Tag: Politics

Employers and Employees – The Battle is Waged: The Fight is Important

LookEmployers throughout the world, including Disney, American Express, Wells Fargo, and thousands more, have begun to battle their employees.  Unionized shops, the battle has been waged for 50 years and shows no sign of relenting.  Only recently have other employers joined the fray, not to help employees but to rid themselves of employees.  These businesses are fighting employees against their employees for the company’s culture and soul.  Couched in many a buzzword, political stance, and archaic practices, the employers want to rid their workforces of those they despise, and the battle is legal!

Make no mistake, what the employers are doing is immoral, unethical, and disastrous to those employees unfavored, but the actions remain perfectly legal, and this is the point we must understand.  Laws have been changed against the majority for the selectivization and advancement of the minority.  The fight is important because you might be next and never know your termination has been affected, but not enforced until it is too late.  This article intends to raise awareness, not cover every particle in the fight or catalog every avenue an employer might take to attack an employee.  Imperative to know and remember, as long as the actions are against individuals, no laws are being broken, and the employer wins when they can make the situation untenable, and the employee on the out quits or is forced out under a miasma of quasi-legal terms, so it appears that employee was treated fairly.Plato 2

Never forget, a lawyer’s job is to make the illegal appear legal, and the legal appear illegal, so a judge must decide.  Add in judicial activism and legislation from the judicial bench, and the trouble becomes apparent quickly.  Unfortunately, the lawyers’ training has shifted, and the legal mind’s quality has slipped under the weight of many of the topics discussed herein.  The vicious cycle can only be broken when the collective beliefs of the majority are re-established, not to the demise of the minority but the growth of the entire society.

Culture and Politics

As long as people have banded together into organizations, societies, governments, etc., there has been the push and pull of politics.  All of recorded history bears truth to this fact.  People have beliefs.  They express these beliefs through representatives who rise and fall in different leadership positions, and societies change according to the expressed beliefs through which a society is governed (law).  Pick a governing style (Communism, Socialism, Representative, Direct or Indirect Representation, Monarchy, Theocracy, etc.), and you will find the collective beliefs of the people expressed in how long a leader remains in power or the stability of the society so governed.  Politics happens and is best described as the push/pull of collective beliefs expressed by populations.  Economies rise and fall based upon the collective beliefs, expressed in the stability of the society and the government leader’s length of time as leader.Lemmings 1

History has shown when a governing leader is short-lived, it is generally because they refused to follow the collective beliefs of the population, giving rise to the credit ratings of stable governments and societies being higher than for those who are changing leadership every couple of weeks or months.  Those leaders who can tread the waters of public opinion maintain their jobs and, many times in history, their heads by following the collective beliefs in the morals of the people.  The US Dollar’s stability is one of the strongest reasons this currency is one of the world’s benchmark currencies.  Politics did that, and politics are the push/pull collective beliefs expressed by the citizens to their government leaders.  The process is messy and needs to be messy for a reason; only in the expression of two divergent points can a healthy middle ground be established, and society can grow.

Culture is not politics, but politics and politically minded people can influence it.  If politics is a society’s expressed beliefs, then culture is the expressed moral convictions as lived by a community.  For example, many institutions have been built on the law that coveting (envy) is wrong, but the practices of the people living build a culture that accepts graft, bribes, and other incentives that, while violating the law, are accepted.  Make sense?  The closer the culture is to following both the letter of the law and the living of the law provides for a stable and influential culture to invest resources into.?u=http2.bp.blogspot.com-BKwWSo412lIUngTRkmSYwIAAAAAAAARd8GqxDhvovmRgs1600salestaxcartoon.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

How does one change the collective beliefs of a society and the living practices of that society; first, you capture the children.  Bad ideas do not go away, they are either replaced with good ideas, or the bad ideas go into hiding, awaiting the time they can make a new appearance.  Everything modern society is facing has been faced previously, and the difference is that the seeds for the current dilemmas were planted more than 100-years ago, but the bad ideas first captured the children.  Why have these bad ideas advanced so rapidly?  The education of children in social customs, collectively shared beliefs, and individual duty, has been eroded and attacked mercilessly since “progressive education” (the refusal to teach children to read, write, and perform math) began in the late 1800s with Dewey, who called functional illiteracy “Progress!”

One of the first words plasticized, twisted, ripped apart, and then put together to fuel tyranny through modular language was the term progress.  Unfortunately, language has continued to suffer relentless attacks since the late 1800s, and more words have suffered the same fate in the modularization of language.  Consider with me the history of Tea.  Tea plantations in India were ruled by the iron fist of laws drafted in America and marketed with women in distress to the consuming nations geographically distant to where the crops were grown.  The tyranny of slavery is the same tyranny we face with modular language.  Nobody realizes this because to mention this connection is frowned upon by those making money off the tyranny of language.  The tyranny of modular language fueled the oppression of entire populations to fuel an empire.  The language led to actions (afternoon tea) and a host of other practices, words, and social customs to fuel the demand for Tea.  Unfortunately, the tyranny of modular language also fueled hot wars in China, more geographically distant suffering from the population consuming Tea.History of Tea | Dilmah School of Tea

Language – Plastic Terms

Diversity, what is it; what does it mean in practice versus meaning from a dictionary; what value does it have for a business?  Equity, same problem, fewer answers, more confusion.  Inclusion, same problem, confusion, chaos, and eventual destruction.  These are, but a small sample of current buzzwords strung together and causing problems in businesses.  There are entire word classes set apart for plasticization, which sound good to the ear, and that people love to rally behind, but these terms cover a hidden agenda.   They have been weaponized to destroy, not lift and build—tyranny through modular language, plastic words.Plastic Words: The Tyranny of a Modular Language By Uwe Poerksen

American Express is a perfect example of how DE&I efforts (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) have been weaponized to pick away, through politics, the non-politically affiliated, those who show up to their employment and merely want to work their job.  The University of Phoenix is another company long captured by, and suffering from, DE&I tyrants.  Both American Express and the University of Phoenix began their DE&I journeys with the best of intentions.  Still, the result remains the same, the minority classes bring politics anathema to good order and discipline into the company, initiating change cloaked in DE&I.  The result has been the discouragement and disenfranchisement of employees.  The DE&I champions crow and cheer for these people leaving as it injects more DE&I hiring, and the new employees realize that unless they are politically affiliated, read that as aligned to a militant tyrant in DE&I, they too will be out of work very shortly.

Language matters, and when terms are plasticized, the only result is destruction and tyranny.  Consider the teachers in the Albuquerque Public Schools System or the employees of the State of New Mexico; both populations stress DE&I initiatives under various names but with the same purpose.  Who are the enemies of DE&I; those who do not wear their politics on their sleeves, acting as emotionally charged smart bombs of the media.  Even if a person holds some of the DE&I beliefs, if they are not militant in their beliefs, they are ostracized by their language, judged, and removed from employment.Political Correctness = Language and Thought Control | Wake Up World

When the patients rule the asylum, the problems for all patients in the asylum double and triple, not improve.  The same result occurs when the vocal minorities of a population gain power that is not theirs, and they make no concerted efforts to rule fairly and justly.  One of the truths about any revolution is that those who initiated the revolution rarely (if ever) get to enjoy the fruits of their rebellion as they are so focused on fixing what they perceive as injustices, they miss that they have become worse in action than those they deposed.

80-20 Rule

The 80/20 Rule is known by many monikers, but always it is the same rule, in different wrapping – 80% of a population will be controlled by 20%.  In standard terms, the minority is setting the culture for the 80% to follow, and they hope you will never realize you are stronger without the vocal minority than with them.  Take the recent changes at Disney.  There is a vocal minority demanding change, couching the changes in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the Disney business model is about to self-destruct.  The same is true of American Express, where if you are male and white, you are not welcome.  But, if you are one of the members of any number of protected classes, you are welcome.  When politics interferes in professional pursuits, 80% will always suffer under the tyranny of the 20%.  What happens when the vocal minority becomes the majority, they fang themselves to death, and nobody is left to care because that 80% majority has left them to their own devices.Pareto Principle: understanding the 80/20 Rule

It should go without saying, but I will make plain, I am not against diversity.  I do believe that diversity for diversity’s sake is wrong, immoral, unethical, and anathema to good order in a society.  Diversity of thought should be preeminent as the diversity of thought transcends skin color and lifestyle choices.  Diversity of thinking includes the desire to see all succeed on merit, character, and individual action.  I abhor in the strongest terms picking a person solely based on their gender, skin color, religious preferences, disability status, culture, or any variable that supersedes accomplishment, education, and learned skill set.  The same is valid for inclusion and equity; when people cannot compete solely upon achievement, education, and intellectual skill sets, this creates an imbalance in the population.

Hence roadblocks to education must be removed, character-defining and building experiences should be shared and taught, and achievement recognized.  What is missing from schools from K-12 and up; is accomplishment, education, and learned skill sets.  What has replaced these; is DE&I, where the vocal minority is destroying with no thought for what replaces the institutions, societies, corporations, and more.  Iconoclasm in its most destructive form has taken over employers, and these companies are committing suicide to pacify, tranquilize, and placate a small population at the expense of all.Make the 80/20 Rule Work for Your Online Marketing Efforts | WillTan.com

Inherently, change is not bad but growing, productive, and useful change requires inputs from a diverse population.  Inclusion is not inherently a bad thing, but the current demands for inclusion, only for the sake of inclusion, make the activities of the vocal minority lethal to the entire social body.  Equity is a prerequisite for society to grow, develop, and be stable long-term.  This is why societies built on slavery, or those muzzling 50% of the population, are inherently ripe for hostile takeovers.

The actions of the vocal minority in employment right now are precarious at best, suicidal at worst, and permanently immoral and unethical.  The models they promote have no substance and enable unfair, unjust, and unequal systems.  Worse, companies that flout their customer base, which is the largest stakeholder in any business, will find smaller profit margins and higher expenses as employee churn increases.

Knowledge Check!One truth that should give hope to the employees affected is that when the minority becomes the majority in a body and does not have any substance, they destroy themselves.  C-Leaders, are you sure you want to take the company you have been placed in control over down this dangerous path?  On my first day at American Express, new hires were introduced to the rich, proud, and stable company history and core values.  How sad it is to witness how fast this company has fallen!  Who will replace these companies?  Will their replacements learn from the failures of the past?

© Copyright 2022 – 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.

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Making the USPS Irrelevant One Disastrous Decision at a Time!

The viral post office | Viral post, Post office, Postal policeBy now, it is apparent that the USPS has utterly failed in its primary job of delivering the mail.  That the US PS has been failing for my entire life is a topic the politicians do not want to discuss.  That the business model the USPS is based upon has never been a profitable one, the overhead is disastrously expensive, and the labor costs beyond exorbitant are also not topics the politicians ever want to discuss.  They prefer smoke and mirrors, purple squirrels, and Hollywood celebrity scandals to actually doing their jobs.  But, I digress; last week, the USPS announced that postal service would revert to the slowest it has been since the 1970s, and the cost for that dismal service is going to increase dramatically.

All weekend the reasons for the USPS being in this fix have been stewing in my mind, and I would like your insight as I discuss the main reasons why the USPS is in such bad shape.  Feel free to disagree.  Feel free to comment.  Feel free to ask questions and research further.  To my mind, the most damning problems to the USPS come from the following areas, too much overhead, labor union expenses, business model, and no clear political place in government.Save the US Postal Service! By a zillion dollars comics | Politics Cartoon | TOONPOOL

Labor Union Expenses

Let’s get something clear, the labor unions in government are living high on the hog of taxpayer forced taxation and mandated union dues.  Consider the following comment from Representative Dennis Ross.

“UPS (Union) – about 66% of their total operating costs are labor. FedEx (non-union) – about 45% of their total operating costs are labor. USPS – 80-82%.”

Here’s the rub in comparing UPS, FedEx, and USPS; they are not apples and apples; it’s more like apples to rocks.  Why?  Because UPS and FedEx must show a profit to shareholders at the end of the year; thus, anytime USPS runs into an unprofitable situation, they rely upon USPS to fill the gap.  FedEx operates slightly differently based on its business model. From observation from living in extreme rural areas, it does not appear to rely upon USPS as often to cover the gaps in service.

However, the labor costs at USPS continue to run extremely high, and the excuses for these labor costs continue to run thinner and thinner every year.  Looking at six specific USPS explicit labor union-negotiated labor costs:

      1. Compensation levels – What each employee under the collective bargaining agreement is paid.
      2. Work rules – How often an employee works, who they report to, uniforms, and a host of other processes and procedures, which can and do increase business operating costs.
      3. Contracting – Includes independent contractors, contracts for retail locations, pickup locations, and much more.
      4. Network differences – Differences in the network affect the labor involved in delivery, sortation, transportation, and retail portions of an end-to-end movement.
      5. Capital intensity – Differences in capital requirements affecting the amount of non-labor costs needed to provide services offered.
      6. Congressional requirements – Congressional requirements focus on the aspects of the Postal Service that add more labor costs influencing capital spending.

Hence, if we take Rep. Ross’s statement as accurate, Congress is to blame for some of the added expenses the USPS incurs and the hidden taxes the taxpayer pays to interact with the USPS.  This is why the place in government is such an influential portion of this discussion.  Congress has been pushing the costs of regulating the USPS onto the taxpayer as a hidden tax since the USPS was started. This is unacceptable, especially since the taxpayers did not have a voice in allowing the USPS to become unionized, tripling labor costs year-over-year.P.S.E Context of PA: SWOT Analysis of the United States Postal Service

Please note, when discussing labor costs tripling, we are not just discussing wage earners’ take-home pay.  Labor costs, as shown above, include those six items, plus a host of labor union contracted benefits, plus retirement benefits, plus administrative staff to handle these benefit packages, the regulatory burdens, the reporting burdens, and much more.  Thus, while comparing UPS, FedEx, and USPS is unfair and illogical, the labor costs are pretty close to accurate even though they cannot be compared due to business model, Congressional reporting, and quasi-governmental meddling by politicians.  Any company with 80-82% labor costs will be struggling with labor problems and turning a profit.  Labor costs, fed by a labor union, are a reality that needs rectification and addressing.USPS 2011

Outdated Business Model

2009 the USPS paid a lot of money to have their business model reviewed, and the result was an excellently written document that outlined two potential steps for the USPS to take.  Where is the USPS in adopting either of these actions in 2021; nowhere!  Why has the USPS not taken any action on this document since 2009; Congress!  Item number six in labor costs continues to rear its ugly and monstrous head, and the problem is not so much on USPS; although they indeed share the blame, Congress continues to drag its feet and refuses to scrutinize the government appropriately.Several logos, mottos have represented USPS through the years | PostalReporter.com

When discussing the USPS business model, the industry is discussing “optimizing the last mile” in the supply chain.  That last mile is where the USPS has traditionally filled in the gap and made the final customer delivery.  However, USPS is inefficient, costly, and labor-intensive.  Yet, until science fiction realizes a Star Trek-like replicator in every home, optimizing the last mile is the discussion we need to be having, and solutions are available!

The 2009 business model review offered franchisee options as a business model — what a novel idea.  Imagine getting your mail on your commute route, no more having it delivered to an apartment box, packages waiting on a doorstep for thieves, stop by a convenient place on your regular commute route, and get all your mail.  Why not have your mail delivered to your office?  Then your office mailroom becomes an arm of the post office; it can sell stamps, handling packages, and then you do not have an extra stop at all.  Talk about an employer-based incentive!  Better still, for a fee turning over retail establishments to non-profit groups for work programs.  Guess what; that has the benefit of increasing public outreach and building communities.  Yet, the USPS languishes because Congress refuses to take up serious topics, and our tax dollars are squandered!

Place in Government

Engineering Professor Calculates How Fast The Eagle In The USPS Logo is GoingRead the US Constitution, the US Bill of Rights, other founding documents, wherein is a postal service discussed?  Find me the article claiming we need a Federal Postal Service.  Name me the reason why the Postal Service is required.  Selling stamps, that can be done using a myriad of different methods.  Sending packages, mailing letters, again, many other options are available.  Passports, hundreds of other options are available; why not put that into DMV’s across the US?  Why not simplify the Passport process entirely?

What is the reason for the USPS?  Give me the why and justify the existence for the next 20-years for the USPS.  My entire life, I have been asking why the USPS is needed, and I have been asking this since before email, fax machines, and other technological leaps.

Overhead

USPS TESSWhen was the last time the USPS had personnel layoffs to balance their accounts?  1970, under President Richard Nixon, USPS had a strike, got a unionized workforce, and, as they call it, “a living wage.”  From 1970 to 2021, there has been nothing but problems in the USPS; from retirement benefits costing too much, to labor expenses, to Congressional expenses increasing year-over-year, the overhead does nothing but balloon.  I was recently in a flagship USPS for Phoenix, AZ.  The building is a disgrace, the parking lot is neglected, the lobby is dark and missing half the materials, no forms, no boxes, everything is behind the barred and locked counter, and the retail associates are criminally negligent in their duties.  What’s worse, this was a good USPS office to visit in Phoenix, AZ.

Take an honest appraisal of your local USPS and ask yourself, are your taxpayer dollars represented in your USPS in a manner acceptable to you?  I visited a USPS in Las Cruces, NM.  The design of the building lends a bright feeling to the building atmosphere; the retail area is small and naturally illuminated.  Same problem with retail associates, but not as noticeable.  However, this was also before the latest changes from Washington, where the employees were told it was okay to work slower and charge more.More is Less at the USPS | Freeport Press

It is my personal opinion that the USPS has outlived its usefulness, and it is time for the USPS to be eliminated from quasi-government offices of the United States.  Nothing fruitful can be gained from continuing the charade of the USPS.  Congress needs to return to the states the ability to issue addresses and organize their communities and end the USPS debacle!

© 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.

“That’s Crazy!!!” – More Chronicles From The VA

Bobblehead DollThe week of 27 September 2021 started funkily and has gone downhill rapidly!  I reported Monday being refused medical service for not wearing a mask.  On Tuesday, I visibly struggled for breath, standing in the VA pulmonologist’s office in front of the pulmonologist who was holding my pulmonology function test results.  I am holding a letter showing I cannot wear a mask, wearing a face shield, and being told by the doctor, “I do NOT care, he needs to WEAR A MASK, or I AM NOT SEEING HIM” [emphasis his].  Eventually, the doctor agrees to see me, provided I remain more than 6 feet from him, and he does not have to touch me.  The doctor then proceeds to lecture me about getting the vaccine, wearing a mask, and of course, breathing through my breathing difficulties.

As they say on the Home Shopping Network, “But wait, there’s more!”  Crazy has only just begun, unfortunately!

A patient with iron-deficiency anemia died at the hands of VA Doctors at the San Juan Puerto Rico VAHCS (2017), and the VA-OIG is just completing and reporting on their death in 2021.  The patient who came in for a colonoscopy developed rectal bleeding, which required an anticoagulant, and the patient subsequently died.  A tragic set of dominoes was set up and knocked down in this patient’s case, and the VA is entirely at fault for the patient’s death.  How badly the patient’s family must feel with this report in hand and knowing they can do absolutely nothing!VA 3

100% crazy indeed; but wait, there’s more!

Justice was served cold and raw, and while I was hoping for a harsher sentence by far, I am still hoping his victims can recoup some of their losses and obtain retraining.  “Jonathan Dean Davis, the owner of Retail Ready Career Center in Texas, was sentenced for deceiving the VA of $72 million. Beginning in 2014, he offered six-week heating, ventilation, and air conditioning course, promising to prepare veterans for careers in the HVAC industry. However, upon entering the workforce, many of these veterans discovered that the course had failed to teach them many of the basic skills necessary for entry-level technician jobs. Davis was also ordered to pay $65.2 million in restitution and forfeit $72.5 million to the federal government.”

It is very hard to describe what goes into the GI Bill besides money and time in service.  It is even tougher to explain how cheated you feel when the benefit is cut by the government, stolen by school administrators, and reduced by petty rules and regulations.  To see your benefits stolen through shoddy training and see your hopes and dreams dashed, as well as your benefit, turned into useless paper, the heartbreak is incredible!  The punishment for all involved should have been greater, and some federal employees should have shared the blame for failing to do their jobs!I-Care

Hold onto your seat, folks; the insanity has not even reached its peak yet; there’s more!

“The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) inspected the VA Illiana Health Care System in Danville, Illinois, to determine the validity of allegations, specific to COVID-19 and the Community Living Center (CLC), of failure to observe infection control practices, failure to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID-19, inconsistent ongoing testing, and failure to notify residents, families, and staff of positive test results. During the inspection, the OIG identified concerns related to leaders’ post-outbreak actions.  The VA-OIG substantiated a failure to observe general infection control practices, including in the following areas:

    • Leaders failed to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID-19.
    • Leaders did not respond adequately to staff exposure.
    • Leaders did not have a plan for the transfer and isolation of residents.
    • Leaders did not implement recommended infection control measures when performing aerosol-generating procedures and continued to hold group therapies.

The VA-OIG substantiated the lack of a post-baseline testing plan and a failure to test CLC staff after potential exposure.  The OIG identified actions taken by leaders following the CLC outbreak that lacked input from frontline staff to identify corrective actions and opportunities for improvement.”  This is the politically correct way of saying that the community living center leaders are thoroughly incompetent and should not be trusted in their current positions.

Leadership failure in spades, employees, patients, families all placed at risk because of incompetence and politics of the facility leaders, and the VA-OIG does not have the teeth needed to FIRE and REPLACE the leaders who are clearly out of their depth and ability!  For months the media and political leaders have been harping and preaching how dangerous COVID as a viral infection is.  Yet, the leaders in the Illiana VAHCS seem to be operating to a different set of rules and policies.  Will any elected leader be asking why?  Insanity runs deep in Illinois!VA 3

On the topic of COVID-19, and the failures of VA providers to do their jobs, we find another dead veteran due to what in the private sector would be a classic case of malpractice!  Yet, care at the VA is protected from malpractice, and the providers are safe from responsibility and accountability for their failures.  While the following is specific to North Carolina, similar examples are found across the United States.  Insanity thy name is represented in spades at the VA!Angry Wet Chicken

“The VA OIG conducted a healthcare inspection at the Fayetteville VA Coastal Health Care System in North Carolina to assess concerns related to the quality, coordination, and timeliness of care, and the impact of COVID-19 on a patient with unintentional weight loss who was later diagnosed with oral cancer and died at another VA medical center.”

    • The VA-OIG substantiated that the primary care provider and dietitians did not provide quality care to the patient.
    • The VA-OIG substantiated that dietitians conducted incomplete nutritional assessments.
    • The VA-OIG substantiated that the patient’s PACT nurse and dietitians failed to coordinate care by not communicating the family’s request for a face-to-face appointment and the patient’s declining nutritional status to the primary care provider.
    • The VA-OIG found that incorrect scheduling resulted in the patient not being seen by a dietitian for a follow-up appointment and a delay in scheduling a non-VA dental appointment.

“The VA-OIG concluded that COVID-19 impacted the care provided by dietitians because of the use of telephone visits, which did not allow dietitians to visually assess the patient’s physical characteristics caused by a declining nutritional status.”

Blaming a viral disease for the failure of people to do their jobs is the height of skullduggery, showing pusillanimous disregard for the patient and a timid weak-kneed, and yellow-bellied timorous approach to medicine.  None of you deserve to be in the medical field if you cannot properly take personal protection and see patients who need to be physically seen!  Now, let’s call a spade a spade and call out your wimpy, limp-wristed, lily-livered weakling leaders who refuse to act like leaders in a hospital and prefer to act like scared amoebas in a petri dish!  There is NO EXCUSE for your paltry excuses, your shady practices, and your hiding in offices and behind the disruptive behavioral committees when your policies and procedures FAIL when YOUR training plans fall apart, and when reality bites hard enough to disrupt hospital operations and your policies are the problem endangering patients!VA 3

Crazy…  Thy name is abused in the VA, and the leaders are failing to understand sanity!  But … wait, there’s more!

There are times when I describe the insanity at the VHA, VBA, National Cemeteries, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as designed incompetence.  The following is the purest example of designed incompetence witnessed to date.  Consider with me the following:

?u=http3.bp.blogspot.com-CIl2VSm-mmgTZ0wMvH5UGIAAAAAAAAB20QA9_IiyVhYss1600showme_board3.jpg&f=1&nofb=1Blue Water Navy Outreach requirements were met, but processing and procedures remain lacking and need improvement.  The VBA was legislatively mandated to extend veteran benefits to a classification of sailors who operated in blue water conditions off Vietnam or within 12 Nautical Miles of Vietnam.  The VBA went forward and established the computers, the records, the systems, etc., to handle these claims.  The results, a complete farrago!

“The VA-OIG substantiated that the VBA has not established procedures for its employees to follow when the computer search tool they use to determine ship locations during claimant service dates returns unlikely results (for example, providing an inland location in a search for an aircraft carrier). In addition, VBA employees inaccurately decided approximately 46 percent of veterans’ claims (2,100 of 4,600) from April through June 2020, which led to about $37.2 million in improper payments to veterans ($25.2 million in overpayments and $12 million in underpayments) during that period. About 95 percent of these errors resulted from VBA employees deviating from policies governing disability-rating decisions.”

Did you catch that the VBA intentionally designed a system that failed to perform the task because humans and computers were lenient to deviate?  Nobody is held accountable for the continued loss of benefits, treatment, and wasted resources of the government and the veterans involved!  Here’s the rub, this is NOT the first time this has happened!  The VBA is notorious for failures like this and never held accountable by the elected officials hired to scrutinize the government!  Name a military excursion where benefits had to be carved out by legislative order, and you will find foot-dragging, designed incompetence, inconsistencies in decision making, and piss-poor performance at every level of the VBA.  Why?LinkedIn VA Image

Let’s imagine you hold a job that has a reporting requirement to an authorizing body that can shut you down.  You arbitrarily change language in metrics and reporting, do not tell the authority but still expect the authority to license you and your efforts.  How likely do you think the governing body will look favorably upon your changes?  The VA is legislatively mandated to report to Congress on its capacity in five areas, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, blind rehabilitation, prosthetics and sensory aids, and mental health.  But, by changing the language, metrics, and methods of talking about injuries, the VA can hide, misreport, underreport, overreport, and play reporting games with the report to Congress and the VA-OIG second look get away with the deception.  Never forget, the maskirovka comes with veteran patient abuse!Angry Grizzly Bear

The VA-OIG has reported continuously to Congress, to deaf ears and plastic lips, the following, “… VA cannot compare its current mental health capacity with its 1996 capacity because of changes in diagnosis and treatment, service provision, and data collection. For example, VA must report on the number of veterans with “serious mental illness,” but VA no longer uses that term. And non-VA care, which veterans increasingly seek, must be excluded from reports on VA’s capacity to provide care. The OIG believes that by modernizing the reporting metrics, Congress would be better positioned to assess VA’s capacity to provide care for today’s disabled veterans.”

Congress continues NOT to push the VA to adopt 1996 language and metrics for reporting, or change the law to update the language and metrics to capture the data more accurately, thus allowing the lies and deceptions to continue.  Will anyone in the media EVER ask Congress WHY?VA 3

What kills me, the insanity discussed in this summation of VA-OIG reports does not even scrape the iceberg.  In my email inbox, I have to select between continued financial failures by leaders, veteran suicide during an inpatient residency, and the continued moral distress of employees by facility leaders.  I have twenty more VA-OIG reports sitting awaiting summation because the insanity has blossomed, and the VA-OIG is working hard to clear their reports for the end of the calendar year.  Each and every one of these reports deserve analysis, discussion, and mega-doses of sunshine disinfectant.  The sheer enormity of the insanity means that timely discussion physically cannot occur.  By overloading the system, the perpetrators of veteran abuse can escape sunshine disinfectant, and that is a sore injustice!Satire? Obama ISIS Speech Depresses Nation | Hooper's War - Peter Van Buren

Pray for the families of those who have died at the hands of the VA providers and for those currently dying under the hands of VA providers.  Congress needs to act, and we, the electorate, must hold their feet to the fire until they are consumed, or they stand and do their jobs!  There are no excuses for the insanity contained in these VA-OIG reports!

© 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.

MRSA and COVID – Pandemic Hype Indeed

Bobblehead DollMRSA is shorthand for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a medicine-resistant staph infection that swept America beginning in 1990 —gaining massive popularity in 2017 when it killed more than 10,000 people and hospitalized more than 300,000 in the United States alone.  Worse, of those hospitalized, many had to have large sections of their anatomy excised, limbs removed, and other surgical procedures done to cut away the infected flesh.

As for COVID’s death toll, your guess is as good as mine.  We all know the scandal of the emphasized numbers to obtain greater Federal Money and media attention.  We have all been exposed to the hype and hysteria from infection rates that do not equate to those with frank symptoms, and neither of those numbers equating to those needing hospitalization.  Worse, we all have been front-seat with the PCR testing scandal where a tampon, motor oil, and a host of other non-human samples all tested positive (falsely) for COVID.

When the intentional housing of infected patients with healthy residents in long-term care facilities is added to this COVID-drama, they shouldn’t be, for these are victims of murder, and the governors need to be held accountable for their deaths; nothing but confusion in statistics reigns.  Unfortunately, all this and more is just the tip of the iceberg regarding the statistics in the highly politicized COIVD-debacle we are living through.The Duty of Americans

One point of significant contention is the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic.  An epidemic is when a disease (bacterial or viral) spreads over a large geographical area, and many different people simultaneously take ill.  A pandemic takes an epidemic one step further and is a political decision, as the illness spreads across national borders infecting larger numbers of people.  MRSA for all the people killed, in all the different countries, and health systems, has only ever achieved epidemic status.  The Spanish Flu (1918) for all the people killed, in all the different countries infected, only achieved epidemic status.  As a point of reference, the Spanish Flu (1918) is a confusion of terms between pandemic and epidemic, and depending upon the source; you can see the media hype of the flu.  MRSA, like the annual Flu, Chicken Pox, Mumps, Measles, and Rubella, are still just as effective at killing people, and we do not shut down the globe for these viral infections.  Yet, nobody in the world’s governments wants to discuss why COVID has been given this treatment.  But, I digress; let’s get back to MRSA.?u=http3.bp.blogspot.com-CIl2VSm-mmgTZ0wMvH5UGIAAAAAAAAB20QA9_IiyVhYss1600showme_board3.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Please note, while hospitals are on track to meet a 50% reduction in MRSA and bloodstream infection reductions, this does not mean that other places MRSA pops up will meet these same reductions.  MRSA causes outbreaks under specific conditions, typically in crowded areas with inadequate hygiene, skin-to-skin contact, and shared equipment.  Hence, MRSA is prevalent in gyms, dressing rooms, daycare facilities, and any place where human body fluids can sit on a surface shared by other humans.  Hence, before going further, I urge informed caution where MRSA is concerned.  Ask about decontamination of hard surfaces, cleaning habits, and customs, and when in doubt, ask for more information before participating.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in partnership with Janssen Research and Development, found some interesting results in protecting the body from MRSA by boosting the body’s immune system.  These results are interesting because until COVID came along, medicine generally wanted to stimulate the body’s immune system first, then look at vaccines and drugs.  But, since COVID came along, doctors want to revert to what created MRSA, an overabundance and reliance upon vaccines and medicines instead of boosting the body’s immune system.Vaccine

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to the 1990s.  MRSA is breaking onto the scene and scaring the living daylights out of medical professionals.  This new staph infection is resistant to every drug known to man and kills rapidly once the skin infection gets into the blood.  Sepsis deaths which had been trending down for a decade, were spiking.  People went to the hospital for a routine checkup and died of skin infections horribly a few days later.  Research quickly discovers this is a staph infection, quickly realizes it is drug-resistant, and new practices are needed in cleaning and disinfecting to prevent this from spreading.  But, the first step was to boost the body’s natural immunity.  Vitamin C, D, E, and Fish Oils, were discussed as options to be added to some diets.  Exercise, diet, and weight loss became much more important topics, and the reason why was witnessed on the evening news.  We saw patients lose limbs; a patient lost their nose; a patient went swimming in a pond and died horribly shortly thereafter.Pressure Injuries - Example

I mention MRSA because common sense, research, and boosting the body’s immune system work, as historical data supports, to protect communities from large health problems and viral outbreaks.  Masks, isolation, expensive government mandates and vaccines, do not protect communities from health problems.  Many media pundits have cited the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic as comparative to COVID.  What’s the difference, the most significant difference between 1918s Spanish Flu and 2020 COVID, government interference, and media hyperventilation!

What’s the difference between the ongoing MRSA battle, which claims hundreds of thousands of lives annually in the United States and millions of lives globally, and COVID?  Government intrusion and media hyperventilation.  Back in the 1990s, Dr. Fauci was still relatively unknown in the pantheons of NIH and was still misinforming about AIDS/HIV.  By 2018, Dr. Fauci has reached the pinnacle of his lackluster career, and he needs a pandemic to come along to help his career into the spotlight of historical immortality.  In the 1990s, the president was a Clinton, and the media adored his every breath.  In 2016 the president was detested by the media, and a solution to his popularity needed to be generated.Apathy

MRSA has killed and maimed more people globally than COVID ever will; yet, MRSA, while being more deadly and dangerous, is relatively unknown outside medical centers, and the media hypes about COVID non-stop.  Ever stop to ask yourself why?  Common sense medicine is still the best method for preventing and healing after an MRSA infection.  It would be the same for COVID except for the political environment that shut down inexpensive and effective drugs.  Ever stop to ask yourself why?

The Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) has a graph of MRSA infection rates by country reporting.  Romania is on top with the worst rates of hospitalized MRSA, Iceland has the best rates of non-infection, and the numbers appear to be current as of 2004.  Yes, that data is 17 years or so old and can be taken with a grain of salt.  However, it does provide an interesting view on MRSA infections.  Not all MRSA infections are reported equally.Plato 3

The main MRSA reported and tracked are those where the infection can be reliably proved to have originated in a hospital—leaving infections from gyms, locker rooms, sports equipment, daycare centers, schools, etc., all open for speculation and wonder.  Not good policy on something this dangerous and easily spread from person to person.  I worked in a call center that was threatened with being shut down if infectious pink eye (a staph infection) was not brought under control.  Pink-eye was spread around that call center so often, and so prevalently, the health department threatened drastic and dire measures if the business did not take action.  Yet, MRSA, another staph infection, isn’t even tracked and reported.  Ever ask yourself why?  Ever wonder why some infections and communicable diseases are reported to death and others never even get mentioned?

Knowledge Check!Please let me repeat myself, and I repeat myself only for emphasis; we live in a world of risk.  The government, any government, cannot control the risk of living.  We, the citizenry, should never expect the government to attempt to control the risks of living, for that is the road of tyranny and oppression.  The government is only a tool; the tool should be used sparingly and only in times of greatest need for the greatest good of all citizens.  When the tool of government is overused, tyranny and oppression are the only results, and the citizens will weep in frustration and anger at the governments’ largesse!  MRSA is a risk we undertake to enjoy a social activity, exercising in a gym.  MRSA is an activity we expose our children to when we send them to school, for the benefits outweigh the potential risks.  The risks of runaway government are being felt right now; what are we willing to do to fix that problem?

© 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.

New Jersey, New York, California, Oregon, and Washington – Just Sell Them for Parts!

cropped-laughing-owlWith a nod to Bill Engvall, let’s honestly discuss three complete holes in America where suicide by legislative fiat and executive stupidity has produced catastrophic failure.  Let me be perfectly honest, if either of these states were a business, they would have been forced into receivership, broken up, sold for parts, and their leaders jailed for incompetency and felonious charges of malfeasance long ago!  The charades have ended, the rose-tinted glasses are off, and frankly, the party is over, all the taxpayers are fleeing, and the businesses are closing shop and fleeing for healthier climates.

California this week passed another job-killing piece of legislation.  The bill is targeted at Amazon and is built on hogwash, acrimony, lies, and allegations so thin you could read Apple’s User Agreement through them.  Not the first time California’s legislative body has targeted a specific business for job-killing legislation, not the first time the legislation is built on sand, and the forecast is for torrential rain, not the last time this idiocy is going to happen.  The fact that California keeps killing itself is depressing!Bird of Prey

New Jersey and California hold an interesting title, and 32 other states are 100% insolvent in their Unemployment Compensation Trust Funds.  Business owners, this fact alone should scare the living daylights out of you and every one of your workers right now!  Now, some of you get it; some are scratching your heads and going; why is this important.  For those who got it, feel free to skip the following explanation.

The unemployment trust fund is akin to the social security trust fund managed by, raided, and depleted by the Federal Government.  No money means that the debts in those trust funds cannot be paid, and all the funds being collected right now are not being used for future calamities.  For all you economists out there, yes, this is a very simplified explanation.  Insurance trust funds are expected to be the funds of last resort to ensure payments to investors; those paying premiums for coverage can receive protection.  Not having these trust funds means the state unemployment insurance fund is in deep trouble, and there is only one direction to point the blame, the legislators and executives in government.

Bobblehead DollNow, some are claiming these funds were only depleted due to the COVID pandemic.  Do not believe the hype.  These funds were in trouble long before COVID hit, and the fact that there are funds to replenish these trust funds and government leaders are refusing to invest money in the trust funds should be major red flags for everyone in the state!  State and local governments are spending money like it’s Christmas, and the New Year will never come with the bills from the holidays.  Think drunken-sailor on 7-day liberty here if you prefer that analogy.  Either way, financial troubles are brewing above and beyond the current inflation woes, and the media is deftly NOT reporting this crisis.  Does anyone want to venture why this topic is not being discussed?

The Article from the Tax Foundation lays out the data nicely, and you are left to draw your own conclusions from the data.  But tell me, what happens when you call GEICO, Farmers, All-State, etc., with a claim and the claim is denied because the insurance company has no money?  Now multiply that by every wage-earner and business in your state and tell me if maybe, just maybe, the unemployment insurance trust fund being insolvent should be a more significant issue of discussion.Tax Burden

If your state is insolvent, and your next paycheck is a LOT lighter, remember this tidbit about unemployment tax insurance trust funds.

“Unemployment insurance tax rates on businesses rise automatically when trust fund balances are low.”

Do you see the trouble now?  First, the government maliciously raids and spends the funds, then a hidden tax kicks in, depleting your paycheck, and the government does not have to tell you why your paycheck is lighter.  Especially since those in legislative bodies traditionally exempt themselves from having to pay these taxes.  Now add in the other hidden taxes; inflation goes up because when taxes climb, inflation climbs, prices go up to cover the hidden taxes of higher costs to operating a business, and wages stagnate, which crimps your budget even further.Government Largess

The states mentioned are not the states that did not need Federal Intervention, and they are not counted among the states spending money wisely, as discussed by Governing.com.  Please tell me that nobody is surprised by this revelation.  I find it alarming that Governing.com, in their analysis, was able to conclude the following:

“Despite predictions that COVID-19 would crush state tax revenues, most of them didn’t need mega-billions in pandemic aid to balance their budgets. But for the most part, they seem to be spending the money wisely.”

Leading me to ask, why did the Federal Government invest our tax dollars, venture into such incredible debts, and shut down a booming economy?  COVID has proven NOT to be worthy of the title “Pandemic.”  Yet, COVID remains an excuse for emergency measures, emergency spending, and emergency police actions.  Will any media representative ask a politician why?  I didn’t like the book, but I read Albert Camus’ book “The Plague” for light reading.  That is a book about a public health crisis, a pandemic worthy of the title pandemic, and several times in world history, the title pandemic has been warranted when survivors are burning corpses in the street.  COVID fits none of the definitions or situations for a Pandemic, except for the politically connected to laugh at the politically abused populations.Angry Wet Chicken

Look at Washington, New York, New Jersey, California, and Oregon across the COVID-19 political mania.  Tell me why COVID is not an exercise in malicious government and politics gone horribly wrong.  Sure, we can add New Mexico, Minnesota, Michigan, and a couple of other states into the mix for fun.  These core states are where politicians made vast sums of money on COVID-Hysteria, and I would like to keep the focus small for the current article.

The House Ways and Means Subcommittee is reporting 32 states are intentionally withholding money from rural governments as a political move.  When you take the top 20 receivers of COVID-Relief money and the 32 states withholding COVID-Relief money, you find some lines of congruence with states with the harshest COVID restrictions, ridiculous COVID mandates, and no correlating data to infection risk avoidance.  Now, why isn’t COVID reported as a political and social experiment gone horribly wrong?  Worse, why was the money borrowed by the Federal Government at extortionate rates and given pell-mell to the states when the majority of those states do not need the money and the states that did need the money have sufficient if their politicians reigned in spending?Angry Grizzly Bear

The five states mentioned are not poor states by any stretch.  They have resources, both human and natural; they have riches galore, they have potential, they used to have favorable business climates, they are committing suicide.  Why should the rest of America bail them out?  Why not break them up into parts, sell assets to cover debts, place them into receivership, and force them on a diet of sanity and logic until the bills are paid?

I close with a word of warning.  Texas, you’re headed to California status faster than you would like to admit!  Your COVID restrictions are particularly heinous and represent the infection found in Austin spreading like fast-moving cancer to steal your state and liberty.  Arizona, Idaho, Wisconsin, Iowa, you are all on a similar track, the speed might not be as noticeable right now, but the infection is there and growing.  Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, both Dakotas, you are all at various places in being terminally sick with the same cancer.  If soft words and political expediency can conquer the Western US, the entire United States is lost.  New Mexico has been lost since it was given statehood in a political move that robbed Arizona and Texas of land!

Image - Eagle & FlagThe time to awake and arise is now!  The fight for liberty and freedom will be fought and won or lost in the American West.  Sure, the coasts of America are well and truly infected.  But, the fight for independence is not on the shores; it is right outside your doors.  The media and politicians like to hyperventilate about the coasts, but the rural communities in the “Fly-Over” states are more important to liberty and freedom surviving than any other local in America.  Awake and Arise!

© 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.

President Trump – Diligence, Faithfulness, and Prayers of Faith

Bobblehead DollPlease excuse me; I am branching out a little today.  However, I am not entering into the realms of religion, even though prayer and faith will be discussed.  I make this clear at the beginning so as to ensure no misunderstanding occurs; I am not here to tell you how, where, what, when, or who to worship; all I expect is the same courtesy in return.  We can discuss sensitive topics without causing problems and individuals choosing to be insulted.  There is a phrase (verse) in a book considered scripture by The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints that appears in the writings of Moses, somewhat differently worded as counsel to Joshua.  The same idea appears in the Old and New Testaments, and while in slightly different verbiage, it is available in various religious texts, dogmas, and belief structures.

“All victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through your diligence, faithfulness, and prayers of faith” (D&C 103:36).

Hence why I am branching out a little today.  On 9/11, during a speech, President Trump called for 21 days of prayer for the nation.  It was one of President Trump’s better speeches, in my opinion, and the action resonates well with his other pleas, counsel, and instruction for the American Nation from his presidency.  President Trump’s counsel brought this phrase to mind, and I thought, maybe it IS time for America to rediscover an essential truth.Religion Quote 2

What is diligence?

The dictionary often details diligence as being heedful, careful, and showing constant and earnest effort to accomplish a task.  Other definitions include constancy in the performance of duty or the conduct of business and the persistent exertion of body or mind.  One of my favorite definitions includes unflagging effort with constant personal attention.  Hence, when I define diligence, these are usually what I am using, close personal attention combined with unflagging effort to accomplish a task or fill a role.Apathy

I like an Indonesian proverb that proclaims the potential of diligence and encapsulates the possibility of diligent efforts.

“Diligence is the beginning of brilliance.”

As a child, Samuel Johnson’s words were often quoted:

“What we hope to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.”

Like the Indonesian proverb, Samuel Johnson’s words explicitly declare a truth; diligence is not observable in a single day or interaction.  Diligence requires observation over time.  Whether you like or dislike President Trump, was he diligent in performing the job as president; Yes.  The media hounded him so severely that even on his vacations, he couldn’t catch a break.  Whether you like or dislike President Biden, has he been diligent in performing the role of president; no, for he never fulfilled the role of Senator, unless you count selling influence as part of the role of being a senator.Angry Grizzly Bear

I distinguish between two people that are regularly in the news.  If you disagree, point to specific actions and their consequences to reflect a lack of diligent effort in performing the role of president.  Critical thinking requires evaluation and honest appraisals of situations.  Of the presidents I have observed, only President Reagan was more diligent than President Trump in fulfilling the role of president.  Agree or disagree, but use the definitions of diligent and diligence to support and defend your judgments.  The reverse is also true; the least diligent president to date is Biden, with only Obama and Carter rounding out the top three.

What is faithfulness?

Faithful is a word we should use more often and not when describing the actions of dogs!  According to the dictionary, faithful includes aspects of truth, loyalty, constancy, and a character of being exact and reliable.  Consider something faithful: being steadfast in affection and allegiance, being firm in your promises and observances of duty, and finally being true to facts, standards, and laws.

Mother Teresa is quoted as saying:

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

Pink Monarch ButterflyLike tiny stones that fill gaps and plug holes in an earthen dam, the faithfulness of small things empowers the dam to remain strong.  Consider the story of the Dutch kid with his finger in the dam, it was a small thing that broke, and it was a small thing that plugged the hole.  Faithfulness is not about grand actions, large token gifts, and glorious virtue signals.  Faithfulness is all about the small daily acts of charity, the defense of a friend when gossip comes, and the day-to-day carrying out of duty.  Have you ever seen a butterfly’s wing under a microscope; little tiny feathers.  Each little tiny feather being faithful allows the butterfly to fly.  There is power in being faithful!

Detective 4Consider two examples and determine which is faithful to their cause, even if you do not support their cause.  Congresswoman A. Ocasio-Cortez went to the MET Gala event wearing a “Tax the Rich” message on her dress.  Tickets cost upwards of $35,000, and other costs are always exorbitant for these affairs.  Al Gore and the man-made climate change political machine demand that everyone else change their behavior, but not those directing the movement.  Personal lives do not reflect the public image created, personal conduct does not reflect public demeanor towards the issues advocated, and individual lifestyle does not meet minimum standards to match words.  By definition, is either of these two faithful to their causes?  Why are they followed?

Never forget critical thinking requires observation and decision-making, using the best information available.  More to the point, when critical thinking, you will always be asked to defend your positions logically.  Emotion has no place in critical thinking, observation, and discernment.Life Valued

What are prayers of faith?

A prayer of faith is a prayer that is made iwith complete confidence in God’s power.  Consider the New Testament and instructions left by the master instructor.  Jesus talked to His disciples repeatedly about prayer. He told them to pray for God’s kingdom to be represented on earth and for His will to be done; He told them to pray for their daily sustenance, for forgiveness, and strength against temptation. He also said to them that anything they asked for in His name, for God’s glory, would be done for them, and He assured them that God knows how to give good gifts to His children.  Hence, prayers of faith are part of all Christian religions and sects, and you find similar teaching in Judaism and Muslim faiths and denominations. Therefore, when we discuss this particular topic, all people can look to the prayers of faith, confident that solutions will come.  Yes, you are included atheists and other non-traditional religions, and whether you call it prayer, self-reflection, or becoming centered, please participate in prayers of faith.

Knowledge Check!I am not here to tell you what to pray for.  I think President Trump asking for us to petition for more honest, transparent, forthright, and constitutionally sound leadership in elected officials is an excellent first step for America.  I genuinely think having a knowledgeable, informed, and capable electorate is more important, and petitioning heaven’s help to achieve an informed electorate is critical.  However, the first steps in improving the electorate are found inside each of us.  Are we willing to be diligent and faithful in our actions, decisions, and lives publicly and privately and support the good in others?  If we are not willing to be faithful and diligent, what good is keeping America alive?

I know my answers; how do you choose?

© 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.

Do We Understand?

Bobblehead DollOne of my closely held beliefs is that we will be held accountable for the heritage left us by those who have fought and bled, and came before us.  When I see the farrago that has become Afghanistan, the ineptitude of Vietnamese legacy, the current condition of the White House, politics in America, and the politicians refusing their jobs. I am always left asking, “What will our forefathers say?”  With hundreds, possibly thousands of Americans abandoned in Afghanistan by the sitting US President, a complicit Congress, and the spineless Joint Chiefs of Staff, I cannot help but wonder what the President Generals of the United States will say to these people.

Before we hear from the US President’s, let us first clear our minds with the following from Mark Twain.

“The statesmen will invent cheap lies, blaming the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself the war is just and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”

The fraudulent president, Joey, and his Joint Chiefs are in this position right now.  They are deceived, they deceived themselves, and if America is not careful, their self-deception will mean enemies on Main Street.  No hyperbole, no scaremongering, no warmongering; simply truth simply stated.  Joey and his Joint Chiefs are blaming America for being in Afghanistan for too long, and the chaos in leaving is America’s fault.  Their self-deception should not be our problem, our lie, or our “conscience-soothing falsity.”Angry Grizzly Bear

President (Colonel) Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt has the next word, and he declares and details our problem precisely:

“Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people.  From these great tasks, both of the old parties have turned aside.  Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes.  Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.  To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day” [emphasis mine].

Do we understand the problem?  Are we clear about the issues facing our nation?  Is the mission clear?  The current crop of politicians have purposefully turned from their roles, like dogs to their vomit, and refused the people who elected them for personal power and individual success.  Well, what do you do when you catch your dog rolling in its vomit?  What do you do when you find a toddler crayoning the walls after telling them no?  Will the adults in the room, please stand? You are needed!photo_slideshow_max

President (Lieutenant) John F. Kennedy provides a caution pertinent to this discussion, and a word of timely caution is worth gold and silver to those who heed and follow its counsel:

“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in ensuring our nation’s survival if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is a very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. …
For we are opposed worldwide by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, subversion instead of elections, intimidation instead of free choice, and on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system that has conscripted vast human and material resources into building a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific, and political operations.  Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed” [emphasis mine].

There are lots of questions about who has been pulling Joey’s strings.  Who is president right now, as senile Joe is not in charge, Kamala is not in attendance, and Pelosi is silent and retiring shortly.  The Afghanistan farrago is humiliating, devastating, and despicable; yet, none of the politicians are willing to be publicly outspoken, convening investigations and using their powers to lead and rescue Americans.  Why?  Congress has the War Powers Act; they can act independently of the US President and demand that the US Military enter Afghanistan, rescue US Passport holders, and destroy American hardware, munitions, and other war materials.  Congress could depose the US President legally, through impeachment proceedings, and install a new president.  Yet, nothing is happening.  Why?Plato 2

President (General) George Washington provides guidance, counsel, and direction worthy of consideration in the following panacea of quotes:

    • “The power under the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can, and undoubtedly will, be recalled.” … “Be Americans. Let there be no sectionalism, no North, South, East, or West. You are all dependent on one another and should be one in union. In one word, be a nation. Be Americans, and be true to yourselves.”
    • “Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society.” … “It is impossible to govern the world without God. It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits and humbly implore his protection and favor.”

Herein is a call to action, from a general mustering both his troops and citizenry, calling all able-bodied people to learn two great truths.  First, we are the owners of government and hold the reigns of power.  Second, we cannot make the changes needed without the help of almighty God,  regardless of the name we call Him.  For too long, we have been divided on the first and not allowed to perform the second, and it is time to end the power that divides and separates.The Duty of Americans

While not a military president, his cunning mind is a powerhouse of wisdom that provides essential ideas and insight, and I am pleased to quote President John Adams.  Again we find a panacea of quotes:

    • “Every problem is an opportunity in disguise.” … “It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them a habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.”
    • “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

Are we allowing the suicide of the American Republic through the groveling in the infancy of our children’s minds?  Look at K-12 education and how ideas from the late 1800s and early 1900s continue to shape your child’s classroom experiences — producing functionally illiterate products at state-run schools, abusing your child of their God-given potential, and robbing them of a lifetime of learning through labels, invented science, and drugging them into submission.Angry Wet Chicken

Yet, President Adams is correct; the problem of K-12 education is an opportunity in disguise.  The opportunity to learn is an individual one; it is an opportunity for the community to step in and demand the politicians go away; it is an opportunity for citizens to awake and arise and refuse the cruel gruel of oppression and require the fruit of liberty be fed to their children.

There are two pieces of wisdom passed to us from President Thomas Jefferson also apt for this discussion:

    • “Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty.”
    • “If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.”

Knowledge Check!With these thoughts, we come to the brief conclusion of this article, but not the conclusion of the need for learning, teaching, and action.  The destruction of America has progressed sufficiently that none of us now living have experienced the tempestuous sea of liberty due to the calm lakes of despotism that has overtaken our land.  Desire something you have never had, real liberty, and let’s be willing to do everything we need to possess this gift for ourselves and pass something better to our children!

© 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.

ZERO COVID – The Insanity Continues: Beware the Dangerous Water Ahead!

Angry Wet ChickenNews headlines with Fauci included this gem, “We will not let up until COVID is no longer a viral infection.”  Seriously?!?!?!  If that is the goal, why has that not been the case with Chickenpox, Ebola, Swine Flu, Bird Flu, Spanish Flu, ZIKA, and the list of viral diseases goes on and on!

Here are a few more gems on COVID:

      • On Monday, Biden pressed private industry to mandate vaccination, stating, “Do what I did last month, require your employees to get vaccinated or face strict requirements.”
      • Anthony Fauci told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “I respect people’s freedom, but when you’re talking about a public health crisis … the time has come, enough is enough. We’ve just got to get people vaccinated.”
      • Anthony Fauci announced on MSNBC that everyone should mask, vaccinated or unvaccinated: “Instead of worrying what kind of mask, just wear a mask. Wear a surgical mask, a cloth mask … We need to wear masks.” Biden went further, extending his push for masks to small children: “You have the tools to keep your child safer … make sure that your child is masked when they leave home.”

How hard is it to keep a child in a mask; almost near impossible!  The science is in; take any mask; if you can fog your glasses, then the mask is ineffective at stopping the micron level of COVID. The most straightforward test I know to see if a mask might or might not protect you against COVID.  If the mask doesn’t protect you, guess what?  Wearing that mask is only making problems worse, not better.

Now, let’s talk Delta-Variant, Science, and COVID recent infections.  A friend of mine works in a hospital in Ohio.  Out of 100 patients seen who had contracted COVID in the first couple weeks of August, 99 had been vaccinated, wore a mask religiously, and followed every one of the CDC guidelines for social distancing and COVID living.  The one exception caught the flu, and the flu became COVID through exposure.  I mention this not to paint the entire globe with the same brush but to reflect a truth science has been screaming.  When you vaccinate against viral diseases, those vaccinated become a target for mutant strains, and the vaccine might or might not help prevent the mutant strains from making a person sick.Gravy Train

Straight science found in every viral disease paper I have read and researched.  Take a moment, read, and then compare the hysteria of COVID to every other viral infection on the planet and ask questions.  Polio is considered “eradicated,” polio as a virus is still alive and well; we just have really superior vaccines against polio infections.  Chickenpox, mumps, measles, and rubella are common viral diseases children get vaccinated against; the diseases are not dead; we have developed vaccines and spent decades researching the daylights of these diseases and their mutant strains to understand the diseases and improve the vaccines.

From the CDC, we find the following:

      • “The best way to prevent chickenpox is to get the chickenpox vaccine. Chickenpox used to be very common in the United States.  In the early 1990s, an average of 4 million people got chickenpox, 10,500 to 13,000 were hospitalized, and 100 to 150 died each year.  Chickenpox vaccine became available in the United States in 1995.”Question 2
      • “Hilleman’s mumps vaccine was then used in the combination measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which was licensed in 1971. The rubella component of the vaccine was changed in 1979, but in the United States, the mumps and measles vaccine viruses have remained the same since 1971.”… “Reported cases decreased by more than 99% after both the mumps vaccination program started in the US in 1967 and children regularly received two doses of MMR vaccine.”Question 3
      • No vaccine, and since 2019, no confirmed cases of Zika Virus have been reported in the US or its territories. Remember back in 2014 through 2016, all the pandemic emergencies, the executive actions, the mandates issued by President Obama to “flatten the curve” and “protect our hospital infrastructure” over Zika related viral infections.  Neither do I; in fact, Obama could not even stop playing golf to be bothered to discuss Zika.

Mosquito

      • “The (H1N1)pdm09 virus (Swine Flu – 2009) was very different from H1N1 viruses that were circulating at the time of the pandemic. Few young people had any existing immunity (as detected by antibody response) to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus. Nearly one-third of people over 60 years old had antibodies against this virus, likely from exposure to an older H1N1 virus earlier in their lives.”  Swine flu has a vaccine, but that pandemic did not require mask mandates or include fear for hospital infrastructure and a refusal to practice common sense medicine.  The swine flu virus, H1N1, may have killed 15 times the number of people counted by the World Health Organization.  The H1N1 pandemic struck down primarily young people, many living in Africa and Southeast Asia.  Beginning in 2009, the virus swept the globe and the WHO counted 18,500 swine flu deaths that laboratory tests had confirmed. But according to new estimates from researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus probably killed between 105,700 and 400,000 people around the world in its first year alone, and an additional 46,000 to 179,000 people likely died of cardiovascular complications from the virus.”

Vaccine

Motivation and COVID

Tom Clancy uses the acronym MICE or Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Ego, as the reasons to describe why people become spies.  Except, this acronym also applies to why people act in an anathema manner to common sense, good social order, and proper discipline.  A friend and I discussed COVID and the government tyranny; the political models do not fit since President Trump was defeated.  Economic models do not match actions and reasons for taking more steps.  Social and psychological models do not include the activities of the actors driving the COVID mandates and hysteria.  Science has been utterly rejected, twisted, and destroyed.  Medicine is being twisted and destroyed.Lemmings 1

It wasn’t until MICE came along in the conversation as primary motivating forces that logic started to appear; now, I am not fully cognizant of what was seen in that brief flash, but what I saw, I will describe.

      • Money – There are TONS of cash involved in COVID-Mandates, masking mandates, vaccination mandates, and so forth. Literally, you could take the money and count it by weighing the money by the ton!  Thus money’s influence and motivation cannot be discounted, and following the money is critical to understanding why the COVID virus has to be eradicated before the pandemic can end.
      • Ideology – Unless the ideology is to wipe out populations, such as the elderly and infirm, then I do not think ideology can be a motivating influence or at least a primary motivating force in COVID and the government and media actions.
      • Coercion – Tyrants have always wanted to coerce large populations. As a primary motivating force, coercion cannot be discounted nor eliminated.  Worse, When viewed through the lens of coercion to force people to do as told for personal power and enjoyment, coercion has plenty of solid arguments as a primary force for motivating governments and political leaders to act as they have and continue the pandemic “emergency” as long as possible.
      • Ego – Of all the primary motivating forces, ego fits the best after coercion and before money. Why; because of Fauci!  Here is a practical nobody vaulted into the public limelight and only remains popular as long as the pandemic kills people.  How many other research scientists have been treated similarly, throwing out the first pitch of a baseball season, actively sought for TV interviews, on speed dial by the politically connected and powerful elite.  Oh yes, ego has a role in motivating the pandemic to continue as long as possible!

Lemmings 5Motivation is the reason why people act.  Logic is the reasoning and is generally fully understood after the action was taken; but the motivation to act, the impulses that drive us to our feet giving us the energy to act in a specific direction, exerting our will, minds, hearts, and souls towards a goal, can generally be deduced through MICE.  Therein lay both the power and the tragedy of human relations.  Therein also lay the pattern for understanding why people act one way, and a person will act differently.  The influence of groupthink is too strong for individual voices to counter, and people go along with stuff they would typically abhor personally but accept as a group.

Are there people involved in COVID who are the sons of Mary; probably.  Are there those involved in COVID purely for the perceived health emergency and nothing else; this is also statistically probable.  Yet, for all these potential anomalies, the vast majority of those pushing the COVID pandemic and health emergency are in it for the money, the ideology, because they have always wanted to play “Storm Trooper” and force people to accept their rule, or simply because of the pleasure of having their egos stroked.

Knowledge Check!One thing every citizen of a representative government should know by now, tyranny has many faces, multiple names, but only one result.  The death of liberty too often in world history has been accompanied, not by the crash and thunder of conquering armies, but the applause of the deceived masses.  Well, COVID and this “health emergency,” “pandemic,” “global crisis,” is but one of tyranny’s names, and liberty is dying a slow and horrible death.

© 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.

Elections – Politics – California: I Support Larry Elder!

Angry Wet ChickenI support citizens who desire to become elected leaders.  I refuse to support politicians!  Worse, I detest with every fiber of my being politics in its many forms.  I hate politics and those who engage in politics from business to the military, from the classroom to the boardroom, and from the private sector to the government sector!  Elections matter until they are stolen and become a farce by those who desire to rule, and this is why California, the recall election of that detestable politician Gavin Newsom, and politics matter to every single person in America.  In the US Navy, when my department officer told me to “Play the game,” he meant to play politics.  To the minions of hell who delight in playing politics, I have found being honest, forthright, and valiant is better, and you will not win!

We begin with a review, for too often, people think they know the meaning of a word, and the entire etymology of that word is where the trouble lay.  Politics is one of these terms that comes with lots of baggage, tons of hidden layers, and enough plastic to choke the world’s oceans!  We must be clear about what politics is to recognize when political animals are trying to commit acts of political villainy.

What is Politics?

QuestionPlease note that emphasis has been added to key phrases to support knowledge of the complete etymology and enhance awareness.  Frankly, I would be ashamed to be called a politician.  Being called a politician means I possess a derogatory approach to my constituency and am only concerned with seeking power, usually through devious means.  As a Noun, politics are “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 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?

The Duty of AmericansPolitics 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, which means derogatory.  For those needing more, derogatory is “showing a critical or disrespectful attitude.”  Thus, at the root, politicians by their very name and nature are derogatory towards those who elect them into power.

What are Elections?

Exclamation MarkElections are the formal process for selecting another for an office, leadership, or choosing a person or favorable course of action.  Key to elections is that they are formal, which means there are rules, laws, guidelines, regulations, and penalties for the officers selected to monitor the election process.  One of the most egregious actions of the 2020 elections was breaking the rules, laws, and regulations of the formal election process in the primaries, which then extended into the actual election day results.  Why bring up the 2020 Federal Election farrago?  Because as of 25 August 2021, the same pattern is occurring in California, again!  Ballots are going missing, ballots are being dumped in trash cans, mail-in ballots without signatures, fraudulent ballots are being injected into the counts, etc., ad nauseam ad infinitum.

The 2020 Federal Election farrago proved that through fraud, deceit, and the purchase of local elected officials, elections could be thrown to whichever candidate had sufficient money to pay for the politics needed to win.  Where are integrity and honesty in the election process; they left for the Jersey shore, got mugged, and are lying under a “John Doe” in some backwater hospital on life support.  I support Larry Elder for Governor of California, but I do not think the Newsom Political machine will allow him a fair and honest election opportunity!

LookThus, the problem for ALL of AMERICA right now!  Primaries are coming, political futures hang in the balance, and the media know that the liberal madness and tyranny from COVID-Mandates has left a bitter taste in every person’s mouth.  The polls show no politician being trusted, and if the political machines are to keep paying dividends to special and private interests, then those investing in their favorite politician are going to have to pony up serious cash to buy the elections officials right now to protect the sleaze in office from the school board and Mayor to the president!

The elections in a representative government must remain sacrosanct, or representative government fails!  Yet, do you honestly trust the results of any of the elections since 2000 and the “Chad” fiasco in Florida?  I am not asking you to support any candidate; this platform does not advocate for or against any candidate.  I advocate for people; I advocate for liberty and the health of the American Republic.  Elections matter, voting is important, but politics is hurting America, and the citizenry needs to understand this concept.

Knowledge Check!Tell me, after the last two weeks of being ignored by the US President, with American Citizens being placed last, if at all, on the priority list in Afghanistan, do you feel represented by your government?  California, let’s discuss some truths; your politicians are some of the most hated and despised politicians in the American political system; they win with the lowest approval ratings and polling standards, time after time.  Sure, these politicians gerrymandered the living daylights out of their districts, but even then, they should have lost a long time ago.  Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why these hated imbeciles keep winning office in Sacramento and Washington DC?

California, how did Governor Moonbeam ever make a comeback in your state?  How did Newsom the loser ever keep his job as Mayor, let alone win the seat as governor?  I watched those elections; I keep asking myself how, why, where do the votes come from?  Then the Federal Election of 2020 occurred.  It became apparent; the patterns of winning in California have leaked across America. The same way to win keeping politicians in office in Chicago and Las Vegas moved to perfection in California and then across America.  Fraud, deceit, skullduggery, gerrymandering, and the political purchasing of local election officials and attorneys, judges, and other easily bribed public officials.

Does the derogatory nature, the hatred, and the duplicity of the politician shine through from those holding elected office right now?  Is the definition more clear and the need for sundering politics from government more apparent?  Is it clear why politics should not be part of government?Angry Grizzly Bear

Nobody is “Too BIG to Fail,” even the government, and it is past time for the elected officials and the bureaucrats dependent upon the political machine to begin to fear an open ballot box and an angry electorate!  It is time to ask who paid the postmen to dump the ballots?  Who paid the government employees to shuffle the ballots, copy ballots, and accept fraudulent votes?  It is past time to question the legitimacy, integrity, and informational security of the electronic voting machines and have transparency in voting.  It is past time for mandatory ID, one vote, one ID, and a biometric tag to protect against fraudulent ballots, stuffed ballot boxes, and mailed-in ballot duplicity.

cropped-bird-of-prey.jpgYou, the American citizen, are needed!  Awake and Arise!  Find your strength and stand before it is too late and your country has fallen an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle while you slept!  History will judge you and me for what we do and say right now; let them record we did not allow the American Experiment to fail on our watch; we fought back against the tide of tyranny and oppression and won!

© 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.

Blood is Blood – The Logic is Flawed!

Exclamation MarkLast night, during one of my frequent periods of wakefulness, a headline blew my mind, “There is no difference between blood and blood – Horowitz removes restrictions on gay men donating blood,” as reported by the Jerusalem Post.  Using this logic, then going maskless is not a problem, and being vaccinated or not vaccinated is not a problem either, for blood is blood.  Worse, consider the ramifications; the safety and integrity of the blood supply have been a critical problem from the first day humans realized we could take blood from one person and put it into another person successfully.  Mistakes in the integrity and safety of the blood and blood product supply cost people their lives!

I am not here to discuss the political aspects of this move.  The Health Minister of Israel (Horowitz) will be measured and weighed by his electorate for good or ill.  How and when the Health Minister will be measured and weighed will be up to the people in Israel, and I hope they will choose wisely.  I have no further comments on the political side and wish Israel the best of luck on this issue.

However, on the practical aspects of blood and blood product, safety and security, I have a LOT of concerns and have some authority, knowledge, and ability; thus, I will speak to this issue.  As I begin, I will state, again for the record, I do not care about your bedroom choices (hetero-, homo-, etc.), keep them to yourself and your legal age of consent consenting partner, and I could care less.  However, medical professionals should know some risks as they handle body fluids, especially when donating those fluids for others to use in an emergency.

Pin on Signs and SymbolsDuring the 1980s, both the American Red Cross and the Canada Red Cross Society suffered blood tainted scandals due to insufficient testing of, knowledge of, understanding of, and the dimensions inherent to donating blood and blood products where sexually transmitted diseases were concerned, especially AIDS/HIV.  AIDS/HIV was not the only sexually transmitted disease that crossed through blood transfusions, Herpes, Gonorrhea, and many more all had their times in the spotlights as diseases making their ways into donated blood and thence into patients without risky lifestyles, who contracted these diseases after receiving transfusions of blood or blood by-products.  The first cases were noticed in the US Military, where patients started having problems with these sexually transmitted diseases after being wounded and receiving life-saving blood or blood by-products and then catching an infectious disease.  Even Malaria has records of being passed through blood and blood by-products, so just presuming that sexually transmitted diseases are the only diseases to worry about is not acceptable.

Claiming “blood is blood” is the height of exaggerated ineptitude for a political cause.  Yes, red stuff oozing from a mammalian host can generally be typified as blood, but not all blood is the same, nor is all blood equal.  This is why monkey blood is not harvested for use in humans, why Ape blood is not transferred into elephants, and human blood has a letter classification system.  Whale blood cannot be used in dolphins, nor is it compatible with human use; thus, claiming “blood is blood” remains a thoroughly ignorant comment of the highest magnitude!

The 17th AnnualGive the Gift of Life Holiday Blood Drive | B104 WBWN-FMTake a minute, those of us who lived through the 1980s health scares and blood scandals.  By the way, that is plural for a reason; blood scandals keep happening because blood security and integrity and politics do not mix, and every time some politician thinks they can mix safely, we have another blood integrity scandal, and people die!  Do you want to take the risk of being in an auto accident, being rushed to a hospital, receiving blood or blood by-products, and coming home with a transfusion disease?  What about dialysis patients who regularly receive blood or blood by-products; do you want to add another worry to your list of health concerns when receiving care?

Sign Donation Blood Heart Donor Icon Stock Illustration - Illustration of icon, design: 79488667Now, suppose the findings on a medical record were being made public, and the patient’s rights trampled, where disclosure of lifestyle risks kept that person from donating blood and were being published. In that case, I might believe there was a “rights” concern to be vocal about.  However, this is not the case, and refusing a population with known high risks for passing multiple communicable diseases through all types of body fluids, from donating said fluids to the general population, is just sane and common sense medicine.  It is not discriminatory to exclude those who choose a higher-risk lifestyle to participate in specific activities where the health and welfare of the general population are concerned.Blood Donation Sign Wall Poster Background Material, Love, Blood, Donation Background Image for ...

Case in point.  If I travel to Thailand, whether I engage in the sex trade or not, I am refused from donating blood for a specific period after I return home, and I will have to pass a blood test before my blood is accepted at the blood bank.  Plus, because I prefer to give plasma, I will have to prove I am clean twice before I can give plasma again.  This is not discriminatory; this is a safety precaution to protect the rest of the blood and blood by-product supply from contamination.  Now, if I engaged in the sex trade in Thailand, I would be banned indefinitely from donating blood, regardless of condom usage, and the remarks would be permanent across the entire records of the Red Cross.  All because the threat is too great to risk allowing this heterosexual male access to donate blood and run the risk of contaminating it with a disease from Thailand.  I know people in South Korea, who caught unique diseases during the Korean War, who cannot return to the United States, ever.  The United States made this decision not to run the risk of contaminating America with what they caught.  Not discrimination, simple public health policy.

Knowledge Check!Now, we return to the crux of the argument.  If “Blood is blood,” then being vaccinated does not matter because blood is blood and public health and safety are not issues where communicable or infectious diseases are concerned.  If this is correct, why do we still have COVID restrictions?  If blood is not blood, why bow to political pressure on something that is definitely not a political but a medical safety issue?  Politicians and those who cling to the government for an answer to every single problem cannot have this issue both ways.  Either blood integrity and safety is a medical issue where common sense practices trump individual rights for the common good and safety of donating life-giving fluids, or life requires taking risks, and we can shut down the regulatory boards and panels, reducing the costs of medicine.  I am all for reducing the size and cost of government; while I might not argue fully for making all those cuts in medicine regulation, a choice needs to be made and then supported.  Choose wisely!

© 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.