YGTBSM Bureaucrat Edition: FEMA Updates Nuclear War Survival Guidelines With COVID Considerations

Many around the world bemoan that they live under an Oligarchy, rule by the wealthy. They're lucky by comparison.  Under the Biden Administration, we instead get to live under a Kakistocracy.

Yes,  FEMA did just helpfully update Nuclear War guidelines.  They updated it by adding a major focus of protecting yourself from Covid during a nuclear attack with such helpful hints as staying 6 feet away from other inhabitants of your shelter and wearing a mask when rescuers arrive.

Yes, this is real, and it's not fabulous. Checkout ready.gov:

GET INSIDE

Get inside the nearest building to avoid radiation. Brick or concrete are best.

Remove contaminated clothing and wipe off or wash unprotected skin if you were outside after the fallout arrived. Hand sanitizer does not protect against fall out. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth, if possible. Do not use disinfectant wipes on your skin.

Go to the basement or middle of the building. Stay away from the outer walls and roof. Try to maintain a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who are not part of your household. If possible, wear a mask if you’re sheltering with people who are not a part of your household. Children under two years old, people who have trouble breathing, and those who are unable to remove masks on their own should not wear them.

STAY INSIDE

Stay inside for 24 hours unless local authorities provide other instructions. Continue to practice social distancing by wearing a mask and by keeping a distance of at least six feet between yourself and people who not part of your household.

I daresay, if there's a nuclear frickin' attack, a virus with a 99.97% or better survival rate will be pretty much dead last in a list of our worries and pressing concerns.

Rule by the worst definitely has its drawbacks.

Wayne County Family Court Goes Bass Ackwards

Let's set the stage for the latest Wayne County follies.

It's Covid so you close down in person filings.

You tell everyone instead to file by email.

Since it's Wayne County, a backlog is inevitable.

So, how do you handle the backlog? Do you increase service efforts? Increase efficiency? Workout a case-flow strategy? Perhaps use the Civil Circuit Court's e-filing system that works rather well for handling non-family court filings?

Well, unlike what anyone might do by doing any of these reasonable solutions the Family Court decides to do none of those things and instead decides to stop accepting emailed filings and demand everyone file in person again.

The Detroit Free Press: Wayne County Family Court to ditch email filing system in effort to clear backlog

It's a Wayne County solution all right: Clear the backlog not by working harder or more efficiently, but by making it harder for people to access the Court.

The Weekend Hip Improvement Report

The hip happily continues to improve.  Still rather sore but getting less so as time goes on, which is nice. Still no need for Tylenol and haven't had to ice it at all today.

Made it into the basement and up and down the stairs quite a few times Saturday to do some cleaning and threw out about a garbage bag of accumulated unnecessary stuff and old useless paperwork.  Good exercise, getting steadier, no cane needed, and it made the work area down there look nicer by quite a bit. 

This made Tash happy, as I've taken over her upstairs office so she's going to use my workspace down there until I can bend again and am fully cleared as I can't carry the desktop that I need for some programs back downstairs, nor bend to hook it back up properly once moved at the moment.

I then drove on Thursday home from PT and it wasn't bad. First time driving in 6 weeks. No issues.

Yesterday, I drove for the first time alone in 6 weeks. 

No issues then either.  

There's a little twinge in the hp while getting behind the wheel and I felt it a bit as it rests against the seat itself, and of course from the many potholes on the roads now, but no control problems with the right leg.  So I can drive now which is good.

Putting on socks by myself though is kinda hilarious.

I had to get out and drive yesterday to go pick up the younger daughter at her work as everyone else was out of the house. A little problem was no one had thought this through fully, so I had to get my socks and shoes on by myself with no one else at home.

Putting socks and shoes on solo without bending the hip past 60 degrees is rather difficult.

There is a sock tool:

Basically you stretch the sock over this slippery plastic half cone, place the opening of the sock by your toes and then pull the ropes and the sock is supposed to leave the cone and, as if by magic, appear on your foot and you don't need to bend to do it.

In reality, not quite.

Most of the time the sock goes flying off in the opposite direction of your foot and you have to get up and chase it down before Piper decides to eat it, pick it up with your grabber off the floor as you can't bend,  and try it on the cone again.

Then, it gets on somewhat and you have to pull it up with your grabber or the hook end of you shoe horn.

Takes about 10 minutes to get two socks on. This feels a lot longer and stupider than you might imagine. Even some vocabulary is used.

Then after getting the socks on I got the shoes on using a long handled shoe horn and then the grabber to pull up the tongue of the shoe. The hard part is getting the foot lined up going straight into the shoe, without the shoe moving away, nor the hip hurting from turning it at an angle at all and without the shoe horn slipping out.  But, it worked pretty well and both shoes were on in a few minutes after some finagling.

So finally fully dressed all by myself, I headed out and picked her up, then drove us both to my office and got some things done there and picked up my mail.

Mission accomplished.

Then today Tash and I met up with some friends in Ann Arbor for lunch. 

After lunch, I walked back to the car from the restaurant rather than having her come pick me up. It was across and down the street a ways and was the farthest I've walked outside in 6 weeks.  I did use the cane as a precaution but the streets and sidewalks were mostly clear so I could avoid the snow and ice and it wasn't a problem.

So, I can see lots of improvement and it is getting better. Still a ways to go and at least six more weeks minimum before I can bend and cross my feet or ankles again. I'd also like the rest of the iron collar around the top of my leg to finally leave, but it'll still take more time.

CDC: There's A Midterm Election Coming, Time To Change The Covid Metrics

Up until today, per the CDC, all of Michigan and indeed  the majority of the country at large were considered to be areas of "High" or "Substantial" Covid risk and thus per CDC rules had to use masks in schools, indoors. etc for 95% of the country.  Nice and scary.

Then the polls were read.  The midterm elections grow ever closer.

Now, the CDC has suddenly decided to change how Covid is measured.  

Nothing has actually changed with our Covid numbers in the past couple days. But now we have new friendly pandemic risk metrics and just like that, suddenly 70% of Americans no longer need to mask up per the CDC. Quite a drop to 30% from 95% the day before, neh?

Now it is time for figures to lie and liars to figure to make everything happy again.  What was an area claimed to have a substantial or high risk of death yesterday is now a friendly low risk area today.

It's a medical miracle, really, quite simply astonishing.

The Detroit Free Press: CDC's new COVID-19 metrics plunge majority of Michigan into medium risk category.

This takes 66 out of 83 Michigan counties out of the substantial/high risk zone that they were all in under the old scary metric just a day ago, and puts 12 of them into the really friendly low risk zone and 54 into the pretty comfy  medium no mask zone under the new measurement. Suddenly case rates of Covid no longer matter.

An amazing change pretty much overnight, totally unconnected to the upcoming midterms, nor to any actual change in any facts on the ground. 

The Ukraine Invasion: Compare And Contrast

1. What A Leader Sounds Like:

The New York Post: ‘I need ammunition, not a ride’: Zelensky declines US evacuation offer

The US government offered to evacuate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Kyiv — but he declined.

“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” Zelensky said, The Associated Press reported, citing a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation.

Zelensky, 44, instead chose to remain in Ukraine’s capital as Russian forces brought the fight to the city streets, where gunfire and explosions were heard overnight Friday into Saturday.

That's a leader.

2. What a Complete Dolt Sounds Like: 

New York Post: John Kerry blasted for saying he hopes Putin will focus on climate change as Russia attacks Ukraine

“But equally importantly, you’re going to lose people’s focus, you’re going to lose certainly big country attention because they will be diverted and I think it could have a damaging impact,” Kerry continued.

“So, you know, I think hopefully President Putin would realize that in the northern part of his country, they used to live on 66 percent of the nation that was over frozen land,” he said.

“Now it’s thawing, and his infrastructure is at risk and the people of Russia are at risk,” Kerry added. “And so I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.”

That's a complete and utter dolt and dottard.

It's a very good thing he never became President.

3. What Biden Sounds Like:  Nothing.  

The White Hoiuse released a statement, so we don't know what he sounds like, or even if he wrote it.  The content of it is however rather underwhelming:

Basically he offers prayers, and 

"I will be monitoring the situation from the White House this evening and will continue to get regular updates from my national security team. "

Very inspiring. After releasing the statement, Biden then left the White House and headed off to Delaware for the weekend.

That's what we've got in office right now. That's on you Democrats, hope you keep on enjoying your minor incursion.

Just When You Think You've Heard The Dumbest Things On The Ukraine Crisis, Along Comes The New York Times

So how are you all enjoying the "Minor Incursion" so far?

Do notice how it didn't happen under Trump, whom many falsely accuse of being Putin's puppet  (forgetting that Trump put the biggest hurt on Russia of all the most recent presidents), but happened under the "adult in the room" Biden, and before him the last Russia into Ukraine incursion was under Obama.  

Why is that, one wonders? 

Anyways, The New York Times doesn't consider such a question, no time to dwell on it I suppose, but it did go on to ask the following this morning.

The New York Times: Good morning. Why aren’t the U.S. and its allies imposing tougher sanctions?

Behind a paywall, but you can get it sent right to your email box.

The author of the piece notes the announced sanctions aren't exactly severe, (who coulda guessed that would happen?) and then wonders why more aggressive sanctions aren't being carried put and suggests some that reveal a complete lack of understanding of reality,  so let's get to the funny bits:

But it’s also worth taking a look at the potential sanctions that the U.S., Britain and the European Union have chosen not to impose. They are almost certainly more severe than the sanctions going into effect. A full-scale diplomatic response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could include:

-Suspending Russia from international organizations, like the SWIFT network of banks (as Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, suggested yesterday) and the Interpol network of law enforcement

-Seizing apartments, yachts and other assets owned by many members of the Russian elite in London, Miami and elsewhere, as Anne Applebaum of The Atlantic has suggested.

-Cracking down on Vladimir Putin’s propaganda tools in the West, including the RT television network, and on people like Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor who now works for a Russian oil company.

-Perhaps most significant, sharply reduce purchases of Russian oil and natural gas, by far the country’s largest source of revenue.

Ok, now that we're done laughing at the naivete, let's go through some of these.

Swift and Interpol: Dumping Russia from SWIFT and Interpol is not something that happens overnight. Doing it will have some dangerous effects on the world financial system, not to mention undermine lots of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism efforts and monitoring that happen in the SWIFT network and Interpol.  Want Russia's international money movements and their criminals activities outside of Russia to go totally dark?  Have at it.

Seizing Other People's Stuff: Notice how Progressives just love to seize other people's stuff?  Also there's nothing better than a pundit yelling: "Hey let's have you and him fight"  from their happy place. No chance any of that could go badly nor of any retaliation, nor seizing innocent people's stuff, right?

Cracking down on other media:  Ah, the MSM's ongoing dream of censoring other news outlets.  Obviously RT runs propaganda, but you can gain some useful intel from what they're saying - and what they're not saying. Not to mention they do run some actual news now and then that our MSM doesn't touch.

And now for the dumbest suggestion yet:   Have Western Europe and the US stop buying Russian oil and natural gas.

This is where you can tell the author has no damn clue whatsoever and an utter lack of seriousness.

Western Europe has been going on a greenie climate change binge for awhile now, and has dumped their power generation and heating capacity and is now fully and totally dependent on Russian gas.

It's not like they can just stop buying it - they can't.

Biden had lifted sanctions that had been imposed by Trump on the Russian pipeline bringing gas to Western Europe, cementing Europe's dependence on Russian gas.  Biden also cancelled support for the Israel to Europe gas pipeline making Western Europe even more dependent on Russian gas with no alternative supply.

Biden also cancelled Keystone and multiple oil and gas drilling leases in the US, reducing our production, so dont expect the US to step in, and we now we need to buy Russian gas too - they're now our largest foreign supplier.

What is Western Europe, with no alternate - by design - to Russian natural gas supposed to do mid-winter? Just turn it off and tell their people to freeze for the cause? 

Good luck with that happening, you Greenies and Dems toadying up to Russia made that impossible.  

It's not like there's now an American surplus of oil and gas to step in and provide supply.  Biden and the Dems aggressively nixed that opportunity and show no inclination of reconsidering and getting production up to even pre-pandemic levels.

The utter clueless-ness of the so called experts and the pundits of our media, in America's allegedly leading newspaper no less,  is rather hilarious and depressing as well.

Right Hip Report

So here's the latest on the hip:

As of February 20th,  I've been off all pain killers. 

It still aches a fair bit and does hurt sometimes, but no more Tylenol needed.  

The muscles, as stated by my Physio Therapist are still a tad angry at me but they're beginning to consider settling down and loosening up a bit. Have to not sit in one spot for too long, and I'm still icing it on occasion, but that's it.

The feeling of having an iron collar around the top of my leg is still there, but there's now some breaks in the collar while other areas are still tight which is a weird but welcome feeling.

PT is going well.  I told my Physio Therapist two weeks ago that the exercises were easy to do now and he replied that he was happy I said that.

He then loaded me up for PT Phase 2 - I now do 20 reps instead of 10 of all the exercises I was doing before and to make it more challenging he added weights to them.  

He replaced the smaller step for step-ups that I was using with a much bigger step that's higher than a normal staircase step.  The first time I did that was a little intimidating, but I'm rocking it now.  Get a good sweat going doing all the exercises and I always try to do more than the 20 minimum.

I'm also doing 20 reps of a 30lb leg press, which doesn't sound like much, but it's a good start. Half the fun is getting the right leg into the leg press machine.  Once I can get setup and get both feet in position it's easy, but the first rep to get into position is hard.

I'm now walking around the house 100% without a cane and only using the cane outside to prevent any falls, which is still the main concern/risk for now. 

I've now been cleared to go up and down stairs, so I've now seen the basement again after over a month, and I now daily go up and down them a few times for a little exercise.

Still on the post-surgery hip safety protocol including a no crossing legs or ankles, and the no bending past 60 degrees restriction which makes putting socks and shoes on kinda hilarious. 

It is annoying as heck when I drop something or something falls or the dogs get into something as I can't just immediately bend down to pick it up.   

Still have more PT to go and a follow up appointment with the doctor to come.

Overall it's progressing along nicely, aches less than prior to the replacement, but as my PT said, I'm not done recovering yet.

Prediction on The Ukraine Crisis

Failing any miscalculation or an over-enthusiastic underling somewhere messing things up, here's how I expect the Ukraine crisis to resolve.

1.  Russia gets dominion, whether by formal annexation or by influence/ volunteer occupation, over the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which is likely all that Putin wanted this round anyways as well as sending a message that Ukraine was not to join NATO.

This was just affirmed by the Biden administration as it immediately announced sanctions over these two regions - before they have actually separated from Ukraine. That's a rather tacit recognition of the breakaway - you don't sanction a part of Ukraine that is still a part of Ukraine, especially when Ukraine is your putative ally.

There will be some noise, the announced sanctions will not actually prevent Russian hegemony over the region, and the sanctions themselves will be easily routed around by Russia. 

2.  Putin gets to shore up his support in Russia by appearing to be a strongman and looking after the Russians in the regions he just separated from Ukraine - not to mention the resources of the regions. He also made Western Europe very aware of his hand on their energy spigot.

3.  Biden gets the media to trumpet his foreign policy victory of preventing war in Europe by his "tough" imposition of sanctions on the region and threats of economic sanctions on Russia after he beat the drums on the crisis by repeatedly claiming Russia had decided to invade and he'll now claim his toughness stopped it.  He gets a foreign policy distraction from the mess he's made domestically and the media can showcase his  "success" in stopping a war in Europe.

4.  The media uses this to rehabilitate Kamala Harris's image a bit as she was sent there by Biden to represent him on the situation.  Even as she gave a ridiculous, pablum-filled,  and self-contradictory speech  ("We will deter an invasion because we will impose severe sanctions if Putin does anything" and "Putin has already decided to invade" - in the same speech) she will get lots of positive coverage.  The buffing of her image is already occurring.

5.  Western Europe, after reducing their own energy generation, now remains assured of a continued flow of their needed natural gas from Russia that they depend on, so long as they don't actually do anything against Russia's territorial ambitions. All it cost was a few regions of a country they don't care much about anyways and can't do much for in any case.

In short, everybody involved wins a nice victory for domestic consumption and distraction.  Everyone, that is, except Ukraine, and the Eastern European independent states that are going to be even more nervous of being left to twist in the wind after this crisis.

Tax Fraud Season

Yes, it's the season for tax fraud yet again.

 The Detroit Free Press: Scammers go after lucrative tax credits, use new tricks to file fake tax returns

As noted in the article, the IRS has unfortunately made it even easier for fraudsters this year.

They did so by removing one safeguard:  if you're one of those whose 2020 return is still not processed by the IRS you can place a  0 on your return for the prior year to prov e you identity.  Unfortunately,  anyone else can do that just as easily rather than a fraudster actually having to know your last year's income to use your ID to steal a tax refund under your name.  Nice way to open the door wide open there.

Add lots of refundable credits including for people who don't need to show any income at all, and you get some of the scams in the article, such as someone stealing an identity and then claiming to have 13 kids to get thousands of dollars in unearned tax credits sent right to them.

Of course, the IRS keeps it easy by allowing fraudsters to get money in an easy and untraceable way:

Many times, the refund cash is to be deposited onto a prepaid debit card so that crooks have easy access to the money. 

Allowing refunds on anonymous debit cards rather than to only the actual bank accounts or a check made out in the name of the filer is ridiculous.   I'm almost surprised the IRS doesn't allow a refund to go to an anonymous digital coin account.

I guess the IRS has gotta allow the "unbanked" and illegals and of course the legion of fraudsters to get their (and other's) refunds without any need to prove their identity, right? Of course, this is at the expense of much easier fraud against the rest of us and the Treasury itself.

Maybe the IRS should take a real step to cut down on fraud and stop issue tax refunds on debit cards, and require it to go to bank accounts where the name on the account at least matches the filer's name.

Child Development Messed Up By CDC's Covid Policies - In Response CDC Lowers Standards For Child Development

The fallout from the overreaction and hysteria about Covid is going to be felt for a very long time.

Substance abuse and deaths from substance abuse is sky high due to these horrendous decisions.

Mental health issues among teens is absolutely skyrocketing.  Mental health care is not keeping up.

Pre-teen mental health is also horrific right now.

Child development is also badly affected which is going to have effects on our country for a very long time.

Instead of admitting the stupid lockdown and masking policies caused developmental harm to infants, toddlers, and young children, the CDC has decided to do what bureaucrats always do when faced by the consequences of their failure:

Change and reduce the metrics for determining child development so the situation looks better than it is now.

CNN: Developmental milestones for children have changed for the first time in nearly 20 years

A Reasonable Sentence In The Daunte Wright Case

The Detroit News: Kim Potter sentenced to 2 years in Daunte Wright’s death

While officer Kim Potter may have even been legally justified to shoot Daunte Wright at the time as his moving the car while struggling with officers could have amounted to a deadly threat, the facts showed she didn't intends to do so and instead under the pressure of the moment did so by mistake.   

In short the jury found her, in a manner much as would happen (but with some extra politics weighing against her) if any other person shot someone by accident and they died, guilty of manslaughter.

The two year sentence the judge handed down is fair given the circumstances and guilty verdict.

Both Daunte Wright's mom and his baby momma were not too happy with it, blaming "white tears" for the reduced verdict and bemoaning that:

“My son shouldn’t have to wear a ‘rest in peace’ shirt of his dad,” Whitaker said.

Too bad that the mom didn't teach her son, and his baby momma didn't teach her baby daddy, not to resist arrest nor try to flee police.  

Had they had done and had he not resisted arrest and tried to flee and possibly run over an officer,  the entire event would not have occurred. The entire incident, and the tragic mistaken on Potter's part was caused by his decision to do so.

Oh Canada Indeed

And now we get to watch what happens in a democratic country when the full weight of government, armed with a law for essentially wartime emergencies, is turned upon peaceful demonstrators:

MSN:

Police in Ottawa have begun to arrest truckers who have occupied the centre of the Canadian capital for three weeks in protest at Covid-19 restrictions and vaccine mandates.

The move comes after two of the protest leaders were taken in custody on Thursday night and much of downtown was designated a secure area behind 100 checkpoints. A third protest organiser was arrested on Friday during a Facebook livestream.

Canada’s parliament has shutdown and cancelled plans for a debate about the implementation of the Emergencies Act amid the ongoing police operation.

. . .

Police moved in on Friday morning and have been slowly, but steadily advancing, pushing protesters back towards the centre of the convoy. By lunchtime there had been 21 arrests and 21 vehicles towed — other trucks have reportedly left after officers threatened to smash their windows.

Charming, that.  Nothing says law and order like the Police openly threatening to performing acts of malicious destruction of property to peaceful demonstrators.

Also read that section again - Canada's Parliament - which should have met today to debate and decide on whether Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act is lawful was ordered shut down.  Nice trick to extend these extra-ordinary powers without having any debate or vote on it.  It both spares Liberal Party members form having to vote for or against, and let's Trudeau run wild with it for longer, likely to make cracking down on the truckers a done deal before anything can be done about its invocation.

Meanwhile, as reported in the New York Post: Justin Trudeau sparks outrage after accusing Jewish conservatives of supporting swastikas.

Yes, he actually did that and has yet to apologize.  Schmuck.

Piper Gets A Taste For Sole Food

In one single day this week, Piper chomped on 4 different sneakers.  Seems to be going through a sole food phase.

Each one, of course, from a different pair.  

One from each of us, including the ones I wear for PT.  They just happened to be my only sneakers/workout shoes.  Ugh.

So, I had to hurriedly order a new pair. Since I still can't bend down and putting on shoes are hard and I can't reach to tie them, I decided to try a slip on pair of sneakers to see if I could get them on and off better.

I figured for  $36, now apparently $39 (talk about quick inflation), it would be worth a shot and they would be here on time for the next PT session.

They actually work, and actually are pretty comfy after you tie them up, they will still slip on yet stay on and fit properly, and are very easy to take off which helps a lot.

Yesterday, she was cruising by Tash's tennis shoes.  Eating those would lead to a very bad result for Piper.

It's a very good thing she's cute.

Justin You Schmuck: 1984 is Not Supposed To Be A How-To Manual

So it looks like Canada under Trudeau is going all Total Surveillance / Total Control State so fast the banks are having issues.

The Emergencies Act, formerly the War Powers Act has only been invoked twice in Canadian history:  Once under Pierre E. Trudeau in the FLQ crisis in 1970 when Quebec Marxist Separatists committed about 200 bombings,  kidnapped British trade commissioner James Cross and kidnapped and murdered of Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte.  

 Now twenty-two years it is being invoked by his son against peaceful protestors who blow truck horns, blockade traffic, have dances and parties with bouncy-houses and then clean up the area where they've been leaving it cleaner than how they found it.

In short, Trudeau fils is miffed that he wasn't the one shutting down business and movement of Canadians this time.

Using the EA against peaceful protestors is kinda like using a nuclear bomb to swat a fly, and not what it was designed for, but this is what happens when you elect a substitute teacher based on his having some looks that women find attractive and his father's last name.

It's gonna be one heckuva precedent for the next time left-wing demonstrators want to march or protest against a conservative government in Canada, just saying. 

It also appears Justin and friends are messing with the Canadian banking system, trying to seize money or freeze the funds of the trucker protestors. 

There's absolutely no way that's going to go sideways.

No chance of it harming the Canadian banking system,  as people realize what was once a solid, safe, sable and well maintained financial system can have their funds seized or frozen upon government whim, which was just demonstrated when the Big 5 major Canadian banks went offline last night and this morning.

No chance of this leading to actual bloodshed as Ottawa police threaten to take truckers' kids and kill their dogs.

So, anyone still in the mood for an all-digital currency?  or giving governments this kind of power?

The Only Time Slow Is Smooth And Smooth Is Fast Is True

Is when you're driving home in a snowstorm like the one we're having now.  

Snow coming down hard with highly restricted visibility and there's ice underneath the snow from it raining yesterday. 

Try to drive fast in that and you'll be in for a surprise. Drive slow, smooth and steady and you'll get where you're going faster than trying to go fast, so long as the idiots on the road trying to go fast don't mess it up for you.

Otherwise, slow and smooth is still slow; smooth is still smooth, ;and fast is still fast.

Very Bad For Canadians, But Good For Justin Trudeau Living His Prefered Style Of Government

Next time a politician publicly states he admires and prefers a dictatorial governing style,  maybe you should believe him and never let him near the levers of power, ever.

See: https://twitter.com/RapidFire_Pod/status/1493413794554564615

Because you get dictatorial results in response to actual peaceful protests that disagree with his political ideology:

New York Post:  Canada’s Trudeau invokes emergency powers to quell trucker COVID protests

This is also what happens when you elect a substitute teacher whose sole qualifications for office was an allegedly attractive visage and his father's last name.

Scratch a Liberal and you'll find a fascist.

Hooray! The Gadget Is Back!

The Striker Control Device is now going to be manufactured and offered for sale by Langdon Tactical.

If you have a Glock, it offers a valuable additional level of safety when re-holstering your firearm, and especially so when carrying your Glock in an appendix holster.

If you carry a Glock, it's a highly recommended enhancement. 

It's great to know that Langdon Tactical, a highly reputable company, will be carrying the torch for Tau Development Group and keeping the SCD available for Glock users.

Recent Dearbon Incident Narrative Collapses

The Detroit Free Press: Police: Officers fatally shoot man after Dearborn mosque arson

So Sumdood, name still not officially released, sets a fire at the outside of a Mosque and then takes a shot at police when they show up.  Police perform the appropriate response and dropped him quickly and effectively to the rather cold outside air temperature.

Abed Ayoub, a Dearborn native who's the national legal and policy director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, commended "the quick and rapid response by" Dearborn police. "We trust that all law enforcement agencies who are involved will conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause and motivation behind the attack," Ayoub said. 

Well, no.  Expect the media and everyone else including all the politicos who condemned this act as terrorism against a house of worship in the article to immediately lose interest in the incident.

Why?

Because it turns out the attacker was an Arab Muslim who did it for so far unidentified reasons.  No telling if he's a Sunni annoyed at a Shia mosque or anything else so far. Do note that whenever a Muslim attacks a religious institution the first claim is its due to "mental health reasons" -  interesting, that.

Both the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News have failed to update their reporting to reflect that, allowing the false claim that this was a "domestic terrorism" (read right wing or MAGA types incident to fester.

The Intellectual Vanguard Of The Workers

Really, really,  hate that the Workers are uniting on their own without having the intellectual vanguard leading them.

Note that this person, Juliette Kayyem, is very much one of the elite.  

Married to a Federal Court of Appeals judge no less, and she was Obama's Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security and is currently the Senior Belfer Lecturer in International Security at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she is Faculty Director of the Homeland Security Project and Security and Global Health Project. 

She also presently serves as a CNN National Security Analyst.

So she's allegedly one of your betters and an "expert" on national security.

Yet, she doesn't know that draining gas from truck tanks and slashing tires results in trucks that are really difficult to move. She also does not know that that slashing a tire filled to 120 psi is really not a smart idea for the slashee's health - but could be fun for the rest of us to watch.

Obama really had the smartest people working for him, now didn't he?  And CNN and Harvard has her now - make of that what you will.

Meanwhile, the intellectual vanguard has managed to drive inflation to its highest rate in 40 years, with no signs of stopping, further harming the very workers they claim to champion.

Question For 2021 Taxes

Started doing my taxes this year and got to this screen:

So, does the Biden administration count as a federal disaster for tax purposes?

This Week's Hip Update: March of The Penguin

Last week through this Monday could have been titled: Citizen Cane.

Getting around using the cane for almost 100% of the time that week, only using toe walker for extra support in the shower and in crowded public places to avoid the hip getting bumped.

Per the doc and the PT person - in crowded spots I should still use the walker as people avoid it. Most people in crowded areas apparently ignore or just don't see canes, making the risk of getting your hip bumped pretty high.

This week since my Physio session on Monday late afternoon is more properly titled the March of The Penguin.

About 60% of the time indoors I'm walking without using any cane or walker at all as long as I'm not holding things or the leg doesn't get too sore. 

Mind you, It's more like hobbling than walking but I'll take it.  Looks kinda like this:

Are the kids mercilessly teasing me about this and calling me a penguin? Of course they are! 

I now have a major craving for some herring, dammit.

This morning I unconsciously penguin walked down the two stairs to the kitchen without a cane.  First time doing that.  Made a bit of shock when I realized I had done that and had to get back up the steps without a cane to get to where the cane was, but I did it no problem. Progress!

Certainly better mobility. Using Tylenol instead of the lighter pain control drug 66% of the time and almost done with the lighter pain control drug. Plan is it will be Tylenol only starting Monday. Pain is about a 2+ or so typically.  Heavy PT sessions make it a 3+ sometimes but that's the price of improvement.

Thankfully, the toes have stopped swelling up at night. The ankle seems to be getting better too, so only direct hip pain wakes me up in the middle of the night now. At least it makes sense.

Physio is going well.  Doing good walking around unassisted and doing the exercises.  Some still hurt quite a bit and are hard to do.  Still cannot bring my knee to my chest at all, it locks up well short and is my worst PT exercise right now.

Major swelling and tightness is still around the upper leg hip area as the muscles are still pretty angry about being moved around during the surgery and are making their displeasure still known.  Lying on my side, even my left side for PT treatments hurts like heck, and I'm not about to even try lying on my right side.

Overall, it's steady progress, I can do stuff this week I could not have even tried two weeks ago.

Still no bending at the waist past 80 degrees, or crossing legs or ankles for the next couple months, but may be cleared for driving and going up and down actual flights of stairs next week.

The Canadian Trucker Protest Now Well And Truly Has Their Attention

After being totally ignored by the US Media, and downplayed by Canadian Media, the Truckers found a useful lever for pressure that could not be ignored:  Having slowdowns/blockades at the Blue Water and Ambassador Bridges from Ontario into Michigan.

The Detroit News: White House worried about Ambassador Bridge blockade disrupting auto production

As well they should be.  It's very cute how Psaki and the Democrats are now all publicly concerned about violent protests, when this isn;t a violent protest at all:

"We support peaceful protest, but we have concerns when those protests turn violent," Psaki said. "And certainly I think it's important for everyone in Canada and the United States to understand what the potential impact of this blockage is on workers, on the supply chain and that is where we are most focused."

Let's note the truckers themselves have not been violent, the violence has all been coming from the Ontario government side with police seizing demonstrating trucker's fuel and food and government officials making threats.

Well, both major Michigan papers are now reporting on it, and both are now accurately stating it is about the vaccination mandate for trucker cross-border travel:

The Detroit News: What to know about the traffic delays at Ambassador Bridge, trucker protest over COVID mandate

The Detroit Free Press: Truckers protest at Ambassador Bridge over COVID-19 vaccine mandates: What we know

Hilariously, the Detroit Free Press states:  

Truckers calling themselves the Freedom Convoy are opposing a Canadian mandate requiring drivers entering Canada to be fully vaccinated or face testing and quarantine requirements.

But it didn't just start this week. [emphasis added!]

Before the Ambassador Bridge was targeted, truckers also protested in Ottawa, Canada's capital. 

Seriously Freep, thanks for finally telling us that you only deigned to cover it this week and it's been going on for longer than that in Canada's capital. Sheesh, kinda important news, that.

It's Not Due To Racism, it's Due To Incompetence, Criminality, And Ignorance

 The Detroit Free Press: Racial disparity in nonviolent gun arrests leads advocates to call for dropping charges

The news article could alternatively be called:

 Wayne County Clerk Doesn't Do It's Job, Minorities Hardest Hit 

The facts are that  Detroit is over 80% Black, so it's not surprising that 97% of those charged are indeed mainly Blacks that will get hit for carrying concealed without a permit.  

Add the fact that there's a vibrant criminal class that happens to be disproportionately Black in Detroit that is knowingly flouting the law and carrying illegally to commit crimes and the percentages are not surprising, nor explainable by simply pulling the race card.

Understand, the Prosecutor in Detroit is Black, the vast majority of the assistant prosecutors are Black, The Wayne County Sheriff is Black, and the Detroit Police Chief is Black.  The majority of the Detroit government is Black. 

Blaming this on race and Playing the race card against them is a fool's errand.

Of course, had Wayne County actually processed CPL applications in any timely fashion it would have alleviated a lot of these charges upon the otherwise law-abiding as the law-abiding people would have their CPLs.  Some people I know have been charged in Detroit due to expired CPLs, because again because the Clerk is not doing her job. The Wayne County Clerk continues the delays to this day.

Some of the charges are also unfortunately due to ignorance and people not knowing the law. 

Michigan has open carry, and open carry without any permit is lawful. But, having a loaded pistol in a vehicle, even if it is visible,  is not open carrying but is essentially considered to be concealed and thus requiring a CPL.  People who don't know better, but really should, doth make this mistake a lot.

In short the problem is very real, and a mix of actual criminals getting caught and the innocent swept up with them due to carrying illegally through ignorance, but racism has damn well nothing to do with it.

Piper And The China Olympic Games

Piper, in addition to being 75% Airedale and 25% Poodle, seems to have some mountain goat in her.  She does like to take the high ground.

 

Well, she decided to switch things up a bit and go low for a change 

Possibly one day she was contemplating the nature of things on her perch and decided that she wanted to view the Olympic games - live. Or, perhaps, she wanted to go try and free Uygurs from concentration camps, one or the other.

Either way, she launched her cunning plan in-house and started digging her way to China.

Shoe and chew toy for scale on the two main attempted Michigan-China tunnel connections.

Both holes, sadly for her but good for us, stopped far short of her intended destination. But, she did make it right through the carpet and under pad to the base netting of the under pad itself.

Ah well, the carpet had lasted 12 years, and other (smaller) holes from Jett's own carpet digging stage have been cunningly hidden by furniture.  No way to hide these though, she had to put them in very prominent spots.

It's now time to think about replacing the carpet with some wood or laminate flooring and spruce the place up a bit and make tunneling through just a bit tougher.

Canadian Freedom Convoy Finally Gets A Mention in The Detroit News And Detroit Free Press

Finally we get a mention of the Canadian Trucker protest that has paralyzed Ottawa for a week, and scared Prime Minister Trudeau into leaving town and into claiming the reason he has gone into hiding is he's gotten Covid after 2 vaccine shots and a booster. 

But, this reporting is only because the protest has caused a delay at the Ambassador Bridge Border Crossing to Detroit:

The Detroit News: COVID protest sparks traffic delays at Ambassador Bridge

Note the article states the mandates by both Canada and the USA requiring truckers have the vaccine so they may be in their cabs alone for hours will result in a further crisis to the supply chain between the two countries:

He [Chuck Lippstreu, president of the Michigan Agri-Business Association] estimated the mandates left 30-50% of truckers on the U.S. ineligible to cross.

"We are very concerned frankly that these policies are threatening international trade and commerce with our No. 1 partner," he said. "We urge governments on both sides to rethink some common sense exemptions."

That's a supply chain crisis completely created by the governments of the US and Canada right there, and for absolutely no good reason.

The Detroit Free Press also finally covered the protest: Bridge to Canada in Detroit closes as Canadian protesters block the trade route

Canadian Forces Say No To Trudeau Request To Crack Down On Truck Protest

Apparently Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the Canadian Forces to help him get rid of the troublesome truck protestors and the Canadian Forces told him NO.

Good thing the Canadian Armed Forces have upheld their reputation as the Canadian Armed Forces and not tarnished it to become the Liberal Party's Armed Forces and interfere with peaceful protests.

A Proposal By The Gov For Outright Election Year Bribery

So what do you call it when during an election year a Governor who's been doing a pretty lousy job overall promises a bounty of $2,000+ annually to each of her strongest supporters?

A "retention bonus".

The Detroit News: Whitmer to propose $2,000 annual retention bonuses for teachers, staff

Well, it's only $2.3 Billion of our tax money over 4 years - with per the article most to be spent -- per Whitmer's urging, not surprisingly in this (election) year.

Funny how that works.

Pretty much an outright payoff and bribery to some of her key supporters - the Michigan Educational Association and its members - with other people's money.

Lockdowns Not Only Didn't Work, They've Caused Damage That Will Take A Generation To Unravel

 Not only did lockdowns not save lives from Covid,  they did more harm than good.

The ill-conceived Lockdowns did not just impose an economic catastrophe on the lower and middle classes and affected the mental health of millions - they've likely harmed our newest generation of children.

Ed Source:  Pandemic effects may have lowered baby IQs, study says

A new study by researchers at five universities found that babies born during the pandemic may have lower IQ scores than those born before it. Babies who came into the world before the coronavirus had a cognitive score hovering around 100, according to this study. But the test scores of babies born during the pandemic fell sharply, to around 78. That’s 22 points lower than what’s considered normal.

Let's explain just how huge such a drop of 22 points from the norm is.

Let's put it this way. 

The Dems love to rag on the military and claim military members are stupid. 

Remember when John Kerry   "told college students that if "you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Well, the US Army's IQ cut off for entry is around an 83 IQ (its complicated but pretty much that score when compared to the ASVAB minimum etc).  

The military already does not accept the lowest 23% of the population already.  (Insert leftists snide commentary about military members being dumb or "lowest of the low" (Yes a California Dem Teacher /city councilman made that comment) - when they're clearly not.  

In short, the average child born during the lockdowns and mandatory mask rules with an IQ of 78 is literally unable to serve in the military or indeed conduct themselves in what is becoming a more and more technological society that demands intelligence.

This is a horrific result of an ill-conceived and enacted policy and is going to have severe consequences for a very long time.

Some Really Great News!

Jett had his latest appointment with the Doggie Oncologist, and his third melanoma treatment shot in the series.  

The staff at the animal hospital are in love with him, he's very mellow and happy when he's there and he behaves really well and smiles at them a lot.

He walked out of the exam room wearing this:

The cancer appears to be in complete remission.  It has not spread to the lungs or lymph nodes. Let's hope the treatment keeps on working.

A couple more shots to go and the melanoma treatment series will be complete, and with any luck that will be the end of it.

The happy yet tired dog, now home on the bed, and relaxing accordingly after his vet visit.  Some great news to start the weekend.

Since The Biden Administration Is Floundering - Democrats Decide To Push For Gun Bans Again

The Biden administration has been having a rough start and is flailing about.

The failure of the Afghanistan withdrawal; the economy; inflation brought on by bad economic policy; oil and gas prices; the failure to pass his signature Build Back Better spending spree to further expand the debt and fundamentally reshape America and it's economy.

The failure to lead in Ukraine and green-lighting a Russian minor incursion and then walking that back.

The constant need for his publicists to explain that what Biden says in public is not actually Biden's policies. 

An utter failure to "defeat" Covid 19, and more Americans dead from or with Covid under Biden than Trump, far more than the 200,000 that Biden indicated was a level at which a president should resign for being a failure.

Clear signs that Biden ain't all there mentally or physically.

 On top of that, we get the January jobs report that 301,000 jobs were lost  - not the expected 200,000 gain, and the prior December jobs report also got adjusted downwards to show a job loss.  Funny howe that happens.

An approval level in the toilet and it's starting to swirl around the drain.

Impeding projected massive losses in the upcoming midterms

So what's a Democrat to do?

Anything to try and fire up their base and keep the support of their "progressive wing".

So, a push for Gun Control it is. Right on schedule.

After all, gun bans are still popular among the Democrats, especially amongst the more radical members whose support he needs.

It also helps distract from the defund the police fracas and Democrat Prosecutors' soft on crime non-prosecution of criminals measures while blaming inanimate objects and Republicans for the Democrat-caused crime wave.

Just like his sudden announcement that he's going to redouble his efforts to cure cancer on the day when the 300,000 lost jobs report came out, the gun control push is an attempt to distract attention from his and the Democrat's multiple and ongoing failures.

Funny how his announcement of his gun ban push repudiates the Democrats "Defund The Police"  line that was one of the causes of this massive spike in the murder and violent crime rate:

"The answer is not to defund the police," he  [Biden] continued. "It's to give you the tools, the training, the funding to be partners, to be protectors."

Something tells me the Squad isn't going to be happy with that line repudiating their defund the police refrain. Nice to see the reality check that defunding and demoralizing the police, and having Democrat prosecutors not prosecute crimes leads to a crime wave that makes the Democrats look rather bad.

May his gun ban push end in yet another failure for this administration.

Ow, What The Heck?

So, no ice machine yesterday, much sadness.

As such, I didn't put on the ice gel pack I've bought as a replacement at night, as falling asleep wearing it is not a good idea.  In short, you should ice an area for up to only 30 minutes at a time. Then  you need to give the icing treatment a break.

Swelling does continue to occur in the lower areas.  

Before the guys go "swelling heh, heh, cool" -- Well, it's not so much fun nor is there any swelling in that area, get yer minds outta the gutter. 

Generally, the swelling occurs lower down as the swelling around the quad muscle and hip seems to trap the blood farther down in the leg.

The right ankle again swelled yesterday night to the size of a softball.  Likely the heavy PT had something to do with that. Very productive PT session where I was walking around and doing exercises without a cane or any support or safety belt at all (kinda scary, and wobbly, but I did it)  - quite the workout.

Normally and unfortunately, I'm awoken in the middle of the night because of the right big toe swelling up and feeling like it had been sliced open and bleeding at the top, even though it is not actually doing that.  But it sure feels and hurts like it does.

But last night it wasn't the right big toe that woke me up, this time, it was the  Big Toe on my LEFT LEG.

Seriously left big toe?  Your leg wasn't even involved in this surgery! Knock that off.

Got the gel pack out, iced the right leg at the hip for thirty minutes which felt darn good, and everything settled down.

More outpatient PT today. More icing to come too. Time to go get better.

Ode To An Ice Machine

The ice and compression machine was picked up today as the prescription for it, even as it is not a covered expense, was for only three weeks. It was worth every penny of its uncovered out of pocket rental expense.

To say it was great is an understatement.

No need to constantly freeze ice packs, time their use or have to take either them or compression socks on and off all night.  Instead it pumped water through the black wrap and also would do compressions for it, while the separate calf compression units wrapped around the calf muscles and inflated and deflated at intervals to prevent clotting.

So instead of running to and from the freezer and running a timer. this machine did it all by itself.  The attached remote was also easy to grab and use rather than having to reach the machine.

Only downside was I could not remove those leg wraps by myself and thus needed help taking them off after each use. Also the ice wrap (the black item above) could have been a bit larger to fully cover around the entire leg, and the velcro on it stuck to everything including itself and was generally a pain to use, but overall it worked great.

Kinda noisy, but after awhile it became just some background white noise during rest periods.

Rather sad to see it go, as it really made these first three weeks of recovery much more pleasant. Farewell trusty ice machine, you will be missed.

Now on to using an ice gel pack for occasional relief.

Well That Cleared A Year's Worth Of Deductibles In A Month.

Got the bill in the mail for the surgery, which I have now paid.

Reading the top line I almost passed out.  Bottom line was quite a bit better by comparison, which is likely why they do it.

Our medical system is kinda crazy in terms of billing, but the level of care is rather great. 

A $60k top line, but then there's an insurance reduction of $47k.  Then followed by the  insurance company  payment of $10,842.82 and our deductible of $1,577.18.  So for a $60k charge, they actually got paid $12,420.00.  This is probably what they actually wanted to make from the outset in order to get a decent profit for a few rather intensive and high quality hours of care, so they had to raise the stated price to be able to get to where they wanted to be.

If anybody can make sense of this kind of system where the insurance company's contractual reduction is the majority of the stated charge, good luck with that.

Note that was just the surgery center and didn't include the separate bill from the surgeon, who, just like the surgery center, definitely deserved the money. So, understand that I'm not complaining at all, just remarking on the inanity of how the system works and how the top line price just has nothing to do with the actual final price paid.

Between the two invoices from them alone, we cleared our insurance company's annual High Deductible Health Care Plan out-of-pocket deductible for the entire year and all in the month of January! Ouch. 

We've only cleared that deductible in a year once before - last year when some other serious family health care problems occured and had to be dealt with, but then we hit the max in September, not January. 

Of course, some things aren't covered by insurance at all, such as the ice/compression machine so we paid that out of pocket, but the rental fee  for the 3 weeks for it was really, really worth it. Highly, highly recommended if you get offered it, do it.

Well, the rest of the year now has services without out of pocket deductibles so we've got that going for us, and that's nice.

If You Want To Play With The Sharks Part 4 - Well, Don't Tick off The Judge!

So I appeared on Zoom ready to defend against the Third Party Defendant's whacky motion for Summary Disposition.  Ready to go and well-prepped to argue this baby.

I and the pro per Third Party Defendant show up, but for some reason the pro per Plaintiff does not which is interesting.

Judge has us put our appearances on the record.

Then things get interesting.

He starts off by asking her:"Miss Third Party Defendant, did you write and submit this motion all by yourself ,and not get help from anyone else?"

She says yes, yes she did.

Then it gets more interesting.

The Judge goes "I highly doubt that.  I see the font, which is not usually a font submitted to this court, is the exact same as the one used by the Plaintiff in his prior motions."

Oh, that's Interesting.

"I see the style is also the same in terms of word choice and underlining and overall format."

Even more interesting.

"My staff sees from reviewing the history of the electronic filing system that this motion and your reply was not filed with the court by you, but by Plaintiff, and you were even served by him with a copy of the filing via the electronic system."

Ruh Roh Shaggy. This is getting good.

"Plaintiff cannot assist or represent you Miss Third Party Defendant, as that's the unauthorized practice of law, he can't write things for you or file things for you and you have to be truthful to the court about such matters. I as a judge have a duty to prevent such things as it is both unethical and improper for that to occur."

She then tries to interrupt, which really annoys the judge.   Quick tip - Never, ever, try to speak over a judge in their courtroom.  It never works out well for you.

The judge: "You may not interrupt me, I gave you an opportunity to explain at the start of this and instead you told me you wrote this all by yourself."

Then the hammer falls:

"I am striking this motion as a result. I want both Plaintiff and you Miss Third Party Defendant to appear in my courtroom in 21 days via Zoom to show cause why you both should not be held in civil or criminal contempt for the unauthorized practice of law and why you misled the court about this filing, and to explain the circumstances of this filing."

Kaboom.

"Mr. Aaron __, since they are both in pro per, please draft the show cause order and submit it with my court today."

"Yes, Your Honor."

"This motion is stricken and dismissed, sorry to waste your time Mr. Aaron __".

About time he got tired of their nonsense. 

Still, she can apparently refile this once she gets past the show cause, and might fix some of the major errors with it, causing me to work a bit more to answer it, but we will see how it goes.

Snowmageddon Or Snow-meh-geddon Approaches

Schools are already cancelled in the area.

The kids are happy as it is their first snow day in two years - Don't be in a hurry to blame global warming - last year was remote only so no snow days were to be had.

So far, it is raining and melting some of the snow currently on the ground,  but it's expected to turn to freezing rain then snow by 10am with 12-16 inches expected to fall in our area. 

That's a lot of snow, and could set a new record for this time of year.

So we're all tucked in here at the house.  We already have all necessary French Toast and Hot Chocolate making supplies on hand.

I'm currently medically prohibited from doing so, but both the snow blower and shovels are at the ready for everyone else to use.  I guess I'll just have to direct the snow clearing activities from within the house and keep the hot chocky flowing.

We will see if the Court Zoom hearing with the pro pers still goes forward later today.

Nova Scotia Targets The Law Right At The Trucker Protest

In Nova Scotia, Canada, the provincial government is running scared of the truckers' protest.

How scared?

Well they just passed an emergency declaration that bans not just blocking traffic in general,  but specifically bans a gathering of people beside a road from gathering and cheering in support of the trucker protest, and only the trucker protest and no other.  

Cheer by the roadside for BLM or any other favored cause?  Cool by them. 

Cheer on the freedom convoy? Fines for doing so range from $10,000 to $100,000 Canadian. Clearly the edict is designed to chill support for the trucker protest under penalty of law.

In the USA, this sort of law would be shot down pretty quickly in Court as a First Amendment violation in terms of not being content neutral and having massive viewpoint discrimination.

Canada, however, has no such First Amendment protection, and their Charter of Rights and Freedoms which declares it protects free expression - and standing by the side of a road doing nothing more than cheering on a protest is indeed freedom of expression - comes with a notwithstanding clause that the government can use to override Canadian's rights laid out in that document whenever it deems convenient.  This means freedom of expression in Canada and its provinces can be suspended whenever the government feels it may be inconvenient.

Clearly, the protesters simply need to rename the event to “Freedom in 2023” convoy and then section c of the law won’t apply and gathering and cheering by the roadside can take place so long as they don't announce they intend to interfere with the normal flow of traffic.   

That is one of the problems at making a law aimed at a specific protest only.

Talk about crafting a law directly at a single protest, sheesh. Methinks the Nova Scotia government really doesn't like the idea that  average Canadian is getting fed up with their arbitrary and capricious regulations.

On The Canadian Trucker Protest

In case you didn't know, and the MSM is doing their damnedest to make sure you don't.  For example, both the Detroit News and Free Press fail to mention what is going on with our neighbors to the South (and north - Michigan is funny that way) on the front pages of their websites, nor in the news section at all. You'd think news of this nature would be important to a main border state with Canada with close trade ties and dependence on Canadian parts for the automotive industry, but nary a peep.  Interesting, that.

The story -  thousands of truckers - 50,000 truckers or more - and trucks are descending on Ottawa to protest the Canadian government's mandate that  thy must be vaccinated in order to ship goods across the border and come back to Canada.  The US has announced a similar mandate. 

Both mandates are rather inane. 

The Canadian government under Justin Trudeau is in essence is busily shouting "Respect my authoritay" and the truckers are shouting back:  "No."

Justin Trudeau then bravely ran away from Ottawa tand fled to a secret location avoid the protesters. This is what happens when you make a substitute teacher a prime minister based solely on name recognition because of who his father was.

After all what do truckers do?  

They're driving their trucks in their cabs alone for hours, drop off their loads and come back, not exactly hotbeds of exposure or spread.

As much as they claim to be "following the science": in passing these inane regs that will further snarl the supply chain in both countries, the science actually indicates:

1. You can still catch Covid and variants if you're vacinated

2. You can still spread Covid and variants if you're vaccinated

3.  At best Vaccination does seem to offer some protection from Covid and variants, and you'll likely get having less severe symptoms as a result. 

4.  Unless you're over 70 (and much worse if you're over 80). As an aside, the average life expectancy in Canada is 79.9 for men and 84 for women, and US is 77 for men and 81 for Women pre-covid.  So unless youre of advanced age  close to your life expectancy average, and/or have serious comorbidities, the chance of death form Covid is darn low.

As such, there's really no longer a public health argument to be made for mandatory vaccination to stop the disease from spreading as works with other vaccinations.

The only remaining public health argument is that allegedly being vaccinated means with less severe symptoms you're less likely to need to go to a hospital and use public health resources - but we're seeing vaccinated people also having to be hospitalized so the data is rather unclear.

In short its a personal choice to have the shot and thus a shot at less severe symptomsor not, especially if you're in a low risk group.

Making truckers, who tend to be pretty active and in  lower risk groups in terms of age and comorbidity be required to get the shot is rather inane.

After all, this mandate only happened in January 2022 - truckers have been delivering goods across the border unvaccinated throughout this pandemic now for years with no reported mass outbreaks due to truckers, or any other outbreaks by them for that matter.

This more and more seems to be governments  being desperate to be seen to be "doing something" and flexing their authority without any real scientific basis for doing so - and with a further worsening of shipment delays be damned.

In short, they've had enough with government over-reaction and control over the past few years. You know its bad when you've managed to get Canadians of all people ticked off enough to get up and mount a serious protest: