The View from the Hermitage, Day 308

Here we are at Sunday, the day on which there were supposed to be demonstrations at every state capitol. I just check The Washington Post website, and other than a brief mention of a crowd starting to form outside the Texas state capitol in Austin, there was no news of demonstrations. I do not know if this bodes well or not for Wednesday; I can argue it both ways. 

We're 44 weeks into the pandemic as measured by this blog, and things are not looking good here in Virginia. There were 6,757 new cases of covid-19 on Friday, and 9,914 yesterday. There could have been some sort of data malfunction that moved cases from one day to another, but the average for those two days is approaching 8,500. The seven-day rolling average of the number of new cases has increased to 5,778. That's more than two 9-11s! If the governor does a briefing on Tuesday and brushes this off because we now have vaccinations ongoing, it will be a major dereliction of duty. Unfortunately, I know that new or reimposed mitigation measures would not be well received and would probably not be observed by a majority of people.

Son #1 was as upset about this case number as I was. I told him that I will now be even more nervous every time The Professor has to go to his office or lab. As for me, I don't expect that I will leave the subdivision unless it is to take the dog on an early morning park walk or to get vaccinated. Son #1 suggested that I add "get a flu shot for 2021" to that list just in case things aren't better by then. I'd like to say that I poo-pooed that possibility, but given how things have gone so far, poo-pooing may well be the incorrect response. 

I don't know that all the jobs lost in December were due to the pandemic, but I do know that women accounted for 100 percent of the US jobs lost in December. There was a net loss of 140,000 jobs that month. Women lost a total of 156,000 jobs. The 16,000 jobs gained went to men. It is not surprising that women of color were harder hit than white women. Looking beyond the US, women are 39 percent of the global labor force but account for 54 percent of the pandemic-related job loss. 

The record of The Lame Duck's presidency will be an incomplete one. He has a habit of tearing up pieces of paper he no longer needs. For a couple of years, there were staff members with the job of taping the pieces together to recreate the documents. In one case--a private meeting with Vladimir Putin--The Lame Duck took the notes kept by the interpreter; those notes have not been seen since. Many administration figures used private email servers. Government ones would have stored the messages that end up "hidden" on private servers. This point is particularly frustrating given the negative attention paid to Hillary Clinton's use of private email during the 2016 campaign.

The Lame Duck has but three more days in which he can issue pardons. A number of the Capitol rioters are pleading with The Duck for pardons. (There are others whose defense is that the President told them to do it.) A headline in this morning's New York Times: "Prospect of Pardons in Final Days Fuels Market to Buy Access to Trump." People are not paying The Lame Duck directly; that would be bribery.  Whether he will pardon family members or even himself remains to be seen. It's going to be an interesting three days, days likely full of surprises. 

Dinner prep calls!

The View from the Hermitage, Day 268

The last time The Professor took a covid-19 test, he got the results via email the day after he sent it in, via UPS Overnight. It went in the same way this time, but no word yet. It did go to a lab in California, so there is the three-hour time difference to consider. I'm more than a little nervous. I keep imagining the worst--he has it and has passed it to me. A couple of days ago, I came across a quote from Stephen King about hoping for the best only if you're prepared for the worst. Maybe that's the game my mind is playing. The Professor is in his office proctoring his final exam, and I can't really say whether he would come down and tell me the results were he to get them before the exam ends in 50 minutes. We may make a good couple because as I've been imagining the worst, he's all about the best. No temperature, pulse-ox a-okay, feelin' just fine. I'm thinking what I should throw into a bag to take to Son #1's house, remember to tell The Professor to sign the stack of Christmas cards I have on the desk, but wait to mail them until the Christmas stamps I ordered have arrived. 

Continuing with covid-19 means continuing in an upward direction. Nationally, we're over 15 million confirmed cases, and more than 284,000 people have died. The number of new cases in Virginia each day is staying above 3,500, and the seven-day rolling average is on the way up with a pit stop at 3,238. The percent positivity is 10.9, in kissing distance of 11.0. The governor has said that he is considering what mitigation measures might be added or strengthened and an announcement may be coming this week. Closer to home, the number of cases is hitting new highs in the regional health district in which I live. And covid-19 admissions to the local university's medical center are rising as well. I can think of a whole lot of other things I'd rather see rising, but then I don't run things around this planet. 

The Lame Duck pardoned Michael Flynn recently. The judge today dismissed all the charges but in the ruling noted that 

                                                pardoned ≠ innocent

I hope that thought is noted when The Duck preemptively pardons The Ducklings and maybe Rudy G. Rudy, meanwhile, is supposedly suffering "minor symptoms" of covid-19, though no description of what those mild symptoms are was provided. The only figures I could find for odds that The Duck will pardon himself were somewhat dated, so I'm not going to discuss them. I go back and forth myself about what he might do. He at one point tweeted that why should he pardon himself when he has done no wrong. I wonder if he would view pardoning himself as admitting he did. I also wonder if he would view resigning and getting President Pence to pardon him as "better."

I got back to some unpacking and putting away today, clearing out two boxes of random things from the master bedroom closet and master bath. Some got thrown away, a couple of things went into the donation box, and the other things found a new home. It felt good to be somewhat productive. Tomorrow I may attack some boxes in the basement or just assemble or mark all the various donation boxes. There are some on each level of the house. I just need to remember not to try to lift them, since I'm pretty sure that's what set off my six weeks of lower back pain. I still have pain if I twist wrong or pick up a heavy something, but otherwise, it feels fine.

Still no word on The Professor's test. He assures me I will be the second person to know. Fingers crossed and trying not to assume the worst.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 262

I took photos of my two or three Christmas decorations, but something is acting up on emailing them from phone to laptop. I put a Christmas tablecloth (made by my stepmother) over the table on which we might put a small tree. I also put together a Let It Snow banner Son #1 was given. That's strung along the mantle. I've also started posting Christmas cards along the mantle, which is either the second or third decoration depending on how one counts. 

The governor held another covid-19 briefing today. I did not learn about it until it was nine minutes in, meaning I missed anything about the rising covid-19 numbers. I did find out that it's gonna be quite a long while before I can get vaccinated. Virginia will pretty much follow the schedule recommended by the CDC, meaning that the first two groups to be vaccinated will be health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. Virginia expects to get 70,000 doses in the first shipment; they estimate that health care workers plus long-term care residents equal about 500,000. And everyone will need a second vaccination three weeks after the first. I should probably start planning the party to mark the 365th day of this blog. 

The Lame Duck is up to his usual no-good. He is contemplating and has asked advisers about preemptive pardons for The Duck Junior, Junior's little brother, The Duck Daughter, and Duck Daughter's Spouse. Preemptive pardons are not often given but they are legal. Gerald Ford included a preemptive pardon for Richard Nixon. Evidently, Rudy Giuliani would like a preemptive pardon as well. Presidential pardons, of course, only apply to federal offenses. They offer no protection against state offenses such as that being investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney's office (every time I write that I hear the theme music from Law & Order).

There is a new investigation into the pardon business the White House is running. There is apparently some evidence that pardons are being sold to the highest bidders, those bids being donations to a political fund that may well help The Lame Duck waddle again in 2014. This is not the first time that pardons are said to have been sold. I think one of the pardons issued by Bill Clinton was said to have been done in return for something. This sounds a bit more involved than that one was. Sad to say, it did not surprise me at all that pardon purchasing might be going on, not at all.

I wonder if Rudy Giuliani might pay for a pardon with whatever money The Lame Duck's campaign is paying him to file election fraud lawsuits. He supposedly asked for $20,000 per day, which would have made him one of the highest paid lawyers in the world. It's not clear that is what he is being paid, but his pace in filing suit after suit may indicate a desire to stretch things out as far as he can. At least that's what I'd do if I were being paid that much--or even less--each day.

I am being informed by The Family Dog that if I am not going to give her her evening kibble early, the least I can do is sit on the couch and scratch her. She can be quite persuasive.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 178

Well, it's not morning, but I'll see what I can do about staying focused for a while. I did move my laptop to my former (work) office in the basement away from the dining room table. I actually did that after this morning reading a new email from a problem neighbor about a new issue for the HOA to consider. After reading it, I yelled, "Fuck you, (insert name)!" Older son came in from outside and asked if he'd just heard someone shout "Fuck you!" I told him he had. We then looked at each other as I realized that the husband was in his second floor office Zooming with some of the students in his class. When he finished and opened the door to come downstairs, I yelled an apology and told him I'd relocate to out of hearing range. It turned out that he had not heard me and none of his students reacted as if they'd heard me. The only problem with operating out of the basement is that the Internet connection can drop unexpectedly. I'm hoping that we can fix that with a signal extender.

I had told a friend over the weekend that I would post the Mongolian beef recipe I'd discovered. If you've read the last couple of posts, you know I failed miserably at that little task. The link above should correct my error of omission. I emailed the recipe to my friend last night, but just in case anyone else was wondering. I've lost track of how many times I've made it in the last 178 days, but it's worked its way onto the frequently-made list. In fact, I just received an email from the husband that when given the choice between chicken fried rice with not much leftover chicken and Mongolian beef, which would he prefer, he would prefer the "Mongo beef." Blazing Saddles, anyone?

The news is out that HWSNBN admitted to Bob Woodward that he downplayed the severity of the novel coronavirus in February and March. At the same time, though, he was telling reporters that no one cold have foreseen the pandemic. He also insisted multiple times that the virus would just go away. "Virus, virus, go away! Come again some other day!"? I'd think that, but I don't thing HWSNBN ever enjoyed nursery rhymes as a child. Admitting he had would be akin to admitting a weakness.

Older son says that there's a rumor that should HWSNBN loses in November, he will resign so that then-President Pence can pardon him, just as Ford pardoned Nixon before any charges were ever filed. I think, however, that a presidential pardon only works for federal crimes. While that would take care of anything being investigated by the Southern District of New York, it would not cover anything being investigated by the NYC district attorney. I wonder what color his hair will seem when paired with an orange jumpsuit.

And the West is burning. A friend in Vacaville, California posted some photos taken at 10:00 am. The sky is a dirty orange (orange is becoming a theme I guess). Having asthma, I do not want to think how bad the air might be. Another friend staying with her parents in Oregon wrote "breathing the air burns and ash is floating everywhere and gets in the eyes." They're staying inside with a stack of jigsaw puzzles. The local (here) paper's website includes a photo taken in Oregon at 5:00 pm. The sky is a bright red.

Back on the covid-19 front, the local university is hanging in there though they have not updated their covid-19 dashboard yet today. Note: They just did. There are 24 more students cases than yesterday. The two local K-12 school systems survived the first day yesterday. The YMCA, at least one other non-profit, and a local fitness center are running a combination of school and day care. They will supervise kids as they do their virtual learning and supplement with extra activities such as art, music, or physical education. These programs don't come cheap, though some do offer financial aid. 

Okay. I managed to get this written with minimal interruptions. I kept my train of thought squarely on the tracks. It's good to know I'm still capable of doing that.