Progressively Fascist...

Written by Sybele Capezzutti on . Posted in Sybele On The Level

As an Independent I think both political parties leave much to be desired and it appears that their only goal is to promote division so we are too busy fighting each other to point fingers at them.

That being said; I have a much bigger problem with today's so called progressives than any other group in this country.

The word “progressive” is an adjective supposed to mean forward thinking; instead it has become the embodiment of illogical thinking and paradox.

If you are against religion having any influence in government, then why are you supportive of devout Muslims running for office and call it progress..?!  Aren't their beliefs going to affect their judgement the same way it would a devout Christian..?! 

Progressives hate pro-life activists for their beliefs because of the religious connection; for them, pro-lifers are against women's rights because they ignore the fact that a fetus is also a human being deserving of rights.  In other words, they choose to only afford rights to those who can already vote.

It gets better; when the same progressives, who are pro-abortion claiming women's rights as the logic behind it and their desire to keep religion separate from secular law, support the most barbaric and least forward thinking religion in the world calling for their constitutional right to "cling to their religion.”

Progressives will fight against devout Christians every step of the way based on their idea of separation of church and state, while defending sharia law just as vehemently based on freedom of religion.

As if that wasn't paradoxical enough, they've decided to add their own version of what constitutes freedom of speech to the pot.

This one is pretty simple though: anything that does not support their views is considered hate speech.

If you are a fiscal conservative and don't even care to talk about social issues but only want to promote fiscal responsibility, that's hate speech.  If you don't believe that government is the answer to all of our problems, that's hate speech.  If you think Islam has a serious problem that needs to be talked about rationally, that's hate speech.  If you think drug cartels are in cahoots with politicians and open borders has nothing to do with charity, that's hate speech.

And the list goes on.  But I think that the progressives’ new definition of fascism is what bothers me the most lately because too many good people have been duped into believing it.

Fascism is inherently loss of freedom; it does not belong to the right or the left, it can use either side as its vehicle.  Fascism is silencing ideas that are contrary to yours, it is removing any trace of history that doesn't support your thinking, and it is controlling speech, controlling actions, controlling diversity.  So, if progressives are pro diversity, why are they silencing the ones who are different from them..?!

When progressives created the "Antifa" (anti fascism) movement, they themselves became the fascists.  They are the ones silencing people by censuring and attacking. They are the ones forcing people to lose their jobs because of what they believe, beating people up on the streets for wearing a shirt they don't like, vandalizing cars for a bumper sticker supporting a cause they don't believe in.

Their approach to "progress" is total regression to public shaming, violence and intimidation, it is fascism.  Worse yet, it is terrorism.

The definition of terrorism is "The unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims."

The "progressive movement" is clearly heavily funded by those who have no interest in peace, because the elite thrive on chaos.

And what better way of promoting chaos than by infiltrating some paid pseudo human rights activists into a population..?  Sadly, it will get worse before it gets better..!

On the bright side, I know I'm not alone and there are millions of people out there who have been able to keep their ability to think logically and don't subscribe to political identity as their alternative brain.

The emotional being is only useful when the logical mind is in control.

Phobia That...!

Written by Sybele Capezzutti on . Posted in Sybele On The Level

Publisher’s Note:  This is the round-house punch.  Get a towel ready because you're gonna need it.

Sybele Capezzutti:  Most Americans don't understand Islam.  It is not simply a belief system but a political system as well.  Followers of Islam are taught to live under sharia law, and that is not just for radicals but for every follower.  A recent research revealed that 51% of the Muslims living the in US support replacing the Constitution with sharia law.

Predominantly Muslim countries enforce sharia as the only set of laws for its citizens. Because those laws are part of a belief system, their followers do not recognize or are compelled to follow any other law, thus why they don't assimilate when living in western countries and form communities where they follow sharia among themselves. 

I hear a lot of people talking about respecting others religions, and I completely support that. But, understanding that Islam is not simply a religion is extremely important..!  In essence, it is a totalitarian system that uses people's blind faith in order to control every aspect of their lives.  We've worked really hard in this country to ensure people's basic rights and I'm dumbfounded when I hear people willingly making room in our society for a system that under the blanket of religion takes them all away.  

If you're not familiar with sharia, please read and learn.  Sharia law is the law of Islam. The Sharia (also spelled Shariah or Shari'a) law is cast from the actions and words of Muhammad, which are called "Sunnah," and the Quran, which he authored.  According to the Sharia law: 

• Theft is punishable by amputation of the right hand. 

• Criticizing or denying any part of the Quran is punishable by death. 

• Criticizing or denying Muhammad is a prophet is punishable by death. 

• Criticizing or denying Allah, the moon god of Islam is punishable by death. 

• A Muslim who becomes a non-Muslim is sentenced to death. 

• A non-Muslim who leads a Muslim away from Islam is sentenced to death. 

• A non-Muslim man who marries a Muslim woman is sentenced to death. 

• A man can marry an infant girl and consummate the marriage when she is 9 years old. 

• Girls' clitoris should be cut (per Muhammad's words in Book 41, Kitab Al-Adab, Hadith 5251). 

• A woman can have 1 husband, but a man can have up to 4 wives 

• A man can unilaterally divorce his wife but a woman needs her husband's consent to divorce. 

• A man can beat his wife for insubordination. 

• Testimonies of four male witnesses are required to prove rape against a woman. 

• A woman who has been raped cannot testify in court against her rapist(s). 

• A woman's testimony in court, allowed only in property cases, carries half the weight of a man's. 

• A female heir inherits half of what a male heir inherits. 

• A woman cannot drive a car, as it leads to fitnah (upheaval). 

• A woman cannot speak alone to a man who is not her husband or relative. 

• Meat to be eaten must come from animals that have been sacrificed to Allah - i.e., be Halal. 

• Muslims should engage in Taqiyya and lie to non-Muslims to advance Islam. 

• Homosexual activity is punishable by death 

• Non-Muslims must pay a tax called jizrah or die 

• Blasphemy against Islam is punishable by flogging, amputation, hanging or beheading. 

• The Quran doesn't recognize written contracts for commercial transactions, only oral agreements. 

• It is acceptable to take non-muslims as slaves and sell them. 

• Interest on loans are prohibited. 

After learning about these strict laws, it is almost pathetic that the focus of criticism in this Country are some Christians who oppose tax payer's funding for abortions, Nativity Scenes or Christmas trees on the public square, a silent prayer in public, Bibles in a hotel room, and all the other silly things that apparently bother so many while the same people go out of their way to make room for tolerance of laws that clearly infringe on freedom of speech and equal rights. Ignorance is a choice, a dangerous one.

Phobia This...!

Written by Sybele Capezzutti on . Posted in Sybele On The Level

Publisher’s note:  Sybele Capezzutti has cranked out a two punch boxing match of a series.  This first jab is to sort of “tenderize” the reader with a softening, educational punch.  I’m going to let this one sink in for a few days, and then, just as the bruising is feeling a bit less tender, we'll release the round house, knock-out punch which is part two.  

That knock-punch should leave the opponents of her very common sense writing bloodied, reeling, and tossing in the towel.  

Sybele Capezzutti:  Let's pretend it's 1935; the Nazis don't look too bad and have a lot of support...yes, they are radical extremists that want a pure Aryan world, but how much damage could they do? 

Now let's say I'm a pacifist, multi-culturalist, kumbaya singing person in the mid 1930's; of course I would never label or profile anyone and I wouldn't want others to do it either..!  So, being very clever, I decide that the best way to avoid any retaliation against any individual that I am not sure subscribes to the Nazi agenda is to make people feel guilty if they do so...and I create the word "germanophobia." 

If you dare to be afraid of any Germans because you don't know if they support Hitler or not, you are now a "germanophobe."  What do you know..? It works great..!  No one wants to be a “germanophobe because lots of Germans are nice people..!  The fact that we have no clue which ones are Nazis and support the idea of a pure Aryan race and which ones are not should be irrelevant.  The fact that the real Nazis will torture people, use them as lab rats for experiments, kill babies with deformities (keep in mind they want a pure and superior race) should have no weight on my ability to love everyone, right..?  

It took the US 8 years to enter WW2; for 8 years we ignored Hitler and his atrocities, and we all know the result and how many people the Nazis tortured and killed in order to create a pure Aryan race.  If the term "germanophobia" sounds silly, it's because it is..!  As silly as the term "islamophobia."  

This is not about being afraid of a group, this is not about religion; this is about ideology, period.  Radical Islam is a thousand times more dangerous than Hitler ever was; it doesn't have just one head, but several.  It is spread all over the world, it is next door. Can we afford to take 8 years to wake up..?  This is not a time to play political games or say things that make you feel better about yourself. 

While we sit here pointing fingers at each other to see who is "compassionate" and who isn't, who is racist and who isn't, who is a bigot and who isn't.....Islamists are raping young and old women until they die from bleeding; they are killing their children and then feeding them their flesh, they are crucifying and beheading, they are killing disabled children and laughing at us because we're paralyzed by political correctness and self-righteousness.  Again...this is not about religion, it's about ideology. 

Wake up..! It's way past time..!

A Monster Called Health Insurance...

Written by Sybele Capezzutti on . Posted in Sybele On The Level

Publisher’s Note:  Given that she is a trusted, regular contributor, I normally don’t offer a foreword to an article by Sybele Capezzutti; and I’m only writing this one as a sort of caveat.  This is a tad longer than her normal articles, and with good reason.

Sybele did a lot of homework and found out some things that a lot of people don’t know and probably wouldn’t take the time to find out about.  This is an excellent, readable, and very informative piece and I trust you’ll agree after reading.

So stop what you’re doing, pour a splash of your favorite adult beverage, and spend the next few minutes learning how the government and combined medical industries essentially did to modern medicine what Henry Ford did to the fledgling automotive industry of his day.   

Sybele Capezzutti:  Let’s talk Health Insurance..!

In 1850, the first U.S. insurance firm was founded.  It offered insurance against injuries received during an accident.  Hospital and medical expense insurance wasn’t introduced until the 1920’s; instead, individual hospitals (and in 1929, employers) offered pre-paid plans to help cover the cost of medical expenses. Employer (or union) sponsored health insurance became commonplace after World War II when it was offered as a benefit to compensate for limited wages, or as a recruiting tool in job categories with high demand and limited supply.

President Truman began throwing around the idea of a government sponsored health plan during this post-war period, however it wasn’t until 1965 that Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law.  In the 1970s, changes in the law allowed managed care through HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations).

But how exactly did the idea of health insurance come about..? I was curious so of course I had to research..! 

Americans did not spend much in healthcare in the early 1900’s.  Women had their babies at home, people ate healthier, and when they got old and sick they didn’t try to extend their lives.  Cancer wasn’t even a household name like today.

Before the birth of modern medicine, hospitals were poor houses where the indigent went to die.  Then came the discovery of effective medicines, especially antibiotics, along with a revolution in medical schools.

Suddenly, says economic historian Melissa Thomasson, "Hospitals are marketing themselves as places to have babies."

Health care became much more effective, and much more expensive.  Clean hospitals, educated doctors and real pharmacological research cost money.  People proved willing to pay for care when they were really sick, but it wasn't yet common to go for checkups or survivable illnesses.

By the late 1920s, hospitals noticed most of their beds were going empty every night and they wanted to get people who weren't deathly ill to start coming in.

An official at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas noticed that Americans, on average, were spending more on cosmetics than on medical care.  "We spend a dollar or so at a time for cosmetics and do not notice the high cost," he said, and continued, "The ribbon-counter clerk can pay 50 cents, 75 cents or $1 a month, yet it would take about 20 years to set aside (money for) a large hospital bill."

Then Baylor hospital started looking for a way to get regular folks in Dallas to pay for health care the same way they paid for lipstick — a tiny bit each month.  Hospital officials started small, offering a deal to a group of public school teachers in Dallas.  They offered a plan for the teachers to pay 50 cents each month in exchange for Baylor picking up the tab on hospital visits.

When the Great Depression hit, almost every hospital in the country saw its patient load disappear. The Baylor idea became hugely popular and it eventually got a name: Blue Cross.

Blue Cross eventually expanded through the entire Country, and then WWII happened.

"The war economy is an entirely different ballgame," Thomasson says. The government rationed goods even as factories ramped up production and needed to attract workers.  Factory owners needed a way to lure employees.  She explains that the owners turned to fringe benefits, offering more and more generous health plans.

Like any other business, healthcare cost grew with demand and now they didn’t have to lure customers anymore; the customers were begging for service.

Healthcare today is a 3 Trillion dollar industry, the fifth largest industry in the US.

Clearly, there is no interest in shrinking it, and an industry this powerful has the ability to decide exactly what your healthcare future will be, mainly when the law makers are not at all affected by its exorbitant prices and receive the best of care.

It is important to note that health care and the pharmaceutical industry go hand and hand and they feed off each other.  So how much is the pharmaceutical industry worth..?  Over 50 Billion dollars are spent annually on pharmaceuticals in the US.

Interestingly enough is that even though the amount spent on pharmaceuticals is much lower than the amount spent on healthcare, pharmaceuticals is one of the most important contributors to healthcare’s exorbitant cost.  Lobbyists pay our law makers so competition is not allowed in our faux free market so they can control their pricing; the definition of crony capitalism.

Another big contributor that no one ever talks about is our legal system.  Law suits are so common and profitable that the entire medical industry (doctors, labs, hospitals) have to spend small fortunes in liability insurance and attorney’s services just to stay in business, and that cost is passed on to you, the consumer. Some of those law suits wouldn’t exist if the pharmaceutical industry did not control our elected officials and the FDA, money talks and harmful medication walks..!

I know, this is getting too long..!  Let’s get to the Affordable Care Act, which by mandate forces everyone in the Country to buy health insurance or pay a fine.

Some will argue that the ACA has some redeeming qualities such as the elimination of pre-existing conditions and affordability for the lower income bracket, but at what cost..?  And were there better ways to solve the ever increasing health care costs..?

The reason I took the time to first go over how health insurance was created was so we could all ask ourselves a very important question…do we really need to use hospitals and doctors as much as we do..?

Are we making ourselves sick by not living a healthy life because we know we can always count on a pill to fix it..? 

While you think about that let’s see if the ACA solved the main problem – health care cost and accessibility.

Cost:  Health insurance today costs about 30% more than it did before the ACA was created as a result of eliminating the pre-existing condition, it is only affordable for the ones who qualify for subsidies or would be on Medicaid to begin with. 

In 2008, the average employer sponsored family plan cost a total of $12,680, with employees footing $3,354 of the bill, according to Kaiser Data.  By 2016, the cost of the average employer family plan was up to $18,142 for the year, with workers picking up $5,277 of the tab.  Deductibles also increased considerably, some as high as $10,000.

That’s around a 50% increase..!  Have your pay rates also increased by 50%..?  What about the company you work for; has it increased its revenue by 50%..?  If the answer to the first question is no, then you have less money for food, clothes and entertainment now than you had before. .If the answer to the second is also no, then the company will be looking into workforce reduction; thus, an anemic economic recovery.

Accessibility:  Most of the ACA enrollees would have qualified for Medicaid through their State; the ACA just gave them access to a federalized system, but unfortunately also reduced the Federal contribution to the States, meaning that some people fell into a gap where they neither qualify for State or Federal Assistance.

They are uninsured today.  Oh…but the “evil” rich people are now paying more; the sweet taste of revenge..! Well, that really didn’t hurt them at all, but you know who really got hurt..?  The ones who were not poor enough for Medicaid or rich enough to not care..!

Entrepreneurs in particular..! They had to curb their daring spirits and get a job that offered health insurance instead of starting the new Apple in their garage because they can’t afford to pay for insurance or the penalty. Again, reflecting on the economy.

So, after billions of dollars spent by the Federal Government we still have people who are uninsured, people who can’t afford to pay for Insulin, people who can’t afford to pay for their Chemo treatment and thousands of GoFundMe pages asking for help to pay for their medical treatment.

The undeniable truth is that the ACA’s main goal was not to provide health insurance affordably.  It was created and put together by lobbyists for the hospitals and pharmaceutical industry exactly the same way the first health insurance was created….and with only one purpose in mind: to make sure they, not you, profited from it.

What better guarantee that you will pay for it than a government mandate that is enforced by the IRS..?

So what is the solution..?

Certainly not the bill introduced by the Republicans this week..! It does nothing to fix the rising costs of healthcare, but that’s another article, one I will work on once we see how they and President Trump will react to our displeasure with the plan they’ve presented.

Unfortunately, we’ are so conditioned to the idea of having health insurance that our choices are limited at this point.  Most people would rather take a pill to “fix” their ailment than live a healthier life, delivering a baby at home is not even a passing thought anymore and our diets lack the proper nutrition to prevent simple diseases.

We have forgotten what it is like to have a family doctor that you pay cash for, a doctor that knows you, your parents, your kids, your entire medical history, and can take care of you better than the ER doctor after putting you through 25 different exams because he is so afraid of a law suit that he won’t even touch you.

 

But we can at least try to free ourselves from the chains of the greedy pharmaceutical industry disguised as government controlled healthcare by demanding the return to true capitalism instead of cronyism and make the monsters fight against each other for our business instead of handing it on a silver platter through a government mandate. 

 

Becoming An American The Old Fashioned Way...

Written by Sybele Capezzutti on . Posted in Sybele On The Level

I came to America when I was 20 years old, legally.

Not because life didn't offer any opportunities where I grew up; in fact, I would probably have had a much easier life there due to who my father was. And I could have chosen any Country in Europe as my new home also because of my Italian Citizenship, but I chose the US because of what it represented in terms of freedom.

I didn't want to be my father's shadow, I wanted to achieve things on my own and I knew I could do it here. 

I also saw the government at the time as being more honest, at least more than most Countries, and that mattered to me.

The legal process was lengthy and expensive, but it gave me even more appreciation for the privilege of becoming an American Citizen. So no, I do not support open borders and the let's just take anyone in ideology...what is freely given isn't appreciated.

My English was limited but within 6 months I was fluent and kept working to improve; and why?  Because no one around me spoke anything but English, which I expected and had no problem adapting to since it was my choice to move to a foreign Country.

So no, I do not support schools, public establishments, or businesses having to offer options in languages, that's why there are people that have been here for 20 years and still can't make a full sentence in English, it’s pathetic..!

Boy, how things have changed..!  And for the worse, not better.

How can you call progress an ideology that is turning this country into the disorganized, chaotic, politically corrupt, inefficient, bankrupt system applied in every 3rd world country I've ever been to..?!

We can blame the media all day long, but the truth is that the real blame lies with the people who make no effort to think for themselves and embrace the path of victimization because it's much easier to blame your surroundings than search for the blame within.