Category: Journal Entry

Issues with vaccine distribution – Despite predictions, the COVID crisis survives the election – The misgivings of Sarah Longwell – AOC redeems herself – Republicans vs. conservatives – Evening statistics

I am unable to divert my thoughts from political matters today, even though the news headlines are not particularly dramatic.  Indeed, as I noted earlier, the new administration is operating on a much more even tenor than the previous one.  The only concern I came across today that is not overtly political is the status of the COVID vaccines in Virginia.  Even though Ralph Northam is the only governor who is also a licensed physician, Virginia has been ranked as the fifth least effective of the states in administering the vaccines to its residents.  I fall into Category 1B (over 65) and consequently am eligible.  I accordingly applied for mine a week ago and have not heard yet when I’ll be allowed to make an appointment, let alone as to the timeframe I can expect to reserve one.  It appears that my prediction of late February to March remains the most likely date I will get my first dose, if indeed that is not over-optimistic.

One of the allegations that the Republicans slung about during the recent election was that the issue of the coronavirus was merely an excuse to denigrate Trump and that if Biden were to win the race it would immediately disappear from social media outlets, having served its purpose.  And a great gratification, I am sure, it must be for them to realize that this dire prediction of theirs has missed the mark and that we continue to lose between three and four thousand to the COVID virus every day.  The legacy of the most worthless administration in the history of this country will thereby rest in its proper place.

Yesterday Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist, warned that Donald Trump will control the GOP for the next decade if Senate Republicans don’t vote to convict him.  She said that McConnell should be saying that “this is our chance to be done with Trump.” But, she added, “I am worried that that is not the direction they are going to go.”  I’m not sure why she is so tentative about the matter.  I know it’s not the direction that they are going to go.  Of the 50 Republican Senators, 45 have already voted to dismiss the motion of impeachment.  That does not make the prospect of 17 Republican Senators voting for conviction next month very likely.

I’m beginning to have a greater respect for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez than I did previously.  I still believe that she was far too lenient towards the rioters in various cities who over the previous months have looted and have caused untold damage both to property and people.  But I must admire her “Don’t Tread on Me” attitude.  AOC, as she calls herself, recently condemned the stock-trading app Robinhood after it blocked trading of GameStop stocks.  When Ted Cruz offered to co-sign her condemnation, she immediately shot back, “I am happy to work with Republicans on this issue where there’s common ground, but you almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago so you can sit this one out.”  Needless to say, the Republican legislators reacted with varying degrees of shock and horror at such candor, with Representative Chip Roy, of Texas, issuing a formal letter of complaint to Nancy Pelosi.  However, when a group of armed terrorists yelling death threats enters a building and forces the legislators within it to take refuge in a sheltered room guarded by police for hours on end, I think that could reasonably be looked upon as a murder attempt.  And Ted Cruz deliberately fueled the passions that led to the siege on the Capitol.  It may well be that Cruz, Josh Hawley, Louie Gohmert, and possibly even Donald Trump himself were all playing with fire without even considering the possibility that it might scorch and burn.  But that does not make them any the less culpable.

What a rabid anti-Republican I’ve become over the past few years! – and over the past several months in particular.  And yet I think of myself as a conservative in my outlook and rather to the right of the majority of my friends and relatives.  The president in recent times whom I admire the most is Ronald Reagan.  But if Reagan were to see the Republican party today, he would not recognize it.  Because Trump was able to carve out a certain voting bloc whom other Republicans did not wish to alienate, they truckled and bowed down to his every whim, as servile as the commissars in the Soviet Union whom they once denounced so fiercely.  As for the spirit of amity that Reagan made his trademark:

I do give lost, for I do feel it gone,
But know not how it went.

(Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale, Act III, Scene 2)

I suspect that many are in my position, favoring policies such as restricting immigration to those who enter the country through legal channels, setting up methods for welfare recipients to break through the cycle of perpetual dependence, exercising restraint in financial matters, and so on, who feel utterly betrayed by the party that they once believed to have their interests at heart.  Trump, Cruz, Hawley, et al. incited an insurrection that desecrated our beautiful national capital, and their shame will be long remembered.

George Will, a fellow-conservative who is vehemently anti-Trump, said two days ago:  “we remember vaguely what it meant to be a conservative — fiscal prudence, free trade, limited government, rule of law, good manners. All of those things were jettisoned over the last four years. And now Republicans are trying to relearn the script.”  Greatly as I respect his judgement, I am unable to believe him; I see no evidence that the Republicans are trying to relearn anything or to lift a finger to unshackle themselves from the MAGA-maniac. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  102,590,505; # of deaths worldwide: 2,214,261; # of cases U.S.: 26,501,797; # of deaths; U.S.: 447,146.

In praise of boring presidents – The pleasures of bread-making – Misfortune is relative – Evening statistics

I came across the following sentence in an editorial about Biden’s inauguration:  “After surviving the past four years, boring is the new thrilling.”

And it is so.  During the past several days, Biden has been signing many new executive orders, some of which I favor and some of which I feel are very much in the wrong direction; but then again, I never expected that I’ll be satisfied with a great deal of what Biden will do during his administration.  In all probability he will be too vacillating to stand up to the more outrageous demands of the far left-wing contingent of the Democratic party.  He is, as a speaker, not especially inspiring. But of the essential decency of the man there can be no question.  Unlike his predecessor, he is not involved in shady financial deals with fellow-robber barons and he is not foisting his immediate family into important positions for which they have not the slightest qualification.  He is willing to listen to the advice of scientists and financial experts even when their advice does not suit his convenience and he does not conduct personal vendettas with people who oppose him.  He will act in tandem with state governors, Republican as well as Democrat, instead of treating them as his mortal enemies.  He will not take refuge in conspiracy theories if something does not turn out the way he expected.  It seems overwhelmingly probable that the turnaround in his administration will be less than that of the previous administration by an order of magnitude.  Nor will he attempt to bully legislative authorities into subverting the law for his advantage.  These qualities, of course, are merely negative and they would seem scarcely worthy of comment under normal circumstances.  But after a four-year-long saturnalia in the White House they seem positively revolutionary.  No longer do I wake up wondering apprehensively what new antics the administration in the Oval Office will perpetrate during the day.  No longer will I be perpetually be tempted to pass myself off as a Canadian whenever I travel out of the country, as has often happened to me ever since 2016.  And, most pressingly at this point, no wonder will be I outraged by the cowardly shirking from the facts of the pandemic in the manner to which I and my compatriots have been subjected in the past eleven months.

I can concentrate once more on day-to-day activities – bread-making, for instance.  Today I had the leisure to make loaves from kneaded dough, and there is no question but that the texture is superior to loaves made from high-speed methods.  There is something very soothing about the aroma of bread at the point when the loaves are removed from the oven.  Incidentally, it is a bit curious that so many books on the subject assure us that one should never store bread in the refrigerator but keep it tightly wrapped at room temperature.  That has not been my experience.  No matter how tightly I wrap bread loaves, they invariably become stale or moldy in a few days if I store them at room temperature, whereas in the refrigerator they remain in good condition for much longer.  Sometimes one must rely on empirical evidence and disregard the advice of the so-called “experts.” 

I received an Email today from a friend who was lamenting that a birthday has come and gone after a year that was more or less devoid of activity; he has had health issues and excursions such as the ones I have done over the past months, such as hiking over mountainous terrain and climbing over rock scrambles, were not practicable for him.  It was a reminder that I have been fortunate in comparison with many others during the pandemic:  no health issues, sufficient leisure and strength to remain physically active, no worries about losing my job, regular pension payments, periodic communications with my relatives via Zoom and WhatsApp, and even occasional meetings with friends on the trails and (in some cases) on outdoor terraces to break up what otherwise would have been an unremitting solitude.  If anyone comes across this journal in, say, 2050 or thereabouts, he or she must bear in mind that any restrictions I’ve endured as a direct result of the pandemic have been relatively minor.  One must go elsewhere for a more detailed first-hand account of the damage inflicted by the pandemic on an individual basis.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  102,000,527; # of deaths worldwide: 2,199,065; # of cases U.S.: 26,334,454; # of deaths; U.S.: 443,720.

Appalachian Trail thru-hikers – Return to normalcy in the fall? – The Vatican aligned with Darwin – Initial results of the two vaccines –Evening statistics

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy has requested hikers to postpone their plans for thru-hiking this year on account of the COVID virus.  About 3500 hikers attempt to hike the entire length of the trail each year, of whom only about a quarter succeed.  The shelters can become fairly crowded during the peak months of thru-hiking, making social distancing out of the question.  But last year the ATC made a similar recommendation and it was not much regarded.  During one of my last day-hikes along the AT in Pennsylvania, I happened to meet a trail maintainer.  He was surprised when he learned that I had done the greater part of my hikes in the state as there-and-back.  He told me that, contrary to my assumption that shuttle services would not be available on account of virus-related restrictions, shuttle drivers were still in operation, not willing to give up a significant portion of their income.  A number of towns are located 10-15 miles from the trail itself, and thru-hikers often use shuttle services to stay overnight in such areas.  I would suppose, also, that the trail towns such as Damascas and Harpers Ferry will be only too glad of the business that the thru-hikers will bring to them during a time when the virus has been causing economic hardships for all businesses in the hospitality industry.  I doubt, therefore, whether the ATC’s recommendation for this year will have much effect.

Dr. Fauci struck a hopeful note today during an interview on the “Today” show.  He said that the COVID virus appears to be plateauing among the national population, which means that as people continued to get vaccinated the virus will eventually recede.  If, as is hoped, about 70%-85% of the population is vaccinated by September, conditions could begin to return to normal by autumn and they could become fully normal by February, 2022. 

Conspiracy theories proliferate by the hundreds.  Of course they have always done so in the past, but the resources provided by Internet make them more obtrusive than ever.  One of the most imaginative is one based on photographs of 80-foot-long giant skeletons (all of them, needless to say, photo-shopped), claiming that humanity is descended from a race of giants.  “The Vatican and The Smithsonian destroyed most and threw some into the bottom of the ocean,” according to one tweet. “Because having to explain how they existed contradicted the evolution of mankind from apes.”  The Vatican as a champion of the theory of evolution?  One can imagine the perplexity that the monsignors in Vatican City must be feeling upon hearing such an unusual accusation hurled at them.

Pfizer and Moderna, the two approved vaccines, have been distributed to a significant number of people by now, and data is starting to come in about their side effects and effectivity.  Both vaccines had side effects of injection site reaction, fatigue, headache, and muscle pain.  Pfizer has slightly less frequent occurrence of the first three symptoms, and significantly less of muscle pain than the Moderna vaccine.  On the other hand, the Moderna vaccine appears to be somewhat more effective at preventing the most severe types of COVID.  Both seem to be effective preventatives of the variants of the virus that emerged from South Africa and Brazil.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  101,400,862; # of deaths worldwide: 2,182,193; # of cases U.S.: 26,163,644; # of deaths; U.S.: 439,487.

Have an ice hike – The Senators sworn in for the impeachment – Birx and Fauci talk about the previous administration – Evening statistics

I was anticipating today’s hike with the Vigorous Hikers to be not very enjoyable, for the forecast until recently had been for rain today.  But the rain started yesterday afternoon and was already tapering off during my drive to the trailhead, and it stopped before I reached the parking area for Mount Marshall.  It left in its wake mingled snow and ice on the trails, amounting to perhaps a half-inch deep – not enough to hinder progress with the appropriate footwear, but enough to make microspikes advisable.  Two members of our group did not bring theirs, and they clearly had difficulties during the initial ascent.  As we went to higher elevations the branches and twigs became lined with ice rime, giving them a delicate, lace-like appearance.  A light mist pervaded the air.  Initially we had planned to have lunch at a viewpoint that was rather exposed; but as the winds picked up the higher we went, we decided to eat at a somewhat more sheltered area.  It was a wise decision, for the mist closed in to such an extent that was impossible to see anything from the viewpoint.  Walking in mist, however, has pleasures of its own, and throughout the descent the branches covered with ice arched and drooped over the trails, occasionally forming almost perfect parabolas.  The temperature became warmer as we descended during the afternoon, and much of the ice covering the trails had melted; but happily, it had not reached the stage of becoming muddy.  It was about 17½ miles, with 3100 feet of elevation gain, but none of the ascents were very steep.  The traction provided by the microspikes made the traversing of mingled ice and snow firmly packed on the trails an oddly satisfying experience.  For the last three miles, however, these were no longer necessary, and I removed them; my footsteps on the trails at that point felt nearly as stable without them and during much of the final mile that snow/ice combination acquired a slushy texture.  We had no rain at all, and it never became very cold, even in the windy sections. 

Obtaining great draughts of open air, exertions resulting in a pleasurable tiredness afterwards, a warm bath to follow, as food whose flavor one can appreciate all the more thoroughly after the exercise – such pleasures may not be a panacea for the ills that are currently going on, but they are the most reliable ones we can savor at the moment.

The article of impeachment has been formally presented to the Senate, and the Senators have been sworn in.  Patrick Leahy, who oversaw the swearing in of his colleagues, was taken to a hospital almost immediately afterwards – “out of an excess of caution,” it is said.  He is 80 years old.  I can’t be the only one asking the question of why so many politicians continue to hold office – the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg is another example and Nancy Pelosi, who also is 80, may be said to be still another – at an age when their faculties and energy are almost certain to be declining.  There has been a great deal of talk of imposing term limits on various political positions, but to date nothing has come of it.

It seems that not much will come out of the impeachment either.  So far most Republican Senators seem reluctant to vote to convict their idol, fallen though he is.  It may be that several are keeping silent until the time to cast their vote has come, but at this point it looks doubtful whether 17 or more Republican Senators will vote for conviction – which means that Trump will not be penalized even if all of the Democratic Senators vote against him.  Still, the impeachment may damage him in financial circles, as many companies are now going out of their way to dissociate themselves from him.  At all events the effort is worth an attempt.   He must be restrained from running for office again by one means or other.

Now that Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci are free from the restraints placed upon them by the Trump administration, they have become quite outspoken about the level to which Trump’s uncooperativeness could go.  Birx said in an interview that she rarely had a chance to meet him at all during his administration and that he continually presented graphs and charts that he ascribed to her but which she had never seen, let alone endorsed.  Fauci describes Trump as being continually in denial about the virus since its inception and that some of his irresponsible reactions, such as his recommendation in April about using disinfectant as a preventative against COVID, gave Fauci no choice but to contradict them publicly and as quickly as possible.  “Even if I wasn’t very effective in changing everybody’s minds, the idea that they knew that nonsense could not be spouted without my pushing back on it, I felt was important.”

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  100,807,884; # of deaths worldwide: 2,165,017; # of cases U.S.: 26,008,601; # of deaths; U.S.: 435,362.

COVID is making medical care more expensive – A new idea for themes of political parties – The U.K. showing signs of disunity – Cracks in Kim Jong-Un’s regime – Dominion Voting Systems vs. Giuliani – Evening statistics

I was at the dentist’s office this morning to get my teeth cleaned and while I was there I noticed how the coronavirus is making our medical care system more expensive.  My dentist had a significant amount of new equipment, such as a blower to disperse the air and render infection from droplets less likely, and also some pieces with disposable parts that must be replaced continually.  Thus instead of expectorating into a porcelain bowl with a continual drainer, as was done previously, one uses a sort of plastic cup attached to a hose, and this cup will be disposed of after a single patient makes use of it.  All of these methods of minimizing the chance of infection mean that operating costs have gone up significantly, and these costs of course must be passed on to the patients.  And this is merely in a dentist’s office.  I have no idea what sort of upgrades have been implemented in facilities that test for respiratory ailments, but I have no doubt testing for them has become much more expensive.

The Proud Boys have been declared a terrorist group in Canada.  I have not mentioned this organization specifically before, but it played a prominent role in the assault upon the Capitol nearly three weeks ago and its adherents were among the most vehement in denying the validity of the election.  I will admit that their frankness in naming themselves after one of the Seven Deadly Sins rather pleases me than otherwise.  Perhaps other political organizations could follow suit.  Thus if, as is rumored, the Trump supporters are contemplating breaking away from the Republicans and forming a faction of their own, they could designate themselves as the Avarice Party or the Greedy Party, in honor of its founder.  Sloth, again, I am certain could win a large number of partisans.  (Come to think of it, though, since anyone who runs for office must by the very nature of his position display some degree of energy, it may be difficult to find a suitable candidate to represent this group.)  I myself would gladly subscribe to a party that promotes Gluttony.  Oh, and let’s not forget Lust.  That’s a favorite one of mine too.

Scotland is now contemplating leaving the United Kingdom.  Brexit was much less popular in Scotland than in England, and in addition the Scots almost to a man detest Boris Johnson.  The poor handling of the virus in the U.K. (its death rate is now the highest worldwide) is also a factor.  Johnson is not in a good position to resist such a movement if it gains momentum, since he himself acted as the spearhead for the U.K.’s break with the EU. 

Ryu Hyun-woo, a North Korean diplomat to Kuwait, has been revealed to have defected from the country in September, 2019.  He resurfaced with his family in South Korea but his defection has been kept secret until now.  This news item may be more significant than it appears at first glance.  Ambassadorship to Kuwait is a position of power in North Korea, since Kuwait is a major source of foreign currency for the country and employs thousands of North Korean construction workers.  The fact that such a high-ranking politician fled the country, with the professed intention of doing so in order for his children to have a better life, indicates that Kim Jong-Un’s hold on his position may be weakening. 

Dominion Voting Systems has filed a lawsuit against Rudolph Giuliani for defamation.  It is demanding $1.3 billion in restitution (and yes, that is $1.3 billion, not $1.3 million).  The lawsuit is similar to the one filed against Sidney Powell on the 8^th.  I’m in two minds about this.  Both Giuliani and Powell should be penalized – and heavily – for their wildly irresponsible claims that did much to prolong voting counts needlessly in numerous states during the Presidential election and thereby to stoke the agitators who besieged the Capitol.  I would rather see the lawsuit issued by the federal government, though, than by a private company and my wish is to see both of them disbarred.  That may happen in Giuliani’s case, if the New York State Bar Association decides to proceed with their case against him, although such an outcome seems increasingly unlikely.  There are not any new developments since the possibility was brought up two weeks ago.

At any rate, these lawsuits, along with the pending impeachment motion, will keep Trump and two of his major allies pre-occupied for a while and possibly make a dent in their resources in addition.  It may sound vindictive on my part, but money is power; and I want to see these serpents defanged.  Also, since I am old-fashioned enough to believe that treason should be soundly punished, a prison sentence seems to me not misplaced.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  100,257,803; # of deaths worldwide: 2,148,467; # of cases U.S.: 25,851,035; # of deaths; U.S.: 431,297.

Hiking in Shenandoah National Park – Reluctance of people to go outside in winter – Initial reactions to Brexit – Evening statistics

Along the Blue Ridge Mountains in Shenandoah National Park the level of snow on the trails was much lower than upon the Alleghenies.  There was perhaps a half-inch in all, and very firmly packed.  I went with AD and RH along the Appalachian Trail, starting from the Pinnacles picnic area to Stony Man, making a loop via the Passamaquoddy Trail and the horse trail back to the AT, then down the Nicholson Hollow Trail and up again via the Corbin Cabin Cutoff Trail back to the AT and the Pinnacles:  about 11 miles in all, with 2900 feet of elevation gain.  It was very much like a typical long hike of the Wanderbirds.  In the morning, even though the temperature was in the low 20s, it felt much warmer on account of the sun-filled skies and absence of wind.  It began to get a bit overcast by the time we were descending on the Nicholson Hollow Trail, so that even though it was warmer by then it actually felt colder. I used micro-spikes for going along the Passamaquoddy Trail, which gets icy very easily; it is on the west side of the mountain, angled somewhat to the north, so that it is continually receiving winds as a result of fronts moving in.  As matters turned out, there were only a few icy patches, but the spikes were useful for providing traction on the packed snow.  In some respects hiking that particular trail today was less difficult than it usually is:  it is very rocky, and the snow covering the rocks smoothed out many of the irregular surfaces in the path and made balance easier.  Of course we paused at the views from the Passamaquoddy Trail and the Little Stony Man Overlook, which provide some of the most extensive vistas of the Shenandoah Valley that the park has to offer. 

Not many people were out today, considering that the area around Stony Man is generally fairly well-attended.  Probably the colder temperatures discouraged people from going out of doors.  I remember from my working days when several of my colleagues were curious about my hobby of hiking.  They frequently asked, “But what do you do for exercise in winter?” They could hardly believe their ears when I told them that I and my friends went out to hike in all seasons.  This reluctance to venture outside in winter than in other seasons can potentially prolong the spread of the virus even as the vaccines are being administered. 

There are rumblings on the other side of the Atlantic about the newly-finalized Brexit.  Recent surveys indicate that about 40% of Londoners would be open to leaving the U.K. to work in another European country.  Many finance workers have already relocated to cities such as Paris and Frankfurt since the U.K. voted to leave the EU.  As the vaccine starts impacting the spread of the virus and travel restrictions diminish, a significant exodus may be awaiting the U.K. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  99,736,694; # of deaths worldwide: 2,137,990; # of cases U.S.: 25,692,159; # of deaths; U.S.: 429,339. 

Anniversary of Wuhan lockdown – China’s recalcitrance – Date for impeachment set – Hiking in the Alleghenies – Evening statistics

Today is an anniversary that no one would wish to celebrate:  that of the first lockdown in Wuhan after an outbreak of COVID was detected.  All transport to the city was severed and every one of the city’s 11-million was ordered to stay at home and not to venture out even for the purposes of shopping for food.   Wuhan has enjoyed a long interval recently of no new COVID cases at all and the situation there is very much business as usual:  bustling markets, crowded restaurants, traffic jams. 

At this point the belief in Wuhan and indeed in China generally is that the virus came from outside the country; some are calling COVID “the American virus,” just as Trump labeled it “the Chinese virus” some months ago.  The prevalent theory among the experts is that the virus originated in the vicinity of Wuhan as a result of a “zoonotic” leap from another species, probably some type of bat.  China, however, has not been particularly cooperative in pursuing the studies that would pinpoint how the virus emerged:  for example, testing historic human samples stored by hospitals to determine where and when the virus really started spreading.  It may have done such studies on its own; if so, it is not sharing the results with any other nation or with the WHO. 

The impeachment trial of Donald Trump is now scheduled to begin on February 8^th.  It remains to be seen whether it will have any effect.  It will require at least 17 Republican Senators to vote in favor of conviction, and that is assuming that every single Democrat Senator will vote against him.  Much depends on Mitch McConnell, and what he means to do is a mystery.  He has the power to rope in a sufficient number of Senators if he wants a conviction.  He has already gone on record condemning Trump for the riot of January 6^th and he almost certainly looks upon Trump as an encumbrance that the Republican Party would do well to get rid of.  But whether he is prepared to risk alienating the pro-Trump faction is doubtful, to say the least.  He thinks in terms of expediency only, and whether or not his “long game” includes jerking the cuckoo out of its nest is anyone’s guess.

My brother, who is considerably more optimistic in temperament than I am, assures me that Trump’s political stock is down and out.  The backlash from the riot of January 6^th, the number of lawsuits pending against him, his declining health, and his diminishing mental capability combine to make it very unlikely that Trump will attempt to run again in 2024.  He may be right, but nonetheless I would like to obtain a firm guarantee of Trump’s quietus:  either a conviction resulting from the impeachment, followed by a debarment from running for office again, or a good stiff prison sentence in response to his numerous financial defalcations.  Fani Willis, the District Attorney for Fulton County in Georgia, is considering whether to open a criminal investigation against him for his blatant attempt on January 2^nd to bulldoze the secretary of state for Georgia into falsifying the results of the state’s election.  I can only hope that she has the resolution to carry it through.

On a personal level it was a good day to be out.  The temperatures, as predicted, were more wintry, but the clear skies and almost total absence of wind make it feel warmer than it actually was.  I went to Backbone Mountain and to various other trails within the Monongahela Forest today, where it was considerably colder than in the Blue Ridge Mountains (under 20 degrees), being on the other side of the Eastern Continental Divide.  In addition, the ground was covered with about two inches of snow.  Backbone Mountain is the highest point in Maryland, but it is approached from a parking area in West Virginia; the mountain is one of many in a range in the Alleghenies that cuts across the state border.  A border marker stands close (less than 1/10 mile) to the high point itself.  The trail is a little over a mile each way and ascends about 700 feet.  It would be fairly easy under normal conditions, but of course the snow slowed my progress a bit.  But it may have been better that way; the area is extensively logged and I have been told that the trail can get extremely muddy after even a brief shower or two.  Certainly the views at the top were all the lovelier on account of the coating of snow in the valley to the east.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  99,298,143; # of deaths worldwide: 2,128,754; # of cases U.S.: 25,566,185; # of deaths; U.S.: 427,634. 

Memorial observances – Making bread at home again – Weather forecasts – Evening statistics

The past two days have been somber.  Yesterday I logged via Zoom into a virtual funeral of a distant relative, the husband of one of my mother’s Canadian cousins, and today I went to a memorial gathering for the husband of one of my hiking friends.  These occasions were solemn rather than sad for me, for I did not know either of them well.  The deaths were not COVID-related.  My relative died peacefully in his sleep but MD, the husband of my hiking friend, endured a long bout with cancer that first affected his sinuses and then – after a deceptive period when it seemed he was progressing towards remission – it metastasized and affected cells in the brain.  I am sorry now that I did not get to know him better.  He was a man of considerable artistic gifts.  The funeral parlor displayed various photographs he took of many different natural phenomena – and of birds in particular – that were of professional quality and had something of the depth and sensitivity associated with photographers such as Ansel Adams.  He also was a notable expert on archaeology and made many flints and arrowheads simulating methods dating from the Stone Age.  Finally, he was skillful at lapidary.  Samples of his art both from the arrowheads and the polished stones he created were given to the guests.

After the memorial gathering – which is the closest one can get to making a condolence call under the circumstances imposed by the virus restrictions – I returned home, shopping to restock the larder on the way.  But the bread they were selling in the store did not appeal to me, being soft and cottony.  As the shortages have been receding I’ve become a bit lazy with regard to bread-making.  There is plenty available in the stores now.  But I did not want to drive to another store this afternoon, so I decided to make some bread of my own, just as I did habitually during the early months of the pandemic.  Since it was late in the day, I used the so-called “new method,” which consists of mixing the yeast, water, and salt vigorously (along with other optional ingredients such as eggs, honey, oil, herbs, etc.) with only about half to two-thirds of the flour initially to develop the gluten (the mixture is still thin enough to be able to stir it with a wooden spoon, although it requires considerable effort) and then working in the remainder of the flour, after which the dough is set out in loaf pans.  The rising time is only twenty minutes.  After the dough rises, the loaves are placed in a cold oven with the thermostat set to 200 degrees for the first ten minutes, at which point the loaves expand to the tops of the pans.  Then the over temperature is increased to 350 degrees.  The entire process from mixing the dough to removing the loaves from the over takes about 90 minutes.  The texture is not quite as good as it is in a kneaded bread, but it is reasonably close approximation. 

It was a good idea for other reasons; the bread I made this afternoon used a fair amount of the whole-wheat flour I’ve been storing in the refrigerator.  Whole-wheat flour does not keep indefinitely.  The germ that is ground along with the endosperm contains oil, which means that the flour can become rancid if it is kept too long, even when refrigerated.  The flour I have in the refrigerator is still well within the expiration date, but I have had it for a couple of months and it’s best to use it up before it becomes in danger of spoiling.

The most pressing items on the news that I heard on the radio today were connected with the weather, which will become more wintry over the next week after the relatively balmy temperatures we’ve been enjoying.  Monday in particular threatens to be troublesome, with a mixture of snow and rain for much of the day.

Memorial services, bread-making, weather  . . . It feels strangely luxurious to be able to go through the headlines without being apprehensive about the safety of the nation’s capital or about the recommendations of the medical experts with regard to the pandemic being flouted as part of our national policy.  It is possible now to concentrate on more personal matters, to a degree I have not known for the past several weeks.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  98,713,555; # of deaths worldwide: 2,114,657; # of cases U.S.: 25,390,042; # of deaths; U.S.: 424,177.  It seems odd to recollect that at one point both Brazil and India seemed likely to equal the number of cases in our country.  By this date Brazil has less than one-third of the cases that we do and India’s case count is only about 40% of our own.  Since India has four times as many inhabitants as we do, that means that an Indian is, on the average, ten times less likely to get infected than an American.  The Czech Republic is the only country with a population over 10 million whose case rate exceeds our own.

Biden’s measures in response to the pandemic – The send-off of Donald Trump – A musical tribute to the departing administration – Evening statistics

It’s only the second day of the new administration, and already we’re seeing a very different attitude in responding to the pandemic.  Trump more or less assumed that the virus would magically go away once vaccines were developed; whereas Biden knows that the mechanism to procure and distribute the vaccines effectively requires thorough organization on a federal level.  The measures he is prescribing – setting up vaccination centers, staffing with numerous additional workers (some recruited from the military and first-level responders), enforcing the wearing of masks in airports and on airplanes, requiring any international traveler to test negative before entering the U.S. – are all fairly self-evident, nothing that anyone would call particularly remarkable.  But when even the most glaringly obvious has been neglected by the previous administration for months on end, these new mandates are as welcome as water is to a man who is parched with thirst after wandering for days in a desert.

Gradually, I hope, it will be possible to shift the emphasis of the journal entries, which have been overwhelmingly political of late, to the concerns centered around the pandemic and its effects on daily life.  It will take a little while, because the contrast between the new administration and the one that has just terminated is so very extreme.  Then, too, Trump will undoubtedly try to keep in the limelight by one method or other.  His attempt to highlight his send-off yesterday morning to divert attention from Biden’s inauguration more or less fizzled.  Few people bothered to attend it, despite the extensive list of invitations he sent out, telling each participant that he was allowed to bring as many as five additional guests in an effect to pack the event.  He even invited former aides on his staff whom he had fired and publicly excoriated upon their exit, with the results that one might expect.  The best response came from Anthony Scaramucci, who had been White House Communications Director and had lasted in that position for a bare 11 days, hating every minute of it:  “I am having my fingernails pulled out at that time, sorry I can’t make it.”

EB has cautioned me that any sort of theatrical representation of the past events, of which I’ve given samples in various earlier entries, ought to end happily.  Since the devotees of the 45^th president must now be feeling in a disgruntled mood as a result of their failure to overturn the election, I present the following scenario for them as a consolatory gesture:

[The ELDEST SON and the SECOND SON are earnestly in conference, with the CHORUS listening attentively.  While they converse, the DAUGHTER-IN-LAW ELECT continually moves her hands all over the ELDEST SON’s body in amorous caresses, which he scarcely appears to notice.]

SECOND SON:  Can’t I shoot the Vice-President at least?  He certainly deserves it, letting Dad down the way he did.

ELDEST SON:  No, no, that sort of thing is best left to obscure underlings, who can easily be discarded afterwards at a moment’s notice.  You can’t execute enemies with your own hands – that isn’t presidential, you understand.

SECOND SON:  Aw, you never let me have any fun.

ELDEST SON:  Don’t worry, when all of this blows over, we’ll take a long vacation somewhere in Kenya or Tanzania or one of those places, where we can bag elephants and leopards by the dozens, and maybe a few natives as well.

SECOND SON:  Oh, goodie!

[The DOCTOR and the VIRUS COORDINATOR enter at this point.]

ELDEST SON:  So, getting back to the logistics of this siege upon the Capitol – [looks up and notices the doctors coming towards him] Ah, yes – may I help you?

VIRUS COORDINATOR:  We actually hoped to have a word with your father, if he’s available.

ELDEST SON [superciliously]:  He’s rather busy at the moment.  I’m sure he can see you eventually if you hang around a couple of hours or thereabouts.

DOCTOR:  Well, naturally we have no wish to call him away from his imperative engagement at the golf course.  We merely wanted to inform him of our departure, that’s all.

ELDEST SON:  Oh, what, are you two resigning?  Sorry to hear that, I’m sure.

DOCTOR:  Yes, it seems that the counsel of you and of those who think like you has prevailed and that all of the precautions I recommended have been urged in vain.  The best that I can hope, not only for you but for all of our countrymen, is that you do not find yourself in the position of that Greek general who once said, when congratulated about a victory over his opponents that involved massive casualties, “If we have another such victory, we shall be utterly ruined.”  [Turns to the VIRUS COORDINATOR, who is looking disconsolate.]  Come, Madam Coordinator, there is nothing for us here.

[The DOCTOR and the VIRUS COORDINATOR exit.]

SECOND SON [to the ELDEST SON, in an undertone, as the two doctors leave the stage]:  Hey!  What general is he talking about, anyway?  We don’t have any significant military action in Greece right now.

ELDEST SON [makes a gesture of impatience]:  Never mind.  They’re both gone, and good riddance I say.  If they had had their way, everyone would be skulking in fear and our entire economy would have come to a standstill.  Now that we’re finally rid of them, we can concentrate on the strategies for punishing the two chambers for conniving at stealing the election.  Happily, with the efforts of the true patriots who support us, we’ll be able to assemble an amazing crowd to march on the Capitol.  If all goes well, we’ll carry out a massive purge, and blood will run through the streets like rivers.  We will prevail, never fear! – and when we do, we will show the world that a bright new day is dawning for our nation.

FINALE – ELDEST SON, SECOND SON, DAUGHTER-IN-LAW ELECT, AND CHORUS

ELDEST SON

We march forward to the Capitol, with enthusiastic haste,
To thoroughly besiege it ‘til its halls are all laid waste.
It will be an awesome spectacle as never before was seen
As we devote our fervent energies to pillage and rapine.
Every renegade we’ll hunt down, as relentless as a flood,
And stain the floors incarnadine with their recreant bodies’ blood.
And, for the enjoyment of your son and of your daughter,
We may even organize an exciting general slaughter! 

CHORUS

Glory to the Master, the true and only one!
Who in brilliance yields to no one, not even the sun
Sing the joyous message, over mountain, over plain
Over field, over stream, over rocky bleak moraine
From the isles of Hawaii to the eastern coast of Maine
Shout the happy paean over yet again
Ring the gladsome bells and merry chimes without delay
Spread the word along the roads and every country way
Let each and every one of us raise our voices as we say
Today is the dawning of a bright new day! 

ELDEST SON

The doctor’s now defeated by the guile of dear old Dad,
I’m sure this news makes everyone extraordinarily glad.
Never will his directives now exert their baneful sway,
Cramping all activities and every holiday.
He’d have forced upon us many weary, tedious tasks
Such as social distancing and wearing of the masks
But he’s thwarted in his efforts to deprive of us of our ease,
Of our sacred right to sicken whomsoever that we please. 

CHORUS

Glory to the Master, the true and only one!
Who in brilliance yields to no one, not even the sun
Sing the joyous message, over mountain, over plain
From the delta where the Mississippi’s long length comes to drain,
To the gray shores of Seattle that are always drenched in rain.
Shout the happy paean over yet again
Ring the gladsome bells and merry chimes without delay
Spread the word along the roads and every country way
Let each and every one of us raise our voices as we say
Today is the dawning of a bright new day! 

ELDEST SON

Such baseless qualms! – Bugaboos of the feeble and the weak
Who’d cave in without a murmur to this meddling doctor’s freak.
We’ve set ourselves like flint against such foolish, trivial fears
Upholding liberty with many heady joyous cheers
We’ll continue to preserve the legacy that we’re bequeathing –
But why am I suddenly having difficulty breathing?
My sense of taste now seems to be completely off,
And I feel an overwhelming urge to hack and choke and cough! 

[The music continues in joyous melody during the refrain that follows as the ELDEST SON breaks out into a violent fit of coughing and starts gasping for air as if he were drowning.  The members of the CHORUS look on with horror as he gradually collapses to the floor, his limbs twitching in spasmodic movements for a short time and then suddenly becoming motionless.  Some members of CHORUS make a hurried huddle and then they push the SECOND SON to the forefront, while others carry on with the refrain.]

CHORUS

Glory to the Master, the true and only one!
Who in brilliance yields to no one, not even the sun
Sing the joyous message, over mountain, over plain
From the fertile fields of Kansas that are always filled with grain
To New Jersey, whose poisoned air we’ve tried to clean in vain,
Shout the happy paean over yet again
Ring the gladsome bells and merry chimes without delay
Spread the word along the roads and every country way
Let each and every one of us raise our voices as we say
Today is the dawning of a bright new day! 

SECOND SON

Um, well, yeah . . . [these words are spoken through the orchestral strains opening the next verse, which he then declaims in a manner much less confident than that of the ELDEST SON]

I want to voice agreement with every word my brother said –
I just hope to goodness that he isn’t cold and dead.)
The virus is a fraud, a hoax, as everyone can tell –
(How strange, something’s gone awry with my sense of smell.)
Let’s all take arms as we prepare for our splendiferous march – 
(My heartbeat’s racing now and my throat’s begun to parch.)
Oh, no, somebody please get some relief to me very quick!
Because I think I’m about to be horribly, horribly sick! 

 (The SECOND SON undergoes the same fate as the ELDEST SON, eventually collapsing to the ground, as do as random members in the CHORUS.  Another huddle takes place, in which the CHORUS members push the DAUGHTER-IN-LAW ELECT to the forefront to take over for the next verse.  By now about half of the chorus remains standing, valiantly continuing the refrain.)

CHORUS

Glory to the Master, the true and only one!
Sing the joyous message, over mountain, over plain
From Napa, whose far-famed wines we avidly obtain
To Texas, where everyone is more or less insane,
Shout the happy paean over yet again
Ring the gladsome bells and merry chimes without delay
Spread the word along the roads and every country way
Let each and every one of us raise our voices as we say
Today is the dawning of a bright new day! 

DAUGHTER-IN-LAW ELECT

[in ringing Wagnerian tones]

Aa–aach!

Fear not!  The virus is far less worse than it’s frequently been painted.
Don’t be alarmed! they’re not dead; I’m sure they’ve merely fainted.
Oh, no!  Even as I speak to you strange symptoms I am feeling:
My legs begin to wobble and my head is simply reeling.
[Turns towards the body of the ELDEST SON lying on the floor.]
How could this state have come about, beloved man of mine?
When we’ve all received our doses of hydroxychloroquine!
No matter – even now, as my voice begins to rasp,
I’ll pledge my support of you to my – last – gasp! 

[And those words are indeed her last gasp as she too collapses to the floor, writhing for a brief time before her limbs become still.  Many others in the CHORUS have already succumbed, and by this time only about a quarter of them remain conscious and stand upright at the beginning of the refrain.]

CHORUS

Glory to the Master, the true and only one!
Who in brilliance yields to no one, not even the sun
Sing the joyous message, over mountain, over plain
From Manhattan, home of whiners ever-ready to complain,
To Chicago, where no one has ever mastered his domain,
Shout the happy paean over yet again
Ring the gladsome bells and merry chimes without delay
Spread the word along the roads and every country way
Let each and every one of us raise our voices as we say
Today is the dawning of a BRIGHT – NEW – DAY! 

[At the end of the last refrain the stage is strewn of the bodies of members of the CHORUS either already expired or in the act of expiring but still managing to sing the last words of the refrain, albeit very feebly. Only one CHORUS member is left standing at the beginning of the last line.  He succumbs just after managing to sing the last word.  The music continues its triumphant strains as every soloist and every member of the CHORUS is lying on the floor, with rigid limbs and frozen eyes, while the CURTAIN slowly descends.]

Hmm . . . OK, I got carried away.  My spirits are reviving considerably after the rather despondent mood of the past few weeks.  We’re not in the final stages of the pandemic yet – very far from it – but the fact that we now have a government that recognizes its severity and is taking active steps to counteract it is a great encouragement. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  98,038,445; # of deaths worldwide: 2,097,927; # of cases U.S.: 25,181,075; # of deaths; U.S.: 419,912.

The inauguration – Clamping down in Washington – The Biden administration begins – Hopeful augurs – Another sad COVID story – Ellen DeGeneres’ spirted response to COVID – Evening statistics

The inauguration has come at last!  Most eagerly awaited, particularly by those who live within the city limits.  All went well.  Donald Trump’s threatened plans to upstage Biden did not come to fruition.  The GOP leaders did not attend the farewell ceremony this morning and instead all opted to attend mass with Biden (he is Catholic).  Trump behaved with the boorishness that has characterized him from the first day of his administration onwards, leaving Washington at 9:00 AM and declining to attend the inauguration, the first president not to attend his successor’s inauguration since 1869.  But assuredly his presence was not missed.  Biden went on record to state his preference for Trump’s not being present, and in Trump’s absence the infinitely more congenial figures of Mike and Karen Pence, the Obamas, the Clintons, and the Bushes were all on hand to welcome our 46^th President as he took the oath of office.  What a relief to have at last a man of sense, ability, and honor in the White House!    

If anyone believes that I am being unduly severe by dwelling on Trump’s deficiencies now that he is finally out of the way, let him reflect that the city of Washington, generally so lovely to look at, still resembles a city occupied by an army, and will have that appearance through the end of tomorrow at the very least.  Various national leaders were present at the inauguration, and instead of being able to appreciate the beauties of the place they were forced to confine themselves to tiny restricted areas and to be accompanied by guards at all times, like visitors to Pyongyang.  If Trump had done nothing else wrong, I still would never be able to forgive him for causing our capital to acquire, even if only momentarily, the aspect of a city behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.

An outsider might think that it is a bit premature to rejoice in face of the difficulties that Biden will be facing, thanks to the mess that his predecessor left behind him.  But we know that he intends to take the crisis of the pandemic seriously and will be making strenuous efforts to combat its effects, to say nothing of his studious avoidance of the incendiary rhetoric that was Trump’s trademark.  We know, also, that the presence of Kamala Harris as his Vice-President will have some ameliorating effect on the racial tension that has been steadily accumulating in this country for the past year.  And despite Trump’s contemptuous description of him as “sleepy,” he is already tackling the issues confronting the nation with great energy, appointing Cabinet members and preparing several executive orders to counteract the disastrous policies that Trump has pursued.

There are other reasons for optimism.  The shortages that I described in earlier entries and that prevailed throughout much of the spring and summer are now ended.  All of the staples that were in short supply when the pandemic started – bread, paper towels, toilet paper, yeast, various meats, cleaning supplies – are now available again in abundance.  Shelves in the groceries stores are full.  The distribution of the vaccines is underway in all states, and the wagon has begun to roll, albeit not very swiftly.  Various friends and relatives have already received their first dose:  some friends who are in the health care profession, as well as my aunt and my first cousin and his wife.  I myself am in a category that has become eligible for the vaccination (over 65), but I am waiting a little until the distribution is somewhat less hectic and it is possible to obtain a vaccination by appointment. 

So the hopes that the pandemic will be receding shortly are high, but one must not get over-confident.  I have just come across another sad virus-related story:  that of Wilber Portillo, of Denver, CO, who first contracted the infectious disease after he traveled with his cousin on a trip to Los Angeles.  He recovered, but two months later he was stricken again, developing a fever following a party where two other people tested positive for COVID-19.  He went to the doctor’s office, where he was told that he had a “really strong infection in his lungs.”  And he died in his sleep that same night.  He was only 18 years old.  This situation is very rare; most people who contract the virus acquire immunity from contracting the virus again and the few who do get re-infected generally recover.  But there are always exceptions, and no one should presume on his strength or resistance. 

The television show host Ellen DeGeneres came down with the virus in December and she has displayed a great deal of humor in dealing with it.  “Obviously, there’s a lot of negative things going on,” she said, “so I want to talk about something positive:  my COVID test.”  She has recovered, but not without difficulty.  The most troubling symptom was intense back pain, feeling, in her words, “as if I cracked a rib.”  She did, however, manage to avoid some of the more usual symptoms:  “I didn’t lose my sense of taste, although I did wear Crocs with socks for a day, so you be the judge.”  There is always a temptation for people of my age to fancy that the nation I live in is degenerating; but every now and then I encounter a display of light-heartedness, a breezy resilience in the face of severe trials that reminds me that we as a nation have unsuspected resources of strength and courage.  We Americans will weather this crisis yet.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  97,269,543; # of deaths worldwide: 2,081,264; # of cases U.S.: 24,987,629; # of deaths; U.S.: 415,558.

Mitch McConnell attempts to distance himself from Trump – Lawsuits awaiting Trump following his departure from the White House – Trump’s send-off – COVID long-haulers – Prince William Forest – Evening statistics

Today, this last complete day of Donald Trump’s administration, Mitch McConnell has issued a statement placing blame of the attempted insurrection unequivocally on Trump’s shoulders:  “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.”

I strongly suspect that McConnell is only too glad of an excuse to turn upon Trump, who has been an embarrassment to the Republican Party for the past four years.  Perhaps, also, there is an element of personal resentment involved, since McConnell was among the legislators whose safety was jeopardized by the assault on the Capitol.  What he means to do for follow-up is another matter.  Will he vote to convict Trump when the article of impeachment is presented to the Senate?  And will he urge other Senators to do so?  In that case, obtaining the votes of 17 Republican Senators in favor of conviction becomes more likely.  But one mustn’t get one’s hopes up.  In all likelihood he will say enough to dissociate himself from Trump, or at any rate make an attempt in that direction.  But beyond a certain point, the critical point, he probably will not go.

Trump, however, has other issues awaiting him besides the impeachment.  Roberta Kaplan, a prominent lawyer, is preparing to bring no fewer than three separate cases against him:  1) on behalf of Mary Trump, who claims that Trump and two of his siblings defrauded her from her due share of her grandfather’s estate; 2) on behalf of Jean Carroll, for defamation of character after Trump claimed that she “was totally lying” about his having raped her; 3) on behalf of those who took part in ACN, a company that was promoted on “The Celebrity Apprentice” as a marketing opportunity, and who lost their entire investment.  This last-named suit includes Trump’s three eldest children as co-defendants.  Trump is also facing a civil investigation from New York Attorney General Letitia James and a criminal investigation Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.  So at any rate he will have his hands full over the next few months at least.

He has been lying low for the past several days, but undoubtedly he will wish to upstage Biden tomorrow.  He has been attempting to set up an elaborate send-off ceremony, but it is already clear that neither Mike Pence nor the majority of GOP leaders plan to attend.  Donald Trump should not be surprised to discover that his erstwhile followers are losing no time in turning their faces to the rising sun.  There is no pupil without his teacher; and what sort of example in loyalty has he set for them?  He has discarded his tools without hesitation once they served their purpose, and now his turn has come at last. 

I have speculated about whether experts are attempting to collect data on people who have recovered from COVID but who are left with after-effects.  It appears that this aspect of the virus is not as neglected as I had originally believed.  Researchers at the UK’s Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics have data showing that over 29% of those who were hospitalized as a result of COVID returned to be treated for respiratory disorders within five months and 12.3% (about 1 in 8 patients) died from respiratory complications.  More studies are needed, of course.  This one covers only those whose cases are of a severity level that requires hospitalization.  The CDC has recognized since July the issue of so-called “long haulers”:  people who recovered from the disease, and in many cases not requiring hospitalization at all, but who continue to suffer from symptoms such as lingering shortness of breath, back pain, continual fatigue, hair loss, neuropathy and diabetes (and others – this is not a complete list).  One CDC study indicated that as many as 35% of those who tested positive do not return to level of health they had before contracting the virus, but the statistical sampling is fairly small (less than 300) and naturally enough it does not include those who were asymptomatic and who, on that account, never got tested at all. 

It was quiet in the capital today, and quiet outside of its boundaries as well:  for instance, in Prince William Forest, where I hiked with the Vigorous Hikers today.  The hikes there are not spectacular but they are very pleasant, going through an area of gently rolling hills with a network of paths centered about the two branches of Quantico Creek.  We covered 18½ miles, with 1400 feet of elevation gain.  The hike went along various trails that are less frequently used, or at any rate not much used by the hikes I’ve done in the park in earlier years, such as the Turkey Run Ridge Trail and the Birch Bluff Trail.  I’ve been on them in the past, but such a long time ago that they were almost like new trails for me.  It was a beautiful day, mostly sunny and temperatures reach 50 degrees.  A white squirrel is supposed to be residing in the park but we did not see it today; on the other hand, several noteworthy birds flew above, including a pileated woodpecker.  All in all, the hike provided a great alleviation for the sour mood that afflicted me yesterday.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  96,589,022; # of deaths worldwide: 2,063,879; # of cases U.S.: 24,799,787; # of deaths; U.S.: 408,615.  The death toll is over 2,700 today, a number considerably greater than those of the past two days but still short of the 4,000+ deaths we saw some days of the previous week.

Martin Luther King – Prevention of the usual observances of the day this year – The attitude of cautious optimism concerning race relations impacted by recent events – The possibility of Trump being indicted for attempts to defraud the voters of Georgia – Evening statistics

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

We owe so much to Martin Luther King and his colleagues in the Civil Rights movement.  The monstrous Jim Crow laws began to exert their malign influence from the 1880s onwards, after the failure of Reconstruction, and the segregation they enforced was raised to the level of a national institution by the unspeakable Woodrow Wilson in 1913, after which it spread like a cancer all over the country.  For decades these laws appeared to be unassailable, and the bitter struggles to overturn them lasted well over a half-century.  King knew in advance that the role he played in overcoming these abominations was likely to result in his own assassination, and he could easily have elected to live in comfortable and secure obscurity.  Many people in the black communities of his day were not in the least anxious to remove the barriers between them and their white countrymen; the prevailing sentiment being, quite understandably under the circumstances, that it was bad enough to have to encounter them during work hours, without being obliged to come into contact with them socially.   It was very fortunate that King decided upon the course he eventually took; had he decided not to enter the cause of civil rights at all, no one would have reproached him and he would avoided a great deal of personal discomfort and grief by choosing to be safe and unknown.  Like the philosopher Spinoza, he had the quality of selflessness.

Martin Luther King Day is not a festive occasion, but in a strange sense it usually is a joyous one.  As the above quotation indicates, blacks were not the only ones who paid heavily for the legislative perversion I have mentioned; the hatred and resentment generated by segregation were like a poisonous miasma that penetrated nearly every corner of American life.  It is fortunate for our nation that King had a singular incapacity for resentment; he never expressed any hostility towards those who opposed him and injured him, and on numerous occasions he spoke of them as more deserving of pity than censure.  His policy of non-violence was often questioned by numerous fellow Civil Rights members, but it proved to be the most effective strategy in the long run, and it certainly was a blessing for the country as a whole that the social change he helped to bring about was purchased with a relatively small cost of human life. 

It has been the practice of many, myself among them, to visit the Memorial at this time of year and pay the tribute of respect to one of our great national benefactors.  On such occasions I always linger before the panel on which the quotation cited above is engraved.  But it is not possible on this day. 

For a time, after the removal of the disenfranchisement of black voters in 1965 and of various other methods of implementing segregation, it really did appear, especially in recent decades, that we were in remission at last.  The recovery is not complete, of course.  Some inequities remain, such as those imposed by the GI Bill (passed in 1944, years before the Civil Rights movement overturned the segregation-related restrictions) and by the fact that schools in predominantly black communities tend to have the lowest budgets and the least up-to-date facilities.  By and large, however, the impression was that the disparities among the races were disappearing and that the vision King expressed in his “I have a dream” speech was becoming a reality.  After all, in the space of 50-odd years after King’s victory, we have seen (among others) African-American business executives, city mayors, prominent lawyers, Cabinet members, state governors, astronauts, Supreme Court justices, a Nobel-prize writer of fiction, and of course, a President.  Under quite recently it seemed that we had turned the corner.

Can it be that the cancer of racial divide is on the verge of metastasizing once more?  Matters certainly have the appearance of it at this point.  The city of Washington at the current moment resembles a beleaguered garrison in a plundered country and will remain that way until the day after the inauguration at the very least.  Any non-resident enters the city at his peril.  Once Biden is officially our president the overt demonstrations will probably diminish, but the racial hatred that is one of the components that fueled the recent siege on the Capitol will not vanish; it will merely go underground.  Access to the Memorial is impossible for the time being.  Police are stationed there to prevent would-be rioters from defacing it and, more importantly, from assaulting those who wish to visit it to honor King’s magnificent achievements.  Usually on this day we celebrate the triumphant overcoming of mindless bigotry, but this year we are haunted by the fear that marches on behalf of ensuring the eradication of racial oppression via skewed legislation may have to occur all over again.

On a slightly more cheerful note – One deficiency in the drawing up of the impeachment (which I neglected to mention in previous entries) is that it is a single article only, dwelling upon Trump’s incitement of the siege of the Capitol, and that his blatant attempt to overturn the election results in Georgia by fraud was not included in the charges.  However, Georgia prosecutors are considering the possibility of bringing charges against Trump on their own.  This course would have the advantage that even if Trump issues a pre-emptive pardon for himself, it applies to federal crimes only and would not apply to crimes against a state government.   How strange it is to feel that the best possible outcome is an indictment of some sort for our current President.  But nothing else will have the power to neutralize him.

What a gloomy entry this is!  I am out of sorts today.  I suppose there is a personal element in my state of malaise, as well as a socio-political one.  I had planned earlier in the month to go to the King Memorial in the morning and afterwards lead a few others on a 15-mile circuit via Anacostia, NoMa, and the Cathedral, but obviously such an undertaking could not be attempted under the current circumstances.  No doubt being balked of this hike plays a role in my current state of grumpiness.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  95,989,749; # of deaths worldwide: 2,048,487; # of cases U.S.: 24,626,175; # of deaths; U.S.: 408,615.  Another day with a decrease in new cases and new COVID-related deaths.  Then again, who could have predicted earlier in the year that a day that witnessed less than 1,500 deaths would be something to rejoice about?

Reunion with many friends – Washington DC awaits the inauguration – Decrease in new COVID cases – Evening statistics

I met with AD and RH in the American Chestnut Land Trust today.  The setup was the closest I have experienced to a Wanderbirds club hike in months.  At least 15 people participated and we separated into smaller groups that went on a longer and a shorter hike, just as in the old days.  Since I am familiar with the trails in the area by now, I was one of the leaders, and I led the group that went on the longer hike.  There were five of us in all, and we covered 12½ miles with about 2000 feet of elevation gain.  It was a beautiful day, initially overcast, but rapidly clearing and becoming sunny for most of the time that we were out on the trails.  We all used the raft to cross the creek that separates the park into two distinct areas.  FH, who lives downtown (and was the sender of the Email I recorded in yesterday’s entry), was able to get out of the city without difficulty.  Afterwards we had snacks and drinks at the parking area.  I saw many people whom I have not met up with in months.  It felt almost like a return from exile. 

The capital remains quiet.  Far-right organizations initially were threatening to set up several protest marches this weekend, but after the backlash from the events of January 6^th they have gone into retreat and have told their followers to stay away from the capital.  Parts of the city resemble a military zone.  Residents in these areas have to struggle to do daily activities, such as buying groceries, on streets where armored vehicles are continually roaming.  A section of the city from Dupont Circle to the Sousa Bridge and the 11^th St. Bridge across the Anacostia River is vehicle-restricted, available to residents or businesses only.  Many of the bridges across the Potomac are closed.  The events generally held for observance on Martin Luther King Day (tomorrow) have been canceled.  On a more personal level, in the past RS has organized a 15-mile walk that begins at the MLK Memorial and circuits various parts of the city for interested participants and I was originally supposed to help him lead it this year; but that plan had to be abandoned.  It is not clear how we would be able to enter the city at this point and it certainly is inadvisable to walk at great length on streets where guards and checkpoints are ubiquitous. 

There is a significant drop in the number of new COVID cases and in the death toll today, under half of the average of the last few days.  It is unclear whether this is a temporary lull or whether we are already beginning to see some effect from the vaccines, which have been administered to several in the top-priority categories.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  95,464,804; # of deaths worldwide: 2,039,083; # of cases U.S.: 24,480,982; # of deaths; U.S.: 407,202. 

Hiking on snow-covered trails – Difficulties of entering and leaving Washington DC until after the inauguration – The claims of “the 75 million” given priority over 81 million – The consummate ignorance of Tommy Tuberville – The willful stupidity of Marjorie Taylor Greene – The disdain for the law of Lauren Boebert – Evening statistics

I met with AD and RH to hike in Shenandoah National Park, although the original planned hike could not be attempted.  The park was closed on account of the rainfall yesterday, which coated Skyline Drive with ice.  Instead we went on the Pass Mountain Trail, whose trailhead lies outside of the entrance to Skyline Drive itself.  The hike was quite simple, taking the trail up to the Appalachian Trail, turning north to go up to Beahm’s Gap, and then returning by the same route:  about 10 miles and 2300 feet of elevation gain.  As we went up the Pass Mountain Trail a surprise awaited us.  There was a light coating of snow on the ground in the higher elevations, barely 1/4” deep. Some of the branches and twigs displayed little ice needles.  A covering of snow, even when it is as little as this one, brightens up the scene wonderfully, especially when the arrival to it is accompanied by a parting of the clouds to display the sunlight.  We paused at the overlook about a mile from Beahm’s Gap to take in the view.  In the past, when the Wanderbirds have hiked in this area, we tended to go past it without stopping (it is slightly hidden from the Appalachian Trail itself), but it is well worth looking at.  In the current instance, the view of the valley was highlighted by the clouds gathered on the top of the mountains contrasting with the clarity of the vista below them.  Afterwards we snacked and drank together, as our club has done on hikes in the past when we all rode together on our chartered bus.  The sun had gone in by the time we returned and we experienced a light snowfall after we returned to the parking area.  It melted directly upon hitting the road, and during the drive downwards to lower elevations it ceased altogether.  We had a wonderful time, and I appreciated it all the more after the conversation with my British friend yesterday, from whom I learned that hikes with even a small group like ours (five of us in all) are forbidden in the U.K. for the time being.

We are planning to meet again tomorrow at the American Chestnut Land Trust.  One friend who wishes to join us lives in DC, and she says that it is possible that traffic restrictions pending the inauguration may prevent her.  “If I don’t show up,” she wrote, “it will probably mean I’m stymied by road/bridge closures, so don’t wait.”  This inauguration will resemble the transition of government in a third-world country, with insurgents prowling the streets, police stationed on nearly every corner to forestall them, and ordinary residents barring their windows and sheltering themselves apprehensively inside.  This is the harvest of the seed that Trump has sown.

Trump’s supporters are continually urging the claims of “the 75 million,” i.e., the estimated number of votes he received.  Why, yes – that is what an election means.  In any election, a large number of people will be disappointed by the defeat of their favored candidate because an even larger number voted for his rival.  Joe Biden won 81 million votes, but this aspect of the matter is never mentioned by Trump’s adherents.

In fact, at this stage a number of Republican lawmakers appear to be thoroughly ignorant of the Constitution that they have sworn to uphold.  For instance, there is Representative Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.  He proposed to make the inauguration safer by postponing it for a few weeks.  Setting aside the argument that the last thing this nation needs is a prolongment of a transition that has been an excuse for frenzied demonstrations all over the country, Tuberville’s proposition happens to be illegal.  The 20^th Amendment, ratified in 1933, explicitly specifies the inauguration date as January 20^th, and it would require yet another ratified Amendment to alter it.  The inauguration date cannot be moved on a whim, as he appears to think.  Then again, what else is to be expected from a man who believes that the three branches of government are “the House, the Senate, and the executive”? 

A equal degree of ignorance was displayed by Marjorie Taylor Greene, from Georgia, a rookie representative, who has vowed that her first act as a legislator will be to set up a motion to impeach Biden on January 21^st, the first full day that he assumes office.  She appears to be – no, scratch that – she is completely oblivious to the fact that a motion of impeachment must cite a specific action on the part of the accused party.  Even if Biden were to prove as corrupt and destructive as Donald Trump himself (which would be rather a difficult feat to attain), the sole fault that he has committed at this point is to hold political viewpoints that differ from her own. 

Breaking the law would not exactly be a novelty either for yet another Republican representative, Lauren Boebert, from Colorado.  She enters the House with credentials that include a sizeable rap sheet.  She is a gun enthusiast and she carries her guns directly into the Capitol, despite rebukes from the local law enforcement (why these weapons are not simply confiscated from her is anyone’s guess).  Boebert has undergone a somewhat unusual courtship from her husband (who himself has had brushes with the law, including one for indecent exposure).  Jayson Boebert was booked on a charge of domestic violence in 2004, when he was accused of physically manhandling her and served seven days in jail.  She certainly is not one to submit tamely to such treatment:  after his release she had another altercation during which she scratched his face and chest, and trashed his apartment as well, resulting in her being charged with third-degree assault, criminal mischief, and underage drinking charges.  The two were obviously soulmates, rejoicing in a common love of brutality and disregard of the law, and they married in 2005.  In September 2010, Boebert was arrested when her two pit bulls attacked a neighbor’s dog.  In June 2015, Boebert was handcuffed for disorderly conduct at a Country Music festival, after she attempted to interfere in the arrest of minors busted for underage drinking and encouraged the accused to run off.  In September 2016, Boebert was charged with careless driving and operating an unsafe vehicle after rolling her truck into a ditch.  Boebert certainly has had extensive experience with our nation’s legal system, although it is not of a nature that most people would wish to see in their public representative.

I never thought that I would end up saying this, but If the Democrats are looking for a label that will distinguish them from their rival faction, I take leave to suggest they designate themselves as “the law-abiding party” or perhaps, more simply, “the sane party.”

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  94,925,804; # of deaths worldwide: 2,029,648; # of cases U.S.: 24,305,829; # of deaths; U.S.: 405,254. 

Conditions in the U.K. – Two COVID stories – Trump and Pence prepare for the inauguration, each in his characteristic way – Evening statistics

I had a chat via Skype with my friend RE, who lives in the U.K.  We exchanged, among other things, news of how the virus is affecting day-to-day living in our respective countries.  The restrictions in the U.K. are far stricter than they are here.  Hikes such as I have described with others are not possible in the U.K. at the moment; one can walk together only with one other person.  The only stores that are open are stores at which one can purchase food or hardware.  All other retail stores are closed.  Travel between counties there is limited in a manner similar to how travel between states is here.  Certain small islands, such as the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands, are relatively free from the virus.  The authorities in these localities are determined that they remain so and, to that end, have rigorously curbed visitors even from other parts of the U.K.  London has just built a temporary morgue to house 1,300 bodies; the city has sustained nearly 11,000 deaths from the virus since the pandemic began. 

Two contrasting stories about the virus demonstrate just how unpredictable it can be.  The first is that of Bob Horbaczewski, aged 47, from Arizona.  He, his wife, and his three children came down with the virus in December, even though they had taken precautions.  The wife and children recovered, but he is now on a ventilator and his survival is doubtful.  Even if he does survive his respiratory system has suffered so much damage that he will need a lung transplant.  Although his wife contracted the disease and has since recovered, presumably acquiring a degree of immunity, she is forced to forego in-person visits and to watch his struggles virtually.  He had no underlying conditions and before he was stricken with the virus, he was “an image of health,” to use his wife’s words.

And then there is the story of John Hollis, aged 54, a communications manager at George Mason University.  He experienced some mild congestion after returning from a trip to Europe in March, just as the alarm about the virus was beginning.  It soon passed, however, but is roommate fell ill with the virus shortly afterwards.  Hollis stood by his door early every morning and listened for movement to ensure that he was still alive. He consistently wiped down the townhouse they shared and confined himself to his bedroom, thinking that he would almost certainly contract it as well.  He was also worried about his son, who had accompanied him on the European trip.  Upon investigation, however, the physicians discovered that his blood is fortified with antibodies to such an extent that he literally cannot contract the virus, no matter how many people he is exposed to.  In fact, the likelihood is that his roommate became ill because Hollis unknowingly passed it on to him.  Hollis is currently working with the George Mason lab, providing saliva and blood samples every two weeks, in a project that is attempting to mimic the type of antibody action that he possesses.

Donald Trump is now expected to leave the White House on Wednesday morning.  His plans, supposedly, are to fly to Palm Beach, landing there at approximately 12:00 PM, the time that the inauguration ceremony begins.  Boxes have been already been packed and loaded into moving vans.  Mike Pence, on the other hand, personally called Kamala Harris to congratulate her and to offer assistance for the inauguration, which he and his wife plan to attend.  Whatever one might think of Pence’s politics, he is worthy of a far better master than the one he served for four years.  He is now fulfilling nearly all of the responsibilities that the outgoing President normally undertakes.  In addition, he has just attended a ceremony in honor of the legendary pilot Chuck Yeager (who died on December 7^th at the age of 97), and will give speeches in California and New York over the weekend touting the administration’s military achievements.   No one who participated in Trump’s administration, of course, can emerge with an unstained reputation; but of all of the people who fell into Trump’s net, he is the one who seems the least unclean.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  94,309,732; # of deaths worldwide: 2,017,798; # of cases U.S.: 24,102,429; # of deaths; U.S.: 401,856.  We have over 400,000 deaths from the virus now.  Our incidence rate is 7.25%, over 1 in 14 per population.

Long-term effects of COVID – Bianca Smith – Curfews in European nations – The well-heeled rioters – Jacob Chansley receives catering in prison – Preparations for the inauguration – Harold Bornstein – Evening statistics

I have been recording the number of deaths from the COVID virus, which is fairly high in proportion to the number of recorded cases of infection but not overwhelmingly so.  What is less easy to track is the number of people who have been in some way incapacitated after their recovery.  The case of Rachel Gunn, from Dublin, Ireland, is an example.  She was 28 years old, healthy, active, a non-smoker, with no underlying conditions.  She contracted the virus in October and spent two weeks struggling against it.  After that period she felt sufficiently healthy to return to work, despite a persistent sense of fatigue.  In December, however, the fatigue became worse, to the point that mounting a flight of stairs felt as if she had been running in a marathon and she was requiring 15-16 hours of sleep every day.  At last she checked into a hospital, where it was discovered that her lungs were covered with pulmonary embolisms.  That was the cause of her fatigue; she was not receiving a sufficient degree of oxygen as her lungs were steadily deteriorating.  She will have to stay on blood thinners for at least a year and may be susceptible to blood clots for the rest of her life. 

The most common post-virus symptom that lingers for months or (as it is projected) for years after recovery from “mild” cases is loss of smell and taste.  Even this is not trivial – it can trigger depression, after all – but at any rate it is possible to cope with it.  But statistics on the number of those who had had more serious consequences after the disease has come and gone are at this point impossible to obtain.  In fact, I don’t know if anyone has gone to the trouble of attempting to collect them.

I heard an interview on the radio with Bianca Smith, the baseball coach.  What is remarkable about her is this:  despite her record of achievement, she does not consider herself at all remarkable.  She doesn’t think of herself as a trailblazer and she brushed aside all comparisons with Jackie Robinson:  he paved the way already, she said, for people of color, and she personally encountered little resistance on account of her race or her gender.  It is the coaching and baseball that matter to her; the fact that she happens to be the first black woman to be a professional baseball coach is a pleasant by-product of her career, but nothing more.   She is pleased that other women and other African-Americans are encouraged by her example; but the force that drives her is her love of baseball.  She has just been hired by the Red Sox as a minor league coach, the first African-American woman to obtain a position as a coach for a professional baseball team.

France is currently imposing a nationwide 6PM curfew that will last at least 15 days in an attempt to contain the COVID virus.  In addition, all travelers arriving from outside the EU have to test negative for the virus within 72 hours before their travel into France, and then isolate for seven days and test negative again.  France has been particularly hard-hit by the virus, especially in recent months.  It has lost over 69,000 people as a result of the virus, the seventh-highest death toll in the world.  Other European nations are following suit:  Hungary, Belgium, Italy, and Latvia all have curfew restrictions, and the Netherlands is contemplating imposing them as well.

As reports about the siege on the Capitol continue to flood the newspapers it is becoming apparent that the rioters are not, as might initially have been supposed, members of the blue-collar working class fueled by indignation at the neglect they have been receiving from our legislators.  On the contrary, they are for the most part children of privilege.  Many traveled to Washington taking business-class airplane flights and booking rooms at four-star hotels.  Some of them are fairly highly placed:  for instance, Derrick Evans and Klete Keller, who are, respectively, a delegate in the state legislature of West Virginia and a swimming champion who won medals in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics. 

And they have been treated like a privileged class in many cases.  The charges brought against them are relatively minor; none, as far as I can tell, have been formally charged with sedition.  Jacob Anthony Chansley (“the QAnon shaman”) whose picture was prominent in the headlines on account of the costume he wore to the siege (furry hat with Viking horns, tattooed bare chest, tan pants, face coated with red, white, and blue paint) – for all the world as if he were attending a Halloween party – has since been arrested.  After his arrest he complained that he can only eat organic food.  Instead of his being told that he had a choice between eating the food served by the prison or ending his worthless life by starvation, the judge in the case ruled that he must be served organic food.  Worse still, the charges against him are misdemeanors only, not felonies.  Chansley, incidentally, has not done a stroke of work since his dismissal from the Navy in 2007 and lives in his mother’s house, supported by her.  She appears to be as infatuated with him as Jocasta was with Oedipus.  Most mothers, I believe, would be rather upset to discover that a child of theirs participated in an act of domestic terrorism, but such considerations trouble her not at all and her main concern is that her pampered darling receives the same standard of living in prison that he enjoys at her home.

Preparations are being made for the inauguration, which, thanks to the rioters, threatens to be one of the gloomiest in our history.  When I was driving on the Beltway today announcements were posted urging people to stay away from the capital during the period of January 16-20.  Muriel Bowser has requested Americans to remain at home rather than travel to the city.  She has also been granted a state of emergency order for the city.  Anti-scale fencing has been erected around the Capitol.  The Pentagon has authorized at least 15,000 National Guard troops to patrol the event.  (The mayor of Washington does not have the power to call out the National Guard directly, because large swathes of the city fall under federal jurisdiction.  This security fissure played a role in the events of last week, when the Pentagon ignored Bowser’s requests for assistance as the violence began.)  It will all have the appearance of the beginning of a third-world nation administration.  Such is the legacy that Donald Trump will leave behind him.

Harold Bornstein died this past Friday, of undisclosed causes.   He was the physician who in 2015 attested that Donald Trump, should he be elected in 2016, would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”  Several months later, when he was cast off by Trump (the usual fate that awaited Trump’s underlings once they had served their purpose) he revealed that the letter from which this quotation was taken had been dictated to him by Trump.  The cause of the breach between the two was an article in the New York Times in which Bornstein casually mentioned that he had given Trump prescriptions for Propecia, a prostate-related drug to treat baldness, as well as other “antibiotics to control rosacea, a common skin problem, and a statin for elevated blood cholesterol and lipids.”  Trump was outraged by disclosure of these minor health issues, and consequently raided Bornstein’s office to remove his medical records – at least according to Bornstein’s account.  It should be added that the White House maintained that removal of any President’s records is standard procedure and that Bornstein cooperated in turning them over after being notified to relinquish them.  What is indisputable is that Bornstein became persona non grata after the interview with the Times.  Bornstein is only one of many who learned the hard way that trying to obtain a link to fame through association with Donald Trump is inevitably accompanied in the long run by a damaged reputation and public humiliation.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  93,493,980; # of deaths worldwide: 2,001,034; # of cases U.S.: 23,836,911; # of deaths; U.S.: 397,808. 

Mainly about impeachment – A typical rioter – The bravery of Eugene Goodman – Trump’s dwindling income – Evening statistics

It is now official:  Donald Trump is the only President in history to be impeached twice.

The vote to approve the motion to impeach him ran 232-197, with ten Republicans voting their concurrence.  They included House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, the No. 3 Republican leader and the highest-ranking GOP woman in Congress.  Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Andy Biggs (Ariz.), dedicated Trumpsters that they are, immediately called on Cheney to resign from leadership and are currently attempting to engineer to oust her from power, but so far she has held firm.  “I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “This is a vote of conscience. It’s one where there are different views in our conference.  But our nation is facing an unprecedented — since the Civil War — constitutional crisis. That’s what we need to be focused on. That’s where our efforts and attention need to be.”

It is unclear what the outcome in the Senate will be.  If all Democratic Senators vote for impeachment (and even that is not certain), it will still require votes from 17 Republican Senators to obtain a conviction – something of a long shot, admittedly.  Still, it may be possible.  The tide against Trump is turning rapidly, and he will have no official status in just a week from now.  So perhaps a sufficient number of them will summon up the courage to assail this stricken boar once the Biden administration begins.

A case that is pending against one of the rioters may be said to be a typical example of how Trump has doled out false coin to his supporters.  Adam Newbold, a Navy SEAL, boasted on Facebook immediately after the siege that he was proud to have participated in it and that no vandalism occurred – a claim that is demonstrably false, as numerous photos of broken windows, shattered doors, floors and carpets strewn with urine and feces, and various defaced objects can all attest.  This show of bravado was deleted soon afterwards, but not before ABC News obtained a copy of it.  He is now being investigated by the FBI and is now professing repentance.  He claims that reality kicked in for him when he heard about the death of one rioter and the death of a Capitol Police officer.  “It accomplished nothing,” he told ABC News. “What the hell was it all for?”  His only reward for his efforts is widespread condemnation from his fellow-SEALs and an assortment of felony charges looming over him.  Many other rioters are now in a similar situation, losing their jobs and facing FBI investigations as their identity becomes known – a relatively simple matter, for they themselves posted numerous photos and videos showing them in their course of destruction.  It is very doubtful that they would have been much better off even if they had succeeded in restoring Trump to power.  “Those sharp tools with which great people cut out their enterprises are generally broken in the using; nor did I ever hear that their employers had much regard for them in their ruin” (from William Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon, Ch. XII). 

Footage of the assault on the Capitol continues to emerge.  One particularly disturbing sequence shows the rioters seeking out the Senate chamber before its members could be led to safety.  They were diverted by the rapid thinking of Eugene Goodman, a Capitol Police officer who in effect offered himself up as bait to distract their attention, leading them to another area of the Capitol where more police were present and thereby giving the Senators time to obtain safe refuge.  This act was all the more courageous because he not only was a policeman facing hostile rioters but a black man facing a crowd of white supremacists who would have had no compunction in lynching him.  Happily he managed to reach his colleagues before his pursuers could lay hands on him.

Even if the move to impeach Trump founders in the Senate, it will have one beneficial effect at the very least:  it will damage him financially.  Already major corporations are signaling their reluctance to have anything to do with his brand name.  The organizers of the PGA Championship, for example, have canceled plans to hold the event at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey golf club in 2022 – which is a blow to his ego as well as a financial one; for as we have already seen, golf is the sole object that awakens any kind of emotional involvement in him.  His wives and children are merely trophies in his eyes.  Other businesses shying away from him include R&A, the group that oversees golf in the U.K., which now says that it has no plans to return its flagship British Open to Trump’s course in Turnberry, Scotland; Shopify, which hosted the Trump Organization’s online store, generating roughly $900,000 in income for his company in 2019, and which has now removed all Trump-related accounts; PayPal, which has similarly removed accounts for raising funds for his supporters; Stripe, which has halted Trump’s campaign account; and the real estate brokerage firm JLL, which said Friday it will no longer represent the Trump Organization in its attempt to sell the president’s Washington hotel.  This last-named firm is perhaps making no great sacrifice as a result of this decision; the hotel has consistently run half-empty during its four years of existence.

And I am happy to add that the 147 lawmakers who persisted in encouraging the rioters by voting to overturn the election results even after the invasion of the Capitol took place are also paying for the decision to pander to Trump’s mobsters.  Several corporations have announced that they will halt donations to all of them. The list of corporations taking action include Marriott, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Dow Chemical, Hallmark, Verizon, Airbnb, Amazon, American Express, AT&T, Best Buy, Cisco Systems, Commerce Bank, Comcast, General Electric, Intel, MasterCard, and Morgan Stanley.  Dow Chemical is the most aggressive of the lot:  its ban “will remain in place for a period of one election cycle (two years for House members; up to six years for Senators), which specifically includes contributions to the candidate’s reelection committee and their affiliated PACs.”

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  92,746,220; # of deaths worldwide: 1,985,392; # of cases U.S.: 23,614,679; # of deaths; U.S.: 393,915.  The moderating trend noted earlier this week has been reversed.  Both today and yesterday more than 4,000 people died from the virus. 

The Old Tuscarora Trail – Hiking in Capon Springs – Ordinary activities continue during a time of crisis – Trump on the subject of his possible impeachment – Pence rejects the option of using the 25^th Amendment – COVID among the members of Congress – Evening statistics

I went for the weekly hike with the Vigorous Hikers, which took place at Capon Springs near the Virginia/West Virginia border.  This hike was of particular interest because it included part of a segment of a hike that was set up by the Wanderbirds years ago:  the section of the Tuscarora Trail that goes past the tombstone of the wife of one of the settlers in the area, commonly known as “Jemima’s Grave.”  It was a hike well-liked by the club, but it had to be abandoned after the Tuscarora Trail was re-routed.  For a time the old trail was fenced off with barriers, but the barriers have been removed and it is available again.  I regret to say, however, that it is not suitable for a club such as the Wanderbirds or Capital Hiking; the trail is maintained only in spots, and in some areas it is necessary to bushwhack a bit.  The Tuscarora Trail has undergone considerable modification because much of it originally consisted of road walks that were used as a stopgap until the necessary easements could be obtained.  The new route avoids about 1½ miles of walking on a road without shoulders and which sometimes had a fair amount of traffic.  But it is a pity that the features of the old route had to be sacrificed.  Not only is the grave of historical interest, but close to Jemima’s Grave the old route goes through a particularly scenic creek valley that the new route bypasses entirely. 

After we left the old Tuscarora Trail we used a combination of country roads, local trails, and a certain amount of bushwhacking to complete the circle around Capon Springs.  The hike totaled to about 17½ miles, with 2500 feet of elevation gain.  It was another beautiful day, starting out quite cold (about 20 degrees) but warming up considerably in the afternoon.  In fact, some of us would have preferred the temperatures to be a little more wintry; in the morning the muddy areas of the trail were frozen, whereas in the afternoon they were quite slippery in some areas.  One of the trails, which goes through a logging area, was recently bulldozed, which made matters worse in that respect.  But it certainly was comfortable during the time we ate lunch, which we did in the vicinity of the grave.  We lingered during the lunch break, and ate at our leisure, whereas we would not have been able to sit still for such a length of time had the weather been colder.

I have no doubt that some people who chance to read this in future years (if any do) will comment on passages like these with some wonder:  how is it possible, they may ask, that someone living in the midst of a pandemic and with social turmoil raging in the capital be so concerned with such mundane matters?  But that is what happens during a time of long-term crisis:  the events that fuel it may occupy the attention of those living alongside them, but they do so only intermittently.  Sooner or later, the claims and activities of ordinary life will obtrude.  One has only to look at the case of Emily Dickinson, by common consent one of the greatest American poets of the 19^th century.  Her most productive period was in the 1860s, when the Civil War was convulsing the nation.  But she scarcely mentions the war in any of her poems.  And I have already referred to the opening of The Decameron, in which, following a horrific description of the symptoms of the plague and how it decimated the cities, the narrative turns to the efforts of ten young people who cope with the stress by retreating to a country estate and entertaining one another with amusing stories.   When I first read the work, I thought such a premise rather far-fetched, but it does not seem to me in the least improbable now.

Of course while we were enjoying our hike in rural West Virginia the aftermath of the riot in DC continued to unravel.  One item that engaged my interest today was a statement by Donald Trump, his first recorded reaction to the proposal to impeach him.  His response was fairly predictable but he included one interesting comment:  that the attempt to impeach him is “causing tremendous anger.”  And if there is one subject on which Donald Trump is an expert, it is anger.  I have no doubt that the effort to impeach him is causing a great deal of anger – of his own.  Angry he must be, bitterly angry, but for his supporters’ failure to injure the lawmakers who upheld the election, not for their attempting it.  His rage is increasing daily as the day of his dismissal draws nearer and he no longer has the Presidential office to protect him against the numerous charges pending against him, and he needs to be closely watched for that reason.

As expected, Mike Pence rejected the proposal to invoke the 25^th Amendment, which means that the Democrats will go ahead with the impeachment process as planned.  At least three Republicans have confirmed that they will vote for the impeachment, and many more may follow suit.  Numerous corporations have announced that they will no longer donate funds to the members of Congress who publicly praised the rioters before it became clear that the public in general was outraged by the siege.  Association with Trump is no longer the asset that it was once perceived to be, and many Republicans desire to get rid of him as heartily as the most left-wing Democrat could do. 

Already the siege of the Capitol, which has been described as a super-spreader event, has generated COVID case.  Three members of Congress have tested positive for the virus since the rioters entered the Capitol:   Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman from New Jersey, Rep. Pramila Jayapa from Washington, and Rep. Brad Schneider from Illinois.  The Congress members were locked down in a secured room during the riot, many of whom were not wearing masks.  Coleman’s case is particularly troubling, because she is 75 and has had cancer previously.  Up to this point her symptoms are mild, but she and the other two representatives have, understandably enough, expressed cordial resentment towards the irresponsible colleagues whose refusal to wear masks has place them in jeopardy.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  91,987,337; # of deaths worldwide: 1,968,599; # of cases U.S.: 23,368,096; # of deaths; U.S.: 389,598.

Getting a new appliance installed – Facemask wearing and social distancing mitigate but do not eliminate – The impeachment progress begins – Giuliani suffers collateral damage – Paul Gosar and his siblings – Kim Jong Un and his sibling – A second unfortunate Iranian wrestler – Evening statistics

I could not get out much today, having had to wait to get a dishwasher installed.  It has taken me a while, but now when I’m getting installation or repairs done, I put on a facemask automatically after I receive a notification that he is on the way to the house.  In that way I don’t have to make a mad dash for a mask just before I answer the knock on the door.  I was a bit concerned about the installation, because yesterday the dishwasher started to fill up (very gradually) with water.  This usually means that the drain hose is incorrectly positioned or has developed a kink, but it could be the sign of the need for a more serious repair.  But the installer took a look and said that it was not an issue for him – and sure enough, he set the hose right and completed the installation very efficiently.

After boasting about the low probability of my getting the virus I came across an article today by a member of a household whose members are considerably younger than me (two parents with young children) and who have been more cautious than I have:  wearing masks at all times even out of doors taking exercise, obtaining groceries via curbside pickup, limiting contacts outside of the household to a single relative whom they always met out of doors – and yet they all came down with COVID-19.  The cases were mild ones, and they have recovered now, but it is sobering to be reminded that the preventative measures can only mitigate the risk of getting infected, not eliminate it altogether.  Their condition during the aftermath of the illness underscores how severe even a so-called “mild” case can be; although the children have no further symptoms, both parents have not yet recovered their senses of smell and taste, and are still afflicted with headaches, runny noses, coughs, intermittent muscle soreness, and fatigue.

The impeachment articles have been officially introduced in the House.  Democrats will probably bring up on the 25th Amendment resolution tomorrow; if nothing comes of it (as is likely), the House could vote on the impeachment articles the following day.  Impeaching a President within the last week of his term of office may seem a futile gesture, but there are some practical considerations to recommend it:  it will set a precedent to deter presidents in a situation similar to Trump’s from inciting an insurrection, as he did; it will damage Trump’s prospects for running for office again in 2024, and possibly squelch them altogether; and (depending on how the voting goes) it may spare the Government the cost of paying him a pension.  Furthermore, anything that diverts his attention from encouraging yet more violence (which he almost certainly is contemplating, although how far he is willing to go he probably doesn’t even know himself) is to be encouraged.

Rudy Giuliani may also pay a severe penalty for associating himself so closely with Trump’s attempts to overturn the election.  The New York State Bar Association is considering a motion to have him disbarred.  He would be given a chance to defend himself from the charges if so, but he will have an uphill task.  Not only did he support the riots last week in Washington, but the ludicrous behavior that was recorded in “Borat 2,” his Four Seasons press conference, and his interviews on Fox News and CNN will all undoubtedly be used against him. It is a sad conclusion after a long and distinguished record of public service, but it is warranted.  One comment in particular that he made during the rioting shows the extent to which he has been tainted by associating with our would-be dictator:  “If we’re wrong, we will be made fools of, but if we’re right a lot of them will go to jail.  Let’s have trial by combat.”

In one of the more bizarre developments in the aftermath of the raid on the Capitol, three siblings of Paul Gosar, a Repubican Representative from Arizona, have sent a letter to Raúl Grijalva, a Democratic Representative from the same state, urging him to have their brother expelled from Congress.  Grijalva said that he is more concerned with muzzling Trump than with taking up a feud with a Congressman from the same state, although he has not entirely ruled the possibility out.  Congress has expelled only 20 members in the course of its entire history, so unless Gosar is shown to have been more blatant in supporting the rioters than, for example, Josh Hawley or Louie Gohmert, it is unlikely that this request will be followed up.  But Gosar must be the only Representative in history who has had family members request that he be thrown out of Congress.

Another case of tension among siblings threatens to have more significant political impact.  Kim Yo Jong, the sister of Kim Jong Un, was rumored just a few months earlier to be ready to take over the country when her brother became ill.  It is still unclear, by the way, as to how long this illness was, how long it lasted, and its degree of severity.  At any rate, Kim Jong Un seems to have heard these rumors and has given his younger sister a reminder that he is still in charge:  she has been excluded from a North Korean list for the ruling Workers’ Party Politburo today.  It is not exactly a fall from grace.  She has not been officially penalized or censured, and this omission does not rule out some sort of promotion later on.  But it is a clear warning that she is not to exceed certain bounds and must not attempt to steal the spotlight from him.  Kim Jong Un is very anxious to be the central figure in the public eye at all times, just like another national leader I could name.

Iran is set to execute another decorated wrestler, after having executed one in September.  Navid Afkari was executed for fatally stabbing a security guard in the back.  People who protested on his behalf said that his confession to the killing was obtained from him under torture and that he was actually being eliminated because he participated in an anti-government protest.  That certainly is possible, but his defenders from various international sports groups damaged their case considerably by emphasizing his athletic prowess instead of focusing on the question of whether he was guilty or not.  They implied that even if he did commit murder he should be pardoned on account of his status as an internationally-known athlete – in which case, the outrage of the response from the Iranian government was amply justified.  Mehdi Ali Hosseini, the second wrestler, was arrested in 2015 and charged with pre-meditated murder, supposedly committed during a group brawl.  Again, his confession may have been extorted from him by means of torture.  Hosseini’s case is certainly more doubtful than Afkari’s, for it is difficult to see how a death in a brawl could have been “pre-meditated.”  It sounds more like a case of manslaughter than anything else. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  91,301,079; # of deaths worldwide: 1,952,164; # of cases U.S.: 23,139,491; # of deaths; U.S.: 385,260.  The death toll has gone done significantly in the past few days, so possibly we are seeing the end of the upsurge of the virus from the aftermath of the Christmas and New Year’s festivities.  On the other hand, the riot of this past Wednesday has the potential of being another super-spreader event; hardly any of the rioters wore masks.

Hiking in Lake Fairfax Park with friends – The impending impeachment – A new strain of COVID in South Africa – Lockdowns in Hubei Province and Brisbane – Trump loses honorary degrees – Evening statistics

A lovely day today, and what better way to spend it than to hike with friends?  I led a hike along the Lake Fairfax Loop that I scouted on Thursday.  There were 11 of us in all, including several whom I have not been able to see for months.  We started at 9:00 AM from Lake Fairfax and went along the route I scouted previously, stopping for lunch at the waystation on the W&OD Trail near the junction with Buckthorn Rd.  The first part of the hike was less muddy than it was on Thursday, partly because the temperature had not warmed up and many muddy areas were still frozen.  By the time we reached the return to Lake Fairfax Park, however, it was quite slippery, even more so than it had been on Thursday.  I had hoped that a few days of dry weather would improve the conditions; probably the fact that several bikers used the trails within the park over the weekend loosened the soil on the trails a bit.  But we enjoyed ourselves greatly all the same and were very glad of the opportunity to meet again after what in some cases had been a very long interval indeed.  KA and SM were among the group; they are very knowledgeable bird watchers and they pointed out species that I never would have been able to identify myself, such as a pine siskin and a hermit thrush.  When we returned to our cars we snacked and chatted together in the manner of the aftermath of previous Wanderbirds hikes.  The weather reports for today had not been promising earlier in the hike, the original forecasts having been for a rather gray and dull day; but they proved to be beautifully wrong and we reveled under azure skies with temperatures reaching into the mid-40s.

As has happened so often in the course of the past several months, a cheerful diversion of this description presents a great contrast to the national and international mood at large.   When we discussed the events of the past week, as we could hardly fail to do, MJ, who has considerable knowledge about political matters, said that we must expect more rioting on the 20^th, the day of the inauguration.  Indeed, defense authorities are currently discussing temporary removal of the restrictions on the National Guard that prohibit their carrying batons and guns in preparation against the anticipated violence.  In addition, the drafting of the articles of impeachment will probably be ready tomorrow.  However, the actual motion to impeach the President may be delayed so as not to hinder the first 100 days of Biden’s administration.  If that proves to be the case, Trump will be the only President to be impeached after he left office, as well as the only President to be impeached twice.  His name will go down in history books forever on account of this double distinction, which certainly ought to satisfy him. 

A new strain of the COVID virus has emerged from South Africa.  The health experts are fairly optimistic with respect to the vaccine, which they say should be as effective against the new strain as it is against the original virus, but of course it is impossible to be certain.  This mutation is even more dangerous than the original one, affecting a greater number of young people without any underlying conditions. 

A flare-up of the virus in China has caused its government to impose a lockdown on 11 million people in the Hubei province.  For residents of the provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, travel out of the city is barred and gatherings banned. Schools are closed down, while flights and trains are cancelled and the main bus terminal shut.  In general, the East Asian nations, and Australia as well, have imposed new lockdown restrictions when outbreaks of the virus recur much more readily than European ones.  When a single case of the mutated version of the virus originally discovered in the U.K. was reported in Brisbane, for instance, the city entered a three-day lockdown that began this past Friday.

At this point the health experts have recommended seven preventative measures against the virus:  wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, avoiding crowds, avoiding bars, ordering takeout or sitting out of doors at restaurants, washing one’s hands frequently and attending to personal hygiene, and conducting more activities out of doors than inside.  If that is correct, my chances of getting the virus should remain low.  I put on a mask automatically now whenever I go out of the house (or any rate take one with me to the car if I’m driving to put it on when I leave the car); I see friends infrequently and we always keep at a distance when we meet; I’ve never loved crowds, so avoiding them is no hardship; I have a positive distaste for bars, with their loud music, glaring lights, and chatter amplified to the extent that one must shout to ensure that the most ordinary remarks can be heard; I’ve been cooking most of my own meals; I’ve always been rather finicky about personal hygiene; and, as this journal should attest, I go out of doors whenever I can. 

Robert Gordon University, Lehigh College, and Wagner College have all rescinded the degrees they bestowed upon Donald Trump.  Robert Gordon University rescinded its degree in 2015, before Trump became President, on account of his call for preventing Muslims from emigrating to the United States.  Lehigh College and Wagner College, however, were goaded to action by the events of Wednesday, the first removing its degree on Thursday and the second on Friday.  Now only the two of the five honorary degrees he originally received, both of them from Liberty University, remain intact.  Will Heaven never cease to persecute that suffering saint?

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  90,672,307; # of deaths worldwide: 1,942,545; # of cases U.S.: 22,913,428; # of deaths; U.S.: 383,275. 

Scotland ruled out as a Presidential retreat – The upcoming inauguration – The WHO’s recommendations for the vaccine – A COVID episode that ends well – Evening statistics

After Joe Biden’s inauguration Donald Trump may go to – where do you suppose?  You are right – but that’s not what I was going to say.  After the inauguration, then, Trump may go to a number of different places to settle, but Scotland isn’t one of them.  Even though he owns property there, Scotland has a lockdown that currently includes, among other restrictions, a ban on international visitors unless they are essential workers.  Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s Prime Minister, after expressing an earnest hope that Trump’s travel plans included a departure from the White House, explicitly ruled out his entering Scotland.   “We are not allowing people to come into Scotland without an essential purpose right now.  And that would apply to him just as it applies to anybody else,” she said.  “Coming to play golf is not what I would consider to be an essential purpose.”

Trump has already confirmed that he will not be present at Biden’s inauguration.  Biden’s response was to say that Trump’s decision to skip his inauguration is “one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on.”  Indeed, in Biden’s position I would be taking active steps to bar Trump’s way if the latter insisted on attending.  But Mike Pence will be there, for which gesture Biden has expressed satisfaction.  It must be recorded to Pence’s credit that he showed considerable presence of mind during the siege this past Wednesday, never leaving the building at the height of danger (and there was a group among the rioters who had declared their intention to kill him), and resolutely adhering to the procedure that eventually certified the Electoral College votes. 

The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), an advisory group to the World Health Organization, updated its guidance for the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this past Tuesday.  It recommends taking the two doses within 21-28 days of each other and administering the shots in settings where allergic reactions can be treated.  Pregnant women are not recommended to take the vaccine yet, since there is not a sufficient amount of safety data on this category.  Even in this case, pregnant women in settings where the benefits outweigh the risks (e.g., women in the health care profession) are expected to get the vaccine.  Finally, people who have had COVID-19 and recovered should get vaccinated, even though they may have developed a degree of immunity already.

Amid all of the depressing stories related to the virus I have found one that has a happy ending.  Mehpara Naqvi, from Bradford in the U.K., came down with COVID while she was pregnant.  It was a severe case, and when Naqvi’s blood oxygen levels became dangerously low, she was given the option of delivering the child by C-section towards the end of her seventh month.  The physicians at Bradford Royal Infirmary said that the extra energy and oxygen demands the baby was generating and the additional pressure pushing on Naqvi’s lungs could endanger both mother and child, whereas a seven-month-child had good chances of survival in an incubator on the neonatal ward.  Naqvi accepted this option; she did not expect to survive herself, but she decided that this option would offer the best chances for her child.  The child was delivered, weighing 3 pounds, 5 ounces, and placed in an incubator, while Naqvi remained in an induced coma and was on a ventilator for nine days.  However, the child throve in the neonatal care ward, while Naqvi successfully responded to the treatment to clear her lungs to facilitate her breathing.  Just a month after the operation, the infant was over 7 pounds while Naqvi recovered.  It was a slow process – she had to be assisted in order to sit up and eventually to stand again, but eventually she was strong enough to be discharged.  The recovery is not complete; she still struggles to walk significant distances and has spells of breathlessness.  “And the biggest thing I think is the brain fog.  I forget a lot of things now, but I have hope and I’ve got faith that I will eventually get fully back to normal again,” she said.  “I’m just 22. And I was generally healthy, but I got it so badly that it shows it’s not limited to age.”

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  90,051,230; # of deaths worldwide: 1,933,522; # of cases U.S.: 22,696,400; # of deaths; U.S.: 381,427. 

The interconnectivity of politics and the pandemic – Trump cowed by the all-powerful Twitter –Lawsuits pending in the aftermath of the siege – State of emergency in Tokyo – North Korea requests vaccine doses – The course of the virus in Germany, South Africa, and Zimbabwe –Variation in infection and mortality rates in individual states – Evening statistics

Considering that this journal is being written with the intention of recording the effects of the COVID virus on day-to-day activities and on social life generally, I’ve been focusing a great deal on political events of late.  But that is unavoidable.  Our current administration has politicized the national response to the pandemic to such a degree that it is thoroughly intertwined with political concerns and it is now impossible to disentangle the two.  For many months whatever President Trump said or did had long-term effects on the health of society at large; the events of the past week have shown that they have the power to jeopardize our personal safety as well.

It appears, however, that Donald Trump is now relatively subdued as a result of the angry response that is occurring all over the country to the siege of the Capitol.  In a pre-recorded video he acknowledged that he will not serve a second term and pledged to make a smooth transition to Biden’s administration.  He also uttered a few phrases of faint disparagement of the rioters, in the manner of a bad actor performing in an indifferently written play, very different from the heartfelt fervor of an earlier video (since deleted) in which he assured them of his fondest love.  It would appear that he has had – not the fear of God put into him – but the fear of Twitter; which is his spiritual equivalent.

Yes, Twitter has accomplished what I had thought to be unachievable by mortal man:  it has managed to dent the overweening self-confidence of Donald Trump, which I had regarded up to this point as an impenetrable carapace.  It forbade him from making tweets for a day.  It has since relented, allowing him to post a statement yesterday (the patently insincere video mentioned above) but afterwards suspending his account for life.  Facebook and Instagram have also blocked his accounts for an indefinite period that will extend to at least until the 20^th.  These, however, are less important to him; it is Twitter that is dear to his heart, and being deprived of the ability to shower the networks with meretricious lies for a bare 24 hours appears, for the time being at least, to have broken his spirit. 

To be fair, he has more substantive difficulties to contend with as well.  The Attorney General for the District of Columbia has indicated that he may be charged with his role in inciting the violence, along with his eldest son and Rudy Giuliani.  Representative Katherine Clark, the fourth-ranking House Democrat, says that the chamber could vote to impeach the President some time during next week if the movement to invoke the 25^th Amendment goes nowhere.  (In all probability it is a non-starter, since Mike Pence has indicated that he will not support such an effort.)  Nor will he be able to obtain the support of several of his familiar legal allies.  Sidney Powell has been sued by Dominion Voting Systems for defamation, while Cleta Mitchell, a prominent lawyer who assisted Trump on his phone call to Brad Raffensperger, has been forced to resign from her law firm. 

All of which means that it is possible to focus somewhat more on activities directly connected with the COVID virus itself, not only here but abroad.  The national increases in case incidence and death toll have been so precipitous here that they have overshadowed what is happening in other nations, but the pandemic continues to rage everywhere.  Japan has had nearly 7,000 new cases today, nearly 1,000 of them in the Tokyo area alone.  Its incidence rate is still a bare 0.2% of the population (as opposed to our own rate of 6.7%) but the spike in new cases is straining the country’s medical system and has prompted the government to declare a state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures, during which bars and restaurants will be asked to close by 8 p.m., and residents will be asked to avoid non-essential outings and to work from home whenever possible.  The state of emergency is currently set to last until February 7^th.

North Korea, despite having claimed that there are no cases of COVID within its borders and never have been, has backed down and is now requesting its share of the vaccine doses allocated to developing countries.  It still will not say how many people are affected.  As early as March, the South China Morning Post reported that nearly 200 North Korean soldiers were dying from the coronavirus and thousands of others being quarantined.  And Kim Jong-Un has gone to somewhat more extreme measures than other national leaders in enforcing his quarantine orders.  An official who brought goods through customs in the city of Sinuiju on North Korea’s border with China, in violation of coronavirus-related quarantine measures, was executed without delay when these transactions came to light.

Germany’s death toll has risen, more than 1,000 for three days in a row.  The total death count has more than doubled since the beginning of December.  Lockdown measures are in effect until January 31^st.  Its total case count is nearly 1.9 million, about 2¼ % of its population. 

South Africa, similarly, has had over 20,000 new cases in a day, probably the hardest-hit country on the African continent.  Containing the pandemic is complicated by an influx of refugees from Zimbabwe.  Zimbabwe, which shares a border with South Africa, instituted a national lockdown four days ago.  Many workers travel back and forth over the border, and this order has led to widespread frustration.  For many workers, the inability to travel across the border for the purposes of their daily occupations  is equivalent to starvation.  But the Zimbabwean government claims that there is no alternative:  the recent Christmas festivities doubled the number of COVID infections in the course of a couple of weeks. 

I have noted that our rate of infection is 6.7% nationwide (about 1 in every 15 in our population), but the individual states show a range somewhat greater than might be expected.  North Dakota and South Dakota have a staggering rate of 12.4% and 11.6% respectively.  On the low end are Oregon, Maine, Hawaii, and Vermont, with 2.9%, 2.1%, 1.6%, and 1.4% respectively.  Our area is well to the lower end of the range, with 5.0%, 4.5%, and 4.4% for Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia respectively. New Jersey and New York take the lead in mortality rates (slightly over 0.2% in each).  DC’s mortality rate is very slightly above the national average, and while Maryland’s and Virginia’s are significantly lower (slightly over 0.1% and 0.06% respectively). 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  89,321,122; # of deaths worldwide: 1,920,726; # of cases U.S.: 22,443,286; # of deaths; U.S.: 378,057.

Lake Fairfax hike – Aftermath of the rioting – Mitch McConnell and Merrick Garland – The 25^th Amendment – Evening statistics

“The threatening cloud has gone away/And brightly shines the dawning day.”  Literally this is true; let us hope it is so metaphorically as well.

After about a week of rather dull and greyish skies, the clouds parted today and it was beautifully clear.  I took advantage of the day by scouting a possible hike to take Wanderbirds members upon during a future weekend.  I went along the Lake Fairfax loop, which begins at Lake Fairfax, takes a horse trail out of the park to the Cross County Trail, follows the CCT to the W&OD Trail, takes the W&OD Trail to a spur trail close to Michael Faraday Dr., and from the spur trail goes to the Rails to River Trail in Lake Fairfax Park and follows its various meanderings back to the Visitor Center.  Numerous birds flew in and out as I was hiking in the park, including a bluebird.  These are shy birds and not always easy to see, but in this case the bird was flying close enough to the path that I was able to catch a glimpse of him before he flew away.  Perhaps he is an omen of better things to come?  The hike is about 9-9½ miles, with little elevation gain (500 feet at the most), so it can accommodate a wide range of hikers.  

The rioting at the Capitol was eventually quelled (resulting in the deaths of four people and at least 60 arrests), thereby allowing the certification of the Electoral College votes to take place last night.   Most of the objections to counts in specific states were rejected outright; for the states of Georgia and Pennsylvania some obstinate pro-Trump Republicans insisted on having a debate, but these were brief and did not affect the outcome.  Trump has subsequently announced that he will accept the results and depart the White House on the 20^th.  Biden, however, will do well to have National Guard troops in readiness to escort him out by force if necessary; for Donald Trump honors no settlements.  Those who were waiting for him to express any regret for the damage he has caused might as well have spared themselves the effort.  He is not in the least ashamed, and his latest recorded words to the rioters (one of the tweets that eventually were removed by Twitter) are in a video in which he repeats his fallacious claims about the election being fraudulent and includes the following endorsement:  “We love you.  You’re very special.” 

In the meantime, numerous Trump appointees have followed Stephanie Grisham’s example and have hastened to resign after the events of yesterday, including:

• Elaine Chao, Transportation Secretary
• Matt Pottinger, Deputy National Security Adviser
• Ryan Tully, Senior Director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council
• Mick Mulvaney, former White House Chief of Staff and recent special envoy to Northern Ireland
• Sarah Matthews, Deputy Press Secretary
• Rickie Niceta, White House Social Secretary
• John Costello, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce

And there is another job casualty, not from the Presidential staff:  Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund announced that he will resign later this month for failing to prevent the attack on the Capitol.

As if to emphasize how much influence Mitch McConnell has lost by refusing to denounce Trump’s dishonesty and treachery until the very last minute, Joe Biden has appointed as Attorney General none other than Merrick Garland, the same judge whose nomination for the Supreme Court in the Obama administration was defeated by McConnell’s tactics of delaying the approval process for nearly a year.  McConnell entitled his autobiography “The Long Game.”  Now he has lost the majority in the Senate and more than a few of his fellow-Congressmen are quite resentful about his share (if only by a failure to take action) in the stoking up of the rioters yesterday.  Perhaps he may be able to improve his position in the months to come; but as things stand now, I’d say that he’s proven himself to be a very inept player.

There are currently many calls for removing Trump by invoking the 25^th Amendment, not only from Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and other prominent Democrats, but by some Republicans as well.  Representative Adam Kinzinger (Republican, Illinois) posted a two-minute video making an impassioned plea for invoking the Amendment, saying that Trump is “unfit” and “unwell.”  Representative Ilhan Omar (Democrat, Minnesota) has gone further by drawing up articles of impeachment against Trump.  But an impeachment is not likely, as the schedule for the Democrats in the House shows today as a non-voting session and all of next week as a “District Work Period” (which means no assembling in the Capitol).  After that Martin Luther King Day falls on the 18^th, and the Inauguration of course comes on the 20^th. 

In all probability the political officials will decide that even the effort to invoke the Amendment is not worth the trouble, since Trump would remain in power for only 12 days in any case.  However, one relatively hopeful feature (hopeful, that is, for those like myself who yearn to have Trump publicly chastised in as many ways as possible) is that the rift between Trump and Mike Pence is now very deep indeed.  Some insiders say that the two men may never speak to one another again.  Trump has continually lambasted Pence for not participating in the seditious attempt to overturn the election, even berating him to his face earlier this week.  And of course the experience of last night did nothing to moderate Pence’s resentment of this treatment.  Senator Jim Inhofe (Republican, Oklahoma) told the Tulsa World newspaper that he spoke to Pence on Wednesday night, adding:  “I’ve known Mike Pence forever.  I’ve never seen Pence as angry as he was today.”  Who knows? – perhaps this anger will find an appropriate vent. 

Quite apart from purely sentimental reasons for wishing to invoke the Amendment there is a practical one:  Trump still has complete control of our nuclear arsenal.  He has the authority during the remaining days of his administration to give orders to detonate any weapon he chooses; so if he decides, say, that it is time that Iran be taught a lesson or even if he decides that Germany should be punished on the grounds that Angela Merkel’s hairdo is not to his liking, he has the power to level either country, or any other of his choosing.   I actually am not overly worried about this scenario, since using the codes to launch such weapons involves a degree of mental acuity that he is not likely to possess.  But if such an argument will impel the Vice President and the Cabinet to make haste in invoking the 25^th Amendment I’m perfectly willing to make use of it.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide:  88,456,902; # of deaths worldwide: 1,905,177; # of cases U.S.: 22,111,196; # of deaths; U.S.: 373,799.

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.