For Whom the Bell Tolls

 

The English poet, John Dunne, writing in 1624, spoke to death and fears of dying in this brief selection, which was part of a larger work. He noted that we are all connected in life and death. I thought of it this week when I heard that the Bells of the Washington National Cathedral were ringing out three hundred times: one peal for each 1000 deaths from the coronovirus. We passed 300,000 deaths earlier this week, while at the same time totaling more than one-quarter of a million cases (250,000) identified in a single day. My sympathies go out to each person affected by this cruel virus. I think the verse below speaks to each of us.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by John Donne

No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own Or of thine friends were. Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.

 

The Bells of time are also tolling for the president as the inauguration is only about 800 hours away as Joe Biden will become president at 12 noon on January 20^th, 2021.  Apparently, the president is also counting the days and is becoming more and more frantic in his efforts to claim victory and have them be believed. He has castigated Leader McConnell for accepting Biden as the president-elect after the Electoral College confirmation vote and is looking for Congressional members to lead a protest on January 6th, the date of Congress’ acceptance of the electoral College results.  Senator-elect Tuberville of Alabama (the football coach who defeated Doug Jones, but could not name the three branches of government) has said he will do this and is looking for others to join him.

As reported both in the New York Times and the Washington Post, the president met with disgraced – and now pardoned – retired General Michael Flynn, attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell and staff to discuss more lawsuits and other attempts to overturn the election. General Flynn is said to be promoting martial law with seizure of voting machines and a redo of the election, perhaps only in swing states, under military control. Powell, who has been described by some officials as “nuts” due to her Chavez voting machine claims and other wild statements, is also being suggested as a special prosecutor on election fraud; none of the lawsuits she promoted were supported by the courts. 

That scenario is truly scary to me and, I assume, to lots of other people as well.  I can only hope, that even with the recent firing of the head of DOD and replacement by a lackey and the upcoming departure of Attorney General Barr, that there must be some wiser heads somewhere in our government who could put a stop to these machinations, should they ever be deployed. The president denied that this was discussed and dismissed it as fake news, but he is known to float trial balloons and deny them when they are made public. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton called these discussions appalling and said it demonstrated the president’s ignorance of the Constitution and general incompetence. Bolton further called upon Congressional leaders to step in and lead on this issue. I have doubts that this will happen after the roll-over by members in the House on the Texas Attorney Generals’ inappropriate lawsuit – which was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Other big news this week of course concerned the roll-out of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Pfizer has been out there for about a week and has been given mostly to hospital workers with few complications.  Moderna vaccines do not require such deep refrigeration as the Pfizer product and will be distributed more to facilities such as long-term care and assisted living centers.  CVS and Walgreens are planning to administer these doses. These first vaccines each require two doses a few weeks apart.  Future vaccines such as Johnson & Johnson and Astra Zeneca follow the more traditional vaccine development methods and will require only one dose.  Both are expected to be applying for approvals in January and will widen the options. At this time, we still do not have enough doses to cover the US population, although these are all promised to be in the pipeline soon. The CDC just advised that those over 75 and front-line essential workers be in the next group to receive vaccinations.

The other big news concerned the hacking into of IT centers for major companies and federal agencies by persons unknown, but thought to be the Russian spy services called SVR. Secretary of State Pompeo confirmed that the Russians were the offenders; the president disputed this conclusion a week later and blamed the Chinese. (He has mainly stayed away from the office and is tweeting mostly about the election still.) The software was used by most of the Fortune 500 companies and major telecommunication companies, although the provider indicated only about 18,000 of its 275,000 customers were identified. We are still learning just how many governmental agencies were hacked. The entry was made through an update to an administrative program (Solar Winds – Orion) and remained in place for several months before it was identified. 

According to Time Magazine the extent of the damage is not yet clear, but it is thought that critical data was not infiltrated this time. Regardless of the damage done or not done, it is clear that monitoring of these systems was not being done in an effective manner in order to detect malware or inappropriate outgoing data. The position of White House cyber-czar was cut during NSA secretary Bolton’s tenure and has not been reinstated. The expectations from the hacks are unclear, as are the amounts or types of data stolen; this may take several months to evaluate.  Apparently, there is no ongoing program to test and challenge software programs using Solar Winds and other comparable administrative software. For so many companies to all utilize the same software is itself considered a vulnerability which must be reconsidered by the incoming Biden administration. We are continuing to learn of areas that have not been given proper priority by this White House.

Earlier in the week it was learned that the administration decided during the summer to cease trying to stop the coronovirus spread and unofficially decided to just allow herd immunity to take precedence so that commerce could continue, and the economy would improve. There are emails from officials stating that and which were later reinforced by Scott Atlas, the radiologist, who became head of the virus task force at the White House.  The virus is out of control in many areas of the country with California being the hardest hit right now.  Singer Charley Pride at 86 years old was one of the more recent victims of COVID-19; he was the first major black singer in country music many years ago.

***********************************************************************************

The current COVID figures are below. 

On Wednesday last week, there were more than 3600 deaths and 245,000 new cases. We saw fewer deaths on 9/11 or on the airstrikes at Pearl Harbor. Why are we, as a nation, not in mourning?  Have these deaths become commonplace?

CDC Stats – NY Times:

Total US cases 12/20 – 17,876,300.  Total new cases 12/19: 193,922. 

Total US deaths: 317,788. New deaths: 2628.

Maryland stats: 12/19: Total cases:248,754. Total new cases: 2,201.  

Total deaths:5,412. New deaths: 54.

***********************************************************************************

Local news:  Since Governor Hogan is term limited, names are being considered for the next governor.  Comptroller Peter Franchot is putting his hat in the ring for governor and Baltimore City Delegate Brooke Lierman has announced her campaign for Comptroller. The race isn’t until 2022, so stay tuned, folks!

Breaking News – as they say – Congress has reached agreement on the COVID relief package and it is supposed to be passed on Monday.  Not as comprehensive as it should be, but it is a start and long overdue.

As I close, I wish Happy Holidays for all – stay safe out there.

Cannot leave without the panda cam – here he barks at his Mom, courtesy of WTOP.

Til next week – peace.