Friday, October 30th, 2020
After yesterday’s miserable rain, today the skies turned blue again and we had a beautiful autumn day. Chilly, but gorgeous. I managed to convince EM to sweep the leaves in the back yard in preparation for Halloween as I plan to hang out with a friend by the fire pit after a walk to enjoy the decorations in the neighborhood.
I have spent the past three days creating a map of all the houses in the Hood who will offer socially distanced trick and treating. The response has been overwhelming. More than 200 houses will participate. The emails I have received have been so uplifting. Many people expressed their gratitude to me for creating the map. My final email of the day was to send out with the latest map with an appeal to people to maintain social distancing and follow CDC guidelines while enjoying Halloween. I have also added a disclaimer that I will not be liable for anything, this is the USA afterall. Given we are all cooped up I especially look forward to this fun event. The girls have plans to hang in the drive-way around a fire pit.
Given a number of calls this morning I did not get around to scanning the news. Not a big loss as all election related news is scary. The polls are pro Biden, but then we had that in 2016 when I thought I would move to country with a president called Hillary Clinton and found myself in a country governed by a psychopath.
As Germany prepares to go into a renewed lock down and France already has, numbers in the US are disconcerting, with each day setting a record high over new cases reported the previous day.
The USA today reports a total of 9.3 million cases out of the 45.3 million reported worldwide. Yesterday 90.000 new cases were logged. Interestingly most of these cases are in States dominated by the GoP. I have a hard time feeling compassion.
The East and West coast states are doing well in containing the spread. Maryland, Virginia and DC, the so called DMV area, has infection rates of 0.7% at the most. But then again all of us in urban areas of these States are diligently wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, not going to indoor parties, restaurants, movies and so on. Death rates currently are lower than in spring at “just” 800 per day, but then again deaths lag hospitalization, which is rapidly increasing across the US heartland, with hospitals overwhelmed and field hospitals being set up.
All of this against the backdrop of the presidential election. Many people have requested mail in ballots. The fact that court cases result in changing rules daily does not help. The fact that the postal service has been slowed significantly makes it likely that many ballots, especially in swing states may not be counted. The word on the street encourages people to drop their ballots rather than mail them in.
I am so worried that the Moron in chief will be reelected, not by the majority of the people, but through winning the electoral college. This is probably the least democratic country I have lived in. The Republicans are going all the way to suppress voters who may not vote for them. South Africans fought for one person, one vote. This is not the principal in this country. Here the candidate has to win each of the states separately and ultimately the president is elected by the electoral college. This electoral college consists of representatives of the different States. In the past electoral college votes were cast for the candidate who won that specific State, but there is no law mandating electoral college representatives to cast their vote for the candidate who won the State. So chances are this is going to be very messy.
There are more indications that the praised antibody treatment may not be as effective as hoped. Regeneron will no longer enroll severely ill patients for treatment. SOmehow I am not surprised. Like injecting bleech, Regeneron anibody treatment has been touted by the Covidiot as a cure.
I doubt this country has what it takes to overcome the pandemic.