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Welcome to September Forum
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28 responses to “Welcome to September Forum”
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I suspect this visit will be epic.
USS Abraham Lincoln’s visit to Thailand lifts hope and sex-tourism risk
After a long deployment in the Middle East, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln will dock in Thailand’s resort city of Pattaya this week, raising hopes of an economic boost, even as local authorities cracked down on parts of the sex tourism destination.
The Abraham Lincoln is due to dock on Wednesday at nearby Laem Chabang, with two accompanying Navy vessels, to allow nearly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard to rest and recuperate after over 200 days at sea, according to Thai officials.
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Money may also flow, however, into the unseemly part of Pattaya’s entertainment industry, one so massive that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation described it a decade ago as “one of the world’s leading sex tourism destinations.”Hope the Navy has stocked up on penicillin.
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At age 72 I am having my first serious health issue. Either a bad hip, or a pinched nerve, or some combination of the two has left me with one leg much weaker than the other, and caused some moderate pain. I am in full hobble. I have a cane. The Reaper cannot be far off now.
It strikes at my ego, my self-image. All my adult life my walk has been been described as ‘swaggering.’ Well, I am not swaggering now. Either Dr. House or Marty Crane from Frasier, take your pick.
It seems I may have to get a new hip. My wife has two, but I’m a huge pussy about pain, and I’m extremely impatient. I don’t like this, 1% better, two days forward and one day back, thing. I want it over now. I hate that it takes me 30 seconds just to stand up in the morning.
Because I live in Vegas and no one with the means to avoid it has any serious medical work done here, I have to arrange back-and-forths to either UCLA or Cedars. It’s a pain in the ass. Literally.
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I agree with Scott, hang in there and go get fixed. I had a knee replaced in January and it has really changed my life, as I can walk and stand almost as long as I could 15 years ago. It’s worth the travel to get to where you want to get the surgery. And even travelling will be easier and better afterward!
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From what I understand, hip replacements have much faster and easier recoveries than knees. FWIW, I had a knee replaced last year, and yes, lots of pain and a relatively long recovery but so very much worth it. I get the other done at the end of next month and will be so happy to have them behind me, regardless of the inconvenience and pain in the moment.
So bottom line, quitcher bitchin’, knuckle down and get it done and behind you
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Hoping it works out well. My younger sister has two artificial knees, two artificial shoulders, a rebuilt ankle, and says her surgeon is muttering about one of her hips. At the risk of jinxing myself, my 72-year-old joints have all held up remarkably well. Shoulder bursitis flares up every few years if I’m not conscientious about stretching and modest strength training.
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I woman I know well – my jujitsu sibling – is a bit older than you, and has had both hips and a knee replaced. It was a fairly tough rehab, especially the knee, but she made it and she’s cruising around better than ever.
If you choose to do this, perhaps the thing that will get you through it is the thought of “I want my swagger back!” That seems possible to me. Positive thinking, of course, is not gonna get you through on its own. It’s valuable to have the target in your sights.
Best of luck, no matter what you decide.
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I had a hip joint done a couple years ago. “Anterior replacement” which is apparently easier than posterior. Pain wasn’t much of an issue, well controlled with modest drugs. Some weakness initially, but do the therapy and continue to get some exercise.
Make sure there’s no confusion about hip joint or nerve pinch. Losing strength in the leg doesn’t sound like a hip joint. I had a nerve pinch thing several years ago. Over the course of a few years I saw various doctors and had various tests. No diagnosis, no treatment. Saw a physical therapist for something else and mentioned it. Oh, that’s sciatica, do these stretches. I restarted tennis a few months later.
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Hope you can get it fixed.
I spent a day last week hanging about A&E in the local hospital and having various tests after going to the GP re chest pains, headaches and general “feel like shittery”.Currently on a bunch of pills, forbidden alcohol, dammit, and due for more tests in the nest week or so.
I’m just unused to not feeling well, and it’s annoying.Also had an eye test, and am apparently getting a cataract in my right eye.
Buggerit.I demand immediate cyborg upgrade RIGHT NOW!
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This all sucks, and I’m sorry to hear it.
One possible silver lining is that my wife got cataracts in her 50’s got the replacement surgery for both eyes, it went smoothly and now her eyesight is the best it has ever been in her entire life.
I hope that they have the equipment needed for this operation in the UK. The rest of it is more concerning.
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This is more detail than I have seen elsewhere.
The following provision looks like straightforward theft:
The U.S. puts no money into the deal, has a 35% equity stake and gets 20% of the after-tax oil at production cost. That’s about $30 a barrel (crude was priced at $90 Monday).
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Rubio has been white-washing Teddy Roosevelt’s imperialism. Clearly, he has managed to view it as civilization, as if the US is so perfect that to be conquered by it is to be “civilized”.
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Thanks all for the words of encouragement. I am very aware that a number of members of this little community are dealing with serious shit while I whine about a relatively trivial matter. Anyway, I managed to set up an appointment at Cedars in a couple weeks, which calms me a bit.
It’s not even the operation itself that worries me about Las Vegas, but if there were to be a complication I’d want a real hospital, not one with slot machines in the ICU, and where your odds of survival are actual odds posted on Kalshi.
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When people ask why Florida is in play, remember stories like this…
Cubans living in Florida are being deported to Africa
In a previous lifetime, this would be front page news. Today, it’s just another Tuesday.
Can you imagine being taken from where you’ve been living, where you have family and friends, and taken to a country to which you’ve never been, where you don’t speak the language, with no ID, no passport, no money, and no idea what you’re supposed to do?
Its inhumane.
Cuban friends from Miami sent this to me. And no way you can spin this as Dems fault.
The other thing they said is that the GOP Candidates are complaining that Florida has alot of problems. Jolly and Nixon are running ads that basically say “We agree. But the GOP has been in complete control for 20 years. They can’t blame the Dems for these issues.”
Gonna be an interesting two months.
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I’ve read elsewhere about the Cubans being deported. It’s really an eye-opener. In some sense it signals that this administration, particularly Miller, really believes this nonsense, that it isn’t performative for them the way I think it is for Greg Abbot.
Because it’s in some way the very best way to say to a core FL constituency that you don’t give a flying fig about them.
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Florida is a mess. Property insurance is so expensive people are reducing coverage or going bare. A bunch of insurers have gone insolvent. Housing prices are still going through the roof. Public services are severely underfunded, and the schools are a disaster.
It’s astonishing to me that the GOP has been able to hold on to power. Utterly derelict.
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There no way to fix the Florida Problem without subsidized, state run* property insurance and massive tax hikes to pay for it. If Democrats got control and implemented it, Republicans would run against the tax hikes** and try to tear down the subsidized insurance.
It’s probably best for the people of Florida*** if Democrats never get power, and the Republicans are forced to slowly back into the only possible solution.**** It seems a lot more stable long term.
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*: having a financial incentive to deny claims seems…. bad.
**: and the terror of transgender people existing.
***: except for the queer folks. There I support resettlement efforts, helping them to get to better places. I kind of wonder if Republicans might be willing to help fund the resettlement of queer folk from their red states just to get rid of them. Seattle is very expensive, but even the cheap,red areas of blue states might be preferable.
****: The Bugs Bunny solution of cutting off Florida and letting it float away might be worth trying. -
DeUseless and the GOPs have gone full MAGA and it’s worked well for them here in FL.
There is one hopeful sign. Loony Tune General Flynn settled here in Sarasota county, about ten miles from us. He organized the MAGA and among other wins got Moms for Liberty types elected to the school board. This was consistent with DeUseless trying to push national issues into the school boards, but so far their attempt to make the board elections partisan has failed. Being non -partisan, the primary election a couple weeks ago was the final school board election. Two of the three Dem supported candidates won and the third has a runoff, having just missed 50% in a 3-way field. Maybe even here they’re getting tired of the chaos.
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Welp, my question about “what do they even want those voter lists for” has been answered:
Officials upload voter and barcode data in advance; clerks then scan a sample of arriving ballots – 15 to 400, depending on batch size – against that list. According to the whistleblower’s disclosure, the system runs on a “zero percent failure rate”: one mismatched scan rejects the entire batch, even if it holds tens of thousands of ballots.
I have more questions about this, but this is very clearly not the Post Office’s role in elections. It would be bad even if operated in 100% good faith, and well, I have a hard time believing in the good faith of the Trump administration, remembering that Trump himself tried to overturn the result of a legally conducted election.
Do I have standing to sue? Would John Roberts think that this threatens harm to me?
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