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Tuesday, November 29, 2022

In bed at 9:30, awake at 4:10, up at 4:30, 4 pss, one cup of cinnamon apple tea.  37 cloudy degrees looking to a high of 49, windy conditions forecast again. 

Dining with Devils

On news outlets other than Fox, OAN, and the like, much of the opinion stuff has focused on Donald Trump's dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes.  Kanye is now best known at least among white people for his "going on death con 3 for JEWISH PEOPLE" tweet on Twitter.  Nick Fuentes I had never heard of but now know to be a notorious 24-year-old, Chicago-rooted, self-described 'Catholic integralist', white supremecist-nationalist, Holocaust denier participant in both the January 6 insurrection and the Charlottesville "Unite the Right" new-Nazi rally.  It's a bit hard to figure out why there has been so much attention given to this dinner since Trump's bigotry has been so well known for so long, certainly at least since his 1989 campaign involving full page ads in all 4 major NYC newspapers  against the 5 Black and Latino youths charged in the Central Park Jogger Case,  As Maya Angelou is reputed to have said, 'if a person shows you who they are, believe them the first time.'  America failed to heed that advice with respect to Trump and we will be paying for it for at least a generation.  The main thing accomplished by the current coverage seems to be to elevate the rancid stature of Nick Fuentes.

VA Thoughts

I'm thinking of simply dropping my Medicare Part D prescription drug insurance coverage now that WPS won't be offering it after 12/31/22. My premiums were about $1,000 per year and for the last several years I have received all or most of my meds from the VA without charge to me because of my disability rating.  It was only in the last year or so that Trulicity was added to the VA's formulary; before that I got it at Costco pharmacy and thus received some benefit from the Part D insurance.  It was probably the case that the total benefit exceeded the annual premiums but I've never done the calculation and I probably don't have the records to check it out now.  Also, I have started using the generic form of Jardiance in the last couple of years and I think it may also be a fairly recent addition to the VA formulary.  The cost for the 2 drugs w/o insurance is more than $1500/month, about $18,000/year.  AS I WROTE THIS, I changed my mind and enrolled in Cigna Saver Rx in case I'm  in an accident or suffer an incident and end up in a hospital other than Zablocki VA Medical Center.  $12/month.

I also discovered serendipitous that, under the PACT ACT enacted this year, hypertension is now conclusively presumed to be related to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam.  I need to pull out my records to see if HBP is listed on my disability finding.  If not, I'll apply for an additional benefit.

Life in CyberAge: Spectrum

Geri has been on the phone for 2 hours with Spectrum trying to get our phone accounts straightened out so that her new AppleWatchSE will work as advertised.  This is Day 2 of this runaround.  Yesterday she was on the phone for what seemed like 3 hours.  Somehow she manages to stay courteous, civil, 'cool, calm, and collected' through hour after hour people on the other end of the line not knowing how to correct their system or who within their own company can deal with it.  Unbelievable.  Not just the Spectrum people, but Geri's phenomenal patience.  On the other hand, she may be looking for me to mix a martini or pour a grappa when (if ever) she gets off the phone.

Breaking News:  Oath Keepers founder (Elmer) Stewart Rhodes and member Kelly Meggs found guilty of Seditious Conspiracy