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Moving Day DID NOT Go As Planned

Last time we moved, we vowed we weren't doing it that way again. We rented a U-Haul, asked some friends for help, loaded all of our belongings into a truck, drove them to our next place, and unloaded all of our stuff. "Next time," we said, "next time we're hiring movers."

And this time, we did. We found a service called Bellhop, they had good rates. We booked our move for Friday the 23rd of July. We closed on our new house two weeks before, and we needed to be out of our rental by the 31st. That would give us a week to make sure we left the property in the same condition we found it in.

By the time the movers got there at 2:00pm on Friday, I had already emptied the basement into two separate storage units by transporting boxes in my car. I packed up the library, thousands of books, and moved all of those over to the new place myself. We packed up all our DVDs and Blu-rays, and moved all of them into storage along with the shelving we used to display them. We'd packed up most of the kitchen (the counter-tops were still full of stuff from the cabinets we emptied, we figured we had a week to pack and move the stragglers) and moved the boxes to the front room. We packed up the bedroom and the nursery, and moved most of those boxes to the front room. We left some boxes stacked in the nursery.

We bought a new couch for the new house and were getting rid of the old one. So we told them we didn't need the couch moved. We had some loose items that hadn't made it into boxes on the couch, which also, was not their concern. We showed them the front room, said we needed those boxes, the curio cabinet, computer desk, leave the couch, the desk we used as a TV stand, the TV (surround sound, 4k player, cable box had already been packed and moved), from the kitchen, just the small table, microwave, washer and dryer. No need to move the refrigerator, or the stove, they belonged in the house. Upstairs, we needed two beds, the crib, chest of drawers, computer desk, TV, a nightstand, an etagere, and two small filing cabinets moved.

By this time, a full three quarters of our belongings had already been moved into storage or into the new house. The movers were supposed to come with the expectation that they were moving a two story, two bedroom house into a three bedroom two story house. After they stepped outside and conferred amongst themselves, they came back in and said they were going to need to re-schedule the move … — Scuse, please? You don't re-schedule a fucking move. Moving day is moving day, come hell or high water. Period. Full stop. End of story.

Upon questioning, they said it was to give us more time to prepare for the move … — Scuse, please? For two months we've been spending our evenings and weekends packing and moving the majority of our belongings out of this fucking house while working full time jobs and raising a child. My entire library is already moved, all of the end tables, my massive mixed media collection … two storage units, a 10x10 and a 5x10, and a good portion of my new house was already full of my stuff that I already moved there prior to moving day. What the fuck do you want me to do, take apart all the furniture? That's kind of the point of hiring movers. I don't want to mess with that. I don't want to do it so much, that I'm willing to pay someone else to do it. That's the whole point of hiring the work out.

Anyway, they left and after we picked our jaws up off the floor at the sheer fucking audacity of what had just happened, we re-grouped and scrambled to find a U-Haul truck available at 2:00 pm on a Friday afternoon in late July. Luckily, we found a twenty-six foot truck available. I reserved it, we went and picked it up. It was jacked up. The brake light kept coming on and beeping at me. The brakes seemed fine, and if I turned the truck off and back on again, it stopped until it decided to start up with the beeping again.

I got the truck home at 4:30 pm, and we immediately started loading it as fast as we could. The goal was to get as much as we possibly could into the truck, loading our bed and Rowan's crib last, so we could get the truck to our new house, and unload the crib and bed, get them set up by a fairly reasonable time, go to sleep, and save the rest of the unloading for morning. We stopped loading and headed to our new home around 9:00 pm. We were tired, sweaty, dirty, we hurt all over. And to think — the plan had been to sit back and point at things while we watched fit, muscular men move all our stuff for us. We'd paid good money for it, after all.

I think we got to sleep around 3:00 am the next morning. Nothing went quite as planned. When we got back home with the U-Haul, we realized we didn't have any of Rowan's food, nor her milk, nor any food for us, and we didn't have Sammy's dog food. So, I left Jay to fight with getting Rowan's crib re-assembled on his own while I ran to Kroger and obtained sustenance for my family.

In the morning, I tried to secure the truck for another day. It was already booked. Every 26 foot truck in a 30 mile radius was booked. I tried to get a smaller truck, any truck, for the rest of our stuff. I kept calling all of the U-Haul locations near me. Nobody had a truck. Finally, I called the national number, and they did find a 20 foot truck. So, while Jay dropped Rowan off at his friend Linda's house, I unloaded what I could of the U-Haul. When Jay got back, we unloaded the two-man objects. We went to the U-Haul, swapped out the trucks, and drove back to our old house for round two.

Jay headed back in the car to go pick up Rowan at around 7:00 pm. I kept loading until around 8:30, then drove the second truckload of furniture and boxes back to our new home. We had no plans to unload that night. We would unload in the morning, return the truck, and bring two more carloads home that evening, my Versa and his Optima. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the next week, I drove the Versa over to the old place after work and brought home a carload. Thursday, we took both cars, we made two trips with the Versa and one with the Optima. Friday, we brought both cars again, loaded them up, and finally got everything out of the old place that we meant to take.

Saturday, July 31st, eight days after some jackasses with no work ethic told us we needed to reschedule our move, I drove to the rental office and dropped off our keys.

I think that in many ways, in some states, when executed properly, the gig economy can be a good thing. In states that have adopted the Affordable Care Act, where self-employed individuals can find affordable health care options, and sensible tax codes. I think it has the potential to be good for workers, employers, and consumers alike. I rely quite heavily on services like Instacart, Shipt, Doordash, and Amazon, all of whom employ gig workers to make deliveries, do the shopping, etc. Most of the time they do a phenomenal job. And when they don't, it's usually because the person you lucked into getting is fairly new, in over their heads, not cut out for the job, and likely won't last long before they seek out something more suitable for them.

But a moving company is not suited for gig workers at all. Moving a person's belongings with the care and respect they deserve is a learned skill that most people don't possess. Let's face it, Americans love their things. Their shiny baubles. Their found treasures. I was already nervous that the movers might just be careless and break things without a thought. I was nervous that they wouldn't show at all. I didn't imagine they'd show up and then go, "Meh, too hard."

We wanted professional movers, and they sent us college kids with no work ethic, no sense of obligation to honor an agreement, and absolutely no clue what goes into moving all of ones belongings from one house to another. Every time I think back, I think up fresh, new ways I should have berated them as they beat a hasty retreat from my rented property.

Next time we move, I swear, we're hiring professional movers.

[dickshardblog]

Father's Day Dinner

Sirloin Steak with Bourbon Caramel Onion Glaze w/ Baked Potato and Broccoli w/ Crushed Almonds

Preheat oven to 420. Coat potatoes in olive oil, salt, and pepper. I like mine crusty with salt, but season to taste. Poke holes in top of potatoes with a fork and place on middle oven rack. Line bottom rack with foil to catch drippings. You can skip the foil, but be prepared to run around your house, sniffing the air, screaming, "What on EARTH is that SMELL?!?" every time anyone turns the oven on for the next month or so. Better to use the foil, probably. Set timer for one hour and fifteen minutes.

Coat steaks in olive oil, salt, and pepper, to taste. You can do this 24 hours before cooking, or up to one hour before cooking. Let rest at room temperature (if more than an hour, let steaks rest covered in the refrigerator).

Preheat a sauce pan on medium-low heat. Cut up one large head of broccoli and place in a sauce pan with 2tbsp butter, 2bsp crushed almonds, salt and pepper to taste.

Add 2tbsp butter and half a head of slivered onions to a cast iron skillet and heat on medium-high.

When the timer goes off, remove potatoes from the oven and set aside to cool. Turn the oven up to 500. Put steaks in skillet with 1tbsp butter and slivered onions. Cook for 6 minutes each side on medium heat, then remove cast iron skillet to oven. Cook for 3 to 6 minutes in the oven depending upon your desired done-ness. If you want it cooked more than that … well … I guess leave it in longer, weirdo.

Remove the steaks from the pan and deglaze with a tbsp of rye whiskey. I used Wild Turkey Rye 101, but, you know, use whatever straight rye whiskey you normally have laying around. Add a tsp of brown sugar, lower the heat, and reduce while steaks are resting, about five to seven minutes.

Slit the tops of the baked potatoes and push in on the ends of the potato to pop it open. You can soften, or mash the baked potato by squeezing the skin, if desired. If you feel weird massaging a hot potato, skip it. Place butter, sour cream, chopped green onions, salt and pepper to taste. Of course, you can add whatever you want to your baked potato. Bacon, ,cheese, anchovies … whatever. We didn't, though.

During all this, I hope you've been keeping an eye on your broccoli. Go ahead and pull that off the heat and set aside whenever you think it's done enough for you. Full disclosure, I did NOT pay attention to my broccoli. I burnt the shit out of it and I had to start all over.

Plate to your particular aesthetic desire and spoon bourbon glaze over steak and broccoli. Hit broccoli with grated parmesan cheese. You can put the sauce on the potato, too, if you're a weirdo, and you want to ruin it. But if you are a weirdo, you already put anchovies on the damn thing, so have at it.

Sprinkle entire plate with fresh chopped parsley, and serve.

[dickshardblog]

IMDb: The Secrets of Quantum Physics

Dos!

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IMDb: Creepshow: Model Kid/Public Television of the Dead

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IMDb: The Secrets of Quantum Physics

Next up in the Prime queue, part 1

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Facebook is WORTHLESS

Facebook is no longer an outlet through which I can adequately express myself. While venting about my car being broken into, after reviewing the security camera footage, I correctly identified the perpetrators of the theft as white trash. And for the second time in three months, I got a notice telling me I'd violated Facebook's hate speech policy, their "community standards," by using the term "white trash."

I originally posted: "Sigh. My car got broken into ... AGAIN. They got some change, my portable air compressor ... and an irreplaceable old-time Father Christmas decoration that was packed up to go to the storage unit that used to belong to Jay's mom. Gone. Irretrievable. I am so thoroughly sick and tired of people who can't respect other people's property. I have ZERO respect for thieves and vandals, and I have no sympathy or empathy for them. I would be much happier living in a society where they didn't exist, or had all been removed. To me, being a good person means: leave other people alone. Don't harm them, don't mess with their things, and just try to stay out of everyone's way and mind your own. It really isn't that difficult, and I'm not fond of people who can't abide these simple rules."

Then, a little bit later, I commented an update, which was immediately flagged by Zuckerbots.

The post on January 6th was an image posted in an anti-Trump group of Ivanka Trump and Kelly Loeffler. And I, again, correctly, identified them as "Rich white trash." And Facebook suspended my posting, commenting, and liking ability for 24 hours.

Fuck that shit. That's goddamned nonsense.

But, hey, that's not the only restriction on my account.

Why can't I go live or advertise for 30 days? Because they dug up an old meme I'd shared back in August of2019. A meme I found ON FACEBOOK, and shared ON FACEBOOK. It was an obvious joke, a pun, and It was removed for supporting serial killers or mass murderers. Take a look and see what you think:

I have a dark sense of humor. I like to push buttons. I'm not comfortable with safe spaces and politically correct bullshit. I have a brain, and I use it to think for myself and not conform to groupthink. I have dissenting opinions on almost everything. I know that I have freedom of speech in America. My rights have not been infringed upon. But Facebook is clearly not a place where people are encouraged to express that freedom of speech, and so it is no longer a place that is in any way useful to me. Well, I guess it's marginally useful for sharing external links for the benefit of people who refuse to follow me on Twitter or Tumblr ... but that's it.

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I'm in Facebook jail for hate speech after calling the thief who broke into my car "white trash." That site is not very useful to me anymore. I'll be moving most of my activity here.

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Play along!

[dickshardblog]

Coronaspiracy! Origin Story

This one is probably going to disappoint everyone.

If you're hoping I'll say that I believe Barack Obama and Anthony Fauci created COVID-19 as a bio-weapon in the Wuhan lab in coordination with Bill Gates and the Clinton Foundation and released it upon the world on purpose, you're going to be disappointed.

If you're hoping I'll say that I believe this virus naturally evolved in bats, possibly jumped to another animal, a pangolin, perhaps,  before jumping to humans and was initially spread at the Wuhan wet market, you're going to be disappointed.

The first claim is ludicrous, and the second simply has no proof. It's a best guess, and nothing more.  It is based on the fact that viruses have spread that way before, and by applying Occam's Razor, so say a lot of scientists. But when all the facts are laid out, that's not necessarily the most likely scenario.

If you're hoping I'll say, "Check out this film, 'Plandemic!' It will open your eyes and help you see the truth!" You're going to be disappointed. That film is a propaganda piece designed to look like journalism featuring a discredited, disgruntled former bottom-of-the-food-chain subordinate of Dr. Anthony Fauci. She faked some research, and when she was caught, she stole all of the records of her crime from the lab she worked in. That's why she went to jail. She claims she was held without charges. There were charges. You can find this easily with a simple Google search.

Okay, so, let's look at the bare facts:

The Wuhan Center For Disease Control and Prevention is less than 300 yards from the Chinese wet market commonly blamed for the initial outbreak of the disease we now call COVID-19. It is adjacent to the Union Hospital, the site where the first group of doctors got infected.

The — ahem — "conspiracy theory" that the virus came from this lab originated in a paper from the South China University of Technology. This paper, written by scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao, alleges that the WHCDC kept disease-ridden animals in laboratories, including 605 bats.

The Chinese government buried this report, but it was seen by some people before it was buried, so we know what's in it. We know that the principal investigator was involved in a project generating a chimeric virus using the SARS-CoV reverse genetics system and reporting the potentiality for human spread. It was noted there was concern at the time that it might escape.

We know that genome sequences from the first patients were either 96% or 89% identical to the bat CoV ZC45 they were working with in the lab.

We know that the only native bats are found roughly 600 miles away from the Wuhan wet market, and that the probability of bats flying that far is minimal, at best.

We know that one of the researchers  described quarantining himself for two weeks after coming into direct contact with bat blood. And we know that same man also quarantined himself after a bat pissed on him.

We know that the United States Government was knowingly funding gain of function research on bat corona viruses in that lab in the past. We know that the Obama administration prohibited funding of that type of research in 2014, correctly recognizing it as risky, reckless, and unnecessary, no matter the intentions.

Gain of function research, if you don't know, as I didn't before I began my own research into this, is experimentation on viruses to try to encourage them to develop abilities they don't currently have. Abilities such as jumping species, or becoming more deadly. This type of research could be used to create a bio-weapon, sure. But in this case the research was officially to keep tabs on the bat corona viruses, find out what would cause them to do that, and make sure we're prepared in that eventuality, to get a head start on the thing.

To be clear, the United States Government ceased funding for that project, but funds did continue to flow into that laboratory for other research.  That in no way means that the lab ceased gain of function research. It only means the US stopped providing funding for it.

We know that in 2018, the US Embassy in Beijing warned of safety concerns in the high-containment laboratory.

I've read a couple papers from virologists explaining why they think the virus developed naturally, and I've read a paper claiming that the virus is man-made. The evidence that the virus is man-made is a strange, out of place furin cleavage site in the RNA sequence. This can occur when the virus is intentionally cut and a new sequence is inserted. The paper asserting that the virus was created in a lab point to this as evidence. The papers claiming it is natural point to the fact that this can occur naturally, and has occurred naturally in several ancestors of the current virus. But it does not appear in any near relatives.  So it is curious, but it's not proof.  

The proponents of the virus being natural initially claimed that the new sequence came from a pangolin. They later realized an error, it doesn't match a pangolin after all, and they have not identified what animal it could have come from.  To be honest, I followed the information as best as I could, but most of this is pretty far over my head.  So let me give them the benefit of the doubt and say there is no evidence that this was created in that lab — but there's also no evidence it wasn't.

What bothers me the most is that top epidemiologists are very emphatic that it didn't come from the lab. That, in itself, is suspicious to me. Scientists generally approach things from a position of neutrality and gather evidence. The assertion that it absolutely definitely did not come from the lab when there is literally no proof either way that they can produce to back up that claim sets off alarm bells for me.  

To be clear, I don't think this was created on purpose as a bio-weapon. Nobody would use a Coronavirus for that. They'd be working with Ebola or something equally terrifying. I'm not convinced for sure that this wasn't created for research and accidentally leaked. But let's assume it wasn't. Let's assume it's natural. Doesn’t it still make more sense that it naturally evolved from a bat to a human from an accident in that lab, and not from 600 miles away in the bats' natural habitat?

These are the top people in the field, these scientists. It's a small group of people. Lying about the origin won't change the outcome, it won't hurt more people, it won't prolong finding a vaccine or a treatment. But it will cover their asses, absolve them and their respected colleagues from blame. I saw one respected epidemiologist insisting that no matching virus existed in that lab. How would he know that? The lab is in China, the country with, arguably, the most secretive government in the world. We don't honestly know, except for the people who do.

When I look at all of this information, Occam's Razor tells me the virus probably came out of this lab. And unless or until they can produce proof that it came from elsewhere, that's what I'm going to continue to believe, because it is absolutely the most likely scenario.

The fact that Trump also believes the virus came from a lab is unfortunate. Trump, as almost everyone knows, is a pathological liar. But Trump is also a brainless human-parrot who will repeat anything he hears that suits his narrative. So, you can't discount something just because he says it. Sometimes he parrots smart people. His opinion is irrelevant when it comes to whether something is true or false.

[dickshardblog]

I Sanitize Corona by Going Viral a parody of “My Sharona” by The Knack

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Coronaspiracy! The Numbers

As of the moment I am writing this sentence, 75,991 Americans have officially died from COVID-19, directly. By the time I publish this, hundreds more will be dead. As of now 1.28 million Americans have been confirmed to have the disease.

There is a lot of disagreement surrounding these numbers, and there should be. No matter how you slice it, these numbers are complete bullshit. They’re 100% bogus. The reason they are bogus is one of the same reasons they are so high. We don’t have adequate testing and contact tracing in place. Those numbers only include people who have been lab-confirmed tested positive for COVID-19 and deaths that doctors deem were probable COVID-19 deaths, but didn’t have testing available to confirm.

I personally believe that the numbers are vastly under reported. I’ve read a lot of stuff from people who believe the numbers are being artificially inflated. First, I want to get into why I believe far more people are dying from COVID-19 than are being reported. Then, I’ll look at each reason I’ve heard for over reporting and see if they have any meat on their bones to pick at.

Most importantly, hardly anyone has been tested. America has tested roughly one percent of its population. Within that one percent, we have a 20% positivity rate, one in five people tested has shown positive. But they’re only testing people who present with severe symptoms and people who are exposed or at-risk, like health care workers or rich people.

But we’ve also been told that a lot of people who get it have mild to no symptoms. So it’s hard to say whether that 20% positivity rate would hold steady on a random test of the population. To know that, we’d actually need random tests of the general population.

For just a second, let’s assume that the one in five positivity rate is accurate. The current population of the United States is just over 331 million people. Twenty percent of 331 million is 66.2 million. That’s a lot bigger number than 1.28 million. But, of course, that’s just a possibility. That’s reasonably the high-end possibility at this point. There’s no reason to believe the number is quite that high until we see data. At the same time, until we have data, there’s no reason to believe it’s not that high. The only thing we know for sure right now is that we don’t know.

The fact that our numbers have plateaued for now doesn’t mean much. It doesn’t mean that the virus has slowed its spread. Because the number of tests per day have not increased. We’re testing roughly 150,000 people per day, consistently. The number of tests per day have plateaued, and the number of new confirmed cases per day have plateaued. Which tells us one thing, only. We’re still testing at about a 20% positivity rate.

So, if we are at 66 million infected and only 75,991 people have died, that’s a pretty decent mortality rate, right? That’s .11% mortality. That’s not bad. That’s comparable to the flu in an average year. Except it’s far more than 75,991 dead. Remember, the only people counted as COVID-19 deaths are confirmed cases and suspected cases, which are going to be the common symptoms we all know about.

But COVID kills in other ways. People with mild symptoms are dying from COVID related blood clots. Some people aren’t going to the hospital at all. They aren’t reporting their symptoms, they are dying at home. This is reflected in the excess mortality that began to spike as soon as COVID-19 hit our shores. These are COVID deaths, but aren’t being added to the official count.

Excess mortality is an increase in the overall number of deaths from all causes. Starting in March and continuing to skyrocket, the number of deaths over and above what is expected in an average year is increasing daily. We know that traffic accidents are down due to greatly reduced travel. A lot of people aren’t out and about getting themselves killed in various ways, so we should se some balance to the extra deaths from COVID. But we don’t. Instead we see an alarming number of extra dead people, over and above the official lab-confirmed COVID death count.

We know that heart attack deaths are up because people ignore their symptoms, terrified to go to the hospital. Heart attack deaths may also be up due to blood clots formed during a COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 is a clotting disorder as well as a respiratory disorder, evidence shows. They’ve been treating people with blood thinners with positive results. But these heart attack deaths won’t be counted as COVID-19 deaths. These stroke deaths won’t be counted as COVID-19 deaths. Because they won’t have a post-mortem test for the disease, and without that, it would be impossible to know if that condition was a COVID-19 death, or from other causes.

Domestic violence deaths are likely up right now. That’s a guess, on my part, but it only makes sense. Suicides are going to be up. You just have to think about the way the world is operating now vs the way we were a few months ago to start to pinpoint that types of deaths should be going up and which type should be going down.

But in the end, at any rate, one would think it would be pretty much a wash, and we’d see a small spike in excess deaths from this pesky new Coronavirus. But that’s not what we see. We see a huge spike in excess mortality. What is causing all that extra death, if not COVID-19?

Alright, so, we’ve got the constantly climbing excess mortality, a one percent test rate, and only counting positive tests as COVID-19 deaths. That’s what tells me the COVID deaths are being under reported. Now let’s look at some theories I’ve seen floated about why the count is being over reported.

Some people are claiming that flu deaths are down this year, and that’s because deaths that should be reported as flu deaths are actually being reported as COVID-19 deaths. But, if the flu numbers this year are lower than the numbers projected earlier this flu season, there’s actually a pretty good explanation for why that is. Because lower flu numbers this year should be expected. The flu season wasn’t over when a good portion of the world began to self-quarantine. Although the self-quarantine was intended to slow the spread of COVID-19, which it did, it also slowed the spread of influenza, which is far less contagious than COVID-19. The self-quarantine should have drastically lowered instances of flu-related death, and the numbers are, understandably, reflecting that.

However, I’m not sure the final tally for this flu season is official just yet. And the decrease in cases later in the flu season may be offset by the increased testing for influenza that started when COVID hit. Since they didn’t have COVID tests, they increased testing for influenza. If you had flu-like symptoms but tested negative for flu, then you’d get a COVID test, if available in your area. Testing available at participating hospitals, restrictions may apply.

Some people say that if you have a heart condition and you die, they will posthumously test you, and if you have COVID-19, that will be counted as a COVID death. Well, no. That’s not happening. I don’t even need to research that. Just think about it. You would need the cooperation of morticians across the country. A whole lot of them would be speaking out if that were happening. If we were testing all those dead bodies when we don’t even have enough testing supplies to increase the testing on our living population to an acceptable level.

So, no, they aren’t testing most people posthumously and adding them to the count. But for certain conditions, I think they should. COVID kills people with comorbidities at an elevated rate. COVID causes blood clots, which, in turn, lead to heart attacks and strokes. So, there’s a good chance that the person with the heart condition would have gone on living many more good years managing their condition had they not been struck with COVID. That is a COVID death, and they are not being counted.

And now Trump has latched onto another popular conspiracy theory, that hospitals are over-reporting COVID deaths to increase their funding, basically, accusing them of exploiting the CARE act. Again, for this to happen on a wide enough scale for it to affect the numbers, it would involve so very many people. Doctors, nurses, hospital administration. So many whistles would be blown internally at hospitals all across the country if this were happening.

So, it might look like I’ve just glossed over these theories and dismissed them out of hand with no research. That’s kind of true. But that’s because there is nothing to research. These are wild claims with no evidence to support them. To argue against something, I need something to argue against. I need some evidence to try to disprove. It’s just people alleging things may be happening with no evidence that anything they are saying is true.

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Coronaspiracy! Introduction

There are a whole lot of conspiracy theories circulating about the coronavirus. There are so many different things to address that trying to squeeze them all into one blog would be a tedious endeavor, so I'm going to do this in parts and give each piece of the puzzle the thorough examination it requires.

One thing is becoming crystal clear as time passes and evidence mounts: Some of the conspiracy theories have truth tangled up in them. There is definitely something shady going on. There are multiple cover-ups, and seemingly baffling decisions by world leaders, and I don't mean Trump. Trump knows nothing and he is not now, nor has he ever been a world leader. I would say Trump is just as clueless as the rest of us, but it's painfully clear he is far more clueless than most of us. I do mean the American Government. I do mean China.  We'll get into specifics later.

There are multiple things we need to examine when looking at the current COVID-19 outbreak and the response, or lack of response, to it. They are all pieces of the same puzzle. They all fit together somehow and form a picture, or a story. I don't claim to know what that picture is. I don't know the story, and I don't expect to solve this. I'm just some guy, okay?

Someone will solve this, and then it will all click. We'll know it when we see it. I've read a whole lot from people who think they've got it all solved, but I don't think I've seen the truth yet. I know I for sure don't believe that there is a signal embedded in 5G which will activate a chip we all have injected unknowingly through a mandated vaccine to turn us all into mindless automatons.  That's not the kind of thing I'm going to be focused on here. I'm not going to focus on any kind of theory about what exactly is going on. For now, I just want to examine the individual pieces.

Full disclosure: I am not an epidemiologist. I'm not a virologist. I am not a microbiologist. I'm not a biologist of any kind. I'm not even a scientist. I'm not a doctor. What I am is a writer, and a researcher. My day job relies heavily on research. I spend my days at work finding, aggregating, and analyzing data until I have a clear picture of what's going on.

One thing we'll be looking at is the numbers, the data, the reporting, total numbers of cases, total death count, mortality rate of COVID-19 vs. Influenza in any given year, with special attention given to the 2020 flu season. We'll be looking at the claims that the numbers are too low, and we'll be looking at claims that the numbers are inflated.

Another thing we'll be looking at is the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Top epidemiologists claim that it couldn't have come from a lab. That statement, on it's own, is suspicious. Scientists don't usually speak so definitively, and  when they do, it's a red flag. You can always trust the science. You cannot always trust a scientist, or even a group of them. I don't want to come off like some kind of climate denier. My point is that the data is out there to look at.

I'm going to fully examine the response, or lack of response of the American Government concerning testing. This lockdown was supposed to be temporary while we got testing measures in place. That hasn't happened. Our government keeps giving us bogus answers why while other countries seemingly have testing under control.

Another piece of the puzzle is the confusion around the medicines and treatment. There is some really suspicious stuff happening with Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir.

We'll be looking at strange deaths that may or may not be coincidence.

And by the time I'm finished examining all those pieces, I'm sure I will have found more pieces to look at.  I can't stop falling down this rabbit hole, and it keeps looking curiouser and curiouser ...

[dickshardblog]

For Russia With Love: The Tara Reade Story?

There are three women I know of now whose name is pronounced Tar-uh Reed. Tara Reid is an actress who starred in the Sharknado franchise. Tara Reed is an artist and designer. She designed my favorite coffee mug.  And now I've learned that there is a Tara Reade, who used to work for Joe Biden.

When I heard about the allegation that Tara Reade made against Joe Biden, I was deeply disturbed. Were Biden's hands on shoulders, close-ear talking, hair petting, and hugs something more than just an overly-affectionate guy with boundary issues and a lack of understanding of personal space? It had always looked uncomfortable, but innocent, to me. And, if it's innocent, I find it strangely endearing, despite the fact that I don't personally like to be touched by strangers.

He's not just overly familiar with females. For every picture of Joe Biden petting a little girl's hair, there's another of him with his arms around a man, gazing into his eyes, or practically kissing his ear. I could do a Google image search and come up with some pretty compelling visual evidence that Joe Biden is in love with several men. He's not. At least, I don't believe so. Some people are huggers. And Joe Biden is a hugger extraordinaire.

I think the world no longer tolerates that, but I also think it is both innocent and changeable behavior. Unlike Trump, Biden does have some sense of self-awareness, can listen to criticism, and make changes.

I'll be honest:  I really don't want the allegations to be true. I do have that bias, and I will freely admit it. I always have that bias. No matter who it is. Like any regular person, I don't want sexual assault to happen. I would hope we all have that bias. I hope that none of us would wish a woman had been sexually assaulted so we could have some ammunition against a political opponent. But I know better. There are plenty of people who really hope Biden did exactly what Reade says he did. And we all know it does happen, of course.

Tara Reade's story, when I first heard it, sounded credible. In a public, yet deserted hallway, Biden pinned her to a wall, groped her, kissed on her, and asked if she wanted to go somewhere else. When she reacted negatively, he said, "Come on, Man, I heard you liked me." Shit. That sounds like Joe Biden, I can hear him saying that. So, it sounds bad. I agree that we should listen to women. We should take them seriously. We should look into their allegations and dig until we find the truth. I let other people do the investigative journalism. I found their articles, checked their sources and compiled a pretty decent collection of truths that form a pretty cohesive picture.

Here's the truth that I have found:

In 2009, Reade wrote an article commending Biden's work on the Violence Against Women act. The same year, she wrote another article claiming that she'd left DC because her husband had received a job offer to manage a Congressman's campaign in the Midwest, and she'd moved with him.

From late 2016 to early 2017, she had a Twitter account using her newly married name, Tara McCabe.  She used this platform to praise Biden on multiple occasions.  She retweeted him saying, "My old boss speaks truth. Listen." This Twitter account also featured a lot of anti-Russia, anti-Putin sentiment.

Then, in 2018, she writes in an Op Ed for Medium which praises Russia and Putin, that she left Washington because she "saw the reckless imperialism of America and the pain it caused through out the world," and because she loved Russia with all her heart. In this article she describes Putin as a "compassionate, caring, visionary leader."

She wrote several pro-Russia, pro-Putin articles during this time, gushing over him, saying, "President Putin has an alluring combination of strength with gentleness. His sensuous image projects his love for life, the embodiment of grace while facing adversity. It is evident that he loves his country, his people and his job … President Putin’s obvious reverence for women, children and animals, and his ability with sports is intoxicating to American women … And like most women across the world, I like President Putin… a lot, his shirt on or shirt off.”

Then in 2019, she's all in for Bernie Sanders. She wrote another article, with yet a different reason for leaving, this one with the harassment allegation attached. "Then, I went to Senate personnel for help. No one helped me. I resigned or I would say, I was forced to resign."  The report she says she filed doesn't seem to exist.

When she started attacking Biden publicly, she also resumed denouncing Putin. Putin was bad again. When the media dug up her old articles praising Putin, she deleted them. Too late, of course. They can no longer be found where they were originally published, but copies were made. She now claims they were part of a novel she was writing that was set in Russia. They were clearly op-eds, not notes for a novel. No novelist I know of publishes their novel notes as op-eds while they're working on the book.

There are a whole lot of other inconsistencies, people she says she told about the incident denying any knowledge, her brother pointedly changing his story, an old neighbor of hers coming forward to say she wouldn't trust a word Reade says, and countless other glowing red flags.  But this blog is already so very long, and I haven't even gotten to the meat of what I want to talk about yet. This has all just been background, the evidence I followed to form my theory of what is going on with this. And I want to get it down before I read it somewhere else.

I've got a theory! It could be Russia!

Okay, hear me out. Here's what I think might have happened:

Sometime in late 2017 or early 2018, Reade somehow becomes involved in communications with Russia, a political operative, maybe even someone in the government. Hell, perhaps even Putin himself, a highly unlikely prospect, of course. But not outside the realm of possibility. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Putin maintains a stash of burner phones and carries on flirtatiously with American Women in his spare time. It's the stuff of spy novels, sure. Yeah, it's far-fetched, but allow me my fantastic imaginings. I am a fiction writer, after all.

But a Russian political operative of some kind becomes romantically involved long-distance with Reade. Of course it's not a real relationship, not on the Russian side. They are just using American citizens as sleeper agents they can prompt to stir up shit when it would cause the most damage.

Reade is manipulated to turn against Joe Biden and encouraged to back Bernie Sanders. Now, an aside at this point. I like Bernie. I would vote for Bernie, I'd love to see him as President. I don't believe that Bernie Sanders or his campaign are involved in any collusion with the Russian government in any way, and both he and his campaign openly discourage Russian meddling. None-the-less, there still exists evidence that Russia has interfered in ways favorable to Sanders and his campaign. Russia doesn't want Bernie Sanders as President, but some of Sanders more rabid supporters are very easily influenced by carefully placed fake news stories and are extremely useful at stirring up political infighting on the left. Alright, back to my theory.

At this time, she's also advised to stop praising Russia, so as not to raise any suspicion. And, finally, to drop that allegation bomb on Joe Biden right when it would do the most damage. Hopefully to allow Bernie Sanders to overtake Biden for the nomination, but, failing that, at least send Joe limping into the General.

Yes. In a nutshell, I think the Tara Reade allegation is simply more Russian meddling of the same sort that has been going on all along. I think, in some form or another, she is a Russian agent. Maybe there is no spy novel romance going on. Perhaps she's just being paid. But this whole thing stinks of Russia, and Russia's fingerprints are all over it.

But, hey, what do I know? I'm just a fiction author with a good imagination

[dickshardblog]

Resistance is Futile

The virus is real. The virus is here. It is highly contagious and potentially deadly. I think we can debate about the severity and the origins of the virus later, or, we could debate it now, but while staying the hell away from each other and cutting off this thing's lifeline.

Okay, so, it's easy for me to have that opinion. I'm lucky. Kind of. Ish. I've kept my job. Kind of. Ish. My pay has actually been slashed pretty badly. Commission has been cancelled for April and May so I'm going to be getting base pay only. Okay, yeah, I know a lot of people only get base pay and I was one of them for a very long time, and I’m lucky to have gotten anything above and beyond that. But I have been getting paid above and beyond my base pay and I've grown accustomed to a new comfort level. The stimulus covers that for this month, so I’m not feeling it yet.  But I'm lucky to have kept my job and gained the flexibility to do it from home, which is something I've been lobbying for to management for the past four years, anyway.

But the immediate lifestyle adjustments? Fuck, man. This is heaven. Sequestration is magical. I have a valid reason now for telling people to stay the fuck away from me when before I was just an asshole. I never had any desire to go anywhere anyway — and now I have the perfect excuse, and zero guilt. It's fucking fantastic.

Okay, so, I like the lockdown. It's not hard for me. I'm working from home, which is perfection. I want my commission pay back, my performance-based earnings, but aside from that, we can keep this lockdown going for everyone capable of working remotely for just as long as … well, forever. We can just keep this up forever.  

I don't miss anything.  I don't miss eating out. I don't miss going out. In fact, I just had to go out, and it was sheer hell. I needed a VGA cable immediately, so I ordered one from Best Buy for curbside pickup. Traffic is fucking stupid. Fucking assholes everywhere. Nobody at Best Buy was wearing a mask or gloves, and they're walking up to customers' cars handing them merchandise, talking to each other in close quarters.  The guy who handed me my purchase weighed at least four hundred pounds. If he gets this virus, he's pretty likely dead. This thing isn't kind to the morbidly obese. Unfortunately, most of central Indiana is morbidly obese.

Okay, so, all cards on the table, I have ulterior motives. I like things shut down. So, of course I'm going to champion this course of action. But I also just think it's the right thing … nay, the ONLY thing to do right now. The death toll will likely be at or very near 45,000 by the time I post this, and it is climbing steeply on a daily basis. And that's with all of the extreme social distancing most of us are practicing right now. If we hadn't done this, if we hadn't shut down, we'd be over 200,000 deaths, easy, and it would be fucking chaos out there. Hospitals would be beyond capacity, mayhem would ensue. I have no proof of that, it's just what I think. I can't prove something that I think would have happened under different circumstances.

I'm not terrified of this thing. I'm being respectfully cautious. This is a formidable enemy. My goal is to not get it, to avoid it completely. That way I don't roll the immune system dice on this disease at all, and I maintain a zero fault status in the spread of the virus. If I can pull that off, that will be a perfect game, I win. But this thing is highly contagious, and it is in my city, and it is inside far more people than the daily news numbers show because hardly anyone is being tested. Also, a lot of people get it, and they are just fine. If I get it, I will likely be okay. But, that's not a guarantee. There is a risk. People say the mainstream media is collectively sensationalizing this. Well, of course they are, in their way. Of course they're playing it up for ratings, that's what they do.  

But I don't think they are making it sound worse than it is. I was watching a news broadcast and they said that eighty-six percent of the people under fifty who died of COVID-19 had an underlying health condition such as an autoimmune disorder, obesity, diabetes, high-blood pressure, asthma, or being a smoker. First of all, those are all pretty common. That's a lot of at-risk people. But second, that's what they did say. Eighty-six percent of those under fifty who died had an underlying health condition. But what they didn't say, and what I heard was this: Fourteen percent of the people under fifty who died of COVID-19 did NOT have an underlying health condition. That sounds fucking scary.  Yes, that is still a small number. Most of the people who die from COVID-19 are over eighty years of age. So, the percentage of people who died who are under fifty is low, and it's fourteen percent of that number … but still. That's otherwise healthy young people with no underlying health conditions who are dying. Greater risk for the elderly doesn't equal zero risk for the young. That's not how math or statistics work.  

I've watched videos online from real people. Nurses on the front lines in the hardest hit cities describing chaotic and dangerous conditions in hospitals. People who got the disease pretty badly, but recovered, recounting their terrifying near-death experiences. Yes, a lot of people have a sniffle and a cough. Yes, some people remain asymptomatic throughout the life of their infection, remaining symptom free, but still allowing the virus to replicate in their bodies so they can spread it. But this thing just slaps the fuck out of some people, and sometimes kills them, for no reason. Not because they're old, or sick, or have an otherwise compromised immune system, but they’re just simply unlucky. I mean, maybe there’s something we don’t know. Perhaps they all have something in common, some underlying factor that hasn’t been identified as a risk. That’s surely possible. But still — do you have it, this factor? Do I? 

But fear of getting infected isn't the main reason to distance and hunker down.

We should stay locked down and we should try our best not to spread it because it's extremely contagious, and there is a pretty large section of our society, who, for various reasons, really shouldn't be put into battle with this virus. A lot of them don't have a chance, and we, as a society, need to do the right fucking thing and keep this bug as far away from them as we can. And if caring about the sick and elderly is outside of your capacity, just know that you aren't safe, either. It could kill you, too. Fourteen percent of the people under fifty who died from COVID-19 did not have an underlying medical condition or compromised immune system. I'm sure they all thought they would be fine.

I have learned the following by reading articles written by experts in the field.

There are eight strains of SARS-CoV-2 circulating the globe right now that cause the disease COVID-19. No one strain is deadlier than another, they are all very similar to each other. SARS-CoV-2 is not likely to rapidly mutate and go airborne or get into the water supply. Its current method of transmission from human to human is so effective it has no immediate need to try to adapt or evolve. If and when it does need to evolve to try to bypass our eventual vaccine, it will take it a while. Coronavirus evolves, or mutates, at a slow rate, about four times slower than influenza.

I should be citing this stuff, but this is a blog, not a peer-reviewed paper. This isn't shit I've discovered through testing and examination,  and I’m not trying to formulate my own hypothesis. I’m no expert in any of this, I'm just repeating shit I've found from articles that were well-sourced, and anyone can find them by Googling this stuff and seeing where I found it. But I digress, as I am wont to do.  Anyway, more science facts.

SARS-CoV-2 spreads from human to human in both large droplets and aerosol that exit the body during a cough, sneeze, panting, heavy breathing, etc. Any method that would allow moisture to escape the mouth on the breath. The virus can hang suspended in mist for up to three hours and remain active. The virus can live on paper and cardboard for up to 24 hours, and can live for up to 72 hours on plastic, stainless steel, and other smooth shiny surfaces.

So, on a relatively humid day, and, I know, how many of those are we going to see in mid-Spring, right? On a relatively humid day, an infected person sneezes. That infected aerosol can join with the water already in the air, and just float around ready to be breathed in for up to three hours. So, sure, stay six feet away, but if you move into a space someone else was just standing, you're now breathing in what they just breathed out.

I don't care who says what about masks.  I don't need someone to explain to me how and why masks work. I get that the virus is small and can pass through very small openings and to be fully effective a mask would have to be rated to work against particles as small as the virus, which in this case is N-95. But I also understand that if you're sick and you cough and you're wearing a piece of cloth over your face, you're going to greatly decrease the chances that you're going to spread the virus. Yes, small aerosols will make it through, but a lot of the germs will be caught and never enter the atmosphere. So, yeah, masks are prudent. Any of us could have it, and we should try not to spread it in case we do.

I am lucky and I get to stay in my house. I don’t know what lies I’d be telling myself if I had to go out in the world every day like nothing has changed and do a thankless job. Everyone still out in the world and not practicing social distancing will probably get this. I may get this, despite my best efforts. Most of us will be okay. Some of us won’t. 

[dickshardblog]

Shopping In The Time Of Corona

Look, I'm not an alarmist. I am skeptical, to an actual fault. I don't take anyone at their word, and I require proof of a thing before I'll re-categorize a thing from a possibility to an actuality.  I have scoffed my way through every big societal scare. I flashed a cocky smirk at people expressing worries about Y2K, dismissing their fears with a chuckle and promising them nothing was going to happen. I shook my head at people wearing masks during SARS. I fearlessly ate chicken and pork chops throughout the bird flu and the swine flu scares. I ate Big Macs and Whoppers while watching the world fall apart over Mad Cow Disease.

But I'm not fucking around with this. So far the death rate is higher than predicted. High risk people are really  at risk, and those of us who aren't high risk — we're still not in the clear. Lower risk doesn't equal no risk.  I'm taking precautions; I’m staying home; I'm keeping away from people. Even before Corona, I was already being a germaphobe this season.  I was determined to not get the flu this year. I've been drinking daily Emergen-C packets since November.

Much as I hated to go out, I had to. Supplies were low. Amazon Prime took my mandarins, orange juice, and bananas out of my cart before I completed my order and they needed replenished. They also jacked up the price of the grapes in my cart so I had to take them out. So, I had to go out. I don't have a mask, but I do have disposable vinyl gloves, and I wore them. I do plan on making masks for myself and my husband this weekend. 

Am I being too careful? I hope so. I hope I'm being silly and ridiculous. I can laugh at myself later. But I'm not taking my chances. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure I'm around to laugh at myself. And I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I’m not the reason someone else loses their life. None of us know if we have this virus on our skin, our clothes, or in our breath. Many of us may get this and never know we had anything more than a cold. Some of us will get this and feel really bad for a while. And some of us will get this and die. I want to live the rest of my life knowing I did everything I could to prevent further deaths during this time. 

Most people did very well in the store. Half of them had masks on.  We all kept away from each other.  I gave everyone at least six feet and I didn't come within twelve feet of anyone who looked like they might be over 55.  I managed to get all my shopping done while all of us in the store gave each other distance, and I was in line, well behind the person in front of me.  People were in line behind me, at a reasonable distance. And that's when I had to go off on some daft bitch at Aldi.

This woman comes up from my left and stands, not right up on me, but closer than I wanted her —  less than six feet away. She's on her phone, yapping away, spraying mouth germs everywhere.

I took two steps to the right and said, "there are people in line behind me, and please move away from me."

She didn't move away from me. She kept blathering into her phone and took two steps  in my direction, closing in. I moved further away, and said, louder, "please don't stand so close to me!"  She closed the gap again, at which point I yelled, "OH MY GOD, GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!" And she continued  just standing there, yapping into her phone, at which point I turned and looked at her and screamed "YOU! Get the fuck away from me!"

At which point she became offended, asking, "Are you serious?"  And then began explaining to the person on the other end of the phone that she was just standing there and some idiot … and I don't know what she said after that. I didn't fucking care. She got the message and got the fuck away from me. And I don't give a rats fat ass what the daft cunt thought of me. She was just aware enough of her surroundings to move in on me every time I tried to put distance between us, but not aware enough understand that I was desperately trying to put distance between us.

Fuck that bitch. Even when there’s not a highly contagious viral pandemic, I never want people near me in public. Stay at least six feet away from me, and under no circumstances attempt to touch me, are both pretty good rules to observe with me at any time. But now?