With all the recent talk of “trusting the experts” it’s easy to forget that the best barometer of how things are faring is almost always ourselves. After all, we don’t need a federal jobs report to tell us our neighbor no longer has a small business; we don’t need to read a newspaper to tell us our parents are ill-protected in their nursing homes; and we sure don’t need mental health professionals to inform us that our children are psychologically breaking down.
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The inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the 46th president returns the United States to the direction from whence it came. For the tens of millions who voted for him, his ascendance to the White House means the nation is getting back on track. Those who did not dread the U-turn he has vowed to make.
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Let's get something clear right now: China, more than any other country, is the greatest threat to American security, well-being and way of life.
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For most individuals, tragedy is simply tragedy. For some, though, tragedy spells opportunity. Prominent among them are the chieftains of the "green" revolution who intend to seize upon the coronavirus pandemic turmoil to revamp global energy. It may be a venerable tradition of power grabbers to advance under cover of adversity, but it's not the American way.
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As of this writing, daily coronavirus case counts are over 30,000, a country-wide level we haven't seen since April. This past Thursday, we set a single-day record of nearly 60,000 new cases. Hospitals in many parts of the United States are exceeding capacity. Many states have hit "pause" on their re-opening plans. Some are re-closing. So, whether we like it or not, it's time to accept that infections are surging. Lord knows what the landscape will look like after the July 4th weekend.
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Absolving a transgression requires the guilty party to fess up and make amends for the misdeed. Cleaning the slate also means practicing better behavior going forward. With fitting dispatch, disease experts in China and the World Health Organization (WHO) are addressing a fresh health peril brewing in China. Bravo, but these overseers of medical mayhem still owe the world — and the United States in particular — redress for their failures in repelling the current coronavirus pandemic. All should not yet be forgiven and forgotten.
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It sometimes seems as though the Republican establishment wouldn't recognize a winning campaign issue if it toppled over — like a statue — onto them.
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The coronavirus case curve that had leveled out has once again veered skyward. Thankfully, the death rate has not. While political figures buffet them with recriminations over racial discord, Americans are figuring out ways of coping with the pandemic.
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For all America's bluster about democracy, for all the super-charged admonitions by both Democrats and Republicans we citizens "get out and vote" and "make your voice heard," there is a certain perversity in the fact that we have, for the past few decades, averaged something like 2.5 presidential debates an election year.
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When police flee, bullets fly and Americans die. It's a troubling description of the current state of national affairs. Gunfire kills, but so do decisions by politicians that force cops to retreat and leave the streets to the angriest throngs. The sounds of death are likely to echo until Election Day.
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Hundreds of thousands of Americans have taken to gathering in the streets to protest racial injustice. They comprise a rainbow of color — black, white and every hue in between. The nebulous organization behind it all, Black Lives Matter, has succeeded in bringing U.S. citizens together in common cause like never before in modern times. What's not to like? Its Marxist roots, that's what.
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The phone in your palm has the potential to hold more books than filled the vaunted Library of Alexandria. Your movie subscription service grants you access to more films than you have hours in your life to watch. And song? Well, pick any tune from day one of recorded music to the present and the likelihood is high that you can listen to it after five minutes of online searching. Put another way, thanks to digital technology, we are living in an unprecedented time with respect to access of American (indeed, global) arts and letters.
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Human progress is fueled by limitless flights of imagination. That's a good thing, except when the individual fantasy runs smack-dab into objective reality. Then it is best that the image so dear to one and so harmful to others remain a private reverie. Such is the case of young male athletes who claim to be young women, at least in their own minds. The physical advantage that lads have over lasses cannot be erased by wishful thinking, drugs or scalpels. Only the delusional refuse to accept that boys will be boys.
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Now that the spread of COVID-19 has slowed and the curve has "flattened" it's time for policymakers to come up with ways to bring the economy back to where it was before the lockdowns imposed by so many of the nation's governors knocked it flat on its back.
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This past weekend, a murder (along with two other shootings) occurred in the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" (CHAZ), a six-block neighborhood that has been occupied by left-wing protesters and provocateurs for the past two weeks. We can add this murder to the rape, battery and assaults taking place in the "cop-free" area patrolled by roving -- and armed -- bands of strongmen.
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Success in entertainment stakes its fortune on the notion that the show must go on. So does politics. Donald Trump, with a knack for occupying the sweet spot between the two, would no longer be restrained from taking the stage. With a jolt, he has relaunched his dormant 2020 presidential election campaign for a dash through a minefield of radical strife fueled by national sickness of body and soul.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's meeting with top Chinese counterparts in Hawaii on Wednesday was held in secret. The list of topics for painstaking dialogue may have been long, but one underlying sentiment likely linked them all: Misery loves company.
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If one judged only by Hollywood's depiction of the American intelligence community, one could be forgiven for believing we are possessed of an awesome, best-in-class assembly of hackers, spies, gatekeepers and various assortment of keyboard warriors, all at the ready to break-in, shutdown and generally disrupt the digital machinations of our enemies.
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It has happened again: A black man dies at the hands of white police officers, this time in Atlanta. Like clockwork, crowds gather, angry voices fill the air, mingling with the smoke of arson-lit fires. It's another made-for-media performance of the nation's race ritual, one that hardens hearts and betrays the dream of a colorblind society that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. held so dear. An altogether different rite is playing out across America, though. And over time, it cannot but extinguish the hatred: interracial and interethnic marriage.
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Two days ago, the mayor of Detroit ordered a bust of Christopher Columbus removed from its pedestal. It was a peaceful removal for the Italian-born discoverer of the new world. After all, last week in Boston he was beheaded and in Richmond he was pushed into a lake. One supposes he is used to the harsh treatment. In many cities and states, his namesake holiday has long been replaced with Indigenous Peoples Day. In a few decades, it is not inconceivable he will be relegated to a proverbial footnote of history.
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The long, hot summer of discontent we can expect as the numerous protests of police violence are accompanied by sackings, and lootings are bound to have an impact on the upcoming presidential race. Whether it will benefit President Donald J. Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden is, at this point, anybody's guess.
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As the most famous living poet in America once sang, "He not busy being born, is busy dying." These are words for the current moment. Take a look around. Everywhere, from our education and financial and technological systems, down to our familial dynamics and even the way we as individuals view ourselves and live, things are changing. And thanks to pressure of current events, they are changing -- irrevocably -- fast.
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