Pro-Hillary PAC attacks Bernie over his health

Although the official Hillary Clinton presidential campaign has not yet begun airing any attack ads against Bernie Sanders (despite a promise from U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that Hillary will do so), a pro-Hillary political action committee (PAC) called Correct the Record is going on the attack against Bernie in the form of television ads:

Pro-Clinton super PAC Correct the Record will begin airing attack ads, calling for Senator Sanders to release his medical records.

The new assault on Senator Sanders comes as the polls tighten in Iowa, and he holds a commanding lead in the first primary state of New Hampshire.

The ad will reportedly call for Sanders to release his medical records before Iowans go to caucus on February 1st.

Presumably, the ad will air in Iowa, and possibly other early primary/caucus states as well.

This is a disgusting invasion of Bernie’s right to medical privacy. If Bernie and/or an outside group supporting Bernie ran attack ads calling for Hillary to release her medical records, I’d be just as disgusted and outraged. If a presidential candidate wishes to release his/her medical records, that’s his/her own prerogative. If a presidential candidate declines to release his/her medical records, that’s he/she reserving his/her right to medical privacy that is afforded by federal law.

This is different than, for example, tax returns, which, in my opinion, should be public record (currently, federal tax returns are not public record, although there may be some states where state tax returns are public record), and I call for all presidential candidates, regardless of party affiliation, to release at least 10 years worth of federal and state tax filings, if they have not already done so.

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Hillary is “worried” that Bernie may be winning by running on support for universal health care

With recent opinion polls in Iowa and New Hampshire showing that Bernie has a decent chance of winning both of the first two states to vote for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton is now sounding the alarm about…single-payer health care:

"If that is the kind of revolution he is talking about, I am worried folks," Clinton says on Bernie Sanders' single-payer healthcare plan.

— Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) January 12, 2016

The fact that Hillary views universal health care as something that she’s worried about is a clear indication that A) she is opposed to universal health care and B) she’s afraid that Bernie may win the Democratic nomination. Universal health care isn’t something to be worried about, it’s something that we should fight for. The vast majority of American seniors who are 65 years of age or older are already part of a single-payer health care system called Medicare, and it’s a very popular government program. If paid for and administrated properly, Medicare For All would be excellent at reducing health care costs in America.

Donald Trump-owned steakhouse briefly shut down in 2012 for health code violations

With the race for the Republican presidential nomination in full swing, a SuperPAC supporting Republican presidential candidate John Kasich is invoking Donald Trump’s now-discontinued line of steaks, Trump Steaks, in an ad campaign against Trump.

That reminds me of something…Trump owns a steakhouse in Las Vegas, which was briefly shut down in 2012 for health code violations:

…The Trump Steakhouse in Las Vegas was briefly shut down following 51 health code violations, including expired yogurt and five-month old duck.

Here’s more, from a November 2012 New York Daily News report:

A Las Vegas Strip restaurant bearing the initials of celebrity financier Donald Trump was briefly shut down after health inspectors found violations including month-old caviar and expired yogurt.

[…]

While ready-to-eat food can be stored for up to seven days, inspectors at DJT reported finding the old caviar and yogurt, duck that dated back to June (of 2012), veal stock and tomato sauce that was almost two weeks old, and expired peanut dressing and black bean chili.

Inspectors found no measures to destroy parasites in undercooked halibut and salmon, and noted that raw tuna was being improperly thawed. Icicles were found in a faulty freezer.

While Trump Steaks are no longer available for retail, DJT is still in operation to this day.

While I’d never vote for someone as anti-union as John Kasich, this is yet another reason why Donald Trump shouldn’t be elected to any kind of public office, much less the presidency.

My body isn’t perfect, but I love it

Me in my underwear

I don’t have the “ideal male body” by most people’s standards. I’m not muscular. My belly is very big. I’m not athletic at all. I sometimes have difficulty shaving my facial hair (although I never cut myself while shaving). I dislike haircuts to the point that I let my hair get very long and shaggy before I have my hair cut. I am physically clumsy.

However, I love my body.

Would losing some weight and building some muscle make me feel better, both emotionally and physically? Yes. However, I’m more than willing to embrace my less-than-ideal body, because I am who I am, and not everybody can have what a lot of people consider to be a “perfect” body.

Unlike a lot of overweight/obese people, I’ve been fortunate to have not been fat-shamed often, however, I have been fat-shamed by a couple of people. However, I’ve seen people who weigh a lot less than I do (especially women, although I’ve seen it done to men as well) fat-shamed by others on social media.

My advice to people who have been fat-shamed is simple: Love your body!

Wisconsin Republicans want to take the opportunity for cures away from people across America

In response to the recent release of heavily-edited videos by a right-wing smear group as part of a political witchhunt against Planned Parenthood, Wisconsin Republicans are pushing to enact an outright ban on the use of tissue from aborted fetuses in medical research.

Make no mistake about it, banning fetal tissue from being used in medical research would be disastrous, not just for Wisconsin, but the entire country. Not only would Wisconsin lose jobs if this legislation were to be enacted, the entire country would lose out on research, conducted by the University of Wisconsin System, that seeks to find cures for serious ailments like Parkinson’s disease, heart defects, various forms of cancer, and multiple sclerosis, just to name a few. This would make it far more difficult for researchers to find cures for serious ailments that affect millions of people in this country. I don’t think that there are any colleges or universities outside of Wisconsin that do medical research with fetal tissue, but I could be wrong about that.

The right-wing political witchhunt against Planned Parenthood and other pro-women groups is incredibly short-sighted. In Wisconsin, the right-wing witchhunt against Planned Parenthood has officially turned into a full-on attack against sick people and medical research.

One week in, and my effort to lose weight is working!

AUTHOR’S NOTE #1: The blog post includes measurements in U.S. customary and metric units, with metric conversions in parenthesis and courtesy of Wolfram|Alpha, except for a figure that was calculated by subtracting two metric figures, which was calculated by me.

AUTHOR’S NOTE #2: This blog post is merely a documentation of the author’s obesity problems and attempts at weight loss, and the post is not intended to give weight loss or other medical advice to anyone. When in doubt, seek advice from a licensed physician before starting a weight loss or other fitness regimen.

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As I wrote about on here earlier this month, I’m trying to lose weight after years of being severely overweight.

Well, it’s been a week since I started trying to lose weight, and my effort to lose weight is working!

When I started trying to lose weight a week ago, I weighed in at 281.5lbs (127.69kg). As a result of my efforts to lose weight, which involves 45 minutes or so of exercise, usually in my small bedroom, daily and eating less food, I now weigh in at 274.6lbs (124.56kg). To put that another way, I’ve lost 6.9lbs (3.13kg) in one week! You can view the before and after photos of my tummy below.

There’s not a lot of visible difference between the before photo and the after photo, except for maybe a slight flattening of my tummy around my belly button. If I continue to lose weight over the next three weeks or so, I’ll provide updated tummy pictures three weeks from now or so.

I thank everyone who has encouraged me and praised me in my efforts to lose weight and become a fit person.

My tummy thanks everyone who has encouraged me in my efforts to lose weight!

My struggles with obesity, and how I’m trying to lose weight

AUTHOR’S NOTE #1: The blog post includes measurements in both U.S. customary and metric units, with metric conversions listed in parenthesis and courtesy of Wolfram|Alpha, except for a square meters calculation that is my own.

AUTHOR’S NOTE #2: This blog post is merely a documentation of the author’s obesity problems and attempts at weight loss, and the post is not intended to give weight loss or other medical advice to anyone. When in doubt, seek advice from a licensed physician before starting a weight loss or other fitness regimen.

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4XL pants I used to wear when I weighed over 340 lbs., but are far too big for me now because I’ve lost roughly 50 lbs. since I wore these pants regularly.

I’m struggled with being severely overweight since I was about 6 or 7 years old. For many years, I’ve had habits of eating junk food excessively, eating large amounts of sugary candy, drinking several cans and/or bottles of soda pop per day, and not exercising. Several years ago, I weighed over 340 pounds (over 154.2 kilograms).

However, I’ve changed my habits. A year or two ago, I cut back considerably on soda pop and sugary candy. I now drink soda pop and sugary candy not more than 2 or 3 times per week. By changing those two habits alone, I managed to get my weight down to slightly over 280 pounds (slightly over 127 kilograms).

A few days ago, I changed more of my habits. While I still mostly eat food that isn’t healthy, I’m eating less food that I have in the past. Additionally, I’ve begun exercising on a daily basis. Since I spend most of my time in a bedroom that is 12.5 feet (3.81 meters) by 8 feet (2.44 meters), or 100 square feet (9.3 square meters), and I don’t have any exercise equipment (weight machines, treadmills, stationary bikes, dumbbells, exercise ball, etc.) at all, I’ve had to improvise with my workout routine. For 45 minutes per day, I will exercise. On most days, this will consist of 45 minutes of brisk walking back and forth across my bedroom, although I’ll sometimes do less than 45 minutes of brisk walking and fill in the remaining time with striking exercises (punches and kicks) and a core workout (mostly sit-ups). Over the weekend, I lost roughly 3 pounds (roughly 1.36 kilograms), mostly because of my significantly increased exercise.

If I lose a significant amount of weight in the coming months, I promise that I’ll share before and after photos on this blog.