Thursday, January 7th, 2021
Today, like yesterday, was mostly spent helping mum with her paperwork. We dealt with a years’ worth of medical bills which needed to be send to the various insurance companies.
Also, I followed up the embassy on EM’s visa, sadly there is no news. I do hope they will send the passport out tomorrow so we can at least make a flight on Wednesday, if not Sunday.
Mum’s cleaner, a Turkish lady, came today. She enjoys speaking to me though I am noting I am forgetting my Turkish. This is rather frustrating, so we had to chat about food in German rather than Turkish. One of my favorite dishes is Manti, which I mentioned. After leaving S. called to ask if she could make Manti for us and drop them off. This I think is very sweet of her as making Manti is a real production. The dough and the filling are made separately and then each Manti is individually filled and folded. Unlike ravioli though they are very small, maybe the size of a quarter. Not only will I have eaten all my favorite German foods, but also a favorite Turkish dish while here. Once back in the USA I shall need to go on a diet as my pants are all a little on the tight side. Starting my exercise regime again will help drop some weight! How I long for a pool.
The other major task was to retain the services of a lawyer as we are planning to terminate the lease for one of our tenants so that EM and I have a home to return too should we leave the US. Mum is in a bit of a fluster, while I was mainly annoyed with IT; the attachments were too large, so I had to break them into five individual emails to send through. I hope the lawyers now have everything they need to proceed. I am hoping the tenant will not make life unpleasant for mum in the coming months.
While we peacefully pottered about the house, the USA seems to be imploding. January 5th, saw the run off elections for two senate seats in Georgia. January 6th the verification of the electoral college votes by the US houses of Congress and Senate accompanied by major protests in DC and many State capitals. The main grievance of the protestors of course around supposed election fraud. The election has been contested by the usurper of the WH and his croonies in 63 court cases all of which were lsost or dismissed, but one. All this while the virus continues its deadly spread. The USA reported 255k new infections over the past 24 hours with the highest daily death toll yet. Total infections are at 21 million.
Given almost no genomen sequencing is done in the USA scientists have no idea whether infections are caused by any of the new mutants or not. However, scientists continue to study specially the South African mutation which may impact the effectiveness of vaccines. Research to date suggests the vaccine will likely be less effective, which is very sad news. It may also mean more vaccine research needs to be conducted to potentially produce an amended vaccine; much like is done for the flu every year.
At the same time the vaccination campaign underway in the USA is a shitshow at best. There is utter chaos in orders, shipment, communication and distribution. Given the way the administration has handled the virus to date and its attitude to Corona this should hardly come as a surprise. The chaos illustrates the merits of the Oxford vaccine as it can be delivered to any doctor’s office - as is now happening in the UK - and doctors and nurses can administer the shot, much like they do with flu shots.
Licensing the vaccine for the USA, I fear, is its only chance to get infections under control, so very much hoping Oxford will apply for, and be licensed in the US sooner rather than later; though I fear this incompetent administration will do nothing for the next two weeks, especially not after last nights attempted coup. Really there is no other name for what the world witnessed yesterday. Four people died during the storming of the Capitol by the MAGA crowd and plenty of damage was caused.
Police was unprepared, even though agent orange has been calling on the crowds to come to Washington to protest the electoral college vote certification process for weeks now, and largely absent or taking selfies with the rioters, which yet again exposes the right wing bias in the police force. Had this been a BLM protest, rest assured there would have been forceful interventions with many more arrested than the 52 reported to date. At least congress is calling for an investigation of the public security forces. The event sof last night are truely outragous and turn the country into a banana republic.
As a result of the post-election debate about voting security and Trump’s denial of the vote, America will have lost its voice in global justice discussions for a long time to come. Already China, Iran and Russia are expressing critic at the events in Washington DC last night. Also, citizen Trump is now wanted in Iraq for murder. I am sure Trump would not enjoy being put on trial and executed there, though it would be a lot less contentious to have Iran take care of the problem than for any authority in the US to prosecute agent Orange.
The day’s events put a big damper on what is amazing news; both Democrats candidates won the run-off elections for senators in Georgia, turning the state blue and giving democrats a majority in the senate. Moscow Mitch will no longer be able to withhold bills from the house floor and Biden can name his cabinet and appoint judges with his majority.
There is hope.