PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

I now have even more time on my hands than I did in retirement. With everyone else, I am now faced with how to comply with a “Stay at Home” order in the coronavirus pandemic.

One option, I suppose, is literally to stay at home at ALL times, but, despite the emergency, that strikes me as a bit over the top.

Plus, even the government officials who imposed the “Stay at Home” order here in Oregon say it’s okay “to go for a walk.”

One question is whether I’ll be able to take that walk on a golf course.

So, amidst all this, I have been continuing to look for good quotes, which, as this blog headline says, may now not be “good,” but still worth reading.

Even as I write, so-called “political leaders” in Washington, D.C. are struggling to come up with a coronavirus response of legislation. So far, incredibly, they have failed.

Here’s the way Wall Street Journal editorial writers put it this morning:

“What a spectacle. Much of America is quarantined at home, the public is so panicked there’s a run on toilet paper, the country desperately wants reassurance, and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decide to take a bi-partisan rescue bill as a political hostage.”

Do I mean that Republicans are all right and Democrats like Pelosi and Schumer are all wrong? No. Middle ground is the place to be in the face of national catastrophe that ought to put the country on a “war footing” above the worst kind of politics.

Now, for the quotes.

FROM MARGARET SULLIVAN, THE WASHINGTON POST MEDIA CRITIC: “Trump press conferences have become a daily stage for Trump to play his greatest hits to captive audience members. They come in search of life-or-death information, but here’s what they get from him instead:

• Self-aggrandizement. When asked how he would grade his response to the crisis, the president said, “I’d rate it a 10.” Absurd on its face, of course, but effective enough as blatant propaganda
• Media-bashing. When NBC News’s Peter Alexander lobbed him a softball question in Friday’s briefing — “What do you say to Americans who are scared?” — Trump went on a bizarre attack. “I say, you’re a terrible reporter,” the president said, launching into one of his trademark “fake news” rants bashing Alexander’s employer.
• Exaggeration and outright lies. Trump has claimed that there are plenty of tests available (there aren’t); that Google is “very quickly” rolling out a nationwide website to help manage coronavirus treatment (the tech giant was blindsided by the premature claim); that the drug chloroquine, approved to treat malaria, is a promising cure for the virus and “we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.”

Trump is doing harm and spreading misinformation while working for his own partisan political benefit — a naked attempt to portray himself as a wartime president bravely leading the nation through a tumultuous time, the FDR of the 21st century.

The press — if it defines its purpose as getting truthful, useful, non-harmful information to the public, as opposed to merely juicing its own ratings and profits — must recognize what is happening and adjust accordingly.

Business as usual simply doesn’t cut it. Minor accommodations, like fact-checking the president’s statements afterward, don’t go nearly far enough to counter the serious damage this man is doing to the public’s well-being.

Radical change is necessary: The cable networks and other news organizations that are taking the president’s briefings as live feeds should stop doing so.

Comment: It never will be possible to take a microphone away from Trump. But, the media, if it does its job in the right way, should heed Sullivan’s advice. Don’t televise live all of his lies and personal aggrandizement.

FROM JENNIFER RUBIN IN THE WASHINGTON POST: If a captain on a ship froze in the middle of a crisis, he would be relieved of command. If a CEO routinely dispensed false information and was incapable of getting into the weeds to rescue his company from a disaster, he would be fired.

By any definition, Trump is failing, caring more about creating a Chinese boogeyman to blame than in competently addressing the problem before him.

This is not simply a matter of assigning blame for having left us unprepared and allowing precious time to slip by. This goes to Trump’s ongoing inability to competently manage the federal government. The Post reports that “the growing gulf between the White House and officials on the front lines of the pandemic underscored concerns in cities, states and Congress that Trump does not have a coherent or ready plan to mobilize private and public entities to confront a crisis that could soon push the nation’s health-care system to the brink of collapse.” In short, lives will be lost because no one can tell Trump he is wrong and making things worse.

Comment: Right, again. Trump is ill-prepared to lead the country in what should literally be “war-time footing” that the problem will be much worse than it already is.

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST: “I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down.” So says Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public health expert trying to lead us through the coronavirus crisis.

Amid the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been charged with a herculean task: Trying to keep Trump’s public statements about the novel virus rooted in fact.

Now it appears that Fauci’s frustration is showing.

When asked Sunday by Science magazine’s Jon Cohen about having to stand in front of the nation as “the representative of truth and facts” when “things are being said that aren’t true and aren’t factual,” the 79-year-old said there is only so much he can do.

“I can’t jump in front of the microphone and push him down,” Fauci said, referencing Trump. “Okay, he said it. Let’s try and get it corrected for the next time.”

Comment: It could be contended that Fauci has THE most difficult job in the federal government – trying to provide facts and perspective about coronavirus when Trump does the reverse.

FROM WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL WRITERS: Elizabeth Warren’s Ranting Resumes. We won’t go so far as to say bi-partisan comity has descended with the coronavirus crisis, but given the low standards of our time, it could be worse. Americans everywhere have stepped away from politics the past week to help each other. Even the Senate seems to be working toward a decent legislative response, though it is not done yet. Then there’s Elizabeth Warren.

In a series of tweets Sunday, Warren ranted (there’s no other word): “Millions may now lose their jobs. And Trump wants our response to be a half-trillion dollar slush fund to boost favored companies and corporate executives.” She calls the Senate bill a “bailout” and gripes “it makes no long-term changes to make future bailouts less likely.” What planet is she living on?

Comment: With Warren’s withdrawal from the Democrat presidential contest, I hoped we had heard the last of her rants. No. She’s back. I simply pledge not to listen to her any longer.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

I hadn’t thought about this approach before reading a Wall Street Journal editorial last week.

Here is what it said:

“As the coronavirus threatens to stall the U.S. economy, a relatively easy countermeasure is to hit the emergency 401(k) button: Congress should allow people to take a certain sum, say $10,000, from their retirement accounts without facing penalties or taxes.

“This is a way to tap liquidity that already exists. Among non-retired adults, 54 per cent have some kind of defined-contribution plan, such as a 401(k) or 403(b), according to a Federal Reserve report last year. Also, 33 per cent hold an individual retirement account. For Americans overall, it represents a huge pool of money, estimated by one survey at roughly $17 trillion.

“Early withdrawals generally face automatic tax withholding. Plus there’s a 10 per cent penalty, with narrow exceptions. Congress created a new exception in December when it passed the Secure Act: Up to $5,000 can be taken out, penalty free, ‘in case of birth of child or adoption.’ In hindsight, lawmakers should have added a provision “in case of global coronavirus pandemic.

“In the past, Washington has given increased withdrawal flexibility to victims of hurricanes and California’s wildfires. What’s needed this time is bigger, since the coronavirus pandemic is nationwide and economic idling will affect millions. But the mechanics appear relatively straightforward. Lawmakers could pass legislation saying that early distributions during a defined period won’t incur the 10 per cent penalty. Maybe they could waive the usual income tax and withholding, too.

“This idea has many advantages, compared with the talk of giving every American a federal check for $1,000—or is it up to $2,000? It provides an option for people who need the cash, without blanketing everyone. Under Washington’s current plan for a Coronavirus Basic Income, the government would take out debt to pay everyone. Further, each dollar pulled from a retirement account would cost the Treasury only a fraction of that in forgone revenue, for a multiplier effect.

“Not everybody has a retirement plan, but a limited period of allowing free-and-clear withdrawals would encourage parents, brothers, uncles and so forth to act as a financial backstop to younger and less-fortunate family. That’s a much healthier dynamic than simply telling Americans to sit tight, crank up “Ride of the Valkyries,” and wait for the government helicopters dropping $100 bills.”

As I write this, Congress is battling over what to do in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Agreement has been hard to reach despite the incredible urgency of doing something.

The proposal above would be worth including in anything that has a chance to pass. It represents a solid combination of federal action combined with private resources.

And this from the current stalemate:

“Impasse turned on Democratic concerns that the legislation would help businesses more than the public.”

I suppose that concern could be considered to be valid in the age of Trump, when he perverts everything to support himself and, thus, could use resources for business to help his cronies as he done time and time again.

But, given the extremity of our circumstance, it is time for political figures to rise above petty politics and take action to protect America – despite Trump.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

In the midst of the current pandemic, it may seem strange to write about lessons we can learn from it.

Normally, such an aspiration is more likely to be uttered after the emergency, not during it. Plus, at the moment, survival – either from coronavirus or economic dislocation – is the priority.

But, I persist.

ONE DOCTOR’S STRAIGHT TALK: Emily Landon, the chief infectious disease epidemiologist at University of Chicago Medicine, took the lectern after the Illinois governor announced the state would undergo a “shelter in place” order.

“The healthy and optimistic among us will doom the vulnerable,” Landon said. She acknowledged that restrictions like a shelter-in-place may end up feeling “extreme” and “anticlimactic” — and that’s the point.

“It’s really hard to feel like you’re saving the world when you’re watching Netflix from your couch. But if we do this right, nothing happens. A successful shelter-in-place means you’re going to feel like it was all for nothing, and you’d be right: Because nothing means that nothing happened to your family. And that’s what we’re going for here.”

Landon’s comments were less than 10 minutes of the hour-long news conference, but they quickly made an impression on listeners and drew praise for their clarity and sense of empowerment while still conveying the urgency of the moment.

RELY ON GOVERNMENT SCIENTISTS: It is clear that Donald Trump has given short shrift to government scientists who have been trying, against long and tough odds, to prepare America for an epidemic. He won’t listen to them and, even if he did, he always knows best, given what he labels as his high medical acumen – though, frankly, he wouldn’t know the meaning of the word acumen.

The current situation proves beyond a shadow of doubt that we need smart people to do good work for us in government.

TELL DONALD TRUMP TO STOP TALKING: Speaking of smart people, Trump continues to prove every day that he is not one of them.

I would say to him – stop talking. Let experts guide us. Or, let smart political figures – yes, there are a few of them left – talk to us about proper preparations for the virus.

Trump proved his narcissism again yesterday when, in response to a question from an NBC reporter – essentially a softball designed to give Trump a chance to express enlightened leadership to Americans – Trump chose instead to go after the reporter.

Thus, he missed a major opportunity to reassure Americans. No surprise there. He doesn’t see opportunities and, if he did, he would have no idea about what to say to provide solace and a bit of comfort.

Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan showed up this weekend with an excellent suggestion.

To stop what she labels Trump’s self-aggrandizement, media bashing, exaggeration and outright lies: “Radical change is necessary: The cable networks and other news organizations that are taking the president’s briefings as live feeds should stop doing so.”

LOOK FOR POSITIVE STORIES AMIDST THE PROBLEMS: Even as we engage in “social distancing,” there are ways to look for good deeds.

One example. At the doctor’s office the other day, I saw that an elderly woman had come in for an appointment, but arrived on the wrong day, not to mention by taxi. She would have had to leave and return another day.

Except another woman in the waiting room stepped up and said, “I am willing to give you my appointment and I can come another time.” She had arrived in her own car, so she had options.

The appointment was changed due to the selfless actions of one person.

One other example. A business friend of mine builds and places modular structures around the region. As we talked yesterday – six feet apart – he told us he had provided several structures to hospitals in the area to use as expansions for their capacity in the face of the virus.

He also did so for free.

If you look for such good news – assuming you can leave home to do so – you are liable to find it.

KEEP RECORDS ALL ALONG TO HELP NEXT TIME, IF THERE IS A NEXT TIME: One of the lessons I learned during my career as a lobbyist was to keep better records as I handled public policy issues for clients.

I didn’t do well in that regard, so, when I wanted to reflect on the high and low points of various actions, I had to try to remember, not refer to timely notes.

So, as we try to survive with the virus, I say, keep good notes so we can learn for the future.

AND THIS FINAL QUESTION: How do we, as Oregonians comply with all the instructions provided by government officials?

Hard. Because, for one thing, the instructions lack clarity.

So, I say, work to comply with the spirit, not the letter, of the instructions. And try to do so as a good citizen concerned, not just about your and your family’s future, but also the well-being of your neighbors.

\PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

This, like some of my other posts, will indicate that I have too much time on hands in retirement.

The coronavirus deal, with its social distancing, not to mention the risk of a “shelter in place” order, only adds to my down time.

Almost as I write the word risk, we now have close to a “shelter in place” order in Oregon, though Governor Kate Brown and Portland mayor Ted Wheeler won’t use the term, which, they say, is very confusing. But, so is the term they use — “Stay Home, Stay Healthy.”  However well-intentioned Brown and Wheeler are in the current unpredictable environment, their phrase doesn’t serve clarity.

We may know more by next Monday when Brown, Wheeler and others roll out more details.

So, that said, I have been thinking about strange stuff in the “era” of coronavirus. Here are examples:

WHAT DOES SHELTER IN PLACE MEAN? For me, the question came to a head with decisions in California to impose “shelter in place.”

In the old days, “shelter in place” tended to mean that there some kind of disturbance outside, sometimes with guns, and, for safety, you should stay in place.

Today, the term has been expanded to apply to coronavirus restrictions, but the term strikes me as a bit of a euphemism. Plus, we still don’t have a good idea of what is allowed during a “shelter in place” and what is not allowed.

And, who enforces the order? The governor in California asked citizens to abide by it, but who knows if they will.

WHAT DOES “EQUITY” MEAN FOR CLOSED SCHOOLS/Early on, when schools closures were announced, many of us thought students would still “be in school at home with laptops,” especially as teachers were trained to teach on-line.

No.

Here’s why according to a story from the Oregonian newspaper:

“Oregon schools will not replace the weeks of traditional classroom instruction students are missing with online classes or another substitute while schools are shuttered until April 28.

The reasons why boil down to two words: Access and equity.

“’Protecting student rights has to be front and center during the conversation about distance learning,” Marc Siegel, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Education, told The Oregonian/OregonLive. ‘You cannot open a brick-and-mortar school in Oregon unless it is accessible to every student in their school district. The same rules apply to an online school.’

“The state’s public schools are not equipped to do that for special education students, those who speak English as a second language, students who lack computers or Internet access and others with special circumstances during the shutdown, he noted.

“’Our students with disabilities and specialized needs, by law, require specially designed instruction,’ Siegel said. ‘If a school opens to serve its community’s students, it must be able to provide those specialized instruction services.’”

There you have it – access and equity.

Upon reflection, the notion becomes a bit more understandable, but when I first heard about this from my daughter who works in a school in Woodinville, Washington, I couldn’t believe it.

I can now.

WHICH TAKES PRECEDENCE: RESPONDING TO THE HEALTH EMERGENCY OR SAVING THE SAGGING ECONOMY? That question is beginning to be asked by some who are wondering if the U.S. economy will survive.

Perhaps it’s not the best source – not perhaps, it is not – but here is what one of my golfing buddies from the California desert said when he heard about the California “shelter in place” directive:

“We are at the point where the cure is worse than the disease.”

The Wall Street Journal is a better source and here is the way editorial writers put it yesterday:

“Yet (a word which meant editors were not opposing general social distancing moves), the costs of this national shutdown are growing by the hour, and we don’t mean federal spending. We mean a tsunami of economic destruction that will cause tens of millions to lose their jobs as commerce and production simply cease. Many large companies can withstand a few weeks without revenue but that isn’t true of millions of small and mid-sized firms.”

With all of this at stake – health and the economy — I’m just glad I am no longer in a state agency position in Oregon where I would have to contribute to what clearly are life and death decisions every day, if not every hour.

I also just read a column by one of my favorites, Peggy Noonan, who writes for the Wall Street Journal. She echoed a sentence that has been my solace, at least partially, through all of this:

“A general attitude for difficult times? Trust in God first and always. Talk to him.”

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

The current coronavirus pandemic is proving one thing when it comes to political leadership in this country.

We need experienced, seasoned leaders who will know how to strike a very tough balance, which is to marshal the twin necessities of truth and candor.

Frankly, the narcissist in the Oval Office possesses neither.

He looks out for himself and only himself and not the country.

Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson put it very well when he wrote this:

“The point here is not simply to condemn Trump, which has limited usefulness in the midst of a national crisis. At this point, it is perhaps better to ignore him, which is precisely what governors and mayors across the country are doing to good effect. But Americans do need to recall this moment the next time they enter a voting booth. In nominating and electing Trump, Republicans were making the claim that presidential character matters for nothing. That only his policy views and judicial appointments really count in the end.

“It was impossible to elect Trump without mentally shrinking the presidency to fit him. A president, we were told, didn’t really need to have governing experience. He didn’t need to care about the truth. He didn’t need to be civil or unifying. He didn’t need to be a diplomat. He didn’t need to be a pastor.

“But suddenly, governing skill is the antidote to panic. Trust in the truthfulness of public officials is essential to public health. Unified action is central to the safety of the vulnerable. Global cooperation is necessary for any national strategy to work. And leadership will increasingly require the ability to express empathy and to comfort those dealing with inexplicable loss.

“It has recently been common in our politics to assert that the establishment has failed, that our institutions and systems are corrupt, and that we need political disrupters to shake things up or burn things down. This is now revealed as the political philosophy of spoiled children. We no longer have the luxury of apocalyptic petulance or the language of faux revolution. We need trusted experts to carry hard truths. We need our systems and institutions to bear enormous weight. We need public officials to encourage an orderly urgency, to repair what is broken and to calm irrational fears.”

Well said, Mr. Gerson.

Trump can be faulted for his actions and his words in response to the pandemic. Clearly, actions are more important than words. But, in terms of words, it does not boost confidence when there is a president who cannot string words together in a sentence that makes sense. Plus, he has a very limited vocabulary.

As all of this unfolds, who knows what the future holds? No one.

We have never been through something like the coronavirus before and we have no idea when the outbreak will end or what price it will take to get to the end. Nor do we know whether so-called “shelter in place” orders will expand past California and New York and what “shelter in place” means is, itself, confusing.

What we do know is that it will take enlightened leadership to deal with the current and coming realities. It also will take what I call “enlightened followership” because, without followers, there are no leaders.

I am looking for enlightened leadership so I can follow it.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

There’s that word again – roils.

It’s one of my favorites because just allowing it to roll off the tongue tends to convey more than the just the word itself.

In this case, the coronavirus epidemic – no, it’s a pandemic – is having a huge effect on politics, as well on everyday life, which, of course, affects politics.  No longer is the presidential race top-of-mind for many Americans.  Surviving the pandemic is.

For one thing, commentary from politicians running for president have had to take a back-seat to the basic survival instincts of all Americans who are now facing huge threats unknown before, with all due respect to Ebola and SARS.

So, that said, here are a few of my perceptions, which I provide because I have little to do other than to sit at home and, to a degree, self-quarantine:

• It took President Donald Trump a long time – too long – to recognize the seriousness of the threat and, while his administration has been taking some new actions, the risk always is that he will react as a narcissist. It’s always all about him, not the good of the American public.
• FOX News and other right-wing outlets continue to spout invective. Things have changed a bit lately when the reality of the virus struck home even to some of the so-called “reporters” at FOX, but the outlet continues to circulate innuendo and falsehoods as a matter of course, contending that it has the best and final information, often from one Donald Trump.
• On the Democrat presidential campaign trail, things appear to be getting down to a central reality – Joe Biden will win and Bernie Sanders will have to settle for hoping that his platform will somehow wend its way into Biden’s campaign.
• The most recent debate between Biden and Sanders – mercifully, there was no on-site audience, which allowed the contenders to focus on each other – revealed commentary about health policy. For his part, Sanders continued to contend that the answer to every question was his single payer proposal despite the current failures of Italy’s system.  Biden demurred, urging an aggressive response to the pandemic while retaining basic health care structures, including a re-emphasis on pharmaceutical company investments in vaccines and therapies – which, it could be added, should have been the case all along so we would not be stuck with inadequate provisions at the moment.
• Amazingly, the Wall Street Journal reports, even as Americans across the U.S. biomedical research enterprise are working around the clock to try to develop vaccines and therapies to save the lives of coronavirus patients, Sanders has had little to offer but scorn, slandering pharmaceutical executives as crooks eager to exploit human tragedy. That’s just another reason why he doesn’t have the instinct to be president and, thankfully, it does not appear we will fade a dubious choice between Sanders and Trump.

The risk every day is that many of us can be susceptible to drowning in information about coronavirus information in stark contrast to past epidemics when we mostly read the morning newspaper to learn about what was happening.  Now, on-line editions of quality newspapers (the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and others) provide moment-by-moment accounts on-line.  Information from businesses trying to cope with coronavirus add to the mix.  So do comments from regional, state and local governments trying to control the outbreak by getting information to us.

Often, too much.

So, my intent is to read stuff about once a day rather than to be engulfed by information which is not good for anyone’s mental health, including mine.

Finally, as a Christian, I set out to take some solace every in the words of scripture, which advise us that “our times are in God’s hands.”  The way I like to put is that “I don’t know my future, but I know who holds my future – God.”

Consider that for yourself.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

The person listed in this blog headline, Representative Jim Clyburn, was the who spoke up late in the South Carolina primary in favor of Joe Biden.

Clyburn’s endorsement was listed as one of the developments that pushed Biden over the top in that state, generating support for him as the frontrunner for the Democrat presidential nomination, thus resuscitating his campaign which had been placed in some death notices.

Last night, Biden won several further states, cementing his role as the favorite now over Bernie Sanders who pushed hard in the states Biden won.

Of course, while Biden has rebounded, at least in part due to Clyurn, it’s not over yet in what is a very volatile race for the right to take on the worst president in U.S. history, Donald Trump.

But Clyburn’s endorsement is worth nothing for another reason.

As he quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., Clyburn said this:

“King was coming to the conclusion that the people of ill will in our society was making a much better use of time than the people of good will, and he feared that he would have regret — not just for the vitriolic words and deeds of bad people, but for the appalling silence from good people.”

Think about that for just a moment.

Like Clyburn, I could contend that each of us has a responsibility to speak up when we see rage and resentment, two unfortunate “qualities” in what passes for politics in this country.

If we see failure and over-the-top anger, we need to speak up and advocate for reason and comity.  Or, as Clyburn did, advocate for candidates who will seek to unite us, not divide us.

With Sanders and with Trump, I have had enough to division and discord.  It is time to return to conciliation and compromise.  The two are not dirty words.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

A recent major story in The Atlantic gave me, not just pause, but the instinct to throw up.  For latter reason, I have hesitated to write about the issue for several weeks and, of course, I do not have any specific, individual source that would provide confirmation.

That said, no surprise that I proceed anyway.

Here is a quick summary of the multiple-billion-dollar disinformation campaign produced in a solid, though unsettling, piece of journalism by The Atlantic writer, McKay Coppins:

“One day last fall, I sat down to create a new Facebook account. I picked a forgettable name, snapped a profile pic with my face obscured, and clicked ‘Like’ on the official pages of Donald Trump and his re-election campaign.

“Facebook’s algorithm prodded me to follow Ann Coulter, Fox Business, and a variety of fan pages with names like ‘In Trump We Trust.’  I complied.  I also gave my cell phone number to the Trump campaign, and joined a handful of private Facebook groups for MAGA diehards, one of which required an application that seemed designed to screen out interlopers.

“The president’s re-election campaign was then in the midst of a multimillion-dollar ad blitz aimed at shaping Americans’ understanding of the recently launched impeachment proceedings. Thousands of micro-targeted ads had flooded the Internet, portraying Trump as a heroic reformer cracking down on foreign corruption while Democrats plotted a coup.

“That this narrative bore little resemblance to reality seemed only to accelerate its spread.  Right-wing websites amplified every claim. Pro-Trump forums teemed with conspiracy theories.  An alternate information ecosystem was taking shape around the biggest news story in the country, and I wanted to see it from the inside.”

The story went on at length to report Coppins’ conclusion — a huge, multiple-billion dollar disinformation campaign was under way to get Trump re-elected.

Facts in Trump campaign materials?  No.

Accuracy in those materials?  No.

Context in those materials?  No.

And, the most troubling fact is that it all will be intentional.  Deception is the goal.  Motivated directly by Trump for his own ends, what his campaign will be doing will make the “dirty tricks” of the Nixon era look pale by comparison.

In terms of disinformation, we got a first-hand look at an example in a story for the Washington Post by Alex Leary wrote under this headline:

Twitter Labels Video Re-tweeted by Trump as ‘Manipulated Media’

The social network’s move, applying a new rule for first time, fuels fight with conservatives over free speech

Twitter, Inc., Leary wrote, is trying to apply new rules against misinformation to a video circulated by one of Trump’s top aides showing Joe Biden at a campaign rally saying, “We can only re-elect Donald Trump.”

Biden used those words, but the video, which was re-tweeted Saturday by Trump, omitted what the leading Democrat presidential contender said in full.

What he said was this:  “We can only re-elect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad.”

Twitter applied the label “manipulated media” to the bottom of the video, part of a new policy to combat misleading altered media on its platform.

According to the Post reporter, “Twitter’s new rules state that users ‘may not deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media that are likely to cause harm.’  The company may also ‘label tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media to help people understand the media’s authenticity and to provide additional context.’”

Predictably, the White House responded that nothing was wrong with the post and that “it had not been manipulated. “

Apart from the general disinformation issue, the recent feud over the
Twitter ad illustrates another round in a fight over what constitutes free speech.  The Trump band believes free speech is what he says it is, no matter the accuracy or the context.

Others long for accuracy and context.

For me, the best approach, to avoid at least some of the disinformation – including that promulgated by Trump and his sycophants — is to avoid looking at political advertising and focus instead on quality journalism.

Such as that practiced by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and The Atlantic – and there are others.

Read information from various sources such as these and make up your own mind about events shaping this country, be those related to political campaigns, the workings of government, or, at the moment, the coronavirus outbreak.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

In some ways, I hate to write about the coronavirus epidemic because, for one thing, so much has – and is – being written, enough to dwarf anyone’s ability to consume all of it.

For another, I am not sure I, not a scientist or a medical professional, have much to add of consequence to the current situation.

Still, there is one development recently that is worthy of comment, if only because it is so far-fetched as to be grossly irritating.

And, yes, it involves Donald Trump.  To be sure, bureaucrats in several federal agencies have made mistakes in working to combat coronavirus, but they pale in comparison to Trump’s unconscionable, selfish focus on himself.

The other day a Washington Post headline said this:

“’Maybe I have a natural ability’: Trump plays medical expert on coronavirus by second-guessing the professionals.”

That’s Trump.  Contending that he and only he has all the information.  True to his narcissism.

In “The Debrief: An occasional series offering a reporter’s insights,” Post reporter David Nakamura wrote this:

“President Trump likes to say that he fell into politics almost by accident, and on Friday, as he sought to calm a nation gripped with fears over coronavirus, he suggested he would have thrived in another profession — medical expert.

“I like this stuff. I really get it.  Citing a ‘great, super-genius uncle’ who taught at MIT, Trump professed that it must run in the family genes.

“People are really surprised I understand this stuff.  Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.”

But, Nakamura added,  for members of the general public alarmed by more than 300 diagnosed cases in the United States — including at least 21 that his administration announced Friday were discovered on a cruise ship off the San Francisco coast — Trump’s performance during an impromptu 45-minute news conference at CDC was not necessarily reassuring.

Sporting his trademark red 2020 campaign hat with the slogan “Keep America Great,” the president repeatedly second-guessed and waved off the actual medical professionals standing next to him.  He attacked his Democratic rivals — including calling Washington Governor Jay Inslee a “snake” for criticizing his response — and chided a CNN reporter for smiling and called her network “fake news.”

And, he described coronavirus testing kits — which his administration has been criticized for being slow to distribute — as “beautiful” and said they were as “perfect” as his Ukraine phone call last summer that led him to be impeached.

“The upshot,” Nakamura wrote, “was that the self-proclaimed medical savant came off looking less interested in his administration’s unsteady efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus than he was in bolstering his own status in a campaign year.  Trump repeatedly sought to judge his administration’s performance by the numbers of how many have been shown to have contracted the virus and comparing it to other nations — and, in doing so, appeared to be making judgments based solely on that scorecard.”

Trump’s approach:

• Ridicule all the scientists who work for federal government, the ones who understand such epidemic as coronavirus and what could be done about it.
• Advance his own cause, no matter the subject, as the one who knows all.
• Treat the epidemic as just another political rally on the way to what he hopes will be his re-election.

So, Dr. Trump?  No.

Again and as usual, he has no idea about what he is talking about or doing.

Trump’s toddler traits – short attention span, quick temper, and focus on only himself — have exacerbated the mismanagement of the current situation, a pandemic in the making.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

I ask the question in this blog headline as we have watched socialism advocate Bernie Sanders go from leading the Democrat presidential sweepstakes to now being behind – at least a little behind — Joe Biden in what still is a volatile race.

For my part, I am not ready to trash capitalism and move on to what Sanders wants, which is more and more government.  Under his watch, government would be in charge of every area of our lives, thus limiting individual effort and enterprise.

It appears that voters now involved in the D campaign may feel the same – or at least they are not ready to line up behind Sanders.

Here’s the way Wall Street Journal analyst Daniel Henninger put it in a column late last week under this headline:

Socialism Just Bombed

Hard to believe these days, but voters still get the last word on what they want from our politics.

Henninger wrote:

“Joe Biden’s back-from-the-dead primary wins…were remarkable, but they aren’t the biggest story.  Super Tuesday was a wake-up call for this country’s understanding of who we are and what we want from our politics and culture.

“Before the voting began Tuesday it was conventional wisdom — more like an article of faith — that something called progressivism was on the march in the U.S., sweeping aside decades if not centuries of belief, history and tradition with a new agenda of wokeness, identity politics and socialism. Its political vessel the past four years has been Senator Bernie Sanders.

“This movement’s primary political weapon is not persuasion but intimidation.  Starting in the universities and spreading to politics and the private sector, progressivism uses social media platforms to assert:  Fall in line with our views or we will isolate and discredit you with moralistic shaming.”

Agreed.

First, let me say that I disdain the word “progressive,” which comes across as far too positive to describe people who, as Henninger puts it, “will isolate and discredit you with moralistic shaming.”

Second, if the Biden resurrection provides evidence of a move back toward moderation, good.

Third, I also appreciated a humble perspective provided by another Wall Street Journal columnist, Gerard Baker, who wrote about his misgivings for giving up too soon on Biden.

Baker wrote:

“It’s easier to laugh, I suppose, than to acknowledge the humbling truth:  When it comes to political commentary (to borrow the immortal phrase of the late, great screenwriter William Goldman), ‘Nobody knows anything.’

“You would think by now that pundits would have learned a little humility when commenting on the likely future decisions of voters. Our capacity to be surprised is, curiously, undimmed by the frequency with which we are surprised.  Barack Obama, the Tea Party, Brexit, Donald Trump:  All major political upsets that have reshaped our world in the past dozen years alone.  Who saw them coming?

“I’m not (for once here) just attacking others.  I have been wronger than anyone on this topic, and readers of The Wall Street Journal would have been better informed about the presidential race by examining the patterns made by the scraps of food left on their breakfast plates than by reading my observations.”

Baker adds that he often thinks about two phrases as – or even before – he posits conclusions in his columns.  They are:

• “Never make predictions, especially about the future.”
• “When giving a forecast, give a number or a date, but never both.”

All of us could learn a few lessons from the useful reflections of Henninger and Baker as we deal with roiling political issues in this country.

Be better listeners.  Be slower to arrive at predictions or conclusions.  Be willing to consider facts more than opinions.  Be willing to recognize that someone who disagrees with you is not necessarily a jerk.