Thoughts on a Quiet News Day

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*Pretty quiet week on the Trump front.

*It’s cold outside, and regardless, I wouldn’t be going outside within droplet range of another human being.

*I hear the vaccine is on the way for old folks like me, but for right now I’m not holding my breath.

*Yawn. In the meantime, some random musings…

Just to keep the Trump juices going, it’s hard to believe that Donald J actually believes any of his continuing election fraud rubbish. Is it really possible that the man is so removed from reality that he believes he actually won? Is he so far removed from reality that he is actually listening to counselors like the esteemed Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn when they recommend that he appoint a special counsel or declare martial law? It speaks to the soundness of these strategies that they each bring a chuckle to wise and honest men such as Bill Barr and Rudy Giuliani.

On the COVID front, a couple of thoughts. The way I have gotten through all this—not traveling, not seeing family and friends, not ever going to a movie, show, or restaurant—is by telling myself that it’s just this one time–that whatever pleasures I resist, whatever diminished patterns of behavior I undertake, they are not enduring. Next time around it will be different! I can accept not getting together with family this year knowing how fascinating it will be in future years to look back on this one-time anomaly. If I know that if I forego a tradition this one time, the tradition isn’t going to disappear. In fact, missing the tradition—this once—will somehow make me value it more. Psychologists like to use the term delay of gratification. I can put off good things now as an investment in the future. Any chance I could sell franchises for a chain called Delays-of-Gratification R Us?

Bravo for Pfizer. Bravo for Moderna. It’s one thing that they got to market first, but it’s another that they got to market with a vaccine that not only appears to be safe, but is about 95% effective. If I’m correct, the standard flu shot is not much more than 50% effective, which is apparently an acceptable standard for vaccines. So I tell myself that I’m pretty glad that I am not Johnson & Johnson or AstraZenica with vaccines barely making it through Stage 2 or 3 trials. Yes, I know that a LOT of money has been put into those efforts, so they’ll keep chugging along. But how much do we need a third or fourth alternative when the first two are that good? Call me crazy, but if they give me a choice between something that’s 75% effective tomorrow vs one that’s 95% effective next week, I’ll quickly become a dedicated customer of Delays-of-Gratification R Us.

Last but not least, don’t you just love the Space Force, the brainchild of the President of the United States, which boils down to the invention of a 14 year old’s mind. Perhaps we should have let Trump’s grandiose adolescent desires be satisfied with the military parade he wanted. But no, we now have a new military branch whose members will be called “guardians.” Call it dorky, call it stupid and useless. I call it pure Trump.