The Crow’s Nest hike – Progress in the investigation of the January 6th riot – The upcoming Virginia election – Vaccination rates in the area – Evening statistics
Today I led the hike in the Crow’s Nest natural reserve that I had explored about a month earlier for the Capital Hiking Club. There were only six of us in all, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The forecast had been for mostly cloudy weather but we obtained a good deal of sunlight, especially during the morning. We had lunch at the Boykin’s Landing overlook, which provides the reserve’s most extensive views of the Potomac Creek draining into the Potomac River. When I had scouted it I had seen several birds, but today we saw none except at this overlook, with a narrow-winged tern in flight and a flock of geese streaming above the water. Everyone was willing to take the longer option, so we covered over 11 miles in all. As if in compensation for the paucity of birds, we encountered other varieties of wildlife, including a beaver in Accotink Creek and a few newts and salamanders along the Accotink Creek Loop Trail.
It appears that the investigation into the events of January 6th is yielding some tangible results at last. Trump has filed a lawsuit (no surprises there) to block congressional investigators from accessing hundreds of pages of records they requested from the National Archives, which inherited Trump’s presidential papers. The latest court filings include more than 700 pages of handwritten notes, draft documents, and daily logs that his top advisers kept related to January 6th. “In 2021, for the first time since the Civil War, the Nation did not experience a peaceful transfer of power,” the House Committee wrote. “The Select Committee has reasonably concluded that it needs the documents of the then-President who helped foment the breakdown in the rule of law. . . . It is difficult to imagine a more critical subject for Congressional investigation.” So there may be a chance of Donald Trump being brought to justice at least, although such a prediction may represent the triumph of hope over experience.
I regret to say that a Republican victory for the gubernatorial election in Virginia is looking more likely. Officially the polls are slightly in favor of McAuliffe, giving him 49% of the vote vs. 48% for Youngkin. But only 21% of the voters “strongly” approve of Biden’s performance as President and 44% “strongly” disapprove of him. The passion and enthusiasm of the opposition party is clearly stronger than that of the party currently in power, and that may prove to be the deciding factor this coming Tuesday.
The mid-Atlantic area is doing relatively well as far as vaccination rates are concerned. For Maryland, DC, and Virginia, 86.3%, 73.6%, and74.7% respectively of the adult populations are fully vaccinated. Maryland, as can be seen, has been especially aggressive in promoting the vaccines; in this respect, Governor Larry Hogan provides a vivid (and edifying) contrast to the majority of his Republican counterparts in other states.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 247,104,564; # of deaths worldwide: 5,009,930; # of cases U.S.: 46,799,538; # of deaths; U.S.: 766,117.