We made it to the end of January 2021 ... and well, shit. Right after I posted my last batch of pandemic journal entries, a bunch of terrorists/insurgents/whatever attacked the US Capitol. A week later Trump was impeached (again) and another week after that he actually left office.
But the worst part of the month for me: I broke my arm and dislocated my shoulder on Jan. 15. It could be worse. But it's no picnic. Not what I needed for the beginning of this new semester.
But I did get to go to online Chattacon, so that was... honestly kinda weird, but fun.
Sat. 2 Jan. 2021
Yesterday I took my usual New Year’s Day walk. I went to the park by the zoo and then around the Highland Park neighborhood a bit. It was grey and dreary, but it was also unusually warm (in the mid 60’s). The air was clammy. I was even sweating a bit from the humidity at the end of the walk. I took some pictures.
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| A picture from my walk |
I’m trying to get some last minute relaxation this weekend. I should probably get back to work on Monday, with classes to plan and a book chapter to finish. Some professors apparently plan their syllabi several weeks or even months before classes begin. I am not one of those professors.
Mon. 4 Jan. 2021
Today is my sister’s birthday. She is at least discovering the answer to life, the universe, and everything!
I’m getting back to work after the break today. A few immediate things have come up, and I’ve been going through the email I wasn’t answering during the last couple weeks. I also have a required online training that’s overdue. I might also start writing my spring to do list. I never got around to making a fall 2020 to do list. I just kind of continued the spring/summer list into the fall. That seems fitting for how 2020 went, but it might be a slight psychological victory for me to make a fresh spring 2021 list.
But I’m going to ease back into it. Luckily classes don’t start until Jan. 19, but I should probably get those syllabi and Canvas pages done this week so I can finish up a few things on the scholarly side of my job (writing, editing, etc.) before the semester starts.
Tues. 5 Jan. 2021
Today is the Senate runoff election in Georgia. It will be interesting to see what happens. If Democrats win both seats, the Senate will be tied 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie breaker.
Wed. 6 Jan. 2021
The race has been called in favor of one of the Democrats (Raphael Warnock) and the other (Jon Ossoff) seems to be on track to win. Cool. This is the product of years of organizing in Georgia, which gives the rest of us a lot to learn, especially in Southern states like Tennessee.
I hope this and elections in recent years show us the fragility of the Red State/Blue State dichotomy. (Trump won several Blue States in 2016). I think a lot of people in Tennessee, for example, don’t make voting or political action a priority because of the fatalism of “we’re a Red State.” (Interestingly people used to say that when I lived in Arizona in 2012, but Arizona went for Biden in 2020). Tennessee’s demographics are different than Georgia’s or Arizona’s and we face our own challenges, but this isn’t reason to give up. If anything, the people on the left I’ve met here in Tennessee are far more dedicated and organized than people elsewhere who often succumb to the fatalism “we’re a Blue State.” Nothing is certain. Nothing should be taken for granted.
Another thought on Georgia: It’s not that this election was unfair, as many on the right are claiming. It’s that it was fairer than elections in Georgia usually are.
Afternoon: Jesus fucking Christ. The pro-Trump protest in DC today turned into a storming of the US Capitol building to upset the certification of the Presidential election. Earlier in the day the President appeared at the protest and called on the crowd to march on the Capitol. The … militants(?)… terrorists(?) broke windows and entered the Senate and House chambers. The chambers had been evacuated and the proceedings postponed already.
I wish I could say I was surprised. Violent insurgency was only a matter of time given the political situation of the last five (hundred) years. I mean, I was hoping it wouldn’t happen. I was hoping the election would take enough wind out of the sails of this ugly movement that Trump brought to the surface. But white supremacism is a helluva drug.
But how did the security in the building (which is substantial) allow this to happen from a relatively small group (maybe a few hundred people)? Jesus fucking Christ.
I hope everyone in DC is safe this afternoon.
Some good news: Jon Ossoff was declared the winner, so the Democrats will control the Senate (as soon as anyone controls the Senate chamber in a more literal sense).
In non-important news: I was hoping to finish a draft of one of my syllabi this afternoon. Oh, well.
Thurs. 7 Jan. 2021
They cleared the building and Congress got back in to certify the electoral college results in the early morning hours. I’m glad they got back in to finish this business.
A few things I’ve been reading:
https://julesevans.medium.com/the-q-shaman-conspirituality-goes-rioting-on-capitol-hill-24bac5fc50e6
I’m still having a lot of thoughts about this. And there are memes already, of course.
Something I posted on Facebook:
I think what people mean when they say "This is not who we are" is more of a moral claim about ideals than a factual statement. It's like a parent saying, "You're better than this, and you've disappointed me." But even there, given how deeply white supremacism inhabits American history, I think it's difficult to claim that this is not part of our collective ideals as well, even if many individuals feel differently. At the risk of sounding self-serving, I think Americans have a lot of difficult philosophical work to do on our collective ideals.
In other news, a UTC assistant football coach made racist, sexist, fatphobic comments about Stacey Abrams on Twitter. He is no longer employed by UTC as of today. Good. I hate to think this person was working with our students in a position of authority.
Later: An email I wrote to my US Representative.
Rep. Fleischmann,
I am writing in the aftermath of the storming of the US Capitol building. I am glad that you and your staff are safe, but I am deeply concerned about your vote in favor of objections to the Presidential election results as well as the role that your support for the President's rhetoric surrounding the election played in inciting the violence that we saw yesterday.
I understand that some of your constituents are sympathetic to the unfounded claims of massive voter fraud. But please understand that many of your constituents, including this one, disagree. There has been absolutely no credible evidence of massive voter fraud, and challenging the election results in this manner sets a dangerous precedent that threatens our democracy.
Furthermore, engaging with the President's dangerous and irresponsible conspiracy theories makes you personally partially responsible for the violence we saw yesterday.
I do not expect you to agree. For that matter, I do not expect anything from you other than the Trumpian platitudes that your constituents have come to know in recent years. While I respect your office, I honestly find your continued allegiance to the President above all else to be shameful as a resident of Tennessee's 3rd district.
I think yesterday's events should encourage Congress to consider impeachment, but I do not imagine for a moment you would publicly endorse such a thing.
But I implore you to take some time--off the record outside of concerns about fundraising, party loyalty, or re-election prospects--to think carefully about your role in the dangerous and irresponsible conspiracy theories that threatened lives yesterday and which will continue to threaten our American democracy for years to come.
Again, I do not expect any official response from you. I honestly have come to expect the same tired Trumpian platitudes from you. I am imploring you as your constituent and a deeply concerned American to think carefully and quietly on your own. To look within your heart and ask, "Is this really the best we can do as Americans? Do we really serve the country over party or the President or a small minority of militant conspiracy theorists?"
Sincerely,
Dr. Ethan Mills
Chattanooga
Later: Apparently Trump has agreed to “an orderly transition” on Jan. 20. I seriously doubt he means it, but hopefully this will dampen further violence, at least for a while.
In my own transition of sorts, I’ve been helping the new union Caucus Chair to transition. But without encouraging my fellow union members to violently break into his house.
Other news: The Community Control Now coalition is pursuing legal action against the election commission. There’s a meeting tonight to work on that.
I still haven’t gotten much work done on my syallabi today, and writing/editing issues are even more remote. Sigh. I think I need to take a walk.
Later: Another thought on yesterday’s events. The whole thing was simultaneously buffoonish and terrifying. Much like their leader. Much like America itself.
Fri. 8 Jan. 2021
I finished the draft of the syllabus I mean to finish on Wednesday. This was supposed to be the easier one, but it was roughly 1000% harder than I expected. Such is life now, I guess.
Beth wanted to watch the new Name that Tune. There’s a studio audience! Sitting close together without masks! I assumed it must’ve been filmed a year ago, but Beth assured me it’s a brand new show. I looked it up. It was filmed in November 2020 in Australia (but the hosts and contestants are Americans and/or have American accents, so you’d never know). There’s something very American about outsourcing our silly game shows because of our own ineptitude while also pretending we’re not doing this.
Mon. 11 Jan. 2021
Today I went to record an interview that will be part of the CCN MLK Day video. I meant to say a lot more about Dr. King on power and community, but I only managed to get to the part about his relation to the labor movement. Oh, well. That video will include a lot of others speaking, so hopefully it will be good for the online event on Saturday. MLK Day (my favorite holiday) is a week from today.
The more that’s coming out about the attack at the Capitol last week, the more it looks like this was even more terrifying than it seemed. There was a plan. Explosives and weapons were found with the crowd and in surrounding vehicles. And now there is intelligence that similar attacks on state capitols may be planned. Shit.
Well, I finally had to write a “zoom class etiquette” section on my syllabus. I’ve avoided this so far by doing almost everything asynchronously. We’ll see how it goes.
Wed. 13 Jan. 2021
Classes start next week. Am I ready? Well, my syllabi are done. I’ve started on the Canvas pages. We’re getting an extra-long winter break (because of COVID concerns, the semester was condensed by eliminating all breaks, including spring break).
I doubt I’ll be completely ready, but such is the way of things. Life happens whether you’re ready or not.
Today I might work on my Canvas pages a bit, but I also need to do some of the research part of my job: some things to read, write, edit, etc.
I watched a little bit of the House impeachment proceedings while I was eating lunch (the article of impeachment is for inciting the insurrection last week). From what I can tell the main Republican talking points are Red Herring whataboutisms, but when they do bother to address the issue they say that the President didn’t directly incite violence, or if he did, it was obvious hyperbole.
I’m reminded of reactions to all his dog whistles, starting with his comments when he announced his candidacy in 2015: he didn’t technically say that all Mexicans are rapists and murders, etc. To put this in philosophy of language terms: what is the line between Gricean implicatures and direct speech? And how are wiggle room and weasel words used to have one’s plausibly deniable white nationalist cake and eat it, too?
Another thought: The problem with speaking in constant hyperbole or being offensive for the LOLZ or whatever is that at some point you and your audience lose the ability to tell when you’re kidding and when you’re not. This is the alt-right white nationalist playbook for turning confused young white men into domestic terrorists. There are only so many steps between ironic mischievous schoolboy antics and sincere white supremacist terrorism.
Later: The vote happened. Donald Trump is now the first US President is history to be impeached twice. Or as a friend put it, he is the subject of 50% of all impeachments in US history.
Thurs. 14 Jan. 2021
Today I told myself I’d spend the day working on one of my writing projects, but a bunch of administrative email kept me busy for a few hours. Oh, well.
I’ve been feeling lucky that I managed to publish some academic things in the last year, but now that I’m actually trying to write something new, I realize it was all an illusion created by the glacial pace of academic publishing.
Wed. 20 Jan. 2021
Let’s see if I can type.
Ok, a lot happened. This works okay.
I fell and broke my arm (dislocated my right shoulder and fractured my humerus). So typing is tricky. Also: I spent almost four days in the hospital.
Biden and Harris inaugurated today. What a relief!
Wed. 27 Jan. 2021
Yesterday I taught my first ever synchronous online course. Somehow all of my online teaching has been asynchronous up until now. I liked that it’s more like teaching in person, but I didn’t like that it felt more like a pale imitation of teaching in person, a sort of uncanny valley effect.
Typing has been a challenge. I have a wireless keyboard, which helps because I can put it in my lap right at the level of my right hand. But it’s hard. It makes me realize just how much of my personal and professional life revolves around typing!
Okay, I should give it a rest. This recovery has been more of a challenge than I thought. Although I’m not sure I really had much of an idea what it would be like. I have some exercises I do with my arm, but I have my first physical therapy appointment on Monday. Hopefully that will help.
Fri. 29 Jan. 2021
I’m still getting used to mostly being down to one arm. If you normally have full use of two arms, you’d be surprised how much you really use both arms. Of course it doesn’t help that I broke my right arm as a right handed person.
I guess this makes it easier for me to stay home instead of going out and putting myself at risk during the pandemic.
At least I got to do online Chattacon last weekend. It’s not the same (no consuite!), but it was kind of fun.
Let’s look at the numbers as we head into the end of January.
Worldwide
Cases: 102,628,593
Deaths: 2,216,285
US
Cases: 26,512,193
Deaths: 447,459
Hamilton County, TN
Cases: 37,816
Deaths: 358
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