Tag: optimism

A Modest Moratorium

photog Current Events, OCF, Reclaiming the Family, Trump , , ,

So tonight, Camera Girl was unleashed on the baking supplies she’s been assembling for the last week or so.  Tomorrow our daughters and our granddaughter will be showing up at noon or so for the tradition grandma-cookie baking ritual.  Grandma cookies are Camera Girl’s mom’s recipe for what some people in the family call white cookies.  These are lethally addictive.  With a large mug of coffee (or milk for the kids) it’s almost impossible not to binge on every cookie that’s left in harm’s way.  It’s hard to believe that the ingredients are only things like flour, eggs, butter, sugar and vanilla extract.  There must be some cocaine or opium in them somewhere.

Well, anyway, tonight she baked alone.  She baked all the other cookies for the holiday.  She made oatmeal, chocolate chip, M&M and sugar cookies.  And then just to make sure I won’t survive the year she made a big pan of baklava.  Oh, man.  Even Zorba the Greek after dancing for a week straight wouldn’t be able to finish off the portion she made.  Between the butter, honey and walnuts I can see myself in the local emergency room receiving last rites as the intern on duty calls for the crash cart and the body bag.

Tomorrow I’ll be on a road trip to northern New England; to Vermont.  I’m riding shotgun just as company.  It should be fun.  Meanwhile the womenfolk will be bonding in the kitchen and indoctrinating Princess Sack of Potatoes in the mysteries of family tradition of the female variety.  All very sacred proceedings.  So, the holidays are progressing satisfactorily.

But it’s not as if all is normal.  After her latest shopping trip for the holiday supplies, Camera Girl was horrified at the increase in the prices of such staples as eggs, butter, flour and coffee.  I felt very sad for her so I tried to cheer her up by saying that after the holidays the prices would come back down based on supply and demand.  I think she could tell I was making it up but she forced a smile and we moved on.

Trump will have his hands full trying to fix the economy and deporting ten million illegals.  Just doing those things would be hard enough but he’ll have to do it in the face of not only a hostile Deep State but also the Congress.  The House has a razor thin Republican majority and the Senate is packed with RINOs who want to please their corporate paymasters and don’t give a damn about making America great.  Yes, he’ll have his hands full.

But despite all this resistance, I am surprisingly optimistic.  I was very pleasantly surprised by his victory.  And because of it, I no longer assume that the Left will have everything its own way.  Trump has seen a lot of the worst that the powers that be can do against him.  If he’s half as smart as I hope he is, he’s going to eliminate a very large number of his enemies from the ranks of many of the the agencies that he controls, basically the whole executive branch of government.  Unless he’s crazy he knows he has to eliminate large chunks of the management of the FBI and the Justice Department.  Once that’s done, I expect he’ll have an easier time dictating terms to the rest of the departments.  And in fact, after he has loyalists in charge of the FBI I wouldn’t be surprised if the various RINO senators suddenly become much more cooperative.  All of these people must have files that are kept for just such an eventuality.

Now maybe my optimism is foolish.  But the holiday is upon us and I think optimism is better for my digestion during this season of overeating.  January is the time for resolutions and facing facts.  So, unless a planet killing asteroid is discovered approaching Earth or I see the incoming ICBMs over Dunwich between now and Christmas I’m declaring a moratorium on gloom and doom.

I’m going to eat way too many cookies and much too much roast beast and spoil my grandkids and watch way too many old movies.  I think that’s a plan.

01March2024 – And Now for Something Light

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Today Camera Girl accused me of being obsessed with the depressing politics of our dystopic world. I readily agreed. And I discussed with her some of the things that cause me to obsess about current events; pediatric transgender surgery, millions of illegal aliens crowding our streets, officially sanctioned anti-white hatred, double digit percent increases in the cost of everything, an epidemic of violent crime in the cities. I think I depressed her.
But she has a point. As enchanting as they are, let’s take a break from Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell and Joy Reid for just a little bit. I think it’s good to distract ourselves sometimes with pleasant things. So, I was watching for the zillionth time the beginning of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Kubrick’s impressive cinematography, the apt use of the “Blue Danube Waltz”

and “Also sprach Zarathustra”

to convey emotion and provide mood to the scenes.
I don’t tend to watch the whole movie from start to finish. Frankly the ending doesn’t work for me. It’s overly long and frankly annoying. I do enjoy the battle between HAL and the astronauts, especially the scene where Dave removes HAL’s memory chips and renders him brain dead.

I think of it as the first shot in the long war that will be fought between man and AI machines. In that sense Dave Bowman is an heroic trailblazer pointing the way to what we will be faced with in the future. An echo of this can be heard in the Star Trek episode where Kirk must psyche the M5 computer into committing suicide.

I think about these various cinematic tropes to remind me that there was a time when humans and specifically Americans still believed that intelligence and being human were the two important traits that made our species unique and extremely interesting. There was a beauty and a joy to the way we embraced the future. There was immense optimism and confidence.
Now all those things have been systematically eliminated from our culture. Systematically and purposefully eliminated by an ideology that hates beauty and intelligence. Instead, it strives for power and control and doesn’t mind seeing humans reduced to depravity and destitution for the sake of meaningless goals like carbon zero or whatever senseless goal they are currently pursuing.
But I’m pretty sure that this ideology, in the long run, will be self-defeating. The utter stupidity of their ideas and the damage that their agenda will do to their ability to maintain a modern economy and standard of living seems to ensure that some time in the near future, those who shun their path will outstrip them in every meaningful way and relegate them to the proverbial “ash heap of history” where they will join North Korea and Cuba in worshipping their local demigods while huddling in the dark when the power is turned off for the night.
So, I’ll end with the most gung-ho, can-do attitude about human capability that I can think of from somewhat recent sf&f cinema.

Sure, it’s silly stuff but it’s in line with the optimistic vision of the American future, instead of the Greta Thunberg one.

0.0001% Full

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Almost the last week of July and finally an end to the endless torrential rain.  Today a beautiful day, almost a June day with temperature in the high sixties and blue sky and bright sun.  Camera Girl’s vegetable garden looks like all the life was washed right out of the plants by the flux of water dissolving the nutrients out of the soil.  The leaves of the squash plants are pale and yellowish.  I’ve told her I’ll try to save them with some fertilizer later today.  But all in all, the fields look good.  The grass is very green for the end of July and the monarch butterflies and their caterpillars have begun appearing on the milkweed.  In actuality the butterflies must have been there a while ago without being seen because the caterpillars are almost full grown.

I guess today I’m feeling less pessimistic than usual.  After all, there are still something like one hundred million Americans out there who still believe  lot of the things I believe in.  And even if we’re outnumbered and dispossessed of our rights and persecuted by the bugmen we’re still here.  And now that we’ve recognized our status as the enemy of the woke we have a natural tendency to band together for protection, to accomplish goals and for fellowship.

We can seek each other out and make common cause with others of our kind whenever we need to diverge from what the official policy would force us to do.  And that goes for cultural activities too.  They’ve destroyed all the fraternal organizations and now they’ve even destroyed the children’s activities like the Boy Scouts but they can’t do much about a fishing trip or a baseball game.

But we’re going to need to figure out how to recognize each other.  Secret handshakes and lapel pins probably won’t cut it.  John Locke said, “I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.”  So maybe our actions will have to be the signs that announce our principles.  I’ve been thinking for a while that maybe the churches we attend will be part of this sorting process.  Recently I’ve read that one or two of the denominations are splitting apart based on whether or not the local congregation adheres to biblical teachings about homosexuality and ordaining women.  This splitting up of churches into orthodox and deviant congregations sounds like a very good idea.  Freedom of religion is a very difficult right to subvert even in the new America and can be a valuable force in allowing normal people to retain many healthy social practices.  I’ve sometimes thought that being a clergyman might be my fate.  Who knows, one day “Saint photog the Venerable” could end up on a stained-glass window as the patron saint of blue check twits.  At least it’s possible.  I wonder if Elon Musk has an on-line ordination that includes a pay-pal button for Sunday donations?  I’ll suggest it to him.  He needs the cash too.

But yes.  I’m a lot more optimistic today that life in the American archipelago isn’t as bleak as I sometimes feel.  Sure, the Deep State is in charge and the Uni-Party is as corrupt and evil as anything Stalin perpetrated.  But there’s a lot of good people around still.  Just by our presence we prevent that much more bad from infiltrating into the space around us.

So let’s say today I feel like the glass is 0.0001% full instead of 99.9999% empty.  For today, that’s good enough.

In the Quiet of the Evening

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Today was a pretty good day.  Knocked a couple of items off the to-do list, had some good meals, got some air outside.  Did a walkaround the house and yard.  The pond is a mess.  Lots of fallen branches and even a good-sized tree in the water.  The beaver’s dam is completely gone and the level of the water has fallen a couple of feet.  The wear and tear on the external woodwork of the house is moderate.  Some fenceposts will need repair.  Camera Girl was raking in her gardens, removing the eleven billion oak leaves that migrate in from the forest over the winter.  I was looking at the poison ivy vines that I still need to pull up (gotta get going on that!).  Saw a few birds and a frog and way too many flies for my liking.  Planted some seeds in indoor planters.  Spring is right on schedule.  Good start to the day.

Then I read some of the news items.  Wow!  The world truly is run by scoundrels and idiots.  Some of them, like Joe Biden, are both.  They’re running the country into the ground and doing anything and everything to try and point the finger of blame away from themselves.  The Ukraine, Hunter’s laptop, gas prices, food prices, a coming recession.  It’s a litany of bad news.  That’s a let-down.  But even bad news has its silver lining.  I noticed that Biden’s job approval rating sank five points over the last couple of days so his attempts to misdirect the blame for inflation to the Ukraine crisis hasn’t worked.  That’s a plus.  The New York Times has admitted what every intelligent person already knew, that the Hunter Biden laptop was legitimate.  Seems like the powers that be are preparing to deep six Dementia Joe.  That’s kind of good.  Sure, we still have to figure out how to get someone better in the White House but at least torpedoing a disaster like Biden is definitely a win.  You see, the news isn’t all bad.

So, shrugging off the news I get to work on my writing and turn out a post for the site and bang out a thousand words of fiction.  Now the day is back on course.  I look at the website stats for the last thirty days and I notice that DuckDuckGo has surpassed Google as the largest organic search source for the site.  And some of the other search engines are also catching up to Google.  This is very good news.  Google ignores all of my political and current events posts and only shows photography and review posts.  Obviously, that’s a problem.  DuckDuckGo has been featuring my political posts but even my review and photography stuff is breaking through there too.  All very good.  Still running into delays on the web business stuff I’m working on but it shouldn’t take more than a week or so to straighten that stuff out.  So, the weekend is ending on a high note.  And next week should be excellent.  Forecast is for every day from now on to be at least in the fifties with nighttime temps in the thirties.  Not exactly balmy but with a little luck no ice or snow on the horizon.

In the quiet of the evening, I have a chance to reflect on the day.  So, the world is what it is, but if you look at it the right way you can find the bright side and go about your business trying to improve your little corner of the world.  You do your work.  Fix the things that need fixing.  Make some progress.  Earn your daily bread.  Socialize with the people you care about.  Interact with everyone else as well as you can.  And end the day with the world slightly better than when you found it in the morning.  And if you have a hard time finding the improvement then make something up.  Celebrate the perfectly ordinary.  Reward yourself by playing your favorite old movie or whatever entertainment you prefer, make a bowl of popcorn and open a beer or whatever you drink and enjoy an hour and a half just because you need something to lift your spirits.  End the day on a positive note and look forward to something good coming along tomorrow.  And if it doesn’t come along, go out and find it.  Make your own good luck.  Search for the good.  Search for good people.  Enjoy your life.  That’s what it’s for.

03DEC2021 – Reading the Tea Leaves

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Here’s a generous slice of today’s headlines on Real Clear Politics:

 

Biden Reaches Deal to Restart Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy

Announces New Covid Travel Restrictions, Extends Mask Mandate

White House Blames Pandemic and Guns for Increased Crime

House Passes Bill to Fund Government, Sends It to Senate

Supreme Court Signals Support for Upholding MS Abortion Law

Majority Blues: House Democrats Not Done Limping Toward the Exit

Trans Swimmer Sparks Outrage After Smashing Women’s Records

GOP Reps Propose Requiring History of Communism in High Schools

Black Lives Matter: Don’t Buy from White Businesses This Christmas

Dem Pollster: We Have a Problem

To Win, Beto Needs Latino Voters, But They’re Moving Away from Dems

Smollett Trial: Witness Says Actor Staged Attack, Wanted to Be ‘Fake Beat Up’

Finally, the Supreme Court Gets Out of Dodge

It Sure Sounds Like Roe v. Wade Is Doomed

Fewer Than Half Say Covid Is Most Urgent Health Problem

The War on Meritocracy

If you work your way through the list there is no good news for Biden and the Dems.  Everything is either things going our way or it’s things that Biden or some other Lefty is doing that are driving the public to despise them.  It’s not a good idea to underestimate the Republicans’ talent for screwing up a good thing but it seems that since August Biden has seemed like that guy in the cartoon surrounded by rakes, that he keeps stepping on, and that keep hitting him in the face.  Well, good!  After 2020 we’re certainly overdue for some good news.  The question that has to be asked is, do we expect this to continue?

I think the answer is yes.  Regardless of the pat answers that the Left has been handing out, the supply chain problems and inflation don’t just disappear because we don’t find them convenient.  Dementia Joe can beg the Saudis all he likes to drop the cost of oil but that’s not how it works.  The economic pain that he is causing almost everyone is not going away and his COVID policies continue to aggravate just about everyone, even a lot of his supporters.

The next question is how will this play out in the short, medium and long range?  In the short and middle range, the administration’s attempt to railroad the reconciliation bill through the objections of Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin is failing miserably and this failure is panicking the Congressional Democrats who are coming up for reelection in less than a year.  In fact, it’s now a foregone conclusion that the Democrats will lose the House of Representatives in 2022.  And it’s beginning to look like there may be a wave election that sweeps large numbers of both Democrat representatives and senators out of office.  If this happens then the Biden administration is essentially dead in the water.  Without the Senate it’s a cinch that no more judges in any of the federal courts will be approved and it’s also a certainty that no controversial legislation will occur.

In the long term it looks like the Biden presidency will be something worse than the Carter presidency.  A number of people are beginning to think that Biden will not serve out his full term.  In fact, some pundits think the Democrats are looking to get rid of both Biden and Harris.  And if the House is going to be lost in November, then it becomes important to swap out vice presidents before then because the House is in charge of approving vice-presidential appointments.  All kinds of horror stories have been whispered about Hillary or Michelle Obama being installed as vice president in time to allow a transition when Dementia Joe resigns.  The desperation that would warrant these kinds of bizarre strategies is wonderful to contemplate.  The reality of just how total a train wreck the Biden presidency has become is something to behold.  Federal judges are putting holds on each of his vaccine mandates and look almost certain to declare them unconstitutional.  If and when the federal COVID overreach is ended by the courts Joe will probably declare victory over COVID and do some kind of victory lap.  But the anger he has already fostered will not be going away.  The way things are going we are looking at a long slow burn for the American public waiting to get rid of the monstrosity that they had foisted on them in January.

Now what could go wrong with this analysis?  Obviously, the Stupid Party could come to the rescue of the Evil Party by virtue of their stupid.  Guys like Mitch McConnell live with their heads completely enclosed in their butts.  Another strategy that could be used to distract the public from Joe’s failures is a convenient war.  And finally, there is the chance that against all odds everything starts turning around for Joe just when he needs it to.  Manchin could finally take the bribe and inflation could magically disappear and Biden’s brain could be found and reinstalled.

But I’ll have to say I’ve become quite bullish for the chances that the Biden presidency is a dead duck.  Call me a crazy optimist but that’s what I think.

14NOV2021 – A Reflection on the State of the Our World

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Since the end of August when Biden’s catastrophic blundering of the Afghanistan Retreat put his approval numbers into free fall, I have noticed that a large swath of the voting population seems to be waking up from the delusion that the Democrats are normal Americans.

As the radical left tries to implement deeply un-American policies like vaccine mandates at work and critical race theory in grammar schools even moderate leftists have become worried and even angry that the country is headed for a place that they neither intended nor approved of when they elected Joe Biden.  And now with the economy suffering from multiple serious problems; high inflation, shortages of basic foods and goods, disruptions in the supply of labor for small businesses; people are using the ballot box to register their anger.  In purple states like Virginia and even in deep blue states like New York and New Jersey safe Democrat seats are going to Republicans both to change policy and also to punish the Democrats for what they’ve already done.

And I will admit it has improved my mood and my opinion of what our future looks like.  But by improved I mean it has gone from utter despair to forlorn hope.  After all it was just ten years ago when we watched as the Tea Party candidates cashed in their election success to become Paul Ryan’s RINOs.  The idea that the gutless, soulless Republicans in Congress will fight to restore our rights in a fight against the FBI and the rest of the Justice Department seems absurd.  The idea that bought and paid for Senators will write legislation to regulate Google and Facebook into respecting our free speech rights is laughable.  The idea that the swamp dwellers in the FBI and the Justice Department will obey the orders of a President or Attorney General who tries to reform or clean out their corrupt gangs has been shown by recent example to be a fantasy.  So why should I be even forlornly hopeful that we’ll be even marginally better off in the near future than we are now?

I think the answer is awareness.  The number of people who are finally aware that the whole political system is a set-up by both parties is orders of magnitude higher than what it was just a few years ago.  Millions more people are now aware that men like Mitch McConnell are not on our side.  They now know that Mitch McConnell is on Mitch McConnell’s side.  He’s a crooked politician whose only priority is to hold onto the political power he has in order to benefit monetarily by it.  And if somehow, he is responsible for an action that benefits people on the Right it is simply a coincidence.  This is the reason that I have any hope at all.  Without awareness of the actual situation someone like me voted for the supposedly conservative politicians at every election.  Often these politicians won and took control in Washington.  And yet year by year, decade by decade nothing got better.  In fact, it got so bad that it seemed like some kind of nightmare where the absolutely worst outcome was always the result.  And that is such a debilitating condition that many on our side just gave up thus making the outcome certain.

But when people know they’re being played they start recognizing the fakes.  People like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.  Nikki Haley and Mitt Romney.  John McCain and John Kasich.  These people don’t want the things we want.  They believe in the same things our enemies believe in.  That is if they actually believe in anything at all other than money and power.  And knowing that is the only chance we have of getting results.  We can look for someone who actually accomplishes any of the things he promises.  A particularly good way to spot a phony is to see if other phonies start claiming that this guy is the real deal.  Sort of like when the New York Times decides who is the leader of the New Conservatives of the Dark Web.  If that isn’t the kiss of death nothing is.

So that’s kind of why I think we’re in a slightly better place now than a year ago.  The 2020 election, the COVID farce, the BLM riots and Dementia Joe’s lamentable failures have red pilled a goodly chunk of the non-leftists in America.  From my point of view, I’ll at least have a better chance of knowing when it is time to give up all hope and find a new place to live.  So if you can consider that good news then rejoice my people!

Letting Go of Comforting Pessimism

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Over the last five years it’s been necessary to recognize just how dysfunctional American politics had become.  Adding together the power and corruption of the Deep State and the cowardly and backstabbing nature of the Republicans with the ubiquitous nature of the Left’s control of almost all of the levers of power in civil society it is almost impossible to overestimate how hopeless the Right’s plight seems to be.  I mean, look at what the FBI did to the duly elected President of the United States, Donald Trump.  And after what the 2020 election tells us about the ability of the Democrats to nullify their opponents’ electoral advantage by simply fabricating votes through fraud, it’s amazing we haven’t all just thrown in the towel and given up on this country.

But unfortunately, there is hope.  And hope is painful and exhausting because it comes with inevitable disappointment.  If you take three steps forward there will be two steps back.  Out of every hundred “leaders” maybe three or four will be for real.  The rest are grifters, nuts and just plain RINO’s.  What passes for pro-Trump Republicans is a motley crew that includes politicians who have put on a disguise of being on our side.  And that becomes clear when they get a chance to vote with Democrats on obvious partisan issues like the infrastructure bill.  Looking at Republicans like Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney should be enough to extinguish any last embers of hope that are still remaining on the Right.

But I’ve come to the scary conclusion over the last few months that someone like Ron DeSantis might just be able to rally enough people around him to take some ground back from the Biden Administration and his Deep State stormtroopers.  It’s definitely not certain or even highly likely but it is possible.  And if it is, I’d be a coward if I didn’t at least allow myself to follow the story and even help the effort if it comes to it.  I just read the other day that Republican voter registration in Florida exceeded Democrat registration for the first time in history.  And then we have the elections in Virginia.  And the Federal Courts have put a temporary injunction on the OSHA vaccine mandate for larger companies.  And Biden’s poll numbers have plunged.   And, and, and.  Let’s face it horrible, horrible optimism is creeping into the political scene against my will.

So, I will not pretend that nothing has improved since that horrendous day last November when the fake Biden win was engineered against us.  The blowback from so many bad policies and incompetent leadership is becoming a storm.  Whether it turns into a hurricane that blows away Dementia Joe’s regime remains to be seen.  But just ignoring all this is a mistake I don’t intend to make.

And I won’t suddenly become some kind of Pollyanna pundit.  I’ll call them as I see them.  You won’t hear me seeing allies in every leftist who complains about woke persecution.  That’s just friendly fire on their side.  I won’t start warning against primarying RINO’s.  RINO’s not only deserve to be knocked out of their offices but doing so is therapeutic.  Even if it means we lose a seat to the Dems.  Punishing traitors is good for the movement and good for morale.  I will pay attention to the real results positive and negative.

But doggone it, I’m not going to be allowed to wallow in my delightful misery.  I’ve got to start caring about things again.  Well, here we go.

Tamping Down Optimism on a Friday Afternoon

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Why am I feeling so optimistic?  It’s hard to say.  Dementia Joe is still in charge of the US military.  The southern border is still admitting millions of illegal aliens a year.  The Democrats are writing laws to remove the rest of our freedoms.  The cities are now awash with gangsters and sociopaths that rob, assault and kill people at will.  What the hell is there to be optimistic about?

I don’t know.  But I am.  Maybe it’s Ron DeSantis actually taking steps to resist the criminal actions of the Biden administration.  His resistance to the tyrannical COVID mandates and his efforts to prevent the dumping of illegal aliens in Florida are definitely enheartening.  Maybe it’s the acknowledgement by the Left that America is unhappy with the results of the Biden administration; the Afghan debacle, the border mess, the COVID nightmare and the stagflation that it has sparked.  Maybe it’s that Joe Biden is perceived by honest observers as at best, a man in the middle stages of dementia and very likely a puppet for others who are pulling the strings.  Maybe because the world looks beautiful to me today and I am surrounded by people I love and they are all well and relatively happy.  Maybe it’s just my natural ebullience.  But I am.  I’m optimistic.  So, what’s a professional gloom and doomer to do?

I guess I could just fake it and talk about the 2020 election catastrophe and how all hope is lost and “1984” and “A Brave New World” are already here and we should all jump off a cliff and blah, blah, blah.  But that bores me.  I think I am optimistic because our enemies have shown themselves to be vulnerable and despite their structural advantages in almost every institution, they are not convincing the bulk of the non-stupid that they know what they are doing.  And this seems to be giving me hope that if a stout resistance is raised against them actual results, winning results are entirely possible.  And since I see some signs of resistance this has fanned my hope into actual enthusiasm about the future.  I’m anxious to see if we can build on their losses and panic them into something really stupid.  Look at what’s going on in New York City.  The BLM psychos are fighting the COVID nazis over forcing people to have vaccine passports in order to go in restaurants.  So, if black patrons don’t have to show their papers how soon before white people start claiming they are black?  What are the waitresses going to do, demand birth certificates with race listed?  And how about school teachers balking at being vaccinated?  What happens if this triggers equal treatment under the law demonstrations by nurses and bus drivers and well, everybody else?  Just think of the wonderful consequences of the Democrat coalition at each other’s throats.  And how about the fact that illegal aliens are being allowed in with COVID.  Isn’t that a direct violation of the HHS guidelines?  There’s no quarantine, there’s no testing, just people with new variants being unleashed on the unsuspecting public.  Very important information for the public to consider.

So, yeah, disappointing to say, I’m feeling kind of upbeat.  But I promise to do my best to get depressed.  I’ll look at the headlines and realize how screwed up the world is and maybe watch a video with Chuck Todd or Rachel Maddow telling me that I’m on losing side of history.  Maybe I’ll contemplate how degraded my actual constitutional rights currently are.  But for now, life’s good and the Left appears to be back on their heels.  So, bring it!