info- http://www.Kennedy2024.com The Hill article by Filip Timotja 04/04/24 Alyssa Farah Griffin article she originally wrote in the Daily Beast! I am not a fan of RFK Jr. However, I am I huge fan of mental health and medication.
For legal purposes the title of this video is a question and not to be construed as a statement of fact. The Nex Benedict story has been tied to Libs of TikTok and its founder Chaya Raichik. Is she to blame? Why does the first amendment protect Libs of TikTok?
Long time followers / readers may remember the struggle we had getting Ron’s older brother in a nursing home as he lost touch with reality and couldn’t care for himself. He actually knew it was happening and drove himself to the VA to get help, but it progressed so quickly. The VA stabilized him and sent him home, but he got both physically and mentally worse. He is a long time cancer survivor from the time when they over radiated cancer patients, causing his intestines to harden and die, requiring many surgeries to remove them to stop internal bleeding. So he got so bad he was constantly bleeding out from his butt and pooping everywhere along with not being mentally able to clean himself, up after himself, or even understand the issue.
Ron and his sister worked hard to get him into a nursing home that could care for him. It took a lot of money, his sister had to pay over 5 grand for the first month to even get him into a nursing home. Medicaid rules said a person had to be in a nursing home for a month before they could be covered my medicaid and medicare. Ron’s brother is very low income so he got a small $100 supplemental income from the military for his illness in the military, and had medicaid. But because he was on medicaid he couldn’t have a lot of assets and the nursing home would take all but 30 dollars of his income. Which meant Ron and his sister would have to put money into his bank account every month to pay his credit card bill, other expenses, give him extra money in his home account to buy treats and stuff, and his car insurance. The other siblings despite having far more money than Ron and I simply couldn’t find it in their hearts to help pay their brother’s bills. One sister tried a few times to help, but she was losing her own grip on the world and couldn’t figure out how to do it or would forget, so Ron and his other sister just started covering the entirety themselves. The paid off his card and sold his car. They had to stop his military supplement because that would have put him a few dollars over the Medicaid limit, and Medicaid was paying for his care. His brother went into the nursing home the end of 2019 or beginning 2020. That required twice a year expensive trips to NC.
Ron would drive up to NC and get a hotel room just outside the airport. Ron’s sister would fly into the airport and they would go to the town that the nursing home was in and get a hotel room. They would spend a week or so with their brother, buying him clothing or things he needed / wanted. At first they bought him electronics like phones but he was unable to use them and they realized that was useless. A year ago they moved Ron’s brother to in nursing home hospice care. And at some point they started doing Zoom calls every couple weeks first with the brother and family done by the home staff then hospice staff included.
While writing this Ron was heading for a nap. I went to restart the 17 year old dryer as it had stopped. It wouldn’t start. I looked and the door switch which had been getting flaky the last year gave up the ghost. It had all our only deep pocket bedding for the Purple mattress we bought. So no nap for Ron, he got up, together we pulled it out, he is cleaning it and trying to figure out how to get to the switch.
Over the last 3 and half years his brother got worse. Sometimes he would go months tracking reality, but then he would slip and lose touch with the real world. This year he has been out of reality, and a lot of the time his health was so bad he couldn’t really hold himself upright and needed support. Ron and his sister started getting calls this last month that his brother got out of bed during the night without calling for staff and tried to go to the bathroom by himself. He can’t walk. So he falls. It has happened I think three times. The first were minor but this last time was serious. Remember this is a nursing home, not a prison and they couldn’t restrain him in bed.
This time he fell and broke his leg bone right at the hip joint. The home and hospice people called Ron but they did not know how bad it is. He was so bad that when Ron authorized him to be taken to a hospital, the hospital called him and said he would only last a couple of days and that he had internal bleeding they couldn’t trace that may have been going on for a while. His brother had the issue with his intestine hardening and getting so brittle they would tear apart. The last few years the doctors removed as much as they could, but it was dicey if anything they stitched to would hold. That was yesterday. Ron and his sister were making plans to quickly go see him.
They may have just run out of time. As I am writing this at 2:32 pm on 4/10/2024 and while Ron was working on fixing the switch from the dryer the hospital called. His brother was stopping breathing and then after a few minutes would suddenly take a breath. The intervals are increasing as they watch him. Remember that he is on hospice, we knew he was dying for the last few years and so while all comfort measures can be given, no lifesaving care can be. No intubation nor resuscitation. We just had no idea it would be this soon or Ron and his sister would have gone to see him again. But normally a hip or upper leg break is hard for an elderly person to come back from, most people in their 80s who break a hip die soon after.
Ron is on his phone, but 17 years working in ICUs tell him his brother has only hours to live. The nursing staff at the hospital agreed. There is no way short of a Star Trek instant teleporter that Ron could get there in time. He so far is calling people and holding it in. But he is going to need all my sympathy and support tonight. Thank you everyone. But I may be a few days before I get back online depending on how much Ron needs me. He comes from a large once very tight family, 8 siblings. He has handled the loss of the older ones but it gets harder for him as he ages and more have died. He may need a lot of support. Best Wishes. Hugs. My love for all of you. Scottie
I want to thank Barry for sending me the link to this video. Best wishes friend. Scottie.
The video is about the politically driven fight to end trans care in Texas for minors and adults. And how it is affecting four trans families and others. In it you will hear false claims made about chopping off little boys penises which is not happening, but no mention of breast augmentation and nose jobs for teenage girls. You will hear claims made that are misinformation, lies, and myths. The goal is to create a straight cis fundamentalist Christian republican society ruled by men, and to do this they use the claims of saving the children to rile up the base and muddy the water to get more votes. They don’t care who they hurt in the process, they wouldn’t even allow current minors on puberty blockers and hormones to be weaned off or to continue treatment. This is not about the health of children as Texas did not accept summer food assistance for poor people, they did not do anything about school shootings and gun control, they did not increase child health care at all they only removed the medically accepted best practices for gender nonconforming kids. Hugs. Scottie
When Texas lawmakers introduce a record number of anti-trans bills, transgender kids and their families from across the state converge on the Capitol to fight back.
I refuse to post the full story of DeathSantis beating his chest proudly denying that vaccines against measles need not be taken while a horribly dangerous disease sweeps the state keeping kids out of schools for months at a time. It is not just an itch spots disease but one that can kill, main, leave lifelong disabilities, pain, and blindness along with many other things like organ failure. Why oh why do you think parents were desperate to have their children vaccinated in the 1960s. They had seen the results of the disease. The vaccines are safe and effective. Plus nowhere in the bible does it say don’t take vaccines. This entire anti-vaccine crap was started by people conflating something with them that they did not cause, then quacks, scammers, and conspiracy nuts kept it going and growing. It has become a sign of what political party you belong to by if you accept medical science. Think about that, people walking around with modern tech all over them, want to return to a medical time when people barely washed their hands. Hugs. Scottie
The measles outbreak in Florida raises concerns about the rapid spread of this disease & potentially severe consequences. Measles is not a benign illness despite what the demented Demon Sperm surgeon general & ghoulish governor say. #FireLadapo#RemoveRonhttps://t.co/VW7rpd6WFc
— Lesley Abravanel 🪩 (@lesleyabravanel) March 9, 2024
Column: As measles spreads, 'herd stupidity' grips Florida's government https://t.co/lExM0kEQ3T
"This misinformation driven by people like Ladapo is now driving parents to say, 'I'm not going to get the measles shot for my child.' Measles is one of the riskiest types of infectious diseases in the world for children who are unprotected."
With NOT getting the MMR, it is also Rubella, “German Measles”, that, if a woman gets it while pregnant in the 1st Trimester, the child could be born with
The most common birth defects from CRS (Congenital Rubella Syndrome) can include: Deafness Cataracts Heart defects Intellectual disabilities Liver and spleen damage Low birth weight Skin rash at birth
“To date, no additional cases have occurred at Manatee Bay Elementary since Friday”
Might be because they’ve changed the rules around reporting infectious diseases? And consistently go out of their way to attribute “politically inconvenient” deaths as anything else.
Another great video destroying anti-trans propaganda, myths, and misinformation. He talks slow, is methodical, and uses sources he displays and has in his description box to make his points. Often he will go through the studies that the anti-trans people use to show they either did not say what is claimed, are way out of date, used the wrong methods, or simply were created to be used for anti-trans propaganda. He shows not only the bad studies and debunks them, but the real modern medically reviewed and approved studies showing that very few detransition and those that do mostly do so because of negative treatment from society, peers, and family. People who live all their childhood knowing and claiming they are a different gender are not suddenly going to stop saying it at 18 or 21. If they are going to suffer all that mistreatment and hate growing up, they are what they are telling you. Hugs. Scottie
Frank Turek and Sean McDowell make ridiculous pseudoscientific claims about LGBTQ people. Here I debunk them with actual scientific research.
Subscribe using my link for 30% off unlimited access or try it this month for less than $1. Claims I debunk: Abuse and trauma cause non-heterosexuality and gender non-conformity, not affirming queer people is the best way to help them, being gender nonconforming is a social media contagion, rapid onset gender dysphoria is real, gender dysphoria can and should only be treated with therapy or prayer, gender dysphoria is similar to and should be treated in the same way as anorexia, 80% of gender dysphoric youths grow out of it by age 18, medical intervention for gender dysphoria does not help mental health outcomes, and trans s rates skyrocket 10 years after transition.
I have covered these bans before. Simply put the fundamentalist conservative right are terrified that social media is showing our kids that it is ok to be accepting and tolerant while doing things for all the public instead of just the wealthy. In other words, showing them a different way they could be than simply right wing fundamentalist religious straight cis republicans. So they revamped schools to indoctrinate the kids with right wing fundamentalist. Ah but their indoctrination was being undone by social media. Well ban that also. See that is the right wing way, they don’t like it so ban it, they are the original cancel culture creators. Their way of thinking is to force everyone to live and be just as they are, think like they do, be who they are told to be. Force everyone to worship the same way, live the same way, listen to only the same stuff, eat the same meals … in the land of the free! Their idea of freedom is the right to take freedom away from others. Hugs. Scottie
House Speaker Paul Renner said the bill addresses the ‘addictive features that are at the heart of why children stay on these platforms for hours on end.’
The measure would take effect at the beginning of 2025 – if it survives expected lawsuits from the nation’s largest tech companies.
In that case, minors under 16 would be barred from social media platforms, unless they’re 14- or 15-year-olds who get a parent’s permission.
“You can have a kid in the house safe, seemingly, and then you have predators that can get right in there into your own home,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Jacksonville. “You could be doing everything right but they know how to get and manipulate these different platforms.”
The governor was joined by local school officials and bill sponsors as well as state Attorney General Ashley Moody and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., all of whom backed the policy.
Also there was House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, who negotiated with DeSantis on the legislation (HB 3) after the governor vetoed the original version, citing legal and parents’ rights concerns.
The legislation passed both legislative chambers by a broad bipartisan basis, with only a fraction of Democrats dissenting, claiming it was government overreach that would be overturned in the courts. First Amendment advocacy organizations have also come out against the measure, saying largely the same.
But DeSantis and Renner said they believe the measure will survive judicial scrutiny.
“What’s unique in this bill is we didn’t focus on content,” Renner said. “You will not find a line in this bill that addresses good speech or bad speech because that would violate the First Amendment.
“… But what we have addressed is the addictive features that are at the heart of why children stay on these platforms for hours and hours on end.”
The bills defines the affected social media platforms as ones with features such as push notifications and infinite scrolling, which loads content as the user scrolls down, eliminating the need to click to a next page. Those features have had an “devastating effect” on the mental health of children, Renner said.
He predicted an imminent legal challenge from NetChoice, a tech industry trade group that has filed lawsuits in other states against similar measures and has opposed Florida’s.
In a statement shared shortly after the signing, the group called the restrictions unconstitutional.
“An unconstitutional law will protect exactly zero Floridians. HB 3 is also bad policy because of the data collection on Floridians by online services it will in effect require. This will put their private data at risk of breach,” said Carl Szabo, NetChoice’s vice president and general counsel.
“HB 3 forces Floridians to hand over sensitive personal information to websites or lose their access to critical information channels,” he continued. “This infringes on Floridians’ First Amendment rights to share and access speech online.”
This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA TODAY Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com.
If you are unsure of the difference between sex and gender, or if you are question many of the hate myths about trans people, or possibly thinking trans people are new and never been accepted then please watch this video.
The host is easy to listen too, shows his sources, and uses facts, yes those pesky facts that refute all the anti-trans misinformation spread desperately through the right wing media. The video covers how anti-trans groups formed fake medical groups to claim science said that trans was a sickness or such, but the video show that real professionals in medical science disagree and show that being trans and gender nonconforming is a normal difference some people have.
Finally the hosts shows how the anti-trans movement push was started around 2008 when conservatives and fundamentalist religious groups were losing the war against gay people and gay marriage. They were seeing gay people normalized on TV and moved to prevent that from happening for trans people. Plus the video shows how this is about state control over everyone’s body. He shows how the idea of strict gender roles formed when men felt marginalized and wanted to create a society that was male oriented and was based on male superiority. For men to be superior, that meant they needed females to be inferior. So strict gender roles were created and enforced. This only has been the way for the last few centuries, not forever. Hugs. Scottie
Does Gender Even Matter?
There’s a full blown panic sweeping America, and it’s all about gender, and especially people who don’t conform to traditional categories. But what is it about people’s gender choices that makes others so worried? Was this an inevitable facet of modern life, or is something more complicated going on? Let’s find out in this Wisecrack video on Gender Theory: Why Now?
I take epidural steroid injections in between my steroid muscle injections. It is a hard choice for me. I have weird bones; in some places they grow too thick. in other places my bones are way too thin. I try to limit the spine ones until I cannot stand the pain and must do it because they are so painful. I have had to have three in the last 4 months. This time was the most painful epidural I have ever had. It was the first time I have ever cried out on the table. I was struggling so hard not to move despite the pain. Remember I take 2 kinds of morphine and muscle relaxers at the maximum dose allowed by the state of Florida, along with 800 milligrams of Ibuprofen. I used to take stronger ones before state legislators felt they knew more than my doctors.
First I waited more than an hour and a half before the doctor actually came into the room. They are horribly understaffed, and the state of Florida makes providing pain relief care as impossible as possible. Everything from restricting medication to requiring frequent visits, which means more costs for the poor people needing the service. I used to go every three months, get my medications prescriptions. I now must go every two months and my medications are restricted causing me to be in even more pain. Since the next pain medication level for me is Fentanyl and I talked to my doctor again today and told him I am very scared of it. I need more pain relief, but he understood. He thought there might be one kind of muscle relaxer that might help me more. I am already on maybe the most powerful one that the state will let them give me at the max dosage. I was on one that worked great and helped me a lot but again the state legislatures make it illegal for doctors to prescribe it in their attempt by republicans to look tough on drug crime. So he changed that medication after he gave me the shots.
Back to today’s procedure. I got there and checked in. I have been going there so long I am very friendly with the check in and check out people. I talked at length with (name redacted … out of respect for others, I won’t use their names.) the check in woman. Because I really genuinely care about people, I often get in to conversations and become very friendly with people I interact with. I noticed she seemed tired and bothered, so asked her if she was OK, was she sleeping Ok. She told me no. She had another death in her friendship circle. She has suffered that a lot over the last year with many deaths of close friends and family. A friend of the hers had been walking at night, got hit by a car that did not stop to check what they hit and simply called the police to say they thought they hit something. An ambulance crew found the man just in time, he had to be resuscitated and returned to life, but he is in critical care. She, her husband, and some friends went out and found some of his stuff but by the locations of his things including parts of his bracelets he was hit hard and maybe dragged. She couldn’t sleep because her mind wouldn’t disengage and let her sleep. Boy do I know that. So I let her talk and express her fears. I expressed my deep well hopes and well wishes. It doesn’t take being religious to care or empathize with others.
After being in the waiting room for a while which I think was not too long, I read some news, posted a few news stories, read some of my books on my tablet I was called in.
I was not given the normal check in where they do your weight and your medications, so I had to make sure that my restricted medications were reapproved. As I talked with the woman doing this I complimented her on her purple colored hair. It was clear she struggled to grow hair and she tried to make the hair she had stand out, so she was delighted to talk to me about the color. I told her I thought it was great, that I loved the color, which was the truth. I enjoy people exploring being different. It shows personality and style. She was delighted and happy. I waited in that room a bit over an hour.
Now many might be upset with the time I waited, and it is not right to make patients do that. But the truth is, it is not the doctors and providers making us wait. It is the constant need for more profit by corporations. It was not like this before my doctors were forced to sell to a large health company in California. They are always pushed to do more, see more patients, and always short on staff. While I understand that people who work cannot tolerate such waits, most of those in my condition don’t work so our time is our own, so we can give it when we need to. The only problem I had was the sitting in their chairs was painful, so I had to stand, sit, readjust, and so forth to deal with it.
Short side note. One time I was there I waited more than an hour. My normal provider I love and have followed to every office she moved to was covering for three providers. She was running an hour behind because of this. This is the same woman who is the only doctor who gives me a hug both when coming in and when leaving. She knows the most I have ever told any doctor of my abuse, and I needed to because she noticed the self-abuse on my arms. When she opened the door to my exam room, I heard a woman come out into the hallway and yell at her / everyone that she had been there almost an hour and shouted abusive language demanding to be seen. My favored normal provider is elderly, she had already gone to semi retirement of only part-time, she stays simply because she is like me, she cares. She had returned to full time to cover for a fellow ARNP who had gone out on pregnancy leave. She told the woman the situation yet when she came into my room she was visibly shaken and stressed. I told her immediately to take a few minutes to decompress and relax, as I was not in a hurry. She smiled, relaxed and we hugged. That is what it means to see others as people, as humans like yourself, to accept and acknowledge their needs.
Back to this morning. When the young man … so many people in professions are to me these days. Young I mean. I followed him. I had to remind him I couldn’t walk fast as he raced into the room, but he came out and apologized and told me to take my time. As it happened, I had a lot of time. He got stuff ready; I took the stuff out of my pants pockets along with taking off my glasses, put my hair in a ponytail, and he told me I could get up on the table. Damn if I knew it was going to be another thirty minutes I would have waited as the table is painful for me. He went out twice to check on the doctor and said the person the doctor was seeing must have lots of questions. I told him that was OK as I appreciate it when the doctors / providers take their time with me. There is simply no way to do the 10 minute visits the corporations demand to increase profits and give decent care to those in need.
Side note. After this doctor sold his practice which was required because a large hospital system screwed them out of 8 months of billing hours, the new company required him to see non-spine shot patients between each shot patient, plus do all the medications needing physician sign offs that day. He seriously almost runs from room to room. Yet once in the room he gives his all to the patient. It is what drew me to his practice in the first place, he is like me, we truly and really care about people.
And in true fashion, that same doctor gave me the time and attention to address my needs. But this is the first time I ever cried out when given the spine shot. I have had a lot of these, I knew the drill. Plus, I am used to pain. First from childhood abuse and in later years with my body failing, which my first orthopedic surgeon blamed on the trauma done to my body / bones from that abuse. I never told him of my abuse but by my scans he already knew. I am paying every day for what was done to me so long ago.
So when the doctor put the numbing agent in, I was prepared for the pain, the sharp sting. But what followed next was more than I was used to. My injections seem to be in three parts but that maybe just how I feel them. First is the sting of the needle to inject a numbing agent. Then the second needle to drive the guide needle into the spot. Those are painful on an increasing scale, the stinging needle I handle easily, the guide channel is really painful but I bear it without moving, I have had a lot of experience doing that in my life. Then comes the largest syringe of medications. I get to see them draw it up, it is a mixture of at least two different stuff.
This time when he put the guide in it was really painful, but I took it. As I said I have known pain all my life. He is the kind of doctor that seems to feel your pain and discomfort and talks you through it. I told him I understood how important it was to remain still and not tense up. Like I said, I get these a lot. He told me the nerves were really inflamed. But when he went to put the medication in … The pain was horribly crashing over me and increasing. For the first time I cried out, saying “flocks” as I desperately tried to stay still. Every part of my body demanded I move and it took all the will power I had to stay there and let it happen instead of trying to run away. The doctor was talking to me trying to explain why this time was so much worse than the others, but I was struggling to hear / understand him. I again cried out “Oh good golly miss Molly” Seems the nerves in that spot were extremely frayed / inflamed. It felt like he had inserted a golf ball into my spine. When I said that the Doctor agreed with me and offered me comfort.
As to the choice of words to cry out. I am not normally a vulgar person, I had enough of that growing up. While I don’t believe in bad words per say I know others do. Even in great pain I tend to use the words I like to express it. After all that is what curse words are, our expressions.
Being the great caring doctor he is he did not rush out of the room to his next patient. He talked to me, made sure I was OK, we returned to the conversation I had with him the last time he gave me shots. We had been talking about my muscle issues and he even took the time to go back into my chart to find a new medication that might help me. When I told him how painful the two muscles along the side of my spine would get and then told him they were not so painful today as normal, he kept asking me about it. I described how they can get as raised as my fists and as hard. What I did not realize is like the last time he gave me spine shots he mentioned how swollen they were, they were also swollen this morning. I just get so use to the pain I don’t realize how mind numbing bad it is. As I said he took the time to go through my chart and look at my medications and prescribed the only one left he thinks will help.
I was in so much pain I could hardly drive home. I had to have Ron help me into the house. This morning, Tuesday, my leg muscles are so sore from me tensing on the table during the procedure that I can hardly walk. I will take it easy today. Ron just took the bandage off my back and he says that the needle mark / hole is really big. Hugs. Scottie
I was with in 8 notifications of totally clearing my notifications before I just had to quit. This morning I will try to get caught up, but I have more spine shots this morning. So the day might be a wash for me. But there is always tomorrow. I hate the spine shots, they are even more painful than the trigger point muscle shots I get. Plus the position on the table is painful for me. But it has to be done. See ya all soon in the future. Hugs. Scottie
Douglas Soule
USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida
Scottie's Playtime 