MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
|
|
In the News
By AJ Naddaff @ APNews.com, Dec. 20
BEIRUT (AP) — Government troops Friday captured four villages in Syria’s northwest as part of a new ground offensive to push into rebel-held Idlib province, Syria’s military and opposition activists said.
The offensive has already forced thousands of civilians to abandon their homes and flee for their lives.
Overnight, government forces and its Russian ally launched hundreds of air and ground strikes on the southern and eastern countryside of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, apparently paving the way for the ground push.
Residents and activists reported incessant bombing over the last few days [....]
as well as live streaming it at the site of his partner, the L.A. Times. Start here:
Perhaps most interesting:
From the other side, Podesta repeatedly called and urged Warren to endorse Clinton to help bring the primary fight to an earlier end. “I think her view was that if she was respectful and waited that she’d be more useful in bringing Bernie supporters to Hillary,” Podesta remembered. “I always thought that was overthinking it.”
In general Warren's brand seemed to take a hit with Bernie supporters post-convention and partially now. And of course Hillary's loss reduced Liz's staff picks to meaningless. Would Hillary take another hit for negotiating in private what she didn't say in public? Media expectations're a fickle bitch.
A shame there wasn't more on a potential Veep role instead of the fairly ineffective Tim Kaine. I was afraid a dual woman ticket would lose the Heartland, but thought it might be a bit of a female reprise of Bill & Al's excellent adventure, 1992, perhaps an older Thelma and Louise w/o Sarandon's blessing (would it end with a drive off a cliff? Did anyway, without the riotgrrrlriotgrrrl bittersweet feel good ending)
By Jonathan Sempel @ Reuters.com, Dec. 17
NEW YORK - CVS Health Corp (CVS.N) and its Omnicare unit were sued on Tuesday by the U.S. government, which accused them of fraudulently billing Medicare and other programs for drugs for older and disabled people without valid prescriptions.
The Department of Justice joined whistleblower litigation accusing Omnicare of violating the federal False Claims Act for illegally dispensing drugs to tens of thousands of patients in assisted living facilities, group homes for people with special needs, and other long-term care facilities.
According to a civil complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Omnicare would often assign new numbers to prescriptions after the original prescriptions expired or ran out of refills.
The government said this enabled Omnicare to bill Medicare Medicaid, and Tricare, which serves military personnel, for hundreds of thousands of drugs, under what the company internally called “rollover” prescriptions, from 2010 to 2018 [....]
By Jerry Lambe @ LawandCrime.com, Dec. 18, with CNN video
As the House of Representatives debated on the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump Wednesday, longtime CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer reached into his archive and resurfaced a Trump interview from Oct. 2008. The video shows Trump, then a private citizen and reality TV show host, praising Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), defending former president Bill Clinton, and saying George W. Bush should have been impeached for lying to the American people [....]
By Ellen Mitchell @ TheHill.com, Dec. 18
The Defense Department’s senior adviser for international cooperation earlier this week left the Pentagon, marking the fifth top official in seven days to leave or announce their departure. Ambassador Tina Kaidanow, a longtime State Department official who began working in her Pentagon role in September 2018, resigned on Dec. 16, the Pentagon confirmed. Defense News first reported her departure [....]
Kaidanow’s resignation follows four other announced departures within a week.
Those include the Dec. 12 notification that top Asia policy official Randall Schriver would leave after two years on the job, the Dec. 13 announcement that top official in charge of personnel and readiness Jimmy Stewart had resigned after taking the role in October 2018 the Tuesday report that Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency leader Steven Walker will leave in January, and the news earlier Wednesday that Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Kari Bingen submitted her resignation on Dec. 5 and will leave Jan. 10 [....]
#1 most popular story @ TheHill.com right now, by Jordain Carney, 12/18/19 04:43 PM EST, with video
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned on Wednesday that if Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, is going to publicly suggest a "cover-up" involving the Bidens and Ukraine "then I hope you know what you're talking about.” [....]
"I don't know what Rudy's got, but I'm going to send him a letter. If you're going to go on national television and tell the country that you've found evidence of a cover-up, then I hope you know what you're talking about,” Graham told reporters."I like Rudy a lot, but we're going to have to watch what we say,” he added [....]
By Eliza Shapiro & Jeffrey C. Mays @ NYTimes.com, Dec. 18
Mayor Bill de Blasio engaged in “political horse trading,” holding back a report on the ultra-Orthodox schools, investigators found.
By Elian Petier @ NYTimes.com, Dec. 18
Women and girls were left behind to face poverty, social stigma and single motherhood in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.
about which an NPR political reporter and Cook Political Report contributing editor screams:
Retweeted by Margot Sanger-Katz, no slouch herself on ACA knowledge:
Politics needs strong personalities & succinct, attention-grabbing messaging. "Blessed are the poor" "Turn the other cheek..." Turning over market tables in the temple. But slogans & persona need good ideas & will to make them happen. Man cannot live on policies alone. Nor on image & fluff alone. Stir it up.