Post 213 - October 10, 2020

Day 213…

Quarantine - Day 13

I slept like the dead last night.

At about 3am, I did wake up briefly when the white noise machine whispered ‘black-eyes’.  That’s a sign of demonic possession on Supernatural. Even with that, I went back under and didn’t wake up until noon.

If the cat tried to wake me up before that, I was unaware of it. When I came to, he was curled up in my legs. There were still eight pieces of dry food in his bowl so he must have felt that the joy of extra sleeping was worth the risk of possibly never eating again.

Today is my last full day of quarantine. I know that my numbering doesn’t seem to reflect that, but I am considering that my quarantine began when I left my sister’s house on the morning of the Sunday before last rather than when I arrived back here in New York that evening.

Tonight, will be the 14th night that I have slept alone in the apartment. Tomorrow, after lunch, I’m out.

Some days after I began my quarantine, the President of the United States, became infected with COVID-19. After several days of continuing to campaign, he was airlifted to Walter Reed Medical Center. There, he was given all manner of medical treatments not readily available to the overwhelming majority of Americans. Several days after that, he insisted on returning to the White House.

All of this has unfolded over the last two weeks. Today, as I approach my final night in lockdown, apparently NOT having been exposed to the virus, the President who actually has it and still appears to be symptomatic, is planning on holding a live event for supporters on the White House lawn.

The last major event that happened at the White House was the announcement in the Rose Garden, last week, by the President, of his nominee to the position on the US Supreme Court vacated by the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

As of yesterday, thirty-seven people with connections to that event and to the White House itself have tested positive for the coronavirus. Former Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, who also came down with it, has been in the hospital for the last several days. He just announced this morning that he is going to be released.

The White House has done nothing whatsoever to try and initiate any sort of contact tracing measures to try and halt the spread.  It is likely, that by now, people who became infected at that event have now infected others who, in turn, have infected yet another third ring of people.

Other agencies are attempting to do the tracing themselves. USA Today is trying to identify everyone who was at the event by publishing a picture of the entire crowd. They are asking that people who can, try and put names to the people that are still unidentified. There are reports of a rise in positive cases in the D.C. area, but it’s almost impossible to tell if these new cases are directly linked to the Rose Garden event.

The CDC says that they had a team on the ready to initiate contact tracing but that it was never mobilized. Former CDC Director William Foege said recently, "Contact tracing is something CDC has done since the second world war, starting with contact tracing for syphilis — they've developed techniques, they're very good at doing this. So, if the White House doesn't allow them to do this freely, then you have to conclude the White House is trying to hide something."

Yesterday was the third straight day in a row that over 50,000 new cases of the coronavirus were reported in this country. As all of this continues, the Republican administration is fighting for its very existence.

One of their main rallying cries has been to try and stoke imaginary fears of rising violence in our cities by the radical left.

As I said, imaginary.

Instead, what has actually happened is that a far-right extremist group has been arrested and charged with planning to kidnap and torture the Governor of Michigan and foment a civil war to overthrow the government.

Notably, neither the President nor the United States Attorney General have yet to weigh in on this. When faced with a very real threat of terrorism, rather than one they’ve made up, they stay silent, further giving tacit support to their extremist supporters.

As their numbers continue to drop in the polls, the Republicans seem to be becoming increasingly desperate. They are doing everything that they can to destabilize the upcoming election.

This morning, a federal judge in Pennsylvania overruled the Republicans on at least three major issues.

Outside observers will not be allowed into polling areas, meaning that left-leaning rural Pennsylvania voters will not be intimidated by right wing thugs as they cast their ballots.

Mail-in ballots will not be rejected because of minor discrepancies in signatures.

And, most importantly, ballot drop boxes were ruled as being NOT unconstitutional.

We can look forward to many more such bogus legal challenges in the next few weeks for no other reason than the Republicans trying to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery.

Somewhat hilariously, because it really shows how pathetically hopeless they are, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just announced that he was going to release more of Hillary Clinton’s emails. This, of course, a full year after the State Department has already said that there is no evidence of any mishandling at all.

The President has been publicly deriding Pompeo for not doing this sooner. So, for no reason whatsoever other than to make him happy, The Secretary of State is going to stoop to this stupid charade.

Hillary Clinton has nothing whatsoever to do with this election. Perhaps they will go after Jimmy Carter next for admitting decades ago that he had lust in his heart.

The second debate, that had been scheduled for October 15, has been officially cancelled by the Commission on Presidential Debates because of concerns about the President’s health. It had been proposed that it happen virtually, but the President refused to participate under those conditions.

A spokesperson for the Biden campaign said yesterday, "It's shameful that Donald Trump ducked the only debate in which the voters get to ask the questions -- but it's no surprise." Instead, Biden will hold a virtual Town Hall event, where he will respond to viewer’s questions on his own.

Spending the last two weeks inside on my own has been an interesting experience.

As human beings, we are social creatures. Being deprived of direct contact with other people, even given the comfort of my surroundings, has not been easy. I even miss dodging other people on the sidewalk. I’m incredibly grateful for the cat’s company, but it’s not quite the same thing.

For someone who has as much need of the validation of others as our President has, the solitude must be unendurable. What am I saying, it clearly is unendurable for him, because he isn’t enduring it.

Hundreds of people are arriving at the White House as I write this, and they aren’t even having their temperatures checked.

Many of these people are members of the, so-called, Blexit movement. Candace Owens, the leader of this movement, is a conservative right wing African American person, who is urging people of color to leave the Democratic party and join the Republicans.

I’m not sure I even know what to say about that. It would be like me applying for a job at Chick-fil-A, knowing that I was going to be treated less than my co-workers because I’m gay. Only this is worse.

The south lawn of the White House is currently a sea of aqua blue t-shirts. Sitting atop these shirts are eager black and brown non-socially distanced faces looking up to the balcony where the President has appeared.

I’m truly speechless. The man who openly supports white supremacy is standing before them and accusing Biden of having betrayed black voters for half a century. And this crowd is listening to him. And applauding.

As this virus continues to spread throughout our country unchecked, we are looking at a winter where we may end up back indoors.

A model put forth by the CDC says that there could be 395,000 deaths as a result of the virus or complications that arise from it by February. That’s an increase that almost matches the entire totals of we’ve experienced since this all started.

We can’t take for granted any of the freedoms that we have - even something as basic as the freedom to take a walk outside.

Our freedoms and rights can be taken away from us in an instant.

It took generations to put them in place and it could take generations to reinstate them. Realizing what we have lost once those rights have evaporated is too late. They’ll be gone. We have to stop that from happening NOW.

This time in quarantine has honestly flown by. The election still seems endlessly far in the future, but we will look back on the next few weeks as having flown by, too.

If you are watching this speech, I would suggest that you turn it off. Watch something else.

If you don’t have a voting plan in place yet, maybe now’s a good time to make one.

To be honest, I might be overdosing, just a bit, on Supernatural.

Maybe I’ll just read today, instead.