There’s no way to parse the Manchin “no” vote threat apart from it being the sad result of pressure from his donors. As many reports are noting, he can hide behind the reasoning that the BBB bill is too expensive, but the reality is more likely to be that he simply remains in the pocket of the Koch brothers and Big Coal and natural gas concerns.

The seeming fact that one person can derail programs that are wildly popular even among West Virginians—never mind the whole country—is just another reason to be angry about the state of our government, the power of Fox News, and the selective use of polling.

Maybe the biggest travesty in an age full of them is that Joe Manchin will be remembered as the principled one who stood up to the “pressure” of other members of his party (what party is he a part of again?) and voted his conscience.

Yeah, that’s what he was doing.

Do you ever wonder how things would be different if Jesus burst on the scene in today’s world instead of ancient Palestine? Would his teachings stand up, be the same? Would he be able to get his bearings and understand the dynamics of a world which in significant ways is better understood by its inhabitants?

          Would he even be relevant? People would chew him up on Twitter. He’d offend large swaths of the population in one way or another. So, yes, he’d be as relevant as he ever was. Some would listen with detached fascination, others would believe wholeheartedly. Others would derisively dismiss him. Still others would look for ways to silence him.

So I dare think that his mission and purpose would be exactly the same. The human dynamics haven’t changed. We are still full of ourselves, easily tempted and distracted, self-involved, hell-bent on “going it alone” and living life on our terms.

His fate would be sealed at the hands of people who felt threatened by his popularity and deference for the poor. Their consciences would be pricked by his insistence on living a clean, honest, God-fearing life. And they’d never grasp the grace, the capacity for forgiving and loving those we consider unlovable.

So, welcome to what’s left of 2021, Jesus. You’d fit right in.

As much as you could ever fit in.

An article, sponsored by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and first reported on in The Guardian several years ago, examined five key factors that led to the collapse of civilizations such as the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty in China:  population, climate, water, agriculture, and energy.

          The study found that civilizations collapse when these factors coalesce in such a way that natural resources are stretched at the same time the gap between the rich and the poor increases.

          The upshot? Our end will not come because resources run low. Rather it will be hastened by a skewed distribution of those resources as a result of good old-fashioned greed.

          Whether or not this study has any more validity than others of the sort will of course be a matter of opinion and born out with the passage of time.

          But might it get us thinking, at least?

          Regardless of which side of the aisle we’re on- whether we’re red-staters or blue-staters or somewhere in between- our Christian calling requires of us that we be not only mindful of inequality and injustice, but that we find ways to work toward eradicating these things.

          Maybe this study only serves to reinforce something we already know but don’t like to admit: that wealth and power have a numbing, insulating effect on the heart, that lifestyles of wealth and power often enough will be fed and sustained at just about any and anyone’s expense.

          The authors of this study suggest that the collapse of civilization as we know it might not be all that different from what happens in movies like “Blade Runner,” “Elysium,” and “The Hunger Games.”    God help us.

In one of the newsfeeds I subscribe to, there was an article written by someone who was dissatisfied with his recent IPhone purchase. In fact, he used the word “hate.”

          Apparently, he couldn’t navigate the screen with one hand.

          For folks who depend on their technology to get them through the day and handle the tasks on their plates, this inconvenience may loom a lot larger than for the rest of us who might be ready to break out our air violins or offer a derisive, “Are you serious?”

          This critic returned to another current IPhone model for his smartphone needs, so hopefully he found happiness there. His parting shot for the folks at Apple included surprise and disappointment that the designers hadn’t anticipated this hiccup in form and function.

Turns out they apparently hadn’t thought of everything.

For some of us who will never invent anything or risk even the most modest of failures, critique of advanced pieces of technology like smartphones or a host of other items we’d like for Christmas might seem misplaced and somehow uncalled for. For some of us who just consume and use without any thought for how these wondrous things were developed or actually work, such critique may sound a lot like whining.

Maybe the folks at Apple- or any other company- feel the same way, but they say they appreciate the feedback and tweek their products, trying to keep the customer satisfied.

“He’s destroying his legacy.”

What legacy would that be? It’s laughable, if not for being so sad.

Eight hundred thousand and counting.

Health care systems and workers who keep having to tell the public that they can’t do what they do much longer. Attrition, exhaustion, retirement, anger, frustration, running on empty, a dissipation of empathy. When this scourge finally subsides, our doctors and nurses and EMTs and vaccine researchers should be up for a Congressional medal of some sort. And the Fox News crowd have to stop being mad at Fauci and Osterholm and the CDC and anyone else who’s trying to tell it like it is with regard to the pandemic.

I can’t imagine there are many of us on either side of the issues who want this thing to linger. But it is what it is. Covid-19 is doing what viruses do when there’s a robust supply of defenseless targets. It evolves, to the point of finding ways to go after the ones who think they’re protected! Between vaccine skepticism and misinformation and inequitable distribution of the vaccines worldwide, none of what’s happened and is happening should be remotely surprising. Disheartening and disappointing for sure, but not surprising.

We all know how to wear a mask and keep our distance and wash our hands. If more of us had actually done these things early on, we wouldn’t still be talking about this right now. And let’s not forget the three vaccines at our disposal.

Three of them. Readily available here in America.

Read most of an article in The Atlantic yesterday by someone who says that for him and his family, Covid has been over for a long time. That it has never really been an issue, in fact. He appeared to downplay the reaction by people on the left and people in the medical and infectious disease communities, and pretty much poked holes in the way this whole pandemic has been approached.

It struck me as just another dose of the smug, ignorant tone-deafness that has defined the laissez-faire and faux-patriotic attitude toward common sense precautions like masks and social distancing, and vaccines. Just a lot of words that don’t really say anything, as far as I’m concerned. There seems to be great difficulty simply acknowledging that a pandemic isn’t normal, and that people more knowledgeable on the subject are genuinely—and legitimately– concerned. It’s not just another flu season.

People of this mindset speak with unwarranted authority on a topic in which they are not well-versed. They have opinions. They wonder what all the fuss is about because thus far they and their immediate families have somehow been fortunate enough to avoid any effect of the virus.

This writer smugly wears his good fortune and twists the knife on those in the medical and public health fields who are trying to warn the public of the danger in not caring. He takes pot shots at the way we have proceeded—seemingly of the mind that the whole thing has been nothing to be concerned about, really. Almost like he, from his self-appointed lofty perch, could be doing a better job. This seems recklessly cavalier.

It has me thinking about karma, and hoping that he gets a dose. He sounds an awful lot like a smart ass, so maybe there’s a place for him somewhere in the DeSantis administration.

Sometimes it seems wrong that our attention as a nation isn’t riveted on certain events and situations unfolding around and among us. Like yesterday… the NFL Sunday games unfolded on schedule, millions tuned in, and all the while this massive tragedy was playing out in MO and KY and AR and elsewhere, as thousands of people walked around in a daze because their houses and towns and cities have been reduced to piles of rubble and so many have died, all as Christmas and winter approach and a god-forsaken pandemic continues. If the DJIA rises today, well, I don’t know what that means, other than being indicative of some giant disconnect.

Anyway, a supercell storm and one tornado that stayed on the ground for over 200 miles? At night? In December? Sounds like a slice of devilish hell to me. In one sense, it’s a grievously painful reminder that we are always living alongside and at the mercy of forces that are way beyond our capacity to control (unless this was exacerbated by climate change), but also it’s one more gigantic thing along with the fifty other gigantic things that people are dealing with right now. What are we all supposed to be learning from this? You’d think that many will not come back from it—emotionally, financially, and all other ways.

Note to insurance companies—have the chickens come home to roost yet? Pretty nice gig you have there, until the “acts of God” start piling up and you have to shell out all that premium money.

These are hard times. And fuck you, Vladimir P. Nothing like a war to inflate your diminutive stature, grease the wheels of commerce, and add to the darkness.

She said she had decided to get the booster after being encouraged by family members and her doctor. She had to consult with everyone first. I understand that I’m not her, I’m not nearly 90 years old. She may have concerns about side effects, given her age. But it was something else alongside her predictable concern that had me realizing she’s jumped on the freedom and rights bandwagon. That no one should be forced to get the vaccine.

She said it was hard to know what to do.

My immediate thought was, “No. It’s not hard at all!” It’s just that there is and has been a mystifying resistance to this readily available weapon in our embarrassingly feeble and unnecessarily prolonged fight against Covid-19. It’s not hard at all. You get the vaccine. You get the booster.

I talked things over with my doctor, too, but I wasn’t looking for reasons not to get it. I was hoping for—and got—what I’m thinking is the implied sentiment from many a GP across the nation—it’s a fucking no-brainer. Get the shot(s), get the booster, keep the god-awful virus at bay, do your part to keep food off its plate.

Your doctor will tell you if there is any actual reason not to get vaccinated. Just don’t let your final decision be based on what the anti-experts and pond scum at Fox News are spewing. It’s not hard. It’s never been hard, though it has been a matter of listening to people who actually know what they’re talking about.

Ah, freedom. To paraphrase Inigo Montoya, I don’t think that word means what you think it means. Think. You have a brain. Use your head for something besides a hat rack.

The latest school shooting, in Michigan—the 28^th of the year—really pissed me off, for some reason. I guess no more or less than any of the other TWENTY-SEVEN, but can’t enough be enough? Can’t this one serve as a catalyst of some sort, the precipitating event that gets the right peoples’ attention?

He used a gun his father had bought 3 days earlier. He is 15 years old. He walked into a school and killed 4 unsuspecting human beings with intent to kill more. There’s something ghastly and monstrous about that. Something that apparently we are too numb to react to anymore. Or maybe we’ve just stopped caring. There’s Christmas shopping to do, after all. And with the supply chain issues, well, it’s a zoo out there.

This is the America folks are OK with?