Moderating weather patterns – Travel restrictions – Report from Portland – Donald Trump’s disqualifications as chess-player – Possible vaccine – Racial discrimination among several past Presidents – California resumes lockdown restrictions – Evening statistics
Some much-needed rain has come, a little last night and a good deal more today, at times with great violence but welcome nonetheless. I have been not very active during the day, especially as a weather advisory was posted during the afternoon on account of the rainstorm. But when I got out in the evening the temperature was quite bearable. The storm appears to have cleared the air a little, for temperatures are supposed to be less extreme over the next few days,
Many friends have echoed my tale of canceled travel plans. International travel has been off-limits for many weeks now. Travel between states remains problematic even for those that, unlike New York, have no quarantine restrictions for out-of-state visitors. I had initially planned to stay overnight at Wind Gap on the way back from my New York trip and use that time to explore the Appalachian Trail in northern Pennsylvania. I have the option of canceling the reservation, but I’m weighing the possibility of carrying it through. The risk of staying on one’s own at a hotel room without meeting anyone else should be containable. But of course I will be wearing masks during that time and keeping at a distance from others. Nor will I be dining out; I will get takeout food from the local restaurants or stores, and eat either out of doors or inside my room. It will not be the most exciting of vacations, but at any rate it will provide a brief change of scene.
I have received a most lamentable account from friends in Portland. According to them, the “chaos” reported in the news articles was greatly exaggerated. The protests were going peacefully, no one was getting hurt, and the entire affair was shaping up to be a teapot tempest that would have petered out sooner or later – until the National Guard came in. Now the city is like a beleaguered garrison in enemy territory. My friends are equally angry at the media that spread about such false reports and the administration that over-reacted to them.
The great chess-master Siegbert Tarrasch had an important piece of advice for novices responding to opportunities that seem too good to be true: “Sit on your hands!” That is to say, if you appear to come across a moment to snatch a sudden advantage on account of an apparent blunder on the part of your opponent, examine the position carefully and consider all possible responses before deciding that it really is a mistake and that you’re on the verge of winning. Otherwise you will fall victim to traps and swindles. Donald Trump, I suspect, has little interest in the game – and I would not quarrel with him about that, except that he seems to be just as inept at political chess as well. He handles his pieces so badly! I have no doubt that he looked upon the unrest in Portland as an opportunity to obtain some political capital as the time of re-election is approaching, but it has backfired on him in a big way. I grant that he has a rudimentary grasp of tactics and can occasionally hit upon a decisive combination, but he is a very poor strategist: setting up and pursuing coherent, long-term goals is beyond him.
He does appear to be making an effort at last to promote vaccines. He has just completed a deal with Pfizer, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, and BioNTech to produce a major vaccine, promising them $1.95 billion if that can produce 100 million doses with proven effectivity. And 100 million doses may be exactly what we need; the daily increases in cases continue to register in the 60,000-70,000 range, which means an increase of one million within every period of two weeks or even less. Already more than one in 80 per capita in our country have been affected by the virus.
Joe Biden has called Trump “the first racist President.” I sympathize with Biden’s efforts to get Trump defeated, but I regret to say that this claim is simply not true. A few presidents before Lincoln made concessions to the Confederacy not merely out of political expediency but from a sincere attachment to the institution of slavery; and several others from Rutherford B. Hayes onward cramped and eventually defeated the Reconstruction in the South, and consciously did their best to stifle the efforts of black Americans to obtain anything like equality. The greatest offender is Woodrow Wilson, an ardent champion of segregation, under whose administration many departments ended up having separate work spaces, restrooms, and cafeterias for their white and black employees. It took many decades to rid our Government offices of this disgrace.
California has surpassed New York in its number of cases, and Governor Newsom has rolled back the greater portion of the re-opening plan, ordering all bars, dine-in restaurants, movie theaters, museums and other indoor businesses to close. In his own words: “People are tired of the virus, but the virus is not tired of us.”
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 15,361,622; # of deaths worldwide: 625,361; # of cases U.S.: 4,098,478 # of deaths U.S.: 146,107. We have had more than 1,000 deaths today. Brazil has moved into the ranks of those countries who have over 1% of their population (i.e., more than one in 100) affected by the virus. And according to more than one Brazilian health official, the number of cases is greatly under-estimated. South Africa’s case increase today was more than 13,000, and it has endured, along with Columbia and Argentina, more than a 3% increase over yesterday’s.