Dickensian thoughts

 

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Charles Dickens opening lines for his novel of the French Revolution A Tale of Two Cities is certainly applicable this year for many reasons. The year 2020 will be remembered as a horror show for the world: pandemic and economic collapse are part of the worst of times but the United States managed to oust Donald Trump in November, even as he and his craven cult of a party refuse to concede the obvious. However, Trump will ensure political bad times for as long as he can.

Trump’s latest ploy was to invite Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn, and Rudy Giuliani to the Oval Office for a night time session where Trump pressed to appoint Powell a special prosecutor to investigate election fraud, Flynn wanted martial law declared in battleground states so the presidential election could be done over, and Giuliani renewed his demand that the Department of Homeland Security seize all voting machines to inspect them. Trump has no ability to appoint a special prosecutor and his crony Bill Barr bailed from the Attorney General slot so that he did not have to say no to this illegal and insane idea. Flynn treads on thin ice as his demand for martial law and overturning a lawful election is sedition; it is entirely possible for the Army to recall him to active duty and court martial him for this. Giuliani is spinning at several thousand RPM, erupting with notions that lead one to wonder if he really does have a legal background. This nonsense will come to an end on 20 January at noontime in Washington, when Trump goes in an instant from being president back to being what he has been all along, a sociopath and criminal. No longer will the office shield him.

Congress (really, the Republicans led by the chelonian Mitch McConnell) is finally cobbling together some additional relief for ordinary Americans after allowing a bill passed by the Democratic House to languish for almost seven months. Even in this, the GOP is already showing their distaste for helping anyone other than plutocrats by cutting the amount of relief (suddenly raising the cries of “Deficit! Austerity!” which were entirely predictable) and throwing a monkey wrench into the broader powers of the Federal Reserve to hamstring the incoming Biden administration. There will be more to do to repair the damage the Republicans have done to the economy in 2020 but that is a story for the future.

And the best of times? Well, not literally the best of times but good news nonetheless. We now have not one but two effective vaccines for Covid-19 and they are being distributed and administered. Supply will be a problem for a while and the massive effort to get them into the arms of people (vaccines don’t halt disease, vaccinations do) still needs cash to make it work. This is in the face of news that the coronavirus is mutating to a variant that is more readily transmissible. What these mutations portend is unclear but I am happy that we can at last begin the immunization process. That process needs to be a global one. The wealthy nations of the world will remain vulnerable until we have extended control of Covid-19 to all of humanity. We must think of our species, Homo sapiens, not our individual nation, in this fight.

Meanwhile, while this disaster continues to unfold around us at a frightening pace, our individual and collective behavior matters more than ever. Wear a mask. Keep enough physical distance from others. Wash your hands. Outdoors is better than indoors (ventilation is critical with a virus transmitted by aerosols). Remind others to do the same. Let’s move together to the best of days ahead,