Coffee Grounds, Tea Leaves and Crystal Balls

Two things seem abundantly clear right now about the future:  Donald Trump will not be elected for a second term, and COVID-19 will be with us well into 2021.

I am no prognosticator but there are clear indicators.  Trump is well behind Biden in the polls.  He does not have a plan for what he wants to tackle in a second term.  He cares more about protecting statuary than flesh and blood Americans, including those in his own base who risked illness and death for his vacuous pep rallies.  He is being savaged by Democrats and Republicans across the country—The Lincoln Project continues to lay open Trump’s many sins and failures, and they are Republicans!

Trump has angered Americans and his example of poor leadership and bullying, his unhinged and racist behavior, his total ineptitude and incompetence, has put our country and its people at risk both from threats abroad and the coronavirus at home.  He has blood on his hands.  He stands idly by while Russia pays bounties on dead American soldiers in Afghanistan.  COVID-19 cases are now on the rise again, and his cadre of Republican lemmings face growing anger in their home states as the crisis wave approaches.  The pandemic of stupidity over wearing masks and closing beaches means we are in for a rough few weeks as cases and the death toll soar.

At this point, is it even clear that Trump will make it to election day as a candidate?  Faced with the growing evidence of a coming humiliating defeat, he may just decide to drop out.  If he cannot win, he may take his toys and go home.  If he abdicates from his campaign, look for Pence to move to the top spot of the ticket with possibly Tom Cotton (R-Ark) as his vice president.  Certainly, that would be another disaster.  If Trump cannot bully his way into a second term in the bully pulpit, anything is possible.

The COVID-19 threat simply will not go away any time soon.  Vaccines are a year or more away.  There are no therapeutics or pharmaceuticals to mitigate the rate of infection and death.  The economy has collapsed and unemployment is rising.  When Hannity asked Trump last week on Fox News what were his plans for a second term, none of these crises were mentioned.  He rambled on and on again, prosecuting old hurts and slights.  This narcissist cannot even summon the human decency to express empathy with those who are sick and dying.

It is clear in the growing number of cases that we reopened too soon.  There are a number of concerns that seemed to require we do something—especially in regards to small businesses and the economy—but this isn’t it.  People have to be healthy and free from fear of contagion to really rejuvenate the economy and reopen for business.  With Trump, he believes that if he says it must happen, no one should question him.  Dictators and totalitarian governments work that way:  nullify the free press and freedom of speech, and then no one questions the lies.  We reopened too soon, and from the start, there was no plan of defense, no czar to coordinate the response on a federal level, no one designated person to speak truth to the people.  Instead, we got the circus of Trump “briefings” every day.  And nothing has changed in this so-called “second wave.”

All the talk this week about reopening schools is also premature.  In fact, this is a crisis in the making.  We can hang shower curtains between bar stools, put plexi-glass between diners in a restaurant, and wash down cash registers and check-out stands in markets, but this will be difficult to do consistently in a classroom to keep students safe.  None of the proposed solutions seem to fully address the risk.  Some students in class on different days, hand sanitizers at the door, masks at all times—this is going to be stressful and distracting for teachers and students.

Teaching classes online has its own set of difficulties, as we have seen.  Not everyone has internet at home.  It is difficult to keep everyone on point and focused, both with young and with more mature students.  How do we reach out with services to support classroom instruction when they are not on campus?  Lots of unanswered questions in this area.

Add all of this to the idiocy of some Americans who scream and stamp their feet because they must wear a mask, and we have a perfect storm of incompetence, ignorance and infection.

This year, 2020, will continue to be one fraught with danger and uncertainty.  Somehow, we must take a breath, assess where we are, and do the difficult work to effect change in the way we live and the way we go forward into the future.  Our lives depend on it.