Author: topdog

Amendment 1 will effectively nullify the requirement of US citizenship so illegals can vote in state elections

On: By: topdog

If this were Lost in Space the robot would be warning Will Robinson of eminent danger. Clean Missouri will appear as Amendment 1 to the state Constitution this November. Unfortunately, unsuspecting citizens will go into the voting booth armed with a ballot that has a cliff notes version of a
drastic change to the Constitution of this state. If you do not know the details of this amendment and just rely on what it says on the ballot, or the propaganda from TV ads, you would probably say it sounds good and vote yes. However, there is some very troubling language in this bill and the net
effect makes one elected official the most powerful person in this state and no it’s not the governor, it’s the auditor. When all is said and done, the auditor will pick one person to redraw the legislative districts based on some pretty interesting demographic criteria and in particular a new category the courts will enforce because it will now be a constitutional mandate.  So not only are racial minorities mandated a guaranteed amount of representation, but also minorities by language. This Constitutional
amendment effectively nullifies the statutory requirement of US citizenship.  Here is the exact wording that some slick lawyer and leftist judges will use to grant illegals voting rights in state elections.

“ Notwithstanding any other provision of this Article, districts shall not be drawn with the intent or result of denying or abridging the equal opportunity of racial or language minorities to participate in the political process or diminishing their ability to elect representatives of their choice, whether by themselves or by voting in concert with other persons. “

Citizens should be particularly leery when assessing petition ballot initiatives.  There is no real public vetting process with public hearings and floor debate typically done when the General Assembly passes a bill to be placed on the ballot for voter approval. It takes serious money to fund the collection of signatures of registered voters in 6 of 8 congressional districts and lots of boots on the ground in order to do so. Voter’s need to know where the source of money comes from and seek to find the motive behind the proposal not just in the short term but the long term effect of the language of a constitutional amendment. The campaign finance reform is mere fluff meant to create a positive response from the voter and provide camouflage for the real intent of this amendment. The net effect of
the redistricting process will be to dilute the power of rural voters by lumping large chunks of sparsely populated rural counties in with portions of densely populated urban areas. Under current redistricting
guidelines, St. Louis City has approximately 10 State Representatives. Under the new guidelines that could double at the expense of rural voters. A vote NO on Amendment 1 is the only prudent choice.

Claire’s ObamaCare Problem And Josh’s Pre-Existing Condition Dilemma

On: By: topdog

The Claire vs. Josh media war has us all confused. So here are some facts about Obama Care in Missouri that you may want to keep in mind when you go to the polls November 6th.

First: In 2010, 72% of Missouri voters, and our state house and senate, rejected any individual being forced on to Obama Care when we passed Proposition C (The Healthcare Freedom Act). The law, however, does not prevent anyone from signing up for Obama Care if they chose to. Yet our Senator, Claire McCaskill, was the 60th Yes vote in the U.S. Senate when they passed Obama Care. The ACA was forced on every person in our state because of her vote. Our vote to the contrary mattered not at all.

Before Obama Care passed, McCaskill hosted a town hall in Jefferson City to explain the Affordable Care Act. I attended and it was packed. The overwhelming majority were there begging her to vote no. Her phone lines burned up with constituents who where opposed to it. 

Yet she ignored her constituents and voted with her party instead.

So what, you might say. That was then and this is now. How is Obama Care hurting the folks in our state today?

Well, In a nutshell, we lost the freedom to choose what healthcare plan we want and insurance companies lost the freedom to sell it to us. 

The only health insurance coverage now allowed is strictly controlled by the Federal Government. Since the ACA, about a dozen companies in Missouri have either ceased offering any individual plans or simply gone out of business. 

Why? Obama Care does not work as a business. All insurance is based on underwriting – so the risk a company is taking on is known, and premiums can be set accordingly.

The ACA does not ALLOW underwriting and this is critical to the current argument over pre-existing conditions. If no insurance company is allowed to consider an uninsured person’s health (through underwriting), which is actual insurance, at an affordable price to a healthier applicant is impossible.

Welfare is not a dirty word, but let’s be honest: it is not insurance.  If we wish to provide coverage for the uninsured with preexisting conditions, we can. In fact, Missouri had a high-risk pool for many years before Obama Care was enacted. It provided exactly that kind of coverage and worked quite well. We can have “protection for people with pre-existing conditions” and still allow a free market for everyone else…we have DONE it before! Amazingly, premiums for our high-risk pool were actually lower than today’s Obama Care rates for most people. Only if you are getting a hefty subsidy each month is your net Obama Care cost affordable.

The ads accusing Josh Hawley of filing a law suit attacking pre-existing condition coverage is technically correct. But the lawsuit actually seeks to overturn ALL of Obama Care. As we have seen, Missouri can “protect people with pre existing conditions” without Obama Care.

Claire McCaskill supported the federal government in raining down Obama Care on all of her constituents—you are REQUIRED to be a part of it. Nothing else is allowed. She also approved of the individual mandate – the penalty for not buying Obama Care. A lovely feature that takes up to 2.5 % of your family’s income, due at tax time. What a deal! You can’t afford the only health plan available and you get punished for not buying it! Thankfully, that penalty ends in 2019—no thanks to Claire.

But we still only have one or two companies in each county, that change almost every year. They offer wildly more expensive policies, with benefits DICTATED by the Feds, with large deductibles and narrow networks.  When you go to the polls in November, hold Claire accountable for what she has done to her constituents in MO – by foisting Obama Care on us when so few wanted anything to do with it in the first place!

Hold her accountable for her inaction to reverse the horrible harm she inflicted on Missouri. Obama Care has been financial and health plan death by a thousand cuts to the vast majority of your fellow Missourians. What she has done has indeed impacted your life and the lives of those around you.

(See the video on how we can escape the ACA without hurting ANYONE)

https://youtu.be/fUbWcGQ_Z3Y

James Coyne

Still Don’t Know How To Vote?

On: By: topdog

The FIRST AND FOREMOST rule of voting on amendments and propositions appearing on ANY ballot is this: “If you don’t know (how you should vote), then vote NO!” Changes made here are much harder to get rid of than even the worst law on the books passed by legislatures! DON’T SCREW THINGS UP WORSE! –It is a “Two-Fer” this November 6. Proposition D should be unconstitutional! There are actually 3 different topics in this and it was challenged and SHOULD have been struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court, but it was NOT! You can “Show-Me” your ire on this kind of a bum’s rush and vote No on Prop D, and vote NOT to retain the Supreme Court and Apellate judges that didn’t think this obviously unconstitutional proposition was actually unconstitutional! Nothing like more and more gas taxes to screw up Trump’s improving economy, or better for shuffling money around to departments that can’t seem to properly handle the tax dollars they are getting now! And a POX on the Republicans promoting higher taxes! NOT in the party platform, people! –Claire McCaskill REALLY IS to blame for an equally unconstitutional monstrosity called Obamacare. Well, tell her “Thanks for Obamacare, Claire” on Tuesday and vote her sorry, privileged, 36 years in office butt OUT of office! If she has been representing Missourians, particularly on the subject of Obamacare, I am an alien creature from Mars… (then link to James article–I’m sure that will fit the narrative here) –Amendment 1 may sound pretty, but it is the ugliest and dirtiest trick maybe ever about to be played on Missourians…or at least that there has been attempted in a VERY long time! Most everything therein the legislature has actually already taken care of (and to the detriment of Missourians’ freedom of speech, but that’s an article for another time), so why is this amendment even there? Well, one of 2 reasons. Remember busing a few years ago where they bused kids from one neighborhood to another to try to equalize the racial and economic make up of schools? And remember how Affirmative Action works in the workplace where you have to hire to a quota to make things more “fair” regardless of an employees’ skills? The redistricting proposed in this amendment is BUSING FOR REPUBLICANS and/or AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FOR DEMOCRATS! Not only would any given district no longer represent an area’s group of constituents with similar views and concerns, but all districts would be renumbered, and its district lines would NO LONGER BE DECIDED IN A NON-PARTISAN MANNER! DON’T FALL FOR THIS, PLEASE! –Studies (honest ones, anyway) show that teenage marijuana use facilitates the use of more powerful drugs (particularly opioids), that there is a gateway effect, and that there IS more teenage use of marijuana in states that have legalized marijuana–even medical marijuana. Is this what you want for your kids in Missouri? Then by all means, vote yes on the marijuana ballot issues…see more at the 101 minute video,

https://marijuanavideos101.com/2018/11/03/the-marijuana-opioid-connection-separating-the-myths-from-the-facts/

The meat of the matter begins at 15:00 to about 28:00 if you don’t want to listen to the entire 101 minutes before election day…

Abigail Adams

A Vote For The Republic

On: By: topdog

With the election upon us, It strikes me that we are at an unusual and alarming point in our Nations political history.  And we need to respond to it at the ballot box.

We have always had vigorous political fights over candidates and policy, and that is most healthy.  But there has also been an understanding that the loser in those fights accepts the results as the will of the people. That the loser acknowledges, perhaps begrudgingly, that the winner has the right to pursue their plans for the nation. This is, of course, within the constitution and laws we all agree to operate under. Without this mutual agreement by all parties, a civil society and democratic republic can not function. Now one political party has thrown off that agreement, and the evidence is everywhere that they have no intention of abiding by it.

“Activists” have taken to the streets to berate, intimidate and often assault those with whom they disagree. They pursue leaders in the opposition party and run them out of restaurants and other public places. They disrupt and seek to shut down town halls and rallies, often resorting to violence. They seek to force those they oppose to resign from office.

The leaders in the Democratic party are silent or encourage “getting in the face” of those with whom they disagree. Those leaders themselves orchestrate disruptions of congressional hearings and hurl outrageous personal attacks on the character of nominees they are charged with vetting – as well as anyone who dares support them.

So what are we as citizens to do about this assault on our political process?  First, don’t be drawn into it. Maintain your sanity and civility while those around you have lost it.  But secondly we must use this very political process to soundly defeat the destructive tactic of intimidation. The party that fosters it must not be rewarded with political power. We can not allow our right to self determination to be over ridden by shear force.

I hope and pray this message will be sent loud and clear Nov. 6th. This election, I can not vote for any candidate for any office that is a member of a party that does these things – even if that candidate is personally appealing to me. In fact, I plan to vote for some folks I don’t much care for – just because they are not a part of this movement to resist our right to choose our own destiny.

There is nothing more basic to the American experiment than our unique and precious right to govern ourselves: with representatives of our choosing – to achieve the goals we deem best for our nation.

The horse race between individual candidates will always be there, but I hope you too will ponder the essential choice this election – and cast a vote for our system of Government itself.

James Coyne

Your Child’s Life or Death

On: By: topdog

Your Child’s Life or Death:  Who Controls “Medical” Decisions?

Rep. Kidd’s “Simon’s Law”seeks to make it you.

———————————————————————————————-

Imagine for a moment that your child is seriously ill and in a Missouri hospital.

If medical staff decides to stop life sustaining treatment or food do you think you should be informed? As the parent, should your consent be required?

You would, of course, answer yes and assume the parents informed consent is already required.

But you would be wrong. When it comes to a disorder that is determined to be “lethal” or “incompatible with life”, life sustaining care and food can be, and often is, discontinued without the parents knowledge or approval.

A death sentence for your child you never even knew about.

One such case here in Missouri has sparked a push for “Simon’s Law”. In 2014, Simon Crosier was born with a genetic disease and was a patient at a St. Louis Hospital. Due to the hospitals “futility policy” A DNR (do not resuscitate) order was placed in his records and “comfort feeding” was ordered. Comfort feeding is not designed to sustain life or recovery. The parents where never informed of these decisions nor did they consent to them.

His mother, Sheryl Crosier, testified his monitors where turned off and she was not allowed to feed him even her own breast milk. She watched her child die and no one at the hospital tried to save him.

In fact, no one was allowed to.

When Representative Bill Kidd of Missouri discovered what had taken place, and had personally visited with the mother, he began to champion HB 1361 “Simon’s Law” here in Missouri. He wanted to make sure it never happened again. Representative Kidd commented, “ I thought the bill would easily pass through committee and be voted into law, but when we got to the hearing the room it was filled with lobbyists from hospitals and medical groups”(see who opposed the bill below). After passing the Children’s and Families committee on a 9 to 0 vote, Simon’s law was Referred to Rules and Legislative Oversight on 3/15/18. There it died. It was never taken up by that committee, much less voted on by the full house. As is the case with many good bills, if house leadership is not behind it, they simply do not allow it to proceed through the process.

Since that time a similar bill has been passed and signed into law in Kansas, but with no enforcement mechanism. Kansas Gov. Signs nations first “Simon’s Law” 2017

Representative Kidd fights on and will introduce the bill again in the next legislative session.

Mo. House bill 1361 “Simon’s Law” text.

COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted “Do Pass with HCS” by the Standing Committee on Children and Families by a vote of 9 to 0. Testifying against the bill were Stuart Sweet; Joan Rosenbaum, MD, St. Louis Children’s Hospital; Jonathan Mullin, St. Louis Children’s Hospital; Paul And Kim Kosednar; Sarah Younger MD; Naomi Lauriello, American Academy of Pediatrics Missouri Chapter; Jane Moone, Missouri Hospice & Palliative Care; Laura Miller-Smith; and SSM Health

PDMP

On: By: topdog

LINK

 

Before retiring from SWBT I did root cause analysis of operational data. Interpeting data and understanding how data can be misrepresented or misinterpeted was part of my job. I’ve studied the CDC data and can find no reason to believe that a PDMP of any current state is effective at saving lives. Since Missouri without a PDMP tracks closely with the National Average death rate of 49 that have a PDMP. Clearly, PDMP has no real effect on the OD death rate and may well contribute to increased deaths as an unintended but documented consequence of increasing the OD death rate in states that implement PDMP.

There are many reasons why PDMP’s are ineffective and since we limited in time I’ll focus on just one glaring example. It starts with Medical community, they are the only ones that can prescribe these dangerous drugs. One question you should be asking every medical lobbyist and the sponsor of this bill. That question centers around the fact that all the key players say the best practice requires prescribers and dispenses to actually use the Database. They all clamor to have the database created, but balk at the idea of being required to use the database before prescribing. I was shocked while listening to the debate of this bill, when a representative who was a doctor complained that it it would increase his day by 1.5 hours to follow common sense procedures to insure their patients did not abuse the very RX they issued. The attitude displayed was his time was more important than his concern for the possible addictive effects of the drugs he giving his patients. I liken it to giving a child a loaded gun and say go outside and play. So lets, examine the result of not requiring our professionals to use the database before prescribing and dispensing. HB90 and 68 both grant no liability for using or not using the database, much like the majority of the states with PDMP.

However, in the vast majority of states, PDMP participation by prescribers is extremely low, and the effectiveness of this clinical tool is therefore compromised. A 2015 study of primary care prescribers found that while a majority reported having obtained data from their PDMP at some point in time, prescribers consulted PDMP data in fewer than one-quarter of instances when they prescribed opioids to patients.

5

In a recent review of 2015 prescribing data in a sample of states where participation in the PDMP is voluntary, prescribers checked the patient history in the PDMP only 14% of the time before prescribing an opioid.

Refer to table 3 from Florida 2016 annual report of PDMP progress. Remember that this is 5 full years after they implemented their legislation for PDMP.

Please note that only 23.69% of their medical professional’s are registered to use it. Only 17.86% of MD’s, 34.53% of DO’s and 54.5% of Pharmacists. It’s no wonder PDMP are not effective.

 

 

Reflections

On: By: topdog

One hundred and twenty days into my first year as Western District Commissioner and the Court House has not crumbled and there is no chaos to be found in the operation of the County Departments. Some observation from the inside of County Government have been more surprising than I expected. It would amaze many, just how much of County operations are regulated and limited by Federal and State statues. On a regular basis, citizens come in with questions and/or concerns that common sense would dictate a reasonable solution, however often our hands are tied by requirements from higher jurisdictions. From the inside, we see the full impact of the cost imposed on local entities in order to meet the regulatory burdens from above. I’m constantly reminded of a lesson learned in my youth. There is no FREE lunch, somebody always pays for the services we demand from our government and it’s usually you and me.

What have we accomplished thus far? By law, we are required to produce a balanced budget by February 1st each year and we did so. However, during that process, it also became clear that expenses continue to increase at a rate higher than revenue. Part of that is brought about by an aging fleet of police vehicles, road equipment and court house repairs. For example, a 1995 truck with 210,000 miles had the transfer case go out and a 2001 with over 190,000 miles had the transfer case and transmission go out rendering the vehicles inoperable. These occurrences play havoc with a budget. This is why we proposed to the voters to pass a half cent sales tax, which occurred in the April election. This additional source of revenue will help us maintain the current level of service to our taxpayers in the coming years. In addition, during the budget process we allocated enough money to fund a county website. This was made possible as I did not require health insurance since I receive Medicare and that reduction in expenses will be used to fund this project with the remainder on existing operating expenses. Our County Clerk Christina Buie negotiated a nice reduction in the cost associated with the website hosting and development to further reduce that cost. More news about that will be forthcoming in the near future.

Work continues, behind the scenes talking with members and representatives of Consolidated Electric to encourage investment in Fiber to the home which would provide true high speed internet and TV services at a much lower cost than satellite services. This was brought up during their most recent Annual meeting for things they are considering. During the Governor’s visit to Holliday Elementary he revealed efforts at the state and federal level to enhance broadband services offered in rural areas through grants. Like rural water and electricity initiatives in the past, rural broadband is necessary infrastructure for a vibrant rural life and growing communities.

Ron Staggs

Green Dragon 2018/03/17

On: By: topdog

Green Dragon Gazette

March 17, 2018

This document will provide you with a convenient link to this past issue. Enjoy regular columns like MO did ya Know, and The Word Corner along with the featured articles for this issue:

Ameren Buys An Increase In Rates By Abigail Adams

Missouri’s Electric Bills To Skyrocket? By Lisa Pannet

Tracking Your Vote By Freida Keough, Missouri Coalition for Transparent and Secure Elections

Student Locker Room Protection Act By Lisa Pannet

Click here to view

Green Dragon 2018/02/18

On: By: topdog

Green Dragon Gazette

February 17, 2018

This document will provide you with a convenient link to this past issue. Enjoy regular columns like MO did ya Know, and The Word Corner along with the featured articles for this issue

Ameren’s Version of “Social Justice?” By Abigail Adams

Disinformation: Foreign and Domestic By James Coyne

Instruction or Indoctrination? By Mart Staggs

The Rantings of a Separatist By Ike Skelton

SB564: Utilities, Money And Corruption By Abigail Adams and James Coyne

Click here to view

Green Dragon 2018/01/17

On: By: topdog

Green Dragon Gazette

January 17, 2018

This document will provide you with a convenient link to this past issue. Enjoy regular columns like MO did ya Know, and The Word Corner along with the featured articles for this issue:

Run For Your Life! MOGA Is In Session! By Abigail Adams

You Need To Pay Attention! By Abigail Adams

Why Students Should Refuse ‘The Test’ By Dr. Mary Byrne, Ed.D

The End? By James Coyne

In Mob Justice We Trust By James Coyne

Missouri Now The “Follow Me” State? By Mart Staggs

Click here to view