Blogger’s note: Today there’s no carol, just a fresh take on a classic Christmas poem.

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through land,

people were living their hat in their hand.

Prices were rising and paychecks were shrinking.

And this meant the folks, they were taking to drinking.

The libs they were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of socialism danced in their heads.

And we on the right, we were gaining resolve,

Though Biden’s a problem, ’tis one we could solve.

The man has gone senile and lost all his senses,

Evidence includes him downing our fences.

Jabbing us often with the latest vaccine,

Was among Biden’s goals, with this most obscene.

If only he’d go back to sniffing girls’ hair,

Get out of the office and back to his lair.

Or brag of his exploits with much exaggeration,

Instead of more dabbling in vote exploitation.

The man’s lapdog media, it does fawn o’er his mumblings,

Leaving the sane alone with their grumblings.

This is the man who did claim to beat Trump,

But faith in that tale brands believers as chumps.

It ’tis much more like it, that the election was stolen,

Rules fell like tenpins when a good one is bowlin’.

And here now we’re facing a U.S. demise,

Due to fools and their misdeeds; commies and lies.

But hope springs eternal in the breasts of the faithful.

Anyone but Biden would prove to be helpful.

The man is a train wreck of Botox and facelifts.

His transplanted hair is both mismatched and misfit.

His handlers would brand him as Old Uncle Joe,

But only the brain dead would buy all that snow.

Biden, it’s clear, is no jolly, old elf.

But rather a loser quite fond of himself.

His ego is massive, his awareness quite tiny;

His wife is a shill, his VP quite whiny.

In just a few years, they all should be out,

Left to lament and do the Hillary pout.

‘Cause it just has to be that a nation like ours,

will fail to elect more fools, boors and liars.

And now we can dream of the day they all leave,

A time we will welcome and leftists bereave.

We will hear them exclaim as they flee Old D.C.,

Whoever replaced us must be better than we!

Blogger’s note: The updated holiday songbook concludes today with a carol about Joe Biden. It borrows from Good King Wenceslas, even though Biden has little in common with the caring king of the original song.

HE’S NO WENCESLAS (To be sung to the tune of Good King Wenceslas)

Joe the clueless king looked out,

on a failing nation.

Rife it was with crime and fear,

and runaway inflation.

Joe took no blame for all the woes,

’twas his inclination.

Admitting fault not what Joe does,

not even with hesitation.

Am I still the president,

or just back in the Senate?

Do I read these lines aloud,

I’m puzzled if they meant it?

Can I make the people do,

anything I want to?

Why must I still follow rules,

when I just don’t want to?

It’s four o’clock and I grow tired,

I need my daily nappy.

Tuck me in and change me please,

That would make me happy.

Wake me up at 8 o’clock,

to watch the cables praise me.

CNN, MSNBC,

Not Fox ’cause they do craze me.

You stupid people just can’t get,

That I’m one standout ruler.

Not the one with 12 inches,

But a hip dude who’s much cooler.

Listen up and you will learn,

how to understand me.

Think of all the fools you know,

And I’ll fit right in there for thee.

I hear you people moaning much,

about your situation.

But don’t blame me I’m just the king,

Though well above your station.

Understand I feel your pain,

well actually I’m numb.

You little people who complain,

Should shut up while I suck my thumb.

Blogger’s note: Christmas nears. Today we offer an update on The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire). If only Nat “King” Cole were still around to sing it.

THE COVID SONG (To be sung to the tune of The Christmas Song).

(Verse) Leftists coming down with COVID now,

Despite taking all their shots.

Instead of owning right up to the truth,

They now want to vax up all the youth.

Everyone should know that these vaccines they just don’t work,

Aren’t worth getting after all.

But they insist just get more and more,

And maybe then your masks can fall.

(Bridge) They know that Fauci’s on his way.

He’s loaded lots of jabs and bullets on his tray.

And if you doth protest you’re gonna find,

You’ve put your freedom right there on the line.

(Chorus) And so they warn you now to toe the line,

If you don’t want to pay the cost.

Take your shots and just shut up,

Or it will truly be your loss.

(Bridge II) Again, Fauci’s on his way,

You can’t move without first getting his OK.

He is power-drunk — a grumpy elf,

We’d like to put him away on the shelf.

(Chorus II) A day will come when all this grief,

Is put quite firmly in the past.

Until that the day the best you can do,

Is recognize Fauci’s an ass.

Blogger’s note: In an homage to the era of Top-40 AM radio and 45-rpm records, we present a twin spin of traditional carols updated with the politics of our time.

WE WISH YOU A MERRY VAXMAS (To be sung to the tune of We Wish You A Merry Christmas).

(Verse 1) We wish you a merry vaxmas,

We wish you a merry vaxmas,

We wish you a merry vaxmas,

Many jabs in your rear.

(Refrain) Free needles we bring,

to you and your kin.

We wish you a merry vaxmas, and a jab in your rear.

(Verse 2) We won’t stop until you get some,

We won’t stop until you get some,

We won’t stop until you get some,

So give in, don’t fear.

(Refrain) Free needles we bring,

to you and your kin.

We wish you a merry vaxmas, and a jab in your rear.

(Verse 3) We all know our vaxes don’t work,

We all know our vaxes don’t work,

We all know our vaxes don’t work,

It’s right what you hear.

(Refrain) Free needles we bring,

to you and your kin.

We wish you a merry vaxmas, and a jab in your rear.

(Verse 4) But still do we want to jab you,

But still do we want to jab you,

But still do we want to jab you,

To keep you in fear.

(Refrain) Free needles we bring,

to you and your kin.

We wish you a merry vaxmas, and a jab in your rear.

LITTLE FLUFFER BOY (To be sung to the tune of Little Drummer Boy).

Yes, behold me

Pa rum pum pum pum.

I am Big Guy’s bag man

Pa rum pum pum pum.

I keep his hands so clean

Pa rum pum pum pum.

That he might be your king

Pa rum pum pum pum,

Rum pum pum pum,

Rum pum pum pum.

Here I come.

Pum, pum, pum, pum,

Pa rum, pum, pum.

Fudged vote totals,

Pa rum pum pum pum.

In bed with the Chinese,

Pa rum pum pum pum.

The finest grift we bring,

Pa rum pum pum pum.

The stench of it does cling,

Pa rum pum pum pum,

Rum pum pum pum,

Rum pum pum pum.

And we’re not done.

Pum, pum, pum, pum,

Pa rum, pum, pum.

We’re running quite a game

Pa rum pum pum pum.

Trading on family name

Pa rum pum pum pum.

And just for our own gain

Pa rum pum pum pum.

We do not share your pain

Pa rum pum pum pum,

Rum pum pum pum,

Rum pum pum pum.

We’re never done!

Blogger’s note: In the spirit of the holiday season, we continue this series of current events updates on past Christmas standards, both the songs and a poem or two.

ONE BRAVE KING (To be sung to the tune of We Three Kings).

Hi, my name is Joseph Manchin,

I’m the vote that does Biden in.

Just can’t let his bad bills get past me,

Or else this nation’s done. Ohhhhhhhh.

Let AOC and Bernie blame me,

Take to Twitter just to flame me.

In my heart I know that I’m right,

They can just kiss my coal . . . hole. Ohhhhhhhh.

Build back better it sounds like progress,

But instead ’twill make us regress.

Spending dollars that we must borrow,

Just to pay backers off. Ohhhhhhhhh.

So I just will keep voting no.

Saving all you people some dough.

No need to thank me, doing my duty.

‘Cause I’m the only one. Ohhhhhhhh.

I’m a Dem, but not a leftist,

From a state that’s at worst centrist.

It’s sad that Commies now rule my party,

But I will not join their lean. Ohhhhhhhh.

Say a prayer that some others get it,

Join with me to reset the Senate.

Then I won’t need to be a loner,

But if I must, I must. Ohhhhhhhh.

Joe and Liz and Bernie can get lost,

In a twist I stand as their boss.

Standing vigil in the holiday season,

So you can live your lives.

Blogger’s note: In the spirit of the holiday season, today we continue a series of current events updates on past Christmas standards, both the songs and a poem or two.

In this installment we pay homage to the government’s opportunism in seizing the holiday season to further their scare campaign.

TITLE: SCARE THEM ALL FOR THE HOLIDAY (To be sung to the tune of Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree).

(First verse) Running away from the family,

On this Christmas holiday.

Letting them wait out in the snow,

While you check that they’re OK.

(Second verse) Sticking it to the family,

On this Christmas holiday.

Can’t take a chance while COVID reigns,

Though it takes so few away.

(Chorus) You should get a guilty shameful feeling when you start,

shoving swabs right up their nostrils,

acts that once were judged as hostile.

(Third verse) Dancing around the vaccine tree,

You all must get your jabs.

‘Cause if you don’t, you all will die,

and we’ll put it on your tabs.

(Fourth verse) Fauci and Zients spread their doom,

each a sad look on his face.

Best you should stay at home alone,

And just not go anyplace.

(Chorus) We’ll be sad when we can no longer scare you with our tales,

that run right in the face of science,

and take away your self-reliance.

(Fifth verse) Rockin’ around the propaganda tree,

Trying to scare you ’til you’re dead.

The virus won’t do that this we know,

So we plant fear in your head.

Blogger’s note: In the spirit of the holiday season, today we begin a series of current events updates on past Christmas standards, both the songs and a poem or two.

SMASH AND GRAB (To be sung to the tune of Jingle Bells).

How the criminals,

are taking over life.

Buy yourself a gun,

that just might end the strife. Hey! Hey! Hey!

Passing some new laws,

that wouldn’t do the trick.

Unless our legal types,

would make the charges stick, OHHHHHHH.

(CHORUS) Smash and grab, smash and grab,

See the hoods all steal.

Rub your eyes all that you’d like,

The images are real. Hey!

Smash and grab, smash and grab,

Why aren’t they all in jail?

‘Cause if they were, the libs’d be sure,

to release them without fail.

(Second verse) It seems that hope is lost,

when thieves they face no threat.

It makes them oh so bold,

while you cower in your nest.

Too late there now are some,

who see that they have failed.

By choosing not to enforce the laws

and put the thugs in jail. Hey!

(Chorus) Smash and grab, smash and grab,

Sing our little song.

Raise your voices far and wide,

Let the libs know they are wrong. Hey!

The announcement from England regarding the death of a patient “with” Omicron prompted speculation in this space two days back that this was interesting phraseology, perhaps suggesting it was not necessarily a death “from” Omicron.

Others, including a writer at the London Daily Telegraph, since have expressed similar reservations about the announcement in view of a continuing lack of details regarding said victim.

In a Telegraph story dated Dec. 15, 2021, a professor was quoted as saying of the Omicron death wording that it could apply to someone in the hospital due to COVID, or, equally, to someone who had been hit by a bus and just happened to be infected with Omicron.

That was our point exactly. Death “with Omicron” doesn’t have to mean it was “from Omicron.”

The professor went on to note the lack of specifics such as the victim’s age, sex, any underlying health conditions that could have made said victim particularly susceptible to the virus.

Concluded the professor: “I suspect it’s just some old boy that’s tested positive, he may have died in his sleep or with a heart attack, who knows? It is unnecessarily alarming.”

The last “unnecessarily alarming” observation aptly characterizes most governmental approaches to the COVID situation. Oversell the dangers to put members of the public in a panic and they will more willingly accept lockdowns, vaccine and mask mandates and any number of other draconian measures ostensibly to combat the virus but more accurately that are about getting the populace to submit meekly to any and all governmental decrees.

Other news organizations, notably Reuters, have run with the vague report of an Omicron death in England and extrapolated potential catastrophic outcomes.

I scoured the internet before writing this, even as Federal Reserve spokesman Jerome Powell is droning on about trying to deal with burgeoning inflation here, and could find no additional details on the so-called Omicron victim in England.

In view of questions being asked about this death you’d think that if it had been an otherwise healthy 20-year-old male who had died, the propagandists would be eager to spread that news.

Their collective silence could speak volumes about what’s really going on here.

Finally, the fear mongers have an Omicron variation COVID death. Or do they?

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson broke the news without details Monday. But if you read what Johnson said it was that a patient had died “with Omicron.”

Many news outlets ranging from the BBC to CNBC reported the situation using Johnson’s “with.”

CNN, not surprisingly, headlined the death was “from Omicron” on its website.

The difference could be considerable. I think back to the early days of COVID hysteria in 2020, when overzealous types in Florida listed a man killed in a motorcycle accident as a COVID death because apparently the corpse tested positive for the virus.

When called on it, one doctor observed that COVID might have contributed to the crash. So could have speeding, inattention, lack of skill, or any number of other hypotheticals.

If only the Florida propagandists had used “died with” they’d have been correct technically, albeit in a misleading way.

Trying to blame COVID was a pretty weak reach on the part of the medicine man and I suspect the death certificate didn’t list COVID as the cause of death.

But it helped the scare narrative to juice the COVID death count.

And that brings us to the person in England. Did the patient die from Omicron (including any direct complications), or merely with it?

Johnson, a man given to verbal hyperbole, also said his nation faces a “tidal wave” of Omicron infections. In view of that, perhaps he used “with” intentionally to provide some verbal wiggle room should this turn out to be another motorcycle accident.

The same story reported England had 48,854 news cases of COVID (not specified by strain) on Sunday. That was broken down to 501 out of every 100,000 people in the population now are infected.

The reported number of Omicron infections, as of Sunday, was listed as 3,137. On Monday the health secretary reported 10 people infected with Omicron were in the hospital.

There’s that word “with” again.

It’s possible they all are hospitalized due to the virus. It’s also possible some are there for hernia surgery and happened to test positive for Omicron.

Either way, any student of statistics would tell you that one death from a group of 3,317 people, or even 10 hospitalizations from that number, is statistically insignificant, either calculation coming in at tiny fractions of one percent.

Eventually we will find out if Omicron, which has been characterized by many medical professionals as both very communicable and typically relatively harmless, will turn into a dreaded killer.

For now, hold the panic. And watch what prepositions are used in the reporting.

It was with considerable surprise that I saw in the local newspaper’s weekend edition a comprehensive package of stories dealing with some of the very same issues raised in a post here early last week.

We speak of the city’s abundance of public housing, the transient nature of students in the school district that takes in the city and several surrounding municipalities, and the increasing rate of overall crime in the area.

We will accept the numbers as reported by the newspaper. Those numbers don’t include the surrounding political subdivisions, but in the city proper there were 18,141 residents recorded in the 2020 census. A recent count found that as of Nov. 30 about 3,500 of them were either in public housing or Section 8 housing. This is by definition, low-income housing and it’s a dramatically high percentage.

The school district numbers indicate that over the past three years 2,181 students have enrolled and 854 have left. Nearly 400 came from Philadelphia. Again, staggeringly high numbers.

The report mentions others coming from New York, New Jersey, Florida and Virginia, among a list of places.

There was a total denial from a public housing official regarding use of billboards or printed handouts to recruit tenants from elsewhere for our local facilities.

Fair enough.

But has anyone else ever heard of word-of-mouth advertising? Can we rule out that anytime over, say, the past decade, friends and family have told potential tenants of the sweet deal in Johnstown and those told have checked it out by coming here.

Perhaps they are encouraged to do so from some people involved with public housing; again nothing in writing. Perhaps the Philadelphia operations that deal with low-income people there share, or have shared, the advice, trying to pass the buck here.

There must be some reason for why we get so many people from Philadelphia and similar locations. As someone who grew up here and attended that very same Greater Johnstown School District, graduating in 1973, I didn’t know a single soul who had relocated here from Philadelphia.

That’s in 12 years (13 counting kindergarten). Not one kid from Philadelphia!

I can’t imagine Johnstown is on the minds of many people in Philadelphia, unless the schools are teaching about our natural disaster history with floods. Regardless, that isn’t likely to stimulate the urge to relocate here.

I can tell you that, while I was working for the 2000 census, I had a mother in one of the suburbs tell me she’d relocated here from Philadelphia to get her kids away from the crime there.

But that was 21 years ago.

As for crime locally, the numbers in the story package indicated police calls had increased in recent years both overall and for public housing. But no separate breakdown was available for Section 8 housing.

There was the closest thing to a total denial issued regarding rumors of migrant families being relocated here. A 99-percent occupancy rate was claimed for public housing here, with the addendum that there was virtually no room at the inn and there had been no communication from the Feds regarding making room.

After consuming this expansive package of stories, we’re left with a similar conclusion to that reached in our initial post. Johnstown has changed and is changing, but not for the better as measured by crime and poverty.