Going to Shit

This week I took two shots.

Flu vaccine on Tuesday.

Covid booster on Wednesday.

The doc said the consecutive inoculations would be a shock to my immune system, and that’s good. It kind of revs it up. Being a senior, I need all the help that I can get.

To be quite honest, by Wednesday afternoon I felt like death. I swear, the shots never bothered my arm. But I was weak and tired and I ached a lot.

I would much prefer that to dying of COVID-19.

I have never been anti-vaccination. Never will be. I don’t listen to fucking conspiracy theories. I don’t want to fucking hear about the “plandemic” especially because it doesn’t make a lick of sense. What motivation could possibly be behind that? It interrupted world trade, global economy. No country benefitted from it. The coronavirus caught us completely flat-footed and has killed millions, and it is still killing.

Omicron is a mutation which has alarmed scientists and medical experts because the number of differences is an indication that anti-vaxxers are possible petri dishes for spread and mutations.

The Last update I read said that Omicron is resistant to the vaccines. However, the existing vaccines and what you have already been inoculated with are so far observed to prevent severe symptoms should you contract it.

Doctors are concerned about the sudden and rapid distribution of the variant; when asked if the variant was moving with speed or not, the medical community said, “fast.”

They’re not wrong.

What’s really scary is that the buzzword used by the American political right, “herd immunity”, grows more obsolete with a virus mutating so quickly. Cases of breakthrough covid even occur in vaccinated individuals. And we’re not taking it very seriously; mask mandates are laughed at.

At an office of Sheppard Pratt Healthcare, I was called into a small office to sign a document. The man was not masked. I protested and he donned one, but it was too late. In an office that small, if he were infected, his respiration would have put a viral load, or concentration, if you prefer, into the air so that anyone not yet given the booster, or who had refused vaccines, could contract the coronavirus readily. If such an institution requires masks, but only in common areas, that’s almost as much of a risk as not requiring masks at all. A mask protects not just you, but also others.

Why are people being shitheads about a killer virus?

I go into my local Harris Teeter. Most people, including those of the local high school, wear masks. There are many though, who do not. I’ve observed over many months that they’re all Caucasian. Shitbird Republicans, I’m sure.

People cannot seem to use common sense anymore, and right-wing bullshit is killing and has killed people who thought Trump was being honest. People who want the far right in power in an authoritarian state.

Biased, terrified, racist, homophobic people who don’t like white women dating black men, don’t like seeing two men holding hands, don’t like empowered women, don’t like atheists, hate Catholics and want prayer back in schools, among a shopping list of other repressive and totalitarian shit. They’re a threat to the United States.

***

A combination of National Guard units at the border with Mexico has failed its mission. Exactly what the mission was is not clear, but it failed, because its leadership failed. Sure, there have been arrests and a bunch of Article-15s dealt, but the fact remains that the soldiers were terribly used. Morale was low. Drug use was common. Traffic accidents were alarming. There was at least one manslaughter case and a seriously troubling amount of sexual assaults. How did things go so wrong?

This is the direct fault of leadership failing to do its job. As far as Mexico goes, tourism is no longer safe, not anywhere. The resorts are the worst. The government has given cartels an ultimatum, but it has never been effective in stopping them.

***

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a warning that any move by NATO or any Western countries to protect Ukraine will result in hypersonic missile attacks by Russia. He’s just, in essence, declared war. While the West has vowed to protect Ukraine, he has vowed serious actions will be taken against any threat to Russia. He’s waiting for an excuse to open fire for any action he deems a threat, and he will claim to be in the right. He wants to provoke the first shot, after which troops we don’t even see at the border yet will mass, deploying weapons of mass destruction. This will put pressure on the West to back down or engage, and no matter what happens, scores of people will die. His speech used couched threats, open threats and snide praise of U.S.President Biden.

Things are not looking too good. Americans are acting stupid. Laughing at Biden. I’m going to pray that I’m not going to be alive to watch everything go to shit, while part of me has a morbid desire to see people acting all sorry for being dumbass, hateful turds.