Tag: Congress

Medicare to cover obesity drugs, but not for weight loss

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
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Medicare to cover obesity drugs, but not for weight loss

“CMS has issued guidance to Medicare Part D plans stating that anti-obesity medications (AOMs) that receive FDA approval for an additional medically accepted indication can be considered a Part D drug for that specific use,” the spokesperson added, specifying that drugs that are FDA-approved for only weight loss do not fall under this consideration.

Wegovy, Rybelsus, and Ozempic, are the different brand names for Semaglutide. They have a black box warning for Medullary thyroid cancer.* 🤦🏼‍♀️

Related:

Wegovy side effects: What you should know

*Obesity and Cancer

Kosovo War at 25: Blair’s secret invasion plot to ‘topple Milosevic’ revealed

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
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Top secret papers reviewed by The Grayzone reveal Tony Blair demanded strikes on civilian targets in Yugoslavia days before NATO attacked them. While the UK military acknowledged a NATO strike on Hotel Jugoslavia would mean inflicting “some civilian casualties,” it insisted the deaths were “worth the cost.”

Kosovo War at 25: Blair’s secret invasion plot to ‘topple Milosevic’ revealed

Related:

Breakup of Yugoslavia

Lawmaker Who Led TikTok Ban Bill Joins Private Surveillance Firm

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Lawmaker Who Led TikTok Ban Bill Joins Private Surveillance Firm

Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, who led the charge on a bill that could effectively ban TikTok within the country — on the basis that China can “surveil its users” — plans to take up a post with the American surveillance company and defense contractor Palantir, Forbes reported.

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Gallagher, who currently chairs the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, was the lead sponsor on the bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the popular social media platform within six months or face a potential ban from app stores and web-hosting services.

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After the vote, Palantir executive Jacob Helberg, who also serves on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, called on his social media followers to fund opponents to lawmakers who voted no on the bill to ban TikTok. Gallagher worked with Helberg in recent months as part of an effort to build bipartisan, bicoastal support of the bill. Helberg took a job at Palantir as a senior policy advisor to CEO Alex Karp back in August.

Related:

Wikipedia:

The United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission (informally, the U.S.–China Commission, USCC) is an independent agency of the United States government. It was established on October 30, 2000, through the Floyd D. Spence National Defense Authorization Act.

Auto Makers Are Selling Data On Your Driving Habits To Your Insurer Without Properly Informing You

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)2 Comments
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from the I-can’t-drive-55 dept

Last September, Mozilla came out with a privacy study indicating that the auto industry was the worst tech industry the organization tracked. Mozilla found that not only does the industry hoover up a ton of data from your use of vehicles, it collects and monetizes most of the data on your phone. Often without transparency or adequate safeguards:

“All 25 car brands we researched earned our *Privacy Not Included warning label — making cars the official worst category of products for privacy that we have ever reviewed.“

Auto Makers Are Selling Data On Your Driving Habits To Your Insurer Without Properly Informing You

Someone tell Rep. Mike Gallagher that China is buying our data! /s

Related:

Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies

Taiwan commanders authorized to use force against intruding enemy military aircraft, vessels

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Taiwan commanders authorized to use force against intruding enemy military aircraft, vessels

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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) clarified its definition of “first strike,” saying it considered any Chinese military asset crossing into Taiwan’s territorial borders as an act of aggression.

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Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said that this definition was updated shortly after former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan — when China held live-fire military drills around the nation to express its dissatisfaction.

The Taiwan Strait is “on the brink” of a heightened level of alert, Chiu said at a Foreign and National Defense Committee session on Thursday (March 7). The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has ramped up the frequency of its air and naval operations. He said PLA activities are now creeping closer to Taiwan and have slowly entered “gray areas” from the north and south.

To deter China from escalating tensions in the strait, U.S. senators introduced a bill on Tuesday (March 5) requiring the U.S. Department of the Treasury to terminate the United States-People’s Republic of China Income Tax Convention if Beijing attacks Taiwan.

Related:

Containing China: US Using Taiwan as East Asian “Ukraine”

Report: US Military Advisors Deployed to Taiwan-Controlled Islands on China’s Coast