April 23, 2020

I’m starting this post today feeling sad after reading an article this morning in the New York Times titled ‘Sadness’ and Disbelief From a World Missing American Leadership. We have gone from being the country that the rest of the world looked to for guidance and assistance in times of crisis, to a country that is being looked upon as a cluster f__k. Why is this? One simple answer. King Don. The “America First” theme that he has espoused since his candidacy and then followed through with since his election; his lack of or erratic leadership throughout this crisis; his continual blame of others for his missteps have all contributed to a shift in the way we are seen throughout the world. Since World War II we have had the role of global leader and an example of what other countries aspired to be. Today we are seen as an example of what and how not to be. Donnie always wants to be number uno. Well we now hold that position of being number one. We have more cases of the coronavirus, and more deaths from it, than anywhere else in the world. Thanks to the stable genius, our economy is in the toilet, our unemployment rate is through the roof, we have been locked in our homes for over a month, we can’t get the testing that needs to happen in order to get out of lockdown, we have a huge budgetary deficit that will have a serious effect on future generations, we are losing our global leadership to communist China, the weakness of our healthcare system compared to European countries is on full display, and so on and so on. We have a reality show barker as our leader who won’t listen to the real experts. Germany has a physicist who has been praised for a near-textbook response to the pandemic. As the leader of her country, Angela Merkel has done everything tRump hasn’t. She has put in place a strategy for mass testing. She has rallied her state governors around her, rather than looking for a daily fight and trying to place blame on them. She has followed scientific advice and looked at the best practices of other countries. Our guy has put together an advisory panel of business executives and cronies with the number one priority, not being the health aspect, but rather getting the economy going before the election. Germany’s leader has put together a multidisciplinary advisory panel made up of 26 academics from Germany’s national academy of science. The panel includes not just medical experts and economists but also behavioral psychologists, education experts, sociologists, philosophers and constitutional experts. Yes, getting our economy going again is important, but so is saving lives and dealing with the aftermath of this crisis. I’m not trying to be Debbie Downer, but the article is a good read and causes you to think about us as a one time global leader to a country that might be seen as the laughingstock.

We all know what a disaster the response to this pandemic has been from our “esteemed” leadership team at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but I just found out last night how crazy these dimwits are. A story from Reuters posted yesterday afternoon, that when you see the headline you would think is satire. Unfortunately, my comrades, the story is not satire. Special Report: Former Labradoodle breeder was tapped to lead U.S. pandemic task force. You’ve gotta read the article, but to summarize and give you the Cliff Notes version. Alex Azar, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, in January after going on television and assuring the American public that “we’ve got this under control,” appoints an aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency’s day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had no formal education in public health, management or medicine and only limited experience in the fields. You wanna know what his qualifications were? From 2012 until 2018 he ran a company called Dallas Labradoodles. I guess other folk’s in the agency weren’t that impressed with him, as he was referred to as “the dog breeder” around the department. Read the article. You just can’t make this shit up unless you’re tRump or Kellyanne.

We now have Moscow Mitch suggesting that states and local governments get no more help from the federal government, and instead be forced to declare bankruptcy. Helping them would be, in the words of Turkey Neck’s office, a “Blue State Bailout.” Unfortunately, that idea is picking up some steam from some other Republicans, so I’m sure we’ll be discussing this over the next few days. And, I’m being kind using the following photo, but will be dusting off my collection to use in an upcoming article about this worthless POS.

Now, a nice news story. Our friend Tracie, owner of Skyway Bar and Grill, is organizing a bake-a-thon with a group of ladies up here on the mountain. They want to take cookies to businesses that have provided essential services in the community. The missus is participating and will hopefully save a cookie or two for me, because I provide her with an essential service (I open the bottle of wine for her). Tonight we’re gonna party hardy. I’m taking her “out on the town.” Keep smilin’ y’all. Ziggyman