132 nothing to see here

If you read this journal yesterday, you probably recognize the location above. Sorry, it's the only selfie I have on hand.

Maybe I should lead with a cute dog instead.

Alright, let's see what today's headline roulette brings us.

Seeing more and more "America is the world's pariah" stories. If launching a series of old-lady-on-a-chair-with-a-broom wars-on-terror didn't do it, if starting a global financial crisis wasn't enough, if electing an obvious buffoon didn't take us there, if having the world's highest rate of incarceration, biggest waistline, most pollution per capita, widest gap in wealth, and worst health outcomes despite spending the most money, if the CIA and NSA and DHS and ICE and FBI and the world's largest military budget by a long, long margin can't make us safe, or get us to even look in the mirror and say WTF, then, is having our economy fall apart, our justice system turned into a wanna-be dictator's private army, and our democratic institutions shit all over, is that enough for Americans to say, "enough already?"

Probably not. But "enough already" might be happening anyway.

The changiness, the delta point, the no-going-back of this moment is hard to grasp when we're in the boiling pot of water.

Those are some tall accusations. What do they even mean?

Denial of fundamental issues making citizens unhappy: that's a Soviet style economy. Plenty of weapons, no toilet paper. Sound familiar?

What, working fifty years with a grand total of less than a year in vacation, only to die in medical debt, doesn't sound like the world's richest country?

Here's this crazy thing about America. At the time I learned it, I didn't realize it was an American trait, but it is. 

My parents raised me without religion. My grandmother made some stabs at taking me to church, and I had friends in CCD, but basically, it was all news to me the first day I showed up at Catholic high school.

There, I was forced to take religion classes. And to be fair to the Jesuits, we didn't only learn about Christianity, but we mostly did. And for a kid raised on non-religion, I quickly had to learn to bite my tongue. That stuff was cacacoocoo! Holy shit, are you for real? A virgin birth? Pillars of salt? Fishes and loaves?

But all around me, my fellow students were going along with the program. All of them. And I quickly learned, to question this load of bullshit, nevermind their sanity, was not cool. Nobody wanted to hear.

At this point, the author gets into a long rant about how bad it is to have a "silent majority." About how we think most people aren't crazy and therefore the whole situation won't become crazy. But it already is crazy, and we the people already aren't doing shit about it.

This is true.

Again, back to high school. Am I really debating that there's a big man in the sky with a plan for us all?

True again.

So fucking true. We're debating whether the climate crisis is happening while everyone else is building high speed rail and solar power.

Nothing to see here.

It would be nice if I could trust the CDC. But now, I'm simply afraid this headline actually reads, "Sorry, we still don't have enough tests."

But they were able to find a doctor to back them up. So, yeah, everyone, if you tested positive but have no symptoms, ten days and you're good to go!

More or less.

Maybe.

Another total surprise. And dear leader is?

Whoops.

This might be the smartest thing I've read in a long time.

Anecdotally, there are a lot of rumored infections happening.

Leading to some shut downs of "essential" businesses.

But don't go rushing out to buy toilet paper or anything. Nothing to see here. This shit is disappearing.

Been wondering about this...

I'm wrong.

But like all good Americans, I'm sticking with my story.

 

Following up on a tidbit from yesterday, about how many BLM marches are getting rammed by vehicles.

How many times can I say "nothing to see here" before I lose it?

It's not at all like this is devolving...

Some chili with a cornbread crust might help.