CA Governor's personal Kobayashi Maru

For those who are not fans of Star Trek, the Kobayashi Maru is a Starfleet Academy training device that explores the no-win scenario.  You can read more about it here.

CA Governor Gavin Newsom was thrust into a no-win scenario when Senator Kamala Harris was elected Vice-President.  She will leave her U.S. Senate seat next month when she takes on her new office.  The question as to who Newsom would choose was answered this past Tuesday.  He chose CA Secretary of State Alex Padilla, making Padilla the first Latinx Senator from California.  Considering that over 35% of the state's population is Latinx, it appears to be a safe choice.  Padilla and Newsom are long-time allies.

There was a lot of pressure on Newsom to appoint a Black woman to replace Harris, only the second Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.  The California Legislative Black Caucus' message to Newsom was "Keep The Seat."  A message that was apparently ignored.

Karen Bass and Barbara Lee were two of the names floated as possible replacements for Harris.  Both are members of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Both won reelection last month by very wide margins, indicating that their districts are very "safe."  So appointing either of these well-qualified women would not have put the narrow Democratic margin in the House in danger.  

Appointing Padilla has pissed off those who wanted Newsome to appoint a Black woman.  Appointing either of the two women mentioned above would have pissed off those who wanted Newsom to appoint a Latinx individual to the seat.

What Newsom could have done would be to appoint a caretaker who would not seek reelection to the seat.  Former CA Governor Jerry Brown would have been a good choice.  Doing this would allow the people of California to make the choice.  If population demographics were to win out, it is probable that a Latinx candidate would have prevailed.  The state's racial composition according to 2018 data from the U.S. Census Bureau is:

72.1% White (including 35.8% Hispanic Whites)

15.3% Asian

6.5% Black

3.9% Two or more races

1.6% Native American

0.5% Hawaiian or Pacific Islander

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L.A. Times columnist Erika D. Smith penned a column two weeks ago suggesting that Governor Newsom could please both his Black and Latinx constituencies if only the state's senior U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein would do the right thing and retire.

Of late there have been questions about Senator Feinstein's short-term memory and other cognitive issues.  I wrote a blog about the issue of the advanced age of the members of Congress back in 2017.  Senator Feinstein was one of those I expressed concerns about.  Another Senator I expressed concerns about was Utah's Orrin Hatch.  Senator Hatch has announced at the time of my blog that he would seek reelection in 2018.  

But in January of 2018 he changed course. "Every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves. And for me that time is soon approaching," Hatch, a former amateur boxer said."  

I can only imagine how it must feel to ponder stepping away from a seat in the U.S. Senate, because you can no longer do the job as well as you once did.  I covered the election of Harry Reid to his first term in the U.S. Senate in 1986.  At the time I could not imagine he would ever retire. I thought he'd serve as long as he could keep winning elections. But in 2015 he lost sight in one of his eyes in an accident.  He cited that as one of the reasons he chose to retire rather than seek another term in 1986.

That being said, I think Senator Feinstein should consider retiring before the end of her current term in 2024.  Maybe not right this moment to fit into Ms Smith's proposed solution to Governor Newsom's dilemma; but before the 2022 primary elections.  Let California choose.

The Rapid Spread of Covid-19

In Texas there is an unnamed wedding photographer who was hired to "shoot" a wedding.  According to an article in Texas Monthly, the groom tested positive for Covid-19 and did not disclose the test results to that photographer. She is in a high-risk group and wouldn't have done the job had the groom disclosed his positive test.  She has now tested positive for Covid-19.

An unidentified man filled out a Covid-19 disclosure form claiming he did not have symptoms prior to boarding a United Airlines flight.  CNN reports that he suffered what appears to have been a heart attack mid-flight and died.  Some of the passengers performed CPR on the man in a desperate attempt to save his life.  Now they are all at risk.

Dr. Deborah Birx of the Trump Administration's Covid-19 task force became the latest member of the "do as I say, not as I do" club.  She advised people to restrict gatherings to their immediate households and then hosted a multi-generational Thanksgiving for more than just her own household.

An 18 year old pre-med student named Skylar Mack went to the Cayman Islands to watch her boyfriend compete in a Jet Ski race. She was ordered to quarantine for 14 days.  She complained that the wristband was too tight and it was loosened. That enabled her to slip it off and go to the race. Four families had to go into isolation because they came in contact with her at the event.

Kirk Cameron organized a mask-free singalong that he labeled as a "peaceful protest."  Medical experts warn against this type of event citing the risk of it becoming a "super-spreader" event.

Meanwhile, the rich and famous are allowed to flout the ban on outdoor dining at Mastro's Ocean Club in Malibu.  But the eating is done inside tents, so it really isn't outdoor dining with the extra ventilation not found in an indoor dining room.

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We hear reports of how ICU bed capacity is less than 5% here in CA in some regions.  Last night's local news reported that ambulances are waiting as long as 7 hours to offload patients.  We are in a crisis.

In 2019 the leading causes of death in the U.S. were heart disease and cancer.  Average number of deaths per day in 2019 for these two causes of death were 1,796 and 1,642 respectively.  Here is the number of Covid-19 deaths per day in the U.S. recently from OurworldinData:

December 22 - 2,714

December 21 - 2,655

December 20 - 2,625

December 19 - 2,607

December 18 - 2,580

December 17 - 2,646

December 16 - 2,585

Johns Hopkins Covid-19 tracking claims there were 3,611 deaths on December 16, so death tracking is not perfect.  But the numbers prove that at the moment Covid-19 deaths on a daily basis are higher than what were the leading causes of death last year.

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How did we get to this point?  It began with one man.  Donald J. Trump downplayed the seriousness of this pandemic from the start.  Here are just some of the stupid things he spewed forth as "fact"

If he hadn't downplayed the seriousness of the crisis, if he had endorsed social distancing and mask-wearing, we would not be where we are now.  Instead he chose to make mask-wearing a political issue. His followers latched on to this idea and continue to deny the science involved in wearing masks and maintaining social distance.

What will happen when January 20th comes and Joe Biden is sworn in?  Will people do as he is asking and wear masks for 100 days?