The delights of October – The stock market – Unreliability of reports of the President’s health – A searching question – An online memorial service – Evening statistics
If T.S. Eliot is correcting in asserting that April is the cruelest month, October might reasonably claim to be the most benign, at least in the mid-Atlantic states. The weather is at its best in this area; the stifling heat of the summer has gone; the skies are at their clearest – and since the skies were remarkably free from haze even during the summer this year, they naturally have not become less so now that we are enjoying lower temperatures and less humidity. The leaves are just barely beginning to change color, having been delayed by the lack of cool nights even during most of September; but a few trees at least are displaying tinges of red and yellow.
Not everyone shares my rosy view of this month, of course:
“October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.” (Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson, Ch. XIII)
The stock market has indeed been a-flutter with agitation yesterday and probably will be for some weeks to come. In addition to the usual fears and doubts about quarterly reports and end-of-fiscal-year reports, the state of the President’s health, along with that of a good portion of the administration generally, has been making speculators wary. The uncertainty regarding how the President is faring is of a degree that would rouse Kim Jong-Un himself to envy. The reports from the White House are simply not to be relied upon. Even on the rare occasions in the past when they have sought to disseminate some amount of truth, no one in the current administration seems to have any idea of fact-checking – witness, for example, the recent risible claim about Amy Barrett being a Rhodes scholar. In this case, the spokesmen have a vested interest in putting as good a face on the situation as possible, and in all probability would claim that Trump is doing very well even if he were to be on his deathbed.
“Why do you hate Donald Trump so much?” a friend whose views of Trump are somewhat more favorable than mine recently asked me.
“Well,” I hedged, “I don’t know that I’d call it hatred, exactly.”
He looked at me for a moment and then said, “What would you call it?”
And I was reminded of a certain passage I encountered on re-reading Anthony Trollope’s Framley Parsonage about two weeks ago:
“In her heart of hearts Mrs. Grantly hated Mrs. Proudie – that is, with that sort of hatred one Christian lady allows herself to feel towards another. Of course Mrs. Grantly forgave Mrs. Proudie all her offences, and wished her well, and was at peace with her, in the Christian sense of the word, as with all other women. But under this forbearance and meekness, and perhaps, we may say, wholly unconnected with it, there was certainly a current of antagonistic feeling which, in the ordinary unconsidered language of every day, men and women do call hatred.” (Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage, Ch. XVII)
In all fairness I had to admit that my attitude towards Donald Trump is rather analogous to that of Mrs. Grantly towards Mrs. Proudie, even though I am neither Christian nor a lady. I don’t want him to suffer, especially, and I have no particular wish for his death as opposed to recovery, but my attitude towards him remains as hostile as ever. Yes, my right-wing friend certainly had the better of me there.
There is possibly some personal animus involved as well. This evening I attended a Zoom memorial service for TW, the husband of my mother’s cousin, who was one of the earliest victims of the virus. It was rather an emotionally draining affair. I did not know him well, but many friends and relatives spoke of him with lively affection and with several displays of grief. My cousin in particular was devastated by his death, which was completely unexpected; even at this interval, more than six months afterward, she could not trust herself to speak directly during the service, for fear of breaking down completely.
I can honestly claim, however, that this hostility does not extend to Trump’s relatives. I have little love for any of them, but I am sorry that Melania has come down with the virus; I hope that the report is correct that a slight cough and headache are the extent of her symptoms; I am glad to hear that Trump’s children all tested negative, particularly 14-year-old Barron; and I am positively relieved to learn that Mike Pence tested negative as well, since it means we will have some sort of guidance in the event that Trump is temporarily incapacitated.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 35,121,850; # of deaths worldwide: 1,037,520; # of cases U.S.: 7,600,420; # of deaths U.S.: 214,273. In the past two days about 100,000 Americans in addition to Trump have fallen ill with the virus. With our current mortality rates, that means that between 2,500 and 3,000 will die of the disease from these cases alone. At this point we have well over 2½ million cases still active, meaning that at least 50,000 more Americans will die from the virus even if we get no other cases from this day forward. I wish that this could be emphasized more than it is in our media. Unfortunately, the most likely source for such information, i.e., the Democratic campaign, has abandoned this approach; Biden has decided that the time has come to show solidarity and has suppressed all of his negative ads. I disagree with this policy. It should be possible to express sympathy for a man on a personal level and still be critical of the policies he initiated that have led to such a disastrous result.