Well, hooray! Thanks to Real Change, I have an interim laptop that might enable me to — hopefully — wait out the current supply shortages.
This column is going to be a little scattershot because a side effect of not having had a usable laptop lately has been having no good way to bookmark news stories to whine about. So my supply of bookmarks has dwindled, like supplies everywhere of everything. These items below are just from the last 24 hours.
Kazakhstan is finally about to mean more to most Americans than Borat’s fictional homeland or the dream place to try to buy fermented mare’s milk. As the president of Kazakhstan has ordered state security forces to shoot protesters on sight without warning, Putin has been distracted somewhat from Ukraine, seeing a new place to throw his military weight around. He’s on the side of shooting protesters. Putin brings more guns, by invitation.
This is depressing. Who knows, though. Maybe getting Russia involved in both Ukraine and Kazakhstan will turn out to be too much. How would I know? I know next to nothing about the former Soviet republics, except that all their leaders make Putin look like Little Red Riding Hood.
As long as Putin stays out of the mountainous areas of Kazakhstan (roughly all of it) he should do all right, I guess.
I’m sure Trump will back Putin in all this. They’re both Tsar-wannabes. They should move in together. I’m sure Trump would be happier without Melania.
In good news, the White House is planning to have the United States Postal Service (USPS) ship home COVID tests to anyone requesting them. I want a dozen. That’s greedy, isn’t it? It just seems to me that until Omicron is done with, I’ll likely need one every other week or I’m going to be sitting at home way too much. Think of the convenience.
“Wes, you’ve been exposed to COVID-19.”
“No problem! I’ll go home right now and use up another of my free government testing kits. Catch you on the flip side!”
Remember when we got free blocks of cheese? Good times. In case a test comes up positive, I’d also like 12 blocks of cheese, mayo and masses of bread during my quarantine. Thanks in advance.
In what-else-could-we-see-coming news: We remember how during the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) in and alongside Cal Anderson Park, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) spread the word that Proud Boys were on the way to disrupt the proceedings. Now an Office of Police Accountability (OPA) investigation has concluded that it was all a hoax. This is the best OPA investigation ever. I imagine it’s going to be a long time before people will forget all the lies the SPD put out during that. If the police don’t see any point in being honest with the public, they deserve to lose all remaining trust, which is a tragedy.
My favorite lie was the idea that CHOP protesters started bringing umbrellas to CHOP as offensive weapons when all they were using them for was to protect against chemical attacks.
I guess we’ll never get past Jan. 6, 2021. The latest rumor is that Trump wants the next attack to happen at the White House, but he’s not prepared to say so yet. It could be his Fort Sumter. When the rebels capture the White House, they could fly the Confederate flag over it so we’ll all know what it was all about. Something tells me, though, that the Secret Service is going to be harder to get past than blockaded doors, and they’re prepared to spend a lot of ammunition. But we’ll see.
Puzzles for puzzling times
I said the White House wants USPS to send out home COVID tests. One possible hitch is that the USPS says it’s short-staffed because too many employees need testing for COVID. There’s some weekly irony for you.
Now that I think of it, just cheese, mayo and bread is awfully spartan. We should also have pickles and potato chips. And beer. There’s got to be a federal pickle and chips stockpile somewhere. Maybe in Idaho. Sure, right next to the national potato and cucumber reserves. Beer is all over the country. I’ve always said that. Where there’s people, there’s beer.
Dr. Wes is the Real Change Circulation Specialist, but, in addition to his skills with a spreadsheet, he writes this weekly column about whatever recent going-ons caught his attention. Dr. Wes has contributed to the paper since 1994. Curious about his process or have a response to one of his columns? Connect with him at [email protected].
Read more of the Jan. 12-18, 2022 issue.