Seasons, Poetry Dedicated to "45," Advice for the 'Positive,' and Some Politics

The Seasons Turn

Before moving to Florida nineteen years ago, I was able to sense the changing of the seasons back up north each year.   Walking outside in the evening at this time of the year, even when the weather was still warm, there was always one night when one could feel the very slight beginnings of a crispness in the air.  I always commented at that time that I could feel the seasons had “turned” that night.  Within a few weeks, by the time the Autumnal Equinox had arrived, the crispness had developed a chilly edge and a sweater was needed for an evening walk. 

Same kind of thing is true here in Florida.  This week, the number of butterflies and caterpillars in my Butterfly garden suddenly decreased and some of the plants were not producing leaves the way they had been for the past few months.  At the same time, while still growing leaves profusely, the potted hibiscus plants on my patio stopped producing multiple blossoms.  I expect a few flowers over the next few days, but I am getting the message.  The season here, too, has “turned,” even though the thermometer hasn’t yet recognized it.  But it will.  Not like up north, but it will.

How do I Love Thee

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

If Elizabeth Barrett Browning were alive today, she would rip up the sonnet she is most famous for having written, which went something like this:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

And replace it with this more timely version, dedicated to U No Hoo (and I am not referring to a Korean politician):

How do I con thee? Let me count the ways.
I con thee to the depth and breadth and height
My lies can reach, when tweeting through the night
Absent from reason with made up facts.
I con thee to the level of every day's
Fox News’ script, by sun and candle-light.
I con thee freely, knowing you're none too bright.

I con thee purely, so you’ll vote for me.
I con thee with the passion learned by me
From my old Dad, without a trace of truth.
I con thee with scams learned for TV,
And bankruptcies.  I con thee with the filth

And swindles of all my life; and if Putin choose,

I shall but con thee better after death.

                              

So you tested “positive” for the Covid19 virus!   

You are now among the “cases” counted for your county, State and the nation!  Congratulations!  You hadn’t had any symptoms and don’t have any now, and the only reason you even were tested was that your employer (Lucky you … you have a job) demanded that you be tested.  So what do you do?  Continue your activities as before, before you knew you were carrying the virus?  No!

Now you should be aware that you can infect others with the virus you are carrying!  And they possibly will not be as lucky as you; they can develop symptoms, some of which can prove fatal.  Really, you should self-isolate at home for a couple of weeks, but if that is not possible, keep wearing a mask when you leave your home and try to avoid crowded places, even at home, and activities where people gather and where your presence is unavoidable.  (You really should self-isolate at home for a few weeks.)  The mask helps you keep your viruses from others.  But its greatest usefulness is for wearers who are unaware that they are carrying the virus, and not taking other precautions.

And if you hadn’t been tested, you wouldn’t be put to all this trouble, but the repercussions on others would be worse, because you would be an unknown quantity.  Now at least, you know and should behave accordingly!   (As for mask wearing, by now you know that most cloth and paper masks are designed to keep you from spreading Covid19.  But also, they have some success in blocking the virus from reaching you, not so much as the “95” surgical type masks, which are designed for that purpose, but they do help.  Wear a mask.)

I gather that if you are tested again, and if two successive tests, at least two weeks apart, are negative, you might no longer be considered a carrier of the virus.  But be careful.  However it was that you were infected in the first place can happen again. Some say you might have developed antibodies to prevent re-infection, but evidence for that is sketchy.  That’s why you should make sure those you associate with outside of your home wear masks.   Remind them.  Continue to take precautions. 

And feel good that your positive testing contributed to the epidemiologists’ fix on the “positivity” percentage (percentage of those tested who prove to be positive) in your locale, a comparative number used to determine the rate of increase or decrease in the spread of the virus.  Important decisions, such as school openings, hinge on this figure.  What do you think is a safe "positivity" percentage? Five percent (one in twenty, when applied to the untested) is scary ... or is it?  That's the number which is bandied around in regard to school reopenings.

That’s why testing is so important, despite the lies being purveyed by President Trump, Governor DeSantis (FL) and others.  They are ignorant, putting the economy ahead of American lives.   Let’s see what happens with the half-completed truncated baseball season, the NFL and those financially hard-pressed colleges willing to play football amidst a generally untested student environment.  The PAC12 and the BIG Ten both have chosen not to play football this fall because of the interaction with the generally untested student population.  That’s far riskier than sport events without spectators, and these two conferences know it.  The SEC, for example, doesn’t.

                                           

Politics and our Fake President

Those of you who watched spiteful Laura Ingraham’s recent Fox interview of Trump must have noted that she was feeding answers to him.  When he voiced an old conspiracy theory about commercial airliners carrying groups of black-garbed terrorists to the site of the latest demonstrations, she cautioned him, but with little effect.  A viewer could see that even this right-wing paragon of Fox-style conservatism recognized that Trump is “unhinged.”  And it is interesting that the President seems to be less comfortable with Fox lately, which might not be far enough to the right for him (except for Hannity and Carlson).  I get the feeling that someone in the Administration (my guess is Stephen Miller) tells these two thugs what to say and hearing it from them, the President believes it to be the truth.  Anyhow, lately he has been watching One America News on TV which is deeper into the sewer than Fox.


With book after book being published by those who were close to the President, and by those who have studied his reign  (oops, I mean his term in office), I can see how he seems to think that his niece Mary, that John Bolton, that the fellow who was the ghost writer for "the Art of the Deal," that Michael Schmidt (whose 'Trump vs the United States' may top them all), that the hundreds of witnesses that produced the incriminating evidence in the Mueller Report (which he got his crooked Attorney General, William Barr, to misrepresent and soft-pedal) and the scores of other authors and researchers involved in telling the truth about him, are part of some 'deep state' conspiracy to attack him.  He is delusional and is incapable of distinguishing between truth and lies.  He accuses the media of purveying "fake news" because he cannot tell what is "fake" and what is not.  Someday, he will put down a questioner at a press conference with the words, "Fake News," as he has done in the past.  The questioner, as he or she is dragged off, will shout out, "Fake President."  Applause will break out.



                                                    

Politics and Demonstrators and the End Game

The President just loves the demonstrations prompted by police shootings of unarmed Blacks and is doing all that he can do to keep the demonstrations in the limelight, deflecting attention from the Covid19 pandemic which he is content to let “run its course.”   Joe Biden has denounced their excesses when demonstrations lapse into violence, regardless from where the violence comes.  Trump denounces left-oriented demonstrators as terrorists but unlike Biden, ignores the right-wing demonstrators, who more than the those on the left, are armed. Yet Trump, the cause of them, blames Biden.  He runs from State to State, pouring gasoline onto simmering fires.

He murdered two with his illegal gun

When an illegally armed 17 year-old murdered two unarmed  demonstrators in Kenosha, the President gave him the benefit of the doubt, saying he must have feared for his life.  There is no reason for anyone with even half a brain to vote for Trump in November unless they are bigoted, racially motivated White supremacists, which I fear too many Americans are, particularly when they are reinforced and encouraged by their belief that really, the President is one of them.  Which he is.

Trump will lose in November, claim the election was “rigged” and have to be dragged out of the White House by representatives of the Armed Forces, whose loyalty is to the Constitution, not the President.   The men with the white coats will be waiting for him.

Welcome to Venezuela ... or innumerable Third World nations where this kind of thing is routine.

JL

Joe Biden is a shoo-in to win the popular vote for President.  Whether he will have enough electoral votes to win the presidency, however, is uncertain.

If you live in a crucial state, like Florida, which might by itself produce enough electoral votes (29) to determine who will be elected President, you cannot stand idly by and just complain about the system.  

Get out there and do things which will bring out voters, the kind of voters who will turn Florida "blue" on November 3.  

Contact your precinct leader, or the local Democratic Party office to learn how you can help.  

You must do that. No excuses.