One Citizen Speaking

THE COVID-19 PANIC PEDDLERS

Sorry, no new news to report …

It seems the politicized panic peddlers continue to deliberately sensationalize non-news for the purpose of generating an audience.

My favorites include dramatic charts based on misleading metrics such as the increase in the number of “confirmed” cases, which is expected to dramatically rise in proportion to increases in testing. Very rarely do the pundits point out that this says nothing about the penetration of the disease into the community because the majority of people have not been tested, and those who were tested were likely to have been pre-screened and present with severe symptoms. Likewise, there is no real determination of the cause of death in those who are much older and have serious underlying conditions. Some suggest that a good proportion of these individuals would have died by yearend.

Then there are the dramatic pleas for additional ventilators and personal protective gear.

Like the New York “resident” doctor quoted in the Atlantic who claimed…

“Every day, in our hastily assembled COVID-19 unit, I put on my gown, face shield, three sets of gloves, and N95 respirator mask, which stays on for the entirety of my 12-hour shift, save for one or two breaks for cold pizza and coffee. Before the pandemic, I would wear a new mask for every new patient. Not now. There are not enough to go around. The bridge of my nose is raw, chapped, and on the verge of bleeding. But I consider myself one of the lucky ones. My hospital still has a supply of masks—albeit a dwindling one—to protect me and my colleagues.”

“Nevertheless, we need to perform an alarming number of of intubations. Our ventilators are almost all in use, and the ICUs are at capacity. Although our hospital has received extra vents here and there from other hospitals in the region that can spare them, those few additions are merely a stopgap. Will we soon have patients sharing vents? We wouldn’t be the first hospital to attempt that unusual and suboptimal practice, which gained traction after the Las Vegas shooting, when scores of young trauma patients were vented in pairs. But these COVID-19 patients have delicate lungs, which makes vent-sharing far more dangerous. Nevertheless, we’ve already started studying the mechanics of how to make this happen, as a last-ditch effort.: <Source>

Of course, The Atlantic has a known bias against the President and his Administration as do a significant number of media outlets in New York. Truth does not seem to matter as much as being first with a breaking story or attracting or retaining that revenue-generating audience.

Contrast that with the statement of the Governor of New York with presidential aspirations, Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo denies any shortages at the current time and that his requests for additional equipment are based on projections supplied by epidemiological models, which may or may not come true. Moreover, when President Trump pointed out that Cuomo has a stockpile of ventilators,  Cuomo admitted it was true, insisting that no hospital has called for them to be released. With 6,000 ventilators in stock and less than 2,000 people in state intensive care units, the claims seem wildly exaggerated or deliberately misleading.

And, then there are the hysterical unsourced stories filled with anecdotes and pictures of nurses wearing garbage bags over their protective gear.

Would the media deliberately exaggerate the news of an emergency?

As a newsman struggles heroically against the wind, widen the shot to see two guys strolling by.

How deep? Keep that shot tight!

Anderson Cooper – In Danger? Not so much.

Danger! Virus!

Show me the emergency memo that authorized this practice.

Explain this … "Another nurse described 'issues with supplies for about a year now,' during which it got 'to the point where we had to hide our own supplies and go to other units looking for stuff because even the supply room would have nothing most of the time.'”

If this supply issue pre-dated the emergence of the coronavirus, what does that say for the hospital inspectors like JACHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations), a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501 organization that accredits more than 22,000 US health care organizations and programs? Or the Division of Hospitals and Diagnostic and Treatment Centers of the New York State Department of Health? Or the hospital administrator? Or the doctors and nurses? Or the extremely vocal, politically active 1199SEIU (Service Employees International Union), which represents tens of thousands of hospital-based members who work throughout the mega-health systems in New York? Or is this a stunt to dramatize the need for supplies to meet a projected crisis.

What science actually shows…

A view through the microscope…

That’s right! House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is partly to blame.

Where was the Adam Schiff and the House Intelligence Committee when our intelligence agencies were telling us something terrible was happening in China? Working on impeaching the President on nonsensical and nonexistent grounds.

Where was the House Subcommittee on Health whose jurisdiction includes public health and quarantine; hospital construction; mental health; biomedical research and development; health information technology, privacy, and cybersecurity; public health insurance (Medicare, Medicaid) and private health insurance; medical malpractice and medical malpractice insurance; the regulation of food, drugs, devices, cosmetics, and tobacco (the Food and Drug Administration); drug abuse; the Department of Health and Human Services; the National Institutes of Health; the Centers for Disease Control; Indian Health Service; and all aspects of the above-referenced jurisdiction related to the Department of Homeland Security?

Bottom line…

Not even worthwhile watching the mainstream media or most cable news programs that are mostly commentary and fake news.

This, too, shall pass. Hopefully, the Democrats will be held accountable for their misfeasance and malfeasance and some Republicans for their fecklessness and lack of cojones.

We are so screwed.

-- steve

THE SENATE GOP IS DEAD

I was under the impression that the GOP had a majority in the United States Senate and leadership strong enough to control squishy RINO (Republican In Name Only) aisle-hoppers who were eager to assist the opposition, the progressive socialist democrats, in fulfilling their agenda. You know, Senators who cannot be trusted with the core principles of the GOP, like Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Mitt Romney (R-UT), and others.

What are – I should say were – those core principles?

• Uphold the prime directive in their Oath of Office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
• To protect the sovereignty, safety, and security of the United States of America and its citizens.
• To advance the cause of liberty, freedom, and inalienable rights.
• To limit the size of the federal government and slow the increasing federalization of powers that belong to the states or “We the People.”
• To limit profligate spending and prioritize spending on those items which benefit the pursuit of constitutional mandates rather than the interests of special interests or self-serving politicians.
• To limit taxation so that individuals can control more of their own destiny and grow the U.S. economy rather that allow political pandering and vote purchasing with “pork” projects.
• To reduce the number of confusing and conflicting rules and regulations which unknowingly criminalize almost every aspect of human life and existence in some way.
• To promote individualism, self-sufficiency, and resiliency over the collective “nanny” state.

At least that is what I thought were the GOP’s core principles. But I was wrong.

It appears that the purpose of the GOP is to legitimize the ideology of the progressive socialist democrats while securing their portion of the pork-barrel spending. In essence, creating and marketing an illusory brand that keeps the professional political class in power. Gone are the days when politicians would put the nation over their own political ambitions. Gone are the days when politicians, on both sides of the aisle, would stand up and yell ENOUGH! Gone are the days when you can trust most politicians with the power of governance and the integrity to ignore the mainstream media.

With the Senate authoring and passage of the $2 TRILLION coronavirus emergency bill – in reality, $6 TRILLION when you consider the Federal Reserve’s creation of more fiat money – the Senate has proven a poor and irresponsible steward of the public treasury as well as a feckless deliberative body that was in thrall to the slim majority of progressive socialist democrats in the House of Representatives.

The GOP, or at least the GOP I voted for, is DEAD.

It appears that the most ardent advocate of the old GOP is one, Donald John Trump, an accidental president who has risen to the demands of his office in spite of the near continual attack by the progressive socialist democrats and the mainstream media. He appears to be guided more by the motto “Do the Right Thing at the Right Time” than a core political ideology. There is nobody, in the modern history of the United States, who has the stamina and courage to face the worst of the opposition – including some members of this own party – and still do right by the American citizen.

Bottom line…

Collegiality be damned. The idea of one Senator referring to an opposition Senator as "My friend or colleague from the Great State of Misery" should be mothballed. There should be no restriction on a Senator rising and calling out the evil son-of-a-bitch from [insert state here].

When I consider that former President Barack Obama and his cadre of socialist/communists betrayed the nation… When I consider that the Democrats have proposed a corrupt liar like Hillary Clinton – and now a corrupt liar like Joe Biden – for the highest office in the land, without significant push-back from the GOP… And, when I see the GOP Senate vote for a massive bill that they have not read and are too scared to fight passage because it hands out goodies to those voting in 2020….  I am sickened and have every reason to believe the GOP is dead.

It appears that the only Republican with the cojones to stand up for the Constitution was Representative Thomas Massie R-KY) who demanded a quorum, which meant the House needed 216 representatives to vote, even by voice -- and a recorded vote on the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package. His comment "I came here to make sure our republic doesn’t die by unanimous consent in an empty chamber” was spot on. And condemned by virtually every elected Member of Congress for attempting to "delay the vote" even though Nancy Pelosi took her vacation. 

I am disappointed that President Trump called him a "third-rate grandstander" while former Secretary of State John Kerry called him an asshole. Kerry's comment, "Breaking news: Congressman Masse has tested positive for being an asshole,” Kerry tweeted. “He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity. He’s given new meaning to the term #Masshole." 

Funny, Trump is celebrating this bill as a YUGE success, the biggest spending bill in human history ever passed.

We are so screwed.

-- steve