"We're All In This Together". Really?

In these challenging (difficult, unprecedented, uncertain, trying, etc.) times, we decided it's time for some random thoughts on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  Remember, this can't last forever, right?

• First, the numbers as of May 1.  Around the world, there have been 3.2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus, 234 thousand are dead, and more than one million have recovered.  In the United States, there have been more than one million confirmed cases, 64 thousand have died, and 134 thousand have recovered.
• Despite predictions from people who should know these things that the virus could last for another year or two, state and federal leaders are making plans to reopen their economies in an attempt to get back to some form of "normalcy".  Millions of jobs have been lost due to the "stay at home" mandates, forcing most to work from home, and there's no guarantee of returning to their place of employment once they're allowed to. Some people are rebelling against these closures, whether or not they've been egged on by President Donald Trump as a way to gain political advantage in an election year, or jamming public places when they're not supposed to.
• Speaking of Trump, the GOP seems to be worried that the antics of the President during this crisis might cost them the Senate and the White House come November. Whether it's turning your daily press briefings into an unwatchable version of your traveling road show, not taking coronavirus seriously in the weeks leading up to the pandemic, defunding the World Health Organization because you think they're covering up for China, or suggesting that drinking bleach and disinfectants might kill the virus (which does nothing but provide employment for poison control hotlines), the Republicans have a right to be concerned.  But it's been four years, and there's not much they can do about it now.
• Now that Bernie Sanders is out of the picture, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden can bask in the warmth of belated endorsements from party heavyweights like Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, his former boss Barack Obama and Sanders himself while sitting in exile watching Trump stumble.  But there is the small problem of refuting claims from former staff assistant Tara Reade that she was sexually assaulted when Biden was a U.S. Senator back in 1993.  It won't affect his nomination, but this does leave the voters making a choice between two men who need to social distance themselves from the nearest female they don't personally know.
• Voters are growing more leery of standing in line at their polling places, waiting for their chance to pull the lever.  Especially if the person in front of or behind them shouldn't be there if they're sick.  That's why there's a move to make voting by mail more accessible to everybody in time for this fall's elections. It's a great idea for Democrats.  Not so much for Republicans, who are more interested in restricting the vote to keep their kind in.  There has to be a better way to vote, right?
• In Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz' "stay at home" mandate (which has been extended to May 18) has been mostly successful in keeping the COVID-19 spread and the death rate down compared to other states--it has been mostly confined to senior living facilities.  But cases are bound to spike once testing ramps up as the Governor is under political pressure to open the state's economy.
• The Class of 2020 is becoming a lost generation with schools closed for the duration, except for learning online at home under the watchful eye of parents.  That means no graduation, no proms, no more hanging out with friends, etc. What, pray tell, are you going to say to your future kids and grandkids (should you have any) about this time in your lives?
• As for the rest of us, we should all get used to (A) washing our hands a lot, (B) staying the hell away from each other, and (C) wearing masks in public, if you don't mind looking like a bank robber or a gang member.  Think of the doctors, nurses, so-called "first responders", grocery store attendants, delivery people, pizza drivers and others who bust their butts on the front lines while you sit at home binge-watching Netflix.  It's like the days after 9/11 when soldiers and firefighters were getting all the applause while Muslims, through no fault of their own, were being villified for the actions of a few.

Because we're all in this together.  Right?

In Sickness and In Politics, Part 2

This is how the 2020s begin.  A rampant worldwide plague called coronavirus aka COVID-19, begun in China, has been taking a deadly tool for the past few weeks.  The approximate numbers as of March 26:

Worldwide (from worldmeters.info)                         U.S. (from worldmeters.info)

530,000 cases                                                                83,000 cases
23,000 deaths                                                               1209 deaths
123,000 recoveries                                                       1800 recoveries

Life as we used to know it has shut down in many places.  Businesses, except for the most essential ones, are closed.  Sports, entertainment and other events have either been postponed or canceled.  "Social distancing" and "community spread" have become part of the language.  The economy has cratered, leaving thousands out of work and many others working from home.

Some city and state officials have adopted "stay at home" mandates as a way of maybe keeping the spread of the virus at bay.  They have become far more trustworthy so far than the federal government, who seemed to have been asleep at the switch in the weeks since the crisis began.  There has been little to no planning when it came to getting tests ready, providing enough masks and ventilators to hospitals, quarantining already sick patients, etc.  Reportedly, some U.S. Senators have been taking advantage of the situation by dumping their stocks in certain firms.

Much of the blame has fallen on President Donald Trump.  He's cut the budget and the research of federal health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control.  He's blamed the virus as a hoax perpetrated by China and the Democratic Party, refers to himself as the "wartime president", and claims he can get America back to work by Easter.

Trump has also pretty much muzzled his staff when it comes to the seriousness of the pandemic, with the notable exception of Dr. Anthony Faudi.  As director of the National Institute of Allergy and as a member of the President's coronavirus task force, he is one of the few officials willing to give people  credible, straightforward information that lacks it.

Unfortunately, Trump is having a star turn right now with his daily news briefings.  Bereft of his bloviating political rallies, the President has been using valuable network air time to (A) misinform and downplay the nature of the situation, (B) making snide comments about his opponents, and (C) ripping into an NBC reporter who dared to ask if had any encouraging words for the American people.  This is what he's been doing for years, so why stop now?  Faced with the dilemma of having to cover a president with an attitude at the worst possible time in history, the networks now just cover Trump's opening remarks before returning us to regular programming.

While America and most of the world stays at home for however long it takes for COVID-19 to pass, we know this:  the number of cases and the death toll WILL rise.  Hospitals WILL be overwhelmed.  Governments, in spite of themselves, WILL come up with some kind of solution.  For now, we can all hope for the best and expect the worst.

In Sickness and In Politics

There's a health crisis going on that's been killing more than three thousand people worldwide (11 in the United States) as of March 4, and changing the way we live.  It's called coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.  Every day brings another death, another crackdown, and another run on hand sanitizer and face masks.  The times demand someone who will lead us through this emergency that experts believe will get worse before it gets better.  Someone who will handle this crisis in a calm and reassuring manner, and not turn this into a power play.

Enter President Donald Trump, a man who disdains science and much of reality.  His approach to crisis management is to downplay the situation, then blame it on Democrats and the "fake news media", which is what he does with most everything else.  Instead of having experts front and center on his task force, he names Vice President Mike Pence to micromanage what information on the virus needs to be released.

Trump has already gutted the resources of federal health agencies including the Centers for Disease Control during his administration, thereby weakening their effectiveness in getting a handle on coronavirus and other diseases.  The result is confusion about what to do other than washing your hands like a surgeon and not touching you face.

Meanwhile, the race to see which Democrat gets the honor of trying to compete against the fire-breathing dragon named Trump continues.  Through the first couple of primaries and caucuses in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont led a gaggle of candidates in the polls with his fiery brand of socialism that appealed to mostly younger voters who weren't much interested in the moderate influences of the others.  But there was a problem.  The Democratic party seemed uncomfortable with the idea of an aging socialist at the top of their ticket, one who thought Fidel Castro wasn't such a bad leader because he introduced a reading program shortly after taking control of Cuba.  To most Americans, three decades after the Cold War ended, socialism still equaled communism.

Then something incredible happened.  Joe Biden, Barack Obama's former vice president and front-runner who had been lost in the shuffle of Ukraine-gate accusations and so-so debate performances, won the South Carolina primary through the support of African-American voters and others who didn't care much for Sanders.  The waters parted.  Fellow moderates Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg had exited the race and threw their support toward Biden.  Super Tuesday was just that for him, taking more states who had primaries that day than Sanders did.  A day later, Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor who spent millions of his own money on TV ads and had only American Samoa to show for it, gave up and endorsed Biden.  Elizabeth Warren is still in the race as we speak.

The delegate count as of March 4 (according to CNN) reads like this:  Biden with 509, Sanders with 449, and Warren with 37.  1,991 delegates are needed before the Democratic presidential nomination can be claimed at their convention in Milwaukee.

Meanwhile, Trump is preening toward a second term, crisis or not.  And possibly a third, if he and Senator Mitch McConnell can find a loophole to a law that's been in place since Republicans passed it to prevent another Franklin Roosevelt wannabe from making the White House his permanent home.

The race for president goes on. The race to survive a possible killer virus goes on too.  President Trump has a chance to show what kind of leader he can be in a crisis situation, just in time for him to make his case to the voters in November, or else he will be replaced.  That is, those voters who survive the virus by then.

UPDATE (3/6/2020):  It is now a race between three old men in their 70s.  Elizabeth Warren, the last remaining Democratic candidate who is a woman (unless you count Tulsi Gabbard, a congresswoman from Hawaii), has dropped out.  Which means that either America still isn't ready for a female president, or the presence of That Man In The White House required Democrats to get someone who's at least as well known and can be counted on to garner more male support than Hillary Clinton ever did.  Stupid reasons, yes, but understandable given the circumstances.

"Parasite" Makes Oscar History, And Other Weirdness

In a year when people complained about the lack of women directors and actors of color nominated for the Academy Awards, the 92nd edition Sunday bestowed four of its Oscars to a South Korean film called "Parasite".

"Parasite", a dramatic study of class discrimination between a rich and poor family that critics went nuts over, won Oscars for Best International film, original screenplay, and a directing nod for Bong Joon Ho.  Most importantly, it was the first non-English speaking film to win for Best Picture.

Of the other major categories, Joaquin Phoenix took home the Best Actor Oscar for "Joker".  He was much more interested in talking about animal rights, his late brother River, and other things than his role in yet another R-rated comic book movie in his acceptance speech.

Renee Zellweger won her Best Actress Oscar for channeling Judy Garland in a film depicting the last year of her life, then told the audience that maybe Garland deserved more from the Academy than an honorary statue as a teenager for playing Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz"?

Brad Pitt won a Supporting Actor Oscar for "Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood", remarked that the Academy gave him 45 seconds to say his thank-yous, which is more than John Bolton got during the Senate impeachment trial.  Then Pitt used more than his 45 seconds because he's Brad Pitt.

Like Zellweger, Laura Dern waited a long time to earn an Oscar after years in the business.  She won a Supporting Actress honor for her role in the Netflix movie "Marriage Story".

The second consecutive hostless Oscarcast ran three and a half hours on ABC, which drew 23.6 million viewers, the lowest total ever.  They should have known that following the Golden Globes, Grammys and the Super Bowl on consecutive Sunday nights must have contributed to all that viewer fatigue.  Other insights:

• There must have been a good reason why Eminem was brought out to perform "Lose Yourself", a 2003 song that was included in the film "8 Mile".  ABC bleeped out half the lyrics.  Some audience members were confused, but got into it.  Maybe it's because the nominees for Best Original Song weren't exactly memorable?  Bernie Taupin, Elton John's longtime lyricist, won for "I'm Gonna Love Me Again".  It came from "Rocketman", John's biopic, which he performed on the show.
• The Oscars and other awards shows seem to have contracted the disease of presenters presenting other presenters, which is another outgrowth of not having a host.
• Former President Barack Obama and wife Michelle are also Oscar winners.  Their production company was responsible for "American Factory", which won for best feature-length documentary.

A "Perfect" Acquittal.

The United States Senate has acquitted President Donald Trump on two counts of impeachment, both on party-line votes (if you don't count Mitt Romney).  On Article 1, which is Abuse of Power, the verdict was 52-48 not guilty.  On Article 2, which is Obstruction of Congress, it was a 53-47 not guilty vote.

It was all a foregone conclusion.  When you have a Senate trial presided over by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, you should have expected better than a glorified mock debate between Democratic House managers (led by Rep. Adam Schiff) who argued Trump's guilt and White House attorneys who, not unlike Don Draper, tried to sell the Senate (and TV viewers) on the idea that the President did nothing wrong in convincing Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son's alleged involvement in an oil company there.

Of all the scandals Trump had allegedly been involved with before and during his presidency, the Democrats decided to try him on Ukraine.  That's like trying to nail Al Capone for tax evasion, or O.J. Simpson for robbing a Nevada casino instead of murder.

As it turned out, Trump shut it all down.  No testifying from witnesses who worked for him.  No incriminating documents, even if all that was illegal or constitutionally questionable.  Even John Bolton, the former National Security Adviser whom everyone wanted to hear from, would rather be cashing checks from a book deal than testifying.  So no witnesses and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell keeping his fellow Republicans in line (again, if you don't count Romney) saved Trump from being the first President to get thrown out of office without the voters' help.

Now Trump stands alone.  Impeachment (which he has long considered a hoax) may have earned him nothing more than a slap on the wrist.  He got the benefit of Republicans who behaved like clueless, yet protective, parents trying to discipline a rebellious child who thumbs his nose at society.  Not for nothing was Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday turned into a partisan reality show farce, which made House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so disgusted that she tore up her copy of the speech.

Now that the impeachment drama (of sorts) is over, it's time to turn our attention to the 2020 elections.  Trump is enjoying the best poll numbers of his presidency (which isn't saying much).  The Democrats aren't having much luck in deciding who their front runner is, especially after a monumental screwup in tallying the Iowa caucus votes.  As of 2/5, with 97% of the precincts finally rolling in, CNN reports that Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are running neck and neck for the lead in the state's delegates.

Trump is the 800 lb. gorilla in American politics.  He thinks he can do no wrong, because his enablers and supporters have made sure nothing ever will.  But even King Kong has to come down from the Empire State Building sometime. We'll have a better idea come November.

The Grammys: In The House of Kobe, The Show Must Go On

The 62nd Grammy Awards went on Sunday night, hours after former basketball star Kobe Bryant and nine others went to their deaths in a helicopter crash outside of Los Angeles.  The event was held at the Staples Center, where Bryant had long starred for the NBA Lakers.  His presence was felt by the two uniforms numbered 8 and 24 hanging in the rafters.

Alicia Keys, who did her best to host the proceedings on the CBS telecast, did so in a manner that resembled a new age life coach trying to make sense to viewers in the wake of tragedy and Kobe shout-outs.  Oh yes, she sang and played the piano too.

Billie Eilish was the big winner, taking home the top four prizes:  Best New Artist, Album of the Year ("When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?"), and Song and Record of the Year for "Bad Guy".  Nobody has done that since Christopher Cross four decades ago. (Anyone here remember "Arthur" and "Ride Like The Wind"?)  Eilish is 18.

Lizzo, the ubiquitous presence from TV commercials who spent enough time in Minnesota to qualify as an honorary citizen, didn't get as many Grammys as some had thought.  But she did get three, including Best Pop Solo Performance for "Truth Hurts".  Maybe it's that Minnesota Vikings reference . . .

Not a word was uttered during the telecast about Deborah Dugan, who was briefly Recording Academy president before being let go for allegedly being a "toxic" influence in the work environment there.  She fired back with an EEOC complaint, alleging conflict of interest, racial discrimination and sexual harassment within the Academy.

But there was plenty of room in the three-and-a-half-hour telecast for a lengthy musical tribute to outgoing TV director Ken Ehrlich, an all-star cast performing a number from "Fame" that served as a plug for the Academy's music education program.  Yes, it was one of those "only at the Grammys" moments Ehrlich helped put together over the past 40 years.

As the first month of 2020 comes to a close, the future of music according to the Grammys appears to be a green-haired teenage girl honing her talent in the bedroom with her brother, turning out songs of depression and climate change.  Which, when you think about it, is a reflection of the world we live in now.  Losing Kobe Bryant on a day of celebrating music is another.

We Interrupt This Impeachment. . .

Stung from the reality of being only the third President of the United States to be impeached by the House of Representatives,  Donald Trump reacted like he has at any other time in his unconventional administration when confronted with shots to his ego.  Only instead of ranting on Twitter, he came close to starting a war.

As the new year of 2020 dawned, U.S. airstrikes succeeded in killing Qasem Soleiman, who was major general in the Iraqi armed forces, in a missile attack. 

As soon as Iranians finished mourning their assassinated general while shouting "Death to America", which is what they have been doing since becoming an Islamic republic 40 years ago, the world waited to see what they would do next. The response came on Tuesday when they bombed American military bases in Iraq, leaving behind--amazingly enough--no casualties. 

It was then that the Iranians decided to close the matter if the Americans were willing to do the same.  Trump, content to claim victory by killing who he thought was a danger to U.S. security, agreed. 

It's no secret that Trump doesn't get along with the mullahs of Tehran.  The President has pulled out of a nuclear treaty because of Iran's alleged cheating, then sought to keep its citizens from emigrating to this country. If that wasn't enough, Trump could always issue more economic sanctions. 

For now, the United States and Iran are not at war. Not when there are still American troops "advising" in Afghanistan. But that could change, so we're told, if Iran starts kidnapping U.S. citizens still living in Tehran, makes cyber attacks, or uses other forms of terrorism. 

Of course, Trump has other fish to fry. He's got a possible trial going in the Senate that could help determine whether he keeps his job or not, but majority leader Mitch McConnell wants this over with without so much as hearing from witnesses. So the question is what kind of distraction will the president try to spring next?