Sorry to be months late with another entry, and no, I wasn't victimized by the virus. The usual haunts where I access computers were unavailable as much of the country froze in place, and then I was mysteriously (?) shut out of my own account when the password no longer worked. Meanwhile, the leftist thought police strengthened their move among all sorts of communication, so I can't even imagine what First Amendment standards have been shot to hell on blogs such as this. Nevertheless. . .all returned to something sorta normal.
First, wearing a face mask (by state government dictator decree) during the New Normal of Viruses Era reminded me that I haven't put one of those on since serving in Air Force hospitals 50 years ago, when trusted with scalpels and other surgical instruments whilst debriding war and burn wounds -- and wearing one is no more pleasurable now than it was then. As mentioned previously, I worry a lot about a face-covering mask helping provide the warmth and moisture to incubate organisms already present in the wearer's nose or on the face, which might go on to jeopardize the wearer's health or life. It is not natural to spend hours with your face covered, when even one's body oxygenation is put at risk.
Few medical professionals had taken to the TV to advise that viruses can also enter through one's obviously unprotected eyes (as we stated in a previous blog entry), so masks are no panacea. Recent warnings from China's buddy, the World Health Organization, about health hazards to mask wearers received absurdly little attention among agenda-coated politicians or the media. Also, numerous are educated references indicating that this virus is simply too small to be deterred by the microscopic face coverings.
Today's title references more than one aspect of the Covid-19 event. There are monsters, there are incubators, there are incubating processes and there are entities involved for good or ill with all of it. The monsters can be a virus, and monsters can also be those who spread viruses on purpose. The most unwilling of incubating monsters of all could even be we who incubate unknowingly, becoming responsible for a proliferation of illness and death.
Monsters can also be social networks passing themselves off as platforms keen on filtering or eliminating commentary they merely don't like, because nobody on the left wants us to engage in critical thinking and deciding for ourselves. "Fact checking" should be left up to those who encounter information, not those who set themselves up as censors and self=described caretakers of truth.
The vast majority of people who worked hard to become doctors, nurses or members of support professions adding to the health care mix never, ever anticipated putting their own or their families' lives in jeopardy day after day. When dedication becomes dead-ication, is it not perfectly reasonable to expect that white coats and stethoscopes might suddenly drop to the floor throughout hospital corridors like tree leaves on a windy fall day, as the inadequately trained and equipment-deficient exit in quantity? Yes it is, as we have witnessed -- albeit to a surprisingly minimal degree -- over recent months, particularly among medical personnel leaving their jobs (and sometimes their very lives) behind because they lacked proper clothing and equipment to stay safe. Yes, matters could have been far worse without American ingenuity coming to the rescue in an amazing way, but. . .
Even if "defeated" by all appearances, what of next fall or winter when the same virus may re-emerge refreshed, multi-mutated (mutations are apparently already occurring) and stronger than ever? And what about next time, and the time after that, when more new pathogens show up, perhaps simultaneously (an extraterrestrial "Andromeda Strain" not withstanding)? Truly, we don't require "The War of the Worlds" to understand at this rare moment in the brief period of human existence that we are the -- those -- vulnerable Martians.
A vaccine? Hmm. Tell you what -- first, ask what's in it, all the fillers (ugh), then YOU take the damned thing and see how you feel in five or 10 years. I wouldn't be so quick to jump on this hurried little bandwagon, as medical science has a long list of f-ups. And vaccine companies are customarily immune to lawsuits.
CDC? Center for Disease CONTROL? Good job, thanks for nothing. Where were you? Who needs you? Maybe better to consult a gypsy's crystal ball, and it's less expensive, too.
Neither animal, vegetable nor mineral, lacking even the basic capability of growth or reproduction until encountering the warm, moist and comforting physiology of a living host, viruses are indeed one of nature's wonders. Unfortunately for humans and other beasts, the damned things also act as judge and jury regarding everything from acting as the impetus for minor illnesses to causing swift and unforgiving death penalties. The viral slaughterhouse absolutely adores nursing home residents, but any old place where living things congregate will do, arriving as viruses do in protective capsules adept at keeping their essential nucleic acids safe until they literally hook up with, hook onto and trick the living host's own burgeoning cells into becoming virus reproduction factories. Viruses are kind of like an extended family from hell.
Lacking a Ph.D. education, law degrees or experience as Washington lobbyists, viruses nonetheless go about their precious hours successfully influencing the hopes, dreams and health of living things far and wide.
Almost supernatural in their powers to influence societal norms and expectations, agents naked to the human eye can close down bars, restaurants, government agencies, schools, great universities and blue-ribbon brothels (not to confuse the last two and their similarities, of course), all in a time frame less than overnight.
Viruses have a funny way of exerting population control for any living species susceptible to their deadly charms. And what a fine job they do! While we're inundated with news reports claiming a sporadic decline in world population, the viral collective nevertheless assumes otherwise and takes action. Anybody in contemplation now of producing a large family in a well-evidenced environment of food and resource shortages -- just because they "want" lots of kids, not because they need them to work on a family farm or the like -- may be a fool among catastrophes. Maybe viruses are secret Malthusians.
Bonus: Viruses kill off bad folks, too, as Covid-19 currently works its terrible magic among Iran's ruling class and in other countries unfriendly to world peace. If this new coronavirus could have played a role in diminishing China's grandiose plans for world domination, how sweet would that have been?
Call in the Disinfectants: Any brain-equipped adult or member of the media stupid enough to believe President Trump was PROMOTING the use of household disinfectants within the human body (he was merely inquiring about possibilities) to destroy the virus should certainly consider ingesting these deadly products, because the United States hosts an ever-growing cornucopia of morons ready to take their place in an instant.
However, discussions of ultraviolet to destroy viruses are very relevant. While training as an Air Force physical therapy specialist way back in 1968, we airmen in this critical field donated time and abilities at a local nursing facility, and sometimes we used small ultraviolet lamps (also called cold quartz or spot quartz lamps) to treat decubitus ulcers. A couple minutes a day of such exposure destroyed harmful organisms, dried up and healed the skin lesions. Proper dosages of measured UV light, like the sun itself, can truly seem miraculous.
Choose: Virus or asteroid? Is there anything potentially ironic about this? Yes. In the future, after the world stockpiles surgical masks, ventilators, respirators and gloves, the next calamity may be a killer asteroid instead of a biological entity, and not one piece of warehoused equipment will be of use to anybody because there won't be much of anybody left to require essential medical services. My choice -- killer asteroid. Keep everything simple. With a killer asteroid, like knock-off T-shirts from China, one size may fit all.
Meanwhile, was it not peculiar to find an absence of true panic in the streets supplanted by chaos in the retail store toilet paper section, as dunderheads who waited their entire lives for the opportunity to stand in line to horde butt-wiping products and deny others a fair chance showed up everywhere?
Nevertheless, there was much to witness as the virus panic ascended to code-red status. The Democrats in particular were going nuts with a newfound, (temporary, we hope, yet typical) self-designated license to dictate terms and herd people around in ways to their liking.
We were annoyed by Obama's reappearance to condemn Trump regarding the virus and Bill Barr regarding General Flynn. One would think, now that extreme presidential failure Obama and his wife have their mansion and millions of dollars that they would just shut up and go away. Regrettably, their proponents and fans persist and, in the best spirit of the Democrat Party, the Obamas, too, will not let a good crisis go to waste.
New York's thicko governor/pseudo-dictator/hopeless presidential contender Cuomo, holding daily televised appearances regarding virus dangers while, from all appearances, simultaneously condemning government regulations and begs their removal during the crisis, plays his part -- yes, Cuomo, state dictator who usually embraces regulations, mandates and public restrictions lovingly when times are normal. So what did he do? He issued an executive order for NY's National Guard (WTF?) to confiscate scarce medical equipment from hospitals all over the state and send it to the NY City area where chaos, death -- and key Democrat voters by sheer volume -- ranked supreme, thereby potentially leaving Upstate areas lacking in medical equipment to save their own patients. The situation did not evolve to this degree, fortunately. This time.
When the latest crisis clears, watch for NY residents to be taxed even more by a cash-strapped socialist state government determined to continue providing the best sanctuary cities and welfare payments on the planet, and the Southern district of NY will continue gobbling up money intended for all and treating the rest of Cuomo's potentially medical equipment-plundered state as irrelevant.
Emergencies aside, we marvel at Cuomo's plans to export Covid-19 patients from New York City counties to Upstate areas and hospitals, places traditionally treated badly and dismissed by NY City Democrats. NYC already transports its garbage to Upstate landfills, with (just defeated, at least temporarily) plans to send huge amounts of raw, stinking sewage to northern counties whose rural beauty and environmental quality will be ruined for years. We don't wish to sound harsh in Cuomo and NY City's time of need -- but having lived for decades with the knowledge that NYC folk generally look upon anybody residing north in the state as country bumpkins, rubes and idiots, deprived of major state money and services in order to make NYC glow like a rare gem, emotions can certainly be other than kind and charitable. When the viral crisis is over, NY City and Albany will again be the dominating entities they have been for decades.
Meanwhile, again referencing Cuomo, in recent years he supposedly had an opportunity to purchase many thousands (18,000?) of ventilators for the state, but reportedly only bought around 2,000 -- so it's little wonder he scours NY state hospitals to cover up his own incompetence, and probably to make his actions appear somehow presidential. As the bodies pile up in NY City and state nursing homes, perhaps Cuomo's consistent voters, fans and manipulators of higher political aspirations will finally see a state ravaged by past and current thumbscrew Democrat administrations and all the minions required to make avarice and unconstitutional governance appear normal. Truth is, through plans of compromising medical facilities outside of NY City -- with promises, of course, to replace "borrowed" items later, likely after patients and staff needing life support essentials are dead -- Cuomo and his helpers emerge as potential long-distance executioners of gravely ill NY residents who may not particularly care for Cuomo or his progressive Democrat political machine. With this bunch, all that matters in the end are votes, and it's clearly NY City's well-compensated voters who keep the dark side immersed in power to intimidate the rest of the state for another day. Cuomo's annoying daily televised "briefings" on the virus were campaign ads, and little else.
We wonder, if so many regulations will be swept aside temporarily among numerous states, why they can't disappear permanently? Trust the people, for a change, instead of Cuomo, NYC's DeBlasio or a proliferation of elected and unelected state and federal scoundrels.
Among the cheap trinkets upon which Cuomo's legacy will be built is the inescapable fact that New York was the center of the Covid-19 virus takeoff, all of this occurring whilst said governor let days and days pass before taking action on the subway system and other critical areas. Yet, during his tiresome daily TV briefings he feigns authority with knowledge and the stupid crowd goes wild, lifting his approval points as he televises emotional snake oil from the heart.
Yet, forget all of that, for the worst was yet to come. No, we don't mean the virus -- we're talking about that nebulous entity upon which so many lives have come to depend. . .
Athletic events. Yes, gone for weeks, audience-attended and TV-nourishing basketball, football, baseball, golf and anything which involved putting something into a hole that did not seem overtly or subconsciously sexual in nature. WHAT WOULD FANS DO??!!! HOW COULD THEY SURVIVE?!! The answer for starving TV networks was years-old repeats of famous sports events.
Mental health professionals probably needed to curtail drug counseling as the athletically-deprived and sports TV addicts required emergency psychiatric guidance. As some may agree, a lack of proper sports activities AND postponement of the 2020 Olympics will be the worst effect of Covid-19, worse than death itself. (Sigh...) We are only human, and we suck.
California Democrat leaders' SUDDEN worries about thousands of homeless potentially (and ultimately actually) acquiring the virus serve as a peculiar response, since Democratic governance for decades has allowed and encouraged homelessness, street pooping and urination, and pretty much anything the "disadvantaged" could do was okay with California Dems. Thankfully for California government dictators, the state harbors enough illegal aliens and members of the unaware to assure a Democrat win next election. "Hope and change" are just fine until one suggests this as a way of tossing out Democrat legislators.
But the virus, ah yes, the virus, the Chinese Covid-19 coronavirus, quite probably live and in person from a Wuhan laboratory, and what of the Chinese, and more specifically the Chinese Communist Party, which really perpetuates China's national working slave class?
Frankly, we want to brain-scan so-called journalists who ask Trump why he is so insensitive to others by calling it the CHINA virus (duh -- because that's where it came from -- and in a similar vein, may we ask, why did the chicken cross the road?).
Bat soup? Maybe not quite. Lab bats vs. lab rats? Wuhan Viruses-R-Us, Inc?
The Chinese government -- several weeks late in informing the world of the virus as it attempted to hide the truth, only to go on the defensive days later by blaming everything on the U.S. military! Silencing and murdering their critics as they literally welded people's apartment doors shut so they couldn't get out to spread the virus seems a bit "old hat" barbaric, but then again this is communism at its best. Then stories emerged of still LIVING virus victims pushed into body bags, zipped up and cremated in piles.
In a just world the lying, thieving, murderous Chinese communist fecaliths would be held responsible and forced to pay the world for enormous global problems caused with this outbreak, just the latest of viruses either intentionally or stupidly unleashed upon the international community. How the United States could possibly be in debt to China for anything after this crisis is beyond my thinking. Fortunately, some members of Congress are raising the issue of China's economic and social responsibility in this regard. Further, the worthless United Nations bunch and Chinese-mouthpiece World Health Organization aside, countries everywhere need to use the current chaos as a wake-up call to strip China of its status as the overly-abundant source of consumer products and factories (thanks Clintons, NAFTA and numerous individuals who sacrificed USA strength for self-enhancement as factories departed for China in waves). What society in its right mind supports almost to the point of worship an evil entity dedicated to world domination in just a few years? "Social distancing" is what the world should practice with China from now on, kicking out their reprehensible ideas, mining contracts and "road building" talents. Too bad African dictators have made sweet invasion deals with China, and the first to suffer will be wildlife. A country unwilling to come into the current century by banning both human and animal-torture hardly deserves to be hugged and kissed. Barbarians are still barbarians, despite "refinement" through stolen technology and brutality disguised as something else. China destroys the air, the water, people and animals, and the environment will be systematically damned as long as Chinese communist monsters pursue a quest to have it all, no matter the consequences to others.
Disturbing to know, too, how major TV networks have Chinese money stuffed in their greedy hands, apparently affecting news reports, sports and entertainment divisions.
And Google -- owner of Blogger -- should common sense not cause it to condemn and abandon China for as long as the Chinese government uses Google's skills to spy on, censor and control its people? Shouldn't this be obvious, even in the boardroom? How many Chinese people die or receive imprisonment every day thanks to Google's technological advancements? Bad enough how Google recently deleted material regarding sexual allegations against the Democrats' star presidential candidate.
Key question: Just when do platforms become publishers?
Unfortunately, China may be too big to influence downward in a conventional manner, but that's not to say the world can't start right now by making tiny cuts here and there in China's economy, social outreach and global grab to deflate their domination balloon.
As we've attempted to emphasize in the past, life is neither "Star Trek" nor "Star Wars," and life, unlike motion pictures, rarely rights some wrong in the universe as each episode concludes. Too many people look upon current problems, such as a virus, as a TV show whose dilemmas will be neatly solved at the end of the day. Not necessarily so.
Are TV images incurable? Oblivious to the Covid-19 tsunami poised to strike the world as filming went on, Fox-TV's weekly doctor drama show, "The Resident" began running episodes about medical corruption and the subsequent release of a potentially lethal Candida fungal infection at a hospital. Apparently worried that viewers might believe the show was purposely capitalizing on the actual emerging horrors of Covid-19 by turning out a script ripped from the headlines, Fox began showing a briefly-worded denial/disclaimer before each episode.
Radio to the Rescue? I'm aware that a lot of you tune in regularly to George Noory's "Coast to Coast" radio show, and if you complement your late-night listening hours with Clyde Lewis's earlier "Ground Zero" radio broadcast, you're ahead of the customary broadcast game which, especially regarding TV news, finds no reason to differentiate between truth and well-plotted agendas.
Strangely, many among the same audience who tune in to Noory's show wouldn't be caught dead listening to other radio icons such as Glenn Beck or Michael Savage. That's a shame, because these are viable options for alternative and well-documented thought on government, science and a host of issues the bigger broadcast players should, but won't, touch with fairness. No, I don't agree with or care about everything thrown out on talk radio, but at least we're forced to think -- a painful option for those long hypnotized by and indoctrinated into TV news networks' mind-altering visual charms.
The bonus for radio talk shows? Millions of Americans forced to stay home for weeks or months probably discovered conservative stations they never knew existed, perhaps getting an education in facts instead of spoon-fed TV "news" alterations.
Like prominent social networks which now filter news as a matter of course (that is, removing conservative content), TV news follows a similar course.
Those hopelessly addicted to the political left's glitter box, unfortunately, don't know and don't care.
Hurry, make more babies: You can't expect viruses to survive without a reason to hang around, and we humans are definitely a plus in the world of viruses. The more people produced through romantic encounters, complemented by screaming animal sex, the better! Human breeding presents better viral infestation opportunities, more business for the undertaker and an excess of funereal occasions when everything goes to hell. The sane question that nobody but the insane will answer -- how many people on the planet and "great" cities populated by myriad human incubators are enough?
The hypocritical bureaucracy: Following a tradition in the U.S. of insisting upon specific medical degrees and licensing to treat patients, suddenly the political class begs for anybody who can so much as apply a band-aid to come forward and help the medical "professionals." Yep, retirees, yet un-graduated medical students and other healthy bodies able to provide assistance. What??!! What about the strict licensing, the monumental steps required before one properly trained individual is allowed to so much as touch another? The point here is that years of government interference, regulation and comradery with medical organizations have created a significant red tape jungle.
Nancy Pelosi and the Temple of Absurdity: The grand old lady and ice cream eater of socialist desires gotta go, and only the Democrats or, unlikely, California voters can make that happen. The greedy list of unrelated wants she included in an emergency budget bill intended to help Americans was a disgrace, totally out of step with the bill's intent. Unfortunately, she and her crew lie in wait for the next bill o' goodies. . .
- - -which is why we appreciate, futile though it seemed, the efforts of Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, now reviled by both the right and left -- and, regrettably, President Trump, who referred to Massie as a "third rate" congressman -- for attempting to follow the Constitution when the vote came up to spend over two trillion dollars. He made an excellent argument that members of Congress did not want their names on the bill individually because nobody wanted congressional accountability for this mess. Twists and turns among the leadership to get what they term the necessary "quorum" outraged Massie, but in the end who cared?
The Village People didn't sing about this Navy: Good grief, if it's not UFOs and official military videos of their maneuvers, it's questionable decisions to fire personnel. Dismissal of USN Capt. Crozier from his command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt seems rather harsh, maybe even a tad paranoid on the part of superiors. From what we see, his main crime was publicizing that his crew was acquiring the Covid-19 virus faster than one can shout "anchors aweigh." Had he gone solely through official channels regarding this fact, and not through other sources, how long would overpaid members of the Pentagon-bound's bloated Navy brass sit on their asses before coming to the captain's rescue? Now Crozier's beloved former shipmates are highly upset and one suspects thoughtless decisions played a role -- and just look at what happened to the Navy Secretary who canned Crozier. "Going nuclear" in this instance lent a new meaning to Crozier's vessel. Reinstate this man.
"I can't breathe" is a warning phrase which, one would think, should always be taken seriously by law enforcement personnel in the position of subduing a suspect by compromising his cardiopulmonary function. Tragically, a man died needlessly in Minneapolis on a day in May because a few cops acted very, very badly toward George Floyd, and the one who literally appears to have murdered Floyd looked almost psycho on multiple videos.
"I can't breed," however, is a phrase we wish we could apply to each and every local pea-brain and outsider who, disguised as "protesters," honored the Minneapolis departed by looting, setting fires, injuring (and in one case murdering) and destroying businesses and dreams. One wishes all of these people, many quite likely products of terrorist instructions, could wake up sterile, because it's probably true that the only thing they excel at, besides destroying other people's hopes in the name of social justice and collecting welfare because they have no skills, is becoming baby-making machines with offspring destined to be as stupid as themselves. Or maybe we just need more "sanctuary cities."
As news reporters went ga-ga over the mayhem during hours following The Big Burn in several states, nobody appeared to have an interest in apprehending looters, arsonists and other criminals whose own actions put lives and property in jeopardy. And the mayor of Minneapolis. . .?? A horse's ass. Typical Democrat mayor for a typical leftist progressive city, no surprises there. But it is no coincidence that most of the cities engulfed in flames and hatred are the very offspring of decades of Democrat rule -- and city voters in particular will continue to vote for the devil they already know, expecting better and getting the same as always.
How to make a martyr for the ages: Anxious to keep the race issue burning, elaborate street and government demonstrations focus on the only thing they seem able to comprehend: The minuscule number of bad cops. It's a heck of a lot easier to blame all police for the actions of a few than to grapple with the very up-front issue of black people murdering black people in disturbing quantities throughout the nation's cities -- and while we don't have current statistics at hand, we're pretty sure that the worst black-on-black murder cities have been under Democrat control for decades. Nevertheless, the desperate attempt inherent in all the street demonstrations and protests is to crown George Floyd a new martyr and a reason for young black people to continue simmering over racial issues while pushing the wise words of Martin Luther King further into obscurity. Why take the time to exercise rationality when you can simply march through the streets, hold up a fist and blame law enforcement for all your problems?
What did statistics show -- that 19 out of 19 cities fallen victim to flames and hostility after the Floyd incident had degenerated under Democrat rule for decades? Ah, the things pretty anchor people don't tell you during the glitter box news.
We doubt that excessive media and public attention paid to the Floyd incident will do anything but entrench more racism. Where are public demonstrations when police officers die brutally at the hands of black or white perpetrators? As the way out of range Floyd hype erupted artificially all over the country, Was actor James Woods' attempt at an innocent tweet featuring names of dead police officers from this year not removed by the Twitter censorship Nazis?
The solution to all of this national, often ramped up racial insanity seems among many to involve de-funding law enforcement agencies all over the country, an idea absolutely brilliant in its ignorance.
Violence and seemingly endless street demonstrations following Floyd's demise will hardly make a difference to average Americans, though many politicians have held the Black Lives Matter (an anarchist organization from all appearances) cult close to their legislative bosoms out of either fear or ignorance. In the months ahead, watch for passage or attempted passage of the most idiotic laws one can dream up, all in the name of blackness.
Blackface, we admit, is out of step with the times. Black IN your face, however, is just as wrong when it involves special attention and rewards based upon race. Frankly, young people of any race currently poised to embrace socialism over our current system, flawed though it may be, seem absolutely clueless about a brutal new variety of plantation awaiting all of us, should our democratic republic ever fall in exchange for a socialist system perpetuated by slave labor and the murder of millions who merely disagree with government edicts.
