Morgan Griffith's Progress Report: Health Care Reform

From U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA-9):

"
This week, the House of Representatives achieved the first steps in the repeal and replacement of Obamacare.

As a bill moves through Congress, as you may remember from Civics classes, the bill starts in the committee with jurisdiction over the content of the bill. The committee reviews the content and votes on the bill.

The American Health Care Act is comprised of two parts. The financial side that repeals and replaces most of Obamacare finances went through the House Ways and Means Committee. The Energy and Commerce Committee, on which I sit, worked on the other part, health care policy.

In a marathon 27 ½ hour long debate, lasting through the night and only pausing to vote, my committee, Energy and Commerce passed our part of the American Health Care Act.

Unlike Obamacare, which was rammed through without giving Members of Congress, or the public, time to read the bill, we are following a step-by-step, deliberate and transparent process. Republicans are keeping Americans informed each step of the way.

Both parts of the bill were posted online (www.ReadtheBill.gop) on the Monday prior to the committee votes.

Last Wednesday morning, Energy and Commerce committee began the review and amendment process of the bill. This process in D.C. is called a markup. From the beginning, the Democrats aggressively fought to defeat the bill.

During opening statements, they complained and protested. They claimed the American Health Care Act would completely dismantle and destroy the Obamacare exchanges, and thus destroy Obamacare.

Republicans promised during the last several campaigns to repeal and replace Obamacare. As we have begun that process, the Democrats are fighting at every turn to keep Obamacare, even though it has failed.

As we worked through the bill, Democrats fought to block our progress even on the most minor of items. They took hours to debate the title of the bill, mostly as a delay tactic. But these tactics were fruitless.

Throughout the night we continued working through the bill, dealing with amendment after amendment. Finally, on Thursday afternoon, we voted to pass this portion of the bill.

Although there is no official record, it is believed this was the longest continuous markup of a bill in Congressional history.

The American Health Care Act repeals Obamacare and begins the process of replacement. The replacement plan is designed to lower costs and give patients and families more choice and flexibility in their health care. Furthermore, it allows the states to have more power and gives less power to the bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.

As we promised when campaigning, the American Health Care Act does provide protection for those with pre-existing conditions and the ability to stay on your parent’s insurance until you are 26. Further, some parts of Obamacare aren’t being repealed either because we can’t do so under the Senate rules related to the budget reconciliation process or because we promised to keep the policy.

As an aside, many of you know that I have fought to keep the three pages out of roughly 2100 pages of Obamacare that deal with black lung protections. These protections are not repealed by the American Health Care Act.

Also, the new plan includes a Patient and State Stability Fund to assist those who are higher risk and therefore can’t afford traditional health insurance. This fund can also be used by states to lower other costs.

Additionally, the American Health Care Act reforms Medicaid as well. It is important to provide a safety net for the needy, but Medicaid is flawed and can be improved. Medicaid funding is not unlimited and the law directs the funding to those most in need.

Republicans are delivering on the promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, with transparency at each step of the way. The bill that passed the Energy and Commerce Committee is now headed to the Budget Committee to be combined with the Ways and Means portion of the bill.

As the bill works its way to the floor of the House for final passage, I expect additional amendments will be adopted. I even have an amendment of my own which would allow states to require those receiving Medicaid who are able-bodied and do not have responsibilities for a young or disabled child to work or be retrained.

I look forward to continued improvements in the bill. I believe that working with the Administration, we can better control the costs of health insurance. The bill will bring reform that allows American families to buy an insurance policy that fits their needs.

If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov.
"

As regular readers know, my concern with health care reform is putting everything on a solid, primarily cash basis. I think any reform that's still based on the insurance gambling racket is going to fail those who've put their faith in it, but my sole concern with such unsuccessful efforts will be with keeping myself out of them.

March 9 Keywords

Not even very many links today, but here's what I made the time to find:

Priscilla King's health problems
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4923804
phenology
cat toy
cute cat pictures
The Djinn Falls in Love
how to spell "djinn/genie/jinni/etc"
 +Beth Ann Chiles
Plan Cee
yard flowers in Illinois:
Elizabeth Barrette

Anger Management Posts Keywords

This reaction to +Beth Ann Chiles ' blog post outgrew the Link Log and is long enough to become this week's Patreon post...so this time even LJ friends are getting just the keywords. If it goes live, on LJ or on Blogspot, it's long enough that it will probably be formatted as a series. Embedded links go to books cited; on Blogspot those (and more, especially the movies cited) will appear with Amazon photo links.

http://itsjustlife.me/letting-go-anger/
long brain stem
emotional repression
depression associated with brain damage
Priscilla King's depressive sister
how to use PMS for fun and profit
Virginia Satir's communication style analysis
Blamer Mode
verbal abuse
celiac disease
Priscilla King's experience in baby-sitting and tutoring
spanking children, the controversy
left-wing "snowflakes"
the 1980s as Age of Therapy
semi-objective way to measure anger-proneness
Novaco Anger Inventory
potential abuse of Novaco Anger Inventory
how to understand Novaco Anger Inventory
McDougall Webinars and Weekends
emotional abuse, example in Joseph Heller's novel Good as Gold
preventing depression by reframing "depressing" news
news reports as call to action
glyphosate contamination in gluten-free food
Shiva Ayyadurai
Mothers Against Drunk/Dangerous Driving
Priscilla King's anger inventory score
do amateurs overstate your anger-proneness, and if so, why
age and anger
money and anger
gender and anger
typecasting in popular movies
Agent Clarice Starling with bigger shoulders
people who are "too nice" to correct their teen employee
people who are not "too nice" to hit their own child for copying their teen employee
Beatles song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
lawsuits
bill reading
Prozac
Tegretol
dangerous prescription drugs
John Holt as past master of education
Suzette Haden Elgin (Ozarque) as past master of communication (Bill Clinton's teacher)
Scott Adams as master of persuasion
Washington Post 
real Washingtonians enjoy their morning Post, how possible
how to use anger without raising blood pressure
women have cardiovascular disease too
Anger Busting

And, as a bonus for Blogspot readers who've read several references to my work with that intimidating old blind gentleman, George Peters...the series also references the role Tegretol played in the horrific final illness of George Peters. He was too mature and responsible to commit suicide, but...let's just say I would never let anyone give that drug to any person under age 70.

March 7 Keywords

I spent the weekend in Disney Dwarf Mode: mostly Grumpy with a hint of Sneezy on Saturday, totally Grumpy on Sunday, and less Grumpy but very very Sleepy on Monday. I'm feeling human again now. However, the laptop computer got damp on the way to work this morning--not wet, merely damp--and went into a sulk and wouldn't connect to the Internet for the first hour of the work day... (more of this rambling at the pay-per-view post)

Dan Lewis
Washington, D.C., public schools
need for more good Black male teachers
non-Black men are needed, too
Fred Rogers
adoptable Rex cats
Petfinder.com
cute cat pictures
homeless cats
solution for cat allergy problems

The Book of Barkley

+LB Johnson 

retriever dog pictures

funny

spam

hacking

cybersecurity

Google

Yahoo

Turkey

hackers should be locked up for life

panhandling

day labor

government job

Salvation Army 

Social Services irrelevant to those willing to work

language learning

which language is easy to learn

Scott Adams 

how to win bets

how to take money from stupid gamblers

how to draw pictures

still life pictures

Stephanie Johnson's murals

+Alana Mautone 

Johnson City, New York

Johnson City, Tennessee

city planning

local zoning regulations

U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
Kingsport, Tennessee
Bristol, Tennessee
Washington, D.C.
Sacramento, California
U.N. Agenda 21
+Lloyd Marcus
Trump Rally
+Beth Ann Chiles
road trip
highway safety
good example of product placement
honest product endorsements
Elizabeth Barrette
poems
science fiction poetry
speculative fiction
speculative fiction poetry

March 3 Keywords

Gentle Readers, I am puzzled. The local couple who claimed to want to make payments online have made their feeble excuse for weaselling out...well, I didn't know them all that well and we should never trust people who don't pay cash when they can...but where are your payments? Some of you know how to click a button. That's nice. Unfortunately, clicking buttons doesn't keep the electricity on, nor does it buy groceries or pay taxes. I'm feeling discouraged. Patreon will allow you to pay one dollar a month; that's why I set it up. I don't believe that's more than you can afford. Clearly you don't appreciate your e-friends, readers, or signal boosters. I've not heard from any of you, even at Fiverr, all week.

This web site's Terms of Service are changing again. March is here. March weather is not to be wasted on the Internet unless the time a person spends on the Internet is greatly appreciated. Until I start seeing e-mail from Paypal, I'm not willing to commit to more than one visit to cyberspace each week...and each time I come online and don't see e-mail from Paypal, I'm adding another source of e-mail to the spam list.

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4923804

long-haired gray cats
adoptable cats
adoptable dogs
chickens
puns
cybersecurity
FBI
Freedom of Information Act
Dwight D. Eisenhower
New York Times
Dan Lewis
Youth Behaving Well:

Malawi

wind energy

+Sandy KS 

gluten-free recipe

health benefits of keeping pets

Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai

safety standards for Monsanto's GMOs

phenology

early spring

long thaw

killing frost

Minnesota
poem
JP Sixbear aka Jaipi aka Jeanne Frost
Weebly shop for pretty pictures
partisan politics
reasons not to buy airline tickets
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI)
Rachel Dolezal
Amadou Diallo
major newspaper headline blooper
earn free stuff at Yougov
https://today.yougov.com/refer/brglBv6yISldXGeAQbYXBg/

March 2 Keywords

"I don't understand the 'Keywords' posts," an e-friend complained. Why have I gone to posting lists of keywords instead of articles, Link Logs, and book reviews?

Answer: "Keywords" posts are not for reading, just for indexing. Each "Keywords" post identifies a post, of the type I've been putting up here for no charge, that is currently visible to "Friends Only" at Live Journal. ("Friends" is LJ-speak for paid-up subscribers.) Non-paying readers who visit cat_sanctuary.livejournal.com will see my Twitter archives; once subscribers are set up as LJ "Friends" they'll see actual blog posts too. For $1 per month at Patreon, you can read all the complete posts at LJ and unlock one complete post here. Keywords show up here to help you and me keep track of which post you want to unlock...that means that, of course, you can unlock the ones that link to your articles, or your products or the general category of products in which yours fall.

As mentioned in the Greeting post, which people coming in from Google + aren't seeing, this web site has gone into pay-per-view mode. The archives are still available for free. To see new content, you can pay online at

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4923804

or send a U.S. postal order to Boxholder, P.O. Box 322, Gate City, Virginia, 24251-0322. (Since postal employees are occasionally retired and replaced, it's more efficient for you to address mail to the Boxholder at Box 322 rather than for me to explain to each new person that "Priscilla King" is a business.)

Now, Keywords for today's Links, and I found some juicy Links today...

photogenic collie-mix-type dogs seeking homes
Priscilla King's cat Heather
Priscilla King's cat Tickle
Priscilla King's new cat Suzie
Priscilla King's possum Pally
social cats
pale orange cats who crave love
adopt a pet from a disabled neighbor
adopt a pet before it "has to" be put in a shelter

+Sandy KS
Mournful Sphinx Moth
+Thelma Alberts
tropical butterfly pictures
"The Personal Moth"

Dr. Seuss Day
+Lady in Read
Haroun and the Sea of Stories 
+Andria Perry
Laura Ingraham
The Hillary Trap, 
The Obama Diaries, 
Shut Up and Sing, 
Of Thee I Zing,
Power to the People 
Laura Ingraham's charities
USO
New York City Marathon
can you see Priscilla King live in NYC Marathon? (Yes...but it'll cost a minimum of $2500.)
Stephen Moore
Ash Wednesday
McDougall-endorsed recipes
John McDougall's advice to young doctors:
Devona Bell
celiac sprue
glyphosate and gluten intolerance
cerebral palsy and food intolerance
phenology
Alabama
raising tomatoes
Naomi the Nature Nerd
Illinois
crocus in Illinois
tornado in Illinois
Publius Huldah speaks in Lewis County, Tennessee, Monday
the most influential libertarians in the United States
Thomas Sowell
Congressman Dave Brat
Dave Barry
other influential libertarians meeting in Las Vegas
National Review 
+Beth Ann Chiles
cruise as medical checkup and treatment option
McDougall cruises (California-Hawaii-California)
McDougall vacations (California)
cancer hazard in California
Kellyanne Conway
unflattering photos
Washington Post
shopping for dresses in Washington, D.C.
L.L. Bean dresses (catalogue link!)
Talbots dresses (catalogue link!)
find these dresses in charity stores

March 1 Keywords

March is expected to come in like a lion. People are watching for a tornado--which means, 99% of the time, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we'll get rain. So far today that's what we've had.

Keywords from the post at Live Journal:
cat pictures
adoptable cats from Petfinder
brown tabby cats
dog food recall
Cassidy Fletcher
Lord of the Rings
+Beth Ann Chiles
Honduras
Naomi Parkhurst
needlework chart
knitting stitch pattern

Sarah Posner
Rolling Stone 
Trevor Loudon
Team Grace Ellen
nuclear waste
rare childhood cancer
Southern California
Phenology
+Alana Mautone 

forsythia
snowdrops
Artistes Only Blogspot
Austria's Gruener See park
Dan Lewis
Veterans Administration
hospitals

Unlock this post here:

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4923804

To All Republican and Democrat Correspondents

Attention all political correspondents: I don't know the people President Trump is appointing to cabinet positions, ay? (That's a Northeast Coast "ay?" with a tiny hint of a Mexican "ay!" behind it.) I know some people need to vet them. I know they're the ones who'll be making a lot of decisions, and being blamed for decisions not entirely their own, during the next four years. I am not qualified to vet them.

With the sole exception of Ben Carson, all I know about who these people are and where they're from is the partisan messages the political parties have been cranking out. Since I don't believe any of Trump's nominees is either the Messiah or a rabid coyote, those messages haven't told me much. I might have liked to have been paid to get out there and investigate all the facts, favorable and unfavorable, about just one of those nominees, the way I did with Bill Clinton in 1996...but I wasn't. So I didn't. So I know nothing about these people and I will not be signing any petitions to confirm them, block them, promote them, fire them, give them medals, send them to Siberia, or send them out into space. So please stop spamming me about them.

Black History Month and the D.C. Public Schools (Keywords)

Walter Williams' name attracted me to read his latest post at Townhall.com; the photo at the top of the post set me up in a nice nostalgic mood; the post ticked me off. The rant it triggered isn't fresh enough to be this week's Patreon post. I've posted similar things here. It's on Live Journal, though. Paid-up subscribers can probably guess what I had to say using the keywords below.

Allen West
Walter Williams
urban public schools
Washington, D.C., public schools
Louis Armstrong
Langston Hughes
gangsta rap
feminist rallies
college degree programs
painting
digital images
hypertension
Common Core math
Reuben Jackson
Washington Post 
Washington, D.C., demographics
Washington, D.C., rent rates
all able-bodied Black male retirees should be teaching

February 28 Keywords

Today, even after some potentially paid Real Writing, I've found the energy to hit the e-mail...huzzah! Links in this one include a contest in which other writers could win folding money. And some Bad Poetry you can sing to the tune of "Jingle Bells"...and some thoughts about suicide! (No, not as an immediate option for myself, either.)

Amnesty International
Sara Beltran Hernandez
El Salvador
asylum laws
immigration laws
international activism
Fernando Alonso
El Arbol de los sueños (main Amazon book link)
writing project
translation project
poems about cows
news items about cows
Bad Poetry
Ozarque
Dan Lewis

Chuck Wendig

Stephen King

flag burning

Koran burning

right to be stupid

importance of cash

hazards of non-cash economy

The Handmaid's Tale

Alice Walker (the link goes to the feel-good sequel to her best-known novel)

Los Angeles, California

events in California

events in Arizona

Jewish sermon

Purim

Daniel 7:25
Mary and John McDougall

Grandma Bonnie Peters

aging and "real" retirement

phenology

ornamental Prunus

phoebe

woodpecker

daffodils

vincas

crocus

hummingbirds

photo of hummingbird standing still

+Beth Ann Chiles 

Milo Yiannopoulos 

race baiting

racist Tea Parties, if there are any, which I doubt

Ted Cruz

Ben Carson

+Lloyd Marcus 

child sex trafficking

Child Protective Services

Stieg Larsson

sexually abused teenagers

Waco disaster of 1993

Scott Adams 

Bill Nye 

+Andria Perry 

slipcases for magazines

assisted suicide

George Peters

Jack Kevorkian

Jacquelyn Mitchard

Anne Lamott

Tegretol and suicidal ideation

writing contest

Falun Gong

religious persecution

China

photos of good-looking seniors

February 24 Keywords

Full day online...my health, and local public health, are discussed in the full-length post also. I spent far too much time looking things up and didn't get through the backlog of e-mail, the blog feed, the LJ friends page, Google +, Twitter...I did write this week's sponsors-only post for Patreon, though. I've also written some writing contest entries and I hope that over the weekend I'll find the energy to upload them to the appropriate places. Anyway, here are the keywords from the Link Log you missed:

immune system
censorship
Canada Free Press
Google
Facebook
Twitter
Ben Broussard
Silence by Shusaku Endo (Why didn't Amazon link to the whole line? No idea.)
Tom Woods
Yougov
Mao
Stalin
Castro
Khomeini
Franco
education
twentieth century history
Lenin
Che Guevara
homeschooling
U.S. Representative Maxine Waters
food service job
jobs for teenagers
busboy
busser
Alan Colmes dies
Little Golden Book Encyclopedias
Al Gore
science
atmosphere
global warming

February 22 Keywords

I was online only half the day...got back to yesterday's e-mails, anyway, if not back to Friday's. Keywords and Amazon link:

cute cat pictures
adoptable older cats

Irish John 

why we shouldn't hate rich people

Team Grace Ellen

cluster of rare cancers in the vicinity of a nuclear plant in California

cancer map

phenology

+Alana Mautone 

+Martha DeMeo
Naomi the Nature Nerd
Scott Adams 
dystopian science fiction fantasy
spirituality
brain damage

February 17 Keywords

(Sorry I failed to post this on the day it was written...)

New friends on Live Journal, Twitter, etc., need to be paid-up subscribers on Patreon in order for me to follow them. Sorry to disappoint a reader overseas who just "friended" me on LJ....I am making it a goal to read more LJ posts from bloggers I've e-known, but not faithfully followed, for years. That's light-reading-as-time-allows, not "friending" or "following." If you want to be "friended" or "followed" and regularly read, use this link:

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4923804

(Btw, that's where the new rants, raves, and potential book sections are going, too. Paid-up Patreons get one extra post that nobody else gets to read, weekly. This week I put off ranting until this morning, then pounded out a few hundred words on Maimonides. It didn't leave enough time for a massive Link Log; I did a relatively short one.)

Wendy Welch
rescuing cats
"Hazel's House" in Big Stone Gap, Virginia
Barkley
Elizabeth Barrette
bees
Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Burke's Gamble
Charlie Pride Youtube videos
Merle Haggard
Pete Seeger
platonic love
romantic love
erotic love
idealistic love
Jonah Goldberg
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Sam Harris
pictures
+Alana Mautone
Dan Lewis
dark sky
light pollution

February 16 Keywords

I just can't seem to get ahead of the e-mail, but I'm cutting it back, I really am. Keywords:

animal rescue
Wendy Welch
dilute tortoiseshell cats
petnapping
orangutan
hazards of eating ape meat
coffee
Starbucks
Black Rifle Coffee
mail-order coffee
name-brand coffee
+Tracey Jade Boyer
bargains
Michigan (Yo! Michigan readers! Link to support one of your own, here!)
preschool programs
Cato
gluten-free bundt cake
stroganoff

bulimia

overeating

eating disorders

Ireland

Obamacare

Irish John

phenology

first dandelion of spring 2017

+Andria Perry 

Environmental Protection Agency

Nestle chocolate

Butterfingers

Rosslyn, Virginia

Washington, D.C.

learning styles

sensory preference

psychological difference between rich and poor people

(Amazon link to one or more books giving more information about eye/ear/hand thinking will go here.)

blogging jargon

Yougov

number of morning people versus night people

February 15 Keywords

Keywords to the post you can see for just one dollar:

dog pictures
Michigan
snow pictures
police dogs, German Shepherds, Alsatians
mixed-breed dogs
rescue shelter dogs
cute dog pictures
dog with tiger stripes
Wendy Welch
Caitlin Kelly
+Mindie Dittemore
glass etching
knitting stitch tricks

National Review 
why poor people should never ever move to different cities in search of jobs
football
Super Bowl reflections
Irish John
Tom Brady
New England Patriots
quarterback over age 35
Elizabeth Barrette
cloves
economic issues in Indonesia
John Stossel
Steve Milloy
why I don't think we should completely terminate the E.P.A.
Obamacare
+Alana Mautone
cultivated flower pictures
+LB Johnson
Valentines Day pictures
gifts for non-traditional heterosexual women
gifts for female veterans
Dave Barry
how the Democratic Party can be relevant
Scott Adams
Dilbert
Twitter
paid writing gig
political arguments
news of the weird
words to use when marketing editing gigs

February 14 Keywords

I was online only part of the day yesterday, and didn't reserve enough time to post the keywords for the friends-locked post at Live Journal. For just one dollar you can see the links and comments...I said "pay-per-view," but I'm not online enough to make that a firm rule. If you chip in a dollar and have a LJ account, you'll be able to see everything for a month or so.

cute tortoiseshell cat picture
Valentine card with cat picture
+LB Johnson
cute mixed-breed dog pictures
Rachel Tolman Terry (which of the Rachel Tolmans on Google + is she?)
Hugh Aaron's small press site
Hugh Aaron's novel When Wars Were Won
Chris Pratt
John McDougall, M.D.
McDougall Experience for couples
Laura McKowen
Dan Lewis
+Martha DeMeo
Victoria Cooley (I still don't know which one she is, either)
antique furniture stores
antique stores on U.S.-Canada border
jazz bands
Kyle Etges
Kyle Etges' signature tune
Jim Geraghty
Kim Jongnam murdered
ED (U.S. Department of Education)
Jim Babka
U.S. HR 899 at Popvox

February 9 Keywords

Yes, I found time to read a lot of things online today. Unfortunately. First in line for the axe if site hosts don't use the Patreon link is Dailygood.org; after that I'll be severing one unprofitable connection after another until the balance of online interaction becomes profitable. If you like publicity, you might want to consider pledging three dollars a month at

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4923804

Keywords for the post you can see for just one dollar:

backyard chickens
Takoma Park, Maryland
Russian Blue cats
cat photos
low-income housing projects
John Stossel
Mexican food
black bean soup
veggie burgers
vegetarian recipes
+Andria Perry
sleep
#BlueLivesMatter
hero cop
Tennessee news
phenology
indoor tomatoes
U.S. Cabinet confirmations
Denver Riggleman
+Sandy KS
romance
semi truck
highway safety
traffic safety
smart TV
Vizio television set
Michelle Malkin
Janet McFarland

Why Am I Still Here?

Of the fifty-some e-mails that came in overnight, two relate to paid writing projects. (After a day as unprofitable as yesterday, I wouldn't have come online today if I hadn't had paid writing projects in the works.) This reading schedule is changing. I may read some e-mail and posts from people who are not paying clients or paid-up subscribers, but my goal for the next few months is to cut back the amount of unpaid online reading I do daily. I'm reluctant to file the whole of Niume or National Review as spam--actually, most of the bacon I receive daily comes from people who have sent useful information at some time or other--but if you want page views, if you want e-mails actually opened rather than moved straight into the bacon folder, start supporting this site now. Three dollars per month will keep me reading a reasonable amount of content that comes from you; about "friends of" e-mail, I make no promises. 

Note that this has nothing to do with whether or not I enjoy reading e-mail--I do. However, my eyes are aging, and I can postpone having to buy extremely expensive custom-made glasses longer if I limit my reading for pleasure to real paper. 

If your money is tight, here are some things to do before whining about it:

1. Cancel your car insurance. Put your car in the garage and take off the tags. If you really need a car for work, let your employer pay for it. If your employer isn't providing a car, walk.

2. Stop eating fast food. If you just want a sandwich, put together a cold one at home. Fill up on raw vegetables instead of fries. If you pay for drinks with your meals, pour your own drinks into your own glass of ice. A quart of coffee, tea, soda pop, etc., prepared at home or in the office, often costs less than a pint in a yucky Styrofoam cup at a fast-food place. In a month you can easily save enough not only to support this blog (and other blogs you read) but also to treat someone special to dinner at a nice sit-down restaurant.

3. Cancel any paid TV service you might have used in the past. If you enjoy watching commercial TV, let the sponsors pay for it. They'd need to pay me to watch their product-supportive shows!

LJ Ate the Links and Then the Computer Crashed...

LJ always was a glitchy site, but LJ's "draft autosaved" and "restore draft" features used to work...until today. I closed the window, expecting five hours' worth of links had actually been "autosaved." I'm not seeing them. I'm not seeing the button to open the draft file and resume using them, either. Sorry, Googlers...that's where the links from the blog feed, which include most of yours, have gone. It's also where the adorable animal photos have gone. I typed them once, I saved the text from the linked documents (not including the pictures) to my own Word file, I'm not typing the links and comments again.

I read these things--the first time--for me. I share them for youall. I might feel more conscientious about making sure they're available to you if I were seeing more e-mail from Paypal, relative to the stuff that screams "Read me first! Me first! Me first!", in the in-box. Frankly, when correspondents are making it clear that they don't care whether I live or die, that makes it hard for me to take any interest in whatever they're spewing into my in-box. Even if it's cute animal pictures.

I thought, well, at least I'd share the rest of the links that came in today...and then some lousy creep had to go and fill up a link with a horrible VIDEO that caused the whole computer to crash, and the Word file got lost. 

This morning I left the house with $2 and change to live on until my next sale or payout, whenever that may be. Today's coffee cost $1.58. 

YOU DID NOT SEND A PAYMENT. I did want, and plan, to give you at least one more blog post. Providence evidently did not agree that you ought to have that.

I'm not one of the "depressed" bloggers, and probably never will be. I am, as of this afternoon, quite likely the most discouraged blogger on Earth. This discouragement is a fact, based entirely on facts, so don't waste any time babbling about any emotions.

The absence of payments shows that you don't appreciate what I'm doing here anyway, so who gives a flying flip about your boring, stupid, patronizing, complacent-cow verbal garbage. Shut up and deal with the fact that YOU KILLED MY BLOG. (And, possibly, me; I have made a public pledge that the next time I run out of food and cash will be the last time, because I'm too old to keep doing starve-and-binge cycles to myself. As long as local people are spending five dollars at a time, if that, on things I'm able to offer for sale in the real world, I can't commit to eating for even one more week, which certainly is not conducive to any genre of writing but blogging. When I go home today, if I reach home without receiving a cash payment, I'll have some time to enjoy puttering around the house...but I've vowed to wait until I see the cash to support a decent lifestyle for a year before I eat again.) If you want it, YOU, nobody else but YOU, needs to fund it.

As you already know, I don't want and won't take any "need-based" handouts. If I'm not earning a living from things I do, then my useful life is over. Emotions are not a factor; I enjoy being alive and I enjoy writing. Health is not a factor; I enjoy excellent health, and as long as I'm able to support it by eating regularly I intend to maintain excellent health. I'm in the perhaps unusual position of having absolutely everything I could want, given that my favorite people are already long dead, except money. The sole factor determining how long I continue to live and write is how much I'm being paid for it. I'm not currently being paid enough to continue living and writing. Attempts to distract attention from this will not help you, me, or anyone else. Focus on the one useful thing you need to think about: YOUR PAYMENT FOR WHAT YOU HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED FROM ME. 

I am very, very, very, very, very tired of repeating this--to you, or to myself. 

I am very, very, very, very, very tired...not even so much of not eating because I'm out of cash and groceries, so much as doing that and then readjusting my body to eating again afterward.

I would have liked, after putting my blog on a pay-per-view basis, to have given everyone time to mail out real-world payments instead of having to make payments online...but that's in the hands of Providence, and it doesn't seem to be happening.

If you repeat the following prayer out loud a few times, it's possible that I'll be online again. Do not alter the words of this prayer:

"O [insert name and obligatory salutations to whatever you pray to here]. Please shut off the sputter of 'but...but...but...' that I've allowed to run through my head when I ought to be paying for something I've received and am not being forced to pay by physical fear. Please clear all emotions and thoughts of emotions out of my brain and allow me to absorb the idea that other people's difficulties are real, solid facts having nothing whatsoever to do with emotions. Please send the writer known as Priscilla King a real-world sale this evening, so that she will come into town in time to receive my payment tomorrow. Please erase the irrelevant chatter from my mind and force me to send a payment to this writer now. Please do not allow me to eat food, or drink water, or close my eyes to sleep, before I have paid for what I have received from this writer. Please do not allow me to add a single word to the message, 'Here is my past due payment for your work,' before that message has been received. Please, please, O please, heal my hypocrisy and allow this writer to forgive me for it. Please move my hands and body, even if you need to disable part or all of my brain, to get that payment to this writer this very minute, flooding my brain with the sole thought 'Please may I be forgiven for having put this off for so long'. Please keep me repeating these words until the money has been transferred from me to the writer known as Priscilla King."

February 7 Keywords

I didn't even find any animal pictures on Petfinder. That was due to paid writing. I'll post some tomorrow.

Christian

introvert

fun facts

Dan Lewis

Now I Know (volumes 1 and 2)

neonicotinoid

pesticide

gardening

organic gardening and farming experience

National Geographic online

OrganicLifeMag (Rodale's Organic Life online)

winter survival skills

Mexican history

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz

Priscilla King's cat Bisquit

Ann Coulter

Obamacare

Publius Huldah

U.S. Constitution

abortion 

Ozarque at Live Journal

Suzette Haden Elgin

Anne Lamott

(Also, indirectly, Joycelyn Elders, Marilou Awiakta, Alice Walker, Grandma Bonnie Peters...)

Thoreau

C.S. Lewis

Oxford University

Nancy Pelosi

Maxine Waters

senior moments

February 3 Keywords

To see it, fund it...here are keywords from the links and comments at today's hidden Live Journal post. Google + friends have seen most but not all of these.

local produce
homemade food
soup or stew
vegetable beef soup
+Andria Perry
vegan soup
onion soup
organic food
Salvation Army
U.S. income tax
frugal
low income
+Marsha Cooper
vegan diet plan
health for vegans
vegan doctors
John McDougall
Mary McDougall
asexual on Valentines Day
alternatives to Valentines Day
International Book Giving Day
children's books
Dr. Seuss books
+Beth Ann Chiles
Alice Walker
movie Fences 
Denzel Washington
+Andrea Mautone (changed her picture, now Google + can't find her)
phenology
Elizabeth Barrette
daffodils
lilacs
bird feeder
small dog
squirrel feeder
large dog
groundhog
+LB Johnson
seagulls
trees
fashion
women's hair
long hair
wavy hair
straight hair
Indian fashion
writing
blog marketing

Mark Warner on the Internet of Things Act

From U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), this form letter to Virginia correspondents is being shared for the benefit of the outside correspondents who sent me e-mail for Senators Warner and Kaine's benefit about two bills that came up for votes recently. U.S. readers may follow these bills on Popvox.

https://www.popvox.com/us/bills/115/s19

https://www.popvox.com/us/bills/115/s88

Since I don't own rights to the correspondence of elected officials, this type of posts will continue to be shared here free of charge. Some background information follows, below:

"

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things Act (S.88). I appreciate the benefit of your views on this important issue.

As you know, on January 10, 2017, this legislation was introduced by Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Should the Senate consider this legislation or similar proposals in the future, I will certainly keep your thoughts in mind.

Again, thank you for contacting me. For further information or to sign up for my newsletter please visit my website at http://www.warner.senate.gov.

Sincerely,
MARK R. WARNER
United States Senator
"

Background information shared by Priscilla King:

1. These bills authorize the use of federal funds to construct more cell phone and wireless transmission towers. These towers would support an "Internet of Things" that some hope might reduce interference between one type of wireless device and another, and others fear might adversely affect individual privacy by, e.g., allowing a stranger's "smart car" to broadcast messages to or receive messages from an individual's "smart phone."

2. Many fear that building more of these towers closer to places where humans live and work would raise levels of radiation and risks for various disease conditions. Some correspondents from the Northern States claim that this is happening in their areas. Factors influencing the development of cancer, autism, and degenerative conditions that develop in old age are diabolically hard to study in any scientific way; this web site suspends judgment, but does think it would be useful to medical science if suspected factors were isolated in specific "test" areas where the incidence of these diseases could be compared with "control" areas.

3. What I have seen in Gate City, Virginia, is that since a new cell phone tower was built--high on Moccasin Ridge, well away from people's homes and work sites--people have felt free to punish, rather than work with, the Scott County Telephone Co-operative, whose employees have indulged in the type of arrogant behavior typical of tenured employees in any company that is perceived as exercising a monopoly. More of the people I know now rely on cell phones only than pay to maintain real phones, although cell phone service is more expensive, less reliable, a suspected risk factor in diseases, and less satisfactory in every way.

4. On the Internet, although complaints about excessive wireless transmission devices are coming from correspondents in the U.S., the "godfather" managing this correspondence and claiming that "safer devices are available" is associated with Microsoft Canada.

That's all I know. Over to the geeks...

February 2 Links or What You're Missing

Here are the keywords for the post that will show up here when I receive funding...just $1 on Patreon will bring the post to light, both here and on Live Journal, in different formats of course:

https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4923804

gray tabby cats at Petfinder (It's important to fund these posts so they can be published, to help people find these animals!)

cats curl up on quilt

cats curl up beside warm laptop

+Beth Ann Chiles

black Lab

chewy treats for dogs

+LB Johnson

The Book of Barkley 

small dogs

dog toys

+Sandy KS 

birthday

Big Stone Gap, Virginia

Big Stone Gap

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap

Fonda Lee

Exo

Caroline B. Cooney

Bear Hug

+Martha DeMeo 

Scott Adams

Dilbert.com blog

How to Fail at Everything

Groundhog Day

+Alana Mautone 

Elizabeth Barrette

resistors

web design

cell phones

browsers