Clarence Thomas Woke Up After 10 Years

After 10 years of silence, Justice Thomas asks multiple questions, read all about it here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-02-29/thomas-breaks-10-year-silence-asks-questions-at-u-s-high-court

Republican debate

So, I didn't watch this, but have been seeing clips of it. Wow. The back and forth of that was mind blowing. Is that truly what Republicans think is presidential looking? The post debate slams on each other the day after were even more ridiculous where in they were talking smack about what each candidate was doing during the TV breaks. Can't see that getting any better. Is that really all Republicans care about? Who is the best shit talker? I'm starting to really think so.

Warren Buffett On America's Future

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-27/buffett-says-politicians-dead-wrong-with-negative-u-s-outlook

Gotta say, I agree

So the NY Times op ed group has written a piece telling Hillary to release transcripts. I'll let it speak for itself, I fully agree http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/opinion/mrs-clinton-show-voters-those-transcripts.html?_r=0

Max and I will agree on this

So like, now I'm a socialist/REVISED

Rest in Peace Robert LaVoy Finicum, FREEDOM FIGHTER

https://www.facebook.com/JohnH.BundyIII/videos/vb.100009473951940/1566767213649062/?type=2&theater

Our government has fully funded Planned Parenthood

https://www.facebook.com/liveaction/

Second Trimester

Please watch the video until the end

GREAT NEWS: Ohio has defunded Planned Parenthood!
Gov. John Kasich signed legislation Sunday that would shift the abortion giant's public subsidies to comprehensive health care clinics, making the state the 10th in the nation to take action against Planned Parenthood's public funding.

Interesting article

http://observer.com/2016/02/harry-reid-rushed-home-to-nevada-to-help-rig-caucus-results-for-clinton/   Found this today. I hate to be a conspiracy type, but based on what I saw, it's not hard to believe what this article is saying. The DNC is in the tank for Hillary.

Book review

So, on the advice of my new medical director, I read another book from Atul Gawande. This one was called, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters Most in the End. It is a very good book and should provoke anyone reading it several times. It does overlap with my new gig, which will be in palliative care and of course that means it also crosses with hospice care. Still, that is not really the main thrust of the work. In the business world, fads come and go. We've all seen them. How to talk to customers, How to gain customers trust and on and on. From day one of my new career as a nurse, I've been annoyed at that presence in medicine. And for ten years, I've sat through a lot of truly boring and useless customer service trainings. These trainings had nothing to do with improving patient care, but taught us how to kiss ass so that we used buzz words in our dialogues with families in order to get them to fill out a survey that would make us look good t Medicare. Unfortunately, we are still in that mindset.

Gawande highlights what has been an ages long problem, which is that as seniors age and lose physical ability and independence, we basically punish them in the name of safety. Letting them keep more independence inevitably will lead to more incidence of falls and increased risk for injury. BUT, it also helps seniors maintain a sense of humanity and happiness. He highlights several pioneers who created REAL, GENUINE assisted living wherein seniors had their own room, a lock on the door, ability to cook and freedom to go to bed whenever they want and get up whenever they want. These homes had stunningly good results of providing a way for seniors to maintain as much independence for as long as possible, and predictably, they look nothing like a nursing home when you get in them. As mentioned though, with that increased freedom comes some increased risk, and falls and injuries do happen, and families struggle with this. They know their parents are miserable without independence, but the children want what makes THEM feel safer and hence, they begin trading their parents freedom for safety to the point that their parents are basically strapped into a wheelchair unable to do anything they love. Despite the proof these homes achieved the goal of providing autonomy, the financers and fucking wall street types completely perverted the idea to where it is now basically just a rip off of a name that has little to no connection to the original idea. But it makes money.

But, he also talks about, again, the difficulty doctors have with 1) leveling with people and 2) taking time to figure out what is important to the patient. We ass kiss a plenty these days, and we makes the facilities "pop" and look all modern so that when families walk in, they say, "Oh, this looks so nice", and that's the point. It's bout the family, and not the patient. He goes back to a framework several times that he said was painstaking for him to learn, but I hope this will be the foundation of what I do as an NP. What is your understanding of the situation and it's potential outcomes? What are your fears, what are your hopes? What are your trade offs you are willing to make and not willing to make? What is the course of action that best serves this understanding? Midway through the book, he starts to transition to focusing on how these questions affected him and his family and several patients he cared for. It does cover things I've kinda preached about here before, but goes further. Right now, for the boomer generation, I believe we are woefully unprepared to take care of the aging and passing of this generation. It's one thing to hate Obamacare, but I think all of you in that boomer demo should give this book a look to shape your thinking on what you want your future to look like. Believe me, not a single candidate in the running is addressing anything talked about in this book. 

News Of The Day

Donald Trump told the crowd at his rally that he would like to punch a heckler in the face. He was laughing as he said it and the crowd laughed along with him, it was obviously a joke. But, it was the number one political item in today's news. So, what chance do the other candidates have to make the news, when Trump dominates every channel with a dumb joke? I will answer my question. They have none.

Cruz Fires His Communications Director

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said Monday he’s fired campaign communications director Rick Tyler, after his top spokesman promoted a video that wrongly depicted Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as trash-talking the Bible. 

The Texas senator announced that he's asked for the resignation at a press conference Monday afternoon.

“We are not a campaign that is going to question the faith of another candidate. Even if it was true, our campaign should not have sent it. That’s why I’ve asked for Rick Tyler’s resignation,” Cruz said. “The standards of conduct in this campaign have been made absolutely clear.”

Pretty neat website

   Isidewith.com.

Take the quiz and study the answers. Some will be very surprised where America stands especially  our conservative friends.

I took the quiz,

I side with Bernie Sanders on most 2016 Presidential Election issues

Candidates you side with...

92%

Bernie Sanders  ^Democratic

on economic, foreign policy, social, domestic policy, immigration, environmental, healthcare, education, electoral, criminal, and science issues.

91%

Jill Stein  ^Green

on economic, foreign policy, domestic policy, social, environmental, immigration, healthcare, education, electoral, criminal, and science issues.

84%

Hillary Clinton  ^Democratic

on economic, social, immigration, environmental, healthcare, science, electoral, and criminal issues.

79%

Michael Bloomberg  ^Independent

on foreign policy, domestic policy, social, environmental, healthcare, and criminal issues.

53%

Jeb Bush  ^Republican

on immigration and science issues.

53%

Chris Christie  ^Republican

on environmental and criminal issues.

52%

Donald Trump  ^Republican

on foreign policy issues.

52%

John Kasich  ^Republican

on healthcare, science, and criminal issues.

43%

Ben Carson  ^Republican

on science issues.

41%

Marco Rubio  ^Republican

on science issues.

37%

Gary Johnson  ^Libertarian

no major issues.

34%

Ted Cruz  ^Republican

on science issues.

Scratching my head on a Sunday morning

So, after going to the caucuses yesterday and listening to the candidates give their spin on Meet the Press, the political world looks a little surreal, as if it didn't already. From the pool establishment Democrats endorsing Hillary, and indeed from several Hillary supporters yesterday, I have heard something along these lines, "We love Bernie and agree with his ideas" "Bernie is an honest guy who has been fighting for the same stuff his entire life". Yet, they support Hillary, and they support her because they believe she can get elected, which is essentially saying, "It's okay to give up your values if it wins you an election." I'm not here to trash Hillary, but there is no doubt, she has had to "evolve" on damn near every issue to claim she is where Bernie has been for 50 odd years. She is not a strong candidate to me, but something she does have is an ability to fight tooth and nail with Republicans. Not that she has the best message, but is deemed a better fighter.

On the other side, after watching Trump talk today, I feel like I see him already tacking toward the middle. The people who support him right now, seemingly, will not be swayed by anything from giving that support up. Nicole Wallace yesterday made what I think is a dead on analogy, she described people as seeing Trump as chemotherapy for the Republican party. He may kill a bunch of healthy cells with spouting outlandish crap, but he will also kill what they believe is a cancer within the party. Today, he said several things that again, not a single other Republican will acknowledge. Regarding Planned Parenthood, he acknowledged that they have done an enormous amount of good for women. He threw in an anti-abortion plug, but he is not embracing the unquestionable dogma that PP does nothing but perform abortions. Second, they played a clip from a Howard Stern interview after the W invasion of Iraq and Trump said, hesitantly, "Well I guess they did the right thing, but they should have done the right thing the first time around." After that clip he stated pretty convincingly, "You know, in hindsight, what Senior did was probably the exact right thing. He went there with a mission, accomplished it, and got out. In hindsight, that was probably the better approach" On healthcare, he said that people who could not afford insurance needed to be covered, which is still better than what we had before, possibly. He hit on something I agree with completely, "Obama got boxed in by the insurance companies". Insurance companies, IMO, kept their little protected market places, and without full ability to buy insurance from a company based in any state, there is no competition.

My head tells me that Hillary is going to win because she is going to carry the majority of voters over 50 and her Wall Street blood money is going to keep ads running for her. Trump and Hillary, to me, are two very flawed candidates, but as Trump keeps tacking back toward the middle, which will be natural because he is not a true conservative, he could snag the independents who are clearly not giving their vote to Hillary right now. I'm not sure Democrats should be so confident right now they thump Trump, especially when he moves toward the center for the general.

Ted Cruz Look Alike

Caucusing Sucks

So, I did my duty today and went and caucused for Bernie Sanders. It was a really unpleasant experience. We got to the caucus site at about 10:30 AM.


We seemed to get their just in time because by the time we got past the first set of doors to line up for registration check, the line behind us had really grown. I'm not sure if this is the norm or not, but they condensed at least 5 precincts to this one site. There were signs pointing to registration, but there really wasn't anybody around saying what the different lines were for. Turns out they had TWO people to check in all existing voters. Then they had another table that was just for people registering that day, who were allowed to bypass the Charlie Foxtrot that everyone else stood in. Here is a shot of line after we got through registration, on the other side of that wall was a very, very long line and we were later told that people got turned away.

So we first got sent to a small room that ultimately was too small for our group. After getting there at 10:30, it took about 45 minutes to get through the registration and we sat in this room for probably half an hour before they decided to move us a bigger room. Here's the first room, that's me.

Finally, we got in our caucus room and waited for a long time. There weren't many undecideds, but the precinct captains did not really do a solid job and stamping out discussion prior to the vote. The snipping between both groups of supporters was pretty unpleasant, one woman for Hillary was particularly attacking. Ultimately, there were 102 people in the room, and the split went 54-48 in Hillary's favor. So, out of 15 Delegates, she gets 8 Bernie got 7. Good enough for me. I was glad I went I guess, but I think this process is bullshit. They were way understaffed, the back and forth was not helpful, and everybody was a little angry and hungry by the end of it cause it went until 1:30. Here is a shot from the final room with my wife hiding behind my shoulder.

Ironically, Hillary supporters to me sounded kinda like Republicans, IE don't want taxes going up, don't want to pay for alleged "free shit" and so on, but they damn sure want to make sure they get theirs. I hope Nevada becomes a primary state, I'm not sure I would do this again.

Apple's Case

February 16, 2016 A Message to Our Customers

The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand. 

This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.

The Need for Encryption

Smartphones, led by iPhone, have become an essential part of our lives. People use them to store an incredible amount of personal information, from our private conversations to our photos, our music, our notes, our calendars and contacts, our financial information and health data, even where we have been and where we are going.
All that information needs to be protected from hackers and criminals who want to access it, steal it, and use it without our knowledge or permission. Customers expect Apple and other technology companies to do everything in our power to protect their personal information, and at Apple we are deeply committed to safeguarding their data.
Compromising the security of our personal information can ultimately put our personal safety at risk. That is why encryption has become so important to all of us.
For many years, we have used encryption to protect our customers’ personal data because we believe it’s the only way to keep their information safe. We have even put that data out of our own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none of our business.

The San Bernardino Case

We were shocked and outraged by the deadly act of terrorism in San Bernardino last December. We mourn the loss of life and want justice for all those whose lives were affected. The FBI asked us for help in the days following the attack, and we have worked hard to support the government’s efforts to solve this horrible crime. We have no sympathy for terrorists.
When the FBI has requested data that’s in our possession, we have provided it. Apple complies with valid subpoenas and search warrants, as we have in the San Bernardino case. We have also made Apple engineers available to advise the FBI, and we’ve offered our best ideas on a number of investigative options at their disposal.
We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good. Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.
Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.
The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.

The Threat to Data Security

Some would argue that building a backdoor for just one iPhone is a simple, clean-cut solution. But it ignores both the basics of digital security and the significance of what the government is demanding in this case.
In today’s digital world, the “key” to an encrypted system is a piece of information that unlocks the data, and it is only as secure as the protections around it. Once the information is known, or a way to bypass the code is revealed, the encryption can be defeated by anyone with that knowledge.
The government suggests this tool could only be used once, on one phone. But that’s simply not true. Once created, the technique could be used over and over again, on any number of devices. In the physical world, it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks — from restaurants and banks to stores and homes. No reasonable person would find that acceptable.
The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers — including tens of millions of American citizens — from sophisticated hackers and cybercriminals. The same engineers who built strong encryption into the iPhone to protect our users would, ironically, be ordered to weaken those protections and make our users less safe.
We can find no precedent for an American company being forced to expose its customers to a greater risk of attack. For years, cryptologists and national security experts have been warning against weakening encryption. Doing so would hurt only the well-meaning and law-abiding citizens who rely on companies like Apple to protect their data. Criminals and bad actors will still encrypt, using tools that are readily available to them.

A Dangerous Precedent

Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.
The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.
The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.
Opposing this order is not something we take lightly. We feel we must speak up in the face of what we see as an overreach by the U.S. government.
We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect for American democracy and a love of our country. We believe it would be in the best interest of everyone to step back and consider the implications.
While we believe the FBI’s intentions are good, it would be wrong for the government to force us to build a backdoor into our products. And ultimately, we fear that this demand would undermine the very freedoms and liberty our government is meant to protect.

Tim Cook

Cruz Tax Plan Would Cost $8.6 Trillion

Here is the source. Of course if you're filthy rich you don't care do you?

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-02-16/cruz-s-tax-plans-seen-aiding-wealthy-costing-8-6-trillion

"America through the eyes of an Ivy League ideologue."

Charlie Daniels’ Open Letter to America’s Enemies: You See Obama, But You Don’t Know America

By Charlie Daniels | February 15, 2016 | 2:31 PM EST

The detention of American Navy sailors by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday after their boats drifted into Iranian territorial waters. (AP Photo)

Something never rang true about the apprehension and boarding of two American Naval vessels by the Iranian Navy. Something just didn’t seem right.
These boats were equipped with the kind of space age navigational devices that should have forgone any doubt where they were within a couple of yards.
If one boat became disabled, why didn't the other boat tow it back to safe international waters?
Barring all else, why didn’t the Iranians abide by centuries old maritime tradition to assist a disabled vessel of a nation you're not at war with? We’re not at war with Iran, or are we?
Why did John Kerry make a public statement praising and thanking the Iranians for their humane treatment of our Naval personnel knowing that Iran had boarded our vessel, disarmed the sailors and forced them to kneel with their hands on their heads? Why would he do so after seeing that Iran had photographed these sailors, using the photo as an embarrassing international public relations ploy and showing the world just how spineless the Obama administration is? Just how much humiliation and insult he is willing to take?
Then, during a parade, the Iranians staged a float with Iranians dressed like American sailors on a boat standing in total submission while being laughed at and ridiculed by the people on the street.
This is tantamount to rubbing America's face in a manure pile. It was an attempt to suggest that America is supposedly weak, spineless and totally unable when it comes to protecting itself. It was meant to suggest that America has become a cowering, impotent nation whose president can be pushed around, humiliated, threatened and ridiculed without any threat of retaliation.
Putin did it, China is doing it, and now a third rate Islamic dictatorship ruled by religious fanatics is pushing Obama all over the board for the rest of the world to see just how easy it is. You can bet there will be much more to follow.
John Kerry should resign, because what he did actually gave aid and comfort to a nation that wants to destroy us. His sickening platitudes enabled the Iranians to farther this farce and humiliate this nation even more by releasing photos of one of the American sailors apparently crying.
America's enlistment rates are down, and morale in our military is low. Obama has fired so many of our most experienced officers and reduced the size of our services to the point that should we be required to fight on multiple fronts we would be severely strained to do so.
How does the rest of the world perceive America under Obama?
We're the nation that stood by and didn't lift a finger when the Iranian public was protesting their government. We voiced no support and did not try to help in any significant way, and the protest was soon quelled.
We're the nation that drew red lines in Syria and watched them being crossed without a whimper.
We're the nation that only uttered a few lukewarm words as Putin invaded the Crimea and the Ukraine.
We're the nation that traded five of the world's most dangerous terrorists for one American deserter.
We're the nation that gave away the store to insure that Iran can finance its terrorist attacks and be assured of having a nuclear device in a few years.
We're the nation that lets anybody who wants to walk across our southern border free reign to do so, and we are the nation that provides sanctuary cities to give them refuge.
NO, WE'RE NOT!!
WE'RE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!
And judging us by the weakness and unwillingness of our president and his flower child administration would be a fatal mistake.
A note to our enemies:
You think you know America, but you only see the tiny, inept, incompetent, cowering political tip of a very big, very capable iceberg.
You don't know the Heartland where the people are fiercely independent and willing to defend this nation with their bare hands if that's what it takes.
You don't know the steel workers in Pittsburgh with muscles that could break a man's neck like a twig.
You don't know the swamp folks in Cajun country that can wrestle a full-grown alligator out of the water.
You don't know the mountain folks in Appalachia who can knock a squirrel's eye out from a hundred yards away with a small caliber rifle.
You don't know the farmers, the cowboys, the loggers and the seagoing folks. You don't know the truck drivers, the carpenters, the mountain men who live off the land, the hard rock miners or the small town cops who keep the peace in the rowdy border towns.
No, you don't know America. You've only seen America through the eyes of an Ivy League ideologue. There are no calluses on his hands, no notches on his gun. He is naive enough to believe that people who only understand power can be swayed by political correctness, kindness and acquiescence.
Soon America will have a new leader, and I pray to Almighty God every day that we will choose the right one.
If so, we will begin the long process of rebuilding the World's greatest military, we will level the playing field in international trade and revitalize American industry, we will give our friends reason to trust us again. Our enemies will have reason to fear us again, and our citizens will have reason to believe again.
No, you don't know America, and you don't want to find out the hard way.
What do you think?
Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.
God Bless America
Charlie Daniels
Charlie Daniels is a legendary American singer, song writer, guitarist, and fiddler famous for his contributions to country and southern rock music. Daniels has been active as a singer since the early 1950s. He was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on January 24, 2008.

Beyonce X

Dueling Protests To Be Held Outside NFL Headquarters Over Beyonce’s Super Bowl Performance

February 16, 2016 7:16 AM

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Demonstrators offended by Beyonce’s Super Bowl halftimeperformance will protest outside NFLheadquarters in Manhattan Tuesday, but Beyonce fans are standing behind the singer and planning a protest of their own.

Coldplay may have been the main act of the Super Bowl halftime show, but it was Beyonce who caused the biggest sensation.

Dancers wore leather and black berets, an apparent nod to the Black Panthers movement. One formation seemed to pay tribute to Malcolm X and another had dancers with fists in the air, reminiscent of the black power salutes of the 60s and 70s.

“I found the entire show objectionable, was extolling the Black Panthers, who were a terrorist organization killing police officers in the 60s and 70s,” said Rep. Peter King, (R-Long Island).

Now, the group Proud of the Blues is asking people offended by the performance to stand together at NFL headquarters Tuesday morning wearing as much blue as possible to show their support for police, CBS2’s Diane Macedo reported.

Was @Beyonce's #SuperBowl50performance offensive or empowering? We hear from both sides at NFL hq today@CBSNewYorkpic.twitter.com/oEKpGsUssm

— Diane Macedo (@dianermacedo)February 16, 2016

Meanwhile, Black Girl Rising is organizing a counter rally asking people to dress in black to show their support for Beyonce and the Black Panthers, Macedo reported.

And after Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, both groups may have another performance to talk about.

Rapper Kendrick Lamar performed his song, “The Blacker the Berry,” chained to his dancers while his band played from jail cells. The performance also included a reference to Trayvon Martin, the African-American Florida teen fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer while on his way to visit his father.

While presenting the final award during Grammys, Beyonce also appeared to speak to those critical of her performance. She said, “Art is the unapologetic celebration of culture through self-expression.”

Book review and foreign policy thread

So, I just finished reading, "And then all hell broke loose" by Richard Engel. I thought it was an excellent read. As a young rookie, Engel started out in the middle east, and had a front row seat for the next 20 years. He explains a lot of very basic stuff that I think every single American voter should be aware of. Sadly, I don't believe the American voter does have even a basic understand about the current conflicts there, and this is a very big problem. Most of the candidates on the Republican side have basically been offering a simple premise that all we gotta do is kick some ass. I felt that ridiculous before reading this book, and ludicrous after. It addresses nothing at the heart of the matter. Further, it is simply going to get a lot more Americans killed with nothing to show for it.

This is likely review for everyone, but Engel's book lays out several basic truths. Countries like Iran, and Syria are shiite. Saudi and Iraq were Sunni. By taking out Sadam, and by doing it in the way that we did, we simply flipped the power from Sunni's to the Shiites, and that brought obvious punishment and bloody paybacks. The existence of ISIS, like Osama, is a monster of our own making. Zarqawi was the first psychopath to broadcast his barbary, and is essentially the father of ISIS, which would not exist if we did not invade Iraq.

In Libya, we helped topple another Saddam type strong man/butcher/thug by supporting rebels, who have turned out to be more murderous butcher thugs. In Syria, it's basically the opposite of Iraq, wherein Assad is part of the Shiite clan, and the Sunni ISIS is trying to bring him down. We sorta wanted to kinda help the rebels, but instead of supporting the initial groups who were more secular, there now doesn't seem to be anyone trying to overthrow Assad who is not basically ISIS. Except, of course, for the Kurds, who we seem to like, but who are hated by both the Turks, who turned a blind eye to fighters crossing their border to fight for ISIS, and also by Assad. Russia, of course, backs Assad, and while he is another strong man/butcher/thug, there seems to be little gain for us in removing him and leaving behind another disaster.

Strategically, it seems to me there are several very unpalatable truths. The Saudis, our "friends" are Sunni and philosophically in line with ISIS. The Iranians are Shiite, and have the exact same goal that we do, which is to eliminate ISIS. We've helped overthrow Saddam and Ghadafi, and have nothing to show for it and arguably, we are much worse off for having done so. If we fight ISIS, because it is in our interest to do so, we will be doing Iran, Assad and Putin a favor. When I listen to Hillary and the Republicans, I feel like saying, "Give me a fucking break with the thinking you have some kind of answer to this problem". Ultimately, it seems like what is best for us is to have more strong man/butcher/thugs who are more or less secular and rule with an iron fist. When that was in place, there was much more stability than there is now. But nobody is going to say that. If I'm missing something or if someone thinks they have an idea of what to do next, I genuinely would like to hear it. In my opinion, it seems like we have put ourselves in such a bad spot, we are going to have no choice but to have limited engagements with Iran to fight common enemies, namely ISIS. The Saudis, where the hijackers came from, continue to be a bastion for Sunni extremism. What do we do about that?

I liked this book a lot and found it very informative, but also very disturbing.

Protesting against the system and ehrn using the susystem.

Nevada rancher Cliven D. Bundy asked for a court-appointed attorney as he made his first appearance Thursday in federal court following his arrest the night before at Portland International Airport.
Bundy, 69, his thinning salt-and-pepper hair slicked back, shuffled into the courtroom, chains at his ankles and wearing standard blue jail garb.
He pulled a pair of eyeglasses from a pocket of his jail shirt and spent nearly 30 minutes sitting beside an attorney, reviewing a 32-page federal complaint stemming from the 2014 standoff at his ranch northeast of Las Vegas.
Assistant federal public defender Ruben Iniguez was appointed to represent Bundy for the day but said his office couldn't continue to represent him because it represents others in the case.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice M. Stewart directed Bundy to present a financial affidavit to the court before a court-appointed attorney could be assigned.
"The court only appoints counsel for those who can't afford an attorney,'' Stewart said.

More important news:

BARCELONETA, Puerto Rico, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- A 31-year-old Puerto Rican poker fan who died recently was treated to his hobby one last time when his body was seated at a card table during his wake.
The family of Henry Rosario Martinez, 31, contacted the Eternal Light Funeral Home in Barceloneta after his Jan. 19 death and asked that the man's remains be embalmed, dressed and seated at a poker table during his wake.
"It's the first time we did this here, but we take it as something normal, because they have done these things in other parts of the island," funeral home owner Jose Mendelez told EFE.
Martinez's wake included poker games with the corpse seated at the table and friends and family posing for pictures with the deceased.
"I want him to be remembered as a happy person because he was always like that," mother Sonia Martinez told Primera Hora.
Wakes featuring the remains of deceased arranged in lifelike poses are becoming increasingly common in Puerto Rico, with recent examples including a paramedic posed in the back of an ambulance and a man posed at a table playing dominoes.

Supreme Court Justice Scalia Is Dead

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/13/politics/supreme-court-justice-antonin-scalia-dies-at-79/index.html

GOP Budget Pow-Wow

Can Republicans be content with passing a budget with billions in new spending? What is the alternative?  The meeting is taking place this morning:

 http://thehill.com/policy/finance/269160-divided-gop-to-pow-wow-on-budget

Are You Short or Are You Taking It In The Shorts?

What do you think of this market?  How low will it go?  How come the press isn't blaming this on the president?

Boy in the bubble outlasts Man in the Moo Moo

Chris Christie and Fiorina both drop out. Discuss

Cliven shouda stayed home

Cliven Bundy arrested in Portland as Oregon occupiers say they will surrender Thursday

Cliven Bundy, the controversial Nevada rancher at the center of an armed standoff with federal officials in 2014, was arrested in Portland Wednesday, according to jail records and news reports.
He was reportedly on his way to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in isolated southeastern Oregon, where an armed occupation in its 41st day seemed to be coming to an end. The occupation had been organized by Bundy’s sons Ammon and Ryan, who are now in jail facing a felony charge of conspiracy to impede a federal officer.
The last remaining members of the occupation had said they will turn themselves over on Thursday morning, after the FBI appeared to close in on their encampment.
The FBI in Portland would not confirm the circumstances of elder Bundy’s arrest. But the Oregonian reported that he was apprehended at Portland International Airport after disembarking from his flight from Las Vegas late Wednesday night. The newspaper said that Bundy, 74, faces the same charge as his son in relation to his standoff with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in 2014. He also faces weapons charges, it said.

Bundy’s arrest came after federal authorities moved to surround the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Wednesday afternoon, prompting the lingering occupiers to have a panicked phone conversation with a few of their supporters, including Nevada state assemblywoman, Michele Fiore, that was broadcast over a livestream on YouTube
Initially the occupiers said they feared an armed assault by agents was imminent. But late Wednesday night local time, after a phone conversation that lasted more than four hours, one of occupiers said they planned to emerge from the refuge in the morning so long as Fiore was there to act as a witness and ensure that the occupation ended peacefully.
Mike Arnold, an attorney for Ammon Bundy who took part in Fiore’s phone negotiations and was en route to the wildlife refuge with her early Thursday, told The Washington Post that he was “extremely disappointed” by the news of Cliven Bundy’s arrest.
“It was a horrible strategic move to arrest Cliven while negotiations were literally happening over the phone,” he said. “That is not a symbol of good faith.”
But he believed that the agreement reached Wednesday night would still hold.


The government is still in control contrary to what some think. It will not tolerate insurrection. If these people want change they need to learn to work within the system

In the news

In response to the growth in food stamp dependence, Maine’s governor, Paul LePage, recently established work requirements on recipients who are without dependents and able-bodied. In Maine, all able-bodied adults without dependents in the food stamp program are now required to take a job, participate in training, or perform community service.
Job openings for lower-skill workers are abundant in Maine, and for those ABAWD recipients who cannot find immediate employment, Maine offers both training and community service slots. But despite vigorous outreach efforts by the government to encourage participation, most childless adult recipients in Maine refused to participate in training or even to perform community service for six hours per week. When ABAWD recipients refused to participate, their food stamp benefits ceased.
In the first three months after Maine’s work policy went into effect, its caseload of able-bodied adults without dependents plummeted by 80 percent, falling from 13,332 recipients in Dec. 2014 to 2,678 in March 2015.

Might be on to something in Maine.


ZALEC, Slovenia, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A town in Slovenia announced it is moving forward with plans to build a nearly $400,000 fountain that dispenses drinkable local beers.
The Zalec town council voted with a two-thirds majority to move ahead with plans for the tourist attraction, which is being heralded as Europe's first beer fountain.

Obviously a socialist idea as they are not charging for the drink.

The entrepreneurial spirit

It's that time of year again. Time when your local market entrances are flooded with Girl Scouts selling boxes of Samoas, Tagalongs and Thin Mints. But one 13-year-old Girl Scout in San Francisco and her mother made a rather business-savvy decision to sell cookies outside of a medical marijuana dispensary.
On Monday, Danielle Lei and her mother set up shop outside the Green Cross store with the cookies. With the store's blessing, Lei sold 117 boxes in two hours.
Holli Bert, a spokeswoman for the Green Cross, said that after just 45 minutes, Lei had to call for backup cookies to replenish her stock.

A great solution for the upcoming munchies.

congrats max!

Bernie on his way down to New York City tomorrow to kiss Al Sharpton ' s ring. Uncle Joe warming up in the bullpen.

Bernie Maddof and irony

After coming down with a horrible bout of the flu, I was able to watch some stuff I had taped. Recently, ABC had a story of Bernie Maddof special on and it was really good. Undoubtedly, they took some poetic license to make Bernie look like an even bigger douchebag than he was, but they also accurately portrayed what a shit show the SEC is. There was a whistleblower who figured out there was no way he could be racking up the returns he was, and this guy was ignored for awhile and even after they went through the firms books, they stopped short of taking the last few steps to check out his information. Had the crash not happened next, I can't help but wonder if his scheme would still be going today. Two very interesting things came to mind watching this.

In the movie, a very young Bernie is a stock broker pitching his customers on penny stocks. He was making good money, but after a crash, a lot of his customers got wiped out. So, he took his own money to rebalance his customers accounts and then lied and told them he had gotten them out of their positions and they didn't lose anything. His thinking was that if he could make them whole, he could keep them as clients. Later in the movie, we see the federal government bail out all the big banks and do something quite similar. Now in my opinion, everything that followed was one massive bailout of those with wealth via the FED. Small people who got destroyed got nothing and people who already had little saw things get even worse. Free shit indeed.

The other thing that stood out to me was the absolute incompetency of the SEC in this case, but multiple agencies in the crash. The SEC is weak and worthless because Wall Street wants it that way. Many right of center love to dump endlessly on agencies when they fuck up and of course, they will never accept that maybe if we took regulation seriously, it wouldn't be this way. In the midst of the market meltdown, the movie has Maddof rambling in a speech that it was ridiculous he was being prosecuted for this when fraud was taking down the entirety of Wall Street. He shouts angrily, "I was running th biggest ponzi scheme ever created inside of an even bigger ponzi scheme." He had a point. The packaging of debt with mortgages that were never going to pay off were given stamps of AAA by ratings agencies, the same fuck wads who later downgraded US debt. These people were idiots and yet, they still retain their status as an "independent" group that is capable of assessing debt.

We've really done nothing to fix this problem, and again, that is by design. It is what Wall Street wants. Dodd-Frank is weak, the SEC remains a weak agency and people simply don't give a fuck.

SAVE THE DATE!

Plan way ahead, airlines will probably get booked very soon so you may
have to go by Greyhound.

SAVE THE DATE!


Democrat Convention Schedule
Monday,  July 25, 2016
11:15 AM

Free lunch, medical marijuana, and bus ride to the Convention

Forms distributed for Food Stamp enrollment.
1:30 PM

Group Voter Registration for Illegal Immigrants.
3:15 PM

Address on "Being the Real You"
Rachel Dolezal, former Head of the Seattle NAACP and
Caitlyn Jenner
4:30 PM

"How to Bank $200 Million as a
public Servant and claim to be broke"
Hillary Clinton
4:45 PM



How to have a successful career
without ever having a job, and
still avoid paying taxes!
A Seminar Moderated by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson
5:00 PM



Medals of Freedom presentation to
Army deserter Bo Bergdahl
for serving with Honor and Distinction
National Security Advisor Susan Rice
5:30 PM

Invitation-only Autograph Session
Souvenir photographs of Hillary and
Chelsea dodging Sniper Fire in Bosnia
6:30 PM

General vote on praising Baltimore rioters,
and on using the terminology
"Alternative Shoppers" instead of “Looters"

7:30 PM

Breakout session with Bill Clinton
for women on avoiding the upcoming draft
8:30 PM

The White House "Semantics Committee" Meeting
General vote on re-branding "Muslim Terrorism" as
"Random Acts of Islamic Over-Exuberance"
9:00 PM

"Liberal Bias in Media“ How we can make it work for you!
Tutorial sponsored by CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, PBS,
the Washington Post and the New York Times
with Guest Speaker, Brian Williams
9:15 PM

Tribute Film to the Brave Freedom Fighters
still incarcerated at GITMO
Michael Moore
9:45 PM

Personal Finance Seminar -
"Businesses Don't Create Jobs"
Hillary Clinton
11:00 PM

Short film, "Setting Up Your Own Illegal
Email Server While Serving in A
Cabinet Post and How to Pretend
It's No Big Deal"
Hosted by Hillary Clinton
11:30 PM


Official Nomination of Hillary by
Bill Maher and Chris Matthews

Guess it wasn't so difficult after all.

Hillary Clinton said she wants to allow illegal immigrants to buy health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges, but would stop at giving them subsidies to lower the cost.
"I think that raises so many issues, it would be difficult to administer," the former secretary of state said at the first Democratic debate sponsored by CNN Tuesday night. "It needs to be part of comprehensive immigration reform when we get to it."

Senate report: Illegal immigrants benefited from up to $750M in ObamaCare subsidies

Illegal immigrants and individuals with unclear legal status wrongly benefited from up to $750 million in ObamaCare subsidies and the government is struggling to recoup the money.
The report, produced by Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, examined Affordable Care Act tax credits meant to defray the cost of insurance premiums.
It found that as of June 2015, “the Administration awarded approximately $750 million in tax credits on behalf of individuals who were later determined to be ineligible because they failed to verify their citizenship, status as a national, or legal presence.”

 

Guess it wasn't so hard after all. 

Millenials/An Update

What Do Drugs Really Cost ?

Why don't we just remove government regulations on everything? Then every industry will be just like the pharmaceutical industry. Wouldn't that be just peachy keen?

http://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-02-05/martin-shkreli-s-hearing-circus-here-s-the-real-lesson

Condom for kiddies.

 This is discriminatory, why have elementary student been excluded.

 

City high school students in San Francisco already have access to free condoms. Now, a proposal introduced to the school board would authorize condoms to be handed out to middle school students following a one-on-one information session with a school nurse or social worker.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, the policy change was introduced by San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Richard Carranza to the Board of Education earlier this month, as part of an overall effort by the district to further prevent sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy among minors.

Each one-on-one session would also include information about the risks and effectiveness associated with condom use as well as letting students, including the minors in middle school, know that abstinence is the only 100 percent effective way to prevent unwanted pregnancy or STDs.

The San Francisco Chronicle points to student surveys conducted by the district showing that at least five percent of students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades have had sexual intercourse, and more than a quarter of high school students report having had sex.

The new proposal will likely face a vote next month. If it passes, it would reportedly also take away the ability of high school parents to opt their high schoolers out of the program, although they would still received an annual notification about it. The same would also apply to parents of middle school children.

“As the (sexually transmitted disease) controller in San Francisco, I know all too well that San Francisco has among the highest rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis of any city in the United States,” Dr. Susan Philip, reportedly said in a letter endorsing the proposal on behalf of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “Condoms are highly effective prevention against STDs, HIV and unwanted pregnancy.

A nurse at Herbert Hoover Middle School in San Francisco refused to comment on the new initiative, saying she had “no opinion” on the matter and directed Breitbart News to speak with SFUSD’s School Health Programs Department, which then said all calls form the media should be made to the district’s communications office’s public relations manager.

She was unavailable for comment at the time.

Sanders/Clinton

I watched the debate last night, and the Hawks versus Coyotes game. NHL officiating is getting bad. So, since I watched both, I really didn't watch any spin from the moderators. In general, I thought Bernie did a good job, but Hillary also scored a couple of points, particularly on foreign policy. Nonetheless, I thought Bernie made a couple of mistakes that are going to give Hillary a chance to him on some things.

In the midst of a section on foreign policy, Bernie reached for the "I didn't vote to go to Iraq". It wasn't the right context to drop that in, and I personally thought it fell kinda flat. I think the reality is this, you can have a general policy direction you want to go, but you need to have flexibility to evaluate short term opportunities to get something useful done. If a chance opens to pull out of Afghanistan, I think we absolutely need to take that opportunity. Making the sand glow? That's just silly. still, Bernie didn't elaborate this message, and Hillary, more or less, did.

In regard to Wall Street, Bernie simply would not let that go and I generally didn't have a problem with that. He made a comment though, "The Wall Street model, I believe, is built on fraud". After watching what happened with triple AAA shit pile mortgages, I think there is more than a little truth here. The average person is not going to understand the sheer level of risk that just one trader can take. If it blows up, they basically walk away. Is that fraud? Not entirely, but neither is it really honest in my opinion.

Hillary whined about being attacked for taking money from Goldman, and I really don't have much sympathy for her. She said it's time to end the "artful smear" that Bernie is committing by linking her to Wall Street, and that was kind of a cop out. 600k for a speech is a shit ton of money for a family living on less than 100k, and she wants us to believe that Goldman is not hoping for some return on that. She was asked if she will release transcripts from these speeches, and she dodged. I'd like to see em.

Interlude

Like a lot of my more rambling posts, I'm not sure this one has a real solid point. I came across this link today http://www.fightchronicdisease.org/about I really don't know anything about them, but the link popped up on my screen because the scary internet has figured out how to store my preferences and present me with links to catch my attention. And we worry about government spying........

Anyway, I'm in the new job and I've been training with a colleague. We admitted two patients this week who really fit the descriptions mentioned here. As of now, I really don't have a solid answer. I think there is truth in stating that there is a ton of lack of personal responsibility that contributes to many problems such as diabetes, heart disease and so on. Yet, when you look at where the money is actually spent, it seems like a lot of money is really concentrated in certain areas. This week, we admitted a patient who has long standing heart disease, and was diagnosed with dementia as well. They were taken to the hospital for a change from their baseline, and were given a very thorough workup. As I read the hospital notes, one thought was, "Well, this is defensive medicine, or cover your ass medicine". I think, however, this phrase is becoming overused. Given all that this patient had going on, the tests given were not out of the question, provided that the goal was to stop the acute process and turn the patient around. For sake of context, this patient is 89 years old.

I bring this up here because however limited the reach of this group may be, I think discussions about health care need to continue. In the case of this patient, who truly fit the picture of chronic illness, this trip through the ER likely generated a 50k bill that did not need to happen. At 89, an already compromised individual would likely not benefit from treatment for a stroke even if it was discovered. Further, even if the doppler studies revealed significant blockage to the carotid arteries, a surgery to fix them would not improve the already well developed dementia. And, considering this individual had already had previous heart surgeries, another bypass was not going to fix an already damaged heart. On admission, I explained what our treatment plan would be that focused on nothing but comfort, and the spouse of the patient indicated they were 100% on board and glad they had made the decision to choose hospice. While this bill is likely pretty big, I have some gratitude that the family was not encouraged to put this patient on a ventilator, have a feeding tube put in their stomach, and eventually be brought to hospice in six months anyway because they did not get better.

The entirety of our system is basically built on keeping people living as long as possible, no  matter how miserable they may be. When they become chronically ill, we give them a pile a pills and list of foods they shouldn't eat and they are basically miserable. There is plenty to be argued about regarding what makes healthcare so expensive. That said, the population of chronically ill individuals who have several diseases is going to continue growing, as will the cost of caring for them. In the midst of what is going to be a multi decade fight over how we fund healthcare and how we prioritize it, I think that providers and patients need to have discussions sooner on how far they are willing to take their treatments. Surely, many are going to die sooner by not having every last treatment possible. But if said treatment does not buy them any quality of life, now seems like a good as time as any to start having honest discussions and start accepting that it might be far more human AND cost effective to stop demanding that we make everyone live as long as possibly largely because we can.

Congrats William

Ted pulls it off after getting slapped around by Trump. He becomes the first one to still be standing after Trump turned his idiot beam on him. And it was kind of interesting to see Rubio leapfrog all the rest. As of this writing, Bernie is speaking truth to a rabid crowd of followers. 6% left to count and basically a statistical tie. I changed my registration last week from independent to Democrat so I can go caucus for Bernie. Looking forward to it.

Cruz is not remotely my choice, but congrats William, Trump competed for Iowa and lost.