A Few Filosofian Thoughts …

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, cartoons, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Just a few thoughts bouncing around in my mind today …

In case you haven’t seen any news outside of the ongoing U.S. election, a new strain of the coronavirus has broken out in Denmark.  Kåre Mølbak, head of the State Serum Institute, the national authority for the control of infectious diseases, said the strain posed a potential threat to the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines.  Additionally, he said …

“The worst-case scenario is that we would start off a new pandemic in Denmark. There’s a risk that this mutated virus is so different from the others that we’d have to put new things in a vaccine and therefore would slam us all in the whole world back to the start.”

Denmark has taken strict measures to attempt to isolate the virus, imposing tighter lockdown measures and closing restaurants and bars.  I’m not suggesting it’s time to worry, but we definitely need to be aware of this, and it’s very doubtful you’ll hear much about it with the election sucking all the air out of the room.  In fact, I strongly suspect news of this may be suppressed or downplayed by the White House.

And speaking of the pandemic …

The U.S. set yet another new record yesterday with 108,389 new cases, 1,201 deaths.  No, my friends, we have not ’rounded a corner’ and it is not ‘going away’.

I’m thoroughly puzzled over the calls by Trump and by Trump supporters in certain states demanding “Stop the counting!”  WTF???  Every vote is to be counted … that’s the only way to ensure a fair and honest election – or as close as we can come to one, given that the electoral college effectively diminishes some of our voices.  So … if I’m understanding this, they want to stop the counting of the absentee votes because Donald Trump realizes that the majority of those votes may be for his opponent, Joe Biden?  How utterly ridiculous is this?  In Arizona, armed Trump supporters presented at a vote-counting center, even trying to push their way into the building, until being told to leave by law enforcement.  🙄

Yesterday, the U.S. officially exited the Paris Climate Accords, becoming the first nation to exit the agreement, to fail to honour its commitment.  The news, like most other, was barely noted in the shadow of the election coverage, but in truth it was only a legality, for the U.S. has failed to honour that commitment for nearly four years now.  This is only one of the many reasons the U.S. has lost stature in the eyes of the world, but it is arguably the single most important one, for the future of every living thing on the planet relies on all nations doing their part to reduce carbon emissions, to clean up the environment, reduce the use of plastics, and preserve wildlife.  The U.S. under Trump scoffs at all of the above, taking on a “live for today and to hell with tomorrow” attitude.

And as for the election … while I’m more optimistic about Joe Biden’s chances to win than I was 36 hours ago, I’m disappointed in the Senate and House results.  The failure of democrats to win a majority in the Senate mean that if Biden is president, he will be constantly fighting an uphill battle for everything from his cabinet choices to court appointments to any legislation he might ask for.  This can only serve to further divide this nation if that’s even possible.  I am also disappointed in the behaviour of some of the people in this country who apparently believe that “might equals right”, and are waving their guns threatening violence.  And as for the incumbent who is panicking and doing all sorts of asinine things such as filing lawsuits to try to stop vote-counting in certain states, well … what did you expect, folks?  I’ll have more to say on it all later, but for now, suffice it to say that his behaviour is exactly what I expected and frankly, I’m finding it boring. 🥱  I hope that when all the votes are tallied, this nation elects a responsible man instead of a sadistic clown.

And on that note, I leave you with a bit of election humour …

toon-1toon-2toon-3

26 thoughts on “A Few Filosofian Thoughts …”

  1. Pingback: A Few Filosofian Thoughts … — Filosofa’s Word | Rethinking Life

  2. Reading of Denmark last night shook me. Poor minks; poor us?

    Can’t believe that S. Collins, M. McConnell, J. Ernst, L. Graham, and several other shitheads are returning. Stunned, really. I kept hearing we had such a chance…

    Which takes me to the POTUS activity. Despite setting a new record for votes received, Biden might not win. We wait and watch, 264-218. My wife theorized that stilltrumpers may have turned out in force to vote because according to Trump, COVID-19 has turned the corner. They figure, keep him in power, and we’ll beat this thing without wearing masks and shutting down the economy. We believe many stilltrumpers are sufficiently misguided to believe that.

    In other news, TS Eta hit central America, the Philippines endured another cyclone, two state governors (an R & a D) are mandating masks everywhere, the Steelers are the only undefeated NFL team, and several NFL team facilities were shut down for positive COVID-19 results (along with John Elway, Denver) (and Detroit QB Matthew Stafford) (and Dallas QB Andy Dalton).

    Ah, too much news. Did you know Christmas is coming? Cheers. Hugs.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Poor minks for sure, as I read that 15-17 million of them will be killed. 😔 But ultimately, poor us, as well.

      I wasn’t surprised about McConnell, but had hoped that with a Democratic majority in the Senate, his power would be greatly diminished. Now it doesn’t look like even that will happen. I truly thought, though, that Graham, Ernst and Collins would be gone … somehow they pulled a rabbit out of their hats, but to the detriment of this nation.

      Though Biden’s lead in Georgia is slim and Georgia will do a recount, it seems that both Nevada and Pennsylvania are on the path to a Biden win, which would be all he needs … I feel more confident now than I have all week that Biden will win this election. What happens in the next 75 days is anybody’s guess, for Trump has no intention of “going gently into that good night”, and his supporters are low on common sense, but well-armed.

      Thanks for the ‘other news’ update! I did know most of it, all except the sports!

      Liked by 1 person

  3. A mutated virus is going to cause problems and it’s going to be very difficult to keep it out of the country. Only isolating Denmark might do it for a while. I doubt it will be the last mutation though. The longer it’s allowed to run free as it is in the US the greater the chance.
    I’m just going to email you.
    Cwtch

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, that’s my fear. I have to wonder … I know that climate change/global warming has been linked to the coronavirus … so, how many more are waiting in the wings? As you know, science is NOT my strong suit, but I have to wonder if by this time next year we will have a … pandemic of pandemics? The first one came from bats, this one from minks … what next? Yesterday, we broke another record with the virus — more than 118,000 new cases in a day, and more than 1,200 deaths. And the administration has thrown up its hands and admitted defeat, while claiming that it has gone, or is soon going. No, it isn’t going anywhere … we are … to our graves. Sigh.
      Cwtch

      Liked by 1 person

    • Unless, of course, they are for Trump, and then it’s all good. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Fortunately, the judges/courts are throwing his legal challenges back in his face, and ordering the count to continue.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Thankfully. I just cannot see how any American can stand in front of an Elections Office and demand them to stop counting votes. Especially when it is not easy, in any state, to vote. My landlady was talking about voter fraud, and I said registering to vote, first, is not easy, and then mailing in your ballot, which she did as well I presume, since all CA voters were mailed our ballots (and she has a coworker who gets his mail here, but mostly lives in his house down on the other side of the border: I didn’t want to argue about this hypocrisy for fear of being kicked out), and requiring your (non)driver’s license number to do that, is stringent verification. Yet she insisted that there were illegal immigrants voting, somewhere. This was weeks before the election.

        Liked by 1 person

        • I’m with you, my friend … I cannot understand it at all. There seems to be fully half of this nation who have been brainwashed, though, who blindly do the fuhrer’s bidding. Sigh. Your landlady … you’ve mentioned her before and I’ve long since concluded she is one of the walking dead! You really need to move! Sigh. Voting and registering are much easier here in Ohio than in many other states, but I do realize the trauma that some must go through, and the attempts at disenfranchising, in particular, minorities and the working poor. Time for some serious changes!

          Liked by 1 person

          • This is one of the few places I’ve been able to find (the only one, actually) where smoking is taken seriously, so at least that is less of a problem, which means moving is not happening for a while. But yes, serious changes are needed. The question is how to get them started?

            Liked by 2 people

            • I understand that … we have lived in our townhouse for 22 years now, and it is nearly impossible to get anything repaired these days, yet the rent keeps going up every year. We’d love to move, but it’s hard to find a place we can afford that accepts pets … plus I dread sorting through 22 years of detritus!

              If I could answer that question … sigh. I know what needs to be done, as do you, but getting 535 members of Congress and the president to agree on doing it is next to impossible. It will be all about compromises.

              Liked by 2 people

                • So true … there are so many critical issues right now, and I think the pandemic and climate change will have to take center stage, at least for the moment. Sadly, other things such as health care, education, and a variety of reforms will have to take a back seat, but hopefully not for long.

                  Liked by 2 people

  6. Thank you for the thoughts, Jill! Sounds all at once very horrible. One should have known that viruses have the peculiarity of mutating. Now, i will listen to your wonderful choosen song “Bad Moon rising”. 😉 Best wishes, Michael

    Liked by 2 people

  8. Thanks Jill. It goes without saying, a state election board is obligated to count all the votes. And, the election officials are very conscientious about trying to get it right. If after the counts are made, a candidate can follow the state laws to ask for a recount if it meets the criteria. If that does not offer satisfaction of its veracity, then the candidate could go to the courts. Stopping a normative process before it is completed is inappropriate and political. These normal processes are designed to protect us. Are there irregularities? Of course, some do come up and have come up, but that is where the process comes in as there are ways to address this. Keith

    Liked by 2 people

    • Yes, there are rules for just such occasions, but somebody — not mentioning any names — seems to think the rules weren’t made for him and that he should be allowed to do as he wishes. To say that he is a sore loser is an understatement of dynamic proportions. I remember when I was first doing research into Trump, finding that while in military school he tried to throw a classmate out of a 2nd story window over a dispute in a game. That, in itself, speaks volumes and he has never grown mentally or in terms of maturity since then.

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Thanks for that Denmark info Jill. I sure as hell hadn’t heard it. I’ve always been concerned that this virus would mutate-that any approved vaccine may be rendered useless at some point. Hopefully we will have a President Biden on Jan 20, but that’s well over two months from now, and nothing…absolutely nothing is being done to battle this pandemic, especially now with the idiot filing a gazillion lawsuits, causing chaos, and being an overall jerk. We’re still being held hostage by this horrific man Jill.

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