Coronavirus daily update: Wednesday, Jan. 13

Impeached, again

We all knew it was coming, and the whole thing was just a bunch of posturing. But the House voted, mostly along party lines, to impeach President Trump today, just a week before his term is set to expire. Ten Republicans joined with House Democrats to impeach, while the rest of the House Republicans made most viewers physically ill.

Seriously, the Florida delegation alone almost made me barf. See the dude in the purple suit?

In tomorrow’s TCB

• Racism in the fire department and police funding are on tap in Winston-Salem.
• Art to combat the fear of Blackness.
• It’s not about the money.

The numbers

• Raw numbers tapering off in NC: 5,098 today, for 641,073.
  • 7,745 deaths (+107)
  • 3,951 hospitalized
  • 14.7 percent positive test rate, level
  • 28,978 vaccines completed (both doses), 190,195 have received first dose.
• 599 new cases for Guilford, 26,492 total. 336 deaths (+0), 4,689 current cases.
• Forsyth says 116 new for 23,776 total. One new death for 236.

A diversion

Let’s jump to 1927, not quite yet true public domain, and Buster Keaton again, who was one of the few silent actors whjo made he transition to “talkies.” Some of them had funny voices. We’ll get to his later pictures eventually, but here’s The General, about a locomotive chase during the Civil War. The car chase had yet to be invented.

Program notes

• “Family Group of Four on Sofa” is American, obvs, from the 1830s, slightly less obvs. We don’t know who made it. Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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