...even though I have severely impaired Vagus Nerve function already (no diagnosis yet despite months of trying. I recommend that no one ever get a zebra disease during a pandemic because no tertiary care specialists will see you and you cannot get tests).

Things I researched and was already taking in advance---1) nicotine (do not smoke or use tobacco) because it ameliorates the symptoms of low vagal tone. The Vagus nerve is tricky, you cannot do a nerve study on it to check for damage however an indirect test is cardiac variability---take a deep breath and breathe out slowly and the pulse should drop. Without nicotine I had no cardiac variability but as soon as I would use a lozenges, I would recheck and variability was restored (pulse would drop 5 while exhaling) which is a pretty good indicator that nicotine fortifies the vagus. Titrated up to the 14 mg patch and supplement with lozenges prn. My neurologist approved of this therapy which I started myself (I am a physician and read lots of interesting articles about the vagus nerve and nicotine and how pre-loading lab animals with nicotine before vagotomy prevented the inflammatory reaction that would quickly kill them).

2) Niacin (relatively high dose 500 mg bid) which is also a powerful anti-inflammatory. Get mine OTC at the health food store. Not for everyone--ask your doctor first.

3) The usual Vit D, zinc lozenges and melatonin.

4) External vagal stimulation device. (Got mine on Amazon) You apply it to the outer ear at a tiny area that the Vagus Nerve innervates (sort of like acupuncture) for an hour a day. Anecdotal studies have showed slightly improved COVID recovery time as well as a fall in blood inflammation factors. Be aware that if you use it too much it can make your hoarse by overstimulating the Vagus nerve.

Also got my asthmatic lungs to the hospital quick and got on Decadron, oxygen and remdesivir which is the hard part now that hospitals are in crisis mode due to certain people's refusal to wear masks or follow social distancing guidelines. I have no idea where or how I got this--I do not go anywhere.

I have recommended this book several times on DU. I want to recommend it again before Trump gets lost in the history that Americans seem incapable of learning lessons from.

Bandits by Eric Hobsbawm

This book explains why predominantly rural, under educated, poor people would support Trump not in spite of his crimes but because of his crimes. They see the law and the current government as inherently unfair to them and therefore they approve of breaking the law in order to "even the playing field."

https://www.amazon.com/Bandits-Eric-Hobsbawm/dp/1565846192 or look for it in your library for free

If we want to never ever see a Trump elected president in this country again, we need to do away with systemic inequality.

Of course, if you are one of those who wants a fascist coup (government that serves a tiny portion of the wealthiest Americans) you will actively support anything that increases inequality, so that you can then tell those you have oppressed "Hey, it is those (blanks) who are keeping you down through criminal means and it takes a criminal to fight a criminal".

Possible answers:

1. Putin intends to invade the Baltic States and wants to be sure the US will not object

2. Putin intends to create a phony 911 to force the US into a new war in the Middle East (probably against Iran) in order to boost the price of oil

3. Among the newly appointed Trump "loyalists" are some KGB trolls who will take this chance to steal US security secrets and plant malicious software in our national defense computer network.Even if the new appointees are vetted, they can then bring in underlings who will fly under the security radar.

4. Jared Kushner wants to raid our national defense secrets so that he will have something to sell once his father-in-law leaves office. This includes raiding domestic spying information that can later be used for blackmail purposes.

5. The new "loyalists" will lay the groundwork for something really bad that will happen during the early days of the Biden administration so they can say "I told you so."

6. Trump is delusional and is dreaming of a white military coup for Christmas.

if not for the deliberate kneecapping of the US postal service, the purge of lawful voters from voter rolls, the scary robocalls and all the other tricks that the GOP used this election.

Trump's response to the NYT tax story

This



I feel like this song was written for 2020.

that seem to be everywhere (one just popped up here at DU as a paid for ad) in which her eyes are covered and she is not smiling tell me that the Trump Campaign could not find a bad picture of our next VP so they had to create one. She has great eyes! When she smiles she looks completely sincere, just like Joe.

If he makes mail in voting impossible by gutting the post office, there will be big lines on election day. Huge lines. Like this



and this



And these will not be your daddy's long lines to vote. These will be angry people in masks who will be chanting as they wait. They will come equipped with food and water. Umbrellas in case it rains. Depends in case they can not "hold it" for six hours. Portable stools for those too old to stand for long. Wheelchairs for those who cannot stand at all. It will become a badge of honor to have endured in order to vote cast out the Russian supported fascist dictator who occupies the Oval Office.

And history will record it all and Trump will be remembered as the president who declared war on the US voter---and lost.

And "I voted in November, 2020" will be something that people tell their grandchildren in years to come.

Mika's rant proves it.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213904225#post20

All that is left is a handful of crazies. The same people who will spit in your face claiming that the earth is flat and man never went to the moon, not because they believe what they are saying. No, they spew their craziness in order to get attention for themselves. They crave attention and the easiest way to get it is to go into Costco or Walmart without a mask. In their hearts they know that masks save lives and in their hearts they do not want their parents and children to get COVID and die. But they crave attention. And the only way they know how to get that attention is to go negative in a big way.

I feel for these people. They grew up never being told that they were valuable. They grew up unloved. The only attention they ever got was negative attention. Beatings. Groundings. Scoldings. They were told repeatedly that they were worthless. Scum. Would never amount to anything. They lack the most basic sense of shared humanity. They hate themselves and so they hate others.

The grown man who had to be carried out of a store by his own family member(possibly his son)



should be a warning to us all. If we do not nurture our children they will grow up to be this man----a man whose own children cannot respect him because he does not respect himself.

The "Karen" who deliberately coughed on another customer is a bagel shop



is a crazy pitching a temper tantrum. To her the entire world is "out to get her". How did she get this way? I don't know. Maybe the same way that gunmen who shoot up schools and churches get the way that they are.