The Huffington Riposte

Offering a conservative counterbalance to the extreme left-coast liberalism of The Huffington Post

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

WHY HOLD ELECTIONS IN NOVEMBER??????


Posted by Leo Rugiens at 5:59 PM No comments:
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Wednesday, October 19, 2016

WHAT WILL THE GOP LOOK LIKE WITHOUT TRUMP, IF HE LOSES ???



THE FUTURE OF POPULISM WITHOUT TRUMP:

In the latest Commentary podcast, John Podhoretz singles me out a bit, starting around the 50 minute mark: http://vlt.tc/2lco  I had it transcribed for Transom purposes (stripping out some comments from Noah Rothman and Abe Greenwald to focus on John’s point): “There is this line that Ben Domenech of The Federalist said last week: "Trump will lose and then nothing will change. Things need to change but nothing will change." Well what exactly is it that's supposed to change? Again, we don't know what the margin is. But if he's at 40% and Hillary's at 51% or he's at 39% and Hillary's at 52% or something like that, let's just say. What part of his agenda wasn't rejected by the overwhelming majority of the American people?

“That's what happens. That is wilderness for a generation. Now it doesn't mean that the Republican Party won't do down this path. McGovern lost by almost 24 points in 1972 and the Party effectively became a McGovernite Party for almost 20 years afterwards, even though he had lost... The public made it clear, they didn't like how he talked about foreign policy, they didn't like how he talked about crime, they didn't like how he talked about taxes, they didn't like his embrace of the new left, and they didn't like the basic anti-Americanism of the approach…

“More important in all of this is this notion that populists who are nonetheless disgusted by Trump, they want to embrace the populism of Trump without Trump, like Ben Domenech and others, will not tell you what part of the Trump agenda it is that they think we need to hold on to. Let them say. I would like to know. Is a Muslim ban something that they like? I mean fine, so maybe the Republican Party will be talking about a wall for the next 50 years, whatever. Do they want trade wars? It's like, "Yes, well you know we haven't really looked at this, if in fact yes American makes ..." Do we want a trade war with China or not? …

“We're having a definitional problem here, because Republican Reformers ordinarily refers to people like Paul Ryan and stuff like that. Who it is the argument of this group of non-Trump but not anti-anti-Trump, anti-anti-anti-anti-Trump people, like Ben Domenech ... They're not really the Reform Republicans as the term ...

“The Reform Republicans are first the people who very honestly and with good hearts beginning in 2006 said look, there's a whole bunch of people who are being left behind in our economy. We need to structure ways to speak to them. That was Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam's book, "Sam's Club Republicans", which emerged from an article in the Weekly Standard. We've published Yuval Levin on the mobility crisis and Paul Ryan's budgets and now his Better Way agenda. These are all efforts. These are all very conscious, very meaningful efforts to attempt to cope with the fact that there are people who have been left behind and that policies can be used to structure to help them…

“They didn't work. But it didn't work. It's been 10 years and it didn't work. I wish it worked. Look, I believe in that. I believe in many of the agenda items that are part – it didn't work as an electoral selling agenda. Effectively both Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio ran as these Reform Republicans…

“That's the nonsense, because if you were to say ‘well we need Trumpism without Trump,’ meaning figure out some way to speak to and reintegrate the white working class into the fabric of the United States as it appears to be disweaving itself from it, the only agenda that exists is the reform agenda. And that's Paul Ryan and ‘He's bad and he's just going to be a blank check for Hillary Clinton.’ …

“Anyway, the whole point here is that it's not true. Trump is not their tribune. It would not work to the tribune of the white working class to inaugurate a trade war with China, which would end up raising prices at every store in America by 25% which is something that's really helpful to people who are living, if they're even living paycheck to paycheck. It is not helpful, none of this is helpful.

“Trump is about something else. It is a cultural message about feeling left behind, about rage, and about an honest feeling that the culture is galloping in a direction in which the country is being reshaped without input from a lot of the self-governed Americans.”

So let’s circle back to the key portion of this: “More important in all of this is this notion that populists who are nonetheless disgusted by Trump, they want to embrace the populism of Trump without Trump, like Ben Domenech and others, will not tell you what part of the Trump agenda it is that they think we need to hold on to. Let them say. I would like to know.”

Now, I’ll grant you this cycle has been very busy, but in my memory I don’t recall being asked this question by JPod or anyone else. Because if he asked, I'd certainly have answered it!

First, I’ll admit I don’t understand the overall point about reform. JPod talks about an attempt to reform tied to Paul Ryan and beginning in 2006 (aside: I don’t imagine most would consider Ryan as the leader of the reformists, but no matter). JPod says the only viable reform path is this one, but then he says that after ten years of trying this message has failed, that it failed with Bush and Rubio this time around.

The idea here that Ryan’s approach, the Better Way approach, represents the only viable avenue of reform – “the only agenda that exists is the reform agenda” – seems odd. Is Theresa May's mic not working? Of course there can’t be Trumpism without Trump. But this doesn't mean there can't be populism without Trump. Every other western democracy seems to be trying to meet that market demand. Why can't we do it here? There's no way to incorporate the popular (or even good?) ideas and approach of Trump but not do it with a heathen buffoon with the tastes of Caligula?

For the past couple of months on our radio show I’ve been saying that I think the essential element conservatives ought to retain from Trump is actually not a matter of agenda, but of tone and attitude: the adoption of a default posture of rejection of elite/media assumptions, which some call political incorrectness and others call “telling it like it is”. Trump’s supporters aren’t going to be won over by any twists of a knob in an improved technocratic agenda. Policy details are less important than that essential attitude which reads as belligerent toughness toward our national elite. When people say Trump “tells it like it is”, they don't mean he is actually being honest and telling the truth. They mean he is someone who doesn't appear to couch every word so as to minimize too-easily-taken offense in our wussified culture. They mean he is not afraid of offending.

As for the agenda, I'd start with the premise that somewhat popular minority views can be massaged into something that can fly with a majority. I think history proves this is possible. But when you do that, it shouldn't require that someone be a domestic liberal/international erratic like Trump. Ideally it's an agenda you could run on if you're a Tom Cotton type, too, and I expect potential candidates next cycle to try.

Why can't a Republican Senate candidate in Virginia next year run on an agenda that includes: Building the wall, making our NATO allies pay their fair share, banning Syrian refugees, tracking and enforcing VISA overstays, higher penalties for shooting cops, a 5 year lobbying ban on everybody, cutting the payroll tax for everyone, downplaying entitlement reform, saying marijuana is a state by state issue, and backing term limits - all populist things most of which Trump has supported and none of which are far out of the bounds of conservative orthodoxy?

A more populist agenda would be helpful to winning over Trump supporters, but it is less important than the attitude. The point I keep hammering away on in "MEETINGS ABOUT THE FUTURE" and the like is that the number one aspect of Donald Trump conservatives should retain is an inherent inclination against accepting elite premises about what is acceptable. Thus, something like his call for the Syrian refugee ban – denounced as vile and inhuman by our media and political elites, who know no one who disagrees with them on it – turns out to be popular with an actual majority of Americans! Why? Not just because for many Americans it's just common sense (“how can the government which can’t run a VA, launch a website, or keep track of a terrorist’s wife tell good refugees from bad?”) but also because it's offensive to everyone sitting around the table on TV. We should recognize that the only entity less popular than Congress is the media and treat them as such.

---
Posted by Leo Rugiens at 7:18 AM No comments:
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Sunday, October 16, 2016

REPUBLICANS ACT LIKE FOOLS AT TIMES


Photo of Senator Ted Cruz calling out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for lying to the Republican members of the Senate.
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All during the 2016 primary season I warned that the Dems wanted Trump to win the nomination rather than Cruz.  One of the reasons was because Cruz was a world champion debater and Hillary would not stand a chance against Cruz in debates.

So the Dems played it smart and withheld all of their damaging tapes against Trump and are only releasing them now just days before the November 8 election.  That way they made it easier for Trump to defeat Cruz for the nomination.

Republican leadership is incompetent, beginning with the leadership in Congress that could not forgive Cruz for calling Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a "liar" when it was on the public record that the had lied to the Republican members of the Senate.

Then, the leadership of the RNC is incompetent, beginning with the Chairman, Priebus!!! 
Because he prevented the delegates at the Republican Covention from voting on the motion to free the delegates from their pledge to vote at the convention for the man whose name was on the ballot in the primaries.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind !!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Leo Rugiens at 10:49 AM No comments:
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TED CRUZ EXPRESSES THE THOUGHT I HAD ALL DURING THE 2015 PRIMARIES: THE DEMOCRATS WANTED TRUMP TO WIN THE NOMINATION !!!

Ted Cruz Indicts the Entire Media Over Trump's Lewd Video with One Damning Question


By Mike Miller



Ted Cruz
Getty - Andrew Burton
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 The Wildfire is an opinion platform and any opinions or information put forth by contributors are exclusive to them and do not represent the views of IJR.
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Ted Cruz might not have won the GOP presidential nomination, but during Sunday night's debate, the Texas senator proved he was very much 'still in the race.'
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With one incriminating question, Cruz exposed — as has been exposed countless times in the past — the blatant bias of the so-called 'mainstream' media.
That question was about the timing of the release of the 'leaked' video:

"Given that the liberal media now works 24/7 to dig up dirt on Trump, why not release the video as soon as he announced his candidacy in June of 2015?"

Excellent question. 

Wait — I think I figured it out.

You don't suppose the liberal media wanted Trump to win the nomination, do you, thinking Hillary would have a better shot against him than any of the other candidates?

Yeah, me too.

The “Apprentice” producer to whom Cruz refers is Bill Pruitt, who tweeted the following ominous message the day after the leaked video was released:

If NBC had “far worse” video of Trump years ago, why did the network sit on it? Seems there's only one or two answers — neither of which demonstrates integrity.

It was either because “The Apprentice” was a 'cash cow' for NBC at the time, or execs thought the video might just come in handy sometime down the road.

In any case, well played, Sen. Cruz.



Posted by Leo Rugiens at 10:11 AM No comments:
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Saturday, October 15, 2016

HILLARY CLINTON PROBABLY SUFFERS FROM PROGRESSIVE SUPRANUCLEAR PALSY AND IS UNFIT TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES


Screenshot from Video of Hillary Clinton suffering apparent stroke on camera. Our link to the video is below; click on the photo in the lower right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMHOcmDVBP0


What is progressive supranuclear palsy?

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is an uncommon brain disorder that affects movement, control of walking (gait) and balance, speech, swallowing, vision, mood and behavior, and thinking. The disease results from damage to nerve cells in the brain. The disorder’s long name indicates that the disease worsens (progressive) and causes weakness (palsy) by damaging certain parts of the brain above nerve cell clusters called nuclei (supranuclear). These nuclei particularly control eye movements. One of the classic signs of the disease is an inability to aim and move the eyes properly, which individuals may experience as blurring of vision.
Estimates vary, but only about three to six in every 100,000 people worldwide, or approximately 20,000 Americans, have PSP—making it much less common than Parkinson's disease (another movement disorder in which an estimated 50,000 Americans are diagnosed each year). Symptoms of PSP begin on average after age 60, but may occur earlier. Men are affected more often than women.
PSP was first described as a distinct disorder in 1964, when three scientists published a paper that distinguished the condition from Parkinson's disease. It was sometimes referred to as Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome, reflecting the combined names of the scientists who defined the disorder.
Currently there is no effective treatment for PSP, but some symptoms can be managed with medication or other interventions.

What are the symptoms?

The pattern of signs and symptoms can be quite different from person to person. The most frequent first symptom of PSP is a loss of balance while walking. Individuals may have unexplained falls or a stiffness and awkwardness in gait.
As the disease progresses, most people will begin to develop a blurring of vision and problems controlling eye movement. In fact, eye problems, in particular slowness of eye movements, usually offer the first definitive clue that PSP is the proper diagnosis. Individuals affected by PSP especially have trouble voluntarily shifting their gaze vertically (i.e., downward and/or upward) and also can have trouble controlling their eyelids. This can lead to a need to move the head to look in different directions, involuntary closing of the eyes, prolonged or infrequent blinking, or difficulty in opening the eyes. Another common visual problem is an inability to maintain eye contact during a conversation. This can give the mistaken impression that the person is hostile or uninterested.
People with PSP often show alterations of mood and behavior, including depression and apathy.  Some show changes in judgment, insight, and problem solving, and may have difficulty finding words. They may lose interest in ordinary pleasurable activities or show increased irritability and forgetfulness. Individuals may suddenly laugh or cry for no apparent reason, they may be apathetic, or they may have occasional angry outbursts, also for no apparent reason. Speech usually becomes slower and slurred and swallowing solid foods or liquids can be difficult. Other symptoms include slowed movement, monotone speech, and a mask-like facial expression.  Since many symptoms of PSP are also seen in individuals with Parkinson’s disease, particularly early in the disorder, PSP is often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease..

How is PSP different from Parkinson's disease?

Both PSP and Parkinson's disease cause stiffness, movement difficulties, and clumsiness, but PSP is more rapidly progressive as compared to Parkinson’s disease. People with PSP usually stand exceptionally straight or occasionally even tilt their heads backward (and tend to fall backward). This is termed “axial rigidity.” Those with Parkinson's disease usually bend forward. Problems with speech and swallowing are much more common and severe in PSP than in Parkinson's disease, and tend to show up earlier in the course of the disease. Eye movements are abnormal in PSP but close to normal in Parkinson's disease. Both diseases share other features: onset in late middle age, bradykinesia (slow movement), and rigidity of muscles. Tremor, very common in individuals with Parkinson's disease, is rare in PSP. Although individuals with Parkinson's disease markedly benefit from the drug levodopa, people with PSP respond minimally and only briefly to this drug. Also, people with PSP show accumulation of the protein tau in affected brain cells, while people with Parkinson’s disease show accumulation of a different protein, called alpha-synuclein.

What causes PSP?

The exact cause of PSP is unknown. The symptoms of PSP are caused by a gradual deterioration of brain cells in a few specific areas in the brain, mainly in the region called the brain stem. One of these areas, the substantia nigra, is also affected in Parkinson's disease, and damage to this region of the brain accounts in part for the motor symptoms that PSP and Parkinson's have in common.
The hallmark of the disease is the accumulation of abnormal deposits of the protein tau in nerve cells in the brain, so that the cells do not work properly and die. The protein tau is associated with microtubules – structures that support a nerve cell’s long processes, or axons, that transmit information to other nerve cells. The accumulation of tau puts PSP in the group of disorders called the tauopathies, which also includes other disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, corticobasal degeneration, and some forms of frontotemporal degeneration. Scientists are looking at ways to prevent the harmful clumping of tau in treating each of these disorders.
PSP is usually sporadic, meaning that occurs infrequently and without known cause; in very few cases the disease results from mutations in the MAPT gene, which then provides faulty instructions for making tau to the nerve cell. Genetic factors have not been implicated in most individuals.
There are several theories about PSP's cause. A central hypothesis in many neurodegenerative diseases is that once the abnormal aggregates of proteins like tau form in a cell, they can affect a connected cell to also form the protein clumps. In this way the toxic protein aggregates spreads through the nervous system. How this process is triggered remains unknown. One possibility is that an unconventional infectious agent takes years or decades to start producing visible effects (as is seen in disorders like Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease). Another possibility is that random genetic mutations, of the kind that occur in all of us all the time, happen to occur in particular cells or certain genes, in just the right combination to injure these cells. A third possibility is that there is exposure to some unknown chemical in the food, air, or water which slowly damages certain vulnerable areas of the brain. This theory stems from a clue found on the Pacific island of Guam, where a common neurological disease occurring only there and on a few neighboring islands shares some of the characteristics of PSP, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Its cause is thought to be a dietary factor or toxic substance found only in that area.
Another possible cause of PSP is cellular damage caused by free radicals, which are reactive molecules produced continuously by all cells during normal metabolism. Although the body has built-in mechanisms for clearing free radicals from the system, scientists suspect that, under certain circumstances, free radicals can react with and damage other molecules. A great deal of research is directed at understanding the role of free radical damage in human diseases.

How is PSP diagnosed?

No specific laboratory tests or imaging approaches currently exist to definitively diagnose PSP.  The disease is often difficult to diagnose because its symptoms can be very much like those of other movement disorders, and because some of the most characteristic symptoms may develop late or not at all. Initial complaints in PSP are typically vague and fall into these categories: 1) symptoms of disequilibrium, such as unsteady walking or abrupt and unexplained falls without loss of consciousness; 2) visual complaints, including blurred vision, difficulties in looking up or down, double vision, light sensitivity, burning eyes, or other eye trouble; 3) slurred speech; and 4) various mental complaints such as slowness of thought, impaired memory, personality changes, and changes in mood. An initial diagnosis is based on the person’s medical history and a physical and neurological exam. Diagnostic scans such as magnetic resonance imaging may show shrinkage at the top of the brain stem. Other imaging tests can look at brain activity in known areas of degeneration.
PSP is often misdiagnosed because it is relatively rare and some of its symptoms are very much like those of Parkinson's disease. Memory problems and personality changes may also lead a physician to mistake PSP for depression, or even attribute symptoms to some form of dementia. The key to diagnosing PSP is identifying early gait instability and difficulty moving the eyes, speech and swallow abnormalities, as well as ruling out other similar disorders, some of which are treatable.

Is there any treatment?

There is currently no effective treatment for PSP, although scientists are searching for better ways to manage the disease. PSP symptoms usually do not respond to medications. Drugs prescribed to treat Parkinson’s disease, such as ropinirole, rarely provide additional benefit. In some individuals the slowness, stiffness, and balance problems of PSP may respond to some degree to antiparkinsonian agents such as levodopa, but the effect is usually minimal and short-lasting. Excessive eye closing can be treated with botulinum injections. Some antidepressant drugs may provide benefit beyond treating depression, such as pain relief and decreasing drooling.
Recent approaches to therapeutic development for PSP have focused primarily on the clearance of abnormally accumulated tau in the brain. One ongoing clinical trial will determine the safety and tolerability of a compound that prevents accumulation of tau in preclinical models. Other studies are exploring improved tau imaging agents that will be used to assess disease progression and improvement in response to treatment.
Non-drug treatment for PSP can take many forms. Individuals frequently use weighted walking aids because of their tendency to fall backward. Bifocals or special glasses called prisms are sometimes prescribed for people with PSP to remedy the difficulty of looking down. Formal physical therapy is of no proven benefit in PSP, but certain exercises can be done to keep the joints limber.
A gastrostomy (a minimally invasive surgical procedure that involves the placement of a tube through the skin of the abdomen into the stomach for feeding purposes) may be necessary when there are swallowing disturbances or the definite risk of severe choking. Deep brain stimulation (which uses a surgically implanted electrode and pulse generator to stimulate the brain in a way that helps to block signals that cause many of the motor symptoms) and other surgical procedures used in individuals with Parkinson's disease have not been proven effective in PSP.

What is the prognosis?

The disease gets progressively worse, with people becoming severely disabled within three to five years of onset. Affected individuals are predisposed to serious complications such as pneumonia, choking, head injury, and fractures. The most common cause of death is pneumonia. With good attention to medical and nutritional needs, it is possible for individuals with PSP to live a decade or more after the first symptoms of the disease.

Posted by Leo Rugiens at 4:53 PM No comments:
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HILLARY CLINTON PROBABLY SUFFERS FROM PROGRESSIVE SUPRANUCLEAR PALSY AND IN UNFIT TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Screenshot from Video of Hillary Clinton suffering apparent stroke on camera. Our link to the video is below; click on the photo in the lower right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMHOcmDVBP0


What is progressive supranuclear palsy?

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) is an uncommon brain disorder that affects movement, control of walking (gait) and balance, speech, swallowing, vision, mood and behavior, and thinking. The disease results from damage to nerve cells in the brain. The disorder’s long name indicates that the disease worsens (progressive) and causes weakness (palsy) by damaging certain parts of the brain above nerve cell clusters called nuclei (supranuclear). These nuclei particularly control eye movements. One of the classic signs of the disease is an inability to aim and move the eyes properly, which individuals may experience as blurring of vision.
Estimates vary, but only about three to six in every 100,000 people worldwide, or approximately 20,000 Americans, have PSP—making it much less common than Parkinson's disease (another movement disorder in which an estimated 50,000 Americans are diagnosed each year). Symptoms of PSP begin on average after age 60, but may occur earlier. Men are affected more often than women.
PSP was first described as a distinct disorder in 1964, when three scientists published a paper that distinguished the condition from Parkinson's disease. It was sometimes referred to as Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome, reflecting the combined names of the scientists who defined the disorder.
Currently there is no effective treatment for PSP, but some symptoms can be managed with medication or other interventions.

What are the symptoms?

The pattern of signs and symptoms can be quite different from person to person. The most frequent first symptom of PSP is a loss of balance while walking. Individuals may have unexplained falls or a stiffness and awkwardness in gait.
As the disease progresses, most people will begin to develop a blurring of vision and problems controlling eye movement. In fact, eye problems, in particular slowness of eye movements, usually offer the first definitive clue that PSP is the proper diagnosis. Individuals affected by PSP especially have trouble voluntarily shifting their gaze vertically (i.e., downward and/or upward) and also can have trouble controlling their eyelids. This can lead to a need to move the head to look in different directions, involuntary closing of the eyes, prolonged or infrequent blinking, or difficulty in opening the eyes. Another common visual problem is an inability to maintain eye contact during a conversation. This can give the mistaken impression that the person is hostile or uninterested.
People with PSP often show alterations of mood and behavior, including depression and apathy.  Some show changes in judgment, insight, and problem solving, and may have difficulty finding words. They may lose interest in ordinary pleasurable activities or show increased irritability and forgetfulness. Individuals may suddenly laugh or cry for no apparent reason, they may be apathetic, or they may have occasional angry outbursts, also for no apparent reason. Speech usually becomes slower and slurred and swallowing solid foods or liquids can be difficult. Other symptoms include slowed movement, monotone speech, and a mask-like facial expression.  Since many symptoms of PSP are also seen in individuals with Parkinson’s disease, particularly early in the disorder, PSP is often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease..

How is PSP different from Parkinson's disease?

Both PSP and Parkinson's disease cause stiffness, movement difficulties, and clumsiness, but PSP is more rapidly progressive as compared to Parkinson’s disease. People with PSP usually stand exceptionally straight or occasionally even tilt their heads backward (and tend to fall backward). This is termed “axial rigidity.” Those with Parkinson's disease usually bend forward. Problems with speech and swallowing are much more common and severe in PSP than in Parkinson's disease, and tend to show up earlier in the course of the disease. Eye movements are abnormal in PSP but close to normal in Parkinson's disease. Both diseases share other features: onset in late middle age, bradykinesia (slow movement), and rigidity of muscles. Tremor, very common in individuals with Parkinson's disease, is rare in PSP. Although individuals with Parkinson's disease markedly benefit from the drug levodopa, people with PSP respond minimally and only briefly to this drug. Also, people with PSP show accumulation of the protein tau in affected brain cells, while people with Parkinson’s disease show accumulation of a different protein, called alpha-synuclein.

What causes PSP?

The exact cause of PSP is unknown. The symptoms of PSP are caused by a gradual deterioration of brain cells in a few specific areas in the brain, mainly in the region called the brain stem. One of these areas, the substantia nigra, is also affected in Parkinson's disease, and damage to this region of the brain accounts in part for the motor symptoms that PSP and Parkinson's have in common.
The hallmark of the disease is the accumulation of abnormal deposits of the protein tau in nerve cells in the brain, so that the cells do not work properly and die. The protein tau is associated with microtubules – structures that support a nerve cell’s long processes, or axons, that transmit information to other nerve cells. The accumulation of tau puts PSP in the group of disorders called the tauopathies, which also includes other disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, corticobasal degeneration, and some forms of frontotemporal degeneration. Scientists are looking at ways to prevent the harmful clumping of tau in treating each of these disorders.
PSP is usually sporadic, meaning that occurs infrequently and without known cause; in very few cases the disease results from mutations in the MAPT gene, which then provides faulty instructions for making tau to the nerve cell. Genetic factors have not been implicated in most individuals.
There are several theories about PSP's cause. A central hypothesis in many neurodegenerative diseases is that once the abnormal aggregates of proteins like tau form in a cell, they can affect a connected cell to also form the protein clumps. In this way the toxic protein aggregates spreads through the nervous system. How this process is triggered remains unknown. One possibility is that an unconventional infectious agent takes years or decades to start producing visible effects (as is seen in disorders like Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease). Another possibility is that random genetic mutations, of the kind that occur in all of us all the time, happen to occur in particular cells or certain genes, in just the right combination to injure these cells. A third possibility is that there is exposure to some unknown chemical in the food, air, or water which slowly damages certain vulnerable areas of the brain. This theory stems from a clue found on the Pacific island of Guam, where a common neurological disease occurring only there and on a few neighboring islands shares some of the characteristics of PSP, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Its cause is thought to be a dietary factor or toxic substance found only in that area.
Another possible cause of PSP is cellular damage caused by free radicals, which are reactive molecules produced continuously by all cells during normal metabolism. Although the body has built-in mechanisms for clearing free radicals from the system, scientists suspect that, under certain circumstances, free radicals can react with and damage other molecules. A great deal of research is directed at understanding the role of free radical damage in human diseases.

How is PSP diagnosed?

No specific laboratory tests or imaging approaches currently exist to definitively diagnose PSP.  The disease is often difficult to diagnose because its symptoms can be very much like those of other movement disorders, and because some of the most characteristic symptoms may develop late or not at all. Initial complaints in PSP are typically vague and fall into these categories: 1) symptoms of disequilibrium, such as unsteady walking or abrupt and unexplained falls without loss of consciousness; 2) visual complaints, including blurred vision, difficulties in looking up or down, double vision, light sensitivity, burning eyes, or other eye trouble; 3) slurred speech; and 4) various mental complaints such as slowness of thought, impaired memory, personality changes, and changes in mood. An initial diagnosis is based on the person’s medical history and a physical and neurological exam. Diagnostic scans such as magnetic resonance imaging may show shrinkage at the top of the brain stem. Other imaging tests can look at brain activity in known areas of degeneration.
PSP is often misdiagnosed because it is relatively rare and some of its symptoms are very much like those of Parkinson's disease. Memory problems and personality changes may also lead a physician to mistake PSP for depression, or even attribute symptoms to some form of dementia. The key to diagnosing PSP is identifying early gait instability and difficulty moving the eyes, speech and swallow abnormalities, as well as ruling out other similar disorders, some of which are treatable.

Is there any treatment?

There is currently no effective treatment for PSP, although scientists are searching for better ways to manage the disease. PSP symptoms usually do not respond to medications. Drugs prescribed to treat Parkinson’s disease, such as ropinirole, rarely provide additional benefit. In some individuals the slowness, stiffness, and balance problems of PSP may respond to some degree to antiparkinsonian agents such as levodopa, but the effect is usually minimal and short-lasting. Excessive eye closing can be treated with botulinum injections. Some antidepressant drugs may provide benefit beyond treating depression, such as pain relief and decreasing drooling.
Recent approaches to therapeutic development for PSP have focused primarily on the clearance of abnormally accumulated tau in the brain. One ongoing clinical trial will determine the safety and tolerability of a compound that prevents accumulation of tau in preclinical models. Other studies are exploring improved tau imaging agents that will be used to assess disease progression and improvement in response to treatment.
Non-drug treatment for PSP can take many forms. Individuals frequently use weighted walking aids because of their tendency to fall backward. Bifocals or special glasses called prisms are sometimes prescribed for people with PSP to remedy the difficulty of looking down. Formal physical therapy is of no proven benefit in PSP, but certain exercises can be done to keep the joints limber.
A gastrostomy (a minimally invasive surgical procedure that involves the placement of a tube through the skin of the abdomen into the stomach for feeding purposes) may be necessary when there are swallowing disturbances or the definite risk of severe choking. Deep brain stimulation (which uses a surgically implanted electrode and pulse generator to stimulate the brain in a way that helps to block signals that cause many of the motor symptoms) and other surgical procedures used in individuals with Parkinson's disease have not been proven effective in PSP.

What is the prognosis?

The disease gets progressively worse, with people becoming severely disabled within three to five years of onset. Affected individuals are predisposed to serious complications such as pneumonia, choking, head injury, and fractures. The most common cause of death is pneumonia. With good attention to medical and nutritional needs, it is possible for individuals with PSP to live a decade or more after the first symptoms of the disease.

Posted by Leo Rugiens at 4:53 PM No comments:
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Tuesday, October 11, 2016

TRUMP'S CALL FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR OF HILLARY IS LAWFUL AND MORALLY CORRECT

No, Trump's Call For A Special Prosecutor Isn't 'Banana Republic' Stuff

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesHillary
By:
Ben Shapiro
THE WIRE
 
October 10, 2016
 
 
During the second presidential debate on Sunday night, Donald Trump suggested that he would appoint an attorney general and urge the new AG to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s email malfeasance. When Clinton protested that “it’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country,” Trump fired back, “Because you’d be in jail.”

The media went apoplectic.

How could Trump suggest that he’d jail his opponent? CNN’s Dana Bash compared Trump to “Stalin or Hitler.” Clinton’s campaign manager pearl-clutched: “He was talking like he would become some dictator of a banana republic and throw her and his political enemies in jail.”

This is, to put it mildly, silly. 
 
Trump didn’t say that he’d singlehandedly send a military squad to round up Hillary and her aides and then dump them in a darkened cell somewhere before beating confessions out of them.

He said there would be a real investigation, and that he believes Hillary is guilty. Both of these notions are plausible – and both are justified given the FBI’s ridiculously rigged investigation into Clinton’s email server.

Trump never said due process ought to be discarded, or that Hillary ought to be summarily executed.

Hillary’s allies have for years suggested that politicians up to and including George W. Bush be “frog-marched” out of their abodes and into the gentle hands of law enforcement.

The media’s sudden obsession with law and order is fascinating after years of covering up the Obama administration’s routine violation of legal process. From the IRS’ targeting of conservatives to the administration’s targeting of journalists to the Hillary investigation, the Obama administration has operated like a banana republic. To target Trump over far milder statements is hypocrisy, to say the least.

But that’s how the left operates: it’s not a banana republic if leftists administer a banana republic.

That’s a pretty convenient standard for a group of people who would allow any Democrat to violate the law on a routine basis and then call anyone who complained disloyal.


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Donald Trump Hillary Clinton
Posted by Leo Rugiens at 11:05 AM No comments:
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Monday, October 10, 2016

UNVETTED MUSLIM IMMIGRATION ???????


 
 
 
If you have doubts about Muslim immigration, this might clear them up...
 
 
Greek Border guards found 52 tons of guns and ammunition in 14 Conex containers disguised as "furniture" for Muslim immigrants. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
opla5
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
opla1
 
 
 
 
FOR YOUR INFORMATION--YAVEX USA IS A TURKISH ARMS MANUFACTURING COMPANY THAT IS LICENSED TO DO BUSINESS IN FORT MEYERS, FLORIDA!!!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
haddad2
 
 
 
 
 
 
opla2
 
 
haddad3
 
 
 
 
opla4
 
 
 
Yeah, keep letting them into our country
 
If this doesn’t convince you that this IMMIGRATION is nothing less than an ARMED INVASION then nothing will.
 
Wonder still why all those young (military age) men without children or wives are taking on the task of traveling all those miles posing as refugees?

 
Most western nation Main Stream media won’t cover this …
 
 
 
No virus found in this message.
Posted by Leo Rugiens at 10:31 AM No comments:
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Friday, October 7, 2016

TIM KAINE IS WILLING TO DO THINGS OTHERS WON'T DO


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Special Report

The Kaine Scrutiny: A Special Report

  • Scott McKay

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October 7, 2016, 10:52 am

The Democrats’ vice-presidential candidate isn’t as bad as he looked at Tuesday’s debate. He’s worse.

For most of the country, Virginia Senator and Democrat vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine is known merely for a boring and inane convention speech and an obnoxious display — perhaps introducing kainus interruptus to the lexicon? — at Tuesday’s debate.
But there is a lot more to Kaine. All of it is bad. He’s the worst vice-presidential candidate the Democrats have offered since Thomas Eagleton was fired from the 1972 ticket amid doubts about his sanity.
What’s wrong with him, other than his creepy eyes and striking resemblance to The Grinch? Let’s just say The Usual, which, applied to Democrat politicians, amounts to four major items all the worst ones seem to carry with them like Lyme Disease.
A history of anti-American radical leftism? Check.
Remember when Bill Clinton’s past was examined and conservatives scoffed at the idea anyone who spent New Year’s Eve of 1968 in Moscow could ever be elected president? Remember when it was thought impossible that anyone who grew up at the knee of Frank Marshall Davis or launched his political career in Bill Ayers’ living room could lead the country?
Well, with Kaine we might even be deeper into the anti-American sludge. Thanks to a research memorandum prepared by Brian Burch, president of Catholic Vote, we know that Kaine has been a disciple of the anti-American international Left for nearly 40 years.
Kaine can’t claim he was just a kid when the “turning point in my life,” his own words, occurred. In 1980, he took a year off from Harvard Law School to take part in a Jesuit mission to Honduras. And there, he met his own Frank Marshall Davis — a man named Father James Carney, who died carrying a gun as a Cuban-trained Sandinista soldier in a failed invasion of Honduras just three years after Kaine trekked through the jungle over the border on foot to meet him in Nicaragua.
Carney is best described as a violent communist lunatic. He renounced his American citizenship to become a Honduran in 1973, was one of the leading proponents of the Soviet-inspired “liberation theology” doctrine which synthesizes Catholic teachings with dialectical Marxism and ultimately left the Jesuit order over an irreconcilable difference; namely, that you can’t be a Jesuit priest and shoot capitalist pigs at the same time. Carney’s end came, apparently, after he was captured by the Honduran army during the ill-fated Sandinista military adventure. The Hondurans treated him the way an irregular combatant can expect — he was tortured and shot, and his body dumped from a helicopter in the triple canopy jungle across the border in Nicaragua.
And Kaine didn’t just get Carney’s autograph. After Carney died, Kaine befriended his successor in the communist radio ministry he helped establish, Radio Progreso in the Honduran city of El Progreso. That would be Father Ismael Moreno Coto, who is better known in Latin America as Padre Melo. Kaine has maintained a long-lasting friendship with Melo and his organization — from a release his Senate office put out in 2014 after hosting Padre Melo for a D.C. visit comes this quote: “I think of El Progreso everyday. The people, aside from my family, are the most important in shaping who I am today.”
They’re not exactly the Rotary Club.
Complete lack of business or private-sector experience? Check.
Kaine’s bio is immaculate in its reflection of his avoidance of what we squares would call a real job. Following his adventures with Sandinistas and their allies in the jungles of Central America, he returned to Harvard and earned his law degree. And to what use did he put that expensive, exclusive education to work?
Why, suing landlords for racial discrimination, of course.
Kaine practiced “fair housing” law and taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Richmond for 17 years before finally getting into politics as a city councilman in Richmond in 1994. By 1998 he’d managed to get himself appointed mayor of that city, a largely ceremonial position elected by the city council members; Richmond is actually run by a city manager. Kaine took credit for the latter’s success and then ran for Lieutenant Governor, Governor and Senator.
He’s never owned a business, and he’s never signed the front of a check. Little wonder he’s got a lifetime 4 percent score from the Club For Growth.
Shameless invocation of race and identity politics? Check.
And how.
Kaine let slip the mask on his fealty to the tiresome Democrat virtue-signaling on race when, speaking in August at a convention of black preachers in New Orleans, he waxed rhapsodic about his choice to attend a mostly-black church in Richmond. “I’ve never been treated badly in life because of my skin color or my gender,” he said. “I think the burden is on those of us who are in the majority — Caucasians. We have to put ourselves in a place where we are the minority.”
This came only a week after Kaine had blathered away at the National Urban League conference in Baltimore, at which he touted the fact he’d apologized for slavery both as mayor of Richmond and governor of Virginia, and then lectured that it was time to “end the era of mass incarceration” — which is rich considering that Kaine touted as one of his mayoral successes the controversial Project Exile, which referred gun law violation cases to federal prosecutors for harsher sentences. That, of course, led to mass incarceration of a disproportionately black cohort of perpetrators; perhaps Kaine might consider leaving alone the past sins of slavery and focus on his own actions if he’s truly going to pander to the black community.
By the end of August, his first month as a national political figure, Kaine was decrying Donald Trump’s Ku Klux Klan values — which might not have been such a wildly uncivil and irresponsible charge, for after all Trump did spend some time as a registered Democrat; if Kaine wants to apologize for past racial sins perhaps he can acknowledge the Klan’s status as the paramilitary wing of the Democratic Party from its inception to the end of its relevance in the late 1960s.
But it isn’t just black Americans who get to be the targets of Kaine’s pandering; he’s especially fond of Muslims as well. So much so that Kaine offered the idiotic statement in Tuesday’s debate that he doesn’t believe this country has the right to stop or slow the importation of immigrants from Muslim countries — he called such a practice “completely antithetical to the Jeffersonian values.” Which is nonsense, as Jefferson himself was a critic of unbridled immigration from countries with cultures foreign to America.
That Kaine would spew such pabulum about Muslims isn’t much of a surprise since he has a history of selling himself out to the Muslim Brotherhood. There was the appointment of Esam Omeish, then president of the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Muslim American Society — which federal prosecutors would call the “overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood” in a court filing in the Holy Land Foundation case — to the Virginia Immigration Commission in 2007. Omeish is a board member and former Vice President of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center, which is a radical Virginia mosque at which Anwar Al-Awlaki once served as imam. So did Mohammed Al-Hanooti, who was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. And among the attendees at Omeish’s mosque were 9/11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour, not to mention Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan. Omeish isn’t a terrorist that we know of, though he has been captured on video touting the “jihad way” in 2000 — and when that surfaced he had to resign from the Immigration Commission.
And worse — maybe — there was Kaine’s 2011 appearance at a PAC dinner in honor of another Muslim Brotherhood superstar, Jamal Barzinji, described as a founding father of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States and a close associate of convicted Hamas fundraiser Sami al-Arian. Barzinji himself had an indictment in a terror investigation scuttled by the Obama administration. Why was Kaine on hand to speak to the gathering, for the fourth time? Money, of course, and lots of it. The PAC in question, the Muslim Brotherhood-bankrolled New Dominion PAC, had given over $43,000 to Kaine’s gubernatorial campaign from 2003-05, and more than a quarter-million dollars to the Virginia Democratic Party. Other Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated entities coughed up an additional $9,000 to Kaine’s 2012 Senate campaign.
They know who their friends are. And you’d better not complain or else Kaine will call you a racist.
Long-standing trail of political corruption? Check.
Kaine also brings the stench of corruption with him, something that seems inescapable with any Clinton minion.
What evidence do you need to conclude his real value on the Democrats’ ticket is his willingness to pardon everyone should Hillary Clinton drop dead after the election? We could be here all day.
Let’s start with the fact that as Lt. Governor and Governor of Virginia Kaine accepted some $160,000 in gifts from political donors and companies regulated by that state — including an $18,000 Caribbean vacation, $5,500 in clothing and a trip to see George Mason in the 2006 NCAA Final Four — between 2001 and 2009. Those are precisely the same kinds of gifts that former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was prosecuted for taking; McDonnell was convicted of corruption but had his case thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court. Naturally Kaine was never prosecuted by the Obama Justice Department for his status as a beneficiary. That escape was justified by the claim that Kaine never offered a quid pro quo, but then again Kaine did reappoint James Murray, who gave him the use of his villa in Mustique, to the Virginia Higher Education Commission, and he also appointed S&K Famous Brands clothier Stuart Siegal, who so generously supplemented his wardrobe, to the Virginia Racing Commission.
But of course there was no quid pro quo.
Or we could talk about his use of taxpayer dollars as mayor of Richmond to send activists in buses to the gun-grabbing Million Mom March, which caused no small stir when the public found out about it. Kaine then had to raise private funds to reimburse the city treasury; no word on what the quid pro quo was to get him out of that jam.
But the main item where political quid pro quos are concerned is Kaine’s spot on the ticket in the first place. After all, he was the chairman of the Democrat National Committee in 2011 and suddenly decided to give up that seat in favor of Debbie Wasserman Schultz — who had been Hillary’s 2008 campaign co-chair. Thanks to Wikileaks we already know that Wasserman Schultz rigged the Democrat primary process to insure Hillary would be the nominee. Under the circumstances it’s difficult to envision why else other than a political payoff Kaine would merit the VP nod; Virginia might be a swing state but Kaine offers little in terms of charisma, curriculum vitae, or demographics.
What he does offer, though, is that he’s willing to do things others won’t… as you’d expect from a long-time committed radical.
America shouldn’t be willing to give this man the power he seeks. We’ll deserve what we get if we let him get anywhere near the White House.
Posted by Leo Rugiens at 1:59 PM No comments:
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Wednesday, October 5, 2016

TIM KAINE, DIAL 915 AND LEARN A LITTLE CANON LAW !!!


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Virginia Catholics protest outside diocesan offices, demand Tim Kaine be denied communion


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October 2, 2016
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About two dozen Virginia Catholics held a peaceful demonstration against Tim Kaine outside the Richmond Diocese Center Tuesday afternoon.
The group is calling on Bishop Francis DiLorenzo to impose a Catholic Church rule that would deny Kaine communion. They say the vice presidential candidate is not in good standing with the church unless he repents by going to confession and publicly changes many of his political stances.
The group argues Kaine is in sin with his support of abortion access, gay marriage and adoption, along with transgender bathroom issues.
“We are here humbly and respectfully. He is our bishop, he’s one of our shepherds and we’re asking him to do what is his rightful authority to do,” said Frances Bouton, a demonstrator.
The demonstrators met some resistance though the afternoon. They were asked to leave the diocese property and unable to drop off formal petitions. A representative of the diocese says its standard procedure for such packages to be accepted by mail, and demonstrations can only take place off the private property.
Read more and watch video here. 
Canon 915 in the code of canon law notes:
 Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.
Since Kaine joined the Democratic ticket, Bishop DiLorenzo has issued two statements regarding issues in this election.  You can read them here and here. 
Photo: NBC29.com
Posted by Leo Rugiens at 9:04 AM No comments:
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TIM KAINE, JESUIT TRAINED MARXIST REVOLUTIONARY FROM HONDURAS


Posted by Leo Rugiens at 8:43 AM No comments:
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Leo Rugiens
Texas, United States
A Texan who loves the truth and hates the lying, cheating, and deliberate prevarication that characterizes so much of our civic discourse these days. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ RIPOSTE, n. 1. Fencing: a quick thrust after parrying a lunge 2. a quick sharp return in speech or action; counterstroke. - The Random House Dictionary of the English Language........... You can contact me by sending an email to me at: leorugiens23@gmail.com
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