Items

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  2021-01-21

  De-Stressing Options

  A comic strip about Covid-19
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  2021-01-14

  D.C. Kept Swimming Open During the Pandemic. It May Have Saved Me.

  This is a story I wrote in Washington, D.C. in January 2021, during the pandemic, and in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. I had taken up swimming during the pandemic because the city happened to keep some pools open for lap swimming. This new activity brought me solace and comfort during a very difficult time for our city, our nation, and for me personally. This story captures all of this and distills it into a single poignant and emotional moment of solitude and togetherness at the end of the story.
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  2021-01-20

  Biden Inaugurated

  This afternoon, around 11 am in New Orleans, while in cultural geography class, Joe Biden was officially inaugurated as president in Washington D.C, just outside of the United States Capitol Building, a place that was overrun with insurrectionists inspired to help fight for Donald Trump against the “rigged election”. Upon his ceremony, Biden became the 45th man to hold the power of commander-in-chief, and the 46th president. This is because Grover Cleveland served 2 non-consecutive terms in the 19th century. Biden’s presidency comes in a time of political darkness and separation, so it makes sense that he spent his final moments on the campaign trail preaching for a unified America, but as things are, it’s tough to see one in our future. America is also facing its worst crisis since the economic crash of 2008, as more than 400,000 American’s have lost their lives to coronavirus. It’s probably the craziest political scene that any president has inherited. It’s a tough job from here on out and I wish him the best of luck for the next 4 years. It’s been a dramatic week and a crazy 4 years of my life. It feels like yesterday, but also 100 years ago when I was in 4th grade casting my vote for Hillary via google form with classmates. It is certainly a new day in America, after what feels like a century of frustration for some, and pure joy for others.
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  2021-01-21

  You Got This

  There were many moments that took my breath away during yesterday’s Inauguration ceremony. When @michelleobama and @kamalaharris fist-bumped was definitely one of them. These two women are bonafide American royalty. The sisterhood, the beauty, the style, the grace, the elegance, the brilliance, the charisma, the ground-breaking careers, the determination, the dedication to creating change. I felt like this was a moment where Michelle was passing the torch to Kamala and saying “Take it away, you got this”. What were some of your favourite moments? [Image description: Title: Michelle and Kamala, on yellow bubble, Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2021, on dark purple bubble. Michelle is on the left, Kamala is on the right. They are both wearing crowns. Michelle is saying “You got this”.] #inauguration2021 #michelleandkamala #kamalaandmichelle #americanroyalty #bidenharris2020 #sisterhood #feminism #celebrateblackwomen #inaugurationday #bidenharrisinauguration #bidenharrisinauguration2021 #thankblackwomen
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  2021-01-22

  HERMIT HERALD, ISSUE 94

  Biden as the great unifier?
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  2021-01-29

  Four Wensdays in January

  This is a meme my friend shared in our discord, it recounts the absolute insanity that was January of 2021. The first image is of the failed coup attempt by enraged Trump supporters, white supremacists and fascists; who all stormed the capitol building with little to no resistance. While inside, they defaced the building, broke into offices and hunted for Vice President Mike Pence to hang for ‘betraying’ Donald Trump. The second photo came in response, depicting speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi holding the article of impeachment for Donald Trump. While it was argued that this was a pointless endeavor as Trump was virtually leaving office in a week, the main goal for impeachment was to prohibit Donald Trump from holding office ever again. The third image is the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States, this event was made possible by the presence of the national guard, where 21,000 soldiers were deployed to make sure nothing as similar as January 6th could occur. The streets were empty as roadblocks and military utility trucks cordoned off the area, massive fences were erected surrounding the structure and soldiers patrolled the area. Largely, it was believed there was going to be nationwide attacks on several capitol structures throughout the nation in response – yet nothing of substance happened. The final image, and my favorite, would be the assault on Wall Street. This is an insane story, so I’m going to be a little less formal but this is an incredibly significant event, it is an instance of effective class-warfare. I’m not going to explain stocks, but essentially what happened is hedge fund investors made a bet that GameStop would fail, they took several ‘shorts’ out on this company to profit from this bet – however, redditors on r/wallstreetbets caught wind of this and thought “what would happen if their bet was wrong,” they began investing heavily into the company, raising its value, and as a result, costing the hedge fund billionaires thousands. These thousands in losses became millions, then billions, as more and more working class and middle class people threw themselves onto the market, to eat the rich. It wasn’t about profit, about making a return, it was a message. Eventually, this fiasco showed Americans that there essentially is no such thing as the ‘free-market,’ as these large hedge funds began blocking people from purchasing stock, forcibly selling peoples stock, using their own funds to facilitate an artificial ‘scare.’ People lost so much after the initial manipulation, but it proved that the market was only free for the rich, that once anyone else began to emulate the fraudulent strategies of the wealthy elite, they would be struck down. This is currently on going, but I cannot stress enough – it is not about money, it’s about sending a message that people are done. It’d be funny if the federal government intervened on behalf of wall-street by bailing them out, before sending out those measly 2k stimulus cheques. For the archive, this photo represents the pace in which everything moved in 2021, and the absolute absurdity of where we are today. To think, when this began we were planning on a few weeks at home, we’d make sour dough bread, then we began missing our friends and family’s – then we were in the streets marching for civil rights, and the ability for people not to be murdered by police because of the colour of their skin, fascists stormed the government, the ex-president is being impeached, again, now we’re trying to destroy Wall Street, this pandemic is absolutely wild.
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  2021-01-19

  HERMIT HERALD, ISSUE 93

  Inaguration eve
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  2021-01-15

  HERMIT HERALD VOL 1 ISSUE 92

  President Trump impeached a second time
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  2020-12-05

  HERMIT HERALD VOL 1 ISSUE 83

  Presidents and non consecutive terms