so id like to tell you something, like, in the context of cryptid sightings
specifically, id like to tell you some things about cattle
- they dont look like they move fast, but, in fact, they do. they move very fast, and theyre capable of doing so quietly
- if a cow is black and has white spots, or if it is white and has black spots, both the white and black bits come together in the approximate shape of a cow
- but in the dark, you cant see the black parts, and the white parts do NOT, form the approximate shape of a cow
what im saying is that i have at certain times been walking in the fields on a night with low visibility and i have, at certain times, seen an indistinct white shape zoom past me, and i am at least 95% sure it was a cow. and that if you see a white shape zoom past you in a field at night, it is also probably at least 95% of a cow
my name is cow
and wen its nite
and yu in fere
a cryptid site
be not afraide –
in mothmans sted
its only mein serch of bred
Author: hearseeno
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump once told an interviewer that he advises his friends to “be rougher” with their wives, and that he sometimes goes “through the roof” when he comes home and dinner isn’t ready.
“Psychologists will tell you that some women want to be treated with respect,” Trump told Nancy Collins in a previously unreleased 1994 transcript from ABC’s Primetime Live. “I tell friends who treat their wives magnificently, get treated like crap in return, ‘Be rougher and you’ll see a different relationship.’”
TRUMP’S INFRASTRUCTURE SCAM
Our country is in dire need of massive investments in infrastructure, but what Donald Trump is proposing is nothing more than a huge tax giveaway for the rich.
1. It’s a giant public subsidy to developers and investors. Rather than taxing the wealthy and then using the money to fix our dangerously outdated roads, bridges, airports, water systems, Trump wants to give rich developers and Wall Street investors tax credits to encourage them to do it That means that for every dollar they put into a project, they’d actually pay only 18 cents and we would contribute the other 82 cents through our tax dollars.
2. We’d be turning over public roads and bridges to private corporations who will charge us expensive tolls and earn big profits. These tolls will be set high in order to satisfy the profit margins demanded by elite Wall Street investors. So—essentially—we pay twice – once when we subsidize the developers and investors with our tax dollars, and then secondly when we pay the tolls and user fees that also go into their pockets.
3. We get the wrong kind of infrastructure. Projects that will be most attractive to Wall Street investors are those whose tolls and fees bring in the biggest bucks – giant mega-projects like major new throughways and new bridges. Not the thousands of smaller bridges, airports, pipes, and water treatment facilities most in need of repair. Not the needs of rural communities and smaller cities and towns too small to generate the tolls and other user fees equity investors want. Not clean energy.
To really make America great again we need more and better infrastructure that’s for the public – not for big developers and investors. And the only way we get that is if corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes.
Let’s give credit where credit is due: Women’s March organizers Tamika Mallory, Bob Bland, Carmen Perez, and Linda Sarsour
Rep Tom Price – plans for medicaid as nominee for secretary of DHHS
What many people don’t yet know is that Price, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Trump have proposed making significant changes to Medicaid, the health insurance program that covers low-income people, including those with disabilities. These changes are not to make the program more efficient. Medicaid is significantly more efficient than private insurance; these changes are to finance tax cuts. The plan is to slowly reduce the dollars available, so that at the end of ten years, $1 trillion will have been cut from healthcare for poor people and people with disabilities.
Not surprisingly, these cuts would be devastating. What is more, the changes in how the system is run would risk the fundamental right to freedom for people with significant disabilities.
…
But Price and many other members of Congress want to turn back the clock and undo all of our hard-fought gains. They seek a radical restructuring of Medicaid that will allow them to significantly cut funding to the program. They propose turning the program into a “block grant” or by instituting a “per capita cap,” meaning that states would receive a fixed amount of dollars, and the federal government would no longer provide oversight or incentives. The federal oversight and incentive programs are what have reformed state systems to move from institutional care to community-based services. The result would be dangerously reduced benefits that support the autonomy of people with disabilities.
Here’s my two cents from working in health care:
This comes at the same time as repealing but not replacing the ACA. The ACA has provisions to help fund rural and underserved area hospitals. The ACA expands the number of hospitals that qualify for Medicare Dependent Hospital (MDH) support – read rural poor hospitals here. (The ACA mandate to expand Medicaid coverage in every state was supposed to help them out even further – but the Supreme Court blocked the mandate and the states got to choose.)
Together cuts to Medicaid and repeal of the ACA leave people with disabling conditions even more underserved and at risk. With these deep cuts, people will no longer be able to pay for care and care that is local to them is either likely to disappear or, if it’s still there, will be even less able to absorb the cost involved in providing services to people who can’t pay.
And don’t forget, an average of half of enrollees in Medicaid are children. Medicaid (along with CHIP and TEFRA) allows children with disabilities and chronic medical conditions to receive medical and therapeutic care that makes a huge difference in their lives. It’s the great societal leveler that allows families who couldn’t afford it otherwise to access the kind of care that can make a huge difference in the child and family’s health and autonomy. Or just… continuance of life, to be honest. If you want to know what the states are inclined to do with block grants without federal oversight, you have to look no further than Texas, that made $350 million in cuts in reimbursement to early childhood therapists just this December.
Without decently funded Medicaid, it creates greater dependence on the school system to provide therapies – whose mandate is to only address those things that help the child benefit from instruction. This comes at the same time as Betsy DeVos and her platform of vouchers and charter school, freeing up public funds for private schools. Don’t forget, private schools are not mandated to serve children with disabilities. The IDEA doesn’t cover private institutions. Private schools can reject whatever student they want to. Even public charter schools tend to discriminate against children with special education needs.
And it’s all going to hit the rural poor first.
20 Million Muslims March Against ISIS and The Mainstream Media Completely Ignores It
Aetna claimed this summer that it was pulling out of all but four of the 15 states where it was providing Obamacare individual insurance because of a business decision — it was simply losing too much money on the Obamacare exchanges. Now a federal judge has ruled that that was a rank falsehood. In fact, says Judge John D. Bates, Aetna made its decision at least partially in response to a federal antitrust lawsuit blocking its proposed $37-billion merger with Humana. Aetna threatened federal officials with the pullout before the lawsuit was filed, and followed through on its threat once it was filed. Bates made the observations in the course of a ruling he issued Monday blocking the merger. Aetna executives had moved heaven and earth to conceal their decision-making process from the court, in part by discussing the matter on the phone rather than in emails, and by shielding what did get put in writing with the cloak of attorney-client privilege, a practice Bates found came close to “malfeasance.” The judge’s conclusions about Aetna’s real reasons for pulling out of Obamacare — as opposed to the rationalization the company made in public — are crucial for the debate over the fate of the Affordable Care Act. That’s because the company’s withdrawal has been exploited by Republicans to justify repealing the act. Just last week, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) cited Aetna’s action on the “Charlie Rose” show, saying that it proved how shaky the exchanges were. Bates found that this rationalization was largely untrue. In fact, he noted, Aetna pulled out of some states and counties that were actually profitable to make a point in its lawsuit defense — and then misled the public about its motivations.
U.S. judge finds that Aetna misled the public about its reasons for quitting Obamacare – LA Times
(via shayera-librarian)
Guys, spread this far and fucking wide. They lied about losing money. The Republicans seized on that for their “failing Obamacare” fairy tale, and a judge just ruled that was bullshit.
(via drst)
Here’s How Trump’s Anti-Abortion Rule May Actually Increase Abortion
President Donald Trump has reinstated the controversial “global gag rule” — a policy reversal that women’s rights and health advocates fear will bring a rise in unsafe abortions around the world.
The Reagan-era rule essentially prevents foreign organizations that receive US money from talking to women about abortion. President Trump’s decision to reinstate the rule comes one day after the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
Here’s how it works: Foreign organizations that take US family planning money can’t use any money, from any other donor, on abortion-related services. The restriction applies to providing abortions or giving any information about abortion, including medical advice or referrals — even in countries where abortion is legal.
“It’s a pure political giveaway at the expense of some of the world’s most vulnerable women,” said Aram Schvey, senior policy counsel and manager of special projects at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
USAID’s two biggest family planning partners, Marie Stopes International (MSI) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), will refuse to sign onto the policy, officials at each organization told BuzzFeed News.
Experts expect the Mexico City Policy, as it’s also known, to lead to an increase in abortions and maternal mortality worldwide.
MSI estimates there will be an additional 2.2 million abortions globally each year — 2.1 million of which will be unsafe, Newman-Williams said.
“The death rate both from maternal mortality because of more pregnancies and from those seeking unsafe abortion is going to rise quite dramatically,” said Marjorie Newman-Williams, vice president and director of international operations for MSI.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that unsafe abortion causes 13% of maternal deaths globally.
“It’s going to be really easy for this president to send a tweet and dismiss the impact of things like the global gag rule … [or] funding cuts on women’s health, both domestically and internationally,” said Jonathan Rucks, advocacy director at PAI, a reproductive health organization in Washington, DC. “It’s really scary for me.”
Earlier research also suggests abortion rates will rise. A 20-country study by the Stanford University School of Medicine, published by the WHO in 2011, found that abortion rates actually went up 40% the last time the gag rule was in place, under President George W. Bush. In countries most heavily affected by the policy, contraceptive use dropped, and a woman’s odds of having an unsafe abortion were more than two times higher after the policy went into effect.
Newman-Williams said MSI also expects an increase in the number of women seeking care for infection, bleeding, or injury due to unsafe or “back alley” abortions. But even women who carry unwanted pregnancies will strain health systems with complicated pregnancies and deliveries, or even just the sheer number of additional births.
“[There will be] skyrocketing health care costs,” Newman-Williams said. “The knock-on effect in public health is really dramatic. This is a policy that’s really shortsighted and frankly just harmful to women.”
The Mexico City Policy is an executive order that comes and goes depending on the party in the White House: Ronald Reagan first wrote the rule in 1984; Bill Clinton reversed it when he came into office; George W. Bush put it back eight years later; and Barack Obama dropped it again.
Serra Sippel, president of Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), based in Washington, DC, said the rule may be more harmful now than ever before.
“This is a policy from 1984. It’s failed. It’s outdated, and so much has happened since it was first instated,” Sippel said, pointing to global pledges to increase family planning funding and integrate HIV prevention into reproductive health, and to changes in abortion regulations. Since 1984, 40 countries have liberalized their abortion measures, she said.
“The idea that this policy is going to come back into play is unconscionable and it’s pretty ridiculous, frankly,” Sippel said.
Public health experts also point out that global public health systems changed during Barack Obama’s administration, making the domino effect of the gag rule more dramatic today than in the past.
“Over the last eight years alone, we’ve made a lot of progress in getting our US global health programs to look at women’s health holistically, to integrate HIV with family planning and contraceptive choice,” Sippel said. “For a Trump global gag rule to appear at this time threatens the health and lives of women and girls, because it is going to cut off their access to these lifesaving services.”
The rule narrowly targets abortion, but health experts say the policy will impair women’s access to contraception. USAID provides nearly half of all global funding for women’s contraception, according to CHANGE, and contraception is a key tool in HIV prevention.
Contraceptive access relies on a complex supply chain which, once disrupted, isn’t easy to fix. “There’s an infrastructure at the other end — where they’re received, where they’re kept, how they’re delivered,” said Judy Kahrl, a board member at Pathfinder International, a Massachusetts-based reproductive health organization. “It doesn’t take time to shut it down, but it takes time to set it up.”
Curtailed USAID funding is also expected to lead to staff reduction and clinic closures. Under the Bush-era global gag rule, a network of clinics that served more than 1,300 communities in Ghana had to cut its nursing staff by 44%, according to research by PAI.
That, in turn, can impact HIV rates, Sippel said.
“Family planning clinics are really critical. Sometimes they’re the first point of entry into the health system when it comes to HIV prevention and treatment,” she said. “People are getting access information about using condoms to prevent HIV. It’s a place where an HIV diagnosis can be made.”
Family planning organizations say the rule also has a “chilling effect” that effectively silences any conversation about abortion — and even about important health issues that have nothing to do with abortion.
“These organizations won’t be able to participate in discussions around public health aimed at reducing maternal mortality and maternal morbidity associated with unsafe abortion. That’s really one perverse outcome,” Schvey said.
BuzzFeed News uncovered precisely that impact, from a similar federal law, in 2015.
“The big takeaway from our community from last time this [rule] was in place and generally from working with US policy restrictions that already exist [is that] we often see chilling effect go so much farther than the policy itself,” said Chloe Cooney, director of global advocacy for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Losing USAID funding will leave MSI with a $30 million budget shortfall, or about 20% of its annual budget, and 1.5 million women without access to contraception through its clinics, Newman-Williams said. IPPF said that it expects to lose $100 million, or roughly 25% of its budget, affecting programs in 30 countries.
“This is on the US government,” Sippel, of CHANGE, said. “It’s not like Marie Stopes or IPPF are choosing not to take US funding. It’s the US government cutting them off from critical funding they need in order to provide lifesaving reproductive health services.”
“I applaud President Trump for taking this important action and look forward to continuing to work together in advancing pro-life policies and protecting taxpayer dollars,” House Health Subcommittee chair Michael C. Burgess said in a statement soon after the order was signed.
In a statement, New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, called the move an example of Trump’s “dangerous obsession with rolling back reproductive rights” and said returning the rule “ignores decades of research, instead favoring ideological politics over women and families’ futures.”
Sheehan promised to introduce a bill repealing the rule on Tuesday, a day after Trump’s reinstatement.
Here’s How Trump’s Anti-Abortion Rule May Actually Increase Abortion
Journalists should stop interviewing Kellyanne Conway
I love this idea – the media should stop interviewing Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway. Almost nothing she says is true or useful. It’s entertaining on some level, but it’s easier to find better entertainment elsewhere.
“The logic is, this is a representative of the president,” [journalism professor Jay] Rosen said. “This is somebody who can speak for the Trump administration. But if we find that what Kellyanne Conway says is routinely or easily contradicted by Donald Trump, then that rationale disappears.”
“Another reason to interview Kellyanne Conway is, our viewers want to understand how the Trump world thinks,” he added. “But if the end result of an interview is more confusion about what the Trump world thinks, then that rationale evaporates.”
Hearseeno 