Update on numbers
Two more numbers today:
n 17 — the number of attorneys general supporting the ridiculous and frivolous lawsuit brought by Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, against Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in the Supreme Court aimed at disqualifying the millions of votes cast in those states and, instead, hand over all those states’ electoral votes to President Trump. Sadly, our own attorney general, Lynn Fitch, is among the 17 who care more about their careers and their party than the danger this presents to our enduring democracy. Although this case is pathetic and doomed to failure — at least this time — it is ‘madness’ (thank you, Senator Romney). Moreover, it is the insane focus of our increasingly checked-out and incompetent outgoing president who cares not for the vastly more important number which is…
n 3,053 — the number of new deaths due to Covid-19 recorded Wednesday, December 9th (surpassed by slightly more again the following day).
Yes, Wednesday the US reached a different sort of singularity — the first day of the pandemic in which more people died from Covid-19 than did on 9/11. And now, cumulatively, we have recorded more deaths in the US from Covid-19 than servicemen and women lost in World War II. The daunting effect of this virus and its ever-crushing toll on our health care facilities, especially those health care workers on the front line — is, also pathetically, a fact still denied by many in this country; this is a big part of why we are in this position in the first place. We have, for the most part, our outgoing president to thank for this. But the great majority of Congressional Republicans are complicit. If you lose a loved one, please remember who to hold accountable.
To say that I am disgusted by the incompetence of the Trump administration’s response to this virus is quite likely the most dramatic understatement I have ever made. The most scientifically advanced country in the world is also the country with the most mis-managed response in the entire first world.
I’ll say it again — I cannot believe what I am seeing. Nor can the rest of the world, I’m fairly certain.
Paul Mack
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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