The Kool-Aid Crowd and COVID

Bobblehead DollSince 2000, the US Federal Government has spent billions, if not hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to improve labels and then “educate” people into reading labels.  The laws passed have forced private businesses to spend hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars in changing labeling on packaging and products to comply.  Go to any mask package and you will find similar:Mask Packaging

Recently I sought service at a Xfinity retail store and was denied service because I cannot wear a mask.  During this outing, I received severely dirty and threatening looks and attitudes from shoppers in a Walmart, all because I cannot wear a mask.  People are becoming violent, just as the government has demanded, to anyone not toeing the government COVID line, and this behavior reminded me of the Jim Jones religious cult.

President Biden is expected to force more people to listen to him threaten and try to scare Americans into getting vaccinated.  The mayors of Boston, Chicago, and New York continue to double down on activities that have not worked since February 2020.  The governors of California, New Mexico, Michigan, and others, continue to use powers not available to them in the name of “public health emergency.”  More mask mandates, more vaccination orders, and more “green passes” to exist.  Here’s the rub, how many of these solutions have worked; honestly, look at the data from February 2020 to December 2021, and tell me how many people were saved wearing masks.

People saved from these government freedom theft mandates, I guarantee, the number is NOT statistically significant!  How do I know; Australia, essentially a large island, has the strictest policies, and Omicron was still able to get onto the island.  How do I know; COVID infected children (school age K-12) have the same risks as uninfected children.  Who is the resource for this information, The New York Times!

Real numbers, Israel has one of the highest vaccinations and boosted populations on the globe; guess what, they also have the highest spike in Omicron infections!  Europe, socialized medicine, high vaccination and boosted populations, where the Omicron and Delta variants spiked infection rates.  Think of this for a moment, populations forced by government to vaccinate, and they are still passing around COVID infections, which is precisely viral science in action!

Peer reviewed researchers in the virus infection community have shown this life cycle of viral infections repeatedly since scientists began writing down what they do.  Vaccinated people pass around strains of viral mutation, which then infect other vaccinated people, until the virus mutates itself to death.  Please, do not believe me, look up this science for yourself, and you will come to a similar conclusion.  At the end of the day the viral infection community of scientists are plotting the death of COVID as a viral infection, but government elected leaders, and the bureaucrats powering the echo chamber of political thinking, will not give up the power theft committed since Feb 2020.

Jim Jones and the Kool-Aid cult suicide has been mocked, used as case studies in group think, and represents a dark time in human psychology and the abuse of religious thinking and adherence.  Guess what, the insanity of COVID-19 is as silly, irresponsible, and dangerous as Jim Jones and his cyanide-laced grape-flavored Kool-Aid.  Senator Manchin nailed it, government is beating the “living crap” out of every citizen, the beatings are intensified by the state government, and the county and city governments.  Yet, little Joey is going to continue to threaten, cajole, beat, and denigrate people using COVID as the excuse.

Did you get the vaccination just to appease government and end the beatings?  Are you able to unmask and live your life without COVID mandates, just because you got vaccinated?  I have friends here in NM who have masked, vaccinated, and done everything the government has demanded of them to avoid the government beatings.  They caught COVID, the whole family was quarantined, and extended family still caught COVID from my friends, once the quarantine was lifted, they gathered, and the extended, vaccinated, masked family caught COVID.  The repetition of this story is exhausting and provides clear proof the government beatings, mandates, and exercised powers are NOT helping but hurting, and make the Jim Jones Kool-Aid episode even more appropriate.

The science from South Africa, where Omicron variant was identified, reports the COVID virus stays in the nose and mouth region.  Guess what, so does the common cold virus, and there has NEVER been an attempt to vaccinate against the ever changing common cold.  We, the citizens of representative government, are the owners of government and it is time we take the reigns and stop the Kool-Aid massacre.  Government should never hold the power over an individual citizen’s health, welfare, or ability to pursue happiness.  Yet, this is exactly what the government bureaucrats want you to give to the government to stop COVID.  Since February 2020, has this worked?  Answer this question as well; how much faster would herd immunity have been achieved had government done what it has done for every other Chinese virus, which is nothing?

Look at recent history, Asian Flu, Hong Kong Flu, Bird Flu A (H5N1), Swine Flu, SARS, etc. the government did nothing.  NO shutdowns, no mandates, no economic stimulus, no job losses for those not vaccinating, no Big Pharma money pump for vaccinations of dubious nature, and the world did not end.  Did some people die; yes.  Did some people get sick; yes.  But herd immunity was faster and more effective than any action the government could think would have worked.  Dear reader, to you I ask, “Are you better off for the government intervention on COVID-19?”  I know my answer, but to you I leave the question and the answer.

Now, flash forward 10-years in your mind.  The real death toll of government intervention is still being hidden, but the deaths from a dubious vaccine are scaring populations silly.  When do we ask ourselves if the forced government vaccinations are the cause for infertility, for economic destruction, and for the massacre of human dreams and lives?  Who do we blame after the money is spent and the vaccines have irretrievably destroyed wide swaths of populations?  When vaccinated children whose risk from COVID remains minimal are sick, twisted with pain, or are dying in droves with reduced life expectancies, but the government continues to defend “doing something in the face of COVID.”

If the Jim Jones religious cult comparison is not appropriate now, when will it be appropriate and concerning to every single citizen across the globe?  Do you know the phrase “Judas Goat?”  The Judas Goat is the goat that befriends sheep, and then leads them to their doom in a slaughterhouse.  Belief in the omni-powerful government is a myth and a Judas Goat, yet to not blindly follow the government mandates is to be refused employment (nurses, firefighters, doctors, police officers, etc.) to be denied service (anyone unable to wear a mask), to be refused legal protection, and be castigated as heretic.  Jim Jones’ believers did similarly to everyone not believing, and they are all dead!  Those who are skeptical of the Judas Goat, are also dead, but their fellow sheep herd went first.

I admit, from day one (October-November 2019) when I first began reading of a new viral infection killing people in China, I have been skeptical, concerned, and boring the daylights out of my wife with the reports, the history, the potential ramifications of this new viral infection.  But in my most fevered nightmares I never thought the government could assume and amass so much power without citizens becoming rebellious.  Flash forward two-years, three arrests for not being able to physically wear a mask, fines, and economical losses incalculable, and my horror is just starting, when I see the vaccinated kids, the shutdown schools, the lost opportunities and potential, and the “hits just keep coming” from government and the bureaucrats.

?u=http3.bp.blogspot.com-CIl2VSm-mmgTZ0wMvH5UGIAAAAAAAAB20QA9_IiyVhYss1600showme_board3.jpg&f=1&nofb=1China is using biological warfare against the world; but the Chinese government is to blame, not the people of China.  I repeat, only for emphasis, do the research yourself.  Make your own decisions.  Unlike the government, Big Tech, and the bureaucrats hungry for power, I trust you to use your freedom and powers of critical thinking.  We might not reach the exact same conclusions, but we can still respect each other, and being better informed from reputable sources improves us both.  Political party be hanged, we are humans first and we need each other.  Please, do not go quietly into that dark night like the sheep entering a slaughterhouse, following the Judas Goat who has skipped aside to miss the consequences.

© Copyright 2021 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images.  Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.

Advertisement

Houston; We Have A Problem! – The Texas Complaint!

COMPLAINT REGISTERED AGAINST:
Practitioners Name: Dr. Aamr Herekar M.D

PERSON REGISTERING COMPLAINT:
First Name: Michael David “Dave”
Last Name: Salisbury

DETAILS OF COMPLAINT:
I possess a note from my doctor, a VA Primary Care Provider, written to my employer on VA Letterhead with a wet signature, declaring my inability to wear a mask.  Advanced Neurology Epilepsy & Sleep Center (ANESC), Dr. Aamr A. Herekar M.D., and the office staff were presented with the same letter and hassled me before both appointments for not wearing a mask.  At the second appointment, the commando secretary became hostile, argumentative, and a nuisance over the mask issue, even after I complied with putting on a face shield.  If, as a provider, you reserve the right to refuse service, why did you agree to see me in the first place?  This simple question is a mark of the deplorably low and execrable service I received in this office!

Over Facebook Messenger (23 September 2021), I was informed that I would be invited to find a different provider “due to my refusal to wear a mask.”  Except, I never refused to wear a mask, I physically CANNOT safely wear a mask for health reasons.  I have several breathing problems that begin with asthma, low-lung volume, and rigid T-Spine from a spinal injury sustained in US Navy service.  I suffer from chronic pain and a musculoskeletal-neurological issue in my chest that does not allow me to breathe with enough force and volume to safely wear a mask!  Even a face shield causes me breathing problems; CPAPs, cause me breathing problems; surgical masks cause me breathing problems.  I reiterate and repeat, only for emphasis, I have NEVER refused to wear a mask, I have NEVER refused to wear a face shield as an alternative; provide me an alternative, I will comply.  Act all huffy, put on attitudes, get hostile, rude, argumentative, and I will ask to leave and not return.  Just validate my fuel chit so I can be reimbursed for my wasted time and fuel, which Dr. Herekar’s office was singularly inept at doing!

Yet, imagine that; Facebook Messenger has become the medium of choice for ending a patient relationship with a medical provider.  How very inappropriate!  How very unprofessional!  Wait.  Does Dr. Herekar have alternative methods of technology available to him to communicate with patients?  Does he know how to use these other channels of communication?  Yes, he does, and I cover these further down!  When did Facebook Messenger become the channel of choice allowed by the State of Texas to end patient relationships with providers officially?  Seriously?!?!  Using social media to make claims that I harassed, swore, threatened, and sexually propositioned an office staff member.  These are crimes; yet, the Dr. can think of no other means or methods of expressing the end of a patient relationship except to use Facebook Messenger; tell me, is this professional practice in the State of Texas?  If I did not have access or a Facebook account, would he have hired an airplane and used sky-writing to alert me the doctor-patient relationship had concluded?  Prior to this notification, I had spent two-solid weeks trying to call, leaving phone messages that were never returned, text messaging and not receiving a response, and emailing to no avail.  Yet, the doctor decides the only channel to employ to return communication is Facebook Messenger.  Do you see a problem with his conduct here?  As an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist with more than 20-years in the trade, I certainly see several ethical breaches and operations problems here!

30 August 2021:  I enter Dr. Herekar’s office and am confronted by a hostile office person, a commando secretary.  Who knows I have a breathing problem and cannot wear a mask, who was presented the VA letter on my first appointment, and I did not have to wear a face shield to be seen.  Important to note, no further contingencies were mandated for my next or any future appointments.  Who proceeds to invent a reason to deny me care.  She calls a supervisor, then “politely” (in a rude, condescending, and hostile manner) invites me to a back room to try and tell me off.  She then walked out when I suggested she had two options, move my care to another neurologist or have me wear a face shield, and I was leaning towards option 1.  I had no patience for the commando secretary who was inventing reasons to deny me care after having already been almost run over by traffic and being in the middle of a bad pain/nerve day.

Let me digress for a moment; I am hypersensitive to ALL touch.  Nobody touches me, and I shy away from anyone trying to touch me.  The commando secretary or Dr. Herekar invent that I swore, was rude, threatening, and propositioned the commando secretary to sit on my lap!  All of which is a gross and fallacious LIE of the blackest hue!  Then to use social media to discharge me from his clinic like I was the one committing some type of crime takes unprofessional conduct to a new level of abhorrent and repugnant low!  I twitch 24/7/365, I suffer from neurological spasms, my chronic pain levels continue to be in 10’s and regularly climb to levels beyond.  Now, one final piece of private information, I am married, and I have never even propositioned MY WIFE to sit on my lap, why in the name of all that is holy and pure would I proposition a complete stranger in a doctor’s office to do something I would not ask my wife to do as it would cause me excruciating pain?

Let me address why it has taken me so long to file a complaint.  The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) set up this doctor-patient relationship, I needed to allow the VA the opportunity to handle the problem.  As they have referred me to you, and pulled a Cesear.  I now have free reign to discuss this odious and abominable incident with what I sincerely hope is an avenue where other patients can be protected from a cherry-picking doctor.  From the first minute Dr. Herekar entered the room, it was clear that I was not the type of patient Dr. Herekar wanted to see.  He immediately began trying to push me back to psychology, “fix” with pharmaceuticals, and rush me out of his office.  Due to the glacial speed of the VA, I will be obtaining more information about my neurological problems from a VA-provided neurologist in November.  However, this incident with Facebook Messenger needs to be clarified to me the patient as to whether Dr. Herekar’s actions in ending the doctor-patient relationship were of the highest ethical and moral standards according to Texas.  Then someone needs to investigate why my good name is being slandered and defamed, having these fallacious and execrable accusations created.  Just because I am a disabled veteran who cannot (not will not, CANNOT) wear a mask, does not mean medical providers can create from whole cloth excuses and falsify medical records!  As it says in the country song, “Houston, We have a problem!”

Remote Signature: 73.242.128.97

In the name of transparency, the above document, with some slight alterations to hide addresses and phone numbers, is what was submitted today (27 Oct 2021) to the State of Texas Medical Liscensure Board as a complaint!  When I figure out the New Mexico pathways, I have two additional complaints to file.

I am sick to death of medical providers falsifying records to hide incompetence, discriminate against those who cannot wear masks, and have the ethical behavior of pigs in the mire.  Enough is enough; I will not take this disrespect anymore!  Vaccination status is nobody’s business and mask or no mask should not dictate social acceptance.

COVID should not be the reason that America dies!

© Copyright 2021 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images.

COVID-19 – Authoritarians, Storm Troopers, Liars, and Thieves

Angry Grizzly BearSince February 2020, the world has seen COVID-Authotirarians, Storm Troopers, Liars, and Thieves rise.  I think it is time to start naming names and being specific that we will no longer accept this detestable behavior from government, media, community, bureaucrats, and those who have constantly been aching for a chance to exert authority over someone else!  Too often, I have witnessed these ignorant savages trying to overcome common sense and legal boundaries in the name of a survivable viral disease because the atmosphere has allowed the rise of stupidity masquerading as “Health Policy!”

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Monday, 26 June 2021, the US Mail delivered to me a letter from the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), Secretary Denis McDonough, and cosigned by Acting Under Secretary for Health, Dr. Richard A. Stone MD.  Two people who were selected by the fraudulent president Biden for their political adroitness and not for their brains, experience, intellect, or even manners, and the letter received is proof!  Imagine sending a letter to all US Veterans using an attitude of childishness and the faux superiority of the intellectual elite to compare getting the COVID-19 vaccine to serving in the US Military, “AGAIN!”

Angry Wet ChickenWhat was the desired intent of this despicable piece of self-righteous trash?  I have had three calls to date from two different VISN’s and VAMC’s requesting me to get vaccinated, neigh demanding me to get vaccinated.  Yet, the VA cannot even answer simple questions about my concerns for the vaccination, including future sterility, why vaccinated people are only catching the DELTA variant, how the vaccine interacts with medications already being taken, the neurological issues and heart issues from receiving the vaccine, and the list goes on and on!  But the VA wants to send me a letter talking down to me and my intelligence trying to promote the vaccine and claiming this is like serving in the US Military again!

Quoting Colonel Potter, M*A*S*H 4077, “Bull Feathers!”

Governors who do not understand the Separation of Powers or the Rule of Law!

Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, governor of New Mexico, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan, Governor Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Governor Phil Murphy, governors of New York and New Jersey respectably, and too many more who act like tyrants, think like spoiled children and run their state’s like the Federal Government is their personal piggy bank and all the citizens are private property.  We, the citizens, are sick to death of being held captive to your ignominious and deleterious policies, stupidity, and damnable insanity!  You have disgraced your offices, demeaned the rule of law, and distanced yourselves from any political redemption.Apathy

I look forward to the day when you are held legally culpable, accountable, and individually responsible before the bar of justice for your behaviors, actions, double-dealings, and waste of taxpayer funds!  You named, and those unnamed who are cohorts in crime, have been the cause of unemployment, businesses shuttering, economic disaster, all for personal gain and individual ego, and your reigns of terror are, hopefully, soon to end in Federal Court and an Orange Jumpsuit!  You have betrayed the honest citizens in your states, and when they awake and arise, blessed change will follow, for there is nothing more dangerous than an honest man betrayed!

US Senators, US House of Representatives, and Every Legislator Elected in the United States

cropped-bird-of-prey.jpgEvery one of you should be ashamed!  Each one who has sat by and watched your governor or president be the flaccid media mouthpiece of cheap science, faux interest in public health, and have voted to create inflation, destroy businesses, livelihoods, and communities, while cheering the destruction of law and order, you also need to be held accountable for your culpability in this most disgusting and distressing event, COVID-19!  I absolutely require your retirement packages, repayment of all funds, and a dishonorable discharge from public service for every one of you!   Why have so few of you even asked the simple questions regarding COVID; for example:

      • Why is COVID different from every other viral disease in the world?
      • Why do we need to “fast track” a vaccine using untrusted, untried, and unknown technology?
      • Why is a Chinese Viral disease able to shut down economies, close businesses, close churches, and close everything but big box stores?
      • What is different about COVID, a viral disease less dangerous than any other viral disease shipped from China with a higher survivability rate, able to throw the entire world on its ear?
      • How did Fauci go from approving Hydroxychloroquine in research to being against Hydroxychloroquine for the same COVID viruses he wrote peer-reviewed research papers?
      • Why was common-sense medicine thrown away for personal suffering at home until those susceptible to COVID were dying?

You were elected to represent the best interests of ALL your electorate, not the special interests, Big-Tech, Big-Pharma, Big-Box retailers, but the common citizens, and you refused to perform your primary function!  Legislators have only two jobs, write common-sense laws that support the best for all citizens, honoring the US and State Constitutions, and scrutinizing the legislative branch!  That is your entire job, and too many of you have failed to even show up for work.

Yes; you who have sat around and done nothing to protect citizens from run-away government are guilty, culpable, responsible, and need to be held accountable in front of a judge for your lack of job performance!  Justice demands you to be held responsible.  You will be held liable and accountable.  I long to see you in distinctive clothing, carrying sandwich boards advertising your crimes, picking up trash, pulling weeds, feeding the hungry, and doing other public services until all the funds you have squandered, and the pain you have inflicted has been paid off!Plato 2

Neighbors and Bureaucrats

America has always come together in difficult times, relying upon our neighbors and communities for strength and support.  But those who have used COVID as a means to exercise dominion, creating rules and policies at a whim, demanding obeisance, and using fear of a public health emergency instead of logic and calm-headed reasoning should be utterly ashamed of yourselves!  I have watched neighbors, friends, families torn apart by COVID Storm Troopers who have used faux science, media talking heads, and the most abysmal behavior exercising control, and this behavior must cease immediately!  When government fails, bureaucrats lose their voice.  Well, the government has failed, the bureaucrats have lost, and it is time for a reckoning with the citizens who have been cheated, defrauded, and penalized!quote-mans-inhumanity-2

Neighbors and Citizens

Do you realize that you have had money stolen from your pockets through inflation, taxes, and a run-away government?  Do you understand that through media talking heads, faux science, and out-of-control legislative branches of government, your liberties, rights, and freedoms have been stolen and replaced with socialized government?  In fact, the socialization of the government began before COVID, and this was done to directly penalize you for crimes you have never committed and enlarge the pockets of career politicians!  Are you aware of how close the US Constitution has come to being irrelevant, overtaken by a socialized/communist government?  How concerned are you that your heritage, your legacy, and your family are about to be wiped out through government actions taken in capitals and applied on main streets, and the bureaucrats are laughing all the way to the bank!

VaccineCOVID is the virus with the highest survivability of ALL the Chinese viral diseases unleashed since the early 1990s; yet, COVID is the only virus to impact the world, as we have witnessed since Jan//Feb 2020.  Why is that?  Why is COVID powerful enough to change governments to demand green/health passports to enjoy food and drink in an outdoor café?  Businesses owners, why was COVID allowed to close your businesses?  None of the other Chinese Viral diseases were allowed to close you down; why was COVID allowed?  The Ebola outbreak in the last years of Pres. Obama was insufficient to close schools, businesses or demand health checks, and health passports; why was COVID given this honor?

What is Politics?

Knowledge Check!Politics is too often a word with so much baggage; people become confused and stop listening after hearing the word politics.  According to Webster:

As a Noun, “the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.”

  • The activities of governments concerning the political relations between countries.”
  • The academic study of government and the state.”
  • Activities within an organization that is aimed at improving someone’s status or position and are typically considered to be devious or divisive.”
  • A particular set of political beliefs or principles.”
  • The assumptions or principles relating to or inherent in a sphere, theory, or thing, especially when concerned with power and status in a society.”

As a Verb, politic/s is derogatory and is defined as “engaging in political activities.”

From Old French Politique “political,” Latin from Greek Politikos, and Politẽs “citizen” and Polis “city.”  Thus, we have described the term politics in all its glory and inhumanity.  Is the term more understood?  Politics is a descriptive tool used to identify certain human activities where power is sought, and devious means and divisive gestures are employed to obtain that power.  Every action tied to securing power through devious means and divisive gestures is politics or political, meaning derogatory.  For those needing more, derogatory is “showing a critical or disrespectful attitude.”quote-mans-inhumanity

COVID has only EVER been about POLITICS!  Meaning that those exercising political leadership positions have a derogatory view of you; the common citizen, those of us who elected them to power.  The politicians are in the “political game” to demean, abuse, and destroy you.  Mad yet?  Feeling betrayed?  We, the citizens, need to restrict our consent to be governed, recalling all the politicians and demanding they be held accountable for creating the mess America is in!  I am not talking about being violent, I do not condone any violence, but I demand the Rule of Law be applied to those who have abused the law, usurped power, and exercised dominion!

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

Fear – The COVID Tool

Bird of PreyThoreau is quoted as saying, “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear!”  From February 1918 through April 1920, the globe experienced an H1N1 viral infection, which came to be known as “The Spanish Flu.”  Stories abound regarding the Spanish Flu, how healthy people went to bed and woke up dead.  Stories abound about what governments did, how people reacted, and the science involved in this global panic.  The media during this period was not yet a mouthpiece for radicals and tyrants, and elected representatives and unelected representatives of government worked to stabilize their populations, care for the sick, bury the dead, and recover the financial losses.  Eventually, the world will experience the “Roaring 20s” because of the world leaders’ efforts to recover.

What changed in the century between the Spanish Flu and COVID-19; fear!  Fear has become a tradeable good, a tool for beating people, and a method of communicating lies and half-truths as the ultimate word in human communications.  Why was fear allowed to go from being disregarded into something that can control every population across the world, except for a small minority?Why

Fear Defined

From Psychology Today, we find this gem of information regarding fear.  “Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger that has been pivotal throughout human evolution, but especially in ancient times when men and women regularly faced life-or-death situations.”  One of the many pathways to fear leads through the badlands of disgust as an emotional response.  Understand something; emotions are a choice, a judgment, and a social construct.  How to emote correctly in that situation and environment is part of a survival trait and popularity tool to connect to other people (Solomon, 2003).

Social Aspects and Mental Connections

Matthew D. Lieberman (2013) authored “Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect.”  This book discusses how and why people connect and also disconnect.  The following quote from philosopher Jeremy Bentham discusses the biggest issue in connecting as social beings, “Pain and pleasure … govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think.”  With the brain wired, hard-wired from birth, towards a lust for pleasure, and avoidance of pain, the third aspect of hard-wired encoding is being social.  We need each other to completely experience pleasure and avoid pain.

Not Passion's Slave - Emotions and ChoiceHowever, it is also clear that emotions are a choice, a cognitive, conscious, and clear-cut choice.  We learn to read social situations as children, and these early experiences teach us about proper emotions in social situations.  Since our emotions are a social construct and choice, the connections to society, pleasure, and pain become our reality if we allow emotions to rule our minds, which is also a choice, with social influences and a judgment for basic survival.  Fear, especially as it applies to COVID-19 and other viral infections, we must understand our brains’ hard-wired coding and social aspects, plus the emotional decisions we consciously make.  If we fail to understand these connections, we miss how every person was manipulated and propagandized into a method of thinking and acting during a viral infection with a 99% survival rate and why COVID reactions were one way, and every other viral outbreak elicited the exact opposite response.

There is an entire branch of science dedicated to studying these connections and responses called social-cognitive neuroscience.  I am barely scratching the surface of these topics to provide the COVID response explanation, and I encourage further research if you doubt or would like more information.  I am not a social-cognitive neuroscientist, simply an industrial and organizational psychologist who works to understand the why in human interactions.Apathy

Lieberman (2013) points out some interesting aspects of fear; in the top ten lists of fears, three categories emerge, fear of physical harm and death (including emotional and mental harm), the death or loss of loved ones, and public speaking.  The hard-wiring of reward and fear, pain and pleasure, and our need to connect are physically exhibited through oxytocin release and the septal regions of the brain.  fMRI’s have reflected this physical connection and hard-wiring in every person’s brain.  When oxytocin is administered, humans show favoritism towards liked groups and strangers but increased hostility towards disliked groups — making the connections to fear being a product of disgust.

Daniel Kahneman (2011) authored “Thinking Fast and Slow.”  In discussing how the brain works, Kahneman (2011) introduces intuitive heuristics.  A heuristic or heuristic technique is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, short-term goal or approximation.  Intuitive heuristics is problem-solving using intuition.  In the US Military, we called these “WAGs” or “Wild-Arsed Guesses.”Plato 2

In reviewing the literature on the social dynamics of Spanish Flu and COVID-19, we find two main concerns.  The early stages of both health crises show leaders acting with intuitive heuristics, trying to solve the problem, e.g., avoiding pain, through educated guesses and flat-out WAGs.  The second dynamic is the social fear spread by, influenced with, and spurred to new heights by corporate media and politics.  We all remember how Dr. Fauci was first for and then vehemently against hydroxychloroquine, even though Dr. Fauci’s research had reflected the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine since the 1990s against viral SAR-Cov (coronaviruses) viral infections.

Where we are today – Nowhere Good!

VaccineIsrael announced they are planning to re-enter restrictions for wearing a mask inside your home as a government mandate due to a COVID-19 mutation called “Delta.”  The vaccine news continues to discuss whether or not the original vaccine developed will be effective against the new mutations of the coronavirus or if a booster vaccine will be required.  We have a causal relationship between giving children and teenagers the vaccine and a rare heart disease.  There are still doctors worldwide reading Dr. Fauci’s research and trying to prescribe hydroxychloroquine and being thrown in jail or facing ridicule and loss of license to practice medicine.  Worse, we still have doctors who recommend doing nothing if exposed to COVID until you cannot breathe, taking the lackadaisical approach to practicing medicine.

Emtional Investment CycleAll of these stories have a similar root cause, fear!  The politicians fear losing their job, so they overreact.  The media stirs up fear in a populace, for scared people are easier to keep emotionally distracted than logically thinking; hence fear sells advertising, and the media knows how to sell advertising.  Fear drives irrational purchases, like packing your garage full of toilet paper and bottled water.  Fear drives avoidance and acceptance of freedom stealing government mandates.

Question 3Fear drove a recent business interaction, where a person hard of hearing had removed their mask to lip-read during a conversation.  The business leader demanded they both put their masks back on per “company policy.”  Only later was the hearing impairment made known to the business leader.  What has been the company response, investing in transparent and expensive masks.  Fear driving irrational business decisions based upon fear of risks rather than proactive methods for conducting business.

One of the most problematic aspects of COVID has been accepting fear as a valid reason to take action, report your neighbors, and make wrongheaded business decisions.  When COVID-Hysteria finally concludes, how foolish will people feel for blindly following instead of logically thinking and acting?  Worse, what will the fallout be from being made to feel foolish?  Long-term, does the feeling of foolishness and fear change how people listen and follow government mandates in the future?  What laws will change social interactions and societal morals due to the fallout from COVID?

Knowledge Check!Honest questions, to which the answers must be sought and explored before the media decides the populace is too stupid to think for themselves, and they force solutions onto the politicians through shoddy statistical lies.  America and every representative government globally, we the owners of our governments, need to become more proactive before we wake up one morning, and freedom has been lost, rights trampled, and liberty was stolen for the power of politicians and the media.  Not fear-mongering.  Just a concerned citizen looking for answers.

References

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

Lieberman, M. D. (2013). Social: Why our brains are wired to connect. NY: Oxford University Press, USA.

Solomon, R. C. (2007). Not passion’s slave: Emotions and choice. Oxford University Press.

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot? – The COVID Vaccine Issue

Dont Tread On MeLet me emphasize; I am not a medical professional!  I am not providing medical advice to or not to obtain the COVID Vaccine.  I am a concerned American willing to put forward his concerns.  I am concerned about the liberties and freedoms being stolen through social fear, spun by the media hype, and pursued relentlessly by government and big Pharmaceutical companies.  Compounded by non-government organizations, businesses, and other groups, whose behavior remains inconsistent with any other viral disease in history.  Please allow me to emphasize a point that is stated in many of the peer-reviewed articles on vaccines, “Safety of these vaccines, when given in combination with other vaccines, is not proven” (section 2.1) [emphasis mine].

NO FearThis particular warning is directly copied from a published paper (2014) on HPV vaccinations in India.  Similar wording has been witnessed on every other vaccine-related research paper I have personally reviewed.  As a variable, multi-vaccines can cause additional problems that makes targeting a single vaccine provided simultaneously tricky.  This is why most vaccines in the United States are now given individually with time between injections to study the patient’s response to the vaccine.

At the start of June, the question was posed, “Was COVID-19 a dry run?”  I am still not a conspiracy theorist!  However, I have more concerns.  In conducting research last week, I found reputable sources declaring that COVID-19 was never about the viral disease itself but creating enough social turmoil to force vaccinations.  A scary and slippery slope indeed.

QuestionMany of my sources have been scrubbed from the Internet on three different search engines between Friday night and Monday morning.  Again, not a conspiracy theorist but a concerned American looking for answers.  During his 17 May 2021 address, the President informed me that since the vaccine is free (monetarily), I have no excuses left not to get the vaccine.  Except, there are still no long-term studies about this vaccine, and I have questions about the interactions between the vaccine and the prescription drugs I already take.  Worse, as a person who already suffers shortness of breath, and since the vaccine can cause shortness of breath, will the vaccine make the current problems with breathing worse?

To date, no provider or vaccine manufacturer has provided detailed data indicating one way or another on these health questions.  I want this clear; I am NOT anti-vaccine, but I need to know.  Multi-drug intoxication leads to death!  Legal drugs, illicit drugs, everyday over-the-counter drugs, and vitamins must be precisely reviewed to protect a patient’s existing health.  Except where the COVID Vaccine is concerned, none of this matters, and I want to know why.  As of 14 June 2021, The New York Times is reporting the CDC is investigating rare heart problems after COVID Vaccinations in more than 800 people.  This fact alone should cease the forced vaccinations for COVID by the FDA.  Why hasn’t the FDA acted already?

The “Reader’s Digest” version of vaccine approval.

Angry Wet ChickenI am not a legal expert or a medical professional; thus, please feel free to correct me if I get some of the details wrong here.  From 1996 to 2006, I watched the human papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine “Gardasil®” go through the FDA approval process.  I remain especially concerned about this vaccine due to the connections between the HPV human trials in India and the short- and long-term effects the Indian women have suffered since they participated in these trials.  Articles recording the HPV long-term effects are still published in peer-reviewed journals of medicine.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has statutory approval authority for all sorts of functions where foods and drugs are consumed in the United States.  Similar agencies exist in other representative governments, and the processes can be just as taxing to obtain information from.  The FDA prepared a “Vaccine Development – 101” marketing information for public release.  Which reveals nothing, hides a lot, and answers very few questions, but I included the link for your personal research.Plato 2

The FDA reports there are seven steps from the initial research and development of a vaccine in a laboratory to final approval and continuous monitoring through VAERS.  Vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS) is the repository for data on vaccines approved by the FDA.  It is publicly accessible, and you can fact-check how many people have suffered from the COVID vaccine or any other vaccine.  You need to understand the statistical data, so grab your data analysis skills or a friend and deep dive to your heart’s content.

What happens after Research Ethics and Morals are sundered?

Bait & Switch 2Three years before the FDA Approval of the HPV vaccine, the Indian government excoriated the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a local Indian health partner for ethical violations in the HPV vaccine trial.  At the time, this was big news; now, the Big Tech companies are working hard to suppress the data.  These facts are laid down as a framework of before and after for the HPV vaccine trials.  The problems with HPV have not gone anywhere, but the HPV vaccine trials were a prominent and significant moral and ethical issue until COVID came along.  As a point of reference, the HPV vaccine trials in India supplanted the Tuskegee Institute’s abuse of patients as the worse case of research ethical, moral, and legal violations.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) has covered the HPV vaccine Indian trials quite extensively, and complete information can be researched through their links by following this link.  The background and continuing research on HPV vaccine trials are critical to the COVID vaccine due to the mass human testing and the lack of accountability and responsibility from the parties pushing a vaccine that has left people blind, deaf, paralyzed, sterile, or dead.  The warnings for the COVID vaccine are very similar; the COVID vaccine could leave you in a number of worsened permanent injuries than suffering a couple of days with COVID; yet, COVID was indemnified, the HPV vaccine was not.  Still, those who have suffered have not even gotten a paper apology from the manufacturers, the US-Based non-profits, or the local Indian health partner.

VaccineHence, one can conclude if the population is cherry-picked, lacks sufficient resources, and is in a remote spot, medical ethics can be damned and humans tested with impunity.  The same thinking existed at Tuskegee Institute and led to the US adopting thousands of pages of ethical and legal standards for conducting human research.  Except, when fear is great enough, the media is hyping enough and peddling the Kool-Aid, and the government suspends their own rules and regulations, you can get FDA approval in record time with no long-term studies on effectiveness or even tolerances for safety.

America is in trouble when the US Constitution can be flaunted, and judges can legislate from the bench that employers can make employment contingent upon forced vaccination.  This case, and several others, will eventually end in the Supreme Court.  Will the milk toast judges, specifically appointed to protect our Constitutional Rights, waiver on the freedom and liberty clauses, or will they purchase a backbone and stand against the continued encroachment of rights and liberties in the name of kowtowing to the manipulated media and influenced government bureaucrats?  I would never have thought ObamaCare would have withstood the smell test and the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness clauses in the US Constitution, and we all know how that worked out!Why

With all the hype, media attention, and focus on the vaccine and not disease prevention, I can only ask questions.  Why is COVID being treated differently than every other viral disease in history?  Who is making money on the vaccine, and why is the vaccine being forced upon healthy populations that would do better without the vaccine?  Science abounds that claims if you are healthy, without co-morbidities, you can survive a case of COVID-19 (SARS-Cov-2), and be your immune system would be more beneficial than if you had the vaccine.  Why is everyone focused on vaccination when the mortality of this virus is significantly less than its nearest viral infection neighbor?  Why is the media focused on forced vaccinations; shouldn’t the press be pushing for revealing the truth, not drinking the Kool-Aid?

Knowledge Check!On 09 June 2021, The New York Times reported that the current COVID vaccine would “probably need booster shots.”  Why does this remind me of the continuous security updates to my computer?  Since the original COVID-19 virus is dead, what is the vaccine protecting us from?  Viruses mutate, frequently, often, and repeatedly; this is well-known to virologists who often repeat this fact in their research.  Yet, the media appear to be stuck on one variant, the original and then come up with crazy names for new variants.  Like naming weather systems and storms.  All this does is continue to spread fear and knee-jerk reactions, powered by emotional hyperbole. So why get a booster shot for a new strain?  Isn’t this a sneaky way of keeping the emergency going and emergency funding from the government flowing into Big-Pharma’s pockets?

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

NO MORE BS: Have You Heard?

DutyThe following is a recap of several stories that should have been big news, but since the corporate media is practicing “Biden Behind Covering” (BBC), I doubt this news was heard anywhere.  However, this information is critical, and I have included the links if you want more than my paltry summation of the story.  I encourage you to always hit the links included in the articles I publish, so you know where I get my source materials.

Judge for yourself the importance of the following, but I encourage you to judge wisely, for America is in deep trouble!

Inflation Definition: Formula & How to CalculateFrom the NCSL regarding the future of finance, we find a curious article, “Do State and Local Governments Need to Worry About Inflation?”  The simple answer is absolutely, as the continuing pension crisis will be multiplied as inflations grows.  How much is inflation up, a year ago inflation was 4.2% less than it is today.  But that is a statistic that doesn’t carry the real weight of the problem.  If you owed $100 last year, without interest calculations, you now owe $4.20 more.  That $10.00 steak is now $10.42, before taxes.  That tank of fuel, before all the taxes, is $0.42 more expensive than a year ago, and inflation was already hurting America.  The way inflation works is comparable to running on a freshly waxed floor in your socks, you have to exert more effort to maintain your same spot, forget slowing down, or stopping for that will include falling.  Let me reintroduce you to a term used in the early 1970s, stagflation.  Stagflation occurs when the inflation rate is so out of control, no new jobs are created, employers are looking to cut employees left and right to maintain shareholder profits, and the entire economy grinds to a messy halt.

Inflation may erode PTI's political capital - Newspaper - DAWN.COMRisk managers across the financial system are looking at the government on the Federal, State, and Local levels and are not liking what they see as inflation continues to grow beyond the Federally approved 2% annual allowed rate.  As taxes adjust for increased inflation, it will require more money to pay taxes to maintain current levels, as inflation depletes the value of dollars saved.  Thus, every government is looking at their “Rainy Day” funds, and are watching it depreciate as inflation increases, and this is happening before a penny is even spent.

VaccineFrom SHRM, we find the next astounding piece of news, the “EEOC Gives the Greenlight for Limited Incentives for COVID-19 Vaccinations.”  Mandatory vaccinations are illegal in the United States, currently.  However, incentivizing vaccinations by an employer has now been made acceptable.  Do you see a problem with this EEOC ruling?  Did you notice how slippery the slope is between employers incentivizing vaccinations and mandatory vaccinations?  During periods of higher inflation, how much value is $500, from an employer to vaccinate?  Other employers are allowing employees to sticker their badges showing they vaccinated and can stop wearing a mask in public.  No sticker, you have to keep your mask on.  Slippery slope?  Colleges, K-12 Schools, and other organizations all have a hodgepodge of rules for mingling in a post-COVID government mandated lockdown, as the “New” normal.

Do you see the problems with employers picking winners and losers based upon vaccination status?  How long before those who cannot, or will not, be a guinea pig for a useless vaccine, that is shrouded in mystery, and which has zero long-term studies completed, for a viral disease with a 99.02% chance of survival, are shown the door because of risk averse insurance policies?  I have some concerns with this decision and remain convinced that the EEOC has been bought and paid for by parties unknown.  Their last several decisions have left me seriously concerned.  Watch the bureaucrats, they are sneaky!Plato 2

Virginia Allen, writing for The Daily Signal, provides the next piece of news that should be wall-to-wall with parents marching.  “California Public School Gives Third Graders Assignment About ‘Place on Gender Spectrum.’  Let that sink in for a moment.  9-year-old students are being asked to choose where they place themselves on the “gender spectrum.”  What the heck is a “Gender Spectrum?”  At 9-years old, I was more interested in getting better at little league than I was about anything else, except my paper route.  A quote from the article sums the problem nicely:

The school board is completely indoctrinated. Many teachers are completely indoctrinated. … You cannot change their mind. The only thing you can do is vote them off [the school board] and let them know there are consequences to teaching children inappropriate things for their ages.”

When your politicians are no longer afraid of the citizens they afflict, tyranny has begun to reign!  California is a perfect example of what happens when the populace checks out, the politicians stop fearing the ballot box, and power concentrates under a single party.  Now, ask yourself, is this the America you want for your kids and grandchildren?  I know my answer!Apathy

Cal Thomas also writing for The Daily Signal, presents the scariest topic of all, “Ministry of Truth 2.0.”  Consider for a moment, you make a comment in a grocery store, an off-hand comment to another person, the next day a person from Homeland Security is knocking on your door to discuss your passing of disinformation, who possesses the legal authority to place you under arrest, no evidence needed, and you are guilty until reluctantly allowed to be innocent.  From the article:

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is reportedly considering the development of tools that would help America’s children discern truth from lies and know when they are being fed “disinformation.”

Millstone of Designed IncompetenceIf you have not read, or listened to, George Orwell’s book 1984, you might not recognize “the Ministry of Truth,” which is the propaganda arm of the government who rewrites history to what the government says it is, and not what actually happened.  Would someone please explain to me who appointed the Homeland Security Secretary the harbinger and decider of truth and lies?  When the media cannot even get the truth right, how will a government, senate appointed, person who serves at the pleasure of the current sitting US President know, recognize, or even understand truth?  When the media allow truth to be “subjective to circumstances, environments, and cultures,” how will bureaucrats be able to discern truth?

Tell me, how will the tools be protected from the bias of the tool designers?  One of the biggest issues in modern research is researcher bias; yet somehow the secretary of Homeland Security can magically control bias to protect the tools from the opinions, knowledge, experiences, and politics of the designers.  Exactly how will this occur?  Do you recognize how slippery this slope is, and how dangerous?Why

As a homeowner in a town that is within 50-miles of the southwest border, the continued blind-eye being turned to the southern border infuriates me.  Please, follow this link, and then consider what is being said.  Do not look at the politics of the situation, do not listen to the political leaders and political commenters.  Listen to your heart, your gut, your conscience, and tell me, if the 9-year old girl was your sister, cousin, daughter, what would be your response?  From the article we also find the following:

The cartels are making an ungodly amount of money on a daily basis, somewhere to the tune of $15 to $25 million a day in just the trafficking and smuggling of human beings. That doesn’t include the narcotics. We’re seeing, for example, fentanyl, 5,000% increase in fentanyl coming across the border.”

America Is Crying Digital Art by Deborah VicinoWant to hear the truth about the problem on the southern border, let’s talk about “got-aways.”

Got-aways” are individuals that are crossing the border illegally that don’t want to get caught. They don’t want to go through processing because they are either a gang member, someone on the terrorist watch list, a convicted sex offender, [or] a violent offender. These are people who know that once they are caught, they will get turned right back around because of their record, because they have a record in the United States.”

From January to June, the Border Patrol, through all their efforts, have lost around 200,000 “got-aways.”  These are people seen on cameras, who have eluded apprehension, and are now roaming American streets.  A convicted sex offender was given a small baby to help him cross the border.  Where the parents of this child are, no one knows.  So, even when they get caught, we still have problems getting rid of the vermin mixed into this humanitarian crisis.  How many terrorists from non-South and Central American countries have slipped through as “got-aways?”

Knowledge Check!America is being taken for a ride by the Cartels who run the Southern border!  This is the truth, and anyone trying to tell you something else is selling snake oil and trying to make a buck off the tragedy that is the US Southern Border.  Like all evil and conspiring people through history, the innocent are the shields covering the criminal actions, these children deserve better, but they will never have a future until America becomes a land of laws again, where the Rule of Law is honored.

Child Abuse - New Day Advocacy CenterCan you hear the Statue of Liberty weep at how are laws are being manipulated by the drug cartels, for the glorification of single-party rule and fiscal return on investment?

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.

NO MORE BS: The VA Chronicles of Shame Continue

VA SealWhile I have been fighting the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center for humane treatment (June 2020) and medical services, making no progress, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has undoubtedly been busy oppressing others, allowing their employees to skate responsibility, and avoiding accountability.  For the record, I have not deep-dived the legal proceedings reported below and would remind everyone that those charged are not guilty until a jury of their peers says so in a court of law.  I am not passing judgment and am only reporting from official VA-OIG reports, leaving the conclusions mainly to you, the reader.  The conclusions offered are mine alone, and you are free to draw your conclusions based upon the data delivered and your due diligence.

The Department of Veterans Affairs – Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG) has been busy filling my inbox all week.  Here are the latest stories of shame from the VA Chronicles:

  1. VA Health Care System (VAHCS) Fort Harrison, Montana, the investigation began with two people calling for help to the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL). From the VA-OIG report, we find the following:

The VA-OIG substantiated a VCL responder failed to assess caller 1’s homicidal risk factors, address lethal means restriction, complete an adequate risk mitigation plan, communicate critical information to a supervisor, and take actions to prevent a family member’s death. VCL leaders did not consider an administrative investigation board to review the responder’s potential misconduct. The VA-OIG substantiated that two social service assistants (SSAs) failed to dispatch local emergency services for caller 2 following a responder’s rescue request. The VA-OIG identified deficiencies in SSA oversight.
VCL leaders did not fully adhere to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) policies related to reporting and disclosure of adverse events. A facility primary care provider failed to include caller 1’s mental health diagnosis in the assessment and plan of care. Also, the primary care provider did not submit caller 1’s non-VA medical records for scanning into the electronic health record or document a review of the records, as expected by VHA policy.

Angry Wet ChickenI have been trained in emergency psychological triage; this was part of my training as a Chaplain’s Assistant in the US Army.  When you work on a crisis line, you cannot not take immediate action to save a life!  When my friend called me all depressed and intimated he wanted to end his life, I called 911, explained the situation, and asked for help.  They provided help.  I was not acting in any official capacity; I was not working a crisis line; I was simply a concerned friend.  How can these crisis line employees, managers, and other staff escape accountability and responsibility?  The whole chain of events is a lurid report of failure to take action by people duty-bound and placed in positions to act, and they refused to take action; this conduct is inexcusable!

As a substitute teacher, I was a mandatory reporter.  If I heard anything untoward, I had to act!  As a Chaplain’s Assistant, I was a mandatory reporter, and I was empowered to act, even without my chaplain’s permission, which by the way, pissed off my chaplain; but he refused to see specific soldiers in crisis.  Not my fault, but I took my Article 15 with pride!  Taking us back to the VA employees who failed miserably the need to take action, and still escaped accountability and responsibility!

  1. Survived the VAOur next story is a back-slapping congratulatory declaration regarding a soldier committing fraud.

Shawn Pierre Hobbs, a soldier for the Connecticut Army National Guard and a Rikers Island correction officer employed by the New York City Department of Correction, was arrested yesterday in El Paso, Texas, on wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. VA Inspector General Michael J. Missal said, “The charges unsealed today are the result of the hard work and dedication of the VA-OIG’s special agents working with our law enforcement partners. The VA-OIG will seek to hold accountable those who perpetrate fraud and steal benefits that are intended for deserving veterans.”

LinkedIn VA ImageThere are still many details missing in this story that I bet the public will never see.  Since no VA Employees were mentioned, I can only surmise that they escaped accountability because the main perpetrator was caught, so according to the VA-OIG, no harm, no foul.  I believe that as much as I believe in buffalo wings originating from flying buffalo!Flying Buffalo

  1. Our next report is one of such supreme idiocy that words can barely describe the situation and the current findings. Consider the following, you arrive at your doctor’s office and need several routine shots.  If the doctor and nurse fail to document these shots properly were delivered, and you have an adverse reaction, they can be held liable for medical negligence under the law.  Why does the same not apply to the VA?  The following comes from a memorandum issued by the VA-OIG, declaring an investigation is ongoing on this issue, but problems have already been found!

While reviewing the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) plans to document receipt and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, the VA Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG) determined that VHA facilities did not consistently document the COVID-19 vaccination status of veterans living in VA’s Community Living Centers (CLCs).
The VA-OIG determined that VHA could not know at a national level whether the vaccine was offered to some CLC residents, and if so, what their status was. Because CLC residents are in the highest COVID-19 vaccine priority group, they should be offered the vaccine, when possible, before other groups of veterans. With vaccine supplies limited, VHA should know which CLC residents still need to be vaccinated.
The VA-OIG found VHA has made important strides in distributing vaccines to CLC residents, but [needs to] move toward more comprehensive and consistent data collection to guide ongoing actions and protect this vulnerable population. Doing so would include making sure all CLCs routinely track refusals and contraindications in a consistent manner. Guidance should be clear that all communications should be consistently documented in accordance with VHA processes.
Similarly, clear guidance and consistent oversight should help ensure CLCs are properly tracking veterans who fall in the 23 percent of CLC residents missing information needed to determine their vaccination status. It was not possible by January 2021 to establish which of the 1,899 veterans in this cohort had been offered the vaccine. The VA-OIG will continue its oversight work on vaccinations within VHA and plans to issue a full report, including specific recommendations. In the meantime, the VA-OIG requests to know what action, if any, VHA takes to mitigate the potential risks identified in this memorandum and the outcome of those actions.”

Angry Wet Chicken 2Essentially, the VA-OIG is claiming the VHA cannot document in their long-term care facilities which residents have and have not been vaccinated against COVID.  Can you believe the incredible negligence being witnessed; I cannot!  In the US Army, due to chiggers and a violent allergic reaction to them, I spent several weeks in what is called the “Reception Battalion.”  My job was documenting who got vaccinated, what shots were received, and I was held responsible if the documentation was incorrect.  I have worked in long-term care facilities not owned by the VA and witnessed the time and energy spent documenting everything the patient experiences.  I have visited family members in long-term facilities and witnessed the documentation procedures.  Yet, miraculously, the VHA does not have to submit themselves to the same level of documentation requirements.  Where is that memo, policy guideline, or written procedure?  Where are the lawyers?  For the VHA to have a problem with documentation of a patient is 100% inexcusable, and people’s heads should roll over this failure to document!

  1. Our next chronicle of shame is both a good and bad report.

Muhammad Z. Aabdin, 30, of New York City, has been charged by complaint with offering a bribe to a VA contracting officer in September 2020. Specifically, Aabdin allegedly offered to share profits with the officer in exchange for her awarding VA contracts to Aabdin for personal protective equipment.”

That the VA employee reported, the bribe is a good thing.  That a contractor felt comfortable enough to offer a bribe is considerably less of a good thing.  Are there additional questions being asked and investigated in this procurement office regarding the offering of bribes and the potential of having previously taken bribes?  Where are the supervisors in this affair?  The VA persists in hiring from inside for the advancement of careers, not a bad thing, but when a contractor is comfortable offering bribes, there should be many questions being asked of supervisors, directors, and so forth.I-Care

The fact that the behavior of VA employees breaking the law is both widespread and well known should be a wake-up call to the leaders of the VA and the elected officials charged by law to scrutinize the government.  Except, this behavior has never been scrutinized sufficiently to end the behavior, only scrutinized enough to encourage the behavior, the negligence, and the extreme indifference.  Every American Citizen should be outraged and motivated to shout at their elected officials using all communication channels until this abhorrent behavior is sundered forever from the VA body!

ApathyExcept, I am preaching to crickets.  Your taxpayer dollars are funding the abuse of veterans at the hands of the government.  Shameful!  Inexcusable!  Outright blasphemous!  Yet, allowed to continue because of apathy; Plato was right!

© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.