Charles Barkley – Kingsjester's Blog

America, under the failed leadership of its First Post-Racial President, continues to be anything but Post-Racial.

A Staten Island grand jury declined Wednesday to indict a white New York City police officer in connection with the July chokehold death of an unarmed black man.

Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo, a 29-year-old, eight-year veteran of the force, faced possible charges in the July 17 death of Eric Garner, who was stopped on suspicion of selling loose cigarettes. Video captured Pantaleo using what appeared to be an illegal chokehold on Garner, a 43-year-old father of six with a lengthy criminal record. Garner, who had health problems, died as a result of the encounter.

In the video, Garner can be heard yelling, “I can’t breathe!”

Jonathan Moore, an attorney for the victim’s family, said he is “astonished by the decision.”

In a statement, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday was “a deeply emotional day” and called for any protests to remain peaceful.

President Obama, speaking at the Tribal Nations Conference in Washington after the grand jury’s decision was announced, said many minority communities across the United States feel that law enforcement is not working with them “in a fair way.”

“We are not going to let up until we see a strengthening of the trust and strengthening of the accountability that exists between our communities and our law enforcement,” Obama said.

By mid-afternoon, protests began to bubble up around the city. A Twitter hashtag,#ShutItDown, called on demonstrators to protest Wednesday night’s annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan. A “lie-in” was held at the main concourse of Grand Central Station in Manhattan, though MyFoxNY.com reported that protesters were not blocking commuters and no arrests were made.

And now, we pause, for this moment of truth…and sanity.

NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley is defending police officers, calling it “ridiculous” that people claim white cops are just out there killing black people.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, Barkley stated that if it wasn’t for police, the ghetto would be like the “wild, wild west.”

“The notion that white cops are out there just killing black people – that’s ridiculous. That’s just flat-out ridiculous,” the TNT basketball analyst told CNN. “I challenge any black person to try to make that point. Cops are actually awesome. They are the only thing in the ghetto between this place being the wild, wild west. So this notion that cops are out there just killing black men is ridiculous and I hate that narrative coming out of this entire situation.”

Barkley previously had strong words about the violent protesters in Ferguson, calling them “scumbags” for looting and setting businesses on fire after officer Darren Wilson was not indicted in the death of Michael Brown. He told CNN the only time America discusses race is when something bad happens.

“We’ve always had a racial issue in this country and the biggest problem with it is we never discuss race until something bad happens. We never have meaningful dialogue over a cold beer when things are going good,” Barkley explained to CNN. “When something bad happens, everybody has a tribe mentality. Everybody wants to protect their own tribe, whether they’re right or wrong.”

Barkley stated that there’s a reason why police racially profile the black community.

“We as black people, we got a lot of crooks. We can’t just wait until something like this happens. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror,” Barkley told CNN. “There’s a reason they racially profile us at times. Sometimes it’s wrong, sometimes it’s right. To act like we hold no responsibility for some of this stuff is disingenuous.”

Barkley also said that there needs to be stronger black leaders, and not the same case of “sad characters.”

“Every time something happens in the black community, we have the same cast of sad characters. We don’t have to have Al Sharpton go there.”

Barkley continued: “We need some strong black men in St. Louis to stand up and say ‘Hey, let’s handle this situation.’”

Hundreds of protesters around the country have been arrested following last week’s grand jury announcement. The presence of police and National Guard in the Ferguson area has been scaled back following violent protests.

Back in the 1970s, one of my favorite television shows was “Baretta”, starring Robert Blake. Beretta was a no-nonsense New York City Plain Clothes Cop, who wore a jaunty hat, blue jeans, and a short sleeve sweatshirt, and had a cockatoo named Fred.

The title song, “Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow”, was performed by Sammy Davis, Jr.

The catchphrase to the song, which became popular nationwide, was, “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”

It meant that if you cannot take responsibility for your actions, then perhaps you should not do something illegal in the first place.

Perhaps someone should have instructed the two young men, who were killed in these unfortunate incidents in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City, as to the difference between right and wrong, and the importance of taking responsibility for one’s actions.

I find it very ironic, that the same protesters who are screaming and shouting at the top of their lungs that there is a different standard for black Americans and white Americans, in terms of dealing with our legal system, are the same ones who are expecting to be treated differently, and to have some sort of special privilege, that excuses them from unlawful behavior and the consequences of their own actions .

When you break our laws, you just cannot expect to get away scot-free. You should expect that there will be consequences for your actions. That is, unless you have broken into this country, as I wrote about yesterday.

But, I digress…

It is also ironic that the same radical Americans, who years ago, wanted to take down the Establishment, actually now, are the Establishment.

In their quest to create a Socialist Utopia, where everyone is the same, and there are no overachievers or underachievers , the Obama Administration and their sycophants have actually set the stage for the chaos and animus regarding race relations that is gripping our country.

Without respect for our legal system, and for those in authority, whose job it is to enforce our system of laws, a civilized society can quickly evolve into a scene from Lord of the Flies, where the most barbaric will have the most power and privilege. In other words, rule by intimidation.

As is presently happening in my hometown of Memphis Tennessee, the Obama White House finds itself in the trap of its own making. By promising Americans that they will take care of everything from cradle to grave, Obama and his administration, like other administrations before them, have “freed” parents from their duties, creating a generational cycle of neediness, lawlessness, and disrespect for authority.

The Bible tells us that we reap what we sow.

Obama has sown class warfare and racial division… and now, America is reaping the results.

Until He Comes,

As expected, under Obamacare, Health Insurance Rates are rising.

Jim Angle reports, in an article posted on foxnews.com, that

A recent survey of 148 insurance brokers shows that ObamaCare is sending premiums rising at the fastest clip in decades.

“For the last, about, five years they’ve been doing this survey, so this was the largest percentage increase in any quarter since they’ve been doing (it),” says Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute.

“But at 12 percent, 11 percent increase on average across all the states — that puts it at the upper end of any increase we’ve seen for decades.”

That is the national average in a survey done by Morgan Stanley. But in some states, it found rates are soaring.

“There are specific states with exorbitant increases,” says Gottlieb. “Delaware had 100 percent increase, Florida had a 37 percent increase, Pennsylvania 28 percent increase, California had a 53 percent increase in their premiums.”

Rates vary widely, often depending on the state and how highly regulated it was to begin with. Analysts, however, say the main reasons for the higher costs are not medical inflation, but rather the requirements of ObamaCare itself.

“There are certain regulations and certain requirements that had to be in there. And because of that it’s driven up the costs of these benefits,” says John DiVito of the Flexible Benefit Service Corporation, which represents hundreds of agents.Rate hikes include ten essential health benefits along with more than 20,000 pages or regulations.

The reported hikes are for the first policies issued under ObamaCare in 2014.

The Congressional Budget Office or CBO issued a report Monday saying the average premium for the silver plan this year will be $3800, or just over $300 a month, rising to $4,400 in 2016, 15 percent below its earlier estimates in 2009.

Those early, higher estimates make costs now look better – but that does not include deductibles of as much as $5,000.

But the estimates are comforting to the White House.

White House Spokesman Jay Carney says, “It shows that marketplace health care costs have gone down because premium estimates have gone down.”

The CBO also projects future premium increases over the next decade.

Insurance companies will soon have to set rates for 2015, and analysts fear reported higher costs now will mean increases next year, as well.

“They’re going to see an announcement that next year’s premium’s going to be 25 percent or maybe 50 percent higher than what they’re now paying,” says John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

John Divito of Flexible Benefit Service Corporation says, “we’re reading studies where the rates could be 10 to 30, 40 percent higher. Again, it all depends geographically where these rates are being looked at but definitely an increase in rates.”

Scott Gottlieb, a medical doctor as well as an analyst, adds, “We’ve seen insurance premiums go up quite a bit over the period in which ObamaCare started to get implemented.”

Insurance executives say the same thing. Marc Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, recently told an earning conference that he anticipates 2014 spikes of 20 to 50 percent, going as high as 100 percent in some markets.

Is this unending increase in Health Insurance Rates going to lead us eventually to a nationally-run Single-Payer Healthcare System? I wonder what the presumptive 2016 Democrat Presidential Candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, thinks about a single-payer system? Oh, wait…

Back in 1993, Mrs. Clinton was charged by the philanderer she shares a bed with, to create a National Healthcare Plan…which she did…and Americans melted the Congressional Switchboard, which led to the Clinton National Healthcare Plan being soundly defeated.

Heritage.org reported that the main points of the bill, at the time, called for…

A National Health Board

The Clinton Plan creates a new, presidentially appointed agency that will have general oversight over the American health care system, ranging from the pricing of health insurance premiums, to the approval of new benefits to be included in any “government standardized health care” plan, and to the enforcement of public and private spending limitations at the national and state level. Unless there is congressional action to intervene, no change in benefits, medical treatments, or price can occur without the prior approval of this federal agency.

Regional Health alliances

The Plan creates a new state-based system of health insurance cooperatives that will control the availability of health plans, enforce health budgets, enroll employers and employees in the new system, collect premiums, and generally enforce the national insurance rules and regulations. Every American will be required to obtain health insurance through these health alliances, or through similar corporate-sponsored plans if they work for a large firm.

A Standard Benefits Package

The Plan outlines in meticulous detail what medical services are to be included in a standardized government health benefits package. These benefits must be offered by all approved health insurance plans. The mandatory benefits package includes not only major medical services but also routine ear and eye examinations and even elective abortion and expensive treatments for alcohol and drug abuse. This standardized benefit package will be free of tax to Americans. But if a family requires or wants any other benefits, these must be paid for with the family’s own after-tax dollars.

Employer Mandates

The Clinton Plan requires all employers to provide at least the standard package and to pay at least 80 percent of the cost of the government’s standard health benefits package. But the Plan also will subsidize companies in regional alliances (but not self-insured companies) so that their premium costs are limited to 3.5 percent of payroll for small firms and up to 7.9 percent of payroll for large companies. Firms with over 5,000 employees still have to provide at least the standard package, but may opt out of the regular health alliance system and form their own regulated cooperatives.

Government Budgets and Spending Caps

While the President says he does not favor price controls, his plan bristles with them. In fact, the central cost control in the Clinton Plan is not competition, nor even “managed competition,” but a rigid system of spending caps on public and private health insurance spending, plus fee controls for doctors in feefor-service plans. Powerful standby price controls also are contained in the Plan. States are permitted, even encouraged, to run every element of health care through state monopolies known as “single payer” systems. Under the Plan, the growth in health care spending is to be forcibly racheted down, year by year, until it is in line with the growth of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), by 1999.

With these central features in place, there can be little doubt that Americans will experience profound changes in the way they receive medical care, and what care they will receive. Among these changes:

1) Government controls will be expensive and will expand.

2) There will be less freedom for doctors and patients.

3) taxes will grow sharply or care will be cut.

The Administration currently projects its plan to cost $331 billion from 1994 through 2000, including new spending for tax subsidies to businesses and low-income families, a new Medicare drug benefit, new long-term care services, and new public health initiatives.6 The White House also claims that it will achieve “savings” through new cost controls and greater efficiency. Increased “sin” taxes, in the form of a new levy of 75 cents on a pack of cigarettes, also are to be imposed. And the Administration still assumes it can cut both the rate of growth of Medicare spending by S124 billion and the growth of Medicaid spending by S65 billion over the next few years (including Medicare cuts already legislated in this year’s budget package) without reducing the quality or availability of medical services to the poor and the elderly.

Sound familiar?

Then, when Hil was running for the Democrat President Nomination in 2007, she announced her vision of the future of America’s Healthcare.

From foxnews.com, posted on 9/17/2007:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Monday proposed a health care plan that would require every American to have health insurance just like states require drivers to buy auto insurance.

The so-called “individual mandate” — the centerpiece of her “American Health Choices Plan” — would cost the federal government $110 billion a year and would help provide coverage for 47 million Americans without health care coverage. It is similar to a proposal offered by rival John Edwards. Barack Obama’s health care plan does not have the same mandate.

“I believe everyone — every man, woman and child — should have quality, affordable health care in America,” the New York senator told an audience in Iowa, vowing to accomplish the goal in her first term.

Clinton’s plan is comprised of four main pillars:

— Offering new coverage choices for the insured and uninsured and guaranteeing quality coverage;
— Lowering premiums by removing hidden taxes, stressing prevention and increasing security by ensuring that job loss or family illness won’t lead to a loss of coverage;
— Promoting shared responsibility among individuals, providers, employers and government, and forcing insurance and drug companies to end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions and price gauging; and
— Ensuring affordable health coverage for all by providing tax relief, limiting premium payments to a percentage of income and strengthening Medicaid.

So, we can therefore extrapolate that, if the Queen of Mean, the Benghazi Bi…err…Bombshell, Hillary Rodham Clinton, becomes President, a Washington-run Single-Payer National Healthcare System is in our future.

Oh, Joy.

As Charles Barkley has said about the Democrats:

Poor people have been voting for the Democrats for 50 years…and they’re still poor!

And, if Hil gets in, she will continue the journey Obama has started our nation on…and then, we will ALL BE POOR.

Until He Comes,

Kingsjester's Blog

Tag: Charles Barkley

Ferguson Redux: NYC Cop Not Indicted. “Perpetually Aggrieved” Ready to Rumble…Again.

Hillary and “Obamacare”: Past, Present, and Future