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Because the list of President Trump’s accomplishments is so long, a single blog listing them would be way too long. Therefore, I am going to divide his list of accomplishments into multiple parts.

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Trump signed legislation forgiving Hurricane Katrina debt that threatened HBCUs.

New single-family home sales are up 31.6% in October 2019 compared to just one year ago.

Made HBCUs a priority by creating the position of executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs.

 Trump received the Bipartisan Justice Award at a historically black college for his criminal justice reform accomplishments.

The poverty rate fell to a 17-year low of 11.8% under the Trump administration as a result of a jobs-rich environment.

Poverty rates for African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans have reached their lowest levels since the U.S. began collecting such data.

President Trump signed a bill that creates five national monuments, expands several national parks, adds 1.3 million acres of wilderness, and permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

Trump’s USDA committed $124 Million to rebuild rural water infrastructure.

[Prior to the unexpected coronavirus pandemic] Consumer confidence & small business confidence is at an all time high.

[Prior to the unexpected coronavirus pandemic]  More than 7 million jobs created since election.

[Prior to the unexpected coronavirus pandemic]  More Americans were employed than ever recorded before in our history.

More than 400,000 manufacturing jobs created since his election.

Trump appointed five openly gay ambassadors.

Trump ordered Ric Grenell, his openly gay ambassador to Germany, to lead a global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality across the globe.

Through Trump’s Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam) initiative, Federal law enforcement more than doubled convictions of human traffickers and increased the number of defendants charged by 75% in ACTeam districts.

In 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismantled an organization that was the internet’s leading source of prostitution-related advertisements resulting in sex trafficking.

Trump’s OMB published new anti-trafficking guidance for government procurement officials to more effectively combat human trafficking.

Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations arrested 1,588 criminals associated with Human Trafficking.

Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services provided funding to support the National Human Trafficking Hotline to identify perpetrators and give victims the help they need.The hotline identified 16,862 potential human trafficking cases.

Trump’s DOJ provided grants to organizations that support human trafficking victims – serving nearly 9,000 cases from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018.

The Department of Homeland Security has hired more victim assistance specialists, helping victims get resources and support.

President Trump has called on Congress to pass school choice legislation so that no child is trapped in a failing school because of his or her zip code.

The President signed funding legislation in September 2018 that increased funding for school choice by $42 million.

Everyone is now aware that the TV ratings for the NBA Finals are way down.(BTW: Who is actually playing in the NBA Finals? Is it over yet? Who cares? . . . exactly my point.) Everyone knows that the tanking of the NBA is because of their political messaging.

Will the NBA learn anything from this debacle? My guess is that LeBron will not learn anything, but is there hope for the NBA? The commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, said the political messages are going to likely be gone starting next season. I’ll believe it when I see it. Until then, no NBA for me.

What about the NFL? 

According to Sports Business Journal, viewership on average is down roughly 10% from 2019. Through the first four weeks of the 2020 season, the NFL is averaging 14.6 million viewers across networks carrying games. That number was 16.3 million at this time last season. 

Why? 

Maybe it’s the election. Some blame it on the crowded sport’s schedule. (Katie Melua says, “Blame it on the moon!”)

Duh! 

Could it be because of all the political messaging? Duh, squared!

So far this year I am happy to report that I have not succumbed to watching the NFL, and have missed it about as much as I have missed not watching the NBA!

As we go along with this pandemic, I am consistently amazed by some of the arbitrary decisions and diktats that are beIng decided by “those who know best.”

Almost every time “those who know best” come up with something, I think to myself, “certainly they cannot top this one!” However, it typically doesn’t take long before I am again saying, “They did it again!”

Finally last week those that know best decided to open the neighborhood playgrounds, so that the children could for the first time in six months use those playgrounds that are being paid for by our tax dollars. When I told my four year old granddaughter that the playground was opened, she was very excited. 

“I can hardly wait to go on the swings,” she said.

So later that morning we went to the neighborhood playground, and . . . like a lead ballon, crash! . . . her expectation of swinging was instead, “disappointment personified.” Yes, the playground was open. The slides were open. The climbing structures were open. The entire playground was opened . . . except there were no swings! “They did it again!”

I assumed that “those who know best” must have decided that the swings were just “too risky.” I do not understand this logic. 

I said to myself, “certainly they cannot top this one.” 

However, it took only about a day for me to again say, “They did it again!” The latest involves “proper behavior when going out to eat.” . . . “Those who know best“ now say, “when out to eat, you should put your mask on between bites, and of course between sips of whatever you are drinking” Can any rational person actually expect that any non-Karen will do this ?

“Certainly they cannot top this one!”

The present Vegas line that “those who know best” will do it again, probably within the week!  . . . even money!

I just read an interesting article from the 9/10/20 Financial Times. The article was basically an interview with Anders Tegnell, the Swedish epidemiologist, and much of what I will have to say has been gleaned from this article.

I would recommend that everyone read this entire article.

I will not bore you with Tegnell’s life story, but rather just want to emphasize some of his basic tenets as they relate to the coronavirus pandemic. 

A lot of the following is from the Financial Times article written by Richard Milne, who states at the beginning:

“At the start of this year, Anders Tegnell was just a low-profile bureaucrat in a country of 10m people, heading a department that collects and analyses data on public health. Today, he has become one of the best known — and most controversial — figures of the global coronavirus crisis.”

As I am sure that most of you are aware, Sweden, vis a vis, Tegnell approached the Covid pandemic differently. 

Tegnell is a big believer in “sustainability.” 

He said, “At the outset, we talked very much about sustainability, and I think that’s something we managed to keep to. And also be a bit resistant to quick fixes, to realise that this is not going to be easy, it is not going to be a short-term kind of thing, it’s not going to be fixed by one kind of measure. We see a disease that we’re going to have to handle for a long time into the future and we need to build up systems for doing that,”

I find it interesting that Tegnell seems more focused on the long term as opposed to the short term. Almost every other country in the world, except Belarus has lockdowned  in some form, and has focused its policies on the short term. Lockdowns, universal mask wearing, online schooling, etc. are all short term “stick a finger in the dike” solutions. They are all short term fixes, as opposed to long term sustainable solutions.

How has Tegnell’s long term plan worked so far?

In general Sweden’s economic results are on par with the other Nordic countries, but due to its failure to protect those in nursing homes early on, Sweden’s mortality stats at this time are much worse than its Nordic neighbors.

As coronavirus cases rise in pretty much all other European countries, leading to fears of a second wave including in the UK, they have been sinking all summer in Sweden. On a per capita basis, they are now 90 per cent below their peak in late June and under Norway’s and Denmark’s for the first time in five months. Is it about herd immunity?

“Herd immunity is one of the most controversial concepts of the Covid-19 crisis. Tegnell is adamant that it was not Sweden’s goal to allow the virus to run its course until enough of the population had been exposed and the infection rate slowed. But he argues immunity is at least in part responsible for the sharp recent drop in Swedish cases and questions how its neighbours will fare without it. “What is protecting Copenhagen today? We will see,” he adds.”

In general, Tegnell is resistant to adopting “easy solutions for complex problems.” Lockdowns, universal mask wearing, school closures appear to be  easy solutions, but are not sustainable over the long term.

What about a vaccine?

He warns that a vaccine — if and when it comes — will not be the “silver bullet”. He adds: “Once again, I’m not very fond of easy solutions to complex problems and to believe that once the vaccine is here, we can go back and live as we always have done. I think that’s a dangerous message to send because it’s not going to be that easy.”

Keep in mind that this fight against this coronavirus pandemic is going to be akin to a marathon as opposed to a hundred yard dash or even a 440 . . . “sustainability!”

Because the list of President Trump’s accomplishments is so long, a single blog listing them would be way too long. Therefore, I am going to divide his list of accomplishments into multiple parts. This is the second of seven.

Please forward each of these to your entire email mailing list:

He created a White House VA Hotline to help veterans and principally staffed it with veterans and direct family members of veterans.

VA employees are being held accountable for poor performance, with more than 4,000 VA employees removed, demoted, and suspended so far.

Issued an executive order requiring the Secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs to submit a joint plan to provide veterans access to access to mental health treatment as they transition to civilian life.

Because of a bill signed and championed by Trump, in 2020, most federal employees will see their pay increase by an average of 3.1% — the largest raise in more than 10 years.

Trump signed into a law up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for millions of federal workers.

Trump administration will provide HIV prevention drugs for free to 200,000 uninsured patients per year for 11 years.

All-time record sales during the 2019 holidays.

Trump signed an order allowing small businesses to group together when buying insurance to get a better price.

President Trump signed the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act that provides funding for states to develop maternal mortality reviews to better understand maternal complications and identify solutions & largely focuses on reducing the higher mortality rates for Black Americans.

In 2018, President Trump signed the groundbreaking First Step Act, a criminal justice bill which enacted reforms that make our justice system fairer and help former inmates successfully return to society.

The First Step Act’s reforms addressed inequities in sentencing laws that disproportionately harmed Black Americans and reformed mandatory minimums that created unfair outcomes.

The First Step Act expanded judicial discretion in sentencing of non-violent crimes.

Over 90% of those benefiting from the retroactive sentencing reductions in the First Step Act are Black Americans.

The First Step Act provides rehabilitative programs to inmates, helping them successfully rejoin society and not return to crime.

Trump increased funding for historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by more than 14%.

Perhaps I am just nosy, or maybe it would be more P.C. to refer to me as “inquisitive.” As everyone is aware President Trump has come down with the  Wuhan virus and was just discharged from Walter Reed hospital. So far, so good as there is no disputing this. The part that I am nosy . . . err, inquisitive about is the reaction of the liberal media. Why are they reacting in this manner?

For example, on Sunday, 10/4/20 the headline in my local liberal “newspaper”  read: “Mixed Messages About Trump’s Health.” After reading this WaPo article, I guess the “mixed message” was that the White House said “the president is doing very well,” and someone else saying he’s “not out of the woods yet.”  To me these are both statements that are in no way contradictory, as obviously any patient at any time during the course of an illness can be doing very well and not be out of the woods yet. Why the big megillah? 

“Why was he taken from the White House to Walter Reed by helicopter instead of by car?” Really! . . . Maybe because he is the President!

“When did the Covid test initially become positive? What are they trying to hide?” To me the answer to this is intuitively obvious . . .If the President had been consistently negative, and then a quick test came back positive, the first thing a competent physician would do is repeat the test to either confirm its positivity or to evaluate if the test was a false positive. Does it really matter when it turned positive if Trump was in essence quarantined in the White House? Why the big megillah?

On Monday, 10/5/20 the big “why?” had to do with a short course of the steroid drug, dexamethasone. Here the headline read: “Trump Receiving Powerful Lung Drug, Doctors Disclose.” This was followed by comments from physicians who were not taking care of the President as well as non-physicians as to why the drug was possibly not indicated. Or others cautioning about various side effects of dexamethasone. Does anyone think that perhaps both the indications for dexamethasone as well as any possible side effects of dexamethasone were considered by the physicians treating the President? Duh!That’s what doctors do whenever they prescribe a drug . . . consider the benefit as well as the side effects. Again I ask why the big megillah?

What are the libs trying to achieve by all of this innuendo? On both days the implied message was that someone is not telling the truth. Are the libs trying to make Trump sicker than he is? If so, why?

Is this supposed to be a backhanded compliment to Basement Joe? (If Trump would have acted smart like Biden, the President would not be as sick as he is!) 

I still do not get “the why?” Could it be the “the why” is merely an example of the liberals’ hopes? (“If we imply that Trump is really sicker than they are telling us, maybe these hopes will come to fruition.”)

The other confusing part to me is: if Trump is really sicker that his physicians are letting on, then, when is back on the campaign trail, it says a lot for his resilience and his overall good state of health. This is almost contradictory to the message the libs are trying to peddle now. Why?

Instead of writing an opinion piece about President Trump and his battle with the Wuhan virus, I thought that this might be a good time to concentrate on what is not opinion, but rather fact . . . Trump’s accomplishments during his presidency. The following should not be considered as a complete mist – but instead only a partial list, with more to come.
(Because the list of President Trump’s accomplishments is so long, a single blog listing them would be way too long. Therefore, I am going to divide his list of accomplishments into multiple parts.)

Please forward each of these to your entire email mailing list:

Trump recently signed three bills to benefit Native people. One gives compensation to the Spokane tribe for loss of their lands in the mid-1900s, one funds Native language programs, and the third gives federal recognition to the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Montana.

Trump finalized the creation of Space Force as our 6th Military branch.

Trump signed a law to make cruelty to animals a federal felony so that animal abusers face tougher consequences.

Violent crime has fallen every year he’s been in office after rising during the two years before he was elected.

Trump signed a bill making CBD and Hemp legal.

Trump’s EPA gave $100 million to fix the water infrastructure problem in Flint, Michigan.

 Under Trump’s leadership, in 2018 the U.S. surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of crude oil.

Trump signed a law ending the gag orders on pharmacists that prevented them from sharing money-saving information.

Trump signed the “Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act” (FOSTA), which includes the “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act” (SESTA) which both give law enforcement and victims new tools to fight sex trafficking.

Trump signed a bill to require airports to provide spaces for breastfeeding moms.

The 25% lowest-paid Americans enjoyed a 4.5% income boost in November 2019, which outpaces a 2.9% gain in earnings for the country’s highest-paid workers.

Low-wage workers are benefiting from higher minimum wages and from corporations that are increasing entry-level pay.

Trump signed the biggest wilderness protection & conservation bill in a decade and designated 375,000 acres as protected land.

Trump signed the Save our Seas Act which funds $10 million per year to clean tons of plastic & garbage from the ocean.

He signed a bill this year allowing some drug imports from Canada so that prescription prices would go down.

Trump signed an executive order this year that forces all healthcare providers to disclose the cost of their services so that Americans can comparison shop and know how much less providers charge insurance companies.

When signing that bill he said no American should be blindsided by bills for medical services they never agreed to in advance.

Hospitals will now be required to post their standard charges for services, which include the discounted price a hospital is willing to accept.

In the eight years prior to President Trump’s inauguration, prescription drug prices increased by an average of 3.6% per year. Under Trump, drug prices have seen year-over-year declines in nine of the last ten months, with a 1.1% drop as of the most recent month.

I would suppose that everyone thought that I was referring to President Trump taking a ride outside around Walter Reed Hospital to wave to his supporters who had been gathered on the streets outside the military hospital. He was outside of the facility for perhaps five or ten minutes, and predictably the liberal left went bat-shit . . . concerned about the secret service riding in the cat with him. The agents in the vehicle with Trump were reportedly wearing protective gear including N-95 masks and gowns over their clothing. Although not publicized yet, I would bet that all of the agents in the car had volunteered. If I was a s-s agent, I would have eagerly volunteered.

However, the Trump Motorcade was not the good news to which I was referring. Apparently the NBA played the second game of something, but that is not the good news . . . the good news is that game two of the NBA Finals had horrific TV ratings when the Lakers beat the Heat.

According to Outkick, the game only averaged 4.5 million viewers on ABC this past Friday night, which is a huge drop from the 7.41 million viewers game one got. To make matters worse, it’s also the least-watched NBA Finals game on record, according to the same Outkick report.

Perhaps a rhetorical question, but why? … Could it be because the politicization of the NBA has completely turned off any fans? . . . Duh! 

If I were an NBA enthusiast, I would hope that this series only goes four games just to save the league further embarrassment. However whether I do not watch four games or I do not watch all seven games . . . no me importa!

Last week on the news I saw that Dr. Wilma Wooten was receiving some award.

For those unfamiliar with Dr. Wooten has been with the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency since 2001, initially as Deputy Health Officer and, since 2007, as the Public Health Officer.

Statewide, Mark Ghaly, MD, is the secretary for the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS). Every week or two he is on the TV news and in the newspapers announcing the latest Covid stats for California and it’s individual counties. He then relates which counties are doing poorly and thus are going to be punished via business closures and cutbacks. 

While most everyone is familiar with the health gurus . . . think Dr. Fauci . . . are there any coincident economic gurus? If there are, I do not know any of their names or faces. In good faith I would assume that the leaders in our state, and our city are consulting with economists when decisions are being made. However, when the state and local health gurus read off the one week or the two week Covid stats, I never hear anything about the economic consequence of dropping a county from the red tier to the purple tier. Do Dr. Wooten and Dr. Ghaly know what happens to certain struggling small business owners when they are bureaucratically forced to shut down, sometimes for the second or third time? My gut response is “no,” they have no idea, and if they do have an idea, why is this not announced? 

How come we do not hear something like this from the bureaucrats that know best and are running the show? For example: “This week the number of new Covid cases went from xxx to yyy. Because of this increase, your county’s new number is above our guidelines, and consequently your county will be going down a tier. This ratcheting down of a tier at this moment in time is likely to cost xxx people their jobs, and it is likely to result in an additional yyy restaurants, bars, gyms, etc. closing forever.

Does these practical consequences have any import? Obviously the economic impacts have dramatic consequences not only in 2020, but probably for many, many years to come. Most of these businesses that are continually being forced to close will not be coming back.

Does the public deserve to know more than just the weekly Covid health stats? For the Kens and the Karens all they want are the worrisome Covid stats. However, I think that more good would be accomplished by providing stats that tell the whole story, including the economic death-knell that is being forced down our throats as well as the throats of many slowly dying business owners.

Should there be a balance here? 

Should we all be aware of the entire story?

I just now read some bad news in an article on Yahoo Sports. Perhaps you all should be sitting down for this. Are you ready?

“A trend of low ratings throughout the NBA postseason has now reached the NBA Finals. And hit it hard. (That sound is me sniffling.)

Game 1 of the Finals brought in only 7.41 million viewers to ABC. That is reportedly the lowest viewership seen for the Finals since at least 1994, when total viewers began to be regularly recorded. The number is down 45 percent from last year’s Game 1. (That sound is me gasping in short staccatos, fighting off the tears.)

The playoffs opened with a thud that was partially attributed to weekday afternoon games, and things didn’t get better as the postseason progressed. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the two conference finals series this year were down 35 percent year over year. (Yes, the tears are starting, and now I am in full blown boo-hoo.)

The author of the article briefly mentioned that he thought that this ratings disaster had little to do with politics, and the disrespect for the flag by the NBA. He commented that other professional sports had decreased viewership. (Gee, could that be that other pro-sports were also showing the same disrespect?)

On Sept. 1, President Trump tweeted:

“NBA ratings are WAY down. People are tired of watching the highly political NBA, and they won’t be coming back. I hope football and baseball are watching and learning because the same thing will be happening to them. Stand tall for our Country and our Flag!!!”

(When I read this tweet, my “boo-hoo” turned to “whoo-hoo” because the disrespect by LeBron and the rest of his sycophants is exactly why I not only do not watch the NBA, but I also do not read about it in the Sport’s Page.)

BTW: Who is actually playing in the NBA finals? . . . (A purely rhetorical question, as I don’t care!)