8/7/2020
DJT,
I’ve been hearing about your Executive Orders today & I’m still confused about what you can and cannot do. Perhaps you are as well. Can you really unilaterally ban a company from the USA? While I don’t mind that Tik-Tok might cease to exist, I worry about We-Chat. I just learned about it today, but I understand that it is a life-line for Chinese folk in the USA to communicate with their families back home. I suspect that many of my colleagues & students use it, & I hate to think that in 45 days they will be cut off from their loved ones. I’m afraid that Peter Navarro may be misguiding you on this one, & I encourage you to reconsider.
Back to Executive Orders – Did you know that Teddy Roosevelt & his 5th cousin, FDR, issued a lot of them? On average FDR was signing one almost every day (307/year). I have no idea what they were all about, but I do know that my grandparents thought he over-reached. You’ve been hitting that average for the last 4 days. I’m sure you don’t want anyone calling you a tyrant, so you might want to slow down. According to NPR, you signed one about the cost of prescriptions that you haven’t published. What’s up with that?
So, if I were you I would issue 3 Executive Orders immediately. I’d order Abbott, Becton Dickinson & Quidel to amp up production of their rapid antigen CV tests. They may not be precise but according to some math whizzes quoted in the NYT, “a relatively insensitive test, rolled out twice a week, vastly outperformed a more accurate test, administered once every two weeks, in curbing the spread of disease.”
I’d also order all of the motorcyclists heading to Sturgis right now to turn around & go back home. The Guardian says that 100,000 are expected & it will probably turn into a super-spreader event. We don’t want those Harley riders infecting each other. Some might defy the order, but some might listen. Who knows unless one tries?
Finally I would order everyone to wish my daughter a happy 23rd birthday.
BYBS,
