Saturday July 4, 2020
120 Days until the election on November 3rd
200 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
A friend of mine, who I have known since grade school, posted on Facebook a picture of a beach in Florida. It was taken through a position of sitting back on a chaise lounge. He stated the per capita number of deaths in Florida versus New York. New York’s per capita was higher, according to his numbers. He asked, “Where would you rather live?”
This brings up a fascinating point. (Okay, not that fascinating.)
Although his per capita numbers may be correct his logic is off. To argue his point one would have to look at the per capita death rate now, not the average over the entire time period. New York had a huge spike at first, but its governor fought to get it down. Florida’s governor did the opposite. He ignored it, belittled it, and now Florida is paying the price. The day before yesterday, July 2nd, Florida had over 6,000 new cases of Corona Virus, while New York had 872. If we went on a per capita basis now, obviously New York with a much larger population than Florida would have a much lower per capita rate than Florida.
There is evidence no matter where you look and how some want to spin it that getting tough early works. Ignoring doesn’t. In Michigan where the governor ignored the president’s suggestions and she ignored the gun toting put up to it Second Amendment fellas with their AR-15s the rate of infection is way down, like 495 in a day versus Florida or Georgia where the governors got in line with the White House silliness and they have cases in the thousands per day. Their hospitals are at capacity and they are barely holding on.
South Dakota where the president went last night for what has been termed “a super spreader event” will probably see a spike over what they already are experiencing. The vice president had to delay a trip a day because his Secret Service team was infected and they had to bring in new agents. How long will it be before one of the inner circle gets it? By that I mean the virus, not sanity – please.
It turns out that leadership and science are better than ignoring and ignorance. In other words, facing reality and dealing with it work better than la-la land. But don’t tell president Trump. He doesn’t like that.
This brings up the whole Russians paying to kill Americans.
I can’t get Sarah Cooper’s lip-sync of Trump talking about disinfectant out of my head. She makes his ignorance and stupidity so clear. Talk about transparency! She also has said she is envious of him because he has managed his whole life to get by on BS, and she hasn’t.
To watch him in interviews trying to think of something, anything, to get by, is sickening and most people can’t watch it. It is so appalling. Yet, the scary thing is he is probably going to run for a second term and currently it appears he has no chance of winning, but there is a more than even chance he could steal the election.
Trump, aided and abetted by the national and local Republican parties, could create a situation where several states’ votes could be called into question. Even if they aren’t he could declare a national emergency and say some states’ votes are in question. If this happens then The Supreme Court could get involved. The Constitution says the Electoral College must vote in December and if no candidate gets a majority the election gets thrown into the House where each state gets one vote. In Gore v Florida the Court said that the votes weren’t re-counted in Florida in time, sorry. And remember this all happened because of a confusing ballot and hanging chads that were created in a heavily Democratic area because the Republican in charge of the election saw to it to create unreadable ballots. (Just in case you didn’t know. The ballots were all prepunch, which is fine for mail-in over seas ballots. However, if those ballots are run through machines they tend to poke out partially some of the choices and thus the hanging chad.)
Imagine that! Would Trump do it? Would he declare a national emergency so as to make it so that no one gets a majority of the electoral college votes and thus no one is elected President by the Electoral College?
Who wants to take the bet?
What happens then? Each state gets one vote. There are 26 Republican states and 24 Democratic states.
26-24 Trump.
It’s horrible to contemplate but it’s realistic to assume.
Have a nice day. Wear a Mask. Stay home. It won’t kill you. (Other things can.)
120 Days until the election on November 3rd
200 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
PS The famous ball player stella of El Baúl. The site was destroyed in 1997 and a few pieces of sculpture were saved. This is one of them. Most people don’t get to see the original because you have to know where it is and how to get there. It’s behind a guarded twenty foot high chain link fence with coils of barbed wire on top.
What is going on here? Gloved ballplayers wearing old football helmets and holding round balls is what I see. I haven’t seen much real scholarly evidence. Ancient aliens? Proof that the lost tribe settled here? Or ancient Egyptians? Yes, that is probably out there. But what it really represents is hard to say. As far as I know it is the only example of this sort of thing. There is a copy on the wall of the National Museum in Guatemala City. You typically see it as you enter or leave the museum and are on the bus. You have time to ask yourself, “What is that?” and then it’s gone. No one will tell you or they gloss over it. (Obviously, a deep state conspiracy. Sigh.)
Maybe, no one knows?
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