Coronavirus: Pandemic and Panic

[The Gaffer]

LoL re Emma, yes, I think the Daily Express had a full-height headline saying "send these migrants back" (meaning the desperate people trying to cross the channel in rubber dinghies) right beside a full-height photo of the lovely Emma in her tennis gear winning the US Open. Never mind post-truth, we're living in a post-hypocrisy world now.

Re: making you weep. Yes quite. Here's something that actually made me weep. The right-wing have lately taken to attacking the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution - a charity staffed by volunteers who, whatever the weather, will come out to sea and save you if you are in trouble). They have been saving migrants' lives in the North Sea and bringing them to shore.

Something about that was like a morgul blade to the heart. I'm a sailor myself so I know the risks well, and the fear. It's utterly barbaric, not just that people think we should be sending these people back to their deaths, but that they feel that they can say it out loud.

It's toughest for younger folks I think. My middle son is now old enough to understand what a feckin dog's breakfast we've made of his world. When I was his age all we had to worry about was nuclear war. I guess at a very crude level it's not as bad as that (though it's not gone away!), but the difference is, climate catastrophe is pretty much guaranteed, you've no chance of buying a house unless you're already minted and the economy is collapsing before your eyes.

Still, I should stop all this Remoaning nonsense and drown my sorrows in a bushel of warm beer.

(Actually, that's what I have been doing )

In other news, we've had actual Covid in the house here. Youngest (14) got it the first week back at school. She self-isolated like a trooper and the rest of us (double vaxxed) didn't get it. Phew!

[Snowdog]

Originally Posted by The Gaffer

My middle son is now old enough to understand what a feckin dog's breakfast we've made of his world. When I was his age all we had to worry about was nuclear war. I guess at a very crude level it's not as bad as that (though it's not gone away!), but the difference is, climate catastrophe is pretty much guaranteed, you've no chance of buying a house unless you're already minted and the economy is collapsing before your eyes.

Yeah, the whole air-raid siren drills on Wednesday at noon and the whole 'duck-n-cover' under your desk stuff was routine when I was in 1st grade. In 2nd grade my teacher was a yonger German lady and said with ICBMs a reality there was no point in doing the drills. She would know having survived Germany as a child in WW2.

Of course, the same ol Cold War sabre-rattling is still going on and as close as ever with the whole China/USA thing going on with Taiwan... and the whole trump era showed just how close we were.

Originally Posted by The Gaffer

In other news, we've had actual Covid in the house here. Youngest (14) got it the first week back at school. She self-isolated like a trooper and the rest of us (double vaxxed) didn't get it. Phew!

Glad you all got through it ok. Been fortunate here. Am double-vaxxed and the number of unvaccinated are dropping every day and is increasingly showing who all are making it into a political stand. Unfortunately my eldest son finally succumbed to his wife's hardline far-right evangelical QAnon conspiracy BS and has cut ties with me on facebook. She been hoping for that for over a decade ... since Obama was first elected. Fortunately my 16 year old grandson has bucked the family trend and stays in touch with me.