James L. Paris's Blog, page 88
May 8, 2017
Pundit Krauthammer: ���In Less than Seven Years, We Will Be in a Single-Payer System���
According to one well-known pundit, although the new administration has moved forcefully in the direction of rolling back Obamacare, the reality is that years of having to live under it have reshaped expectations as to just what health care is and who should be paying for it.
As reported by RealClearPolitics.com, Charles Krauthammer, who spoke last Thursday on Fox News��� Special Report, said that after so many years of Obamacare being a part of the national economic and cultural landscape, that Americans now look at health care not as a service appropriately subject to the machinations of the free market, but as an absolute taxpayer-funded ���entitlement,��� like roadways and public schools.
What���s more, Krauthammer believes we���re just a relative handful of years away from seeing a genuine single-payer system at hand.
���I think historically speaking we are at the midpoint. We had seven years of Obamacare, a change in expectations. And I would predict that in less than seven years, we will be in a single-payer system. I think that's the great irony of this,��� Krauthammer said.
���I think Obamacare wins the day because it changed expectations,��� he later added. ���Look at the terms of the debate. Republicans are not arguing the free market anymore. They have sort of accepted the fact that the electorate sees health care as not just any commodity. It's not like purchasing a steak or a car. It is something people now have a sense that government ought to guarantee.���
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Financial Advisor Sentenced for Embezzling Millions from Pop Star Alanis Morissette, Others
As long as there are wealthy celebrities, there will be financially ravenous souls happy to try to separate them from their hard-earned dough by any means.
One such person, Jonathan Todd Schwartz, a purported ���financial advisor,��� was sentenced this past Wednesday to six years in the federal slammer for embezzling over $7 million from pop star Alanis Morissette and other clients, according to WMUR.com.
In the words of Morisette, Schwartz ���did this in a long, systematic, drawn-out and sinister manner.��� The singer claims that at the rate Schwartz was stealing from her, she would have had to declare bankruptcy inside of three years.
It was while Schwartz was working at GSO Business Management, a high-profile celebrity management firm in Sherman Oaks, California, that he stole nearly $5 million from Morisette, as well as another $2 million from five other GSO clients.
According to Bernard Gudvi, founder of GSO, the reputation ���hit��� suffered by his company from Schwartz���s outrageous behavior has demanded that he lay off nearly a dozen employees, and the resulting, overall financial loss to his business is in the neighborhood of $20 million.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee actually sentenced Schwartz to a period longer than the five years sought be prosecutors, citing the ���sheer audaciousness of this conduct.��� In addition to his six-year prison term, Gee also sentenced Schwartz to pay $8.6 million in restitution.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
May 7, 2017
Hispanic Support for Trump Has Jumped Since Election
This is an element of ���identity politics��� about which you���ll likely hear nothing mentioned by the mainstream media.
Guess whose popularity is growing substantially among Hispanics?
Donald Trump���s, that���s whose.
According to the Washington Examiner, the results of a recent Zogby Analytics survey reveal that President Trump now enjoys a 45 percent support level among Hispanics. Notably, this is two points higher than Trump���s overall approval number, at present.
What makes this figure particularly stunning is the amount of support received by Trump from Hispanics when he won the election. Back then, Trump became president with just 29 percent of the Latino vote.
Even more interesting is that Trump���s increasing popularity among Hispanics is coming at precisely the same time he appears to be losing ground from within the broad electorate. The latest Zogby survey on that subject saw his overall approval drop from 48 percent to just 43 percent.
Although it remains unknown as to why Trump���s popularity has managed to surge among Hispanics over the last few months, it has long been seen by many as a canard that American Hispanics have such ���solidarity��� with Hispanics, in general, that they���re willing to entirely overlook the deleterious consequences of poorly-controlled borders, including higher crime and ultra-cheap labor.
In other words, it likely turns out that American Hispanics appreciate, as much as anyone, a safer, more economically sound country.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Nancy Pelosi: Democrats Are ���100 Percent Unified���
Given what is obviously going on within the ranks of the Democratic Party right now, this just seems like a goofy assessment, even for a person who���s a professional shill for said party.
Did you happen to hear what House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said last Sunday on ABC News��� This Week?
According to Pelosi, Democrats are ���100 percent unified,��� presently.
Does that sound right to you?
Here���s what she said to host Jonathan Karl, when he asked her how she would grade the Democrats this far into the new Trump administration.
���Oh my gosh. In terms of unity, 100 percent unified. That���s how we were able to work with an outside mobilization channeling the energy of the American people to defeat their drastic, horrible health care bill.���
We���ll assume she���s referring to the one that just passed the House.
Beyond that, the fact, obvious for anyone to see, is that the Democrats are in great disarray, at all levels.
Not only is there great division among the rank-and-file about whether the party���s priorities should remain focused on fringe progressive interests, or return to the concerns of the average working man and woman throughout the country���but high-profile Democratic politicians can���t seem to work well together, either. As The Washington Free Beacon points out, Pelosi herself is at odds with Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez over his recent declaration that pro-lifers have no place in the party, and Bernie Sanders is now regularly calling out the Dems for what he sees as the party���s abandonment of the sort of economic populism that has always resonated strongly with blue collar whites in the nation���s heartland.
���100 percent unified.���
Right.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
The Dangers Of Cholesterol Lowering Drugs (Statins)
A very strange cultural myth has somehow become health dogma (defined as an authoritative principle, belief, or statement of ideas or opinion, especially one considered to be absolute truth) despite little definitive evidence to support it. A biochemically ignorant speculation and hypothesis (experiment) that many of us have bought into is that you can poison your body and your body���s cholesterol manufacturing system with cholesterol lowering drugs, and somehow be the better for it.
This is very important as millions of Americans (an astounding 1 out 8 or 9 Americans) are on one or another. One out of every 4 adults over the age of 45 is on a statin drug. This, despite the fact, that there are hundreds of studies demonstrating their toxicity and relationship to all kinds of health issues ranging from muscle pain to brain and memory problems. Statin drugs have even been linked to diabetes and cancer; two of top three the leading causes of death. Cholesterol control is best thought of as sugar control. There���s a reason why diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol go hand in hand. But the thing about diabetes is that the designation of it (or the determination of it) is arbitrary. That���s right! Whether or not you���re officially considered a diabetic is arbitrarily determined by the magic of the medical model and the black magicians who come up with so-called diagnostic standards.
According to the American Diabetes Association, there are three main tests that determine whether or not you���re a diabetic. The A1C test measures blood glucose as an average over the course 2 to 3 months. You���re considered a diabetic if you���re A1C score is greater than 6.5%. The Fasting Blood Glucose test is the second test doctors use to assess diabetes. As the name implies, you have to fast for at least 8 hours before this test, and you���re considered a diabetic if your blood glucose is over 126 mg per dl of blood (which works out to about a teaspoonful of glucose for the entire gallon or so of blood that circulates in the average human body). The third test is called the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test, and that measures blood sugar before and after you drink a super sweet glucose drink. If your blood sugar is over 200 after you take an oral glucose tolerance test, the doctor will pronounce you officially a diabetic.
The problem with these tests is no one really knows just exactly what a healthy or appropriate blood sugar should be. All of these numbers and determinations are based on bell curves, reference values, and statistics. Human beings are individuals. To take care of our health, we have to recognize our specific, individual biochemical nature. To superimpose statistics and bell curves on top of individuals is BAD SCIENCE. Does it make sense to anyone that if your fasting blood sugar is recorded as 125 mg per dl, you are non-diabetic, but if you���re at 126, all of a sudden you have a disease? If you're at 125, you can go about your business as usual because you're healthy. No, our blood sugar is still way too high, and just because the medical model hasn���t officially pronounced us diseased, our sugar chemistry is definitely wacked, and we are most assuredly not healthy.
Pretty much all adults (or at least those who are subsisting on the SAD) can assume that blood sugar control is not good. Dysglycemia is part and parcel of our modern lifestyle and of the aging process. A sure sign that your blood sugar is starting to get thrown off is a pot belly. Do you know ANYONE who doesn���t have a little pooch going on? How many people are able to say their gut is the same size when they���re 40 as when they are 20?
High blood pressure is another dysglycemic red flag and, most assuredly, so is elevated blood fats and cholesterol. Think cholesterol and blood fats, think blood sugar. The best way to lower your cholesterol naturally is to lower blood sugar by eating less food that spikes blood sugar and by eating less food in general. Dysglycemia is a food and eating health issue; it���s not a drug issue. Because elevated blood cholesterol is about dysglycemia, if you want to lower your blood cholesterol, change the way you eat: more protein and less sugar. And EAT MORE FAT, and EAT MORE CHOLESTEROL!! (I know this is contrary to all the conventional crapola that you hear from mainstream lobbyist groups, but they care more about your money than your health.) Organizations (really, big business corporations) like the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association have presided over the biggest increases in heart disease and diabetes IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. When, in fact, the more cholesterol you eat, the less cholesterol your body makes! In other words, cholesterol-containing foods are nature���s non-toxic, healthy statin drugs. Tell that to the next boneheaded medical doctor who warns that you better start taking a toxin that poisons the liver cells so they can���t produce this incredibly important biomolecule!
In addition to consuming cholesterol, using sugar-metabolizing supplements can help. The Chromium and Vanadium in the product Sweet Eze can help lower blood sugar and can lower blood cholesterol. The Sweet Eze is like a natural statin drug without the drug toxicity. The B-vitamins are incredibly important for blood sugar metabolism. Beyond Tangy Tangerine is loaded with the B-vitamins. If you���re a diabetic (and remember we all are to some extent), you would be very wise to use some BTT after all sweets as well as starchy meals (bread, pasta, potatoes, etc.). Thiamine is especially important for lowering blood sugar. Niacin is one of the most critical of all nutrients for helping the body process sugar. And not coincidentally, niacin is one of the most important nutrients for the liver, and is just as effective at lowering cholesterol as statin drugs. You���ll get a good dose of niacin in the Beyond Tangy Tangerine, but if you���re seriously concerned about elevated blood cholesterol, you might want to add in a 100mg daily dose of time-release niacin too.
Benjamin Fuchs, ChristianMoney.com Contributor, R.Ph.
May 5, 2017
Another Day, Another Serious Altercation Aboard a Commercial Airline Flight
When it comes to fights aboard commercial planes now, have we already reached the point of deciding that there���s ���nothing to see here���?
The latest fiasco took place Monday, just after passengers boarded an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight in Tokyo, Japan that was headed for Los Angeles. As reported by RT.com, a few minutes prior to takeoff, two men began throwing punches at one another, with one of the two, for reasons that still remain unclear, clearly appearing to be the aggressor.
According to witness Corey Hour, who actually managed to record a good portion of the fight on video, a man in a red shirt turned to another male passenger and said that he was ���going to kill him.���
The passenger on the receiving end of the threat, now identified as Ryan Humphreys, immediately called for help.
���Someone, help!��� Humphreys yelled. ���This guy is crazy!���
At which point the main wearing the red shirt hollers back, ���I���ll kill you!���
Flight attendants were eventually able to corral the man in red and escort him off the plane.
���He literally just flipped,��� witness Hour told The Washington Post. ���Nobody knows why.���
After the aggressor left the plane, however, he returned, and wanted to go another round with Humphreys. This time, a flight attendant ended up taking a shot to the face.
Hour said that, at one point, the man yelled, ���You think I���m crazy? What about the government?���
Eventually, the man in red left the plane a second time, at which point he was arrested by local authorities.
No clear motive for the outburst, beyond what is surely one more person living in an emotional ���red zone��� in this frenetic day and age, has been uncovered as yet.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Hillary Says She���s Now ���Part of the Resistance���
Hillary is now part of the resistance.
We know, because she said so.
You may have heard that Hillary again invoked ���misogyny��� the other day as a material reason for why she lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump; she cited, as well, the renewed Comey investigation into her improper use of a private server and the alleged involvement of Russia in the election as reasons for her defeat. Mrs. Clinton made her comments during an appearance at the Women for Women International Luncheon in New York, where she was interviewed by CNN���s Christine Amanpour.
Particularly noteworthy was her assertion that she was ���on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey's letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me and got scared off.���
OK.
In addition to Hillary using the opportunity to once again take no real responsibility for her own political failure, she also used it to announce that she���s now part of the resistance (whatever that means):
���I can���t be anything other than who I am, and I���ve spent decades learning about what it would take to move our country forward, including people who clearly didn���t vote for me. To try to make sure that we dealt with a lot of these hard issues that are right around the corner, like robotics and artificial intelligence, and things that are really going to be upending the economy, for the vast majority of Americans, to say nothing of the rest of the world. So, I���m now back to being an activist citizen, and part of the resistance.���
By the way, does anyone get the ���robotics��� reference?
Trump is a frustration for many, including even for some of those who voted for him; but remember that this was the alternative.
Vive la resistance!
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
May 4, 2017
These Concealed Weapons Classes Come with Bible Lessons, Too
Biblically-based concealed carry?
Well, sort of.
Over at Fox News, there���s a story that details just what unique sort of concealed weapons training Oklahoma���s Roy Jones is delivering to folks in that state.
When Jones administers his firearms classes, he does a whole lot of it in churches, stressing that the values of Christianity are in no way incompatible with self-defense.
Jones is now well-known there for quoting the Bible while showing folks the proper way to handle a gun.
One of his favorite passages for demonstrating the Biblical justification for taking up arms is Psalm 144, which famously reads, ���Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.���
In speaking with Fox, Jones plainly outlined what he sees as the proper position of Christians as it pertains to defending oneself.
���We will turn the other cheek,��� Jones said. ���I���m the least likely guy to pull out a gun in a fight. But we will not turn the other cheek if you���re going to assault my family or cut off my head in the process.���
Seems fair.
Jones clarified for Fox that he is not a pastor, an understandable assumption made by some familiar with the unconventional way in which he delivers his concealed carry classes. That said, he went on to mention that students have left his training with a new interest in Christianity.
Predictably, Jones has faced criticism from those who think he���s incorporating Bible verse in his classes simply as a marketing ploy.
���People say, ���You���re getting rich by using God���s name,������ he said. ���I���m just one little guy. Do I make a little money? Yes. But I���m not doing this to get rich.���
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
Target CEO Hit with Big Pay Cut After Horrendous 2016
Retailer Target continues to struggle, and now its CEO is feeling the pain.
After a year in which the brand saw sales drop through four consecutive quarters, and its stock price drop a stunning 30 percent from the $83.98 high at which it sat last April, Brian Cornell, the man running the show, is now personally joining in on the ���fun.��� As reported by Reuters, Cornell���s total compensation (cash and stock) itself dropped by about one-third, to $11.3 million, in the wake of Target���s tumble.
Paul McConnell, the managing director at Board Advisory LLC, a company that deals in the realm of executive compensation and performance, seems to approve.
���You shouldn���t be getting rich when you are producing rotten numbers,��� he said.
While Target is currently plagued by the same general problems besetting so many bricks-and-mortar retailers right now, it seems more than a little coincidental that the beginning of the pronounced backslide at Target coincides with its controversial decision to begin allowing customers to use the bathroom that corresponds with their so-called ���gender identity.���
Last month, Cornell seemed to distance himself from the adoption of the new policy, and said, in particular, he was ���frustrated��� that it was so heavily publicized by diversity champions at his company.
Oh, well.
By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large
