Day 1188 – What Would Success Look Like?
Monday April 20, 2020
195 Days until the election on November 3rd
275 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
Apparently, the $1200 promised are starting to hit. At least the direct deposits are. I had made snide comments doubting the administration could get their act together enough to really do this and then made a snide comment about Trump putting his name on it and being told “not on the direct deposit.” Well, okay, is that because he couldn’t figure out how to do it? I wanted to say. I realized that this kind of attitude might be taken as signs that I want him to fail. I don’t, but he is. Any minor sign that he and or this administration did something positive is good but not necessarily a show that they got it right. Therein lies the problem. This has been expressed in articles such as the one in The Atlantic by a Republican that claims the Trump presidency is over and will only be a hollow shell to another article in Politico (I think) which claims if Trump triumphs over this pandemic he wins re-election. Both are correct, both are not.
It is strange times indeed. There are the articles and pundits’ commentaries that are trying to say, “Hey, the number dead aren’t as bad as [fill in the blank].” This may be true but it ignores the trend line of this virus which is straight up. In some states we’ve turned a corner and the number of patients coming into the hospitals is lessening, which makes some say, “Hey, it’s not as bad as they said,” or “See, they didn’t need all those ventilators!” I balance that against the pictures of the exhausted faces taken on the front lines, of the growing row of refrigerator trucks to hold the dead bodies and of the pictures of the mass graves being dug. Yes, we’ve turned a corner, maybe, if we don’t let up.
The president says he wants to reopen the country. He can’t. He doesn’t have the power. What would that mean anyway? I fear that some governors are going to let up, and that we’ll have a resurgence and then who will they blame? Or will it be the old, “Huh? Who knew?” game? Followed by someone to blame.
There is ample and mounting evidence that the president was warned and did nothing.
But let’s talk about now.
Now the cry is for testing. Apparently, the re-agents are in short supply. As are swabs. How can we, the supposedly great country not make enough long sticks with cotton on the end? WTF?
This reagent thing is tricky because each machine, that is each manufacturer of the machine has to provide the re-agent for that machine and they haven’t been able to do it fast enough.
I saw the governor of Ohio on TV last night saying he needs more and explaining exactly how the Federal government could help. For what ever reason if you ask Trump or his administrators directly for help they won’t do it. I wish they would, but they don’t.
It’s so bad that the governors have to do some things on the sly. Like the governor of Illinois who secretly flew in two plane loads of equipment from China so FEMA would steal it.
Do I want Trump to succeed? Yes. Will they?
195 Days until the election on November 3rd
275 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
PS Is there light?
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