House of Cards

“This entire pandemic is a reminder of how fragile EVERYTHING in this country always has been. It’s a house of cards. It’s all a sham.” said Danielle Butterly.

Donald Trump is a self proclaimed war time president who has simply turned his back on the war to strictly focus on his re-election. The Washington Post reported, “Trump in recent weeks has been committing less of his time and energy to managing the pandemic, according to advisors. One of these advisers said the President is “not really working this anymore. He doesn’t want to be distracted by it.”

What he does have time for is photo opportunities in which he and his daughter Ivanka hawk beans. The photos were sent out on the POTUS Instagram page. In another insane distraction, the president posed with beans with a grin and strange thumbs up as the virus cases surge across the country. 143,289 Americans are dead and this is the presidents response. He has not been to a COVID-19 task force meeting since April. He openly undermines the scientists who are battling the virus daily. He prefers magical thinking that it will disappear. Trump is the king of the con, a perpetual scam artist. In this painting he is the joker, the weak link in a tower destined to crumble.

The Florida Department of Health reported 12,478 new positive COVID-19 cases on Sunday July 19, 2020 with 89 deaths in a single day. 9241 people are hospitalized with COVID-19. The US Government has stripped the CDC of its control of the COVID-19 data. Ever since the president said that he didn’t want a cruise ship to dock for fear that it would raise the numbers of cases, he has been focused on bringing down the numbers any way he can. In his mind, testing has caused the high numbers of those infected, so he wants less testing. What better way to reduce the numbers than to take control of them and not report them, or “fudge” them a bit? The date will be rerouted to the Trump administration. The change sparked concerns among infectious disease and health care experts that the administration was hobbling the ability of the nation’s public health agency to gather and analyze crucial data in the midst of a pandemic. The new system was set up by TeleTracking, a private company based in Pennsylvania, which was awarded the $10 million contract in a non-competitive bid in April.

NASA initiated temperature checks and physical distancing at mission control leading up to the planned launch of the space X rocket, which is the first manned space flight in nine years from American soil. A successful launch requires the contributions from dozens of technicians at mission control. Workers were separated into different rooms as much as possible and plexiglass was installed between work stations.

Extra precautions were taken with the Crew Dragon’s astronauts. Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. They have been in quarantine since May 13, 2020 to be sure that they do not transport any pathogen or virus into space. As an extra step, both Behnken and Hurley will be tested for Covid-19 twice before they leave for the International Space Station. Anyone interacting with the astronauts before the launch will wear masks and gloves and have their temperature taken. I saw a picture of the astronauts saying good buy to their wives and family. They held their arms up as if in a hug but with a good 10 feet of separation.

Besides protecting the ground crew and astronauts, NASA has a very short list for VIP visitors during the launch. Some members of Congress and of the National Space Council will be in attendance. But they can not bring any staff. Nine years ago over a million people gathered to see the launch but that can not happen during a pandemic. Ivanka Trump wore a face mask to the NASA launch on Thursday a day after her father, Donald Trump, mocked the practice as being “politically correct”.

While NASA took every precaution to keep people safe and encouraged people to stay home to watch the launch on TV, the Brevard County Sheriff, Wayne Ivey had his own ideas. “If NASA is telling people to not come here and watch the launch, that’s on them. I’m telling people what I believe as an American. And so NASA has got their guidelines, and I got mine.” he said.

The CDC has said that traveling bu car, plane or bus increases a persons chance of contracting the virus and spreading it. Crowds gathered on the A. Max Brewer Bridge in Titusville to watch the launch closing it down as they stood shoulder to shoulder. The photo by Jim Shortt showed very few people wearing face masks.

A recent study from UC Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute and at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology says that if 80% of Americans wore masks, then Covid-19 infections wold plummet. The scientists created a computer forecast model called the masksim simulator that allows you to see how an infection spreads under different scenarios. It is like watching a video game play out as the virus spreads with no one wearing a mask as opposed to 80 % of people wearing a mask. Even home made masks can make a huge difference in controlling the spread of the virus. Wake up people, wear a mask. Wearing a mask is cool.

For those that want to watch on TV or from home, the launch was rescheduled for today, Saturday May 30, 2020 at 3pm.