Or maybe all isn't as it seems

Afghan pilot flying this is someone I have known over the years. He was trained in the US and UAE, he confirmed to me that he flew the Blackhawk helicopter. Taliban fighter seen here was trying to install Taliban flag from air but it didn’t work in the end. https://t.co/wnF8ep1zEl

— BILAL SARWARY (@bsarwary) August 31, 2021

Lyrica

You know, I am taking Lyrica now for the neuropathy extremis.  That and Gabapentin.  

My only complaints for a year (I could only get to a doctor in August of 2020, but I would have whined sooner in a normal year) were "My back hurts, and I can't feel my feet."

Anything that helped those 2 things was what I wanted.  Don't tell me it is blood cancer or lymph node cancer or bone cancer.   I don't care.  Make the back pain and numbness go away.  That's the need.  Knowing why is a kinda useful want.   I've been getting what I want, but not what I need.

Thing is.  My back hurts less.  And it is coincident with the Lyrica.  First piece of good news if that is actually helping.  

You've seen the pain scale.  

I was 3 4 5 (Bees?) until they fried some nerves in my back with radio waves.  Sadly, that only made it 2 3 4.  But better than nothing.

Oxycontin gets it down to 1 2 3, but that is very temporary.  So is a pack of steroids  1 2 3, but only for two weeks, then back up.  And you can't do more of those for a long while.

I might be 1 2 3 right now.  Hooray!  Lyrica!  Supposed to fix my feet, but fixed my back instead.  I notice no real improvement with the numbness.  Could be a coincidence, but I will take it.  Improvement is greater than placebo.  

But a plus to the neuropathy.  I get wounds in my hands just doing normal that bleed like crazy and would hurt like the dickens normally.   I only notice it when blood gets on stuff. 

New complaint though.  Listlessness.  Easily fatigued.  Shortness of breath with any mild exercise.  The Cancer causes that.  Dropping my red blood cell and hemoglobin numbers.  Simulates anemia.  Had this symptom long before starting Lyrica, so it's not a side effect.  

The anemia lowers my blood pressure, too.  Which is a plus because it was pushing 140/90 this time two years ago.  110/70 and dropping now.

Listless, like "Lets get a load of laundry downstairs and in the washer.  Tomorrow I'll have the energy to go back down there and swap to the dryer."  I combine tasks as much as possible.  Make every trip accomplish two things.  "The kettle is whistling, better grab some trash since I am heading to the kitchen for coffee."  That sort.  

I was told the Taliban wanted to rehabilitate their image

They do this on the first day no American military presence is about.  With one of our 'donated' Blackhawks.

Taliban hanging someone from a helicopter in Kandahar pic.twitter.com/TwCkVzUrnL

— Old Holborn® (@Holbornlolz) August 30, 2021

NEVER underestimate Joe's ability

To F*** things up.  

He wants to burn down the alliance we have with Britain.  I am sure China approves.  

Happy, then Sad

The little down tick in reported positive cases in my county made me happy.

Then the subsequent up made me sad. 

State numbers look a little "well, it was rising but may be plateauing, but still too soon to tell."

Maryland:

Number of confirmed cases : 494,255 since January 2020

Number of persons tested negative : 3,923,576 

Total testing volume : 11,940,441 

Number of confirmed deaths : 9,760  since January 2020

Number of probable deaths : 223 

Currently hospitalized : 690 

Acute care : 510 

Intensive care : 180 

Ever hospitalized : 45,842  since January 2020

We can deal with 690 in hospital.  If they are evenly spread among all state hospitals.  

Yeah, nobody but cops (ok) and bad guys (boo!) use pistols, after all

A classic 80's throwback to the gun control group now known as @CSGV pic.twitter.com/jf3PLZtHSD

— 𝙵𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚖𝚜 𝙿𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚢 𝙲𝚘𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 (@gunpolicy) August 29, 2021

Can't TELL you how many times I had to tell women this.

I'm a sailor not a sex toy.

Or, more likely, "I'm a Naval officer, and not yet have my wings.  I feel a bit inebriated, but could you please unhand my 'Goose' madam?"

It's kinda like that

Hipster is Disappoint

The cancer might probably not be the bespoke Waldenstroms but the more pedestrian common Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.

And I must admit I am a little disappointed.   I would no longer be Special.  Poop!

Slow burn cancer either way.  That suits me fine enough.

Back from the Oncologist.

"Waldenstroms?  Did I tell you you had Waldenstroms?  I musta been drunk or high or something.  It's probably... CLL?  Let's get you to a Gastroenterologist and see if he can find a lymph node in your gut we see on your CAT scan."

You know those guys are backed up (heh) right?  They had to take a year's vacation when Fauci told them to.  I won't get close to his office till after Halloween.

"And?"

Well, if the only reason to go to him is for him to look at a lymph node you can already see, and THAT is what is delaying my treatment, can't we just pretend he looked at it and saw it, too?

"Look, I'm delaying it because it probably won't alleviate your symptoms anyway, so, why crush your hopes now when I can let you have a few more months of it?  Hope, I mean."

Fair enough.

---

Insurance companies will spend $10,000 on second opinion doctors but not $777 on a CT scan.

---

Meanwhile my red blood cells and hemoglobin keep dropping.  Slow and steady, wins the race.  To the bottom.  Of my car, when I pass out getting out of it.  

Details

I'm not a car person.  As a kid I thought I would be, but it didn't turn out that way.  It rankles thinking about how much a new car loses in value when I drive it off the lot.  Especially when there are THOUSANDS of new cars with birthdays that will never be sold.  Not to you, not for love or money.  Would you buy a 2019 model F150 with 55 miles on the odometer?  Well there are plenty out there, but you can't.  Ford will scrap that before selling it to you at a lower price point.  It's business.  

So I buy a vehicle for transportation.  It has to fit in my driveway, and has to haul what I need hauled, and it'd be nice if it worked in the weather.  And used.  Pre-owned.  So a bit cheaper. 

So with that attitude I don't run my car through a car wash.  There is plenty of sand under my floor mats.  If I wont pop for that, I certainly won't pop for detailing.

But I am rethinking that.  In an 'you only live once and what else you gonna spend your money on?' sort way.  If I am thinking that it is getting time to get a new used car, and have a plan for a year from today, today, I am getting the car detailed.  So my last year with it it feels clean.  If the car is still re-sellable, CarMax or whoever will detail it again, but I don't care because I turned it over.  

Maybe I'll go to the barber, too, and get a straight-razor shave if that bastard can avoid cutting my joogyooler vein.

Of course, THIS intrigues

Just letting everyone know that a AR9/M3A1 grease gun crossover exists pic.twitter.com/g2vkhXzbiX

— Xaniken (@Xaniken) August 24, 2021

If

All I'm asking for is the right to the same weapons that I paid for the Taliban to own

— Michael Malice (@michaelmalice) August 21, 2021

If you could own one weapon we let the Taliban steal what would it be and why is it the M240B?

I always kinda dug that platform.  7.62.  Way too heavy for me right now.  Proper machine gun.  

(Meh.  I'd need mointing points all over the property and vehicles for it, and a tripod.  Too anemic to carry one very far.)

Shooting In Portland

 And witnesses found this on the ground.

Here is one of the casing after man with handgun opened fire in downtown Portland

Bystanders say he pulled gun as antifa gathered downtown pic.twitter.com/YNWEyVThKn

— Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) August 23, 2021

Unfired round.

My guess is the shooter didn't know if he had one in the pipe so racked the slide to be sure, losing the one in the chamber.  Or the shooter is new and 'knows' you always gotta do that before you go into a gunfight.  Saw that on the TeeVee. Hey, maybe he had a failure and did a failure drill!

Note the plated case, too.  Might be actual self-defense ammo.  Holler-points or what have you.

------

Wait, did that round belong to THIS hippy with a batman-badge over here? If so, sheesh, man.

Angle of the shooting in downtown Portland. Antifa accounts are claiming the man was firing into a group of them, though no one was shot. pic.twitter.com/uWMynrBlDR

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 23, 2021

These are paratroopers, right?

This is an exercise?

People fall out of airplanes every day so what is the big deal? https://t.co/Syr4IslOpW pic.twitter.com/PqrpRUyVqB

— Charles R. Smith🔹 (@softwarnet) August 22, 2021

I never forgot the people that jumped from the towers, and noise they made when they hit in that documentary that came out a few weeks after. Prolly won't forget this part either. I knew who to be mad at 20 years ago. Who should I be mad at this time round?

When they evacuated Bagram AFB...

Way back in July, I remember thinking, then, that that was a big deal, and something I personally would have saved for last.  It was very secure inside, and the last thing I'd hand over on my way out.  But I wasn't there.  I wasn't on the ground.  What did I know, way over here?  People much smarter than me made that decision so it would probably turn out fine.  I guess.

Meh.

Then Auguse, before I knew it, they had abandoned Hamid Karzai airport in Kabul, then quickly reversed the decision because thing got a little spicy a little quickly.  So I had no time to shake my head ruefully about that.  

I hope things get better before they get worse.  

So this is fun.

Been off work since Wednesday because of this, but I still gotta walk on it to get medicos.

Overdid it.  Mentioned that before.  The lower lividity is more bruise like than blood-poisoning like. 

Yes, I told my doctor.  Even had a virtual visit.  Hurts a bit.  Staying off it as much as I can.  CT Scan tomorrow, tho, and I am not letting them delay me again, insurance or no.

"So what is the good news T-Bolt?"

You know, I am not as debilitated by my back as much!  Much more bearable.  So I got that going for me. Just the foot problem.

Feels good when I drain it.  Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Two days later:

Feels better, too, after the lancings, once it sorta stayed drained.  It took a few.  I drained it the way they taught boy scouts to do hiking blisters back in the 80s.  And I know Infantry were taught similarly at least once.  That's all the fine detail you want to know:  "I successfully drained with an alcohol-sterilized everything," and leave it at that.

Clarissa Ward

I am glad she got into Kabul airport.  I was getting worried for her because of how bad it was getting outside the wire.  Not that it is real good inside.

We know a lot more because of her.

Hands up, don't shoot

Looks like a pre-war combination of a OG bullet proof vest and a pepper box.  Hardly a machine-gun.  More an AOW.  Sorta like modern times, but a dude has a claymore attached to his plate carrier or helmet.  And probably about as useful.

How is alfalfa here gonna get gud with this?  Can you picture the RO's face?  

* Original Gangsta

** Any Other Weapon

*** Range Officer

Vitamin I

I never have to ask myself "I wonder if I took my 4PM dose of Advil?"

It's always plainly painly obvious.  I'm glad it still works.  Naproxen Sodium and Meloxicam certainly don't.  For me.  

I Overdid It

 I walked too much on these neuropathic feet and got a big blood blister.  Think I will take today off.

Black Actors, man.

Black Actors.

I keep forgetting things.  Might be a side-effect of...  you know... the thing that's killing me slowly.  NO, not primetime television programming.

One of the things I didn't properly learn (more's the pity) and now want to and maybe retain for more than a day is black actors I have enjoyed throughout the years.  AND forgotten the name of.  If I write them down maybe I will remember them longer.  For some reason I never forget Don Cheedle or Denzel. And Morgan Freeman narrates my dreams, just in the Mad Scientist from Electric Company's voice.

Woody Strode: Sergeant Rutelege and Spartacus 

Moses Gun: Shaft, Heartbreak Ridge 

James Earl Jones: OH, YOU KNOW!  Conan, Great White Hope, Othello.  He played J D Salinger in a baseball movie.

Roscoe Lee Brown: who played Jebediah Knightlinger in the movie, (Moses Gun played him in the TV show)

Richard Roundtree: Shaft, John Shaft, who is a complicated man, that no one understands. 

Brock Peters: Kill a Mockingbird, Admiral Cartwright 

Samuel Jackson: Matrix and Apocalypse Now 

Laurence Fishburne: Pulp Fiction, Avengers Avery Brooks 

[I don't really need to remember the names of these two, but I do have to remind myself how to spell them from time to time.  On the off chance I do meet either I hope I have the stones to purposely reverse their name, one for the other.  Because it is always hilarious when someone does that.  And like I did here.]

Joe Seneca:  The Blob, Crossroads

Albert Popwell: Dirty Harry movies.  Most all of them.

Hmmm. I notice they are also kinda strong male characters. Do they even give a wimpy role to any of these guys?

Tired

CT scan got rescheduled again because Cigna health insurance is playing the long game.  If I die they don't have to pay no more. Might as well delay treatment.

Oh they'll pay $300 a week for months of acupuncture or aroma therapy, but one time $600 worth of imaging to look for abnormal lymph nodes?  I dunno... 

Went to the neurologist "What YOU need is a sleep study!  Do you snore?"  You tell me, lady.  

At least I know the Lyrica is 'working'.  How?  Intense withdrawal pain if I forget a dose.

Afghanistan

 Don't talk about the last 20 years.  The whole thing was a shit sandwich we all had to take a bite out of eventually. I had optimistic hopes the country could become... well... a country.  You can go back and read my 9/11 post every year to see me grow jaded as that became a fantansy.

Talk about the last 20 weeks.  That what got us to all this /waves-hands-about we see on the TV.  No, we aren't going to admit those weeks of mistakes now are we?  Simply can't.  That'd be honest.

---

Also:  please don't end up like Benghazi, just way way worse...

Then/Now

What a difference a day makes. 

AKs

Before I knew anything about guns, I knew about AKs and M-16s.  And I 'knew' they were crap.  Both of them.  'Knew' from my place of ignorance.  I was gonna go into the Air Force or the Navy, and would never need a rifle. Right?

The M-16s jammed and they'll find you in your fighting hole with 3 buddies, all with cleaning rods down the barrels and full of Commie bayonet wounds.  And had tiny high velocity bullets when it did work and what good is that?

The AK-47 made a distinctive sound and was reliable, but about as accurate as a smoothbore musket.  And what good is that?  At least it was .30 cal.  I think.  Pretty sure, yeah.  I'll ask a buddy in the HS cafeteria.

There might have been older antique rifle we used to have before the M-16, but those were probably worse.  

I knew these things.

Then Wolverines, the movie came out!  Wait.  Red Dawn.  That's the ticket, yeah.  Buncha Rambo movies. Exposure to all them AKs in cool settings should have increased my interest, right?  Make me kinda like them, maybe want to get one?

No.  It never moved the needle.  Didn't spark an interest.  I knew the 1911 was old and the Beretta was furren.  In college the new M16A2s had better looking fore stocks, but otherwise, meh, for that type, too.

The only thing that semi interested me in the 20th century, persistently, was .357 revolvers. And I liked the look of stainless steel.  And before Y2K I got me one of them.  

I still have no case of the wants for any AK pattern.  Dunno why.  Just never took off for me. 

 

"Why is Joe Biden on Vacation?"

Please.  After making all those plans for getting timeoff?  And you already rented the car, the condo is non refundable, changing plane tickets NOW would be super expensive...  They probably won't refund your deposit on teh Jet Skis.

THAT'S ILLEGAL! Impeach!

Scooter Libby got the DEATH Penalty for a much more harmless version of this.

Did you just dox a bunch of CIA analysts?

— Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 15, 2021

His own boss, Dick Cheney, called the warden of his prison to convey the message of, "The VP says he hopes your a twitcher," on his execution night.

Is it Pulitzer worthy?

Or does it need more human drama in frame?

 

The feds just GAVE the Taliban all this hardware

Yeah, drones and humvees and helicopters are cool and all, but if they had given it to me instead…  My yard is too small and what would I really do with it besides chase neighbor kids off it when they came to play on it.

You don't have to give me anything.  Just stop standing in my way when I go to buy something I do want.

I got me a pizza and I'm bringin' it home!

FB Love/Hate

I whinge over lots of FB features.  Ads with cheap Chinese crud boil my bottom, but sometimes I cannot resist.  I bought the Hawaiian shirt that is a copy of the one worn by H. I.  McDonough in Raising Arizona.  3X doesn't fit. It might fit person sized large.  So much hate.  I hope that is a lesson that sticks.  And I refrain from clicking on the stupid links. 

But then they serve up ads for products like this.

I love the concept of a butt pack.  It's probably my age and exposure to older school web gear on my Army and Marine buddies back in the day.  12 years ago I'd be shovelling money at this company to get one of these to try out.  

And it looks like it might NOT be dreck.  Would make a good BOB system, no?

But, my trekking days are on hold while I deal with this Cancer.   The though of carrying this now makes my lumbar area ache just thinking about it.

Hmmm, $55.  Not much product detail.  Minimal website.  It might be Chinese dreck.  So I shouldn't expect any higher quality than a Walmart bookbag for Junior High.

(Don't wear the pack in the front, aw, man...  How you gonna low-crawl like that?)

Shakedown, 1979

Even back then

Before I was a Noob.  Before I had shot anything beside a 1911 for the Navy...  No .22 even...  

I was in a dark theater, 1993, and saw Vinnie Barbarino do this, and I knew what was coming.

I didn't know the four rules, but I saw his trigger on the finger and knew that was wrong.  The camera is on Marvin's perspective, nearly, so I saw the barrel pointing at Marvin's face.  You can tell by Travolta's eyes.  Clenching.  Here it cooooooooomes....

Sure enough, and thus a dramatic plot point drives the narrative further along.

"YOU HIT A BUMP OR SOMETHING!"  Yeah, it's Jules' fault, buddy.  Sheesh.

Britain May Be Our Closest Friend...

And we have a special relationship with them.  They are very good friends, neighbors, allies, cousins,

But Australia is our brother.  

Our two nations have a similar make up.  European colonists let loose in a vast wilderness and build a nation.  With all that entail.  The two are of similar size, the center is conducive to ranching and mineral exploitation.  We both have rough histories warring with stone age indigenous people that we still beat ourselves up over, it was such awful conduct at times.  We speak the same language.  Sort of. 

Folks came to America and went, "Look at this challenging wilderness, deadly snakes and spiders and bears and poison ivy.  So dangerous!"  Then Australians came along. "Deadly snakes and spiders?  Hold my beer, mate.  No bears, but we have these big birds...  And, oy, never touch the gympie gympie plant."  

Both countries even had a similar firearms culture until recently.

But, while Britain supports us in our Military Defense quite often, Australia ALWAYS does. They are always willing to pitch in, no matter what.   They stood with us in Viet Nam, a war too unpopular for Britain to touch.  We should remember that.  

While we were scrambling to turn the Imperial Japanese tide we stopped their Fleet at Midway and were thinking to block them by having Marines occupy Guadalcanal to keep their Army from turning that flank.

But the Australians blocked the Japanese at an arguably more important center thrust in conditions even worse than Guadalcanal, and with fewer resources.  The Kokoda Track Campaign which then lead to the Battle of Buna Gona.  

If the Japanese had managed to scale the Owen Stanley Range successfully, then actually descend down and take Port Moresby, they'd have airstrips and an air supply route from close by Rabaul.  The distance is hard on the ground but easy by air.  From Japanese held Port Moresby, the north coast of Australia would be vulnerable to attack.  And it would better secure the massive base at Rabaul.  

The whole thing was misery.  Jungle rot on every bit of cloth, leather, and wood.  Deadly scrub typhus from lice that the Australian soldier hadn't built any sort of personal immunological defense to.  (Nor Americans, and we'd suffer from it too, especially on any sort of battle line in New Guinea.)  Malaria, of course, and dengue fever.  And all that was before facing a determined and better armed Japanese military force.  Things were so desperate and prevailing so important multiple generals were sacked during this battle when they didn't achieve enough militarily.  

But the Japanese had to be stopped and stop them they did.  Heroically.  79 years ago, now.  Battalion size unit clashes because of the terrain.  Americans help in the push but don't pay that no nevermind.  This was an Aussie show and they faced down the Japs and a green hell splendidly, at Australia's Thermopylae. 

WOLVERINES!

RED DAWN hit screens on this day in 1984. Who remembers?
“In the early days of World War III, guerrillas, mostly children, placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here alone and gave up their lives ‘so that this nation shall not perish from the earth.’” pic.twitter.com/H1L5XyCMsC

— Jack Carr (@JackCarrUSA) August 10, 2021

Recommendations

When shopping for various items I have noticed Tam pipe up with a recommendation right when I needed.

You know how you search on the Googles for a single Viking Cruise detail and you get a BAJILLION ads for cruises?  Or even say "I need a new HDTV" out loud near a Siri enabled device and Shazam, Youtube adverrtises Samsung stuff out the wazzoo.  They hadn't done that for years it seemed, but you suspect the mic on your device.  Or you even think really hard about a used F150 and now you get emails from Ford.  How did you find me?

Tam is like that.  But without the privacy violations.  

For example...  I needed a soft sided carry on luggage solution.  Tam posts about Maxpedition Fliegerduffels.  This was in the way back, maybe even before this 2010 post.  And it is.  A good bag.  I have gotten tremendous use out of it.  Three times on airplanes, and lots of times just as an overnight or weekend AWOL bag.  

I thought of this because I have been enjoying Fever Tree Tonic with my Gins.  I happened to be thinking "I could use a gin and tonic..." and that day she broaches the subject of Fever Tree.  (It was a post previous to this one somehow.) Now, I had seen it on the shelf before she focused my attention, but it was her mention that got it from the shelf to my cart and I never thanked her for it.  Thanks.  Good stuff, that.  

Ya know...

 If you have 7,000 Illegal Aliens rounded up and they test postive Covid, and then you release them... and  

You tested a whole bunch more and they didn't come up positive... and

You could given them the J&J stick, first, before giving them a plane ticket to Baltimore. 

Health Update

Ok, got a biopsy, slides sent to Georgetown Pathologist.  Saw Georgetown Oncologist for 2nd opinion.  There's a confab of them and my regular Oncologist up here.  CT Scan on Thursday, then I meet with my guy on Monday.  Week from today.

I doubt I get definitive answers because I've been bashing my head against this for exactly a year and no answers have been forth coming in that time.  

Maybe what I got is so bespoke it is Unique!  If I was famous, they'd name it after me.  Thunderboltoma!  But I am not famous, like Lou Gehrig, so it will get the doc's moniker. 

I hope it isn't unique.  I hope they have something to relieve the symptoms I have been whinging about for a year.  

More details next Tuesday!  Same Bolt Time!  Same Bolt Blog!

Golden

 Nice.

Germany seemed to do better back when there were two of them.  

Russia, too, in high pressure Soviet days, but there were more nations inside the USSR.  I could add them all up...  5 more from Uzbeckistan, 8 from Georgia, 19 for Ukraine, 7 from Belarus, 2 for Estonia, 2 for Latvia, 7 for Azerbaijan, 3 for Kyrgyztstan, 4 for Mongolia, 1 for Lithuania, 8 for Kazakhstan, 1 for Turkmenistan... It adds up.  A Soviet Union today would have 138 total medals.  Phew

But I like looking at the plucky nations further down the charts.

Good on ya PR and Bermuda.

And tiny little Grenada

Ok, this is cool

This guy has been making the round on social media.  Gone viral and all.

I wanted to see if there was more.  There is. You can see the stuff much more up close, and Wow.  Worth it.  Thank you History and Culture by Bicycle blog.

The guy really has a thing for golden-era John Deere... 

New Facebook Icon

Here's a new Facebook Icon.  Or, new to me, at least.  For all I know it's been on your FB page for forever.  But, last week there were three icons on the top row there, now there are four.

The new one is 'News'

News chosen by Facebook and served up to me personally by their AI.

Look, I don't wanna upset you Facebook, but, the trust level established between us is at a bit of nadir.  I will be avoiding clicking on that like I avoid hanging out with a biolab worker that I am reliably told worked recently in Wuhan China.  Avoiding it like excess ricin in my Stevia.  Avoiding it like tours of the Capitol being conducted by USCP, "No, it's perfectly alright, come on in."  Out of an abundance of caution, you understand!  

I will be checking on those Lovecraft memes, tho. 

---

I GOTS to know, Ima click it.  Just one time.  It can't hurt me, right?

GAH!  

Never get out of the boat.  Never get out of the boat.

Gud GAWD Y'all!

HOLD IT!

Give it here!

Never shoulda promised!

Don't hold back, now!

Ah, so THAT is why my water is brown

It's just a bit rusty from the pressure change in the mains.

CHICOM Propaganda

Now is THIS Chinese propaganda?  Faucet conducting deadly medical experiments on Snoopy.  It sounds fake but Fauci is their boy.

Somebody fed it to Polumbo.  Propaganda for the other side?   Or, at least, scandal details!  Polumbo doesn't normally come across as a CHICOM stooge... cough

I don't necessarily buy the Michigan deer thing.  And Fauci is probably only tertiarily involved in the beagle thing.   

If one side is gonna throw fake mud, the other should to, rather than cede the field of battle.  The Battle for your MIND!

Butt Chug

When Big Daddy Gummint closes a door, God opens a window:

Chinese Propaganda

Yeah, I saw this.  Before it was reported as sourced from China.  Looked cross-eyed at it then, binned it now.  

"Oh noes!  90% of Michigan deer got the Rona!"

Of course it isn't season yet, so these are NOT tested from any blood samples taken. 

And deer hate nasal swabs. So state workers have to sneak up really quietly and swab the other end with surplus Chinese Anal-Ease swabs. They are Ambassador Strength (TM), so Extra Stout.  

You swab a 2000 random deer, you got enough sample size for the entire Mitten State.  Plus Yoopers are willing to do just about anything for minimum wage plus 20% if there is a 12 pack in it for 'em at the end of work, Friday.   Extrapolate from that 2000, you get a +/- 3% reliability and you get... Whoa 90% positive.  Tsk tsk.  Shoulda masked up, Bambi.  

I guess you damn hillbillies can save ammo money and get your self a dart gun this fall.  Do the Dept of Natural Resources a solid by THHHHHHHHHHHHHHwhpppPPPP! -ing your whitetails with J&J vax.  They'll all be there next season, bigger and healthier, and you help your community AND the Circle of Life.

Plus, free dart gun to put in the gun safe.  Awesome.  If them CHICOM ever invade they'll get the whole 'behind every blade of grass' thing, but first their soldier get softened up by high doses psylocybin and THC from all the dart guns.  Because that would just crack us up. 

Extreme beer funnel pic.twitter.com/7AiM2FPtZV

— 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐥 (@JoshD0110) August 6, 2021

Hey, GOP

When the left yelled "impeach Trump!" they looked crazy because they were using Russian dossier pee tape stuff that looked sketch from the JUMP.

If you yell "impeach Biden!" you WON'T look crazy because Biden himself admits the eviction moratorium is awfully unconstitutional, but that he doesn't care.  

You don't have the votes yet to get an impeachment rolling, but you are justified to yell it. All of you.

What, indeed.

Before the Four Rules

There were convoluted lengthy rules to memorize.  Like the 10 Commandments of safety:

Who wants that jumble in their head?  I mean they are all valid and all, but, too busy.

And here is the boy scout list had 8.  And less good.

But my personal favorite is this one.  Excuse me while I whip this out:

One of Jeff Coopers true legacies is simplifying the safety rules down to the 4 essentials.  And then drill them home and convert everyone over to them.  You may not be still all fired up on carrying a 1911 or nothing, or only getting yourself a .308 Scout rifle, but even the Glock 17 and Poodle Shooter owners know the four rules.  (Dammit, I think Tam did this joke before.  Hell, I prolly did this joke before)

Lucky Strikes Means Fine Tobacco.  So round, so firm, so fully packed.  Like me!

L.S./M.F.T

1. Loaded, Stupid!  (all guns are always loader)
2. Muzzle!  (never point the muzzle at anything you don't want to destroy)
3. Finger!  (keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot)
4. Target!  (Be sure of your target and what is behind it)

Noozweak

Newsweek has been doing these sort of things for as long as I have been conscious of their existence.

An Ice Age is Coming to kill you all!

Now it's Herpes

Soviet Nukes were evergreen for a long time

Handguns

Acid Rain

AIDS

Greenhouse Warming

Super Predators

James Watt!

I dunno about you, GOP...

But I think it might be a good idea to get SUPER exercised about Biden knowingly, deliberately, premeditatedly, defying SCOTUS and imposing an unconstitutional eviction moratorium.

Yelling about would be ok.

You can win big elections that way, you know.  Doncha want that?

If you don't, well, I guess it just means that rules don't apply to Dems or GOP types 'running' the show.  If rules don't apply to you, then they don't apply to us.  Two sets of rules, when you are this obvious about it, tend to cause some societal friction.  Much more friction that has been demonstrated so far. And I'm too sick and tired for that.  

More things you can hammer and win elections.

"Hey, that open border is what is causing all these Covid increases!"  It has a good chance of being true.  Certainly contributory.  Doesn't matter, just yell your head off about it.

A super majority already blame Biden and the Dems for inflationary pressure.  Yell your head off about that, too.

Do those three things and you might even distract your GOP voting constituency from your other core incompetencies.  

Cocaine Mitch doesn't get this kind of exercised, but you'd figure at LEAST Cruz and Paul would.  Plus the more junior bomb throwers.  

DeSantis did do some border yellin' yesterday, granted.  Good.  

"How to get kilt!"

Well I dun wanna be dead, so tell me how to avoid it!

Looks like hot jungle backlot action, too.

The lesson "Listen to chatty Tojo soldiers for helpful tips and tricks."  

• Carelessness bad
• Skylighting bad
• Breaking concealment for more concealment is suboptimal
• Predictability bad

Well, poop.  That'd only be helpful if we went to war with Japan again.  I don't think we can step into that same river twice.  

Yeah, from your lips

 Ex NRA head Wayne LaPierre?

That'd be nice.  Ex.  He may have done more damage to the 2A cause than even Michael Bloomberg.

That'd be interesting.  A list of the top folks that have hurt our Right to Bear Arms, even if inadvertently. 

• Wayne
• Bloomberg
• George Soros
• Tom Steyer

But history didn't start yesterday...

• Mark Chapman, and before him...
• LBJ
• Sirhan Sirhan !
• Lee Harvey Oswald
• Sen. T. J. Dodd (D CT)
• James Earl Ray
• Senator J D Tydings (D MD)
• Ronald Reagan, Governor, (R CA) [shame and a pity]

I have no idea who the money men were 50 years ago.  LBJ was the lamest of lame ducks when he pushed for this, but he was a mover of legislation.  

Masked Man

So Big Defense Contractor I work at, like all Big Defense Contractors are masking up today, Monday, because a rainy, crowded, Bear Week in Provincetown caused a super-spreader event and inadvertently proved that vaccinated people are super-protected from death.  Huh.  Thank you gay men and crappily assembled CDC statistics that you almost certainly skewed to show one thing and instead shined the light of truth on another!    

I think mask compliance at work will be a little loose this time around.  Hell maybe zero by Wednesday among people that weren't already wearing, still.  

I won't know because I am going down to the bowels of DC (Georgetown) for a doctor appointment that morning.  Where I am three times more likely to die of a gunshot than from WuFlu.  Well, more than that because, again, I got the nanites. And people dying in that blighted metropolis are almost certainly not all previously vaxxed.

I am back to wanting to get it and survive it, again, personally.  And think my chances are pretty good, even being cancer-compromised.  I haven't felt like this since June 2020.  All of this is because of how awful our 'leadership' has been, lately.  I didn't trust authority before all this madness, you can imagine how confidence has taken a further nosedive

Next China plague better have body bags in the streets or I am simply not going to be entertained.   

Debby… you are a veterinarian. This photo of you is in an empty clinic for dogs. https://t.co/nZb2c3U3Fv

— Christina Pushaw (@ChristinaPushaw) July 31, 2021

Maybe lots of folks are now at the, "Whatever, come what may. As you wish, I care not," phase. 

Covidiocy

So, I see this chart on Twitter and go "Oh no, that is horrible!" 

This is not good. FL is now in uncharted territory with 21.7K new cases reported today (the largest single day number of new cases). 108 new deaths. This wave is now larger than all previous waves. 10,187 hospitalized (83% of its all-time pandemic high). Time to change gears: pic.twitter.com/4wJ3PpWaJL

— Thomas P. Bossert (@TomBossert) July 31, 2021

Then I remember that this is Twitter, where political people pick a chart to show to support a political lie.

With a spike like that, death rate would be a lagging indicator but would still point up. Naw.

So, the OP may just be the usual panic porn.