riversedge
riversedge's JournalNew Mexico Eyes A 'Medicaid Buy-In' Plan To Insure More Residents
Source: npr
February 25, 201911:37 AM ET
Laura Lucero Y Ruiz De Gutierrez has a heart condition and fibromyalgia and is at high risk of developing diabetes. She has health insurance through her husband's job. But between the $800 monthly premium for the couple's coverage and the $2,100 deductible she has to pay down before insurance starts picking up the tab, she doesn't feel she can afford to go to the doctor when she needs to.
She hopes that this may soon change. Identical bills proposed in recent weeks in the New Mexico House and Senate would make Gutierrez eligible to buy into a public health plan modeled on the Medicaid program, with funding support from the state of New Mexico. She could receive state-funded assistance via the program that would save her hundreds of dollars a month on premiums.
Laura Lucero Y Ruiz De Gutierrez has health insurance but says she still can't afford to go to the doctor when she's sick. She hopes the public health plan New Mexico is considering will change that.
Courtesy of Laura Lucero Y Ruiz De Gutierrez
"Medicare for all" – often described as a national, single-payer health system built on the Medicare model — has become a rallying cry for some progressive Democrats. Meanwhile, New Mexico is one of several states looking at offering consumers a different type of government-sponsored plan to provide a health care option that's more affordable than current options.
These states' proposals are often referred to as "Medicaid buy-in" plans because, typically, they would offer benefits similar to what is available through Medicaid, the state-federal health plan for people who have low incomes.........
Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/02/25/696626244/new-mexico-eyes-a-medicaid-buy-in-plan-to-insure-more-residents
I hope NM can pass this bill.
27.5 million tons of US soybeans expected to go unsold: direct consequence of Trump trade war
27.5 million tons of US soybeans expected to go unsold this year as a direct consequence of the trade war with China
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-china-trade-war-25-million-tonnes-of-us-soybeans-to-go-unsold-2019-2
Callum Burroughs
Feb. 22, 2019, 6:42 AM
donald trump make farmers great again Scott Olson/Getty Images
Chinese soybean demand is still low, causing a massive oversupply problem and a major headache for US soybean farmers.
The US soybean supply has risen dramatically as the trade war takes its toll, with $7.9 billion lost by US farmers in the past year, according to US Department of Agriculture officials.
Robert Johansson, the chief economist of the USDA, on Thursday forecast that roughly 27.5 million tons of US soybeans would go unsold in 2019 as a direct consequence of the trade war.
The US agricultural trader Bunge reported a $125 million fourth-quarter loss in the soybean market, citing "factors related to China trade and demand."
The trade war between Washington and Beijing has had a major impact on the US agricultural space over the past two years, with the latest US Department of Agriculture figures shining a light on the difficulties faced by farmers during the dispute. ...................................
https://twitter.com/george_capen/status/1099927638414569473
ill eagles
https://twitter.com/Stop_Trump20/status/1099766873418358786
https://twitter.com/AngelleDominiq3/status/1099909100811550720
This is America under @realDonaldTrump.
As one comment stated---it is hard to watch
Ryan Knight
🇺🇸
? @ProudResister
14h14 hours ago
— A Trump supporter says he “might have to kill” a black man.
— A Trump supporter calls female protestors “fuckin’ whores.”
— A Trump supporter tells people to go to “fuckin’ Auschwitz.” (Nazi Concentration camp)
This is America under @realDonaldTrump.
https://twitter.com/ProudResister/status/1099738233833832448
... The question is: CAN #TRUMP Make his own LAWS? Answer: NO!!.....
What she did was horribly wrong, but Trump just can not make up his laws--we have to follow the process and provide a hearing.
Family of American-born woman who joined ISIS files lawsuit claiming she must be allowed to return https://www.thelily.com/family-of-american-born-woman-who-joined-isis-files-lawsuit-claiming-she-must-be-allowed-to-return/ … The question is: CAN #TRUMP Make his own LAWS? Answer: NO #TrumpCorruption
https://twitter.com/thelilynews/status/1099655183385153536
Family of American-born woman who joined ISIS files lawsuit claiming she must be allowed to return
Hoda Muthana says she is ready to come home and face the consequences of her actions
..
Questions of citizenship
“Citizenship is a fundamental constitutional right, the most valuable right you will have,” he said. “If it can be taken away, then it must be done with due process of law. Where citizenship is concerned, that’s a judicial hearing. There has to be a process. You can’t simply say it. You would have to prove it.”
The State Department maintains that no such process is required, as it claims Muthana is not, and has never been, an American citizen. She stands outside of the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, the government argues, because her father, who is now a naturalized citizen, was formerly a Yemeni diplomat under the jurisdiction of his home country. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services guidelines specify an exception to birthright citizenship for children not born “subject to the jurisdiction of the United States,” as the 14th Amendment requires.
“She may have been born here,” Pompeo said Thursday on NBC’s “Today” show.
"She is not a U.S. citizen, nor is she entitled to U.S. citizenship.”
This is because she was born to a diplomat, he said.
But documents provided by Muthana’s lawyers indicate that her father had been discharged from his diplomatic position by the time of her birth on Oct. 28, 1994, by which point her mother had also gained permanent residency status. When the government revoked the young woman’s passport in January 2016, it stated in a letter that she was not a birthright citizen because her father’s termination had not been officially documented until February 1995 — a claim disputed by the family’s lawyers, who point to a notice from the United States Mission to the United Nations dating the end of his service to Sept. 1, 1994.
..................................
Trump administration directs 1,000 more troops to Mexican border-- concertina (RAZOR) wire --
article says these are active duty troops!! Yet, seems the Pentagon will not be asking for Congressional approval 
By John Bowden - 02/22/19 07:08 PM EST
Trump administration directs 1,000 more troops to Mexican border
?itok=8rtvDpnx
© UPI Photo
............................................
Defense officials said at a news briefing that the total size of the U.S. deployment of troops to the southern border would reach 6,000 by March 1, with 140 miles of additional Concertina wiring to be installed.
“That mission has evolved,” a senior defense official said. “We are now transitioning to supporting [areas] between the ports of entry. We’re laying down another 140 miles of concertina wire — [we’re] about 30 percent done with that — as well as providing a ground-based detection and monitoring mission in support of CBP."
"Our numbers right now total are about 5,000. They’ll increase to about 6,000 by March 1," the official added.
The additional 1,000 troops are active-duty and are primarily being sent to support the two missions at the border, the official said............................................
"We are not just sending people down there unless there’s a valid requirement and then we try to match, as best we can, resources to the requirement with as much specificity as possible. And if we don’t need those people then we’ll move them somewhere else."
The news came as Pentagon officials on Friday also refused to say whether the Defense Department would seek congressional approval to appropriate billions of dollars for President Trump's project to construct a wall along the border.
“It has been the practice of the Department of Defense to request approval and it’s not required by law,” an official told reporters when asked whether the department would move forward without congressional approval.
..............................
https://twitter.com/JeffFlake/status/1099090632792915969
https://twitter.com/MoveOn/status/1099330569970814976
Her husband was not convicted of drugging and raping her - because it is still legal in Minnesota
Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune
One woman's trauma is pushing state lawmakers to repeal what is known as the marital rape exception.
By Stephen Montemayor Star Tribune
February 22, 2019 — 9:57pm
RENÉE JONES SCHNEIDER – Star Tribune
Jenny Teeson, with her parents Jerry and Terry Teeson, reacted to the unanimous House vote on the bill to outlaw marital rape.
Jenny Teeson learned that she had been drugged and raped more than a year after the assault took place, when she found videos of it on her computer.
She watched in horror as a man forcibly penetrated her motionless body with a sex toy while her toddler son lay sleeping nearby — all documented in a video shot inside their Andover home.
But Teeson’s attacker will never be charged with rape because, until recently, that man was her husband.
“I know why victims give up,” Teeson said in a recent interview. “Nothing on his record says criminal sexual conduct, that he raped me. Nothing says anything to the sex crimes that he did.”
Minnesota is one of about a dozen states that still grant spouses and cohabiting partners exemptions from its sexual assault laws under certain conditions. The state’s “voluntary relationship” statute, which dates to the 1970s, does not exempt spouses from prosecution for forcible rape. But while it is otherwise illegal in Minnesota to engage in sexual penetration with someone who is “mentally impaired, mentally incapacitated, or physically helpless,” that provision does not apply in marriage.......
Read more: http://www.startribune.com/her-husband-was-not-convicted-of-drugging-and-raping-her-because-it-is-still-legal-in-minnesota/506246802/
Have to admit, I did not know these cruel laws were still on the books #metoo
Average tax refund down 17 percent, IRS reports
Source: Politico
Updated 02/22/2019 10:25 PM EST
The average tax refund issued so far this year is down by 17 percent, the IRS said, a steep decline that promises more headaches for Republican lawmakers.
The agency released data late Friday showing refunds are down for the third consecutive week, with the typical payment made through Feb. 15 totaling $2,703, compared to $3,256 during the same period last year.
This filing season is the first under Republicans’ overhaul of the tax code, and lawmakers have already been under fire as some taxpayers find their expected refunds smaller or gone altogether. The payments are sacrosanct to many Americans who rely on them to fill holes in their budgets.
The administration blamed the decline on what it said was a quirk in year-over-year comparisons.
The agency typically issues a large amount of payments in February to people claiming they earned income tax credit, a wage supplement program for the working poor, as well as a tax credit for having children. That has skewed comparisons, a Treasury Department spokesperson said, because last year’s batch of data happened to include more of those payments than does this year’s..............................
Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/22/irs-tax-refunds-2019-1207283
about a month ago, refunds were down 8%.
These Are the Americans Who Live in a Bubble
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/americans-remain-deeply-ambivalent-about-diversity/583123/
These Are the Americans Who Live in a Bubble
A significant minority seldom or never meet people from another race, and they prize sameness, not difference.
Emma Green
President Trump is joined by supporters at a campaign rally for Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi in Tupelo.Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
Most Americans do not live in a totalizing bubble. They regularly encounter people of different races, ideologies, and religions. For the most part, they view these interactions as positive, or at least neutral.
Yet according to a new study by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and The Atlantic, a significant minority of Americans do not live this way. They seldom or never meet people of another race. They dislike interacting with people who don’t share their political beliefs. And when they imagine the life they want for their children, they prize sameness, not difference. Education and geography seemed to make a big difference in how people think about these issues, and in some cases, so did age.
One of the many questions the Trump era has raised is whether Americans actually want a pluralistic society, where people are free to be themselves and still live side by side with others who aren’t like them. U.S. political discourse is filled with nasty rhetoric that rejects the value of diversity outright. Yet, theoretically, pluralism is good for democracy: In a political era when the vast majority of Americans believe the country is divided over issues of race, politics, and religion, relationships across lines of difference could foster empathy and civility. These survey results suggest that Americans are deeply ambivalent about the role of diversity in their families, friendships, and civic communities. Some people, it seems, prefer to stay in their bubble.
In terms of both geography and culture, America is largely sorted by political identity. In a representative, random survey of slightly more than 1,000 people taken in December, PRRI and The Atlantic found that just under a quarter of Americans say they seldom or never interact with people who don’t share their partisan affiliation. Black and Hispanic people were more likely than whites to describe their lives this way, although education made a big difference among whites: 27 percent of non-college-educated whites said they seldom or never encounter people from a different political party, compared with just 6 percent of college-educated whites...............................
Americans aren’t fully in control of the amount of diversity to which they’re exposed. Some isolation is a matter of geography and class: People living in rural Vermont, the whitest state in America, may not have many opportunities to meet people of another race, for example. Even self-segregation may not be malicious: “It’s hard to spend time with people who are not like you,” Mason said. People may not want to argue about deeply held political beliefs or explain their religious dietary needs to strangers. “At the most basic level, the place that prejudice comes from is not an evil place,” she said. “It’s just that it’s easier to spend time with people who are the same.”..........................
Trump on charges against Robert Kraft: "It's very sad. I was very surprised to see it. He's proclaim
https://twitter.com/MrFilmkritik/status/1099039234189602817
I watch very little of cable--except for msnbc in the evening, so I do not know how cable is covering the scandels.
President Trump on charges against Robert Kraft: "It's very sad. I was very surprised to see it. He's proclaimed his innocence totally."
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1099048125426212864
mily A.m @emzorbit
3h3 hours ago
Replying to @cspan
They have video.
1 reply 1 retweet 46 likes
Polly Sigh
? @dcpoll
3h3 hours ago
and DNA evidence
4 replies 1 retweet 31 likes
Noodles
? @GFNoodleyOne
2h2 hours ago
Ewwwwwww.
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1099011537874968577
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1098988263266635776
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