National HIV Testing Day - Saturday June 27 2020

Looking back, it feels like it was a long time ago we would drive around Philadelphia rough neighborhoods in a mobile outreach van, testing people for HIV.

Those were busy days, too many HIV positive new diagnosis weekly. Our focus was twofold: offer antibody test and counseling to people at risk for infection and connecting them to medical, behavioral, and drug/alcohol programs.

We targeted IVDU shooting galleries, needle exchange programs, street sex workers, drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, etc.

Getting tested is the only way to find out if a person have HIV.

Today is National HIV Testing Day. Thanks to COVID-19, most of the community based sites that the Department of Health funds were shut down for safety reasons at the end of March. Some of these agencies had to reinvent themselves, and now are offering at-home HIV testing. The new campaign is called "Life as We Know It".

Today, Saturday June 27, 2020, (National HIV Testing day), some agencies are hosting a Facebook Live conversation at 1:00 pm on topics including at-home testing and reducing stigma.

My only concern about this new initiative, is that people who are homeless experience higher rates of HIV infection. Homeless individuals who engage in IVDU shooting galleries, and street workers exchanging sex for money will not be able to access at-home HIV testing. When a person is homeless, they have a more difficult time staying in HIV care and adhering to HIV medications, and experience worse health outcomes as a result of HIV infection.

Maybe Community Health Centers in Philadelphia should follow the Stable Genius suggestion :

“If you don’t test, you don’t have any cases. If we stopped testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.” — Trump said at a June 15 roundtable discussion at the White House.

[ The picture on the bottom of this post, is a small display of AIDS Memorial Quilts at the Philadelphia AIDS Walk taken in 2010. ]

Discuss.

Why Do You Keep Hiring People That You Believe Are Wackos and Liars?

Yesterday, CBS Reporter Paula Reid asked the Stable Genius : “Why do you keep hiring people that you believe are wackos and liars?” This question is in reference to the Stable Genius previous claim that he would hire the best people in his administration, only to insult his former staffers after they leave and write books.

In addition, Paula Reid asked another question: "If the White House had Bolton’s book for six months prior to publication, why didn’t the administration try to block publication sooner?" The Stable Genius ignored Reid’s questions and left without answering them.

Bolton says, and I quote: "I don't think he's fit for office. I don't think he has the competence to carry out the job". Bolton also says Trump engaged in various instances of Quid Pro Quo against the best interests of the United States, but in the best interest of his re-election chances.  "He second-guessed people's motives, saw conspiracies behind rocks, and remained stunning uninformed on how to run the White House."

So Bolton now says Trump is not fit for office. How does that reflect on Bolton that he worked for the Stable Genius regime until he was fired? All that time he served the Stable Genius didn't say a word.  Either he knew he was going to be getting book deals out of it and totally ignored his conscience for money, or he had no conscience to begin with.

And the circus continues.

[ John Bolton cartoon is courtesy of Our Cartoon President animated satirical television series. ]

Discuss.

Obedience, Authority and Domination

This blog title sounds like one of those "You Will Worship and Obey your Mistress" Dominatrix adult movies.

I am sure by now lots of people have seen a video, where a 75 year old man was pushed to the ground by the Buffalo police on Thursday night. Blood can be seen leaking from his right ear. The officers were quickly condemned; now the two Buffalo police officers are suspended. In the meantime, the 75 year old man is still in serious condition with a head injury in the hospital.

The officers argue that they were following orders, and (despite overwhelming video evidence to the contrary) they allege that the elderly man "tripped and fell".  The officers also disagreed with their fellow officers suspension, so the entire unit of the Buffalo Police Department, 57 officers, resigned to offer support for the two officers.

“Fifty-seven resigned in disgust because of the treatment of two of their members, who were simply executing orders,” said John Evans, president of the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association.

So the officers allege that "they were following orders".

It sounds very similar to the Nazi's defense of "just following orders", that many Nazi officers offered during the Nuremberg trials when being charged with war crimes. They knew Hitler's orders were unlawful, but obey them anyway.

[ Top cartoon image courtesy of Clay Jones from Claytoonz ]

Discuss.

Down Goes The King

One of the worst guys in politics, a very proud white supremacist Republican from Iowa has just lost his primary election.  The most racist congressman in the United States just got beat.

Down goes Steve King! One racist POS down, far too many to go!

Republican State Senator Randy Feenstra just beat him 52.5 to 36.5. The fact that he was a nine-term congressman defending white supremacists for that long is shameful, but better late then never I guess. Is this a Republican's rejection of white nationalism? Only time will tell.

Randy Feenstra, like King, is pro-Trump and pro-wall, and will head into the fall against populist Democrat J.D. Scholten. But we'll get to that bridge when we cross it.

It's great news to hear that Steve King has been officially dethroned. He can go back to leading klan rallies now! The turd finally got flushed down the toilet. Good riddance!

Today were the Primary Elections. I voted, did you?

Discuss.

I Alone Can Fix It, I Will Restore Law and Order

While campaigning for the presidency in 2016, the Stable Genius didn't ask Americans to place their trust in each other or in God, but rather in him. He said and I quote: "I am your voice,  I alone can fix it. I will restore law and order".

This morning I was unable to get to work, the riots and looting paralyzed the entire city of Philadelphia. Public transportation (SEPTA) was shutdown. Taxis weren't operating. The city is enforcing a curfew until 6:00 am tomorrow morning.

While waiting for the bus this morning,  ( the bus never arrived, and trains weren't working )  I noticed looters still ransacking the local stores. Overnight, they broke into every ATM in my neighborhood. Businesses have been reduced to rubble, destroyed completely. I called my supervisor and told her I wasn't going to able to make it to the clinic today.

This is the first time, in my lifetime, that I witness anything like this. The entire nation has turned violent, cities are burning. The United States have turned into, to paraphrase the Stable Genius,  a "shithole country".

[ More than one hundred thousand Americans have died of COVID-19. Forty million Americans are unemployed. Now the United States is burning. ]

How does our Consoler-In-Chief fix it? He threatens to unleash "vicious dogs" and gunfire on protesters, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Today, he berated governors, called them weak and encouraged more violence. In addition, Trump shared during a press conference that he plans to use the military against American citizens in order to squash protests.

Thank you Mr. Trump, for making America great again.

Discuss.

The Wheels Are Falling Off The Clown Car. Trump's Out This November.

In the last week Trump has threatened Twitter for telling the Truth. Threatened the governors of three states for mail-in voting, (while Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and the Stable Genius himself voted by mail-in-ballot). And just last night, he threaten to let loose vicious dogs on U.S. citizens.

The problem isn't Trump and it never has been Trump. The problem is the people who made Trump possible in the first place. They followed the clown as he abused other Americans and the rest of the world. These voters stood by while Trump locked babies in cages, tortured immigrants and lied 18 thousand times. They stood by while he hired his family members and stole from the USA and pocketed $$ for himself. They stood by while Trump gave the top 1% tax cuts. They stood by while he committed TREASON multiple times, voter fraud and violated campaign finance laws. They stood by while farmers lost their farms because of his tariffs and he shut down our government because he was having a no good very bad day. They stood by while Trump praised NAZIS and the Proud boys.

Fifty plus years of a track record of being the same disgusting pig today that he has been his entire miserable life was not enough for his followers. They knew he was a moron and a con artist and voted for him anyway, and will continue to do so. They have no empathy for others and are only concerned when issues affect them. They were the drivers and passengers of the clown car not concerned who they hit and run.

One hundred thousand Americans have died because they voted for an incompetent clown who botched the coronavirus response, sabotaged the response efforts, and ignored the advice of public health experts warnings. Now America is burning.

The wheels are falling off the clown car. Trump's out this November.

[ cartoon image by Curry - The Big Bend Gazette ]

Trump Lies, People Die!

The self-appointed stable genius once said : "what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening."

Make no mistake about it, I heard it straight from the horse's mouth. This is what a self-appointed "really smart, very stable genius" said at Thursday’s White House briefing :

As expected, now the stable genius claims that his comments on injecting disinfectants were "sarcastic". The stable genius got so ridiculed all over the media for the next 24 hours, he tried to spin it as "sarcasm".

Was hydroxychloroquine sarcasm too? The stable genius and Faux News peddled hydroxychloroquine for weeks, now that it’s proven to cause higher fatality rate, there’s no more mention of it.

Even if he was being sarcastic, which he wasn't, this would be no time for a real president to be sarcastic. People are fucking dying.

Not even Faux News is buying the "sarcasm" excuse.

Yesterday, the company that makes Lysol products issued a warning, and urged people not to try injecting disinfectants to treat coronavirus after the stable genius said it in Thursday's briefing. “We must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body through injection, ingestion or any other route.”

Think about it folks, a foreign company, feels compelled to put out a freaking statement to Americans,  telling them not to drink POISON!!! The fact that the disinfectant manufacturer has to come out and warn people not to inject it to the body has made this an all time greatest comedy gold.

Putin has managed to turn the United States upside down, and a laughing stock without firing a bullet. Now the staunch followers of the "really smart, very stable genius" defend the indefensible and do what they do best, they place blame, and make up excuses to justify their dear leader behavior.

People this stupid shouldn’t be president, but here we are. Remember what the very stable genius said, "what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening."

When you elect a clown, expect a circus!

Discuss!