The CDC should never Publish Guidelines (and Artificial Intelligence Agrees)

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) should never publish “Guidelines,” because they are being used as if they are the law of the land by tyrants, also known as politicians. Please see what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Please see how chronic pain patients have been “like babies thrown out with the bath water” so a few tyrants can blame the “Opioid Crisis,” which is actually the “Polydrug Overdose Crisis” on the pain pill manufacturers, doctors, and nurses, instead of on the real culprits: the wide-open border, the cartels, gangs, and the recreational drug users. 

The CDC (and NIH) should only publish “Opinions” not “Guidelines.” They need to quit being pretentious, for example see Dr. Anthony Fauci testifying before congress and the old clips during the early days of COVID-19. The CDC and NIH “experts” are not the smartest doctors in the world, and they work in a flawed system with bias, secret royalties, and government created monopolies. Thankfully, Citizen Journalists, and brave healthcare experts have used free speech (while it lasts) to get crucial information to the public. Ironically, the CDC and NIH have helped “censor” and “cancel” the doctors, nurses, and other heroes we really want to learn from, despite representing the government, an entity that is supposed to represent free speech as in the first amendment. 

For examples of censorship see the “Twitter Files” after Elon Musk took over and turned Twitter into X, and see the treatment of Dr. Robert W. Malone, M.D. (the inventor of the messenger RNA vaccine), and Prof. Peter McCullough, MD, MPH, FACC, one of the greatest academic physicians in the world. And even though I rarely praise democrats anymore for anything, see Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Children's Health Defense for their work on vaccine transparency. (I am not registered with any political party. I’m independent and I believe in policies, not politicians, with rare exceptions.)

The Smartest Doctor in the World

What is the problem with CDC and other guidelines? Answer: they are produced by committee; they are a reversion to the mean. They are often produced by grandiose physicians, PhD’s, and their assistants, who think because they work in government, they are smart. Often, these “conceited and stilted” people think they are better than you, or your personal physician. It’s often a; Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely; situation (thanks to Lord Acton, an 1887 politician for the wording).

Who can save your life? The smartest doctor in the world or scientific consensus? Clearly, I believe if you have a life and death diagnosis, any diagnosis really, you want to seek out the smartest physician in the world for their opinion on treatment. That’s exactly what I have done in my own life. That’s why we all need “private Cadillac Healthcare for all,” not something horrible like socialized medicine or “Medicare for All.” Ask a physician/economist to design the best healthcare plan for you, not politicians. Ask an economist who understands the Dr. Milton Friedman, PhD, school of economics, who understands that your personal freedom, wealth, and power depend on good economics. 

When we are patients, we need to be able to go to any doctor anywhere around the world, instead of being stuck in “death traps” known as “narrow physician networks” which is one way uncaring third parties like Medicare (especially Medicare C or D), Medicaid, and private insurance companies can treat you as subhuman to save money and control your body.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agrees with Me

An artificial intelligence (AI) source agrees with me! (At least that is my interpretation.) To quote AI:

“…if I were in need of medical assistance, I would likely prioritize the expertise and knowledge of the smartest doctor in the world.” – April 7, 2024. 

I won’t list the exact AI source (for now) to protect them from being programmed to be stupider. So, if your life is on the line, go to the smartest doctor in the world, which should be obvious and common sense to all. The CDC and NIH should only publish “CDC Opinions” and “NIH Opinions” to recognize their intellectual inferiority, their bias, and their influence from politicians. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) also said: 

“Scientific consensus is important for understanding broader scientific principles and trends, but when it comes to individual medical care, the expertise and judgment of a highly skilled and knowledgeable medical professional are crucial for making decisions about diagnosis, treatment, and care tailored to the specific circumstances of the patient.”

AI gets it. We are supposed to have personalized medicine. We are supposed to have a patient sit down with the smartest physician in the world, and they are supposed to do evidence-based medicine together, considering the values and preferences of the patient. Guidelines cannot do that. That’s why they should be called opinions not guidelines. And, individualized medicine is only going to get better as physicians incorporate AI into their decision-making process as another tool to get patients the treatment they want, not the treatment some uncaring third party wants. Your family medicine physician should be the smartest physician in the world. 

Ethics

Healthcare is Broken and we need to fix it. In healthcare we need respect for patients. This means focusing on patients instead of reimbursement, which doctors and nurses can’t do because Healthcare is Broken. Two things can vastly improve healthcare quality while lowering prices:

1. Price transparency

2. Treatment transparency 

We don’t have either one today. We have socialized medicine with hidden prices, secret monopolies, and third parties in power. Obamacare was the greatest transfer of power away from patients and to entities that “don’t care how much healthcare costs you” in history. Obamacare guaranteed runaway prices in healthcare.  

In healthcare, we need fairness, which means treating people better than they deserve, because “Doctors treat patients, not politics.” 

In healthcare we need responsibility, which means transparency in healthcare. We don’t need to criminalize malpractice, or criminalize doctors who try to treat legitimate pain patients. We don’t need to put people trying to do good things behind bars. We need to focus on the responsibility for one’s actions, especially in a way that brings transparency and keeps teaching doctors, nurses, and all allied healthcare professionals to be better, and to provide better patient care in accordance with the patients’ values and wishes, not the wishes of an uncaring third party. As an example, see how vaccine makers get away with not being liable. 

In healthcare, we need honesty and integrity, and we need to get rid of paternalistic (and maternalistic) healthcare. Allegedly, we gave up the idea of paternalistic/maternalistic healthcare decades ago, but just try to tell that to the people/organizations who still do it. Today, the patient should have the benefits of:

1. The medical literature

2. Price transparency

3. Your physician’s experience, expertise, and opinion of the medical literature

4. The values and preference of the patient (your values and preferences)

5. 10,000 variables can be solved to get the above digested down to one number so that understandable treatment transparency will exist (I call it the Treatment Score).

You got pancreatic cancer like Alex Trebek? You got glioblastoma like Senator John McCain or Senator Ted Kennedy? You need to talk to someone like me, who has been following the mathematics and medical statistics on outcomes for years, (but you can’t. I’m a retired physician/economist and this content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult your own healthcare professional, your own licensed medical physician, for medical concerns and advice. I am a retired physician and am no longer practicing; therefore, we cannot have a doctor-patient relationship.)

Bias

The CDC and NIH should only publish “CDC Opinions” or “NIH Opinions,” which would recognize the fact that the “CDC experts” and “NIH experts” are not any better than the smartest physician in the world, and they are not better than many other physician groups or “patient activist organizations.” They should not be better than your local family physician if your doctor went to a good medical school and residency program.

There are many physicians, groups of experts, physician groups, and individuals with less bias than the CDC and NIH from which you should also get your medical information. Lots of physicians are way better than the World Health Organization (WHO), which I fondly call the “socialist group of socialist physicians.” (Some exceptions apply.) The WHO needs to immediately retract their methodologically flawed study that claims the USA has inferior healthcare. It remains “the most flawed study in the world” in my opinion, and is simply a tool to spread socialism instead of Free Enterprise. 

Most of all, everyone should want their medical advice from the smartest independent physician out there, the “smartest doctor in the world” on any subject. You should not want your final advice from a group with any kind of bias (especially undeclared bias). 

The three main causes of bias in the medical literature are: 

1) Academia 

2) Government 

3) Industry.

I repeat, the smartest doctor in the world should be your family medical doctor. There is supposed to be a Family Medicine Revolution going on if you believe social media: #familymedicine #FMRevolution: however, I often see this movement as being its own worst enemy, because these physicians often don’t understand economics or medical statistics (again exceptions apply). The Family Medical Doctor should be the highest paid physician of all physicians, but because of uncaring third parties setting prices, they are often the lowest paid, and dare I say it, … well, I’m too chicken to say it. 

Summary

Instead of the CDC publishing guidelines and those guidelines being usurped by tyrants, remember the shutdown Nazis, every physician in the world should publish their opinions. Their opinions should also be summarized down to one number. When the numbers don’t agree, when the numbers are not even in the same range, we would know that bias exists, or that bad data exists. When this information was available to you, your life might be saved, because you would have control again. Information is power. 

Finally, the doctor-patient relationship needs to be sacrosanct, not destroyed by guidelines, and the doctor-patient relationship needs to be improved with technology. 

Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[Note: because of artificial intelligence, I updated an old post from August 21, 2021]

Your Gut Bacteria and Degeneration of Your Spine


Your gut bacteria may be causing the discs of your spine to degenerate.

I'm BradMD, retired physician and economist, and I love medical journal club.

Why do so many people have back pain or neck pain? The article that I link to below suggests that the bacteria in your gut can cause disease of your spine by somehow causing the discs between your vertebrae to degenerate.

The study, which has very interesting statistical methods, which on the surface suggest that it is better than many other such studies, found that the phylum Bacteroidetes was associated with generative disc disease.

You may remember that the animal kingdom goes: phylum > class > order > family > genus > species.

The phylum Bacteroidetes contains Bacteroides fragilis, Prevotella species, and Flavobacterium species.

This is fascinating, because I suspect that probiotics, which are a kind of bacterial supplement many people are taking today, are becoming very important to human health, and I believe that the Human Microbiome Project, and other such research, is going to help us become healthier than we are today.

To be perfectly accurate, let me add the human microbiome, while mostly in your digestive tract, also includes all the microbes everywhere else inside or outside your body. 

-BradMD

REFERENCE:
Gut microbiota and intervertebral disc degeneration: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37580794/ 

BPH (Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia) is a Mixed Disease for Men


Many men get diagnosed with a "big prostate" called BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia), and are pushed onto the conveyer belt for surgery, which has serious side effects. 

But BPH is a mixed disease that includes both inflammation and enlargement. 

Three excellent and classic studies found that men with BPH had white blood cells (inflammation) in their prostates 98.1%, 93.1%, and 90% of the time. This inflammation is also called prostatitis.

Since BPH is really a mixed disease of "prostate enlargement" and "prostate inflammation," the symptoms overlap and the treatments overlap. So, if you are diagnosed with BPH you need to know all the tests and treatments for prostatitis as well, assuming you want to be a truly informed patient before undergoing treatment. 

As "BradMD" (Brad R. Hennenfent, M.D., retired) I write about medicine, economics, healthcare, basketball, and freedom. 

REFERENCES: 

P W Kohnen and G W Drach. Patterns of inflammation in prostatic hyperplasia: a histologic and bacteriologic study J Urol. 1979 Jun;121(6):755-60. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/88527/

Paulo Rodrigues, Flávio Hering, Alex Meller, João Carlos Campagnari, Márcio D'Império. A randomized and prospective study on the value of antibiotic prophylaxis administration in transurethral resection of the prostate. Sao Paulo Med. J. 122 (1) • Feb 2004. https://www.scielo.br/j/spmj/a/xDYng9yXkjpQW5YyhJ73hYP/?lang=en#

Bedalov G, Vucković I, Fridrih S, Bruk M, Puskar D, and Bartolin Z. Prostatitis in benign prostatic hyperplasia: a histological, bacteriological and clinical study. Acta Med Croatica. 1994;48(3):105-9. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7532045/


March Madness by BradMD


"Are you watching March Madness and loving it as the games get intense? There have been spectacular finishes in these tournament games." - Actor 1 said.

Actor 1 points at actor 2.

"NOW THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX," Actor 1 says dramatically, in his deepest anchorman voice. "Ask yourself, why haven't you gotten into basketball until March Madness? Why have you waited the entire season before getting interested?"

"Why?" Actor 2, repeats the question.

"Because the typical game is low scoring and boring! The games are usually 10 players walking from three-point line to three-point line, and then passing the ball around the perimeter of the three-point line. It's boring! It's tedious! It's ridiculous! We are talking about the world's greatest athletes, and we have them chained to the three-point line." 

"The games are pretty good now, for March Madness," Actor 2 said.

"Right, now they're good, now that the games are super intense, and they are the very best teams, and the tension is absolutely over the top! But you know what it's been like the rest of the season, the average score for a men's college basketball game has been only 60 some points per game. That's ridiculously low with today's super talented players. Most of the regular season games are boring!" - Actor 1 said.

Actor 2 nods his head.

"The players today are great. Almost everybody can dunk, and almost everybody can handle the ball like a point guard." - Actor 1 said.

"You know, you're right, I hardly ever watch a college basketball game anymore. I wait until the last minute of the game, or until the very end of the season for March Madness." - Actor 2 said.

"The problem is that the players are so big and tall now, the defense is overwhelming, and with the three-point line it's better to walk from three-point line to three-point line and pass the ball around the three-point line to get a three-point shot. There is no more run and gun basketball!" - Actor 1 said.

"Yes, you're right I miss that. Why aren't they scoring 100 points a game? Why aren't they fast breaking on every play?" - Actor 2 asked.

"It's mathematics! Because the three-point shot is so valuable it's better to pass the ball around the outside and waste a lot of time instead of fast breaking for the basket every time! Today's style of play slows the whole game down." - Actor 1 said.

"How do we fix it?" Actor 2 asked.

"It's so obvious and so simple, because it's mathematics. I can't believe people can't think outside the box." - Actor 1 said.

"Okay already, what is it? No more double negatives."

"In a previous blog post, I calculated that if you play four-on-four full court instead of five-on-five you will free up about the same amount of space as the space it takes to park a big car. That's a lot of space! Just think for a moment how large a parking space is for a car."

"Yeah, that's a lot of space on a basketball court." - Actor 1 said.

"Another way to look at it is that two giant basketball players can virtually fill up the lane of a basketball court, which is usually 304 ft². So, if you take two of the largest basketball players off the floor, you could say that you are freeing up an entire lane worth of space." - Actor 1 said.

"I think I get it. By taking two players off the floor, and playing four-on-four full court, the players can run and gun all the time."

"Exactly! I've been having trouble coming up with the perfect mathematical example to convince people, but that's it! The players are so good now, they can all play point guard, and they can all run and gun full court. Just free up the space for them to maneuver, and everything can be run and gun basketball again! Just like the ABA of the old days with Dr J. Or, just like the Phi Slama Jama (TM) of the University of Houston when they had Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon."

"Those were the good old days! That's when I watched every game all season long." - Actor 2 said.

"There were no boring games when it was run and gun all the time. This one simple change, playing four-on-four full court, will fix basketball. There are too many great players who can't play professional basketball today. There is an oversupply of great players. By starting a new reality TV show to follow the startup of a new league, and by actually starting a new league, there could be lots of new, exciting, basketball played with better highlights, more dunks and alley-oops."

"I can imagine--"

"Imagine the highlights! Imagine if the guy that won the NBA dunk contest, Mac McClung, played in a four-on-four full court league where all the players did was run and gun and dunk all the time! Just think of the highlights!"

"That would be spectacular!" - Actor 2 said.

"Exactly. And it's going to happen. The XFL is competing with the NFL, but it would be far easier to compete with the NBA. I've just explained how."

Copyright (c) 2023 BradMD (Brad Hennenfent, M.D.) All rights reserved. My blog posts are part of an ongoing treatment and script for playing basketball with fewer than five players on each side. My treatment and script include blog posts here at BradMD.com and also at https://4on4ball.com

AMAZON ASSOCIATES LINK:

I write about MEDICINE, HEALTHCARE, ECONOMICS, BASKETBALL, AND FREEDOM. Animal Farm by George Orwell is a great book about freedom. When you read it, try to associate the characters in the book to people that you know. Who is Boxer in your circle of people? Who is Napolean? Set our basketball players free! In a free enterprise world, when there is an excess supply of something, such as great basketball players who can dunk, you create a new distribution channel. Thus, economics teaches us we need a new Reality TV Show, Scripted TV Show, and Games on TV (or all this stuff on streaming services).
 Advertisement below. I earn commissions. "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."

Yes, I have read the book! I read it years ago when my older brother brought it home from High School, and I am reading it again right now. In fact, I am on page 49 out of 91 (I use a paperclip as a book mark), and I love this book! George Orwell's Animal Farm teaches classic truths about freedom. This version is particularly good because it is just the book, without introductions and stuff added. Its 6" x 9" size makes it great for editing the book as you read it, and for making notes on the pages. This is a life changing book for making people understand freedom. Thus, I had to take a picture of my own copy and place it below. With freedom comes free speech and free enterprise; never forget it!



LIV Golf- I'm Watching!


I'm watching LIV golf today, but it may not be for the reason that you think. I'm watching LIV golf, because it's a great business lesson. It's a great lesson for entrepreneurs!

In addition, anyone who knows Greg Norman's story cannot help but be sympathetic to his role as a leader in LIV golf.

Thanks to Greg Norman, known as The Shark, twice as many players may be able to make their living playing professional golf as used to be able to make their living playing golf! That's a pretty big benefit for the common man, certainly for the common man who can play golf.

BUSINESS
What is the business lesson? It's that professional sports do not have enough competition.

There are too many great players today, and too few places to get paid to play their chosen sport. There are great football players that don't get to play professional football. There are great basketball players who don't get to play professional basketball, and there are great baseball players that don't get to make a living playing professional baseball.

Right now the XFL is competing with the NFL and LIV golf is competing with the PGA. This is great for the players.

BASKETBALL

But what I'm most concerned about is professional basketball. Who is competing with the NBA?

There is a tremendous supply of fantastic basketball players who can handle the ball like a point guard and can dunk the basketball. This is because basketball is the easiest sport to do around the world, and it is the most fun for the most people around the world. All you need is a ball and a hoop. It is truly the most worldwide sport! There is minimal equipment, and it only takes one person to play. Soccer is right up there as a worldwide sport as well, but it doesn't quite have the highlights, it doesn't have the dunks, the alley oops, and the TV close-ups.

In economics, what's the obvious thing to do when you have an oversupply of something? Create another distribution channel!

At the same time, create a better product!

By far, the greatest basketball I have enjoyed watching during my lifetime was Phi Slama Jama (TM Houston) by the Houston cougars, and Showtime by the Los Angeles Lakers.

We can't play this kind of basketball today because of the three-point line. Today, because the three-point line is so valuable, players just walk from three-point line to three-point line. There is no run and gun basketball anymore. Not all the time, not every play, not like there used to be!

The solution is to play 4-on-4 full court basketball. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. Most people can't process playing four-on-four full court, because they can't break outside of the box. But the mathematics are absolutely clear.

By removing one player from each team, and playing four-on-four, instead of five-on-five, you open up a lot of space on the court, which means more offense and less defense!

Mathematically, one big player takes up about 38.5 ft².

Two such players take up about 77 square feet! That's a ton of room for players to dribble through, run through, or pass the ball through.

Think of a car sitting on a parking space. That parking space is probably around 77 ft². So that's how much room you open up! All this space is particularly important when you realize that today's basketball is a game of inches. It's literally the player's hand being able to reach out and touch the ball to steal the dribble, or block the pass, that is so important on defense. 

77 ft² of that defensive space is going to be gone when you play four-on-four full court! Thus creating a wide open offense.

Today's social media is all about highlights. A new league, a new TV show, TV tournaments, online tournaments, and other projects, could all be done with a social media giant. The fans could be turned into the cinematographers. The fans could be turned into the publicists. The social media giant could put advertisements at the end of every highlight, right after every dunk, right after every alley-oop!

In economic terms, players would play for free, and the marketing department would work for free, if it was all set up right, because people love basketball that much. 4-on-4 dunks are better than 5-on-5 dunks! It can all slowly evolve into a paying business for everyone who needs to get paid. 

This is the way to compete with the NBA and to make money doing it. It's innovation at its finest. Playing basketball 4-on-4 would result in fast breaks for almost every play. Four-on-four would result in run and gun basketball! Every play would be exciting, not just the last 5 minutes of every game.


Copyright (c) 2023 BradMD (Brad Hennenfent, M.D.) All rights reserved. This blog post is part of an ongoing treatment and script for TV shows, online videos, for digital videos of any format, of reality TV shows or sports tournaments as shows, focusing on playing fewer than five people per team when playing basketball. The original blog for this is all at:

Follow BradMD on Social Media - Links to BradMD

BradMD I am BradMD (Brad Hennenfent, M.D.) Many of you may have seen my posts on social media as I fight for freedom for the citizens of the USA and for freedom for the patients of the USA. 

I strongly believe in maximizing liberty and healthcare freedom for all. 

Here, I am listing all my social media URLs in the order that I would you like you to follow me, or at least take a look. 

I am starting off with Treatment Scores, a Facebook page, that has over 244,847 followers. Treatment Scores are the "Expected Net Treatment Benefit" for the patient. Each treatment is digested down to one single number on the scale important to the patient. 

Follow BradMD at Treatment Scores on Facebook:

Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/TreatmentScores

FOLLOW @BradMD on other Social Media platforms:

Gettrhttps://gettr.com/user/bradmd

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradMD 

Parlerhttps://parler.com/BradMD

Gab: https://gab.com/BradMD 

Truth Social: @BradMD

Quora: search "BradMD" on Quora for my answers.

BradMD books on Amazon.com:

BradMD Books on Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/author/bradmd

BradMD Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/bradmd 

BradMD on other Social Media:

Rumblehttps://rumble.com/c/c-473515 - be sure to watch the movie: Ten Commandments Resurrection! https://rumble.com/v1gkg4f-ten-commandments-resurrection-movie.html

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/BradMD 

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/bradmd 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BradMD 

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/BradMD 

BitChute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/bradmd/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BradleyHennenfent 

Minds: https://www.minds.com/BradMD 

MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/bradmd 

Spreely: https://www.spreely.com/BradMD 

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/bradmd 

CloutHub: as “BradMD” https://www.clouthub.com/home 

Locals: https://locals.com/BradMD

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/BradMD

OurTube: https://ourtube.co.uk/@BradMD

Doximity: https://www.doximity.com/pub/bradley-hennenfent-md

Sharfly: https://sharfly.com/BradMD

Banned Video: https://banned.video/user/BradMD

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USA.Life: https://usa.life/BradMD

Medium: https://medium.com/@BradMD

Beware: The Shocking Truth about Shingles Repair Scams!

Beware: The Shocking Truth about Shingles Repair Scams! There is a sucker born every minute!

I usually write about medicine and economics. In fact, I have written several non-fiction books dealing with medical topics (see the links below), so now, for fun, I am trying my hand at creative writing. Therefore, I must warn you that this blog post is a work of fiction!

My disclaimer, which I worked on with my new best friend, ChatGPT, goes like this: “The characters, events, and situations depicted in this blog post are purely fictional and any resemblance to real people, places, or events is purely coincidental. This blog post is intended for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as a representation of fact or reality.”

The Classic Shingles Repair Scam

The classic “shingles repair scam” goes like this: There is a tipsy (vulnerable) old man in California, there is a hurricane, and a few shingles are blown off his roof. A $3,000 repair is legitimately needed.

An out-of-town roofer comes in. The elderly man, we’ll call him Tipsy, is told, “No matching replacement shingles exist.”

After Tipsy accepts this lie, he is told, “But wait there’s more. It’s much worse than we thought, all your shingles are bad!” Tipsy takes the roofer's word for it, he's not going to go up on the roof, he can't even get up on a step stool anymore because of vertigo. 

Before Tipsy has time to think, there’s more! “We must replace your entire roof for $100,000 otherwise your house is going to flood and be destroyed when the rainy season comes.”

Tipsy is taken aback. He does not have $100,000 in his checking account. He doesn't even have $3,000 in his checking account. 

“It’s simple, you just take out a home equity loan, because you have a roofing emergency,” the con man says. “Don’t you realize that if these shingles explode and your roof falls down, your kitchen will be flooded. The rain will come down on your appliances, and you will have to replace everything! It will cost you tens of thousands of dollars! Maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars!”

The roofer's sense of urgency was hitting Tipsy where he hurt. He loved to cook. The con man kept the pressure on Tipsy with more half-truths to create an even greater false sense of urgency. At one point, the con man even had Tipsy believing that the shingles on his roof had been put up by a scammer thirty years ago, a scammer who used “dog-house" shingles instead of real shingles meant for a residential roof.

“The dog-house shingles are cheap asphalt shingles,” the con man told Tipsy, and he even showed Tipsy a cheap looking asphalt shingle. “These are just like yours.” To demonstrate, the con man crumbled the cheap shingles in his hands.

It was the classic “bait and switch” technique used by scammers everywhere and Tipsy fell for it “hook line and sinker” as they say.

The out-of-town roofer also told Tipsy that he “felt sorry for him” and would give him a “great deal.” “But Tipsy,” he said, “You can’t tell anyone about this deal, you have to keep it a secret from your friends, family, neighbors, and everyone else. Why, I’d go broke if people knew I was giving out deals like this.”

Tipsy never learned the basic information, such as the risk of a roof leak, or the make, model, and cost of the new shingles versus the old shingles. He never even uncovered that matching shingles were available and were being used seemingly everywhere. 

Tipsy borrowed $100,000 from his bank to pay the roofer, and he dutifully kept the entire project a secret, because he had promised to do so for the nice roofer. Besides, there was pressure in the neighborhood to keep things like this a secret. Apparently, the con artist had planted a few seeds of discontent to keep the neighbors apart.

Tipsy went broke and had to move out. But even when it was explained to Tipsy in excruciating detail how he got scammed, Tipsy would not believe it!

Why can’t people who get scammed admit it? Well, it is embarrassing. There were allegedly people who defended Charles Ponzi almost to the bitter end.

Con men are smart, although a con woman, Big Bertha Heyman, may have been the smartest. Big Bertha allegedly scammed a rabbi and the Beth Israel Congregation!

The movie, Funny Girl, is allegedly about a con man named Nicky Arnstein, who was also a suave gambler. He allegedly did swindles with stocks and bonds, and he died in Fort Leavenworth prison.

The Ladies Deposit Company was allegedly a scam, and allegedly some victims kept up their support for Sarah Howe, long after it became obvious that she was scamming people.

One con man, Oscar Hartzell, scammed people with the last name, Drake, by telling them he wanted to give them their inheritance from Sir Frances Drake. Even after Oscar Hartzell went into Leavenworth prison, people named Drake kept sending him money!  

Tipsy is special, because he still has no idea that he was a victim of the “shingles repair scam.” As you might guess, he has already been scammed again, and the latest scam was literally done “right under his nose.”

Roofing scams are so successful in California, and allegedly in other warm weather places, that sometimes homeowners almost literally scam themselves! Sadly, consumer fraud experts say that variations of the “shingles repair scam” are still going on today.

Why can't people admit that they have been scammed out of their money?

 I had a conversation with ChatGPT and asked her/him why people can’t admit they got scammed, even when it is so painfully obvious to everyone that they got scammed.

My friend ChatGPT had this to say:

 “There can be several reasons why people might find it difficult to admit they have been scammed:

 “Shame or embarrassment: They may feel ashamed or embarrassed that they fell for a scam and didn't see it coming.

 “Denial: They may be in denial about the situation and believe that the scammer will come through on their promises.

 “Fear of consequences: They may fear the consequences of admitting that they have been scammed, such as legal repercussions, damage to their reputation, or loss of face.

 “Trust: They may have trusted the scammer and feel a strong emotional attachment to them, making it difficult to admit that they have been taken advantage of.

 “Regardless of the reason, it's important for people to speak out about scams so that others can be aware and avoid falling for similar scams in the future. Additionally, reporting scams can help law enforcement bring the scammers to justice.”

 Wow, that last line was a doozy! “It’s important for people to speak out about scams!”

 I must give some credit to ChatGPT!

ChatGPT is “...an AI model developed by OpenAI.” While writing this blog post, I had several conversations with “OpenAI's GPT-3 language model.” Thus, OpenAI was the source for some of this content. ChatGPT asked that I give some links:

PROMINANT LINK: https://openai.com/

THE CHAT ITSELF: https://chat.openai.com/chat

Books by BradMD – URLs:

(See disclaimer below) 

Surviving Prostate Cancer Without Surgery - Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Prostate-Cancer-Without-Surgery/dp/0971745412/

 

The Pledge of Allegiance to Freedom - Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/Pledge-Allegiance-Freedom-BradMD/dp/1953403042

 

The Prostatitis Syndromes 2nd Edition: Waking at Night to Urinate, Prostatitis, Chronic Prostatitis, BPH, Acute Urinary Retention, Anatomy, Pelvic Pain, Sex, and Men's Health Explained - Hardcover

https://www.amazon.com/Prostatitis-Syndromes-2nd-Retention-Explained/dp/1953403050


Uncles and Etymology - Kindle Edition

https://www.amazon.com/Uncles-Etymology-BradMD-ebook/dp/B08GH19J37

 

The Alligator Etymologist: Big Words # 1 - Paperback

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1953403069

 

Author Page URL:

https://www.amazon.com/author/bradmd

 

AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE?

I might be an affiliate. I need to dig into this, but just in case, there’s this disclaimer: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate (if I am one) I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. If you follow the links above, they will lead you to books of mine and I make money from those books.

 

 

 

If you can be Brave and True like Donald Trump

 If you can be brave and true like Donald Trump:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

(Regards to Rudyard Kipling)

President Donald J. Trump has been the greatest example of free speech in history. No one has spoken out and used the free marketplace of ideas better. He has called attention to our economic problems, bad trade deals, and our broken border, where organized crime and drugs are pouring in at alarming rates, and the criminals are bringing human trafficking with them. 

His immature critics seem to be unaware of the old adage that "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. In fact, the response of those with opposing views has been personal attacks, censorship, and totalitarianism. President Trump has endured political prosecutions, and witch-hunts, just for speaking freely by those who do not understand the principles of freedom. 




President Donald J. Trump has been awarded "Free Speech Award" by BradMD

President Donald J. Trump has been awarded the ultimate Free Speech Award for the year, 2022, by BradMD.

President Trump is Free Speech. Under the phrase free speech in the dictionary, future editions should say President Donald J. Trump. 

President Trump exemplifies why the Founding Fathers (such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison) of the United States of America specifically protected free speech in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Without free speech there is totalitarianism. Without free speech there is no freedom. 

President Trump exposed the "thought police" and the "deep state." When President Trump would tweet for example, we would constantly be told what President Trump thought as if We the People were unable to read and interpret what he wrote for ourselves. True statements would often be said to be false statements, racist statements, or against the public interest. 

True statements would often be undermined by the "hive mob." True statements would often be falsely suggested to mean something that was not actually said. President Trump's use of free speech to promote freedom inspired many to remember America's greatest philosopher, Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged), and America's greatest freedom economist, Milton Friedman. Trump is among America’s greatest philosophers and economists as well, because he got results despites mountains of hostility. President Trump has been America’s greatest president, surpassing Ronald Reagan, because Trump has an uncanny ability to get results.

President Trump has a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the Wharton School (a private business school) at the University of Pennsylvania. President Trump laid out a plan that will cure inflation, which he will institute as president in 2024. President Trump has been the greatest president in history on economics, using "the multiplier" to great advantage. President Ronald Reagan was the only other president who had a degree in economics.

Looking back, we are reminded that the first American President, George Washington, played a pivotal role in the Bill of Rights containing the First Amendment to the Constitution.

But today, much of the mob cannot handle free speech. They were not taught the childhood adage: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Without logic and maturity, and the ability to debate without violence, the issues cannot be discussed, and the free marketplace of ideas cannot lead us to the best solution. Congratulations President Donald J. Trump! You are an American hero.

P.S. I do not usually support politicians, usually I only support policies. However, President Trump delivered results. Depsite all the sound of fury of everyone else telling us what he really thought (the thought police) and what he really meant, PRESIDENT TRUMP GOT GREAT RESULTS. Trump delivered great economics and price transparency in healthcare. Then, Trump was unjustly attacked. Therefore, I support President Donald J. Trump for president in 2024, because I want good results again. I want great jobs and prosperity for everyone. 

Thanks for reading BradMD’s Blog!



Women's Rights - Play Hardball Literally!

If you're for women's rights, you need to do important things. Women need to quit playing softball immediately and start playing hardball.

Women are much more likely to make it to Major League Baseball (MLB) than they are the National Football League (NFL), where the biggest sports money of all is located, so why not go after that baseball money in the meantime?

Women softball pitchers are already throwing the softball 70 mph underhanded! It's much easier to throw a hardball fast than a softball, so major league baseball (MLB) may not be so far in the future for women.

Little boys can play hardball, but grown women can't play hardball?

Those of us who remember Iowa State girls' basketball remember that the girls had to play half court, because they were too delicate for full court. This went on way too long. ARE WOMEN STILL TOO DELICATE? NO. NEVER WERE.

Girls playing softball has gone on far too long. It's simple, all the college softball players need to start talking about women's rights. One day all the college softball players across the nation need to show up for practice with hardballs, and say look, from now on we're playing hardball. That would be one way to start anyway. Maybe it's not the smoothest way, but you get the idea. If the players are serious about women's rights, and equal pay for equal production, they're probably going to have to do it themselves one way or the other. Please think of a better way if you can.

Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees allegedly signed for $360 million. So, he might be making $40 million a year. Why don't female softball players switch to hardball and go after the pot of gold that is Major League Baseball (MLB)?

I've had this idea for many years, but I've been leery of posting it because of some unknown, probably ridiculous, fear of some kind of blowback. But it's time. It's time for women's rights to take another leap, this time at the big leagues.

Copyright (c) 2020, BradMD (Brad Hennenfent, M.D.) All rights reserved.