Sultry weather continues – The question of reparations – Non-American slavery – Rising crime rates – Donald Trump’s complaint – Donald Trump predicted – Evening statistics
It is said that one should take at least 10,000 steps a day to remain healthy and fit. That sounds suspiciously coincidental – can it really be that a numerical constant derived from a counting system based on a physiological quirk is so readily applicable to our internal biology? At any rate, I fell short of that number yesterday by about six hundred. It was not due to laziness, exactly. We have been having a series of days well over 90 degrees and it is much less inviting to spend a long time out of doors than it has been a few weeks ago. It has been hotter summer than average so far. Normally at this time of year we have days in the low-to-high 80s and the occasional day in the 90s, with some brief periods of 90-degree days in succession; but it has been over 90 degrees this month for several days running and the forecast is for more of the same for the next ten days at least. Today was an exception; it was below 90 degrees most of the time and there was a sufficient amount of cloud cover for several hours to mitigate the glare of the sun. In the shade it could be quite pleasant, especially when (as would happen from time to time) breezes were blowing.
There is considerable talk about the need to provide black Americans with reparations for what their ancestors have endured as slaves. We would not use this argument in any other connection. If a motion were made to tax Americans of Japanese descent in order to compensate for the damage done to several Pacific islands held by our country during World War II, it would be denounced as being both racist and absurd. A substantial portion of white Americans descend from ancestors who were not living in the United States at all when the institution of slavery existed. Three of my own grandparents, for example, were born in Europe. Moreover, about 15% of all marriages in our country today are inter-racial and some of the progeny of such marriages have the blood of both slaves and slave-owners running through their veins. I greatly fear that the Black Lives Matter movement, originally designed to place black Americans on a more equal footing with the rest of their countrymen, has fallen into the hands of extremists intent on driving as great a wedge as possible between black Americans and everyone else.
In this context it may be mentioned that many dissidents in Islamic countries are by no means pleased with how the amount of attention focused on a country where slavery was abolished over 150 years ago is interfering with awareness of countries where slavery is currently alive and well. Niger is the most prominent example; but there are several sub-Saharan countries in which the institution is quietly practiced and tolerated, even if it is not officially sanctioned.
The Associated Press has been widely derided for its tweet claiming that “experts” are puzzled at the surge in bloodshed in several cities after the police were defunded or severely hampered in their attempts to arrest violent felons. The best reaction perhaps was the one who responded “It’s not hard to explain. We need new experts.”
I have not focused on Donald Trump for more than an entire week, an omission that doubtless would greatly trouble him if he were to become aware of this journal. It is not that he has been inactive during this time, but there was a certain lack of novelty in his most recent frolics. He seemed content merely with repeating old shortcomings and not displaying any new ones. Perhaps he has been undergoing some fatigue as a result of the summer heat. I am happy to relate, however, that today he has provided new evidence that he looks upon himself as an uncrowned king. The Supreme Court handed down a decision that announced that New York prosecutors could access his financial records, including his tax returns, in their investigation of potential fraud in his corporate dealings. Trump has expressed amazement at this decision, complaining that it is “political persecution”; and I do believe that he is genuinely astounded to discover that our judicial system expects him to observe the law just like everyone else.
“There was one man who thoroughly believed that the thing at the present moment most essentially necessary to England’s glory was the return of Mr. Melmotte for Westminster. This man was undoubtedly a very ignorant man. He knew nothing of any one political question which had vexed England for the last half century – nothing whatever of the political history which had made England what it was at the beginning of that half century. Of such names as Hampden, Somers, and Pitt he had hardly ever heard. He had probably never read a book in his life. He knew nothing of the working of parliament, nothing of nationality – had no preference whatever for one form of government over another, never having given his mind a moment’s trouble on the subject. He had not even reflected how a despotic monarch or a federal republic might affect himself, and possibly did not comprehend the meaning of those terms. But yet he was fully confident that England did demand and ought to demand that Mr. Melmotte should be returned for Westminster. This man was Mr. Melmotte himself.” Trollope’s description of the fraudulent financial wizard Melmotte in The Way We Live Now shows astonishing prescience. Substitute the references to British political history and institutions with their American equivalents in the passage just quoted, and you have a perfect description of Donald Trump.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 12,377,546; # of deaths worldwide: 556,559; # of cases U.S.: 3,219,780 # of deaths U.S.: 135,805. The figures are enough to make one’s mind reel. The worldwide case count increase today was over 220,000; of these the U.S. increase accounts for over 60,000. Over 5,000 people died today from the virus. More than 2,000 of these occurred in the U.S. and Brazil. It was predicted earlier that Brazil would eventually displace the U.S. in its position of the nation with the largest number of coronavirus cases. While this event may yet occur, it will be a slower process than originally anticipated; the case count in the U.S. continues to spike at a pace very little lower than that of Brazil’s.