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Final Thoughts on Round 2

Around the eight years ago time-frame, my upper right quadrant including the upper back and right shoulder got into a real bad trajectory. I’m pretty sure things finally went south there for good after trying to catch the rear axle coming out of that ’74 Duster. Can’t really pin any one event on the shoulder issues, but it had been bad for years, rated for disability at retirement from the Air Force.

So after the shoulder finally became more-or-less non-functional and hurting pretty bad, we went through a two-year VA diagnostic process detailing what I summarized in the 1st paragraph above. The C-Spine has been a worsening chronic factor since 2001, so I had some PT for that, and after some more time, x-rays and indecision, Dr. Sylvestri finally ended up rebuilding the right shoulder, somewhere short of a total arthroplasty. IIRC, the final tally was the sub-pectoral, 3 cuff tears and some bone spurs. It’s still pretty painful, but at least I can use it now, so that eventually became an overall great outcome.

During that process I’m thinking this disability thing’s getting more real all the time and applied for a rating increase on the C-Spine, which was summarily dismissed. This must be a big issue for the people with hard-to-see stuff like me. I’m pretty sure unless you show up missing a leg from an IED attack or something similar, they just deny every non-obvious claim by default. So after being around this block once already with the right hip replacement, I determined an appeal was in order. It took awhile, but they finally got it right. I wonder how many years worth of my increased compensation benefit it will take to match the amount spent trying to deny it:

Process started six years ago.
This is mostly just claim correspondence. I’m gonna need another binder.

Note that is just the last page of a fifteen page decision letter. The level of byzantine detail they go into is unnerving – no pun intended. I would like to know why they included recent year’s evidence in an six-year-old claim appeal decision, referring to a lumbar injury only a few weeks ago determined to be degenerative disc disease by a VA administrator(?). It’s insane. They were probably going to rate me totally disabled before I had my back broken on the operating table two years ago. Maybe that was just to make sure.

I’d post a snippet from the boilerplate malpractice claim denial I received a few weeks ago, but there’s no point. I wonder if they’d approve that claim for somebody picked up off a battlefield with a torn lumbar?

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The Definition of Badass

It’s pilots, no doubt in my mind. They have the toughest jobs, right up and down the line, whether they are responsible for hundreds of lives airborne, or innocent civilians on the ground, their fingers are on the trigger. One in particular stands out, setting the example for all to follow. Gordo was the only one in danger on that last Mercury mission, But he set the standard, even Chuck Yeager ate crow on.

The definition was given by an un-named NASA co-worker after splashdown. “He knew what he was doing and could always make things work.”

Gordon Cooper was “the man.”
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Redneck MAGAs Strike Again

Of course the snippets of news I’ve seen so far don’t speculate, but you can be reasonably sure this dimwit was just another hillbilly low on money, blaming his problems on the “kung flu,” when he finally snapped.

Law enforcement personnel are seen outside a massage parlor where a person was shot and killed on March 16, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia. – Eight people were killed in shootings at three different spas in the US state of Georgia on March 16 and a 21-year-old male suspect was in custody, police and local media reported, though it was unclear if the attacks were related. (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage / AFP) (Photo by ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

Fortunately they are not smart enough to organize under anything more convincing than the GOP’s delusions of political relevance. I’m more than a little shocked the police chief there stood in front of the TV cameras claiming the attack was not racially motivated and the shooter “had a bad day.” Un-fucking-believe-able. Only accurate reporting thus far:

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Mother Nature’s Messin’ with Us

Daaaaang. Looks to be a total of around two feet by tomorrow morning, coming in 4th biggest all-time. It’s the first I’ve seen this from the authorities here. I was looking forward to going out to play in the truck if the wind lets up. There’s plenty of stranded motorists needing dealt with, – trucks jack-knifed on I-70, actually leading to an emergency declaration in Aurora.

Scattered power outages, nothing unusual. It’s the really heavy wet snow. I’m a little worried about the Yew tree on the north side of the garage. It’s about on the ground.

(Late Update Mid Morning Monday) Everybody’s snowed in and Redneck decided to call it a snow day. We had the driveway cleared and got the truck dug out and warmed up just in case, but nobody’s really going anywhere until they finish plowing the side streets.

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Yeah, Fuck Tucker Carlson

This little twit of a shitstain can suck my dick and choke on it. The cretin has sunk to a new depth of contemptibly malevolent stupidity. That’s quite an accomplishment for FOX! Shouldn’t be long before he follows Lou Dobbs into the sunset. Good riddance, fuckface. Suzanne must be beside herself, trying to corral all these morons.

How’s the cock of reality feel stuffed up your ass, mutherfucker?
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The Phone Call

As much as some might recoil from the thought, they should recognize that Britain’s royalty problem has disturbing parallels to America’s Trump problem. Thousands of British soldiers valiantly stormed trenches in the Great War “for the Crown!” …with no more knowledge of GeorgeV, than their own sphincters. Similarly, on January 6th, 2021, thousands of violent agitators stormed the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. with no more knowledge of Trump than what appears in their Facebook feed. That’s not to say the Germans weren’t a huge problem, but the motivation is the same: once properly indoctrinated, people will do anything for the exalted leader.

Leading up to that fateful day, the Fuckwit made a last ditch desperate attempt to commit election fraud himself, with some phone calls to officials in a couple states that would ordinarily seem shocking to most people. It’s almost like speed-dial corruption after the Ukranian fiasco. What else would we expect after the Senate’s 1st impeachment judicial malpractice?

This is why government runs neck-and-neck with the police and healthcare as the biggest abject failures of 2020. Because “it” truly believes there are no consequences (to itself) for it’s negligent, criminal behavior. We the people of corporations, by the church and for the criminals becomes just a twisted caricature of their selfish intent.

Whether or not justice ever gets served to the Fuckwit remains to be seen. Justice for a half million Covid victims seems improbable, if not impossible.

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2nd Winter

It can be a particularly brutal weather phenomenon around here, when we start measuring snowfall by the foot. Every few years, a big, wet slow moving storm passes through, dumping tons of upslope-amped precipitation. We typically get the most snow in March and April anyway, just not usually all at once like this. They’re saying we might see up to three feet in the areas around here north of Denver and in the foothills.

Centered over Vegas, with moisture pouring in from the south.
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Big Fail 2020

Seems like every news outlet, social media pundit and YouTube™ channel ran a missive marking the anniversary of the pandemic yesterday. I guess the trouble started here around that time, so that’s probably as good a date as we’ll ever get. I’ll be no different, except to expand on the theme and place my journalistic exclamation mark. Let’s not forget influencer and influenza have the same etymological root.

Three things simmering in failure just below society’s surface were dramatically revealed to our country last year. They are three of the biggest, most important institutions in our society. Taken together in the face of a pandemic, they form an ominous warning.

The Government portion of the failure will be briefly commented in the following post tomorrow. Suffice to say for the purpose of this list, they caused more problems than they solved. I won’t bore anybody with a litany of egregious missteps, already extensively documented, except to say any Repuglican remaining in support of The Fuckwit at this time, is an enemy of the State. Being too stupid to know any better just makes me hate them more. Being an elected representative in that group puts you in my crosshairs.

The Police, as an institution, have been working in earnest towards their big fail for decades. The slow march to widespread public disgrace was enabled and mostly supported by the government over the years, so they can claim ignorance – as a group. But the individuals perpetrating the ongoing subjugation of our society, starting with that piece-‘o-shyt Chauvin will be punished – over and over again, until they learn their job and start respecting human rights. FUCK THE POLICE.

Last, but certainly not least is The Healthcare System. There must be plenty of quality doctors out there trying to do good, but with pharma, insurance and big HMO’s in cahoots with the legal system to extract financial blood from their customers at the expense of basic PPE supplies, there is no hope. The CDC’s performance does not even rate a mention for the purpose of this post. I will always sing the praises of the front-line workers, and they certainly are the big heroes in all this. But the people they work for are greedy cocksuckers who will drive this country into the dirt. FUCK THEM TOO.

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Suicidal Cat

Boots tried suicide by dog two weeks after we got him. Then at some point recently, decided it might be a good idea to start eating the basement flooring. It’s really odd, because they all get fed enough sometimes they turn down the treats. I cleaned up his puke with little bits of the chewed up foam in it several times before he finally ingested a piece big enough to get stuck around last Friday. So Monday the vet had to open him up to remove that, and I’m a little busy taping up the gym floor so he won’t do it again. Hopefully.

The runt finally outgrew his big sister.

At least it looks like the government’s footing the bill this time around with another stimulus payment, like they bought my truck tires last year!

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More Fish Pics

The aquariums all got filter upgrades this season after another round of failed Chinese junk and the realization that I simply can no longer handle the unit in the big tank. It’s a Marineland C530 that weighs probably aroud 60lbs full. Getting it in and out of the cabinet was never easy, and became excruciatingly difficult after the back surgery last year. The C530 has been discontinued by the manufacturer and I have two – one with low miles and both still working fine. So that model now gets run on the goldfish tank from which I can roll it around on a floor dolly in the basement. The goldfish needed more filtration anyway, because one of the two mid-sized Marinelands I had on them just quit for no apparent reason, after being in service for only a couple years.

The crazy Firemouths got a new, smaller/lighter Fluval FX-4, which is actually rated for a little more water and clearly a much higher quality unit, weighing only about half the C530’s mass. The filter upgrade process began when I tried to start up an old Hydor cannister on the small tank with the new baby goldfish. I thought I had two working units and enough parts to make three, but nothing would pump a drop. They are made in France, go figure. So the babies got a little Fluval. The goldfish pics were from last Fall, right after they came inside.

Down to five of these guys and they still spawn every few weeks and tear up the tank in the process.
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Cyber Insecurity

It’s gonna get worse, before it gets better. Solarwinds fallout is looking to be so widespread, it’ll end up lumped into dozens if not more discreet attack vectors before it’s in the books for good. Of course M$ ends up being a primary target, due to their perennially weak security posture. I wonder what it will take to make Republicans realize working treasonous deals with our enemies is a short term-gain, at best – long term debacle, in all reality.

There’s two infections raging across the planet right now.
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Fuck Texas – Just Fuck Them.

Mississippi, too. Remember that stupid whore from South Dakota bragging how they never had a mask mandate? Funny the bitch never mentioned how they also have the highest per-ca pita death rate in the country. Fucking idiots. The whole – goddamn – GOP.

Fuck the Republicans and to Hell with the government.
We’ll see what Hickeyloopy has up his sleeve…

Boise ID, you too – go fuck yourselves.

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Indoor Gardening

Michelle’s been steadily updating and upgrading things on the main floor, most recently with a new floor lamp to replace the one the cats broke jumping around one day not too long ago. The big pond plant thrived in the basement this winter, while the small ones died out right away for some unknown reason. But that was not before they offered about 20 baby goldfish, bringing the school total to somewhere north of 40. The pond will no doubt be teeming with life next summer.
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Prison View

Pandemic on everything and The Hole has felt more like a jail cell than a man cave. It could be worse. The entertainment center finally became completely integrated with the one PC over this past winter. It was sort of a consolidation project to help keep me resting more-or-less comfortably on my ass, which these days now represents the lion’s share of time spent, by far.

The main idea with this setup is native control on the PC from either the desk and/or the Laz-E-Boy. The desk is basically a direct-wire remote off a 30′ set of cables while the system itself has 2 keyboards and 3 pointing devices attached.

A key piece in the mix is the Radeon RX Vega-64 graphics adapter. It was a high-end AMD offering a couple years ago, driving up to 4 discreet displays, with broadcast TV available on the big screen. There’ll be a 4th upstairs on this one after I decide how/where to install another Security Cam Monitor.

Funny thing about the PC is the video card seems to be about the only thing making much heat.

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The Politics of Fear are Munching Ass

That’s what it sounded like to me coming from Lindsey Graham at FBI testimony this morning. Implying the ease with which really dangerous foreign terrorists could have infiltrated The Capitol on January 6th along with an overt offer of additional resources in his opening questions to Mr. Wray, made Lindsey sound worried his own fat ass now seems somehow more liable to get blown off right where it sits one of these days.

Graham should rest easy knowing The BoBitch and MTG will be right there brandishing their Glock™ in either defense against or(?) in support of an armed insurrection at The Country’s hallowed halls. We’ll never know the difference if Repugs succeed obfuscating history.

At least Kennedy reliably delivered a meandering, pointless line of questioning illustrating one thing beyond any doubt: The Capitol building inhabitants themselves are pretty clueless about either the country’s or their own personal security.