The week of September 27-October 3, 2020 started with the New York Times releasing what appears to be Trump’s income tax returns.  These returns show that Trump pays a lot less in income tax than the average American, ($750 a year on multiple occasions in the last 15 years), and that Trump owes $400 million in debt to an unknown source (this would make anyone forfeit national security clearance due to leverage issues).  This means that Trump; lied about his business success, lied to the federal government about his revenue stream, lied to numerous banks about his net worth to receive favorable loans and/or may be in debt to foreign governments who might have leverage on the President.  The press described Trump as a liar, a cheat and a criminal.

No one mentioned Trump’s taxes in their journals.

But numerous people mentioned the first presidential debate on September 29, 2020.  What a clusterfuck.  It seemed that President Trump’s debate prep consisted of speaking out of turn and flubbing the easiest of questions.  The most covered part of the debate was the President’s refusal to outright condemn white nationalism (The Proud Boys).  Universally, the debate was condemned as a failure.  Policy differences were not discussed or highlighted and the debate became a 90 minute shout fest.  Dumpster fires were insulted when the debate was described as a dumpster fire.  – David Martinez, Journal Curator

• “Honestly, it’s been a couple hours since I watched it and I still can’t stop thinking about how much of a disaster it was. I saw on twitter a tweet talking about muting the microphones when the candidates aren’t supposed to talk. I laughed. Is that a thing? They should make it a thing. I cannot even begin to count the times my eyes rolled when Trump was speaking.” – NA, October 3, 2020

• “Trump’s strategy obviously was to interrupt and distract Biden and the viewers from any real talking points. Unfortunately, Biden stooped to the level of name calling and interrupting because of Trump’s unruly behavior, but honestly, what can you expect when you have Trump talking over every point you make.” – Varoon Phondge, September 29, 2020

• “When I was finally done at 10 p.m., with extreme Zoom fatigue, I came out and found my husband watching the first presidential debate. Watching two minutes of that fiasco made me wish I had another Zoom meeting to attend. What a shameful display on the part of Trump.” – AT, September 29, 2020

The week ended with a bombshell which was reflected in numerous journal entries.  The President had contracted Covid.  I don’t think the country was surprised.  Trump’s personal approach to Covid mitigation has been less than stellar.  He consistently eschews masks (in fact he made fun of Joe Biden for his more stringent standards), and he holds super spreading events (like the nomination announcement of Amy Coney Barrett).  It doesn’t seem that Trump’s contraction of the disease will change his behavior.  – David Martinez, Journal Curator

• “Trump has the coronavirus! As does a large part of the RNC - the situation has me wondering if somehow, secretly a bunch of members of the government are jumping around in a mosh pit in the basement of the white house and hosting raves. Either way, there is a lot of interesting rhetoric surrounding his sickness and the amount of well-wishers out there are very few.” – A.W., October 2, 2020

• “So Trump has Covid. I think that this could go a few ways. I worry that if Trump makes a fast recovery he will go on saying that Covid is not as bad as everyone thinks. I’m confused on what will happen to the election. If Trump gets sick enough or if he dies I don't get how the election will work.” – Steph, October 2, 2020

• “I can not tell for certain that Trump's policies directly led to him catching the virus, but it definitely seems highly probable that his nonchalant attitude towards basic safety measures contributed to the high likelihood that he would eventually contract COVID. As much as I dislike the man, I don’t hope that Trump dies from this horrible disease. But on the other hand, I don't really feel sorry for the man who has been intentionally wrong about the virus for so long.” – Kenneth, October 2, 2020

• “And perhaps the craziest conspiracy theory of them all comes from the always insane Qanon believers. They too believe that Trump is faking COVID diagnosis, but not to skip out on debates. They think that Trump is about to arrest a bunch  of high ranking “deep state” operatives, and he needs to be in isolation to protect himself. This, like all of the other Qanon theories, has absolutely no basis in reality whatsoever.” – Kenneth, October 3, 2020

Aside from the pandemic which leads us to constantly worry about our health and the health of our loved ones, the election just piles onto our collective anxiety.  Below are some manifestations of anxiety from this week. – David Martinez, Journal Curator

• “going on a hike and maybe lunch tomorrow… wonder how many people will be wearing masks on the hiking trail” – Nemo, October 3, 2020

• (on a cousin testing positive): “Being that he is young, and many young people recover from the virus, I am less worried for him. It is still scary, but I am more nervous about the potential for spreading. We have high risk people in our family, so I just hope that it does not spread to them because I would imagine that their immune systems would have a harder time fighting the disease.” – NA, September 29,2020

• “The second thing I got a little worried about was the possibility of domestic terrorist White Supremacists taking to the streets, and causing mass hysteria and destruction. The FBI considers White supremacy the number one domestic terrorism threat and if they see Trump pass and Biden come to win the election later on, things could get out of hand.”- Varoon Phondge, October 2, 2020

• “That dining experience was a weird mix of relief and tempered paranoia. In the moment, I was happy to be outside and “back to normal” for the first time in four months – but I wore my mask the entire time I wasn’t eating.” – A. Paprika, September 28, 2020

• “Remote learning is fine for my kids when they’re “in class,” but when it comes to homework, well, that’s another story. It is all through google classroom, and I honestly cannot even discuss or write about google classroom without seeing red. It is such a frustrating platform. I really thought that nothing could crack my relatively calm, rational demeanor, but then google classroom came along. As they say, pride cometh before the fall.” – AT, September 29, 2020

It wasn’t all bad this week, there are little things that are helping us cope. – David Martinez, Journal Curator

• (getting ready for soccer game): “I turned on the TV after breakfast to watch some of the commentators commenting about the game that was gonna start at 7PM. I was very excited. I stepped because of the nice weather. I was also at a match day spirit. I was getting hyped up as I saw people on the streets wearing the jerseys of the teams they support. It was odd seeing those passionate fans with jerseys and masks. It was a weird appearance, as I have never seen anything like it before. The atmosphere outside was lively. People were ready for the major game. Fans were careful about keeping their social distance” – Can, September 27, 2020

• “Today I saw my high school friends for the first time in over a year. We have the kind of friendship that even if we don’t see each other for a while we get together and just catch up. One of my friends I’ve known for eight years and the other for twelve. I think at this point we’re just kind of stuck with each other.” – Steph, October 3, 2020

• “It still being late September, it is of course too early to put up Halloween decorations, but it’s pandemic times, and we have few other light-hearted ventures with which to occupy ourselves. The joint skeleton hangs from their balcony, its feet dangling over mine. It also had glow-up red LED eyes. After some debate, we decided that the scariest thing regarding masks would be for the skeleton to chin wear a mask.” – AT, September 27, 2020