Beet L. Jooz

Choosing to withdraw rather than stop the flow of narcotics financing the insurgency

A murder investigation is underway

Authored by Brian Wallace via HackerNoon.com,

Be Afraid...

Since robots first taking over industrial manufacturing, people have worried that they’ll replace us. But now, with the explosion of artificial intelligence applications, our jobs are more under threat than ever before.

Automated technology monitors and control production and manufacturing. Drones and driverless cars are taking over transportation and delivery services. Artificial intelligence acts as a personal assistant within our phones and devices, and controls smart home automation with the internet of things.

By 2030, between 75 million and 375 millions could be automated. As automation takes away the jobs of up to 14% of the workforce, and consolidates resources, massive economic inequality could result.

Beyond our jobs, autonomous technology is growing in military applications as well. More than 30 nations are developing, or already have, armed drones. In January 2015, over 100 founders and CEOs of A.I. and robotics companies signed an open letter stating their concern over the use of autonomous technology for warfare.

The United States Navy uses drone swarms, which fire 30 autonomous drones to jam radar and draw away fire. Meanwhile, DARPA is funding research to create and Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) that will be able to create its own fuel from biomass.

Read this infographic to learn about other threats to humanity:

Source: TopMastersInPublicHealth.com

(THE HILL) — A judge ruled that Indiana’s First Church of Cannabis cannot use marijuana as a holy sacrament.

Marion County Superior Court Jude Sheryl Lynch rejected the church’s case that marijuana smoking should be protected as a religious sacrament under Indiana’s Religious of Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), NBC4i reported Sunday.

Lynch wrote in her opinion that the state has “compelling interest” to regulate marijuana and therefore marijuana is not protected under the RFRA.

A rift has developed behind the scenes of the Miss America Organization, stemming in large part from the group's controversial decision to end the swimsuit competition.

President Trump tweeted out a video compilation on Sunday apparently aimed at critics who said he would never be president.“They just didn’t get it, but they do now!” Trump tweeted.They just didn't get it, but they do now! pic.twitter.com/9T50NupkDy...

A man was arrested after he allegedly threatened to kill supporters of President Trump and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) at the congressman's Long Island campaign headquarters.Martin Astrof,...

Jenna Bush Hager shared a note from her grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush, on Friday, clarifying his popular phrase "thousand points of light," after President Trump took a swipe at it during a campaign rally...

(Gatestone Institute) In an apparent attempt to sweep under the rug a recent double homicide in Hamburg, Germany, authorities there censored the story. They also raided the apartments of a witness who filmed a video describing the murder, and a blogger who posted the video on YouTube.

The murder, which made headlines worldwide, occurred on the morning of April 12. The assailant, Mourtala Madou, a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from Niger, stabbed his German ex-girlfriend, identified as Sandra P., and their one-year-old daughter, Miriam, at a Hamburg subway station. The child died at the scene; her mother died later, at the hospital. The woman’s three-year-old son witnessed the murders.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Madou — who initially fled the scene, but then called the police and was arrested shortly thereafter — acted “out of anger and revenge,” because the day before the incident, the court had denied him joint custody of his daughter.

It later emerged that for months Madou had been threatening to harm Sandra P. and the baby. A senior public prosecutor told reporters that the police investigated the woman’s charges, but had concluded that the “threats were not meant seriously” and did not pursue the case.

For decades now, supersonic flights over the United States have been banned because of the ear-splitting booms that accompany a jet breaking the sound barrier.

But now, in pursuit of a quieter sonic boom, NASA is launching a series of tests.

Live Science reports that this fall, a supersonic military jet will zip over the Gulf of Mexico, where it will release the traditional thunderclap.

Then it will zoom over nearby Galveston and do similar maneuvers, but producing what they hope will be quieter booms

The report said the tests will use the F/A-18 Hornet aircraft to determine “how much sonic noise people of the ground deem acceptable.”

“By rating the feedback from the audio sensors and about 500 local volunteers on the ground, NASA scientists will get a better idea of what people think of the plane’s volume,” Live Science said.

“We’ll never know exactly what everyone heard. We won’t have a noise monitor on their shoulder inside their home,” said a NASA spokeswoman, Alexandra Loubeau.

“But we’d like to at least have an estimate of the range of noise levels that they actually heard.”

The tests are needed, Live Science said, because just months ago NASA awarded Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company a $247.5 million contract to build the X-59 “QueSST.”

It is intended to be a quiet supersonic plane.

Ed Haering, a NASA aerospace engineer, explained the airplane’s shape is “carefully tailored such that those shock waves do not combine.”

If the tests go as planned, “instead of getting a loud boom-boom, you’re going to get at least two quiet thump-thump sounds, if you even hear them at all,” Haering said.

Lowering the impact of breaking the sound barrier could lead to a relaxation of the national and international bans on supersonic flights over land, officials said.

That would mean new markets for commercial aircraft.

‘No peace for fascists!’

The Trump administration halted billions of dollars in payments to health insurers after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that administers programs under Obamacare, announced on Saturday it was freezing payments to insurers that cover sicker patients, saying a federal court ruling ties its hands. The move brought a sharp response from health insurers warning of market disruptions and even higher costs.

The payments are intended to help stabilize health insurance markets by compensating insurers that had sicker, more expensive enrollees in 2017. The government collects the money from health insurers with relatively healthy enrollees, who cost less to insure.

In a Saturday announcement, the CMS said the move was necessary because of a February ruling by a federal court in New Mexico, which found that the federal government was using an inaccurate formula for allocating the payments; it added that the trial court in New Mexico "prevents CMS from making further collections or payments under the risk adjustment program, including amounts for the 2017 benefit year, until the litigation is resolved."

The CMS, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, added that the court’s ruling bars the agency from collecting or making payments under the current methodology, which uses a statewide average premium, Bloomberg reported.

“We were disappointed by the court’s recent ruling. As a result of this litigation, billions of dollars in risk adjustment payments and collections are now on hold." CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in the agency’s statement.

“CMS has asked the court to reconsider its ruling, and hopes for a prompt resolution that allows CMS to prevent more adverse impacts on Americans who receive their insurance in the individual and small group markets,” Verma said.

The risk adjustment program of the Affordable Care Act redistributes funds from plans with lower-risk enrollees to plans with higher-risk enrollees, helping to ensure that sicker individuals can receive coverage by sharing the cost of covering them. The immediate impact of the decision will be to boost healthcare costs for millions of Americans even higher, unleashing even higher inflation for staples, at a time when the Fed is keeping a close eye on rising costs.

Predictably, advocates of the risk adjustment program, and Obamacare in general, were outraged.

Risk adjustment “has been long supported and embraced by both Republicans and Democrats,” said Scott Serota, president of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

“This action will significantly increase 2019 premiums for millions of individuals and small business owners and could result  in far fewer health plan choices,” Serota said in a statement. “It will undermine Americans’ access to affordable coverage, particularly those who need medical care the most.”

The trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans said in an emailed statement that “We are very discouraged by the new market disruption brought about by the decision to freeze risk adjustment payments.” It added that the move comes at a critical time when insurance providers are developing premiums for 2019 and states are reviewing rates.

“This decision will have serious consequences for millions of consumers who get their coverage through small businesses or buy coverage on their own. It will create more market uncertainty and increase premiums for many health plans -- putting a heavier burden on small businesses and consumers, and reducing coverage options,” AHIP said.

AHIP urged “a quick resolution is needed to avoid greater harm to the individual and small group markets,” while Serota said CMS “has the legal justification needed to move forward with the payments regardless of the New Mexico ruling, and  should do so.”

In addition to raising costs, the announcement may also adversely impact the stock prices of select insurers: according to Bloomberg, the CMS decision will affect publicly traded insurers that have stuck with Obamacare, such as St. Louis-based Centene Corp.

CMS provided a timeline, noting that after the Feb. 28 decision by the New Mexico federal court, it filed a motion for  reconsideration, and on June 21 the court held a hearing on it. CMS is waiting for the court’s ruling.

Timeline of Key Events

March 23, 2010 - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is signed into law by President Obama.

March 11, 2013 - CMS finalizes a risk adjustment methodology for States where HHS operates the program that includes the use of the statewide average premium in order to maintain a budget neutral program.

July 29, 2016 - New Mexico Health Connections files a complaint in U.S. District Court in New Mexico arguing, among other points, that CMS’s use of the statewide average premium was arbitrary and capricious. Minuteman Health, Inc. files a similar complaint in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts the same day.

January 30, 2018 – The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts rules for CMS, finding that CMS acted within its authority in promulgating the HHS-operated risk adjustment methodology based on the statewide average premium.

February 28, 2018 - The US District Court for the District of New Mexico issues a decision invalidating CMS’s use of the statewide average premium in the risk adjustment transfer formula for the 2014-2018 benefit years, pending further explanation of CMS’s reasons for operating the risk adjustment program in a budget neutral manner in those years.  Following this decision, CMS files a motion for reconsideration.

June 21, 2018 - A hearing is held on CMS’s motion for reconsideration.  

The CMS statement said the agency will “provide additional guidance shortly on how it will handle other issues relating to
risk adjustment payments."

Trump’s administration has used its regulatory powers to undermine Obamacare after Congress last year failed to repeal and replace the law. About 20 million Americans have received health insurance coverage through the program.