Being quarantined during the pandemic is a horrible drag, but you know, there are some good things that have come out of it. Like having time to work on something with few distractions, doing more gardening, cooking or home repair, more walks, hikes, or bike rides, spending more time with a spouse or family member, or reconnecting with distant friends using video conferencing.
Leave a comment about things that changed due to Covid-19, which made your life better, even if only a little. I’ll start by saying that I’ve re-discovered this wonderful device called the telephone. Now that most people are stuck at home, they actually answer their phone, and are happy to converse extensively with you, even if you haven’t talked for ages.
To get you in the right mood, here’s a sweet music video:
Bernie Sanders has been getting quite a bit of attention just for sitting in his chair during the inauguration, wearing his famous coat and a big pair of mittens. I’m not sure how many memes have been created from that, putting Bernie sitting somewhere else. But this is the one that made me laugh the most.
If you thought that Trump’s defeat would give the GOP pause to wonder if maybe, just maybe, they are doing something wrong… Well, then you are wrong. Isn’t there some saying about “fool me twice?”
Wednesday night, after the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, there were protests in at least two cities — Portland OR and Seattle WA — that turned violent. In Portland, protesters smashed doors and broke windows of the Democratic Party headquarters, set a small dumpster on fire, and sprayed graffiti on outside walls (including “Fuck Biden”). At least 8 people were arrested.
Even more annoying, marching protesters carried large banners and signs saying “We don’t want Biden, we want revenge! For police murders, imperialist wars and fascist massacres”, and “We are ungovernable”.
In Seattle there was also some vandalism, and crowds chanted “Antifa!” and “No cops, no prisons, total abolition!”
I have to say, this was really such a stupid thing to do, I wondered (mistakenly) if it was a false flag operation by the right. After all, the sacking of the US Capitol on Jan 6 totally backfired on the participants. Not only did they not get what they wanted, it turned most of the nation against them. And gave Republicans who supported the “stop the steal” lies an opportunity to claim “both sides do it”.
Justice is a worthy goal. Revenge never is. Actions like these two protests make it less likely that justice will be served.
The removal of his orangeness should be a cause for a joyful celebration. And there were plenty of happy, peaceful demonstrations going on in Portland and Seattle (and many other places) that day. We need more of that, not violence and destruction. If you want to change people’s minds, follow the examples of Gandhi and MLK Jr.
Let me be clear, I am unequivocally denouncing this violence, and would do that even if I agreed with any goals of the people doing it. But this Wednesday’s violence and destruction was absolutely stupid violence and destruction.
I would not say that violence is never ever justified, and people who do say that are often being hypocritical. After all, our country celebrates the Boston Tea Party, which was definitely violent and led to destruction of property (and the start of the American revolution). And I personally believe that war against the Nazis was justified.
Bottom line — the people who participated in the violence in Portland and Seattle should be appropriately punished for their actions. And Democrats and other liberals should condemn them.
I love it when the media does my job for me. Politico published a series of cartoons from the Trump years. For each major event, they had Matt Wuerker (a great comic artist in his own right) pick one Republican leaning cartoon and one Democratic cartoon.
The whole series is worth looking at. But to whet your interest, here are the two cartoons from the early days of the Covid pandemic:
Joe Biden is now the President of the United States. There was no violence at the Capitol. In fact, there was no violence at any of the state capitols, despite warnings. I guess this is the way the insurrection ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
Speaking of hollow things, QAnon seems to be in disarray. Perhaps their desired “Great Awakening” happened after all, except that they became woke to the fact that “We all got played”.
When one die-hard QAnon adherent posted a new theory that Biden was “part of the plan”, the responses included “This will never happen”, “Just stfu already!”, “It”s over. It is sadly, sadly over.” And ultimately “What a fraud!”, “Wake up. We’ve been had.”
Even the “Proud Boys” are not so proud anymore. They were expecting Trump to pardon the Capitol rioters, but now that he has left the building, they are waking to the fact that he just didn’t care. Like everyone else, the insurgents were thrown “under the bus” by Trump.
Can’t wait for him to be gone? Here’s a wonderful eviction clock. Actually, they have three versions: potty mouth, no profanity, and the Timothy version.
Enjoy!
Interestingly, a new Gallup poll shows the soon-to-be ex-president with the lowest approval rating since polling began. Another poll shows that a majority of Americans think that he is the worst president ever.
And speaking of leaving, a top member of the GOP in Wyoming has started talking about seceding from the US. I hope they don’t let the screen door slam on their way out.
Donald Trump will soon be gone, but not forgotten. Because the Museum of London has added the Trump Baby Blimp to its collection. The blimp will be added to the museum’s protest collection, which includes items from the women’s suffrage movement and anti-war protests. The blimp greeted Trump when he visited London in 2018.
Republicans, especially Lindsey Graham, think that the best thing we can do to heal the nation is to let Donald Trump get away with all of his crimes and lies. Methinks that is far more likely to encourage racism, division, and corruption. After all, Trump is still claiming that he actually won the election in a landslide, and praises insurrectionists and white supremacists. How the hell is that going to encourage healing?
Heal my ass. After all, we are still seeing record numbers of deaths due to Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic.
Not to mention that Graham said just a week ago that he was done with Trump. And then jumped on Air Force One with him for a political photo op in Texas. And now this. One can only hope that the voters of South Carolina figure out Graham is a spineless opportunist with no morals or principles.
Alabama’s new GOP Senator Tommy Tuberville is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. As Groucho Marx said in Duck Soup, “He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don’t let that fool you. He really is an idiot.” According to the Alabama site AL.com:
As a candidate, Tommy Tuberville was scared to debate incumbent U.S. Senator Doug Jones. He refused to talk with reporters throughout his campaign. The only thing the former Auburn football coach promised to do was ‘stand with Trump.’ And now we know why. Tubs is about as bright as a bucket of mud.
In the ADN interview, Tuberville said that the three branches of our government are “the House, the Senate and executive.” Football must not have been kind to him. Even his name looks like “tuber-ville”, which I guess means villagepotato, although he pronounces “tuber” like “TUBB-er”. He prefers to be called “coach”.
We probably could have had a swearing-in and inauguration later after we got this virus behind us a little bit. Again, we’re talking about Washington, D.C.
The TV station noted that it was not clear if Tuberville was aware that the Constitution requires the “inauguration and swearing-in” of a President to take place on January 20th.
Even more ironic is that the Constitution requires that if a new president is not sworn in at noon on that day, then the presidency devolves according to a strict line of succession. Which means that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would become the new US President. I won’t even wonder whether Tubs is aware of that.
On Sunday I posted the video from former California governor (and movie Terminator) Arnold Schwartenegger. This video has totally gone viral.
The tweet has more than 1.1 million likes, which is better than Trump has ever done. Actually, that’s not entirely true. Trump did have one tweet that did better, with 1.9 million likes. However, that tweet was the announcement that he had contracted COVID-19, so we suspect that those likes weren’t coming from approving supporters.
This quote was published only a couple of hours ago, and as I write this, Schwartenegger’s tweet has already passed 1.2 million likes. Can we go for 2 million likes?
In addition, it was also posted by Schwartenegger to YouTube, and also posted by over a dozen news organizations, gaining millions of additional views and a third of a million likes (and that’s just the ones I could find).
