the election by the numbers

 You can break down just about anything by the numbers, so I figured I would take a crack at the election.  I am not getting into the obvious numbers here, such as 45, the number of presidents who have served this country -- well 44 and then the present occupant of the office -- or 270 of 538, the number of electoral college votes needed to win the election.  Let's take a look at some of the more interesting and illuminating numbers.  Where possible, I have provided links to the source of the numbers.

19 -- as in Covid

0 -- purportedly the number of times cadet bone spurs has attended a meeting of the coronavirus task force in the past several months.  

https://www.axios.com/fauci-trump-hasnt-been-to-covid-task-force-meeting-in-months-7b05721c-d670-400e-8540-2316c18553e7.html

Also the number of vaccines that are presently available to the public.  While I do not have a precise count, it is noted that cadet bone spurs has predicted any number of times that a vaccine would be ready before election day.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/trump-says-he-thinks-us-could-start-distributing-a-coronavirus-vaccine-in-october.html

https://fortune.com/2020/09/04/trump-vaccine-election-day-race/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-17/will-a-vaccine-be-ready-by-election-day-trump-and-scientists-disagree

54 -- The number of times he downplayed the virus in public, in spite of the fact that he knew how deadly this virus was at the time, as evidenced from the Woodward tapes.  We note that this is undoubtedly a low number as it comes from a source in May of this year.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/the-fix/54-times-trump-downplayed-the-coronavirus/2020/03/05/790f5afb-4dda-48bf-abe1-b7d152d5138c_video.html

234,218 and 1,188,211 -- Number of covid-19 deaths in the United States and worldwide as of early morning, October 30, 2020.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

545 -- Children forcibly separated from their parents at the border with Mexico and never reunited, in spite of court orders to expedite reunions.  It is reported that the organizations attempting to reunite these families believe it is never going to happen.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/lawyers-say-they-can-t-find-parents-545-migrant-children-n1244066

0 -- The number of tax returns he has released.

1 --  The number of audits his tax returns are presently undergoing -- at least, this is what he admits to.

$70,000 -- Amount of deduction he is said to have claimed for one year of having his hair made up daily.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/business/trump-taxes-hair.html

$21,100,000 -- Amount of deduction he claimed on his 2015 tax return as a nature conservancy claim for not developing his Seven Springs Estate in Mt. Kisco, NY.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/09/eric-trump-westchester-compound-tax-write-off

$130,000 -- Hush money payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-cohen/fbi-documents-point-to-trump-role-in-hush-money-for-porn-star-daniels-idUSKCN1UD18D

2010 -- The tax year of the audit he claims is preventing him from releasing his tax returns.  The audit is said to have begun in 2011. 

3 years from date of filing, and then 1 year afterwards -- The amount of time the IRS has to bring an audit of a tax return, and then the average time it takes to complete the audit.

https://www.freshbooks.com/hub/taxes/how-long-do-irs-audits-take#:~:text=After%20you%20receive%20the%20Internal,are%20completed%20within%20a%20year.

$400,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 -- The range of debts owed by him coming due within the next few years.  We presently do not know exactly to whom this money is owed and the source(s) of the original debt(s).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_of_Donald_Trump#:~:text=Trump%20has%20a%20total%20of,reported%20Forbes%20in%20October%202020.

The total may have been more; however, it is reported that he negotiated forgiveness of approximately $281,000,000 of that debt.  Once again, we do not know the original source of the debt, although it appears to have been related to a failed Chicago real estate venture, and what the creditor(s) may have gotten in return for the debt forgiveness.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/lenders-forgave-287-million-in-unpaid-debt-by-trump-report-11603844181

$750 -- The amount he appears to have paid on his federal income tax for 2017 and 2018.  He claimed at the last debate that he only paid this much because he prepaid his taxes.  Here's a hint to cadet bone spurs and to those who do not know.  When you "pre-pay" your taxes, the amount of money you pre-pay must be included on the tax return.  This is how the total amount of the taxes is calculated; therefore, they must be on the return even if "pre-paid".  This would even include taxes you paid in a previous year that would go towards the tax assessment in the year of the return.  In other words, when he said his reflected tax liability is not accurately reflected on the 2017 and 2018 returns because he pre-paid his taxes, he was either blissfully ignorant of what is included in any tax return, or he was lying.

Speaking of lying...

22,247 -- The number of proven lies he has told since assuming the presidency.  This number is undoubtedly too low, as it comes from a Washington Post article noting that the tally is from August 27, 2020.  The post indicated that he was averaging about fifty lies a day.  One wonders how many lies it would be if he did not have to take breaks to eat and go to the bathroom.

7 -- Number of presidential advisers who have been indicted.  This is as of August 20, 2020.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/20/how-many-trump-advisers-were-criminally-charged-steve-bannon-makes-7/5616793002/

I suppose we could go on and on with further numbers associated with the election, but at this point, you get the point.  So I leave you with one final number:

4 -- more years of this?  

Really?

the quiet before the storm

My next door neighbor here on the north shore of Long Island has put up a Trump sign on his front lawn, just a couple of feet from the curb.

Frankly, I do not care.  It is entirely within his rights to put up a sign in support of whatever candidate he supports, even if that candidate is cadet bone spurs.  The sign itself is one of those very small unobtrusive things that look like it could be blown over by a moderate breeze -- you know, just like cadet bone spurs himself.  I do not know how long the sign has been there.  My wife and I only noticed it about a week ago.  Since then, I have noticed that the sign is primarily hidden from the public by a car that parks directly in front of it on the street just about every day.  I do not know if the car belongs to my MAGA neighbor or somebody else.

Why the neighbor has put up the sign this time around is not entirely known.  While  I do not recall him placing signs on his front lawn in past elections, even the last one in which cadet bone spurs was running, I suppose it is entirely possible that he did, and I simply did not notice.  I do know that there has been an influx of Hispanic families moving into the neighborhood over the past several years, including one immediately next door on the other side of MAGA neighbor and one across the street.  I would hope that this is not the reason he chose to erect his sign this time around.  Along this line of thought, however, I would note that we have a friend who lives in the next town over.  This friend is Chinese.  A neighbor of hers, who lives across the street, has placed a large sign on a telephone poll on the edge of his property, accompanied by a number of flags in various states of disrepair, directly across the street from her, pointed directly at her front door, which among other gems, states, "This is America.  Speak English", and if that wasn't clear enough, "Boycott all Chinese Take Outs".  Our friend does not own any Chinese restaurants that we know of.  Another friend, also Chinese, who lives on the other side of Long Island, tells us she has been getting, to put it mildly, chilly receptions from neighbors when she placed a Biden Harris sign in front of her house, in what appears to be a mostly cadet bone spurs neighborhood.

I am sure that none of the MAGA types involved here think they are bad people, and I am willing to concede that some, if not most of them are not.  I do not know the neighbors of my friends.  I do know that our south shore friend tells us that she has gotten along well with the neighbors in the past, and is still mostly friendly with them.  I have not been buddies with my MAGA neighbor over the years, and have never been in his home in the thirty some odd years we have both lived here.  I admit I am a terrible neighbor, as for the most part, I do not even know the names of the people who have lived for years directly around me, including MAGA neighbor, who has lived next door the entire time.  I have exchanged pleasantries with MAGA neighbor over the years.  We have lived in peace in the neighborhood, which is a middle class one in which the neighbors smile and wave hello whenever you see them and do help each other out in a pinch.  It is all I have ever wanted in my neighborhood, and I expect it to remain that way, even after November 3.

Given the sign on MAGA neighbor's lawn, my wife and I took a drive around the community yesterday to survey electioneering signs in a radius of about a half a dozen blocks all around us.  The results were rather surprising, considering that we have seen many signs throughout the years in connection with dozens of elections ranging from national to local.  We note that MAGA neighbor's sign was the only cadet bone spurs sign in front of any house we saw.  I do not know if we should feel honored to live right next door to the only such sign in the community.  On the other hand, while there were about a half dozen signs in total for various candidates in various races, there were only two Biden/Harris signs, both of which were on the same block just around the corner from our house.

We do not believe our neighborhood is any less into the election or any more or less politically involved than any other neighborhood.  We do believe there is a certain feeling I am not yet ready to categorize as fear that people do not wish to make their political feelings known this time around for fear of attracting retaliation from neighbors or those just looking for trouble.  Not putting up a sign on your lawn is a small price to pay in order to protect your lawn or your home from vandalism or worse.  There have been reports around the country, if not necessarily in this neck of the woods, of people having signs stolen or set on fire right in front of their homes.  I have little doubt what the reaction of the neighbor of our friends in the next town would be to her putting a Biden/Harris sign on their front lawn pointed at the neighbor's house, although if her sign contained a large print menu, it might be fun to film the neighbor's reaction.

So the signs stay in the shed or the basement, and folks quietly go about their business, perhaps making calls or sending e-mails and texts to help get out the vote, which are mostly done anonymously, perhaps making plans for surviving the election and the days that follow, which is somehow what we have come to.  Instead of making plans to celebrate our country regardless of who wins the election, we are looking at election day as a sort of armeggedon.  I half expect the four horsemen of the apocalypse to come charging down the street in front of the house at about midnight November 3.  There is half a thought that MAGA neighbor will come roaring from his house with an AR-15 if cadet bone spurs looks like he is going down in flames, even if I do not know if he owns any weapons at all.

I would love to be out at the ranch where there are no neighbors on election night, but we are here.  We will hunker down with our freezer filled with supplies to last for a few weeks and our kerosene heater to keep the first floor of the house warm.  We will hide in the basement if we have to.

And we will pray like mad that cadet bone spurs will slink away quietly, as will his supporters.