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divorcelawyergunnisonutah · 2 years ago

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Estate Planning Attorney Syracuse Utah

According to experts, less than half of Syracuse Citizens have any estate-planning documents. But making arrangements for the time when you will be gone not only takes care of the people left behind; it also ensures that your bills are taken care of in the way that you desire. Here are a few estate planning tips that will guarantee your safe and efficient departure.

Write a Will

If you pass away without a will, the state may take over and divvy up your assets. Generally, spouses and children get first dibs, then other relatives like parents and siblings. If there is no family, assets go to the state. Also a will determines who will have custody of your children, if you were the last surviving parent.

Review Your Will/Trust Annually

Changes in your finances or personal relationships may necessitate a change in your final will. Since most of us don’t know when we’re going to die, dynamic life changes may require us to make updates to who gets what and how much. To not do so could lead to tension and arbitration among surviving members.

Acquire Life Insurance

At least make sure you have the basics covered when calculating how much life insurance may be necessary. Consider the summation of any outstanding debts you may have, your final expenses, and funds for savings goals, like college for the kids. With these costs covered, your family should be able to live comfortably on the reminder of your insurance.

Create Three Critical Additional Documents

Estate planning is about more than our final wishes, it also involves creating documents that determine what happens in case we are unable to take care of ourselves while we are living. A durable power of attorney lets you designate an agent to manage your finances and legal affairs. A Release-of-information form gives doctors permission to share your medical records with designated others. Advance directives can give power of attorney for health care decisions while you are living.

Work With An Estate Planning Team

Depending on how complex your estate may be, you might need the assistance of a whole estate planning team. Designate a tax professional that can help minimize the amount of income taxes your beneficiaries will pay on their inheritances. A financial advisor will create a suitable investment portfolio for all your assets. Also ensure that you hire a knowledgeable estate planning attorney. Estate planning attorneys help create wills and trusts, along with ensuring state and federal requirements are upheld. It is generally better to work with a local attorney, as they are most familiar with city and state laws. The purpose of estate planning is to help you achieve your personal and family goals after you pass away. It ensures that your assets will end up in the hands of those people whom you wish them to go to, so that you can reach your personal and financial goals even after you die. You also can reduce the amount of taxes paid by planning your estate in the right way to ensure that your heirs receive a larger inheritance.

The saying that the only two sure things in life are death and taxes has existed for centuries. While no one likes to think about dying, it is a certainty and something that must be faced. A plan for your estate consists of a set of documents that help you plan for taxes and death and it is something that nearly everyone needs regardless if their financial and familiar affairs are complex or simple.

The documents that make up an estate plan help you avoid problems that often arise upon your death. Many of these are problems most of us never think of during our lifetimes, or are things that we simply choose not to think of. But if there is no plan in place, these issues are handled by the courts. It is therefore very important to have a plan in place so that you can decide for yourself the best choices for your family, such as who will care for minor children, who will receive your property, and who will finalize your affairs.

Estate planning can be a rather complicated matter, and it does require good judgment to ensure that you achieve the outcomes you desire. It gives you the choice while you are alive to determine who, what, when, where and how your estate will be handled. It also allows for substantial savings when dealing with tax issues, court costs and attorney fees. Planning your estate also helps your loved ones avoid the burden of having to deal with bureaucracy and confusion after you pass away. Unfortunately, many people do not plan their estates because they believe that they don’t need an estate plan or they believe that their family members can handle the task of dividing up their assets. However, if you fail to have a solid estate plan in place to handle the settlement of your affairs after you die, the laws in your state will determine what must be done. This may result in family disagreements, assets going to the wrong people, and liability for estate taxes that could have been avoided. If you don’t have an estate plan in place before you die, your assets and affairs can be tied up for months. It is therefore of the utmost importance to plan your estate with care so that everything is handled properly (and according to your wishes) upon your death. Planning an estate can be a bit overwhelming. However, a reputable estate planning attorney has the knowledge and experience necessary to guide you through the process while keeping your interests and wishes in mind. When you have a good plan in place, you are given the peace of mind knowing that all of your affairs will be handled as you wish after you leave this earth.

Beneficiary Designations and Estate Planning After Divorce

If you are like most people who are getting divorced, or who have just gone through divorce, you no longer want your ex-spouse to be the beneficiary of your estate or to put your child (ren) in a position to be disinherited if your ex-spouse gets married again after the divorce. If your original plan was to leave everything to your spouse and then to your child(ren), your ex-spouse may still get much of your estate if you don’t modify your estate plans after divorce. While a divorce decree often automatically revokes any disposition of property made by your will to your ex- spouse (check your state law), your beneficiary designations – on things like your insurance and IRA will not automatically be revoked by your divorce decree. After a divorce, you should carefully review and probably amend the following items unless you still want to leave assets to your ex-spouse: 1. Beneficiary designations for the following financial instruments: Employer retirement plans, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA), Life insurance, Annuities and Health savings accounts 2. Your will. 3. Transfer on Death (TOD) investment accounts 4. Payable on Death (POD) bank accounts 5. Revocable trusts 6. Advanced estate planning structures such as irrevocable trusts.

In most cases, you can change these items by simply requesting, completing and filing the appropriate form. Since retirement and employer plans may represent the most significant portion of your net worth and liquid assets, it is particularly important that you amend the beneficiary designations on these accounts, as soon as possible after your divorce. Because these pass to the named beneficiary by operation of contract, as opposed to by probate, your designations supersede your will. If no changes are made, your ex-spouse who was originally designated as the beneficiary will be entitled to the benefit, despite the existence of a will or trust designating otherwise.

Guardianship & Remarriage Issues

In a perfect world, if something happened to you, your ex-spouse would assume guardianship of your minor child(ren). However, that assumes that your ex-spouse wants to raise the child(ren)and is fit to do so. If your ex-spouse is likely to assume guardianship, he or she will be responsible for providing a residence for the child(ren), and providing care, support and education. If you are concerned that monies you leave to your child(ren)may not be used as you would like if your ex-spouse has access to those funds, you can specify in a Revocable Living Trust (RLT) that the trustee who takes over in the event of your death pay for specific items out of the funds of the trust such as private school tuition, extra-curricular activities, a car at a certain age, college applications and tuition. Thus, you can protect your child(ren)’s inheritance by having an RLT in place with a trustee who will carry out your wishes which you specifically designate. The money would not be paid directly to the guardian (your ex-spouse), but would be used for the benefit of the child(ren). This also prevents your assets – which should be for the benefit of your child(ren)- from getting into the hands of your ex-spouse’s new spouse if he or she gets married again. You should also consider naming successor guardians in the event your ex-spouse does not want to raise the kids or is otherwise unavailable, or if you believe your ex-spouse to be an unfit parent.

Remarriage

If you decide to get married again you should know that without legal documentation to indicate otherwise, your new spouse may generally be entitled to one-half of your marital estate. This could mean that you might unintentionally at least partially disinherit your existing child(ren). Your new spouse may not end up being the guardian of your child(ren), but he or she may receive half of the assets intended to provide for them. Most divorced parents typically desire to leave assets to care for both their new spouse and their child(ren). You should sit down with a financial advisor and an estate planning attorney to assess the options. An easy solution may be the use of additional life insurance to help you carry out your wish to provide for both your minor child(ren) and your new spouse.

Complex Changes

If you have advanced estate planning structures such as irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILIT’s), Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRT’s), and charitable trusts they will be very difficult, if not impossible, to amend, since the original intent of creating these structures was to make an irrevocable election, usually structured to benefit both husband and wife together. It is critical that you work closely with your attorney, as well as the trustee, to explore possible options. You should also keep in mind that many state have an “elective share statute” which means that a spouse (whether estranged or not) will automatically be entitled to a certain percentage of your estate. However, through proper planning, there are a number of ways to avoid or limit the assets which are subject to the elective share, and to provide that your estranged spouse does not receive more of your estate than you want. This is another reason it is advisable to re-visit your estate plan following divorce. If any of the issues raised in this article interest you, you should revisit your estate plan with the assistance of a qualified estate planning attorney and a financial advisor.

What to Think About Before Meeting Your Lawyer

In my estate planning practice, it is not uncommon to meet with a new client who wants an estate plan prepared, but is a bit vague as to what should be included in that plan. Quite frequently, the initial conversation begins with the client saying something like, “I would like a will… or should I have a trust? Do I need anything else?” Actually, those are good questions to begin a discussion. Most folks recognize that their estate plan should provide for the distribution of their assets upon their death. That, of course, is an essential element of an estate plan, but there is more to consider in a well-designed plan. Prior to meeting with your attorney for the first time you should also be thinking about such things as who you want to handle your affairs should you become incapacitated; whether you would want your doctor to keep you alive should you be near the point of death with little chance of recovery; who you want to have the authority to sign important legal papers for you if you are unavailable; and, who you would want to raise your children if you suddenly die. There is a wide variety of personal circumstances which impact estate planning, but let me offer the following as items you should consider even before you meet with a lawyer to discuss your own estate plan.

Should I Have A Will Or A Trust?

This is typically among the first questions posed by clients during an initial meeting. Many are aware that a trust will avoid probate, but that is true only if the trust is properly funded, meaning that all of their assets are transferred into the trust. Not every estate plan needs a trust, however, and it may not be necessary for you to incur the additional cost of having your lawyer prepare a trust, when a will is suitable for your needs. And, contrary to what some folks think, having a trust does not avoid estate taxes. A trust may be the right choice for you, if it is unlikely that you will acquire more assets in the years ahead. What can often happen, however, is that folks will have a trust established and thereafter acquire new assets that they neglect to place in the trust. Then when they die the assets outside of the trust have to go through probate which defeats the intent of establishing a trust in the first place. So, before deciding upon a trust as the main element of your own estate plan, take some time to consider your future investment plans and major acquisitions.

There are some other advantages to a trust, which might make it the right choice for you. For example, should you become incapacitated, your trustee will be able to step in and manage your assets without having to seek a court appointed conservator. In that sense, a trust document is more all-encompassing and flexible than an ordinary will.

What Else Should I Consider In My Estate Plan?

Estate planning isn’t just about deciding who gets your wealth when you die. It is also about making decisions as to what you want to happen should you become seriously ill or incapacitated. Every estate plan should include an advance directive, which used to be called a living will. This document allows you to appoint a health care representative to make health care decisions for you, including end of life decisions, when you are unable to do so. Similarly, we recommend that you give a durable power of attorney to a family member or trusted friend in order to allow your appointed agent to manage your financial and business affairs when you are unavailable or otherwise incapacitated. A durable power of attorney remains in effect so long as you are alive and should provide that it will be effective even in the event of your incapacity.

What About My Bank Accounts, Life Insurance And Investment Accounts?

Careful estate planning should include a review of all of your assets, including checking the beneficiary designations you have listed in your retirement plan and in regard to your investment and bank accounts. With such beneficiary designations, these assets will be transferred outside of the probate process to those persons you have previously designated as beneficiaries on these accounts. It is important that you review your beneficiary designations to ensure that your choice of beneficiaries is in accordance with your current intentions as to disposition of your estate.

A thorough review of your portfolio and consideration of the issues described above before meeting with your estate planning attorney will allow you to realize the maximum benefit from your meeting. It will also help your attorney to focus his or her discussion with you on aspects of the process that are most relevant to your goals and needs.

Free Initial Consultation with Lawyer

It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. Legal problems come to everyone. Whether it’s your son who gets in a car wreck, your uncle who loses his job and needs to file for bankruptcy, your sister’s brother who’s getting divorced, or a grandparent that passes away without a will -all of us have legal issues and questions that arise. So when you have a law question, call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you!

Ascent Law LLC 8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite C West Jordan, Utah 84088 United States Telephone: (801) 676-5506

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 years ago

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 24, 2023

Heather Cox Richardson

“One year and one week ago—on February 17th, 2022—I warned this council that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the United Nations Security Council Ministerial Meeting on Ukraine Sovereignty and Russian Accountability today.

“I said that Russia would manufacture a pretext, and then use missiles, tanks, soldiers, cyber attacks to strike pre-identified targets, including Kyiv,” Blinken continued, “with the aim of toppling Ukraine’s democratically elected government. Russia’s representative—the same representative who will speak today—called these, and I quote, ‘groundless accusations.’

“Seven days later, on February 24th, 2022, Russia launched its full-scale invasion.”

When Putin’s initial attack failed to give him control of Ukraine, Blinken continued, “he called snap referenda in four occupied parts of Ukraine, deported Ukrainians, bussed in Russians, held sham votes at gunpoint, and then manipulated the results to claim near unanimous support for joining the Russian Federation.”

“Over the last year,” Blinken said, “Russia has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian men, women, and children; uprooted more than 13 million people from their homes; destroyed more than half of the country’s energy grid; bombed more than 700 hospitals, 2,600 schools; and abducted at least 6,000 Ukrainian children—some as young as four months old—and relocated them to Russia.

“And yet, the spirit of the Ukrainians remains unbroken; if anything, it’s stronger than ever.”

Blinken’s remarkable speech told the history of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, then highlighted that the world community has come together to stand behind Ukraine and the principles of the United Nations Charter that make all countries safer and more secure: “No seizing land by force. No erasing another country’s borders. No targeting civilians in war. No wars of aggression.”

He noted that the war had caused hardship around the globe, but the “vast majority” of states in the United Nations have condemned Russia’s violations of the U.N. Charter, including 141 who voted for a resolution along those lines just yesterday.

When Putin tried to use hunger as a weapon to end sanctions, more than 100 countries stepped up to bring down world grain prices; when Putin tried to use energy as a weapon, the rest of the world redirected national gas supplies so that the countries he was targeting could keep their people warm, and Europe worked hard to end its dependence on Russian energy.

Blinken said that if we do not defend the basic principles of the U.N. Charter, “we invite a world in which might makes right, the strong dominate the weak. That’s the world this body was created to end.”

While everyone—especially Ukraine—wants peace, he said, that peace must be durable, not simply an excuse to let Russia rest, rearm, and relaunch the war. As Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has outlined, any peace must honor Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty. Putin has rejected this condition out of the box, saying that Ukraine must accept his “annexation” of Ukraine’s territories.

Blinken reminded his listeners that not everything in the world has two sides. “In this war, there is an aggressor and there is a victim,” he said. “If Russia stops fighting and leaves Ukraine, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. The fact remains: One man—Vladimir Putin—started this war; one man can end it.”

When Russia and its defenders say the ongoing war is diverting resources from others in need, Blinken said, “look at Moscow’s actions” and look at the numbers. Last year, the U.S. contributed $13.5 billion in food aid and funded more than 40% of the World Food Program’s budget. Russia pays less than 1% of that budget.

Blinken went on: “Based on the latest UN figures, the United States donates over nine times as much as Russia to UN peacekeeping. We donate 390 times as much as Russia to UNICEF. We give nearly a thousand times as much as Russia to the UN Refugee Agency.”

Blinken reminded his listeners that the atrocities we are seeing Russians commit in Ukraine are not normal. “Bucha is not normal,” he said. “Mariupol is not normal. Irpin is not normal. Bombing schools and hospitals and apartment buildings to rubble is not normal. Stealing Ukrainian children from their families and giving them to people in Russia is not normal.

“We must not let President Putin’s callous indifference to human life become our own.”

Today, the leaders of the international Group of Seven, known as the G7, met virtually with Zelensky. The G7 includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the European Union.

The statement they issued echoed Blinken’s speech, then went on to pledge to continue food and humanitarian aid as countries suffer from the war, and to continue to design sanctions to make sure those countries continue to have access to food and fertilizers. The G7 leaders expressed “profound sympathy” for those affected by the “horrifying earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria” and pledged continued support.

“Above all,” they said, “our solidarity will never waver in standing with Ukraine, in supporting countries and people in need, and in upholding the international order based on the rule of law.”

The Biden administration today announced $2 billion in military aid to Ukraine, including drones, communications equipment, HIMARS rockets, and 155-millimeter artillery ammunition, while the G7 has increased its 2023 support for Ukraine to $39 billion, and both Germany and Sweden committed to sending more Leopard 2 tanks.

The deputy chair of Russia’s security council, former president Dmitry Medvedev, said today that Russia planned to “push the borders of threats to our country as far as possible, even if these are the borders of Poland.” Poland is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), meaning an attack on it would be an attack on the rest of NATO, including the United States.

At a press conference in Kyiv today, Zelensky said: “Victory will be inevitable. I am certain there will be victory.”

“We have everything for it. We have the motivation, certainty, the friends, the diplomacy. You have all come together for this. If we all do our important homework, victory will be inevitable.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[From comments]

FERN MCBRIDE (NYC)

From historian, Timothy Snyder:

Why the world needs Ukrainian victory

1. To halt atrocity.

2. To preserve the international legal order.

3. To end an era of empire.

4. To defend the peace project of the European Union.

5. To give the rule of law a chance in Russia.

6. To weaken the prestige of tyrants.

7. To remind us that democracy is the better system.

8. To lift the threat of major war in Europe.

9. To lift the threat of major war in Asia.

For more reasons the world needs the Ukrainian victory, see link below.

https://snyder.substack.com/p/why-the-world-needs-ukrainian-victory-c90

PS What can you do personally? Keep in touch with your elected representatives. Support military and humanitarian assistance. Make your views known. Write a letter to the editor. Share this post widely. Fly a Ukrainian flag. Put a sticker on your computer.

Buy and wear Ukrainian merch. In great causes, small gestures matter. If you want to keep Ukrainian soldiers alive; here is a way to keep Ukrainians warm during winter; documenting Ukraine, a project that supports those in Ukraine who are chronicling the war-- To reach links to donate, first go to Snyder's newsletter and scroll down to his PS, where you will find the links underlined.

https://snyder.substack.com/p/why-the-world-needs-ukrainian-victory

Thank you for reading Letters from an American and this post, which came from Timothy Snyder's newsletter called, 'Thinking about..."

#Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #antony blinken #War in Ukraine #history #Timothy Snyder

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farmerbrown · 2 years ago

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Good evening,

September 17 is Constitution Day—the day in 1787 that the members of the Constitutional Convention, meeting in Philadelphia, signed the final draft of the American Constitution.

America’s Constitution endured for more than two centuries—longer than any other constitution in human history—because it was brilliantly conceived and based on the principles of liberty in the Declaration of Independence.

Today, however, certain parts of the Constitution have been completely subverted.

For instance, many of the functions intended to be carried out by our elected representatives are instead in the hands of unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats.

And some of the remaining parts of the Constitution—including the fundamental rights of free speech and freedom of religion in the First Amendment—are seriously under attack.

Underlying these efforts to destroy our Constitution is the movement in American schools and universities to push a false and dishonest account of American history. This account portrays our nation as essentially racist and irredeemably unjust.

It’s no surprise, then, that a recent Rasmussen poll found that over half of President Biden’s strong supporters think the Constitution “should be mostly or completely rewritten.”

Or that two law professors—one from Harvard and the other from Yale—wrote an op-ed in The New York Times titled “The Constitution is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed.”

American education has become a battleground, and reviving a proper understanding of American history and a proper reverence for the Constitution—especially among younger Americans—has become one of our most urgent priorities.

You are already a generous and reliable supporter of Hillsdale’s educational efforts on behalf of liberty.

That’s why I’m asking you to join Hillsdale’s Liberty & Learning Society today.

Liberty & Learning Society members are vital to our expanding efforts to educate citizens (especially younger citizens) about American history, the importance of the Constitution to liberty, and free-market economics.

Joining theLiberty & Learning Societyis easy.

Members commit to an automatic, recurring monthly gift of $5, $10, or even $20 or more each month, which automatically advances the important work of reaching and teaching additional millions of citizens on behalf of liberty.

Most members give in the $25 a month range, but we are grateful for every single member at whatever level they can afford.

In these trying and uncertain times, when so much is at stake, we have set an ambitious Constitution Day campaign goal: 1,200 new Liberty & Learning Society members by midnight on Constitution Day, September 17.

When you join, you become a partner in educating additional millions of Americans about the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and America’s great heritage of liberty through efforts like our free speech digest Imprimis, our free online courses, and our expanding work in the area of classical K-12 education.

By joining the Liberty & Learning Society, you also help us reduce fundraising expenses and maximize the impact of every dollar given.

Hillsdale has a tradition of and a reputation for being wise with our resources because we are almost unique in refusing to accept even one penny of government funding—not even indirectly in the form of federal or state student loans and grants.

All of Hillsdale’s work depends entirely on the support of individual citizens who understand the importance of our educational mission on behalf of liberty.

Will you consider being one of the 1,200 citizens we need to sign up for the Liberty & Learning Society before midnight on Constitution Day?

You can learn more about and join the Liberty & Learning Society using this secure link:

And if you accept my invitation to join Hillsdale’s Liberty & Learning Society on or before September 17, I’ll send you a link to a session of our upcoming free online course, “Understanding The American Founding: A Conversation.”

We are deeply grateful for your support of our ongoing work to recover and preserve liberty and limited government for future generations of Americans.

Warm regards, Larry P. Arnn

#hillsdale #constitution day #constitution of the united states

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bopinion · 2 years ago

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2022 / 48

Aperçu of the Week:

"Better a spectacular failure, than a benign success"

(Malcolm McLaren - "The man who created the Sex Pistols" - remembering an advice from an art-school teacher)

Bad News of the Week:

We don't have midterms in Germany because parliament is elected at the same time as the federal government, so to speak. And the elections at the state level are spread out colorfully on the calendar. So there is no concerted punishment of the current government on any particular date. It takes place anyway. But as a gradual process. And the (mood) picture that is currently emerging is frightening - a year after the election and not yet a year after the current government was formed.

In response to the question "In general, how would you rate the work of the traffic light coalition in its first year as a federal government?" only 29% still answered positively, compared with 16% negatively and 45% very negatively (survey by Civey for Der Spiegel). So two-thirds of the population are not satisfied with how the coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals is conducting politics. In the eastern states, approval even goes down to 12%. That's fierce.

At the same time, approval ratings for the opposition are going up. The conservative CDU/CSU parties have been ahead of the Social Democrats for half a year, most recently with 28% to 19%. Other demoscopes see them at over 30%. And their party leader Friedrich Merz has been in first place for months on the question of who people trust to do a good job as chancellor. That's even more fierce. Because neither is justified in any respect. Because Merz lacks any format and the CDU/CSU is ossifying into fundamental opposition without meaning or goal.

The "Progressive Coalition," on the other hand, is working surprisingly well despite internal friction. In its first year, it has had to cope with a mix of crises unprecedented in history: climate, war, Corona, energy, inflation, hunger, supply chains, democracy, and so on. Which they probably managed well to some extent, because conservatively governed (neighboring) countries perform at the same level and no one has a patent solution.

And yet, in their first (!) year, they have implemented an astonishing amount of their original plans in parallel: a fundamental reform of the welfare state ("citizen's income" instead of "Hartz IV"), massive changes in immigration policy and naturalization law, a gigantic special fund for the German armed forces, various strengthening of civil rights and self-determination, many sometimes strong pro-climate protection measures, reasonably solid budget management, some solutions for low-income earners (minimum wage) and families (child benefits), etc.

But just as Joe Biden was mainly chalked up to inflation in the U.S., so it is in this country. Our society is apparently so spoiled ("full coverage mentality") that someone must be to blame for every misery. So we like to blame "those up there". This is much easier than understanding complex global dependencies or even questioning one's own consumption behavior. Unfair, childish, unconstructive. And now I'm going to complain to the mayor that it's raining because I forgot to bring my umbrella.

Good News of the Week:

China is anything but a democracy. The people are denied basic rights that should be self-evident in this century: Freedom of speech and expression, self-determination and free elections, personal rights and liberties. Instead, the state or the party determines everything. The media are controlled by the same party, there is no opposition, and citizens are under constant surveillance. At times, the control measures of the apparatus seem so absurd that they would have to come from a dystopian Hollywood.

The so-called "zero COVID strategy" was most prominent in this country, with such excesses that, for example, chronically ill people were locked in without their medication, with the entrance doors welded shut - and died. In comparison, it seems almost harmless not to be allowed to leave one's workplace in the factory for weeks with a sleeping bag. But despite all the control of any communication, it has nevertheless made the rounds that these absurd measures do not even work. And that leads - believe it or not - to protests. In the streets, loudly, by the thousands. Using the symbol of a blank white sheet of paper to expose the censorship.

At first, the regime brutally tried to stifle the protests. With control like frisking cell phones for banned apps to coordinate demonstrations to naked violence. Even a BBC reporter was beaten and kicked - and only released from custody after hours. Increasingly, protests turned not against anti-Corona measures but against the regime in general, even against Xi Jinping by name. The parallel with Iran is obvious.

But as unlikely as the overthrow of the government is, there has been some movement in the Corona context in recent days. For example, if one is infected, one may now go into domestic isolation and no longer has to go to a state institution. With a single positive test, the entire apartment block is no longer sealed off. And in some cities, you can even ride the subway or go shopping without a daily negative test.

Coincidence? Possibly. But perhaps the leadership is finally realizing that not everything can be imposed by hook or by crook against the will of the population. Again, there is a parallel with Iran, where the "morality police" responsible for the death of Mahsa Amini are reportedly being disbanded. The courage of these protesters, the likes of which have not been seen in decades, may actually have brought about a fundamental realization. Chapeau!

Personal happy moment of the week:

This week I learned that I am "iconic." That's it. Thank you. Oh, you want to know why? Okay: because I made home order television (decades ago!). On screen. Live. About a dozen times. For a - drum roll please! - set of tape dispensers. Woohoo! I don't share this often because it's a wee bit embarrassing. But it's exactly what my daughter's university classmates find - yes, I'm happy to repeat it - "iconic." Still, I guess I'll have to have a serious talk with her sometime about which anecdotes of my personal past are more personal than public... ;-)

I couldn't care less...

...Ye. Nothing more to add here. I just don't care about the artist formerly known as Kanye West. Full stop.

As I write this...

...I realize that Chopin goes very well with candlelight and the scent of fir trees. When it has become cold and uncomfortable outside, one should be cozy inside.

Post Scriptum:

Japan and Costa Rica continue - Germany and Spain out. A sensation. Really? Because it was only a snapshot in the 70th minute. But it fits the picture: the underdogs are the heroes of this World Cup of soccer. Not only in this group. Because, for example, Tunisia also won against the favorites and defending champions France. It's a pity that - I had mentioned this - one has to virtually boycott this event. Because there really doesn't seem to be a lack of excitement and surprises. Even without Germany, whose tournament performance can be well described as "First we had no luck and then we had bad luck". Or to put it another way: we just weren't good enough.

What I find shabby, on the other hand, is the host's gloating commentary: on TV, Germany is openly made fun of; on Twitter, it goes from "Goodbye to all those who don't respect our Arab and Islamic values" to "Schadenfreude about the worst scum of the West is obligatory." Excuse me? Belgium was officially a top favorite. And is just as out. Denmark, after all, a "secret favorite" (whatever that is supposed to be). And is just as out. While expectations for Germany were low from the start after its preliminary round exit in Russia four years ago. But what should the worst scum of the West expect other than the usual bashing? Grrr...

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robertreich · 4 years ago

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How Big Money Corrupts Our Politics (And How to Fix It)

Corporate money is dominating our democracy. It's difficult to do anything – increase the minimum wage, reverse climate change, get Medicare for All, end police killings, fight systemic racism, shrink our bloated military – when big money controls our politics and dictates what policies are and aren't enacted. The pandemic has made that clearer than ever. The CARES Act, passed in late March as our pandemic response began, quietly provided huge benefits to wealthy Americans and big corporations. One provision doled out $135 billion in tax relief to people making at least half a million dollars, the richest 1% of American taxpayers.

This $135 billion is three times more than the measly $42 billion allocated in the CARES Act for safety-net programs like food and housing aid. It’s just shy of the $150 billion going to struggling state governments, and vastly more than the $100 billion being spent on overwhelmed hospitals and other crucial public health services. As Americans are still suffering massive unemployment and the ravages of the pandemic, lobbyists are crawling all over Capitol Hill and the White House is seeking continued subsidies for the rich and for corporations — while demanding an end to supplemental assistance for average working people, the poor, and the unemployed. It’s corruption in action, friends. And it’s undermining our democracy at every turn. Ask yourself how, during a global pandemic, the total net worth of U.S. billionaires has climbed from $2.9 trillion to $3.5 trillion, when more than 45.5 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits. Is it their skill? Their luck? Their insight? No. It’s their monopolies, enabled by their stranglehold on American democracy… monopolies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook, which have grown even larger during the pandemic. It’s also their access to insider information so they can do well in the stock market, like Senator Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, and Senator Kelly Loeffler, whose husband happens to be chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. Both were fully briefed on the likely effects of the coronavirus last February and promptly unloaded their shares of stock in companies that would be hit hardest. And it’s the tax cuts and subsidies they’ve squeezed out of government. You are paying for all of this — not just as taxpayers but as consumers. When you follow the money, you can see clearly how every aspect of American life has been corrupted. Take prescription drugs. We spend tens of billions of dollars on prescriptions every year, far more per person than citizens in any other developed country. Now that millions of Americans are unemployed and without insurance, they need affordable prescription drugs more than ever. Yet even the prices of drugs needed by coronavirus patients are skyrocketing. Big Pharma giant Gilead is charging a whopping $3,120 for its COVID drug, Remdesivir, even though the drug was developed with a $70,000,000 grant from the federal government paid for by American taxpayers. Once again, Big Pharma is set to profit on the people's dime. And they get away with it because our lawmakers depend on their campaign donations to remain in power. As you watch this, Mitch McConnell is actively blocking a bill drafted by Senate Republicans to reduce drug prices — after taking more than $280,000 from pharmaceutical companies so far this election season. Big Pharma is just one example. This vicious cycle is found in virtually every sector, and it’s why we continue to be met with politicians who don’t have our best interests at heart. So how do we get big money out of our democracy? A good starting point can be found in the sweeping reform package known as H.R. 1 — the For the People Act. The bill closes loopholes that favor big corporations and the wealthy, makes it easier for all of us to vote, and strengthens the power of small donors through public financing of elections — a system which matches $6 of public funds for every $1 of small donations. The For the People Act would also bar congresspeople from serving on corporate boards, require presidents to publicly disclose their tax returns, and make executive appointees recuse themselves in cases where there is a conflict of interest. These are just a few examples of tangible solutions that already exist to rein in unprecedented corruption and stop America’s slide toward oligarchy — but there’s much more we can and should do.

The important thing to remember is that the big money takeover of our democracy prevents us from advancing all of the policies we need to overhaul our racist, oppressive system and create a society that works for the many, not the few.

#video #videos #corruption #Big Pharma

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plannedparenthood · 5 years ago

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Medicaid vs. Medicare

Disclaimer: Planned Parenthood believes in using gender-inclusive language. However, when we’re referencing government data and statistics, we have to use the data points they chose, which often don’t reflect the full range of gender identities. We hope that in the future, all research will better reflect and respect the diversity of gender.

It’s easy to mix up Medicaid and Medicare. They sound super similar and they’re both well-known government programs that help people get health care across the country. But it’s important to know the difference so you and the people you care about can benefit.

The Difference Between Medicaid and Medicare

Although Medicaid and Medicare are complex, here’s the main difference:

Medicaid is insurance that aids people of all ages who have low incomes. Medicaid covers 21% of the U.S. population.

Medicare is insurance that primarily cares for people ages 65 years and up (with any income). Medicare covers 14% of the U.S. population.

Here’s where this gets tricky: Medicare also covers people of all ages who have disabilities or who are on dialysis — including people who need reproductive health care, such as birth control and pregnancy services. What’s more, people can be on both Medicaid and Medicare at the same time. (For these “dual eligible” beneficiaries, Medicare pays their claims first and Medicaid pays second.)

What Medicaid and Medicare Have in Common

Overall, Medicaid and Medicare provide health care for almost 108 million Americans. These federal programs also provide health care to a greater number of women than any other single source in America.

Together, their coverage includes several reproductive and sexual health care services — like wellness exams, STD tests and treatment, cancer screenings and treatment, prenatal and postnatal care, and labor and delivery.

Medicaid: America’s #1 Source for Reproductive Health Care

When you think of Medicaid, think of it as THE reproductive health care program in the United States. Here’s why:

Women and girls are the majority of Medicaid’s 75 million enrollees.

Medicaid covers more women’s health care than any other payer.

Nationwide, Medicaid covers one in five (21%) of all women and girls of reproductive age. That’s 13.2 million people ages 15 to 44 years old.

Medicaid covers nearly half of all births and 75% of family planning services.

Medicaid Serves People of Color

Due to racism and other systemic barriers that have contributed to income inequality, women of color disproportionately comprise the Medicaid population, or roughly 57% of women in the program overall. And they are also over-represented given their share of the general population. For example, 30% of African-American women and 24% of Hispanic women are enrolled in Medicaid, compared to only 14% of white women.

Why is that important to know? Because any limits on Medicaid hurt women of color in particular.

One example of a limit on Medicaid that hurts women of color: states refusing to adopt Medicaid expansion. As a result of the Affordable Care Act, adults who don’t have children and have incomes at or below 138% of the federal poverty level are entitled to Medicaid coverage if their states choose to expand Medicaid. To date, 37 states (including D.C.) have adopted the Medicaid expansion, and 14 states haven’t adopted the expansion. States that haven’t adopted Medicaid expansion lag behind in covering people with low incomes and vulnerable populations.

Medicare: Meeting Your Health Care Needs Later in Life

Similar to Medicaid, the majority (56%) of Medicare’s older enrollees are women. That’s 24 million women, ages 65 and up.

Medicare covers some of the same sexual and reproductive health services as Medicaid, but not all. Whereas Medicaid always covers birth control, only some Medicare plans do. That’s because Medicare focuses on the needs of older adults. To that end, Medicare covers special services for older women — like bone density screenings and medication for post-menopausal osteoporosis.

Because of the gender pay gap throughout their lives, older women are more likely to live in poverty and qualify for Medicaid than older men. Of the 50 million Medicare users age 65 and up, more than half (56%) are women. The gender disparity grows larger as people age: Two of every three Medicaid beneficiaries age 85 and up are women.

Who Pays for Medicaid & Medicare?

Medicaid is a jointly-run federal and state health insurance program. This means both state and federal tax dollars pay for Medicaid.

Medicare isn’t a joint federal-state program. Instead, Medicare is a federal insurance program. So, your federal tax dollars mostly pay for Medicare.

Do Planned Parenthood Health Centers Take Medicaid and Medicare?

Most Planned Parenthood health centers accept Medicaid, and some providers at Planned Parenthood health centers accept Medicare. Find a Planned Parenthood health center near you to learn what insurance plans they accept. You can also call 1-800-230-PLAN to speak with a Planned Parenthood staff member who can help you figure out coverage and costs.

Whether you have Medicaid, Medicare, any other insurance, or no insurance at all, you can always visit your local Planned Parenthood health center for the care you need, when you need it.

Can Medicaid and Medicare Cover Abortion?

No, in most cases, you can’t use Medicaid, Medicare, or any other federal health insurance program for abortion.

An unfair policy called the Hyde Amendment blocks federal funding for abortion with three narrow exceptions: when the pregnancy could kill the patient, or when the pregnancy results from rape or incest. Federal health programs cannot cover abortion even when a patient’s health is at risk and their health care provider recommends they get an abortion.

Still, 16 states with pro-reproductive health leaders have taken the bold step to cover safe, legal abortion with state funds for people who use Medicaid. That includes 15 states already covering it and Maine, whose coverage law will go into effect March 2020.

Failed Efforts to “Defund” Planned Parenthood Have Targeted Medicaid Beneficiaries

Anti-abortion politicians in the Trump-Pence administration, Congress, and certain statehouses across the country are trying to put safe, legal abortion out of reach. One of their key tactics is attempting to shut down Planned Parenthood through legislation they misleadingly named “defunding.” They made up that misnomer to confuse people about how funding works at Planned Parenthood.

“Defunding” policies block patients who use public health care programs — like Medicaid and Medicare — from accessing preventive health care at Planned Parenthood health centers. Preventive health care includes birth control, STD testing and treatment, and cancer screenings.

The politicians behind “defunding” don’t care that their policies make Planned Parenthood patients lose access to lifesaving preventive care. “Defunding” has one goal: to shut down Planned Parenthood and make safe, legal abortion harder to access (along with a lot of other sexual and reproductive health services).

Getting Political

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’s Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) oversees the two programs. How you get your health care in the United States depends on what HHS prioritizes. And changes politicians make to Medicaid, Medicare and CHIP mean the difference between millions of people getting reproductive and sexual health care — or not.

Right now, CMS is overseen by Seema Verma, a former corporate health care consultant who thinks maternity coverage should be optional and made millions of dollars dismantling Medicaid in Indiana. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has forced Planned Parenthood out of the Title X program through a dangerous gag rule.

If you care about health care access in America, stay up-to-date on the politics behind Medicaid and Medicare. Visit PlannedParenthoodAction.org to learn more and get involved.

Open Enrollment

You may qualify for low-cost or free health insurance through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), depending on your income and what state you live in. If you qualify for either program, you can enroll anytime without waiting for the enrollment period. To find out if you’re eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, visit your state’s Medicaid agency.

-Miriam at Planned Parenthood

#Medicaid #medicare #insurance #health insurance #CHIP

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ecto-american · 5 years ago

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I was doing some research for a fanfiction, and remembered this line from Reality Trip, which got my criminal justice self all excited because of the implications. So have some analysis from a rambling autistic with a criminal justice degree.

“Daniel Fenton, in accordance with the Federal Anti-Ecto Control Act, Article 1, Section 1, Sub-section A, you're under arrest.”

Y'all, this is kinda wack? It means, on some level, there has been a federal judgment within the world of Danny Phantom that not only acknowledges that ghosts exist, but has an entire fucking act describing specifically the course of action in a sense. Lots of acts will kind of be this vague overarching thing with various random acts thrown into it, but the name along with the article one, section one subsection a dealio implies that this entire act focuses on ghosts. I say act and not law btw, because those terms are not necessarily synonyms.

Not only does this confirm that there are acts (at least one anyway) in Danny Phantom that specifically talk about ghosts, but kind of really and truly cements that the Guys in White are actually a federal government agency, rather than them simply acting as one but really being a private company of sorts or being some local state government program.

And with laws about ghosts, it means that legally, the government had to define what exactly a ghost is as well as their rights and lack of rights, and that they legally acknowledge, as a nation, that ghosts exists. While, of course, we don’t really ever get to see this act, and as far as I know, it’s literally Never talked about again, this scene means that this act applies to Danny. For a quick refresher, this happens after Danny is exposed, and so this act still applies to Danny despite him being outted as a half ghost. A scary sidenote is before this scene and line of dialogue, the agents told Danny that he was coming in for questioning and experiments.

So what might it possibly say? If there are any acts that we can potentially base what this act possibly would say, I would probably guess it’d be similar to the acts used for minorities within the United States. And I say these kinds of acts because they’re specifically acts that discriminate towards a group, and that have used various reasons to justify how they are not human, citizens or have any legal rights. If the agents’ lines were correct, these acts probably gave them justification for doing inhumanly cruel things to Danny.

Of course, Danny could be arrest for something totally different and not for some anti-ghost reasons. At this point in time, he’s still kind of half-loved, half-hated publicly as people are shown to still believe that he stole during the events of Control Freaks and the mayor incident of Public Enemies, but if he was under arrest for any of those crimes, the agents would have said that. And I refuse to believe this is an oversight of the writers, because they would have found any nitpicky thing and made it a funny situation where the agents went on and on and on about this endless list of crimes that the ghost boy has committed until Danny roundhouse kicked somebody. And no, it’s likely not because the Guys in White are only interested in Ghost Crimes. As federal officials, which they are confirmed to be, they would have arrested him for everything and have to basically fistfight the other government agencies investigating his Non Ghost Crimes.

So what exactly is he under arrest for? No clue obviously, and it’s hard to really even guess. Article 1, Section 1, Sub-section A for most acts are basically describing what the act’s going to be before it moves on to detail that. I think this is an oversight of the DP writers, lord knows we get enough of them, but it could also potentially highlight the Dumb factor of the Guys in White that we would see them sometimes exhibit, where instead of properly referencing the piece of legislation he’s under arrest for, they just blurt out the first section of that law.

And who wrote this act? It could be anybody, of course. Anybody within politics. It also begs the question as to exactly when this act was written and when it was put into effect. I’d wager it heavily depends on when the Guys in White came into effect, as they are clearly acting under these laws. Which begs the question: how many pieces of anti-ghost legislation are there? Who’s writing them? There’s potential that there are literally lawyers who are literally experts in ghost law. Keep in mind that in the beginning of the series, there was a lot of skepticism that ghosts even exist.

This honestly leads me to propose a new headcanon: The Guys in White are a very new government organization that spawned after the events of Public Enemies. To preface this and clarify, in order, the Guys in White appear in only five episodes: Million Dollar Ghost, Double Cross My Heart, Reality Trip, Eye for an Eye, and Livin’ Large.

Evidence to support this theory:

They only show up four episodes later in their first appearance in Million Dollar Ghost. Public Enemies seems to also be the first episode in the series that shows a massive onslaught of ghost attacks. I would guess that this is the ghostly event that probably spawned the act in question, which may have called for the organization of the Guys in White. Prior to this, ghosts were basically shown that they’re unconfirmed to exist on a public level. Even Jack, our lovable and excitable ghost hunter who’s been doing this since his college years admits in Mystery Meat that he’s never seen a ghost until that point. Jazz mentions that Harriet Chin in Bitter Reunions lost her job for writing an article about ghosts because she was laughed for writing about something that was more for “the national enquirer”, a conspiracy theory newspaper that nobody really takes seriously.

Why are they there during the events of Million Dollar Ghost anyway? If they’re a new organization, they may need that money or are cashing in on the publicity of the event to spread their name, or they’re just starting out and have no real clue where else to go. Only two of them even showed up anyway. The only other groups there are very small ghost hunting groups: literally two young adults on scooters, another set of young adults with a tiger fueled by anxiety and a van, and FentonWorks. And while they, out of all of them, clearly have the most advanced technology, they’re about on the same skill level as the other ghost hunters (getting captured and tricked and such just as easily). Danny even was just as “haha” about them as he was the other hunters who had showed up.

Their technology in Million Dollar ghost is nothing in comparison to the literal jetpacks and planes and four wheelers and armor they get several episodes later. Their funding increased when they proved ghosts exist and more ghostly events happened, and they likely proved their competence in some way. Especially when we see that they have been catching other ghosts (like Skulker in Double Cross My Heart and Lydia in Reality Trip) and gathering important information on ghostly artifacts (Reality Trip).

It would explain why they don’t really show up that often in the series, especially during major ghost events where they really should be there, such as the ghost king invasion of Reign Storm. They may have not secured the funding or manpower to really do anything just yet. Note that Reign Storm happened in between Million Dollar Ghost and Double Cross My Heart, which is almost a 20 episode gap. Their skills, knowledge, ability, technology and apparent funding jumped massively between these episodes, and it kind of stays about the same consistency for the rest of the show.

They really only seem to have one department, and they have really low employee numbers for a government agency. There’s no talk or implications or having multiple departments or anything, such as research or technology. Even during the SWAT invasion during Reality Trip, there’s only like twenty or so agents there. In Livin’ Large, there’s only about seven there, and two are the Agent K and O that we know. They play a lot of roles, from researching, questioning, gathering information, tracking down criminals, getting information from the Fenton’s lab, technology things in FentonWorks, etc. Of course, this is a staple for many law enforcement jobs where you have many tasks, but they seem to be playing the role of detective, computer analysis, and police officer at minimum given the wide variety of things we see them do. As somebody who’s worked in three situations where the company/program was very new, it’s incredibly common for a new company that’s still finding it’s groundings to have a very blurred job line. Or they’re heavily underfunded, but look at the goddamn jetpacks they get, look me in the eye and tell me they’re underfunded.

The lack of basic ghost information. In Livin’ Large, they want to destroy the Ghost Zone. It’s apparently very obvious that you Can’t Do That, but the Guys in White seem oblivious. While you can argue that they’re just fucking dumb, it may be more reasonable to assume that they simply just don’t know.

There’s no dialogue (that I can find) prior to Million Dollar Ghost to suggest they exist. There’s also no dialogue from Vlad, who would have known and been wary of such an organization had it been around for years, to suggest that they’ve been around a while. Jack, who also is open about how much he admires them, would have likely said something to. But I am willing to chalk this entire part up to simply poor writing.

“But Danny knew who the Guys in White were when they showed up in Million Dollar Ghost!” Yeah. He also knew who the other people were, and I heavily doubt that they’d be as big of a deal or name as the Official government branch. It’s very likely that they all introduced themselves when they showed up.

#show analysis #nick talks #danny phantom #guys in white

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Sunday, May 2, 2021

US to restrict travel from India over COVID starting Tuesday (AP) The U.S. will restrict travel from India starting May 4, the White House said Friday, citing a devastating rise in COVID-19 cases in the country and the emergence of potentially dangerous variants of the coronavirus. With 386,452 new cases, India now has reported more than 18.7 million since the pandemic began, second only to the United States. The Health Ministry on Friday also reported 3,498 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 208,330. Experts believe both figures are an undercount, but it’s unclear by how much. The White House waited on the CDC recommendation before moving to restrict travel, noting that the U.S. already requires negative tests and quarantines for all international travelers. Other restrictions are in place on travel from China, Iran, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Brazil and South Africa, which are or have been hotspots for the coronavirus.

Biden administration forges new path on North Korea crisis (Washington Post) The Biden administration is charting a new course in an attempt to end North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile program, striking a balance between President Donald Trump’s grand-bargain, leader-to-leader diplomacy and President Barack Obama’s arm’s-length approach to the crisis, said U.S. officials familiar with the plan. The decision to pursue a phased agreement that leads to full denuclearization follows a months-long review that was briefed to President Biden last week. “We are not seeking a grand bargain or an all-or-nothing approach,” a senior administration official said in an interview Thursday. “What we’ve settled on is what we think is a calibrated, practical approach to diplomacy with the North with the goal of eliminating the threat to the United States.” The specifics of the proposal Washington will put forward remain unclear, and U.S. officials are not using familiar terms that previous U.S. administrations have used, such as a “step by step” agreement. U.S. officials said they planned to convey the new strategy to North Korean officials but acknowledged that it was not likely to change the regime’s near-term calculus regarding nuclear provocations. “We do not think what we are contemplating is likely to forestall provocation from the North,” said the senior official. “We fully intend to maintain sanctions pressure while this plays out.”

Biden cancels border wall projects Trump paid for with diverted military funds (Washington Post) The Biden administration said Friday it has canceled border wall projects paid for with funds diverted from Defense Department accounts, a widely expected move that follows Biden’s decision to suspend construction activity on President Donald Trump’s signature project. Trump diverted about $10 billion from military construction accounts and counternarcotic programs to pay for hundreds of miles of steel barriers along the Mexico border, an effort that Biden has denounced as wasteful and ineffective. Trump built 450 miles of new barriers during his term, much of it across the deserts and mountains of southern Arizona where his administration built along national forest land, wildlife preserves and other federal property already under government control. It built far less in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, the busiest area for border crossings and the epicenter to a major migration influx.

Bolsonaro has insulted much of the world. Now Brazil needs its help. (Washington Post) Two developing countries, enormous in population and geography, in the grip of devastating coronavirus outbreaks. Hospitals running out of supplies. Patients turned away. A new variant everywhere. Outside help desperately needed. For India, upended by record infection rates, the world has responded. The White House this week touted the delivery of more than $100 million in supplies. Singapore and Thailand sent oxygen. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the United Kingdom would do “all it can.” But for Brazil, which has buried some 140,000 coronavirus victims in the past two months, the international response has been more muted. President Jair Bolsonaro in March called on international organizations to help. A group of state governors asked the United Nations for “humanitarian aid.” The Brazilian ambassador to the European Union begged two weeks ago for help: “It’s a race against time to save many lives in Brazil.” But the response has largely been a shrug, criticism of Brazil’s missteps—and limited action, so far. The contrast between how the international community has addressed the crises in India and Brazil shows how Brasilia’s mounting diplomatic struggles have complicated the country’s coronavirus response. The international image it has spent decades cultivating—environmentally focused, amiable, multilateral—has been undercut by a president whose administration has insulted much of the world at the very time Brazil was in most need of its help. “The whole world is trying to help India,” said Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. “But Bolsonaro has become such an international problem that no one ... is talking about giving Brazil much help.”

EU aims to cut foreign reliance on chips, pharma materials (Reuters) The European Union aims to cut its dependency on Chinese and other foreign suppliers in six strategic areas including raw materials, pharmaceutical ingredients and semiconductors, under an industrial action plan to be announced next week. A draft seen by Reuters outlined the urgency of the task ahead, citing Europe’s reliance on China for about half of 137 products used in sensitive ecosystems, mainly raw materials and pharmaceuticals and other products key to the bloc’s green and digital goals.

Suicide truck bomber hits Afghan guest house, killing 21 (AP) The death toll in a powerful suicide truck bombing that struck a guest house in eastern Afghanistan rose to 21 with as many as 90 others wounded, officials said Saturday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the late Friday night bombing in Pul-e-Alam, the capital of Logar province. There was no indication why the guest house was targeted. In Afghanistan, guest houses are lodgings often provided for free by the government, usually for the poor, travelers and students.

Extreme weather kills 11, injures 102 in eastern China (AP) An extreme thunderstorm hit an eastern Chinese city, leaving 11 dead and 102 injured, with strong winds causing buildings and trees to collapse. Nantong city, located in the eastern province of Jiangsu, was among the hardest-hit when the extreme weather swept the Yangtze Delta on Friday night, according to state-affiliated newspaper Global Times. Wind speeds of 162 kilometers (100 miles) per hour overturned a fishing ship. Two sailors were rescued and search operations were underway for the nine remaining crew, the notice said.

Myanmar risks coming to standstill as violence worsens—U.N. envoy (Reuters) The U.N. special envoy on Myanmar told the Security Council on Friday that in the absence of a collective international response to the country’s coup, violence is worsening and the running of the state risks coming to a standstill, according to diplomats who attended the private meeting. “The general administration of the state could risk coming to a standstill as the pro-democracy movement continues in spite of the ongoing use of lethal force, arbitrary arrests and torture as part of the military’s repression,” Schraner Burgener said, according to diplomats. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group says more than 3,400 people have been detained for opposing the coup and security forces have killed at least 759 protesters. Schraner Burgener said there were concerning reports that civilians, mostly students from the urban areas, were being trained how to use weapons by ethnic armed organizations. “In the absence of a collective international response, there has been a rise in violence and reported use of improvised explosive devices. Calls for maximum restraint by all sides have been met with responses from some protesters asking who can blame them for their self-defense,” she said, according to diplomats.

The Bureaucrat From Buffalo Who Pushed Somalia to the Brink (NYT) During his years as an administrator at the Department of Transportation in upstate New York, the Somali refugee turned U.S. citizen earned a master’s degree in American Studies, imbibing democratic values he hoped to one day export back to his homeland. That dream came true for Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed in 2017, when he returned to Somalia and was elected president in a surprise victory that evinced high hopes he might reform—even transform—his dysfunctional, war-weary country. But those aspirations have crumbled since Mr. Mohamed failed to hold elections when his four-year term ended in February, then moved to extend his rule by two years—a step many Somalis viewed as a naked power grab. A furious political dispute turned violent on Sunday when a series of gunfights broke out between rival military factions in the capital, Mogadishu, evoking fears that Somalia, after years of modest yet gradual progress, could descend into the kind of clan-based bloodshed that ripped it apart in the 1990s. Now Mr. Mohamed’s democratic credentials lie in tatters and he is in an open confrontation with his former ally, the United States, where he still has a family home. This week American officials reiterated calls for Somalia to hold elections immediately.

Factory owners around the world stand ready to manufacture covid-19 vaccines (The Intercept) The drug industry has strenuously argued that any legal proposal to allow the sharing of intellectual property and creation of generic coronavirus vaccines is pointless because there are no facilities around the world that can be tapped. Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist whose foundations help manage the United States and Europe’s primary Covid-19 outreach efforts to the developing world, known as Covax, was blunt. “It’s not like there’s some idle vaccine factory, with regulatory approval, that makes magically safe vaccines,” Gates said last weekend by way of explaining to Sky News why he thought the recipe for making coronavirus vaccine should not be shared. Except it is exactly like that. Factory owners around the globe, from Bangladesh to Canada, have said they stand ready to retrofit facilities and move forward with vaccine production if given the chance. “We have this production capacity and it’s not being used,” said John Fulton, a spokesperson for Biolyse Pharma, a company based in St. Catharines, Ontario, that produces injectable cancer treatments. Fulton noted that Biolyse has spent years buying equipment to produce biologics and is uniquely prepared to start getting ready to produce vaccines. The company, which Fulton said is best suited for replicating the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, could produce as many as 20 million vaccines per year, he estimated. Abdul Muktadir, chair and managing director of Incepta, a pharmaceutical firm based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, has told reporters that his firm has the capacity to fill vials for 600 million to 800 million doses of vaccine per year. He has reportedly reached out to Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax. Other firms in South Korea and Pakistan have also reportedly expressed an interest in producing vaccines or vaccine components. In the past few months, the danger of not transferring the knowledge more quickly has become painfully clear, with deaths climbing in India, Brazil, and other parts of the world that have been unable to procure adequate supplies of vaccines while richer countries stockpile them.

#headlines #news

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georgiacash3midday · 4 years ago

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Georgia Cash 3 Midday Lottery Results Today

Georgia Cash 3 Midday Lottery

The Georgia Lottery Corporation (GLC) releases Georgia Cash 3 Midday results for today Tuesday. The Georgia Lottery always conducts Cash-3 midday live drawings daily at 12:29 p.m., ET. Lottery Tickets for midday drawing can be purchased up to 10 minutes prior to live drawing time (12:19 p.m., ET for the midday drawing).

Georgia Lottery Introduction

The only program in Georgia that's available to supply direct cash assistance to families in deep poverty—Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—does little to succeed in families with the best needs. For those it can reach, it provides insufficient income support. In 1996, 254,000 individuals received direct cash aid, while today only 16,000 individuals have access to TANF, reflecting a dramatic 93 percent decrease in caseload. Only five out of each 100 families in poverty receive cash assistance through TANF.

Georgia’s policies that erode TANF’s coverage are deeply connected to race. Evidence shows that the upper the proportion of Black families living during a state, the more likely policymakers are to spend less on direct cash assistance and establish policies to regulate the way families in poverty run their lives, instead of simply giving them the direct aid necessary to satisfy basic needs.[3] Given this evidence, the very fact that Georgia’s Black population is that the third-largest within the nation and therefore the state’s legacy of racist policymaking and monetary decisions, it's imperative that the study and reform of Georgia’s cash assistance policies are confronted through an anti-racist lens.

Using administrative and legislative policy information, original analyses of TANF data and insights from existing literature, this the report explores the cash assistance policy choices Georgia lawmakers have made despite deep poverty and racial disparities within the economy. Specifically, the report finds that Georgia’s TANF program builds on harmful stereotypes about people of color and widens racial disparities by:

Directing large shares of TANF funds far away from direct cash assistance so as to offset tax and budget cuts

Providing extremely low amounts of monetary assistance that aren't sufficient for any family to satisfy even their most elementary needs

Enforcing a number of the foremost restrictive benefit rules within the nation that makes TANF inaccessible for many families in deep poverty

Why Cash Matters

In 2019, nearly 1.3 million Georgians lived below the poverty level, with one in five kids in poverty. Children of color in Georgia are particularly impacted by poverty, with poverty rates 3 times higher for Black (28 percent) and Latinx (27 percent) children than for whites (9 percent) and Asian (8 percent) children. One in ten Georgians live in deep poverty, which is 50 percent of the federal poverty line (FPL), or $905 per month for a family of three. Georgia’s deep poverty rates range from 26 percent in Clinch County to only 2.2 percent in Oconee County.

Income support, especially during an economic recession, improves children’s health, educational and economic outcomes while simultaneously reducing childhood poverty. Even small amounts of money assistance can make a difference. Among families in poverty, children under the age of 6 whose families receive a $3,000 annual increase in income earn 17 percent more as adults compared to children whose families didn't receive an income boost. Research also shows that targeted cash assistance could narrow the Black-white child poverty gap by up to fifteen percent. This finding suggests that states which will eliminate barriers to income support like TANF cash assistance are able to do important gains for youngsters within the short- and long-term.

Direct cash assistance is critical for preventing the widening of racial disparities in economic, health, and academic outcomes. However, Georgia’s harsh rules and disinvestment from cash aid have severely impacted Black families, who, because slavery and segregation led to current unjust policies that reinforce poverty, structure 70 percent of TANF recipients. Despite the overrepresentation of Black families on TANF, the principles tied to cash assistance ignore Georgia’s long history of participation within the government-authorized oppression of Black, Indigenous, and other people of Color (BIPOC). As a result, the program has become ineffective at offering stability that permits parents to figure and look out for their families.

As indicated earlier, high poverty rates in Georgia are persistent, yet TANF cash assistance as a poverty-fighting tool has been rendered inaccessible. The poverty rate is almost equivalent today because it was the year after TANF was signed into law in 1997. Ideally, the decline in TANF participation over the last 24 years would be a result of an improving economy, with individuals lifted above the poverty level at a powerful rate.

Lawmakers can reconfigure the state’s TANF program in order that it does a far better job of meeting the necessity for families with very low income or no income in the least. Georgia families need a floor to create upon now quite ever. An anti-racist cash assistance program can provide that floor.

Georgia History

While cash assistance policies are often perceived as race-blind, they're far away from that. Decades of reports written mostly by white academics and politicians promoted stereotypes that associate poverty and welfare participation with being Black. during this process, Black Americans became pathologically synonymous with the country’s inaccurate frame of reference for poverty: poor, at-risk, and lazy. Beliefs are driven by racist attitudes about the mythological “welfare queen” that led Americans to possess little confidence that cash assistance might be the solution to fighting poverty.

In the 1990s, Congress and therefore the Clinton administration sought to reform the cash assistance program established within the half of the 20 century referred to as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Ignoring structural barriers within the market, lawmakers grew frustrated with the trend of the many AFDC recipients not working and allegedly becoming hooked into welfare. They designed a replacement program referred to as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and packaged the program into the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), with the hopes to “end welfare as we all know it.

TANF imposed restrictions in states like Georgia that had an extended history of making barriers to accessing previous cash assistance programs. States were required to chop benefits for families that did not suits work requirements, reinforcing the stereotype that cash assistance recipients didn't want to figure. States also got enough flexibility to deny benefits to people supported by characteristics that reflected racial stereotypes. States also had to cop out of a ban on providing assistance to individuals with felony drug convictions, and states were banned from using federal TANF funds surely groups of immigrants.

TANF consists of excessive rules that penalize poverty, creating yet one more domain where Black families are excessively surveilled and policed. These punitive rules have roots in slavery, Jim Crow, and therefore the policing of Black bodies, specifically Black women, and have permeated cash assistance policy in Georgia. for instance, one among the core purposes of TANF is preventing out-of-wedlock births, which stemmed from concerns of single-motherhood in Black communities. Georgia currently goes thus far on deny basic assistance to children who, through no fault of their own, are born while their mothers are on TANF. This policy is mentioned because of the family cap.

Georgia created a precursor to the present family cap policy under a former cash assistance program within the 1950s. In 1951, Governor Herman Talmadge sought to “put an end to illegitimate baby-having as a business in Georgia.” The state’s Director of the Department of Public Welfare, Alan Kemper, supported the governor’s call to implement a family cap by arguing that “70 percent of the cases of multiple illegitimacy during a family were in Negro families.” He claimed that a family cap would halt a “growing tendency to supply illegitimate children as an honest business” and “save the state $444,000 annually. therein same year, the Georgia General Assembly passed the primary law within the country that denied grants to “more than one bastard of a mother.

The federal pushed back on this early family cap policy, causing the state to not implement the policy at the time. However, the attempt exemplifies how the state has historically tried to regulate Black reproductive behavior through cash assistance. The state eventually continued with what became referred to as “suitable home policies” that attempted to stop unwed mothers from accessing cash aid. In 1993, Governor Zell Miller signed into law Georgia’s family cap provision for cash assistance that was approved by the federal.

In addition to restrictive eligibility policies for cash assistance, racial terror in Georgia also played a task in erecting barriers that prevented access to benefits. within the 1960s, the state’s Department of Welfare had to send investigators to Webster County in Southwest Georgia because there have been “reports that Negroes eligible for welfare benefits—particularly aid to dependent children—refused to use for the benefit for fear that their homes would be burned or their lives placed in jeopardy.

The implementation of TANF in 1996 opened the floodgates for states with more direct involvement in centuries of racial subjugation—namely southern states—to repose on cash assistance programs that were fueled by racist attitudes. While states got many options to tailor programs for his or her states during a way that ensured TANF is implemented as a real anti-poverty program, others, including Georgia, capitalized on the immense new flexibilities offered under the 1996 law to enact a number of the foremost punitive restrictions within the country, most of which are still in situ today.

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bestworstcase · 5 years ago

Photo

MAP

made with inkarnate pro. high res version here.

worldbuild-y notes under the cut.

general note: landmarks [mountains, forests] not to scale. at all.

the seven kingdoms

GALCREST:

sea-faring. fishing, whaling, ivory. frequent clashes with equisian privateers on the lost sea. longstanding trade connections with skaron and arendelle.

a frequent mediator in the constant squabbling between other northwestern nations by dint of being sort of above the fray, both literally and figuratively speaking.

CORONA:

the former corona-saporian border is marked in red. the farther south you go, the more intense the hatred for corona. alcorcia in particular is a hotbed of separatist activity. carcathune is still in ruins.

pre-unification, the corona-saporian border shifted back and forth between the river nathair and the northern edge of the pingora mountains throughout history. at the time of unification, the border was the farthest north it had ever been, as shampanier’s army thoroughly routed corona’s less capable forces. this is still a particular sore point.

south of socona, saporian is still widely spoken and in rural areas often the first language learned. south of alcorcia, you start to get pockets of saporian-speaking monoglots in smaller villages.

mt. ghisa is the site of lord demanitus’s ancestral home and also houses the demanitus device. the former is in ruins, the latter in an advanced state of disrepair.

PITTSFORD:

ruled by the griffin. lady dindraine is his only daughter and thus his heir.

the poorest of the seven kingdoms, though of course “poor” is a relative term here. struggles to compete with neserdnia and bayangor, which is a frequent source of tension within the pact.

INGVARR:

ruled by queen morgiana. her eldest daughter, elisheva, is her heir.

geographically the smallest of the seven kingdoms, but very powerful. a militaristic power more than an economic one. known as the fist of the seven kingdoms. mountains are rich in iron and silver.

a culture that prizes rigorous education—both physical and mental—and produces people who are hardy, literate, and highly skilled. one of the most technologically advanced kingdoms on the continent.

capital city rasalas is home to the library of celaeno, the largest public library in the seven kingdoms (although herzingen’s solveig library is a fierce competitor for that title).

longstanding rivalries with... all its neighbors, with the exception of corona. its history with seland is especially fractious, as the two have warred frequently over control of the hĺessian penninsula. the most recent of these wars was the hvassjarn war, which raged a little over a decade ago and pulled in skaron, vakretta, blavenia, and quintonia as well.

despite being geographically adjacent to corona, direct overland travel between the two countries is nigh-impossible due to the mountains, as there are no convenient passes. king trevor does everything in his power to prevent travel between the two through equis, so most travel is either by ship—sailing around galcrest—or over land via eldora, blavenia, and quintonia (which, to ingvarr’s frustration, controls the pass into ingvarr).

KOTO:

controls most of the region known as the central plains. alone of the seven kingdoms, it is not a seafaring nation. also notable for its democratic parliament, though its historical monarchy remains a ceremonial fixture.

significantly more tolerant of magic than the other seven kingdoms due to a much greater degree of cultural diversity.

longstanding enmity with citrifola has led to a strict ban on worship of zhan tiri within koto’s borders.

control over the mountains is frequently juggled back and forth between marne, blavenia, and koto, but presently they belong mostly to koto.

much of the land in the northern regions is uninhabited, due to volatile natural magic courtesy of kresten loch and the swamps of citrifola.

NESERDNIA:

a faded empire. its borders once stretched as far north as the pingora mountains; eldora, marne, chilon, and maldonia are all former territories that have established their independence in the last few centuries. neserdnia maintains many colonies further to the south.

dominates the southern waters of the forcysian ocean. the wealthiest of the seven kingdoms. trading vessels plagued by piracy and privateering funded by vacona and the southern isles, which has encouraged the establishment of land routes into koto and corona.

BAYANGOR:

the southernmost of the seven kingdoms. largely agricultural and rural, but with several ancient and massive cities lining the silodeen coast. closely allied with yultadore and chatho.

northern peninsula supports a small but flourishing population of lorb immigrants from terapi as well as refugees from southern aphelion, who settled here after the desolation.

the hĺessian league

ARENDELLE:

powerful, geographically isolated nation. prosperous due to flourishing trade; no standing army. king agnarr and queen iðunn perished in the hvassjarn sea about a decade ago, leaving their then-nine-year-old daughter and heir the queen; competent and loyal advisors have kept the country running and functional since.

spirits of the land, air, and sea are revered but also feared, and magic is rare and viewed with deep suspicion.

SKARON:

arendelle’s closest ally, and the most influential nation in the league. where skaron goes, the rest of the league follows. a great deal of religious overlap with arendelle’s worship of nature spirits, but magic is more common and accepted.

SELAND:

harsh, somewhat warlike. in some ways it has to be, as it is the buffer between ingvarr and the rest of the league.

a very, very close alliance exists between seland and quintonia, which relies heavily on seland for protection from ingvarr as a result of its very desirable mountain pass.

a very rich, proud history of magic drawn from a small pantheon of local deities. bits and pieces of nature spirit worship have filtered down from arendelle and seland as well and become incorporated into the broader pantheon. renowned especially for storm/weather magic.

QUINTONIA:

small, sovereign duchy in the unenviable position of being squished between two militaristically powerful kingdoms.

recent newcomer to the league, which it joined mainly in a bid to put an end to constant invasions.

presently ruled by rosalia morcant, who cares more about books than people, and is also notorious for being... a bit of a creep, and probably a witch. (she says she isn’t, but if the giant library full of eldritch lore fits...)

VAKRETTA:

a federation composed of numerous smaller nations. large population of vodniks along the coast.

worship of morskesh, a sea god originally borrowed from the vodniks, is widely popular even further inland.

BLAVENIA:

another newcomer to the league. wealthy and strong in its own right, but looking to strengthen its position via alliances with other league nations with a long term goal of seizing more land from koto.

eastern end of the country is occupied by kresten loch. nobody quite knows what kresten loch is; it froze solid several thousand years ago, never thaws, and plays havoc with the local weather patterns. there is a small but vocal fringe group who claims that it’s some sort of god, and object vociferously to the practice of harvesting ice from it.

deep animosity with corona as a result of fierce trading competition. allied with equis on the grounds of hating corona.

other nations

EQUIS:

king trevor is definitely a selkie. everybody knows it. nobody has proof.

king trevor funds privateers. everybody knows it. nobody has proof.

king trevor financially supports the separatists of saporia. everybody knows it. nobody has proof.

ELDORA:

one of corona’s closest allies outside of the seven kingdoms. queen arianna hails from carvajal, a large duchy in the northern region of the country.

vardaros is one of eldora’s major cities.

it’s closely allied with marne and has been for many centuries.

MARNE:

marshy. lots of clashes with koto over the mountains.

pretty tolerant attitudes toward magic.

a high saporian population (both because of and contributing to the tolerance of magic); worship of the ternary is accordingly widespread, and zhan tiri is especially popular, because marshes.

the spire is located in the mountains in the northeast corner, but technically does not recognize the authority of the marnese government (or the kotoan government, or the blavenian government, depending on who controls the mountain at any given time). it’s a “don’t tell us what to do and we won’t give you any problems” kind of situation.

AZOTH:

a city-state with control over some adjacent farmland, but mostly subsists on imports and fishing. built on a silty coastal flood plain, therefore sinking and waterlogged. pumps keep the streets mostly dry. steampunky.

rivals ingvarr for technological capabilities, but riven by sharp class divides, corruption, and constant unrest; sometimes this is worsened by uneasy coexistence with nearby vodnik colonies.

zhan tiri cult spillover from citrifola on the agricultural fringes, but almost nonexistent in the city itself. vodniks in residence along the waterfront. there’s a temple to morskesh somewhere in the city.

demanitus built a tower here back in the day. it’s now in ruins and mostly buried and built over; the promise of juicy secrets hidden within its forgotten vaults draws adventurers to the city from all over, but they mostly meet unpleasant ends.

CITRIFOLA:

swampy. sparsely populated. the swamps are very cursed. this was a major site of power for zhan tiri back in the day and temples in her honor are scattered across the landscape, most of them half-sunken and overgrown now.

sort of a wild place. doesn’t have a government per se, almost a no man’s land, but infested with zhan tiri cultists. hector mostly spends his time driving them away from the great tree, because they want to awaken it. also, lots of bandits hiding away in the old ruined temples.

ANTARES:

a huge city-state and one of the oldest cities on the continent. built on top of an enormous formation of black rocks. dense, culturally diverse population. basically the cultural crossroads between the central plains and the eastern half of the continent since it’s the nearest organized civilization to the great tree.

zhan tiri has a cult here. so does almost every other god worshipped on the continent.

ruled by its elected magistrate, henrietta solsen, who is barely controlled chaos personified.

ABERDINON:

prosperous. a cultural melting pot. tons of magic and religious diversity thanks to proximity to antares, terapi, and citrifola. scattered communities of lorbs along the coast.

mainstream gods are havot and ferr, plus a dozen or so minor local entities, but there’s also tons of little cults dedicated to other gods.

lots of ancient ruins lying around—this is an old nation with a long, long history.

the border with antares is sort of always in dispute, but in modern times you can’t really argue with antares so

VACONA:

pirates. other things too but mostly pirates.

further inland agriculture is booming and there’s a strong textile industry but really, like three quarters of the government is funded by piracy.

TERAPI:

island nation unusual for being populated almost exclusively by lorbs. the magic here is so volatile that humans can’t... really live here, and even the lorbs struggle to live with it sometimes.

infrequent volcanic activity.

a lot of native plants are heavily magical and won’t grow anywhere else, so are highly in demand. the lorbs make a killing trading for them.

VOLKAN:

massive, ancient empire that is beginning to crumble around the edges. historical efforts to expand in to the western continent were stymied by citrifola and the great tree and the imperial government still sort of harbors a grudge against zhan tiri.

the populace is not especially keen on magic, but black rock/“obelisk” worship is fairly common in the southeast, where large formations of black rocks break the surface. in the last century or so this has sort of merged into a new amalgam due to influence from moonstone cultists fleeing the desolation in aphelion.

a lot of variance in culture between provinces. in the west, some areas are eyeing sovereignty; there is a feeling that some may declare independence soon and appeal to the hĺessian league for aid in doing so.

TARAZED:

seismically and volcanically volatile, though not as bad as aphelion. has been in a drought since the desolation started, causing widespread fears that what happened to aphelion will happen here too. a slow exodus to zamora and to antares has been happening as a result.

demanitus’s labyrinth/library/crypt is in the southeast corner of the country

ZAMORA:

a peaceful, fertile nation that has escaped the desolation largely unscathed. supports a large population of aphelionese refugees, particularly moonstone cultists reluctant to stray too far from the moonstone.

APHELION:

once a mighty nation dominated by the powerful moonstone cult, it has been almost completely abandoned following the desolation, as it is now basically just bedrock with a thin layer of sere, barren dirt on top. nothing grows anymore and there’s black rocks all over the place. significant seismic and volcanic activity make it even more uninhabitable.

0/10 do not vacation here

#bitter snow #handful of countries not included in the notes bc i have only the vaguest idea of what they're like rip

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bonesandblood-sunandmoon · 5 years ago

Link

Article from The Atlantic “This Is Not a Normal Mental Health Disaster” (posted July 7th, 2020). Excerpt:

In any case, the full extent of the fallout will not come into focus for some time. Psychological disorders can be slow to develop, and as a result, the Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry, which Morganstein helped write, warns that demand for mental-health care may spike even as a pandemic subsides. “If history is any indicator,” Morganstein says of COVID-19, “we should expect a significant tail of mental-health effects, and those could be extraordinary.” Taylor worries that the virus will cause significant upticks in obsessive-compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, and germaphobia, not to mention possible neuropsychiatric effects, such as chronic fatigue syndrome.

The coronavirus may also change the way we think about mental health more broadly. Perhaps, Schoch-Spana says, the prevalence of pandemic-related psychological conditions will have a destigmatizing effect. Or perhaps it will further ingrain that stigma: We’re all suffering, so can’t we all just get over it? Perhaps the current crisis will prompt a rethinking of the American mental-health-care system. Or perhaps it will simply decimate it.

Shared in entirety under the cut for those who can’t access it:

This Is Not a Normal Mental Health Disaster by Jacob Stern

If SARS is any lesson, the psychological effects of the novel coronavirus will long outlast the pandemic itself.

The SARS pandemic tore through Hong Kong like a summer thunderstorm. It arrived abruptly, hit hard, and then was gone. Just three months separated the first infection, in March 2003, from the last, in June.

But the suffering did not end when the case count hit zero. Over the next four years, scientists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong discovered something worrisome. More than 40 percent of SARS survivors had an active psychiatric illness, most commonly PTSD or depression. Some felt frequent psychosomatic pain. Others were obsessive-compulsive. The findings, the researchers said, were “alarming.”

The novel coronavirus’s devastating hopscotch across the United States has long surpassed the three-month mark, and by all indications, it will not end anytime soon. If SARS is any lesson, the secondary health effects will long outlast the pandemic itself.

Already, a third of Americans are feeling severe anxiety, according to Census Bureau data, and nearly a quarter show signs of depression. A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the pandemic had negatively affected the mental health of 56 percent of adults. In April, texts to a federal emergency mental-health line were up 1,000 percent from the year before. The situation is particularly dire for certain vulnerable groups—health-care workers, COVID-19 patients with severe cases, people who have lost loved ones—who face a significant risk of post-traumatic stress disorder. In overburdened intensive-care units, delirious patients are seeing chilling hallucinations. At least two overwhelmed emergency medical workers have taken their own life.

To some extent, this was to be expected. Depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance abuse, child abuse, and domestic violence almost always surge after natural disasters. And the coronavirus is every bit as much a disaster as any wildfire or flood. But it is also something unlike any wildfire or flood. “The sorts of mental-health challenges associated with COVID-19 are not necessarily the same as, say, generic stress management or the interventions from wildfires,” says Steven Taylor, a psychiatrist at the University of British Columbia and the author of The Psychology of Pandemics (published, fortuitously, in October 2019). “It’s very different in important ways.”

Most people are resilient after disasters, and only a small percentage develop chronic conditions. But in a nation of 328 million, small percentages become large numbers when translated into absolute terms. And in a nation where, even under ordinary circumstances, fewer than half of the millions of adults with a mental illness receive treatment, those large numbers are a serious problem. A wave of psychological stress unique in its nature and proportions is bearing down on an already-ramshackle American mental-health-care system, and at the moment, Taylor told me, “I don’t think we’re very well prepared at all.”

Most disasters affect cities or states, occasionally regions. Even after a catastrophic hurricane, for example, normalcy resumes a few hundred miles away. Not so in a pandemic, says Joe Ruzek, a longtime PTSD researcher at Stanford University and Palo Alto University: “In essence, there are no safe zones any more.”

As a result, Ruzek told me, certain key tenets of disaster response no longer hold up. People cannot congregate at a central location to get help. Psychological first-aid workers cannot seek out strangers on street corners. To be sure, telemedicine has its advantages—it eliminates the logistical and financial burdens of transportation, and some people simply find it more comfortable—but it complicates outreach and can pose problems for older people, who have borne the brunt of the coronavirus.

A pandemic, unlike an earthquake or a fire, is invisible, and that makes it all the more anxiety-inducing. “You can’t see it, you can’t taste it, you just don’t know,” says Charles Benight, a psychology professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs who specializes in post-disaster recovery. “You look outside, and it seems fine.”

From spatial uncertainty comes temporal uncertainty. If we can’t know where we are safe, then we can’t know when we are safe. When a wildfire ends, the flames subside and the smoke clears. “You have an event, and then you have the rebuild process that’s really demarcated,” Benight told me. “It’s not like a hurricane goes on for a year.” But pandemics do not respect neat boundaries: They come in waves, ebbing and flowing, blurring crisis into recovery. One month, New York flares up and Arizona is calm. The next, the opposite.

That ambiguity could make it harder for people to be resilient. “It’s sort of like running down a field to score a goal, and every 10 yards they move the goal,” Benight said. “You don’t know what you’re targeting.” In this sense, Ruzek said, someone struggling with the psychological effects of the pandemic is less like a fire survivor than a domestic-violence victim still living with her abuser, or a traumatized soldier still deployed overseas. Mental-health professionals can’t reassure them that the danger has passed, because the danger has not passed. One can understand why, in a May survey by researchers at the University of Chicago, 42 percent of respondents reported feeling hopeless at least one day in the past week.

A good deal of this uncertainty was inevitable. Pandemics, after all, are confusing. But coordinated, cool-headed, honest messaging from government officials and public-health experts would have gone a long way toward allaying undue anxiety. The World Health Organization, for all the good it has done to contain the virus, has repeatedly bungled the communications side of the crisis. Last month, a WHO official claimed that asymptomatic spread of the virus is “very rare”—only to clarify the next day, after a barrage of criticism from outside public-health experts, that “we don’t actually have that answer yet.” In February, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Americans to prepare for “disruption to everyday life that may be severe,” then, just days later, said, “The American public needs to go on with their normal lives,” then went mostly dark for the next three months. Health experts are not without blame either: Their early advice about masks was “a case study in how not to communicate with the public,” wrote Zeynep Tufekci, an information-science professor at the University of North Carolina and an Atlantic contributing writer.

The White House, for its part, has repeatedly contradicted the states, the CDC, and itself. The president has used his platform to spread misinformation. In a moment when public health—which is to say, tens of thousands of lives—depends on national unity and clear messaging, the pandemic has become a new front in the partisan culture wars. Monica Schoch-Spana, a medical anthropologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told me that “political and social marginalization can exacerbate the psychological impacts of the pandemic.”

Schoch-Spana has previously written about the 1918 influenza pandemic. Lately, she says, people have been asking her how the coronavirus compares. She is always quick to point out a crucial difference: When the flu emerged in America at the end of a brutal winter, the nation was mobilized for war. Relative unity prevailed, and a spirit of collective self-sacrifice was in the air. At the time, the U.S. was reckoning with its enemies. Now we are reckoning with ourselves.

One thing that is certain about the current pandemic is that we are not doing enough to address its mental-health effects. Usually, says Joshua Morganstein, the chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster, the damage a disaster does to mental health ends up costing more than the damage it does to physical health. Yet of the $2 trillion that Congress allocated for pandemic relief through the CARES Act, roughly one-50th of 1 percent—or $425 million—was earmarked for mental health. In April, more than a dozen mental-health organizations called on Congress to apportion $38.5 billion in emergency funding to protect the nation’s existing treatment infrastructure, plus an additional $10 billion for pandemic response.

Without broad, systematic studies to gauge the scope of the problem, though, it will be hard to determine with any precision either the appropriate amount of funding or where that funding is needed. Taylor told me that “governments are throwing money at this problem at the moment without really knowing how big a problem it will be.”

In addition to studies assessing the scope of the problem, which demographics most need help, and what kind of help they need, Ruzek told me researchers should assess how well intervention efforts are working. Even in ordinary times, he said, we don’t do enough of that. Such studies are especially important now because, until recently, disaster mental-health protocols for pandemics were an afterthought. By necessity, researchers are designing and implementing them all at once.

“Disaster mental-health workers have never been trained in anything about this,” Ruzek said. “They don’t know what to say.”

Even so, the basic principles will be the same. Disaster mental-health specialists often talk about the five core elements of intervention—calming, self-efficacy, connectedness, hope, and a sense of safety—and those apply now as much as ever. At an organizational level, the response will depend on extensive screening, which is to the mental-health side of the pandemic roughly what testing is to the physical-health side. In disaster situations—and especially in this one—the people in need of mental-health support vastly outnumber the people who can supply it. So disaster psychologists train armies of volunteers to provide basic support and identify people at greater risk of developing long-term problems.

“There are certain things that we can still put into place for people based on what we’ve learned about what’s helpful for PTSD and for depression and for anxiety, but we have to adjust it a bit,” says Patricia Watson, a psychologist at the National Center for PTSD. “This is a different dance than the dance that we’ve had for other types of disasters.”

Some states have moved quickly to learn the new steps. In Colorado, Benight is helping to train volunteer resilience coaches to support members of their community and, when necessary, refer them to formal crisis-counseling programs. His team has also worked with volunteers in 31 states, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Colorado’s approach is not the sort of rigorously tested, evidence-based model to which Ruzek said disaster psychologists should aspire. Then again, “we’re sitting here with not a lot of options,” says Matthew Boden, a research scientist in the Veterans Health Administration’s mental-health and suicide-prevention unit. “Something is better than nothing.”

In 2013, reflecting on the tenth anniversary of the SARS pandemic, newspapers in Hong Kong described a city scarred by plague. When COVID-19 arrived there seven years later, they did so again. SARS had traumatized that city, but it had also prepared it. Face masks had become commonplace. People used tissues to press elevator buttons. Public spaces were sanitized and resanitized. In New York City, COVID-19 has killed more than 22,600 people; in Hong Kong, a metropolis of nearly the same size, it has killed seven. The city has learned from its scars.

America, too, will bear the scars of plague. Maybe next time, we will be the ones who have learned.

#coronavirus or covid-19 #mental health

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

Text

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Canada’s Ontario to go on province-wide shutdown Dec. 26 (AP) Ontario on Monday announced a province-wide shutdown because of a second wave of COVID-19 in Canada’s most populous province. The lockdown will be put in place for southern Ontario from Dec. 26 until Jan. 23, but will lift for northern Ontario on Jan. 9. Ontario has had seven straight days of more than 2,000 cases a day. Modeling shows that could more than double in January. Health officials earlier said a four- to six-week hard lockdown could significantly stop the spread of COVID-19. Toronto, Canada’s largest city, had already closed restaurants for indoor dining but schools remained open. All high schools in Ontario will now be closed for in-person learning until Jan. 25. Elementary schools will be closed until Jan. 11.

Congress Strikes Long-Sought Stimulus Deal to Provide $900 Billion in Aid (NYT) Congressional leaders on Sunday reached a hard-fought agreement on a $900 billion stimulus package that would send immediate aid to Americans and businesses to help them cope with the economic devastation of the pandemic and fund the distribution of vaccines. The deal would deliver the first significant infusion of federal dollars into the economy since April, as negotiators broke through months of partisan gridlock that had scuttled earlier talks, leaving millions of Americans and businesses without federal help as the pandemic raged. While the plan is roughly half the size of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law enacted in March, it is one of the largest relief packages in modern history. The agreement was expected to provide $600 stimulus payments to millions of American adults earning up to $75,000.

Trump’s legacy: He changed the presidency, but will it last? (AP) The most improbable of presidents, Donald Trump reshaped the office and shattered its centuries-old norms and traditions while dominating the national discourse like no one before. He smashed conceptions about how presidents behave and communicate, offering unvarnished thoughts and policy declarations alike, pulling back the curtain for the American people while enthralling supporters and unnerving foes—and sometimes allies—both at home and abroad. While the nation would be hard-pressed to elect another figure as disruptive as Trump, it remains to be seen how much of his imprint on the office itself, occupied by only 44 other men, will be indelible. Already it shadows the work of his successor, President-elect Joe Biden, who framed his candidacy as a repudiation of Trump, offering himself as an antidote to the chaos and dissent of the past four years while vowing to restore dignity to the Oval Office. “For all four years, this is someone who at every opportunity tried to stretch presidential power beyond the limits of the law,” said presidential historian Michael Beschloss. “He altered the presidency in many ways, but many of them can be changed back almost overnight by a president who wants to make the point that there is a change.”

Mexican president expects no conflicts with Biden administration (Reuters) Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday his weekend call with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden was “very friendly” and that he expect relations to be positive with the new Democratic administration taking office in January.

World closes borders to Britain as new coronavirus strain breeds panic (Reuters) A slew of countries closed their borders to Britain on Monday over fears of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, heightening global panic, causing travel chaos and raising the prospect of UK food shortages days before the Brexit cliff edge. India, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Jordan and Hong Kong suspended travel for Britons after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a mutated variant of the virus, up to 70% more transmissible, had been identified in the country. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman closed their borders completely. Several other nations have suspended travel from Britain including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Israel and Canada. France shut its border to arrivals of people and trucks from Britain, closing off one of the most important trade arteries with mainland Europe. As families and truck drivers tried to navigate the travel bans to get back home in time for Christmas, British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s said shortages would start to appear within days if transport ties were not quickly restored.

Britons scramble for residency in Spain and Portugal ahead of Brexit (Reuters) In October, Michelle Jones and her husband Gary boarded a ferry in England for a new life in Spain. Had they left it beyond Britain’s period of transition out of the European Union, things would have been much more complicated. “We haven’t got a choice—it’s now or never,” the former housing association worker said at the hairdressing salon she has taken over in the resort town of Fuengirola in southern Spain. Britain formally left the European Union on Jan. 31 after its 2016 referendum, but since then it has been in a transition period under which rules on free travel and trade remain unchanged. That period ends on Dec. 31. Fourteen European countries, including Portugal and Spain, will grant Britons arriving before Dec. 31 the right to five years of residency. Other countries have tougher post-Brexit requirements, asking all Britons to re-apply after the transition period. Ahead of the deadline, some people have brought forward retirement plans and others have taken advantage of being able to work from home to move.

Skiing (Financial Times) The European Alps are home to a third of the world’s 2,084 ski resorts, and typically generate €28 billion in revenues. That is roughly 7 percent of the overall European Union tourism market. Though geographically compact, the Alps are the global seat of skiing, and in a typical year are host to about 43 percent of worldwide skier visits, considerably higher than North America (21 percent), the Asia Pacific region (16 percent), and other parts of Western Europe (10 percent). Naturally, this season will not be generating 28 billion euros. France has shut down all ski lifts through January 7, resorts in Italy and Austria are closed, and the Swiss are going to do their own thing but will cut ties with neighbors for the duration of the crisis.

Nepal Falls Into Political Turmoil. China and India Are Watching. (NYT) Nepal’s top leader dissolved Parliament on Sunday amid infighting among members of the governing party, throwing into doubt the political future of a strategically important Himalayan country where China and India have long jockeyed for influence. The prime minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, called for the dissolution of the lower house of Parliament despite protests from his own Nepal Communist Party and opposition groups, including the largest, Nepali Congress. Nepal is now set to hold elections starting in late April, more than a year earlier than the expected vote in November 2022. Mr. Oli made his move in the face of rising dissatisfaction with his job performance even within the ranks of his own party. He was elected to a second stint as prime minister in 2017 on promises of tamping down corruption and forging stronger ties with China and its economic growth machine. But Mr. Oli’s administration has been plagued with its own corruption allegations as well as criticism of his government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated an economy that has long depended on tourism and on remittances from its citizens abroad.

Rockets fired at U.S. embassy land inside Baghdad’s Green Zone, damaging compound (Reuters) At least eight Katyusha rockets landed in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone in an attack targeting the U.S. Embassy, causing some minor damage on the compound on Sunday, the Iraqi military and the embassy said on Sunday. The Iraqi military said an “outlaw group” fired eight rockets. Most of the missiles hit a residential complex and a security checkpoint inside the zone, damaging buildings and cars and wounding one Iraqi soldier, a military statement said. U.S. officials blame Iran-backed militia for regular rocket attacks on U.S. facilities in Iraq, including near the embassy in Baghdad. No known Iran-backed groups have claimed responsibility.

Spyware targets phones of Al-Jazeera reporters (AP) Dozens of journalists at Al-Jazeera, the Qatari state-owned media company, have been targeted by advanced spyware in an attack likely linked to the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a cybersecurity watchdog said Sunday. Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto said it traced malware that infected the personal phones of 36 journalists, producers, anchors and executives at Al-Jazeera back to the Israel-based NSO Group, which has been widely condemned for selling spyware to repressive governments. Most unnerving to the investigators was that iMessages were infecting targeted cellphones without the users taking any action—what’s known as a zero-click vulnerability. Through push notifications alone, the malware instructed the phones to upload their content to servers linked to the NSO Group, Citizen Lab said, turning journalists’ iPhones into powerful surveillance tools without even luring users to click on suspicious links or threatening texts. Citizen Lab, which has been tracking NSO spyware for four years, tied the attacks “with medium confidence” to the Emirati and Saudi governments, based on their past targeting of dissidents at home and abroad with the same spyware. The two countries are embroiled in a bitter geopolitical dispute with Qatar in which hacking and cyber surveillance have increasingly become favored tools.

In Tigray Conflict, Displaced Children Suffer (NYT) UM RAKUBA, Sudan—The Um Rakuba refugee camp is filling again, stifling in the afternoon sun in eastern Sudan, and there are children everywhere. More than 51,000 Ethiopians have fled their country because of the military’s offensive in the restive region of Tigray, and more than 19,000 of them are here at Um Rakuba. Almost a third of the Ethiopian refugees are children, with at least 361 of them arriving unaccompanied, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Many of the unaccompanied children said they were separated from their families as they bolted from their homes in the middle of the night, trekking hours and days with nothing but the clothes on their backs to reach safety. “It is quite heartbreaking,” Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said in an interview in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. “For an emergency that is relatively small in numbers, I have hardly seen such a high level of people separated from their families, many children separated.”

The food industry and academic studies (Food Dive) A new study published in the journal Plos One reported that in 2018, 13 percent of research articles published in the 10-most-cited nutrition academic journals were funded at least in part by the food industry. Of those funded by the industry, 56 percent reported favorable findings for the industry backing them financially, vastly higher than the 10 percent of articles that were not paid for by the food industry that reported industry favorable outcomes.

#headlines #news

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bopinion · 4 years ago

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2020 / 51

Aperçu of the week:

I'm not crazy, my reality is just different than yours (Lewis Carroll / Alice in Wonderland).

Bad news of the week:

Today, Germany's federal and state governments decided to switch from the 'lockdown light' that has been in place since November 01 to a hard lockdown. In addition to gastronomy, leisure and culture, now retail, schools and kindergartens will also close from next Wednesday until January 10, 2021, and outdoor restrictions will be tightened to real curfews.

In principle, this makes sense, because two criteria are reaching their limits: the capacities in the health sector, especially intensive care beds in hospitals, and the health offices can no longer track the contacts of infected people. The increase in the numbers of infected, seriously ill and dead could hardly be slowed down, let alone reduced, with the measures taken so far.

Unfortunately, this shows once again the powerlessness of politics in the face of the renitence of large parts of the population. I do not mean the annoying and constantly growing group of corona deniers, vaccination opponents and conspiracy theorists. But those who believe in principle in the sense of the restrictions and wear their masks in the supermarket, but find the restriction of personal contacts somewhat exaggerated. And therefore gladly times an eye to squeeze, if the 50th birthday of the good friend is lining up, each Thursday at John's place poker is played and watching soccer alone is boring. That reminds me strongly of wrong parking and speeding: one is aware of the prohibition, but allows oneself a certain freedom in the interpretation of the rules. Besides, most of the time it goes well, you get a ticket maybe every twentieth time. So it can't be all that bad.

Fiddlesticks! Scientists agree that neither schools nor retail stores are major infection drivers. And that in addition to clusters in nursing homes, for example, which can be easily traced, it is above all the contacts in private life, which are still hardly reduced and which can just hardly be traced, that contribute to the spread - the so-called "diffuse infection incidence". However, this can hardly be sanctioned, because neither the manpower of the forces of law and order, nor our legal system (the constitution defines the "fundamental right of inviolability of the home") are suitable tools for an effective prevention of these breaches of law. And the people know this very well.

It is quite simple: if a society does not "function" on the basis of regimentation by an authoritarian leadership, as in China, for example, it is dependent on a solid value system of self-responsibility and solidarity on the part of its free citizens. Unfortunately, however, this apparently remains theory, because it is hardly lived out in practice. Therefore, policymakers are forced to take a multitude of small but implementable measures and hope that the sum will achieve a sufficient effect, because the one truly meaningful and efficient measure is simply not implementable. Unfortunately, however, it is precisely these small measures that cost society dearly: from the financial rescue of the small boutique or the self-employed trade fair builder to the long-term psychological consequences for the youngest children, who can no longer go to kindergarten but are parked in front of the television by their mothers working in parallel in their home offices. Restricting social contacts, on the other hand, would be free of charge. Many thanks to all the inconsiderate egoists out there!

Good news of the week:

The six months of the German presidency of the Council of the European Union are drawing to a close. Expectations were originally quite high, with the team of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promising a high degree of pragmatism and constructiveness. But then Corona came along and the agenda was completely overturned.

At the end of the week was the last EU summit of the heads of government of this half-year. And hardly anyone expected any significant progress to be made on any other issues besides the pandemic, such as quarantine rules, vaccine licensing or commuter border traffic. And then there was a remarkable press conference after the final 22-hour marathon negotiation. With results. And what results. Here are my personal highlights:

The distribution of EU funds for regional support, in this case specifically agriculture in Hungary and infrastructure projects in Poland, will be linked to compliance with a defined rule-of-law framework. Specifically, freedom of expression for the media in Hungary and independence of the judiciary in Poland. For this reason, these two countries had threatened with a general veto - unfortunately, unanimity is the rule in the EU when it comes to really important issues. And now they actually agreed to it.

Then came the adoption of the EU budget. As this is valid for seven years, it has always been a challenge with many national sensitivities for the small print on page 2,411. This time all the more important, as the budget contains trillions in reconstruction aid for the countries most affected by Corona. A done deal sometime during the night.

And last but not least, the tightening of climate targets. Now, by 2030 - that is, in the usual timeframe for such mammoth projects: by the day after tomorrow - greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by 55% rather than 40% compared with 1990. A sporting, but necessary goal. Combined with a variety of green factors such as closing coal-fired power plants, insulating homes, more sustainable agriculture, protecting biodiversity, more humane livestock farming or expanding electromobility while promoting hydrogen drives. Adopted together.

Of course, one can always wish for more. And especially in environmental protection, too little is always done too late. But for me, the decisions taken at the end of this EU summit show one thing above all: cooperation works. And it makes sense. For everyone involved. An important sign, especially in times of increasing isolationism and unilateralism.

P.S.: Oh yes, there is still no agreement on the manifold regulations for the post-Brexit era. But that's not news, that's a farce.

Sense of achievement of the week:

The other day we watched "The Queen's Gambit" on Netflix. A remarkable series about the development of a child prodigy into a chess grandmaster, brilliantly starring Anya Taylor-Joy. Yes, a mini-series about chess can indeed be entertaining and exciting. Vaguely, I remembered that we must have a chess set - somewhere. It finally turned up and last week I, who had practically never played before and just knows the basic rules, won my first two games. Well, one of them against my 12-year-old son, but he was in the school's chess club last year, after all. Deservedly an evergreen and truly the game of kings!

#thoughts #aperçu #bad news #good news #coronavirus #social distancing #lockdown #european union #angela merkel #ursula von der leyen #hungary #poland #eu summit #netflix #chessgame #the queen’s gambit

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