I’m with Stephen here, this is QAnon stuff.

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Recently, Academy Award winning actress, comedienne and co-host of ABC’s “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg was hospitalized with sepsis and pneumonia. Last Thursday she made a surprise appearance on the show and recounted her experience with her health insurance and so-called hospital advocates.

Pneumonia and sepsis can be an extremely serious combination, even deadly. Here is what you should know:

In the United States, pneumonia is the most common cause of hospital admission aside from women delivering children. In 2013, pneumonia was responsible for 960,000 hospital stays and nearly 60,000 deaths that year. The illness is now the eighth leading cause of death.

The severity of the lung infection depends on what’s causing it and who is affected by it. Pneumonia can be caused by a wide variety of bacteria, fungi or viruses, which enter the lungs from the air we breathe. A single organism can account for as many as 10 percent of cases, the most common being a bacteria called Streptococcus pneumoniae. Influenza, also known simply as the flu, has the potential to cause pneumonia, too.

A weaker immune system raises the risk of getting a serious case of pneumonia. At-risk groups are considered to those who are young, such as children, the elderly and those who have compromised immune systems.

Symptoms of pneumonia include fever, shortness of breath and cough. Doctors who suspect their patients have pneumonia will often order blood tests and a chest X-ray to look for other signs of infection. However, not all pneumonias require hospitalization. Mild pneumonias can be treated in as little as five days with antibiotics.

Doctors may ask patients to stay in the hospital for closer monitoring in cases where pneumonia doesn’t improve or where it began as severe.

Survival from pneumonia has improved significantly over time. But death rates still range from as low as 3 percent in those who are treated outside of the hospital to 50 percent in those who require care in a hospital’s intensive care unit. For some people with pneumonia, recovery can take up to six to eight weeks.

There are several complications that can make pneumonia a bigger problem. Pleural effusion, which is sometimes called “water in the lungs,” occurs when fluid accumulates just outside the area of the lung where the infection is located. The fluid can sometimes turn into pus, too. If it doesn’t improve on its own or with antibiotics, the fluid may have to be drained with a needle in a bedside procedure called thoracentesis.

Severe pneumonia and pleural effusions may block the transfer of oxygen from the air we breathe into our blood. When respiratory failure like this develops, doctors will likely have to intubate the patient, which requires placing a breathing tube down their throat and connecting it to a breathing machine. This allows doctors to control the patient’s breathing.

There are several complications that can make pneumonia a bigger problem. Pleural effusion, which is sometimes called “water in the lungs,” occurs when fluid accumulates just outside the area of the lung where the infection is located. The fluid can sometimes turn into pus, too. If it doesn’t improve on its own or with antibiotics, the fluid may have to be drained with a needle in a bedside procedure called thoracentesis.

Severe pneumonia and pleural effusions may block the transfer of oxygen from the air we breathe into our blood. When respiratory failure like this develops, doctors will likely have to intubate the patient, which requires placing a breathing tube down their throat and connecting it to a breathing machine. This allows doctors to control the patient’s breathing.

It’s worth noting that sepsis can develop from any kind of infection, not just pneumonia. However, pneumonia is the leading cause of sepsis. It’s a big deal because sepsis is more likely to lead to a worse outcome; mortality rates from sepsis can be as high as 15 percent.

Because the elderly are especially vulnerable to pneumonia, it’s recommended that everyone receive pneumonia vaccinations at the age of 65. There are two types of pneumonia vaccines — Pneumovax and Prevnar. Each contains bits of different strains of bacteria that cause pneumonia, allowing the body to develop antibodies and therefore immunity to fend off any future infection. Studies show that 69 percent of elderly people who are eligible to receive the vaccine don’t. Other at-risk groups should get vaccinated even earlier, including smokers, diabetics, alcoholics and people with compromised immune systems.

Other preventive measures people could take include receiving an annual flu vaccine and quitting smoking.

In high-risk people, pneumonia can develop into something serious and potentially fatal. But more commonly, it is easily treatable and patients’ outlooks are good. Talk to your doctor to make sure you are up to date with your pneumonia vaccinations if you are part of an at-risk group or over the age of 65.

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Look, I know you long for the days of Obama but he only looks good by comparison. He self identifies as slightly to the right of Eisenhower and that’s not progressive or Left in any sense.

One of his worst policies was Investor State Dispute Settlement as instituted in NAFTA (by Bill Clinton) and in the Trans Pacific Partnership. Basically any Global MegaCorp could sue a Government for expected profits in a Kangaroo Court arbitration process superseding Constitutional Courts of Law, ones where they got to pick the Judge and the Jury.

Think it couldn’t happen here? It already is and by an Unindicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio affiliated Russian Oligarch no less.

Deripaska Sues Over U.S. Sanctions, Claims $7.5 Billion Loss
By Andrew M Harris, David Voreacos, and Stephanie Baker, Bloomberg News
March 15, 2019

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska is fighting back in a U.S. court against American sanctions that he said are unfairly destroying his global businesses and are based on unproven allegations about his close ties to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Deripaska, who made his fortune in the metals industry, sued the U.S. Treasury Department and Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington on Friday, asking a federal judge to lift the restrictions against him. In his complaint, the magnate said he is “the latest victim” of “political infighting and ongoing reaction to Russia’s purported interference” with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, unfairly targeted Deripaska and caused his net worth to drop by $7.5 billion as banks withdrew credit and other businesses refused to work with him, according to the suit. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his net worth at $3.9 billion, after dropping $5.8 billion last year, the most among Russia’s ultra-wealthy.

“I have filed a civil complaint against Treasury and OFAC to clear my name and remove the sanctions that have been arbitrarily imposed on me for political reasons,” Deripaska said in an Instagram post. “This is about simple justice.”

U.S. government sanctions have resulted in “the utter devastation of Deripaska’s wealth, reputation and economic livelihood,” according to the complaint. “Deripaska has been effectively shut out from the international business community and the global financial system.”

Deripaska, the founder of aluminum producers En+ Group and United Co. Rusal, was among the most prominent tycoons hit with sanctions by President Donald Trump’s administration. The move followed passage of a law to retaliate against Moscow for its election meddling. In April 2018, the Treasury slapped sanctions on Deripaska and six other Russians it labeled oligarchs in response to the Kremlin’s “malign activity around the globe.”

Recognize the name? I thought you might. Oleg Deripaska is the Putin controlled spy that has a monopoly on Aluminum in Russia and is the direct conduit between the GRU and Manafort.

Yeah, that’s just exactly the kind of behavior we should be encouraging.

So Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio lost 12 Republicans in the Senate during his showdown over an Emergency Declaration to fund his Vanity Project Penis Wall O’ Racism and that might seem bad enough, but it’s actually much worse.

He Whipped them, “whipped” in this sense meaning he made the vote explicitly a test of personal and Party loyalty and reached out to individually contact and lobby each of the 53 Senators in his Caucus.

It was a miserable failure. Indeed a last minute delegation of Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Ben Sasse was virtually kicked out as trespassers. The Art Of The Deal baby.

Does this mean there may be some movement on Pelosi style bi-partisan Impeachment?

No.

It is significant in that it makes the record clear for the Courts which will ultimately decide the Constitutionality of this “Emergency” that there is bi-partisan consensus that Congress does not want to spend any money on the Vanity Project Penis Wall O’ Racism and has taken extraordinary action to prevent it.

You can’t spend willy-nilly as if it was all some huge pot of greenbacks to be thrown at whatever you want. It’s Congress’ dough and if you look at the programs that will be looted and pillaged you’ll find a fair amount is being stolen from Representative’s and Senator’s Districts and States and that might not sit so well with their constituents.

Trump rages as fresh signs of his weakness emerge
By Greg Sargent, Washington Post
March 15, 2019

There is probably no better way to demonstrate one’s manly strength and control than firing off a tweet in capital letters. So it is that, when a dozen GOP senators defied President Trump’s orders and voted to terminate his declaration of a national emergency, his powerful Twitter thumbs sprang into action: “VETO!”

The thrilling message to his supporters: Trump’s got this. He’s totally in command of the situation.

But we are now learning new details about just how personally involved Trump was in trying to prevent defections among GOP senators. It turns out Trump aggressively sought to make this vote all about himself — frequently warning that he would unleash the cult-like wrath of his voters if the Senate didn’t do his bidding — and raged as that effort failed.

What makes this so odd is that even though the Senate and House have now voted to terminate Trump’s national emergency, he actually can veto the measure, and his emergency will proceed. So why the histrionics? One possible answer is that, for Trump, even this interim loss represented an unacceptable display of weakness — with ominous portents for the future.
…
The Post also reports that White House aides informed undecided GOP senators that Trump was paying close attention to their votes, as White House aides worked to “keep the number of Republican defectors in the single digits.”
…
The New York Times reports that Trump made a “volley of phone calls” to Senate Republicans and “warned them of the electoral consequences of defying him.”
…
The Times adds that when this effort failed to persuade Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Trump “flew into a rage.”

The key point here is that Trump’s effort to make this vote all about “border security” failed. Republican senators objected to Trump’s national emergency declaration on separation-of-powers grounds: He used it to gain wall funding that Congress had just denied him. But over and over, Trump commanded them to see this as only about border security, and about him.

Notably, Trump repeatedly threatened them with the idea that his own supporters would see it this way, too, and that this should frighten them very deeply. But it didn’t.

Why did Trump invest so much in this one vote, when he always had the option of a “VETO!” to render its outcome moot?

Well, for one thing, a large congressional rebuke on this could weaken his legal stance. Multiple lawsuits underway argue that Trump’s national emergency violated the Constitution by using the emergency to secure funds Congress had explicitly denied him. Senate Republicans have now reiterated Congress’s opposition to funding the wall.

But there’s another plausible explanation for Trump’s rage about this vote: It’s rooted in the same impulse that leads him to keep claiming the wall is currently being built, when it isn’t.

As Trump gears up for his reelection campaign, his aides have been instructing his followers to bellow “Finish the wall!” rather than “Build the wall!” Trump is extremely sensitive to the nuances of what is chanted at his rallies. As Trump himself recently put it: “The chant now should be ‘Finish the wall’ instead of ‘Build the wall,’ because we’re building a lot of wall.”

We actually aren’t. But all this is a reminder of how deeply entangled the wall is with Trump’s belief that his hold on his followers depends on creating the impression that he’s winning everywhere and that he’s perpetually taking control of events.

Crucial to maintaining this impression throughout has been Trump’s insistence that he has bent his whole party to his will on “border security.” (Please remember: Republicans didn’t fund his wall when they held both houses of Congress.) During the government shutdown, news reports indicated that Republicans were splintering, and Trump raged that “there is GREAT unity” on “Strong Border Security,” despite the “Fake News Media” reporting otherwise. But Trump’s capital-letter tweets couldn’t make that true, and he caved. The declaration of the national emergency after that, similarly, was all about projecting action and control.

Now Trump’s command that Republicans see their national emergency vote as one about border security failed. We’ve learned this came after extensive browbeating, including the threat to unleash the anger of Trump voters. But the national emergency is deeply unpopular, and the legal arguments for it are deeply absurd. In the face of that threat, as frightening as it was, reality proved overwhelming.

Trump will do his “VETO!,” and the national emergency will continue. But the wall still faces extensive legal obstacles, and it still isn’t being built. It’s hard to say whether this will ultimately cost Trump with his supporters. But judging by all his behind-the-scenes raging to keep Republicans in line, he certainly seems to think something is amiss.

Ok, this is what a love sponge is-

This is Tucker Carlson: White Supremacist–

Not sponge worthy.

Occupied Palestine is, umm… Occupied

They’re actually equally Semites as far as labels like that go (not far unless you’re Tucker Carlson). Benjamin Netanyahu is a crook who deserves to be in jail for perfectly obvious and ordinary reasons and AIPAC is the United States lobbying arm of his political party. Are you ok with that?

Not in the sense that you agree necessarily, just that it’s ok to talk about.

Only not on this site without prior review.

I affirm and attest I have reviewed this statement- ek hornbeck.

Cartnoon!

Nah, it’s about sexual harassment.

Frankly I don’t understand misogynous Geek/Nerd culture at all. I’ve spent a long time looking for people who at least pretend to tolerate my madness and I treasure their companionship.