Author: BC

“The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union…..”

Alexander Hamilton…. Federalist Papers – No. 68

In the modern communication age, which began in earnest with a radio in near every US domicile, the most basic responsibility of Presidents we elect has been to inform us from the vast platform their office provides when significant tides of our nation’s fortune shift. Starting with FDR’s “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” pronouncement, American voters have taken for granted when a President takes to the national airwaves we should stop what we’re doing and pay attention, and what he’s telling us is truth that the seriousness of current events has elevated above partisan packaging.

When JFK reported on the presence of missiles in Cuba, only certifiables were questioning his veracity or motivation. In fact, until now, it was a very safe bet that, if you asked the question “if the vast majority of the country can no longer believe what a POTUS has to tell them during a national crisis, should he be replaced…,” an overwhelming percentage wouldn’t hesitate to answer yes. Indeed, even a cursory glance at the fall of the only President who actually did resign his office, promotes the conclusion it was precisely the realization he could no longer credibly lead America in crisis that most influenced Richard Nixon’s calculus and prompted him to finally abandon ship.

That was then, this is now. Our current equation flips it all upside down… only the wretched core now receives our President’s daily gibberish as anything but designed to further rabidly immediate processing of what his political and personal fortunes require. A referendum on who the nation believes is coming soon; Trump will see to that. Even as Covid-19 deaths reach new highs near daily, and states like Florida and Texas are bracing for the worst, the Trump Administration, with little to nothing in the way of details, is making clear May 1 is long enough for flattening the curve…. data be damned.

The Civil War produced roughly 660,000 American deaths. It’s doubtful most understand that near 2/3 of those fatalities were caused by infectious diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, pneumonia and malaria. In 2016 our divided republic elected a President with no greater desire than to increase the estrangement. He has succeeded and we are now in a state of cold civil war, unable to abide each other’s most basic sensibilities. At the heart of it is who to believe, or more to the point, who not to believe. Covid-19 now provides the means for us to face off diametrically opposed as to how we proceed, with one side putting its faith in a narrative always at odds with fact, the other preferring the cumulative expertise MAGA has never had any use for.

Nobody has chronicled the slide from decency of the Republican Party more diligently than Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. Since the Tea Party began its metamorphosis into the totalitarian mob it has become, Milbank has documented and accurately assessed each malevolent stage. Nothing has garnered more of his attention than the party’s efforts to addle the Federal Government, constantly repeating Fox/AM bromides about its repressive uselessness. Yesterday, he finished a ruinous maxim long-time strangle-the-government fool Grover Norquist started. Norquist once quipped he’d prefer to see federal programs shrunk to the point he could “drag what’s left to drown in a bathtub.” Marking what any sober analyst understands was the fully preventable milestone of our 20,000th Covid-19 death, Milbank sadly observed the obvious… “When you drown government in a bathtub, people die.”

Social distancing is working where rigorously applied and followed – read states with governors not affixed to MAGA idiocy. Washington and California are flattening the curve despite being initial incubators of the virus. New York is holding its own and may have seen the worst of this wave. Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan set the right example from the outset, aggressively closing down his state to all but essential services. DC Mayor Mariel Bowser and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam followed suit and the DC-metro region may well dodge a bullet.

Kentucky voters had the good sense to send repulsive Trumpie Matt Blevin packing last November, many lives will surely be saved as a result. Democrat Andy Beshear declared an emergency March 6, then didn’t hesitate to close schools, restaurants and bars, making clear the crisis required the state to shut things down. Next door in Tennessee, MAGA-dependent Bill Lee was enjoying dinner out until just before April, when he finally suggested perhaps Covid-19 may be a bit more serious than the flu. Tennessee now has near three times the confirmed cases Kentucky reports. DeSantis in Florida, Kemp in Georgia, Abbot in Texas, Reeves in Mississippi, Ivey in Alabama, etc. etc. The list is as long as it is despicable. Trump flunkies are fatal to public health, no less than the President they owe their viability to. The numbers won’t lie, even if Fox/AM and their creation certainly do.

Nobody believes America can stay inside until a vaccine comes to the rescue. Perhaps the most important policy in US history will be what balances our vigilance to keep Covid-19 at bay with restarting the economy. Who can we count on to develop the protocols necessary to recirculate those who have survived the virus with those yet to be infected, and those more likely to suffer its worst? Tragically, this Administration offers zero basis for confidence it will do anything but demand we again ignore Covid-19’s dangers and get back to work. Testing protocols? Certification of those who have been infected? Aggressive procurement and deployment of antibody testing? Protecting target groups most vulnerable to the virus’ worst? Clearly, Trump and his lackeys have given no thought or preparation to what restarting will look like. Worse, they are fully prepared to move forward unprepared. Only the wretched core views that as acceptable.

This crisis clarifies how long it takes to ruin the Federal Government as a vehicle to competently intervene during national crisis – just a bit more than three years, given a President embodying “the talents for low intrigue” Hamilton warned of. Nobody excels at that pursuit like Trump. Moving forward, the new federalism foisted on us is simply this: responsible Governors of good faith and honor are going to be forced to ignore Trump’s edict, coming way too soon with no basis other than his rabid discretion. If it’s May 1st, that will be just about the time both Florida and Texas hospitals will be overwhelmed with death. If he surprises us with patience to wait another two weeks, that will be in time to match surging fatality rates in flyover states, as their decision makers’ ugly bows to MAGA political expedience exact too many pounds of suffering.

In other words, we are on our own, and the vacuum seditious Presidential indifference and laziness creates is not only dangerous to our health, but very bad for business as well. Expect whoever leads your state to either ruin you by mindlessly following MAGA nihilism, or try desperately to save you by cobbling together state and local coalitions, collaborating with an aim to find some workable balance without resources or guidance, simply doing the best they can. Either way, we aren’t the United States right now, nor will be until we again “elevate a man” with “the merit…. to establish him with the esteem and confidence of the whole union.” We failed miserably in 2016, another debacle like that is not an option. BC

To work for Donald Trump one has to assiduously attend to two competing primary guidelines. The first is to never outshine the boss on a public stage. Competence is far less important to the President than who is receiving credit for it. Anthony Fauci, for example, first brought to Coronavirus press conferences to address questions Trump and his other minions had no idea how to answer, quickly got on the President’s last nerve simply for his effortless display of expertise.

Due to the dearth of anything but inane and inappropriate Trump homage anywhere else on the Pence task force, Fauci’s authoritative cadence made him a star. Trump is too lazy to learn any minimum necessary for the relevance required to be more than an emcee of his public dog and pony shows, but that doesn’t stop him from rapidly resenting those relied on to carry his water when he senses them eclipsing his bloated shadow. Do your job, but not well enough in the public eye to escape the taint of your slobbering servitude to me! Rule number one.

The second rule of the Trumpist lackeyhood is one must be ready to fully abase themselves and destroy any or all of the credibility they have amassed in support of any senseless whim the boss may exhibit, or even be expected to unleash. Nicki Haley, perhaps the GOP’s brightest future star, learned this in a hurry as she rushed headlong into declaring sanctions against Russia that Putin put the kabosh on during a personal call that immediately had our asset-in-chief turning tail and pulling the rug out from under his U.N. Ambassador. Haley was forced to eat crow and talk gibberish through a humiliating weekend of Sunday news shows. Of course, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has perfected this shameless backtracking by simply starting fights with questioners, an approach Trump appreciates and rewards. Always be willing to look stupid and powerless when countermanded without notice. Better yet, learn to anticipate it! Rule number two.

In line with these ruinous metrics, Trump appeared to have a real keeper in acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly. Surely the President was initially delighted by every facet of Modly’s approach to blackballing Captain Brett Crozier for the actions he took after hundreds of his crew on the USS Theodore Roosevelt tested positive for Covid-19 following an R&R stop in Vietnam. The gratuitous venom Modly displayed in surplus for an officer, whose crew turned out en masse to shower with extended and riotous applause as he disembarked after his command was terminated by the SecNav, is just what Trump likes to see his eunuchs dole out to “rats” who risk public exposure of his realm’s incompetence. Modly seemed that rare MAGA breed with the instincts to “feel” just how ugly his master’s inclinations are, while at the same time jumping at the chance to disgrace himself carrying out such loathsome measures.

The story being pieced together tells of Covid-19 rampaging through the aircraft carrier’s tightly packed crew, its captain at odds with his superiors over how to proceed, and all the while top brass insisting everything was under control. Sound familiar? Crozier wanted the carrier taken off line to segment the crew and treat those with symptoms. Once the crew was quarantined and recovered, the mission could continue… sensible from any view. Rear Admiral Stuart Baker and US Pacific Fleet Commander John Aquilino thought the outbreak could be handled aboard the vessel while it continued its mission. Of course, Crozier was at the helm of the carrier and was seeing the exponential math multiplying by the hour. Without adequate testing or protocols to employ, he simply couldn’t see how that was possible.

To hear Modly sneer it, Crozier’s grievous sin was “going outside the chain of command” with a March 30 email sent to between 20-30 recipients, many on the captain’s own staff. The “blast-out email,” as Modly labeled it, recommended 90 percent of the crew be tested and quarantined and the ship be disinfected. After all, Crozier noted, the carrier was not engaged in hostilities, crew members “do not need to die.”

What’s now clear is the content of the communication wasn’t the issue; the fact it leaked the next day and was published by the San Francisco Chronicle was what got Modly thinking WWTD (What Would Trump Do). Even though top Pentagon brass were making clear they “didn’t want to shoot the messenger,” the SecNav figured he’d show the type of initiative that earns Trump twitter props, take the scapegoat by the gruff! Rather than respect the chain of command and even wait for Crozier’s immediate superiors to weigh in, Modly pulled the trigger. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff really had little choice but to get behind the move. Another good man, performing his job in good faith, tarnished by MAGA dreck.

Asked about the decision to relieve Crozier of command, Trump did what he always does, lie and abase. Even though the stop in Vietnam was a Pentagon priority to celebrate 25 years of good relations, Trump implied it was Crozier’s bad judgment to do so. Next, he characterized “a 5-page letter” that “was all over the place…. totally inappropriate.” Two days later, the President doubled down, amping up the insults and making clear he backed the decision.

Yet, incredibly, Modly felt the need to stomp on Crozier’s reputation some more Monday, when he addressed the stunned crew of the Roosevelt. Laced with profanity, his diatribe denounced Crozier’s email as “a betrayal” and indicative of one either “… too naive or too stupid to be the commanding officer of a ship like this.” The speech didn’t stop with just libelous character assassination of a decorated officer, it also checked off other MAGA boxes. Modly worked up a lather railing against media “agendas,” and took a swipe at Joe Biden’s defense of Crozier, amplifying his attacks against the ship’s popular skipper (“what your captain did was very, very wrong.”) The tone and content of the whole thing made clear the speechless crew was not who Modly was actually speaking to…. that guy was on a couch in the East Wing sipping a Diet Coke and retweeting Candace Owen’s epiphany about running for office!

At press time a sliver of sunshine seems available as the blowback of Modly’s gratuitous outrages consumes him. More than a quarter million signatures support a petition condemning him and calling for Crozier’s reinstatement as captain of the Roosevelt. No doubt Modly was informed by top Navy brass that his idiocy destroyed the authority of his office and support for his position no longer existed. But what about support from the one whose sensibilities he was certain the whole enterprise reflected? Yea, sure thing.

His resignation submitted, the now ex acting Secretary of the Navy has learned another, perhaps even more fundamental, rule Scar imparts to the hyenas seeking benefit from his rabid whim. Everybody is expendable without second thought. His sights now focused squarely on siphoning enough Coronavirus stimulus cash to keep his businesses from going belly up and laying bare the myth of his vast wealth and business acumen, Trump no longer sees any upside to Modly’s initiative. In fact, the President now appears ready to offer Crozier mercy from on high, declaring his career should not suffer for “a bad day.” Here’s hoping Crozier tells the CINC he’d do not a thing different if given another opportunity. And Modly? He’s learned the hard way Trump never says thank you. He wishes you luck and forgets your name. Just another acting somebody gone from a valley of nobodies. Good Riddance! BC

When it comes to national leadership in times of crisis, few are easier to please than the American public. When scared enough we become very tolerant and willing to grade on a curve, simple as that. After 9/11, even as it was quickly becoming clear he had ignored full throated warnings, and appeared as a deer in the headlights when informed of the second attack on the Twin Towers, W went to the smoldering scene of the crime, grabbed a bullhorn, and was at 80+ percent approval ratings before you could say “we’re going to put a boot up their ass!”

FDR was America’s first disabled President. His intimates feared constantly during the transition leading into his first term that the increasing numbers of destitute citizens would hold his condition against him and begin to lose confidence from the get-go as unemployment figures surged. They needn’t have worried. His “fireside chats” became essential listening. The calm reassurance he offered was enough to rally, if not optimism, at least hope that better days would at some point become visible, and more immediately, that the banking industry would not fail. Voters showed their appreciation every fourth November for the next twelve years.

The power we turn over to those we elect President is immense, and the public is never more willing to permit its deployment than during national emergencies. All we expect is to be kept informed about how it is being dispensed on our behalf, how it is bringing to bear the collective resources required to solve the issue at hand. Wide latitude is provided so long as we are confident White House good faith is available in generous supply, with unity and teamwork embraced as dominant themes. Until very recently that has never been a problem. Now it’s an existential crisis. Even so, many remain willing to provide plenty of slack, even if it kills them….. or at least their neighbors.

It is no mystery why so many are sleepless and disconcerted these days. Sure, there is a dangerous contagion on the loose, unpredictable and fully resistant to cure or even treatment for those unfortunate enough to suffer its worst. Moreover, the economy offers nothing now but debilitating uncertainty and looming hardship. Yet and still, were we all certain our President was appreciative of how enormous his responsibilities have become, and how dependent he is on the best efforts and cooperation of the apparatus he heads, our plight would feel less dire. Alas, if only that was all we weren’t getting. 

When Trump mused over the weekend he was considering the titanic step of ordering New York, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut quarantined, the subtext wasn’t hard to decipher: I have the power to do this and I will if it suits me; your opinion is neither requested nor appreciated. The same Trump “weighing” whether to essentially impose a state of siege on the nation’s most critical metro area, was less than a week ago holding forth on his vision of overflow churches on Easter, something every epidemiologist agreed would lead to thousands of unnecessary deaths. A sudden epiphany? Of course not. Merely our President tormenting another nemesis who “has never treated me fairly” – in this case Governor Andrew Cuomo – because he can.

It has always been a good idea when assessing Presidential candidates to ask oneself what the world would be like if this person could do anything they wanted, impose their will on the rest of us without modification. Regarding Trump the answer to such a hypothetical was always frightening. Now, within the bowels of perhaps the gravest American crisis since the Civil War, the reality, playing out at roughly 5:00 PM each afternoon grows increasingly unfathomable. It is as bad as it gets, but we can bet with confidence it will get worse still. Nothing should surprise, but it still shocks the senses, and only adds a new layer of worry to our quilt of concerns.

It’s more than noteworthy the White House’s statement outlining how Trump has “Mobilized the Full Resources of the Federal Government to Respond to the Coronavirus” spends more time on steps designed to subsidize both small and large businesses, not to mention predictable tangents like filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, with far less in the way of stabilizing the nation’s hospital infrastructure.

The March 13 announcement addresses Covid-19 testing, really the lynchpin to any successful strategy for mitigating short-term loss of life or long-term plans for reviving economic activity. Lots of verbiage about “cutting red tape” and of course “public and private sector partnerships,” but little in the way of details. Two million kits are on the way we are assured, the implication being without Trump’s bold anti-regulation efforts or unique entreaties to fellow business titans, such a promise would not be possible.

Yesterday, 17 days later, Governors Larry Hogan, a Republican from Maryland, and Democrat Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan – deemed “half” Whitmer by L’Enfant Terrible last week for having the temerity to question both his performance and veracity – issued about as pure a bipartisan statement as current times allow, detailing where their states are and what they now need. First and foremost on their minds is testing. Near three weeks after Trump pledged two million test kits, Hogan and Whitmer were clear:

“There simply aren’t enough test kits, medical supplies and other lifesaving equipment to meet the scope of this pandemic…. the federal government must take extraordinary steps to deliver what we need.”

As always, Trump meets such desperate pleas with his unique brand of crisis leadership, expounding on the popularity of his press briefings, which include cameos by top MAGA contributors like “the pillow guy” – who called on Americans to use their time at home as good patriots should and pay homage to grand leader as the second coming – and of course attacking Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi. It’s likely pleas for federal help on testing will fall on worse than deaf ears, they will be met with efforts to sabotage the mission.

From the start Trump has equated the number of Covid-19 positives with political liability. Anyone who thinks that calculus has changed isn’t merely inattentive, they are purposely obtuse. More than a month into this crisis, getting a test remains a privilege for the wealthy and connected or the dreadfully sick, when it’s merely a pro forma ritual. Were all states to possess ample testing resources, those yet to be hit full force could develop procedures to make certain the numbers don’t reach the tipping point necessary for exponential growth.

Moreover, sufficient testing is essential to discredit MAGA drivel this is MSM hysteria, which continuing mega church attendance and the reopening of Liberty University, not to mention Florida beaches not yet closed by Trumpie Governor Ron DeSantis, makes clear the wretched core still embraces. None of that is attractive to Trump, who has always viewed accurate information as the enemy of his various schemes, kryptonite to his always false claims. This situation is no different. He’d much rather grudgingly accept epidemiological forecasts with a wink wink nudge nudge to his MAGA faithful. Leave plenty of room for Hannity and Dobbs to redefine things. Keep his options open and the nation hostage to his ever devolving whims.

As to whether the US public’s well documented patience has been exhausted by previously unthinkable Presidential sociopathy, displayed daily in ever increasing doses; there is little to inspire confidence in our current national composition. Tragically, the numbers only confirm how divided we have become, and how slavish Trump’s core supporters, now the full GOP rank and file, are. Fox/AM is responsible for the Trump Presidency and in our darkest hour cultivates support for however horrific his daily 5:00 PM national embarrassment becomes. There isn’t another news provider whose listeners grant the President even a 30% approval rating for his Covid-19 stewardship. Almost two-thirds of Fox viewers think he’s been doing swell. Anybody who doubts the GOP has been consumed by MAGA need only consider 90 + percent of Republicans see leadership in insulting reporters, using ventilators to settle petty political scores and making clear the buck stops anywhere but here.

In the throes of an open ended challenge that will shake this country to its core, we are separated as we were before it, divided into two camps. One now demands more than the less than minimum it’s been receiving. The other is willing to bet their lives on whatever their champion comes up with at any particular moment. Fill the churches for Easter one day, lockdown a major portion of the East Coast another. How he uses the awesome power his office provides is of little concern to them, only that he stays in office to continue wielding it. Like the cultists they are, Trump’s wretched core believes, as they have all along, now is the time for them to support him, not the other way around. Circle the wagons.

Most recently there have been what within our current national surreality pass for hopeful indications. Trump seems to ever so slowly be glimpsing the enormity of what we face. The language he held to yesterday should have been the sentiments he was expressing two months ago, even as he jabbed at the usual suspects. But who knows? How can we trust him for sustained reasonableness? Welcome clarity today may be fully disavowed tomorrow, such is the leadership chaos we suffer at his hands. The chickens of normalizing his Presidency now roost with all of us. His wretched core continues to digest and even celebrate his disassociation as “Trump being Trump.” The rest of us are forced, from our living rooms – while we wonder if that stray cough or itch in our throat is the start of our personal reckoning – to curse him and those whose still enthusiastic acceptance of the worst faith ever to guide Presidential crisis management will survive until they literally go into the dirt. The calamity of ruin. BC

When I was a kid in Evanston, Illinois, I loved to play hockey. Nothing made me happier on cold winter days than going to the “lagoon” several blocks from my house and playing pick up games until dark. By the time I was ten I was set to graduate to organized leagues, with practices and games played at Northwestern University’s rink a couple of miles from my home, and far further afield were one fortunate enough to be chosen to the travel team.

Now, my mother had delivered my brother Alex not two years before, and had yet to learn how to drive. It being the Mad Men 60s and Evanston being a classic midwestern small town, such a deficit had yet to seem like a big deal to me. It soon would. My father was a young hot shot Chicago lawyer, who had to “work late” often enough for me to notice my mom’s aggravation when the predictable late afternoon phone call came to again inform her she would be alone with three small children that evening.

I tried out for the house league, which I don’t believe cut anybody, and was satisfied that I was in the upper tier of talent. I wound up on a team anchored by a kid named Johnny O’Brien, generally considered one of if not the best player for his age in the general vicinity. When we broke into our teams to meet our coaches etc., I was flattered the young prodigy seemed to recognize me as his line mate and sort of number two on our squad. Still, I had one serious concern I couldn’t share with anybody because I was ashamed and thought revealing it would open me to ridicule; I had no idea what this thing offsides was! To this day I can’t say why I kept it such a personal secret to suffer senselessly from, but I did.

The rule that an offensive player cannot precede the puck across the opponent’s blue line is, of course, foundational to organized hockey. All strategy and orientation takes place with this restriction in mind. To not understand it makes one unable to participate with any sense of focus, only confused reaction. And so it was my first practice I lurched around, unable to hit my stride, and admonished several times by the coach for either being out of position or violating the fundamental I did not understand. Why he didn’t comprehend my ignorance that night and explain things to me, I cannot say. He waited until the next practice to do so, but by then it would be too late, the damage done.

But for all the confusion and frustration I felt during that initial practice session, it was what occurred after that stays with me to this day. Since Northwestern’s rink was too far to walk, and my mom could not drive me, I was required to take the bus. Again, just as I had digested my mother’s lack of a driver’s license to that point, catching the bus did not initially seem like such a big deal. That changed as I watched every one of my fellow players get escorted to their cars by hockey moms of the day. Suddenly, now I had two things to be ashamed of, only this indignity now dwarfed the other. I cut a solitary and pathetic figure as I trudged alone in the bitter cold toward the bus stop, watching the brake lights of Johnny O’Brien’s family station wagon disappear. No doubt any of the mothers would have been glad to give me a lift. Asking was unthinkable! It was the first time I can remember feeling sorry for myself. It was also the first and very few times I resented my mother.

As it happened, tryouts for the far more prestigious travel team were being held that Saturday in neighboring Northbrook at 0-dark-thirty… some things have always been thus. I had secured my father’s pledge to drive me a couple of weeks before, but he had yet to arrive home as I finally fell asleep that Friday night. How many late nights were actually devoted to work versus downtown Chicago watering holes is a question I never demanded my father answer, mainly because I already knew the answer.

Even so, that Saturday sunrise I felt like I was heading toward my execution. It was one thing to be clueless on a house team; this was the elite, the cream of the crop. How could Johnny O’Brien respect me as a teammate when he found out my ugly secret, which I was certain would spill out for all to see? As we silently drove toward Northbrook, my groggy dad still in his pajama top, my anxiety mounted. I desperately wanted to ask him to explain the rule, but just couldn’t make myself do it!

By the time we arrived I was frozen with doubt. When my father asked what was wrong, I blurted out the whole thing was a mistake and I wanted to go home. My dad seemed more incredulous than empathetic or concerned. He impatiently asked me why. I lied and said I didn’t think I was good enough, and besides, it would take away from basketball at the Y. Of course, not so deep down, I hoped he would be unconvinced by my excuses and gently but firmly nudge me out of the car toward my reckoning. He didn’t. When we arrived back home, my mother asked what had happened. “Ask your son,” my father said as he headed back to bed. I yelled I didn’t want to talk about it and closed my own bedroom door. … and for many years after I didn’t.

These specific vivid memories were foremost in my mind in late 1998 as my wife, Sue, and I discussed family planning. My daughter, Isabelle, was born that January, and after overcoming the initial trepidations of fatherhood, I genuinely felt I was hitting my stride. Things were good. With the Rolls Royce of downtown DC daycares permitting Sue the ability to work while visiting Iz just two blocks away whenever she pleased, we had settled into a very comfortable routine. Two incomes meant financial security, but more importantly to me, it was clear this status quo would fully permit me, like my father before, to compartmentalize parenting. Sue loved every minute with our daughter and seemed to have no real issue with me seeking distance when I needed it. Golf, beers with buddies, ponies and working out… it seemed I could have it all, just like pre-child.

Yet and still, even while luxuriating with the cake I could have and eat too, when my wife directly asked me whether I really wanted the daughter I now treasured to be an only child, the answer was natural. Of course not. My girl would not be alone and ashamed to lack what all of her peers would take for granted! Moreover, she’d always have a ride home from practice by parents, and a brother or sister, there to cheer her on! Whatever accommodations needed to be made for my narcissism would be dealt with on an as needed basis. I could do this for my Issie!

In March of 2000 my son, Luke, was born. About three years later he was diagnosed with pervasive autism, instantly shattering whatever selfish preoccupations I hoped to protect, and finally forcing me into real manhood. My daughter grew up with all the struggles, and self-imposed shames a sibling of a special needs child confronts. As her parents have been forced to divide and conquer responsibilities simply to cope, my wonderful Iz has many times felt solitary and detached from her peers, alone in circumstances they can’t relate to. She has time and again trudged alone to that bus stop.

Now I shelter in place with my wife and the one who changed everything, making me a man of worth and my life a rewarding struggle instead of a predictable dalliance. One by one Sue and I have been gutted as we try yet again to explain why another thing he so relies on has been taken away by “the virus”. Disappointing him has always been painful, never so excruciating as now. Both of us are fearful we could suffer the worst of Covid 19 and leave him at the mercy of this world. Isabelle would then be most all he would have to protect him She knows this and seems resolute as she sits tight hundreds of miles away.

We all have reached together the crossroads of national crisis. Each and every one of us has a tale like mine to tell, pivotal events of our lives that now define us and will prove invaluable during this part of our journey, even as days begin to string together and the dull ache of depression and hopelessness begins to pulse. It’s in us all and will get us through this; we simply need to hold it close. It’s called our humanity. Never forsake it or we are lost. BC

Keeping our mortality in its proper perspective is a uniquely human preoccupation; at least I suppose it is. To date, say, a lion’s views on dying remain a mystery. I work on the assumption they haven’t given it near the amount of consideration I have. It’s doubtful we give the subject more thought than during national crises, when the routines we depend on to distract us from such morbidity are temporarily unavailable. Of course, now we are instructed to do more than merely forsake routine, we are told to literally turn inward, to essentially hibernate for a while, for the sake of ourselves and, more importantly, the most vulnerable among us. It is an acid test of our civic demeanor. Many are failing.

“We are looking at a new war no one has seen before,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned Monday. “We have never fought a virus like this with this potential consequence.” On the other coast however, despite both multiplying cases and increasing numbers of death, California GOP Congressman Devin Nunes was all about, er, reassurance. “It’s a great time to go out to a local restaurant,” advised Nunes, directly contradicting the assessments of every responsible health professional. “Let’s not hurt the working people in this country…. go to your local pub.”

It’s a certainty, when we are finally out of the woods with this pandemic, and assuming we are still an ongoing democratic concern, Hollywood will run with the events we are now living. Surely, as is most always the case, writers, directors and various A lot “suits” will be predisposed to embellishing the truth to accentuate drama. They needn’t worry here. The good guys are clearly delineated, the bad guys even more so. Whoever plays Devin Nunes will have to take a lot of showers. Trump’s portrayer may require post-production therapy. As an annoying pest with a taste for the obvious once remarked… “you can’t make this stuff up.”

The Mike Pence Coronavirus response team, whose daily findings and recommendations are emceed – not to mention frequently contradicted – by the President, never seem to offer much more than hype and redundancy. Shout outs to “private industry partners” are frequent, but Anthony Fauci pounds away on the desperate race to “flatten the curve” of the disease’s spread. The clock is ticking.

Perhaps that’s for Trump and his wretched core’s benefit, a continuing effort to counter what they digest from all of their favorite Fox/AM “personalities.” Until earlier this week, most all of the usual suspects continued to ply the virus-as-hoax/political attack feces their loyal listeners will surely refuse to let go of until the bodies start piling up. For his part, Trump has grudgingly embraced the basic facts of the pandemic. Yet and still, one senses his cultists believe it’s a wink wink, nudge nudge situation. Hey, he’s just giving the swamp what it demands, read between the lines. Let’s go have some beers, pandemic my ass.

It should be clear to anyone paying attention to facts they aren’t keen to reframe in support of a Hannity narrative, this pandemic is going to dramatically alter the face of this land. Epidemiologists seem to concur we are going to be forced to confront a choice straight out of Faust. On the one hand we can adopt a prolonged “shelter-in-place” mentality that will reduce the carnage and protect our healthcare resources from being overwhelmed but ruin the economy. Or we can dispense sooner with social distancing and see if we can live with death like we’ve never seen before, fatalities measured in the hundreds of thousands. Any hope this condition is tamer than advertised has been extinguished by testimonials of “healthy” patients sent to ERs by near fatal complications.

To be clear the beginning has just arrived, but already ominous indicators are coming out of New York and Washington state, with patient numbers matching near to the number with Italy’s disastrous track. Cuomo, whose leadership is a reassuring contrast to the President’s indifferent counter- productivity, is doing all the right things while running out of time. He knows he’ll need more space and facilities, more people, more… everything. His pleadings to the White House for resources have fallen on worse than deaf ears, they’ve met up with Trump’s petty vindictiveness. Get your own ventilators, L’Enfant Terrible bellowed on a conference call with Governors, which he later tweeted was great with the exception of Cuomo, who “needs to do more.” Never bet he can’t go lower.

Meanwhile, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the nation, “except millionaires” is about to get Christmas for Easter. Checks up to a cool grand are about to be cut. Even though work missed has yet to exceed a significant snow event, looming economic hardship is already tangible. It appears Mnuchin and his jefe want to get the loose details out of the way before focusing on some serious corporate welfare down the line.

Pay offs are a specific strength in Trump’s skill set, and he seems enthused to start dolling out the goodies… times being what they are. Airlines, cruise ships, the restaurant and hospitality industries – no doubt energy interests are right now deciding how big a bucket to bring – the line is forming, like a Costco with freshly stocked toilet paper shelves. However far $1000 is going to go for now unemployed people already living hand to mouth, most unable to afford a sudden $400 expense in the best of times, you better believe Trump will remind them from here to eternity how lucky they were to receive his largesse. But at the end of the day the same boardroom folks who Trump maxed out the deficit platinum card for two years ago are who will feel the true healing balm of Coronavirus relief. Count on it.

In the meantime we are still a divided nation precisely when we can least afford it. Apparently, in flyover country, plenty MAGA faithful are not about to fall for this one, abandoning Fox as it relents to what passes for reason in its studios, to OAN where conspiracies about the virus as Fauci plot to destroy Trump’s economic miracle are rife. “The lord is my vaccine,” they are declaring as they wait for a table in Kansas. Worse, coddled kids will not be denied their party time. With neither Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida, or Gregg Abbot in Texas willing to do their jobs, instead ceding responsibility to local mayors and city councils, beaches have been slow to close, providing critical days of skin to skin bashes. Much good social distancing sacrifice is sure to be undone as the partiers disperse nationwide. Instead of back to school, they will return home to middle aged parents. How many will enforce rigorous quarantine measures? Clown Question.

In New Orleans, where critical cases are beginning to surge right on cue several weeks after Fat Tuesday, pulmonologists have never seen anything like this condition. The devastating speed it inflames the lungs, and the restrictions it places on oxygen intake, bring to their minds victims of toxic gas inhalation. Worse, the comfort that good health and relative youth protects from the condition’s full wrath is fraying as 40 somethings with no preconditions struggle for breath. Those in the most acute stages of Corona’s wrath require ventilators to hold on. With the patient surge just starting, they are already in short supply.

Denial is a powerful outlook. Right now it is held close by millions, stunned by events fundamentally reshaping their nation. Blaming media desires for drama, or lib agendas to bring down Trump, surely will not withstand the images we are all about to see out of virus hotspots, even if the POTUS refuses to accept truth on the ground. The profound danger added to our worry about surging fatalities is a certainty many will digest tragedy as a basis to scapegoat who they are told to blame, and lash out instead of reconciling with reality. Ominously, Trump is already encouraging such impulses with nobody of national stature stepping up to confront him on it. It’s very hard to feel reassured when your President is disintegrating into a hateful mass of lies and recriminations right before your eyes.

So where can we take heart? What can we bank on to provide hope this to will pass? Two weeks ago could anyone have imagined no NCAA tournament? Or NBA or NHL? Masters? Kentucky Derby? Wholesale school closures? The most radical transformation of American life and routine in generations took place with a few fistfights over hand sanitizer. People standing to lose millions did the right thing at first asking. That’s better than a poke in the eye.

Consider that in 1918 the flu pandemic hit in three waves just as a disastrous world war was winding down. What they had to deal with it was far less than what we are blessed with. Yet the world survived to nearly consume itself yet again two decades later. There are far graver sacrifices asked than staying at home and fretting about untimely death. Nobody ever promised us our lives would be free of collective fear and suffering. I told my daughter, sheltering in place in San Francisco, to embrace the moment as history, a tale to tell from the rocker.,So should we all. BC

By:David E. Whiteis

To the Trump voters, a little something I wrote.

A tale of perfect storm of calamity:

Aww, politics is stupid. None of that matters. Hey Trump is running for president, wouldn’t that be funny if he won. Anybody is better than Obama or Hillary!

Ha, that is so hilarious, he did it! We did it! Lol, he is going to drive those libtards crazy!

Man, that stock market is rocking it! I knew that whole climate change thing was all UN bullshit. Cleeeaan coal! Frack it up…. my kids don’t drink groundwater anyway. Nothing but eco-whiners!

Elections bore the hell out of me. It’s all the same swamp! At least Trump isn’t taking a paycheck!

Well, I’m not getting too many hours at the shop lately, they said it is something about Chinese tariffs, but it will pick back up. But it does suck that going to part-time status at work made me lose my health insurance. What are you going to do? At least we aren’t disrespected anymore!

Another record day on Wall Street! My brother in law says he’s going to buy a house in Hawaii! And Trump says he’s got some kind of tax break on the way, but I haven’t seen any of it. He’s the best though! Says everything I’m thinking, without worrying about the PC police. Love him!

Look, I’m not a big fan of the tweets; Sure, sometimes he sounds like an idiot talking by the helicopter. But the reporters love it and are just trying to trap him into saying something stupid. I won’t even watch it anymore. Fake news!

That is some wild shit going on in China. But it’s probably overblown to help the Dems. Trump said it is going to go away in a few days; he’s on it.

*********** The Trump administration fritters away precious days that other countries were using to make preparations. The virus spreads silently in Italy, Spain… and the US.

That science stuff is just crap. I’d rather be back on the assembly line, I want to earn enough so I can mod my truck so it can “roll coal”, that cracks me up. But I gotta go now, I need to take my cousin to her chemo appointment. Let’s hope this round is covered, she’s too sick to work for Medicaid coverage

It looks like many other countries got their coronavirus testing going a while ago, but we still don’t have it happening here. My sister has a bad cough and needs a test, but they didn’t have one available at first, and now it is taking forever for the results. I told you, the federal government sucks…. just like Mark Levin says!

Yeah, Trump kind of blew it on that testing thing, mostly because he always thinks he is right. But he usually IS right. It is the Mexican immigrants that are messing up our country. He stopped the flights from China, didn’t he!

Wow, the number of cases is doubling every day or two. I wish my 401(k) looked like that “confirmed cases” graph! How could it lose 3 years of gains so fast?!

What do you mean? He has great insurance, Grandpa worked for that union for 40 years, his insurance should take care of him. How can they not have a bed? They say his case is not that bad, and he should just stay home unless it gets worse.

I don’t care what the damn fake new media say, I’m going to church and then we’re going out to Denny’s with theguys from the Boston office, we’ve been planning this for weeks.

That scum payroll guy at work said my going bowling was actually going to be helping kill people in nursing homes, what the f**k does that even mean? I ain’t giving up bowling or my line dancing anyways, for some stupid lib fake flu thing. Rush says it’s nothing but a cold!

Grandpa’s in the hospital, but they have him still in the hallway, he has been there for 5 hours, they don’t have a room for him. They say the virus was spreading for weeks, but the US did almost no testing because the Trump Administration said it was all bullshit, and then blew it when they first started ordering tests.

Yeah, he’s been there three days, and he isn’t allowed any visitors, so he has to just lie there in the hallway. I think he is pretty lonely and scared.

The funeral is tomorrow, but we are not allowed to go.

Aunt Susan has a bad cough now. And I’m not feeling that well myself, but you know me, I never even get colds. I’m going to stop by Joe’s bar, I’ll see you in a couple of hours.

I don’t think I can make it in to work today.

I understand, I feel the same way, it is hard. Just drive over with a couple of cans of soup or something if you feel up to it, I don’t have anything left in the house, and I don’t think I can get out of bed.

Man my chest hurts.

Cough.

[a motionless figure in a silent bedroom]

POSTSCRIPT:

————–

Do you know which cities in Italy are as large as New York or L.A.? Trick question, nothing is even close.

“But,” you say, “China has cities much bigger than New York, and they are pulling out of it now” you say…

Do you think Americans will do voluntarily what China forced its cities to do by martial law? Starting two days ago? Because that is what it would take, to avoid what is coming.

————–

Stay home. If one member of your family gets sick, keep the whole household home for two weeks. Wash your hands. Prepare for the long haul, it is going to take months. Look out for your neighbors. 

Next election, let the adults vote. You can just stay home.

————–

Read and understand both of these web sites, all the way through:

Flatten the Curve

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/

– David E. Whiteis, 3-17-2020

By all accounts there wasn’t much that frightened Earnest Hemingway. From the front lines of WWI to the chaotic carnage of the Spanish Civil War, and all manner of exploration, fearless was not a misplaced adjective as applied to the literary legend’s disposition. However, one scenario did unnerve him throughout life, to the point of self-imposed worry and distraction. Franco fascists “papa” could deal with, but catching the Spanish Flu or its offspring terrified him.

It really gets down to the most basic of human urges, control of our circumstances. Pandemics exert their will and distribute harm to any and all, nobody gets special dispensation. Rich or poor, smart or stupid, anyone dependent on basic socialization is asking for it. Hemingway, who was born to connect the dots and convey stories based on the consequences of humanity’s struggle for purpose, was simply terrified by the randomness of the flu’s trek , and the purposelessness of its damage. Really, who can’t relate to that?

If the normalization of US history’s ugliest public servant has demonstrated anything at all, it’s that Americans are pathologically committed to our routines. Nothing seems powerful enough to deter that obsession. Veterans returning from any war of the 20th and 21st century struggled with hometowns and loved ones utterly the same as when they waved goodbye. Whatever chaos and hell our boys experienced abroad, when they returned nothing had changed. Clubs, weekly meetings, church pancake breakfasts, high school basketball games, one could still set their watch by each of them. The dichotomy between ceaseless repetition and war’s devastating spontaneity was in itself a trigger to many a troubled transition back to civilian life.

After 9/11, the most traumatic event in American post-war annals, the crusade was to get back to our routines. The Towers were still smoldering and Rudy was in his box seats for the World Series. Everywhere the mantra was “don’t let them win, get yourself to a mall!” Sure we were heading off the cliff of endless war and occupation without markers and plenty of unprecedented ugliness, but Saturday soccer mornings would not be denied! In America the occasion, whatever occasion, must go on. That’s all about to change. The critical question that will literally determine the death toll we suffer, is if we’re capable of changing enough.

Our White House resident infant’s constant idiocy aside, this is a genuine, certified, lose-some-serious-sleep crisis. In Italy, a doctor’s desperate Facebook posts have gone viral, and it’s horrific. Wave after wave of hospital admissions, all diagnosed with the exact same thing… bilateral interstitial pneumonia, Coronavirus’ clinical calling card. Dr. Daniele Macchini, who works in the northern city of Bergamo, provided chilling details of overwhelmed resources and exhausted staff in a “war zone” setting. While youth may spare most, the “target group” elderly in northern Italy are surely dying, only to be replaced by a new group of critical patients…. again and again. The country is now locked down and nobody is worrying about canceled weddings. Deadly serious stuff.

Here, our Executive government has utterly failed us. Trump, a soulless child at his core, has publicly demonstrated over and over he is not up to the task of crisis management. When Hitler turned on Stalin and blitzkrieged Russia, the murderous Bolshevik went into denial and hid from view for several days, leaving his entire realm without any leadership at all. Trump has been no different, instead of a Dacha, it’s Mar-A-Lago and the links of Doral, but the denial is the same. Children have trouble with proportion, to Trump three percent is “a real low number.” Dr. Brian Monahan, physician to Congress and the Supreme Court, believes between 70 to 150 million Americans will get Coronavirus, with a one percent fatality rate. That’s 700,000 to 1.5 million dead, uh yea, a real high number! Anybody witnessing our President’s goofball routine at the CDC had to wonder whether any kind of coordinated response is possible.

Thankfully, seemingly overnight, serious adults are acting with the haste required. A plan now seems to be taking shape, as state and local governments rush to fill the void, taking their cues from the best national and international guidance they can determine. In other words, anybody but Mike Pence and Alex Azar!

The emerging strategy is to try and slow the progress of the virus as much as possible in order to stagger the numbers of seriously ill people taxing the medical infrastructure. This can only be achieved by preventing socialization, particularly events with large crowds. March Madness will be spring silence as the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will be played with only family and essential personnel in attendance. Whether CBS et al will try to drum up hype by filling up sports bars for viewing frenzies, thus sabotaging the whole point of the effort, remains to be seen. The NBA just suspended its season after a player tested positive for the virus. Now, that is messing with routines.

Yet and still, some routines are more valuable to certain groups than others, and without governmental coercion, it becomes like an honor system; some will act responsibly, others won’t. Some officials will be Roy Scheider in Jaws, some will be Amity’s mayor. The stakes now pertaining to those decisions are very high.

In Panama City, Florida they are raking the sand and preparing for the annual spring break invasion of college kids from every corner of the country. Judging from their civic leaders’ public declarations, with the exception of worthless lip service to following hand washing protocols etc., all systems are go. Few aren’t familiar with how that looks. Thousands of near naked young people doing just about everything one could imagine to spread a contagion… beer bong anybody?

After a week of this annual gropefest, they will then disperse back to countless cities and towns to spread whatever they have received. Being young and in good health, most will suffer minimal symptoms while fully transmitting the virus to all they encounter. Whatever good work has been done to counter the disease’s spread will quickly be undone as typhoid frat boys and girls unknowingly convey illness to those they love. Will Panama City Beach reconsider its plans? Will Governor Ron DeSantis, heretofore a mindless Trump lackey, make the call for them? One example out of thousands, one looming disaster out of thousands of other potential calamities. The movie script writes itself!

It’s the height of irony that, at a time we need national unity most, lockstep cooperation and sacrifice of our most precious touchstone, the routines we follow to the letter, we are as divided as can be. Maybe this desperate exercise in collective discipline will bring us back together and prevent countless deaths. I hope I live to see that.

Many of us have felt alone since January of 2017. Now, many more surely feel the same way, and before this is over many others still may suffer such fears. But we are all in this together, and that must be enough to bind us. We can be confident as things worsen this President will lash out for scapegoats and pursue the division he needs for continued relevance. Only if we ignore him and stick to the plan, while supporting each other, can we get back to the precious routines we measure normalcy by. Our greatest challenge. BC

A very wise man once advised not to “accept assumptions until you are dead certain nothing better is on offer, but once embraced, only the indisputable should force you to release them.” Our current crisis, and the struggle to effectively confront it, has everything to do with the assumptions we have adopted, recently rejected, and are considering taking to heart now. Make no mistake, the fate of the nation and the world rests on this shuffling of intrinsic attitudes.

MAGA’s destructiveness comes directly from a zero-sum relationship with so many established premises our country’s experience has validated. Like the absurd basis of its Sauronesque master, Fox/AM, Trumpism rises and falls on how many it can convince to shed fealty to the basic assumptions it slanders 24/7. On every meaningful issue of our time, climate change to Civil Rights, public education to tax policy, gun ownership to NATO, the MAGA gospel is no different from any Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity installment from yesterday or ten years ago. Whatever the deceitful mainstream media beguiled you to believe is a lie.

Relentlessly shrill Mark Levin, perhaps the most volcanically unhinged of the entire nihilist echo chamber, has a tried and true way of introducing pathogens into his ugly monologues. He’ll shriek some heretofore off limits absurdity, some libelous attack on a person or common assumption, and then declare “there, I said it!.” Something like: “Obama was a pothead. How the hell did he get into Harvard?! … there, I said it!” His wretched implication is twofold: first, Levin is the utter profile in courage for saying this publicly; and second, listeners should thank God a hero like him has liberated them to repeat this previously repressed controversy.

When Limbaugh prattles about climate change, he never presents it in terms other than “the drive by media wants you to believe this.” Of course, “this” is the entirety of decades of scientific research, thousands and thousands of hours devoted to developing accepted consensus… an assumption we could rely on for solving the problem. It works the same way for virtually everything else. NATO didn’t keep the peace, it merely fleeced us and eroded our sovereignty. Food stamps aren’t a critical safety net for the most needy, a tiny sliver of domestic spending; they are a scam for cheats and bankrupting the nation while forcing a veteran to go without.

A close friend of mine, who would go full Trump if he wasn’t such an otherwise decent person, seems always looking for examples to justify unabashed MAGA sympathies. The latest is a story he heard from a friend about a family who drove up in a luxury automobile and paid for a dozen jumbo jimmy Maryland crabs with food stamps, thus proving beyond dispute both the rottenness of the program and the multitudes out to soak taxpayers. Skin color was never mentioned; sadly, it didn’t need to be. To my friend, the tale formed an unarguable basis for a set of assumptions sufficient to indict do-nothing freeloaders specifically and “libs” in general. Moreover, in the binary choice between Trump and the alternative, what else could he do?! When I trashed the imbecility of such conclusions and expressed my disappointment in his inane reasoning, he suggested I “get a hobby.” Another beautiful relationship sullied at the crossroads of Trumpism.

Yet and still, if MAGA is an existential emergency created by the destruction of previously accepted propositions, what of the assumptions relied on by its opponents, sanity’s deliverers? Tuesday dramatically narrowed the options of who will wear the mantle and do battle with ruinous Trumpist despicability. At heart, what really differentiates Bernie Sanders from Joe Biden is the basic assumption his campaign holds to vis a vis what has befallen us since 2016. Trump as merely the corollary of a broken system, or an unprecedented pox that renders any ambitions beside his removal meaningless. The crux of the choice facing us.

A “Berner” I know very well speaks for most of his fellow travelers when he condemns the Democratic National Committee with near the same visceral exclamation as the GOP. To his eyes Hillary, and presumably those who supported her, got what they deserved in 2016. It’s unfortunate the alternative turned out to be so particularly bad, but a Clinton Presidency would have been near as intolerable. The current feeling among the Sanders faithful holds DNC Chairman Tom Perez with as much disdain as his GOP counterpart Ronna McDaniel, a Trump door mat. The memes they toss around originate from the very Russian troll operations as those posted by the wretched core; indeed, many are the same. Surely, things will only deteriorate if Super Tuesday’s results are any indicator. A candidate is responsible for his supporters. Sanders seems increasingly disinterested in providing light between himself and those amplifying his rhetoric.

The notion of MAGA as nothing more than a concurrent symptom of our systemic corruption is fully at odds with what has transpired since Trump took office with only the agenda of pandering to his base’s subterranean sensibilities. To accept it requires a skewed set of priorities that issues grossly insufficient importance to L’Enfant’s habitual lies and relentless divisiveness, not to mention dangerous incompetence. Really, at the bone’s marrow, it embraces Fox/AM’s broad strokes… the nadir existed before Trump was sworn in. Trumpies will tell you that means anything else is an improvement. Berners will contend the differences aren’t important enough to distract from the opportunities at hand. That’s called six of one, half dozen of another and, at least to me, it’s a disqualifying premise.

As for Biden, why wouldn’t we want an experienced West Wing hand taking the reins after government by Sean Hannity? Eight years at the side of quiet competence seems just the type of bullet point on a resume we should be looking for right about now. The true disaster of Trumpism is the wasteland of talent it creates in the executive branch. There is zero doubt a Biden Administration will attract the best and brightest for the daunting mission of repairing our government infrastructure and the war now unleashed on the very mission statements of its departments. If MAGA has proven anything it’s how destructive pandering to the notion federal services are the enemy can be. Biden has been clear from the start about his intention to reset, something wholly at odds with Sanders’ titanic pledges.

Four years of Trump demands remediation and repair before ambitions can be pursued. Moving forward on the assumption this political framework we now suffer is capable of “a revolution” after enduring a riot is not idealist, it’s at best delusional, at worst disingenuous. I wish that weren’t so, but it is; and if I’m not buying, it’s a certainty the legions of far more skittish voters aren’t either. There is little doubt few could chew Trump up like Sanders; not many demand accountability like he can. Nonetheless, the baggage of his brand, and the assumptions its agenda requires, creates too much background noise for his best work to be effective.

Finally, the elephant in the room, the specter still rarely discussed, is the promise Trump and his wretched core are not going to cede authority in a constructive, perhaps even peaceful manner. The rabid frothing of Trump’s rally incoherence will only magnify as the election nears, particularly if his prospects diminish. There is every chance the one who evicts him will be forced to spend the transition prying the office from Trump’s cold tiny hands. Biden’s relationships run deep throughout the institutions responsible for peaceful transference of power, the military included.

All hands will need to be on deck when it’s time to swab the vestiges of nihilism’s term in office. Mobilizing such an effort will be far more difficult in the face of “the socialists are coming” hysteria Trump and his Murdoch megaphone will be ceaselessly screeching after a Sanders victory. The unprecedented measures that may be necessary will be perceived quite differently from Biden than from Sanders. One narrative will focus the spotlight on an authoritarian refusing to cede power. The other will be addled by the false sidebar of a socialist seizing office.

Last night the President of the United States mused that “his gut” told him official fatality rates of a burgeoning global pandemic were too high, and the actual numbers were less than one percent. He also declared most cases of the Coronavirus would be mild enough to suffer through at the workplace. Think about that, a shot of DayQuil and nose to the grindstone; after all, we have my four-year plan to meet, right?

If there is a central lesson one hopes this Presidency confers, it’s that no matter how many times a lie is told it never blossoms into the truth. However, the opposite is also correct; just because a fact becomes common wisdom, and is repeated time and again, doesn’t render it less true. Four more years of Trump is ruinous to our nation and the world. Moreover, the damage already done can not simply be ignored and built upon; it needs to be rectified, new safeguards installed so it never happens again. A Presidency dedicated first and foremost to those bare essentials is fine by me. And make no mistake, where that leaves student loan forgiveness and medicare for all is one hell of a lot closer than if MAGA stays in office. That’s an assumption nobody can dispute! BC

In 1994, on Martin Luther King’s birthday weekend, the DC area was hit with a savage ice storm. Residents awoke on Monday morning to a skating rink. As I gazed outside from our Arlington townhouse, I pondered a dilemma. Our Washington Post carrier had demonstrated stellar commitment to his job and delivered my paper on time; there it was on the ground just down the two jagged concrete steps at our iron gate. But the going was clearly treacherous, a perilous 10-12 footsteps to pay dirt. I could go rummage out back for some ice salt, but my coffee was hot and I needed that paper now for the world to be right!

And so out I ventured in only my skivvies and slippers, on a dangerous quest for data! Slowly I slid along the sheen, employing an effective side sidle. At the gate all was good, but the steps would be tricky, I knew. As I opened the gate, resplendent in a quarter-inch coat of frozen precipitation, I mometarily let go and slightly pivoted…. everything from that point is regret. In an airborne calamity only Dick Van Dyke or Seinfeld’s Kramer could perform on purpose, I levitated and landed on the edge of the cruelly unforgiving concrete. If I’m ever unfortunate enough to be knifed in the back, I’m certain it won’t exceed the preposterous agony of that moment.

These days, more than 25 years later, that ridiculous decision, coupled with being hit by a car as a teenager, not to mention the numerous indignities skateboarding “vert” inflicted, haunt my spinal column most every morning. Approaching the ugly 6 0 is bad enough without the torment of chronic pain, but what are you going to do? Yet and still, whatever physiological underpinnings exist for my discomfort, it’s a sure bet outrageous events of the day are fully capable of triggering spasm. And it’s a lock I’m not an outlier. No doubt Trumpism and it’s accompanying chaotic absurdity is good business for chiropractors and chronic pain specialists. Sadly, those we now depend on for deliverance, our resistance superstars, are not much helping matters.

If I had my way, the Democrats would head to some warm retreat and not emerge until a national unity ticket informed by only the objective of trouncing Trump was hammered out. It appears the Administration’s slapstick handling of the Coronavirus situation is forcing many out of their self-induced catatonia. When things are bad enough that a developing pandemic provides some silver lining, it’s darkness at noon time! However, the Democratic Presidential field does not seem affected, most all exhibiting unbridled devotion to personal ambition, which by definition only increases L’Enfant Terrible’s re-election odds.

Dana Milbank, the Washington Post’s Trumpism-centric critic, was spot on when, bemoaning the South Carolina Jerry Springerfest debate, he harkened back to the dark GOP primary days four years ago, as those with brain activity and some interest in responsibility to the job they sought were nonetheless too craven to sacrifice a sliver of personal ambition toward protecting the nation from calamitous nihilist populism. But while Milbank views a Bernie Sanders nomination as similarly apocalyptic to Trump’s dismantling of the Republican 2016 field, it’s only equivalent in so much as Sanders’ march to victory illuminates this group’s collective incognizance, or worse, deliberate indifference, to the national ruin another Trump term ensures.

First, let’s be crystal clear: only the Fox/AM set should be dense enough to equate Sanders to Trump, or his brand of populism to MAGA. Michael Gerson, who has previously distinguished himself as a neo- conservative willing to call out Trump for the menace he is, exuded his own limitations damning Sanders with the faintest praise by “not contending the moral character of the two men is comparable.” While “Sanders’s is clearly superior,” Gerson acknowledged, that’s only “clearing an ankle-high bar.” Really?

A guy who risked his life for African-American civil rights and consistently swam upstream against legislative groupthink follies like The Patriot Act and Iraq War is morally wanting? A youngster in Indiana was once so impressed by Sanders’ courage he penned an award-winning essay about him. Inspiring future Presidential contenders doesn’t strike me as bottom feeding in the morals department. Any comparison of Sanders to Trump on that subject is ugly slander, but no more than equating Sanders’ bloc of partisans to the MAGA wretched core. While both groups share a disdain for reasonable compromise, only one’s bigotry and incredible ignorance spawned our current pestilence.

Sanders has come to his formidable position atop the Democratic heap as honestly as one could expect. He’s done the work and created a genuine grass roots base of support. That his nomination – really in the works since 2016 – suddenly horrifies the party establishment speaks to their lazy delusions more than any sudden populist wave his candidacy is riding. He is saying nothing now he wasn’t holding forth on in 2016. Mayor Pete wrote eloquently as a lad about his hero’s disregard for conventional rigidity. Now, two decades later, within the throes of 1600 Penn. fever, Sanders’ past support of the Sandinistas, and abidance of Castro, is on a par with Trump’s disgusting embrace of MBS and Erdogan? News flash mayor, back in the early 80’s, if you had a major problem with overthrowing Somoza in Nicaragua, your running buddies were Bill Casey and Ollie North!

Whatever one thinks of Sanders’ chances in November, he is getting the votes right now. Acknowledging that reality means the other candidates have two options…. that is if they care about defeating Trump. The first is to get their minds around a Sanders nomination and work with him on broadening his message to reassure jittery centrists. Rather than a revolutionary, get him to adopt the “classic FDR Democrat“ brand. While focusing the message on economic fairness and a stronger government role guaranteeing it, stop with the scorched earth attacks on the upper brackets. Above all, present a united front, a team of rivals confronting the greatest threat to America since the Civil War.

The other course of action, adopted in the belief a Sanders-led ticket will be disastrous, is to take one for the team and coalesce around one moderate capable of denying Sanders enough delegates to discredit any argument a wide open convention reflects a rigged primary process. Whether or not the Berners will support anybody else isn’t near as important as whether the process overtly justifies their worst suspicions; that will fracture the party. Should he come into the summer considerably short of the magic number, only zealots can claim the issue has already been decided.

So will it be plan A or B? Incredibly, it’s a resounding “neither” for the foreseeable future. Just like Kasich, Rubio, Cruz and company, the current group reserves the right to indulge their own delusions of grandeur. Elizabeth Warren – she of the lowering single digits – would rather throw haymakers and interrupt at will than move in either direction. When asked whether she’d consider throwing in the towel to strengthen somebody else, Amy Klobuchar literally sneered at the suggestion. And Buttigieg? He’s still contesting Iowa while claiming Nevada was rigged. Son, 25 plus points is a lot of rigging.

Bloomberg can do what he wants because money isn’t a concern. Trending in South Carolina, Joe Biden will surely claim to be the comeback kid with a Palmetto state victory. Point is absolutely nobody is considering anything but the latest polling data and ad buys. The future of the nation? Uh, yea… sure thing. Meanwhile, don’t start praying for St. Bernie just yet. Faced with fierce and some downright scurrilous attacks, with claims his crusade resembles a different shade of destructive populism, Sanders has responded by….. beginning to resemble a destructive populist. Instead of “fake news” it’s “the media establishment.” Rather than “liberal elites,” it’s the “corporate interests.” Instead of just “us,” it’s “us versus them.” Sanders is sounding increasingly disinterested in unifying much of anything, least of all the party he’ll desperately need in November.

A year ago the grave consensus among Democrats was 2020 would be unlike any election in American history. Since that time we’ve witnessed a disintegration of responsible US government at the whim of an unhinged maniac. But something funny happened on the way to the convention; our prospective saviors forgot about their duty. Like Frodo, who when he finally reaches the ledge over the molten abyss, and prepares to toss the ring into its hellish depths, suddenly forgets his purpose while entranced by the lure of its power, these pols seem to have forgotten why they’re here. They better remember soon or ruin is nigh. Pass me a perc; my back is killing me! BC

My father was always loath to give me praise. I never really understood the reasons, but settled on the notion he simply never wanted me to get too big for my britches. Since his reticence to offer compliments forced me to generally talk up my achievements as a coping strategy, a convenient circular process was established. I boasted to him hoping for more of his favor, which he then withheld so I wouldn’t crow as much. Nice.

Anyway, once when I presented him with a near flawless report card from UNH, figuring he couldn’t possibly find anything to stifle at least a mini proper, he shook his head and chuckled. Uh oh. Why would I need all of these classes on authoritarians, he wondered aloud. “Hmmm, totalitarian political thought. Jeez, Willie, you live in the US. What the hell do you have to worry about?” Indeed.

If Wednesday’s Democratic Presidential debate achieved anything, and believe me that’s a reach one has to think on, it confirmed beyond reasonable doubt government by Chuck Todd would reflect only marginal improvement over the Hannity Presidency we now suffer. Make no mistake, whatever notes NBC has been taking as to the media’s rightful responsibilities, or the precarious balance between abiding truth and searching out news in the MAGA era, Todd and company clarified it has absorbed all the wrong lessons.

That this was the first debate since PBS legend Jim Lehrer’s death proves God does provide bread crumbs along our wayward path; what we do with them is up to us. Or, perhaps as the great journalist H.L. Mencken observed: “God is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.“ At least we are all spared the worry of ever mistaking Chuck Todd for his predecessor Tim Russert. After Wednesday’s performance Todd is more toward calling Jerry Springer a peer.

To be fair from the outset, there are no easy answers for navigating the uncharted territory this Presidency carves out. American journalism as an institution, its foundations and traditions, now faces dilemmas only authoritarians can confer. It has had zero practice confronting such existential concerns here at home. Whatever it learned covering the same abroad surely loses something in the translation. Balancing “the story” and a dedication to truth, even as a President and vast legions of propagandists subservient to him lie at will, is like treating cancer; there is going to be trial and error involved, mistakes along the way…. and side effects. Yet and still, refusing to acknowledge the challenge even exists, and planning formats for events as important as Wednesday’s, in line with such willful obtuseness is flat out malpractice.

It’s hard to imagine exactly how Todd and his fellow panelists envisioned their role, or what they felt was to be achieved, following the format all employed and line of questioning they pursued. One thing is certain, Mr. Meet The Press in particular was wholly unconcerned with applying the differences between candidates he questioned in Nevada to the constant stream of unprecedented chaos originating in the White House. The only context he cared about was whatever grudge matches he could stir up on stage.

As Democrats squared off with the fate of American democracy at stake, the notion of perhaps exploring whether unity may be important to unseating an incumbent who will surely spin his 20,000th fabrication by Election Day was never entertained by the moderators, Todd least of all. The idea of asking whether finding common ground now may actually aid one of them in November was obviously given not even a passing thought. Instead, the bent they sought to create was that of a reality show, ambitious policy nerds ready to put the knife in if ambition called for it. Really not much different from The Apprentice boardroom of past NBC prime time glory. Desperate survivors trying to stay on the island by casting doubt about those currently holding sway. Lord of the Flies comes to Vegas!

The impression the debate left was, not comical, but not serious either. A bunch of squabbling about policy details that go back to the beginning of this slog, peppered with settling of scores and introducing a neophyte to his limitations as a savior. When Todd wasn’t losing control of the proceedings, he was luxuriating in the inanity of it all. Presidential politics as sport, or pro wrestling…. right up his alley.

But yet again, to be as fair as one can be, the candidates required precious little prodding to get started on one another. In fact, it’s doubtful, had one asked Elizabeth Warren whether the sun comes up in the East, as Mayor Pete suggested, she wouldn’t have poo pooed the assertion as just more consultantspeak. She certainly wasn’t interested in talking about Trumpian pestilence, other than as a pro forma intro or afterthought. After all, she had a campaign to rescue!

But, in a time of crisis, Todd’s propensity to ask questions like he already knows the answer has never been more annoying. Broader implications past polling and recent sound bites never interested him much. Wednesday’s performance mirrored that vacuum he and the entire NBC team seem to feel should always consume inquiries. In other words, what does pardoning white collar felons willy nilly have to do with the price of copays. Or wholesale purges within the foreign policy and intelligence communities? An unhinged President without advisors. Not worth a mention? Nothing to see there? At least nothing worth shaving time from cat fights or brawls over convention rules.

In a time of national crisis three paramount concerns seem exceedingly reasonable: 1) our leaders recognize the emergency exists; 2) they make some effort to place the national interest ahead of personal ambitions, sacrificing the latter in service to the former; and 3) they actually lead and tell things straight. even if it’s not what their constituents want to hear. Should they stray from such parameters, well, that’s where a robust media is supposed to ask for explanations as to why they are doing so.

Wednesday evening the Democratic Presidential candidates utterly failed to meet that basic criteria. Worse, their wanton disregard was, not merely encouraged by those we rely on to hold them to account, it was demanded! Fox/AM has always fallen back on false equivalence when it’s most egregious sins are brought to light. That is, so maybe we did it, the mainstream media does it all the time. Ditto now for Trump and his GOP’s most indefensible outrages – what about Obama?! The degree to which Democrats and/or, say NBC debate moderators, help to donate credibility to such tropes mirrors our descent into the authoritarian abyss. Wednesday night’s debacle was ugly confirmation of that observation. The codependency of ruin. BC