Morning Coffee with Dan - The Red Beating Heart of Freedom and Democracy

As I am sipping a cup of reheated coffee this morning, I am thinking about the notion of a free and independent press. A friend of mine posted excerpts from a presentation by Dan Rather yesterday where he talked about the vital role of the press and, among other things, said a free and independent press is “the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.”

It is no secret that I am not a big fan of FOX and believe it is furthest possible representation of their retired motto- Fair and Balanced - as you could get. I used to suppress the urge to vomit every time I heard or read it. If I try to be objective, not an easy path for an avowed progressive like myself, I am willing to concede that news, like any entertainment, should offer a full spectrum of options. Nobody wants to only watch sci fi movies just as no thinking person (well, most, anyway) want a single viewpoint on their information spectrum. We need to be challenged on a regular basis to stay mentally engaged. I should add that news should be factual even if representing a specific point on the political spectrum, not a misrepresentation of reality merely to score position points.

What troubles me in the current environment is the incestuous relationship that has developed between the right-wing media, specifically FOX, and the current administration. I read that there are 21 people who have worked both in the administration and FOX. Cheeto has hired a dozen former FOX employees to work in key positions in his administration. I should add that I am just as concerned about this pollution of the swamp water as I am about the 26 executives from Goldman Sachs who are or were in the current administration or other key government positions. It is hard to believe that their lineage doesn’t influence government policy on behalf of the ‘rich and famous.’ I would be hard pressed to imagine a former GS executive advocating an increase in the food stamp program.

If you are concerned about corruption in the government, especially in an administration that has systematically disemboweled the Inspector General independent oversight functions across the board, we ought to be concerned about the dilution of a free and independent press. To quote Hugo Black, “Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.” I frequently hear that CNN and MSNBC are hardly ‘fiercely independent” either. I’m sure that is probably true, but when has Cheeto called Rachel Maddow at night on a regular basis to get her take on violence in the street or Post Office reform? I am sure Wolf Blitzer’s and Anderson Cooper’s phones are not ringing off the hook from the White House to get their take on events. I wonder how many former employees of MSNBC occupy key positions in the administration. I also wonder how many hours every morning Cheeto spends watching CNN or calling-in to their morning shows?

The Project on Excellence in Journalism several years back reported that almost 70% (68%) of the news from FOX contained personal opinions vs 27% from MSNBC and 4% from CNN. Let’s face it, FOX pushes misinformation every day because their viewers lap it up like a bulldog eating filet mignon. If their right-wing viewers demanded a higher standard FOX would offer it. It is a business, you know. Unfortunately, when you only get your news from one source, you have no arbiter of accuracy or a comparison of content. I guess, among a variety of reasons, there is a demand for fact checkers, but I’m not sure the avowed FOX viewer avails himself of this option very often.

On that note I am throwing a crumpet in the toaster over to go with my next cup of joe.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Get Ready for the Election Assault

As I sip my reheated java this morning I am getting my psyche ready for the bullshit that is about to be launched masquerading as an election dialog. The next 89 days will see an increasing number of personal attacks and a decreasing number of policy proposals to move the country ahead.

Here is my top 10 list of the attack themes we are seeing or will see in the coming weeks coming from the right wing sausage machine:
1. Kamala Harris is not ‘black enough.’ Her mother was from India, and her father was from Jamaica, so she isn’t really “African American,’ but some hybrid. Really guys? The party of white males is assessing diversity. She could be from Mars and would not be 'green' enough.
2. Kamala Harris is ineligible for VP role because she is not an American citizen. Neither of her parents were U.S. citizens when she was born in Oakland, CA. Another bogus ‘birther controversy’ a la Obama? Why are we wasting time on this one except to scrape a few votes from the lunatic fringe? No credible constitutional expert is even dignifying this assertion.
3. Kamala Harris doesn’t have enough experience to be the VP. She only has one partial term as a U.S. Senator. I guess being a District Attorney in Oakland, CA and Attorney General in the largest state in the union, in addition to being a U.S. Senator is not enough. Let’s remember Cheeto never served one day in an elected position when he started, which shows every day.
4. Biden and the Democrats will lead this country into socialism as they destroy our capitalistic heritage. How many times have you heard this one? The top 1% love the status quo, but the other 99% of us see much opportunity for improvement. Remember, virtually every significant social advance this country occurred under the Democrats, e.g., Medicare, Social Security, Child labor laws, Voting rights, etc. It is total scare tactic to defend a system that needs a lot more work.
5. Biden and the Democrats support a lawless agenda and will disband the police of this country. This could take more than one day to examine. Suffice it to say, “defund” is a red flag word for reforming and restructuring many of the law enforcement agencies that have gone awry and need to be improved for ALL citizens of this country.
6. “Sleepy Joe” lacks the mental acuity to be President. Really? This is coming from a President who biggest mental accomplishment is remembering “person, woman, man, camera, TV.” Instead of being congratulated for overcoming a speech impediment, Biden is mocked by the insensitive on the right who can’t hold a candle to his history of accomplishments.
7. Joe Biden and the Democrats will sell out the country to China. “Beijing Biden” is too chummy with the Chinese. This is coming from a President who is having an affair with Putin and is so beholding to the Russians that he won’t even challenge the bounties for allied soldiers scheme perpetrated by the Russians. I’ll skip over the part where Cheeto was embracing the Chinese and North Koreans when he thought it would win him votes and increase his personal wealth.
8. The Democrats will destroy middle class neighborhoods by allowing slum development everywhere in suburbia. This assault on Fair Housing is a classic right wing scare tactic. All the progressives of this country want is to ensure the terms of the Fair Housing Act prevent systemic racism in patterns of housing. Since when is treating people fairly a crime?
9. Joe Biden will take God out of our culture and disrespect our religious heritage. This is almost laughable from a President who can’t even recite a verse from the bible and holds it upside down in pictures. Joe Biden has been a practicing Catholic his entire life and regularly attends church. He further believes faith without action is unacceptable, unlike an incumbent we know.
10. A potpourri of red button issues that he will pull out of his lower anatomy like “he wants to take away your guns,” he wants to “let anyone enter the country without restrictions,” “the election is rigged because of voter fraud,” “the ACA is broken,” “the progressives want abortion on demand” and on and on. There will be no platform of ideas to move the country ahead but will be replaced by red button issue attacks that add nothing to the political narrative of this country except hate and divisiveness. Fiction will dominate over facts - be ready.

I hope you are ready to confront your right-wind Fox news junkies because it is coming. Trump is without morals and truth has always been MIA.

On that note I am heating the toaster oven for my bagel.

Morning Coffee with Dan - The Road to Authoritarianism

As I am nursing a hot cup of coffee this morning I am very dismayed about a low profile news item that probably slipped under the radar of most news followers yesterday. It involved the resignation of Kyle Murphy, a senior analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Mr. Kyle resigned after a decade in the agency including assignments at the White House on the staff of the National Security Agency during the transition of the Presidency from President Obama to Trump. Murphy also experienced the fiasco at Lafayette Square first-hand when he was tear gassed during peaceful assemblies in the city.

What is disturbing are his observations in his letter of resignation from his post. He said, "I lost faith in the courage of the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to refuse unlawful orders from the President. They effectively labeled me and other Americans expressing our views in a peaceful assembly as enemies." He further observed that, "I have seen up close the president’s disdain for democratic values, and recent events should be put in the context of a continuous slide toward authoritarianism."

In his role as a senior analyst he observed political and military senior policymakers around the globe. As he stated, "part of my job was to observe whether foreign governments protected their national security services from politicization and whether they committed abuses against their own populations. These are critical measures of the health of a democracy, and failures not only disqualify countries from U.S. partnership but also can be a warning sign that a country may play a destabilizing role in the world. In the context of today's events he sees see grave similarities between events in our country and the processes by which autocratic leaders have brought their countries to the brink of civil conflict and beyond.

We could easily dismiss Mr. Murphy's resignation as another of a thousand disgruntled employees having one more "shot at the boss' on the way out the door' which, in fact, may be, in part, his motivation. However, he was in a unique position to compare and contrast our government's behavior against other governments from an objective fact gathering perspective in his role as an intelligence gathering analyst. His observations are very scary and should be food for thought in assessing the downward slide of Cheeto's regime as well as a warning about the escalation of actions he may take to retain power as the election nears and he tries to avoid the consequences of defeat. We are at a turning point in history and need to confront the reality of parallels between what is happening here and what has happened many times throughout the world.

On this unnerving warning from Mr. Murphy, I am continuing to re energize myself with more caffeine this morning.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Is Vote by Mail that Much of a Challenge?

As I sip my java this morning, I am troubled by the inconsistencies in the whole Post Office fiasco.

First of all, Cheeto said on Wednesday that the USPS does not have enough funding to manage a vote by mail surge if states went to vote by mail. He than said he will not release the funds to increase their capability to be successful. To quote Cheeto, "They don't have the money to do the universal mail-in voting. So therefore, they can't do it, I guess," Let's see, if you have the capability to fix the problem and refuse to do so, what is inference of that? Maybe I want to underwrite failure because I cannot win reelection if too many people vote. Of course if I keep talking about failure, I will scare off those that would like to do mail in voting during the pandemic which is just as good as a mythical failure that I keep talking about.

What I don't understand about the who mail issue are the numbers. The USPS handles 472 million pieces of mail every day. There were about 158 million registered voters in the 2016 election. If every one voted (wouldn't that be grand), that is still about one third of the mail handled every day by the post office. BTW, the USPS handles about 15 billion, yes with a "B" at Christmas. Why the hell would mail-in ballots be much of a hill for a high stepper like the USPS? I would think the Post Office workers would make the vote by mail as success just to spite him, hoping that a change in the presidency would bode well for their future.

As I said in an earlier post, Cheeto has multiple issues here, including his dispute with Jeff Bezos, and in his petty way, is determined to "take his ball" and stop playing the game. Putting a party loyalist as the chief Post Office assassin raises the stakes in this game to a new high. But you know what? His lemmings in congress won't do a damn thing and we, the taxpayers, will watch a respected organization like the USPS go down the tubes until the Democrats win back the Presidency and Congress. This, like many other institutions Cheeto has disemboweled, will take years to straighten out again.

I'm off to a second cup this morning accompanied by my fresh bagels.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Life as an "Odar"

As I sip my coffee waiting for my bagel to defrost from the freezer, I am feeling a little philosophical this morning, especially about relationships.

I read a very sad article about a couple left 'adrift' in the world. Lital, a health professional from Israel and Vinas, an IT professional from Iran met in Turkey a few years back and had an instant connection and fell in love. Unfortunately, they cannot live in either of their home countries (Iran or Israel) because of the political relationship between their countries. Their passports do not allow them to get resident status in any country, so they remain adrift trying to live their lives together - they were married in 2019. They have an asylum request filed in Cyprus but that is a lengthy and uncertain process. They can't get employment because of their resident status, so they are adrift merely trying to find a place to live. All they want is a place to be together and eventually raise a family.

So much of history seems to be replete with similar stories of couples being blocked from pursuing a life together because of 'artificial' or man-made rules standing in the way. I remember growing-up in an Irish Catholic family where it would have been unthinkable to marry a person 'outside the faith.' Similar prohibitions exist in many religions - I have Jewish friends who would never marry outside the faith. Try imagining a Muslim marring a Christian ( or worse yet a Jew) in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. In our society we can overcome most of these obstacles if we opt for a civil union outside the theological blessing of our religion. Of course you risk the likelihood that you will be ostracized or even disowned by the family.

If these barriers aren't enough, try thinking about the challenges of same-sex relationships and marriages. In some countries you can be executed merely for being gay, so you can figure where getting married sits on the scale of possibilities. My thinking on the topic is pretty simple. We are on this earth for 70 to 80 years on the average - a very, very short time in the scheme of time. Why should we not have equal access to happiness? There is no warmer personal feeling than that of being with someone you love and cherish with all your heart. Should you be denied that feeling because of some imposed rule made up by someone or a group that has no business telling you how to live your life? Are you harming anyone living your life as you want?

I am reminded that when I met my lovely Armenian wife I was in the Armenian world an "Odar," which means outsider. I am sure in a historical context it would have been inconceivable for Josh to have a relationship with an 'odar' much less marry one. Fortunately, customs have evolved, and we joke today about my status as an odar. I can project, however, and think about how we would have felt if we were adrift in the world, and I couldn't be with the person I love because I was an odar and had no place to live and raise a family just like every other human being.

On that note, I will continue to think about life over another cup of coffee.

Morning Coffee with Dan - By all Means, Let's not Offend Vlad

As I make a fresh pot of DD coffee this morning, I am circling back to an issue that is very troubling to me - Russian bounties for allied soldiers.

I find is indefensible on any level that Trump cannot acknowledge that the protection of our military forces should be a key priority as Commander-in- Chief of the U.S. Military. Aside from his duty to protect this country and it citizens, I can think on no higher priority. As an officer trainee in the Air Force, it was drilled into our training that we, as future officers, had an obligation and responsibility to ensure the welfare of our troops. It was a welcome to the world of the nonnegotiable.

If Cheeto can find time to promote Goya so a key donor feels loved, and he can find time to waste on attacking TikTok, and, of course play many rounds of golf, he sure as hell can spend time acknowledging zero tolerance for threats against the U.S. military. In the six weeks or so since the revelations came to light, he has had more than ample opportunity to address the issue with his best buddy, Vlad. Let's remember that Cheeto had a phone call with Vlad on July 23rd, a full month after the Russian bounty reports were revealed. Of course, in an act of inexcusable neglect, he never broached the topic with Vlad.

The bullshit that he was not aware of the Russian program or did not find the information credible is unadulterated bullshit. First of all there in an inherent contradiction in the two positions. You can't find something not credible if you don't know about it. Setting that aside, the U.S. briefed its NATO allies about the problem months ago. Three NATO officials confirmed they were briefed. Do you think we would be doing high-level briefings about Russian military actions without the administration being aware?

I am of the belief that Cheeto is going to play a waiting game on this embarrassment. If he ignores it long enough and throws his normal daily distraction bones to the press, the issue will fade away and he won't have to confront his boss,Vlad, about the problem. We must not let him off the hook on this one. His obligations as Commander-in-Chief demands action.

On this note I am having a crumpet with my coffee this morning.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Hypocrisy is Not a Lost Art

As I enjoy a quiet cup of coffee on this Sunday morning, the word, "hypocrisy" comes to mind. Cheeto's latest executive order, restoring benefits to those impacted by the Coronavirus, brings this to mind. Not that I object to his action since it is unlikely his Republican lemmings will do anything as long at the Turtle is sitting on the legislation, but it is the hypocrisy of the behavior that sticks in my craw.

When Barack Obama was president, Republicans and their state supported TV network would howl every time Obama signed an Executive Order. You remember the accusations, "King Obama," "he's overstepping his bounds", "he is acting like a dictator", "he doesn't know how to negotiate", and on and on. One of the biggest mouths on national news was Donald Trump. Hmm, looky, looky who has surpassed President Obama in executive orders - Benito Trump.

Through June, Cheeto has signed about 164 executive orders compared to something like 147 for all of Obama's first term. Where is the howl from the right about abuse of power? The silence is almost deafening. Oh, that's right, I forgot Cheeto's pet Corgi, Lindsey Graham, who said yesterday that he wished Congress had passed an extension of the Hero's Act and not done through Executive Order. Well, Graham Cracker, what do you expect when the Turtle sits on the legislation for three months? The Democratic House passed an extension three months ago. I guess the Republicans in the Senate think it is more important to have their weekend recess than to do their jobs of looking after the citizens of this country.

The street is littered with the hypocrisy of the right when it comes to President Obama. Should we talk about Trump's oft repeated statement that Obama takes too much time off to play golf? Should we talk about Obama taking too many vacations? Maybe President Obama wasn't aggressive enough in 2014 with the Ebola outbreaks and failed to provide "leadership" when two people died? Really? How about 160,000 at last count from COVID-19! My stomach aches at the hypocrisy, and wonder if these numb nuts realize that much of this crap is on videotape or archived online? Unfortunately, the base wouldn't recognize the hypocrisy if were covered with strawberries and served for breakfast.

I think it is time to have more coffee and move on to more uplifting topics to brood about before I really get pissed.

Morning Coffee with Dan - No Long Term Lease for Mankind

As I savor my fresh coffee this morning I am thinking about mortality - not mine, but mankind in general. I suspect some of y'all may not be on board with where I am going so just consider it food for thought.

We watch a lot of the history channel and are fascinated with the apparent sophistication of earlier civilizations, especially their mysterious demise, e.g., Mayans, Indus Valley, Easter Island etc. In a larger sense I wonder if there was a parallel civilization on earth with a high degree of 'sophistication' and technology that maybe rivaled our own and also "disappeared' perhaps 'self destructed.' It seems that 'mankind' whatever that concept means is inclined to accept or promote the seeds of its own destruction. If perpetuation of mankind were a primary goal, it seems like we could and would do a better job at pursuing behavior and policies that would support that end.

Our pursuit of short term objectives without regard for the environment and preservation of our natural resources is one example which comes to mind. I use the term 'finite' very deliberately. We can can argue with size of the reservoir, but it is definitely not infinite. How long can we pollute the oceans and foul the land before it is uninhabitable? Perhaps less quantifiable are behaviors. How long do we survive if we keep killing each other off with planes and bombs as opposed to cooperation to pool our resources and energy to 'level the playing field.' We have enough nuclear weapons in storage all over the place to level the earth several times over. The explosion in Beirut should remind us of the possibility of one our nuclear silos going poof.

Of course, that concept of global cooperation would be labeled 'socialism' or some other heinous adjective designed to eschew a cooperative world order so I won't go there today.

On a micro level, I am distressed to see issues that are 'locally' self-destructive masquerading with names like freedom of choice or individual rights but are essentially destructive in nature. The current pandemic comes to mind. Something like 30% of the population is going to pursue their own ends and the rest of us be damned because nobody is going to tell them how to behave. So, beaches will be packed and news conferences will be attended and people will breathe on each other and fill the room with coughing without protection, and it will be labeled 'that's the way it is." Someday, we might have a 'real' pandemic that could wipe us out in short period of time, just like the scifi movies. How will we behave then?

I'm not convinced we have a long-term lease on this earth - long-term in astronomical terms, so maybe societies come and go like in some cyclical fashion. But why speed up our demise with self-destructive behavior? The only answer I can intuit is that we make choices to live in the short-term, and are willing to accept the price of those choices because we won't be here in the 'long term.' Maybe it really doesn't matter in the long haul because the sun is eventually going to burn out if a meteor or super volcano doesn't get us first.

On that happy note, I am moving on this morning.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Neither rain, nor hail, nor sleet...

As I sip my reheated coffee this morning, I am pissed at another one of Trump's mismanagement forays - this time with the U.S. Post Office. After three days of receiving no mail, I realized that his tampering is having significant impact on our lifestyle.

Let's see, what can we screw with now to mess up the lives of average citizens? While I go wasting time attacking TikTok, millions of unemployed citizens face evictions and a food crisis because my lemmings in Congress are worried about the budget I fucked up with my ill-conceived tax reform. Maybe I'll distract them with my continuing attack on the post office and TikTok and they won't realize what a management disaster I am. A recent Gallup poll showed that 74% of Americans rate the post office as excellent or good as opposed to 60% for NASA or dare I say, 50% for the IRS.

Trump has already neutered the CDC because he "can't handle the truth," converted the Justice Department into his private law firm, put incompetents in charge of the Education, HHS, and Energy Departments, hallowed out the State Department, and converted half of Homeland Security into domestic Storm Troopers, and now has taken his feud with Jeff Bezos to a new level at the USPS.

Unfortunately, his party loyalist, Louis DeJoy, who is now 'running' the Post Office is committed to doing Cheeto's bidding in his campaign to screw-up the country before he loses the election. I'm not particularly upset that I don't receive the latest flyer from Burger King or Macy's, but when my medications from the VA are late, things can get pretty tense. 330,000 veterans receive prescriptions by mail EVERY DAY, so we are not talking about junk mail here. I don't know how many elderly and infirm depend on the mail for medications, but I bet it is at least equivalent to the VA numbers, not to mention checks and financial documents needed to survive on the Animal Farm.

In addition to his spat with Bezos, we know that Cheeto is trying to discredit mail service to blunt vote-by-mail efforts in many states - Florida excepted, in deference to their Red governor. It is pretty easy to discredit the service when you put an assassin in place to undermine the operation. When does all this shit stop? What are we going to attack next week? The National Weather Service because it rained when Cheeto wanted to play golf? The National Park Service because a bear shit in the woods? Can't we move up the election? I'm not a big fan of instability, and we sure as hell have enough to last awhile without creating more havoc.

On that note, I'm throwing a bagel into the toaster this morning.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Don't Worry, Be Happy

As I sip my fresh joe this morning, I am still pondering the implications of an article I posted yesterday ranking countries of the world in terms of the best places to raise a family. The authors used 30 data points from the 35 countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) because of the reliability of the data. Maybe not surprising for some, the U.S. finished in 34th place, one place ahead of last place Mexico.

It is kind of hard to fathom that your home country does not live up to your expectations, especially when you brag about living the “best country in the world.” As you might have guessed, the Nordic countries finished at the top of the list, lead by Iceland and followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Luxembourg. I might parenthetically add that this list is similar to the “happiest countries of the world” list that is published annually. I guess there is a logical relationship between happiness and feeling good about where you raise a family.

Why did we do so poorly? The authors focused on six categories to do their assessment – safety, happiness, cost, health, education, and time. We scored poorly in safety influenced by the high homicide rate per 100,000 in this country. I guess being ‘well-armed’ has its drawbacks. Human rights took a hit influenced by the safety fears by people of color, and we finished last in cost. We were twice as expensive as New Zealand, the country just ahead of us on the list. Childcare cost jumps out where we spend 5 to 7 times more than Scandinavian countries. Another surprise was that mothers are twice as likely to die of childbirth than in Canada, yet we spend three (3) times more for a standard childbirth in this country. On the topic of childbirth, we have zero government mandated paid maternity, paternity, sick, or vacation time, the ONLY country on the list without these benefits.

As I pondered the list, I thought to myself, is this not really about priorities? It is much like the previously mentioned ‘happiest countries list’ and what you choose to focus on. The Nordic countries put their priorities on “balance.” They are willing to fund a social net with their taxes which takes much of the worry out of life, e.g., healthcare, unemployment, education, topics that weigh heavily on our citizens. Nobody in these countries goes bankrupt because of health issues over which they have no control. I think it is safe to say that they also don’t spend half of their discretionary government budget on war - tanks, planes, and ships. I also suspect that the kids in their schools do not have shooter drills either. I guess when our homicide rate is at least 6X more than most countries on the list, it spills over to the children.

I will move on by simply harking back to my notion of priorities. We have the resources in this country to fund the kind of life that would move us to the top of any of these ‘best’ lists, but if our focus is on the avaricious pursuit of individual goals without regard for our social structure and environment, we have by default set our priorities. We continue to elect legislators who pass tax laws masquerading as reform when their objective is to move more dollars into the pockets of the wealthy at the expense of programs which will benefit working families. I suspect that some of my ‘friends’ may label me a ‘socialist,’ but my answer is ‘screw the labels’ and let’s focus on what is best for the families of this country, not the wealthy 1%. We have a limited time on this earth, should we not be happy and feel safe?

Enough of my soapbox this morning. I guess I need more caffeine and a crumpet.

Morning Coffee with Dan - We Have the Best Testing in the World

As I sip my coffee this morning, I again am shaking my head at Trump's comments yesterday. How can you lead in solving a problem if you are in denial about the problem or perhaps totally delusional about it?

During his interview yesterday with Axios his comments about the Coronavirus were actually borderline deranged. With a straight face he said, we have made "significant" advances and there are "very encouraging" signs while he also celebrated "plateauing" cases in sunbelt areas. This is in the face of the likelihood that 1,000 people a day will continue to die from the pandemic in the coming weeks. He had the audacity to suggest, "it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it." This is from a clown that only got on board with social distancing and face masks a little over a week ago.

Really, we are "doing everything we can to control it." How about testing, testing, testing? Not just testing but turnaround times that are not next to useless. If you have to wait a week to get results, what friggin' good are the results for contact tracing and isolation? "The U.S. had done a better job than many countries." I may vomit. I won't bore you with the statistics, but that statement is so detached from reality that my keyboard was fighting me while I typed it. With 5% of the world's population, we have 25% of the cases... and yet Cheeto says, "I think we are doing very well and I think ... as well as any nation."

I read that the administration was promoting a program where nursing homes were being provided with new Abbott automatic testers that can turnaround test results in a matter of minutes. Guess what? There are not enough test kits to test more than about 115 people per state. That's like selling a car without any gas. OK, I get the problem of "start-up" issues with any new program, but how about outlining some plans to address the situation and acknowledge that testing is still inadequate instead of touting our testing as the 'best tn the world.'

Isn't it about time the administration admitted that they totally mismanaged the pandemic and it was time to do a reset to address the problem with renewed vigor and resources? Using Pence and Kushner as point men in the management of the process is like asking an Irishman to lecture us on temperance while sitting on a bar stool. There may be some credibility issues here. The current strategy of criticizing Birx and Fauci every time they correct misstatements by the administration is a very, very, poor management process.

While I continue to shake my head, I'm going to pour another cup of coffee.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Vote by Mail

I guess I'll never understand my fellow citizens, at least some of them. Something to think about whilst enjoying fresh coffee this morning.

I saw a meme posted by a 'friend' on Facebook essentially saying that if we can stand in line at Walmart or Target, we should stand in line to vote, and we need to fight any effort to promote vote by mail. Needless to say, I gently suggested this post was crazy like POTUS. One well informed respondent suggested that I was advocating a way for the Democrats to 'steal another election.' Really, a right winger whose party has closed polling place in many Democratic districts, pushed stringent ID laws, gerrymandered the hell out of states like North Carolina and Ohio, and shortened voting hours thinks the Democrats are trying to 'steal an election?' I wish he would share some of the glue he is sniffing because it must be real high quality stuff.

I'm not going to get into the success the other five states who use vote by mail have experienced, or the infinitesimal rate of voter fraud, or the success we had in the military through absentee voting (by mail), I'm just going to suggest that the times dictate a better approach than Wisconsin showed us when voting in person during a pandemic. Let's face it, finding volunteers to staff polling precincts is difficult during normal times, I can't imagine that it is going to dramatically improve while thousands are being infected by the COVID-19. I have yet to hear a coherent argument why voting by mail is not a sound approach, other than Cheeto 'said so.'

This is another example of Cheeto using an issue which should be a 'no brainer,' like wearing face masks or social distancing, and using it as a polarizing opportunity. Of course, his flock of lemmings will jump on the issue claiming a political conspiracy while they await delivery of their prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine to arrive.

On that note, I am having another cup of joe.

Morning Coffee with Dan - I'm Fed Up

As I consume a fresh cup of java this morning, I confess that I just feel worn out. After almost four years of subterfuge and daily bullshit I have reached a saturation point. Frankly, I never thought I would arrive at a point where the first thing I check every morning are the news wires just to see if we still have a country, if we are all still here, and what outrageous things our fearless “leader” has said or done overnight.

In the last few months, I found some solace in penning a few news observations in the morning, AKA rants, mainly to release the steam of pent-up frustrations, and perhaps even a degree of fear. I often have a conversation with myself about wasting my time, but truth is that I find it better to vent than to hold-in my anger and let it seethe all day.

Every day seems like another opportunity to play a game of ‘diversion bingo’ (DV). Cheeto knows that by simply throwing out some outrageous tweet or press release he can change the narrative from something unpleasant or unflattering to whatever topic he wants to use as a distraction. Thursday was a prime example. We announced that we had the worst economic quarter since the great depression. Instead of addressing action or even mitigation needed to deal with this, he simply threw out the notion of delaying the election. Immediately, all the news cycles started running with a constitutional discussion of the legality of delaying elections. With the ease of a Twitter ‘send’ button, no more discussion about the economy. Every day is another merry go round of diversions some of which are very scary. DV is his favorite game.

I have reached a point where I am exhausted at the notion of another news cycle and dealing with one more day of bullshit. Am I alone? Do any of you get tired of:
- Having to ‘fact check’ every utterance from his mouth for a grain of validity or truth, only to find that it comes from his favorite source – his ass? I thought we moved on from hydroxychloroquine only to discover we have another alien motivated sex dream promoter pushing it.
- Reading about more childish behavior like moving presidential portraits of predecessors he does not like or is jealous of to obscure rooms in the White House or not even allowing the unveiling of Obama’s portrait?
- Trying to figure out what he is actually saying when most sentences are missing key parts of speech or are disjointed parts of a sentence cobbled together in some nonsensical way.
- Reading about how virtually every country in the world has lost respect for the leadership and integrity of our country,
- Wondering exactly what Vlad has over him which is the only way I can account for his acquiescence to Russia on every single issue, including sharing state secrets? As a veteran, I can't even fathom how we can skip over the “bounties for soldiers” program being propagated by our Russian buddies.
- His total lack of intellectual curiosity and situation awareness of the context of governance.
- Daily insults and name calling for what he perceives as a personal affront, but what most people accept as ‘part of the job.’
- The unmitigated hypocrisy, which is embarrassingly on constant display, e.g., I will be too busy to play golf, I know more about the middle east than our generals, I will drain the swamp, we have the best virus testing in the world, etc.
- The absence of a grain of humanity or humor in his personality. When has he ever had a humorous dialog with the press, like all his predecessors?

I find myself counting the days left in this administration and pray that I don’t lose my mind before November 3rd. In my wildest imagination I cannot conceive of another term under Cheeto. If I subscribed to the notion of purgatory, this would truly be ‘time served.’ In a moment of weakness I might suggest it is one more step beyond purgatory.

Thank you for being a captive audience for my lamentation this morning while I chomp on my last bagel from the freezer and wash it down with some Dunkin Donuts medium strength coffee.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Awakening from Another Suburban Nightmare

As I sip my java this morning, I am thinking about Trump's latest affirmation of his racial prejudice. The point in question is his decision to repeal the Obama's Fair Housing Rules.

It doesn't take a political genius to ascertain the motivation for his action in the face of declining poll numbers for the upcoming general election. Essentially, he is playing on the fears of the white suburban voter by suggesting that Joe Biden wants to "abolish the suburbs" and "end single family zoning," both assertions are, of course, pure Trump political horseshit.

The Obama rule passed in 2015 was known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule, or AFFH and was designed to strengthen the 1968 Fair Housing Act. In its simplest terms it required local communities who received Federal Housing money to assess the patterns of housing in their community to determine if there was discrimination and to develop plans to eliminate/minimize those patterns. It never had a chance for implementation since the Trump administration weakened implementation after he was elected in 2016.

What is telling about Cheeto are his tweets about the decision: "I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood." Of course, we know who the "people living their suburban lifestyle dream" are, don't we? The goal, of course, was never to build low income housing in the suburbia but to encourage zoning that addresses patterns of housing discrimination to better balance housing opportunities in the community. I would say admirable aspirations for an open and fair society.

It is interesting to note that the Justice Department sued the Trump family business in the early 1970s for housing discrimination at their family properties, so there is likely some animosity at play by Trump in his hostility to fair housing. Clearly, he is not a proponent of any program to improve diversity and balance in our communities, anymore than he is committed to combating systemic racism in the country. He thrives on divisiveness and driving a wedge between groups in our electorate.

I sadly move on to more joe this morning.

Morning Coffee with Dan - The Text Book on How to Mismanage a Crisis

As I savor my shortcut Kurig coffee this morning I am angry at the right wing management of the coronavirus relief bill. Such insensitivity is unprecedented.

While millions of American are suffering from economic devastation and thousands of our citizens keep dying, the Republican "relief" bill stuck-in $8 B for weapons systems procurement benefiting defense giants like Boeing, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics. Not to mention that it proposed to restore Defense Department cuts that were diverted to build Cheeto's great wall on our southern border. These clowns cry that the relief bill is too expensive and they cram this crap into the bill to trade on the times to push their personal agendas unrelated to the pandemic.

The fact that we don't have a final bill in place to replace the expiring relief act knowing the current bill was due to expire at the end of the month is incompetence squared, but to saddle it with 'add-ins' unrelated to the pandemic is a monumental slap in the face to anyone with a modicum of empathy. Remember the Democrats in the House passed their version two months ago so there would be no interruption in relief to the affected citizens of this country. Of course, the Senate Republicans were drinking Cheeto's Kool Aide that by now the virus would just be a bad memory having 'miraculously disappeared.

The Senate saga is just another chapter in a text book example of how not to manage a crisis. Our focus should be on helping the poor people impacted by a crisis not of their making, not an opportunity to feather bed the bill with all kinds of favored add-ins not related to what should be a laser beam focus on the pandemic. I continue to be disgusted with our so-called right wing legislators and hope beyond hope that their time in power is limited.

I'm off my soapbox and on to a crumpet with my coffee.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Protecting our National Treasures

As I sip my coffee on this quiet Saturday morning, I shed a tear for how society has changed in our country. Specifically, I was disheartened to read about Dr. Anthony Fauci's safety.

Apparently, Dr. Fauci and his wife and daughters, have received serious threats, enough to warrant a security detail to look after their safety. Dr. Fauci also received hate mail when he was involved with HIV/AIDS research in the 80's and 90's, but unlike the previous criticism he received, the current crop is more menacing and threatening rather than of the 'crackpot' variety.

What have we become when an expert sharing his expertise to help our society becomes a target because his opinion doesn't line-up with some idiot's own crackpot theories? I also read where several local stations from Sinclair Broadcasting are going to air a widely discredited conspiracy theory broadcast which hypothesizes that Dr. Fauci was responsible for the creation of the Coronavirus. This fantasy conspiracy has been blocked by more responsible media outlets. It makes one sick to think of the fear and hate mongering being whipped up against Fauci and what a cesspool of hate many factions in this country embrace.

It is easy to see that if you are at a tipping point in your emotional or mental stability that the messages coming out of the administration and many of its lemmings could be the tipping point for your behavior. It was clear that Cheeto and his minions were pushing a discredit campaign against the good doctor until it backfired. Liz Cheny was even attacked by her peers in a meeting where she defended Fauci. These are 'our' legislators behaving like cretins; imagine what it must be like at the local NRA cell meeting.

It is a wonder anyone is willing to go out on a limb for their beliefs in our fractured and divided society. I might also add very dangerous environment. In a country where there are over 393 million handguns in private hands, any threat has the potential to be life threatening. Think about that - 393 MILLION.

I'm going to butter a crumpet to go with my second cup of coffee.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Maybe We'll Wake Up and It Will be Gone

As I sip my day old coffee this morning, I am pissed at the sense of urgency on the part of Senate Republicans. They have 'punted' on the Coronavirus Relief legislation until 'early next week.'

It was not exactly a secret that the current bill was set to expire by the end of the month - like it was known the day it was originally passed. The Democratic lead House passed their version of pandemic relief in May which, but all accounts, should have motivated the Republican lead Senate to get off their collective asses. Hey, I know there is disagreement among these clowns regarding specific provisions as well as continuing disagreements with Cheeto over payroll tax provisions. Unfortunately, avoiding the issues doesn't solve the problem. I am relatively certain that were individual Senators wondering how they were going to pay for groceries next week or facing the possibility of eviction, their sense of urgency would be upped a notch or two.

The truth about the delay is that it all but guarantees the current relief package will expire before a replacement/extension is in place. All of this in the face of a rise yesterday in unemployment claims, the first increase in claims since March. I'll bet if a tax cut for the wealthy were set to expire next week, the Senate Republicans would go into special non-stop legislative sessions around the clock until a new bill were passed.

Why does it feel like the Senate had hoped by this time COVID-19 would have disappeared, so what's the big deal on an extension of the relief act? Unlike their house counterparts who do not live in Fantasyland, the Senate moved on to more important things confident Trump's prediction of waking-up and finding the virus was magically 'gone' came true. I haven't figured out what other important stuff they worked on since most of the backlog of bills is sitting on Mitch's desk collecting dust.

If anyone thinks that the Senate is looking out for the best interests of the citizens of this country, please send me a tube of the glue you are sniffing since I need to feel more euphoric today.

I am going to take my pissed-off body over to the toaster oven and have a sun dried tomato bagel with my second cup of coffee.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Hoisted on Your Own Petard

As I sip my fresh pot of DD coffee this morning, I am thinking about the 2020 election and what we are likely going to see as we go forward.

By now we have heard the famous Napoleon quote that says, "Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Were Joe Biden and I to sip a few brews together, appropriately distanced, of course, I would remind him of this strategy. It seems that the larger the distance between himself and Cheeto, the more desperate Cheeto becomes to regain some modicum of momentum in the campaign. His desperation, IMHO, seems to lead back to Napoleon's dictum of letting Cheeto make more mistakes since what he is doing, although likely to solidify his base, will not make significant inroads into the 65% of or so of the voters who are not counted as his 'base.'

His daily Coronavirus briefings, two so far, although providing air-time for Trump seem to have little to no impact on our perception of his management, or mismanagement, of the pandemic. The obvious absence of any medical experts says it all. Why include experts who can shed light on where we need to be medically when that is not the goal of the briefing. The goal is clearly to feed Cheeto's ego, and facts are a convenient casualty. Even a fervent FOX viewer can probably discern the fallacy of his comments about how effective we have been managing the virus compared to the rest of the world...not. So, Joe, just let him have his 30 minutes of the Howdy Doody show every day. Maybe he can bring-in Buffalo Bob Smith and Princess Summer Fall Winter Spring to spice it up.

The other strategy of characterizing our cities as being 'out of control' under Democratic leadership, thus needing an infusion from his para-military force, is building a huge amount of apprehension (and resentment) on the part of those of us who still believe our constitution is the guiding principle of this country. We all have to be nervous about sending in armed federal agents where the local officials have not requested or welcomed their intrusion. This is frightening on two levels. First, the citizens of these cities are exercising their first amendment rights to protest - in a non-violent way. Secondly, the guise of "protecting federal property" should never extend to apprehension and interrogation (and gassing) of local citizens from the streets. I am reminded that the Chairman of the JCS essentially told Cheeto not to use the military in our streets, so Cheeto deputized a para military force from other agencies like the Border Patrol, Customs and Immigration, and DHS. That should help you sleep. This strategy to further fracture our society and create discord is bound to fail, and I think Joe knows that.

I am worried, like many of my friends, about how desperate people will do desperate things as the campaign moves forward, especially if Cheeto continues to fall further behind. What I think the opposition has to avoid is a "tit for tat" approach, but merely let Cheeto hoist himself on his own petard.

On that unsolicited note, I am continuing my morning coffee ritual, maybe with an accompanying bagel.

Morning Coffee with Dan - A Very, Very Powerful Strategy is On Its Way

As I am savoring my DD brew this morning, I am shaking my head at Cheeto's Coronavirus briefing yesterday. Although I did not plan to watch it, my wife had a news station on and they switched over to his update, so I stayed.

The one point that really stuck in my craw was his boastful statement that ... "We are in the process of developing a strategy that’s going to be very, very powerful.” What I find so incredible about this simple one sentence statement is that after six months we don't have a plan or strategy, and now he is touting the development of one - a very, very powerful one. If this isn't a commentary on mismanagement, I would be hard pressed to come up with one that better explains why we are where we are.

I would think that he would be updating us on how we are doing on our plan to reduce the flare up of cases in the many states where we have seen an exponential growth. To suggest in the midst of this scenario that we are now developing a very powerful strategy is an amazing admission of monumental ignorance, if not gross negligence.

He finally did get around to supporting the wearing of masks as well as social distancing. Maybe this is part of his powerful new strategy - embrace the guidance of his medical advisers. Amazing display of hypocrisy to support wearing masks after holding two rallies in pandemic hot spots while eschewing face masks and mocking those who did. He does all of this with a straight face. I wonder if some of his red state governors are going to feel abandoned on this issue after making such a big deal out of wearing masks in their respective states. I wonder if the GA governor, Brian Kemp, is going to pull his lawsuit against Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms for mandating masks?

Lastly, it should be noted that he did not have any medical experts on stage with him, even his notable medical sycophant, Dr. Birx. One would think that in a medical crisis Cheeto would include some authorities with credibility to participate in the update. Clearly, he can't be naive enough to believe he has any medical credibility especially after suggesting the consumption of disinfectant or injection of a UV light up your ass.

I'm sure many of his base were pleased and perhaps even impressed with the update. I'm not counted among those in either category.

I'm ready for more joe this morning.

Morning Coffee with Dan - Let's Split Apart America Again

I am saddened to see what is going on in Portland as I sip my coffee. Since I originally commented on this several days ago the stand-off has gotten more contentious.

I am frustrated that almost every issue the Trump administration touches becomes an opportunity to divide, not an opportunity to grow and solve. If your character is to polarize every issue, dialog and solutions will become very, very elusive, if not impossible.

The examples are everywhere. Facial covering during the pandemic is a prime example. Every country that has gotten a handle on the virus has done so with cooperation between the government and the citizens by following simple guidelines promulgated by the medical experts. They haven't created a confrontation between personal rights and health guidelines. Yet, our fearless leader chose to make masks a personal rights issue and shamelessly politicized the problem with the result that over 140,000 citizens have died while the numbers continue to climb. A simple decree from the government like every other country would have addressed the issue. A constructive sit-down between Washington and the governors of the hot spot states would have been even better.

The demonstrations coming out of the killing of George Floyd were met with a bellicose and confrontational response which could have been totally or at least largely avoided with some compassionate and enlightened leadership - two words not in Cheeto's vocabulary. Instead, he again chose to politicize the issue into an anarchist conspiracy to destroy the U.S. cities. He had a perfect opportunity to acknowledge problems of racial injustice and a commitment to address them. What we have now is a totally unnecessary and dangerous stand-off in Portland where the problem has been grossly mis-characterized by the administration. The scary notion is the threat to extend this federal mismanagement to other cities like Chicago and Philadelphia. As the governor of Oregon said, their goal was to defuse the situation not inflame it as is being done today. Where does the government overreach end? Will Cheeto 'send in the troops' every time he disagrees with a governor or mayor and gets another hair up his ass?

I could go on and on about other issues that have been unnecessarily politicized, but I am whistling in the graveyard. The only solution is to purge the government of this moron and his cronies and put some sanity into the equation. Hopefully, he and Vlad won't have destroyed everything by then.

I'm make another pot of coffee while I shed a tear for our country.