Time to Think

Donald Lame Duck (this blog has been updated)

by Hank Silverberg

"This Land is your land, this land is my land,

From California, to the New York island....

From the redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and me!"

That song, which most of us learned in elementary school, is considered a patriotic look at the beauty of America, its' priceless resources and its' promise of democracy.

(Woody Guthrie)

But when Woody Guthrie wrote it in 1940, he considered it a counter to the patriotic pre-war fervor of "God Bless America." Guthrie, an unapologetic leftist, looked at it as a way of protesting the lopsided distribution of wealth--criticism of the 1% who then owned much of America as it came out of the Great Depression. And they still do.

Many people have added verses to that song over the years, and there is one I have been thinking about a lot this year as the virus and the economic downturn it caused have crippled the country. I am not sure Woody wrote this verse, but I am sure he would approve of it.

Get into the tune as you read this:

"As I was walking in the shadow of a steeple...

By the Relief Office I saw my people.....

They stood there hungry....I stood there wondering IF...

This land was made for you and me!"

As 2021 approaches, more than 50 million Americans face "food insecurity," a term used basically to say they often don't know where their next meal is coming from. That means one in six people, including one in four children in America, supposedly the richest country on Earth, faced hunger this year. That's UP 15 million people from last year.

More than 50 million Americans facing hunger in 2020, projections show - CBS News

This did not happen in a vacuum. It is directly related to an incompetent and self-centered man in the White House and the inability of Republicans to move forward on anything without his blessing.

That was never more obvious than this past week

when Donald Lame Duck said he would veto a Defense Appropriations Bill and the Covid-19 relief package because he didn't like some of the provisions. But ON SUNDAY NIGHT with just hours to go before the government shut down, he signed the $900 billion for Covid-19 that includes those relief checks, money for small businesses, money to help states recover some of their losses and money to distribute the vaccine.

It was actually part of an overall $1.6 trillion spending package that keeps the government operating and also sends billions overseas as foreign aide. Trump seized on the Foreign Aide aspect in his criticism as if it was something new. In fact, he spent all his time since the election trying to change the results instead of negotiating over a spending plan which had been rattled around in Congress for weeks.

Some Republicans finally came to their senses and threw off the "rigged election" farce of the last month to reach an agreement with Democrats on both bills.

Why the veto threat?

The Lame Duck was quacking about a provision in the defense bill seeking to rename military bases now named after Confederate generals, something I have written about here before. He didn't t seem to care that a veto would delay a pay raise for the men and women in uniform and badly needed repairs at some military bases. Nor did he appear to care that vetoing the overall spending bill, which would have shut down the government, also includes the Covid-19 relief package. A veto could have left millions of unemployed Americans with no source of income and no $600 stimulus checks. Lame Duck wanted a bigger check, $2,000, an amount the Democrats approved months ago, but which the GOP had rejected. Lame Duck was missing in action on all the debate.

It is unclear what if anything changed his mind about signing the bill. Maybe he threatened to veto the bill just so he could "relevant" again. In the meantime, it raised everyone's blood pressure and left millions of Americans very worried about immediate future.

A few months ago I wrote in this blog that if Donald Trump lost the election, the period between November 3rd and Inauguration Day would be the most dangerous transition of power in America since 1859-1860. So far, that prediction has proven right.

Jobless Benefits Run Out as Trump Resists Signing Relief Bill (msn.com)

Part of the Problem:

A big part of the chaos we have seen the last few weeks and pretty much since the pandemic began, has been the irresponsible right-wing media. They continue to spread disinformation even if a few of them have started to turn on their Lame Duck hero at times.

No one has been worse than Tucker Carlson on Fox. His rant this past week on the Covid-19 virus was reprehensible. He told his audience they should be "skittish" about taking the vaccine because there were a few people who had allergic reactions to it.

Tucker Carlson fans flames of vaccine skepticism, telling Fox News viewers to be nervous about 'glitzy' rollout (msn.com)

Carlson has mocked public health experts repeatedly about everything to do with Covid-19, including prevention measures. And he highlighted an Alaska health care worker who did have an adverse reaction to the vaccine. But that person responded to standard treatment and is fine.

More than a million people have already received the vaccine, and there are only a very few scattered cases of adverse reactions. But Tucker called the public campaign on the vaccine "glitzy" and hard to believe. It is very similar to such campaigns in the past for flu shots and other medications.

Carlson, of course, shrugs off any criticism, hiding behind the First Amendment as many propagandists in this country do. But in this case, spreading false information about the virus or the vaccine is like shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre when there isn't one. First Amendment experts often refer to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes' opinion in Schenck vs. the United States (1919) that spreading such information or causing panic that can actually kill people is going over the line.

Is It Illegal to Shout 'Fire' in a Crowded Theater? | Mental Floss

Schenck v. United States: Case Summary (findlaw.com)

So Carlson, and those like him, are part of the problem. Don't be led astray by the talking heads on Fox or any of those in the right-wing media. They don't report the truth.

Need more evidence of how damaging this all is?

Campbell County

I have been many places in Virginia. It's a great state with fantastic scenery, friendly people for the most part, and a rich, if not always positive, history. Campbell County is in the Piedmont Region just south of Lynchburg. I have never been there. And after reading what they are doing on the Corona virus, I have no intention of going soon. Maybe they have been watching too much Tucker Carlson.

Protestors crowd steps of Campbell courthouse at midnight to oppose Northam's COVID-19 rules | State and Regional News | roanoke.com

On December15, as the number of cases grew by 70 in just that week in the rural county, more than 100 people gathered at the county courthouse to protest new mandates put into effect by Governor Ralph Northam. They didn't like the Governor's new restrictions limiting gatherings to 10 people, or mandatory mask wearing. Most were not wearing masks at the protest. That night the Board of Supervisors made Campbell County a

(Locator on Campbell County VA)

"First Amendment Sanctuary," claiming the new mandates violated the Virginia Constitution. The county will not let any of its employees enforce the mandate.

Thankfully, most Virginians didn't fall for that. Nearby Appomattox rejected the idea.

Appomattox County Kills First Amendment Sanctuary Resolution - The Virginia Star

What the Supervisors in Campbell County forgot is the full meaning of the First Amendment.

"The right to swing my fist

ends where the other man's nose begins."

That quote is often attributed to Justice Holmes, though Abe Lincoln said something similar.

The First Amendment doesn't apply with this type of health issue. My nose needs to be protected from your germs when those germs are lethal.

New Poll: Most of the country seems to agree with me and not with Campbell County. A new poll from Vox/Data shows 69 % of the public supports President-Elect Biden's proposal for a nationwide mask mandate. The Federal rules would only apply to public federal property like courthouses, office buildings and the Post Office. But the poll found higher support--72%-- for a general requirement for masks in ALL public places.

That same poll found only 27% who believe that schools should be open at this time, and 35% say it should stay that way until the Covid-19 vaccines are widely available to the general public.

A similar poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows 73 % of the responders say they wear masks every time they leave their home, or may be in contact with other people. That's up 21% since May.

In both polls, Democrats were more favorable to masks than Republicans, but the percentage was more than 50% even among Republicans.

Most Americans report wearing masks in public, poll says | TheHill

Finally:

I stayed away from the whole pardon issue. It is perhaps a good way to characterize the entire Trump presidency. Reward your friends, attack your enemies if you can, and ignore everyone else--like 300 million Americans.

Entertainment:

I mentioned it above. Here is some old film of Woody Guthrie singing "This Land is your Land." It's grainy but it's a chance to watch Guthrie perform.