CDC Admits They Were Wrong

Remember when you were told you needed to lockdown in your home for “two weeks to flatten the curve” on COVID? Remember how you were told wearing a mask didn’t help, then was mandatory? Remember how the way to beat the pandemic was to “social distance” and stay six feet away from anybody else? Remember how your kids’ schools all got shut down for over a year, and they had to learn at home? Remember all of the cancelled weddings, parties, birthdays, holidays, and funerals that were missed because of this disease? Remember how the CDC said, and the president aped that the best way to beat COVID was to get vaccinated? Well, apparently the CDC has come out with a new directive.

The CDC was wrong all along.

The Director of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, came out Wednesday and said that oops, we did not “reliably” meet our mission during COVID, and that’s got to change. In other words, the CDC told you and me a bunch of stuff that just wasn’t accurate. And the big mouthpiece for all of the directives, Anthony Fauci? He was all a big part of it, though he is nowhere to be found after Walensky’s mea culpa.

So the CDC needs to reorganize and transition. The Centers for Disease Control really didn’t control COVID with any authority. After all, over 1,000,000 Americans died! They were too busy telling people to stop smoking and get mammograms. But that’s all going to end now. Now they apparently know what they’ve done wrong, and they are going to fix it!

What the CDC needs to do is do what it’s name implies. They need to control diseases. They should have been on top of the research for COVID long before it became a problem in this country. Other countries around the world had produced millions of pages of documents on the disease and what worked and what didn’t work. To have our very own disease experts languish as Fauci and Deborah Birx did was inexcusable.

Walensky is apparently going to be able to keep her job. Fauci is going to keep his job, though he said (at age 81) that he was probably going to step down in a year or so. What needs to happen is all of these people that were involved in the politicization of COVID be fired and denied their retirement benefits. It would be a fitting memorial to the million plus people that have died, and the more than 400 people a day that are still dying from COVID in this country.

Either the United States is going to be the world leader in medicine, or it’s yet, one more thing that we are going to hand over to the Chinese to run. Either Joe Biden needs to step up to the plate and explain to the American people what HIS administration and Trump’s did were both wrong and inconclusive and that they mis-served the American people, costing over a million lives and trillions of dollars. They’ve caused the recession we are in, and they’re the ones at fault for listening to the faulty information, along with people like Walensky, Fauci, and Birx.

To do anything less is not only immoral and unethical, it’s criminal.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Is The GOP Going Too Far?

The Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson did away with a couple of earlier, and incorrect Supreme Court rulings, most notably Roe v. Wade. Handing the abortion question back to the states and denying the whole “privacy” question that actually was the lynchpin in Roe passing muster in the first place was a smart move by the court. In essence, they did not deny someone’s ability to get an abortion. They just denied that the federal government had any jurisdiction in the matter and that the states should decide for themselves. And that was the correct decision.

But there have been rumblings ever since the ruling was made public at the end of last month that the GOP is considering a nationwide ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Soon to be Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy has told CNN that he would support such a move. And while I would be the first to say that my religious beliefs do not allow me to accept abortion because it is the taking of a life, and violates the Sixth Commandment, I also think that this isn’t a fight the GOP needs to take on.

The Supreme Court showed it’s intelligence by not wading into the middle of the “Is it right or wrong” fight. As they had previously done with the whole Obamacare issue, the court looked at it from a Constitutional vein. And they concluded (rightly so) that the Constitution does not give the federal government jurisdiction in this manner. Therefore it needs to be returned to the states.

I would suggest that if McCarthy goes ahead with a nationwide ban after 15 weeks, he’s making the same mistake that the Justices made back in 1973. There are somethings that need to be left to the discretion of the states, and abortion is one of them. It’s not a right or wrong issue, it’s an issue of federal rights versus states rights, and it’s always been that.

The abortion battle, as far as the federal government is concerned is over. Now all we have to do is convince lawmakers of that!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Are Healthcare Non-Profits On Our Side?

OK, this is going to veer off the political path a little. But it does talk about politics of a kind. Money politics. And it is probably going to upset some of you, especially if you happen to work or have worked for a healthcare non-profit. I’m talking about places like the American Cancer Society, or The Heart Association, or The Alzheimer Association. You get the idea.

A long-time reader of this blog recently wrote in to suggest that doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and even these non-profits really don’t want to find a cure for the disease they are “researching” (in the case he was talking about it was cancer). And he’s dead on right. Look at it. Today, there are all sorts of drugs out there relating to “living longer” with different types of cancer. They don’t treat the disease. They slow down the progression of it. But there are reasons why they don’t want to actually cure it and eradicate it.

Money.

Pure and simple, and I’m going to use cancer as an example, but we can talk about any healthcare problem from AIDS to zygomycosis. It doesn’t matter. It’s all the same in this discussion.

First of all, you have specialized doctors. In the world of cancer, they are called “oncologists”. They specialize in the treatment of cancer. I will say the cancer survival rate has gone way up in the last 50 years or so, but the costs have been rather large. In fact, we are spending in excess of $2 trillion a year on cancer research.

You have universities and hospitals all researching how to deal with differing types of cancer. They all receive federal grants and monies from the non-profits to pursue those aims. You have pharmaceutical companies in a “moon race” to find the magic bullet that is going to “cure cancer”, but all they have really been able to do is find ways to slow the progression and extend the lives of cancer patients from a few months to a year or two. And you’ve got the non-profits themselves that raise money from people like you and me using all sorts of emotional ploys to get the money.

And it’s all about the money. At over $2 trillion a year, no one group is going to be able to fund all of the research that’s going on. It’s been that way, by the way, for the past 40 years. Think about it. We’ve increased the funding over time, but that’s in the neighborhood of some $40 trillion that has been spent on cancer research. Our federal debt is only $32 trillion!

And do these groups that I’ve been talking about really WANT to find a cure? What happens if someone finds that “magic bullet”? Yes, they save lives, win the Nobel Prize for medicine and become a hero the way Jonas Salk became a hero. But to the millions of others that work in the cancer industry, they lose their livelihoods. Oh, most will be able to find work elsewhere. The non-profit folks can move over to another disease. The drug companies can pretty much do the same. But the oncologists that have spent their lives on cancer? Where do they turn? Private practice?

And it’s the case with every single disease out there that has a group of people fighting for it eradication. Millions of people working to basically get rid of a disease so they can be unemployed. And the cost to the American public is incomprehensible.

So, what’s the solution? I have no idea. Because frankly, I too want to see an end to the diseases, especially cancer. But I can tell you one thing I would do that may be able to help in the short term. Let’s get Congress to ban all of those pharmaceutical ads on TV. You can’t go out and buy those drugs without a prescription anyway. So, why advertise to the consumer? So we can go to our doctor, who has years more experience in medicine than we do, and ask for a drug we saw advertised on TV, like we’re buying a new brand of cold cream? I asked my doctor about the advertising, and he said that it’s one of the banes of his profession and not one doctor he knows personally likes it. So, let’s get rid of it. Let them advertise to the people that can actually prescribe the medicine being advertised and spare us the boring ads!

Tomorrow…back to politics…I promise!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

K-Baby’s Latest Misadventure

Poor K-baby Harris. She just can’t seem to catch a break. Time after time, Harris addresses the media, especially on what she feels are “women’s issues”. So, when Harris was talking to reporters after the Supreme Court released the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, which effectively over-turned Roe v. Wade, she was beside herself. In the process, got a lot of the facts wrong. I was rather surprised that she wasn’t fact checked…until I realized who the fact checkers are.

Here’s what K-baby had to say:

“We have to recognize we’re a nation that was founded on certain principles that are grounded in the concept of freedom and liberty. We also know that we’ve had a history in this country of government trying to claim ownership over human bodies. We had supposedly evolved from that time and that way of thinking. So this is very problematic on so many levels. The Supreme Court, with the Dobbs decision, for the first time in the history of our nation took a constitutional right that had been recognized and took it from the women of America — took a constitutional right,” 

OK. Let’s parse this a little bit, shall we? Certainly our country was founded on certain principles that were grounded in freedom and liberty. It was also grounded in religious freedom. Now, if she is talking about the government trying to “claim ownership over human bodies” as a veiled attempt at talking about slavery, I get it. But I don’t think that was what she was referring to. I can’t believe that any court decision that basically removes a law from the books is taking away freedoms unless they are referring to something like the rights described in the Bill of Rights. Speaking of which, Harris is dead wrong when she points out that “for the first time in the history of our nation, took a constitutional right that had been recognized and took it from the women of America — took a constitutional right.”

Let me explain that last quote. Rights are not given by man. I know that will rile my liberal friends out there that feels that if they feel strongly enough about something, they can make it a “right” just by calling it a right. And if they really hate the way something is going, they can add several “rights” and call it a “Bill of Rights”, like the Airline Travelers’ Bill of Rights. Nothing can be further from the truth. Man does not make rights. Only our Creator can define and give us rights, as the Founding Fathers so aptly agreed with. So for Harris to say that abortion was a “constitutional right” that was taken away is wrong. Abortion doesn’t appear anywhere in the Constitution. It is not a right given to anybody. In fact, if you refer to sixth commandment in the Ten Commandments, which basically every religion subscribes to, it says “Thou shalt not kill.” So, taking the life of a fetus with heartbeat, able to live outside the womb has to be considered killing. But that flies in the face of leftists, who have to redefine killing to fit their narrative. And, if you believe as most conservatives believe that life begins at conception, all abortion would therefore be classified as killing. Again, a real hard thing for the left to rationalize without focusing on something else. They’ve chosen to call it “reproductive rights”.

And again, they are invoking “rights” where they cannot grant them. If that were the case, Nancy Pelosi could grant you the right to be a millionaire like her. Or Adam Schiff could grant you the right to be a liar like him. Or Joe Biden could grant you the right to make up and rewrite your own personal history. None of that is possible.

Harris gets caught up in so much “word salad” that it’s not even salad any longer. It’s nothing more than noxious weeds.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Another Biden Slip Up…

Even when Joe Biden wants to “do the right thing”, he screws things up. That has become painfully evident in his first year and a half in office. And the latest screw up is probably something you know very little about…but you will.

Now, we all know very well that Biden’s eldest son, Beau died of brain cancer back in 2015. He was a very promising politician who had served as Delaware’s Attorney General. He was thinking of running for the US Senate (in daddy’s footsteps). But he suffered a mild stroke, and it was found that he was suffering from brain cancer. It would eventually end his life.

It was cited by Joe Biden himself that Beau’s death was the reason he didn’t run for president against Donald Trump in 2016. And since that time, Joe Biden has had a very personal reason for defeating cancer, and he’s been very public about it. I think anyone of us that has lost a family member or a friend to cancer can understand his sadness. I know I can, having lost my youngest brother to cancer just a few short years ago.

Joe Biden is also fighting hard to lower drug costs for senior citizens. He wants to be able to have Medicare and Medicaid negotiate lowered drug prices for it’s members. And while that seems like an admirable thing to have happen, it does have an unintended consequence. It is going to put cancer research back at least a decade.

That’s because in order to lower drug costs, you have to slash R&D budgets for the big pharma companies. And while cancer research is front and foremost for a lot of these companies because they realize that if they are the ones that can find the magic bullet to defeat cancer, it’ll be bigger than Viagra. Unfortunately, if Congress forces these companies to negotiate drug prices, there will be what one study from the University of Chicago a 31.9% reduction in R&D costs. That would take about $18 billion off the table for cancer research.

Cancer takes the lives of about 600,000 Americans each and every year. It’s the number two overall leading cause of death in this country. And it is exceedingly expensive to try and find a cure. Operation Cancer Moonshot was begun with the 1971 National Cancer Act. And Cancer Moonshot has a goal of reducing cancer deaths by half by 2045. That’s a huge undertaking!

But Biden’s willingness to get a win, and lower drug costs for seniors on Medicare and Medicaid means that he is going to have to put Cancer Moonshot on the back burner…maybe forever. And Beau Biden’s death will just meld into the memories of the other millions of people that have succumbed to the disease.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Oregonians Learning The Hard Way

You gotta credit those people in Oregon. At least they are trying. Oh, they are VERY trying! Remember back about a year and a half ago when Oregonians voted basically 56-44% to legalize street drugs? That legalized heroin, cocaine, meth, and just about any other illicit drug that is out there today. And now Oregonians are learning a lesson that I would have thought most people would have figured would be basic knowledge…

Drug use and overdoses in Oregon have risen dramatically.

Now, Oregon officials are dealing with the problem. They are finding their emergency rooms stacked with people dealing with overdoses. Somehow, they never grasped the concept that if you remove an illegality and make it legal that more people would take part in that activity. And for a state that would seem on the surface anyway to be as “health conscious” as Oregon appears to be to do something that is so 180 degrees opposite of that notion is almost unthinkable.

Currently, there are 18 states that have legalized recreational marijuana use, including here in the AZ. And according to a recent study done by Columbia University, in states that have legalized pot, usage has gone up 26% more than in states without legalized pot. Does that surprise anybody?

So, if that study with marijuana seems legit (and it does to me), then why on earth wouldn’t the good people of Oregon realize that if you legalize it, they will use it?

We’ve seen this time and time again with liberal ideas. How many times have states or cities passed liberal issues only to have to go back later and change it back to the way it was. Does anyone remember the “defund the police” movement of a couple years ago? How well did that work out? When the constituency that was all behind defunding the cops realized that the lawmakers were the ones hiring private police to protect them, they changed their tune pretty quickly didn’t they?

What happened when during the pandemic, the federal government started sending people stimulant checks to help those that had been laid off due to business closures? What happened was that the unemployment rate spiked, which everyone figured would happen. What they didn’t figure on was that after the worst of the pandemic was over, most of those people were willing to sit on their couch and collect payments or extended unemployment benefits as opposed to going back to work. Did it occur to anyone that if you’re going to pay people to stay home, people are going to stay home, even when you want them back to work?

Think back a few decades when the federal government decided to subsidize farmers for NOT growing certain crops. If you had 100 acres of land, and you were used to growing corn, if the government would pay you not to grow corn, how many farms switched to soybeans or wheat, AND got paid for not growing corn? Most people are not that stupid. If the government is going to send you money, you most likely are going to accept it. It’s only human nature.

So, if the state of Oregon says it’s OK to buy heroin on the streets of Portland or through a dispensary in Bend, then sure…people are going to experiment. People are going to get hooked on it. And people are going to OD on it. You don’t have to be a friggin’ medical wizzard to figure that one out.

And so it will go as liberals find out all of the stuff conservatives are telling them won’t work fails. Eventually they will come around because they’ll have to. Otherwise, we can just change the name of our country to North Venezuela.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

As If Dems Didn’t Have Enough To Worry About…

Can we stoke the anti-Democrat fire just a little bit more? Oh, it probably won’t effect you if you’re working and you get your healthcare through your workplace. It probably also won’t effect you if you’re on Medicare or Medicaid. But if you’re one of the 13.8 million Americans that have to use the “healthcare exchange” (read that as Obamacare) to get their healthcare insurance, you’re going to be pissed come October.

That’s because the increase coming this year is going to be huge!

See, last year, Biden signed the American Rescue Plan. Basically it subsidized a good portion of the increase in Obamacare. So people that use that particular method to get their healthcare did indeed see an increase, but nowhere near what they would have had the federal government not stepped in. Well, that program expires on December 31st this year. And with inflation at levels we haven’t seen in 40 years, and an economy teetering on the brink of recession, even some Democrats realize now is not the time to be renewing that program.

And that means that there is going to be a huge increase in the cost of Obamacare to some 13.8 million people, about two weeks prior to the midterm elections. And Dems just don’t have any way to handle that bad news.

Already only 25% of the country think we’re “on the right track”. Joe Biden has been upside down in polling on every single issue except how he handled COVID, and that was by the slimmest of margins. Democrats in both houses of Congress have to deal with high inflation, a poor economy, a southern border catastrophe, crime in the streets, school shootings, a war going on in Ukraine that we’re a part of (even if it’s only sending materiel and money), and an incredible pushback to the Woke community. If the Dems needed any further signs that the stars just aren’t aligned for them this year, this certainly handed it to them.

I mean, how do you think 13.8 million people are going to react when they see that their healthcare is going to be 20-25% more expensive in 2023? And these are most likely the people least able to deal with an increase that large.

Maybe that’s the reason why no one wants Joe Biden to campaign for them this year? Just a thought!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

EXTRA! Baby Formula Debacle

Well, this is one thing you really can’t hang on Joe Biden, if we are being totally honest and totally fair. The shortage of baby formula isn’t because Biden cancelled oil lease auctions, or decided to eighty-six the Keystone XL Pipeline. It’s not because he printed too much money at the beginning of last year (and the last year of the Trump administration).

It’s because of a recall. And it’s really NOT nationwide.

Oh, yes, it IS difficult to get baby formula, probably everywhere, but the crisis is only hitting in Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri, Texas, and Tennessee. In those six states, baby formula outages are at 40%. And the reason, believe it or not, is pretty normal.

The company that makes the baby formula, Abbott Nutrition recalled Similac, Alimentum and EleCare, the three brands that the company makes because four babies reportedly got sick from ingesting the formula. The complaints went to Food & Drug Administration, who notified Abbott, and they voluntarily pulled the baby formula from the shelves.

Apparently, the plant that makes the baby formula in Sturgis, Michigan was the one that was responsible for the recall, and Abbott Nutrition and the FDA are working together to get it back up and running as quickly as possible.

Now, that’s not saying that it’s not effecting other areas of the country, but it looks like it’s pretty well confined, at least on a “total outage” situation to the six states listed above. I’m sure the big box stores like Sam’s Club and Costco are seeing this type of shortage to some degree as well, though I must admit that I’m not a customer of this product, nor have I been for a really long time.

Still, it’s no consolation to the millions of affected families. But with all the problems our country is facing today, and the fact that most of them can be traced back to something the Biden administration has done or said, at least Joe can sleep better realizing he didn’t have anything to do with this debacle. That makes him one for 200. Still not good enough for the big leagues, Joe!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Will The Supreme Court Leak Matter Come November?

It’s a question that will get you a million different answers depending on whom you ask. If you talk to Democrats, it’s the issue that they’ve been waiting for. If you talk to Republicans, it’s no big deal because there are a million other issues that are more prevalent. Will it matter at all?

I am not sure at this point. First of all, if the Supreme Court never had this leak, would it had changed the outcome next month? Doubtful. If they are going to find that the whole national abortion strategy should be a states’ rights issue, it wouldn’t matter if it came out in April, May, or June. When it comes out, regardless the outcome, it will have some impact, for sure.

Is it going to be the calm of the “big red storm” everybody has been predicting? Nope. Sorry, but there are just as many people that feel that abortion shouldn’t be legal and those that feel it should. It’s about as evenly divided as can be in this country. The last poll I saw said 51% said the Supreme Court should not overturn Roe. 49% said they should. That’s not what I would call enough to be the number one issue in an election.

When you look at inflation, supply chain problems, immigration out of control, crime in the streets, a looming recession, and a Congress that can’t get anything done, even though the Democrats control both houses of it, those are issues that matter more to people than abortion. And, even quite a few Democrats (Ruth Bader Ginsburg among them) have said that the logic behind Roe passing muster in 1973 was flawed beyond belief. Justices totally bypassed the 10th Amendment to get to the14th Amendment in finding a way to get it done.

Is this going to tip the balance of power in Congress? Nope. I know Dems are out there fundraising right now trying to tell people that “women’s health” is becoming the number one issue in the country. It hasn’t been for decades, and it won’t be this time around either. I don’t care what side of the abortion issue you’re on, there just aren’t going to be enough people fighting for it to really care and really make a difference. The Supreme Court, if indeed the leaked decision stands, is just correcting a mistake that it made some fifty years ago. I’m surprised actually, that it took this long to get it done.

I still think there is going to be somewhat of a red wave this November. This was a shock to Democrats, but only because they lost and they weren’t thinking they were going to lose. There is nothing that they can do at this point to right that ship because it’s sailed. Packing the court isn’t going to do it because a) there isn’t time and b) even if they got it through both houses of Congress, and got Biden to sign it into law, the blowback from the American people would be vicious. Deciding that the Justices should have term limits of some sort, works a little better in the minds of the public, but then the call for Congress to have term limits will be front and center and that’s something they don’t want to come within a hundred miles of.

And of course, you’ve got conservatives on both parties that are fundraising as well, saying that if Democrats succeed in keeping Congress, it pushes the US further and further to the left and the Supreme Court will be “punished” for what it did to abortion.

Breathe deep and don’t worry. November will be here soon enough!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Is The Left Over-Reacting To Supreme Court Leak?

My initial hunch is of course they are. Anytime they are seeing anything that could even be construed as limiting abortion, they go bat-crazy. And so, it’s to be expected that Democrats are going to try and do everything in their power to keep that. The problem is very simple.

There isn’t a damn thing they can do about it.

The Supreme Court is the last stop on the railroad. There is no way to change what the court has said unless a future court decides to do what this one did, which was actually rectify a poor decision that was made under pressure from liberal women back in 1973. But we have to be very clear about what is and what isn’t happening. The Supreme Court is NOT over-turning Roe v. Wade per se.

What the Supreme Court is doing, IF what everyone has read by now in the leaked decision is accurate, is send back to the state of Mississippi the court case that came before the high court. That case limits abortions to 15 weeks (through the first trimester). Most people in the country (68% by the way according to a recent poll) say that they would agree with this limitation. Snowflake liberals don’t. They want abortion on demand up to and including birth. That is not the majority opinion in the country however. When you get closer to the actual birth, the number of people thinking at abortion should still be legal drops to 22%.

But the Supreme Court, by sending this case back to Mississippi (it’s called Dobbs v. Jackson in case you’re interested), it’s saying it’s a states’ rights issue and Mississippi has the right to decide this case on their own. That being said, Roe v. Wade is going to be changed because it isn’t a “national policy”, but abortion isn’t going to go away. States can decide if they want to have abortions made legal in their state, and if so, what, if any, limitations are going to be attached.

And actually, the liberals if they had an ounce of brains in their head, should be rejoicing on this one. Do you know how many abortions have been performed in this country since 1973? The answer is about 63 million. Now, let’s assume that 75% (a number I’m pulling out of the air) were Democrats and 25% were Republicans who got abortions. That means that Democrats have lost about 47,250,000 million new voters. And you think 12 or 13 million illegals coming into this country is a big deal? How close would ANY election be if Dems were to throw an additional 47 million votes their candidates way? You wouldn’t HAVE to get rid of the filibuster. We’d be a one-party nation in a matter of two decades. But that’s the short-sightedness of the left. Give me a way to not have a baby that I would have raised to be liberal! Duh!

Anyway, Roe v. Wade may be changed, it may not legalize abortions everywhere, but it will still be around. You can always drop by California, or New York, or Oregon, or Washington State, and get your abortion is you want.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!