Thoughts of a retired physician

It has been an interesting week, between the pandemic, the Republicans wanting austerity and protection for businesses during a pandemic, and Trump’s continued slide to oblivion in November. As has been noted by many people, complacency is dangerous, because Trump plans to steal the election . It seems clear that Trump and his henchman Louis DeJoy, the total incompetent he appointed to be Postmaster General based on his multimillion-dollar contributions to Trump and the GOP and his absolute Trump sycophancy. DeJoy has instituted multiple processes that will do nothing but slow the USPS to a crawl . In the face of an uncontrolled pandemic (because Trump and the GOP refuse to act at a federal level, tossing all responsibility back to the states -- shades of the Articles of Confederation ), it is hard for any reasonable person to imagine that this is because of anything except voter suppression through hitting vote-by-mail. Despite his stupid rhetoric (absentee ballots are ok but vote-by-

Trump Must Go - Racism Must Go For the past several days I have been watching closely the results of the horrific conjunction of events that have occurred in my lifetime. As 2020 began, there was at least hope that the United States and the world might emerge at its end a better nation. By that, I mean Trump and his corrupt cult, once known as the Republican Party, were voted out of power and a more reasonable attempt could be made to repair the Hadean mess this man has caused.  Then came COVID-19. With a totally incompetent response to the pandemic at the federal level, the case count today is 1,867,620 with 107,979 dead in the United States -- and rising. The best current hope we have is for either an effective treatment or prophylactic medication to be found (intravenous remdesivir has some activity but is no panacea ) or for a safe, effective vaccine with reasonable durability of immunity. We are all aware of where we are currently: states and cities in varying levels of lockdown