"Build the wall, build the wall," the crones chanted, attempting to disrupt the speech being delivered by the man at the lectern. A little while later, the pair, giggling like succubi from The Evil Dead heckled the man when he mentioned his dead son. 

I'm not going to delve much into President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday night. You watched it or you didn't, but, either way, you undoubtedly know the identity of the two duly elected Congresspersons (thanks a lot, Colorado and Georgia) responsible for the aforementioned performances. I won't sully this entry (or your eyeballs) by putting their names here. But, before moving on, I do want to mention their male Republican counterparts, who I fully expected to join the chorus. Instead, these brave, honest men busied themselves with rolling their eyes, primping, picking lint off their suits, yawning, simpering and/or fawning for the TV cameras like B-movie starlets on the Red Carpet. I also noticed that some of them appear to have mastered the fine art of sleeping with their eyes open (easily done, actually, if you stare at your shoes long enough to achieve a meditative state). Republican-in-Sheep's-Clothing Joe Manchin took a seat across the aisle from the other Democrats, claiming that he just wanted to demonstrate to the American people that there is some degree of unity in the Houses of Congress. Uh-huh.

For his part, Joe (Biden, that is) did okay. Not perfect, but not terrible. I'll admit that he's not the world's greatest orator, and that every time his words start tumbling over one another, my colon clenches up. He did okay, though. I can't help imagining what hell we'd be in if #45 had managed to extend his squat in the White House. He might not actively send troops to aid Vlad in annihilating Ukraine (although I wouldn't put it past him) but I doubt if he'd develop hand cramps signing off on sanctions against Russia, either. And forget uniting with our allies in the EU. Don't wanna piss of Cousin Vlad, eh, Donnie? We can only hope that Dastardly Don gets a well-deserved comeuppance from the Justice Department that renders him ineligible to (re)run for president in 2024 because, otherwise, we may well be fucked.

True, there are up-and-comers waiting in the wings, with possibly the most egregious being our very own Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, although it's a toss-up. So, we may be fucked, come-what-may. What I'm saying is I'm not sure Joe Biden can beat the white-power/hymn-singing/authoritarian wing of the Republican Party in another general election. With all the Republican redistricting, politicians openly fraternizing with white supremacists, a right-leaning Supreme Court (hopefully about to shift ever-so-slightly to the left), and the polarization of our country, there are a lot of odds stacked against democracy right now. Even though Joe ended his SOTU address on an optimistic note ("the state of the Union is strong because you, the American people, are strong"), it sounded like a lot of well-intentioned malarkey (pardon the expression). Blah-blah-blah. Call me a cynic but when elected leaders of one party are collectively supporting felons, urging dangerous assaults on democratic institutions, and behaving like spoiled toddlers, then we are in big trouble. Which we are, oh, we most certainly fucking are.

Meanwhile, Putin's thugs continue rolling into Ukraine, destroying entire cities and murdering civilians. It is a horrific, heartbreaking situation, made all the more appalling by the turning-back of refugees of color attempting to leave the country. What the absolute fuck? 

If Putin's mission is successful--and I'm afraid it will be--the world will be a much more dangerous place. And that's what I mean when I say we may be well and truly fucked if a Republican is elected president in 2024--especially that Republican who formerly occupied the Oval Office. Putin's and 45's (et.al.) ideologies are too similar to discount the serious peril we may soon find ourselves in. 

In the meantime, if I were one of the countries in the immediate vicinity of Ukraine, I'd be very concerned about the future. Despite his public display of bravado, Putin has been humiliated on the world stage and is (reportedly) raging at whoever will listen. Unless his pals in the Oligarchy stage an intervention, he's probably capable of any sort of madness right about now. How long before he goes nuclear, I wonder?  (Not so long, maybe. As I am writing this, Russian forces have fired on a nuclear power plant in Ukraine and then shelled it, It is currently burning.)

On a positive note, the COVID pandemic seems to have waned considerably, so maybe, just maybe, the worst of that particular crisis is behind us. Almost certainly there will be more variants to come but the medical community--that's science, folks--seems to be developing new drugs to deal with future outbreaks and lessen the severity of the disease. We'll see. In the meantime, masks have come off and restaurants are packed to the rafters here in South Florida. Life goes on. At least for now.