Unbridgeable differences push U.S. to the brink

Right about now, a lot of Republican senators who refused to convict Donald Trump and remove him from office ought to be very worried.

Why?

Because yes, he really did suggest at his press briefing Friday that an instant cure for COVID-19 might be ingesting some sort of home disinfectants.

Of course he swears he was being sarcastic, but no one who saw him saw any trace of sarcasm. As he floundered for an excuse, he even said it was a prank and that he said it just to see how people would react.

Fake news?

No, fake president.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Pandemic might force meaningful change in U.S.

Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday.

If that unifies the Democratic Party and makes it easier to defeat Donald Trump in November, it's all for the best. To primary voters this year, Sanders was just a bridge too far. I always felt his proud use of the word "socialist" was a mistake. I'd have gone with Social Democrat.

I feel like Sanders saw this election as one for revolutionary change, while most Democrats -- myself included -- wanted more than anything just to get rid of Trump.

The great irony is that the Coronavirus pandemic may have transformed circumstances enough that it ought to be a true change election. Particularly in the area of health insurance.

Americans dying due to Trump's horrific priorities

NYC

"I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps ..."

The last time I visited New York City was a little less than two and a half years ago.

It was the first time I had been in Manhattan since the mid 1990s, when my middle sister got married.

In October 2017, Nicole and I stayed in a hotel near the Empire State Building. We only had two days and three nights, and it was raining hard one of those days.

Mostly, we visited Ground Zero and the museum that honored the events of Sept. 11, 2001. It was sort of overwhelming, but as I look at pictures of present-day New York, I find myself thinking that not even Osama bin Laden could shut New York down the way the Coronavirus has.

I imagine we'll go back at some point. I know my wife wants to. NYC is one of my three favorite American cities I have visited numerous times but never lived there. The other two are on the West Coast, San Francisco and Seattle.

When we visited NYC in the fall of 2017, the streets were as crowded -- even on the rainy night -- as anywhere I've ever been. I cannot even comprehend streets as empty as in the picture above.