This morning I read a story posted by an American Ex-pat who currently lives in France (see Do Americans Understand How Badly They’re Doing?). The story was focused upon the difference between the coordinated, national-level measures that European Countries have taken to control and contain the Corona Virus vs. the chaotic and rudderless efforts in the United States. The U.S. ranks with Brazil in the out-of-control spread of the pandemic – see chart.
By The New York Times | Source: Johns Hopkins University
I posted about that last week – see How Embarrassing. One phrase that the author used that seems to apply to the response to both the pandemic and to the lack of national leadership that is contributing to the unfolding disaster is “self-inflicted wound”. Indeed POTUS could easily switch out his MAGA logo on his red baseball caps with Self-Inflicted Wound and they would immediately become much more meaningful and accurate.
Several states that rushed to reopen have also discovered that they have caused self-inflicted wounds upon their populations. The southern and western states that reopened everything are now having to backtrack and take measures that were obvious from the get-go – closing venues where large, unruly crowns might gather and requiring masks in enclosed spaces. It is only a matter of time until regulation or common sense causes the airlines that decided to fully pack their planes to back off that decision. No one in his or her right mind would get onto a fully loaded plane.
I also posted here last week about the lack of will that American have displayed in dealing with this crisis – see Felled by a lack of patience and resolve. What I did not state strongly enough was the devastating impact of not only a lack of leadership sat the national level, but indeed a leadership that seems to be only concerned with political survival. This is a self-inflicted wound on America; but, it is one that we can correct in November. We need only hope that our Tweeter-in-Chief’s self-aggrandizing and delusional leadership is kept somewhat in check until then. One can also hope that his Senate toady Mitch McConnell stands proudly at attention saluting and goes down with that ship.
Until November we will all have to watch the embarrassment unfold on the nightly news as POTUS keeps claiming what a great job he is dong and the successful countries of the world keep their borders closed to Americans. I guess it is good in one way that we can’t ravel to those countries, since we would be subjected to their laughter and derision about our self-inflicted wound.
Posted by Norm Werner 
divide, where compromise, which could lead to contentment, is considered failure. The two political parties have abandoned any search for a middle ground on most issues and seek only to win, to beat the other side. We saw that locally this past week were the scrum to choose a successor to the late L. Brooks Paterson turned nasty and completely partisan from the get-go.
carry with it the baggage that the current parties have accumulated of late. It would also allow those who are uncomfortable with the extreme on both sides to fins anew home that perhaps with which they could become content. I suspect that quite a few who call themselves Republicans or Democrats would welcome a party with less strident positions on the issues and one which relied more on common sense than the political litmus tests that the current parties use on issues.
unhappy with yourself if you didn’t give it your best shot. If you made your best effort, but that fell short of winning, you can still feel good about yourself. In sports, even competitive athletes are often happy if they achieve a person best – they know that they did the best that they can for that event or race. Maybe you can look at the events in your life the same way. If you’ve achieved your person best, be happy, celebrate your achievement, use that experience to plan way to do better next time. Stop and smell the violets. Find contentment.
population. They tactics used by those agents aimed at increasing racial tensions and heightening fears about the impact of immigration. They were successful to the extent that Facebook and other sites have had to take specific actions to limit their access to accounts and monitor their attempts to plant fake news or to slant the coverage of real news.
evolved in modern times. We have become an audience accustomed to sound-bites, tweets and YouTube posts. There seems to be no time to stop and evaluate the content, so we just accept it and sometimes act upon it. We re-tweet or re-post or take to the streets with signs because we read about a threat on social media. Never mind that the national news outlets or the big newspapers may be debunked the false reports or posts. Anyway, We are told that they are purveyors of “Fake News”; so, let’s believe a Facebook post from someone that we don’t know, instead.
bad actors thrive upon exploiting. There is still a strong sense of right and wrong within the hearts of most Americans and a desire to do what is right, rather than acquiesce to what we know is wrong. We may be frustrated that we cannot seem to resolve some of the big issues that are facing us as a society, but that does not mean that we will drift off to the edges of reason and join the bigots or zealots that define the extremes in today’s political and social environment.
Just listen closely for the voices of reason and compassion and concern amongst all of the shouting and accusing and finger-pointing of modern politics. Centrists exist in both political parties and they deserve your attention and support.
agents are trying to use to manipulate us. We are a better people than that. We can make up our own minds – thank you very much. Let’s get ready to vote in 2020.
NormsMilfordBlog 