Hiking in the Nicholson Hollow area – Kamala Harris in the Senate – Mike Lindell’s video – Evening statistics
We’re expecting another snowfall overnight but today was clear and relatively warm (about 50 degrees in the lower elevations). I met with AD, RH, and four others to hike along the Nicholson Hollow area, including a loop via the Hannah Run, Catlett Mountain, Hazel Mountain, and Hot-Short Mountain trails. Even though I have hiked on all of the trails many times before, they looked very different in the snow, which at the higher elevations had not completely melted and indeed was several inches deep in places. I used micro-spikes for the steeper part of the Hannah Run Trail as it ascended Catlett Mountain and kept them on until descending along the Hot-Short Trail, where they were a decided help. We met few people during our excursion. Most of the people who park at the Nethers parking area take the ascent to Old Rag. A few will take Nicholson Hollow all the way to Skyline, but we met only two others while we were completing our loop. It was just over 10.5 miles and about 2300 feet of elevation again. Afterwards we chatted together and indulged in various snacks, as is our custom. It is hikes with others like these that constitute my main avenue of social intercourse at this point, especially in this season, when visiting others to sit together (at a proper distance from one another, of course) on their lawns or terraces is not practicable.
Kamala Harris is using her tie-breaking vote powers, as Joe Biden himself, when he was Vice President for eight years, was never called upon to do. Yesterday her vote was required twice for a budget resolution that will pave the way for a COVID-19 virus relief package. Harris has said publicly that she hopes that she will not be called upon to break too many ties; presiding over the Senate will be a distraction from other Vice-Presidential responsibilities. But it is probable that her deciding vote will be required for several occasions as long as the Senate is divided 50-50. Even Mike Pence was called to break 13 ties, and the Republicans in the Senate had at least a four-seat advantage during his term of office. Her arrival in the Senate on Thursday night was characteristic: she supplied chocolates for colleagues on both sides of the aisle and at one point huddled around a warm fire in her Senate office with several senators, including Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia. It is unclear whether this method of injecting a note of amity in future Senate proceedings will have any effect after so many years of incendiary rhetoric on both sides, but at least both Biden and Harris are making the attempt.
Mike Lindell has released a two-hour documentary titled “Absolute Truth,” which claims that the election has been stolen from Trump as a result of a conspiracy. This video was quickly deleted from Youtube after someone reported it to the administrators. It trended on Twitter, with many users denouncing its content and attributing such sinister motives to him as being a co-conspirator in the January 6 riot. I, however, have an alternate explanation: Lindell is the CEO of MyPillow and it may well be that he is attempting to promote his product by distributing the video in order to encourage the viewers . . . to sleep! It is in truth an anodyne production, filled with the usual QAnon clichés, which should come to no surprise to viewers of Fox News; the news channel is continually flooded with commercials which supply sufficient proof, if any more is needed, that he is not the most inspiring of narrators.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 106,327,976; # of deaths worldwide: 2,318,876; # of cases U.S.: 27,519,636; # of deaths; U.S.: 473,528.