#Ebowla Is No Joke

A doctor came down with Ebola in New York City. This dude decided it was okay to ride the subway, go bowling and now authorities are trying to retrace his steps. Some people think he went to a bowling alley on purpose for all the twitter puns, #ebowling.
We were told that Dr. Spencer "acted appropriately and responsibly".  It doesn't sound like it to me and this dude writes that he's ok with being lied to and we should be ok with it too. Cuomo, de Blasio Lied About Craig Spencer's Ebola. That's OK. | New Republic Because we're all going to have terrible anxiety now and we're all going to rush to the emergency room if we get a damn cold. Seriously?
So, if they'll lie to us about this, who knows what the hell else politicians lie about?
What really surprised me is that Cuomo and Christie just  let loose with the whole, we're not following CDC guidelines because they clearly aren't working. "Cuomo said voluntary quarantine is not sufficient, and that it is "almost an oxymoron."
A big concern are civil liberties, but after the Patriot Act, it's a little late for that, anyway the ACLU wants a legal reason for Christie putting a healthcare worker under quarantine, I doubt he cares. Personally I wish he'd put Snooky under quarantine so she would stop procreating her brand of stupid. But I digress, or do I? Donald Trump (I wonder if he's related to Snooky?) tried to blame President Obama, some people tried to blame Obamacare,
"Ebola has been confirmed in N.Y.C., with officials frantically trying to find all of the people and things he had contact with.Obama's fault"
Read the Frightwing freakout here; Here are the craziest responses to New York’s first Ebola case - Salon.com
I am an hour and a half ride from NYC, I'm guessing that between the bowling alley that got cleaned up and this guys apartment, there's no trace of Ebola left. I wonder who has to pay for that clean up? I sure would like it if someone would clean my house for free, but my friend at work pointed out that there would probably be nothing left in your house and they'd throw everything away, so guess that's not a perk after all.
I am trying to find a silver lining in this situation, I can think of several politicians I would like to see quarantined. But none of them would be brave enough to go to a country with an Ebola outbreak and actually do something selfless.
Oh snap, did you see that picture of President Obama  hugging that nurse who had Ebola? Scandal!

Pic from time.com

That's not going to go over too well I guess. Unlike Ebola, there's no cure for republicans, it's a death sentence. I heard you could contract it from watching Fox News!

Check it out! Nothing like an epidemic to get a consumer to part with a buck. Don't you just love capitalism?
How about an Ebola party? As infection toll passes 10,000, websites cash in with 'sexy Ebola nurse' costumes and even Ebola PARTIES  | Daily Mail Online
 What a party pooper,  this woman says the #Ebowla jokes need to stop! The #Ebowla Jokes Need to Stop | TIME
 Because every person who's been treated for this virus, became infected because they helped others, fair enough. But you can't blame people for having a laugh.

I guess it's ok to bust on the Black Plague, but leave Ebola alone for a few centuries.

Double Bind

I heard about the new Ebola Czar Ron Klain, on the radio during  my morning commute to work. My first thought was oh, he's connected to some lobby and that turned out to be true. He lobbied for Fannie Mae. I guess that's the kind of experience we need in this country for coordinating a response to a complicated public health situation. No experience in medicine or healthcare, but plenty of experience in Washington D.C. It's at the point now where some of the people I talk to are convinced that our government and our inept healthcare system want an Ebola epidemic. True story. I don't want to give in to "hysteria or fear" but I am really afraid that the only thing we have to look forward to are a bunch of hacks running  the government, their only qualifications are going in and out of the revolving door where incumbents and lobbyists trade places. I don't even wonder anymore why nothing gets done except for an exceptional amount of bombing of other countries, there's always money for that, while everyday American's are on a downward spiral and no one cares.
Janet Yellen made a speech about rising inequality and she's awfully concerned about it. According to what I've read she actually has tools she could use to alleviate this situation but has failed to do so. She did work for Ben Bernanke and helped engineer the bailout, so I have no doubt as to who's side she's on and it isn't ours. To that end, Russell Brand says he's on our side by marching down to Wall Street and doing a bunch of talking about revolution and promoting his upcoming book. Johnny Rotten called him out because he's telling people to stop voting. Which I can't say as I blame him when all you are voting for are corporations. I think it's a little to convenient that some joke telling guy, with a messiah complex, is now running around, trying to be the next messiah. "The last time this country was taxed by an elite group that didn't represent them, there was a revolution and they threw those people out. That is what you should do on this occasion." Thanks for that Russell, maybe you could try that in your own country.
Meanwhile, in this country we have an election coming up and plenty of money is involved in our government sell out, only now we don't know where the money is coming from, maybe from big oil companies who don't want anything done about climate change. When court rulings favor big money it doesn't matter what party you vote for. In America, there is this illusion of "freedom" and the rugged individual against what has to be some of the most repressive times we've ever known. There is an ongoing situation in Ferguson, where, after  an unarmed man was shot by a cop, riots ensued and police in paramilitary gear showed up.
We are free, but we are not free.
Our government is bought and sold. If you vote you are screwed, if you don't vote you are screwed.

"Double binds are often utilized as a form of control without open coercion—the use of confusion makes them both difficult to respond to as well as to resist"
 Double bind - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Indigenous People's Day

Truly, something to celebrate.

Columbus was never here. He made it to the Bahamas, a destination that seems very popular to this day. However, North America he never set foot on. It seems that wherever Columbus went, slavery, rape and pillage were to follow. There is evidence that "Columbus knowingly aided the rape of captured indigenous people." Great guy, I can see why we celebrate him. Still, most of America persists with this "tradition" of Columbus Day. Seattle wised up. In Seattle, Columbus Day now 'Indigenous Peoples' Day'
 California created Indigenous People's Day back in 1992.
Seeing that there is a big lull in consumer opportunities, this federal holiday is a retail gold mine. So I guess  Columbus Day will be with us for years to come, despite the fact that history shows, why we celebrate this day in the first place isn't really true.
Less than a month ago I read about a $554 million settlement the Navajo Nation won from The U.S. The BIA and through them the U.S. government mismanaged and lets just say ripped off the Navajo Nation for decades. Yes, we're #1 all right, we excel at exploitation. This settlement does not include water rights claims and health issues from  uranium mining.
This is only a guess, but I am pretty sure we won't be hearing about the landmark Cobell v. Salazar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia settlement of $3.4 billion, the largest class action lawsuit against the U.S. government. The government removed the judge from this case, a Judge Lamberth, Reagan appointee, because he had lost his "objectivity," he "repeatedly ruled for the Native Americans in their class-action lawsuit." Well, we can't have that can we?
I am very happy that the Navajo people finally got justice, however, it doesn't make up for what these people have lost and the way they have been treated. Maybe this money will help them with basic services they so desperately need.
Meanwhile, there will be a parade tomorrow, to celebrate Italian Americans contributions to New York City.
Where's the parade for the Native Americans contributions? I guess we'll continue to live in denial and sweep all that under the rug, then we can get ready for what I so fondly call "Thankstaking." Just in case you have kids, here's something helpful; What to tell your kid on Columbus Day (Opinion) - CNN.com
It's pretty bad when there's so much misinformation and just plain obfuscation, thanks to the miseducation system. Don't count on the U.S. school system to teach the truth, you're on your own. I think Indigenous People's Day would be a good place to start, while your on your way to that mattress sale.

Only The Insured Can Afford Ebola

I've often wondered what it's going to take to wake people up, say, a bucket of ice water? While the ice bucket challenge for ALS seemed to catch on and create a life of it's own, I don't see anyone calling for a race for the cure for Ebola. There's no ribbon color designated that we can wear to show our support for it's victims.
What I saw was a dangerous and inept healthcare system in a country that boasts of having the finest healthcare in the world, releasing a contagious victim of Ebola into the general population. Then when the man is finally rushed to the hospital in a very serious condition, who is now critical, his family is quarantined and forced to share space with the aftereffects of their Ebola afflicted relative, exposing them to more danger. Naturally, there are no protocols as to who exactly is going to clean up the mess.
If Mr. Duncan could evade what ever hodge-podge system we've patched together to supposedly keep Ebola out of the US, it's probably more of an epic fail than we think, because there's probably more Duncans out there, or should I say, in here?
Obviously the biggest problem is that Duncan got into this country in the first place, but come on, what the hell is up with that Quack, er, doctor, or nurse not "fully communicating"? Not shocked, not at all.
 From what I've experienced, when it has come to my family members being hospitalized I saw so many mistakes, errors in judgement and outright neglect that I had to email ombudsmen and JAHCO, regarding the poor quality of care my father received in a teaching hospital, one of the supposed BEST  in the Philadelphia area. If that can happen to someone with the BEST healthcare insurance, in the best facility, what the hell happens to someone without any?
I guess maybe something like what happened to Mr. Duncan? 'Mistake' in how hospital handled U.S. Ebola case? - CNN.com
 From what I can gather, our healthcare system has been in crises for a very long time. Probably due to resources being funneled into shareholders profits. What I see is such a breakdown of so many systems in this country, that it doesn't surprise me that maybe the idiot nurse or moron doctor didn't think that this man might be infected with Ebola risking an outbreak here in the US, but were they even held responsible in any way? I mean are they still employed? Because these people have no business doing what they are doing, who knows if they are even capable of flipping burgers?  I mean, did Mr. Duncan have an accent? Wouldn't you have picked up on that and at least ask where he's from or been a little curious? Then an equation of being from Africa + Ebola outbreak = Infected? It's not rocket science!  This is only a guess, but I am thinking Mr. Duncan had no health insurance, meaning here's your antibiotics, now stop wasting time and money and move along....then the other part of me thinks that Mr. Duncan knew he was exposed to Ebola and didn't have a tinkers chance in hell of surviving the illness in Liberia, judging from the victims he witnessed dying there. So he lied and "answered “no” to a question about whether he had had contact with any person who might have been stricken with Ebola" before getting on a plane, then admitted to the nurse in that ER that yes, "he did respond that he was in Liberia" This tells me a whole lot. I think he colluded with what ever family he had in Texas to high tail it out of Liberia and escape the conditions there and if on the chance he did contract Ebola, he'd be in a better place to survive it, what he didn't count on was the amount of stupid he'd encounter in that hospital. Then the best part? My favorite, Rick Perry! He's wearing some nerdy glasses, really makes him look more intellectual don't you think? "Texas is one of the few states certified by the CDC to conduct Ebola testing." You don't say?

However, that test might be very expensive. Something probably only the insured could afford.
When you have insurance, you can take advantage of every life saving screening your doctor can write a note for. Then you too can enjoy invasive procedures and false positives, leading to stress and pills and more painful procedures. Afterwards, you might be able to sigh with relief when they figure out all you went through was for nothing, because there wasn't anything wrong in the first place. Not so for people without insurance, they go without and they do without and for three days Mr. Duncan probably took his antibiotics to no avail, probably with the knowledge that he had Ebola and it was only a matter of time until his symptoms became serious enough to warrant a second try.
Even though Rick Perry tries to reassure us that Texas is prepared for this kind of virus, it seems to me that it's woefully unprepared and underfunded. Governor Perry has made sure that Texas has "the highest uninsured rate in the nation" So no, Rick Perry, it doesn't seem that Texas or maybe anywhere in the U.S. is a good place for any kind of illness if you are uninsured, like I wrote about previously, The Polygon: The Politics Of Ebola it will be these very people, that would be most likely to spread this disease. But still we will deny our citizens a national healthcare system. We do so at our own peril.