Human Arrogance

Perhaps it was always going to take another global pandemic to wake us up from our lethargy. As the presupposed apex predator for our planet, we humans have always been somewhat arrogant. We rape and pillage the resources of our earthly host while gleefully ignoring the damage we have wrought. Now, a microscopic challenger has managed a virtual shut-down of much of the so-called civilized world. Many of the ubiquitous governmental “they” and their follower/supporters have prioritized wealth, greed, and our economy over the health of the inhabitants and the environment of the only planet we have.

Hypothetical seasonal flu epidemic spread is depicted here with the colors indicating regions currently infected with seasonal flu (red), refractory and immune to pandemics (purple), and recovered and currently susceptible to a novel pandemic (blue). White lines depict the global flight network. 

While the current U.S. president is certainly responsible for aggravating an already dire situation, he didn’t start this and he is not alone when it comes to sharing some of the blame for this pandemic’s mismanagement. We have long ignored pandemic threats in search of profits. Our nation’s capitalistic healthcare system is founded on maximizing returns on investments so we plan for normal caseloads and not for worst-case scenarios. We’ve been here before and as the adage goes, those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.

Long before air travel allowed humans to move around the globe in a day, we had The Black Death of 1346-1353, the Third Cholera Pandemic of 1852-1860, the Flu Pandemic of 1889-1890, the Sixth Cholera Pandemic of 1910-1911, and the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-1920.  After international air travel became available in the 1950s, we had the Asian Flu of 1956-1958, the Flu Pandemic of 1968, the Swine Flu of 2009-2010, and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic of 2008-2012. So, in the year 2020, why are we now surprised that we are facing another pandemic? We were warned. We knew this was coming. We didn’t have a plan and we didn’t have the administrative agencies in place to enact the plan that we didn’t have.

Quick check

In a November 14, 2017 article published on the Global Biodefense website titled April Showers..., Bring Pandemics, they stated that, “One might expect that the risk of a new pandemic is highest at the height of the flu season in winter, when viruses are most abundant and most likely to spread.  Instead, all six flu pandemics that have occurred since 1889 emerged in spring and summer months.”

"Statistical simulations suggest that Northern Hemisphere flu pandemics are most likely to emerge in late spring or early summer at the tail end of the normal flu season, according to a new study   published in PLOS Computational Biology."

We can’t have a capitalistic healthcare system and expect that it will build expensive emergency room facilities and invest in equipment where they will never see a financial return. It is the responsibility of the federal government to foresee things like pandemics and be prepared. This should not be a time for non-medical legislative bodies to try to figure out how to respond; the response plan should have already been in place. At the first sign of a possible viral outbreak, we should have merely activated the response outlined in the plan. In this country, some of this administrative capability was in place but had been recently dismantled in order to afford us the ability to further fan the flames of an already healthy economy. We issued unneeded tax cuts and corporate financial incentives and the economy soared to new heights.  Bigger, faster, and more furious are not always good things, even when discussing an economy. When the pandemic hit, as many knew it would, the global economy slowed to a near halt, the stock market plummeted, we lost all the gains of the past three years, and we are now headed toward a recession. The “fast and furious” approach quite often results in a crash and burn.  Take a bow, Mr. President.

Our response?  A perfect 10.   Donald Trump, March 16, 2020

As a fellow apex predator, I have realized that certain situations can change that cocky status in an instant. I can remember from my youth skin diving and spearfishing in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I had speared a large red snapper in his reef hideaway and while I pondered how to get my spear and its prize back to the dock, I spotted a much larger-than-me shark that seemed to be looking for his own dinner. I was no longer at the top of the food chain; I was the next link.

The Three Little Pigs

I feel our legislators need to go back to nursery school and relearn the lesson of The Three Little Pigs. When our economy was strong, it was then time to invest in our infrastructure.  That investment would have included a physical ability to shore up our medical response capability at such time as the need would surely arise.  That investment would have had long term benefits in terms of new jobs and much needed physical improvements that had been long overlooked.  We needed a strong brick-like system and not one made of sticks and straw.

The wolf came down the chimney...

 
The short-term tax breaks and corporate incentives may prove more costly than we could have imagined.  Well, now the big bad wolf is at our door and he may just blow our fragile economy off its foundation, not to mention the human misery and loss of life. Had we been the smart pig of storybook fame, we would now be feasting on wolf stew.

Leadership in the Age of Trump

Leadership takes all forms

Leadership skills are not taught but learned through observation and developed through character. We have seen Donald J. Trump at the helm of our country for these past three years. He was elected president of our United States and we expected him to lead the country. In this endeavor, he has failed. No better example of his failed leadership skills could be shown, than in his handling of the recent coronavirus crisis.

"One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency." Arnold Glasow

It is at times such as these that leaders show their true mettle. When experts in the field of pandemics and medicine gave Trump advice that could possibly head off a more serious spread of the virus, provide first responders with the tools necessary to treat the sick, and generally act in a humane manner, he ignored their advice. He started spouting rhetoric that would make him look better and improve his chances in the upcoming election.

COVID-19 Test Kit

At a March 6th press conference, Trump stated that the coronavirus test kits were as “perfect” as his infamous phone call with the Ukrainian president.  I’ll buy some of that since one of the three modules in the kit was a failure and corrected kits were needed.  He went on to say that, he didn’t want the passengers on an infected cruise ship now off the California coast to come ashore because it would hurt his numbers. His quote, “I like the numbers being where they are.  I don’t need to have the numbers double because of one ship.” This is not a leader worrying about the fate of others in a time of crisis, but a leader more concerned with his reelection.  Think about that attitude for just a moment.  No expression of empathy or sympathy for the crew and passengers stuck aboard a ship full of sick people; he’s worried about his “numbers” and how those numbers might affect him.  That is not a leader.

Cruise ship Princess enters San Francisco Bay

In this most recent crisis, our president should be a leader and a source of trustworthy information. Instead, he promotes outright lies and various falsehoods intended to make him look better. His claim that he would have one million coronavirus test kits available by last Friday (March 6, 2020) was missed by a mere 925,000 kits. He claimed that anyone who wanted to be tested could be tested. We now know that even people who have been exposed and were showing symptoms had been denied testing due to “procedures” and most probably a lack of available test kits. Trump has also claimed, against all the advice of medical professionals, that he will have a vaccine available in weeks or a couple of months at the outside. An optimistic best-case scenario puts the availability of a new vaccine for the coronavirus at least a year away.

This misinformation, spread by our president, follows a very dangerous pattern of deceit involving this potential pandemic.  In 1918, then-president Woodrow Wilson did much the same thing when he launched a dangerous campaign to shore up his support and suppress criticism.  (Sound familiar?)  He established a Committee on Public Information.  Wilson also signed the Sedition Act, criminalizing “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government” or anything else that might impede the war effort.  This stifling of the information under the guise of supporting the war effort ended up allowing the disease to spread from a military camp in Kansas to citizens all across the nation.  A Navy ship carried the virus to Philadelphia, and sailors started dying, but the city’s public health director, a political appointee named Wilmer Krusen, dismissed it as “old-fashioned influenza or grip.” As the toll grew, Krusen assured the public that the city was on track to “nip the epidemic in the bud.”  (Sound familiar?)  This so-called Spanish Flu went on to kill more people than all who died in World War I and World War II, combined.

Woodrow Wilson and Trump have much in common.

Good leadership involves an earned trust.  Great leadership adds to that the ability to lead by example.  Bad leadership is merely obedience demanded with repercussions for non-compliance.  Donald J. Trump falls into the latter category.
We can perhaps overlook Trump’s multiple attempted cutbacks of CDC funding, after all, his attempts failed. We might also overlook the fact that he left positions vacant that were designated to handle pandemics. To quote Monty Python, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.” 

Spanish Inquisition sketch from Monty Python

We can chalk up his elimination of a position in 2018, on the National Security Council that would have been responsible for coordinating efforts to combat infectious disease to just another in a long string of bad policy decisions. Trump’s closing of the USAID program known as PREDICT that was tasked with the detection and discovery of zoonotic viruses with pandemic potential, like COVID-19, could also be put in the category of whoops-shouldna-done-that.

Joe BTFSPLK of Li'l Abner fame

We can overlook and forgive quite a bit in hindsight. The problem, of course, is that Donald J. Trump seems to be the zoonotic embodiment of Joe Btfsplk of Al Capp’s Li’l Abner comic strip. For those of you not up on your 1970’s cartoons, Joe Btfsplk was a well-meaning jinx who brought disaster to all around him. He walked around with a small bad luck raincloud showering him from up above.  He was a walking disaster.  This character fits Trump with all but the “well-meaning” part of the description.  I was always partial to Daisy Mae myself but, at my age, I have trouble remembering why.  Wait, I’m beginning to remember.

Li'l Abner character Daisy Mae

We know that Trump is aware of the seriousness of the coronavirus; after all, this crisis has recently tanked the stock market and wiped out much of his administration’s major accomplishment.  This virus thing might hinder his chances of getting reelected.  He’s not worried about a bunch of old people dying as long as he isn’t one of them.

The trouble with the future is that it usually arrives before we’re ready for it.  

Arnold Glasow

Trump’s next major move shows he slept through any management classes that dealt with responsible leadership; he put Alex Azar in charge of our nation’s medical needs. Now, don’t get me wrong, delegation is a good thing if you pick the right person with qualifications and give them the authority to get the job done.  But here we find that Mr. Azar’s background in medicine is that he was trained as a lawyer. This is not to diminish his credentials since he was General Counsel to Health and Human Services and was a lobbyist for the pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly & Co. Given Trump’s slim, almost bare cabinet pickings, Azar was actually a find.  But, then Trump out-Trumped himself with a marginalization of the recently minted Azar as chief of the task force.  He unceremoniously shoved Mr. Azar behind the new coronavirus scapegoat, Mike Pence. Yes, that Mike Pence.

Who's on first?

You see, Mike Pence is a firm believer in science as long as it doesn’t conflict with his interpretation of the Bible, his broken moral compass, or any visions his boss receives from on-high.  In this case, “on-high” is anything from Fox News’ Sean Hannity.  As governor of Indiana in 2015, he rejected a clean needle exchange for drug addicts during the HIV outbreak.  The suffering of the homosexual community was, after all, God’s will.  Pence later “prayed on it,” and eventually lifted the ban. How many people died as a result of this delay is just a matter of conjecture.

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing.   Peter Drucker

Pence also said that “despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill.” In a strict interpretation of his quote, you might say he is right because it is cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and other related illnesses that actually do the killing. Mike Pence also doesn’t think condoms are effective in preventing STDs. His quote, “truly safe sex is no sex.”  Add to all this his denial of climate change because we (America) have the cleanest air and water in the world (actually, we rank #10), and there you have a fair handle on his scientific credentials. Oh, I almost forgot, he still thinks being gay can be “corrected” with conversion therapy. Will anyone be surprised if he ever comes out of the closet?

If I don't like you, I'll fire you!  If you don't like me, I will fire you!  -- Lou Grant

Well, Trump has his “task force” in place. He now has someone to blame for this mess if it gets out of hand. To Trump, “getting out of hand,” means that a nasty pandemic is getting in the way of his reelection. Any failures here would mean that Pence goes on the well-worn chopping block and Trump picks a new running mate (rumored to be Nikki Haley).  Trump learned from Lou Grant of The Mary Tyler Moore Show who, when asked to what he attributed his managerial success said, “I learned how to delegate blame.”  That’s how I remembered it.  When I looked it up I found that his actual statement was just slightly different...

“If you’ve noticed, I’m one of the few producers without a peptic ulcer. One of the reasons for that is, I’m able to delegate blame.”  

Lou Grant, Season 1, The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Nobody wishes that this new coronavirus gets out of hand. No matter how much you may despise Trump for his other failures; we can all hope this isn’t one of them. We can, however, add his blatant failure of leadership in this crisis right where it belongs.  Trump will own it. Even if it just fades away next month, his lack of leadership in this event shows that he is unfit to lead our country. We can only hope this nation survives his ineptitude long enough to replace him with our usual cadre of well-meaning run-of-the-mill greedy politicians.  As leaders go, I am more interested in the likes of Dwight D. Eisenhower than William Travis.  Travis was a fine patriot, but everyone in his command died at the Alamo.

Enough to Make You Batty

In the last several days I have managed to watch the first two episodes of an interesting, if not scary, documentary titled Un-Natural Selection on Netflix. I followed that with an article I read in The Week magazine about the origins of the Covid-19 virus and I got a bit concerned.

Unnatural Selection Title Slide Episode 3

The Netflix documentary series highlighted several related topics dealing with genetic engineering. It told me that, contrary to my previous notions about CRISPR (clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) and genetic engineering, there are kitchen and garage entrepreneurs performing these feats with materials and equipment they legally bought on the Internet. They are creating glow-in-the-dark frogs, dogs that can be more muscular, certain muscle enhancements for humans, and home-brew HIV medications, among other experiments.  I had previously assumed that such activity was so expensive and complicated that it would only be done in advanced labs; I was wrong.

Does your new apple taste a bit fishy?

The article on Covid-19 (Coronavirus) dealt with its origins in China, which traced the animal to human connection to a bat virus that somehow mutated with genetic material from a soldierfish and then infected humans. This all happened naturally without human intervention save for the humans being infected and then spreading it around. Then the article went on to mention that in 2014, a laptop was captured from ISIS that contained instructions on how to weaponize plague bacteria.

Bats are reservoirs for more than 60 viruses that can infect humans.

Therefore, genetic engineering is well within the grasp of mere mortals with at least a rudimentary knowledge of science, and we now know that someone in ISIS is considering that possibility.  We can imagine that ISIS’s intentions are not to make a better tomato but probably something more nefarious. That sounds like a nightmare scenario that our intelligence services would be wise to address. I feel a bit uncomfortable with my newfound knowledge when I realize that our intelligence services have been ridiculed and marginalized by our current administration for reasons that are not readily apparent.

Perhaps VP Pence could investigate

While genetic engineering advancements have a huge upside with cures and treatments for debilitating and deadly diseases, the power to play Darwin-on-steroids appears to be well beyond the bioethicists’ current debate schedule. This technology is now outside government-monitored labs and in the hands of anyone with motivation to do good or evil.  We have dealt with H1N1, H5N1, MERS, SARS, and Ebola, which were accidents of nature that killed millions of people over the years; 50 million died in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic alone.  What if people decided to manufacture their own novel virus?

This is a sign that was posted during 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic

Covid-19 is a novel virus in that, while influenza viruses move around the globe every year, they are not novel until they carry different hemagglutinin or neuraminidase protein than the strains already in circulation.  No, I didn’t recently get a medical degree but that explanation made clear(?) why this new Coronavirus qualifies for the “pandemic” label. While a repeat of the tragedy of 1918 is highly unlikely now that we have better drugs and treatments, it is having a broader impact on our new global economy. Our just-in-time manufacturing ability and modern transportation methods have increased our vulnerability beyond the impact of the illness.

Many of these viruses are zoonotic in that they can jump species and many are linked to bats. My fear is that, with newly available technologies and home genetic engineering, what happens when some random human goes “bat-shit crazy” and decides to nudge evolution and brew up a new virus cocktail of their own?

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows.

Perhaps it's time to break out the torches and get the village people to storm the castle?  I'll play the Indian.

It's Alive!

Democrats, Stop the Madness

Democrats need to stop attacking each other; we have Trump to do that for us.  We need to stop making promises with detailed plans that can be picked apart.  Hell, Trump promised the Great Wall of Trump that would run from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.  That new beautiful wall would protect America from the brown hordes of drug-crazed rapists.  His detailed plan was simple; he knew how to build things and Mexico would pay for it.  Well, the wall isn’t here, part of it fell into Mexico the other day, the brown hordes have cut holes in it with battery-powered saws, and the Mexican check must still be in the mail. 

Trump promised to cancel Obamacare and replace it with his own plan.  Well, Obamacare is still the law of the land and it turns out that Trump had no plan of his own.  His actual plan was later announced and it was very specific, he expected Congress to figure out what to do.

Section of Trump border wall falls into Mexico

The great dealmaker with the genius IQ was going to put China in its place and he would put tariffs on many products made there to restore our balance of trade.  He thought that China would pay for the tariffs, apparently not understanding how business works.  Well, China retaliated with tariffs of their own that hurt American farmers and manufacturers.  Trump then tried to fix some of the damage he had done with the tariffs by offering subsidies to those industries that were suffering.  In a recent article, I read about the cost of SSDs (solid-state drives for computers) and the article stated that while prices for SSDs had been falling, as is typical for electronics, SSD prices had seen an unusual uptick of around $20 to $30 due to the Chinese tariffs.  The article offered no hope for Americans to recover that money from China.  I tried to call Trump for an answer but his cell reception around the twelfth-hole at Mar-a-Lago must be sketchy.

Trump has spent over $134 million or our tax dollars golfing at his own resorts.
Trump is shown here demonstrating his gardening skills.

I went to the GOP and DNC websites where they each outlined their party platforms for public consumption.  Both were filled with the usual bullshit, i.e., things that nobody can challenge.  If you read them both you would wonder why we are at odds with one another and why we aren’t all at a gathering somewhere singing "Kumbaya my Lord" in creole.  Both parties want a balanced budget, lower taxes, and better wages for all, healthcare that puts doctors in charge, support for our veterans, equal opportunity for a great education, support for family values, and mom’s apple pie.  I had to add that last one but I’m sure they meant to put it in there.  The GOP even had, and I quote, “Our Constitution should be preserved, valued, and honored.”  I guess that last item is for after this 2020 election since they have certainly abandoned the principal for this term.

Platform Plank

Democrats also need to stop trying to prove they are holier than the next guy or gal.  The Trump administration has long abandoned the moral high ground.  When you are running against Donald Trump, you don’t need to prove your commitment to morality. 

Positon Abandoned

With Donald Trump, the Access Hollywood tapes, his cheating on each of his three wives, his paying porn stars for sex, his overt racism, his association with Jeffery Epstein, his defrauding poor students at his Trump University (over $25 million), his stealing from a veterans charity which forever prevents him from running another charity in New York, his money-laundering financial ties to American mobsters and Russian oligarchs through Deutsche Bank, his insults hurled at war veterans, a Gold Star family, and a disabled reporter, all put Mr. Trump in a class beyond further comparison.  He is by far the most corrupt and morally bankrupt individual ever associated with our government.  I would defy you to find someone who is or was more amoral.  Beelzebub himself would envy the Trump record of misbehavior.

I can't compete with Trump

I would propose that the Democratic candidates stand in unison and declare a simple to understand platform with but three or four planks.  Use the “Keep It Simple Stupid” (KISS) standard and make each platform plank a point of universal agreement.  Differentiate yourselves with any ideas you deem relevant beyond these simple ideas but get the basics of agreement out to the voting public.  Remember they don’t need details at this point, just some simple ideas they can understand and support.

To that end, I have outlined three simple planks as suggestions.  I would doubt that any candidate would have an objection to any of these.  You don’t need to go into detail on paying for these any more than Trump needed to explain how he would have Mexico pay for his wall.  Let each candidate come out in support and form a united front for the basic platform.

Healthcare

Healthcare should be the number one issue facing America.  Our system is broken and millions of Americans are one illness away from financial ruin.  Insurance companies should not be the developers of our healthcare system any more than an investment banker should or an air conditioning contractor should be in the mix for developing our health plan.  Healthcare should be developed by medical professionals given the task of providing fair and meaningful coverage for all Americans.  Any such plan would need to be phased in over a period of time so as not to be too disruptive.  All pharmaceuticals and medical equipment purchases for government-sponsored plans would be put to bid and managed by individuals familiar with the efficacy of the medications and medical equipment involved.  Paying for any such plan would be a congressional budget decision.

Big Pharma and Medical Lobbying Efforts

Climate Change & Energy Management

One could debate placing this in the number two slot, as it is as important as healthcare but it sits here primarily because of urgency.  Healthcare involves immediate life-saving decisions but both that and the climate change/energy management crisis solutions can be developed simultaneously.  Any rational decision on climate change should involve a serious effort to move away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy sources.  Technical limitations on energy storage mean that the intermittent solutions of solar and wind will have to co-exist with natural gas and nuclear for the time being.  Our shift from coal and oil-fired energy sources have begun but primarily because of technological advancements and financial considerations.

Climate Change

Wind and Solar to supplement Natural Gas and Nuclear

Infrastructure

Our American infrastructure has been long ignored.  A renewed effort involving massive construction projects to address our highways, rapid transit, Internet/Wi-Fi expansion, bridges, railways, electrical grid, waterways, water management, schools, etc., provide a much-needed improvement in the quality of life and needed employment for a wide range of skilled and semi-skilled labor.

Minneapolis Expressway Collapse During Rush-hour 

Some of our Infrastructure

????????

I’ll leave a fourth platform plank open for suggestions.  I didn’t include immigration here, while important and in need of repair, perhaps it’s good to let the Republicans own the current disaster created by the Trump White House.  I also left out gun control, campaign finance and election reform, abortion, criminal justice issues, the national debt, defense spending, and foreign policy.  All are important and worthy of inclusion; just keep it simple and avoid divisive issues.

Over 300 bills have been blocked by Graveyard Mitch

The list may seem a bit anemic but the reality is that, while Mitch McConnell is still in control of the Senate, nothing will be done.  Beat Trump with whomever we can, make positive changes from the executive branch, then work to either regain the Senate or at least restore the ability to negotiate and compromise with the other side as originally intended by our founding fathers.  Goal #1 is to beat Trump and goal #2 is to bring some sense of normalcy to Congress, particularly the Senate.

How did this happen?

I listened to a podcast this morning that was attached to my usual, “Alexa, what’s the news” inquiry. At the end of my normal PBS quick-news summary was a financial BBC story on OneCoin, a cryptocurrency founded by Dr. Ruja Ignatova of Bulgaria. Out of intellectual curiosity, I had researched the phenomena of cryptocurrencies about a year ago just to understand the mechanics. The basics of the blockchain were easy enough to understand but the practicality of daily cryptocurrency use escaped me. If you aren’t a drug dealer or a terrorist trying to maintain a low profile, why you would want to use such a product? As an investment, the associated risk with cryptocurrencies was well beyond my comfort zone. While blockchain basics were easy to comprehend the overall financial structure was too convoluted. I had learned a lesson during my time in the Navy many years ago about gambling; if you don’t thoroughly understand the game, don’t play.

Cryptoqueen Dr. Ruja Ignatova of Bulgaria

The OneCoin story went on to describe the marketing behind that particular cryptocurrency. It seemed that, unlike other blockchain-backed cryptocurrencies, the creators said they were so backed but never provided customers with the ability to verify that status. The marketing effort was more cult-like.  In one instance, Dr. Ruja walked out on a stage erected in London’s Wembley Stadium wearing an opera length red gown. The 90,000-seat stadium was packed with cheering fan-investors.

Dr. Ruja speaks to a cheering crowd in Wembley Stadium, London

In typical Ponzi scheme fashion, investors bought token bundles representing “educational packages” that were without consequence in the grand plan. The tokens could then be used to “mine” OneCoins on servers located in Bulgaria and Hong Kong; no red flags there. Only certain large investors could exchange OneCoins for euros and then only in limited daily amounts. One way to become a large investor would be to recruit others to invest and become recruiters themselves. The higher you are in any pyramid scheme the better off you will be.

As I listened to the story, I wondered how you could get that many people to part with over $4 billion. I could see suckering a few people with some “magic beans” but how do you fill a stadium?  Dr. Ruja Ignatova has disappeared, her brother, Konstantin Ignatov, who took over the company, was arrested and is serving 90 years in prison.  The co-founder, Sebastian Greenwood, was arrested.  China recovered $267.5 million and 98 people have been prosecuted.  But the company is still functioning, and people are still buying into the get-rich-quick scheme. With all of this information out in the public domain and so easy to find with a Google search, how is it that people are still being conned?  Where do you find that many gullible people?

I found the answer to my silly question when I turned on my television and saw…

Trump Rally

Adoring fans offer up their first-born to the new Messiah.

State of the Onion, 2020

Last night Donald Trump delivered a tearful State of the Onion speech.  I say tearful with both meanings of the word tearful in mind.  First, it means a sadness where tears well up in the eyes and then, tear-full (TARE-ful) in that Nancy Pelosi tore it up at the end.  Trump broke out his greatest hits to the applause of exactly 196 Republicans and one turtle.  Like most Trump speeches, his remarks were filled with fun facts.  When I say facts here, I’m referring to Rudy Giuliani truths, where truth isn’t the truth.  Rudy was spot on with his analysis of this administration and The Donald didn’t disappoint.  Not since Trump claimed an American invented the wheel has he spouted such “new knowledge.”  I call profound statements made by Trump, with no basis or foundation in any reality known to mankind, “new knowledge.”  It is new in that nobody “knew” it before and it is knowledge because so many mouth-breathing MAGA hatters really believe this stuff.  Leonidas from Greece is no longer around, having died over 5,000 years ago, to claim that it was he who took his potter’s wheel and used it to make a wheelbarrow, and not some unnamed American with U.S. Patent  #000001.  Trump thinks it was Fred Flintstone from the town of Bedrock, Kansas (a well-known KC Chiefs fan) who invented the wheel.  The patent status is still under a cloud because Barney Rubble has made a counterclaim.

Pelosi Rips Trump a New One (speech)

State of the Onion

Trump stated, “I am thrilled to report to you tonight that our economy is the best it has ever been.”  This is absolutely true if you are the President of the United States, a member of congress, a member of Trump’s family, work on Wall Street, own Amazon, or generally don’t work for wages.  Trump’s own Labor Department reported that “median weekly earnings fell 0.6% in inflation-adjusted dollars in the second quarter, compared to the same time period of 2017.  When you are a billionaire, inflation doesn’t hurt much.  The cost of the fuel for your private jet just went up but you can write that off as a business expense.  But, when you are deciding between your rent, food, and your child’s medication, but don’t have enough income to afford all three, inflation matters.

Adjusted GDP

Trump continued the speech by paying homage to Richard Nixon, the 1919 White Sox, Charles Ponzi, P. T. Barnum, and Pinocchio, when he claimed, “From the instant I took office, I moved rapidly to revive the U.S. economy … enacting historic and record-setting tax cuts.”  Where can we begin with this one?  The largest tax cuts in history were under Ronald Reagan whose cuts represented 2.89% of GDP where Trump’s amount to just 0.9%.  Trump’s tax cuts take the number eight slot for this century.  It would seem that Trump not only slept through geography in school but math was also a snore-fest.

Job Growth under 3 presidents compared

He babbled on, “Since my election, we have created 7 million new jobs.”  Here he takes credit for the 300,000 jobs created under Obama while Trump was just the president-elect and not yet in charge.  He seems to think that he can make that claim because his mere election was enough for the economy to improve. Under Obama’s last three years job creation numbers were 227,000 per month.  Under Trump’s first three years, he has averaged only 191,000 per month.  So, for Trump’s first three years he missed Obama’s numbers by a mere 1,296,000.  These fake news numbers are brought to you by Trump’s own Labor Department.

Note what Trump "inherited" from Obama

The beat goes on with, “In eight years under the last administration, over 300,000 working-age people dropped out of the workforce.  In just three years of my administration, 3.5 million people, working-age people, have joined the workforce.”  What Trump and his applauding Republicans in Congress seem to selectively forget, it was Obama that took office during one of the most disastrous economic situations since the Great Depression, not Trump.  The Great Huckster would have you believe that he inherited a disaster from Obama, just as he would have you believe he was born into poverty (in a manger) and is a self-made man.  When Trump took office, the economy was already improving and the labor force participation-rate was 62.8%.  Now, under Trump, it is 63.2%.  Trump can therefore claim a 0.4% improvement here that is still 2.4% lower than pre-recession numbers.

Trump addresses 196 Republicans and 1 turtle

The Trumpster went on to say, “Since my election, the net worth of the bottom half of wage earners has increased by 47 percent — three times faster than the increase for the top 1 percent.”  Here I would challenge Trump to find anyone in the bottom half of wage earners who wouldn’t trade their “47%” improvement with that of almost anyone in the top 5% who hold almost three-quarters of all the wealth in the U.S.  You can’t measure the net worth of someone in debt and if anyone should know about being in debt, I would rate Trump an expert in the field.  At this point, I think Pinocchio not only needs a nose job but a change of underwear too.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Trump on oil and energy, “Thanks to our bold regulatory reduction campaign, the United States has become the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world, by far.”  What he fails to acknowledge is that the U.S. led the world in natural gas production in 2009, and took the lead over from Russia and Saudi Arabia in oil production in 2013.  Trump can only take credit for not screwing up a good thing.  That is, if you can count improving our fossil fuel economy and screwing up the environment in the process as a good thing.  He wasn’t through with his energy boasts when he added, “With the tremendous progress we have made over the past three years, America is now energy independent.”  Hold on Pinocchio; let me open up a window to give that nose some room to grow.  If we are energy independent, why did we import almost 10 million barrels of oil per day from around 90 different countries in 2018?

We still import oil

Trump on “factory building” said, “After losing 60,000 factories under the previous two administrations, America has now gained 12,000 new factories under my administration, with thousands upon thousands of plants and factories being planned or built.”  Here Trump conjures up visions of steel mills and auto assembly plants when the numbers include any establishment that makes components into a new product.  By that logic, a new fleet of ten Taco Trucks would count as ten new factories.  More than 80% of the new “factories” employ fewer than five people.

Trump Opens Another New Factory

To cap off the evening’s festivities, Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh.  The conservative talk-show host shed a tear, along with many other Americans, when the announcement was made.  Not all tears were for the same reason.  Like Trump, Rush has different views on a variety of topics.  Rush has denied climate change (like Trump), was addicted to opiates which probably caused his total deafness (now has dual Cochlear implants), is famous for his racist beliefs, ridiculed Michael J. Fox claiming he was faking his Parkinson's (Trump mocked Serge F. Kovaleski’s arthrogryposis),  and denied that smoking (first and second-hand) causes cancer and that it takes over 50 years for even cigarette smokers to get cancer.  Rush recently announced he has advanced lung cancer at age 69.

Young Rush Limbaugh when he believed smoking didn't cause cancer.

Rush is also noted for his misogynistic statements like, “The sexual harassment crowd,” he said. “They’re out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them.”  Rush compares women to cats, “My cat comes to me when she wants to be fed. She’s smart enough to know she can’t feed herself. She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. And she doesn’t have to do anything for it, which is why I say this cat’s taught me more about women than anything in my whole life.”   Rush also said on women, “I love the women’s movement — especially when walking behind it.”  Rush should know all about women, he is now on his fourth wife.

Rush and Donald, like brothers from another mother.  Rush now joins Paul Harvey and Lowell Thomas as radio personalities who have won the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  Paul Harvey and Lowell Thomas were glowing examples of what excellence in radio broadcasting was all about.  Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump are prime examples of the lowering of national standards and expectations.   That whirring sound you hear is from Paul and Lowell spinning in their graves.

Lowell Thomas

Paul Harvey