All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[Tami]

When Your Emergency Is a “Nuisance”

Jane*, a resident of Bedford, Ohio, called 911 asking for help because she believed her boyfriend was suicidal. The police responded, wrote a report, and left. But the next day, Jane’s landlord got a fine and a form letter from the town’s chief of police ordering the landlord to stop the 911 calls coming from her home. Bedford had flagged Jane’s home a few months earlier because she had previously called the police when her boyfriend threatened to kill himself. When Jane called again, the city fined her landlord $250. Facing further fines and even a potential misdemeanor charge, the landlord began eviction proceedings against Jane—all because she called for help.

Jane lost her home because Bedford is one of an estimated 2,000 municipalities throughout the United States that penalize households perceived to be “nuisances” under so-called chronic nuisance ordinances (also known as CNOs and “crime-free ordinances”). A household can be defined as a nuisance if it reaches a certain threshold number of nuisance infractions—anything from arrests on the property to suspected sex work to noise complaints. Most of these ordinances will also designate homes as nuisances based on calls to 911—no matter who makes the call. The threshold number of calls varies; for example, in Maplewood, Missouri, it takes just two 911 calls within a 180-day period for a home to be deemed a “nuisance.” Landlords are then encouraged, or even legally required, to “abate the nuisance,” a legal term that effectively means that landlords have to either evict the tenants or stop them from calling 911 for help.

[Kevinroc]

Appeals court skeptical Obamacare can survive
Health insurance for 20 million people and protections for pre-existing conditions are on the line.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/...awsuit-1404171

A panel of federal appeals judges aggressively questioned whether Obamacare can survive during Tuesday afternoon oral arguments in a case that could upend the 2010 health care law.

Two Republican appointees on the three-judge panel frequently interrupted attorneys to question whether the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is unconstitutional and if not whether the entire law could stand without it. The ACA’s future appeared murky after two hours of oral arguments at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but it’s not clear if the judges were ready to uphold a federal judge’s earlier decision invalidating the law.

Edit:

Appellate Judge Jennifer Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee, on Tuesday posited that lawmakers — who failed to agree on an Obamacare replacement plan two years ago — deliberately eliminated the mandate penalty because they knew the rest of the law would have to fall. She said perhaps lawmakers thought, “Aha, this is the silver bullet that’s going to undo Obamacare.”

This is some next level insanity right here.

[Malvolio]

ross-perot-presidential-candidate-dies-age-89

This was the guy who paved the way for Trump. Sad to see anyone die, but let's remember that this was the guy who got a lot of people believing that "we should run America like a business." Never mind that a nation or government is not set up to make a profit. Let's just remind people of the occasional screw-ups of the DMV or the post office to make them believe we should "hire a businessman" to run the country.

[numberthirty]

Since "If you won't impeach Trump, who will you impeach?" is a question that has come up...

- https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar...-trump/593575/

Nancy Pelosi Would Prefer Not to

Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t mincing words about Labor Secretary Alex Acosta: He “must step down” over his role in a past sweetheart deal with the sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Democrat wrote in a tweet Monday evening.

But if he doesn’t? Don’t expect her to do anything about it.

“It’s up to the president. It’s his Cabinet,” Pelosi said Tuesday when asked whether she’d consider launching impeachment hearings against Acosta. “We have a great deal of work to do here for the good of the American people—need to focus on that.”

This is, in one way, a bizarre conclusion to reach. Pelosi believes that Acosta “engaged in an unconscionable agreement” with Epstein.” It is politically beneficial to attack Acosta, since sheltering pedophiles is unpopular. And Pelosi, as the deft leader of a solid Democratic majority in the House, could successfully impeach Acosta. Who knows whether the Senate would convict, but Acosta might well decide to resign before finding out.

[InformationGeek]

From Donald Trump's website, we have... this.

[Tuck]

He's going to get trolled, hard.

And, in all sincerity, even at face value, I'd take all those listed except the MS-13 Loving Democrat.

Jesus Christ.

[GindyPosts]

From Donald Trump's website, we have... this.

Stupid YouTube made me see that ad, so I checked out the poll. Yeah, I'm def gonna vote for that Lyin' Demoncat (in the words of Michael Savage) this time instead of a third party candidate in 2020.

[Jack Dracula]

Appeals court skeptical Obamacare can survive
Health insurance for 20 million people and protections for pre-existing conditions are on the line.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/...awsuit-1404171



Edit:

This is some next level insanity right here.

Why? Why for f**k sake would anyone be in favor of restoring the right for insurance companies to deny people coverage for pre-existing conditions?

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Appeals court skeptical Obamacare can survive
Health insurance for 20 million people and protections for pre-existing conditions are on the line.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/...awsuit-1404171



Edit:

This is some next level insanity right here.

I beg to differ. To Republicans who hated every last minute of Barack Obama’s eight years as president, killing his signature legislation is to them, the very definition of sanity. It’s the itch they can’t scratch, and they weren’t EVER going to stop until Obamacare was dead and buried. And if innocent people who lose their health insurance wind up dying as a direct result of the GOP’s mindless crusade to destroy all the good Obama did and tried to do for this country, oh, well, them’s the breaks. Collateral damage, yo.

[wjowski]

ross-perot-presidential-candidate-dies-age-89

This was the guy who paved the way for Trump. Sad to see anyone die, but let's remember that this was the guy who got a lot of people believing that "we should run America like a business." Never mind that a nation or government is not set up to make a profit. Let's just remind people of the occasional screw-ups of the DMV or the post office to make them believe we should "hire a businessman" to run the country.

Yeah let's drag our asses over Ross Perot's grave for daring to run for president.

[Gray Lensman]

ross-perot-presidential-candidate-dies-age-89

This was the guy who paved the way for Trump. Sad to see anyone die, but let's remember that this was the guy who got a lot of people believing that "we should run America like a business." Never mind that a nation or government is not set up to make a profit. Let's just remind people of the occasional screw-ups of the DMV or the post office to make them believe we should "hire a businessman" to run the country.

Most of the right wingers I knew back in upstate NY blamed Perot for both of Clinton's terms.

[JCAll]

Why? Why for f**k sake would anyone be in favor of restoring the right for insurance companies to deny people coverage for pre-existing conditions?

Money? Not even their own money necessarily, just money into the corporate machines. Making government smaller and private companies bigger is a major political belief these days, the fact that I don't trust the soul sucking megacorportions for an instant doesn't change that some people are devoted to the idea. So many people are going to die, but think of the profits!

[JCAll]

I only know Ross Perot from watching All That growing up.

[Tendrin]

https://twitter.com/jacobsoboroff/st...58205843066882

WASHINGTON — The poor treatment of migrant children at the hands of U.S. border agents in recent months extends beyond Texas to include allegations of sexual assault and retaliation for protests, according to dozens of accounts by children held in Arizona collected by government case managers and obtained by NBC News.
A 16-year-old Guatemalan boy held in Yuma, Arizona, said he and others in his cell complained about the taste of the water and food they were given. The Customs and Border Protection agents took the mats out of their cell in retaliation, forcing them to sleep on hard concrete.

A 15-year-old girl from Honduras described a large, bearded officer putting his hands inside her bra, pulling down her underwear and groping her as part of what was meant to be a routine pat down in front of other immigrants and officers.

This was inevitable.

[GindyPosts]

https://twitter.com/jacobsoboroff/st...58205843066882




This was inevitable.

Conservatives will argue this will serve as deterrents for immigrants to come here. I argue this is just bullshit.

Contrary to what right-wingers argue about, Democrats don't want open borders, like tearing down the wall and go "Come on it, folks!" People coming here from the south will never stop. The issue is that the majority of these people immigrate here via asylum, as that's the only practical solution to become a citizen in this country, and is their only chance at survival. Anyone who goes "why not immigrate the legal way" needs to understand that there's a lot of red tape and mumbo-jumbo involved that takes years, if not decades, thus encouraging people to take a more dangerous approach to citizenship and becoming contributing members to a society they are told is much better. Considering they are often fleeing corruption and hostility, and wind up dealing with corruption and hostility getting here... man.