Grumpa Joe's Place

Today, I slept until 9:00 a.m. That is highly unusual for me, but I’ll take it. My body must need the rest. I chopped scallions, three kinds of pepper, red, yellow, and green to sauté. Then added garlic to some beaten eggs for a scramble. I needed a little bit more so I added a dollop of cottage cheese to the plate. While eating I watched the horrible news about corona virus. That blended into the “Stump Trump Hour.” All the while I wondered if there were less than ten reporters in the room. Certainly they were not six feet apart, and certainly they do not have brains. The questions were repetitious, and boring. Don’t these people listen to the answers? Some of them impressed me as attempts to stump Trump into changing his first response. When experts tell you that a vaccine is twelve to eighteen months away why is it necessary to ask if the system is fast tracking the process? When the Vice President reports that 3M is making 30 million face masks a month why is it necessary to push the answer toward why St. John Doe Hospital in Podunk is out of face masks?

Industrial grade face mask

Respirators that the press believes we should have millions on hand at each hospital

The whole thing could have been over in fifteen minutes, instead the President patiently answered the questions. The strangest I thought was why are you calling this the Chinese virus , isn’t that being racist? Duhh, lady where is your brain? It came from China and who care is the virus is racist? It will still kill you the first chance it gets even if you call it the honey coated-critter from space. The brains really stopped functioning when Dr. Deborah Birx reported that there has been a large increase in cases reported since last week, but that it is due to the fact that the backlog of tests has been corrected, and now reported. Then, the brains really began smoking when she reported that there are more positives now that all the test kits everyone complained about not having two days ago are now available. The dumbest question goes to the reporter who asked what the President is going to do for those in prisons? Isn’t a prison the ultimate form of quarantine? All the wardens have to do is to shut off visitors and check prison workers for the virus, end of calamity.

President Trump threw a fast one at them by reporting that several cruise lines offered to let the government use some of their empty cruise liners as hospital ships or quarantine centers. I gave one reporter credit for changing the subject by asking what the President was doing to rescue some 300 Americans stranded in Peru. If it were me answering that one, I would have told her “nothing, they got there on their own they can get home on their own.” President Trump, however, was again very calm and politely explained that he most likely would have to use military to bring them out. The reporter heard military and must have envisioned a war with Peru, because Trump had to correct his statement by adding “military aircraft” to the statement.

Throughout the conference I kept asking myself why are these people expecting the Federal Government to perform miracles and to take care of their every need, face masks, respirators, drugs, etc? Everyone of us lives in a State within the Union called the United States of America. Each of our States is an independent government with departments identical to those of the feds. State responsibility is first and foremost before the federal government should step in. If your state is not getting things done, you should be harassing the governor not the president. The problem is that the states are all broke because they have too many retirees to send pension checks to and not enough money to spend on disasters.

The President’s daily Task Force report via press conference to the American people was very informative and calming. He does not convey any sense of panic on any of the subjects and did not have to defer any questions to later or to someone else, he knew the answers. Twice, he told a reporter he would not answer the question.

After the conference I donned my rain gear and went for a 45 minute walk in the rain. It is the first day of Spring, and it was refreshing but cold. It is also the feast of Saint Joseph, my namesake, so it is special to me.  I can’t wait for tomorrow.

Filed under: Aging, family, Government, health care | Tagged: Chinese Flu, Corona Task Force, Dumb Questions, Trump |