A little less than two months ago, the U.S. State Department made a curious announcement that suggests President Trump's "America First" administration put "China First" at a critical moment during the burgeoning Wuhan pandemic.
Congress passed and the president signed a $2 trillion "stimulus" bill.
"Not enough!" shrieked politicians. They said the government must do more.
Will there be Democratic and Republican conventions this summer? The coronavirus pandemic, and the social distancing needed to combat it, are putting these quadrennial festivities in doubt -- an unprecedented situation that is leaving party officials, politicians, and the media in a quandary, with a fast-ticking clock.
"Government help to business is just as disastrous as government persecution. ... The only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off." -- Ayn Rand.
"This is the question that is going to dominate the election: How did you perform in the great crisis?"
So says GOP Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma in today's New York Times.
It's unnerving, and perhaps instructive, that the arrangements elites have been prescribing for dealing with what they call our most dangerous environmental threat -- climate change, formerly known as global warming -- are almost precisely the opposite of the arrangements deployed to deal with the more immediate threat of COVID-19, aka the novel coronavirus.
To fight the coronavirus at home, France is removing all military forces from Iraq.
In the primary, blue-trending areas see higher turnout, power Joe Biden's strength; erosion for Democrats continues in some rural areas in the South.
— With very few exceptions, statewide turnout in the 2020 Democratic primary has been higher than 2016.
— Suburban areas have seen some of the sharpest turnout increases — though these areas tend to have higher population growth, they’ve also trended blue in general elections, perhaps a positive indicator for Democrats looking to the fall.
— Meanwhile, some rural areas that have been trending away from Democrats in places like North Carolina and Oklahoma saw turnout lag behind 2016.
— While Bernie Sanders seems to have a stronger opponent in Joe Biden than he did with Hillary Clinton, Sanders’ prospects may have been hurt by partisan realignment since 2016.
When I think of "essential" workers in America, the smear merchants of the Anti-Defamation League are at the bottom of the barrel. For decades, they've demonized conservatives and Christians as agents of "hate" and treated our very existence as incitements to violence. The ADL's manufactured outrage machine has broadened its target list to anyone remotely critical of Israel for any reason, President Donald Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, "America First" college students, innocuous hand gestures, cartoon frogs and anyone who dares to think or write that "It's OK to be white."
Coronavirus is frightening.
I'm working from home, practicing "social distancing." Experts say it'll help "flatten the curve" so fewer people will be infected simultaneously. Then hospitals won't be overwhelmed.
In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, everyone should read Robert Higgs' economic classic "Crisis and Leviathan." The critical warning of this masterpiece is that government always uses a crisis -- from the Civil War to the Great Depression to World War II -- to expand power, not only during the emergency but also afterward. Emergencies tend to ratchet up the cost and power of government permanently.
"We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself," tweeted the president on Sunday night, adding that, after the current 15-day shutdown, "we will make a decision as to which way we want to go."
It's the end of the world as we know it, and the banks and airlines feel fine because even in the midst of economic collapse, CEOs can sleep soundly at night, secure in the knowledge that the American taxpayer will bail them out. Again.
Precedent doesn't provide much guidance. There's a deadly coronavirus threatening to circulate through the population. The resulting government orders and social sanctions of self-distancing and self-isolating behavior are unprecedented in living memory.
"It's a war," says President Donald Trump of his efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic, and likening his role to that of "wartime president."
— The coronavirus public health crisis likely will lead to an economic downturn of unknown length and severity.
— Historically, second-quarter GDP growth in the election year is an important variable in predicting how an incumbent president will perform in the fall.
— A recession could seriously damage President Donald Trump’s reelection chances.
— However, we are in truly uncharted territory, and it’s unclear how the public will respond electorally to an economic downturn forced by a pandemic.
No. No. No. No. No. The answer from the American people across the political spectrum to the airline industry's plea for a $50 billion taxpayer-subsidized bailout in the Age of WuFlu must be "Hell, no!" times 50 billion.
It was just a little over 10 years ago, at the height of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said one of the dumbest things in modern times. The best way to stimulate the economy, she declared, was with "unemployment insurance and food stamps." Right. Paying people not to work will get more people to work.
"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time," said Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey to a friend on the eve of Britain's entry into the First World War.
