Ah But That's Not The End of the Story

After lavishing praise on the staff at the ER, I got home only to wake up the next day with symptoms of Covid. I'd been exposed, I knew, to at least four people who announced they were positive. But there may have been more. 

Symptom # 1 was that very nasty taste in my mouth. It isn't a loss of taste, it's a constant taste of -- inside of litter box?, ashes soaked in bleach?, burnt straw?, Oh I don't know. Whatever it is, it's terrible, and it's constant. 

The next day, I started having other symptoms. Fever, cough, runny nose, dizzy, pains, sore throat. Huh. I got out one of the home tests and screwed it up. I did another one. Positive. Then I started calling about what to do. Not easy to find out, despite the fact that I'd been told months ago to call right away to get immediate treatment if  I tested positive. It was after hours so none of the nurses and such I talked to knew what to do or who I should get in touch with to get treatment, and one steered me in a completely wrong direction. Finally, though, one recognized that there was probably an on-call physician in rheumatology who could help. Why didn't I try. So I did, and behold, within an hour, I had a prescription for Paxlovid, the anti-viral treatment of choice. Picked it up an hour later. Took it for five days, and it cleared most of the symptoms. But... Ms Che got it, and we went through the whole routine again with her provider.

Ten days on, I tested negative, she still has vague positive tests, and her provider says she may have them for months. As long as she has no new symptoms she's good to go.

Of course this happened because I went to the Urgent Care and ER where I was exposed, as was everyone else, including staff. It's insane. Or rather deliberate.

It's why I tried to stay out of the hospital for as long as possible. 

But the time came and there you are. It eventually will get everyone.

The Continuing Russian Thing

Hot horny Jeebus. This is stupid.

Why in heaven Our Rulers -- or a faction of them -- continue to press this Russian Thing defies reason. They're out of their minds. It should have long ago been over.

Yes, perhaps some of it is true, but it doesn't really matter whether the Ruskies were trying to influence the election. One would -- or should -- expect various foreign interests to attempt to have their say in who gets to sit on the Imperial Throne after all, and it should make little difference to the American electorate.

There are other problems with our elections that are far more significant and important including unverifiable voting machines and growing levels of voter suppression. The fact that Americans have to choose between what Hugh at Ian's Place calls "shit-sandwiches" for president -- sandwiches chosen by their Betters for their malleability and their likely service to the High and the Mighty while keeping the masses entertained and tame -- is much worse in the end than any propaganda and poison that is injected into the mix by inside and outside influencers.

Our elections have been farces for many years. For people of my generation, November 22, 1963, was the only "election" that really mattered; every one since then has been a farce. The situation has gone from bad to worse, and there is really nothing the People in their multitudes can do about it through regular order.

As long as we accept the regular order of elections and transfers of power and observing the constitution (although not), things cannot change for the better. We started down a rathole in 1964, and we cannot emerge, because there isn't a light at the end of that tunnel. That way leads directly to Hell.

We can break out of the confines of that tunnel, though, and as soon as we do, voila! A new day dawns. Or rather, its always dawning, we just can't see it for all the garbage and horseshit we're surrounded with.

That's why, among so many other things, the Russian Thing strikes me as so stupid. It doesn't matter. But a faction of Our Rulers is intent on making things as fraught as possible with the Ruskies, because they miss the Cold War. Or something.

Of course the Other Faction, apparently aligned with Trump, is just as desperate to get it on with Iran and China and who knows who else, as well as that shadowy metastasizing 'threat' called ISIS or whatever the Brown Menace du Jour might be.

They are creations, essentially fictions, brought forth and flogged to provide an enemy to fight. For without enemies, Our Rulers have no meaning.

Deny them their enemies and you deny them their power.

Think about that...