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Where I was when conspiracy theorists blitzed Congress

For posterity:  I was asleep. I was dozing in a very uncomfortable position trying not to bother my cat Gavin, who was also asleep. The potential for violence was always there. Not from Gavin, but the protesters. For days on social media they had been wishing family members goodbye and going off to war. I still thought of it as cosplay. I thought that the crowd would be smaller than small and it would be a disappointment to the right and it would be fine.  I checked Twitter when I woke up. It had already happened. The unwashed masses were piddling in the halls of power.  We were up late into the night watching the news and we did not go to sleep until the tally was finished.  I took a break during the House's objection to the Pennsylvania count. I don't need to hear the conspiracy theories anymore. There is only so much one can take.  What happened was a preventable, total security lapse at the Capitol. But it's the endpoint of demagoguery, isn't it? These peopl...

Dark Times

I'm trying to think which metaphors to mix in order to convey the universal badness of everything at the moment. Are we at a nadir in American civilization, or perhaps at the edge of a precipice overlooking that nadir? Or perhaps in a dumpster fire perched at the edge of a precipice overlooking the nadir of American civilization? Ugh. It's bad, people.  The international news for the last several weeks has been leading with the coronavirus, and I consume a lot of international news. Also, I've long followed some infectious disease experts who share my enthusiasm for vaccines. This story has never been good and as far as I can tell there has never been a hint of containment. I've been stocking up for about a month preparing for this damned virus, coming home with a couple of extra cans of food to set aside each night, popping into Walmart at off hours to pick up hand sanitizer, Lysol, and bleach wipes, and ordering kit from Amazon like a thermometer and blood oxy...