“A tragedy of history”

“It’s really sad to see the U.S. presidency fall from being the champion of global health to being the laughingstock of the world,” said Devi Sridhar, an American who is a professor of global health at the University of Edinburgh. “It was a tragedy of history that Donald Trump was president when this hit.” (More below.)

News blues…

I miss the Obama presidency. Barack Obama remains a graceful, intelligent, funny, fair guy with a good sense of humor. Yes, there were “issues” during his presidency, but… compare the Obama days to these days!
Obama (“Beijing Barry”?) stumps for Biden and Harris in Philadelphia.  (32:52 mins) 

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The thing I love most about America and Americans? Whacky humor. Americans viewed Donald Trump’s rally dancing… and set it to the funniest songs .  White man dancing….

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New York Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristoff essay, “America and the virus: ‘A colossal failure of leadership” writes that in its destruction of American lives, treasure and well-being, this pandemic marks the greatest failure of US governance since Vietnam.

One of the most lethal leadership failures in modern times unfolded in South Africa in the early 2000s as AIDS spread there under President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki scorned science, embraced conspiracy theories, dithered as the disease spread and rejected lifesaving treatments. His denialism cost about 330,000 lives, a Harvard study found.
None of us who wrote scathingly about that debacle ever dreamed that something similar might unfold in the United States. But today, health experts regularly cite President Trump as an American Mbeki.
“We’re unfortunately in the same place,” said Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at U.C.L.A. “Mbeki surrounded himself with sycophants and cost his country hundreds of thousands of lives by ignoring science, and we’re suffering the same fate.”

Read Kristof’s column. 

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The Lincoln Project: Men (1:15 mins)
Trump is English for Castro (English)  (0:55 mins)
El Dicta Trump  (1:00 mins)
Don Winslow Films No one wants your guns  (1:10 mins) 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Good grief! Yesterday, my mother was happy as a clam. She looked forward to her newly purchased mechanized wheelchair showing her new places. Moreover, The Dog appeared to have settled in and was eating as usual.
I shared a quick word in passing with the facility matron who indicated she was as positive about my mother settling into the Care Center as I was.
Life was good.
But... not so fast….
Today, I received an email from my mother’s lawyer explaining that “she wants out…”, that I could spend a lot of money trying to persuade a court of law that my mother should be forced to stay and to present her with a conservatorship.” But, he wrote, it’s likely that an effort to that end would fail as my mother is “bright as a button.”
It’s not, nor has it ever been my intention to force my mother into doing anything against her will.
It is my intention to make myself available to help her if I believe her decisions are in her best interest. Leaving the Care Center – to do what? – is not a decision I’m willing to apply my efforts. She’s welcome to leave, but I’m not assisting her in that. Nor will I continue to help with the many tasks I’ve done over the last 10 months. Someone else will have to assist.

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Composting goes on. Recent recipe included snippets of two kinds of pond weed along with a soupçon of water lilies and clippings of the skins and seeds of fresh papaya (“pawpaw”).
Ah, the musty, fecund aroma of fresh compost.

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A thunderstorm overhead signaled the first thunder and lightning of the summer monsoonal season.
Life is good - despite the ups and downs and unexpected curve balls.