Trump

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 …

 

Day 1191 OMG! Thank You Governor Cuomo

Thursday April 23, 2020

192 Days until the election on November 3^rd

272 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Finally, someone is calling out Mitch McConnell.

Apparently, Governor Cuomo didn’t like McConnell promising aid to the states and then after getting his legislation through without it told the states they should declare bankruptcy.

Cuomo said this was either the dumbest or one of the dumbest ideas that has come out of the Federal Government as headed by Trump and McConnell.

McConnell also said, according to Cuomo, that the virus was a “blue state problem.” WTF? Cuomo then took apart the Senator. He then followed up with the fact that New York puts in $141 billion more than it takes out of the Federal Government. Kentucky, where McConnell is from, takes out $148 billion. So Cuomo asked, “Who is bailing out who?”

Finally. Thank God.

In other news, hey Brian Kemp, Governor of Georgia who won by cheating and all round Trump lackey, “How do you like Donnie now? Now that he’s turned on you when you were doing his bidding?” Yeah, you wanna open up massage parlors, nail salons, and tattoo parlor – all essential services to be sure – and your man Trump said it was dumb. How da ya feel?

In other news president Trump said he had nothing to do with the reassignment of the head of the group within the Federal Government that is looking for a vaccine for this virus. Right. I mean the guy was just doing his job and was asked about that malaria drug you’ve been touting, you know the one that doesn’t work on Covid, and he said it didn’t work, and now he’s reassigned and you know nothing. Where’s Col. Klink? 

Then Donnie said the head of the CDC was misquoted in the Washington Post. The head of the CDC was standing right there so amazingly the reporters asked him if he had been misquoted. (Such a nasty question! Tsk Tsk.) He said no. I wonder if he’ll be sweeping floors soon on reassignment? (Just  asking for a friend.)

192 Days until the election on November 3^rd

272 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Chauc Monster Mask

Day 1189 Wherein I Explain All

Tuesday April 21, 2020 

194 Days until the election on November 3^rd

274 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

A friend of mine called last night and asked me if I understood what was going on with oil. How could it go to minus for a barrel of crude?

This seemed laughable on its face, but that was the fact of the matter. They were giving away oil. Why?

I had no idea. I was half awake. 

But now I know. Yes, praise the lord, I know. Because I have seen the light.

This is just one of many things I will attempt to explain in this screed. But first let me explain a few terms:

TLA – Three Letter Acronym (e.g. “TLA”)

GDP – Gross Domestic Product

AGDP – A God Damn Pandemic (which would have been a TLA at GDP, but I didn’t want any confusion with GDP, which is a TLA, and this is an FLA, which is also taken but hopefully you get the idea.)

So before I get to oil let’s talk about Sweden. Yeah. Two weeks ago or less there were articles comparing Sweden’s response to the Corona Virus to that of its neighbor Norway. Sweden has AGDP; Norway does not. Why? Norway jumped on it early. Sweden took a “wait and see” approach. Similar to what England did with Boris Johnson at the controls. England has AGDP, while its neighbor Ireland does not. Ireland is run by a doctor, not an idiot as England is. The Irish got on it early and are now targeting the vestiges of where the virus is  now lurking – nursing homes. England has AGDP.

So Sweden has become a cause celebre on the American right, which is odd because usually the right is jumping up and down pointing fingers at Sweden and yelling, “Socialism!” but that was the old days. Now? It’s different. Now the right is asking, “Why don’t we do what Sweden is doing and open up everything?”

The reason is Sweden is in the middle of AGDP. That’s why. But for some reason (reason? Is that even the proper word to use here? That suggests a whiff of thinking and logic.) the right thinks that would be a swell idea. I think they should hop across the pond and check with their bud Boris and see what he thinks. 

Moving on.

Oil.

Why are they giving away oil? This has to do with the idea of spigots. Spigots are those things on the outside of your house that you attach your garden hose to and water your lawn. Now imagine you didn’t have them. What would happen? Well water would come out. Okay. Fine. Then what? Well, you’d water your lawn, water the garden, water your neighbor’s lawn and garden and finally you’d have nothing else to do with the water. In fact the water would start to flood your lawn, leak into your garage, up the steps into the house… You’d be drowning. Would you pay someone to take away the water? Damn right. Maybe, you’d swim upstream to try and stop the water.

Yeah. Well, that’s kind of the way it is with oil. It’s like the Trevi Fountain. Once you turn on the aqueduct you can’t really turn it off. Like Lucy in the Chocolate Factory. It just keeps coming. World oil production is based on roughly 400 sites. They produce 80% of the world’s oil. You don’t just turn a spigot to shut it down, or greatly reduce it. It takes time. Now that the demand for oil has greatly reduced there is nowhere left to store the oil that is still coming. Hence what was once valuable is no longer. You can’t give it away.

Let’s think about the implications of this on the world wide economy. Not just oil but demand for stuff and all that other stuff we buy. Economists like to call this goods and services. Are you using your car much? No. Bye bye demand for autos and trucks. What about commuting to work? No. Bye bye transportation stuff, and big real estate rentals in downtown wherever. What about restaurants? Nope. Bye bye. What about football games and music concerts? No, No, and no (wait there were only two mentioned. Yeah, I know. But “no-no” sounds like it refers to something else.)

How long will we be in this mode? Until we get a vaccine. How long will that take? Optimistically, 18 months to two years. How long has it taken in the past? Four years is the shortest time to develop a vaccine in the past. 

So if you’re smart and planning, look at an event horizon of one and a half to four years.

The world will be a much different place when we emerge. Many of our friends will no longer be with us. We will have met the great equalizer. 

194 Days until the election on November 3^rd

274 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Close up of Corona Virus (Okay, maybe it is a bat. Maybe.)

Day 1188 – What Would Success Look Like?

Monday April 20, 2020 

195 Days until the election on November 3^rd

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 3^rd

275 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Is there light?

Day 1184 – The Worst Could Be Yet To Come – Part II

Thursday April 16, 2020 

199 Days until the election on November 3^rd

279 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

That first part isn’t what I wanted to talk about. 

Last night a doctor was interviewed that had tested all the pregnant women who had come into her ward. Of the 215 that came in 4 had obvious signs of the virus; 4 more were possible, but 29 were positive but showed no signs.

If her numbers hold then 14% of the population had the virus – now. 

If that is true then for 300 million that’s 42 million. Plus the other 20 million if 280,000. In other words 300,280,000 could be walking around the U.S. shedding this virus and infecting others.

What are we doing about this? Well, that would require testing and we aren’t doing that.

Not in any significant numbers. In fact, our number of tests per day is going down. 

No testing. No Problem. Head in sand.

Speaking of head in the sand, a big shout out to the Republican governor of South Dakota, who has the biggest outbreak of Corona virus in the U.S. What’s she doing about it? Talking to Fox News about opening up her state. Will she hep the mayor of the largest city in her state where the outbreak is occurring? No. You are on your own pal. While she is yammering on. The city is freezing it’s ice rink for an overflow morgue.

What is Fox reporting? I don’t have to watch because I heard it from an avid viewer yesterday. The talking point is some of the states didn’t need all the extra capacity and are taking it down and shipping it elsewhere. The inference is in line with the Jared/Donald talking point that the states really don’t need all the ventilators they are asking for. This is all overblown. Yada yada yada. 

Okay, let’s be clear. Two states:Oregon and California got on top of this thing quickly and they slowed the rate of infection and have some extra capacity to lend to other states. That’s it. Those are Democratic governors who were both snubbed and belittled by the president. 

I’m thinking South Dakota is going to be needing that equipment. Either that or body bags. Maybe both.