14 September 19
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14 September 19
Bernie Sanders, Not Joe Biden, Sets the Democratic Party Line
Justin Charity, The Ringer
Charity writes: "In his opening remarks at the third Democratic presidential primary debate, Joe Biden struck a lonesome defensive in his battle against 'Medicare for All.'"
Justin Charity, The Ringer
Charity writes: "In his opening remarks at the third Democratic presidential primary debate, Joe Biden struck a lonesome defensive in his battle against 'Medicare for All.'"
EXCERPT:
Castro then ridiculed Biden’s attempt to deflect questions from the Univision anchor, Jorge Ramos, about 3 million deportations—“the most ever in U.S. history,” Castro stressed—recorded under the Obama administration. “Every time something good about Barack Obama comes up, he says, ‘oh, I was there, I was there, I was there, that’s me, too,’ and then every time somebody questions part of the administration that we were both part of, he says, ‘well, that was the president,’” Castro said. “He wants to take credit for Obama’s work but not have to answer to any questions.”
Biden didn’t quite lose to Castro, whose remarks verged on arrogance and cruelty. But Castro’s pointed attacks on Biden’s record as vice president underscored a persistent riddle in these debates. Obama remains highly popular among Democratic voters, and Biden wastes little opportunity to tout that administration’s record.
Border Patrol agents check migrants' documents after they were apprehend crossing the border in El, Paso, Texas, June 8, 2019. (photo: Paul Ratje)
An Asylum Officer Speaks Out Against the Trump Administration's "Supervillain" Attacks on Immigrants
Debbie Nathan, The Intercept
Nathan writes: "It has been a very bad week for defenders of political asylum in the United States."
Debbie Nathan, The Intercept
Nathan writes: "It has been a very bad week for defenders of political asylum in the United States."
EXCERPT:
sylum officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, were reeling after John Lafferty, director of the asylum division, was replaced on Monday by Andrew Davidson, former deputy associate director for USCIS’s fraud detection and national security directorate. Then came the Supreme Court’s ruling Wednesday reinstating the Trump administration’s “third-country” rule, which effectively denies asylum to all Central American immigrants if they passed through another country on the way to the U.S. border with Mexico. It has been a very bad week for defenders of political asylum in the United States.
Lafferty had previously worked as a lawyer at Catholic Charities, an immigrant legal services nonprofit, and the asylum officers who worked under him at USCIS have generally had similar backgrounds. Many are highly educated attorneys who have worked in nonprofits assisting immigrants with asylum claims rather than trying to deport them. Lafferty’s ousting and replacement by a fraud investigator is just the latest development in the Trump administration’s assault on the asylum system, according to a USCIS asylum officer who contacted The Intercept. The asylum officer’s name is being withheld to protect against retaliation.
In recent months, Customs and Border Protection agents have been conducting asylum screening interviews in place of asylum and refugee officers from USCIS. These interviews have been taking place in detention centers in border states. Perhaps more ominously, they are also happening with immigrants trapped in Mexico by the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP. Mexico is also where many immigrants will be dumped as the “third country” policy rolls out.
Americans face rapidly ballooning health-care costs and get pursued into financial ruin for the crime of getting sick. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
How Greedy Hospitals Fleece the Poor
Libby Watson, The New Republic
Watson writes: "The episode was a good reminder of the dangers of Wonk Brain, which leads sufferers to fight viciously over questionable methodology and imprecise rhetoric while ignoring the bleeding obvious and the obvious bleeding."
Libby Watson, The New Republic
Watson writes: "The episode was a good reminder of the dangers of Wonk Brain, which leads sufferers to fight viciously over questionable methodology and imprecise rhetoric while ignoring the bleeding obvious and the obvious bleeding."
EXCERPT:
Or read the newspaper, because lately, they are filled with tales of chicanery from those same hospitals. On Monday, a Kaiser Health News report detailed the University of Virginia hospital system’s heartless pursuit of poor patients who owe them money. The hospital has sued its patients 36,000 times over six years, for as little as $13.91, with devastating consequences. The hospital has garnished wages and put liens on houses, levying high interest on delinquent patients. It sued its own employees for unpaid bills around 100 times a year.
It’s not just happening at UVA, though they are particularly aggressive. Last week, The New York Times reported on Carlsbad Medical Center in New Mexico, which has sued many more of its patients for unpaid medical bills than nearby hospitals; even the county judge who hears the cases was sued. In June, ProPublica published a story on Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare Hospital in Memphis, which filed 8,300 lawsuits against patients in five years.
These hospitals are outliers in their communities, pursuing cases more aggressively than other hospitals do; some don’t file lawsuits against patients at all. These particularly aggressive hospitals are only known about because reporters have highlighted their practices. How many more of the 6,210 American hospitals are suing their patients? And, in turn, how many Americans have been sued by their hospitals? We don’t know, but it’s at least thousands.
We are, however, learning some of the stomach-churning details about these hospitals’ practices. The primary case documented in the UVA article involved Heather Waldron, who was sued over a $164,000 bill she received for emergency intestinal surgery. The article notes that figure is “more than twice what a commercial insurer would have paid for her care.” What relationship, then, does that charge have to what it actually cost UVA to provide Waldron’s care? We don’t know. The hospital probably doesn’t even know. It doesn’t have to tell anyone anything about how they came to this dollar amount in order to pursue her to the point where she has to sell her house and go on food stamps.
Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported on the case of a Wisconsin hospital that had actually attempted to determine the real cost of a knee surgery at its facility, for which the list price was more than $50,000. It turned out the answer was $10,500. The hospital had set the price nearly five times higher “using a combination of educated guesswork and a canny assessment of market opportunity,” according to the Journal.
A MUST READ! REPUBLICANS LEAD WITH FEAR, HATE AND MISINFORMATION!
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (photo: Getty Images)
Fredreka Schouten, CNN
Schouten writes: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday criticized a television ad from a new Republican-aligned political action committee that calls her 'ignorant' and sets fire to her picture."
EXCERPT:
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, another member of the so-called Squad, on Friday called the ad "horrifying to watch" and said it should be pulled from the airwaves.
"When will the Republicans learn how to offer ideas and solutions without stroking fear and inciting violence?," she tweeted. "Enough is enough. They need to pull this garbage off the air and issue an apology to @AOC."
Huffman admitted to paying a Harvard graduate $15,000 to correct her daughter's answers on the SAT, securing her a 400-point boost on the college entrance exam. (photo: Getty Images)
Felicity Huffman Gets Prison Time in College Admissions Scandal
Olivia Messer, The Daily Beast
Messer writes: "When Felicity Huffman finally received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012, she and husband William H. Macy were bookended by their grinning blonde daughters, Sophia and Georgia."
READ MORE
Olivia Messer, The Daily Beast
Messer writes: "When Felicity Huffman finally received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012, she and husband William H. Macy were bookended by their grinning blonde daughters, Sophia and Georgia."
READ MORE
Indian occupied Kashmir. (photo: Reuters)
"Kashmir Turned Into an Open-Air Prison"
Kumail Sayeed, Jacobin
Sayeed writes: "I arrived in Kashmir on Thursday, August 1, delighted to be home after eleven months away. I planned on celebrating Eid with family and friends, and going hiking, fishing, and boating."
READ MORE
Kumail Sayeed, Jacobin
Sayeed writes: "I arrived in Kashmir on Thursday, August 1, delighted to be home after eleven months away. I planned on celebrating Eid with family and friends, and going hiking, fishing, and boating."
READ MORE
A lion. (photo: Sabi Sabi)
Trump Admin Grants First Lion Trophy Import Permit Since Listed as Threatened
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "A Florida man has been allowed to import a Tanzanian lion's skin, skull, claws and teeth, a first since the animal was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, according to US Fish and Wildlife Service records uncovered by the Center for Biological Diversity through the Freedom of Information Act."
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "A Florida man has been allowed to import a Tanzanian lion's skin, skull, claws and teeth, a first since the animal was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, according to US Fish and Wildlife Service records uncovered by the Center for Biological Diversity through the Freedom of Information Act."
EXCERPT:
The documents show that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a permit in May for hunter, Carl Atkinson, to bring home the lion trophy which was taken from a game preserve in July or August, according to Courthouse News. The hunter's attorney, John Jackson III, is a member of the Interior Department's own International Wildlife Conservation Council, which Ryan Zinke created as Secretary of the Interior to highlight the "economic benefits that result from US citizens traveling to foreign nations to engage in hunting," as CNN reported.
"This is tragic news for lion conservation, and it suggests that the Trump administration may soon open the floodgates to trophy imports from Tanzania," said Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. "Tanzania is a lion stronghold, but it's been criticized by scientists for corruption and inadequate wildlife protections. Opening the U.S. market to these imports doesn't bode well for the lion kings of Tanzania."
Tanzania is thought to be home to 40 percent of Africa's lions, though exact populations are difficult to count. It has a history of mismanaging populations of lions, elephants and other threatened animals. By allowing hunters to bring their trophies back to the U.S. there are ripple effects. Hunters often seek out mature male lions, which make desirable trophies. Yet, killing one lion often leads to the death of many more. Since those mature male lions are usually pack leaders, a new pack leader will move in and assert dominance by killing the hunted lion's offspring, resulting in the loss of many lions, as the Center for Biological Diversity noted.
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