4 January 2021 — 1143 mst
The year’s latest sunrise, a clean shave for Gianforte,
and Trump’s crazy call to Georgia’s Secretary of State
Latest sunrise. Montana’s eyes are on the capitol in Helena this morning, where the legislature commences its 2021 session and former U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte will be sworn-in as Montana’s first Republican governor. Perhaps fittingly, the sun rose in Helena at 0812 MST today, the latest sunrise of the year. Helena’s earliest sunrises in 2021 occur at 0524 MDT during 10–21 June. These extremes are not six months apart because Earth’s orbit around the sun is elliptical, not circular.
Timeanddate.com generates what may be the internet’s best sunrise, sunset, and meridian transit tables. The tables include the azimuths of sunrise and sunset, the sun’s altitude above the horizon at transit, and the beginning and end of civil, nautical, and astronomical twilight. I have the U.S. Naval Observatory’s software that calculates the same sun data as well as positions for stars, planets, etc., and other phenomena, but timeanddate.com is much more convenient.
A clean shave for Greg Gianforte. On 7 November 1968, a few days after Richard Nixon was elected president, the Washington Post’s legendary cartoonist, Herbert Block, a fierce critic of Nixon, published a cartoon offering the heavy-bearded, five o’clock shadow bedeviled, president-elect a fresh start. Nixon, of course, reverted to form and Block responded accordingly with his cartoons.
I did not vote for Greg Gianforte. I’m deeply concerned he will sign the kind of legislation that Brian Schweitzer and Steve Bullock vetoed. But I want him to succeed because all of us are better off if Montana is governed well. Therefore, figuratively speaking, I’m giving Gianforte a clean shave instead of body-slamming him before he gets started.
Trump’s crazy call. Saturday, President Trump called Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, asking — in a disjointed, yet thuggish, manner — Raffensperger to disqualify enough votes for Joe Biden to flip Georgia to Trump. Raffensperger refused, politely but firmly, and recorded the call. When Trump misrepresented the call, Raffensperger delivered the recording to the Washington Post, which published the recording and a transcript of the call.
What Trump asked was corrupt and possibly illegal. But corrupt and crooked pale compared to the unhinged nature of the call. It was a spur of the moment call, not a structured call with an agenda and reports and position papers that were delivered to Raffensperger in advance of the call. Instead, Trump delivered a meandering monologue filled with “facts” known nowhere outside his fevered brain. He was making it up as he spoke, believing it was true. He was beyond reason, completely out of touch with reality.
Was the call an impeachable high crime? Possibly. Was it a crime for which he could be prosecuted successfully? That’s a fascinating question. He’s so far removed from reality, from rationality, that he could truthfully plead not guilty because of insanity.
Time to invoke the 25th Amendment.