DL Open Thread: Saturday, March 9, 2024
Leftover thought from yesterday’s column, courtesy of Dorothy Parker: Katie Britt’s performance ran the gamut of emotions from A to B. Oh, that rape story she told? It’s false:
Britt continued: “The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoebox of a room, and they sent men through that door, over and over again, for hours and hours on-end.”
At this point, Katz suggests Britt is intimating that the rapes were committed in the U.S. when she states the following: “We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country. This is the United States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it. President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable.”
Katz’s digging turned up some proof the victim didn’t experience the attacks on American soil, but he also found that the timeline proved Biden wasn’t even in office.
These events didn’t happen in the United States,” said Katz. “These crimes didn’t take place in the United States. Or even near the border. They took place in Mexico.”
And they also took place, according to (the victim)’s recounting before Congress, between 2004 and 2008.
Biden didn’t become Vice President until 2009. The president at the time when Romero was kidnapped and ultimately rescued was George W. Bush.
Hunter’s Accuser Had ‘Past Credibility Issues’. Although, to be fair, who doesn’t list a traffic median as their home address?:
Several years later, Smirnov again disclosed his work with law enforcement to investors who put up $100,000 in cash for a company he was touting called Grand Pacaraima Gold Corp., the investors later alleged in a suit of their own against Smirnov.
It was true: Smirnov was a source for the FBI. But as a confidential informant, he wasn’t supposed to be broadcasting his government work, and experts and former agents said his apparent decision to do so raises significant questions about his credibility.
While mostly based in California, Smirnov led a peripatetic life that, according to court documents, included frequent foreign travel to Ukraine, Israel and various European countries. He once listed his home address at a location that appeared actually to be a traffic median, records show. Multiple times, aggrieved business associates grew so suspicious of his activities that they hired private investigators to learn more about him, according to interviews and court filings.
A review of Smirnov’s business record, as well as years of legal disputes involving the 43-year-old, point to what former agents said were problemswith his credibility that should have raised red flags for the government long before prosecutors charged him with lying. Especially glaring is the possibility that he was disclosing his government work, they said.
Lordy, you don’t s’pose that Comey brought him on board, do you?
Hope Your Medicare Advantage Provider Isn’t United Healthcare…:
More than two weeks after a cyberattack, financially strapped doctors, hospitals and medical providers on Friday sharply criticized UnitedHealth Group’s latest estimate that it would take weeks longer to fully restore a digital network that funnels hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance payments every day.
UnitedHealth said that it would be at least two weeks more to test and establish a steady flow of payments for bills that have mounted since hackers effectively shut down Change Healthcare, the nation’s largest billing and payment clearinghouse, on Feb. 21.
UnitedHealth Group has declined to comment on whether the information of its insured — whether financial or medical or whether through coverage at pharmacies, hospitals or clinics — had been hacked. Its only response has been to say that it is continuing to work with law enforcement agencies on an investigation of the attack. The F.B.I. and U.S. cybersecurity experts have been conducting an inquiry.
This week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a series of steps, including trying to advance Medicare payments to providers. The department urged private insurers to do so also and called on private Medicare plans to relax or waive the much-criticized prior-authorization rules that make it more difficult for providers to be paid for care.
UnitedHealthcare also announced it would also relax its prior-authorization requirements for its Medicare Advantage policies until the end of March. (Guess there weren’t enough available humans to ‘just say no’.)
DeSantis Turns Spring Break Into Military Zone. Maybe the breakers should spend their money elsewhere:
There is a different look to spring break in Miami Beach this year, as hordes of students descend from around the country for the annual ritual of sunshine and youthful hedonism.
The palm trees, soft sands and cool blue Atlantic waters that draw tens of thousands to the month-long party are still there. Except now they’re obscured by scores of armed law enforcement officers, many sent at the behest of Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis.
Unprecedented images of South Beach almost as a military zone, combined with $100 car parking, alcohol bans, bar and beach closures and curfews, are hardly the impression that the usually tourism-friendly Miami Beach would wish to project.
Following successive years of mayhem, in which spring break weekends in the city have been marred by mob violence, including murders, shootings, rapes and robberies, authorities feel they have little choice but to become the party poopers.
“Nobody wants the city to look like a military state, it’s not good for our image as a tourism leader,” said Michael Góngora, a former Miami Beach commissioner and mayoral candidate.
Góngora acknowledges many of the problems have been caused not so much by visiting students, but locals.
“Most of the people that come here and are arrested are actually residents of south Florida who aren’t spring breakers but want to be near the party, and unfortunately they’re the ones that bring weapons and drugs and create havoc in the city,” he said.
RIP: Bob Voshell. Not only was he truly one of the nicest people you’d ever meet, he was a great public servant who truly made a difference. When I was working in the House, one of the state reps met with Voshell and brought me along. Bob was the director of the Division of Motor Vehicles at the time, and the legislator, Katherine Jester, wanted to pass legislation enabling organ donorship to appear on drivers’ licenses. Bob did everything he absolutely could, not only to support the legislation, but to set the administrative wheels in motion to get it done. He became a State Senator after Ruth Ann Minner was elected governor, but he didn’t stay long because he didn’t aspire to stay long. He didn’t have that kind of ego. Not only don’t I know anybody who didn’t like him, I can’t imagine anyone not liking him. He made a difference in the lives of everyday Delawareans. He deserves to be remembered. Read the obituary, it captures the man. Deepest condolences to his family and friends.
What do you want to talk about?
How about the BPG building collapse? Three were hurt, but sadly none of the injured consisted of Rob, Chris or Dave. Hopefully their history of cutting corners catches up with them.
That was a BPG building? I need to read more carefully…
That fact wasn’t in the TNJ story I read yesterday.
Its BPG project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNcNzWzIeJ8
At the end of the report you can see the camera pan across and the BPG sign.
https://www.delawareonline.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2024/03/08/collapse-at-wilmington-construction-site-injures-three/72897186007/
The original story was revised shortly after it came out. I suspect some phone calls were made. Maybe someone should check with @videodamian to see if he was nudged to make the revisions.