How My Daughter Observed Hanukkah In Portland:
Image Credit: Jewish Voice for Peace
Bibi Should Pay Attention As Israeli Troops Kill Three Israeli Hostages:
The three hostages mistakenly killed by Israeli forces in Gaza were carrying a makeshift white flag when a soldier “felt threatened and opened fire,” (well, cops everywhere use that rationale whenever they gun down someone who poses no threat) a senior Israeli military official said Saturday, adding that an investigation was underway and the killings were “against our rules of engagement.” The deaths have sparked outrage and protests in Israel, with a group representing families of hostages meeting urgently to discuss ways to raise pressure on Israeli leaders to secure the release of all hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.
“Against our rules of engagement” means they’re only supposed to gun down Palestinians with white flags. This looks more like a war of obsession for Netanyahu every day. Jewish Voices For Peace (‘Not In Our Name’) are my kind of activists as they put the lie to the meme that opposing this war should brand anybody as anti-semitic. In other words, Val, they’re not part of your ‘Jew Cult’ which, BTW, doesn’t exist.
Guess this is against Bibi’s rules of engagement as well:
Israel has said it is opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed – during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp.
The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions.”
Who Will Whip Out Their Big Ten-Inch–Binder?
Washington (CNN) — A binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, raising alarms among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
Its disappearance, which has not been previously reported, was so concerning that intelligence officials briefed Senate Intelligence Committee leaders last year about the missing materials and the government’s efforts to retrieve them, the sources said.
In the two-plus years since Trump left office, the missing intelligence does not appear to have been found.
The binder contained raw intelligence the US and its NATO allies collected on Russians and Russian agents, including sources and methods that informed the US government’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election, sources tell CNN.
The intelligence was so sensitive that lawmakers and congressional aides with top secret security clearances were able to review the material only at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where their work scrutinizing it was itself kept in a locked safe.
The Doctors Who Work For Insurance Companies Exposed By Pro Publica. Not, in general, a stellar lot. They get paid lots of money to say ‘no’:
ProPublica and The Capitol Forum identified medical directors through regulatory filings, LinkedIn profiles, lawsuits and interviews with insurance industry insiders. Reporters then checked those names against malpractice databases, state licensing board actions and court filings in 17 states.
Among the findings: The Capitol Forum and ProPublica identified 12 insurance company doctors with either a history of multiple malpractice payments, a single payment in excess of $1 million or a disciplinary action by a state medical board.
One medical director settled malpractice cases with 11 patients, some of whom alleged he bungled their urology surgeries and left them incontinent. Another was reprimanded by a state medical board for behavior that it found to be deceptive and dishonest. A third settled a malpractice case for $1.8 million after failing to identify cancerous cells on a pathology slide, which delayed a diagnosis for a 27-year-old mother of two, who died less than a year after her cancer was finally discovered.
None of this would have been easily visible to patients seeking approvals for care or payment from insurers who relied on these medical directors.
Here’s one such quack:
Kasemsap’s history of malpractice payments was no secret before Cigna hired him in 2019. Two years earlier, he was the subject of a front-page story in the South Florida Sun Sentinel headlined “Dangerous Doctors.” In addition to handling appeals for the insurer, Kasemsap obtained a certification through a Cigna physician leadership program and oversees the work of 13 other medical directors there, according to his LinkedIn profile. Cigna CEO David Cordani posed with him and others in a photo at a recent company leadership event.
When told Kasemsap was working in this critical role, Murphy was shocked. “This guy should not be deciding medical questions,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s an earache.”
Kasemsap wrote in an email to ProPublica and The Capitol Forum: “Please know that I carry every patient outcome with me, and those experiences reinforced my commitment to being a compassionate, detail-oriented, dedicated colleague who puts our members at the center of everything I do.” Kasemsap said he was responding on his own behalf, not Cigna’s. He did not answer other questions about his malpractice cases or his role at the insurer.
“I can say in my 35-plus years doing this that this is the most unskilled surgeon I have ever seen in a case,” said Mac McLeod, a malpractice attorney who represented two plaintiffs who sued Kasemsap, including the woman who said Kasemsap connected her rectum to her vagina.
I write this all the time: Award-worthy journalism from ProPublica. It’s a lengthy piece b/c it needs to be. Read it. Please.
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