Gaythia Weis @Gaythia@qoto.org

“We cannot and will not support any candidate that does not respect our democracy, the Constitution, the rule of law, the military, veterans, our allies, or our citizens.”

https://concernedwestpointgrads.medium.com/character-matters-c5bb7abc7b25

#USpol #military #KamalaHarris

Eleven months ago, Robert Kagan published “A Trump Dictatorship Is Increasingly Inevitable” in the Washington Post.

He has now resigned from the Post because it refuses to endorse Trump’s opponent.

When his warning came out, I dove deep into why Kagan was essentially correct:

https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/donald-trump-american-dictator

"In 2019, Trump found his lever. Amazon was due to receive a $10 billion cloud-computing contract from the Pentagon. The Pentagon suddenly shifted course and denied Amazon the contract. A former speechwriter for Defense Secretary James Mattis reported that Trump had directed Mattis to “screw Amazon.”

This is the context in which the Post’s decision to spike its planned endorsement of Kamala Harris should be considered."

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/washington-post-endorsement-kamala-harris-trump-bezos-amazon-threat.html

#WeAreNotGoingBack
#HarrisWalz2024

The LA Times editorial board voted to endorse Kamala Harris

The LA Times owners vetoed the endorsement

Now the head of the LA Times editorial board has resigned in protest

THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA PROFITS OFF TRUMP — they have an inherent bias and must NOT be taken at face value

Judge Aileen Cannon was appointed to her position by Donald Trump.

It was Judge Cannon who dismissed all federal charges against Trump in his classified documents case.

Now, she's reportedly on a shortlist of Trump's potential Attorney General candidates.

See how this works?

“Not Medically Necessary”:

Inside the Company Helping America’s Biggest Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Care

Every day, patients across America crack open envelopes with bad news.
Yet another health insurer has decided not to pay for a treatment that their doctor has recommended.
But the insurance companies don’t always make these decisions.
Instead, they often outsource medical reviews to a largely hidden industry
that makes money by turning down doctors’ requests for payments, known as #prior #authorizations.
Call it the denials for dollars business.

The biggest player is a company called #EviCore by #Evernorth, which is hired by major American insurance companies
and provides coverage to 100 million consumers
— about 1 in 3 insured people.
It is owned by the insurance giant #Cigna.

A ProPublica and Capitol Forum investigation found that
EviCore uses an algorithm backed by artificial intelligence,
which some insiders call “the dial,”
that it can adjust to lead to higher denials.

Some contracts ensure the company makes more money the more it cuts health spending.
And it issues medical guidelines that doctors have said delay and deny care for patients.

EviCore and companies like it approve prior authorizations
“based on the decision that is more profitable for them,” said Barbara McAneny, a former president of the American Medical Association and a practicing oncologist.
“They love to deny things"

https://www.propublica.org/article/evicore-health-insurance-denials-cigna-unitedhealthcare-aetna-prior-authorizations

More than $8 million had been spent through Tuesday by state-level super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, on legislative contests

https://coloradosun.com/2024/10/23/colorado-legislative-race-spending-2024/

Trump Campaign Leaves Trail of Unpaid Rally Bills Across Nation

Donald Trump’s campaign has amassed a staggering pile of unpaid debts for services related to his rallies since 2016, according to Al Jazeera, which reported Monday that the former president’s team still owes hundreds of thousands of dollars. The largest outstanding invoice belongs to El Paso, Texas, which told the network that the Trump campaign still owes it $569,204.63 for a 2019 rally. I

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-campaign-leaves-trail-of-unpaid-rally-bills-across-nation/

#GiftArticle

Must read.

#Trump became angry. “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!” He turned to his chief of staff, #MarkMeadows, & issued an order: “Don’t pay it!” Later that day, he was still agitated. “Can you believe it?” he said, according to a witness. “Fucking people, trying to rip me off.”

#racism #WhiteSupremacy #MaleSupremacy #misogyny #UnitedStates #military #ServiceMember #Unfit #disrespect #disgrace

#Vote #HarrisWalz2024
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-military-generals-hitler/680327/?gift=guxsrl_dAdXUP9zqbQPWxeXgG6TzRGw9UxuZ0SJ0TQw&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

@knittingknots2 What a weird GOP custom— here’s another one doing the same thing last month

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/childless-gop-candidate-posed-with-friends-wife-and-kids-for-campaign-video_n_66f814e1e4b027bd4385edd9

Former Republican lawmakers, advisers and Justice Department officials have called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate tech billionaire Elon Musk for awarding cash prizes to voters in swing states if they sign his political organization’s petition. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/10/21/elon-musk-voting-petition-justice-department-trump/

@futurebird @JonChevreau @mergy Does he hold a food-worker’s card? If not, that outlet has committed a health violation, and should be shut down for a deep cleaning, including discarding all food supplies he’s been in contact with.

Shapiro Wants Musk Investigated for Giving Cash to Registered Voters (Peter Wade/Rolling Stone)

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/shapiro-elon-musk-million-cash-giveaway-1235138501/
http://www.memeorandum.com/241020/p36#a241020p36

When Frances Perkins was a little girl, she asked her parents why nice people could be poor. Her father told her not to worry about those things, and that poor people were poor because they were lazy and drank.

Eventually, she went to Mount Holyoke College, and majored in physics. In her final semester, she took a class in American economic history and toured the mills along the Connecticut River to see working conditions. She was horrified.

Eventually, instead of teaching until she married, she earned a masters degree in social work from Columbia University. In 1910, Perkins became Executive Secretary of the New York City Consumers League.

She campaigned for sanitary regulations for bakeries, fire protection for factories, and legislation to limit the working hours for women and children in factories to 54 hours per week. She worked mainly in New York State’s capital, Albany. Here, she made friends with politicians, and learned how to lobby.

On March 25th, 1911, Frances was having tea with friends when they heard fire engines. They ran to see what was happening, and witnessed one of the worst workplace disasters in US history. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was devastating, killing 146 people, mostly young women and girls.

Frances watched as fire escapes collapsed and fireman ladders couldn’t reach the women trapped by the flames. She watched 47 workers leap to their deaths from the 8th and 9th floors.

Poignantly, just a year before these same women and girls had fought for and won the 54 hour work week and other benefits that Frances had championed.

These women weren’t just tragic victims, they were heroes of the labor force. Frances at that moment resolved to make sure their deaths meant something.

A committee to study reforms in safety in factories was formed, and Perkins became the secretary. The group took on not only fire safety, but all other health issues they could think of. Perkins, by that time a respected expert witness, helped draft the most comprehensive set of laws regarding workplace health and safety in the country. Other states started copying New York’s new laws to protect workers.

Perkins continued to work in New York for decades, until she was asked by President Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to serve as Secretary of Labor. She told him only if he agreed with her goals: 40-hour work week, minimum wage, unemployment and worker’s compensation, abolition of child labor, federal aid to the states for unemployment, Social Security, a revitalized federal employment service, and universal health insurance. He agreed. Similar to what she had worked for in New York, her successes became the New Deal, and changed the country and its workers forever.

So while you may not know her name, you certainly know her legacy.

- Via: People You May Not Know, But Probably Should

Another Netanyahu war crime that won’t make any headlines.

IDF bombed & killed 4 engineers en route to repair water infrastructure in south Gaza. They coordinated with & had approval from Israeli authorities to travel. Israel killed them anyway. Horrific.
https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/oxfam-condemns-killing-water-engineers-gaza

I want all hostages released. So why is it that every person defending Netanyahu's genocidal siege on Gaza screams "release the hostages taken by Hamas"—but never mentions Palestinian hostages?

The Israeli Govt currently holds ~8000 Palestinian civilians in prisons and torture camps without charge, trial, conviction, or even access to counsel—many of whom have been held hostage for several years.

I want ALL hostages released. If you only care about one side—stop pretending you're seeking peace

“History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among peoples' environments, not because of biological differences among peoples themselves”
― Jared Diamond,

It’s no wonder that Musk is spending millions, & working 24/7, in nefarious ways, to get #TFG elected. Elon would become his closest advisor, amass greater profits, not constrained by regs & legal woes.

“Musk: poised to live out the ultimate techno-authoritative fantasy. With his influence, he stands to capture the state, not just to enrich himself. His entanglement with Trump will be an Ayn Rand novel spring to life, bc he’s explicitly invited Musk into the g-.”

#USPol https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/10/donald-trump-is-elon-musks-trojan-horse/680309/

#OtD 18 Oct 1927 miners in Colorado observed a strike called by the revolutionary @iww union. They shut down every mine in the north of the state except one. It lasted until 1928 when union recognition was given to a reformist union https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9045/colorado-coal-strike?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon