Here are my observations and opinions from my select news of the day.

IT’S APRIL FOOL’S DAY and who better to symbolize the day, but Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer?

Coming in second was MSNBC’s Joy Reid, who, as Washington Examiner reporter Brad Polumbo noted, “achieved the impossible this week by hitting a new low with her coverage of President Trump.”  Here’s what she said:

“It’s hardly news that Trump has always had designs on reigning as a monarch with unlimited power, rather than serving as a mere president in a democracy.  But with the country facing an unprecedented public health crisis, what lengths might he, backed by an attorney general whose writings and actions point to a fundamental belief in an all-powerful presidency – at least when the would-be king is a Republican – what lengths might Trump go to expand his power under the guise of national security?”

“She can’t possibly believe what she’s saying,” writes Polumbo, “but she thinks her audience is ignorant enough to lap it up.  It’s sad, really.”

“AN EPIDEMIC OF MEDIA PARTISANSHIP,” is the headline on a piece by Richard Benedetto in RealClear Politics, in which he issues a warning: “Reading The Washington Post might be hazardous to your (mental) health.”

“Leafing through the first section of Sunday’s print edition of the Post,” he writes, “nearly every headline seemed designed to scare the bejesus out of readers already nervously confined to their homes because of the coronavirus crisis.”

He begins with a six-column, bold type banner headline across page one: “Death toll surges past 2,000 in the U.S.,” with a photo of a face-masked police officer and a coffin.  If you didn’t read the caption, you wouldn’t know it was in Italy.

Other headlines on page one, included, “The U.S. economy’s downturn has exposed preexisting flaws,” “Inside Trump’s risky push to reopen the country,” “World’s poor face grave new hardships in insolation,” and “States’ needs overwhelm unprepared stockpile.”

There was no solace inside with the paper’s A section where the headlines read: “Underfunding, command changes hamper allocation of supplies from stockpile,” “Lack of water is stumbling block for many Americans amid pandemic,” “Trump shows confusion as he invokes wide-reaching presidential powers,” and “Urban centers across the nation brace for devastating outbreaks.”

Skipping to the editorial page, a headline read, “We need wartime leaders,” in which the editorial board suggests “The president should hand over the task to others … and get out of the way.”  Even the editorial cartoon was critical of Trump.

In its page one piece on the economy, the Post stated, “The coronavirus is exposing how the economy was not a strong as it seemed.”

Unbelievable.  Is the Post staff that weak that it cannot conceive of what the economy would be like if the Trump administration hadn’t created the means for the booming economy we have experienced?  What if the virus had hit us the year Trump took office, when the “preexisting flaws” were those of the Obama administration?

“Millions of people are out of work because of restrictions put in place for non-essential workers in an effort to get people to do better at “social distancing,” reminds Sister Toldjah in Red State, taking on the Post’s misinformation.

“Businesses have had to shut their doors, some of them permanently.  Even with the stimulus package, some of the ones that are still open (but barely so) will continue to struggle until restrictions are eased and more people can get back to  work.”

Pete Kaliner, a North Carolina radio host responded @PeleKaliner: “Possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in the Washington Post.  And the Washington Post publishes a lot of dumb stuff.”

“Somebody thought it was a good idea to write this.  And then at least 3 levels of editors thought it was a good idea to publish this.  Ponder that for a moment,” wrote Playa Manhattan @PlayaManhattan.

And so, the Post’s anti-Trump drumbeat continues in an effort to prevent the president’s reelection.

“CBS NEWS has some ‘splaining to do,’” wrote Darleen Click in the Victory Girls blog.  Eager to show its viewers the crowding of hospitals as a result of the virus outbreak, showed footage of an Italian hospital while the narrator had you believe it was a New York hospital.

The network clamed “It was an editing mistake. We took steps to remove it from all platforms and shows.”  There was no word of issuing an on-air correction.

I’M NO FAN OF BEN RHODES, former President Obama’s boy wonder as National Security Advisor, but he once hit the nail on the head when he described “The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns.  They literally know nothing.”

It’s true and one only has to listen to the inane questions asked of President Trump and his virus task force members to see it displayed.

In one instance Tuesday, a reporter inquired if the president had looked into the “disappearance” of masks sent to a New York hospital.  The day before, the president related a story of the unusual quantity of masks sent based on what he had learned from one of the mask producers.  The president politely said that he thought perhaps the reporter was a good journalist, and as an investigative journalist he should look into it at the hospital.

MSNBC’S BRIAN WILLIAMS, still trying to work his way back to the NBC mother ship after disgracing himself there, tried to build a case for Dr. Deborah Birx being on the “outs” with the president when he reported, “We heard from Dr. Fauci, but not Dr. Birx.”

Steve Guest writing @SteveGuest noted: “13 minutes before Williams’ recap, Dr. Birx was at the podium answering a question from NBC’s Shannon Pettypiece.”

Just an observation, Brian, but it must gall you that Chuck Todd is at NBC.

HAVE YOU HEARD how the media freaked out over the appearance of Mike Lindell, the My Pillow inventor, at the Friday virus task force briefing?  He was there to announce that he had converted 75 percent of his production space to produce face masks.  Joy Reid and Ali Velshi of MSNBC led the chorus.

Norm Ornstein, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, tweeted @NormOrnstein: “Fact: Mike Lindell is an awful human being.  An utter embarrassment to my home state of Minnesota.”

Face it.  What they didn’t like was how Lindell’s morphed his remarks into his faith in God message and the need to put God back in the schools.

Pollster Frank Luntz, writing @FrankLuntz commented: “The people mocking him (Lindell) aren’t doing a fraction as much to help our healthcare workers.”

MEANWHILE, in a Yahoo News/YouGov poll, three in five Americans (61 percent) heard “a lot” about President Trump the previous week, while just 17 percent heard “a lot” about Joe Biden.  The poll revealed that 81 percent of registered voters said they have listened to the daily briefings … and 44 percent give Trump an excellent to good rating.

ANDREW CUOMO, New York’s Democrat governor many are touting to replace Apology Joe Biden as the party’s nominee, because of his rambling press conferences on how his state is handling the virus outbreak, is now complaining about the increased cost of ventilators.  Earlier, he had complained about not getting shipments of them from the feds, while they were sitting in a nearby warehouse.

Don’t get me wrong.  I think price-gouging is outrageous.  However, as I reported here on March 22, 2020, he chose not to purchase them in 2015 when his health officials told him he needed 16,000 of them at a cost of $36,000.  I can understand how the price could rise the five years since then, but they are now going for $50,000 and more.

SOCIAL DISTANCING – Even with the social distancing measure to avoid picking up the virus in practice, we continue to see cases and deaths continue in our communities.

“This may lead some to think that the social distancing measures are not working,” writes Jonathan Smith, an infectious disease epidemiologist.  “They are. They may feel futile. They aren’t.

“You may feel discouraged. You should. This is normal in chaos. This is the normal trajectory.  Stay calm.

“We are not failing.  We need everyone to hold the line as the epidemic gets worse.  This is not an opinion.  I and my colleagues have dedicated our lives to understanding this nuance, and this disease is no exception.

“What you are doing is saving lives, even as people continue getting sick and dying. You may feel like giving in.  You may feel compelled to ‘cheat’ on social distancing.  Don’t.”

In addition, my recommendation is to continue to frequently wash your hands when you can and use hand sanitizers at other times.  And, by all means, keep local shopping trips to a minimum.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.