The Silence of the Lambs

I watched the January 6 committee hearing today. I did not originally intend to, but it came on before the hockey game I intended to watch had started, and then I became hooked.

And then I realized I was watching history.

I was watching one of those moments that over the course of your life you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when they happened.  They are moments that define your life and society in general at each distinct time.

I heard the news that Kennedy was shot while walking home from school.  I was in the drive of the school a matter of a few feet from turning onto Virginia Avenue where my family lived then and still does.

When Neal Armstrong stepped out onto the moon's surface, I was a camper at University Settlement in Beacon, New York.  We all thought the bigger deal at the time was Pete Seeger coming to the camp to perform for us kids.

When Nixon resigned I was sitting on the steps of a general store in Willow Creek, California near the end of a bike trip to San Francisco.  That night, the group I was with would celebrate, if that is the term you want to use, at the campsite we were at for the night by drinking just a wee bit by the fire and reciting comedy routines by Cheech and Chong.

I was sitting in my office at 111 John Street on the twenty-second floor when the planes hit the World Trade Center.  I watched from there as the first tower fell.

And today, I watched a congressional committee set out in chilling detail how a president and his followers tried to subvert an election by force.  It was clear from the testimony ad the videos shown that the mob brought to the capital and incited by a seditious, treasonous group would have killed members of Congress and the Vice-President if they had been able to.  All the while, the President did nothing, and in fact, cheered the mob on.

When the hearing was over for the evening, I logged onto my social media account to see what friends, and that includes my friends on the right had to say.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The former president has done a lot of awful things over the course of the past several years.  He has been racist.  He has been homophobic.  He has used the highest office in the land to enrich himself and his buddies.  He has turned the Constitution into his own little plaything.  Every time, the voices in opposition have grown just a bit more quiet.

And now, nothing.

Of all the horrible, diabolical things this man and his thugs have done, they have managed to beat us down by numbing us to the insanity to the point where the worst imaginable merits not a peep in response.  We in opposition are done and done for.

And we will find this out this coming November when there have been no consequences or recriminations, and the forces let loose by this maniac and his thugs come home to roost.

racism in america

Colin Kaepernick did not do anything to anyone.

He simply kneeled in quiet, respectful protest of the way Black people have been historically treated in this country by the formerly white majority, who still maneuver frantically to retain power.

He did not break any laws.

He did not make a scene at the local Wal Mart by trying to spread a deadly disease to other people because it is a violation of his "freedom" to act responsibly and wear a mask or get vaccinated.

He did not put others at risk when he kneeled during the national anthem.  There was no physical danger to anyone posed by his decision not to stand.

He did not try to strike police officers with flag poles, fire extinguishers bear spray or anything else he could get his hands on.  Nobody was at risk when he kneeled.

He did not threaten the life of any public official or anyone else when he stood for his own rights.  No gallows were erected in the public square, ready in case he caught any public official who did not agree with him and did not act upon his first amendment protected right to protest peacefully.

And he was protesting peacefully.

He did not tell his followers that this was "trial by combat", urge them to "fight like hell", to vandalize, to threaten or to commit any act of violence in his name.

He did not break any windows or deface any public buildings.

He did not steal anything, let alone documents from the office of a member of congress.

He did not interrupt any act of any level of government at any time, nor did he try to improperly influence or intimidate any public official in either their official or unofficial capacity.

He did not try to steal an election based on a lie.

He did not destroy evidence.  He did not hide evidence.  He did not obstruct justice.

He did not defame anyone else.

He did not block any chain of commerce, thus causing or contributing to supply shortages and ultimately to inflation.

He did not ban any books from schools or libraries, and in fact, never said what could or could not be said in any classroom in this county.

He did not push to make it a crime to say anything he did not agree with.

He did not try to take away anyone's right to vote for the candidate of their choice, or make it so difficult to do so that it was nearly impossible.  Nor did he fight for the right to overturn the results of any election he did not like.

He did not ridicule science or threaten scientists and/or their families, or use his position in any public forum to urge others to do so.

He did not threaten to jail or summarily execute anyone who disagreed with him.

He did not try to impose his religion on anyone.

He did not deny medical treatment to anyone or force them to travel hundreds of miles to get the treatment they needed because he did not believe in the treatment or procedure being sought.

The people who did all of the above and more are being exalted, praised and practically granted sainthood by certain politicians, public figures, so called journalists and media.

All because the vast majority of the people who did all of the above are, for the most part, white conservatives. 

And Colin Kaepernick is Black.

Those folks who did all of the above were doing nothing but engaging in "legitimate political discourse", all as they violated constitutionally guaranteed rights to others, caused the spread of disease and misinformation, contributed to supply chain shortages and inflation, interfered with constitutionally mandated government functions, banned books, and much more.

They are heroes.

They are white.

They are going on with their every day lives, and will continue to do so until a sense of decency and morality returns to this country.

Colin Kaepernick is Black.

He was, in fact, participating in "legitimate political discourse".

He did not harm anyone, he did not interfere with anyone's rights or any governmental functions or duties.  He did not tell anyone what they could or could not do, what they could or could not say, what they could or could not read, or what they could or could not believe.

He simply kneeled during the national anthem, thereby standing up for his rights.

And for that he was ostracized, vilified, threatened, libeled and banned from his chosen profession.

Colin Kaepernick is Black.

Those other miscreants are white.

They go on with their lives.

This is one of the ways racism in america looks like in the twenty-first century.

top ten worst persons in the world, 2021

We once again present the annual Top Ten Worst Persons in the World, annual being a bit of a misnomer, as we did not publish this last year, although I am sure you can guess who the top ten worst persons would have been.  We invite comment for your thoughts in that regard, as well as the list for this year.  Once again, Cadet Bone Spurs did not make this list, as he could have taken up all ten spots and retired lists of this type permanently.

As always, there are honorable mentions, this year being Karen Fann, the president of the Arizona senate, who authorized the cadet bone spurs paid for Cyber Ninja audit of the presidential vote that ended up finding that Joe Biden won the state by more votes than originally announced, yet somehow still announced that the audit showed massive fraud, and Mark Meadows, who appears to have been one of the driving forces within the White House behind the January 6 events and cover up.  His spine has been exposed, as he was willing to cooperate, until it looked like his information would indict his boss.

And with the preliminaries out of the way...

10.  Boris Johnson --  Well, I said I wasn't going to put Cadet Bone Spurs on the list, but I didn't say anything about not putting his clown, er... clone on the list.  We may begin calling this guy Cadet Bone Spurs, Jr.  No mask mandates in Britain, No vaccine mandates.  Brexit without a viable plan.  Etc.

9.  Eric Clapton -- Keeping the international flavor of this year's list, this one really hurts me.  When I was a kid, I really loved this guy, and saw him in concert any number of times.  Always a great show.  His music is still great, but I won't listen to it anymore, now that he has demonstrated how he feels about Jews like me and sensible people who do sensible things to protect themselves and their friends and neighbors, like just about everyone...  well, except for about a third of the population...

8.  Prince Andrew -- The Brits must hate me by now.  Here's a guy who has literally been handed everything in life, but still managed to drop it.  Lots of guys have been implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein/Ghislaine Maxwell scandal, but at least the rest of them have managed to stay out of the spotlight.  For not managing to keep his yap and his zipper shut...  Cheers mate!

7.  Mitch McConnell -- Well, he had to be here somewhere.  I had thought that loyalty to country topped loyalty to party, but I guess I was wrong.  This guy has enabled everything that has happened since January 20, 2017, and now openly says his job is to make sure nothing good happens during Joe Biden's presidency.  He will allow the country to suffer just so he can be back in charge of the Senate, and the guy he blasted for January 6 back in the White House.

6.  Joe Manchin -- Never before has such an inconsequential politician become such an omnipresent oaf.  Somebody should buy this guy a very large mirror so he can admire himself all day long and leave the rest of us alone.  Voting rights?  Feh...  Climate Change?  Coal!!  Public health?  My daughter is a big pharma exec who skyrocketed the cost of critical medications.  Without this guy, Mitch McConnell would have been an afterthought this year.

5.  Ron DeSantis -- Also known in these parts as "I Wanna Be Cadet Bone Spurs".  The Guv spent the year protecting the citizens of his state by refusing to make anyone wear a mask, refusing to make anyone get a vaccine, even health care workers, trying to punish companies, even private companies large or small, from imposing any health related mandates on their employees or customers, and then trying to reward the most irresponsible amongst us who refuse to do anything to help in the face of the pandemic

4.  Matt Gaetz -- It was a real close call here between this guy and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has demonstrated in a single year how singularly unfit she is for public office of any kind, including sanitation engineer; however, unlike Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene has not yet shown herself to potentially be a sex offender.  We would expect sometime soon, Matt will be out of the House and into the Big House.  In the mean time, Matt, you are still a member of Congress, so how about sponsoring a piece of legislation, any piece other than something designed as a piece of red meat to a bunch of toothless, brainless yayhoos that has no chance of becoming law and is simply a publicity stunt.  You know, like maybe doing the job you were actually put in Washington to do...

3.  Sean Hannity -- This was another real close call, as any number of Fox Cheerleading Network personalities could have qualified here, especially Tucker Carlson, who is well ahead in the early running to be on this list next year, if not win it outright.  Sean Hannity gets the nod here, however, as it turns out he likely was in on January 6, or at least had a clue about what was coming, then after it got out of control, went on the air to denounce the violence, and the almost immediately tried to blame the left and was active on the air in downplaying everything that happened, giving, or at least trying to give, Cadet Bone Spurs cover.

2.  Paul Gosar -- Aside from the fact that it appears he was one of the insiders to the January 6 insurrection, he published a cartoon depicting himself killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a fellow sitting member of Congress, and attacking the president.  In the past, this would have resulted in immediate criminal charges against just about anyone.  How on earth do you threaten to kill a sitting member of Congress and attack and presumably threaten the life of the sitting President and get away with it, let alone still be a sitting member of Congress?

And this year's winner is...

1.  Kevin McCarthy -- That's how.  Then again, we could put here the entire congressional GOP caucus.  We single out Kevin McCarthy here because he wants so badly to be the next speaker of the house that he will enable anything, and I mean ANYTHING, from his caucus.  Kevin McCarthy began the year properly calling out Cadet Bone Spurs for his fomenting the insurrection, and then suddenly became the poster boy for the whole thing after a visit to you know who at his little palace in Florida.  How much do you want to bet Cadet Bone Spurs told Kevin he would be speaker of the house if he backed off and the denied the former guy had anything to do with January 6, and that January 6, in any event, was not a big deal.  For obsequiousness beyond the call of duty, Kevin, you are our winner this year.  Congratulations.

Or should I say fuck you?

Wyoming, Part Two...

After a few days in the relative sanity of Southern California, an oxymoron in and of itself, we returned to Wyoming.  We returned to the scenery, the fresh air, the serenity, the horses...  and the nut jobs...

I will grant you that there are nut jobs everywhere.  Some would say Southern California is the grand daddy of nut jobs everywhere.  But here in Wyoming is where we witnessed it first hand on our very first day back.

Our travels on the first day back took us to the local Wal Mart.  Don't laugh.  They have a decent grocery section with better prices than the local supermarkets.  Besides, as many of you have seen from our Facebook posts, the bean grinder for our coffee broke -- both of them -- so this was an absolute emergency.

We parked on the side of the store, as we usually do, and put on our masks to go in, even though we are fully vaccinated including boosters.  On our previous visit to this Wal Mart, we were pleased that about forty percent of the folks in the store appeared to be masked.  Mind you, just about everywhere else we have been since the spring, the number of masked clientele has hovered somewhere between eighty and one hundred percent, but for Wyoming, this was a vast improvement.

Apparently, somebody sent a memo around to the locals.  On this occasion, it would be a stretch to say that ten percent of the customers were masked.  Somewhere in Wyoming, over the first weekend of October, COVID was declared cured for all, masked or unmasked, vaccinated or unvaccinated.

And then we walked past the pharmacy department.  Considering that boosters are now available, I was interested in seeing if there was anyone waiting for a vaccine  Nobody was in the waiting area.  Nobody appeared to be in the vaccine rooms.

There was, however, one man, who we will refer to as WMC -- Wyoming Maga Cowboy, or maybe the Wal Mart Cowboy.  Take your pick.  WMC was front and center at the pharmacy line -- there was nobody else in line.  He was a tall, thin drink of water with longish white hair and a thick droopy moustache to boot.  On top of the white mane was a summer weight, stiff straw cowboy hat.  The rest of the outfit was traditional cowboy in every sense, from the cowboy style button down shirt, to the blue jeans, to the boots.

And WMC was there with a purpose.

A loud purpose.

He started off by demanding a dose of Ivermectin.  You know, the paste/concoction/whatever you want to call it used to deworm farm animals that some on the far right of the mental universe have come to believe without any proof whatsoever will cure COVID.  We can start off this aspect of the discussion by noting that WMC was in the pharmacy department of Wal Mart talking to the poor victim of a Wal Mart pharmacist, demanding an animal dewormer.  It apparently did not occur to him that the pharmacy department at Wal Mart, surprisingly enough, only dispenses medications intended for humans.  It also did not apparently occur to him that if you are standing in a Wal Mart pharmacy speaking to the Wal Mart pharmacist about a medication, you likely need a prescription to get it.

As a side note here, I would offer that when we got home, my wife went on line.  Apparently, you can get Ivermectin on line without a prescription.  We have a large farm and supply store here in town.  I have no doubt you could get Ivermectin there as well.  Maybe WMC should have looked there.

Needless to say, the Wal Mart pharmacist was a little short on supply of horse de-wormers, but offered WMC a vaccine injection, considering there was no wait for one, and most likely considering where we are, nobody had made an appointment for one anytime that morning.  WMC declined, offering that he was not going to have anything injected into his body the ingredients of which were not known to him.  Putting aside for the moment the fact that WMC probably did not know the ingredients of the groceries we later saw him buying, I would be willing to bet just about anything that he did not know the ingredients in Ivermectin either.  

Undeterred by the looming lunacy in front of him, the pharmacist assured WMC that the vaccine was safe and had been researched, reviewed and approved by experts.  WMC wanted to know how the pharmacist knew this.  The pharmacist replied that it was in the medical and pharmaceutical journals and was in the news, to which WMC replied that he does not believe half the things he hears in the news.  At this point, I wanted to ask him if he believed half the things he reads in the medical or pharmaceutical journals -- or the farm report for that matter -- but it was at this point that my wife, who has much more sense than I do, decided we had heard more than enough and steered me away from WMC and towards the automatic coffee grinders.

We are guessing that WMC did not take the pharmacist up on the vaccine offer, as he was seen walking around the dairy section of the store less than fifteen minutes later.

And all of this is a tragedy.  Not only did WMC not receive a COVID vaccine that day, but he likely remains at risk for getting worms as well.

oh, wyoming...

This is one that has been waiting to be written since this past spring, just after we arrived in the Cowboy State.

Over the course of the summer, my wife and I have been unfriended by a person on facebook.  This is a person who is part of a group we had hung with for several years during the summers, with whom we had attended concerts and shows and we had to the house overnight on more than one occasion.  This person had been one of the friends my wife turned to for help when she was hospitalized while I was out of town.

During the course of the pandemic, we had been unable to get to our summer house in the west.  We spent a great deal of time dreaming of when we would be able to return and resume our friendships and enjoy the beauty of this great state.  After more than a year and a half, we were finally able to come here in May, and have been here ever since.  Once we got here, we notified our friends that we were back and looking forward to seeing all.  

Then we waited.

And waited.

After about a month, we finally heard from our "friend".  We got together for drinks and dinner, and were told, in essence, that we were on the outs with everyone.  I am not going to name the "friend" or even identify the "friend" by gender.  The plural will be used where otherwise indicating gender is unavoidable.

Our crimes(s)?

For the both of us, it turns out that our joint crime was Stitched Together Long Island, the group we founded together and was run primarily by my wife, that in the earlier days of the pandemic ended up with more than two thousand members on Long Island, and with our sister groups, primarily the original founding group in California run by my sister in law and her daughter, ended up making and distributing approximately five hundred thousand masks to need based groups, first responders and medical organizations that could not gain access to them via ordinary means.  As you can guess, our "friend" is anti-mask.  We were proudly told how they ripped their mask off the moment they were leaving stores, shooting the bird at the employees inside, to show they are independent and cannot be denied their "rights", whatever those rights are.  They will now not go to stores, restaurants, etc. that require masks.

We were also told that the friends all believe that we founded and ran Stitched Together so that we could get publicity.  For what, I am at a loss over, but there you go.

Our "friend" is, as you could also guess, anti-vax.  Part of our friendship banishment is that we have been vocal in pushing for everyone everywhere to be vaccinated.  Our "friend" claims the vaccines are nothing but poison.  They cannot tell you what the poison is, but it is poison, by golly!  

They also claim the rest of us are being manipulated by false statistics of deaths caused by COVID.  The logic here is that a person who dies of cardiac or respiratory arrest has not died of COVID, even if the death certificate states the cardiac or respiratory arrest was caused by the virus.  The further logic, if there is any, is that if the cause of death on the death certificate says cardiac or respiratory arrest, then the death was not caused or contributed to by COVID; therefore, it should not be counted as a COVID death, even if it is listed as a causal or contributing factor.

Mind you, our "friend" has taken the vaccine, but only did so when told they would not be allowed to visit grandchildren in another state.  In other words, when it suits their purposes, they will inject this "poison" into their system.

My personal crime?

This blog.

You know, the one that has had a total of five entries this entire year prior to this one.

Our "friend" tells us that the entire group is sick of the blog and how I "go on and on".  They wish I would just shut up.  Mind you, none of the others have told me this, then again, none of the others have said anything to me since our return in May.  It appears possible that our "friend" was sent as an emissary to shut me up, or they took it upon themselves with the tacit approval of the rest.

To put this mildly, I am not going to shut up, even if this blog is only published occasionally.

When I pointed out to our "friend" that the tenor of the posts in this blog has not changed at all over the course of the past couple of years while we were in New York, I was told that this is true, but times are now different.  There is no longer any tolerance among the friends for the kind of thinking and statements that are made in the blog, even if nothing in the blog is personal, and I try to avoid profanities, for the most part.  So, if I want to maintain certain friendships, I should no longer speak my mind on this blog, or anywhere where our "friend" and the rest of the "friends" may either see, hear or read it.  My First Amendment rights be damned, but they are still free to tell me what they think.

So I guess we are looking for new friends.

We will probably not look for them in Walgreen's, where just about nobody is wearing masks, and those few who are seated in the waiting area for vaccines of any kind are doing so without masks, right under signs that say anyone seated there must wear one.

We will probably not look for them in a couple of the auto repair shops and a laundromat in town that have hung signs pronouncing their undying MAGA love and "Trump Won!"

We will also probably not look for them from the various folks in the area who drive around or park their vehicles alongside the road festooned with MAGA flags and banners of all sorts, including the red, white and blue flags adorned with that all time great campaign/political slogan "Fuck Biden".

Finally, we will also probably not look for them at the announced "freedom" rally scheduled a couple of towns over from us in the next week or so, in which the speakers are going to be at the VFW railing about their freedoms being taken from them by anyone, especially anyone in the government or a school, who tells them to get vaccinated or wear a mask.  Our freedom to be able to go out in public confident that the person standing near us will not infect us with a deadly disease does not enter into the equation.

We will look for these new friends, and we will keep looking for them.  They have to be somewhere around here.

Oh, Wyoming...

life in wartime

On March 16, 2020, I was sent home from court when its closure was announced due to COVID-19 just as the court day was about to start.  You could see it coming a mile away.  In fact, a group of friends and I had predicted it about a week beforehand at brunch when we saw how the virus was starting to spread around the country and around the world without any leadership from those who could have done something to stop or slow it.  I have not stepped foot in a courthouse since that day.  I was not able to work from that day until approximately one year later, and can only work now due to the fact that my profession has figured out how to conduct that aspect that I earn my living doing via remote conferences.

During that year, I watched as persons I used to think had some intelligence, railed first against masks, then against the real experts who were trying to do something, and then against vaccines.  I watched the spoiled children play on the beaches and in the bars during spring break in Florida, encouraged by a deranged governor, who appears intent on killing his constituents.  I watched the spoiled brat interviewed on television, drunkenly proclaiming that no virus was going to stop him and his friends from having a good time.  I then watched a well dressed, well groomed middle aged white guy go on the same cameras and announce that he was not going to wear a mask "just to make you feel good".

And the virus spread.

We were unable to go to our summer home last year, as there was no way to get there.  Dining out?  Not until some of the restaurants opened for limited outside dining in the summer.  A movie? Forget it. We still have not gone to one, not even a drive in.  Sitting in the backyard became date night, but only if the neighbors were not outside as well.  Shopping had to be planned so we could get to the stores at hours where the crowds were minimal, at least compared to other times.  Even when we went shopping, the nearly empty shelves looked like refugees from the old Soviet Union.  Where we live, meats were rationed.  Toilet paper and paper towels were the new gold.  When we left the house, we masked and sometimes gloved, at least until the latex gloves we had on hand ran out.  There were none in the stores.

And some people still refused to wear masks.

And the virus spread.

We went for nearly a year without seeing our son who lives on the west coast, then got to see him very briefly when he was in New York on business for a couple of hours, outside, with masks on.  We did not see our daughter in law in person from January, 2020 until April, 2021.  During this time, she gave birth to our granddaughter.  We could not be there to help.  We desperately wanted to be there.  We saw our son who lives in another state and works in the healthcare profession going to work every day in a hazmat suit, working on the front lines in COVID units fighting to save lives by day and fighting off bigotry against him at night.  We were able to see him in person one single afternoon for the entire year in 2020, sitting outside his apartment with his partner.  We have seen them once so far this year.  We have prayed everyday for their health.  Some prayers were answered.  Some were not.  My mother is in her nineties.  She has essentially been stuck in her house for now nearly a year and a half.  Her mind is still sharp.  Her mobility is not.  Other than visiting when we can and the telephone, there is not much we can do for her, although fortunately, she is still able to care for herself.

Throughout, the same people still refused to wear masks.

And the virus spread.

Thanksgiving with my family was canceled.  Christmas with my wife's family was canceled.  Vacations with friends overseas were canceled.  No more evenings in the City.  No Broadway.  No concerts.  No simple get togethers.

Vaccines became available.  The vaccines are safe.  The vaccines work.  We rushed Mom to get hers.  We rushed to get ours.  I sat in the waiting area of Aqueduct Raceway in Queens, where I received my vaccine, and felt tears welling, figuring it was over.  People would get their shots.  We could get on with our lives.

I was wrong.

People refused to get vaccinated, many of them the same who refused to wear masks.  Politicians, pundits and others enabled them, and some, like that idiot in Florida, decreed that it would be illegal for businesses, government offices and schools to require vaccinations, thereby endangering the very people who were out there doing what they could to protect not only themselves, but those who refused to do their part to stop the spread, including that smug moron in the governor's mansion.

And many of the same folks who refused to wear masks, as well as others who think they know better than everybody else, including the real experts, refused to get vaccinated.

And the virus spread.

And the virus mutated.

We did manage to make it to our summer house this year.  The house is somewhat isolated from our neighbors, so it at least feels a bit safer.  There is no real way of knowing if it actually is or not.  We are not attending events we have routinely gone to in the past -- the county fair, concerts, music festivals, etc.  There has not been a single dinner out with local friends, many of whom are not vaccinated.  When we do go out to eat, we try to go during off times when there are few others in the restaurants.  Other than once, we have not gone to any local museums.  The nearby national parks are mobbed with out of town visitors.  We have no way of knowing who is vaccinated and who is not.  We assume many are not.  We will wait until the summer vacation has ended and the tourists have gone home to visit them.  All the while, when we go into the local stores, nobody, and I mean NOBODY is wearing a mask.  And in this state, the vast majority of people remain unvaccinated.

And the mutated virus has spread.

And still people refuse to get vaccinated.  The same people.  

Assholes.

Every single one of them.

Think there are no consequences to this?  On a practical and personal level, here is the result of those same, self-centered assholes who believe their rights are violated when they are asked to put on a mask or get vaccinated to protect themselves and everyone else, without giving any regard to the rights of everyone else out there to simply be healthy.

We are here.  For how long, we do not know.  Much depends upon whether or not traveling back to the east coast remains possible.  It could be worse, much worse.  We are presently healthy.  We have vacations planned and paid for, but do not know if they will go forward, even though they are not scheduled for many more months from now.  If they do not go forward, we will be angry and frustrated with the rest of you, but our present situation is not what anyone would consider dire.

Our son on the west coast is a member of a very well known band that tours around the world, making their living that way.  The band just announced cancellation of tour dates due to the virus, which is spreading due to the refusal of those same people to get vaccinated.  A major source of his income is now gone, because of the assholes -- and no other reason.  It is also worth noting that many of these assholes, especially the political types, are the ones who have been advocating cutting off unemployment benefits, and are the ones who are responsible for the expiration of eviction moratoriums around the country.  All of this will primarily effect working people WHO WORE MASKS WHEN ASKED TO, AND ARE VACCINATED.

Our son in the healthcare profession had been wondering a few months ago if he was going to need to switch jobs, as the unit he works in providing care to COVID patients seemed to be winding down.  He is now back to putting on a hazmat suit at work every day, dealing with an overflowing COVID unit, filled primarily, if not just about exclusively, with patients who refused to get vaccinated, exposing himself to the consequences of their irresponsibility and downright stupidity, and then being forced to go to the basement of his home after work to decontaminate before he goes upstairs to his home due to the fact that his partner is severely immunocompromised.  And we are living in fear of the consequences of his day to day responsibilities at work, and praying for him and his partner again.

And the mutating virus continues to spread.

I will not mince words.  I am finished with that.

The spread of this virus and the practical and personal consequences of that spread are the responsibility of the assholes and their enablers who refused to wear masks and now refuse to get vaccinated.

Every single one of you.

Assholes.

facemasks and jews

One of the frustrating things about having a blog is the constant vague, underlying feeling that there is an obligation to actually write something every now and then.  This is especially true when you have a blog, such as this one, in which you really do not publish much very often.  The last White Fluffy Duckies was written and published nearly two months ago.  Frankly, I thought it had been longer than that.  I have found it increasingly difficult over the past year or so to come back here and record my thoughts, as society as a whole has become increasingly depressing.

Then there are those entries that practically write themselves.

Today, we will very briefly touch upon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.  At the outset, I will state that I will not dignify her by using her name again.  Much like the former guy, mostly known in this space as cadet bone spurs, she will henceforth be relegated to identification by nickname, reference and ridicule, which is still probably more than she deserves.  For obvious reasons, we will refer to her mostly by the title she probably adores, Rep. QAnon.

Over the course of the past few days, in addition to a myriad of of ignorant and insulting statements she has made over the years, including during the relatively brief the time she has been a member of congress, Rep. QAnon has equated mask mandates during a public health pandemic that has already killed more than six hundred thousand people in this country alone to the treatment of Jews at the hands of nazis in World War Two.  She has specifically stated that forcing people to wear masks in public is just like the treatment Jews in concentration camps felt when being herded off to gas chambers.  When the predictable outrage ensued, she doubled down, and said that there was nothing wrong at all in what she had said.

Nothing wrong.

She equated a public health measure that just about every public health authority endorses as saving lives with the mass slaughter of Jews by nazis, a deliberate genocidal attempt to eradicate the planet of Jews.  

Six million.

Six million Jews.

All killed.  

Deliberately.  

Ruthlessly.

And this cretin thinks it's the same thing as asking people to wear masks to help overcome a pandemic.

Somehow, placing a piece of cloth over your nose and mouth in an attempt to prevent the spread of a deadly virus is the same as gassing Jews.  We have reached the point where public health measures are to some people the equivalent of mass genocide. 

Let me teach Rep. QAnon a few words and places from history.  Maybe she should look them up in history books before she equates public health with genocide again.  I am not going to define them for her here, as it is just a waste of time.  For anyone to truly learn, they need to look this up themselves.

Holocaust.

Shoah.

Warsaw Ghetto.

Auschwitz.

Treblinka.

Bergen-Belson.

Sobibor.

And what is most personal to me, November 3, 1943.

I seriously doubt Rep. QAnon knows much about each of these terms, places and dates.  I doubt that she knows anything at all of the significance of November 3, 1943.  For that much I will offer a brief history lesson.

November 3, 1943 is known in the history of the Holocaust as "The Harvest Festival".  It is the day the nazis decided Jews were going to be exterminated.  Approximately forty-two thousand Jews were murdered in concentration camps that day throughout Europe, the single largest mass murder in a single day in history.  Nearly eighteen thousand alone were killed at a concentration camp in Majdanek.  Included in that number were members of my father's family -- my family -- who had not managed to escape Frompl, Poland before the outbreak of the war.  Those members of my family were likely killed that day.  The remains of the Majdanek camp still exists.  Tours are offered, including the barracks Jews were stored in while awaiting their fate, the gas chambers and the ovens.  There is also a large memorial which consists of a mountain of ashes covered from the elements.  You can walk up steps on the side of the mountain of ashes and peer over the edge.  What you will see are ashes of the people killed at Majdanek.  Included are members of my family.  

The ashes, the horrors, they still exist.  

Frompl no longer exists.  

My family, including great grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins, also no longer exist.

But Rep. QAnon still exists, as do people who think like her.  The deliberate ignorance she spouts still exists.  It is for Rep. QAnon and people of her ilk that for nearly eighty years my people have repeated the phrase --

"Never Again".

Never Again should one group of people be allowed to exterminate another for the simple reason that they are not like "us", whomever "us" may be.

Never Again should we allow ignorance and malice to flourish to the point where one people think they have the right to eradicate another, or to make false equivalences to measures having nothing whatsoever to do with Shoah.

About six months ago, a person who had been a friend on facebook published a photograph there of a nazi soldier harassing a small boy, one of those infamous "papers please" moments, and equated it with mask mandates.  I immediately unfriended her and have not seen her on my facebook feed since, nor do I wish to.  

And I say this now.

If there are any other "friends" out there who feel the same way, who think that public health measures designed to prevent the spread of a deadly virus are the same as sending Jews off to gas chambers, please spare me the job of finding out who you are.

Just unfriend me.