Category: Uncategorized

Ukrainian suicide drone aircraft crossed Russia frontier and eluded air defense network, report claims, but crashed before reaching planned appearance by Putin in outskirts of Moscow.

By World Israel News Staff

The Ukrainian military planned to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin using a suicide drone aircraft, according to a report Thursday, which claimed that the plot came close to succeeding.

On Thursday, the German newspaper Bild reported that the Ukrainian Secret Service made an attempt Putin’s life with a drone, but failed when the drone crashed before reaching him.

The information was reportedly obtained from a recent tweet by Yuriy Romanenko, the Chief Editor of the Ukrainian website Khvilya, who has connections to Ukrainian intelligence sources.

Romanenko claimed that Ukraine used a UJ-22 drone, which has a range of up to 500 miles (800 kilometers).

The unmanned aircraft was loaded with 35 pounds (17 kilograms) of explosives, and was intended to crash into the Rudnevo industrial park near Moscow while Putin visited the site. Upon impact, the explosives would be detonated, killing the Russian leader.

According to the report, the drone successfully crossed the frontier from Ukraine into Russia, and even managed to evade Russia’s air defenses, yet failed to reach its intended target.

The drone is said to have fallen not far from the industrial park, with Russian media outlets confirming a drone crash in a village east of Moscow, near the Rudnevo industrial park.

Photographs purportedly of the drone show M112-type explosive charges, used by the American and Canadian militaries. While there has been no comment from the Russian side, videos uploaded to Twitter on Sunday might show possible preparations for Putin’s visit.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky predicted that Putin would be assassinated in the near future, while intimating that the plot could be hatched by Putin’s own inner circle.

“There will certainly be a moment when the fragility of Putin’s regime is felt in Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalist Dmytro Komarov in a documentary.

“Then carnivores will eat a carnivore. It is very important, and they will need a reason to justify this. They will remember. They will find a reason to kill a killer.”

The post Report: Ukraine used drone aircraft in failed assassination attempt against Putin appeared first on World Israel News.

On Thursday, disaster struck at a training mission near Healy, Alaska, as two Army Apache helicopters, each carrying two service members, crashed, tragically killing three and hospitalizing the fourth.

The 11th Airborne Division quickly responded to this startling catastrophe with a release on Twitter, ensuring that an investigation into the incident would be immediately initiated.

The Army’s top-notch investigative forces are already hard at work, delving into the causes of this fatal accident. Weather conditions and pilot experience, training, and maintenance of the helicopters likely hold the key to this tragedy. The Army is committed to discovering the truth and closing gaps in its services to prevent similar tragedies.

Additionally, the Army has been providing support for the affected families of the victims. This accident brings heavy grief to the families who lost loved ones, and the Army refuses to let their suffering go unanswered.

After the recent tragedy of Black Hawk helicopters in Kentucky that killed nine, the Army is focused on learning from these accidents and providing further opportunities for improvement.

Anti-government protesters were arrested in Tel Aviv after Israel’s economy minister Nir Barkat and his security team were attacked.

By JNS

Two suspects were arrested on Thursday in Tel Aviv, as anti-government protesters attacked Israel’s economy minister Nir Barkat. Meanwhile, organizers estimated 600,000 advocates of judicial reform gathered in Jerusalem.

“March of the Million” participants, some hitting snags when bus drivers canceled their transportation to the rally at the last minute, reportedly arrived on as many as 1,000 buses. Other media outlets estimated the crowds were larger than 200,000.

“I thank the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who came to Jerusalem tonight to support our government,” tweeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Your passion and patriotism moves me deeply.”

I thank the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who came to Jerusalem tonight to support our government. Your passion and patriotism moves me deeply. pic.twitter.com/F0aC0ETAFd

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) April 27, 2023

Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Knesset member Simcha Rothman, chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, both addressed the gathering.

“Show me one democracy where legal advisers make decisions instead of the government,” said Levin.

On Twitter, Rothman posted in Hebrew: “The nation of Israel lives! Thanks for coming. The people are sovereign, and the people demand judicial reform.” He concluded by quoting Isaiah 1:27, “Zion will be redeemed with justice.”

Following the attack in Tel Aviv, which sent a police officer to the hospital, Barkat wished the officer a speedy recovery and stated that there was no excuse for violence, which undermines the foundation of democracy.

“Everyone has the right to demonstrate, but no one has the right to act violently,” he said.

The post ‘We demand judicial reform’: Estimated 600,000 demonstrators rally outside Knesset appeared first on World Israel News.

Post Content

Chief Justice John Roberts has repeatedly declined to use his position to impose a code of ethics on the highest court. Now, he’s punting investigation of Clarence Thomas’s corruption scandal to a panel of lower court judges whose identities are secret.

Supreme Court associate justice Clarence Thomas and chief justice of the United States John Roberts pose for their official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on October 7, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

A decade before Chief Justice John Roberts rejected a Senate request this week to testify about corruption scandals engulfing the Supreme Court, he threatened to challenge a congressional effort to ensure the high court’s justices abide by federal corruption laws, according to documents reviewed by the Lever.

Now, instead of spearheading an investigation into Justice Clarence Thomas’s undisclosed luxury gifts and real estate transactions, Roberts is punting to a little-known panel of lower court judges whose identities are secret, according to a spokesperson for the judiciary.

Roberts’s posture spotlights a crisis in America’s system of checks and balances: if the legislative and executive branches refuse to assert oversight authority over the nation’s highest court, Supreme Court justices can continue to operate with complete impunity.

For weeks now, Washington has been roiled with news that Thomas failed to disclose two decades’ worth of luxury trips provided by billionaire Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow, as well as the sale of property to Crow.

Despite public outcry, what’s happened in Washington in recent weeks suggests that little will come of calls to investigate Thomas.

Part of that is due to Democrats’ ineptitude. The Senate Judiciary Committee cannot subpoena Thomas due to the extended absence of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who is recovering from shingles. Feinstein, who has reportedly been suffering from significant memory issues for some time, is set to retire next year but has refused to depart the Senate early.

That has left Democrats begging the Supreme Court to investigate itself — which Roberts has suggested will not be happening.

Roberts made headlines on Tuesday for declining the Senate Judiciary Committee’s voluntary request to testify at a hearing on Supreme Court ethics. He also recently punted on Senate Democrats’ request for the Supreme Court to investigate Thomas, kicking it down to a judicial policymaking body stacked with Republican judges — which then passed the matter down further to a panel of secret judges to handle the matter.

At this point, Democrats appear to be counting on the panel of secret judges to refer Thomas to President Joe Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, for prosecution.

The turn of events suggest that, despite a historic ethical cloud looming over the Supreme Court and a growing number of Americans losing faith in the institution, there will likely be no real reckoning over Thomas’ apparent improprieties.

Multiple lawmakers have called for Thomas to be impeached, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told us she was open to drafting articles of impeachment herself, but the effort is unlikely to advance in the Republican-held House of Representatives.

There remains a small glimmer of hope that Congress could pass new, bipartisan legislation to compel the Supreme Court to finally adopt an ethics code — but that, too, could ultimately set up an even bigger showdown with Roberts.

“Giving a Backbone to Justices Who Violated These Laws”

Roberts, appointed to the Supreme Court by President George Bush in 2005, has repeatedly declined to use his position as the head of the federal judiciary to improve compliance with federal ethics laws or impose a code of ethics on the highest court.

In 2011, numerous reports detailed ethical improprieties on the highest court, spurring congressional action. Justices Samuel Alito, Thomas, and the late Antonin Scalia had reportedly attended conservative fundraising and political strategy meetings. Thomas had failed to report his wife Ginni’s job with the Heritage Foundation for several years, and Crow was funding Ginni’s new Tea Party–themed dark money group.

In the wake of those revelations, then representative Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduced legislation to impose a code of ethics upon the Supreme Court.

But in a little-noticed memo, Roberts lashed out at the effort, suggesting that Congress may not have the authority to conduct oversight of the Supreme Court or force its justices to report their finances or limit the gifts and outside earned income they can receive.

“Congress has directed justices and judges to comply with both financial reporting requirements and limitations on the receipt of gifts and outside earned income,” Roberts wrote in his 2011 year-end report. “The court has never addressed whether Congress may impose those requirements on the Supreme Court. The justices nevertheless comply with those provisions.”

He added, “As in the case of financial reporting and gift requirements, the limits of Congress’s power to require recusal have never been tested.”

Ethics experts read Roberts’s memo as a thinly veiled threat.

“I thought when he said that it was utterly remarkable,” Amanda Frost, a judicial ethics expert and professor at University of Virginia Law School, told us. “He was giving a backbone to justices who violated these laws.”

Frost said it was a warning to Congress: “‘Don’t even try to impose an ethics code because we will eventually say it is unconstitutional if we have to,’” she mused.

Murphy’s legislation didn’t go anywhere, at least in part because the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) did not introduce a companion bill on the Senate side.

Roberts continued to oppose any congressional effort to require the high court to comply with a code of ethics, while also refusing to institute one himself.

In 2012, Leahy and four other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent Roberts a letter asking the Supreme Court to formally adopt the code of conduct to which the rest of the federal judiciary adheres.

“The court does not plan to adopt the code of conduct for United States judges through a formal resolution,” Roberts responded. He said Supreme Court justices would continue to voluntarily comply with the code’s rules on accepting and reporting gifts and outside income.

Then, when House Republicans proposed modest legislation in 2018 to require the Supreme Court to issue public notices of and explanations for recusals, and to stream oral arguments online, Roberts said he had “serious constitutional concerns” about the bill. A lobbying push by federal judges reportedly helped to ensure it never became law.

Yet when judges did violate federal ethics rules, Roberts appeared to do little to hold them to account. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that 152 federal judges had seemingly violated recusal laws by ruling in at least 1,076 cases involving companies in which they had a financial interest between 2010 and 2018.

Roberts responded in writing in his annual report, pointing out that federal judges still had a “99.97 percent compliance rate” with federal ethics laws despite the “lapses” the Wall Street Journal had pointed out. He called for better ethics training for judges and “​​greater attention to promoting a culture of compliance” with disclosure rules.

On Wednesday, senators Angus King (I-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced they introduced a bill to force the Supreme Court to write a code of conduct for justices and make it public.

The legislation won praise from the court reform advocacy group Fix the Court, which noted that it’s “the Senate’s first-ever bipartisan bill to require the justices to write and adopt a formal code of conduct.”

The bill’s prospects for passage are uncertain, though. And even if it were to pass, it’s an open question as to whether the Roberts Supreme Court would respect such oversight from Congress.

“The List Is Not Public”

The Roberts Supreme Court is currently facing its biggest ethics scandal yet.

ProPublica recently reported that Clarence Thomas had failed to disclose two decades’ worth of trips on Crow’s private jet and superyacht. The news outlet subsequently reported that Thomas had also failed to report his sale of property, including his mother’s house, to Crow. We later learned Thomas’s mother is still living in the house rent free.

On Tuesday, Politico reported that Justice Neil Gorsuch had failed to disclose that he and two other individuals had sold property in Colorado to the CEO of Greenberg Traurig, a law firm that regularly represents parties before the Supreme Court.

It’s not clear who, if anyone, in Washington is planning to lead a serious investigation into these ethics matters.

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee cannot lead a real inquiry without Feinstein present, unless she chooses to resign — which appears unlikely. As a result, Senate Democrats have been stuck effectively begging Roberts to investigate Thomas and to voluntarily submit to a hearing on ethics at the Supreme Court.

On Tuesday, Roberts blew off that voluntary request, arguing that it would raise “separation-of-powers concerns.”

Roberts similarly rebuffed Senate Democrats’ request that the Supreme Court investigate Thomas’s ethical lapses. He punted their complaint to the US Judicial Conference, a judicial policymaking body that is dominated by Republican-appointed judges, according to a Lever review.

While the Judicial Conference has the power to refer judges to the attorney general for ethics violations, the conference instead kicked the complaint down further to its Committee on Financial Disclosure.

That committee is chaired by David Bunning, a district court judge in Kentucky who was appointed by President George W. Bush. The rest of the committee’s members have not been made public.

Bunning’s office declined to comment on the Judicial Conference’s referral, directing questions to Jackie Koszczuk, a spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the US Courts.

Koszczuk, for her part, declined to name the judges who are serving on the Judicial Conference’s committee on financial disclosure, telling us, “The list is not public.”

Fix the Court, the court reform advocacy group, provided us with its own internal list of judges that it believes are on the Judicial Conference’s financial disclosure committee — a list that includes eight Democratic appointees, six Republican appointees, and two judges who were appointed by other judges.

Koszczuk declined to verify the list from Fix the Court.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) blasted the judiciary for refusing to name who is now handling its review of Thomas’s ethical improprieties.

“The Judicial Conference is a publicly funded entity and the judges who sit on its Financial Disclosure Committee do so in their capacities as public servants,” Whitehouse said in a statement to The Lever. “Taxpayers have a right to know who they are paying to make important decisions about whether a Supreme Court justice may have broken the law.”

Whitehouse additionally sent a letter to the Judicial Conference requesting more information about how the conference and its financial disclosure committee handle potential ethics violations and determine whether to refer judges to the attorney general.

You can subscribe to David Sirota’s investigative journalism project, the Lever, here.

Emmanuel Macron’s relatively measured stance on Taiwan should embarrass Canada’s New Democratic Party. Sinophobia in Canadian media has pushed the party to forgo objections to the threat of war and back Washington’s rhetoric in US-China tensions.

Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP), speaks during a news conference following the tabling of the federal budget in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Thursday, April 7, 2022. (David Kawai / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On a recent visit to Beijing, Emmanuel Macron said Europe should distance itself from US-Chinese tensions over Taiwan. Calling for Europe to avoid being drawn into “block-to-block logic” or becoming a US “vassal,” Macron asked an interviewer whether or not it’s “in our interest to accelerate on the subject of Taiwan?” Macron answered the rhetorical question himself, stating flatly, “No.” As he explained it, “The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and adapt to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction.”

At the same time as Macron was warning Europe against adopting Washington’s position on Taiwan, the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) foreign critic Heather McPherson was stoking tension over the island. McPherson was part of a parliamentary delegation to Taiwan, which followed last summer’s controversial trip by former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a recent visit to the United States by Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen. President Joe Biden has strongly implied that the White House supports Taiwanese separatism — indeed, he has said the US would go to war over Taiwan.

Prior to joining the Taipei-sponsored trip, McPherson told the Hill Times that the trip was designed to combat a common threat. “Taiwan has dealt with Chinese interference, and Chinese misinformation and disinformation campaigns for a very long time, and I think there are things that Canada can and should be learning from the Taiwanese.” During the visit, the Canadian parliamentarians met Taiwan’s foreign minister and president.

As part of setting the stage for the visit, the Special Committee on the Canada–People’s Republic of China Relationship, which McPherson vice chairs, released Canada and Taiwan: A Strong Relationship in Turbulent Times. The report stokes tension over Taiwan, which Beijing considers a province (the government in Taipei, however, also considers itself the government of all of China). Since the 1970s, the United States and Canada have adhered to “One China” policies, recognizing one country led by Beijing that includes Taiwan.

Changing Geopolitics

At the end of World War II, Canada recognized that Taiwan was part of China. After Washington’s effort to entrench the post-1949 Chinese revolution separation of Taiwan from the mainland, the notes from a head of a division of External Affairs explained:

The Canadian view is that in principle we adhere to the Cairo Declaration which promised the restoration of Formosa [Taiwan] to the Chinese state. This promise was confirmed by the Potsdam Agreement upon which the Japanese instrument of surrender was based and which was signed by Canada. The political wisdom of repudiating wartime undertakings is doubtful. Furthermore, the de facto administration of Formosa by the Chinese government has been acquiesced in by the Canadian government through acceptance of a note by the Chinese government in 1946 stating that Formosa was restored to Chinese sovereignty and Formosans had regained their Chinese citizenship. /BLOCKQUOTE

The parliamentary visit along with the Canada and Taiwan report chip away at the One China policy despite Beijing stating clearly that it won’t accept Taiwan declaring independence and will resort to force to secure it if necessary.

The report recommends:

That the Government of Canada offer and declare its clear and unwavering commitment that the future of Taiwan must only be the decision of the people of Taiwan.

That the Government of Canada support increased engagement between Canada and Taiwan by encouraging visits by parliamentary delegations.

That the Government of Canada strongly consider the benefits of diplomatic visits to Taiwan. That the Government of Canada engage with allies to further opportunities for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in multilateral organizations. . . .

Maintaining the status quo over promoting Taiwanese separatism that could lead to war is not a particularly controversial position. But US planners face a dilemma. With China’s economy growing rapidly, time appears to be on Beijing’s side. Taiwan’s economic dependence on the mainland is growing, and so is China’s regional influence. On the other hand, US economic power in East Asia has steadily declined. Increasingly, Washington’s influence is dependent on its troop deployments and military alliances. From the perspective of hawks in Washington, if there’s going to be war, the sooner the better.

NDP Hawks

In response to President Tsai meeting the leader of the US House of Representatives earlier this month, the Chinese military encircled Taiwan to demonstrate its ability to blockade the island. At the same time, the US military began its largest-ever drills with the Philippines, which take place six weeks after the United States signed an agreement for four more Philippine military bases.

Last month two Canadian naval vessels were deployed to the region. In a rare move, they were deployed from the east coast, a change that is in accordance with a plan to increase the number of Canadian gunboats in the Asian region. According to the government’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, Canada will “augment its naval presence, including by increasing the number of frigates deployed on to the region where it will conduct forward naval presence operations.” The strategy paper, which was released four months ago, details the allocation of half a billion dollars to bolster Canada’s military and spy network in the region.

The Special Committee on the Canada–People’s Republic of China Relationship wants the Canadian military to devote more energy to targeting China. Its Taiwan report demands that

the Government of Canada make efforts to join the Quadrilateral [India, United States, Japan, and Australia] Security Dialogue and AUKUS [Australia, Britain, and US] security pact in order to bolster Canada’s presence in the Indo-Pacific region to counter the People’s Republic of China’s threats to the region.

In its own statements, the NDP has also backed militarizing the region. During the 2021 federal election campaign, party leader Jagmeet Singh said Canada should seek to join AUKUS, a nuclear-powered submarine initiative that is an obvious provocation to Beijing. Similarly, in a statement headlined “Indo-Pacific Strategy is a step forward; New Democrats will hold government accountable,” the party applauded a plan to deploy more Canadian vessels to the region to “take steps to counterbalance China’s disruptive power.”

Alongside supporting a militarized containment policy, the NDP has called for sanctions on Chinese officials and jumped on the recent media bandwagon that is panicking about how “China is interfering in Canadian politics.” The party pushed for a diplomatic boycott of the February 2022 Beijing Olympics, and Singh suggested Canadian athletes could be in danger if they participated. The party also pushed the Liberals to ban the world’s largest 5G network provider, Huawei, from building its cutting-edge broadband in Canada because it’s a Chinese firm.

McPherson is hawkish on China, so she is unlikely to be embarrassed by Macron’s comments. Nor is she likely to be challenged by Canadian media, which is increasingly exhibiting an anti-China tenor. A good example of Canadian media’s slide into unabashed Sinophobia is the National Post’s recent article titled “China wants to vassalize the West — Trudeau and Biden want to let it.” The liberal end of legacy media is only slightly less hawkish.

Diplomacy Has a “Weird Vibe”

Recently CBC’s The National did an eight-minute clip headlined “On board a Canadian military surveillance plane.” The CBC’s David Common reported from a CP-140 Aurora aircraft training for a deployment to Japan, where it will spend a few months mostly spying on China. With dramatic music, the story focused on the thrill of the training required to deal with Chinese fighter jet interception as well as the aircraft’s intelligence gathering capacities. The clip glossed over the geopolitical dangers of the deployment and how the United States and Canada would react if Chinese spy planes flew near their air space.

In another indication of liberal media increasingly aligning its viewpoint with US hegemony, CBC journalist Evan Dyer attacked Macron for visiting China. In one of a series of disparaging tweets, the global affairs reporter claimed that “the whole trip had a weird vibe.” In another post about the French president’s visit, Dyer wrote “Macron’s ego and need to appear relevant again create havoc, as he tries to position France somewhere between the Western democratic alliance and the China-Russia alliance, and succeeds mainly in empowering Xi Jinping and undermining democratic Taiwan.” But Macron’s stated position better reflects most of the world’s nations, including democratic ones, then Washington’s.

Rather than push back against the media madness, the NDP has chosen to criticize the Liberals for being too soft on China. Amid this media climate, McPherson is likely to continue promoting the US neocon line unless there is some pushback from below.

More questions should be asked of Singh and McPherson. It is not too much to expect Canada’s social democratic party to follow the lead of the French president — of all people — and at least question if it is in this country’s and humanity’s self-interest to push ever closer to war with China.

After her years-long effort to obstruct Medicare for All, Representative Nancy Pelosi has just received an award of honor from hospital lobbyists.

Nancy Pelosi answers questions from the press on January 31, 2019, in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

A top lobbying group for hospitals gave Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) an award for “her incredible efforts in advancing health care” on Monday, after the former House Speaker spent the past four years fulfilling the industry’s top legislative priority: blocking consideration of Medicare for All or any other major reforms to the insurance-based health care system.

While the American Hospital Association (AHA) says it’s “dedicated to providing high-quality care to all patients,” the lobbying group actually serves the financial interests of its hospital chain members — which profit immensely from the country’s private insurance system.

“Throughout her career, Speaker Emerita Pelosi has been a friend to America’s hospitals and health systems,” said Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the AHA, in a press release announcing Pelosi’s award. “She is a champion for better health care, an advocate for patients, and she continues to work hard to expand opportunities for children, seniors, students, veterans, and the poor.”

The Lever was denied access to the award ceremony event at the AHA’s annual meeting at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Washington, DC, on Monday evening. When our researcher arrived at the event, an AHA staffer said he would connect him with a communications representative — but instead, a hotel manager then approached and threatened to have the researcher arrested if he did not leave, because he had not registered earlier for the event.

The AHA, which raised $129 million in 2021, is a powerful Washington lobbying operation that represents large hospital chains like CommonSpirit Health, Ascension, and Tenet Healthcare.

Hospitals are a key driver of exorbitant health care costs in the US. While hospitals often criticize the health insurance industry for wrongfully denying patients’ claims and creating financial barriers to care, hospital lobbyists work hand in hand with insurers to preserve our insurance-based health care system. That’s because private health insurers pay hospitals significantly more than they receive from the government-run Medicare program.

The AHA is part of a health care industry coalition made up of insurers, pharmaceutical firms, and hospital companies that spent $81 million from 2018–21 on a TV and lobbying campaign opposing Medicare for All, which would create a comprehensive, universal health care system and eliminate the need for private insurance. The coalition also fought more limited proposed reforms like a public health insurance plan and efforts to lower the Medicare eligibility age from sixty-five years.

When Pelosi spoke at the AHA’s annual meeting in 2019, the organization’s top lobbyist, Tom Nickels, predicted that Pelosi would work to block Medicare for All legislation supported by progressives, in order to protect moderate Democrats in swing districts.

“She’s trying to thread the needle here, and she understands the difficulty that Medicare for All will provide for her caucus and for some of her members who have to go get reelected,” Nickels said. “And my guess is she’s going to be pretty adept in making sure that nothing comes up that harms her members.”

He was right: in the four years that Pelosi was speaker again — the first two with a Republican Senate and president, followed by two years where Democrats had a governing trifecta — the House never held a vote on Medicare for All legislation.

House Democrats additionally never voted on any legislation to create a “public option” or a government-run health insurance plan, as the party and President Joe Biden had pledged they would do during the 2020 election, or on any bill to lower the Medicare age.

Instead, Democrats used the first two years of the Biden administration to put more Americans on private health insurance plans — further enriching health insurers. They did so by expanding subsidies available for individual marketplace plans plagued with high out-of-pocket costs and routine claim denials.

The AHA’s 2021 advocacy agenda included ensuring “the stability and affordability of the health insurance marketplaces by expanding eligibility for and the level of subsidies.” Last year, the group called for those subsidies to be permanently expanded.

On Monday, Pelosi received the AHA’s 2023 award of honor, which it gives to “individuals or organizations in recognition of exemplary contributions to the health and well-being of our nation through leadership on major health policy or social initiatives.”

The organization praised Pelosi for her role in passing the Affordable Care Act, the Democrats’ 2010 health care law, as well as passing a limited drug reform measure that the party passed last year allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices on a handful of drugs for the first time.

According to an AHA blog post, “Pelosi championed the work of AHA members during her speech. She also recognized Wendell Primus, her former senior health policy advisor, who received the AHA Honorary Life Membership Award.”

Primus, who recently retired, opposed Medicare for All as a senior health care adviser for Pelosi. Earlier this month, he told the Washington Post that the concept is “too expensive” and “could never pass.”

In February, Primus received an award for “outstanding government service” from the American Medical Association, a doctors lobby.

The three-day AHA event featured speeches from several Washington lawmakers from both parties, including Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Todd Young (R-IN). Reps. Larry Buschon (R-IN), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), and Adrian Smith (R-NE) were there, too.

Then, there was the entertainment — the journalists, pundits, and political operatives who often get paid tens of thousands of dollars or more to speak at industry events like these.

Karl Rove, the longtime GOP strategist and top aide to former president George W. Bush, and David Axelrod, a CNN commentator who served as a senior advisor to former president Barack Obama, spoke during a luncheon for AHA’s political action committee.

While the Lever was blocked from attending AHA’s awards ceremony, the conference featured several prominent representatives of corporate media.

Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, cofounders of the news site Axios, spoke at AHA’s luncheon for “government relations officers,” meaning lobbyists. The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart moderated AHA’s leadership awards luncheon.

Max Moran contributed to this story. You can subscribe to David Sirota’s investigative journalism project, the Lever, here.

Christina Ashten Gourkani – known professionally as Ashten G to her hundreds of thousands of followers over Instagram and OnlyFans – has passed away.

The 34-year-old doppelganger was found to have suffered an unfortunate cardiac arrest. According to TMZ, she may have died after a plastic surgery procedure that went wrong.

The family states, “Her sudden and tragic passing is currently being investigated as a homicide related to a medical procedure that took a turn for the worse.”

The account of the incident was shockingly told by the family member of Christina, who hysterically called her family the morning after her procedure, cryingly saying Christina had suddenly been taken to the hospital. Upon their arrival, the devoted family was heartbrokenly informed that their beloved one had passed away.

To pay tribute to her and potentially uncover what transpired at the moment of Christina’s untimely death, the bereaved family has set up a GoFundMe campaign to reach a USD 40,000 goal for Christina’s funeral expenses and investigation. Many of her admirers have already engaged with the sad initiative in support.

Christina had established her name as the awe-striking Kim Kardashian look-alike, building a highly engaged following in admiration of her looks and larger-than-life city late-night boasts and lifestyles.

The death of Christina Ashten Gourkani has thrown her family and friends into deep shock and sorrow. All who were close to her implore you to donate towards the cause, which helps ensure her memory will live on and invigorate the next steps in her family’s search for the truth of what happened.

Harry Belafonte, the pioneering singer, songwriter, and actor who began his career singing calypso before turning to political activism, has died at the age of ninety-six. Beyond his groundbreaking contribution to the arts, Belafonte was a committed activist in the fight against imperialism, worker oppression, and racial discrimination, using the platform his artistic talents afforded to […]

Jerry Springer, a figure of controversy and large influence in the world of television, has passed away at the age of 79 in his Chicago home. According to TMZ, Jerry’s passing was due to a brief illness, with sources claiming it to be pancreatic cancer diagnosed just a few months ago.

First emerging on the scene in the early 70s as mayor of his hometown Cincinnati, Springer made a name for himself in his successful one-term lead of the town.

Soon after, Springer rose to fame with his infamous and long-running talk show ‘The Jerry Springer Show’ starting in the early 90s. Initially focused on issues of political nature, the show eventually shifted directions in the late 90s and made its mark as a major television hit. It resolutely wrapped up after 27 years on television in 2018.

Serving as a memorable and final performance on the small screen, Springer held a secret spot as ‘The Beetle’ on Fox’s hit show ‘The Masked Singer,’ performing a classic Frank Sinatra tune with many wrapped in surprise.

Springer’s undeniable impact on television and pop culture has left an indelible mark. His iconic show was extremely popular, making a loved individual out of him many. He was an apparent maestro of awry, catchy episodes and golden entertainment to some.