Okay, friends … Joe Biden has been in office for less than 48 hours, and already I see positive signs coming from the White House. Let’s look at a couple …
Once again, science matters
Joe Biden promised to listen to the scientists and the experts, unlike his predecessor, and he is doing just that. First off, he offered Dr. Anthony Fauci the position of Chief Medical Advisor, which Fauci gladly accepted. It is encouraging to hear Dr. Fauci, the nation’s foremost infectious disease specialist, say …
“One of the new things in this administration is, if you don’t know the answer, don’t guess. Just say you don’t know the answer. The idea that you can get up here and talk about what you know and what the science is … it is something of a liberating feeling.”
Yesterday morning, Dr. Fauci spoke to the executive board of the World Health Organization, and was able to tell them that the United States would not be following through with Mr. Trump’s demand to leave the group in the middle of a pandemic. I, for one, breathe a sigh of relief for that one.
Isn’t it grand to know that our president doesn’t think he’s such a stable genius that he knows everything about … well, everything? We can trust that President Biden will listen to the scientists, the experts, on such things as the pandemic and climate change.
And speaking of the pandemic …
President Biden unveiled his national strategy to conquer the pandemic, to save our lives. If this sort of action had been taken a year ago, hundreds of thousands of lives almost certainly would have been saved.
The orders included new requirements for masks on interstate planes, trains and buses, as well as in all federal facilities. I guess this means you, too, members of Congress! He also calls for the creation of a national testing board and mandatory quarantines for international travelers arriving in the United States.
But Biden pulled no punches, he was brutally honest (oh isn’t that so refreshing?) when he admitted, “The brutal truth is it’s going to take months before we can get the majority of Americans vaccinated,” and when he said that US deaths from the pandemic will likely reach 500,000 by February. Honesty. From the president. WOW! Just WOW!
Transparency & truth … FINALLY!
Her name is Jen Psaki, pronounced SOCK-ee, and she is President Biden’s press secretary. She is more than qualified for the job, having served in a number of communications positions in the Obama administration, including as a spokeswoman at the State Department, where she was comfortable delivering lengthy, policy-heavy briefings in a role often held by career foreign policy officials. And she was popular with Washington reporters.
She has already given her first press briefing, and while I only listened to a brief clip, the first few minutes, one word jumped out: transparency.
“If the president were standing here with me today, he would say he works for the American people. I work for him, so I also work for the American people, but his objective and his commitment is to bring transparency and truth back to government, to share the truth, even when it’s hard to hear.”
It brings a tear to my eyes to hear the words ‘transparency’ and ‘truth’ spoken by the press secretary, after four years and five … or was it six? … different press secretaries all telling thousands of lies, accusing reporters of bias, or simply not communicating at all.
A short bit of a rant
I hate to sully an otherwise upbeat post with a min-rant, but I simply must vent a bit on this one …
I understand that ol’ Mitch McConnell has ‘suggested’ that the impeachment trial for Donald Trump be pushed back to February in order to give Trump time to prepare his defense. I have only one question: why should we be fair to the ‘man’ who put us through hell and caused us grief every single day for four solid years? There can be no defense for the impeachment charge, the charge of inciting an attempted overthrow of a legitimate, fair, and honest election.
Oh sure, some high-priced lawyers will try to spin it, to put in in such a light that Trump’s words were not incitement. But we all know better. We all know that he had been planning that last-ditch attempt to silence the people of this nation and seize power as an authoritarian dictator for some time, and those people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th were his pawns, they were inspired to do his dirty work for him. No, there can be no defense against what he did, so why wait? Hold the trial now, convict him, and ensure that he can never again destroy this nation and our lives.
Donald Trump is guilty of treason, for he betrayed a sacred trust, broke his oath to defend the U.S. Constitution, and put this nation in grave jeopardy in more ways than one. The charge of inciting violence is a mild one compared to what he could have legitimately been charged with. He must be convicted on that charge, and as soon as possible in order for this nation to fully breathe easily again, in order for us to move on and begin to heal.