#I assume that those statements on the last panel were added to the stories for them being reprinted in Famous Funnies

[daydreamerdrew]

Famous Funnies (1934) #6

[kiranatrix]

Did Near Kill Misa?

Matsuda’s theory he presented at the end of the manga was that Near used the Death Note to manipulate Mikami at the Yellow Box warehouse. He argued that Mikami was usually very careful, seemingly went mad, and died mysteriously in prison (on Feb 7th) ten days after Light died (the Yellow Box confrontation happened Jan 28).

There’s already good meta out there about that, mostly based on the below panels from Chapter 108 of the manga:

But it’s surprising that I haven’t seen fan theories that Near killed Misa too. She jumps off a building at the end of the story, around one year after Light’s death, but she must have banked an incredible amount of years from both Gelus and Rem’s sacrifices despite her eye deals. I make the case that Near may have used a Death Note to kill Misa too, which has some interesting implications.

[continued under cut]

I had always imagined that the writers thought Misa’s suicide would be a poetic end for her, driving home the statement that she didn’t want to live in a world without Light (dark indeed heh). But the writers added the explicit suggestion via Matsuda that Near controlled Mikami’s actions with the Death Note, opening that door for us to consider Near as a death note user in other ways. Before you protest that Near would never do that, this conversation is telling:

Hmm. Near would understand and consider it normal to do use the Death Note for personal gain, as long as your personal belief remained that you were not a god? I’m not sure if he is being sincere here or not— perhaps it only means that he would expect someone to use it for selfish reasons and Light’s motivations were not comprehensible to him. But either way, Near states he understands wanting to use the Death Note. Ohba stated in HTR that he believes Near “cheats" without saying specifically what he cheated at. But we can at least see that from the author’s POV, cheating is not outside of Near’s morality as long as it gets results.

However what makes a god? Light, as well as any other human who wielded the death note, had the same power to kill as a shinigami, a god of death. Light remained human, didn’t have wings or de facto immortality like Ryuk, but he isn’t referring to those aspects when he says he is God of the New World. Light considers himself an architect and creator as he shapes society into what he believes it should be according to HIS vision. Those are the aspects he considers godly— shaping the very morality of the entire world around his own beliefs.

Near took a lot of issue with THAT, but not with using the Death Note for personal gain, finding the latter understandable. Interesting. It neatly sets up the possibility that Near himself had considered using it for that (or suggests that he already had).

Back to Misa, it doesn’t make sense that her natural lifespan would have run out so soon (382 days after Light), even considering the eye deals she made with shinigami. When Gelus saved her life, all his remaining years passed to Misa. The first eye deal she made was with Rem, so Rem got half the extra years Misa got from Gelus. The second eye deal was with Ryuk. It halved Misa lifespan again.

But Misa got her lifespan back when Rem died (the half of Gelus’ years that she lost) and she ALSO got Rem’s remaining years, which was likely to be very long indeed given Rem’s rank/age. So the only years Misa lost were the ones to Ryuk (but this is also when she had the fewest years to give). Given that, it is quite unlikely that Misa’s remaining lifespan ran out a little more than one year after Light died.

[side note: it’s debatable whether Misa got all of Rem’s life. She might have had to split it with Light since Rem confessed she loved Light too and killing L for Light would be her end because of that.]

A Death Note can obviously be used to trump a human’s lifespan so one could have been used to override Misa’s and cause her death early.

So, where did Near get a Death Note, since he supposedly burned them? It’s unclear who else was there for the bonfire, or if the police/task force are just taking Near’s word that he did, in fact, burn them. It is likely that Near did burn one of them, the one still attached to Ryuk. That would have released Near from the shinigami’s presence and we see Ryuk go back to the shinigami realm so we can assume that his death note was burned/given back, which would be smart on Near’s part. But is the other Death Note free real estate with no shinigami attached? It could even be possible that Near kept some pages but did burn both notebooks.

This theory would mean that Near was still in possession of a Death Note or its pages and using it a year after Kira had died.

Fast forward one year after Light is dead, and Near has organized a reunion of the police who were at the Yellow Box warehouse. The purported reason is that Near (as the new L) chased a drug syndicate into the Yellow Box warehouse and wants the help of the same people who were there during the confrontation with Kira. Why did Near choose that location, those people, and that day (precisely one year after Light died there)? We don’t know but perhaps it is a chance to Near to gauge their loyalty and if they can be trusted, and to draw them into working for him. This would be quite important if Near was still using the death note because these people were the last ones who knew about its power, about shinigami, and that the notebooks had been in Near’s possession.

That leaves one unsettling loose end for Near to tie up from Kira’s old life— Misa Amane, the Second Kira and Light’s former fiancé. A crucial piece of information Near would learn from a conversation with Ryuk would be that memories related to the notebook disappear (as Misa’s had) and can be returned by touching a death note again. Near would see how Light and Misa had used this to evade L, and to return when it was safe. That second part would be very inconvenient if it happened to Misa. It would be just like Light to leave a final gambit for Misa to get her memories back and take revenge/continue his work by finding hidden pieces or pages from a notebook.

And maybe that’s why Near didn’t kill Misa right away, hoping that Misa would lead him to the hidden notebook pages if they existed. After a year maybe he got tired of waiting, or the risk of waiting much longer was too high and he felt safe to act.

Perhaps because he knew she was the Second Kira but would/could never confess, perhaps to keep her from continuing Light’s legacy or championing Kira any more in the event something unexpected happened and she got her memories back. Misa had already bewitched two shinigami and caused their deaths, what’s to say it couldn’t happen again and place another death note in her hands? Perhaps Near felt it was the justice that she had evaded given all the people she killed and never went to prison for. That sounds almost like something Kira would think, doesn’t it?

It would have been an easy and meaningful manga scene to show the real situation of Near burning both of the notebooks (we only get Matsuda’s imagination of that scene as far as I recall), but the authors chose not to show us that. The reason was probably that they wanted us to draw our own conclusions from the ending. One of those possible conclusions is that Near ‘cheated’ and killed both Mikami and Misa using a Death Note, and may have continued using it after that for his understandable reasons of ‘personal gain’ to win and achieve results. So maybe the world wasn’t rid of Kira after all, even if this one wasn’t using the notebook for the reason of becoming God of the New World.

In the end, we don’t know how much life Misa gained from Gelus and Rem, or what happened to those notebooks. So this is just a line of thought that was fun to follow.

[herotheshiro]

whew ok i like stayed up until like 5am last night re-reading and then catching up on behind the desks ... a pretty cute story w the typical BL amt of smut (aka a lot more than what the situation(s) calls for lmao) although there are 3 things i didn’t quite agree with

taesung’s best friend actually having unrequited feelings for him. literally i did not  like that at all even though technically in the context of the scene it made sense bc it drove the scene. i honestly always only saw them as friends and i was like nice this is refreshing to just have two queer guys (ppl of the same gender) just be friends and nothing more but no they had to go that route. i mean it could’ve been worse as they could’ve gone the route of the best friend actually actively going for taesung and so we have a 2nd love triangle but thankfully they didn’t push it that hard and just had the best friend be a good friend who just wants the best for his bro. which is literally all it could’ve been !! sometimes platonic friends just want the best for each other, they don’t need to have ulterior romantic motives !! although i mean technically the best friend didn’t have an ulterior motive bc he was like “taesung would never look at me like that but thanks a lot for bringing up old shit i wanted to forget ASSHOLE”. then this kind of leads up to the next point

them potentially pairing up the best friend w asshole sunny’s ex ?? i mean this one is prob an incorrect assumption bc i was reading the korean raws for this scene so idk what they were saying but i swear to motherfucking god ... ik they’re the 2 leftovers but if you GOTTA pair up the asshole ex which you don’t have to just pair him up w that dude who was interested in him fr !! like i mean that’s bad bc the ex is toxic and also doesn’t like the dude supposedly so that’d be mean for the dude but at least throw the dude a bone i guess, the dude is also kind of a jerk. let taesung’s best friend have a healthy relationship

this one is more of a smaller issue but the ex just letting sunny go that easy? i mean i’m not saying i WANT more angst and pain for sunny but like for a dude who we know is very obsessed and possessive of sunny to just let sunny leave without any further complaint after sunny finally stands up to him ... maybe it was the shock of him seeing his “property” finally up and out after having enough of him but i was surprised nothing really happened and the ex seemed pretty chill w sunny leaving. i’m not asking for violence obvi but like idk, i just thought there would be more to it even though yeah at that point in time sunny had been going through a FUCKTON and he deserved this easy conclusion. i mean all the korean raws haven’t been posted yet and i know the ex shows up again so maybe he’s just like ‘well i’ll let him wander around but ik he’ll come back one day’ in delusion idk

OH WAIT NO I DON’T THINK THE LAST POINT WAS MY REAL THIRD POINT as i just remembered the shit w jooyeon and sunny !! aka the  bomb sunny dropped during his final breakup w his ex that jooyeon actually physically looked like taesung ??? which like how the fuck would we have known that bc the entire time jooyeon’s face is never revealed ?? i feel like it would’ve had more impact if we the readers were able to make that connection ourselves (revelation of jooyeon’s face at least ONCE, we realize it looks extremely familiar ...) and then the later overt statement from sunny.

anyway other than that it’s a nice read ! it’s a pretty typical BL story i feel of two guys who fall for each other but a shitty ex and miscommunication gets in the way of their easy happiness. and also i like stories of ppl falling in love w each other again (sort of in this story i guess? you know what i mean). smut is p typical i feel, the scenes aren’t too drawn out but also sometimes longer than it needs to be prob (idk why i’m adding this statement on the smut when i usually don’t, just for kicks and future me i guess. making this review as complete as possible lol. but also that one panel of them in the supply closet was hot ngl ROFL IN EMBARRASSMENT AT HAVING WRITTEN THAT). i had read a large chunk of the eng translation before but for whatever reason i decided to catch up on it again last night. it made me kind of sad at points bc sometimes taesung would say stuff that was (or could be) very similar to what the ex would tell sunny and i’m like yeah the sentiment behind the statement is different but like for sunny who prob can’t tell the difference ... now that i think abt it i think they def glossed over a lot re: sunny and the ex’s history like their childhood and early relationship and stuff but i guess it’s not really important other than the ex weirdly is obsessed w sunny and was trying to do whatever to make sunny his. usually these kind of stories really dive into the ex-relationship through flashbacks and stuff but this one didn’t which made me feel like something was lacking even though they already told you everything you really needed to know. i’m the kind of person who always feels like every behavior needs a reason but sometimes i just have to accept that ppl are jerks just because. anyway sunny’s self-deprecation reminded me a lot of recent stuff i’ve read from tsumugi from a3 w his low self-confidence and i’m always like *clutches chest* at ppl who shit on themselves like that.

i also finally found the game it’s based off of this time around and i think it’s hilarious ... since i knew abt it originally being a game before i thought the game’s protag was taesung or sunny and they had the option to romance either the other teacher or any of the student council students (bc you know those BL games and their student-teacher relationship options) but nah i think the game is just student-student romance options w a side story of the teachers. i’m still not sure if the student protag has the option to romance sunny but i didn’t see any videos on it on the channel of the one youtuber i could find who posted a playthrough of it so i’ll assume you can kind like sort of flirt w him but you can’t get together. anyway i love how they kind of shove the students in there to reference the original game but the students are like not relevant at all to the entire manhwa story as a whole

anyway supposedly the entire story is finished w some side stories which is like good bc what else is there to talk abt now that the shit w the ex is finished (there are def manhwas out there i feel that just keep adding drama just to keep the story going). toonkor still doesn’t have all the raws up yet and idt they’ve updated it recently either so i’ll have to keep checking back from time to time or wait until the eng translations forge ahead and finish the story. anyway looking forward to the ending !

[agustdef]

Here & Now - Chapter 19

Pairing: Yoongi x OC

Genre: Fluff; Chill romance

Word Count: 2,057

Warning: None.

Banner Marker: @dee-ehn​

The tension in Bang’s office made me feel so uncomfortable I couldn’t sit still. Joon had to squeeze my shoulder a few times to try to get me to calm it down, but my nerves weren’t letting up.

I hadn’t gotten the chance to make a choice if I wanted to work there, but that might be snatched away from me. It was so frustrating that I’d possibly be punished for something that wasn’t even my fault. And that it could affect the boys when nothing had happened.

Nothing that had been documented held any weight. Not one thing screamed dating in secret. It barely showed that we were friends at all; just that we spoke when in proximity to others. But of course the select few wannabe FBI agents wanted to stir bullshit.

The longer that Bang stayed on the phone with a blank expression, the more uneasy I felt. He hadn’t seemed mad at me in particular, he was actually quite reassuring that he would handle it. But it still would be smart to avoid this stuff and just revoke the offer.

When Bang put down the phone and closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Once they were open again he glanced around the room, looking at Joon, Yoongi and then me. Though he’d maintained the blank look at first his expression softened once it met my face.

“We have it handled. They posted it on their side account, but then reposted it on their personal account where their name and high school are very present. It didn’t take much time to find them and legal will handle it from there. Also working on the more aggressive attackers and then legal will get to them too.”

He said it so nonchalantly that I felt confused about what the heck was happening. Which must have been clear on my face.

“Kendall, I offered you a job because even with the first incident you kept up the good work and didn’t just abandon your job. You did it with the second one too. You are not the problem, they are. And it’s just a few people stirring the pot and causing mass hysteria for a few hours. It will not harm anything. Even if you two were secretly dating they have nothing, but it doesn’t make this acceptable. I will not tolerate attacks on them or you for false or true statements.”

His words were reassuring and sweet. I could feel the tension leave my body, it slumping a little as the anxiety I was starting to feel started to dissipate.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s being taken care of.” This time a smile graced his face, then he turned to Joon. “Make sure everyone knows what’s going on and just relax. Today and tomorrow are your off days, so don’t worry too much about it.”

Joon nodded and then turned to leave. Yoongi pressed a hand to my lower back and guided me out of the room. None of us spoke until we were in the practice room where everyone had convened.

They’d been whispering amongst themselves when we entered but stopped the moment we came in. They all wore expressions of worry, eyes flickering between all of us, but lingering on me and Yoongi.

Joon cleared his throat and gained all their attention. “The person who took the pictures of Kendall here has been found and legal is handling it. They’re also going for all the people have been extra hostile towards her. So, we don’t have anything to worry about and I’m sure a statement will be released later today.”

There was a group sigh of relief and I watched as Hobi and Jungkook slumped heavily. They looked like they’d been carrying a heavy burdened.

“You two okay?” I asked.

They didn’t respond at first, just stared at each other for a moment. Then Jungkook turned to me. “We were just worried Bang might take back the offer and try to get us to interact less.”

“Dude, same.”

Even though I was relieved before something about hearing others with the same fear helped along the disappearing anxiety. I released a frustrated scream to just get it out and none of them seemed fazed.

“Maybe we should decompress. Spend the night in and watch movies like when Hals came to visit last week and her, Kendall and Hobi were all stressed and on the verge of exploding,” Jimin offered.

The night had been helpful for decompressing, otherwise, I might have literally combusted. A work thing somehow messed up and I had to work from scratch with two days. Plus I had major writer’s block, but a short story due on the same day.

I nodded. “Sure, we can do it at mine. Just give me like an hour or two.”

There were murmurs of agreement and then we all packed up and headed out. Before I could get into the car to take me home though Yoongi pulled me to the side.

“You're okay, right? Don’t need me to come with you?” Yoongi asked.

He was still clearly angry and stressed about everything, which I hated. I tried to be reassuring, squeezing his hand and giving the best smile I could muster.

“I’m fine. Going to clean, get in comfy clothes and draft something to be posted once the statement is out. All is good. Promise.”

He grimaced and seemed hesitant, but after a second nodded and release my hand. “Okay, we’ll be over in an hour and a half. We’ll get the food and snacks, so don’t worry about it.”

A thumbs up from me and then I was headed home. My apartment was a distance from theirs just to avoid nonsense, but not so far that it was very out of the way. When I got inside I did exactly what I said I would. Cleaned the living room and kitchen. I pulled the large bean bag chair closer to the couches and then got comfy. Some sweats and a SHINee tour shirt I’d gotten forever ago.

By the time all that was done and I’d finished parting and braiding my hair an hour had passed. So with that time I’d settled in my seat and pulled out my phone. I checked Twitter and saw accounts Soompi had already posted about the statement being out, which was perfect.

I read the statement through and was pleased with it. Flattered even by the protectiveness of it. Of course, they’d protect the boys, but they’d made it a point to not attack me and were mostly coming for those who’d sent direct threats and hate my way.

With that out of the way I took a deep breath and began typing out my message; a few sentences in I switched to the notes app.

I’ve tried to be as calm as possible about all this drama, but it’s starting to get hard. To constantly have people grasp at straws to form some “scandal” that doesn’t even exist is tiresome. For the third time, a group of people have created this romantic relationship that Yoongi and I don’t have. They called me names, attacked my appearance, my race, and my work. All because they’ve deluded themselves into thinking he and I are together. Because they’re deluded themselves into thinking they have some hold on people who are human and adults who are free to live their lives.

In truth, I’m not even that bothered it all, but I’ll be damned if I allow this shit to keep going unchecked. To get to a point where it messes up my friendships and my job opportunities. But thankfully I don’t have to do the checking. I’m very thankful to Bang PDnim for his support on this. He didn’t have to deal with those directly attacking only me, but he did.

I don’t want to have to go through this again, because I will not be as pleasant the next time around.

Once finished and checked for spelling errors I took screenshots and quote tweeted the statement from the official BigHit Twitter page. Once that was done I muted Twitter and sat my phone on the coffee table.

Before I got the chance to relax through my doorbell was ringing. Sighing, I hopped to my feet and went to the panel. The video showed Yoongi by his lonesome, which threw me off, but I let him in nonetheless and returned to the couch.

A few seconds later he was in the living room ad staring at me intently. It made me very uneasy.

“We need to talk,” he said.

My heart stopped and I felt nausea stirring. Being scared, nervous or sad always made me physically sick and those words in the situation we were in hit my nerves bad.

Yoongi must have seen the shift in me because his expression softened and he shook his head.

“Not like that. Nothing bad, I promise. But you know, we should talk. We should have talked a while ago.”

He wasn't wrong and though he assured me that things were fine, I still felt nervous. Though at least it wasn’t nervous because I thought he and/or all of the boys wanted to end our friendship.

I motioned for him to take a seat and he did, turning to face me head-on. The intensity that he had before returned, but without the dauntingness of it all. Though when he says nothing and we sit in silence for what feels like five minutes I become a tad more unnerved.

“Were you ever going to tell me that you returned my feelings?” Was what he eventually opened with and was not what I expected him to say first.

My face dropped and my eyes narrowed on him. “How can one say they return feelings they don’t know the other has.”

He scoffed. “You knew.”

I couldn’t stop the eye roll that came. “One can assume, but until it’s stated cannot know. So, unless you said ‘Hey Kendall, I like you’ and meant it in a romantic way I couldn’t know anything.”

“Hey Kendall, I like you. And not in a platonic way, I want to date you,” he blurted out.

Even though he’d basically confirmed it without saying so I still froze in surprise. And then an intense bout of happiness washed through me. I tried to push down the smile that was taking form, but I couldn’t and could feel the slight tingle from smiling too hard.

Yoongi was smiling too, his possibly wider than mine.

“So…” he trailed off, watching me closely.

Took a second for me to realize he was waiting for me to respond to him. “Oh goodness, same. Wait, no. Not same. Still wrong. Wait. Okay. I would also like you in the sense that I would date you.”

By the time I’d finally gotten it out he was laughing at me being a mess and I couldn’t help but join in. Then he stopped and was leaning closer to me. His hand cupped my cheek and my gaze flickered to his lips for a moment before meeting his eyes. They held such gentleness that it made me even more giddy to kiss him, but when his lips were barely touching mines I pulled back.

My brain wouldn't allow me to experience the happiness though. I had a new fear, one that was quite ridiculous and I regretted saying aloud. It needed to be addressed though because it would surely be something we had no other choice but to deal with.

“But wait, they just made a statement that we weren’t. What if this time they actually get something tangible and things spiral even more. I can handle most of their bullshit, but this could get worse and it would be worse for you than for me; especially here. I know Bang can only take so much of all of this.”

“Well…” he paused and I could tell he didn’t have the answer either.

Before we could recover to discuss the doorbell rang again and I knew I couldn’t leave the boys in the hallway, someone could see them and possibly get photos to start another round of nonsense.

So, I got off the couch and spent the rest of the night engaged, but distracted and confused.

[spacechip707]

[Choi Prank Zine] A Beary Scary Situation

A/N: Story #2 that I’ll be posting from the zine! Stay tuned for more! Enjoy:) 

[Out of Reach] 

[A Beary Scary Situation] 

[Baby, Maybe?]

[Shall We Date?]

He shouldn’t have agreed.

He should’ve put his foot down when Saeyoung came to him two hours ago, bright-eyed and bouncing on his toes with a hard drive containing an illegally downloaded horror film. But, no, Saeran succumbed to his twin’s pleading—rather he just wanted the older man to shut up before the whining began.

However, in this case, he really should’ve been stronger.

Maybe then, he could’ve enjoyed the rarity of a quiet bunker. With MC travelling out of town, Saeyoung had no partner in crime—no supporter of nonsense. The house should’ve been free of giggling, idiotic stories about cats, PDA, and most importantly—excessive stupidity.

Instead, the silent haven of his room had been transformed into a theatre den, defiled with the pungent scent of burnt popcorn and cherry soda. Extra pillows littered his mattress and a laptop was propped onto a chair in front of it. Saeran was planted in the middle of it all, nerves high-strung and his body jolted every ten seconds thanks to the finicky redhead beside him.

Saeyoung was oblivious to his brother’s glares however. His body cowered deep into his long cat blanket, nothing visible except the reflection of the computer screen on his glasses.

“You’re not actually scared of this crap, are you?” Saeran asked in disbelief. Especially since the protagonist was currently combatting a bulbous head under a tattered sheet. “I can see the guy’s nose.”

Still completely engrossed with the bad acting on screen, Saeyoung emerged from his cloth shield to press a finger to his lips. “Look—this is where her soul gets sucked into the teddy bear.”

Before the younger man could even retort, Saeyoung wailed ten times louder than the fake ghost in the movie. Saeran clamped his hands over his ears as the shrill noise pierced his eardrums. Unfortunately, that left him vulnerable when Saeyoung leapt sideways in terror, his nails digging into Saeran’s side.

“I can’t watch,” Saeyoung whimpered from inside his blanket cocoon.

“Get off,” Saeran grunted, wriggling his legs to free himself from his brother’s clutches. The woman in the film screamed again, and Saeyoung followed suit, both arms sliding around his brother’s middle.

And that’s where Saeran drew the line.

More from annoyance than compassion, he shut the laptop and flipped the lamp switch. Saeyoung popped out from his covering, squinting from the sudden burst of light.

“Hey,” he frowned, turning to the computer in confusion. “That’s the best part.”

“How would you know? You weren’t even watching it,” Saeran said, ramming his knee into his brother’s side until he tumbled to the floor with a thud. “Besides, I don’t get your whole deal with horror films. They’re lame.”

Saeyoung rebounded on his knees. He draped his upper half over Saeran’s legs before the latter could protest. If he was clingy on normal days, he was much clingier without MC.

“Horror! Immersion! The thrill of facing something scary!” Saeyoung said, slapping his hands against Saeran’s shins with each point. “You can pretend you’re there with them in the tiny car—watching ghosts possess the kids. Oooh!”

His fingers crawled up Saeran’s legs until they were promptly swatted away. Saeran extracted on leg from Saeyoung’s hold, using the momentum to kick his brother back to the floor.

“It’s not scary,” he insisted.

Saeyoung chuckled from the ground. “Maybe not. But it was still fun, right?” he said, goofy grin subsiding to a soft smile as he gestured to the mess of snacks, pillows, and blankets. “Like a sleepover.”

Saeran wanted to deny it, but the trickle of warmth burning underneath his annoyance spoke otherwise. Carefree nights with his brother were…nice. Even Saeyoung’s erratic tendencies became endearing somehow. Not that Saeran would admit it.

“We live in the same house,” he pointed out, squirming under his twin’s admiring gaze.

“Still different!” Saeyoung chirped. The blanket on his shoulders pooled at his feet when he stood, adding to the present clutter. “But the soda’s gone. Should I pick up some more?”

Not waiting for an answer, he dug into his pocket for his car keys and spun them on his pointer finger. The Hamborgini logo flashed in the dim light. “Maybe I’ll go on a date with my babes too. You’ll be fine here alone?”

“Duh,” Saeran snorted.

“You sure?” Saeyoung drawled, face lurching annoying close into Saeran’s bubble. “What if a ghost comes to take you?”

He wiggled his fingers menacingly, but the younger twin barely spared him a glance of indifference. “Go, before I tell MC you’re having an affair with your cars again.”

“So mean!” Saeyoung whined, retreating into the hallway. “Fine, I’ll go alone. But just know…the three of us could’ve had something special.”

Saeran didn’t want to contemplate that questionable statement. “Just go.”

Saeyoung’s teeth flashed in a devious grin. “Don’t get your soul sucked while I’m away!”

With a screeching giggle, he bolted down the hall, shutting off the lights as he went—no doubt to spook his twin. Didn’t work.

Saeran sighed in relief when he heard the front door shut. He kicked his own door closed, creating a barrier for when his brother returned on a sugar high.

Finally alone, Saeran flopped onto the empty mattress. His limbs sprawled across the crowded surface, stretching out the gathered tension from the past hour. The bunker’s usual scent of honey gradually replaced the stale essence of cherry soda, and the comfort provided by the extra cushions lulled Saeran to the precipice of sleep.

Sleep that lasted all of three minutes.

The crackling of electricity yanked him from his sweet slumber. With a resigned sigh, he sat upright, assuming one of Saeyoung’s faulty robots had meandered inside his room—again. But he found the source of the whirring coming from his lamp. The lightbulb wavered between light and dark, rhythm in sync with the electrical droning.

Saeran wandered from his bed to the door. Maybe the bunker’s power generator was glitching. Before he could even reach the doorknob to check, darkness enveloped the room.

“The hell…” Saeran grumbled. He patted his dressed for a flashlight, though he didn’t need it. With the sound of a click, the lights were back. Then off…then on…off again.

One more click, and the bulbs held. The room appeared dimmer than before, bathing the walls in an eerie brownish light. Despite his head telling him the generator probably overheated, his blood ran cold in his veins.

That’s when he heard footsteps.

At first, he assumed Saeyoung had forgotten something, but then again, there was no loud, cheesy greeting. Ridiculous as it was, Saeran pressed his ear against the door, straining for some off-tune hum or murmur of his brother’s voice.

Nothing. Even the footsteps stopped.

He shook his head and pushed himself off the door. He probably just imagined them.

Still, fear crept under his skin, causing his fingers to shake when he reached for the doorknob. For a moment, the darkness seeping underneath his door took shape before dissolving back into nothingness. He groaned and let his hand fall to his side.

He was being stupid. Hanging around Saeyoung for so long caused his idiocy to infect him.

Ignoring the wave of chills that skittered down his neck, Saeran drew the door open and faced the abyss of darkness that was the hall. Twisted shapes loomed in the corners, but he knew they were just furniture. Those spindly legs were a table—and the oblong figure was just the coat rack. Nothing to be squeamish over.

That resolution didn’t stop his hand from deftly shooting out to the wall when something creaked overhead. Light poured into the hall, reaffirming what he had already reasoned. Just furniture.

Despite having no witnesses, his cheeks burned in embarrassment. At least the lights were working…or maybe they’d been working all along.

“Very funny, Saeyoung,” he called, plodding forward to find his twin who was probably giggling from the living room’s control panel. Along the way, he switched on the other lights—so he wouldn’t trip, of course.

As expected, he reached the living room unscathed, body and soul intact.  He searched for signs of his brother, but the room was empty with everything orderly and undisturbed—including the panel on the wall, its padlock in place.

The only off-putting thing in the room was the giant stuffed teddy bear in the corner. To be fair, Saeran hated that thing from the moment Saeyoung had gifted it to MC. He hated it even more when his sister-in-law insisted on storing it in the living room for “cuddles.”

The bear was creepy with its unwavering smile, slouched posture, and dead glass eyes. In fact, he could’ve sworn the toy was staring at him now too. If ghosts were real and able to tamper with lights, that bear would be the prime suspect in the house.

Saeran shook his head, dispersing the ridiculous thoughts haunting his brain. It was just faulty electricity.

What he needed was something to bring him back to his senses. He needed ice cream.

Forgetting about the current situation, Saeran headed to the kitchen to retrieve his delicious treat from the freezer. As soon as he pried open the top, the delicate fragrance of strawberries and cream wrapped him in its delicious, airy comfort and absolved his unfounded fears.

Tossing the lid aside, he cradled the whole container in his arms and returned to the living room. He settled into his designated couch crease, eagerly sinking his spoon into the cream. His taste buds exploded as soon as the flavor blossomed in his mouth. The bliss was intoxicating.

So much so, he imagined MC’s bear leaned its head towards him—almost as if craving the same experience.  

He snorted at the thought, digging into the carton for another scoop. When he looked back up, the arm of the bear rested over its stomach. Wasn’t it just on the floor? More than that, Saeran could’ve sworn the furry chest was actually rising and falling.

He crawled off the couch and inched towards the bear. Not that he was paranoid by that B-rated ghost story. He just needed one little poke to its stomach—just to alleviate his dwindling sanity. He lifted his foot to the bulging stomach, but before his toe even brushed it, its arm fell back to the floor.

Shock forced Saeran to fling the item in his hand—which happened to be his spoon still laden with ice cream. The utensil landed right between the bears eyes, sliding down its protruding nose and leaving a trail of pink cream in its wake. Saeran swore under his breath.

“MC is going to kill me,” he muttered, desperately looking for anything to salvage the fur. Momentarily forgetting what he witnessed, he set the carton aside and snatched a tissue off the table. When he turned back, the bear was sitting completely upright.

Saeran’s heart plummeted into his stomach. By logic, stuffed bears didn’t come alive. Also by logic, the house was empty. Neither explained the physical evidence unfolding before his eyes of the gigantic beige bear shuffling its legs.

Maybe this was a nightmare. Maybe his body was punishing him for drinking his brother’s stupid soda. Those were more plausible explanations…right?

Almost as if it had heard his internal struggle, the bear rolled its large head until those beady eyes bore into Saeran’s own. Throwing logic to the wind, Saeran scrambled backwards, his hand fumbling around the TV remote for defense.

“St-stop,” he commanded. He felt idiotic and terrified all at once. “Don’t move, or—or—I’ll--”

He’d what? Call Ghoulbursters?

Unfazed by his unfinished threat, the bear pushed itself to its clunky feet. Saeran screamed in horror as the hellish toy stumbled closer, nearly collapsing onto him.   

“Get away from me!” he shouted, flinging the remote onto the bear’s head. It let out an unnerving moan, its paws cradling the offending area. Saeran used the diversion to toss the abandoned ice cream, further drenching the creature in the sticky mess.

The bear continued to smear itself with melted cream while Saeran frantically darted about the room, gauging a means of escape. It was no use. The way to the door was blocked, and the kitchen led to a dead end.

Meanwhile, the bear increased its pace. Its legs marched forward, and a trail of cotton followed its steps like spilled organs. Not to mention the ice cream dripping from its head eerily resembled blood.

Saeran swallowed hard, creeping backwards to hopefully lure it away from the door. He clutched the hem of his shirt to stop his shaking hands. One foot at a time. One step at a time. That was the plan until the bear lunged forward, almost clasping Saeran in its furry grip of death.  

To hell with tactics.

Saeran dashed towards freedom—a mere three meters away. But he never made it. Those terrifying paws grappled his waist until his body plummeted to the ground with the bear’s chilling grin hovering above him.

His head spun with fear, and whether or not this was real or a nightmare, Saeran’s trembling body wasn’t coping well. In a final crazed attempt to break free, he twisted sideways and clawed for the edge of the doorway.

“Help!” he called into the empty hall. The bear readjusted its grip on his middle, grabbing hold of one of his legs instead.  Saeran fingers slipped from their post, worsening the desperation winding in his veins. His eyes fell onto his brother’s computer room, and his chest panged with undecipherable, chaotic emotion.

“Saeyoung!” he screamed almost involuntarily. His vocal cords were raw and sore, but he shut his eyes and prayed the technology in this house would somehow transfer the message. “Saeyoung, help me!”

Then suddenly, the grip on his leg fell.

Only half-relieved, Saeran scrambled behind the door to safety. When he dared look back, he expected the security system to have roasted the thing into flames. What he didn’t expect was the bear’s head deflated on its chest with a familiar mop of red hair sprouting from its body like a weed.

“Saeran,” Saeyoung said, his voice wobbling. “You…”

“No way,” Saeran breathed.

His fear morphed into a sickening mix of anger and embarrassment. Of course someone was inside. What was he even thinking—a bear coming alive? Chasing him? Conveniently after a horror film? It had Saeyoung written all over it.

The man in question was literally crying now, wiping his tears with matted paws. “You called me for help?”

Before he could full process everything, Saeran was pummeled into a literal bear hug that reeked of melted ice cream and sweat. His cheeks burned. He wasn’t sure what was more humiliating. The fact that he fell for the whole prank or the fact that he accidentally revealed some unknown, existing affection inside of him for his brother.

An affection that didn’t exist now.

Full of cold rage, his fists clutched the undone bow at the bear’s neck. Saeyoung’s puffy eyes widened at the sound of fabric tearing.

“Get this stupid thing off,” Saeran said through gritted teeth. “So I can beat the stuffing out of you.”

Saeyoung dropped the embrace, attempting to pry Saeran away, but without the use of his fingers, it was hopeless. His throat bobbed in a hard swallow, and his watery eyes pleaded with Saeran. “C-can’t we forget about this? We had a bonding moment! Brotherly love!”

Saeran snorted, a few more threads snapping under the strain of his grip. “Oh, I’ll show you brotherly love.”

Before he could follow through with his threat, a gasp of dread came from the doorway. Saeyoung’s face paled, but not because of Saeran.  

“MC…” Saeyoung said, reaching towards his traumatized wife, gaping at the gruesome scene before her. The lump of cotton hanging from the bear’s head wasn’t helping. “I can explain.”

The angelic light usually aglow in the woman’s eyes vanished as her steely gaze shifted from the mangled bear to the guilty twin. Her lips curled into a vengeful scowl, and Saeran discovered something far scarier than the stuffed bear. Thankfully, he wasn’t on the receiving end, but...he was more than willing to help with whatever she was formulating behind that wicked glare.

Saeyoung was going to pay.

“Saeran, please…let’s talk about this.”

Saeran turned away from the plastic cage on the table to look at his trembling twin tied to a chair. His hands were bound on his lap by the ribbon of the now deceased stuffed bear. “Too late now, loser.”

Saeyoung wriggled against his binds, glancing desperately towards the door. “MC!” he cried. “Honey! Sweetie! Help me!”

“She’s not here,” Saeran said, slipping his hands into heavy duty gloves. “But she gave me her blessing.”

He turned back to the cage where a tarantula the size of his face was perched on a fake rock. Thanks to Yoosung’s connections with some vet friends, he had the perfect revenge. The creature crawled onto his fully protected arm, allowing him to lift it out of the cage and closer to his now sobbing brother.

Extreme, yes, but Saeyoung deserved it.

The screaming started before the spider had even touched him, and a warm, happy buzz filled Saeran’s head with every terrified howl.  He lowered the spider onto the ribbon, watching as Saeyoung’s entire body stiffened.

“Saeran! No! Please—no!” he begged, his broken cries dying on his quivering lips.

“What was that you said before?” Saeran said, tilting his head innocently. “The horror? The thrill of facing something scary?”

“I’m sorry!” Saeyoung shrieked. “I won’t ever prank you again! Just get it off!”

Saeran clicked his tongue, ambling towards tripod set up in the corner of the room. Calmly, he aimed the camera towards the squawking older man.

“Hey, Saeyoung,” he grinned, snatching his brother’s attention. “Smile.”

He didn’t, but Saeran couldn’t find a photo of his brother he loved more.

[jarienn972]

Curse of Undoings - Part 5

I know it has been a few days since the last update but now that I'm back to my semi-normal routine after pulling something in my back a few weeks ago,  I won't be able to update this quite as quickly as the first few chapters. There's still lots more story to tell and absolutely lots more whump to be had. This chapter is heavily focused on Henry but (spoiler alert) we'll have plenty of Captain Cobra action coming.  This chapter does contain some semi-graphic descriptions of injuries - nothing too clinical, but adding warnings to the squeamish.( although if you fall into that category, this probably isn’t the best fic for you.)

Tagging @killian-whump, @hookaroo and @castielamigos for the new update and you can read from the beginning here: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3 Part 4 or on AO3 and FF.net

Henry leaned his back against the cobweb strewn wall of the crawl space behind his mother's office – well, what had been Regina's office before the advent of the Black Fairy's curse and his adoptive mom, along with so many others from town, vanished. For some unknown reason, Henry appeared to have been immune to Fiona's curse. Maybe it had something to do with him being the Author or perhaps it was because he was, by blood, Fiona's great-grandson, but either way, he'd not been subjected to the false memories plaguing his mother, Emma.

Having grown up playing in and around the Town Hall building, Henry knew all of the secret passages within its walls – including this narrow, dusty air vent that was adjacent to the office. Regina had discovered it long ago but Henry made the assumption that Fiona would be oblivious to the secreted space, being new to the town and the occupant of this office for less than a day. He'd come here straight from the park intending to spy on Fiona, ducking inside through the building's rear entrance before climbing into the vent from its access point in the janitor's closet.

He just didn't expect to stumble upon a conversation between Fiona and Gideon, the pair discussing a prisoner being held downstairs. Henry hadn't realized at first who they were talking about, but a few minutes later, he very quickly put two and two together when Emma strolled in to Fiona's office. Henry couldn't see the expression on her face, but Henry was horrified by the lust for vengeance resonating in his mother's voice while bragging about questioning the prisoner about murders that never occurred. He was especially disturbed by her statement that she didn't care if her questioning killed him first. What exactly had she already done to Killian? Worse yet, how could she harm someone she loved so much? Was the curse really so strong that it could destroy True Love?

Now Henry knew he had to find Killian. He knew that his stepfather was hidden away somewhere in this building, or more correctly under the building in the super creepy sub basement. If he could get Fiona to leave the office for five minutes, he knew where Regina kept a duplicate set of keys in her desk. He'd just need a distraction to get inside and grab the ring, preferably before his mother got done with lunch and before she discovered that he wasn't at home like he'd promised. Nothing difficult about any of this…

He knew nearly every nook and cranny of Regina's office and from all appearances, Fiona hadn't changed much during her takeover. There were a few new touches – photographs of various infants he didn't recognize and a few random knickknacks added to the shelves, but otherwise, his mother's office seemed intact. Fiona just had to leave so he could get inside and he'd be able to check to make sure she hadn't changed anything within the desk itself. It didn't seem likely that the Black Fairy would have had time to search for hidden false panels or stashed away duplicates of the keys to every door in this building and probably to every other public building in town.

She wasn't really the Mayor so Henry doubted there would be much for her to do here in the office. He could only hope that it wouldn't be a long wait before she vacated the office. Mercifully, he heard Fiona's phone ring and while there was no way to know what was being said on the other end of the conversation, it was quite clear that the person she was speaking to was someone else who had retained their real memories. Midway through the conversation, Henry heard Rumplestiltskin's name mentioned and saw Fiona push her chair back from the desk and stand, agreeing to meet the caller in a few minutes. She strolled briskly toward the office door, but Henry noticed an odd action as she left the office. She took a glance at one of the bookshelves as she passed it and appeared to smile, but Henry couldn't tell what object had drawn her attention. He thought it was strange, but it was something he simply couldn't think about right now.

As soon as he could no longer hear the click of her heels on the marble, Henry scrambled to the vent exit and cautiously peered into the hallway to make sure the coast was clear. Certain he was safe, he hurried to Regina's office door which now bore Fiona's name emblazoned across the glass. Shaking his head at the surname she'd adopted – Black, he shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a chain containing a copy of the office key that still successfully gave him access. Fiona was so certain she'd win that she didn't even bother to change the locks. And that was a good thing.

Now to the desk where he found that the duplicate key he'd made for the bottom drawer also worked perfectly, giving him access to places he'd poked through so many times before the original curse broke when he'd been hunting for information about his family or evidence that his beliefs were true. That was how he'd first stumbled onto the concealed false panel in the bottom right drawer containing a huge ring of assorted keys in every imaginable shape and size. Over the years, he'd learned what most of the keys would open but there were some he'd never really tested. He knew there were a series of doors located in the sub-basement that he'd never asked about. He didn't know what purpose they served or what they'd been intended to hold, but he was certain that he'd find Killian behind one of them.

It took him under a minute to locate and pop open the panel, finding the keys exactly where they'd always been but while he had the desk drawer open, he plucked out a few other items that might prove useful later and pocketed them all. He knew what trinkets and potions Regina kept on hand here and since she wasn't around to tell him no, he figured he could ask for her forgiveness later – assuming this worked… He didn't care what he had to borrow or steal right now because getting his family back was most important.

As he departed the office, he found his own eyes drawn to the same bookshelf he'd watched Fiona peruse earlier, wondering what object she'd been grinning at. Had it been one of these books or perhaps a photograph? Some other shiny object? There was no way he could know what it had been so he dismissed the thought with a brief shake of his head. He'd worry about finding Killian first and then maybe his stepfather would be able to provide some insight into all of this.

With so many people missing from Storybrooke, Henry encountered little resistance as he descended the stairs to the basement level of the Town Hall. He hurried past the storerooms and maintenance closets to the unilluminated doorway at the end of the hall marked DO NOT ENTER in vivid orange lettering. Neither that sign nor the door's lock had ever deterred him before and he was already quite familiar with the dimly lit concrete staircase that lay on the other side.

Those shadowy stairs led down to the bowels of the building which he knew housed the boiler room and a series of locked steel doors. It definitely resembled a dungeon down there so it made sense that they'd stash Killian in one of those rooms. But before he could search for his stepfather, he needed to get past the single guard positioned at the bottom of the steps. The uniformed guard didn't seem overly enthusiastic about his dungeon duty, leaning his chair back against the concrete block wall while playing a game on his phone. No one really knew about this place so Henry figured if he could get past this guy, he likely wouldn't encounter any other guards. Giant, locked metal doors generally provided enough security themselves so the solo guard was probably just there to ward off any would-be trespassers.

Henry had taken into consideration that he might encounter guards along the way so he made his way down the stairs as silently as he could. When he reached the landing where the steps changed direction, he paused a moment to pull a tiny velveteen pouch from his jacket pocket. He untied the drawstring that sealed the pouch and tipped it onto his palm, spilling out a handful of bright purple powder. With a hearty puff of air, he blew the colorful powder towards the oblivious guard's face, waiting as the man coughed a couple of times before tumbling off of his chair and onto the floor in a deep slumber. Henry smiled triumphantly at his first success. Sleeping powder sure comes in handy at times. This guy would be out for at least an hour now.

After the cloud settled enough to be safe, Henry scurried down the remaining steps with his mother's ring of keys now clutched in his fist, ever so thankful that they hadn't shifted in his pocket to betray his position. In the poorly lit corridor, he could see the five steel doors lining one side of the hall that ended at the boiler room – well, officially ended at the boiler room. He'd previously discovered that the room contained a hidden tunnel that connected the Town Hall to the mines, a passageway that, as far as he knew, not even a single dwarf was aware of.

Henry stood before the first door for a few seconds while fumbling through the plethora of keys in his hand, trying to figure out which might be the right one. The lock had a large keyhole so he could easily rule out the smaller keys, focusing on the larger ones that more closely resembled the skeleton key that opened Regina's vault. He had to fiddle with a few of them before locating the correct one but he finally felt the mechanism turning and then tugged the heavy door towards him.

Peeking in, he had an involuntary shiver wash over him as he took in the horrific sight behind the door. Rusty iron chains and shackles hung from the ceiling and he could see more of them strewn across the floor that appeared to be anchored to the concrete walls. He couldn't really tell from his present location but he was certain that the stains on the cement floor, despite being the same ruddy hue as the chains, were probably blood – and he didn't want to venture any further into the empty chamber to find out. It was clear that nothing good had taken place in this room and he was now feeling a bit more consternation about what Killian might be experiencing.

Not bothering to close or re-secure the first door, Henry moved quickly to the next. With little time to spare, he repeated the process with the keys until he found the right one to unlock the second deadbolt. When he pulled this door open, he found the room to be completely dark, but he remained still for a moment, certain he'd heard sounds coming from inside. There was a faint scraping and a rattle that could have been something metallic like the chains in the other room but there was something more – it sounded like labored breathing and maybe - whimpering?

Henry tentatively ran his hand along the wall closest to the door feeling for a light switch. The first little torture chamber had electricity so this one must too. His fingers finally found the switch but as the light illuminated the room, he realized he wasn't fully mentally prepared for what he would find. In the center of this second concrete block chamber, there was a man laying atop a raised metal table and even from the threshold, Henry could see that the man was secured to the table by a series of heavy shackles and sturdy padlocks. The restrained man's breathing seemed to become more accelerated after the light came on and Henry now knew that the rattle he'd heard was from the prisoner's fearful quivering, likely in anticipation of further torment.

He couldn't yet see the man's face, but Henry noticed that on the left side of the table, the prisoner's arm was dangling off of the surface, trailing blood onto the floor that dropped from a scarred and stumped wrist. Only one man he knew had an amputated left hand… "Killian?" His initial voicing of his stepfather's given name was more of a stunned statement than an actual question. He knew this was Killian, but he had no idea what condition the pirate would be in, the sight of blood not a promising indication. Hearing a grunted response, Henry moved closer to the table and immediately saw the reason he didn't get a verbal reply – Killian had been gagged with some sort of harness contraption and his neck was encircled by a huge metal collar that was chained to the table too. "Wow, Killian… what happened? Uh, never mind… Let me see if I can get these things off of you…"

Killian watched the boy with hopeful eyes and a racing heart as Henry flipped through a bunch of keys, searching for one that might open the padlocks but none seemed to be the right fit. He had no idea when Emma or Gideon might return and the last thing he wanted was to see any harm come to Henry if he got caught in here trying to free him.

"None of these is the right size," Henry announced in a slightly disappointed voice. "But don't worry – I'm not done yet. We can try these…" Resting the ring of keys on the tabletop next to Killian's shackled hand, Henry reached into his back pocket and withdrew a small, rectangular case that had a zipper running around three sides. The pirate recognized the case as Emma's lock pick set as the teenager unzipped it and withdrew two of the picks, one with a straight, flat tip and one with a narrower, slightly curved tip. Henry went right to work, first on the padlock securing the collar around Killian's throat. With a few practiced maneuvers, he had the lock popped open in no time, tossing the padlock into the floor as he freed Killian from the cumbersome collar. His next task was to free Killian's wrist from the iron shackle which then enabled him to help his stepfather into an upright, seated position so that he'd be able to get a better look at the contraption secured to Killian's head and see how the harness was fastened.

As he swiftly released the padlocks from the ankle shackles, Henry began to take increased notice the wounds on Killian's battered body. His wrists and ankles were chafed and ringed with bruises from the cumbersome restraints. His abdomen bore angry red marks on each side that looked like burns as well as a patch of darkening bruising beneath his ribs and of course, there was a deep puncture wound in his left shoulder that was bleeding heavily, but it wasn't until Henry moved behind Killian to remove the harness and gag that he saw the worst of the horrors Killian had been subjected to. Killian's entire back was laced with crisscrossing cuts and welts, some bright red and seeping, others deep black and blue, pooled with blood that hadn't escaped his skin.

"Wha…what happened?" Henry asked, trying not to stare at the open, obviously painful wounds, but he immediately chastised himself, remembering that Killian was still gagged. "Oh, sorry… You can't answer that yet…" the boy apologized as he located a narrower pick to release the smaller padlock securing the harness buckles. Once the lock and straps were opened, Killian yanked the offending device off of his head and massaged his aching jaw that had been forced open far too long.

"Thank you, lad," Killian croaked out the words in a raspy whisper, his throat burning and parched. "Have you any water?"

"No, sorry… I'll find you some as soon as we get out of here."

"How? Where are we even?"

"Beneath the Town Hall and I know a way out. Come on, we need to hurry."

"You're taking a huge risk rescuing me," Killian said honestly as Henry helped him off of the table, his legs shaking as his bare feet reached the cement floor, not even certain if he had the strength to walk, but for Henry's sake, he had to, but Killian also knew they had another problem – should they make it out of this prison safely, he had no clothing. He couldn't exactly venture outside clad only in his undergarments. "Also, we have a small problem I've no clothing. I was locked in here with scarcely a stitch…"

"Then we'll borrow the guard's," Henry stated, gesturing toward the sleeping man on the ground as they made their way into the corridor.

"Shouldn't we worry that we might wake him?"

"Nah… I snagged a pouch of sleeping powder from my Mom's desk when I borrowed her hidden ring of spare keys. He'll be asleep for a while yet. The clothes might be a little big on you, but at least you won't be naked."

"Some interesting skills you've acquired, young man," Killian commented with a proud smile curling on his lips while Henry started rapidly undressing the slumbering guard.

"My mother was a thief, my grandmother was a bandit and my stepfather is a pirate. I'd say it runs in the family."

"Indeed," Killian smiled broadly before biting it back with a wince as a wave of pain caught him unprepared, but he didn't let Henry see his grimacing. Clearly the lad had been paying attention during their adventures. Perhaps a bit too much attention, but that would be a conversation for another day. Escaping this hellhole was his foremost priority then he'd think about giving lessons on misspent youth. Maybe after vanquishing a fairy…

[bthump]

what are the things you like and dislike about the '97 anime and the films?

ty for asking, i’m just gonna write a few long lists lol

97 anime likes:

the animation, including the like, yk the more detailed stills they pan over in place of action or to punctuate important moments, i love it

the gorgeous backgrounds

most of the colour choices. red eclipse, femto’s blue eyes, casca’s skintone, griffith’s mauve clothes, etc.

how close it is to the manga. like, it’s a solid adaption just by virtue of making very few changes.

so like, most of it really, because i like the manga

special mention to the entire lead up to the eclipse from griffith’s reality break to the sacrifice tho, because i think that was all pretty damn perfect. it’s the most important scene and they did it right.

actually also shout out to casca’s flashback to griffith and the dead kid, gennon, the river scene, all that. another difficult v emotional sequence that they nailed imo.

griffith thinking about how he “loves” guts during the monologue

skipped most of the griffith/charlotte sex scene iirc which i approve of

the glimpse of black swordsman guts in ep 1. it’s not perfect but it’s way better than the ovas starting w/ 15 yr old guts

the opening and closing themes. fucking love both songs ngl

also the opening monologue. never get tired of hearing it

the score

the portrayal of griffith was honestly pretty solid imo. i have very few issues there. and lbr that’s important lol

97 anime dislikes:

not a big fan of griffith or guts’ character designs.

just about everything that isn’t identical to the manga is a change for the worse

turned griffith’s scratch marks into that giant unexplained scar

adding extra scenes where casca is secretly impressed with guts’ skills in battle in an attempt to build up their relationship better, which instead just made casca look unfair for still being a dick to him for 3 years and made guts stupidly gary stu-ish

obviously the straightforwardly romantic portrayal of guts and casca’s relationship

through several seemingly minor changes (eg, skipping guts’ night of self-doubt after he leaves, giving guts’ stay with godo its own half-episode, making guts inviting casca along super romantic rather than the incredibly casual and assholish way he does it in the manga, etc) it makes Guts’ dream seem legitimately noble and worthwhile, with none of the like… implicit critique the manga has. like honestly it completely fucks up what i consider one of the central themes of the story lol

the pre eclipse stuff also fails to sell guts’ sense of regret - through things like playing guts’ theme while judeau is telling guts to leave, not repeating guts’ statement of regret after casca tells him to leave again, the tone remains consistently in favour of guts’ dream. wrong and bad.

like it really reads like the suggested tragedy is that guts doesn’t get the chance to ditch griffith with judeau and take off with casca and the raiders lol

also fucks it up by never directly mentioning guts’ csa trauma

also fucks it up by losing guts’ self-destructive single-minded urge to fight monsters that we saw thru the wyald stuff. i’m not gonna say that losing wyald was a bad decision, but they should’ve at least moved erika suggesting that guts just wants to fight zodd again to the fucking waterfall scene in question, which they portrayed completely sans zodd discussion, completely sans implication of the self-destructiveness of guts’ dream

like in the manga he nearly gets killed by the falling logs and just laughs it off like a dumbass while erika is concerned and suggests that guts is driven by something irrational and not actually a ~noble~ dream, ie, wanting to fight zodd again (ie, going deeper, his csa trauma), while in the anime we get a 2nd scene where he successfully slices through the logs as a super basic symbol of growth and a narrative pat on guts’ back that shouldn’t be there!

honestly just fucking everything about the portrayal of guts’ dream lol it just takes it at face value in a way the manga consistently never did and always undermined and critiqued, and it bugs the hell out of me.

guts is just drawn in a way that makes him look angry way too often and he often feels ooc to me bc of it. like he lacks a lot of the warmth he has in the manga imo

showing that griffith is awake when guts says “i’ll stay too” even tho in the manga those words are placed over a panel of him asleep for a reason like, ffs

lots of other random nitpicky details that only i give a fuck about because my opinions and feelings about the story are too strong lol. like not showing griffith’s face when he asks if guts thinks he’s cruel

oh huge one: moving the scene where the torturer rips off griffith’s behelit from about a day after he was imprisoned to right before his rescue. completely trivializes griffith’s torture because it still looks like he’s been in there for a day at most

why on earth did it end where it ended????????????? who’s bright idea was that? the perfect ending is skull knight riding tf out with guts and casca and femto not killing them, but then they also cut out skull knight’s first appearance so idfk man.

oh some downplaying of griffguts, like i can’t complain too much about this because it was still p homoerotic, but things like omitting guts assuming griffith wants to fuck him right before their first duel. boo.

ultimately at the end of the day as much as i do genuinely like the anime, it’s not telling quite the same story the manga was - the story it’s telling is more boring and basic. but because it sticks so close to the manga the good story still shines through? it just means there’s inconsistent tone choices and stuff, like the aforementioned grievances.

it’s like, they kept casca’s diatribe at guts line for line while she’s screaming that griffith needed him and a man can’t live on dreams alone, but they don’t extend that train of thought to guts going off to pursue his dream, while the manga does.

anyway despite that giant list of dislikes i still think the anime is pretty fantastic overall. i just also like, blame it for a lot of wrong fandom takes lol.

movie likes:

character designs! honestly imo everyone looked pretty great.

they played up the homoeroticism and i appreciate that

illustrating griffith being torn between guts and his dream through that lovely moment when he catches guts when he nearly falls off the stairs right before he catches charlotte, and in a more romantically suggestive way

the whole scene where griffith shows up at charlotte’s window thoroughly improved on the manga, so hats off there. loved how completely out of it he was to the point where he barely realized where he was and immediately turned to leave when charlotte was like ‘woah dude wtf,’ love that charlotte was the one to ask him to stay and then physically move his hand back to her tit, love how emphatically griffith was thinking about guts during that sex scene, etc. like it’s still not perfect, but it is a vast improvement.

griffith showing up in person after the hundred man fight was a nice touch

it was cool that they got a lot of the same english vas from the anime dub back, and they all did a gr8 job. like it’s a pretty good dub imo.

i liked that they moved ‘the crystalization of your last tear shed’ to after guts’ post-eclipse breakdown

compared to the anime at least gtsca was more low-key and chill rather than dramatically romantic. still don’t want it there, and still not as… unromantic as the manga, but i’ll take what i can get

the animation during griffith’s transformation into femto, yk that whole sequence, was cool

slan’s english voice was super sexy

ummmmm i feel like they conveyed the whole dreams are stupid theme, and guts’ decision to leave being a mistake, better than the anime? like i got the sense that the ova ppl recognized that was a theme, at least. i’d have to watch them again to really be sure of that tho

movie dislikes:

GRIFFITH’S. NARRATIVE.

like holy fuck they completely destroyed his character lmao

i cannot believe

no backstory! no tombstone of flame! no ‘do you think i’m cruel?’ THAT WAS THE REASON HE MADE THE SACRIFICE FFS HOW DO YOU SKIP IT????

no dead kid angst, gennon only in vague implication, no self harm - oh no wait we saw self inflicted scratches, they were just completely contextless and meaningless to the point where we could assume charlotte’s nails made them

no torture chamber monologue

no guts monologue in the tavern either for that matter

no rooftop scene

again barely the implication of guts’ childhood trauma, both the sexual abuse and the general parental abuse. one vague flashbacky nightmare doesn’t cut it, it’s the cornerstone of the story

like i get it, it’s a movie trilogy, you have to cut some things, but goddamn, cut out gtsca. trim the hundred man fight. add 20 minutes to the first ova and take the insanely long rape scene out of the third. trim down the whole eclipse sequence. don’t cut out like… the story. like they cut out SO MANY emotionally relevant scenes and kept so many much less relevant scenes, idek.

and like let’s be real here, they turned griffith from an immensely interesting and complex character into a 1 dimensional dude who is torn between a vaguely evil ambition and being in vaguely evil love with guts, just for the sake of streamlining the least interesting aspects of the story

they don’t even try to pretend otherwise lol, look at his fucking hilarious evil smile here

also while i’m looking at it, in general i think they failed at the whole eclipse sequence. looks, lighting, colour, build up of tension… there are a few minor improvements here and there (eg casca’s point of view shot of femto, femto telekinesising guts back a la the black swordsman arc which emphasizes his failure to act when he escapes), but overall it doesn’t work for me at all. like imo the anime has the exact same highs and lows as the manga, but while the ova avoids some lows it never reaches those highs.

they also had griffith overhear guts saying he wants to stay. i really don’t get why this happened twice lol, like… ok his face is kind of shadowed here but he’s still very clearly asleep? this is an important detail, guts’ interrupted words are even on that very panel, so why would you go out of your way to show that he’s awake and listening at that point.

the pacing sucked. 3rd movie was too long, 1st was too short, and they skipped waaaaaay too many significant scenes that should’ve been there as emotional beats

honestly the movies are pretty, they’re nicely fanservicey in ways, they capture some good subtleties and nuances at times, but they’re a husk of the story

oh did i mention the music during the eclipse rape? incredible.

also i am actually generally positive about the movies too despite what it seems like here lmao. i’ve watched them all like, 3 or more times and i find them v enjoyable.

i just have a way easier time listing nitpicky flaws than positives honestly. the flaws stand out to me, the virtues pass me by because i’m just enjoying them and not dwelling on them

and lbr here at the end of the day no adaption will ever really satisfy me unless i somehow find several million dollars lying around and make my own lol. and that would probably be a flop anyway.

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Retiree Living the RV Dream Fights $12,387 Nightmare Lab Fee

Lorraine Rogge and her husband, Michael Rogge, travel the country in a recreational vehicle, a well-earned adventure in retirement. This spring found them parked in Artesia, New Mexico, for several months.

This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free.

In May, Rogge, 60, began to feel pelvic pain and cramping. But she had had a total hysterectomy in 2006, so the pain seemed unusual, especially because it lasted for days. She looked for a local gynecologist and found one who took her insurance at the Carlsbad Medical Center in Carlsbad, New Mexico, about a 20-mile drive from the RV lot.

The doctor asked if Rogge was sexually active, and she responded yes and that she had been married to Michael for 26 years. Rogge felt she made it clear that she is in a monogamous relationship. The doctor then did a gynecological examination and took a vaginal swab sample for laboratory testing.

The only lab test Rogge remembered discussing with the doctor was to see whether she had a yeast infection. She wasn’t given any medication to treat the pelvic pain and eventually it disappeared after a few days.

Then the bill came.

The Patient: Lorraine Rogge, 60. Her insurance coverage was an Anthem Blue Cross retiree plan through her husband’s former employer, with a deductible of $2,000 and out-of-pocket maximum of $6,750 for in-network providers.

Total Bill: Carlsbad Medical Center billed $12,386.93 to Anthem Blue Cross for a vaginosis, vaginitis and sexually transmitted infections (STI) testing panel. The insurer paid $4,161.58 on a negotiated rate of $7,172.05. That left Rogge responsible for $1,970 of her deductible and $1,040.36 coinsurance. Her total owed for the lab bill was $3,010.47. Rogge also paid $93.85 for the visit to the doctor.

Service Provider: Carlsbad Medical Center in Carlsbad, New Mexico. It is owned by Community Health Systems, a large for-profit chain of hospital systems based in Franklin, Tennessee, outside Nashville. The doctor Rogge saw works for Carlsbad Medical Center and its lab processed her test.

Medical Service: A bundled testing panel that looked for bacterial and yeast infections as well as common STIs, including chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis.

What Gives: There were two things Rogge didn’t know as she sought care. First, Carlsbad Medical Center is notorious for its high prices and aggressive billing practices and, second, she wasn’t aware she would be tested for a wide range of sexually transmitted infections.

The latter bothered her a lot since she has been sexually active only with her husband. She doesn’t remember being advised about the STI testing at all. Nor was she questioned about whether she or her husband might have been sexually active with other people, which could have justified broader testing. They have been on the road together for five years.

“I was incensed that they ran these tests, when they just said they were going to run a yeast infection test,” said Rogge. “They ran all these tests that one would run on a very young person who had a lot of boyfriends, not a 60-year-old grandmother that’s been married for 26 years.”

Although a doctor doesn’t need a patient’s authorization to run tests, it’s not good practice to do so without informing the patient, said Dr. Ina Park, an associate professor of family community medicine at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine. That is particularly true with tests of a sensitive nature, like STIs. It is doubly true when the tests are going to costs thousands of dollars.

Park, an expert in sexually transmitted infections, also questioned the necessity of the full panel of tests for a patient who had a hysterectomy.

Beyond that, the pricing for these tests was extremely high. “It should not cost $12,000 to get an evaluation for vaginitis,” said Park.

Charles Root, an expert in lab billing, agreed.

“Quite frankly, the retail prices on [the bill] are ridiculous, they make no sense at all,” said Root. “Those are tests that cost about $10 to run.”

In fall 2019, The New York Times and CNN investigated Carlsbad Medical Center and found the facility had taken thousands of patients to court for unpaid hospital bills. Carlsbad Medical Center also has higher prices than many other facilities — a 2019 Rand Corp. study found that private insurance companies paid Carlsbad Medical Center 505% of what Medicare would pay for the same procedures.

The bundled testing panel run on Rogge’s sample was a Quest Diagnostics SureSwab Vaginosis Panel Plus. It included six types of tests. Quest Diagnostics didn’t provide the cost for the bundled tests, but Kim Gorode, a company spokesperson, said if the tests had been ordered directly through Quest rather than through the hospital, it was likely “the patient responsibility would have been substantially less.”

According to Medicare’s Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, Medicare would have reimbursed labs only about $40 for each test run on Rogge’s sample. And Medicaid would reimburse hospitals in New Mexico similarly, according to figures provided by Russell Toal, superintendent of New Mexico’s insurance department.

But hospitals and clinics can — and do — add substantial markups to clinical tests sent out to commercial labs.

Although private health insurance doesn’t typically reimburse hospitals at Medicare or Medicaid rates, Root said, private insurance reimbursement rates are rarely much more than 200% to 300% of Medicare’s rates. Assuming a 300% reimbursement rate, the total private insurance would have reimbursed for the six tests would have been $720.

That $720 is less than what Carlsbad Medical Center charged Rogge for her chlamydia test alone: $1,045. And for several of the tests, the medical center charged multiple quantities — presumably corresponding to how many species were tested for — elevating the cost of the yeast infection test to over $4,000.

Toal, who reviewed Rogge’s bill, called the prices “outrageous.”

Resolution: Rogge contacted Anthem Blue Cross and talked to a customer service representative, who submitted a fraud-and-waste claim and an appeal contending the charges were excessive.

The appeal was denied. Anthem Blue Cross told Rogge that under her plan the insurance company had paid the amount it was responsible for, and that based on her deductible and coinsurance amounts, she was responsible for the remainder.

Anthem Blue Cross said in a statement to KHN all the tests run on Rogge were approved and “paid for in accordance with Anthem’s pre-determined contracted rate with Carlsbad Medical Center.”

By the time Rogge’s appeal was denied, she had researched Carlsbad Medical Center and read the stories of patients being brought to court for medical bills they couldn’t pay. She had also gotten a notice from the hospital that her account would be sent to a collection agency if she didn’t pay the $3,000 balance.

Fearing the possibility of getting sued or ruining her credit, Rogge agreed to a plan to pay the bill over three years. She made three payments of $83.63 each in September, October and November, totaling $250.89.

After a Nov. 18 call and email from KHN, Carlsbad Medical Center called Rogge on Nov. 20 and said the remainder of her account balance would be waived.

Rogge was thrilled. We “aren’t the kind of people who have payment plans hanging over our heads,” she said, adding: “This is a relief.”

“I’m going to go on a bike ride now” to celebrate, she said.

The Takeaway: Particularly when visiting a doctor with whom you don’t have a long-standing trusted relationship, don’t be afraid to ask: How much is this test going to cost? Also ask for what, exactly, are you being tested? Do not be comforted by the facility’s in-network status. With coinsurance and deductibles, you can still be out a lot.

If it’s a blood test that will be sent out to a commercial lab like Quest Diagnostics anyway, ask the physician to just give you a requisition to have the blood drawn at the commercial lab. That way you avoid the markup. This advice is obviously not possible for a vaginal swab gathered in a doctor’s office.

Patients should always fight bills they believe are excessively high and escalate the matter if necessary.

Rogge started with her insurer and the provider, as should most patients with a billing question. But, as she learned: In American medicine, what’s legal and in accordance with an insurance contract can seem logically absurd. Still, if you get no satisfaction from your initial inquiries, be aware of options for taking your complaints further.

Every state and U.S. territory has a department that regulates the insurance industry. In New Mexico, that’s the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance. Consumers can look up their state’s department on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners website.

Toal, the insurance superintendent in New Mexico, said his office doesn’t (and no office in the state does that he’s aware of) have the authority to tell a hospital its prices are too high. But he can look into a bill like Rogge’s if a complaint is filed with his office.

“If the patient wants, they can request an independent review, so the bill would go to an independent organization that could see if it was medically necessary,” Toal said.

That wasn’t needed in this case because Rogge’s bill was waived. And after being contacted by KHN, Melissa Suggs, a spokesperson with Carlsbad Medical Center, said the facility is revising their lab charges.

“Pricing for these services will be lower in the future,” Suggs said in a statement.

Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Retiree Living the RV Dream Fights $12,387 Nightmare Lab Fee published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[stephenmccull]

Retiree Living the RV Dream Fights $12,387 Nightmare Lab Fee

Lorraine Rogge and her husband, Michael Rogge, travel the country in a recreational vehicle, a well-earned adventure in retirement. This spring found them parked in Artesia, New Mexico, for several months.

This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free.

In May, Rogge, 60, began to feel pelvic pain and cramping. But she had had a total hysterectomy in 2006, so the pain seemed unusual, especially because it lasted for days. She looked for a local gynecologist and found one who took her insurance at the Carlsbad Medical Center in Carlsbad, New Mexico, about a 20-mile drive from the RV lot.

The doctor asked if Rogge was sexually active, and she responded yes and that she had been married to Michael for 26 years. Rogge felt she made it clear that she is in a monogamous relationship. The doctor then did a gynecological examination and took a vaginal swab sample for laboratory testing.

The only lab test Rogge remembered discussing with the doctor was to see whether she had a yeast infection. She wasn’t given any medication to treat the pelvic pain and eventually it disappeared after a few days.

Then the bill came.

The Patient: Lorraine Rogge, 60. Her insurance coverage was an Anthem Blue Cross retiree plan through her husband’s former employer, with a deductible of $2,000 and out-of-pocket maximum of $6,750 for in-network providers.

Total Bill: Carlsbad Medical Center billed $12,386.93 to Anthem Blue Cross for a vaginosis, vaginitis and sexually transmitted infections (STI) testing panel. The insurer paid $4,161.58 on a negotiated rate of $7,172.05. That left Rogge responsible for $1,970 of her deductible and $1,040.36 coinsurance. Her total owed for the lab bill was $3,010.47. Rogge also paid $93.85 for the visit to the doctor.

Service Provider: Carlsbad Medical Center in Carlsbad, New Mexico. It is owned by Community Health Systems, a large for-profit chain of hospital systems based in Franklin, Tennessee, outside Nashville. The doctor Rogge saw works for Carlsbad Medical Center and its lab processed her test.

Medical Service: A bundled testing panel that looked for bacterial and yeast infections as well as common STIs, including chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis.

What Gives: There were two things Rogge didn’t know as she sought care. First, Carlsbad Medical Center is notorious for its high prices and aggressive billing practices and, second, she wasn’t aware she would be tested for a wide range of sexually transmitted infections.

The latter bothered her a lot since she has been sexually active only with her husband. She doesn’t remember being advised about the STI testing at all. Nor was she questioned about whether she or her husband might have been sexually active with other people, which could have justified broader testing. They have been on the road together for five years.

“I was incensed that they ran these tests, when they just said they were going to run a yeast infection test,” said Rogge. “They ran all these tests that one would run on a very young person who had a lot of boyfriends, not a 60-year-old grandmother that’s been married for 26 years.”

Although a doctor doesn’t need a patient’s authorization to run tests, it’s not good practice to do so without informing the patient, said Dr. Ina Park, an associate professor of family community medicine at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine. That is particularly true with tests of a sensitive nature, like STIs. It is doubly true when the tests are going to costs thousands of dollars.

Park, an expert in sexually transmitted infections, also questioned the necessity of the full panel of tests for a patient who had a hysterectomy.

Beyond that, the pricing for these tests was extremely high. “It should not cost $12,000 to get an evaluation for vaginitis,” said Park.

Charles Root, an expert in lab billing, agreed.

“Quite frankly, the retail prices on [the bill] are ridiculous, they make no sense at all,” said Root. “Those are tests that cost about $10 to run.”

In fall 2019, The New York Times and CNN investigated Carlsbad Medical Center and found the facility had taken thousands of patients to court for unpaid hospital bills. Carlsbad Medical Center also has higher prices than many other facilities — a 2019 Rand Corp. study found that private insurance companies paid Carlsbad Medical Center 505% of what Medicare would pay for the same procedures.

The bundled testing panel run on Rogge’s sample was a Quest Diagnostics SureSwab Vaginosis Panel Plus. It included six types of tests. Quest Diagnostics didn’t provide the cost for the bundled tests, but Kim Gorode, a company spokesperson, said if the tests had been ordered directly through Quest rather than through the hospital, it was likely “the patient responsibility would have been substantially less.”

According to Medicare’s Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, Medicare would have reimbursed labs only about $40 for each test run on Rogge’s sample. And Medicaid would reimburse hospitals in New Mexico similarly, according to figures provided by Russell Toal, superintendent of New Mexico’s insurance department.

But hospitals and clinics can — and do — add substantial markups to clinical tests sent out to commercial labs.

Although private health insurance doesn’t typically reimburse hospitals at Medicare or Medicaid rates, Root said, private insurance reimbursement rates are rarely much more than 200% to 300% of Medicare’s rates. Assuming a 300% reimbursement rate, the total private insurance would have reimbursed for the six tests would have been $720.

That $720 is less than what Carlsbad Medical Center charged Rogge for her chlamydia test alone: $1,045. And for several of the tests, the medical center charged multiple quantities — presumably corresponding to how many species were tested for — elevating the cost of the yeast infection test to over $4,000.

Toal, who reviewed Rogge’s bill, called the prices “outrageous.”

Resolution: Rogge contacted Anthem Blue Cross and talked to a customer service representative, who submitted a fraud-and-waste claim and an appeal contending the charges were excessive.

The appeal was denied. Anthem Blue Cross told Rogge that under her plan the insurance company had paid the amount it was responsible for, and that based on her deductible and coinsurance amounts, she was responsible for the remainder.

Anthem Blue Cross said in a statement to KHN all the tests run on Rogge were approved and “paid for in accordance with Anthem’s pre-determined contracted rate with Carlsbad Medical Center.”

By the time Rogge’s appeal was denied, she had researched Carlsbad Medical Center and read the stories of patients being brought to court for medical bills they couldn’t pay. She had also gotten a notice from the hospital that her account would be sent to a collection agency if she didn’t pay the $3,000 balance.

Fearing the possibility of getting sued or ruining her credit, Rogge agreed to a plan to pay the bill over three years. She made three payments of $83.63 each in September, October and November, totaling $250.89.

After a Nov. 18 call and email from KHN, Carlsbad Medical Center called Rogge on Nov. 20 and said the remainder of her account balance would be waived.

Rogge was thrilled. We “aren’t the kind of people who have payment plans hanging over our heads,” she said, adding: “This is a relief.”

“I’m going to go on a bike ride now” to celebrate, she said.

The Takeaway: Particularly when visiting a doctor with whom you don’t have a long-standing trusted relationship, don’t be afraid to ask: How much is this test going to cost? Also ask for what, exactly, are you being tested? Do not be comforted by the facility’s in-network status. With coinsurance and deductibles, you can still be out a lot.

If it’s a blood test that will be sent out to a commercial lab like Quest Diagnostics anyway, ask the physician to just give you a requisition to have the blood drawn at the commercial lab. That way you avoid the markup. This advice is obviously not possible for a vaginal swab gathered in a doctor’s office.

Patients should always fight bills they believe are excessively high and escalate the matter if necessary.

Rogge started with her insurer and the provider, as should most patients with a billing question. But, as she learned: In American medicine, what’s legal and in accordance with an insurance contract can seem logically absurd. Still, if you get no satisfaction from your initial inquiries, be aware of options for taking your complaints further.

Every state and U.S. territory has a department that regulates the insurance industry. In New Mexico, that’s the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance. Consumers can look up their state’s department on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners website.

Toal, the insurance superintendent in New Mexico, said his office doesn’t (and no office in the state does that he’s aware of) have the authority to tell a hospital its prices are too high. But he can look into a bill like Rogge’s if a complaint is filed with his office.

“If the patient wants, they can request an independent review, so the bill would go to an independent organization that could see if it was medically necessary,” Toal said.

That wasn’t needed in this case because Rogge’s bill was waived. And after being contacted by KHN, Melissa Suggs, a spokesperson with Carlsbad Medical Center, said the facility is revising their lab charges.

“Pricing for these services will be lower in the future,” Suggs said in a statement.

Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

Retiree Living the RV Dream Fights $12,387 Nightmare Lab Fee published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[ecoorganic]

Big Ten Football Parents Want Answers After Sudden Shift to Postpone Season

Parents of football players from various Big Ten schools want their voices heard, demanding details about why the league so quickly pivoted to calling off fall ball.

Pablo Fields was driving on the Cobb Parkway in Kennesaw, Ga., Tuesday afternoon when he heard the news: His son Justin’s junior football season at Ohio State was being postponed—at best—by the Big Ten Conference.

“I pulled over,” Pablo Fields said. “It was a really, really bad day, one you’ll never forget.”

What he heard in his son’s voice that day hasn’t left him, either. Justin Fields was a Heisman Trophy finalists last year and will be a first-round NFL draft pick with or without playing another down of college football, but he badly wanted to have a fall season.

“My son is always upbeat and positive, but in our conversation that day he was heartbroken,” Pablo said. “I don’t think he wants to be done being a college football player. We’re not rich by any means, but he’s not in a hurry to get the dollars. He loves Ohio State University and loves his teammates, and he has some unfinished business he’d like to complete.”

Can that business still be completed? It seems unlikely, but many Big Ten parents of football players haven’t yet given up the fight.

You may have seen the letter

Iowa parents had hand-delivered to Big Ten Conference offices in Chicago this week. They’re not alone.

Parents of football players from various Big Ten schools want their voices heard. They want answers about why the league pivoted from releasing a schedule Aug. 5 to postponing the entire season Aug. 11. They want details on the findings from the medical advisory board that helped inform the decision to call off fall ball.

And they still want a chance for their sons to play. Even if that means bringing in the lawyers. (Keep reading.)

“I felt like the season was pulled out from under them before they got a chance,” said Amanda Babb, stepmom of Ohio State player Kamryn Babb, and head of the team’s parents association. “They were told by their coaches, ‘We have to follow these safety protocols to have a season,’ and they did. Then it didn’t even matter.”

Babb’s organization drafted its own letter Saturday, also sending it to the Big Ten. Dianne Freiermuth, president of the Penn State parents organization, produced a letter last weekend, before the season was shut down, urging the league to let their sons play.

“The decision just came too quick,” said Freiermuth, mother of Nittany Lions tight end Pat Freiermuth. “I totally believe in medical experts and think we should be listening to them—if the right thing to do medically is not to play, I’m fine with that. But to go from releasing the schedule to the start of practice to stopping the season, without explanation, is just wrong.”

From Tim Ford, father of Illinois tight end Luke Ford: “I think the way this was handled was atrocious. As if they didn’t have three-four months to figure something out.”

Maurice Goodson, father of Iowa running back Tyler Goodson, took a more conciliatory tone. But he’d still like to hear more information about what the Big Ten did.

“It’s devastating news, it really is,” Goodson said. “I get it, I really do—we all want our players to be in good health. We just want to know why, what changed, and for the Big Ten to provide those answers to us.”

It is worth noting that the parental disapproval rating of the Big Ten’s action is far from unanimous. Plenty of them aren’t sending letters or emails to the league office.

“I am OK with the Big Ten’s decision,” said Kim Newsome, mother of Nebraska defensive back Quinton Newsome. “I know my child wants to play, for the love of the sport. But at what risk? I love football, too, and I think they should just sit it out for the year.”

Several parents brought up the stress the situation has placed on their sons, and the lack of direction they now feel going forward.

“They’re lost,” Dianne Freiermuth said. “They don’t have answers. From a conference that prides itself on mental health, to do it this way? It leaves a bitter taste.”

Ultimately, this could be headed beyond players and parents voicing discontent and wind up where so many contentious issues do in America—in the land of lawyers. Prominent college sports attorney Tom Mars told SI that “several Big Ten players’ parents asked for help” in trying to find a way to play immediately. In response, Mars drew up a two-page document entitled, “Action Plan to Mitigate Concerns and Legal Risks of Playing Fall 2020 Football.” (Read that document here.)

Mars said he shared the plan with at least two head coaches in the Big Ten, who in turn have passed it to parents of some players. The plan is based on four premises, the most important of which are getting all major stakeholders—players, parents, conference commissioners, university presidents, athletic directors and head coaches—to unite behind a petition to the NCAA to rescind its ban on liability waivers.

You may recall that some schools trotted out various versions of a waiver for their players to sign when they returned to campus in June for summer workouts. Those were met with some considerable backlash, not the least of which came from the United States Senate.

Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced legislation June 30 to prohibit COVID-19 waivers that some colleges were requiring their athletes sign in order to work out on campus. When NCAA president Mark Emmert appeared before a Senate Judiciary Panel in July, he was asked about the waivers.

“I am categorically opposed to it,” Emmert said. “It is an inappropriate thing for schools to be doing.” By early August, the NCAA had banned liability waivers.

Mars’s plan suggests a multi-pronged campaign to get that ban overturned. The chances of that might not be great, but if it happens, the next steps would be as follows, from the plan:

“Member institutions retain legal counsel within their state to draft a ‘liability waiver’ that includes terms regarding Covid-19 that plainly and thoroughly explain all known risks of being infected and the known and potential long-term health effects, limits or extinguishes liability for negligence, disavows player’s reliance on statements outside the contract made by the school or its representatives, requires player to knowingly assume risks of infection and consequences thereof, requires mandatory arbitration, confirms player’s decision to seek advice from his own legal counsel or waiver thereof, preserves scholarships and all other benefits provided by the school, and requires that the student-athlete’s (and, if applicable, their parent’s or guardian’s) signature be witnessed by a notary public.

“Member institutions manage the process of offering players the ability to play in Fall 2020 by signing a ‘liability waiver’ while preserving the rights of student-athletes who choose not to execute a waiver.”

At least one Big Ten school has left itself open to second guessing in terms of waiver consistency. Earlier this week, Penn State’s college newspaper reported that incoming students had to sign a “COVID-19 compact” as a condition of fall semester enrollment. "Students were required to read the acknowledgment and accept it, or else forfeit their ability to return or remain on campus,” the Daily Collegian reported.

After receiving considerable blowback, the school announced Thursday that it is amending the compact. “We have heard from some concerned with language requiring students to assume the risks of exposure to COVID-19,” Penn State said in a statement. “Others have misinterpreted the language of the Compact as a waiver of students’ rights, which was neither the case, nor the intent.”

Among the parents who said he would readily sign such a document waiving their school of liability if it let their sons play: Pablo Fields and Tim Ford.

“I think they’re grown men and should be able to choose for themselves,” Fields said. “I was a young man, 22 years old, when I became a police officer. There were risks every day walking the beat, and I chose to take them. It’s certainly OK to right a wrong, and the Big Ten can do that.”

Added Ford: “I would be 100% for the waiver. I think everything we do in life has risks, and in football there are known risks and unknown risks. But to take away a season based on what could happen, endnote even give the kids that did opt in a chance, was wrong. The kids and families had a chance to opt out, so conversely the others opted in.”

Among those who are not a fan of such a waiver liability ban: Blumenthal, the Senator who helped apply pressure to the NCAA to institute the ban in the first place.

"It epitomizes the current system, that the colleges are shifting the risk burden to the athletes and absolving themselves of responsibility,” Blumenthal told SI. “I think this suggestion shows how the system is deeply broken. Coercing athletes to sign away their rights is not only unfair but clearly unwise, because the schools are likely to be less cautious if they believe they bear no legal responsibility. They clearly have a moral responsibility that they’re attempting to shirk. Trust the doctors. I respect and admire the passion of players and coaches and their dedication but the risks are very formidable.

“I can’t believe they’re even thinking about it. It’s wrong."

Additional reporting for this story from Ross Dellenger.

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[bentonpena]

Hitting the Books: We can engineer the Earth to fight climate change

Hitting the Books: We can engineer the Earth to fight climate change https://engt.co/2ZtjP9J

Welcome to Hitting the Books. With less than one in five Americans reading just for fun these days, we've done the hard work for you by scouring the internet for the most interesting, thought provoking books on science and technology we can find and delivering an easily digestible nugget of their stories.

End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World by Bryan Walsh

Grow out your apocalypse beard and strap on your doomsday sandwich board, we're all gonna die! Humanity has always lived on knife edge, our species perpetually one war, one plague, one eruption, one meteor strike away from extinction. But should our species kick the bucket during the 21st century, it may well be through our own actions.

End Times by Bryan Walsh takes an unflinching look at the myriad ways the world might end -- from planet-smashing asteroids and humanity-smothering supervolcanoes to robotic revolutions and hyper-intelligent AIs. In the excerpt below, Walsh examines the work of environmental researcher Klaus Lackner and his efforts to combat climate change by sucking carbon straight from the air.

It might be the German accent, but Klaus Lackner has a way of speaking that lends an air of authority to his statements, even when what he's suggesting seems to be science fiction. "If you asked me fifteen years ago," Lackner told me from his lab in Tempe, Arizona, "I would have said we need to figure out how to stabilize what we're doing to the atmosphere by reducing carbon emissions. Now I'm telling you we're way past that. We have to change carbon levels directly."

Lackner is the director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions at Arizona State University and an academic leader what will be one of the most important fields of the future: carbon capture. Lackner is working to build machines capable of capturing and storing carbon dioxide in the air, a process called carbon sequestration. While most climate policy focuses on cutting future carbon emissions by replacing fossil fuel energy consumption with zero-carbon renewables or even nuclear power, Lackner aims to reduce current levels of carbon dioxide directly by sucking the gas out of the air. If it can be done -- and if it can be done affordably -- it would be nothing less than a technological miracle. And as Lackner himself says, we're at the point where we need miracles.

Emissions of greenhouse gases lead to warming because over time they add to the carbon concentration in the atmosphere. During humanity's pre-industrial history -- when the climate was like Little Red Riding Hood's last bowl of porridge, not too cold and not too warm -- carbon levels were around 280 parts per million (ppm). By 2013 they had passed 400 ppm and will only continue to rise. Even if future emissions are vastly reduced, the time lag of man-made climate change means that carbon concentrations will continue to grow for a while, and the climate will continue to warm. But if Lackner's invention works, we could bring carbon levels down, perhaps closer to that original 280 ppm -- even if it proves politically and technologically difficult to reduce carbon emissions from energy consumption.

This would be geoengineering in action -- using technology to manually fine-tune the climate, the way we might adjust the picture quality on a television. And in some form it will be necessary. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has considered more than a thousand scenarios for future climate change. Of those, only 116 actually see us keeping warming below the 3.6 F red line -- and of those 116, all but eight require carbon removal, or what's also called negative carbon emissions. That's in part because we've already baked so much future warming into the climate with the carbon we've already emitted, and in part because the fossil fuel habit is so hard to break, especially for those parts of the developing world that depend on rapid economic growth and the energy use that accompanies it. The only way to square that fact with the equally pressing need to keep warming below 3.6 F is to bake in a technology that doesn't yet exist commercially.

In 2011, a team of experts reported that pulling CO2 from the air would cost $600 a ton, which would make the bill for capturing the 37 billion tons of CO2 emitted in 2017 -- one year's worth -- a cool $22 trillion, or more than a quarter of total global GDP. But progress is being made -- in June 2018 a team of scientists from Harvard and the start-up Carbon Engineering published research indicating they might be able to bring that price of capturing a ton of CO2 down to between $94 and $232. That would mean it might cost between $1 and $2.50 to capture the CO2 generated by burning a gallon of gasoline, less than the amount of fuel taxes British drivers currently pay. Lackner believes that if he could get 100 million of his carbon capture machines running, he could reduce carbon levels by 100 ppm, taking us out of the danger zone.

If that price keeps going down -- a big if -- we might be able to save ourselves. And effective and cheap carbon sequestration would have the added effect of sweeping away many of the moral and political conflicts around climate change. If emitting the carbon that causes climate change is a crime, then we are all criminals. But if carbon dioxide is just another form of waste that can be disposed of safely, then we wouldn't feel any worse for emitting carbon than we would for producing our garbage bag full of household trash. Treating carbon emissions as waste to be removed defuses the psychological dissonance that can hinder climate policy -- the guilty gap between all that we know about climate change and the little that we actually do about it.

"I would argue by making carbon emissions a moral issue, by saying that the only way to solve the problem is by donning a hair shirt, you actually invite people to resist you," said Lackner. "They just stop listening to you."

Let's hope that carbon capture becomes a reality, although a recent study in Nature Communications estimated that it could take a quarter of the world's energy supply in 2100 to power enough air carbon capture machines to keep warming below dangerous levels. And that's assuming that carbon capture ever becomes a feasible product -- many would-be world-changing technologies have expired in the valley of death between the lab and the market. We'll need to continue developing low and zero-carbon sources of energy to reduce the risk -- including the existential risk -- that climate change presents.

Yet I believe we have no choice but to move full steam ahead on air carbon capture, for the simple reason that the strategy fits who we are. We are not a species that plans deeply into the future. We are not a species that is eager to put limits on ourselves. We are a species that prefers to stay one step ahead of the disasters of our own making, that is willing to do just enough to keep going. And we are a species that likes to keep going. Carbon capture won't answer the question of what we owe the future, or prove that we've somehow matured. But it will provide an insurance policy against the worst, most catastrophic effects of climate change, that fat-tail risk that could bring extinction in its wake. It will prove we're just smart enough, even if that means we might yet prove too smart for our own good.

Excerpted from End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World by Bryan Walsh. Copyright © 2019 by Bryan Walsh. Published by arrangement with Hachette Books.

Tech via Engadget https://engt.co/2N4ekI3 August 24, 2019 at 11:12AM

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AP FACT CHECK: Trump Wraps Up Trip Abroad With False Claims About NATO

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been a muted week for the “real” Donald Trump, the Twitter account where the president normally says a lot of things that are unreal. That respite may have come to a close, though, as he wrapped up his foreign trip with yet another mistold tale about NATO.

In a tweet and a speech before leaving for home Saturday, he said that thanks to him, money is “starting to pour into NATO,” which it isn’t.

Besides going light on provocative tweets, Trump held no news conferences and gave no extended interviews abroad. Those venues are frequent sources of Trump’s off-the-cuff misstatements. Even a more scripted Trump, though, does not always tell it straight, and the release of his proposed budget stirred a fresh round of questionable rhetoric from his stateside aides.

A look at some of the statements under scrutiny over the past week:

TRUMP: “I will tell you, a big difference over the last year, money is actually starting to pour into NATO from countries that would not have been doing what they’re doing now had I not been elected, I can tell you that. Money is starting to pour in.” — speech to U.S. troops in Sicily on Saturday

TRUMP tweet: “Many NATO countries have agreed to step up payments considerably, as they should. Money is beginning to pour in.”

THE FACTS: First, no money is pouring in and countries do not pay the U.S. Nor do they pay NATO directly, apart from administrative expenses, which are not the issue.

The issue is how much each NATO member country spends on its own defense.

Although the president is right that many NATO countries have agreed to spend more on their military budgets, that is not a result of the NATO summit this past week at which Trump pressed them to do so. The countries agreed in 2014 to stop cutting their military spending and to start increasing it “toward” 2 percent of their gross domestic product by 2024.

That goal was set during the Obama administration and is less than an ironclad commitment.

___

TRUMP: “But 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years, and not paying in those past years.” — remarks to NATO on Thursday

THE FACTS: Members of the alliance are not in arrears in their military spending. They are not in debt to the United States, or failing to meet a current standard, and Washington is not trying to collect anything, despite the president’s contention that they “owe massive amounts of money.” They merely committed in 2014 to work toward the goal of 2 percent of GDP by 2024.

___

TRUMP, in a telephone call to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte: “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.” — Philippine government transcript of April 29 phone call, reported by The Washington Post.

THE FACTS: Trump’s own State Department’s human rights report, updated in March, described in harsh terms the more than 6,000 killings by police and vigilantes of suspected Philippine drug dealers and users. The killings, carried out without formal evidence or trials, were to fulfill a Duterte campaign promise to eliminate illegal drug activity in the country by the end of last year.

The report said Duterte released lists of suspected drug criminals on at least two occasions and some on those lists were killed in police or vigilante operations. It says “authorities made promises of immunity from investigation and prosecution for officers involved in drug killings.”

___

TRUMP, on his Oval Office meeting May 10 with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador: “Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel,’ never mentioned it in that conversation. And they’re all saying I did. So you have another story wrong.” — remarks at a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

THE FACTS: Trump is denying saying something that he wasn’t alleged to have said in the first place. His comment steers around the issue that emanated from that meeting — that he divulged classified information about an Islamic State threat in his conversation with the Russians, perhaps in a compromising way that would enable Russia to trace the source of the intelligence.

Trump is not alleged to have told the Russians specifically that the information came from the Israelis. Israel’s link was established separately, in news reports.

___

GARY COHN, Trump’s economic adviser: “Coal doesn’t even really make that much sense anymore.” Speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to Italy on Thursday night, he added that natural gas is “such a cleaner fuel” and the U.S. could become a “manufacturing powerhouse” by spending on wind and solar energy.”

THE FACTS: That’s an accurate assessment of the improbability of reviving the coal industry — and a statement at odds with his boss’s vow to make coal king again. Trump and his team blame overregulation for the decline of coal but market forces are the larger problem. Natural gas supplies have surged with the advent of fracking, making coal increasingly uncompetitive as an energy source.

___

MICK MULVANEY, Trump budget chief, on the president’s proposed budget: “There are no Medicaid cuts in the terms of what ordinary human beings would refer to as a cut. We are not spending less money one year than we spent before.” — briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Mulvaney is being artfully evasive about the health care program for families and the poor. By any conventional measure of federal financing, the program is on the chopping block.

First, the Trump-supported rollback of President Barack Obama’s health care law would reduce federal money that 31 states and the District of Columbia have relied on to extend coverage to low-income adults under Medicaid. The Republican health care bill passed by the House would cap the overall federal share of Medicaid spending, meaning it would no longer be an open-ended entitlement.

Second, the Trump budget could compound those restrictions by reducing the rate of growth in federal Medicaid money even more. Under the budget, Medicaid spending would fall from 2 percent of the economy to 1.7 percent in 2027 due to reductions in spending projections by Trump. That slight decrease adds up to more than $600 billion over 10 years.

___

MULVANEY: “I went back and looked at some of the economic assumptions that the Obama administration made in its first couple of years. And I want to say on a couple of different occasions, their assumed growth rate was more than 4.5 percent. Come on, this is the first administration in history — OK? — it was the first decade, the first eight-year period in history not to have a 3 percent growth rate. Yet they were promising us 4.5 percent growth.” — briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Obama’s expectations for growth were in line with accepted economic views at the time. That’s because accelerated growth often follows a downturn. He took office in a deep recession, and his team figured the economy would naturally rebound at a stronger pace than its average growth rate.

Obama’s first budget in 2009 estimated growth would be above 4 percent in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It would then settle into an average growth rate of 2.6 percent starting in 2015. That isn’t that far from separate estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.

The economy expanded instead at a sluggish pace, closer to 2 percent a year. Trump’s budget is more ambitious than Obama’s, rosy but thin on rationale for the optimism. It anticipates shifting growth above 3 percent, much higher than Obama’s long-term average.

___

TRUMP, on why the U.S. under Obama should not have agreed to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015: “I think they would have failed, totally failed within six months. We gave them a lifeline and we not only gave them a lifeline, we gave them wealth and prosperity.” — Statement in Jerusalem on Monday, standing with Netanyahu.

THE FACTS: What would have happened without the deal is impossible to say, but such an imminent collapse of Iran’s economy was highly improbable.

International penalties on Iran in response to its nuclear program did drive its economy into crisis earlier this decade. But even before the nuclear deal, Iran had cut budget expenditures and fixed its balance of payments. It was still exporting oil and importing products from countries such as Japan and China.

The multinational deal froze Iran’s nuclear program in return for an end to a variety of oil, trade and financial sanctions on Tehran. Iran also regained access to frozen assets held abroad. The deal was conceivably an economic “lifeline” for the state but Iran is not wealthy as a result; ordinary Iranians have seen limited benefits to date.

___

TRUMP: “I don’t know who the people are that would put us into a NAFTA, which was so one-sided. Both from the Canada standpoint and from the Mexico standpoint. So one-sided. Wilbur (U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross) will tell you that, you know, like, at the court in Canada, we always lose. Well, the judges are three Canadians and two Americans. We always lose.” — Economist interview in May.

THE FACTS: Trump mischaracterizes the system for resolving trade disputes under the North American Free Trade Agreement. When the U.S. and Canada are at odds over trade, NAFTA calls for five-person panel to weigh in. Each country picks two panelists, drawn from a list that consists largely of trade lawyers, economists and retired judges. The fifth comes from one of the two countries and usually alternates between them.

The system “does treat all parties the same regardless of what Trump says,” says Fred McMahon, a fellow at the Fraser Institute think-tank in Toronto.

Trump has a stronger case when he complains about America’s losing record against Canada in NAFTA cases, though it’s not true that the Americans “always lose.” A 2007 study found that the NAFTA panels changed or overturned U.S. government decisions two-thirds of the time.

In those cases, the panels are supposed to base their decisions on U.S. law. But “there are a lot of folks in Washington who have felt that sometimes NAFTA panels overstep their bounds” and don’t defer to American laws, says Dean Pinkert, a partner at the Hughes Hubbard & Reed law firm and former member of the U.S. International Trade Commission.

___

TRUMP told Coast Guard cadets of his “historic investment in our military,” adding: “I’m proud to say that under my administration, as you just heard, we will be building the first new heavy icebreakers the United States has seen in over 40 years.” — speech to Coast Guard Academy May 17.

THE FACTS: Although his rousing words earned applause from the cadets, Trump’s budget this past week excludes the Coast Guard from his planned expansion of military spending. He’s proposing to cut the Coast Guard budget by more than $420 million, or 3.8 percent, while increasing military spending overall. The Coast Guard is under the Homeland Security Department, not the Pentagon.

The icebreaker project he boasts about started under the Obama administration and Trump’s budget would advance it only incrementally, spending $19 million to continue efforts “toward awarding a contract” for design and construction in 2019. “We all know that doesn’t get us an icebreaker,” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told a budget hearing, “but it gets us started.”

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper, Paul Wiseman, Alicia A. Caldwell, Jim Drinkard, Robert Burns and Ricardo-Alonso Zaldivar contributed to this report.

___

Find all AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2rcjIxT

[repwincoml4a0a5]

AP FACT CHECK: Trump Wraps Up Trip Abroad With False Claims About NATO

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been a muted week for the “real” Donald Trump, the Twitter account where the president normally says a lot of things that are unreal. That respite may have come to a close, though, as he wrapped up his foreign trip with yet another mistold tale about NATO.

In a tweet and a speech before leaving for home Saturday, he said that thanks to him, money is “starting to pour into NATO,” which it isn’t.

Besides going light on provocative tweets, Trump held no news conferences and gave no extended interviews abroad. Those venues are frequent sources of Trump’s off-the-cuff misstatements. Even a more scripted Trump, though, does not always tell it straight, and the release of his proposed budget stirred a fresh round of questionable rhetoric from his stateside aides.

A look at some of the statements under scrutiny over the past week:

TRUMP: “I will tell you, a big difference over the last year, money is actually starting to pour into NATO from countries that would not have been doing what they’re doing now had I not been elected, I can tell you that. Money is starting to pour in.” — speech to U.S. troops in Sicily on Saturday

TRUMP tweet: “Many NATO countries have agreed to step up payments considerably, as they should. Money is beginning to pour in.”

THE FACTS: First, no money is pouring in and countries do not pay the U.S. Nor do they pay NATO directly, apart from administrative expenses, which are not the issue.

The issue is how much each NATO member country spends on its own defense.

Although the president is right that many NATO countries have agreed to spend more on their military budgets, that is not a result of the NATO summit this past week at which Trump pressed them to do so. The countries agreed in 2014 to stop cutting their military spending and to start increasing it “toward” 2 percent of their gross domestic product by 2024.

That goal was set during the Obama administration and is less than an ironclad commitment.

___

TRUMP: “But 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years, and not paying in those past years.” — remarks to NATO on Thursday

THE FACTS: Members of the alliance are not in arrears in their military spending. They are not in debt to the United States, or failing to meet a current standard, and Washington is not trying to collect anything, despite the president’s contention that they “owe massive amounts of money.” They merely committed in 2014 to work toward the goal of 2 percent of GDP by 2024.

___

TRUMP, in a telephone call to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte: “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.” — Philippine government transcript of April 29 phone call, reported by The Washington Post.

THE FACTS: Trump’s own State Department’s human rights report, updated in March, described in harsh terms the more than 6,000 killings by police and vigilantes of suspected Philippine drug dealers and users. The killings, carried out without formal evidence or trials, were to fulfill a Duterte campaign promise to eliminate illegal drug activity in the country by the end of last year.

The report said Duterte released lists of suspected drug criminals on at least two occasions and some on those lists were killed in police or vigilante operations. It says “authorities made promises of immunity from investigation and prosecution for officers involved in drug killings.”

___

TRUMP, on his Oval Office meeting May 10 with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador: “Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel,’ never mentioned it in that conversation. And they’re all saying I did. So you have another story wrong.” — remarks at a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

THE FACTS: Trump is denying saying something that he wasn’t alleged to have said in the first place. His comment steers around the issue that emanated from that meeting — that he divulged classified information about an Islamic State threat in his conversation with the Russians, perhaps in a compromising way that would enable Russia to trace the source of the intelligence.

Trump is not alleged to have told the Russians specifically that the information came from the Israelis. Israel’s link was established separately, in news reports.

___

GARY COHN, Trump’s economic adviser: “Coal doesn’t even really make that much sense anymore.” Speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to Italy on Thursday night, he added that natural gas is “such a cleaner fuel” and the U.S. could become a “manufacturing powerhouse” by spending on wind and solar energy.”

THE FACTS: That’s an accurate assessment of the improbability of reviving the coal industry — and a statement at odds with his boss’s vow to make coal king again. Trump and his team blame overregulation for the decline of coal but market forces are the larger problem. Natural gas supplies have surged with the advent of fracking, making coal increasingly uncompetitive as an energy source.

___

MICK MULVANEY, Trump budget chief, on the president’s proposed budget: “There are no Medicaid cuts in the terms of what ordinary human beings would refer to as a cut. We are not spending less money one year than we spent before.” — briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Mulvaney is being artfully evasive about the health care program for families and the poor. By any conventional measure of federal financing, the program is on the chopping block.

First, the Trump-supported rollback of President Barack Obama’s health care law would reduce federal money that 31 states and the District of Columbia have relied on to extend coverage to low-income adults under Medicaid. The Republican health care bill passed by the House would cap the overall federal share of Medicaid spending, meaning it would no longer be an open-ended entitlement.

Second, the Trump budget could compound those restrictions by reducing the rate of growth in federal Medicaid money even more. Under the budget, Medicaid spending would fall from 2 percent of the economy to 1.7 percent in 2027 due to reductions in spending projections by Trump. That slight decrease adds up to more than $600 billion over 10 years.

___

MULVANEY: “I went back and looked at some of the economic assumptions that the Obama administration made in its first couple of years. And I want to say on a couple of different occasions, their assumed growth rate was more than 4.5 percent. Come on, this is the first administration in history — OK? — it was the first decade, the first eight-year period in history not to have a 3 percent growth rate. Yet they were promising us 4.5 percent growth.” — briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Obama’s expectations for growth were in line with accepted economic views at the time. That’s because accelerated growth often follows a downturn. He took office in a deep recession, and his team figured the economy would naturally rebound at a stronger pace than its average growth rate.

Obama’s first budget in 2009 estimated growth would be above 4 percent in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It would then settle into an average growth rate of 2.6 percent starting in 2015. That isn’t that far from separate estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.

The economy expanded instead at a sluggish pace, closer to 2 percent a year. Trump’s budget is more ambitious than Obama’s, rosy but thin on rationale for the optimism. It anticipates shifting growth above 3 percent, much higher than Obama’s long-term average.

___

TRUMP, on why the U.S. under Obama should not have agreed to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015: “I think they would have failed, totally failed within six months. We gave them a lifeline and we not only gave them a lifeline, we gave them wealth and prosperity.” — Statement in Jerusalem on Monday, standing with Netanyahu.

THE FACTS: What would have happened without the deal is impossible to say, but such an imminent collapse of Iran’s economy was highly improbable.

International penalties on Iran in response to its nuclear program did drive its economy into crisis earlier this decade. But even before the nuclear deal, Iran had cut budget expenditures and fixed its balance of payments. It was still exporting oil and importing products from countries such as Japan and China.

The multinational deal froze Iran’s nuclear program in return for an end to a variety of oil, trade and financial sanctions on Tehran. Iran also regained access to frozen assets held abroad. The deal was conceivably an economic “lifeline” for the state but Iran is not wealthy as a result; ordinary Iranians have seen limited benefits to date.

___

TRUMP: “I don’t know who the people are that would put us into a NAFTA, which was so one-sided. Both from the Canada standpoint and from the Mexico standpoint. So one-sided. Wilbur (U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross) will tell you that, you know, like, at the court in Canada, we always lose. Well, the judges are three Canadians and two Americans. We always lose.” — Economist interview in May.

THE FACTS: Trump mischaracterizes the system for resolving trade disputes under the North American Free Trade Agreement. When the U.S. and Canada are at odds over trade, NAFTA calls for five-person panel to weigh in. Each country picks two panelists, drawn from a list that consists largely of trade lawyers, economists and retired judges. The fifth comes from one of the two countries and usually alternates between them.

The system “does treat all parties the same regardless of what Trump says,” says Fred McMahon, a fellow at the Fraser Institute think-tank in Toronto.

Trump has a stronger case when he complains about America’s losing record against Canada in NAFTA cases, though it’s not true that the Americans “always lose.” A 2007 study found that the NAFTA panels changed or overturned U.S. government decisions two-thirds of the time.

In those cases, the panels are supposed to base their decisions on U.S. law. But “there are a lot of folks in Washington who have felt that sometimes NAFTA panels overstep their bounds” and don’t defer to American laws, says Dean Pinkert, a partner at the Hughes Hubbard & Reed law firm and former member of the U.S. International Trade Commission.

___

TRUMP told Coast Guard cadets of his “historic investment in our military,” adding: “I’m proud to say that under my administration, as you just heard, we will be building the first new heavy icebreakers the United States has seen in over 40 years.” — speech to Coast Guard Academy May 17.

THE FACTS: Although his rousing words earned applause from the cadets, Trump’s budget this past week excludes the Coast Guard from his planned expansion of military spending. He’s proposing to cut the Coast Guard budget by more than $420 million, or 3.8 percent, while increasing military spending overall. The Coast Guard is under the Homeland Security Department, not the Pentagon.

The icebreaker project he boasts about started under the Obama administration and Trump’s budget would advance it only incrementally, spending $19 million to continue efforts “toward awarding a contract” for design and construction in 2019. “We all know that doesn’t get us an icebreaker,” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told a budget hearing, “but it gets us started.”

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper, Paul Wiseman, Alicia A. Caldwell, Jim Drinkard, Robert Burns and Ricardo-Alonso Zaldivar contributed to this report.

___

Find all AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2rcjIxT

[exfrenchdorsl4p0a1]

AP FACT CHECK: Trump Wraps Up Trip Abroad With False Claims About NATO

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been a muted week for the “real” Donald Trump, the Twitter account where the president normally says a lot of things that are unreal. That respite may have come to a close, though, as he wrapped up his foreign trip with yet another mistold tale about NATO.

In a tweet and a speech before leaving for home Saturday, he said that thanks to him, money is “starting to pour into NATO,” which it isn’t.

Besides going light on provocative tweets, Trump held no news conferences and gave no extended interviews abroad. Those venues are frequent sources of Trump’s off-the-cuff misstatements. Even a more scripted Trump, though, does not always tell it straight, and the release of his proposed budget stirred a fresh round of questionable rhetoric from his stateside aides.

A look at some of the statements under scrutiny over the past week:

TRUMP: “I will tell you, a big difference over the last year, money is actually starting to pour into NATO from countries that would not have been doing what they’re doing now had I not been elected, I can tell you that. Money is starting to pour in.” — speech to U.S. troops in Sicily on Saturday

TRUMP tweet: “Many NATO countries have agreed to step up payments considerably, as they should. Money is beginning to pour in.”

THE FACTS: First, no money is pouring in and countries do not pay the U.S. Nor do they pay NATO directly, apart from administrative expenses, which are not the issue.

The issue is how much each NATO member country spends on its own defense.

Although the president is right that many NATO countries have agreed to spend more on their military budgets, that is not a result of the NATO summit this past week at which Trump pressed them to do so. The countries agreed in 2014 to stop cutting their military spending and to start increasing it “toward” 2 percent of their gross domestic product by 2024.

That goal was set during the Obama administration and is less than an ironclad commitment.

___

TRUMP: “But 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years, and not paying in those past years.” — remarks to NATO on Thursday

THE FACTS: Members of the alliance are not in arrears in their military spending. They are not in debt to the United States, or failing to meet a current standard, and Washington is not trying to collect anything, despite the president’s contention that they “owe massive amounts of money.” They merely committed in 2014 to work toward the goal of 2 percent of GDP by 2024.

___

TRUMP, in a telephone call to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte: “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.” — Philippine government transcript of April 29 phone call, reported by The Washington Post.

THE FACTS: Trump’s own State Department’s human rights report, updated in March, described in harsh terms the more than 6,000 killings by police and vigilantes of suspected Philippine drug dealers and users. The killings, carried out without formal evidence or trials, were to fulfill a Duterte campaign promise to eliminate illegal drug activity in the country by the end of last year.

The report said Duterte released lists of suspected drug criminals on at least two occasions and some on those lists were killed in police or vigilante operations. It says “authorities made promises of immunity from investigation and prosecution for officers involved in drug killings.”

___

TRUMP, on his Oval Office meeting May 10 with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador: “Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel,’ never mentioned it in that conversation. And they’re all saying I did. So you have another story wrong.” — remarks at a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

THE FACTS: Trump is denying saying something that he wasn’t alleged to have said in the first place. His comment steers around the issue that emanated from that meeting — that he divulged classified information about an Islamic State threat in his conversation with the Russians, perhaps in a compromising way that would enable Russia to trace the source of the intelligence.

Trump is not alleged to have told the Russians specifically that the information came from the Israelis. Israel’s link was established separately, in news reports.

___

GARY COHN, Trump’s economic adviser: “Coal doesn’t even really make that much sense anymore.” Speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to Italy on Thursday night, he added that natural gas is “such a cleaner fuel” and the U.S. could become a “manufacturing powerhouse” by spending on wind and solar energy.”

THE FACTS: That’s an accurate assessment of the improbability of reviving the coal industry — and a statement at odds with his boss’s vow to make coal king again. Trump and his team blame overregulation for the decline of coal but market forces are the larger problem. Natural gas supplies have surged with the advent of fracking, making coal increasingly uncompetitive as an energy source.

___

MICK MULVANEY, Trump budget chief, on the president’s proposed budget: “There are no Medicaid cuts in the terms of what ordinary human beings would refer to as a cut. We are not spending less money one year than we spent before.” — briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Mulvaney is being artfully evasive about the health care program for families and the poor. By any conventional measure of federal financing, the program is on the chopping block.

First, the Trump-supported rollback of President Barack Obama’s health care law would reduce federal money that 31 states and the District of Columbia have relied on to extend coverage to low-income adults under Medicaid. The Republican health care bill passed by the House would cap the overall federal share of Medicaid spending, meaning it would no longer be an open-ended entitlement.

Second, the Trump budget could compound those restrictions by reducing the rate of growth in federal Medicaid money even more. Under the budget, Medicaid spending would fall from 2 percent of the economy to 1.7 percent in 2027 due to reductions in spending projections by Trump. That slight decrease adds up to more than $600 billion over 10 years.

___

MULVANEY: “I went back and looked at some of the economic assumptions that the Obama administration made in its first couple of years. And I want to say on a couple of different occasions, their assumed growth rate was more than 4.5 percent. Come on, this is the first administration in history — OK? — it was the first decade, the first eight-year period in history not to have a 3 percent growth rate. Yet they were promising us 4.5 percent growth.” — briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Obama’s expectations for growth were in line with accepted economic views at the time. That’s because accelerated growth often follows a downturn. He took office in a deep recession, and his team figured the economy would naturally rebound at a stronger pace than its average growth rate.

Obama’s first budget in 2009 estimated growth would be above 4 percent in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It would then settle into an average growth rate of 2.6 percent starting in 2015. That isn’t that far from separate estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.

The economy expanded instead at a sluggish pace, closer to 2 percent a year. Trump’s budget is more ambitious than Obama’s, rosy but thin on rationale for the optimism. It anticipates shifting growth above 3 percent, much higher than Obama’s long-term average.

___

TRUMP, on why the U.S. under Obama should not have agreed to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015: “I think they would have failed, totally failed within six months. We gave them a lifeline and we not only gave them a lifeline, we gave them wealth and prosperity.” — Statement in Jerusalem on Monday, standing with Netanyahu.

THE FACTS: What would have happened without the deal is impossible to say, but such an imminent collapse of Iran’s economy was highly improbable.

International penalties on Iran in response to its nuclear program did drive its economy into crisis earlier this decade. But even before the nuclear deal, Iran had cut budget expenditures and fixed its balance of payments. It was still exporting oil and importing products from countries such as Japan and China.

The multinational deal froze Iran’s nuclear program in return for an end to a variety of oil, trade and financial sanctions on Tehran. Iran also regained access to frozen assets held abroad. The deal was conceivably an economic “lifeline” for the state but Iran is not wealthy as a result; ordinary Iranians have seen limited benefits to date.

___

TRUMP: “I don’t know who the people are that would put us into a NAFTA, which was so one-sided. Both from the Canada standpoint and from the Mexico standpoint. So one-sided. Wilbur (U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross) will tell you that, you know, like, at the court in Canada, we always lose. Well, the judges are three Canadians and two Americans. We always lose.” — Economist interview in May.

THE FACTS: Trump mischaracterizes the system for resolving trade disputes under the North American Free Trade Agreement. When the U.S. and Canada are at odds over trade, NAFTA calls for five-person panel to weigh in. Each country picks two panelists, drawn from a list that consists largely of trade lawyers, economists and retired judges. The fifth comes from one of the two countries and usually alternates between them.

The system “does treat all parties the same regardless of what Trump says,” says Fred McMahon, a fellow at the Fraser Institute think-tank in Toronto.

Trump has a stronger case when he complains about America’s losing record against Canada in NAFTA cases, though it’s not true that the Americans “always lose.” A 2007 study found that the NAFTA panels changed or overturned U.S. government decisions two-thirds of the time.

In those cases, the panels are supposed to base their decisions on U.S. law. But “there are a lot of folks in Washington who have felt that sometimes NAFTA panels overstep their bounds” and don’t defer to American laws, says Dean Pinkert, a partner at the Hughes Hubbard & Reed law firm and former member of the U.S. International Trade Commission.

___

TRUMP told Coast Guard cadets of his “historic investment in our military,” adding: “I’m proud to say that under my administration, as you just heard, we will be building the first new heavy icebreakers the United States has seen in over 40 years.” — speech to Coast Guard Academy May 17.

THE FACTS: Although his rousing words earned applause from the cadets, Trump’s budget this past week excludes the Coast Guard from his planned expansion of military spending. He’s proposing to cut the Coast Guard budget by more than $420 million, or 3.8 percent, while increasing military spending overall. The Coast Guard is under the Homeland Security Department, not the Pentagon.

The icebreaker project he boasts about started under the Obama administration and Trump’s budget would advance it only incrementally, spending $19 million to continue efforts “toward awarding a contract” for design and construction in 2019. “We all know that doesn’t get us an icebreaker,” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told a budget hearing, “but it gets us started.”

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper, Paul Wiseman, Alicia A. Caldwell, Jim Drinkard, Robert Burns and Ricardo-Alonso Zaldivar contributed to this report.

___

Find all AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2rcjIxT

[pat78701]

AP FACT CHECK: Trump Wraps Up Trip Abroad With False Claims About NATO

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been a muted week for the “real” Donald Trump, the Twitter account where the president normally says a lot of things that are unreal. That respite may have come to a close, though, as he wrapped up his foreign trip with yet another mistold tale about NATO.

In a tweet and a speech before leaving for home Saturday, he said that thanks to him, money is “starting to pour into NATO,” which it isn’t.

Besides going light on provocative tweets, Trump held no news conferences and gave no extended interviews abroad. Those venues are frequent sources of Trump’s off-the-cuff misstatements. Even a more scripted Trump, though, does not always tell it straight, and the release of his proposed budget stirred a fresh round of questionable rhetoric from his stateside aides.

A look at some of the statements under scrutiny over the past week:

TRUMP: “I will tell you, a big difference over the last year, money is actually starting to pour into NATO from countries that would not have been doing what they’re doing now had I not been elected, I can tell you that. Money is starting to pour in.” — speech to U.S. troops in Sicily on Saturday

TRUMP tweet: “Many NATO countries have agreed to step up payments considerably, as they should. Money is beginning to pour in.”

THE FACTS: First, no money is pouring in and countries do not pay the U.S. Nor do they pay NATO directly, apart from administrative expenses, which are not the issue.

The issue is how much each NATO member country spends on its own defense.

Although the president is right that many NATO countries have agreed to spend more on their military budgets, that is not a result of the NATO summit this past week at which Trump pressed them to do so. The countries agreed in 2014 to stop cutting their military spending and to start increasing it “toward” 2 percent of their gross domestic product by 2024.

That goal was set during the Obama administration and is less than an ironclad commitment.

___

TRUMP: “But 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years, and not paying in those past years.” — remarks to NATO on Thursday

THE FACTS: Members of the alliance are not in arrears in their military spending. They are not in debt to the United States, or failing to meet a current standard, and Washington is not trying to collect anything, despite the president’s contention that they “owe massive amounts of money.” They merely committed in 2014 to work toward the goal of 2 percent of GDP by 2024.

___

TRUMP, in a telephone call to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte: “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.” — Philippine government transcript of April 29 phone call, reported by The Washington Post.

THE FACTS: Trump’s own State Department’s human rights report, updated in March, described in harsh terms the more than 6,000 killings by police and vigilantes of suspected Philippine drug dealers and users. The killings, carried out without formal evidence or trials, were to fulfill a Duterte campaign promise to eliminate illegal drug activity in the country by the end of last year.

The report said Duterte released lists of suspected drug criminals on at least two occasions and some on those lists were killed in police or vigilante operations. It says “authorities made promises of immunity from investigation and prosecution for officers involved in drug killings.”

___

TRUMP, on his Oval Office meeting May 10 with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador: “Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel,’ never mentioned it in that conversation. And they’re all saying I did. So you have another story wrong.” — remarks at a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

THE FACTS: Trump is denying saying something that he wasn’t alleged to have said in the first place. His comment steers around the issue that emanated from that meeting — that he divulged classified information about an Islamic State threat in his conversation with the Russians, perhaps in a compromising way that would enable Russia to trace the source of the intelligence.

Trump is not alleged to have told the Russians specifically that the information came from the Israelis. Israel’s link was established separately, in news reports.

___

GARY COHN, Trump’s economic adviser: “Coal doesn’t even really make that much sense anymore.” Speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to Italy on Thursday night, he added that natural gas is “such a cleaner fuel” and the U.S. could become a “manufacturing powerhouse” by spending on wind and solar energy.”

THE FACTS: That’s an accurate assessment of the improbability of reviving the coal industry — and a statement at odds with his boss’s vow to make coal king again. Trump and his team blame overregulation for the decline of coal but market forces are the larger problem. Natural gas supplies have surged with the advent of fracking, making coal increasingly uncompetitive as an energy source.

___

MICK MULVANEY, Trump budget chief, on the president’s proposed budget: “There are no Medicaid cuts in the terms of what ordinary human beings would refer to as a cut. We are not spending less money one year than we spent before.” — briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Mulvaney is being artfully evasive about the health care program for families and the poor. By any conventional measure of federal financing, the program is on the chopping block.

First, the Trump-supported rollback of President Barack Obama’s health care law would reduce federal money that 31 states and the District of Columbia have relied on to extend coverage to low-income adults under Medicaid. The Republican health care bill passed by the House would cap the overall federal share of Medicaid spending, meaning it would no longer be an open-ended entitlement.

Second, the Trump budget could compound those restrictions by reducing the rate of growth in federal Medicaid money even more. Under the budget, Medicaid spending would fall from 2 percent of the economy to 1.7 percent in 2027 due to reductions in spending projections by Trump. That slight decrease adds up to more than $600 billion over 10 years.

___

MULVANEY: “I went back and looked at some of the economic assumptions that the Obama administration made in its first couple of years. And I want to say on a couple of different occasions, their assumed growth rate was more than 4.5 percent. Come on, this is the first administration in history — OK? — it was the first decade, the first eight-year period in history not to have a 3 percent growth rate. Yet they were promising us 4.5 percent growth.” — briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Obama’s expectations for growth were in line with accepted economic views at the time. That’s because accelerated growth often follows a downturn. He took office in a deep recession, and his team figured the economy would naturally rebound at a stronger pace than its average growth rate.

Obama’s first budget in 2009 estimated growth would be above 4 percent in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It would then settle into an average growth rate of 2.6 percent starting in 2015. That isn’t that far from separate estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.

The economy expanded instead at a sluggish pace, closer to 2 percent a year. Trump’s budget is more ambitious than Obama’s, rosy but thin on rationale for the optimism. It anticipates shifting growth above 3 percent, much higher than Obama’s long-term average.

___

TRUMP, on why the U.S. under Obama should not have agreed to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015: “I think they would have failed, totally failed within six months. We gave them a lifeline and we not only gave them a lifeline, we gave them wealth and prosperity.” — Statement in Jerusalem on Monday, standing with Netanyahu.

THE FACTS: What would have happened without the deal is impossible to say, but such an imminent collapse of Iran’s economy was highly improbable.

International penalties on Iran in response to its nuclear program did drive its economy into crisis earlier this decade. But even before the nuclear deal, Iran had cut budget expenditures and fixed its balance of payments. It was still exporting oil and importing products from countries such as Japan and China.

The multinational deal froze Iran’s nuclear program in return for an end to a variety of oil, trade and financial sanctions on Tehran. Iran also regained access to frozen assets held abroad. The deal was conceivably an economic “lifeline” for the state but Iran is not wealthy as a result; ordinary Iranians have seen limited benefits to date.

___

TRUMP: “I don’t know who the people are that would put us into a NAFTA, which was so one-sided. Both from the Canada standpoint and from the Mexico standpoint. So one-sided. Wilbur (U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross) will tell you that, you know, like, at the court in Canada, we always lose. Well, the judges are three Canadians and two Americans. We always lose.” — Economist interview in May.

THE FACTS: Trump mischaracterizes the system for resolving trade disputes under the North American Free Trade Agreement. When the U.S. and Canada are at odds over trade, NAFTA calls for five-person panel to weigh in. Each country picks two panelists, drawn from a list that consists largely of trade lawyers, economists and retired judges. The fifth comes from one of the two countries and usually alternates between them.

The system “does treat all parties the same regardless of what Trump says,” says Fred McMahon, a fellow at the Fraser Institute think-tank in Toronto.

Trump has a stronger case when he complains about America’s losing record against Canada in NAFTA cases, though it’s not true that the Americans “always lose.” A 2007 study found that the NAFTA panels changed or overturned U.S. government decisions two-thirds of the time.

In those cases, the panels are supposed to base their decisions on U.S. law. But “there are a lot of folks in Washington who have felt that sometimes NAFTA panels overstep their bounds” and don’t defer to American laws, says Dean Pinkert, a partner at the Hughes Hubbard & Reed law firm and former member of the U.S. International Trade Commission.

___

TRUMP told Coast Guard cadets of his “historic investment in our military,” adding: “I’m proud to say that under my administration, as you just heard, we will be building the first new heavy icebreakers the United States has seen in over 40 years.” — speech to Coast Guard Academy May 17.

THE FACTS: Although his rousing words earned applause from the cadets, Trump’s budget this past week excludes the Coast Guard from his planned expansion of military spending. He’s proposing to cut the Coast Guard budget by more than $420 million, or 3.8 percent, while increasing military spending overall. The Coast Guard is under the Homeland Security Department, not the Pentagon.

The icebreaker project he boasts about started under the Obama administration and Trump’s budget would advance it only incrementally, spending $19 million to continue efforts “toward awarding a contract” for design and construction in 2019. “We all know that doesn’t get us an icebreaker,” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told a budget hearing, “but it gets us started.”

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper, Paul Wiseman, Alicia A. Caldwell, Jim Drinkard, Robert Burns and Ricardo-Alonso Zaldivar contributed to this report.

___

Find all AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2rcjIxT

[porchenclose10019]

AP FACT CHECK: Trump Wraps Up Trip Abroad With False Claims About NATO

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s been a muted week for the “real” Donald Trump, the Twitter account where the president normally says a lot of things that are unreal. That respite may have come to a close, though, as he wrapped up his foreign trip with yet another mistold tale about NATO.

In a tweet and a speech before leaving for home Saturday, he said that thanks to him, money is “starting to pour into NATO,” which it isn’t.

Besides going light on provocative tweets, Trump held no news conferences and gave no extended interviews abroad. Those venues are frequent sources of Trump’s off-the-cuff misstatements. Even a more scripted Trump, though, does not always tell it straight, and the release of his proposed budget stirred a fresh round of questionable rhetoric from his stateside aides.

A look at some of the statements under scrutiny over the past week:

TRUMP: “I will tell you, a big difference over the last year, money is actually starting to pour into NATO from countries that would not have been doing what they’re doing now had I not been elected, I can tell you that. Money is starting to pour in.” — speech to U.S. troops in Sicily on Saturday

TRUMP tweet: “Many NATO countries have agreed to step up payments considerably, as they should. Money is beginning to pour in.”

THE FACTS: First, no money is pouring in and countries do not pay the U.S. Nor do they pay NATO directly, apart from administrative expenses, which are not the issue.

The issue is how much each NATO member country spends on its own defense.

Although the president is right that many NATO countries have agreed to spend more on their military budgets, that is not a result of the NATO summit this past week at which Trump pressed them to do so. The countries agreed in 2014 to stop cutting their military spending and to start increasing it “toward” 2 percent of their gross domestic product by 2024.

That goal was set during the Obama administration and is less than an ironclad commitment.

___

TRUMP: “But 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years, and not paying in those past years.” — remarks to NATO on Thursday

THE FACTS: Members of the alliance are not in arrears in their military spending. They are not in debt to the United States, or failing to meet a current standard, and Washington is not trying to collect anything, despite the president’s contention that they “owe massive amounts of money.” They merely committed in 2014 to work toward the goal of 2 percent of GDP by 2024.

___

TRUMP, in a telephone call to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte: “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.” — Philippine government transcript of April 29 phone call, reported by The Washington Post.

THE FACTS: Trump’s own State Department’s human rights report, updated in March, described in harsh terms the more than 6,000 killings by police and vigilantes of suspected Philippine drug dealers and users. The killings, carried out without formal evidence or trials, were to fulfill a Duterte campaign promise to eliminate illegal drug activity in the country by the end of last year.

The report said Duterte released lists of suspected drug criminals on at least two occasions and some on those lists were killed in police or vigilante operations. It says “authorities made promises of immunity from investigation and prosecution for officers involved in drug killings.”

___

TRUMP, on his Oval Office meeting May 10 with Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador: “Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel,’ never mentioned it in that conversation. And they’re all saying I did. So you have another story wrong.” — remarks at a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

THE FACTS: Trump is denying saying something that he wasn’t alleged to have said in the first place. His comment steers around the issue that emanated from that meeting — that he divulged classified information about an Islamic State threat in his conversation with the Russians, perhaps in a compromising way that would enable Russia to trace the source of the intelligence.

Trump is not alleged to have told the Russians specifically that the information came from the Israelis. Israel’s link was established separately, in news reports.

___

GARY COHN, Trump’s economic adviser: “Coal doesn’t even really make that much sense anymore.” Speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to Italy on Thursday night, he added that natural gas is “such a cleaner fuel” and the U.S. could become a “manufacturing powerhouse” by spending on wind and solar energy.”

THE FACTS: That’s an accurate assessment of the improbability of reviving the coal industry — and a statement at odds with his boss’s vow to make coal king again. Trump and his team blame overregulation for the decline of coal but market forces are the larger problem. Natural gas supplies have surged with the advent of fracking, making coal increasingly uncompetitive as an energy source.

___

MICK MULVANEY, Trump budget chief, on the president’s proposed budget: “There are no Medicaid cuts in the terms of what ordinary human beings would refer to as a cut. We are not spending less money one year than we spent before.” — briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Mulvaney is being artfully evasive about the health care program for families and the poor. By any conventional measure of federal financing, the program is on the chopping block.

First, the Trump-supported rollback of President Barack Obama’s health care law would reduce federal money that 31 states and the District of Columbia have relied on to extend coverage to low-income adults under Medicaid. The Republican health care bill passed by the House would cap the overall federal share of Medicaid spending, meaning it would no longer be an open-ended entitlement.

Second, the Trump budget could compound those restrictions by reducing the rate of growth in federal Medicaid money even more. Under the budget, Medicaid spending would fall from 2 percent of the economy to 1.7 percent in 2027 due to reductions in spending projections by Trump. That slight decrease adds up to more than $600 billion over 10 years.

___

MULVANEY: “I went back and looked at some of the economic assumptions that the Obama administration made in its first couple of years. And I want to say on a couple of different occasions, their assumed growth rate was more than 4.5 percent. Come on, this is the first administration in history — OK? — it was the first decade, the first eight-year period in history not to have a 3 percent growth rate. Yet they were promising us 4.5 percent growth.” — briefing Tuesday.

THE FACTS: Obama’s expectations for growth were in line with accepted economic views at the time. That’s because accelerated growth often follows a downturn. He took office in a deep recession, and his team figured the economy would naturally rebound at a stronger pace than its average growth rate.

Obama’s first budget in 2009 estimated growth would be above 4 percent in 2011, 2012 and 2013. It would then settle into an average growth rate of 2.6 percent starting in 2015. That isn’t that far from separate estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.

The economy expanded instead at a sluggish pace, closer to 2 percent a year. Trump’s budget is more ambitious than Obama’s, rosy but thin on rationale for the optimism. It anticipates shifting growth above 3 percent, much higher than Obama’s long-term average.

___

TRUMP, on why the U.S. under Obama should not have agreed to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015: “I think they would have failed, totally failed within six months. We gave them a lifeline and we not only gave them a lifeline, we gave them wealth and prosperity.” — Statement in Jerusalem on Monday, standing with Netanyahu.

THE FACTS: What would have happened without the deal is impossible to say, but such an imminent collapse of Iran’s economy was highly improbable.

International penalties on Iran in response to its nuclear program did drive its economy into crisis earlier this decade. But even before the nuclear deal, Iran had cut budget expenditures and fixed its balance of payments. It was still exporting oil and importing products from countries such as Japan and China.

The multinational deal froze Iran’s nuclear program in return for an end to a variety of oil, trade and financial sanctions on Tehran. Iran also regained access to frozen assets held abroad. The deal was conceivably an economic “lifeline” for the state but Iran is not wealthy as a result; ordinary Iranians have seen limited benefits to date.

___

TRUMP: “I don’t know who the people are that would put us into a NAFTA, which was so one-sided. Both from the Canada standpoint and from the Mexico standpoint. So one-sided. Wilbur (U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross) will tell you that, you know, like, at the court in Canada, we always lose. Well, the judges are three Canadians and two Americans. We always lose.” — Economist interview in May.

THE FACTS: Trump mischaracterizes the system for resolving trade disputes under the North American Free Trade Agreement. When the U.S. and Canada are at odds over trade, NAFTA calls for five-person panel to weigh in. Each country picks two panelists, drawn from a list that consists largely of trade lawyers, economists and retired judges. The fifth comes from one of the two countries and usually alternates between them.

The system “does treat all parties the same regardless of what Trump says,” says Fred McMahon, a fellow at the Fraser Institute think-tank in Toronto.

Trump has a stronger case when he complains about America’s losing record against Canada in NAFTA cases, though it’s not true that the Americans “always lose.” A 2007 study found that the NAFTA panels changed or overturned U.S. government decisions two-thirds of the time.

In those cases, the panels are supposed to base their decisions on U.S. law. But “there are a lot of folks in Washington who have felt that sometimes NAFTA panels overstep their bounds” and don’t defer to American laws, says Dean Pinkert, a partner at the Hughes Hubbard & Reed law firm and former member of the U.S. International Trade Commission.

___

TRUMP told Coast Guard cadets of his “historic investment in our military,” adding: “I’m proud to say that under my administration, as you just heard, we will be building the first new heavy icebreakers the United States has seen in over 40 years.” — speech to Coast Guard Academy May 17.

THE FACTS: Although his rousing words earned applause from the cadets, Trump’s budget this past week excludes the Coast Guard from his planned expansion of military spending. He’s proposing to cut the Coast Guard budget by more than $420 million, or 3.8 percent, while increasing military spending overall. The Coast Guard is under the Homeland Security Department, not the Pentagon.

The icebreaker project he boasts about started under the Obama administration and Trump’s budget would advance it only incrementally, spending $19 million to continue efforts “toward awarding a contract” for design and construction in 2019. “We all know that doesn’t get us an icebreaker,” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told a budget hearing, “but it gets us started.”

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper, Paul Wiseman, Alicia A. Caldwell, Jim Drinkard, Robert Burns and Ricardo-Alonso Zaldivar contributed to this report.

___

Find all AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2rcjIxT