Day: March 18, 2020

May I Buy Your Vote?

Fandango19 Comments

009ABA53-BD53-4924-BB35-E2490D7E94AETreasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said yesterday that the Trump administration wants to send direct payments to Americans within the next two weeks to help mitigate the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Americans need cash now and the president wants to give cash now,” Mnuchin said during a press conference with Trump. “And I mean now, in the next two weeks.”

To that end, White House officials are working with congressional Republicans on approving an emergency stimulus package that could send two $1,000 checks to many Americans.

So, “many Americans,” whatever that means, will get $2,000 to aid those of us who are feeling the effects of an out-of-control pandemic. One that Trump told us would miraculously disappear. He said that everything was under control. He gave himself a pat on the back (a 10 out of 10) for how he responded to the threat. Had he taken this threat seriously early on and acted quickly and decisively to stem the rapid spread, we wouldn’t be in this situation.

But here we are. We’re getting paid to look away and to be grateful to an inept, incompetent leader for giving us money so that we can shop at stores with empty shelves.

Too little too late, Mr. “President.” You’re payoff is not going to work with me. You’re not buying my vote for two grand.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #61

Fandango21 Comments

FPQWelcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

I doubt that there’s anyone who hasn’t, in one way or the other, been impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, whether it’s simply the inability to find toilet paper in any stores or having their lives disrupted by the closings of schools, business, and gatherings and being asked to stay home.

Some people, like Fox News on-air personalities and even some congressional Republicans, have been downplaying the pandemic. California Republican congressman Devin Nunes, for example told his constituents, “…one of the things you can do, if you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in, get in easily.”

Other Republican have been calling this whole coronavirus “thing” Nothing more than a politically motivated attempt to bring down the president. But no one has been more guilty of spreading disinformation about coronavirus than Donald Trump.

And so for this week’s provocative question, I’m going to do something different. I’m going to ask you to watch a report from CNN host Don Lemon. It’s about 12 minutes long, but I encourage you to watch the whole thing if you have time. And then, once you’ve watched it, my question to you is simply this:

What is your reaction to Don Lemon’s assessment?

Here’s the the video:

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Jilted

Fandango12 Comments

FOWCWelcome to March 18, 2020 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “jilted.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

  1. And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.