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Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Another time for choosing

“The only thing we’re not doing is shooting people”

“The only thing we’re not doing is shooting people who come across the border, because of course the Biden Administration would charge us with murder,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Dana Loesch last week. But Texas will let them drown. We’ll come back to that.

The cruelty is the point,” Texas resident Adam Serwer famously wrote. Cruelty is also the policy. Don’t say you weren’t warned or missed the signals. There is already ash settling on your windowsills.

First, this reminder: “The leading GOP presidential contender is using an admitted hit man and lifelong criminal as a character reference. Take a second to reflect on that.” — Luis Moreno, former U.S. Ambassador, retired Foreign Service Officer.

In case you missed it on Saturday, Donald Trump jumped the loan shark.

Trump is not flying solo either (CBS):

A woman and two children drowned in the Rio Grande on Friday while trying to enter the U.S. near a section of the southern border where Texas National Guard soldiers have prevented federal Border Patrol agents from processing and rescuing migrants.

Federal officials and a Texas congressman said National Guard soldiers deployed by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not allow Border Patrol agents to attempt to rescue the migrants. 

Take a second to reflect on that.

America’s shame will not be on display on front pages across the world. The world will not view with horror these migrants’ sodden bodies as they did when three-year-old Alan Kurdi’s body washed up face down on a Turkish beach in 2015. Kurdi drowned along with his mother and brother as they tried to flee Islamic fundamentalists in Syria.

Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar issued a statement Saturday (above) about the migrants who drowned.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said Cuellar’s description of the events was accurate. In a statement Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Texas officials obstructed Border Patrol’s attempts to rescue the migrants on Friday.

“Tragically, a woman and two children drowned last night in the Shelby Park area of Eagle Pass, which was commandeered by the State of Texas earlier this week,” the department said. “In responding to a distress call from the Mexican government, Border Patrol agents were physically barred by Texas officials from entering the area.”

White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said Texas soldiers “blocked U.S. Border Patrol from attempting to provide emergency assistance” to the migrants. 

“While we continue to gather facts about the circumstances of these tragic deaths, one thing is clear: Governor Abbott’s political stunts are cruel, inhumane, and dangerous,” Fernández Hernández added.

Texas Public radio adds:

Earlier Friday, the Justice Department asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene to allow the Border Patrol to regain access to the 47-acre Shelby Park, stating that Texas is using armed Texas National Guard soldiers to stop the Border Patrol from accessing two-and-a-half miles of border.

“We remain gravely concerned by actions that prevent the U.S. Border Patrol from performing their essential missions of arresting individuals who enter the United States unlawfully and providing humanitarian response to individuals in need,” a CBP spokesperson said.

Actor Ronald Reagan made great show of warning America in 1964 that the upcoming election was a time for choosing. The newish Republican defined freedom largely in terms of economics, of course, and peace in terms of government leaving them alone. He shared anecdotes reminiscent of Trump’s “many people say” stories and facts not to be accepted without fact-checking.

But Reagan the cold warrior praised America as a haven for refugees from communism, “the last best hope of man on earth.” Refugees from Castro’s Cuba were fortunate then to have a place to escape to, as Reagan told it.

Reagan “borrowed” without citation FDR’s “rendezvous with destiny” line and warned of “a thousand years of darkness” if Americans chose poorly. He was just 60 years early.

Blood at the root: an MLK Day mixtape

I came into this world on April 4, 1956. 12 years later, to the day, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. left it. My intention is not to attach any particular significance to that kismet, apart from the fact that I have since felt somewhat ambiguous about “celebrating” my birthdays (I could push the weird cosmic coincidence factor further by adding Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated 2 months later on June 5th, 1968 – my parents’ wedding anniversary…cue the Twilight Zone theme). But this holiday weekend is about celebrating Dr. King’s birthday; so I have curated 10 songs to honor his legacy:

“Abraham, Martin, & John” – Late 50s-early 60s teen idol Dion DiMucci reinvented himself as a socially-conscious folk singer in 1968 with this heartfelt performance of Dick Holler’s beautifully written tribute to JFK, RFK, and MLK. Seems they all die young

“Blues for Martin Luther King” – In 1968, music was our social media. The great Otis Spann gives us the news and preaches the blues. Feel his pain, for it is ours as well.

“400 Years” – The struggle began long before Dr. King joined it; sadly, it continues to this day. A people’s history…written and sung by the late great Peter Tosh (with the Wailers).

“Happy Birthday” – A no-brainer for the list. Good to remember that Stevie Wonder was also a key advocate in the lobby to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday.

“Is it Because I’m Black?” – Syl Johnson’s question may sound rhetorical, but he pulls no punches.

“Pieces of a Man” – Gil Scott-Heron’s heartbreaking vocal, Brian Jackson’s transcendent piano, the great Ron Carter’s sublime stand-up bass work, and the pure poetry of the lyrics…it’s all so “right”.

“Pride (In the Name of Love)” – The inclusion of U2’s most stirring anthem feels mandatory.

“Shed a Little Light” – James Taylor’s uplifting, gospel-flavored paean to MLK is featured on his 1991 album New Moon Shine.

“Strange Fruit” – “Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze.” Billie Holiday’s performance of this song (written by Abel Meeropol) was powerful then, powerful now, and will remain powerful forever.

“Why (The King of Love is Dead)” – Like the Otis Spann song on this list, Nina Simone’s musical eulogy (written and performed here just days after Dr. King’s death) is all the more remarkable for conveying a message at once so timely, and so timeless.

Previous posts with related themes:

Top 10 films for MLK Day

More reviews at Den of Cinema

Dennis Hartley

Trusted Voices

That ad above was from 2020 and the same group is doing ads like this again on a larger scale for 2024. This is a great idea, in my opinion. Everyone says that the only way most people can be persuaded is if the message comes from people with whom they identify or trust. Yes, a lot of them will say this is AI or fake news but the ones who haven’t completely gone down the wingnut rabbit hole might feel the truth in it and respond:

Democrats began the search last summer, fanning out through the northern swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to find the nurses, electricians, farmers and floor installers who could best testify to the danger of Donald Trump returning to power.

The previously unreported project by the outside group American Bridge 21st Century developed 732 leads, conducted 472 interviews and then filmed about 50 voters who will anchor a $140 million ad campaign starting this spring, aimed at reminding women and working-class voters why they voted against Trump in 2020, according to the group’s leaders.

“The hardest part about using the most powerful messengers in politics, which are real people from these communities, is finding them,” said Bradley Beychok, co-founder of American Bridge.

The planned ad campaign will expand upon a smaller effort American Bridge launched in 2020 to turn working-class voters in the same states against Trump. This time, with the tacit support of the White House and President Biden’s team, the focus will narrow somewhat to working-class female voters in those states, with the possibility of expanding into North Carolina later, Beychok said.

The ads will focus Trump’s role in curtailing abortion access, his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Republican plans for entitlement reform and Biden’s plans for the economy. Early spots include testimonials from a female union electrician in Wisconsin and a Pennsylvania woman who talks emotionally about what it meant to hang her U.S. flag outside her home on the day after the Jan. 6 attack.

Historian Rick Perlstein always quotes a 1930’s era Texas congressman named Maury Maverick (great name) who defined liberalism as “freedom plus groceries.” It sounds like this strategy is going with that and I think it’s never been more powerful. Coming from people in their own states makes it even more powerful. I’ll be looking forward to seeing the ads.

Look What They Did

Ashley just had a baby:

She’s sitting on the couch in a relative’s apartment in Clarksdale, Miss., wearing camo-print leggings and fiddling with the plastic hospital bracelets still on her wrists. It’s August and pushing 90 degrees, which means the brown patterned curtains are drawn, the air conditioner is on high, and the room feels like a hiding place. Peanut, the baby boy she delivered two days earlier, is asleep in a car seat at her feet, dressed in a little blue outfit. Ashley is surrounded by family, but nobody is smiling. One relative silently eats lunch in the kitchen, her two siblings stare glumly at their phones, and her mother, Regina, watches from across the room. Ashley was discharged from the hospital only hours ago, but there are no baby presents or toys in the room, no visible diapers or ointments or bottles. Almost nobody knows that Peanut exists, because almost nobody knew that Ashley was pregnant. She is 13 years old. Soon she’ll start seventh grade.

It’s a nightmare:

In the fall of 2022, Ashley was raped by a stranger in the yard outside her home, her mother says. For weeks, she didn’t tell anybody what happened, not even her mom. But Regina knew something was wrong. Ashley used to love going outside to make dances for her TikTok, but suddenly she refused to leave her bedroom. When she turned 13 that November, she wasn’t in the mood to celebrate. “She just said, ‘It hurts,’” Regina remembers. “She was crying in her room. I asked her what was wrong, and she said she didn’t want to tell me.” (To protect the privacy of a juvenile rape survivor, TIME is using pseudonyms to refer to Ashley and Regina; Peanut is the baby’s nickname.)

The signs were obvious only in retrospect. Ashley started feeling sick to her stomach; Regina thought it was related to her diet. At one point, Regina even asked Ashley if she was pregnant, and Ashley said nothing. Regina hadn’t yet explained to her daughter how a baby is made, because she didn’t think Ashley was old enough to understand. “They need to be kids,” Regina says. She doesn’t think Ashley even realized that what happened to her could lead to a pregnancy.

On Jan. 11, Ashley began throwing up so much that Regina took her to the emergency room at Northwest Regional Medical Center in Clarksdale. When her bloodwork came back, the hospital called the police. One nurse came in and asked Ashley, “What have you been doing?” Regina recalls. That’s when they found out Ashley was pregnant. “I broke down,” Regina says.

Dr. Erica Balthrop was the ob-gyn on call that day. Balthrop is an assured, muscular woman with close-cropped cornrows and a tattoo of a feather running down her arm. She ordered an ultrasound, and determined Ashley was 10 or 11 weeks along. “It was surreal for her,” Balthrop recalls. “She just had no clue.” The doctor could not get Ashley to answer any questions, or to speak at all. “She would not open her mouth.” (Balthrop spoke about her patient’s medical history with Regina’s permission.)

At their second visit, about a week later, Regina tentatively asked Balthrop if there was any way to terminate Ashley’s pregnancy. Seven months earlier, Balthrop could have directed Ashley to abortion clinics in Memphis, 90 minutes north, or in Jackson, Miss., two and a half hours south. But today, Ashley lives in the heart of abortion-ban America. In 2018, Republican lawmakers in Mississippi enacted a ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The law was blocked by a federal judge, who ruled that it violated the abortion protections guaranteed by Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court felt differently. In their June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion that had existed for nearly half a century. Within weeks, Mississippi and every state that borders it banned abortion in almost all circumstances.

The closest place the could go was Chicago. So they had no choice. They did nothing. That little girl had to go through childbirth.

There’s an exception for rape in Mississippi but nobody knows what process you need to go through to get one. And it’s useless anyway since there are no abortion clinics anywhere near them anyway. And Mississippi doesn’t provide much of anything for pregnant women who want to have children. It is, essentially, a war on poor, pregnant women. They lose either way.

And so Dobbs has compounded America’s maternal-health crisis: more women are delivering more babies, in areas where there are already not enough doctors to care for them, while abortion bans are making it more difficult to recruit qualified providers to the regions that need them most. “People always ask me: ‘Why do you choose to stay there?’” says Balthrop, who has worked in the Delta for more than 20 years. “I feel like I have no choice at this point.”

It’s also a war on poor children:

Gov. Tate Reeves’ office says Mississippi won’t participate in a federal summer food program for children because of his desire to reject “attempts to expand the welfare state.”

But officials at the state’s welfare agency that Reeves oversees, which participated in a similar federal program earlier in the pandemic, offered a different reason for opting out of the program: a lack of state resources to administer it.

The Summer EBT program would provide the families of students who receive free or reduced lunch during the school year with electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that can be used to purchase groceries in the summer. For each eligible child, families would receive $40 per month for a total of $120.

Thirty-five states, all five U.S. territories, and four Tribes will be participating in the program for its first year, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it expects will benefit nearly 21 million children. The other states that have opted out include Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont and Wyoming.

Mississippi previously administered the pandemic EBT program, which gave a similar summer benefit and provided assistance during the school year if school was conducted primarily virtually or hybrid for at least one month. The cost of running the pandemic-era program was covered fully by the federal government but the new summer version would require states to cover half of the administrative expenses, something other states have pointed to as a reason not to participate.

“Both (the Mississippi Department of Education) and (the Mississippi Department of Human Services) lack the resources, including workforce capacity and funding, to support a Summer EBT Program,” said Mark Jones, a DHS spokesperson.

Republican governors in some other states have also said they chose not to participate in the program because of their opposition to expanding federal benefits, according to Chalkbeat.

Not a priority, I guess.

The Second Coming

He would say he’s the first

I posted that a while back. But apparently it isn’t actually landing well with some evangelicals. Imagine that …

Since the video was posted, it has been widely shared, racked up millions of views and drawn a lot of attention. But much of that attention has been negative, particularly among Iowa’s pastors, some of whom said they were shocked and offended by the content.

“It was very concerning,” said Pastor Joseph Brown of the Marion Avenue Baptist Church in Washington, Iowa, a town of 7,500 people about 40 minutes south of Iowa City. He took issue, he said, with how it used language plucked from the Bible — such as describing Mr. Trump’s arms as “strong” yet “gentle” — to compare Mr. Trump directly to God, rather than a servant of a higher power.

“The original sin of Satan or Lucifer is not that he wanted to take over God’s position but that he wanted to be like God. There is only one god, and it’s not Trump or any other man,” said Mr. Brown, who voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020 but says he will not this year.

The opinions of religious leaders like Mr. Brown carry considerable weight in Iowa. More than three-quarters of the state’s population identifies as Christian, according to the Pew Research Center, and 28 percent of the population describes themselves as evangelicals — both measures are well above the national average. What’s more, the preponderance of voters in Iowa primary elections have historically been evangelicals.

Mr. Trump, who rarely attends church, has nonetheless managed to gain the support of a large swath of the nation’s faithful — particularly less traditional, non-churchgoing Christians. But the cohort has not universally embraced him.

A high-profile example came in November, when the Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats endorsed one of his rivals in the primary race, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.

For pastors like Darran Whiting of Liberty Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, who say they would never vote for Mr. Trump, the video only underscores why.

“God has ordained servant leadership, not the arrogant, self-serving righteous leadership that particular video portrays,” said Mr. Whiting, who plans to vote for Mr. DeSantis. He noted that while Mr. Trump’s campaign did not make the video, the former president’s decision to share it speaks to his endorsement of its message.

The clip’s authors are members of the Dilley Meme Team, an organized collective of video producers who call themselves “Trump’s Online War Machine.” The group’s leader, Brenden Dilley, describes himself as Christian and a man of faith, but says he has never read the Bible and does not attend church. He has said that Mr. Trump has “God-tier genetics” and, in response to outcry over the “God Made Trump” video, he posted a meme depicting Mr. Trump as Moses parting the Red Sea.

I have a sneaking suspicion that quite a few of the “Evangelical Christians” who love Trump are a lot like that guy — you know, “people of faith” who’ve never read the Bible or go to church. You know, liars.

Daily Hit Of Hopium

I know everything feels like shit right now. It’s the dead of winter, Trump is still spewing his garbage and millions of people seem to love it, and we’re looking at another nail biter of an election. But don’t despair. There are some things to hang on to. Like that astonishing number. Why anyone would think that’s a problem, I don’t know. He IS going to be the nominee unless he keels over. They will have to make that choice. Again.

Anyway, here’s the latest from hopium guru Simon Rosenberg:

“I Would Much Rather Be Us Than Them” – My Thoughts on Where We Are As 2024 Voting Begins – Think about what we’ve seen in the past few weeks: the US economy remains strong, best recovery in G7, best job market since the 1960s, wage growth/new business starts/prime age-worker participation rates historically elevated;

inflation is at/near Fed target rates, some prices are falling, rents/mortgage rates/gas prices are down, the soft landing appears to be happening;

crime and murder rates have come down substantially over the past year, and remain a fraction of what they were 30 years ago;

we have the lowest uninsured rate ever recorded, and ACA signups this year have set records; we’ve seen record domestic oil and renewable production, making America more energy independent then we’ve been in many decades;

the President has forgiven over $130b in student debt, by some measures Gen Z home ownership rates are outpacing Millennials and Gen X, years of minimum wage increases across the county has created a much higher entry level wage for young and new workers;

consumer sentiment is rising, and measures of life/job/income satisfaction are at elevated levels right now; the historic investments the President has made will create opportunities for American workers for decades to come, leave America far stronger and by dramatically accelerating the energy transition from fossil fuels make it far more likely we prevent the planet from warming;

polling out this week has the President with sturdy leads in MI, NH and PA, and gaining 3 points and leading now in one important national tracking poll;

after a great 2022 election, Democrats just saw a blue wave in 2023, as we won elections of all kinds across the country and outperformed our 2020 results – an election we won by 4.5 pts – by an average of 5 points in almost 40 state legislative special elections.

I feel good about what we’ve done, where we are, and our chances in 2024. There is no question we have an enormous amount of work ahead of us, and it’s really important the Biden campaign is scaling up, engaging now, working to take greater control of our daily discourse. His two speeches this past week were powerful, strong, important, and created an early election narrative we all can work within and spread through out networks.

My summary of where we are now:

Joe Biden is a good President. The country is better off. We have a very compelling case for re-election. The Democratic Party is strong, winning elections across the US and our “bench” is the most talented it’s been in many decades.

Republicans, on the other hand, are making an enormous mistake in sticking with Trump, who is far more degraded, extreme and dangerous – and further away from the electorate – than he was in 2020 when he lost by 4 and a half points. His performance on the stump is far more erratic, and he keeps making hugely consequential political mistakes (calling for a repeal of the ACA, saying he wants the economy to crash – WTF?). Donald Trump 2024 is an historically awful and terrible candidate.

Can we get to 55 and make the 2024 elections a clear repudiation of MAGA, sending a loud and important signal that America has rejected this horrible politics, and has chosen democracy and freedom over illiberalism extremism? Yes, I think making 2024 a big election, a big win, high single digits even, is something that is possible for us, and something we must be working towards every single day. For by doing so it far far more likely we can send MAGA back into the dustbin of history where it so clearly belongs.

I talked about my optimism with Lawrence O’Donnell on Tuesday:

Don’t succumb to fatalism folks. There is an upside and we at least have to factor it in.

Character Witness

In case you were wondering if there was anyone whose endorsement Trump would not eagerly embrace, think again

Coming Soon To A Monopoly Hospital Near You?

For-profit means not for you

Please indulge this local story. It’s not as local as it first seems.

Ever since for-profit HCA Healthcare Inc. bought our local nonprofit hospital system in 2019, patient and staff complaints about understaffing have soared. Hundreds of veteran doctors and nurses have resigned. N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein, Democratic candidate for governor in 2024, has faced repeated questions from locals for approving the deal. Stein had limited authority to halt the $1.5 billion sale, his office says, so long as legal I’s were dotted and T’s were crossed. Stein, however, negotiated additional concessions in the purchase agreement and has has since sued HCA for failing to live up to its standards for patient care.

Asheville Watchdog, an online investigative site staffed by “retired” local reporters (some, Pulitzer winners), has leaned into the story:

Mission Hospital risks losing Medicare and Medicaid funding because of deficiencies in care that were so severe, state inspectors concluded last month, that they “posed immediate jeopardy to patients’ health and safety,” Asheville Watchdog has learned.

“Immediate jeopardy” is the most serious deficiency possible for a hospital. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has recommended that Mission lose its participation in Medicare unless it quickly corrects the deficiencies, according to a letter obtained Thursday by The Watchdog. 

Failure to correct the deficiencies could threaten the financial viability of the hospital system. The majority of patients in Western North Carolina are on Medicare, Medicaid or uninsured.

Locals warned this would happen. A longtime friend has sued Mission over his wife’s inadequate care during their son’s birth (Sep 26, 2022):

In an attempt to seek justice for “egregious acts of medical and corporate negligence,” Canton’s first family‚ Mayor Zeb Smathers, his wife, Ashley, and son, Stone, are taking on the most powerful healthcare system in America.

In the medical negligence and medical malpractice court action filed Sept. 23 in Buncombe County, the Smathers family is demanding a jury trial in the case against HCA Healthcare Inc, its corporate structures and Mission Hospital. The family is represented by the Raleigh law firm Zaytoun Ballew & Taylor, PLLC.

The lawsuit details a grisly account of how a joyous couple expecting their first child entered Mission Hospital at 6:10 p.m. March 19, 2020. Baby Stone wasn’t born until 3:54 a.m. March 21.

By that time, Ashley Smathers was “on the brink of death,” and baby Stone had experienced permanent hypoxic brain damage, the lawsuit states.

These are friends. I was horrified.

Here’s a more recent headline: Lawsuit: Mission Hospital negligent post-op care led to patient death. The patient was admitted for what Columbia University Medical Center considers a low-risk spinal procedure.

The Watchdog continues:

The Dec. 19 letter from NCDHHS to Mission CEO Chad Patrick cites nine incidents over 19 months that highlighted deficiencies in care and states that “the hospital nursing staff failed to provide a safe environment for patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) by failing to accept patients on arrival, resulting in lack of or delays with triage, assessments, monitoring, and implementation of orders, including labs and telemetry.

“ED nursing staff failed to assess, monitor and evaluate patients to identify and respond to changes in patient conditions,” the letter states. “The hospital staff failed to ensure qualified staff were available to provide care and treatment for patients who arrived in the ED. The cumulative effects of these practices resulted in an unsafe environment for ED patients.”

Mission Hospital and HCA spokesperson Nancy Lindell did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ regulations define immediate jeopardy as noncompliance that “has placed the health and safety of recipients in its care at risk for serious injury, serious harm, serious impairment or death…[It] is the most serious deficiency type, and carries the most serious sanctions…An immediate jeopardy situation is one that is clearly identifiable due to the severity of its harm or likelihood for serious harm and the immediate need for it to be corrected to avoid further or future serious harm.”

The clousure of rural hospitals, especially in states that reject ACA Medicaid expansion, has received lots of attention. Corporate consolidation of remaing hospital systems has received less.

NCDHHS investigators visited the hospital over three weeks in November and December in response to complaints, the letter states. The investigation “resulted in an Immediate Jeopardy identification on December 1,” as a result of seven incidents from April 2022 to October 2023.

The investigation identified immediate jeopardy again on Dec. 9 as a result of two incidents in November, including one that occurred the week inspectors were at the hospital. 

The details of the nine incidents are not yet public. CMS is reviewing the state inspectors’ findings and will issue a “statement of deficiencies.” At that point, Mission has 23 days to respond.

Union nurses at Mission and doctors who have left the system after HCA purchased it in 2019 say that the hospital corporation has purposefully understaffed the hospital and gutted it of resources, leading to risks and patient harm.

Mission nurses have sent formal complaints to NCDHHS since 2022The Watchdog reported in late August. At that time, NCDHHS had not visited the hospital, citing its own staff shortages.

Over the border in Tennessee, angry residents are still protesting a hospital merger that gave Ballard Health a monopoly in that part of Appalachia. This story is from September:

Five years ago, rival hospital companies in this blue-collar corner of Appalachia made a deal. If state lawmakers let them merge, leaving no competitors, the hospitals promised not to gouge prices or cut corners. They agreed to dozens of quality-of-care conditions, spelled out with benchmarks, and to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in charity care to patients in need.

Today, Ballad Health’s 20 hospitals remain the only option for hospital care for most of about 1.1 million residents in a 29-county region at the nexus of Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina. But Ballad has not met many of the quality benchmarks nor provided much of the charity, spurring discontent among those with no choice but to rely on Ballad for their care.

Two dozen states, from Florida to Washington, have at some point passed so-called COPA laws that allow hospital systems to merge into monopolies, disregarding warnings from the Federal Trade Commission that such mergers can become difficult to control and may decrease the overall quality of care. In the case of Ballad, the nation’s largest-known COPA deal, public records suggest that is exactly what happened.

Rural organizer and activist Dani Cook has been a thorn in Ballard’s corporate backside over the merger. Ballard blocked her last summer on Formerly Twitter.

This is for-profit medicine under hospital monopolies. Caveat emptor.

Talking Out Of Both Sides Of Their Mouths

Making it into an art form

When you want to take their books away, they’re children. When you want them to work, they’re adults,” said r/LateStageCapitalism (A One-Stop-Shop for Evidence of our Social, Moral and Ideological Rot) on reddit in reference to a proposed Florida bill.

Actually, the two statements dovetail. Royalists want their lessers to serve the economy and not know enough to question it.

In the name of freedom, they want to take yours.

If you missed my post earlier this week on the nationwide Republican/corporate effort to roll back child labor laws, find it here.