Wednesday, March 18, 2020

A Wartime President -- March 18, 2020

March 31, 2020: thinking like a wartime president

March 20, 2020: I don't find this surprising at all. The president's poll numbers might be rising

March 18, 2020: has any wartime president ever been defeated for a second-term bid? Could a wartime president impose sanctions against Saudi Arabia? In the past, it was feared that this action would drive Saudi Arabia and Russia closer together. Not going to happen now. Sanctions against Saudi Arabia? Their threat to increase their crude oil exports would come to an end overnight.
Rasmussen: the most important poll to follow right now -- the daily presidential tracking poll. Question: why does the Rasmussen poll only go to 60% (at its max) when the minimum goes to 0%? The actual y axis data is entirely between 30% and 60%.
FDA: President Trump considered issuing an executive order greatly expanding the use of investigational drugs against the new coronavirus, but was met with objections from Food and Drug Administration scientists who warned it could pose unneeded risks to patients. This tells me the pandemic is not as serious as the CDC is making it. But even if it is not as serious as the CDC says it is, if I'm going to die from a disease, tell me again, what the risks are by taking an investigational drug? It's not like going to Mexico for almonds to fight cancer. 
Have we reached the inflection point? A reader sent me a note using that phrase. Interesting. I thought about that phrase when President Trump began to think of himself as a "wartime president." If America beats this (and it will), might one think the turning point began today?

If so, the president's staff needs to consider this song as one of many in the build-up to the RNC convention later this summer:
Everybody's building
Ships and boats;
Some are building monuments,
Others dummy pound notes.

Everybody's in despair,

Every girl and boy.

But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here

Everybody's gonna jump for joy.

The Mighty Quinn, Manfred Mann, song by Bob Dylan

2 comments:

  1. Thank for you medical clarity on the technicalities of medicine! Its greatly appreciated in the midst of the panic behavior. I know where I go when i die, so that not the issue, its the process no one looks forward to.

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    1. Thank you. I am probably much, much more cavalier than I should be regarding this disease. It's easy for me to be clinical, non-emotional, when I don't have the disease, unlikely to get it, and the same for my family.

      It's possible I would feel a whole lot differently if I lived in one of the "hot zones."

      I'm reminded of this adage: where one stands depends on where one sits.

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