Opuscula Half truths about Mediocare supplements

IT SEEMS EVERYDAY I hear an AARP advertisement for a United Healthcare Medicare Supplement plan.

I’m also told some Humana Medicare Advantage plans have zero monthly costs.

Neither tells the sheep the full story.

AARP, which gets a kick-back on every UHC Medicare Supplement plan bearing the AARP logo, cites the standard Supplement pitch: it’s portable; subscribers can pick their own doctors and hospitals, and no referrals are needed to see a specialist.

What all Medicare Supplement peddlers don’t advertise is that subscribers pay a surcharge, often a hefty one, for the plan.

They also don’t advertise the fact that the “free” (we’ll get to “free” shortly) Medicare Advantage plans cover subscribers even when they are out of their home area, even overseas. Granted, in some cases — mostly when outside the U.S. — the patient may have to pay the local providers and submit the receipts to the insurance company for reimbursement. True, Advantage plans typically limit the providers (hospitals, urgent care, physicians, laboratories) an insured can see.

Referrals There is an advantage to having referrals — the patient’s Primary Care Physician; in my day a GP — knows who the patient is seeing and can expect reports from specialists so the patient’s care can be coordinated. (I have a no referral plan, but I always make certain any specialists I see send their findings to my PCP.)

Nothing is free Medicare is NOT free. The “basic” rate is about $105-a-month. It can be higher; it can be lower. It can be paid as a Social Security deduction or with a check to the government every month. HOW it’s paid does not affect the fee.

It’s higher if the person applying for Medicare lacked pharmaceutical coverage before applying for Medicare. (Fortunately for me, my time in the Flyin’ Corps many, many years ago gave me access to VA pharmacies.) Once a higher rate is set, it’s fixed “forever.”

The monthly rate can be lower if the person has sub-standard income.

Capitation Some Medicare Advantage plans require referrals; some do not. Some Medicare Advantage plans “capitate” their PCPs. That means while the Plan may have hundreds of specialists on its rolls, the particular PCP may be able to refer patients to only a much reduced list.

As with all insurance coverages, I compare my options once a year; for Medicare, in October.

There are a number of things to consider with all Medicare plans, be they Advantage or Supplement. Selecting the right Medicare plan for you walks you through the major considerations.

Before paying a surcharge for a Medicare Supplement plan, compare it to a Medicare Advantage plan. Maybe putting the extra bucks into your pocket might be a good option . . . but then, it might not. Everyone has their own needs.

”Through the gap” The “gap” in Medicare terms refers to the time when you “max out” the pharmacy allowance (usually around $3,500/year) until you go into the reduced fee/no fee stage. It differs greatly from any “gap” that may have been included as “supplemental insurance” to a private (non-Medicare) health care plan.

The bottom line is not to be stampeded into signing up for any plan with any insurer until you have done your homework. If you regret your decision, you have until December 30 to sign up with a different plan.

Annual review All insurance plans of all types — medical, auto, home owners/renters — need to be reviewed annually to assure that you are getting what you need at a price you are willing to pay.

A note on companies that will research plans for you. Do it yourself. Some plans are not on the searcher’s lists. Start with http://www.medicare.gov . It’s free and includes ALL plans approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a/k/a CMS. (The CMS site is http://www.cms.gov)

One final thought: Beware of “capitated” PCPs. When talking to a plan’s sales people, be certain to ask: “Are your PCP’s capitated? Can they refer to ANY specialist in the Plan?”

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Where to start

Medicare supplement plans defined

Medicare Plan Finder

Both Medicare sites above are free and should be the place to start for all things Medicare.

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If the links fail to work, see http://tinyurl.com/y82lye4d to learn how to find/access them. It's a Google problem.

 

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.

 

Comments: In my opinion

Opuscula Mother’s love: Teach hate And murderEducate to hate and die must end

Terrorist’s mother wished he’d killed 100 Jews

The mother of the terrorist who murdered a young Israeli woman on Friday was also arrested in connection with the attack and regrets that her son didn’t kill 100 more Jews.

Israel Police on Wednesday arrested two people in connection with last Friday’s Palestinian terror attack in which 23-year-old Border Policewoman Staff Sgt. Hadas Malka was murdered at the Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City.

Police said the woman, a resident of the Palestinian village of Deir Abu Mash’al near Ramallah, where the terror cell was situated, was arrested on suspicion of forging contacts with the intent of committing a crime. She is also suspected of incitement related to recent statements lauding shahids [martyrs] and calling for the harming of Jews.

“We will meet in heaven. I’m proud. I wanted him to kill 20, 50, 100 of them,” the Palestinian mother stated after the attack.

Former Congressman Allen West, commenting on mother’s desire asks Just how are we to achieve peace when the mindset of mothers is that they’re proud of their sons being jihadists. They’re proud and wished they could have killed more. And when we have a Fatah government that pays the families of Islamic jihadists, well, how far can, or will, this endeavor for peace go?

Hate groups abound.

In the United States, the Southern Poverty Law Center maintains a list of what it determines are terror groups.

Hate Groups (alphabetically from Southern Poverty Law Center.org)

Click on image to enlarge or go to the SPLC site above

Anti-Immigration
Anti-LGBT
Anti-Muslim
Black Separatist
Christian Identity
General Hate
Holocaust Denial
KKK
Neo-Confederate
Neo-Nazi
Racist Skinhead
Radical Traditional Catholicism
White Nationalist

The SPLC.org list is trimmed to just 10 on the SPLC's Active Hate Groups page. The ORDER of presentation is by SPLC.

Ku Klux Klan - 130
Neo-Nazi - 99
White Nationalist -100
Racist Skinhead - 78
Christian Identity - 21
Neo-Confederate - 43
Black Separatist - 193
Anti-LGBT - 52
Anti-Muslim - 101
General Hate – 100

Blame it on Trump

CNN reporting on 'A resurgence of white nationalism': Hate groups spiked in 2016 quotes the Southern Poverty Law Center's Mark Potok thus:

The report singled out Donald Trump's pledge to bar Muslims from entering the country*, his harsh language around immigration from Mexico, his appearance on conspiracy-theorist Alex Jones's radio program, and his engagement with white nationalists on Twitter as key moments that encouraged extremist groups during the campaign.

"Trump's run for office electrifed (cq) the radical right, which saw in him a champion of the idea that America is fundamentally a white man's country," wrote Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the SPLC. "Several new and energetic groups appeared last year that were almost entirely focused on Trump and seemed to live off his candidacy."

"The country saw a resurgence of white nationalism that imperils the racial progress we've made, along with the rise of a president whose policies reflect the values of white nationalists," Potok noted.

INTERNATIONAL TERROR

Click on image to enlarge or go to the http://www.cicentre.com/?terror_orgmap>Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies

Wikipedia lists 61 Foreign Terror Organizations (FTOs). While non-Islamists are represented on the list, of the 61 FTOs, 49 are Muslim groups. (One Jewish group made the list.) Since the Wikipedia list was for foreign terror organizations, the SPLC-identified organizations were not listed.

 

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* CNN, never concerned with truth, once again gets it wrong. Campaigner Trump, and later as President Trump, said he would temporarily ban Muslims from specific countries known to export terrorism — exactly what his predecessor did but for which the media was generally silent. The courts over-ruled POTUS’ plan . . . but were not at all disturbed by the previous president’s executive order banning even more Muslims.

As for Mexicans, Trump repeatedly stressed that the only Mexicans he wished to bar were illegal aliens who also were criminals.
<>/P>

Trump distanced himself from white supremacists and rejected their support.

The “news” at CNN: if it fails to conform to CNN’s view, CNN “modifies” it until it does conform.

 

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.

 

Comments: In my opinion

Opuscula The two faces Of Democrats In the Senate

I SAW ON tv “news” this morning (6/20/17) Sen. Chas. Schumer pressing Sen. Mitch McConnell for more than 10 hours to review the latest GOP health care plan.

McConnell’s only reply was “There will be ample time to review the plan.”

That was NOT the case then President Trump’s predecessor dumped HIS plan on congress, all 2,000-plus pages of it and demanded the Democrat-packed congress pass it “right now.”

Cartoon credit: Caglecartoons.com

I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY Schumer wants ample time to study the GOP plan … past GOP efforts have fallen woefully short. Even many Republicans found fault with the earlier plans, assuring the plans would fail to garner the votes needed to become law (until overturned by the courts).

Trump promised many things for his first days in office. Most have failed to occur, and a cobbled together healthcare plan without being well thought out and lacking Democrat support is one of those things.

But why the rush?

Those covered under the current slight-of-hand health care plan will remain covered until the replacement plan is in place (and allowed by the courts). No one covered today will be left uncovered tomorrow.

This scrivener is of the opinion that the U.S. needs national healthcare of some type. It will not prevent indigents showing up at emergency rooms for treatment of both minor and major issues; it will not prevent the local government from being “stuck” with the bill for indigent care. The in-place plan allegedly penalizes people who lack any type insurance by slapping a surtax on their federal income tax. But indigents, by definition, don’t have incomes to pay taxes, so the threat is empty.

There ARE good things about the current plan, but there also are many things that need to be improved upon. Drug costs, for example. Access to practitioners. While there are many good practitioners who accept the current plan, there are many who refuse to accept patients covered by the plan.

Similar to Medicare, some practitioners fail to see the huge consumer base, preferring to charge more for patients covered by private insurance or who pay from their own pocket.

As I understand it, a national health plan — regardless of who gets credit — or blame — is designed to (a) move non-emergency care out of emergency rooms and into a physician’s office (or urgent care center) and (b) to assure that citizens receive ongoing attention from a medical practitioner, preferably the same practitioner each time they visit. Preventive care is (a) less expensive and (b) offers better results than emergency care, especially by a practitioner who has zero history with the patient and who, in almost all cases, will not see the patient again — at least for the same complaint.

Perhaps, rather than insist all citizens have health insurance it would be acceptable to all political points of view if the government opened clinics in impoverished areas or on BRAC-closed military installations — most of which have at least a Class A infirmary (clinic with a few beds). The clinics could be staffed by newly minted practitioners (nurses, doctors) whose education was partially funded by the government. A similar situation exists that sends doctors to regions otherwise without physicians.

Indigents would need to show photo IDs (provided gratis –reducing the chance of fraud) to receive no charge care, while others (e.g., low income) would pay on a sliding scale. Common medicines would be dispensed at no cost or minimal cost to the patient (as is done in a number of countries).

While I believe everyone should pay something for health care, if a person has nothing, what can they pay? (Perhaps in-kind services to the clinic, assuming the courts would permit that.)

There is no question that emergency rooms should be for emergencies — only.

Likewise there is no question that people should have a long-term relationship with the same practitioner.

Finally, there is no question that indigents can’t pay (the regular rate) for healthcare even if there is a tax penalty.

It might be necessary to pair a clinic with a police sub-station; the clinics would probably NOT be located in the classist sections of town and any drugs on a clinic’s shelves would be tempting to criminals, even non-narcotics.

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As a long-ago Air Force medic, I have some experience with clinics and hospitals emergency rooms. I later briefly worked at a civilian hospital.

 

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.

 

Comments: In my opinion

Fake News Clintons, Obama Condemn attack At Nationals Park

DID ANYONE READ THAT ANY Clintons or Obamas, or even ex-DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz condemned the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise at Nationals Park on June 14 (Flag Day, as it happens).

Did they say anything about the Capitol cops — Crystal Griner, who was wounded, and David Bailey — injured doing their jobs protecting the congressmen? How about lobbyist Matt Mika or congressional aide Zach Barth, both wounded by James T. Hodgkinson.

Socialist Bernie Sanders, for whom Hodgkinson once worked, condemned the shooting, saying ”Violence of any kind is unacceptable.”

Search the internet — use any search engine you fancy — and as of 11 .m. Friday, June 16, there are zero —- no — links to any remarks from

the Clintons
the Obamas
Wasserman-Schultz

No condemnation of the act. No commendation for the Capitol Police. No sympathy for the wounded.

Not a tweet. Not a sound bite. Nothing.

Sen. Claire McCaskill D-MO commented on Twitter: “No partisan politics over this. Let’s come together against evil. United by our common decency.”

To her credit, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-CA tweeted "This morning, the U.S. Congress suffered a despicable and cowardly attack. My thoughts and prayers are with Whip Steve Scalise and the others wounded, Capitol Police and staff, and their families. We are profoundly grateful for the heroism of the Capitol Police, whose bravery under fire undoubtedly saved countless lives. On days like today, there are no Democrats or Republicans, only Americans united in our hopes and prayers for the wounded."

Former VP Joe Biden sent a "Get well soon" tweet to the injured, but no condemnation of the crime.

Rather than try to bring the country together, the Clintons and Obamas have encouraged action against “anything Republican.” Hillary actually encouraged illegal civil disorder following the election.

By their silence, the Clintons, Obamas, and Wasserman-Schultz seem to be applauding Hodgkinson’s action. Certainly they are doing nothing to bring the political pendulum back to center or even to reduce its swing from extreme to extreme.

Compare that to the wounding of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). "Gabby Giffords was a friend of mine," President Obama said Saturday afternoon in a nationally televised statement from the White House. "It’s not surprising that today Gabby was doing what she always does: listening to the hopes and concerns of her neighbors."

"This is more than a tragedy for those involved," he said. "It is a tragedy for Arizona and a tragedy for our entire country."

At a news conference following the shooting, a clearly emotional Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik repeatedly cited what he characterized as the "vitriol" that has infected political discourse. He said that his own state has become "the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

The dead included John Roll, chief judge of the U.S. District Court of Arizona. Also killed was Gabe Zimmerman, 30, the congresswoman's director of community outreach, and a 9-year-old girl. Two other Giffords staffers were injured.

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is a Democrat.

Source: NPR

It may be crass, but perhaps there should be “Republican lives matter” organization.

By the way, the Democrats won the annual charity game.

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WORTH READING: The LA Times analyzed the shooting. The results are given in an article titled Reaction to shooting at congressional baseball practice reveals a nation that doesn't just disagree. It hates

 

 

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.

Comments: In my opinion

ERM-BC-COOP Eyes that do not see Ears that do not hear*

ACCORDING TO NUMEROUS news reports emanating from the UK, the Grenfell Tower was known for some time to be a death trap.

Residents complained.

An “action group” complained.

Apparently a government minister heard of the complaints, but allowed the structure’s managers to push back a request to discuss the concerns.

All the above is pretty much the experience of risk managers worldwide.

ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT practitioners can tell a client there are problems and how to avoid or mitigate the problems.

But unless the client is willing to accept, and act on, the practitioner’s recommendations, nothing gets done . . . until a disaster such as the Grenfell Tower fire occurs. (In the U.S., it took the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire on March 25, 1911 to bring about changes to building safety. It cost 145 workers their lives.)

In England, who knew there was a problem?

Residents of Grenfell Tower have said they raised multiple concerns about the risk of fire in the months before the fatal blaze at the building, but were “brushed away” by the council’s tenant management organization.

Survivors of the disaster said on Wednesday they had raised fears about the fact that there was only one escape route. They also told the Kensington and Chelsea tenant management organization (KCTMO) of their concerns over the placement of boilers and gas pipes, the absence of a building-wide fire alarm or sprinkler system, and piles of rubbish being dumped and causing a fire risk.
Source: Grenfell Tower residents say managers 'brushed away' fire safety concerns

An action group predicted the Grenfell Tower fire was an accident waiting to happen four years ago but claim their warnings fell on deaf ears.

The fire service confirmed this morning there had been a number of fatalities in the horrific blaze which was reported just after 1 am today thought to have been caused by an exploding fridge.

It engulfed the 27-storey building where 600 people were said to be living in 120 flats and twelve people have so far been confirmed dead.

Grenfell Action Group said: 'Watching breaking news about the Grenfell Tower fire catastrophe. Too soon to even guess at numbers of casualties and fatalities.

'We have posted numerous warnings in recent years about the very poor fire safety standards at Grenfell Tower and elsewhere in Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC).

'All our warnings fell on deaf ears. This was inevitable and just a matter of time.'
Source: 'Only a catastrophic event will expose the neglect': Action group called for Grenfell Tower to be pulled down FOUR YEARS ago but say their warnings about appalling safety 'fell on deaf ears'

Experts said in March that after a review into building regulations, parliament should ask "really serious questions" about the safety of tower blocks and the danger posed by fire. The warnings have been restated after multiple people died in a fire in West London.

Housing minister Gavin Barwell had committed last year to review the specific part of building regulations that relate to fire safety. But that report was delayed earlier this year, Fire Risk Management reported in March, with a spokesperson then refusing to give a date for the launch of the review.

There are still 4,000 tower blocks that are under the same old building regulations as those in Lakanal House. It's not clear whether Grenfell Tower, where the horrific blaze broke out, was built according to those regulations.

Fire safety expert Sam Webb told Fire Risk Management that "really serious questions" needed to be asked in parliament about fire safety. He pointed specifically to the kind of materials used in buildings, saying that they are "not fire-resistant and in some cases they're flammable.
Source: London fire: Government delayed review of tower block fire safety regulations after deadly blaze

Again and again, if the English papers can be believed, the safety of the building — and by extension, others like it — has been a topic of discussion for some time, yet nothing was done to eliminate or at least mitigate the problem.

Now, after a number of residents lie in a morgue has the building’s hazards come to the attention of the British prime minister who ordered a “public inquiry” into the fire.

The question remains: Even after all the “public inquiry” will anything be done to protect other people in similar towers?

‘Course the cause of the fire still must be determined.

Accident or arson, according to the reports in the English press, the building’s design and materials turned a small fire into a building-wide disaster.

A building-wide disaster that could have been mitigated, if not prevented.

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* From Psalm 135: They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but do not see; they have ears, but do not hear — referring to idols made of silver and gold by the hands of man.

 

 

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.

Comments: In my opinion

Opuscula If Trump “rolls back" Relations with Cuba,Why not China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt ...

PRESIDENT TRUMP is considering rolling back his predecessor’s orders on Cuba.

No one denies the Cuban government is a dictatorship – despite twice-a-decade elections; elections that some contend are rigged..

No one will dispute that freedoms are limited on the island and that there is a high price to be paid for dissent.

But consider...

China is a much more totalitarian government than Cuba. Remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre? According to one estimate, “the number of civilian deaths has been estimated at anywhere from hundreds to thousands.”

Then there is America’s good friend Saudi Arabia. Oppressive Yes. Misogynistic? Most assuredly.

How about Egypt, another “good friend” of America. When the Islamic Brotherhood won the elections and Hosni Mubarak was installed as president, the military booted him out and Mohamed Morsi was named president. A similar situation happened in Algeria.

Russia, with which we have diplomatic and commercial relations, has Putin, the man who ordered the invasion and theft of the Ukrainian Crimea.

The list goes on and on and on.

Yet the U.S. allows Americans to travel to these countries – albeit often with a State Department “travel advisory” that visiting is not encouraged – more or less freely.

Granted, Russia and China are not a mere 90 miles off the U.S. coast, but both Russia and China have nuclear missiles than can strike U.S. cities. Cuba has no missiles that threaten the U.S. (Why bother? Cuba's dissidents invaded south Florida and took over the place.).

It seems to me that, with so many Cuban ex-pats who claim they want to return to the island, that President Trump should expand his predecessor’s effort and make travel and commercial activities easy for all Americans, especially Cubans who want to go back.

Let Americans invest in Cuban enterprise; give the ex-pats a reason to go “home.”

The Cuban government is LESS dangerous to the U.S. than Russia or China; it will cost the U.S. LESS to prop up Cuban economy than it costs in foreign aid to Egypt and a host of other countries, friendly and not so friendly. (Saudi Arabia received a paltry US$237,832 in 2016, a drastic drop from previous years of the previous administration.)

On top of China’s ability to militarily damage the U.S., it’s proxy, North Korea, is building weapons that can do the same … in cooperation with Iran (no surprise). China also ships unsafe products to the U.S. and manages the rate of exchange to put the U.S. deeply into China’s debt.

Admittedly, Cuban cigars could be dangerous to Americans’ health, but the U.S. has no fear of Cuban missiles or a rigged import/export trade balance.

The Cubans arrived to American hand outs; escapees from the (former) Soviet Union only got hand outs from private individuals and organizations. The latter integrated into U.S. society, learned English, and strived to become red, white, and blue citizens. Not so the Cubans.

To be fair, I grew up in south Florida and went to school with Cuban-Americans whose English communication skills were as good as mine. But, also to be fair, if someone wants to work in south Florida, especially in retail, the person must speak Cuban Spanish, albeit not necessarily English.

Opening the door to Cuba may be the single good thing Trump’s predecessor did in his eight long years in the White House.

I hope Trump has the wisdom to fully normalize American-Cuban relations, to put it on a par with – at worst, Mexico, at best, Canada – countries around the world that (so far) do not export terrorists to our shores.

To me, it’s a no brainer that can be put into a 140-character tweet.

 

 

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.

 

 

Comments: BCPlanner@gmail.com

Muslims must prove themselves * Terrorists * Extremists

THE LONDON ATTACK was by terrorists; likewise the Manchester attack; the Paris attacks -– plural — were by extremists. Ditto Spain and Germany.

But tv talking heads, being “Politically Correct” — or simply following ex.-president Obama’s lead — won’t pronounce “Islamist” (or “Muslim” terrorist or extremist in the same breath.

That’s as stupid as giving a description of a person wanted for murder as “n” feet tall and weighing so many pounds but omitting the suspect’s skin color.

BUT, we must be politically correct.

TO BE FAIR, in some cases the authorities had been alerted by Muslims about other Muslims who seemed extreme.

As an example, Anti-extremism organization the Quilliam Foundation have said they reported London Bridge attacker Khuram Butt to counter-terrorism authorities almost a year before the deadly attack.

Quilliam chief executive Haras Rafiq said its report should have been taken more seriously as it came from a counter-terrorism group rather than a member of the public.

The Muslim community in Barking had highlighted concerns about London Bridge attacker Khuram Shazad Butt, who is thought to have once attended the Jabir Bin Zayd Islamic Centre in Barking, according to a community leader.

Ash Siddique, the secretary of the Al-Madina Mosque in Barking which is close to centre, said concerns were raised about Butt on three occasions, the Press Association reported. (Source: The Guardian)

Unfortunately, the Quilliam report is the exception to the rule.

Most of the terrorists/extremists are known to their fellows for what they are. They might not wear shirts proclaiming “I Am A Terrorist,” but their behavior and choice of associates HAS to offer a clue to their intent.

The problem is, in most cases, the people who may suspect someone refuse — for a multitude of reasons — to come forward. Even when they are better off in all respects than they were in the lands from which they emigrated, they still are suspicious of, and uncomfortable with, the more or less democratic governments of the countries that gave them sanctuary. There is a similar problem with blacks in America; many don’t trust “The Man.” At other times, the fear for their own safety in their community is sufficient to silence people.

In the U.S. — tragically proven by 9-11 (2001) — the so-called federal cops (FBI, CIA, NSA, etc. and et al) refuse to cooperate among themselves; turf wars are as much responsible for the deaths on 9-11 as the Muslim terrorists who high jacked the four planes. Despite presidential proclamations that the organizations are now cooperating, in real life, the turf battles continue.

The UK, France, and Germany have taken in tens of thousands of Muslims who, for one reason or another, left their homelands. Some fled from civil wars; some fled from Obama’s Arab Spring. As with most immigrants, the newcomers tend to congregate in neighborhoods where the language and customs are similar to the once they left behind. Unlike earlier immigrants, they are loath to integrate into the nation’s society, setting up their own (Sharia) laws and demanding anyone entering their domain adhere to their laws. (Rather like going to Mea Sharim in Israel where attacks on outsiders can range from words to rocks.)

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Terror resume’

Of the 11 terrorist attacks in the UK since 2005, eight were at the hands of Muslim extremists/terrorists. The following from Wikipedia except as otherwise indicated. Prior to 2005, most terrorist attacks were carried out by the IRA.

• 2005, 7 July: 7/7 central London bombings conducted by four separate Islamist extremist suicide bombers, which targeted civilians using the public transport system during the morning rush hour. Three bombs were detonated on three separate trains on the London Underground and one on a double-decker bus. 56 people were killed and 700 were injured. It was the UK's worst terrorist incident since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the first Islamist suicide attack in the country.
• 2007, 30 June: Glasgow International Airport attack perpetrated by Islamist extremists. Five people were injured and the only death was of one of the perpetrators.
• 2008, 22 May: Exeter attempted bombing in a café toilet by an Islamist extremist, injuring only the perpetrator.
• 2013, 22 May: A British soldier, Lee Rigby, was murdered and decapitated in an attack in Woolwich by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, two Islamist extremists armed with a handgun and a number of bladed implements including a cleaver. Both men were sentenced to life imprisonment, with Adebolajo given a whole life order and Adebowale ordered to serve at least 45 years.
• 2015, 5 December: A man with a knife attacked three people at Leytonstone Tube Station in East London. The attacker was 29-year old Muslim Muhaydin Mire who was shouting "this is for Syria". The attacker was found guilty of attempted murder in June 2016. Three people were injured in the attack and one was seriously injured.
• 2017, 22 March: 2017 Westminster attack - Khalid Masood, a 52-year-old British man, born in Kent as Adrian Elms, drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, before crashing the vehicle into the Palace of Westminster's perimeter. He then entered the grounds of the Palace of Westminster, the meeting place of the Houses of Parliament, before being confronted by a police officer, whom he fatally stabbed before being shot himself. Six, including the perpetrator and the officer, were killed in the incident, and 49 people were injured. The attack is being treated as an act of terrorism motivated by Islamic extremism.
• 2017, 22 May: 2017 Manchester Arena bombing – Suicide bomber Salman Abedi is believed to have travelled to Syria and become radicalised before returning to the UK to cause carnage at a gig in the city where he was born. The son of Libyan parents, who reportedly fled their native country and sought refuge in the UK, he is thought to have come back to Britain from Libya just days before the massacre. It was the most deadly terror related incident in the United Kingdom since the 7/7 London bombings in 2005.
• 2017, 3 June: June 2017 London attack, still developing. 7 people were confirmed dead and at least 48 injured, some of whom are still in a critical state in hospitals across London. A white van drove at high speed across London Bridge, running into groups of people, then crashed. The occupants then ran to close by Borough Market where they stabbed many people. All three of the terrorists involved were shot dead by police just 8 minutes after the incident was reported. All three were wearing what appeared to be suicide bomb vests, which turned out to be fake.

Muslims were targeted on 2013, 29 April to 12 July by Pavlo Lapshyn attacks. Lapshyn, a Ukrainian student and right-wing extremist, stabbed Mohammed Saleem, a Birmingham resident to death on 29 April. He later admitted to police that he wished to start a "race war". Lapshyn later detonated a home-made bomb outside a mosque in Walsall on 21 June. 150 homes were evacuated but no person was injured. On 28 June Lapshyn detonated a second home-made bomb near a mosque in Wolverhampton, and attacked a mosque in Tipton with an improvised explosive device containing nails on 12 July. Friday prayers were delayed that day, and so his intended victims were still inside. Laphsyn was later sentenced to serve a minimum of 40 years.

Of 30 terrorists attacks in France since 2003, 19 have been directly attributed to Islamist extremists. The list is from Wikipedia.

• 8 October 2004: Bomb attack against the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, claimed by the Front islamique français armé.
• 11-22 March 2012: Toulouse and Montauban shootings, murders of three French paratroopers, and a French Rabbi and three French schoolchildren (aged eight, six and three), carried out over a period of 11 days by Mohammed Merah.
• 23 May 2013: 2013 La Défense attack by an Islamist knifeman against a French soldier in the Paris suburb of La Défense.
• 20 December 2014: 2014 Tours police station stabbing. A man yelling "Allahu Akbar” attacked a police officer in Joué-lès-Tours with a knife. He was killed and 3 police officers were injured.
• 7-9 January 2015: January 2015 Île-de-France attacks, a mass shooting at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, carried out by Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, two Islamist gunmen who identified themselves as belonging to Al-Qaeda in Yemen. During this period, a third Islamist gunman and close friend of the Kouachi brothers, Amedy Coulibaly was responsible for two shootings and an hostage taking at a Hypercacher kosher market. He said he synchronized his attacks with the Kouachi brothers. Coulibaly had pledged allegiance to theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
• 3 February 2015: 3 military men, guarding a Jewish community center in Nice, are attacked by Moussa Coulibaly (not related to the January Coulibaly attacks).
• 19 April 2015: Unsuccessful attack against 2 churches in Villejuif by an Algerian jihadist. He killed a woman probably when trying to steal her car but accidentally shot himself in the leg, putting an end to his plans.
• 26 June 2015: Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack. An Islamist delivery driver probably linked to ISIS decapitated a man and rammed a company van into gas cylinders at the Air Products gas factory in an attempt to blow up the building.
• 13-14 November 2015: November 2015 Paris attacks. The single deadliest terrorist attack in French history. Multiple shooting and grenade attacks occurred on a Friday night; among the locations targeted were a music venue, sports stadium and several bar and restaurant terraces. 90 persons were killed during a siege at an Eagles of Death Metal concert inside the Bataclan. French president François Hollande evacuated from a football match between France and Germany at the Stade de France, venue for the UEFA Euro 2016 Final, after three separate suicide bombings over the course of about 40 minutes. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks and President Hollande named the Paris attacks an "'act of war'"
• 1 January 2016: A man rammed his car twice into 4 soldiers protecting a mosque in Valence. He said he wanted to kill troops and jihadi propaganda images were found on his computer.
• 7 January 2016: January 2016 Paris police station attack, a jihadist wearing a fake explosive belt attacked police officers in the Goutte d'Or district in Paris with a meat cleaver, while shouting "Allahu Akbar". He was shot dead and one policeman receiving injuries. The ISIS flag and a clearly written claim in Arabic, were found on the attacker.
• 13 June 2016: 2016 Magnanville stabbing, a police officer and his wife, a police secretary, were stabbed to death in their home in Magnanville by a jihadist. ISIS claimed responsibility.
• 14 July 2016: A 19 ton cargo truck was deliberately driven into crowds celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. The driver was Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian resident of France. The attack ended following an exchange of gunfire, during which Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot and killed by police.
• 19 July 2016: An Islamist staying in a holiday resort, in Garda-Colombe, attacked a family of four with a kitchen knife. He told prosecutors he was offended by their lack of suitable clothing.
• 26 July 2016: 2016 Normandy church attack, two terrorists attacked a church during a mass, killing an 86-year-old priest. ISIS claimed responsibility.
• 19 August 2016: A rabbi was stabbed in Strasbourg by a man reportedly shouting Allahu Akbar.
• 4 September 2016: Two Islamists attacked an author and his son, with blows to the head and stomach. The author, who wrote a book on 'Jihad', lost consciousness, and has now requested full police protection on his premises. Both victims were called 'filthy whites' and the author's daughter was also verbally abused.
• 3 February 2017: 2017 Paris machete attack. A soldier near the Louvre museum opened fire on a man who attempted to enter the museum with a machete. The man was shouting "Allahu akbar" and injured the soldier's scalp.
• 20 April 2017: 2017 shooting of Paris police officers. An Islamist opened fire on police officers on the Champs-Elysees. ISIS claimed responsibility.

Until 2000, most of Germany’s terror attacks came from the Red Army or other non-Muslim groups. However, the Islamists made themselves known twice in Munich (1970, 1972); in Berlin (1982, 1986). Muslim terrorist activity picked up starting from September 2015. (Source: Wikipedia)

• 10 February 1970: Munich - Three terrorists attack El Al passengers in a bus at the Airport with guns and grenades; one passenger is killed and 11 injured. All three terrorists were captured by airport police. The Action Organization for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine claim responsibility for the attack
• 5 September 1972: Munich (Munich Massacre) - Eight armed terrorists stage an attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany on 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team, who were taken hostage and eventually killed, along with a German police officer. Five of the attackers also died in the raid to free the hostages.
• 15 January 1982: Berlin - An explosion at the Mifgash-Israel, a Jewish owned restaurant in West, injures 25 people. An infant girl, who was in critical condition after the blast, later dies of her injuries.
• 4 April 1986: Berlin - A bomb placed on the dance-floor of the La Belle Discotheque, popular with United States military personnel, explodes, killing 3 and injuring hundreds more. Two of the dead were members of the United
• 17 September 2015: Berlin - A 41-year-old self-proclaimed Islamist was shot dead in Berlin after he severely stabbed and injured a policewoman in an incident on a public street in Berlin
• 19 July 2016: Wurzburg - On 18 July 2016, a 17-year-old asylum seeker injured four people, two critically, with a knife and hatchet on a train near Würzburg in Germany. A fifth person was injured outside. The state office of criminal investigations called it a terrorist attack with an Islamist religious motive. The attacker's Islamic State instructor "ordered" him "to use an axe rather than a knife in his attack. In a martyrdom video, the attacker blamed unspecified infidels trespassing against and murdering men, women and children, as well as leaders and Muslim citizens who did not object to this..
• 24 July 2016 Multiple locations - Fifteen people were injured, four seriously, in a suicide bombing outside a wine bar in Ansbach, Germany.[3] The bomber, identified as Mohammad Daleel, was a 27-year-old Syrian refugee who had pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State. He was the only fatality in the incident. According to German authorities, Daleel was in contact with the Islamic State and had been planning more attacks before his backpack bomb exploded accidentally. The incident followed three other attacks in Germany within a week, including a knife attack that killed a pregnant woman in Reutlingen earlier in the day, a mass shooting that killed nine people in Munich several days earlier, and a train attack in Würzburg. All of these were committed by people of Middle Eastern or Pashtun background, all of whom, save for the Munich shooter, were refugees or asylum seekers that recently came to Germany
• 19 December 2016: Berlin - On 19 December 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, leaving 12 people dead and 56 others injured. One of the victims was the truck's original driver, Łukasz Urban, who was found shot dead in the passenger seat. The perpetrator was Anis Amri, a Tunisian failed asylum seeker, urged by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Four days after the attack, he was killed in a shootout with police near Milan in Italy. An initial suspect was arrested and later released due to lack of evidence. The event was designated as a terrorist attack./LI>

 

 

 

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.