Hiking at Seven Bends – Trump’s new incitement to violent demonstrations – Evening statstics
Another excellent hike today, this time with the Wanderbirds at Seven Bends State Park, situated along the North Fork of the Shenandoah River. We went up several trails today, some of them quite steep, to the ridgeline of the Massanuttens and then went over 2½ miles further to an impressive overlook of the valley between Massanutten and Great North Mountain, with a bird’s-eye view of the town of Woodstock. The weather was cold but clear, so that it felt much warmer than the temperature would indicate. Nor was it not especially windy except at the overlook itself, which faces west and therefore tends to be more exposed to gales. This hike was a carpool hike, as the next two hikes will be, but we are resuming bus hikes during the second week of April.
I have been relatively inactive outside of the days that I’ve hiked with the clubs, for which the weather is in part responsible. But this week is making up for the lack, thanks to scouting responsibilities. I have hiked three consecutive days and will be hiking Monday and Tuesday as well, and I will be leading hikes for both Saturday and Sunday next weekend. It has helped matters that I have not had to drive much; FH drove her car from my place to the trailhead on Friday; Saturday was a bus hike; and LH drove me from Vienna Metro to the trailhead today. It is so much easier when there is no long drive to undertake after the hike is over!
Donald Trump announced yesterday that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday. Greatly desirable as such an event would be, it is not at all likely, since he has not even been formally accused in any of the cases pending against him, let alone brought to trial. I take this to be yet another conceit of his intended to rouse his rabble followers to a demonstration of violence similar to that of the raid on the Capitol. It is possible that such followers may take warning from the fate that the January 6th rioters are currently undergoing, with one after another being fined and imprisoned. But such a supposition is put forward with more hope than confidence. Long before he even thought of entering politics, Trump had developed a reputation for skullduggery of the most sordid description, consistently cheating his business associates of profits and his contractors and employees of their wages. Yet despite his long history of being thoroughly unreliable in financial matters, people persisted in entering business deals with him and applied for employment for every one of his mismanaged operations. It is not to be expected that his followers will be any shrewder in political matters than in financial ones.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 682,466,312; # of deaths worldwide: 6,819,419; # of cases U.S.: 105,921,589; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,151,282.