You are What You Eat - Part 1

I'm a lifetime oatmeal guy and developed a hankering for Irish porridge oats on our visit to Ireland immediately before the COVID shitshow. 

Flahavan's Irish Porridge Oats are a cherished staple in Ireland, renowned for their creamy texture and wholesome flavor. Milled by the Flahavan family in Kilmacthomas, County Waterford, for over 200 years, these oats are produced using a unique double-steaming process that enhances their natural creaminess and quick cooking time.

My favorite porridge.  Polished-off an entire case last winter.

Microwave Method:

• Ingredients: ½ cup oats, 1 cup cold milk

• Instructions:

  1. Combine oats and liquid in a deep microwave-safe bowl, allowing a couple of inches at the top for expansion.

  2. Microwave on high 3 to 6 minutes (appliance wattage may vary)

  3. Stir-in a fistful of frozen blueberries and let stand for 1 minute before serving.

     
     
      

Political Violence Is Unrighteous

Reflecting-upon the first three years of the Trump administration I can say I did just fine.  The economy was humming-along and after retiring as a member of the ownership class the markets were solid.  There was Trumpian drama and plenty of wacko tweets to blog about.  Life was good.  I'm not suggesting things were so good I'd have voted for his reelection; yet the vibe was swimmingly OK.  Nevertheless, as we wind-down the clock to the election here's a little something to remember as you prepare your mail-in ballot or early vote.

That time when Donald Trump was completely overwhelmed by the COVID pandemic.

The very first laboratory-confirmed case of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the US was from samples taken on January 18, 2020 in Washington state; the same day that state activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in response to the emerging outbreak.  This was confirmed on January 20, 2020.

A couple of weeks later Judd Legum posted this on twitter-

Yup.  The Trump administration eliminated the infectious disease defense infrastructure beginning in 2018.  This was trotted-out as a cost-cutting measure; ironically on the heels of passing a multi-trillion tax cut.  Specifically, Trump fired the entire executive branch team that would have coordinated and mounted a response. 

Trump then devoted most of the month of February in abject denial of COVID's threat. 

 

He called the coronavirus a hoax, cooked-up by Democrats, at a rally in South Carolina.

Naturally, as the disease spread, by April of 2020 everything had devolved into a shit show.  Overwhelmed, Trump dolefully lamented that the growing pandemic was something that nobody expected.  

In a prescient moment early in 2005 President George W. Bush warned the if we wait for a pandemic to appear, it would be too late to prepare.  If caught early it might be extinguished with limited damage.  If allowed to smolder, undetected, it could grow to an inferno that can spread quickly beyond our ability to control it.

Sure, I know that some of you readers will want to lay the blame entirely at the feet of Drs. Brix and Fauci.  They are not blameless.  And neither is the former president.  So, spare me the blame-shifting and deflection.  I call BS.  The Chief Executive manages the team and conducts the orchestra.  The buck stops at the President's desk.  Trump's willful blindness and bungling led to an infectious disease emergency that was stunning in its magnitude.  It resulted in unnecessary illness, excess deaths and a self-inflicted economic crisis.

Things ended badly.  He was feckless.

Between you and me his failure to lead cost him the 2020 election.

And, of-course, that led to the violence of the capitol riot on January 6, 2021.  For this blogger that was a bridge too far.  

Let's be clear:  

POLITICAL VIOLENCE HAS NO PLACE IN CIVIL SOCIETY.

Total Recall

Seems to me that about half the population has no memory of life four years ago.  I certainly remember it.  I made a point of documenting events on the ground in real time because I had a hunch that there would be revisionist history afoot before too long.    

Are you better off today than you were four years ago?

Consider this.

Four years ago the stock market had collapsed - hitting the worst weeks since the Great Recession of 2008 - as the country spiraled into a years-long pandemic that claimed more that 1 million American lives, cratered the economy, upended our daily lives and arguably costing Trump the election.

I don't believe for a moment that voters blame Trump for the pandemic - a once-in-a-lifetime calamity thrust upon the entire world.  But they did fault his response to it.  The pandemic showcased a leader who exhibited the full panoply of characteristics that his supporters love and his detractors revile.

Excess Deaths - New York Times

Don't take my word for this as you can readily navigate this blog for a post history.  Simply use the TAGS feature in the left margin and click on key words like: COVID, Doing the Right Thing, Donald Trump, Healthcare, Liars or Quarantine Living.  Or use the search function in the upper left corner and search under Willful Blindness or any other discrete subject you think might be relevant.

A year ago the President was talking about shining ultraviolet light inside our bodies and injecting ourselves with disinfectant.  That's nuts.

 

So to answer the question of whether you or I were better off four years ago I would say, nope.  Six seven or eight years ago are debatable.  Four years ago was an absolute shit show.  Donald Trump struggled mightily during the pandemic and he failed to protect us.

Four Short Years Ago

One of the interesting benefits of Face Book is the Face Book Memories feature.  The Face Book algorithm will "nudge" you with a post or status from the past.  It is actually a reasonably useful feature inasmuch as it captures an actual day in history, a photo, a trip, a status or seemingly mundane post.  Did I really say that?  Yeah, that was a really great trip!  Or, I forgot about that.

This is one from April 4, 2020.  Four short years ago.  It seems like a million years ago.  I chose not to re-post it on FB - choosing to do so here instead.  You see, coming here to read something is voluntary.  If I were to re-post this on FB it might find its way by means of the algorithm to just about anyone's feed.  And as a consequence, it might inflame certain individuals who have seemingly fond memories of April 4, 2020.  Sometimes discretion and not agitating certain individuals is the better part of valor.  

Here it is:

Gas price a mile from home was $1.19.  School cancelled - yes cancelled.  Self-distancing measures on the rise.  Tape on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers (6ft) from each other.  Limited number of people inside stores, therefore, lineups outside the store doors.  Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.

Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.  Entire sports seasons cancelled.  Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.  Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled.  No masses, churches are closed.  No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 5 or more.  Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home. Children's outdoor play parks are closed.  We are to distance from each other.

Shortages of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.  Shortages of ventilators for the critically ill.  Panic buying sets in and there is no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towels, no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer.  Shelves are bare. Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.

Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.  Supply lines begin to unravel.  Fines are established for breaking the rules.  Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.  With morgues full, refrigerated trailers begin overflowing with growing numbers of dead.

Press conferences daily from the President.  Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.  Government incentives to stay home.  Barely anyone on the roads.  People wearing masks and gloves outside.  Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.  Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.

This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

Why, you ask, do I write this status?

One day it will show up in my Face Book Memory feed, and it will be a yearly reminder that life is precious and not to take the things we dearly love for granted.

 

This was a total, absolute, cluster f**k.  Nothing to be fond about.

Source of Origin

It seems like a million years ago yet back in the very earliest of days as the pandemic was unfolding the term Kung Flu was bandied-about as a pejorative name for Covid-19.  There were some in the intelligence community that harbored suspicions that China wasn't coming clean with us and the rest of the world about Covid.  Ostensibly, coronavirus sample were destroyed in the name of public health.  Or was it a cover-up of a lab leak?

Last year polio virus was found in wastewater in the Netherlands.  Anthrax was leaked from Fort Detrick in 2001.  Foot-and-mouth disease escaped at Plum Island in 2004  The influenza outbreak of 1977 likely was the result of a leak from a Soviet laboratory.  It's been known to happen and the list of biosecurity incidents is quite extensive.

Both the Department of Energy and the FBI have concluded that sloppy safety practices at the Wuhan lab was the most plausible explanation for the origin of Covid.

Sure, I know that in the beginning of the pandemic there were divisions in our intelligence community about the origins of the disease.  Partisan politics complicated it further.  And no small amount of social media speculation and fixation over bizarre conspiracies from the Face Book cesspool of public health contributed to the mess.

Nevertheless, the lab leak theory got a toe-hold in the Trump administration and got a foot-hold under the Biden administration.

There is a declassified report that has deflected evidence to support the hypothesis of a lab leak; therefore, advancing the notion of natural transmission of the disease.

Regrettably, the Chinese have destroyed the evidence so there is no way to definitively prove that the virus came from the Wuhan lab.  Which could explain why a bunch of intelligence departments and the scientific community lean in the direction of a natural transmission theory. 

Lab leaks are bad for a county's reputation so I figure the Chinese are never going to come clean.  And if the spooks in our intelligence community have notice and knowledge of the source I figure they're not interested in revealing sources and methods.

So I suppose you can believe whatever you want and even embrace the most recent conspiracy theory du jour.