172-174 a five letter F-U


What is a Trump sign? In my novel Walking To Paradise, I called one a "five letter fuck you."

"Fuck," the frustration, I can get. Government can feel like a bureaucratic python. But why the "You," anger at our fellow man?

The blanket dismissal of "Trump Supporters" by other voters is, in its own passive-aggressive way, also a fuck you. We're not lifelong conservatives, or pissed off voters, we're devotees of Cheeto Mussolini. We have to be idiots.

We drove up to Mount Lassen for the weekend. It was smokey the whole way, but Saturday was pretty clear. Then Sunday was smokey again, so we drove home. 


The AC in the new car works great. We haven't had AC in about ten years. It was 110 degrees for a lot of the car ride home. We were cool and comfortable. 


The city is hot, and also smokey. Our apartment is hot. The car was pretty much the most comfortable place we were yesterday. This is why lots of people don't give a shit about the climate crisis. From the comfort of an air-conditioned cab rolling through a burning state, we're already living on a hostile planet, and adjusting accordingly. 

That each mile only makes the situation worse barely registers. 

Sitting there in the burning woods, with campfires all around, I got a real sense of "fuck it." If everyone around me is obliviously rolling coal toward the cliff, why shouldn't I?

And that's without the heat or smoke.


We didn't see a single Biden sign. Not even a bumper sticker. Come to think of it, we didn't see any Trump bumper stickers either. I guess "F-U" isn't something you want permanently attached.

And now for some old news.

What, you may have been asking, is QAnon?

It's kinda hard to figure out, but they're the big thinkers behind pizzagate.

That's right, dear leader is once again, the only one who can save us from...uh...sexual predators?


File under: slaw order

No, wait, it's blah and border? No, um, caw and hoarder? 

Flaw and garter?

Chaw and larder?

This may be the scariest headline I've read in a while.

Why? Well, imagine what the US would look like right now if the government hadn't been able to drop $2.3T in stimulus into the economy.

The reason we can run up debts is because investors think we will pay, or at least, struggle to keep up interest payments.

But what happens when you get cut off? Will dear leader look to the Russian mob, the same way he bailed out his real estate?

File under: equal airtime

This is also true. We've reduced our carbon emissions over the past fifteen years. The "great recession" had something to do with it. Offshoring our pollution (and manufacturing jobs) also had something to do with it.

Transportation emissions, however, have increased.

Before we left I made more bagels.

They turned out pretty good.

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