Puppet MastersS

Health

"Ryancare" no better than Obamacare: Can we please now try single payer?

paul Ryan health care
© Fox News
The Canadian plan also helps Canadians live longer and healthier than Americans. . . . We need, as a nation, to reexamine the single-payer plan, as many individual states are doing.

โ€” Donald Trump, The America We Deserve (2000)
The new American Health Care Act has been unveiled, and critics are calling it more flawed even than the Obamacare it was meant to replace. Dubbed "Ryancare" or "Trumpcare" (over the objection of White House staff), the Republican health care bill is under attack from left and right, with even conservative leaders calling it "Obamacare Lite", "bad policy", a "warmed-over substitute," and "dead on arrival."

The problem for both administrations is that they have been trying to fund a bloated, inefficient, and overpriced medical system with scarce taxpayer funds, without capping its costs. US healthcare costs in 2016 averaged $10,345 per person, for a total of $3.35 trillion dollars, a full 18 percent of the entire economy, twice as much as in other industrialized countries.

Ross Perot, who ran for president in 1992, had the right idea: he said all we have to do is to look at other countries that have better health care at lower cost and copy them.

Stormtrooper

Pakistan sends combat troops to shore up southern Saudi border in Yemen conflict: Update - Defense Minister Khawaja Asif categorically rejects the reports

Pakistan Saudi arabia
© TwitterPakistan's chief of army staff, Qamar Javed Bajwa, met Saudi Arabia's king in December
Brigade deploys to shore up border against Houthi reprisal attacks from Yemen, but sources tell MEE it will 'not be used beyond Saudi borders'

The Pakistan army is sending a brigade of combat troops to shore up Saudi Arabia's vulnerable southern border from reprisal attacks mounted by the Houthis in Yemen, according to senior security sources.

The brigade will be based in the south of the Kingdom, but will only be deployed inside its border, the sources told Middle East Eye. "It will not be used beyond Saudi borders," one said.

It is the latest twist in a brutal and devastating two-year war, which has killed more than 10,000 people in Yemen, injured over 40,000 and brought the impoverished nation to the verge of famine.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes and starving civilians trapped in the carnage.

The war was launched by Saudi Arabia and its Arab coalition allies after the Houthis overran Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, and the southern port of Aden and ousted the Saudi-backed president, Abd Rabbuh Hadi.

Comment: Update: No army brigade sent to Saudi Arabia: Khawaja Asif
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday categorically rejected reports regarding the deployment of Pakistani army personnel to Saudi Arabia to assist the kingdom in its ongoing war with ongoing Saudi-Yemen conflict.

"No military personnel have been sent to Saudi Arabia in perspective of the Saudi Arabia-Yemen conflict," said the minister.

He was speaking on the floor of the National Assembly in response to a point of order raised by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA Shafqat Mahmood.

Mahmood was referring to some reports and posts on the social media which suggested that a Pakistan Army brigade was sent to Saudi Arabia.

Asif said, "It is our policy not to get involved in Saudi Arabia-Yemen conflict. If any decision had to be taken, it will flow through the parliament."

As discussed in this house and approved, he stressed, "It would be our endeavour that our role is not partisan rather we would play a conciliatory role".

According to the federal minister, under a 1982 agreement between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, just above 1,000 Pakistanis including technicians, doctors and engineers have been living in the country for many years.

"The decision of this house [National Assembly] is like an order for the government that Pakistan will not get involved Saudi Arabia-Yemen conflict," Asif maintained.



Snakes in Suits

House Intel Committee announces ahead of DOJ report: No evidence Trump Tower wiretapped

Donald Trump
© Joshua Roberts / Reuters
Although the Justice Department asked for more time to send congressional intelligence committees evidence that Trump Tower was wiretapped during the campaign, the leaders of the House committee said they never received any.

"It deeply concerns me that the president would make such an accusation without basis," Representative Adam Schiff (D-California), the ranking member, told reporters, calling it "irresponsible" of President Donald Trump to suggest that his predecessor ordered a wiretap of him.


There is the possibility that someone in Trump's campaign was swept up in incidental collection by speaking with someone under surveillance, Chair Devin Nunes (R-California) said, but no one in the campaign was a target.

"If you're going to take the tweets literally, then clearly the president was wrong," Nunes said.

Comment: More on this scandal:


War Whore

Trump Administration to approve arms sales to Saudi war criminals

saudi war criminals
This week's episode of "Empire Gone Wild" features our freshly inaugurated dear leader, Donald Trump, who appears determined to enthusiastically continue the Obama administration's policy of recklessly arming Saudi war criminals.

First, here's a little background from The Washington Post:
The State Department has approved a resumption of weapons sales that critics have linked to Saudi Arabia's bombing of civilians in Yemen, a potential sign of reinvigorated U.S. support for the kingdom's involvement in its neighbor's ongoing civil war.

The proposal from the State Department would reverse a decision made late in the Obama administration to suspend the sale of precision guided munitions to Riyadh, which leads a mostly Arab coalition conducting airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

While the U.S. military has provided support to the Saudi-led air campaign since 2015, including aerial refueling for Saudi jets and a U.S. advisory mission in the Saudi operations headquarters, the Obama administration sought to scale back that support last year amid alleged Saudi strikes on civilian targets.

Snakes in Suits

US senator wants to probe RT as a 'foreign agent'... What's next, public executions?

RT news studio
A bill introduced by US senator Jeanne Shaheen that seeks to grant the Justice Department powers to investigate RT's "funding sources and foreign connections" is yet another example of McCarthyism-style persecution of dissenting voices, RT's editor-in-chief has said.

"At such pace they'll soon start shooting our journalists at the squares. Greetings to Senator McCarthy from Senator Shaheen," RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said, drawing parallels with an old school Cold War witch-hunt straight from the 1950s.

The proposed amendment to the Foreign Agents Registration Act dubbed the "Foreign Agents Registration Modernization and Enforcement Act," is touted as a response to alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. The bill would provide the Justice Department with additional powers to demand organizations to disclose their suspected foreign connections and the sources of its funding.

Dominoes

George Galloway: US Empire's bombardment of Mosul, ignored by MSM, radicalizes Muslims around the world

muslims
© Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters
Nothing could demonstrate the double standards of the Western political class and their media echo chambers better than the bombardment of the densely populated area of western Mosul, which they have virtually ignored, former MP George Galloway, told RT.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the anti-ISIS operation in the city of Mosul has entered its final stage. He also warned the number of refugees would increase.

More than 200,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Mosul since the anti-terror operation started in October, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Hala Jaber, the spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration in Iraq, said that "There are huge numbers of civilians being displaced on a daily basis. The numbers as of yesterday - and those numbers only reflect IDPs that have gone into camps - total 13,428 families, which amounts about 80,568 individuals... The exodus of the displaced is increasing on a daily basis."

Although none of this is being heard in the mainstream media, civilians who managed to escape from the city warn they fear the bombs of their supposed 'liberators' as much as those of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists.

Attention

UN Human Rights mission reports almost 10,000 killed in Donbass since 2014

Donbass refugees
© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresensky
Almost 10,000 people have been killed in Donbass since the beginning of the military conflict, with over 23,000 people injured, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (UNMMU) said on Wednesday.

In April 2014, the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions refused to recognize the new Ukrainian government that came to power in what they perceive to be a coup. Ukraine's government launched a military operation against the regions that, following the May referendums, proclaimed sovereignty.

"The total death toll from mid-April 2014 to 12 March 2017 is at least 9,940, with at least 23,455 people injured. This is a conservative estimate based on available data. These figures include Ukrainian armed forces, civilians and members of armed groups. Over 2,000 are civilians who have been killed in hostilities. The number of civilians injured due to the conflict is estimated at between 7,000 and 9,000," the press release stated, citing a report released earlier in the day.

Attention

'Most transparent ever' Obama administration set records for denying, delaying or obstructing FOIA requests

Obama coup
The Obama administration granted less than a quarter of public requests for government files in its last year in office and spent $36.2 million on legal battles to keep its files secret, according to a new transparency report compiled for "Sunshine Week."

Having aspired to be "the most transparent administration in history" at the beginning of President Barack Obama's first term, it instead set records for denying, delaying or obstructing requests for government records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Associated Press reported on Tuesday, citing analysis of data provided by the US government.

The Justice Department spent $12 million on legal costs in fighting to keep its files from the public, with the Department of Homeland Security spending $6.3 million and the Department of Defense spending $4.8 million, AP noted. The three departments received more than half of the total FOIA requests made in 2016.

Comment: Documents reveal Obama administration tried to kill transparency despite claims of openness


Snakes in Suits

Going from bad to worse: Ukraine preparing sanctions against Russian banks

Ukrainian activist spray-painting
© Valentyn Ogirenko / ReutersUkrainian activist spray-painting "Death to Russian banks" at the entrance of Sberbank in Kiev.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the SBU security service have been told to draft proposals for sanctions against banks with stakes in Russian state banks, according to the head of the National Security and Defense Council, Alexander Turchinov.

"The National Bank of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine are instructed to analyze activities of Ukrainian banking institutions with Russian state banks' shares in funds, and to submit the relevant proposals, including on imposing sanctions on them, by the end of the day," Turchinov said following Wednesday's meeting of the Council.

Several subsidiaries of Russian banks, including Sberbank, VTB, and Prominvestbank, are currently providing banking services in Ukraine. Apart from state-run banking institutions, there are also units of private Russian Standard Bank and Luxembourg ABH Holdings owned by Russia's Alfa Bank.

Comment: Kiev seems to be headed in self-destruct more:


Snakes in Suits

Ukraine announces suspension of cargo traffic with separatist-held areas

Empty coal wagons parked near a metallurgical plant in separatist-controlled territory in the Donetsk region
© epa
Ukrainian authorities have announced the suspension of all cargo traffic with areas held by Russia-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country, indicating that the government has moved to replace a blockade established by activists with official restrictions on commerce.

Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov announced the decision on March 15, shortly after President Petro Poroshenko proposed it at a session of the council.

The move comes after the government took steps this week to end a rail and road blockade established by Ukrainians opposed to any trade with the separatists, who control a portion of eastern Ukraine that includes coal mines and other industrial enterprises that have long been a crucial part of the country's economy. The activists maintaining the blockade called such commerce "trade in blood."