Category: Politics and Issues

By Dr. Larry Fedewa Washington DC, March 29, 2020 – As we ponder our suddenly isolated lives, we begin searching for some benefits which may come from it all – besides, of course, the major value if we escape catching a very unpleasant disease.

Some things are happening which can easily become a trend. The most obvious is the notable increase in online shopping. This was already a trend, but it may be significantly accelerated by this crisis, as a whole new population tries shopping online for the first time.

The same is true of home delivery, which is a major requirement of home shopping. What is happening now, however, is the sudden spread of delivery services for restaurants and grocery stores, which started, to be sure, before this pandemic was even thought of. Nevertheless, we are seeing a major up-tick in food delivery services.

The same can be said of distance education. Never in a hundred years would public schools have participated in the development and internet delivery of K-12 schooling on a voluntary basis. The “shelter-in-place” along with the closing of so many schools has forced their hand. Once they have experience with teacher-assisted home schooling, however, they may take steps in that direction, certainly urged on by parents, especially in rural and inner city areas. It reminds us of the grand ideas of the early pioneers of educational TV who had the same idea. While they had limited success with classroom based television, it was not enough to impact the roles and structure of the school.It will be interesting to see whether this crisis ends up affecting real changes.
Working from home is a similar example. Futurist Alvin Toffler wrote in his 1970 book, Future Shock, that the time would come when electronically-enabled communication would lead to work-from-home employment on such a scale that it would eventually lead to solving the problems of overpopulation in the major cities.

People would have the preference of living wherever they wished, which, he predicted, would often be smaller towns, cities, and farms – and that was before the internet! In the fifty years since, the technology has appeared and so has work-from-home, though not to the extent of lessening the population of cities. Perhaps the combination of the “green movement” and the pandemic will move Toffler’s vision along toward fulfillment.
Speaking of the overpopulation of cities, what is the major complaint of city-dwellers? In most of urban America, the most frequent complaint is the traffic and the difficulty of getting from place to place. One effect of this concentration of commerce is the continually escalating cost of housing. The costs of housing gradually displace workers from housing altogether and cause the homeless problems that are found in many large cities.

Certainly, Toffler’s solution would alleviate those problems as well as decrease CO₂ emissions that the climate movement is so worried about. A lot of people are experiencing work-from-home for the first time, as are managers and business owners. There may be some changes made.

Needles to say, the cost of living in many US areas acts as a constant pressure affecting many social trends. For example, the high cost of living necessitates many families’ need to have two wage earners in any family, especially those with children. Parents who might prefer staying home to be firsthand observers of their children’s growing up do not have that choice. Non-farmer fathers had to give up that privilege centuries ago, mothers for the past 50 years or so.
An employment situation which radically reduced the need to work in an office or factory would allow employees to choose places to live with substantially lower cost of living and therefore offer more personal choices of lifestyle and how to spend their time.

One impact of a work-from-home economy would involve a wider use of the technologies which already exist, which in turn would spur a round of even greater innovation and discovery. Home productivity might even divert some of our greatest talent away from weapons and into education, medicine and other peaceful pursuits. Free time also is a great stimulant to creativity. Wouldn’t it be great to spend our commuter time on something more productive, maybe even fun?
Then there is the whole idea of community. So much of people’s lives today is spent in self-imposed isolation. For example, it is now an American custom for adult children to “leave the nest”, frequently to live alone, some for the rest of their lives. Gone are the times when large families lived under one roof for a large portion of their lives. Traditionally, Americans have viewed separation from parents as a need for personal freedom — from domineering parents, usually. But “it ain’t necessarily so”, as the song says. In other cultures, multi-generational households have survived and thrived. Loneliness, the scourge of modern times, is one problem they didn’t have. How many of the “Lone Killer” headlines have we seen in recent years?

Already, the “shelter-in-place” requirement is opening people to re-discover neighbors. Stories are beginning to surface of new relationships and alliances forming among friends, family and strangers. If, as a matter of course, we had more leisure time, perhaps we could spend some of it closer to home and come to appreciate the opportunities which surround us.
In our current lifestyle, what is the most precious thing we have? That we never have enough of? The answer many people give to this question is “time”. We have been taught to work hard and long. “The last one to leave” the office or the shop is looked upon with admiration. Maybe that would and should change as we move more and more into a digital age.

It is true that technology has revolutionized communications. But perhaps the next wave will concentrate more on meaningful technologies for person-to-person interaction. Those technologies already exist – the videophone, Zoom and Skype and others – but to date they have not truly penetrated the consumer market. That may change.

In fact, this current enforced quasi-imprisonment may contribute to a lot of changes – some perhaps of major benefit to us all!

Hi everybody, We are facing the greatest challenge of our time in the coronavirus pandemic. We can’t change what has happened to date, but mavbe there are some positive trends being accelerated by the severe limitations we are experiencing. Today, we will look for some of these effects.Comments always welcome. LJFThe Dr. Larry Show is live on Wednesdays at 7 pm ET) Call  646.929.0130 (EASIEST way to listen) and talk to Dr. Larry and guests on the air. Also other ways to listen have recently been introduced: listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/la-batchelor Podcasts are available at: www.thebatchelorpadnetwork.com,tunein.com, and anchor.com; Also, 14 re-broadcasts per week are scheduled at:https://thebatchelornews.airtime.pro/For more writings, poems, interviews and guest editorials, see my website, DrLarryOnline.com

Some possible effects of “Shelter-at-Home

Is there any silver lining to this pandemic?

By Dr. Larry Fedewa Washington DC, March 29, 2020 – As we ponder our suddenly isolated lives, we begin searching for some benefits which may come from it all – besides, of course, the major value if we escape catching a very unpleasant disease. Some things are happening which can easily become a trend. The most obvious is the notable increase in online shopping. This was already a trend, but it may be significantly accelerated by this crisis, as a whole new population tries shopping online for the first time. The same is true of home delivery, which is a major requirement of home shopping. What is happening now, however, is the sudden spread of delivery services for restaurants and grocery stores, which started, to be sure, before this pandemic was even thought of. Nevertheless, we are seeing a major up-tick in food delivery services. The same can be said of distance education. Never in a hundred years would public schools have participated in the development and internet delivery of K-12 schooling on a voluntary basis. The “shelter-in-place” along with the closing of so many schools has forced their hand. Once they have experience with teacher-assisted home schooling, however, they may take steps in that direction, certainly urged on by parents, especially in rural and inner city areas. It reminds us of the grand ideas of the early pioneers of educational TV who had the same idea. While they had limited success with classroom based television, it was not enough to impact the roles and structure of the school.It will be interesting to see whether this crisis ends up affecting real changes. Working from home is a similar example. Futurist Alvin Toffler wrote in his 1970 book, Future Shock, that the time would come when electronically-enabled communication would lead to work-from-home employment on such a scale that it would eventually lead to solving the problems of overpopulation in the major cities. People would have the preference of living wherever they wished, which, he predicted, would often be smaller towns, cities, and farms – and that was before the internet! In the fifty years since, the technology has appeared and so has work-from-home, though not to the extent of lessening the population of cities. Perhaps the combination of the “green movement” and the pandemic will move Toffler’s vision along toward fulfillment. Speaking of the overpopulation of cities, what is the major complaint of city-dwellers? In most of urban America, the most frequent complaint is the traffic and the difficulty of getting from place to place. One effect of this concentration of commerce is the continually escalating cost of housing. The costs of housing gradually displace workers from housing altogether and cause the homeless problems that are found in many large cities. Certainly, Toffler’s solution would alleviate those problems as well as decrease CO2 emissions that the climate movement is so worried about. A lot of people are experiencing work-from-home for the first time, as are managers and business owners. There may be some changes made. Needles to say, the cost of living in many US areas acts as a constant pressure affecting many social trends. For example, the high cost of living necessitates many families’ need to have two wage earners in any family, especially those with children. Parents who might prefer staying home to be firsthand observers of their children’s growing up do not have that choice. Non-farmer fathers had to give up that privilege centuries ago, mothers for the past 50 years or so. An employment situation which radically reduced the need to work in an office or factory would allow employees to choose places to live with substantially lower cost of living and therefore offer more personal choices of lifestyle and how to spend their time. One impact of a work-from-home economy would involve a wider use of the technologies which already exist, which in turn would spur a round of even greater innovation and discovery. Home productivity might even divert some of our greatest talent away from weapons and into education, medicine and other peaceful pursuits. Free time also is a great stimulant to creativity. Wouldn’t it be great to spend our commuter time on something more productive, maybe even fun? Then there is the whole idea of community. So much of people’s lives today is spent in self-imposed isolation. For example, it is now an American custom for adult children to “leave the nest”, frequently to live alone, some for the rest of their lives. Gone are the times when large families lived under one roof for a large portion of their lives. Traditionally, Americans have viewed separation from parents as a need for personal freedom — from domineering parents, usually. But “it ain’t necessarily so”, as the song says. In other cultures, multi-generational households have survived and thrived. Loneliness, the scourge of modern times, is one problem they didn’t have. How many of the “Lone Killer” headlines have we seen in recent years? Already, the “shelter-in-place” requirement is opening people to re-discover neighbors. Stories are beginning to surface of new relationships and alliances forming among friends, family and strangers. If, as a matter of course, we had more leisure time, perhaps we could spend some of it closer to home and come to appreciate the opportunities which surround us. In our current lifestyle, what is the most precious thing we have? That we never have enough of? The answer many people give to this question is “time”. We have been taught to work hard and long. “The last one to leave” the office or the shop is looked upon with admiration. Maybe that would and should change as we move more and more into a digital age. It is true that technology has revolutionized communications. But perhaps the next wave will concentrate more on meaningful technologies for person-to-person interaction. Those technologies already exist – the videophone, Zoom and Skype and others – but to date they have not truly penetrated the consumer market. That may change. In fact, this current enforced quasi-imprisonment may contribute to a lot of changes – some perhaps of major benefit to us all!       © 2020 Richfield Press. All rights reserved.

So far, the lessons learned from this Corona virus outbreak.  The first is how bad our media truly has become.   Much of our panic has been a result of a media that emphasize the worst-case scenario and much of the media hatred for Trump has continued that even as he working to deal with this situation, they won’t give him any credit.  For four years, much of the media have behaved as nothing more than Democratic operative with bylines.

How many times over the past two days, our infection rates have exceeded China number, even though China numbers are suspect.  How many times have we have heard how successful the Chinese have been even though anyone with any common sense would know these numbers are simply bogus?  A recent story that Chinese have closed movie theaters again and several reports escaping China about the numbers of bodies being cremated and riots breakouts between Chinese provinces as polices from different provinces fight for jurisdiction on stopping the virus. I could go on but Orange man bad. 

The news that US has surpassed China in total number has been treated as a Trump failure even though as mention, no serious journalist should even take Chinese numbers with a straight face and anecdotal from Asian sources that Chinese simply quit testing for COVID-19.   

The newest aspect is saying Wuhan virus or Chinese virus is now racist which is nothing more than repeating Chinese government talking point.   This regime unleashed the virus with their incompetence and even sold Spain and Czech Republic thousands of test kits.  On my own podcast, I stick with COVID-19 to avoid getting dragged into a urinating contest but anyone who wants to use Chinese virus or Wuhan virus, I won’t call you racist.  And I have made it clear that Chinese government is responsible for this mess and their still callous attitude plus their failure to take responsibility is threatening the world.

The first lesson is that China is responsible and if they are not held to be accountable, this will happen again only the virus might be worse.  And the media must be more skeptical of Chinese numbers.

Second lesson is the economy matters and we need to understand that the virus is having an impact on the economy and will continue for the rest of the year.  We shut down the economy on the basis what we didn’t know about the virus and how serious it is.  It didn’t help with all the panic spread by a good portion of the media but the reality the economy was performing well before the virus and the collapse came as a result of the virus and the economic shutdown that came with it.  This is turning into an economic warfare between the Chinese and the rest of the world.  The biggest problem is the stimulus is based on expanded monetary policy to provide liquidity to the system and a temporary relief for those unemployed.

Depending on which studies you read about the Spanish flu, it did have economic impact.  James Grant, the Forgotten Depression, noted that 1919 was a boom year but in a recent study, it was shown the overall manufacturing output decline by 18%.   Grant showed that in 1920, a major recession occurred as the Feds overshoot monetary policy and inflation occurred.  18 months happened before recovery.  In the study Pandemics Depress the Economy, Public Health Interventions Does not, Lesson from the 1918 Flu showed that Pandemic was a significant reason for the decline and noted that those who were aggressive in intervention earlier did not suffer much more initially economically but prosper more later.

The government original isolation policy stopped the economy cold and with 3 million collecting unemployment the time has come to reopen the economy.  The problem is two-fold. The temporary stimulus is using up funds we don’t have and the additional influx of money into the system could lead to additional inflation in the future.    The key to future recovery begins with the defeat of the Democrat party, which is the socialist Party and a Party where control is all that matters.  As a Party, they don’t care how many people die or become destitute as long as they win.  They began impeachment without impeachable offenses in January when the virus began, and Pelosi along with other Democrats delayed votes on the stimulus so they can try to slip in money for Planned Parenthood or suffocate our economy with Green New Deals. 

Democrats have already failed the test of leadership and as their nominee given us a man whose corruption and mediocrity marked his career.  Biden at his peak was nothing more than a mediocre political hack whose as on Obama cabinet member noted, he was wrong on almost every major issue. 

As for Trump, he has gained his ground as this crisis as he allowed states and counties to deal with their local crisis while balancing both medical concerns and the economic concerns.  Yet, he has not been given any credit from the political class or the media.  Ask Joe Biden what he would do and all he states we should do is what Trump already done.

Trump pointed out the weakness of globalization that the political class fail to see and the number one weakness, how can globalization works with when rogue nations refuse to play by the rules, and they taking advantage of a virus and economy ravaged from their incompetence and lies. China has put our planet at risk and lives of billions due to their mishandling and now continues to lie about their role in the virus.  China is the weak link in globalization, and we must recognize that. 

Another lesson is that human ingenuity when unleashed can go a long way to solve problems whether it is finding drugs off the shelve that can save lives or new tests that can even find the virus in five minutes.  Our recovery begins when we recognize that free men and women can rise above the crisis and reinvent our country and planet.

Enjoy,

MY SON WAS FLUNKING OUT OF COLLEGE SO I TOLD MY SON, “YOU WILL MARRY THE GIRL I CHOOSE.”

HE SAID, “NO.”

I TOLD HIM, “SHE IS BILL GATES’ DAUGHTER.”

HE SAID, “YES.”

I CALLED BILL GATES AND SAID, “I WANT YOUR DAUGHTER TO MARRY MY SON.”

BILL GATES SAID, “NO.”

I TOLD BILL GATES, “MY SON IS THE CEO OF THE WORLD BANK.”

BILL GATES SAID, “OK.”

I CALLED THE PRESIDENT OF WORLD BANK AND ASKED HIM TO MAKE MY SON THE CEO.

HE SAID, “NO.”

I TOLD HIM, “MY SON IS BILL GATES’ SON-IN-LAW.”

HE SAID, “OK.”

AND THAT’S EXACTLY HOW POLITICS WORKS HERE IN AMERICA.

And thus, began the practice of hiring morons to work in influential positions of government.

The practice is unbroken to this date

Dr. Larry added, One thinks of the Biden family. . . . 

SOMETHING THAT INSTAPUNDIT COMMENTER BART HALL POSTED ON FACEBOOK:

Truckers are saying “fuck the log rules, I’m hauling” and they’re getting supplies to the stores. People are stocking the shelves all night and letting old people shop first. Folks are buying meals for truckers, who (obviously) can’t go through the drive-ups. Asking ’em what they want, then buying it for them.

Carnival Cruise Line has told Trump “We can match those big Navy Hospital ships with some fully staffed cruise ships”.

GM and Ford have said “hold our cars and watch this — we can make ventilators where we were just making car parts, starting next week” — by re-engineering seat ventilators which their engineers hacked together for a new purpose. In under a week.

In a project with which I’m loosely associated, a very-effective agricultural disease-control agent was re-purposed and re-labeled specifically for Corona-virus control by the FDA and EPA in under ten days, from initial request to distribution.

Restaurants and schools have said, “we’ve got kitchens and staff; we can feed the poor kids who used have school lunch.”

NBA basketball players have said, “Hold our basketballs while we write checks to pay the arena staff.”

Construction companies are saying, “Here are some high-end masks for medical staff and doctors”.

Distilleries are making sanitizer out of distilling “heads and tails” which are normally discarded. Nasty shit to drink, but effective sanitizer.

People are tipping grocery check-out clerks and thanking them for taking the risk.

Local, state, and county governments are taking control of everything the feds cannot do. Some are doing it wrong, but for the first time in decades … they’re doing it. Federalism is re-emerging, and the smallest unit of government is the individual and the family. This, too, is re-emerging after decades of dormancy.

As Japanese Admiral Isokuru Yamamoto said, after Pearl Harbor … “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

I sense this has just happened. We have a wonderful country, the greatest single force for good in all human history. We have closed our borders, with good reason, yet we have top medical people now assisting North Korea in their response to the virus.

Many things have been re-set, and will never be the same.

By microbiological accident, we are living in profoundly transformative historical times.

Indeed we are.

Was shutting down the economy the right choice?

(Washington D.C. March 21, 2020) President Donald John Trump, 45th president of the United States of America, has just made the biggest gamble of his career. On the unanimous recommendation of the public health professionals, he decided to close down the US economy in a manner more severe than any other measure ever taken by a U.S. president, with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln’s declaration of martial law on September 15, 1863. Clearly, no one can reasonably disapprove of the need to save American lives by containing the deadly coronavirus. If the next few weeks occur as expected by the public health experts, the virus will peak and begin to recede, allowing normality to return. If that sequence of events is delayed much longer than a total of 30 days or so, the country risks falling into a recession that could rival the Great Depression of the 1930’s – 25% unemployment, long bread lines, starvation staring out of the hallow eyes of children.     The President is fully aware of this danger. He knows he is risking becoming another Herbert Hoover, who was unjustly blamed for the Depression and lost the presidency by a landslide in 1932. One big difference is that Hoover was a victim of circumstances, whereas Trump’s fate will be seen as the inevitable result of his own decision. Closing down the economy was not the only choice that could have been made. Woodrow Wilson did nothing to affect the Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918-20, and the result was the Depression of 1920. Wilson was in his second term and could not run again (although this did not stop Franklin Roosevelt in 1940 and 1944). Wilson’s Democrat party lost the 1920 election in a landslide.George Bush did invoke a few measures to mitigate the immediate effects of the 9-11-2001 attack but concentrated his primary efforts on foreign policy actions. He survived the temporary shutdown and won re-election in 2004. Barak Obama did very little to fight the outbreak of West Africa Ebola of 2013-16, which ultimately killed 11,310 victims but was not a candidate in 2016.President Trump could have followed any of these strategies. Instead, he gave the public health experts full reign over the nation’s response to the threat of the new virus. Their prescription for countermeasures has had temporarily catastrophic effects on the economy. These people have dedicated their lives and talents to saving and enriching all our lives by seeking effective cures for the diseases which threaten us and identifying the best preventative measures to mitigate the ones that cannot be cured. These are truly noble goals. However, that perspective has its limitations. It emphasizes one dimension of human life, namely, physical health — often to the exclusion of all other factors. Among those other factors are the economic and social needs which are also shared by all people. The compromise we are now living out is “Let’s follow the public health scientists until we beat the virus, and then we will revert to normal life.” The gamble is: “Will normal life still be possible after we beat the virus?” For President Trump, the stakes are very high. If he wins, he will be the Savior who rescued the nation from disaster. If he loses, he will lose everything, including his second term, the destruction of all his innovations, as well as his reputation. His legacy will be remembered as either victory or tragedy. For the American people, the stakes are even higher. Never before have we faced the near shutdown of the economy, even for a day, let alone a month. The closest we have come is the Great Depression, when things were so desperate that Russian communism was openly advocated. We don’t know if the damage will be permanent, overcome quickly, slowly, this year, or if it will take years to regain our momentum. What we have to remember, especially in this perilous time, is that we Americans have survived many other crises in our history. We have flourished throughout the ages no matter the obstacles. In fact, America’s history is the story of crises happening and crises overcome. Our greatest crisis was the Civil War, when we fought ourselves and lost an estimated 650,000 lives, a whole generation of young men. But the newly reunited nation came roaring back in the Gilded Age (c.1870 – 1900), a period of extraordinary growth in all areas of American life, including technology, manufacturing, transportation, and higher learning, among many other areas.   In the 1930’s, the Great Depression nearly destroyed America’s will to survive. Yet the country rallied out of the Depression when the Japanese Navy destroyed the Pearl Harbor naval base in 1942, proving that the American spirit was not only not dead but so filled with vitality that we won both the war with Japan and saved Europe from the Nazis – at the same time! And it took us only three years to go from a dead stop to overdrive. We are seeing much of the same spirit of unity in this “war” as was evidenced in WWII, — political opponents join forces (except the Governor of Michigan) with companies and whole industries to shore up scarce supplies and bring supply chains back home. Likewise, stories of outstanding generosity and kindness on the part of individuals and local businesses are beginning to surface. This generation is proving that the American spirit of our forebears is still alive as we rally to save our country from disaster. The moral of the American story is that Americans have overcome every threat we have ever faced, and we will overcome this one – whichever way it goes! © 2020, Richfield Press. All rights reserved.

Dr. Larry will briefly talk about his own experiences working with the Bush Administration and vaccines and then we are going to ask and answer the question about globalization and China role.  On this show we asked the question what the world would  be like if China is the dominant power.  Tonight we will begin to answer this. In the past I have stayed away from certain phrases on this show just as Chinese virus or Wuhan virus for  I didn’t want our discussion to be bogged down on names and get to the central core of the debate. We need to distinguish between the Chinese people who were the first victims and the government that victimize them. The Chinese people should not be held responsible but their government should. 

For three years, we have been on the cutting edge.  We detailed the containment policy of Trump of Iran in the Middle East when other news network didn’t.  We warned of the FISA Court abuses to our civil liberties.  We discussed China role and its impact and tonight we go further. Coco pointed out the civil liberty problems of Kamala Harris and was proven right. And she was the first to break the news that Elizabeth Warren was going to suspend her campaign a full 24 hours before the rest of the so call mainstream media. 

We have been far more responsible about the COVID virus than the major news networks who have engaged in fear mongering and fail to properly educate the public.  We have used eyewitness accounts on the impact on this virus and educated people on how to be safe. No one has been more responsible than us.  Last night show was no exception as we detailed the science and discuss the moves to open up the economy over the next month. I am proud of what we have done and the guests we have had on the air.

The economic costs are high and can’t be ignore.  A family member sees her dreams crushed as the new job she was supposed to be starting is close and now she is on unemployment. She rather be working. The young 22 year old whose successful real estate business is under siege, the manager of my local coffee shop who is trying to survive and a former bartender who was given the opportunity to manage his own restaurant and that dream slowing imploding  I could go on but it is not just about the economy but for these people it is the American dream that is dying as result of this virus.  And Chinese government is to blame for this virus and bringing the world to its knees They have blood on their hand and now we will begin with one question, how can globalization work if rogue nations like Iran and China are willing to put the world at risk to further their own gains and play by their rules.  

Governor Sisolek decided to ban the drug combination of chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin shows the weakness of our response to the pandemic, government stopping innovation. Contrast to Andrew Cuomo who is starting trials in New York on the combination or a recent editorial from two physicians in Kansas who are finding success in the drug.  As I mention, the key element in this combination is finding the right dosages as we are still learning about how to use this combination but over the years, physicians and investigators have often found new usages for older drugs on the market.   21 to 36% of drugs are used for off-label indications so Sisolek is getting in the way of progress.

If we have found out anything, our bureaucracy has failed.  As James Copeland noted in a recent article, “the CDC’s in-house testing design was flawed, thus compromising early testing results. Mistakes happen, but the impact of the test-design flaw was much greater than it should have been—owing to the U.S. bureaucracy’s tightly controlled process. Even had the CDC test worked perfectly, not nearly enough tests would have been available for wide-scale testing on the South Korean model.”  CDC and FDA regulations are haven proven to be a hinderance to the approval of drugs indications and testing. This has cost lives and led to increase infections. 

When this is over, we will need to reorganize our bureaucracy and our politicians will need there is a limit to government actions for crisis.