BBC News– Police in Waukesha, Wisconsin have confirmed five people have died, 40 people injured, after a car ran into a parade route at high speed. I could have more effectively used the title “The Bloody Saxophone”, because one striking image I got out of this horror was a father picking a saxophone covered in blood up from the street in the aftermath. But this post will be larger in scope than the “Comfort and Joy”– themed parade and holiday season celebration. Because too much is going on for me not to include troublesome and tragic events elsewhere.

We are a species steeped in violence, committed to war, crooked politics, crime and all things bestial. We are depraved, and that’s only the beginning.

I loved writing the post about Pope Francis. I loved finally having something move me to write and share anything touching, good and encouraging. That was a moment that was all too short for me. A moment out of billions that held something I did not need to have second thoughts on writing about. To write about something that didn’t hurt me.

I suppose that with the advances I’ve grown up and grown old watching unfold, I expected a better show than this. But as far back as 1974, I read an article about the future of warfare. It turns out that what I read had parts that have been realized.

Medical advancements have saved many lives but also have placed the price of healthcare end costs as well as insurance premiums well outside of most people’s means.

Mass shootings. Random acts so barbaric that Americans have actually become numb to the reports of them, barely reacting. The five o’clock news doesn’t bother people; they actually watch it while eating dinner.

Guns, from pistols to assault rifles, are more prevalent on the streets than at any time since the frontier days of old, leading into the Golden Age of Gangsters with Tommy guns and BARs. Your chances of dying on the streets of America grow with every gun sold, every car stolen, drug use and trafficking and a full complement of attendant crimes, with LEOs afraid to intervene because everyone has a cellphone and many provoke and dare officers to do anything that they can capture on video.

Some officers do make, and have made, terrible choices. But to have the view that all officers are bad, crooked or abusive is wrong, and the current mayor of New York City is an example of an official who made everything worse. His police force is regularly spat at, and has had everything including bricks thrown at them. They have been forced not to react. The mayor, in essence, gave orders that misdemeanor crimes should not be pursued, that the criminals would not be tried in court, and in reaction, officers had no choice but to curtail foot and even cruiser patrols in certain areas.

In honesty, the people living in those areas, especially those with families, and the seniors, don’t like the cessation of patrols. They lose because outside their front doors, in the streets, it is not safe.

I don’t consider that New York was ever safe at night; Broadway and 24-hour restaurants or cafes being an exception. But Bill De Blasio made everything worse, especially once the city was besieged by COVID-19. His hands-off approach led officers to back off, filled them with resentment and put their lives in danger. The beginning of anarchism lay in streets like a bloody saxophone: evidence of tragedy and the promise of worse to come.

Last week a vigilante was acquitted of murder. He wasn’t even convicted of a gun charge. The trial established that he fired his weapon in self-defense. But to allow him to walk free was a precedent and a green light to would-be vigilantes: go ahead, attend BLM protests with a rifle designed to kill other people, carry it even if you’re underage, shoot to kill, it’ll be allowed, especially if you shoot other white people.

I do not relish this kind of post. Even for me, it is too dark. But it has to be done, and I won’t avoid it.

This year, frosty nights force me to go outside for a smoke less often. But don’t be mistaken by thinking global warming has magically been reversed. It continues unimpeded. The covid shutdown did nothing to “reverse” global warming. It may be true that for the first time scientists could listen to the earth, and I actually saw a star. But global warming continued because the shutdown was too short, too limited and the gasses already trapped in the atmosphere stayed right where they were.

Here in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, it’s been growing colder as if November is proceeding as was formerly normal. Well, normal is relative, but what I mean is that when I was very young, warm days did occur in November, but seemed more rare to me. The vibrant colors of leaves were gone by now, the trees almost bare, wood burning in fireplaces had its scent wafting across the community, kids played football, wearing Batman sweatshirts and staying at it until nearly frostbitten. Then guys like myself would be called inside to warm up and get ready for a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat. Just like Alice’s Restaurant.

There will be winter. It will still come. And the poor and the homeless will still die because they can’t escape cold and hunger. Thanksgiving programs to feed them are never enough and only happen one day a year. Leaving them be on that day would be less cruel than what they get now; eating turkey and stuffing at noon can literally be followed by a night of fishing trash cans for someone’s discarded last bite of a Quarter Pounder.

We giveth, then we send them forth, back to the sidewalks and cardboard boxes and highway overpasses. That is not remotely humane. It is positively barbaric. Unspeakably cruel. We are not a civilized nation. Not even close.

***

Some of the things my research has led me to predict between 2008-2015 are already happening. For years a coffee shortage has been coming, now it is here. Prices on Arabica beans will sharply rise. This is not limited to coffee and is not caused directly by our global supply chain problems, although it is not helped by the difficulties of shipping. Brazil has suffered a serious drought this year, but that’s the tip of a giant iceberg. As the linked article says, diapers and toilet paper, among other items, are affected directly by shipping troubles. All of this will cost the consumer more on down the road. Remember people hoarding TP during covid lockdowns? Then the empty shelves? You remember that, don’t you? Well…

***

All of that is made worse by trouble in Washington. The government is at war with itself; at stake is our Constitution and thus our democracy and freedom. Should the political right get its way, Americans will be crushed under the heels of a jack-booted dictator and his followers. It can happen.

COVID-19 is spreading. Despite intense protests, Austria has planned a two-week shutdown and curfew. Other countries are about to do the same. And it gets worse. The spike in cases reminds one of the Spanish flu during the end of World War One. The spread was facilitated by the movement of troops during the final stages, exacerbated by troops returning home.

Although far more virulent, and far more deadly than COVID-19, the latter is still killing and spreading. Only lockdowns can control it because too many still won’t get the vaccine. And they don’t wear masks. Airlines have reported a noticeable increase in passenger disruptions, and they report about two thirds of them are caused by idiots refusing to mask.

***

Right now, Russians have massed infantry, armor and artillery right on the border of Ukraine. Everyone in the EU and the United States has pledged to defend Ukraine, and the word now is that Russia plans to attack in January or February. .

It will happen like this: artillery salvos will be lobbed across the border, followed by air strikes, which would be disastrous. Next will come dropping in airborne troops, and the armor and infantry will follow. Since 2014, Russia has been making a war plan for a takeover of Ukraine, and by now, I believe that the Russians will not care what they destroy or who they will kill. I no longer believe that diplomacy can stop it, nor any amount of threats will dissuade Putin. War is coming, and it cannot be stopped.

A British journalist wrote last week about “the Ukraine” and prompted me to look into why nobody else uses the term anymore. In short, this journalist was dissing Ukraine. The article “the” insinuates that the country is not sovereign but is a territory of another country. There is more than one way to thus refer to Ukraine and the government does not like either of them. But is it a problem or mere semantics? Put bluntly, it’s an insult. So yes, problem.

If we cannot even get a name right, it shows a laziness and indifference that translates into a message we ought not to be sending. The sovereignty of Ukraine and the lives of its citizens is under the gun. As countries surrounding it are committing to its defense, they all have my utmost respect. It is honorable, doing the right thing. I hate war. I do. It is the height of humanity’s evil. Sometimes, though, it is forced upon the innocent. This is one of those times.

***

I will not have a Thanksgiving dinner that can’t be beat, like Alice’s Restaurant. Hell, I’ll be lucky if I have a hot meal at all. But as I do every year, I will be thinking about the Invisible People. Estimated to number half a million, the homeless are called “Invisible” because people generally try to ignore them. But more than that, the “estimate” is wrong. Most homeless people are counted because of their presence in shelters or programs. Most do not seek a place in a shelter, and if they have in the past, they’ll stay away. Sexual assaults and robbery are common in such places, and even in severe weather, they have to leave by a certain hour of the morning.

Again, we are not a civilized country.

Landlords have heartlessly and ruthlessly evicted tenants who were forced to stay at home during a covid lockdown. Whole families are out there with no hope for any kind of assistance. Infant mortality is unknown because, who gives a fuck, really? Some parents may even face charges of infanticide because out there, they can’t get to healthcare, can’t feed a baby properly, can’t wash them properly. Can’t even keep them warm in winter or cool in summer. And infant’s bodies are not able to regulate body temperature as a child can. And that’s as far as I can go for now, because babies and children suffering and dying in a country that wrote the words “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is a fucking sin that I hope God never forgives.

What’s shocking is, where are all the good people now? It made headlines when one church announced that it would shelter homeless people. I repeat, one church.

I do not count on churches to do good things. Good deeds. Their furnaces run even when nobody is there. A nice, toasty, empty building dedicated to God but forbidden to his children who suffer. I love Christ, but his followers are weakling barbarians who do not do as he did. They cannot even open their doors to give rest and comfort to those Jesus fed with loaves and fishes. Hypocrites.

In America, we celebrate many things this time of year, from African to Jewish to Muslim and Christian holidays. It should be a time of joy.

It is not. I can’t see it. I see death, war looming, cruelty and good people looking the other way.

This year I will not put up decorations or lights. I am thankful for my blessings while worrying about those I can’t help, but who could be helped by others who simply look down on the poor as being beneath them. They judge and they turn away. They condemn to suffering and death others, while eating sumptuous meals in warm homes. Opening gifts. Hanging wreaths and lights.

I will no longer celebrate these or any other holidays. My capacity for hypocrisy isn’t deep enough.