It occurred to me this morning that it has now been over a decade in which we have all been forced to hear something about Donald Trump every fucking day - often many times a day.
There are people in journalism who have no experience of a world in which we actually covered many different topics in a day.
I feel like I've been mentally force fed McDonalds for ten years non-stop.
I would like it to be over before I die, please.
Within weeks, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will start causing real and long-lasting damage, such as shortages of medication and exploding costs for fertilizer this planting season. Gas prices will go even higher. Food prices will rise. Airlines will cancel flights. Shipping costs will get even pricier. Businesses will close temporarily due to shortages, and some will shutter permanently because they cannot sustain themselves through the disruptions.
3/x
And yet, everything seems pretty normal today, doesn't it? We gripe about higher prices at the pump and longer lines at airport security, but life is chugging along as if it's normal.
Remember how normal everything felt in early March 2020 and how rapidly the world changed in the six weeks that followed? We may again be in a period like that.
7/x
I feel like I did in February and March 2020, only this time, it's about the war in Iran rather than a novel virus. Big things are coming, and too few care to acknowledge or believe it.
In February and March 2020, I was one of a few people warning what the “novel coronavirus” was about to do. People wouldn't (or couldn't) listen because no one could conceive of businesses closing, conferences canceled, or hospitals bursting.
1/x
When we should be approaching the peak accumulation in snowpack across the West, conditions have instead further rapidly deteriorated.
Another way to look at it: Colorado’s snow water equivalent has already reached a level that wasn’t seen until about a MONTH later in the previous worst record.
Graphic from https://nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/awdb/basin-plots/POR/WTEQ/assocHUCco3/state_of_colorado.html
My request from Minneapolis:
There are lots of different things you can do on this day of protest against fascism. Lots of good things. They all count. Giant crowds matter. Ubiquity matters. Letting even one other person know they’re not alone matters. Just do something. Show up somewhere. Whatever you do, make it greater than zero.
Today there are hundreds of #NoKings protests all over the U.S. and even some in South America and Europe.
You can find yours right here:
Madeleine Morris
Augie Ray
Roberto von Archimboldi
Indivisible ❌👑
Gary Strydom's Tiny Car
Zack Labe
Paul Cantrell
Randahl Fink