I do not blame Trump

And actually, today I won’t blame Trump for two things. First some back story as to why this post may sound more disjointed than most. Ha ha ha

Last Saturday I was actually putting together a series of thoughts as to Trump not being the problem. He is the cancerous lesion that appears when the whole body has been consumed and the cancer has come to the surface. Those ugly sores that are so bad that no sane person can look at and not become nauseous. (and if this thinking sounds familiar to you, it will become apparent later) I had multiple tabs going doing the internet research. I was blaming everyone from Nixon to Jerry Rubin. Under reflection Jerry isn’t on this radar anymore, but I caught up some reading on the Chicago 8/7. I was going deeper and further back in history.  For the moment though, Interesting times while I grew up. And Nixon isn’t the problem either, he was just those early warning signs. The kind you are suppose to take seriously and kill the cancer before it gets out of control. Nixon and Watergate were the symptoms the proctologist find when you get a colonoscopy. We managed to remove the cyst, we did not go after the cancer.

Anyway, things are seriously disjointed now. I was a researching maniac on Saturday, trying to put some effort in a post. The better half and I got busy, so I held onto everything and saved it for Sunday. I woke Sunday with a fever and thought oh crap I got the flu again. I had it earlier this year and was not in the mood to go through that again. I now pray I had the flu. The better half now has all the ammunition to say you must do what I say whenever she is in the mood. I cannot argue.

She kept telling me we needed to go to the ER. I was like, no just let me rest. I had some leftover Tamiflu so took that. At the time it sounded like a great idea. And she mentioned a few times, we need to go to the ER. I brushed it off. I figured if still real sick on Monday we could go to the doctor. Nice normal American thing to do. HA! Monday morning around 4-5 am the fever broke. I thought that was weird but felt better. I had a few hours of feeling somewhat normal. I had already let work know I wasn’t coming so I stayed in bed to rest. Sometime almost mid-morning, (time is lost on me for Monday) I got the shivers again and the fever came back. Within an hour it had gone from 97.?  to over 104.

So, we head off to the ER. At this point I was feeling so terrible and weak so fast I was ready to go. I have not been for myself since I broke my leg in the 90’s. (and I will brag, I drove myself in a truck with standard shift that day). I was not sure what was happening. We get there and of course it is busy, they take my name and insurance info and ask why I am there. I said high fever and even said how high. So, the wait begins.

I am sitting there feeling like death warmed over, just waiting. People are coming and going I do not know who is in front of me, so I do not know if I am being skipped for higher priority cases etc…

They finally call me back. I have been to the emergency room many times for other people. I am not a fan of waiting around, but what can you do.  As you may have read previously, both my Mother and Mother in law were very sick for a long time. Sometimes ER waits can be maddening. I wasn’t in triage 3 minutes when they come back in and say we are moving you to a room now. Apparently, adults aren’t supposed to have high fevers. Pretty much when they confirmed my fever, there was more movement going on around me than I expected unless I was having a heart attack (I wasn’t).  Within just minutes I had more fluid going into me and more blood being drawn out of me than before that day I would have thought possible. I still thought I had the flu. No, I had pneumonia that had gone sepsis.

I guess they had figured it out pretty quickly. My first blood tests showed my white blood cell count to be seriously elevated because based on the tests they were doing they were already trying to grow cultures as soon as possible. They came in for a lung x-ray and I’m thinking why? Cat scans were done, and I would say before two hours of being in that room, they had all they needed to diagnose and start treating. They used general anti-biotics and eventually switched over to something more specific to the cultures I was growing.

So, I began my hospital stay. Throw in a dramatic statement to the better half by the attending physician that it was good I didn’t wait any longer. This is not how he said it. I no longer have control of my life.  I must listen and obey, not her words, but……………More was done, more blood was drawn everyday and by Thursday my white cell count was in normal range. So, I am home trying to recapture what I was thinking last Saturday. Not happening well.

“Hear me, people: We have now to deal with another race-small and feeble when our fathers met them, but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possessions is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule.” 

Chief Sitting Bull 1877

“If the current polls are reliable, Nixon will be re-elected by a huge majority of Americans who feel he is not only more honest and more trustworthy than George McGovern, but also more likely to end the war in Vietnam. The polls also indicate that Nixon will get a comfortable majority of the youth vote.  And that he might carry all fifty states? This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally, just lay back and say it that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable. The tragedy of all this is that George McGovern, for all his mistakes, understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon. McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose? Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?   Hunter S Thompson from Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972

And then there was David D Eisenhower at the end of his term making the famous fear the military industrial complex statement. President for 8 years then decides he needs to take the high road. He beat Adlai Stevenson twice who kept trying to plan ahead and take where we were and move forward.

I am a conservative, so it is hard to agree with Democrats policy wise, yet every now and then they create some great oratory. It wouldn’t hurt the modern democrats to go back and read Mr. Stevenson. They are pretty clueless right now anyway.

I am a conservative, yet also a political radical, political junkie, and I hate politics. Not too many people you can find you agree or have common ground. Adlai Stevenson and Theodore Roosevelt are people I do have some common ground.

As I always post, we still can be the great country George McGovern alluded to in HST’s quote, we really need to reclaim this country as a representative government and not the tool the one percenters use as they please. That has always been the fight within ourselves that must be fought. Our forefathers saw this and tried hard to create a Constitution that would allow us to thrive as a people. We continually abdicate our responsibilities and now as always, we should be fighting hard to reclaim what has been given us. It is not being rich that is the problem, it is the rich running the show that is killing us and even though they do not see it, them. They need us more than they realize.

So that is why I do not blame Trump. Trump is the symptom of the cancer (greed and power) that has grown so much it is a visible ugly pus oozing from our souls. The Koch Brothers wet dream tax reform bill is now in place which is just another by product of our cancer and us not fighting for what is right.  There is more to all this, however, that was a week ago. And I don’t blame him for being sick. All on me.

This isn’t what I wanted it to be, yet I am worn out now. I am still sick, just happen to be less sick enough to be out of the hospital. The doctors say it will be days before I come close to feeling normal again. I hope all you are well and please take care of yourselves.

Cheers