Month: January 2022

Posted on

Wait, What?

So President Biden had a press conference yesterday.

Surprisingly, some people actually showed up.

Initially I ignored it. I find it way easier to get through my day by ignoring almost everything coming out of Washington DC these days.

Then today I heard a neighbor talking about how the President said the 2022 midterms might be fraudulent.

After my brain rebooted, I decided to suck it up and go look up the actual quote.

Biden was asked by a reporter if he believed the upcoming elections would be fair and legitimate.

“It all depends on whether or not we’re able to make the case to the American people that some of this is being set up to try to alter the outcome of the election,” Biden replied.

Apparently referring to states that are tightening their election procedures,

“No matter how hard they make it for minorities to vote, I think you’re going see them willing to stand in line and defy the attempt to keep them from being able to vote,” Biden said.

When asked to clarify his comment,

“Oh, yeah, I think it could easily be illegitimate,” he said, adding, “The increase in the prospect of being illegitimate is in proportion to not being able to get these reforms passed,” Biden said.

At this point my brain rebooted again.

So does this mean that Biden is suggesting that because his voter rights bill is stalled that a future election will be tainted with fraud? If so, since there haven’t been a substantial number of states that have reworked their election laws does that mean that Biden agrees with the Republicans who have been saying that the 2020 election was fraudulent?

My logic may be flawed here.

If, without the Biden administration voting reforms the midterm election could be illegitimate. Does it follow that Biden discounted a solid year of Democrats telling the country that the previous election was pristine and flawless?

This is why I’ve been ignoring the shit coming out of Washington DC! It always makes my head hurt!

I almost feel sorry for Biden’s handlers. They must be ordering valium by the gross. Then again, I’m not particularly merciful. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in their planning meetings it would be very amusing to watch them trying to spin whatever Biden says.

Have you noticed to Jen Psaki looks really tired all the time now?

I’m going to go take an aspirin and put these jackasses back on ignore.

Posted on

Yea! Another potential gift from China.

I look up Dr. Robert Malone’s writings and video interviews with him pretty frequently.

Dr. Malone is one of the creators, if not The Creator of the mRNA technology that was used to create several of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Malone has been smeared by Fauci and others in the government medical industrial complex because he disagreed with their methodology and his work with mRNA lead him to believe that using the technology to create vaccines wasn’t a good idea.

Dr. Malone has been banned from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and searches for him on Google are limited. But apparently his research was good enough that it formed the foundation for certain highly profitable vaccines.

He’s plain spoken and direct in interviews. There’s no hemming and hawing unlike with Fauci. Dr Malone’s answers to even complex questions are generally comprehensible even to the layman. Honestly, I am biased toward Doctors like him. My Dr. of 20 years was very similar and my current Dr. is as well.

There’s something that resonates with me when a Doctor is straight forward and pragmatic. I’ve also found that generally speaking, such Doctors create a teamwork approach with me as an active partner in my healthcare.

They welcome questions to clarify their instructions and usually appreciate my last request before the appointment is completed. My last question is, “Give me a list of rules under which I should contact you as I take this medication. What anomalies should I watch out for?”

That’s me taking responsibility but not wanting to send up a panic alert without cause. That’s also why my trusted doctors have always responded to my calling them, even if they returned my call at 9 o’clock at night. They know I’m not concerned needlessly and that something has happened that was outside the rules they gave me.

All of which is to say that I’m biased toward taking what Dr Malone says seriously.

I found an interview dated Jan 11, 2022 where Dr. Malone was asked about the recent Chinese lockdowns around Beijing.

I about fell off my chair when Dr Malone said that Information coming out of Beijing is very sparse, but that there have been numerous reports speaking of some kind of hemorrhagic fever.

For me that was an OH SHIT! moment.

Dr. Malone goes on to say that hemorrhagic fevers are not typically associated with Coronavirus but are instead usually a different variety of viruses associated with Ebola. He does note that it is remotely possible due to China’s mass vaccination efforts with their vaccine, a variant of COVID-19 may have arisen that has developed hemorrhagic symptoms. It’s unlikely, but he went on to explain viruses sometimes do the most unexpected things.

Dr. Malone also said that continuing with the Winter Olympics in Beijing was beyond stupid. ( His actual language was more colorful) I do like a doctor that uses “Fuck”.

Yes, I want a Dr. that is professional but I love a Dr. that isn’t embarrassed to ask, “When was the last time you fucked? I need to know so that the PSA test isn’t skewed.” I really miss my old Doctor a lot!

To be clear, a hemorrhagic fever that is as communicable as COVID would be a nightmare of epic proportions. I’ll go out on a limb here and suggest that such a thing could be an extinction level event depending on its fatality rate.

This again is why most civilized countries, even tyrannical despotic regimes, have forbidden bioweapons research.

Anyone with a basic understanding of Biology knows there is a line that must never be crossed.

Dr. Malone mentioned that he and several other epidemiology specialists were meeting to collect any further information and that as they got more data he’d be making the information available.

This makes me think, as tired as the general public is of COVID terror and as much faith as has been lost in the FDA, CDC, WHO, due to the incessant “Bring out your dead” messaging, have we been set up to ignore warnings?

If the governments of the world actually do start warning us of something really deadly, will we listen?

There’s a reason “The Little Boy who cried Wolf” was a teaching story for generations.

Posted on

I think the “He’s like Hitler” Trope has lost its value.

There was a time when invoking Hitler was the worst insult you could hurl at someone. This was particularly true in politics.

It was a shocking statement and conjured up some of the darkest images in recent history. There was a time when if someone called you Hitler, you were doing something very bad.

Trump was called Hitler, Ron DeSantis is being called Hitler by Nikki Fried (who is campaigning to take DeSantis’s position.)

Lately it seems as if that shocking insult is being leveled at anyone over simple political disagreement.

“Hitler” as an insult is rapidly becoming as commonplace as “racist”. Both are losing their shock value and their impact.

Now if someone calls you a racist in a discussion, it just means “You Win!” The person calling you a racist is declaring that they cannot win the discussion on merit, facts, or logic. This is the verbal equivalent of “The nipple crippler, or titty twister” in a fight. It’s a shameful and pointless move born out of desperation. It’s wholly ineffective and serves no purpose other than to show others what kind of poor loser you are.

Comparing someone to Hitler is rapidly becoming the same lame move.

One could similarly compare the Biden Administration to Nero fiddling while Rome burned. The story of Nero fiddling is not historically accurate but has entered into the collection of descriptive tropes we use as shorthand to describe things.

Nero isn’t nearly as insulting as Hitler these days, but in the sunset of The Roman Empire I’d bet calling someone “A Nero” was cause for a duel.

For me, when someone screams racist or Hitler I’m done. Nothing that person says after is of any importance. They came to a debate or a discussion unarmed and then got butt hurt when the weakness of their position was unmasked.

Nikki Fried has lost her election bid right from the start. She didn’t consider her audience.

Think about the age of most of the residents of Florida. A fair number of them would have been told stories of the horror of Hitler by their parents or grandparents. The images of the camps may still be in their memories. The fact that Hitler was so bad, we allied ourselves with Stalin to defeat him would also not be lost on those people.

A simple comparison of DeSantis today versus their memory of Hitler’s atrocities puts lie to Nikki Fried’s comparison.

Fried speaks for Miami. A lot of Florida doesn’t consider Miami part of Florida. Miami is where all the New Yorkers hang out, it’s a place where the prices are too high, the crime is too prevalent, the politics are too blue, and liberal progressive elites are thankfully mostly contained.

When I was a boy every hurricane season the “Normal” Florida secretly hoped a hurricane would scour Miami off into the Atlantic.

I’m wondering if DeSantis will address Fried directly. She’s handed DeSantis a great line. Fried calls him Hitler, he responds, “No, the trains still aren’t running on time.”

The majority of older Floridians would chuckle at the reference then watch in amusement as Fried tried to figure out what that meant or how it was relevant. A bunch of older Floridians would correct DeSantis by pointing out he’d gotten his dictators confused. Benito Mussolini, not Hitler, is the despot who insisted the trains run on time.

Unfortunately, the media would blast it as, “DeSantis admits he’s Hitler”

It’s a pity that sarcasm is lost on most people today.

Posted on

SCOTUS Ruling

It’s interesting to me that the SCOTUS ruled against the OSHA Vaccine Mandate but upheld the CMS version.

From what I’ve read thus far, members of the court had concerns about the vague language used in the OSHA version. In the CMS version, it appears they upheld it based on who was providing the money. CMS appears mostly Medicare related and therefore is using public funds.

There’s a lot more to read and I’m waiting for text of the actual ruling.

I suspect that the vague language issue leaves open the possibility for the Biden Administration to tighten up the language and the try to re-implement the OSHA rule.

I also find myself wondering if the SCOTUS ruling opens an entirely different can of worms.

What about those employees who did not want to get the vaccination but who felt the had no choice. Do they now have legal standing to sue their employers? Can they invoke the Nuremberg Code and demand compensation? Will they be able to sue the Biden Administration?

They, by definition were being coerced/threatened into accepting a medical procedure against their will. That’s a pretty clear violation of Nuremberg.

There will be some slimy lawyer that says they don’t have a case because they could submit to weekly testing, wear a mask, maintain social distance, etc. That is more or less true although some companies were saying everyone had to be vaccinated because it was too much work to keep track of testing schedules and results.

It should be interesting to see how that plays out.

I’m waiting to see the rulings before rushing to judgement. However many of the initial news pieces don’t mention any constitutional infringement that the court was concerned about. That concerns me.

If the SCOTUS found nothing constitutionally wrong with the OSHA mandate, then we can be sure that a revised mandate will rear its ugly head once more. I worry that without a constitutional “Stake” to the heart this OSHA mandate will rise from the grave and introduce more chaos into the job market. Companies don’t want to hire if they’re unable to predict which way the wind is blowing.

Year One of Biden has been a study in unintended consequences.

It’s funny. I just realized I’ve seen this before.

I’ve worked for companies that while owned by the founder were profitable and produced good reliable products. Typically, the founder has a clear vision of what products are needed and sticks to that vision. A lot of the founders I’ve known were essentially good folks, but they tended to be plain spoken, to the point of being “mean”. They weren’t mean, they simply had little time or concern for hurt feelings.

I’ve observed what happens to a company when they go public and suddenly you’ve got a board of directors, a bunch of executives given their positions by the board regardless of qualifications, and a bunch of legal red tape designed to protect the investors.

What seems to happen is the company loses focus. You start having “design by committee,” instead of a clear vision of the products. There’s usually a substantial loss of quality and often the executives will take one successful product and modify it iteratively, bolting on a new button or changing the color. They’ll call it “new” and improved. But it’s the same machine or software just with different lipstick.

It’s not uncommon for the founder to quietly bail and then there’s a lot of churn in the executive wing. For employees that’ve been through this process once, they also start looking for the exits.

I’ve been in companies where the new management is so unfamiliar with product or the company that they start hemorrhaging money on things that don’t add value to the actual work being done on the product. (Custom woven carpets for premium office space in an Irvine high-rise come to mind.)

As the company goes further into the red more committees get formed to investigate why the company is showing a loss. The management starts flogging the employees and demanding longer hours, restricting vacations, and of course cheapening the medical plan for the employees. But the executive wing is still getting raises, going on vacations, and getting bonuses. They also have awesome medical coverage.

There’s a point where the brain drain from employees bailing to greener pastures reaches a tipping point. That’s when a high level “Cleaner” executive comes in. This person’s job is to ready the company for immediate sale. The company itself will be shut down and all the patents and intellectual property will be sold to competitors.

Think of it as organ harvesting in the corporate world. It happens all the time! If I was a betting man, Now that Jack Dorsey is out of Twitter, and Jeff Bezos is out of Amazon… We might see either or both cannibalized over the next 10 years. I’d bet that Twitter will go first.

The Biden Administration reminds me a lot of the corporate process. There’s a lack of focus. The administration is trying to address too many pet issues and not considering the consequences. Many of the issues are low level, but because they’re being treated with equal weight to every other issue, nothing is being done well.

Unfortunately, we’re all going to have to suffer through it. It is my sincere hope that America will learn the bitter lesson this time around and choose better candidates for the 2024 Presidential election.

I’m not holding my breath but I have a smidgen of hope nonetheless.

Posted on

Well that’s better!

All systems reporting 95%.

Fever has abated, coughing diminished to small little bouts every couple of hours instead of every couple of minutes. Appetite returning (Got a real hankering for steak!) Intestinal discomfort (don’t ask!) has resolved. Sinuses are clearing. Both knees are showing good. There’s still a little twinge in the left knee signaling caution but it seems that those repairs are mostly complete.

All that’s left is this weird patchy sensitivity on some parts of my skin. The feeling is like a cross between an itch / burning sensation where clothing touches.

If this were Summer I’d be running around naked, or hanging outside in shorts absorbing sunlight, alas it’s too cold for that right now. Nonetheless, the sensation is diminishing as the hours go by.

My head is clearing too. For the past couple of days my thinking has been muddy and I’ve been easily annoyed. Oddly, even technology has been annoying. That’s unusual for me. If I’m ill, technology is my goto. I suppose it allows me to get out of my body and focus on something else.

Whatever this bug was, it muddied my thought processes enough that I couldn’t effectively communicate with tech.

Whether this was a cold or the dreaded and always fatal Omicron, (sarcasm intended!) My immune response has adapted and destroyed the invader. Much like human immune systems have been doing automatically for millions of years.

No matter how you slice it, our bodies are marvels.

I wasn’t gifted with beauty, or height, but apparently I was gifted with durability. 60+ years later and this body keeps on kicking with relatively low maintenance. I’ll take the durability, beauty is so fleeting…

Given my German ancestry I guess I’ve got the VW body. Side note: The older I get, the more finicky my body is getting about fuel and other stuff so now I’m probably less VW, and more BWM or Mercedes.

The other half is still trying to cough up a lung and is, I think, simultaneously relieved that I’m back on-line and jealous that I bounce back pretty fast. They are not so fortunate.

Now in typical fashion, I’m ravenous. Time to go raid the fridge and replenish all the raw materials that I burned fighting this, (whatever it was) off.

My constant nursemaid (the dog) needs some loving attention too. He’s been sleeping close to me and gently checking on me every hour or two in typical dog fashion.

I’d get both my ears sniffed and a lick on the nose. Then he’d lay down again. Every once in a while I’d wake to find a favored toy laid on my chest. I don’t think he was trying to get me to play, I think he was trying to make me feel better the only way he knew how.

The other half says that the dog has been splitting his time between us. I only knew that every time I woke up the dog was there watching me.

An alternative explanation could be that I’ve been on the couch. He might simply have been wondering why I was in his spot. I choose to believe he cared about the pack being sick.

I’m going to get something to eat, then we’re going out in the back yard to play. I’m also going to take the opportunity to do poo patrol. The dog seems to like supervising that activity.

There is an unproven but highly documented, anecdotal, theory in medicine stating attitude and belief sometimes can have as much positive effect as all the drugs in the world. I’d add the dog kisses and nuzzles are just as beneficial.