Do we have herd immunity to the common cold?

Do we have a vaccine for the common cold? A coronavirus is much more like a common cold than influenza or any other disease we have attempted to control. The coronavirus is a type of common cold that is more contagious and packs a much more severe punch. Sometimes, the punch can be deadly. I think that Dr. Osterholm is right. SARS-CoV-19 isn’t going away. Eventually, we’re going to have to learn to live with it.

-Laelth

This is what Karen Bass was doing today.

What would happen if Trump tried to arrest the Governor of Oregon?

Recently, Uncle Vlad, in Moscow, arrested Sergei Furgal, the elected Governor of Khabarovsk, a region in Far-Eastern Russia, and had him shipped off to Moscow for “questioning” (and, probably, re-education). To their credit, the displeased people of Khabarovsk have been demonstrating in the streets for about a week over this assault upon their local sovereignty.

But what would happen in the United States if Trump decided he wanted to arrest a Governor—for example, that uncooperative and ungrateful Governor in Oregon who is a little peeved about unidentified (and unwelcome) federal agents arresting and questioning her citizens?

Here, the idea is laughable. Trump can’t arrest a governor. Trump wouldn’t even try it. It would never work. Mercifully, our outrageously unwieldy republic is HIGHLY resistant to totalitarianism. The states remain supreme.

It’s almost funny. These days you see governors telling the President to piss off (Michigan). You see mayors telling governors to piss off (Atlanta), and you see local school boards telling county commissioners to piss off (Orange County). This is one of those times when I can really appreciate the beauty of this ridiculously complicated, power-diffused (decentralized) system of government that we have.



-Laelth

Imagine that you are the Governor of CA.

You control your state’s elections. The President can’t stop you, so you will hold your election, no matter what the lunatic in the White House says. You will certify your electoral votes, and they will then vote in the electoral college (for Biden, presumably).

Now, imagine that you are the Governor of TX. Your party leader, the lunatic in the White House, has told you that you should not hold an election. He has no power to stop you from holding an election, but, for whatever reason, that’s clearly what he wants. For your part, you know that your state will have NO SAY in selecting the next President if you don’t hold an election. Even worse, your state will have NO MEMBERS in the House of Representatives if you don’t hold an election. You’ll also lose one Senate seat. What will you do? You will hold an election, no matter what the lunatic in the White House says.

The idea that there will be no November 2020 election is absurd. The election will happen. Nobody has the power to stop it. Our Constitution actually works fairly well.

-Laelth

I am of the opinion that Cluster B disorders are entirely genetic.

They’re just born that way. Absent brain surgery, there’s nothing that can be done for them.

Roughly 1 in 8 humans suffers from a Cluster B personality disorder. In 2012, British scientists found a link between Cluster B disorders and a brain anomaly known as Cavum septum pellucidum (easily Wikiable). It’s also thought that the brain anomaly known as Cavum vergae (easily Wikiable) plays a role in the Cluster B disorders. These are not brain “defects.” If they were, they would likely have been wiped out of the human genome long ago. They’re anomalies. Evidently, we need these parasitic, lazy, sadistic, emotionally-retarded agents of chaos for something. What, I do not know.

But it appears that these disorders are genetic. Naturally, most people who have them were abused as children. They had to get the gene from somebody—either one or both of their parents had a Cluster B disorder, themselves, so we can assume that most people with Cluster B disorders were abused as children, but we can also assume, because the condition is genetic, that they can not change for the better. They can’t alter their own genetic code. In addition, tragically, the condition is progressive. They get worse over time. Trump is proof of that. They can only be marginalized and avoided. I certainly wouldn’t recommend making one of them President of the United States.

-Laelth

My pledge of allegiance (in honor of Independence Day).

“I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America and to the republic that was created by it, one nation, and we don’t care what you think about God, indivisible (following the Civil War, at which time it was decided that NO STATE had the right to leave the Union), with liberty and justice for some of us (but we’re honestly working hard to make it ALL of us).”



-Laelth

I seldom recall my dreams.

When I do recall them, they’re often like the dream you describe. They’re about guilt. In them, I am beating myself up for something I DIDN’T DO. I have to wake myself fully and remind myself that I didn’t actually do what I had just dreamed and that there’s no way on Earth I would ever have done such a thing.

And it’s often just a minor thing. Borrowing somebody’s computer to send an email is NO BIG DEAL, right? Nobody really got hurt, but you still felt enormous guilt about having invaded someone’s personal space (and you need to remember that you didn’t actually do that). You just dreamt that you did. You’re beating yourself up for NOTHING that you actually did. The dream pattern you describe is very familiar to me.

My guess is that one or both of your parents and one or more of your siblings suffers from a Cluster B personality disorder. You have been punished for things you didn’t actually do all your life. You were the family scapegoat. When anything went wrong, you got the blame. You still blame yourself for things that are not your fault. You are subconsciously working through a lifetime of injustice.

Just wake up and remember. You didn’t do what you dreamed. You are innocent of MOST of the crimes people have accused you of committing. The ones you actually did commit, you have apologized for and have tried to make amends. You do not have to be perfect. Nobody is. You have had one or more “perfect people” (only in their own minds) criticizing you all your life, and that is an enormous weight to bear. You are simply working through that lifelong (and possibly continuing) trauma.

-Laelth