The Lockdown Death Rate, COVID hangovers, Kristi Noem, election recounts.
“Strange days indeed. Most peculiar mama.”
John Lennon
It has been a crazy week, but do we have any others?
COVID cases are soaring. Hospitals are filling up. People are panicking.
The government is salivating.
Imagine a Kennedy walking into a roomful of gorgeous hookers and cocaine. That's Lansing. That's Sacramento. That's Columbus.
That's the Oval Office, come January 20th.
A Catholic Borgia Pope couldn't be more eager than the Establishment is right now.
The TDE staff came down with COVID right before the election. TDE Tech Adviser Max tested positive, forcing the rest of the staff into quarantine. Your Editor-in-Chief came down with the nasty headache and extreme fatigue, along with some of the nasal and throat unpleasantries which he continues to clear to the annoyance of his wife.
But otherwise, I found the COVID experience pleasant. It entailed a lot of outdoor time, coma-like naps that were absolutely incredible, and victim status in the eyes of people who would otherwise make demands on my time.
The one major downside were stabbing headaches from drinking. I drank twice during the ordeal (both after the headaches had gone). Both times, I limited myself to two drinks (stiff ones, but still just two). The next mornings were very rough for my head.
I couldn't bring myself to drink last night (a rarity), and as of this morning, I don't feel like drinking.
That's been the hardest part of COVID.
There's one place where the rulers aren't salvating: South Dakota.
We need more Kristi Noems. My only problems with her are (i) I can't figure out whether she's hot or not, and (ii) she governs from a place called “Pierre,” which conjures up memories of Pepe Le Pew. But otherwise, she's one of the few politicians with national recognition that I'd like to have a drink with.
Alright, she's the only such politician on the national stage.
Fun fact of the week: We don't know whether South Dakota was the 39th or 40th state; a puzzle it shares with North Dakota. President Harrison shuffled the statehood papers before signing them, so he didn't know which he signed first . . . and now, neither do we.
Funny guy, Ben.
I spoke with a government official this week who said that he heard the mortality rate from COVID is at .6% (pronounced, “six-tenths of one percent” or “real f***ing low”).
That sounds about right, since the mortality rate among 20-49 years old is .0092% (pronounced, “ninety-two one hundredths of one percent,” or “so low it barely counts as a number”). For my age group (50-65), it's .14%. For those over age 65? I'm afraid the percentages climb very high. See the Infection Mortality Rate Table at this link.
Those figures, by the way, are from June. The mortality rate, my doctor told me when advising me last week after diagnosing me with COVID, has been dropping steadily over the past few months.
The Lockdown Mortality Rate? That, on the other hand, is another matter. Those are pretty scary.
There is no doubt that lockdowns are killing more people than COVID itself, but lockdowns are a real power trip, so we'll continue to get them in various forms.
I will say this, though: I was wrong about the Left's response. I really thought that, once Biden was elected, COVID would go away.
I was wrong (or, to quote the Fonz, I was “wrsszzzzzz”).
COVID in an election year was astonishingly convenient for the Democrats, but it pales when compared to its potential as a tool to crank that one-way ratchet called “Big Government.” I should've known better.
And while all this is going on, we have the recounts.
I'm afraid the answer here is too clear: it's over for Trump.
I have zero doubt that the Democrats cheated. The Democrats control the big cities and the big cities have always cheated. It's baked into their DNA like queer-baiting used to be baked into the DNA of rural America before Silicon Valley rooted it out.
I have very little doubt that it happened on a far bigger scale this year. It makes sense. People freakin' hate Trump; it follows that efforts to beat him–whether by showing up and voting legitimately or cheating–would increase. On top of that, the Establishment wanted Trump out, which means the chances of getting caught, much less punished, were down.
But did it make a difference? And can it be proven?
On those points, I'm highly skeptical. I fear it's time to move on, but hey, such matters are beyond my scope of control, much like my bowels after drunkenly ditching my vegan diet at one of our local Mexican restaurants.
Until next week, thanks for reading and thanks for sharing.
Eric
