people from getting sick in the first place by preventing others from spreading it by having everyone wear SOMETHING, ideally the same kind of mask that doctors wear!

People act like we're the Brits in WWII and all we have to do is do the COVID-19 equivelent of going into a bomb shelter- social-distance and stay at home for a brief period of time. We will have to social distance and wear masks and test, test, test, for a long time. (COVID-19 isn't becoming less communicable and the curve is flattening because of social distancing, not because COVID-19 is going away)

WHY DIDN'T WE WEAR MASKS?

Trump didn't like the election year optics of Americans wearing masks, and is an idiot and a racist (see below).

That applies to a lot of others.

The Dems who weren't worried about election-year optics? They're idiots and kind of racists in this case- they were thinking, "ASIANS wear masks, and we're not Asians. We'd look silly, like Asians look silly when they wear masks."

CODVID-19 (Coronavirus) Thoughts

I'll post some more COVID-19 thoughts, but you should read a post by Juan Cole of Informed Comment here. It's about when to re-open the country, about how earlier social-distancing/stay-at-home orders could have saved lives and how Dr. Fauci might be fired soon.

1. Blaming China for COVID-19 and Racism

Although I get the impression that China DID do some bad things in respect to their response to COVID-19, a focus on China could just encourage hostility towards Asian and Asian-American people here. There WERE attacks on Asian people wearing masks a month ago and Trump was persuaded to stop referring to its as “the Chinese virus” because of this. But just about 15 days ago Secretary of State Pompeo was insisting to the Group of 7 industrialized nations that COVID-19 be officially labelled the “Wuhan Virus.”

UPDATE 10/24/20 An article about an increase in anti-Asian-American racism in connection with COVID-19 is here. Also, Trump has been saying that Biden called Trump's partial China travel ban xenophobic. Apparently, within an hour or so of Trump announcing the ban Biden called him xenophobic but Biden wasn't aware of the travel ban at the time- he hadn't heard of it yet when he called Trump xenophobic. There's plenty of things Trump has done that were xenophobic but the travel ban was not one of them.

UPDATE 2/16/21 A CNN video story about anti-Asian-American racism is here.

2. In response to an article here, I wrote the following:

"I think a big part of this is that we have a health-care system set up for a lot less than the entire population. If we had something resembling what they have in other countries (like Canada) and properly funded it, our hospitals wouldn't be as overwhlemed as they are. We should have done social distancing earlier. I don't think this is said with hind-sight- I think if in some alternate reality, we had social-distanced starting in early March and after a week or two it was SORT of a fale alarm, people would have been okay with that. At the very least, WITH hind-sight it makes sense. I mean, if history is a guide, something that could become a pandemic will happen maybe once every 4-5 years or something. We can live a little differently for 1-2 weeks. At the first sign of a pandemic, Trump should have used the Defense Production Act to make more medical supplies like masks and whatever would be likely needed for testing. Our economy would survive if, in a similarly alternate reality, we produced a bunch of stuff for a week and then it turned out okay and we had to wait as production was switched back. And if we taxed the rich (not neccessarily corporations) more, A) they would survive and B) we could afford compensating corporations for making a bunch of medical supplies we end up not needing right away (we could use them and briefly cut back on production so overall supplies can go back down to normal).

We also need to stick with past plans and stuff as the article says. As far as when the alarm should have been raised, 4 days after Trump called it a hoax, his buddy Netanyahu called it a Pandemic."

3. After reading an article here, I wrote the following comment:

"I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but I could swear (and the article kind of says this) that one of the things the Dems want is for Affirmative Action to be a factor in support to small businesses. I generally support AA and think this is a good idea. in about a week there will be a post on my blog supporting AA."

That post is here.

4. I read an article here. There is valid concern that people of color are dying disproportionately from COVID-19. That’s partly just the correlation between race and class and also capitalist healthcare. Trump is also a racist. There's Charlottesville, and there's this, and this, and this. UPDATE 4/23/20 Bearing in mind that criminal "justice" reform is a issue of racism, see this.

5. I read a an article here and left the following comment:

"This thing where you have to say nice things about Trump to get supplies is horrible. I was hoping that this would end months before the election and those governors who, rightfully, want to criticize Trump could do so and he woud lose the election, but he is messing up so bad, who knows when this will end, and governors will have to keep saying nice stuff about him to get supplies. They might take a chance shortly before the election and try to get him kicked out of the White House, but if they try that and he wins (probably in an unfair election), they're in trouble. Liberal and progressive media and activists unconnected to governors need to spread the word about what a bad job Trump is doing. GREAT JOB POLITICO!!"

When Can We Return to Normal? (COVID-19 (Coronavirus))

After I read an article on Politico, I left a comment. Most of what's below is that comment.

The only reason he is including business people on the council is so that they can vote to re-open the country. They're not epidemiologists, they have no idea when the country can reopen. It's great that he'll include some governors and doctors, but I have a bad feeling that the business people will out-vote the others and recommend opening the country. And Trump saying he'll close it back down if there's a resurgence of COVID-19 is stupid. That means he'll wait until AFTER a bunch more people will have gotten an often deadly disease and THEN close the country again.

What we need is for him to use the Defense Production Act to dramatically ramp up the production of masks and whatever is needed to test for COVID-19, and maybe AFTER we have enough masks and everyone is getting tested frequently, then we can reopen the country.

The thing is, the decrease in cases, when it comes, is because of social-distancing. COVID-19 isn't becoming less communicable. We need masks and testing before it's even sort of safe to return to normal. And even then, restaurants and such will have to stay closed (you can't take your mask off) but a lot of non-essential businesses can open again, including many that can't do stuff on-line.

What we really need a is an effective treatment- not the ones that Trump recommends. And from what I've heard, a lot of health-care people think his obsession with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine is requiring effort that could be better spent on other stuff. If you think that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are treatments, you should read this, this, and this.

You should also read the other post I did about COVID-19.

UPDATE 4/14/20 Trump's real reason for not encouraging people to wear masks and and ramping up production of them is that he thought it would look bad if there were a bunch of people wearing masks and it would be bad election-year optics.

Trump, Netanyahu, and COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

I had earlier thought that I would keep the topic of Coronavirus (COVID-19) off my blog. I have sent some thoughts about it (more or less political thoughts), to a handful of individuals by email. Soon I’ll post some more thoughts about COVID-19 but right now I want to get this out there immediately. (I get almost all of my COVID-19 news from Politico)

In general there are a lot of ways to criticize Trump for his horrible response to Coronavirus. But there is one thing that I don’t hear anyone mentioning. For about two months until about 20 days ago I read A LOT of stuff in The Times of Israel, an online and apparently mainstream Israeli newspaper which is only slightly pro-Israel (the founding editor is described here). I found an article that contrasts Trump’s response to COVID-19 with that of Netanyahu, which is the only good thing I can say about Netanyahu. When reading that article, remember that it was the 29th of February when Trump said that COVID-19 was a liberal “hoax.” (UPDATE 4/12/20 Trump can't accuse Netanyahu of predicting a pandemic because he's a liberal in love with the American media)

On March. 17th, Netanyahu said: “This isn’t child’s play, it’s not summer vacation, it’s a matter of life and death,” and “If you don’t have to go to work, stay home. I assume you know the English expression ‘My home is my castle.’ Please adopt that. Your home is your castle in defense against the coronavirus pandemic…stay home.” It was March 24th when Trump said: “I’d love to have it open by Easter, OK? I would love to have it open by Easter. I will tell you that right now.” On March 26th it was reported that Israeli police were handing out fines for violating social distancing regulations. On March 23rd, Trump said of schools: “In many cases, they are open now. But the schools are going to be open. In other cases, (New York) Governor (Andrew) Cuomo, Gavin Newsom of California, certain governors are going to maybe have a decision to make.” Trump has resisted calls for a NATIONAL “stay-at-home” order and continues to refuse to do that, despite the fact that Dr. Fauci supports it (an April 3rd article). Here’s a good (March 27th) article about the response of many Governors to Trump’s March 26th plan for lifting social-distancing restrictions in the near future on a county-by-county and state-by-state basis. A March 22nd article reports that the Isareli Health Ministry said that social distancing will probably last until the Summer and maybe beyond.

In an article here it was illustrated that the Israeli State wasn’t very well prepared for this. But I think that Netanyahu still did a better job. In a more recent article, on April 5th it was learned that at least 10,000 tests a day will be done, and it sounds like that was a pretty realistic estimate. It sucks, but it’s still better than Trump. According to this, only in late March did testing in America get to 100,000 a day, and America’s population is about 30 times bigger than Israel’s.

On production of things like ventilators, I haven’t found much info. But the first article I link to above strongly implied that Netanyahu was deploying the power of the national government to combat COVID-19. And I found an article here saying that Israel has already used a 2/3 public 1/3 private partnership to produce more ventilators. The new production line was set up in days and in one day produced 30 ventilators. From what I’ve heard, the new production lines for ventilators in America haven’t been set up yet. And again, America’s population is 30 times Israel’s. I don’t know how many ventilators America normally produces or how many were already being made in Israel, but again, if you consider the different population sizes involved, Israel might be doing better on ventilator production, and it was set up quickly and Netanyahu was a lot more willing than Trump to involve the State instead of relying, to one large degree or another, on the private sector. (I wish I could find more information about Israel and this aspect of responding to COVID-19, but I am kind of sticking with The Times of Israel and after doing a few searches using Google Advanced Search, I don’t think there’s anything more I’m likely to find). I know more about Trump’s efforts to ramp up production and I THINK it’s worse than Netanyahu’s. An article, from April 2nd goes into Trump’s efforts here.

1-2 weeks ago I tried to get this message out to people I know (and some politicians like Senators Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren) because I thought it could be used to pressure Trump to do the right thing (in addition to the thing about ventilators, there’s the first article I link to that strongly implies that Netanyahu was deploying the power of the national government to combat COVID-19- some would point out that they don’t have a federal system, but the point is that Netanyahu didn’t take a hands-off approach, and in America, the fact is that this situation is the sort where there is broad, bipartisan agreement that the Federal government is supposed to act (why else do we have the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Defense Production Act? (the states don’t have a DPA))). It might be too late for that, but when COVID-19 ends, this can be used to attack Trump. Why? Trump and Netanyahu are very good friends politically. Trump isn’t going to attack Netanyahu as a socialist or liberal or a pussy (on the other hand, there are reports that Trump likes to grab Netanyahu without permission). He won’t have a response. When I thought that this could be used to get Trump to do the right thing, I wrote: “I think it might help if people start pointing out that it's okay for a "tough-guy," right-wing, capitalist, racist motherfucker to take Coronavirus seriously.”

UPDATE 5/29/20 According to CNN (and this), at this point Israel has recorded 284 COVID-19 deaths. The US population is 30 times that of Israel's, so if we had the same death rate per capita, there would only be 8,520 deaths in this country and we just passed 100,000.