Plain Blunt Truth

 One can say over the past hundred days....Covid has ramped-up (beyond anything that existed in the same period of 2020), and it should not make sense unless the immunization business is just marginally changing the landscape.

But there is another blunt truth here....if you've lived a pretty marginal health situation (low Vitamin D levels, fatty food, done some drug activity, and a list of probably 25 additional things)....then your bout of Covid is probably going to be more severe than most regular people.  

I look at Bama news almost daily, and the tales of 'woe' flow like the Tennessee River.  There's probably half-a-million residents of the state praying for some neighbor, relative or associate every single night.  

Last week, we reached the point where a regular guy had a serious heart issue....begging for entry into forty-odd hospitals in the state, and not a single one had a ICU bed for the poor guy.  As they were transporting him 'out-of-state' (to Mississippi)....he passed on (not from Covid, mind you).

All of this prior to serious fall weather, when Covid will really pick up?  Yeah, that's the problem I see coming now. 

The 9-11 No One Talks About

 Around 28 years ago....26th of February 1993....a couple of Muslim guys put a 1,336 pound urea-nitrate-hydrogen gas bomb device into the basement of the World Trade Center.

Players?  Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil.

Intent?  The North Tower would have crashed into the South Tower.

Result?  It basically failed.  Bomb engineering wise, the building was built to handle this.    In the end....six people died and around a thousand wounded.

This was the original 9-11, and the Clinton Administration failed to grasp this.

We talk a great deal about 9-11, but no one ever goes back to the 1993 episode and considers what we should have done at that point.  

Lee-Thinking and Biden Chatter

"But it is — the kinds of things — or, you know, the stuff that’s coming out of Florida, the stuff that’s coming out of — you know, “If Robert E. Lee had been in Afghanistan, we would have won.” Anyway, I’m telling you too much."

-- President Biden, yesterday

I paused over this commentary that he made.  Whole thing was a weird deal of ramblings which didn't really fit into some clear statement.  

My pondering?  Well....the comment over Robert E. Lee.

I've spent a fair amount of time in my life reading over Lee, his general strategy on warfare, and his successes.

Lee in an Afghanistan matter?

Lee would have analyzed things over a week and said that a ‘war’ cannot be waged against a ghost-pretender-force, unless you went to burning down every single village where you felt trouble was brewing. 

I might also suggest that Lee’s perception of Afghans was their heart and mind weren’t geared for this type of republic or 'democracy'.

Then he would have ended the short blunt assessment.....that a forever-war....cannot be a end-result/goal. If he could have not 'won' the war within two to three years, then it's not worth fighting.  

Somewhere between 1865 and 2020....we lost this perception of things.

Lee wouldn't sign up to such a war, and Biden's understanding of Lee's strategy probably amounts to a 3x5 inch card....at best.  

The Review Which Will Never Be Done

 I will occasionally read a page over at Defense One....which typically dwells on military issues.  Today, they had a chat with the present Army chief of staff (General James McConville).

So he says...from his own prospective, he wants a top to bottom review of all decisions that led to Kabul's situation and how the US military conducted the withdrawal.

Odds of a Army-sanctioned review?  I give it a one-percent chance of occurring. 

Odds of a Pentagon-sanctioned review?  Probably less than one-percent chance.

Odds of the Army War College allowing several (maybe 50 individuals) to conduct such a review as part of their master's degree thesis program?  I'd give it a 90-percent chance of happening.  

The odds of the White House or State Department providing data or reports to the thesis writers?  Zero.

The problem here is you have one of the five most stupid government concepts since the 1960s (Bay of Pigs at the top), and literally no one wanting to describe how they f**ked-up, nor wanting to describe how President Biden was 'out-to-lunch' when all of this occurred.

It's funny in a way to ponder upon the mistakes made, how they can't be attached to a review, and how the system seems to want to move on.  But if you asked people in 1970 what the Bay of Pigs was all about.....it became this 'mystery' very similar to Afghanistan's crisis.  

Paint Story

 So I was reading a CNBC business report this AM, and this odd story comes out....there's a national shortage of paint going on.

The jest of this?

Several factors occurred in 2021....mainly around Covid, that freeze-period in Texas, a supply chain problem, and escalating prices.

As the stores describe it....sales are at a robust stage, and not slowing down....even though it costs more to buy paint now.

How long this trend holds?  Well....the business opinion is that the trend continues into 2022....so if you did have a paint job on your mind....you might be shocked at what paint now costs, and wondering about waiting a couple of months.  My advice....that couple of months might end up being a full year for prices to drop back down to normal.

So if the wife has been after you to paint the exterior of the garage....explain the money angle to her and hope that she finds a cheaper project for you to work upon.

Just Seems Odd

 There by the end of 2020.....we had x-amount of Covid, felt relieved that vaccines were coming, and felt that the in-hospital ICU business was going to diminish in nature by summer of 2021.

So here we are....Trump gone....Biden in, all this fix-up Covid stuff done, vaccination business hyped-up, and it just seems....if you watch CBS nightly news, read the front page of Washington Post, or view regular Channel Nineteen local news....it's twice as bad as in 2020.  

At some point in August, it almost felt like a relief where the top subject was failure in Afghanistan, President Biden marginally senile, and a bunch of American folks were hiding in Kabul as the Taliban arrived....was a bigger topic than Covid.  

Am I missing something?

It just feels like a Twilight Zone episode....where you were told a lot of things to worry about, but feel good about the future trends.....then woke up recently to realize things now seem twice as bad as in September 2020.  

The bigger question to ask?  Will we reach a point in September 2022....where things are even worse than they are today?  If so....how is this possible?  

Five Stupid Questions

 Over the past 18 months, I've followed a lot of Covid news, discussions, and chatter.  Some made sense.....some made no sense.  So these were five of the discussion/questions I noticed:

1.  Can you get antibodies (not Covid itself) via sexual relations?  Some guy was worried (he apparently was a non-vax type) but he had a worry that he might get some 'bad' antibodies if he went hooking up with the wrong woman.  If you think about this....pro-vax people should only have relations with other pro-vaxers.  Non-vax people should only mingle or have relations with non-vax people.  

2.  Should you disinfect your car after hauling some relative or associate around?  There was some German car repair shop I had business with, and early on....they offered some disinfectant service (I think in the range of 20 Euro or $24).  Some older gal in front of me was asking in some way if this was a good idea....she had to haul some friend in the car the day before. Mechanic guy didn't bat an eye....yep, very wise idea to disinfect the car.  In the first three months of offering the 'service', I bet they had a hundred people a week stopping by for the six-minute disinfectant service.  

3.   Some guy asked on a radio call-in deal....if you could get the virus while sitting on a public toilet.  The response went to some answer like.....there are forty-odd things you could get from a public toilet....already before Covid came along.

4.  At some point early on (Spring 2020)....Berlin police started to get Covid questions....almost on a minute-by-minute basis.  Folks were calling them....instead of doctors or nurses.  The city police had to put out a blunt statement....call us for crime....not Covid.

5.  Someone in the US brought up a question that came from a radio show....guy asking if you wear a condom....would it protect you from getting Covid.  The response went to some counter-question....are you social distancing while engaged in this act (suggesting 3 feet distance).