Who to Blame When things don’t go Your Way

Donald Trump sees himself as a victim. Boohoo. Is he Jud in “Oklahoma” or Captain Queeg of “the Caine Mutiny”?

Just four weeks ago the total number of deaths from the coronavirus in the United States exceeded 50,000 people. Now in just a month the number of deaths has exceeded 100,000.

With a population of 330,000 people, versus a worldwide population of 7.8 billion people The United States the United States accounts more than 27% of all the coronavirus deaths in the world.

How can this be?

A large percentage of Americans refuse to follow the guidelines recommended by virologists. Leadership by our president is lacking. The president refuses to wear a mask. He encouraged the public to protest against state governors who ordered stay at home regulations.

Do you see a trend in the number of new cases? Here are the daily reports.

May 18   New Cases: 22,630

May 19   New Cases: 20,289

May 20   New Cases: 21,408

May 21   New Cases: 28,179

May 22   New Cases: 24,197

May 23   New Cases: 21,929

May 24   New Cases: 19,608

May 25   New Cases: 19,790

May 26   New Cases: 19,049

May 27   New Cases: 20,546

May 28   New Cases: 22,658

May 29   New Cases: 25,069

Donald Trump needs distractions. So there is a fight with the news media and social media platforms. Blame the WHO for not giving the United States sufficient warning. Blame China. Blame the Obama administration for no preparation (there was a briefing document left for him to read).

Who will he blame if he loses in the November election? We can easily guess. The media. The deep state. Fraudulent votes. Bad campaign managers.

See Captain Queeg.

40.7 Million Filed for Jobless Claims Since Start of Coronavirus Outbreak

Donald Trump’s primary argument for his re-election has been the low unemployment rate. Another 2.1 million people applied for unemployment insurance benefits this past week. Trump loves to take credit for the booming economy but doesn’t that make him responsible for a failed economy?

This graph shows the weekly new jobless claims.  Prior to the Coronavirus Outbreak weekly claims were about 212,000 and the unemployment rate was 3.5%.


Hypocrisy On Display

This is the perfect example of a two faced individual who has managed to sell not just Democrats but all Americans a very big lie.

I am definitely not a supporter of Donald Trump. Joe Biden may be marginally better as president of the United States but at best he will return America to a world of broken promises that have been a hallmark of the Democratic Party.

In the 1970s, Biden opposed busing black students to desegregate schools and sponsored anti-busing legislation — a position that California Sen. Kamala Harris highlighted in a scathing exchange in the first Democratic presidential primary debate last year.

Biden defended not only busing but segregation in a 1975 NPR interview. “I think the concept of busing … that we are going to integrate people so that they all have the same access and they learn to grow up with one another and all the rest, is a rejection of the whole movement of black pride,” Biden said, adding that desegregation efforts are “a rejection of the entire black awareness concept, where black is beautiful, black culture should be studied, and the cultural awareness of the importance of their own identity, their own individuality.”

On a radio interview today, May 22, Biden,

“You’ve got more questions?” Biden replied. “Well I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”

NBC News pool reporter said she was able to listen to Biden’s opening remarks but was “quickly kicked off the phone call” once the likely Democrat nominee opened the floor to questions.

This youtube video cannot be denied. I will be voting for Biden as I hold my nose.

The Intercept is an online news publication of First Look Media, owned by Pierre Omidyar. Its editors are Betsy Reed, Glenn Greenwald, and Jeremy Scahill.

 

Car Ownership in the Coronavirus World

Let’s be honest. Things will never be the same in our economy until there is a vaccine. Some scientists are saying there may never be a vaccine.

If there is no vaccine how will we safely get to work?

On April 6, the head to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Jeffrey Tumlin, tweeted “I never thought I’d say this, Please don’t take Muni if you have other options.”

As people start returning to work they will continue to practice social distancing. That translates into avoiding the use of public transportation and not carpooling. Uber an Lyft are out of the question.  They will need a car, all be it a small one, that offers high mileage for their daily journey to their jobs.

Many are predicting that sales of new and used cars will continue to decline for the rest of 2020. I have a different take.

Cars stored a Dodger Stadium. LA Times photo from a drone

The Los Angeles Times is reporting a glut of imported cars that are not being delivered to dealers as their sales have declined to a trickle. The Times article on  shows cars being stored at the Dodger Stadium parking lot, the Angeles parking lot and many other places that have large parking areas. That glut of unsold cars will quickly evaporate.

Cuiping village in Yangshuo County, China

Yangshuo County boasts a generous helping of the spiky karst hills and meandering rivers that southern China’s Guangxi region is renowned for. There are large cities and towns in Yangshuo, but also many small, extremely picturesque villages nestled along waterways and tucked below craggy peaks. We’re gazing down here on the village of Cuiping, not far from Yangshuo Town and a magnet for visitors equipped with lots of extra smartphone photo storage. They’re going to need it for all the images they’ll take of this fantastical landscape. And while views from a river raft will doubtless be charming, the real wows come from trekking up the hillsides and getting a birds-eye view of the scene.

I stumbled on this photo and description on the internet.

Why Trump’s enthusiasm edge over Biden could matter

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Easter Prayer Breakfast in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 4, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Are you enthusiastic about Joe Biden as the Democratic Party nominee for the November election? I am not.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has a serious problem winning in November.  He leads President Donald Trump in pretty much every single national poll. Yet the same polls find that Trump’s supporters are much more enthusiastic about voting for their candidate than Biden’s supporters are voting for theirs.

This split is potentially a good sign for Trump because the candidate who has led on enthusiasm (or a closely related question) has won every presidential election since 1988, though there are reasons to think Biden could break this streak.

Importantly for Trump, the leader on enthusiasm has gone on to win in close elections as well as ones with wider margins.

One of those close elections was four years ago. Trump had a consistent edge over Hillary Clinton in enthusiasm. His voters were 4 points more likely to say they were very enthusiastic in voting for him than Clinton’s were for her in the final ABC News/Washington Post poll, even as Clinton led overall. That enthusiasm advantage should have been one of the warning signals to the Clinton campaign.

The Los Angeles Times opinion page May 16 has the headline “Opinion: Joe who? Biden’s the likely nominee, but readers are oddly quiet about him.” One contributor wrote “I have watched Biden the last few months. Does he inspire others through his leadership? The answer obviously is no. So why will he almost certainly be nominated for president by the Democratic Party? He’s not at the top of his game, he’s prone to making verbal mistakes, and he does not have a coherent message. I can’t imagine him leading our country.”

Sadly I have to agree with that writer.  Biden has not offered any message.  I’m here to oppose Trump is not a message.  It appears Trump will lose in November due to his incompetence related to the coronavirus and the state of the economy rather than enthusiasm for Joe Biden. 

“We have met the moment and we have prevailed”

This is something like President George W Bush declaring mission accomplished.

“We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” Trump announced, flanked by banners declaring “America leads the world in testing.” He tried again to spin the total numbers of tests done as the best measure of the country’s ability to track the coronavirus. Pressed on whether it is true that tests are available to any American who wants one, he said, “It is a true statement already. We have more testing than anyone by far.”

What moment is that?  Today the total deaths exceed 80,000 people. If the latest daily death toll continues at today’s number an additional 22,000 deaths will occur over the next 30 days.

The Coronavirus Task force has projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in U.S., even with mitigation efforts

President Trump this weekend expressed concern that White House aides contracting coronavirus would undercut his message the outbreak is waning. To boost his view that the United States is winning the battle against the virus he comes up with the idea, incorrectly, that testing proves we are succeeding.  Winning this battle would be a cure for those infected and a vaccine that prevents future cases from occurring.

Apparently we have short term memory loss when it comes to remembering what has happened regarding the virus.

It was the president who declared a national emergency effective March 12. In a press conference he said “I don’t take responsibility at all,” he said when asked about U.S. delays to testing the public. He did set the stage for the national shutdown. The governors responded to his declaration.

It was March 31 when the White House task force projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from the virus, with mitigation. Trump himself finally warned the 100,000 of higher death rate on May 4.

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 11: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing about coronavirus testing in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 11, 2020 in Washington, DC. Several White House staff members and aides have recently tested positive for the coronavirus and three top health officials from the White House coronavirus task force are now self-quarantining after potential exposure. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)