Displaying items by tag: Coronavirus

When Republicans failed to deliver for the American people and lost their majority in the United States House of Representatives in 2018, a true poison was unleashed on the nation. Once again, Nancy Pelosi became U.S. Speaker of the House and in her second stint in this position, she has been incredibly damaging to this country.

Who could have ever imagined that our lives would so dramatically change by a virus that just a few months ago was dismissed by our leaders as a minor problem that really would not affect our lives that much?  A little social distancing and we will all be back to normal in no time.  How wrong they were.

I turned 80 years old this month.  It seemed like my life had peaked, but I was ready for the long and relaxing ride back down.  I looked forward to enjoying my later years and be on this side of troubled waters.  But now, I’m not so sure.

Most of us are aware that our democracy is not the perfect form of government.  But we still believe that few other countries come close to our freedoms, benefits, and opportunities.  Our country is special, and we take pride in being prepared for whatever difficulties we face.  America cannot and should not have to rely on any other country for help in the time of a major crisis.  Churchill said it well back in 1934.

“We cannot afford to confide the safety of our country

To the passions or the panic of any foreign nation which may

Be facing some desperate crisis.  We must be independent.

We must be free.  We must preserve our full latitude and

Discretion of choice.”

I don’t think the blame game helps, but the fact remains that our country needs better preparation for future epidemics.  But it often comes down to tax dollars.  Current financial needs often are given priority over long-range planning for future catastrophes.  I made the same arguments for a major federal response to a Katrina-like catastrophe when I proposed and testified in Congress for the immediate need of a National Disaster Relief program back in 1995.  A similar proposal was part of my detailed Brown Papers where I outlined such a need in my race for governor back in 1987.  Such suggestions were put on the back burner and never revived.

And what about all these food pantry lines?  Millions of people across the country wait for hours to get a box of canned goods.  Yet while so many Americans go hungry, farmers are plowing up ripe fruits and vegetables, and milk is being dumped in waste pits.  There are congressional proposals for a major distribution program through the Department of Agriculture.

Why not eliminate all the bureaucracy, help our grocery stores, and just enlarge the food stamp program that is built around a private business structure already set up to distribute food?  Let those in need just go to their local grocery stores.  Why not let those who qualify and need food use SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to buy groceries even online if necessary.  Why abandon a workable program that makes use of the private sector?

This current pandemic is not going away soon.  I know that many people are fed up with what they feel are draconian stay-at-home restrictions.  But we are being naive if there is a feeling that life will return to the old normal in the not too distant future.  There could well be a second wave of the virus, and a vaccine is most likely many months away.

We need to balance such caution with the realization that our economy is stuck in an induced coma, and needs to rebound so people can get back to work. And our kids need an education. Finding the right balance is the single biggest challenge facing our political leaders in Washington. 

 There’s a new normal yet to be determined. Many folks might not like it, but guess what?  The coronavirus doesn’t give a darn.  We are just going to have to face this fact.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears in numerous newspapers throughout the state and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.  

New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell has issued the "City of New Orleans Phase One for a Safe Reopening" BEGINNING MAY 16, 2020, which is below

Is New Orleans ready to reopen?

The nation’s economy in a free-fall. The death toll continues to shock and climb day after day.  All communities are debating if and when it should abandon their severe lockdowns and return to a more restricted business-as-unusual.  Currently, the United States is facing an unimaginable 20 percent unemployment.  Yet, the deaths now hovering over 80,000.  Some experts predict that by Memorial Day, an unthinkable 100,000 people will have died as a result of the coronavirus.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is a progressive Democrat schooled by the Aspen Institute to follow a very left-wing agenda. It should have been no surprise that she visited Cuba to learn about economic development or Ghana to study how to bring a slave ship attraction to New Orleans. 

During this Covid-19 crisis, she has not disappointed her liberal benefactors. Every day, her decisions are following their playbook to seize more government control and limit the freedom of the people.

So many Coronavirus economy questions. For now, very few answers. Lots of disappointments. For some, hopefully, a new promising new normal beginning .

Questions such as: Can businesses in this region recover? Are we ready to reopen? Which industries might be the winners? Which could lose?

Michael Hecht, the President of Greater New Orleans Inc seemed optimistic but worried.  Hecht has been the face of the region's economic development engine. He moved to the city after Katrina and has been at the center of major developments in the airline, technology, manufacturing, transportation, aerospace, logistics, just to name a few. 

It took President Trump three years to build the world’s best economy with an unemployment rate of only 3.5%, rising wages, strong consumer confidence, and a robust stock market. Sadly, it only took three weeks for that healthy economy to be destroyed and the longer the economy is closed for business, the harder it will be for our nation to recover.

Did you know that those individuals around the United States and locally, who want the national governments to be prudent, follow science and put life before money, are “unconstitutional anti-business, socialists who have destroyed the American economy’?

Yep.

If you looked around over the past week, you will see these epitaphs all over.  They’re on protests signs, on social media posts, on certain cable networks along with revolutionary-war era slogans such as “Don’t Tread on Me”, “Give Me Liberty or Give me Death”.

Hi-Ho!

As you grab your hat on the way out the door to work did you know?

The coronavirus, aka Covid-19, is a scheme to destroy the American economy, to bring down President Donald Trump and to install socialism as a body-politic.

Or, at least, that is what I have read on twitter, other social media and have heard on rush radio and the like.

After several months of non-stop media hysteria, Americans are finally getting sick and tired of hearing about the dangers of Covid-19 and reminded about the precautions they must make. It is getting nauseating for every news program and a growing number of commercials to obsess about the coronavirus.

Of course, Americans are concerned about the disease and want to be safe, but full safety can never be guaranteed. There will always be killer diseases that can impact Americans. This has been the case since our country was founded 244 years ago.