Month: January 2021

The climax of Trump’s attempted coup d’état – The Georgia runoff elections – Evening statistics

Where does one begin?  Today was the first time that the Capitol building was invaded since the War of 1812.  Only this time the invaders were not citizens of an enemy nation.  At 1:30 today a group of Trump supporters numbering in the hundreds, having already breached the Capitol grounds, pushed past the police guards, and entered the building where members of both Houses and the Vice President were assembled.  Despite the chambers where the legislators were preparing to conduct the certification being heavily guarded, several protesters managed to reach the floor of the Senate.  The election certification process had to be brought to a halt, while the legislators were escorted to safety.  Mike Pence was evacuated to an undisclosed location.  The National Guard was called in and order was eventually restored, not without casualties.  At least one protester was fatally shot and at least 13 others have been arrested.  Mayor Bowser placed Washington DC under curfew from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM tomorrow.  The lawmakers have reconvened once the Capitol was declared to be restored so that they could continue with the certification, and that is where the matter stands as of now.

That is a barebones summary of the events; if I were to record the various reactions from across the nation I probably could double the length of the entire journal to date.  (It is already well over 250,000 words.)  A few tangential details may be mentioned, if only to show how even some of Trump’s most familiar props are starting to fall under him.  Twitter has taken the unprecedented step of removing three of Trump’s tweets and has placed a lockdown on his account, evidently believing that he is incapable of abstaining from misrepresentation.  The Fraternal Order of Police has issued a formal rebuke to him for encouraging the mob, the first time that the FOP has done so to any President.  Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump’s press secretary, immediately resigned in the wake of the violence in an attempt to distance herself from it.  Others in the Trump staff are rumored to be following her example, although none of them as yet have been confirmed.

“Trump must be insane!” more than one friend or relative has said to me tonight.  But I do not agree.  He knows very well what he is doing.  He wishes to remain in the Oval Office at any cost, even if it means reducing the U.S. to the level of a third-world nation where elections invariably lead to rioting and slaughter.  He is in debt to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, and once he emerges from the White House his creditors will have no mercy on him – at least, I earnestly hope they won’t.

Many Congress members are naturally resentful at being subjected to such a horrifying experience.  My fear is that they will not be sufficiently vindictive.  For example, there are calls from various quarters to impeach Trump for this debacle.  The Lincoln Project is among these.  It is true that there are only two weeks remaining for the legislators to do so, but they could expedite the process if they wished.  Some Democrats have also urged Pence to invoke the 25^th Amendment (removal of the President from his office for disability).  Some of the Representatives have started the mechanism to do this.  One of them, Jennifer Wexton of Virginia, has dared to say what no else was willing to say:  that the rioters are domestic terrorists.  But much depends on Pence’s cooperation for such an effort, and in all probability he will never risk antagonizing the electors in Trump’s camp.  Although it is true that he may be feeling less willing to placate them after the experiences of today.  He has already issued a statement vowing to prosecute the rioters.

Again, the legislators could vote on a condemnation of Louie Gohmert, who openly incited the violence.  One national (and bi-partisan) association of lawyers, the Lawyers Defending American Democracy, has already called for disciplinary action against him for his lawsuit. 

It is doubtful, however, that anything will emerge from such outcries.  There will be a lot of hand-wringing over the next few days, and that will be the end of the matter.

There is one positive aspect that has come about from this episode.  Most of the Republican Congressmen who declared their intentions to challenge the votes of the Electoral College have changed their minds, being naturally unwilling to be labeled as tools of the rioters.  So it is just possible that the certification of the votes will go through without future interruptions.

Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, et al. are paying a heavy price for four years of sycophancy.  McConnell issued a rebuke to the Trump supporters just an hour or so before the invasion occurred, but it was much too late to have any effect.  He has lost control of the Senate on account of this dithering (see more details below).  Their party has suffered greatly as a result of Trump’s influence and after today it will have a very difficult time restoring its credibility.  It is also wracked by schism, as exemplified in Eric Trump’s declaration that the Trump faction will combat against every Republican up for re-election who did not support their claims that the national election was stolen. 

Even before the events of today it was apparent that the damage inflicted by Trump on the Republican Party was substantial.  Both Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff have won the runoff elections in Georgia, and as a result the Senate is now no longer in control of the Republicans.  Neither Kelly Loeffler nor David Perdue was able to overcome the crippling handicap of being associated with Trump.  This state election is notable in other ways.  Raphael Warnock is the first African-American Senator and Jon Ossoff the first Jewish Senator representing Georgia.  Ossoff will also be the youngest member of the Senate in the 117^th United States Congress. 

And in the meantime the coronavirus has of course not been taking a holiday:

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  87,617,389; # of deaths worldwide: 1,889,516; # of cases U.S.: 21,855,500; # of deaths; U.S.: 369,950.  Over 4,000 succumbed to the virus today, the highest daily death toll to date.  California now has over 2½ million cases and Texas has nearly 2 million. 

Hiking in Shenandoah National Park – The runoff elections in Georgia – Chuck Stacey – Evening statistics

The weather for the hike today seemed unpromising as I drove from my house, being rather damp and foggy, even drizzling a bit at times.  But the moment I went over the ridge along Rte. 211 to the parking area at Panorama, the mist lifted and the sun came through in patches.  There was not a great deal of sunlight even in the morning and later on in the day the sky became more overcast, but there was no rain and the temperature never became very cold, even at the highest elevations.  The hike that I went along with the other Vigorous Hikers went north on the Applachian Trail to Beahms Gap, then east on the Hull School Trail to the Thornton River Trail, and returning via the Thornton River Trail to the AT and going south to Panorama.  Actually, this description is not quite accurate; on the first part of the hike there was a brief detour along a fire road to the Pass Mountain Hut, going from there back to the AT via the Pass Mountain Trail.  I had never been on the fire road leading to the hut before, and it has been such a long time that I’ve had on the Thornton River Trail or the section of the Hull School Trail between the AT and Neighbor Mountain that these segments were almost like new trails as well.  The hike was 16 miles long and over 3600 feet in elevation gain.  The ascents were not especially steep, but they were continual over long distances.  The Thornton River Trail, in addition, crossed the river four times, and three of the crossings were difficult.  I had to step into the flowing water that came up well over my ankles, and the water was both swift and cold, and afterwards I had to pace the remainder of the hike with wet shoes and socks.

It all sounds rather miserable in the telling but it was quite enjoyable.  The temperature was never cold enough to present any danger of frostbite and it was just cold enough to give an impetus to one’s movements.  The mountain forests in winter offer visual spectacles unavailable in any other season, such as the rich bright green moss vividly displayed over the fallen tree trunks that they coated.  Brief patches of mist drifted in and out as we moved along the paths, and the continually changing light provided another element of variety.  At one point I saw a cardinal, and its brilliant scarlet plumage made a striking picture amid the bare branches where it was flying.

At such moments politics seems very far away, and indeed the most intensely political scene of the day occurred about 600 miles from this area.  The runoff elections in Georgia took place today, pitting incumbent Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue against Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff respectively.  Loeffler and Perdue have been undergoing difficulties, not least of which is the “support” provided by President Trump on their behalf.  One would think that no man could simultaneously claim that our election process is invalid and then urge people to vote for the candidates that he favors, but Trump is evidently an advocate of Emerson’s dictum that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”  For that matter, Loeffler herself plans to throw her lot in with the other Republicans planning to object to the results of the national election tomorrow when the Electoral College votes are tallied.  So if it turns out that she wins a majority of the votes in tonight’s runoff, she will be objecting to the process that secured her own re-election.  To do her justice, such a result does not seem likely; the results at this point show both Democratic candidates leading by a fairly wide margin.

Chuck Stacey of Florida, who had vigorously criticized his employers at Donut Hole for forcing their employees to wear masks, is now singing quite a different tune after becoming infected with the virus.  A video for his Facebook page shows him lying in a hospital bed with oxygen tubes as he makes an impassioned plea for sceptics with views similar to those he had endorsed until recently to wear masks in order to protect themselves and their families.  It is about two minutes long and he is audibly gasping for air throughout most of it. 

When the pandemic is over and people will be able to look back upon its social effects, the solicitude about mask-wearing will almost certainly provoke some amazement.  Why have people objected so strenuously to a practice that takes little effort to perform and that was the most effective preventative by far when vaccines were still in the development stage? 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  86,804,427; # of deaths worldwide: 1,874,318; # of cases U.S.: 21,575,999; # of deaths; U.S.: 365,595. 

Glimmerings of hope for the vote on Wednesday – The Mexican Undersecretary of Health on vacation – An enterprising cruise company – An argument in favor of less skin-revealing attire – Evening statistics

A couple of new developments today have made me slightly less despondent than I was yesterday.  Several former Defense Ministers – all of them still living, in fact – have issued a formal rebuke to Donald Trump, stating that the military should not become involved in determining the outcome of elections.  The Pentagon is evidently becoming jittery about being dragged into any kind of conflict over the election results and, as it appears, will make strenuous efforts to avoid it. 

The other promising development is that Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice, a pair of House Democrats, have requested FBI Director Christopher Wray to open a criminal probe of Trump concerning his phone call whose transcript showed him trying to bully Brad Raffensperger into overturning the election results in Georgia.  While I do not suppose that an FBI investigation will result in any serious penalty for Trump, anything that diverts his energies and weakens his focus is to be encouraged. 

Egregious political figures are not confined to our country, of course.  Mexico’s Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, has repeatedly urged Mexicans to stay at their homes during the recent holidays.  Although Mexico’s infection rate is considerably less than our own – barely over 1% of the population, as opposed to over 6.4% here – its health care system is much more fragile, and the pandemic has caused Mexican hospitals to run out of available beds and has caused more deaths of health care workers, proportionately, than in any other country.   Mexico’s death rate, also, is much higher than ours:  well over 8.5%, as opposed to our rate of 1.7%.  Recently, however, López-Gatell himself was photographed taking an airplane trip and relaxing at a beach in southern Oaxaca, about 500 miles from his home in Mexico City, without wearing a face mask in either situation.  This evidence of his methods of relaxation have not gone over very well in his home town, where nonessential businesses have been ordered shuttered for weeks, leaving shopkeepers, waiters and other workers scrambling to pay rent in a country that has no unemployment insurance.  Indeed, the fact that he is taking a vacation at all has roused considerable resentment, since doctors and nurses at public hospitals in Mexico City have been asked to forgo their Christmas vacations to tend to a surge in patients.

The cruise industry has been languishing as a result of the pandemic, but it is working diligently to return to service.  One cruise company is taking an approach that is, admittedly, unique.  The name of the company is Bare Necessities and it features nudist cruises, its first big event starting on February 13, 2022.  The cruise ride is two weeks long and it will stop at various ports in the Caribbean.  To make the passengers more at their ease, the corporate management has thoughtfully adorned the cruise ship with classic nude statues and paintings.

I believe that the passengers of such a trip will be in for a severe disappointment.  Once when I was in San Diego on a business trip, I had a couple of hours to spare one day, which I spent wandering along the beaches.  My ramblings caused me to stumble accidentally upon a nudist beach, which caused me to recoil in horror – not on account of the nudity but on account of the hideous aspect of most of the bodies I saw.  Not one of them could have been less than 250 pounds; their mode of propulsion was a waddle rather than a walk; and their skins all had a rough, raw, red, scaly appearance from over-exposure to the sun that was repulsive beyond belief.  The sight of them constituted one of the most powerful anaphrodisiacs ever invented; and I think that if I were recruiting members for a monastery that enforced vows of perpetual celibacy, I would take its postulants to visit such a beach in order to encourage them in such pious resolutions.   

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  86,078,700; # of deaths worldwide: 1,859,756; # of cases U.S.: 21,341,982; # of deaths; U.S.: 362,043. 

The saga of Donald Trump vs. the People of the United States – Evening statistics

(WARNING:  this is an anti-Trump rant, in which I ordinarily would not indulge; but under the circumstances it’s unavoidable.)

“If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”

The quotation comes from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night – the joke, of course, being that the character who utters it is on a stage himself.  But the scenario currently playing out in the capital at the moment, though it certainly would have been condemned as an improbable fiction in any novel or play written up to this point, regrettably is now sober fact.

Yesterday Donald Trump called Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state for Georgia, to pressure him into falsifying the results of the state’s election.  A sample quotation from this exchange, which is quite typical of the whole:  “So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”

Raffensperger steadfastly refused to cave in to this pressuring and that is all to the good.  But why does no one push back against the President?  In a further Twitter exchange, Trump accused Raffensperger of covering up election fraud practices and Raffensperger’s response was, “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true.”  Muted responses such as this one are useless.  The only way to combat a bully is to confront him directly.  Like birds fascinated by the gaze of a serpent, even Trump’s opponents flutter about irresolutely whenever he turns on them.  When will one of them flap his wings and cast off that baneful presence once and for all?

I once worked on a project whose manager had a reputation for browbeating his subordinates.  At one point we had a disagreement about how to implement a certain procedure.  He began to become offensive, and I immediately made it clear to him that I was not going to stand for any of his nonsense.  When I did that, he obviously was taken by surprise, but I held firm and he backed down eventually; and in every subsequent encounter he treated me very civilly. 

If anyone from Capitol Hill chances to read about this episode, I urge him to bear it in mind the next time he is subjected to abuse from a superior, even if that superior happens to be the President.  But in all probability it would have no effect.  When people insist upon remaining on their knees, no amount of persuasion will induce them to stand upright.

In the meantime, eleven Republican senators have declared their intentions of disrupting the tallying of the Electoral College votes on Wednesday.  One of these is Ted Cruz – whose father, it may be remembered, was defamed by Trump in 2016 campaign as being involved in the assassin of President Kennedy in 1963.  Cruz had the effrontery to urge his critics to “calm down” after they have charged him with sedition.  “Just relax, and let’s do our jobs,” he said. “We have a responsibility to follow the law.”  This, from one of the most prominent members of a group that is deliberately subverting the law on a massive scale by attempting to set aside the results of a nation-wide election. 

The pundits have all declared that the chances of failing to tally the Electoral College votes are practically nil; and I earnestly hope that they are right.  But after today’s “antic hay” I can no longer be certain.  If it were merely a question of Trump’s being a loose cannon I would dismiss his last-ditch efforts with scornful laughter.  But the fact that he is able to lure dozens of politicians who should have sufficient legal knowledge to shun his illicit attempts to stay in power is deeply troubling.  I have already recorded Louie Gohmert’s call for street violence after the rejection of his lawsuit against Mike Pence.  And indeed, it is conceivable that the next week or so may see an armed conflict between the guards of the White House acting under Trump’s orders alongside other Trump activists vs. the municipal police of Washington DC.  I would have rejected such a conjecture as an improbable fiction as recently as two days ago, but now I am not so certain.  Even a favorable tallying of the votes on Wednesday in Biden’s favor cannot resolve such forebodings.  I simply do not know what Trump and his crazed groupies plan to do next.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  85,489,462; # of deaths worldwide: 1,850,209; # of cases U.S.: 21,111,291; # of deaths; U.S.: 360,078. 

Old Town Alexandria – Rejection of Louie Gohmert’s lawsuit – The Georgia runoff elections – New Year’s at Mar-a-Lago – Evening statistics

Traffic was lively today, both on the roads and on the footpaths.  Crowding is only to be expected:  since New Year’s came on a Friday this year, the majority of workers are enjoying a three-day weekend.  A brief warming trend (leading to temperatures approaching 60 degrees in some areas) encouraged many people to get outside.  I was in the Old Town of Alexandria today, the first time since April.  Many restaurants along King Street featured outdoor dining, and the tables were nearly all occupied.  Pedestrians were strolling in great numbers along the riverfront, which now runs all the way down to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.  Most were wearing facemasks, although there were exceptions.  The visitors to the area were somewhat less meticulous about practicing social distancing than people tend to be elsewhere, and dog-walkers were less prone to pull their dogs out of the way when persons approached them walking from the opposite direction.  No doubt people have become a bit more careless in this area, since the Old Town, especially in the vicinity of King Street and the riverfront, has always been a popular weekend excursion in DC and its environs.

The suit initiated by Louie Gohmert against Mike Pence, aimed at compelling the latter to overturn the results of the national election, has been rejected by the U.S. District Court, despite the fact that the judge overseeing the case is a Trump appointee.  In general, the judiciary has been acquitting itself very well in these matters, rejecting all of these cases contending the election results on the grounds of there being no evidence to support the plaintiffs’ claims or (as in this case) of the plaintiffs’ lack of standing to initiate such a suit.  Gohmert has retaliated by saying that there is no recourse at this point except street violence, thereby openly advocating sedition.  Will any enterprising activist from the Left give Gohmert a taste of his own medicine and place him on the receiving end of a lawsuit?  I am admittedly no expert in these matters, but his actions at this point seem to me treasonable.

David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the two incumbert Georgia senators currently undergoing runoff elections, are belatedly discovering what an unreliable ally Donald Trump can be.  He has repeatedly been claiming that the elections are invalid even while he campaigned on their behalf, which is not exactly calculated to win favor from their electorate.  At this point the Democrats have the lead in the early voting, which closed yesterday, and it remains to be seen whether or not the Republican voters who are to cast their ballots in person on Tuesday are so offended by the President’s comments as to remain at home instead.

In the meantime Trump has shown the depth of his regard for his supporters by leaving them stranded at a New Year’s Party held in Mar-a-Lago, for which the guests paid over $1000 to attend, canceling his appearance at the last minute.  Attendees had to console themselves with sprigs from the Trump family tree, i.e., Donald Jr., Eric, and Tiffany (Ivanka and Jared Kushner were too busy house-hunting to be present) and Rudy Giuliani, presumably sporting a brand of hair-dye somewhat more colorfast than the one that adorned him during his memorable press conference in November.   Grouped at tables of 10 people seated fairly closely together, with no masks or the slightest attempt at social distancing, these party-goers may pride themselves on having achieved distinction of a sort:  the event might well prove to be the very first “super-spreader” of the virus for 2021. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  84,965,236; # of deaths worldwide: 1,842,909; # of cases U.S.: 20,902,996; # of deaths; U.S.: 358,655.  Our rate of infection from the COVID virus is now about 6.3%, or 1 in every 16 of the population. 

A memorial hike – The Cabin John Trail – The COVID virus here and abroad – Evening statistics

The year has begun well.  Today I met with LH and various others to hike along the Cabin John Trail.  This hike was a memorial to NC, a mutual friend, who despite being in apparently vigorous health was stricken by a stroke about a year ago and died just a couple of days afterwards.  I knew her primarily from hiking with her during the Coast-to-Coast hike in 2018 and the hike along the Pembrokeshire coast in 2019.  Her death was a surprise not only to her friends but to her closest relatives, for she was not especially old – only 73 – and very active for her age, or indeed for persons of a considerably younger age.  She moved on the trails with both speed and balance, though she was small and delicate in build; and it was a matter of some wonder to  her friends how she was able sustain herself on the very moderate amount of food she consumed at meals.  She tended, when confronted with a particularly steep ascent or rocky talus that made progress difficult, to assume an air of concentration in order to surmount the difficulty as quickly as possible; and since I have similar habits, she and I were very much thrown in together during the trips we shared. 

I was anticipating some issues with this particular hike, for the weather forecast predicted rain for much of the day.  It was not supposed to become severe, however, until the afternoon; so we started early (at about 8:30) and were back at our cars before 1:00.  We went six miles each way on the Cabin John Trail and ascended about 1100 feet in all.  The trail goes alongside the Cabin John Stream and offers many riparian views.  It has been re-routed, at least at its southern terminus.  Previously it used to go along the bottom of the valley close to the stream and was very rocky.  The first mile or so now ascends several feet above the stream; it goes up and down more, but is less rocky.  One feature of the hike is an unusual house that it skirts by.  The house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  It is privately owned and not on displayed for visitors; so that the best way to see its exterior is to hike on the trail itself during winter, when there is little foliage to conceal it.  The weather favored us; it was somewhat overcast, but not gloomy, and we had only one period of light showers.  It was not especially cold either, probably about the mid-30s.  We were back at our cars well before the heavier rainfall in the late afternoon began.  The rather wet weather meant that the trail became slippery towards the end of the hike, but all that was needed to avoid falling onto the muddy ground was a little care and patience; and the hike ended without mishap for anyone.  In all we covered 12 miles and ascended 1100 feet – a fitting way to honor the memory of our departed friend, and a good start for the new year!

As I have so often had occasion to observe during the course of writing this journal, my experiences on a personal level offer a vivid contrast to what is happening both in the nation at large and globally.

New York and Florida are seeing increases of infection at a higher rate than ever before.  Texas reports a new high for hospitalizations and California has become the third state to have more than 25,000 fatalities.  Virginia now has over 5, 000 fatalities.  A new strain of the virus – slightly less severe in its effects but even more contagious – has been found in California, China, Brazil, Singapore, and the Netherlands.  Spain is reporting a record number of new cases for a second day as infections continued to increase during the Christmas season.  The festivities are not over yet there, since Epiphany (January 6^th) is just as important a holiday in Spain as Christmas is here.  Ireland has gone into a lockdown for the third time, and the U.K. has more than 900 deaths associated with the virus for a second day in a row, the highest figures since the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in April.  Even Germany is seeing an increase in the rate of infection, with as many as over 14, 000 new cases in a day. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  84,349,524; # of deaths worldwide: 1,834,356; # of cases U.S.: 20,202,545; # of deaths; U.S.: 356,401.