The above, and left is me in Hell tonight at work.
Finally got hold of my doctor. This after he did not return either my or my pharmacist calls for over a week.
He wants to see me. That's good. I want to see him too. I'm still in very painful, and disorienting withdrawals from the powerful medications he prescribed, but then failed to renew.
These scary withdrawals start after missing just 'one' dose, one day. Thanks to him I've missed 12.
So a meeting is arraigned. I'm going,..so is my attorney.
That's all I can legally say till this is resolved.
Below are the many effects associated with the withdrawal from Effexsor. In the last week I've had'em all.
'I MEAN ALL'. Often several at a time.
As I post now it's happening again. Last night, and this afternoon I nearly took my life. The night before I was planning a murder.
These were profound psychotic events for me.
Before that I as I said couldn't find my way home, at work I mis-programed equipment.
Indeed I would 'never' post things this fucked up, ugly, and personal if I weren't raving, offline, and nuts.
For all this I beg your pardon.
EFFEXSOR WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS.
1. Crying spells 2. Worsened mood 3. Low energy (fatigue, lethargy, malaise) 4. Trouble concentrating 5. Insomnia or trouble sleeping 6. Change in appetite 7. Suicidal thoughts****** 8. Suicide attempts***** 9. Anxious, nervous, tense 10. Panic attacks (racing heart, breathless) 11. Chest pain 12. Trembling, jittery,or shaking 13. Irritability 14. Agitation (restlessness, hyperactivity) 15. Impulsivity 16. Aggressiveness 17. Self-harm 18. Homicidal thoughts or urges***** 19. Confusion or cognitive difficulties 20. Memory problems or forgetfulness 21. Elevated mood (feeling high) 22. Mood swings 23. Manic-like reactions 24. Auditory hallucinations 25. Visual hallucinations 26. Feeling detached or unreal 27. Excessive or intense dreaming 28. Nightmares 29. Flu-like aches and pains 30. Fever 31. Sweats 32. Chills 33. Runny nose 34. Sore eyes 35. Nausea 36. Vomiting 37. Diarrhea 38. Abdominal pain or cramps 39. Stomach bloating 40. Disequilibrium 41. Spinning, swaying, lightheaded 42. Hung over or waterlogged feeling 43. Unsteady gait, poor coordination 44. Motion sickness 45. Headache 46. Tremor 47. Numbness, burning, or tingling 48. Electric zap-like sensations in the brain 49. Electric shock-like sensations in the body 50. Abnormal visual sensations 51. Ringing or other noises in the ears 52. Abnormal smells or tastes 53. Drooling or excessive salivausers 55. Blurred vision 56. Muscle cramps, stiffness, twitches 57. Feeling of restless legs 58. Uncontrollable twitching of mouth
Up to 78% of effexor users will experience these withdrawal symptoms. This can happen with one missed dose. (..so far as I mentioned above I've had 12 missed doses.)
These symptoms will show up for 66% of Paxil , and 60% of Zoloft users. Reference: “The Antidepressant Solution” by Joseph Glenmullen, M.D.
Republicans defeated a bill to provide health care to 9/11 first responders. These Hero's have been abandoned, and are on their own.
Many over the years have died because of untreated injuries, and toxic poisoning.
These heartless people, Republican politicians, also refused to allow the extension of unemployment coverage for the millions that are now jobless because of the years of republican party mismanagement.
Congressman Anthony Weiner, Democrat/NY stood up to these people at the Capital.
Congressman Tony Weiner defends the aid bill to 9/11 rescue workers. Rescue workers that the Republican are determined to block from medical aid.
They especially want to deny anything, "not one aspirin",..quote on their website, to any illegal, "undocumented", immigrants that were injured while rescuing 9/11 victims.
Yeah this all sounds seriously biased from me.
It is.
Read my masthead.
These so-called conservatives are point blank heartless people. Their values are a mystery to me. I say "so-called" because true Conservatives would never be so destructively short sighted or ungrateful to these 9/11 Hero's.
I was doing some light reading about all the zillions of conspiracies out there. Ya know the Navy blasting the planet with microwaves, 9/11 bullshit, the Masons, space aliens, covert Jew hate, Big Foot, and everything else.
Actually Covert Jew hate is sadly too real.
It's called anti-zionism. This new kind of Jew hate hides behind outrage that even I feel about the awful things the Israeli rightwing governments do. Hating Jews for killing Santa or jesus or whoever don't wash anymore so now they have this,...and 'it' works fine.
Anyway my point is trust is dead.
So everybody is scrambling around for some kind of truth. 'Any' kind of truth, and they've come up with some seriously deranged stuff.
Odds are we both believe in some of it. This disparate, and unofficial truth. Sure I sort'a believe in that space alien/spaceship thing. 'Think I saw one when I was 14, but I also believe in the free lunch. ..eh, 'never' saw one'a them.
Anyhow neither of these swell things is likely to show up at my front door anytime soon so I'm not worried about'em much.
The 9/11 stuff is a generational thing. Folks under 30 or so believe in it. In fact it's kind of a religious thing with them. The rest of us that have seen a few historic cycles roll by feel otherwise.
We've by just managing to stay alive have a kind of wisdom an understanding of how things 'really' work. That makes us somewhat, not altogether, but a bit immune to the various ideological, and or religious fads that go around.
I guess the point of this babble is that I'm troubled at all these less than sane versions of reality running around.
I especially am freaked out by the general rejection of the western rational, scientific tradition. The what seems to be a general embrace of a technological age form of superstition.
What's laughable bullshit to us is life, and death reality to the kids. This ain't goldfish swallowing, zoot suits or be-in's. Fun though that stuff was for the kiddies of the past. It wasn't a threat to rational thought.
So if there's any kids or young adults in your life tell them about the scientific method,..and the long hard road to it's discovery.
Explain the periodic table to them. Tell them who Kepler, Newton, Curie, Darwin, and Einstein were, and what they was up to. Tell them yeah we really went to the moon, and that it was the dream of millenniums to get there!
...and we frigg'n did.
Tell them they don't need cults or made up bullshit to fill their lives with. They've already got 2000 years of accumulated verifiable scientific knowledge to work with. It might come in handy if they want to clean up the planet.
Maybe things would be better for us if we asked the Queen, and Prime Minister David Cameron to take us back in. Under the parliamentary system the the Republican Tea Party, the Brooklyn Maoist League, and all of the other demented U.S. culture war groups would have back bench seats so we could keep an eye on them.
We'd finally have National Health, better tv shows, cooler weather, and no one would hate our guts as much.
So perhaps we should try this out for a few years, and see how it shakes out. A fish'n chips shop, and some Indo/Pak curry joints on the block would be handy.
Okay maybe that withdrawal thing is clouding things for me a bit, but I kinda like the idea.
On the other hand the Brits might not like an additional 30 million Irish descended subjects suddenly hanging around giving them the finger.
On the up side they wouldn't need passports to go to Disneyland or Vegas anymore. Also British food would vastly improve with all The Tex-Mex, Cajun, and Louisiana cook'n added to the mix. ...did I mention the Coney Island Hot Dawgs?
That's the game comrades. I'm "Spinning Out", in drug withdrawal. Legal withdrawal. My Effexsor prescription ran out. That's my nut house drug. My pharmacy can't find my witch doctor to refill the damned thing.
No return call from his office for over a week.
He's probably on vacation in the south of France with all the loot he got from his 'never going to have' National Health clients.
Note I say "clients" not patients.
Anyway I've got what they playfully call the "brain shivers". Literally your brain stem trembles. Shit, even kicking cocaine wasn't this awful.
Electric dreams, voices, fuzzy perceptions, bright light blindness, and gross confusion.
I couldn't find my way home this morning.
Btw the last time I couldn't find my way home was in 1955. I was five years old.
We'd just moved into the now "Old Family House". These were cute turn of the 20th century Brooklyn brownstone family houses which were identical. Blocks of'em.
Anyway jump ahead to 2010, and my landlord noticed me standing on the corner sweating like crazy, and not looking well. He walked me back to my digs. Like I say I have the 'only' sane, and humane landlord in the City.
As for my doctor who is the cause of all this. I'm told I have a case, and can sue that irresponsible jerk for letting this happen. I'd love to sue the thoughtless bastard, but I'd settle for just getting my meds back.
They actually help. They allow me to live my life,...as opposed to taking it.
The folks downtown at my pharmacy are very sympathetic, but can't help. I asked them to just "process the damned thing", but they said that would be a "felony for the both of us".
The War on Drugs, and all.
Apparently Effexsor is a DEA controlled substance.
On the upside I'm told I won't die, however I'm in for a "hell of a ride". 'Least till they can get hold of Doctor "Screw you I already have your money so why should I help you?"
Greetings Comrades. I was reading the "National Review" one of the semi-rational rightist 'zines. Yeah I take a peak now'n then. They, and the Liberal "Nation" 'zine should form a bowling league they've so much in common.
Well in the sense that they're matter to the other's anti-matter.
Anyway they were going on as to how most just don't have the big picture regards Obama. Especially his own supporters. Ahem guys like me that are exasperated to tears with him. That, and the radical right already dancing on his grave.
Seems this incompetent weasel is in fact a seriously smart'n crafty mammal with a considerable win rate for so short a time.
Don't count this guy out yet these smart fascist say. His base, and the fringe right think he's history, but there's more chapters coming, and they look to be more than interesting.
Ironic that a rightwing 'zine gets me to reconsider this weasel, and even have a gram of hope. ______________________________________
Obama’s Second Act
In the political marketplace, there’s now a run on Obama shares. The Left is disappointed with the president. Independents are abandoning him in droves. And the Right is already dancing on his political grave, salivating about November, when, his own press secretary admitted Sunday, Democrats might lose the House.
I have a warning for Republicans: Don’t underestimate Barack Obama.
Consider what he has already achieved. Obamacare alone makes his presidency historic. It has irrevocably changed one-sixth of the economy, put the country inexorably on the road to national health care, and, as acknowledged by Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus but few others, begun one of the most massive wealth redistribution's in U.S. history.
Second, there is major financial reform, which passed Congress on Thursday. Economists argue whether it will prevent meltdowns and bailouts as promised. But there is no argument that it will give the government unprecedented power in the financial marketplace.
Its 2,300 pages will create at least 243 new regulations that will affect not only, as many assume, the big banks, but just about everyone — including, as noted in one summary (the Wall Street Journal), “storefront check cashiers, city governments, small manufacturers, home-buyers and credit bureaus.”
Third is the near $1 trillion stimulus, the largest spending bill in U.S. history. And that’s not even counting nationalizing the student-loan program, regulating carbon emissions by EPA fiat, and still-fitful attempts to pass cap-and-trade through Congress.
But Obama’s most far-reaching accomplishment is his structural alteration of the U.S. budget. The stimulus, the vast expansion of domestic spending, and the creation of ruinous deficits as far as the eye can see are not easily reversed.
These are not mere temporary counter-cyclical measures. They are structural deficits because, as everyone from Obama on down admits, the real money is in entitlements, most specifically Medicare and Medicaid. But Obamacare freezes these out as a source of debt reduction.
Obamacare’s $500 billion in Medicare cuts and $600 billion in tax increases are siphoned away for a new entitlement — and no longer available for deficit reduction.
The result? There just isn’t enough to cut elsewhere to prevent national insolvency. That will require massive tax increases — most likely a European-style value-added tax.
Just as President Reagan cut taxes to starve the federal government and prevent massive growth in spending, Obama’s wild spending — and quarantining health-care costs from providing possible relief — will necessitate huge tax increases.
The net effect of 18 months of Obamaism will be to undo much of Reaganism. Both presidencies were highly ideological, grandly ambitious, and often under-appreciated by their own side.
In his early years as president, Reagan was bitterly attacked from his right. (Typical Washington Post headline: “For Reagan and the New Right, the Honeymoon Is Over” — and that was six months into his presidency!)
Obama is attacked from his left for insufficient zeal on gay rights, immigration reform, closing Guantanamo — the list is long. The critics don’t understand the big picture.
Obama’s transformational agenda is a play in two acts.
Act One is over. The stimulus, Obamacare, and financial reform have exhausted his first-term mandate. It will bear no more heavy lifting. And the Democrats will pay the price for ideological overreaching by losing one or both houses, whether de facto or de jure.
The rest of the first term will be spent consolidating these gains (writing the regulations, for example) and preparing for Act Two.
The next burst of ideological energy — massive regulation of the energy economy, federalizing higher education, and “comprehensive” immigration reform (i.e., amnesty) — will require a second mandate, meaning re-election in 2012.
That’s why there’s so much tension between Obama and the congressional Democrats. For Obama, 2010 matters little. If the Democrats lose control of one or both houses, Obama will likely have an easier time in 2012, just as Bill Clinton used Newt Gingrich and the Republicans as his foil for his 1996 reelection campaign.
Obama is down, but it’s very early in the play. Like Reagan, he came here to do things. And he’s done much in his first 500 days. What he has left to do, he knows, must await his next 500 days — those that come after reelection.
So 2012 is the real prize. Obama sees far, farther than even his own partisans. Republicans underestimate him at their peril.
As you know the northern hemisphere is going through a killer heatwave. Russia, and India are especially hard hit. It's hot as hell around here too. Btw has there ever been a hemispheric heatwave before?
This can't be good. It's a tad scary too. We're in the middle of yet another declared "Heat Emergency". Locally 'Jersey, and NYC are toast. The whole eastern corridor in fact.
One of the tv news zombies said parts of the metro region will have the equivalent of 110f to 115f. This when the humidity, and the assorted poisons in the air are factored in.
115f!
Sure my kitchen thermometer 'only' reads 101, and the official number is 98f still this shit's Hot.
Did I mention the subways. It was 121 on the 14th street platform, but then it's always 20 degrees hotter down there in the summer. 20 degrees colder in winter too.
Anyway I've never experienced heat of this extreme,..115 wow! So I decided to experiment. Could I make it to the laundry, the supermarket, and the post office,...and back without dying?
Hey it's a tuff town, and it calls for tuff people!
Well,..I got as far as the corner, and said "fuck this!", and went back to my refrigerated thermal shelter. What the hell was I thinking?! I must have been out of my mind!
I could'a bleeping died out there.
Take a tip from an over heated comrade. Stay inside till this stuff blows over,..if it ever does. I suggest ice tea or limeade with crushed ice, and perhaps some "Twilight Zone" dvds to pass the time.
Look in on your older pals, and family, and make sure the kids, and pets drink plenty of water. Put ice cubes in the doggie's bowl,..your kiddie's bowl too. They'll be glad ya did.
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.
So why are we witnessing such fundamental changes? Well, the globalism and "free trade" that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects.
It turns out that they didn't tell us that the "global economy" would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations.
The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough.
Here are the statistics to prove it:
• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.
"Giant Sucking Sound"
The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world.
After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker 10 times more (plus benefits) to do the same job?
The world is fundamentally changing.
Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new "global" labor pool.
What do most Americans have to offer in the marketplace other than their labor? Not much.
The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are "less attractive" than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States.
So corporations are moving operations out of the U.S. at breathtaking speed. Since the U.S. government does not penalize them for doing so, there really is no incentive for them to stay.
What has developed is a situation where the people at the top are doing quite well, while most Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to make it.
There are now about six unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of "chronically unemployed" is absolutely soaring. There simply are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.
Many of those who are able to get jobs are finding that they are making less money than they used to. In fact, an increasingly large percentage of Americans are working at low wage retail and service jobs.
But you can't raise a family on what you make flipping burgers at McDonald's or on what you bring in from greeting customers down at the local Wal-Mart.
The truth is that the middle class in America is dying -- and once it is gone it will be incredibly difficult to rebuild.
Michael Snyder
(Article Stolen from Yahoo News) ________________________________________
"...We're Fucked."
*Our old pals Lucy, and Ethel are right. Barring a social revolution, like the one we thought he had by electing Obama. Anyway barring a 'real', and effective movement of social change we're fucked.
We're Brazil.
We're now a second world country slipping into post industrial third worldhood. The message of the above piece might be unstoppable. Too many powerful interests 'want' the Middle Class of the former United States of American to die.
Small Nebraska town starts pogrom again phantom illegals! The crazed 'burg of Fremont Nebraska has declared war on the tiny Mexican community within it's town limits.
All seven miles of it.
The landlocked community of Fremont which borders no other nation,..or U.S. state has passed a frankly draconian immigration law.
They feel just swell about it too.
Well we're at it again. Good grief! The only thing this country hasn't done yet is to sterilize Mexicans, and make them wear armbands. What is this thing white people have about Mexicans for heaven's sakes.
American racism is nuts.
The bottom line, the 'real' fear that's driving this madness is clear. In about 30 or 40 years this country will have a non-European decent majority.
All them dark folks no one took seriously for the last few hundred years will be out voting, and out babying the gringos. First by a little then by alot,..a whole lot!
'That' is the unstoppable social engine that's driving all the rightwing madness throughout our beloved U.S.of A. Nothing short of an Alien invasion or Zombie apocalypse can stop it.
Probably not even that.
Our Brethren are hanging onto 1956 by their bloody fingernails. Well what can I say,...take ya best shot, but the math is against you.
Don't worry we'll be nicer to 'you' than you were to us.
(Bankrupt Fremont Movie Palace under Mexican attack!)
The small town of Fremont, Neb. -- barely 7 miles wide and with a population of 25,000 -- has rarely garnered national attention. But today this Midwestern community sent ripples through the country as voters overwhelmingly voted for a controversial ordinance designed to ferret out illegal immigrants.
The ordinance aims to zero in on illegal aliens in the workplace and at their temporary homes. Under the ordinance, renters would have to apply for a license, which includes a police check of the applicant's legal status.
Undocumented aliens would be turned over to the federal government.
*(Wow! That's the sort of stuff they used to tell us happened in gawdless Soviet Russia or Detroit.)
Additionally, businesses would be required to check the legal status of their workers through the federal E-verify database and would face penalties for hiring undocumented citizens.
*(Reminds me of the plots in them nazi war movies. Ya know when the deranged scary guy in the black uniform is looking at your papers, and you're shit'n bricks.)
What's different about the Nebraska ordinance is that it covers a town that is nowhere near a U.S. border and which has only a small immigrant population, mostly Hispanic.
(Fremont Hotel over-run by Terrorist Immigrants)
According to the U.S. Census bureau, 93 percent of Fremont's population is white and just 7 percent is Hispanic.
*(Fremont,..gimme a break. There's more people on the "N" Train rumbling over the Manhattan Bridge at two in the morning on an off night.)
The Fremont ordinance sets a "dangerous precedent," said Laurel S. Marsh, executive director of ACLU Nebraska, with the license required by a renter for every move becoming a "handy tracking mechanism."
Attorney Kris Kobach, who helped draft the Fremont ordinance and has helped write and defend similar measures around the country as well as the Arizona state law, is confident the ordinance will withstand legal challenges. *(This country needs a shrink.)
(Stolen from ABC News.)
*(..my rude comments.)
(Remember, the Mexicans didn't cross the border. The border crossed them. Google the Mexican War.) ______________________________________________
Hey this'll cheer you up. I just heard a joke for our busted, and broke times.
Guy sez, "My identity got stolen!"
"They took everything,..credit card numbers, bank accounts, social security, the works!"
Sez the cops, "Gee that's tough, identity gone huh?"
Sez da guy, "Oh it worked out okay."
"Once they saw how broke I was they gave it back."
The American economy is dying because people don’t have money to spend. Obviously, you can’t have a strong economy with a real unemployment rate of about 20%. But it also goes deeper than this.
You can’t have a strong economy with nearly all of the wealth accumulating in the hands of the richest 1% of the population.
The wages for the average worker over the last few decades have not only stagnated, but they have actually gone down during this decade.
When America had a well paid labor force with good labor policies America thrived.
Why?
Because people will spend when they have the money to spend.
As I previously pointed out Santa Fe, New Mexico enacted a living wage law and it did much to benefit their economy. The business interests of that city cried that the living wage would lead to more unemployment and hurt small business. But what actually occurred was a thriving economy in Santa Fe.
We need to discard the notion of a minimum wage, and start thinking in terms of a living wage. Every job should provide a person with a living wage.
By enacting living wage laws, this would put the money back into the economy where it would benefit everyone. The people at the top would still be super rich but they would not have as much money to gamble on hedge funds. The rest of Americans would have more money to spend and that would create jobs.
Instead of the Fed printing more money and putting it into the hands of the top 1% to offset the deflationary spiral of a depression that we have been facing. A living wage would put an end to deflation by heating up the economy so all could benefit.
Bat Woman founder of the "Peoples Revolutionary League of Secular Humanist Action Figures", and part time Girls Academy gym teacher K.O.'ed Bruce Wayne!
Bruce Wayne, aka the so-called Batman. Is a well known violent vigilante, probable mass murderer , enemy of civil liberties, due process of law, repressed sado-masochist necrophiliac, and patent thief.
Further, he is guilty of multiple breakings, and enterings, and is suspected of being a Republican. This gross fiend, this complete butt hole, this unrepentant arrogant enemy of the People, and their rightly appointed Commissars was at last brought down by our Hero.
BAT WOMAN!
All Hail the Revolutionary Mistress of the Nights!
