Category: Government

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President Stompy foot just doesn’t get it does he?

TPresObamahe president has called for calm, and trust in the face of ebola.

He’s cautioning the American public not to give into hysteria. 

Really?

Mr President, perhaps people would be more willing to trust you, your administration, and the government in general if you hadn’t lied to us again and again.

Just a few weeks ago you and the CDC said that ebola was hard to catch. Then we have someone come in from a country that honestly should have been on a restricted travel list and he’s sick. Then he’s at a hospital and dies, now two nurses have tested positive for ebola.

Protocols?

So Stompie, is this disease hard to catch or has your arrogance already killed thousands?

The math of a simple geometric progression is scary enough, but the potential for spread of this disease in a densely packed locale like a city is terrifying, especially since the fixed ratio is likely to be more like three or four if you account for family units or co-workers.

Most people think of the series 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128. That’s a fixed ratio of 2, a fixed ratio of 3 yields something like 1, 3, 9, 27, 81, 243, 729, 2187. A fixed ratio of 4 gives you 1, 4, 16, 64, 256, 1024, 4096, 16384.

It’s not unreasonable for the American people to ask if the genie is already out of the bottle. A sick nurse, on two flights in a closed environment at close quarters with a minimum of 140 other people…  Gee, that sounds like a freaking party! Sign me the fuck up! I’m surprised as hell that others aren’t showing symptoms, but the incubation period is still young!

Djin

You said, Mr. President, that you didn’t think we’d need an ebola tsar, yet you’ve assigned one.

You said the CDC had it under control, but they’ve said they screwed up.

You’ve said that the troops we’re sending to Africa to battle ebola will not have contact with sick people, but now we’re learning that apparently they are going to be assisting sick folks in the temporary hospitals.  What are you going to do if our troops get sick? You’re needlessly exposing our troops to a situation that they shouldn’t be in.

You’re concerned about imposing a travel ban because we need to help the people of Africa. You’ve told us that a travel ban will harm the people of Africa by restricting the flow of aid, that’s dishonest on it’s face. We can send all the aid we want to Africa, we just don’t have to allow anyone from the restricted areas to COME HERE.

Golfy Stompy

Your Oath of Office says you’ll put the needs and safety of the American people first. Imposing a travel ban is a simple direct way to do that, as is closing our southern border (which you have consistently FAILED to do.)

We won’t even discuss your failure to take, ISIS or as France has decided to call them Daesh, seriously, or your subsequent authorization of bombing in Iraq and Syria. 

Really President Stompy, Why should I or the rest of the American people trust you?

I’m not hysterical about ebola. I’ll tell you this, I’d think twice about getting onto a plane right now.

I’ve caught the flu more times than I can count on planes. The flu is a pain in the ass, ebola is worse so if I don’t have to fly, I’m not going to.

President Fail

Technically I don’t even have to fly to get ebola. I can simply kiss someone that was on a plane and who now has flu like symptoms, its flu season we’d think nothing of it, and we’d probably wait to get treatment because a lot of us are still having so much trouble with our medical insurance that the concept of seeing a doctor is simply too daunting. The delays in seeking treatment, could result in more exposure, and the spread of the virus before it was even reported in a particular area.

This is because Mr. President, you’ve failed… again, to put the safety and wellbeing of the American public first.

You may well have created an America that rivals third world cesspool countries, time will tell. Regardless, your presidency will be one for the history books. 

Congratulations!

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Come on, We’ve all seen this movie!

Ebola Graphic (CBS)

With so many cautionary tales;

Andromeda Strain 

12 Monkeys

The Walking Dead

28 Days Later

Contagion

Prometheus

Resident Evil

David

We know how this ebola thing has to play out.

Our Southern border must be closed.  Flights from infected areas or with passengers originating from restricted areas must be denied access to the US, or at least quarantined for 21 days before being allowed to merge with the general population.

The alternative is that we allow ebola to gain a foothold here in this country and then we no longer have the metaphoric high ground from which to battle the disease. 

BioHazard

This isn’t about political gain, being called racists, or being mean, it’s biology.

Since the disease has a greater than 50% fatality rate, I think it’s not something we want to underestimate or ignore.

The old bioweapon maps from the US Army, (which of course you can’t find on the internet anymore) showed very graphically just how quickly diseases with various methods of transmission could spread.

Obola

I am not suggesting, as some have, that ebola is a bioweapon. I’m saying that some pretty reputable science was done during the cold war that can give us predictions about what happens if something like ebola gets a foothold in this country.  This science is backed up by fairly recent history.

There was a little thing called the 1918 Influenza.  This pandemic infected an estimated 500 million people. Estimates are as high as 100 million people dead.

The really NASTY thing about this particular Influenza was that it killed mostly young adults in the prime of life. Contrast this, with most infectious diseases killing the very young or the elderly and that’s why the 1918 Flu is a standout in pandemics.

Biohazsuit

Oh and by the way, if anyone was going to weaponize a disease… the 1918 flu variant would be at the top of the list.  

It’s tactically sound. Kill off the young adults, send their surviving children to indoctrination camps and use the elderly to clean up the bodies.

Gruesome and cold, but the logic can’t be ignored.  You win wars by denying your enemy the ability to make war. No soldiers equals no fight.  That’s just the mechanics of it, the demoralization of a people watching their sons and daughters die, and an entire generation of orphans is one hell of a weapon.

Thankfully, the superpowers during the cold war, concluded that biological war was just too damn dangerous and unpredictable. Oh sure there were dalliances with small pox and anthrax but it really is a very dangerous game.

Atomic bombs are probably safer.

Victim

The problem today is that our Government seems completely … what? Disinterested, Over-confident, laissez faire, about ebola and the ease with which a disease like this can bypass formerly insurmountable natural barriers; oceans, mountains, etc. Yet they’re the ones who have the Science suggesting the outcomes of transmissible diseases on large populations.

Given the events in TX, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to institute some serious and active quarantine measures.  Mr Duncan, should never have made it to this country. He should never have been ABLE to pose a threat to the health and well-being of American Citizens.  

treatment

I’m sorry that Mr. Duncan died.  However, I find myself asking the following questions:

Who is going to pay for his hospitalization and treatment?

Is his family going to get a bill from the hospital?

Since his family is playing the race card, what the hell, I might as well go all in. So I have to ask:

What is their immigration status?

The immigration office has gone on record as saying that Liberians are among some of the people most likely to overstay their Visas. So why is The State Department still issuing any Liberian Visas? For that matter why are any Visas being issued to anyone from the affected countries in Africa?

How did Mr. Duncan come by the money for a plane ticket?

Duncan

Was he a test subject from Boko-Haram, ISIS, or some other Muslim group? I do hope that our law enforcement is looking into his finances and the finances of his family. I personally wouldn’t be surprised to hear that his family got some “interesting” deposits.

I’m not trying to victimize the victim here, but there are many questions that have remained unanswered surrounding Mr. Duncan. These questions are worthy of some answers.

The race card has been played internationally and within our own country. The aggregate of the reports suggest that people in Africa believe that we have a cure for ebola, but that we didn’t give it to Mr. Duncan because he was black.

Maybe we do have a cure, maybe the experimental drugs work, but they’re in short supply and hard to produce. After all, they’re experimental, and by definition produced in very small quantities. It’s not like we can just turn on a factory and start churning out this stuff. Hell OUR generic pharmaceuticals are produced in India!

Blood Types

Some reports have commented on Mr Duncan not being given blood from one of the survivors. These reports attempt to imply that the reason these blood transfusions weren’t provided is because Mr. Duncan was black.

The more likely reason is because of a little thing called blood types. Based on the distribution of blood types around the world it’s likely that Mr Duncan was type O. This is a very common blood type.

But, there are relatively few survivors of ebola. It is entirely likely that of those few survivors healthy enough to donate blood, none were type compatible with Mr Duncan.

This means that if one of the survivors had given Mr Duncan a transfusion, and they were incompatible, the transfusion itself would have killed Mr Duncan before ebola.

These FACTS are not racist, these are scientific and biological facts. 

blood bag

It’s concerning that even black people in America believe Mr Duncan was denied drugs or treatment simply based on the color of his skin. That speaks to a fundamental lack of education in, or understanding of science & biology.

Moreover it speaks to the level of divisiveness that has permeated this country for far too long.

If white people wanted to kill black people… they’d do it.  You wouldn’t have to rely on whispered conspiracy theories and innuendo. You’d have bodies in the streets.

It’s time for all of us to realize we’re all Americans and we’re all pretty much equally fucked if this disease gets a foothold here.

Duncan Apartment

Sadly, due to the apparent level of ignorance about science and biology, it’s likely that minority neighborhoods will be the hardest hit.

I say this because if these neighborhoods don’t understand basic biology, or medicine they’re going to be unable to comply with quarantine requirements or even recognize the danger.  

We’ve already seen this when the family of Mr. Duncan violated their quarantine and had to be placed under guard.

Instead  minority neighborhoods will likely re-enact something akin to 12th century Europeans killing cats as a measure against the black plague. Ironically, the feral cats were one of the only protections against the plague.

Plague

See the plague was carried by fleas that lived on rats and the cats were helping to keep the rat population in check. Yes, the cats had fleas too, but their predation of the rats was of greater value.

Think of it like the disclaimer on drugs today. “Your physician has determined that the benefits of this drug outweigh the potential side effects.”

When the wholesale slaughter of cats began, the rat and consequently the flea populations exploded, and with them so did the disease.

Put simply; Ignorance and Stupidity Kills!

This is not a function of racism, it would be a function of the “Dumbing Down” of Americans through shitty education in the K-12 sector of our schools.

Think about that, the next time Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or anyone else talks about how racist our country is.

Twitter1

Sunday 10/12/2014

And here we go! Healthcare worker preliminary test is positive for ebola. A twitter user probably said what a lot of folks in Dallas are thinking.

Then there’s this. Duncan’s family is making noise about a lawsuit. To which I say you have to be fucking kidding me! 

I hope the people of Dallas file a class action law suit against Duncan’s family for all the emotional distress that his selfish actions caused.

The racist implications Duncan’s family are trying to make are disgusting.

Since America and American healthcare is so racist and unfair, I’m sure the people of Dallas would be more than happy to put Duncan’s entire family on a plane to Liberia.

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In our never ending quest for instant gratification…

DirectorPiersonYet another head rolls.

Director Julia Pierson resigned yesterday. One DAY after scathing congressional questioning about a security breach during her tenure as Director of the Secret Service.

She’d been on the job for a little over a year. The Media is attempting to paint her as somehow responsible for PRIOR security breaches dating back to 2009. 

The things she could be reasonably held responsible for are; the breach of the White House on Sept 19th, where NO ONE was injured and no threat to the President occurred. This White House breach should never have happened, but that’s another story.

Then there’s the revelation that the president was in an elevator with a CDC security guard who honestly shouldn’t have been working at the CDC!  There’s the tendency to assume that a security guard working at a federal facility that contains PLAGUES would be someone that you don’t have to vet too closely. The assumption may be flawed.  As humans,  we want to trust each other. Trust is more likely among law enforcement especially if one officer is wearing a uniform.

I find myself asking how demanding/forcing the Director to resign is going to help the situation. In the ensuing chaos of her departure doesn’t that further degrade the morale of the agency? In addition to the procedural issues, morale and high turnover rates among the agents have been cited as ongoing problems for years. 

I think we’ve become too quick to demand resignations. I’d personally like to have seen how the secret service would correct it’s mistakes. But now we’ll never know if the problem originated at the head of the agency, or if it was somewhere in middle management. Unfortunately, a new Director will have to spend time figuring it out all over again.

I wonder what breach of Presidential security will happen while the new Director is trying to get a handle on the issues, and if he or she will have to resign too.