It looks like tRump has given the V(ery) P(athetic) Pence his marching orders. ‘Get out there and create an illusion,’ ‘The economy has recovered and the coronavirus is in check.’ “Yes, sir. I’m on it.” So he goes out and writes an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today that is far from reality, but is his typical kowtow to his boss. He writes, “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the courage and compassion of the American people, our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago, and we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy.” He purports that new cases are in a downward trend, which is not true. The average number of new cases has been flat for over a month at a little under 22,000 per day. The good news is that the number of deaths per day has decreased, but until we dramatically reduce the number of new cases per day, we aren’t anywhere near “out of the woods.” Pence and Larry Kudlow have said there is not a second wave of the virus and there won’t be one. They are correct on the first point, the problem is we aren’t even out of the first wave. It’s interesting that he wrote this piece for the WSJ whose audience is more educated and perceptive than had he written it for Fox News Online or some other comic book based publication. In addition to misleading the reader about a downward trend, he failed to mention that new cases are on the rise in over 20 states and hospitalizations are up in several states. In Arizona ICU”s are overwhelmed. It will be interesting to see how many new cases are reported in Oklahoma over the next three weeks following this weekend’s “s**t show” in Tulsa. Oh silly me, what am I thinking. There’s no problem. That nasty little “seasonal flu” has been contained as General tRump lead us through a heroic battle to defeat it and it has now “magically disappeared.”
Two books to add to your summer reading list. ‘The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir’ by John Bolton. Available June 23rd (unless the Justice Department wins a lawsuit to stop it’s release). And on July 28th, the book byTrump’s niece, Mary Trump, will be released, ‘Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.’ I think both of these books have the Donald puckered up a bit.
Does this surprise you? A new survey released today reports people in the U.S. are more unhappy today than they’ve been in nearly 50 years. The study was done by a group at the University of Chicago. The survey, conducted in late May, draws on nearly a half-century of research from the General Social Survey, which has collected data on American attitudes and behaviors at least every other year since 1972. Just 14% of adults interviewed said they were very happy, down from 31% in 2018. I’m sure this will change, however, as we “Transition to Greatness.”
Time to go pour a drink. Make sure you have your sun lotion on hand for the weekend. Lookin’ good. Ziggyman
Mountain Man Musings 