COVID and the economy are urgent crises that must be dealt with immediately. Climate change is an existential threat that will require the Biden administrationâs ongoing attention. Not to mention the threat to democracy thatâs been revealed by Trump during his administration. And now, he wonât leave. Trumpâs allegations have been proven baseless, and yet he continues to try to find a way to get a second term. Bidenâs got a very full plate.
Stewing usually tenderizes, but not in this case:
Humoring him is as dangerous as it is pointless:
Tough question reveals true GOP:
While measuring for new drapes, Biden learns something:
Big Lily Creek, Russell County KY â November 2020 photo by Dean Francisco
On Friday afternoon, the WaPo called Georgia for Biden and North Carolina for Trump. They were the last two states to be called. Overall, Biden is projected to win 306 electoral votes, Trump is projected to win 232, the same tally as in 2016, with Trump on the losing side this time.
So far, Biden has about 5.2 million more popular votes than Trump.
You may remember that in 2016, Trump called his Electoral College win a âlandslideâ. This time, no concession so far. We hear from the Right that âthere is no Constitutional requirement for a concession speech, and the press does not certify election results.â Thatâs true. And thereâs no Constitutional requirement for fairness in our society. Maybe there should be one. For better or worse, social norms, including being a graceful loser, are part of what keep our society functioning. If we ignore those norms, society will have problems surviving.
One malfunctioning area of society is our pandemic response. Alarm bells are going off all across the country because of COVID. The situation is approaching the horrific. Back in March/April, when hospitals became short staffed, they were able to hire nurses and other health care workers from parts of the country that hadnât been overwhelmed.
Now, the disease is everywhere. It’s so bad that Doctors Without Borders, the independent organization that sends physicians to less developed countries having some sort of health care crisis, has sent COVID-19 teams to the US. How embarrassing.
The following chart on COVID hospitalizations shows you why we need hospital workers. Weâve hit a new high in America:
The result is a surging pandemic that has been left to run wild across the country and a âcatastrophicâ lack of ICU beds in places like El Paso, TX and Minnesota. The WaPo quoted Michael T. Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesotaâs Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy:
âThis is like one huge coronavirus forest fire, and I donât think itâs going to spare much human wood out there unless we change our behavior.â
Sixty-seven thousand hospitalized and 1,100 dead per day. Weâre not in a presidential transition, itâs more of a death march to January 20th.
If you live in South Dakota or Iowa, and take a COVID-19 test, the odds are that you will test positive. Positivity rates in both of these two states are above 50%. In South Dakota, its 56.4%; in Iowa, its 51.4%. Here in Connecticut, weâre at 4.3%, among the top eleven places with the lowest positivity rates in the US.
FYI, despite what you may hear, higher positivity rates do not correlate with more testing. In fact, South Dakota and Iowa are testing fewer people per 1,000 population than any of the 11 states with low positivity results.
In North Dakota, health-care workers with asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus were authorized by the governor to keep working. North Dakota is one of 15 states without a mask mandate. The ND Nurses Association has called for a mask mandate if they have to work while infected.
There are Maskholes in every state, people who are following their warped sense of “personal freedom”, and not wearing a mask to protect others, or themselves. Remember during the campaign when Trump told his followers that the day after the election, the media would stop mentioning COVID-19 because the only reason they were reporting on it was to hurt him?
His management of Americaâs COVID response is just one of many things that will improve after January 20. That brings us to the World According to Trump:
Stop testing – then we won’t have new cases…
Stop counting the votes – then I win…
Don’t publish my tax returns – then I’m still a billionaire…
Letâs cruise into the weekend leaving the Concession and COVID behind, at least for a little while. Itâs cold and crisp in Connecticut this weekend, and time for our Saturday Soother, that part of the week when we try to refresh our bodies and souls before again strapping on the gladiator equipment for next week.
Thereâs little left to do to prepare the fields of Wrong for winter, so the focus today is indoors. Letâs start by brewing up a mug of La Esperanza Colombian Natural X.O. ($16.95/12 oz.) from Durango Coffee in southwestern Colorado. Durango Coffeeâs motto is âTough Town, Great Coffee.â
Now grab your mug and sit by a window where you can see the last of the leaves swirl down to earth, like Trumpâs reelection chances, and listen to the âBand of Brothers Themeâ from the soundtrack to the Band of Brothers movie. Itâs played by the London Metropolitan Orchestra, conducted by Michael Kamen:
Yosemite changing from fall to winter – November 2020 photo by kscwuzhere
Hereâs another way of looking at the election: Joe Bidenâs share of the popular vote is now 50.8% (77,126,066 popular votes). That will be greater than Ronald Reagan’s 50.7% vote share in 1980, vs. Jimmy Carter. Itâs more than GW Bushâs margin over Kerry (50.7%), and more than Bushâs margin over Gore (47.9%). Itâs larger than both of Clintonâs races: (49.2%) over Dole, and (43%) over GHW Bush.
Yet, the official position of the Republican Party, as put forth by the RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, is that Joe Biden and the Democrats stole the election:
âOn Tuesday…McDaniel….told FOX News commentator Sean Hannity that she has 234 pages containing 500 sworn affidavits alleging 11,000 incidents of various types of voter fraud…..Itâs been rigged from the beginning…and now you have a media thatâs rigging it again by saying weâre not going to even listen to these stories.â
Republicans have been making excuses that Democratic presidents haven’t been legitimate leaders since FDR. Kennedy only won because of dead Chicago voters. Johnson only won because of sorrow about Kennedy. Carter only won because Nixon was framed. Clinton only won because Perot messed things up. And how did Obama win? TWICE??
The GOP believes that it has been the rightful winners of every presidential election since Eisenhower. The natural order requires that they win. Actual vote counts are irrelevant.
The most likely outcome of the next two months is that Joe Biden will be sworn in as president in an orderly way, but thereâs a chance it could go differently. Here’s a thought from Jared Yates Sexton: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âPeople keep asking whether Trump and the Republicans attempt to steal the election is legitimate, if it’s a coup, if it’s a fundraising scheme, if it’s posturing, if it’s actually all that dangerous.
The answer is yes. All of these things….
People like McConnell and Graham are giving voice to Trump for multiple reasons….they need to win the special elections in GA, the controversy creates passion, and it leads to fundraising. But…they’re also fine with a coup.…
Trump and the GOP are playing a dangerous game. The coup might not work, but they see an advantage at flirting with a coup. The coup might work and they see an advantage with grasping power for themselves. It’s a win-win for them while we lose.â
Sextonâs most disturbing point, that Establishment Republicans probably donât think the coup will work, but they seem to be 100% OK with it, if it does.Â
Republicans believe that Democrats have no legitimate claim to govern, because Democrats only win elections when the wrong people vote for them, as opposed to Real Americans, who vote GOP.
The only question the press should be asking Republican officials is: “Are you on board with Trump’s coup?” The GOP really doesn’t want to answer questions about their actions, and won’t, even when asked. Charlie Pierce says this:
âSo the president, the leaders of the Republican majorities in Congress, and the Secretary of State all are attached to the fantasy that Joe Biden is not the President-Elect….They are taking active measures in support of that fantasy, and the longer they do, the more real it becomes to the president’s 70 million followers. And, therefore, the more political power it gains, and the more poison is pumped into the political bloodstream of the country…â
This week, Trump replaced the head of the military, who had previously said that he was concerned about the use of troops against civilian populations. Then he replaced a number of senior military officials with known loyalists who have zero qualifications for their jobs.
People seem to believe that the (relatively) independent directors of the CIA (Gina Haspel) and FBI (Christopher Wray) are going to be replaced, soon.
If all of that happens, what is the innocent explanation for all of these moves? Pundits have said there may be simple explanations for them, but there’s a non-trivial chance that Trump is attempting to assert control over key parts of the government in advance of a destabilizing action to remain in power.
For decades, we thought that norms of behavior would prevent something like this from happening. Our respect for institutions, love of country, institutional guardrails, and separation of powers would prevail. But, those things only work as long as both sides informally agree to act like rules have meaning.
From the moment Trump declared his candidacy, heâs crossed those lines, over and over again. Even if he goes away or drops dead tomorrow, these lessons can’t be unlearned, no matter how badly Dems want to pretend things can go back to the way they were.
Because the GOP certainly isn’t forgetting any of it.
Bradford Pear, Fields of Wrong, Litchfield County, CT – November 2020 iPhone photo by Wrongo. The Bradford Pear has white flowers very early in the spring, and red leaves in fall. Itâs among the first to flower, and last to lose its leaves.
Wrongo is increasingly pessimistic that the majority of Republican voters will accept the result of the Biden vs. Trump 2020 election. The Morning Consult has a survey that shows:
7 in 10 Republicans believe the 2020 election wasnât free or fair: 48% of Republicans say it âdefinitelyâ was not free and fair, and another 22% say it âprobablyâ was not. Thatâs twice the share of Republicans who said the race would not be free and fair just weeks before the election.
Republicans are most skeptical about the Pennsylvania results: Just 23% of Republican voters say they believe the results in PA are reliable, while 33% say the same about the results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin.
This has incredibly dire consequences for the country, and possibly, for our democracy. Â The WaPoâs Greg Sargent writes:
âWith Trump unlikely to formally concede, you can see a kind of Lost Cause of Trumpism mythology taking hold, in which many supporters continue believing the election was stolen from him and that squeamish Republicans betrayed him by not fighting hard enough against it.â
No one should be surprised by this. Trump told us four years ago while running against Hillary Clinton, that he would only respect the outcome of the election if he won. And he’s been saying the same thing for months about this election. As Rick Hasen suggests, Trump and the GOP are placing a cloud of illegitimacy over Bidenâs presidency.
This is not tenable. You canât move on to what should come next when 70% of Republicans think Trump should be sworn in on January 20. You canât reconcile with a party whose voters overwhelmingly believe the election was stolen from them.
Now, America will wait on the courts, which are conveniently stocked with judges appointed by Trump, and handpicked by Mitch McConnell. Donât expect that all of the cases will be dismissed. Eventually, one or more of them will reach a Supreme Court that has three Justices who Trump has already said he expects will pay him back for their seats on the High Court. Add to them Alito and Thomas, and boom, we might have the Court overturning the election.
Yesterday, Trump filed a lawsuit seeking to block the certification of the Pennsylvania election results. Variations of the word âfraudâ appear in the lawsuit 33 times, mostly in the context of prosecutions related to other elections. The only suspected instances of voter fraud cited in the complaint occurred in two counties that voted for Trump: Fayette, where Trump is winning by a 34 point margin, and Luzerne, where his lead is 14 points. The case has been assigned to US District Judge Matthew Brann, a Barack Obama appointee.
More and more Republicans are throwing in with Trump’s stolen-election whine fest. Axios reported that more foreign leaders have called to congratulate Biden than have GOP Senators.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said perhaps jokingly? There “will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” On Monday, Trump ordered senior government leaders to block cooperation with Bidenâs transition team, escalating the standoff. That prompted the Biden team to consider legal action.
AG William Barr waded in to President Trumpâs unfounded accusations of election irregularities by telling federal prosecutors that they were free to investigate âspecific allegationsâ of voter fraud before the results of the presidential race are certified. Barr ignored the Justice Departmentâs longstanding (for 40 years) policies intended to keep law enforcement from affecting the outcome of an election.
This could become a battle about whether we remain a democratic republic. Trump supporters have already indicated what side of that battle they are on. So has the feckless Republican leadership. What can the Democrats do to prevent us from becoming an “illiberal democracy“?
Are they even aware that this is what may happen? Wrongo fears that the Dems are fighting the 20 year-old battle of Bush vs. Gore, not the current high-stakes battle for the soul of the nation.
This could fester for weeks, until the Electoral College meets on December 14. The damage could be incalculable.
Weâve bought some time, so let’s make sure we use it. Donât drop your guard, people, we still have work to do after weâve all had a turn at dancing in the streets.
The vote suppression, the sabotage of the US Postal Service, the attempted creation of a false narrative of vote fraud, all was overwhelmed by what will turn out to be nearly the 80 million Democratic voters.
Yet, many professional Democrats are in the throes of mortification. Why wasnât the massive turnout an immediate repudiation of the deeply racist and misogynist Trump? Why didnât the numbers create a blue tsunami?
You know how this goes: If Trump had squeaked out an Electoral College win while losing the popular vote, the GOP response would be: We have a mandate. But the real story is that Biden rebuilt the Blue Wall, flipped Arizona, Georgia, and NE-2, while winning the largest popular vote in history. Naturally, the Dems say: Oh no!
Biden won the White House. Weâre going to have new cabinet members who wonât be corrupt. Weâre going to have a new Attorney General and a civil rights division that wonât sit on its hands. We may get traction on climate change by rejoining the Paris Agreement. With a competent Secretary of State, we may rejoin the Group of Six trying to create a nuclear weapons-free Iran.
So, cool it. Our descent into authoritarianism has been averted for at least the next four years. Our democracy, such as it is, will be taken off life support. These are things worth celebrating.
Biden and Harris spoke on Saturday night about healing. They were brave words, but Biden has a big challenge trying to knit the country back together. Even now, the silence of Republican politicians is deafening. Why arenât they stepping forward to congratulate the new president-elect?
Surely they know that Trumpâs legal strategy is bogus, and doomed to fail. The Republicans in the Senate, with the exception of Mitt Romney, are playing along with Trumpâs farcical claims of election fraud. So how will the healing happen? From Charlie Pierce: (brackets by Wrongo)
âHealing only works if the patient wants to be healed, and I fear that question is still very much open. Some 70 million of our fellow citizens wanted four more years of what we’ve had since 2016…They are convinced now that they’ve been cheated out of four more years of [that]….And they’re angry about it. As much as Biden talks about being a president for all of America, and he is unquestionably sincere about it, many of those 70 million people are completely unreachable.â
Itâs important to remember that a person is rarely âcuredâ of cancer. Rather, doctors tell us to say it is âin remissionâ. Well, right now, fascism in America could be going into remission. The most dangerous symptom (Donald Trump) will be leaving power in January, but the underlying condition remains. Biden will need help from the Republican side of the aisle to bring a substantial number of our anti-Biden, anti-Democrat citizens to consider giving civility a chance.
Many Trumpers will be resistant to take a step toward a Democrat. They are very sad. They want us to really listen to them, because they have been so completely shut out of the discourse for the past four years. What do they think? What do they want from Biden?
Letâs not interpret a Biden win as an opportunity to indulge in the political equivalent of comfort food. We shouldnât feel reassured or validated. There is nothing validating about 70+ million votes cast for Donald Trump. The struggle continues.
Our sense of purpose should be stronger than ever before. Per the GOPâs proven system, Trump will hand Biden a terrible economy, and quite possibly a pandemic for the ages. Biden will be pilloried, vilified and obstructed from the moment he takes power.
Yet, Wrongo is relieved, and we should be grateful.
But the Georgia runoffs loom in January, and the midterms are just 24 months away. So we shouldnât complacent. Democrats happily enjoyed the Obama victory in 2008. We patted ourselves on the back for far too long, while the Republicans organized in earnest. Their eight years of work led to what today is the belligerent, fact-defying Trump coalition. Preventing 2022 from becoming another  2010 starts now.
So, time to wake up, Democrats! Trump isnât going away, and neither is Trumpism, as shown by how few Republican politicians will congratulate the president-elect. To help shake you awake, listen to Taj Mahal sing âYour Mindâs on Vacation (and your mouth is working overtime)”, written by Mose Allison in 1976.
Whose mindâs on vacation while his mouth has been working overtime, Donny?
And you know what AP spelled backwards is? PA! Checkmate, you pieces of Trump! Wrongo will return to his usual complaining sometime next week when we start contemplating what comes next.
After four years of chaos, dysfunction, a huge dose of racism, over 230,000 dead from the virus, and massive job loss, why did nearly half this country vote for Trump? Why did half of us want four more years of his bullshit?
That we know the winner on Saturday morning, in the middle of a pandemic with a bunch of new voting rules that were written on the fly, is remarkable. Everything went really well (in the sense of knowing the results, not necessarily being happy with all of them). Enough with the slow vote counting memes.
To win, you have to finish first:
They donât stop the count when youâre on the mats:
Fall Giving Way to winter, VT â October 2020 photo by Jennifer Hannux (hat tip Jeri S.)
Trumpâs 17 minute debacle on our election process reminds Wrongo of FDRâs advice about public speaking: “Be sincere, be brief, be seated“. Trump wasnât any of them.
If Wrongo was to ask how a specific county voted, giving you the following information, what would you say? This county is 96% Latino, the most Latino county in the US. Its poverty rate is 35% and its unemployment rate is 7.9%. It is also among the poorest counties in the US. Leading up to the election this fall, the county had a surge in Coronavirus cases that overwhelmed its only hospital, a 45 bed facility.
So, how would this county vote in 2020? In 2016, Clinton won it by 60%. In 2020, Biden won it by only 5%. Weâre talking about Starr County, TX. Hereâs a map with the 2020 election results superimposed:
This didnât escape notice in the local paper, the Valley Central News. They quoted Political Science Professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Natasha Altema, who said that the âdefund the policeâ meme may have cost the Democrats: (Brackets by Wrongo)
â…weâve seen throughout the Valley that law enforcementâwhether if itâs in the form of policing or CBP [US Customs and Border Protection] âis very prominent here along the borderâ
Altema also said that local lack of understanding about the Black Lives Matter movement may have also caused a push-back:
âThe association of Black Lives Matters with the Democrats would be a turnoffâright? Because of…lack of understanding or misinformation,â
BTW, all local races were won by Democrats.
This was a dramatic swing towards Trump in four years, particularly since this is predominantly a Mexican-American community that lives in a border town. The question has to be: Are we witnessing a dramatic and historic realignment?
This can be broadened to the entire country. Trump underperformed with white men, but made gains with every other demographic. Some 26% of his votes came from nonwhite Americans, the highest percentage for a Republican since 1960. As Matt Taibbi says:
âTrump doubled his support with Black women, moving from 4% in 2016 to 8%, while upping his support among Black men from 13% to 18%. Remember, this was after four years of near-constant denunciations of Trump as not just a racist, but the leader of a literal white supremacist movement…â
Earlier this week, Wrongo introduced the idea that people across demographic groups liked the policies of the Economic Left, but disliked the policies of the Cultural Left. Biden isnât really a part of the Economic or Cultural Left, but he allowed himself to be called a âsocialistâ by the Economic Right. He was tagged with approving of âdefund the policeâ by the Cultural Right. We know that the Democratic Party platform does not embrace âsocialism.â Nor does Biden.
Donât forget, the Democrats nominated exactly the candidate the Party centrists wanted. That didnât change what Republicans said about him. Biden was the moderate in the race, but Republicans still called him a radical socialist.
The Dems need to make some political changes, or theyâll lose Starr County (and more) next time. But that requires a rethink of its policies toward working Americans to include: Health care, good jobs, safe streets, free education. The main policies supported by the Cultural Left do not look like winners in heartland America.
Finally, itâs bizarre that after all this time, Democrats canât defend what they believe from the attacks by the Right. Some Dems continue to believe that if they change what they believe, it will change what Republicans say about them. It wonât. Changing to policies that align with what average Americans need may fashion a durable coalition of Rural and Urban voters.
Maybe by the time you read this, Biden will have been (nominally) declared the next President, subject to the legal skirmishes Trump has planned for him. Those legal battles probably wonât start until next week, so try to relax today with our Saturday Soother.
Temperatures will be in the 70âs on the fields of Wrong this weekend. That means that Wrongo will be putting up our deer fencing to protect Ms. Rightâs plantings from becoming deer food when cold winter arrives.
Change of seasons, Groton MA – November 2020 photo by scojo415
As Wrongo writes this, there isnât a winner in the 2020 presidential election. Of the 538 electoral votes, the candidates have been awarded 478 of them, with 60 still up for grabs in five states. Currently it’s Biden with 264 and Trump with 214 electoral votes.
A high turnout election was supposed to favor Democrats, according to the pundits. But we just had the highest voter turnout in a century, with Trump receiving even more votes than last time. And the race is closer than itâs been in a very long time.
There was a point on election night 2020 that Wrongo had the same bad feeling that he had on the Clinton vs. Trump election night in 2016. An awful feeling that everything he thought he knew about the election was wrong. How could so many people who have had 4 yearsâ experience with Trump and with all of the damage and dysfunction he brought, say âSure, I totally want that guy to be my president againâ?
As of now, Biden seems to have the better chance to win, but it would be the narrowest of victories. He has 264 electoral votes and is leading in Nevada, worth 6 electoral votes. This means the election could come down to Biden flipping Nevada, or Trump holding it. Nevada says there will be no update until Thursday, 10am PST. If Biden holds on to his slim lead, that would give him exactly 270 electoral votes, with no margin for error.
Thereâs plenty of danger ahead. If Biden has 270 votes, just one faithless Biden elector would mean a 269-269 tie, throwing the election to the House. That would mean a Trump victory, since each state delegation gets one vote each, so the fact that the Democrats once again have more votes, runs up against the Wisdom of the Framers.
Trump is in federal court trying to get Michigan to stop counting votes. Heâs also asked the US Supreme Court to intervene in the Pennsylvania vote count, saying exactly what the campaign lost with earlier at the Supreme Court. BTW, ballot-counting in Philadelphia is being livestreamed.
It may be weeks before we know the final results, something that happens routinely in our built-by-hand electoral system. But it seems to be turning into a legal war.
When all the votes are counted, more than 70 million Americans will have voted for Trump. Even if Biden wins, America didnât repudiate Trumpism. Republicans will keep control of the Senate. And while the Democrats will still control the House, they’ve lost seats.
A long election night was signaled early with Bidenâs horrific performance in Floridaâs Miami-Dade County, where Biden apparently won by seven percentage points. In 2016, Hillary won it by nearly 30, so the scrounging by Biden for red state electoral votes began early.
Itâs worth noting that while Florida went for Trump, they also voted overwhelmingly (61%-39%) for a $15/hour minimum wage. Floridaâs “Amendment 2” raises the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2026.
This shows how politics is shifting in America: The $15 minimum wage is a key part of the Democratic Partyâs platform. But, it didnât help Biden in Florida, where he ran well behind the Amendment with about 48% of the vote. Thereâs growing evidence that people who hate the cultural left actually like the policies of the economic left.
Democrats believed that donating huge sums of money was a proxy for grass-roots organizing. Most swing state Democratic candidates vastly outraised their Republican opponents, but there’s little to show for it now that the votes are in.
In 2020 Democrats ran to the center, after a primary season trying to run to the left. And it looks like theyâll win the White House, while visibly struggling in both Houses of Congress. How should we grade their results, or the results of the Republicans, if their incumbent president loses?
What should the election post-mortems for each Party say are their strengths and weaknesses, looking towards the 2022 mid-terms and the 2024 presidential election?
What will the Parties say about how the political polling could be so wrong for a second straight time? Will Democrats finally learn not to rely on it?
In closing, change is coming. Itâs not as fast as weâd like, but much of thatâs on us.
Wrongo is reminded of the Rolling Stones song, âYou Canât Always Get What You Wantâ from their 1969 album âLet It Bleedâ. Back in the 1960s the song referenced love, politics, and drugs. In 2020, it resonates about how our expectations often exceed what we deserve.
Chorus: âYou canât always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.â
Just like puppies. They want treats all the time, but itâs kibble that helps them grow, and stay healthy.
Has anyone else noticed that since his impeachment, Trump has lost a step? He no longer speaks about fighting the system, or his accomplishments. Itâs all about how heâs been ganged up on, and mistreated. Maybe impeaching him wasnât a complete failure after all.
Weâll see in two days if the blame game was a winning strategy:
It may be hopeful news or maybe just a deep fake, but several outlets are reporting that Trump has canceled his election night party. The party was to be held at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, but instead, heâll party at the White House.
But hereâs a good reason to be nervous. Forbes reports that the Post Office is failing to deliver on time in key places:
âBattleground states in the presidential election are suffering from some of the worst ballot delivery delays in the country….and with state laws or court rulings requiring mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day, several states face a particularly high risk of voters having their ballots arrive too late to count, potentially impacting close races.â
Every Vote should be counted! Shouldnât the Supreme Court support that?
Mohawk Trail, just off Route 2, near Williamstown, MA – October 2020 photo by Alahomora
Three days to go.
Happy Halloween, although at the Mansion of Wrong, All Hallows Eve is just another day. Weâve never had a human come to the door looking for treats. Letâs hope that tonightâs not the night.
The reality show that is 2020 really sucks. On Monday in NYC, a man fell about 15 feet into a pit of rats when a sidewalk sinkhole opened under him. He was injured and while he will recover, nobody will ever want his nightmares.
And early on Sunday morning, we turn the clocks back one hour when daylight saving time ends in most of the US. This year, more than 30 states considered legislation to make daylight saving time permanent, something that Wrongo endorses.
Roll Call has this about Trumpâs closing argument:
âBy arguing that the country is ârounding the cornerâ on COVID-19 in the face of irrefutable data that the coronavirus is surging, Donald Trump risks appearing more and more out of touch with reality.â
âAs of Friday morning, more than 9,024,100 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 228,700 have died…â
Thatâs roughly a 2.5% death rate since the virus came to our shores. It seems serious that cases are rising in most states, while deaths are rising in 24. The NYT reports that the top ten states with the highest death rates are: (in order) North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, Nebraska, Idaho, Iowa and Utah.
Most of these states have significant populations that refuse to wear masks or practice physical distancing. Now, there clearly are people in America who wonât work for the common good, because their backs have never really been against the wall. Weâve become a soft, cartoonish version of what our parents and grandparents had to be in order to survive.
Americans play at being tough. Some of us strap on side arms or long guns to go to the supermarket. We complain when the internet is down because we canât play Netflix or our favorite video game. We melt down on Facebook when someone objects to our little thoughts.
What this moment should have given all of us was a sense of common purpose that united us against an invisible enemy. Instead, itâs simply too hard for us to delay even a momentâs gratification in the face of the second wave of the pandemic.
Notice too that of those ten states, only one (Wisconsin) is a good bet to vote Blue next week. Thatâs not necessarily a problem, since the path to 270 for Biden looks like this:
If you look at voters in generational terms, Trump has turned into an electoral cul-de-sac. Heâs simultaneously losing younger voters by a 2-to-1 margin, while also losing seniors by nearly 10 percent.
If youâre voting Blue this year regardless of your Party affiliation, you are indeed serving a common purpose, one that you will remember forever: When our democracy was on the brink of collapse, when our fellow Americans needed us, we came together to fire Donald Trump.
There are still a few days left to obsess about the election, but its Saturday, and we need our weekly break from the monster that sucks all of the happiness out of our lives. Itâs time for our Saturday Soother.
We had snow on the fields of Wrong on Friday, and the weekend is bringing overnight temperatures in the 20âs, so few outdoor plants will survive that hard frost. Weâve still got a tree to plant that is supposed to arrive today, but Wrongo will wait for next weekâs warmer weather to get it in the ground.
No coffee today, but a very relaxing video. The music is by Franz Schubert, his No. 4 Standchen from Schwanengesang, which means “swan song” in German. Itâs from a collection of songs written by Schubert at the very end of his life. The Schwanengesangs were composed in 1828, and published in 1829, just a few months after the composer’s death. Franz Liszt later transcribed them for solo piano.
So a hopeful swan song for Trump, and a relaxing moment for all of us who listen today. Here the solo piano is played by Vadim Chaimovich.
The video combines Schubert with images of a Van Gogh painting. Pretty relaxing:
