We are now about eighteen months into the pandemic. Disagreements over masks and vaccines dominate the news. Depending on where one lives in America, the impact of the vaccine on daily life varies wildly. The state of New York is requiring proof of vaccine for indoor dining and public events. Many states continue with strict mask mandates, while others, including Texas, have gone the opposite direction by making mask mandates against state law.
College football has returned in full force with stadiums back to full capacity. Very few schools are requiring masks in the indoor stadium. South Carolina, where Brainy Bird goes to college, is requiring them as of about a week ago. I will be visiting him next week for parents weekend. I was not going to go unless I was vaccinated, and I am happy to have finally cleared that hurdle. As far as mask mandates go, I believe that when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
The Biden administration has come out strong on getting more Americans vaccinated. His recent nation address on Covid did result in an update of the vaccinated, but the inconsistencies in his policy are giving rise to objections from the far right, centered, and more conservative democrats.
We watch the news each evening, and it is a rundown of the peril of the Biden administration. The liberal, Democratic media that is supposed to be on his side is beginning to turn on him. A popular chant at televised college football games right now is, “Fuck Biden.”
The handling of the troop withdrawal in Afghanistan took the first major bite out of Biden’s approval rating. This was followed up by a drone strike that was supposed to be in response to a bombing that killed thirteen Americans in Afghanistan. The administration celebrated the retaliatory strike, only to have it revealed weeks later that the strike killed ten civilians, seven of which were children. This is coming from NBC, CBS, CNN, and ABC news. The left side that Biden reigns on.
Nearly everyday, there is some sort of misstep by Biden himself with him seeing mentally unstable. France, America’s oldest allies, have pulled out their diplomats and cancelled a celebration scheduling in America in response to the Biden administration’s celling of nuclear submarines to Australia. Speaking of nuclear, North Korea sees the disarray of the Biden administration as an opportunity to further their military arsenal.
Closer to home, the boarder crisis is mounting. Biden at some point while on the champagne trail, promised to allow immigrants to cross the border, where the Trump administration had wanted to build a wall to keep them out. Now, there are more than 10,000 migrants at the Del Rio, seeking entry into the US. The Biden administration has no plans of how to deal with the situation.
On a state level, Texas lawmakers are moving in too many directions without focus on what is important to our society today. Passing divisive legislature outlawing abortion, and implementing a policy to financially award citizens for reporting illegal abortions takes women’s rights back a century. It furthers the divide among conservative Republicans and liberal democrats. It alienates fiscal conservatives in favor of liberal social policies (aka individual rights).
Outside of the political realm, two major headlines dominate the news. The first is the disappearance of 22-year-old Gabby Petito. She went on a cross country trip with her fiancée. She had been traveling and contacting family, and then she suddenly went dark. Her van was found in Florida, but her travels were in Colorado and Utah. Her fiancée is not missing, but he is refusing to talk to the authorities.
The second is the story of the Murdaugh family from Hampton, South Carolina. It is hard to say exactly where the story begins. On February 24, 2019, Mallory Beach died in a tragic boating crash. The boat was driven by Paul Murdaugh, who was heavily intoxicated. Videos show Paul purchasing alcohol with a fake id at both a bar and convenience store earlier that evening. While the family of Mallory Beach awaited justice, in June of 2021, Paul Murdaugh and his mother were gunned down at their family hunting lodge. The father, Alex Murdaugh discovered the bodies.
During the course of the investigation into the murders of Paul and his mother, investigators found evidence that led to the reopening of the death of Stephen Smith, who died in 2015. The specifics of the evidence has not been disclosed in media reports. Stephen Smith was nineteen at the time of his death, which was then ruled a hit and run with no suspects ever identified. Stephen’s mother believed her son’s death was a result of deliberate foul play, not an accidental hit and run.
Then earlier this month, Paul’s father, Alex Murdaugh resigns from the family law firm amidst allegations that he stole as much as one million dollars from the firm. The law firm was established by his great-grandfather more than a century ago. The next day, Alex Murdaugh is shot in the head. In the days that follow, reports would reveal that Alex’s gunshot wound was viewed as superficial.
The latest is that authorities are looking not only into the deaths of Alex’s son and wife, but also into the death of their housekeeper, who died at their home on February 26, 2018. Secondly, Alex Murdaugh staged his own shooting. He hired someone to shoot him, so that his surviving son could collect on a ten million dollar life insurance policy.
The case in its entirety seems surreal. My heart breaks for the surviving son. The kid’s summer between years of law school has consisted of his mother and brother being murdered followed by his father’s million dollar theft and attempted suicide. I don’t think that I have ever followed a story to the degree that I am following this one. It all feels like a made for TV movie. In total, there are five people dead. With the death of just one, Mallory Beach, explained.
The world feels chaotic, even more so than normal. I think that part of it is the constant connectivity that our smart phones brought into our lives. I also think that there is a great deal of turmoil in our world today.