MLF1981
MLF1981's JournalAnyone here have any experience with colorectal cancer?
I've been having severe stomach and bladder pain for the last few days, and today I had an unbelievably large amount of blood when I moved my bowels. I've had hemorrhoids in the past, as well as a fissure, but this was just on a different level.
I don't have any health insurance, so it really doesn't matter one way or the other, if I do have cancer it's definitely going to kill me, but I was curious if anyone else had this set of symptoms and that's what it turned out to be..,
So I voted today...
Figured I might as well cross that off my list of things to do... i live in a fairly rural part of East TN, and so I wasn't expecting a long wait. Boy, was I ever wrong! My county has around 50k people, give or take. I got there at 9:30 AM, and there were already at least 100 people in line ahead of me. It took 45 minute until I even got into the church where they have early voting.
So I cast my ballot, straight Dem, even though there is no straight party ticket option in this godforsaken state, and turned it in. I asked one of the very nice ladies working the polls how turnout has been since early voting started on the 16th, and she said that they had over 1000 people on day one, and it has pretty much been steady at that level since. That means that over 1/6th of the county has voted already! And even though I know that my vote doesn't really count being in one of the reddest of states, it does bode well, I think, for the general election.
Kamala Harris is going to win this thing, fair and square, and the fat orange idiot can try whatever shenanigans he wants, but we as a people will not let it happen. WE ARE NOT GOING BACK!
Damn, finding a new job in middle age is a tough proposition...
So some of you had asked for me to keep you updated with my job search... And I'm sure a lot more of you don't know what the hell I'm talking about.
For those who don't know, I recently lost my job doing residential construction, and have been trying to find a new job to make sure I can keep a roof over my head. I used to work in HR a lifetime ago, and I totally understand that it's a somewhat lengthy process even in the best circumstances. And I've only been at it for a couple weeks thus far, and the time from application to interview (if you're that fortunate) to final hire usually stretches out longer than that time frame. But boy oh boy, it's a lot more demoralizing than I remembered.
I'm not looking for anything fancy, just work that I can do with my hands, because I know there's always a demand for that kind of thing. But when I show up, even at day labor places, and the decision makers see my grey beard, I can instantly tell just from the look on their faces that they'll be professional and polite to me, but also that I'm not walking out of that office with any work.
So I thought, "Well, a lot of people seem to be doing OK with driving for Uber, delivering food for Door Dash, etc." So I applied to those two and a few other "gig economy" things, and am waiting to hear back. However, in the meantime, I've been doing my due diligence, and from what I've learned thus far, the wages are appalling, their workers are exploited as much as possible, and if you give any push back, they'll cut you loose pretty much instantly, because there's always someone else to take your place, irrespective of how shitty the wages and working conditions are.
I guess this is the culmination of Reaganomics... The rich sucked up all of the excess profits, and demand an ever-increasing share of the pie, leaving nothing of substance for anyone else. So much for their tired aphorism "A rising tide lifts all boats", huh?
So I've been having a rough time lately...
I lost my job today because I have some physical conditions that make it hard for me to work like I could when I was 20 years younger, most of my family members are dead, the few friends that I have all live hundreds of miles away, and have their own shit to worry about. I've really been down in the dumps because of all of this. I've been asking myself, "What's the fucking point of all of this? Live another 30 or 40 years in poverty and misery? Why not just end it all now?"
But then today, the Youtube algorithm actually did me a huge favor... It showed me this video (warning, very graphic depiction of a man who was horribly burned):
And I said to myself, "If this man, who has a way worse lot in life than I do, can find the hope and fortitude to keep going, what excuse do you have?"
Sometimes, God, the universe itself, whatever you may believe gives you exactly what you need at exactly the right moment. I just hope that anyone else who reads this and is in the depths of despair can learn something important. I still don't know what the hell I'm going to do to make my rent and bills next month, but I have faith that things will work out in the end. And even if they don't, I realize that I'm very fortunate for my health, precarious as it is, and what I have in my life.
(Satire) So I got an exclusive interview with Donald Trump... Here's what he had to say:
So someone called JP Grance one of my lackeys. And I actually agree with that, I agree. I have the best lackeys, lackeys who are so great that big strong men, 7'9", 380 pounds come up to me and say, "Sir, we never thought that a lackey could ever be so lackadaisical!" These gigantic men, they never saw someone so lackadaisical! And then one of the lackeys, he says, "Sir, please don't call us lackadaisical. It's an insult, not a complement."
Well, that was too much for me. I hire the best people, everyone knows that I only hire the best, but this guy, I hired him, and he was terrible. The worst guy you ever seen. So I said to him, "These big tough guys said it, so you got to go." And he went... Can you believe it? He actually walked away from working for the smartest guy the world has ever seen. It was sad, really sad, but he walked away. I just don't get it. How are you going to walk away when the smartest man in history hired you?
I blame Obama for that, I really do. But then Nikki Haley came to me and said, "Sir, you can't just keep firing people like that." And then I said to her, I said to Pelosi, "Joe Biden made me do it." And he did, Joe Biden made me do it. And all of the sudden, all of the sudden, I'm not running against Joe Biden, I'm running against Hillary Clinton, who decided to be black. Can you believe it, decided one day to be black. All of the sudden, Susan Collins is black. And I said to myself, "Well, she never used to be black. Since when is Elizabeth Warren black?" All of the sudden, Pocahontas is black now.
If I get another election stolen from me, even if I lose by a whisker, it was a sham. You know, they use, the Jews use, and I love Israel, Israel wouldn't exist except for me, they use these space lasers to change the votes from Trump to Clinton. Everybody knows it, the guy on the TV said so. He said so! So did that lady with the three names, Margerine Taint Grumpson! Now I love the Israel, everyone knows I'm the best for that, but these Jews in America, they don't love Israel. Nobody in the world had ever seen someone love the Israel as much as I do. Well, since I won the debate, I'm not going to do another one with that nasty woman, we won by numbers nobody has ever seen before, 1,111-2,
One of my advisors, he said, "Sir, you won by infinity." Can you believe that? I never even heard of infinity before, but I got it right away. It looks like an 8 laid on its side. Infinity... That's truly a tremendous, tremendous thing. One of them, they said, "Look Sir, the number you won by..." it was some number I never heard of, it looked like two sticks with a little swirly thing on top, and then he said that the number goes on forever. We never had a person win by a number that goes on forever. I'm winning by a number that goes on forever, and Joe Biden doesn't have that. I just think that Obama is scared to debate me after the last one. He can't win by a number that goes on forever, or a sideways eight. He just can't. OK, now me and JR Ewing are going to go eat. Did you know that in Springfield they're actually eating the pets. The pets! We aren't going to go eat the pets though, no, we wouldn't do that. I'm going to eat hamberders, and I think that JT is going to have a nice basket of fries. He likes to dip them in something called "barbecue sauce". I never heard of it, but It's a fantastic thing. Maybe the best thing.
So something I just noticed watching a clip of the debate...
So I'm hard of hearing. I've been deaf in my left ear for over 25 years, and my hearing in my right ear is at about 50% of what it should be. As a result, I've gotten pretty good at lip reading out of necessity. I was watching a clip of Colbert mocking the orange imbecile, and during the segment when he starts talking about Haitian immigrants eating pets, Kamala says (Just my interpretation, opinions may vary... anyone else who is a more accomplished lip reader please do offer your opinion),
"Oh, come on! Can you believe him?!"
Well, future Madam President, in the literal sense, no, of course not, but in the sense that he is an unhinged lunatic who says crazy nonsensical shit all the time, absolutely.
A couple of things that struck me about the debate...
First, he was even more off his rocker than usual... Haitian immigrants eating pets? Um, I lived in Little Haiti in Miami for a year at the beginning of the 2000s, and Haitians do not eat dogs and cats. My favorite Haitian dish is called Griot, or Griyot avec Pikliz. Deep fried pork with a lightly pickled vegetable slaw that's usually served with Banan Peze, or fried green plantains. It's delicious, and very similar to Caribbean food anywhere else. Apologies for any misspellings, I don't speak Kreyol.
Second, what in the actual fuck was he talking about with IVF? I've watched that clip four times and still can't understand what the fuck he's trying to say.
Third, although they could have done more, at least the ABC moderators did call him on some of his bullshit. Including such greatest hits as "Yeah, they're killing newborn babies" and "They're eating the pets though! I saw it on TV!"
Finally, never before have I seen such an utterly unhinged, abjectly unqualified person get on a stage and humiliate himself for 90 minutes. It really was something to behold. As bad as Biden's debate was for him, for Donald Trump, this one was much, much worse.
Kamala Harris knocked it out of the park last night. We are going to win this thing, folks, but don't get complacent, canvas, phone bank, do whatever you can to get out the vote, because every vote matters!
Well, I got a message that said I should introduce myself, so I guess I will...
Hi everyone! Looong time lurker, I've been reading stuff on DU for over 20 years, ever since my brother and some friends were sent to Iraq because a certain terrible President who happened to look and act remarkably like a chimp decided that he was going to invade a country on false pretexts. I decided to finally sign up and share my thoughts with the class, lol.
I have always enjoyed reading the spirited discussions on here, and as a life-long Democrat (both big D and small d) it really did me a lot of good knowing that there are a lot of like minded people in the world, even if it doesn't always seem like it given that I live in one of the reddest states in the country. After the country being inflicted with nearly a decade of a corpulent orange imbecile's insane ranting, it feels so refreshing to know that the party (and seemingly a good portion of the nation) is ready to move on and finally make progress.
Don't get me wrong, I love Joe Biden, and really appreciate everything that he's done, which he doesn't get nearly enough credit for, but seeing a Presidential candidate who more closely reflects my experience as a middle-aged person is exciting. And not just for me, the younger people in my life seem equally as enthusiastic. Honestly, it reminds me quite a bit of Obama's campaign in 2008. I sincerely hope that this is the collective moment when we all can finally turn the page on Trump and everything that he represents and move forward.
We are NOT going back!
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Member since: Sat Aug 31, 2024, 05:07 PMNumber of posts: 211