The Worst of Times

These are the worst of times. Often quoted to describe “these times” is the Charles Dicken’s opening to Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” This week in December, 2020, I think is the worst of times. The quote I think resonates with so many of us is because even during the worst of times we see the seeds of a brighter future germinating. This last year and the previous three years, it has been hard to be optimistic. The seeds of our destruction as a nation are all too obvious and they’re not going away. In the past we’ve been fortunate even during the worst of times we’ve survived to continue our slow progress toward the American ideal.

As I write this we are in the 9^th month of a worldwide pandemic in which the United States is faring worse than most of the world, more infections, more deaths. We have inconsistent leadership and instead of a unified nation Americans are choosing who to believe between left and right, elite and populists, establishment and anti-establishment. We just had an election in which Donald Trump, the worst president in the history of the United States was turned out of office. Before the end of this month there will be a vaccine against Coronavirus SARS 2 that is 95% effective.

Seemingly the end of our double catastrophe is in sight. I have a hard time being optimistic. President Biden will enter office probably without a Senate majority and the prospect of a government that can’t legislate. There are plenty of villains during these times, but one of the worst is Mitch McConnell and he will continue in power as Senate Majority Leader for at least another two years. And Trump the leader of the Republican Party, not yet out of office. has already begun to mount the opposition.

During the pandemic Trump demonstrated a characteristic incompetence and when he might have insured his reelection by making an effort to defeat the epidemic he did the very opposite. He made ignoring the epidemic policy. He tried to pump the economy up when people were afraid to go out. He succeeded in keeping the financial markets strong and whether it was intentional or not he made Social Darwinism the national policy against Covid. He politicized the worst health crisis in the last hundred years and the Republican Party was complicit.It seems that nearly half of Americans think the pandemic is not an issue and that 265,000 dead Americans are a hoax or not that important. And for now a significant number of Americans won’t accept a vaccine. To defeat the virus as soon as possible will take leadership and national unity. With Trump and a large number of Americans already set against the new administration American unity is a long way off, if ever.

The divisions in America are rooted in slavery and the War we fought over it. The neo-Confederacy and Populism are fighting the establishment and common sense. During national crises in the past we have overcome our history and pretended to national unity. That’s not even remotely possible in the coming year.

The two vaccines will probably be approved shortly and are 95% effective. The vaccine should work if people take it. Or it can drag on into 2022 and we’ll see an end to the pandemic when it follows its natural course to extinction, in a year or two, or three.

This is the worst of times. Maybe they’ll get better. When I think about it I can be optimistic but in my gut for now I’m not.

Covid 19 Journal

I am 73 years old and a white male. Over 10 years ago I had a minor heart attack and had 6 stints put in. My medical records say coronary artery disease and hypertension.  Nonetheless I feel healthy in general. I collect social security, a small State pension, and I have a 401k that I can draw on.  My 401k is the usual senior paradox, if I live a long time it may not last and if I don't it's a lot.  I am married and Suzette works full time from home as a personnel manager for a charter school regional office. We have a comfortable income. We own our home in a good neighborhood. I have Medicare and private medical insurance.  Suzette and our daughter are also insured. Our daughter is 10 years old, healthy and growing, and is enrolled in a private school. They did very good online instruction until June. Since then she’s taken a writers’ workshop online and next week will start an online summer camp.

I describe my days staying at home as good. I get up, I enjoy my coffee, read history, read a couple of newspapers online, take the dog for a walk, take care of Paloma, do dishes, cook meals, go bicycling and watch TV including taped football (FIFA) games that were played a long time ago and some recent SuperLiga Danish games, talk to friends and family on the phone and do a once a week porch visit with a friend. My days are like a lazy Saturdays where I don’t do much but relax and enjoy, day after day after day after day. It feels like being under house arrest. I am aware that we are very fortunate and unlike many people around us have everything we need.

I have been keeping a journal for the Covid-19 Pandemic. I write it for history, a digital file to be stored in a digital library, maybe useful one day or not.

June 27, 2020 Day 103

LA Times 6/27/20 4 Suburban California Counties fuel dangerous rise in COVID-19 hospital-izations

“It’s like we’re cheating on our diet, and angry or baffled that we can’t lose weight,” Dr. Robert Levin, the Ventura County health officer, said Tuesday. “There’s all those times that we’re not cheating. But [in] the few times we do, all that effort is for naught. So what is the price we pay? Where are we headed? More cases of COVID-19. More people hospitalized. More people in our ICUs. More people dead.” 

“Like cheating on our diets” – and then – “More people dead.”

It feels like things are spinning out of control. San Francisco is stopping it’s scheduled reopening moves and talking about backing up. It seems small things. We’re talking about how we will go out today. We’ve decided to go to a beer garden in Uptown Oakland. Last week at Jack London Square we felt safe. My friend Gordon said they went to Capitola and it didn’t feel safe. It’s hit and miss. Yesterday I came back from my bike ride and there next door was Angela a couple of feet away from Rita sitting on her front steps, she was leaning in to talk to her. Neither one was wearing a mask.

Angela is my best example of someone well meaning who for her own quirks needs to push the limits of distancing, neighborhood events, getting together, visits and so on. But Rita is as old as I am and seems older. Angela is past 60 and not in the best of health. I don’t blame her at all. In fact, it’s not what anyone of us does but our behavior overall. If 300 kids attend school at EBI in September we will probably be lucky, none of them will get very sick, but if 10,000 start school in OUSD two or three are going to die and one or two may be debilitated for life.

I think the powers that be, the Wall Street money managers, the Washington powerbrokers, not a conspiracy but a consensus know that reopening means people will die, but the economic gains are worth the price and besides it’s people of color and the elderly and immigrants who are replaceable, marginalized people and people who are past contributing. Social Darwinism. Like Jane Austen characters over 200 years ago, the gentile people live comfortable sophisticated lives while living on the income from people like coal miners who die in the mines leaving destitute families.  

I don’t think the push to reopen is wrong headed so much as it it hard headed, practical and pragmatic. It’s like how much do we spend on auto safety until road deaths go down to an acceptable level? It isn’t just at the top it goes from the Board rooms of Citibank, Bank of America and Chase down to the local nail salon owner. Just like auto safety that went from board rooms and engineers and legislators to the willingness of auto buyers to pay for it. How many deaths are acceptable?

So my family will wear masks, are careful of the environment we are in, like General Milley says, "maintain situational awareness" and we try to model good behavior, doing what we can. And yet instead of controlling the virus, the virus is in charge.  It's better in California than Florida but not by much.

Postscript

We went to Drake’s Dealership a beer garden in Uptown, the old auto row, and again felt quite safe. They were taking the pandemic quite seriously and carefully explained the rules and then followed them. The tables outside were spread apart, we ordered our food on our phone and paid by phone. The servers were all masked, polite and careful. We enjoyed ourselves again. On the way out I had a coffee at a coffee stand behind a plastic shield, no cash.

I've always liked Biden

March 4

I’ve always liked Joe Biden, maybe not always always but close enough as the general election looms nearer. Last night Biden performed in a way no one has ever seen before and no one really expected. Sanders did take California, but Biden showed well and won delegates here and Texas as well as 9 other Southern states. It looks like he will be our nominee for President in the Fall.

I’d rather a younger and stronger and less vulnerable candidate than Joe Biden but if Joe Biden is going to be the candidate, then I’m going to get behind Joe Biden period.

I’ve started reading his biography more closely. It turns out he did grow up in uncertain family economics. His family was below mine on the scale. We went through a few hard times. Joe went through some hard times too.  Most of my time growing up we were solidly middle class. Biden’s father was a car salesman not a dealer, so that’s better. He has a good voting record considering the times. His heart is obviously in the right place. I would like less dwelling on his hardships, which are quite real, and more on holding the plutocracy accountable.

I’m not an Obama Democrat, I’m more a Warren Democrat, not so in favor of protecting the financial status quo, but Biden was a good vice president, served the president well. Obama was a good president just frustrating that we made so little progress. Sure McConnell stalled it, but Obama was soft on the banks and hard on immigration, not positions I liked. Obama care is half way there but not all the way. Insurance Companies and Pharma still do very well and in my opinion they are responsible for high health care costs with lowered results.

But Biden versus Trump, a good man versus an evil man. It’s not even a contest. I’ve always liked Joe. And I’ll like him more if he chooses the right Vice President.

March 6

I keep hearing the good pundits and Elizabeth Warren say vote your heart and your beliefs not who you think is going to win.  I still like Sanders better than Biden, Booker better than all of them and Warren a lot.  So I'm not in the Biden camp yet.  I'm very interested in how well he does going forward.  Can he sustain the effort it will take to be the candidate?  

I still think there is a good chance that the country will overwhelming reject a second term for Donald Trump, whether the candidate is Biden, Sanders or my dog.  I think normal people are disgusted with Trump and the first real crisis that will personally affect all of us will only illustrate his incompetence and inability to run an organization.  Bankrupt as a businessman, bankrupt as a politician.  But I'm not sure and that scares the hell out of me. 

Sanders or Biden and all of us who care need to work hard to save American democracy and the credibility of our government supporting whoever runs against Trump.  .  

Undecided Voter

I am an undecided voter. Not undecided for the national election. My dog runs against Donald Trump, I’d vote for Bella.

In the California Primary tomorrow I will vote for Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. Do I vote for the candidate that I was originally leaning toward, Elizabeth Warrrn, or the candidate who can win the nomination and could well beat Donald Trump?

Buttigieg dropped out of the race yesterday and this morning Amy Klobuchar dropped out, both victims of the South Carolina primary. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign is barely alive and even in California she is polling more than 16 points behind Sanders.

I’m not considering Joe Biden. Joe is a good guy. I like Uncle Joe. But for all of his talk of being a man of the people, he is not a left wing Democrat. He has been an establishment Democrat all along. He voted for Clarence Thomas. He voted for George Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He voted for Clinton’s Crime Bill. He has been around a long time and people change but Biden is the Establishment and the Democratic Establishment is why we are still in the Reagan Revolution. Enough small government and pro-Wall Street legislation.

And all this bullshit talk about knowing how working people feel, his father owned a car dealership. That’s like John Edwards whose father worked in a mill, yeah his father was the manager. It’s just disingenuous.

I like Bernie Sanders. I like what he stands for. Ideally I am a left wing Democrat and a Democratic Socialist. So if it’s a contest between Joe Biden I vote for Bernie.

Another problem I have is with old white guys, even Elizabeth Warren is over 70. Isn’t there anybody younger out there we can vote for? By the way I’m a 73 year old white guy and a retired banker.

So do I vote for Elizabeth Warren because I think her policies are very similar to mine?  And she would make a better President than Bernie Sanders, though the bankers and the establishment will fight her tooth and nail for that very reason in a general election, not to mention it is still a misogynist electorate, some women included.

Bloomberg ---of course not.  Bloomberg another good guy is a billionaire former Republican who has spent his way into contending for the presidency.  I vote Democratic.  

I really think Bernie has a good chance of winning in the general election. Ross Perot voters will vote for Bernie along with young people, genuine populists and people who want change Democratic or Republican. Hell I think some Trump voters, ones who wanted a change but have had enough of his blatant incompetence and self serving egomania, will vote for Bernie. Though it is amazing to me how few Republicans are disgusted with this worst President ever, but that’s a problem for the Republican Party not me. I don’t think we need Republican votes and while I enjoy listening to Joe Scarborough I don’t need him or David Brooks to tell me which Democrat to choose.

Bernie is the 77 year old white guy who is honest and authentic.  I worry he is a rabble rouser not a team player. I think the President needs to know how to govern not stir the pot.

Do I vote my heart or do I vote with an eye to November?

As I finish this I think I'm going to vote for Bernie because it’s come down to him or Biden and Bernie is certainly the better of the two and Bernie has a better chance of winning than Elizabeth Warren or Joe Biden.

And in November I’ll vote Democratic because I think it’s time and because Donald Trump is the worst President in the history of the United States.

Update March 3.  I voted for Bernie.  I guess by the time I finished these notes I had made up my mind.  But even as I filled in the bubble on my ballot I still had second thoughts.  And by the way, I'm thinking a Bernie Sanders/Stacy Abrams ticket.