A Wild and Woolly Week!

 

In the City of Rockville, just outside of Washington DC, last week the local police shot and killed a coyote which had attacked and bitten several residents; it was later found to have been rabid. That is kind of symbolic of the week we have all just experienced in the DC area. Some of sorta feel we are surrounded by unknowns.

The week start.ed on Sunday with the New York Times dropping news that the president had paid no taxes at all in several of the last 20 years, paid $750 twice in the years when he did pay income taxes and was in debt for more than 400 million dollars. The article did not answer the question of to whom he owed money. The president cried foul, but indicated that he did nothing illegal. Apparently, there is a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service for deductions of over 100 million dollars and some questions about his claimed losses and depreciations. The Biden campaign answered these revelations with ads which showed what Nurses, EMT’s Teachers and other workers paid last year in income taxes; they each turned out to be paying considerably more than $750.

Tuesday brought us all the first Presidential Debate for 2020. I watched the debacle and ended up asking what it was that I just watched? Americans have a sixty-year tradition of Presidential debates and although some have been heated, others have been boring and some have been uneven, none remotely approached the incivility of this event this week. The two candidates worked out the protocols with the Debate Commission and agreed to two-minute discussions of the issues by each candidate followed by one-minute follow-ups.  That just did not happen. The president came in prepared to aggressively dominate the discussion, but he did more than that – he rudely interrupted VP Biden and ignored the moderator Chris Wallace. He spoke wildly, frequently going off topic. He answered few questions and allowed Biden to complete few responses. He dunned Biden because President Obama did not appoint judges as he has been doing, completely fudging the facts that Speaker McConnell slow walked many of Obamas’ selections. He kept bringing up claims about Biden’s son Hunters finances which have been disproven, disparaged the military service of Biden’s deceased son Beau and misstated Biden’s environmental policies. 

When asked by the moderator if he would disavow white supremacists, the president seemed confused and asked for names.  He raged instead against the “Antifa” which Biden indicated is a philosophy of antifascism more than any particular organized group, which the president scoffed at.  When he was asked to disown the group “Proud Boys” he pretended to not know of them but advised them to stand back and stand by.  Many interpreted this to mean that he wanted them at the ready for Election Day. (The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified them as anti-Semitic, white male centric, participants who act out as armed urban thugs and were part of the alt-right riot at Charlottesville.)  The president declined to say if he would accept the result of the election and spoke darkly about fraudulent absentee ballots and the need for supporters to watch polls.  He also indicated that he expected the Supreme Court to settle the election. Biden tried to address voters directly from his lectern and noted that the way to combat claims of fraud was to get out and vote – whether in person, early voting or by absentee voting. He indicated that he would accept the outcome of the election and he expected that president would do so as well. His performance was uneven but at least it was coherent most of the time.

The majority of American voters found that Biden overwhelmingly “won” the debate in post-debate polls. International viewers were basically horrified and some even were saddened for the United States; the international press however, was generally negative.  All saw the leader of the free world acting like a middle school bully and were most dismayed.  Comments after the debate have suggested use of a mute button in the future, by the moderator if the debaters do not follow the determined protocols. However, this change would have to be allowed by both sides and the president’s team has said they would not agree. The next debate is scheduled to be the VP candidates event coming up this week.

Although the debate site at the Cleveland Clinic required that the restricted audience wear masks, those on the presidents’ side declined prior testing by arriving late and refused offers to don masks. The vice president’s team wore masks and the vice-president was mocked for his mask use. This would turn out to be even more important as the week continued.  On the weekend before the debate, the president held a reception in the Rose Garden at the White House to welcome his Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.  She attended with her family.  They were not masked and the majority of the several hundred seated without social distancing in attendance also were not masked. This event out of doors also included a special reception inside. Dignitaries including Senators, Chief Justice Roberts, administration officials; Republican Party and campaign officials were part of the audience. The day after this event the president was involved with aide Hope Hicks, other staff and advisors including former governor Chris Christie for debate prep. On Thursday, it was announced that Hope Hicks was feeling ill and had tested positive for the Coronavirus. By early Friday morning, after the president returned from a fund-raiser in New Jersey, it was reported that he and the First Lady had both been confirmed as COVID-19 positive and would quarantine.  Both were described as symptomatic.  By Friday afternoon the president was helicoptered to Walter Reed Medical Center with significant symptoms.  So far, a total of 14 people who had attended the Rose Garden event have tested positive for COVID-19.

As I write he is still hospitalized and receiving Remdesivir, Steroids and many other medications. He has denied science, fought against shut-downs, defied CDC guidelines (and actively counter-manded them often) promoted quack remedies and false prophets, and rarely wore masks; he played the corona virus roulette wheel and lost and Americans who followed his lead lost also. On this topic he was not only an irresponsible leader, he stood in the way of talented scientists, physicians, statisticians and co-opted the leaders of the CDC, FDA and other Federal agencies sometimes claiming that they were working against him.  He had supported the “open it up movement” in blue states maligning Democratic governors who did not follow his demands to open up their states while they still had high levels of the virus. Now as is said – what goes around, has come around. I certainly wish, for the sake of the country, that the president has an uneventful recovery. But he has been an uncooperative patient, demanding that his physicians speak only happy talk and give positive prognoses. His condition has not been transparently shared with the American people who have the right to know. I doubt that in the future that he will change much or become a willing mask wearer.  However, I am angered that he would place his staff, his followers, and other administration officials in jeopardy by his active disparaging of mask wearing and his claiming that the virus was a hoax, which many accepted. Tonight, at his insistence he drove out of the hospital in a closed car so that he could wave at his followers who were demonstrating outside.  His staff insisted that his medical team was okay with this action. Since when does a patient in quarantine get to set their routine or get permission for a drive-by, no matter who they are? Again, he placed his wants against the safety of his teams. (As one commentator noted a narcissist must have his admiring audience.)

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The world has passed a significant statistic for the Corona virus this week: (According to the New York Times)

According to the CDC the 1918 pandemic final results showed a total of 500 million infected victims with 50 million deaths worldwide with 625,00 deaths in the United States alone.  It also should be noted that there were no vaccines, antibody treatments or antibiotics available to those patients.

Today - Total world-wide cases = 35,069,200.  Total world-wide deaths = 1,034,900.

The United States has 1/5^th of the world’s total in cases and 1/5^th of the deaths: 

Total US cases: 7,443,500 Total number of deaths: 209,592.  

Total new cases: 47,697.  Total new deaths: 708.

Maryland Stats: Total cases: 126,222.  Total deaths: 3,950.  Total new cases: 712.  Total new deaths: 1.

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In closing, I want to share some other statistics reported by NPR which have been noted recently which are also a result of the effect of the virus on women and working mothers and which will have long term effects on women in the work force.  In September alone, it was reported that 865,000 women left the US work force. Mothers have had to bear a heavy burden with home schooling, distance learning and child care, often while trying to maintain their own job as a virtual assignment. Others had to return to on-site jobs but could not find child care. About one-fourth the number of men (216,000) have left the work force during this same time period. Women currently make up about one-half of the nation’s work force.

As I said earlier – this has been a wild and woolly week – let’s end with a look at the panda cam as the panda has fur, is now crawling and weighs about 3.5 pounds – enjoy - it is totally adorable!

‘Til next week – Peace.