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DaisyDay · Tuesday at 1:25 PM

Blue States Sued and Kept Most CDC Grants. Red States Feel Brunt of Trump Clawbacks.

Grant cancellations were initially even between blue and red states

www.medpagetoday.com

Initially, grant cancellations hit blue and red states roughly evenly. Four of the five jurisdictions with the largest number of terminated grants were led by Democrats: California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

But after attorneys general and governors from about two dozen blue states sued in federal court and won an injunction, the balance flipped. Of the five states with the most canceled grants, four are led by Republicans: Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio.

In blue states, nearly 80% of the CDC grant cuts have been restored, compared with fewer than 5% in red states, according to the KFF Health News analysis. Grant amounts reported in an HHS database known as the Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System, or TAGGS, often don't match what states confirmed. Instead, this analysis focused on the number of grants.

The divide is an example of the polarization that permeates healthcare issues, in which access to safety-net health programs, abortion rights, and the ability of public health officials to respond to disease threats diverge significantly depending on the political party in power.

...The Trump cutbacks came as the U.S. recorded its largest measles outbreakopens in a new tab or window in over three decades and 266 pediatric deaths during the most recent flu season -- the highest reportedopens in a new tab or window outside of a pandemic since 2004. Public health departments canceled vaccine clinics, laid off staff, and put contracts on hold, health officials said in interviews.

After its funding cuts were blocked in court, California retained every grant the Trump administration attempted to claw back, while Texas remains the state with the most grants terminated, with at least 30. As the CDC slashed grants in Texas, its measles outbreak spread across the U.S. and Mexico, sickening at least 4,500 people and killing at least 16.

Colorado, which joined the lawsuit, had 11 grant terminations at first, but then 10 were retained. Meanwhile, its neighboring states that didn't sue -- Wyoming, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma -- collectively lost 55 grants, with none retained.

wing2000 · Tuesday at 1:24 PM

Clare73 said:
Why should I bother to address your assumptions. . . you don't sign my paycheck.

Why should anyone engage with you at all?

wing2000 · Tuesday at 1:24 PM

essentialsaltes said:
“No one ever goes back and examines loan applications on performing loans for occupancy fraud; that would entail expenses for no benefit,” he wrote. “Instead, the only way anyone would have noticed a problem with Cook’s loan application is that Pulte, as head of FHFA, directed Fannie or Freddie to pull her application. That is unheard of.”

The Trump Administration is obviously digging for dirt. What's the Russian saying? "Name a man and find a crime"

And last night, Trump announced he is firing the Federal Reserve Governor.....based on an accusation.

This is Trump's America....

FAITH-IN-HIM · Tuesday at 1:24 PM

DaisyDay said:
Change the adjective to WHAT? This makes the fifth time I've asked you directly (see posts #42, #44, #58, #61) and I have not yet been given anything other than "not that". Furthermore, you gave me a whole list of unacceptable terms, but no alternate acceptable ones.

I have not said that anyone was being irrational, so "equally irrational" are entirely your own words and meaning. Irrational is not the word I would use for not wanting to discuss a different pov.

That is unfair as I have been asking you over and over and over and over to let me know what would be acceptable and you refuse to say. It is almost impossible to have a rational debate when insults are substituted for answers to direct questions.

The adjectives used to describe President Trump are not justified. In my previous post, I stated that the President has the authority to replace military leadership; this is a part of the democratic process rather than an authoritarian act. However, you have associated this action with authoritarianism.

Replacing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is not fascist or dictatorial, but is a power granted to the President of the United States. While I agree that it may be ill-advised, such actions do not justify labeling him as authoritarian.

You created a thread stating that President Trump is requiring some private corporations to give equity to the government, and characterized this as fascism. This action is better described as government overreach and against free market ideology, rather than fascism.

My advice for engaging in rational debate is to select adjectives that are suitable and avoid those that may provoke or sensationalize the discussion.

Oompa Loompa · Tuesday at 1:24 PM

RileyG said:
I think making artwork of Mohammad would be enough to trigger Muslim extremists to anger and violence because images is against their religion.

(I wouldn’t call it a hate crime, imo)

Well, apparently liking bacon is now a hate crime in the UK. So I will leave that there to show how sensitive and intolerant Muslims are.

Erik Nelson · Tuesday at 1:23 PM

The Bible Is Yet Again on Trial in Finland | National Review

The case of Finnish member of parliament Päivi Räsänen, who continues to face persecution for her religious beliefs, will set a key free-speech precedent.

www.nationalreview.com

The case of Finnish member of parliament Päivi Räsänen, who continues to face persecution for her religious beliefs, will set a key free-speech precedent...

In 2019, Räsänen’s church decided to sponsor a “pride” parade. She responded by posting some Bible verses on Twitter and asking how that decision aligned with Scripture. You might expect that to have led to some debate or perhaps even tension, possibly a meeting with church leaders. Instead, she faced criminal prosecution eerily reminiscent of the Soviet Union.

Government officials ransacked Räsänen’s private life, rummaged through 20 years of public statements, and interrogated her on her personal theology. In the process, they dug up a 2004 church pamphlet she had authored on marriage and sexuality, as well as comments she made on a 2019 radio show. Government prosecutors charged Räsänen with three counts of “agitation against a minority group” under the war-crimes statute of Finnish law. A Lutheran bishop, Juhana Pohjola, was charged alongside her for publishing the pamphlet.

Clare73 · Tuesday at 1:22 PM

RocksInMyHead said:
I think it's a pretty reasonable assumption to make. You're welcome to try to convince me otherwise though.

Why should I bother to address your assumptions. . . you don't sign my paycheck.

RocksInMyHead · Tuesday at 1:20 PM

Clare73 said:
Which you see to be assuming regarding me. . .

I think it's a pretty reasonable assumption to make. You're welcome to try to convince me otherwise though.

PTW · Tuesday at 1:18 PM

Cyberchase

Clare73 · Tuesday at 1:17 PM

DaisyDay said:
Not entirely. Claiming an extra 10,000 feet for an apartment is not subjective. Disregarding use covenants (unable to further develop a property because you've claimed it a conservation area) is not subjective. Lying about the number of floors a building has is not subjective.

The buyer has no one to blame but himself if he ignores, "Buyer beware."

DaisyDay said:
Claiming a building is rented out a market rates when it is subject to rent control is not subjective.
There was also a problem that the subjective valuations soared on loan applications and tanked on tax relief applications from the self-same valuator.
It is in the court documents. But that requires reading...

Surely these injuries were taken to Court and rectified. . .

What were the damages awarded to the injured?

Crickets. . .

GoldenBoy89 · Tuesday at 1:11 PM

Always in His Presence said:
Flags when damaged or worn are destroyed by fire. There is a huge difference between following code and someone dousing the flag in a fuel and burning it in some perceived protest.

Not really. You can’t outlaw people’s feelings, only their actions. If the act of burning a flag is illegal it should be illegal in all circumstances.

Protest is (supposed to be) protected speech, btw.

Clare73 · Tuesday at 1:11 PM

RocksInMyHead said:
Because the case has not even gone to court yet (meaning that both parties to the case have not presented any evidence), and you're not omniscient. You may know some of the facts, but I feel pretty confident in saying that you don't know all of them.

True, but one does need to know all of the facts in order to make that determination.

Which you seem to be assuming regarding facts about me. . .

stevevw · Tuesday at 1:10 PM

A New Dawn said:
I have to disagree with a lot of this. Firstly, the only bullying I’ve seen is from “progressive” churches, or from progressives in church.

Secondly, if we didn’t use scripture to base our beliefs and culture on, what would we use? Society has departed drastically from being sane and rational, and we should never consider changing who we are and what we believe to match them. We can change how we worship, but never why or what or who we worship. That is where the watering-down happens.

You may have misunderstood me. I have a tendency to jump between first and third persons or present the opposing view as though I am advocating it. Sorry if thats the case.

I agree with you. I agree that we have to stay true to scripture no matter how society changes. That is the destinguishing truth. And I agree that progressive ideas in the church like in society are causing divisions and all the problems that go with that.

Its almost designed to create division by allowing more than one way to see Gods truth for the church. You can't have two or more truths fighting within the same church. This is the opposite of unity of mind and spirit.

I was just pointing out how much society and the a growing number of churches have become good at watering down not just scripture but words and meanings generally. So good that many are fooled. That now more than ever we need to scrutinise and stay true.

Whereas I think in the early church Paul and the disciples and those who followed were very protective of the church community. They almost wanted to insulate the church from the world. Not let the world come in and corrupt the truth.

Clare73 · Tuesday at 1:10 PM

DaisyDay said:
A single instance that did not appear on any of the other hundreds of pages where she is listed as "daughter". Horse flies bite!

Yep. . . a "single instance" in 1983 and another "single instance" in 2000.

I guess horse flies do bite.

RileyG · Tuesday at 1:07 PM

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of our death.
Amen

DaisyDay · Tuesday at 1:06 PM

Clare73 said:
Keeping in mind that valuation of assets is subjective.

Not entirely. Claiming an extra 10,000 feet for an apartment is not subjective. Disregarding use covenants (unable to further develop a property because you've claimed it a conservation area) is not subjective. Lying about the number of floors a building has is not subjective. Claiming a building is rented out a market rates when it is subject to rent control is not subjective.

There was also a problem that the subjective valuations soared on loan applications and tanked on tax relief applications from the self-same valuator.

Clare73 said:
Can you prove he was wrong . . .in light of their value today?

It is in the court documents. But that requires reading...

Clare73 said:
Sour grapes. . .

Sure, sure.

RocksInMyHead · Tuesday at 1:02 PM

Clare73 said:
And you know that for a fact, how?

Because the case has not even gone to court yet (meaning that both parties to the case have not presented any evidence), and you're not omniscient. You may know some of the facts, but I feel pretty confident in saying that you don't know all of them.

Clare73 said:
One doesn't have to be a Judge to know when a law is broken.

True, but one does need to know all of the facts in order to make that determination.

durangodawood · Tuesday at 1:00 PM

Say it aint so said:
A hypothetical made by the Judge in the decision:

View attachment 369101

The separation of church and state is one of the things that let this little experiment of a democratically elected republic work. That along as with what the judge said about the majority not having special rights to trample over the minority. Those principles along with the principles of separation of powers those Puritans came to establish in the states are being stress tested right now. Hopefully, it still works out as intended.

The reasoning in the hypothetical is so clear and obvious that I think the Christian proponents of this 10 Commandments law are no longer interested the the First Amendment protections from state imposed religion at all.

Instead, they are fine with the state promoting their religion while they are confident they can get the state - every state - to deny the same to other religions through force of law, which they will come to dominate via an engineered tyranny by the minority type situation..

RileyG · Tuesday at 12:58 PM

durangodawood said:
People, just switch to Pickle Tub, where old white men were never cancelled.

Mmm, pickles! The Czech in me is tempted!

Clare73 · Tuesday at 12:58 PM

essentialsaltes said:
Federal prosecutors in Albany have issued subpoenas to New York Attorney General Letitia James inquiring about her office's civil fraud case against President Donald Trump and corruption case against the National Rifle Association, multiple sources told ABC News.

A spokesperson for James called the subpoenas a "weaponization of the justice system,"

Pot calling the kettle black. . .

What goes around comes around.

RileyG · Tuesday at 12:58 PM

Oompa Loompa said:
View attachment 369070

This picture says all that is needed to be said.

I doubt Mulvaney ever set foot in Cracker Barrel. It’s too manly for him

DaisyDay · Tuesday at 12:58 PM

Clare73 said:
Stating her father was her husband is now a minor error in paperwork? When horses fly. . .

A single instance that did not appear on any of the other hundreds of pages where she is listed as "daughter". Horse flies bite!

Clare73 said:
Why so eager to justify criminality?

What an inane accusation disguised as a badly framed "question"!

eleos1954 · Tuesday at 12:58 PM

essentialsaltes said:
Why are all these leading Democrats suddenly facing mortgage fraud charges? Guess who’s behind it
[Adam Schiff, Letitia James, and now Lisa Cook.]

What gets me, and should get you, is the flimsiness of these accusations despite how loudly they’ve been bruited about on the MAGA right as though they’re signals of profound moral turpitude on the part of the targets, and how they all originated in the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is led by Trump acolyte and sycophant William J. Pulte, in private life a big homebuilder.

The important question, in the view of Adam Levitin of Georgetown Law, is who is driving these investigations and levying these accusations, and whether they reflect an “enemies list” Pulte has compiled on Donald Trump’s behalf. I asked the FHFA to respond to Levitin’s questions, but received no response.

...none of the public accusations from the FHFA specify what, if any, financial advantages were received by the targets.

And it’s unlikely that they’re the result of random audits of FHFA loans, as Levitin observed in relation to the Cook case.

“No one ever goes back and examines loan applications on performing loans for occupancy fraud; that would entail expenses for no benefit,” he wrote. “Instead, the only way anyone would have noticed a problem with Cook’s loan application is that Pulte, as head of FHFA, directed Fannie or Freddie to pull her application. That is unheard of.”

[In Schiff's case, we have an FHFA memo that says as much. The order came from one of the IGs Trump installed after firing most of them.]

The Fannie Mae memo says that the FHFA inspector general demanded “the loan file and any related investigative or quality control documentation, as well as all other loans associated with...Adam B. Schiff.”

The allegations against Schiff relate to his ownership of two homes, one in Burbank and the second in the Washington, D.C., area. But his dual ownership obviously was known to his mortgage lenders, and he has said that he took the homeowner’s property tax exemption only on the Burbank property.

[For James] In all but one of several documents, she stated that the niece would live in the house; according to her lawyer, on one form she said she’d be the occupant. But the bank could hardly have been misled, given the other documents. ... One form filed in 2001 regarding a Brooklyn brownstone bought for her family listed the property as having five units, but all the other pertinent forms stated correctly that it was four units. ... And in the 1983 purchase of house in Queens, New York, James’ father identified her as his spouse, not his daughter, on one form among others that identified her correctly.

Back in 2014, David H. Stevens, a former federal housing official then serving as CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Assn., told the Washington Post that the paper file for a standard mortgage had ballooned to 200-500 pages. “The likelihood of a minor defect is almost 100 percent,” he said. That reduces the significance of the errors Pulte claims to have found nearly to the vanishing point, especially given the paucity of evidence that Schiff, James or Cook got a financial benefit from any of them.

... the law is not concerned with insignificant trifles. In the Trump case, however, [the judge] declared that Trump and his fellow defendants saved tens of millions of dollars. “The frauds found here,” he wrote, “leap off the page and shock the conscience.”

Fraud is the intentional deception or misrepresentation to secure unfair or unlawful gain, often involving financial or personal benefit. It typically includes acts like lying, cheating, or concealing facts to mislead someone, resulting in harm or loss to the victim. Legally, fraud requires elements like a false statement, knowledge of its falsity, intent to deceive, and damage to the deceived party. Examples include identity theft, insurance fraud, or Ponzi schemes.

RileyG · Tuesday at 12:57 PM

Tropical Wilds said:
Imagine being so fragile that a mediocre restaurant changing its dated logo is enough to send you into a tailspin. Not the ghastly, dated, underseasoned, boil-bag food… The logo.

Eh? Some people don’t want to see change because the past makes them nostalgic?

The times are a changin’

RileyG · Tuesday at 12:56 PM

Aryeh Jay said:
I am just thankful that the original "old country store", Walmart, has never changed it's logo and never will. This woke nonsense needs to stop.

Wait, what? Isn’t Walmart responsible for shutting down so many ma and pop stores?

I’m getting off topic. Carry on.

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Why are all these leading Democrats suddenly facing mortgage fraud charges? Guess who’s behind it​

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Why are all these leading Democrats suddenly facing mortgage fraud charges? Guess who’s behind it