A Michelle Goldberg Column to Treasure

Michelle Goldberg has been a columnist for the New York Times since 2017, one of the up and coming young journalists who set the pace for what Americans are thinking.  Here is a recent Times column by Michelle, reproduced as well in other newspapers a few days later.  She also appears occasionally on MSNBC. 

What a wonderful column this is.  She tells it like it is.  Read it!
JL

Goldberg

"A lot of Republicans are acting puzzled about Donald Trump’s reelection pitch. “He has no message,” one Republican source told Reuters. “He needs to articulate why he wants a second term,” said another. Some have expressed hope that Trump would find a way to become less polarizing, as if polarization were not the raison d'être of his presidency.

It’s hard to know if Republicans like this are truly naive or if they’re just pretending so they don’t have to admit what a foul enterprise they’re part of. Because Trump does indeed have a reelection message, a stark and obvious one.

It is “white power.”

The president started this week by tweeting out a video that encapsulates the soul of his movement. In it, a man in The Villages, an affluent Florida retirement community, shouts, “White power!” at protesters from a golf cart bedecked with Trump signs. “Thank you to the great people of The Villages,” wrote Trump. Only after several hours and a panic among White House staffers did the president delete the tweet.

His spokesman claimed he hadn’t heard his supporter’s extremely clear words. Trump, naturally, never disavowed them.

And why would he? Republicans might act as if they don’t know why Trump’s fans are so unfailingly loyal. Some commentators spent the first year or two of his presidency dancing around the reason he was elected, spending so much time probing the “economic anxiety” of his base that the phrase came to stand for a type of willful political blindness.

But Trump understands that he became a significant political figure by spreading the racist lie that Barack Obama was really born in Kenya. He launched his history-making presidential bid with a speech calling Mexican immigrants rapists and adopted a slogan, “America First,” previously associated with the raging anti-Semite Charles Lindbergh. Throughout the 2016 campaign, he won the invaluable prize of earned media with escalating racist provocations, which his supporters relished and which captivated cable news.

People voted for Trump for reasons besides racism. There was also sexism. Some voters were just partisan Republicans or thought that reality TV is real and that Trump was as successful as “The Apprentice” made him seem. I once met a young man at a Trump rally who’d voted for Obama but was worried about the taxes he’d pay when he inherited his family’s car dealership.

Trump, however, seems to grasp that racism is what put him over the top. It’s what made his campaign seem wild and transgressive and hard to look away from.

Now Trump’s poll numbers are cratering, we have double-digit unemployment and our pandemic-ravaged nation has been rendered an international pariah. America is faring exactly as well under Trump’s leadership as his casinos, airline and scam university did. It’s not surprising that he’s returning to what he knows and what seemed to work for him before.

In fact, Trump appears to think his problem is that he hasn’t been racist enough. On Wednesday, Axios’ Jonathan Swan reported that Trump regrets listening to his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s “woke” ideas — as a source put it — including on criminal justice reform. Instead, he wants to double down on law and order. “He truly believes there is a silent majority out there that’s going to come out in droves in November,” a source told Swan.

And so last week, as if to prod that silent majority, Trump tweeted out videos of Black people assaulting white people. (“Where are the protesters?” he asked.) He has made a point of calling the coronavirus the “kung flu.” At a time when even Mississippi is removing Confederate imagery from its state flag, Trump has thrown himself into the protection of what he calls “our heritage.” 

He signed an executive order directing federal law enforcement to prosecute people who damage federal monuments — threatening them with up to 10 years in prison — and withholding funds from municipalities that don’t protect statues. (Whether this latter provision is enforceable is unclear.) He said he’d veto a $741 billion defense bill over a provision, written by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, requiring that military bases honoring Confederates be renamed. Apoplectic over New York City’s plans to paint the words “Black Lives Matter” on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower, he called the slogan “a symbol of hate.”

On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that he was considering scrapping an Obama-era housing regulation that required localities to address illegal patterns of residential segregation. He claimed that the initiative, which his administration had already put in limbo, was having a “devastating impact on these once thriving Suburban areas.”  His message to his white supporters seemed clear enough: Trump is going to fight to stop people of color from coming to your neighborhood.

The Times reported on the president’s rationale: “Mr. Trump and his campaign team, already concerned about his weakness in battleground states, have become increasingly alarmed by internal polling showing a softening of support among suburban voters.” Trump sees clearly — more clearly than most of his party — that racism is the main thing he has to offer.

There’s good reason to think that he’s misjudging these suburban voters. Polls show that a growing number of them, particularly women, are repelled by Trump’s race-baiting and divisiveness. But Republicans who complain that the president is undisciplined, that he can’t adhere to a strategy, miss the point: Bigotry has always been the strategy.

The Republicans who support him are yoked to that strategy. Their real frustration isn’t that it’s ugly but that it’s no longer working."

By Michelle Goldberg

c.2020 The New York Times Company

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Can't wait for Trump's niece's book (confiming what WE knew all along, that we have a nut job in the White House) to come out next week.  It might be the straw that breaks the camel's back and result in the Republicans nominating someone else.  Mitt Romney? Nikki Haley? Lamar Alexander?  Condilezza Rice? Lindsey Graham?  Marco Rubio?  Marco Polo?  Matt Gaetz?  (only kidding with those last two).  They really have no one.
JL

What Did Columbus Discover, More Bad News on Covid19 and Our Ads

In 1492 ...

Our President, in talking about our nation’s historical heritage, recently commented that it went back to 1492, when “Columbus discovered America.”   As usual, the President was a bit off base.  (Don’t blame Fordham, the Wharton School or New York Military Academy.  I’m sure he cut most of his classes wherever he was enrolled.) 

Actually, in 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on (or discovered) the island of Hispaniola and possibly visited other Caribbean locations as well.   His three subsequent voyages touched Cuba, Hispaniola, many islands in the Greater and Lesser Antilles and even the coasts of South America and Central America.   (He was unsuccessfully poking around, looking for a passage through the North American land mass to the Indies.)  

His having done so gives our citizens of Caribbean descent, particularly those whose families came from Haiti or the Dominican Republic which today comprise Hispaniola, a claim to a meaningful part of our heritage.  They are not proud of this bit of history, but it cannot be denied.   If Columbus had gone a few hundred miles further northwest, he might have reached what is now the United States mainland.  But he didn’t, despite the President’s comments.  Therefore Columbus should be acknowledged, not for discovering America, meaning what is now the United States of America, but for bringing the Western Hemisphere, or at least islands adjacent to it, to the attention of Europe, which up to then knew little if anything of it.

In any event, his treatment of the indigenous peoples he found wherever he landed was savage.  Whether it warrants removing monuments to Columbus, whose Italian heritage is something in which Americans of Italian descent take great pride, is another question, to be addressed at another time on this blog. 


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Hard to be an Optimist After Reading This

You may be following the Coronavirus guidelines, but enough around you are not, and that increases the chance of your coming in contact with the virus.   We called Governor DeSantis an idiot when he prematurely "reopened" places in Florida where people can spread the virus.  That was far too gentle.  

July 6, 2020

An informed guide to the global outbreak, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment.

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By Jonathan Wolfe and Lara Takenaga

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, warned today that the U.S. was still “knee-deep in the first wave” of the pandemic. Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, announced this evening that she had tested positive for the virus. Israel tightened restrictions as cases reached new heights, and the prime minister warned that the country was “a step away from a full lockdown.” Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and a tracker for U.S. metro areas.

The danger indoors

Elected officials in the United States are beginning to acknowledge that the rush to reopen was a mistake, as many of the hardest-hit areas in recent weeks have been places that lifted lockdown restrictions fastest. And one factor seems to be playing an outsize role in the uptick: indoor transmission from businesses like bars and restaurants.

More than 239 scientists from 32 countries are now warning that airborne transmission of the virus indoors should be taken more seriously and are calling on the World Health Organization to revise its recommendations, which they say underestimate the dangers of transmission by tiny, viral particles that linger in the air indoors.

Our colleague Donald G. McNeil Jr., who covers science for The Times, told The Daily podcast that when people talk or laugh, they create an “invisible mist” or a “droplet cloud” of tiny particles that floats around near their head. That fog can hold enough virus to transmit the disease; walking into it is akin to someone “spitting on your face.”

Indoors, without a breeze, the cloud can drift across a room, like in a bar or at a cocktail party, at more or less head level, he said, to be inhaled by revelers until 20, 30 or 40 people are infected.

Evidence is also mounting, Donald said, that Covid-19 is more of a blood vessel disease than a respiratory disease. While the virus enters the body through the lungs, it seems to do its damage by attaching to the insides of blood vessels, infecting organs, like the kidneys and the brain, with lots of fine blood vessels.

“When they do autopsies, they find thousands of tiny little blood clots all over the body,” Donald said. That explains why some patients may experience strokes, dementia and disorientation — and why children and young adults have experienced so-called Covid toe.

Ancient history meets modern disease. A gene segment inherited from Neanderthals around 60,000 years ago increases the risk of severe illness from the coronavirus, according to a new study. The variant is common in Bangladesh, which may explain why patients of Bangladeshi descent are dying at a higher rate in Britain.

Partying on while the virus rages

Florida has quickly become a cradle of infection in the U.S. On the Fourth of July, the state reported a record 11,458 new cases — more than a fifth of the nation’s total tally that day. As hospitals begin to fill up with coronavirus patients, some local officials are pointing the finger at over-the-top house parties.

In Miami, where nightclubs were closed in March, some homes have turned into all-night venues with bouncers and maskless revelers who flout social-distancing guidelines. Cases among young people have increased, but cracking down on house parties is much harder than, for example, forcing restaurants and bars to scale back or to close. And partygoers have made the job even more challenging for overwhelmed contact tracers in Florida, often refusing to share information about whom they were with.

Because of the skyrocketing infection rate, the mayor of Miami-Dade County signed an executive order today that would effectively shut down Miami’s social scene. Beginning on Wednesday, residents will be under a curfew and indoor dining at restaurants, gyms, banquet facilities and other entertainment venues will be shut down.                                                   *   *   *   *

What Happened to the Ads

Until recently, Jackspotpourri.com featured advertisements provided by Google Adsense.  For every click on these ads, the blog received a few pennies in the form of a deposit into my bank once they added up to at least $100.  All of these funds were donated to charities dedicated to finding cures for cancer.  Over the past few months, using Google Adsense has become increasingly difficult.  Ads did not appear and determining what was owed to the blog was nearly impossible, without complicated and time-consuming computer maneuvers.  Therefore, you will not be seeing ads any longer on the blog.  I do, however, recommend that you make donations on your own to the community’s Papanicolaou chapter, its Hadassah chapter, the Leukemia-Lymphoma Association and the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation, all of which have benefited from ads on this blog over the past years.  From here on in, it is up to you to be as generous as possible with your donations to these groups.

JL

Covid19 Testing on the Fourth of July, Sporting News

Today, on the Fourth of July, 2020, the Palm Beach Post indicated that there were 178,000 cases of Covid19 infection in the State of Florida as of July 3.  In Palm Beach County, the total was 15,300. 

What does this mean?   Does it mean that number have tested positive for the virus, regardless of whether or not they manifest symptoms of the disease or have gotten medical help or even been hospitalized to deal with it?  If so, we can understand the enormity of these numbers. They are large because they include a large number of people who are not overtly “sick.”  And they are cumulative numbers, but it is unclear as to whether the totals are weekly, monthly or from back when counting started.

On the other hand, if it includes only those who manifest symptoms of the disease or have gotten medical help or even been hospitalized to deal with it, it is a terrifyingly large number.

But you cannot have it both ways, nor an undefined combination of these two alternatives.  In my opinion, I believe the number represents no more than the number of those who have tested positively for the virus, regardless of whether or not they have symptoms of the disease. 

If it, on that other hand, includes only those who manifest symptoms of the disease or have gotten medical help or been hospitalized to deal with it, it is an unbelievably high number, far outstripping the total capacity of our hospitals and our medical establishment.  That’s why I take the “number of cases” to simply reflect the number testing positive for the virus. 

It is my opinion that this number, as I accept it as simply reflecting the number of positive tests, is worthless. 

It only becomes significant when it is presented as a percentage of those tested.  In a statistically large enough sample, that percentage of those testing positive becomes very significant.  Today’s Palm Beach Post reports that “Of the more than 3,700 test results received Thursday in Palm Beach County, 12.2% were positive for the virus.” That’s 452 cases.  (The similar percentage for the State was 14%).   Now, these percentages become meaningful when they are compared with the percentages of those tests which were positive over past weeks and months.  That is the key to whether there is a spike in the number of those who can pass on the infection to others.  So long as the number tested is large enough to be statistically valid, these percentages of positive tests are what matters.

Whether an infected person has symptoms or not, or whether they recover quickly, is meaningless.  All who test positive can spread the virus, and that is why the monitoring of the percentage of those testing positive out of all those tested is so important in determining how the battle against the virus is going.

Unfortunately, I don’t see that “percentage” number on TV nor on the front pages of our newspapers. You have to look for it deep in lengthy articles to find it, if it even is reported at all.   

Am I off base with this kind of thinking? 

JL

• Wear a mask when out of your home.
• Wash you hands frequently.  
• Use disinfecting gels.
• If necessary to go outside of your home, observe social distancing.
• Ignore efforts to "reopen" businesses, bars, restaurants, etc. despite any governmental okay to do so.
• Pay no attention to anything Governor DeSantis or President Trump say on this subject.  They know nothing about this.  
• The best source of information is Dr. Fauci.

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Sports - Effect of the Virus

Chances are, at least in my mind, that the Covid19 pandemic will cause an end to NFL and college football for the 2020 season.   For contact sports like football to be played, the teams must be isolated for the season and pre-season activities to avoid participants becoming infected with the virus.   Pro football players make enough to afford this kind of sacrifice from their family and their “other lives” but they also have made enough to forgo the season as well.   Most will choose this latter option.  College and high school football players have classes to attend and sometimes, live at home as well.  A season of isolation seems more of an impossibility for them than it does for the NFL players. 

To a lesser extent, the same is true of the NBA as well as college and high school basketball. I think they will not be playing this year for the same reasons.  Hockey just may survive with some seating modifications for the players.

Baseball is another story entirely.  Small modifications in rules (no sliding) can avoid the risks of infection caused by contact.   Some players will opt out anyway, but we will have baseball.   

In addition, we still will have tennis and golf on TV as well as soccer from non-American venues, where isolation apparently is not so great a burden, and for those who like the sport of kings, horse racing on TV.   The charade known as pro wrestling will not be affected since it really is not a sport.

The presence of spectators is unlikely in any sporting events that continue to carry on their activities.

JL

More "Rights" Legislation Needed and a Delicious Column from Tom Friedman

We have legislation to protect the rights of people, regardless of race, religion, age and sexual orientation.  That is good.  But it does not go far enough.  

The rights of the illiterate must be protected too, so that the present occupant of the White House is not discriminated against.  Congress should get moving on this quickly.  Not being able to read should not prevent anyone from becoming our Commander in Chief.  (That's why he never picks up the daily briefings prepared for him, fearing it would reveal his illiteracy.) Ask any Republican who was swept into office in 2016 on his coattails.   Ask Vladimir Putin.  Let’s join in fighting to protect the rights of the illiterate, some of whom are stupid as well and perhaps that quality should be protected too. Contact your Congressperson today!  (Without such legislation, he might be denied re-nomination by the Republicans this Summer.)   Protect Donald Trump’s right to be what he is!  

JL


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Thomas Friedman Comes Up with the Perfect Bumper Sticker for Biden

Thomas L. Friedman

  

I almost — but not quite — feel sorry for Donald Trump.

He’s at war with two “invisible enemies” at once — the coronavirus and Joe Biden — and both remain highly elusive, the pathogen by nature and the politician by design.

Biden, who made a rare public appearance on Tuesday, has been wise to stay out of sight. Trump is now in a full-on race to the bottom with himself, pushing uglier and uglier positions that appeal to smaller and smaller segments of the American public.

Why get in his way?

Of course, eventually Biden will debate the incumbent and will need a simple, clear message to counter Trump’s tired “Make America Great Again” trope.

I have an idea for Biden’s bumper sticker.

As I think about what kind of president Biden wants to be and what kind of president America needs him to be, the slogan that comes to mind was suggested to me by the environmental innovator Hal Harvey, who happened to sign off a recent email to me by writing: “Respect science, respect nature, respect each other.”

I thought — wow, that’s a perfect message for Biden, and for all of us. It summarizes so simply the most important values we’ve lost in recent years.

Start with respecting science. Trump’s disdain for science has become fatal, as we’re seeing in this widening pandemic. Trump has gone from offering quack remedies to declaring, “If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.”

Think about that: Stop testing. Then we’ll have no knowledge.

Then we’ll have no numbers. Then we’ll have no virus. Why didn’t I think of that?

As for respecting nature, that has two meanings. The first is to respect the power of nature, which Trump has utterly failed to do.

She doesn’t negotiate. You cannot seduce her or sue her. She does whatever chemistry, biology and physics dictate. Which means in a pandemic that she will just keep infecting people — relentlessly, mercilessly, silently and exponentially — until she runs out of people to infect or a vaccine or exposure makes enough of us immune.

Respect for nature also means understanding that we live on a hard rock called planet Earth with a thin cover of oceans and topsoil, enveloped by a thin layer of atmosphere.

Abuse that soil, junk up those oceans with plastics, distort that atmospheric blanket and we will likely (further) destroy the perfect Garden of Eden that has been the basis of all human civilization.

And remember, as bad as this pandemic is, it’s just training wheels for the big, irreversible atmospheric pandemic: climate change.

Respect each other?

That’s not so easy in the midst of our other pandemic — a pandemic of incivility. You cannot exaggerate the impact on the whole civic culture of having a president who has elevated namecalling, denigration and lying to a central feature of his presidency, amplified by the White House. We have so many important issues to discuss among ourselves right now, but for that discussion to be productive we can’t just go from justifiable outrage straight to firings, public shamings or disbanding police departments — without pausing for respectful dialogue and moral distinctions.

Respect science, respect nature, respect each other. Biden 2020.

It’s the only way to make America great again.

Thomas Friedman is a columnist for The New York Times.  This version of the Times column appeared in the Palm Beach Post..