Sunday, April 5, 2020

DrTonyMag: CORONAVIRUS: THE TRUTH AND SOLUTIONS

DrTonyMag: CORONAVIRUS: THE TRUTH AND SOLUTIONS: The real truth about coronavirus is that it is not being put in proper context and perspective. Compared to other causes of death in the ...

CORONAVIRUS: THE TRUTH AND SOLUTIONS

The real truth about coronavirus is that it is not being put in proper context and perspective.
Compared to other causes of death in the United States, there has been an overreaction to coronavirus(Covid-19). While it is true, that the virus can be deadly and we need to confront it in the best way medically in order to decrease the number of hospitalizations and deaths. But, by overreacting, there are real and unintended consequences.
The real consequences are a devastating effect on the economy with loss of jobs, businesses and savings. The unintended consequences include an increase in anxiety/ fear/ stress and depression and cancer and other chronic illnesses with subsequent deaths from both the stress of constant attention by the press on coronavirus and the economic,social and civil liberties negative effects. We know these unintended consequences occur and are supported by a study in Lancet 08/13/2016 examining the economic recession of 2008 and 2009. There was a significant increase of over 260,000 cancer deaths over a 2 year period from the recession in Europe which had caused poverty and anxiety and depression resulting in the increased cancer cases. Extrapolating this data worldwide, the article states that there was over half a million  more cancer deaths from that recession in the world. 
In order to put it in its proper perspective and context; one must keep in mind that we have approximately 36,000 deaths a year from the flu and tens of millions of Americans that have the flu every year. In 2017-2018 flu season- there were 79,000 deaths with 49 million Americans having contracted the flu..We also have over 100 deaths from motor vehicle accidents every day, but we do not stop people from driving cars in order to save lives. These are examples of “accepted” risk in order for a country to continue to prosper and our quality-of-life to improve. We do not overreact to the fact that over 100 suicides are committed daily and over 100 people die from drugs or opioid abuse daily in our country. We try to address these issues but our economy does not stop as a nation. One must also keep in mind that we lose over 7,000 people each day to death in the US.

Now what are the best solutions.
In my opinion they are:

1. Travel Restrictions. The most effective method is what President Trump did by not allowing people from China and subsequently other countries and Europe to come into our country because these areas had a significant number of infected cases.These travel restrictions should also apply from state to state and county to county in areas where there are hot spots. The most likely hot spots will obviously be the ones that are the most populated and where there is a high tourist industry with many travelers and foreigners from infected regions. This means that the number of  hot spots will be less than 100 counties of the 3000 counties in the United States.

2. Restrict large gatherings of people by encouraging people not to travel and by putting on hold the entertainment and sports business and other leisure activities.  Most nonessential public jobs can be put on hold since those employees will continue to get paid. 

3. Allow private business to continue in 90% of the counties in the United States that are not hot spots or have less than one percent of its population infected with coronavirus. They would continue to operate with social distancing but not be out of business. This could save over 30 million jobs and many businesses and keep the economy going in over 90% of our counties in the US. By having them close down completely, unintended consequences as mentioned above will result in other illnesses and deaths that were not anticipated initially by those in charge. Therefore, the cure may be worse than the disease.

4. Allow doctors to prescribe medicines such as hydroxychloroquine in an effort to save more lives and keep more people out of the hospital. Under no circumstances should public officials who do not have a medical license be allowed to restrict the use of a drug that is prescribed by a physician. It is the politician's job to make sure there is enough medicine to help the people of their state, not to dictate prescribing methods. When governors do that, they are practicing "unethical malpractice" and causing great harm to the public.

 5. Besides the preventative measures of social distancing and self quarantine in the hot spots: there is a need to recommend to providers to treat at an earlier stage of the disease process. For example, the goal should be earlier treatment in order to decrease the number of people hospitalized and consequently decrease the need for ventilators and decrease the amount of people that die from Covid-19. This would also decrease the risk to our wonderful healthcare workers who are caught in the middle of this crisis.  
When a person is symptomatic and tests positive for Covid-19, they and people living with them who are at high risk should be immediately treated, That is BEFORE they are hospitalized. The best treatment at this time is Hydroxychloroquine. Even though there are no definitive controlled studies as of yet, preliminary data shows tremendous promise. The side effects are minimal in properly selected patients who are not on certain medications and do not have a prolonged QT interval.  By not treating these patients in this early and timely fashion, I believe this delay will result in an extra ten to twenty thousand lives in the US alone. As, physicians, we frequently use drugs off label to help our patients when we determine that the benefits of treatment outweigh the risks of treatment or no treatment or treatment given too late.
There are other treatments which can be added on as we know more about the effects of adding Zithromax or other antiviral agents. We also know that plasma from recovered patients can be beneficial. Also, there are others in the private sector, working towards developing an antibody that can be given to allow immunity before actual vaccines come out later this year. 
                                   
Consequently, if we are more aggressive in the earlier phases of this disease, we can decrease the hospitalizations and more significantly the suffering and deaths by allowing doctors to do what they do best, that is, assess the risk and benefits of a treatment and appropriately help patients where the benefits outweigh the risks. Hydroxychloroquine may cause an extra 20 or 30 deaths from a reaction to the drug, but may actually work in the majority of selected patients, thus saving as many as  20,000 lives when used appropriately and in earlier stages of the disease.
Having data and models have their purpose, but sometimes, we must act when the benefits outweigh the risk in individual patients for treatments that are promising. Waiting too long  in this case most likely will result in more hospitalizations, ventilator use and deaths.
We as a nation need to be practical and compassionate. We will save more lives with better treatment options that are not hindered by politicians. We also have to take into consideration unintended consequences which causes suffering and death later on, thereby making the cure worse than the disease.

Please America, let’s do the right thing and help our fellow citizens in a way that keeps America healthier and stronger by using our common sense and putting Covid-19 in its proper perspective and context. 
We will get through this, but let's do it in a way that saves more lives and decreases the number of people hospitalized, thereby, helping our citizens, our health care workers and our economy as we get back to health and work sooner than later in our great nation.

Friday, April 12, 2019

PLATFORM FOR THE RIGHT AGAINST THE LEFT




The major message that UNIFIES the Republican party for the right causes which improve all Americans lives are a strong economy and a strong military and strong moral values and the best health for the individuals in our nation.
This means we are UNITED against the LEFT, who only want to destroy this great nation by its socialistic economic policies, its weakening of our military and moral values and its attempt to control individuals’ choice in healthcare.
Therefore, I propose a platform which all candidates running in local, state and federal levels should adhere to and defend with commonsense and facts. This unity of message is important along with the ability to get out the message so that republicans/conservatives can win elections and use these policies to help keep this nation remain strong and get even stronger.

  • The 10 basic issues that all candidates should support are:

  1. Pro Smaller Government. The best government is the one that runs efficiently and who have public servants that are good stewards of the United States taxpayers money. When the government gets bigger, individuals freedom and liberties get smaller.
  2. Pro Lowering taxes. Public servants should always aim to achieve the expenses of governing in the most efficient and least costly ways.All Americans should be able to keep more of their money since they will know how best to spend it rather than the government telling them how to spend their money.
  3. Pro economic growth. All Americans benefit from a policy that decreases regulations and creates incentives to stimulate more businesses to grow and increase employment. The emphasis should be to help small businesses which are the backbone of the American economy.
  4. Pro Peace. This can only be achieved by maintaining a Strong military and by using a strong military and strong economy as a deterrence to others hoping to achieve control in destructive ways.
  5. Pro law-enforcement and first responders. Americans are safer because of the courage of our men and women in Law-enforcement and first responders, including firefighters. Americans are also safer because of the courage of our military to help defend our values and freedoms and liberties.
  6. Pro Health of our individuals in our nation. The emphasis for healthcare should be in individual choice and free market forces and transparency which allow the individual to have control over their own healthcare and to lower costs. A government safety net would be available for those that fall through the cracks, but the emphasis is that the less Government gets involved in your healthcare choices, the healthier the individuals will be in this nation.
  7. Pro education and information. The emphasis is for the education system to teach our students How to Think rather than What to Think. Only, in this way, can we develop individuals for the future who are well-informed and can continue to keep this nation strong or make this nation even stronger.
  8. Pro Constitution. Americans benefit when there is free speech and are hurt when there is intolerance of differing viewpoints. Also, our country was founded on religious freedom and our Constitution allows individuals to practice their religion without fear of persecution. We should also protect the defenseless with our Pro Life views.
  9. Pro Environment. Cleaner air and cleaner water should always be goals to allow for a safe and healthier nation. However, this does not mean that we spend money on baseless and unscientific theories that are not proven or based on one’s feelings or political ideology. True and verifiable science is always the best method for policy decisions.
  10. Pro voting rights. The policy for voting should always be one vote for every legal qualified citizen per election. Methods to decrease voter fraud and ensure fairness to the system should be the priority.

Tony Maglione



Friday, October 13, 2017

THE EVIL OF IGNORANCE

Just about everyone understands that mass murderers and terrorists are evil,but ignorance can lead to evil. There are many examples in history where the presence of an ignorant mass led to evil. In Germany, in the 1930's, many ignorant people allowed Hitler, through his socialist NAZI party, to amass power and exterminate over 6 million Jews. In the 20th century, the Soviet Union allowed Lenin and Stalin to develop Communism and this caused over 100 million deaths. Today, in the United States, there is a socialist progressive left agenda and movement which only through ignorance will be allowed to grow. If this indeed occurs, it will be the end of the United States as we know it. Let’s review how this can happen.

1. Our public education system over the last 50 years has been one of the main contributors to “dumbing down” our population by telling students what to think rather than teaching them how to think. Our education system went from being one of the best in the world to barely being mediocre at this time, despite spending three times more money over the last 50 years. Instead of making common sense changes to our public education system to improve it; the progressive left wants to continue the current pathway and even spend more money ensuring that future adult American citizens will be furthered “dummied down”. They accomplish this by trying to make everybody go to “free” college,learn more liberal policies and become further indoctrinated with socialist and progressive left dogma.

2.  The mainstream media is another major contributor to the ignorance in our country. Most people will accept the headlines and never really delve into the actual facts of the information from the press. This propaganda from the mainstream media has been relentless for several generations and it has caused many people to be brainwashed into accepting many false narratives. Recent examples are Black Lives Matter and Antifa. The falsehoods that are propagated by the press include cops shooting blacks disproportionately and what constitutes fascism and anti-fascism. Both groups are based on lies which, as they grow, create further division and hate within our nation and thus makes it less likely to help the very minorities they represent.

3. The left political class is another major contributor to the ignorance and “dumbing down” of our country. A big government can only exist when its people are followers and not individual thinkers. The goal of this political class is to obtain power and control and this can only be done non violently by “dumming down” the people. In this way, people exist only for the “welfare of the state” or federal government. The resultant ignorance of the people will then lead to an acceptance of a big government socialist platform where people exist for the benefit of the state, causing the United States to become another tyrannical government like many others in the past. This is a victory for the teachings of Rousseau, Hegel, Marx and Engels where people exist for the welfare of the government (“state”).

4.  Because of the propaganda press and our poor educational system and the left political class, many ignorant Americans actually believe that government should be in control of your health such as Obamacare. They believe this despite incredible evidence as to its failures,cost and lack of actually improving individuals' health.The belief that big government can solve problems and improve people’s lives is a false one and has been proven to be dangerous and deadly historically.

5. For socialism to succeed in this country, there is a need to ignore the presence of God, the validity of our Constitution and to become a less virtuous nation.Socialism inevitably leads to a loss of liberty and freedom We are a nation that is By the People and For the People and therefore we should never be subservient to government or exist for the “welfare of the state”. Only when Americans become less ignorant of these facts, can we help prevent more evil in our nation and in the world. This is why many of us that understand history and the consequences of a socialist or progressive movement will always fight to educate all Americans. This is the only way ignorance can be thwarted and the United States can once again be a free and virtuous nation under God now and forever.

Friday, September 22, 2017

WHAT WE HOPE CONGRESS DOES WITH DACA


President Trump recently gave a six-month extension to the DACA program which will hopefully convince Congress to pass legislation. The DACA program was an executive order by President Obama in 2012 which, by President Obama's own words, was unconstitutional (something the executive branch was not allowed to do) and therefore will not stand up to the current legal challenges by many states and will eventually be rescinded.

We hope that Congress will do the right thing, understanding that the overwhelming majority of Americans DOES NOT want to deport these 800,000 undocumented youth.

Now who/what is DACA?  They are individuals who are under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012,who entered the United States before turning 16, and have continually lived in this country since June 15, 2007. These individuals must also have a high school diploma or GED certification,honorably discharged from the military or still be in school. They cannot have a criminal record. The DACA order does not give legal status. The current average age of these youths today is over 20 years of age.

  Americans should hope and pray Congress does the following:
1. Give  permanent legal status for these 800,000 individuals by giving them a "yellow or purple" card which allows them to stay in the United States indefinitely without fear of deportation. This permanent legal status allows these individuals to only obtain benefits such as Social Security, disability, Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, and welfare 10 years after obtaining a permit for legal status. Also, they are never able to vote unless they become citizens. If they have illegally registered to vote or have voted, the first offense could be a four year federal prison term and the second offense would be deportation.
2.  Continue the same standard as the DACA program for deportation. That is, they cannot have a criminal record and they must have a high school diploma or GED, honorably discharged from the military or still be in school.
3.  Allow these individuals a possible pathway to citizenship by one of the following methods.
They can do at least four years of military service and cannot be dishonorably discharged.
 They can do at least 10 years of public service such as being on the police force or working as a fireman or fire woman or other public services such as those determined by the Department of  Defense. These services can be working for 10 years in the FBI or CIA or other positions that involve danger and possible loss of life.
 After the completion of these years of public service, they can then apply for citizenship the same as a legal immigrant.
4.  After this legislation is passed, there can be no more permanent legal status for any other children of illegals in this country indefinitely unless legislated by Congress.State and local authorities cannot override federal law on this issue.
5.   This legislation will go into affect  only when a Wall at the southern border has been fully funded  and approved by the Department of Homeland Security.
6.   This legislation is accompanied by a more comprehensive piece of immigration legislation which deals with legal immigration and parameters (entry requirements) similar to those set by Senator Cotton.

 If the Democrats care about these individuals, they will allow the funding and building of the wall at the southern border in order to help keep illegal immigration at a minimum. Hopefully, the Democrats will prove their concern for these DACA individuals more than they care about getting votes from future illegal immigrants coming into this country.
There is a possible pathway to citizenship for these individuals and I believe that all parties should allow these individuals to remain legally in this country since they are here in this country by someone else's illegal actions. They should be rewarded with a pathway to citizenship if they do public service as described previously.
The conditions for remaining in this country are fair and I hope that Congress will approach this issue with a mature and compassionate attitude and not approach this issue by making unreasonable demands further dividing this country. Hopefully, they can think more about helping these individuals and future generations of Americans than their own self interests or their party's self interest.
Let's all pray that Congress can do the right thing this time.

Sunday, September 17, 2017

TAX REFORM IS EASY AS LONG AS CONGRESS CAN DO ITS JOB

 For many of us, passing a tax reform bill is much easier than Congress pretends it to be. Many in Congress want you to believe that it is very complex. They do this because it benefits the people in power such as lobbyists, lawyers,accountants,big corporations, Big Government and themselves. They have a better chance of controlling your money. This is your country and we are a nation governed by its people, so let's make the laws work for us.
Many people voted for Donald Trump in order to receive simplified tax reform. He has an excellent tax plan and I will summarize it with a few changes and recommendations that I believe will make it more likely to pass in Congress.

 With respect to individual taxes :

1.  Simplify tax brackets down to three brackets.  12% for singles with incomes over $37,500 and married joint filings with incomes over $75,000.  25% for those singles with incomes over $37,500 up to $112,500 and married joint filings would be between $75,000 and $225,000.  33% for those singles with income is over $112,500 and married joint filings over $225,000. I agree with these three brackets proposed by president Trump but would change the percentages to 11%, 22%, and 35% in order to help the middle class more and make it more acceptable for the Senate Democrats, of which at least 8 of their votes are needed for passage of the bill.
2. Increase the standard deduction as per President Trump's plan which essentially doubles the deduction for singles ($12,600) and married couples ($24,000).This also helps the middle class who may not have as many itemized deductions.
3.  Eliminate all deductions except for those on retirement savings, charitable contributions, and mortgage interest on only one home at a time. This way those who can afford more than one home at a time will not receive a mortgage interest deduction on additional homes. President Trump's plan caps charitable deduction at $200,000. I believe that charitable deductions can continue over $200,000 at up to 10%  of income over $2 million. In this way, the rich have an incentive to continue donating to charity. Continue retirement savings as before.
5. Allow child and elder care deductions similar to the one outlined in President Trump's plan with $2000 a year for each child under age 13 and $5000 a year for each dependent elder. Singles earning over $250,000 and married couples over $500,000 do not qualify for these deductions.
4. Eliminate the estate tax. It hurts small businesses and should not be taxed since the money has already been taxed at least once and sometimes more.
5.  Eliminate the alternative minimum tax and state and local deductions.
6.  Continue the Social Security and Medicare taxes.
 This will allow about 80% of the 160 million individual tax filers to file with a simple form and they will no longer need to use an accountant. There will be some individuals who have an individual corporation or business and may also need to file a corporate tax form, but they too benefit from a simplified individual tax form. The overall work of the IRS will be cut significantly and we can then greatly decrease the size of the IRS.

 With respect to corporate taxes :

1.  Decrease the corporate tax from 35% to 15%.
2.  Allow a one time repatriation tax of 10% for businesses with income earned abroad. This would help keep companies in the United States and get many corporations to bring back money to the United States. Many of these corporations will come back because of the lower corporate tax rate.
3.  Allow US based manufacturers to deduct all expenses for new plants and equipment. This incentivizes companies to invest more.
4.  Illuminate loopholes that allow corporations to avoid taxes by setting up offshore businesses.
5.   Obtain revenue with an import tax which is graduated as follows:
       0% for items under $5,000.
       10% for items between $5000 and $10,000.
       15% for items between $10,000 and 20,000.
       20% for items over $20,000.
         This is similar to a luxury tax except that it is on imports only. If Congress does not want to have any change in the import taxes, then the corporate tax will need to be 20% to be more likely revenue neutral.

 With respect to capital gains tax :
1. Decrease the capital gains taxes from 20% to 15%, which allows Americans to either reinvest or spend more; thus,stimulating business and improving the economy.

By passing  a simplified Tax Bill,  the American people can have a tax code that is under 1000 pages rather than the current 75,000 pages.  Really Congress ?? no more excuses, giving us tax reform. It's is as easy as  1-2-3  tax brackets .

Sunday, August 20, 2017

THE REAL TRUTH OF RACISM AND BIGOTRY IN OUR COUNTRY

After what happened in Charlottesville Virginia, it is time to have an honest and truthful discussion about racism and bigotry in our country. Undoubtedly, the acts of an individual 20-year-old neo-Nazi was reprehensible, hateful and destructive. Our prayers go out to those affected by the death of that young girl as well as those injured in Charlottesville.
Now let's review some of the historical facts regarding the KKK, Nazism, and white supremacy.

1.  KKK -  The roots of the KKK began in the 1860s after the Civil War. The overwhelming number of members in the KKK were Democrats up until about 1990. During the height of the KKK, (in the 1920s), there were between five and 8 million members. Of the 4000 lynchings of blacks by the KKK, they were almost all done by Democrats.  David Duke was a member of the KKK and a Democrat until about 1990. He was unsuccessful in his runs for political office so he switched parties in an attempt to create more notoriety for himself and for an attempt to win governorship. He was unsuccessful and has been denounced by the leaders in the Republican Party, this includes President Trump. There are currently about 5000 members of the KKK nationally. Therefore, the members of the KKK in this country over our history is about 1000 times greater for Democrats than it is for Republicans.

2. NAZISM (Neo-nazis) and WHITE SUPREMACISTS-The roots are from Hitler's National Socialist German Worker's Party. This party is a "socialist" party which is a party from the Left. It involves big government which claims to know what's good for you and not only obnoxiously assuming they know what's best for you, they are also white supremacists.  The Nazi party had many sympathizers throughout the world. They included the Muslims from the previous Ottoman Empire and Margaret Sanger,who is revered by the Left and Hillary Clinton. Margaret Sanger is a known socialist and white supremacist who stated that Negroes were inferior and needed to be eliminated as too were the disabled. She opened up the first birth control clinic in the United States and is responsible for Planned Parenthood. Her motives for abortion were mainly to keep the population of blacks at a minimum because of her white supremacy views and views on eugenics.  She was, to say the least, a bigot, white supremacist and a racist. Also, she succeeded with abortion to control the black population because blacks disproportionately have a greater percentage of abortions; therefore, their population in the United States by percentage has not significantly increased in 100 years.

3. ANTIFA (an abbreviation for anti-fascism)- Their roots are from an anti-fascist movement in Europe during the 1930s. They identify themselves as an anti-racist and anti-capitalist group which essentially makes them to be pro-socialist/pro-communist. They also claim to be anarchists and wish to disrupt the American way of life by using violence. The interesting thing to note is that their actions are actually much more in line with Fascism by their need to control other peoples free speech and rights. The views of this group are in line with those that created the most violence and death in our world's history. The socialists and communists in the 20th century accounted for over 170 million deaths.

4. BLACK LIVES MATTER-Their roots are based on a false narrative that white cops are  excessively killing blacks. This is not factually correct when you look at national data since 1980 and compare those involved in violent crimes such as homicides and shootings. The data shows that actually Whites and Hispanics are killed more by cops if you factor in the percentage of those committing the violent crimes. The term black lives matter implies that black lives matter more than other lives which, in and of itself, is a black supremacist viewpoint similar to white supremacy on the other side.  Also, many of the black lives matter leaders are anti-Israel and anti-Semitic which is ironic for an organization that pretends to be against bigotry and racism.

There are many more examples of hypocrisy, especially from the Left.  Now, if we were to follow the Left's viewpoint on the reason for the protest in Charlottesville, which is to remove all Confederate monuments, even by force if necessary, then we should remove all the examples of racism and bigotry.  Since the majority of those that were slave-owners, KKK members, sympathetic to white supremacy and nazism in the past were Democrats, it is only logical that we remove the Democratic Party from our culture.

 All of these movements are dominated more by those who practice hate, division and violence then by those who practice love,unity and peace. We can all come together as a nation if we can all denounce these movements that are destructive and learn from real history and not from "Fake" history.