Radio America Online News Bureau

Archives for August 2018

Will Blue Light Really Make You Go Blind?

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A new scientific study on the blue light that emanates from all of devices led several media outlets to declare our phones are causing us to go blind, but while the leader of the research says is not what his report concluded but he says the light does damage the cells in our eyes.

“If somebody asked me, ‘Do you think smartphones make you blind?’  My answer is obviously not.  Can it damage your vision?  It has the potential, but I cannot conclusively says until we have (future) findings in hand,” said University of Toledo chemistry and biochemistry professor Dr. Ajith Karunarathne, who led the study published in “Scientific Reports.”

Karunarathne says the impact of blue light has been studied since the 1970’s and previous reports show blue light damaging mouse retinas, causing lesions in the eye, and contributing to sleep deprivation.  On the positive side, research shows using blue light filters greatly reduces the danger to human eyes.

He says his research was specifically targeted to how blue light impacts cells in the eye.

“We were actually studying what the mechanism is and how could blue light induce cytotoxicity and do damage to the cells?” said Karunarathne.  ”

And while his conclusions are not as alarming as some first reported, he says the results are concerning.

“What our study suggests is that the blue light can cause toxicity and cell death,” said Karunarathne.  “We need more studies to identify if these findings are directly related to the damage to vision as well as to blindness.”

To reach that conclusion, Karunarathne and his team focused on a molecule called retinal.

“Retinal is the molecule that allows light-sensitive photoreceptors in our eye to sense light.  So that’s the light-harvesting engine if you will,” said Karunarathne.

The combination of retinal and blue light is not good.

“Blue light in the presence of retinal actually induces a cytotoxic effect.  They changed the localization of the very crucial signaling molecules that are vital for cellular survival and ended up damaging cells and inducing cell death,” he explained.

However, the blue light does not guarantee permanent damage since humans are equipped with a natural defense to it.

“We have inherent defense mechanisms in our eye to work against this,” said Karunarathne.  “So if your mechanisms are fairly strong, although you have continuous exposure to bright, blue light sources, you may not experience any vision losses.”

Karunarathne also says the advent of smartphones and tablets are still too recent to chronicle any possible increases in cases of glaucoma or macular degeneration.

He says future experiements will explain just how much of a threat blue light presents to our eyes.

“Is it sufficient to do damage to the retina?  The second question is are the cells in the retina sufficiently exposed to this molecule?” said Karunarathne.

In the meantime, he advises using blue light filters and keeping other lights on when using our devices.

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Pelosi Persists, Reality Winner Loses, Will Resistance Fatigue Boost GOP?

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America begin by reflecting upon the grim news that Sen. John McCain will discontinue treatment for brain cancer.  Then they tackle three good martinis, starting with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi insisting she will run for Speaker of the House if Democrats win the majority, thereby preserving one of the GOP’s best arguments for keeping control.  They also welcome the five-year prison sentence for Reality Winner, the NSA contractor who leaked classified information to the media.  And they marvel at polls showing a dead heat in the Oregon governor’s race, which seems to be a result of non-stop protests in the state that snarl traffic, exhaust law enforcement, and leave areas thoroughly trashed.

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Patient Exposes Pressure from Doctors to Commit Suicide

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Advocates of euthanasia claim their movement is all about giving terminally ill patients the autonomy to determine how their lives will end, but as hospitals face pressures to cut costs, some patients are being heavily pressured to take their own lives.

That’s what is happening to Canadian resident Roger Foley.  The 42-year-old has an incurable neurological disorder but wishes to live at home as comfortably as possible.  His first round of home care did not go well, as caregivers left burners on and even accidentally poisoned him.

Foley is currently in a London, Ontario, hospital and wants to return home under self-directed care.  But the London Health Science Centre’s Victoria Hospital refuses, urging him to pursue assisted suicide or face medical bills of $1,500 per day.

Even though Canadian law states the patient must initiate any conversation on euthanasia, Foley’s protests fell on deaf ears until he secretly recorded conversations with hospital personnel and released them.

“You can just apply to get assisted – if you wanted to end your life.  You don’t have to do it in some dramatic manner.  You can apply for assisted you know,” said one person.

“Roger, this is not my show,” said another as Foley again pleaded for self-directed home care.  “I told you my piece of this is to talk to you about if you had interest in assisted dying,” said another.

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Executive Director Alex Schadenberg says this exposes one of the great lies about assisted suicide.

“This is supposedly about choice and autonomy and freedom and the physicians are not supposed to be involved in the pressuring point.  Nonetheless, they see him as an expense,” said Schadenberg, who is also executive producer of multiple documentaries on the subject.  The most recent film is “Fatal Flaws.”

Canada’s assisted suicide law was pitched as a humane approach to the dying, but Schadenberg says the balance sheet often determines whether some doctors think a life is worth living.

“You can’t be telling doctors they have to save money in every way that they can to try to get people out of the system as fast as possible and then not have them rejoicing every time they do a euthanasia death because they’ve saved the system big money,” said Schadenberg.  “This is supposed to be about choice and autonomy.  It’s all a lie.”

He says some doctors are known for frequently recommending euthanasia to patients and the same doctors who conduct assisted suicides are responsible for reporting them so there’s very little transparency.

And Roger Foley is not alone.  Schadenberg has heard from many families facing the same pressure.  He also shared the story of Candice Lewis, a young woman with multiple disabilities who was pressured by the system to take her own life in 2016.

“Yes, she was very sick, but they were pressuring Candice and her mother to ask for an “assisted death”.  When the mother said, ‘We want nothing to do with this,’ the doctor told her that she was being selfish,” said Schadenberg.

Listen to the full podcast to learn about Roger Foley’s legal fight to live on his own terms, what happened when Schadenberg and his associates tried to visit Foley in the hospital and more.

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Encouraging Senate Polls, Tone-Deaf Warren, Delay Kavanaugh Over Cohen Plea?

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America cheer up as they see new Senate polls showing Rick Scott with a healthy lead in Florida and Republicans within striking distance in Wisconsin.  They also shake their heads as Sen. Elizabeth Warren issues perfunctory condolences to the family of Mollie Tibbetts but says we need to focus on our real immigration problems.  And they marvel at Senate Democrats, who now insist that the consideration of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh must wait because Michael Cohen has accused President Trump of a campaign finance violation.

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McCarthy Dissects Cohen Plea, Impact on Trump

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Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty on eight federal counts on Tuesday and accused President Trump of conspiring with him to violate campaign finance laws to buy the silence of two former mistresses in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.

According to Cohen, Trump authorized him to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, known more commonly as Stormy Daniels, as part of non-disclosure agreements with them with the explicit intent to benefit the Trump campaign.  Cohen says Trump later paid him back.

Mainstream and social media immediately exploded, with many liberals talking impeachment and many Trump defenders wondering how campaign finance law could be broken when none of the funds came from the campaign.

Former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy says both sides need to come to grips with reality, starting with Trump defenders who think there can’t be a crime resulting from the payments.  He says it depends upon why the money was spent.

“It’s the kind of thing you would expend campaign money on if somebody else didn’t pay it by other means.  That’s why it’s an in-kind contribution.

“If you’re doing an expenditure, the purpose of which is designed in part to lighten the burden of the campaign, which would otherwise pay the same money, then it’s a campaign contribution.  I really don’t get the argument that it’s not,” said McCarthy.

What does strike McCarthy as unusual is prosecutors lodging a felony charge over the payments.  He says campaigns often make mistakes and usually the problems get resolved without litigation.  He says the Obama campaign is a well-known example.

“The one we typically talk about is the 2008 Obama campaign, which had about two million dollars worth of illegal contributions, which obviously dwarf the amount of money that we’re talking about in connection with these hush money agreements.  Yet, that was settled with a $375,000 fine to the Federal Election Commission,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy also has some bad news for liberals getting their pitchforks and impeachment campaigns ready/

“What we’re talking about here is not really the crime of the century, even if they could prove it against President Trump, which I think they probably couldn’t,” said McCarthy.

He says something like this might get thrown into the mix if far more serious issues arise, but is a non-starter for impeachment on its own.

“As a standalone matter, no one’s getting impeached over a campaign finance violation.  At least they shouldn’t,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy offers that last caveat because the House of Representatives can impeach a president for whatever they believe is appropriate and the same goes for a Senate conviction.

McCarthy is also skeptical of suggestions from Cohen attorney Lanny Davis that Cohen has proof of Trump collaborating with Russia to hack Democratic National Committee emails.

“(Special Counsel Robert Mueller) transferred this case to the Southern District of New York.  It’s very hard for me to believe that Mueller, who has a lot more information than anyone else does about what proof he has of collusion – if he thought that Cohen was helpful to that case, I don’t see him letting that case walk to the Southern District of New York,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy says Trump’s biggest problem in the weeks ahead may be himself.  He says Trump’s consistent haranguing of Mueller and his team on Twitter and in public statements is only making the special counsel more determined to hammer him.

“If I were the prosecutor and my honor was being attacked every single day, I would be motivated when my time finally came to file a report, to write the report to end all reports.

“I’m not saying that you make up information.  But there’s a way of writing things when you want to soft sell them and there’s a way of writing things when you want to be very aggressive,” said McCarthy.

That said, McCarthy says it seems clear that the collusion investigation is sputtering out and does not expect Paul Manafort to reinvigorate the probe even if he were to cooperate with Mueller.

McCarthy says anything of value from Manafort would already be known by prosecutors through Rick Gates, Manafort’s former business partner who became the government’s chief witness against Trump’s one-time campaign manager.

“Think about what Mueller’s done in the six months since Mueller became a cooperator.  He’s filed two indictments against groups of Russians, which don’t come close to hinting that there’s any complicity by the Trump campaign with Russia’s perfidy in connection with the election,” said McCarthy, who thinks Mueller went after Manafort solely over crimes committed long before there was ever an affiliation with Trump.

“I think he’s interested in Manafort for Manafort.  I don’t think he’s interested in Manafort to try to make a case against Trump because I don’t think he thinks there is one on collusion.  Obstruction’s a different story, but I just don’t see this collusion with Russia thing happening,” said McCarthy.

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Cohen Accuses Trump, Rep. Hunter Indicted, Media & Mollie Tibbetts

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America serve up three bad martinis.  They begin by discussing Michael Cohen accusing President Trump of conspiring with him to break federal campaign finance laws and discuss how this is likely to play out.  They also recoil at the indictment of Republican California Rep. Duncan Hunter for fleecing his campaign accounts to fund lavish personal vacations and other expenditures.  And they slam the media for showing immediate disinterest in the Mollie Tibbetts story once they learned the man charged with her murder came to the U.S. illegally.

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Jordan: GOP Must Do What We Promised

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Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, says he is focusing on helping Republicans retain their House majority before he worries about his bid for Speaker of the House but he says GOP lawmakers need to prove to voters they will do what they’ve promised the past four election cycles and that’s exactly how he would lead in the next Congress.

The race for speaker was triggered by Speaker Paul Ryan’s decision that he is retiring from Congress come January.  House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, D-Calif., is considered Ryan’s natural successor, but Jordan says the past two years have shown plenty of conservative actions from President Trump but very little from Congress in comparison.

He applauds Trump’s actions on the Iran deal, moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and cutting taxes and regulations.  He says the legislative branch is failing to do its part.

“We certainly helped with the tax cuts and we shouldn’t downplay that.  But where’s the border security wall we promised?  Where’s the Obamacare repeal?  Where’s the welfare reform?  Where’s defunding Planned Parenthood?  Where are those key issues that we told the American people we were going to get done?

“We haven’t accomplished those, so if we keep the majority and I’m given the chance to lead the House, we’re going to focus on one simple message: doing what we told the American people we were going to do,” said Jordan.

Jordan chalks up the dearth of legislative achievements to “lack of political will” on the part of current Republican leaders.  He says that cannot continue for another two years.

“It boils down to a simple fact.  You’ve to be willing to actually engage in the debate and have the fight.  You can’t just forfeit before the referee even blows the whistle and starts the game,” said Jordan.

He says the point of no return on the existing GOP leadership came earlier this year when it snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and agreed to major spending increases in an omnibus bill.

“Instead of doing what the swamp always does, which is spend more money on everything and make up excuses for why we can’t do what wee told the people we were going to do and more importantly what they elected us to do, we should have fought on that omnibus spending bill.

“Remember, (Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer had shut the government down before that.  When Chuck Schumer said amnesty was more important than funding our troops, we were well-positioned, we were poised, we were right on the cusp of victory, and yet we did what the swamp always does.

“We were ready to win and do what had to be done for national defense, hold the line on the other spending, fund the border security wall.  We were in a position to do that and yet our leadership didn’t do that and Republicans failed to deliver on the promises we had made,” said Jordan.

He says Republicans have a chance to prove they can be trusted when they return to work next month.

“When we go back in September, we better put the border security wall funding on the spending bill and send that to the Senate,” said Jordan.

With all of the alleged failures of Republicans to fulfill promises in this Congress, why should GOP voters bother heading to the polls in November?  Jordan says the alternative will be disastrous.

“You elect Democrats, they’re going to raise your taxes, they’re going to abolish ICE, they’re going to socialize medicine and they’re going to impeach the president,” said Jordan.

Jordan’s efforts to ascend the Republican leadership ladder was quickly met with accusations that he knew about and failed to report the sexual abuse of wrestlers by a team doctor while an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University in the 1980s and 1990s.

Those accusations were met with a long list of former coaches and athletes who said Jordan never covered anything up and never would.  Some of the allegations were eventually retracted.

Jordan says the bias of the media was on full display with that story.

“If you’re a conservative, they’re out to get you.  If you support the president and you’re fighting to support the president, particularly in this issue of the Department of Justice, they’re out to get you,” said Jordan.

He also categorically denies any such cover-up and says it’s completely contrary to his fighting spirit.

“I’ve taken on the Speaker of the House from my own state.  I’ve taken on the IRS when they were targeting people.  I’ve taken on the Department of Justice and the FBI for the wrong they did when they took this dossier and took it to a secret court to spy on President Trump’s campaign.

“The idea that I would not stand up for our wrestlers is just ridiculous and everyone sees through that story,” said Jordan.

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Trump Rolls Back Obama EPA Rule, Media Sugarcoat Socialism, Security Clearance Roulette

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud the Trump administration for rolling back the burdensome EPA clean power plant regulations and giving the states more flexibility in how they deal with emissions.  They also unload on CNN and other media outlets for reporting on tearful reunions among family members living in North and South Korea after nearly 70 years, blaming the separation on the Korean War rather than a brutally repressive communist regime in North Korea.  And they shake their heads as President Trump takes to Twitter and muses about pulling security clearances based on what former national security officials say about him on cable television.

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Trump Pollster: GOP Must Motivate Trump Voters for Midterms

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President Trump’s 2016 pollster says Republicans can hang on to their majorities in the midterm elections, but to do they’ll need the new voters Trump attracted in 2016 and that means passing more of the president’s agenda before November.

“The Republicans in Washington need to get their act together, to vote on things, to motivate these 2016 Trump voters and get them back out,” said John McLaughlin, CEO of McLaughlin and Associates and a key aide for Trump in 2016.

“The voters want to see a member of Congress who supports the president’s agenda moving forward,” added McLaughlin.

McLaughlin says while Trump got the attention of new voters with his personality, it’s the issues that drove them to the polls: immigration, securing the border, making tax cuts permanent, strengthening defense, and fixing the health care system.

He says Democrats will have no trouble turning out the anti-Trump vote but Republicans will have a tougher time.  While Trump’s approval rating is at or near 50 percent, McLaughlin’s own polling shows the approval rating for Republicans in Congress is only 40 percent and a quarter of GOP voters give Congress a thumbs down for not doing more to advance the Trump agenda.

That is translating to poor turnout for the Republicans and much closer elections in supposedly safe districts.  McLaughlin says the recent special election in Ohio’s 12 district is a perfect example.

Even though Troy Balderson appears to have defeated Danny O’Connor, McLaughlin says a look at the numbers ought to frighten Republicans.

“There were 206,000 voters that came out in that district in November of 2016 for President Trump.  In the special election for Congress, only 102,000 people voted for the Republican.  So you have 104,000 Trump voters sitting there that they have to motivate now to get back out in November to re-elect the Republican,” said McLaughlin.

It’s not just Ohio.  When Democrats scored victories in the Alabama U.S. Senate race and a special House race in Pennsylvania, the same dynamic played out.

In Alabama, 2.1 million voters went to the polls in 2016 and Trump won two-thirds of the vote, but only 1.4 million turned out for the special election in which Democrat Doug Jones narrowly defeated Roy Moore.

In the special Pennsylvania House contest, McLaughlin says 102,000 fewer people voted for Republican Rick Saccone than voted for Trump less than two years earlier.

McLaughlin know exactly what it takes to bring Trump voters to the polls.  After Trump secured the delegates to win the GOP nomination in 2016, he asked McLaughlin how he would defeat Hillary Clinton.

McLaughlin said they would take the traditional steps of shoring up the anti-Hillary and anti-Obama votes and reach out to Libertarians, but also he knew Trump would need more votes and then figured out where those votes could come from.

“They’re mainly working class voters.  A lot of them were from the Rust Belt states as well as the Sun Belt states.  It was really a heartland coalition.  They were working  middle class voters that the president, this New York City billionaire, had an appeal for because they relate to him on issues like trade, immigration, draining the swamp in Washington – anti-establishment issues that they came out and voted for,” said McLaughlin.

“Nine million more people came out in 2016 than 2012.  In the record turnout we had, there were 63 million Trump voters.  A lot of those voters did not vote in 2014.  So the success for the Republicans is really about motivating those 2016 Trump voters to come back out,” he said.

Not all of the Trump agenda is conservative but McLaughlin says passing it will only boost Republican totals in November.

“They really need to vote on things that the majority of Americans support – even paid parental leave.  The president’s got a plan for paid parental leave but Republicans in the House and Senate aren’t going to vote on it until next year.  Seventy-five percent of voters approve of that.

Congress needs to get things done because they’re on the ballot this November, not the president,” said McLaughlin, pointing out that President Obama suffered major losses in midterm elections because Democrats couldn’t re-create the turnout he enjoyed in presidential races.

McLaughlin firmly believes Republicans can hang onto majorities in both the House and Senate, but not if they fail to push more of the Trump agenda across the finish line.

“Republicans have a chance because there is time.  If Republicans motivate their base, if they have critical votes in September and October on important issues to the Trump coalition, then I think we get our base out and we can hold the House, and we’ll definitely gain Senate seats.

“It’s really up to what they do in Washington right now.  If the people see them voting on things that matter to them, we will be able to hold the House and pick up Senate seats,” said McLaughlin.

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Cramer’s Great Ad, Facebook Censors Prager U, London’s Pathetic Terrorism Response

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Jim is back!  Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer for his powerful ad slamming Sen. Heidi Heitkamp for supporting sanctuary cities and for doing so with the right tone.  They also hammer Facebook for censoring numerous Prager U videos and labeling them “hate speech” when there’s nothing hateful about them, and wonder whether Facebook’s monitors have no idea what conservatism is or whether they just give in to the liberal mob.  And they shake their heads in disgust after London Mayor Sadiq Khan responds to a vehicular terrorist attack by wanting to ban vehicles in that part of the city.

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