One thing that should now become obvious in the coronavirus pandemic to everyone is that the U.S. must become fully independent of the China supply chain. Offshoring of manufacturing jobs is a really bad idea, despite what the globalists in both political parties claim along with big business and academia.

Globalism enabled China to spread COVID-19 to the rest of the world with devastating public health and economic consequences.

Economic security is national security. The American consumer needs to be willing to pay a little bit more for goods for the greater good.

Maybe the Shark Tank investors on the popular TV show will even stop pressuring entrepreneurs to make their products overseas to increase “margins.”

Last month, reports emerged that President Trump and his team were preparing an executive order “to eliminate the government’s reliance on foreign-made medical supplies.” The executive order has yet to emerge, however.

Whether you like him or not, President Trump — a former Democrat and independent before running for office as a Republican — has warned for decades that China and other countries were ripping us off in one-sided trade deals. Before this emergency, the Trump administration has achieved success in reforming these international arrangements and in bringing jobs home, and these efforts should and no doubt will continue.

At White House urging, some of the quick retooling by domestic factories to make masks, ventilators, and other needed devices and products has been amazing.

Let’s Review Where Things Stand Today

After the COVID-19 situation settles down, there will be many lessons learned and questions to be answered. In the meantime, a few observations follow:

  • The projections and models for millions of fatalities appear to be wildly overinflated, although it may be determined that social distancing and the shutdown have had a profound effect on mitigation. Did the experts let us down again or were they correct?
  • The Democrats and the media (the latter which Instapundit‘s Glenn Reynolds often refers to as Democrat operatives with bylines) are rooting for an outright economic collapse and a long quarantine because that hurts Trump’s reelection chances.
  • They are also rooting against using the anti-malarial drug hydroxycholorquine that some doctors claim is effective in treating coronavirus patients because Trump has said its worth a try. Again, for the left, it’s all about politics and control. The ends justify the means.
  • Hospitals apparently have a financial incentive for coding deaths with COVID-19 as from COVID-19, which is skewing the data.
  • The America-Last media expresses skepticism about virtually anything Trump says, but accepts propaganda from the ruling Communist Party of China at face value. Same for the CCP’s puppet World Health Organization. As historian Victor Davis Hanson explains in his post-virus Lexicon, “CNN = We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, drive away any viewing audience in order to assure the destruction of Trump.”
  • The CDC needs to approve a vaccine for Trump Derangement Syndrome.
  • Trump’s foes have criticized him for both functioning as a “dictator” and not being dictatorial enough. The Democrat/media complex has also suddenly discovered a love for the 10th Amendment.
  • In the predictable blame game, Democrats who are condemning Trump’s response to the pandemic spent three-years plus on an absurd Russia collusion investigation followed by a nonsensical Ukraine-related impeachment. Before Trump won the White House, the political class did nothing about China’s geopolitical, economic, and military imperialism, however. Remember all those so-called bombshell stories that proved that Trump colluded with Russia?
  • The art history and gender studies majors that comprise the White House press corps (a.k.a. corpse) insist on wasting America’s time and their access to the president by concentrating almost exclusively on gotcha questions.
  • Trump’s sparring with the relentlessly negative and unself-aware media at the daily press conferences is entertaining to be sure, but sometimes it seems like he goes to far. Toning it down might improve his influence with undecided voters. Maybe delivering the latest updates and new initiatives and then turning it over to VP Mike Pence is a better approach. During these press conferences, POTUS tends to ramble too much and repeat stuff over and over (maybe that is a recognition that viewers tune in and out). Sometimes he gives a very cogent answer to a question, but fails to quit while he’s ahead, instead keeps going on the same topic. The president would be well served by finding other adjectives apart from “incredible,” as well as using specific nouns rather than “people.”
  • Thought experiment: Imagine the kinds of questions posed if Obama was still president.
  • Knowing that Joe Biden, their 2020 standard-bearer, is a weak candidate, common sense suggests that the Democrats and the media are coordinating the push for more vote by mail and ballot harvesting because it makes voter fraud even easier.
  • China needs to pay reparations to the U.S. and the world.
  • Outside of certain hotspots, America needs to go back to work in a safe manner and in one that respects civil liberties. As many have articulated, massive unemployment also creates a public health crisis.
  • Releasing violent criminals from jail because of a coronavirus diagnosis seems unwise.
  • COVID-19 risk factors appear to include obesity and diabetes. A message for America before COVID-20 or 21 rolls around: Clean up your diet, get more exercise, and engage in other heath practices to strengthen the immune system.
  • “Stay safe” will probably simultaneously wind up on 2020 word/phrase of the year lists as well as most annoying words list.

This post will be updated as necessary.