After yesterday's four hours in the dentist's chair I am very creaky this morning. Friday's session is going to have to be briefly interrupted three or four times in order to try to avoid Saturday morning being unhappy.
I omitted Matins, since I was up late (well, late for me i.e. half past ten), but have completed Lauds and Prime, and Saint-Eugène are livestreaming Holy Mass at 1000.
Absolutely disgusted, when I first glanced at the headlines earlier. That the United States should have become unable to count the votes in the quadrennial presidential elections is a very sad commentary on the degradation of political life in this country that has occurred in the last twenty years. Glenn Greenwald's essay is worth reading.
The richest and most powerful country on earth-- whether due to ineptitude, choice or some combination of both-- has no ability to perform the simple task of counting votes in a minimally efficient or confidence-inspiring manner. As a result, the credibility of the voting process is severely impaired, and any residual authority the U.S. claims to “spread” democracy to lucky recipients of its benevolence around the world is close to obliterated.
At 7:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the day after the 2020 presidential elections, the results of the presidential race, as well as control of the Senate, are very much in doubt and in chaos. Watched by rest of the world-- deeply affected by who rules the still-imperialist superpower-- the U.S. struggles and stumbles and staggers to engage in a simple task mastered by countless other less powerful and poorer countries: counting votes. Some states are not expected to finished their vote-counting until the end of this week or beyond.
While I have serious reservations about the 'American project' and, quite seriously, would happily invite the Head of the House of Austria to assume the monarchy, the hard reality is that we have to make the political system we have 'work' for the sake of the common good of the Nation, and it appears that we aren't succeeding at that task very well.
The Nordic String Quartet is performing a concert later of Haydn's Quartet op 76 no 2 and Benjamin Britten's Quartet no 1 at... probably during Mass, eh; I have the Danish Radio's P2 channel page on the laptop... it does look to be on the schedule at 1020. Where is Randers? The Jutland peninsula, Denmark, the Internet informs me.
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Am intending to follow a presentation at noon by Dr Elizabeth Lev on Michelangelo's Last Judgment-- have signed up for it, anyway; this is a free event but the prices at their 'catalogue' look to be in the $13-$25 range. While unfamiliar with the company, Masters' Gallery Rome, I see that a couple of other presenters have familiar names-- Dr Gregory DiPippo of New Liturgical Movement, for one.
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Klassikaraadio is broadcasting a recorded concert of the Munich Philharmonic from June: Prokofiev's Symphony no 1 in D major op 25 and Shostakovich's Piano Concerto no 1 in C minor op 35, with the pianist Anna Vinnitskaja and the trumpeter Guido Segers, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Schubert's Symphony no 8, too, but there won't be time for that before Mass at 1000.
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A rainstorm is approaching. Mr Biden has declared victory. Eh. The older female squirrel is trying to chase away the two younger squirrels, for an hour now. I wonder if she is their dam. There is an article in the Atlantic that briefly mentions the journalist Adam Serwer being 'attacked' by a squirrel; apparently there are known to be acts of anti-human violence. I stay in my little room and they have the great backyard; think of the front teeth....
No way I'm watching 20 minutes of video but I do appreciate Glenn Greenwald's text paragraph.
The outcome of the 2020 presidential election is still uncertain, as are several key Senate races. Even if Joe Biden ends up barely winning the presidency, as seems more likely than not at this point but not yet certain, there are several institutions of authority which have suffered still further blows to their credibility — including the polling industry, the media’s data gurus, the Democratic Party (which somehow managed to lose seats in the House), and especially the national media.
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