Bad ideas and professional malpractice: Today's news for November 1st

With Halloween now over, today's news revolves around bad ideas and professional malpractice, some of which is downright scary. 

First, we go to Germany...

Express:

'We are losing control of the streets' Merkel's Germany descends into lawlessness

During the first six months of 2016, migrants committed 142,500 crimes, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office.  

And the country has been hit by a spate of horrendous violent crime including rapes, sexual and physical assaults, stabbings, home invasions, robberies, burglaries and drug trafficking.

Adding to the country's woes is the fact that thousands of people have gone missing after travelling to the country on invitation from the country's leader. 

Germany took in more than 1.1million migrants in the past year and parts of the country are crippled with a lack of infrastructure.

Read the entire story, but the short version is: Lax immigration policies have made a mess of Germany.

The German lesson is obvious: A completely open border policy is recklessly stupid.

Discussing bad ideas without mentioning Obamacare would be remiss...

MRC TV:

Physicians' Participation in Obamacare Plummets 20 Percent

The number of physicians who say they’re accepting health insurance plans offered on Obamacare’s federal and state marketplaces has plummeted nearly 20 percentage points, creating yet another crack in the president's rapidly buckling health care law.

According to a recent survey by SERMO, a social network for physicians, about 57 percent of doctors said they won’t be taking new patients insured by the plans next year. That’s down about four percentage points from last year, when 61 percent of physicians said the same, Forbes reported Monday.

But a similar survey conducted by the Medical Group Management Association back in 2014 showed that at the time, 76.5 percent of physicians said their practice were accepting insurance plans offered on the state and federal marketplaces.

Based on these two surveys and a little basic math, we find the number of physicians accepting ACA plans has fallen an astounding 19.5 percentage points heading into Obamacare’s fourth enrollment period – a pretty remarkable decline, considering it’s been just three years since the exchanges were first opened.

What is even more astounding is the article's math is wrong. From the 2014 survey to the current one, it is a drop of 19.5 percentage points, which divided into 76.5% (the original number) shows a drop of 25.4%. In fact, the drop is far more significant than they are showing.

To understand the importance of this coming election, look no further than Obamacare. 4 years from now, it will be replaced or extremely modified. The only question is what plan will we get?

Speaking of politics...

New York Times:

CNN Parts Ways With Donna Brazile, a Hillary Clinton Supporter

Don't you love that headline? A "Hillary Clinton Supporter"? Kind of like G. Gordon Liddy was a Nixon supporter...

CNN has severed ties with the Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, after hacked emails from WikiLeaks showed that she shared questions for CNN-sponsored candidate events in advance with friends on Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Ms. Brazile, a veteran political analyst for the network, was already on leave from CNN since becoming interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. On Monday, CNN said it had accepted her formal resignation on Oct. 14.

“We are completely uncomfortable with what we have learned about her interactions with the Clinton campaign while she was a CNN contributor,” Lauren Pratapas, a network spokeswoman, said in a statement.

“CNN never gave Brazile access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate,” Ms. Pratapas wrote.

The announcement followed the release of new emails on Monday that included a message from Ms. Brazile on the day before a CNN-sponsored Democratic primary debate in Flint, Mich., in March. Her subject line: “One of the questions directed to HRC tomorrow is from a woman with a rash.”

“Her family has lead poison and she will ask what, if anything, will Hillary do as president to help the ppl of Flint,” Ms. Brazile wrote to John D. Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman, and Jennifer Palmieri, the candidate’s communications director.

At the debate the next night, two women asked similar questions of Mrs. Clinton and her opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Here is a news flash to CNN: If you didn't give Brazile "access to any questions, prep material, attendee list, background information or meetings in advance of a town hall or debate", then how the heck did she get such specific information? When you say crap like that, it makes you look like you were either in on it, or else you are accusing Brazile of stealing the information.

Speaking of media malpractice...

Washington Times:

He gets 11 seconds in eight months: Gary Johnson receives virtually no coverage from networks

If you want to understand why third parties fail in America, here is the answer:

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson has complained in recent days that he gets very limited coverage in the mainstream media compared to the big names in the 2016 race. Mr. Johnson appears to be 100 percent right. There is a virtual broadcast black-out on the candidate.

A startling new analysis of major network news coverage conducted by the Media Research Center reveals all. Rich Noyes, research director for the conservative press watchdog, examined 1,713 campaign stories that appeared on ABC, CBS and NBC from Jan. 1 all the way through the end of August. Here’s what Mr. Noyes and his team of researchers found.

GOP nominee Donald Trump got 1,773 minutes of coverage, Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton got 1,020 minutes. And Mr. Johnson?

“Thus far in 2016, Johnson has received a mere 11 seconds of evening news coverage — just a single sentence on the NBC Nightly News as he was formally nominated back in May,” says Mr. Noyes. “That means Clinton has received more than 5,000 times more coverage than Johnson, while Donald Trump garnered nearly 10,000 times more evening news airtime than his Libertarian challenger.”

The broadcast status of other third party hopefuls were also examined by the researchers. They found that conservative independent candidate Evan McMullin got 33 seconds, Green Party nominee Jill Stein three seconds. Yes, three seconds. Constitution Party candidate Darrell Castle got no seconds — as in zero coverage on the networks.

America has a very big problem with the MSM being in bed with the two major parties. When you leave your decisions to the evening news broadcasts, remember that you are NOT getting the entire story.

And now for some fluff Halloween news...

USAToday:

Hilary Duff is 'SO sorry' about her offensive Halloween costume

It's that time of year when celebrities apologize for their offensive Halloween costumes. 

So, who's immediately regretting her choice of holiday wear this year? That would be Hilary Duff, who attended the Casamigos Halloween Party Friday in Beverly Hills. The Younger and Lizzie McGuire star went out with her boyfriend, trainer Jason Walsh, dressed as a pilgrim and a Native American. She had on a short black outfit, and he wore a feather headdress and face paint.

Really? This is offensive?

In the first place, it is so inauthentic as to be ridiculous. If I put on a football helmet and a short skirt and called myself a Roman gladiator, it would be comparably ridiculous (although I do have the legs to carry it off).

In the second place, these are Halloween costumes, not a political statement about relations between Native Americans and pilgrims. While I recognize it is possible to make an offensive Halloween costume, I don't see anything bad being said about Native Americans in this. 

This is just so much PC nonsense.