COVID-19 encircled the globe as full-blown pandemic
U.S.
leading in total infections and total deaths
(We will
recover — but it will take time)
Two main pieces to this post today: COVID-19 Pandemic and Trump’s urge
for total national power.
History of Swine flu (H1N1): Killed by some accounts 18,500
people, but the true toll may have been closer to between 151,700 and 575,400 (Agence France Presse (AFP) reported).
COVID-19 has now infected nearly 1.9 million world-wide
and some 125,000 have died.
From
*WHO Director, Tedros: “Evidence from several countries
is giving us a clearer picture about this virus, how it behaves, how to stop it
and how to treat it. We know that COVID-19 spreads fast, and we know that it is
deadly – 10 times deadlier than the 2009 flu pandemic. We now know that the COVID-10
virus can spread more easily in crowded environments like nursing homes. We
know that early case finding, testing, isolating, caring for every case, and
tracing every contact is essential for stopping transmission. The disease
accelerates fast but decelerates much more slowly. In other words, the way down
is much slower than the way up. That means control measures must be lifted
slowly and with control.”
*Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, Ethiopian microbiologist
internationally recognized malaria researcher, who has served as WHO
Director-General since 2017. He also is the first non-physician and first
African in the role. He previously held two high-level positions in the government
of Ethiopia: Minister of Health from 2005 to 2012, and Minister
of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2016.
Tedros
cautioned that restarting the shutdown portions of the economy in the ** U.S.
and other countries. Exhorted ministers from the UK, Denmark, Iceland, Finland,
Germany, Norway, and Sweden had done in a recent joint editorial, saying: “They said that tackling this disease
together is our only option. I couldn’t agree more. The way forward is solidarity
— solidarity at the national level and solidarity at the global level.”
** Related
to that story is this about Trump’s grab for power and possible threat to reopen the country
on May 1, 2020 – headlines:
Trump says it’s his call to reopen the country. The Constitution says otherwise.
The details of this story are from Constitutional expert and GWU
law professor, Jonathan Turley.
Background from
Trump’s tweet of course: “For the purpose of
creating conflict and confusion, some in the Fake News Media are saying that it
is the Governors decision to open up the states, not that of the President of
the United States & the Federal Government. Let it be fully understood that
this is incorrect.” (April 13, 2020)
Turley: President
Trump caused a stir Monday morning (April 13) by declaring not only that he
would decide when to open the country — resuming something like normal economic
activity after coronavirus-related lockdowns — that he had the ultimate authority to do so.
Trump doubled down during task force briefing saying: “The federal government has absolute power to
direct Americans back to their normal routines and when somebody is president
of the United States, the authority is total.”
It was a
startling shift after the president correctly maintained for weeks that state
governments, not the federal government, have primary authority to prepare for
and deal with a pandemic. Then, after leaving it to governors to implement
various stay-at-home orders, Trump is now asserting his unilateral authority to
lift such state orders.
He’s wrong. Our Constitution
was written precisely to deny that particular claim.
Continue
the Turley article here –
this is his summary:
“The constitutional reality is that the
president’s desire to order the opening up of the country falls somewhere
between the aspirational and the persuasive. Federalism dictates as a
constitutional matter what task force member Anthony Fauci believed is required
as a public health matter: The
return to normalcy will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction rather than be
“one-size-fits-all. The founders, of
course, were not seeking to combat contagions when they created our system.
They were trying to avert tyranny. Trump has to convince, not command,
governors on what is best for their states.”
My 2 cents: Turley then lays out the historical
and case law basis showing that Trump is flat-out wrong (as he usually is when
it comes to expressing his “unlimited” power belief).
Trump comes across just like
Richard Nixon did when he said to David Frost in his interview in 1977: “Well, when the president does it
that means, that it is not illegal.”
Trump’s conning skills are unparalleled
in American history and maybe even world history to boot in the way he achieved
the highest office in the land and most powerful position in the world in the way
he conned his way in and in fact still cons his base to follow him, support
him, believe him, trust him, and indeed nearly worship him.
I don’t know where
this all ends but hopefully it will on the night of November 3, 2020 when Trump is overwhelmingly
defeated for reelection.
Between then and now, Trump and those around him still
pose as I’ve said before, a “clear and present danger” to the nation.
So hang
on tight. It’s going to get very ugly and very GOP nasty until we reach the finish
line. Let’s hope that line is not Armageddon because Trump does not
take to losing lightly, so stay alert and be smart.
Thanks for stopping by.
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