My Cousin Elmo says, “Help, I’ve fallen, and after 11 months of COVID-19, I still can’t think of a reason to get up.”

He decided to use his only day off to go for a walk. Arnie peddled his bike from his apartment to the nearest preserve, turning down the trail leading through the dense trees and into the marshy area, frequented by bird watchers.

Suddenly, he heard the high-whine of an ‘Autonomous Airborne Vehicle.’ Fearful, Arnie tried hiding, recalling the attack on Capitol Hill only days before.

But it was of no use – the AAV found him. The thing hovered in front of Arnie until he reached out and took his ever-demanding device from it,  the device he’d purposefully left at home.

All fact-checkers used by organizations like Facebook, Associated Press, and others must be certified before being approved and licensed by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN.)

And while I am not a fact-checker, I’m pretty thorough about the facts I present. Unfortunately, I’m still having trouble with various social media platforms and their fact-checkers.

To that end, I decided to do a little digging into the IFCN.

One IFCN certifier is American University School of Communication professor Margot Susca. She has bragged about being on “Team Hillary,” even posting a photo of herself in 2019 with Hillary Clinton, where she admitted, “I’ve been on Team Hillary since ’08.”

She has also appeared on Russia Today, criticizing Donald Trump.

“It is hard for me to be an objective observer of this presidential administration when for years now they have continuously tried to delegitimize and marginalize news reporters for doing their constitutionally protected job,” Susca said.

The IFCN Code of Principles states, “The applicant is not as an organization affiliated with nor declares or shows support for any party, any politician or political candidate, nor does it advocate for or against any policy positions on any issues save for transparency and accuracy in public debate.”

It was as if the Raven had a built-in clock. It came every morning at ten for the offered snack of nuts, crackers, and cooked meats.

Jennifer enjoyed feeding the large blackbird. She had become so used to the Corvus, that she even talked to it as if it understood everything she said.

Then one morning the Raven was over an hour late, and when it finally did arrive, it was joined by four others like it.

Each removed their beaked masks, revealing their humanoid faces, and the original Raven said, “We should talk.”

Jennifer wasn’t a bit surprised.

Why bother!
It is what it is.
Doxing, canceling, violence, silence.
The four horsemen of Society Broken have ridden down upon us.
While the alarm warned, we sat back in our comforts, lifting not our hands or eyes.
It is a dark winter that drives us downward.
Let me write of what might be, not on that which is happening, save in hidden silence.
Safety.

It was the celebration of the season and Victor felt honored to be invited. That honor quickly evaporated three days afterward, when the party’s host was arrested for ‘failure to take pandemic precautions.’

Soon a list of all the party-goers was leaked to the state-media. And even quicker, Victor found himself a pariah on social media and among his colleagues.

Worse yet, were the managers, who vowed to make him pay for his activity, writing, “Whether on or off the clock, employees are prohibited from affiliating with subversive persons and prohibited from doing anything that brings disrepute to the State.”

My Cousin Elmo says, “Fauci announces rejoining the WHO. No confirmation yet from Townsend or Daltry.”

My Cousin Elmo says, “In one day, President Biden’s gone from ‘Elect me because I have a plan to stop COVID’ to ‘Trump didn’t leave us a plan.’”*

*CNN repeated Biden’s claim that Trump didn’t leave the Biden administration a plan for vaccine distribution, never mind that millions of vaccines have already been given out. Then, Fauci contradicted that claim, on the record. Sad that mainstream media is more interested in promoting an agenda than fact-checking a falsehood. Takes the fun out of joking about another possible Biden gaff.

It was a sunrise and a nightfall since he’d left Virginia Street for Geiger Grade. Declan recalled how hopeless he’d felt as he pushed the hand cart, filled with supplies, up the narrow dirt trail, and along the mountainous slope.

Now he was less than a day away from Virginia City, his new assignment. He was to join the remaining twenty-nine people stationed in the town, all there to help maintain its upkeep.

Above him, he saw a battered and worn red and yellow sign and recognized the word ‘museum.’ Whatever else it said, he couldn’t read it, the thing was so neglected.

“I haven’t seen that old sign since I was a little boy,” Declan smiled, letting the memory wash over him, like a warm wave.

As he stood looking up at it, he wondered, was the sign an advert for a museum in the town, or was it for the surrounding land, filled with untamed scrub pine, rocks, and dirt. He couldn’t recall and being tired and hungry, he had no desire to even try.

It was then that Declan realized that no one would miss him and turned the cart off the trail, guiding it up the hillside.

Unable to sleep, dreaming of work, writing news articles, never being able to remove the red-lines of error, I got up. And so, I decided to edit some of my blog stories.

Stupid — perhaps.

It didn’t take me long to realize that I’ve become lazy when it comes to grammar and punctuation. I also recognized that I’m the master of, not only the compound-sentence but sometimes the three-time compound sentence.

And while I’d like to understand how this happened, I’m far too exhausted to properly think about it. And I still have a choice: coffee or sleep.

Coffee, it is!