Day 1182 – Are You Bored?
Tuesday April 14, 2020
201 Days until the election on November 3rd
281 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
Indonesia
Well, I’m not. I’m a lot of things, but bored isn’t one of them. Why? I remember that annoying thing people say to that question, “Boredom is something you do to yourself.”
(Yeah, shut up. It’s as bad as when you lose something and someone asks you, “Where was the last place you had it?” Listen, if I knew the answer to that I’d know where the lost item is, wouldn’t I? Don’t say it. Don’t say, “Well, not necessarily …” Oh, you want to get punched in the mouth, do you?”)
Where was I? Oh, yes. Boredom. Hum. No. I’m having to confront the reality of possibly doing all those projects I said I was going to do once I got the time.
Moving on.
I’ve had a broad sweep of emotions over the last few days. None more profound than the realization that we are in for a long haul. Like one to two years. Anyone who thinks that this is going to be over soon had better re-check their assumptions because as Ayn Rand would say, “One of them is wrong.”
The most stark coming to realize this was brought about by a guy from Minnesota. He’s one of those folks with a PhD or MD who has an alphabet soup description of what he does, but he spoke with something we rarely see these days – knowledge. Yeah, he seemed to really know what he was talking about.
He said that their predictive models are saying that before this pandemic is done half the people in this country will have had the virus. He said that based on that we are looking at a death rate of between 800,000 and 1,600,000. We are currently at 20,000. He quoted Churchill and said we aren’t at the end or the beginning but the end of the beginning, or something like that.
If this guy is right that 50% of the population will get this disease than his death rate is way off. The current projected death rate is 3.2%. Let’s assume the population of the U.S. Is 300 million. (I think it’s more like 320, but 300 is easier to work with.)
If 50% of 300 million get the virus that’s 150 million. If the death rate is 3.2% well lemme see – for 100 million that would be 3.2 million so for 150 million I’d have to add on another 1.6 million for a total of 4.8 million. That last 20 million in the population I didn’t put in before? Hum, half of 20 is 10, so 10 million more would get the virus and 1% of ten million is 100,000 so that times 3.2 is 320,000. If we add that to the 4.8 million dead of 300 million we get 5.12 million or 5,120,000 dead from the Corona Virus.
If this is the outcome we won’t recognize this country or this world. We haven’t even looked at what will happen to Africa or places that don’t have the infrastructure we have.
Is there hope? Yeah, of course. Maybe we’ll get a vaccine quicker than normal. But we are looking at some pretty terrifying numbers.
Moving on.
I was brought to tears – twice yesterday. One was when they showed the Christ in Rio lit up like a medical professional, and then with the flag of the U.S. They were showing the countries effected. (Btw Have you noticed how many of the doctors, nurses, and health care workers aren’t white? How about Boris? He attributes the care he got to two immigrants to his country.)
The other bring-to-tears moment was Andrea Bocelli singing “Amazing Grace” in front of the Milan Cathedral. (That cathedral is one of the premier structures in the world. When we got there I was too tired to go on the tour. I was twelve. The roof is incredible. Damn.)
Seeing the light show in Brazil made me feel both thankful and ashamed. Ashamed for what we as a country have become. Yesterday, I wrote that we had been a world leader. We had been the ones to send the extra troops and supplies to hot spots around the world. We stopped ebola, and swine flu, and H1N1, and SARS, and MERS. Now?
Now FEMA is restocking our national stockpile by stealing orders from the states.
Now we are months into this crisis and we still don’t have testing or protective equipment.
It’s chaotic. It’s shameful. It’s disgusting.
Disgusting because our president is so petty, so mean, so clueless. You’ve heard the term “the banality of evil”? Look no further than Donald J. Trump.
Well, you can look further – like to Jared.
You don’t get to a cunning little runt until you get to Stephen Miller.
But don’t worry we’ve got a new task force made up of Jared, Ivanka, Mark Meadows and a few others. They’re going to do something. But god knows what. What’s the committee for? Who cares.
This got me to thinking about intelligence and the Bell Curve.
Quick, where do you put yourself? Hillary? Barack? Bill Gates?
Now what about Donald? Jared? Ivanka?
If you’re like me, you put yourself somewhere in the middle. (Okay, maybe “above average” thank you Garrison Keller.) Hillary, Barack, and Bill? I put them to the right – I.e. Smarter than me.
Donald? Jared? Ivanka? Not as smart as me. Maybe, more cunning.
We could argue about where on the curve each of these folk go, but that’s the general lay of the land I think.
What about Joe Biden? I think he’s in there with us. And that’s okay.
The thing about Joe is you feel his compassion, his empathy right away. Yeah, he could have done things better in his life, but he did the best he could and his heart was generally in the right place. Can anyone say that about Trump? Has anyone ever said, “Oh yeah, but his heart was in the right place?” I don’t think so. I think you might ask, “Does he have a heart?”
Yeah, it’s going to be a long slog. Many of the folks we know are not going to make it.
If you haven’t set up a staging area for stuff you bring into your home to let it sit for several days then do so immediately. Put a protocol in place to wash or wipe down those items and if you don’t need them right away. Let them sit.
That’s what our garage is for now.
Moving on.
Hey, guess what? It’s now coming out that Trump’s own medical experts were trying to get Donnie to see the light back in January and February.
Donald wants to not help the post office. Why? Oh, he doesn’t like Jeff Bezos, because Jeff owns the Washington Post and the Post writes factual things about Trump that he thinks are nasty. (Well, they are, because he is. – Next.) Amazon uses the Post Office to ship stuff. So if Donnie can shut them down, big win. Plus there’s the added bonus of no mail-in ballots. “I win! I win! Look at the numbers!”
Oh god, save me, save us.
Save us all.
201 Days until the election on November 3rd
281 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
PS “You want some of that? Huh? Do ya? Come on. I’m ready.”
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