Sometimes You Just Need A Bit Of July...

 

Hi!

So the new year has begun. We're in it. Boy, are we ever.

I know the photos above don't exactly depict my surroundings in good old Saskatchewan in January, but, ya know, sometimes you just need a bit of July to hold your hand in the dark. And it IS dark. A lot. Oh, and don't forget about the fact that it hurts to breathe outside because of the -40-ish windchills we have been dealing with.... for over a week straight. So.... yeah.... a couple of pics of July were in order. 

We do have some barnacles from 2021 hanging on, but, hopefully, they will be removed before too long. New variants of this nasty bug are wreaking havoc all over the world.

There are breakthrough cases, for sure, but you are still much better off with a full regimen of vaccines on board. Unvaccinated folks are still much more likely to get really sick, become long haulers, or die.

Throughout this ordeal, I've known people who have had covid and didn't get much more than a bit of a cough. I've known people who have had covid, flirted with death more than once, and continue to suffer long haul symptoms, and likely will for the rest of their lives. I've known people who contracted this virus, and in little more than a blink, were gone forever. The ones with the sniffles? Vaccinated. The others? Not. 

Throughout this ordeal, predators and grifters have fed those who choose to listen, a continuous, gluttonous diet of pure, unadulterated bull crap, using misinformation to gain wealth, fame, and ratings. They prey upon those most susceptible to conspiracies, those easily drawn to the drama, those who tend to gravitate toward the 'us against them' narrative. 

They have used their nonsense to fundraise, and cause mistrust, spinning their twisted tales to grease the wheels of whatever self-serving, flavour-of-the-week fear they draw from that week's hat. They have tried to portray lifelong epidemiologists who have spent their lifetimes researching and fighting disease and viruses the world over, as villains. They've lied about them to the point that they receive death threats, threats to their children, and grandchildren. These scientists and doctors are not villains. They are just trying to do their jobs, just like they have for decades. This is no different. At least it wasn't until the storm of BS took over. 

The liars have tried to show information sussed out through peer-reviewed scrutiny, the data put together, picked apart, and then put back together by long-standing medical journals as equivalent to some person in a lab coat, with no confirmable credentials, on youtube, declaring that they've 'done their own research.' 

Their theory. If you repeat lies long enough, loud enough, and often enough, you will get just enough people to believe you to fulfill your needs.

The lies need not make sense. Obviously.

The lies need to stoke fear. Stoke enough fear to fold into anger. Stoke the anger to make it big, and loud. Stoke the noise to try and drown out the truth. 

Does this change facts? No. Not even a little. Facts are stubborn things. It just makes it so just enough people don't trust them. 

I've seen interview after interview with people who believe the garbage. The garbage about the virus, the vaccines, garbage about how the asshat former president should somehow still be President of the USA, garbage about JFK jr coming back to life, an endless sea of garbage.

Although we don't have as many cult followers here in Canada, we do have some. The poison seems to have seeped Northward. 

From where I sit, what I feel will have the most perilous outcome, are the lies that are threatening America's democracy. 

Eventually, and I know it's cold to say so, the Covid thing will sort itself out. Eventually. Vaccines are readily, and plentifully available, and free. Either people will take it, or not. People will choose to play Russian roulette with this thing or they won't. You can't fix stupid. My heart breaks for the children. The children who, through no fault or choice of their own, become unwitting collateral damage in this race to the death in this idiot Olympics. 

There are too many people on this planet who would love nothing more than to have the opportunity to get themselves and their families vaccinated. 

Privilege. 

So, the other thing. A year ago, our friends to the south came very close to having their free, and fair election overturned by a mob of delusional lunatics who were following the orders of their cult leader. When that didn't work, the Cheeto's buddies went to work to change things at the local levels so they can do a better job next time. They are busily putting rules and people in place at state and county levels so that if the outcome of future elections doesn't fit their game plan, they can just get rid of ballots, and/or hinder enough votes, to make the result more to their liking. 

This sounds dystopian. This sounds like something out of a bad movie. If you check into it though, that's exactly what is happening. The swing states are the only states that matter. The way their elections are set up, the way the electoral college dictates who wins, the swing states are all they need. So that is where they are focusing their efforts. 

Why do I care? I'm not American. I don't live there. I've never been there. So.... why?

America is inarguably the biggest democracy in the world. They are dangerously close to becoming a country in which the Republican party could very well stack the deck to the point of autocracy. Republicans are maneuvering the system in a way that will make it impossible for another party to win. They will have perpetual power.

Republicans have given up trying to win on policy and ideas. Any ideas they have put forward are wildly unpopular. Stripping abortion rights, strangling voter rights, making the rich richer and, well, if you're poor it's your own fault, work 70 or 80 hours a week to make rent and your boss richer. How dare you ask for healthcare, I will lecture you on how we can't afford it from my private golf club. 

What happens if they succeed?

Having a country run by the worst of the queerphobic, anti-science, underprivilege-stomping, racist Karens as a next-door neighbour. Forgive me if this doesn't thrill me. 

For now, we watch and wait. For now, we hope. 

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Until next time.... for our fellow Canucks in the cold...

May your block heater always work, your shovel never disappear, your furnace never quit.

May your cord never get accidentally unplugged, and last year's car emergency gear still fit.

May you stay toasty and warm, in the layers of clothing other countries will never understand.

May your kids lose no toques, come home in their own boots, their own mittens on their hands.

May you stay safe, here, where it hurts to breathe, and frostbite happens more often than a sunburn.

May those who are new here, we apologize, we know it sucks, how cold can burn. 

May we get through the lack of sun, the lack of heat, the abundance of homicidal ground.

May we take advantage, snuggle, read, watch movies, in the darkness, light can always be found. 

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