Snow at last?

Barring something outstanding—not at all an impossibility—my intention is to forego the January 6 memorials. The way to honor this anniversary would be to make damn sure it can never happen again. And well, we see how that’s going, about like the way we “honor” dead soldiers by sending ever more to die.


Snow


Fig. 1. Lebanon Road, West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, on December 16, 2020. Photograph by author.

It looks like snow is finally coming to Pittsburgh. “Up to 2-3 inches of accumulation is predicted for Thursday,”[1] which might not be quite enough to cause a problem on the roads, so, as of now, I expect to still be working.

As to that debacle on I-95,

Up to 11 inches of snow fell in the area during Monday’s blizzard, according to the National Weather Service, and state police had warned people to avoid driving unless absolutely necessary, especially as colder nighttime temperatures set in.

Because the storm began with rain, crews could not pretreat the roads because the salt or chemicals would have washed away, officials said. Some traffic cameras were also knocked out by power outages. And Parker said the position of the traffic backups in relation to the interstate’s express lanes meant they were not of much use to clear the logjams.[2]

So I’ll be taking it a bit more seriously when they say to stay off the fucking roads from now on.

Paul Guggenheimer, “Season’s 1st winter snowfall headed to Western Pennsylvania,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 4, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/regional/seasons-first-winter-snowfall-headed-to-western-pennsylvania/

Sarah Rankin and Denise Lavoie, “Virginia officials defend response to snowy gridlock on I-95,” Associated Press, January 5, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/business-media-social-media-richmond-storms-040c91e71486e363f7d2e4f95e124b47


Pandemic

Agence France-Presse, “Soaring Omicron could lead to more dangerous variants, WHO warns,” Times of Israel, January 4, 2022, https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/soaring-omicron-could-lead-to-more-dangerous-variants-who-warns/

Luke Money, Rong-Gong Lin, II, and Emily Alpert Reyes, “Hospitals see big jumps in COVID-19 patients, but this surge is different from last winter,” Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-04/covid-hospitalizations-top-summer-surge-in-l-a

Ovetta Wiggins, “Hogan declares 30-day state of emergency as state enters its ‘most challenging time’ of the pandemic,” Washington Post, January 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/01/04/hogan-declares-emergency-coronavirus/

Spencer Kimball, “CDC declines to add Covid testing recommendation to updated isolation guidance despite criticism,” CNBC, January 5, 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/04/cdc-adds-testing-guidance-to-shortened-covid-isolation-recommendation-after-facing-criticism.html

Sophia Tareen, “Chicago cancels classes after union backs remote learning,” Associated Press, January 5, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-education-chicago-teaching-289f27d91f9c9ed36715577b0b0a6548


Daryl Metcalfe

Apparently Daryl Metcalfe had lost his touch. Other, loonier Trumpists had surpassed him in Pennsylvania politics.[3]

Ryan Deto, “Recounting Daryl Metcalfe’s career as he announces retirement from Pa. legislature,” Pittsburgh City Paper, January 4, 2022, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/recounting-daryl-metcalfes-career-as-he-announces-retirement-from-pa-legislature/Content?oid=20868576


Civil War

Philip Bump covers a number of important points, and you should, absolutely, read his analysis. One of the more important is that when I, and many others, speak of a potentially revived civil war, it need not necessarily take the classic form of, as Bump puts it, “the Confederated States of MAGA assembling troops near Tallahassee,” or even conform to specialized scholarly definitions involving “benchmarks such as total battle deaths and extended durations of conflict.”[4]

“The next war is going to be more decentralized, fought by small groups and individuals using terrorism and guerrilla warfare to destabilize the country,” [Barbara F.] Walter told [Zack] Beauchamp. “We are closer to that type of civil war than most people realize.” (Beauchamp might have been better served had he put “civil war” in quotes in that sentence.)[5]

It could, as Bump also explains, involve something short of violence,[6] although Trumpists are often armed and, as Bump notes, have already demonstrated a willingness to employ violence.[7]

Because Trumpists have previously been violent in pursuit of their political ends,[8] and as I have previously suggested, I think if the Republicans ever lose to Democrats again, certainly at the national level, I expect them to be violent again.[9] I think those who think Trumpists might stop short of such violence are committing the same error Stephen Marche pointed to among elites just prior to the Civil War, that is, minimizing and even dismissing outright the threat.[10] The question, really, is just how violent.

Philip Bump, “What we’re talking about when we talk about civil war,” Washington Post, January 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/04/what-were-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-civil-war/

Stephen Marche, “The next US civil war is already here – we just refuse to see it,” Guardian, January 4, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/next-us-civil-war-already-here-we-refuse-to-see-it


Donald Trump

Jacob Bacharach, “The Next Coup Attempt Will Be More Dangerous,” review of The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It by Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague, New Republic, January 4, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/164914/next-coup-attempt-will-dangerous-teague-bowden-book-review

Stephen Marche, “The next US civil war is already here – we just refuse to see it,” Guardian, January 4, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/next-us-civil-war-already-here-we-refuse-to-see-it

Tina Nguyen, “My Country, Right or Far Right?: January 6th and the World It Created,&rdq; Puck News, January 6, 2022, https://puck.news/january-6th-and-the-world-it-created/


Trumpist dictatorship

Siobhan Hughes, “Manchin Deflates Democrats’ Hopes of Changing Filibuster, Passing Election Bills,” Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/manchin-deflates-democrats-hopes-of-changing-filibuster-passing-election-bills-11641328293


  1. [1]Paul Guggenheimer, “Season’s 1st winter snowfall headed to Western Pennsylvania,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 4, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/regional/seasons-first-winter-snowfall-headed-to-western-pennsylvania/
  2. [2]Sarah Rankin and Denise Lavoie, “Virginia officials defend response to snowy gridlock on I-95,” Associated Press, January 5, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/business-media-social-media-richmond-storms-040c91e71486e363f7d2e4f95e124b47
  3. [3]Ryan Deto, “Recounting Daryl Metcalfe’s career as he announces retirement from Pa. legislature,” Pittsburgh City Paper, January 4, 2022, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/recounting-daryl-metcalfes-career-as-he-announces-retirement-from-pa-legislature/Content?oid=20868576
  4. [4]Philip Bump, “What we’re talking about when we talk about civil war,” Washington Post, January 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/04/what-were-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-civil-war/
  5. [5]Philip Bump, “What we’re talking about when we talk about civil war,” Washington Post, January 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/04/what-were-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-civil-war/
  6. [6]Philip Bump, “What we’re talking about when we talk about civil war,” Washington Post, January 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/04/what-were-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-civil-war/
  7. [7]Ted Barrett, Manu Raju, and Peter Nickeas, “US Capitol secured, woman dead after rioters stormed the halls of Congress to block Biden’s win,” CNN, January 6, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/us-capitol-lockdown/index.html; Philip Bump, “What we’re talking about when we talk about civil war,” Washington Post, January 4, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/04/what-were-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-civil-war/; Jeremy Herb et al., “Congress completes electoral count, finalizing Biden’s win after violent delay from pro-Trump mob,” CNN, January 7, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/2020-election-congress-electoral-college-vote-count/index.html
  8. [8]Ted Barrett, Manu Raju, and Peter Nickeas, “US Capitol secured, woman dead after rioters stormed the halls of Congress to block Biden’s win,” CNN, January 6, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/us-capitol-lockdown/index.html; Jeremy Herb et al., “Congress completes electoral count, finalizing Biden’s win after violent delay from pro-Trump mob,” CNN, January 7, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/2020-election-congress-electoral-college-vote-count/index.html
  9. [9]David Benfell, “A hot U.S. civil war turned cold, now lukewarm, may turn hot again,” Not Housebroken, January 4, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/12/19/a-hot-u-s-civil-war-turned-cold-now-lukewarm-may-turn-hot-again/
  10. [10]Stephen Marche, “The next US civil war is already here – we just refuse to see it,” Guardian, January 4, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/04/next-us-civil-war-already-here-we-refuse-to-see-it

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