Viral News: New cases of the coronavirus are down 33 percent percent over the last two weeks, and deaths yesterday slipped below 2,000.

  While the numbers improve, the people fighting the pandemic are just returning from the alternate universe of the Trump administration. 

  Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the faces of American medical science, told The NY Times that “I would try to express the gravity of the situation, and the response of the president was always leaning toward, ‘Well, it’s not that bad, right?’ And I would say, ‘Yes, it is that bad.’ It was almost a reflex response, trying to coax you to minimize it.” 

  Fauci said Trump would take the advice of any crony who called him on the phone. “He would take just as seriously their opinion,” Fauci said, “based on no data, just anecdote — that something might really be important.” He said, “It wasn’t just hydroxychloroquine, it was a variety of alternative-medicine-type approaches. It was always, ‘A guy called me up, a friend of mine from blah, blah, blah.’ That’s when my anxiety started to escalate.”

  Dr. Deborah Birx, the former White House coronavirus response coordinator, said yesterday on CBSthat people she didn’t know were giving Trump “a 

  Birx said, “I saw the president presenting graphs that I never made, so I know that someone — or someone out there or someone inside — was creating a parallel set of data and graphics that were shown to the president. I know what I sent up, and I know that what was in his hands was different from that.” 

A Party Divided: The Arizona Republican Party voted to censure Gov. Doug Ducey, former Senator Jeff Flake, and Cindy McCain, the widow of former Senator John McCain because they did not support Donald Trump in his effort to overturn the presidential election and his ignorance in handling the pandemic.

  The censure is largely a symbolic gesture, but it represents a growing rift across the country.

  McCain and Flake had been critical of Trump and the party denounced Ducey’s use of emergency pandemic orders without legislative approval, including closing “nonessential” businesses in the spring.

The Wingnut Party: President Biden had been on the job for just over 24 hours last week when freshman Republican Rep. Marjorie Greene of Georgia filed articles of impeachment against him.

  A follower of the QAnon conspiracy movement, Greene charges that when he was Vice President under Barack Obama, “President Biden gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government.”  Greene, who’s been seen wearing a mask that says “Trump won,” claims Biden is deeply embroiled in international corruption with his son, Hunter, particularly involving Ukraine.

 She claims in her filing, “Joe Biden abused the power of the Office of the Vice President, enabling bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors, by allowing his son to influence the domestic policy of a foreign nation and accept various benefits—including financial compensation—from foreign nationals in exchange for certain favors.”

Trust But Verify: The press has taken a beating in the years it was denounced as the “enemy of the people.” For the first time ever, less than half of all Americans trust in traditional news media, according to the annual “Trust Barometer” issued by the global communications firm, Edelman. They say; 

• 56% of Americans agree with the statement that “Journalists and reporters are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations.” 
• 58% think that “most news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology or political position than with informing the public.”
• Trust in social media has hit an all-time low of 27%.

  Good thing we are not the traditional media.

The Bulletin Board: At least 3,000 people in multiple cities were arrested during demonstrations over the weekend demanding release of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. His wife Yulia was among those arrested. — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he has tested positive for COVID-19.  — President Trump’s former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is expected to announce today  that she’s running for governor of Arkansas. She’s the daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee. — Dominion voting systems is suing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for $1.3 billion for his false claims that the company’s machines were rigged in favor of Joe Biden.

The Obit Page: Walter Bernstein, a screenwriter blacklisted during the McCarthy era who went on the write hit movies under his own name, has died at age 101.

  When the lid of the commie-hunting era came off his career, Bernstein wrote the 1961 “Paris Blues” starring Sidney Poitier and Paul Newman as expatriate American jazz musicians, and the 1964 “Fail Safe,” about an accidental nuclear strike on Moscow.

  In a spin off his own career, he also wrote “The Front” about a blacklisted Hollywood writer who gets Woody Allen to submit the scripts under his own name, as if he had written them. The Allen character, who was not a writer, eventually rejects a script as not being worthy of his reputation.

  Bernstein was active as a writer and teacher into his 90s. He told Variety, “They’ll carry me off writing.” 

10 for 12: Tampa Bay’s quarterback Tom Brady nearly threw away the game with three interceptions, but the Buccaneers held on to beat Green Bay by five points to win the NFC championship and a spot in the 55^th Super Bowl. Brady threw three touchdown passes.

  The Buccaneers will face the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the Super Bowl last year and beat Buffalo last night.

  It will be Brady’s 10th Super Bowl. He’s already won six of them with the New England Patriots. Brady is 43, old for anyone in the NFL, but he’s  proved it was a mistake for New England to let him get away. 

-30-