Welcome 2022

We begin the new year with hope and trepidation.  Will this be the third year of the SARS-CoV-2 decade?  Will the perils of climate change seal our fate?  Will American democracy become unrecognizable in its evolving shift to authoritarian control by the wealthy?  Lastly, at my age, should I give a damn?

Taking that last one first, I probably shouldn’t care, but I do.  As part of the continuum of humanity, I would like to think it will survive into the future.  The other things mentioned will all evolve in their own time with or without my intervention.  Humans have survived over 200,000 years and will likely survive a few more.  Whether that is an easy evolution into the future will rely on the human spirit.  What will stand in its way will be human frailty, greed, and stupidity.

We have been given the gift of great intelligence.  Our bigger brains and tool-making ability allowed us to advance.  We now have science, philosophy, and the arts, that differentiates us from other life forms on our planet.  While those traits elevate us, it is the curse of evolution that some of our more primitive proclivities remain.  Fight or flight, survival of the fittest, fear of the unknown, to name but a few.

We see the kindness of the human spirit and the ugliness of human greed and contempt for those who may be different.  We have all witnessed the triumph of science over a microscopic virus threatening our very survival and the rejection of that science in unconscionable ways.  We have seen attacks around the globe by anti-vax groups on vaccination sites.  These people are not content with not taking the vaccines themselves, they want to deny others from getting immunized.  

Protestors shut down La Dodger Stadium

Protesters shut down a mass vaccination site at Dodger Stadium in LA.  In Paris, since July 12, a total of 22 health facilities have been attacked and defaced, including 15 vaccination centers, and five COVID-19 test centers.  In Colorado, one man slashed the mobile clinic signs with a knife, while another person threw lit fireworks into one of the vaccination tents. People drove menacingly toward staffers and ran over signs. They hurled insults, trash, and liquid each time fleeing before law enforcement could hold anyone accountable.

This is our third coronavirus outbreak in the past 20 years.  Before COVID-19, we had SARS and MERS.  The first two were contained and research was largely discontinued.  Knowledge gained in the two decades since the first outbreak helped in the fast development of an effective vaccine.  That triumph of the human intellect was largely diminished by collective human stupidity.

Misinformation is the other virus that will possibly kill more of us than the microscopic spikey one.  Some of the misinformation is homegrown and some is coming from foreign trolls.  Both Russia and China are major sources of deception.  Long before our 45th president became a player on the world stage, the term “trumped-up” was part of our lexicon meaning something that is faked or fabricated to use as an excuse.  How fitting.

Live on the moon, the New York Sun 1835

Fake news is not new.  In 1835 the New York Sun, in a series of six articles, claimed there was an alien civilization on the moon.  They claimed that a famous astronomer, Sir John Herschel had set up a new powerful telescope in South Africa (true).  They went on to say that Herschel had found evidence of life forms on the moon, including such fantastic animals as unicorns, two-legged beavers, and furry, winged humanoids resembling bats.  (I think that maybe bats are getting a bad rap.)  The articles also offered a vivid description of the moon’s geography, complete with massive craters, enormous amethyst crystals, rushing rivers, and lush vegetation.  The Sun was part of the new “penny press” that found a market with a wide audience with its low-cost sensational news.  Today we don’t have to spend even a penny to get similar “good science.”  Just tune in to Fox News, navigate to any QAnon* site, or listen to Alex Jones, and you can be treated to as much “factual information” as was provided by the New York Sun in 1835 with their Great Moon Hoax. 

[*QAnon is not to be confused with Qanoon which is a restaurant in Chelsea, Manhattan featuring middle-eastern cuisine.]

The Sun’s Great Moon Hoax articles were intended as satire but, they fooled some in the scientific community.  A team of Yale University scientists was so taken in that they traveled to New York in search of the quoted Edinburgh Journal articles claimed as the source for the Sun stories.  I know, you are thinking, how could a newspaper called the Sun make a joke about the Moon?  Fast forward to the 21st century and we find that even Artificial Intelligence algorithms, designed to warn of hoaxes and misinformation, don’t understand “funny.”  I know, as I have been chastised on Facebook when an outrageous article I wrote as obvious satire was blocked by their AI Police.

Shaman Mark

Shaman:  a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of good and evil spirits, especially among some peoples of northern Asia and North America. Typically such people enter a trance state during a ritual, and practice divination and healing.

HAL 9000: I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.  [From 2001: A Space Odyssey]

Dave from 2001: A Space Odyssey

Most of us give climate change a passing nod and some acknowledgment in our lists of concerns but its impacts are not immediate, or so we think.  Unseasonably severe hurricanes and tornadoes have killed and injured thousands and have made many homeless.  Biblical droughts have dried up reservoirs and roasted Portland and Seattle with 115-degree heat waves. Wildfires in the west and more recently Colorado, made worse by drought, have destroyed forests and homes.  A Texas deep freeze tested our crumbling infrastructure and killed hundreds through hypothermia and exacerbation of chronic illness.  A recent report discussed new findings in the Antarctic where warm water currents were eroding an ice sheet that could release a mass of water capable of raising sea levels as much as ten feet in as many years.  If even a fraction of this is possible, we should remember that places like Miami average only six feet above sea level.  Before Miami turns into a new Venice, saltwater intrusion, loss of potable water, and sewage disposal will become major issues.

Like many of our problems, science will eventually find solutions.  We can only hope that these solutions don’t die because of the stupidity and greed of others.  Solutions to climate change are expensive but those costs will rise exponentially if we procrastinate.  Those solutions face an uphill battle as they require global cooperation.  Good luck with that.  World leaders met recently, discussed, and acknowledged the problem, and did virtually nothing.  To use a crass expression from the poker table, “money talks, bullshit walks.”

Roughly half of our nation is willing to abandon our democratic way of life in pursuit of some utopian dream that can only be achieved through an autocratic rule.  Yes, it worked out so well for those folks in Russia that Vladimir Putin has been president for twenty years.  Please note that I don’t count the 4-year stint when Dmitry Medvedev was installed as a Putin puppet due to a pesky term limit.  

Our nation’s poor and marginally educated populous is being conned by wealthy individuals and corporations to support things that are contrary to their own self-interests.  I can only assume that Joe Manchin’s stocking was filled with the very best anthracite coal that money could buy.  Meanwhile, the West Virginia economy still ranks near the bottom with a GSP (Gross State Product) placing it 45th out of 50 states.  The poverty rate in WV is 16% and makes it the sixth highest in the nation.

Anthracite Coal for Manchin

The former Republican party has in place a cleverly disguised plan to ensure white supremacy using false claims of voter fraud.  It is an excuse for their own brand of voter fraud, aka, voter suppression.  If you wonder how this could be possible just look at the intellectual brain trust that stormed our nation’s capital last January.  I would generously estimate that the collective IQ reached double digits.  

Easily a collective double-digit IQ

Using fake news, deception, disinformation, and “alternative facts,” those party members who evolved beyond our Neanderthal roots, are manipulating our democracy.  They are attacking at all levels.  From local elections departments to state officials in control of the election process, they will attempt to “correct” the will of the people.  If that doesn’t work at the state level, congressional skullduggery may “set aside” the election results and replace them with something more amenable to their political agenda.  If/when that happens, our democracy will be dead.  

As a harbinger of what the political future may hold, Donald Trump will celebrate the January 6th insurrection with a 2022 anniversary event planned at Mar-a-Lago.  You can bet that he will put the old Trump spin on the truth.  Trump's pitch will be a spitball that justifies his fomenting a violent overthrow of our government by challenging the election process with more lies about his "stolen presidency."  This will all be juxtaposed with the more solemn prayer service scheduled at the Capitol.  For the Republican party, you are either a true believer or a heretic, there is no middle ground.  Gaining a Trump endorsement is the holy grail of Republicans everywhere.  Bow low, kiss the ring, and hope that his holiness the Trump will grant you mention in a future papal pronouncement.

Recently three retired generals (the only type who are allowed to talk freely) stated that a 2024 contested election could cause a total breakdown in the chain of command along partisan lines.  The result could be a Civil War.  We came close in January of 2021 and were perhaps saved only by the ineptitude of the leader of the insurrection.  It was amazing to me that the same election process that brought wins for Republicans in many of the contested states was corrupt only after Joe Biden won the vote.  Before that everything was beautiful.  That’s a real head-scratcher.

California pigs get more room
The man in the picture is collecting mail-in ballots for 2024 (SATIRE)

To end this on a brighter note, 26 states and Washington, DC, are raising the minimum wage to $15 hr.  In California, a new law went into effect today where breeding pigs and livestock will get more living space.  Now if only humans could get a similar arrangement.  Here’s hoping for a better new year, 2021 set a pretty low bar so anything is possible.