TomFlannery.com

It’s all a bit surreal out there. News of a massive, unprecedented Russian cyber attack has dropped….like snow landing on warm ground. Nobody is quite sure what it all means, or what damage may already be done, and most don’t really seem to give a shit. It’s been likened to Russian fighter planes trolling US air space, but our President hasn’t mentioned it at all. He hasn’t mentioned a lot of things lately, but one might expect this would focus him long enough to compose a tweet at least. Apparently he’s too busy chaining himself to the bed, daring the deep state, which now includes Mitch McConnell, Geraldo Rivera, and the Supreme Court, to remove him. We live in strange times, Bubba. I can’t wait to read all the books.

A Covid relief package may or may not hit before the end of the year….and it may or may not include stimulus checks…….laughingly small but they might buy two week’s rent and a case of beer. Washington remains stunningly out of touch with the struggles of average Americans, who are drowning in a system that hasn’t “trickled-down” since that stupid fucking term was invented. People ordered not to work are given nothing. Covid numbers rage out of control. Three thousand plus are dying every day, while the Wal-Marts and shopping malls are filled to the brim, 50% occupancy and social distancing be damned. But at least you can’t grab a beer at Joe’s Corner Bar, so there’s that. We just got walloped by a historic blizzard, because of course we did. There is talk of another government shutdown (although I’m not sure how we’d be able to tell). There’s a vaccine, but no solid time-line on when it will be available to all. Considering how bad our government fucked up covid testing, it’s hard to believe distribution of a life saving vaccine isn’t gonna turn into a massive bureaucratic shitshow. Disinformation from anti-vaxxers is already rampant, and the usual stupids are gobbling it up like oxy from a pill mill. This vaccine will give the Klan a chance to pivot away from getting all jizzy about not wearing masks and instead turn them all into Jenny McCarthy. I can’t wait.

Christmas is a week away. How is this possible? Since March time has ebbed and flowed……we’d forget what day it is, sleep cycles were decimated……it suddenly seemed dark 20 hours a day. If lucky enough to work remotely, we’d log on early, or late, or somewhere in between, somehow covering portions of all 3 shifts at the same time. Wide awake at 3am, standing on the porch watching the stars and listening to the silence. Staying up all night. Or sleeping all day. Staying connected somehow…..Facetime or Zoom or just a social media post saying “is there anybody out there?” Music and Netflix and Middleswarth BBQ with lager chasers and trying to tamp down the paranoia when you started coughing or feeling something else vaguely Covid-y. Friday didn’t feel like Friday anymore. The weekend didn’t feel like the weekend. Even Monday got lost in a depressive cycle. It’s been a week of Monday’s since March. I guess this is all what a wardrobe of hoodies and pajama pants does to the mind. Merry Christmas!

Because 2020 has sucked so hard, you’d have to be a monster to think that 2021 isn’t going to bring some improvement. So we’ll virtually gather on New Year’s Eve and suffer through Ryan Seacrest and horrible lip syncing and watch the ball drop and expect that this is the start of a less shitty world because we’re adorably optimistic, especially when we’re drunk as monkeys.

And then we’ll awake to 3000+ more dead, and more crowded stores and more lies and more disinformation and the dumb people will still be dumb and the scientists will still be ignored and Trump will still be mad-tweeting while tied to the bed and this will go on and on until the economy collapses in a cacophony of one final greed-induced screech by savage un-empathetic rich white men. Or, you know, maybe things really will get better with the vaccine in place. I mean, anything is possible. But I’m an irish catholic, so I always expect and plan for the worst because it saves tons of time.

But I’ve been wrong before so…..

Stay safe out there my friends. What I want more than anything else is to gather and hug and raise glasses with you all. Many glasses. Many hugs.

In a bit..

–tf