January, 2018, Part 2, The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care: More Single Payer Horror Stories and a Rarity - Good News Relative to Obama Care

Every month for years now we have had to discuss how bad Obama Care is turning out to be under the continuing theme, “the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care.” This month is no different. As the legislation continues to march through America, driving up health care and health insurance prices as it serves as dead weight on economic growth, it cements its rightful place as the worst piece of legislation Washington has ever produced.

It never had a chance to be successful since it really never addressed the underlying root causes of our ever increasing health costs in the country:

• Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food, resulting in obscenely high obesity rates for the country.
• Our food chain is infested with overdoses of high fructose corn syrup, salt, sugar, and other unhealthy additives.
• Americans smoke too much.
• Americans do not exercise enough.
• The country is in serious need of health care tort reform.
• Barriers to insurance company competition across state lines need to come down.
• Obama Care never “followed the money” to find out who is actually profiting from the ever escalating healthcare costs in this country and how to get those factors under control.
• Obama Care never got the immense amount of fraud and abuse in current government healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid, under control in order to save money to efficiently fund other government health care initiatives.
• Obama Care never put serious research money towards curing the major diseases that drive high healthcare costs such as high frequency cancers and dementia type diseases.

You cannot resolve any problem unless you understand and address the underlying root causes. No difference here: Obama Care legislation never addressed these listed root causes and thus, has no chance of ever being successful.

But it is not just missing the root causes of our healthcare costs that makes Obama Care so horrible. It resulted in millions of Americans losing access to their favored doctors, hospitals, and insurance policies. It has caused insurance premiums, deductibles and copays to escalate substantially. It will likely add trillions of dollars to the national debt. It has exposed millions of Americans to higher than necessary identity theft chances. It has created government bureaucracies that are wastefully spending taxpayer wealth and being exploited by criminal elements. It has stifled economic growth and job creation.

These are just a sample of the types of idiocy that we have been reviewing for the past several years in this blog relative to Obama Care. To read those past posts, just enter the phrase, “the unfolding disaster,” in the search box above.

1) We have been uncovering Obama Care disasters for years so it is good news when something good comes out of the whole mess. According to Katie Pavlich, writing for the Townhall website on January 4, 2018:

• Trump’s Labor Department recently announced a new rule proposal that would allow insurance companies to more easily sell health insurance plans across state lines.
• This is one of the root causes of high insurance costs we discussed above.
• This proposal should help increase competition and subsequently reduce the cost of health insurance.
• This rule would also make it easier for small businesses to band together to get better insurance rates from insurance companies.
• According to the article, small business would “Allow employers to form a Small Business Health Plan on the basis of geography or industry. A plan could serve employers in a state, city, county, or a multi-state metro area, or it could serve all the businesses in a particular industry nationwide and allow sole proprietors to join Small Business Health Plans, clearing a path to access health insurance for the millions of uninsured Americans who are sole proprietors or the family of sole proprietors."

Attacking root causes of high health insurance costs, a strategy that Obama Care’s creators never understood.

2) There is also another good piece of news out of the Trump administration regarding the failure of Obama Care. A provision of the tax cut legislation that was recently passed eliminates the need/requirement that all Americans purchase health insurance as required by Obama Care (the “individual mandate”) even if an American does not want any insurance to or does not want to buy the mandatory, expensive policies Obama Care requires.

Let’s take a moment to review what the mandatory purchase of insurance under Obama Care was supposed to do. Under Obama Care, insurers were required to accept anyone looking for insurance coverage even if they had a pre-existing condition. Obviously, this made it more expensive for insurance companies since these new customers with pre-existing conditions would likely be very expensive to serve. 

As a way to appease the insurers, Obama Care promised them that the Federal government would force generally younger and healthier people to purchase insurance in order for the insurance companies to get a windfall to offset their increase costs of serving others with pre-existing conditions, customers that were generally older and less healthy. And Obama Care forced these younger and healthier customers to purchase policies that were loaded with features and coverages that many people did not need or want, further increasing the windfall profits to insurance companies.

To anyone who values freedom and freedom of choice, this blunt force imposition of the government to force people to buy a product or a service is obnoxious. And it was also a failure, as Jay Cost, writing for the National Review website on December 26 2017, points out: “The truth is that the individual mandate was too modest to have any major impact. For starters, there were many exemptions — for instance, the hardship provision. Relatedly, Obamacare also allowed adults up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents’ insurance, thereby giving certain healthy, young people no reason to enroll for themselves. Beyond that, the penalty is incredibly weak, capped at 2.5 percent of income. Finally, payment of the penalty is through the annual tax-filing process, meaning that it is up to the IRS to catch those who simply do not pay it.”

Thus, as with most components of Obama Care, it was a bad idea in theory to begin with and it failed miserably in reality. With the terminations of it via the Trump tax cut legislation, now people will be free to purchase, or not purchase, health insurance that fits their needs and financial abilities without an overbearing Federal government dictating what insurance they must purchase or be considered a criminal.

3) In our previous post in this recurring theme, we discussed how bad single payer insurance systems work around the world. High costs, health care rationing, long delays in seeing a doctor, long delays for treatment, etc. The Conservative Zone website recently reviewed the latest statistics from the Canadian single payer health insurance system and it is not good, which is probably why tens of thousands of Canadians leave that country every year in order to get timely, quality healthcare:

• Lead times to get a doctor’s appointment in Canada has led to the creation of a popular Twitter account, #CanadaWAITS.
• Canadians go to the hashtag to relate their nightmares in trying to get an appointment to see a doctor or get a medical test done.
• Words used to the wait to get an appointment include frustration, insane, and excruciating.
• Angela Burgela paid $18,000 out of her pocket to get a hip replacement done in the Cayman Islands since her pain was so bad and the wait to get the procedure done in Canada was so long.
• A recent survey of waiting times by the Canadian Institute for Health Information found that Canada was dead last out of eleven developed countries when it came to wait times for non-emergency surgeries and seeing specialists.
• The survey found that Canadians also have the longest average wait times for emergency room care at over four hours.
• The average wait time to see a medical specialist in Canada is just over nine weeks which means whatever medical condition you may have that requires specialized care could be nine weeks worse on average before you even see an expert.
• These delays and long waits, according to a 2016 study by the Fraser Institute found that this type of inefficient healthcare leads “to many negative consequences such as increased suffering, mental anguish and pain. It also results in poorer medical outcomes for chronic diseases and turns reversible illnesses into irreversible conditions.”

Obama Care is bad, it is expensive and getting more expensive every day, and it rations out medical care via very narrow doctor and hospital networks. But going the route of Canada and England via a single payer system would be even worse, something that even I thought was not possible given the continual unfolding disasters of Obama Care.

More disasters to come.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:



www.loathemygovernment.com It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday. Please visit the following sites for freedom: http://www.reason.com http://www.cato.org http://www.bankruptingamerica.org http://www.conventionofstates.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

January, 2018, Part 1, The Unfolding Disaster That Is Obama Care - The Disaster Of Single Payer Systems

Every month for years now we have had to discuss how bad Obama Care is turning out to be under the continuing theme, “the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care.” This month is no different. As the legislation continues to march through America, driving up health care and health insurance prices as it serves as dead weight on economic growth, it cements its rightful place as the worst piece of legislation Washington has ever produced.

It never had a chance to be successful since it really never addressed the underlying root causes of our ever increasing health costs in the country:

• Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food, resulting in obscenely high obesity rates for the country.
• Our food chain is infested with overdoses of high fructose corn syrup, salt, sugar, and other unhealthy additives.
• Americans smoke too much.
• Americans do not exercise enough.
• The country is in serious need of health care tort reform.
• Barriers to insurance company competition across state lines need to come down.
• Obama Care never “followed the money” to find out who is actually profiting from the ever escalating healthcare costs in this country and how to get those factors under control.
• Obama Care never got the immense amount of fraud and abuse in current government healthcare programs, Medicare and Medicaid, under control in order to save money to efficiently fund other government health care initiatives.
• Obama Care never put serious research money towards curing the major diseases that drive high healthcare costs such as high frequency cancers and dementia type diseases.

You cannot resolve any problem unless you understand and address the underlying root causes. No difference here: Obama Care legislation never addressed these listed root causes and thus, has no chance of ever being successful.

But it is not just missing the root causes of our healthcare costs that makes Obama Care so horrible. It resulted in millions of Americans losing access to their favored doctors, hospitals, and insurance policies. It has caused insurance premiums, deductibles and copays to escalate substantially. It will likely add trillions of dollars to the national debt. It has exposed millions of Americans to higher than necessary identity theft chances. It has created government bureaucracies that are wastefully spending taxpayer wealth and being exploited by criminal elements. It has stifled economic growth and job creation.

These are just a sample of the types of idiocy that we have been reviewing for the past several years in this blog relative to Obama Care. To read those past posts, just enter the phrase, “the unfolding disaster,” in the search box above.

1) For years we have been covering the many, many failures of Obama Care:

• Insurance premiums have gone up dramatically.
• Insurance deductibles have gone up dramatically.
• Competition has decreased.
• Policy selection has shrunk.
• Enrollment targets have not come close to being met.
• Millions of Americans lost access to their preferred doctors.
• Millions of Americans lost access to their preferred insurance plans.
• Millions of American lost access to their preferred hospitals.
• Medicaid budgets in some states have skyrocketed as a result of Obama Care.
• Over a trillion dollars more than expected will be added to the national debt.

But these disasters are not surprising since whenever Washington politicians get involved in an issue or topic they usually make the problem or issue worse and they usually make it worse in grand style. This is exactly what happened with Obama Care and the government intervention in our lives that it caused. 

But some people think that Obama Care failed because Washington and the politicians they did not have enough government intervention in our lives and the healthcare marketplace. They yearn for the so-called single payer insurance system where government bureaucrats control ALL aspects of our personal health care.

But we have previously shown how bad and inefficient these so called single payer plans are around the world. And today we have another example of failure:

• In the face of a flu epidemic in England, that country’s single payer insurance system is being overwhelmed.
• People are waiting up to twelve hours just to see a doctor for a flu examination.
• The British Health Service, their single payer system, is so desperate that they have cancelled over 50,000 non-urgent surgeries so that the limited and overworked doctors and other medical professionals can have their attention diverted to treating flu victims.
• Things are so bad that even the Prime Minister, Theresa May, had to come out with a public apology of how bad the healthcare situation is in England today: “I know it’s difficult, I know it’s frustrating, I know it’s disappointing for people and I apologize.”

But this latest fiasco of a single payer health care system should not surprise since back in 2015, the Independent newspaper in England wrote: “The UK has one of the worst healthcare systems in the developed world according to a damning new report which said the nation has an “outstandingly poor” record of preventing ill health.

Hospitals are now so short-staffed and under equipped that people are also dying needlessly because of a chronic lack of investment. The verdict, from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will make embarrassing reading for (then-Prime Minister) David Cameron who denied the cash-strapped NHS is heading for its worst winter crisis.

Britain was placed on a par with Chile and Poland as countries still lagging behind the best performers in survival following diagnosis for different types of cancer. The UK came 21st out of 23 countries on cervical cancer survival, 20th out of 23 countries on breast and bowel cancer survival and 19th out of 31 countries on stroke.”

“Outstandingly poor, one of the worst healthcare systems, chronic lack of investment, lagging behind the best performers in survival,” etc. Still think Obama Care did not go far enough? Still think that far away faceless politicians and government bureaucrats know what is best for your healthcare? No way either Obama Care or a single payer system is efficient or effective, reality is the proof.

2) But England’s single payer system is not the only failure in the world. We have previously reported on the failure of Canada’s single payer system to deliver efficient, timely and effective health care. For example, we have already reported on how tens of thousands of Canadians come to the United States every year because it is far easier to get timely health care in the States than it is back home under Canada’s single payer system. 

The February issue of Reason magazine provided a real life example of the single payer failure history in Canada:

• Joy Hataley, a doctor up in Ontario, Canada, recently had to refer a patient to a neurologist at Kingston General Hospital.
• Obviously a referral to a neurologist likely represents a potentially grave and dangerous situation.
• When the patient went to make the appointment on the doctor’s referral he was told it would be four and half YEARS before he could even get an appointment, never mind whatever treatment might be necessary.
• The doctor was told that if this inane four and a half year waiting period was not acceptable they would try to get their patient in to see a neurologist in another city altogether.
• But if the wait time was four and half years Kingston General Hospital, what are the odds that the wait time in a different city would be much shorter?

Single payer systems always result in the rationing and the delaying of receiving medical attention. If someone needs to see a neurologist, it is doubtful that a four and a half year wait is an acceptable time frame to wait from a life and death perspective. The more government intervenes in the healthcare industry, be it Obama Care or a single payer system, the worst the health care that will be provided becomes.

3) One last single payer bashing today. I have a friend whose brother moved to England decades ago, ended up marrying a British subject and living under England’s single payer system. In the fall of 2016, he became ill and was told he had cancer that was working its way through his body.

One year later, in October of 2017 he was finally scheduled for and received surgery in which the doctors removed more than one bodily organ and the parts of another organ. Fortunately, he has so far survived. But as always with a single payer system, it rations and delays treatment way out into the future. How much easier, how much less suffering, how much less expensive, and how much higher would his survival rate had been if he had not had to wait over a year to get treatment for cancer?

It is no secret that survival rates from cancer and other treatments in England is much lower than elsewhere in the world. This example shows why. More failures from Obama Care, and single payer insurance schemes, to follow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

The Horrors and Destruction that Donald Trump Has Imposed On America...Just Kidding! Part 3

Before we start today’s discussion, let’s review my voting history: 

• I have never voted for a Republican for President in my life. 
• Thus, I did not vote for Trump. 
• I have rarely voted for a Republican for national office in my life. 

A year ago, many liberals, Democrats, and millenials were besides themselves with grief and fear because their pre-ordained queen, Hillary Clinton, was not elected President. Instead, Donald Trump was elected, an individual that these same people despised, hated, and feared, an individual they felt would endanger and possibly destroy the country and our democracy. For the past year they fretted, worried and lashed out at anything or anyone that even remotely smelled of Donald Trump.

Given that Trump has been in office for a year and we are at the end of that calendar year, I thought, that as someone who did not vote for him, it would be a good idea to review the horror, trauma, and terrible things that Trump has subjected the country to in just one short year. The first two posts we did on this topic identified 62 things that have happened since Trump became President:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-horrors-and-destruction-that-donald.html

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-horrors-and-destruction-that-donald_31.html

The following list adds to those initial 62 successes:

1) After a two year increase in big city murders in the last two years under the Obama administration, the country’s overall murder rate in big cities declined in 2017 under Trump with New York City experiencing 290 murders, the lowest number since 1951, and Los Angeles having its 8th consecutive year in which murders were under 300.

2) Under the Trump economy, the African American unemployment rate has fallen to the lowest level in at least 45 years, 6.8% according to CNBC reporting and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

3) According to Reuters, the US economy in Trump’s first year as President added 2 million jobs despite the depression of job creation because of the hurricanes of 2017.

4) Many of the new jobs were in higher paying industries such as construction, professional and business services, and manufacturing vs. lower paying retail industry which saw a slight loss in jobs.

5) According to Paul Bedard, reporting for the Washington Examiner on January 4, 2018, the number of companies that have given bonuses to their employees, increased their charitable donations, or reinvested into their company as a result of the Trump tax cut is now over at least 100 companies including, but limited to:

1. We have previously covered how AT&T, Boeing, Fifth Third Bank,Wells Fargo, and Comcast have given employees and charities billions of dollars from the Trump tax cuts.
2. AAON — $1,000 bonus checks to 2,000 employees.
3. AccuWeather – year-end bonuses to all employees. (Approx. 450 – 500 employees)
4. Aflac – increase 401(k) match from 50% to 100% on the first 4% of compensation plus one-time $500 contribution to every employee’s 401(k); $250 million increase in overall U.S. investment.
5. American Airlines — $1,000 bonuses for every employee (excluding officers). The bonuses will total $130 million. AA had 127,600 employees as of Sept. 2017.
6. American Bank – $1,000 bonuses for 60 employees
7. American Savings Bank – $1,000 bonuses to 1,150 employees; base wage increase from $12.21 to $15.25
8. Americacollect – $300 - $500 bonuses for 250 employees
9. Aquesta Financial Holdings — $1,000 bonuses to 95 employees; base wage hike to $15 per hour
10. Associated Bank – $500 employee bonuses (exact number receiving bonus unknown at this time); base wage will rise from $10 to $15 per hour
11. Bank of Hawaii – $1,000 bonuses to 2,074 employees; base wage increase from $12 to $15
12. Bank of the Ozarks – Bonuses of up to $1,200 for 2,300 employees
13. BB&T – $1,200 bonuses for 27,000 employees; base wage will rise from $12 to $15 per hour; $100 million in charitable donations
14. Canary LLC – due to tax reform, the company will hire more employees and increase capital spending.
15. Central Pacific Bank – all 850 employees will receive $1,000 bonuses; base wage will rise from $12 to $15.25
16. Citizens Financial Group — $1,000 bonuses for 12,500 employees and $10 million for charitable donations
17. Comerica Bank — $1,000 to 4,500 non-officer employees; base wage increase to $15 per hour
18. Community Trust Bancorp — $1,000 bonuses for full time employees and $500 bonuses for part-time employees (exact number receiving bonus unknown at this time)
19. Copperleaf Assisted Living – $200 - $600 bonuses for 175 employees
20. Dayton T. Brown Inc. (engineering/testing company) — $400 bonuses for each of the 210 employees
21. Delaware Supermarkets Inc. — $150 extra bonuses to 1,000 non-management personnel.
22. Express Employment Professionals — $2,000 bonuses to more than 200 non-executive employees
23. First Hawaiian Bank – $1,500 bonuses to 2,264 employees; base wage increase to $15
24. First Horizon National Corp. – $1,000 bonuses to 4,000 employees
25. Gate City Bank — $1,000 hand-delivered bonus checks to 538 non-management personnel; $500,000 higher charitable giving; $500,000 worth of free home appraisals.
26. INB Bank — $500 bonuses to 200 employees. The bonuses will exclude the Senior Management Team. The base wage will be raised to $15 per hour
27. Kansas City Southern — $1,000 bonuses. (Exact number receiving bonus unknown at this time; the company employs 6,485)
28. Melaleuca – all 2,000 employees will receive a $100 bonus for each year they have worked at the company
29. National Bank Holdings Corporation – $1,000 bonuses for employees making less than $50,000 (exact number receiving bonus unknown at this time)
30. Nationwide Insurance — $1,000 bonuses to 29,000 employees; increased 401(k) matching contributions for 33,000 employees
31. Navient – 98% of Navient’s 6,700 employees will receive a $1,000 bonus (approx. 6,566 bonus-eligible employees)
32. Nelnet — $1,000 bonuses for 4,100 employees
33. OceanFirst Financial Corp. – base wage increase to $15 per hour
34. Ohnward Bancshares — $1,000 bonuses for all 260 employees
35. Pinnacle Bank — $1,000 bonuses for 1,007 employees
36. PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. — $1,000 bonuses to 47,500 employees; an additional $1,500 in employee pension accounts; base wage hike to $15; $200 million charitable contribution
37. Regions Financial Corporation – base wage increase to $15 per hour; $40 million in charitable donations; $100 million in capital expenditures
38. Rush Enterprises – $1,000 bonuses for all 6,600 employees
39. Sinclair Broadcast Group — $1,000 bonuses for 9,000 employees
40. Southwest Airlines — $1,000 bonuses for all 55,000 employees; $5 million additional charitable donations
41. TCF Financial Corporation — $1,000 bonuses for full time employees; $500 bonuses for part time employees (exact number receiving bonus unknown at this time);
42. The Flood Insurance Agency — $1,000 bonuses for 17 full time employees
43. Territorial Savings Bank — $1,000 bonuses to 247 employees; base wage hike from $11.25 to $15.00 per hour
44. Turning Point Brands, Inc. — $1,000 bonuses for 107 employees
45. Unity Bank – all 200 non-executive employees will receive a $750 bonus
46. U.S. Bancorp – $1,000 bonuses for 60,000 employees; base wage hike to $15 per hour; $150 million charitable contribution

This list does not include the hundreds if not thousands of small and medium sized businesses that are also rewarding their employees, their charities, and their operations with increased benefits and rewards. And remember, these bonus payments are also in addition to the lower tax levels that the Trump tax cuts will incur for over 100 million working Americans and their families.

To see Mr. Bedard’s entire article that also includes the press releases praising the tax cuts go to the following link:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/over-100-companies-giving-trump-bonuses-after-tax-victory-tsunami-building/article/2644944
So for those of you that feared the end of the world with Trump’s election, here is a list of more 49 Trump benefits and accomplishments to go with the list of 62 accomplishments we published a few days ago. Let’s be honest Trump haters, he has done a pretty good job in just the first twelve months of his term.

Given your gross error in judgement relative to Trump, let me ask that you to do us all a favor by implementing the following changes in your behavior and attitude:

• Chill out, tamp down your TDS affliction. No matter how much you hate Trump on a sexist, personal basis, get over it. He is the legally and duly elected President, he will be around for a while so refocus your hatred on more constructive issues and matters. You will live a lot longer if you take your hatred out of your heart and soul and devote it to something positive.
• I would really appreciate it if some of you would apologize to the Trump voters you have disrespected in some of the grossest terms possible over the past year. You have called millions of voters racists, ignorant, stupid, Nazis, KKK members, and other horrible names simply because you disagreed with their voting choice. No American should be called such disgusting names simply because they exercised their Constitutional rights to the best of their abilities. Plus, slandering over 60 million Americans is no way to unite the country and get it focused on the real issues facing us all.
• More personally, I would like, no I am demanding, an apology from some of you for your slanderous and disgusting name calling because in doing so, you insulted and disrespected my sister, my family members, my friends, and my co-workers who simply voted their conscience. I will defend their right to vote anyway they wanted and will no put up with your childish and vicious venom and bile directed at them, very important people in my life
• And finally, I challenge you to read the following blog post, a post that shows quite clearly that it was hateful people like some of you and your silence during the Obama years that actually caused Trump to be elected. Thus, the people you hate for voting for Trump are actually looking back at you in the mirror:

https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-american-liberals-and-washington.html

If you were silent in the dozens of instances listed in this post then you were responsible for the very thing you hate: a Trump Presidency. Or put another way, a so far successful and productive Trump Presidency. Over 100 accomplishments in less than a year is not too shabby despite many of wanting both Trump and the country to fail.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

January, 2018, Part 5, Political Class Insanity - The Self Destructive of an Unbiased Press

It is the beginning of another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let's get started:

1) One of the pillars of any democracy such as ours is freedom of the press. Freedom of the press should provide a strong, independent watchdog that helps keep unbridled political lust and corruption in check. For hundreds of years it worked great in this country, informing the voters, uncovering corruption, and being a watchdog for freedom.

That tradition of independence has probably been violated and endangered with the current collection of journalists in positions of power in this country today. “Fake News” went from a nothing to a hot topic in a very short time. Mainstream media outlets stake out positions rather than remaining unbiased, neutral observers and reporters of news and reality in order to maximize their companies’ bottom line profits by creating cults of followers. 

The lack of unbiased reporting by traditional news outlets has let to the formation of new, fast growing alternative news outlets who also usually cater to a political point of view or leaning. While they arose because of skewed reporting of the traditional outlets, the newer outlets are usually just as skewed and just as biased.

And one of the causes of this breakdown in the traditional goodness of the free press in this country has been the cross pollination of journalism with the political class, as the following list illustrates:

• ABC News executive producer Ian Cameron is married to Susan Rice, National Security Adviser.
• CBS President David Rhodes is the brother of Ben Rhodes, Obama’s Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications.
• ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman is married to former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney
• ABC News and Univision reporter Matthew Jaffe is married to Katie Hogan, Obama’s Deputy Press Secretary
• ABC President Ben Sherwood is the brother of Obama’s Special Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood
• CNN President Virginia Moseley is married to former Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Secretary Tom Nides.

So you can see why many people feel that the free press in this country can no longer be trusted. Not only have they seen and experienced slanted and biased news reporting over these past few years, but the above list shows one reason why that might be true: the political world is now tightly married into the journalism world, leading to the very high potential for collusion between what were once opposing forces in our society. 

Any collusion between the political class and the journalists that are expected to keep it honest is not healthy for any democracy. Think Pravda in the former Soviet Union for an example of how close we are to our democracy imploding because politicians and journalists are manufacturing fake news or manipulating real news over the dinner table, be it at the home of Virginia Moseley and Tom Nides or the home of Susan Rice and Ian Cameron. Dangerous, dangerous insanity.

2) Let’s combine this previous point, the mainstream media and journalists not reporting the whole news in an unbiased manner, and update the sexual predator exploits of politicians across the country. The Daily Wire recently put out a list of two dozen potential and real sexual predator situations involving two dozen Democratic politicians. 

The point the article made, besides actually reporting on these new sexual predator situations by politicians, is that Virginia Moseley types at CNN deemed them not worthy to be reported as news since, the implication being, they involved Democrats behaving badly and that if this list was about Republican politicians, CNN would be all over the stories listed below: 

• According to the Daily Mail on November 20, 2017, four more women have come forward to accuse former Democratic President Bill Clinton of sexual assault. The women’s attorneys have notified Clinton that they plan to file four separate lawsuits against him.
• The Huffington Post reported on November 21, 2017 that Congresswoman Diana DeGette accused a former Democratic Congressman, Bob Filner, of sexually assaulting her when both were serving in Congress: “Some years ago, I was in an elevator and then-Congressman Bob Filner tried to pin me to the door of the elevator and kiss me. And I pushed him away. I mean, I was his colleague. He couldn’t take action against me. And believe you me, I never got in an elevator with him again.”
• The LA Times reported on November 20, 2017, that Democratic California assemblyman, Raul Bocanegra, had resigned his leadership role in the California state government and will not seek re-election after sexual harassment allegations were made public. A total of six women so far have accused him of sexual harassment.
• The Washington Beacon reported on November 13, 2017 that a New Mexico Democratic Congressional candidate, David Alcon, had been arrested for stalking. He had been sending unwanted text messages to a woman, one of which included a picture of his genitals.
• CBS in Denver reported on November 10, 2017 that Democratic state lawmaker Steve Lebsock had been accused by ten women of sexual harassment. One of the women was a fellow lawmaker who says, “says Lebsock became aggressively lewd at a bar on the last day of the 2016 legislative session when he found out that Winter’s husband was out of town."
• On a related story to the previous point, the Denver Post reported on November 14, 2017 that Colorado Democratic House Speaker Crisanta Duran had been accused of covering up the sexual harassment allegations against the same Steve Lebsock.
• The Minnpost reported on November 21, 2017 that Minnesota state lawmaker Dan Schoen had resigned over sexual harassment allegations. Two women had made the accusations with one claiming that at a campaign event back in 2015 Schoen had grabbed her buttocks while stating she had a "good door-knocking ass." 
• The Sacramento Bee newspaper reported on November 16, 2017 that a third woman had come forward to accuse California Democrat state senator Tony Mendoza of sexual harassment. 
• The Mercury News reported on November 11, 2017 that Democratic Senate leader Kevin Leon was also now involved in a sexual harassment controversy.
• The Inquirer reported on October 11, 2017 that Democratic Pennsylvania Commissioner of the town of Radnor had been arrested on multiple counts of child pornography. He is charged with receiving and sending hundreds of images of child sexual abuse, some involving toddlers and infants.
• The Buffalo News reported on November 20, 2017 that a woman had claimed that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had ignored her pleas to investigate one of his staff people who was allegedly sexually harassing her. Cuomo himself is named in a Federal lawsuit that the woman has filed.
• The Ledger Enquirer reported on November 13, 2017 that a Democratic state lawmaker, Calvin Smyre, has been accused of sexual misconduct. A so-called Democratic Party activist claims that Smyre sexually assaulted her in 1996 in Chicago.

You get the idea, I will list the other 12 politicians below, there story is about the same as the twelve listed above. Now, please note, that in most cases, all of these are currently just accusations, nothing has been proven in most cases. 

However, that is still not a reason for the CNNs of the world not cover at least a handful of these stories. If these were 24 cases of Republicans and sexual harassment and sexual assault I would bet that the Virginia Moseleys of the world would be all over these stories. But they are Democrats acting poorly so no coverage at all as the Daily Wire proved in their research for their article, they could not find any coverage via CNN on these politicians at all. 

It is obvious that CNN has chosen “sides” in the world of politics which renders the free press an appendage of the political class, not an independent reporter and overseer of the political class. And when the press becomes an appendage, our country and democracy suffers irreparable damage.

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The remaining twelve Democrats allegedly acting perversely but not being covered by CNN:

• Florida Democratic Party President Sally Boynton Brown resigns amidst sexual harassment controversy. (Sunshine State News - 11/20/2017)
• New Mexico Democratic legislator Sen. Michael Padilla accused in two Federal lawsuits of sexual harassment. (The Albuquerque Journal - 11/18/2017)
• Colorado Democratic Rep. Paul Rosenthal accused of sexual harassment and groping. (The Denver Post - 11/17/2017)
• Illinois Democratic Sen. Ira Silverstein accused of sexual harassment. (CBS CHicago - 10/31/2017)
• Missouri Democratic Rep. Josh Peters accused of sexual harassment. (The Kansas City Star - 01/25/2017)
• Nevada Democratic Sen. Mark Manendo resigns amid numerous sexual harassment allegations. (KTNV - 07/18/2017)
• Oklahoma Democratic lawmaker Will Fourkiller accused of sexual harassment. (NewsOK - 01/10/2017)
• Oregon Democratic lawmaker David Gomberg accused of inappropriately touching women. (Pregon Lives - 10/30/2017)
• Former Washington Democratic lawmaker Brendan Williams accused of sexual harassment. (The Seattle Times - 11/01/2017)
• Connecticut Democratic councilman Scott Chamberlain resigns after ‘furry’ profile revealed. (The New York Daily News 09/08/2017)
• Florida Democratic Sen. Jeff Clemens resigns over sexual misconduct. (Politico - 10/27/2017)
• Ohio Democratic governor candidate Justice William O’Neill brags about his sexual history on Facebook. (The Washington Post - 11/18/2017)

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