and coming down hard on my heels and jarred my back after not playing for a long time. But maybe another reason for the herniated disks I had that forced me, years ago, to have to use a cane to walk?

Statin Use Increases Odds of Back Disorder: Cohort Study. “In a large observational study of insured individuals in the military and their family members, statin use was associated with increased odds of having a back disorder, including spondylosis, intervertebral disc disorders, herniated discs, and spinal stenosis.”

I’ve been on statins for over 20 years and have had a “sensitive” back for almost as long.  In fact, for about 3 years, I had to sit in a chair like that (in fact, further back with my back parallel to the floor) as I had difficulty walking and couldn’t sit because the weight on my spine was too much to take – it saved my career.  I put my monitors on a low desk and my keyboard and trackball velcro’d to a lap desk and used a 2 system KVM switch to move from system to system.

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Remorse after The Day of Reckoning (Nov 8, 2018)?

Unless things change, the GOP is going to look back on 2017-2019 as a wasted opportunity, which is exactly opposite of how Democrats remember 2009-2011.

Sure, there have been a bunch of GOP sponsored bills passed on eliminating

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Once more, with VIGOR! for the “LightBringer”: “Fine for me but not for thee”

SHOT: Obama defends Paris climate accord as Trump mulls ditching it

Former US President Barack Obama praised his administration’s record on climate change Tuesday, just as the Trump administration struggles with an internal rift over whether to pull out of the Paris climate accord.  The Paris Agreement was in part brokered by Obama and was seen as a major breakthrough after the previous accord, the Kyoto protocol, failed to include the US and China, the world’s two biggest polluters.

At a summit in Milan, Italy, focused on climate change and food availability, Obama defended the Paris Agreement and said that the US must show leadership and not “sit on the sidelines.” “During the course of my presidency, I made climate change a top priority because I believe that of all the challenges that we face, this is the one that will define the contours of this century, more dramatically perhaps than any other,” Obama said at the Seeds & Chips summit.

“We have been able to bring our emissions down even as we grow our economy. The same is true in many parts of Europe,” he said.

He fails to mention that he did everything he could to stop fracking which is, in no small part, responsible for much of US smaller emissions.  That, and his policies strangled our economy.

CHASER: Barack Obama Jets to Milan to Deliver Climate Change Speech

…After the ex-president enjoyed his flight to the famous Italian city, he hopped in an SUV in a 14 car convoy direct to his hotel

What, he couldn’t do the “climate change” responsible thing and

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SHOT: California: Hey, maybe communism isn’t so bad after all

EMphasis mine, reformatted: SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Being a communist would no longer be a fireable offense for California government employees under a bill passed Monday by the state Assembly.  Lawmakers narrowly approved the bill to repeal part of a law enacted during the Red Scare of the 1940s and ’50s when fear that communists were trying to infiltrate and overthrow the U.S. government was rampant. The bill now goes to the Senate. It would eliminate part of the law that allows public employees to be fired for being a member of the Communist Party. Employees could still be fired for being members of organizations they know advocate for overthrowing the government by force or violence.

Heck, as we have pointed out before, what’s the difference between the Democrat and Communist USA platforms anyways? Given the results in California, they already have infiltrated with D’s after their names in that single Party rule State.

CHASER: A Hundred Years of Communism.

…Stalin killed so many people in the Great Purge that

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“The AHCA repeals fewer than 10 percent of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act. It is an amendment to the ACA that deliberately maintains Obamacare’s framework.”

A bait and switch?  Like I’ve said before, THIS was the best that the Republicans in DC could do after 7 years and tens of “REPEAL IT!!” votes?  They voted to “kill the King” – I’m not sure what the House passed could even be categorized as a “flesh wound” (H/T to Monty Python) – maybe a small slice with a kitchen knife dicing onions.  US Rep Amash, a libertarian / Freedom Caucus member had a statement that pretty much says the same thing (emphasis mine):

This is not the bill we promised the American people. For the past seven years, Republicans have run for Congress on a commitment to repeal Obamacare. But it is increasingly clear that a bill to repeal Obamacare will not come to the floor in this Congress or in the foreseeable future.

When Republican leaders first unveiled the American Health Care Act, a Democratic friend and colleague joked to me that the bill wasn’t a new health care proposal; it was plagiarism. He was right.

The AHCA repeals fewer than 10 percent of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act. It is an amendment to the ACA that deliberately maintains Obamacare’s framework. It reformulates but keeps tax credits to subsidize premiums. Instead of an individual mandate to purchase insurance, it mandates a premium surcharge of 30 percent for one year following a lapse of coverage. And the bill continues to preserve coverage for dependents up to age 26 and people with pre-existing conditions.

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by Mike Sylvia

This Thursday, May 11, HB614 goes to the New Hampshire Senate floor. We received a bad recommendation from the judiciary committee with a vote of 4-1 to kill the bill. Let’s all push the message on social media, in the press, and our email lists. We can overturn the recommendation by refuting the law enforcement claim that this bill is devastating to their opioid battle.

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