Post 210 - October 7, 2020

Day 210…

Quarantine - Day 10

Just before I went to bed yesterday, I finished up working on a portion of a project that I’ve been avoiding for a few days.

It took me about fifteen minutes to get it done. This after two or three days of avoiding it. Not actively avoiding it mind you, just feeling that I could do it… later. I did it, last night, because if I didn’t, then it would mean that I wouldn’t have accomplished a blessed thing yesterday.

For the first time in recent memory, I realize that I didn’t even take a shower yesterday.

There is very little busy work left to do in the apartment. The early days of the pandemic took care of that.

The projects that I still have left to do are mostly utterly ridiculous.

I bought some RIT dye so that I can re-dye a pair of sweat shorts that I wore so much this past summer that they’ve faded. I was going to get to that last week, but I realized that the dye will stain any of the drains that we have in the apartment. I need to be able to pour it out into the slop sink in the basement and, because of the quarantine, I’m not allowed to go to the basement. So, I can’t do that this week.

Michael keeps telling me that he has plenty of things for me to do. I don't know what those things might be, but I am certain that I don't want to do any of them.

Honestly, I do believe that there are plenty of things to do. I just need to find the motivation to do them. Now, I promise you, I’m not sitting around moping and longing to break free of this apartment. My issue is just the opposite, I am finding it hard to process just how fast these days are flying by.

There are now nineteen people either in the White House or who have visited the White House in recent days who have tested positive for COVID-19. The virus that the President has dismissed and continues to downplay has emptied the place out. Emptied it out of most everyone except the President, himself. It’s hard not to picture him wandering around the empty halls like a haunted spirit in a horror-movie insane asylum.

The President seems to be in the throes of a steroid-induced delirium.

Before leaving the hospital, his now famous tweet was "I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!"

The way to truly judge the tone-deafness of this tweet is to imagine it being read by the family and friends of the now nearly 211,000 Americans who have lost their lives to this virus.

Amanda Kloots, the widow of Broadway performer Nick Cordero, is a perfect example. She responded to that tweet by saying in part, "Unfortunately it did dominate our lives didn’t it? It dominated Nick’s family’s lives and my family’s lives. I guess we 'let it' - like it was our choice?? Unfortunately, not everyone is lucky enough to spend two days in the hospital, I cried next to my husband for 95 days watching what COVID did to the person I love. It IS something to be afraid of. After you see the person you love the most die from this disease you would never say what this tweet says.”

Yesterday afternoon, the President tweeted from the White House, “Nancy Pelosi is asking for $2.4 Trillion Dollars to bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States, money that is in no way related to COVID-19. We made a very generous offer of $1.6 Trillion Dollars and, as usual, she is not negotiating in good faith. I am rejecting their request, and looking to the future of our Country. I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major stimulus bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and small business.”

There is a word for what he is saying in that tweet, and that word is ‘extortion’.

The legal definition of extortion is, “to obtain (as money) from a person by force, intimidation, or undue or unlawful use of authority or power.” The President is saying that he will not discuss the stimulus until after the election. He is also saying that he will only discuss the stimulus if he wins. No vote for him, no stimulus.

The effect of that impulsive tweet was that by close of day the stock market had plummeted. All three major indices were down about 1.5%.

When that sank in, he tweeted later last night, “The House & Senate should IMMEDIATELY Approve 25 Billion Dollars for Airline Payroll Support, & 135 Billion Dollars for Paycheck Protection Program for Small Business. Both of these will be fully paid for with unused funds from the Cares Act. Have this money. I will sign now!”

As a result of that tweet, the stock market has rebounded this morning.

I’m incredulous.

Speaker Pelosi said yesterday, “Clearly, the White House is in complete disarray.”

The President of the United States is apparently in the midst of ‘roid rage and investors are listening to every single irrational word that comes out of his mouth and reacting accordingly. Our economy is veering from one extreme to another, like a sailboat in a hurricane, based on a lunatic’s rantings.

Tonight, we have the Vice Presidential debate to look forward to. I’m not sure if any of us are going to have the strength left to watch it.

The Vice President’s team has objected to the safety measures that were being discussed for the debate. In particular, the use of plexiglass shields to try and isolate the candidates.

“If Senator Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it,” Katie Miller, the Vice President’s Communications Director said on Monday. On Tuesday, Katie Miller’s husband, White House advisor to the President Stephen Miller joined the ever-growing ranks of infected Republican White House workers. So much for that.

At tonight’s debate, both candidates will, indeed, be behind plexiglass shields. They will also be seated twelve feet apart from each other. That makes them safer - not safe.

The Vice President by any metric that the White House and the CDC have outlined, should not be debating at all. He should, like me, be in quarantine. He was up front and center at the super-spreader Rose Garden event last week at the White House. He came into direct contact with many people who have now been confirmed to have contracted the virus.

This Republican Administration STILL believes that this virus is something that happens to ‘other’ people. They STILL believe that they are immune to it.

The President, himself, has it and thinks he’s already over it. The Vice President clearly thinks that there’s no way he’s going to get it, himself.

I am now going to take a shower, change my clothes and put a meal together. I’m not quite sure what I am going to do today, but I am going to figure it out before Michael reads this and assigns me something to do. This day is going to be over before I know it.

I got a great email from my mother this morning. She lives in Florida which is an important state for the President in our upcoming election. It was a great motivating kick in the butt.

“(My friend) told me to go on the county web-site and find out if my ballot has been counted.  They need your date of birth - and my ballot has been counted!!!”

Good work, Mom!