You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

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RayThom
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You really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by RayThom »

Speaking of Netanyahu -- he's going down.

The Other Major Scandal Threatening Netanyahu's Grip on Power
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.pr ... -1.8232597
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“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.” 

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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

You really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up.

According to the Guardian, British spy Christopher Steele (as in golden showers etc.) had a 'personal relationship' with Ivanka. Well they are grown-ups, so whatever. The Christmas table should be a fun time at the Trumps' house this year.

The Guardian is quoting the DOJ report with some additional digging by ABC News.

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RayThom
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You really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by RayThom »

The plot thickens.

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“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.” 

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Scooter
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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Scooter »

Econoline wrote:I can't even...

Latest Presidentialism from the Stable Genius.
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WHAAAAAAAAA...? :loon :? :shrug :arg
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Econoline
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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Econoline »

Image

Some turds are worse than others. In Trump's case, I'd be happy to flush as many times as needed for him to go down.
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
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Scooter
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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Scooter »

Medicare chief asked taxpayers to cover stolen jewelry

A top Trump health appointee sought to have taxpayers reimburse her for the costs of jewelry, clothing and other possessions, including a $5,900 Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, that were stolen while in her luggage during a work-related trip, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

Seema Verma, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, filed a $47,000 claim for lost property on Aug. 20, 2018, after her bags were stolen while she was giving a speech in San Francisco the prior month. The property was not insured, Verma wrote in her filing to the Health and Human Services department.

The federal health department ultimately reimbursed Verma $2,852.40 for her claim, a CMS spokesperson said.

Story Continued Below

Verma’s claim included $43,065 for about two dozen pieces of jewelry, based off an appraisal she'd received from a jeweler about three weeks after the theft. Among Verma's stolen jewelry was an Ivanka Trump-brand pendant, made of gold, prasiolite and diamonds, that Verma’s jeweler valued at $5,900.

Verma’s claim also included about $2,000 to cover the cost of her stolen clothes and another $2,000 to cover the cost of other stolen goods, including a $325 claim for moisturizer and a $349 claim for noise-cancelling headphones.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes CMS, said the department has a longstanding policy of paying for certain goods when they are lost during a work trip, so long as they “are not inherently for other uses,” which is why Verma was partially reimbursed.

"When paying for such goods, the department pays a discounted rate based on age for the items that were lost," the spokesperson said. "It’s perfectly appropriate that the administrator filed a personal property loss claim for goods stolen while on work travel and this is not an unusual practice for federal employees."

But the department is expressly prohibited from reimbursing staff for lost items like jewelry, the spokesperson said.

The news of the large request for stolen luxury items comes at a time of unusual scrutiny for Verma, who formerly served as a consultant to then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in Indiana and has led CMS since March 2017. The $1 trillion health agency administers Medicare, the nation’s health insurance program for seniors; Medicaid, the program for low-income Americans; and Obamacare, among other programs.

Verma has been engaged in an acrimonious feud with HHS Secretary Alex Azar that has spilled over into policy matters and prompted separate closed-door meetings for each official with Vice President Pence. Her spending of taxpayer money has also been under scrutiny by the HHS inspector general, after POLITICO reported in March about her extensive use of outside public relations consultants, some of whom worked to burnish Verma’s personal brand.

The $2.25 million public relations contract was put on hold pending the probe, and Verma has been under investigation from congressional Democrats.

Verma’s luggage was stolen out of her rented Chevrolet Tahoe SUV on July 25, 2018, while she was giving a speech at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, according to statements she gave to the local police and HHS. Verma initially estimated the cost of her lost property as $20,000, according to the police report, before later revising the cost upward when filing her claim to the health department.

POLITICO last month filed a Freedom of Information Act request about Verma’s claims for personal damages and separately obtained the documents and confirmed their authenticity with multiple sources.

A CMS spokesperson said that Verma was one of three staffers whose luggage was stolen, and HHS lawyers instructed them to file detailed claims for all missing items, including Verma’s jewelry. "At her own expense the administrator travels to Washington, DC, from Indiana each week to work at CMS, which was why she was traveling with her personal collection of jewelry," the spokesperson said. Verma‘s family lives in Indiana.

Staff were unaware of a federal health employee previously filing a claim as large as $47,000.

Verma was in San Francisco as part of a scheduled three-day trip to Northern California that included a speaking engagement in Napa Valley and a visit to Palo Alto-based Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. The trip was approved by ethics counsel, a CMS spokesperson said.
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BoSoxGal
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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by BoSoxGal »

INSURANCE
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Three lunatic sites agree:
Prasiolite . . is a powerful spiritual stone that encourages spiritual and personal growth. It fosters love and compassion, while ridding your mind, body and spirit of negative energy. It also helps with grounding and deepening your connection with Mother Earth.

It's energy is like the spirit of nature itself, embodied within a beautiful green quartz crystal. Although the green variety is not as well known as purple Amethyst, it has a similar level of energy. Yet it is a quite different stone, and comes to you from a truly heart based perspective. Its impact within the heart will clear disharmonious energy and open you, totally, to love and compassion. By its immersion in fire it changes to a new stone. This is an analogy for its role when we use it for spiritual growth. Like all quartz, these are wonderful healing crystals for you to use in combination with other stones. Other stones energy will be amplified by its contact with this green quartz crystal.
If you plan to wear this stone as jewelry, you should know that it will amplify the energies that reside in your heart and mind. Make sure that you only have positive thoughts and emotions so that they will not interfere with the flow of energies in your life. Prasiolite is also a stone of originality. It will inspire you to be the best version of yourself and share your unique talents with the world. It will encourage you to be your unique and fabulous self instead of having an ordinary and safe personality.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

I love how she got an appraisal from 'her jeweler' after the theft. I don't have a jeweler of my own. I feel so inadequate.

She has a job in DC and chooses to live in Indiana? Someone somewhere needs to say, tough shit, lady! It's not our fault you didn't insure the stuff. Do we really want someone who is too fucking stupid to insure her own belongings to be in charge of Medicare?

All the best people. Shockingly, sheer incompetence is not an impeachable offense. Everyone should read Michael Lewis's The Fifth Risk.

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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Guinevere »

Just another lying, cheating, trumpist idiot. Unless you’re trying to scam the US Government, every seasoned traveler knows you put your jewelry in a safe or keep it on your person (if you even travel with it at all). You never keep it in luggage, in your vehicle.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

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Scooter
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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Scooter »

US Rejects Offer of Free Flu Shots for Detained Immigrants

WASHINGTON - As the flu season reaches its peak in December and January, the Trump administration has again rejected an offer by an American physicians group of free flu vaccinations for detained undocumented immigrants.

Physicians from Doctors for Camp Closure sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offering a flu shot pilot program to detainees at a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility at no cost to the federal government.

The CBP said this is not a new policy, that it has never been the agency’s practice to administer vaccines to migrants.

On Friday, the physicians group reaffirmed its commitment to vaccinate migrants.

“We have the vaccinations and are ready to deliver them as soon as we receive permission, but have not been granted access by CBP or DHS,” said Marie DeLuca, an emergency physician from New York City who helped co-found Doctors for Camp Closure.

“Individuals in CBP custody should generally not be held for longer than 72 hours in either CBP hold rooms or holding facilities,” CBP spokesman Matthew Dyman wrote to VOA in an email. “Every effort is made to hold detainees for the least amount of time required for their processing, transfer, release or repatriation as appropriate and operationally feasible.”

During last year’s flu season, at least three children died of the flu while in CBP custody, according to reports.

But Dyman said that because CBP is a law enforcement agency and because of the short amount of time migrants are held and other logistical challenges, operating a vaccine program is not feasible.

Both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Department of Health and Human Services “have comprehensive medical support services and can provide vaccinations as appropriate to those in their custody,” he said.

The physicians organization, which has 2,000 physician members, was formed a few months ago. The group had outlined a plan to vaccinate about 100 migrants in a San Diego, California, facility, and then expand and vaccinate more migrants.

Commenting on CBP’s 72-hour hold statement, Danielle Deines, a pediatrician in Virginia and member of the group, said a lot can happen in 72 hours for someone with the flu.

“You can have a number of migrants exposed in that amount of time. … People who are going to come into this really crowded situation are already vulnerable from a health standpoint because their bodies are stressed based on the travel and things that they’ve had to do just to get [to the border]. And then you’re placing them in a place where there’s limited access to anything to maintain hygiene, so it’s a kind of a great setup for getting the flu,” Deines said.

She said the flu vaccine cuts the risk of hospitalization, intensive care admission, and death.

“There’s multiple reasons why this is important. And I think the biggest one is that they’re not following their own protocols as far as how long they’re putting people [in detention] and how they’re handling in keeping people healthy,” she said.

CBP has not been able to limit time in its custody to 72 hours, spokesman Dyman said.

“However, that is still the goal and the agency, working with partners, is still doing everything it can to move people out of temporary CBP holding facilities,” he said.

During the 2018-2019 flu season, at least three children died of the flu while in CBP custody, according to reports.

One of those people was Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez, a 16-year-old boy. In a video, shot earlier this year and published Thursday by ProPublica, Vásquez is visibly disoriented and motionless after he collapsed in his concrete cell around 1:36 a.m. The migrant Guatemalan boy died May 20.

Though border officials said the boy was found “unresponsive this morning during a welfare check,” the video ProPublica published shows another migrant boy, who shared the cell with Vásquez, was the one to discover Vásquez four hours later in the same position and unresponsive.

Vásquez was detained in the Border Patrol station in south Texas. An autopsy revealed he died of the flu and other complications.

A CBP spokesperson told VOA the investigation into his death is ongoing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website shows that seasonal influenza activity in the United States has been “elevated for four weeks and continues to increase.” CDC recommends that everyone 6 months old and older get a flu vaccine each season.

Though CBP has more than 250 medical personnel along the U.S. Mexico border, which includes a mix of nurse practitioners and physicians assistants, Deines, of Doctors for Camp Closure, said they are not qualified to diagnose patients.

Doctors for Camp Closure co-founder DeLuca said Vásquez’s death was preventable, adding that childhood death from influenza is rare in the U.S. because of preventative measures such as flu vaccines, and because of the medical care received by children in offices and hospitals across the country.

“To see a child suffering as [Vásquez] did in that video is horrifying and inhumane. His death was preventable. ... The video also makes it clear that detention is unsafe and can have deadly consequences,” DeLuca said.
There can only be one reason for refusing free vaccine; they want those in detention to die.
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Crackpot
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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Crackpot »

Or they think that the flu vaccine causes the flu.
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.

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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Burning Petard »

Again, you can't make this stuff up. Opinion piece, beginning with an objective fact, from WaPo today:

"Walk to the back of the impeachment hearing room, into the Republican cloakroom where lawmakers huddle during proceedings, and you’ll find a closed double door with a sign taped to it announcing:
“This is not a door. Thank you.”
Pay no attention to the latch, the push bar, the light visible through the crack, the wood panels: This is not a door.
It’s the perfect distillation of the defense of President Trump in these final days of the House impeachment proceedings. This is not a quid pro quo. This is not an abuse of power. This is not an obstruction of justice. It doesn’t matter if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck. This is not a duck. Thank you.

The White House declined to offer a defense of Trump as lawyers for the House Intelligence Committee outlined their findings Monday. This left Republicans to defend him with a blend of falsehoods, disruptions and conspiracy theories aimed at causing confusion in the mind of anybody tempted to conclude that a door is a door. . . . . ."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... n-avocado/

snailgate

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RayThom
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You really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by RayThom »

Burning Petard wrote:Again, you can't make this stuff up. Opinion piece, beginning with an objective fact, from WaPo today:
"Walk to the back of the impeachment hearing room, into the Republican cloakroom where lawmakers huddle during proceedings, and you’ll find a closed double door with a sign taped to it announcing:
“This is not a door. Thank you.”
snailgate
Why not just place a sock on the doorknob?

Back in my college days we all knew what that meant.
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“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.” 

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Sue U
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Re: You really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Sue U »

RayThom wrote:
Burning Petard wrote:Again, you can't make this stuff up. Opinion piece, beginning with an objective fact, from WaPo today:
"Walk to the back of the impeachment hearing room, into the Republican cloakroom where lawmakers huddle during proceedings, and you’ll find a closed double door with a sign taped to it announcing:
“This is not a door. Thank you.”
snailgate
Why not just place a sock on the doorknob?

Back in my college days we all knew what that meant.
Means the same thing in this context.
GAH!

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Econoline
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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Econoline »

Our democracy is going down the toilet, and Trump is more concerned with the toilet than with the democracy.
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Econoline
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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Econoline »

BTW, here's the full statement (as opposed to the shorter version posted above):
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IMHO it's even worse than the edited version. My favorite part is where he explains, "You have many states where they have so much water that it comes down. It's called rain. They don't know what to do with it." (I guess this might explain his bewilderment as to how to operate an umbrella...) "So we're going to be opening that up, I believe, and we're looking at changing the standards very soon."

I for one can hardly wait for the new standards about where it can rain, and what we can do about it...
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BoSoxGal
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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

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He is descending into dementia very rapidly.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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RayThom
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You really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by RayThom »

Econoline wrote:... I for one can hardly wait for the new standards about where it can rain, and what we can do about it...
This sounds like a job for Mr. Sharpie. He can change anything.
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Econoline
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Re: You really, really, REALLY couldn't make this shit up

Post by Econoline »

You really, really, REALLY, *REALLY*, *REALLY*, *REALLY* couldn't make this shit up!

Apparently the Trump campaign (with Trump's approval) has released a video identifying him with Thanos, the worst mass-murderer ever even portrayed in fiction.




:barf
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
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