Restrictions

With the news that a load of new restrictions are going to be imposed over the Christmas period on a significant part of the UK, I feel bad for all the people whose Christmas plans have been ruined.  Especially those who really need the company of others - that's tough.  I'll only say that a family get-together doesn't need to be restricted to just over Christmas - so as soon as the restrictions are lifted, hopefully you can have that get-together then.  To go to the extreme, I like the idea of having a Christmas type meal and then playing some card games and having some drinks outside on a nice warm summer evening.  So I'll just preach some patience!  At least the UK has some transparency on how it's handling the pandemic.  You certainly don't get that from the incompetent and thankfully outgoing leadership here.  I don't have a clue what's going on with the spread of the virus here - on either a national or local level.  I'm not entirely sure what phase I'm under now (which is our local equivalent to the tiers you have in the UK) and how much the rate of infections/deaths has increased over the last few months - and I have no idea how Washington or Seattle compares to other states or cities (I don't think we're a hot spot thankfully).  I doubt we'd ever be told if or when there was a variant and more infectious strain of the virus.  We don't have an "R" number here (I actually had to look it up just now to know exactly what it stood for).  I mean people are still refusing to acknowledge that there is even a pandemic going on.  I know that Biden wants to do some kind of 100 day mask thing when he goes into the White House, but good luck with that when a lot of people will never wear a mask let alone have a vaccination (inexplicably considering them an infringement on their civil liberties, or some such BS).  To the surprise of no one, the distribution and availability of vaccinations has already been totally botched by the federal government - much like PPE protection and other hospital equipment, making it the responsibility of each state to acquire it's own supplies is a recipe for disaster.  I still have absolutely no idea how it's being rolled out.  It's absolutely shocking how bad the American leadership has been in dealing with this tragedy.  And all Trump is doing is still, excuse my French, f*cking whining about the election that he lost.  It enrages me.  As does all the Republican leadership who still refuse to acknowledge Biden's win.  It's mind-blowing.  You think the Republican-controlled Senate is going to accept a single one of Biden's nominees for various positions in his government?  And don't even get me started on the lack of federal response to the large scale Russian cyber attack on American government.  It's treasonous.