Claims And Issues

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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Download CI 12.04.19.

 

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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Download NO COSTS NO EVIDENCE NO REASONS. COMMENTS TO PROPOSED SNAP RULE HCSUA REVISIONS. 12.01.19.

"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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Download CI 11.11.19.

 

BURY THE WIRES, STOP THE FIRES.

PG&E, the California utility company, is swiftly imposing third-world status on what was previously one of the world's leading economies.  See Douglas MacMillan and Faiz Siddiqui, PG&E's Role in Sonoma Fire Questioned as Power Outage Frustrations Grow, WASHINGTON POST posted online on Tuesday, October 29, 2019.  PG&E's policy of what we in Florida would call "rolling blackouts," meaning cut off the electricity for hours every so often, has apparently resulted in billions of dollars in damages to people and businesses in California.  It has disrupted lives in ways that people living there could not previously imagine.  They live without air conditioning in the heat, unable to close up their buildings to stop the smoke from getting in and choking their breathing and endangering their lives if God help them they have conditions like asthma.  They have no telephone service and no cell phones and all the batteries run out of power during these blackouts.  When they have no telephone service, they obviously cannot contact anyone else by telephone.   They cannot even telephone for emergency assistance when they have no telephone service.  So far.  More to come.

Some third-world countries could do better.

PG&E says that it is doing this because it is afraid that its overhead wires may cause more fires if they come down especially if the wires cannot stand up to the fierce California winds at this time of year.

So bury the wires and stop the fires.  PG&E's conduct in this affair is the greatest single advertisement for working on the infrastructure of this country.   Start by burying the wires that cause the fires.

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Download CI 10.30.19.

 

THEN? HESBURGH, JFK. BARR? NONE.

 

Then?  Hesburgh, JFK:

 

        President John F. Kennedy receives Notre Dame's Laetare Medal at the White House from

        University President Theodore M. Hesburgh.

 

Since then?

Barr?  None.

See the related articles previously posted here on October 23 and on October 27, 2019.  Please Read The Disclaimer. ©2019 Dennis J. Wall.  All Rights Reserved.

Download CI 10.28.19.

"THIS IS NOT DECAY. THIS IS ORGANIZED DESTRUCTION."

Attorney General William Barr speaking at Notre Dame Law School on Friday, October 11, 2019.  Quoted by Pema Levy, Attorney General Barr Rages Against Secularist "Assault" on Religion, MOTHER JONES MAGAZINE, posted online Saturday, October 12, 2019.  Mr. Barr addressed what he apparently thought was a real problem, the way religion is treated in this country.  He blames the problem on what he called "secularists" and "so-called progressives."

There have been a few other problems that are actually real, which could have been addressed but which were not addressed, yet ought to be addressed.

                                        (Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters)

Yes, wait a second.  This is not decay.  This is organized destruction.

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Download CI 10.27.19.

THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF FLORIDA HOSPITAL: NOW AdventHealth.

Florida Hospital is known now as AdventHealth, but a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

It is reported that FloridaHospital/AdventHealth made a contract with a lawyer who used to frequently be appointed as a Guardian.  A Guardian makes some important decisions for some patients on the theory that the patients cannot make those decisions for themselves.  The decisions include life and death.  A Guardian can make end-of-life decisions in Florida, as in many States. 

The contract that FloridaHospital/AdventHealth made with this particular Guardian apparently involved referring patients to the Guardian who became the Guardian's clients.  In at least one case, the Guardian superseded the client-patient's own choice of Health-Care Surrogate -- the patient's daughter.  In return, the hospital got the patient "out the door."  See Monivette Cordeiro, Experts:  Hospital, Guardian Pact Odd / AdventHealth's $4M Deal Unheard of by Some in Health Care, ORLANDO SENTINEL, Sunday, October 20, 2019, p. A1, posted online on Wednesday, October 16, 2019.

FloridaHospital/AdventHealth paid this particular Guardian $4 Million over the past decade for her services.  Id.

Here is how things can work with a Guardian, and how they worked with this particular arrangement featured in the newspaper report.  It was an attorney for the hospital that convinced a judge to appoint the Guardian in the first place.  Once appointed, the Guardian moved the patient out of the hospital.  Once the patient was moved out of the hospital, the hospital no longer had to care for him and had a bed available.  Once a bed was available, a potentially paying patient could be admitted for hospital care.

And the original client-patient in the story?  He died.  This particular Guardian's story does not end there.  Her story began there, as it turns out.  The death of this particular client-patient led to "allegations that [this particular Guardian] routinely abused 'do not resuscitate' orders, sparking a scandal that has embroiled the state's guardianship system."  Id.

Who knows where fault lies and who acted rightly in this story, if anyone?  But this much is clear:  Be careful who you make deals with, and what deals you make.

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Download CI 10.21.19.

IF YOU LIE DOWN WITH DOGS, YOU GET UP WITH ....

FLEAS.  Sometimes the costs of doing business are well, costly.

Many large U.S. corporations have struck up business deals in Communist China.  Not surprisingly, the Chinese Communist Party, which controls the Chinese Government, insists on a few things from these businesses in exchange for access to the lucrative Chinese market.

From Apple the Chinese Government reportedly wanted an app deleted that helped protestors in Hong Kong protest against rule by Chinese Communists.  Apple deleted the app.

From the National Basketball Association the Chinese Government wanted a message deleted from Twitter, for starters.  For starters, the NBA deleted the offending tweet, which called for freedom in Hong Kong essentially.  Later reports are murky about how far the NBA is going to pacify the Chinese about this.

These are just a few of their favorite things, as the song goes.  The broad outlines of the whole story are outlined in the New York Times by Jack Nicas in After China Objects, Apple Removes App Hong Kong Protestors Use to Track Police, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, October 11, 2019, p. B1 (online here; the New York Times often charges for online access).  See also Javier Hernandez, Police-Tracking App Spurs China Media to Denounce Apple, NEW YORK TIMES, Thursday, October 10, 2019, p. B3 (posted online with the headline and subheadline, Chinese Media’s Attacks on Apple and N.B.A. Help Inflame Nationalism / Outlets are trying to intimidate multinational companies into toeing the party line while Beijing tries to rein in the Hong Kong protests; don't forget:  the New York Times may charge you for online access);  

If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.  

 

Download CI 10.14.19.

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PROPAGANDA IN AMERICA TODAY.

American media outlets, particularly the large corporate media outlets, are microphones for niche sites broadcasting propaganda.  Small-time propaganda sites are enabled to reach a much larger audience than they commanded with their original bit of propaganda, by being re-published or re-broadcast in the mainstream media.

The propaganda sites know this very well, and they care about it very much.  The corporate media knows this very well also, but they don't care about it at all if it sells advertising.

We have the latest tiresome example of propaganda-rebroadcast-by-media in a story about a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president.  That fact alone tells you from the beginning who is responsible for this propaganda.  It's not the Democratic candidate for president, that's the first clue.

The candidate is Senator Elizabeth Warren.  She has told an anecdote on the campaign trail about how she lost a teaching job.  She lost it when she became visibly pregnant and could no longer hide her pregnancy.  When that happened, her principal told her to go.

Recall from the beginning of this story that being fired for being pregnant was and still is a common thing for employed women.

In response, someone wrote a piece on a website claiming to have accessed the school board's records that the school board actually renewed Ms. Warren's teaching contract.

The corporate media ate it up.  Apparently without spending any money on reporters' salaries or on emails or telephone calls to the school board to check it out, the corporate media effectively spread this propaganda "as is," in print and online.  They reprinted and republished this propaganda so much that Warren eventually had no choice but to respond to it.

Here's what happened.  The school board did in fact renew Warren's teaching contract.  That was before the school found out that she was pregnant.  When they found out that she was pregnant, that was when they told her that she had to go, she no longer had a job.  Which is what Warren said in the first place.

Being fired for being pregnant comes as no surprise to employed women in this country.  Remember what I said at the beginning?  The propaganda machine remembers it.  Denying truth is essential to propaganda especially when you don't look too closely at it.

It is not really a wonder that things are as they are.  But things like propaganda-rebroadcast-by-corporate-media are just beginning to change now, and for the better.

It's about time.

For the whole story of the latest smear, see Thomas Kaplan, Warren Details Account of Losing Teaching Job Because of a Pregnancy, NEW YORK TIMES, Wednesday, October 9, 2019, p. A20 (online here; the New York Times may charge you for online access -- they've got to get their revenue you know, but we won't charge you anything for our own article that you have just read).

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ALL THE BEST PEOPLE.

When you use your power to snatch babies away from their mothers and fathers, it is not a long way for you to use power for other things.

So long as you have the power and they do not. One of these best people allegedly forced another of these best people to have intercourse, or "committed sexual assault," behind closed doors in a motel room. They both used to work for the Border Patrol.

Oh, wait, I said "allegedly." Add that a grand jury indicted the perp on criminal charges.

Oh, and that he resigned from the Border Patrol.  Parenthetically, his wife of 20 years -- not the victim of this indicted "sexual assault" -- is a Senior Agent there.

And his Criminal Court hearing is next.

All the best people. And this is not unusual for them. See Senior Border Patrol Agent Faces Charges of Sexually Assaulting Colleague / The assault accusation is at the center of a #MeToo moment for the nation’s border-security force, by Manny Fernandez and Mitchell Ferman, published in The New York Times, posted online Saturday, October 5, 2019 (the New York Times may charge for online access).

Power corrupts. Not an original idea. But a true one.

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'But They ARE SO Your Children Too, Mr. Potter.'

Is the movie "It's A Wonderful LIfe" turning into a documentary?

Do you know where the children are?  If not, why not?

See Girl's Disappearance Grips Migrant Town, by Christina Goldbaum, THE NEW YORK TIMES, Tuesday, October 1, 2019, p. A20.  (Try online here; The New York Times may charge for online access.  The "Migrant Town" of the headline here is Bridgeton, New Jersey.)

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Download CI 10.02.19.

 

 

IS IT TIME FOR "WAG THE DOG" NOW?

The conditions seem to be coming together now for a distracting kind of war.

First, "Qaeda Branch in Syria Poses Threat, U.S. Says," reported by Eric Schmitt in The New York Times, Monday, September 30, 2019, p. A7 (the New York Times may charge for online access).  This information reportedly comes from the current State Department run by Mr. Mike Pompeo.  That would be the same State Department in the same federal government that claims that ISIS was totally defeated in Syria.  Apparently, even though ISIS has been "defeated," Al Qaeda is now a threat, they say.

Second, "Trump's Next Top General Is Combat Tested and Skilled in Banter," reported by Helene Cooper in The New York Times, Monday, September 30, 2019, p. A 14 (again, the New York Times may charge for online access).  The incoming Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is an Army General, Mr. Mark Milley.  He will replace a Marine appointed by President Obama and he is the current regime's favored choice over an Air Force General recommended by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.  Many people say that Mr. Milley got the head military job "because he cozied up to President Trump," the New York Times reported in the linked article, which ends with this quote:

For military leaders, operating in a political environment will push you to the limit, and you've got to be prepared to say, "I'm not going there."

Quoting Admiral Mike Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

 

The conditions seem to be coming together now.   "We'll see."

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RADIO SILENCE: INSURANCE AGAINST ACCOUNTABILITY.

Kenneth T. "Cooch" Cuccinelli II, or junior, is the latest Acting head of U.S. Customs and Immigration Services.  A couple of months ago, USCIS sent letters to people in the United States who had been given permission to be here to receive medical treatment that will save their lives.  The program that kept them alive is called the medically necessary deferred action program.

The letter which was issued by the USCIS on Mr. Cuccinelli's watch  -- without his signature on it -- told the patients to leave the United States or they would be deported.  The previously unannounced change was met with a firestorm of justified criticism.  Supposedly the USCIS is against the change now and will keep the medically necessary deferred action program alive.  See Miriam Jordan, Deferred Action For Immigrants Set to Resume, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, September 20, 2019, p. A20.  (The online link is here; be warned that the New York Times may charge for online access.)

Mr. Cuccinelli did not put his name to the announcements that supposedly reversed the USCIS's position to terminate the program.

As noted, Mr. Cuccinelli did not sign the earlier letter to the patients who would die without the medical treatment that is only offered in the United States.  That is the letter that reversed the medically necessary deferred action program in the first place.  As well as terminating the chances of the patients to live.  See "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES."  Rebecca Solnit, posted here on September 8, 2019.

You may recall this guy.  He is the one who has never had any problem speaking in public.  For example, he publicly re-interpreted the poem inscribed at the base of the Statute of Liberty. He is used to speaking in public, in fact, he seeks out opportunities to speak in public.  He did a lot of public speaking when he recently ran for Governor of Virginia, and lost.   He is nowhere to be found on this issue.

Yet his fingerprints are all over it.

Moreover, he is the head of the USCIS that did all these things.  Maybe he is only the Acting head, but at the moment he is the only head.  These things all happened on his watch, not on somebody else's watch.  He owns this issue whether he likes it or not.

Radio Silence:  Insurance Against Accountability?

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DEMOCRATS, WE GAVE YOU THE HOUSE MAJORITY FOR A REASON!

AND THIS ISN'T IT.

Calls surface this week for impeachment of Brett Kavanaugh.

Okay, maybe you are not in favor of impeachment yourself, but how about an investigation at least? In case you don't remember, we haven't had one of those yet.

There were calls earlier for impeachment of other people. Including Bill Barr. Nothing happening with that, either. Not even an investigation. To say again, we haven't had one of those yet.

You know, you can't keep saying you want to impeach people and then do absolutely nothing about it.

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler says that he's too busy to even think about Brett Kavanaugh this year, in particular. He was for it before he was against it, though. A year ago he vowed to conduct a full-scale investigation of Brett Kavanaugh if the voters elected a House Majority of Democrats. This year, he's changed his mind. He's not the only House Democrat who does not act or want to act. See Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Allegation Reopens the Debate Over Kavanaugh / New Questions Emerge About F.B.I. Review, NEW YORK TIMES, Tuesday, September 17, 2019, p. A1 (the Nadler interview appears in the last four paragraphs at the end of the story, buried on page A18 of the print edition). Online here (the New York Times may charge for online access).

We gave you a House Majority, Democrats, so that you could check these people. What you are not doing is not why we elected you. We could have voted for the other party and gotten the result we're getting now. You might as well not be there.   Actually anything would be better than the job you're not doing.

Some other people could do a better job.   Wait, there's an idea.

Download CI 09.18.19.

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DEMOCRACY DIED TUESDAY OF A GERRYMANDER.

The pundits are out in force over the results of the special election in a Congressional district in North Carolina. The Republican won by 2 percentage points on Tuesday over a Democrat who, last time he ran, lost by only 0.4 percentage points.

I see that the Congressional district is apparently still gerrymandered. Wait, it is more than apparently still gerrymandered. It is gerrymandered.

I thought I would mention this.

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IT'S 911. DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?

Where are the children taken from their families by the current regime at the southern border? They say they cannot find the children that they took.

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP.

The current regime and the truth have not begun a beautiful friendship, to put it mildly. So, check the foster homes, the orphanages, and every other place where the children may face forced adoption.

Stranger things have happened.

Heck, stranger things happen every day now.

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