Is it the numbers? Is it the personality? Is it the ominous forebodings? Is it ennui? What is it? What is driving some of the biggest upheavals this country has seen in a very long time. More important, perhaps, is where are we being driven to? Is it a final destination or temporary - until when or what or who?
It is almost as if we are living out the famed first paragraph of Tale of Two Cities. It is the best and the worst of times and every other set of contradictions one can think of. There are the same wild swings and differences between economic classes and the same anger, rising, frustration growing, and paths that lead to peaceful mediations and compromises closing fast.
Look at the numbers. I think much of the push is coming from those numbers. Midweek we are going to hear a figure that will send the market tanking, worse than ever in recent times. We are to hear of the worst postwar economic contraction in 62 years. This, from the president who boasts of his economy, of his economic wisdom! Yet there are still people who say he is a good economic candidate!!! Well, perhaps he is, for the uber wealthy, but not for the likes of you or me. For those people who now engage openly and unabashedly in insider trading as the recent 'awarding' of stock benefits and the selling of Pharma company stocks at the sudden heights as virus vaccine news was dropped into the stew. Disgusting!! All by the big dudes in management, you know, the ones already getting paid in the two digit million dollars brackets. The numbers again.
There are more numbers. On track for 175,000 virus deaths by August 15 and by November 1, more than 200,000, and that does not include the millions infected, recovering, yet left with debilitating symptoms. We have the numbers of businesses in and out of business in the wild lack of proper response to the virus, led and driven by Trump et al, and despite Trump's statement that it is mainly the elderly, (so who cares is the intimation), it is the younger than 40 group growing, and yes, children do spread the virus and yes, they do die.
Yes, we need an economy that works, that thrives, that provides what this country needs, a nation back at work, but there will be no economy if there are no workers, no consumers, and why? Because they are either dead or incapacitated! First things first, and then all will come back, albeit in a different manner, and we must recognize that. There will never be a return to the old normal, and the new normal will have to be defined and fine tuned. Certainly, Trump is not the one to do that fine tuning. He does not even know enough or even want to find the best heads for that, for he hires only those of incompetence, corruption, nepotism, cronyism, veniality and contempt for all other than their own little coterie. It is the 'boys only' club dressed to look otherwise. It is driven by loyalty, blind lines crossing loyalty to Trump, and only Trump, to the detriment of all and everything else.
And the numbers are adding up. 100 days till elections. Republicans are the ones caught in ballot fraud, in Kansas, in North Carolina, but he blows heavy in the case of 347 ballots in Paterson, NJ, a minor kerfuffle, solved and avoided and not known at all as to actually how it came to be. And still he blows on, like a puffer fish gone madly overboard with its inherent poison, only we are the diners who are being poisoned!! Last election for president we had interference by Russia, and now we hear they and others are ramping up again. China is pushing for Trump to win as it is so much better for them. Can we not finally hear and see the truth? What is it that still has those who are willfully blind and deaf to his faults, his dangerous deterioration, his pathological mental issues?
“The bottom line is it’s a situation that requires nuance and it’s a presidency that has not engaged in a lot of nuance.”
Numbers are not the only game in town. We also have the turn toward the forces of the dark, wherein we apparently are no better than any other despotic country. "These tactics include deploying federal agents without identifying insignia in an apparent effort to evade transparency and accountability, snatching people off the street with no apparent reason for apprehension, and using potentially deadly munitions to harm peaceful protesters. These actions are out of control. They are more reflective of tactics of a government led by a dictator, not from the government of our constitutional democratic republic," they wrote, adding they were "chillingly reminiscent of autocratic governments that 'disappear' critics and opponents." These are the words which express it the best and it cannot be explained away as 'oh, that is just Trump being Trump'. This is actual and severe violation of our Constitution and an overt and violent reaction that in turn causes a violent reaction, something which they are liking and wanting very much.
Karen Bass, a Democratic Congresswoman, said it best. Basically, we need to make a point , yes, and the protesters are doing that, burning with outrage and the energy and passions of the young, but more than that, we need to make a difference. That difference will prove to be the long lasting changes we need to make in our evolving society, with all the unknowns we face.
We will need courage to do that. We will need fortitude and patience. We will need values, honesty, truth, decency, compassion. We will need true leaders and we will need numbers. We will need the numbers to come out and vote, to insist on their right to vote, to stand there till they get the chance to vote. Better yet, ask for a mail in ballot and then hand deliver it to the office where elections are supervised - no lost in the mail, no lost in a handover somehow, just there.
But do VOTE for those are the numbers we need. Nor do I and many others care if the vote is not so much for Biden but against Trump. Whatever. The numbers are what we need. Biden will do his job, getting aid from wiser heads than the past four years. He is a man solidly in the middle who knows how to get things done and most important, he is a decent man, a man of family values, a man who likes people and not only the man in the mirror. He is a man who will bring moderation to the extremes, just what we need now.
Do VOTE. Do give us the numbers we need to better this country and the world. Do VOTE for America. I so long for the day when we can freely visit and hug our families and friends, when we can say bye, or ciao, or ta ta, anything but the now standard - be well and stay safe. Why are we needing to say that and why do we know that Trump most manifestly is not the one to better this messy situation? Do VOTE and bring out those numbers already trending our way. Keep up the momentum - for life.
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