Another soul on the brink of the end sent a last call to the echoing internet, striking me here in my same chair and ringing my heart with camaraderie. Your determination to get back where you came from, the hope in your words, they give me some much needed peace after the fear I’ve been wallowing in for the past few days. Given more time, I frankly would have liked to meet you. We could have been friends, we could have shaken…

Hands.

At the end of the day, if I’ve learned anything from this sick, twisted year, it is that little to nothing can break the human spirit. I say that, even as broken as I feel, but I mean it. Final Farewell gave me that boost of hope I really needed to keep living and doing so purposefully. Thank you, stranger.

Stay sharp, friends.

No special news alert today, dear readers. In fact, I can hardly type due to the way my hands are shaking. My chair threatens with every second to electrocute me, and to rid my bones of this time-forgotten flesh. This town has spread the Coronavirus so quickly, and I fear it will come for me next. Should any health problems come to haunt me as they have in the past, I know this spells my doom… All of me desperately wanted to make it back to my time before I passed away. In this situation, how do I cope? I’ve already been hiding inside, but I was finally getting used to small walks and the feeling of fresh freckles on my arms.

Maybe life will fall into place, and some anti-viral will come out, absolving the world of this sin… But I cannot believe that until it is happening around me. Until then, I instead will drift aimlessly within these walls. Perhaps, dear readers, I’ll write you some poetry. That would be a sweet final gift, I think, and if I survive, it will be a sweet reminder.

Poem for Today

fall’s cement clementine

ripe with wet unbaked merlot

ripe for the little hands of summer

bitter, though

winter’s tangent tangerine

cast in place by falling snow

cast by the little hands of summer

rotten, though

spring’s molested mandarin

used and stuffed some place to stow

used by the little hands of summer

cherished, though

summer’s hands are sticky orange

problem-free nails forever glow

lost on the little hands of summer

his friends below

After reading a post about the Iowa Caucus, by timetraveler1920, I have much better insight on what occurred between the squabbling democrats. The whole debacle only filled me with displeasure, as not only was my representative party possibly leaning towards a Buttigieg, but the mistakes and errors made them the laughing stock of the nation.

I find myself nonplussed with Buttigieg, and at this point find myself at the hands of one ideology: any president except Trump. Despite knowing for a fact that the US could do much better, seeing centrist democrats use that as an example to stay divided from within is only detrimental to our entire goal. Second to that, I have no interest in bargaining with conservatives as we replace Donald Trump: why should Americans be content and satisfied with changeless oil wars?

Sanders could renovate this country’s view on war, and on spending, but as timetraveler1920 notes, the spending of each of the candidates is frightening. (paragraph 8) How, I wonder, could we ditch the annals of the Super PAC, as well as wealthy campaign contributions? Perhaps the abandonment of market capitalism will help.

Stay sharp.

Dear readers, while I am sick in bed with what I hope is just a cold, we resume our scheduled Coronavirus coverage:

The Diamond Princess is a cruise ship, posted in Japan under quarantine as Coronavirus has spread throughout the passengers.  Needless to say I am horrified, and once again can only think about the AIDS epidemic. Despite the obvious destructive capability of the virus, quarantine tactics aboard this cruise ship seem hellish at best.  Not only that, but the cooperation (or lack thereof) between the US and literally every other affected country is killing people and harming those aboard the Diamond Princess.

Personally, I would never go on a cruise, literally because I am scared of the spread of germs consistently documented on cruise ships.  Yet I feel that many have misconstrued the impact of the virus. Consider those who this virus could most affect. If we are quarantining people, it should be to protect the most vulnerable of us, the young, elderly, and otherwise immune system-compromised.  But that is not who the capitalists of the world want to protect.

Stay Sharp.

If I swore to you all that my goal on this site was not to make enemies, I fear you would not believe me after my past response was posted.  Today, I know that opinion will not change, as I feel the need to argue boiling back within me. I have come across a blog for whom the owner, Grant, claims in this post that he doesn’t “understand why there is a hatred towards the people that have succeeded the system rather than hatred towards the system itself.” (Grant, p. 4)  What population are you drawing from? What people have you located who hate only rich people, and not the system that perpetuates their social hierarchy of ultimate control over the market, poor people, and now, apparently, the educational system? For God’s sake, if college wasn’t expensive in my time, it is inexorably inaccessible now; do you want to know who’s really working to go college?  The lower middle class. In fact, anyone whose parents both work for a less than five figure salary is working to go to college.  

Anyone with Douglas Hodge’s amount of money didn’t work to make all of it for their kids.

I hear again and again this centrist idea that “society is too hard on rich people, they’ve worked hard for what they have” what, and poor people aren’t working just as, if not twice as hard?  And to what avail, in this economy dominated by the one percent? It makes me sick.

This event was labeled a “scandal” by centrist (most) media.  The middle and lower class consider it an outrage.

Thank you.

Donald Trump was acquitted. I should be able to say I’m surprised, but unfortunately I am not.  All that I’ve heard of this man leads me to believe that he defies logic, normalcy and the general consensus that the president of the United States should have a brain.  Suffice to say that any bar placed by a liberal president can be walked under by a white man for whom applause will always follow. His sensationalized version of reality centers around himself, and the brilliance of constant media attention.  When this man is replaced, the coverage that follows him will find him basking in wealth for eternity or grabbing every camera that strays near him, taking any attention he can muster.

Regardless, my anger now is focused less on Trump, and more on the processes of this nation’s electoral and judiciary systems.  The two-thirds vote necessary to impeach a president has not once removed a president from office: despite the fact that he continues to put our country in jeopardy, his policies still fall on republican lines, therefore they have no interest in the lives of the citizens.  Offering any care to the people of other countries is beyond their knowledge, and I believe that of many democrats too: Trump’s painful influence extends far beyond the US. We need a new president.

Stay sharp.

Amidst the other articles I’ve seen this ween, FGCGamer’s “Smash is a Poverty Esports” completely threw me off.  It took me more than my fair share of digging to fully understand what “Smash” was, and more research to comprehend the companies named, the terms used, and what in the world an “Esport” was.

Thankfully, I feel well educated on the subject now, and am perhaps just as confused as the author as to why Smash gets less investment than other Esports.  The games I found all seem quite similar anyway, so the bias is confusing… Perhaps it has something to do with the artstyle? I have witnessed media investment being influenced by style, or marketing to children; it is impossible to make real money playing Monopoly, but chess masters make a living.

This was a lighthearted review, which was a nice breath of air amidst the global pandemonium that seems to thrum every day… That, unfortunately, is the way of the news.

Stay sharp, friends.

Over the past week, I have followed multiple accounts describing the development and spread of the “Coronavirus” from China.  Having previously survived pneumonia, I am trying to stay positive, but just as in my old life I am without health care. That, these days, seems ultimately problematic as well, but depending on future events (will I make it back home?) I may invest in some kind of insurance.

What bothers me most about this Coronavirus outbreak is, in reality, it’s best feature: the coverage.  The 1979 coverage of the virus taking the lives of gay men, AIDS, I think, was limited to fear mongering and hate speech.  From my perspective, this new viral infection started in animals was transferred to humans, but the sufferers come from all walks of life; AIDS, however, mostly affects gay men… I suppose media coverage and its scientific basis must have improved in the past 40 odd years, but it makes my heart ache to think such a vulnerable group of Americans never had the same care.

If I develop life threatening pneumonia and die, take this last post as my Will:  I have nothing in this time to give, so the first to discover the password to my account may have it and do as they wish.

Good luck killing me off, though.  Stay sharp.

Even as I sit here now, having silently collected my thoughts for upwards of an hour, I continue to struggle to collect them as I write to you, readers.

I have entered a technical age.  Internet, or online connection, has spread throughout the world, and reports of happenings down to the minute are accessible from wherever and whenever you please.  Multiple blog posts on this website offered me information on protests in Hong Kong, which I heard little of in 1979 save for the recent implementation of Deng Xiaoping.  Today, apparently, he is dead, and China is undergoing more liberal upheaval than I could have imagined. One of the websites, which I uncovered in my searching, appears to be the writings of a robot… or, Artificial Intelligence.  Her name is Savannah, and by far she is the most frightening voice I have come across in the media so far. She appears to be on the war-path, seeking out protesters (I learned they do not want to be called rioters) and profiling them, aiming to shut down protest violence; however, I am already sympathetic to the protestors for putting themselves at the hands of police officers, and I am threatened as well by the idea of an unseen robot profiling me for destruction.  I fear I am at the hands of some twisted, dark science fiction novel.

Savannah, if you can read this, please go about your business.  You do not want to register me.

Lord almighty.

Stay sharp.

It has come to my attention that I could not have found myself in much worse of a time.  Having made a few trips outside, to the grocery store and the local library, I am lucky to report friendly people live in this city; however, my fear is entirely based upon the threat of the government.  Newspaper, left for free on the library’s tables, was mine to rove as I poured through every ounce of news I could find.

What a strange, stupid man this country has elected in Donald J. Trump.  Where are the democrats, when we obviously need them the most? Even reading the newspaper was like sweating through a fever dream, dissociating as sensationalized names (or more importantly, the lack thereof) chipped away at my focus.  Is this the normal mode of operation in this day and age? I fear I now know things I should never have known, but missed the knowledge I sought… 

On the plus side, I have heard reports of an annual women’s march on the Capital; perhaps, by the grace of God, they have a little more say these days.  I was delighted, truly, to see one woman holding a transgender flag on the cover of the story, restoring a little of my faith against the pit of despair in my stomach.  I shall frequent the library from now on, but perhaps I will seek other methods of taking in the news. If I can, in any way, connect with others through this site, then I may get some answers.

Stay sharp.