Tioga Herald

Milk and Ozempic? What’s on my mind?

What’s on my mind? The question asked when I sign into Facebook. Here is what is on my mind. Milk and Ozempic, a medication produced by Nova Nordisk for diabetics.

Sounds strange. Milk and Ozempic. What the hell do I mean by that? Here goes.

I have spent the past two years reducing my A1C and my weight and doing so without insulin injections. That’s because insulin injections caused me, for some 10 to 15 years, to put on weight. I have to wonder whether those injections also hurt other parts of my health. Try to find out in the American healthcare system and one is left scratching his/her head. Nevertheless, I have been successful.

This quest to lower A1C began while I was still on an employer-provided health insurance. I went on Medicare just as we were all introduced to this thing called COVID-19. On the employer-provided health insurance, for which I paid a huge chunk on the monthly premiums, I paid very little for Ozempic and insulin injections. I paid zero dollars for eye injections to fight my diabetic retinopathy.

Then, Medicare hit me at the same time that COVID-19 hit millions of people around the world. All of a sudden, I began to experience this REPUBLICAN-generated shit called the donut hole for prescriptions. As with NAFTA, lousy rotten perverted REPUBLICANS invented this and then go around blaming the Democrats who tried to work and carry things through – for the good of unity in America. That donut hole is a piece of shit and needs to be destroyed and bring universal single-payer healthcare for all, whether on Medicare or otherwise.

So. Big pharma charges about $1000 per pen which gives one month of supply for the diabetic. Under employer-provided healthcare, the prescription was only one month at a time. In order to “save money” for the patient, three pens of Ozempic for three months worth of the medication are given. Sure. It saves a tiny bit of money, but not much, as I have discovered.

My A1C, with three months worth, has not been as good as the one-month version. So that leads me to a question. Does Ozempic not last for three months? I get glazed over eyes of a lack of intelligence from doctors and pharmacists when I ask the question. “We don’t want to answer this question.” Maybe it is out of fear of lawyers? So the patient does not get an answer. Oh. If the patient is “hurt in a car, call William Mattar!” But to have a sensible question like this, well, forget it.

Most recently, according to my log, the first month of using the Ozempic injection pen, beginning in Dec. 2021 and ending in Jan. 2022, my glucose numbers improved, as did improve. I also had an improvement in my A1C the last time the numbers were taken in December.

Now I am near the end of my second month and this week beginning my third month. My glucose numbers are terrible and getting worse. Once again. I ask of doctors and pharmacists AND my Medicare Advantage plan people, the same question I have been asking for more than a year. Glazed eyes. One exception. I was finally put in touch with a “pharmacy” person at the Medicare insurance plan. Once again, I could not get the person to understand. Until I injected an analogy. What if I were to purchase enough milk for three months at the beginning of February, how good would the milk be should it be consumed in the second and third month? The point got across, as I discovered no one was using the idea promoted by Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM, to do something called THINK. I had used analogies when teaching students at college because I encouraged them to think. Silly me for thinking those in the community who ALREADY HAVE COLLEGE DEGREES would THINK. Silly, silly me for being so stupid. Further, I think my father, WITHOUT A COLLEGE DEGREE, may have done something called THINK, but maybe I am wrong on that. Nevertheless, not sure if all people who don’t have college degrees would respond like my father.

During the time of trying to explain this situation, I sometimes got treated as if I am stupid. “Well… did you put the Ozempic in the refrigerator?” After all, that is what the directions do say. Of course, you GODDAMN IDIOT, I do follow the directions and put it in the refrigerator. What I should have asked was, “what happens when you put milk in the refrigerator for three months, you ass?” We all know what would happen if we leave milk out of the refrigerator for several days. My thoughts about Ozempic were based on refrigerated milk, but I was not listened to, mocked in the questions I asked, with everyone more concerned about “me, myself, and I” than about the question being asked.

One big difference between milk and Ozempic. A quarter of milk costs me a few dollars perhaps. Big pharma charges $1000 for one Ozempic pen. If the GODDAMN thing does not work, after sitting in a refrigerator for two or three months, does not one think it’s a pertinent question to ask about whether it runs out of oomph after a time, EVEN WHEN SITTING IN A REFRIGERATOR?

What the hell is this America today with stupid people who just want to mock, taunt, and push around fellow Americans, rather than thinking in terms of COMMUNITY and how to best serve our COMMUNITY of people? And when I say that GODDAMN LAWYERS like MATTAR and his CAR should be stopped because they teach Americans how to go after one another, I get slammed for that, too.

As a result, we end up with stupid Americans pitting one against another. The Republicans are finding this very useful. Just attack a Democrat. Don’t discuss matters surrounding an issue, but just attack Democrats instead, proclaiming, I don’t want to discuss politics.” Yet, Republicans proposed NAFTA. Sad to say that Democrats helped pull it through, rather than taking a look at what NAFTA would stand for and the possibility of loss of jobs in the USA. The Democrats are hurled with attacks while the ones who proposed this thing in the first place are ignored for what THEY did, except when they blame the Democrats.

Republicans think gerrymandering is ok, should it be done by Republicans, but attack it if Democrats use it. Republicans think the filibuster in the U.S. Senate is ok when used by Republicans, but not ok if used by Democrats. And then there is the one ASSHOLE Democrat in the Senate, bought and held by Republicans, who won’t go along with the elimination of the filibuster ()perverted corrupt money lover Manchin). And the wimps of Democrats who go along with things like NAFTA are really as stupid as Al Gore who refused to do something when, in the end, it was actually proven he had won Florida in 2000.

As for Ozempic and the GODDAMN DONUT HOLE, Republicans were the major force behind making it happen. I know because I spoke with a number of Medicare recipients at the time this bullshit of an idea was implemented.Now I am paying for it, financially and no one gives one damn about it, especially being employed and saying, “it does not impact me, so why should I stand up and give one damn about it?”

Beyond just donut holes and tiers, part of ADVANTAGE Medicare, there is a secret hidden agenda to hide what is available by paying a premium for Medicare supplements. Why? Because the GODDAMN MEDICARE PEOPLE HAVE INSTITUTED SOMETHING THAT OBAMACARE ELIMINATED: PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS. GODDAMN THOSE TRUMP BASTARDS WHO TALK PRIVATE HEALTHCARE AND WANT TO DESTROY OBAMACARE. I just discovered these things. It has been two years since I went on Medicare and I am just discovering this. It is a hidden secret and kept hidden.

The idea is that we pay for a supplement plan for six months, but get no health service for “pre-existing conditions.” Who the hell put this in place? How did the WIMPS of Democrats let this get through? In other words, all those things for which my employer-provided healthcare covered are considered, “pre-existing conditions” and now, I have to act as if, for six months, those “pre-existing conditions” don’t exist? For 40 years I was on employer-provided healthcare insurance. Sometimes I paid out of pocket a portion of the health insurance. I should have amounts in that healthcare system in which I could get coverage on a supplemental plan for those “pre-existing conditions,” due to CAPITALISM AND DIVIDENDS PAID WHEN CONSIDERING THE MONEY I SPENT ALL THOSE YEARS AS S A CAPITALIST INVESTMENT. GODDAMN the big mouths who claim socialism and use such reasoning to help DESTROY Obamacare and keep “pre-existing condition.”

Let me use an analogy. Erasmus Wright, the first insurance commissioner in Massachusetts during the 19th Century, challenged insurance companies because they were collecting premiums for life insurance policies but then being criminals and using the money for other things. When the person died, these CRIMINALS in the business world, with the help of lawyers and accountants, would claim they have no money to pay out to those who had INVESTED in the policies. He worked to change that.

But here we are today and we are back to the same BULLSHIT Erasmus Wright worked to eliminate in insurance. In the case of Erasmus Wright’s example, we all have a “pre-existing condition.” We are all going to die. We are human beings who will die. So, those insurance CRIMINALS saw no need to cover the “pre-existing conditions” at all. CRIMINALS today are running big insurance for homeowners in Florida and healthcare nationwide. There need not be consideration of “pre-existing conditions.” PERIOD. DAMN ASSHOLES who promote such BULLSHIT. Yes, I am angry at this, as I have to face lousy American healthcare when asking questions about a high-priced medication and how “fresh” it needs to be, even kept in a refrigerator and face the bullshit of insurance with “pre-existing conditions,” while Republican business people push for this and Democrats are nothing but a bunch of WIMPS in letting these things happen (with the exception of Obamacare (which is still being dragged through the mud by GODDAMN FUCKING LOUSY PERVERTED ANTI-HUMAN REPUBLICANS). Excuse me, but this makes me so damn angry that I DO USE THE WORD FUCK, so FUCK YOU IF YOU DON’T LIKE THIS. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT SO I DON’T HAVE TO USE SUCH A LOUSY WORD. Need I apologize for attempting to bring such issues to the forefront and nothing happens? So I then resort to vulgar language? If you think so, then FUCK YOU. The only thing for which I feel sorry is for the state of lousy perverted attitudes in the USA which is the nation to which I was born and find it disgusting with people with their immature attitudes about individual rights and no consideration of community of people, so they don’t wear the masks or get vaccinated in order to fight a war on a virus. And then to have eyes glaze over when I ask a simple question about the effectiveness of Ozempic after two to three months in a refrigerator. A lousy immature snotty American attitude which pervades this nation far too much and elects perverts like Trump, DeSantis, Rick the Prick and others, while generating an attitude of shooting holes in a Democratic governors solution, no discussion of how bail reform is bad, and an attack on a Democrat because the person is a Democrat. How do we know that bail reform might be a solution unless we examine it, rather than being a stupid idiotic Zindell of Pennsylvania with an immature snotty individualist right to maintain guns? Unbelievable sickos in this American world today who are directed by the perverted actions of lawyers like Mattar who encourage more zingers at one another than to THINK and CONSIDER the solutions before just hurling lousy crap which demonstrates their anti-Democrat stand than anything else. It is not the America in which I was born, as IMPERFECT as it was then. At least hate, snotty and immature attitudes with money-lovers with lots of money an big mouths did not pervade this nation as much. Democrats and Republicans may have sometimes been at each other’s throats, but Republicans did not dig in their GODDAMN heels as stubborn bastards and SOBs and refuse to consider solutions, THINKING and DISCUSSING those solutions so as to be more effective and not sabotage progress, as Republicans are doing today. I was a Republican in those days, and I must say I abhor the bastards and SOBs who have commandeered the party today.

This is what is on my mind today. Shall I condense it into what I wish to see happen?

1. Universal single-payer healthcare for all and with NO GODDAMN PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS to be considered. Add to this unrelated thing: replace the STAR program in NY with an ACROSS THE BOARD system like Florida: homestead exemption for the primary residence, invented by DEMOCRATS in Florida.

2. Eliminate the GODDAMN gerrymandering completley.

3. Eliminate the GODDAMN filibuster in the U.S. Senate and follow the rules from Roberts’ Rules of Order for DEMOCRACY. Simple majorities are allowed with those rules. When necessary, there rules about 2/3, 3/4 majoritiees, or unanimous decisions. Unanimous used correctly, not the bullshit in the UN with the Security Council.

4. Regulate industry for the good of the community and with teeth in such regulation which really decimates any form of payoffs and bribes. It could be done. When there were regulations, Thomas J. Watson almost ended up in jail for working to destroy capitalist competition at a company for which he worked called NCR. Maybe it was just that Americans were better people then? I have a problem in believing that to be the case. Maybe it was? I hope not. If so, then people today need to read books such as the one by Adam Smith titled, The Theory of Moral Sentiments or works by modern-day GOOD Republican (not perfect, but better than the leadership in that GODDAMN PARTY today), Joe Scarborough. Regulate industry and put MORAL teeth into the way it is regulated by a third party called government.

5. Let Puerto Rico become an independent nation so they can have wealthy people to there and purchase and run the nation. That way, we taxpayers in the 50 states don’t have to fund Puerto Rico while Puerto Rico does not pay Federal income taxes. The tiny island nation of Morroco is run by wealthy ones. It does not have ANY income tax, but only VAT and real estate property taxes. It would be interesting to note how Trump wealthy cronies, running Puerto Rico, would handle hurricanes. After all, Morroco HAS NO HURRICANES. No. We the people of the USA fund Puerto Rico when hurricanes strike, but we get no CAPITALIST INVESTMENTS in return, by way of income taxes. That shits and needs to be stopped.

6. Eliminate the Electoral College and replace with a non-gerrymandering way of making congressional jurisdictions more permeanent, as well as throw the presidential election into a runoff when a candidate does not win 50% or more of the popular vote. The runoff would be scheduled at the time when now a bunch of electors meet for the Electoral College. No Electoral College, but just a runoff, if necessary.

7. Calculate the numbers in the House of Representative based on the same model used with the First Congress in the late 1700s. What are we scard about? That we might have nearly 1000 memers of the House of Representatives?

8. Eliminate the stupidity of being so concerned with states with amaller populations having to have a bigger say. Manchin of West Virginia. How absurd of a bastard. Or senators in some of the ultra-right wing rural Rocky Mountain States. More senators within a rural state than members of the House? Or close to it? Increase the numbers in the House and stop this bullshit with filibuster and all the rest which stupidly runs the Senate.

9. Broadband communitcation for all, with fiber optics.

10. Legalize marijuana and others and stop the bullshit of prohibition. The results could be a less expensive way to rehab those who get caught up in drugs and alcohol, rather than GUNS on the streets as drug lords attempt to protect their territories in order to keep things hidden. Richard Nixon, in the days when I was a Republican and believed in things like FISCAL efficiency and FISCAL conservatism, found that such means of actions would save us all money, as compared to the lousy drug wars which help prop up drug lords. Who opposed Nixon on this? Lousy SOB white supremacists of Dixie, within the Republian Party, like Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond. We got FORCED into the situtaions today and then we are subjected to some jackass Zindell of Pensnsylvania attacking Democcrats when they try to find solutions to the drug problems.

Republicn Nixon had a solution and ended up pulled through Watergate as Helms and others reduced their support because Nixon did NOT fall in line with their fucking Dixie assses with white supremacy and drug lords. Like Clintion and his dumb ass with Lewinsky, Nixon did a really stupid thing with Watergate. But Nixon DID NOT do a stupid thing with his proposals to lift up black businesses in the South and use money for drug and alcohol rehab, rather than the tons of money spent on the war on drugs.

Today, IBM is gone in Endicott, NY, and there are drug wars on the street adjacent to the old IBM complex (Washington Avernue). Thanks a lot, you GODDAMN Republican folks like Zindell and the GODDAMN fundagelical white supremacists.

One has to wonder. If Helms and others did not want rehab, then follow the money and one might discover that assholes like white supremacist Helms and others were making money from the drug wars. Otherwise, they would have supported solutions which might work.

Those of the NRA and other assholes today might just be making money from drug lords, too, so they push for no legislation which regulates guns and blame Democrats for ANY solution at all.

The commander-in-chief who really loused things up in Afghanistan and I wonder if, with Trump’s love of the Arabs, whether he wants Afghan opium and opioids in the USA, so he did nothing for the purpose of justice in Afghanistan. Then, once again, Demorats who followed through on the timeline put in place by Trump get the blame. Joe Biden was not set up, unless one considers the wimpishness of Democrats in handling Trump and the Republicans, not playing hardball with bastard Republican fascists who are traitors to America.

Got it, what is on my mind? This entire “missive” explains what is on my mind, beginning with the lousy perverted ideas of an American healthcare system run by the wealthy Republican fascist business people who are nothing but lovers of money. After all, those SOBs never have to worry whether they have enough money to pay for any medications OR “pre-existing conditions.” And the bastard common folk who go along with this shit of the wealthy are disgusting people.