penny press ober 24, 2019 · 2009, medicare prescription drug program paid $33.6 million and...

Penny PressNevada, USA Volume 17 Number 7 OCTOBER 24, 2019

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Credits:Publisher and Editor: Contributing Editors:Fred Weinberg Floyd Brown Al Thomas Doug French Robert Ringer John Getter Pat Choate Ron Knecht Byron Bergeron

The Penny Press is published weekly by Far West Radio LLC All Contents © Penny Press 2019

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THE PENNY PRESS,OCTOBER 24, 2019 PAGE 2

By MARILYN M. SINGLETON, MD, JDSpecial to the Penny Press

The high cost of medical care is on the lips of every politician and draining the pocketbooks of most Americans. After creating

the Medicare/Medicaid monster, the government’s expanded intervention into the medical care marketplace with the inaptly named Affordable Care Act doubled the premiums and deductibles for both employer-sponsored and individual insurance. Piling on more laws, regulations, and agencies is not the answer.

Anonymity, complexity, and

opacity invite shady behavior. Individuals, companies, and patients who defraud the massive federal “health system” would never dream of lifting money from their patients’ wallets or stealing from their doctors’ cash drawer.

The government’s track record does not bode well for imposing more bureaucracy to remedy a problem created by the layers of third-party payer bureaucracy. Waste, fraud, and abuse are so rampant that the government has a Medicare Strike Force to root out and recover lost federal funds. Medicare fraud—about $60 billion in 2016 alone—is about 10 percent of Medicare’s total payments. By contrast the typical private business loses 5 percent of its revenues to fraud. Unfortunately, since its inception in March 2007, the

Medicare Strike Force has recouped less than $2 billion per year in misappropriated funds.

Medicare’s $16.7 billion per year hospice program is fertile ground for the unscrupulous. Hospices are paid a fixed daily sum for each patient enrolled “regardless of the services provided.” One amoral scheme recruits patients who unknowingly forgo curative treatment options by joining hospice. A recent Office of Inspector General (OIG) report revealed that in 2012 hospices billed Medicare more than $250 million for services to patients in long-term care or assisted-living residences who did not require hospice care, costing four times more than the appropriate level of care. Even worse, the OIG found that the quality of care suffered in 31 percent of programs. The

bureaucratic morass allows the perpetrators to pocket the fixed fee and skimp on the services.

Further, the government cannot keep track of its program dollars. According to another OIG audit, in 2009, Medicare Prescription Drug program paid $33.6 million and hospice patients paid $3.8 million for medications that should have been included in the hospice daily fee. Even after discovering the snafu, the problem got exponentially worse. In 2016 the government paid $160.8 million for drugs that hospice organizations should have paid for from its fixed daily fee. Our tax dollars paid for the drugs twice.

Physicians know what patients want and are acting on it. Free from the restraints of government “healthcare” programs, the

Penny PressNEVADA USA 16 PAGES VOLUME 17 NUMBER 7 OCTOBER 24, 2019

Penny WisdomI announced that I would be willing to do it at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & their Democrat Partners went CRAZY! —Donald Trump

The Conservative Weekly Voice Of NevadaInsideTrump May NeedTruman's WW2 Cojones

See Editorial Page 6

RON KNECHT PAGE 5FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6ROBERT RINGER PAGE 7MICHAEL WILSON PAGE 9HAROLD KIM PAGE 10ROBERT ROMANO PAGE 11CHUCK MUTH PAGE 14

The Perils of Medical Care Bureaucracy

Commentary

Continued on page4


physician-led, price-transparent, direct-pay Surgery Center of Oklahoma performs some surgeries for less than the copays of some insurance policies. Direct Primary Care physicians provide 24/7 access and basic labs for as little as $50 per month with at-cost medications and low-priced x-rays.

The corporate private sector has learned a thing or two from innovative physicians. Care Accelerator is Sam’s Club’s version of “affordable [medical care] options with transparent pricing.” To offer relief from high out-of-pocket costs, $50 (individual) to $240 per year (families) buys access to lab screening for diabetes and heart disease, free generic drugs, telehealth, and up to a 30 percent discount on vision, dental, and other ancillary services. Additionally, Walmart is training its own employees for jobs in the health sector and ideally to staff Walmart’s own medical services. For their employees, Apple has “health care built around you” with its AC Wellness that offers office and home visits; Amazon launched its Amazon Care telemedicine services.

Given the outrageous price of drugs—largely due to the pharmacy benefit manager middlemen—Good Rx discount coupons are just what the doctor ordered. Good Rx is free to the consumer and makes money from

advertisements on the website and referral fees. One typical victory is a Medicare patient whose neurologist prescribed a drug for his Parkinson’s disease symptoms. The government demanded testing that could not be done because of the patients debilitated condition. Despite a sympathetic ear and supporting research, the government arbiter could only parrot the party line: because the drug was not on the “list,” it was not covered by Medicare. In a fortunate twist of fate, with a Good Rx coupon the patient paid $34 per month cash instead of the drug’s $1,100 per month price with 20 percent patient co-pay that would have been charged through the Medicare Prescription Drug program.

Congress claims it plans a full-frontal attack on the high cost of medical care (with the same results as the war on poverty and drugs?). Frankly, we are better off with Congress engrossed in its impeachment clown show and keeping its nose out of our medical business.

Dr. Singleton is a board-certified anesthesiologist. She is Immediate Past President of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). She graduated from Stanford and earned her MD at UCSF Medical School.

We're Better Off When This Congress Ignores HealthcareContinued from page 3

Attorney General Bill Barr Addresses Important Issues

United States Attorney General Bill Barr recently addressed some important issues at the University of Notre Dame. Excerpts follow (edited for space).

From the Founding Era onward, there was strong consensus about the centrality of religious liberty in the United States.

The imperative of protecting religious freedom was not just a nod in the direction of piety. It reflects the Framers’ belief that religion was indispensable to sustaining our free system of government.

They crafted a magnificent charter of freedom – the United States Constitution – which provides for limited government, while leaving “the People” broadly at liberty to pursue our lives both as individuals and through free associations.

This quantum leap in liberty has been the mainspring of unprecedented human progress, not only for Americans, but for people around the world.

In the 20th century, our form of free society has faced a severe test.

Men are subject to powerful passions and appetites, and, if unrestrained, are capable of ruthlessly riding roughshod over their neighbors and the community at large.

No society can exist without some means for restraining individual rapacity.

But, if you rely on the coercive

power of government to impose restraints, this will inevitably lead to a government that is too controlling, and you will end up with no liberty, just tyranny.

So, the Founders decided to take a gamble. They called it a great experiment.

They would leave “the People” broad liberty, limit the coercive power of government, and place their trust in self-discipline and the virtue of the American people.

[I]n the Framers’ view, free government was only suitable and sustainable for a religious people.

Modern secularists dismiss this idea of morality as other-worldly superstition imposed by a kill-joy clergy. In fact, Judeo-Christian moral standards are the ultimate utilitarian rules for human conduct.

They reflect the rules that are best for man, not in the by and by, but in the here and now.

I think we all recognize that over the past 50 years religion has been under increasing attack.

On the other hand, we see the growing ascendency of secularism and the doctrine of moral relativism.

By any honest assessment, the consequences of this moral upheaval have been grim.

Virtually every measure of social pathology continues to gain ground.

Along with the wreckage of the family, we are seeing record levels of depression and mental illness, dispirited young people, soaring suicide rates, increasing numbers of angry and alienated young males, an increase in sense less violence, and a deadly drug epidemic.

[T]he campaign to destroy the traditional moral order has brought with it immense suffering, wreckage, and misery. And yet, the forces of secularism, ignoring these tragic results, press on with even

greater militancy. First is the force, fervor, and

comprehensiveness of the assault on religion we are experiencing today. This is not decay: it is organized destruction. Secularists, and their allies among the “progressives,” have marshaled all the force of mass communications, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.

These instruments are used not only to affirmatively promote secular orthodoxy, but also to drown out and silence opposing voices, and to attack viciously and hold up to ridicule any dissenters.

One of the ironies … is that the secular project has itself become a religion, pursued with religious fervor. It is taking on the trappings of a religion, including inquisitions and excommunication.

But today – in the face of all the increasing pathologies – instead of addressing the underlying cause, we have the State in the role of alleviator of bad consequences. We call on the State to mitigate the social costs of personal misconduct and irresponsibility.

So, the reaction to growing illegitimacy is not sexual responsibility, but abortion.

The reaction to drug addiction is safe injection sites.

The solution to the breakdown of the family is for the State to set itself up as the ersatz husband for single mothers and the ersatz father to their children.

The call comes for more and more social programs to deal with the wreckage. While we think we are solving problems, we are underwriting them.

More next week.


The Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:North Las Vegas for settling a Federal lawsuit over the killing of an innocent pit bull by one of its police officers for $125,000. You may think that’s a lot of money, but the message is that dogs are members of a family and, when they’re behind a fence, they are no threat to you. If $125,000 won’t send that message, maybe a beheading will.

President Trump for accurately portraying what is happening as a LYNCHING. All of the phony race baiting hustlers who are decrying that President’s words ought to actually look up the term lynching. “hanging, for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial”

The Penny Press Sends A Bronx Cheer And A Bouquet of Weeds To:All of the so-called news media who seem to think they should be President. It’s one thing to disagree with the occupant of the office, but having a degree a jour-nalism school does NOT make you an expert on anything including journalism. If you think you’re so smart, join the Democrat clown show and run. www.pennypressnv.com

Tips Of Our Capand

Bronx Cheers

RON KNECHT

Commentary: Ron Knecht

I’m not an expert on foreign affairs.

I live in rural Nevada amongst people who believe in America First, Donald Trump, the Second Amendment, self-reliance, generosity, limited government and God.

We are the people about who Barack Obama once said, “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” In short, we’re Hillary’s “deplorables”. The 63,000,000 people who elected Donald Trump.

That said, I’ll bet I know at least as much as the talking heads on TV who know nearly nothing but sure want to tell us how President Trump should conduct an endless war in the Middle East.

Let’s put the Kurds versus Turkey in perspective, as an example.

The Kurds have been fighting the Turks for hundreds if not thousands of years. That’s what they like to do in the Middle East. They’ve been fighting each other so long they probably could not tell you why. They are the Arab version of the Hatfields and the McCoys.

Nobody has any real number of how many of each other they have killed.

But, it’s a lot. Maybe as many as a million.

So, our President asked a reasonable question. What are our interests there and why is it worth the life of a single American soldier?

He came up with a reasonable answer. Now that we are a net exporter of oil, we have very limited interests there and they are not worth a warm bucket of spit much less the life of a single American soldier. And, if we need to choose our friends, we have only one true friend in the region—Israel, which we helped found. Occasionally, we can count the Saudis in that category as well, when it suits them.

As for the rest of the area, the historical truth has always been that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. When they

need us, they become the enemies of our enemies and suck us into their intramural battles so we can have young American men and women killed to suit their needs—whatever they may be.

Is any of that worth even a single bandage on, much less the life of one American soldier?

It’s not worth a bandage on, much less the life of, one bomb sniffing dog.

So, why are we there? Because we are afraid to fight wars to win them. We apparently learned that in Viet Nam.

After the 9-11 attacks, we—and I mean BOTH sides—made some bad decisions, not the least of which was NOT using weapons to wipe out Al Qaeda which would leave such a lasting scar that these morons would NEVER attack us again. Do we have small tactical nuclear weapons designed to turn a Al Qaeda or ISIS training camp into glass? Of course we do. Unfortunately, we have a State Department which is part of the deep state and would counsel the President such a move would end the world. Why it would be a “violation of the rules of war”. Rules of war? Who are they kidding?

One thing is sure. Like the death penalty, it would make sure that these killer clowns would never harm an innocent civilian again.

And, for the record, 1,600,000 people live today in those two cities we bombed in 1945.

But Harry Truman had the cojones to end the war. I’m guessing that Donald Trump does as well. I’m also guessing he will exhaust every alternative before he reaches into our arsenal that deeply.

By NOT having a President who is part of the failures since Viet Nam, our chances of coming up with both new and old solutions is greatly enhanced.

Of course, I’m not an expert in foreign affairs…

FRED WEINBERG


OPINIONFrom The Publisher...

Trump May Have Truman's Cojones


Once Upon a Time in AmericaGiven America’s moral decline, the NBA’s hypocritical groveling to

China should come as no surprise. The China brouhaha comes on the heels of the NFL’s weak-kneed response to the Colin Kaepernick protests, which resulted in a three-year nightmare for the NFL.

Given the backlash from NFL fans, you would have thought the NBA would know better than to make a similar mistake. But like all liberal hypocrites, Adam Silver and his NBA owner-bosses are so blinded by their quest for evermore billions that they don’t have time to reflect on a pedantic subject like morality.

As Fox Sports 1 analyst Jason Whitlock explained on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the bottom line is that Nike controls the NBA, and Nike’s number-one market is China. Which means that NBA owners, coaches, and players are absolutely forbidden from criticizing the world’s largest communist country. One thing you can always count on with professional sports is that money trumps virtue every time.

It’s the tired old story of liberals casting themselves as social-justice warriors, while at the same time being selective about which oppressed peoples they choose to support. If liberals don’t support Hong Kong protesters who are fighting against government oppression while waving American flags, who in the hell do they support?

Oh, that’s right, transgenders in North Carolina. What with all the new synthetic genders being invented by the Radical Left, you have to keep those bathrooms open to all, perverts and peeping Toms be damned.

We expect such hypocrisy from NBA owners, but you would think players and coaches would want to set an example for their adoring fans — especially kids. Not that all the players are immoral. Some are just morons, so I guess they have an excuse. How can you fault a moron?

Two glaring examples of this are LeBron James and Steve Kerr. In all honesty, I think LeBron is pretty much ignored when he says something stupid, because people kind of expect it of him. Having very little education and no real-life experience, he lives in a bubble that insulates him from the real world. Why should you read or study facts when no one challenges your words?

Unfortunately, this kind of insulation brings about moronic, incoherent comments such as, “I tweeted out responses to people not understanding my knowledge and where it came from with my brain and learning from the situation.” Huh? Don’t laugh. LeBron is a role model for millions of kids.

As to Steve Kerr, I guess it’s only fair to cut him the same amount of slack as LeBron, because he definitely sounded like a moron when he tried to draw a moral equivalence between China’s human rights violations and a hypothetical mass shooting at a Walmart. The comparison was not only ludicrous, it was a non sequitur. How do you reason with someone who says that free-speech protestors being clubbed over the head by police is nothing more than “a bizarre situation?”

Psst, Steve: Mass shootings are individual acts of violence that account for a fraction of 1 percent of gun deaths in America. They are carried out by deranged individuals. In China, human rights violations are official government policy carried out against its own citizens on a daily basis.

Let’s face it, the NBA and the NFL have become thugball leagues. As evidenced by their absurd hairstyles, players in both leagues display a middle-finger mentality towards fans and the public in general. If owners possessed moral courage, they would make it mandatory that players be well groomed.

Joe Namath tells the story of how, when he arrived on the scene at the University of Alabama in 1962, legendary coach Bear Bryant called him aside and told him that if he wanted to play for Alabama, he was going to have to cut his hair so it didn’t show below his helmet. As Namath tells

the story, he immediately responded with, “Yes, sir!” and that evening cut his hair.

But that was another time and another place. Today, Bear Bryant probably would have been charged with a civil rights violation. How dare a coach tell a player how to wear his hair or conduct himself?

As to the NFL, it’s a business, and considering the multi-million-dollar salaries it pays its players, it has every right to set standards regarding grooming, dress, and conduct. So, why doesn’t it do so? The answer, of course, is for the same reason the NBA apologizes to China for a tweet in support of the Hong Kong protesters: The owners pander to anyone whose displeasure with them poses a threat to their profits.

But once upon a time in America, things were much different than they are today. To be sure, the United States has never been perfect. From the Salem Witch trials to today’s political witch hunts, from slavery to the internment of Japanese Americans, from the disenfranchisement of Native Americans to today’s homeless crisis, the United States has endured its share of black marks.

Yet, for all its flaws, America has been a beacon of hope for people throughout the world. In the early 17th century, John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, referred to America as “a city upon a hill,” and more than 350 years later, Ronald Reagan, in his 1989 farewell address, elevated that description to “a shining city upon a hill.”

Through the centuries, the shining city upon a hill defeated all enemies — the British, the Spanish, the Japanese, and the Germans — and kept right on shining. But all the while, anti-liberty egalitarians from within relentlessly worked to transform America into a less free, anti-capitalist nation where an all-powerful central government would have the power to grant or deny rights to its citizens.

Nevertheless, for nearly 200 years the enemies from within failed to gain a foothold solid enough to seriously threaten the foundations of the country the Founding Fathers created. But today, uncertainty has fallen over the land. There is a sense of doom, a feeling that American culture is being lost. Longstanding certitudes are rapidly disappearing, as moral vandals shred not only the Constitution, but the fabric of Judeo-Christian ethics.

The challenge we face today is not China, or Russia, or ISIS. As Attorney General William Barr put it in a speech to Notre Dame law students:

The challenge we face is precisely what the Founding Fathers foresaw would be the supreme test of a free society. They never thought that the main danger to the republic would come from an external foe. The question was whether the citizens in such a free society could maintain the moral discipline and virtue necessary for the survival of free institutions.

As I explained in my article “From Marx to Woodstock to Insanity,” over the past 50 years the Radical Left has succeeded in gaining control of America’s culture by planting Marxists in those institutions — schools and universities, churches, government, and all segments of entertainment and sports. Is it any wonder, then, that America has been decaying in a cesspool of relativism for decades?

The biggest challenge we face today is from the Radical Left that is destroying our morals and our values. If we do not fight back and defeat this uncivilized menace, it is only a matter of time until the morals and values that made America that shining city upon a hill will become extinct. China, Russia, ISIS, and any other external enemy can be handled with ease if we win the culture war against the enemy from within. ROBERT RINGERRobert Ringer (© 2019)is a New York Times #1 bestselling author who has appeared on numerous national radio and television shows, including The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, The Charlie Rose Show, as well as Fox News and Fox Business. To sign up for a free subscription to his mind-expanding daily insights, visit www.robertringer.com.

Commentary: Robert Ringer

An Olympian’s Guide to the BoardroomI’ve hit rock bottom more times than I can count. As a gymnast, I overcame injuries that would have ended many other

athletes’ careers — only to watch my Olympic dreams slip out of reach. As a businessman, I built a successful start-up — and then lost it all.

The main thing I’ve learned? Setbacks can be productive if you’re willing to learn from them. Today, as I lead a successful company, I constantly inform my decision-making with the lessons I learned as an athlete and entrepreneur.

First, never give up.When I was 12, I trained under gymnastics coach Ralph Reeves, the

toughest coach I ever had. I would spend hours perfecting my craft — getting up on the pommel horse as I tried not to look down at my cracked and bloodied hands. Upon finishing each routine, Coach Reeves would utter one word: “Again.”

As the Junior Olympic Games approached, it looked like my hard work was about to pay off. Then, I blew out my knee and tore my ACL, MCL, and meniscus while training. Refusing to let my injury determine my fate, I went on to win my first national championship.

I eventually graduated from the University of Oklahoma as a five-time All-American and NCAA champion with a spot on the Olympic roster. But due to President Jimmy Carter’s boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, I never got a chance to participate.

I was devastated, but I picked myself up — again — and transitioned to the business world. More setbacks awaited.

Second? Forgive others. In the mid-1980s, I started my first company. But before I knew

it, the relationship I had with my business partner soured and I found

myself broke, divorced, and living in a tiny apartment on a loan from my ex-father-in-law.

That episode would have been enough for a logical person to never open another business.

Call me illogical. After this incident, I went on to build and sell multiple successful companies. I say this not to brag, but merely to prove my bona fides to other entrepreneurs who are just starting out and facing their own challenges.

It’s crucial to forgive your colleagues, your subordinates, even yourself. I didn’t dwell on losing my Olympic dreams; I moved on to compete as a businessman. And I didn’t vow revenge on my ex-partner, I forgave him.

Finally, trust but verify. As an athlete, I had to trust and listen to my body, my doctors, my

coaches and trainers to overcome my injuries. After my experiences, I’ve learned to pay very close attention to what people are saying — and more importantly, what they aren’t saying — in the boardroom. Reading body language and getting to know people before you do business with them is just as important as studying their qualifications on paper.

Today, as I lead a business, I spend countless hours strategizing for and planning out my board meetings. Sometimes my preparation lasts three times as long as the actually meeting. But as I learned throughout my athletic experience, preparation is the best way to ensure success.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you will eventually experience a business setback. It’s inevitable. But the next time you do — pause, make a game plan, and think to yourself, “again.” MICHAEL WILSONMichael Wilson is the CEO of Healthcare Highways. This piece originally ran on InnovationMap.com.


Commentary: Michael Wilson


The “FAIR” Act Doesn’t Treat Consumers or Workers Fairly

The House of Representatives just passed a bill that would make it harder and more expensive for Americans to resolve conflicts with their employers.

The Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal, or FAIR, Act effectively bans “private, pre-dispute arbitration,” a type of out-of-court legal proceeding that Americans have relied on for almost 100 years.

The legislation would force aggrieved workers, as well as consumers, into the nation’s courtrooms, where trial lawyers siphon off a huge percentage of any monetary damages. Let’s hope the Senate blocks the bill.

Arbitration allows consumers, workers, and businesses to resolve disputes without incurring the enormous legal bills that accompany traditional lawsuits. Here’s how it works.

When there’s a dispute between a worker and an employer, or a customer and a business, both sides present their case to a neutral third party, called an arbitrator. That arbitrator then carefully reviews the facts and decides who’s at fault, and what, if any, damages are appropriate. Groups like the American Arbitration Association screen potential arbitrators to ensure their professionalism and keep proceedings fair for both sides.

FAIR Act proponents claim that arbitrators disproportionately side with corporations over consumers. Why else, proponents ask, would businesses insist on mandatory arbitration provisions in their “terms and conditions”?

In reality, businesses — as well as consumers and employees — favor arbitration because it’s cheaper and quicker than traditional lawsuits, which can be enormously expensive and time consuming for both sides. Consumers prefer arbitration over litigation by a 2 to 1 margin, according to a recent Public Opinion Strategies poll commissioned by my organization, the Institute for Legal Reform.

In fact, for many consumers, arbitration isn’t just their preferred option — it’s their only viable path to justice. Most trial lawyers will only represent a client on contingency when alleged damages are high, usually tens of thousands of

dollars. And most disputes involve much smaller sums. In practice, that means lower-income consumers often can’t afford to file lawsuits.

It’s not surprising that trial lawyers would love to see arbitration replaced by class-action suits, where attorney fees can run into the millions.

Consider one class-action suit against Facebook, which settled a case over alleged improperly shared data about users’ online purchases. Plaintiffs’ lawyers kept more than $2.3 million of the $9.5 million settlement for themselves. Class members didn’t receive a single penny. Instead, almost all the remaining money was doled out in grants to promote internet privacy.

Or consider a class action against Coverall, a janitorial cleaning company. A class of individual franchisees sued Coverall for allegedly misclassifying them as independent contractors, and the company eventually settled the case. The payout the former franchisees received was just $56,525 in total. The lawyers, meanwhile, kept almost $1 million of the settlement for themselves.

FAIR Act proponents also claim that when victims choose arbitration, rather than traditional lawsuits, they face lower odds of success and receive lower compensation. They’re wrong on both counts.

In reality, employees are three times more likely to prevail in arbitration than in court, according to a recent NDP Analytics study for my organization that examined 100,000 employment disputes. Employees who settle disputes through arbitration win a median judgment of $113,818, compared to a median $51,866 for courtroom judgments.

Arbitration is also quicker. It takes 569 days, on average, versus 665 for traditional lawsuits.

Proponents of the FAIR Act say the bill wouldn’t end arbitration. But few companies would continue to subsidize the expense of an arbitration system knowing that they’re almost certainly going to end up in court. And increasing litigation is exactly what the trial lawyers want.

Corporations, workers, and consumers all benefit when attorneys can’t skim millions off settlements. It’s up to the Senate to preserve this low-cost legal option and spare Americans from trial lawyers’ greed. HAROLD KIMHarold Kim is the chief operating officer of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. This piece originally ran in The International Business Times.

Commentary: Harold Kim

FBI Still Illegally Spying on American Citizens

As the nation patiently awaits the Justice Department Inspector General report on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court abuses that occurred in 2016 when President Donald Trump and his campaign were falsely accused of being Russian agents by the Obama administration’s intelligence agencies and Justice Department, the American people now know that at least some of those abuses continued well after Obama left office through 2018, according to now-declassified court documents.

Per Judge James Boasberg’s opinion, “the Court finds that the FBI’s querying procedures do not comply with the requirement at Section 702(f)(1)(B) to keep records of U.S.-person query terms used to conduct queries of information acquired under Section 702.”

And, “The Court next examines the prevalence of non-compliant queries conducted by FBI personnel to return information about U.S. persons from Section 702-acquired data. It ultimately finds the FBI’s querying and minimization procedures, as implemented, to be inconsistent with statutory minimization requirements and the requirements of the Fourth Amendment.”

Meaning, during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the false conspiracy theory that Trump was a Russian agent, the FBI was failing to properly minimize the identities of American citizens, with 3.1 million queries “against raw FISA-acquired information … including section 702-acquired information” in 2017 alone.

And that was under the leadership of FBI Director Christopher Wray, who replaced James Comey in 2017 after Comey was fired by the President for lying to him about the extent of the agency’s investigation into the Russia collusion fiction.

These are the things that have shattered at least half of the country’s faith in the nation’s intelligence services and law enforcement. If you’re a Trump supporter, you probably think the system is rigged and corrupt, and you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong.

Boasberg does not say if the abuses related to the FBI’s probe into Trump, but the findings must certainly factor into the Attorney General William Barr’s ongoing review of FISA implementation. In 2016, the FISA court granted permission to the Justice Department to engage in surveillance of the Trump campaign, subsequently being renewed three times with the final authorization occurring in June 2017.

What we do know is that the investigation ultimately did not pan out when Special Counsel Mueller submitted his final report. After three years (or more) of investigating Trump it turned out there was no criminal conspiracy between Trump or his campaign and Russia to steal emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and John Podesta and have them put on Wikileaks.

The Mueller report stated, “[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” and “the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an

underlying crime related to Russian election interference.”Given the breadth of the FBI’s surveillance during these years, plus

the fact that the FISA court says these authorities were being abused at the same time, the question is when the agency knew that the allegations against the President were false? And when they knew, why didn’t the investigation stop right there and then?

This was an unbelievable abuse of power. The allegations against Trump were paid for by his opponent, the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC, who hired Fusion GPS, who hired former British spy Christopher Steele to produce them. It was all made up, either by Steele’s sources or those who conducted opposition research, and then the allegations were fed to the FBI who elevated it through the Justice Department and brought it to the FISA court.

These abuses, if they are not overturned and lead to serious punishments for those who perpetrated them, will undoubtedly happen again. Whether the abuses occur under Section 702 of FISA or any other provision of our intelligence gathering apparatus, if these laws are so essential to national security, then they can never be allowed to be used to destroy a political party and presidency ever again. This has interfered in our political system far more than anything Russia was accused of.

Ultimately, responsibility for these FBI abuses fall at the feet of Director Wray, and it is up to Attorney General Barr to determine what Wray did to mitigate and correct them — and if he did enough. Because if he didn’t, we’re going to need some more FBI guys — a new director committed to real FISA reform and who will clean house. ROBERT ROMANORobert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.


Commentary: Robert Romano

NV GOP’s Emoji Clown Show, SD 5 & 6, CD 3 & 4

Sadly, the only thing worse than the Nevada Republican Party being “radio silent” on the issues and politics of the day is when its JV squad of communications “experts” actually weigh in.

Perfect example was the embarrassingly juvenile tweet Communications Director Keith “Schipwreck” Schipper – last seen helping to tank Dean Heller’s Senate race last year – sent out during the Democrat presidential candidate debate this week…

Yes, the GOP is going into the 2020 battle with the Dems armed to the teeth with…emojis!

Kiddie time. We’re doomed.The party, under the leadership of “shadow” Chairman Mike Slanker,

followed that up with an absurd fundraising email bearing the grammar-challenged Subject line: “ha! This will make you laugh, we’re making them nervous!”

Bear in mind, this came from people who are supposedly professional communications experts and are being PAID to send out messages that look like they came from a publik skool 3rd-grader.

“This is great,” wrote Nevada GOP executive director Will Sexauer in the email. “We have the Nevada Democrats as nervous as ever with our incredible ground operation and grassroots fundraising game (YOU!).”

Yes, the party that successfully lost almost every single race up and down the ballot less than a year ago in Nevada has the Democrats “nervous as ever.”

Puh-lease. They’re laughing their arses off at the Nevada GOP’s emoji-happy not-ready-for-prime-time players.

State Senate Battle UpdateGround Zero for control of the Nevada State Senate…where Dems

currently outnumber R’s 13-8…is centered in two districts in Clark County.

Senate District 6 is currently held by Democrat Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro. Her likely GOP opponent is going to be April Becker – highly regarded and supported universally by the state’s Republican establishment.

But if Ms. Becker runs the same kind of lame campaign the GOP establishment and “professional” consultants usually run in election cycle after election cycle, the odds of knocking off the Dems’ Big Kahuna are slim – especially considering the voter registration advantage she enjoys.

Time to break out the emojis!Interesting development in the other competitive race, Senate District

5.This is an “open” seat with a Dem registration advantage, but not as

big as in SD6.For months it was rumored that either or both Assembly members

nestled in that district – Ozzie Fumo and Lesley Cohen – were mulling throwing their hats in the ring.

But a press release this week announced that Senate Democrats have anointed and endorsed another candidate, who is not currently in office. Which you gotta believe means Fumo and Cohen have decided not to make the run. Interesting.

Also this week, Republican Dr. Carrie Buck – who ran for this seat in 2016 – announced her candidacy. Buck is a well-qualified, highly-accomplished candidate who the GOP establishment is likely to rally behind.

But as I’ve written ad nauseum, it’s not the best candidate who necessarily wins, but the best campaign. And as with Ms. Becker, if her GOP consultants run the same kind of campaign they ran for her the last time, they’ll likely end up with the same result.

Which would be a terrible disservice to Dr. Buck. And to the voters of SD5. And the citizens of Nevada.

Emoji time?

CHUCK MUTH


Commentary: Chuck Muth

www.pennypressnv.com


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