Optimum weather conditions – Flying from Bangor – The new Supreme Court Justice nominee – Brad Parscale’s adventure – Trump’s self-estimate after the debate – Biden nominated for Nobel Peace Prize – Evening statistics
It is the time of year when the weather is at its best: not too hot, not too cold, relatively dry, and clear of the haze we usually receive during the summer – although, as I have noted, the haze was much less in evidence these past several months on account of the reduction in car traffic emissions. It is a promising weather phase for the trip in central Virginia I am taking with several others starting on the 4th and ending on the 10th. The forecast there is for somewhat cooler weather, and it will get cold at nights; but during the day the current prediction is for temperatures in the 60s.
I omitted to mention that I returned from Maine by means of an airplane flight from Bangor. The airport is small and not especially crowded, and everyone was very conscientious about wearing masks. Still, people had to remove their masks during the flight whenever they were eating or drinking. I therefore decided to get tested for the virus again after my return, and I underwent the test two days ago. With luck I should be getting the results tomorrow or Saturday.
President Trump has decided that Amy Coney Barrett, a judge whose most salient attribute is her hostility to the Roe vs. Wade decision permitting abortions without government interference, is the person most eligible to replace Ruth Bader-Ginsberg on the Supreme Court. To that end Kayleigh McEnany, the White House Press Secretary, has announced that, among Barrett’s other qualifications, she is a Rhodes scholar, and so indeed she is – not, to be sure, a recipient of the Rhodes scholarship that is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, founded to promote leadership marked by public spirit and good character, and to render war impossible by promoting friendship between the great powers, and whose numbers include eight future heads of state and numerous notable names in the fields of law, education, epidemiology, space exploration, and cosmology; but the well-known category of scholar who graduates from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. But I can actually feel grateful to McEnany for making such a claim, as it promptly inspired various readers and auditors to make some wonderfully snarky comments on the Web, such as: “I’ve been to Rhode Island so I, too, am a Rhodes Scholar”; “I did a book report on Dusty Rhodes once. Does that make me a Rhodes Scholar?”; “I was a Rhodes Scholar in that I drove on some roads to grad school”; “One of my favorite poems I sometimes re-read when making difficult decisions is “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Does that also make me a Rhodes Scholar?” The Internet is a harsh mistress.
Brad Parscale, President Trump’s former campaign manager, has stepped down both from the president’s re-election campaign and the management of his digital firm after an apparent suicide attempt. Parscale was hospitalized after his wife told Fort Lauderdale police that he had guns and he was threatening to harm himself. Upon arriving at Parscale’s home, the police reported that his speech was slurred as though he were intoxicated and that he seemed to be crying. They seized 10 firearms in the house in the process of taking him into custody.
Suicide would appear to be a logical outcome for anyone who has the misfortune to work for Donald Trump. As one advisor in the White House confided to a friend, who re-confided it to the Vanity Fair magazine, “Trump doesn’t let anyone else speak. He really doesn’t care what you have to say. He demeans people. He talks over them. And everyone around him thinks it’s getting worse.” According to inside sources, he believes that he has emerged as the winner from the debate earlier this week, and no one has the courage to tell him that the debate was a disaster from the point of view of his campaign.
One of Trump’s selling points, that of his being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, has been neutralized; a member of the British Parliament has nominated Biden as well. So now our election consists of two candidates who have each been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, in a contest that promises to be as belligerent as any this nation has undergone in the course of its entire history. It is not at all certain that some sort of armed conflict can be prevented if Biden wins the majority vote and the Electoral College vote as well, and Trump refuses to concede.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 34,463,609; # of deaths worldwide: 1,023,659; # of cases U.S.: 7,493,802; # of deaths U.S.: 212,628.