NO! to Trump healthcare Trump healthcare Far worse than Predecessor’s plan

IF CONGRESS PASSES what President Trump will call “his” healthcare plan, America will not be “great again.”

Assuming that even a small part of what the media tells us about the “Trump plan” is accurate, we will have been hoodwinked, misled, and flim-flamed by Trump & Company.

That’s hard for me to write. I voted for Trump. I disliked Obamacare — as much because of the way President Sneaky got the act passed as much as for the many ways the act failed Americans.

The only good thing to be said for the Trump plan is that the disaster before our eyes; unlike the Obama plan development.

President Sneaky robbed Medicare and Social Security, but according to the media — admittedly leftist with an anti-Trump agenda — Trump’s plan will not only continue to rob the sacrosanct Medicare and Social Security funds but will penalize the people who are old enough to benefit from them.

Truth in blogging: I paid into, and now am benefitting from both plans.

To be honest, this scrivener is sorely disappointed in the new president, so much so that I’m not confident the country can withstand four years of his bluster, kneejerk tweets, and abuse of the “bully pulpit.”

We thought Trump would put Washington on a businesslike footing. Instead, he appears to be using the office to make Trump great again — the nation suffers while Trump tweets. (Is there a similarity between Trump’s tweets and Nero’s fiddling?)

It looked good in the beginning. He got (bullied if you are anti-Trump) several major corporations to bring back jobs they previously sent across the border and he convinced Boeing that a new Air Force One was simply too expensive.

With that he “shot his wad.” (No that is not a vulgar expression; go look it up.)

While Obungler often wasted taxpayer money on his vacations and vacations for his wife and daughters, spendthrift Trump uses AF1 to commute every week from D.C. — admittedly a nice place to be from — to Palm Beach where the weather almost always is better. He said he was not taking a salary as president, but he is racking up expenses faster than his predecessor. Better to pay him the presidential salary and restrict his plane use. (According to Wikipedia,

Since 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.

I am not sure “earned” is the correct term, but that’s what Wikipedia shows. Come on, Mr. President, use an executive jet; you don’t need to being the entire cabinet with you on every weekend jaunt.)

It seems that so far, Trump has reneged, or watered down, on most of his campaign promises. He is starting to make Obama look good. (This is not to suggest that Mrs. Clinton would be better than Trump.)

He came into office promising to replace Obamacare with a better plan. The plan before the House is a disaster for the American people. We need some degree of national health care and most certainly Obamacare left a great deal to be desired, but the “Trump plan” is worse than Obamacare.

Why the rush to replace Obamacare? It was a campaign promise, but there was — to the best of my knowledge — no time frame. Take a year and get it right; taking less than 100 days to get it wrong is not going to bring honor to the Trump name or the GOP-dominated congress.

Stop with the bullying tweets, start keeping the campaign promises, and develop a replacement plan for Obamacare that improves upon the plan.

Unless things drastically change, my first vote for Trump will be my last vote for Trump.

America survived eight   l-o-n-g  years of Obama; unless things change and change soon, I wonder if American can survive even four years of Donald Trump. Do I hear mutterings of impeachment?

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Opuscula United Healthcare Information outdated, & not customer friendly

I am a geezer (and proud of it). My Spouse is not (she was a child bride).

We both have United Healthcare coverage; mine is a Medicare Advantage plan.

Back when I was young my employer had AvMed for the troops. It was a pretty good insurance so when it came to selecting Medicare coverage I signed up with AvMed Advantage Medicare.

I stayed with AvMed for several years. I had an excellent diagnostician as my PCP — I credit him and a vascular surgeon for keeping me alive — but one day I was notified that AvMed had dropped my PCP’s practice. Turns out AvMed does that a lot. Patients are not privy to the “why” that AvMed dropped a practitioner, just that the practitioner no longer has a contract with AvMed.

There are those who might suggest that a PCP who refers too many patients to (expensive-to-the insurer) specialists won’t be invited to sign a new contract with the insurance company. For my part, I suspect AvMed dropped my PCP’s practice due to a totally confused front office.)

In any event, since AvMed quit my PCP, I quit AvMed and signed up with Humana. That was the longest (insurance) year of my life.

Humana PCPs are “capitated.” Basically, that means while the Humana list of specialists is l-o-n-g, the PCP’s list of specialists to whom the PCP can refer is substantially shorter. Over the course of the year I had FOUR different Humana PCPs; of the four, I would recommend only one.

The following year I was back with AvMed. That next year it raised a Tier 2 prescription to Tier 4 — a major increase in my copay. But, there was a Tier 2 alternative that actually worked better for me.

The following year, AvMed AGAIN raised my Tier 2 medication to Tier 4; AvMed’s copay was HIGHER THAN my pharmacy’s retail price — ok, only by 5¢, but . . .

This year I am with one of the many United Health Care (UHC) Medicare plans. I has some benefits AvMed never offered: pretty good dental plan vs. AvMed’s pretty useless dental plan; monthly OTC allowance, and with my particular UHC plan my PCP — the only good one I had with Humana — can refer me to any UHC specialist on the plan’s list . . . but with this plan I don’t need PCP referrals. (I agree with AvMed that patients should coordinate specialist visits with the PCP so that all patient information is centralized.)

What AvMed provided that no other company provided is a contact person. If I had a question or complaint, I could contact that person via email or phone. I almost always got a quick, accurate response.

My Spouse has a “regular” UHC plan through her employer. It seems every year she has a new insurance plan as the employer tries to get the biggest bang for both its, and the employees’. dollars.

She recently broke her ankle.

She was taken by ambulance to the local hospital where an ER doctor aligned the bones and introduced her to a passing orthopedic surgeon. The surgeon planned to set the bones in about 10 days.

The absolute nightmare of getting the PCP’s office to create a referral is another story for another time. Suffice it to write that my Spouse was playing telephone ping-pong for days.

The surgeon needed authorization from UHC.

Surgery was slated for Thursday. By Wednesday afternoon, UHC still failed to provide the authorization, an authorization the surgeon had requested more than a week earlier.

UHC FINALLY sent an authorization after the surgeon’s normal working hours; it was discovered Thursday morning and my Spouse was told to show up at the hospital Thursday afternoon.

Today she had some pins removed from her ankle and was given:

   A prescription for a Cam Boot that will help her with balance until she can put weight on the leg

   A prescription for physical therapy.

We took the cam boot script to our local pharmacy and were told that the item is in stock ($80-plus), but that UHC insurance was not honored there,

Back at the house, the Spouse called UHC and after the usual automated answer aggravations she finally talked to someone who gave her the names of several stores within 20 miles of the house. Two of the stores were not interested in doing business with UHC.

“Sometimes businesses drop out and don’t tell us,” a UHC customer rep told the Spouse.

Same thing when she had to call yet another number to get the names or physical therapists. Of six names provided by UHC, two only did PT with children and a third didn’t accept UHC, Several calls later the Spouse found a location that was actually close to the house (within 5 miles), that worked with adults, AND that accepted UHC.

Having found everything I ever needed with AvMed at the AvMed Medicare site, avmed.org, I went to www.myuhc.com to see if any PT or medical supply companies were listed on the UHC site.

Unlike AvMed, “myuhc” keeps such information secret. I tried to create an account for the Spouse, but the UHC site prevented completion; if the information was available to registered-online members, I could not get to it.

All in all it took the Spouse — who prefers the phone to the Internet (where the information is not accessible anyway) only about three hours of phone time to finally — to maybe — get the information she needs.

AvMed was hardly a perfect plan, but at least insureds could get to a CSR via email and most information WAS available on the web. If only it didn’t try to charge me a copay higher than the retail price I might have stayed. True, I had to get referrals to see a specialist, but that never was a problem, and all the specialists on the AvMed list were accessible to me.

As it happens, my current PCP works with AvMed and UHC — and Humana and how many others I don’t know. His office isn’t perfect — there apparently is another patient with the same name as this scrivener and a birthday only 5 days prior to mine so the staff needs to be educated to check all the patient information before filing patient data into the folders. (That’s scary.)

There IS much to be said for UHC’s Medicare plan — some good and some not so good. Communication with its insureds is one of those “not so good” items.

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Opuscula Killer of girlfriend And Orlando cop Won’t face needle?

ORLANDO, Fla. — Orlando police chief John Mina says he is "furious" that State Attorney Aramis Ayala will not seek the death penalty for accused cop killer Markeith Loyd, according to Orlando tv station WESH.

Loyd is accused of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon, and Orlando Police Lt. Debra Clayton.

The death penalty was ruled out by State Attorney Aramis Ayala.

Orlando's WFTV reports that State Attorney Aramis Ayala won't pursue the death penalty against murder suspect Markeith Loyd or in any other cases, she said Thursday morning during a news conference about her decision.

Ayala said she reached her decision after reading research that indicated that the death penalty has no public safety benefit.

"I have given this a lot of thought, and it's become clear that pursuing death-penalty cases is not the best interest of victims' families or justice," she said.

At the same time, Rhetta Hussein, writing for the Black Politico editorializes that According to the aerial view of Loyd’s capture, the suspect crawled out to the officers, surrendered and ‘cowered like a little girl.’

During Loyd’s perp walk, he shouted, “They beat me up. They beat me up. They beat me up.”

Newly elected State Attorney Aramis Ayala, who ran as a candidate funded by George Soros, the financier of the Black Lives Matter movement, can’t seem to find sufficient evidence to charge any of the Officers with excessive force in this case. Not only that, at this time, she’s not even investigating excessive force against Loyd. Read the previous paragraph again. Does that even make any sense? The answer is no.

WFTV reported on the afternoon of March 16 that Florida Gov. Rick Scott was “outraged” over Ayala’s taking the death penalty off the table and called for Ayala to recuse herself from the case. When she refused, Scott removed her from the Loyd case and appointed State Attorney Brad King.

“Let’s remember, Markeith Loyd is accused of executing a brave law enforcement hero and murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon. Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Norman Lewis was also killed while actively searching for Markeith Loyd following these heinous murders. I am outraged and sickened by this loss of life, and many families’ lives have been forever changed because of these senseless murders. These families deserve a state attorney who will aggressively prosecute Markeith Loyd to the fullest extent of the law, and justice must be served.”

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said: "State Attorney Aramis Ayala’s decision today sends a dangerous message to residents and visitors of the greater Orlando area. Furthermore, it is a blatant neglect of duty and a shameful failure to follow the law as a constitutionally elected officer.”

Brief background

Ayala is a graduate of the University of Central Florida Central Florida. She apparently got her law degree from University of Detroit Mercy. She also lists the University of Michigan on her resume. Her on-line credentials provide no further educational experience.

In an interview with the alternative media Orlando Advocate, Ayala listed her job history as follows:

Polk County (FL) State Attorney’s Office: 2 1/2 years

As a prosecutor she once experienced a member of law enforcement lie on the witness stand, and it disillusioned her.

Assistant Public Defender in Orange County: 2 1/2 years

Professor at FAMU School of Law, Orlando FL

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Ayala's husband, David, served seven years in prison on drug conspiracy and counterfeiting charges before they met.

Her husband now works as a business account manager for a phone company and has an associate's degree. They have two daughters together — Aliyah and Alanah.

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Related article

Markeith Loyd: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Opuscula Obama appointee Ignorant of political Customs, traditions

THINGS APPARENTLY WERE DIFFERENT UNDER PRESIDENT TRUMP’S predecessor.

Tradition — and custom — demand that ALL political appointees tender their resignations when a new chief executive takes office. That holds true even in some corporations.

It is the chief executive’s PRIVILEDGE to accept or reject the resignation.

BUT, — ADDING FUEL TO “THE MEDIA LIES” FIRE — the blatantly anti-Trump “reporters” (and their editors) apparently are either ignorant of U.S. customs and traditions or too lazy to review government history.

Breitbart's web site -- and I'm sure most media archives -- reminded those who think with a headline reading Politico 2009: Obama to ‘Replace’ Bush U.S. Attorneys/Politico 2017: Trump to ‘Oust’ Obama Appointees. Breitbart may be in Trump's "pocket," but it is one of the few voices that offers "the other side of the political coin." If Breitbart’s people could find the Politico material, why not the leftest media?

People who fail to offer their resignation and who apparently consider themselves replaceable are, in some circles, are fired.

That’s what happened to Preet Bharara.

According to ABCnews

The most prominent U.S. attorney in the nation, Preet Bharara, announced Saturday that he was "fired" after he did not resign.

A network writer for tv “news” softened the “most prominent U.S. attorney” opinion to “one of America’s top federal prosecutors.” In neither case did ABC “news” offer attribution, a reporter’s Second Rule (the first being to spell — or pronounce — the person’s name correctly).

Time magazine named Bharara as one of the 100 "most influential" people in America; Beyonce is on the main cover, but Robert Redford, the openly-gay NBA player Jason Collins, and GM’s CEO Mary Abrra are on alternate covers. Miley Cyrus and Pharrell also made the list.

The Hill reports that Bharara was one of 46 U.S. attorneys that lacked political common courtesy and failed to offer their resignations.

The Hill article continues, noting

U.S. attorneys are normally replaced at the beginning of new administrations, and Sessions on Friday asked 46 federal prosecutors appointed by former President Barack Obama to submit their resignations.

But the decision to ask for Bharara's resignation came as a surprise, as he reportedly met with Trump after the election and agreed to remain in his position after Trump took office. Sessions had also asked him to stay, Bharara told The New York Times.

Multiple reports indicated that Bharara was refusing to resign. The Daily Beast reported late Friday that Bharara had told his section chiefs that he’d yet to submit the requested letter and may instead challenge Sessions to fire him.

What the Hill failed to note that it also is customary for some political appointees to be asked to temporarily stay on until a replacement can be named and get up to speed. Apparently, after meetings with the president and the attorney general Bharara had a (mis)understanding of his role in the Trump administration.

In the same article, Sen. Chas. Schumer (D-N.Y.) heralded Bharara as an "exemplary U.S. attorney. His relentless drive to root out public corruption, lock up terrorists, take on Wall Street, and stand up for what is right should serve as a model for all U.S. attorneys across the country. He will be sorely missed,"

While Bharara built a reputation in New York by going after big banks and Wall Street, his office also was working through an investigation of New York City Mayor Democrat Bill de Blasio and was slated to start the trials of two close allies to New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo, according to The Hill.

It may be difficult for Trump opponents to claim Bharara was "fired" for going after banks and Wall Street.

U.S. attorneys may be legal scholars, but the real work is done by the office’s staff of attorneys and assistants. Life goes on in a U.S. attorney’s office just as it does when an ambassador is replaced — the rank and file keep things operating.

Apparently one more victim of the previous administration is tradition. It was OK for Trump’s predecessor to “fire” Bush appointees.

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Trump & hate crimes What can Washington Do against hate crimes?

ACCORDING TO THE MEDIA, the U.S. senate is demanding that the president of the U.S. do “something” to end the anti-Semitism running rampant in America.

In fact, 100 senators sent identical letters not to the president but to
Attorney General Jeff Sessions,
FBI Director James Comey and
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

Excerpt from the senate’s letter:

"We are concerned that the number of incidents is accelerating and failure to address and deter these threats will place innocent people at risk."

It is sadly unfortunate that the senators focused solely on anti-Semitic hate crimes —logical since they are the “hate crime du jour” — when others also are hate crime victims as well.

Hate crimes — America’s disgrace

GRANTED, “hate crimes,” which the bomb threats and vandalism of Jewish-owned property most assuredly are, have been elevated to a federal crime.

In truth, the crimes should be handled by local jurisdictions with help from the federal agencies — just as was done with the rash of school bombing threats allegedly made by a spurned lover.

Bomb threats are nothing new; the only thing different between today and yesteryear is that the fools calling in the threats have free long distance dialing plans so they can (a) get a number off the Internet and (b) make a toll - free call to a victim across the country, ergo the need for federal agency assistance.

Knocking over headstones, however, is another matter.

That IS a local crime that is best handled by local law enforcement. If the locals cannot apprehend the criminals — the vandals are from out of town and disappeared immediately after committing the crime — then state and federal agencies may be involved. But does the president have to authorize such involvement? Not likely.

Regardless of the TYPE hate crime, what do people want of the federal government? Shall the National Guard be federalized to post sentries at cemeteries?

I am at a loss. What do these people want the federal government to do?

Since, as a policeman told me, cops are too few to be everywhere, perhaps we need to pay more attention to our schools, cemeteries, places of worship, and neighborhoods. Cell phones are good “weapons”: take a photo and call 9-1-1, but do NOT confront the vandal.

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Opuscula Trump doesn’t Ban Muslims From America

IF PRESIDENT TRUMP WANTED TO BAN MUSLIMS from entering the U.S., his executive order would have listed 52 Muslim-dominated countries and not just six. (See table at end of blog entry.)

If the president wanted to ban Muslims from nations whose citizens have financed or committed acts of terrorism on U.S. citizens, he should focus on

Saudi Arabia (financing terror)

Morocco (pilots of 9-11 planes))

in addition to the counties he specified in the executive order.

The media and the leftists are wringing their hands, “woe is me’ing,” and hitting the streets with signs claiming that the president is banning ALL Muslims from entering the U.S.

As with most things that aggravate the leftists, this is a half truth — indeed, only 6/52nds of the truth. Of the 52 – fifty-two — Muslim majority countries around the globe, only 6 — six — are mentioned in the executive order. Let’s see:52 minus 6 = 46
Muslim-dominated countries whose citizens are NOT banned from entering the U.S.

And that doesn’t include other countries where Muslims make up a sizeable percentage of the population — including Israel where Muslims make up more than 14% of the total population.

Obviously — for anyone who can, and is willing, to think and do minimal research — Trump’s executive order is NOT about Muslims; it is about all citizens of only six — count’em, 6: Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — countries that are famous for terrorism.

It IS interesting that Trump failed to ban immigrants from Morocco and Saudi Arabia, the latter if anyone remembers the photo, the place where the ex-president groveled before the nation’s king. He also might have considered banning residents of “Palestine” since they have an ongoing record of murdering civilians — including the elderly and infants — for the terrible crime of living in, or just visiting, Israel.

Aljazeera , under a headline reading Trump signs new 'Muslim ban' on six countries reminds that Under the Republican president's order announced on Monday, a 90-day ban on travel to the US will be imposed on citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen.

Aljazeera also notes that travelers holding valid visas issued prior to the order and green card holders will be allowed into the U.S.

THE MISSING LINK

The U.S. has a notoriously weak vetting process, and an equally weak visa and passport check process (albeit the passport checks are getting better). Any terrorist with designs on disrupting life in the U.S. and a few Saudi Arabian riyals can buy phony documents — a passport from an allowed country and, if necessary, a visa — from expert forgers. Getting on a U.S.-bound aircraft with that phony ID avoids any inconvenience of a “no fly” restriction.

During the ex-president’s lame duck days he promised to tighten vetting of people from more than six Muslim-dominated countries and, indeed, banned immigration and visitors from those countries for — not 90 days — six months. The vetting process was jobbed out to civilian contractors for initial investigation, then to the State Department for a cursory check. This was the “strict” vetting process under the previous administration.

The leftists and some Muslims in America contend that Trump’s 90-day ban — conveniently ignoring the ex-president’s 6 month ban — will cause Muslims to hate America. If that is so, why are so many Muslims trying to come to the U.S.? Is it because the Muslim-dominated countries they want to leave lack personal freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. (even for illegal aliens).

Certainly not all Muslims are terrorists or even potential terrorists; as with all peoples, there are good and bad.

Closing U.S. borders to specific people has a history going back to the 1882.

A compromise that surely will NOT please the leftists is to intern citizens of selected countries — currently just six — in special camps as the Democrat’s FDR did to Japanese-Americans, German-Americans, and Italian-Americans and as several presidents did to American aborigines (sending them to “reservations”).

According to The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, “Arkansas played a part in the international drama of 1980, when 125,000 Cubans left their homeland for a new life in the United States. Roughly 25,000 of these Cuban refugees—called Marielitos because they had departed Cuba from the port of Mariel—were housed for a time at Fort Chaffee in Sebastian County. Their presence in Arkansas created social and political tension widely thought to have had an impact on the Arkansas governor’s race of 1980.”

Overall, of the roughly 125,000 Cubans who entered the United States in the 1980 boatlift, 103,000 were released into American society relatively quickly. Those detained for a longer time included 1,200 suspected of serious crimes in Cuba and 600 diagnosed as severely mentally ill; the rest were suspected only of political crimes in Cuba or other minor offenses. Over time, ninety-eight percent of the Marielitos joined the United States population. Most live in south Florida or in New York City or northern New Jersey. Few, if any, of the Marielitos chose to live in northwest Arkansas.

The move was not a happy one for the citizens of Arkansas.

No one argues that the U.S. is what it is today because of immigrants — legal immigrants — and most thinking American’s are willing to accommodate legal immigrants regardless of race, religion, or any other descriptive.

However, there IS precedence for banning entry into the U.S. not only from countries — e.g., Trump’s six-nation ban — but specific races (regardless of religion). (See Closing U.S. borders paragraph, above.)

Specifically refugees.

Democrat FDR refused entry of slightly less than 1000 Jews escaping Hitler’s death squads because there might be a nazi spy in the group. The boat, the Saint Louis, returned to Germany where many of the passengers were murdered.

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The following table is excerpted from Islam by country.

#	Country/Region[1]	Muslim percentage (%) of total population
1	Afghanistan	99.8
2	Albania	58.8[27]
3	Algeria	98.2 [1] - >99[28]
4	Azerbaijan	98.4
5	Bahrain	70.2[31]
6	Bangladesh	86.3[32]
7	Bosnia-Herzegovina	50.7[35]
8	Brunei	67[36]
9	Burkina Faso	60.5[38]
10	Chad	58[28]
11	Cocos (Keeling) Islands	80[48]
12	Comoros	98.3
13	Djibouti	97
14	Egypt	90[50]
15	Guinea	84.2
16	Guinea Bissau	50[56]
17	Indonesia	87.2[60]
18	Iran	99.7
19	Iraq	98.9
20	Jordan	93.8
21	Kazakhstan	70.2 (official census)[64]
22	Kosovo	95.6
23	Kuwait	74.1[67]
24	Kyrgyzstan	88.8
25	Lebanon	59.7
26	Libya	96.6
27	Malaysia	61.4
28	Maldives	100
29	Mali	95[28]
30	Mauritania	100[70]
31	Mayotte	98.8
32	Morocco	99[74]
33	Niger	98.3[76]
34	Oman	87.7
35	Pakistan	96.4
36	Qatar	77.5
37	Saudi Arabia	97.1
38	Senegal	95.9
39	Sierra Leone	71.5
40	Somalia	98.9[85][86][87][88]
41	Palestinian Territories	97.5
42	Sudan	97.0[92]
43	Syria	90
44	Tajikistan	99
45	Gambia	95.3
46	Tunisia	99.8
47	Turkey	98.6
48	Turkmenistan	93.3
49	United Arab Emirates	76
50	Uzbekistan	96.5
51	Western Sahara	99.6
52	Yemen	99
	Central Asia	80
	South Asia	31.4[105][106]
	Southeast-East Asia	12
	MENA	91.2
	Sub-Saharan Africa	29.6
	Europe	6
	Americas	0.6
	World Total	23.4

Numbers to the right of the percentage refer to notes on table on the web.

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Opuscula Odds and ends From the WWW

Obama spokesman calls explosive, baseless claim made by Trump 'simply false'

In a series of Tweets early Saturday morning, President Donald Trump accused President Barack Obama of tapping the phones in Trump Tower prior to Election Day.

Trump offered no evidence to back up his claims.

The question to be answered, if the Democrat did NOT eves drop on calls by Trump or his associates, HOW did the Democrats determine Trump (or associates) had contact with Russian government officials?

Did the Russians tell the Democrats "Trump is talking to us about the election ... or anything else, for that matter?

Dems DID Stand to Honor Navy Seal SCPO William ‘Ryan’ Owens

Contrary to multiple "fake" news stories about leading Democrats "sitting out" President Trump's honoring of Navy Seal William ‘Ryan’ Owens, a video on the Snopes site belies that.

The video (click on link above) clearly shows all Democrats standing and applauding -- including the ones particularly called out; the video briefly focuses on Pelosi and Wasserman-Schultz, both of whom as shown standing. Wide shots fail to show any Republican or Democrat sitting; all were standing and applauding for more than a minute.

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Facebook Reopens Fatah Page, Enables Terror Promotion

Facebook reinstated Fatah’s terror-promoting page after only two days, without demanding the removal of violent posts inciting Palestinians to murder Jews.
On Monday, Facebook shut down the terror-promoting account belonging to Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority (PA) headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Two days later, Facebook reinstated the page, without removing any of the posts inciting Palestinians to murder innocent Israeli civilians.

It appears that the social media platform practices a double standard. Last year, for example, Facebook was forced to restore a posting it had removed from a pro-Israel page after a social-media experiment revealed that an identical pro-Palestinian posting was not deemed to be in violation of "community standards."

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ISIL video threatens China with 'rivers of bloodshed' (Aljazeera)

ISIL fighters from China's Uighur ethnic minority have vowed to return home and "shed blood like rivers" in what security experts said marked the first such threat against Chinese targets.

The threat came in a half-hour video released Monday by a division of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) featuring fighters from China's Uighur minority, said the US-based SITE Intelligence Group, which analyzed the footage.

(Chinese) Authorities have banned or strictly controlled the observance of certain Muslim practices, such as growing beards, wearing headscarves, and fasting during Ramadan, calling them symbols of "Islamic extremism".

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Sanders: Shouldn't US aid to Israel be diverted to Gaza?

Sen. Bernie Sanders asked David Friedman, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Israel, whether he would back using funds earmarked for assistance to Israel to help rebuild the Gaza Strip.

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‘We are still here’ Chilling video of terrorist wandering around Belgium released by ISIS

A chilling message has been delivered to Europe by ISIS terrorists as footage of a jihadi wandering towards a Belgian train station has been released -- along with the caption ‘we are still here’.

In the video an unidentified terrorist wanders around Belgium, pointing his camera towards the station with Islamic music playing in the background.

"It has happened in the past with videos going up before an attack and I believe it is a plausible threat.

"The music in the background is the same which was used in the video before the attack on the Reina nightclub."

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Father of Son Killed by Illegal Immigrant Rips Democrats

During President Donald Trump's address to Congress Tuesday night, he told the tragic story of his good friend Jamiel Shaw, the father whose son was murdered by an illegal immigrant.

Shaw was seated in the balcony when Trump reminded Democrats of the horrors of illegal immigration. During that portion of the speech, Democrats booed and remained seated.
"Oh my God, I was like, man you know, what do they want?" Shaw said. "They don’t want nothing but division, bickering. They don’t want to solve no problems. They don’t want to help kids or husbands or family members that’s been murdered by illegals. I mean, just the way they did that was so disrespectful. But it’s bigger than them, so I just keep on moving. I just ignore them like they do me."

Video: https://youtu.be/IxijVrEcmXs

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UN urged to add 11 parties to list of child rights violators - Includes IDF

UNITED NATIONS (AP) A network of organizations seeking to protect children in conflict urged U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday to add 11 parties to the blacklist of countries and armed groups responsible for grave violations against children.

The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict's recommended additions included the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen, which was taken off last year's list by then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after the Saudis and their supporters threatened to stop funding many United Nations programs.

Watchlist also called for the adding of the Israel Defense Forces, which were kept off the 2015 list after lobbying by the United States and the Israeli government. The network said the Israeli military should be added for killing and injuring children and attacking schools and hospitals in Gaza and the West Bank.

According to Watch List, it "focuses its advocacy, research, and partnerships on countries where the UN-led Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism is being implemented, i.e. countries included in the annexes of the Secretary-General’s annual report on Children and Armed Conflict." Hamas/Gaza and PLO/Palestine are NOT included; apparently Watch List is NOT concerned with the endangerment of children by Hamas or PLO despots.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind. Cite your sources.

ERM-BC-COOP Risk Management Not just DR plan Needed by businesses

MARK WILLIAMS, WRITING FOR The Columbus (OH) Dispatch notes that Two-thirds of small-business owners don't have a formal disaster-recovery plan, even though about half say it would take at least three months for their business to recover from a natural disaster, according to a Nationwide survey released Tuesday.

Both Nationwide and Williams missed the point: Disaster recovery is just a part of what an organization — large or small — needs.

All organizations need an ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN.

ALL ORGANIZATIONS CAN

• Limit the number of risks
  

• Limit the amount of loss of
  
  • Human resource (personnel)
    

  • Customer base
    

  • Income (sales, product positioning)
    

  • Inventory
    

  • Productivity
    

  • Reputation

• Limit recovery costs and time
  

• PERHAPS reduce insurance costs

The above is just the “tip of the iceberg.” Not (yet) considered are liability coverage (for injuries, actions by the organization’s board and officers, etc.) plus the standard insurance (fire, flood, theft, etc.). Then consider vendors, including lenders, delivery of (hard or soft) product, billing and collection.

The famous expression, The best defense is a good offense applies to all segments of Enterprise Risk Management:

Identification of critical processes

Identification of risks to those critical processes

Identification of options to avoid or mitigate the risks

FINALLY, identification of ways — and means (personnel, vendors, hardware and software) to recover to at least “business as usual” in a efficient and economical manner.

While Enterprise Risk Management is not rocket science, it does demand that the practitioner have a curious mind and, hopefully, either experience or the wisdom to find – and listen to — a mentor who has experience.

What about Business Continuity?

It is a part of Enterprise Risk Management, but — as with Disaster Recovery — it is too narrowly focused. Business Continuity (BC) rarely considers risks outside of the organization’s facility. Ignored by most BC plans are vendors, lenders, customers, delivery methods, sales and marketing. Security — facility, personnel, and proprietary information — often is ignored except as it is needed for IT/MIS. Even picayunish things such as “Who are the neighbors” should be included in a true Enterprise Risk Management plan, another oft-ignored item in a BC plan. (Are the neighbors chemical plants, frequent targets of protestors, major highways?)

By the way, Personnel/HR can be a major financial risk. If the Feds swoop down and demand to compare employee lists with I-9 forms, HR better have an I-9 for each employee; failure can result in substantial penalties.

Disaster Recovery (DR), like BC, should be components of an Enterprise Risk Management plan; management must understand that unless there is a holistic plan, e.g., Enterprise Risk Management, both DR and BC plans are dangerously inadequate..

Enterprise Risk Management plans can be created even for organizations with limited budgets and limited time.

The bottom line for organizations is that Enterprise Risk Management practitioners make recommendations, management determines which recommendations to implement and when.

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But being without a true Enteerprise Risk Management plan is perhaps the greatest risk of all.

Opuscula The president And the media

NO MATTER WHAT HE DOES, the media and the Democrats manage to find fault.

President Trump invites leaders of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) for a photo op before they were to meet with VP Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Trump with HBCU execs

Solon magazine’s Sophia Tesfaye, however, wrote that Trump summoned dozens of leaders of historically black colleges and universities to the Oval Office on Monday for a meet and greet event prior to a “listening session” with Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Continuing her overly long opening salvo, Tesfaye takes issue with a bad White House photo, continuing her slam by writing But while controversy has swirled around the placement of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s feet in a photo-op, the real outrage is how the Trump administration has managed to bungle its outreach to black leaders during the final days of Black History Month.

Granted, Ms. Conway should have been cropped out before the photo was released, but come on — was it really such a slow news day that Ms. Conway was shown with her feet up and an electric device in her hands?

Forget Kellyanne Conway’s feet on the couch: Trump’s Oval Office photo-op part of a black college visit gone wrong

Making certain her readers were as upset as she, Ms. Tesfaye wrote that Predictable outrage took over Twitter on Monday night when an image was released of Conway perched, her feet tucked beneath her, on a couch in the Oval Office as President Trump stood behind his desk with 64 presidents of historically black colleges and universities gathered around him was released. Presumably Conway was on the sofa to try to get a good angle for snapping a photo. (Where her shoes were was unclear.) (Emphasis mine on writer’s editorializing.)

MEANWHILE, newyorkmag.com takes a swipe at Trump’s invitation to the signing of H.R. 321 and H.R. 255, which direct NASA and the National Science Foundation, respectively, to encourage more women to enter STEM fields with a headline reading White House Finds at Least 8 Women to Pose With Donald Trump (Since the writer failed to “spell it out before abbreviating,” STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.)

Trump with STEM women

Not content with a snarky headline, writer Gabriella Paiella notes in her second paragraph that Daughter Ivanka Trump, who was present (and wearing her most formal choker), tweeted out a photo of the moment. Ms. Trump’s tweeted photo appears above.

Ending her brief attack on Trump, Ms. Paiella makes another cub reporter mistake by writing After the photo session ended, at least four of the women pictured presumably demanded to speak to a manager. (Emphasis mine.)

Perhaps newyorkmag.com writers don’t work under the restraints reporters had “back in the day” — been there, done that. Real reporters never “presume” or “assume” anything; that’s for editorial writers. I’m left wondering: To what “manager” was Ms. Paiella referring? Her entire closing paragraph was an editorial sans substance.

Is it any wonder Trump is as anti-media as the media is anti-Trump?