Pandemic Holding Pattern

      So, now it's May, it has been a nice spring, much gardening underway. Since Trump left I painted several paintings and then focused on a bedroom renovation, taking out the old carpet and painting the room navy blue, very Regal!!! Then I was onto garden work so I haven't been focusing on news which has made me a better and happier person too. Biden is doing very well, with a 65% approval rate, there are loads of stupid nonsense from the Republicans but I think it may work out, who cares anyway? its not even my country! Because of continued bungling from Jason Kenney Alberta has the highest covid infection rate in all of North America, even beating most other countries too!!! Great job! I think it's from the under 40 crowd who cannot stay at home. My neighbour sent me a pic of himself in a crowd at an outdoor beer garden, right before things got bad and we had another lockdown. I don't care if the Kenney government thought it was allright for this kind of behaviour, they also believe strip mining the Rockies is a good idea or Doug Ford is a great guy to form an alliance with, it shouldn't take much to know by now that large crowds even outdoors weren't a good idea! Now we are on a lockdown until the end of May, no school, work from home if possible, restaurants closed only delivery now, but it's kinda late and now we have rates into the stratosphere. It is likely hospitals could be under a severe crunch, elective operations are cancelled again and we have seen in Ontario where they have asked the nation for any nurses you can spare please, I think only Newfoundland sent some, we're too nervous in Alberta of running out of our own.

Worldwide India is finally having a surge, having to let people die because there is an oxygen shortage, It's hard to believe it took this long, what with 100 people per square foot I was wondering for a long time why covid wasn't killing millions there!? India is now second in the world, USA still #1 !!!, but India has new infections in the 300,000's and deaths in the 250,000s far out pacing the US at 28,000 new infections and deaths at almost 600,000, world wide we are at just over 3 million deaths, I thought it would be more by now actually.

Biden is doing well getting shots in arms but now the problem is knuckleheads who either don't want it for political reasons or don't believe in vaccines because they read a meme on facebook once. So insane, who ever would have thought we would be devolving into anti science stupididty in the post Space Age??? We have to get tough with these people, stop them from travelling, flying, attending large events, sports, stoppping them from voting would be the best idea!!!! LOL unfortunately since Trump lost so badly Republican states everywhere are trying to stop people from voting, since it's the only way they can win, we'll see, Biden may have a surprise for y'all when the time is right!

We got our shots a few weeks ago, YAY! I was getting really angry as it was getting close to our turn, they were up to 1964 birthyear and then everyone panicked over the Astra Zenica vaccine causing blood clots and the rollout got paused for several weeks. As a sidebar, there are more clots from birth control and Covid itself, not to mention the odds of dying from covid as it is contagious while blood clots are not, duhhhhhh. So, the best advice was to sign up at your pharmacy and wait for the call, which we did. When they did open vaccines to my age group, in a 15 year group which was not fair, it had been in 5 year groups before, and I was so mad saying "they have always done this to our generation!" we managed to get our shot in a most unusual way. Gord was talking to his cousin about renovations and they had heard from his brothers girlfriend on facebook that there were shots available at the convention centre, so when Gord looked there were actually a few hundred spots available, there was nothing in the media about this, apparently you just had to have the right connection on social media, this is how we run our health system? Ok? It was a beautiful spring morning, we took the bus downtown, the whole thing took maybe 20 minutes, it's hard to believe something like this would run smoothly, please tranfer this talent to airlines, motor vehicles, and the CRA! The shot is incredibly small and over in seconds, not like a flu vaccine which is a lot more juice! I felt tired and a little run down the next day but no blood clot so there ya go. About a week later I got the call from the pharmacy so I guess I was getting upset for no reason as usual!? Now I think we're back to banning Astra Zenica because one woman my age died, cripes, how do we know she wouldn't have died anyway? Shit happens but the danger of covid far exceeds the risk of a small amount of blood clots, weigh the risks people. Now the vaccine rollout has been completely unfair with a focus on getting shots to the Native population for reasons I do not understand, they do not spur the economy, or at greater risk than anyone else, is it because we were mean to them? Well, we were mean to a lot of people including the gays so lets get some sane policy. Turns out the biggest outbreak is in the Wood Buffalo district due to oil companies not using precautions for the rig workers, like meat plants, these companies are money focused not people focused, they were letting 100's of men have lunch together with no masks, it's criminal but hey it's Alberta not some communist country you fucking snowflake!!!

Anyway I still think most of us will be vaccinated before the fall and then we can return to normal, all my neighbours can go back to work, back to all tomorrows parties and world travelling, why learn any lessons? 

One Year Anniversary!!! Pandemic Journal

      It was one year ago today the WHO declared Covid a Pandemic, the world went pear shaped and Gord's dad died in the hospital ushering in a whole new era. Things are looking so positive now in comparison, my age group can start booking vaccines soon (unless we run out then I don't know what happens!) rates are going down since the Xmas surge and even in the US Biden is getting shots in arms, almost 3 million a day, it sounded nuts, impossible, back in the Trump era. I think we're all looking ahead to this summer, it seems like all the gloom and doom about vaccine supply was just media blather and we keep approving and receiving vaccines, I think we're up to 3 different kinds now, maybe 4? Biden has passed his landmark Covid relief bill, badly needed cash money for poor Americans mostly so queue the Republican outrage, just remember that this 1.9 Trillion $ is a ONE time expense compared to the Trump tax plan which was a 1.5 Trillion $ hole in revenue annually and nothing compared to the estimated 6 Trillion $$$$$ for the Iraq war, give me a fucking break!!! 

     The weather is so much nicer this year adding to the positive vibe, last year although warm when we left for Saskatchewan stayed cloudy and fucking freezing around -20C wind chills for the rest of the month and into April! God damnit that was depressing, the world in lockdown, the death of my father in law fresh in my mind and a never ending vortex of cold and cloudy weather, I will never forget that time.

     The Jason Kenney hits keep coming, such a terrible government all the time! Vaccine rollout went terribly because folks over 80 don't know what the internet is, like the 85 year old character on SNL recently who said "computers? I use one to play Spider Solitaire" yeah, that's about how that went, so everyone jammed the phone line of course, it was a terrible rollout, disastrous according to local media. My mom says she got a vaccine but it's hard to say for sure because if she did it would be a much longer and complaint filled story, so I am skeptical as she deflected by telling me stories about her sisters getting the vaccine instead, she's not one for Dr.s. Today Covid total cases in Alberta 137,137 and 1,933 deaths, not quite the 2000 club yet, I thought we would reach 2000 a lot sooner actually.

     I know everyone is anxious to get back to normal life, yacking about their stupid lives, buying, eating, shopping, travelling, exploiting, consuming, you know the suicide pact we are all in with consumerism and corporatism?, but I don't mind the lock down at all. We have been working from home and we rarely go out in normal times so it doesn't affect us much. I enjoy we don't have airplanes interrupting the peace every 3 minutes! It is hard to have a conversation sometimes in the summer I tell you! I wonder what the bounceback will be like, I can't imagine how the juvenile minds of most everyone under 40 are going to react, maybe like drunks on crack? Is my guess. It's going to be funny or infuriating at the least. I have recently returned to painting as American politics are no longer a complete circus side show, or was it a freak show?, and thinking about the future.

 

Inauguration!

           I've watched Presidential inaugurations since Regan I think, I'm not sure how, was I supposed to be in school? I don't know but in the old days we somehow still saw everything just with regular TV. The only one I skipped was Trump's, I watched some of the painful meet and greet at the White House but retreated to the basement for the next 4 years after that! It's maybe a little odd how a Canadian loves this American tradition but we don't have anything like it and I just love them! I love seeing the politicians interact, what they will wear, who will perform etc, it's so wonderful! This year Trump slunk off at dawn, hoping for a big military sendoff, which I don't know even happened, and flew to Florida before noon. Good riddance you son of a bitch! Hope your future is filled with jailtime and the entire Trump family has to live in exile! That morning I had to drive Gord across town so was listening to Bidens speech on the radio on a beautiful clear morning with almost no traffic, coasting down Crowchild to Memorial letting the words fill a brand new era, it's quite nice, I recommend it, like an extended car commercial or offbeat movie. Of course I taped 4 hours of it too, it's worth it to see flawless Michelle Obama and Lady Gaga who was not only walking the red carpet but wearing one too! You know she said no to Trump 4 years earlier! Ha ha. We also had J.Lo in all white like the latina angel of unity singing This Land. The poem by 16 year old Amanda Gorman was the most beautiful thing you have ever heard, as if she will take the reins of Maya Angelou herself at this young age! I kept thinking throughout the different moments and scenes of the day the now very famous images of the Capitol riots, where everyone enters the balcony is where police were assaulted with American flags, we could see many interior shots where only days before nazi riff-raff were acting out and you could even see a shattered window on one of the doors into Congress, this is still very fresh in all our minds right now! But democracy has prevailed, although I think it was pretty close and pretty easy to overthrow if you ask me! Later we had the 3 ex Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton make statements, to me they seemed like superheroes, like normalcy has returned after 4 years of insanity from that old supervillain! There was no parade because of covid and fear of nuts I guess but Biden did walk a block or so up to the White House, it was all very beautiful and the world feels normal again!

     One thing I love right now is that QAnon believers are adrift! They believed that Trump would succeed in the end, all the military would turn on the inauguration and the rightful king Trump would ascend to power, so that didn't happen. I saw a reporter talking to a QAnon guy who isn't sure what to believe right now but is pretty sure the election was a hoax anyway, sheesh, your stupid social media stories are all made up lies you dumb fucks! This is exactly like so many kooky Protestant religions especially in the 19th Century that preached the end of the world at a certain date and when that passed and nothing happened they would usually change the date, you do lose some followers though. Think of the Jehovah Witness cult who used to believe a certain number of people would be allowed in heaven and then they had to change it as history progressed and numbers of believers increased, ooops! Experts say the bad part is that they, QAnoners may glom on to neo nazi groups and other extremists. A nuts part of all this is how some experts liken the Trump nuts to radicals in the Middle East or Afghanistan and how you would have to infiltrate their society to get people to believe facts, to deradicalize them. Yes we are talking about your nutty relatives on facebook as if they were the Taliban and that is not far from the truth right now! It is a refreshing new world however with trump banned from most media, the witch is melting, what a world, what a world!

     One thing I am glad Trump did not do is pardon the Capital rioters, I wonder if they will feel betrayed? they should! He did pardon something like 150 people including Steve Bannon who can go back to sleeping in cars instead of going to jail and Jeannine Pirro's husband for I don't know what but she bellows about the greatness of Trump on FOX and he loved that! I hope the pardons are all overturned, it's all just obstruction of justice and this power should be removed from presidents all together! Trump has an impeachment trial looming and there is reason to hope for the best, McConnell has signaled his support for impeachment and really all that needs to happen is for Republicans to not even show up and it's done! A vote of 2/3 of the Senate doesn't mean all of them, it means of the ones present, so it could be done. I think the more Trump talks of things like a "3rd party" the more Republicans will want to put the preverbal pillow over this guys head! A 3rd party would make democrats in charge for decades! I still think Trumps best plan is exile but he needs so much attention I don't know how that would work, but jail on the other hand? This guy has never faced consequences so it is going to be a thrilling time for Trump haters out there!

     The world just seems so much nicer now, the first foreign phone call will be to Justin Trudeau because Biden seems to love Canada and had a great relationship with Trudeau in the very short time the two admins overlapped. So guess who is down in the dumps over the new President? Kenney of course! Turns out he invested $1.5 billion in the Keystone Pipeline and Biden just cancelled it yesterday! So now our local media is all gloom and doom over this, can't we be happy for 5 minutes? Geeze! Democracy was just saved from the grips of a lunatic and the world can return to some sort of normalcy but we should all hate this because we put all our eggs in the Keystone basket!?!? God damn you Albertans! They act like my middle sister, if anything good happens make sure you make it about yourself and shit all over the good news! We don't have to worry about Trumps mercurial nature anymore, I'm sure the softwood lumber tariffs will end and that's good news for some! I hope they rescind the new NAFTA thing Trump worked out, all of his stupid legacy should be wiped out! I also think it's funny Obamacare survived, after all his efforts to destroy it, ha, screw you loser!

The Social Dilemma

      This weekend I watched the documentary The Social Dilemma, it should be watched by everyone right now! Available on Netflix, this is a compilation of todays architects of Social Media and it explains everything wrong with the world right now! Basically these people tell us exactly how they designed social media to be, addictive, money making, self feeding loop machine that is destroying our minds and society. All of the platforms like facebook, instagram, youtube, twitter are all designed to keep you engaged and we see this illustrated in the documentary with a fictional family much like yours. In the fictional family the son bets that he can stay off his phone for one week, but he can't, much like 99% of all of us, we eventually see how he gets lulled into attending a rally and getting arrested, sound familiar right now??? We sorta know how things like facebook and twitter are designed to give us positive feedback, but this show really illustrates how this is designed for the corporation not you dummy! The only industries who call their customers "users" are drug dealers and social media, let that sink in! If someone has watched a conspiracy video on youtube they will suggest more videos for you, and since everything is so linked up more and more gets suggested to you thru all the medias and suddenly you are inundated by garbage and living in your own bubble believing the Earth is flat, vaccines will cause autism, airplane contrails are poison or Trump won the election. We have not really experienced anything like this in history and it is dangerous. The experts in this documentary think it could take 20 years to bring down society and it is the only thing I disagree with them on as I believe it is already happening and could take from anywhere between 20 minutes and 20 weeks right now! Most of these people are successful optimists afterall, give me a break! You need to think the worst first my dears! The Social Dilemma just clears up so much with what is going on in the world right now and was made before the Capital riots, watching it now you can see where this led to just a couple of weeks ago. This morning on CNN Kate Bolduain who really could be as stupid as she looks was pondering why the Capital riots could happen, are these people deficient, gullible, easily led? No they are just like you and me, they are everyone, they cannot resist the human wiring that social media is tinkering with and we are probably all variably susceptible to. There has always been shithead troublemakers like neonazis jumping on board any movement they could in history, we saw the idiot motorcycle gangs at Altamont in the 1960's and neonazis in the Punk Rock era, they will insert themselves where ever they can so of course jump on this QAnon train too! This show also explains how Russia did not "hack" the 2016 election but merely used what was already there, it is true, the first time they really did try hard to infect social media but now do they even have to do anything? It is all just so dangerous to democracy everywhere and this is what China and Russia want. I think it is the greatest threat to democracy since WWII and what are we doing about it?

     Does it seem like you are hearing about a lot of youth suicides these days? You are right, I was just listening to congressman Jamie Raskin who buried his 25 year old son right before the Capital riots, suicide, we recently learned a beloved news anchor in Calgary also lost 20 his something son to suicide, and there have been many more. The Social Dilemma illustrates for us clearly that rates of suicide are increasing at an insane rate since 2010 the inception of smart phones, the stats are something like 78% for teen girls and 168% for preteen girls. They use an example of a preteen girl in the movie that really works, posting duck face photos, getting a lot of likes except one friend says something about her ears, so now she is obsessed about that. I can only imagine how true this could be especially for preteens. It's all just so terrible for establishing normal coping mechanisms in youth. A very poignant part of the movie is when all the inventors of social media say they wouldn't allow their kids on it at all, saying maybe when they are 16 or 17 they would allow it! I just don't know what more people need to hear. We have heard many times before how social media is the same as alcohol and drugs, it affects the brain in the very same way, it's just so dangerous for children, we do not say hey hard time in Junior High, here have a drink! That would be ridiculous but many people do the very same with all this media, it is not harmless!

     So, I don't know what more needs to happen in the world, I thought the Capital riots should be a major fucking clue for the world, if not the election of god damned Trump in the first fucking place!?!? Now there is a woman elected to Congress who is a QAnon nut, where will this lead democracy ? I can only imagine students learning about this era, the US Capital was stormed because people truly believed that Trump won the election even though there was no evidence of this. People were brainwashed by Social Media so much they could not and would not believe logic. If we are on this track, that we cannot share and understand concrete facts then we are done as a society, democracy is over, capitalism is over and welcome the new Dark Ages I guess. Get off facebook, watch more TV, talk to a friend on a phone, what? imagine using a phone as a phone?

Impeachment Deux

      So, Trump got impeached again, first President in history to be impeached twice and with 10 Republicans in the House voting yes, twice the number who voted for Clintons impeachment and more than zero the first time for Trump and Andrew Johnson in 1868. Now, when will that trial be? No one is sure but many believe it should be put off to a later time so Biden can get on track, it would be fine as we only want the result which is barring him from running ever again and cutting off all the Presidential benefits including a $200,000 a year salary and a $1 million travel budget as well as Presidential briefings. It would be wonderful to remove him right now but that doesn't look realistic believe it or not right now. Right now Trump is so mad at Giuliani that he doesn't want to pay him, a common Trump reaction, but who will be his lawyer now? Dershowitz? The guy who was closely associated with famous pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, yeah, lets see how that scandal goes, we may have all these guys in prision within the year!

     Many new stories are coming out this week, it's hard to think of a time when a scandal or event got worse over time but that's what's happening with this insurrection. We see lots more video with sound which is showing more of the scary and violent nature of the insurrection, we see eye witness accounts from members of Congress, staff, media, etc who were there, hiding, terrified. We hear reports that some Congress members were giving tours to weird groups of people the day before, so much so some thought it suspicious enough to report. If we find out this is true, collusion from Republicans, Pelosi says they will follow the law and prosecution if necessary. It's pretty crazy fallout! We hear reports that some Capital Police may have been in on it and among the rioters we find a guy from the US Olympic swim team, active and ex military and police, such a disgrace. Many of the main instigators have been arrested including the most recognizable idiot the self described QAnon Shaman in body paint and horned headdress (nice appropriation dude!). Turns out his mom is concerned that his tummy will be upset if he doesn't eat organic food! Sheesh, I though we were the organic snowflakes? WTF? I just see this as another symptom of a generation who all won a prize, coddled by their parents and teachers, never hearing the word no or facing a consequence. This generation does not live in reality thus they consume vast amounts of RPG games, Superhero movies and BS conspiracy theories and here we are folks! Speaking of social media, Trump got suspended from Twitter and now releases weird hostage style videos from time to time, at first Google suspended downloads of right wing trash site Parler on the Play Store but then the entire site went dark so this is a small victory even if temporary. Most of us are worried Trump will lose his mind not tweeting? Awww I got suspended from facebook for far less so yeah life sucks, your life will be better off without it believe me!

     So now no one will be allowed in Washington on inauguration day, the National Mall is closed to the public, even AirBnB cancelled all reservations for the week in the DC area, the public is behind this and Trumps approval has hit 29% an all time low for him! The Capitol is now home to several hundred active duty soldiers who are sleeping in the hallways of Congress and there will be tens of thousands of National Guards at the inauguration, just try it nutzies (nazis + nuts).

     Shit, only 5 more days of Trump now, we hope he won't pardon all of these nuts but some are wondering if an impeached President can pardon anyone anyway, this has never been tested in court!? I hope not, I want all these freaks to be prosecuted and sent to jails to meet all the nice black men who reside there, they will get raped by black cocks and that is the worst kind of cock to raped by!

Fallout

      The fallout from this weeks insurrection keeps getting worse for Trump and the Republicans and I really wonder how this week will go for old Mitch McConnell? 5 people have died in this coup attempt 4 dipshits who likely deserved it and one Capital Hill Police officer who was bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher, only today did the White House fly the flag at half mast because Trump is a total asshole. Yeah Mr. "I am law and order" who always said the police were on his side, give me a fucking break!  More and more terrifying footage is coming out now, an officer nearly crushed to death was shown on CNN about every 10 minutes on Friday, now they have footage of another officer being beaten nearly to death on the outside steps and so much more footage with sound which is chilling. Events are moving quickly too, the House has written articles of impeachment and will pass them tomorrow or Tuesday, 2 Senate Republicans say they would vote yes on impeachment, Murkowski of Alaska who says she may not be a Republican anymore and Pat Toomey and who knows there may be more by tomorrow, I really wonder if the tide could turn and McConnell is pressed to do something this week!? Public sentiment could really spin out of control as this is the biggest thing since 9/11, Republicans better watch out! Right now McConnell says he would schedule impeachment for January 19th, one day before inauguration, he's such a douche, we'll see!

     One completely maddening thing about this era is that by that evening or soon after the right wing idiot machine of FOX News and the rest of their ilk started saying that it was Antifa who were responsible for the riots. It's just insane, we have so much evidence any moron can see for themselves and yet here we are. Turns out though that those actually responsible, mostly Q Anon and White Supremacists want the credit and are getting pissed off with these right wing liars! And I think they should watch out too, these people have no allegiance to you, they want destruction and will gladly take you down too Tucker Carlson! In fact we are now seeing these angry types accost Republicans like Lindsay Graham and Mitt Romney in airports for not helping the coup, they may be more mad at Republicans than Democrats right now. We have also learned recently that the crowd was chanting to kill Mike Pence and that Pence is currently "furious" with Trump. Pence had his entire family and brother at Congress that day and they were all put in mortal danger. So now Trump has blown his only chance at getting a pardon from him, so much for Art of the Deal? With an increasingly isolated President this promises to be another crazy week. A lot of the Trump cabinet has resigned already including Mick Mulvaney who claims he didn't know it would get this bad, this seems to be the excuse d'jour for Republicans on the Sunday shows today. They just didn't know Trump was so bad or would come to this, yeah right! 

     I heard CNN's Van Jones ask is this the beginning or the end? It's hard to say, there is already so much internet chatter about an armed demonstration next weekend and on inauguration day. The infuriating part is that the FBI cannot monitor the internet for hate speech or insurrection planning from just anyone, you would have to mention jihad or be a Muslim for that! That's right folks White Supremacists are not monitored at all because all the laws about this were written post 9/11 and is just another shining example of American racism biting them in the ass. The inherent racism is astonishing to me I heard one example of some one overhearing a woman say to her husband "why are they shooting us? they're supposed to shoot black lives matter not us!" truly amazing and another reason why I have fucking had it with talking to Americans ever again! But is this the end of these idiots? A lot of them are my age, middle aged, but a lot of them are also very young men who look in their 20's to me. Is this a moment or is this a lost generation? I'm all for work camps after all they love the Auschwitz logo Arbeit Macht Frei or work shall set you free. I don't know, this may be continued fallout from the shift from industry over the past 40 years, America has so many inherent problems, I believe more socialism would help the most, compare to Canada my dears!

     Who knows what will happen this week, Trump is the turd that is taking 14 flushes just like he complained about with low flow toilets no too long ago. He has ruined his legacy and family name and will live in a hell of legal problems for a very long time. He is planning on hiring Giuliani and Dershowitz as his lawyers, I'm not sure how old Rudy can be his lawyer as he is actually a subject in inciting the insurrection, on that morning he said to the crowd "...lets have trial by combat" where we saw some idiot in a video with the IQ of Homer Simpson get really charged up over. That morning where the President made a speech from behind bullet proof glass saying he would march to the Capital and then disappeared with the rest of his criminal family to watch the riots at the White House. And lets not forget Ivanka tweeted "go patriots" and the rest of them on video cheering on a riot, I hope they are all taken down in this and spend their lives in a living hell of shame from the public.

     Americans are naturally a little slow so this has taken a few days to sink in but don't worry as Churchill once said "Americans will always do the right thing after exhausting every other possibility."

Insurrection Live!

      Wednesday January 6th 2021 started off on a happy note, the Georgia Senate runoff elections were set to be finalized and both seats went Democrat giving Biden a majority and full leeway with his first 2 years at least, the Senate was set to formalize the Electoral College vote with some shenanigans from stupid Republicans who said they would challenge the count. Now, challenging the count is like challenging the announcing of the Academy Award winners, it makes no sense and the announcer has no say in it, in this case Mike Pence. We also knew that Trump sent out a message to his supporters to riot at the Capital. By around noon Eastern time Mitch McConnell said the right things and urged his Republicans to fall into line, likewise VP Pence also said the right thing and was roundly condemned by Trump on twitter of course, the formal process was trudging along boringly until Arizona with the help of Ted Cruise for some reason putting a wrench in the process and causing the Senate to recess. Apparently before I was up Trump made a speech to the thousands of domestic terrorists on his side, they then marched to the Capital building where Congress and Senate meet. Around this time, before noon my time, protestors had breeched the Capital steps and had made it to the balcony right outside the Senate chamber itself. The secret service rushed Pence out on live TV and soon the CSpan cameras went out. I began texting Gord at work, not something I do normally, this is only saved for breaking news of historic proportion, they went like this 12;32 "Protestors breach Capital steps, Pence evacuated, Senate floor in a tizzy 12;34 Huffpo says some protestors outside Senate chamber, 12;44Now watching Trump dipshits wandering statuary hall with flagpoles, So insane!, 12;47 Only a few police, where is the national guard? 12;54 Senate being evacuated Trump backtracking lame shit about respecting capitol police, 12;58 Now senators are clutching gas masks but not everyone has one, staff etc. 1;06 Senate doors are barricaded, senate police have guns drawn, members are huddled and praying, 3;14 Finally they are tear gassing these fuckers as they mass on inauguration balcony, the Virginia national guard is on their way apparently. I had to download a live news app to keep listening as I walked the dog today, I didn't want to miss a thing, it is history, apparently nothing like this has happened since the war of 1812! It wasn't until the afternoon that we got images of trump idiots smashing windows inside the capital, sitting in Nancy Pelosi's office, feet up on desk, leaving a message on a manila folder " We will never give up" footage of these white goons chasing a lone black capital police officer up the stairs into the inner chambers, dipshits taking the Senate dais shouting "Trump won" and hanging off the Senate chamber cornice 7 feet off the ground. And where are the police, there were a few standing around but not very many. Many were saying if this were black or Muslim protestors there would be a very different reaction. We had protestors gassed in Portland and gassed outside the White House under Trumps command and for these actual violent dickheads they get nothing!!!!!!!!! It is so infuriating! There was a little gas and flash bombs to get people off the inauguration steps, where Biden will be sworn in in 2 weeks. Many of us hope that the vote to formalize will still go on tonite, it has to, it has to be a message to these terrorists that they will not succeed! It's so nuts even my mom called around 4pm to ask if I had seen the news, I went on a swearing tirade, I wonder if she understands my passion? I doubt it, she is confused and not on the right side of government employees taking trips to Hawaii of course, old conservative brains have no moral compass, this is how they have maintained power especially in Alberta. I think Trump must be impeached ASAP, tonite would be good, sear in the two new senators and it is done! I fear trump will pardon these terrorists and this must be stopped. Did ya know being impeached bars one from running for any public office in the future, boy that would throw a wrench into his 2022 election grift! Oh, before I forget, Ivanka tweeted her support to the "American patriots" earlier that day and then mysteriously deleted it, we should never forget!!! I wish people would storm the White House as I believe that would garner a bigger response than what we have seen today, I'll bet the tear gas would be flying in minutes! People could also storm Trump hotels and properties, burn them down! These are my own violent fantasies, only a reaction, not a reality. As of now, 5pm Pence is consulting congress to restart this electoral count. Many are saying the Trump backers like Ted Cruise should step down and they should, they are a big part of the stupid nonsense! I tell ya, there is going to be a huge reckoning in the aftermath, just like 9/11, they were caught with a sub par reaction. I maintain to this day that the only conspiracy on 9/11 was covering up the slow and stupid reaction, made worse by never believing something like this would ever happen. There needs to be a commission report by congress in the future, questions about today are where is DHS (Homeland Security) acting AG?,Defense secretary? all MIA. The most infuriating thing is watching all these dipshits milling around as a curfew has been called for about an hour ago! No one is being arrested, just police standing around like stupid assholes, if this were black folks they would have been all violently arrested and dispersed! America is a disgrace!

We're All In This Together, Pandemic Journal

      My mom always says to make a wish on your first mincemeat tart of the season, an ole English tradition I expect! I'm not going to say what that wish was but Sunday night is when all hell broke loose on the Kenney government. We are rarely treated to political outrage in this Province but I wonder if times and demographics change? Turns out 6 Kenney cabinet ministers have been caught taking holidays, mostly in Hawaii, but some other sun spots too, the hypocrisy is stunning and is making the hashtag "Kenney resign" trend on Twitter. It's just all too delicious, we haven't seen outrage like this since the old Allison Redford days. Just remember that our provincial guidelines called for people to only spend Christmas with our household members, no college kids or grandkids, no grandparents over, no socializing even outdoors, who knew these self-involved total assholes would be jetting off to holidays in the sun? Sheesh, we aren't even having a harsh winter, who needs to go anywhere, to be with Americans? No thank you! The outrage in the media is heartening, people have set up Christmas trees with Hawaiian leis outside MLA offices saying "Aloha, it means hello and goodbye", people are so creative these days! I even saw one old guy say he is not voting UCP again! To top it all off, like a scene out of Arrested Development or Veep, we saw on both local news a story of a boy with rare terminal disease who missed his trip to Hawaii thru Make A Wish Foundation to see the Ocean because of the pandemic, I mean you can't make this stuff up! Even my mom, who I think wishes Kenney was her son instead of me, is wavering on supporting again! But, for all the stink this is causing only one MLA is resigning, the rest have only been demoted and keep their $120,000 annual salary. The outrage doesn't stop there either, some Federal MP's are also in trouble, a few Liberals, a NDP who went to visit a sick mom which I don't have a problem with, and quite a few Conservatives. The public hate being told to suck it up while our government takes holidays in the sun apparently. To bring this closer to home, Gord's sister is planning on going to Florida this week, we all think not much of this move including his mom who think's this is "disgusting" and she is right. This travelling government scandal has me thinking that anyone who travels should be shunned. Why aren't you supporting business in your own city and country? I think these people should step aside for vaccines and pay their own hospital stay if they get sick, if you can't stay in Canada then quit using all  our public health care! I have little respect for these people. I sent a text about the Alberta situation/outrage, it's actually a dig at the sister, who used to be an Ontario public health official who should know better! So selfish.

     As for US politics, today is voting day in Georgia, it will determine the Senate control for Bidens term so we want a good outcome! Tomorrow the Senate votes to formalize the Electoral College vote, it is procedural but 13 Senators say they will vote against it and muck up the process for several hours. It's absolutely stupid as there is no mechanism to overturn the Electoral College, it's just more attention seeking from Trump and a vote for ending democracy and instilling a dictator instead of following the will of the people, and we will have you on record forever. Do as you will idiots! In recent days a Trump call to the Georgia Attorney General has been released where he threatens and insists the AG "find 11,280 votes", it's basically what he was impeached for and what Adam Schiff warned us of, basically that Trump will try it again and here we are! The Trump days are winding down fast, and soon they will be history, geeze this month is flying by already. Tomorrow Trump is trying to start a riot in D.C., telling his supporters to flood DC and not bring guns. Like most Trump ideas I'm sure this will not be as big a deal as he hopes. We just had a letter signed by all 10 living former Defense Secretaries including Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and even Trump appointees Mattis and Esper warning Trump to not involve the military in any election shenanigans citing dangerous and unconstitutional territory treading, don't worry Trump won't read or respect this!

Anyway, this is taking too long, the weather is beautiful, who needs a holiday? And I need to get back into a routine. I am feeling positive about this year, Trump will be out, Kenney is on the ropes and winter is one quarter done! Mazel tov!