Happy New Year from Anhedonia, California.  Pthththththththt.
I figured out what’s bothering me so much about the The Herd getting so giddy about the new year: they’re just setting themselves up for crushing disappointment as far as things suddenly getting better with the arrival of a new year.
Here’s what’s confirming for me that we don’t know shit about Covid: right now, California is the sort of epicenter of Covid, but with the exception of our elected leaders, people have been following protocol, masking and distancing and generally avoiding each other like we have the plague (because apparently we fucking do).  We’ve been living under some of the most restrictive lock-downs in the country.  Yet despite all of the above, hospitalizations and ICU cases are soaring.  But then there’s this: there is basically no flu this year.  In the United States, the flu is statistically relatively non-existent this season due to masking and distancing and hand-washing and the rest of it.  That is in every state in the country, including California.  It seems that masking is extremely effective for dealing with the flu, but seems to have either little or totally unpredictable effect on the spread of Covid.
It’s always struck me as odd how complacent Americans have been about typically losing 80,000 people a year to the flu.  But now, having successfully eliminated it, proving that we can save 80K lives if we choose, do you think people will continue to wear masks after Covid is no longer a threat?  Considering the present level of bitching and whining, I’d find it highly unlikely.  But they should.  Because as bad as Covid has been, it’s a big pink titty compared to what is coming.  A real Black Death Judgement of God Plague will not be in any way as patient and forgiving as Covid has been.  It will be the sort of thing that decimates humanity before we even understand what it is.  The sort of thing where people go to bed perfectly healthy and wake up dead.  Covid has shown us quite clearly what a disease-infested Petri dish our previous way of life was.  We ignore this warning at our own peril.

N.P.: “Killing Grounds” – Front Line Assembly