2021 - the story so far

Welcome to 2021!

Aaaaah! Remember all the chaos and madness of 2020? Feels like yesterday, doesn't it? No?

I expect the fact we're starting 2021 with an attempted insurrection (possibly organized or enabled by some representatives in Congress) followed by the second impeachment of Trump has been a bit of a distraction.

Not a lot of shockers here. I'm not surprised the knuckle-draggers attempted a coup. I am a little surprised it got as far as it did. I'm not surprised Trump got impeached again. I'm not even remotely shocked that Moscow Mitch won't lift a finger to do anything useful to get the trial going.

Wow. Not even a full three weeks into a new year and it's utter madness.

Gonna be a fun year.

Ding-Dong the Cheeto is dethroned

Looks like the Associated Press and other major news outlets are calling what was looking clear yesterday: Joe Biden has won the 2020 election and will be the 46th President of the United States.

I'm curious what Tweety McCheeto will do in response to that news. I hear his plans involve getting back into TV. I hope it's from a jail cell (though I doubt that will happen).

And ol' Tweety still has 'till January 20 to get together with Moscow Mitch McConnell and his other sycophantic twats to do all sorts of damage.

COVID-19 - Day 174

So it's been 174 days since we were first told to do a lockdown in California.

Been quite the shitshow since then.

Things were looking okay for a while, then the Memorial Day holiday in May rolled around and folks got stupid. And then California went for the gold with the higest number of COVID-19 cases in the United States, which has the highest number of cases in the world. USA!

As if that wasn't enough, our fire season kicked off in earnest here. The Pacific Coast has fires running almost the length of it, or did for a while. God, the smoke! There was a day some weeks back when everthing had a weird sepia tint to it that was otherworldly. And then the air quality the next day went to shit, becoming some of the worst in the world.

I wonder if this did anything to the murder hornets?

Now the election insanity is ratcheting up. It's almost certain that there's going to be election fraud, almost certainly commited by the Republicans to steal the election. Trump has pretty much said he's not going to step down should he lose.

Oh, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg died, so ol' Trumpy now wants to put one of his puppets in to ensure a contested election goes his way.

Yeah... fun times.

I'm personally waiting for the murder hornets to get it on with locusts so we have murder locusts to worry about. I'm sort of expecting that in December, maybe while civil war is raging. I wonder if that will be before or after the nukes fly?

Time for more beer...

COVID-19 - 78 days of shelter-in-place

It's June 1. Halfway through the dumpster fire of a shitshow that is 2020.

Everything is right on track for going straight to hell.

The virus issues linger still. While California has done an admirable job staying on top of the situation (as much as we can), the pressures to open up are resulting in some loosening. And the virus is starting to spike again.

To make things even more of a nightmare, there was the George Floyd killing. That has sparked a massive (and, sadly, unsurprising) backlash across the country. There are mass protests everywhere. There's violence, looting, curfews, and I'm betting more spread of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Tweety McCheeto smugly denies all responsibility for the pandemic that's erupted under his watch (and made arguably worse by his disbanding of a pandemic unit designed to deal with this exact situation as well as his constant undermining of medical advice with gibbering nonsense). He's also inciting violence with his ranting.

The shitstorm has only just started.

A Random February Brain Dump

Well this has been a peculiar winter. After a few years of unseasonably-warm Januarys and Februarys, I have to admit I'm taken aback by actual cold weather in February! Hell, there's snow on the mountains around the San Francisco Bay Area! An uncommon occurrence.

2019 has brought me a new fiction series I'm hooked on: the Shattered Sands series by Bradley P Beaulieu. A story of Ceda, a young, badass, warrior woman hell-bent on avenging her mother's death, the story's got some fascinating (and sometimes disturbing) twists and turns in the rich, vaguely Arabian/Persian world Beaulieu has created. I've burned through the first two books ("Twelve Kings in Sharakhai" and "Blood on the Sands") and now await the remaining two books in the series, out this year. There's novellas that are doing a delightful job of keeping me busy as I await their publication.

Going to be a good year for reading material, all told. The next Expanse book is out next month, along with John Gwynne's next novel. I've finally given in and started reading "Red Sister" by Mark Lawrence (recommended by several friends). I'm hooked and plan to get the rest of that series as well.

So I guess next week we find out if we're having another government shutdown while the orange man-baby debates having another tantrum over funding his medieval ego-toy. Sigh.

Overdue Commentary

To celebrate the growler of tasty beer in my 'fridge, I feel an urge to post to my neglected blog!

REJOICE!

Why am I drinking on a Monday night? Well besides the obvious answer of "why not?" there's always the celebration that we're about a month-and-a-half into the Trumpocalypse and the nukes haven't sailed just yet. I'm cautiously-optimistic that we might make it through March before all hell breaks loose.

It's a game among people I know: to start the day asking "What godawfully fucked-up and stupid thing has Trump and his Legion of Evil done today?"

I try not to speculate. It just irritates me. I'm also afraid word might get back to Der Gropenfuhrer and he'll get inspired.

In other news, I'm working on a new slew of fantasy and sci-fi novels grabbed from Amazon. I'm currently working my way through "The Crimson Queen" by Alec Hutson. It had a slow start, but I have to say I'm quite enjoying it now. I'm about halfway through and things are getting horribly fucked up in a delightful way. I'm not entirely-clear I know what's going on and that's just fine with me.

Thanks to a friend's generosity, I'm able to see season two of "The Expanse" (currently airing on SyFy). It's surpassing my expectations and making me quite giddy. The introduction of Bobbie Draper is all I'd hoped for. Oh glory day! Please Tweety McTangerine! Don't nuke us before season two ends!

At the recommendation of a friend, I've started to make modifications to my wardrobe. I'm now getting tailored shirts made. Shirts with buttons! That should really be ironed!

It's a far cry from my shitty t-shirts and frayed hoodies. I'm still sticking with my jeans for the time being, but I may pony up for some chinos at some point and maybe even (gasp!) another suit.

Crazy times.

Speaking of crazy times, it's been raining like Biblical endtimes in parts of California this year. I feel for folks near Oroville Dam. That shit is just nuts. I can't believe how fast we went from drought to floods.

Wait. Trumpy-poo is prez. Yes. Yes I can believe that. I can believe that and more.

Inaugration Day

I don't think I can follow-through on my plan to cut out (or severely cut back on) drinking.

The Asylum Doors Open

It's official: Drumpf is the Repugnican candidate.

Given what an incoherent, babbling huckster he is, this election should be the Dems to lose.

I really hope they pull out their A-Game material and don't fuck this up.

From Dys to Barely-Functional

Looks like Congress figured out how to pull its collective head out of its collective ass to get the Federal Government running again. I'll admit I was expecting a default and utter collapse. Wonder what it would take to Gitmo the Teabagger/GOP jackasses under some kind of terrorism charge? I mean, they've managed to do more damage to the country than anyone else thus far...

Looks like BART is still running, day-by-day. They're taking a Dread Pirate Roberts cue, it seems. "Good night. Sleep tight. Most likely kill you in the morning." Oh c'mon. I worked hard to slip in that Princess Bride ref!

AC Transit now plans a strike but looks like the Governor is going after that 60-day cooling off period play.

The mind boggles as to what the Bay Area would have been like had the Federal Government remained shut-down (and defaulted) while both BART and AC Transit went on strike. "Mass hysteria" doesn't come close to fitting that picture.

Sigh.

...

The Daily Show
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Laugh. Cry. Laugh. Cry. Drink.

Want to understand the Government Shutdown?

Jon Stewart spells this out perfectly:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Seriously. What. The. Fuck? At this point, the Republican Party is pretty much a terrorist organization. Fuckers.

Requisite bit of political blurting

Ten ways America has come to resemble a banana republic. And I'm not talking about the clothing store. Interesting reading, especially on today of all days.

brainsplatter

• I have to say I'm impressed that people (including the broadcast news) are all in a tizzy over the NSA spying. I'd have put good money down on odds that people would yawn and forget about it.
• A friend tried to convince me that one of the Off the Grid food trucks offered the "best" fried chicken out there. I'm afraid Bakesale Betty retains the crown for the best fried chicken I've had.
• A second BART strike threatens the Bay Area next week. *sigh*

Now on to other matters

DOMA is dead. Prop 8 got kicked in the marital region and sent off to bigot-hell.

Now can we all just let people get married and move on to more other important things? Seems we've got a few choice items on the plate: climate change, snooping and spying (Hi NSA!), shrinking middle class, corporate malfeasance (Hi BP and banks!), and a lack of Doctor Who episodes to entertain me.

Priorities.

A few of the things currently pissing me off

1. The apparent death of the Fourth Amendment (Hi NSA! How are you and the FBI doing? Find Snowden yet?)
2. California's Public Utilities Commission not wanting to fine PG&E for blowing up San Bruno.
   Seriously. What the fuck is California's Attorney General doing? What the fuck is Jerry Brown doing? Doesn't this seem... more than a little fucked up???
3. The teasing over the Prop 8 ruling by the US Supreme Court. Hell, the fact that there was a passed Prop 8 in the first place. This is goddamn California. We should be ditching crappy legislation like this.
4. The pending BART strike.

Not an inclusive list. I just felt like whining.

Where's Wa... um... Edward?

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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The human centipede comment is comedy gold.

WWE Politics

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Hi NSA!!!

Thank you xkcd!

Dubious Honor

The NSA and FBI are spying on all of us.

Yeah, that's not really news.

Best line I've seen on this:

If it makes you feel any better, America, you're are all honorary Muslims now. #nsa #spying - Saladin Ahmed (one of my favorite Fantasy authors).

I'll be genuinely curious if the public actually reacts to the spying revelation. This sort of thing has come up a lot in the last few decades, but surveillance just seems to get more and more intrusive.

Never going to finish this book

My 'hood gives me options when I feel the need to consume beer in a more public setting than my shadow-infested man-cave.

Last night, I grabbed my book and hoofed it out to one of said options. I plopped my lazy ass in a seat at the bar, ordered a pint, and was all set to drink some beer, eat a burger or whatever, then get some reading done as I forgot about all the things that make my head spin.

That was the plan, anyway. My plans so rarely follow my intentions.

I wasn't planning on being social. I just wanted to get out of the cave. Instead, I ran into some dude at the bar whom I'd met on one of my previous visits. That, in and of itself, was weird. I have an excellent memory for faces, but I'm better at remembering ladies than guys. Go figure.

Next thing I know, I'm snacking on a burger, downing a pint, and spending a hour arguing politics with a bar-acquaintance.

Now, they teach you that it's impolite to bring up religion and politics, for the most part. They're inflammatory topics and best avoided, especially in places where there's alcohol.

So, of course, I love engaging in those topics. My politics shift pretty left (big shock) and my religious views... well, I bet that's easy to work out.

I'm impressed nobody's tried to kick my ass at any drinking establishments yet.

It was a civilized... discussion. It wasn't really an argument, as such, but it was... not a chat. There was a lot of back-and-forth for all the claims that this dude and I agreed on points. I think he just enjoys being Devil's Advocate. I get that, I enjoy that as well.

An unexpected way to spend my dinner hour. Didn't get any reading done, though. Damnit.