Today in Sucky Politics

I usually try to avoid the news and politics in general but that is virtually impossible this week as we watch our country slowly circling the drain... :(

• Today is the 24th anniversary of the September 11th attacks (and the utter failure of all of our intelligence agencies. And the sudden collapse of building 7 for no apparent reason...).
• Yesterday I was truly saddened to hear about Charlie Kirk being assassinated.  I thought he was a bit too far right but his debate style as he traveled to colleges around the country was intelligent, articulate, and a joy to watch.  Then some pinhead on MSNBC said that if you say things people don't like you should expect to be shot...apparently he missed the whole Bill of Rights/Freedom of Speech thing we all learn in elementary school.
• A couple days ago Poland shot down Russian drones.  Poland is part of NATO, the US is part of NATO, and the call to drag the US into war is growing.
• For some reason Israel (the people who know better than most about genocide which is now trying to kill off all of the Gazans), randomly decided to bomb six different countries within the last few days.  Again, the war drums are getting louder.
• The Ukrainian woman in North Carolins who was randomly murdered while riding the bus has been politicized to the nth degree when this is more the direct result of closing the mental institutions in our country.  There is no place--or political impetus--to lock down the criminally mentally ill so they are left to just wander the streets until they literally kill someone and wind up in prison.
• In other news this week, the US bombed a bunch of unidentified people in a boat in Venezuela, Nepal's parliament was set on fire, and the French government collapsed. 

My favorite things to do this week as we watch the world burn are watching SB Mowing (watched with the sound off at double speed), dreaming about moving to the hinterlands of rural Maine, and watching cute animal videos.

The State of the World...

...is a god-awful mess but here are some nice flowers to look at.

So far this past week or so...

• The Canada trucker convoy/Trudeau enacts emergency powers/Trudeau rescind emergency powers thing.  I know very little about Canadian politic but it was interesting watching discussions in the House of Commons, it was awful that people's bank accounts could be randomly seized, and then just like that the whole thing seemed to be forgotten.
• Speaking of convoys, American truckers just started their convoy...their timing couldn't be worse as they started this just as war was breaking out so their cause has become kind of a non-issue.
  
• Covid seems to be dropping off the radar as well.  That was fast!
  
• What we are noticing are higher food prices, higher gas prices, and general inflation on just about everything. Bummer.
  
• Also, the Olympics were a dud.  After they let the girl who failed the drug test continue to compete for some unknown reason, we stopped watching the Olympics.  If sports competitions aren't fair it takes all of the fun out of watching them.
• Finally, Russia attacked Ukraine leading to a full-fledged war between the two countries.  This is leading some people to speculate World War 3 is just around the corner.  Eeekkk

I don't know whether to ignore the news all together or start putting together a bunker!  

Did I Say 'What Could Be Worse Than 2020?'

Remind me not to ask such questions again.  I was hoping 2021 would be a much better year than 2020 because what could be worse than a global pandemic, economic devastation for many, and supply chain disruptions?  An attempted siege of our nation's capital building wasn't even a possibility until a few days ago!

I swear people have lost their minds (not you people but mostly everyone else).  I would love to go back to a non-pandemic, financial prosperity for all sort of life but I think that may be asking too much this year.

For now we'll just keep our heads down, keep living our life, strive to get our house paid off, get several renovation projects done, and stockpile more savings too.  I try to stay off social media/regular media as much as possible because it just makes you hate everyone, and I try to walk and do deep breathing exercises more often as both are very relaxing.

On a happy note, we have sent three boxes of stuff to the Philippines, the weather is always bright and sunny here, and I finally figured out how to fix my messaging app and the battery drain issue on my cell phone (a hard reset and changing several app settings fixed these issues).

I hope you are all doing fine at the start of this year and I will keep hoping for peace and prosperity for all!