Well there's no doubt things got to improve in the US quickly to help Trump.
The Covid situation in the US is a lot higher than any other country, which is crazy, how does a 1st world country get 1 million more active cases than others, I don't know, even UK has significantly less, and they are in the top 4.
So from now to November, just about everything has to go right for Trump. And it could well come down to whether a cure comes out before then or not, as well as making the cure affordable for everyone.
I was just looking at a map of where the cases are continuing to rise. They seem to be rising the most in Southern states. Then a band of states above them have cases going down; and up towards Canada more states where they're rising. It doesn't seem to be the weather then. I noted that many of the states with rising cases are either Republican or swing states.
The American healthcare system is in a shambles. No one knows who is responsible for what. When things go wrong, the governors of the states try to blame the federal govenment and Trump blames the governors. On one hand, the states are supposed to make sure their hospitals are adequately supplied; but when they aren't, they blame Trump for it.
The visit to Michigan shocked me a little. Trump was there trying to take credit for getting more ventilators made and putting auto workers back to work. He chose to visit a factory with union workers, and my guess is most of them are Democrats who don't like him that much to begin with. Meanwhile a huge flood had hit the town of Midland. He was doing nothing about that disaster. No, he was trying to get on TV to make himself look good.
He had also threatened to cut off funds to Michigan. How would you feel if your home had flooded and you heard that? His campaign obviously didn't tell him it might be better to visit Midland, or he ignored their advice if they did. And guess what: Midland is sitting in the middle of a Congressional district that voted for Trump big time and that elects Republicans. That district may continue to vote Republican; but I feel sure some voters will defect and vote for Biden this time.
Our government is seriously broken. One of the two dams that broke was known to be in need of repairs for years. They should have also have been inspected regularly. They weren't. If they had been inspected and failed their inspections, the government has the authority to tell them to reduce the water level. That way they're less apt to break under the increased pressure of high water levels; and if they do break, there's less way to flood.
Let's get serious. Lives are at stake. President Trump talked about improving infrastructure when he campaigned four years ago. Nothing has been done.
More dams will collapse as aging infrastructure can't keep up with climate change
The 91,000 dams in the U.S. earned a “D” for safety in a 2017 report from the American Society of Civil Engineers. The ASCE estimated the cost of fixing up the dams whose failure would threaten lives at roughly $45 billion, and the cost of fixing all aging dams at over $64 billion.
In Michigan, which is under a state of emergency after the two dam breaches, the average age of the state’s total 1,059 dams is 74 years old, older than the typical 50-year designed life span. Just over 170 of those dams are labeled as high hazard potential — meaning a collapse will result in a loss of life.
If Biden visits Michigan and talks about the need for regular inspections and repairs, he'll win a lot of votes in Midland, I can guarantee.
Regarding the two dams that broke on Tuesday, the Edenville Dam that was built in 1924 was rated in unsatisfactory condition in 2018 by the state. And the Sanford Dam that was built a year later was rated in fair condition.
Federal regulators since 2014 were warning the Edenville Dam’s owner, Boyce Hydro Power, that the dam could not handle a “probable” heavy flooding event. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission eventually revoked the dam’s license in 2018 due to a failure to increase the dam’s spillway capacity to safely allow flood water to pass through.
The commission on Wednesday ordered the company, which also owns Sanford Dam, to investigate the Michigan dam failures. The last inspections of the two dams were done in June 2018.
“There must be investigations to understand what measures need to be taken to fix the dams,” Baroud said.
Regular inspections of the dams could have provided warning signs of maintenance and upkeep that needed to be completed to avoid a failure, according to Baroud.
“If it costs a lot of money and you can’t fix it now, the dam should be operated at a lower than normal level to provide a buffer to allow for a great influx of water during heavy precipitation,” she said.