https://twitter.com/itsJeffTiedrich/status/1553380415674761217

"Alex Jones attorney flips middle finger to lawyer representing Sandy Hook victims' families"

https://twitter.com/i/events/1553008318804811776

https://religionnews.com/2022/07/27/kansas-nuns-defy-archbishop-oppose-abortion-related-state-amendment/

Kansas nuns oppose abortion-related state amendment, challenging archbishop

“A church sign said, ‘Jesus trusted women. We do too,’” reads the nuns’ letter.


(RNS) — Two Kansas nuns are voicing opposition to a proposed abortion-related amendment in their state’s constitution, despite its support by a local archbishop. The nuns argue the measure, if approved, would have negative repercussions for women and allow politicians to “impose religious beliefs on all Kansans” by passing restrictive abortion bans.

In a letter obtained by Religion News Service and later published in The Kansas City Star, Sisters Angela Fitzpatrick and Michele Morek, members of the Ursuline Sisters order, explain their intention to vote against an amendment on Tuesday (Aug. 2) that, if passed, would alter the state’s constitution to remove the explicit right to an abortion.

The sisters point out that abortion is already heavily regulated in Kansas and that voting against the amendment does not remove the Legislature’s authority to pass abortion regulations. Instead, they argue, voting “no” will “make it less likely that government mandate will control health decisions of Kansas women.”

https://abc7news.com/batmobile-raid-indiana-san-mateo-county-sheriff-carlos-bolanos-fiberglass-freaks-of-logansport-factory-raided/12083955/


https://m.

Nursing homes are suing friends and family to collect on patients' bills

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/28/1113134049/nursing-homes-are-suing-friends-and-family-to-collect-on-patients-bills

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Lucille Brooks was stunned when she picked up the phone before Christmas two years ago and learned a nursing home was suing her.

"I thought this was crazy," recalled Brooks, 74, a retiree who lives with her husband in a modest home in the Rochester suburbs. Brooks' brother had been a resident of the nursing home. But she had no control over his money or authority to make decisions for him. She wondered how she could be on the hook for his nearly $8,000 bill.

Brooks would learn she wasn't alone. Pursuing unpaid bills, nursing homes across this industrial city have been routinely suing not only residents but their friends and family, a KHN review of court records reveals. The practice has ensnared scores of children, grandchildren, neighbors, and others, many with nearly no financial ties to residents or legal responsibility for their debts.

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The nursing home industry has quietly developed what consumer attorneys and patient advocates say is a pernicious strategy of pursuing family and friends of patients despite federal law that was enacted to protect them from debt collection. "The level of aggression that nursing homes are using to collect unpaid debt is severely increasing," said Lisa Neeley, a Massachusetts elder law attorney.


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The legal strategy is often rooted in admissions agreements, the piles of paperwork that family or friends sometimes sign, not realizing the financial risks. "The world of nursing facilities is a black hole for most people," said Eric Carlson, a longtime consumer attorney at the nonprofit Justice in Aging. "This happens in the shadows."

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But consumer advocates say nursing homes slip the admissions agreements into papers that family members sign when an older parent or sick friend is admitted. Sometimes people are told they must sign, a violation of federal law. Sometimes there is barely any discussion. "They are given a stack of forms and told, 'Sign here, sign there. Click here, click there,'" said Miriam Sheline, managing attorney at Pro Seniors, a nonprofit law firm in Cincinnati.

Scenario
Black family walking thru Dillards
Older white employee hits his knee (thats his explanation) and says "fucking n words)
2 family members hear
Father talks to Dillars employee

https://twitter.com/isaiahhjames/status/1553036005698969600

https://twitter.com/davenewworld_2/status/1552983756054663168

https://abcnews.go.com/US/americas-nun-population-steep-decline/story?id=87426990

According to a recent study, less than 1% of nuns in America are under 40 and the average sister is 80 years old.

In 2022, there were reportedly fewer than 42,000 nuns in America, which is a 76% decline over 50 years. At the rate sisters are disappearing, one estimate said that there will be fewer than 1,000 nuns left in the United States by 2042, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

Organizations that provide information about birth control say they’ve experienced a major surge in online traffic. Contreras says Planned Parenthood experienced a 2,205% increase in traffic to its page about sterilization on June 24, the day of the Dobbs decision, and a 400% increase in traffic from that day through July 14. Power to Decide, a campaign to reduce unplanned pregnancy, said that since June 24, its Bedsider website reported a 288% surge to its page about emergency contraception, a 171% surge to its page about sterilization, and a 100% surge for information about the birth control patch in states where abortion was banned after the decision.

Residents of many states may be concerned for good reason. In Missouri, for instance, lawmakers have already shown willingness to limit contraception; in 2021, state senators voted to prevent Medicaid from paying for popular contraception methods, including IUDs (although that version of the bill was ultimately not passed). “Folks, I think, are appropriately assessing this moment as a crisis in sexual reproductive health care, and they are looking to protect themselves in any way that they possibly can,” says Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.

McNicholas and Molly Kunzler, a nurse practitioner who works for Planned Parenthood in Gladstone, Missouri, say they have seen a large increase in demand for long-acting birth control methods. Kunzler adds that more patients than usual have also asked to replace IUDs early or requested the longest-lasting contraceptives—including the Paragard, an IUD that can last for more than a decade, which she says have typically been less popular because they can be more uncomfortable, at least initially. “They are concerned that they’re going to lose access to birth control in general,” says Kunzler. “[Patients] tell us on a daily basis that they’re worried if they don’t get it now or get it soon, they won’t have access to it later.”


McNicholas says that she’s observed an increase in demand not only for birth control, but also for sterilization—surgical procedures that permanently prevent pregnancy in both women and men. Some patients have told her that “they’ve been certain about this decision for some time, but now are feeling particularly motivated to get it done quickly,” she says. Meanwhile, in Arizona—where Planned Parenthood has ceased providing abortions amid uncertainty about their legality—Dr. Jill Gibson, medical director at Planned Parenthood Arizona, says the local call center has had a surge of calls about sterilization, including among younger people.

It’s not just her patients who are nervous, says Gibson. At the two facilities where she works, she’s provided four IUDs for staff members over the last few weeks. “Even within our staff, we’re seeing a real sense of urgency to secure effective contraception while we still can.”

https://time.com/6200542/women-birth-control-switching-methods-abortion/

In the GOP’s New Surveillance State, Everyone’s a Snitch
From abortion to schools, conservatives are depending on everyday citizens to spy on one another.



It was a cold, blustery weekend in February when Neesha Davé opened the door to her Austin, Texas, home and found a process server standing on her front step. She felt sympathy for the woman waiting in the morning wind and rain, even after she awkwardly handed Davé a 30-page document they both knew was bad news. For months, Davé had prepared for the possibility that this day might come. She read through the document, then scanned each page with her phone, and sent it to her lawyers.

The document was a request to depose Davé because, as the deputy director of Lilith Fund, she helps pregnant people in Texas obtain abortions. Beginning on September 1, 2021, abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy were banned in Texas under a law known as Senate Bill 8, or SB8. At the time, abortions in roughly the first half of pregnancy were a constitutionally protected right under Roe v. Wade. SB8 sought to outflank Roe by placing the task of enforcing its ban on individuals rather than the state of Texas. Under the new law, any individual can sue anyone they suspect of helping a pregnant person get an abortion in Texas after six weeks, for a minimum of $10,000 in damages. This vigilante scheme was meant to stop SB8 from being overturned by courts, despite its blatant violation of Roe; if the state can’t enforce its abortion ban, the law’s proponents argue, then a court can’t order them not to enforce it, either.

As Davé stared down at the document she’d just been handed, she got angry. This stranger who had just appeared on her doorstep was a warning that the other side had done their research on her—and they wanted her to know it. “The only reason that they would hire a process server to serve me at my home is because they wanted to use fear and intimidation as a tactic,” she says. They could have sent the packet to her lawyers. But they didn’t. This is part of the menace of Senate Bill 8: It is not only an end-run around the right to abortion, but also a weapon of fear and surveillance. Everyone must be on their guard. Everyone is being watched.
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Texas’s Jonathan Mitchell devised SB8’s surveillance mechanism to push through an abortion ban that would evade the courts. But that does not explain why vigilante enforcement quickly metastasized to bills that do not target abortion. SB8 was foremost a strategy to run around Roe v. Wade. So then why apply this model to target LGBTQ children, trans athletes, or teachers trying to inform their students about the legacy of slavery? These communities have never had a Roe v. Wade equivalent: a ruling that explicitly protects their freedoms. Republican lawmakers do not need to bypass the courts in order to enact their agenda against these groups.

The fact that lawmakers have repeatedly chosen to include this mechanism anyway points to vigilante laws’ more sweeping purpose. In a forthcoming Cornell Law Review article, Michaels and Noll argue that by deputizing the faithful of the conservative movement to attack the communities they dislike, these laws not only control and marginalize, but also realign power in American society. Rather than protect minority rights, the courts become a tool of mob rule, the sheltering protection of the law shrinks, and the social fabric of democracy gives way to surveillance and fear. These laws “draw upon and reinforce anti-democratic and authoritarian tendencies that are central to Trumpist politics,” they write.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/in-the-gops-new-surveillance-state-everyones-a-snitch/

Warning... 😩

https://www.drudgereport.com/