I know. You didn't ask. But, since many of our friends are facing serious issues as their parents and loved ones age, I feel compelled to express to you the benefit of our experience with the U.S. medical system.
Here are 11 tips for surviving your U.S. hospital stay, with number 12 and perhaps the most important thrown in for good measure:
If you value your life and the life of your loved one, do these things:
Empower someone you trust and who loves you to be your patient advocate.
Each day, especially Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, at the beginning of every shift, your patient advocate must meet and be confident in your assigned nurse. Follow this practice until you leave the hospital.
Move to a room, as close to the nurses’ station as you can be. If the room is semi-private, ask for the bed closest to the entry door.
Make sure your patient advocate understands which medications your doctor has ordered for you as well as how much of each medication you are to receive.
Make absolutely certain that your patient advocate ensures that your nurse correctly administers your medications as your doctor has ordered.
Do not submit to any procedure unless you understand that your doctor has ordered it for you and you have agreed to have it done.
Closely observe the nursing team and make certain that they wash their hands and use clean gloves; do not use suction tubes which have fallen onto the floor or onto your bed; and maintain sterile technique when required, e.g. when changing a PICC line (peripherally inserted central catheter) dressing.
Question everything and ask your questions in three different ways.
Ask what are the known side effects of every medication and procedure.
Research everything until you feel comfortable that you understand.
Just never give up, no matter who says you can’t make it, because you can!
Here's another reason to consider solar for your home...
"Studies have shown that the average yield on commercial solar panels has increased by just 3.5 percentage points since the 2000s and seemed to be reaching a plateau. But Insolight's three founders – Mathieu Ackermann, Laurent Coulot and Florian Gerlich – wanted to push yields further and decided to try something radically different: build residential solar panels that employ the same kinds of cells used in satellites, which are very efficient but also very expensive."
"To keep costs down for the retail market, they developed a protective glass on which optical lenses can be placed that concentrate sunlight by some 100x and direct it to the tiny surface of the high-performance cells. That means the cells need to take up less than 0.5 percent of the solar panel surface. The founders also designed a mechanism that can move the cells horizontally by a few millimeters each way in order to follow sunlight throughout the day."
"Insolight boast an impressive 29 percent yield – a record."
New residential solar panels deliver record-breaking efficiency
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Published on Feb 18, 2019
The solar panels developed by startup Insolight boast an impressive 29% yield – a record for the retail market. These systems, which have now been standardized for mass production, contain lenses that focus sunlight on tiny high-yield photovoltaic cells, employing what is a pioneering approach for the solar-power industry
Sunrise Movement members ask, "Mitch, Look Us In The Eyes". Photo credit: Anthony Adragna.
(Washington, D.C.) Breaking News... I'll bet 10 cat's eye marbles that you didn't know this:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office was occupied for a few minutes yesterday by a group of young people - The Sunrise Movement - demanding, “Mitch, Look Us In The Eyes.”
These young heroes "delivered a petition containing 100,000 signatures to McConnell’s office calling on him to co-sponsor the “Green New Deal” resolution."
McConnell plans to allow a vote... but his plan calls for a vote to somehow "...highlight disarray within the Democratic Party over the progressive-backed climate initiative." I guess we'll find out what that means in the days ahead.
Please click through to the link below to see the videos.
More than 100 youth climate protesters entered Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office Monday to advocate for the “Green New Deal" and challenge McConnell's plan to fast-track a vote on the resolution in the Senate.
The youth climate advocates, members of the national climate group The Sunrise Movement, were seen overflowing from McConnell’s office into the stairwell in the Russell Senate Office Building on Monday morning.
Protesters inside his office held up a sign that read, “Mitch, Look Us In The Eyes.”
“I am here because people in my community don’t have jobs, are starving and turning to opiods [sic] and dying. Mitch McConnell refuses to do anything about,” said 15-year-old Kentucky high school student Lily Gardner, according to a press release from Sunrise Movement.
Within hours of the protests taking place, several members of the group could be seen being escorted out of the office in handcuffs by Capitol Police.
"As with all Kentuckians visiting D.C., we welcomed them to the office today. It's worth noting that two weeks before, Senator McConnell had already announced that he will be bringing the Green New Deal up for a vote in the U.S. Senate," McConnell spokesperson Stephanie Penn told The Hill.
The protesters delivered a petition containing 100,000 signatures to McConnell’s office calling on him to co-sponsor the “Green New Deal” resolution that was introduced in both the Senate and the House in early February by freshman lawmaker Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).
The nonbinding resolution is a sweeping environment and energy reform plan meant to set up the United States to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
It lays out, in part, a pathway for the country to transition to 100 percent renewable energy use by 2030.
McConnell announced two weeks ago that he would soon bring a vote on the resolution to the Senate floor — a move Republicans hoped would highlight disarray within the Democratic Party over the progressive-backed climate initiative.
Initially championed by Ocasio-Cortez to be the focus of a select committee in the House, the Green New Deal has met resistance by some Democrats who questioned the significance of the measure.
While Senate Democrats in recent weeks have pushed back on McConnell's clear effort to divide the party, the vote will highlight disagreements among Democrats over just how to approach the issue of a warming globe.
McConnell did not say when the vote would take place, but the bill has little chance of passing the Senate.
The Sunrise Movement played a part in helping Ocasio-Cortez's office draft the Green New Deal resolution.
The youth protesters have held multiple rallies to support the initiative at the Capitol this year, including staging their first sit-in at Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) office in the fall with Ocasio-Cortez present.
The group held a similar protest outside McConnell's Kentucky-based office last week.
There is little to no place for wisdom in our society.
We worship money, wealth and celebrity and disdain knowledge and experience - wisdom.
Most U.S. corporations care next to nothing about their "senior" employees, those who have spent years working for them. Most often the corporate people who populate our business today are all about getting rid of the old in favor of youthful, "fresh" minds.
What they end up doing is tossing out years of accumulated wisdom and irreplaceable experience with lower-wage, tabula rasa, eager-to-please-the-boss, replacements. Sure, the manager saves a few shekels today, but by doing so he is snuffing out the company's future by condemning it to repeat the errors of the past because he's wiped out the "experience" feed-back system. That is, the people who actually know something and might tell him he's going down the wrong path.
This stupidity is not confined to the corporate world, of course.
Consider health and wellness. Western medicine, under the control of predatory capitalists, I suspect, has long-condemned proven, homeopathic remedies and ancient, traditional medicine, such as acupuncture, to the "no profit", "witchy" woman trash pile.
Every day I learn more. Here's some very important knowledge... stuff our ancestors learned ages ago. Stuff like: we are composed of a bunch of electric circuits.
Here's the story...
Dr. Jerry Tennant: Healing the Body's Electrical Circuitry | Electricity of Life
ThunderboltsProject Published on Feb 23, 2019
Today, various electromagnetic therapies have gained unprecedented acceptance and use, and scientific studies continue to affirm the influence of electromagnetic fields on life. One of the leading pioneers in this rapidly growing field has been Dr. Jerry Tennant, an ophthalmologist whose book series Healing is Voltage describes his groundbreaking research into the electrical circuitry of the human body. Today, in part one of this two-part presentation, Dr. Tennant begins by sharing his own remarkable challenges which catalyzed his scientific journey.
Dr. Jerry Tennant is board certified in ophthalmology and ophthalmic plastic surgery (residency,
Harvard Medical School and Southwestern Medical School.) He was the director of ophthalmic plastic surgery clinic at Parkland Hospital in Dallas and practiced from 1965 to 1995. He did much of the FDA study for the VISX Excimer laser and performed approximately 1000 surgeries in the United States and Europe. In addition, Dr. Tennant was the founder/director of the Dallas Eye Institute and one of the first surgeons in the US to place intraocular lenses in eyes after cataract surgery and taught these techniques around the world. He holds patents for medical devices including intraocular lenses and several surgical instruments. While licensed in Arizona by the Board of Homeopathic and Alternative Medicine, Dr. Tennant is currently the Director of the Tennant Institute for Integrative Medicine. https://www.tennantinstitute.us
Dr. Tennant's presentation at EU2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm-Ia...
To view EU2017 conference presentations for $29USD, go to www.electricuniverse.live
It is time to "...stop using technology to optimize human beings for the market and start optimizing technology for the human future."
How to be "Team Human" in the digital future | Douglas Rushkoff
Published on Jan 14, 2019
Humans are no longer valued for our creativity, says media theorist Douglas Rushkoff -- in a world dominated by digital technology, we're now just valued for our data. In a passionate talk, Rushkoff urges us to stop using technology to optimize people for the market and start using it to build a future centered on our pre-digital values of connection, creativity and respect. "Join 'Team Human.' Find the others," he says. "Together let's make the future that we always wanted."
I’ll bet 10 cat’s eye marbles that there is one thing that you and I both know for certain.
That is American Predatory Capitalism is a clear failure for 99.9% of Americans. The U.S. has metastasized into a corporate oligarchy, dominated by a few billionaires, and is only a step or two away from becoming a full-blown Fascist dictatorship.
The .01% have it made, of course. And, even the top 10% are doing good, too.
But the rest of us are struggling. We are barely eking out a living.
Importantly, it’s not just about money. It’s about quality of life.
After all, most of us don’t go home to protected, gated communities, riding in an armor-plated Mercedes, chauffeured by ex-Special Ops armed guard.
No, we’re living every second in a war zone of sorts. Just going somewhere – around the corner or cross town – requires remaining on guard, trying to avoid the people with the guns – the car rage people, totally insane and ready to explode for some perceived driving error – and the hoodlums ready to take your life for the $10 they think you might have in your wallet.
Today in America, you must now also be on guard to remain clear of and far away from those other people with guns – the police. Because if you are stopped for any reason, you may not survive the encounter. You can end up dead for making the wrong move or pulled out of your car are pummeled for God knows what the “bully-with-a-badge-and-gun” perceived as a provocative infraction.
Finally, we are forced to constantly remain on guard, alert for the next scam coming our way via those maddening, unsolicited phone calls, or the unending rip offs – from the cable company, the bank, the grocery store, the gas station, the insurance company, the doctor, the hospital, and without a doubt, the politicians.
No, American Predatory Capitalism is not working for 99.9% of Americans.
I’m for giving Nordic-Style Social Democracy some time at bat. It has worked for others. Let’s see what we can do with an Americanized version.
Let’s change our societal paradigm away from welfare for corporations and the .01%.
"What the United States needs is not bigger government but smarter government, government for the twenty-first century that is simpler and more transparent, that provides the basic social services and regulations that a government can best provide, and that then leaves the market free of all the targeted meddling that the United States is infamous for now."
Here are a few life-changing facts these brilliant scientists have recently uncovered:
"Professor Graham Lord, from The University of Manchester, led the study, which could translate into treatments for autoimmune diseases including Cancer, Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis and Crohn's Disease within a few years."
"The 10-year-study found that microRNA-142 controls Regulatory T cells, which modulate the immune system and prevent autoimmune disease. It is, they found, the most highly expressed regulator in the immune system."
"If the activity of Regulatory T cells is too low, this can cause other immune cells to attack our own body tissues. If these Regulatory T cells are too active, this leads to suppression of immune responses and can allow cancers to evade the immune system."
"So being able to control them is a major step forward in our ability to control- and harness—the therapeutic power of the immune system."
What could be more appropriate and, absolutely necessary, in our iPhone era, than an app that helps us sort out truth from fiction?
I’m waiting for a creative genius to make that happen.
In the meantime we are all over our heads engulfed in a serious challenge: How do we tell a “real” or truthful video from a fake video?
I’m not kidding. Millions of us watch a bazillion videos each day.
Often we take them at face value, just accepting that they are a true representation of the subject. You know, that the person speaking actually spoke the words we have just seen him/her say, or did the thing we just saw them do.
Well, I’m sorry to bring to your attention that you can no longer simply believe our own eyes.
And, even worse, the technology to seamlessly lie in video format is cheap and easy to use – so anyone one, with a mind to do so, can now fake their own videos.
*You remember the Doubting Thomas Story, don't you? John 20:24–29
"A doubting Thomas is a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience—a reference to the Apostle Thomas, who refused to believe that the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles, until he could see and feel the wounds received by Jesus on the cross."
The "Doubting Thomas App" would help us determine if the video is a Deepfake or not.
Just the other day I wondered if I’d live long enough to witness a miracle. But just like my fortune cookie predicted, “You will soon witness a miracle”, I have indeed.
There’s one thing to note about the Trump Era… it opened the door to the Neo-Progressive Era.
Up to today in the nation’s history, it was painfully obvious that things would just keep sliming along no matter which political party was in charge.
Then the totally unexpected happened… Trump took over the White House and began paving the way to a whole new era. But it’s not the era that he nor his fellow oligarchs or their Republican Party leader drones expected.
Many of us had given up hope that we’d reach this tipping point given the iron grip the oligarchs have around the neck of the U.S. government. It’s their boundless avarice and unlimited bank accounts that have given them unlimited control of the nation’s resources and the ability to slime their way in and maintain control, no matter which party is in the majority.
But today Mr. Trump gave us a National Emergency Declaration for his wall that will change the game board forever.
In doing so he has single-handedly created and unleashed a Neo-Progressive Tsunami that will ultimately wipe out the oligarchy’s death grip and give birth to US-style Social Democracy.
It has taken a whole lot to wake up Americans to their dire situation, has it not?
We know change is never easy, so, here's a novel way to make the change happen: Why not emulate the best characteristic of the .01% class – the global corporatism, predatory capitalism people, the ones represented by the Republican Party – but scaled up for the American people en masse.
What do I mean “best of”?
It is the “self-first” nature of the beast, the thing they do best.
But our “self-first” would be directed, if you will, away from boundless individual greed toward a huge dose of humanity-first, e.g. Nordic Democracy. That's the Social Democracy that is working in the Nordic countries, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
Our goal is to selfishly see to the needs of every American, on a one-by-one, individual basis, making sure that we need and exceed those needs, by making our society, including our government and our corporations, meet every single desire, want, need, for each and every person, universally, regardless of their personal stature or wealth.
In fact, all we would be doing is emulating the .01% class, but making their lifestyle universal, for all of us.
Here’s what our society will look like:
Living wages, no matter the job
Free healthcare
Universal pensions
Free education
An end poverty
Affordable childcare
Paid maternity and paternity leave
Paid sick leave
Family allowance to cover expenses of raising a child
Four weeks guaranteed vacation (That means your job would still be yours when you come back from time off.)
Sean Illing: Why have so many people lost faith in capitalism? Steven Pearlstein: The most obvious answer is that capitalism has left a lot of people behind in the last 30 years. Everyone can see that the top 1 percent, the top 10 percent, the top 20 percent, have captured most of the benefits of economic growth over the last 30 years, and the rest of the population has been marginalized.
Now, we all know this, but I wrote the book because I think there is a feeling even among those of us who didn’t get left behind that this system has become too unfair, too ruthless, and rewards too many of the things we think of as bad. The system offends the moral sensibilities even of people who are benefiting from it.
“This model is the first to achieve the required negative emissions through natural climate solutions, including the restoration of degraded forests and other lands, along with a transition to 100% renewable energy by mid-century.”
"Citing a growing body of research, we show that using land restoration efforts to meet negative emissions requirements, along with a transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050, gives the world a good chance of staying below the 1.5°C target," Malte Meinshausen, founding director of the Climate and Energy College at the University of Melbourne and Potsdam Institute Fellow, says.
A transition to 100% renewables and the implementation of natural climate solutions offer additional benefits beyond keeping the climate system in check, the researchers say. The energy transition will be able to recycle our natural gas infrastructure and create millions of permanent jobs. Natural climate solutions could also dramatically increase sustainable livelihoods in the developing world, offering better water security and reduced soil erosion.
How to green the world's deserts and reverse climate change | Allan Savory
Facilitating the Regeneration of Grasslands
"Grasslands are vast landscapes that have the capacity, if properly managed, to address some of humanity’s most urgent challenges such as water and food insecurity, poverty, and climate change."
"Currently, grasslands are desertifying at alarming rates."
"One third of the earth's land surface is grasslands."
"70% of the world's grasslands have been degraded."
"Holistic Management of grasslands results in the the regeneration of soils, increased productivity and biological diversity, as well as economic and social well-being."
"Holistic Management uses decision-making and planning processes that give people the insights and management tools needed to work with the web of complexity that exists in nature: resulting in better, more informed decisions that balance key social, environmental, and financial considerations. In the context of the ecological restoration of grasslands worldwide, managers implement Holistic Planned Grazing to properly manage livestock – mimicking the predator/prey relationships in which these environments evolved."
Allan Savory
Allan Savory, born in Zimbabwe and educated in South Africa (University of Natal, BS in Zoology and Botany) pursued an early career as a research biologist and game ranger in the British Colonial Service of what was then Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia) and later as a farmer and game rancher in Zimbabwe.
In the 1960s he made a significant breakthrough in understanding what was causing the degradation and desertification of the world’s grassland ecosystems and, as a resource management consultant, worked with numerous managers on four continents to develop sustainable solutions.
He served as a Member of Parliament in the latter days of Zimbabwe’s civil war and became the leader of the opposition to the ruling party headed by Ian Smith. Exiled in 1979 as a result of his opposition, he immigrated to the United States, where he continued to work with land managers through his consulting business.
Finally, someone has spoken the truthout loud about what
the Republican Party is today. And, while I don’t follow the guy, Bill Maher, I
admire him for speaking the truth I have long believed:
New Rule: The Republicans Are the Problem | Real Time with
Bill Maher (HBO)
Chris Wallace reminds us that only a few days ago, the Republicans
were the Obstruction Champions of all time.
Chris Wallace mocks GOP for whining over investigations:
‘They investigated Benghazi’
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) instantly, clearly, exposes how and why our system must be reformed. She is the unrivaled master communicator. https://t.co/2vsFy9mrFG— Ronald D. Baker (@rondbaker) February 8, 2019
I’ve done or said many things in my life that I wish I could
go back and undo or unsay.
If I were Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) I’d make every effort to
undo the stupid move I made the other day by demanding that Manuel Oliver,
father of Joaquin Oliver, one of the murdered Parkland students be ejected from
a congressional meeting for interrupting him while he (Gaetz) “tried to argue
that immigrant violence is worse than gun violence in the U.S.”
In fact, I’d make a public apology for being such a dumb***,
given the numbers, 40,000 killed by regular, ole-Americans using good ole guns compared
to 400 possibly dispatched by “illegal immigrants”.
Since it’s highly unlikely Mr. Gaetz will have such an
epiphany, I sincerely hope the people of Florida’s First District help him find a
similar, lighted path to enlightenment that Saul began to followed that fateful
day so many years ago.
Lyrics Bob Marley - Redemption Song
Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs
Redemption songs
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
'Cause none of them can stop the time
How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look? Ooh
Some say it's just a part of it
We've got to fulfill the Book
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have
Redemption songs
Redemption songs
Redemption songs
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Wo! Have no fear for atomic energy
'Cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time
How long shall they kill our prophets
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say it's just a part of it
We've got to fulfill the book
Won't you have to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever had
Redemption songs
All I ever had
Redemption songs
These songs of freedom
Songs of freedom
The other night Mr. Trump declared, “We are born free, and
we will stay free.”
I thought, well that’s the dream isn’t it? I mean, an
American dream. Or, perhaps, more accurately described as, “an American Delusion.”
Then, he went on, saying, “we renew our resolve that America
will never be a socialist country.”
The statement is a delusion because, by nearly every
measure, 99.9% of Americans are not beneficiaries of what has become, the
American predatory capitalistic system. Still, many believe that they are. That
is the delusion.
In his response to the State of the Union, Sen. Bernie Sanders,
clearly underscored why our capitalist system is not working for Americans:
“If we are serious
about transforming our country, if we are serious about rebuilding the middle
class, if we are serious about reinvigorating our democracy, let us bring
people together to take on and defeat a ruling class whose greed is destroying
our nation. The billionaire class cannot have it all. Our government belongs to
all of us, and not just the one percent.”
“Together, Let us
fight for economic, social, racial and environmental justice, not unbridled
greed.”
So, to Mr. Trump’s statement, “we renew our resolve that
America will never be a socialist country,” we must ask the most important
question:
Is it Democracy or Socialism, when we say: “… let us bring people together to take on and defeat a ruling class
whose greed is destroying our nation. The billionaire class cannot have it all.
Our government belongs to all of us, and not just the one percent.”?
Perhaps in the end it does not matter how it’s labeled.
It
only matters that we achieve a government that belongs to all of us.
The recent Super Bowl ad placed by the Canadian autoworkers union, Unifor, is right on.
Still, I'd add only one thought more.
It's not only GM that is leaving workers out in the cold. Every global corporation is playing the "Greed Card" at the expense of not only employees but all tax-paying citizens, too.
People the world over have more in common with each other than with their leaders, their nations and the global corporations. Until we all realize that fact we will always be on the very poor side of the wealth curve chart.
Oh, by the way. Those manufacturing jobs are now in the "Low Cost Countries" for at least one reason... low wages. We know for certain it's not because global corporations suddenly experienced an Epiphany On the Road to Damascus to fairly value their workers using a formula that includes corporate profits andpublic investment (e.g. tax abatements) as well as out-of-this-world senior management compensation*.
GM Leaves Canadians Out in the Cold
Unifor Canada
Published on Jan 21, 2019
When General Motors needed help, we gave them $ 300 from every single Canadian, amounting to a nearly $ 11 billion bailout. While making record profits, Greedy Motors wants to close its top-quality Oshawa plant, throwing thousands out of work. At the same time, GM is expanding in Mexico to take further advantage of low pay and a lack of human and labour rights. Pledge to #BoycottMexicoGM at www.saveoshawagm.ca
Coyote has many faces, trickster, Gaslighter, etc. *Please see link below.
In case you haven’t heard about Gaslighting, here’s a definition:
Gaslighting is a form of persistent manipulation and
brainwashing that causes the victim to doubt her or himself, and ultimately
lose her or his own sense of perception, identity, and self-worth. ...
Gaslighting can occur in personal relationships, at the workplace, or over an
entire society.
Why should people throughout the world be concerned with Gaslighters?
Because the guy who is the chief Gaslighter of all time is
also the guy who controls the nuclear holocaust button. It is his brain, under some evil, black magic potion of derangement, that controls the button-pushing finger. He controls whether of not you and loved ones, your children and your children’s children are reduced to a piece of charcoal in the next 30 seconds.
If you are listening to him tell you what you didn’t hear,
well you are listening to a madman. Sadly, many surveys have reported that some 30% of Americans are still listening - some even considering him on par with a "god" of some sorts. (Which "god" remains to be realized.)
Still, it is certain that Mr. Trump has finally reached the apex of
something by his own doing:
He is without a doubt the World’s Supreme Gaslighter,
totally without historic equal in the known world.
Please checkout Anderson Cooper’s clip.
An astonished Anderson Cooper reacts to Trump's claim
A moment of fun reflection, passed to us from our ancestors... What does it all mean?
World's Greatest Fairy Tales -The Emperor's New Clothes
