Today is Saturday, January 22, 2022. Just when you thought you couldn’t hear more about the former president’s nefarious plans to steal the 2020 election, we now hear another low point in the ongoing, revealing saga of the former president’s treachery. In the last day or so, it has been reported that one of the documents handed over to the House Select Committee investigating the attack against the Capitol on January 6 was a draft executive order that then-president Il Trumpino was considering signing in December 2020 that would have directed the Pentagon to seize voting machines in key states and hunt for evidence of fraud. This startling revelation is revealed yesterday in an online CNN article by Marshall Cohen and Zachary Cohen entitled “Politico: Draft Trump executive order in December 2020 would’ve directed Pentagon to seize voting machines and hunt for fraud.”

For the preservation of democracy, Trump never signed the executive order. If he had, it would have directed the Secretary of Defense to “seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records” related to Il Trumpino’s false claims of an international vote-rigging conspiracy to deprive him of a second disastrous term in the White House, according to the draft. No one knows who wrote the draft order (it certainly wasn’t Trumpino himself who doesn’t know enough correct English to wriggle out of a paper bag), which is full of legal language asserting presidential powers to seize the election equipment and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Maybe this draft order was written by Il Trumpino’s crazy lawyer Sidney Powell who was subpoenaed by the select committee, along with her pal, Rudy Giuliani.

“The draft also said the defense secretary could identify National Guard units to be federalized to help the effort.” Any operation using the military or federal agents to seize voting equipment for political purposes is basically tantamount to a coup d’etat and would have been unprecedented in U.S. history.

The order would have appointed a special counsel to investigate the 2020 election and “institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate based on the evidence collected.” Talk about 1984 all over again in 2020!

This draft seems to be one of the documents that Il Trumpino fought to block from the January 6 Select Committee. No wonder, folks, that he tried to block this from getting into the hands of those representatives that could refer his actions to be prosecuted by the Department of Justice under Merrick Garland.

As of other documents requested by the committee, close to 700 pages were handed over to the investigative body on Friday from the National Archives.

The draft executive order was dated December 16, 2020, according to the document published by Politico. That was two days after the Electoral College met in state capitals to formalize President Joe Biden’s victory, dealing a huge blow to Il Trumpino’s attempts to overturn the election.

The extreme ideas espoused in this executive order were promoted by former Dumpf adviser Michael Flynn and his right-wing lawyer Sidney Powell. There is this repugnant person again. CNN also reported that Il Trumpino’s then-attorney Rudy Giuliani asked a senior official from the Department of Homeland Security if the department could seize voting equipment in certain states so that they could be examined for evidence of widespread fraud. The only widespread fraud being perpetrated here was the Trumpsters’ claim of election rigging. This was such a bizarre plan to stage a takeover of this country by such a clueless president that it boggles the mind.

In news today, the DINO (Democrat in Name Only) Senator Kyrsten Sinema was censured by her own party in Arizona for her failure to change the rules of the filibuster this week, along with her voting with all repugnicans to keep the rules, which requires a 60-vote majority to move most bills. Thus members of the Arizona Democratic Party executive committee passed today a resolution to rebuke the senator over her vote to retain the filibuster.

This vote came after an avalanche of anger from liberals who portray Sinema as an obstructionist who helped doom Democrats’ chances at passing voting rights legislation. The censure has no practical effect, but it does send a very strong message of condemnation to the spectacle-wearing senator who is probably one of the most-hated women in America right now.

In terms of when her term in office is up, she is not up for reelection until 2024. So we are stuck with the detestable senator for two years still – too bad.

It’s time to report on some good news then. In today’s edition of the Daily News, there is an article about the decline of COVID-19 numbers in the state, which is hopefully a good sign of a future trend in lower numbers overall. The article, “Big Drop in N.Y. COVID: Infection rate dips to lowest level in month,” written by Denis Slattery, reflects a little optimism with regard to the grip of Omicron on the state’s population. Thus on Friday, New York’s statewide positivity rate fell below 10%, which marks the first time the marker has dropped into the single digits in more than a month.

These virus statistics were given by Governor Kathy Hochul who was speaking at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, where she said she is confident that the state is heading in the right direction following the Omicron-fueled holiday surge. She noted that there is a 66% drop in new cases over the past two weeks.

As of yesterday, “the state reported 28,296 new coronavirus cases, a fraction of the nearly 100,000 daily cases being recorded at the height of the most recent surge earlier this month.”

The city’s seven-day positivity rate fell to 10.49% from 17.55% a week ago after peaking at 23% earlier in the month, according to state data.

The state’s overall seven-day average of new COVID hospitalizations is down 20.5% compared to one week ago.

Despite the rosier picture reflected in the new state data, 154 New Yorkers still died from the virus. While it is a far cry from the more than 800 daily deaths recorded during the first wave of infections in early 2020, the governor reminded us that the current number is a reminder that mask and vaccine mandates are still needed to keep people safe.

In providing these dry statistics, the governor interjected a personal note when she confessed that her own sister and son recently contracted COVID-19 all the while urging all eligible New Yorkers to get vaccinated or boosted “for that extra suit of armor.” She added, “We’re not through the surge yet, but boy do those numbers look good.”

So it would seem to suggest from this article that the Omicron wave of cases and hospitalizations appears to be cresting in some of the areas that it hit first, including New York and other northeastern states. It’s still too early to pop that bottle of champagne, though. But maybe we could be cautiously optimistic that this wave is peaking, but we will still not be able to throw away all our N95 masks just yet.

Today Elliot and I went on with our lives by driving to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for an 11:20 a.m. appointment with an Apple technician to look at Elliot’s smartphone battery. After seeing some of the same indications of low battery life on his phone, as with mine some months ago, I suggested we make a reservation to see someone today before going to Juliette, on Bedford Avenue, for breakfast or brunch. So I made the reservation online several days ago.

When we got to Bedford Avenue and to the Apple store, we were a little early, and were informed to wait outside until 11:10. We had to wait only a few minutes before we entered the large facility to have a staff member review Elliot’s phone. Upon examining the device for a short time, the young masked man diagnosed the situation as requiring a new battery. He took the phone from us and said to return in about an hour.

Now we walked to Juliette, which was about a block away. We entered the restaurant and saw our friendly hostess who seated us right away in the garden area. This was even though Elliot didn’t have his phone to show his proof of vaccination. We were given a clean bill of health, so to speak, since we both have provided our vaccination status to her in the past.

For such a cold Saturday, the place looked quite busy. We were surrounded by two couples, one where a young man and woman were having breakfast, and the other where two men were scanning their phones. Elliot was in the mood for a hamburger, while I ordered the stuffed banana French toast. Of course, I needed my dosage of caffeine as well.

After breakfast/brunch, we went right back to the Apple store, where we were ushered into the back to see another staff member who brought Elliot’s phone back. He needed a signature on a tablet and reminded us that Elliot’s phone needed recharging since they couldn’t do anything to the phone unless it was on a particular charge level. I believe the phone was on about 19% when the young man returned the device to Elliot. Luckily, we have a charger in the car.

After Elliot paid for the battery, we left the store and walked across the street to Spoonbill & Sugartown Books. We spent about 15 minutes here.

Then Elliot got into the car which was parked directly in front of the bookstore by a meter. I stayed in Brooklyn to take the subway to my Housing Works bookstore on Crosby Street.

I thought I would see a film at the Angelika, which is on Houston Street, but I didn’t. I spent my time browsing three bookstores. I even went to the Strand on Union Square. The first bookstore was a disappointment since the inventory of books appeared to have dwindled from the time of COVID-19 and the cafe inside has still not reopened. When I went up to the cashier to buy some reasonably priced music CDs, I asked him when the cafe would open again. He mentioned that it could be reopening in several weeks – whenever that might be.

My next stop was the Mercer Street Books & Records shop, where I entered the neighborhood independent bookstore with gleeful anticipation. I resisted buying any books at the first store, so I couldn’t tell with any certainty if my resistance would hold out here too. It didn’t!

I bought Albert Camus’s The Fall, which I think I might even have somewhere. I’m not sure.

My last stop was at Forbidden Broadway, the comic bookstore near the Strand. I picked up two issues of Bat Man that make up a four-part series.

I took the R train at 14th Street and connected with the E at Queens Plaza. I rode the subway with some trepidation since our very own mayor declared the other day that he doesn’t even feel safe riding the trains. That’s something, isn’t it? He changed his mind when a 40-year-old Asian woman was shoved to the tracks below and lost her life to an imbalanced homeless man just the other week. The attack was unprovoked and totally senseless. Whenever I’m waiting now at a platform, I scan my surroundings up and down, and I never lean out at the edge of the platform. But you never know! There are so many people who have not returned to riding the subway; that’s why so many cars are being driven by New Yorkers now and clogging up our highways.

It’s getting late here. I’m playing one of the CDs: Bette Midler in Gypsy.

Have a great Sunday.

Stay safe and be well.