Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Breccia]

We all saw this coming.

Well...half of us did.

CNN's main story this morning was about a hospital chain suing a bunch of patients for unpaid medical bills.

Hospitals owned by Community Health Systems, Inc., one of America's largest hospital chains, have filed at least 19,000 lawsuits against their patients over allegedly unpaid medical bills since March 2020, even as other hospitals around the country have moved to curtail similar lawsuits during the coronavirus pandemic, a CNN investigation found.

The company's 84 hospitals, which are concentrated in the South and stretch from Alaska to Key West, Florida, have taken their patients to court for as little as $201 and as much as $162,000. They say litigation is a last resort.

CNN's review of court filings across 16 states the company operates in found that most of the patients sued by CHS -- like Bull -- didn't hire a lawyer or fight the lawsuits, and judges often ruled in the company's favor by default. In some states, defendants' debts piled on with attorney's fees and interest.

Elsewhere, the hospital chain's subsidiaries quickly moved to garnish defendants' paychecks after a judgment.

Advocates say those hardball collection tactics can leave low-income patients in financial ruin -- especially considering the lawsuits were filed in the middle of the Covid-fueled economic collapse.

CHS in 2020 enjoyed its most profitable year in at least a decade, even as it was suing patients during the pandemic. The company made $511 million in net income last year, a big swing after four straight years of annual losses. That strong financial result led to the company's top executives earning millions of dollars worth of bonuses, according to documents it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

One reason for the success: CHS has been buoyed by taxpayer support. It received $705 million in pandemic-related aid from the federal government's CARES Act and other state and local programs in 2020, not including additional government loans it will have to pay back, according to its 2021 annual report to shareholders.

CNN goes on to say that the hospital chain is not suing people 200% or below the poverty line. But when I see a story that says "people in the South can't pay their medical bills" the first thing I think is "gee, how many of them fled the ACA the second they had the chance?" Sudden high medical bills suck, I get that, but there was a safeguard in place. And y'all stopped using it, and y'all did it on purpose.

[s_bushido]

Even if he doesn't make it to 2024 the GOP will Weekend at Bernie's his ass with a semi-competent (but beholden to them) VP to take over when, after inaugurated, Trump suffers a "completely unexpected medical issue" and is "forced to resign", leaving the VP in charge.

This is exactly what Republicans were saying with Biden/Harris...

[Benggaul]

This is exactly what Republicans were saying with Biden/Harris...

Welcome to half an hour ago. And yes, that was the joke.

[Milchshake]

Lol, Bill Barr spent the last weeks of the Trump admin trying to unmask Devin Nune's Cow.



Wow, the 'unmasking' people/privacy advocates are surely going to be absolutely up in arms at this grave abuse of govt power targeting a private citizen. Right? Surely.

As a fellow traveler that snarks on fashies, dodged a bullet there.

[Breccia]

Franklin Graham is apparently saying Trump may be too old/infirm to run come 2024 based on his current health/diet/energy.

(hours later)

Trump signals he's ready to get back in the game

Yep, that thing where he got Cheney expelled has proven to Trump and everyone else that Trump is still in charge. Running or not, Trump is going to run with that, getting out on the trail for more people to tell him he's the best and pledge their loyalty to him over party and country.

- - - Updated - - -

Giuliani, desperate for something, anything to stop the truth from coming out, asks the court to block reviewing the seized materials because reasons.

"Har har. He cited something, not 'reasons'."

Before any further review (including by a Special Master) and any further damage is done to the public's confidence in the confidentiality of their communications with counsel, the issue of the constitutionality and legality of the government's conduct to this point in the investigation must be resolved

Giuliani is challenging the warrant itself, saying it was unConstitutional. More specifically, he claims he would have handed over the materials completely and perfectly, without destroying any, in response to a subpoena.

"But...the prosecutors already have the info. Is he really saying 'they can't have the information because we would have handed it over'?"

Yes.

"This is about the Ukraine thing, yes?"

I think so.

"Didn't Trump lock the transcript in a vault? There is 100% history of Trump and Giuliani hiding evidence."

Yes.

"And didn't Team Trump block a bunch of other things since nearly the first day he was in office, with all those NDAs and his taxes? I mean, those were subpoenad multiple times."

Yes.

It seems pretty unlikely that "they should have asked nicely first" will serve as a legal deterrant when the items are already in custody. Perhaps @cubby can elaborate, though to be fair, I'm hoping he doesn't have specific knowledge of this particular issue.

[Fugus]

Any chance that Mulvany faces charges for his actions at the IRS refusing to hand over records he was legally required to hand over to the House Ways and Means Committee?

[Edge-]

https://www.axios.com/off-the-rails-...d5eb3c6e2.html

John McEntee, one of Donald Trump's most-favored aides, handed retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor a piece of paper with a few notes scribbled on it. He explained: "This is what the president wants you to do."

1. Get us out of Afghanistan.

2. Get us out of Iraq and Syria.

3. Complete the withdrawal from Germany.

4. Get us out of Africa.

It was Nov. 9, 2020 — days after Trump lost his re-election bid, 10 weeks before the end of his presidency and just moments after Macgregor was offered a post as senior adviser to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

As head of the powerful Presidential Personnel Office, McEntee had Trump's ear. Even so, Macgregor was astonished. He told McEntee he doubted they could do all of these things before Jan. 20.

"Then do as much as you can," McEntee replied.

In Macgregor's opinion, Miller probably couldn't act on his own authority to execute a total withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan because he was serving in an acting capacity. If this was for real, Macgregor told McEntee, then it was going to need an order from the president.

The one-page memo was delivered by courier to Christopher Miller's office two days later, on the afternoon of Nov. 11. The order arrived seemingly out of nowhere, and its instructions, signed by Trump, were stunning: All U.S. military forces were to be withdrawn from Somalia by Dec. 31, 2020. All U.S. forces were to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by Jan. 15, 2021.

What the fuck is this? Miller wondered.

Yeah, glad this isn't the daily world anymore.

[s_bushido]

Yeah, glad this isn't the daily world anymore.

I can't imagine what it must have been like working for that lunatic. There were plenty of memes painting him as a petulant child, but seriously...was he even capable of thinking these things out?

[Edge-]

...was he even capable of thinking these things out?

Clearly not. This is what happens when you lack any critical thinking skills, which seems to be a badge of honor amongst the Republican party. Especially when you surround yourself with incompetent lackies and sycophants. Who was gonna challenge him, the manchild bangin his daughter and digging through classified information while crowdsourcing the response to a pandemic? Spray-on-hair Goebbles? The guy who lasted a few months and couldn't get a job in the Hungarian government? His daughter he totally wants to bang?

[cubby]

(hours later)

Trump signals he's ready to get back in the game

Yep, that thing where he got Cheney expelled has proven to Trump and everyone else that Trump is still in charge. Running or not, Trump is going to run with that, getting out on the trail for more people to tell him he's the best and pledge their loyalty to him over party and country.

- - - Updated - - -

Giuliani, desperate for something, anything to stop the truth from coming out, asks the court to block reviewing the seized materials because reasons.

"Har har. He cited something, not 'reasons'."



Giuliani is challenging the warrant itself, saying it was unConstitutional. More specifically, he claims he would have handed over the materials completely and perfectly, without destroying any, in response to a subpoena.

"But...the prosecutors already have the info. Is he really saying 'they can't have the information because we would have handed it over'?"

Yes.

"This is about the Ukraine thing, yes?"

I think so.

"Didn't Trump lock the transcript in a vault? There is 100% history of Trump and Giuliani hiding evidence."

Yes.

"And didn't Team Trump block a bunch of other things since nearly the first day he was in office, with all those NDAs and his taxes? I mean, those were subpoenad multiple times."

Yes.

It seems pretty unlikely that "they should have asked nicely first" will serve as a legal deterrant when the items are already in custody. Perhaps @cubby can elaborate, though to be fair, I'm hoping he doesn't have specific knowledge of this particular issue.

Heh - I do not.

Rudi is, to coin a legal term of art, FUCKED. And that's his current status. There will be more to come. Trump used him like a tampon and flung him aside with literally no protection. He's already lost privilege as personal attorney to the Resident, and the investigation is on-going. The number of people who think there won't be more to find is approximately zero.

His only hope of avoiding prison is a country with no extradition treaty or to stroke out.

[Ripster42]

Any chance that Mulvany faces charges for his actions at the IRS refusing to hand over records he was legally required to hand over to the House Ways and Means Committee?

Mulvany was consumer protection, Mnuchin was Treasury.

[Fugus]

Mulvany was consumer protection, Mnuchin was Treasury.

Oops yeah Mnuchin was who I meant. Getting mixed up and honestly have been way to busy recently with real life stuff due to family to keep up with most of this stuff.

Only game I have been able to even touch has been sudoku from the toilets or waiting for kids to get out of school.

Any chance on him getting anything? Won’t be able to stay on for a response but will read tomorrow sometime.

[Azadina]

https://thehill.com/changing-america...be-too-poor-to

Franklin Graham is apparently saying Trump may be too old/infirm to run come 2024 based on his current health/diet/energy. Hoping this is true, but I guess we'll get a sneak peak when he gets back to the campaign trail.

I would ask if you can be an alpha getting rolled around in a wheelchair, but FDR already proved that you absolutely can. I doubt Trump will be able to though, it seems the measure of "alpha" has changed considerably over the years.

Too old or infirm? What are you talking about. We had his doctor announce to all of us Trumps genes are the most magnificent thing ever, allowing him to possibly live to 200.

[Breccia]

More on the "Giuliani says you can't seize his stuff" filing today.



Incidentally, in the filing (which MSNBC says is nonsense) Giuliani says he was trying to get dirt on Biden's family on behalf of the State Department. Besides the issues of Trump's personal lawyer acting on behalf of the State Department while not being a member of the WH, if he was doing that, why weren't his actions public? Or more to the point, why can't the State Department say "Okay, we're turning them over voluntarily"?

[cubby]

Red State fucks their people again. Voting 60% in favor of legalizing Marijuana, the GOP filed suit to remove the Amendment to the Mississippi Constitution. The Mississippi Supreme court ruled in the GOP's favor, saying the ballot initiative process was unconstitutional. You have to read this shit to actually believe, it's so ridiculous.

Under those guidelines, petitioners needed to gather one-fifth of their signatures from each of the state's five congressional districts. However, as of 2000, Mississippi has only four districts, although supporters of medical marijuana gathered signatures according to the old map as a precaution, at the advice of the state attorney general’s office.

“Whether with intent, by oversight, or for some other reason, the drafters of section 273(3) wrote a ballot-initiative process that cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than five representatives in Congress,” Justice Josiah Coleman, who was endorsed by the Mississippi Republican Party prior to his reelection last year, wrote for the majority in the 6-3 ruling. “To work in today’s reality, it will need amending — something that lies beyond the power of the Supreme Court.”

10 years of ballot initiatives are only hold until they fix the process rules.

[Zan15]

Red State fucks their people again. Voting 60% in favor of legalizing Marijuana, the GOP filed suit to remove the Amendment to the Mississippi Constitution. The Mississippi Supreme court ruled in the GOP's favor, saying the ballot initiative process was unconstitutional. You have to read this shit to actually believe, it's so ridiculous.



10 years of ballot initiatives are only hold until they fix the process rules.

Just another day more fucking of their own people. They did it in Missouri too.
What is even crazier is the state would have seen a billion dollar windfall of federal funding.



https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/99661...-governor-says

The battle over Medicaid expansion in Missouri reached a new boiling point Thursday as Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, announced that the state will not implement expansion, in defiance of a ballot measure passed by voters last year.

The decision stems from Republican state lawmakers' refusal to appropriate funds for the expansion to the state's Medicaid program, called MO HealthNet, in the state budget bill passed last week.

Missouri's current Medicaid program is one of the most restrictive in the United States. To qualify, a family of three must earn less than 21% of the federal poverty level — in 2021, that amount is just $5,400. Childless adults cannot qualify at all.

Last August, 53% of voters in this deep-red state approved a ballot measure to raise the limit to 138% of the federal poverty level, roughly $17,774 for a single adult and $37,570 for a family of four. It would have made Missouri the 38th state to expand Medicaid access under the Affordable Care Act.

An analysis by Washington University in St. Louis found that about 271,500 Missourians were likely to enroll in the expanded coverage, which was set to take effect July 1, 2021.


The same study found the Medicaid expansion was most likely to result in budget savings for the state. That counterintuitive finding, which has been observed in other states, is explained by demand shifting from other public programs that are more expensive for the state, as more people opt for expansion coverage, which is largely funded by the federal government.

The Affordable Care Act requires the federal government to cover 90% of the cost of expanded eligibility.

On top of that, the new federal stimulus package signed by President Biden in March pitches in another 5% as an incentive for states that had yet to expand Medicaid when the bill was enacted, including Missouri. That would have saved the state an additional $1 billion, according to a federal estimate.

But Republicans in Missouri have long complained about what they say is an unaffordable expense, even as the state has an estimated $1.1 billion budget surplus.

The announcement comes just two days after Parson announced that Missouri would join several other Republican-controlled states in ending its participation in federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits.

"What did hard working Missourians and those looking for work do to have Missouri's majority party deny them increased wages, survival subsidies (funded by the feds), and healthcare (funded by the feds)?" wrote Quinton Lucas, the Democratic mayor of Kansas City, on Twitter. "For the many of us who have known struggle, it's just cruel."

[Kaleredar]

Too old or infirm? What are you talking about. We had his doctor announce to all of us Trumps genes are the most magnificent thing ever, allowing him to possibly live to 200.

I guess Trump shares that old age trait with jellyfish.

I mean, they are both spineless, venomous, gelatinous blobs with no discernible brain.

[Azadina]

I guess Trump shares that old age trait with jellyfish.

I mean, they are both spineless, venomous, gelatinous blobs with no discernible brain.

Hey! That comparison is an insult to jellyfish. They look cool. Trump? Ehh...not quite...

[cubby]

In the It Really Can Get Worse category of today's Trump revelations, looks like Dipshit-in-Chief had the DoJ secretly obtain a grand-jury subpoena last year in an attempt to identify the person behind a Twitter account dedicated to mocking Rep. Devin Nunes.

Yep, using Trump's personal law firm the Department of Justice for personal vendettas.

[DingDongKing]

In the It Really Can Get Worse category of today's Trump revelations, looks like Dipshit-in-Chief had the DoJ secretly obtain a grand-jury subpoena last year in an attempt to identify the person behind a Twitter account dedicated to mocking Rep. Devin Nunes.

Yep, using Trump's personal law firm the Department of Justice for personal vendettas.

BUT CANCEL CULTURE! Yeah, they don't care about censorship or cancel culture.

They just wanna do what they want, and they just don't want anything said against them.