I’m elated that Trump isn’t president anymore, but Joe Biden does little for me, in terms of inspiring confidence. He never has. He’s showing his age, he squints at the camera all the time. He may show empathy, which is a good thing, but there’s something about him that evokes feelings that he’s just a career politician going through the motions, perhaps in over his head.

It’s ok that he won mainly because people had had way more than enough of Trump and he wasn’t Trump. Congress and the Presidency are barely blue right now because enough people in the country were mobilized and inspired to vote for a change in direction, to send a rebuke to a useless autocrat and those around him who seemed hellbent on destroying this country and the planet.

Biden isn’t Trump, but this doesn’t mean Biden is anyone to write home about. After the nightmare that was (and would be again) Trump, what we’re seeing now is over-compensation, a sigh of relief by an underwhelming majority of Americans.

The monster is lurking, though. It is licking its wounds, it is pissed, and it is already angling for a re-emergence in 2022, nevermind 2024. Our window of opportunity for enjoying a period of sanity and relative competence may not be open for all that long.

Let me get this straight… immediately following the impeachment vote, Mitch McConnell pretty much tore Donald Trump a new one, threw him under the bus, claiming for all to hear that Trump was indeed complicit in the things he had been accused of, and inferring that he would stand accountable in any civil trials that might unfold.

But now there are headlines stating that Mitch would “absolutely” support Trump if he received the GOP nomination for President in 2024.

This country is a mess.

The Republicans are going to stonewall the covid relief package for as long as they can, even as polls suggest a majority of Americans are in favor of it.

I get that you shouldn’t necessarily be swayed by what Americans are polling in favor of– hell, who doesn’t simply like a sweeter deal, more money in their pocket? Polls of this nature are an inaccurate indicator of what may be sensible and fiscally sound. But these are not normal times we’re living in. People are hurting. Something needs to happen, relief of some sort needs to come. The Dems may end up doing this whole thing on their own. So be it.

And what is the role of the parliamentarian? Can we rest assured that she is really unbiased, or immune to influence?

What is it that entices people down the path of making creepy videos backed with a head-banging track, with the most annoying, hateful music on earth? And with formulaic, hate-filled, coded language about “acceleration”, reeking of white supremacy and Naziism. How can this still get any traction?

It can only exist on the fringes, on the dark web, yet it still emerges to see the light of day on the Capitol steps and in the halls of Congress. It gets coverage on reputable networks.

Pundits are right in asking why there are still so many unanswered questions about the events of January 6. And of course, one must figure that Trump had something to do with the sloth-like response of law enforcement. How could an apparatus that normally eats, drinks, and sleeps security be so ill-prepared when they had to know that an angry, motivated crowd was going to show up?

Seems like a strange time to let your guard down.

What is up with the seemingly sudden proliferation of sports betting ads?

Call me a prude, but this looks and feels like an assault by a truly slimy player, with a slick, unapologetic tact that attempts to portray the “industry” as having become mainstream, somehow. People extolling its praises, making it sound legitimate, even trustworthy, borderline virtuous.

I realize it adds revenue for networks and local stations, but something doesn’t feel right about this. It hints at a certain desperation. And the whole enterprise preys on those who should probably be least involved.

Leave it to Fox Sports to plug it as an integral part of their NFL coverage (is it really Terry Bradshaw’s money?). And I guess other major networks are following suit.

In amongst the terabytes of data and millions of pages, will those who are poring over the Trump tax info find anything of value for their case? If history is any indicator, it’s not gonna matter. Trump will emerge unscathed. Again.

But he doesn’t have his butt-sniffing “friends” in Congress to protect him anymore. He can’t hide behind the office anymore.

It’s a shame he’s still in the news. It would be poetic justice if somehow, finally, enough evidence exists to “lock HIM up!”

There’s no way to comprehend 500,000 COVID-19-related deaths. In a little over a year.

The population of Atlanta, someone said. More than the toll in the Civil War. More than the total from both World Wars and Vietnam.

Doesn’t help. Nothing helps. It’s a really big number that makes no sense.

This is part of your legacy, Donald. Sleep well.

I don’t get the lament over the lack of crowds at sporting events. I guess it would be more exciting somehow to have the noise and the waves of cheers and jeers. But all along I have never felt this way. I would argue that, for the most part, the absence of spectators hasn’t diminished the quality of the product on the field or court or rink or course. I like hearing the squeak of sneakers on a basketball court. I like hearing the banter we usually can’t hear at a football or hockey game. And I don’t miss for one second the “mashed potatoes!” or “in the hole!” or whatever else the alcohol-fueled patrons yell after someone tees off.

Frankly, I could watch just about any sport and still enjoy it just as much, since the beautiful people at court side are an annoyance, and there are enough idiots who don’t add anything to the competition. Especially golf. Golf could go on spectator-less forever, as far as I’m concerned. In fact, one could argue that we’ve gotten a whole different, expanded view of the courses themselves, not to mention seeing a few winners along the way who may have withered under the pressure of performing in front of a crowd. Good for them, glad they were able to experience the winner’s circle, crowd or no crowd.

Yup, spectators do nothing for me. It’s more about the level of mastery, and the simple, raw spirit of competition that many of us have by nature. And pretty much whatever is on is still a welcome diversion, something to do besides wondering what to do.

Will we stay ahead of the variants? Will enough of us finally pay heed to the health experts and scientists who have been saying all along that masks and social distancing and good hygiene will help us avoid covid? And will the vaccines finally help clear the way to a return to some normalcy?

So many questions, still.

The truly tragic and infuriating part is that we could be much further down the road to recovery if there was a unified voice, one message heeded from the outset. I don’t think we should ever let that rest. We should be mad as hell about that. We frittered away precious days and months while the Trump administration sowed confusion, equated mask wearing with a lack of patriotism, floated hairbrained cures and told the nation that there was really nothing to worry about. Has that sunk in yet?

The downward trends are giving us hope, but we should also know by now that this is exactly when we do our own doubling down and starve this damned virus into submission.

The latest Mars probe touched down safely yesterday afternoon. It was spectacular to watch, even with animated graphics.

Thankfully, we are still privy to moments like this amid the everyday, regular reminders that humans can be so useless and dumb. For anyone who cared to tune in, they were given a lesson in what can happen when people are focused on a task—namely planning and delivering on the development of a machine that travels almost 300 million miles to another planet, performs flawlessly in its atmospheric entry, lands softly, and sends back pictures almost right away. And there’s much more in the works. There’s a helicopter on Mars now, along with other instrumentation that will aid scientists in learning if life once existed on the Red Planet.

We still have it in us. Whether or not it’s useful to us is something that needs to be answered for. But how can this not amaze and give us pause to ponder something other than a pandemic and ugly politics and the rest of our ills? It might make one wonder if similar efforts are being made to address our earthbound concerns.

If we can conceive, construct, and follow through on such an ambitious project as Perseverance, you’d think we’d be able to do the same for the things that need attention here on Earth. We just need to learn how to get out of our own way.