Category Archives: Health Disease

Little Sisters of the Poor Lose in Court Again

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For 150 years, the Little Sisters of the Poor have been faithful to the religious doctrine, that is until the Obama administration sued them in 2014. The Obama Department of Justice forced the healthcare plan of the Little Sisters of the Poor to use subsidized drugs for contraception and abortion.

How the Little Sisters of the Poor Offer a Spiritual Haven in the ...

And so it goes even today…another appeal is underway…

A federal court has ruled against the Little Sisters of the Poor in their long-running legal dispute over government contraception mandates, dealing a blow to the religious order of sisters even after multiple court victories, including at the Supreme Court.

The legal advocacy group Becket said on Aug. 13 that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in favor of both New Jersey and Pennsylvania in finding that the federal government had not followed protocol when issuing exemptions to contraceptive requirements, including for the Little Sisters.

The district court said that a set of religious exemptions granted by the federal government during the first Trump administration were “arbitrary [and] capricious” and failed to adhere to the requirements of the federal Administrative Procedure Act.

The court has vacated those exemptions “in their entirety,” the Aug. 13 ruling said.

Diana Thomson, a senior attorney with Becket, told CNA that the case is the same one that saw the Little Sisters win a victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 when a majority of the court’s justices said the exemptions to the contraceptive mandate were legal.

She described the procedural questions in the Aug. 13 ruling as “cutting-floor arguments” that the states had largely ignored several years ago.

“Instead of dropping the case, Pennsylvania and New Jersey revitalized their cutting-floor arguments that they chose not to pursue at the Supreme Court last time and brought them in the district court,” she said.

The district court accepted those arguments “even though the Supreme Court already blessed the rules,” Thomson said.

The court is “trying to find a loophole” to the 2020 Supreme Court ruling, she said.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania had brought the lawsuit against multiple federal agencies and officials, though the Little Sisters of the Poor were attached to the lawsuit as “defendant-intervenors.”

The sisters will appeal the ruling, Thomson said.

“I assume the Trump administration will appeal also,” she said. “But the Little Sisters’ appeal is already on file.”

“We will appeal all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” she said.

In a separate statement, Mark Rienzi, the president of Becket and the lead attorney for the Little Sisters, said it was “bad enough that the district court issued a nationwide ruling invalidating federal religious conscience rules.”

“But even worse is that the district court simply ducked the glaring constitutional issues in this case after waiting five years and not even holding a hearing,” he argued.

“It is absurd to think the Little Sisters might need yet another trip to the Supreme Court to end what has now been more than a dozen years of litigation over the same issue,” he said, adding: “We will fight as far as we need to fight to protect the Little Sisters’ right to care for the elderly in peace.”

 

Head and Neck Cancers High Risk due to Daily use of Cannabis

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NEW YORK — Using marijuana daily for years may raise the overall risk of head and neck cancers three- to five-fold, according to a new study that analyzed millions of medical records.

“Our research shows that people who use cannabis, particularly those with a cannabis use disorder, are significantly more likely to develop head and neck cancers compared to those who do not use cannabis,” said senior study author Dr. Niels Kokot, a professor of clinical otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Cannabis use disorder is diagnosed when a person has two or more of such symptoms as craving weed, becoming tolerant to its effects, using more than intended, using marijuana even though it causes problems in life, using it in high-risk situations, experiencing withdrawal and being unable to quit, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“While our study did not differentiate between methods of cannabis consumption, cannabis is most commonly consumed by smoking,” Kokot said in an email. “The association we found likely pertains mainly to smoked cannabis.”

Some 69% of people with a diagnosis of oral or throat cancer will survive five years or longer after their diagnosis, according to the National Cancer Institute. If the cancer metastasizes, however, that rate drops to 14%. About 61% of people diagnosed with cancer of the larynx will be alive five years later – a rate that drops to 16% if the cancer spreads.Take Your Cannabis Daily for Good Health - Weedist

The study used insurance data to look at the association of cannabis use disorder with head and neck cancers, said Dr. Joseph Califano, the Iris and Matthew Strauss Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Diego. He was not involved in the study.

“The researchers used a huge, huge dataset, which is really extraordinary, and there is enormous power in looking at numbers this large when we typically only see small studies,” said Califano, who is also the director of UC San Diego’s Hanna and Mark Gleiberman Head and Neck Cancer Center.

“On average, people with cannabis use disorder smoke about a joint a day and do so for at least a couple years, if not longer,” said Califano, who coauthored an editorial published Thursday in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery in conjunction with the new study.

However, he added, the study does not find an association between “the occasional recreational use of marijuana and head and neck cancer.”

Causes of head and neck cancers

In the United States, head and neck cancers make up 4% of all cancers, with more than 71,000 new cases and more than 16,000 deaths expected in 2024, according to the National Foundation for Cancer Research.

Tobacco use, which includes smoking cigarettes, cigars, pipes and smokeless tobacco, and the use of alcohol are the two most common causes of head and neck cancers, experts say. Other risk factors include poor oral hygiene; gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD; a weakened immune system; and a diet low in fruits and vegetables. Occupational risk factors include exposure to asbestos and wood dust.

A growing number of head and neck cancers are due to infection with the human papillomavirus or HPV, or the Epstein-Barr virus, or EBV, which are DNA viruses that affect genes, making them susceptible to malignancies.

Epstein-Barr virus is linked to infectious mononucleosis, also called the “kissing disease,” as well as various cancers. Researchers estimate that 90% of the world’s population is infected with EBV. A vaccine is available for HPV, which is linked to a high risk of developing cervical cancer and some non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

It’s possible to be infected with both viruses at once, and that combination is responsible for 38% of all virus-associated cancers, according to research.

How might cannabis cause cancers?

The study, published Thursday in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, analyzed a database of 4 million electronic health records and found more than 116,000 diagnoses of cannabis use disorder among people with head and neck cancers. Those men and women, whose average age was 46, were then matched with people who also had head and neck cancers but were not diagnosed with cannabis use disorder.

The analysis showed that people with cannabis use disorder were about 2.5 times more likely to develop an oral cancer; nearly five times more likely to develop oropharyngeal cancer, which is cancer of the soft palate, tonsils and back of the throat; and over eight times more likely to develop cancer of the larynx. The findings held true for all age groups, according to the study.

Associated reading/study from 2019

Confirmed Biden’s Secret Chartered Migrant Flights

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Who are these people and where are they exactly and what are they doing?

In part from the Daily Mail:

Aliens who cannot legally enter the U.S. use CBP One to apply for travel authorization and temporary humanitarian release from those airports.

Under this parole release, migrants are able to remain in the U.S. for two years without obtaining legal status and are eligible for work authorization.

The administration first said it would not reveal which airports the undocumented aliens were transported, citing a ‘law enforcement exception’ in the refusal to hand over information.

But new information from the Center for Immigration Studies lawsuit reveals the locations were not disclosed due to fear ‘bad actors’ would inflict harm on public safety or the information would create law enforcement vulnerabilities.

CBP lawyers wrote that revealing the airports would ‘reveal information about the relative number of individuals arriving, and thus resources expended at particular airports.’

That would in turn reveal ‘operational vulnerabilities that could be exploited by bad actors altering their patterns of conduct, adopting new methods of operation, and taking other countermeasures.’

CIS said that the secretive flights are ‘legally dubious’ and claimed that since CBP will not disclose the locations for fear of ‘grave’ consequences, it is likely not a program that should continue.

Lawyers also did not disclose the locations of foreign airport departures, making it unclear where these migrants are coming from.

But those eligible for the CBP One applications are citizens from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Colombia and Ecuador.

***
But it is actually a little worse as the Biden administration is actually loaning money to migrants…do they need to pay back the loans? Nah…
The International Office of Migration….yes with a budget paid out of the State Department at an estimate amount to be $2.4 billion….but read on…

The International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Travel Loan Program helps to provide penalty and interest-free loans to refugees arriving in the United States. Refugees who accept these travel loans are required to sign a promissory note prior to departure, committing themselves to repayment of the debt within a determined period after arrival.

IOM arranges travel for refugee using funds furnished by the Department of State and is mandated to subsequently receive refugees’ repayments on behalf of the Department of State. Repayments made are remitted to a revolving fund created between the Department of State and IOM for use by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) to defray the cost of future refugee travel.

A Travel Loan repayment is initially assigned either to IOM itself or to a resettlement agency.

The core belief of the Program is that refugees’ financial participation in making repayments against their debt will strengthen their determination to make a success of their migration. Furthermore, repayments are utilized by IOM and other receiving agencies to help establish the credit worthiness of the newly arriving refugees. Not only does that help refugees better integrate and contribute to the US economy, it also serves as a protection tool against abusive and predatory lending markets for those without credit worthiness.

The Bidens, a hospital chain and Americore

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It is a LONNNNG read but necessary….What is worse is the Department of Justice knows full well the whole story as noted in part below.

Pennsylvania Seeking Medical Supplies From Hospital Driven Into Financial Ruin by Venture Linked to Biden's Brother Free Beacon pretty much had the story back in 2020.

From Politico:

Biden’s brother used his name to promote a hospital chain. Then it collapsed.

Jim Biden played a major role in a company called Americore, which the government has accused of massive Medicare fraud.

The consultant, Jim Biden, had no experience running hospitals. But he did understand the federal government and had ties to labor unions. Perhaps more important, he was the younger brother of Joe Biden.

The email, obtained by POLITICO from a person close to the company, documents one of the many ways in which Jim Biden invoked his brother’s name and clout in the course of his work with Americore, whichhas since gone bankrupt, wreaking havoc in rural communities in the process.

Jim Biden spoke of plans to give his brother equity in Americore, according to one former Americore executive, and install him on its board, according to a second. He also said that if Americore could find a winning business model for rural health care, his brother could promote the company in a future presidential campaign, a third former executive told POLITICO. All were granted anonymity to discuss a company mired in legal and political controversy

In order to fund Americore’s expansion, Jim Biden offered to secure capital from investors in the Middle East, according to the emails and executives. When the expected money did not arrive, it aggravated Americore’s preexisting financial issues. The company collapsed, leaving behind unpaid bills and neglected patients.

The management failures took a human toll as hospital staff went unpaid, services dwindled, and authorities were forced to intervene. At Americore’s hospital in southeastern Kentucky — ravaged by staff departures and dwindling medical supplies — a patient died of cardiac arrest in late 2018 after receiving substandard care, according to a Department of Health and Human Services report obtained by POLITICO.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department found that Americore’s hospital in Pennsylvania entered into sham service agreements and paid kickbacks as part of a scheme that billed the government for medically unnecessary lab tests the hospital shipped out to be performed elsewhere.

Those actions are at the center of a federal prosecution of a $100 million conspiracy to defraud Medicare that has netted a guilty plea from the recipient of the kickbacks, and, according to a person familiar with the case, remains ongoing.

Now, House Republicans pursuing an impeachment inquiry focused on the relationship between the president and his relatives’ business dealings have also homed in on Americore. The House Oversight Committee is set to interview Jim Biden on Feb. 21 as part of the inquiry.

The investigation also reveals that Joe Biden’s name and inner circle were more involved with the company than has been understood: In addition to the accounts provided by former executives, investor materials described Jim Biden as an adviser to his older brother. And on top of Joe Biden’s own previously reported encounter with the firm’s CEO, at least three of Joe Biden’s relatives did work with Americore. They include Jim Biden’s wife, Sara, and his son, Jamie. The president’s son, Hunter Biden also met with its CEO, and his personal doctor — current White House physician Kevin O’Connor — joined a meeting with Jim Biden and the president of a hospital being acquired by Americore, according to a former executive and emails obtained by POLITICO.

While the extent to which Joe Biden’s relatives have invoked their ties to him to advance their business careers has been a subject of ongoing controversy, the documents obtained by POLITICO demonstrate that Joe Biden was a central element of Jim Biden’s pitch to potential partners and investors during this period.

Read it all for yourself….in full here

China has now Postured to Control our Agriculture and Food

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Anyone paying attention to the others things going on at the United Nations?

Meet FAO….Food and Agriculture Organization and the Director General Qu Dongyu, located in Beijing. According to the website:

After three decades of economic reform, China has become the second largest economy in the World. In the 21st century, FAO’s cooperation with China has entered a new era. In addition to receiving needed assistance, China has become one of the major supporters to the FAO led endeavours to fight hunger and food insecurity through offering its successful experience to the rest of the developing world.

FAO’s Work in China

China is now in its 14th Five-Year Development Period (2021-2025), and FAO, together with multiple stakeholders in the country, has developed the Country Programming Framework (CPF) for 2021-2025, which is positioned to provide strategic support for China to promote all-round rural revitalization in the post-pandemic era, ensuring food security and promoting high-quality agricultural development. Meanwhile, it is envisaged to step up cooperation with China in global food and agricultural governance and promote the implementation of Global Development Initiative in the agriculture sector, sharing China’s progress and experience in poverty reduction, agricultural development and 2030 agenda implementation with the international community. It sets out three priority areas:

  • Supporting people and prosperity and better production and better nutrition through rural revitalization
  • Protecting planet and better environment through a sustainable and resilient agri-food systems
  • Enhancing partnership and better life through international and regional agriculture cooperation
Why is this so terrifying? The video below explains it all and just about every nation’s representative at the United Nations knows full well what is happening.

So, where exactly is our U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations? Where is the State Department? Anyone have a connection to the House Committee on China?

The video is about 40 minutes but is explains so much, you may need to take notes.

U.S. farmers are actually going broke and soon to be extinct and here is but one reason why….Syngenta

Notice paraquat and the EPA on the same page? Syngenta is mentioned a few times in the video above.

So, we have China hacking us as noted several times in congressional hearings.

Then they tried to break us financially and physically with a virus.

Now China has teamed up with other rogue nations to break us militarily.

But mostly and certainly visually Chinese are invading our borders especially now in California. Who are they and why?