On the CCT – Donald Trump’s reported remarks about the fallen dead in battle – Trump’s denials of the report – The burgeoning economy – Voting by mail – Evening statistics
I went again with RS, going via the Cross-County Trail from Rte. 50 to Hunter Valley Road, at which point RS again went forward and I returned back to my car, covering about 22 miles in all. That brings my total mileage for the year up to this point to just under 1500 miles. RS hoped to get as far as Fort Belvoir this evening, but if that proves to be too ambitious he will find accommodations along Rte. 1. It was less hot and humid than yesterday, but it still could be problematic walking in exposed areas. But most of the hike was well-shaded and sometimes breezes alleviated the heat. At Lake Accotink, where we had lunch, the pavilion on a hill behind the recreational offices was pleasantly cool.
RS was rather depressed today: he is an Army veteran, and he was indignant at the report of our President’s heartless and vicious remarks yesterday about the Marines killed in battle during WWI being “losers.” One would think that sheer self-interest would induce Trump to repress such comments. Veterans comprise a significant portion of his voting bloc (although RS loathes him, and I know a few others who like him no better), yet Trump goes out of his way to alienate them. The reaction, as might be expected, has been one of uninhibited outrage, with Joe Biden (whose son, Beau Biden, was in military service in Iraq) taking the lead and excoriating Trump with quivering intensity.
There has been some attempt to back-pedal; both Trump and the Pentagon have denied that he made such remarks, and Trump added that he was prevented from visiting the Marines’ graves because the weather made it impossible to conduct a helicopter flight to the cemetery near Paris where the men are buried, not (as was reported) because he did not want to mess up his hair. The alternative was a long drive through some of the busiest sections of Paris, to which the Secret Service objected as being unnecessarily risky. And it is possible that Trump is being libeled, but the comments attributed to him sound thoroughly in character and I, for one, have no difficulty in conjuring up a vivid mental picture of him going to a soldier’s funeral and, in the presence of all dead man’s relatives, shouting “You’re fired!” at the moment of the casket being lowered into the grave, just as he did on his late, unlamented reality-TV show.
Although I do not like to admit it, the state of the economy may boost Trump’s campaign to some extent. The U.S. added 1.4 million jobs in August, marking the fourth consecutive month of job gains and declining unemployment since the coronavirus lockdown. The unemployment rate has dropped this past month from 10.2% to 8.4%. The economy, however, has recovered less than half of the 22 million jobs that were lost as a result of the virus. At least 534,000 of these will not be restored at all. Food and beverage services regained 134,000 jobs in August but still have 2.5 million fewer since February. Retailers added 249,000 jobs but are at 655,000 fewer than in February.
Voting by mail is beginning. North Carolina mailed out the first ballots of the 2020 election today. At least 643,000 voters have requested absentee ballots in North Carolina, and hundreds of thousands more are expected to do so in the coming weeks. In 2016, by way of contrast, the state received only 38,871 absentee ballots. Donald Trump’s reaction was characteristic: he visited the state earlier this week and urged voters to test the system by mailing in their votes and then showing up personally at the polls – thereby committing a felony by attempting to vote twice. This blatant attempt to derail the election process is a good sign in a way; it means that he is becoming anxious about the results in November.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 26,772,294; # of deaths worldwide: 878,070; # of cases U.S.: 6,386,496; # of deaths U.S.: 192,032. Our case count increase is back to over 50,000 again. The death toll is only slightly under 1,000.