Today is Saturday, January 29, 2022. Today the East Coast was battered by a powerful winter storm packing strong winds and many inches of snow. Thousands of flights were canceled as of 9 a.m. Saturday. New York City airports, including John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia, have more than 730 cancellations combined. These facts were gleaned from an online article in The Washington Post on my smartphone today written by Joanna Slater, Timothy Bella, and Jason Samenow in “‘Wicked’ blizzard pummels New England with driving snow, punishing winds.” According to the article, more than 100,000 people were left without power during the storm.

The nor’easter brought dangerous whiteout conditions to at least six states – Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. The governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker (R), said parts of southeastern Massachusetts could receive as much as 30 – 30, I repeat – inches of snow. In Boston, nearly 2 feet of the white stuff had fallen as of 7 p.m., according to the National Weather Service (NWS), making the storm one of the 10 largest on record for the city.

“On Cape Cod, where winds gusted above 75 mph, thousands lost electricity and heat as the storm howled and frigid water flooded streets.” Our friend, “Gene,” has a property in Truro, Massachusetts, and we watched weather coverage of the area later today. On the “Weather” channel, scenes of devastation impacting the area were shown. Let’s hope Gene’s property was not affected by this storm.

While we primarily stayed indoors the whole day and heeded New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s advice to remain within the confines of our individual domiciles, I did venture out only once after taking out my new Italian cheesecake from the oven. By this time, the snow had stopped falling. It was hazardous, though, for walking, I felt, even though I had my Ugg boots on. Some sidewalks had not been salted yet.

While Boston has been walloped by this early winter storm, Saturday’s blizzard is the latest in a series of major snowstorms to hit the city in recent decades. The reason for the intensity of the storm can be attributed to climate change as a factor, all research shows.

“Several studies have linked warming temperatures in the Arctic to cold blasts and heavy snowfalls in the eastern United States. Warmer-than-average air and ocean temperatures can also intensify snowstorms by providing higher levels of moisture.” Thus this latest dangerous storm is just another harbinger of conditions to come in this country if climate change is not seriously addressed very soon by all the governments on the planet.

As for our situation during this first major snowstorm, we spent a quiet day indoors. I baked my cheesecake a little after 12. Then I went out once to do some shopping nearby and had a coffee and a chocolate rugelach at Pink Forest, on Austin Street. I did slide a few times on the snowy ground, but I managed to stay upright throughout my adventure outside.

Later in the day, we both watched a Netflix documentary from 2019 entitled Tell Me Who I Am, a fascinating almost 90-minute film that tells the story of British twins Alex and Marcus Lewis and their special relationship that blossomed after the former lost his memory in a horrific motorcycle accident at age 18, with his twin brother helping him recreate his lost memories of childhood. There is a secret, though, that Marcus fails to share with his memory-afflicted brother that sheds some light on the brothers’ less-than-idyllic childhood. I have to say that I guessed the secret that Marcus couldn’t divulge to his brother for many decades. When we meet the brothers at the beginning of the film, they are both 54. I learned that it is based on a 2013 book that was written by the brothers, together with Joanna Hodgkin. I urge you to see this film to discover what that ghastly secret is. I guarantee that you will have goose pimples when you hear the terrible secret Marcus hides from his brother until Alex turns 32.

Another more troubling article appears on my online edition of MediaITE that charts the continuing threat that the last president still poses in this country. The article is written by Tommy Christopher, which is entitled “Jaw-Dropping Poll Shows Only 17 Percent of Republicans Would Vote for Someone Who Believes Biden Won.” The gist of the article would literally make your jaw drop after reading the results of the latest poll among people who identify as Republican in this country. It appears that the “Big Lie” still has huge traction among those who say they are with the party of Dumpf. Therefore, belief in the “Big Lie” has become then a de facto requirement for repugnican candidates, according to this poll out of Yahoo! News/YouGov, which shows that great numbers of Republicans still cling to the delusional fiction that the election was “stolen” from the Orange-haired Menace. According to Yahoo!, only 17 percent of repugnicans and repugnican-leaning independents contend they “would consider voting for a candidate who accurately characterizes Biden’s victory as legitimate.”

Now a whopping 59 percent said they definitely would not vote for any candidate who admits that Biden won the 2020 election “fair and square.” The pollsters say this about the results from the polls: that believing in the “Big Lie” has become a litmus test for the entire GOP, crowding out other issues and strengthening Dumpf’s iron grip on the party ahead of the 2022 midterms. And you wonder why I say no repugnican candidate should ever be voted into office until Dumpf is erased from the party, and we know that won’t happen anytime soon.

Another YouGov poll released this week found only 25 percent of repugnicans believe “Biden legitimately won the election,” versus 62 percent of all Americans who said the same. These numbers are downright frightening! When the number should be much higher, it’s only a measly 62 percent. I don’t know how anyone can convince these lug-heads that they are all delusional and are moving this country to an autocratic state.

A poll we can all hail is this new poll out of Arizona that shows Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) far behind Rep. Reuben Gallego (D-AZ) if he were to challenge her when her term is up in 2024. This poll is much more positive than the one I just mentioned above. As we all know, Sinema must be one of the much-hated politician in this country because of her refusal to back Biden’s progressive agenda, especially the voting rights legislation that she and Joe Manchin, that troll from West Virginia, blocked with their two nay votes. So she must be thrown out of Congress, I say. Thus this new poll of 673 potential Democratic primary voters that was conducted between January 21 and January 24 show Sinema 58 – yes, 58 – points behind Gallego. While Gallego has not confirmed if he will run against Sinema for her Senate seat, he did say last week that the senator was “ignoring the will of her voters.” So this new poll seems very troubling for the fiercely independent senator from Arizona who’s really a Republican in a skirt. Actually, another poll from OH Predictive Insights showed that Sinema has more Republican support in Arizona than support from people in her own party. Let her lose her seat in 2024 and then she can declare herself a Republican if she so desires. I won’t fucking care!

It’s getting late here. Stay warm tomorrow and don’t take any unnecessary risks outside.

Have a good Sunday anyway.

Stay safe and be well.