Update no.953

Update from the Sunland

No.953

13.4.20 – 19.4.20

Blog version:  http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/

            To all,

            WOW!  The Monday, White House, COVID19 news conference was off the bizarre scale.  The Bully-in-Chief (BIC) was really hot, insisted on a campaign video to pump up his image, and attacked anyone and everyone in the Press.  The Oh So Great Orange One is not seeming quite so great anymore.  I cannot remember such an air of desperation in this fellow, and that makes him extraordinarily dangerous and likely to do any crazy thing to protect himself.  Of course, the BIC persists in his claims of unbounded, limitless authority to do whatever he wants.  He says his authority is total, and only he will decide what happens next, except for one little, teeny-weeny, little problem—the Constitution.  Sad but true, the BIC really should read and study the Constitution.  The BIC is engaging in a Herculean, and perhaps illegal, effort to alter the facts associated with the COVID19 crisis.  This is yet another “crowd size,” alternate universe debacle for this deeply flawed man.  He is incapable of dealing with facts; the only thing on this planet or in this universe that matters to him is his image—how he perceives others see him, or maybe it is ONLY about how he sees himself.

            The BIC loves to point his crooked finger at the Obama administration—the great boogeyman under the bridge—as the culprit for anything and everything.  OK, let’s assume he is correct, i.e., “The shelves were bare when I became president.”  What did he do for the last three years?  Did someone in the Obama administration block any preemptive action by the BIC’s administration?  As I said, he is a wounded and cornered beast lashing out at everyone.

            The USG is getting engaged in part, although the BIC is also desperately trying to shuck as much responsibility as he possibly can.  He wants credit for saving the world from this ‘scORge’ (so he says), but he will never accept responsibility.  The BIC claimed millions of items are being delivered over the next months . . . just in time for the demand to drop off.  To the administration’s credit, the USG has finally taken aggressive steps within the constraints of a free society to help citizens weather the storm and hopefully assist the nation in recovery.  The USG is a day late and a dollar short, but they appear to be rapidly extending the weight of the government in helping resolve this virus fight.  He certainly appears to be going the extra mile.  Better late than never!  Thank you, Mister President, for the efforts of your administration in the last few weeks.

            The BIC likes to say, “zero cases, zero deaths, on January 17^th.”  The BIC’s statement means absolutely nothing when you do not have testing data to identify infected individuals.  All his statement means is he was ignorant—blind to reality.  By the time the BIC found religion with respect to the COVID19 pandemic, the cows were out of the barn.  His late action jumped us from containment to isolation.  For the record:

-- 21.January.2020: 1^st confirmed case in the United States occurred in Washington state.  The rapid rate of infection in New York suggests the actually first infected person (who may have been asymptomatic) arrived in that state and probably traveled from Italy.

-- 29.February.2020: 1^st death reported in the United States.  There may have been earlier deaths, but our paucity of testing means the early deaths may have gone undetected or misidentified as pneumonia.

            Closing the doors to travelers from the PRC and Europe was the correct action . . . just too late.  The BIC likes to say in his defense is to remind us of his actions and add the note that we had no infections and no deaths when he began to act after all his denials and erroneous public statements.  What he fails to acknowledge is the virus has up to a 14-day incubation period before symptoms can be detected and worse, the scientists established that they faced asymptomatic transmission.  The rapid spread of the virus after the travel ban tells us all that the virus was inside the United States by the time the travel bans were ordered.  Further, the missing link in BIC’s incessant revisionist chatter is testing.  We had no way to detect the virus until well after the infection was already spreading in this country.  Despite the BIC’s perpetual, false declarations, the United States does NOT have sufficient broad testing means—everyone cannot be tested, despite the BIC’s claims.  We still do not have adequate testing.  What the BIC fails to acknowledge is that because of a paucity of testing the COVID19 infection spread without his or our knowledge.  He is desperate to cover-up his lack of response for six-plus weeks prior to taking action.  He will try mightily to revise history, to erase history, but he will not and cannot succeed; history is history.  We will not forget.

            After the debacle of the Monday briefing (noted above), I want to draw attention specifically to the Friday daily USG COVID19 briefing.  What an amazing and refreshing change.  The BIC did NOT attend.  Vice President Pence led the meeting.  It was informative, appropriate, science-based, unemotional, and stands in incredible contrast to the BIC-led meetings earlier in the week.  The best thing the BIC can do for all of us is just disappear.  Let Vice President Pence and the scientists handle the daily status briefings.  We do NOT need the BIC’s defensive, self-protective and self-adoration nonsense.  The paucity of chaos that always surrounds the BIC was an enormously refreshing change, especially with the BIC’s destructive tweets on that very day.  “Liberate Minnesota . . . Michigan . . . and Virginia.”  Really!  With his destructive tweets, he incites his radical fringe to violate the very guidelines his administration has put in place to protect us all.  Just go to Mar-a-Lago and enjoy the sun, Mister President; you’ll still get all the credit.  The governor down there worships you.  We do not need your presence in any manner or form.  Just disappear.  You can come back out of your quarantine when this crisis is under control and it is time for the presidential debates this fall.

            Oh wait!  Just when I thought we were going to get away without the BIC’s chaos, he showed up and chaos ensued.  He brought up the 2^nd Amendment numerous times at the end of the COVID19 briefing.  Damn, I should have known it was too good to be true.  He simply cannot put together a cogent sentence.  Basta!  Basta!  Make this pain stop.

            On Friday, the BIC tweets:

LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!

8:25 AM - Apr 17, 2020

Is he out of his freakin’ mind?  ‘Liberate,’ ‘siege,’ really!  Why on God’s little green earth would he choose to incite violence, armed conflict, and rebellion?   Oh wait, again, I almost forgot, he’s a cornered and wounded beast.  He will do anything to save himself.  Dangerous times lie ahead.

            After all we have sacrificed . . . it only takes one idiot to threaten us all.  Now we have a bunch of idiots out protesting the public restrictions and some of them blatantly displace pseudo-automatic assault rifles and their TRUMP-2020 signs.  Worst of it, the BIC (the fellow who is supposed to be the president of the United States) is the biggest idiot among the bunch (see above).  He is pitting governors against each other, telling the governors, hey fellas you’re on your own, sort it out.  The BIC is contradicting his very explicit instructions.  Why?  One simple reason: he is doing what he thinks will minimize his responsibility for all the negatives in this crisis and the potential for ballooning a second wave of infections.  We see signs in the scientific data that suggest we are finally flattening the hospitalization and intubation curves just barely below our medical treatment capacity threshold.  This is not to say that the BIC has not done anything—he has and he deserves credit for his accomplishments, and he has indeed done something right, albeit a tad late, but still correct.  But as I have observed multiple times, the BIC is his own worst enemy.  He takes one step forward and 20 steps backward.  He just cannot help himself.

            What the BIC refuses and fails to acknowledge is the real issue is not how many people die, but how they die.  He loves to point out the annual death totals from car accidents or common influenza.  If this was only about the potential mortality of old folks like me, his advocacy would be closer to tolerable.  The mortality rate with COVID19 was NOT the issue.  The central, primary, and fundamental issue in this pandemic crisis is the medical treatment capacity.  If the hospitalizations exceeded the treatment capacity, the insufficient treatment would kill people, not the virus.  If the mortality rate for COVID19 was 100%, the treatment capacity would not matter.  To the best of our knowledge so far, the COVID19 mortality rate is 1-2%, which in turn means most folks can recover with treatment.  If the hospitalizations exceeded capacity, then the necessary triage decisions are required.

            Jeanne and I are in the higher risk age group.  For me, the virus risk is not what scares me.  What really scares the hell out of me is going to a hospital because I have a serious reaction to the COVID19 infection or some other serious medical issue, and a doctor says, “You’ve lived a good life, but your time is up.  Our limited treatment capacity must be given to lower risk people.”  When I see these idiots protesting in the streets without taking the appropriate precautions to protect themselves and others around them, I see them as direct threats to the safety of my family and me.  Further, they are directly threatening the medical professionals and the first responders.  This is NOT about freedom of choice.  Those idiots do NOT have the right to choose for me.  If they want to play Russian roulette with their health, I’m good with that; just put a bullet in the cylinder, spin it and pull the trigger.  I am not so foolish, and I do NOT want those idiots threatening my life with their foolish, ill-informed, misguided conduct.  Yes, I’m taking this personally.

            Don’t listen to the damn BIC; he has no freakin’ idea what he is talking about or doing.  The BIC is the worst and most threatening idiot on the face of this planet, not just in this country, because other idiots like those protesters listen to the man and actually believe the BIC’s snake-oil elixir has or will cure their ills.  I do not care a hoot what they believe.  They can believe whatever they wish for whatever reasons they wish.  When their beliefs affect or threaten my life, or the lives of my family, it becomes a monumentally different problem.  Further, freedom of religion does not preempt public safety.  Some of these money-grubbing evangelical pastors who insist upon defying the law and common sense in the name of freedom of religion are threatening all of us.  They incessantly bang on the drum that we are attacking Christianity by restricting large assemblies.  Bullshit!  Bullshit, I say.  Their rights do not include threatening my life.  Yes, I am angry.  I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.

            The very nature of pandemic infection exponentially grows with just one infector who is left unchecked and able to infect millions in a matter of days or weeks.  It only takes one.  I understand and accept the fact that young folks characteristically believe they are invulnerable and perhaps even immune from serious health problems.  Us older folks call that syndrome NAFOD—No Apparent Fear Of Death.  I outgrew that syndrome decades ago; others have not yet outgrown the syndrome.

            I do not like these restrictions and precautions any more than the next person.  But I am intelligent enough to see what my choices and actions can do to other people.  I respect your right to Life, Liberty, and pursuit of Happiness.  I only ask that you respect my right to the same.

            It is one of the systemic flaws on our system of governance.  The federal government levels requirements on states, cities and individuals, and fails to provide the resources to perform or fulfill those requirements.  So the BIC has done here.  He has pushed just about everything off onto the state governors and the BIC has failed to provide the resources.  Now, the states are carrying a large part of the burden and the federal government in the name of the BIC has claimed no responsibility, no obligation, no requirement to support the states.  Case in point, the USG provided a bunch of new testing machines to the states and yet provided none of the materials required to run the machines.  As a consequence, the states must compete against each other for those materials.  One gargantuan difference in situations like this, the federal government can and does print money; the states cannot.  The federal government can and should be the buffer, the surge capacity, the traffic cop, and the conductor for standardization.

            Testing is quite akin to the instrument panel of an aircraft.  A pilot can fly blind at night and in the clouds if s/he has the proper functional instruments and training to use them correctly.  S/he cannot possibly do so if s/he has no instruments, or those instruments are erroneous or inaccurate.  So it is with a pandemic.  We need accurate data to make effective decisions.  I see some states reporting virtual flat lines (very few infections) and I question the validity of the indications.  Without sufficient testing across a broad spectrum of society, we cannot ‘see’ the virus.  We have no way to know what the real situation is in this instance, or any other for that matter.  The flat line could be accurate, or it could be simply that there is no testing.  Anyone who has studied probability and statistics in college recognizes we need statistically significant sampling to have any faith whatsoever in the deduced conclusion(s).  So, when the BIC claims “zero infections, zero deaths,” he was ignorant; he had no clue whatsoever.  The subsequent infections, hospitalization and deaths suggest the actual infections occurred well in advance and where undetected until it was too late for containment.  This is the consequence of the BIC’s narcissism, egocentricity, and paucity of any semblance of intellectual curiosity.  The BIC’s serious personality flaws were tolerable when isolated to his little fiefdom . . . not so much so in a society that prides itself on freedom of choice and the rights of man.

            Comments and contributions from Update no.952:

“It is really getting tiresome, Cap!”

My response:

            OMG!  I could not agree more.  I passed that tiresome threshold years ago.  I want this nightmare to be over.  It cannot be over soon enough for me.  He dominates the news.  I wish he could be ignored, but he is the POTUS and cannot be ignored.  Virtually nothing else can pass through his saturation of all forms of the news media.  If you do not want me ruminating about the BIC, please give me another topic more to your liking or interests.  I would love to discuss or debate anything else other than the OSGOO, but these are the days in which we live.  I write about what is before us.  Please give me anything you wish to discuss or talk about—anything other than the BIC.

            These days will be over eventually.  It is only a matter of when.  I truly believed he could not be elected in a modern, informed, free country; but I was wrong . . . dreadfully wrong; and, I am not so egocentric to publicly admit my failure.  I do not discount his prospects for this fall, which is why I incessantly encourage everyone—every single eligible citizen—to vote.  Republicans are a minority, but they are a voting minority; thus, we have what we have today.

            My very best wishes to all.  Take care of yourselves and each other.

Cheers,

Cap                  :-)