December 21, 2020: Lame Duck Donald is in Hiding

 

12/21/20: President Trump is having a nightmare stretch, trying to accept the fact that Joseph R. Biden Jr. will soon replace him. Today, he’s in hiding again. “The President has no public events scheduled,” the White House confirms. 

Same as yesterday. 

Same as Saturday. 

Visit Slovenia - get COVID - die.

Sunday, another 1,584 Americans died from COVID-19. Today the toll is 1,725. That brings the total, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control, to: 

318,569 dead.

 

A quick check of the world numbers shows that under President Trump, the U.S. is #1 in total cases of coronavirus, with a wide lead. We are also #1, by a wide margin, in total deaths. 

Adjusted for population (deaths per million), we come in #12. 

San Marino:                1,619

Belgium:                     1,604

Italy:                           1,146

Bosnia and

     Herzegovina:         1,133

Slovenia:                     1,144

Peru:                           1,118

North Macedonia:      1,111

Spain:                         1,053

Andorra:                    1,048

Montenegro:                997

United Kingdom:         994

United States:      981

 

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STILL, A BIT OF HOPE: Congress has finalized a second stimulus package to save a flagging economy. Neither this blogger nor his wife will be receiving any money under the terms of this deal because our combined incomes are too high. 

We have no reason to complain. 

Millions of others desperately need assistance, although whether the package is enough, at $900 billion, is subject to debate. 

Key provisions include an extra $300 per week for persons unemployed, $600 checks to adults making less than $75,000 per year and $1,200 to couples making less than $150,000. An extra $600 will go to qualifying families for each dependent. An extension of the ban on evictions will continue through January 2021. Unemployment benefits will be extended for eleven weeks.

 

The deal has been stalled in Congress for months. Yet, so far as we know, the Art of the Deal President has played no role in moving Democrats and Republicans to agreement. 

Frankly, Trump is no longer dealing. 

He’s in a dark place. 

As noted by ABC, Lame Duck Don hasn’t been seen in public in nine days. Then again, that’s a blessing in itself. 

 

FUN WITH FOOLS: Down in Texas, Mark A. Aguirre, 63, a former Houston police captain, and working for a conservative group on high alert for ballot fraud, starts his morning off right by ramming the cargo truck of air-conditioner installer David Lopez-Zuniga and forcing it off the road. 

Aguirre then gets the drop on the unlucky air-conditioner installer and points a gun at his head. 

Lopez-Zuniga is suspected of transporting 750,000 fake ballots – the very kind of fraud that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton loves to talk about but somehow never manages to prove. 

Sadly, a search of the truck reveals zero ballots, neither fake nor real. Aguirre gets arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon.