Life, such as it is, with the Trumpandemic

Our Dear Leader

With the coronavirus not going away anytime soon and with the economy cratering to Great Depression levels, we might as well call this age the Trumpandemic era.

Since Trump and FOX News have blamed President Obama for COVID-19, it's quite obvious that their deception by projection has failed spectacularly.

Most Americans agree with Obama that the Trump administration's response to the pandemic is an "absolute chaotic disaster."

Well said.

Under Trump's "leadership," many Americans won't wear protective masks because Trump won't don one.

Well, two men attacked a Target security worker and broke his arm because he asked them to wear a mask. 

There are stories across the country where people wearing a mask in public are harassed by others not wearing masks.

So much for a national calamity to bring us together. We can thank Trump for that.

He thrives on divisiveness no matter the cost to anyone or anything but his bottom line.

So far, on the evening of May 13, 2020, there are more than 85,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. and nearly 1.5 million cases. We're No. 1 by a mile.

The unemployment rate is nearly 15 percent.

Schools may not re-open until late autumn.

Sheltering-in-place orders could last through summer.

From the beginning, the U.S. acted like a Third World nation unable to provide personal protective equipment to nurses and doctors dealing with COVID-19 patients.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration rejected an offer to manufacture millions of N95 masks in America.

That's because they never believed what was happening in China or Italy would ever affect the U.S.

This is what we get when Americans elect anti-government Republicans to run the government. They run it into the ground.

Trump dismissed COVID-19 well into March. 

In January he said: "we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.”

On February 27 he said, “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”

Trump referred to the coronavirus as the Democrats' "new hoax," after he was acquitted in the Senate of being a traitor to his country.

And, who could forget the classic Trump musing about injecting disinfectant into humans to combat the virus.

But, he has so many unforgettable lines.

With his administration failing to ramp up testing for COVID-19, Trump said, "I don't take responsibility at all."

To be fair, Trump did say in late March, "I'm a cheerleader for the country."

Trump won't wear a mask, but he apparently will wave pom-poms at the sick and dying.

Rah-rah, it's the Trumpandemic.

Hey COVIDiots, vote by mail

LA Times

Wisconsin voters in the time of COVID-19

That includes you, Wisconsin, you Trump-loving cheese-heads.

And, every other shit-hole state practicing voter suppression to maintain Republican control of the country.

In this pandemic age, it makes zero sense to force voters to stand in line for hours to possibly infect scores of other citizens with the dreaded COVID-19 virus.

That's exactly what you get from Republicans: no sense.

They continually throw up roadblocks to enfranchisement because they know that when more people vote the less they like Republican ideas or candidates.

In Oregon, the first state to enact statewide vote-by-mail more than 20 years ago, the results rock the vote. We have more citizens participating in democracy and consistently have some of the highest voter turnout numbers in the country. Also, there is nearly zero voter fraud, which is a canard conjured up by the GOP. In fact, the only widespread voter fraud occurred in 2018 with absentee ballots in North Carolina by Republicans.

Washington, Colorado, Hawaii and Utah eventually followed Oregon's lead in statewide vote-by-mail. At least another 21 states have a hodgepodge of absentee balloting.

This confusing patchwork of voting options demands a federal response to provide guidance and consistency in voting for president.

Yet, we have Oregon's lone Republican representative, Greg Walden - 2nd Dist., claiming that it would be "a recipe for disaster" to have all states vote by mail.

What a goddamn liar.

He knows that in the 1990s, Oregon struggled to get out timely results because about half of voters requested absentee ballots while the other half voted in person. (Wisconsin won't know its results from Tuesday's primary until next week because of this type of setup.)

Naturally, Republicans still had some clout in the Oregon Legislature last millennium and resisted attempts to allow statewide vote-by-mail. Thankfully, voters overwhelmingly (69 percent to 31 percent) approved vote-by-mail in 1998, which ended the absentee/vote-in-person ballot chaos.

Since then, Democrats have won super-majorities in the state Legislature and only two Republicans have won statewide office because voters know they're out of touch with reality.

In that time, Oregon moved away from its longtime timber-based economy to a more diversified one that yielded its lowest unemployment rate ever during President Obama's era. That rate improved marginally under Trump, but those numbers are now gone with the broken wind thanks to the Mango Mussolini's initial dismissal of the coronavirus.

If we ever expect this country to rise above its white-supremacist origins and its current representation by a minority of racists, we must expand voting access to all citizens old enough to vote.

Hey, America, vote by mail. You'll be glad you did.

The 'Great Wall' of America

Monoliths to fear, vanity and racism

In 2,500 years, will visitors to North America take trips to the border with Mexico to marvel at the mighty "wall" built there in the early 21st Century?

Not likely.

The Great Wall of China can be viewed from space. People can walk on top of it. They can take picture postcards from it.

The current U.S. barrier with Mexico is a hodgepodge of slats, walls and wires that has all the architectural bearing of a junkyard fence.

Trump's "national emergency" declaration to continue building a barrier along the border with Mexico will not stop illegal immigration and isn't even necessary. So, let's spend billions we don't have on something we don't need. Or as humorist Andy Borowitz wrote: "Nation with Crumbling Bridges and Roads Excited to Build Giant Wall."

Despite Trump's repeated assurances, Mexico won't pay for the wall.

It's likely, though, that illegal immigrants will do the actual work because almost all "legal" Americans don't want to work that hard.

Also, we don't believe in permanence in the USA. We build things and tear them down when they're about 40 years old. We know that nothing lasts forever, so why even try. That's the American spirit.

The other American spirit is a fear and/or disrespect of people who don't look white.

Well, we like them only if they pick the fruit in the fields, clean the hotel rooms at the resorts and make Mexican food in the restaurants and then go out of sight and out of mind.

Coincidentally, some Trump-backing farmers are struggling because they can't get enough migrant workers to tend to their fields and crops.

It appears that those farthest from the southern border are most in favor of a wall. In other words, those areas that are the whitest fear the brown ones the most.

But, for all intents and purposes, the wall was built years ago.

With the the help of Fox News, Republicans erected walls between Americans over things like reason and reality; science and truth; fact and fiction.

It doesn't really matter if more slats get erected along the southern border with Mexico.

The wall is already built. We are divided from each other.

And no one will be able to see a trace of any of it in 2,000 years.

Oregon stays true blue

All the national stories about how Democrat Kate Brown was in trouble of losing to a generic Republican in the progressive state of Oregon were dead wrong.

Less than a minute after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Brown had cruised to re-election according to numbers on the state's election website.

Even the state's largest daily newspaper, The Oregonian, which hammered away at Brown for the last three-plus years and did not endorse her, was forced to call the race shortly after 8 p.m.

In fact, most of the newspapers endorsed her main rival, Republican Knute Buehler of Bend. Obviously, no one pays attention to what a newspaper says these days because so few citizens subscribe to a daily paper.

Even cable TV ads are having less influence than they once had.

All the millions spent on negative advertising failed to persuade voters to Buehler's side. This article may help to explain why.

Buehler, who campaigned as a pro-choice centrist, raised $18.5 million to Brown's $17 million. At least $2.5 million of Buehler's haul came from Phil Knight. And yet all that money given to Buehler's campaign was like pissing into the wind. Evidently, Oregon Republicans like the sensation.

Brown flushed Buehler down, 50 percent to 44 percent.

Hey, Oregon Republicans, until you ditch the anti-government rhetoric and your neanderthal policies, you will always lose the governorship and most of the seats in Congress. Stop wasting money on losers.

Oregon is a true-blue state.

From land-use to bottle redemption to Death with Dignity laws, Oregon has led the nation. Hopefully, the Democrats will gain super majorities in the Legislature so that more progressive policies will be enacted.

The common-sense voters in the Beaver State also rejected draconian statewide measures by sizable margins.

In spite of the millions spent by Coke and Pepsi to cloak their measure as a "no tax on groceries" proposal, Oregonians clearly saw it was a "no tax on soda" initiative. It was getting crushed by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin.

The anti-abortion crowd tried again with a measure of "no public funds for abortion" and, as expected, were clobbered again by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin.

The anti-immigrant rhetoric from Trump and most Republicans was totally repudiated in this state. Oregon became a sanctuary state 30 years ago and voters rejected an attempt to end that status by a 63 percent to 37 percent margin.

The anti-government crowd in this state tried to limit the Legislature's ability to raise revenue. That measure was whipped by a 65 percent to 35 percent margin.

After this election, maybe more Republicans will move out of state to regressive areas of the country. Wouldn't that be nice.

The sun also powers

Solar fields on eastern edge of Bend

With recent news that California will mandate all new homes include solar power, it's worth noting how affordable solar power has become.

Solar energy is now 50 percent cheaper than coal, the former gold standard of cheap energy.

Also, the solar industry employs more workers than coal, wind or nuclear energy combined.

Across the globe, from Australia to India to Germany, solar is causing headaches for the entrenched fossil fuel industries.

With China leading the solar revolution, the Trump administration is doubling down on coal and offshore drilling, even though more Republicans back renewable energy than coal.

With Tesla Powerwall batteries, which are designed to store solar energy and are coming soon to Home Depot, this country isn't counting on Trump to lead anyone anywhere.

Even in Central Oregon, solar fields have proliferated in the last couple of years.

It's about time.

This region brags about all the sunshine it gets, in comparison to western Oregon, but, until now has done little to capitalize on this solar energy revolution.

Central Oregon cities should join California in mandating that new homes be solar energy self-sufficient.

In fact, the whole state should flex its progressive street cred and mandate it by 2025.

Not only is it good for the planet, it's good for the pocketbook.

Also, the less reliant we are on natural gas or oil, the less likely we are to fund fracking-induced earthquakes in Oklahoma, or terrorism from the Middle East or election meddling from Russia.

City of Bend's septic-sewer extortion

The Bend City Council is expected this summer to pass a motion to smack 599 southeast Bend homes with a $50,000 sewer bill - each.

It's expected to cost every homeowner a minimum of $500 per month.

As a result, many southeast Bend residents in Desert Woods or Kings Forest subdivisions will be forced out of their homes. They'll likely have to sell their homes at a reduced price. Call it a gift to the real estate cartel in Bend.

Of course, nowhere else in Bend has the city added $50,000 to the cost of an existing home.

The city says it is forced to do so for a variety of reasons. The state mandates that any home with a septic system within 300 feet of a sewer line must connect to the sewer if their septic system fails.

The city recently completed the Southeast Interceptor sewer line that runs through Kings Forest and Orion Greens. By doing so, any home within 300 feet of this sewer line much connect to it if their septic system fails. This could result in someone, living 290 feet away, having to pay the exorbitant cost - more than $100,000, of running a sewer line down the street to their home.

So, in order to avoid one house close to the sewer line paying a much smaller price than one house farther away, the city wants all households to agree to a more equitable solution. The city wants the 599 houses to share, 50-50, the public cost of the sewer installation. The private costs of each home to connect from the house to the sewer line is all on the homeowner.

Well, the city's extortion attempt is wrong.

Twenty years ago, Bend residents brought this problem on themselves when they forcibly annexed these southeast subdivisions. The residents in these subdivisions voted against annexation but were overwhelmed by the vast majority of Bend residents at the time.

The city knew then that it would eventually have to face this problem of adding these homes to the sewer system. Yet, the city set aside no money until last July to help pay for the forced sewer expansion in southeast Bend.

In addition, the city chose to run the Southeast Interceptor through these subdivisions. It did so largely to relieve a stressed system caused by NorthWest Crossing and other westside developments.

The city also wants to decommission many of the sewer-pumping stations that now exist and occasionally fail throughout the city.

Because of decades of poor planning, Bend has far more sewer-pumping stations than any city in Oregon.

The city also notes that there are no federal or state grants available for this southeast sewer project.

Those types of funds dried up in the early 1980s, they said.

Coincidentally, there was a huge federal tax cut for the rich in the early 1980s followed by two more this century. As a result, there will never be any federal money available for any public infrastructure projects again unless Congress passes legislation to do so.

If all else fails, the city should be like the federal government and just borrow the roughly $30 million cost of the project. The city can get better rates than individual citizens, particularly through the Dept. of Environmental Quality.

Bend appointed an advisory committee to come up with solutions of how to pay for the sewer project in southeast Bend.

Naturally, the city mayor and other councilors said from the beginning that the city would not pay more than 50 percent of the public cost.

Well, the advisory committee is likely to recommend to council that residents not be saddled with more than $25,000 each in total debt for public and private sewer costs. The committee will likely recommend that the monthly cost to a homeowner be about $250 per month.

In order to make up the difference, the advisory panel will likely recommend a $5 monthly fee to all sewer users in Bend, both business and residential. It seems like a modest amount considering that the residents in the affected subdivisions didn't vote to join the city and had no choice in where the Southeast Interceptor was installed.

But, advisory committees are just that. They have no clout and really no say in the outcome. They exist primarily as political cover for the council, which can turn around and say, "hey, we engaged the public and gave them their due."

Well, it's another reason why residents sour on local government. They don't listen to their citizens.

'Thoughts and prayers' save the day again

This cartoon was prompted by Sandy Hook massacre in 2012

Or do they?

After yet another mass shooting at a school, NRA-backed Republicans showed how much they cared about the massacre by offering their "thoughts and prayers" for the victims.

But, does it depend on what thoughts, what prayers?

If the prayers are to Allah, Buddha or Ra, do they count?

Or, do the prayers have to be only to Jesus or God?

And, what thoughts are allowable?

Can someone have thoughts that this country finally join the developed world in curbing access to military-grade armaments?

Or, are the only "thoughts" that count are the ones that hope this anti-gun outrage blows over like in all the other mass shootings?

Well, I think we know the answer to these questions. It doesn't matter.

"Thoughts and prayers" mean "tough luck." Wrong place. Wrong Time. Keep Calm and Carry On.

The GOP/NRA knows there is one right that is above all others: It is the right to kill schoolchildren with an assault rifle.

All those who support the GOP/NRA are complicit in all these mass killings.

The GOP/NRA response to this latest outrage will likely call for more gun ownership, not less. They'll say that if those high-school victims had their own AR-15s, they wouldn't be dead today.

It wouldn't be surprising if the GOP/NRA introduced legislation similar to "motor-voter" registration laws that Democrats pass to enfranchise more potential voters.

The GOP/NRA version, let's call it the motor-revolver law, would require all those who apply for a driver's license must show proof of gun ownership before getting approved to drive a car.

Nevermind that you can't even rent a car in this country until you turn 25.

The alleged shooter in Florida on Ash Wednesday/Valentine's Day was all of 19 and bought his AR-15 legally last year.

I once had a discussion with a gun-fetishist who claimed that the murder of 20 first-graders in Sandy Hook was a small price to pay to enshrine the 2nd Amendment and its right to bear arms.

This is where we are as a nation. We now tolerate a school shooting every 60 hours.

Even the Supreme Court denied the District of Columbia, and by extension all jurisdictions, the ability to regulate gun ownership. In other words, the Supreme Court said that the right to kill with a gun supersedes the right not to be killed by a gun.

This is called American "exceptionalism."

No developed nation, except the U.S., allows the relentless carnage caused by men firing assault rifles or handguns.

And, no "thoughts" or "prayers" will ever change that.