Our Rendezvous with Destiny

Treason is afoot in the land.  The New York Times sounds the alarm this morning:

Click to enlarge.

And Politico reports:  "Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster said Thursday that President Donald Trump is 'aiding and abetting' Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to sow doubt about the American electoral system."

McMaster expressed himself at length in this interview with MSNBC today:

But of course all this is old news - here's a front page of the New York Daily News two years ago:

You know, 55 percent of non-voters in the 2016 election were Democrats, according to the Pew Research Center.  I'm praying that Democrats will turn out this year in overwhelming numbers so that the election results cannot possibly be challenged.  It's all up to us, fellas - now is the time to overthrow the dictatorship that has already begun.  This is the last chance to stop it - our generation's rendezvous with destiny.  

I was never asked to shed my blood for this country that I love - but I will certainly give my vote.  We are fortunate here in Texas that the state allows walk-in early voting during most of October, 7 days a week in our county.  M.P. and I have already made our plan for when and where to vote.  Have you?

An excerpt from Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on June 27, 1936 - a masterpiece of Democratic and democratic ideals, well worth reading in full:

There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

In this world of ours, in other lands there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy.

I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope. They begin to know that here in America we are waging a great and successful war. It is not alone a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.

I accept the commission you have tendered me. I join with you. I am enlisted for the duration of the war.

Bonus, 10/2/20, 6 a.m.:

Trump and Melania have come down with Covid-19.

What a coincidence.  A perfect excused absence from all other debates.  Which his team surely realizes would only turn off more voters.

Don't be too quick to feel sorry for him.  He has LIED about everything else in the last four years, why not his own health?  Such a convenient excuse to hole up in his bunker and avoid the press and public till Election Day.

Very clever.  But not, I think, clever enough to fool the American people - the sane majority, that is.

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Gay Trump Voter Learns Harsh Lesson

You cannot imagine the guilt I feel, knowing that I hosted the gathering that led to so much suffering. You cannot imagine my guilt at having been a denier, carelessly shuffling through this pandemic, making fun of those wearing masks and social distancing. You cannot imagine my guilt at knowing that my actions convinced both our families it was safe when it wasn’t.

For those who deny the virus exists or who downplay its severity, let me assure you: The coronavirus is very real and extremely contagious. Before you even know you have it, you’ve passed it along to your friends, family, coworkers and neighbors.

Tony Green thought the virus was a hoax cooked up by Democrats to ruin Trump's re-election chances. After a family gathering last month, however, 14 members of his family became infected with Covid-19, and one has died. Dallas station WFAA reports:



Read Tony's contrite account of what happened to his family in the Dallas Voice here.

Notes from the Revolution, 6/5/20

. . . a revolution of hearts and minds . . .

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: "Who are we?  Where are we?  How did we get to this place?
Cuomo lays out a plan for police reform, and the necessity of avoiding false dilemmas.



This is the clearest, most intelligent response to the current crisis I've heard yet. Damn, why is Cuomo not President?

I should also tell you that when I first saw the video of 75-year-old Martin Gugino being violently knocked down by bully-boy police, I thought, "That could be me." I'm not all that much younger than he, and subject to stumble and fall on my own without any help from others. Though I must also say that your Head Trucker would not have the temerity to step in front of a marching phalanx of armed men as he did.


Unconscionable: California: Vallejo police kill unarmed 22-year-old, who was on his knees with his hands up



This, of course, is just one of many stories of egregious,sickening police savagery occurring, with most grievous irony, during this week of nationwide protests against police brutality. Unfortunately, I can't find videos of all of them in a format I can post here. But likely you have seen some on TV or the internet already. Police reform must be the first step of reformation and healing in this country. I can tell you, even from my very mild, infrequent brushes as an old white man with traffic cops in the last two decades, police in Texas have gotten very heavy handed and mighty damn arrogant. Who taught them to behave like that? I shudder to think what they have been like with blacks and other minorities, here and across the nation. No more!


Interesting:  Suddenly, Public Health Officials Say Social Justice Matters More Than Social Distance  Excerpt:

The experts maintain that their messages are consistent—that they were always flexible on Americans going outside, that they want protesters to take precautions and that they're prioritizing public health by demanding an urgent fix to systemic racism.

But their messages are also confounding to many who spent the spring strictly isolated on the advice of health officials, only to hear that the need might not be so absolute after all. It’s particularly nettlesome to conservative skeptics of the all-or-nothing approach to lockdown, who point out that many of those same public health experts—a group that tends to skew liberal—widely criticized activists who held largely outdoor protests against lockdowns in April and May, accusing demonstrators of posing a public health danger. Conservatives, who felt their own concerns about long-term economic damage or even mental health costs of lockdown were brushed aside just days or weeks ago, are increasingly asking whether these public health experts are letting their politics sway their health care recommendations.

Also:  In reversal of position, WHO tells public to wear masks if unable to distance

The WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan stressed that putting on a fabric mask is primarily about preventing the wearer from possibly infecting others, rather than self-protection.

Lester Holt of NBC News summarizes the day's events:

How Small Our Differences

Former president George W. Bush released this timely nonpartisan message to the nation on Saturday via Twitter:

Let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat.  In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants.  We are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God.  We rise or fall together - and we are determined to rise.

Strange but True

Twin brothers die in pandemics 100 years apart:

The Data Is In - So?

Did the nation overreact to the pandemic?

Scott W. Atlas, M.D., formerly professor and Chief of Neuroradiology at Stanford University, now a health care policy Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank, presents "five key facts" about the pandemic in this opinion piece published on The Hill political journalism website.  He begins with these startling statistics:

Five key facts are being ignored by those calling for continuing the near-total lockdown.

Fact 1: The overwhelming majority of people do not have any significant risk of dying from COVID-19.

The recent Stanford University antibody study now estimates that the fatality rate if infected is likely 0.1 to 0.2 percent, a risk far lower than previous World Health Organization estimates that were 20 to 30 times higher and that motivated isolation policies.

In New York City, an epicenter of the pandemic with more than one-third of all U.S. deaths, the rate of death for people 18 to 45 years old is 0.01 percent, or 10 per 100,000 in the population. On the other hand, people aged 75 and over have a death rate 80 times that. For people under 18 years old, the rate of death is zero per 100,000.

Of all fatal cases in New York state, two-thirds were in patients over 70 years of age; more than 95 percent were over 50 years of age; and about 90 percent of all fatal cases had an underlying illness. Of 6,570 confirmed COVID-19 deaths fully investigated for underlying conditions to date, 6,520, or 99.2 percent, had an underlying illness.

If you do not already have an underlying chronic condition, your chances of dying are small, regardless of age. And young adults and children in normal health have almost no risk of any serious illness from COVID-19.

I have no expertise in epidemiology, so I make no claims about the truthfulness of this article.  It is thought-provoking, though.  You can read it and form your own opinion, taking into consideration other facts and points of view.

Also in the news:  Navy hospital ship in New York Harbor discharges, transfers last patients

The Queen's Broadcast, 4/5/20

The Queen spoke to the British nation and the Commonwealth in a broadcast from Windsor Castle today:

We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.

The Queen made a touching reference to her first broadcast via radio, addressed to the children of embattled Britain in 1940 when she was 14 years old; her sister, Princess Margaret, age 10, chimes in at the end:

Sunday Drive: Pachelbel, Canon in D Major

In the face of worldwide hysteria and folly, I offer my truckbuddies a lovely moment of serenity - as performed by Impetus Madrid Baroque Ensemble in 2012:




The odds are extremely high that nothing at all is going to hurt you.  So do keep calm and carry on, fellas.

This, too, shall pass.