Judge orders release of sealed documents in Jeffrey Epstein case | TheHill
hmmm
Methodist Hospitals In Memphis Pursues Debt Collection Suits Against Own Low-Wage Workers
One story by the news organizations chronicled the struggle of Carrie Barrett, who makes $9.05 an hour at Kroger, to pay her 2007 hospital bill for $12,019. The bill has ballooned to more than $33,000 due to interest and attorney’s fees.
Another story detailed how Methodist sues its own employees, some of whom make less than $13 an hour, for unpaid bills related to care delivered at its hospitals. Its health plan doesn’t allow workers to seek care at hospitals with more generous financial assistance policies.
Defendants talked about how the lawsuits upended their lives and left them in a position where they would never be able to pay off their debts, which grew from year to year as interest mounted.
…If they are unable to afford their bills, patients then face what experts say is rare: A licensed collection agency owned by the hospital.
…New data obtained from Shelby County General Sessions Court shows that Methodist has filed more than 600 new lawsuits this year. Its most recent suits were filed on June 21, days before the MLK50-ProPublica stories were published. Its most recent garnishment order was filed on Tuesday.
Also, after the hospital sues and wins a judgment, it repeatedly tries to garnish patients’ wages, which it does in a far higher share of cases than other nonprofit hospitals
…The Rev. Anthony Anderson, a United Methodist elder at Faith United Methodist in Memphis, was more reserved.
“I am still heartbroken, and I say that spiritually,” Anderson said. “It breaks my heart to know that a Methodist-related entity, a hospital, would have these types of practices.”
Yikes
An Astonishing Government Report on Conditions at the Border
…“Border Patrol was holding about 8,000 detainees in custody at the time of our visit, with 3,400 held longer than the 72 hours generally permitted,” the report said.
…Many people—1,500 of the detainees—had been held for more than 10 days. Nearly a third of the 2,669 children—both those who were unaccompanied and those who had crossed with families—at the facilities the investigators studied had been held longer than 72 hours. At one facility in McAllen, Texas, 50 unaccompanied children under the age of 7 had been in custody for more than two weeks while awaiting transfer. After 72 hours, once a child has been turned over to HHS, the government is supposed to find the closest relative in the United States for children in its custody. But it has not worked that way.
…Children weren’t being given hot meals, even though it is required by law; instead, they were fed sandwiches and snacks for meals. And at three of the facilities investigators visited, children had no access to showers.
…There were hungry children who did not have enough to eat, she told me. Children had urinated on their pants, and weren’t offered a change of clothes. Some children had vomited on their clothing. It was a health risk, she said. Children reported seeing guards pulling other children from cages by force.
An Astonishing Government Report on Conditions at the Border – The Atlantic
Jeezus….
Alabama DA Drops Manslaughter Charge Against Woman In Death Of Her Fetus
Alabama DA Drops Manslaughter Charge Against Woman In Death Of Her Fetus : NPR
Good.
Also, from a Christian standpoint, fetal homicide laws are not biblical, so therefore they are the work of the devil. (Not following the logic? See the previous post.)
State Laws on Fetal Homicide and Penalty-enhancement for Crimes Against Pregnant Women
State Laws on Fetal Homicide and Penalty-enhancement for Crimes Against Pregnant Women
Let’s parse this out, shall we?
The typical argument for a life beginning before its birth is that (the Christian version of) God made it so. Since the Bible is accepted authority on the word of (the Christian version of) God, let’s peruse the tome and see what God has to say on the subject.
Genesis 2:7 – And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Man becomes a living soul when the breathe of life flows through his nostrils? OR more simply put, breathing through one’s nose is the point man becomes a living soul? That doesn’t sound like anything that happens in the womb….
Ezekiel 37: 5-6 – Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live;
The moment that bones, sinew, and flesh become living is when breathe is put into it? So there is no life until a body breathes? A body isn’t alive unless it is has drawn breathe. Seems pretty clear that life starts after a body is born and has drawn its first breathe because without breathe it is not living.
Job 33:4 – The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
Even though God made man (in this case, Elihu,) he was not alive until he received breathe. So even though a body has been created it is not alive until it is breathing? Seems pretty clear cut.
Conclusion? God says there is no life without breathe, ergo no body is alive until it breathes. Fetal homicide laws are enacted in direct opposition to the Word of (the Christian version of ) God.
When people who purport to be Christian advocate for fetal homicide laws they are going against the Bible. No ifs, ands, or buts. Calling it based in anything that resembles Biblical teachings is an egregious, blatant, and wholly unchristian lie.
It is a way to degrade women and make them less than a full person in the eyes of the law though. If injury to, or the death of, a woman in itself is a lesser crime than the injury to, or death of, a pregnant woman than the law is saying that a woman who is not pregnant is worth less than one who is.
If women who are pregnant can expect the full support of the law to reconcile aggression against them and women who are not get less support and a lower level of justice from the law then women who are not pregnant are valued as less in the eyes of the law than others. Simply put, unless women are pregnant, their personhood, in the eyes of the law, is devalued.
And that’s not only unchristian, it’s just wrong.
Customs And Border Patrol Investigating Secret Facebook Border Patrol Group
Customs And Border Patrol Investigating Secret Facebook Border Patrol Group : NPR
Oh, goody. The people who allowed this toxic culture to exist, spread, and perpetuate within its own ranks are “investigating.” So basically, nothing will happen, there will be no consequences, and these illicit armed thugs will continue to exist at our border, perpetrating crimes against humanity with impunity.
No investigation done in house is legitimate.
…And not for nothing, all leadership needs to be replaced because they either allowed this to happen or they are incapable of doing their jobs.
What is metering and how does it contribute to perpetuating injustice, inhumane treatment, and chaos at the Southern US Border?
U.S. Customs and Border Protection uses “metering” as a way to manage the flow of people seeking entry at official ports of entry — capping the daily number of asylum applications received at official border crossings.
We can’t know for certain whether Martínez Ramírez heard about metering or any other policies, so we aren’t rating Castro’s statement on the Truth-O-Meter. But it doesn’t seem far-fetched: Metering may lead migrants to cross the border illegally, according to experts and government investigators.
…With the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy in effect, government officials have still publicly encouraged asylum seekers to enter the United States legally through a port of entry to avoid prosecution and family separations. However, at the same time, Customs and Border Protection is regulating the flow of asylum seekers at ports of entry through “metering.” A version of the practice has been used at least as far back as 2016, during the Obama administration, according to a September 2018 report from the Office of Inspector General within the Department of Homeland Security.
When metering, Customs and Border Protection officers stand at the international line in the middle of the foot bridges, the report said, and officers only allow asylum seekers to cross the line if space is available.
“While the stated intentions behind metering may be reasonable, the practice [also has very negative] consequences,” the report stated. “For instance, (Office of Inspector General) saw evidence that limiting the volume of asylum-seekers entering at ports of entry leads some aliens who would otherwise seek legal entry into the United States to cross the border illegally.”
…A May 2019 study from immigration experts suggests there are more than 18,700 asylum seekers waiting in Mexico border cities. One of the report’s researchers, Stephanie Leutert of the University of Texas, told PolitiFact more specifically that there are around 1,000 people waiting to cross the bridge where Martínez Ramírez was waiting.
A few weeks ago the National Migration Institute, which manages the list in Mexico, made the list private. That has prompted stress for migrants, because they can no longer see their place in line.
“That caused a lot of desperation among migrants,” Leutert said.
mmhmmm
Also, the Obama administration was in no way and in way near as bad as the Trumps. That is in arguable. It is also true that the BHO WH was hardly the paradigm of progressive policy that the Left likes to think of it as. Yes, they were using metering. No, there was no more of a moral, ethical, or practical justification when they were using it than there is now.
DHS Watchdog Describes Crammed Detention Centers, A Ticking Time Bomb : NPR
[The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General] said the prolonged detention of migrants without proper food, hygiene or laundry facilities — some for more than a month — requires “immediate attention and action.”
…The latest report from the Rio Grande Valley includes photos of migrants penned into overcrowded Border Patrol facilities — including one man pressing a cardboard sign to a cell window with the word “Help.”
…Inspectors found that hundreds of children were held for longer than the 72 hours, the maximum time federal rules allow. In some cases, kids were held for more than two weeks. And some adults were kept in standing-room-only cells, without access to showers, for more than a week.
DHS Watchdog Describes Crammed Detention Centers, A Ticking Time Bomb : NPR
mmmhmm
ICE set up fake university, enrolled foreign students in sting operation
ICE set up fake university, enrolled foreign students in sting operation – Business Insider
I question how ICE agents can be so sure what students “knew” as they so cavalierly assert more than once in this article.
Also, it sure as shit looks and smells like entrapment….
House Democrats Visit Texas Detention Centers: ‘Nothing Prepares You for the Inhumanity of It’
House Democrats Visit Texas Detention Centers – The Atlantic
Our grandparents put their lives on the line to defeat Nazis and this is how we honor that legacy, by allowing Nazi tactics to be the norm on American soil.
Doctors describe black box of medical care in detention facilities: ‘That is not medical care. That’s malpractice’
US Border Patrol, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, US Customs and Border Protection = Nazi Tactics
Thousands of migrant children were sexually abused in U.S. custody, HHS docs say
Thousands of migrant children were sexually abused in U.S. custody, HHS docs say – CBS News
Aggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Make arrests now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A black hospital patient went on a walk with an IV drip. An incompetent and illogical security guard accused him of stealing medical equipment
The security guard should be fired immediately for incompetence and charged with knowingly making a false report to the police. The police officers involved should be reassigned to desk duty or relived of their badges entirely because clearly they cannot act on what is actually going on in front of them, let alone investigate issues they are called to resolve.
A little bit of logic would have solved this issue. Instead a man’s health was compromised and three men were arrested based on obviously false information.
Here’s hoping that this man sues both the hospital and the police department into oblivion. Neither should continue to exist if this is how they function.
FACT CHECK: Why Didn’t Obama Stop Russia’s Election Interference In 2016?
This story is complex and goes beyond a simple “True” or “False” grade. One basic notion that is false is the idea the Obama administration took no action — it did. The question that has been asked many times since the presidential election is why it didn’t do more.
…So why didn’t Obama’s administration do more?
That isn’t clear. Some former administration officials who have talked about it publicly have reproached themselves for not acting more aggressively. There also was a long-standing criticism of Obama that his foreign-policy making amounted to endless process with no outcomes — hours of meetings that yielded more meetings but no ultimate action.
…There’s no way to know what difference it might have made for U.S. officials to have confirmed and condemned the Russian interference in real time.
FACT CHECK: Why Didn’t Obama Stop Russia’s Election Interference In 2016? : NPR
Unfortunately Obama and his administration weren’t perfect. They were great on some things and completely dropped the ball on others.
For example, Obama had either a huge blind spot, petty selfish interests, or a complete inability to see the long-term effects of attacking previous Democratic administrations &/or gutting, bankrupting, and ignoring the DNC. Millions of registered Democrats paid the price for that in successive elections. One would hope that this inherent liability in his approach did not play into his inability to get ahead of the known issue with foreign interference in domestic elections but really, who knows?
What is clear is that this was an absolute failure on their part. They hold some responsibility for their part in how things turned out, even if no one wants to smear the entire eight years with this stark fact.
If only the Obama organization (campaign + administration) had practiced this approach (not wanting to smear good people because of imperfections) when speaking about prior administrations, well, perhaps we wouldn’t be here now.
This blog was started to shine a light on some of the less flattering aspects of the Obama administration, and although the Peanut Gallery firmly believes Obama to be one of the good guys, it also sees that he was far from the progressive prince people like to make the man out as.
(Told you so, told you so, TOLD YOU SO!!!!)
Jimmy Carter suggests Trump is an illegitimate president
“There’s no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the election. And I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if fully investigated would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf,” Carter said at the Carter Center’s retreat in Leesburg, Virginia.
Jimmy Carter suggests Trump is an illegitimate president – CNNPolitics
Well, yeah….
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