There was much talk about how we as a country really needed the Super Bowl this year, what with everything that has been going on. It was time for some worship at the altar of the NFL, who apparently deserved reverence for its perseverance amid such a tumultuous, challenging season. And got all its games in. For the benefit of us all.

But did we really need this year’s version of what has long been a glitzy, ostentatious, gluttonous commercial venture that highlights everything about America that’s outsized and mythologized and over the top and excessive? Is this who we really are—just a nation in a trance, mesmerized by spectacle and shallowness, living vicariously through someone else’s dreams?

Balm for our weary souls, I guess.

So much for my 1/25 take on Super Bowl 55 results.

TB12 and Tampa Bay pretty much manhandled the Chiefs, though the refs seemed to be keyed in on the KC defensive backs and safeties. They must have had at least 3 damaging penalties in a short amount of time in the first half.

So Tom Brady has 7 rings. Impressive. They made Patrick Mahomes look like a raw rookie, despite his flashes of brilliance. He couldn’t keep them in this one, couldn’t lead them back. It must be nice to win the big game at home. First time that’s ever happened. It figures Brady would be involved.

A scintillating career. You’d think he might want to call it a day, go out on a high note, but we’ve thought that before. I want to know what it’s like to sustain such passion for your work when it would seem natural to start losing interest, start thinking about moving on to something else.

It seems foolhardy and naïve to believe Marjorie Taylor Greene and her mea culpa. What are the chances that such a change of heart could happen so quickly? There’s a big difference between moral conviction and denial born of a fear of consequences.

Accordingly, the House voted her off her committee assignments, along largely partisan lines. But she’s still there, publicly apologetic but whiney and vindictive, probably seething and desiring revenge. A cornered rat, like others of her ilk. An angry conspiracy junkie feigning gullibility so she can “serve” her equally angry and genuinely gullible constituents in northwest Georgia…

Her misguided and nutty views landed her a seat in Congress! Elsewhere, there are others like her.

The longer this pandemic drags on, the less likely it seems we will ever return to anything approaching the way things used to be. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are probably takeaways we’ve needed to heed that only a pandemic could place before us.

The news outlets present differing emphases, treating everything from vaccine roll-out to the spread of variants that threaten to throw a wrench in the works of whatever progress is being made. We hear of a drop in cases and the promise of another vaccine soon added to the arsenal, and at the same time we are being warned of a South African strain, a U.K strain, and some other mutation, all of which exhibit heightened transmissibility and virulence, along with the potential for slowing any momentum and blunting any optimism we may have been feeling.

Lately, cases and hospitalizations are dropping, though deaths are still north of 3000. It seems like things are quieting a bit, though tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, which provides yet one more opportunity for people to ignore sound advice and contribute to another spike.

There really is no cure for stupid, so we’ll continue in fits and starts until who knows when.

The NBA is a gathering of gigantic little boys with fragile egos and way too much money and influence.

Their quirks and flare for the dramatic don’t make them as interesting as some make them out to be. Instead, these things make them seem more pathetic and spoiled.

Please be quiet and do your job. Otherwise, take your “disrespect” and your toys and just go home.

Donald Trump still gets too much press coverage. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that right now he’s still getting the lion’s share, more than the Biden administration and all that they are doing or trying to do.

Lately I have felt an acute need to turn off the noise or find a station that’s broadcasting a quiet brook meandering through a mountain meadow. The amount of verbiage being released on any given station is testing our limits of endurance.

People like Trump and MT Greene, the My Pillow guy… a collection of low-lifes and misfits is still getting paid way too much attention. What is the attraction? Somehow it seems we are still playing into the former President’s hands.

How different would things be at this point if the Trump administration had taken the bull by the horns from the very beginning?

I’ve been told by a trusted medical professional that if we all had taken precautions– masked up and socially distanced and the rest– from early on, we could have effectively neutered the virus in a month or six weeks. Logistically, that was probably impossible, but still… we could be in a very different place today if the Trump administration had taken this menace seriously from the time they were first made aware of it.

Instead, it was turned into a political hot potato.

While it will be difficult to attach a number to Trump’s cold-hearted, intentional denial of Covid-19, can there be any doubt that, without his unconscionable choice to downplay the virus’s existence, many thousands would still be alive?

Donald Trump should be tried not just for impeachment, but also for crimes against humanity.

Chicago teachers are being forced to return to the classroom. I hope things go well. If they lose one teacher, or student, it will be one too many.  Apparently there are those who think this is an acceptable risk. Would it be, though? A small price to pay? And for what cause?

Why isn’t virtual learning working? Is it partly because hardly any kids have an attention span longer than 5 seconds anymore? I can see that there are built-in challenges, that in-person learning of course is preferable. I understand why parents who might prefer working and generating income must stay home instead and play a role in their children remaining on task.

I obviously don’t have a complete understanding of the situation. No “skin in the game” anymore. Mine is more a reaction, reflective of less patience with parents who are too quick to fly off the handle and just yell. They aren’t the ones being asked to expose themselves and their loved ones to kids coming from all sorts of situations. And it appears there is still no standard, effective protocol for keeping teachers and students safe.

Nobody trained for life in a pandemic, to some extent probably not even doctors and nurses and other related fields. But of course life can’t come to a standstill– we still need to eat, still need to have access to medicine and medical care, still need to work. Even though, ideally, we’d want to minimize activity and exposure, shut down as much as possible in order to starve the virus and limit its tendency to mutate. We didn’t do that when we had the chance, so now we pay– for what looks like two years or longer, when all is said and done.

I hope folks have been taking notes. They’ll come in handy when the next pandemic arrives. Trusting the science– and not a self-interested, delusional dictator wannabe and the inept sycophants and coattail riders with whom he surrounded himself– will be a huge step in the right direction.

I think Congressional Republicans who are bringing their weapons to work simply enjoy making Democrats squirm.

They couch everything in their 2^nd Amendment rights, yada, yada, yada, and maybe it makes them feel tough. But I think what they really like is getting a rise out of Nancy Pelosi and former “fake news” outlets, who play into their hands, get all panicky and talk about the latest assault on decency and decorum and their long list of grievances. The whole time, though, people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and others are laughing their asses off because they were able to spook the Dems again.

No doubt, bringing your firearm to work in the halls of Congress is a terrible idea. But once again, the Republicans just don’t give a shit.

Who are these people?

I’m beyond weary of the Republican Party, or whatever party shelters the likes of Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Kevin McCarthy, the wacko lady from Georgia, and who can forget Governor Ron Desantis?

January 6 has now dropped off their radar, and we’re back to everyone waxing nostalgic for T****. I’m glad the Democrats have control of everything, but there’s such a lack of goodwill that the future does not look bright for us as a nation that debates ideas rather than wanting to kill people over them. Yes, it’s been this way before, but 620,000 people died over those differences of opinion. And it’s obvious that, since the Civl War, a gaping wound has been weeping all along the way.

When a House rep can very publicly sympathize with violent, homicidal language directed at Democrats and suffer no consequences, this is an indication of a descent into a bad place. Sure, there are cries for her removal, but nothing will come of it! There is little outrage from her Republican colleagues, and the Democrats have better things to do than spend their time censuring and policing supposed adults.

When have we seen so many people so willing to drink the Kool-Aid? How can our views of what is right and proper and helpful be so polarized in a time of such obvious and overwhelming need? Is this really how things go when enough angry, fearful white people feel threatened by a changing complexion? 

We have to find a way to be OK with sharing power. And we can’t frame this nastiness in terms of liberal and conservative. These are tired, over-used labels anymore. We have monumental problems crying out for solutions, yet only one party seems willing to address them at the moment.

Meanwhile, the other is trying to devour itself.