Coronavirus daily update: Monday, Sept. 28

Bad business

It should come as no surprise that President Trump’s tax returns are an unpatriotic miasma of heavy business losses — heavy! — questionable designations and deductions, loans of unnamed origin and other instances of corporate sleaze.

But surely some people must be surprised that Trump is possibly the worst businessman of his generation, who managed to turn a few hundred million dollars into at least a billion in losses. If he wasn’t president right now, he might very well be awaiting trial for tax evasion, or possible in jail.

It’s an incredible piece of reporting by the NY Times, where these documents have been analyzed and vetted within inches of their lives for years before the story broke last night. It’s a good time to remind readers that newspapers with resources can do incredible things for society. And that reporting can save the world.

The big question, though, is whether it will change anyone’s mind about the election. Normally, I would say, something like this has got to change the trajectory of an election. But these times are far from normal.

The numbers are easier to understand.

The numbers

• Hey Now! We’ve got just 868 new cases in North Carolina, after 1759 (Saturday) and 1,290 (Sunday). Now we’ve got 203,568 positive cases, plus 4,680 antigen-positive cases.
  • New recovery numbers! As of today, 184,422 have recovered from COVID-19 in NC. Let’s do some math!
  • So far, 90.59 percent of total diagnoses have recovered.
  • So far, 3,452 have died (1.7 percent)
  • 15,694 current cases, 897 of them hospitalized (5.72 percent).
  • Positive test rate 5.3 percent.
• Guilford County lands with 8,666 total diagnoses today, after adding 203 since Friday.
  • There have been 5,052 recoveries (58.30 percent), along with 171 deaths (1.97 percent) which leaves 3,443 current cases.
  • Of those, 673 (19.55 percent) are hospitalized — 75.03 percent of the state’s reported total.
• Forsyth County totals 7,041 today, after adding 85 since Friday.
  • 6,449 recoveries (91.60 percent) and 101 deaths (1.43 percent), making 491 current cases (Guilford’s is almost eight times higher)

A diversion

I was looking for the 1959 All Capone biopic in honor of the anniversary of his conviction for tax evasion. No particular reason. But instead I found this gem: 1938’s Gangs of New York, not to be confused with the Scorsese film of the same name (which is brilliant). This one’s a “B” movie, making it cheesy even by 1939 standards, starring no one you’ve ever heard of.

Program notes

• For tonight’s featured image, we’ve got “An Allegory,” by Domenico Guidobono, 1710-20. It’s interesting because no one understand what the hell he’s talking about. Taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection. And hey: The Met is now open on Fifth Avenue in NYC, if you’re in town.
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