Also on today’s menu:
State-Federal Partnership Offers Healthcare Assistance
New Hampshire Man Relates UAP Experience
Fed Increases Interest Rates Despite Low Inflation
When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the GI Bill of Rights, the legislative language was race-neutral, providing housing loans and educational assistance to United States veterans. However, many black World War II veterans found they were denied the opportunities of their white counterparts. Institutions adopted the Federal Housing Administration’s racial exclusion programs, known as redlining, that excluded black veterans from the housing loan guaranty program. Black veterans also were denied access to educational benefits at some universities on the basis of their race and instead were directed to vocational schools and black colleges and universities.
On July 26, the 75th anniversary of President Harry S. Truman’s desegregation of the U.S. military, New Hampshire Attorney-General John Formella and Massachusetts Attorney-General Andrea Joy Campbell led a bipartisan, multi-state call on Congress to pass H.R. 1255, the Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. and Sgt. Joseph H. Maddox GI Bill Restoration Act of 2023 — proposed federal legislation that would extend eligibility for housing loans and educational assistance administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to black World War II veterans, their surviving spouses, and direct descendants of veterans who were previously denied benefits on the basis of race. The bill is named in honor of two black World War II veterans.
In a letter to Congress, Formella and a coalition of other attorneys-general asserted that, by expanding access to homeownership and education, the bill would help to rectify past wrongs and lead to continued economic growth in communities across the country. “Our decision to uplift this legislation on this date is intentional,” the letter states. “Today marks the 75th anniversary of President Truman’s signing of Executive Order 9981, on July 26, 1948, which mandated the desegregation of the U.S. military. This anniversary represents a powerful moment for us to honor and reaffirm our commitment to supporting and expanding economic opportunity for all of America's veterans.”
State-Federal Partnership Offers Healthcare Assistance
State Medicaid Director Henry Lipman of Laconia, who recently said that he would not seek another term in his other role as city councilor, announced his support of a pilot program to expand New Hampshire’s outreach efforts to let those at risk of losing Medicaid benefits know that other assistance is available.
New Hampshire was among the first five states to eliminate Medicaid benefits for those who no longer qualified once federal pandemic health emergency regulations expired in March, but the Department of Health and Human Services has attempted to keep people insured through other programs such as the federally subsidized Marketplace. The new pilot project is an arrangement with the federal government to reach those who have not responded to earlier messages and are at risk of losing all benefits. Lipman said he believes the initiative could be a national model.
“One thing I take from this whole experience is that there are things that we can do to improve eligibility determinations,” Lipman said. The state provides an online portal to government benefits and local services at nheasy.nh.gov, a special number, 1-844-ASK-DHHS (1-844-275-3447), for inquiries, and local offices for in-person visits. Two federally funded health care “navigator” programs can assist people with eligibility questions and insurance options, and help them to purchase a plan through the Marketplace. First Choice Services (firstchoiceservices.org) and Health Market Connect (hmcnh.com) provide free assistance in multiple languages, and the New Hampshire Insurance Department also can help.
New Hampshire Man Relates UAP Experience
So-called whistleblower David Charles Grusch, a former intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force who most recently served at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and was co-leader in the analysis of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and trans-medium objects, made headlines for his claims that the U.S. government “is concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse-engineers unidentified flying objects” — but also testifying at the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs hearing on July 26 was retired U.S. Navy Commander David Fravor of Windham, New Hampshire.
Fravor was commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron Forty-One (the world-famous Black Aces), attached to Carrier Airwing Eleven and stationed on the USS Nimitz in November 2004. “We were at the beginning of our workup cycle that would prepare us for a combat deployment to the Persian Gulf for operations supporting the ground forces in Iraq,” he said. After about two weeks at sea, “we were told that training was going to be suspended for real-world tasking.”
During those two weeks, the air controller on the ship had been observing objects descending rapidly from above 80,000 feet to 20,000 feet, and they would stay for hours before going straight back up. “When we arrived at the location … we noticed some white water off our right side. The weather on the day of the incident was as close to a perfect day as you could ask, clear skies, light winds, calm seas (no whitecaps from the waves) so the white water stood out in the large blue ocean. As all four looked down, we saw a small white Tic Tac-shaped object with the longitudinal axis pointing N/S and moving very abruptly over the white water. There were no rotors, no rotor wash, or any visible flight control surfaces like wings. … We proceeded around the circle about 90 degrees … and the object suddenly shifted its longitudinal axis, aligned it with my aircraft and began to climb in a clockwise climbing turn. … As we pulled nose onto the object at approximately half of a mile with the object just left of our nose, it rapidly accelerated and disappeared right in front of our aircraft. Our wingman, roughly 8,000 feet above us, also lost visual.”
He continued, “What is shocking is that the incident was never investigated, none of my crew were ever questioned, tapes were never taken, and after a couple of days, it turned into a great story to tell friends. Not until 2009 did Jay Stratton contact me to investigate what we observed. Unbeknownst to all of us, Jay was part of the ATIP (Anomalous Threat Identification Program) program led by Lue Elizondo out of the DOD.” Since then, there have been news articles that “opened a door for the government and the public that cannot be closed. It has led to an interest from our elected officials who are not focused on “Little Green men” but on figuring out what these craft are, where are they from, the technology they possess, and how do they operate. It has also led to the Whistleblower protection act … which brings us to today.”
Fed Increases Interest Rates Despite Low Inflation
The inflationary pressures of supply-chain shortages have eased, as predicted, bringing the cost of goods down from its previous high to about 2.4 percent. Nevertheless, the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates by a quarter percentage point, a 22-year high, in order to achieve its goal of 2 percent inflation — a figure that helps to ensure that more people are out of work and that the poor have an even harder time making ends meet.
I can say that because the Fed has admitted that its goal will put more people out of work. The stepped increases that have occurred have so far not hurt employment, which has remained strong despite the Fed’s thumb on the scales. However, the higher interest rates have increased the number of businesses defaulting on their loans.
The Federal Reserve is using outdated theories to control the money supply, failing to recognize that the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have altered the economic landscape in ways that regulators have not experienced before. Rather than adapting to today’s reality, the Fed is relying on principles that work only in a stable situation — something that is not the case today, and will not become so with relentless interest rate hikes.
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