Manns Peak (12,272'), Pilot Mountain (12,200'), Green Mountain (12,163')
by Rob Jones, Wild Vagabond
July 12 - 14, 2020
Text © copyright by Rob; and Photos © copyright by Rob Jones
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La Sal Mountain Loafer:
Manns Peak (12,272'), Pilot Mountain (12,200'), Green Mountain (12,163') by Rob Jones, Wild Vagabond July 12 - 14, 2020 Text © copyright by Rob; and Photos © copyright by Rob Jones |
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Co-adventurer: Matt Davidson
Camera - photos from the S-10 Smartass
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Overview:This is a report about a short trip to the La Sal Mountains in
the Manti-La Sal National Forest in Utah. Matt and I enjoyed some high adventure, above the heat of the season.
ERM = Energy Required Miles. A mile is added for
every 500' elevation gain or
loss. It's a very serviceable method of estimating energy required miles. ERM was initially used in Trails
of the Tetons (long out of print) by Paul Petzold, founder of NOLS. It's a wonderfully useful concept and
application. Add one mile for each 500' up AND down to distance = ERM. I use ERMs to calculate what the actual
day is like. It's a very serviceable method of estimating energy required miles. Remember, however, that the
ERMs are estimates because they depend on GPS satellite coverage and math functions.
Background of the La Sals: At the request of local citizens, the
Manti Forest Preserve was created by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 and The La Sal Forest Preserve
was created in 1906. They later both became national forests.
Geology of the La Sal Mountains: Link to an USGS article about the geology
of LaSal Mountains. This report is very detailed and perhaps more than you wish to know.
Click here for the USGS report (pdf).
More Geology - From the wikipedia: The La Sal Mountains or La
Sal Range are a mountain
range located in Grand and San Juan counties, Utah along the Utah/Colorado border. The range rises above and
southeast of Moab and north of the town of La Sal. This range is part of the Manti-La Sal National Forest and the
southern Rocky Mountains. The maximum elevation is at Mount Peale, reaching 12,721 feet (3,877 m) above sea
level. The range contains three clusters of peaks separated by passes. The peaks span a distance of about 10 miles
(16 km). The name of the range dates to Spanish times, when the Sierra La Sal (meaning the "Salt Mountains") were
a prominent landmark on the Old Spanish Trail between Santa Fe and Los Angeles.
Day 1: High Adventure Arrival, driving to the LaSal Mountains
Using ERMs does not account for the 'texture' of the route or trail - that
is, rocky, boulders, no trail, slimy mud, etc., yet does help approximate the route.
See more information about ERMs at the end of this report.
La Sal is Spanish for "the salt," and refers to the light-colored igneous
peaks in the area. The Manti-LaSal National Forests were joined into one management area in 1949.
The range formed as a result of intrusion of igneous rocks and subsequent
erosion of the surrounding less-resistant sedimentary rocks. The most abundant igneous rocks are porphyritic, with
phenocrysts of hornblende and plagioclase: these rocks are called diorite in some accounts but trachyte in at least
one other source. Syenite, some containing the unusual mineral nosean, makes up a few percent of the igneous
rocks present. Some of the igneous intrusions have the shapes of laccoliths. Ages of these igneous rocks fall in the
interval 25 to 28 million years. The magmas were emplaced into sedimentary rocks with ages from Permian to Cretaceous.
The La Sal Mountains rises high over the surrounding Colorado Plateau. Two
other ranges on the Plateau, the Abajo Mountains and the Henry Mountains, formed around igneous intrusions of
about the same age."
It's Thursday and I'm roving the Navajo Nation in the gathering heat.
Starting before 5 a.m., it's been pleasant and this is diminishing as I approach Moab. The forecast is for temperatures
over 100°F today. Yet, I'm heading to rendezvous with Matt Davidson at somewhere over 9,000' on the slope of the
LaSal Mountains. It will be decent weather in these sky islands.
Locating a deluxe camp, we catch up on tales and outright trumpian stories (i.e., lies).
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Another version of the map can be found here. It contains tracks for both hikes described in this report.
This version can be enlarged and may be more useful than the above map ----> click here.
Day 2 photos - La Sal Loafer
Day 2: Mann-a from Heaven. To Manns Peak (12,272')
9.5 miles, ERM of 24. Ana-manna-peaka.
Matt loads the old Dana Design pack with a Bear can (canister) and lots of other
goodies so he can try hiking elevation with a heavy pack. It's a test run for a possible HST, High Sierra Trail jaunt. Being a
septuagenarian (over 70) hiker, I opt for toting my heavy day pack.
Creeping up the steep incline through bent and broken Aspens (avalanche path),
it's a long grind to about 11,600' to a saddle from which to view Beaver Basin and into Colorado. A recent avalanche has
given the slope of Aspens a haircut. Any Aspen taller than about 6' is either trimmed or bent severely over, down slope.
The Waterboy, Matt, trying out carrying a pack with a Bear canister, totes a lot of extra water. Good thing because I guzzle
5 liters of water today, two liters of which come from Matt's bulbous pack. Arrived in the land of the Old-Man-of-the-Mountain
territory, we decide it's a primo place for lunch #2 and a footnote to Mt Waas. There's a tuft of what appears to be Mountain
Goat fur stuck on an Old Man and I wonder if this could be so. Initially, I reject this notion, yet... As we creep up the flank of a
foothill to Mann Peak, we note that their (goat) tracks are abundant, although we don't see a goat. I don't recall seeing their
sign during a previous trip and I later learned that indeed, these non-native creatures were introduced.
Here's the article about the release of goats in the La Sal (pdf file - click here).
Then Matt and I tackle the talus creep to the summit of Manns Peak (12,272'),
feeling the effects of the altitude and the angle of approach. Finally on top, which affords a ranging view South to Mt
Peale, Mellenthin, and Tukinikivats. The foreground is the long slope to Burro Pass. Matt and I find a comfy hummock
in the tundra for lunch #3. It's superbly pleasant and even the skunk-like odor of the high altitude (typically above 10,000')
dweller Sky Pilot flower is well tolerated, perhaps enjoyed. Pikas eek at each other. Then, there's a different call behind us
as a yuge accipiter silently whisks low overhead. Stunned into silence, no more Pikas will appear for awhile. So, we drop
down to Burro Pass and the dangerous part of the hike - trumpian mountain bikers. trumpian mountain bikers think and
ride only for themselves, me-Me-ME!, and blame others and make excuses for their selfish, dangerous behavior if asked
to share the trail.
The Whole Enchilada trumpian bike route is apparently a single-user trail.
Down, down more.
Bear claws mark the parchment white Aspen aside the trail. Matt slips and slides
on one of the many rolling rocks and into a shrubbery of nettles and wild raspberries. Ouch.
Eventually the pond, then camp.
A tepid sun shower revives us some, followed by rice with veggies and a potato, chilli,
onion, mushroom, and egg goulash. It's good to be back among the sister (or brother) trees.
Happily, we collapse after finishing camp chores as it's approaching hiker midnight (9 p.m.).
Welfare ranching and native animals: Sadly, native Bighorn Sheep were not reintroduced,
but non-native goats were. Even more sad, welfare ranchers still abuse our forest and desert ranges. How come, one might ask?
Well, it's because a small group of welfare ranchers and other extractors control your public lands and there is some slim possibility
of Bighorns passing disease to non-native and range-devouring domestic sheep. Of course, there's no plan to extirpate domestic
sheep and cattle from public lands, although their presence comes with destroying the predator population that balances the Eaarth
and also with destructive overgrazing and introduction of all sorts of weeds. Livestock destroy riparian areas and cave in stream
banks, damaging fisheries and other wildlife dependent upon clean water (this could be you). They prevent regeneration of important
trees and shrubbery by eating the young plants. Of course, livestock are yuge contributors to global warming and an unhealthy diet.
Matt notes that ranchers on public lands are doing so for private profit and they should share the profit with the rest of us. I personally
vote for having the ranchers, who almost universally vote repulsican, pay the full free market price for grazing on our land. This cost
should include an estimate of reparation for damage to the land and climate. After all, repulsicans claim to be against welfare,
although they are the first to hand it out to undeserving corporations and welfare ranchers and miners.
Beef Magazine reported
that private grazing rates across the U.S. were $14.50 per AUM (Animal Unit Month; a cow and one calf) while we are heavily,
yugely subsidizing private profit ranchers by currently charging $1.35 per AUM for grazing on public lands. Plus, we pay for a
predator killing service, and for range "improvement" (such as chaining (ripping out) our trees) which destroys the natural balance
on our lands.
Recently, repulsicans cut hundreds of thousands of hungry children from receiving food subsidies because it was a
form of welfare. Clearly, repulsican values are those of it's despot leader (t-rump, the orange clown pufferfish), without empathy
and misguided. We feed children and the poor because it helps get them out of poverty and doing well and because it's the humane
thing to do. Repulsican jesus is OK with starving children and not providing a pathway forward for the underprivileged while doling out
gifts to the profiteers and those who do not need them.
Old-Man-of-the-Mountain: Also known as alpine sunflower, Old-Man-of-the-Mountain (Tetraneuris grandiflora) gets its name from a distinguishing characteristic: its hairs. Long villous woolly hairs cover much of the soft feathery leaves and head. A member of the sunflower family, Asteraceae, Old-Man-of-the-Mountain displays one of the showiest-brightest yellow-flowering heads in open areas of the alpine. It stands no taller than 12 inches, but the bundle of 1 to 10 flowering heads can also reach as wide as a foot. As the plant matures, its yellow vibrant color fades to tan. The enjoyment of seeing this spectacular alpine sunflower is that where it grows it can be locally abundant producing a refreshing display of color amidst the rocky gray landscape. (from the USFS page, flower of the day)
Aspens as sister/brother trees: The leaves of aspen trees have long stems and a rounded
shape that, together with their size, makes them move in even a very light wind. Quaking.
The quaking aspen tree is a pioneer species that can quickly colonize areas recently cleared
areas. The trees develop root suckers which emerge from the soil around the base of the trunk. These suckers can grow into new
trees, forming a stand of closely growing aspens. As a result, the aspen poplar branching pattern creates tall, narrow trees with
pyramid-shaped crowns that can grow in proximity within a colony of aspens. Aspen is noted for its ability to regenerate vegetatively
by shoots and suckers arising along its long lateral roots. Root sprouting results in many genetically identical trees, in aggregate called
a "clone." All the trees in a clone have identical characteristics and share a root structure. The members of a clone can be distinguished
from those of a neighboring clone often by a variety of traits such as leaf shape and size, bark character, branching habit, resistance
to disease and air pollution, sex, time of flushing, and autumn leaf color. A clone may turn color earlier or later in the fall or exhibit
a different fall color variation than its neighboring aspen clones, thus providing a means to tell them apart. Aspen clones can be less
than an acre and up to 100 acres in size. There can be one clone in an aspen grove or there can be many.
The largest and oldest known aspen clone is the "Pando" clone on the Fishlake National
Forest in southern Utah. Also known as the “Trembling Giant”, it is a clonal colony of an individual male quaking aspen determined
to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers and believed to have one massive underground root system. It is over
100 acres in size and weighs more than 14 million pounds. That is more than 40 times the weight of the largest animal, a blue whale.
It has been aged at 80,000 years, although 5-10,000 year-old clones are more common.
A study published in October 2018 concludes that Pando has not been growing for the
past 30 to 40 years. Human interference was named as the primary cause, with the study specifically citing people allowing cattle
and deer populations to thrive, their grazing resulting in fewer saplings and dying trees.
Old aspen trees get sick, weak, and die, or a fire or other disturbance might kill them.
Even after they die, they provide homes and food for many small animals. The nutrients from decomposing wood and leaves
return to the soil where they are used by the new generation of flowering plants and trees. (parts from the USFS page "How
Aspens Grow")
Should we go "back to normal" after the MAGAvirus? No! Normal never was. Our pre-EtV (Evil trump Virus), MAGAvirus existence was when we normalized greed, inequality, inequity, depletion, extraction, overgrazing, and overpopulation of the Eaarth. We have the opportunity to create a green new deal that benefits humanity and the Eaarth. I want to take this path, not return to the immorality and abuse of the pre-EtV era.
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Another version of the map can be found here. It contains tracks for both hikes described in this report.
This version can be enlarged and may be more useful than the above map ----> click here.
Day 3 photos - La Sal Loafer
Day 3: Wa-wah, no Waas. To Green Mountain (12,163')
8.6 miles; ERM 21.
Day 4: Loafing Begins? Roasted Desert
I'm grinding up the steep initial grade of the trail to Gold Knob, with plans to
undulate along the Pilot-Green-Wass ridge. I'll turn off from the Gold Knob-Miners' Basin divide and work around or
over several peaks on the way to Wass. At least that's the starting plan.
Colorado Blue Columbines grace the trail in its lower regions. Spectacular. As
a small meadow appears, the trail switchbacks through Aspen and conifers. I see and press on a Corkbark Fir, a curious
and tactile tree. The Eaarthy odor aura of Aspens permeates the calm morning. It's a silent trail, and gorgeous.
I've bumped along the ridge from the pass near Gold Knob to the approach to
Pilot Peak (12,200') for snack #1, in full view of Castle Valley, far below. A terrific place for a footnote to climbing high.
A thrash of jumbled conifers clog the approach to what I call Mt Vegan. It's a
tedious trip through the deadfall. I notice my pants are leaking blood, and stop to examine a small puncture. No big deal,
and I'm soon out on the open slope of Vegan, just prior to Pilot Mountain.
Inching up Pilot, the air feels increasingly rare; rare air. The Old-Man-of-the-Mountains
guide my slow climb. A rare and threatened with extinction Pika "eeks" and alerts me to her presence, and I manage a poor photo.
Pleasantly, the downgrade to the saddle between Pilot and up to Green Mountain is
low angle and a low elevation differential, meaning there's not much of a drop from Pilot before roving up Green Mountain.
Miners have savaged the land here, dozing a path from Miners' Basin far below. Here's another group of freeloaders who
obtain big subsidies from you for ruining our land, then walk away leaving toxic brew and upended landscape, declaring
bankruptcy. So in effect they steal the profits and perform zero reclamation. Privatize the gain, socialize the loss is the
mantra of extraction industries everywhere.
There's a short section of culvert that has been converted into a radio shack at the
summit of Green Mountain. I've been wondering what this odd shape is since I saw it from the flank of Pilot Mountain. It's
no longer functioning and two old batteries and some assorted equipment are all that remain of whatever this was.
It's past time for lunch and, after examining the deep drop into the saddle prior to
regaining elevation to Mt Wass, I decide the more prudent option is to enjoy lunch and head back to camp. There's no shade,
so I cover my feet with a t-shirt and enjoy the company of lichen and low flowers before dropping back into forested terrain.
From Green Mountain, I noted a faint track that contoured around Pilot from a
switchback in the mining road. Not again climbing Pilot seemed good to me, so I tried it. It turned out to be a track not
quite established by a few goats (so not a path at all), meaning it threatened to roll an ankle or roll one down the precipitous
slope. Depositing me on the flank of Pilot safely, I gave this track a barely passing grade, then continued to Vegan, through
the dark forest, around the lower bump, to the Gold Knob-Miner Basin pass, and down to the trailhead. Wa-wah, no Waas.
The delightful decaf coffee mocha travels the system, creating a trump towers
visit. As Matt notes, these are some of the cleanest towers we have visited. So much cleaner than the corruption and
the stink of the swamp emanating from the other, corrupt trump towers.
I loaf a bit after packing, then drift down toward Hwy 191 and the heat, passing
some Merriam Turkeys and more trump towers along the way. Lots of heat. My Subie thermometer shows 107°F on
the roll across the land of the Dine'. Yikes. Yet, the road is mostly clear because of the EtV, affording a good perspective
on Monument Basin.
It's been a wondrous few days and I feel a melancholy sadness upon leaving the
lovely LaSal sky islands.
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*ERM: Energy Required Miles, are there data to support this
mileage adjustment?
Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education and Leadership
Petzoldt first proposed his theory in his 1976 book "Teton Trails" to
help backpackers plan trips and calculate their energy needs on mountain trails. "Petzoldt defined one
energy mile as the energy required to walk one mile on the flat. He recommended adding two energy miles
for every 1,000 feet of elevation gain, so a person hiking one mile and 1,000 feet upward would use the
equivalent of three energy miles," Phipps said.
Petzoldt's energy mile theory was just a reflection of the mountaineer's
"gut feeling," Phipps said. The theory had never been tested in a laboratory before the study began in WCU's
Exercise Physiology Laboratory in the spring of 2010, Phipps said.
To determine the validity of the theory, the study measured the energy cost
and perceived exertion for walking on flat ground, with and without a 44.5-pound backpack, and up an elevation
gain of 1,000 feet, with and without the backpack, through the collection of metabolic data, Phipps said.
Twenty-four student, faculty and staff volunteers, including 12 males and 12
females, went through four testing sessions as the research continued into fall semester of 2010. The study
results showed that the additional energy cost for ascending 1,000 feet ranged from 1.34 to 2.02 energy mile
equivalents, for an average of about 1.6 miles, compared to Petzoldt's use of two energy miles for each 1,000
feet. The range revealed by the study was due to the "hikers' personal weight differences," Phipps said. "It is
remarkable that Petzoldt's energy mile theory is so close to the actual energy cost measured during our
study," Phipps said. "In the field of outdoor education, it's important for leaders to include an estimation
of energy requirements during the planning of hiking trips."
Phipps said the energy required for hiking up steep mountain trails would vary
for individuals and groups, and the variables of the trail would also factor in, but he recommends that
backpackers stick with Petzoldt's idea of adding two energy miles for every 1,000 feet of elevation gain when
planning trips.
The Validity of Petzoldt's Energy Mile Theory, 2010
Authors: Maridy McNeff Troy, Maurice L. Phipps
Publication: Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership
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Let's look at what one conservative columnist had to say about the EtV...........
This Is Trump’s Plague Now: by David Frum,
Staff writer at The Atlantic /Getty / The Atlantic, Mon. 29 June 2020 COVID-19 infections peaked on April 24, or so Americans assumed. State health authorities
reported 36,738 new cases that day, a record. By mid-May, the US had reduced that rate of infection by nearly half, to 17,618 on May
11. The accomplishment had come at a tremendous cost: the lockdown of much of the national economy, Great Depression levels
of unemployment, the shift to online schooling for millions of children, families denied final visits to dying loved ones. Still, these
sacrifices had delivered the desired result. Had that progress continued, the American people—and the American economy—could
have likely foreseen a further decline in cases and perhaps a near end to the pandemic, even before a vaccine.
But that’s not what happened. On June 24, the number of infections surpassed the April 24
peak. On June 25, the number surpassed that of June 24. On June 26, the country suffered almost 46,000 new infections—nearly
10,000 more in one day than on the worst day in April. All of the sacrifices of the past weeks have been thrown away.
The first coronavirus spike, in late April, can be blamed on President Donald Trump’s
negligence. The second spike, in June, is his own doing. This is Trump’s plague now.
A Washington Post report on June 27 captures Trump’s culpability with horrible aptness.
The city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been enforcing social-distancing rules, and for good reason. From June 1 to June 15, new COVID-19
cases in the state jumped from 67 in a day to 186. In advance of Trump’s rally in Tulsa on June 20, city employees affixed Do Not
Sit Here Please stickers to every other seat in the stadium venue. Trump campaign workers were captured on video removing the
stickers so that Trump could cram attendees closer together. On June 26, Oklahoma reported 396 new infections in a single day.
Trump’s rally may not directly account for all those new cases. But Trump’s elevation of the
needs of his own ego over the well-being of even his strongest supporters is profoundly implicated in the virus’s powerful June comeback.
Even before the viral peak on April 24, Trump urged the reopening of the US economy. On
April 16, Trump convened the nation’s governors by conference call to press them to lift restrictions by May 1. The White House
that day also released a set of highly permissive guidelines to inform the process, recommending a three-phased plan to begin after
states had established a 14-day “downward trajectory of documented cases.” But how steep a decline? Many decisions were left
to the governors, at least ostensibly.
“You’re going to call your own shots,” Trump told the governors on the call. “You’re going to be calling the shots. We’ll be standing
right along-side of you, and we’re going to get our country open and get it working. People want to get working.”
At the time, this show of deference to the governors looked like a political retreat by the
president. Days earlier, Trump had declared that he alone had “total authority” to reopen the economy—and it would be “the
biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.” But the deference soon proved a sham. Trump was set on the widest and earliest possible
opening, and he exerted the immense political power of his office to get his wish.
In mid-April, protesters—many of them openly brandishing weapons—assembled at the
capitols of Democratic-governed states to demand immediate reopening. Trump tweeted his support. “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!”
“LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
At first, Fox News hosts and guests had dismissed COVID-19 as a Democratic plot against the
Trump economy. Just one example of many: On March 9, Sean Hannity said, “They’re scaring the living hell out of people. And I see
them again as like, ‘Oh, okay, let’s bludgeon Trump with this new hoax.’” Then, in mid-March, the network abruptly switched its
editorial line. Hosts not only voiced concern, but adamantly denied that they had ever done otherwise. “This program has always
taken the coronavirus seriously, and we’ve never called the virus a hoax,” Hannity said on March 18.
On April 29, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appeared on the Hannity program to tout his
state’s triumph over the virus. “We know who the vulnerable populations are. We know, if you look at the statistics for people
under 50 who don’t have chronic conditions, I mean, you have an extremely low chance of death from this virus and those situations.
We know how to protect folks and social distance between those two groups, and so I think there’s a lot of things we’ve learned over
the last six weeks. So I think we can take a step forward here in May, continue to build on that, and get America back.”
On May 3, Trump staged his notorious town hall in the Lincoln Memorial—a site usually forbidden
to be used for partisan purposes, but accessed by Trump via a special exemption. Trump used the occasion to exhort governors to
reopen even faster than the guidelines had laid out. “There’s not too many states that I know of that are going up. Almost everybody
is headed in the right direction,” he said. “We’re on the right side of it, but we want to keep it that way, but we also want to get back
to work.” He praised states that were moving quickly to reopen their economies—and singled out Virginia as a state that was moving
too slowly.
By this time, Republican-led states had begun letting their stay-at-home orders lapse, starting
with Georgia on April 23. Trump initially praised the Georgia plan, then criticized it—but ultimately approved it. Texas followed on May
1. Florida launched the first phase of its reopening on May 4.
Trump promised vaccines by the end of the year, and a surging economy by the third quarter
of 2020. And if anything contradicted all this happy talk, the president had his answer ready. “The only reason the US has reported
one million cases of CoronaVirus is that our Testing is sooo much better than any other country in the World,” Trump tweeted on April
29. “Other countries are way behind us in Testing, and therefore show far fewer cases!”
As Trump had hoped, good news began to arrive in the early part of May. Cases were trending
down, as were deaths. On May 11, he tweeted: “Coronavirus numbers are looking MUCH better, going down almost everywhere. Big
progress being made!” Trump ran another victory lap on May 17. “Doing REALLY well, medically, on solving the CoronaVirus situation
(Plague!). It will happen!” That same day he added: “The number of Coronavirus cases is strongly trending downward throughout the
US, with few exceptions. Very good news, indeed!” That was fateful timing. The COVID-19 news from mid-May on would almost all be bad.
What went wrong? Early reopening could only have worked if stringent safety measures,
including the use of face masks and social distancing, were incorporated. Yet the president sabotaged the reopening he himself had
forced. Throughout his presidency, Trump has subordinated rational policy in order to provoke virulent culture wars. And the mask
has become a rallying symbol for his supporters.
Trump never wears a mask in public, and he has mocked Joe Biden for wearing one. “I see
Biden. It’s like his whole face is covered. It’s like he put a knapsack over his face. He probably likes it that way,” Trump told The Wall
St. Journal on May 21. The Journal’s Michael C. Bender then followed up. He remarked that Trump often negatively commented on
masks, especially when worn by White House reporters. “Do you view that as a protest of you? Do you feel like people wear masks
to show their disapproval of you?” Trump allowed that it could be—then attacked the health hazards of masks—then expressed
indifference whether his supporters wore them or not.
Rush Limbaugh mocked the mask as a “symbol of fear” on May 15. The former Fox anchor
Brit Hume joined in. On May 27, a writer at the pro-Trump web publication The Federalist posted a piece headlined, “Mandatory
Masks Aren’t About Safety, They’re About Social Control.” The author, Molly McCann, warned: “If everyone is wearing a mask, it
telegraphs a society-wide acceptance that the status quo has changed.” That morning, a pro-Trump writer named Lee Smith tweeted
a link to the article, amplifying McCann’s paranoia. “Terrific @molmccann piece in @FDRLST — masks aren’t about public health but
social control. Image of Biden in black mask endorses culture of silence, slavery, and social death.” Smith is a major figure in the
pro-Trump media landscape. Formerly a Middle East correspondent for Bill Kristol’s Weekly Standard—and still connected to the
eminently mainstream Hudson Institute—he has plunged deep and thick into the pro-Trump cause. In the early morning of May
28, Smith’s tweet got a retweet from Trump himself.
You might not imagine that there would be much room to escalate anti-mask rhetoric from
“silence, slavery, and social death.” You would be wrong. An Arizona city councilman derisively appropriated George Floyd’s dying
words, “I can’t breathe,” to mock mask-wearing. Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump adviser, found a way to go even further than
that on his June 23 radio program.
Millions of citizens obeyed the cues from Trump, the right-wing media, and the medical crackpots
who predominate Facebook. While the great majority of Americans approve of mask wearing in public, only 40% of Republicans do. On
June 20, a short video showed up on Twitter of a middle-aged man in shorts trying to enter a Florida Walmart unmasked. When a
masked store employee politely reminded the customer of store rules, the man shoved the employee so hard that the shover actually
fell over from his own momentum. The customer got up and pushed the same employee again to force his way in. Perhaps the customer
was carrying one of the fake “anti-mask exemption cards” now circulating on the internet and social media for printing at home.
As the US nears the 4th of July, the disease is reviving. Some Trump supporters want to blame
the Black Lives Matter protests for the spike. But the states that mounted the largest protests have seen caseloads decline since George
Floyd’s death. Minnesota reported 645 new cases on May 26, then 493 on June 26. New York recorded 1,044, then 804 on the same
dates. Washington, D.C.’s 109 cases on May 26 fell to 26 by June 26. Granted, not everybody who protested in those places lived in those
places, so perhaps some demonstrators carried the virus to other states. But there’s certainly no obvious link yet. Meanwhile, JPMorgan
has found powerful connections between rising restaurant spending and, 3 weeks later, increasing COVID-19 infections.
The disease is spiking in places precisely where state governments hastened to reopen bars,
casinos, restaurants, shopping malls, and other indoor places of entertainment. Phoenix, Houston, and other southern cities are suddenly
reporting caseloads that look like New York City at its worst. Florida reported nearly 9,000 new infections on June 26, nearly equaling
some of New York’s worst days. Texas recorded almost 6,000 new cases that day. Arizona reported nearly 3,400 new cases on June 26
and now suffers more cases per capita than Brazil or any country in Europe.
In the face of this worsening crisis, Trump is not taking action; he’s instead shifting the goalposts:
Don’t pay attention to the case rate, he now argues. Look at the death rate. Last week, he tweeted: “Coronavirus deaths are way down.
Mortality rate is one of the lowest in the World. Our Economy is roaring back and will NOT be shut down. ‘Embers’ or flare ups will be put
out, as necessary!” But deaths lag behind infections, and a rise in cases in late June warns of more deaths to come in late July. We’re already
well past the death toll of 100,000 that Trump predicted at his Lincoln Memorial town hall only eight weeks ago.
Trump’s hopes for a third-quarter economic recovery are also blighted. Spending data suggest that
the upward trajectory of May and early June has halted and reversed in the states that have opened. The slight uptick in employment in
May now may prove abortive. For millions of American families, the hardest reckoning arrives on July 31, when the federal government
stops supplementing state unemployment insurance benefits. Those who have kept their jobs face other hardships. Will schools reopen
in September? It looks more and more doubtful.
At the onset, the pandemic was aggravated by Trump’s negligence and indifference. He had
dismantled the country’s pandemic preparedness. He denied the disease for two months. He made one crucial mistake after another.
Even so, Trump could plausibly shift at least some blame for the arrival of the disease. The
pandemic did originate outside of the US, China did cover up the disease, and the World Health Organization did enable China. Trump
could also argue that even those countries with the best responses were hit hard for many weeks.
But what has happened in the US in June, and what will happen in July, is entirely Trump’s fault.
The president’s approach to the virus has been guided by his lifelong beliefs: It’s just as real to say you have done a good job as to do a
good job. Denying you failed is just as real as actually succeeding. This time, though, reality will not be blustered away. Tens of thousands
are dead, and millions are out of work, all because Trump could not and would not do the job of disease control—a job that includes
setting a positive example to those Americans who trust and follow his leadership.
David Frum is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Trumpocalypse: Restoring
American Democracy (2020). In 2001 and 2002, he was a speechwriter for President George W. Bush.
.
The first coronavirus spike, in late April,
can be blamed on the president’s negligence. The second spike, in June, is his own doing.
From mid- to late April, the trajectory of infections in states such as Georgia, Florida,
and Texas was relatively flat, not down.
Despite that, Trump cheered for governors to reopen fast and faster. On April 29, Trump declared that federal social-distancing
guidelines would be “fading out.” “I’m very much in favor of what they’re doing,” Trump said in the Oval Office about the southern
and western governors who were racing to reopen by May 1. The governors were responding to political pressures from local business
owners, yes. But they were also obeying the president’s wishes and yielding to pressure from right-wing media.
But as Trump pressed for reopening, the Fox News line shifted again. Hosts and guests
tumbled over one another to demand more
reopenings, faster, bigger—and to pooh-pooh any continuing danger from coronavirus. “The virus just isn’t nearly as deadly as we
thought it was, all of us, including on this show. Everybody thought it was, but it turned out not to be,” Tucker Carlson said on his
program April 27.
Caller: I wanted to discuss what I call the Democrat Islamo-Maoist masks that their dictators
demand.
Sebastian Gorka: You mean the COVID burqas, the COVID masks. … You know, there’s something inhuman about it, isn’t there? The
idea that you cover the face. Not only does it dehumanize the individual in that interaction with another human being, but also it is,
you’re right, an act of submission.
Across the rest of the developed world, COVID-19 has been ebbing. As a result, borders are
reopening and economies are reviving.
Here in the US, however, Americans are suffering a new disease peak worse than the worst of April. How lethal will this new peak be?
We will learn that the way we seem to learn everything in this era of Trump: the hard way.
Related Links:
Super map of the La Sal Mountains - move around in this map
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Geology of the La Sal Mountains - USGS report (pdf)
.
A 1997 hikefest in the La Sal Mountains - trip report
.
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Introduction of Non-native Mountain Goats in the La Sal Mountains (pdf)
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trump's lies about corona virus, up to early June, 2020 (more lies in progress)
.
More Truth Than Joke, notes about failed and corrupt leadership in the time of the EtV
(Evil trump Virus, MAGAvirus; COVID-19):
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