Hikes in Banshee Reeks and Broad Run Trails – Donald Trump indicted – Vanishing COVID states of emergency – Evening statistics
I’ve been doing a good deal of scouting lately. On Wednesday I went to Banshee Reeks to verify the route I had laid out for the Capital Hiking Club there; the hike will take place towards the end of April. It was just as well that I did so. There are so many turns and junctions that several of them are not apparent on the park map. Also, although there are over 20 miles of trails, the park is contained in a relatively small area and I had to verify whether the proposed route would be long enough. In the end I modified it a bit to ensure that the shorter hike was at least seven miles. It is lovely area, and significantly different from that of the mountain ranges that we habitually frequent, being located along Goose Creek, with riparian flora and fauna. The park is beautifully maintained and trail names are posted at all junctions.
Then on Thursday I returned to Broad Run, which I had scouted with the hike leaders the preceding week. There wasn’t any actual need to do this, but I wanted to see for myself whether the bluebells were in flower; they were just beginning on the day that we scouted. They are in full bloom now, not quite at their peak, but a magnificent spectacle nonetheless. The leaders also rerouted the hike to eliminate a portion of road walking, and on trying it out I found that the hike mileage is about the same and the change is very much for the better. It involves more there-and-back portions than the original route, but that is no disadvantage, for it enables the hikers to see the bluebells twice on the various paths that the route uses. The temperature throughout the hike I did yesterday was in the mid-40s, but it was so sunny and windless that it felt much warmer.
Donald Trump has been indicted at last. He is to be arraigned on Tuesday. The indictment, unfortunately, is not one of those that I have been waiting for, with increasing exasperation at the delay: namely, for his seditious attempts to interfere with the election results of Georgia in November, 2020, and his subsequent orchestration of the assault upon the Capitol in January, 2021. Those cases are still pending. I must continue to possess my soul in patience, it appears. If fashion dictates to lawyers that when a felony is committed in 2020, the proper time to indict the perpetrator is 2025 or 2030, no eloquence of mine will teach them a nearer approach to punctuality.
The indictment in question concerns the hush money he paid to Stephanie Clifford, AKA Stormy Daniels, an actress in pornographic films who claims that she had an affair with Trump and that he paid her hush money to keep quiet about it during Trump’s campaign in the 2016. There seems to be little doubt about the money he paid to her, although, for what it is worth, Trump denies having had any kind of affair. The payment made to Daniels is a violation of campaign finance laws and is also a falsification of business records, but neither of these is likely to involve prison sentences if Trump is found guilty. They will most likely result in fines; and fines, as I have noted in past entries, will have little effect on Trump’s activities; his holdings are too large for any amount of judicial fines to reduce them substantially. Nor does the indictment prevent him from pursuing his campaign for the 2024 election.
Still, it is progress of a sort. The indictment may prod the participants of other investigations to bring charges against him as well, and in any case he now is handicapped by being the first man who occupied Presidential office to be indicted of criminal charges, a factor that one hopes will hinder him in future political undertakings. I say “one hopes” because the Republican Party has shown no signs of distancing themselves from their brazen idol even now. On the contrary, the leaders have erupted in fury upon hearing news of the indictment – including Ron DeSantis, the man who stands to benefit the most by it. Trump is his greatest rival in his bid for the Presidential nomination; yet he was among the first to denounce Alvin Bragg, the prosecuting attorney, and he added that the state government of Florida would play no role in extraditing Trump to New York. Trump himself has expressed bewilderment at this reaction of sympathy from his fellow Party members. “It’s the craziest thing,” he said Saturday at his rally in Waco, Texas. “I got bad publicity and my poll numbers have gone through the roof. Would you explain this to me?” If only one could!
Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the U.S., has formerly ended its declaration of a state of emergency on account of COVID. The state of emergency is already over in California generally, but there are a few isolated areas that have localized state of emergency declarations. Hollywood’s is still in force, although it is scheduled to end on May 12th – just one day after the national state of emergency is to be lifted. As in other parts of the country, the rate of COVID infection has been steadily declining. Over the last nine months, there has been a 94% decrease in demand for in-person testing at DHS testing centers. Various localized states of emergency remain in effect. New Jersey, for instance, still has an active COVID state of emergency in place, even though the state’s public health emergency was lifted in 2021. The expiration date for the federal state of emergency is still set for May 11th, less than six weeks from now.
Today’s statistics as of 9:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 683,930,289; # of deaths worldwide: 6,831,536; # of cases U.S.: 106,218,929; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,155,038.