Claims And Issues

MEATPACKING PLANTS ARE SLAUGHTERHOUSES. YOU CAN'T REFINE SLAUGHTER WITH NAMES.

"The evidence is strong that meat and poultry plants warrant more stringent oversight than other manufacturing facilities." Michael Hiltzik, Business Column: A Century Later, Meatpacking Plants Still Resemble Upton Sinclair's Depiction in 'The Jungle', LOS ANGELES TIMES online Tuesday, May 5, 2020.

    From the beginning, the evidence was strong that slaughterhouses are dangerous to worker safety. This does not necessarily mean that slaughterhouses should be dismantled. It does mean they should be watched. Carefully. They are not a mail drop. They have effects on people's health and safety.

    So they should be watched carefully. They were not seen for the most part until Upton Sinclair's book was published 100 years ago. They should be seen -- and watched -- now. The evidence is strong that action is required and also that assessing the risk before acting is a necessary part of the pandemic response.

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"The Alternative to Solidarity is Death."

George Packer has valuable insights in his article in the forthcoming June 2020 issue of The Atlantic.  He has looked deeply into where we have been as a country, where we are today, and where we can go if we choose.  Packer's article is titled and subtitled, We Are Living in a Failed State / The coronavirus didn't break America.  It revealed what was already broken.

    Here are excerpts:

 It turns out that everything has a cost, and years of attacking government, squeezing it dry and draining its morale, inflict a heavy cost that the public has to pay in lives.  All the programs defunded, stockpiles depleted, and plans scrapped meant that we had become a second-rate nation.  Then came the virus and this strange defeat.

    The fight to overcome the pandemic must also be a fight to recover the health of our country, and build it anew, or the hardship and grief we're now enduring will never be redeemed.  Under our current leadership nothing will change....  But putting an end to this regime, so necessary and deserved, is only the beginning.

 ***

We can learn from these dreadful days that stupidity and injustice are lethal; that, in a democracy, being a citizen is essential work; that the alternative to solidarity is death.  After we've come out of hiding and taken off our masks, we should not forget what it was like to be alone.

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Ask them what they are conserving.

"Someone should ask Mr. Ralston and the conservative legislators and judges in Wisconsin what they are conserving."  David Blight in New York Times op-ed published in print on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020.

GA Spkr Ralston:  706.632.2221

He does not have a Twitter account and he will not reveal his EMail account online, but he has a Communications Director and here is his Twitter handle: 
@KalebMcMichen.

Ask the conservative legislator leaders in Wisconsin:
Senator Fitzgerald:  608.266.5660
On Twitter @SenFitzgerald.

WI House Speaker:
On Twitter @SpeakerVos.

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PRAY FOR THE ECONOMY?

At our televised Church services this Palm Sunday morning, we learned from the homily that one of our prayers is apparently supposed to be "for the economy."

The economy is people. People who have jobs. People who get paid for work. People who have to pay bills and who cannot pay their bills without their jobs.

I hope that we all think of people when we think of the economy.

And I hope that it's the thought of people that was in everyone's mind when they said that we should pray "for the economy" this Palm Sunday morning.

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THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS AWOL* IN THE FACE OF THE ENEMY.

*AWOL = Absent Without Leave.

The federal government is doing so little during the crisis.  For all intents and purposes, there is no federal government right now.

Washington, D.C. blizzard.jpg via Wikimedia Commons.

The story is also laid out by David E. Sanger, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Ana Swanson in FEDERAL GOVERNMENT / A Slow Response, Measured in Nonexistent Tests, Masks and Ventilators, NEW YORK TIMES online Tuesday, March 24 and in print Wed., March 25, 2020, at A9.

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PARDON ME: SO WHAT? STAY FOCUSED. SENTENCE HIM ANYWAY.

Roger Stone may get "the full Rod Blagojevich" pardon.  So what?

Sentence him anyway.

(Image via Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services)

Rule 1:  "Do not obey in advance."  Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny / Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century (2017).

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JUDGE AMY BERMAN JACKSON, WHAT IS YOUR SENTENCE NOW?

William Barr's Justice Department has withdrawn its own prosecutors' sentence recommendations for convicted felon Roger Stone.  Instead of 7 to 9 years behind bars, Mr. Barr objects.  He leaves the substituted recommendation open-ended without committing to anything beyond leaving the sentencing decision to the judge, who will have the final say in any event.

This was not an ambiguous criminal case.  It was clear from the start to everyone involved.  The jury in Mr. Stone's case deliberated for only seven hours before they returned convictions on every  count, every charge against Mr. Stone.

"In their initial sentencing memorandum federal prosecutors said that Mr. Stone should serve up to nine years because he threated a witness with bodily harm, deceived congressional investigators and carried out an extensive, deliberate, illegal scheme that included repeatedly lying under oath and forging documents."  Katie Benner, Sharon LaFraniere, and Adam Goldman, Justice Dept. Acts to Ease Sentence ... / 4 U.S. Prosecutors Quit Stone Case After Bosses Step In to Overrule Them, NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., Feb. 12, 2020, at A1.

After his indictment and before he was tried, Mr. Stone reportedly also violated the Court's gag orders against speaking out and threatened Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the judge presiding over his criminal case.  She is also the judge who will sentence him following his convictions.

One of Mr. Stone's defenses to all this is that Mr. Stone was once riddled with anxiety but that he is much better now, the New York Times reports.

So, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, what sentence if any will you impose for these crimes?  "Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you."

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VINDICTIVENESS IS FOR LOSERS. RESIST THEM. DON'T HATE THEM.

Today is Abraham Lincoln's Birthday.

  February 5, 1865.

 (Alexander Gardner /

National Portrait Gallery,

Washington, D.C.)

The Department of Homeland Security is effectively making New Yorkers stand in line at airports now.  The bar is expected to affect 50,000 people now and another 175,000 people by year's end.

The ban was announced by the current Acting DHS Secretary because, he said, New York State enacted a driver's license law that hinders the Federal Government from accessing the New York State Government's motor vehicle databases without a court order.  New York is one of about a dozen States plus the District of Columbia that require ICE to get a court order before the Feds start rifling through State databases without a warrant.  The whole story is laid out, for example, in the Washington Post here and here, and New York State is filing suit to block the ban.  See Luis Ferre-Sadurni, New York Will File Lawsuit Over Traveler Program Ban, NEW YORK TIMES, Saturday, February 8, 2020, at A23 (online access controlled by The New York Times).

Net result:  People who can afford not only to pay for airline tickets and baggage fees etc. plus pay the program fees, are now going to have to wait in TSA lines with everyone else.  I too have waited in TSA lines.  It's not so bad.

In a similar way, Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman was fired from the National Security Council staff on February 7 after he testified in the House Impeachment Proceeding under subpoena.  He had already given or was in the process of giving notice that he was leaving at the end of February.

                                       (Andrew Harnik / AP)

Net result:  Colonel Vindman will be leaving his position about 3 weeks earlier than he otherwise would have.

Colonel Vindman's brother was a lawyer with an ethics portfolio at the National Security Council.  He did not testify about anything but he too was fired on February 7.  This is all reminiscent of the greater vindictiveness levelled against Andrew McCabe who was terminated a day or so before his Federal pension would have vested.  It is true that the thread that is common to all these incidents is the desire to inflict harm regardless of whether other reasons exist, or not.

However, the incidents highlighted in the media over the uproar in New York and repeated in the media over the departure of Colonel Vindman have not really inflicted all that much harm.  Not really.  They display a disgusting vindictiveness but they do not carry real harm as their consequences.  The people that indulged their vindictiveness in these cases have shown themselves to clearly be losers.

Net result:  They are vindictive and they are losers.  Resist them.  Don't hate them.  If you hate them, you become them.

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FIFTH THIRD BANK: DID YOU REALLY THINK THESE BANKERS ...

... GIVE A DAMN?

They were for it, before they were against it, and now they're for it again.

Fifth Third Bank switched back to discrimination after a U.S. Senator, see MARCO RUBIO, IT'S NOT ABOUT THEIR CHOICE.  IT'S ABOUT MAKING ME PAY FOR IT, popped off against their position.  No coincidence here:  Fifth Third Bank is regulated by the Feds.  Marco Rubio is a Fed.

This must be remembered about Fifth Third Bank or nothing wonderful can come of this tale, to paraphrase Dickens:   They are bankers.  They are in the business of using other people's money.  When they take a credit on their taxes, for example, other people's taxes have to make up the difference.  Other people pay.

So now they say they find nothing wrong with taking tax credits for donating to discrimination.  See Leslie Postal, Fifth Third to Keep Funding / Bank reverses, will continue to back program benefiting schools with anti-LGBTQ policies, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Sat., Feb. 8, 2020 (unless you have a free article coming, the Orlando Sentinel may be online behind a paywall). 

Let's stay focused here:  It's not about their choice.  It's about making you and me pay for it.

And giving Fifth Third Bank a tax credit.

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MARCO RUBIO, IT'S NOT ABOUT THEIR CHOICE. IT'S ABOUT MAKING ME PAY FOR IT.

Marco Rubio, currently a United States Senator serving in Washington, D.C. from Florida, reportedly says he does not want to change the State system of taxation. Schools discriminate in Florida with taxpayer money, but Senator Rubio defends their choice. See Annie Martin, Rubio Critical of Banks' Back Out, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020 (online access behind a paywall).

My choice would be not to pay for discrimination. What about my choice? Florida's choice? America's choice?

No, Marco Rubio, it's not about their choice. It's about making me pay for it.

And anyway, we're in Florida here, not D.C.  The Feds have no say in this.  And Marco, you're a Fed.

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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, ALBERT SPEER?

Sung or hummed like "Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio?"

                                   (Speer Book Cover, available from Monacelli Press.  

                                                  Image via Monacelli Studios)

There's a new regime in town.

See Katie Rogers and Robin Pogrebin, Decreeing Classical Buildings for U.S., NEW YORK TIMES, Thursday, February 6, 2020, at C1 (online access by the New York Times).

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MANNY DIAZ, IT'S NOT ABOUT THEIR CHOICE.

IT'S ABOUT MAKING ME PAY FOR IT.

Manny Diaz, the Chair of the Florida Senate Education Committee, reportedly says he does not want to change the system. Schools discriminate in Florida with taxpayer money, but Senator Diaz defends their choice. See Gray Rohrer and Skyler Swisher, Diaz: No Voucher Program Changes, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Friday, Jan. 31, 2020 (online access behind a paywall).

My choice would be not to pay for discrimination. What about my choice? Florida's choice? America's choice?

 

No, Manny Diaz, it's not about their choice. It's about making me pay for it.

 

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"JUSTICE WITHOUT MERCY IS REVENGE."

Elie Wiesel, in a speech to the American Bar Association in Orlando, Florida.

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THEY WANT YOUR MONEY FOR THEIR PERSONAL AGENDA.

Don't try to conform our programs into something they're not established to provide.

Executive Director Howard Burke, Florida Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, quoted by Leslie Postal and Annie Martin, Anti-LGBTQ Schools Receive State Vouchers / More Than $129M in Florida Scholarships Went to Students Who Attended Private Schools Where Gays Are Condemned or Unwelcome, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, p. A1 (online behind a paywall).

(Gridview_imagefull / Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services)

In what looks like nothing less than an outbreak of public funding for private purposes, reportedly $129 Million of Florida taxpayer money was sent in 2019 to religious institutions that discriminate. The institutions say that God commanded them to discriminate the way they do.

    In the past these arguments were reserved for discrimination against Black people, Jewish people, and Catholics. Now they are being used against gay and lesbian children and, in many cases, their families. See Leslie Postal and Annie Martin, Anti-LGBTQ Schools Receive State Vouchers / More Than $129M in Florida Scholarships Went to Students Who Attended Private Schools Where Gays Are Condemned or Unwelcome, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, p. A1 (online behind a paywall).

    Think that these private claims glomming onto public money are unique to Florida? If only. Think again. See also Annie Martin and Leslie Postal, Gay-Friendly Companies Support Anti-LGBTQ Private Schools, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, p. A1 (also online behind a paywall).

  It's 2020. Do you know where your taxes go?

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FINALLY FOUND THE VIDEO. HERE IT IS.

I searched a long time for the video released by Lev Parnas's attorney. It was first reported by ABC News, apparently. That TV news organization reported it in print. They are a visual news organization, not a print news organization. ABC News did not link to the visual news. They did not link to the video.

I also searched print news organizations including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Associated Press websites. I did not find a link to the video on any of them.

I remember that a video surfaced during Mitt Romney's campaign for President of the United States not that long ago. It seems now to me that the Romney video was everywhere. What a contrast to 2020.

Continuing with the recap of my searches, I found snippets of the video on CNN's website and on The Guardian newspaper online. Snippets. Meaning just a few seconds or minutes of what they wanted me to hear and see.

At the end of a long search, I found a link to the complete unedited video, here at the website of United Press International (UPI). I knew that UPI is a fierce competitor of Associated Press (AP), which you will recall was one of the original reporters, in print only so far, that the video existed. Here is the UPI site for the complete unedited video: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/01/25/Video-Take-her-out-Trump-appears-to-say-about-Ukraine-ambassadors-removal/8161579993544/.

It is not Hollywood issue, so to speak. It was taken on a cellphone by a person, like most of us, whose talents clearly do not include filming videos. But it is jaw-dropping nonetheless. Substance over form. Not very 2020 I guess.

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FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES" ALREADY.

Newspaper reporters and editors practice prejudice when it's quicker than reporting the truth.  Not all of them. But specifically, the ones who call people "devout Catholics" that you would not want to tell your mother about.  Using shorthand without reporting, these newspapers call them "devout Catholics."  See, e.g., "'CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES.'  Rebecca Solnit," an article blogged here on September 8, 2019; "NYT, AGAIN:  'CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES.'  Rebecca Solnit," December 11, 2019.

This past week the Orlando Sentinel did it again, using the "devout Catholic" shorthand to describe a person who behaved badly.  I would link to their article here too, but the Orlando Sentinel is behind a paywall and they may charge you for that 'privilege.'

To these newspapers I say:  Knock it off.  The truth is that "devout Catholics" get that label just because they give more money to the Church than other people do.  They are louder about it too.

It is in no way the behavior of any "devout Catholic" to separate children from their parents, to inflict cruelty because you can, or to say rotten things about people because you can get away with it.  These behaviors may be "devout" all right, but these behaviors are in so way Catholic and they  are not the results of good will, period.  Instead, you will find devout people helping out in places like this food pantry:

               (Desiree Rios / New York Times)

In the words of Rebecca Solnit, "Call them by their true names."

 

TODAY IS THE OBSERVANCE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.'S BIRTHDAY.   HOPE.  BELIEVE.  PRACTICE FREEDOM FROM FEAR TODAY AND EVERY DAY!

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WOMEN'S MARCH 2020 ORLANDO.

This sign from today's Women's March in Orlando speaks for truth:

Copyright 2020 Dennis J. Wall.
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THE CENSUS, THE STATES, AND THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT.

The constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is on appeal.  Again.

Twenty States are suing to declare all of the ACA unconstitutional because Congress in 2017 reduced a tax to zero dollars.  (Seriously.)  The 20 States contain a collective population of 135,928,851 according to U.S. Census 2019 Population Estimates.

Twenty States plus the District of Columbia are on the other side defending the ACA.  They have a collective population of 158,550,088.

To put the difference in perspective, it is greater than the population of the entire State of Florida.  So even if everyone in Florida was accounted for, and even if all the people in all the States were all for or all against the ACA depending on whether their own States were suing or defending the ACA's constitutionality, there would still be 2 Million more people left over who want the Affordable Care Act's provisions to continue.

And that's the way it is.

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SO WHAT WERE WE TALKING ABOUT? THE UNREDACTED EMAILS?

So what were we talking about before the drone exploded?

It is hard to recall, which is a measure of distraction in itself.

As best I recall, we were talking about the unredacted emails. An online blog or zine or whatever called Just Security published some totally redacted emails which the current regime had filed in a court file in response to a court order to release those emails. Just Security says that it "viewed" many of those emails, unredacted, and it published them along with the redacted version.

The emails evidenced communications between political appointees in the current regime, and officers in the Department of Defense and in the Department of State, over the illegality of impounding funds which Congress had already appropriated and ordered spent, and over who ordered this action.

One of the more significant emails, which the regime had blacked out, revealed that the head of our government directed it.

That is what we were talking about before the drone exploded.

Since the drone exploded, it is hard to find any reporting in any medium anywhere about the message in the unredacted emails. Keep your eyes on the ball, media. Keep your focus, publishers and editors and reporters. The people could use your help and we are not getting it.

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"WAG THE DOG" MAY BE MUCH CLOSER THAN WE THOUGHT.

"In May, the United States weighed plans for a force of as many as 120,000 soldiers in bases around the Middle East.  That's approaching the number of soldiers who participated in the invasion of Iraq in 2003."  Editorial, 'The Game Has Changed,' NEW YORK TIMES, Saturday, January 4, 2020, p. A22 (online on January 3, 2020; the New York Times may charge for online access).

If this was reported at the time, I missed it.  For those who do not know, "Wag the Dog" refers to a movie about an enormously disliked leader who pretends to start and win a war that existed entirely on videos in order to distract attention away from his poor standing in the polls.

Since January 2017, the number of American military personnel in the Middle East has already increased by 15,000 to 20,000, depending on whose estimates you are looking at. 

(Chris Seward / Associated Press)

"Wag the Dog" may be much closer than anyone thought.  Except that this time it's closer to existing entirely in reality, with real loss of life and limb.

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MICKEY AND MINNIE MUGGED!

Donald too!  Mickey sent to the hospital! 

See Gabrielle Russon, 3 Disney Characters Assaulted By Tourists, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Sat., Dec. 28, 2019, p. A1 (online here).

What has this world already come to?  (And this is before New Year's Eve.)

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REPAIR, REPLANT, RENEW -- LAST CHANCE: CALIFORNIA FIRE FUND IS CLOSING.

When The New Year arrives, it may be too late.  The time is now, before the close of business on New Year's Eve this coming Tuesday, to access a fund that already exists.  The fund, required by a bankruptcy judge after a California uitility filed for bankruptcy in January 2019, holds the money to repair, replant, and renew homes and lives damaged by California fires.

California's Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) utility has established the fund as a condition of its pending bankruptcy.  PG&E agreed to establish a fund of $13.5 Billion to pay claimants who were damaged by fires caused by PG&E.  (The lawyers are still debating whether the fund will be all cash, are half cash and half stock in PG&E.)  See Ivan Penn, A Race to Help Fire Victims Get Paid, NEW YORK TIMES, Saturday, December 28, 2019, p. B1 (online on Dec. 26, 2019; the New York Times may charge for online access).

The victims of the California fires who are eligible to make a claim on the fund are scattered now.  After they lost their homes to fires in California, they resettled all over the United States, principally in the Northwest.  As this blog reaches the entire United States, as a public service I say, make it a Happy New Year in 2020 by repairing, replanting, and renewing homes and lives!  The California fire fund still exists, but the time to claim on it is closing.  Repair, replant, and renew for the coming New Year!

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(Photograph Credits: Jose Carlos Fajardo/San Jose Mercury News via Associated Press; Matt Whittaker/New York Times).

 

WHY IMPEACHMENT DOESN'T REQUIRE A CRIME UNDER THE FEDERAL STATUTES.

Because there were no federal criminal statutes when the impeachment provision was written.

There could not be a violation of a federal criminal statute since there were no federal criminal statutes when they wrote impeachment into the Constitution.

As simple and as basic as that:  Impeachment does not require a violation of a federal criminal statute.

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NYT, AGAIN: "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES." Rebecca Solnit.

The New York Times has anointed another "devout Catholic."  This time the Times anointed William Barr of all people.  See Jeremy W. Peters and Katie Benner, Right Rejoices as Barr Assails Liberal Culture, NEW YORK TIMES, Monday, December 9, 2019, p. A1 (the New York Times often charges for any online access to its reports; posted online under a different headline).

Previously they declared Kenneth Cuccinelli "a devout Catholic" in The Public Face of Homeland Security Also Ruffles Its Feathers. A Lot, by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Maggie Haberman, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, September 6, 2019, p. A12 (to say again, be forewarned: the New York Times often charges for any online access to its reports). Mr. Cuccinelli is the latest acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or "USCIS."  I previously pointed out some of the many reasons that Mr. Cuccinelli isn't anyone's "devout Catholic" in an article posted here on September 8, 2019, "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES."  Rebecca Solnit.

This is insulting. As I told the New York Times in September's article, we will have to discuss what being "a devout Catholic" means. That long discussion is coming, sooner than later.  

A devout Catholic does not lie that his Inspector General's report affirming the FBI somehow debases the FBI the way he does.

A devout Catholic does not betray an old friend like Robert Mueller by publicly suggesting that he was incompetent.  Especially when that friend conducted an investigation that resulted in dozens of indictments and a report that runs for hundreds of pages presenting two volumes of evidence for impeachment of a president.

And a devout Catholic does not say that a politician's political campaign was spied on not by Russia, mind you, but by his own Government particularly when the truth is all to the contrary of what he says about it.

It is not my place to judge Bill Barr as a person and I am asking you not to judge him or Ken Cuccinelli either. I am not saying that either Barr or Cuccinelli is a bad person. I am saying that neither one should be called "a devout Catholic." Barr's actions in particular are not devout and they are not Catholic. Many will say "Lord, Lord," but you shall know them by how they act and not by what they say about how devout they are.

To paraphrase the Irish-American poet John Boyle O'Reilly, William Barr may have a right to rule if we let him. But he has no right to call his reign Catholic.  See "THIS IS NOT DECAY.  THIS IS ORGANIZED DESTRUCTION," posted here on October 27, 2019.

Or to call it the United States of America.

 

Download CI 12.11.19.

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DON'T PRETEND TO BE TRANSPARENT, IF YOU'RE NOT TRANSPARENT.

I'm looking at you Pete.

                   (Tamir Kalifa / New York Times)

See Michael Forsythe, When Pete Buttigieg Was One of McKinsey’s ‘Whiz Kids’, NEW YORK TIMES (online Thursday, December 5, 2019; New York Times may charge for online access).  For recently revealed evidence about McKinsey's operations that has been revealed after Mayor Pete left McKinsey, in this case operations for ICE, see TOO CRUEL EVEN FOR THEM?, posted here on Wed., December 4, 2019.

Putting McKinsey secret operations to one side, let's turn instead to even more recent news of acts of secrecy winning out over talk of transparency.  Why can't we see who is getting Mayor Pete the money to run for President of the United States?  He will not tell us.  See Shane Goldmacher and Astead W. Herndon, Elizabeth Warren Attacks Pete Buttigieg’s Private Fund-Raisers: ‘Open Up the Doors’, NEW YORK TIMES (online Thursday, December 5, 2019; New York Times may charge for online access).

Don't pretend to be transparent, if you're not transparent.  

 

Download CI 12.09.19.

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TOO CRUEL EVEN FOR THEM?

McKinsey & Company, the international consulting firm for hire, has been hired by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  McKinsey has reportedly received "more than $20 million in consulting work for ICE[.]"  Ian MacDougall, Consulting Giant's Focus Was Making Deportations Faster and Cheaper / Agency Workers Saw Some Ideas As Too Harsh on Immigrants, NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., December 4, 2019, at p. A21 (New York Times may charge for online access to this report that it copublished along with ProPublica).  That's $20 Million out of our taxes, of course.

McKinsey focused on "detention savings opportunities" with respect to the apprehension and detention of immigrants by the current regime.  McKinsey proposed cutting spending on food, for example.  McKinsey also proposed cutting medical care.  Tasked with detention savings opportunities, McKinsey did not overlook "cutbacks in guard staffing," which was reportedly the place in the ICE budget where the greatest detention savings opportunities were made.  Ian MacDougall, Consulting Giant's Focus Was Making Deportations Faster and Cheaper / Agency Workers Saw Some Ideas As Too Harsh on Immigrants, NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., December 4, 2019, at p. A21 (New York Times may charge for online access to this report that it copublished along with ProPublica).

At least some of these cuts were too much even for people at ICE.  They pointed out that cutting back on food and medicine would affect the health of people held in ICE custody, and of course that is what has happened, according to other reports.

ICE agents also pointed out that many of McKinsey's cuts were illegal under existing regulations.  In response to these points, McKinsey's agents reported these ICE personnel to their ICE managers, saying that they stood in the way of the detention savings opportunities.

As for the regulations, people at McKinsey & Co. reportedly recommended doing away with at least some of the regulations in order to save on the costs of complying with them such as in providing food and medicine.  See Consulting Giant's Focus Was Making Deportations Faster and Cheaper / Agency Workers Saw Some Ideas As Too Harsh on Immigrants, NEW YORK TIMES, Wed., December 4, 2019, at p. A21 (New York Times may charge for online access to this report that it copublished along with ProPublica).

Another of McKinsey & Co.'s tasks was to help implement the current regime's task of adding 10,000 more agents.  Yet McKinsey recommended "cutbacks in guard staffing as the source of most cost savings."  Id.  What then were the agents to be used for, if not guarding immigrants in ICE detention?  The newspaper report does not say.

But we know how armed agents have been used that are not used for guarding immigrants in ICE detention.

  (Sandy Huffaker.AFP.Getty Images)

It would be foolish to expect that these agents will not be used that way again, perhaps even more so.  And it would be foolish not to realize that whenever they are used in those ways in the future, large corporations will be there to make a buck off it.

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NO COSTS, NO EVIDENCE, NO REASONS.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2019 IS THE LAST DAY TO LEAVE COMMENTS!  IT'S EASY TO DO.

On the Federal Regulations portal, https://www.regulations.gov, I left the following Comments on the changes effectively gutting the State Heating and Cooling Standard Utility Allowances (HCSUAs) authorized by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.  The changes were proposed by the current Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) which does very little to protect food and advance nutrition, and its parent, the current Department of Agriculture.

It should escape no-one's notice that the State Heating and Cooling Standard Utility Allowance changes would take effect in the Winter.  Want may be most keenly felt then, to paraphrase Dickens, but cold is certainly most keenly felt in Winter in many sections of the United States that did not vote for the current regime or its proposed changes.  Perhaps that is a reason that these proposed revisions are scheduled to take effect in Winter.

NO COSTS, NO EVIDENCE, NO REASONS: COMMENTS TO PROPOSED SNAP RULE HCSUA REVISIONS. 12.01.19.
by
Dennis J. Wall
Sunday, December 1, 2019.
Re: FNS-2019-009.
RIN: 0584-AE69.

To the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and Department of Agriculture (USDA):

You published your latest Proposed SNAP rule revisions along with your commentary in the Federal Register, 84 F.R. 52809 - 52815. That is where you published your proposed revisions to pre-existing State Heating and Cooling Standard Utility Allowances (HCSUAs). You wrote that you propose to redefine HCSUAs.

1.  You did not estimate or evaluate the costs of your proposed change to beneficiaries of the pre-existing HCSUA rule. In order for you to make such changes, you are first required by law to estimate such costs. For this reason alone, your proposed HCSUA revisions are contrary to law and so invalid.

You are given authority to propose and revise rules and regulations by Congress. Your authority does not extend to refusing to obey the Administrative Procedure Act.

    The Administrative Procedure Act requires that you estimate and evaluate the costs of your proposals. This includes your proposed change to the HCSUAs. You have not reported any costs to the current beneficiaries of your proposed changes. It appears that you have not estimated any costs of your proposed revision to the people who benefit from the current rule governing HCSUAs.

    For this reason alone, your proposed HCSUA revision is contrary to law and so invalid.

2. Your proposed changes to the pre-existing HCSUA rule are unsupported by evidence. Your authority to make or change rules and regulations is limited to rules and revisions supported by evidence. For these reasons alone, your proposed HCSUA revisions are contrary to law and so invalid.

You did not support your proposed changes to the pre-existing HCSUA rule with evidence. Your authority to make rules and change regulations is limited by the law with which Congress conferred authority upon you to do so. It is limited in pertinent part by your compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act.

    The APA requires that you support all your proposals with evidence. You have not provided evidence at all for the changes you propose to the current HCSUA rule. For these reasons alone, your proposed changes are contrary to law and are invalid.

3. Your proposed changes to the pre-existing HCSUA rule are unreasonable and irrational. For this reason alone, your proposed HCSUA revisions are contrary to law and so invalid.

Your proposed changes to the pre-existing HCSUA rule are irrational. You report only that your proposed changes will benefit some States, and not others.

    You do not provide any reasons for changing the pre-existing HCSUA rule.

    For all these reasons, your proposed rule changes are unreasonable and invalid.

4. Conclusion.

For all these reasons, whether taken separately or together, your proposed rule is unreasonable under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: State Hearing and Cooling Standard Utility Allowances statutes and under the Administrative Procedure Act enacted by Congress, and rules previously issued by your agency. Your proposed rule should be withdrawn and rewritten before it is implemented, if ever. If it is implemented it should be struck down.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Dennis Wall

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"THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ HAS SPOKEN."

From Behind A Curtain, Naturally.

It started and ended with a tweet.  The Secretary of the Navy and the Admiral in charge of the SEALS thought that a trophy photograph clearly displayed conduct unbecoming.  In it, the individual in question is photographed standing on top of the body of an unarmed man.  Parenthetically, I tried to get you that photo, but it is much, much easier to find photos of the individual smiling at his good luck than it is to find the trophy photo.

The Secretary of the Navy said that the Navy does not act on a tweet.  He wanted an order to keep the individual in the photo in the Navy SEALS.

The Navy Secretary wasn't fired, apparently.  At least that's how the story goes.  The Secretary of Defense asked the Secretary of the Navy to voluntarily resign.  So, the Secretary of the Navy voluntarily resigned over the weekend.  Read his resignation letter here.

The chair of the Joint Chiefs says that ends the matter.

Except it really doesn't, you know.  That photo doesn't even come close to displaying what the SEALS stand for.  The individual in question is standing in a trophy photo on the dead body of his unarmed victim.  (Is he the next Secretary of the Navy?)

That leaves the Admiral in charge of the SEALS who doesn't want this individual in his command, either.  No word yet on what has happened to him.

My best guess?  Plan on the Secretary of Defense asking him, too, to "voluntarily resign."  There appears to be nothing that the current Secretary of Defense will not do.

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THEY DO SO MUCH, BUT WONDER IF IT IS ENOUGH.

They do so much, these selfless volunteers of Hong Kong.  They feed, house, and comfort young people who protest the Communists of China, but whose parents have thrown them out into the streets because the young people protest.

These kind, courageous volunteers buy protestors gear for protection against the billy clubs of the police, arrange for financial support to carry the protestors through the day, and organize carpools to carry the protestors to their homes at night,.  They stand between protestors and police to try to prevent violence, and they run alongside protestors who are being hauled away in handcuffs to get their names so that pro bono lawyers can later try to get them out of jail.

They do so much, and yet so many wonder if it is enough.  One pastor, who has courageously chosen to face policemen in the act of arresting protestors so that he can request the police officers to go easy making the arrest, says of his work, "The impact is definitely small."

Another volunteer, the leader of a group of volunteers who call themselves Protect the Children, "pulled on his respirator and ran directly into the fog of tear gas in central Hong Kong. He was trailed by a homemaker, a retired accountant and a middle-school teacher.  Undaunted by the pandemonium of gasping protesters, they pointed people to safety and poured saline into the eyes of those overcome by the fumes."  And yet he, too, wondered how much good it all does:  "I sometimes wonder whether we are doing anything of value, but we can't just sit at home."

The inspirational stories of these volunteers is told by Andrew Jacobs, Behind the Protestors:  Pastors, Medics, Artists and Hug Dispensers, NEW YORK TIMES, Tuesday, November 12, 2019, p. A6 (The New York Times may charge for online access). 

Do not wonder what good they do.  Their goodness is known across the face of the earth.  Like the protestors they help, these people who volunteer their time, talent, and treasure in Hong Kong are an inspiration for the world.

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"MEDICAL EVACUEES ARE NOW THE NEW REFUGEES OF CLIMATE CHANGE."

Dr. Stephen Parodi wrote that.  Dr. Parodi is currently an Associate Executive Director at the Permanente Medical Group at Kaiser Permanente.  He wrote this piece that The New York Times published on November 2, 2019:  Stephen Parodi, Can Hospitals Survive the Flames?, NEW YORK TIMES, in print on Saturday, November 2, 2019, p. A27 (posted online November 1, 2019, but The New York Times may charge for online access).

Dr. Parodi has first-hand knowledge on the subject.  In 2017, he was in charge of teams of doctors, nurses, orderlies, and others who evacuated 122 patients away from a California hospital that was about to be engulfed by fire.  A "makeshift firebreak" apparently bought time to evacuate the people.  The next day, the hospital was intact but everything on the other side of the firebreak was burned up.

Doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel are trained to deal with illness, infection, and broken bones.  They are not trained to fight fires, as Dr. Parodi points out.

The new healthcare model is shifting in the face of climate change whether anyone likes it or not.  That includes being prepared to evacuate if you are a patient -- or a physician or a nurse -- in a hospital in  what are now war zones complete with refugees.

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