Cut Texas Off

Businesses need to pull out of Texas. Entertainers need to cancel concerts and tours. A clear message needs to be sent to those elected officials that their ban on abortion is not acceptable. Hit those asshole legislators where it hurts—in their wallets.

Quote of the Day

All empires die. The end is usually unpleasant. The American empire, humiliated in Afghanistan, as it was in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, as it was at the Bay of Pigs and in Vietnam, is blind to its own declining strength, ineptitude, and savagery. Its entire economy, a "military Keynesianism," revolves around the war industry. Military spending and war are the engine behind the nation's economic survival and identity. It does not matter that with each new debacle the United States turns larger and larger parts of the globe against it and all it claims to represent. It has no mechanism to stop itself, despite its numerous defeats, fiascos, blunders and diminishing power, from striking out irrationally like a wounded animal. The mandarins who oversee our collective suicide, despite repeated failure, doggedly insist we can reshape the world in our own image. This myopia creates the very conditions that accelerate the empire's demise." ~ Chris Hedges (via azspot)

People Want To Get Back Out Into This?!

We had to go to the mall yesterday. I say had to because a friend of ours wanted to buy a new iPad and Ben offered to purchase it for her with his education discount.

It was an absolute zoo. As I've gotten older my discomfort in large crowds has been increasing, and I welcomed last year's lockdown with open arms. I would say that fully 75% of the people we encountered yesterday were unmasked. Forget about any kind of social distancing. The Apple Store, thankfully, required masks (and provided them to patrons who did not bring their own), but social distancing was still a joke.

At this point I have no faith whatsoever the human race is going to dig itself out of this pandemic, although I do applaud those entities that are requiring proof of vaccination or masks to be allowed to participate in whatever function they're hosting.