Here in Finland, warm weather has finally arrived and so has the summer home improvement season. There’s lots to do, a LOT to do, so I’ve been trying not to pay as much attention to the crazy stuff happening back in the States. Except...you can’t really ignore all the crazy stuff happening in the State. Here’s what caught my attention recently.
Joel Greenberg, the wingman of frat boy Matt Gaetz, has entered a plea deal, in which he will supposedly turn state’s evidence against Gaetz. There is speculation that Greenberg will testify how Gaetz snorted coke with a hooker who had a no-show government job. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Of course, this will not hurt Gaetz’s reputation with Republicans one bit, since they love this sort of thing.
There’s a video circulating of Marjorie Taylor Greene, who the good people of Georgia’s 14th District (the one next to my own) saw fit to elect to Congress, bent over, screaming through the mail slot of AOC’s door like a mean-girl cheerleader. Again, the GOP loves this kind of behavior.
Meanwhile, Andrew Clyde, the congressman from my own district (we sure know how to pick ‘em) has finally broken into the national news for the first time ever to my knowledge by explaining in calm terms how the mob of rioters who swarmed the US Capitol on January 6th, breaking through windows, beating up policemen, and sending lawmakers scrambling for secure tunnels (not to mention looking to lynch Mike Pence) were nothing more than your average tourists visiting a famous landmark in our nation’s capital. In the same spirit, I’ll remember to toss some rocks through the windows of that gold museum in Dahlonega next time I’m there.
Kevin McCarthy, who once set up a sandwich stand in the corner of his uncle’s yoghurt store before launching a life-long career in politics, forces very conservative Liz Cheney out of her leadership position because of her habit of speaking the truth about the last election. Also, he mocks Joe Biden for requiring at least five hours of sleep a night, unlike über-mensch Donald Trump, who can toil all night long tweeting out thought-provoking wisdom like “covfefe”. No, wait, he can’t. He’s banned, unlike Joe Biden.
Mitch McConnell, as always seeking ways to reach greater levels of bipartitianship with Democrats, confirms to his buddies that 100% of his focus is stopping the Biden Administration from doing anything. If he didn’t have such a conciliatory nature in the name of bipartitianship, that focus would be 200%.
The thought of a gas pipeline being shut down for a few days struck so much fear into the hearts of some Americans that they panicked and started hording gas, pumping it into anything they could get their hands on, open containers, trash cans, even plastic shopping bags, which – as we all learned in school -- are super, super safe for transporting and storing volatile fuel), to the point where stations ran out of gas across the South. Hope no one got incinerated on their way home, though it’s not for lack of trying.
Anyway, that’s what’s happening in American. Here in Finland, on the other hand, the birch trees are leafing out on schedule (barely), we just took the kayaks out from storage and are hoping to spot again the eagle we saw the other day. We are not hoarding plastic bags of gas.
