Welcome 2021

I had a couple of posts I wanted to do to usher in the new year. I wanted to do a Year in Review and a New Year's Resolutions post, and I was going to do a 2020-2021 New Year's Tarot reading. However, strange news keeps rolling in and I'd better address it now because things keep getting weirder by the day.

On January 6th, Trump held a rally before the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes at the Capitol building. He said that his followers needed to march up Pennsylvania Avenue, they needed to show pride and strength to help the weak republicans, because the strong ones didn't need help. He reinforced the conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from him. He said that without him, there wouldn't be a country, and that the people in the crowd needed to take back the election for him.

Rudy Giulianni also made a speech, accomponied by the song Macho Man by The Village People. I assume that this song choice was inspired by Trump's decision to dance to the song YMCA at one of his rallies after recovering from COVID-19. He did this to prove his vitality while he was still pumped full of steroids. Rudy wanted to mimic his boss, and while Trump had the nuance to encourage a violent energy while not explicitly demanding it, Giuliani missed this subtlety and outright told the crowd, "Let's have trial by combat!"

Now, for some, that sounds like an oddly placed Game of Thrones reference, and for others, it is literally a cry from the medieval era. Regardless to how nerdy this satement was, it is hard to interpret it as anything less than a call to violence from the crowd.

A crowd arrived at the capitol building and were able to push through the security there, disrupting and delaying the US democratic process. Members of congress had to be evacuated.

Pipe bombs, molotov cocktails, and zip tie handcuffs were found among the crowd that arrived at the capitol. A noose and gallows were erected.  Five deaths occured that day, including a woman who was shot to death, and a police officer who was beaten to death. So much for the law and order president and the blue lives matter movement. In fact, it was very strange that there were as few people guarding the building as there were.

During the attack, Joe Biden challenged the sitting president to condemn the attacks on the capitol.  Trump eventually did respond, saying that the crowd should "go in peace", but also saying that he understood the aggressors, that he loved them and thought they were very special. 

Trump was banned from Twitter and Facebook, as well as less related social media outlets like Pinterest and Discord. 

Three more days.

There has recently been a new strain of COVID-19 introduced to the public. It was first discovered in the UK but it has since been found all over the globe. While it doesn't appear to be more lethal, it seems to be more contagious.

It's being called the UK Variant. I'm not sure this is entirely fair.  My understanding is that the UK were doing a world class job of tracking mutations of the virus, and so if anyone found a new variant first, it would be them. After the discovered the new variant, it has been found all over the world, including here in Ontario. Scientists don't believe this new version of the virus will be resistant to the new vaccines coming out.

Speaking of the vaccines, my grandparents in Toronto have received their first dose. So has their assistant, and even my aunt. My aunt got it because she's considered emergency relief due to her being their only relative in the city. I've seen two other people on my Facebook feed say they got their first dose, too. You need two doses over the course of several weeks to be fully vaccinated. Health professionals and the medically vulnerable are being prioritised.

In Quebec, as a COVID measure they've initiated a curfew and decided to shut all businesses at 8:00. After that, you're only allowed outside for "exercise purposes" from 1 km from your household. You're also only allowed to have a social group of up to five while ourdoors, even if you're all from the same household.

In Ontario, we've dropped the colour guide. We've gone from Code Grey, to Emergency Order. The new measures don't impact my life style much. We're still allowed to leave the house for exercise and essential services. I don't really have a social circle right now, and the definition of essential service is still pretty generous.

Even though 2021 is starting out pretty scary, I still have a lot of hope. 2020 started out fairly benign and got uglier as things went one. Even though we're still dealing with the ugliness of last year, it didn't make sense for the new year to magically be rid of all the things that went wrong in the year before.

However, despite the issues that we're dealing with from last year, we now have the solutions for them.  Trump's leaving and the vaccines are being distributed. Hopefully things get better.