RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://pjmedia.com/trending/illinois-paid-millions-in-medicaid-for-people-who-are-already-dead/

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. In other words, if you want to see the “competency” and “efficiency” of leftists at work, look to Illinois. Among a myriad of state-wide problems created by leftist ideology, a new report from the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General uncovered that Illinois spent at least $4.6 million between 2015 and 2017 on people who are already dead.

Those uninitiated in the utter lack of competency among leftists may wonder how this could ever happen. How does the state spend money on dead people? Well, ABC 20 out of Springfield, Ill., explains it this way:

Here’s how it works: managed care organizations provide health care to Medicaid patients in exchange for monthly “capitation” payments from the state. “This means they pay a specific amount at a regular interval for that person, depending on their age, gender, and disease states,” Petersburg Pharmacy owner Dave Bagot said. “And what happened was they continued making these payments for these folks after they had passed away.”

ABC 20’s article makes the obvious point that “Some believe now other areas of Illinois Medicaid need to be looked into.”

https://nypost.com/2019/09/07/robert-mueller-helped-saudi-arabia-cover-up-its-role-in-9-11-attacks-suit/

After a lengthy investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller charged Russia made “multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election” and said the incursion “deserves the attention of every American.”

But former FBI investigators say their old boss didn’t feel the same concern when they uncovered multiple, systemic efforts by the Saudi government to assist the hijackers in the lead-up to the 9/11 attacks — a far more consequential, to say nothing of deadly, foreign influence operation on America.

As the head of the FBI at the time, they say Mueller was not nearly as interested in investigating that espionage conspiracy, which also involved foreign intelligence officers. Far from it, the record shows he covered up evidence pointing back to the Saudi Embassy and Riyadh — and may have even misled Congress about what he knew.

9/11 victims agree. “He was the master when it came to covering up the kingdom’s role in 9/11,” said survivor Sharon Premoli, who was pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center 18 years ago.

“In October of 2001, Mueller shut down the government’s investigation after only three weeks, and then took part in the Bush [administration’s] campaign to block, obfuscate and generally stop anything about Saudi Arabia from being released,” added Premoli, now a plaintiff in the 9/11 lawsuit against Saudi Arabia.

https://amgreatness.com/2019/09/07/lies-the-left-tells-about-guns/

Congress reconvenes this week after a summer fraught with multiple mass shootings. Reportedly, legislation implementing tighter gun control is on the table, with rumored support by some in the White House. The rhetoric surrounding guns continues to escalate.

Here’s the thing about guns. The Constitution—that handy little document—guarantees our rights to them, and that guarantee is a profound reflection of the nature and character of our freedoms. As Ben Domenech of The Federalist wrote recently, “the right to bear arms is not about hunting.” Rather:

It is a natural right of the deepest significance to the relationship between the citizen and the state. It is in the Constitution because the men who defeated the greatest empire in the world wanted us to be able to defend our freedom.

The simple fact that we have a right to own guns doesn’t mean individuals must own them, use them, or even like them. But what it does mean is that people advocating further regulation of firearms at least should have a baseline understanding of how firearms actually work, as well as the current statutory environment that regulates their purchase, handling, and use.

Unfortunately, the current rhetoric coming from Democrats betrays a deep misunderstanding about all of those things.

Here are some of the worst offenses.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/corporate-america-wants-to-be-woke/

The politicization of firms is a double-edged sword.

Time was, CEOs of mighty enterprises shied away from politics, especially hot-button social and cultural issues. They focused instead on the bottom line. They maximized shareholder value by delivering goods and services to customers. Some businessmen still operate by this principle. In doing so they provide not only for their employees and CEOs and board members but also for the institutions — pensions, individual retirement plans, index funds, hospitals, philanthropies — that have invested in their companies.

That is no longer enough for many of America’s richest and most powerful. Suddenly, corporate America has a conscience. Every week brings new examples of CEOs intervening in political, cultural, and social debate. In every instance, the prominent spokesmen for American business situate themselves comfortably on the left side of the political spectrum. Shareholder capitalism finds itself under attack. Not just from socialism but also from woke capitalism.

These outbursts are not just virtue signaling. Nor is the left-wing tilt of corporate America merely a response to the “rising American electorate” of Millennial, Gen Z, and minority consumers. What is taking place is not a business story but a political one. What is known as “stakeholder capitalism” is another means by which elites circumvent democratic accountability.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/students-debunk-study-showing-226-percent-rise-hate-crimes-following-trump-rallies/

A study purporting to show area hate crimes tended to spike following Trump rallies, which went viral earlier this year, is fatally flawed in its methodology, according to a new analysis by two economics P.h.D. students at Harvard University.

The study, which found a 226 percent increase in white-nationalist propaganda and hate crimes in counties that hosted Trump campaign rallies, failed to account for political campaigns’ preference for hosting rallies in highly populated areas that naturally tend to experience more hate crimes, according to the analysis conducted by Harvard P.h.D. candidates Matthew Lilley and Brian Wheaton.

Lilley and Wheaton were able to replicate the initial study’s findings with respect to Trump rallies, but found an even greater increase in hate crimes in counties that hosted Clinton campaign rallies during the same period.

Once the researchers controlled for population size, the effect of Trump rallies on hate crimes became “statistically indistinguishable from zero.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/09/red-flag-laws-should-mandate-treatment-not-just-gun-confiscation/

To seriously tackle the problem of mass shootings, we must get serious about tackling the problem of severe mental illness.

In the wake of recent mass shootings by Americans alleged to be mentally ill, President Trump has called for a national red-flag law that would preclude certain mentally ill individuals from owning or buying firearms. It’s a good idea, but for the seriously mentally ill, red-flag laws should also trigger treatment, not just gun confiscation.

It makes no sense to let people who are known to be seriously mentally ill and believed to be dangerous go without treatment, even if they have had their weapons taken away. It’s not compassionate. And it can be dangerous.

Forty percent of the seriously mentally ill have anosognosia, meaning they are unaware they are ill. Because they are unaware they are ill, they sometimes refuse treatment. Many become homeless, arrested, incarcerated, and needlessly hospitalized. Some, responding to their delusions, resort to violence that doesn’t involve guns. All of these outcomes could be avoided if they received treatment.

The red-flag law previously proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2019, which is now being taken up by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), Joe Manchin (D., W.V.), and others, should be amended to provide a path to treatment for those who are identified as being too mentally ill to own guns.

New York provides a roadmap for how to do this. In 2013, it passed the New York SAFE Act. Among other provisions, the law required therapists to report to the county mental-health director the names of mentally ill people under their care who they believe to be dangerous and to possess guns. It then charged the county mental-health director with investigating the therapists’ reports and, if appropriate, instructing law enforcement to seize the guns from the individuals in question and enter their names into the federal NICS database, which would preclude them from making gun purchases. It further allowed for an appeals process through which the mental-health director’s determination could be challenged.

https://dailypoliticalnewswire.com/smolletts-lawyer-even-if-he-lied-its-the-polices-fault-for-taking-it-seriously/?utm_source=newsletter

Here’s a statement to make you scrunch your nose and scratch your head: Jussie Smollett’s lawyer, William J. Quinlan, actually said that even if the actor did lie about being attacked by two white men in MAGA hats, it’s the police’s fault for taking him so seriously.

Yep, that’s right. The lawyer is blaming the police for Smollett’s crime! How is that even a valid argument?

“My client from the beginning has maintained his innocence and disputed the city’s allegations,” Quinlan stated, “We contend the city is wrong … The mere fact somebody filed a police report doesn’t presume the investigation will be done and certainly not to the extent of what the city is claiming.”

The “Empire” star was charged after he staged an attack on himself in January, in which he hired two men to attack him. Then he turned to the police and the media and cried wolf, claiming that he was attacked by anti-gay Trump supporters.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/09/obamas_try_to_muscle_little_company_into_handing_over_their_trademark_to_them.html

The Obamas have always been big on Chicago-style political muscle, and even in the post-presidency, Barack and Michelle have not changed a bit.

Get a load of this outrageous bid to force a little company to give up its trademark — to him.  According to Fox News:

The legal team representing the Obamas filed a petition to cancel the trademark of an e-book publishing company called Higher Ground Enterprises, much to the chagrin of the publishing company.

“This is really deplorable behavior. I hope that the Obamas realize that these actions are not consistent with the values they preach and that they instruct their attorneys to immediately dismiss the petition,” attorney Larry Zerner told Fox News in a statement that was first given to The Hollywood Reporter.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Obama team wanted to name their Netflix propaganda venture ‘Higher Ground Productions’ which is kind of a stupid, banal name, but whatevs.  The U.S. trademark office told them “no” because another company, Higher Ground Enterprises, already had the name, and the names were too similar.

Senator Rand Paul has come out with his annual “Waste Report” and, as usual, gives taxpayers plenty of reasons to become enraged.

Heading the list is $48 billion in improper Medicaid and Medicare payments.

Money and Markets:

Medicare spent $582 billion in fiscal year 2018, which is only second to Social Security, according to the report. Apparently, $48 billion the Centers for  Medicare and Medicaid paid out wasn’t right. This isn’t a new issue, either, as the Government Accountability Office has labeled the CMS a “High Risk Program” every year since 1990, according to the report.

But the tendency to misallocate funds puts Medicare in an even worse spot than it already was. The CMS projects “Medicare’s costs under current law (will) rise steadily from their current levelof 3.7% of GDP in 2018 to 6% in 2043.” Spending $50 billion improperly isn’t going to help that.

Senator Paul fingers the real problem: “Perhaps the real improper payment is the giant amount of mandatory spending Congress allocates to CMS, allowing Medicare and Medicaid to grow unabated.”

Some other choice examples that will make your blood boil:

The LA school district diverted $158 million in school lunch money to buy lawn sprinklers and pay the salaries of employees at the district TV station.
$250,000 to teach Pakistani kids English at Space Camp and Dollywood.
$500,000 to the National Science Foundation to see if taking selfies makes you “happier.”
$450,000 to from the National Science Foundation to develop a “climate change video game.”
$356,000 to study cocaine and its effect on risky sexual behavior…in quails?
$29 million in “lost” heavy equipment in Afghanistan
$466,991 to study frog mating calls