One Year
Well, it's been one year since we went into lockdown at work. While it took a bit of adjustment at first, I came to love it and I dreaded having to return to the way things were.
Thing is, none of us was in any hurry to return to the office full time. But as I wrote previously, our society is too entrenched in the thought of getting everything back to "normal," that any lessons we might've learned, or insights we gained over the past year in regards to doing things differently have been tossed out the window.
The old "normal" wasn't working, but we'll be damned if we make any changes.
Remember how nice it was those first few weeks? Little to no traffic on the streets? The quiet outside? The fact that wildlife was—albeit cautiously—returning to our urban enclaves?
Sure, nothing was open and we were all with a heightened sense of caution regarding pretty much everything we came in contact with outside our home (Ben and I still carry hand sanitizer in our cars, something that—along with our religious mask wearing while outside our home—has undoubtedly attributed to the fact neither one of us has gotten any of our usual winter respiratory infections this year), but for us personally, it was a welcome respite from the madness that had been society previously.
I enjoy getting up an hour later than I had been prior to COVID. I don't miss the commute. I appreciate the added security of being home when packages are delivered. And lord knows the dogs have certainly grown used to (probably codependently so) me being home. I think they're going to have the hardest time readjusting.
I can't afford to retire for another four years at minimum, so we stumble back to what we were all doing a year ago, acting like nothing happened at all over the past twelve months to possibly—just possibly—move us all in a different direction.
And that makes me sad.
I Hope Not!
Wear a mask, you filthy animals.
All The Cool Kids Are Doing It
I can feel Bill Gates' our alien overlords' nanobots swarming through my bloodstream, but it's been two days and I'm still waiting for my 5G antennas to start sprouting. I wonder if my reception will be good enough with just those, or if I'll still need a tinfoil hat…
There is a welt at the injection site that forms "666," so I'm not giving up hope just yet.
Who's a Snowflake Now, BITCH?
Meanwhile, I am…
…about the asswipe.
They Have a List and They're Checking It Twice
You're Not Imagining It
Completely Insensitive ?
Refreshing Indeed!
Maybe He Can Shoot His Way Out?
Yup.
And furthermore…
I Have a Fix for That
Quote of the Day
Politics makes more sense once you realize the Republicans are the arsonists and the Democrats are the firefighters." ~ Bill Palmer, The Palmer Report
Indeed
Now if I can only get our elderly dog to stop waking us up at 3 a.m. demanding to be fed I might actually get a good night's sleep…
I Have Only One Thing to Say…
Our national nightmare is over. The inaugurations of Joseph R. Biden and Kamala Harris were glorious. Truly glorious.
Wake Up Call for Republicans
Quote of the Day
12 Days Into The New Year And…
What Needs to Happen
This perfectly sums up what I think a LOT of us are feeling today after yesterday's seditious storming of the Capitol.
From Greg Fallis:
First, invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump's power and authority. Second, impeach him again, and this time do it right. Third, appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Trump specifically in regard to yesterday's insurrection.
That first step, invoking the 25th, is critically important. I don't think we can afford to wait two more weeks for Trump to be removed. I don't think he's emotionally stable enough to trust for…hell, for another day. So yeah, I think it's necessary for Vice President Pence to get together with Trump's cabinet and invoke the 25th Amendment in order to remove Trump's control of the nuclear arsenal, to take him out of the chain of military command, and to remove his power to issue pardons. I think we have to neuter his presidential authority, because yesterday he demonstrated more clearly than ever that he simply can't be trusted to wield that power responsibly.
Then we need to impeach him again. The House needs to draft and pass articles of impeachment based only on his abuse of power yesterday. Keep it simple and specific. He incited a riot that resulted in an assault on a federal building, the destruction of federal property, and four deaths. The Senate needs to try him on that charge and Republicans need to find the balls to convict him and remove him from office.
At that point — before Biden assumes office — appoint a non-partisan Special Counsel with a very narrow mandate: investigate Trump to determine his level of responsibility in the January 6 riot and breach of the Capitol.
That's not everything that should be done, of course. It's not everything I'd like to be done. I'd like to see Trump hauled out of the White House in handcuffs. I'd like to see him in an orange jumpsuit. Hell, I'd like to see Cruz and Hawley and the rest of the Sedition Caucus removed from office. I'd like to see them dipped in shit and rolled in the sand. But what the nation needs right now is stability and maturity.
Right now — and I mean right now, starting this day — we need to take a few strong but essentially simple steps to settle the nation. We can sort out the rest later. But the shit that took place yesterday simply cannot be allowed to stand.
I'm ashamed to say it, but I don't think any of this will happen. I don't think there are enough Republicans with integrity to do any of this, and it can't be done without them.
I have a LOT more thoughts on what happened yesterday, but I'm still too angry and sad and ashamed and disgusted to put them in any sort of order.
18 U.S. Code § 2383 – Rebellion or Insurrection
18 U.S. Code § 2383 – Rebellion or insurrection
Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
Who Writes Checks?
Death Becomes Them
Seriously?!
KENNETH IN THE 212: Why are so many people, and gay men included, behaving so irresponsibly now that COVID-19 is actually at its worst? Most people are not yet vaccinated, and the hospitals are packed, yet I have friends boasting about weddings they're hosting, trips to Puerto Rico, Puerto Vallarta, Tulum, Hawaii — and few or no masks in sight. Kenneth calls out White Party promoter Jeffrey Sanker, who is holding bashes for NYE in Puerto Vallarta with zero mention of safety. People also pointed out that Shangela is in P.V., hanging on people without a mask.
Two not unrelated notes: That gay male nurse who nearly died of COVID-19 after attending a circuit party in March, the one who wasted away to nothing and collected $20K in GoFundMe cash, is currently partying in Mexico. He disabled his social media to escape the condemnation. Also, how many IG influences and OnlyFans accounts do you follow that are nothing but gay men having anonymous hookups in a pandemic?
Nobody is perfect, and many who are doing all the right things are still getting sick—but why are so many people this willfully, proudly oblivious? I guess because they think their chances of getting desperately ill or dying are low, and they couldn't give a fuck about the people they infect whose chances are high?
And we can't even say we'll hold them accountable when this is all over because … who is the we? It feels like most people are sliding into a giant shrug.
#truth
Where's the Lie?
It Was a Cautionary Tale, Ignored
The Virus Didn't Defeat America, Freedumb Did
From John Pavlovitz:
COVID beat America—completely, unequivocally, and historically.
There's simply no way around that truth.
We have been decimated far beyond even the most dire calculations back in the Spring of 2020.
The sickness has been unfathomable and the death toll staggering.
We have been the planet's most egregious cautionary tale on what not to do, how not to navigate this crisis—on how patriotism can become nationalism and nationalism can become deadly to a nation.
It's no mystery how we got here: a nonexistent Federal response headed by an unprepared, ignorant sociopathic president who had neither the capacity nor the inclination to prevent loss of life. But these massive liabilities alone wouldn't have been enough for the virus to defeat us so fully. It needed a boost. It needed an accomplice. It needed one more fierce ally in its brutal assault on America: it needed Americans.
It needed the flag-waving, chest-beating, bottle-rocket, Don't Tread On Me, MAGA bluster of hundreds of millions of people raised to believe personal freedom trumps everything: Science, facts, humanity—even life itself.
And so, when the warnings came they cried "conspiracy!"
When the restrictions arrived they marched like star-spangled martyrs on Governor's mansions with guns waving.
When healthcare workers pleaded with them for restraint, they tore off their masks; imagining themselves some heroic modern Tea Party patriots defending liberty against manufactured tyranny.
When the case and death numbers climbed, they attacked the "Deep State" and doubled down on the well-curated myth of their oppression.
When the second wave began, after a first wave that never ended—they complained about restrictions not working the first time, never mentioning the fact that they didn't abide by them to begin with.
And now here, in complete and utter devastation they refuse to admit that America got its collective behind handed to it, because they had to "live free or die"—or at least, they had to live free and kill lots of strangers. They are so intoxicated with the drug of American greatness, that they can't admit that in the face of this virus we have been brought to our knees because we insisted on it.
Today, I spoke with a friend in Taiwan about the response there to the COVID crisis, one they largely have in their collective rear view mirror. It is a story repeated all over the world:
She said "We got control of it here because we follow orders here, we do what we're told." She talked about the initial lockdowns and the way people did the hard work aided by wise leadership, and they got the upper hand early.
I talked about MAGA Americans and their chest beating, flag-waving anti-mask "freedom" stance that inexplicably still has them marching defiantly unmasked through grocery stores and still refusing to adjust their behavior.
She replied, "Today, I don't have to wear a mask and I can go to the movies and see my family and travel and live a normal life without restrictions. So who has freedom now?"
That's the hard truth America is going to have to reckon with: our ceremonial, showy, hollow "liberty" has caused us actual freedom:
to do the work we enjoy,
to make a living,
to see the people we love,
to make plans,
to be spontaneous,
and to fully enjoy these days.
We have lost an entire year of our individual and collective lives, because nearly half our country has ignored restrictions, flouted safeguards, refused medical expertise, and given a strident middle finger to the efforts of intelligent people prepared for exactly this kind of disaster—all because they wanted to protect a red, white, and blue facade of American exceptionalism by owning the Libs, even if it killed them. In their lust for personal liberty they abandoned the responsibilities of living in community with other human beings with whom they are interdependent.
In the coming year, these myopic, short-sighted practitioners of a religion of nationalism will try to rewrite history. They will spin the numbers and deny the crisis and blame the incoming Administration, but they will not be able to change what happened or why it happened and they will not be able to redact the real story:
The virus defeated America because their phony patriotism and cheap liberty was the greatest friend it could have ever had.
They were exactly what it needed to win.
God bless America.
Yes Virginia, This is How You Sound
