Invasion U.S.A.

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” – Walt Kelly’s Pogo.

Maybe U2 was right: Nothing changes on New Year’s Day.

I still can’t believe what happened on Wednesday in our nation’s capital, less than one week into 2021.

A mob of Donald Trump supporters, spurred on by the president’s baseless allegations of election fraud, stormed the Capitol Building, something that hasn’t happened since the British set fire to the place in 1814.

The traitors murdered a Capitol police officer during their rampage as they waved Confederate flags and looted offices of senators and congressmen in support of a morally bankrupt scumbag who’d kill his own mother if he thought he’d get more press coverage.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Orange Adolph tweeted last month. “Be there, will be wild!”

Well, for once in his miserable existence, Donald Trump told the truth.

I’m just getting over a nasty cold and now my country is making me sick.

This wasn’t the post I planned to write. I was all set to discuss my goal for the New Year. I wanted to write about change and self-improvement.

But this morning I woke up and the images of those goons trampling through the Capitol kept playing in my head.

Unlike Trump, my father actually served this country, fighting in Europe during World War II. I’m glad he wasn’t around to see the country he risked his life for so thoroughly debased.

We’re going to get a new president in 10 days, but the damage has been done and the insurrectionists show no signs of contrition or retreat.

In fact, according to a commentator on NPR, radical rightwing elements view Wednesday’s debacle as a great victory and plan more hideous events.

Many of these losers believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory, where Democrats, Hollywood stars, and so-called “global elites” are allegedly running a massive pedophile ring and drinking children’s blood.

Trump, they believe, is the only one willing to stand up to them.

'How Stands the Union?’

Yeah, really.

People are rejecting science, arguing about something as basic as wearing a mask during a pandemic.

Do you seriously think that taking this precaution is a violation of your rights?

I don’t enjoy covering my face every time I leave my house, but I do it because I don’t want to catch the coronavirus.

Refusing to wear a mask during this deadly time doesn’t make you the next Patrick Henry. It makes you a horse’s ass.

There are those who believe the coronavirus is some kind of bio weapon, while others swear the disease doesn’t exist at all. Some of these latter types are uttering this madness with their dying breaths.

The World Health Organization has called this moment an infodemic, according to an article posted on the National Geographic website, a time in which a deluge of data is muddled with falsehoods, sometimes—as we saw in Washington--with devastating effects.

And it’s not just these freaks trashing our country.

It’s also the corrupt politicians, like Mitch McConnell and others in the Republican High Command, who know full well that these people are crazy, but were willing to use this demented fury to push through their own agendas.

A group of Republicans who continued to challenge the election results even after the rioters had invaded the building, even after people had died.

That is a special brand of treason.

People are putting a lot of blame on social media, which must shoulder some of the responsibility for this, but we had Hitler long before we had Twitter.

Facebook, Instagram and the other outlets are pouring gasoline on these hateful fires.

I’m going to try to be more hopeful this year, but make no mistake: the United States is suffering from Covid of the soul and there is no vaccine on the horizon.