Health Update

  This past Tuesday, I went over to my oncologist's office to have my blood drawn in order to check my PT-INR and a1c levels. My primary care physician, Dr. Boerger, said that my a1c was 7.3 which was slightly on the high side for someone with type 2 diabetes. At her suggestion, I arranged an appointment with an Aurora opthamologist to have my eyes examined. For the most part, the eye exam was uneventful. My prescription has changed slightly since last year's exam but not enough to warrant new glasses. The early stages of cataract development have been detected. There's the possibility that 10 to 15 years down the road I may need cataract surgery. Since diabetes is a risk factor for cataracts, I'll have to be more careful controlling my blood glucose levels. The only noteworthy item from the exam was an unusually twisted artery near the optic nerve of my left eye. I'm going to see a retinologist on June 22nd in order to get a better idea as to what caused the arterial twist and whether or not it's going to be a potential problem. The opthamologist said it might be due to a blood clot.

Gen Con Update

  The plans for Gen Con 2017 are proceeding along nicely. My 4 day badge has been ordered. The hotel reservation has been made. I had to wait 7 hours and 5 minutes before I could reserve my room and thus ended up about 10.5 miles outside of downtown Indianapolis. Since I don't feel like driving into downtown Indianapolis everyday and paying for parking, I'm going to see what mass transit options exist and use those. I've set up a wish list of 8 events that I will submit when event registration goes live this Sunday at 11:00 am CST. Hopefully I won't end up way back in line like last year. I had to watch as most of the events I wanted filled up and I had to wait until I got to the head of the line before I could secure what events were still available. Then I had to pick other events to replace the ones I didn't get into and get in line again. I asked for this Sunday off so I could log in early and submit my wish list.

The Republican Healthcare Plan & Trump's Budget Proposal

  After more than 60 attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Republicans have finally revealed their healthcare plan. This plan, called the American Health Care Reform Act of 2017 is their answer to the ACA. In typical Republican fashion, this bill sticks it to the poor, sick and elderly while giving massive tax cuts to the rich. Some questions and answers regarding the Repuclicans health care plan can be found here. Needless to say, the majority of people disapprove of the plan. Senate Republicans still don't like the plan and the CBO reports that while premium costs for young, healthy people would go down, for many others, like the elderly and those with pre existing conditions, the rates will increase significantly.
  Trump and the Republicans seem to love fucking over the average American citizen while dumping large sums of money into the pockets of the extremely wealthy. Trump's budget asks for deep cuts to social programs and Medicaid while providing tax cuts that benefit primarily himself and the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans and corporations. The people that elected this tangerine turd blossom are the very people he's screwing over the most. And, to make matters worse, many of these idiots will likely vote for him again should he run for reelection in 2020.

The Ideal Republican Constituent

  Rich, white, Christian, conservative, straight, cisgender and male. This is the ideal Republican constituent. The closer you are to this ideal, the more likely it will be that they will lick the shit out of your asscrack in order to cater to you. The farther you are from this ideal, the more likely it is that they will pass laws depriving you of your rights, costing you more money and ruining the environment where you live. The reason Republicans are so gung-ho about repealing the Affordable Care Act is because it taxes the rich. Golden Showers pick to head the EPA, Scott Pruitt, frequently tries to undermine laws protecting the environment. Betsy DeVos, Golden Shower's choice for Education Secretary has proven woefully incompetent for the job she now has. The real reason she was appointed was so more federal tax money could end up funding Christian schools in violation of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. They want to create a Christian nation in violation of Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli. Christian supremacists must be ecstatic over Golden Shower's pick. Steve Mnuchin, our new Treasury Secretary is exactly the kind of person Golden Shower railed against during his campaign. Wall Street looks to make massive profits under Trump's administration while the rest of us suffer. Conspiracy theorists Monica Crowley and Michael Flynn were picked to be the National Security Council's senior director of strategic communications and National Security Advisor respectively. Republicans only care about the average person during election time when they need their votes. The rest of the time they cater only to their ideal constituents. If the Supreme Court ever declares that money equals votes, they'll be able to ignore the average person completely.

Shitting Down Our Throats...

...and calling it chocolate pudding. That's what Trump a.k.a. Golden Shower and his propaganda monkeys Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway are doing to America. Their disinformation campaign is trying to rewrite history in order to suit Golden Shower's fragile ego. Conway has called for Trump's media critics to be fired. When it was thought that the Quebec mosque attack was committed by a  Moroccan Muslim, Spicer made it a point to mention this to the media in order to justify Golden Shower's Muslim ban. When it was revealed that the attack was, in fact, committed by a white French Canadian, both he and Golden Shower ignored it. Of course, Fox News, right wing propaganda monkeys all, joined in the spreading of the disinformation. White supremacists groups are celebrating the fact that Golden Shower is removing them from the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) program. Steve Bannon, racist Breitbart fuckwad, has made it clear that the media will listen to Sean Spicer and like it.
  Trump is little more than a racist, misogynistic, homophobic narcissist suffering from delusions of grandeur. Anyone with dissenting views becomes the object of his wrath. This piss colored fuckwad wants to be God King Emperor for life of the United States and expects everyone to goose step in unison at his every proclamation. Sadly, Paul Ryan and other Republicans have proven to be little more than craven pathetic lackeys to our piss colored President. Orwell's Ministry of Truth is alive and well and exists in Trump's America. We are well and truly fucked.

"Alternative Facts"

  Trump's been in office for only a short time and already the bullshit is starting to fly. First off, this jackass is claiming that his inauguration drew in a massive audience. This simply isn't true. Obama's 2009 inauguration crowd made Trump's crowd look pathetic. You can see for yourself right here. Trump also claimed that the moment he started speaking, the rain stopped. This is simply another lie or as Kellyanne Conway calls it 'alternative fact'. It would seem that the Ministry of Truth from Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 is alive and well in Trump's America. In addition to the 'alternative facts' being spewed by this piss colored fuckwad and his band of sycophantic morons, we have the interference in the election by the Russians, his refusal to release his tax returns and his insistence on having his sons run his businesses instead of putting them in a blind trust as required by the Constitution. Could this be the reason why Republicans tried to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics?
  Trump is a lying, thin skinned, narcissistic egomaniac worthy only of contempt. He's insulted Mexico, women in general and Megyn Kelly specifically. He mocked disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski and claimed that thousands of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks. Some Jersey City Muslims did apparently celebrate 9/11 according to later reports. Unless something happens, we're going to have to deal with Trump for at least the next four years. If something should happen, wannabe theocrat Mike Pence will become president. If that happens will we have gone from bad to worse?

New Year's update

  The cancer marker tests came back negative. This is good news. At the moment I'm cancer free. I'll be retested in March. Hopefully that test will come back negative as well. My blood glucose levels have been much better lately. I don't how this happened but I'm not going to knock my good fortune. Because my blood glucose levels have been much closer to normal, Dr. Boerger wants me to stop taking the pioglitazone. If this keeps up, I might not have to take the glyburide either.
  My Gen Con 2017 badge has been ordered. Hopefully this year I won't have to wait over 3 hours for a hotel room. I also hope to get into some Paranoia, One Ring and Firefly events this year. Last year, despite having a bunch of events picked out ahead of time and submitting them promptly at the 11:00am start time, I was still way back in line and most of the events filled before I got to the front of the line. I'm going to move my state and federal tax refunds over to my Amex Serve and Simple accounts to serve as spending money at Gen Con.