2019

The Health of our nations people should not be a calculation or a means to raise money.
Helping others in need doesn’t net you income if you do it correctly. You can’t incentivize profits and give people what they need, because corners will begin getting cut, drug prices will rise, and procedure costs will bankrupt the masses.
There have been lives lost and at this point we can conclude:
privatized health insurance doesn’t work.

On Sunday, long-time disability rights activist and attorney Carrie Ann Lucas died from complications from an infection after she went into cardiac arrest, which resulted, according to her friends and family, from her insurance company’s denial of a necessary medication. She was 47.
Lucas, who had a rare form of muscular dystrophy and used a wheelchair as well as a ventilator, spent her life fighting for the rights of people with disabilities, from working to expand and protect the rights of parents with disabilities to advocating for increased health care access. She grew up in Windsor, Colorado and was a teacher and a pastor before becoming a lawyer. She founded the group Disabled Parents Rights, with the goal of assisting parents with disabilities, work that was informed by discrimination she experienced when she attempted to go through the adoption process. She also fought against passing physician-assisted suicide laws. In 2017, as a member of the disability rights group ADAPT, she was one of several people with disabilities who were arrested during a sit-in held in protest of Republicans’ planned cuts to Medicaid.
…
Because Carrie Ann worked for the state, she had use state insurance which was primary ahead of her Medicare and Medicaid. In January of 2018 she got a cold which turned into a trach and lung infection. Her insurance company UnitedHealthcare, refused to pay for the one specific inhaled antibiotic that she really needed. She had to take a less effective drug and had a bad reaction to that drug. This created a cascade of problems, loss of function (including her speech). United Healthcare’s attempt to save $2,000 cost over $1 million in health care costs over the past year. This includes numerous hospitalizations, always involving the Intensive Care Unit which is par for the course for ventilator users.

Source

https://jezebel.com/disability-rights-advocate-carrie-ann-lucas-dies-after-1832933366

Epstein Deal 2/22/2019

Epstein got 13 months in prison, but was allowed to leave during the day to “work” thanks to Trump’s Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta.

In a 33-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra of Palm Beach County describes how evidence shows Epstein—a multimillionaire hedge fund manager known for his friendships with influential political figures, including former president Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Prince Andrew—paid employees to “obtain minors not only for his own sexual gratification, but also for the sexual gratification of others.”
In a series of explosive stories, the Miami Herald documented how, in 2017, federal prosecutors worked with Epstein’s lawyers to put together a plea deal, requiring the financier to plead guilty to two prostitution charges and serve 13 months in jail, despite overwhelming evidence of a widespread pattern of sex trafficking and sexual assault, including 103 “Jane Doe” victims. The deal ensured Epstein—and his unidentified co-conspirators—immunity from federal prosecution.
Then-federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta, now the U.S. secretary of labor (responsible for oversight of international human trafficking and child labor violations), agreed to seal the deal, withholding it from Epstein’s victims, many between 13 and 16 years old when they were abused, until it was too late for them to object in court.
Acosta played a major role in the deal that would immunize Epstein and his accomplices from federal prosecution and largely allowed Epstein’s lawyers to define the terms of the non-prosecution agreement, according to the Herald. The sealed agreement could potentially name other influential people from Epstein’s expansive network of elite friends.

Source

https://www.newsweek.com/jeffrey-epstein-alexander-acosta-trump-sex-trafficking-underage-minor-1339974

China’s Concentration Camps 2/21/2019

Most people don’t even know about China’s Muslim Concentration Camps.
China, one of the most terrifying countries to live in, is is cementing it’s status as a literal Orwellian Communist Regime.

The authorities called it a free health check. Tahir Imin had his doubts.
They drew blood from the 38-year-old Muslim, scanned his face, recorded his voice and took his fingerprints. They didn’t bother to check his heart or kidneys, and they rebuffed his request to see the results.
“They said, ‘You don’t have the right to ask about this,’” Mr. Imin said. “‘If you want to ask more,’ they said, ‘you can go to the police.’”
Mr. Imin was one of millions of people caught up in a vast Chinese campaign of surveillance and oppression. To give it teeth, the Chinese authorities are collecting DNA — and they got unlikely corporate and academic help from the United States to do it.
China wants to make the country’s Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, more subservient to the Communist Party. It has detained up to a million people in what China calls “re-education” camps, drawing condemnation from human rights groups and a threat of sanctions from the Trump administration.
Collecting genetic material is a key part of China’s campaign, according to human rights groups and Uighur activists. They say a comprehensive DNA database could be used to chase down any Uighurs who resist conforming to the campaign.
Police forces in the United States and elsewhere use genetic material from family members to find suspects and solve crimes. Chinese officials, who are building a broad nationwide database of DNA samples, have cited the crime-fighting benefits of China’s own genetic studies.
To bolster their DNA capabilities, scientists affiliated with China’s police used equipment made by Thermo Fisher, a Massachusetts company. For comparison with Uighur DNA, they also relied on genetic material from people around the world that was provided by Kenneth Kidd, a prominent Yale University geneticist.
On Wednesday, Thermo Fisher said it would no longer sell its equipment in Xinjiang, the part of China where the campaign to track Uighurs is mostly taking place. The company said separately in an earlier statement to The New York Times that it was working with American officials to figure out how its technology was being used.

Source

Mueller & Cambridge Analytica 2/17/2019

You remember Cambridge Analytica, the Offshoot of the SCL Group/SCL Elections who stole people’s information to help the Trump Campaign and Russian’s sway the election with false information?
The company is still known today as Emerdata and is still doing the same work.

Brittany Kaiser, a former director at Cambridge Analytica, has been subpoenaed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation regarding possible links between President Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government

Source

https://www.axios.com/mueller-investigation-cambridge-analytica-subpoena-785ff8ee-2c23-45f7-8c39-7e223880a348.html

Roger Stone Connected to Russia 2/16/2019

Roger Stone worked on campaigns for Nixon, Regan, Kemp, Dole, and of course, was an Adviser to the Trump Campaign.
We’ve just had it reveled that he was in communication with not just WikiLeaks, but directly with Russian Government Hackers.

Prosecutors for Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in court filings Friday that former Trump adviser Roger Stone directly communicated with WikiLeaks and Russian hackers who stole thousands of emails from Democrats.
The filing is the first time prosecutors have claimed direct contact between Stone, WikiLeaks, and the Russian agents who leaked the stolen emails to the website.

Source

https://www.newsweek.com/roger-stone-communicated-wikileaks-and-russian-hackers-mueller-1333768

Rep. Steve King removed from Committees 2/14/2019

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will not change his mind on Rep. Steve King’s removal from committee’s. There are certain things that should remain reprehensible and Steve King’s clear and recorded racist beliefs is one of them.

More disturbing is the 200 apparent “faith-based advocacy and conservative media groups” who still supported him.

Rep. Steve King released a letter Tuesday signed by dozens of religious and conservative leaders calling for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to reinstate him to his committee assignments and apologize.
“200 pro-family leaders wrote @GOPLeader McCarthy asking him ‘to do the right thing’ & reinstate my committees,” the Iowa Republican tweeted, along with a link to the letter. “They know when the ‘outrageous misquote’ of a biased & liberal NYTimes takes free rein to ‘falsely brand’ Republicans, no conservative is safe.”
King was removed from his committee assignments in the new Congress last month after he appeared to defend the term “white supremacist” during a New York Times interview, the latest among numerous public statements widely seen as racist or insensitive. King has since said at a town hall that he isn’t racist.
In Tuesday’s letter, the leaders — mostly representing faith-based advocacy and conservative media groups — said they were “appalled that Republican leadership would choose to believe a liberal news organization famous for their bias” over King.
…
In a statement Tuesday, McCarthy’s office indicated the letter would not change his mind.
“Leader McCarthy does not plan to change his mind regarding Rep. King not receiving committee assignments,” the statement read. ”

Source

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/12/politics/steve-king-letter-200-leaders/index.html

Climate Change Imminent 2/13/2019

We have a choice now.

Ensure that our land in the US will stay viable for use and hospitable for normal human life by beginning a green revolution or ensure the end of the United State’s climate through global change.

Within the lifetime of children living today, the climate of many regions is projected to change from the familiar to conditions unlike those experienced in the same place by their parents, grandparents, or perhaps any generation in millennia,” said Fitzpatrick. “Many cities could experience climates with no modern equivalent in North America.”
The climate of cities in the northeast will tend to feel more like the humid subtropical climates typical of parts of the Midwest or southeastern U.S. today—warmer and wetter in all seasons. For instance, unless we take action to mitigate emissions, Washington, D.C. will feel more like northern Mississippi. The climates of western cities are expected to become more like those of the desert Southwest or southern California—warmer in all seasons, with changes in the amount and seasonal distribution of precipitation. San Francisco’s climate will resemble that of Los Angeles. New York will feel more like northern Arkansas.
Scientists analyzed 540 urban areas that encompassed approximately 250 million inhabitants in the United States and Canada. For each urban area, they mapped the similarity between that city’s future climate expected by the 2080s and contemporary climate in the western hemisphere north of the equator using 12 measures of climate, including minimum and maximum temperature and precipitation during the four seasons.
The study also mapped climate differences under two emission trajectories: unmitigated emissions (RCP8.5), the scenario most in line with what might be expected given current policies and the speed of global action, and mitigated emissions (RCP4.5), which assumes policies are put in place to limit emissions, such as the Paris Agreement.

Source

https://phys.org/news/2019-02-climate-north-american-cities-shift.html

Senate Passes Massive Public Lands Package 2/12/2019

The Senate on Tuesday passed the most sweeping conservation legislation in a decade, protecting millions of acres of land and hundreds of miles of wild rivers across the country and establishing four new national monuments honoring heroes including Civil War soldiers and a civil rights icon.
The 662-page measure, which passed 92 to 8, represented an old-fashioned approach to dealmaking that has largely disappeared on Capitol Hill. Senators from across the ideological spectrum celebrated home-state gains and congratulated each other for bridging the partisan divide.
…
Perhaps the most significant change the legislation would make is permanently authorizing a federal program that funnels offshore drilling revenue to conserve a spread of sites that includes major national parks and wildlife preserves, as well as local baseball diamonds and basketball courts. Authorization for the popular program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), lapsed months ago due to the partial government shutdown and other disputes. Liberals like the fact that the money allows agencies to set aside land for wildlife habitat. Conservatives like the fact that taxpayers don’t have to foot the bill for it.
…
The bill reauthorizes and funds the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act through 2022, which provides habitat protection for more than 380 bird species, and codifies a signature program of President Barack Obama’s. That program, the Every Kid Outdoors Act, allows U.S. fourth-graders and their families to visit national parks free.
The measure also expands the boundaries of more than a half-dozen national parks and adds three units, including two Civil War sites in Kentucky, the Mill Springs Battlefield and Camp Nelson.
The package adds acreage to Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks while protecting 350,000 acres of public lands between Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley, increasing the connectivity of the three sites. “This is one of the missing pieces in the landscape connection puzzle in the California desert,” said David Lamfrom, director of California Desert and Wildlife Programs at the National Parks Conservation Association.
The bill would also be a boon for another constituency — hunters and anglers.
Bow hunters would be allowed to bring their weapons through national parks when trying to reach areas where it is legal to hunt. More important, it makes all federal lands open to hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting unless otherwise specified.
Jesse Deubel, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, said in an interview that expanding wilderness in his state will be a powerful lure for hunters seeking bighorn sheep, mule deer, quail and other animals. “People will travel to these places to pursue game in this wild, untamed habitat.”
The public lands package would also protect nearly 620 miles of rivers across seven states from damming and other development, often delegating management of the waterways to local authorities. It includes safeguards for a variety of rivers — everywhere from the tributaries for the wild Rogue River in Oregon, known for its vibrant salmon populations, to the once heavily polluted Nashua River that flows from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and is popular with kayakers.
In many cases, locals have been asking Washington for years for these protections to bolster tourism.
Montana’s entire congressional delegation — two Republicans and one Democrat — pressed for the permanent withdrawal of mineral rights of roughly 30,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service lands near Yellowstone National Park. Another provision in the bill would keep lands in Washington’s Upper Methow Valley from mineral entry and exploration, to protect North Cascades National Park.

Source

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/02/12/senate-just-passed-decades-biggest-public-lands-package-heres-whats-it/?utm_term=.91262bdee7be

Muslims as Second Class Citizens 2/11/2019

A sad reality to all Muslims in America.

In the US, your religion is now second class to Christianity.

Last week, the Supreme Court permitted the state of Alabama to execute a Muslim man, Domineque Ray, without his religious advisor present. The court’s 5-4 decision reversed an emergency lower-court order that had temporarily delayed the execution because of grave concerns that Alabama’s practice of allowing only the state’s Christian chaplain to be present in the execution chamber unconstitutionally favored Christian prisoners.
Without even acknowledging those concerns, the court issued a brief, callous decision that is, as Justice Kagan noted in dissent, “profoundly wrong.” It is also the latest example of a disturbing trend of religious favoritism, in which minority faiths — particularly Islam — are given second-class legal status.

Source

https://www.aclu.org/blog/religious-liberty/supreme-court-playing-favorites-religion

This Weeks News 2/11/2019

Ted Cruz came to the Defense of Trump’s DC Court of Appeals judge Neomi Rao’s past statement that intoxicated women were partially responsible for being raped. He did so by relating a story of a student who drank to excess and electrocuted himself to women who were raped.when drunk [1].

The Trump Administration are STILL seperating children at the border and is actually causing longer periods of separation due to sharing sponsors of these children with ICE. This, even after last month finding out that there were 2,737 more separations than the administration had previously admitted and after they had admitted they were not keeping track of the children [2].

Democrats have united in the focus to protect pre-existing conditions. This is key, as the Trump administration and 20 Republican-based states have already been hard at work to revoke this requirement (no matter what lies he stated in the State of the Union) [3].

Trump made a blatant joke with Elizabeth Warren referencing the Trail of Tears on Twitter [4]. This is, not surprisingly, not his first racist statement against Native Americans, having referenced Pocahontas frequently when attacking Warren, revering Andrew Jackson (the president who enacted the Trail of Tears), even to the point of having a photo added in the background when honoring Native American Veterans.

Virginia Governor Justin Fairfax has called on the FBI to investigate the claims that he had committed sexual assaults, one in 2000 and one in 2004 [5]. This can be seen as an immediate contrast to the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh, who was immediately against an investigation and whose subsequent investigation was done on a shortened timeline, narrow scope, and with limited witnesses allowed to be questioned.

With 18,565 victims who have come forward and more keeping quiet [6], the Catholic Church has had more sexual assault allegations come forward, this time including nuns being used as sex slaves in at least two reported countries as of now [7].

A study shows that the 400 Richest people in America own more money than the bottom 150 Million Americans. These 400 people “ have seen their share of America’s national wealth triple since the 1980s, while the wealth of much of the U.S. population has stagnated or declined. ” [8] Wealth inequality in the US is at an all time high, and the tax bill has actually grown it by giving breaks to the richest Americans and either increasing or keeping the rates of middle and lower class Americans [9].

After the US, under Trump’s discretion, broke down a Cold War era pact that was created to keep nuclear proliferation in both countries down, Putin has now announced a revamping of Russia’s nuclear arms to compete with the US by 2021 [10].

The US is unquestionably nearing another recession, one that will possibly hit similar to the great recession due to the likelihood of not having bailouts given by the government [11].

Democracy across the world has now begun to see a decline, with many countries inviting Nationalist leadership and human rights being removed in many areas [12].

Insect populations across the globe are dying at an unprecedented rate due to pathogens, use of pesticides, habitat loss due to human involvement, and climate change. These insects are necessary for the earth to remain have hospitable, yet “ The total biomass of insects is also declining at the rate of 2.5 per cent globally, the review of 73 historical reports found. ” [13]

Sources

Source 1: https://theweek.com/speedreads/821962/ted-cruz-just-compared-rape-victims-man-who-climbed-train-electrocuted-himself

Source 2: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/07/bethany-christian-services-family-separation-hearing/2798007002/

Source 3: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/us/politics/democrats-pre-existing-condition-coverage.html

Source 4: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-genocide-warren-792627/

Source 5: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/429298-fairfax-calls-on-fbi-to-investigate-sexual-assault-allegations-against

Source 6: https://www.axios.com/catholic-church-faces-ominous-decline-5cc11529-860d-470d-a2e2-5fe12b89ad81.html

Source 7: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-priests-nuns-sexual-slavery-abuse-saint-jean-order-france/

Source 8: http://papers.nber.org/tmp/38195-w25462.pdf

Source 9: https://www.yahoo.com/news/average-tax-refunds-down-8-054836423.html

Source 10: https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-to-build-new-missile-systems-after-breakdown-of-u-s-nuclear-pact-11549383167

Source 11: https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-u-s-is-in-the-late-stages-of-expansion-data-show-51549642305