what will it take for Americans to treat #HealthCare as a Human Right and not a commodity?
someone cancelled my #chemo and didn't think to tell me. what's worse? the hospital doesn't have a protocol for dealing with these kinds of screw ups beyond a 'sorry.'
it's not the in-take clerk's fault that i had to demand they pay for my ride back home because i cannot take mass transit as a #cancer patient. it's the job of the administration to foresee these errors and have a contingency plan. /1
Americans have so normalized #cruelty in everything related to #HumanRights they call it efficiency.
i shouldn't have to demand the hospital pay for my cab ride back home. errors happen. am not mad about the mistake.
am exhausted because i had to ask for the minimum of courtesy AS A CANCER PATIENT. it costs me $40 to get to chemo. money i do not have for food or anything else because the chemo is making me too ill. have no savings either.
THEY KNOW THIS; but efficiency says, make them beg. /3
A New Mexico judge has lifted a temporary order that had stopped the city of Albuquerque from throwing away the possessions of homeless people without providing notice and an offer to store their belongings.
@IveyJanette@ProPublica After years of progressive council members, now we have reactionaries in Seattle government who jail people accused of substance abuse, sweep tents, dump belongings, set concrete barriers on streets and parks, making our city like a fortress for tourists to sail away on cruise ships instead. They profit from short term rentals when we need permanent community supportive housing. They build luxury homes. #Greed and #fear#cruelty
"Commentators like to think that most Americans are better than Trump. The college students, the small businesspeople, and even the Republican activists who vote for Trump do so, pundits hope, despite his manifest cruelty, rather than because those good Americans enjoy laughing at sexual assault victims."
You may need Kleenex.
You may need an outlet for anger.
Me, I need to feel less impotence and despair.
Milo lived in torture, unable to catch his breath, for 99 minutes.
“Deborah and her husband, Lee, learned in late November that their baby had Potter syndrome…He arrived in the world with no kidneys, underdeveloped lungs and a life expectancy of between 20 minutes and a couple of hours.”
"A federal judge in Arkansas on Tuesday struck down the state’s law forbidding medical treatments for children and teenagers seeking gender transitions, blocking what had been the first in a wave of such measures championed by conservative lawmakers across the country."
"Over 311 statements of fact were established in the Arkansas gender affirming care ban case. Not a single fact was found in the state's favor, and several major talking points were debunked."
"Anyone can be a troll. It doesn't take years of training or research: It just takes a willingness to take joy from causing pain. The more pain, the better."
~ Mark Sumner on what makes social media trolls tick
"There are few things more terrifying than demagogic populism, sharpened dangerously into authoritarian rule, with minorities left at the mercy of those now in charge of writing and enforcing the laws. Yet that is precisely what is happening across much of Red State America today."
"One of the most stunning moments [of Trump's off-the-wall speech to the California GOP] came as Trump ranted about crime, and promised his federal law enforcement officers would be empowered to shoot shoplifters — which prompted wild cheers and chanting from the crowd that took a long time to subside:”
Jonathan Weller reminds us of why Gaetz and his fellow jackals do what they do. They want to depict themselves as noble freedom fighters, but they're fighting to put more money into the hands of their super-rich donors and to take vital support away from the needy at the bottom of society.
An opinion piece published yesterday in the #BillingsGazette explores #CodyRoberts ' #torture of a young female #wolf in Daniel, #Wyoming. By now, most of you have heard the news or seen the disturbing photos and videos. We remain disgusted by the #cruelty, as does our partner and op-ed author #JeffEwelt.
In his op-ed, Jeff Ewelt, the Executive Director of #ZooMontana and a partner of The #RelistWolves Campaign,
• Sign this petition calling on #SubletteCounty officials to bring more severe charges against #CodyRoberts in effort to hold him accountable and deter others from attempting similar acts of #cruelty.
Jill Lawrence reflects on Hannah Knowles' report from Trump's rally at Fort Dodge, Iowa, last Saturday, and the challenge that the culture Trump has unleashed present parents trying to raise decent children who respect others. How do you raise children in this culture?:
"Trump has, for his followers, made it okay to say anything, whether it’s praising Nazis and dictators or attacking U.S. troops and military heroes."
Here's Hannah Knowles on what she saw at the rally:
"Children wandered around in shirts and hats with the letters 'FJB,' an abbreviation for an obscene jab at President Biden that other merchandise spelled out: 'Fuck Biden.' . . .
One of Trump’s introductory speakers from the Iowa state legislature declared anyone who kneels for the national anthem is a 'disrespectful little shit,' quickly drawing a roaring response."
"He’s also made it okay to do anything, including to beat up police defending the U.S. Capitol, smash windows to get in, smear feces on the Capitol walls, and go after elected officials in the Senate chamber. …
My own take in 2016 was hypothetical but frightening: A nation of Trumps would be a nation of bullies. It’s actually turned out much worse."
"And outside the packed venue, vulgar slogans about Biden and Vice President Harris were splashed across T-shirts: 'Biden Loves Minors.' 'Joe and the Ho Gotta Go!' One referred to Biden and Harris performing sexual acts. …
One supporter Knowles quoted by name, Lori Carpenter, said Biden has to go 'and the ho shouldn’t have been there in the first place.' … Carpenter, who called Kamala Harris a 'ho,' called herself a Christian who could 'look past' Trump’s flaws."
What is Australia's fair share when it comes to financing the necessary climate transition?
In a headline today, the Australian government has pledged AU$150m in #ClimateFinance for Pacific nations.
Good news, right? Isn't this PM Anthony #Albanese "ending the #ClimateWars" by actually doing what #Australia ought to have done years ago? Let's consider that assumption.
Back in 2009 at the much hyped, but ultimately deeply disappointing international climate negotiations in #Copenhagen known as #COP15, one step forward that was agreed, even as more comprehensive or ambitious agreements slipped away was that the wealthy nations of the world (including #Australia) collectively pledged to be providing US$100b each year to help the poorer nations transition away from #FossilFuels (#ClimateMitigation) and develop in ways that help societies adapt to the warming that cannot be mitigated (#ClimateAdaptation).
1/8
When the #GreenClimateFund was being established, Australia's Prime Minister was #TonyAbbott, a #ClimateDenier, who had won the 2013 federal election promising to dismantle the baby steps towards a #ClimatePolicy the previous #Labor government had made.
So there was little surprise when PM Abbott announced in Nov 2013 that #Australia would be contributing a massive sum of $0 to the Green Climate Fund.
At the time, he claimed Australia would chip in AU$200m (then =USD$187m) over four years, but since this was merely a rebranding of existing #ForeignAid, it clearly didn't count as "new and additional funding", a fact that most journalists blithely ignored, falling for the bait-and-switch. Or we might say instead that the Australian government was overstating its foreign aid commitments by $200m over those years.
Nonetheless, the four years were soon gone, as was Tony Abbott, as well as his successor #MalcolmTurnbull, who in turn had been replaced as PM by #ScottMorrison. When it came time to pledge again in 2018, Morrison announced Australia would be pulling out of the Green Climate Fund entirely, a path also taken by the #Trump administration at the time, whom Morrison was often cribbing notes from when it came to what kinds of #cruelty and #selfishness he could get away with.
5/8
Impressive acrobatics, but I am deeply suspicious as to how they were achieved - launching places just are not there. No cat appears to ‘perform' more than once 🤔
People might remember a photograph of a cheetah hunting baboon and catching it in the open. Guess what - it was staged and the animals released from cages in a carefully prepared arena. The bar steward who ‘took the photo’ got away with it.
#Christianity is about #lies and #cruelty. If you want more people to believe, you need to come up with a better #story. Because the story you're pushing is full of holes and #absurdities. And the people who most fervently spread that story are the most intellectually and morally #bankrupt people on the planet.