Politics/Religion Consolidated Megathread Extravaganza

[DKG]

Kansas lawmakers are debating whether to expand health care providers' access to the federal 340B drug pricing program. If passed, Senate Bill 284 would hand even more power to large hospital chains while shrinking consumer choice. It would also deepen the program's existing problems — lack of accountability, rising costs, and market consolidation — all without helping the patients it was supposed to serve.

The 340B program, created in 1992, was meant to help safety-net providers serving uninsured and low-income patients by requiring drug manufacturers to sell medications at steep discounts. Today, it has ballooned into the second-largest prescription drug purchasing program in the United States, behind only Medicare Part D, costing $66.3 billion in 2023.

SB 284 would make that worse. The bill would block drugmakers from denying access to certain drugs, reduce transparency, and discourage innovation. It would do nothing to stop hospitals from exploiting the program. Instead, it would encourage them to expand the same practices that drive up costs for Kansans, small businesses, and rural health care providers.

The 340B shell game
The myth behind 340B is that big health systems use their windfalls to support rural hospitals. The reality is the opposite. As 340B has expanded, rural hospitals have closed by the dozens. The law's original purpose — to subsidize drug purchases for clinics that serve the needy — has been lost.

[DKG]

Failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) founded a pair of voter turnout groups over a decade ago with the apparent aim of registering largely Democrat-leaning, non-white voters across the Peach State.

The groups, the New Georgia Project — for which Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock was listed as CEO on corporate filings in 2017, 2018, and 2019 — and the associated New Georgia Project Action Fund, reportedly knocked on millions of doors, registered tens of thousands of voters, and were credited with helping turn Georgia blue during the 2020 presidential election.

Abrams' New Georgia groups, which turned out to be as corrupt as they were energetic, have finally been shuttered.

NGP and NGP Action Fund — which sought to help Abrams in her pursuit of power, sided with alleged domestic terrorists in 2023, and campaigned against election integrity initiatives — were slapped in January with a $300,000 fine, which the Georgia State Ethics Commission indicated was both the largest fine it has ever imposed and possibly also "the largest Ethics Fine ever imposed by any State Ethics Commission in the country related to an election and campaign finance case."

The groups, which Abrams supposedly walked away from in 2017, admitted to violating 16 state laws, largely by illegally contributing to Abrams' 2018 gubernatorial campaign while masquerading as a nonpartisan voter turnout group.

The ethics commission found that the NGP failed to disclose over $4.2 million in contributions and over $3.2 million in expenditures during the 2018 election cycle, prompting House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) to request that the Internal Revenue Service investigate and ultimately revoke the group's tax-exempt status.

"This represents the largest and most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our statewide elections in Georgia that we have ever discovered," the ethics commission noted at the time of the fine's imposition.

With the ruse both exposed and admitted, Abrams' groups were evidently not long for this world.

The board of directors for the NGP and NGP Action Fund indicated in a statement on Thursday that both scandal-plagued groups "will officially dissolve as organizations."

[Herman]

It didn't take long for the British to learn to dislike Carney's buddy Kier Starmer.
Do you think the Liberals will be polling in the teens again soon here?

[DKG]

According to CNN, "The FBI, as part of special counsel Jack Smith's Jan. 6 investigation, used court orders in 2023 to obtain the phone records of nine GOP lawmakers." These were not actual phone calls or text messages, but rather information about who called or texted whom and when.

Senator Chuck Grassley posted the memo to his X account, with the message:

This document shows the Biden FBI spied on 8 of my Republican Senate colleagues during its Arctic Frost investigation into "election conspiracy." Arctic Frost later became Jack Smith's elector case against Trump.
He concluded, in all caps: "BIDEN FBI WEAPONIZATION = WORSE THAN WATERGATE."

Which raises the question: Why did the story turn out to be a one-day wonder? Here we have the discovery of a partisan investigation seeking to uncover dirt on fellow members of Congress (if the records did indeed start with the J6 committee), or at the very least a rogue element of the executive branch targeting political enemies in the legislative branch.

As Johnson said:

They're casting this net, this fishing expedition against members of the Senate and the House. There is no predicate. There's no reason for this other than a fishing expedition, which, again, should outrage and shock every American.

Once again, a member of Congress implied that we are witness to a political scandal (one of many in the Biden administration) that is among the worst in our history. Yet when you do a Google search for stories related to phone toll records being subpoenaed by either the J6 committee or the FBI, virtually nothing comes up beyond Oct. 7, the day after Grassley released the memo.

[DKG]

Argentina's President Javier Milei's party wins midterms after President Trump's endorsement.

Argentine President Javier Milei's La Libertad Avanza party won over 40% of votes in Sunday's midterm elections, securing a congressional majority that strengthens his free-market reforms after US President Donald Trump promised $40 billion in aid contingent on his ally's electoral success.

Milei's ruling party will now hold almost half of the seats in the lower house of the Argentinian Congress, according to tallies in local media based on figures from electoral authorities, with more than 97% of votes counted.

[Thiel]

Kamala Harris has teased another presidential run despite her historic 2024 loss and widespread unpopularity.

[Herman]

Poland just REJECTED the EU's migrant relocation plan — saying they will control their own border.
A country putting its citizens first. Imagine that.

[Herman]

It is getting even worse for folks in this country.

Nova Scotia MP Chris d'Entremont has resigned from the Conservative caucus, a spokesperson for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's office says.

The move comes after d'Entremont told Politico earlier today he was considering crossing the floor to join the Liberals, and would make a decision after reading the budget.

D'Entremont has not told The Canadian Press whether he plans to join the government.

He served as deputy House Speaker from 2021 until the April election and did not get support from the Conservative caucus for his bid to become the Speaker this spring.

D'Entremont was first elected as an MP in 2019 after sitting as a Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative MLA for 16 years.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May told reporters today that as a former Nova Scotia environment minister, d'Entremont would be welcome to join her caucus.

[DKG]

States are complying with a new federal law and narrowing eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

The West Virginia Department of Human Services said Nov. 3 it is implementing federally mandated changes to make sure the state is complaint with national guidelines. The updates affect about 36,000 food stamp recipients in West Virginia, the department said.
Massachusetts officials said that while the changes to SNAP are being enforced as of Nov. 1, not all recipients will be immediately affected.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law in July after approval from Congress, made the changes to SNAP.

One update concerns the most stringent work requirement for SNAP recipients designated as able-bodied adults without dependents. Previously, non-disabled adults without dependents aged 18 to 54 had to work 80 hours a month. Now, the requirement also applies to adults aged 55 to 64.

People with dependents used to be entirely excluded from the more stringent requirement, but now parents with children aged 14 or older also have to meet the work requirement.

Exceptions introduced in 2023—for homeless people, veterans, and people aged 24 and younger who were in foster care when they turned 18—ended as of Nov. 1. Unchanged exceptions include being pregnant and not being able to work due to a disability, and new exceptions cover Native Americans.

Those subject to the new work requirement can be limited to receiving food stamps for just three months in a three-year period.

[DKG]

Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is leading the charge to ensure Americans are no longer "inadvertently subsidizing" groups with terrorist links.

Roy introduced legislation Tuesday that would eliminate the tax-exempt status for extremist groups with close ties to terrorist organizations, according to bill text. Roy is setting his sights on groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has been found to have ties with the Muslim Brotherhood and even Hamas.

[DKG]

Democrat candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill was elected to serve as New Jersey governor Tuesday night, defeating Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli.