Supporters or Victims?

 Well he's out selling lies again but adding a bit of potentially deadly virus.

Wonder how his followers feel about it?

I assume they value their lives even though their leader doesn't.

After all even though cases and deaths can be traced to his rallies in Arizona and Wisconsin, Trump doesn't think his rallies have caused any problems.  His followers are expendable to him.

Yet they are invested in him and aren't convinced they are simply expendable pawns that mean nothing to him.

He likes when they fill auditoriums and buy his merch but otherwise they are not on his radar.  His only real customer is himself.

they don't get lifeboats as the ship sinks.

Hes Not Even Greek

 The next few weeks are going to be more chaotic as our current President grows more and more paicky.

Of course he might have a relapse since he hasn't been cured as he seems to think, but he might not, it's unpredicrtable.

He is as usual delusional thinking that his best chance is to appeal to his base, which already supports him.  The rest of the voters are not convinced by his rants.

The crazier he gets the worse his chances get.  Since he doesn't use logic or science he probably doesn't understand why he rants more and his polls get worse.

He is becoming like a Greek punishment where the more he tried to quench his thirst the thirstier he gets.

It's not for eternity, just a few more weeks.

Get it Done

 Voting is a fundamental right for citizens of this country, all of them not just the ones you like.

It's also not very complicated whether done by mail or in person.  I would like an on-line option as well but think that is not likely near term.

The simple process of counting the ballots should also be simple.  

Still this is an unusual year and many more people will vote by mail.  There are fears that the States will have trouble getting results computed.

Why?

Some states have gone to mail voting exclusively and get counts done quickly.

There is no reason that we should have significant delays counting.

Just do it.

Does the Fly Know?

 I kept waiting for the device to be activated and for Mike Pence and the fly to swap DNS and have him emerge as a fly-man.

I guess the plexiglass was actually a device designed to beam him over so it never happened.

They both had their talking points but many of the questions weren't particularly useful.

One of  seemed to want to know if they had talked about their boss dying in office or other becoming incapacitated.

Well they both avoided that question as they should since what would happen is they would become President.  Something every one who runs for that office knows.

If the question was geared to the President becoming senile or incoherent it would be a tough discussiion.

not much came out of this and clearly neither candidate was going to contradict or go into issues that weren't consistent with their bosses.  Why would they.

It was relatively civil if non productive.

At least we had the fly to entertain us.  Flies like to hang around the dead and decaying.

Could be an omen.

The Smart Thing

 Ultimately the only thing we have is the ability to learn from our past to adjust future behavior.

Some don't learn and repeat the same mistakes.

While the warm weather in the Northern Hemisphere didn't stop the virus it slowed it down as transmission requires an accumulation and closed rooms are more viral.

The fall will result in an uptick and we already see that happening.

As predicted.

It is pretty clear to everyone that certain political events are putting attendees at risk.

How bad is the risk?

Well most people who get Covid19 actually do recover, although some have lingering effects, but some do not.

The death rate is not clear but maybe 1% is not an unreasonable estimate.

That doesn't sound so bad until you understand that it is much higher for those most vulnerable.

It would also be over 3 million people if everyone in the country got it.

The smartest thing would be to take precautions, protect yourself and others by wearing a mask, social distancing and washing your hands.

Not everyone is smart enough or considerate enough to do that.

Who's Better Off?

 The only group that really did well under the current President are people who own stock.

This Isn't insignificant if you consider those who have investment accounts such as 401 Ks  but those who own significant stock or executives with stock options did significantly better.

Even before the virus hit we were mostly enjoying the continuation of the Obama recovery which while a bit less boomy than other post-war recoveries was steady.  The statistics clearly show that we simply had a continuation of pretty much all the trends that started after the financial crisis without the excesses.

The actions taken didn't lead to a great increase in much except to increase profits for many companies which they shared with their stockholders and executives mostly.

The Pandemic has changed that and while the disease itself isn't the Administration's fault the response is.

While we are seeing the predicted fall increase around the world it is clear that we had the worst response of just about anyone.

So if you think America is being fixed the question is what was broken?

Social Justice, Clean Energy and Health Care

 Many people would probably consider the 1950s the golden age of modern America unless of course you are Black. 

There was a seedy underbelly including the mob, poverty, a lot of undiagnosed PTSD and alcoholism, but most of those people stayed out of sight.

On the surface we had a booming economy, lots of jobs, the development of the interstate highway system and suburbs and the early days of television.

It preceded the major disruptions of the 60s although we did have freedom riders and the start of feminism.

If the American dream was ever in reach it was in those years as everyone graduating high school was likely to get a good job since American manufacturing was still dominating most of the world.

This was the time when the baby boomer generation was growing up and they have been so dominant demographically in modern America their nostalgia makes this seem like a Norman Rockwell portrait.

If you were to strip away the nostalgia you would find those years to be full of poverty, racism, misogyny, homophobia and the fear of nuclear destruction.

We have made a lot of progress in many areas and even economically we have created a safety net that while certainly not as good as many European countries allows people to survive, generally.

What has probably changed the most is the loss of manufacturing jobs that once dominated.  Many of those jobs were lost to other countries with lower pay scales or to automation.

These jobs were replaced with service jobs.  

There is only one path for America and that is to adapt to the new economy, keep innovating, keep growing and keep cleaning up from the past.

Social justice, clean energy and guaranteed health care shouldn't really be controversial.

Of course we didn't have those things in the 50s so I guess some view them as problematic.