As I typed the "260," I thought how close I'm getting to there only being 100 days left to get to one year. At times, it does not seem as if the hermitage has been occupied for as long as it has been. I've actually had days--and climate change isn't helping here--that I have to remind myself that it is not still summer, that it is, in fact, a month that ends in "ber." I'm getting better at knowing which day of the week it is; I guess the next accomplishment will be knowing which month it is. I certainly hope I don't have a head injury that means medical personnel will be asking me what the date is.
Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House's coronavirus task force basically said that Americans who gathered for Thanksgiving, especially if that gathering was in a large group, should assume they've been infected and get tested. That's not going to help the looming shortage of testing supplies. Can we please go back to the mentality we had in March or April, before corona fatigue set in, back to the days when people respected the virus? I wonder if corona fatigue started to set in with the suggestion that people wear masks, or was it about the time governors started reopening their economies. Did it hurt or help that the NBA, WNBA, NHL, and MLB were able to bubble and finish their seasons? I don't think the NFL read the after-action reports on those seasons to see what a difference the bubble made. It's not clear to me that the NFL will finish its season all the way through the playoffs and Super Bowl, and if so how big the asterisk will be by the name of the 2020-21Super Bowl winner.
The number of new covid-19 cases and the seven-day rolling average in Virginia actually went down in the numbers posted overnight even as the percent positivity rose to 7.5 percent. Statistics from the local university have never seemed legitimate, and they may be more so now that students have left campus not to return until spring classes start on February 1.
As for the federal executions mentioned in a previous post, I read today that there were only three federal executions in the previous 50 years. I know one was Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, but I have no idea who the other two were. The Lame Duck's administration, though, has managed to carry out eight executions in less than five months and are looking to carry out five more before the Duck's term ends. I'm not sure what the rationale is here. Does it make The Lame Duck feel as if he accomplished something real? Something there is no question about--the person was alive before the execution and dead after, no ifs, ands, or buts about it? If I had more time and were so inclined, I would see if I could find out whether the push for five more executions before January 21 was made before or after November 3. As Arte Johnson used to say on Laugh In, that's very interesting.
A volcano erupted in eastern Indonesia. I don't think there were any casualties. Does this omen foretell the earthquake and tsunami coming as icing on the cow-pie cake that is 2020. I really should put the earthquake and tsunami out of my mind before I will them into existence.
On a more interesting and possibly humorous note, there have been anti-government rallies in Thailand lately. The symbol of the resistance is a giant yellow rubber duck. A discussion of how that came to be as well as how Ralph the Rex t-rex costumes figure can be found here. Somehow, rubber ducks seem a better thing for protestors to carry than bricks or Molotov cocktails. They also add a layer of levity at least when viewed from afar.
I continue to receive multiple daily text and email messages seeking funds for Democratic or left-wing political purposes, chiefly to help support the Democrats in the Senate run-off races in Georgia. We made several political donations during the fall, some to election winners and others, not. Can we have a moment of silence, please?
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