DL Open Thread: Friday, Nov. 12, 2021

Who said it?:  “…“the Black wogs and coons and Arabs and f—ing Jamaicans don’t belong here.”   Answer at bottom of column.

Manchin Is A Republican. Period. Sabotaging The Democratic Senate Caucus from within.  Might as well admit it and move on.  He will.  Phil Gramm redux:

“We spend so much time being polite in the House that we were ignoring the fact that this guy was really harmful,” said Downey. “Almost every step of the way he was acting as a Republican spy and obviously we were anxious not to let them know what we were doing. I said as long as he’s working with the other side he has no right being in the caucus.”

Last week the Democrats took their protests a dramatic step further.

For the first time in 70 years, the Democratic leadership voted to strip a member of his committee seat because of party disloyalty. Gramm, 40, was dumped from the powerful Budget Committee. He had been preparing to switch parties for the past six months and promptly resigned his seat to seek re-election as a Republican.

Making Manchin a…, well, (don’t do it, Steve, you must be more frugal with these musical gifts) I just can’t help myself:

St. Jude’s Not As Benevolent As Its Relentless Hype Machine Would Have You Believe.  Of course they’re not the Devil Incarnate,  But (a) they don’t cover a lot of family expenses; and (b) a whole lotta bucks go to fuel the Hype Machine:

Last year, St. Jude raised a record $2 billion. U.S. News & World Report ranked it the country’s 10th-best children’s cancer hospital, and St. Jude raised roughly as much as the nine hospitals ahead of it put together. It currently has $5.2 billion in reserves, a sum large enough to run the institution at current levels for the next four and a half years without a single additional donation.

St. Jude makes a unique promise as part of its fundraising: “Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.”

While families may not receive a bill from St. Jude, the hospital doesn’t cover what’s usually the biggest source of financial stress associated with childhood cancer: the loss of income as parents quit or take leave from jobs to be with their child during treatment. For many families, the consequence is missed payments for cars, utilities and cellphones. Others face eviction or foreclosure because they can’t keep up with rent and mortgage payments.

Parents at St. Jude have exhausted savings and retirement accounts, borrowed from family and friends or asked other charities for aid. ProPublica identified more than 100 St. Jude families seeking financial help through the online fundraiser GoFundMe, with half of the campaigns started in the past two years. We counted scores of other events like concerts and yard sales organized to help St. Jude families in need…

Only about half of the $7.3 billion St. Jude has received in contributions in the past five fiscal years went to the hospital’s research and caring for patients, according to its financial filings with the Internal Revenue Service. About 30% covered the cost of its fundraising operations, and the remaining 20%, or $1 of every $5 donated, increased its reserve fund.

Further, ProPublica found, a substantial portion of the cost for treatment is paid not by St. Jude but by families’ private insurance or by Medicaid, the government insurance program for low-income families. About 90% of patients are insured, bringing in more than $100 million in reimbursements for treatment a year. If a family shows up at St. Jude without insurance, a company hired by the charity helps them find it. St. Jude does cover copays and deductibles, an unusual benefit.

McGuiness Court Case Scheduled For May.  Guess what? She’s gonna pay Steven Wood out-of-pocket.  Keep an eye out for a GoFundMe.   You know, she is up for reelection next year.  Think she’ll file? Can she legally shift her campaign funds over to pay for her defense? Barristers, what saieth thou?

Here’s who said it.  He also said “Keep England white.”  Ironic for someone whose entire career was built on appropriating a Black art form for himself.  He was, and remains, the World’s Most Overrated Guitar Player.  And a first-class self-pitying narcissist.  One of my favorite threads in the story was how, when folks were opposing the Vietnam War and supporting the Civil Rights movement, his sole obsession was wooing Pattie Boyd, George Harrison’s wife at the time.

What do you want to talk about?