Eye On The Booby Prize

 Try and keep in mind that during this time there are still bigger issues at hand. 

Climate change continues. In 2024, annual surface air temperatures were above the 1991-2020 average across most of the globe. Climate change added forty-one days of dangerous heat in 2024, harming human health and ecosystems.

Guns in America are still a problem. Estimates put the number of firearms owned by civilians right around half a billion in 2024. In 2000, that number was around two hundred fifty million. Since the population of the United States has not doubled in those twenty-four years, that means that there are more guns per person in the land of the free and the home of the soft targets. If you're a fan of the math, that works out to be one and a half guns for every man, woman and child in our pistol-packing nation. I'm not sure if you need to get a special permit for those half-guns, but why would you need a permit for any of those killing machines? It's not like we regulate cars and trucks...

Okay, so you probably get the point by now. Bird flu was not magically cured on January 20, 2025. Climate change and gun violence were not eradicated on that day either. Instead, the parade of misfits and misanthropes that somehow passed through what was once considered an arduous period of questioning and approval to become a cabinet member was reduced to a big red rubber stamp that allowed folks with credentials that would not get them on your average reality TV show to ascend to leaders of our federal government. 

And in one very particular instance, a cabinet level position was generated out of thin air and the irony of creating yet another government department to deal with bureaucracy was lost on a populace that seems to have forgotten what irony is. 

The focus isn't on the guns. The focus isn't on climate change. The focus is on cutting federal programs in order to rationalize another round of tax cuts for the one percent of America that could afford to pay their fair share. They won't have to worry about that. Those folks can get back to their business of crushing the middle class. Paying for health care and prescriptions shows no sign of leveling out. 

Joining the military to fight in our pending wars with Canada, Panama and Greenland seems like a viable option, since sticking it out here in the wilds of the middle of North America does not at this moment seem like a going concern. And the reality TV show that is our current governmental experience does not show any signs of being cancelled anytime soon.