From Appomattox to BLM & Thoughts on the Putin-Trump Relationship

Where There's Smoke, There May be Nothing ... or Maybe Something

Okay, it has never been proven but where there is smoke, there could be fire … or maybe it isn’t really smoke?   The dossier compiled a few years ago by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele has never been proven.  Originally commissioned by anti-Trump Republicans, it ultimately became a tool unsuccessfully used by Hillary Clinton in her 2016 presidential campaign.

Capable of Blackmail?

Repeatedly, Donald Trump has ignored provocations by Vladimir Putin which raised the hackles of our intelligence services, which may be the best in the world and for which we allocate enormous sums of money.  All is sweetness and light between Trump and Putin.  Up to now, some have speculated that the Russian leader has “something on” Trump which he holds over him and threatens to reveal (or Trump believes that to be the case) if Trump speaks out against him.   Others in our government may speak up but the President’s silence, time after time, is very noticeable.   Quietly, many in and out of government, the press and the population in general believe that where there is smoke, there just may be fire, which would explain Trump’s behavior.

Intelligence expert, author and 20 year navy veteran Malcolm Nance recently commented that when you owe your bookie a lot of money, you go out of the way to be nice to him.  So it might be with Trump and Putin, but no one can prove it, just as folks don’t brag about their gambling debts, or even let their family know of them.

It is rumored that in 2013, when Donald Trump was in Moscow in connection with the Miss Universe Pageant which his company owned, the Russians had hidden cameras in places where Trump thought he was safe from being observed.  For all we know, they might have shot videos of him cavorting with Russian versions of Stormy Daniels.  But no one can prove this.   Steele’s dossier approaches this point but stops short of confirming it.   So we have smoke, or maybe it isn’t really smoke, but no fire yet.

Our Troops at Work in Afghanistan

All of this is old news.  The fact that Russia was paying the Taliban a bounty for every American they could kill (and providing them with arms as well, to undermine the Afghan government we were trying to bolster) was known to the National Security Council and many in our intelligence community’s leadership with one exception, the President of the United States.  He claims he was never told about it.  That is unbelievable.  I’ll repeat that.  “Unbelievable.”  It gives thinking Americans greater justification in believing that Vladimir Putin indeed “has something” on the  President.  Someday, when Donald Trump is just a bad memory in American history, a book will be written about this phase of his behavior.

JL

                                                     * * * * *

                                                                       

Where do you think these two scoundrels
stand in regard to the history discussed below?

A Bit of History

The Federal government won the “Civil War” when Lee surrendered at Appomattox.  That war was fought to prevent individual states from seceding, to preserve the Union.  Behind the desire of the States which had unsuccessfully tried to secede, the Confederacy, was their fear that an anti-slavery Federal government would prevent slavery’s expansion westward when new States entered the Union and eventually abolish it entirely.  Slavery was the basis of the economies of the seceding States.  Without it, they were like a fish out of water.

Before the war was over, through the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln had freed the slaves in those States which were in rebellion against the Union.  In 1865, the 13^th Amendment freed all those remaining in slavery. But Abraham Lincoln was no rabid abolitionist.  He abhorred slavery but had initially wanted to solve the problem with resettlement of the freed slaves in Africa.  But he knew “reconstruction” in the South was the ultimate answer.

There were many people, unfortunately, who disagreed with him and his fighting to preserve the Union over this issue.  This resulted in his assassination.  His successor, Vice President Andrew Johnson, was more interested in gaining the support of the former “slave” States as they re-entered the Union, and was not sympathetic to Lincoln’s plans for a rigorous “reconstruction” of the seceding states, punishing rebel leaders, which was in the hands of Secretary of War Stanton.   Johnson fired Stanton, replacing him with someone who would take it easy on the defeated States.  For this, Johnson was impeached, but by one vote he survived being thrown out of office by the Senate. 

A “reconstruction” sympathetic to the South and its economy, still based on the cheap labor of the former slaves, ensued, which included Jim Crow laws, the KKK and impediments to former slaves voting.  White Southern pride in their glorious "lost cause" developed over the years and monuments to the leaders of the Confederacy were even erected, starting about fifty years later.  They got away with this because of the “reconstruction” policies which favored the former slaveowners who were still keeping the former slaves in a subservient status. These monuments and continued display of the Confederate flag really celebrated the failure of the Civil War to bring about true equality between the races and economic advancement for the former slaves and their descendants.

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed civil rights legislation which was supposed to remedy some of these continuing evils, particularly in voting procedures.   Ingrained habits are hard to change and there are those around today who still believe that the Confederacy did not ultimately lose the Civil War and behave accordingly.

Yes, Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox (was pardoned by Lincoln, became a college president and died five years later).  But he didn’t sign a paper saying that “Black Lives Matter.”  Really, neither did Lincoln, Stanton, Lyndon Johnson nor politicians and law enforcement people throughout the nation.  That is up to us.  We are getting there.

(Oddly enough, the political party most friendly to the freed slaves from 1865 until a century later was the Republican Party.  Those who still honored the Rebel Flag and former slaveowners were Democrats.  From Lyndon Johnson on, this was reversed with the Republicans becoming more sympathetic to the reactionary forces of racism and the Democrats becoming “the good guys.”)

Trump's Tulsa Rally and More on Covid19 Testing

                Subverting Democracy

                             Enemies of the People

                                                ***

What an increase in number of those testing positive for Covid 19 means: 

Doctors know that while all of those infected can pass on the virus to others for a period of time (is fourteen days enough?), some of those infected cases show no symptoms at all or seem to have no more than a simple cold for a few days.  Testing includes those in this category lumped in with those, (perhaps about 5%) who show more severe symptoms which can lead to death.  

And of course, there are the untested, who very well might be positive.  Therefore, at a minimum, an increase in the number of those testing positive means that arbitrary 5% number can involve a greater actual number of sick people requiring hospitalization and perhaps even dying.  And that number can grow when those untested individuals show symptoms which, had they been tested, would have included them in that 5% number.  The spread of Covid19 can be pinned down with greater certainly, the larger the number of people being tested.  That's why testing is important.  Those without symptoms are foolish for assuming they are okay and disregard social distancing guidelines and masking when out of their homes.

A million people tested with 10% positive results for Cofid19 means 100,000 cases.  Of these, 5,000 may be serious enough to warrant hospitalization and possibly result in death.   Test two million and that 5,000 number is doubled.  By not increasing testing, we are kidding ourselves as to the seriousness of the Cofid19 Pandemic. The dummy in the White House does not understand this.

That is why it is necessary for everyone to observe social distancing and wear a mask when out of their home.  We just don’t know who can be spreading the virus and whom it will infect.  But an increase in the number tested gives us a handle on the dimensions of the problem.  Statistcally, we know a specific portion of those testing positive for Cofid19 will become seriously ill, so the number testing positive will ultimately reflect that number.  

For the President to imply that perhaps we are doing “too much testing” borders on the criminal.  And the Republican Governors who blindly follow him share the blame.  Blaming an increase in positive tests results on the populations being tested (seniors, nursing home residents, farm workers, etc.) and not being representative of the general population is foolish.  The increase in positive test results is the result of society “opening up” too soon, and a lot of wishful thinking on the part of politicians.  And the more testing that is done, the more evident this becomes.

                                                                    

                                                ***

Trump's Kick Off Rally Fizzles

It was refreshing to see the arena in Tulsa only partially occupied by Trump supporters this weekend, and none at all for the larger rally they anticipated to run outside of the place (which they cancelled).

I watched Trump’s almost two-hour tirade in which he attacked everyone he could think of.   Panicked and trying to satisfy all portions of his base, he missed no one. His finger was on the panic button except when he digressed briefly for stories like how proud he was that he chewed Boeing’s price down from what they wanted to charge to replace the two Air Force One planes.  (That was the way he dealt with vendors when he was in real estate.) 

Trump is approaching the point where what would amount to a coup d’etat, forcing him to resign, is becoming a legitimate idea.  The Republican Senate is the key to this happening.  Republicans running for office are starting to realize that supporting Trump, and being endorsed by him, is a millstone around their necks. 

For those who missed the show, he explained that his using first one, then two hands, to raise a glass of water to his lips at West Point was to avoid spilling any on his very expensive tie.  His arm, also, was very weak from saluting 600 times during his speech, and despite the warm and sunny weather, the ramp was somehow wet and slippery, unsuitable for his leather soled shoes.  These very well might be valid excuses but really, they aren't very "presidential."

It is claimed that many of the million responses from Trump supporters indicating they would attend the rally were phony and actually came from opponents of the President emailed from fictitious addresses.  To some extent, this was probably true but certainly, there should have been enough Trump supporters in Oklahoma anyway to fill the 19,000 seat arena.  The Tulsa fire marshal indicated an attendance of less than 7,000.  His base is eroding, and the reason might be that some of them might disagree with the President's views on the Pandemic.

JL

Trump, the Liar - . Let's Look at the Numbers - Thoughts on Covid19

If you have any doubt that Donald J. Trump is the biggest

liar since Pinocchio, check out this MSNBC piece about who did or did not bring about legislation to prevent police abuses.  CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT IT AND HEAR HIM LIE.  Lies will be a hallmark of his re-election campaign.  

Death Statistics Worth Looking At

By visiting https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm  CLICK HERE TO QUICKLY GET THERE., a source of information provided by the Federal Government’s Centers for Disease Control, you will see that in 2017 (and there is no reason to believe the figures for subsequent years are significantly different), there were 2,813,503 deaths in the United States.  Let’s assume this pattern will continue.  

Heart disease was the leading cause of death with about 650,000 deaths.  Cancer accounted for about 600,000 deaths.  Pneumonia and influenza were the cause of about 55,000 deaths and Chronic Lower Respiratory Disorders were the cause of about 160,000 more, a total of about 215,000 deaths in the area where Covid19 infection also occurs. 

You can review these statistics by visiting CLICKING HERE to get to the CDC site.  It also offers links to other sites containing related information.  I suggest you explore them.  Your taxes are paying for them.

Scientists anticipate that the Covid19 Pandemic will claim about 200,000 lives this year (2020) in the United States.  Conceivably, this number will represent a sizable portion of the 215,000 deaths already anticipated for the two respiratory categories mentioned above, in which case total mortality would not be significantly affected.

On the other hand, that 200,000 number might be separate from and over and above that 215,000 number. That depends on how the counting is done.  That would increase the total number of deaths for the year by about 7%.   However, improvements in mortality in other areas, such as heart disease and cancer treatment, may serve to mitigate any increase in total mortality.

   

Seven percent is a big number.  It could be the real number.  But then again, it might not be.  This is all the more reason for Americans to continue to practice physical distancing, frequent hand washing and wearing a mask when near others.  Better to be safe than sorry.

Why Is She a Republican? ... and a Leonard Pitts Column

Sunday’s Palm Beach Post’s editorial dealt with the difficulty Floridians are experiencing in collecting unemployment benefits, among the lowest in the nation, through a system which is difficult if not impossible to negotiate. 

The editorial included a quote from a laid-off restaurant server who told the Post’s reporter, in referring to former Governor, now Senator, Scott’s fear that collecting unemployment benefits (including the Federal Government’s portion) would discourage recipients from going back to work, that “I really feel like they did a disservice by describing us, who have become unemployed through no fault of their own, as lazy.”  She went on to say that “I’m a Republican.  I voted for DeSantis.  I’ve never filed for unemployment in my life.”

My question is why this restaurant server is a Republican in the first place, and why she voted for DeSantis, and  probably Rick Scott and Donald Trump as well, when Republican positions on economic issues offered her nothing, while the Democratic position took her needs into consideration.  What makes people like this vote Republican.  Why?  I believe it is a fear on their part that Democrats would take away what they have, and have worked for, and give it to others who did not work for it. It’s that simple.   It is thinly disguised racism.

And while on this subject, here’s Leonard Pitts’ recent Miami Herald column which points out that being “non-racist” is not enough.  One must be “anti-racist.”

 Don’t say, ’I am not a racist’

By Leonard Pitts, Tribune Content Agency on Jun 14, 2020 

Pitts

This column is presented as a public service.

A few days ago, Greg Glassman, the founder and CEO of CrossFit, set off an uproar by belittling the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. In a Zoom call with gym owners, he bristled at the idea of memorializing a man whose killing outraged the nation and the world.

“We’re not mourning for George Floyd,” he said. “I don’t think me or any of my staff are. Can you tell me why I should mourn for him? Other than, it’s the ‘white’ thing to do?”

Then he took his scorn public with a flippant retort to a tweet calling racism and discrimination “critical public health issues.” Replied Glassman, “It’s FLOYD-19.” The social media backlash was furious, and Glassman issued a statement, saying he was “deeply saddened” by the pain he caused. “It was a mistake,” he insisted, “not racist but a mistake.” By Tuesday, according to the New York Times, nearly 1,200 gyms had decided to disaffiliate from CrossFit, and its founder was stepping down.

That said, we aren’t here today to bury Greg Glassman. He’s done an effective job of that on his own.

No, this is for the next Greg Glassman, the next white person who finds himself excoriated for saying or doing some racially offensive thing. It is to beg that unlucky individual to not compound the transgression by retreating as Glassman did to the cliche of cliches, the one that makes folks sigh and roll their eyes, that signals like a neon flasher you are not to be taken seriously. Don’t say what Michael Richards said after he threatened to lynch a black heckler, what Amy Cooper said after she called 911 on a black man birdwatching in Central Park, what Roseanne Barr said after likening a black woman to an ape, what white folks always say when caught with their hands in this particular cookie jar.

For the love of Heaven, please don’t say, “I am not a racist.”

So what should that person say instead? Glad you asked. Here’s a template for future apologies:

“I am profoundly sorry for what I said or did. I apologize to the people I hurt. There is no excuse.

“I won’t insult your intelligence by saying ‘I am not a racist’ because I know I am. As a white person in a society where every institution is geared to advantage people like me, it is literally impossible for me to be anything else. In that, I am like a man in a male-dominated society. He cannot help being sexist, his good intentions notwithstanding. Saying he’s not sexist is like a fish saying he’s not wet.

 “Many of us as white people struggle with that. That’s because we process racism as a loathsome character defect, when really, it’s the water in which we swim.

“No, the question is not whether we are racist, but what kind of racist we will be. Will we be the overt kind, whose behavior marks her from a mile away? In many ways, her very obviousness makes her the least dangerous.

“Will we be the racist in denial, who thinks that because he doesn’t use racial slurs and eats lunch with a black guy at work, he’s all good? He’s ultimately the most dangerous, because his racism is reflected in implicit bias but otherwise hidden, even from himself.

“Or will we be the racist in remission who knows good intentions are not enough, that he must consciously commit not simply to being non-racist, but actively anti-racist?

“That’s what I aspire to and what I hope I achieve more often than not. But when I said or did the offending thing, I fell short. That doesn’t reflect my intentions or my best self. So I ask your forgiveness.

“Like all of us, I’m only human. I will try to do better next time.”

(Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald, 3511 NW 91st Ave., Miami, Fla., 33172. Readers may contact him via e-mail at lpitts@miamiherald.com.)

Three Poems

This blog isn't always about politics.  Here's a poetic interlude for your perusal.

Poetry involves truths which are eternal; that’s what distinguishes it from “just plain words.”  

Sir Walter Scott wrote this out of love for his native Scotland but the last ten lines certainly apply to the President of the United States today.

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,
As home his footsteps he hath turn’d,
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.

Not to be outdone is T.S. Eliot whose words about scarecrows were applied to the Republicans in the United States Senate last week by George Will in his column.

    We are the hollow men
    We are the stuffed men
    Leaning together
    Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
    Our dried voices, when
    We whisper together
    Are quiet and meaningless
    As wind in dry grass
    Or rats' feet over broken glass
    In our dry cellar.
   
    Shape without form, shade without colour,
    Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
   Those who have crossed
    With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
    Remember us-if at all-not as lost
    Violent souls, but only
    As the hollow men

    The stuffed men. 

And finally, Rudyard Kipling's words in his poem “If” should be comforting to all in these perilous times:

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

JL


Remember to keep washing your hands and maintaining social distancing.  The Coronavirus is still with us!

Will Urges Removal of Trump and his Republican Enablers (Rats' Feet Over Broken Glass)

Last week's George Will column in the Washington Post said it all.  I am sure you have read about it or seen sections of it.  Here it is in its entirety, including the T.S. Eliot quote which Will used to characterize Republicans in Congress as "quiet and meaningless

As wind in dry grass

or rats’ feet over broken glass . . "

Trump must be removed. So must his congressional enablers.

George F. Will 

Columnist

June 1, 2020 at 3:18 p.m. EDT

"This unraveling presidency began with the Crybaby-in-Chief banging his spoon on his highchair tray to protest a photograph — a photograph — showing that his inauguration crowd the day before had been smaller than the one four years previous. Since then, this weak person’s idea of a strong person, this chest-pounding advertisement of his own gnawing insecurities, this low-rent Lear raging on his Twitter-heath has proven that the phrase malignant buffoon is not an oxymoron.

Presidents, exploiting modern communications technologies and abetted today by journalists preening as the “resistance” — like members of the French Resistance 1940-1944, minus the bravery — can set the tone of American society, which is regrettably soft wax on which presidents leave their marks. The president’s provocations — his coarsening of public discourse that lowers the threshold for acting out by people as mentally crippled as he — do not excuse the violent few. They must be punished. He must be removed.

Social causation is difficult to demonstrate, particularly between one person’s words and other persons’ deeds. However: The person voters hired in 2016 to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” stood on July 28, 2017, in front of uniformed police and urged them “please don’t be too nice” when handling suspected offenders. His hope was fulfilled for 8 minutes and 46 seconds on Minneapolis pavement.

What Daniel Patrick Moynihan termed “defining deviancy down” now defines American politics. In 2016, voters were presented an unprecedentedly unpalatable choice: Never had both major parties offered nominees with higher disapproval than approval numbers. Voters chose what they wagered would be the lesser blight. Now, however, they have watched him govern for 40 months and more than 40 percent — slightly less than the percentage that voted for him — approve of his sordid conduct.

Presidents seeking reelection bask in chants of “Four more years!” This year, however, most Americans — perhaps because they are, as the president predicted, weary from all the winning — might flinch: Four more years of this? The taste of ashes, metaphorical and now literal, dampens enthusiasm.The nation’s downward spiral into acrimony and sporadic anarchy has had many causes much larger than the small man who is the great exacerbator of them. Most of the causes predate his presidency, and most will survive its January terminus. The measures necessary for restoration of national equilibrium are many and will be protracted far beyond his removal. One such measure must be the removal of those in Congress who, unlike the sycophantic mediocrities who cosset him in the White House, will not disappear “magically,” as Eric Trump said the coronavirus would. Voters must dispatch his congressional enablers, especially the senators who still gambol around his ankles with a canine hunger for petting.

In life’s unforgiving arithmetic, we are the sum of our choices. Congressional Republicans have made theirs for more than 1,200 days. We cannot know all the measures necessary to restore the nation’s domestic health and international standing, but we know the first step: Senate Republicans must be routed, as condign punishment for their Vichyite collaboration, leaving the Republican remnant to wonder: Was it sensible to sacrifice dignity, such as it ever was, and to shed principles, if convictions so easily jettisoned could be dignified as principles, for . . . what? Praying people should pray, and all others should hope: May I never crave anything as much as these people crave membership in the world’s most risible deliberative body.

A political party’s primary function is to bestow its imprimatur on candidates, thereby proclaiming: This is who we are. In 2016, the Republican Party gave its principal nomination to a vulgarian and then toiled to elect him. And to stock Congress with invertebrates whose unswerving abjectness has enabled his institutional vandalism, who have voiced no serious objections to his Niagara of lies, and whom T.S. Eliot anticipated:

We are the hollow men . . .

Our dried voices, when

We whisper together

Are quiet and meaningless

As wind in dry grass

or rats’ feet over broken glass . . .

Those who think our unhinged president’s recent mania about a murder two decades ago that never happened represents his moral nadir have missed the lesson of his life: There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the worst is yet to come. Which implicates national security: Abroad, anti-Americanism sleeps lightly when it sleeps at all, and it is wide-awake as decent people judge our nation’s health by the character of those to whom power is entrusted. Watching, too, are indecent people in Beijing and Moscow."

Will, a life-long Republican, left the Party in 2016, and is the heart, soul and conscience of Republicanism.  He is no wild-eyed liberal, Democrat nor radical.  He embodies conservatism.  Those who still support Trump should heed his words.  They have no excuses.

JL

And continue to keep social distancing, washing your hands and wearing a mask when out!  Coronavirus is still with us.  See prior blog postings.

Refocusing on the Coronavirus, a Video and Trump's "Double Whammy"

Dwarfed by the protests over the past week emphasizing that Black Lives Matter is the ongoing threat posed by the Coronavirus.  Because it is no longer a page one item in your newspaper  (if you read one which I recommend you do) does not mean it is no longer a threat!  

Rioting and unfortunately, looting by criminals as pictured below at a high-end shop , has given the President a diversion from his horrid approach to the Coronavirus danger.  It puts a weapon in his hands.  We, and law enforcement agencies, must distinguish between legitimate protesters and common theives as shown below.

The rioting will eventually end and there will be steps taken, or at least initiated, to control police behavior in regard to people of all colors, increased educational opportunity, job training and financial assistance to enable those now enchained by poverty to realize, regardless of skin color, the American dream, as it has been shown, accurately or not, on TV and movies and in advertisements over the past half century.  This will happen.  A Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress and a Democratic president will make it happen.  But it will not happen overnight.  It will take years, perhaps generations.
 

You Must Vote (but observe social distancing, not like the picture).
If you are not registered to vote, send me an email and I'll tell you how
to proceed, if you are a Florida resident.

But the Coronavirus will remain.

They are very hard to pin down and document, but here are some conclusions I have drawn about the Coronavirus.

1.    Everyone who has been infected by it can, for an uncertain length of time, infect others.  We do not really know, in the absence of reliable testing, who is or is not infected.  Even then, their status regarding infection can change overnight.  This is regardless of whether they manifest any symptoms (high temperature, cough, fatigue, etc.) caused by the virus, or whether they have been tested.   I repeat, this applies to everyone, and is why physical distancing, handwashing, avoidance of crowds, wearing a mask are encouraged and sometimes even mandated.  We do not know how much these steps have reduced the spread of the Coronavirus from what it is.  Experts say they have.

2.    Another area which is rarely discussed is the effect of being infected has on an individual, other that their being capable of passing on the virus.  Some manifest no symptoms whatsoever.  Some manifest mild symptoms for a brief period and think nothing of it.  Some treat their symptoms as no more than a cold.  Most of these people recover, but often States include their numbers (if there is testing done, and they are found to be 'positive') among those who have are counted among those who have contracted the disease.

3.    For some, the symptoms persist and get worse, leading to possible hospitalization and even death, for some, from the virus.  This is a full-blown Covid19 infection.  We do not know who among those infected at any level will end up in this category, but the number of deaths now exceeds 105,000.

 The President, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Brix, the CDC head and the others who used to address these problems do not do that anymore.  That’s because the President wants it that way to enhance his re-election possibilities.   The riots are a great diversion for him from the Coronavirus threat, which he never fully faced up to, concentrating on “reopening” the economy, hindered by the restrictions mentioned above instead.   Just as he was incapable of dealing with the Coronavirus, Trump is incapable of dealing with the riots and most importantly, the conditions which caused them.  This “double whammy” ought to suffice to get him out of the White House in November.  

Beware of any efforts to hamper that election, such as restrictions on voting locations (due to the virus?) and on “vote by mail” opportunities.  The President will do that … and if he loses, he will contest the result as fraudulent.  Beware!

And keep washing your hands!  And physical distancing, too!