Doug's Darkworld

Always something. A friend sent me something interesting. No, not the above, I don’t have any friends who would send me that. I sincerely hope. We’ll get back to it. He sent me a link about how the New Zealand Prime Minister had delayed their election because Covid-19 had broken out again. And no one was particularly upset by it. Then he wondered what would happen if Trump did the same, implying the Democrats would go berserk. Sigh.

The two situations aren’t comparable on multiple levels. What Adern did in New Zealand was completely legal. In a parliamentary government the party in power can call the next elections pretty much whenever they like, as long as they are held by a certain date. She consulted with the other parties and got their blessing, even though such was not required. It was a perfectly reasonable move, they had gotten their country rid of Covid-19 and now have every intention of wiping out the current outbreak, which is miniscule compared to America’s out of control pandemic. They are also reassessing everything in their response to see if mistakes were made and how they can prevent another outbreak. New Zealand is run by functioning adults in other words.

Trump does not have the legal authority to postpone the election. That requires an act of both houses of Congress. He could certainly ask them to, though seems unlikely they would give him his wish. He could try and order the election delayed anywise. The result would be chaos and outrage. Some governors might well comply, others might well not. God only knows how it would play out. What we do know is what happens on January 20th no matter who wins or even if there is an election. Trump and Pence’s terms end. If there is no legal electoral winner, then the presidency devolves through the presidential succession as specified by law. A lot of those people are also up for re-election, so who knows who would be sworn in. Great fodder for a political comedy here I suppose. Sort of a “King Ralph” situation where the dust settles and the assistant undersecretary of corn futures is sworn in as president.

It also really makes little sense for Trump to postpone the election. Even if it was put off by two months, it’s not like Covid-19 is just going to magically go away. I guess Trump would be doing so in hopes that it did just that or a cure/vaccine might be developed. A Hail Mary pass. We’ll see, I think a delayed election is unlikely. A confused, messed, controversial election, yeah, that is pretty likely.

My latest nightmare election fantasy is that Trump just barely ekes out an electoral college win, but with Biden not just getting a majority of the popular vote, he gets two or three times the popular vote that Trump got. A huge majority, but only losing because of massive voter suppression in various battleground states. And that would be a crisis. Again, no idea how that would play out, but it could easily get ugly. It would at the very least show what a hideous mess our purported democracy has become.

Another random thought. I’m thinking Covid-19 is going to be America’s Hongerwinter. The Hongerwinter was in Holland in the winter of 1944/45. It is to date the only famine that’s ever occurred in a developed country. Hitler’s Nazis stole all of Holland’s harvest in the fall of 1944. It did have some positives in that we learnt things. Because this happened in a developed country, scientists had a first hand chance to study the effects of famine on a population. A lot was learned, one little tidbit I thought was fascinating, Dutch babies were of course of much lower birth weight because their mothers were undernourished. Well, when the baby girls grew up and had babies of their own decades later … their babies were also underweight! Interesting, nu? Wiki covers it here.

No, I don’t think the US will see a famine. I hope not at least, but anything is possible these days. However, we are seeing the first time a pandemic is being allowed to run its course in a developed country. The national response has basically been non-existent, Trump made a lot of trivial gestures, claimed he’d saved millions of lives, and walked away. From the beginning he let the states handle it, and while some performed better than others, some states did nothing. And none have Covid-19 even remotely under control at this point. If one’s apartment is on fire, trying to put the fire out while fire is raging in all the other apartments in the building is going to be a daunting task. America is one giant lesson on how not to deal with a pandemic.

Since we’re gonna get to see just how a pandemic plays out in a population, scientists have an opportunity to study epidemiology in action. What we learn will no doubt help other countries understand Covid-19 better, and will likely save lives. So for once Americans are dying to save foreign lives. How selfless of us, the anti-maskers are actually altruists is disguise. Who knew?

OK, out of space to discuss my vote for Biden or the above meme. I’ll let the gentle reader ponder both for another day. Yes, I found an actual reason to vote for Biden, I haven’t joined the “anyone is better than Trump brigade.” Granted at this point I think a gerbil would do a better job than Trump, but that’s still not a reason to vote for it. You’d have to give me a reason to vote for that particular gerbil. I found a reason to vote for Biden.

Stay safe everyone, these are unsettled times. I hope they get better, I’m not holding my breath. Shares, likes, comments appreciated.  #StaytheFHome #WearaDamnMask #MundiSolisOccasum

Copyright © 2020 Doug Stych. All rights reserved.

(Credit: As far as I know what’s indicated in the image. A friend sent the image to me, appears to be public domain, claimed as Fair Use under US Copyright Law. There’s some … disturbing … elements in the image. Future blog.)