Leaving would be the last thing on my mind if I could turn back the hands of time.

  The News and what's been on my mind today meshes. That is, the explosion of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 and just how poorly we are prepared to deal with it. Plus, the planet's on fire. Jesus.

 The country finally reached Joe Biden's goal of 70% vaccination but considering how virulent this new strain is and how adamant the pro-COVID group is, as small as they are, one wonders if it'll do any good in the long run.

 And for the record, yes, if you're nutty about wearing a mask or getting a vaccination in this day and age, I'm saying you're pro-COVID. Like people who want to ban abortion are anti-choice, I'm tired of screwing around with you. The last couple of days, Twitter's been inundated with tales of right-wing disc jockeys, right-wing club owners, and right-wing politicians who've spent the past year screaming about their freedoms being curtailed because of said masks and vaccinations... dying from COVID. In some cases, they're expressing regret for not getting the shot.

 There's just no sympathy for these yo-yos, mainly because we're also seeing stories of kids younger than 13 having to be flown 150 miles because all the surrounding ICU beds are filled. There should be, or at least some empathy, but they put a lot of work into this and it's really hard to feel bad for them when it bites them in the ass. 

 Now, Sturgis is starting and Lollapalooza happened this week, and I swear before God, I don't understand people. I mean, I get being stir crazy and wanting to have a good time, but really, does anything think this is a good idea or something that's necessary? I wonder if I weren't in the position I'm in - middle-aged and disinclined to have anything to do with anyone - where I'd fall on this. It's like everyone always says they've been against slavery or for Civil Rights had they been alive in that era, when the truth is most of us go along to get along.

 Anyhow. This is pretty interesting. It's about voids, empty parts of space billy-uns and billy-uns of light-years across. And when I say empty, I usually mean empty. No stars, no gas, no galaxy, no nothing. However, by pure definition, the largest void in the universe is one we're more or less in the center of. It's a matter of density, really. There's less stuff in our area of space than in the rest of the universe. This means we have fewer stars in our sky than planets in other parts of the universe. It also means we're in what could be considered the backwaters of the Universe. Douglas Adams downplayed it.

 We really underestimate not only the incredible distances in space but just how isolated we really are. We've yet to leave our gravity well. The much-ballyhooed dick-wavings of Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson cost a couple of billion dollars apiece and barely scraped the edge of space. We haven't figured out how to keep a human being in space for any length of time without their body being destroyed by radiation and lack of gravity.

 Y'all, get the shot and demand governments do something serious about climate change. This is all we got. Have a nice weekend.

Stand right up and yell.

  I completely forgot to do this yesterday evening. I thought about it earlier in the day, but I went to sleep pretty early due to a large meal and didn't think about it until the 5 a.m. pee break. I thought about letting it ride since there's a good chunk of Actual Paying Work I can get done this week, but I know better to write checks my ass won't bother to cash.

 So, I'll doodle around until I get inclined to take a nap. I will get to the News tonight; I'm still finding that much easier to do for whatever reason. I would've never thought I'd appreciate a regular, set deadline, but there you go.

 The blue funk I've been in hasn't gone away, obviously. It hasn't gotten any worse, though, so that's something, I guess. "Disassociated" was the word I was looking for the other day. I feel disconnected and unattached from the rest of the world. One reason - and this is a really good reason, I think - is because the rest of the world isn't worth being a part of. Which is cynical and probably a bit elitist, I'm sure - it's not like I have much to offer anyway - but it's gotten pretty goddamn stupid out there.

 The Delta variant is going to be nasty. I don't have any hard science to base that one on, but the hard 180 the GOP leadership has taken on vaccination speaks volumes. Steve Scalise said yesterday he's going to get the jab, and that evil bastard is a pretty good canary-in-the-coalmine for the party as a whole. And yes, I'm counting Sean Hannity and the Fox News crew as part of the GOP leadership. Let's not bullshit ourselves here.

 I never could figure out the end game for allowing the anti-vax wing of conservatism to take over, but the shift is pretty easy to grok. Apparently, the Stock Market went into freefall yesterday and that's probably got them jumping. It does no good to point out the hypocrisy of Mitch McConnell calling for vaccinations, but there you go. It is laughable, however, the suggestion that Joe Biden should ask Trump to come out in favor. Whether or not it's good politics on Biden's part is irrelevant; Trump would just spend the opportunity to complain about losing again.

 This hasn't trickled down to the Base, of course, as they're full-on in favor of the idea that the Illuminati is trying to do gene therapy and make them mindless consumers. Them not knowing what HIPAA laws cover is making a resurgence, and that foul beast Marjorie Greene actually laughed when asked about how the Delta variant.

 And that's the rub. Congressional Republicans who got their vaccinations as soon as they became available can beg and plead all they want. The pack of mad vandals and whiny honkies they've nursed and encouraged for the past 30 years, just to be dumped for the first celebrity to come along, will most certainly let their kids die to own the libs. It's foolish to think otherwise, and all we're going to be able to do is hopefully pick up the pieces afterward.

 Okay, then. That's word count. I could do more but I don't want to.