Eight Facts on the “Russian Hacks”

Sharyl Attkisson:

There’s no standing allegation by U.S. officials that the Russians (or anyone else) “hacked” into our elections system or altered vote counts.

So what are the allegations and facts as we know them?

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Israeli Housing Developments in Judea and Samaria -- West Bank -- are legal. Here is why.

As President Obama recently betrayed Israel at the UN in a marked departure from conventional US foreign policy, now appears a fitting time to highlight why Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory are both legitimate and legal.

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The election of Donald Trump marks the third great effort to break free from Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal system that has dominated American government for more than 80 years.

Newt Gingrich:

The election of Donald Trump marks the third great effort to break free from Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal system that has dominated American government for more than 80 years.

The first effort to overturn this bureaucratic establishment was Ronald Reagan in 1980.

The second was the Contract with America in 1994, which resulted in the first Republican majority in the House in 40 years.

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The most risky thing Trump will do and it's replacing Obamacare

Please take particular note of the last paragragh!

I've been following Robert Laszewski for several years. Many of his Health Care Policy & Marketplace Review posts are also cross-posted at Forbes.

I've posted his resume below first in order to show how important his qualifications are and then excerpted two things from his two most recent posts regarding the "replace" part of "repeal & replace" which includes the transition period...a VERY risky period for Trump, Republicans, and America and everything hangs on "us" getting this right!!!

I made this as short and clear as I could--read the full articles if you want. Obamacare was a "first" and getting us out of this mess will be a "first"--it's all uncharted territory. The fines, the rising monthly premiums, the soaring deductibles, and the damage to our healthcare system (shortages of doctors, unmanageable loads of regulations and paperwork, etc.) might not seem as bad to people as a collapse of the entire system would if all this goes South!

Robert Laszewski - Health Care Policy & Marketplace Review

I am one of a kind having spent 20 years in the health insurance marketplace and 20 years inside the Beltway. I ran two health insurance businesses before coming to Washington, DC to start my own health care policy and market consulting business. Over the last 20 years my clients have been the people who run insurance companies, hospitals, and physician practices. A long time ago, I made all of the money I will ever need and I keep doing this because I want America’s health care system to work for everyone.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Excerpt from Obamacare Repeal, Transition And Replace: The Republicans Have A Tiger By The Tail!

But will there be any insurance companies in the exchanges come 2018?

The Obamacare individual insurance market was an unsustainable place for health plans before the Republicans won the 2016 election and reiterated their promise to end it.

Most carriers are now losing their shirts on their Obamacare exchange business. Some of the biggest carriers are exiting in 2017. Others decided to hang in for at least another year hoping the new Congress and President would fix it in 2017. Now, with the Republicans promising to kill Obamacare, there is little hope Obamacare will get better for the carriers in 2017 or 2018. Most in the insurance industry believe their losses will only increase as the sick stay in the pool and fewer healthy people, having been promised something better by Republicans, hold off on paying the big premiums and having to face the big deductibles in the current plan.

The health plans are committed for 2017. But no health plan is committed for 2018.

Faced with an expected worsening bottom line going into 2018 we cannot assume the insurers won't bail. What insurance company CEO will be willing to sustain the tens of millions, or in some cases hundreds of millions, of dollars in losses they now face, and expect to continue to face, to keep the dying Obamacare program afloat as a favor to Republicans?

And remember, about half of the current Obamacare compliant market does not get a subsidy and these folks are also at risk of not finding a carrier in 2018. If the health plans get out of the health insurance exchanges they will likely either get out of the entire individual market or dramatically increase the premiums for the off-exchange market. It would appear that many of these often self-employed folks outside the exchanges voted for Republicans over their anger at Obamacare's big premiums and deductibles and could be faced with fewer or even worse individual health insurance choices in 2018.

Excerpt from "Republicans Are Being Awfullly Naive" About the Transition Period in "Repeal and Replace"

[The following are responses to an interviewer's questions.]

What they have to do, and I don’t think they’ll do, is take the defunding bill they use to repeal Obamacare and reestablish the risk corridors and reinsurance fund. They have to do it inside the budget bill; otherwise they’ll need 60 votes.

I think what they have do is reestablish one of the parts of Obamacare that Republicans have hated the most, the so-called insurance company bailout, because if they don’t, they’re going to have a catastrophic result come 2018.

To have an orderly transition, I think Republicans need to reimplement the risk corridors by February or March. That is the only chance they have. I don’t think there is a single Republican member of Congress who has thought about this. I’m reading all these quotes and they’re completely blind to the fiasco on the individual market that they’re about to create.

KAISER - TABLE 1 - SUMMARY OF RISK AND MARKET STABILIZATION PROGRAMS IN THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT:

The ACA’s risk adjustment, reinsurance, and risk corridors programs were intended to protect against the negative effects of adverse selection and risk selection, and also work to stabilize premiums, particularly during the initial years of ACA implementation:

Table 1: Summary of Risk and Market Stabilization Programs in the Affordable Care Act

Thoughts are welcome and please forward to anyone who can help or is interested!

Fidel Castro helped train and fund practically every terror group on earth, from the Weathermen to Puerto Rico’s Macheteros, from Argentina’s Montoneros, to Colombia’s FARC, from the Black Panthers to the IRA and from the PLO to AL Fatah.

Fidel Castro jailed and tortured political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin during the Great Terror. He murdered more Cubans in his first three years in power than Hitler murdered Germans during his first six. . .As seen from the quotes below, the propaganda services by much of the mainstream media for the Castro regime continues apace—despite half a century of terror-sponsorship, mass-murder, and mass-torture by the object of their adulation.

Here’s a Handy List of Atrocities for Everyone Glorifying Fidel Castro Today

Ten Reasons Left-Wingers Cut Trump Voters from Their Lives

By Dennis Prager — November 29, 2016:

I wish none of this were true. But there is a way to prove me wrong: Re-friend your friends and relatives who voted for Trump, and tell everyone who has ended relations with family members — especially with parents — to reach out to them and welcome them back into their lives.

Ten Reasons Left-Wingers Cut Trump Voters from Their Lives

Here are 5 simple ways to dive into Advent this year

Katie Heller:

...this year, as you put up your tree, decorate your home, buy your presents, and make your meals, remember that your preparation isn’t simply for the coming of a single day; it’s for the coming of a person, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God asks us to step into a season of waiting and joyful anticipation - not to drive us crazy but to draw us nearer to Him. And, when the day comes to approach the manger and gaze on the face of Love in our newborn King, we’ll be fully aware that we have a Father who provides and always keeps his promises.

This is a great read, don't miss it!!

FINDING VIRTURE IN WAITING ON GOD: WHY WE NEED ADVENT

It will surprise consumers of American media to learn this, but every promise Trump made on immigration is already the law.

If Trump betrays voters on immigration, he can have as many rallies as he wants, but Americans will say, Been there, done that – you screwed us. He will never escape the stink of broken campaign promises.

So unless Trump has another 60 million voters hiding someplace, the appointments he makes today – to State, Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, even the IRS – will determine whether he is remembered as America’s greatest president, or if the Trump name becomes a cautionary tale in American politics.

At this precise moment – not after his inauguration, not in year two of his administration, but today, as he fills his Cabinet – Trump has to decide if he’s going to be like every other Republican and throw a brick or grab the ball and score.

Whether he’s listening or not, his supporters are screaming: TRUMP! NOW! TAKE THE SHOT!!!

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Castro's most famous victim warns YOU

Armando Valladares may not have been the first man to challenge the Cuban dictator, but he eventually became the best known:

“I spent eight years locked in a blackout cell, without sunlight or even artificial light. I never left. I was stuck in a cell, ten feet long, four feet wide, with a hole in the corner to take care of my bodily needs. No running water. Naked. Eight years,” Valladares recalled. “All of the torture, all of the violations of human rights, had one goal: break the prisoner’s resistance and make them accept political rehabilitation. That was their only objective.”

The most important advice from someone who's freedom was taken away:

...in his speech last year to the Becket Fund, he stressed that his experience had taught him the need for vigilance in defense of freedom: Just as there is a very short distance between the U.S. and Cuba, there is a very short distance between a democracy and a dictatorship where the government gets to decide what to do, how to think, and how to live. And sometimes your freedom is not taken away at gunpoint but instead it is done one piece of paper at a time, one seemingly meaningless rule at a time, one small silencing at a time. Never allow the government — or anyone else — to tell you what you can or cannot believe or what you can and cannot say or what your conscience tells you to have to do or not do.

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