So it begins. I started to write a new year post the other day. I haven’t published it because it felt, well, like I was performing something obligatory. It was boring, more than a little melancholy, and slightly dishonest.
I was avoiding the insanity that was happening – you know, gun violence, explosions, and the orange clown’s election being certified on the anniversary of his Insurrection when he didn’t get his way last time. Deliberately chose to avoid talking about it for fear of my head exploding from the tragedy of it all. I have avoided the news for a long time for the sake of my mental health. There’s only so much you can avoid before you have to talk or write about it.
Happy new year in America
The new year began with a uniquely American event: new year’s eve revelers were run down and then shot at, followed by more violence, with certain factions blaming the violence on immigrants when the incidents were perpetrated by Americans by birth. (I will concede that the running down of innocent people having fun is not just an American phenomenon. It’s the shooting part that is.) Pretty sure there were other gun-related violent events that no longer make headlines because, well, America. And Jimmy Carter died.
The buffoon-elect is pissed because flags are at half-mast and will remain so until the end of the month. Because we dare to honor the passing of perhaps the greatest American in recent history. A man vilified for his desire for peaceful progress, environmental protection, and caring for his fellow man. What a patsy he was, at least to those like the incoming criminal enterprise, whose view of the world is based on throwing one’s weight around with wanton disregard. RIP, JEC, the world is going to hell and I’m glad you left before it happened.
Disaster relief and diplomacy, so last administration
Now, Los Angeles and its environs are burning to the ground. High winds are acting like flamethrowers, and drought conditions, tinder. People are in danger. People are losing everything. Firefighters from all over are battling multiple blazes. It is a climate-change fueled disaster. Leave it to some to use the misfortune of others as political whatever-that-is. The mendacious felon-elect has suggested that it is the fault of the state government, not having allowed the flow of plentiful water from the north, when the reservoirs that feed that locale are not at all connected to said flows. Idiocracy from the kakistocracy.
Add to the proverbial fire that the melon-hued mafioso is saber rattling at neighbors and allies in a pitiful attempt to appear expansionist; it’s a shit-show before it even begins. I have visions of crazed, starving rodents vying for crumbs and scraps while the rat-king, fat and satisfied, looks on. This is what half of America requested. How many will be surprised at the realization that it was all lies? I’m sure they’ll continue to justify their choice.
Whatever happened to a free press?
Before the new year even began, it was clear that anyone who was a decent journalist was going to have to reckon with the choices made by paycheck signers. The machinations behind the scenes prior to the election were the bellwethers for what was to come. Fear of retribution, by both the kow-towers and the truth-seekers, led both factions to take action. Political cartoonists, the upholders of societal satire, have joined the exodus.
I suppose that I expected mainstream media outlets to obey in advance. It was not a shock to me, given how they “covered” the news over the last several years. More concerning, however, is the move by Zuck to follow the path of Musk and do away with fact-checking on Meta platforms. Hate speech against LGBTQ+ individuals is explicitly condoned. Seriously? Again, not surprising given that same group’s involvement with data sharing to nefarious players leading up to 2016. Not surprising but horrifying nonetheless. The propaganda machines are running and fully operational. Expect no truth, only perversions to suit the oligarchy in charge. What is interesting to me is that no one appears to have learned from the past. Professing fealty to autocrats does not protect one from their whims or wrath. There is no protection in obeyance.
All of this and the first full week of the new year isn’t over yet.
