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Border Crisis Brings More Drugs Into U.S.
Political Editors:
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Senate confirms Esper as new
Secretary of Defense in 90-8 vote
By Ronn Blitzer
{ foxnews.com } ~ The Senate confirmed former Army Lt. Col. Mark Esper as Secretary of Defense Tuesday... making him the first permanent Pentagon boss since James Mattis resigned last December. Esper, who served 10 years on active duty and 11 years in the National Guard and Army Reserve, was Acting Secretary before his nomination, and Patrick Shanahan had been Acting Secretary prior to that. The vote was not close, with the Senate confirming Esper by a vote of 90-8. The no votes included 2020 Democratic presidential candidates scumbag-Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, lowlife-Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth dinky-Warren. dinky-Warren and Esper had a tense exchange during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, when she challenged his refusal to completely recuse himself from any and all matters related to Raytheon, the defense contractor for which he served as a lobbyist before joining the government. Esper said that ethics personnel told him not to fully recuse himself. Earlier in the hearing, he said he was "fully committed to living up to my ethics commitments” and would employ a “robust screening process” and “remain in constant contact with our ethics personnel.” On the day of that hearing, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lauded Esper, calling him "a man of honor and integrity, dedicated to our nation and committed to the men and women who serve in uniform." https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-confirms-esper-as-new-secretary-of-defense-in-90-8-vote .
Giuliani shreds scumbag-de Blasio over videos
of NYPD officers doused with water:
‘He’s a disgrace’
By Ronn Blitzer
{ foxnews.com } ~ Rudy Giuliani pointed the finger squarely at New York City Mayor scumbag-Bill de Blasio after videos surfaced Monday of people attacking NYPD officers by dousing them with water... saying this “would never happen in a million years when I was mayor of New York City.” Footage shows separate incidents of people in Harlem and Brooklyn using buckets to splash and dump water over uniformed officers, as the cops calmly walk away. scumbag-De Blasio condemned the acts as “Completely unacceptable,” and said, “We won’t tolerate this kind of disrespect.” Still, former mayor Giuliani believes the 2020 presidential candidate is part of the problem. “This is what happens with knee-jerk disrespect for police. It will only get worse until these Left wing idiots are defeated," Giuliani tweeted Tuesday morning, saying the current "disrespect for the uniform" is the "result of a Democrat-Progressive Retrogressive-Socialist Mayor." The former mayor had even stronger words Monday night on “The Ingraham Angle,” saying scumbag-de Blasio was “absolutely destroying the quality of life in this city.” Giuliani has criticized the mayor in the past over the increase in homelessness in New York City under scumbag-de Blasio’s administration. Giuliani was known for reducing the number of people living on the streets. “He’s a disgrace, and even Democrats don’t support him and are embarrassed of him,” Giuliani added, perhaps a reference to scumbag-de Blasio’s low poll numbers as he campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination....
3 Things You Need To Know
About ‘Surprise’ Medical Bills
By Christopher Jacobs
{ thefederalist.com } ~ In recent months, lawmakers in Washington have focused on “surprise” medical bills. In large part, this term refers to two types of incidents... 1) individuals who received pre-arranged treatment at an in-network hospital, but saw an out-of-network physician e.g., anesthesiologist during their stay, or 2) individuals who had to seek care at an out-of-network hospital during a medical emergency. In both cases, the out-of-network providers can “balance bill” patients—that is, send them an invoice for the difference between an insurer’s in-network payment and what the physician actually charged. Because these bills can become quite substantial, and because patients do not have a meaningful opportunity to consent to the higher charges—many patients never meet their anesthesiologist until the day of surgery, and few people can investigate hospital networks during an ambulance ride to the ER—policy-makers see reason to intervene. However, the knee-jerk solutions currently under consideration in Congress seem ill-suited to the scope of the problem and could lead to unintended consequences, as many government interventions in health care do. Herewith three important factors to bear in mind during this debate. 1. Few Hospitals Comprise Most of the ‘Surprise’ Incidents. As a chart from The New York Times demonstrates, most hospitals had zero, or close to zero, out-of-network emergency room bills in 2015, according to a study by three Yale University professors: Surprise” bills applied in 22 percent of ER visits, but as a Times reporter noted, they are “not happening to some random set of patients in every hospital. They’re happening to a large percentage of patients in certain hospitals.” The problem of “surprise” bills largely occurs when hospitals decide to outsource their emergency room physicians or anesthesiologists to physician staffing services. Those staffing services see no reason to contract with insurer networks. Because their patients are largely a captive audience and have little ability to decline treatment at the time of service, the staffing services can obtain higher payments by remaining out-of-network and billing patients for the difference after-the-fact. As noted above, most hospitals don’t have this problem, because they keep their ER physicians and other doctors in-network. Unfortunately, however, the one-quarter or so of hospitals that have not forced their physicians in-network have made life difficult for the rest of the hospital sector. The hospital industry should have done a much better job of policing itself and weeded out these “bad actors” years ago. Had they done so, the number of “surprise” bills likely would not have risen to a level where federal lawmakers demand action. However, the fact that these incidents still only occur in a minority of hospitals suggests reason for continued caution—because why should Congress impose a far-reaching solution to a “problem” that doesn’t affect most hospitals? 2. The Federal Government Has Little Reason to Intervene 3. Some Republicans Support Socialistic Price Controls A Spoonful of Socialism, Anyone?.
European Union: A Massive Expansion
of Top-down Powers
by Soeren Kern
{ gatestoneinstitute.org } ~ Former German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has been narrowly confirmed as the next President of the European Commission... the powerful administrative arm of the European Union. In a secret ballot in the European Parliament on July 16, von der Leyen, a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, received 383 votes, only nine more than the 374 required — the lowest margin since the position of President was established in 1958. She will take over from Jean-Claude Junker in November 2019 for a five-year term. Before the vote, von der Leyen promised an ambitious left-leaning policy program on climate change, taxes, migration and the rule of law. Many of her pledges — which would require transferring yet more national sovereignty to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels — appeared aimed at enticing support for her candidacy from Greens and Socialists in the European Parliament. In the final vote, however, the Socialists were divided in their support for von der Leyen and the Greens formally opposed her. Interestingly, von der Leyen won with the support of eurosceptics in Central and Eastern Europe after she publicly criticized the way the EU has treated them due to their opposition to mass migration. In the past, von der Leyen has called for the creation of a European superstate: "My aim is the United States of Europe on the model of federal states such as Switzerland, Germany or the United States," she said in an August 2011 interview with the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. More recently, however, she appeared to scale back her ambitions: she said that her dream of a federalized EU had become "more mature and more realistic." In comments apparently aimed at appeasing Central and Eastern Europe, she added: "In the European Union, there is unity in diversity. That is different from federalism. I think that is the right way."....
Stupid Politically Correct Decisions
from Our Public Schools
By John Kinsellagh
{ americanthinker.com } ~ There has been a concerted attempt over the past several years by progressive teachers and school administrators to unilaterally make decisions about eradicating vestiges of our culture, because they alone have determined that these symbols or icons of the past may be offensive to others...This disconcerting practice by progressive vanguards has become more prevalent and absurd, the latest example manifested in sicko-Colin Kaepernick's suddenly taking offense at Nike's use of a Betsy Ross colonial flag emblem on one of its shoe models. Recently, the San Francisco School Board voted to remove a mural of George Washington at one of its public schools because they divined it racist and degrading for its depiction of black Americans and American Indians. The rationale offered for the mural's removal is instructive, as it reveals not only the pernicious nature of the identity politics underpinnings of modern-day progressivism, but also the inevitable censorship practices that logically flow from a philosophy that views America as an irredeemably racist country. Here is the justification offered by vice president of the school board and third-grade teacher Mark Sanchez for ridding the school of the image of the nation's founding father, without consulting the student body, parents, or other members of the community. Sanchez claimed that students who must walk past the mural during the school day don't have a choice about seeing the harmful images. "Painting it over represents not only a symbolic fresh start, but a real fresh start," he said. A question arises: how many students told Sanchez the image of George Washington that has adorned the school for 83 years was harmful? In a progressive world, the question answers itself: there is no need to demonstrate any actual harm sustained by any students. For identity-politics progressives, all that is needed for the whimsical exercise of their notion of social justice is the mere likelihood — however remote — that the historical image could cause harm, if not in the present, then in the indeterminate future or, perhaps, for students not yet born. For Sanchez, "the starting point has to be from those who feel they are harmed and how that is unacceptable, especially given the history of this country. When we don't listen, we don't learn." If only one student is offended by the image, for progressives, that is a sufficient reason to spend $600,000 of the taxpayers' money to remedy the injury by extirpating the historical image of George Washington. Other instances of this type of monumental progressive silliness abound....
Border Crisis Brings More Drugs Into U.S.
Political Editors: One of the consequences of the political fight over the border crisis has been a significant increase of illicit drugs pouring into the country. With Border Patrol agents swamped in their efforts to contain and process the massive numbers of migrants illegally crossing the U.S. southern border, the drug cartels have taken advantage.
The Washington Examiner reports, “Border Patrol highway checkpoints in the southern New Mexico region that normally seize seven figures worth of drugs annually have not seized a dollar in nearly four months after being shuttered in late March, allowing drugs to flood into the country. Meantime, with the added supply, prices for illicit drugs are dropping precipitously.”
The Examiner further reports, “Officials have also noted upticks in methamphetamine and fentanyl seizures since March. [Otero County, New Mexico, Sheriff David] Black said the cost of a pound of meth has been slashed in half since then, from $4,700 when the checkpoints first closed to $2,500 by late June. The price dropped because the market is saturated.”
Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin explained, “With our checkpoints being closed down, there’s no secondary measure of defense, and [drug traffickers] got a green light to take drugs right into the heart of America.” Police officials noted that fewer seizures generally mean that more drugs are coming in. And the impact of increasing amounts of illicit drugs in the U.S. leads to increased rates of crime, drug addiction, and homelessness.
But hey, open borders — what could go wrong? ~The Patriot Post
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