Archives for April 2020

Day 1198 What Does Trump Do All Day?

Thursday April 30, 2020 

185 Days until the election on November 3^rd

265 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

I’ve been wondering what does Trump do all day and this led me to an analysis of what I know about his daily schedule and the results of actions he has taken.

It is reported that he watches TV in the morning, notably Fox and Friends. He shows up at the working part of the White House a little before noon. Oftentimes I have read that he has lunch with the Vice President. I see pictures of him sitting on one of two yellow gold chairs with some foreign dignitary. I assume those ceremonies are held in the early afternoon. There is then the daily Corona virus pep rally, which goes on for two hours or so. This takes place around 4 o’clock.

Then I assume he goes home, meets with a few folks, has dinner, watches TV, tweets, goes to bed and gets up the next day to do it all over again.

This means that he has a little bit of time to do something presidential in the afternoon each day. 

What else do we know? We know he doesn’t read his Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB). This is the daily threat assessment. This is the main piece of intelligence prepared for a president since Truman. This is telling the president what he or she needs to pay attention to in order to keep the people of the United States safe. To not read this is a dereliction of duty and shows a complete lack of leadership – so say people who prepare this document and those who have worked in the government at this level before.

I think the president has a reading problem. I don’t think he can read. When I’ve seen him read it is haltingly, like a fourth or fifth grader who is still trying to parse out the sound of the words. Some have said that it is because he refuses to wear glasses. I don’t think so. He’s not squinting to try and focus, like someone would do who needed glasses. He is staring wide-eyed at the paper. His head bobs back and forth haltingly as he tries to understand what he is looking at and to pronounce the words before speaking them.

I conclude that he basically can’t read, and what he does read he won’t understand, so what’s the point of reading? This has led to his not knowing that the corona virus was coming. He was warned in the PDB repeatedly since early January.

There is an assumption by many of us that the government is working on things. Things to keep us safe, like stopping pandemics, quack medicine from getting on the market, or bad food from being distributed.

All this is now in question. This administration did not stop this virus from spreading. Their lack of action here and worldwide caused this pandemic. Don’t believe me? How many people died in the United States from the Ebola outbreak in Africa when Obama was President? 

Two. Two people died from Ebola here in the U. S. Of A. Why? Because our President sent thousands of workers and tons of supplies to West Africa to help. Remember the Republicans were screaming to shut the country off from those African nations, not to go help them and in so doing help ourselves. 

Let’s compare what Obama did with Ebola to what Trump and his administration have done with Corona virus. Let’s start at the number of dead in the U.S. This is a test question, “Which is better 2 dead or over 50,000 dead?” If you said, “Two,” you would be correct. If you said, “What does that mean?” or “Well, it depends,” or “It’s not his fault.” Then you’d be a Trump supporter. Just to be clear – having two dead from a deadly disease is better than 50,000 dead.

So let me ask – “Has this president kept us safe?” (Answer: NO.)

“Has he stopped a pandemic? “(Answer: NO.)

“Has he stopped quack medicine from entering our country?” (Answer: NO.) In fact, he has pushed quack cures forcing companies to take up major PR campaigns to stop people from potentially killing themselves with their products based on this president’s recommendation.

“Has he stopped bad food from being distributed?” (Answer: No. But small “o” because he hasn’t taken active measures to let bad food be distributed, or has he?

Here is where I don’t know, but we might know real soon. The president’s use of the War Powers Act to try and force meat packing plants to stay open might be a way to infect the whole country with corona virus. I don’t know if the virus can remain alive on packed meat that is kept packaged and cold. 

According to the FDA- There is currently no evidence linking food or food packaging and COVID-19 transmission, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This is from Google via the Internet. Don’t you feel better? In the same article*, next paragraph.

Dr. Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer with the Bureau of Communicable Diseases at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, said while they can’t be 100 percent sure about COVID-19, other respiratory illnesses usually do not spread through eating food.

This is from Google via the Internet. Don’t you feel better?

* Here’s the link:

https://www.wpr.org/coronavirus-outbreaks-wisconsin-meatpacking-plants-meat-safe-eat

What this says to me is 1) They don’t know or aren’t telling 2) They haven’t really studied it so it’s an open question.

Back to the question of what the president does all day. I suggest that he wanders around, half hearing stuff and then repeats whatever he has heard of thought about at his daily Covid conference. 

A good case in point was his remark that the U.S. Would soon be up to the five million mark in daily testing. No one in any position to know has said that. What one official had said earlier in the day was “Twenty million? We won’t even be able to do testing on five million.” (I’m paraphrasing)

Well looked there. The word “testing” and “five million” are used pretty close together. Good enough to repeat at a national press conference don’t ya think? Besides, if he gets caught he says, “I don’t know. That’s what I heard.” Like some child on the playground.

There’s more. A lot more to say on the current state of this pandemic, but for now:

Stay Home,

Wash Your Hands,

Be Vigilant.

This ain’t over.

185 Days until the election on November 3^rd

265 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Autumn Meditation, Georgio Chirac, 1913. As displayed in Mexico City.

Day 1194 – Let’s Talk About Sweden

Sunday April 26, 2020 

189 Days until the election on November 3^rd

269 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

I’ve learned more about what Sweden is doing to fight the pandemic. They are taking a different tact than most countries. They are protecting their most vulnerable: the sick and the elderly, but they are letting the rest go about their business. 

The idea being that the healthy can fight off the virus and will develop antibodies and therefore the overall population will develop “herd immunity” and then the virus won’t spread once this level of immunity is reached. 

I hope they’re right. But. What if they aren’t? 

We know that most of these types of viruses once you’ve been exposed and survived you’ve developed an immunity. Is that true in this case? Maybe, but we don’t know right now. As time goes by and we have more time to study this situation we can learn more about whether this is true. 

It’s also been reported that this virus causes micro blood clots in the lungs, and it is this micro-clotting that is causing some people to die, not pneumonia, as has been assumed in other corona viruses. 

There is also a condition where your immune system goes into overdrive to defeat this invader and this can cause all sorts of problems – like death. Cyto-something or other. But there are drugs to tamp down the immune system response and this has been shown to save peoples’ lives. It also seems that this condition may be the cause of people seeming to be okay and then suddenly get bad – really bad. Or it could be the microh-bloodclotting.

So for my money, I’d rather stay inside, avoid the virus landing on me, and wait and see what else we learn. 

Maybe, what Sweden is doing and what the rest of the world is doing will ultimately work out to have the same effect. We’ll see.

There are two parts to that “it will work out the same” argument. One would be if we had been able to isolate those with the disease early on so that the virus didn’t spread than we might have been able to contain the outbreak, like we did with Ebola. But we didn’t do that. We now have it literally around the world. Now, we have to wait either for “herd immunity,” which we don’t know yet whether that works in this case; or we have to wait for a vaccine. 

As we wait, we are seeing direct evidence that our planet is healing. Regardless of what happens with the virus I say, “Let’s not return to normal.”

Let’s find a new normal. We have a tremendous chance to change the world for the better. Can we do it?

There are promising signs. 

Rockefeller Center is empty. Yet the folks who commuted everyday are working from home and things seem to be going okay. Should they return? Why? 

This question may be being asked all over the world. The big downtown HQ mentality and commute may be a thing of the past. Can we replace all those single driver cars commuting with none, or find another way?

Mark Cuban was on a finance channel recently and said there is no better time than now to start a company. (Doesn’t he always say that?) He pointed out there aren’t many cars on the highways right now, Why not try out self driving cars?

Jay Leno pointed out that the California State Police have handed out over 2,000 speeding tickets on Highway 101 for people doing over 100 mph. No one can believe there’s no traffic. (A little contrast to Mark’s comment.)

Meanwhile, I’m reading “War and Peace.” A few pages, every day.
Take care, and if nothing happens. I’ll tell you about it.

189 Days until the election on November 3^rd

269 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Ace Reporter, Bryce Holliwell on assignment. 

Day 1192 Part II A Very Weird Press Conference

Friday April 24, 2020 

191 Days until the election on November 3^rd

271 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

I watched Governor Cuomo’s press conference. Very weird. He gave a brief heart felt speech and update then took questions. He or his staff had rational answers to questions being asked. There was no chest thumping, no accusing the press of being terrible or nasty. It was very business like, straight forward. 

The Governor did take time to point out that New York is the #1 state in giving money to the Federal government. He pointed out that Mitch McConnell’s state, Kentucky, is the #3 state in terms of taking money from the Federal government. (I think Wyoming is #1, not sure about #2.)

McConnell had said something along the lines of ‘they would look at bailing out New York’, to which Cuomo has responded, “Bail us out? Give us back our money.”

When you look at the states in terms of who gives money to the Federal government and who take money – it’s all them liberal Democratic states that give money and all them red neck rural states that do the taking. It’s not even close. Why does Kentucky need billions of dollars year after year? Let them balance their budget and stop asking for handouts.

Then we get to the gun nuts standing outside the Governor of Michigan’s home with AK-47s. WTF? I am told that if a policeman stops me and I fake sneezing I can be arrested for assault, and these idiots are standing around with military weapons? WTF? – again.

But the main thing I want to encourage is for all those Trump loving supporters you have a great opportunity to STAND WITH THE PRESIDENT!

Yes sir, he said invest disinfectant into your body to kill off the virus. 

So do it. 

I gotta tell you that I think it’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard, even stupider than McConnell’s telling the states to declare bankruptcy. But hey, what do I know? The president says he has a very good brain. Frankly, I think he’s an idiot. So who is right? Me? You? Trump? Here is your chance to prove all them liberal eggheads wrong. Inject yourself with disinfectant and see what happens.

BTW, before you do that send me your next of kin info so I can check with them. Okay?

Okay!

191 Days until the election on November 3^rd

271 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Stone House – Petra, Jordan

Day 1192 Two Views: Two Paths

Friday April 24, 2020 

191 Days until the election on November 3^rd

271 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

George Packer’s article in The Atlantic four days ago was the most succinct piece of writing that has not only described what is wrong with this administration but what is wrong with our current political situation and condition, both in this country and the world.

Who would have thought that a crappy bunch of RNA would bring our world to its knees and expose our failings, and show us a new way forward? Not even two months ago would we have thought such a thing. Yet, here we are.

For those who want to say global warming isn’t necessarily caused by humans all they have to do is look at the air around the world. It’s cleaner. Be it images from space, or the people in India who for the first time in their lifetime can see the Himalaya mountains or the people in any of the huge urban centers who are seeing animals returning to areas where weeks ago cars roamed. Fish have been seen in the canals of Venice! 

We now know (well, I know; do you?) that the health official in the San Francisco area that issued the stay at home order in early March did more to slow the pandemic in California and the United States than all the chest beating of the Republicans and Trump. In fact, had she been able to get test kits she said she probably could have issued the order even sooner. If the president had followed her lead there would have been no pandemic in our country. Yes, people would have still died, but not in the tens of thousands.

How was she able to do what she did? She’s knew what she was doing. She had been doing it for years, and she was working with other health officials in the surrounding areas that worked with her and in unison they issued the order. Oh, and she had the power to do it without a politician getting in the way to muck it up. Days later the Governor of California followed her lead. Thus, did California avoid the fate of the rest of the country. 

Imagine if we had had competent leadership for the nation? This could have been avoided. Not all together, but the virus could have been contained and stamped out of society in general. Well, at least when the next one comes we’ll know what to do, right? (I Hope.)

However, the political landscape is fraught with problems and they are structural. I don’t know if we have the ability to change it. 

No where is this more blatantly obvious than in the supposed red state blue state divide. Many of the less populated states are called “conservative.” I’d say ‘unwilling to change’, but the tag is “conservative.” In not too many years the bulk of our population will live in 16 states. That means the majority of our population will depend on 32 Senators to try and persuade the other 68 to help them. So far those other senators have shown little willingness or ability to do so. Instead, they have been busy lining their own pockets and pushing nutty ideas, which have stymied the government in general to act effectively and in the best interest of the people.

Let’s take the case of Mitch McConnell and his suggestion that states should go bankrupt. Governor Cuomo called the idea dumb. It was. It is. But not to McConnell who it was pointed out later was really trying to defund the pensions of union folks who happen to vote more Democratic than Republican. Ah, another chance to cut them off at the knees!

Do you know a retired firefighter? Or policeman? Or their widows? Wouldn’t it be too bad if they lost their pension? Not to McConnell. 

We are now seeing reports of how much cleaner the air is around the world. Some are asking if there is a path forward that we could preserve this situation? The answer is yes but we’d have to make changes. Will those “we don’t like change” people be willing to help? The jury is out on that.

191 Days until the election on November 3^rd

271 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS On a boat on a river …