You can't be anti-participation trophies and pro Confederate statues. They are the world's biggest participation trophies.
— Larry Beyince (@DragonflyJonez) April 24, 2017
I first saw the story in the Washington Post, but here’s how one of the local papers covered it. From the New Orleans Advocate:
The removal of New Orleans’ monument to the Battle of Liberty Place under the cover of darkness early Monday morning marks a turning point in the nearly two-year-old debate over the fate of four Jim Crow-era statues.
Three other monuments targeted by Mayor Mitch Landrieu — memorializing Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard and Confederate President Jefferson Davis — also are scheduled to come down, though the timing and other details of the removal are closely guarded secrets.
The dismantling of the Liberty Place obelisk came hours before a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by groups seeking to keep the four monuments in place. The case had held up the removal for more than a year before judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled recently that the city could proceed with its plans.
Of the four, the Liberty Place monument was widely seen as the most objectionable, and Landrieu explicitly described it that way. The 1891 monument commemorated a violent 1874 uprising by a local militia known as the White League, which fought with members of New Orleans’ biracial police force as it ousted the state’s “carpetbagger” Reconstruction-era government for several days before President Ulysses S. Grant sent in federal troops…
City officials said they were keeping details about the removals under wraps in light of threats and harassment reported by contractors who had previously been hired or expressed interest in the job. The Police Department’s SWAT team watched over the removal, with sharpshooters posted in a nearby parking garage and K-9 units checking the scene…
At one point, Joey Cargol, an opponent of taking down the statues who had been loudly criticizing the police and demanding to see a permit for the work, walked up to Suber. Acknowledging that they were on opposing sides, Cargol said he hoped they could agree the removal itself should have been handled more transparently.
“I know we’ve disagreed on a lot of things, but this is not the ways things should be handled,” Cargol said.
“They could have done this, announced it and let people show their opinion,” Suber said. “This is the coward’s way.”
“It’s hard to handle a defeat like this and hard to celebrate a victory like this,” Cargol replied.
With all due respect for those more immediately impacted, given the temper of the times, I can see why the Mayor chose this path. We’ve got quite enough would-be “heroes” wandering around armed and dangerously stupid, and too many martyrs already.
Apart from ongoing civic improvements, what’s on the agenda for the day?
satby
I was just reading the Times-Picyune about this, and I think the lack of transparency was probably due to the death threats and torched Lamborghini (didn’t say whose car, assumed by the context it was the previous contractor for the removal, who bowed out).
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
CarolDuhart2
About time. While I would leave battlefields and cemeteries alone, the rest of them should go. If Germany left up monuments to the Nazis, we would howl. How is this different?
CarolDuhart2
Also, those who wanted to keep the monuments could have transferred them to private property. But that’s probably their point. They wanted these to remain public property, with maintenance paid for by the very descendants of the people they abused and harrassed-a long-running abuse, as they will. These monuments were a middle finger to them and the city.
Brendan in NC
@CarolDuhart2: Other than the fact that they’re our Nazis, it isn’t. But there are enough people in the Confederate states who remember how they thwarted the North’s attempts to fully reintegrate them. And want that to continue.
CarolDuhart2
@Brendan in NC: They want that to continue. But as more and more “outsiders”-Northerners, immigrants, whatever come down South, people uninvested in the “Lost Cause” are beginning to change things a bit.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Morning! I’m heartened to hear Trump’s caved on getting money for the wall this week. Every little bit helps.
Baud
As expected, Trump caving on border wall. Give your Dems some love.
clay
@Baud: But but but… Cornel West says the Dems haven’t delivered on anything!
(I know, I know, I should let it go… but the unmitigated gall combined with ignorance of all practical considerations has really struck a raw nerve…)
Patricia Kayden
@CarolDuhart2: It’s not different at all. It’s quite shocking that a war which ended in the 18060s still has so many participants. The Confederacy was an enemy of the U.S. Why does anyone celebrate its losing, racist cause at this point in time? Every monument on public land to the pro-slavery Confederacy should be torn down.
p.a.
@satby: not sure a contractor rocking a Lambro is a contractor I would want to deal with, even if I could afford it!
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: @Baud:
I’m kinda disappointed. I wanted to see him commit ritual political seppuku on the entire GOP. Would have been fun.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: Has Trump kept any of the “promises” he made to his idiot supporters? I can’t think of any. Sad.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: He’s hating on immigrants. That may be enough.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
But he’s running out of face to save. Less bloody, but just as emasculating.
MJS
I’m having trouble keeping my pro-Trump media straight. I thought the National Enquirer was all about the shit gibbon. But in the grocery store last night, I saw the entire front page devoted to “What Trump Doesn’t Know”, claiming Vlad had 15 spies killed to hide evidence of Russian hacking in the election. There were pictures of Flynn, Page and Manafort on the cover and, most surprisingly, no reference at all to Clinton. I suppose the article could have tied it all together to make Trump look like a hero, but I’m thinking the National Enquirer doesn’t attempt to “trick” their “readers” like that, for fear that they will simply write the NE off as just another lie-beral rag without opening it up. I wonder what’s up.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Non-political post, unless you can twist it into an allegory or metaphor or something.
If there are any BJers who are knowledgeable about birds, I’m kind of curious what I witnessed last night.
Nature Red in Tooth and Claw, Bird Edition. (I’ve come to realize over the years that the peaceful suburbs are not very peaceful for the non-human species).
So I hear this weird knocking against my screen door. Peer out and see an injured bird on the porch, occasionally flying up and hitting the screen. At first I thought it was a sparrow but it was bigger than that, possibly a mockingbird (but I only recognize a few species so it could have been something else).
Then I hard a louder flapping and look up to see something with very large wings doing battle under the eaves. All I see is the wings spread and flapping, can’t see what it’s fighting. My first thought was that a cat got up there somehow. Eventually it flies down and I see it’s a mourning dove.
Was the dove attacking the mockingbird’s nest? Do they do that? Was the mockingbird attacking the dove’s nest? But then who was he still fighting?
This morning the thought occurred to me: “snake”. I’ve heard before of snakes getting nests in the eaves. But then what accounts for the wounded first bird?
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning?
@p.a.: it wasn’t clear whose car it was, just that it cost $200k and was torched by opponents of the removal. They thought they needed a SWAT team with snipers at 2am in case any shit started. Must have been some pretty specific threats.
Good on NOLA and the mayor for following through and getting rid of them.
satby
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: some birds attempt to lay their eggs in other birds’ nests to have the eggs be raised by the foster bird, but that doesn’t sound like what happened there.
evodevo
@satby: Yep. The only reason it was there is that the Northern occupation force was withdrawn, and the rebels came out from under their rocks. By comparison, we’re STILL in Germany …lol
Ken
@Patricia Kayden: I think a “Trump’s Promises for Hist First 100 Days” checklist was on BJ a few days ago, with every item X-ed out (which is kind of like checking it off).
Kay
The world should “blame” Hillary Clinton. The Hillary Clinton hatred in political media is fucked up and unprofessional. It’s actually gotten worse since she lost.
Losing was not enough. “The world” must blame her or this crusade will continue. She is now responsible for Donald Trump’s Presidency.
Baud
@Kay: As expected as night follows day.
Look at all the interest in Chelsea’s political future. There’s absolutely no basis for it at all, but it sells.
Millions of Americans sold out their country to feed their Hillary hate. That’s a market that can be exploited for profit.
ThresherK
@CarolDuhart2: Worst. Lawn Ornaments. Ever.
Betty Cracker
To quote some wag on Twitter, the Confederate monument currently serving as attorney general should be removed!
dedc79
This GOP candidate for Governor in Virginia seems like a swell guy:
https://twitter.com/CoreyStewartVA/status/856699414907367424
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Meanwhile, unelected knockoff bag and shoe peddler Ivanka Trump is in Germany right now representing the United States, despite having zero relevant qualifications.
amk
@Kay: fournier is a very small fish even in the political media. despite silver’s treating him as a savant.
Kay
And why wouldn’t they? It worked. The investigation in the House already fell apart and the Senate investigation is currently falling apart.
There were a series of failures that led to Trump and they aren’t fixed. They’re still failing, one after another.
Betty Cracker
@amk: He was the AP’s DC bureau chief! He sucks, but that doesn’t mean he’s not influential.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: A chip off the old block.
Ian G.
Among those who led New Orleans forces against the White League was James Longstreet, famed Confederate general. The Lost Causers hate Longstreet, not for his conduct during the war (he was one of the finest generals on either side in the war) but for his actions afterward, when he abandoned the white supremacist cause and worked to further a multiracial society.
It’s always, ALWAYS about white supremacy with these people. It will never be about anything else, and while I can hope that some day, we’ll see the last battle flag-waving Lost Causer be buried, I doubt it happens in my lifetime.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: What was the coloring of the first bird and app size?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@OzarkHillbilly: Robin-sized. No, it must have been smaller than that, because I really did think it was a sparrow at first. Just realized it was bigger than that later. So.. 4″ maybe?
Gray or light brown I think. When it eventually flew off the porch I saw white edges to the wings which is why I called it a mockingbird, because I believe that’s how they’re marked. Couldn’t tell you about head or beak, don’t remember.
Woodrowfan
@CarolDuhart2: true, but sometimes the transplants are even worse. Check out Corey Stewart who is running for governor here in Virginia (repub natch). He’s from Minnesota but started politics as an anti-“illegal immigrant” bigot. He’s busy waving the confederate flag like crazy, claiming “ISIS won” because the New Orleans statues were removed.
OzarkHillbilly
‘Winter White House’: US embassy’s Mar-a-Lago web page removed amid criticism
Gee, whocouldaknowed?
Kay.
rikyrah
@Kay:
PHUCK OUTTA HERE ???
germy
I see this unfortunate essay first thing in the morning:
http://kikoshouse.blogspot.com/2017/04/hillarys-unfortunate-but-unforgivable.html
JGabriel
Right. The opposition had already shown it’s opinion through death threats and threats of violence. Now they’re butthurt that the gov’t took their threats seriously enough to protect the people removing this monument to hate.
Jackasses.
NorthLeft12
@CarolDuhart2: I agree with your perspective. The fear that “foreigners” and their different values and mindsets will change local practices and traditions…even when those changes are for the better ….are a big driver behind the anti-immigration movement.
Please note that “foreigners” most likely includes people from New York, California, Hawaii, Minnesota, and any big city from up north to certain parts of the South.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Kay: I’m reminded of that law the Republicans forced through and then, when they found it allowed suing the Saudi government, started whining that it was Obama’s fault for letting them pass it.
Jeffro
@Baud:
Yes – today is a day to make the ‘good’ calls!
NorthLeft12
@Baud: He seems to be taking aim at some of our industries up North. But then the softwood lumber dispute has been going on for at least twenty-five years, if not longer. Each President and Congress, no matter which party is in power, have taken turns protecting the lumber industry.
I was heartened to read of a few dairy farmers in Wisconsin who understand that the problem in their industry is due to massive overproduction. Wisconsin alone produces more dairy product than all of Canada.
Jeffro
@dedc79: The replies to that dumbass’s tweet are priceless (in both directions). I love the one about not building monuments for ‘second place’!
efgoldman
@CarolDuhart2:
The Virginia counties surrounding DC are now as blue as any other blue part of the country. Yet my kids live in Arlington on [Robert E] Lee Highway; the hotel area where we stay is on Jefferson Davis Highway. The interstate near them is Mary Custis [Mrs Lee] Highway. If they live there another ten years, granddaughter will go to Washington-Lee High School.
And in very liberal Arlington County, there’s no move whatsoever to change it.
Baud
@NorthLeft12: I heard about the dairy thing. I assume that most dairy farmers in the Midwest voted for Trump, so I can wash my hands of their concerns. But please tell me if I’m wrong.
efgoldman
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
AFTER THEY OVERRODE HIS VETO!
But they’re RWNJ Republiklowns wouldn’t take the blame for swatting a mosquito on their fat, white asses.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: A number of birds have white markings on their wings but mockingbirds actually have white bars down the center with black on either side. Mockingbirds are very aggressive around their nests but they nest in bushes and trees.
Don’t know why you would have a mourning dove in your eave. They nest in medium tall trees and they are not aggressive towards other birds.
Going after a snake is possible, if it was getting too close to a nest in a tree/bush planted close to the house. Snakes do raid nests for eggs and nestlings as do most omnivorous critters.
Woodrowfan
@efgoldman: At least Lee lived here. They can’t change Jefferson Davis Highway because the state controls it. OTOH, Jeb Stuart High School is probably going to get a new name. And Alexandria is considering renaming some of the streets named after confederate generals.
efgoldman
@Woodrowfan:
And the legislature is gerrymandered to hell in favor of the Southern and rural parts of the Commonwealth.
And it frosts my Massachusetts raised daughter’s (and her equally liberal husband, even though he’s from North Carolina) cookies no end.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Probably somewhere in the 60-70% range, which means 30-40% didn’t vote for Trump. We get our milk from a local dairy, fresh and raw. They are of similar political persuasion as those here.
Woodrowfan
@efgoldman: same here. the northern tip of Virginia is the economic engine for the entire state. Some republicans mostly empty rural counties are whining that it’s “unfair” that Virginia goes blue in presidential elections because of the northern counties. They want to award electoral votes by Congressional district. That’s because there are a lot more of us up here than there are in the rural counties. Hell, I bet west-bound I-66 at 5 pm any weekday has more people than have the rural counties in Virginia.
Sometimes I wish the northern counties would join DC to form a new state and tell Richmond “good luck balancing that budget with the Arlington/Fairfax/Loundon cash cow to milk.” (sorry, hit one of my buttons)
amk
@Betty Cracker: fournier is a hasbeen and his tweets are just bleats that not many seem to give a shit about. AP has gotten somewhat better after he quit or was kicked out.
ThresherK
@Ian G.: Dang. Somehow Longstreet’s name didn’t fire off any synapses. Good to see at least one CSA leader knew that the damn war was over when it was over.
@germy: Never heard of that linked blogger. Thanks for reading it; I gave up after three sentences.
TS
@Kay: The people who are to blame for the Trump presidency are those who voted for Trump. They had help from the media and Comey, but their own stupidity gave trump victory.
On the removal of the monuments – this couldn’t happen during the Obama years – it would have all been blamed on the black guy in the white house. I find it interesting that now the GOP owns DC, suddenly democrats around the country are implementing democratic policies. Just weird – also entirely the opposite of the thoughts of Cornel West.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@OzarkHillbilly: There is a tree right against the house in that location. So it sounds like the snake theory is most plausible. The dove flew down because he won the fight. And perhaps bird #1 was injured defending his own nest against the same snake.
Another Scott
@Baud: Fake Media!!11
I kinda hope he vetoes the CR. I want to see him go out with a (metaphorical) bang, so to speak.
“Keep your promise Donnie! You’re our only hope!111!ONE”
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Frankensteinbeck
@germy:
Christ almighty. Yes, it must be the woman’s fault. It CAN’T be the fault of the white racists who voted for Trump. And if it’s not the woman’s fault, it must be the black guy’s fault. The misogyny is thick, offensive, and infuriating.
germy
@Frankensteinbeck: And his choice of photo….
tobie
I’m afraid to ask but I’ll ask anyway. Any news on greenNotGreen? I haven’t been able to read regularly because of work commitments but I know his situation is dire. I wanted to do what I could for his tropical birds.
Immanentize
@Kay: @germy:
Why all this anti-Hillary stuff right when Trump is on the ropes for his failed 100 day presidency??
Coincidence or enemy action?
Another Scott
@efgoldman: Most people I know call the Confederate roads by their numbers – e.g. JD Highway is “Route 1”.
Similarly with the airport near Arlington – “Take me to DCA (or National).”
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@Immanentize: cluelessness.
SenyorDave
@Betty Cracker: Here’s the BBC link:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39704840
Angela Merkel, one of the most accomplished women on the planet, is sharing a stage with Ivanka Trump? I can’t imagine the women at the conference listening to the nonsense coming out of Ivanka Trump’s mouth and having anything but complete contempt for her.
Another Scott
@tobie: She posted later the same day that her family was going to spend whatever was needed to take care of her birds, so there wouldn’t be a GoFundMe for them.
I too hope she checks in if she’s able.
Cheers,
Scott.
amk
@SenyorDave: mebbe it is angela’s plan to humiliate twitler and his ‘family’ as revenge?
rikyrah
@Baud:
Tis true.
Woodrowfan
@Another Scott: I still refer to it as “National”. Never by it’s full name, RR was a bastard.
Immanentize
@Another Scott: thanks Scott. I saw the original post but I’m thrilled to hear about the update.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Woodrowfan: A split like that already happened once, right? Isn’t that why there’s a West (by god) Virginia?
Ohio Mom
@Betty Cracker: Re: Ivanka in Germany. It’s like when a young person in your family starts dating someone who is completely wrong and not good enough, even borderline abusive.
Everyone has to grit their teeth and be polite and hope that the romance ends as soon as possible. That is the world right now.
Germany is putting up with Ivanka the same way my sister and BIL put up with that cable guy my niece brought to Thanksgiving (now a dim memory that we are not supposed to mention).
tobie
@Another Scott: Thanks for this. I hope greenNotGreen is in a good place.
Tarragon
My wife’s migraine update.
She was discharged Friday. They knew they were going to send her home before they had a solution, so I’m assuming this was some kind of “well I dunno, I’m out ideas.” By the time they discharged her they had found something that helped a bit.
She’s been home since then. No pain but still has plenty of the other migraine symptoms, auras, dizzy, etc.
Then we find out that they medication they prescribed is $4000 brand name as prescribed ($400 generic) and requires prior authorization from insurance; which they did not do. It wasn’t possible to get that set up over the weekend The hospital was oh so helpful and said we could return to the ER if we had another problem.
So we spent the weekend waiting and hoping that her migraine didn’t return in full. Monday we call around to try and get that prior auth and now the hospital tells us they wont set up prior auth. We don’t have a PCP that can do it as we’re between our existing PCP retiring and meeting the new. So we’re back to hoping it doesn’t return while we wait for a neurologist appointment.
We’re better. Frustrated and impatient but better.
Immanentize
@Woodrowfan: it’s National to me forever too. I would rather use that D airport than call National by that union buster’s name. Considering how RR ended his presidency in 25th amendment territory, do you suppose that Trump will have the same kind of legacy efforts after his leaving office?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Because, there are two groups that share the blame for Dolt45:
Mayo Nation
and
The MSM, which didn’t do its phucking job..
BOTH want to weasel out of what they have brought to this country.
And, it’s up to folks like us, with the receipts, to never let them off the hook.
Nate Silver drug Fournier’s azz up and down the Twitter streets yesterday.
And, I don’t want to see another goddamn article about a Dolt45 Voter with regrets.
PHUCK THAT!!
The truest thing you have reiterated, time and again Kay is…
THEY KNEW WHAT A LOATHESOME HUMAN BEING HE WAS….
AND THEY VOTED FOR HIM ANYWAY.
Truer words were never written, and it’s why NONE of them should be allowed to weasel out of their vote for him.
Immanentize
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Slavery was the issue in the Virginia split.
Fun fact — the first constitution in the world to ban the importation of slaves was — wait for it — the constitution of the confederate states. It was demanded as the cost of Virginia’s entry into the confederacy because Virginia had a huge indigenous slave surplus. That is, trade protectionism.
Woodrowfan
@Immanentize: Trump Airport will be yyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggeeeee, and very, very tacky.
Steve in the ATL
I was just the victim of racism! I just boarded MARTA, the Atlanta subway/light rail, at a sketchy stop (going into town to meet outside counsel and our highways are collapsed or buckling or clogged). Asian couple gets on the train with lots of luggage. Speak little to no English. Need help getting to airport. They look around the car, see lots of black and Hispanic people, nodded to each other, then asked me for directions (we were at the northern terminus; airport is at southern terminus–stay on train until they throw you off!).
I suppose it’s my fault for looking too respectable. Which Serbs impossible considering how long I’ve been hanging around BJ.
Woodrowfan
another fun fact, the only county that voted against secession in 1861 that did not join West Virginia was Arlington (then Alexandria) County… a lot of Yankees moved to northern Virginia in the 20 years before the war because the land was exhausted and cheap. They revitalized it by bringing modern farming methods instead of just growing tobacco until the land was too worn out to farm. So there was a fair amount of pro-Union sympathizers in the area.
Immanentize
@Tarragon: I am sorry to hear about the continuing issues. So frustrating. I don’t know where you live, but here (near Boston) one solution would be an urgent care place (we call the doc-in-box) which are in a number of strip Mall-y areas. They are really helpful in just your sort of circumstance (between providers) etc.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tarragon: Welcome to the best health care in the world. Glad to hear she (and you) are better.
Iowa Old Lady
@Kay: She got more votes.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize:
“Doc on the block” here.
amk
mission accomplished!
Immanentize
@Iowa Old Lady: Yeah, but not, according to the plunditocracy, really the right Kind of votes. Ammirite?
Patricia Kayden
@Ian G.: Who actually believes that the Confederacy was for anything but keeping slavery in practice in the South? How many Black people were hung from trees to make it clear that the Confederacy was about dominating Black bodies? It’s a shame that any tributes to the Confederate traitors are displayed on public property up to this present day. This should no longer be an issue. I’m sure if I ever visit Germany, I’ll not find one tribute to Nazis anywhere in the public sphere. We should do the same with our traitors.
Iowa Old Lady
@Tarragon: OMG, even with insurance, health insurance is a major pain in this country because it’s so complicated compared to single payer. Think of the money we waste on paperwork and time spent.
Doug R
Now Trump’s declared war on Canada. Enjoy protectionism and higher lumber prices.
rikyrah
@Baud:
And, it’s nearly all MEN bothering Chelsea.
Patricia Kayden
@amk: What the hell is Ivanka doing there in the first place and why is she bringing up her “Grab women by the p*ssy” horrible father at a women’s conference? Cannot stand her.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
And then, they were like, ‘ we couldn’t have possibly thought there would be backlash’
Which got a reply of REALLY?
And, it was so insulting that pretended like it just APPEARED on the website…
REALLY?
Iowa Old Lady
I was just reading this morning that Trump repeatedly asked Merkel if the US and Germany could establish a trade treaty, and she had to keep saying no. They were part of the EU and that’s who he had to deal with.
rikyrah
@NorthLeft12:
Hmmph
I bet most of them voted for Walker and for Dolt45….
so, cry me a river…
germy
@Iowa Old Lady:
I still remember Obama getting choked up during an interview, when he recalled seeing his mother dying of cancer and struggling with insurance paperwork.
Wyatt Derp
My irony meter has just pegged. Bain capital (Mitt Romney’s former company) arranged the takeover of Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity radio network I Heart Radio and saddled them with $350M in debt (which I’m sure went into the pockets of Bain). I Heart Radio is now expected to declare bankruptcy.
rikyrah
@Tarragon:
I hope that she gets better.
rikyrah
@amk:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
OzarkHillbilly
Wyatt Derp@96: Your reply button is f’d up, just wanted to say “Karma sure is a beach “
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Patricia Kayden:
This Memorial to Peace and Justice being developed in Alabama is going to be an amazing ;place to remember the victims of lynchings. The Equal Justice Initiative is an incredibly effective organization, and Bryan Stephenson is a remarkable individual. Lynchings have gone from public events conducted on the courthouse grounds, to death row, sanctioned by the judiciary. As someone mentioned upthread, everything is about white supremacy in this country. Everything.
Wyatt Derp
@CarolDuhart2:
Well, the Nazis were white supremacists , labelled their opponents “enemies of the state”, coordinated violent attacks against their ememies, hated jews and minorities, were lead by a pathological liar with a tenuous grip on reality…..oh hell, now you’re just depressing me!
Wyatt Derp
@MJS:
Pre-emptively trying to claim “Trump Doesn’t Know” because the alternative is he does know.
ET
@satby: Exactly. That guy saying it should have been transparent was apparently not paying attention to the major fight over this OR he just thinks people were lying and no one would have done anything. If they had been open about removing the memorials and some got hurt he would have likely thought “outside agitators.” Can’t win with someone like that.
Another Scott
@Patricia Kayden: The BBC was just saying that Merkel invited her to the conference. Apparently it’s an attempt to create a “back channel” so that Germany has more influence on Donnie and gets him to come around to Angela’s way of thinking and “it seems to be working”.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tarragon
@Iowa Old Lady:
OMG yeah. All the shit they expect people who are having problems to do is insane.
My wife spent Monday on the phone until she was driving herself back into pain just trying to get authorization, getting all the records to the right people, and setting up all the necessary follow up appointments.
And I’m just stunned at how the hospital neurologist could prescribe a med and then just wash his hands about getting it authorized. My wife got a courtesy follow up call from the hospital; “How are you doing on the med you were prescribed?” She swore into the phone on that one, “How the fuck should I know, I can’t get it.”
RobertB
@Immanentize: I thought I read this here a while back: plantation agriculture was no longer profitable in parts of the slaveholding states (especially northern parts that have been farmed for a while), and that the plantation owners were staying afloat by switching to selling slaves. These owners needed the institution of slavery, and new markets for the slaves, to stay afloat – sharecropping or hiring labor wasn’t going to generate the profits that the slave trade would.
Tarragon
@Immanentize:
We actually have a migraine specific urgent care place around here. They were unable to help initially which is how we ended up at the ER. I’m not sure any of these places would help us push through a prior authorization and right now I’m not going to suggest my wife make another call. We have neuro appointment real soon. We’ll see if he can do it.
Miss Bianca
@germy: OK, *this* is the kind of shit that is going to make my BP go sky-high. Here I was, innocently/stupidly thinking, “well, at least the media is going to have to focus on something else besides the Clintons right now”, but NOOO…
I never thought I could empathize with the sans-culottes of Paris cheering as “enemies of the Revolution” went to the guillotine. Now I’m starting to think that if a guillotine were erected in Times Square, I’d start cheering too, if only all these media assholes were slated to get their heads chopped off.
Except with their last breaths, they’d be bleating, “but her eeeeeeeeeemaaaaaaiiilllsssss”…
Origuy
@Tarragon: My housemate had a similar problem. She went into the ER at Stanford Medical Center with cellulitis. It’s a chronic condition with her. They tried several antibiotics, except for the many she’s allergic to, but nothing was working. They finally tried one that cost $10,000 a week and that knocked down the infection. They couldn’t get MediCal, California Medicare, to pay for it outpatient, but MediCal would cover it as inpatient, which cost them more. Go figure. So she was in the hospital for couple of weeks. The second time she got cellulitis and went to the ER, they contacted the social worker at SMC. Stanford, being private and well-endowed, has funds for people in her situation. So they sent a voucher to Walgreens to cover the antibiotic.
MediCal wants to move her to managed care from straight MediCal, which would mean she couldn’t go to Stanford for her care. But she’s so medically complicated that the county health system couldn’t deal with her.
TenguPhule
@Miss Bianca:
Have you met Village yet?
TenguPhule
@Doug R: I mentioned it yesterday. We’re going to be fighting a two front war in North America at this rate.
SWMBO
@Tarragon: Call the state insurance commissioner’s office. Tell them the inpatient doc prescribed but wouldn’t do a prior authorization to continue care. They can force the hospital, insurance, and doctor to all come to the understanding that it is unethical to do this. We had a problem getting authorization for our autistic son. Kept getting the run around. I documented every time I spoke with someone and what was said. Took the file into the insurance commissioner’s office to see if they could help me. Mr. B looked at it and said, “We don’t have to open an investigation. Your documentation is detailed enough. Give me a few minutes and I’ll see what I can do.” An hour and a half later, he comes out and tells me he thinks I shouldn’t have a problem anymore. If there was any further conflict, to give him a call. I wasn’t sure what he meant until I got home. The phone was ringing and it was the insurance asking me to stick out something so they could kiss it. Turns out, Mr. B could have levied something like a $10,000 a day fine for refusing coverage that they had received a premium for.