narcissists, politicians, politics, Trump

U.S. sporting events show how polarized people are about Trump…

Sigh… Sundays are rough, because they are the day before Monday. And while I used to try very hard to go out and do things on the weekends, lately I just haven’t been feeling up to it. We did go out last week and had a great time, and I wanted to do something today. But between Bill’s need to catch up on sleep and recover from his week away, and my stomach issues, I just don’t feel like going anywhere. The bright side is, that gives me more time to look at social media and the news… /sarcasm.

This morning, a Facebook friend shared the following photo…

These people are MORONS. Taken from my friend’s Facebook post.

The above banner was unfurled at Yankee Stadium a couple of days ago as our patriotic song, “God Bless America” was being played. Marca.com reports that the banner comes courtesy of provocateur Dion Cini from Trumpswag.com, who has been stirring up shit for some time now by displaying disruptive messages in public places. He’s been banned from quite a few amusement parks for engaging in his stupid stunts designed to focus more attention on the orange turd.

I’ll admit, my reaction to this is not exactly fair or impartial. I know a lot of people love Donald Trump, but I find him utterly repulsive and despise him on all levels. I hate seeing his face, hearing him speak, and watching the way he affects ordinarily decent people. And it pisses me off that people like Dion Cini are spreading his vile message of hate as they are also making money off of Trump’s disgusting antics. People went to Yankee Stadium to see the Detroit Tigers play the New York Yankees, not be reminded of 45 and the huge amount of time and resources the world has wasted on his divisive and destructive nonsense since 2015.

I guess I can understand why Dion Cini and his ilk think it’s appropriate to pull these stunts. They get him noticed, make him money, and probably feed his ego as people react. I’m all for free speech, but I don’t think Cini should have the right to use sporting events– which should be about promoting the love of the game and good sportsmanship– to spew his political views and make a profit. I hope he got kicked out of the park and permanently BANNED.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Brett Meiselas of YouTube’s MeidasTouch channel reports that fans booed and flipped off Donald Trump when he showed up at the Iowa football game. While I totally get the sentiment and agree with the fans who booed and shot Trump the bird, I also think this is a sad display. Again, they were there to watch football, and the focus should have been on the game and the people who were playing it… and maybe any marching bands that were there, not the orange dipshit. And I also think it’s disgraceful that Trump causes so many people to feel so much contempt toward a person who was once among the most powerful people in the world.

I agree with sentiment of the fans flipping off Trump… but I also think it’s a disgrace that they feel the need to do this.

MeidasTouch also reports that Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy were also give the middle finger salute. Honestly, I hope there’s no video recognition software used at those college games. If Trump somehow winds up back in the White House, those people who flipped him off could be in grave danger. I’m serious. Trump is the type of person who takes petty revenge… and his base will be all too happy to help him with that, as long as they think he’ll help them when they get arrested (he won’t, of course).

Ben Meiselas warns us about Trump’s pure insanity.

I’m so tired of this circus. I just want us to have a normal president again… someone who is young and coherent enough to withstand the rigors of the job, but who actually cares about someone other than himself and doesn’t brag about ripping off people, threatening and insulting his enemies, and molesting women. I think Joe Biden has done a pretty good job, considering the shit show he inherited, but I also think it’s time for him to retire… along with Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein, and Nancy Pelosi. And I’d like the MAGA extremist losers– Kristi Noem, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Kari Lake, as well as Matt Gaetz, Lindsey Graham, and Josh Hawley, among others– to get the fuck out of the government and let the grown ups get some work done.

I want representatives who are serious about the job and not just about seizing power. I want people who actually work for the tax dollars they’re being paid and promote laws that help Americans live better lives. I want a leader who doesn’t inspire or encourage fascism. I want government to be boring again. I want people to be able to go to a sporting event and not be assaulted with the sight of death threats on banners or middle fingers. Most of all, I’d like to feel like I want to move back to my homeland.

I remember a few years ago, Bill, his mom, and I visited Berlin. We stayed in a hotel that had a bar staffed by a very intelligent Egyptian man who had been a lawyer in his homeland. He moved out of Egypt because life had become too dangerous and untenable there. In Germany, he found himself slinging drinks for people like us.

The guy, whose name was Awsam, got a bit angry and emotional as he talked about what it was like in Egypt and how Donald Trump was literally causing people to be hurt or killed in the Middle East. Our hearts went out to him, but he was afraid he’d offended us. One night, we didn’t go down to the bar, and he was worried that we were angry about his political “outburst”, which really wasn’t that much of an outburst. When we came back the following night, he welcomed us warmly and even bought us a round. He apologized profusely, but we weren’t offended. I think we could understand. Trump was the POTUS at the time, and we were also disgusted by his behavior. I wrote about Awsam in 2017, when this happened. I reposted my blog entry in 2020, if you’d like to read the whole story.

In any case, now it’s 2023, and I’m still feeling disgusted… I want Trump to go away, but I also want a lot of other politicians to move on. I want normal people in power. I want people to put away their provocative banners and middle fingers and go back to being good, dignified citizens who behave respectfully and respectably. I’m afraid that time may have passed.

It just makes me sad and kind of ashamed… and weirdly, now I feel like I have a kinship with Awsam. I wonder if he still works at that hotel. Maybe we should go back to Berlin for a visit.

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healthcare, social media, stupid people

Alabama doctor gets “threats” after warning people on Facebook about COVID-19!

Hey guys… I know I’m on a short vacation, but I need to make a comment. And right now, Mr. Bill is about to take a shower, so I have a few minutes to vent about this.

A couple of days ago, I read a heartbreaking story about Dr. Brytney Cobia, a hospitalist in Alabama, who shared an emotional Facebook post about the realities some of the people who don’t get vaccinated against COVID-19 will face if they get sick. She wrote:

I’ve made a LOT of progress encouraging people to get vaccinated lately!!! Do you want to know how? I’m admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections. One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late. A few days later when I call time of death, I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same. They cry. And they tell me they didn’t know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn’t get as sick. They thought it was ‘just the flu’. But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can’t. So they thank me and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.

As always, I am an open book. Please bring me your questions and I will tell you everything I know and everything I don’t.

It’s not too late, but some day it might be.

It got picked up by multiple news outlets and shared in the article I found on MSNBC. I shared it on my page, and one of my friends, who is a nurse at the Mayo Clinic and has been taking care of COVID patients from the beginning, wrote about how she took care of a person who asked her if they were going to die that night. That person, who was unvaccinated and asked for the vaccine while hospitalized, didn’t die. However, another unvaccinated person who was being taken care of by my friend at the same time did die. Both were previously healthy people in their 40s. She still thinks about both of them, and countless others who have been under her care.

Then yesterday, a friend of mine and Bill’s– a Trump devotee from Alabama who was smart enough to get the vaccine– wrote that his daughter is currently in the hospital with COVID-19 and she is VERY sick. She was not vaccinated, so her life is now in danger. Our Trump loving friend– and he really is a friend we knew when we lived in northern Virginia– wrote a heartfelt post to his friends and family members about the vaccine, encouraging them to get it. Most of his friends were respectful and kind, although one referred to the vaccine as “poison” and felt free to opine about how things are in Europe. Bill needed to set her straight on that. I also added my two cents, which I rarely do on this guy’s Facebook, because his friends are even more conservative than some of my relatives are.

People– COVID is NOT a political thing. It’s a public health crisis. Vaccines have been around for hundreds of years, and they WORK. Is there a small chance of experiencing adverse effects? Yes, there are risks in everything we do. But your chances of getting very sick and dying decrease dramatically with the vaccine. I am a big believer in people making their own choices, but some folks are just plain being stupid about this and they are paying with their lives. And their choices are affecting so many other people.

Making matters worse is that some of the terrified people out there in Internet land, offended or angered by Dr. Cobia’s pleading on Facebook, have issued THREATS to her, and her mother! What the hell is wrong with people? It’s never okay to threaten people, especially when they’re being kind enough to tell you the TRUTH. Below is a quote from the Washington Post about Dr. Cobia’s Facebook crusade and the aftermath:


Cobia said that she initially “agreed to a few interviews to help spread the word because I think the message is so important,” but she and her mother have since received “a lot of harassing and threatening messages.”

“So I just need to take a step back from everything right now and let the post circulate and hope it does its job and changes some minds!”

Cobia, and her husband, who is a neurosurgeon, both got COVID last year. Cobia was 27 weeks pregnant with her second child at the time, and chose to deliver early out of precaution. So this is not just about a doctor treating people with the virus. It’s also about someone who got the virus and survived. She knows firsthand about it, although she was lucky enough to have a somewhat mild case. Cobia says she got the vaccine as soon as it was available and even breastfed afterwards.

Getting the vaccine doesn’t mean you won’t get COVID. However, it does make it a hell of a lot less likely that you’ll die from it or be hospitalized. And you are much less likely to be sitting in a hospital bed, holding hands with a doctor like Brytney Cobia, BEGGING for the vaccine, only to be told it’s too late, and you are forced to die alone.

Please… for the love of Christ, get your information from healthcare professionals and, if you can, consider getting vaccinated. When you get seriously ill, it doesn’t just affect you. It affects everyone around you, including the people who have to take care of you. And no matter what, DO NOT THREATEN PEOPLE WITH DEATH BECAUSE THEY SPEAK THE TRUTH! That is just insanity!

I hope the people who issue threats are caught and dealt with appropriately. There is absolutely no excuse for that!

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