Unvaxxed Nation Wipe Out

The number of new COVID cases in Finland, as in many places, are rising as we enter the pandemic’s 4^th wave. Despite that, it feels like things are going well.

Or maybe it just feels that way personally for me, since I’m now fully vaccinated, and soon (two weeks after the second dose) can travel again outside Finland, at least to certain counties. Estonia is one place we might visit before summer is over.

Looking on the bright side, there have been only two COVID deaths in Finland in the past two weeks, only five for the entire month of July. Hospitalizations are still lower than at the beginning of the 2^nd wave. People are going to restaurants, theaters. In some sense, things seem to be getting better.

Especially compared to the US, the land of my birth, where it seems the whole country has gone bonkers, even if it has a decent full-vaccination rate of almost 50%. That is admittedly higher than Finland’s 31%. (One explanation for Finland’s lower rate is that, facing a shortage in the supply of vaccine, Finland spaced out the two doses 3 months apart, compared to 3 weeks in the States. There is a lag here in the everyone getting the second dose.)

I think Finland will catch up with the US soon. While doing a better job at vaccination at the outset, progress in US is now stalling. It’s clear why – right-wing politics. Of the 30 states that have administered vaccinations below the national rate (below 50%) all but four of voted for Donald Trump. All of the remaining 20 that have done better, vaccinating over half their populations, were Biden states. Nothing could be plainer. For many, failure to get vaccinated is a political act.

And there are consequences. Three states now account for 40% of all new COVID cases: Florida (48% vaccination rate), Texas (43%), Missouri (41%). Those states make up only 17% of the US population, so they are obviously are punching above their weight when it comes to helping the spread of the delta variant.

The consequences are also deadly. Unvaccinated Americans now account for some 97% of COVID deaths. That shows the vaccines are working. Vaccinated folks are much, much less likely to die from COVID. Given that fact, it’s baffling why anyone without genuine medical reasons would refuse a free, safe way to lower their risk of infection. Baffling, but these folks are, of course, powerless against the right-wing media machine that has been fueling vaccine skepticism. 

A host on Newsmax recently floated the idea that vaccines in general go against nature by preventing “a certain amount of people” from being wiped out, like that was a bad thing. It’s true, of course, that vaccines do that, but that’s the point of vaccines. We want them to stop nature from wiping people out.

Considering that the Americans being wiped out are predominately the unvaccinated -- you could say, predominately Trump-supporting conservatives -- you would think hosts on Newsmax and other right-wing outlets would want their prime target audience protected. Apparently, you would be wrong.

Self-destructive antivaccination fervor is nothing new.
Cartoon from the 1930s. 

 

Meanwhile, in the Real World

Last week we saw the six-month anniversary of Joe Biden's inauguration as president. Leading up to that event in January, I saw some MAGA folks on Facebook predicting that Biden would not "last six months". They were very confident. They had no doubt about this. They didn’t specify, however, why they thought Biden would not make it this far in his presidency (I asked one – they chose not to explain).

So, I was left to speculate. I think there were 3 possible scenarios those folks on FB were implying:

1) The Plausible. Biden was so old and feeble that the pressure of being president would kill him. In other words, these MAGA folks had bought into the “Geriatric Joe” narrative peddled by Trump and his supporters. Strangely, Biden has not dropped dead.

2) The Sinister. By this point, Biden would have been killed by some righteous Trump-lover unable to abide the abomination of Biden illegitimately occupying the White House. Maybe some of those MAGA fortunetellers secretly (or not secretly) half-hoped this would happen.

3) The Even More Sinister, Plus Insane. Biden would be “bumped” off by forces aligned with Kamala Harris as part of a Democratic ploy to install the extremely radical Harris in the White House by first winning the election with a more-acceptable candidate (Biden). You have to be deep in the Qanon rabbit hole to believe this, but many Trump supporters are really that deep in that hole.

Needlessly to say, none of these Trump-cult fever dreams have played out. Maybe MAGA folks have conveniently forgotten that they ever predicted Biden would NOT be president by this time. Or maybe they have just moved on to now pinning all their hopes of the expected “reinstatement” of Trump on August 13th. That’s only a couple of weeks from now.

Luckily, we won’t have to wait a whole six months to see those high MAGA hopes dashed on the rocks of reality, you know, here in the real world.

Helsinki Tainted

When it was announced that Joe Biden would be meeting with Vladimir Putin during Biden's June trip to Europe, there was some speculation that the meeting would take place in Helsinki. Hearing this, my wife and I looked at each other and after a moment said, “No way. That won't happen.”

Since 2018, Helsinki has been forever tainted as a meeting place between American and Russian leaders. No American president in their right mind would want any reminder of that disastrous meeting here three years ago to cloud their own. That’s Trump’s legacy. He ruined Helsinki for US-Russian summits. It’s like the disgrace associated with Munich after Neville Chamberlain’s trip there in 1938. At least, Trump didn’t promise Sudetenland to Putin. Or did he?

A week ago Trump issued this ridiculous "statement", doubling down on his taking Putin’s side over the US government’s. He’s even proud of it. So refreshing to think that it's Biden meeting with Putin in Geneva today, and not that embarrassing game show host who shamelessly kow-towed to the Russian leader just a few miles from where I live.

Coke, unruly tourists, and plastic bags of gas

Here in Finland, warm weather has finally arrived and so has the summer home improvement season. There’s lots to do, a LOT to do, so I’ve been trying not to pay as much attention to the crazy stuff happening back in the States. Except...you can’t really ignore all the crazy stuff happening in the State. Here’s what caught my attention recently.  

Joel Greenberg, the wingman of frat boy Matt Gaetz, has entered a plea deal, in which he will supposedly turn state’s evidence against Gaetz. There is speculation that Greenberg will testify how Gaetz snorted coke with a hooker who had a no-show government job. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Of course, this will not hurt Gaetz’s reputation with Republicans one bit, since they love this sort of thing.

There’s a video circulating of Marjorie Taylor Greene, who the good people of Georgia’s 14^th District (the one next to my own) saw fit to elect to Congress, bent over, screaming through the mail slot of AOC’s door like a mean-girl cheerleader. Again, the GOP loves this kind of behavior.

Meanwhile, Andrew Clyde, the congressman from my own district (we sure know how to pick ‘em) has finally broken into the national news for the first time ever to my knowledge by explaining in calm terms how the mob of rioters who swarmed the US Capitol on January 6^th, breaking through windows, beating up policemen, and sending lawmakers scrambling for secure tunnels (not to mention looking to lynch Mike Pence) were nothing more than your average tourists visiting a famous landmark in our nation’s capital. In the same spirit, I’ll remember to toss some rocks through the windows of that gold museum in Dahlonega next time I’m there.

Kevin McCarthy, who once set up a sandwich stand in the corner of his uncle’s yoghurt store before launching a life-long career in politics, forces very conservative Liz Cheney out of her leadership position because of her habit of speaking the truth about the last election. Also, he mocks Joe Biden for requiring at least five hours of sleep a night, unlike über-mensch Donald Trump, who can toil all night long tweeting out thought-provoking wisdom like “covfefe”. No, wait, he can’t. He’s banned, unlike Joe Biden.

Mitch McConnell, as always seeking ways to reach greater levels of bipartitianship with Democrats, confirms to his buddies that 100% of his focus is stopping the Biden Administration from doing anything. If he didn’t have such a conciliatory nature in the name of bipartitianship, that focus would be 200%.

The thought of a gas pipeline being shut down for a few days struck so much fear into the hearts of some Americans that they panicked and started hording gas, pumping it into anything they could get their hands on, open containers, trash cans, even plastic shopping bags, which – as we all learned in school -- are super, super safe for transporting and storing volatile fuel), to the point where stations ran out of gas across the South. Hope no one got incinerated on their way home, though it’s not for lack of trying.

Anyway, that’s what’s happening in American. Here in Finland, on the other hand, the birch trees are leafing out on schedule (barely), we just took the kayaks out from storage and are hoping to spot again the eagle we saw the other day. We are not hoarding plastic bags of gas.

Pressing For A Presser

It seems that MAGA folks are obsessing over the fact that Joe Biden hasn’t stood at a podium and taken questions from the media some 50 days after taking office. I don’t think it’s because they are so eager to hear from their new president. Nothing like that. They are annoyed that Biden (as they see it) is escaping scrutiny from the same press that gave Donald Trump such a hard time throughout his presidency. Of course, that doesn’t include Fox News, which was always a safe space for Trump.

Or, maybe more likely, they think Biden is being prevented by his press shop from making a fool of himself by talking unscripted in front of cameras, since Biden (as they are convinced) is borderline senile, a fact that will instantly be obvious to even hard-core Democrats once he has to field real questions from a real reporter. He’s hiding, they would say, in a way that a "real" president like Trump would never to.

They like to point out that Trump wasted no time in getting before the cameras to spar with the media by holding his first solo press conference on Feb. 16^th after only 27 days in office. He didn’t hesitate, they would say, to face the press and deliver any unscripted remarks that happen to pop up in his head, not holding back, putting on full display his scattershot thinking on any number of topics. They see this as a feature, not a bug.

And Trump willingly took reporters’ questions, they would point out. He happily defended and justified the actions of his administration, they would say, and explained the intricacies of his policies to a hostile media. As if. 

Recollections may vary, as Queen Elisabeth might say. I remember that first press conference as a hot mess. To remind myself exactly what it was like, I took a look at the transcript (a whopping 13,000 words long). Some things stand out. First, Trump starts by announcing the nomination of Alex Acosta as Labor Secretary (94 words) and the confirmation of his pick for head of Office of Management and Budget, Mike Mulvaney (43 words), which Trump whines was “weeks late”, “weeks, weeks late”. Biden’s choice for that spot had to withdraw due to the hurt feelings of Republicans and Joe Manchin, so that now even weeks later than for Trump, it remains unfilled. Haven't heard Biden whine about it yet.

Then Trump goes on to talk (91 words) about how, Paul Singer, a GOP donor, had just visited the White House, and how Singer, who had been a Never Trumper, has now gotten onboard the Trump Train, a hopeful is a sign as Trump saw it of the kind of unification (abject loyalty?) that he inspires in people. When I first read it, I thought Trump was referring to Singer as Mulvaney’s predecessor, so unclear was Trump's unscripted way of speaking.

Next, he says “I think I’ll say a few words and take some questions.” Some 3150 words (!) later, he takes the first question, which is about Mike Flynn, the National Security Advisor he had just fired for lying to Mike Pence and the FBI, one of the first scandals of his administration. Flynn was in the job a mere 24 days. Here’s how Trump responded to the reporter’s question:

“Mike Flynn is a wonderful person, and I asked for resignation, he respectfully gave it. He is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to Vice President Pence, who’s with us today, and I was not happy with the way that information was given. He didn’t have to do that because what he did wasn’t wrong. What he did in terms of the information he saw. What was wrong was the way that other people, including yourselves, in this room, were given that information. Because that was classified information that was given illegally. That’s the real problem.

“You know, you can talk all you want about Russia, which was all, you know, ‘fake news’ fabricated deal to try to make up for the loss of the Democrats and the press plays right into it. In fact, I saw a couple of the people supposedly involved with all of this. They know nothing about it, never in Russia, never made a phone call, never received a phone call. It’s all fake news. It’s all fake news.

“The nice thing is I see it starting to turn where people are now looking at the illegal — I think it’s very important — the illegal giving out classified information, and let me just tell you, it was given out so much.

“For example, I called, as you know, Mexico. It was a very confidential classified call, but I called Mexico, and in calling Mexico, I figured, oh, well that’s nice, I spoke to the president of Mexico, had a good call, all the sudden it’s out there for the world to see. It was supposed to be secret.

“Supposed to be either confidential or classified in that case, same thing with Australia. All of the sudden, people are finding out exactly what took place. The same thing happened with respect to General Flynn. Everybody saw this.

“And I’m saying, the first thing I thought of when I heard about it, is how does the press get this information that’s classified? How do they do it? You know why? Because it’s an illegal process, and the press should be ashamed of themselves, but more importantly, the people that gave out information to the press should be ashamed of themselves. Really a shame.”

Whew! That was a long-winded way (380 words) of saying it’s the media’s fault that I fired Mike Flynn for lying. I especially like, the bit “He is a man who there was a certain amount of information given to Vice President Pence”. Seems he has trouble expressing himself. Anyway, this is the performance that MAGA folks hold up as a shining example of how presidents should talk to Americans. 

It’s worth noting that Trump was so stung by the negative response to this presser, he didn’t hold another one for almost a year. That long dry spell must have been pure torture for those folks now losing their minds over Joe Biden's heart-breaking absence from the briefing room. 

Bonaparte Wannabe

Joe Biden has been president for a week now, and it is certainly refreshing to have what seems so far to be a normally competent administration in place. Even more refreshing is not having Donald Trump in our faces every day non-stop. Suddenly, one day – like a miracle – it disappeared.

It is somewhat comforting to know Trump’s hidden away, almost in exile down in Mar-a-Lago for now, though I hear Palm Beach may be take legal action against him for breaking the agreement he made not to permanently reside there (and not stay more than seven days at a stretch) when he turned the place into a resort in 1993. I’ve also heard that some paying Mar-a-Lago residents are abandoning the resort because of the “dispiriting” atmosphere that descended after Trump moved in. Maybe can’t blame them.

It must be torture for Trump not to be in the public eye, which is surely what drove him to form the so-called Office of the Former President. As if he is THE former president, neglecting the four other former presidents who didn’t feel the need to create a fake “position” when they left office. At least he admitted he’s a *former* president.

I can almost imagine him brooding down there in Florida like Napoleon in exile on the Isle of Elba. With that in mind, it’s a little disconcerting also to remember that Bonaparte eventually escaped from Elba, raised an army on the mainland and marched on Paris to rule for another 100 days. (We once drove along part of Napoleon’s march on our way from the Riviera back to Geneva. Scenic route, to be sure.) Trump may dream that he too has such an army awaiting his return, but if so, it might be a bit reduced – some 150 of the insurrectionists he sent off to storm the Capitol have now been arrested, with we can hope more to come.

Trump might well be disillusioned with them anyway. Or at least their appearance. After all, he reportedly called them “low-class” after seeing them on TV rampaging through the halls of Congress. (Has he NEVER met his most ardent grass-roots MAGA supporters? Maybe not, since I doubt many would be allowed to set foot within the confines of Mar-a-Lago.)

So perhaps he can’t count anymore on that motley camo- and fleece-wearing “army” of rioters. But they’re not his real army anyway, not the one that will do him any good. That would be the jacket-and-tie-clad clan in Congress (well, in the case of “Gym” Jordan, made that "no jacket") who, by refusing to convict Trump in his impeachment trial, seem determined to give him another shot at the White House in four years. They have no morals, no scruples, no backbones – in other words, just Trump’s kind of guys.

Napoleon's second exile on the island of St. Helena.
Perhaps Trump's next one will be on the island of Rikers.
(painting by Franz Josef Sandmann)