Month: January 2020

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

2h
THANK YOU @WEF
!
0:29

 

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump

2h
Heading back to Washington from @Davos
, Switzerland. Very successful (for USA) trip!

 

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
2h
“Not the Senate’s job to mop up the mess made in the House by the Democrats. Biden admitted that he went to Ukraine and did the Quid Pro Quo.” @SteveScalise
@FoxNews

 

Donald J. Trump Retweeted
Rick W. Allen
@RepRickAllen
22h
Today the Senate began impeachment trial proceedings. Just a reminder that House Democrats completely failed to produce any evidence proving that President Trump did anything wrong. Now the Senate must reject this sham for what it is: A baseless political smear.

 

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Eappleosx%7Ctwcamp%5Esafari%7Ctwgr%5Eprofile

 

2…………..> Robing Medicare Recipients Scam: Big Pharma Slammed

 

Patient Services Inc. (PSI), a foundation based in Midlothian, Virginia, agreed to pay $3 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by acting as a conduit to enable certain pharmaceutical companies to provide kickbacks to Medicare patients taking the companies’ drugs by paying the patients’ co-payments, the Department of Justice announced today. The reason for that is when a Medicare beneficiary obtains a prescription drug covered by Medicare Part B or Part D, the beneficiary may be required to make a partial payment, which may take the form of a co-payment, co-insurance, or deductible (collectively, co-pays). Congress included co-pay requirements in these programs, in part, to encourage market forces to serve as a check on health care costs, including the prices that pharmaceutical manufacturers can demand for their drugs. The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits pharmaceutical companies from offering or paying, directly or indirectly, any remuneration – which includes money or any other thing of value – to induce Medicare patients to purchase the companies’ drugs, and it prohibits third parties, such as copay foundations, from acting as a conduit for such payments.

“The Department is committed to ensuring that foundations are not used as mere conduits to funnel kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies to Medicare patients and to increase company profits while avoiding an important cost-control aspect of the Medicare program,” said Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division.

“We will continue to combat unlawful kickback arrangements and their pernicious influence on our health care system.”

 

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/patient-services-inc-agrees-pay-3-million-allegedly-serving-conduit-pharmaceutical-companies

 

3…………..> Trump’s Impeachment Charade: Report

 

The first full day of Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial was a 13 hours marathon, after which senators finally agreed to the rules that will govern how the rest of the trial plays out, and today, it’s expected we’ll begin to hear the opening arguments, which you can follow in our live blog below.

Schiff is still calling for witnesses and evidence, undeterred by the 11 votes against them yesterday, as he appealed to Republicans to “ensure a fair trial,” by voting to hear from witnesses and see documents he’ll be referring to throughout the trial.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell kept a provision in the organizing resolution that allows for witness and evidence votes after questioning.

The expected timeline is as follows:

3 days of opening arguments from the Democratic House Managers
3 days of opening arguments from Trump’s defense team (starting on Saturday US time. 
16 hours (most likely two days) of questioning from the Senators, then votes on witnesses and evidence. At this point, there’s nothing to suggest Republicans will change their minds and let that happen.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-23/donald-trump-impeachment-senate-trial-live-blog/11891060

 

4……………> China Coronavirus Scare: Deaths Surge

 

Chinese authorities have urged people to stop traveling in and out of Wuhan, the city at the center of a new virus outbreak that has killed 17 people, and those living in the city of 8.9 million people have also been told to avoid crowds and minimize public gatherings.

The new virus has spread from Wuhan to several Chinese provinces, as well as the US, Thailand and South Korea, with 440 confirmed cases, with the origin a seafood market that “conducted illegal transactions of wild animals”, as authorities confirmed the number of dead had almost doubled – from nine – in the space of a day. All fatalities so far have been in Hubei, the province around Wuhan.

Officials in Hong Kong also reported the territory’s first two cases.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, the World Health Organization’s emergency committee is meeting to assess the global risks posed by the virus and decide if it should be declared an international public health emergency – as happened with swine flu and Ebola.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51202000

 

5…………> You Ain’t Welcome Here: Trump’s New Travel Ban

 

President  Trump said he plans to add countries to his existing travel ban to bar more foreign nationals from entry into the US, an expansion of the current ban – signed by him two years ago – closed US borders to citizens from seven countries, most with Muslim majorities, including Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea and Venezuela countries from EU, Asia and Africa are also considered.

Mr. Trump confirmed that more countries will be added:

“You see what’s going on in the world, our country has to be safe,” he told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday.

In June 2018, the Supreme Court upheld Mr. Trump’s ban, rejecting findings from lower courts that deemed the ban unconstitutional.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51210953

 

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