BMEWS
 
Sarah Palin's enemies are automatically added to the Endangered Species List.

calendar   Wednesday - June 24, 2020

No No Neo

I actually did some work on the blog itself today. A miracle, right?

I’d heard privately that sometimes the page would load and you’d get a splash screen saying the domain was for sale. This is not true, duh. It’s kind of a hack.

I used to look at statistics for the blog. So I had the NeoWorx counter thingy in the code. NeoWorx went out of business years and years ago, but I never got around to taking the code out. And somebody figured out how to use it, also years ago, and set up a scam. Send them money for the domain name. It just took the web spiders this long to get around to my rinky-dink blog.

So I pulled the code. And I hope it works. Let me know if it doesn’t.

And while I was at it, I put in the current URL for Vilmar’s blog down at the Disclaimer at the bottom of the blog. The other link was so old it had him as Right Wing Howler. Egad.

~~~~

Next up on the To Do list for BMEWS:

1) getting the blog email working again. I haven’t been able to log into it in most of a year. I bet there’s 20,000 junk emails in there, and maybe a couple of good comments and new member requests.

2) trying to remember how the header scroll text message things work. I figure it’s about time to pull my Sarah Palin texts off of there. It’s been what, 7 years? Or is it 11? The Obama Era was endless darkness, so I can’t recall whether McStain ran against him the first time, or whether that was Mittens Romney the pretend Republican.

I’m going to leave the tartan up in remembrance of Stewie. Allan put it there ... 16 years ago? ... when he died in his car. I liked Stewie, so it’ll stay. So many members have come and gone, several passed away. Allan and Peiper too. I haven’t heard from Mr. Christian in ... 13 years?

OMG, I’ve been running this blog forever. 14 years. Mr. Christian only had the helm for a few months, and Allan died early in 2006. The only commenters I don’t miss are Old Cat Man and Christopher.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/24/2020 at 03:03 PM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff •  
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The Three Little Hitlers Of Hypocrisy

Cuomo, Murphy, Lamont: You MUST Quarantine If You Come Here From Hotspot States

Shoe is on the other foot now, but it’s still crusted with dog poop.

NEW JERSEY – Traveling from high-infection states to New Jersey, New York and Connecticut? You “must quarantine,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo says.

Cuomo appeared with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Ct. Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday in announcing “a joint travel advisory” for people coming in from states with a high infection rate.

Cuomo said those travelers “must quarantine for 14 days.”

Constitutionally, Murphy said, “were not able to put up border checks around New Jersey” and physically usher people into quarantine. But he did say the advisory was “more than a recommendation.”

It’s not clear how the measure will be enforced, but Murphy said the state Health Department will be responsible for dealing with flagrant violations of the advisory.

Murphy said he’s “asking” people from high-infection states to “do the right thing for themselves as well as their families and communities.”

What a hypocrite. Remember when NY was the COVID capital of the world, and Rhode Island said they’d quarantine drivers playing Escape From New York? He pitched a total fit, threatening lawsuits, waving the Constitution around etc. And now?

I guess we’re really not “all in this together”. No kidding. Just ask Italy.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/24/2020 at 02:19 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsPandemic Pandemonium •  
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How Much More Of This BS Are We Going To Put Up With??

Shoot the bastards already. By the hundreds. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. And first prize is a case of instant terminal lead poisoning. Too freakin’ bad.

Wisconsin Senator Beaten By Statue Toppling Protest Rioters

A Democrat state senator from Milwaukee was pummeled by a group of protesters at the Wisconsin State Capitol late Tuesday during a violent clash that included two statues being toppled, a report said.

Sen. Tim Carpenter told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he was beaten after taking a photo of some of the protesters.

“I don’t know what happened,” he told the paper. “All I did was stop and take a picture and the next thing I’m getting five-six punches, getting kicked in the head.”

A reporter from the paper posted an image of Carpenter while he kneeled by his car.

Social media posts from the scene early Wednesday indicated that police in riot gear were warning protesters to leave the area after reports that some were trying to break the windows of the capitol building.

NBC 15 reported that protesters toppled the two statues. The paper reported that one of the statues was of Col. Christian Heg, who fought and died during the Civil War on the Union side.

Rich Lowery, the editor of the National Review, tweeted, “It’s now open season on abolitionists who recruited troops for the Union army, ably led them, and died courageously on the battlefield.”

The unrest on Tuesday started after a black man was arrested at a restaurant after police said he brought a bat and a megaphone into the establishment, the report said.

So it was the restaurant’s fault of course. Because blacks are above the law no matter what. Frankly, you can’t carry a bat around outside of the ball field. That’s brandishing, which is just one tiny step less than assault with a deadly weapon. So you know he was up to no good. I don’t blame the restaurant AT ALL for having the cops get this guy out of their establishment before he created a scene and started destroying their property.

So that’s a perfect reason to have yet another protest and destroy things. Riiiight.

W. T. F. ?  How much more of this dogshit are we going to put up with? Arrest these scumbags by the thousands, and beat the living crap out of any who give you the slightest trouble. It’s time to take our nation back. It’s time to stop this insane anarchist protest / rebellion infantile tantrum.

Madison protesters tear down Capitol statues, attack state Senator from Milwaukee as fury erupts again

Fury exploded outside the Wisconsin State Capitol on Tuesday night as protesters smashed windows at the statehouse, attacked a state senator, and tore down two iconic statues — including one of an abolitionist who died trying to end slavery during the Civil War.

The unrest began earlier Tuesday following the arrest of a Black man who was arrested after bringing a megaphone and a baseball bat into a Capitol square restaurant. It followed weeks of mostly peaceful protests of the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a white police officer.

It prompted Gov. Tony Evers on Wednesday to put the Wisconsin National Guard on notice to protect state buildings, including the Capitol. During the melee late Tuesday, Democratic state Sen. Tim Carpenter was assaulted after filming the protesters.

“I don’t know what happened ... all I did was stop and take a picture ... and the next thing I’m getting five-six punches, getting kicked in the head,” Carpenter told a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter following the assault.

...

Protesters, chanting for the release of the man who’d been arrested earlier, also broke glass at the Tommy Thompson Center on West Washington Avenue, smashed windows and lights at the state Capitol, and set a small fire at the Dane County jail before police arrived just before 1 a.m.

The violent demonstrations followed the arrest of Devonere Johnson by Madison police officers after Johnson brought a bullhorn and baseball bat into Cooper’s Tavern, a restaurant on the Capitol square.

“Officers attempted to place him under arrest for his actions inside the restaurant,” the Madison police officers wrote in a report. “Johnson resisted arrest and struggled with officers ... Johnson was able to push past officers and escape from the squad car before being tackled as he attempted to escape.”

...

In Madison, statues of Wisconsin’s motto “Forward” and of Col. Hans Christian Heg were dragged away from their spots guarding the statehouse.

Heg was an anti-slavery activist who fought and died for the Union during the U.S. Civil War. His nearly 100-year-old sculpture was decapitated and thrown into a Madison lake by protesters.

The original Forward statue was first placed in front of the Wisconsin State Capitol in 1895. Protesters tore down a replica that was commissioned in the 1990s.

Forward is “an allegory of devotion and progress,” according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Madison Police Department said 200 to 300 protesters were within the crowd that ultimately became violent.

The group first entered a private condo building in Madison and surrounded a tow truck, forcing the owner to abandon the vehicle before smashing windows and tearing down the Capitol statues.

A molotov cocktail also was thrown into the Madison and Dane County administration building where the county jail sits.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/24/2020 at 09:23 AM   
Filed Under: • CrimeDemocrats-Liberals-Moonbat LeftistsREALLY WORTHLESS and PUTRID PEOPLE •  
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So Now I Nose

I Survived The COVID PCR Test

I had the nasal swab COVID test and it wasn’t that bad. A bit uncomfortable. Almost the whole process is done in pantomine, with the attendees holding up flip chart signs you read through your car window.

Make sure to print out your appointment confirmation email, bring your cell phone, and have your ID ready. And duh, have your mask on. No mask, and they tell you to leave.





~~~~



image

Take this and stick it all the way up your nose. Twice.



So I went down to Walmart in Flemington for my test this morning. They’ve got it set up like a little factory. Signs at the entrance to the parking lot direct you around back, over to the far corner of the lot demarcated with those portable metal fence barriers that look like big bicycle racks. Several patio gazebos are set up to provide shade for the workers.

Drive around the maze following the arrows and get to the check in point. A person in one of those “hazmat” bunny suits is there, mask, gloves, face shield, with a clipboard and two sets of flip charts. Read and respond. English? Thumbs up or down. Espanol? Si or no. “Keep your windows rolled up” reads the first one. Nod. “hold your confirmation email to the window”. Nod. She reads it, marks her papers. “Follow the arrows to the next station”. Ok. Get checked again 50 yards down the path. Yup, it’s still me. “Slightly unroll your window to receive the packet”. I do. It gets delivered at the end of one of those kitchen grabber extension gizmos that grandma uses for the high shelves. “Read and follow the instructions on the bag. Do not open the bag until instructed to do so.” Sure, fine.

Most of the time I was just sitting in line, waiting for the drivers ahead of me to be processed. So I have plenty of time to look at my little bag of stuff. It’s got a paper telling me that I’ll be notified by email when my results are in, and the URL for the online results. There’s a paper tissue, a capped little plastic sample test tube with some liquid in it, and a sealed FLOQswab for me to impale my sinuses with at the appropriate moment. The thing looks like a Q-tip mated with a Samurai sword. Oh joy.

image

The depth guard, what I instantly think of as a tsuba, the hilt on a katana, is rather a long distance back from the swab tip. Must be my imagination, as the whole thing isn’t even 6” long and the swab tip is as thin as the point on a felt tip pen. But that’s my nose it’s going in, so it looks huge and rather intimidating. Remember that scene from Total Recall where Ahnold has to pull the tracking beacon out of his nose? Yeah. “When you hear the crunch you’re there.” What have I got myself into now?

So I putt-putt to the next station, and Freddy Flip Chart holds up a sign with a phone number on it. With a picture of a cell phone, in case I’m not too bright. So I call. The number is in Arizona, but I realize I’m talking to the guy a foot outside my window, with his Bluetooth thing on his ear. I’m talking to him through my car, which has that built in phone connectivity thing. I almost never use it. I never call while driving, but sometimes I get a text, and it will read it to me. The wonders of modern technology.

So he tells me what to do, with diagrams for the easily confused. Open the swab package from this end. Remove the swab by the handle. Take off your mask, tip your head back, and insert the swab into your right nostril until the guard touches your nostrils. I do. Slowly. EEEERRrrG. Only slightly painful, but really weird feeling. I’m not in the habit of sticking things up my nose, and this thing is going way the heck in there. But once it’s in, I don’t even feel it. It stays in for 15 seconds, but I don’t have to rotate it around or anything. Now remove the swab. OMG, this is irritating and I have to sneeze. Now put the swab up your left nostril until the guard touches your nostril. Ok, that side was easier. I guess my sinuses are more open or larger on the left. Wait until he tells me to remove it, now pull it out. I know what to expect, so this time it doesn’t feel so freaky.

Now comes the dexterity part. While holding the swab by the handle with the tip not touching anything, remove the test tube from the kit bag. Holding it cap up with a couple fingers, unscrew and remove the cap. The cap comes off with just half a turn, so that’s easy. Insert the swab into the test tube as far as it goes. Uh huh, done. Now bend the handle around until it breaks. Not quite sure of that, but I bend the handle end once, twice, and it snaps off, leaving the business end in the tube. Screw the cap on. Yup. Put the tube in the bag and close the Ziploc seal. Got it.

Then he steps back, gets a metal cart on wheels with an Igloo chest on the top, opens it and rolls it up to my window, while he’s quite far away at the other end of the cart. Put my envelope in the ice chest. And that’s it. Thank you have a nice day.

Once the swab was out of my sinuses, my nose only felt weird for a few seconds. By the time I followed the arrows out of the parking lot, I wasn’t feeling anything at all.

The self-administered test is nothing to be afraid of. A few seconds of minor discomfort and it’s over. The whole process took 12 minutes, from showing up to driving away.  And it was free.

Damn, I should have bought stock in Quest Diagnostics when this pandemic started. I bet they’re making a killing right now.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/24/2020 at 08:01 AM   
Filed Under: • pandemic and epidemic diseases •  
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calendar   Tuesday - June 23, 2020

why not

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See More Below The Fold

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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/23/2020 at 08:26 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
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yay rain

We’re getting Wardmama’s monsoon weather a day or so later. It went from hot and steamy to dark, windy, cool, and raining like mad in a matter of minutes. Plenty of thunder too. Good. We need rain very badly. Hasn’t rained more than a short sprinkle once in the past 3 or 4 weeks. Way too dry. And I’m tired of lugging around a bucket and a watering can to keep my flowers alive. Sure, all that mulch helped a lot, but still.

Sorry, this isn’t much of a post. But I get to stab myself in the face with a giant Qtip tomorrow morning! Woo hoo!!  Yup, I’m going to have a COVID test, the PCR kind. I have no symptoms at all, but I’d like to know for sure. And we did actually hang around with 4 other people this past weekend. Biggest in person socialization I’ve done since March 20. Same people as a matter of fact.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/23/2020 at 08:15 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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calendar   Monday - June 22, 2020

the battered barber

Shave And A Haircut, Screw This

NJ has another Big Re-Opening today. woo woo. You can actually go to the barber and get a haircut, but the list of rules is insane. Also, our Governor is pushing anybody who has been anywhere to get a COVID test.

For getting a haircut, barbers and hair salons must:

•   Install physical barriers, if feasible, to minimize client contact with staff in the reception area.

•   Utilize floor markers (such as signs or tape) to designate 6-foot distances in common areas of the premises, including the reception and/or waiting area, client service stations, bathrooms, and employee break rooms.

•   Seating in the reception and/or waiting area shall be rearranged or removed to ensure that people are seated at least 6 feet apart.

•   Reconfigure the premises to ensure that staff-client pairs maintain at least 6 feet distance between any other staff-client pairs at all times, unless separated in private closed-rooms or by physical barriers.

•   Utilize pre-payment or remote, contactless payment options, when possible.

•   If the exchange of cash is unavoidable, cash should be placed on the counter and not exchanged hand-to-hand.

•   Staff accepting cash shall wipe the counter between each transaction and wash their hands with soap or utilize hand sanitizer after each transaction.

•   Establish an isolated area for delivery of supplies and materials.

•   Clean all surfaces at the premises with hot soapy water or cleaning wipes prior to reopening and before disinfecting.

•   Hard non-porous surfaces, such as glass, metal, and plastic, as well as all tools should be disinfected even if they were cleaned before the premises was closed.

•   Remove items that are intended to be used by multiple people, such as magazines/books/newspapers or other publications.

•   Install hand sanitizers for use by clients and staff.

•   Decline to provide services to any clients without a pre-scheduled appointment that has been arranged by telephone, text messaging, or online.

•   No walk-ins shall be permitted.

•   Screen no more than 24 hours prior to the appointment all clients scheduled for appointments.

•   The screening must be done via a telephonic or online consultation or questionnaire that includes the screening questions.

•   Clients are required to submit to a no-contact forehead temperature check.

•   Clients must wear, at a minimum, a cloth face covering at all times, except where doing so would inhibit the person’s health or the person is under 2 years of age.

•   Space appointments to allow adequate time for cleaning and disinfecting all nonporous surfaces.

•   Those with a temperature exceeding 100.4 degrees, along with anyone accompanying them, should be denied entry.

•   Stagger work hours of staff or adjust operating hours to limit the number of people on the premises at any given time, and accommodate social distancing.

•   Require all staff immediately prior to the initial re-entry after the reopening of the premises to respond to screening questions.

•   Require premises owners, managers, staff, clients, and anyone else in the premises to wear, at minimum, a cloth face covering at all times before, during, and after performing services.

•   Provide clients with, at minimum, cloth face coverings, if they arrive for an appointment without a face covering, or decline to provide services.

•   Direct staff to wear gloves when required to handle dirty linens or laundry.

•   Allow for break time for repeated hand washing between clients throughout the day.

•   Staff must maintain an appointment book with contact information regarding clients served, as well as a daily log of staff, and submit such information if requested to the Department of Health or the local board of health.

•   Notify the local health department immediately if it is suspected that any person who is known to have contracted COVID-19 was on the premises while COVID-19 positive, and cooperate with contact tracing efforts.

My barber is right down the street. He and his wife run the place. There’s one hair chair area for him, and one for her. The waiting area has 4 chairs and some magazines. I finally couldn’t take it any longer, and had my wife cut my hair 2 weeks ago.

( Remember magazines? That’s another thing you’ll probably never see again in any waiting room for anything anywhere. Because, eww, viral contact. So buh bye. )

If this is what barbershops have to go through, I can’t imagine what bowling alleys will be forced to put up with. It just doesn’t work. Or maybe our commie governor wants to put them out of business entirely.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/22/2020 at 11:24 AM   
Filed Under: • pandemic and epidemic diseasesThe New NormalPandemic Pandemonium •  
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calendar   Saturday - June 20, 2020

doing it all night long

Ok, the Father’s Day bread is starting. I want it to rise slowly overnight, so I can give it an hour or so in the banneton in the morning, and get a decent night’s sleep, without the dough being over-proofed. So I used cool water instead of warm, left the starter slightly underfed, and only used a small dollop of honey to wake the starter up. I changed the unit from my usual 40gm to 50gms, so it will make a loaf 25% larger, enough for 6 people. It ought to be about the most dough the banneton can handle, but if it’s too much I’ll just make a giant boule and bake it up. No worries. And if it is a bit over risen, they won’t know. It tastes the same; it just doesn’t stand as tall. Like they’ll even notice. Usually the bread is practically torn from my hands when I walk in, and is mostly gone in 10 minutes. Fine by me.

It’s the same 4 flour sourdough I’ve been making for a couple months now, but thanks to the lockdown, they’ve never had it. I haven’t seen anybody since March 20, and I didn’t bring bread then. It was a quicky; show up, watch the wedding with our masks on, have a quick drink, talk with folks long distance for a bit, then go home. Done in 90 minutes. Before that, I guess it was Christmas the last real visit we had.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/20/2020 at 10:23 PM   
Filed Under: • Bread •  
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calendar   Friday - June 19, 2020

Cuomo the idiot

Another Case Of Fake Noose

fake noose

A visitor at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem took a photo Saturday of what was called a “noose” hanging from a tree near the historic Fire Watch Tower, WNBC-TV reported.

And man, did that ever set people off — among them Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the station said.

“I am disgusted by the recent discovery of a noose — the epitome of hatred and an evil icon of our nation’s racist past — in Harlem’s Marcus Garvey Park,” Cuomo’s Tuesday statement read, according to WNBC. “New York is no place for hate, and the progress we’ve made as a society will not be undone by the work of a few cowards.”

But later that same evening, the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force indicated no act of hate occurred, WNBC reported.

The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force investigated this incident thoroughly. According to the park director, it was left over from a construction scaffold that was removed in the fall. The rope was used to hoist construction materials.

I love the defusing BS from the cops.

Let’s face it:

1) No construction worker would use a tree as a lifting point. They might drop a rope from a pulley, but that would be in or on the tower itself. The cop’s story is bogus if the rope was actually in a tree. Also, that looks like a total POS bit of rope. Not what a building crew would use ever.

2) If there was a noose hanging there since last fall, about a zillion people would have seen it by now. It was put there just a couple days ago obviously, possibly by the person who took the photo.

3) Don’t you dare cry racism in a place not a single white person would dare to go to in fear of their very lives. Marcus Garvey Park? In Harlem??? AYFKM??

4) 2 + 3 = hoax hate crime. The only possible person who could have put this up was black.

PS - it’s a bowline, not a hangman’s noose. It’s not even a slip knot, which is what a hanging noose is based on. More proof, because even basic knot tying is beyond some people?

UPDATE, NOW WITH EVEN MORE FAKE NOOSE!!: NASCAR Noose is also a hoax [ see below the fold ]


See More Below The Fold

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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/19/2020 at 12:54 PM   
Filed Under: • Fake NewsRacism and race relations •  
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OH STFU CHOP

Juneteenth In Seattle: YT Ain’t Welcome, But Guard Us And Give Us Free Shit

The radical enclave in Seattle known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) will apparently feature a Juneteenth celebration on Friday that will be restricted to black people, while white people are being asked to provide security and donations.

Fox News reported Friday that the CHOP, formerly known as the “CHAZ” (for Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone), would be entirely closed to white people.

...

A Facebook page for the event, called “Juneteenth Blackout at the CHOP,” details the plans for the 12-hour observance:

We’re blacking out CHOP…the viral death of black bodies was the catalyst for this current movement and we need to make sure we remain focused. This means both policy and systemic change to our systems and healing space for black people.

So that’s exactly what we’re creating. A series of events in which we center black healing and community.

What we need from our non-black allies are donations of money and supplies and the willingness to support by quietly protecting sacred space for black healing. We need allies on the outskirts who are willing to be a physical barrier of protection and to peacefully deter potential interruptions.

The schedule for the day includes a “grief ritual” and “community art healing.” There seems to be no formal acknowledgement of the significance of June 19 — namely, that it marks the moment in 1865 after the Civil War when slaves in Texas were informed that they had been liberated more than two years earlier as a result of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

There is also a GoFundMe page, “Black Out at the CHOP,” that appears to be run by the organizers of the Juneteenth event.

The Cal Anderson Park also hosts the CHOP’s community garden, which includes a portion set aside for “black and indigenous folks and their plant allies.”

Know what? We used to have a day to celebrate emancipation. It was called Lincoln’s Birthday. We also have the Fourth of July to celebrate all of our freedoms (the few we have left at any rate) which would include manumission. So being exclusive is not just pandering, it’s racist. Segregationalist. No.

Know what else? If you want to make Juneteenth a national holiday, then EVERYBODY gets to celebrate it. Because dem slaves didn’t free demselfs, now did they? So it’s something we should all be part of, or none of us. Because actually, it means jack shit, especially when more than the half the population didn’t even have ancestors here at the time.

I’m tired of this divisiveness. And I’m beyond tired of the pandering and the kow-towing. I don’t see all the Koreans having “We Escaped Communist Tyranny Day”. Heck no, they’re too busy working.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/19/2020 at 12:26 PM   
Filed Under: • Racism and race relations •  
Comments (1) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

online again

yay I have internet again, at least for a little while. I don’t know what is going on with that. Whatever.

So today’s loaf has a bit of honey in it. My usual 4 flour sourdough. I fed the starter last night, saw that it was kind of dry so I added a bit extra water. Left it out overnight and it rose up so much it overflowed. And that’s after I disposed of a goodly amount of it. There’s always too much starter, that’s just how it is unless you bake 4 loaves a day. Um, no. I’m good for 1 a week, maybe. But we’re going visiting Sunday, and that means I’ll bring bread, so I always get the starter primed up a few days in advance, and make a test loaf just to make sure everything is proper. So far, so good. Dough came out a bit wet today, so at the 3rd folding I worked in a little extra flour. You get a feel for this stuff after a while, knowing when the dough is right, and not too wet or too dry.

So into the proofer, and let it ferment for 4 hours or so. Sourdough goes slow, but that’s where the flavor comes from.

The first of my tall lilies opened this morning in the lower garden. That’s my best plant too; it grows 4 feet tall and this year has a dozen blossoms. The lilies in the upper garden get more sun, so they’re open too, and a nice height, but they aren’t quite as hefty as this one plant. She’s a sturdy girl for sure.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/19/2020 at 12:12 PM   
Filed Under: • BreadDaily Lifegardening •  
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calendar   Thursday - June 18, 2020

disconnected

Having internet issues again today. Can’t get any bandwidth.

Hey, I got a 70% raise today. I’ve been doing the sanitizing stuff for several weeks now as part of my rinky-dink cleaning job, and I’d mentioned a while back how we’d have to figure out some kind of surcharge when I got things figured out. So I sent doc a text today, said “let’s negotiate” and quoted him a number. A few minutes later he responded “Ok”. Such a negotiator!! OTOH, maybe I’ve been undercharging him all these years. Whatevs. I don’t make much from that job to being with, but it’s only 3 hours a week total. This extra part won’t last forever; I figure this whole sanitization paranoia will blow over in less than 3 months, but I’ll take the extra cash as long as it lasts. It’s not like it’s hard work, it’s just time consuming pushing the steam wand slowly back and forth across a couple thousand square feet of flooring and carpet.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/18/2020 at 04:18 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Moron the FDA HCQ EUA

When TDS bias becomes lethal ...

FDA EUA Statement Indirectly References Two Terribly Flawed Studies

image  image

Yeah, I know. I’m sick of going on about the global tidal wave of purposely inept trials and studies that show how hydroxychloroquine just ain’t no good for treating SARS-COV-2. But when these studies are so poorly done that they kill people, I have to speak up.

The FDA statement does not mention these studies by name, but merely notes who the authors are. As if we can’t figure out what studies they’re associated with. Like I said before, weasel wording, smoke and mirrors.

The first study, now redacted from the FDA’s statement the other day, was the one published in the UK medical journal The Lancet, which is about the most respected medical news stream in the world. That study was so poorly done that hundreds of doctors around the world immediately questioned the validity of it, and within a short time The Lancet retracted it. Turns out the study was done by some shell company called Surgisphere, which had a staff of “highly trained experts” that included a science fiction writer and a whore adult model / “event hostess”. The backlash against Surgisphere was so strong that the company is now out of business.

Remember Surgisphere? That was the name of the company that allegedly gathered data from hundreds of hospitals around the world and subsequently published a research paper claiming people treated with hydroxychloroquine were more likely to die than those who were not. That paper made international news at the time, but dozens of doctors questioned the credibility of its data. The paper was eventually retracted and, as of today, it appears Surgisphere is no more.

So the reference to the Lancet’s report was pulled by the FDA’s EUA statement as the prime evidence that HCQ doesn’t work. Oops.



The second study is the RECOVERY paper from Oxford University in the UK, which is part of the global Solidarity COVID research and trials effort. The RECOVERY study found that HCQ was not just useless but super dangerous, as the patients in the study were dropping like flies. Dying left and right.

Hydroxychloroquine does not treat coronavirus, according to the world’s biggest trial of the anti-malaria drug backed by US President Donald Trump.

Oxford University scientists pulled the controversial drug from the RECOVERY trial today after results showed it had no benefit on patients hospitalised with the virus.

A quarter of NHS patients given hydroxychloroquine died from Covid-19, compared to 23.5 per cent who were not prescribed the drug.

The scientists running the trial, which has recruited more than 1,500 patients from around 170 UK hospitals, said the results were ‘pretty compelling’, adding: ‘This isn’t a treatment that works.’

Professor Martin Landray, lead author of the study, added: ‘If you’re admitted to hospital with Covid – you, your mother or anyone else - hydroxychloroquine is not the right treatment. It doesn’t work.’

He called for doctors around the world to stop using the drug, which can cause a slew of nasty side effects including heart arrhythmias, headaches and vomiting.

But Professor Landray said the results do not necessarily mean the tablets cannot prevent people from catching Covid-19 in the first place, which several studies are still investigating. 

And here comes their OOPS scenario: the brain trust in charge of the study was giving the patients a nearly lethal dose of HCQ. Because some idiot confused hyroxychloroquine with hydroxyquinoline ( Iodoquinol ), which is a medicine used to treat dysentery. The dysentery medicine dosage is much larger - it’s a different drug entirely - and that amount of HCQ is more than enough to get you sent to the poison control centers if you’re in France. Any HCQ dose over 1800mg is potentially fatal , and they were giving patients 2400mg.

The UK “Recovery” trial was very similar to, but not part of, the international Solidarity conglomeration of clinical trials. The Recovery trial ended its HCQ arm on June 4, reporting no benefit. In-hospital mortality of the 1542 patients receiving hydroxychloroquine was 25.7%, or 396 deaths, about 10% higher than those receiving standard care, a non-significant difference.

The UK Recovery trial Study Protocol notes it is funded in part by the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and by UK government agencies.  The Protocol provides the doses of hydroxychloroquine used, on page 22.  Twitter users began to notice a dosing problem, with hashtag #RecoveryGate. 

The HCQ dosing regimen used in the Recovery trial was 12 tablets during the first 24 hours (800mg initial dose, 800 mg six hours later, 400 mg 6 hrs later, 400 mg 6 hours later), then 400 mg every 12 hours for 9 more days.  This is 2.4 grams during the first 24 hours, and a cumulative dose of 9.2 grams over 10 days.

Even more disturbing than this, babies weighing 5 kg could be given a dose of 300 mg HCQ in the first 24 hours in the UK Recovery trial, which is 233 mg of the base (47 mg/kg), nearly 4 times the recommended maximum.  One to two pills (200-400 mg) is “potentially fatal in a toddler”.

...

Co-Principal Investigators of the Recovery trial, Drs. Peter Horby and Martin Landray, said they followed the WHO dosing. This is what their trial document says as well, on page 23. Landray also claimed in an interview with Paris Soir that the maximum allowed HCQ dose was “6 or 10 times” the dose used in Recovery, and that he was using the hydroxychloroquine dose that is used for amebic dysentery.  However, the accepted use for HCQ in amebiasis is only for a liver abscess and only then in pregnancy, when other drugs cannot be used.  That dose is 600 mg per day for 2 days, then 300 mg per day, considerably less than half the Recovery dose.  Co-Principal Investigator Peter Horby said that Paris Soir misinterpreted Landray’s comments, but Paris Soir said Landray had confirmed what he told them in an email prior to publication.  Landray is a very busy man, too busy, apparently, to look up the proper dose of a drug he gave to over 1500 subjects, who were randomized to the treatment and had no say in the matter.

We know that in Brazil, both a high CQ dose and a low CQ dose were trialed, and by April 17 the high dose arm was stopped prematurely due to an excess of deaths with 39% mortality (16 deaths in 41 subjects).  The high dose arm used 600 mg CQ twice daily for ten days, with cumulative dose of 12 grams. EKG changes typical of toxicity were seen in 25% of high dose subjects. The low dose trial continues in Brazil.

How is the drug hydroxychloroquine normally used?  For chronic daily use in systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis, patients receive between 200 and 400 mg daily, or a maximum of 5 mg/kg.  In acute Q fever, 600 mg daily may be given at the start of treatment. For acute attacks of malaria, 1,500-2,000 mg may be given over 3 days.  Professor Didier Raoult’s group in Marseille used 600 mg daily for up to ten days in 1061 Covid-19 patients, and reported 8 deaths, a mortality rate of 0.75%, all over 74 years of age.  The mortality rate reported by Landray and Horby in the Recovery trial is 34 times higher.

...

The Recovery trial used 1.86 grams hydroxychloroquine base (equal to 2400 mg of hydroxychloroquine) in the first 24 hours for treatment of already very ill, hospitalized Covid-19 patients.  The Canadian and Norwegian Solidarity trials used 2,000 mg of HCQ, or 1.55 grams of HCQ base in the first 24 hours. Each trial gave patients a cumulative dose during the first 24 hours that, when given as a single dose, has been documented to be lethal. (The drug’s half-life is about a month, so the cumulative amount is important.)

The doses used in these trials are not recommended for therapy of any medical condition, which I confirmed with Goodman and Gilman’s Pharmacology textbook, the drug’s US label, and the online subscription medical encyclopedia UptoDate.

Excessive, dangerous HCQ dosing continues to be used in WHO’s Solidarity trials. These trials are not, in fact, testing the benefits of HCQ on Covid-19, but rather are testing whether patients survive toxic, non-therapeutic doses.

And what a non-surprise, QT elongation and arrhythmia reactions were plentiful in these patients ... patients who were already deathly ill, probably with other serious co-morbidities, and given extreme overdoses of the HCQ drug. But “oops, we misread the label”? That doesn’t wash.

Big Pharma and the TDS medical community are playing with your lives, to discredit our President, keep this pandemic going, and to buy time for some insanely expensive patented therapy to be created. Is it any wonder why nobody trusts them?

Somewhat related ... another cheap common drug might help with late stage patients. Expect it to become instant anathema if President Trump mentions it. This information comes from the same RECOVERY study. Can we trust it?

Dexamethasone, the familiar glucocorticoid, reduced deaths in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with severe disease by one-third compared to those receiving usual care, according to topline interim results from the RECOVERY trial released early Tuesday.

Deaths in the dexamethasone arm were reduced by one-third (RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.48-0.88, P=0.0003) among patients receiving mechanical ventilation, and by one-fifth (RR 0.80, 95% CI 0.67-0.96, P=0.0021) among patients requiring oxygen versus patients receiving usual care, according to a statement from the study’s authors.

But dexamethasone showed no benefit among patients who did not require respiratory support (RR 1.22, 95% CI 0.86-1.75).
...
“Dexamethasone is the first drug to be shown to improve survival in COVID-19,” said RECOVERY trial chief investigator Peter Horby, MD, PhD, of University of Oxford, in the group’s statement. “The survival benefit is clear and large in those patients who are sick enough to require oxygen treatment, so dexamethasone should now become standard of care in these patients.”

Horby described dexamethasone as “inexpensive, on the shelf and can be used immediately to save lives worldwide.”

Sir Patrick Vallance, the U.K.’s chief scientific adviser, characterized the news as a “ground-breaking development” in the fight against COVID-19.

So if you’re already on the edge of death from COVID, in the hospital already, getting oxygen or even on a ventilator - late pulmonary phase - it appears that this steroid can help. Well that’s a good thing. But if you aren’t at that level of illness, it won’t do anything for you. Sad.



~~~~~



And finally, a clear news story about what the FDA statement actually means is out in the media ... assuming you go to the other side of the world and find that article in The Hindu

Doctors can still prescribe HCQ to patients, says U.S. Health Secretary

Doctors can still prescribe anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to patients, U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar said, hours after the FDA withdrew the emergency use authorisation of chloroquine and HCQ in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision came on Monday after it concluded that the anti-malarial drugs may not be effective to cure the virus infections and lead to greater risks than any potential benefits.

“At this point, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and chloroquine are just like any other approved drug in the United States. They may be used in hospital, they may be used in out-patient, they may be used at home, all subject to a doctor’s prescription,” Mr. Azar said.

“In fact, the FDA’s removal of the Emergency Use Authorisation takes away what had been a significant misunderstanding by many that had made people think that somehow it could only be used in a hospital setting, and we’ve tried to make that clear throughout,” he said in response to a question.
...
“If a doctor wishes to prescribe it, working with a patient, they may prescribe it for any purpose that they wish to do so. And, this (FDA’s decision) actually removes a potential barrier to them,” the Health Secretary said…

If you follow just one link from this post, please read the conclusion at the bottom of this linked page.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/18/2020 at 10:16 AM   
Filed Under: • pandemic and epidemic diseases •  
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calendar   Tuesday - June 16, 2020

the Atlanta thing

Over at Second City Cop:

A TALE OF TWO INCIDENTS by The Atlanta DA’s Office and the Atlanta Mayor.

Incident 1) 5 Atlanta Police Officers fired last week for using a taser to remove two college students from a car. Officers were fired because the Atlanta District Attorney’s Office deemed the Officer’s use of the taser was DEADLY PHYSICAL FORCE.

Incident 2) A suspect who failed a field sobriety test and deemed Driving While Intoxicated resists arrest, fights with police, steals the officers taser (robbery) and escapes. During the pursuit, the suspect turns and fires the taser at the officer’s head and was shot and eventually dies. The Atlanta mayor calls for the Officer to be fired because he used deadly physical force against a taser. [ a “non-lethal” weapon” ]

BURNING QUESTION: Why is using a taser considered Deadly Physical Force when it’s used by a police officer but not Deadly Physical Force when used against a police officer by a suspect?

And where is it written that the police have to have weapons parity or inferiority when engaging a situation? Pretty sure it’s always been exactly NOT that way ...

“He pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way.”


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 06/16/2020 at 12:37 PM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff •  
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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