A little less than two months ago, the U.S. State Department made a curious announcement that suggests President Trump's "America First" administration put "China First" at a critical moment during the burgeoning Wuhan pandemic.
Congress passed and the president signed a $2 trillion "stimulus" bill.
"Not enough!" shrieked politicians. They said the government must do more.
Will there be Democratic and Republican conventions this summer? The coronavirus pandemic, and the social distancing needed to combat it, are putting these quadrennial festivities in doubt -- an unprecedented situation that is leaving party officials, politicians, and the media in a quandary, with a fast-ticking clock.
"Government help to business is just as disastrous as government persecution. ... The only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off." -- Ayn Rand.
"This is the question that is going to dominate the election: How did you perform in the great crisis?"
So says GOP Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma in today's New York Times.
It's unnerving, and perhaps instructive, that the arrangements elites have been prescribing for dealing with what they call our most dangerous environmental threat -- climate change, formerly known as global warming -- are almost precisely the opposite of the arrangements deployed to deal with the more immediate threat of COVID-19, aka the novel coronavirus.
To fight the coronavirus at home, France is removing all military forces from Iraq.
In the primary, blue-trending areas see higher turnout, power Joe Biden's strength; erosion for Democrats continues in some rural areas in the South.
— With very few exceptions, statewide turnout in the 2020 Democratic primary has been higher than 2016.
— Suburban areas have seen some of the sharpest turnout increases — though these areas tend to have higher population growth, they’ve also trended blue in general elections, perhaps a positive indicator for Democrats looking to the fall.
— Meanwhile, some rural areas that have been trending away from Democrats in places like North Carolina and Oklahoma saw turnout lag behind 2016.
— While Bernie Sanders seems to have a stronger opponent in Joe Biden than he did with Hillary Clinton, Sanders’ prospects may have been hurt by partisan realignment since 2016.
When I think of "essential" workers in America, the smear merchants of the Anti-Defamation League are at the bottom of the barrel. For decades, they've demonized conservatives and Christians as agents of "hate" and treated our very existence as incitements to violence. The ADL's manufactured outrage machine has broadened its target list to anyone remotely critical of Israel for any reason, President Donald Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, "America First" college students, innocuous hand gestures, cartoon frogs and anyone who dares to think or write that "It's OK to be white."
Coronavirus is frightening.
I'm working from home, practicing "social distancing." Experts say it'll help "flatten the curve" so fewer people will be infected simultaneously. Then hospitals won't be overwhelmed.
