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To: Les H who wrote (47355)	8/29/2025 11:12:37 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 49053

'AI Death Panels': Trump Pilot Program Seeks to Bring 'Very Worst' For-Profit Insurance Practices to Medicare The administration, warned two union leaders, "is inserting private AI companies, which have a giant financial stake in the denial of care, into the doctor-patient relationship." Brad Reed, Common Dreams Aug 29, 2025 Creating what critics are equating to "AI death panels" elderly Americans in need of care, the Trump administration is launching a pilot program in six states that will use artificial intelligence to determine whether Medicare recipients should qualify for certain procedures. As reported by The New York Times on Thursday, the pilot program will hire private firms to deploy AI to make what are known as "prior authorization" decisions regarding whether Medicare should pay for certain procedures, including spinal surgeries and steroid injections. The program is set to run first in Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington. According to the paper, the program will rely on algorithms similar to those "used by insurers have been the subject of several high-profile lawsuits, which have asserted that the technology allowed the companies to swiftly deny large batches of claims and cut patients off from care in rehabilitation facilities." The way the program is being structured will also give AI firms big incentives to maximize the denial of claims for Medicare recipients, as the Times reported that "Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated from rejections." Abe Sutton, the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, emphasized in an interview with the Times that this program would not be used to review emergency services or hospital stays. Even so, some experts and advocates have warned that this program risks bringing the same problems experienced by people who use private insurance to Medicare. "It's basically the same set of financial incentives that has created issues in Medicare Advantage and drawn so much scrutiny," Ohio-based surgeon Dr. Vinay Rathi, who is also an expert in Medicare payment policies, explained to the Times. "It directly puts them at odds with the clinicians." Common Dreams

To: Les H who wrote (47355)	8/29/2025 1:56:05 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 49053

Tariff Tracker pricinglab.org

To: Les H who wrote (47355)	8/29/2025 2:50:49 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49053

How Trump’s newfound love for Chinese students is drawing MAGA backlash Trump said he would allow Chinese students to attend US universities, months after his administration announced visa revocations. By Al Jazeera Staff Published On 29 Aug 202529 Aug 2025 United States President Donald Trump has announced that he will allow 600,000 Chinese students into US universities. His announcement on Monday, which marks a sharp departure from the Trump administration’s crackdown on Chinese students launched earlier this year, has caught his conservative base off guard. Al Jazeera Under pressure from MAGA, Trump backtracked on his earlier announcement of 600,000 students. There are only about 277,000 Chinese students in US universities. The peak was 370,000 in 2019. Both Biden and Trump have taken up the anti-China position. He lied about it being 600,000 visas since each visa covers the entire duration of their time in college plus a grace period. The students who continue with their studies are covered under old student visas.. timesofindia.indiatimes.com

To: Les H who wrote (47355)	8/31/2025 8:18:39 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49053

RFK Jr, who doesn’t have a medical degree, says he can diagnose children just by just looking at them Kennedy has often raised concerns about the increasing juvenile diabetes and autism rates Ariana Baio in New York Thursday 28 August 2025 Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted, on Wednesday, that he could tell when a child is dealing with “mitochondrial challenges” or “inflammation” by just looking at them. Lamenting about the health of America’s youth, Kennedy, who does not hold a medical degree, espoused misinformation about juvenile diabetes and autism rates while claiming he can look at a child and determine they are sick. “I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like,” Kennedy said during a press briefing with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who signed a Make America Healthy Again bill on Wednesday. “I’m looking at kids while I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street, and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, inflammation, you can tell it from their faces, from their body movement, and from their lack of social connection,” Kennedy continued. ... But the HHS secretary, who has a long history of spreading misinformation about health, also used incorrect statistics to raise alarm about childhood diabetes and autism. “I came from a big family. I have seven kids, I had 11 brothers and sisters, I had about 70 first cousins, and I never saw anyone with diabetes, never knew anyone with a food allergy, never knew anyone with autism,” Kennedy said – repeating a common anecdote he uses. Kennedy went on to claim that 38 percent of teenagers are “diabetic or pre-diabetic” – however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Diabetes Association found that 0.35 percent of people under 20 years old are diabetic. Independent UK

To: Les H who wrote (47355)	9/1/2025 6:54:56 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49053

The Tech Enabling China's 'Dark Factories' They are not just prototypes or experiments. They are the beginning of a transformation. Isla Sibanda, Industrial Engineering News Aug 27, 2025 China is entering a new age of manufacturing with the rise of 'dark factories,' fully automated facilities that operate without any human workers or even lights. Inside these eerily quiet plants, robotic arms weld, cut, and assemble products nonstop. Fleets of autonomous vehicles deliver materials across factory floors without human oversight. As they are built entirely around machines, these factories eliminate the need for lighting, heating, break rooms, and other human-centric infrastructure. The result is a system optimized for continuous productivity. It reduces costs, improves precision, and functions at all hours. Powering this new production paradigm is a convergence of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and dense sensor networks. Together, they create self-regulating ecosystems where machines work together with extraordinary coordination, even with the lights off. Industrial Engineering News

To: Les H who wrote (47355)	9/4/2025 10:36:39 AM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49053

'It is something I've never seen before': Local farmer, meat market owner explain why beef prices are soaring According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average price for a pound of ground beef in July was a record-high $6.25. wtol.com Experts issue concerning warning about future beef prices: 'Long-term impact' finance.yahoo.com

To: Les H who wrote (47355)	9/8/2025 1:41:49 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 49053

The Billionaires looking to Silence Rep Thomas Massie for His Epstein Activism Made Their Money in Very Interesting Ways John Paulson, who is in Epstein's Black Book made billions during the 2007-08 Global Financial Crisis in a supremely shady deal. Dougald Lamont Sep 06, 2025 dougaldlamont.substack.com

To: Les H who wrote (47355)	9/8/2025 1:54:05 PM
From: Les H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 49053

How To Lose Allies and Create Enemies By Sean Paul Kelley On September 7, 2025 ianwelsh.net

To: Les H who wrote (47355)	9/13/2025 8:23:16 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 49053

The Fed Is Likely to Bet on Transitory Inflation Carson Group Powell has gone Arthur Burns as obvious by the Jackson Speech. He got the same threats and talking to from Trump that Burns received from Nixon.

To: Les H who wrote (47355)	9/13/2025 8:58:33 AM
From: Les H	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 49053

The Solution to The USA’s Taiwan Dilemma By Sean Paul Kelley On September 11, 2025 “The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.” ???? ~by Luo Guangzhong I have traveled seven times to China. Here is an idea most Americans will probably never understand. China’s potential to utilize enormous amounts of soft power is profound. This is based on China’s circular view of history and that China has been invaded and ruled by foreign powers many times in its history. In each and every case China has overcome said invaders very differently than the way the Russians have. Or anyone else for that matter. Where the Russians trade space for time to husband their resources for a great counter attack and push the invader out of the country, China seduces the invader, with its ancient, deep, amazing and incredibly seductive culture. I cannot emphasize enough the depth, breadth, and tantalizing sophistication of its culture, be it material, artistic, political or spiritual. I do, after all, practice Chinese Chan Buddhism in my own life. Every time China has been invaded and completely taken over by a foreign power this strategy works. Even today we’re watching Chinese movies on Netflix. That is the use and export of soft power. And unlike America, that has only 250 years of history to draw upon its soft power, China has almost 4000 years of history to draw upon. The efficacy of Chinese soft power is not to be underestimated. It is indeed seductive. Now the question moves to goals and intentions. And here an understanding of Chinese history can aid us in a better understanding of the present Chinese leader, Xi Jing Ping. What are Xi Jing Ping’s true goals? Simple, he seeks membership among the greatest of Chinese emperors. The greatest of Chinese emperors are judged by a single metric: did they unify all of China? As the opening sentence of the great Chinese novel, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I quoted at the beginning of this essay, unification is the way the Chinese see themselves when in a golden age. This compulsion to unify all of China is the defining source of Xi’s ambitions. And that means Taiwan. Taiwan is the last remaining province of a fully unified China. China equal to that ruled by the Qin Shih Huang Di, the very first emperor to unify all of China, or the great conqueror Han Wu Di, or Li Shimin of the mighty T’ang or Zhu Yuanzhang of the wall building Ming. It is to this rank of Chinese men that Xi aspires. What should America do? I have spent a lot of time thinking about how to avoid a war with China that most people are certain is inevitable. They call it the “ Thucydides Trap.” But, if the study of history has taught me anything it is that nothing is inevitable, contingencies matter, and human agency means the most. We may live in a complex adaptive system, but nothing, nothing is inevitable. Therefore, America must find a way tone down its arrogance and find a way to peacefully unite Taiwan with China. Here is how I would do it if I were president. Ian Welsh