Christopher L. Hedges's Blog
October 27, 2015
I Don’t Accept Your Apology
If you read my last blog post about my disability insurer you’d know that my benefits were suspended as communicated by my case manager. If you didn’t I encourage you to read Goliath Insurer v.s. David the Cancer Patient. A funny thing happened on October 21st at about 4:30pm. That’s 13 days after I submitted my required paperwork, 8 days after my benefits were wrongfully suspended and I communicated that fact to my case manager via phone call, and 3 hours after I got off a phone call with a law firm to represent me against Goliath. At about 4:30pm on October 21st I received this email from my case manager.
Well Erin I don’t accept your apology, and by no means do I understand how a professional can get away with such unprofessional behavior. At best you didn’t look at your email for at least 4 business days, check your voicemail for 6 business days, or have the common courtesy and professionalism to contact the insured who’s benefits you threatened to wrongfully suspend for 6 business days. On October 13th I called to inform you of the date and time the required documentation was delivered to your inbox. When I got no call back from you recognizing that you received my call or my correspondence I contacted legal council. I had to contact legal council because it seems the only thing Fortune 100 bullies like Goliath Insurance are willing to respond to his a person that is willing to fight back.
Every 2 years or so people like me have to jump through the hoops billion dollar companies like you put in front of us just to be able to maintain our benefits. Do you really think I want to be disability? Do think I like being 35 years old living at home with my parents because it’s impossible to live off of $17,000 a year, which is what’s left after I pay my income tax and $3,000 in health insurance premiums? I don’t have much room for food or rent after taking another $2,500 out to pay my healthcare deductible and that’s if I’m lucky enough to see doctors that are in network. Add another $1,500 to that total if the doctors are out of network. Those numbers don’t even account for the $5,000 that was spent on airfare, lodging and rental cars to see a specialist out of state either. Believe me I would much rather be making $50,000-$100,000 a year as a productive member of society with a nice quality of life, but I have to play the cards I’m dealt. So Fortune 100 Giants like you try to manipulate the system to extort as much blood as they can out of people like me.
However, Goliath’s greedy nature and the lackadaisical attitude you seem to display regarding people’s lives and well being isn’t what bothers me the most. What bothers me is that I learned that monstrous Insurance giants like you can torment and harass people like me, and then hide behind the ERISA Law. I was infuriated to have a lawyer specializing in ERISA law explain that I can’t pursue insurance behemoths for what any reasonable person could deduce to be a history of harassing behavior. First you require the federal government to subsidize your financial obligations with Social Security Disability. Then you say I’m healthy when all medical evidence says otherwise, and I have to sue you to reinstate my terminated benefits. Next you require me to provide access to my Social Security account so that you can revisit my payment history that is 5 years old, and demand you be repaid money that Social Security supposedly overpaid. Finally, you terminate my benefits a second time, without cause, and expect me to blow it off because you couldn’t perform your basic job functions.
As my head exploded from my blood pressure shooting through the roof after reading your most recent half-assed apology letter, my mother tried to get me to relax and not “make waves”. I nearly tore her head off for that remark. Lets make something clear, my life will not come to an end if I have to spend $3,000 to have my benefits reinstated after you terminate them out of incompetence or what should be investigated as a pattern of harassment. I don’t need the disability check! I nearly tore my mother heads off for even entertaining the idea of not standing up for myself.
I have the ability to fight back, and as such it is my duty to stand up to people like you because there are plenty of people out there that can’t stand up for themselves. If I didn’t stand up for myself I would be condoning your behavior. I would be condoning every time you try to bully someone who can’t afford to fight back. I’d be condoning the behavior that could cause a family to be evicted from their home, or children to go hungry. At this point in time the only reason I write is because I have the ability to express my thoughts intelligently and in a moderately eloquent fashion.
I now find myself waiting, yet again, for your next installment of your bullying harassment tactics, where you try to find some B.S. technicality to terminate my benefits. However, mark my words, the day is coming that someone like me will find a way to circumvent the Teflon ERISA shield Goliath cowers behind and hold you accountable. Who knows, one day an Attorney General might recognize that your behavior isn’t to far removed from the extortion perpetrated by organized crime, and charge you under the RICO law.
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
October 20, 2015
Do you Agree with Ben Carson
Dr Ben Carson received criticism for his comments regarding his lack of support for a Muslim holding the office of President of the United States of America when Dr Carson said, “I would have problems with somebody who embraced all the doctrines associated with Islam,” Carson said. “If they are not willing to reject sharia and all the portions of it that are talked about in the Quran — if they are not willing to reject that, and subject that to American values and the Constitution, then of course, I would.”
For exercising his First Amendment right to freedom of speech Dr Carson has been categorized as an Islamophobe, and CAIR, the non profit, has demanded he withdraw his candidacy from the 2016 presidential race. Carson did not bow down to the demand and fought back against care. “The Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR), a U.S. Muslim group, recently demanded that I withdraw as candidate for the 2016 presidential race. By doing so, the organization has brazenly violated IRS rules prohibiting tax-exempt nonprofits like CAIR to intervene in a political campaign on behalf of—or in opposition to—a candidate. Under the Obama administration, the IRS has systematically targeted conservative nonprofit groups for politically motivated audits and harassment. The agency should now properly do its job and punish the real violators of America’s laws and regulations.” Dr Carson is referring to IRS statute 7.25.3.1.1 (02-23-1999)
IRC 501(c)(3) exempts from Federal income tax…and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office.
I signed Dr Carson’s petition to the IRS, and I understand his point view. I will even go so far as to say I even agree with his premise, but not for the reasons he believes in. Before any President assumes control of the country as commander in chief he is required by law (United States Constitution Article II Section 1) to swear an oath of office:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Here’s my issue: Islam has proven to be a theocracy where there is no separation of church and state, which directly conflicts with the intent of the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”. It is no different than the way Catholicism used to be a theocracy when the Vatican ran the show in Europe. Until there is a separation of law, politics and religion in Islam, Islam is in direct conflict with the first ten words of Amendment #1. As a theocracy Islam has established a religion.
If you think I am wrong in my interpretation I’d like to look at a recent Reuters report that came out of Iran, dated October 7th, 2015. I think Iran is the best example to use. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and most other middle eastern countries that have been influenced by western philosophies are diluted versions of Islam, whereas Iran hasn’t been watered down. As reported by Reuters “Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday banned any further negotiations between Iran and the United States, putting the brakes on moderates hoping to end Iran’s isolation after reaching a nuclear deal with world powers in July…His statements directly contradict those of moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.”
So a major clergyman is considered Iran’s Supreme Leader, and is dictating political foreign policy. That is no different than if Italy decided to go back to a day and age where the Pope ruled the country from behind the walls of the Vatican. If you want to argue that electing a Muslim President doesn’t mean you are electing a clergyman I’d like to just theorize one potential scenario. To this day, as far as I know, there isn’t an Ayatollah in the United States, but I can foresee a day when the Muslim community finds and elevates a clergyman. If or when that day arrives would a Muslim President of the United States acquiesce to the mandates of his Ayatollah? I don’t know, but I don’t want to find out. I believe that should a President even be perceived to acquiesce to a religious leader it will be the tipping point to civil unrest that will dwarf the Civil War. I think enough Americans would refer back to a document drafted on July 4th 1776 and take to heart words like “it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” So I agree with Dr Carson’s reluctance to see a Muslim President until the day arrives that, globally, Islam ceases to be a theocracy and simply becomes a religion.
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Goliath Insurance v.s. David the Patient
“I hope you are astonished, as I am, at the lengths a wealthy insurance company will go to take money from a low income family, and then keep it by denying legitimate claims. It’s no wonder they spend so much on their lawyers and PR machine to convince us we need tort reform, that we need to end punitive damages.” – Rudy Baylor. Truer words may never have graced the silver screen.
They say if you don’t have your health you don’t have anything. I haven’t had my health since I had a colectomy at the ripe old age of 22. Since then I have been hospitalized more times than I can count; survived off of a feeding tube; had a drainage tube surgically inserted into my stomach; undergone 5 chemo regimens, with progressive potency; been exposed to enough radiation to light up Las Vegas; had three near death field trips to the Emergency Room; and here’s a picture of where, arguably, the #1 gastrointestinal surgeon in the world tried to alleviate, not solve, my ongoing health problems.
Well at this point I have exhausted all traditional western medical options available to me. I have now moved into the fringes of psuedo science, which is disregarded by the Western Industrial Healthcare Complex because there isn’t a profit in fixing problems, only treating them. I’ve undergone acupuncture, seen chiropractors, done Chinese herds, tried B-17, lemon juice and sodium bicarbonate, enzyme treatments, and I’m getting ready to spend $4,000.00 on CBD oil as soon as I pay down my credit cards. If you can dream it up I’ve tried it, and if I haven’t tried it it’s because I haven’t heard about it yet. Where does this leave me? It leaves me without a solution to my healthcare woes. On top of that I get to go through life in perpetual pain because Cannabis is illegal in Florida, and I can’t take legal pain killers because O.I.C., Opioid Induced Constipation, would exasperate my condition.
Please don’t confuse a statement of FACT with self-victimization. I don’t think God burdens you with any circumstance he doesn’t feel you are capable of overcoming. Actually, I’m thankful for my condition because I believe it has made me a better person, and when I have overcome this minor obstacle I believe it will lead to great things in the future.
So if you’re cool with your situation then why are you so pissed?
Glad you asked. I hate bullies, and for the last 10 years I’ve been harassed by the biggest bully I have ever seen, my disability insurer.
Luckily I was a full time Bank of New York (BoNY) Employee when I got sick, and all of their 55,000 full time employees get disability insurance as a part of their benefits package. So this Insurance company collects premiums for all of BoNY employees, and every so often it has to pay out. I went on short term disability for each of the three near death experiences I had. I didn’t have a choice; I was a hospital inpatient for 7-14 days for all three episodes. Like a good little lemming I killed myself to get back to work so as not to burden my coworkers. Then I went on short term disability a fourth time, but this time I didn’t get off.
After a certain period of time the insurance company moved me to long term disability. Then after another period of time in an attempt to mitigate their financial responsibility they required me to register for social security disability, so that they could get the American taxpayers to subsidizes their fiscal responsibility. Thank those self serving corporate bootlickers we send to that political cesspool, Washington DC, for passing legislation benefiting their corporate overlords and screwing you in the process. Eventually subsidized payments weren’t enough for the insurance giant. I ended up having to find a lawyer to sue my insurance company when they canceled my benefits because they said I was healthy. At no point in time did my condition change, I still suffered from the same problem. The difference was that my oncologist took me off of chemotherapy because it was on the verge of permanently destabilizing my bone marrow, which would have compounded my problems by saddling me with Leukemia as well. Fashion that, a Fortune 100 insurance company beating up on a single cancer patient. Can you say David verses Goliath? Well I sued those heartless parasites and won. That was 2011.
Well now we’re in 2015 and they are back, trying to find a way to skirt by without having to pay out. You see insurance companies have this procedure where they want to reevaluate you every two years, so that they can try to throw you off of disability to reduce their expenses. I presently have an incurable disease, that if I’m lucky, has plateaued. Barring a minor miracle it will never get any better, and will most likely continue to get worse. However, when you have run out of options that are acceptable by Western medicine the system basically leaves you to fend for yourself, hoping you’ll die off quietly. When you get to that point there are no treatments, and insurance companies, like mine, try to use some bass-ackwards logic to kick you to the curb. I’ve seen the best specialists money can buy, but there is no primary doctor that treats or even understands my condition. In fact while I was admitted for 5 days in September for a minor problem the surgeon that came in for a consult told me I was only the second patient with my condition he had seen in his 30 year career. Insurance company logic: you aren’t seeing doctors so you’re healthy.
Here’s the wonderful voicemail I received from my case manager telling me she was suspending my benefits for not submitting the “required documentation”.
http://averagejoesstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/10-13-15-1226-PM-Voicemail-from-19735483400.m4a
My insurance company couldn’t even be bothered to send me these emails directly, they post them to their website and people like me have to go find them. I originally tried opening these documents while I was in the hospital with my cell phone and my kindle, and I couldn’t access their system. I tried doing it with my laptop once I was released and I got a message saying something to the effect of “I couldn’t access the file”. So a month later my case manager sent me this email.
Along with Erin’s little note I got the following letter from my insurance company.
The problem is that I received Erin’s wrongful termination of benefits on October 13th, and had she checked her email on October 8th she would have seen that I sent her 2 emails. One had a 12 meg 18 page PDF file that had those forms she was looking for. The other email had to be sent separately because it had a 20 meg 450 page PDF file that was my complete medical record for the 3 most recent hospitalizations that included one 2 a.m. EMS bus ride.
People like Erin don’t really care about any of the insured patients. We are just a number that needs to go from red to black, and the best way to do it with cases like mine is terminate, terminate, terminate. The unwritten rule is protect the bottom line at all costs. So Erin as an agent representing my insurance company has terminated my benefits, I’d go so far as to say illegally. You look at the complete portrait of my experience with my insurance company and it isn’t as simple as someone not performing their basic job function and checking her email. It’s the methodical bullying and harassment of a Fortune 100 Insurance company against policy holders expecting them to cave under the weight of Goliath’s pressure. I wouldn’t submit the first time, and I’ll be damned if I’ll submit now.
The Law of Big Numbers basically says that with enough repetitions on the same experiment you will come to a certain average with little variation. However, there will always be outliers like me. There’s a price Goliath has to pay to collect premiums for 55,000 employees, statistically they will have outliers that go on disability and never leave. It’s about time we stop retreating. It’s about time we take out our slings, and confront the bullies that would just as soon leaves dead in a ditch. You’re unwillingness to stand up to Goliath will not protect you from his desire to crush you. I’ve sought out legal representation again, and this time I want more than a reinstatement of my benefits. I want the incessant harassment from Goliath the Bully to cease indefinitely. Will you stand strong as Goliath comes to crush you?
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
October 15, 2015
Questioning Reality
Black 9/11: How Cutting-Edge Technology Was Used Against the American People on September 11, 2001 by Mark H. Gaffney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I would probably be considered a conspiracy theorist or truther, but I consider that to be a badge of honor not a derogatory label issued by mainstream pundits. Truthers are essential to society. Just think where we might be if Truthers like Columbus, Galileo or Gary Webb refused to question the status quo. That is an important notion to consider because this book is a look at world events that date back 30 years from September 11th that no one talks about.
I have personally questioned the truth about what happened on that fateful day ever since a friend of mine asked me to look at video of WTC-7 collapsing at free fall speed back in 2010. Applying basic logic to what happened to that structure forced me to question what I used to believe was reality.
I have not personally done any true sleuthing for say, but the author of this book has, and includes extensive end notes for each chapter. The writing level makes the book a very easy read. The author does a good job of writing about the complete scope of events that transpired, dating back 30 years, in a fairly chronological fashion. Every chapter of the book could in and of itself serve as a standalone white paper that challenges the official account of the events of September 11th. When these would be white papers are collected and presented together they present a case that should, at the very least, create reasonable doubt as to the validity of the mainstream’s September 11th narrative.
This book doesn’t give anyone the answer to the whole truth of what happened that day, but I think it provides enough circumstantial evidence for a rational person to demand an unhindered investigation by an unbiased independent third party, whose only goal is to find all guilty parties and hold them accountable.
There is an old adage that says history is nothing more than an a presentation of events from the perspective of the winner. I think it’s safe to say there would have been a significantly different historical record had the United States failed in its revolution, the southern States won the American Civil War, or had Hitler been victorious over the allies. I think that if there was a unhindered investigation by an unbiased independent third party, for the events of September 11th, there would be a very different narrative as well. I highly recommend everyone read this book with an open mind to see if you agree with the current narrative of September 11th or if you think there is enough reason for an unhindered investigation by an unbiased independent third party.
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
October 13, 2015
Wondering why we are still looking for a #Cure
There are very few periods of the year I flat out hate, but the month of October is one of them. Considering October is when the Florida summer begins to dissipate it should be my favorite time of the year. As a cancer patient I should love the month of October because it is dedicated to raising awareness and money for breast cancer; just think pink because it is everywhere you look. However, I hate October because it’s 31 days dedicated to medical fraud.
Here’s some information the Tampa Bay Times provided based on 2014 tax filing to compile its list of America’s 50 worst charities. I’d like to thank the Tampa Bay Times for doing the heavy lifting. In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month I extracted and complied the cancer related charity information from this list. 8 cancer specific charities were listed having raised $299.6 million. Those 8 charities paid their solicitors a grand total of $215.6 million, or 71.96% of the money hard working men and women like you and I donated.
Charity
Raised
Solicitors
Spent on Direct Cash Aid
Cancer Fund of America
86.8
75.4
1.0%
Breast Cancer Relief Foundation
63.9
44.8
2.2%
Children’s Cancer Fund of America
43.7
34.4
4.6%
Children’s Cancer Recovery Foundation
38.5
28.9
0.7%
National Cancer Coalition
42.1
16.4
1.3%
United Breast Cancer Foundation
12.7
7.2
6.3%
Children’s Leukemia Research Association
9.8
6.8
11.1%
Hope Cancer Fund
2.1
1.7
0.5%
$ in Millions
299.6
215.6
% Paid to Solicitors
71.96
Charities like these will do or say whatever it takes to justify these numbers, but the God’s honest truth is that cancer is nothing more than a payday to them. How can they justify these numbers when organizations like the Ronald McDonald House spend between 60 and 65% of money raised directly on those people that the money is intended for. To be perfectly frank if 51% of the cash that is raised is not spent directly on the people that it’s raised for you shouldn’t even be permitted to be classified as non profit or a charity.
Looking at these numbers you should first be disgusted, but shortly thereafter you should be asking questions. Is it really surprising that we have yet to find a cure to cancer? Why are holistic approaches to cancer treatment so vigorously attacked by the mainstream? Is it because holistic approaches are quackery like the establishment would have us believe, or is it because they represent the greatest threat to a cash cow that profits, in the billions annually, on the death and misery of millions of people globally?
The sad part is that this is just a snap shot of philanthropic organizations that are really supposed to care about patients; this isn’t an all encompassing list. This doesn’t take into consideration the billions of dollars that pharmaceutical companies make off of chemotherapy because the FDA as well as other government and industry regulators vehemently protect the holy trinity of Chemotherapy, Radiation and Surgery.
As a cancer patient I try to vote with my dollars, and if we truly want to find a cure to cancer, or effect any change in society it requires that more people wake up to this notion. If you genuinely want to find a cure then I challenge you to vote with your wallet. If you want to find a cure I challenge you, for the month of October, to refuse to give one single red cent to any company that supports a cancer philanthropy that gives less than 51% of their funds raised directly to those for whom the money is intended to support. I challenge you to stop donating, entirely, to charities that give less than 51% of raised funds directly to those for whom the money is intended, indefinitely. Those are tough things to do because it requires you and I to due some due diligence and research before we support. However, if we don’t vote with our dollars we’re telling organizations that it’s okay; we don’t care if you never find a cure, or continue to profit off of the misery of others. If we aren’t willing to vote with our dollars we can no longer ask why haven’t we found a cure. Cancer is big business and until we make it perfectly clear that finding a cure is a non profit business we will never find a cure.
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
October 8, 2015
Journalism or Infotainment
(The subject matter might be sports, but sports journalism is a subset of journalism as a whole.)
I was listening to some ESPN analysts talk about why some football TV personalities have such short careers. The analyst basically said that the only on air talent discussing the NFL seems to be personalities who were somehow attached to the league (players, coaches, executives, etc). Their point was it doesn’t matter if the on air talent’s comments were accurate or insightful, if he or she wasn’t a part of the league they weren’t respected and their input was discounted.
I laughed off this notion that being a part of the professional football community was a prerequisite to being a successful football commentator, until I watched an ESPN college football segment recently. A moderator managed a discussion of college football current events. The experts were Jason Sehorn, a retired professional football player who played college football at the University of Southern California, and Elika Sadeghi, who has an impressive professional career that lacks any semblance of collegiate athletic experience. One of the subjects discussed was whether or not college football players should be paid. Elika pushed the position of how unfair it is that college football profits off of the hard work of college football players and the players don’t get to partake in profit sharing as “employees”.
Jason, whom I usually don’t agree with, showed how uninformed Elika appears to be on this subject. Jason spoke about how complex the subject of paying collegiate athletes is, and why he disagrees with paying football players. He acknowledged that the NCAA does profit off of the work of college players, but Jason then elaborated on details that Elika is either ignorant to, or unwilling to recognize because they conflict with her narrative. Here are some of Jason’s points:
The profits generated from college football are used by the institutions to improve facilities that are used by all student athletes.
Most of the 20-40 other sports teams that represent a university are subsidized by revenues from college football. That includes women’s sports programs that are legally required to be provided to promote gender equality in college athletics. If college football didn’t subsidize these programs the collegiate athletic model would most likely implode.
If you pay college football players then you will have to provide equal compensation to all athletes.
Not all programs produce a profit so by setting up a payment system you would be creating a truly elitist system where you create a broadening gap of haves and have nots.
College football players are compensated with an education that they will have for the rest of their lives, an opportunity they never would have had if they couldn’t play football. Admission requirements (SAT/ACT scores, GPA, etc) are overlooked permitting athletes to attend academic institutions they never would have been considered for, as well as giving them priority over vastly more qualified students. Scholarship athletes leave school with next to no debt where the average student will have anywhere between $20,000 to over $100,000 debt. To accommodate their training schedule college athletes are given preference over all other collegiate students for course selection.
There were also some points that Jason didn’t bring up:
In the case of prospects who realistically have a shot at a professional career after college insurance policies are taken out for student athletes should they get injured. These policies don’t compensate nearly as much as a full professional career might, but they can provide a nest egg that rivals the lifetime career earnings of a mid level executive.
College football opens up a world of opportunities to participants that most outsiders will never be considered for, making it one of the most unique, undervalued and prestigious apprenticeships a person can get. Once upon a time a period of apprenticeship was required for most trades, and in fact the quality of work was significantly better when apprenticeships were more prevalent. Football players are required to interact with the media, that gives them exposure to being on camera as a TV personality. If you wanted a similar opportunity you would be paying at minimum $20,000, and there is no guarantee you would ever get actual real world exposure. Football players receive the best nutritional, fitness and medical services, services only given to student athletes. If a football player is a true student of the game he becomes a coach on the field. So here are a few doors that are opened by the experience gained from the college football apprenticeship: media personality, nutrition/fitness expert, sports medicine, football coaching, football operations, player management/representation, speaker/author, and professional athletics.
Are there others that profit from the hard work that is put in by college football players? YES! However, if college football players truly embrace all of the opportunities afforded to them their return on sweat equity is just compensation.
So my problem with Elika expressing her point of view on this subject is that she is either ignorant on the subject matter, or deliberately misrepresenting the whole truth. In the first instance Elika has validated the analyst’s opinion as to why on air talent lacking experience in professional football falls short in the eyes of audiences, thus in the long run failing compared to on air talent with experience. However, in today’s infotainment media environment we can’t discount the fact that Elika could be omitting and/or misrepresenting facts she knows to be true to push a point of view for personal reasons.
If you want to look at college football as a microcosm of the world at large there are several parallels we can pull from this debate. Elika based on her professional background and her demands to pay college football players you would assume to be a capitalist, but part of her demands lead me to believe she is actually expressing left/socialist based beliefs. It’s not fair! These football players need to be compensated equally compared to the system. The funny thing is that as it stands the NCAA is the epitome of a fair socialist system. A class of people determine how the system works. Another class of people create the vast majority of wealth for the system, and the governing body then determines how the wealth is distributed to ensure everyone in the system is treated with relative equality.
If Elika wanted to express capitalist values for an open market for college football players she shouldn’t have been preaching socialism. Every one of these college athletes is permitted to forego college football. His alternative is to pay $10,000 to $50,000 a year for three years for the appropriate training required to have the opportunity to try out for an NFL franchise,when the NFL’s guidelines permit him to do so. Another alternative is to join a sub professional football league for three years and hope to make it to the NFL after the fact. Both of these options give a football player the ability to get market value for any work they do, but they are required to absorb the full cost of life (housing, food, training expense, etc). The fact is the rewards of college football exceeds the costs if the athlete is motivated to take complete advantage of his opportunity. College football might even take a brief dump in quality in the short term if athletes chose one of these two alternatives, but in the long run when they work harder with less benefits and upside outside of the college football system I think this discussion would be tabled once and for all.
I’d like to thank Jason and Elika for having this conversation because it’s a great representation of modern journalism, and it leads us to ask questions. Is this journalism or infotainment? Are the people on the TV screen or blaring over the radio waves even qualified to offer us opinions? What are your motivations, pushing your agenda or informing the public?
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
October 6, 2015
Good Riddance to Johny the Hypocrite
The Pope has achieved the first of three miracles required for Sainthood. Pope Francis found himself speaking in front of a joint session of Congress, and less than twenty four hours later John Boehner decides to retire from Congress by October 2015. Hallelujah we have exercised the demons.
In all seriousness John Boehner decided to step down in the “best interests” of his party, but not before he took parting shots at his fellow Republicans. Boehner warned of “false prophets … spreading noise about how much can get done.” Good riddance to bad rubbish Johny The Hypocrite. You made a great number number of promises to the American people and your colleagues in Congress, and you have proven to be nothing but smoke and mirrors. Here are just a few of the many points of contention brought up by a fellow Congressman:
Fighting Obama’s executive amnesty orders tooth and nail, but allowing the CRomnibus bill to proceed with it still being funded.
Every debt ceiling increase would be paired with a spending cut, but that has not happened.
Members would have time to properly read bills, then allowing only a three day period (1,000 pages in three days…really).
A regular order of bills through committees, but bills keep coming to the floor without following that process.
Like a first rate coward you hid behind a defense that you did what you had to do to get things done. Johny The Hypocrite your job isn’t to go along to get along, your job is to represent the will of the People. It really doesn’t matter if the Usurper in Chief vetoes every piece of legislation that hits his desk, Mitch McConnell shields the Usurper in Chief just like Harry Reid did, or you have to fight with Congress to get legislation past. Our system of government was designed to be difficult 239 years ago by the founding fathers to protect the People from a burdensome bureaucratic leviathan, which it has become.
The Usurper in Chief has more than encroached on the line of separation of powers, he blatantly violates it and you do nothing. He repeatedly attempts to strong arm through unconstitutional legislation and you refuse to rock the boat. No Johny The Hypocrite your party members are not false prophets, you sir are a wolf in sheep’s clothing. You’re a K Street sellout who’s willing to stab the People in the back to maintain the status quo of corporate feudalism in exchange for a house in Florida. Let me ask you this Judas. Are you really retiring for the good of your party, or now that you have been confronted by God’s “highest” representative on earth has the weight of your 13 pieces of silver become a burden too great to bear?
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
October 1, 2015
Most Important Point from Scott Pelley’s Interview with Trump
I’d like to thank Scott Pelley for giving Donald Trump the opportunity to answer a question on how you bring jobs back to the United States. Other than that I think Scott was absolutely worthless. His agenda appeared to be bully the interviewee to illicit an emotional response. If you watched the 60 Minutes interview you would have seen Scott fire off questions like a machine gun, cutting Trump off mid sentence as he was trying to complete his answer. Perhaps he was trying to display his dominance by manhandling the interview. Personally, I think Scott’s behavior was classless modern infotainment not journalism; create a self-serving story line to boost ratings even if it generates a false narrative. In this case, in my opinion, the false narrative Scott was creating was “Trump is a maverick lacking the suitable emotional demeanor to be President”. Thankfully Trump maintained the rational even keel one would expect from a billionaire entrepreneur.
During Scott’s interview Trump showed that he is a rational businessman, and the theatrics on display at debates may be those of a brilliant strategist playing to the crowd. However, I wish that the rational businessman had provided more substance to his talking points, and elaborated on the details of things like financing his wall and the breakdown of his tax plan. At this point I don’t agree with Trump’s tax plan, mainly because I don’t know how it works. I wouldn’t try to come up with a new plan, I would employ an amended version of the fair tax model (a flat income tax with waivers for low income families, a lowered corporate tax rate to incentivize profit repatriation, elimination of the current tax code and its 10 billion tax loopholes and corporate incentives, the abolition of the IRS with the United States Treasury assuming revenue collection duties, and a shrinkage of the bloated federal government to balance the budget).
Even though I would have preferred a little more meat with my potatoes, Trump gave the one answer that makes him the only candidate that anyone who is unemployed or underemployed should vote for. How do you pay for all these plans Mr Trump? By bringing jobs back to America, and making America great again. Well how do you bring jobs back to America?
The answer to bringing jobs back to America, and whether or not a politician follows through with the actions required to answer that question, is the most important issue in American politics today. On this issue Trump is the ONLY candidate who is serious about bringing jobs back to America. In my last blog post I touched on globalism’s origins, and how it led to job flight in America. I didn’t talk about how industrial espionage can compound the job flight problem by permitting foreign corporations to steal proprietary information to produce and market a comparable product. For example when GE outsourced their manufacturing processes to countries with cheap labor and lax government oversight GE opened Pandora’s Box. GE’s foreign manufactures were then able to clone the products they were providing to GE, and sell their identical cloned products in the open market at a discount, thus undercutting GE and other name brands whom they manufactured products for. So besides losing middle class jobs to foreign countries we have actually lost entire industries, and this trend will continue until we stop outsourcing.
We break NAFTA because we don’t need free trade; we need fair trade. That is the underlying core of Trump’s answer to bringing jobs back to America. Scott being a confrontational corporate mouth piece, not an expert in international law, interrupted with “You can’t do that because it’s against the law. You’re going to break international law?” The majority of voters, who breeze over subjects like international business and politics, need to take the time to listen and research subjects like this. NAFTA and other free trade agreements like it are portrayed as great achievements making international business easier and better for consumers.
You can now get an 80 inch TV for under $2,000.00, and five years ago that same TV would have cost $15,000.00. Isn’t free trade great? What no one tells you is that the only winners in free trade agreements are multinational corporations. Free Trade Agreements permit multinationals to exploit developing countries until those countries become too expensive, and then, like locust, the multinationals move on to the next victim of their predatory practices. That’s why the chronological history of manufacturing labels in America looks something like this: made in America, made in Japan, made in Taiwan, made in Korea, made in China. When China becomes too costly we’ll see the move to India, Vietnam or some other country where corporations can get away with sub standard wages, working conditions, and regulations.
But it doesn’t really matter because you won’t be able to afford that $2,000.00 TV anyway. With the implementation of socialist policies, like a mandated minimum wage spike and healthcare regulations designed to enrich insurance giants, the job supply in this country will continue to plummet as the free market tries to fight back against crony capitalism and corporate feudalism. Companies will downsize in a ratio that brings the cost of labor in line with their industry; think automated customer checkout in retail locations with one employee to supervise multiple lines instead of multiple checkout clerks. The clerks that remain will go from full-time to part-time to side step the employer healthcare mandates, and if you don’t like it too bad because the demand for work far exceeds job supply. There is someone that is waiting in line to take your job. You can’t even afford that 80 inch TV that Globalism is trying to sell you.
So if you are unemployed or underemployed and desperate to feed your family you should be voting for someone that is willing to fight the Globalists. If you think it’s terrible the way those companies exploit people by paying them $5 a day in sweatshop conditions you should be voting for someone that is willing to fight the Globalists. If companies that skirt by environmental regulations to destroy the planet infuriate you, then you should be voting for someone that is willing to fight the Globalists.
I don’t think Trump is perfect, but he is the ONLY candidate who has openly said I’m going to fight the Globalists!
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
September 29, 2015
Real Answers in a Presidential Election Cycle NOT Just Talking Points
I was watching CNN’s coverage of the presidential debate while I was stuck in the hospital, yet again. I watched as a moderator, who had zero control over the panel of candidates, seemed to be more interested in instigating conflict between party members jockeying for the GOP’s nomination than finding answers to serious questions that need to be answered, all for the sake of infotainment and ratings. There were a few candidates who defused the moderator’s attempts at GOP cannibalization by pointing out who the real adversary is, but in a desperate attempt to stand out from the crowd most candidates took the cheap shots.
However, if you managed to get past hyena pack feeding frenzy induced by the moderator you would have seen that there was eleven great politicians who who gave superficial talking points with no real substance. Considering no one on stage wanted to answer the questions, are oblivious to the public’s life circumstances, or are desperately trying to conceal their true beliefs from voters I’m going to take some of my favorites and rebut them if I had the opportunity to speak to twenty three million people. (Please excuse the quotes. I didn’t take notes so I don’t know what was said verbatim.)
Medical Marijuana:
“If I’m elected president I’m going to enforce the federal laws outlawing marijuana. It’s a gateway drug and we need to protect the American people.” Well Governor Christie as an American who has lived in chronic pain for over ten years I can tell you that we have a long list of legal gateway drugs that have a stronger correlation to heroin and cocaine use than marijuana: morphine, dilaudid, oxycontin, demoral, need I go on. All of the drugs that are currently used for pain management by mainstream medicine have significantly greater negative effects and are vastly more addictive than marijuana. Not to mention that the FDA does everything within it’s power to obscure the other possible health benefits of cannabis, things like killing cancer cells, helping with stress, and alleviating seizures. Does this have anything to do with the fact that if cannabis were to become socially accepted it would have dire consequences to the bottom line of Big Pharma, and the, increasingly for profit, corporate penal system? Besides clouding reality to protect corporate interests lets not forget a document that all of you career politicians in Washington only like to acknowledge when it suits your interests called the Constitution. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” In case you forgot that is the tenth amendment. Nowhere in the constitution did I see a clause giving the federal government the authority to create a federal agency to usurp the States’ right to manage themselves. So by doing so Mr Christie as President you would be in violation of your primary sworn duty to uphold and defend the constitution. Is this really a question of morality or money?
Rebuilding the Military:
“When I’m elected president I’m going to open new bases, rebuild the sixth fleet, increase the troop counts in all branches of service, and protect veterans’ benefits.” I like that idea Mrs Fiorina, but before you do that I have a few questions for you. The United States’ expenditure with the Military Industrial Complex is greater than the sum total of the next fifteen nations in the world. With that kind of expenditure why do you need to invest more financial resources into the military? Based on that number alone it would lead any rational human being to believe that there is no need to invest more money into the Military Industrial Complex, but rather the defense industry should be investigated for mismanagement, redundancy, negligence, and fraud. As for bases. Did you know that the United States has between 700 and 900 military installations across the globe? Why do we need more military installations? In fact I would go so far as to say a comprehensive inventory of what currently exists should be performed and a significant reduction of facilities is in order. That’s the equivalent of having six military facilities in every one of the 130 or so countries we have a military footprint. I’m all for a strong military, but I think it’s about time the Department of Defense does some serious Spring cleaning to justify and account for the apparent fiscal black hole it suffers from.
Jobs:
“What do you think of Mrs Fiorina’s 30,000 layoffs at HP, or Mr Trump’s four corporate bankruptcies and lobbying practices?” Well Mr Moderator I think you need to take the full picture into perspective. First if politicians didn’t sign globalist deals, which provide the technicalities and loopholes for major international corporations to profit through plunder then we wouldn’t have this problem. Over time the corrupt practices of unions and the decline in the American work ethic led major manufacturers to pursue jobs abroad in countries where there was over supply of human capital that could be exploited at a discount. Another fringe benefit that was discovered is most developing countries have less stringent protection laws so the cost of production is decreased further. Lastly when you apply creative corporate structuring that enables major corporations to manipulate profits and losses to reduce their global tax responsibility it’s no wonder that companies like GE, FORD, GM, and anyone else who can go global does, at the expense of the domestic workforce. If you want to rebuild the middle class in this country you can’t do it by imposing a $15 minimum wage. If you want to resurrect the middle class in America you need to stop creating trade deals like NAFTA, SAFTA, and GAFTA that only serve corporate profit margins and bloated C-Suite financial incentive packages. Dump all global trade partnerships, impose tariffs on all foreign products and services, penalize corporations hiding profits abroad for tax minimization (tax evasion), and create an environment where consumption of domestically produced products is preferable. However, you can’t get mad at someone for doing his or her job. As senior executives of private corporations Fiorina and Trump are tasked with a fiduciary duty of exploiting every financial technicality available to them. If you don’t like it stop signing into law bad deals for the American people. Crony capitalism simply exploited the greed and self serving nature of politicians to create modern Corporate Feudalism. All hail King George!
Plenty of meat was left on the table. What we got from this debate was a bunch of self promoting blowhards who were spitting out canned talking points. At no point was there anything that seemed like a leader who was willing to take the calculated risk of speaking the truth and answering the hard questions, but what if they did? What if CNN was actually interested in helping America find the next great leader it so desperately needs, and not competing with Wednesday night’s prime time line up? What if?
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
September 24, 2015
Is this the Next Class Action Gold Rush
First it was tobacco, then pharmaceutical giants and financial institutions. Inevitably when people have suffered, an army of ambulance chasers appear to save the day, at a price of 30% plus expenses from whatever a plaintiff receives. Mind you I wouldn’t be bitter about attorney’s fleecing their clients to line their pockets at the expense of society’s pain if I thought they actually cared about their clients.
Perusing through my email and social media this week I found the next goldmine of class action suits for the legal community. I would begin with the site that informed me that someone was looking for me. You see this site has collected and consolidated all of my public personal information it could, and posted My Life online in one place for the convenience of identity thieves everywhere. They were so kind as to provide this service for every American over the age of 18.
After the shock set in I tried to delete my page in hopes of protecting my data. I came to find out that this site, that posts My Life for all the world to see, makes it’s money through extortion. The only way that you can conceal or delete your personal information from prying eyes, on a page you never created, is to become a paid premium member. To instill a sense of urgency in becoming a paid premium member this site openly threatens you, regularly, with statements like “we’ve detected a new threat to your online identity”, “8 new people viewed your info”, and “someone may have viewed your background report”.
I’m a cancer patient on disability with a limited fixed income. Extortion payments to protect my identity isn’t a luxury I’m capable of affording. I wouldn’t be surprised when someone’s identity is stolen as a direct result of the parasites that posted My Life online for all the world to see, and the website and others like it are inundated with class action lawsuits because of it.
In a digital age when a person’s life can be stolen or destroyed with a series of key strokes I’m actually looking forward to when the legal community wakes up to the goldmine that exists in attacking cyber companies that peddle in personal information.
© Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Christopher L. Hedges and AverageJoesStory.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
