When It’s Too Late

Accepting things as they are, awful though they may be.

During the height of the pandemic, not long after the vaccines first became available, the following scene played out over and over.

The person who was able to get a life saving shot did not. Maybe it was fervent belief, maybe it was pressure from family and friends, but they went into a viral war zone completely unarmed.

They showed up at the ER, seemingly OK, but with blood oxygen levels around 75% - the happy hypoxia that so startled doctors when they first encountered it. Things progressed as they did in those years; supplementary oxygen, other comforts, but there was little to do but let nature take its course.

Finally it would be time for the final act:

“Your condition has worsened. We have to intubate you.”

“OK … I’ll take the shot.”

The doctors and nurses were long inured to this.

“The vaccines prevent the infection, they give your body a chance to get ahead of this. I’m sorry, but you needed it a month ago, it doesn’t matter now.”

The there would be pleading, FaceTime calls to family, and then the darkness closed in. Some of them made it through to the light at the other end. Most did not.

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Democracy in America has taken a similar path and it’s now tube time.

Attention Conservation Notice:

As I write this 6,123 days have passed since Obama’s first inauguration. It was about sixty days into his administration when I realized having a black president was going to trigger trouble, and I started doing something about it. Now the one year anniversary of my throwing up my hands and saying “Good luck with that” approaches.

Reality Check:

Look at these.

An Australian federal police officer married to an American Army officer was cavity searched three times. The reason? She packed a lot of clothing for her trip. Her mother was with her and passed without such attention. You can’t tell me this was immigration enforcement, it’s just the most visibly obvious display of the truth of the matter.

International Interpolation:

There is an ethnosectarian militia terrorizing American cities. Can you see any difference between those reports and this video of the Janjaweed in Sudan?

How far are we from what Sarajevo experienced during the breakup of Yugoslavia?

And from there, something like FARC becomes the response.

Being Right:

Look at the civil war tag on this site. See the two dozen articles? They started with this one, twenty one months ago, printing what I’ve been saying since 2017.

Eighteen months ago Warographics had some visuals on our brewing civil war.

This was thirteen months ago, we crossed the line before the 2024 election.

The was four and a half months ago.

Go read the news of the day, I’m sure you’ll find that things are progressing as predicted.

Conclusion:

The signs are undeniable.

Things will get much, much worse, before there is any chance of things getting better.

The question is … what are YOU going to do?

You will cross Your Personal Rubicon.

When I came to mine, I settled into Mourning Mankind.

None of what mattered to me policy wise is getting done, I did not think replaying the 1860s was a good idea, so after fifteen years of trying to stop it, I just gave up.

I’m still writing a bit about personal safety, because I’ve got unmatched hardening in that area, and it matters a bit for what I do as work these days.

But otherwise? I’m too old to be drafted, so I’m busying myself with rebooting my career, and making it my business to stay out from under foot while these society wide decisions are being made.

You do what you think is right. If you’re having trouble recognizing what that is, look for danger, pain, loss, and sacrifice. That’s how you’ll know you’re getting close.