Oh, blesshttps://t.co/6xIifnt3Nc
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) December 22, 2021
David Gilbert, at Vice: People Got Sick at a Conspiracy Conference. They’re Sure It’s Anthrax
A group of unvaccinated people who attended a huge conspiracy conference in Dallas earlier this month all became sick in the days after the event with symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath, and fever. Instead of blaming the global COVID pandemic, however, the conspiracy theorists think they were attacked with anthrax.
The anthrax claim was first made by Joe Oltmann on his Conservative Daily podcast earlier this week. In a video recording of the podcast, Oltmann can be seen coughing and sneezing on camera, symptoms often associated with COVID-19 or other illnesses.
Instead, Oltmann, who has spent much of 2021 spreading bogus election conspiracies, claimed that he and his fellow conspiracy theorists who recently attended the conference had been attacked by anthrax. The conference, run by Tulsa businessman Clay Clark, was headlined by figures like disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump adviser Roger Stone, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Eric Trump, the son of former President Donald Trump, also spoke at the event.
“There’s a 99.9% chance it’s anthrax,” Oltmann said on his podcast, even though no one had tested positive for anthrax poisoning and none of the other 3,500 attendees have so far reported suffering the effects of anthrax.
Oltmann claimed that he and up to a dozen other people who were in the green room at an event fell ill over the following days..
While Oltmann said he was “sick, sick,” he claimed his symptoms were tempered because he was already taking the antibiotic doxycycline as a result of impaling his leg on an arrow in an accident in his brother’s garage weeks previously…
After Oltmann made his initial claim, other conspiracy-minded folk highlighted a video from the event that showed a fog machine operating during the conference, suggesting that this is how the anthrax was spread—ignoring the fact that no anthrax outbreak has been reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or any other agency…
The jokes, they write themselves! (especially considering anthrax is usually contracted, these days, via contact with hoofed livestock). It would be funnier, if these chowderheads weren’t spreading their ‘anthrax’ around their neighborhoods.
ETA:
.@KELLYWEILL and I spoke with Clay Clark, ReAwaken America Tour’s lead organizer, who told The Daily Beast he had hired "well-trained dogs to look for any potential bio-weapons" and "drugs.” https://t.co/CbsEyxjOZX
— Zachary Petrizzo (@ZTPetrizzo) December 22, 2021
Chief Oshkosh
Contact with hoofed livestock? Sure, seems likely for this crowd.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well, only the most serious of people I see.
Gravenstone
A round of Cipro for everyone! I mean, they’re all gung ho for “alternative” treatments. Let’s at least give them the proper treatment for their self-diagnosis.
Betty
Once again healthcare workers bear the brunt of their ignorance. No justice.
Steeplejack (phone)
Michael Flynn, you say? Interesting new thread.
VOR
Occam’s razor, people. The symptoms fit the disease currently spreading across the globe according to the WHO, CDC, and every other national or international health organization. A disease currently having a huge upswing in cases due to a new, easily spread variant. But that’s unpossible, so it has to be a toxin which is well known and yet somehow hasn’t been detected.
Anne Laurie
Oh, is *that* how Oltmann sustained his leg injury?
germy
Well, it’s either anthrax or tire rims.
M31
Devin Nunes’s cow has a lot to answer for
SiubhanDuinne
@Chief Oshkosh:
So Devin Nunes was there?
SiubhanDuinne
@M31:
Jinx!
WhatsMyNym
they thought the white powder they found in the green room was something else.
Baud
Poor dogs.
M31
I used to have a shaving brush that had “guaranteed anthrax free” stamped on the bottom
(actually used to be a real problem)
debbie
I hope they seek treatment for anthrax up until the day they die. It’s only what they deserve.
Jerzy Russian
I can never keep the Trump brothers straight. Is Eric or Don, Jr. the stupid one?
Baud
The DNC needs to start sponsoring conspiracy conferences on the down low.
germy
M31
Yes
Yutsano
@Jerzy Russian: They’re both pretty low on the smarts scale but Eric is the guy they left in charge of the family business so…
EDIT: It just occurred to me I didn’t really answer your question there…
Redshift
@germy:
He claims he was injured by an arrow, but who’s to say it wasn’t a tire rim? That definitely seems more likely in a garage.
Redshift
@Jerzy Russian: When they first became widely known, people jumped to the conclusion that Don Jr was “the smart one,” possibly because Eric had resting stupid face, but it became clear before long that neither is the smart one.
johnnybuck
@Jerzy Russian: I can never keep the Trump brothers straight. Is Eric or Don, Jr. the stupid one?
Yes.
germy
feebog
I have questions, so many questions…
RepubAnon
Alternative possibility – if the fog machine put out water-based mist:
Legionnaires’ Disease
Also called: Legionellosis
https://medlineplus.gov/legionnairesdisease.html
Summary
Legionnaires’ disease is a type of pneumonia caused by bacteria. You usually get it by breathing in mist from water that contains the bacteria. The mist may come from hot tubs, showers, or air-conditioning units for large buildings. The bacteria don’t spread from person to person.
Symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease include high fever, chills, a cough, and sometimes muscle aches and headaches. Other types of pneumonia have similar symptoms. You will probably need a chest x-ray to diagnose the pneumonia. Lab tests can detect the specific bacteria that cause Legionnaires’ disease.
germy
@RepubAnon:
Maybe someone peed in the fog machine?
JPL
@germy: Gingerbread Man is actually a rude asshole, judgmental and calls everyone fat. The reason I know this is because I read it to the grand imp months ago
Wait til you find out what happens to Little Bunny Foo foo.
RSA
Have they ruled out aliens?
mrmoshpotato
Good lord. The stupidity of it all…
mrmoshpotato
@RSA: Why would they? They’re a bunch of conspiracy theory nutjobs.
delk
It’s probably Megadeth. A pretty common mistake.
trollhattan
@feebog: Lot of moving parts for a mere sentence frag.
Mary G
I just opened an envelope from the State of California and found a $600 stimulus check inside. Nice!
Of course, knowing the Franchise Tax Board, I am afraid to spend it.
Spanky
@Baud:
Ummmm, could you ixnay on the PSYOPS-ay?
Gloomyjim
Well, they’re already sharing medications…
Spanky
@feebog: In brother’s garage, arrow impale YOU!
mrmoshpotato
@JPL: All the field mice ripped the bastard to pieces for bopping them on the head? They’d had enough of Little Bunny Foo Foo’s assaults?
(My brother and I used to sing it “scooping up the field mice, and chopping off their heads” to our little sister’s annoyance.)
mrmoshpotato
@delk: Are you sure they didn’t encounter a SSSSSSLLLLLLAAAAA
YYYYYEEEEERRRRRR!?
(Not gonna break the margins with screaming.)
Cameron
Wow. What a hostile crowd. I just assumed everybody took archery practice in a garage.,,,
Booger
@Spanky: Shouldn’t that be ‘YOPS-PSay?’
Jerzy Russian
Thanks to all who responded. It seem that Don, Jr. is the dumb one, and Eric is also the dumb one. No wonder I can’t keep them straight.
Also, too, there was this from the linked article:
If you have any Thoughts & Prayers left you might send them over his way.
Booger
@Jerzy Russian: The !CueCat scanner!
LeftCoastYankee
In 3 years they’ll all be bragging about how they had All Them Covids and survived them all because ‘Merika, Fuk Yeah!
mrmoshpotato
@Cameron: The Arrow and the Song
Warblewarble
Advanced or beginner conspiracy theory? Who can tell, maybe the aliens.
schrodingers_cat
These people are not as scary as the BJP sponsored “holy men” calling for the genocide of non-believers. Muslims, Christians and Hindus they don’t like.
The world is not paying enough attention to what is going on in India.
Spanky
@Booger: “OPS-PSYay” if one is adhering to the original ancient Greek.
Booger
@Spanky: Pig Greek?
Spanky
@Jerzy Russian: I just want to give a shout out to David Gilbert, the article’s author, who left all these tasty Easter eggs for us.
Spanky
@Booger: Is it
hoofedhooved? Then yes!JoyceH
@mrmoshpotato:
And yet, strangely hilarious.
JaySinWa
@Booger: I think I still have one of those scanners. Weren’t they a giveaway back in the day
ETA they fought people trying to write software to support the scanner instead of using there crap driver IIRC
Hoodie
I was recently on the MARTA in Atlanta and there was an obviously mentally troubled guy on there loudly singing some song about haling from Texas and being a great lover. It didn’t make any sense but was harmless. These guys are far more deranged and certainly more dangerous.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Kennedy Center Honors – tonight at 9 PM Eastern on CBS
Inductees: Bette Midler, Joni Mitchell, Berry Gordy, Lorne Michaels, and Justino Díaz
smith
As infuriating as the Goobers are, at least we need to acknowledge that they’ve been pretty much the only comic relief we’ve had during Plague Time.
JaySinWa
I’ve said elsewhere that we can be grateful these clowns aren’t getting in the way of people who need and want anti-viral therapy.
TheflipPsyd
OT — anyone watching the David Muir interview with Biden on ABC? The framing of the questions is rage inducing but Biden is handling it well.
Mo MacArbie
I thought Adam was particular on the point that there is no “S” at the end, so YOPPSay, which is suspiciously close to oopsie.
SiubhanDuinne
@M31:
Only yesterday I was reading an Agatha Christie novel with that as a plot point.
JPL
@TheflipPsyd: It doesn’t come on until seven here, so thanks for the heads up.
Another Scott
Speaking of the way things work in the real world, …
(via IamHappyToast)
Cheers,
Scott.
dmsilev
Why anthrax? Why not Ebola, so that they could blame Obama?
JaySinWa
LOL Snort!
Cameron
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t know about the rest of the world, but here in the US our world-leaderalizing government and Our Liberal Media are only calling out China, Iran and Russia (well, occasionally Venezuela or North Korea if it’s a slow day) as the True Enemies of Freedom and Justice. India? India’s our good buddy. It would take something both large and horrific happening (and let’s hope it doesn’t) there to possibly make the news here.
Spanky
Open thread? A night or two ago we were musing on how to shorten a sentence to fit the rotating tags. Something about fitting inside a phone booth. Not important exactly what, but it prompted me to search for pictures of stuffing phone booths, as was a fad in the 50s.
So tonight I’m starting to see ads for … phone booths. Apparently they’re a thing these days for some privacy in the open office environment.
Not gonna link, but if you want to spend $5695 for a Pillarbooth, well, now you know the manufacturer.
Glad I’m retired these days.
HeleninEire
The whole impaling his leg on an arrow in his brother’s garage is what makes this story. How come exciting shit like that never happens to me?
TheflipPsyd
@JPL: I was going to ask are you glad for the heads up so you can watch or so you can avoid it. :)
I try not to watch the national news because of the way they slant things. David Muir is worse than I realized.
JaySinWa
@dmsilev: Anthrax is at least a plausable fit for the symptoms of this Zebra diagnosis. Not that plausible is necessary for these theorists.
Spanky
@HeleninEire: Because you’re not a moron?
JaySinWa
@Spanky: A phone booth cubical? Apparently markete to businesses for employee privacy and made for long term occupancy. Clostrophobes need not apply.
BigJimSlade
@Chief Oshkosh: Now someone has to make an image with Flynn, Eric Trump, Stone and Lindell with the bottom part of their bodies replaced by a cow’s, so they are walking around on hoofed feet.
JPL
@TheflipPsyd: since he handled the questions, thanks. ABC is awful and have been for a long time. Without going into details, it was apparent years ago that 20/20 shows were set-ups.
raven
Dude on the new just said “the people who need to worry the least are worrying the most”!
delk
@Spanky: cone of silence?
Spanky
@JaySinWa: The ad (damn you, Weather Underground!) was actually for Framery. “Serious About Happiness”. Yeah, right. Like I’m going to be happy when you cram me into a phone booth at my workplace.
whomever
@JaySinWa: The entire point of the cue cat was that you would open a URL based on a barcode on paper, with deals and such. In 2000. This usage of course was absolutely mocked by everyone and no one actually used them for that. HOWEVER, since they were free, and this was the period before smart phones they were pretty easy to hack into an actual barcode scanner for other reasons, which was not what the company wanted but whatever. (I actually used one to catalog my book case).
Definitely up there in the top “stupid dot-com era relics” list…
Roger Moore
@Steeplejack (phone):
This is what happens when you shop for lawyers in the Federalist Society’s discard bin.
Another Scott
@schrodingers_cat: Relatedly:
AlJazeera – US conference on dismantling global hindutva (from September).
India is obviously a huge and complex place. Here’s hoping that the radicals can be kept in their place. Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
JMG
A question about the First Worldest problem there ever was. Usually, my wealth management firm, being Southern, sends its clients a honey-baked ham for Christmas. It didn’t come when it usually does, in mid-December, so my wife, unwilling to face a hamless holiday, ordered one, which duly arrived last week. We’ve been eating it pretty consistently, broiled ham for dinner, ham sandwiches, ham and eggs, but those suckers are big. Well, as you may have guessed, our second ham from the wealth management firm arrived this afternoon. With five people in the house (us, son and his wife, our daughter) we’ve basically done about half the ham. Alice and I would be eating the second one until the Fourth of July.
So my question is, would a food pantry take it? I have only ever donated canned goods, staples and cash to our local one. It’s in our garage which is our second refrigerator at this time of year, and still packed in styrofoam and dry ice.
Spanky
Another Weather Underground ad: “Lung cleaning device is going viral”.
Somebody actually got paid for writing that in 2021.
BigJimSlade
@feebog: It was just bad aim:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a70yJwgQtzo
(sorry, I was in high school in the early 80s)
JPL
@JPL: I decided not to watch. It’s not worth it.
JaySinWa
@delk: It looks like a tight fit for more than one person.More like a sound proof booth, old gameshow style.
The airflow diagram looks pretty funky too, it aught to be seasonably reverseable at least and with high filtration.
different-church-lady
Darwin is a harsh mistress.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
Same. I heard Muir list all the “We asked the President about…” and bailed before the interview got started.
different-church-lady
@Another Scott: Yeah, but aren’t they traveling faster than the speed of light or something? In which case real-world physics is moot.
HeleninEire
@Jerzy Russian: LOL. I got none.
schrodingers_cat
@Cameron: India is currently ruled at the federal level by a genocidal cult formed in the 1920s who took their inspiration from Mussolini and Hitler. Modi has been a life long member of the said organization. The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamseval Sangh)
National Volunteer Organization would be a rough translation. Modi’s party, is their political front
They want to “correct” historical wrongs. They are bigots and liars. Unfortunately their comforting lies are what India’s upper castes want to hear.
boatboy_srq
@Spanky: its name was Pierce.
TheflipPsyd
@JPL: the questions are so slanted. You are better off
Bill Arnold
@schrodingers_cat:
For anyone wants a direct link to an information piece (from twitter):
Hindutva Leaders at Haridwar Event Call for Muslim Genocide – Despite the open calls for violence by leaders, many of whom have BJP connections, the police have failed to register cases or make arrests. (2021/12/22?)
boatboy_srq
@Booger: Much like Pig Latin, but with fewer letters.
Another Scott
(via AngryBlackLady)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike in NC
I’m all in favor of Eric Trump getting a nice dose of anthrax.
schrodingers_cat
@Another Scott: I attended that conference one of the two days it was on.
West of the Rockies
America feels now to me like a family vacation (circa 1970) in a VW camper where five of ten family members are having a pleasant conversation about the redwoods hike they want to take, two family members are quietly reading, and three are shitting themselves, flinging poo, screeching about wanting to go to Disneyland, and farting incessantly (and blaming Mom for it).
I want to pull over in Turlock, kick their useless asses out, and continue on.
The Dangerman
I’m calling False Flag and they anthraxed themselves. Hey, makes as much sense as anything.
Steeplejack (phone)
@BigJimSlade:
Great song! Haven’t heard that in a while.
schrodingers_cat
@Bill Arnold: There has been more than one event like this. One was in Delhi. One in Haryana. The one you linked to is in Uttarakhand.
JaySinWa
@JMG: You can ask, but you might find a church or shelter that is providing dinners would be a better fit. There’s a Lutheran Men’s Shelter here that handles that sort of donatation
ETA your food bank might give you a referal if they can’t take it.
West of the Rockies
Delete due to repeat.
burnspbesq
@Jerzy Russian:
Yes.
Another Scott
@different-church-lady: Nah, they’re just bending (warping) space-time. All the rules of physics still apply.
Or something. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Ladyracterinok
geg6
I read somewhere that the nutcases who were in Dealey Plaza have literally been drinking bleach.
I just can’t with these people.
Alce _e_ardillo
@Chief Oshkosh: Hope they used protection.
@Jerzy Russian: yes.
raven
@Ladyracterinok:
Where’s that gal with the red dress on?
Some folks called her Dinah
Stole my heart away from me, way down in Louisiana
Take me back to Tulsa, I’m too young to marry
raven
@geg6: I’m buyin. . .
Chief Oshkosh
@raven: Did he say it ironically? With any awareness that the reason some people are in a position to beed to worry less is because they worry more? And act effectively on that worry?
raven
@Chief Oshkosh: Sa wah?
PatrickG
“I used to be a conspiracy theorist, but then I took an arrow to the
kneeleg…”Apologies to any Skyrim fans who already made the joke. :)
Uncle Cosmo
@dmsilev: ABLE WAS I ERE I CAUGHT EBOLA…
(No it’s not a palindrome. More of a distantacquaintanceindrome…)
Kent
@dmsilev: If it was Ebola they’d all need to be under mandatory quarantine for 14 days or some such. Anthrax is a poison, not an infectious disease so you can claim anthrax and then go back to life as usual.
dexwood
@raven: pour ’em doubles.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jerzy Russian: Yes.
norev321
Attention Patriots: Antifa and the élite liberal cabal are now tying to make true Americans sick with Anthrax. The only way to thwart their evil plan is the get the anthrax vaccination (all 5 of them). Please share this information with all our QAnon brothers and sisters. Do it now
frosty
@raven: That started running through my head, too. I hope it displaces the earworm from this morning (listens) … I think it might!
JaySinWa
@dexwood: They have their own mixologist.
gene108
@schrodingers_cat:
What is the man saying in the video? Is there a way to get English subtitles?
JaySinWa
@raven: We should set up a go fund me.
JaySinWa
@geg6:
Not the kind of folks I’d like to share a drink with.
Reverse tool order
@Kent: Quoting CDC:
“Anthrax is a serious infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis.” If spores are internalized & “activated” they in turn produce toxins.
Treatment options mentioned are antibiotics and antitoxins.
Only actual applicability will be to justify their unjustifiable behavior.
dexwood
@JaySinWa: Just checked the google mobile. There is a drink called anthrax. On phone, too difficult to link.
Roger Moore
@Spanky:
My grandmother’s house had a phone room. It was maybe the size of a small walk-in closet and was lined with built-in seating. It seemed like an incredible luxury to me when I was a kid. Come to think of it, it still seems like a luxury. It’s not as necessary now that phones are mobile, but having a nice comfortable place to take a phone call without disturbing everyone around you seems like a great idea.
Almost Retired
@Cameron: I was planning on attending a garage archery meet-up tonight, but now I am rethinking my plans.
Suzanne
I feel like there is more that I should know here.
Good Lord.
Baud
@Almost Retired:
Just bring some doxycycline with you.
James E Powell
@Reverse tool order:
What about if you work out and eat right? Doesn’t that make you immune to everything, including anthrax?
Or how about if you pray? I read somewhere that thoughts & prayers do wonders.
dexwood
@Almost Retired: Go, take beer. Ask someone to hold it for you when it’s your turn.
Reboot
A homeless shelter might also be happy to get a ham; they usually have some sort of kitchen.
For some reason, I can’t link to JMG’s comment.
zhena gogolia
@JMG: I doubt they would take it but why don’t you just ask them
JoyceH
See in the news that Madison Cawthorne is getting divorced. Cites the pressure of his “work”. He works? (And yes, this is the guy who was married this spring.)
zhena gogolia
@JoyceH: wow
schrodingers_cat
@gene108: Here is one translation that I found.
Sangh swyamsevaks and members of the Hindu Mahasabha have said things like this in private since forever. But now they are emboldened to say these things out loud in public.
Eunicecycle
@JMG: I agree with the above suggestions to ask at places that provide meals. Someplace like the Salvation Army or organizations that work with the homeless.
Roger Moore
@Kent:
Anthrax is 100% an infectious disease, caused by Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax isn’t very communicable in humans- IIRC its R0 is less than 1, so it can’t sustain an outbreak- but is more communicable in livestock. It can also form incredibly resilient spores, which are still infectious after decades in the soil. The ability to form spores makes it a good candidate as a weapon, since it means it can be stored for a long time. The low R0 is also beneficial for weapons, since it limits the effects beyond the people directly attacked. High R0 diseases are actually bad for weapons, since they have the unfortunate tendency to spread and infect the military that used them.
geg6
@JoyceH:
Wow, that was quick.
Baud
@JoyceH:
He cheated on her.
Baud
Miss Bianca
This comment stream is killing me. In a good way. In the way that we like. Thank you for leavening with levity my period of waiting for CDPHE to update their COVID statistics.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Talking about steeplejack again?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Dogs love to stare at them.
wenchacha
@VOR: Like they say in teevee medical shows, ” When you hear hoofbeats, think anthrax.”
lowtechcyclist
Well, call in the experts from the Castle Anthrax!
Dr. Winston, Dr. Piglet – practice your art!
(They have a basic medical training, yes.)
Miss Bianca
@Mary G:
FTFY. Because, come on, it’s from the GOVERNMENT, Mary G!
raven
@JoyceH: I just saw a clip where he said “we have to stand up”!!!
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: He’ a controlling abusive asshole.
Alison Rose
@Mary G: I got one a week or so ago and was totally surprised by it. Thanks, Gavin!
JaySinWa
So there is https://www.cocktailbuilder.com/recipe/anthrax
Now if we can find Tire Rim food we are on our way to setting up John Cole’s imaginary date.
Maybe we can find something here:
https://www.pinterest.com/tirebusiness/tire-inspired-food/
John Revolta
@Baud:
This doesn’t mean dogs necessarily understand physics, with its complex calculations, says Völter. But it does suggest that dogs have an implicit understanding of their physical environment.
Sheesh. Ten minutes watching me and my dog in the yard with a tennis ball and they could’ve saved themselves a lot of trouble.
Reverse tool order
@James E Powell:
Yes indeed. And, as a retired hod carrier, I’m certainly more qualified than any “MD” to say so. Thanks for asking, as well you should.
(Not BS part: I did quit that hod carrier shit around 1972.)
BigJimSlade
@Steeplejack (phone): LOL, last week the song How To Be a Millionaire popped into my head for some reason (for the first time in decades), so that’s probably why I thought of ABC again. Millionaire’s opening lines are great – I’ve seen the future / I can’t afford it. It took several days for it to exit my head, and it will now probably be stuck again for a bit.
senyordave
It would be pretty weird if they all died from anthrax, wouldn’t it?
Ol Froth
Sorry if its already been posted, but anthrax is caused by a bacterium, not a virus, and has very different symptoms from a corona virus infection.
raven
@Reverse tool order: The laborers hall for the nuke plant at Clinton, IL was in Champaign and all my buddies were “hod carriers” at that site. The money was insane.
Poe Larity
Does anyone have an editable version of a DNR form? Not that I’d edit it and change the title to Biden Vaccine Waiver and submit it to FB.
dmsilev
@JoyceH: Getting divorced so he can spend more time punching trees?
Lapassionara
@Baud: I can’t wait for her tell-all book.
dmsilev
Maybe it’s lupus?
(Spoiler: It’s never lupus)
Gin & Tonic
@JMG: The old definition of “eternity”: two people and a ham.
Jay
BC went from 438 cases on Friday, to 1308 on Tuesday, to over 1500 today.
Gin & Tonic
@Reverse tool order: We had a two-story brick chimney rebuilt about two years ago. The masons were a father-and-son team. The son was laying the bricks; dad, who must have been pushing 70, was carrying them. And 5-gallon pails of mortar. Up the scaffolding.
Made me glad I went to college.
Chacal Charles Caltrop
@germy: this wins the thread – and I haven’t even read it yet!
HumboldtBlue
@Anne Laurie:
Ba-dum-tssh!
Gravenstone
@RepubAnon: The classics never go out of style.
Ksmiami
@dmsilev: are they sure it wasn’t arsenic and old lace?
zhena gogolia
Trying to watch Kennedy honors but don’t have the patience somehow.
Sure Lurkalot
@Lapassionara:
I Married a Fucked-Up Sicko.
Salty Sam
I see what you did there…
J R in WV
@Kent:
This is so wrong I’m embarrassed about it for you. Anthrax is indeed a disease, and the “white powder” is anthrax spores/bacteria. This is why Cipro, an antibiotic, is used to treat anthrax.
dmsilev
@Jay: LA County doubled between yesterday and today. Now some of that is Mondays are always low (because of weekend testing falloff), but it’s still not good. 6000 cases reported in a day is a lot. Not as bad as what we saw in the peak surge exactly a year ago, but still pretty bad. Hospitalizations are in good shape, so far, but we’re all used to the phrase “lagging indicator” at this point.
Reverse tool order
@raven:
I was a teenager working in the family business at the time & personally nonunion. So, not lucrative. We were mostly doing exterior stucco on housing tracts and some commercial.
Do not miss shoveling tons of sand, busting sacks of plastic cement with powdered asbestos, and shoveling it again onto the board. And especially carrying that damned hod full of mud up a ladder.
I knew at the time not to breathe that dust from the cement, so far no lung cancer at + 50 years. (The asbestos, aka “slip”, made the stucco more spreadable or pumpable. Something else is used nowadays. Plastic vs common cement: common cement goes in concrete.)
Jay
@dmsilev:
yeah, I’m glad I’m not at work. Hopefully Omnicon will have burned through enough that the numbers are dropping when I go back to work in the New Year.
Here in BC we will probably break 2k tomorrow.
Rusty
@JaySinWa: You made me search them. It’s like working in a stylish port-a-potty. Egads.
Martin
I’m not saying these people are wrong, but inhaled anthrax has an 80% fatality rate, so I guess we’ll know soon enough.
Uncle Cosmo
Thanks for posting this so I (15+ years in chem-bio defense & co-author of a report on Bacillus anthracis) didn’t need to.
Skepticat
All of them, Katie.
raven
@Reverse tool order: I broke my back in a wreck in 75 so my days of humpin shit ended.
Jay
Posting it again,
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6293574
How a future U.S. president helped avert nuclear disaster near Canada’s capital
The world’s first nuclear reactor meltdown occurred right here in the Ottawa Valley — and a young U.S. naval officer (future U.S. president Jimmy Carter) was brought in and put in charge of the team containing the disaster — 69 years ago this week.
Leading a team of two dozen men, 28-year old Lieutenant Carter had himself lowered into the damaged reactor. That week, Carter and his team courageously exposed themselves to a thousand times the level of radiation considered safe…
James E Powell
@senyordave:
Some say weird, others say funny.
Gin & Tonic
Winston
So I was on the phone with my girlfriend in Michigan tonight and she was telling me about a conversation she had with her neighbor; Patty, a diehard republican, who was explaining to her about how the election was stolen, tfg was really president, would never get vaxed, covid was a hoax, etc, for an hour and wondered how she should respond.
I said tell Patty she is in denial of reality which is a mental illness and Patty should check herself into a mental health clinic because what she was saying was insane and you are concerned about her.
I watched “Being the Ricardos” staring Nicole Kidman as Lucy on Prime. I remember watching “I love Lucy” faithfully back in the mid 50’s when my parents bought our 1st TV. We all watched it. This 2021 docu-drama is a lot better than I thought it would be. I enjoyed it. Kidman did a great job.
Central Planning
@West of the Rockies:
I give you Momma Tooted
J R in WV
@raven:
I once sold an old GMC flatbed truck to a neighbor who had built a sawmill and needed to haul timber and sawed lumber. He didn’t have my asking price, which he agreed was fair, so I sold it to him with a note.
He had worked as a welder on a Nuke plant, I forget which one.
When he went to sign the note, he pulled out his driver’s license to copy the signature onto the note…
Scary, huh?
phdesmond
@Mary G:
might as well deposit the check, though.
Matt
IIRC in another thread one of these tools described their symptoms, which an MD pointed out were a mix of early COVID and ivermectin toxicity.
Thoughts and prayers for the COVID viruses trapped in such a horrible horrible place.
StringOnAStick
@Matt: Ivermectin toxicity; let us savor…
Jay
@J R in WV:
not really. signatures used to mean something, legally.
Customers have to sign in a signature box on the pin pad, which gets printed out on the paper contract. No matter how hard they try, they are all illegible.
dmsilev
@Matt: At least they can take solace in being free of worms.
Ken
I don’t think the vaccine works after they’ve caught anthrax. The only thing to be done now is to shoot the whole herd and burn them in the field.
Ruckus
@HeleninEire:
Because your brother doesn’t shoot you with a bow and arrow.
Jager
@JoyceH:
He’s been “working out” with MTG.
Reverse tool order
@raven: My father messed his back up as a kid, bicycle w/o chain = no brake, + crooked downhill. Later, went off a cliff in a night map reading exercise during training in the army. Spinal fusion surgery and a year in rehab, missing where his unit went. The Battle of the Bulge. He went on to work with pain and a little Jack Daniels.
When I was a kid, I thought back pain triggered by not much that was obvious wasn’t real. NOT after what you and my father experienced, to be clear.
You know where I’m going: years later I learned the hard way from 1 second of foolishness. Six weeks incapacitated right at the start of wine grape harvest, followed by intermittent 1-3 day episodes triggered by not much in particular. Frequency of that decreased gradually over 10 years, then more so since.
The take home is that runaway machinery can crash just fine without your help. Or, you can repent at leisure.
Anyway, I hear you, man.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken:
Ensures no rational humans catch Mad Assclown Disease.
Jay
@Ruckus:
mine did.
dmsilev
@Ken:
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Iron City
@Jerzy Russian: Yes
scott alloway
@Jerzy Russian: Nah.
jonas
I get the confusion. I was at a convention one time where we thought we had Anthrax. But it was just EColi, a loving tribute to Anthrax. Good times.
scott alloway
@Roger Moore: We had the same setup on the first floor. A closet converted to a phone room.But we knew mom we listen in on another extension. They later got an old oak phone booth from an old hotel that closed. Beautiful piece.
brendancalling
I’m deep in the hole right now, so I’ll just say I hope whatever it is kills them dead, like the cockroaches they are.
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
I watched Christmas in Connecticut on TCM. Resisted it at first, but then I got into it. Dennis Morgan is great in a thankless role, and Stanwyck is Stanwyck.
scott alloway
Dr. Howard. Dr. Fine. Dr. Howard.
Add: https://www.threestooges.com/2017/09/25/men-in-black/
Chester Dogget
Good morning.
evodevo
@M31:
Yep…you can catch it from hair or untanned hides from sick animals…an old name for it is woolsorters disease…
evodevo
@HeleninEire:
I suppose it is more plausible if it resulted from a crossbow accident…they do use them for hunting…
evodevo
@Baud: It also means they can attribute “agency” or lack thereof, to objects/people/animals in their environment, and suggests they have a rudimentary “theory of mind”.
WaterGirl
@Chester Dogget: Good morning!
Brant
@Jerzy Russian: Both. Did you mesn the stupidest one? That’s still both.
Anne Laurie
We joke, but those bastids are sharp. A hunting arrow is designed to penetrate the hide & muscle of a large animal from a distance. I was moderately terrified when I first ran across them in Michigan — especially since bowhunters can be, how to express this politely? cavalier about leaving them around the place, even when they have small children visiting them.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Oltmann had said he’d sliced his leg, but getting impaled would qualify, IMO, as a ‘accidental discharge’. In which case, he’s lucky it was only a flesh wound!
Uncle Cosmo
But what you get is a cutaneous infection that blisters the skin but is rarely fatal. The spores (more properly, clomps of spores) from those hides are too large to reach the lungs – our defenses against stuff of any kind making it down there are pretty damn good, else we’d all be dead or immune. And it’s pulmonary anthrax that’s deadly: The spores multiply gleefully in the friendly confines of the lung, and by the time the victim shows symptoms, it’s too late – a dose of cipro might kill off the bugs but there’s enough of them that the toxin they release as they die is fatal.
FTR, damn near any bright science-minded high-schooler can grow B. anthracis in a bathtub & then freeze-dry it to make it sporulate. But it’s not a fearsome bioweapon unless you know how to treat the spores to keep them at the proper particle size to reach and lodge in the deep lung after release.[1] That is a damn difficult proposition, and the details[2] are the most closely guarded secret from the Army’s old offensive-BW days[3]
The post-9/11 anthrax letters freaked out TPTB precisely because the white powder was in the proper size range – which meant whoever sent them knew how to weaponize the spores. Bruce Ivins, the guy they finally fingered as the source, was a scientist working with anthrax at Fort Detrick, who knew how as part of his job.
[1] I could tell you the size range but then I might have to kill you. (JK – I don’t think the numbers are classified but I’m not about to “fuck around and find out.”)
[2] Which I can’t tell you ‘cuz I never had a high enough clearance or need to know, to know.
[3] Ended by Presidential directive in 1969, one of Tricky Dick’s few good deeds.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack: The supporting cast! The fireplace! Triple-walled insulation! Macushla and her firm rump!
We’re saving it for the day after Xmas.
terry chay
@JaySinWa: Yes, in every copy of Wired Magazine back in the day. I seem to remember the copies had serial ports (and every Mac user) when most people had already migrated to USB. It took the, a while to provide USB ones and then they went bankrupt because the dot com bust.
There was a guy I would see at tech parties 13 years ago who bragged about being the biz half of that shit show. I found it hilarious. 7 years later and already down the memory hole of most 20-somethings in this biz.