Heartsease

Recently, Forbes, the Economist, and Thinkprogress, did articles on Trump’s threat to cut the ACA’s cost sharing reduction payments (CSRs) if the AHCA isn’t passed.

Make no mistake, the POTUS and his administration have chosen to use the threat of cutting off, immediately, the access of our most vulnerable populations to healthcare as a bargaining chip if he does not get what he wants.

Nor is there any chance I’m misunderstanding Trump’s administrations intent. In an interview with The Economist in May, Trump was very definite: “There is no Obamacare, it’s dead. Plus we’re subsidizing it and we don’t have to subsidize it. You know if I ever stop wanting to pay the subsidies, which I will,” Trump said. “Anytime I want.”

Trumps administration has made good on their promise to destabilize the ACA in spades. Committing to only paying the CSRs one month at a time is another tactic designed solely to continue this destabilization. Sean Spicer explained even further when he said “We committed to making them last month, and that’s as far as we will go at this time, We’re not committing to them this month.”
“But Spicer then signaled that the “dynamic” will change if the Senate passes a health care bill. The bill on the table — which was written in secret by Republican senators and hasn’t been subject to a hearing — is in some ways harsher than the House version that would result in 23 million Americans losing their health insurance. But unlike the House bill, the Senate version continues to temporarily provide tax subsidies for consumers to buy health insurance on exchanges, albeit ones that are much less generous than Obamacare.
“If we can pass health care overall, then that changes the dynamic,” Spicer said. “It will ultimately be up to the president to decide.”

Access to healthcare, educating those we serve on how to use their healthcare, and providing them with the necessary supports to understand what their medical practitioner is telling them is a huge part of my work world. My CKF staff eats, lives, & breathes healthcare and the intricacies of both the ACA & proposed AHCA because I need them to be fully informed experts for our clients; I’m no slouch with this either.

Knowing what I do professionally, and as a Holy Ghost filled seasoned saint who does my best to walk my talk, I need Trump’s “Christian” supporters to explain to me exactly where in the Word it says blackmail and subjecting those least able to afford CSR cuts and the loss of their healthcare is remotely Christ like.

The latest “Trump is led by God to hurt the poor” fiasco, which came out on the Jim Bakker show this week, I think is the most ashamed and embarrassed I have ever been by and for people who call themselves a pastor. Paula White held that record previously, but, Jim Bakker and Frank Amedia just laid her support of Trump in the shade.

If you haven’t listened to, or read, what these two pathetic excuses for “men of God” said you need to. They remind me of Eli’s sons because their lies are defiling the house.

You cannot extol what Donald Trump does and says as a result of the gifts of wisdom, discernment, and him repeating what God downloads into his head. As if this heresy isn’t enough, Amedia calls North Korea, and their mentally & emotionally unstable leader out and challenges them; unbelievable.

Anyone reading this who honestly believes Bakker, Amedia, White, Trump, and all the others of their ilk, are being led of the Lord: shut up, don’t say a word, unfriend and block me as fast as your little fingers can type because I refuse to tolerate your willful ignorance of the Spirit, the Word, and the neglect of those very people that Christ said, “whatever ye do to the least of these you do to me”.

Don’t waste your time, or mine, by calling me out as being un-Christian because I’m intolerant. I’ve got news for you, being intolerant of hatred, of those who incite violence, bigotry, racism, misogyny, greed, treason, and abusing those in poverty, those who are most vulnerable is something I’m willing to take my chances with God on.

Christ ran the money changers out of the temple because they brought greed and avarice into his house. When we don’t call these things out: We. Are. Complicit. When, as believers, we cover those who commit these vile, unseemly, forbidden acts with the skirt of the church and under the guise of doing God’s work -we are in danger of hellfire and damnation.

Finally, Christ was a brown skinned Middle Easterner who was a refugee, who fed the hungry, healed the sick, hung out with low lifes, and didn’t have a job. If this administration wouldn’t let him in the country how on earth can they let him in their hearts.

Here’s the link to the video:

http://proudemocrats.com/2017/07/11/trumps-christian-advisor-says-donald-is-getting-downloads-straight-from-god-video/

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Americans have seen corporate influence surge, in both elections and the crafting of policy, since the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision of 2010, which granted corporations the right to influence the outcome of elections.  While corporations still cannot contribute directly to candidates the Supreme Court’s ruling opened the floodgates by allowing unlimited funds to be channeled into efforts to elect or defeat candidates by corporations; indirectly giving them and the lobbies they power political influence individuals are simply incapable of mustering.

Corporate personhood uniquely distorts political process in that a corporation is dedicated to one purpose and as such is not bound by moral and ethical constraints.  The constitutional rights of a corporation should be extremely limited. Concerning corporations, Justice Elena Kagan wrote, “Few of us are only our economic interests. We have beliefs. We have convictions. Corporations engage the political process in an entirely different way, and this is what makes them so much more damaging.”  Should corporations ever be granted all of the rights of an individual the consequences would change America’s social and political landscapes completely  as unlike individuals, corporations tend to have bottomless pockets, their influence is far reaching both in distance and time,  and they never die meaning they have undue political clout not available to the average American.

The Supreme Court’s decision essentially gave corporate “persons” the same first amendment free-speech rights as biological humans, this is an unfair gift as the gulf between a corporate “person’s” resources and those of an individual, or a grassroots group, are unequal. The purpose of a corporation is to provide a profit to its members whether that profit is financial or influential. When corporations dictate the policy of Congress and the judicial system the best interests of American citizens are not served; the rights of the individual are in fact subjugated for the profit of the corporate “person”.

Corporations are not people, they are tools and a tool does not dictate to the artisan how it will be used. Crony politics has elevated corporations above their tool status and given them creative license which diminishes the rights of living, breathing, feeling, human beings. A corporate “person” has no soul, no conscience, no concept of right and wrong, and if they have been endowed with enough money and the members have enough influence, there is no higher power they recognize or answer to.  Individuals who come together for a common purpose and incorporate are not a bad thing. As individuals, they maintain the rights which have been constitutionally granted to them however when we grant a corporation those same constitutional rights the balance is unjustly weighted on the side of the corporation. By virtue of the vast resources a corporation has access to granting full constitutional rights to a corporate “person” makes the American dream of a level playing field impossible to attain.

We the People, that’s us, that’s you and me regardless of our political affiliation, must come together  and demand  an amendment to the Constitution which makes it clear the rights protected by the Constitution of the United States of America are the rights of natural human beings and not corporate “persons” because money and influence do not equal free speech.  Move to Amend (https://movetoamend.org/wethepeopleamendment)  is spot on when they say, “Federal, State, and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidates own contributions and expenditures, to ensure that citizens, regardless of their economic status, have access to the political process, and that no person gains, as a result of their money, substantially more access or ability to influence in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure. Federal, State, and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.”

It’s time we take our government back and say no to the corporations which have usurped the political process; a corporation is not a person, you and I are  –we are “We the People”.

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Carmel, Indiana’s Mayor James Brainard, has been appointed to President Obama’s Task Force on Climate Change. Below is the letter I wrote and sent to the Mayor earlier today.  I invite everyone reading this to take a few minutes to write, not only to Mayor Brainard, but each member of the Task Force on Climate Change encouraging them to take decisive and meaningful action on climate change issues.   It only takes ten percent of the population to come together in one mind and one accord in order for a whole society to change how they think and what they do. We can effect positive and lasting change, as I tell the Mayor in my letter our children and grandchildren’s future is worth sacrificing for. http://tinyurl.com/ny3knm8 is a link to an article which lists each member of the Climate Change Task force and where they are from. If you don’t know what to tell the members of the task force feel free to use my letter as a template.

Cheers,

Laurie-Ann

Dear Mayor Brainard,

I was pleased to read a fellow Hoosier had been appointed to the President’s task force on climate change, congratulations on your appointment. As a trained Climate Reality Leader, environmental educator, and some one engaged in public service, I cannot stress enough how important taking strong action to curb anthropogenic climate change is to our children and grandchildren’s future.

I responded to a post by climate denier John Crimmins, who posted at IndyStar.com (http://tinyurl.com/kngwnhy) in the comments on the article the Indianapolis Star wrote announcing your appointment.

“Mr. Crimmins, I’m a native born Hoosier, I have spent the last several years doing contract work across the country. Indiana is one of the states which is located in a very special water abundant area. I spent a year in Alaska, followed by a year in Nebraska, six months in Maine, and this past six months in Far West Texas; areas where climate change and water issues are far more visible to the eye than back home. John, climate change has always occurred and will continue to do so, but this change has happened GRADUALLY in geological time. Human beings have altered the equation -speeding up a natural process by highly unnatural means. We forget the holocene was a very unique moment in planetary history. a very rare moment. Human beings are the most plastic, no pun intended, species on the planet which means we have been able to exploit highly marginal areas/niches. The majority of the worlds population resides in in these marginal areas and will continue to bear the brunt of accelerated climate change’s costs. Again, 97% of all climate scientists agree climate change is occurring and that the unnatural acceleration is anthropogenic in nature. 19 oncologists say you have stage 3 colon cancer, 1 says you don’t; tell me, who are you going to believe? 97% is consensus”

Mayor Brainard, I have spent the last six months watching towns in Far West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico drain every drop of water from their wells, their towns are bone dry; they have to have water trucked in. Farmers and land owners who see this with their own eyes but still have water in their aquifer are choosing to sell their precious, precious fresh water to the frackers to be used in extracting oil in the most unsustainable way possible. Black Water Draw, New Mexico used to be home to a lake, irrigation drained the last drop of water from the lake in 1974 but few paid attention to the warning sign.

Here at Guadalupe Mountains National Park, where I serve as the Community Outreach & Public Relations specialist, eight of Texas ten tallest mountains can be found raising majestically up from the floor of the Chihuahuan Desert. Guadalupe Mountains is a hiking park, there’s no road wending through the mountains and canyons, if you climb your way up the mountain trails to the top of this ancient Permian reef you can experience first hand what the Chihuahuan desert was like twelve thousand years ago. There is a forest up there, mountain lions, black bears, and other forest dwellers live in this sky island. It’s hard to wrap your head around the fact just a few thousand years ago much of the Chihuahuan Desert looked like our mountain top oasis.

When I served at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in 2011 I was shocked to see the retreat of Alaska’s glaciers. I nearly fell over when I read a news article in which a climate denier stated boldly “there are more glaciers in Alaska now than ever before”. You see, it simply isn’t true, what has happened is the massive ice sheets have retreated back up the valleys so far that they leave little pockets of snow and ancient ice, remnants which are quickly disappearing themselves. If you ride the White Pass & Yukon train from Skagway up to the top of the mountain you might experience a short stop while hikers disembark so they can hike up to Laughton Glacier. A two mile or so hike is required from the tracks to the glacier’s edge; most folks don’t make it to the glacier itself as it is a rather daunting hike but most of those who do don’t recognize the dirty, debris filled, nearly black snow as a glacier. Roughly one hundred years ago Laughton Glacier flowed under the railroad track, now it’s a memory.

When I first came to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in June of this year I couldn’t figure out what town I was seeing at night from the park housing compound. Highway 62/180 curves around the Guadalupe Mountains hiding the lights of Carlsbad, New Mexico from view; It was possible I was seeing Black Water Village or Loving but I didn’t realize they were so good sized, in fact they’re not. The thousands of lights flickering down the valley are the flares of fracking wells hidden from view in the draws and arroyos of Far West Texas during the day. Fracking flares are lights the desert darkness doesn’t comprehend and are an incredible danger to a already fragile ecosystem.

Mayor Brainard, big oil, big business, men and women like the Koch’s, cannot be trusted to police themselves. These people and entities have spoken, it has been their money and their influence which has done the talking; talking which has cost the rest of us dearly. President Obama, yourself, and the other members of the Climate Task Force, have what is perhaps the most important job in the history of humanity. Framing the war on climate change in terms of a David and Goliath scenario is not hyberbole. I have seen with my own eyes ranchers sell their children’s future in the form of a water station for frackers, when the town ten miles over is bone dry. I’ve watched Nebraska farmers cry because the Platte’s trickle wasn’t enough to irrigate their fields. I’ve watched lawsuits over water rights in Nebraska be sent back east for a fair trial and when I was in Maine those lawsuits, which will eventually effect every single American at the grocery, never raise an eyebrow or receive more than the obligatory legal notice in the paper.

Big oil and other traditional energy providers have essentially been allowed to run amok, it will be no easy task to rein them in. You are one of twenty six elected officials who are in the unique position of being able to fell Goliath. Do well by us, do not be intimidated or bought off by these so called “captains of industry”. I hope and pray that this climate task force will be the men and women my grandchildren need you to be in order for them to have a future which is positive and bright. Writing this letter to you publicly is enough to cost me my job and any future employment with a government agency. My children and my grandchildren are worth that sacrifice, and so many more. Mayor Brainard, be the David the world needs you to be.

Sincerely,

Laurie-Ann Curry

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