Nearly 900,000 military veterans officially have pending applications for health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the department’s inspector general said Wednesday, but “serious” problems with enrollment data make it impossible to determine how many veterans were actively seeking VA health care.
About one-third of the 867,000 veterans with pending applications are likely deceased, the report says, adding that “data limitations” prevent investigators from determining how many now-deceased veterans applied for health care benefits or when. The applications go back nearly two decades, and officials said some applicants may have died years ago.
More than half the applications listed as pending as of last year do not have application dates, and investigators “could not reliably determine how many records were associated with actual applications for enrollment” in VA health care, the report said. (Read more from “Nearly One Million Veterans May Have Pending Health Care Requests” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-02 23:33:282015-09-02 23:33:28Nearly One Million Veterans May Have Pending Health Care Requests
2016 Republican frontrunner Donald Trump told Breitbart News that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush should be speaking English—not the Spanish he spoke to attack Trump in Miami this week—on the campaign trail.
Trump had harsh words for Sen. Marco Rubio in this interview as well and lit into the donor class, all while saying that the “silent majority” in America is waking up and fighting to take back the country from the political class.
Trump also predicted that he will not only win the White House in 2016, but that he will be re-elected in 2020–predicting he will be a two-term president–and that at the end of his eventual eight years in the White House he will be known to all as a “great conservative” just like Ronald Reagan.
“I like Jeb,” Trump said. “He’s a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.”
“El hombre no es conservador,” Bush said in Spanish of Trump in Miami, according to the Tampa Bay Times. That means, according to that newspaper, that Bush is saying of Trump: “The man is not conservative.” (Read more from “Donald Trump Fires Back at Bush: He Should Lead by Speaking English While in the U.S.” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-02 23:32:472015-09-02 23:32:47Donald Trump Fires Back at Bush: He Should Lead by Speaking English While in the U.S.
The RNC is the Republican National Committee – or, put another way, the entire construct of the professional Republican Establishment and those who derive benefit/affiliation from the entity therein, the business end. (National, State and regional political entities; polling consultants, campaign consultants, committee employees, etc). The RNC gets the politician elected to Washington DC.
The GOP, or GOP(e), is the financial class or group of financiers who pay the RNC and derive benefit from the policy creation within Washington DC. Wall Street banks and banking interests, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, K-Street Lobbyists, etc. are all part of the machine that tells the politicians what to do.
In essence, the RNC is the Board of Directors, the GOP are the company officers, and the politicians are the employees. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are the managers. Put them all together and you have the RNC/GOPe.
In this example “We The People”, or “the electorate”, are the customers, forced to buy -through the monopoly- their product offerings, whatever they present, every 2 to 4 years.
Got it? Good. Now here we go:
The original question in 2013/2014 by the RNC/GOPe:
How Do We Elect Jeb Bush?
Everything that followed is simply execution of a strategic plan that stemmed from that very specific goal. We are not going to cover it again – YOU CAN READ HERE. The marketing strategy is too complex to outline in a single digestible article.
However, first the RNC/GOPe needed to construct the financing of the plan; AND they need to do so without too much attention. Hence, they did this two ways:
#1. In 2014 they changed the traditional campaign finance rules (hid them in the CRomnibus bill when no-one was paying attention) allowing them to take in more money. A lot more money. (link)
#2. Next, they created Super-PACs to allow them to fund behavior outside of the specific interests of the candidates the Super-PACs were assigned to. The behavior they need is loyalty to the GOPe plan, not the candidate. (link)
Next, the RNC/GOPe changed the rules of the 2016 primary election to benefit Jeb Bush. (Keeping in mind they already had polling data which suggested the electorate did not want to purchase Jeb Bush). They changed dates and delegate distributions to insure their guy could win with around 1/5th (20%) support.
It really is a masterful and entirely ingenious plan. And it was constructed so well it took months, even years, to figure out how -and why- each of the pieces fit their puzzle.
Lastly, the RNC/GOPe recruited back into the machine a crew of previously retired, but exceptionally loyal employees of the organization, to execute the strategy. Prestige and financial reward would be the compensation. After all, what’s a few billion among friends when trillions are at stake.
With the money, the rules, and the tools in hand – the rest became execution of the plan.
The specific road map they created had primary calendar dates and delegate distributions as the essential measure. Hence, internal polls were conducted in the key states that would be needed for the plan.
The internal polls had to measure Jeb Bush against the anticipated opponent. These measurements needed to be done on an almost district-by-district level in order to gauge the delegate distributions.
Trying to stay out of the wonky discussion, suffice to say that traditionally within each state each congressional district holds 3 primary delegates which can be won by a candidate or candidates. Subsequently if you are modeling a race you are polling the various options within each district to see who the district favors with your presented match-ups. The district polls are then rolled up, and create the state poll data.
Let’s take Florida as an example. This example is chosen because Florida is essentially the fulcrum point under pinning the road map. Florida is the tipping point for Bush, just like it was for Romney in ’12.
If Florida was a contest between Jeb Bush and Scott Walker a polled outcome might be:
Bush 45% – Walker 55%
Or, if Florida was a contest between Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz the outcome might be:
Bush 40% – Cruz 60%
[ It’s important to remember here that we are talking about PRIMARY VOTERS and PRIMARY ELECTIONS. Only about 1/4 of all Republicans will vote in a primary, and the number of GOPe (employees) within the population who show up to a primary represents a higher percentage than exist in the Republican general election. ]
So, in this example, Florida, if you want Bush to win you need to change the options.
If you test out Bush, Walker and Cruz. The outcome might be:
Bush 30% – Cruz 35% – Walker 35%
Your guy is still losing but the race is closer. So you put another factor into the equation:
Bush 25% – Rand Paul 10% – Cruz 35% – Walker 30%
Your guy still losing. So you put another factor into the polled equation:
Bush 25% – Rand Paul 10% – Cruz 25% – Walker 20% – Marco Rubio 20%
OK, better. Now your guy is tied. Marco Rubio is the guy who has “split” the opponent to provide you the benefit to run a possible Florida primary race, and achieve victory at 25%. So we call Marco Rubio “the splitter“.
The key now becomes growing your own popularity, and enhancing anyone who would take away from the biggest challenger within your opponent group. Again, remember this is a “Republican Primary” weighted, by the influence of the party apparatus, to support the “party guy” (in this case Jeb).
With the race successfully split, now you need to “fracture” the biggest challenger within the group:
Bush 25% – Paul 8% – Cruz 22% – Walker 19% – Rubio 20% – Rick Perry 6%
BINGO ! Bush wins.
Notice Bush didn’t win by gaining support, he won by fracturing his opponents support. This is the GOPe “splitter” strategy within the 2016 Road Map.
Also notice, the plan is not necessarily dependent on a “Rick Perry” to finish. There’s always: Fiorina (for women), Huckabee/Santorum (for evangelicals), or Christie, Carson etc.
THEN – If you changed the rules to make Florida a “Winner Take All” race (which the RNC/GOPe did in the road map/rule phase) well, your guy BUSH just won ALL 99 Delegates with only 25% of the electorate supporting him.
In Florida Marco Rubio plays the key role of the “splitter” to get Bush the victory.
Other primary states before Florida can be looked at the same way.
Now you understand why consummate RNC insiders: John Kasich (Ohio), Jim Gilmore (VA), George Pataki (NY), Lindsey Graham (SC), Rick Perry (TX), are all in the race.
Specific primary states, specific primary delegates, specific dates and specific “splitters” needed within those states on those dates.
Now, some people just have a really hard time believing the RNC/GOPe apparatus would actually scheme and plan to do this. Initially, back in the summer/fall of 2014, we did too. Hence we set up “trip wires”, or events which would prove if we were right or wrong.
Every one of those “trip wires” was triggered in the exact construct, at the exact time anticipated.
For those who still refuse to believe – Fortunately, public polling is now available which would, acting like a trip wire, disprove the plan if it wasn’t triggering exactly as it would need to in order to be successful.
We have been following the Key State Polling Data to see if the GOPe plan would succeed. Especially FLORIDA, TEXAS and OHIO. (Texas Poll) (Florida Poll) (Ohio Poll)
AND IT DOES (Example OHIO):
In every single poll, in every single key primary state where the RNC/GOPe changed the party rules, changed the primary calender and changed proportional or WTA assignments, if it were not for Donald Trump, you would see the GOPe road map achieving exactly the outcomes it needs to be successful.
Donald Trump has FUBAR’d their entire plan. This is why there is such vitriol targeted toward Donald Trump.
Unfortunately, this also means if they take out Donald Trump the GOPe road map gets back on course.
Worse yet, as we have just pointed out, highlighted and shown, if the GOPe plan gets back on course, voting for Walker, Cruz or (__fill_in_the_blank__) won’t make a bit of difference…..
…. because the entire road map was designed to deliver this:
Both are sides of the same Wall Street Big Gov coin. RNC or DNC same/same.
BUT THE PROBLEM GETS BIGGER – The Trump Conundrum is not only screwing up the RNC/GOPe plan, he is forcing the Wall Street, K-Street money people to rethink EVERYTHING. If they can’t control the RNC side of the equation (coin), they are only left with control over the DNC side of the equation (coin).
Within that consideration they simply cannot run the risk of having vulnerable Hillary Clinton face Donald Trump (who they don’t control).
Wall Street will force the DNC/DEMe team to get a better quality of candidate than Hillary to face Donald Trump if Wall Street is to feel more comfortable amid the inherent risk. (For more from the author of “SMOKING GUN: GOP Establishment Strategy to Nominate Bush by Flooding Race With Candidates Exposed” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-01 23:29:192015-09-01 23:29:19SMOKING GUN: GOP Establishment Strategy to Nominate Bush by Flooding Race With Candidates Exposed
Veteran reporter Sharyl Attkisson contends the latest batch of emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server, released by the U.S. State Department, proves that the “law has been blatantly violated.”
The State Department Monday released over 7,000 emails as part of a court order from a federal judge. More than 25 percent of the Democratic presidential candidate’s emails have been disclosed.
Attkisson wrote the following on her personal website Tuesday after the emails were released:
The newly-released batch of Hillary Clinton emails provides further proof that Freedom of Information (FOI) law has been blatantly violated. The documents include material directly responsive to a FOI request I made back in 2012 after the Benghazi terrorist attacks on the U.S. compounds. However, the material was not produced at the time, as required by law. Once again, there appears to be nobody who holds government officials and agencies accountable for their routine violation of this law. So the infractions occur frequently and with impunity. If nobody policies our government officials and agencies–if they are above the law–then how does a lawful society function?
The former CBS News reporter also said she made several Freedom of Information Act requests for emails related to the terrorist attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya — including one sent by Clinton adviser Huma Abedin to Clinton on September 14, 2012. (Read more from “Reporter Makes Bombshell Announcement About Hillary’s Newly Released Emails That No One Realized” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-01 23:26:582015-09-01 23:26:58Reporter Makes Bombshell Announcement About Hillary’s Newly Released Emails That No One Realized
Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spent tens of millions of dollars on his reelection bid last year promising voters all the magnanimous things he’d do to stop Obama’s radical agenda were he crowned Majority Leader of the Senate. After less than a year in office McConnell has resigned his position and has bestowed the privilege of majority leader on the Democrat leader indefinitely.
Speaking to a local reporter in Hazard, Kentucky, McConnell has, once again, reiterated his intent to pass a budget bill continuing to fund Planned Parenthood because the Democrats told him so:
“We just don’t have the votes to get the outcome that we’d like,” McConnell said. “I would remind all of your viewers: The way you make a law in this country, the Congress has to pass it and the president has to sign it. The president has made it very clear he’s not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood, so that’s another issue that awaits a new president hopefully with a different point of view about Planned Parenthood.”
Let me remind all of our viewers that there is a legislative process and there is a budget process. With regards to the legislative process, both houses of Congress must pass a new statute in order to change the law, and the president must agree to sign the bill. Accordingly, McConnell is correct in asserting that without control of all branches of government, Republicans are unable to pass new laws. But the budget process works just the opposite. So long as just one body of Congress is controlled by Republicans and they refuse to fund a certain aspect of government, that function is not funded. It takes just one body of government to wield the power of the purse; it takes all three branches to fund government.
But won’t the federal government shutdown when the Democrats balk at a funding bill that excludes their sacred funding for #PlannedButcherhood?
Freeze frame at this point. It is this question and this political dynamic that proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the current Republican Party does not share our values. We are not asking for a funding fight over something like Social Security, the minimum wage, or labor laws. We are asking that, in chronicling the barbaric harvesting and selling of organs from babies, taxpayer funding not be sent to these groups. If Republicans are incapable of messaging this to the American people and confidently declaring without a shred of diffidence in their voices that Democrats will rue the day for shutting down the government in order to fund torture of babies, they should just shut the lights in their stuffy offices and resign.
Here’s the dirty little secret Mitch McConnell refuses to divulge. He is accepting the premise that Democrats win every showdown – no matter the issue or the circumstances. Under his premise and his system of governance, it will make absolutely no difference if Republicans win back the White House in 2016. Well, let’s take a trip into the future and picture this scenario unfolding in 2017. Republicans win the White House and maintain control of Congress, albeit with a slim majority in the Senate. Democrats will filibuster every single minor legislative vehicle, much less something as important to them as funding for abortions. What will McConnell do come budget time? They simply won’t have the votes to even get the bill to the president’s desk.
What’s worse, the public is more likely to blame Republicans for a shutdown when they officially control all levers of government. Wait for McConnell’s lame excuses: “just wait until 2019 and let us win a super-majority in the Senate.” And you know what? Even if that happens, there will always be a number of Republicans who will join with the Democrats in opposing any bold reforms.
Without real leadership and without leaders who share our values, every noble idea will be stymied by insurmountable odds. The excuses never end.
Earlier this summer, Mark Levin publicly called for McConnell to resign. It’s time for all conservatives to follow suit. It’s time for the GOP presidential candidates to be asked if this is the leader they want in the Senate as quarterback for their legislative and budgetary initiatives. Perhaps, the answer to that question will reveal more about them than any of their statements on policy issues. (For more from the author of “McConnell Plans to Fund Planned Parenthood” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-01 23:25:462015-09-01 23:25:46McConnell Plans to Fund Planned Parenthood
The increasingly violent tone of national rhetoric that a Texas sheriff recognized as a contributing factor in the murder of one of his deputies was left unaddressed in a White House statement regarding last Friday’s murder of Deputy Darren Goforth.
President Obama’s Monday night statement expressed official regrets at the incident.
“Targeting police officers is completely unacceptable – an affront to civilized society,” the statement said. “As I said in my State of the Union Address, we’ve got to be able to put ourselves in the shoes of the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the door at the end of his shift.
“That comfort has been taken from Mrs. Goforth,” the statement continued. “So we must offer her our comfort – and continue to stand up for the safety of police officers wherever they serve.”
The statement did not address the wider context of the shooting, as America debates the degree to which the Black Lives Matter movement is serving as an instigator for violence. Other voices have done so.
Joseph Evans, Jr., the former vice chairman and executive director of the Jefferson County, TX, Republican Party, released a video that called for a level of reaction Obama did not take. (Read more from “Obama Finally Breaks His Silence on Slain Texas Cop, but Ignores Something Huge” HERE)
By Jeremy Diamond. Donald Trump said Thursday he is opposed to tightening gun laws in the U.S. but is in favor of addressing mental health to prevent shootings, after a man shot two journalists on live television.
“This isn’t a gun problem, this is a mental problem,” Trump told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” “It’s not a question of the laws, it’s really the people.”
Calling the gunman a “very sick man,” Trump said mental illness is “a massive problem” in the U.S. He suggested more resources should be devoted to addressing mental health — hoping to prevent shootings like the one in Virginia, which he called “really, very sad.”
Trump did not offer specific solutions to addressing the mental health problem, but said there are ‘”so many things that can be done” and repeatedly said the Virginia shooter, who killed himself Wednesday after killing two others, should have been “institutionalized.”
“In the old days they had mental institutions for people like this because he was really, definitely borderline and definitely would have been and should have been institutionalized,” Trump told Cuomo. “At some point somebody should have seen that, I mean the people close to him should have seen it.” (Read more from “Donald Trump: It’s Mental Health, Not a Gun Problem” HERE)
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Donald Trump Says He Wants to Raise Taxes on Himself
By David Knowles. Republican front-runner Donald Trump began to flesh out his economic vision for America, and it includes raising taxes on the wealthy.
Trump said during a Wednesday interview on Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect that he would like to change the tax code.
“I would change it. I would simplify it,” Trump told hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann from the lobby of Trump Tower on New York’s 5th Ave. Specifically, Trump targeted hedge fund profits, which are currently taxed at a lower rate than regular income.
“I would take carried interest out, and I would let people making hundreds of millions of dollars-a-year pay some tax, because right now they are paying very little tax and I think it’s outrageous,” Trump said. “I want to lower taxes for the middle class.”
Asked whether his proposed changes meant he was prepared to raise taxes on himself, the billionaire framed his answer in terms of fairness. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-09-01 23:21:392015-09-01 23:21:39Donald Trump: It’s Mental Health, Not a Gun Problem
By B. Christopher Agee. After riding his tough stance on illegal immigration to a commanding lead among Republican presidential candidates, Donald Trump broached another crime-related topic at a recent campaign event in Tennessee.
In a message citing the need for and benefits of strong local law enforcement, Trump offered a direct promise to any gang members causing trouble under his administration.
“You know the gang members in Baltimore and Chicago,” he said, “and these are some tough dudes, they’re going to be out so fast.”
He told an enthusiastic crowd that a Trump White House would “get rid of those gang members so fast your head will spin.”
Though he did not give specifics regarding that plan, he did note the importance of allowing police to perform their duties unfettered by the demands of anti-cop activists.
“I know cities where people are afraid to even talk to people,” he said, “because they want to be able to retire and have their pension.” (Read more from “There’s a New Group of People Donald Trump Says He Wants to Remove From America’s Streets” HERE)
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Increase Taxes? Talk by Donald Trump Alarms G.O.P.
By Alan Rappeport. For years, Republicans have run for office on promises of cutting taxes and bolstering business to stimulate economic growth, pledging allegiance to a Reaganesque model of conservatism that has largely become the party’s orthodoxy.
But this election cycle, the Republican presidential candidate who currently leads in most polls is taking a different approach, and it is jangling the nerves of some of the party’s most traditional supporters.
The tendency of that candidate, the billionaire developer Donald J. Trump, to make provocative, headline-grabbing speeches has helped obscure an emerging set of beliefs: that he would raise taxes in certain areas, particularly on corporations that he believes do not act in the best interests of the United States.
In recent weeks, Mr. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on American companies that put their factories in other countries. He has suggested he would increase taxes on the compensation of hedge fund managers. And he has vowed to change laws that allow American companies to benefit from cheaper tax rates by using mergers to base their operations outside the United States.
Alarmed that those ideas might catch on with some of Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals — as his immigration policies have — the Club for Growth, an anti-tax think tank, is pulling together a team of economists to scrutinize his proposals and calculate the economic impact if he is elected. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-31 22:06:282015-08-31 22:06:28There’s a New Group of People Donald Trump Says He Wants to Remove From America’s Streets
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled against the Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, and the clerk will arrive at work Tuesday morning to face her moment of truth.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis will have to choose whether to issue marriage licenses, defying her Christian conviction, or continue to refuse them, defying a federal judge who could pummel her with fines or order that she be hauled off to jail . . .
Davis stopped issuing all marriage licenses in the days after the landmark decision. Two gay couples and two straight couples sued her, arguing that she must fulfill her duties as an elected official despite her personal religious faith. A federal judge ordered her to issue the licenses, and an appeals court upheld that decision. Her lawyers with the Liberty Counsel filed a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court on Friday, asking that they grant her “asylum for her conscience.” (Read more from “Supreme Court Rules Against Clerk in Homosexual Marriage Case” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-31 22:04:262015-08-31 22:04:26Supreme Court Rules Against Clerk in Homosexual Marriage Case
Armed Black Panther members marched in front of the Waller County jail and shouted, “You’re gonna stop doing what you’re doing, or we will start creeping up on you in the darkness.”
The statement was made just two weeks prior to the assassination of a Harris County deputy sheriff.
Shannon Miles, a black male, allegedly came “creeping up” behind Harris County Deputy Darren Goforth in the darkness on the night of August 28. While Goforth stood at a convenience store pumping gas into his patrol vehicle, Miles allegedly raised a pistol and shot him dead . . .
Not part of a chant, the march leader, wearing the rank of colonel, shouted directly to Harris County mounted deputies through a megaphone. “You think we’re not pissed off a bunch about y’all killing our sisters? You think it’s okay? [We’re] the wrong n***ers to mess with. You’re gonna stop doing what you’re doing, or we will start creeping up on you in the darkness.”
The rally, also covered by Breitbart Texas, took place at the Waller County Jail where inmate Sandra Bland took her own life by hanging herself with a trash bag after her arrest following a traffic stop in the town of Prairie View. She was accused of an illegal lane change and assaulting a police officer. After being left in jail by her family for three days, Bland hung herself. (Read more from “Armed Black Panthers to Texas Cops: ‘We Will Start Creeping up on You in Darkness'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-08-31 21:55:102015-08-31 21:55:10Armed Black Panthers to Texas Cops: ‘We Will Start Creeping up on You in Darkness’
Nearly 900,000 military veterans officially have pending applications for health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the department’s inspector general said Wednesday, but “serious” problems with enrollment data make it impossible to determine how many veterans were actively seeking VA health care.
