I know that this is going to seem like an old and irrelevant topic to bring up now, but I want to address it because I see it as a pertinent issue based on what we see going on in the health care industry in America right now. Trust me, I will tie it in at the end. I didn't discuss this topic at the time that it came up because there was so much of it that I didn't fully understand and needed to research. By the time I got the chance to do so, I didn't feel the need to weigh in on the subject anymore. Now I do, so I will explain how the bubble is created and how it popped the best that I can. I know some pretty intelligent people read my blog, and they can correct me in the comments if I have this wrong, but here goes.
Most legislation is passed with the good intention of helping somebody somewhere. The more likable the person protected, the better the likelyhood of the law passing. Even if it is a really lame bill, you can always give it a good name and people will have a hard time voting against it. This can be seen when Liberals want to pass a bill to make millions of illegal immigrants legal competitors in a job market carrying a 9.8% unemployment rate, and call it the "DREAM Act". DREAM stands for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, but who could be opposed to a dream? "I have a dream", right? Fortunately, not everyone fell for it. Here is another good touchy feel good bill. Colorado Senate Bill 10-110 was designed to toughen Colorado's existing seat belt laws. From the Colorado website, here's what it does.
When since Sarah Palin made her famous post on Facebook about "Death Panels", the debate on "End Of Life Care and Counseling" in relation to President Obama's Health Care Reform heated up. Many on the right took up use of the term and many on the left attacked it. PolitiFact even made it their "Lie of the Year" for 2009. Many on both sides of the issue circled around their political opinion of ObamaCare and never bothered to to check into end-of-life counseling and see what the whole thing was about. Now, with the return of end-of-life counseling via a Medicare decision and the release of a memo by Earl Blumenaeur (D Oregon) the debate seems to have heated back up. I wanted to do a little research to see what we were talking about when it came to end-of-life counseling and who is right and who is wrong on the issue.
I know that there are many people who have strong feelings one way or another about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Many have praised what he does as a service to the public. Even Glenn Beck danced around the border of singing his praises. Others think the man is a criminal and should be prosecuted for anything we could possibly shape to fit his actions. Since April, when he burst onto the scene that I follow by leaking classified U.S. Government documents, I have thought him to be a self-righteous creep on a mission. Most of us with an IQ high enough to drool from soaking our shirts can grasp the concept of the need for some secrecy from Governments. If a hostile Country could go online and download our strategy before entering into negotiations with us, it would pretty much defeat the point of the talks, right? Well, apparently even Julian Assange has figured out the difficult equation of the need for privacy, judging from this gem of a quote from The Daily Mail.
I have touched on this before on the show, but for those of you who missed it, I finally got the video done exposing the lies of Jesse Ventura. I know that his internet supporters are many, but it is important for them to understand that I have the facts on my side here. Jesse has admitted that he never was a Navy SEAL, and that he never saw combat action in Vietnam. I source these claims through Minnesota Public Radio and Wikipedia. In this video, you will see Jesse claiming to be a SEAL and hear him in an interview with Howard Stern describing in great detail his combat missions in Vietnam, despite his prior admissions to the contrary. This is important as it goes to the heart of the credibility of the man. Typically, I pick on him for his moronic assertions. Today, I bring you the meat and potatoes. Introducing Jesse "The Fraud" Ventura.
I have some friends and family who supported President Trump from early on in the process. From time to time they will ask me when I will admit that I was wrong about him. "If Trump does x... If Trump gets y... If Trump supports a policy that results in z... will you admit that you were wrong?" My answer is always "no", because I wasn't wrong. To be clear, I could be wrong in practical application, but that isn't what an election is about. Elections are about theory and speculation and, generally speaking about judging records. Trump had no record to speak of, and his history of stances on issues was all over the map. I opposed his candidacy for several major reasons, all of which are proven valid in this single issue we now refer to as the "travel ban". Here were my reasons.
If you're not familiar with Justice with Judge Jeanine, it is a show on the FOX News Network starring Jeanine Pirro. She is known for her over-the-top rants where she serves up gobs of fresh red meat for her largely hard right wing audience. While it's not unusual for her to be a little fast and loose with the facts, she has been known to occasionally return from the break with a correction from her producers. Last night, however, there was no such correction to an outright lie she told on the show, and the matter being discussed should have (at the very least) contained a disclaimer from the host. I would cut her some slack, but as a former prosecutor and judge, she should be well aware of what proper protocol should have been here.
It's not cute anymore, Republicans. The President of the United States is completely detached from reality, and you can't fix that. You can't cover it up, you can't explain it away, and let me make this as clear as I possibly can for you. You cannot possibly undo the damage you are doing to the party brand by trying to pretend this man is anything other than completely unhinged. I'm watching Sean Hannity borrow guests from the Alex Jones show in an attempt to bolster Trump's conspiratorial claims. I'm seeing relatively mainstream conservatives make themselves look like the crazed fringes of the paranoid right wing. Don't believe me? Look at this.