A Fawning Putin and a Stern Biden...?

"I want to say that the image of President Biden that our press and even the American press paints has nothing in common with reality,"

"He was on a long trip, had flown across the Ocean, and had to contend with jet lag and the time difference. When I fly it takes its toll. But he looked cheerful, we spoke face-to-face for two or maybe more hours. He's completely across his brief."

"Biden is a professional, and you have to be very careful in working with him to make sure you don’t miss anything. He doesn’t miss anything, I can assure you." 

Russian President Vladimir Putin

"We didn't need to spend more time talking. [I informed Mr. Putin that] we need some basic rules of the road that we can all abide by. I did what I came to do."

"[There was] no substitute for face-to-face dialogue, [I told him the agenda was] not against Russia [but] for the American people."

"This is not about trust, this is about self-interest and verification of self-interest [with a] genuine prospect [of improving relations]."

U.S. President Joe Biden

U.S. President Joe Biden (left) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin meet at the start of the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. (Denis Balibouse)

They're not strangers to one another, although relations between them have been strained; the cool distance between Washington and Moscow has been awhile brewing. President Biden's predecessor had a relaxed, somewhat warmish relationship with President Putin. The Democratic White House is aggrieved over what it believes was Russian interference in the election that brought Donald Trump to four years in the White House. Nonsense, Moscow responds.

The summit between them on June 16 was productive, in a cool, businesslike way, according to each of the participants. Despite that no feel-good, accomplishment-proud joint news conference took place after their frank discussions laying (almost) everything on the table. There were some 'don't go there' issues that each made clear were not up for discussion, and they weren't. Both accomplished politicians, actors, diplomats, smile on cue.

Vital issues like arms control and cybersecurity talks proceeded. The discussions were to have consumed between four to five hours. And to make certain that it was well understood that this was strictly business, no food to be served; water sufficed on this occasion. The exercise in 'airing it all' (almost) took much less time than anticipated; between two to three hours, so no hardship for either in threats of famishing penance.

Certainly the setting was conducive to feeling good, at the lakeside Villa La Grange in Geneva. In the end, 68-year-old Vladimir Putin, acquiesced to the 78 year-old American president, graciously putting the lie to early dementia capturing the older man's brain. To Mr. Biden's severity of purpose, Mr. Putin was less curt and dismissive in a notable role-reversal, expressing his confidence in his political adversary as a constructive, experienced discussion partner, speaking "the same language".

Reminiscent in part, of former U.S. President George W.Bush enthusing that looking into Vladimir Putin's eyes assured him that this was a man he "could do business with". But in the final analysis, was unable to. Relations between the two countries have been tense. The Kremlin came under fairly universal condemnation with its surprise annexation of Crimea and its military arming, training and fighting alongside ethnic Russian Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. An issue that Mr. Putin is rather prickly about; off-limits.

 

President Putin, briefing reporters following their discussion, and in lieu of the more generally accepted joint news conference spoke of the two sides making progress on shared goals, that the meeting had set aside hostilities as indication of the two leaders' wish to make an effort to understand the framework of the position each spoke from. It was "hard to say" whether relations would improve beyond a "glimpse of hope" that mutual trust might result.

 

The remaining distance between them expressed by the lack of geniality in each inviting the other to visit their respective capitals. According to Mr. Biden, much time was spent on discussions around arms control and cyber-attacks, when it was made clear by him to Mr. Putin that "critical infrastructure should be off-limits". As emphasis, he handed over a list of 16 strategic sectors to Mr. Putin, who undoubtedly has a similar list back home in Moscow. 

The impression was left with Mr. Biden that there was genuine concern of being "encircled", the belief by Mr. Putin that Washington planned to "take him down". And of course, Mr. Biden assured Mr. Putin that such was not the case; they just had to accommodate themselves to the practicality of getting along and pursuing their mutual interests in ensuring the good of the global community was uppermost in mind, primarily in restraints in arms control.

He did warn Mr. Putin, he said, of consequences should jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny expire in prison as a result of detention conditions; a situation that would prove to be "devastating for Russia". Both agreed without hesitation that Moscow and Washington shared nuclear stability responsibility; further discussions on altering the recently extended New START arms limitation treaty would be on the agenda.

Mr. Putin made it abundantly clear that concerns about Mr. Navalny's fate should rest solely with Russia and expanded Russia military presence close to the eastern border of Ukraine was also Russia's internal business. He laid to rest as far as he was concerned the very absurdity of Russian responsibility for a series of cyber-attacks in the United States. 

Although both Mr.Putin and Mr. Biden expressed the hope that more stable, predictable relations between the two countries might result prior to their meeting, it appeared somewhat obvious that the meeting itself did little to advance that prospect; cool, collected, remote relations. The irritants expressed on the U.S. side unresolved to its satisfaction, and guaranteed to remain so in the near future. "I'm not confident he'll change his behaviour", the last words on the matter by Mr. Biden.

President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, arrived to meet at the Villa la Grange on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, in Geneva, Switzerland. (Saul Loeb)

"I watched Putin's press conference after the summit meeting, but since Russians have heard most of his lies and evasions for years, there wasn't much new for me. The foreign audience seemed shocked when Putin said Navalny had only himself to blame for consciously breaking parole by leaving the country -- even though Navalny was evacuated to Germany in a poison-induced coma. He also tried to justify the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 (which he used to deny) by arguing that it had introduced "stability" after the independent nation struggled to free itself from Putin's grip. Putin also denied responsibility for cyberattacks and blamed the US for being the biggest offender."

"These are examples of the absurd, reality-twisting nonsense Russians are fed 24-7 by the state-controlled media, and Putin was delighted to have the chance to spread it around the world. Had Biden wanted to send a real message to Putin, he would have met instead with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. Or with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leading opposition candidate in Belarus' sham elections last year, who is now living in exile after fleeing persecution by Putin's loyal servant Belarusian despot Alexander Lukashenko. Or Biden could have extended a White House invitation to the families of Putin's many victims."

Opinion by Garry Kasparov, CNN

Defending Against The Enemy Within

Met Police Dept Narc officer Michael Fanone  ABC News

"It looked like a medieval battle scene. Some of the most brutal combat I've ever encountered."

"There’s no longer any police lines. There's just chaos. Rioters running rampant across the Capitol grounds, fatigued, you know, injured officers everywhere."

"[Officers who were in the tunnel defending the Capitol were] fighting like lions."

"Some guys pulled me out into the crowd and some were yelling something ... they were beating me."  "At one point, I got tased, people were yelling out, 'We got one. We got one'."

"Individuals in the crowd tried to get my gun. At one point, people started chanting, 'Kill him with his own gun'. I remember at one point, you know, some of the people in the crowd while I was getting tasered, they were stripping my gear off of my vest, my badge off my radio. They started grabbing ammunition magazines from my belt."

"I remember yelling out, not to anybody in specific, 'I have kids' and it seemed to work."

Michael Fanone, 20-year narcotics officer, Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department

 

Met Police Dept Officer Daniel Hodges ABC News

"Some of them were absolutely crazed -- I would  call them zealous true believers. They would let nothing stop them from getting inside. And it didn't matter, what they had to do to get inside."

"I thought, 'this could be the end,' or 'I could not get out of this completely intact'."

"The guy in front of me, that guy, he was  practically foaming at the mouth. He was screaming and just grabbed my arm, grabbed my filter on my masks, started beating my head against the door frame and ripping it off as best he could."

"Once he got my mask off, he also was able to rip away my night baton from me and started beating me in the head with it."

"Once they ripped my mask off, I was sucking in pepper spray, OC spray and tear gas the entire time. Obviously, that many people yelling in the tunnel is extremely loud. It was just a sensory overload. But all I know is that no one was getting by me."

“They were waving the 'thin-blue-line flag' while they were assaulting us."

"It’s not an exaggeration to say that we defended a democracy, that everyone's duly-elected representatives were in that building and the mob outside was not." 

Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges

Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they push barricades to storm the Capitol  
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

 

Washington, federal District of Columbia is preparing to inaugurate a new president, the 46th President of the United States of America. The inauguration will take place during a time of great internal division, the polarization of America between left and right, Democrat and Republican. Bipartisan reconciliation at this time in the history of the United States appears exceedingly remote. Americans failed to see any measure of agreement, only dissonance and hostility between those they elected to the House of Representatives and in the Senate in the past four years, and what they saw instructed them on how to react.

 

The United States Congress is so fundamentally at odds it seems to have disintegrated into a heckling, jeering high-school chorus of juvenile delinquents at times. The Democrats turned sharp left, their junior members calling for a version of America that would reflect their social values and they would accept nothing less. The Republicans remained wedded to their version of America the Great, the showpiece of world order and Democracy in Action. And their choice for president of that great country astonished the world. And the world watched as the United States retreated from its position of eminent leadership.

 

When Donald Trump was elected president, Democrats refused to accept that this was their new democratically elected president, that a majority of Americans saw promise in this man and opted to bring him to office. Rallies were organized post inauguration, conspiracy theories were given prominent and official status, and for the length of his stay in office until he was thwarted for a second term, he was considered by Democrats to be an illegal resident of the White House. Now, with the ascension of Joe Biden it is the Republicans' turn to refuse acknowledgment of his legitimacy -- with a vengeance, rude and violent.

There are now more troops stationed in Washington and around the 50 states than the collective of U.S. servicemen in Europe, Iraq or Afghanistan. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the federal body that serves as the internal monitor of criminal investigation in the United States, along with the Department of Homeland Security has warned lawmakers of the presence of radicalized followers of President Trump in dangerous insurrection mode, planning ongoing violent attacks against the nation in their zeal to promote overturning of the election results that rejected Mr.Trump and won the presidency for Mr.Biden.

 

Protesters climbed the bleachers that were erected for Biden's inauguration   Getty Images

Countrywide, armed attacks by radicalized militants for whom the prospect of President Trump leaving the White House for a Biden/Democratic occupancy motivates them to threaten the stability and security of the nation by an armed insurrection of hostile far-right and nationalist elements, among the 76 million loyal Americans who voted for a man who promised that their working-class rights would be upheld against the elites and the capitalists entrenched in Washington who look after their own well-being, disinterested in the needs of the greater population. They believed him then, and believe him still.

With the president's second impeachment, and his loyal followers' display of hostile, derogatory and violent reactions -- with the current of viral disaffection still on display as Internet communications continue to recruit and build on the violent disruption that took place on 6 January, the country is on virtual lockdown, not because of the coronavirus sweeping maliciously through the country, but martial law resulting from the malevolent violence of mob action in support of a disgraced president.

"Lacking designations for initiating a nationwide case for pursuing connected violence, federal law enforcement largely pursues cases reactively after an attack."

"Individual cases are pursued across dozens or even hundreds of jurisdictions even though subjects congregate, communicate, and collaborate with each other in online environments. Domestic terrorism's lack of designation also results in no effective measure for understanding the size, shape, and scale of each violent extremist threat."

Clint Watts, cybersecurity and counterterrorism expert

 

The FBI appears to believe that the riot in Washington was an "inside job" aided and abetted by a few members of Congress or their aides, along with some police. Last year a report emerged stating that supremacists and neo-Nazis had infiltrated security, military and police forces nationwide. Two known radical members of Congress appear to be under investigation. Unless these claims too, are part of a wider web of conspiracy theories. As though the entire nation has become the victim of fallacious demagoguery, suffering from a mass psychosis. 

That President Donald Trump in his dwindling days in power, incited thousands of his faithful followers to embark on a trajectory of violent dissent, disrupting the transition between administrations, casting aspersions on the kind of democracy they see playing out no longer favouring their version of events is beyond question. His speech furthermore -- hours before the mob's descent on the Capitol -- primed the mob to action, urged them to flood the Capitol, to leave no doubt that he and he alone is fit to govern the United States of America.

 

Michael Fanone, a DC detective, was dragged into the crowd and beaten   Reuters

A Pox On Both Their Houses

"Armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols from 16 January through at least 20 January, and at the U.S. Capitol from 17 January through 20 January,"

"While our standard practice is to not comment on specific intelligence products, the FBI is supporting our state, local, and federal law enforcement partners with maintaining public safety in the communities we serve."

"Our efforts are focused on identifying, investigating, and disrupting individuals that are inciting violence and engaging in criminal activity."

FBI Bulletin

 

"We're keeping a look across the entire country to make sure that we're monitoring, and that our Guards in every state are in close co-ordination with their local law enforcement agencies to provide any support requested."  

Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau

 

"A lot of people were energized by what happened last week, State capitals are a natural place where people might want to show up, especially assuming that they think there might be a huge presence of police and military in D.C. because of what happened last week."

"[The Capitol siege demonstrated the emergence of a new movement of] Trumpist extremists, so caught up in the cult of personality around Trump that they may be willing to break the law or engage in violence purely in support of Trump and whatever he wants."

Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow, Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism

 

"The FBI just can't passively sit in websites and forums and social media platforms, waiting to see who's going to present a direct threat versus just someone who is being highly radicalized."

"There has to be an investigative predicate for the FBI to then start even the lowest form of an investigation."

Javed Ali, former FBI senior intelligence officer

A team of FBI agents gather as demonstrators rally outside of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

"In light of events of the past week and the evolving security landscape leading up to the inauguration [the Secret Service has been instructed to begin security operations on January 13 rather than January 19]."

"[Federal, state, and local agencies] will continue to coordinate their plans and position resources for this important event."

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf

Warning that "armed protests" could arise around events linked to the January 20 presidential inauguration in Washington, the FBI made it clear that all fifty state capitals in the U.S. will be susceptible to the potential for rampaging mobs to make their dissatisfaction with the removal of President Trump from office clear, in a nation bifurcated by toxic left-right disagreement. A totally polarized population has resulted from suspicion, fear and anger, well nourished by both the Democratic and Republican parties' elites.

The National Guard has been authorized to ensure that up to 15,000 troops will be on hand in Washington. Tourists are to be barred from access to the Washington Monument until January 24. The theme of the January 20 ceremony to inaugurate Joe Biden, the president-elect is to be "America United", as absurd and tone-deaf a chosen theme under the current toxic circumstances as any that might be imagined. The Democratic Party is playing nice now that one of their own is moving into the Oval Office.

When the Republican choice for president of the United States was elected four years earlier, the Democrats incited their faithful to demonstrate long and loud against an admittedly flawed personage with no experience, yet the choice of a majority of voters. Donald Trump, like him or loathe him, was duly, democratically elected. Indignant crowds of faithful Democrats came out to express their disgust that the White House would be ruled by a crass and crude man for the next four years, and they wanted him removed.

 

 

The Democratic Party itself did all it possibly could to restrain President Trump, to portray him as inept and disloyal to the country, themselves unwilling to sit as lawmakers under a man whom the world viewed askance and whose volatile and ill-chosen statements struck doubt in the hearts of allies. Yet, the democratic process so allegedly dear to Americans' hearts elected the unelectable fairly and squarely. America is decidedly anything but united. Over 70 million Americans voted for a candidate they held trust in and whom senior Democrats slurred. Wounding their own institutions in the process.

The country remains aghast that the bastion of democracy in the United States was attacked. No less so that the man who is their outgoing president did his best to incite the rioters to their task after having built their belief in a 'stolen' election both prior to and following the election that left him a one-term president. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser is anxious that last week's "unprecedented terrorist attack", not be repeated.

State capitals are preparing for the possibility of virulent protests disturbing the peace of the presidential transition at a remote on and around January 20. To that possibility they have responded by taking proactive, preventive measures of their own. On Monday the Michigan State Capitol Commission unanimously voted on banning the open carry of firearms inside the state capitol building, voting 6-0 for the measure.

 

"Given what's going on across the country, we moved up our meeting to consider the issue. It's now done and will be implemented by Michigan State Police", announced John Truscott, vice-chairman of the commission. No one wants a repeat of an event that sent lawmakers into fearful hiding, a riot, invasion and threat to America's democracy that took the lives of five people. Dozens who were part of the rampaging mob have been charged in the violence they took part in, with many more yet to be arrested.

 

"Never Give Up, Never Concede"

"THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, OUR COUNTRY, NEEDS THE PRESIDENCY MORE THAN EVER BEFORE -- THE POWER OF THE VETO: STAY STRONG!"

"We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved."  

"We won this election, and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election."

"Our country has had enough and we will not take it any more."

U.S.President Donald Trump

Supporters of US President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday    Reuters

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden  Getty Images

"[The actions of the protesters] borders on sedition."

"[For demonstrators to storm the Capitol, smash windows, occupy offices, invade the halls of Congress and threaten the safety of duly elected officials:] It's not a protest, it's insurrection."

"I call on this mob to pull back and allow the work of democracy to go forward."

"President Trump must demand on national television] an end to this siege."

"Let me be very clear; the scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not represent who we are. What we are seeing is a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness. This is not dissent, it's disorder. It borders on sedition, and it must end. Now."

President-elect Joe Biden

"The violence and destruction taking place at the U.S. Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now."

"Anyone involved must respect Law Enforcement officers and immediately leave the building."

Vice President Mike Pence

 

"What happened at the U.S. Capitol today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States."

Utah Senator Mitt Romney

US Capitol Siege: Donald Trump supporters swarmed the US Capitol on Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, protesters numbering in the thousands, dressed in MAGA caps and camouflage gear gathered at the Ellipse to hear their president address them. Encourage them. Praise them. Reiterate that the November presidential election had been fraught with illegal attempts to stop him from remaining in the Oval Office for a second term to serve America as the !Best President Ever! The election that had been stolen from Mr. Trump and the American people was an intolerable evil that must be countered and reversed.

 

The crowd roared their outrage, shouted their disgust, screamed that they would not allow their president to be replaced. "USA! USA! USA!" One person in the adoring crowd shouted: "Which way's the Revolution!" That was 11:00 a.m., Washington.

Hours later, the U.S. Senate was being addressed by Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford. Suddenly approached by an aide advising him that the protesters once gathered outside, were no longer outside. A crowd had toppled the barricades to storm through them to reach the fields leading to the
Capitol. Congress was meeting in the building to count electoral college votes confirming the election of the next president of the United States. Capitol police stood guard, unable to hold back the human tide.

Soon, shouting "forward!" hundreds of protestors scaled the barricades, kicked them aside and ran toward the steps of the Capitol, to be stopped by law enforcement while several made it through, scaling metal construction structures. They were tackled by police as dozens of law enforcement agents descended the steps. At the back of the Capitol building police released smoke explosives into the crowd, releasing a green irritant, dispersing some within the crowd who soon returned, putting on masks.

"We were just told that there has been tear gas in the rotunda and we're being instructed to each of us get gas masks that are under our seats", a video by Rep.Peter Welch a Vermont Democrat notified, posted on Twitter. As the House doors slammed shut, the U.S. Capitol Police warned: "Stay away from exterior windows, doors. If outside, seek cover". The police line-up was shoved up the steps on the east  side of the Capitol by the protesters, allowing a small group to break into the building.

President Trump had urged Mike Pence to overturn the election, but the vice-president stood in the House rebuffing the demand and issued a statement before addressing Congress, saying while he shares concerns of the "integrity" of the election, he lacked the legislative power to unilaterally overturn the results. Beginning with Alabama, the Electoral College results were presented alphabetically. When Arizona came up Republicans raised their first objection, planning to repeat objections for Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

A dozen Republican senators led by Senator Ted Cruz, alongside a majority of the 211 Republicans in the House were prepared to object to the College results, holding them to be ill-got and illegal. Before an hour had passed, Vice-President Pence was escorted from the Senate while police evacuated both Houses of Congress. House chamber lawmakers were advised to take possession of gas masks and prepare to wear them while officers at the front door of the House chamber held their weapons drawn against anyone attempting to enter.

Those in the chamber were ordered to drop to the floor for safety, then several hundred House members, staff and press were evacuated to a safe location, instructed to remain there. An ambulance pulled up to the southeast corner of the Capital just before 3:00 p.m. discharging a team of paramedics with a gurney rushing to the south side of the building. "White female, shot in the shoulder", a Capital Police Officer said as they rushed past him. The first casualty of a total of four left dead.

"I think we need to make a statement, make sure that we can calm individuals down", House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California said, calling on the president to produce a statement to calm the mob. From the Oval Office, the president tweeted a call to "stay peaceful. You have to go home now, we have to have peace", he said in a video posted to Twitter before the platform cut his account. 

As dusk se4ttled in, the entire District of Columbia National Guard force of 1,100 arrived and a citywide 6:00 p.m. curfew was announced. "I really don't hope for a civil war. But there are people who won't be pushed around. Americans aren't those kind of people", said Mike Wyatt, 44, who had driven to the Washington Monument from Missouri, for a final chance to 'save their country from a fraudulent election'. 

Supporters of President Donald Trump who are wearing attire associated with the Proud Boys attend a rally at Freedom Plaza, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

The National Message Has Undergone a Massive Transformation

"We could save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months. Not Democratic or Republican lives. American lives." 

"I implore you. Wear a mask. Do it for yourself. Do it for your neighbour. A mask is not a political statement."

"The goal is to get back to normal as fast as possible. And masks are critical in doing that. It won't be forever."

"But that's how we'll get out nation back up to speed economically, so we can go back to celebrating birthdays and holidays together, so we can attend sporting events together, so that we can get back to the lives and connections we shared before the pandemic."

"I hope it [Catholic hymn -- "On Eagle's Wings"] can provide some comfort and solace to the 230,000 Americans who have lost a loved one to this terrible virus this year. My heart goes out to each and every one of you."

U.S.President-Elect Joe Biden

"Given the fact that the statisticians have come to a conclusion at this stage, I think we get behind the new President."

"You're not going to change the nature of President Trump in these last days."

"He has a relatively relaxed relationship with the truth. And so he's going to keep on fighting until the very end, But I'm convinced that, once all remedies have been exhausted, if those are exhausted in a way that's not favorable to him, he will accept the inevitable."

"But don't expect him to go quietly in the night. That's not how he operates."

Mitt Romney, Utah Senator, former presidential aspirant 

"[I ask Americans to set aside their political differences and] give him a chance and lend him your support."

"When he walks into the White House in January, he'll face a series of extraordinary challenges no incoming President ever has -- a raging pandemic, an unequal economy and justice system, a democracy at risk, and a climate in peril."

"I know he'll do the job with the best interests of every American at heart, whether or not he had their vote. [The election results] at every level show that the country remains deeply and bitterly divided."

"It will be up to not just Joe and Kamala, but each of us, to do our part -- to reach out beyond our comfort zone, to listen to others, to lower the temperature and find some common ground from which to move forward." 

Former President Barack Obama 

 

"[I] WON THE ELECTION." 

"Bad things happened [during the election his poll observers were not permitted to view]."

"71,000,000 Legal Votes. The most EVER for a sitting President!" [Biden had won 74.5 million votes and Trump had won 70.4 million votes]."

"I will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands."

U.S.President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump has cast doubt on whether he will commit to a peaceful transfer of power.

Mr. Biden has gone into action, first things first; attending to the disastrous pandemic that has stricken over ten million Americans and taken the lives of a quarter million U.S. citizens in its sweep through the continent, striking the United States ferociously. A fact that the sitting administration should but would not admit to having had some hand in producing primarily through the off-hand attitude of its president who constantly and deliberately downplayed the nature of the threat that SARS-CoV-2 represented.

 

Jeering at the namby-panby individuals who followed science and wore masks and diligently social distanced, he did otherwise, setting an example for his avid followers, an example that bit back when he contracted the disease himself and with the considerable assistance of therapies not available to ordinary citizens, surmounted the disease, while members of his administration began succumbing to COVID-19 like dominoes falling in order, struck down in their turn. 

Millions of Americans are now unemployed as a result of the turmoil in the economy in overturning normal business, production and economies as they have been worldwide. Mr. Trump made no secret of the fact that he focused primarily on returning the economy back to a firm footing to restore losses in trade, the stock market, the country's employment figures. It was only the elderly that were really under threat, he shrugged, characterizing them as expendable in the larger interests at stake for the U.S. economy to get back to production and work and profitability.

The latest close Trump associate testing positive for COVID was Housing Secretary Ben Carson, following hard on the revelation that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tested positive. Mr. Biden spoke of his team focus on rapid testing to be widely available and a corps of contact-tracers tracking and curbing the spread of the pathogen, prioritizing vulnerable populations such as the health-impaired and the elderly. Approved vaccines would be "distributed as quickly as possible to as many Americans as possible, free of charge".

Credit: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty

Compelling scenarios allied with today's surprise revelation from Pfizer that they and their German collaborator BioNTech had succeeded in developing a promising vaccine -- that ongoing Third Stage human trials have proven 90 percent successful in a double-blind trial involving 44,000 volunteers. The vaccine producers are prepared to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for immediate assent for use of the vaccine which they are prepared to produce 50 million doses of by the end of 2020, increasing to well over a billion doses next year.