TL:DR - Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas Are Lying Through Their Teeth

Recently the US Supreme Court decided to decline hearing two cases involving state attempts to spuriously deny access of low-income patients to health care provided by Planned Parenthood, by denying certification of Planned Parenthood’s eligibility to receive reimbursement for Medicaid services. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented in the denial of the grant of certiorari. Justice Thomas wrote the dissenting opinion


The legal thesis that has brought the cases to SCOTUS is whether or not a private entity has the ability to bring suit over a State’s decision in administration of Medicaid services, in this case, whether or not the State can deny certification to a provider without being subject to review by a non-governmental entity.  The non-governmental review is a right of action by Medicaid recipients to receive services from any qualified entity that agrees to do so, and that is also willing to accept Medicaid reimbursements to do so.

The denial of certiorari means that the rulings of lower courts in these two cases are allowed to stand, and that Planned Parenthood and its clients can pursue a lawsuit challenging the decertifications, and that the Medicaid reimbursements for services can continue.

Of particular concern to me are two avenues: in the first point, the states of Kansas and Louisiana decided to terminate eligibility of Planned Parenthood providers in their respective states in response to spurious claims by the “Center for Medical Progress” that Planned Parenthood and it’s affiliates were harvesting and selling fetal body parts for profit. Claims and films that were shown to be b spurious and deceptively edited.   Every State that has investigated has found these claims to be false. 

Of note Is that no clinic in the States of Kansas or Louisiana were accused of this practice by The Center For Medical Progress, and that Medicaid funds, by law, cannot be used for abortion services. An inspection by the State of Kansas did not show any finding that the Planned Parenthood clinics in that State had engaged in the sale of fetal tissue.

But, even though all investigations have shown no basis for the claim of selling fetal body parts for profit, these two states have persisted in attempts to disqualify Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements

The second avenue that I find disturbing, is that, even though Justice Thomas, in his dissent, tries to claim that the case is really about a private party’s ability to second-guess a States decision in regards to Medicaid services, his dissent nonetheless introduces the spurious charges claimed by The Center For Medical Progress.

To my view, and bear in mind I am not a lawyer, what is really the reason that Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch want to see these cases before SCOTUS is to close off avenues of redress to arbitrary decisions by State agencies.

The dissenting opinion is here (PDF)

It Begins Small

On a recent FaceBook thread, someone commented that calling the “alt-right” and the myriad Trump supporters “Nazis” was uncalled for, and an insult to those murdered during the Holocaust.

Here is my (edited) response :
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There are those who are really determined to try to minimize the perception of the evil that Trump and followers want to perpetrate.

We have these measures, either in place or publicly proposed by the Trump administration:

• - Advocate for murder of those who are “the wrong kind”
• - Propose concentration camps
• - Separate children from families as soon as they are in detention
• - Forced labor of those in detention
• - Callousness toward documented abuses
• - Calling for forced exclusion based on religion
• - Demonizing the free press
• - Build a private army (the mercenaries that Xi wants to put in place)
• - Rigging elections by disenfranchising voters
• - Agitating trumped up criminal charges against political opponents
• - Make the private industrialists more dependent on his largess
• - Purposelessly denying critical disaster recovery resources because those caught by the disaster are the “wrong kind”
• - Calling for entire fields of study in science be defunded and discredited, solely on political grounds
• - Attempting to install a de facto, if not de jure, state religion based on an extreme sect
• - Fostering a personality cult to protect their leader from scrutiny
• - Nurturing and encouraging violent extremists.
• - Skewing the courts to deny redress by, and protection for, those without wealth and privilege
•  

Yet you want to minimize recognition of these evils, as there appears more and more public approval, as those adherents of this darkness see more tolerance for, and even encouragement of, their beliefs and aspirations.

So, yes, there is all the more reason to stem the tide now, by identifying it, and recognizing it, and denouncing it for what it is

The Nazi presence in Germany and Austria did not appear, as a fully formed Athena from the brow of Zeus, without preamble.

The population knew of this canker, and if not publicly embraced at the start, was approved of and supported, in private. When the hate was publicly displayed, it was not immediately denounced.

So the movement grew and was embraced by enough of those of power and influence that it led their nation.

And to claim, as some have done, that this current crop of racists, bigots, and fascists do not “deserve” the appellation of “Nazi” is both disingenuous and itself belittling of the people this new incarnation has as its targets.

And we must act now, lest we be ridiculed in future generations for saying "we didn't know" or "I didn't participate," or "I was just a good American."

He Just Doesn’t Get It

What a lot of people don’t realize is that Trump, fundamentally, has no actual idea of what the job of being the leader of a country is. 

Even after more than a year in the position he doesn’t get it. 

It’s not being the head of some services company where, if he screws up and damages a client he can get away with it either by bribes or threatening to cost millions in legal fees. 

It’s not some TV show where he has full rein to be as offensive as he wants and can thrill to forcing multiple people to perform pointless and humiliating tasks

It’s not some company that, when he inevitably mismanages it, he can drop it into bankruptcy and pass all the pain onto the employees, investors, vendors and taxpayers. (I mean, we *are* talking about the guy who failed to make money selling booze, steaks and gambling to American men)

It’s not some public relations scheme where he can self-promote himself with blatant, serial, contradictory lies and force anybody else involved to keep silent under threat of lawsuit 

He is, in the end, someone who has *never* had to be accountable for his actions, because he has, until now, never actually had to be accountable, because he could always, again, bribe, outright or through legal settlements, or abuse the process of litigation

The actions he takes, as the head of a country, have real and profound consequences.   And those consequences cannot be hidden behind a legal settlement or an NDA or by habitually telling falsehoods. And he isn’t even aware, after over a year in the job, that he can neither run, nor hide. 

And this is shown, with amazing clarity, with his very public announcement that, on his own initiative and whim, he lied about matters of state, to *another* head of state, the leader of a nation that, up until now, has had long standing and strong ties of mutual support with the United States. 

And then, completely demolishing any chance of restoring trust by either admitting he was mistaken, or telling the white lie that he had been “misinformed,” publicly *bragged* about fabricating information about matters of mutual state security. 

When heads of state directly negotiate, rather than work through intermediaries, it is almost always as a last resort on matters of vital national importance.  And those negotiations rely on trust between all parties, that at least some level of honesty and gravity are present. 

And Trump has shown, for at least the remainder of his term of office, and likely for a good while beyond, that that trust and honesty will not be any part of negotiations between the United States and any other nation. 

And he doesn’t get it. 

At all