By Dr. Jim Ferguson
As I write this column, it is day forty-four of our “sheltering in place,” and we’ve had enough. Tonight, our neighborhood friends will join us in Blount County at our favorite Mexican restaurant to celebrate “liberation” with margaritas and Tex-Mex. The straw that broke the camels back occurred when I found myself identifying with a clip of a sheltered Kermit-the-frog looking out his window and “dreaming of Mexican food.”
I love and collect the wisdom of scripture and quotations. I even jot down my own observations (Fergisms) of life which of course have not stood the test of time nor rise to the stature of more noble reflections.
By the time you read my column General Michael Flynn may have been exonerated from the malicious entrapment of the FBI and the dishonest prosecution of the Department of Justice (DOJ). Recently, I came across a quote from Lavrentiy Beria, head of Joseph Stalin’s secret police. He said, “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.” Little has changed in eighty years because, with their soft coup d’état of President Trump, James Comey, Andrew McCabe and John Brennan echo the dreaded Stalinist Beria.
During our coronavirus imprisonment, we have watched a lot of TV. Unfortunately, so many of the movies and shows are poor in my opinion and do not measure up to the “personal classics” of my small video collection.
Becky and I have missed baseball this spring so we again watched the first of Kevin Costner’s baseball trilogy, Bull Durham. The second in the series is the more well-known Field of Dreams and the series concludes with For the Love of the Game. All three surpass anything I’ve seen on Netflix, especially if you’re a fan of baseball.
Most know the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the baseball scandal of the Chicago Black Soxs depicted in Field of Dreams. In my opinion, Jackson was innocent and manipulated by corrupt lawyers and sacrificed by a corrupt judge and system to rescue baseball’s reputation. General Flynn, the system has not changed since 1920.
Though I’ve become more skeptical, I’m usually willing to consider even the perspectives of those I feel are “confused.” I now admit my abject cynicism of Washington DC in general and the previous leadership of the FBI and DOJ. The verdict is out on Attorney General William Barr, federal prosecutor John Durham and the current head of the FBI Christopher Wray.
I’m also cynical of the media. If we’ve learned anything in the last few years, you might as well be listening to Tokyo Rose if you’re getting information from CNN, MSNBC, the NYT or the Washington Post. Mark Twain once said of the media, “If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.” It seems like nothing changes.
The “Wicked Witch of the West” has decided to remain in her compound eating chocolate ice cream from her double-wide freezers instead of reconvening Congress. The last Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, infamously once said, “Let them eat cake” when told that starving peasants had no bread. She should have been more sensitive of her “Main Street” folks because the French Revolutionists soon took off her royal head.
Perhaps it’s better that Congress remains sheltered. “No man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” (Mark Twain) And given the corruption with the last Corona spending bill, it was Twain who again observed, “There is no distinctly Native American criminal class, save Congress.”
In final analysis, the recovery of our country and economy is dependent upon you and me. If we don’t take some risks and go to restaurants, stores and support businesses it will be as Christ uttered, “It is finished.” I am no economist and view economic theory as little better than sorcery. However, it is common sense that the government can’t fix a twenty-two trillion-dollar economy by flooding the market with printed money and neo-Keynesian spending.
Thomas Jefferson once said, “When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as [sick] (corrupt) as Europe.” I changed the wording to reflect the Coronavirus crisis after reading the recent study from MIT which found the major sources of viral transmission in NY City were buses and the subway system. Both were deemed vital by Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo and were never shut down. Coupled with high density living in the most populous American city is a recipe for an epidemic. This also explains why California, with cars instead of mass transit and disbursed suburban living, has far less COVID-19 illness and death despite antibody-documented high exposure.
The “controversy of this week” (we have a new crisis every week) revolves around Trump’s statements regarding Federal relief for states. Trump favors relief for the months where the coronavirus took its toll, but not for years of mismanagement. Bailing out Illinois or New York’s long-standing financial mess and sanctuary city lunacy is unfair to the rest of the nation. I feel sorry for people in Democrat controlled states and cities, but those people elected incompetent and often corrupt officials. Once, we taught our children there are consequences for choices. Again, Jefferson observes, “To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
Perhaps next week the media will discover poor Joe Biden’s picadillos and nascent dementia. Perhaps “expert” Dr. Fauci will clarify his comments regarding hook-up sites like Tinder and “your willingness to take risks.” Perhaps Pelosi and Democrats will be forced to choose America over the Chinese communist government. Perhaps we will learn the true prevalence of the coronavirus with antibody tests, and thereby know the denominator and finally learn the lethality of the corona scourge. But don’t hold your breath. Too many people are too invested in Biden, experts, models, money, power and globalism to allow the hoi polloi to learn the truth.
If it weren’t so tragic, I might joke and laugh. However, “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” (Will Rogers)