I was VP of Insurance for a major corporation and was responsible for purchasing the health insurance for thousands of employees.  One of the most important components of this responsibility is to have a firm sense of values.

Our first priority was to protect our employees.  However, it was also important to control costs, for both the employee and the company.  There are always important value decisions that informed our decisions.  We decided that the most important standard was to make health insurance affordable so that it was available to as many employees as possible. But we also wanted to be sure that those who needed the most help got that help.   If there was a choice between a small increase in premium and a small increase in co-pay for routine procedures and a reduction in coverage in the event of a catatrophic illness or injury we would always opt for the plan that protected those with the greatest need.  We would rather see all employees pay a little extra for real protection if they needed it than to see someone with a catastrophic injury or illness stuck with inadequate coverage.

I soon learned that union programs and government programs have opposite values. If you doubt this, just look at Medicare.  Medicare Part A covers lower cost but frequently used benefits.  Medicare Part B costs you more money, but it still does not provide real protection in the event of a catastrophic injury or illness.  If you want full coverage you need to purchase a Medicare Supplement policy from an independent insurance company

There is a reason for this design.  Medicare is designed to provide a lot of people with low cost insurance that covers most, but not all things.  We call them voters.  Those people who find Medicare inadequate are often very ill and they conveniently tend to die.  That means they typically stop voting, unless they live in a place like Chicago.  Medicare was not designed to take care of the truly needy, it was designed to appeal to the most voters.

This is why Jimmy Kimmel’s rant on national TV was 100% wrong.  I am glad his son got the surgery he needed, but he didn’t get that because of ObamaCare, he got that in spite of ObamaCare.  Kimmel’s son was fortunate enough to have a rich Dad able to pay the cost of the procedure.  This had absolutely nothing to do with any pre-existing conditions clause.  However, if Jimmy Kimmel’s son had been born to one of the millions of people enrolled in an ObamaCare HMO the odds of that child getting expensive surgery at Cedars Sinai would be close to zero. Instead his family would be getting a small benefit to help them plan the funeral.

Jimmy Kimmel also is ignorant of something really important.  There was a President who did want to see people with Catatrophic illness able to obtain treatment at the best hospitals whether they had insurance or not.  That was Ronald Reagan and he signed the Emergency Medical Labor Treatment Act (EMTALA) into law in 1986.  That law made it illegal for prestigous institutes to dump Medicaid, uninsured or otherwise unprofitable patients on local community hospitals.  This was actually the law that would have offer the best chance for a poor child to receive the same treatment as Jimmy Kimmel’s son.

There were also politicians who tried to circumvent that law.  For example, Michelle Obama who was paid over $300,000 per year to “help” people who were uninsured or on Medicare get transportation away from the University of Chicago Medical Center to a community hospital or clinic.

Sean Hannity exposed this in 2009, but Democrats were too busy pushing through ObamaCare to notice:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2009/07/23/program-linked-to-first-lady-michelle-obama-accused-patient-dumping.html

ObamaCare was designed to offer low cost benefits to low income people from low cost providers.  It is just a coincidence that those also happened to be the people almost certain to vote for Democrats.  This is what happens with any “socialized medicine” program.  If the government gives you health care, the government feels entitled to decide who gets such care.  Since the goals is to give small but popular benefits to as many people as possible they are unconcerned over the small percentage of really sick people people who are so darned expensive to treat.  There were even studies by the Obama regime on how to reduce the enormous expense many people incurr during the last few months of life.  This is one reason why socialists love euthenasia programs.  It is the same reason they love funding abortions.  Treating dead people is a lot cheaper than keeping someone alive.

But for the filthy rich, like the Clinton’s, the Obama’s and the Kimmels, this does not apply.  They can afford the very best doctors and would never consider getting treatment at one of  those wonderful community hospitals so adored by Michelle Obama.  That is only for the basket of deplorables.

TDM

The performance by Stephen Colbert trashing Donald Trump is so awful that I refuse to even post a link to the transcript.  We can be certain that if a Fox News personality did this they would be instantly banned for life.  But since Colbert was trashing Trump, who liberals hate, nothing will be done unless public outrage makes this impossible to ignore.  So far, CBS has not even bothered to address the issue.

Anyone with a shred of human decency who watched this performance would have fired Stephen Colbert on the spot.  No investigation is necessary.  He did this on live TV and it is impossible to spin these remarks away. 

What makes this worse is the self-righteous verbal assault launched by Stephen Colbert with regard to the leaked Donald Trump video from 2005.

http://www.cbs.com/shows/the-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/news/1005984/stephen-colbert-releases-scorching-video-response-to-trump-s-leaked-audio.

Mr. Colbert.  If you are looking for an arrogant, sexist, homophobe spouting hate speech, consider buying a mirror.   You set the standard for punishing people for irresponsible speech, how about applying that standard to yourself?  If you had a shred of character CBS wouldn’t have to fire you, you would have already resigned and made a public and heartfelt apology.  But there is zero chance of that because there is zero evidence that you have even the residual dreams of a conscience.  That was proven when Colbert said he would do it all again.

Sadly he is likely to continue spewing this garbage on national TV, because liberals not only do not care, they obviously enjoy this.  The good news is that they are losing election after election because fewer and fewer people are this naïve.  Even people who consider themselves liberal and who agree with liberal values are confronted with the reality that those people leading the liberal movement have no values at all, liberal or conservative.

TDM

Bill O’Reilly was fired by Fox News. The liberal left is celebrating. One can understand why he was fired, there just too many similar accusations. Advertisers were deserting the ship. But I predict we may look at this very differently in a couple of years. O’Reilly was on the air for 21 years and that is not an accident. He will not take on Fox News, because they are going to pay him a ton of money to prevent that. But that does not mean he will go down without a fight.

The first round goes to those people who shoved O’Reilly off the air. Don’t be so sure who wins round two. Round one was won in the court of public opinion. O’Reilly didn’t have a chance. Round two is likely to be fought in a court room where his accusers will have to come up with real evidence. That is a whole different ball of wax.

They say there are few things more dangerous than a cornered animal. But a person who feels he or she has nothing to lose is the most dangerous opponent of all. O’Reilly has lost his dream job and been publicly humiliated. He has to be seething with anger.

https://thinkprogress.org/oreilly-statement-mccarthyism-b03ca4e8f94d

His attorney, Marc E. Kasowitz has already written that O’Reilly has been subjected to a brutal campaign of character assassination. That is clearly true. Kasowitz said that his firm “has uncovered evidence that the smear campaign is being orchestrated by far-left organizations bent on destroying O’Reilly for political and financial reasons.” “That evidence will be put forward shortly and it is irrefutable.”

Those should be chilling words to those who are celebrating a successful witch hunt. The liberal left, always short on the uptake, viewed this as a desperate effort by Bill O’Reilly to save his job at Fox News. In reality it just may be the first salvo in the real war that is coming. Marc Kasowitz is one of the top trial attorneys in the country. He will be a formidable opponent. If you are one of those people who trashed Bill O’Reilly and are rejoicing in your great victory, now is the time to be afraid, very afraid.

TDM

Democrats with the loud support of the main stream media routinely accuse Republicans of leaking classified information. This is frequently done in interviews where Democrats, like Adam Schiff and Jackie Spier are leaking classified information. It is long past time they got called on it.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-calls-upon-office-congressional-ethics-investigate-whether-rep-schiff-rep-speier-disclosed-classified-information/

Well Glory be…tee hee hee, Judicial Watch just hand delivered a letter to the Chairman and Co-Chair of the House Office of Congressional Investigations demanding an ethics investigation of Adam Schiff and Jackie Speier. It’s a beautiful thing.

I don’t see how the Office of Congressional Ethics can refuse to start an investigation in view of the fact they are already investigating Devin Nunes for less   We could even see Adam Schiff have to recluse himself, which would be a gift from heaven. Schiff is an arrogant intolerant jerk who tries to pretend he is the only honest man left in congress. Well more than a little mustard just rubbed off the hot dog and I think we could see Adam Schiff eat a significant amount of crow.

What could be better than to Stick Schiff!

TDM

My wife taught me the incompetent driver maneuver.  We were traveling on the freeway, she had her turn signal on, but the car next to her would not yield and let her move over.  She just jerked toward the lane anyway and then quickly jerked back.  She called it the incompetent driver maneuver.  The other vehicle honked its horn at her and backed way off.  She then calmly moved over.

I am not recommending this.  For one thing, my wife is very skilled at the incompetent driver maneuver.  A less skilled driver might make a serious mistake.  In addition, some recent road rage incidents are a reminder that people don’t always respond the way you expect.  That being said, the incompetent driver maneuver actually works.

I don’t know if the Trump attack on Syria is brilliant or stupid.  I do know that the entire world is looking at him differently than they did yesterday.  Trump has shown that he can and will take decisive action with little or no warning.  Some people will applaud this, some will scream to high heaven, but all will be well aware of the risk of Donald Trump merging into their lane.  Like I said, the incompetent driver maneuver, while not recommended, can be effective.

TDM

Michael Savage used to famously say that liberalism is a mental disorder.  I used to laugh at that, but this is a pretty good explanation for the mass hysteria now on full display.  Liberals rely primarily on emotion and they often disregard inconvenient facts.  If one defines insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then one is also describing liberalism.  One of the sad consequences of insanity is that during times of stress it can border on suicidal.

Liberals are not upset that Hillary Clinton is not President.  They never actually liked her.  They are just devastated that Donald Trump is President.  They cannot bring themselves to endure the unendurable.  In their minds Donald Trump is a crude, ruthless lying xenophobic misogynist tragically and inexplicably inserted into the Presidency.  They simply cannot accept the fact of his Presidency.  They were desperately hoping that someone somewhere would find the longed for smoking gun that would remove this national nightmare.  Deep down they know that Russia did not steal the election and the Trump campaign didn’t want or need Russia’s help to beat Hillary Clinton but the alternative is to accept the legitimacy of the Trump Presidency and they cannot do that.

This is why they will not and cannot give up on the ridiculous nonsense that Russia, with the help of Trump, stole the election.  To give up on that would be to acknowledge that Donald Trump is the legitimate President of the United States and to liberals that is a fate worse than death itself.

This is why they can’t comprehend why anyone would be concerned about the Obama administration spying on the Trump campaign and his transition team.  In their delusional minds, this is not a crime; it is an actor of honor.  They would be far more upset if Obama wasn’t doing everything possible to resist the Trump Presidency.

This reminds me of the scene from “A Few Good Men.”  Colonel Nathan Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson, is outraged that a pipsqueak like Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise, would dare challenge him with regard to his duty to defend Guantanamo.  When Kaffee pushed him, Jessup responds by saying:

You can’t handle the truth…Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns.  Whose gonna do it?  You?  You, Lt. Weinburg?  I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.  You weep for Santiago, and you curse the marines.  You have that luxury.  You have the luxury of not knowing what I know.  That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives.  And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.  You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall.  We use words like honor, code, loyalty.  We used these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something.  You use them as a punchline.  I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provided, and then questions the manner in which I provide it.  I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way.  Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post.  Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled too.

Liberals think they are Colonel Jessup defending the country from Donald Trump.  They are outraged that anyone would even care if they used extraordinary methods to achieve that goal.  But what liberals fail to grasp is that Donald Trump is the President of the United States, he was elected in a fair and honest election and he does not begin to resemble the monster they have created in their own delusional minds.  This is the consequence of liberals convincing their supporters and themselves that one must hate anyone who dares disagree with them.  They have deluded themselves into believing that those who disagree with them are not only wrong, they are by definition evil.  This blinds them to the real evil on full display by those they choose to admire solely because they appear to worship at the same altar of political correctness.  Those who cannot recognize evil, eventually embrace it ultimately leading them with no escape from the road to destruction.

TDM

Many of us still remember when Susan Rice lied her ass off on national television following the Benghazi attacks.  Other than Bill and Hillary Clinton there have been very few political figures so willing to look the American people straight in the eye and lie.  Incredibly the main stream media so quick to call Donald Trump a liar if he disagrees with the size of the crowd at his inauguration didn’t seem to notice and certainly did not care.  When is the last time you heard anyone in the main stream media call Susan Rice a liar?

President Obama rewarded her performance by appointing her to be his National Security Advisor.  It is important to note that this appointment does not require Senate approval and put Rice in a position where Obama could invoke executive privilege to prevent her from testifying before congress.

This reminds me of a scene from a Bridge Too Far.  General James M Gavin, played by Ryan O’Neal asks Major Julian Cook, played by Robert Redford to lead an assault across the river, in small unarmed boats, under fire.  Gavin tells Cook that he needs someone willing, able and stupid enough to carry out the assignment.  Those are the same qualifications President Obama recognized in Susan Rice.  If she was not aware that everything she said on those Sunday Talk Shows was utter nonsense, then she is beyond stupid.  If she did know and still lied then she is even more stupid.

Now there are numerous reports that Nunes has solid evidence that Susan Rice personally asked to have members of the Trump campaign and/or transition team unmasked from intelligence reports.  This apparently was requested in writing.  Like I said: stupid! This is way beyond bad.  This explains exactly why Devin Nunes responded the way he did and why he gave immediate notice to President Trump.  It is impossible to even pretend that Susan Rice did this without Obama’s knowledge and consent.

This scandal is now perilously close to directly involving President Obama. The hounds are on the blood trail and it leads directly to President Barack Obama and the Oval Office.  The only real question is whether the main stream media will ever admit the seriousness of these allegations.  They have been pretending that the “potential” collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia is the big story.  The problem is that they have zero evidence of this.  The other problem is that there is zero evidence that Russia had any impact on the election.  In addition, Trump is spot on when he says that Clinton had a lot more direct personal connections with Russia than anyone remotely connected with the Trump campaign.  Trump is not a rino Republican afraid of his shadow.  He can and will fight back and if Democrats pursue this story, we are going to learn a lot more about the Clinton Foundation and Bill’s $500,000 speaking fees.  In contrast to the lack of evidence regarding the Trump campaign there is a mountain of evidence regarding the Clintons.

Nunes was not disclosing Susan Rice’s name because he was too busy building his case.  Now that her name has been leaked, it is probably only a matter of hours before she is called to testify. If Obama tries to prevent her from testifying, on the basis of “Executive Privilege” that will create several problems.  One is that the Supreme Court ruled against Richard Nixon when he tried to use Executive Privilege to avoid the Watergate scandal.  In addtion if Obama claims executive privilege it will be considered by at least some people to be an admission of guilt.  On the other hand, if he does not invoke Executive Privilege, Susan Rice will be asked to testify under oath. I predict her asking for protection under the 5^th Amendement.  Susan Rice should already be lawyering up and she might seriously consider upgrading her personal security.  Otherwise Rice Crispy will be more than a cute headline.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/04/03/obama-adviser-susan-rice-sought-names-trump-officials-intelligence-reports/22024089/

Democrats are going to try dismiss this as minor compared to the much more significant problem of Trump working with Russia to steal the election.  That probably would work, with the New York Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times. It has already worked, predictably, with CNN.  While there are certainly a lot of liberals who will continue to buy that nonsense, I doubt that there are enough of them to carry the day.  Remember, there weren’t nearly enough of them stupid enough to vote for Hillary Clinton.

The bottom line is that it is increasingly clear that, once again, the Obama administration abused power for political reasons.  It is long past time for Democrats to get over the fact that Hillary Clinton lost and start paying attention.  Abuse of power is not a minor problem and it threatens everyone, not just the Tea Party.

TDM

Most people think the Trump helped Russia steal the election myth will be a continuing theme throughout the Trump Presidency.  This would be true, if Trump was a typical Republican terrified of his own shadow.  Instead he is fighting back and he is winning.

The problem for the liberal left and Democrats is that there are few if any facts supporting their position. It is increasingly clear that Democrats still cannot come to grips with the fact that Hillary Clinton lost.  There are four stages to recovering from a tragic event: denial, anger, depression and acceptance. A lot of Democrats remain in denial desperately hoping they will find a way to reverse the results of this election.  They are delusional.

The results are already stunning and likely to become devastating.  Trump has successfully forced people to look at the obvious abuse of power by the Obama administration.  While the main stream media cannot find any evidence of this, they need only look at their own reporting.

But Trump did more than that.  He reminded people of all of money flowing to the Clinton foundation, the huge speaking fees to Bill Clinton and the transfer of us uranium resources to Russia.

Now we learn that Grassley may have found the ultimate poison pill.  It turns out that the unverified dossier about Trump’s campaign ties to Russia came from Fusion GPS.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/31/company-linked-to-trump-russian-dossier-has-its-own-kremlin-connection-us-senator-says.htm

If Russia was interfering in the election, it is quite possible it was in opposition to Donald Trump.

“According to a complaint filed with the Justice Department, Fusion GPS headed the pro-Russia campaign to kill the Global Magnitsky Act, which imposes sanctions on Russians designated as human rights abusers. This was the same time, Grassley said, that the FBI was relying on the anti-Trump dossier and the man who produced it for Fusion to further its investigation into Trump and his Russian ties.”

The FBI, investigating this Dossier upon the request from John McCain missed this little tidbit.  Ouch!

Fusion GPS did not deny this lobbying effort, just said that “it didn’t need to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, because it partners with a U.S. Law firm to ensure compliance with the law.”

The longer this goes on, the more embarrassing it becomes for Democrats.

This a reminder of an important lesson taught to every attorney.  Never ask a question to which you do not know the answer.

TDM

Who would have thunk?  During an interview on MSNBC, Dr. Evelyn Farkas, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense literally admitted that the Obama administration was using the intelligence services to spy on the Trump campaign:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVGp2FZmVA4

The transcript speaks for itself:

I was urging my former colleagues, and, and frankly speaking the people on the Hill [Democrat politicians], it was more actually aimed at telling the Hill people, get as much information as you can – get as much intelligence as you can – before President Obama leaves the administration.

Because I had a fear that somehow that information would disappear with the senior [Obama] people who left; so it would be hidden away in the bureaucracy, um, that the Trump folks – if they found out HOW we knew what we knew about their, the Trump staff, dealing with Russians – that they would try to compromise those sources and methods; meaning we no longer have access to that intelligence.

So I became very worried because not enough was coming out into the open and I knew that there was more.  We have very good intelligence on Russia; so then I had talked to some of my former colleagues and I knew that they were also trying to help get information to [Democrat politicians

It will be interesting to see how the liberal left handles this.  Odds are they will focus on the evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and ignore the massive abuse of power by the Obama administration.  But the problem is that if there is so much material, why haven’t they been able to produce a shred of evidence?  The obvious answer is they don’t have such evidence or we would all know about it.

We now know why former Obama intelligence officials were publicly stating there was no evidence of collusion.  They knew that the real story was the surveillance itself and they were trying to head off an investigation into that.  Thanks to the brilliant Ms. Farkas, we do have a smoking gun, just not the one they wanted or expected.

Incredibly she not only admits that intelligence was being gathered, she admits it was done deliberately, she admits it involved classified information and it was being preserved and distributed to Democratic politicians.  It was also being deliberately withheld from Republicans.  It does not get any worse than this.

The main stream media will try to down play this but Fox is about to go nuclear. This story is so juicy and so significant that within hours at least some in the main stream media will jump on the bandwagon.  While they are liberal and they hate Trump they simply cannot ignore a story this explosive.  It is hard to imagine someone supposedly so smart being so incredibly stupid.  But then, liberals are not necessarily known for common sense and logic.

TDM

If the following article is true, there was foreign interference in our election, but not by Russia and not for Donald Trump. It turns out that the real interference may have been by Estonia who gave John Brenna, Director of the CIA, a false tape recording alleging money from the Kremlin was going into the U.S. Presidential campaign.

https://spectator.org/health-care-and-we-the-people/

It appears as those Brennan, who hates Trump, went on a mission to investigate Trump and defeat him. Perhaps Brennan even believed the story and thought he was doing the right thing. Democrats are often willing to believe incredible myths about Donald Trump, so this is more than consistent.

There is so much misinformation out there that one has to be skeptical about everything. However, this at least makes sense. This is very typical of Democrats, who consistently botch foreign policy, being terrified at putting a Neocon Republican in charge of national security. Perhaps the most fascinating part of this is Joe Biden visiting the Baltic States and saying that Barack Obama had their back and would defend them. It would be the ultimate irony if this whole mess was started by people stupid enough to believe that Barack Obama would ever have stood up to Russia.

TDM