The End of Science?

Viral Musings:  The US is now regularly reporting more than 60,000 new COVID cases a day, the coronavirus death count is climbing, US hospitalizations are at their highest numbers since April, particularly notable because at that time both hospitalizations and death statistics were dominated by New York where both numbers are way down, at least for now. Several media outlets report that the Federal supply of PPE is dwindling, likely to be inadequate as we move into the feared second COVID wave and fall flu season. As predicted, the new instructions for hospitals to redirect their daily usage statistics to the Department of Health and Human Services rather than the CDC appear to be resulting in a loss of relevant tracking data because having failed to control the virus, hiding evidence of its impact is the next best thing?  Almost everyone other than Trump, his administration puppets and his communications apparatus acknowledges that the country’s fight against the virus has been hindered by a lack of coordination from Washington. Even Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, generally one of Trump’s facilitators  has gone on record criticizing the administration’s handling of the crisis.  In an op-ed published in the Washington Post Larry Hogan, Maryland’s Republican Governor and likely a 2024 Republican presidential aspirant, described Trump’s failure to deal with the crisis and his failure to adequately provides states, even Republican run states like his, with an adequate supply of PPE. Asa Hutchinson, the Governor of ruby red Arkansas, has issued a face covering mandate, a belated admission that his state’s infection rates are rapidly climbing.  Similarly, Target and CVS have joined the #WearAMask team.  And then there’s Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, the Trump mini-me who won his election over Stacey Abrams by suppressing minority voting; in the face of a dire spike in his state he’s decided the thing to do is to sue the city of Atlanta to overturn Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ face mask mandate because that’s what Trump’s fanboys do.  Given her propensity for lying, it was not surprising that when asked about recent polls indicating country wide dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the pandemic,  Press Secretary McEnany responded that Trump’s historic response to the virus speaks for itself.  It certainly does, just not in the way that she means.  McEnany also repeated Trump’s insistence that schools be fully reopened in the Fall saying when Trump says open “he means open and full, kids being able to attend each and every day, at their school.  The science should not stand in the way of this.” Later, she  walked that one back saying that she was misunderstood.    

Deregulatory Rant: With the virus still raging Trump has turned his attention elsewhere, he’s now all in on cutting regulatory red tape again and rolling back more environmental protections.  So yesterday during a presentation on the White House lawn, he launched into another one of his incoherent speeches, saying things like “Shower Heads, You Take a Shower, the Water Doesn’t Come Out. You Wanna Wash Your Hands, the Water Doesn’t Come Out…Dishwashers, You Didn’t Have Any Water…In Most Places of the Country, Water Is Not a Problem. They Don’t Know What Do With It. It’s Called Rain,” adding something about how he needed a good quality shower to get his trademark coif under control.  He touted his push to compel companies to bring back incandescent light bulbs, saying they are better than their energy-saving replacements because "we all look so much better."  He then shifted away from his deregulation rant to go after Joe Biden saying that electing Biden would result in the American dream being “quickly snuffed out and replaced by a socialist nightmare…the end result will be to totally destroy the beautiful suburbs, a variation on his frequent racial dog whistling.  Apparently Trump has concluded that sparking fears about the end of suburbia as we know it will rally all those white housewives back into his fold. Last night niece Mary Trump, whose book is both a sad story about growing up in the dysfunctional Trump family and a condemnation of all things Donald, told Rachel Maddow that her uncle frequently utters the “N” word as well as anti-Semitic slurs. Sadly, that is totally believable.

Et Cetera:  The US, UK and Canada have accused the Russians of trying to steal COVID vaccine data, using the same team of hackers that interfered in the 2016 election.  With the help of the FBI, Twitter management is still trying to get to the bottom of who hacked into their system, with many intelligence professionals rightfully concerned that the hack portends trouble for the upcoming election. And of most concern, late last night while most of us were sleeping, without the permission of Oregon Governor Kate Brown or Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, a group of unidentified Federal law enforcement officials in unmarked minivans, the same motley, scary types who appeared on the Washington DC streets last month, swept some largely peaceful demonstrators off of the streets of Portland.  Governor Brown called the actions a political stunt by Trump intended to bolster the electability of the self-described “law and order” president.  That’s an understatement.