Unfortunately all my dear friends, I am back in the hospital again.

I seemed to have acquired a fairly serious bilateral pneumonia. I suppose being immune suppressed both from cancer and chemo and having my body have to fight more than one problem - makes things significantly worse.

For those who know what it means - my O2 sat is running about 84% even on 50% O2 mask which I hope will change soon. I have legally declared myself DNR/DNI. So their are limitation on how far things will be pushed if push comes to shove. I am at peace with this. Since I have worked as an intensive care respiratory therapist for more than 34 years - I guess I am in a better than average position to judge the long term realities. And the reality is that no one really knows how things will go. Anyway, again I thank everyone for their messages, their prayers and messages of hope and support. ..... doug

The 2016 Presidential Candidates Who Could Let You Smoke Marijuana:

Among Democrats

Bernie Sanders



Scott Eisen/Getty Images

The perk of being an acting member of Congress is that you can introduce bills that clearly state your opinion on any number of topics, including whether people should have legal access to marijuana. Sanders used his role as the senator of Vermont to do just that, when he introduced a bill in November that would decriminalize marijuana possession on the federal level, and leave it up to the states about whether or not to legalize medical and/or recreational marijuana. For Sanders, this settles the debate about whether marijuana legislation should come from the federal or state governments. “It’s a state and a federal issue. The federal issue is that we should remove marijuana from the Controlled Substance Act. That’s a federal decision,” Sanders told CNN. “The state decision is that we live in a federal system of government where issues like tobacco and alcohol are significantly regulated by the states. And I think that is a province of the states.” Marijuana’s current status is a Schedule I drug, carrying the same classification as heroin, LSD, and ecstacy. Sanders’ bill would change this status and allow marijuana possession on a federal level, opening a clear path to state-by-state legalization. It would also allow current employees in the marijuana industry to use traditional banks to deposit their earnings, which thus far has been a tricky subject for those working legitimate jobs in states that have already legalized marijuana, like Colorado and Washington.

Hillary Clinton

Clinton has been fairly hesitant to speak up on the topic of marijuana, but during a town hall meeting in early November said she supports reclassifying the drug as a Schedule II substance, which would permit universities and health entities to conduct research on the effects of medical marijuana. “The problem with medical marijuana is there is a lot of anecdotal evidence about how well it works for certain conditions. But we haven’t done any research. Why? Because it is considered that is called a schedule one drug and you can’t even do research in it,” she said during the town hall meeting in South Carolina. Clinton did not endorse full legalization for recreational use, saying that she’d prefer to wait to see how states like Colorado and Washington continue to handle the ongoing rollout before making any changes on the federal level.


Martin O’Malley

O’Malley is hanging on by a thread to even participate in the next Democratic debate, but he rounds out the cast of characters from the Democratic party. Like Clinton, O’Malley supports the reclassification of marijuana to a Schedule II drug, but is waiting for states like Colorado and Washington to provide more insight before endorsing full-scale recreational legalization. During his time as governor of Maryland, O’Malley signed a bill that decriminalized the possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana, and was governor when Maryland legalized medical marijuana. Though initially against any marijuana use during his time as governor, he eventually changed tacks and now is exploring the idea in more depth. In September 2015 he visited Denver to participate in a roundtable discussion about marijuana with industry and legalization advocates.

Rand Paul


Among his conservative counterparts, Paul takes the most progressive approach toward marijuana legalization. Though it’s unlikely to pass because of inaction, Paul is a co-sponsor on the CARERS Act, a bill that would allow medical marijuana on a federal level and leave the other legalization details to individual states. In a visit to Denver in October, Paul indicated that state’s rights would continue to be an important part of any marijuana platform he establishes.



Mike Huckabee

Though Huckabee has traditionally said he’s against marijuana use in any form, he did say during an interview in October that he’s “open” to the idea of medical uses. The

Where do the rest stand?

None of the other Republican candidates support widespread marijuana legalization, but talk about it in varying degrees. Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz have both said they believe in state’s rights and wouldn’t enforce the federal ban in states that have legalized the drug, essentially leaving it at the uncertain status quo that exists today. Jeb Bush admitted to smoking weed in his younger years, but reiterated during a GOP debate in September that America has a “serious epidemic” of drugs that still needs to be addressed. He fell back on state’s rights during the debate, as does Marco Rubio, though Rubio’s explanation can be a bit confusing to follow. Donald Trump has said he’s generally not bothered by medical marijuana, but is solidly against recreational marijuana on the whole. Ohio Governor John Kasich, whose state just vetoed the use of marijuana, said in an interview last April that he wants to honor state’s rights but opposes legalization and that as president he would “lead a significant campaign down at the grassroots level to stomp these drugs out of our country.” Jim Gilmore is “not a legalization guy.” Rick Santorum believes in the war on drugs and believes federal laws should be enforced. Ben Carson said he would “intensify” the war on drugs, and is against marijuana legalization. Carson said medical use in “compassionate cases” is acceptable, but that it’s essentially a gateway drug. Chris Christie, though pointing out that New Jersey has laws in place for rehabilitation for first-time, non-violent offenders, has also said marijuana is a gateway drug. Like Santorum, he’s also said he would enforce federal laws. Candidates’ viewpoints are sure to become more defined as the political field narrows in the coming months, but until then the overarching theme is that states are acting on their own. Once the political actors become more clear, so will the future of marijuana legalization. Follow Nikelle on Twitter and Facebook

http://www.cheatsheet.com/culture/the-2016-presidential-candidates-who-could-let-you-smoke-marijuana.html/?ref=YF

Weight loss?

Since I was about 18 - I have either been fat or on a strict diet. Now, at 61 - since my diagnoses with Esophageal/upper gastric cancer - without trying in the least I have lost around 80 pounds and kept it off without any effort. Of course both having a nausea problem and swallowing problem - I am unable to enjoy the food I have always loved. I must admit, I love all kinds of food. I just cannot partake very much of it anymore. I don't know if I ever will, again.

Yes, I have tried medicinal hemp - It helps with many of my symptoms and just generally puts me in a better mood. But, it really has not made eating easier. Because it is not so much a matter of appetite. It is more a matter of swallowing and food settling in my stomach.

I must admit I really like not being fat. Achieving it without trying is kind of nice. I don't like what I've had to go through to achieve that, though.

Has dealing with weight loss been an issue with any of you? Has being caught between liking not being overweight and not being able to enjoy food caused a strange dilemma?

“Poor people lose”: “Making a Murderer,” reality television and our shared mythology of a classless

society: "Making a Murderer" is a police procedural. It’s also that rare thing in American film: A story about class

by Jennifer Haigh


(Credit: Netflix/Screen composite by Salon)

Over the New Year’s weekend, I binge-watched Netflix’s 10-part documentary series “Making a Murderer,” which follows the remarkable case of Steven Avery – a man wrongfully convicted of rape and released after 18 years, only to be rearrested and convicted of murder. The filmmakers, Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, spent untold hours at home with the Avery clan, who live in a kind of family compound on their scrapyard in rural Wisconsin.

I see a lot of documentaries, but I’ve never seen one about people like the Averys. Watching, I was struck by how rarely a mainstream American film shows how poor people actually live. We see Steven’s mother frying hamburgers, talking on the phone, watching local news coverage of Steven’s trial while making soup. What makes these scenes interesting, even revelatory, is where they occur. Steven’s trailer, his parents’ modest house, look nothing like the set of a family sitcom or its contemporary equivalent, the “reality” show. If you spent your life watching television, you might reasonably conclude that all Americans live like Kardashians or “real” housewives. For poor rural folk, nothing could be less real.

The Avery story is unusual in that it isolates the variable of class from the powerful, and related, question of race. “Making a Murderer” takes place in rural Wisconsin; like the police, the prosecutors and the victim, the Avery family is white. If the Averys were black, their story would become part of the current conversation – long overdue – about racial inequities in policing, the criminalizing of blackness. We’d have a language to explain why police were so convinced of Avery’s guilt, or why his girlfriend was harassed by law enforcement, or how his learning-disabled nephew was interrogated for hours without legal counsel. Micro-aggression, targeting, the culture of incarceration: because the Averys are white, none of these terms seems to apply. The closest we ever get to an accurate assessment of the forces at work comes from Avery himself in the third episode: “Poor people lose,” he states simply when confronted with the new charges against him. It’s hard to disagree. Yet the fact that we lack any larger language for talking about class cuts to some basic truths about Americanness.

American society is classless, a pure meritocracy: this is part of our shared mythology. My parents believed it. Raised poor, they joined the military, went to college on the G.I. Bill and became schoolteachers. They believed they’d made it, and in a real way, they had. They worked and saved, built a house, sent two kids to college – the sort of incremental mobility that was possible for poor white people (and, thanks to discriminatory lending practices, largely off limits to poor blacks).

read full article:

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/08/poor_people_lose_making_a_murderer_reality_television_and_our_shared_mythology_of_a_classless_society/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Ben & Jerry's co-founder gives an amazing interview - revealing a potential Bernie- inspired flavor

by J.D. Durkin | 8:54 pm, January 7th, 2016



On Thursday afternoon ahead of a highly contentious rally in Burlington, Vermont featuring GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, the cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s took time to do an interview with MSNBC and it’s absolutely awesome. Branded with a proud “Bernie” sign for his own support of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Ben Cohen spoke with MSNBC’s Kate Snow, discussing his personally passion for the Sanders campaign. Cohen also made a pretty surprisingly reveal about a potential new Ben & Jerry’s flavor that he’s been imagining.

“Yeah I’m outdoors,” Cohen replied in the most relaxed fashion imaginable. “This is what we call balmy in Vermont.” He continued to discuss Thursday night’s Trump rally very casually; despite the expected overload of thousands of ticket recipients who would not be allowed access, Cohen added “Yeah, I’m thinking about dropping by.”

Although Cohen was critical of Trump — “He gets ahead by pushing other people down,” noted the ice cream legend — the real flavor of the interview came after Snow asked Cohen about his allegiance to the self-described Democratic-Socialist Senator from Vermont. As for a potential Bernie Sanders-inspired ice cream flavor, Cohen admitted that Ben & Jerry’s formerly did not have any plans to move forward.

However, Cohen did shed some light on what this flavor might look like with a pretty incredible description that speaks perfectly to the populist-driven grassroots effort of the Sanders camp:

“I came up with one. It’s called ‘Bernie’s Yearning’. When you open up the pint, there’s this big disk of chocolate on the top, covering the entire top, and below it is just plain mint ice cream. And the disk of chocolate represents the 90% of the wealth that has gone to the top 10% over the last ten years. The way you eat it is that you take your spoon — you whack that big chocolate disk into a bunch of little pieces and you mix it around and there you have it: ‘Bernie’s Yearning.’

'New Democrats' sound alarm over Sanders and Clinton's leftward march

Do you stand with Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders in liking soul food?

Donald Trump Releases First TV Ad Touting Proposed Muslim Ban 4/1/2016

Posted FYI because it is so stupid it is mind boggling

The Orwellian redefining of the meaning of the words "centrist" and "moderate"