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August 30, 2019

FLORIDA DISASTER RELIEF? IT'S BUYING CAGES AT THE TEXAS BORDER.

Hurricane Dorian is heading to Florida as I am writing these words. What happened to the disaster relief fund?

The current regime is using it to buy cages at the Texas border. See Caitlin Emma, DHS to Siphon $155M in Disaster Aid to Bolster Immigration Enforcement, POLITICO posted on Tuesday, August 27, 2019.

Download CI 08.30.19

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 30, 2019 at 07:42 PM in Bad Faith, Budget, Hurricanes, Immigration Policies | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #cages at the Texas border, #disaster relief, #Florida disaster relief, #Hurricane Dorian, #immigration enforcement, #Texas border

August 28, 2019

THE SHAME OF THE UNBALANCED BUDGET.

Trump Administration Will Divert Disaster Relief Funds to U.S.-Mexico Border Enforcement, Prompting Outcry From Democrats, WASHINGTON POST online Tuesday, August 27, 2019, available to post in your web browser at https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-will-divert-disaster-relief-funds-to-us-mexico-border-enforcement-prompting-outcry-from-democrats/2019/08/27/ba20dd30-c903-11e9-be05-f76ac4ec618c_story.html.

This is what comes of not putting limitations on your budget vote.

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 28, 2019 at 07:48 PM in Budget, Immigration Policies | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #border enfocement, #Dennis J. Wall, #disaster relief funds, #limitations on budget vote, #outcry, #U.S.-Mexico border, #unbalanced budget, #Washington

TRACK THE CHILDREN! WATCH MOSCOW MITCH!

Keep on tracking the children. This current regime might just try to put a price tag on anything that moves -- no matter how small or innocent. Download CI 08.18.19.

And while we are at it, keep an eye on Moscow Mitch! Come on, now, keep the song going ... Download CI 08.19.19.

♫Moscow, Moscow Mitch!

Mitch Wants to be a Moscow Man!♫

Download CI 08.28.19.

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 28, 2019 at 06:13 AM in Current Affairs, Good Faith, Immigration Policies | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #adoption, #children, #foster care, #Moscow Mitch, #orphanage, #orphans, #Russia

August 21, 2019

"PROTEST LEADER?" REALLY? HE'S BEEN IN JAIL OVER A YEAR.

The 2019 protests in Hong Kong are famous for having no leaders. Leading protests in Hong Kong can land a person in jail in China. The people of Hong Kong are acting for themselves. This drives Communist China up the Great Wall.

Apparently, it drives corporate media up a wall in this country too. The New York Times has actually published a story pinning the leadership of the 2019 Hong Kong protests on a guy who was put in jail months before the protests started.

The Times is pushing the story that the guy in jail, Edward Leung, is the mastermind of the Hong Kong protests. The problem with that story is that Mr. Leung was jailed for his role in the 2016 Hong Kong protests. Months before this year's protests started in June. Mr. Leung's jailers are not in the habit of allowing prisoners time off for bad behavior. His contacts with Hong Kong outside his prison walls are not the kind of thing that leads violent protests against China.

To the contrary, other reports have Edward Leung in 2019 releasing a letter that counsels against violence in the face of contrary provocations including from the government. See Edward Leung's Letter to Hongkongers, published July 30 and apparently written July 26, 2019.

But two large organizations want you to believe them and not your lyin' eyes on this. One of the organizations is the Chinese Communist Party. The other organization that wants you to swallow this is equally desperate to put a name on the 2019 protests. That other desperate organization is The New York Times apparently, in a piece published over two weeks after Edward Leung's Letter to Hongkongers. See Andrew Higgins, 'Che Guevara' of Hong Kong Inflames a Fight Over Identity, New York Times, Thursday, August 15, 2019, p. A1, published online with a very different headline, ‘Retake Hong Kong’: A Movement, a Slogan and an Identity Crisis (New York Times may charge for online access).

Download CI 08.21.19.

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 21, 2019 at 05:53 AM in Current Affairs, Journalism in the 21st Century | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #Dennis J. Wall, #Edward Leung, #Hong Kong, #Hong Kong protests

August 19, 2019

THE BALLAD OF MOSCOW MITCH.

The current Leader of the United States Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has done deeds that people want to sing about.

♫MOSCOW, MOSCOW MAN! MITCH WANTS TO BE A MOSCOW MAN!

In 2016, Mitch McConnell refused to sign a bipartisan letter that the Russians were interfering in the presidential election. The President of the United States, the Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Ranking Member of the House were all reportedly on board with a joint letter calling out the Russians for their interference. But not Mitch McConnell. See Jennifer Rubin, McConnell Owes the Country a Fuller Explanation on Russian Meddling, Washington Post online February 20, 2018.

MITCH WANTS TO BE A MOSCOW MAN!♫

In recent years, most recently in 2019, Mitch McConnell has refused even to allow a vote in the Senate on election security legislation that enjoys overwhelming support in the Senate as well as in the House. If you can't vote on it, it doesn't have a chance to become law. Period. See Nicholas Fandos, New Election Security Bills Face a One-Man Roadblock: Mitch McConnell, New York Times online June 7, 2019 (the New York Times may charge for online access).

MOSCOW, MOSCOW MAN!♫ MITCH WANTS TO BE A MOSCOW MAN!♫

A previous article posted here called attention to Mitch McConnell's involvement in a Russian aluminum factory to be located in Kentucky. The article raised some hard questions that to this day have not been answered. See MITCH McCONNELL SAYS 'JUST A COINCIDENCE' AFTER RUSSIAN SANCTIONS REMOVED, posted May 17, 2019.

Other articles have recently begun to ask the same and similar questions about Mitch McConnell and Russian investment in an aluminum factory that the Russians made a deal to put in Kentucky. See, e.g., Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman, How a McConnell-Backed Effort to Lift Russian Sanctions Boosted a Kentucky Project, Washington Post online August 14, 2019.

So, sing along all! ♫MOSCOW, MOSCOW MITCH! MITCH WANTS TO BE A MOSCOW MAN!♫

Download CI 08.19.19.

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 19, 2019 at 05:18 AM in Bad Faith, Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #Aluminum factory in Kentucky, #Claims and Issues, #Dennis J. Wall, #election interference, #elections security, #Jennifer Rubin, #Leader of the United States Senate, #Mitch McConnell, #Moscow Mitch, #New York Times, #Nicholas Fandos, #Rosalind S. Helderman, #Russians, #Tom Hamburger, #Washington Post

August 18, 2019

WHERE HAVE ALL THE CHILDREN GONE?

Despite telling a federal judge that children are not being separated from their parents, they are.

Beyond that, the federal government is now telling the same federal judge that the federal government cannot find many of the children. Many children separated from their parents by the federal government, in other words, simply cannot be found, says the federal government.

Where have all the children gone?

Check adoption agencies. Foster care programs. Anywhere where the children who were taken away might be sent away.

Once upon a time, it would have been unthinkable to think of federal agents taking children away from their parents. That was then, this is now. Now, it is very thinkable as it were that federal agencies might just be sending children away. So to say again, check the adoption agencies and the foster care programs and anywhere else that children are up for redistribution. ("Redistribution." A concept torn from human services agencies and twisted by the people who order children taken away from their parents like lifeless manufactured products.)

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 18, 2019 at 01:46 PM in Bad Faith, Corporate Media, Fraud and Misrepresentation, Immigration Policies | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #adoption, #children, #Dennis J. Wall, #federal government, #foster care, #Foster care and adopotion for children torn from their parents by the federal government, #torn from their parents, #where have all the children gone

August 14, 2019

WHAT GOOD ARE YOU, health and human services DEPARTMENT?

Ever had a loved one in a nursing home or an assisted living facility? Or even in the hospital? Heard about how the level of care they get in all of those places increases as the number of visitors increases?

"Health and Human Services officials have failed to conduct required visits of independent living programs for thousands of people with intellectual and physical disabilities, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found." Yasmeen Abutaleb, Agency Did Not Conduct Required Oversight of Program for Those With Disabilities, WASHINGTON POST online Wednesday, August 14, 2019.

The Administration for Community Living is the name of the branch of health and human services that has not conducted an inspection of independent living programs for people with disabilities, since Congress voted to delegate this power in 2012.

Not once in seven years. And that's the Office of Inspector General reporting that.

So: Today they say that "orange is the new black," that "50 is the new 60," and things like that. Is this another one of those sayings: "This is the new health, these are the new human services" in 2019?

Download CI 08.14.19.

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 14, 2019 at 02:27 PM in Bad Faith, Current Affairs, Good Faith, Health Insurance, Hope, Regulations and rules of administrative agencies. | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #50 is the new 60, #administration for community living, #Congress, #Dennis J. Wall, #disabilities, #health and human services department, #independent living programs, #inspection, #Office of Inspector General, #orange is the new black, #Washington Post, #Yasmeen Abutaleb

August 13, 2019

STAND UP TO DISCRIMINATION IN HEALTHCARE PLANS: TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY.

The Department of Health and Human Services enacted a rule in 2016. The rule required that healthcare and health insurance plans not discriminate because of the language a person speaks.

The rule was adopted under both the Affordable Care Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In other words, healthcare and health insurance plans thereafter were required by law to plan for language access issues and not to discriminate because of the language a person speaks.

This is about healthcare. And health insurance. Because of the rule, known as the Section 1557 Final Rule, federal law requires your doctor and your hospital and other medicalcare providers, and your health insurance company if you have one, to plan to provide healthcare regardless of language barriers. For example, because of the federal law your grandmother from the Old Country must be informed about the healthcare plan she is getting from her providers and from her health insurance carrier.

Now the regime currently in charge of the federal government wants to enable discrimination by repealing that law. Who is behind the proposed repeal?

Not your doctors.

Not patients.

Health insurance companies. For the most part, individual health insurance companies do not want to be identified by name with this repeal. With the exception of Aetna, the other health insurance companies are hiding behind their trade organizations such as America's Health Insurance Plans or AHIP to try to repeal the law and enable discrimination in healthcare plans once the existing law is repealed. Perhaps your own insurance carrier is one of them.

Perhaps you are insured by Aetna which may be too big to be concerned with publicity surrounding this effort that will result in enabling discrimination in healthcare plans.

Today is the final day to voice your opposition to repealing the law and enabling discrimination in this way. The current department of health and human services is fronting the repeal under Docket ID Number HHS-OCR-2019-0007. You can leave your Comments against this DHHS proposal at www.regulations.gov.

Your Comments can be written sincerely and simply. You can leave Comments as concisely or as complicated as you like. (I have embedded my own Comments in a pdf, below, but these may be too wonky and lawyer-like for your taste. They are just right for me. That is one reason I am showing them to you here.)

Today is the final day to stand up to the current federal government's effort to repeal the protections of this rule and enable discrimination in healthcare and health insurance.

Download DHHS LANGUAGE ACCESS DISCRIMNATION PROPOSED CHANGES. 08.19.

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 13, 2019 at 09:22 AM in Regulations and rules of administrative agencies., Rules and regulations | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #2016 Section 1557 Final Rule, #ACA, #administrative agencies, #Administrative Procedure Act, #Affordable Care Act, #APA, #case law, #Civil rights act of 1964, #Congress, #Department of Health and Human Services, #DHHS, #doctors, #health insurance carriers, #health insurance companies, #health insurance companies, #healthcare, #hospitals, #Hubert H. Humphrey, #judges, #language access discrimination, #language access healthcare plans, #language access nondiscrimnation, #medicalcare providers, #Office for Civil Rights, #patients, #proposed rules, #regulations, #rules, #Section 1557 Final Rule, #statutes, #statutory interpretation, #Supreme Court, #the powers of administrative agencies, #the powers of judges, #Title VI, #United States Supreme Court, Civil Rights

August 12, 2019

MATH CHALLENGES SPEAKER PELOSI.

Over half of the House Democrats have announced in favor of impeachment. See, e.g., Time magazine here.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi previously said that would never happen, that there would never be a majority of her party in the U.S. House in favor of impeachment, no way. Watch the PBS Newshour video and listen to the audio here.

Speaker Pelosi also said that four certain Members of Congress, newly elected in 2018 all, have no following.

Every one of the Four is for impeachment. Right now.

Math challenges Speaker Pelosi.

Download CI 08.12.19.

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 12, 2019 at 05:20 AM in Current Affairs, Good Faith, Hope | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, #Democrats, #four freshmen members of congress, #House, #Ilhan Omar, #impeachment, #Nancy Pelosi, #Pressley, #Rashida Tlaib, #Speaker Pelosi, #the squad, #U.S. House of Representatives

August 07, 2019

"WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE ON MEDICARE NOW."

"What It's Like to Be on Medicare Now" describes the various Parts of Medicare as we know it, Parts A, B, D, and Medicare Advantage. This very useful and understandable summary by Abby Goodnough also clearly states which Parts have deductibles and which have caps, and what they cover. See Abby Goodnough, What It's Like to Be on Medicare Now, NEW YORK TIMES, Thursday, August 1, 2019, p. A11, published online under the headline for which the New York Times may charge access, Medicare for All? For More? Here’s How Medicare Works.

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 07, 2019 at 08:04 AM in Medicare | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #Abby Goodnough, #cap, #cover, #coverage, #deductible, #Dennis J. Wall, #Medicare, #Medicare Advantage, #Medicare Part A, #Medicare Part B, #Medicare Part D

August 05, 2019

THE KILLER IN EL PASO IS NOT AN IMMIGRANT. Postscript 08.05.19.

The death count stands at twenty as I write these words. That is how many people were killed in El Paso yesterday.

The killer is not an immigrant.

He aimed at people who he thought look like immigrants. They weren’t immigrants either. But they got a sentence of death from him because they looked like immigrants.

Who was the dangerous one in El Paso yesterday?

Postscript of Monday, August 5, 2019:

“This Anglo man came here to kill Hispanics. I’m outraged and you should be, too. This entire nation should be outraged. In this day and age, with all the serious issues we face, we are still confronted with people who will kill one another for the sole reason of the color of their skin.”

Sheriff Richard Wiles of El Paso, Texas, quoted by Simon Romero, Manny Fernandez, and Michael Corkery in A Store That Connected Cultures, Until a Killer ‘Came Here For Us,’ NEW YORK TIMES, Monday, August 5, 2019, p. A1 (online here; the New York Times may charge for online access).

Download CI 08.05.19.

Posted by Dennis J. Wall on August 05, 2019 at 08:10 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: #Dallas, #Dennis J. Wall, #El Paso, #hate crime, #Hispanics, #immigrants, #killing, #Manny Fernandez, #massacre, #Mexican-American, #Mexico, #Michael Corkery, #Richard Wiles, #sheriff, #shooting, #Simon Romero, #Texas, #white nationalist, #white power

Claims And Issues