From when I first read about Tony Podesta's firm getting caught up in the FARA investigations I wondered. His firm was brought into the Ukrainian situation by Manafort & Stone's firm. Apparently Tony Podesta's firm relied on information provided to them that the organization they were working for was not a governmental entity. It turns out that was a lie - who gave Podesta that info? Manafort & Stone?

Was Tony Podesta set up by Manafort & Stone?

Could Tony Podesta's email have been the conduit for hacking John Podesta's email account? After all brothers tend to communicate regularly and John Podesta may not have been as careful as usual with email contacts from his brother or from people that seemed to be connected to his brother.

Not pushing this as a serious theory, just questions that keep floating to the top of my head.

The TAVR went great. I checked into the hospital at 5:30 AM Tuesday, taken into surgery about 7:30, into Post-Op about 9:45, and into my hospital room by 11 AM.

The anesthesia was the conscious awareness type - while I did doze off for part of the procedure, while they were placing all the lines going into me, I woke up while the surgeon was explaining to the team what they were going to do. There were five things in my blood vessels - an IV in each arm, a port for a blood pressure monitor in the right wrist (that directly measures the blood pressure in the artery), the port for the TAVR in the right femoral artery, and another one in a vein on the other side of my abdomen that I never got the purpose of.

When the surgical team (there were five of them) briefed my husband they said everything went smoothly, no complications. For me the worst part of the entire thing was at the end when I was coming out of sedation and they were using pressure to make sure there would be no bleeding - on each side of my very full bladder! They don't like to use catheters because of the chance of infection, so I just had to suffer.

The next most painful part was the next four hours - to prevent bleeding I had to keep my legs and hips straight. My lower back didn't like that and after the first two hours started spasming. Meanwhile I got my first experience using a bed pan.

As soon as I was permitted to move, I had the nurse help me to the bathroom. This turned out to be a mistake. I took care of my business and started to feel woozy. The nurse had stepped out so I called my husband in. He came in, reached for my hands, asked why I was so pale. The next thing I knew, there were five people in the bathroom, none of them my husband, and a whole crowd more in the entrance and in the hallway.

I had had a "vagal" or vasovagal syncope and the heart monitor had sent out the panic signal to the entire hospital! Most likely there was an electrical disruption so my heart momentarily stopped. Fortunately I was seated and my husband was right there so I didn't fall and get other problems. Until yesterday morning, I used the porta potty chair that we put next to the bed so I didn't have to move very far.

Yesterday my goal for the day was to go to the bathroom without fainting and to get a shower. I managed the first goal very early. Then I sat up as much as possible, walked up and down the hall, and tried to do as much as I could to get back to normal. I did so good they checked me out mid afternoon. I was tired when I go home and have been mostly sleeping. I took a nap, had a shower (our shower is much larger and better for when help is needed than the one in the hospital), and had dinner, all in between more naps.

I am not running out of breath like I had been. I am tending to list to the left when I walk but I am getting steadier. Before they approved my release they did the basic tests for stroke and I was cleared on that score. The sleeping is my normal reaction to injury and surgery, the way my body heals.

The week after Thanksgiving I should have the next two procedures - taking out the kidney and repairing the hernia. After that my husband an I have a goal - New Year's Day we want to go to St. Marks Wildlife Refuge and go birdwatchin!

I just got a Roku Express thing. So far the only channels I have signed up for are Sling (for the news channels), Vudu (because it was a free offer), and Roku (free).

I haven't used it much but did watch the second season of "People of Earth" from Sling. I found their method of watching a series annoying. After each episode, I had to drop back to the main series menu, scroll back through the list, hoping I remembered which episode I was on, and start it.

I guess I am too used to the DVR I have with my Prism TV that once you record a season of shows when you watch an episode and stop at the end, it gives you the option of watching the next episode. It also dims the titles of the episodes you have watched so even if you don't go back to that series for weeks you know where you left off.

How does Netflix handle series binges? How about Hulu?

(I've got offers for free trials of Netflix and Hulu but haven't signed up yet. With my operation on Tuesday I wanted to hold off signing up for anything else.)

At least that is the schedule - next Tuesday morning I go into the hospital for a trans arterial valve replacement (TAVR). They will put a wire up my femoral artery to my heart, then a balloon which will be inflated in the old valve to open it up, then insert the new valve. I'll spend probably one night in the hospital so they can monitor my heart to make sure everything is working, then I go home the next afternoon.

About a month later when they can get me off the blood thinners, I have to go back to have a kidney removed - they found a mass when doing the tests to get me ready for valve replacement. In addition I have a hernia that they will fix at the same time.

I stressed all weekend since I had not heard anything as of Friday what the plan was. They had to get the TAVR surgeon, the kidney surgeon and the internal medicine surgeon together to sort out a plan of action. No wonder there was a delay!

As a response to this thread: Thank God white people populated America

From 1493 by Charles C. Mann:



Mann goes on to say that it was not until the nineteenth century that European immigrants dominated the Americas. May take: It is not surprising that this latter wave of immigrants were ignorant or uncaring of the vast contributions of their African predecessors. It is also not surprising that the eugenics, KKK, Nazis, and white power movements all seem to be dominated by the descendants of that later wave of immigrants to the Americas.

Americans (even white Americans such as myself and NOT just US Americans) should be fully aware of our history and of the massive contribution that the involuntary immigrants have made to creating our cultures. Without the slave trade this hemisphere would be a completely different place. In fact, there are areas where European incursions might have been completely unsuccessful without their African slaves. I wonder if in those locations the Indians might have been able to better survive?