Dead man's town

Well, well—what a week.

I know—I say that pretty much every Friday, but that’s our timeline. Charlie Kirk, a stochastic terrorist who spent more than half his life fomenting fear, hatred and violence, was fatally shot Wednesday at one of his hate rallies, this time on a Utah college campus. (Fun fact: evidently the Utah legislature passed a law making it perfectly legal to carry firearms on school campuses. “What could go wrong?” they reasoned.) At time of writing, the one (White) man initially apprehended as a suspect has been released, and authorities are still searching for the shooter.

Which means we do not yet know why he was shot. We do not know whether the motive was political.

Meanwhile, every lizard with an R after their name (apologies to lizards) is screeching about violent Democrats and demanding a civil war to set things right. We have absolutely no information on why shot Kirk, much less why, but the blood lust is strong and the Right is not missing an opportunity to score unhinged points. The Kleptocrat has ordered all US flags be flown at half staff and the (Republican-controlled) House of Representatives held a minute of silence to honor the dead. And, of course, Kirk is getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Just like Rudy Giuliani.

I’m expecting the day of his funeral to be declared a national holiday. Maybe he’ll be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

(Another fun fact: the crowd hadn’t even fully scattered in Orem, Utah, when there was another school shooting, this time in a Denver suburb. Republicans have no thoughts or prayers to spare for those victims, because they’re all going to Kirk.)

Let me state the uncomfortable obvious: this act came a day after the notorious “Epstein 50^th Birthday Book” was released by the House Oversight Committee. This contained a contribution from the Kleptocrat of a hand-drawn outline of a pubescent woman’s torso (that had more than a whiff of necrophilia about it), a rather disgusting “dialogue” between Epstein and Klepto and his very distinctive signature in the pubic region. I don’t even know what the latest WH response to it is, because we’ve cycled through so many that my brain is blurred.

But a right-wing sudden martyr could have seemed like a good prospect for distraction. As well as impetus for more executive orders and domestic invasions; not to mention new laws to “curb leftist violence”.

They’re already proposing that transgender people not be allowed access to guns, in contravention of the sacred Second Amendment. How long until they extend that ban to anyone registered as a Democrat? Or to anyone saying anything derogatory about the Kleptocrat? Or the Sofa Shagger? Or Homeland Barbie? Or Justice Opus Dei? Or Li’l Moses?

<sigh> STOP PRESS: The Kleptocrat has indeed announced a crackdown on anyone who says mean things about him. I am not making this up.

Unlike most on the Right’s spectrum, decent folks who’ve been condemning gun violence all along have spoken up to condemn the shooting of Kirk. (Another uncomfortably obvious note: there were no flags at half-staff or moments of silence for Melissa Hortman, a Minnesota Democratic lawmaker, and her husband, who were murdered in June by a RWNJ, who openly proclaimed his intention to wipe out Democrats.)

We are meant to be a nation of laws, founded on the principle that not even kings can escape the law. Anything that smacks of extra-judicial activity is abhorrent—whether it be gang killings, masked federal agents swarming our city streets to abduct people without legal warrants or political assassination.

And I’m trying my best to view this particular murder as I do other murder victims. Kirk was a human being; he had a wife and children. Those children will grow up without him as their father and I hope they don’t turn into the same hateful, entitled, grievance-filled person he was. The fact of the matter is that Kirk’s long career as a professional racist, misogynistic nationalist was made possible because he felt absolutely free to spew his sewage because as a White male American he fully believed he was untouchable. He wasn't bold, he was entitled. And smug.

Matthew 26:52

Anyway—I can’t give you the “Horst Wessel Lied” only a month after the last time. Let’s have The Boss and “Born in the USA”. Because here we are.

 

©2025 Bas Bleu

Staying healthy

As we head into the Covid and flu season, people in normie countries can be glad that they’re not facing the chaos that this administration has set loose on the United States. Under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—a recovering (maybe) heroin addict with a medical history of a worm literally eating part of his brain and insane views on a vast array of medical issues—it’s every state for itself when it comes to distributing the annual booster for a virus that, five years ago, literally stopped the world in its tracks and killed more than a million Americans.

Yeah—vaccines are worse than the disease, according to RFK, Jr., so he’s issued directives severely restricting who can “legitimately” (people over the age of 65, okay (begrudgingly), small children, folks with some medical conditions) receive it and who just has to roll the life-or-death dice (the rest of you suckers). Red states immediately jumped on the no-you-don’t bandwagon—prepare for mass graves in Florida, y’all—and California, Oregon and Washington have banded together in a fuck-you-CDC alliance to ensure that all residents on the West Coast get access.

In the Old Dominion, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin has fallen in line with his masters and made it as difficult as he can with the powers he has. So here’s my tale:

I had a video call with my PCP on Monday; the primary purpose for me was to get clarification about the Covid vaccine. As in years past, Medicare will only pay for it if you get it in a pharmacy (no idea why). Being over 65 is an absolute justification for the shot, but my doctor issued me a letter authorizing it for me anyway.

(Now—I had been on the CVS site the previous week; their vaccinations app showed that I could get the shot in a couple of stores not particularly near to me, and only for a couple of days ahead. It wouldn’t let me expand the timeframe. There was a statement that this was predicated on availability, and that they would also welcome walk-ins. I didn’t feel comfortable with the walk-in crapshoot, ergo the convo with my doctor. Interestingly, the app showed availability in Maryland, where the vaccine offered was Moderna; all of Virginia is Pfizer. Also—many Redditors said they drove from Virginia to CVS stores in Maryland, walked in and got the shot without issue.)

Later that day I happened to be near the CVS closest to me (which hadn’t shown up on their app), so I walked in to ask. The pharmacist said 1) they had the vaccine, but 2) I couldn’t get it without a doctor’s prescription. Age didn’t matter—have to have the prescription.

“Everywhere in Virginia, you have to have a prescription.”

Okay—I messaged my doctor, asked her to send the letter she’d issued to me over to the CVS so I could make an appointment. Later that day I received an email from CVS announcing an appointment for 1630 Tuesday.

Well, okay—a little NHS-y in terms of “this is what you get”, although much faster than their usual four to 400 weeks; I debated whether to try to reschedule or just get it done.

Then Tuesday morning, this appeared in my queue:

The link took me to a page that announced no availability anywhere.

So I called the pharmacy—had to leave a message for a callback, because of course you can’t talk with anyone. Someone did call back, however, and said that I could come in at the scheduled time.

Okay—by this point, my anxiety level was almost right up there with autumn of 2020, when they first came out with the vaccine and the process of getting into the queue for something that might save you from a debilitating and deadly virus seemed obscure and arbitrary. (In hindsight, it was a miracle of organization, given the circumstances, and much better communicated than what’s happening now.)

So, I showed up at 1620, checked in, waited about three days and was out by 1640. No worse than last year, really. Muscles at point of injection are a bit sore; otherwise fine.

But I have a couple of words for the Kleptocrat, RFK, Jr., Mehmet Oz (bobble head of Centers for Medicaid & Medicare), Glen Youngkin and all you Republican Rapture-seeking flat-earthers: fuck you.

(Still have the flu shot to go, but I can get that at CVS. Without a prescription.)

 

©2025 Bas Bleu

 

 

Mass transit

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed that Metro buses have all shown “Fare Required” on the over-windscreen displays.

I can’t find anything about this on the WMATA website, but I’d have thought it understood that bus rides are not free?

Perhaps I'm behind the times.

 

©2025 Bas Bleu

 

Vroom-vroom

Okay, I’m guessing that a young person quite recently got her driver’s license:

And that she’s pretty excited about it, because this was the car last week:

Either that, or her parents are getting increasingly nervous.

 

©2025 Bas Bleu

 

Gratitude Monday: What have you got in your wallet?

Had a bit of a brain glitch one day last week. I went to Willard’s BBQ for take out and in the bustle of collecting the order and adding all the extra sauce containers I left my wallet on the counter.

(Since I quit working, I don’t bother with a handbag anymore; I just take my wallet and my keys. If I need anything more—like my laptop or something to take notes, I dump it all in a backpack. But that wallet-only does mean I have to carry it in my hand, because it’s a little fat for my trousers pockets.)

Well, when I got home, I rifled through the car, then called Willard’s, and the guy who answered said he couldn’t see any wallet. But, just in case, I drove back, and there it was, right beside the cash register. The fella who’d taken my order saw it on the counter and set it aside.

I thanked him profusely and pulled out a Jackson for the tip jar. He said I didn’t need to do that, but I just said, “All my library cards!”

And, here’s the thing—yes, two credit cards and two debit/ATM cards, and the driver’s license. Those would all have to be replaced. But it’s all the rest of the nonsense I stuff into that wallet. I pulled them all out yesterday just to take inventory:

Cards to multiple local libraries
Grocery store affinity cards
Health insurance cards
Costco card
Coffee club card for Nordstrom (last occasion I was anywhere near a Nordstrom was in the Before Times)
Weird Brothers coffee card (I quit going to Weird Brothers when they ditched the punch card and went to an app)
Starbucks gift card (No idea where I got that, but probably at a conference)
Two Target gift cards (Haven’t been in a Target since they caved to the Kleptocrat)
Metro fare card
Shell gift card (That was a reward for filling out a post-training survey at the Gigantic Software Corporation…in 2009)
Trader Joe gift card
National Parks lifetime pass

There was some cash in it too, because I’d gone to the farmers market on Saturday and they charge you a “convenience” fee if you use credit card instead of cash. But I confess that I go weeks and even months without ever pulling out currency because it’s easier to just use plastic.

Well, for Gratitude Monday today, I’m obviously grateful for the guys at Willard’s who saved me from losing all those bits and pieces. I’m also grateful for having it called to my attention that I might not even need my wallet—if I could just add one of those card holder jobbers to the back of my mobile phone, I could just carry it, with my driver’s license and Amex card tucked into the holder.

That I can fit into my pockets.

 

©2025 Bas Bleu