With everyone chiming in on Biden’s first 100 days, I thought I’d add my 2 cents. In the March posts “The Dog Ate Biden’s Homework” and “Maybe Everyone Doesn’t Love Biden,” I made clear where Biden was failing. This post is mainly an update. 

With 53-54% approval, Biden isn’t doing exceptionally well. Given the overwhelmingly favorable media, one would think he would be scoring better. The reluctance of people to share their beliefs today warrants a healthy skepticism towards any poll. Recent poor poll performance reinforces caution. Republicans, independents, and even moderate Democrats are wary of speaking up. Left-wing Democrats are eager to share. This circumstance may make Biden think he’s doing better than he is.  

The President’s highest marks are on handling Covid and the economy. As I have pointed out, both were healing before Biden took office. Unless Biden screwed things up, we were already on our way.

Based on information widely available online, I predicted US herd immunity in the spring. This calculation wasn’t complicated, given the two already approved vaccine shots contracted delivery dates. Add the other warp-speed vaccines would likely come online, and those immune naturally you have an easy forecast. 

If we had the vaccines, I always figured out that the states would get in the arms of an anxiously waiting populous. As I pointed out in the earlier posts, the Biden team never understood Project Warp-Speed. How else could they have promised 100 million shots in the first 100 days when anybody with minor math skills knew this was far below what was already baked in under Trump.

The Israeli experience can give us insight. Leading the world in vaccinations, they experienced things first. They found once the majority anxiously desiring the vaccine is satisfied, addressing the remaining young or skeptical is paramount. They took a very positive “carrot and stick” path with their Green Pass. Get the shots and enjoy fun things such as rock concerts or sports. Don’t get jabbed, and you can forget doing all sorts of things. 

The Biden administration and its media allies instead adopted a strangely negative vaccine attitude. Instead of emphasizing how getting the shots returns your life to normal, they are downbeat. Wear your masks everywhere, even when vaccinated. Fauci is anticipating wearing them into 2022. HHS Secretary Rochelle Walensky added her thoughts, ” I’m going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom.”

Biden’s media allies echoed the negative. When millions of Americans had received the vaccines, the CDC told us how many of them got Covid; CNN headlined the story, “So far, 5,800 fully vaccinated people have caught Covid anyway in the US.” NBC echoed, “CDC: 5,800 ‘breakthrough infections’ in fully vaccinated people.” Why get the vaccine if you’re still likely to get Covid? However, science site ars Technica reported the same information, “99.992% of the fully vaccinated people have dodged Covid, CDC data shows.” The administration did nothing to correct the CNN-NBC slant. Which headline makes you want to get jabbed?

The administration claims Trump supporters are prominent among the reluctant. If so, why put Dr. Fauci out as your prime salesman. He may be a demigod to the left but is for good reasons (see my post “Rising to the Level of his Incompetence 2/21) distrusted on the right. 

If this wasn’t bad enough, a tiny amount of blood clots showing up after J & J shots caused the government to pause the vaccine’s use. The UK faced a similar problem with the AstraZeneca vaccine and looked at the risk-reward data, only added a warning label. Predictably, we have greater hesitantly not only towards J & J but the other vaccines as well. All this has resulted in a sharp falloff in our vaccination rate: 

As I said, the Biden administration could only screw things up, and apparently, they have. This vaccine slowdown could diminish our rapid economic recovery. The 6.4% first-quarter GDP growth built on solid 4th quarter 2020 gains. The Biden administration wasn’t around long enough to impact the numbers, but its actions since they took power could harm or even derail the recovery. The reopening of the economy with pent-up spending started mainly in the Red states and is now is spreading to finally opening up Biden Blue States. Continued progress putting Covid under control is essential to continued success.

Further dangers to the economy have arisen out of the Biden administration’s other actions. By extending generous unemployment benefits, many potential hires are refusing to return to the workforce. They’re receiving more than businesses can offer. Just look around, and you’ll find a sea of help-wanted signs. I get emails begging me to come to work from a wide variety of enterprises. Without workers, we can’t continue to grow.  

Some people would love to go back to work, but they have school-age kids at home. Biden’s promises to reopen the schools have fallen flat. At least 1/3 of our schools aren’t fully open. Unless they’re available, five days a week, employment for some isn’t an option. 

Sharply rising wages could bring out applicants, but that adds to inflationary pressures. Those pressures are already surfacing. You probably noticed this at the gas pump or the grocery store. Looking for housing or to making your existing property better, and you have sticker-shock. Prices are already rising, and Biden throws a $1.9 Trillion log on the fire. Remember, this is the only Biden economic legislation and not signed till the second week in March. No effect on the excellent first-quarter numbers whatsoever. So much for the “Biden Boom.” Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve may consider raising interest rates or allow high inflation due to wild spending. Looking back at the 1970s, neither was pleasant.

Incredibly, Biden isn’t satisfied. He wants to spend trillions more on “infrastructure.” Anything you think of qualifies. The odd thing is our infrastructure isn’t anywhere as inadequate as advertised. Among large nations, we’re near the top. Why not a much smaller bi-partisan, mainly user paid-for proposal?

Rather than contributing to the vaccine-driven recovery, Biden is in danger of mucking everything up. So much for his supposed strong points. On the other hand, the crisis at the border is of his own making. Worse, he seems to have no idea how to get things under control. Try as they might, the media can no longer ignore the crisis.

Overseas, the outlook is even grimmer. Warning shots fired at swarming Iranian warships, Russians mobilizing on Ukraine’s border, China invades Taiwan’s airspace regularly, and nobody is following the US lead on anything. Maybe the administration can buy some goodwill by giving up our tens of millions of AstraZeneca doses. Better late than never.

Look around and see if we are less divided than before the election. If anything, we’re even more divided. Joe seems to want to change our institutions to favor the Democrats forever. Nothing is more dangerous than a mediocre politician with delusions of grandeur. So much for Joe the Unifier.

The Biden first 100 days makes me fearful for the next 100 days and our future.  

Our charts show our slipping vaccine performance, but for now still declining Covid:

Comments by tfjp on the last post are worthy of discussion. Rather than a simple reply, the vaccine-proof controversy needs more deliberation. A mobile proof of immunity is often if somewhat inaccurately, referred to as a vaccine passport. The idea has stirred up a lot of resistance across the nation. Indeed, the concept of a passport conjures up the idea of all sorts of fears of government interference and knowledge of your personal information. I share these concerns. Nowhere in the post”Getting Out Of Jail,” did I advocate for the U.S. government to issue a single form of immunity proof and make it mandatory to show it to participate in life. The hope was to voluntarily get people together and agree on a single standard of proof.

The point is made we already have the proof of vaccination. Those little white paper CDC cards we received when we got our shots show it to anybody needing to know. The cards are flimsy but no different from Social Security or Medicare Cards. To preserve them, take the card to Staples or OfficeMax for free laminating. Problem solved.

We discussed what day to take our cards for laminating as we did with our Medicare cards, but I got a news alert; Phizer says we will likely need a booster shot. No problem, we have empty lines on our cards. Just add the booster info. Not possible on a laminated card. Hoping a CDC that designed these flimsy cards will develop a system of issuing new cards showing your vaccine history to replace your now useless card is truly an act of faith. Better not to mess with your card.

Perhaps a real-life example of travel in the Covid Era will illustrate the problems. For the last two years, we’ve had cruises to Iceland canceled because of the Pandemic. We noticed recently, Iceland is open for visiting for those with proof of Covid Immunity. At present, they will accept our CDC cards. Sounds great. Now we have to get there from Phoenix. The rule is to get on a plane; you need a negative Covid test. Checking with American Airlines, they recommended a quick turnaround $119 test. Be sure to start the process at least five days before the flight. When you get to the airport, you’ll wait in line to check test info. 

The lines could be shorter or avoided if we emulated TSA Pre-Check for those with proof of immunity. American suggests the Verifly App. to upload your test info. It could help with American Airlines and some other Airlines, but at present vaccine, proof doesn’t work getting you on a plane. At the moment, it only shows Covid Test results. However, if rules are changed to accept evidence of immunity along with e of test results, the app can do it. After all, why do the immune need a covid test?

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In the last post, I explored the “Holt Doctrine,” whereby a news outlet could exclude any information not conforming to its idea of truth. This exclusion, of course, is highly subjective and has no place in real journalism. Now, something else seems to be a play in some parts of the media. If some news is embarrassing to the side you favor, don’t bring it up.

Since Biden’s inauguration, we have been our Southern Border flooded with children seeking asylum. Young children’s images of being dropped from the 14′ border fence and a crying child wandering in the desert have appeared in some places. Photos have emerged of children penned in overcrowded conditions. The press excluded from investigating. All this after President Biden undid the Trump Administration’s procedures. All this cries out for answers. 

Yet three of the four Major weekend news shows never saw the Border even come up. Only Fox News, Sunday with Cris Wallace, discussed the situation with the governor of Texas. CBS’s Face the Nation, ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and NBC’s Meet the Press were free of Border questions. When a similar situation occurred during the Trump Administration, it played endlessly across the major networks.

Only Trump negotiated arrangements with Mexico gained control of the problem. As soon as Biden took power, he undid the agreements. Even though the situation looks like a crisis, the president hasn’t visited the Border. He delegated his Vice-President, Kamala Harris, to run point on the Border, but she hasn’t gone there either. With a high number of positive covid tests among the children, health concerns are evident. Yet Biden’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Athony Fauci, or any of his staff have gone down there to investigate.

Can anybody imagine Donald Trump getting away with any of this? The networks seem to be working on the assumption if we play down or ignore a messy situation, the people depending on them for information won’t notice.

CBS’s Face the Nation did have time to promote the Networks signature news program, 60 minutes. However, a week-long controversy over a 60-Minute segment blasting Florida Republican Gov. DeSantis over an alleged “pay for play vaccine scam,” was never mentioned. Florida Democrats involved in giving the contract to a grocery chain roundly debunked the story. That probably played a part in not bringing it up. 

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“I think it’s become clearer that fairness is overrated,” so said Lester Holt, the anchor of the NBC Nightly news. “Before you run off and tweet that headline, let me explain a bit. The idea that we should always give two sides equal weight and merit does not reflect the world we find ourselves in. That the sun sets in the west is a fact. Any contrary view does not deserve our time or attention.” Sounds right until you put his statement in perspective. Even sunrises and sunsets are viewed differently at the South Pole than in New York. 

The problem of this kind of statement from a journalist (The nightly News is a news show, not an opinion) is who chooses what and who to exclude. Most things in the news aren’t as straightforward as 2 & 2=4. Providently, we have a test case of the “Holt Doctrine” in CCN’s recent news special, “COVID WAR: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out.” The six doctors responsible for the previous Administration’s COVID-19 response reflect on the past year with CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. 

This group of doctors formed Trump’s medical team, and he initially relied on their information and advice. Given billions of dollars annually, the federal medical establishment is there to protect us against epidemics. These were the “experts” to use “science” to guide us safely through a crisis.  

On the special, the doctors informed Gupta Trump thwarted them from doing their job. The President gave mixed messages and put the economy before deaths. After the initial lockdowns, Trump called for re-opening. Instead of relying on this team, “there were too many parallel streams of data,” Birx said. 

“These parallel data streams, you think they originated with Scott Atlas?” Gupta asked. Dr.Atlas, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, joined the Administration as an advisor in August 2020. Supposedly misleading information coming from Atlas was enough for Birx to refuse to attend meetings with him. I told people I would not be in a meeting with Dr. Atlas again,” she said. “I felt very strongly that I didn’t want an action that legitimized in any way his position.”

There you have it; these doctors setting forth the “science” but were foiled by Trump and his Rasputin, Dr. Atlas. This alliance, according to Dr. Birx, lead to tens of thousands of additional deaths. Thank goodness for Dr. Fauci. “The decision we made on January 10 to go all-out and develop a vaccine, may have been the best decision that I’ve ever made with regard to intervention as the director of the institute,” claimed Dr. Fauci.

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