Charging into 2023!

 

Every year is a fun year, but it only lasts 365 days (unless it is a leap year!).  This year saw Russia invade Ukraine in Europe's biggest war since 1991 though some people kept shouting "1945"! Nice to see out failing school system fall another notch below where people thought it would bottom out.  When Russia attacks, they seemed to have shot COVID in the head and the most dangerous disease the universe ever saw just vanished!  By April, it was like it had never been!

Of course, the Canadian Trucker Convoy in Ottawa has a lot to do with that too as Justin Trudeau, who is less of a man than my cat, fled and called people names as he contracted COVID for the second time.  Canada is still in the depths of dystopia, but it seems to be climbing back up the slope.

I never wore a mask or got the vaccine.  I refused to go along with it, went where I felt like, and told a couple of overzealous self-appointed "mask commissars" to mind their own business if they knew what was good for them.

Then it was all gone....just like that.

Hopefully, it stays gone. Some people just don't want to let go of it. 

Michelle and I had the best nameday ever, scaling the Superstition Mountains and patting sting rays at an ostrich farm outside of Mount Picacho, site of the Civil War's most westward "battle". 

We had several successful fossil hunts and I am busy putting all my findings in an online museum soon enough!  Stay tuned! 

 I spent a lot of time slogging and sloshing around in creeks and dried river beds finding fossils this year, burnishing my "credentials" (LOL) as an amateur paleontologist.  Michelle is more on the administrative side of things though she seems to have a knack for finding good fossils with minimal effort!

Off we go to 2023, faster, stronger, and smellier than before! :-)

And what did they do for you?

 

I would like nothing more than to see the war between Russia and Ukraine end.  I never wanted it to happen in the first place.  Of course, people in Congress make money off of it, so it won't.

As Americans suffer 40 year high inflation and thousands are without power in the middle of a horrific Winter storm, Congress gave Ukraine $45 billion dollars.  

For people traumatized by an "insurrection" on January 6, 2021, Congress seemed to have no problem waving the flag of a foreign nation in the People's House as a foreign leader made demands of the United States.

Forty-five billion dollars for Ukrainian defense while the US-Mexico border is overrun.  It makes you really wonder if the USA is too stupid to survive sometimes.

And let's not forget the $1.7 trillion bill that was 4000 pages long passed in less than a day!

Enjoy your front row seat to the collapse of America.

You could say "It was fun while it lasted!" or you can dig in and start taking it back.

Your call, America.

Argentina wins the World Cup!

 

Argentina took down France for the World Cup in what was a great game that came down to penalty kicks!

Every four years, the world watches with breathless anticipation as the world's best soccer players battle out for the title of the world's best.

Yeah, I call it soccer.  Football is something else!

I am mainly a football and hockey guy, but watch the World Cup.  The US actually made it to the knockout round and did not stay there long (no surprise) and Greece was nowhere to be seen.  Having it in Qatar was interesting and I look forward to seeing it here in the US in 2026!

Gotta have a game at Heinz Field....sorry, Acrisure Stadium!

And Emilliano Martinez should have the Golden Glove taken from him.

So a little class, man!

The election that won't end...

 

They used to use paper ballots and the entire election was decided by morning.  Now we have computers, and here we are, a month later and it is almost over.

The Georgia runoff is conducted according to that state's law, so no problem there.  I am talking about the dozen or so House elections that suddenly had "recounts" for the "mail-in votes".  Even now, Colorado has one race still outstanding despite Lauren Boebert's opponent conceding all ready.

This just chips away at democracy.  We used to have open elections run professionally and quickly,  Now we get endless litigation, recounts, and phantom ballots like this is Bolivia or some place,  In Arizona, the governor's race, fraught with vote machine malfunctions was overseen by a candidate for that office, a candidate who did not actively campaign or have a single debate.   

Democracies need to reliable and run like clockwork as well as being sane.

We have not seen a lot of that over the last two years.

Time to pull back or we plunge into Weimer style collapse.

If you don't think it can happen here, take a good look around.

Hopefully we pull back in time.