Obamaville - April 23 - The Clinton Legacy - Public Service or Public Con Job - and who is being conned?

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With Bill and Hillary Clinton continuing to soar in popularity in the minds of some Democrats, although not in the eyes of liberal and progressive Democratic institutions like The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Washington Post, the stunning article today in The New York Times raises more questions.

The newspaper disclosure about the manipulation of hundreds of millions of foreign dollars in the Clinton Foundation while she was Secretary of State probably explains better than any other explanation why Hillary erased tens of thousands of emails from her personal server covering that period.

Of course, Clinton apologists say it was just the Clintons being the Clinton's and they are just targets of a Right Wing conspiracy.  However, no one would label the Times or Post right wing radicals.

Bill Clinton is almost certainly the most popular person in American politics. A new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll showed that 56 percent of people have a positive view of the former president while just 26 percent hold a negative one.  It makes him more popular than his wife; 44 percent of Americans have a positive view of Hillary Clinton while 36 percent have a negative one.

Most Clinton fans point to the lead Hillary holds in the choice to be Democrat nominee for president, a number that wavers around 60%.  Running against Joe Biden who has not said he is in the race, nor campaigned, he sits at about 10% of the Democrat votes, Clinton has already lost 40% of the Democrats with no opposition.

People may be tired of the Clinton love of walking the tightrope when it comes to federal laws and regulations.  Bill Clinton spent over $7 million on legal fees to avoid impeachment and settlements for lawsuits against him by women.

Of course, he smoked pot but did not inhale and had oral sex with an intern but did not actually have sex, so one must adjust to the Clinton definitions.

We are yet to open the book on the changes Clinton made in the twilight of his presidency, which may have directly led to the collapse of our economy.

In addition, there is Goldman Sachs and their relationship with both Clintons in bailing out his legal expenses.  They also arranged for $500,000 speaker fees, and channeled tens of millions of foreign, and somewhat illegal dollars, into the Clinton Foundation of which she was a director, even while Secretary of State.

Did I mention their relationship to former Goldman Sachs executive Rahm Emanuel, Clinton's chief fundraiser, and Obama's Chief of Staff?

You get the idea, if Hillary runs unopposed as it now looks she may spend far more money defending herself against the acts of her husband, their family foundation, the $200 plus million dollars in their bank accounts, and their very strange relationship with the richest people throughout the world, some from countries whose money is banned.

Just what transpired to lift the Clinton couple from being broke according to Hillary in 2000 when Bill left office millions of dollars of debt from legal fees and lawsuit settlements, to being worth up to $200 million along with the assets of the Clinton Foundation 14 years later.

Most disappointing if I were a Democrat is how they continually sucker in the progressive wing of the party with promises of helping the little people, as they rocket up the ladder of former politicians who got rich manipulating the power of government.

Not only are they the classic politicians who have run Washington for far too long, but they show  no signs of stopping their efforts to convert public service to personal gain.

Ironically, Obama seemed to have been wary of the wily Clinton clan.  The White House said when he made Hillary Secretary of State she signed an agreement to publicly report all Clinton Foundation sources of money, and she was subject to preserving a permanent email record of all her dealings as Secretary.  Both promises seem to have been broken.

This might raise the question did the Clinton's tell Obama they would support him in the elections if she became secretary of State?  It could be the appointment was a bribe or a payoff but not being a right wing Republican I have no grounds to pursue such an abuse of power.

Hillary's biggest fear should be not having an opponent and having to spend the next 15 months before the general election explaining the Clinton actions over the past two decades.

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Why do you stand alone in trying to be healthy - American Health Care does not Really Care

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Well here is the answer why.

• Pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars when you are on prescription drugs

• Local drug stores and pharmacies make money when you fill prescriptions

• Obamacare makes sure you get subsidies and assistance if the drugs are too expensive

• Big Pharma pays a kickback to your doctor for prescribing their drugs to you

• The President and Congress refuse to change the law so you can get off the drugs

Call it what you like, there is no such thing as health care improvement in our system of health care.  Through doctors, clinics, and emergency rooms, drug companies treat your diseases and disorders with drugs that help manage the disease.

No one pays for you to get you well.

No one pays for a nutritional evaluation so you know the cause of the problem.

No one pays for proven herbal treatments used for thousands of years to eliminate the problem that caused the disease in the first place.

No one pays for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatment including herbs, acupuncture, physical training, and working knowledge of the Five Elements.

The Five Elements are a comprehensive template that organizes all natural phenomena into five master groups or patterns in nature. Each of the five groups—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water—include categories such as a season, a direction, climate, stage of growth and development, internal organ, body tissue, emotion, aspect of the soul, taste, color, sound . . . the categories are seemingly limitless. The Five Elements reflect a deep understanding of natural law, the Universal order underlying all things in our world.

Traditional Chinese Medicine reflects a principle unknown in America, the principle of healing patients rather than maintaining and managing illness and disease.

Ironically, ignoring thousands of years of TCM experience, our health care system refuses to recognize the body of TCM work and refuses to make insurance companies pay to heal you using these techniques.

Maybe there is hope however.  Take the case of the use of a banned drug, cannabis, for medical purposes.  Over half the states in America have ignored the pressures from pharmaceutical companies to prohibit using marijuana to treat many illnesses.

These states have ignored the pressure from the politicians owned by these companies through campaign contributions and outrageous speaker fees.  The states have even ignored the federal government regulatory laws from the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by legalizing the use of the herb cannabis, better know as marijuana, for medicinal purposes.

That is a start toward meaningful health care reform.  You see, marijuana works, is not addictive, has never resulted in a death from an overdose, is substantially less expensive than Big Pharma drugs, and is not controlled by the richest corporations in America.

Of course, marijuana should be decriminalized; release the tens of thousands of people in prison for using it and save hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer costs.  It deserves approval nationwide for medicinal use and states should continue to approve it for recreational use since it has none of the deadly effects our legal drugs called alcohol and tobacco have wreaked on the public.

Far less controversial, and far more significant to improving health, would be to have the federal government require the insurance companies to pay for nutritional examines for all individuals and treatment for nutritional deficiencies.

At the same time, the federal government must approve the use of TCM by certified practitioners and order the insurance companies to cover it.

If the administration and congress can act in the public interest and do this, America will rapidly become a far healthier nation and lead the work in making use of all possible techniques to manage nutrition and get well.

Demand this action from your representatives in Washington, D.C. as they have demonstrated no ability to help you get well.

Besides, for the first time in our history our last three presidents all admit to smoking marijuana.  It must not be that bad.

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Abraham Lincoln died 150 years ago today, April 15 - A Man for the Ages.

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The most beloved and popular president in the history of America, Abraham Lincoln, died 150 years ago today after being gunned down in Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.

His legacy will live forever as the President who reunited the union after the only Civil War in our history, against all odds, and in a nation nearly bankrupt from the Revolutionary war.

In the process he became the greatest emancipator in the world when he freed the slaves.

If only all presidents could live by the code of ethics, sense of justice, and fierce loyalty of our 16th president.
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Obamaville - April 15 - Foreign Policy Initiatives - What is to lose? Is it time to trust the people - not politicians!

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Not many people think much of the Obama foreign policy morass and for good reason if you look at what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Russia, Ukraine, and all the others I forgot.

However, my philosophy has always been trust the people, not the politicians.  Thus, Obama and congress continued to fight over everything not important while the world awaits important decisions that are important.

Well by now, we should have learned a few lessons in foreign diplomacy.  No one really tells the truth when negotiating.  No matter what we do, we will figure out how to waste billions of dollars in defense and foreign aid spending, our intervention will result in millions of refugees, sanctions really do not work, and no one seems to be hearing the people impacted by the policy decisions.

What to do?

How about we actually try to reduce tensions, stabilize economies, protect homes and property of the people of the world, make sure no more crises result from refugees, give kids a permanent home and education, and make sure war is not part of so many people's lives around the world.     

Start by defusing what should not be a crisis.

1.  Lift the sanctions on Cuba - the people of Cuba have been through enough.  The incorporation of the people of Cuba into the American influence that can result from open borders and no sanctions is far more likely to bring our people together, than actions by the governments.  The people of Cuba are a wonderful people as witnessed by the Cubans already living in America.

2.  Adopt the Iran nuclear agreement and drop the sanctions.  Once again the people of Iran have always been wonderful friends and contributors to the American way of life and the only way the shackles of outrageous practices under the guise of religion can be broken is to immerse the people in exposure to alternatives in lifestyle.

3.  Stop treating Russia as the bad boy and acknowledge that our governments do not have to agree on everything.  For one, Crimea and a border strip of land to Crimea from Russia has always connected Russia to Crimea.  Even the Ukraine people know the pro-Russian influence of eastern parts of Russia.  Give Russia land access to Crimea.

Also, agree to let the Ukraine be an independent nation without dictating government affiliations with the East or West.  In this day of government over-reach in monitoring everything from your phones to bedrooms, how could anything bad go unnoticed in this viral age.  We have the ability to monitor everything, legally and illegally I might add, so use it for a meaningful purpose like peace rather than just for national security and war.

While we are at it, get rid of the economic sanctions we imposed on Russia.  The people of Russia hurt the most from these financial sanctions, not the government, or the bankers.  These people being hurt are the same ones victimized after the fall of the Soviet Union when we went in and tried to establish democracy in Russia.

There was no way a democracy could work in a country ruled by czars for 1,000 years and Communism for 75 years without years of slow development, but we shoved it down their throats and then were shocked when it not only failed miserably, but nearly bankrupted this new nation once freedom was established.

We may not like Putin but the Russian people do and we should listen to them and deal with Putin as he holds the key to long-range action in Iran, Syria, North Korea, and other world hot spots.  Obama claims to be the great negotiator yet fails to negotiate with someone very important to the Middle East, Asia, and even Europe.

4.  Double and triple our efforts to work with China.  They hold more American debt than any other nation, bank, or family.  We share some ideals with the emerging Chinese superpower like working for a better standard of living for our people, improved environmental initiatives to clean the air, water, and land, and the management of natural resources in responsible ways.

Does anyone think China does not want to clean up pollution?  It will cost billions of dollars and millions of Chinese people need other help, yet the huge clean up effort started and will continue.  In the meantime, China is becoming one of the best trading partners of America.

Like America, China faces a long legacy of corruption, corruption that must stop, involving the politicians, government employees, contractors, the rich, the financial institutions, and foreign governments.  There is amazing progress by President Xi Jinping in attacking this problem, yet we have been quiet in supporting his efforts.

Instead, our government warms of the emerging power of China, frets over defensive moves by the rising nation, and blames China for every cyber attack that takes place until investigations show they did not do it.

NO ONE has trampled over the rights of people to privacy and freedom more than the United States government.  No one has the technology to eavesdrop on every aspect of American life like our Intelligence agencies, and thanks to Edward Snowden, the despicable acts of our government, in spying on their own people, are public information.

We have no business as a nation tossing accusations of cyber snooping on Russia or China when the finger should point at us, the United States, who have routinely monitored every government in the world legally and illegally for decades.

It takes a lot less money to feed the hungry than to spy on our perceived adversaries.  It takes a lot less money to help China clean up their environment, which directly helps the world environment, than to encourage the Asians to increase defense and intelligence spending to find out what we are doing to them.

What ever happened to common sense?

Why not devote a generation to tearing down border restrictions, improving the quality of life for everyone, eliminating hate-inspired sanctions, and helping people preserve their cultural heritage rather than obliterate it.

Our priority should be helping every young person in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe find decent jobs rather than forcing them into terrorism for an occupation.  The investment would be far cheaper than the multi-billion dollar cost of new and unnecessary weapons systems or intelligence capabilities.

Let us work as hard to bring down barriers between people as we did to build them.

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