How can this be allowed to happen in the 21st century?
Has this world learned nothing about stopping brutal tyrants and genocide?
Are they all completely impotent and worthless! 😉
(Credit Photos: https://twitter.com/MFA_Ukraine)
This Afghan withdrawal and the Taliban overrunning the country is a complete fiasco.
– 20 years of blood and treasure: $2,000,000,000,000, and 2,500 lost US military personal and G-d knows how many casualties (oh, about another 20,000)!
Now complete and utter chaos, and a turnover to terrorism.
Reminiscent of Iran’s overthrow of the Shah and the U.S. hostage crisis for 444 days and when we lost Vietnam and the helicopters frantically evacuating US embassy personnel from the rooftop.
BTW, what happened to our “Red Lines” on chemical weapons in Syria?
Where are our inherent values and the dependability of who we are and what we stand for?
Now we are once again emboldening Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia.
Moreover, US Admiral says China is within 6 years of potentially taking Taiwan (guess where most of the computer chips are made and we already have a shortage)!!!
On top of this we have the Delta variant of Covid (and fears of worse coming) for this 1.5 year long pandemic with the CDC mask on again/off again non-sensical guidance.
Then we have a $1,200,000,000,000 infrastructure bill and a $3,500,000,000,000 social welfare bill in the works to put on top of the US already almost $29,000,000,0000,000 national debt.
Any ideas what that will do to the value of the US currency in the world and inflation rearing its ugly head.
I am starting to see a run on food and home stables in the stores again with items sold out.
Consumer confidence is shaking and the stock market is teetering off at a very high precipice.
Oh, don’t forget the border crisis which is getting out of control again.
What the F*** is going on here? 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
So we are going to the airport early this morning and everything seemed to go wrong.
Because we needed an Uber early, we used the app to reserve one in advance.
I get an email that Uber charged us and the app says the driver is on the way.
However, it doesn’t identify any driver or car.
It turns out that Uber never reserved any driver and no one was coming to get us and we had a flight to catch.
So much for reservations that go unreserved!
So we cancel the darn Uber and instead try to get a Lyft, but after many minutes trying in vain to locate a driver, we gave up on this as well,
Thank goodness, I could still call a regular cab!
The taxi company says he’ll be there in 10-20 minutes.
Over 35 minutes later and 3 phones calls and he still hasn’t arrived and it’s getting late for the flight.
Finally, finally, he shows up and says they called up and he came from bed to pick us up.
Wow, that’s pretty amazing–I was impressed and grateful.
He get us to the airport and we run in and through security.
We head to gate 30 for our flight and the picture shows you what we came up against.
Gate 29 and gate 31 in the corner of the airport, but no freakin gate 30 anywhere in sight!
After a swing around the other corners, we finally found it.
Why gate 30 isn’t after 29 and before 31, I will never understand!
Moreover, why Uber takes reservations in advance for a car, but doesn’t actually arrange a driver is also a complete mystery and a very broken business model. 😉
(Credit Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)
A lot of us can’t wait for Walking Dead Season 11 coming in 2021!
24 more episodes of killing the crazy zombies.
Everyone’s got to hold on and survive in a world that is in full apocalypse mode.
It doesn’t take much for society to revert to biblical Sodom and Gomorrah where the wheels come completely off the proverbial bus.
We should know because aside from advances in technology and medicine, a lot of the world is well on the way there! 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Like so many I am outraged that the Capitol got trashed today.
There are really no words to describe the depressing and sickening feeling seeing what happened with the rampaging mobs.
Moreover, one lady actually was killed over this!
Aside from the lawlessness, disrespect, and abandon of our great democracy, it was shocking that the security forces let it all unfold.
Doors barricaded and guns drawn, yet the mobs freely storming the building, hanging from the rafters in the chambers and making a farce at the podium.
Moreover, the offices of the legislators breached with computers unlocked and emails on the screen!
If ever we were afraid of what the Russians or Chinese could do to us, do you think any of their agents could possibly have found their way to blend into the rampaging crowd and chaos today and then do literally whatever they wanted anywhere in legislative branch of our government?
They wouldn’t have had to be James Bond or hid in a SolarWinds application update to do us severe damage.
It seems like we just keep giving away the keys to the kingdom until eventually there is no kingdom of democracy anymore! 😉
So I have been sick the last 9 days, and don’t really know what it is (bad cold, flu, or Covid).Â
But I am hearing that Covid is spiraling around just about every family that I know now.
The new most contagious Covid variant is in at least 3 states, but I would suspect it’s in all of them by now. We’ll find that out way after the fact.
G-d only knows whether the Covid vaccines will work on the mutated Coronavirus and how this will impact the runaway pandemic. Will it be back to the Vaccine drawing board?
While many healthcare workers have been extraordinary during these difficult times, I’ve been appalled at some recent cases of horrible care.
Example 1:
Went to CVS Minute Clinic, they gave me some antibiotics, but said go this afternoon for a Covid test, which I had already booked prior at another CVS location that does the tests. Â
I drive 10 miles sick to go there, and when I arrive they tell me, they don’t have my appointment anymore even though I show them “black and white” my confirmation! “The system must’ve kicked you out because you were at another CVS earlier in the day.” I said, I need to be tested, and they were adamant that there was nothing they could do. Their completely incompetent store manager told me to call and make another appointment for another day. I said, I waited two days for this appointment, drove ten miles, and waited a long time on line. He said, that’s too bad and I should call the 800 number if I wasn’t happy. I said, it’s your mistake, so you call the 800 number. I told him I wasn’t leaving the line until they resolved this. The manager was a rude SOB, but finally one of the pharmacists said the nurse can put me back in the system and they would in fact see me.
Well, lo and behold, a day passes, and I get a call the test didn’t work. Make another appointment. Ok, now I really have no choice. I go to another CVS, this one was actually much better and gave comprehensive instructions on how to take the Covid test. So much for good CVS and bad CVS!
Example 2:
Someone else in my family was sick and also goes to the CVS Minute Clinic. They give her not much more than Tylenol. But tell her to make another appointment to take care of her ear. She makes an appointment, and I take her to yet another CVS location the next day. Well guess what, the Physician’s Assistant refuses to treat her ear. He sits us down and tells us that he has a wife and kids at home and doesn’t want to possibly get Covid since she was at the Minute Clinic the day before. I explain that all they gave her was Tylenol. He says, “Anything can be Covid! And I’m not going to go in the room to clean out the ear for maybe 20 to 30 minutes.” Well then why in the hell did this guy go into the medical profession?
Example 3:
I contact another pharmaceutical outlook (not CVS) for a prescription. They quote me $2,500 dollars. I say “That’s 10 tens what they usually charge me so there must be a typo.” Oh no, that’s the price for the branded drug. Maybe you meant the generic which is only $250! Same drug but ten times the price!
I’m sorry folks our healthcare system in the U.S. is very broken indeed. By calling attention to these things, I hope to bring positive change for all our sakes. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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