The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

No less than three conservative radio hosts who ranted against the vaccines and the ‘scam-demic’ died of Covid this past month. My brother, an attorney, loved to tell the joke ‘What’s a dead lawyer in the middle of the road? Answer: a good start.’ Well, being a snowflake and all, a libtard bleeding heart who got vaccinated first chance I got, I can’t really gloat over the deaths of people who advocated not getting vaccinated. Unless they passed it on to their parents or their spouses or their kids, in which case, I might start believing in Karma.

Yesterday I got a chain letter from a fellow South Ender that was from the fire fighters union of North Snohomish. They were asking the governor to reconsider mandatory requirements for inoculations of these heroic First Responders, citing the argument that their courage during the pandemic was grounds for exempting them from government overreach. They had, they said, done their jobs without complaint. Other options should be considered rather than mandatory vaccinations. They had sacrificed enough, I reckon. Now the complaining starts ….

We’re in the midst of another surge in the coronavirus, hospitals filling up, respirators running out, more people dying. My first responders want to opt out if at all possible. Same with a lot of teachers. Same with a lot of other folks who see the pandemic as a scamdemic. Protests are starting to pop up around the state and the country, politics injected instead of a Covid vaccine into the local and national debate. Their departments will be shorthanded when the fireguyz who refuse to be inoculated are fired or quit in protest. Freedom fighters, really, see?

I say they have the right to take a hike. I’m sure there are plenty of opportunities for these heroes who think it’s perfectly reasonable to administer first aid to accident victims or transport the sick from nursing homes without being immunized. I’ve got a father who’s 98 in an assisted living situation. When he calls 911, I hope his rescuers aren’t going to give him Covid. But I can tell the firefighters and EMT’s that come to take him by ambulance to the nearest hospital, he doesn’t get a choice who answers the call. Their so-called freedom doesn’t work for him or any other victim. They don’t like it, I hear McDonalds is paying better these days.

It’s been 20 years since the Trade Towers were destroyed by Al Qaida with nearly 3000 people killed. The wave of American revulsion is still reverberating if we can judge by the ceremonies planned for this anniversary. This is well and good, a fitting and proper tribute to the victims of the Towers and the Pentagon and Flight 93 over Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

I remember watching in horror on our television the first Tower burning high up in what seemed like an accident, some jetliner out of control, coming down in New York City … and then, unbelievably, the second one hitting the Tower next door. Forget about accident, this was an attack! People were jumping out of windows to their deaths and then we all watched the first tower suddenly collapse, followed shortly by the pancaking second, thousands of people in those buildings who never made it out. If you watched this, you will never forget those images. Twenty years later, they’re still the horror show of our lives.

But you’ll forgive me, or maybe not, if I inject a note of cynicism here on a hallowed day in American history. I had a couple of folks say to me in the aftermath of this terrorism, somebody needed to pay. Someone needed to be killed. Someone needed to be on the receiving end of our righteous vengeance. 4×4 jacked up pickups roared up and down the island with huge tattered double American flags, patriotism on full display. Muslims in America were suddenly our enemies. Sikhs too for those whose hatred was fueled by a fevered ignorance. We went to war in Afghanistan, then we went to war again in Iraq.

Somebody paid all right. But mostly not the perpetrators, mostly innocent civilians we euphemistically called collateral damage. We brought Hell to bear on these people for our wounds. And no doubt we created another generation of people who see America, not as some shining city on a hill, but Stormtroopers invading their countries in search of … what? Revenge? Osama bin Laden? Weapons of mass destruction? Oil?

Twenty years of this, hundreds of thousands of lives, trillions of dollars, a loss of innocence. The jingoism that emanated from the tonnage of collapsing glass and metal and concrete still rings loud in the Land of the Free, the not really so Brave. The fear of future terrorism brought forth outright racism, nationalism and ultimately the likes of Donald J. Trump. It’s fine and appropriate to commemorate the lives lost on Nine Eleven two decades later, but let’s remember what else was lost on that day. Maybe even learn from it….

Some people never learn. I know … because I’m one of them. This past week, having vowed (once again) never to build another guitar or banjo after 10 attempts that resulted in a couple of ‘keepers’, some maybes and the rest just testimony to prove the old adage ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try try again’ a bogus aphorism as useful as Qanon logic.

When we built our palace up the hill, I tried to learn the art of drywalling. Buddies told me I’d eventually get the hang of it, keep going. A couple weeks later and not only didn’t I see improvement, the mud and the tape were worse than when I started. Patience, you see, isn’t’ a virtue in my book. Instead of drywall we put cedar floor to ceiling. I hope never to handle a piece of gypsum board again as long as I live.

So when I swore off luthiery, what did I do? No, I didn’t build a piano if that’s what you’re thinking. I built an instrument stand to put some of my half assed acoustic guitars and banjos on, but halfway into the first one I thought why not make a music stand too, kill two birds with one table saw.

You know, of course, the first one was a little less than the vision I had at the start. Okay, but nothing to write home about … so I modified a bit of the design and built a second one. Which, in some way better, some ways worse. Don’t ask me why, but yeah, you guessed it, I built yet another one, figuring mistakes made but lessons learned. Course, being a so-called artist, not a furniture factory, I redesigned every time, apparently for the challenge and obviously for the aggravation.

The third one was actually better than the first two, even though I rebuilt half the second. As the finishing is drying below me here in the shack, I’m promising myself to stop. You know building more instrument stands. Although … that piano sounds challenging.

So okay, maybe you’re a little appalled at Texas these days, think maybe passing a law that bans abortions is too extreme and yeah, you’re upset with the Supreme Court that let what is basically an unconstitutional law stand until they get around to hearing the case. I understand, I really do. But … look at it a slightly different way. Maybe lobby your legislature to ban your favorite cause du jour. Say … oh, ban handguns. Maybe all guns. Then offer the citizens of your fair state a bounty for every now illegal firearm they snitch on. You like that? Sure, you’re now a deputy basically, and better, you get a reward for turning in your fellow countryman.

You think maybe the police ought to be defunded but others worry crime will ramp up? Not to worry. All of us will be cops now essentially. Not salaried, of course, but every crime you report, ka-ching ka-ching, one less cop you need on a city payroll, one less retirement fund, one less health care plan, no more sick days, no more vacation time. Defunding made E-Z. We’ll keep a few law enforcement folks on duty to pick up the identified miscreants, might even have to hire extra judges, but with all of us keeping a vigilant eye on our neighbors and friends, crime should end pretty quick.

Oh, I know, some states will probably require gun ownership. Some states will outlaw homosexuality again. Some will probably reinstate slavery. Churchgoing might become mandatory, probably just the Christian churches. But YOUR state will do YOUR bidding. It is, after all, called the United STATES of America, not just America, meaning, your state can do what it wants. Texas, thank God, thank its Christian God, is leading the way here. Remember the Alamo, y’all, and figure that now Davy Crockett would be able to turn Jim Bowie over to Santa Ana for a sizeable reward. Might actually have saved some lives in the end, not a total slaughter.

I’m certain that you, like myself, have a wish list of laws we’d like enacted. I’m pretty sure we could end Covid if we incarcerated, I mean sequestered, those folks who refused to get a vaccination. I’m thinking maybe 500 bucks a head for turning them in, a drop in the bucket compared to hospital costs. I’ve already ordered my Costco multi-camera surveillance kit that I’ll aim at the neighbors’ houses. I figure this could be steady income if we just make some of their activities I object to illegal. As they should be.

I love a good hypocrite as much as the next fellow. Show me a man who hollers bloody murder about the damn guvmint, Big Brother, state overreach and I’ll show you a yahoo who wants laws that prevent minorities from voting, women from getting abortions, mandates against mask mandates and laws to keep history from being taught unless it toes the jingoist line. My favorite, and believe me, it’s hard to pick among all these, is the latest out of Texas that bans abortions after 6 weeks, a timeline that insures the woman hasn’t even realized she’s pregnant yet. Pregnancies from rape or incest, doesn’t matter to the Lone Star state.

And better … Texas wants your neighbor to do the snitching. Even offers up to 10,000 dollars for a successful private lawsuit to convict that woman, or anybody who might be helping her, in a court of law. In Orwell’s 1984 it was the neighbor and the friend who ratted out Winston, the luckless protagonist of the book. That would be true of Eastern Germany in the Cold War. Turn citizen against citizen. Who needs a camera in every house and apartment when your neighbor can keep an eye on your comings and goings. Not even Orwell imagined a reward bounty for this. Only Texas. And now, of course, the Supreme Court.

I guess these persons’ idea of freedom isn’t necessarily mine. These folks’ idea of democracy isn’t necessarily mine. I doubt the Taliban would pay a bounty as reward for informants, but they might. If they had the money. Texas, I’m guessing, would rather spend theirs on abortion rewards than health care or education. Give them a few more legislative sessions, after they’re done ramming through voter suppression laws, and they’ll probably make birth control pills a felony too. Use a condom, go to jail. Maybe charge the store that sold them with criminal charges too. And don’t forget the stockholders in the condom company. Possibly the stock exchange as well. If all else fails for these Texan Big Brothers, they just passed a law that lets you carry a handgun, concealed or open carry, without a license. Citizens can not only act as law enforcement, they can be their own judge and jury. Texas, the pro-life state. If you survive Covid.

The Chinese government is worried about their impressionable young people. Decadence has spread from the West to their once secretive and sequestered society and the communists in charge see this as an existential threat. Video games for the kids can only be used three hours a week. In America that would cause rioting in the schools. Our precious small fry probably game more than three hours a day. You know, when they’re not on social media. Myself, I suspect the Chinese might be onto something, but hey, freedom means you’re welcome to addict yourself to video or Facebook or Qanon, your mind, your choice.

Now they want to ban effeminate sissy males from appearing on state approved television. What this means, exactly, is anybody’s guess. But I’m expecting an edict from on high to come down any day to ban macho women from the boob tube too. Don’t want those gaming deprived impressionable youth slipping into transgender mode. Not when the Sleeping Tiger is finally coming out of its millennia snooze. No sir, they need hot blooded males and gender approved females for the Silk Road future they envision, not some mincing Chinese samurai that look like Korean pop song idols wearing make-up and cross dressing, no telling if they’re male or female or something in between. Geez, what’s next, government sponsored sex changes?

Chairman Xi is flexing some he-man biceps these days, even mandated teaching his political philosophies in schools. That little red book of Mao, fuggetaboutit, there’s a new dictator in town, kids, the Chairman of Everything and he expects some respect, not some Western adolescent lip from drug addled brats spoiled by their decadent Netflix addicted parents. Spare the teachings, lose the child, something like that.

He wants Marxism taught from kindergarten to high school. Not sure how Karl would feel about the new and improved Chinese communism, maybe not what he had in mind, but if video games are the opiates of the masses now, he might approve cutting down on Resident Evil’s online viewing. A few more sequels and he might even let the populace practice religion an hour a week. Well, maybe not the Uighurs.

We left Afghanistan last night with our tails between our legs. Twenty years, two trillion dollars, thousands of lives, tens of thousands of casualties. The President is taking heat from all quarters that the exit strategy was too little too late, botched completely, so friends and foe alike proclaim. But not me. The man was the only one with the guts to pull us out of there. Was it a mess at the end? Oh yeah, it was a chaotic reprise of Saigon. Could it have been handled more adroitly? Personally, I doubt it. Course, I’m not a military strategist.

The military strategists had twenty years to figure out Afghanistan so don’t talk to me about screwed up exits. We had two decades of slow motion screw-ups. By the end Trump negotiated with the Taliban without even bothering to bring in the Afghan government. We’ll be leaving May 1st, he said, and then swapped out the hundreds of Taliban fighters held in custody, no doubt plenty of them waiting at the airport for the last days of the war. There’s plenty of blame to go around so sure, blame the guy who finally said enough is really enough. It was a hopeless cause and where that two trillion dollars went, your guess is as good as mine.

What I know is that we didn’t spend it on curing cancer. We didn’t spend it on health care. We didn’t use it to shrink down income inequality. We weren’t spending it on better schools or education. We didn’t build up our infrastructure, fix our bridges, bring the internet to rural communities. Hell, I don’t know, maybe we could’ve used that money to make America great again, why not???

Most of the critics of the exit really just want to stay there, keep a garrison or three, protect the women the Taliban treat like dogs, bring some kind of democracy to their war torn country that essentially is engaged in a civil war. They would spend another two trillion, hire contractors like Blackwater and Eric Prince, sell armaments and keep the military industrial complex fat and happy because, well, it costs plenty to keep an empire running.

So when you hear folks say we just don’t have the money to fix some of our own problems, might cause debt, might cause runaway inflation, might have to raise taxes, tell them Sleepy Joe just saved you a couple trillion on an endless wasted war. Not bad, Joe, not bad at all.

My mama told me, way more than a few times: Go to College. The first time she told me that was after a buddy and myself made a deal with our neighbor to pull two of his stumps, I think for $10 a stump. Not being professional stump pullers – actually these were our first stump jobs – we had no idea how long it might take to dig around an old maple tree, whack off its roots with axes and hatchets, put a come-a-long on the thing and haul it out. Like pulling a giant tooth, how hard could it be?

Two days later, blisters on both our hands, we finally disgorged the monster stump. Nothing to it! Course, we had the other one to do and now we knew – and dreaded – the work ahead of us. But a contract was a contract, a handshake a handshake, even for us 15 year olds. So much for our summer vacation. Our neighbor gave us each 10 bucks and no tip, no bonus, no thank you. Four days of hard labor. My mother, on the other hand, had a tip waiting for me at home.

“What do you think you made an hour?” she wanted to know. “Not much,” I said, pretty bummed and very tired. I figured a quarter an hour. And yeah, don’t say it, I know a quarter was worth more in 1965.

My mom asked if I had any idea how much my father made an hour. Actually, I didn’t, not a clue, but I hazarded ‘fifty cents?” Mom, well, let’s just say she didn’t have the greatest sense of humor, especially not wise-ass son humor, so she cut right to her Lesson of the Day, told me he made 50 times what I just made, all because – and here was the crux – He Went to College.

Now, I didn’t tell her I’d eventually have my own stump removal company, hire a hundred kids to pull them, franchise the whole she-bang and become a millionaire when the stock went public. I just put my head down and said. “I got it Mom.” I did go to college but ended up working stump pulling wages at various dead end jobs before becoming a starving artist.

Today I was at an oral surgeon seeing about yanking a tooth too far gone for a root canal and crown. My doc came in, said hello, snapped on some blue exam gloves, looked in my pie hole and said make an appointment at the desk for an extraction while you’re paying for this exam. At most, 5 minutes. The bill came to $100. If you’re as expert at math as me, a college graduate, that comes to $1200 an hour.

So okay, Mom, happy now??

I’m laying bets most of you were pretty weary of four long years of nearly incessant Trump Trump Trump. Maybe thought, oh boy, we get a little peace and quiet. After a year and a half of Covid Covid Covid, maybe not…. Now we got Kabul Kabul Kabul, another Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi. One thing about the internet, repetition is good, just hammer it and hammer it and yammer it some more until that migraine keeps any joy in life at arm’s reach.

Course, get ready for Climate Change. Every flood, every tropical storm, every heat wave, every drought, every wildfire, every sneeze, every everything, we will be inundated by a tsunami of apocalyptic warnings, ominous predictions, dystopian scenarios and future catastrophes.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree, this is the Existential Threat of our lifetime. Donald J. Trump, not so much. Covid, unless it morphs into a flesh-eating monster, not either. Afghanistan, c’mon, just another foreign policy misadventure we’ll forget as fast as Grenada. But the oceans acidifying, desertification spreading, coastal cities swamped, insects dying off, extinctions expanding, the tundra melting, pretty soon the drumbeat will look like the pathetic palliatives they are. You care what Kim Kardashian wore last week on the Riviera when millions of refugees are fleeing collapsed societies?

Okay, quite a few will care. Hell, quite a few would vote for Trump a second time, anything to keep from facing Hard Reality. Covid? Doesn’t really exist. Climate Change? Don’t make them laugh. But … a change, like Dylan said, it’s a’comin’. Probably a little late and a dollar short. Well, trillions of dollars short.

I wish I was more optimistic, I really do. Happy Trump’s gone, happy we left Afghanistan, happy I got a vaccination or two for Covid. But hard times are coming. And just between us girls, what Kim K is wearing, or not wearing, this season isn’t going to stop the glaciers from melting, but it does make my heart grow a few degrees colder.

So ask yourself, if you refuse to take the Covid vaccine out of suspicion that the government or Bill Gates or Doc Fauci are planning to turn you into a robot or simply outright kill you, why would you believe that a veterinary de-worming drug would be just the cure and prevention for the virus? Because cows don’t get Covid? Or that Fox News runs a story touting its beneficial effects? Paranoia only runs one direction, apparently. Government bad, Trump good. If he says bleach would kill the infection, hell, drink a glass, be my guest.

We got plenty of South Enders here who think mask wearing is the equivalent of handcuffs, that vaccinations are mind control, that Covid is really a phony pandemic no worse than the common cold. They think those of us who buy into the conspiracy are nothing but sheep. And if we weren’t sheep before the injections, we will be after, slaves to Big Brother. Most of these folks, if they bothered to check, would find a smallpox vaccine scar on their left shoulder. Who knows, maybe that’s what’s happened to their logical thinking, the cowpox left them devoid of rationality. Okay, that’s probably not true except on far left media sites, but I know this, we don’t have smallpox ravaging our populations anymore. Something definitely to be said for that.

The truth is, if any of us believe in such things anymore, there’s no point arguing with folks about masks or social distancing or vaccinations or school closures, it’s a total waste of time and probably leads to arguments, fights, family breakups, divorces and eventually rioting in the streets. Show them videos of victims on ventilators struggling to breathe, show them that repeatedly, they’ll tell you more people die from the vaccines than the virus. You say the sky is blue, they’ll tell you that’s a libtard lie to hide the fact that the sky is the color of chemtrails.

Now we got governors who fan the flames, mandate against mask mandates, scream government overreach as they overreach, figure maybe they’ll be the next Trump. The Lt. Gov. of Texas blames the blacks for the Covid surge in the Lone Star state. Add a little racism to the pandemonium, why not? As long as we’re whistling in the dark, toss in a dog whistle too.

I got my vaccinations a few months back. I wear a mask, mostly to protect others, and it looks like I’m protecting folks who don’t want protecting, nothing to fear for them but nano-trackers and the common cold. When the booster vaccine is available, I’ll take that and the one after that and probably the ones coming from here on out. We might have won the battle against Covid if we’d all done the same, but hey, it’s a free country. Like my right wing pals like to say, Freedom ain’t really free. Ignorance is its own kind of prison. So go ahead, drink the horse drug. We’ll all help pay the ER bill.