Branko Marcetic delivers some reality at Jacobin:
Last November 30, a collection of physicians and activists were in Washington, DC, its federal buildings still largely closed for business thanks to the pandemic and fear of another Trumpist uprising. They were there to protest what they warned was an attempt to end Medicare as we know it.
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), the leading group behind the effort, had been trying for some time to make its displeasure about the “direct contracting” program known. After collecting more than thirteen thousand signatures for a petition opposing the initiative, they’d asked repeatedly for a meeting with Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Xavier Becerra to hand it to him. They called, emailed, left voice messages, all to no avail. The most they got was a single response from a staffer, sent the night before their DC visit, promising to set up a meeting sometime in the future.
The next day, the group marched into HHS headquarters, petition in hand, only to be stopped by security and told that was as far as they could go without an appointment. They’d have to ask someone to come downstairs and pick it up — only to learn there was no one available in the offices to do it. After close to an hour, the group left the petition with security and departed, having been blocked from carrying out one of the most basic and foremost rights enumerated in the constitution.
Locked doors, unreturned emails, a large crowd with no one around to hear it — nothing more perfectly captured the struggle of public health care advocates to raise the alarm about direct contracting, a pilot program begun under Donald Trump and continued under Joe Biden.
In the middle of a pandemic, and during what pundits describe as a fundamental shift in Americans’ views of the government’s role in their lives, an initiative to shoehorn for-profit companies between retirees and their Medicare coverage should in theory have prompted a public outcry. The only problem is, no one seemed to know it was happening.
Joe Biden is the worst. He will destroy Medicare if given the chance. He's a cheap, trashy hustler who has enriched himself by bending and breaking the laws over the years. He is hideous and the sooner he is out of the White House, the better off we will all be.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Wednesday:
Wednesday, February 16, 2022. Iraq remains in ruins.
Yesterday, we noted that Jimmy Dore addressed Hillary Clinton's latest scandal Monday night on a live stream but that it was not up in his archives yet. It went up yesterday evening.
Jonathan Turley offers a legal perspective on the latest:
Durham added details showing how Perkins Coie used its attorney-client relationships to further the Russian conspiracy operation for the campaign. He alleges that Elias and Sussmann hired an Internet executive, Rodney Joffe, to help build the foundation for the claims. Joffe alerted Sussmann about the Alfa Bank claims by July 2016, and “over the ensuing weeks, and as part of their lawyer-client relationship,” Sussmann and Joffe “engaged in efforts with Campaign Lawyer-1 .”
The use of lawyers to shield such work is nothing new in Washington. During the Nixon Administration, lawyers were used extensively to maintain slush funds and enable “dirty trick” operations.
What is striking about the Durham filings is the audacity of the Perkins Coie operation. While the funding was buried away, the lawyers were seemingly unconcerned about approving such efforts or personally reaching out to sympathetic government and media figures. They were, to some degree, justified in their sense of immunity.
Indeed, to this day, many refuse to cover extensive evidence of how the Clinton campaign manufactured this story that largely occupied the entire term of President Donald Trump. Before the Steele dossier was given to the FBI and the press, then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed former President Obama on Clinton’s alleged “plan” to tie candidate Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” That operation appears to have been launched through Elias and Perkins Coie.
Ericsson is a Swedish company founded in 1876/ Today, the corporation specializes in networking and telecommunications. The company is in the enws for reasons it would prefer not to be. Supantha Mukherjee (REUTERS) reports:
Shares of Ericsson fell 9% on Wednesday after the Swedish telecom gear maker disclosed results of an internal investigation that detailed suspect payments and misconduct in Iraq.
The company's investigation had identified payments made to use alternate transport routes in connection with circumventing Iraqi Customs, at a time when militant organisations, including Islamic State, controlled some transport routes.
While Ericsson said it could not determine if any employee was directly involved in financing such organisations, it noted that as a result of the investigation several employees had left the company.
Ericson issued a statement which includes the following:
We are committed to transparency and continuously improving our compliance performance. Therefore, we are updating our earlier statement on this matter.
We continue to invest significantly to understand these matters fully. As in all investigations we cannot exclude the possibility that we may not have found all the underlying facts.
Ericsson takes any allegation of impropriety extremely seriously and welcomes any new facts brought to light as a result. This allows us to sharpen our processes further and target any wrongdoing.
Dominic Chopping (MARKET WATCH) notes:
Ericsson last week said it will review a probe from 2019 after receiving fresh questions on its operations in Iraq, adding on Tuesday that the original investigation had found "serious breaches of compliance rules" in Iraq between 2011 and 2019.
Questions were presented by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and partners, including Swedish Television's investigative Assignment Review show, according to a statement from the ICIJ.
The 2019 probe was triggered by unusual expense claims and Ericsson said it then uncovered compliance concerns, including payments made to intermediaries and the use of alternate transport routes to circumvent Iraqi Customs, at a time when terrorist organizations including ISIS, controlled some transport routes.
"Despite the statement from Ericsson, the company has not addressed specific questions put to it by our journalists in relation to a wide range of corrupt behavior in connection to its business in Iraq and elsewhere," the ICIJ said, adding that it will publish its findings soon.
Alexander Martin (SKY NEWS) observes, "Shares in Ericsson have tumbled after the chief executive admitted that the Swedish company may have given money to Islamic State terrorists." Also noting the tumble is Lina Saigol (BARRON'S), "Shares of Ericsson ERIC+2.47% plunged on Wednesday after the Swedish telecom equipment maker said an internal investigation identified that it may have made payments to the terror organization ISIS in Iraq."
In the US-led destruction of Iraq, little is ever accomplished. There's still no government. No President, no prime minister no cabinet. Nothing. They're in violation of the country's Constitution right now regrding when a president must be in place. October 10th was when they held elections. All this time later, nothing.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) announced, on Monday, the nomination of the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Interior Minister, Reber Ahmed, for Iraq's presidency, Mahmoud Mohammed, KDP spokesperson said in a statement.
The KDP announcement comes after Iraq's Federal Supreme Court temporarily suspended the candidacy of KDP's Hoshyar Zebari for Iraq's presidency last week following a lawsuit against him.
The Court ruled, on Sunday, to ban Zebari from running for the position "for failing to meet the conditions."
The Sadrist bloc, the Sunni component and the Kurdistan Democratic Party agreed to choose Muhammad Al-Halbousi as Parliament Speaker and to nominate Zebari for the presidency of the Republic.
Who is the new nominee? ASHARQ AL-AWSAT offers:
Kurdish media that is close to the party identified the new candidate as Reber Ahmed Barzani, the interior minister of the Kurdistan Region government. Barzani, 55, served in important security posts, including the Kurdish intelligence agency.
He is not related to head of the KDP, Masoud Barzani.
Kurdish sources said Reber Ahmed was the sole survivor from his family from an attack, known as the al-Anfal operations, carried out by Iraqi forces in the 1980s
Ahead of declaring his nomination, senior KDP sources condemned the Supreme Court's ruling to bar Zebari from running for president, dismissing the move as "purely political".
The KDP won the )ctober 10th elections in Kurdistan. Jalal Talabani's PUK barely scraped up votes (GORRAN imploded -- after they stupidly formed an alliance with the PUK). That is why the KDP and others argue that, no, the PUK shouldn't just be given the post of the president every four years. And they shouldn't be. That's not democracy. More to the point, that's no change at all. The Speaker remains the same. The prime minister has not been named but many insist that it should be the current failed prime minister. And you're going to also keep Barham Saleh as the president? If nothing changes, why even vote?
And after the October election with the lowest turnout ever, sending would be voters the message that nothing changes is not going to encourage people to participate in future elections.
Bafel Talabani, it's noted, is in Baghdad. I hope he's not missing that US home. How sad for little Bafal that his family has so screwed up the PUK that he has to leave his home and go back to Iraq. They called him back when they were trying to bury the referendum on Kurdistan independence as well. Bafel and his family were on the wrong side of history, yes, but also the wrong side of political opinion.
Bafel's been a busy little boy. Winthrop Rodgers Tweets:
@pukmedia reports that PUK co-president Bafel Talabani is meeting with Nouri al-Maliki, Hadi al-Mari, and Qais Khazali in Baghdad, as talks continue over the Iraqi presidency and government formation.
Nojuri. He's there, working his own angle even as the western media repeatedly ignores him, even as he leads the push against Moqtada al-Sadr.
Rebar is not the only one seeking the office of President of Iraq. MEMO reports:
A total of 60 people have submitted applications to run for Iraq's presidency, the country's parliament said on Monday.
Parliamentary secretary Baydaa Khidir said the deadline for new applications was extended following parliament's failure to elect a president on 7 February.
The legal committee of parliament will scrutinise the applications before forwarding them to the Board of Integrity and, then, to the Supreme Judicial Council, Khidir explained.
Parliament has not yet scheduled another session for electing the president, she said.
2010 is on the minds of many who have been observing Iraq for some time now. For example, Arnaud Aron has a Twitter thread which includes:
In 2010, parliamentary elections were held in Iraq. The majority of votes were won by Iyad Alawi, a moderate Shiite politician who miraculously elevated national unity, reconciliation and multi-ethnic Iraqi nationalism. Yet Vice President Joe Biden personally stepped
in and endorsed Alawi's opponent, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, because "we know him better," contrary to the explicit advice of professionals. This event is not well known to the general public, but personally, it says a lot about Biden. An incompetent who refuses to listen
The following sites updated:
