Divemedic

The title of this post seems a bit over the top. How could Obama and the Democrats possibly be blamed for the epidemic of drug overdoses that is sweeping the nation?

The roots of this problem lie with Obamacare- the Affordable Care Act and a company called Press Ganey. The little known company sends surveys out to patients of medical providers, and uses the patient’s satisfaction to rate doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers. Over the past decade, the government has fully embraced the “patient is always right” model–these surveys focus on areas like waiting times, pain management and communication skills–betting that increased customer satisfaction will improve the quality of care and reduce costs.  I have seen patients lower a hospital’s scores because they didn’t have HBO on the televisions in the Emergency Room.

The government, due to Obamacare, has tied reimbursement of facilities to their Press Ganey scores. As a result, the focus in healthcare is in making the patient happy, but not necessarily on making the patient healthy. So doctors prescribe narcotics because patients want them, not because they need them. As they become addicted to these painkillers, the patients return again and again for their fix, all the while improving the doctor’s satisfaction scores.

But giving patients exactly what they want, versus what the doctor thinks is right, can be very bad medicine. Researchers using data from nearly 52,000 adults found that the most satisfied patients spent the most on health care and prescription drugs. They were 12% more likely to be admitted to the hospital and accounted for 9% more in total health care costs. They were also the ones more likely to die.

All of those facts mean nothing. All that matters is making the patient happy. Thanks Democrats, the plan you voted for is killing America.

A Canadian serial killer has killed at least five people, and perhaps dozens more. This doesn’t count though, according to US anti-gun advocates, because they were not gun deaths. It isn’t even due to “privilege” because the killer is gay.

Our neighborhood has 99 homes in it. The neighborhood is mostly upper middle class people in their 30’s through their 50’s. Many of the people who live here have children. Professionally, the people here have ordinary jobs: Cops, teachers, real estate sales, a couple of business owners.

A couple of years ago, my neighborhood started a neighborhood watch, complete with a page on the book of faces. The watch is not an official one with police involvement, it is being run by the Homeowners’ Association. When I was asked to join, I declined with visions of George Zimmerman and the “wannabe” label attached to him because he was part of the neighborhood watch dancing in my head. My wife joined the social media page because it is good to be informed.

The neighborhood is just about 2,000 feet from a school. This means that, being more than 1,000 feet from a school, our neighborhood is also a place where sex offenders can live. Of those 99 homes, there were two of them. Until last week.

One of the police officers who lives here posted a link to an FDLE sexual predator flyer for a third offender who moved into our neighborhood. Nearly ll of the people who responded were thanking the cop for letting everyone know. Except one woman, who said that the people posting should avoid spreading rumors, and further said that since we didn’t have all of the facts, we remember that it isn’t our place to judge.

She apparently complained to the HOA, because the entire thread was deleted because, in the words of the HOA, the neighborhood watch FB page is not the place to engage in hurtful gossip. She also said  that since his crime was more than 20 years ago, we should give him a second chance.

I disagree in multiple ways. This is not gossip, nor is it a rumor. Verdict is a word meaning “truth” and once a person has been convicted of a crime, including molesting a child, it is a legal fact that the person is a convicted child molester. Letting your neighbors know that a convicted child molester is living in your neighborhood is not spreading rumors, it is spreading factual information about a convicted felon who is living in your neighborhood. This is the very reason why you have a neighborhood watch. If the board of the HOA wants to give him a second chance, perhaps they should hire him to be their baby sitter.

Incidentally, convicted sex criminal number two, who was convicted of molesting a child under 16 10 years ago while he was 30 years old, was arrested last night for talking to small children at a local big box store.

The powers that be cannot keep guns, drugs, and other contraband out of prisons, they can’t even prevent inmates from using contraband cell phones to transmit a 49 minute live video diatribe, and the anti-gunners are trying to convince us that that they can keep criminals from getting guns.

This year’s anti gun chorus is singing. The tune this time? They are claiming that 2018, even though it is only 26 days old, has seen 11 school shootings. They are lying. The lie is being repeated by news outlets all over the nation. It’s almost like this is an organized disinformation campaign.

Here are the 11 shootings that are being claimed:

First, the ones that resulted in no injuries:

1 A bus in Iowa was hit by a BB gun on January 6th.

2 The window of a college building on the San Bernardino campus of Cal State was hit by a bullet believed to have come from the foothills of the city- more than half a mile away.

3 A bullet hit a window at a Seattle high school. No one was hit, no shooter was seen, no shots were heard.

4 A student in a criminal justice class fired a shot through the wall of a simulated firing range after the instructor left a live firearm inside a simulated firing range.

5 Unknown people traded gunfire in a COLLEGE parking lot. One bullet hit a nearby dorm. No one was injured by the gunfire.

6 One high school was injured while diving for cover when a group of students he was with exchanged gunfire with unknown parties. Appears to be gang related. No one was injured by the gunfire. The high school is an “alternative” school for so-called “at risk” youth. (Meaning criminals in training and gang members)

Then there were the suicides where the only person injured was the shooter:

7 A 14 year old boy shot himself in a Tuscon school’s bathroom.

8 A 31 year old man pulled into a school parking lot and committed suicide in his car.

There are the ones involving someone other than the shooter being shot:

9 A student at Wake Forest COLLEGE was killed after being shot during a fight at a sorority party. Alcohol was involved. Some of those involved were minors, not students of the college, and IMO there was some gang affiliation here.

10 Two were killed and 18 wounded when a 15 year old fired shots at Marshall County High school in Kentucky. Two were killed and 14 wounded by bullets, the rest of the people injured were injured trying to escape.

11 A 15 year old with a troubled history shot and killed a girl in the cafeteria before school. The boy had a troubled past. It seems that he had previously made threats, and the school did exactly nothing.

So there you have it: 11 so called school shootings. One of them involved a BB gun, not a firearm. One didn’t involve a school at all, as it had been closed permanently months before. One involved a police training accident. In all, no one was shot in six of the incidents. Many of the incidents were colleges not schools. 
A further two of them were suicides.

In fact, only two of the shootings involved actual “schools” and actual shootings. Of those two, one of them was carried out by a student who had a troubled past and probably should have been in jail. When you have to lie or mislead to make your point, your point probably isn’t worth making.

Twitchy is covering the Twitter reports from the government shutdown:

Thanking Ellen DeGeneres for being a good sport about her televised push-up contest against the First Lady in February of 2012, Obama said Ellen “is a gay friend who accepts a little bit of teasing about Michelle beating her in push-ups. I think she claims Michelle didn’t go all the way down.” Obama let the line hang naughtily, provoking laughter from the crowd.

Then there is the article about a few more of Obama’s gaffes:

“No, no. I have been practicing…I bowled a 129. It’s like — it was like Special Olympics, or something.”

“I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”

“The point I was making was not that Grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person…”

“That’s just how white folks will do you. It wasn’t merely the cruelty involved; I was learning that black people could be mean and then some. It was a particular brand of arrogance, an obtuseness in otherwise sane people that brought forth our bitter laughter. It was as if whites didn’t know that they were being cruel in the first place. Or at least thought you deserving of their scorn.”

Draw your own conclusions as to why Trump is facing more criticism.

Thirty states have legalized the use of marijuana in some way, despite Federal laws and regulations to the contrary. The Federal government is doing nothing. No will to change the law, no power to enforce it.

The list of cities, states, and counties that have declared themselves to be sanctuaries for people who have entered the US in violation of US immigration laws continues to grow. The Federal government appears powerless. President Trump has tried different tactics, but has been opposed by the courts and the jurisdictions that have already been overrun.

Now Tennessee is attempting to declare itself a sanctuary state from Federal gun laws.

A protected class is running around the country, exempted from the laws that the rest of us must follow.

The cracks are growing. It is apparent that the Federal government can no longer enforce its own laws.

What comes next? Does the government fall? When? What government replaces it?

The second civil war looms nearer.

An accountant discovered the discrepancy while reviewing the budget for new train platforms under Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.
The budget showed that 900 workers were being paid to dig caverns for the platforms as part of a 3.5-mile tunnel connecting the historic station to the Long Island Rail Road.  But the accountant could … identify [only] about 700 jobs that needed to be done, according to three project supervisors.  Officials could not find any reason for the other 200 people to be there.

The likely explanation is that there are managers who have hired people that exist only on paper, and are redirecting the pay for those virtual employees to their own bank accounts. The Unions in New York guarantee that there will be employment for plenty of union workers, even if there are no jobs:

The estimated cost of the Long Island Rail Road project, known as “East Side Access,” has ballooned to $12 billion, or nearly $3.5 billion for each new mile of track – seven times the average elsewhere in the world.
Along with interviews with contractors, the documents reveal a dizzying maze of jobs, many of which do not exist on projects elsewhere.
There are “nippers” to watch material being moved around and “hog house tenders” to supervise the break room.  Each crane must have an “oiler,” a relic of a time when they needed frequent lubrication.  Generators and elevators must have their own operators, even though they are automatic….One part of Local 147’s deal entitles the union to $450,000 for each tunnel-boring machine used.  That is to make up for job losses from “technological advancement,” even though equipment has been standard for decades.

Then there are the token clerks in the ticket booths who earn an average of about $112,000 a year, even though 83% of all subway fares are sold by machines and workers in ticket booths have nothing to do most of the time and are prevented, by union rules, from helping out in any other part of the station. You see, the ticket booths are run by the station department, and the platforms and trains are run by the transit department. Employees of one department are not permitted to work in another department’s area.

The state of New York pays some of the highest taxes in the United States. They then were able, under the previous tax rules, to write off those taxes and reduce their Federal tax burden. In other words, you pay more in Federal taxes so that New Yorkers can pay people six figures to sit on their asses and do nothing all day. Now people in New York are upset at the Trump tax plan, because they say it is unfair to them.

I had problems with the Trump tax plan, because the original plan added tens of thousands of dollars to my tax bill. That appears to have been fixed in the final plan, with the final plan appearing to cut my taxes by about $15,000. We will see next year when it is time to file.