DEMOCRACY SURVIVES

From Worldometer (new deaths yesterday):

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732        1185        246        82

July    22     1205     7128        1293      1120      572

Aug    12     1504     6556        1242       835       130

Sept     9     1208     6222        1136      1168        82

Oct     21     1225     6849          571       703        85

Nov    11     1479     10178        564       550        60

           25     2304    12025         620       518      118

Dec       1     2611    11891         697       500      109

           29     3398    13791       1075       285      497

           30     3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan       5      3499    13106       1186       265      513 

             6      4100     14581      1266       221      392

Summary:  Worst day ever in the World and U.S. for new cases and new deaths.  However, one reason could well be slow reportage over the holiday period.  In any event, still not good.  However, I would not be surprised if 6 January 2021 turns out to be the worst for this COVID-19 pandemic.

Yesterday was also a bad day for democracy, but a sign that the country has the substance and resilience to recover.  The rampage on the Capitol:

• Was inspired by President Donald Trump.
• But this attempt at an actual coup failed because:
• Those 10 former defense department secretaries sufficiently warned the military to stand down.
• Vice President Pence saved his political career.
• Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz forever eliminated themselves as future presidential candidates.  Not because they led the congressional insurrection, but because what they said when the Congress returned later in the morning when the U.S. Congress certified Joe Biden as the next President of the United States.
• The issue of the day now is how to isolate Trump over the next 12 days.
• He has the nuclear code, and his state of mind is such that he could start a war to end humanity forever.
• Again, that letter from those defense chiefs has no doubt shifted the actual decision making away from the Commander in Chief.
• There will be talks by the Cabinet, and even attempts, to invoke the 25th amendment to fire Trump.  If given more time this would have more meaning.  However, only starting this process is significant and reassuring.
• The Congress will again try to impeach the President, especially if the Cabinet does nothing.
• The Republican party will finally decide to remove the cancer that is Trump, and will return.  Our two-party system is cyclical.  Democrats should be worried about a sufficient recovery to flip the House in 2022.
• However, under any circumstance, the election of the two new Georgia Senators will give Biden four years of comfort, for the 2022 senatorial election will have 14 Democrats and 20 Republicans running for office.
• The economy more than survived the seditious sequence yesterday, for today the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through the 31,000 barrier and should set another all-time high.

To continue my story of yesterday, and this will get truly boring.  

That's Richard in the background, my injector.  Suzie, who runs Arcadia / 15 Craigside is first in line.  I'm second:

My vaccine and syringe:

Richard was trying to get organized looking for paperwork, but finally got around to me.  I asked him, in his experience with this vaccine, how many patients had screamed in pain.  He said they did 200 yesterday, and there was one.  My turn, and absolutely no sear, nothing.  But that was not it, for there was a scanning station, where they kept my card for the next one in a month, then a waiting room for half an hour to ascertain that we lived:

The wait was uneventful, and I went golfing:

I finished 18 holes.  But I'm not a total idiot.  I rented a cart.  No after affects.  Went home, and in the evening, a nurse came by to check if I was still alive.  All went well, except that my temperature was 99 F.  The significance is that, while the overall average for all is 98.7 F, my temperature has been taken daily for ten months, and I never once saw 99 F.  So I did have a slight fever.  Felt okay.  This morning, there is no pain in my arm and I feel good.  Going to have my toenails cut, and drop by Marukai to gift myself something.

Yesterday I showed a photo of a blue whale heart, which reminds me of a story.  A few years ago I stayed with one of my brother's son's family.  Mateo was 9 years old.  He said ask me any question, and he'd give a correct answer.  So, knowing that a blue whale is the largest creature ever in the history of Planet Earth, I asked him that question.  In a nanosecond he said blue whale.

How large is a blue whale?

• Up to 300,00 pounds and 110 feet long
• Prehistoric Megaladon:  60 feet
• Humpback:  66,000 lb
• Great White Shark:  2400 lb
• Whale Shark:  41,000 lb
• Largest elephant:  14,000 lb

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 31,193, and settled at 31,041, both all-time highs.  Yes, Democracy surviving was the reason.

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