Proof Bevin is Trying to Make Working Kentuckians Sicker and Poorer

Kevin Drum:

Noam Levey reports on some new research about Medicaid expansion:

“The effects of expanding coverage will be an unfolding story over time,” said Dr. Benjamin Sommers, lead author of the study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine....Sommers and other researchers at Harvard University have been tracking the effect of Medicaid expansion by surveying some 9,000 poor residents in Arkansas and Kentucky, both of which expanded Medicaid eligibility, and in Texas, which has rejected the expansion.

In Arkansas and Kentucky, the share of poor adults without health insurance plummeted between 2013 and 2015, from more than 40% in both states to 14% in Arkansas and less than 9% in Kentucky.

In Texas, by contrast, the uninsured rate dropped only from 39% to 32%.Although Texas has not expanded Medicaid, state residents have been able to buy health insurance on the new insurance marketplaces that were also created by the law.

The new coverage in Arkansas and Kentucky dramatically improved poor patients’ access to care and relieved financial strains, the surveys show.

Billionaire Bevin is actually trying to reverse this by eliminating the Medicaid expansion by Governor Steve Beshear that has made 400,000 Kentuckians healthier and less poor.  AND cost Kentucky taxpayers $2 billion in Medicaid payments from the federal government that are the only thing keeping dozens of rural hospitals alive.

Hard to imagine how anyone could inflict more actual, lethal harm on the Commonwealth than Governor Lying Coward is doing right now.

No Voting at Church

Just remove polling sites from religious buildings.

I am quite sure that the cowardly anonymous fuckers who objected to voting in a eeeeeekkkk! mosque are anti-muslim haters, but they did the right thing for the wrong reason.

Churches serve as polling sites everywhere in Kentucky, and it is deeply, profoundly offensive to non-christians to have to pass through hallways covered with freakazoid propaganda posters and displays in order to perform their patriotic duty as citizens to vote.

Unless you're willing to set up 10 or 20 times the number of polling places so that everyone can vote in a religious building in which she feels comfortable, the only solution is to remove ALL polling sites from religious buildings.

There are plenty of secular public locations to host polling sites a grand total of twice a year: schools, fire departments, courthouses, libraries, recreation centers.

 

Of all public activities, the one constitutionally furthest from religion is voting.  Keep them separate.

Just A Primate

Divine Irony:

Gov. Pants Shitter Sobs "Please Don't Be Mean to Me"

If you can't take the Fancy Farm heat - atmospheric and rhetorical - you don't belong in Kentucky politics.

Get the fuck out of here, you carpetbagging yankee motherfucker.


Tom Loftus at the Courier:

Gov. Matt Bevin said he plans a variation of his familiar "United We Stand" speech at the Fancy Farm Picnic on Saturday and "in large measure" will conform with his message last year when he said that speeches at the event had become far too nasty.

"It has always been, and there's no reason for it not to be, enjoyable for people," Bevin said of the raucous annual political speaking at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Graves County. "It can be fun, but it doesn't have to personal. It doesn't have to be nasty. It doesn't have to be vindictive. Last year it really was."

Following a ceremonial bill-signing in the Capitol Rotunda on Friday, Bevin said, "Last year took it to a degree that frankly was very counterproductive. ... It was counterproductive to a point where it left a bad taste in many people's mouths."

You preening moron.  It's only fun when it's personal, nasty and vindictive. If it were polite, nobody would drive six hours to the middle of fucking nowhere to sit in an outdoor sauna and eat bad barbecue.

Fancy Farm is where politicians reveal whether they've got the guts to work and fight for Kentuckians.

Little whiny-ass titty baby billionaire wants to ruin Fancy Farm on top of everything else he's shit on in the Commonwealth.

Thanks for once again showing us the disgusting real you, guv.

Gov. Moneybags Steals From Working People to Give to the Obscenely Rich

Free stuff for rich people.  $20 million in tax dollars from people earning $7.25 per hour to benefit only people who can afford a private plane.  

From the press release:

Gov. Matt Bevin announced today that select general aviation airports across the state will receive $20 million over the next two years to fund overdue airport pavement renovations.

Don't be fooled: "general aviation" airports do not serve the public. Only private planes - and people rich enough to buy one - can use them.

Meanwhile, Governor Only Rich People Are Really Human is still planning to rip health care away from 400,000 working poor Kentuckians.

None of whom have a private plane.

A Little Perspective

Via Down With Tyranny:

Totally Not Racist Trump Fans

TPM:

The New York Times posted a video Wednesday compiling outbursts and epithets from supporters at Donald Trump rallies, ranging from anti-immigrant slogans to Nazi victory chants.

"Crowds seldom express disapproval of the crude slogans and angry outbursts by Mr. Trump’s supporters," according to the Times report. "Indeed, these displays have become inextricably bound with the Trump show itself."

Watch the video — which includes profanity and an overgenerous variety of slurs — below:

Anybody see a full-blooded Native American in that crowd?  Me neither.  Shocked.

The Black Lives Matter Manifesto

Hot Damn!  Now we can get down to some real action!

 

Wait ... where is the "kill all the pigs" provision?  And the "eliminate Whitey" clause?  I can't find "loose shoes, tight pussy and a warm place to shit" mentioned anywhere.

From The Nation:

One commonly asked question about this moment in black-led organizing—what some broadly refer to as the Black Lives Matter movement—is what its participants want. What are BLM’s goals and why, some critics ask, is the movement so reactive, only vocal and visible in response to police violence against black people?

What may seem at first glance like dreamy rhetoric that lacks the teeth to ensure real change is actually a toolkit. 

Starting today, anyone with such questions can refer to the Vision for Black Lives, a document that lays out six demands and 40 corresponding policy recommendations to paint a picture of what today’s black activists are fighting for. At both the Democratic and Republican national conventions last month, there were plenty of indications that the current movement to end anti-black racism has made it to the national stage. The “Mothers of the Movement”—women whose children were killed by police or vigilantes or who died while in police custody—shared their stories at the DNC, making the case that their fights for justice would be in good hands with a Clinton presidency. At the RNC, meanwhile, Milwaukee County’s Sheriff David Clarke, a black man, tried to calm the nerves of the largely white audience, assuring them that Donald Trump can restore law and order and put an end to the “anarchy” that BLM inspires.

The platform released today emphasizes the movement’s independence from party politics and its desire to prioritize solutions that address root causes over the quick fixes more likely to win a presidential candidate’s support or move through an obstructionist Congress. For example, the nearly 40 policy recommendations include the following (quoting the group’s August 1 press release):

Demilitarize law enforcement, end money bail, end deportations, and end the systematic attack against Black youth, and Black trans, gender non-conforming and queer folks.

Immediately pass state and federal legislation that requires the U.S. to acknowledge the lasting impacts of slavery, and establish and execute a plan to address those impacts.

“Democrats and Republicans are offering anemic solutions to the problems that our communities face,” said Marbre Stahly-Butts, a member of the eight-person Movement 4 Black Lives leadership team that steered the collaborative research and writing process over a year-long period. “We are seeking transformation, not just tweaks.”

 SNIP

Authors of the Vision for Black Lives say policy is just one of many necessary tactics. Protest, direct action, advancing conversations that critique norms around race, gender, and sexuality are all part of the movement’s work as well, said Thenjiwe McHarris, another member of the eight-person leadership team that guided the process. But articulating a set of demands then advocating for those demands to be met is critical too. Throughout their collaboration, the co-authors referred to earlier policy statements, such as the Black Radical Congress’s Freedom Agenda and the Black Panther Party’s 10-point platform in an effort to better understand similar black-led policy efforts that had come before.

“It builds on the legacy of the black radical tradition,” McHarris said of the document released today.

Bevin Puts Out $500,000 Contract on Steve Beshear

Meanwhile, 400,000 Kentuckians are about to lose their health insurance.  Not that Gov. Trumpist gives a flying fuck about anyone who's not already rich.

This is the real waste, fraud and abuse, people. Because the real question is what Gov. Trumpist is trying to hide behind this smokescreen of lies.

John Cheves at the Herald:

Gov. Matt Bevin has awarded a two-year, $500,000 contract to an Indianapolis law firm to look for corruption in the administration of his predecessor, Steve Beshear.

Taft Stettinius & Hollister will work with Kenneth F. Bohac, the newly hired inspector general of the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet. The firm is charged with investigating possible violations of state spending rules and possible coercion of state workers for campaign donations, according to its contact. However, “the investigatory scope of the contact may be expanded ... to include additional violations of the public trust,” the contract states.

In April, Bevin, a Republican, held a news conference to say that his aides had uncovered “greed and oftentimes corruption” that occurred during the eight-year administration of Beshear, a Democrat. Bevin referenced the criminal case of Tim Longmeyer, who was Beshear’s personnel secretary and who pleaded guilty this year to his role in a kickback scheme involving a state employee health insurance contract.

SNIP

Beshear issued a statement hours later saying that Bevin’s accusations “have absolutely no basis in truth.”

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article93068177.html#storylink=cpy

Guess Their Race!

Caught with semi-automatic weapons, body armor and - wait for it - marijuana.  And the cops let them go.  Guess their race!

Linda Blackford at the Herald:

Police were called to the Richmond Road Walmart Saturday night after a witness noticed a car full of men in body armor holding semi-automatic weapons. A six-month old baby was also in the car.

Lt Jackie Newman said when Lexington police officers got the three men out of the car at about 11:15 p.m., they said were preparing for Doomsday and needed supplies. The men were armed with pistols and semi-automatic rifles, police said. A license is not required to have semi-automatic weapons in a car, police said.

Police also found marijuana in the car.

All three subjects voluntarily came down to police headquarters for questioning that night, said Lt. Richard Willoby of the Lexington Police Department. They were given a citation for the marijuana but were not charged with any other violations, and were later released.

Willoby said police took photographs of the car and the weapons in order to complete a report to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services because of the baby in the car.

“There appeared to be nothing criminal,” Willoby said. “They’re in the mindset of preparing for the end of the world, accumulating weapons and things like that, but the weapons appear to be legally owned.”

If those drug-dealing preppers had been black they and their baby would be dead.

Where's Your Garlic?

Divine Irony:

Judge Slaps Governor Trumpist Down Again

Seriously, Mattie Boy, as long as Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip "Honey Badger" Shepherd is on the bench, you're not getting away with any of that authoritarian bullshit.

No matter how many times Donald Traitor says it's OK.

From the Courier:

In a strong rebuke to Gov. Matt Bevin, a judge Friday ruled that the governor's abolition of the University of Louisville Board of Trustees was illegal and at least temporarily blocked the new one that he appointed from acting.

While allowing the resignation of President James Ramsey to stand, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd said the record "is devoid of any legal or factual precedent for a governor to abolish and recreate an entire board of trustees of a public university."

In a 22-page decision that rejected all of Bevin's arguments, Shepherd said if the governor's interpretation of the law was correct, "any university trustee or group of trustees, can be removed for no reason or any reason – good or bad, well-intentioned or malicious.” The governor could even unilaterally merge U of L with the University of Kentucky, Shepherd said.

“The governor’s unilateral action raises profound issues regarding the statutes on governance of public universities and the separation of powers under the Kentucky Constitution,” Shepherd wrote.

KY Berners Are All Right

Maybe in states so blue that repugs can't win no matter what they do, Democrats can afford to vote third-party or to sit at home and not vote at all.

 

We Democratic voters in red states know better.  We have long experience voting for imperfect Democratic candidates because that candidate is the only thing standing between us and the repug catastrophe of Kansas and Louisiana and Wisconsin.

 

We will fight to the end for our preferred candidate, but when the convention does end, and our candidate has conceded, we know our responsibility.  We know our duty.

 

We KY Berners will be voting for Hillary.

From the Courier before the convention:

Kentucky Democrats split almost evenly between Sanders and Clinton during the primary earlier this year. Of the state’s 55 pledged delegates, 28 are for Clinton and 27 are for Sanders.

There are signs within the Kentucky delegation that the two camps are finding common ground. Several Sanders delegates stood and applauded speakers who endorsed Clinton Monday night, and several Clinton delegates waved Sanders’ campaign signs when the Vermont senator took the stage at the end of the night.

“It started with a decent amount of divisiveness and then it started to come together toward the end of the night,” Bugg said about Monday's convention action. Speeches by first lady Michelle Obama, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sanders himself were helpful, he said.

SNIP

 

“I think if she continues to speak very boldly on those issues, articulates them as the deep moral center of Democratic Party, demonstrates she is committed, then she can earn many Bernie supporters and maybe even more importantly some of those volunteer hours,” Westphal said.

Two Clinton advocates who addressed the Kentucky delegation Tuesday morning used the specter of a Donald Trump presidency to woo Sanders voters and urge them to focus on electing Democrats at the state and local levels.

SNIP

 

Former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said the odds of Clinton winning Kentucky in the fall are long, but any efforts on her behalf will help the party in the long run.

“I’ve lost political races and I know how Bernie and his supporters feel, but in the end Sanders and Clinton supporters understand there really is no choice in November and that the only way this country is going to move forward is to elect Hillary Clinton,” Beshear said.

Appeals Court Exposes NC Legislators for the Racist Motherfuckers They Are

I imagine Notorious RBG, Kagan and Sotomayor reading this opinion over cocktails, shouting out their favorite parts and just licking their chops at the prospect of North Carolina daring to appeal to the Supremes.

One of the main plaintiffs in the case is Rev. William Barber's North Carolina NAACP.  This enormous victory coming the morning after his paint-stripping speech at the DNC is the definition of righteousness.

TPM:

A three-judge panel of the U.S Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has found North Carolina's controversial GOP-backed voting restrictions were intended to discriminate against African American voters.

The Friday ruling is a huge win for voting rights activists in a closely watched case in a potential 2016 swing state. The appeals court reversed the ruling of a district court siding with the state.

SNIP

It permanently blocked provisions in a 2013 North Carolina law that required certain photo IDs to vote, limited early voting, eliminated same day registration, ended out-of-precinct voting and prohibited pre-registration of young voters.

In the opinion, the panel of judges said that the law restricted voting in ways that "disproportionately affected African Americans" and that its provisions targeted "African Americans with almost surgical precision." It said the state's defense of the law was "meager."

"Thus the asserted justifications cannot and do not conceal the state’s true motivation," the opinion said.

It noted that the legislation was passed as African American voter turnout had expanded to almost the rates of whites, and that the legislature enacted the legislation after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, which had required North Carolina to seek federal approval for changes to its voting policies. The appeals court -- citing a lower court's findings -- pointed out that state lawmakers sought data breaking down voting practices by race. The judges said that the law's provisions singled out the practices disproportionately popular among African Americans, such as preregisteration and provisional voting.

SNIP

The appeals court declined the request of the challengers to put North Carolina back under "preclearance" -- the requirement for federal approval of voting laws in certain states that was partially dismantled by the Supreme Court in 2013 -- as is allowed by Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act when discriminatory intent is found. The appeals court said the remedy was "rarely used" and "not necessary" in this case.

The fuck it's not necessary.  Put that state back in Voting Rights Act jail and throw away the key.  That's the only way to keep them from doing it again and the only way to put other states on notice not to Even. Fucking. Try. It.

It took the challengers two years to stop this massive, blatant disenfranchisement, during which time hundreds of thousands of voters were died their civil rights. 

If and when we ever get a Voting Rights Act with teeth, it needs to include jail time for the perpetrators. 

Also, somebody tell Nate Silver to put North Carolina back in the Likely Dem category.

The Can't-Top-This Speeches from Philly

Seriously. After Rev. Barber brought the house down, I thought that was a speech for the ages. Democrats will be able to use that one forever.

Then Khizr Khan took the floor.  And flattened Donald Traitor with two sentences.

Watch them both.

And keep this one handy to show to those ridiculous "Democrats" who say they just can't vote for Hillary because they hate her so much.  What the fuck is wrong with them?

New Racist Bullshit in Louisille Schools

So, if they can't bar them from school grounds, they'll just bar them from looking ... shall we call it "ni**erish?" 

You know what's distracting? Punishing black students for being proud African-American young people.

You know what's racist as all fucking hell?  Forcing non-white students to obey rules that aren't enforced against white students.

Absofuckinglutely unacceptable, Louisville.  Fix this shit immediately.

Think Progress:

Kentucky state representative elect Attica Scott — the first black woman to serve in the state legislature in 20 years — took to Twitter to express disbelief over a policy at her daughter’s school that doesn’t allow students to wear their hair in cornrows, braids, twists, or dreadlocks. Scott’s daughter attends Butler Traditional High School in Louisville.

Scott tweeted about the policy on Wednesday, which drew ire from many students and parents. The school district, Jefferson County Public Schools, responded to say it was not a district policy — it was established by the school’s “decision-making council,” according to WKYC.com, which first reported the story. Regardless of whether it was an official district policy or not, Scott’s tweet clearly shows that it is being represented as an actual dress code policy. Former students and parents claimed these rules have been enforced at JCPS schools for some time.

According to the text from Scott’s tweet, these hairstyles are considered “extreme, distracting, or attention-getting.” Parents, students, and members of the local community said that the policy seemed discriminatory against black students, considering dreadlocks and cornrows — misspelled “cornrolls” in the dress code Scott provided — are hairstyles traditionally worn by black people.

Attica Scott, by the way, won her seat in the legislature by beating in a primary the last DINO, Blue Dog, Conservadem fake "Democrat" left in the Louisville state house delegation. Beat him bad, too. She's unopposed in the November general election because she represents possibly the single bluest district in Jefferson County, if not in the entire state (downtown Lexington, get your fucking act together!) and repugs never expected their dem mole to lose the primary.

Liberals all over Kentucky went into insane paroxysms of joy when she won in May. Nobody better so much as whisper a non-complimentary word about her, and if it takes the combined throw-weight of Mayor Greg Fischer and Congressman Awesome John Yarmuth to force persuade Butler to change its policy, that's what it takes.

Stop Wooing Repugs, Tim Kaine: You're Wasting Time and Pissing Off Real Democratic Voters

Yep, he's exactly the repug-lite motherfucker we thought he was. 

 

How anyone with the sense dog gave a goose could have lived through the last 20 years and imagine that there is a repug anywhere who will ever, EVER vote for a Democratic candidate is beyond me.

Not only will no repug vote Democratic, but all those pearl-clutching repugs disowning Donald Traitor are going to fall in line and vote for him come November.

Meanwhile, all the easily-discouraged Democratic voters that Hillary needs to turn out in November are watching Kaine and wondering what the fuck is the point, I've got better things to do than vote for repug-lite candidates with a D next to the name.

Well done, Clinton-Kaine.  Convention's not over and you've already lost the election.

Responsible Gun Ownership, Movie Theater Edition

Hey, he didn't even shoot.  They should either give him a medal or charge him with Failure to Fully Deploy His Second Amendment Rights

Mallory Panuska at the Paducah Sun:

The McCracken County Attorney’s Office is considering charges in an altercation Saturday at the Cinemark Theater in Paducah that involved one man allegedly pulling a gun on another.

The police report released Monday, the Paducah Sun reports, said authorities are investigating charges against John Grabinski, 64, of Ozark, Ill., who reportedly pulled a gun on John Hempen, 38, of Paducah, during a fight that broke out during the showing of “Star Trek Beyond” around noon Saturday.

SNIP

According to the report, Grabinski became angry during the movie because a 14-year-old sitting behind him was kicking his seat. He reportedly cursed the teen, prompting an argument with the teen’s father, Hempen.

The verbal altercation got physical when, according to the report, Grabinski became angrier and pushed Hempen. The men then began physically fighting when Grabinski was struck in the face and knocked to the ground.

When he got up, the report said he brandished a gun, saying to Hempen, “Now what the (expletive) you going to do?” Hempen answered, “Nothing. I’m good.” According to what Grabinski told police, he was “disoriented” when he got up and pulled his gun.

Kentucky law does not prohibit carrying a firearm into a movie theater. Cinemark, however, prohibits firearms in its theaters.

Feds to Bevin on Killing Medicaid: Back Off, Motherfucker

Because Bevin really, really wants to deny healthcare to hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, close every rural hospital and cost the taxpayers billions of dollars.

 

Deborah Yetter at the Courier:

A coalition of health advocacy groups has blasted Gov. Matt Bevin's plan to restructure the state Medicaid plan "as a giant step backward for Kentucky."

"This plan threatens to undermine the health and economic gains we have made in the past two years," said the written comments filed last week by Kentucky Voices for Health, a coalition of about 200 groups and individuals.

SNIP

Meanwhile, a top federal official who must approve the changes has raised questions about Bevin's plan to dismantle or restructure health initiatives, including the Medicaid expansion launched by his predecessor, Steve Beshear, under the Affordable Care Act.

Bevin, a Republican, has pledged to dismantle kynect in favor of the federal site, healthcare.gov, and scale back the Medicaid expansion of Beshear, a Democrat.

Sylvia Burwell, U.S. secretary of health and human services, raised concerns about Bevin's plans for Medicaid expansion, citing the "historic improvements" in health coverage for Kentuckians. She also questioned Bevin's plans for dismantling kynect, the state health insurance exchange where people may shop for private plans or enroll in Medicaid.

Burwell addressed the proposed changes in two separate letters last week – one to Bevin and one to Beshear.

In a July 20 letter to Bevin, Burwell described his plans to dismantle kynect as "highly aggressive" and said it is uncertain whether "we can confirm a transition will be possible this year."

As for Bevin's plan to restructure the Medicaid expansion, Burwell, in a separate letter to Beshear, said her agency will review Bevin's request in light of federal law directing that any changes strengthen coverage and increase access to health care.

"As you know, Kentucky's Medicaid expansion has led to one of the biggest reductions of uninsured people in America," said Burwell, responding to a May 9 letter from Beshear questioning Bevin's plans for Medicaid. "We are committed to the principle that any changes to the program maintain or build on the historic improvements Kentucky has seen in access to coverage, access to care and financial security, rather than take the state backward."

Coal Power Generator To Build Solar Farm in Kentucky

This could be huge.  East Kentucky Power is the coal-generating utility that supplies electricity to the rural electric cooperatives that keep the lights on in rural homes and businesses throughout Kentucky.

For decades, East Kentucky Power has been the biggest obstacle to reforming energy generation, sale and use in Kentucky.  Or in other words, the biggest shill for Big Coal.

While a few small utilities like the one serving Berea have built solar farms for their own customers, East Kentucky Power and its client RECCs have responded to customer pleas for renewable energy with "Fuck off and die, you dirty hippies; Coal RULZ."

Until now.

From the AP:

The East Kentucky Power Cooperative is applying to build a 60-acre solar facility in Clark County.

The Winchester Sun reports (http://bit.ly/29VJ6Ms ) that the utility has filed its application with the Kentucky Public Service Commission to install 32,000 photovoltaic panels on property next to its offices on U.S. Highway 60.

Spokesman Kevin Osbourn says the 8.5 megawatt project could be completed by the end of next year if gains approval by the PSC.

Funding for the $18 million project would come from New Clean Energy Renewable Energy Bonds with federal incentives to offset interest.

 The solar facility is part of the utility's plan to diversify its power generation capabilities and to give customers a choice to buy renewable energy.