July 16, 2017

Question submitted by PatrickforO

July 10, 2017

An avalanche of hate How a Montana mom became the target of a neo-Nazi troll storm

Source: CNN

Whitefish, Montana (CNN)Once the calls began, they did not stop. Swiping to decline a call just led to the phone ringing again. Blocked number after blocked number filled up the voice mail. Deleting one message just created space for another to take its place. Then came the tweets and the email messages. The volume was overwhelming. The content: vile and terrifying.

Gunshots rang out from voice mails. Emails and texts read: "I hope you die," "Kill yourself," "We will take pleasure in your pain." Tanya Gersh found herself buried in an avalanche of hate, one she had not seen coming and one that focused on one fact: She's Jewish. The messages began late at night and continued into the early hours, keeping her family awake. Or there was a night of silence, broken by an onslaught at 4 a.m., jolting the family from sleep. One voice mail -- "You are surprisingly easy to find on the Internet. And in real life" -- ended Gersh's lifelong practice of leaving her home and car unlocked in her little Montana town, nestled by a lake in the Rocky Mountains.

Gersh appears to have become a target for hate after contacting the mother of known white supremacist Richard Spencer. Gersh says she warned Sherry Spencer about looming protests at a building owned by Spencer in Whitefish, a Montana town of 7,300 where both women live. Gersh says she advised Spencer to disavow the views of her son, including that the United States is a country for white people. She says she offered to sell Spencer's property as of a way of defusing tensions in town. Gersh suggested Spencer donate money to a human rights group.

Anyone who read Daily Stormer had access to all Gersh's information after Anglin posted it time and again. He put up photos and personal details: phone number, address, workplace and social media profiles -- including one used by her 12-year-old son. Each contained instructions to tell Gersh how they felt. "Listen here you fucking Jew. You had better back off and leave Richard Spencer's mom alone, you dirty scumbag," one caller said on Gersh's voice mail. "You fucking Jew. You had better back off of Richard Spencer's mom. Everybody is watching you." The Daily Stormer published more about Gersh and her "Jew agenda," once with a doctored photo showing her and her tween son on the gates of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/10/us/avalanche-of-hate-daily-stormer-lawsuit/index.html

---

This is what Donald Trump and his right wing minions stand for. You think these ignorant, inbred, racist, heavily armed fucks won't start another Holocaust????

That it can't happen here????

Think again. Here's what I say:

NEVER AGAIN.

NEVER AGAIN.

NEVER AGAIN.

NEVER AGAIN.

July 5, 2017

Words Matter and the Moral High Ground

Kitchen table issues are things everyone worries about regularly while they are sitting together at the kitchen table. This is why they are called 'kitchen table' issues. Some common ones include getting laid off. Having something go wrong with your health. Making ends meet. Raising the kids right. Being a good parent/grandparent.

And, yes, I'm quite aware there are many other issues different people worry about, and I worry about them, too.

But if we want to recapture the 33 state legislatures, 32 governorships and the entire federal government, all now under GOP control, we've got to start winning elections.

What this means to all of us is that we need to focus on, and talk about, kitchen table issues articulately, compellingly, and in a way that attracts the millions of Independent voters who either voted for Trump or didn't vote at all. Because they worry every day about these kitchen table issues, just like you and I do.

Anyway, HOW we talk about them matters. Here's a couple of changes I suggest:

1. When we speak of the Republican repeal of Obamacare, we need to call the new Republican legislation 'the Deathcare law.'

2. Instead of saying we want 'single payer,' which only 44% of Americans polled respond to positively, we need to say, 'Medicare for all Americans.

3. When some sniveling, smug little GOP punk says, "Well, we need to cut ENTITLEMENTS," we need to respond with, "Oh, you mean EARNED BENEFITS if you're talking about Social Security and Medicare - I have paid into those for X years (over 40 in my case) and I've EARNED those. Bad idea to cut them because that amounts to STEALING from me.

4. Next time a Republican talks about 'Job Killin' Regulashuns,' come back with, "Oh, you mean the life saving guidelines that keep our air and water clean and us safe! Yes, those are very important. For example (have a story about how you or someone else benefited from a regulation - my example is the Martinez family dying when their dream home in Firestone, CO blew up due to an uncapped methane line, and how the Republicans in the state legislature killed a bill that would require companies to map these pipelines).

5. If someone says that government programs create 'dependency,' come back with, "Oh, you mean the programs that are funded by OUR tax dollars that WE pay in, and actually make our lives better? Things like good public schools, state colleges and universities, firefighters and police? Is that what you mean? Because I'm for sure dependent on good roads and clean water!"

6. If someone comes out against government workers who are losing their pensions, and says, "Hey, join the crowd, you're not special," reframe with, "Gosh those workers had pensions and they worked hard contributing to them. How come we don't have pensions? Why don't we try and get pensions for ourselves as well as helping them save their pensions? Let's help each other!"

Remember, folks, we have to fight HARD and we have to OWN our positions, whether it's gay marriage, social justice, voting rights or whatever, but we MUST talk regularly about kitchen table issues.

As to the moral high ground, we OWN IT. The GOP sure doesn't. They want to make our lives worse by stripping the treasury of money to give to corporations.

Medicare for all is a MORAL ISSUE

Keeping Social Security strong is a MORAL ISSUE

Keeping Americans safe with reasonable regulations is a MORAL ISSUE

The rights, safety and livable wages of American workers are MORAL ISSUES

Own them. We ARE on the high ground, but we need to be aggressive in battling this bullshit.

**********************************************

By the way, the new Fox talking points: "Well, there WAS collusion between Trump and the Russians, but how is that a crime?"

It's FUCKING TREASON, THAT'S HOW! Put your Senators and Representative on speed dial. Don't let up a minute. And don't listen to the wusses who tell us not to 'stress' Russia because people are tired of it. It is TREASON. We need to focus with single minded intensity on a) finding out the extent of it, b) bringing the American perps to justice, and c) making sure massive cyber attacks and sophisticated psychological warfare doesn't influence any more American elections. Are we Americans or not?

July 2, 2017

Cuts threaten rural hospitals 'hanging on by their fingernails

Source: CNN

The Senate bill could cut revenues to rural providers by $1.3 billion each year, according to the Chartis Center and its partner iVantage Health Analytics. Roughly 34,000 jobs are also at risk, according to the analysis.

Nearly two-thirds of the lowest performing hospitals are in states that didn't expand Medicaid, according to a previous Chartis report. One case-in-point: the state of Georgia, which did not expand Medicaid and where over half of the state's 73 rural hospitals are in danger of closing. Six have closed since 2010.

Raju knew that Richland's Stewart-Webster Hospital was "financially strained." Even for those patients covered by Medicaid, low reimbursement rates did not make a big enough dent. But Raju did not turn away any patients, even if they couldn't pay, he said. Rural hospitals take a financial hit when they provide care to uninsured patients who can't afford it, said Elehwany. By insuring poorer patients, the Affordable Care Act hoped to remedy that. Despite its positive impacts, she said, it wasn't the magic bullet rural communities had hoped for.

"We strongly support the goals of the ACA," Elehwany said. "Everybody admits there's a few problems with the ACA, and unfortunately ... they seem to be magnified in rural America." Some of these problems, she said, stem from high-deductible plans with rising premiums, as well as few choices on the private exchanges. This may make insurance out of reach for an aging rural population, who are poorer and sicker on average than their urban counterparts, and who bear the brunt of the opioid epidemic, according to experts. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia, came out against the Senate health care bill this week for these reasons.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/30/health/rural-hospitals-medicaid-cuts-health-care/index.html

---

Funny...all those RURAL voters voted for Trump by wide margins cuz they don't like no city slickers and carpetbaggers.

Ironic, then, isn't it, that those very voters will be f**ked by the very party they support.

As Trump would say....SAD.