Fall Is Coming

 It's scary how high he is.  If the crash is proportional, it's ominous.  If there's anyone in America who should not be near steroids, it's Trump.  And he's getting closer to the Covid danger zone.  

Meanwhile, underneath the headlines of the officials reporting their infections,  the secondary spread to the innocent has begun.  Kellyanne Conway's daughter, who outed her mother's infection, has reportedly tested positive.  The wife of a New York Times White House reporter who tested positive, has herself tested positive.  They join the innocent victims of this regime--the children separated from their parents at the border, the thousands needlessly infected with the plague of our time, Americans facing evictions, hunger, poverty, inaccessible medical care, despair, and the millions whose lives are shredded by these viral failures, including schoolchildren.  And more.

Joe Biden (polling at 57% and 16 points ahead in the CNN poll) spoke clearly and sanely at Gettysburg:

"This pandemic is not a red state or blue state issue. This virus doesn’t care whether you live, or where you live, what political party you belong to, it affects us all. It will take anyone’s life. It’s a virus. It’s not a political weapon."

Of course it is evidence of how insane our politics have become that this (as well as most of the rest of this speech) has to be said.  But it does have to be said.  Trump and the R party have raised the denial characteristic of our time to a feverish high, four weeks before the election. The fall is coming.

Poetry Monday: Remember

 Remember

Remember the sky that you were born under,

 know each of the star's stories.

 Remember the moon, know who she is.

Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the

strongest point of time.  Remember sundown

and the giving away to night.

Remember your birth, how your mother struggled

to give you form and breath.  You are evidence of 

her life, her mother's, and her's.

Remember your father.  He is your life, also.

Remember the earth, whose skin you are:

red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth

brown earth, we are earth.

Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their

tribes, their families, their histories, too.  Talk to them,

listen to them.  They are alive poems.

Remember the wind.  Remember her voice.  She knows the

origin of this universe.

Remember you are all people and all people

are you.

Remember you are the universe and this

universe is you.  

Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.

Remember language comes from this.

Remember the dance language is, that life is.

Remember.

---Joy Harjo

Joy Harjo (Este Mvskokvike or Muscogee) is the current Poet Laureate of the United States. She is also a musician, composer and actor.  This poem is from her collection She Had Some Horses.  I heard her read in the late 90s and met her briefly at the book-signing table afterwards.  I remember.

  

High Irresponsibility

Sunday continued the pattern of high political and medical irresponsibility by the White House.  But the most irresponsible act by far is the failure to keep vice president Pence in Washington, and in the White House itself.  It is Constitutionally irresponsible.

Medically, inadequate and contradictory information suggests to doctors that Donald Trump's condition is worse or at least more dangerous than both public pronouncements and White House/  Trump campaign behavior.  That is such a widespread conclusion that it was in front page headlines of the New York Times and Washington Post, particularly since Trump is being treated with steroids,  not only usually reserved for the very ill but potentially harmful in less advanced cases. 

This alone--plus the characteristically sudden changes in this disease--would politically and constitutionally demand that the Vice president be physically able to assume the office of president at a moment's notice.  Instead Pence is out campaigning, heading now for Utah.

Trump's doctor Conley is his extraordinary Sunday press conference as much as said that he is lying about Trump's condition because Trump is watching.  Even in trying to explain away his omissions and misinformation Saturday he said "In doing so it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn't necessarily true."  Not necessarily true?

Presumably the suggestion that Trump could be discharged on Monday is part of that keeping up his spirits strategy, though Trump's ride to greet supporters, sealed in with Secret Service officers, demonstrates that his medical people as well as political minions will risk anybody's life in order to mollify the boss.  Even when the boss is under suspicion of himself being the Superspreader.

The hope that this life-threatening experience would change Trump or the White House and transform them into more responsible leaders is foundering.  Trump is eager to get back to a rally, and one of his White House minions says there will be no changes in how they happen.

But this is a continuing story of reality overcoming denial.  I would be surprised even if the vice presidential debate actually happens on Thursday, let alone Trump leaving Walter Reed on Monday.

Also on Sunday, three new national polls were released, and Biden has increased his lead in all three.  The Yahoo/You Guv poll shows him with an 8 point lead, 48% to 40%, up from a 5 point lead.  Reuters/Ipso has Biden ahead by 10 points, 51%-41.  The most dramatic increase and highest numbers comes in the NBC/WSJ poll of registered voters where Biden gained 6 points to lead by a whopping 14 points, 53%-39.  All of these polls were taken since the debate.

An ABC/Ipso poll taken since Trump's Covid diagnosis (which hasn't released head to head numbers) found that near three-quarters of respondents agreed that Trump didn't take the risk of Covid seriously enough, which includes 43% of Republicans.  The percentage of  those concerned about Covid rose to 81% from 72% two weeks ago, with most of that 10 point jump coming from Republicans and Independents.  It therefore seems likely that Trump is not getting a sympathy bump, though he may be a cautionary tale.