Detonator

So, is everybody enjoying a(nother) Golden Age of American Solipsism? Feeling that up-down, side-to-side motion alright? Stomach drop? Good, that means you’re paying attention.

It doesn’t mean you know what’s going to happen next – they should know that by now - which is my only very-important point. Keep reading anyway.

This is politics. But it ain’t Oprah’s Golden Age of American Solipsism, Part II. That was President Obama, with the false “Hope” and the swagger, and nobody gets a car. (Sand castles, people, washed away with the waves.)

No, this is Trump’s Golden Age of American Solipsism – not even the Republican’s - so there’s less room for crystal balls than usual. Though “The Most Trusted Woman In America” (after making The Secret a best seller) IS coming along for the ride - via 60 Minutes – without a peep from our, oh, so fact-and-science-loving media.

Which means, long before most Democrats were ready, our highly-mediated roller coaster had us already locked-in and left the gate. We’re Fact-Free, and going down.

The result, of course, is what woke me from my stupor: my friends developing this nasty habit, post-Trump, of cornering me with hysterical predictions of doom and almost making me spill my beer. Not cool.

And, to make matters worse, they’re not telling me what “may” (or may not) happen, or what “could” (or could not) occur, but what they KNOW FOR A FACT is going to happen. In the future. (Which doesn’t include buying me another beer.) And it’s all based on the best available, cherry-picked, and highly massaged information they get from the combined forces of Left-wing hate blogs, comedy shows, MSNBC, CNN, and (for some reason) Rachel Maddow.

And THAT is because they refuse to watch FOX, or read anything even slightly-conservative, except as hate speech. Even if it’s gay and uninformed. Not the Rachel Maddow standard.

Yes, my friends are people who have to be convinced, lovingly, compassionately, patiently, and with a pair of tongs, this is not how critical thinking works. And they don’t think that’s strange.

And why would they? The media itself doesn’t find any of this the least bit bizarre. Defying reality, it’s currently defending what it does. Or doesn’t do. Which is good, because – like cops, caught between blacks and the zeitgeist - I couldn’t.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I understand the need for a fair, sharp, robust media. (And cops.) We need that. But, if you can find one, please send it to America, courtesy of TMR, with a note saying we pay well.

See, rather than “the media” (or my wild-eyed friends) I keep being amazed by journalists like John Carreyrou, the Wall Street Journal’s “lone wolf” who didn’t swallow Elizabeth Holmes’ easily-debunked Theranos story, while all the others did. Swallow it. Whole. For months. Years even. To tout a miracle. To promote a woman. To run a little feel good flim-flam on America. It was like a Golden Age of American Solipsism Special, since we weren’t fully in one, like now.

The best part was how the media, these compassionate people – all - not only were willing to put lives at risk, to tell that specific story (Theranos WAS supposed to be medical tech) but they took some. Or, at least, one seemingly-good guy took his own. And the rest – including, and especially, the woman “the media” was so desperate to promote as Silicon Valley incarnate, while Silicon Valley let them - marched on with their story, right over his dead body. Don’t worry: the Golden Age of American Solipsism passed by it a long time ago.

And see, THAT’s our media. Armed with a narrative. Did you see the movie/horror story, The Big Short? Wasn’t that a great tale of insight, and bravery, on behalf of the American people? A story of epic proportions, that couldn’t be given away. Huh?

Bernie Madoff? Would’ve been “Breaking News” for somebody. A lot of somebodies.

That rape-y “spiritual advisor” at Whole Foods? They’re really leaning on him, am I right?

The “Hot Yoga” guy who, for years, had/made women in Los Angeles masturbate him in public - as he sat atop a dias - but, still, most of the articles I saw were debating if the heat improved the practice.

This is the media that has the nerve to attack Trump, and scare my friends silly while doing so. The media that knows what’s going on, and will gladly tell you so. They can trust them. They KNOW it. They saw it on the TV. They should hold on tight for these turns.

Who you can’t trust are those pesky Russians. The NYT (finally) said so – long after their totally credulous articles on pet psychics.

And, speaking of Russia, Rasputin himself, Steve Bannon – ooh, he’s bad. Really, anyone but professional politicians running government is probably not the best idea. Might be KKK. But that’s crazy talk. This is America.

Look at Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. Blessed with the name, Orrin, you couldn’t find a more upstanding individual, to uphold the standards and honor of the American people, if you tried. But try anyway: I saw him with his Big Boy choo-choo train hat on, so he’s obviously helping to run this ride.

I knew it when he asked Congressman Tom Price, Trump’s candidate for the head of Health and Human Services, if he would uphold DSHEA (the crazy law allowing supplement manufacturers not to prove their products are safe, or even work, before going on supermarket shelves) and Price said “Yes” - to not a peep from our guardians in the media. Why, Ol’ Orrin didn’t even look around. It went right over, or under, their heads.

Oh yeah, that’s when I KNEW the Senator from America’s number one supplement manufacturing state was up top, probably murmuring a saying from Joseph Smith, with his hand, not on The Bible or The Book of Mormon, but the “release” lever for somebody’s life. Just like Theranos.

Just like Oprah did, with Dr. Oz, seeing how the media’s always been so aggressively trying to call-out fraud and all. Fully HALF of Oz’s information was found to be wrong and he’s still on television. Doing fine. Feeling no heat whatsoever. Because we simply are moving too fast. I think, maybe. Or are we?

Yep – it’s getting to me now: feeling whoozy – so I better get off. Can I get off? Is observing a Golden Age of American Solipsism the same as being on it? Can you dose yourself with LSD and not forget you took it? TRUMP-Grade, Media-Saturated, LSD? I don’t know. I simply don’t know. But I do, still, know this:

We have no idea what’s going to happen next – and the ride’s just started: somebody actually could start doing their job,…
 

Mitt & Ann: The President And First Lady Of Quackery

This is my nation's current front-runner for president, Mitt Romney.

This is Mitt and his lovely wife, Ann - no, wait,….

This is Big Bird - no, wait,…shit, I need a close-up:

Ah yes, THIS is definitely Ann Romney. 

Ann's campaigning as a sweetheart with Multiple Sclerosis, though her doctor, Dr. Howard Weiner of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, has said it's in remission.

This is fine.

What's odd is that - while she sits on the board of the New England chapter of The National Multiple Sclerosis Society - it's reported she does cranial-sacral therapy, deep-breathing exercises, yoga, "practices" reflexology, and undergoes acupuncture and acupressure.

Meanwhile, the details of these "treatments" are ignored for telling us about her work with horses.

Why is this odd you ask?

Because a quick look at MS websites gives us advice like this:

Quackery kills. The desire for a cure can lead one to false hopes. Avoid Multiple Sclerosis Quackery,...

The MS Caregiver site I linked to, above, also suggests we visit Quackwatch, which says "Be Wary of Multiple Sclerosis 'Cures'" and - more to the point of our discussion - "Craniosacral therapy is quackery."

Hmmmm.

As we know, Ann's husband, Mitt, has said trees grow to a "right height" by state, Jesus will be taking up residence in Missouri, and cold fusion was proven by his fellow cultists as a way to "conduct electricity" (though it "hasn't been duplicated yet").

What's not as well-known is that he's a Mormon who sells supplements - working under a wonderful Mormon-initiated-and-sheltered law called DSHEA or “sell whatever you want, just don’t let us catch you” - a business model that is known in the scienced-based medicine community (along with Craniosacral therapy) as Supplements, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, or S.C.A.M..

Some also say Mitt's campaigning on Medical Quackery.

In some quarters, this deception is called "being good with money," if not your fellow Americans.

In other quarters, Mitt and Ann Romney are into occultism, quackery, and New Age Therapies.

I guess they figure it's lose-lose to talk about it, no matter which way they go,...

Since they (or their cult) have never persued anything even remotely resembling rationality or truth.

I wish them all the best,… 

 

You're So Bain, Part II (The Vetting Of Mitt Romney,...)

When Nutraceutical was founded in the early 1990s, it joined a natural products industry in Utah that had a long and colorful history. For example, in a 1979 article, writer Elaine Jarvik said that six Utah herbal companies were not only "the first companies in the world to put herbs in capsules, but they now account for 85 percent of the nation's herb business,…"  

In 1998, the Los Angeles Times ran a four-part series on alternative health. The third article focused on how Utah became what writer David R. Olmos called the "Silicon Valley of herbs." He pointed out that the state's herbal and supplement industry was "bigger even than the skiing trade." In addition to entrepreneurship, Olmos credited Utah's Mormon culture. Although the LDS church had long accepted modern scientific medicine, many of its members used herbs and other forms of alternative healing, partly due to the church's "Word of Wisdom" found in founder Joseph Smith's Doctrine and Covenants. Thus, herbalism, capitalism, and religious factors all took part in creating the history of Utah's herbal products industry.

When we left off, we were unpacking the quote above - in the context of Mitt Romney's ownership of Nutraceutical International through Bain Capital, Inc. - so let's continue putting the quote away (along with the claim Mormons are Christian) by focussing on it's second half:

In it, a claim is made "the LDS church had long accepted modern scientific medicine" but it is "partly due to the church's "Word of Wisdom" found in founder Joseph Smith's Doctrine and Covenants," that "many of its members used herbs and other forms of alternative healing."

This is a schizophrenic statement to say the least (How can someone, both, accept modern medicine yet also go against it, and do so because of a religious con man's anti-science revelation?) It clearly puts LDS members in the same ideological category as NewAge anti-vaccinationists who - because of ignorant revelations from the likes of NewAgers Jenny McCarthy and Suzanne Somers - adopt an anti-science posture while saying they're doing so in the interest of same.

Also, reinforcing the NewAge angle, reader PW sent a link showing Joseph Smith's wasn't the only "Word of Wisdom" the LDS church was fond of.

But wait - how can taking supplements be "anti-science" you ask? Well, let's look at what science has been telling us about this market, which was worth $23.7 billion in 2007 but is expected "to Reach US $107 Billion by 2017":

Diet Supplements or Nutritional Supplements: A Ruse by Any Other Name is Still a Ruse 

Taking vitamin E supplements may actually WEAKEN bones, study shows

Supplements: Not mystical anticancer magic

Health supplements 'could cause cancer': Study finds some products may increase chance of getting disease

Calcium supplements increase the risk of heart attacks, study finds

Soy [Supplement] Shows No Blood Pressure Benefit 

Little cognitive benefit from soy supplements for older women 

Ignore all that hype about antioxidant supplements: Why daily vitamin pills can INCREASE your risk of disease 

And this is the business Honest Abe - I mean, Mitt Romney - made his $250 million dollar fortune in. Boy, considering he loves and looks out for us that much, I can't wait to see what else he does for Americans! But it gets better. According to the original link PW sent me on Nutraceutical, it's "beginnings date to 1993, when Bain Capital, Inc.--a Boston-based private equity company--paired with senior management to organize Nutraceutical and consolidate what its leaders thought was a very divided nutritional supplements industry." And what great timing they had because, fortunately for them, according to the Science-Based Medicine website's article, "DSHEA: a travesty of a mockery of a sham":

In 1994, Congress enacted the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).

Isn't that brilliant? The laws surrounding supplements were changed one year after Mitt got into the business! Why, it's almost as if he knew it was coming. But how could that be? Was it possible another member of the cult was given a heads-up?

[DSHEA] allows for the marketing and sales of “dietary supplements” with little or no regulation. This act is the work of folks like Tom Harkin (who took large contributions from Herbalife) and Orrin Hatch, whose state of Utah is home to many supplement companies.

Tom Harkin and Orrin Hatch. Well now. A member of the Democrat wing of the NewAge cult and a member of the NewAge Mormon cult, working together on something another of their kind has already heavily invested in. Who'da thunk it? And, considering the Clean Gene credentials of these two great political leaders - and the respective spiritual/religious/cult groups they're involved in - the integrity of the new regulations must be iron-clad, right? Right?

DSHEA has a couple of very important consequences (aside from filling the pockets of supplement makers). 

What does the FDA require of “supplements”? 

Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the dietary supplement manufacturer is responsible for ensuring that a dietary supplement is safe before it is marketed. FDA is responsible for taking action against any unsafe dietary supplement product after it reaches the market. Generally, manufacturers do not need to register their products with FDA nor get FDA approval before producing or selling dietary supplements.* Manufacturers must make sure that product label information is truthful and not misleading. 

To paraphrase: “sell whatever you want, just don’t let us catch you.”

That's just the way NewAgers roll.

Now, since I just did a post on Tom Harkin - and this is supposed to be an investigation into the mayhem behind Mitt Romney and Mormonism - let's focus on that other great Mormon leader involved in the supplement industry for a moment, and by that I mean Orrin Hatch.

He should be called I-Can-Help Hatch because, it seems that, wherever his cult or a cult member needs a helping' hand, ol' Orrin appears to give assistance. Consider:

If the government had been as effective in eradicating religion from public life as George W. Bush likes to insist it has, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) would not have been able to turn public park benches into church pews. But that's pretty much what happened in 1998, when LDS leaders secretly persuaded then-Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini to sell a block of Main Street to the church for $8.1 million. The church had been coveting the downtown land for years, as it slowly snatched up all the real estate surrounding the Mormon Temple, its religious capital. 

Initially, the church said it would remove the street and build a landscaped park that would "bring a little bit of Paris to Salt Lake," complete with reflecting pool. The city planning commission approved the deal on condition that the new plaza be regulated as a public park. But the city council signed off on a slightly different proposal, which quietly granted the church exclusive rights to proselytize in the park and to keep out those it found undesirable. 

As a result, people crossing the plaza on their way to Nordstrom can now be bombarded with religious brochures and broadcasts of LDS church president Gordon B. Hinckley droning on about the evils of "so-called gays and lesbians." Passersby, however, can no longer use the space to protest (as they did during the debate over the Equal Rights Amendment), listen to music, sunbathe, skateboard, smoke, or do any of the other things they used to be able to do on the city street and sidewalks. Mormon security guards will ensure that the poor schmuck smoking a Newport and sporting an "I'm with shithead" T-shirt finds another route to the mall. 

…Not everyone in Salt Lake was thrilled with the Mormons' "little piece of Paris." The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the First Unitarian Church sued the city, arguing that the deal gave the "indelible impression that the LDS church occupies a privileged position in the community" and blurred constitutional distinctions between church and state. So far, though, they haven't made much headway. But what did they expect? The federal judge hearing the case was a Mormon, hand-picked by fellow church-member Sen. Orrin Hatch.

What a guy - and what a cult. They said they wanted one thing - which no one could argue with - but "signed off on a slightly different proposal," that no one wanted but them,...with Orrin's "help."

Orrin also played everyone (like a piano) on the hosting of Utah's 2002 Olympic games - led by (who else but) Mitt Romney - which,…Oh Hell, read on:

Olympic officials, increasingly frustrated with the U.S. response to their [illegal supplement] concerns,...blamed the surge in nandrolone tests on a single U.S. senator: Orrin Hatch (R-Ut.). Hatch was the chief architect and sponsor of DSHEA, which among other things, prompted supplement makers to flood the market with vitamins, herbal remedies, amino acids, and other "natural products" like andro without any federal safety or purity guarantees. "[Hatch] is directly implicated in this affair," said Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the IOC medical commission. 

The IOC criticism was particularly biting given that Hatch's home state will be hosting the next winter games in 2002, and that one of the games' major sponsors is, in fact, a supplement company. Utah had already produced a major Olympics bribery scandal; all it needed was a reputation as the world's steroid capital just as the IOC was arriving with its drug-test lab.

That's right - an anabolic steroids AND bribery scandal, in the same event, which was lauded by the press as "successful" - are Orrin, Mitt, and their "church" good or what?

Yeah - as good as the journalists who've repeatedly failed to put any of the "nice," salt-of-the-Earth, and filled-to-the-brim with integrity behavior of these so-called "spiritual" groups together. My hat is off to them all.

 To be continued,...