Visit from relatives – Example of side effects of the pandemic – The CDC’s new mask mandate guidelines – The ongoing invasion of Ukraine and international reactions – Backlash among Republicans against Trump’s support for Putin – Evening statistics
My cousins took a brief vacation in Charleston, and on their return to New York they stayed overnight with me. We spent a good deal of time “catching up” with each other, as the phrase goes. But also during our conversation they made some observations that reflect various changes that the pandemic has made in our lives. For instance, they had been obliged to purchase a new car because the one they had previously owned had reached the end of its usefulness. I remarked that I had been thinking of replacing my car, which has well over 150,000 miles on it and is showing its age, but had hesitated to do so because the current conditions did not seem favorable to me for making new purchases of that kind. They told me that my instinct was quite correct; they had been forced to acquire a new car by circumstance, but the price they paid was higher than it would have been under normal conditions, when the supply chain of auto parts is running more smoothly.
We talked also of mask mandates. In Northern Virginia and in much of New York City they are still observed voluntarily and fairly rigorously. But in South Carolina, they said, no one wore masks – in the stores, in the restaurants, and certainly nowhere out of doors. For that matter, the CDC has revised its mask policy fairly dramatically. Over 62% of the U.S. counties have been reclassified as low-risk or medium-risk, which means that mask mandates are no longer necessary in these locations. The reclassified counties contain nearly three-quarters of the American population. Masks are still required for public transportation and for air travel. All of the counties surrounding DC are rated as low-risk, as is DC itself. Nonetheless I am not jettisoning my facemasks just yet.
I led a hike today in the Hazel Mountain area of Shenandoah National Park. One of the hikers was a woman from the Czech Republic who is staying with her family in the U.S. for a few years. She mentioned that various friends and relatives in the Czech Republic have driven to the Ukrainian border to take in refugees and transport them to safe havens. The Ukrainians themselves are putting up a determined resistance. At this point 198 civilians have been killed, including three children, and another 1,115 civilians have been injured, including 33 children. One unnamed Pentagon official has reported that the Russian advance has slowed down because of the strength of the resistance and that the Russian troops are “increasingly frustrated by their lack of momentum.”
The European nations seem to be rallying to some extent against Russia’s shattering of the long peace that the continent has enjoyed since the end of World War II. France has impounded a Russian ship found in the English Channel that is suspected of carrying cargo falling under the new sanctions against Russia. Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the U.S. are sending arms to the Ukraine. The U. S., EU, and UK agreed to put in place crippling sanctions on the Russian financial sector, including a block on its access to the global financial system and, for the first time, restrictions on its central bank. Key Russian banks have been blocked out of the SWIFT financial messaging system, which daily moves countless billions of dollars around more than 11,000 banks and other financial institutions around the world. This move has been designed, as one official put it, to cause the ruble to undergo “free fall” and to promote soaring inflation into the Russian economy. Previously announced sanctions have already had an impact on Russia, bringing its currency to its lowest level against the dollar in history and giving its stock market the worst week on record.
Many Russians themselves have been protesting against the invasion, including Ksenia Sobchak, a socialite who is rumored to be Putin’s goddaughter. Another prominent protestor is Lisa Peskova, daughter of Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who posted to Instagram in Russian, “No to war.” Over 3000 people so far have been detained for marching in the streets to denounce the war.
Finally, Americans and Canadians have made an unprecedented sacrifice: liquor stores in both countries have discarded all supplies of Russian vodka.
The Ukrainian invasion may produce one unexpected benefit. Trump’s unwavering support of Putin – who is, after all, his kindred spirit, indeed almost his soulmate – and the willingness of his groupies to reinforce such a show of solidarity has alienated even other Republicans. It may prod them to unshackle themselves at last from this renegade, this crony of the rejuvenator of the “Evil Empire” that Reagan had worked so tirelessly to destroy. One example is a self-described “huge Tucker Carlson fan,” Maryland pastor Jim Boothby. He spent this past Thursday taking calls from a fellow pastor in Ukraine, where many of his own congregants have roots. “We got a phone call yesterday from the bishop of the church there who said: ‘we’re trying to buy weapons to protect our wives and children,’” he recalled. “He said after they couldn’t buy weapons, they went to the stores to try to buy baseball bats, and they were sold out. So screw Tucker Carlson, I don’t give a shit. This is 2022 – these people don’t want to be owned, dominated, and directed by Russia.”
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 434,656,281; # of deaths worldwide: 5,962,992; # of cases U.S.: 80,558,248; # of deaths; U.S.: 972,835.