crazytown
crazytown's JournalGraham launches probe of Bidens, Burisma and Ukraine
Source: Washington Post
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday requesting documents related to former vice president Joe Biden and his communications with Ukrainian officials, a step seen as a GOP effort to counter the House impeachment investigation of President Trump.
The inquiry by Graham (R-S.C.) is focused on any calls Biden may have had with Petro Poroshenko, then the Ukrainian president, regarding the firing of the country's top prosecutor, as well as any that referenced an investigation of Burisma, the Ukrainian natural-gas company that employed Biden's son Hunter Biden.
Graham's document request suggests he is seeking to legitimize Trump's accusations that Biden, then vice president, put pressure on Ukraine to fire its lead prosecutor to protect his son, a claim without evidence that has been disputed by officials familiar with the investigation.
Graham, one of Trump's fiercest defenders on Capitol Hill, told The Washington Post in late October that he was under intense pressure to launch an investigation into Biden by Trump and his allies.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/graham-launches-probe-into-bidens-burisma-and-ukraine/2019/11/21/5a5675b4-0ca5-11ea-97ac-a7ccc8dd1ebc_story.html
In October Graham said he would not turn to Senate into a circus. Send in the clowns. Don't bother they're here.
The Medicare for All transition phase explained by Ady Barkan
Why I’m Endorsing Elizabeth Warren(snip) The plan begins on Day 1 of her presidency, with some important executive actions to lower prescription drug prices and constrain the political power of big health care companies. Then, in her first hundred days, she will ask the Congress to pass a massive expansion and enhancement of Medicare, including a generous Medicare for All option. Here’s what that law would do:
* Radically improve Medicare so it fully covers long-term, dental, vision, hearing, mental health, and substance abuse treatment.
* Lower the eligibility age for Medicare to 50, giving 57 million people the ability to enroll immediately.
* Create a Medicare for All option that offers totally free, comprehensive health care to 135 million Americans = every child under 18 and every person making at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (roughly $51,000 for a family of four). Everyone else would have the option to enroll at low cost, capped at 5 percent of income with costs automatically going to zero over time.
Giving people the ability to buy in to Medicare immediately ensures that the insurance companies won’t game the system. We know that they, seeing they are getting pushed out of the marketplace, will likely raise premiums for the sickest people and kick many off their existing insurance plans. The buy-in—which is in both the House and the Senate bills—allows us to make sure we protect everyone.
(snip) There are two facts about the Warren proposal that I especially like. First, it lowers the age of Medicare eligibility to 50 immediately, getting even more people onto Medicare in the first year than Sanders’s bill, which has an eligibility age of 55. Second, Warren also adds in full long-term care, which matches Representative Pramila Jayapal’s Medicare for All bill in the House. That is an enormous addition for our seniors and people with disabilities. I know firsthand just what this will mean for millions of people across our country to have this kind of care available to them.
https://www.thenation.com/article/ady-barkan-elizabeth-warren-endorsement/
Sonderland throws the bus Under The Bus.
The Bus
The testimony
Schiff: 'There's a lot of new material here' 
Politifact: Out of pocket cost of the current health system: $11 trillion over 10 years
If we make no changes over the next 10 years, Americans will reach into their pockets and pay out about $11 trillion on insurance premiums, copays, deductibles and uncovered medical expenses Elizabeth WarrenPOLITIFACT: TRUE
Warren says out-of-pocket health spending will total $11 trillion in 10 years. We checked the math
(snip) We contacted the Warren campaign, which redirected us to a report from the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, as well as to federal estimates of household out-of-pocket expenses and premium costs over the next decade.
The Urban report doesn’t include the $11 trillion figure. But economist Linda Blumberg, who authored the paper, told us the statistic is "perfectly consistent" with the analysis.
If anything, she said, the number is a lowball figure. When Blumberg and her team crunched the numbers, they found that, under the existing health care system, Americans can expect to pay $11.7 trillion between out-of-pocket costs – the copays, deductibles and uncovered medical expenses – and premiums over the next decade. That calculation comes from Urban’s model for projecting what individual households might expect to spend, factoring in inflation, on these types of health costs.
(snip) Cynthia Cox, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation and expert on the Affordable Care Act, pointed to what a typical American family currently spends on health care: about $5,000 per year, when you look at out-of-pocket costs and premiums combined. Extrapolating from there, she said, Warren’s claim seems reasonable. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
"Over the course of 10 years, when you add it up — that sounds about right," Cox said. "The reality is, people do spend a lot on health care out of their pockets, and there’s a lot spent on their behalf by employers or taxpayer-funded programs that they never see."
Under Warren’s health care plan, Americans would pay nothing directly out-of-pocket — no premiums, copays or deductibles — for health care. So that $11 trillion would disappear from the cost side of the ledger.
https://www.politifact.com/health-check/statements/2019/nov/12/elizabeth-warren/warren-says-out-pocket-health-spending-will-total-/
A shout out to the #YangGang
The automation of million of jobs inches closer.
Alphabet's Wing Begins First Commercial Drone Delivery Service in U.S., Beating Amazon, Uber
Newsweek: Wing, an offshoot of Google parent company Alphabet, officially launched its drone delivery service Friday, delivering a FedEx package—a birthday gift for Susie Sensmeier from her husband, Paul—through the air from a distribution center to the couple's home in Christiansburg, Virginia, according to the company's blog.
Wing was the first company to receive Federal Aviation Authority approval for door-to-door drone delivery, Business Wire reported Friday, beating Amazon's Prime Air, which is awaiting the "regulatory support needed to safely realize our vision," and Uber Eats' drone delivery program to market. The meal delivery service launched a test program in San Diego over the summer in partnership with McDonald's, but that project only uses drones for a portion of the delivery process, depositing packages at a drop-off point for collection and final distribution by a delivery person.
While "Uber is focusing on drone delivery in dense, urban environments" according to TechCrunch, Wing decided to launch its pilot program in small-town Christiansburg. Snuggled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains with a population of 22,000, Christiansburg describes itself as a "tight-knit community." Without high-rises or other obstructions, Wing's drones can fly from their "Nest" in North Christiansburg, pick up parcels from local retailers, and deposit them at the doorsteps of qualifying homes.
Along with FedEx, Wing will also deliver packages from Walgreens and local boutique Sugar Magnolia.
In a statement to Newsweek, Tom Raub, co-owner of Sugar Magnolia expressed delight at watching his products break new commercial ground. "We were at [the customers'] home when they ordered our products and watched with great excitement as the drone delivered their order about eight minutes later," he wrote.
https://www.newsweek.com/wing-drone-first-commercial-delivery-1466471
Rolling Stone: Warren backs Taylor Swift
In pop culture, Taylor Swift v Scooter Braun is big news.
A Elizabeth Warren Comes to Taylor Swift’s Defense
Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren came to the defense of songstress Taylor Swift, who is engaged in a bitter battle with her former record label headed by Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta over ownership and rights to her old albums. Swift released a statement earlier this week saying the label was trying to stop her from performing her songs at the upcoming American Music Awards. According to Swift, she is “not allowed to perform my old songs on television because they claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year.”
On Saturday afternoon, Warren quote tweeted Swift’s statement and said that Swift’s work was being “threatened by a private equity firm,” adding that she has a plan to address this very issue.
Warren’s plan to address private equity firms is part of the “economic patriotism” plank of her campaign. “To raise wages, help small businesses, and spur economic growth, we need to shut down the Wall Street giveaways and rein in the financial industry so it stops sucking money out of the rest of the economy,” she wrote in a Medium post outlining her plan to end private equity’s “stranglehold” on the economy and jobs. Warren also proposed legislation, the Stop Wall Street Looting Act of 2019, that would fundamentally change how private equity can buy and sell other companies.
Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also came to Swift’s defense and maligned private equity firms, saying on Twitter, “Private equity groups’ predatory practices actively hurt millions of Americans… They need to be reigned in.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/elizabeth-warren-taylor-swift-913692/
https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1195777715544166401
NYT: Elizabeth Warren Vows to Expand Health Coverage in First 100 Days
(A more positive take on Senator Warren's 'retreat'. Q: Why does the NYT call a U.S. Senator Ms. Warren?)
Elizabeth Warren Vows to Expand Health Coverage in First 100 Days
Ms. Warren laid out a blueprint to pass major health legislation at the start of her presidency. But she would wait as long as three years to seek passage of a full-scale “Medicare for all” plan.
WASHINGTON — Senator Elizabeth Warren vowed on Friday to pass major health care legislation in her first 100 days as president, unveiling a new, detailed plan to significantly expand public health insurance coverage as a first step, and promising to pass a “Medicare for all” system by the end of her third year in office that would cover all Americans.
The initial bill she would seek to pass if elected would be a step short of the broader Medicare for all plan she has championed. But it would substantially expand the reach and generosity of public health insurance, creating a government plan that would offer free coverage to all American children and people earning less than double the federal poverty rate, or about $50,000 for a family of four, and that could be purchased by other Americans who want it.
Ms. Warren has long endorsed a Medicare for all bill sponsored by one of her rivals for the Democratic nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But until now, she has not specified how quickly she would move to enact a health care plan. Friday’s proposal amounts to a detailed road map for eventually establishing Medicare for all, a single government-run health insurance program under which private coverage would be eliminated.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-medicare-for-all-100-days.html
Bloomberg plans to spend $100 million on anti-Trump ads in key states
Bloomberg plans to spend $100 million on anti-Trump ads in key states(CNN)Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to spend $100 million on an anti-Donald Trump ad blitz in key 2020 battleground states.
A Bloomberg spokesperson told CNN the digital campaign will target Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin starting Friday and will run through the end of the primary season. The ads will not feature Bloomberg.
The ad blitz comes as Bloomberg is making moves toward a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Bloomberg has filed the necessary paperwork to get on the ballot in Alabama and Arkansas, but is not expected to be on the ballot in New Hampshire. Bloomberg has not announced a final decision on whether to enter the Democratic primary race.
"Mike believes that Trump is an existential threat to the country. He's not waiting to take on the President, he's starting now. This is all hands on deck," Bloomberg spokesman Jason Schechter told CNN.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/15/politics/bloomberg-anti-trump-ads/index.html
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