For You Dewormer Dipshits

 One of the battle cries of the antivax right wing dimwits has been that Big Pharma is suppressing the horrible things the vaccines are doing and preventing acceptance of the animal parasite treatment, Ivermectin.  They claim there are multiple studies that prove Ivermectin is safe and effective for the treatment of Covid 19, but Big Pharma money is keeping a lid on it.  The debate is raging on the precision rifle message board I frequent, so me being me, I decided to think this stuff through.  I've already covered the horrible side effects (like getting shot) of the vaccine, so let's talk about Ivermectin.  

First, let's follow the supposed money trail.  The three manufacturers of the current Covid vaccines are Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Moderna.  The first two both have revenue in the $40B range, where Moderna is less than $10B.  Merck, the maker of Ivermectin, is of similar size to the the first two.  For the sake of this article, I'll stipulate that money talks and buys influence.  Moderna isn't large enough to have more than a few paid advocates in positions of power.  However, the other three are different stories.  Considering they're of similar sizes (huge) I can guarantee you that Merck has just as many government shills in their pocket as J&J and Pfizer and thus, a similar level of influence.  Therefore, if Merck wanted to board the Covid gravy train, they'd have no trouble doing so.  

But they don't want to.  In fact, they don't recommend Ivermectin for use as a treatment or preventative action against Covid.  From their website:

Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today affirmed its position regarding use of ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic. Company scientists continue to carefully examine the findings of all available and emerging studies of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 for evidence of efficacy and safety. 

It is important to note that, to-date, our analysis has identified:

- No scientific basis for a potential therapeutic effect against COVID-19 from pre-clinical studies; 
- No meaningful evidence for clinical activity or clinical efficacy in patients with COVID-19 disease, and; 
- A concerning lack of safety data in the majority of studies.

We do not believe that the data available support the safety and efficacy of ivermectin beyond the doses and populations indicated in the regulatory agency-approved prescribing information.

In conclusion, Ivermectin could be a recommended treatment, if the manufacturer wanted it to be, but they don't.  Tell me again how a bunch of flawed studies and right wing looneys know more than the manufacturer?

Today In Right Wing Media

 While I'm sure there remains copious fodder to support further editions of my Old Man Ranting series, I've decided start another one. Today In Right Wing Media will tackle the hard hitting news promulgated that day by such fine outlets OAN, Newsmax, Fox News, and Conservative Daily, which doesn't really post anything daily at all. More like Conservative Whenever We Feel Like It. Being completely transparent, that's about how frequently I'll post in the series.  Sort of like my Dating Profile of the Week, which has become the Semi-annual Dating Profile of the Week.  Wasn't my blog much more interesting when I was regularly getting laid?

Being a thorough person, my intent is read the articles that are posted. However, in an indication of the right wing crazies' reading skill, many of the stories are video only.  I reserve the right not sit through five minutes of stupidity and commentary solely for the fifteen seconds of what they consider a salient fact. I'm neither a masochist nor desiring any of the crazy rub off on me!

It's one of these video stories that struck me this morning. The title is Attorney McBride: Treatment Of Jan. 6 Protesters Is Historic Hypocrisy.  In this instance the hypocrisy in question is relative the treatment of BLM protesters. Fleshing out, it seems the attorney representing a few of the January 6th insurrectionists is calling out how his clients are being treated more harshly than those arrested during Black Lives Matter protests.

My take on this: Of fucking course they're being treated more harshly. They tried to overthrow the fucking government, you disingenuous fuck!!! Furthermore, they continued to plan additional seditious actions right up to when they were arrested. If their treatment was commensurate with their actions, they'd be dead, having been mowed down the second they breached the doors of the Capitol. Do not claim equivalence or I'll sign you up for some gay porn newsletter, asshole.

Thanks for tuning in to Today in Right Wing Media.

Today In Right Wing Media - A Woman Has Her Car Stolen

 A story, broken by the crack reporters at Fox News, today made some connections very clear.  What those were, I have no idea.  But in their never ending crusade to kill George Soros, they blame everything they can think of on him.  In this case, it was the theft of a University of New Mexico law professor's car.  

It seems that the maroon Hyundai of law professor Mary Pareja was stolen last Tuesday afternoon sometime between 2:00 and 5:30.  The story goes on to note that at this same time the local district attorney, Raul Torrez, was on campus, giving a speech about crime in Albuquerque.  What made this crime particularly egregious was that this same DA was a beneficiary of Soros, kind of.  Soros had donated $107,000 to a political action committee that backed Torrez in the Democratic primary.  

The story goes on to babble about how bad crime is in New Mexico and seems to make an attempt to pin that and the stolen car on Soros.  Fuck, I'm not sure what I just read for the second time.  Who really does know with the right wing media?  Except that liberals bad, Biden bad, conservatives (who really aren't conservative, just Biden haters) good, Trump good or we just don't talk about him, depending on the outlet.  All I know is it feels like my IQ drops a little more with every bit of this garbage I read.  

Caravans and Blow Guns

 A recent exchange with someone on another blog left me with another data point to support my unoriginal assertion that those who are anti vax / anti mandate / anti everything that isn't a cheeto faced shit gibbon are getting their news from sources that don't just manipulate facts, but ignore them altogether.  I've decided to take a stroll through one of these outlets and blow some shit up, so you don't have to.  

In this instance, I was encouraged to read a story on Conservative-daily's website.  This particular bit of news was how a leaked Department of Defense document stated that hospitalizations doubled after the vaccine was introduced.  Scary, except for it being bullshit.  First, DOD doesn't track that shit, because they're the DOD and not the CDC or NIH.  Second, the supposedly leaked doc was nowhere to be found on the site to validate the story.  My theory is said document only exists in the minds of those who publish the site.  What I discovered to be a recurring theme was the use of this self-admitted inexperienced and non-expert attorney as an expert mouthpiece to give various claims more weight.  This dude is all over the sight and I can't figure out why.  

The lead story today is a standard dog whistle topic - the alleged migrant caravan heading for the US border.  Apparently, there's a leader of that caravan and he's 'declared war' on something.  For the record, this is the same caravan on which the dumb right's been sounding alarm bells about since cheeto face took office.  Either that caravan doesn't exist of it's the slowest fucking thing ever.  And in case one caravan doesn't sufficiently scare you, there's a story about a caravan of migrants from Africa now.  Two fucking caravans heading our way.  Yeah, sure there are.

Another awesome story covers how the left is casting aspersions and calling into question the outcome of the election audit in Arizona, performed by the brilliant folks of Cyberninjas.  Not they're fucking not, because the audit found that not only did Biden win there, but by a larger margin than previously reported.  

Of course, there's a story about how Mark Milley committed treason by having the same conversations with the Chinese that every damned one of his predecessors had.  

Finally, there are a few stories near and dear to my heart, relating to guns.  First is how Dems are trying to push Biden's ATF nominee through, despite objections from Republicans.  Only problem with said story is the president withdrew that gun grabber from consideration several weeks ago.  

The best story on there is the one about the Biden administration banning imports of Russian ammunition and how horrible it is.  First, it's not a complete ban, rather a halt on granting new licenses to import.  Existing licenses will be left alone, preventing an interruption in supply.  Second, the REAL conservative position on the subject would be to absolutely make it more difficult to buy ammo from our enemy, likely through higher tariffs, and engage with domestic suppliers to find out why they can't be competitive.  

I may have signed up to comment on that story...completely by accident, of course. 

Oh wait, this thing is like herpes...it keeps on giving.  The absolute best story on there is about how the FDA is going to force vaccinations and use blow darts to carry them out.  Until I hit that story, there was a part of me that wanted to give the ignorant some benefit of the doubt.  But damn, you have to be a bit of a moron to buy that one.  Blow darts!!!

A Story For All Times

 While I tend to gravitate toward Top Gun as a timeless story that helps me to understand and address any situation, there's another tale I find particularly useful, from a relationship perspective.  I've decided to share it here.

There was once a man who discovered a tiny baby alligator in his back yard.  Being an animal lover, he was afraid the poor thing would perish, being separated from its mother, so he took it in and raised it as a pet.  This man loved his Ricky unconditionally and lavished it with attention.  He gave Ricky massages and only fed him the best alligator chow.  In order for Ricky to feel like it was in its natural habitat, he had an enclosed lagoon built in his back yard, with a hot tub for when the gator was stressed.  He was positive his love and these gestures got through to the now full grown alligator, suppressing the beast's natural predatory instinct.

One day, he was teaching Ricky how to play fetch, when Ricky decided to fetch him and mauled him to death.  The man awoke at the pearly gates, face to face with Saint Peter.    

"I don't understand how this happened!  I loved Ricky with all my heart and did everything I could to demonstrate my affection."

Saint Peter responded, "What do you expect?  He was an alligator and mauling food is what alligators do, you dumb shit!"

The moral of the story is that regardless of how sincere and earnest your actions, you can't change the nature of another and can lose your head over it.  Literally.   

PSA - Getting The Last Word On Tinder

 Since beginning to use the app (off and on), I've found myself in two situations where the interaction ended in a less than amicable manner.  In both cases, I had reached my limit of 'what I'm willing to tolerate for some boom boom' and metaphorically dropped anchor in terms of further entertaining the behavior being exhibited by the other party.  And in both cases, the other party fired off a 'fuck you' note and unmatched with me.  However, I admit to having no real insight into the content of their messages, since unmatching deletes the entire conversation and I never saw them.  Thus, they weren't actually able to get in the last word or parting shot.  

Therefore, the takeaway should be that if you feel the need to fire a last shot and get in the last word on Tinder, wait a few hours to ensure the other party has time to read your fuck you.  Of course, that deprives you the pleasure of unmatching and making that person go away.  Your revised takeaway is you can't have it all.

Under the heading of pleasant surprises, earlier today, I'd been trading notes with a woman who went into full bitch mode and I called her out on it.  There were notifications of additional messages from her, but for the reasons above, I didn't bother looking for them for a bit.  The pleasant surprise was that the message she sent included an apology for being bitchy.  

Vaccine Mandates - Not Tyranny

Hey you!  Yeah, you...turn off Tucker for a moment and listen up.  I bet you're singing along with that whiny little hypocritical shithead that vaccine mandates are tyranny and interfere with your freedoms.   I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you lack access to actual data, only receive Fox and OAN, and that you're not willfully ignorant.

The bottom line is that vaccine mandates aren't tyranny, no matter what you hear from the right wing media.  Worth mentioning is Fox, OAN, and all the other toxic bullshit factories have vaccination mandates for their employees.  If your friend Tucker really believed what he was saying about mandates being tyranny, you'd think he'd be raging against his employer.  But he isn't.  I wonder why that is?  

I realize that should have been the killer punch, but let's dig into some additional food for thought.

I like data, so let's move on to the numbers.  They're big ones, but I've done my best to simplify them so you'll understand.  

There have been six hundred eighty thousand total deaths in the US due to Covid.  Of the one hundred sixty plus million who've been fully vaccinated, there have been one thousand four hundred deaths.  That number represents less than one percent of those who've been vaccinated.  LESS THAN ONE PERCENT!!!  Oh, there were over two thousand deaths from Covid, just yesterday; you can guess how many were vaccinated.  

The vaccine is effective and has saved thousands of lives; it's also FDA approved, so cross that objection off your list.

I know what you're thinking - it's still tyranny to force people to get vaccinated.  You're standing up to be dumb enough to avoid getting jabbed, get the virus, and die in your mobile home.  Trust me, if the virus only impacted the willfully ignorant, I'd be fighting alongside you, defending your right to demonstrate natural selection at work.  If only it worked that way.  

The vaccine is effective against the current variants, but viruses mutate as they're spread around, until they morph into a variant the vaccine can't defend against.  This is why you need a flu shot every year; to protect from the latest mutations.  Ultimately, the spread by the unvaccinated will allow Covid to mutate into one of those variants that the current vaccine can't fight and we'll be back to square one.  Those who remain ignorant and unvaccinated are lengthening the pandemic and making it more difficult to fight.

Even with the current variants, stupid mother fuckers like you are winding up in ICU's hand over fist and are taking beds that are needed for those whose conditions weren't preventable with a fucking shot.  There have been dozens of accounts where someone having a major cardiac issue or something equally critical have either wound up dying for lack of a bed or had to be transported several hundred miles away from home, because that's where the closest empty bed was located.

You and those like you have blood on your hands from the deaths you cause every damned day you remain unvaccinated.  These deaths are your fault, Fudd.

Do employers really have the right to mandate vaccinations?  Damn skippy they do, for two main reasons.  First, they pay your fucking health insurance and the costs go through the roof when they have a bunch of dumb fucks get sick from Covid, not to mention lost productivity because your dumb ass isn't working.  More importantly, they have a legal obligation to provide their employees with a safe working environment.  A bunch of spreaders running around is the opposite of safe.  The Federal government is the largest employer in the US and are subject to the same shit as other employers.  So is your corner coffee shop, hotel, and every other business you infect by walking into every day.  

In summary, neither you nor I have the personal freedom to kill those around us by spreading a deadly virus.  Not much different than walking around with an open jar of anthrax.

Finally, the above also applies to mask mandates.  Those of you who decry such measures in schools because you know what's best for your kids are killing them too.