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Friday, August 21, 2020

PANDEMIC PTSD-- Dr. Fauci's Psychoanalysis--A HOT LZ

     "...forced to wear facial protective covering as indicative of triggering the traumatic Zero Dark Thirty moment..."
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     Incline Village, Nev. (EOC)--Dr. Fauci, in some capacity the point "medico," (a term not included in the Associated Press 2020-22 Stylebook, 55th Edition) for response to the coronavirus emergency, has encouraged throughout the pandemic not to "despair." (1) The immunologist is confident the population will survive. From the outset, Dr. Fauci has juggled charts and graphs, while waving his hands illustrating surge versus mitigation, from the podium at the White House press briefings, but that certainly doesn't make him a mathematician. Any more than using words like "do not despair" qualifies him as a psychologist. The world needs no more patriarchal reassurances from those who lack the qualifications to give guidance.


     Next, there is the so-called "Bin Laden assassin," the hero Navy SEAL who has been claiming credit for liquidating the Al Qaeda arch-villain during a raid a long time ago when Obama was still president. Recently, he found himself standing tall in front of the Admiral for spouting off on social media that wearing a mask is something only done by (term omitted due to its derogatory nature). In addition, the ex-sniper just found himself under  the Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 86, AWOL, or is that just plain 86-ed, from flying on the airline where he made an (term omitted) out of himself in front of the American public he has sworn to protect and defend. (2) 
     Dr. Fauci, in his new role as psychoanalyst, might detect a certain hidden guilt complex in the SEAL lingering from the "Zero Dark-Thirty" raid that's left an indelible mark on the sailor after all these years. It's known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, and was first diagnosed in soldiers during the Vietnam War era. The online source for the American Psychiatric Association describes PTSD as;
     "a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, or rape or who have been threatened with death, sexual violence or serious injury." (3)
Of course it had other names in other wars, but it's the same symptoms, by definition. There is no telling if the Bin Laden raid was the only true near-death encounter the sailor had  but it would be the one that would generally fit the category of a PTSD related experience. 
     In an even more recent episode of yet another soldier who appears to misunderstand his role in being a defender of the American people, Turning Point USA spokesperson Rob Smith reacted to Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti's decision to cut the power on the Hollywood Hills covid-spreading party house, after fair warning;

Los Angeles mayor cuts power to Hollywood part house amid coronavirus pandemic

Turning Point USA spokesperson Rob Smith calls action 'authoritarian' and cites Democratic control as the reason for people moving out of cities.

Author of "Always a Soldier," Rob Smith, in an interview on Fox News on Friday said;


     "Well not only do they want to control the spread of covid, but they want to control every aspect of your life." 
It is unclear in this quote just who "they" are, which is the usual convenient cop-out for fear-mongering and anti-authority rhetoric, he didn't come out of the closet and finger the mayor as responsible. Whether it's just plain standard party propaganda from Turning Point USA or bona fide paranoia on soldier Rob Smith's part, is uncertain. If the latter is true, Dr. Fauci might consider this another case of wartime induced PTSD.
      Smith went on to call out the Democrats as "authoritarian" and responsible for "controlling most of our major cities." Again, controlling what is unclear unless it infers controlling the spread of the killer virus. Turning Point USA characterizes itself as a "Student Movement for Freedom." (4)  Any number of online references show that Smith is a decorated war hero but it is ambiguous as to whether he is currently enrolled in college. Smith's  background at Turning Point only shows an Army Commendation Medal and the Combat Infantry Badge, which calls into question his status as highly decorated. (5) This may be another case for Dr. Fauci's expertise in the field of psychoanalysis. Of course, in the case of Smith, there was also the Gulf War Syndrome, but the symptoms are more physiological. (6) Still, there is lingering doubt as to Smith, as in the case of the Navy SEAL above, of his apparent self- infatuation, possibly brought on by being a spokesperson or person of interest in today's social media driven culture. At the Mayo Clinic website, several symptoms of PTSD are given; 
      "...distressing memories of the traumatic event, severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic event, avoiding places, activities or people that remind you of the traumatic event, negative thoughts about yourself, other people or the world." (7)
These are but a few that might indicate the behavior of the sailor on that Delta flight but for a closer look, The New Yorker published a standup after action report following the Bin Laden raid in 2011; 


      "That night, he wore a shirt and trousers in Desert Digital Camouflage, and carried a silenced Sig Sauer P226 pistol, along with extra ammunition; a CamelBak, for hydration; and gel shots, for endurance. He held a short-barrel, silenced M4 rifle. (Others seals had chosen the Heckler & Koch MP7.) A “blowout kit,” for treating field trauma, was tucked into the small of James’s back... He wore a noise-cancelling headset, which blocked out nearly everything besides his heartbeat." (8)
The story, written by Nicholas Schmidle, also notes the team wore night-vision goggles. If Dr, Fauci were to psychoanalyze the sailor who lost it on the Delta flight, he might discover the similarity to being in the confined space of the aircraft resembling the Chinook helicopter, with a veteran in a USMC baseball cap snoozing nearby and forced to wear facial protective covering as indicative of triggering the traumatic Zero Dark Thirty moment. There has been no report if the SEAL was under medication at the time or had too many drinks on the plane that caused him to go on his twitter rage. 
    Two cases alone do not signal a red flare in a hot LZ in the case of combat veterans somehow having trouble coping with covid. Normally soldiers back from the bush in-country dive for cover when a car backfires on a busy boulevard. But then again, with the pandemic possibly still in its incubating stages, the world may be a long way from getting back to "normal."


"Medico," M*A*S*H, "Major Ego," season 7, episode 9, (1978)    https://www.allmovie.com/movie/mash--major-ego-v281232, 
Bin Laden compound photoillustration  by John Ritter from the New Yorker story.

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Sunday, August 16, 2020

PANDEMIC PRATTLE-- Coin Shortage Scandal--EOC/2020 EXCLUSIVE

     
    Italy, 1975:  "...shopkeeper surreptitiously showed the shopper the cash drawer devoid of coins..." 
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     Incline Village (EOC) -- Yet another unique variable of the virus sweeping the nation is the overnight disappearance of small change, a convenience, and an inconvenience, taken for granted just six months ago. Now it's become a mild nightmare. Stores are refusing to allow cash purchases and in reverse, are now limiting cash back on purchases. Media reports any number of reasons for the pocket change shortfall and the immediate report is that the Mint has cut back on production. (1) 


     The story seems to have no legs there unless a closer look at previous coin shortages offers alternative explanations, and room for the conspiracy trolls on social media to send up a red flare. 
Even before  the Civil War, valuable metals in short supply created demand for the "shinplaster," a paper substitute of small denomination that many at the time considered worthless. (2) The problem carried over into the War Between the States. The scarcity of metal prevailed during World War I as reported in the Miami Herald at the time;
     "There is a great scarcity of copper coin in France, and it is more than suspected that much of this cupriferous commodity has found its way to Germany, where it is used in the manufacture of munitions of war." (3)
A coin shortage in Egypt in October, 1941 resulted in the arrest of "several speculators, chiefly small-time money changers" for selling coins higher than their face value. (4) A similar situation arose about that same time in Cuba that was offset by using cellophane wrapped stamps. (5)



     One year after Pearl Harbor, it wasn't foreign governments out to cause a small change panic, but the Treasury indirectly blamed the nation's kids for a conspiracy to loot the coins from circulation, as reported in the Pennsylvania Republican and Herald;
     "Washington, Dec. 7 (UP) --The Treasury wants 30,000,000 school children to smash their piggy banks today and put their pennies and nickels back into circulation. The Treasury has sent letters to state, county and city school superintendents urging them to organize 'coin round-ups' to help meet the shortage of small change." (6)
From the archives, it appears a shortage of copper, nickel and silver, along with hoarding, persisted throughout World War II. The most serious numismatic shortfall occurred in the early Sixties. The rise of the vending machine was partly to blame as coins, once deposited for sodas and candy bars, would remain out of circulation for weeks until collected (7)
     In 1975, a strike at the Canadian mint in Ottawa placed that nation at a severe coin shortage, also related to money being used for "vending machines, parking meters, pay telephones and cookie jars." (8) That same year, some had seriously considered that precious metal shortages in relation to minted small change might be related to a conspiracy  in Italy. 


    Victor Simpson reporting for the Associated Press in The Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader in 1975 reported with a dateline out of Rome that the coin shortage there was related to other than basic economics; 
      "One newspaper suggested the coin shortage was a plot by a subversive group trying to make citizens lose faith in the ability of their government to run the country." (9)
Other stories blamed it on Japanese watch makers needing the raw materials for watchmaking. In a rather startling expose of just how far the coin shortage led to extremes in Italy back then, Ray Jones, a Pennsylvania Sentinel correspondent, had this to say about how shopkeepers handled the crisis;


     "The shopper, of course, always needs a few extra coins in case he needs bus money home...The storekeeper, in turn, always wants a few extra coins to make change on large purchases or for regular customers. The duplicity which results is an interesting, if slightly tragic commentary on human behavior...The average storekeeper has two cash drawers, one (usually devoid of coins) for public display and one with a coin 'reserve' . " (10)
Jones explains further that the shopper had to show his wallet to indicate he had no coins and the shopkeeper surreptitiously showed the shopper the cash drawer devoid of coins. 



    The coronavirus pandemic has created unprecedented situations and challenges for the world in 2020, one of which is the ongoing coin shortage. Current theories are in line to a certain degree with historical similar shortages. Current coin compositions can be found at the US Mint website. (11) Most contain copper and nickel with a balance of zinc and manganese; the nickel itself is 25 percent "Ni."  A world nickel shortage since 2019, as reported by Reuters, indicates the high-demand for the chemical element and a vital  component in manufacture of electric vehicles. An article in June by Tim Treadgold in Forbes points the finger, yet again, at China, for a "hidden stockpiling" of the commodity, (13) Certainly, with the help of a few reports as this and some serious investigating query by social media conspiracy hawks, it wouldn't take much to discover the true reason for the coin shortage. And don't forget to include General Motors and Elon Musk in those theories.
Footnotes:

"prattle" /'pradl/ -- talk at length in a foolish or inconsequential way
 


Cited 
(2) Shinplaster, The Raleigh Weekly Standard, 06 May 1840, Page 1.
(3) Copper, The Miami Herald, 09 Dec 1915, Page 4.
(4) Egypt, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 24 Oct 1941, Page 33
(5) Cuba, New Jersey Herld-News, 13 Nov 1941, Page 32
(6) Coin Round-Ups, Pennsylvania Republican and Herald, 7 Dec 1942, Page 1.
(7) Vending Machines, The Kansas City Star, 26 June 1960, Page 131.
(8) Canada, The BC Times, 21 Jan 1975, Page 2.
(9) Plot, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, 30 July 1975, Page 20.
(10) Ray Jones, PA Sentinel, 20 Dec 1975, Page 28


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