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sally-mun · 5 years

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Ever met a celebrity or anybody famous? The most famous person I've met was a former pro boxer, by the name of Ray 'Boom-Boom' Mancini at a charity dinner at the banquet center I worked at 4 years ago. Nicest man you'd ever meet and he even sent me a signed autograph picture in the mail. I'm a Star Trek fan and I'd love to meet the cast of TNG, but autographs and conventions are so expensive. Of course there's the chance you could catch one of them on a bad day and get the brunt of it

If we’re including conventions, then yeah I’ve met several famous people before. I’ve met and gotten autographs and/or selfies from voice actors and screen actors, and I’ve occasionally met some artists too! Outside of that, though, I can’t really say I have. Even my best and most extensive meeting was still at a convention. You could even argue that Mario Marathon was kind of a convention in a sense, albeit a super limited one!

I wasn’t sure if I should include a list or not, so as a compromise I’m going to do so below a cut!

Voice Actors:

Sonny Strait (voice of Krillin) -- Got to spend basically an entire day with him! Unexpectedly encountered him at a convention waaaay way back in the day and he just kind of adopted me and the other handful of fans that were hanging around. He gave us all free DBZ CCG t-shirts, let us sit in the DBZ hummer, and signed anything we put in front of him!

Christopher Sabat (voice of Vegeta) -- I brought him a set of cookies made to look like dragon balls, and brought my favorite Vegeta card that I’d been saving for something like 17 years or so on the off-chance I could ever get it signed. He was so moved and impressed that he gave me two other autographs for free~

Todd Haberkorn (voice of Jaco) -- This was the same convention where I got to meet Chris Sabat, and I also brought him a box of cookies. He was so excited that he dug into them right then and there, and then when signing my card he even wrote “Thanks for the galactic cookies!”

Chuck Huber (voice of Android 17/Hiei) -- I’ve gotten autographs from him a couple of times for different characters. One of the items I got signed was one of the original Hiei action figures back when Yu Yu Hakusho first debuted in the US. He was impressed that I had it at all, let alone that it was in the box. (Amusingly, the only reason I did was because I had one previous to it that was out of the box on display and whose sword had broken. I got a new one intending to replace it, but just never opened it.)

Chris Rager (voice of Mr. Satan) -- SUCH a nice guy! We had a nice little chat and I offered him some dragon ball cookies I’d been handing out that day. He signed my trading card and took a selfie with me! I caught him at a panel where he told some absolutely amazing behind-the-scenes stories that I still tell to other people to this day.

Chris Cason (voice of Tien) -- Not much to say about this encounter, I didn’t get to say much more than a hello and thank you before he had to go. I’d missed the official signing session and just happened to catch him after a panel.

Team Four Star -- I catch these guys every opportunity I can manage, and every time I bring them some DBZ-themed treat. I refer to myself as “Snack Girl” when I come to get autographs, and at my last encounter Lanipator mentioned that I looked familiar when I came to the table, so I guess I’m making an impact! I have several stories concerning these guys, way too many to list here.

Little Kuriboh (YGOA voice of Merik, DBZA voice of Freeza) -- Amusingly I met him the time I was at a convention in my Piccolo costume, and that ended up being a whole conversation by itself. It then immediately turned into a conversation about Fallout because someone had brought him some New Vegas playing cards, lol. He was enamored with the trading card I had brought him to sign, and we had a discussion about a fund raiser he’d hosted to raise money for disaster relief where I’d won one of the auctions he’d held.

Kevin Conroy (voice of Batman) -- I found out very late that he was going to be in town, like maybe a week or two before, and dropped EVERYTHING to be able to meet him. When I was in line for an autograph I was so worked up that I kept getting light headed and having heart palpitations. By the time I actually made it to the table I was so starstruck that I could barely say anything. I’m pretty sure I said “I can’t believe you’re here” (??? wtf past-me) and something about him being so talented. He thanked me and didn’t really say much. I had also paid for a photo with him, and in the photo you can see my hand gripping the side of my leg REALLY tightly because I had a very strong instinct to hug him and I WAS NOT ABOUT TO BE THAT FANGIRL.

Charles Martinet (voice of most of the Mario cast) -- Holy shit, this man is playful! He was an absolute delight to talk to, and even just to watch with other people while I was in line. He was very open to whatever sorts of fan requests each person had and was just so warm and gracious with each person that came up. I mostly just wanted to shake his hand and tell him that Mario games basically set me up for the person I grew up to be today. The thing that amused me the most is that if you had him autograph one of the prints at the table, which had all the Mario characters on it, he’d do the voices of each character while doodling little word balloons for them~

Screen Actors:

John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who/Torchwood) -- This was one of the first times I’d gone to a convention specifically to meet an actor. He was a lot of fun and did his best to be chatty, but his handlers were kind of hurrying people along. He was especially tickled by my name (I guess he doesn’t sign too many autographs made out to “Leda”), and he even signed a second item that we happened to have for free!

Cary Elwes (Wesley in The Princess Bride, among other things) -- This was another one of those moments where the weight of just WHO I was meeting got to me and I completely lost my voice. I think I said something about having grown up watching Princess Bride ever since I was a little kid?? I honestly don’t remember what I said, it’s kind of a blur. All I know is that I was so struck by the moment that I didn’t even remember to say that I also love him in the Saw movies.

Billy Boyd (Pippin in Lord of the Rings) -- Not a lot I can say about this one because it was a very fast-paced, conveyor belt sort of affair. We exchanged greetings and he thanked us very much for coming out to see him, and we all agreed that Pippin is totes the best hobbit.

Robin Lord Taylor (Penguin in Gotham) -- One of my favorite interactions meeting a celebrity, for sure! He was actually really interested in knowing about -me-, which completely threw me off-guard. He wanted to know where I was from and what I did for a living, and when I said I was a manager at Spencer’s he got really excited and squeaked “I LOVE Spencer’s!” While he was signing my doll I explained that Penguin is by far my family’s favorite character in Gotham and that we had a joke where, anytime the show switches back to him, we say “Meanwhile, with the REAL main character...” He got a big kick out of that~

Khary Payton (King Ezekiel in The Walking Dead) -- So I don’t watch a huge amount of Walking Dead, but I watch enough that I wanted to come along when my mom went to go get an autograph from him for my brother. He’s definitely the friendliest celebrity I’ve encountered -- so much so that he wouldn’t stay behind the table! He spent the entire time in FRONT of the table so he could hug every single person that came to see him! It was a nice strong hug, too, and he was just so welcoming and pleasant. I told him that, if I had to choose one of the communities in The Walking Dead, I’d absolutely choose The Kingdom. He threw his hands up to his sides and said dramatically, “You will always have a place in my kingdom!”

Penn & Teller -- This year my mom took me on a surprise trip to Las Vegas, and while we were there we got to see Penn & Teller perform, which has always been a dream of mine! After the show they came out into the lobby and they did autographs and selfies with anyone that wanted one, and I got to meet them each. It was a little disarming hearing Teller talk, and Penn was as funny as ever because he’d loudly comment whenever someone’s phone wasn’t working. During this trip I also had my Boris plushie as my “traveling doll” and asked if they’d take pictures with him as well, which they both obliged. Teller seemed particularly amused by Boris.

James Rolfe (the Angry Video Game Nerd) -- So I actually have kind of a long history with him, which originated with me contacting the show to donate a fairly odd peripheral accessory. I given a green light and provided an address, and since I was going to be mailing him anyway, I basically just got a big box and threw in any video game related stuff that I didn’t want anymore and didn’t feel like putting the effort into selling. It ended up being a HUGE box, so much so that I included an inventory list to make sure he didn’t accidentally throw something away. To my surprise he actually mailed me back an autographed AVGN print thanking me for the donations! I thought that’d be the end of it, but he’s actually since featured that peripheral several times on the show, and even included an Easter egg that I asked for twice! This year I got to meet him at Too Many Games and introduced myself as the one that sent the item in. He mentioned that they had a lot of fun messing with it.

Mario Marathon team -- I’m known as one of the regulars since I’ve been around since the first year, and a couple of years ago I was actually invited to the marathon itself as a player! It’s definitely one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I only wish I could do it all over again! Everyone was just... wonderful~ I was there for several days so there’s obviously way too many stories to tell, but at least in this case you can always go watch the videos on Twitch.

Artists:

Steven Butler -- This was particularly amusing because I was the one that caught him by surprise. I happened to be making my way through the Artist Alley when I realized he was there, and since no one was at the table at the time I went over to talk to him. We had an awesomely long chat about his work (I was going through a sample book on the table) and his time drawing for the Sonic comics. He tried to bring it up as a talking point, and I told him “I know, I own some of your pages!” which REALLY threw him for a loop! He showed me some art for a new Sonic-style story he’s been working on, and I completely fell in love with a character that was clearly inspired by Sally (and I’m not just assuming, he confirmed as much). I then started talking about @fini-mun and how it’s only a shame he couldn’t meet Deebs too, and was talking about Deebs’ history with art and almost getting recruited to be in the Archie art stable as well and how they now do art streams. He was particularly interested in the streams, and I was like “Oh yeah, that’s actually why they aren’t here now, they have a stream today!” so he gave me a free print to pass along to Deebs as a show of interest and support!

Veronica Vera (from the Not Enough Rings comic) -- This was another chance encounter in Artist Alley. I was just kind of poking around to see everyone’s work, and I realized I recognized the comic she was selling. I commented that I loved that comic, and she said she was selling hardcover copies of the entire series. I love the comic and I wanted to show my support, so I bought a book and she signed the inside cover! Unfortunately Oliver Bareham wasn’t there at the time, so no autograph from him. Maybe one day if I’m incredibly lucky, I suppose.

Rich Koslowski -- This was at one of my very first conventions ever. He was an inker of the Sonic comics at the time, and I was only.... 12, I think? I mostly was just excited to be meeting someone that works on Sonic stuff, and I can’t remember much about the encounter aside from just babbling about liking Sonic. I remember him being very kind.

And unfortunately... Ken Penders -- This was at the same convention I just mentioned with Koslowski. As stated above I was only 12, and I was just excited to meet someone who works on Sonic stuff. I believe I was there because of a post on Archie’s Sonic website. Anyway what strikes me as the most surprising about this encounter is how -normal- it all was, at least as far as I remember it. I’ve heard some horror stories of Penders being horrible to fans at conventions, but at least way back at this time (like 1997 or so), he was passing for a normal human. He didn’t say anything mean to me (that I noticed), and he actually gave me some free Sonic loot, which I can’t imagine him ever doing nowadays. I still have the comic book he signed, and I legit consider burning it on a regular basis.

OKAY this ended up way longer that I thought it would. I think even -I- forgot how many people I’ve met before. If I think of anyone else I’ll add it to the list later!

#sheesh this took me like an hour #magnumthecreator001

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cypher2 · 5 years

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DAVIE, Fla. — Jamaica’s consul general in South Florida held a party at his home on Wednesday night to celebrate the Reggae Girlz, the first national soccer team from the Caribbean to qualify for the Women’s World Cup.

The tables were set up around the pool and the players and their coaches were there, but every guest was asked to bring a little something extra: a donation of at least $100 to help Jamaica complete its preparations to compete at the World Cup in France next month. The tournament begins in less than two weeks, and so time, just like money, was short.

If the story of women’s soccer in recent years has been the ongoing fight for equal pay, there always has been a different inequality just below the surface. While women’s international soccer has made significant progress in some countries, support for it, especially financially, from individual federations and corporate sponsors continues to vary widely.

France, the host country for this year’s championship, has a thriving professional league, and its players have spent the last few weeks preparing for the World Cup at their federation’s national training center. The United States, the defending champion and a three-time winner of the tournament, is completing an opulent send-off tour across the country this weekend, replete with nationally-televised games on ESPN and giant billboards on big-city buildings.

Jamaica’s run-up to the World Cup, by contrast, has been much less visible, and its program’s mere existence far less financially secure. Historically, the Reggae Girlz have received tenuous support from their national federation. As recently as 2015, the federation cut off financing for the team entirely.

As a side trip on their road to France then, Jamaica’s women first detoured to South Florida, trying to raise money one contributor at a time to cover a shortfall — as much as $400,000 by one estimate — created by training camps, travel and warm-up matches, and to begin to establish a reserve that the team can draw on for current and future tournament costs. There was a fund-raiser and an auction of sports apparel at the consul general’s home; a pep rally at a chiropractic center; and an exhibition match on Thursday night preceded by a celebrity game featuring entertainers from Jamaica and Haiti.

But signs of the team’s struggles weren’t hard to find. At Wednesday’s party, the coaching staff wore shirts meant for the men’s national team, and used markers to scratch out that team’s nickname — “Reggae Boyz” — on the sleeves. Some Jamaican players still must buy their own cleats. And when the women’s team qualified for the World Cup last October outside of Dallas, several coaches went to Costco and paid out of their pockets for jackets so their players could train in the chilly, rainy weather.

No high-ranking official from the Jamaican federation was present to celebrate that momentous qualification in a penalty shootout against Panama, the team’s coaches said.

“Their attitude has been pretty poor,” goalkeeper Nicole McClure, 29, said of the Jamaican soccer federation. “We’ve always been an afterthought, and we’re still fighting for equality. We want a seat at the table. It’s been quite frustrating.”

In March, McClure, who grew up in Queens, held her own fund-raiser. She plays without compensation on a club team in Northern Ireland, and she needed money to pay for food, toiletries, a bus ticket, checked baggage for a flight and some soccer gear. Her needs were not uncommon for her team.

Yet she and her teammates — and Jamaica’s coaches — acknowledged this week that things are improving, at least for the moment. Jamaica’s World Cup players have signed a contract with the federation that will pay them $800 to $1,200 a month, retroactive to January, Coach Hue Menzies said. And Menzies, who has been working free since 2015, is to receive $40,000, he said. According to team officials, this is the first time a Caribbean women’s team has signed contracts with its national federation.

“We haven’t been paid,” Menzies said with a laugh. “But we signed a contract.”

Michael Ricketts, the president of Jamaica’s soccer federation, said that criticism of the organization had been “grossly unfair.” The federation has spent about $4 million on the women’s team since it began qualifying for the World Cup, he said. Costs to hold a weeklong training camp can run to $100,000, Ricketts said, and it has been a struggle to get spectators and corporate sponsors to embrace the team. Even so, he said, a women’s league in Jamaica has been restarted on a limited basis, as well as a youth program for players under 15.

Under the circumstances, Ricketts said, “We’ve done exceedingly well.”

The Reggae Girlz coaching staff disputed the $4 million figure. “No way,” said Lorne Donaldson, an assistant coach. “I don’t buy that.”

Instead, coaches and players widely credit a different benefactor, Cedella Marley, for resurrecting the women’s team with help from the Bob Marley Foundation, which is named after her musician father. Cedella Marley, angered by the sorry state of the program, was the one who spearheaded an international fund-raising effort to revive it several years ago, and she was the one who persuaded Menzies, who runs a prominent youth soccer club near Orlando, Fla., to become its coach.

Without Marley, McClure said, “There would be no Reggae Girlz.”

The Alacran Foundation, a philanthropic organization, also has become a benefactor of the team. And the Reggae Girlz Foundation, a nonprofit, is raising money for such things as medical equipment to help Jamaica prepare and compete at the World Cup, but also to support the team in coming Olympic qualifying and youth national team campaigns.

Money remained tight, though, as the team departed Friday for Europe, where it will play a warm-up match in Scotland before continuing on to France. Even after an initial payment of $480,000 from FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, for qualifying for the World Cup, and another payment of at least $750,000 to follow, Jamaica’s buildup to the tournament has faced about a $400,000 shortfall to cover costs of training camps, travel and practice matches, according to Lisa Quarrie, the vice president of the Reggae Girlz Foundation.

Long-term, the foundation is seeking to sustain women’s soccer in Jamaica by creating an academy, building an extensive youth development system and persuading men’s teams in the National Premier League, the country’s top division, to also sponsor women’s teams.

But first things first. The World Cup starts in two weeks, and no donation is considered too small, be it a $10 ticket to Thursday night’s celebrity match or a $25 contribution on the website of the Reggae Girlz Foundation.

“They need money all the way around,” Quarrie said. “We’re going to the World Cup on the fly.”

Women’s international soccer has long faced a Sisyphean battle to gain respect and support. The American women’s team continues to find it necessary to sue U.S. Soccer for gender discrimination. Players in Australia and elsewhere have refused to play matches, and stars in other countries went public with complaints on everything from training pay to a lack of games.

It has been a particularly tough slog in the Caribbean, where soccer has been blighted by corruption, and the women’s game especially has been widely dismissed. When Trinidad and Tobago arrived in Dallas for the final qualifying round of the 2015 Women’s World Cup, its coach, Randy Waldrum, sent out a financial S.O.S. via Twitter.

“I need HELP!” Waldrum wrote at the time. “T&T sent a team here last night with $500 total. No equipment such as balls, no transportation from airport to hotel, nothing.”

Haiti’s women’s team also attempted, just as futilely, to qualify for the 2015 World Cup, relying on benefactors at an extended training camp in South Bend, Ind. Its players and coach received no salary, and the team tried to make ends meet by selling rotisserie chickens and T-shirts, and holding clinics for churches and schools.

In Jamaica, soccer has been considered by many to be too rough of a sport for women and not sufficiently feminine. Players and officials hope that this summer’s World Cup appearance will help overcome the cultural stereotype, and that women’s soccer will be elevated at home in the way track and field became appreciated with the success of the sprinter Merlene Ottey, who won nine Olympic medals between 1980 and 2000.

“The men have always received far more support,” said Oliver Mair, Jamaica’s consul general for the Southern United States. “So when the women qualified for the World Cup, it caught us all by surprise.”

He added: “When you start on the road, you are on your own. They had a dream, a vision. They started to do well and more people have come on board.”

For now, Menzies and his staff have countered the lack of resources inside Jamaica by helping to place top women’s players at American universities and high schools, and in leagues in the United States and Europe.

Jamaica’s star forward, Khadija Shaw, known as Bunny, attended Tennessee, where she was the Southeastern Conference’s offensive player of the year in 2018. She, perhaps more than any other player, represents the indomitable perseverance of the Reggae Girlz, having maintained her career despite the deaths of three brothers in gang-related violence in Jamaica.

Kayla McCoy, a forward and midfielder who plays for the National Women’s Soccer League’s Houston Dash, said, “I think everybody carries self-pride about how far we’ve come but also a sense of humility just because of what people have had to overcome and what people have seen and what people have had to go through.”

She added: “Nothing was handed to anybody here.”

The goal for the Reggae Girlz at the World Cup is to advance out of a forbidding group that includes Brazil, Australia and Italy. Lingering is the question of whether the Jamaican federation will provide the necessary support to keep women’s soccer growing as an international power after the tournament ends.

Asked how confident he was in the federation’s long-term commitment, Menzies, the coach, said, “Not very.”

“But,” he added, “when they tell us no, that just fuels our fire.”

Jeré Longman | New York Times

#wwc 2019 #jamaica wnt #reggae girlz #cedella marley #women in sport #woso

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multipleservicelisting · 4 years

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Before the Capitol Riot, Calls for Cash and Talk of Revolution

Keith Lee, an Air Force veteran and former police detective, spent the morning of Jan. 6 casing the entrances to the Capitol.

In online videos, the 41-year-old Texan pointed out the flimsiness of the fencing. He cheered the arrival, long before President Trump’s rally at the other end of the mall, of far-right militiamen encircling the building. Then, armed with a bullhorn, Mr. Lee called out for the mob to rush in, until his voice echoed from the dome of the Rotunda.

Yet even in the heat of the event, Mr. Lee paused for some impromptu fund-raising. “If you couldn’t make the trip, give five to 10 bucks,” he told his viewers, seeking donations for the legal costs of two jailed “patriots,” a leader of the far-right Proud Boys and an ally who had clashed with the police during an armed incursion at Oregon’s statehouse.

Much is still unknown about the planning and financing of the storming of the Capitol, aiming to challenge Mr. Trump’s electoral defeat. What is clear is that it was driven, in part, by a largely ad hoc network of low-budget agitators, including far-right militants, Christian conservatives and ardent adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Mr. Lee is all three. And the sheer breadth of the movement he joined suggests it may be far more difficult to confront than a single organization.

In the months leading up to the riot, Mr. Lee had helped organize a series of pro-Trump car caravans around the country, including one that temporarily blockaded a Biden campaign bus in Texas and another that briefly shut down a Hudson River bridge in the New York City suburbs. To help pay for dozens of caravans to meet at the Jan. 6 rally, he had teamed up with an online fund-raiser in Tampa, Fla., who secured money from small donors and claimed to pass out tens of thousands of dollars.

Theirs was one of many grass-roots efforts to bring Trump supporters to the Capitol, often amid calls for revolution, if not outright violence. On an online ride-sharing forum, Patriot Caravans for 45, more than 4,000 members coordinated travel from as far away as California and South Dakota. Some 2,000 people donated at least $181,700 to another site, Wild Protest, leaving messages urging ralliers to halt the certification of the vote.

Oath Keepers, a self-identified militia whose members breached the Capitol, had solicited donations online to cover “gas, airfare, hotels, food and equipment.” Many others raised money through the crowdfunding site GoFundMe or, more often, its explicitly Christian counterpart, GiveSendGo. (On Monday, the money transfer service PayPal stopped working with GiveSendGo because of its links to the violence at the Capitol.)

A few prominent firebrands, an opaque pro-Trump nonprofit and at least one wealthy donor had campaigned for weeks to amplify the president’s false claims about his defeat, stoking the anger of his supporters.

A chief sponsor of many rallies leading up to the riot, including the one featuring the president on Jan. 6, was Women for America First, a conservative nonprofit. Its leaders include Amy Kremer, who rose to prominence in the Tea Party movement, and her daughter, Kylie Jane Kremer, 30. She started a “Stop the Steal” Facebook page on Nov. 4. More than 320,000 people signed up in less than a day, but the platform promptly shut it down for fears of inciting violence. The group has denied any violent intent.

By far the most visible financial backer of Women for America First’s efforts was Mike Lindell, a founder of the MyPillow bedding company, identified on a now-defunct website as one of the “generous sponsors” of a bus tour promoting Mr. Trump’s attempt to overturn the election. In addition, he was an important supporter of Right Side Broadcasting, an obscure pro-Trump television network that provided blanket coverage of Trump rallies after the vote, and a podcast run by the former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon that also sponsored the bus tour.

“I put everything I had into the last three weeks, financial and everything,” Mr. Lindell said in a mid-December television interview.

In a tweet the same month, he urged Mr. Trump to “impose martial law” to seize ballots and voting machines. Through a representative, Mr. Lindell said he only supported the bus tour “prior to December 14th” and was not a financial sponsor of any events after that, including the rally on Jan. 6. He continues to stand by the president’s claims and met with Mr. Trump at the White House on Friday.

By late December, the president himself was injecting volatility into the organizing efforts, tweeting an invitation to a Washington rally that would take place as Congress gathered to certify the election results.

“Be there, will be wild!” Mr. Trump wrote.

The next day, a new website, Wild Protest, was registered and quickly emerged as an organizing hub for the president’s most zealous supporters. It appeared to be connected to Ali Alexander, a conspiracy theorist who vowed to stop the certification by “marching hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of patriots to sit their butts in D.C. and close that city down.”

Mr. Alexander could not be reached for comment, but in a video posted to Twitter last week, he denied any responsibility for the violence.

While other groups like Women for America First were promoting the rally where Mr. Trump would speak — at the Ellipse, about a mile west of the Capitol — the Wild Protest website directed Trump supporters to a different location: the doorsteps of Congress.

Wild Protest linked to three hotels with discounted rates and another site for coordinating travel plans. It also raised donations from thousands of individuals, according to archived versions of a web portal used to collect them. The website has since been taken down, and it is not clear what the money was used for.

“The time for words has passed, action alone will save our Republic,” a user donating $250 wrote, calling congressional certification of the vote “treasonous.”

Another contributor gave $47 and posted: “Fight to win our country back using whatever means necessary.”

Mr. Lee, who sought to raise legal-defense money the morning before the riot, did not respond to requests for comment. He has often likened supporters of overturning the election to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and has said he is willing to give his life for the cause.

A sales manager laid off at an equipment company because of the pandemic, he has said that he grew up as a conservative Christian in East Texas. Air Force records show that he enlisted a month after the Sept. 11 attacks and served for four years, leaving as a senior airman. Later, in 2011 and 2012, he worked for a private security company at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

In between, he also worked as a police detective in McKinney, Texas, not far from Houston.

He had never been politically active, he has said. But during Mr. Trump’s first term, Mr. Lee began to immerse himself in the online QAnon conspiracy theory. Its adherents hold that Mr. Trump is trying to save America from a shadowy ring of pedophiles who control the government and the Democratic Party. Mr. Lee has said that resonated with his experience dealing with child crimes as a police officer.

His active support for Mr. Trump began last August when he organized a caravan of drivers from around the state to show their support for the president by circling the capital, Austin. That led him to found a website, MAGA Drag the Interstate, to organize Trump caravans around the country.

By December, Mr. Lee had achieved enough prominence that he was included in a roster of speakers at a news conference preceding a “March for Trump” rally in Washington.

“We are at this precipice” of “good versus evil,” Mr. Lee declared. “I am going to fight for my president. I am going to fight for what is right.”

He threw himself into corralling fellow “patriots” to meet in Washington on Jan. 6, and at the end of last month he began linking his website with the Tampa organizer to raise money for participants’ travel.

The fund-raiser, who has identified himself as a web designer named Thad Williams, has said in a podcast that sexual abuse as a child eventually led him to the online world of QAnon.

While others “made of steel” are cut out to be “warriors against evil” and “covered in the blood and sweat of that part,” Mr. Williams said, he sees himself as more of “a chaplain and a healer.” In 2019, he set up a website to raise money for QAnon believers to travel to Trump rallies. He could not be reached for comment.

By the gathering at the Capitol, he claimed to have raised and distributed at least $30,000 for transportation costs. Expression of thanks posted on Twitter appear to confirm that he allocated money, and a day after the assault the online services PayPal and Stripe shut down his accounts.

Mr. Lee’s MAGA Drag the Interstate site, for its part, said it had organized car caravans of more than 600 people bound for the rally. It used military-style shorthand to designate routes in different regions across the country, from Alpha to Zulu, and a logo on the site combined Mr. Trump’s distinctive hairstyle with Pepe the Frog, a symbol of the alt-right that has been used by white supremacists.

Participants traded messages about where to park together overnight on the streets of Washington. Some arranged midnight rendezvous at highway rest stops or Waffle House restaurants to drive together on the morning of the rally.

On the evening of Jan. 5, Mr. Lee broadcast a video podcast from a crowd of chanting Trump supporters in the Houston airport, waiting to board a flight to Washington. “We are there for a show of force,” he promised, suggesting he anticipated street fights even before dawn. “Gonna see if we can do a little playing in the night.”

A co-host of the podcast — a self-described Army veteran from Washington State — appealed for donations to raise $250,000 bail money for Chandler Pappas, 27.

Chandler Pappas outside the the Oregon statehouse last month.Credit…Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Reuters

Two weeks earlier in Salem, Oregon, during a protest against Covid-19 restrictions, Mr. Pappas had sprayed six police officers with mace while leading an incursion into the State Capitol building and carrying a semiautomatic rifle, according to a police report. Mr. Pappas, whose lawyer did not return a phone call seeking comment, had been linked to the far-right Proud Boys and an allied local group called Patriot Prayer.

“American citizens feel like they’ve been attacked. Fear’s reaction is anger, anger’s reaction is patriotism and voilà — you get a war,” said Mr. Lee’s co-host, who gave his name as Rampage.

He directed listeners to donate to the bail fund through GiveSendGo, and thanked them for helping to raise $100,000 through the same site for the legal defense of Enrique Tarrio, a leader of the Proud Boys who is accused of vandalizing a historically Black church in Washington.

By 10:45 a.m. the next day, more than an hour before Mr. Trump spoke, Mr. Lee was back online broadcasting footage of himself at the Capitol.

“If you died today and you went to heaven, can you look George Washington in the face and say that you’ve fought for this country?” he asked.

By noon, he was reporting that “backup” was already arriving, bypassing the Trump speech and rally. The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were among the groups that went directly to the Capitol.

“Guys, we got the Three Percent here! The Three Percent here that loves this country and wants to fight!” Mr. Lee reported a little later, referring to another militant group. “We need to surround this place.”

Backed by surging crowds, Mr. Lee had made his way into the Rotunda and by 3 p.m. — after a fellow assailant had been shot, police officers had been injured and local authorities were pleading for help — he was back outside using his megaphone to urge others into the building. “If we do it together,” he insisted, “there’s no violence!”

When he knew that lawmakers had evacuated, he declared victory: “We have done our job,” he shouted.

Reporting was contributed by Kitty Bennett, Stella Cooper, Cora Engelbrecht, Sheera Frenkel and Haley Willis.

Video production by Ainara Tiefenthäler.

Multiple Service Listing for Business Owners | Tools to Grow Your Local Business

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#multiple #service #listing #news #local #business #ads #near #me

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jtq1844 · 5 years

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Nine Comforters

When I had done this sort of thing before, it was on a smaller scale and with other goals in mind. The first time, one of our daughters, who lived in the Bay Area, was moving to Haifa Israel to serve at the Baha’i World Center. She asked us to store her car, so I flew down to drive it to Washington State where we were living at the time. With a post on Facebook – is it okay to mention Facebook here? – and a couple of phone calls to friends in the know, I had eight events in nine days! Some events were small gatherings of just a few people; some were larger with dozens for the house concert and talk. Some hosts were strangers to me; some were old friends. There was a healing circle with a chant of the Long Healing Prayer revealed by Baha’u’llah. There was a fund-raiser for Beads of Courage (www.beadsofcourage.org).

Halfway through the “tour,” my husband called me. “I have a brain tumor,” he said.

“I can cancel and come home right now.”

“Please, don’t. My next appointment is after you’ll be back. Who knows when you’ll have another chance to do this?”

So I continued. I jammed with a guy named Jim. I transcribed some music for Paul, then we proceeded to sing all night long … and that was after the actual event. I did my only “secular” concert at Patty’s. I spent an afternoon singing and praying with a now-disabled friend in the middle of nowhere. It was an amazing experience.

It had also been remarkably easy to set up. Last August, just a few extra stops to and from a retreat center (www.bosch.org) as their artist-in-residence for a session, was just a simple to create. I met a 96-year-old African-American English professor who moved to Turkey at the age of 80 to help with a Baha’i project there. (Okay, so the details might not be quite accurate but you get the idea. This is an example as to why I’m trying this Tumblr blog thingy this time... so I can remember stuff better.) I sang with children, teens, tweens, seniors, ex-hippies, refugees, yuppies, Christians, Buddhists, Baha’is, Muslims, and agnostics. Mike ended up in the hospital (for something else) only after I returned.

Each time I perform, my friend Fred in Colorado posts, “So when are you coming to Colorado?” Now is the time. This planning, however, has been waaaaaaaay trickier to set up. It’s also a much longer trip.

Another complication was how to pay for this adventure. These are not paying gigs. Some things will work out. Beds and board are set up (for the most part). My hybrid car just had its check-up. It comes down to how to pay for over 3000 miles worth of gas. There is some spiritual merit to traveling on the cheap, at least that is what most faith traditions indicate.

In the Tablets of the Divine Plan, ‘Abdu’l-Baha remarks: “O that I could travel, even though on foot and in the utmost poverty, to these regions, and, raising the call of “Yá Bahá’u’l-Abhá” in cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans, promote the divine teachings! This, alas, I cannot do. How intensely I deplore it! Please God, ye may achieve it.” While I’ll spend some time on foot, I’ll be driving a lot of the time. Doing trip on a shoestring may not be in the utmost poverty, but it has a certain nod to the spirit of it. Money is tighter in our house right now – a long, sad tale of chronic illness (not just the brain tumor), corporate greed, and interesting circumstances that are stories for other times – so our family collectively pondered on the subject of paying for this endeavor at the beginning of May. How was I to do it? What could I sell? I have old CDs, one of which can be downloaded here: https://open.spotify.com/album/5MHczFTLjFtHyB6PnQIH69 To record any of my forty-plus other songs nicely would cost more than recordings would possibly generate. And in such a short time? Do people even “do” CDs anymore?

My eldest said, “Well, there is that closet full of quilting materials …” Hmmm, I thought. She added “I can help with the pressing and some of the cutting” for an enticement. Thus, I set out to make nine quilts to sell/auction as I travel to pay for gas and sundries. Yes, nine ... in six weeks. Some of them are actual quilts; all of them are comforters. The difference -- like squares and rhombuses (rhombi?) -- is understood only by quilters and BabyLock employees. Baha’is are funny that way; we do seem to like nine. There were three UFO (quilting jargon this time) quilt tops that made it initially easier. With the exception of a little hand sewing, they are complete! Enjoy the pictures. They are somewhere on this site. I think.

Off to the chiropractors. Sewing can really mess you up.

BTW, the July 1st gig is confirmed.

#323drtg #quilts travel teaching Baha'i Faith

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ifdragonscouldtalk · 7 years

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I’m Gonna Kill Him (ifdragonscouldtalk)

Technically, this is part one of two, but I don’t know if I’ll finish it. Depends on if you guys like it or not! Alex and I did this as a challenge, to see how we each interpreted a prompt, so read to the bottom to get the link to theirs!

Tony Stark was not subtle. He probably never had been, and most likely wouldn’t be any time in the future. Then again, Tony Stark also generally wasn’t mooning over another person like a teenage girl, chewing absently at the straw that led to his “martini” (it didn’t have any alcohol in it, since he had business meetings tomorrow). Natasha watched, slightly amused, putting a hand on Stark’s arm just before it could slip off the table, causing him to straighten, clear his throat, and glare at her.

“You know, you are allowed to at least talk to him.” She raised a delicate eyebrow, watching the soft blush that crept to his ears even as he scoffed and rolled his eyes.

“Why would I want to?” Nevertheless his eyes were drawn back to the Sergeant, in a tight cutting suit and elegant white gloves that were really a clever ploy to cover his fake arm. He looked more like a butler than anything else, but who was she to judge what Stark was into? Steve, in his Captain America uniform and looking like he knew why the world turned despite the discomfort she could see on him, was standing next to him, talking to him in between the greetings with rich folk. These fund raisers were apparently necessary for PR and money reasons, and most of them knew how to schmooze with the best of them (though none knew better than Tony). Clint and Bruce always seemed to manage and disappear just as quickly as they arrived, and Thor almost exclusively hovered by the food and alcohol, which generally left Steve, Tony, and Natasha on their own. Tony and Natasha normally carried the events, but Steve seemed more relaxed with Bucky there, who seemed surprisingly at ease despite his normal discomfort with large groups of people.

Natasha couldn’t deny Barnes was charming, and certainly attractive. She never took Tony as the type to go for that, but then, years had proven she could never truly know Tony Stark. And it’s not like she was going to stand in his way. Steve, now, Steve might be a problem. He was fiercely protective of Barnes and seemed to think every approach Tony had towards the man, even if it was an offer of help or a teasing joke, had some sort of alternative meaning. Then again, it did; just not in the way the good captain was thinking.

Steve leaned over to say something in Barnes’s ear and the man smiled, laughing, and Tony, well, poor Tony nearly choked on his drink. He slammed the glass down on the table with a bang, drawing the attention of nearby patrons and spilling liquid all over his hand as Natasha stepped back smoothly to avoid getting the sticky substance on her dress. “That’s fucking it,” Tony said in a low voice, turning his head to look at her, “I’m killing him. He has to go. This is not fair and I cannot take it so he has to die.”

“Or, you could, I don’t know, man up and just ask him out.” Natasha raised a challenging eyebrow, smirking slightly at the unusual display before her. Tony was pink, clearly trying to keep attention away from himself, and turning his back away from Steve and Bucky, who had noticed something was wrong and was trying to catch his eye. He looked embarrassed, furious, and panicked all at the same time.

“K-Killing... Killing is easier.” He shook his head, and she could see it, the moment when he shut himself down, when his conditioned self-incrimination kicked into full gear, and she hated the people who had made him like this. Hated that she was one of those people. “Besides, it wouldn’t work out. He’s a ladies man. Even if he weren’t, you see the way he and Steve look at each other?” Stark snorted like it was funny. She didn’t see the sentiment. “So he has to die. He’s gotta go.” He looked at her, a small smirk playing at his lips. “You’ll help me right?”

“Of course,” she replied easily, smiling back, although she had a different plan.

“Think we’ll be able to convince Clint?”

“I think I can persuade him.”

Stark wandered off to find another martini, and the plot began.

Alex’s Version

#tal writes #fanfic #fanfiction #marvel fanfic #tony stark #bucky barnes #winteriron #natasha romanoff #natasha romanov #natasha is a good bro #thealextheshipper #talon writes

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cloakedsparrow · 7 years

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WTF brain?

My sleep disorder and illness decided to strike simultaneously last night, so I couldn’t sleep but couldn't get anything productive done in my new-found awake time. I got the idea for a Bat Family AU, even though I’ve never been willing to write Bat Family fanfiction. I guess I thought maybe an AU would be easier to start with?

Anyway, I jotted down the outline, but then started working it into something resembling the start of a story. Today, I look at what I wrote and this was it. The breaks are where there’s apparently going to be actual plot development/story.

Eventually, I will finish shaping this into a proper story. Feel free to use any concepts if you like them though. I’d appreciated it if you’d link me so I can read them.

Half-assed plotline below the cut.

Bat Family Multiverse AU

Bruce was helping Wonder Woman on a case when he came into contact with a strange artifact. He awoke back in Gotham, in a world where the Waynes never died and there is no Batman. Bruce doesn’t know if he’s been sent to an alternate reality or if the world around him has actually changed. Before he figures it out, he needs to find out where his children are.

Dick’s parents were killed just the same in this world, but without Bruce there to take him in, he was sent to an orphanage. Rumors of bullying and abuse abound, but before anyone ever bothered to look into it, Dick had had enough. He ran away and seemingly fell off the face of the earth for ten years. Then an eighteen year old Dick, mute and scarred, showed up at Haley’s Circus.

Dick’s still kind and intelligent, but not the friendly and flirty son Bruce raised. He helps out and stands up for those around him when necessary, but otherwise keeps to himself. He’s never told anyone anything about those ten years, but his skills as an acrobat are more impressive than ever. He performs under the name Robin, and wears a costume with colors that honor of his fallen parents.

There’s another costume hidden in a trunk in Dick’s trailer. One that’s less bright and designed to protect the wearer a little better than a leotard. One that once instilled fear into the hearts of mobsters and child killers across the US East coast, when a vigilante referred to as Robin Redbreast captured many violent offenders and left them in a nest of evidence for the police to find over the course of three years. No one knows where the vigilante came from or where he disappeared to, but he’s rarely seen or heard from these days.

It all makes Bruce want to take Dick in all over again and show him who he could be.

After a robbery gone wrong that led to stint in juvenile hall, Jason Todd was taken in by a boys home in Gotham run by a kindly priest and funded in part by donations from Thomas Wayne. There the boy learned patience, mercifulness and how to funnel his inborn rage into passion for good. Now he runs a homeless shelter and soup kitchen with the allowance he receives as the guardian of an orphaned billionaire child. Some would find a stranger taking in an unrelated boy suspicious, especially when there was so much money attached to the child, but anyone who has actually seen Jason interact with Tim Drake can honestly say that they adore each other.

Tim Drake was lonely for most of his childhood. His parents were always off working or schmoozing with the rest of the Gotham elite. Eventually, he was old enough to suggest going with them when they headed off to a charity fund raiser, which meant he was with his parents during the attack that killed them. Tim himself was injured, losing his spleen, a small length of intestines, and the lower half of his left leg. After a couple shady individuals showed interest in taking in the heir, Jason Todd (who had met the boy during his usual visits to the Gotham Hospital children’s ward) fought for -and won- custody. Despite his tragic childhood, Tim appears quite content. With Jason, he has the love and sense of belonging he never received from his parents and all he ever wanted was a family that loved him, wanted him.

Jason and Tim also moonlight as a vigilante detective known as Bluejay. They follow crimes in Gotham (and elsewhere, if the crime is big and mysterious enough to catch their attention) -Tim hacks all sorts of data bases and security footage and Jason gets information from assorted street types who would never talk to the police- and then send the proof they collect to whatever authority or superhero will be able to use it. They never get involved physically and always take precautions to never get too close to a case.

Bruce can’t help but wonder if this is the path Jason and Tim would have followed if he hadn’t intervened in their lives. The two are closer than any of his children have ever been and seem happy, at peace, as though all they needed was love and a real home. It hurts and shames Bruce to think that he didn’t give them that.

Cassandra was raised by her father, but after her first few kills, Bluejay tracked her down and sent Lady Shiva proof of her heritage and whereabouts. Lady Shiva handled Cain and reclaimed her daughter. After a couple years together, Cassandra left her mother’s side (with her blessings) to pursue her own path. After receiving a few anonymous communications from Bluejay that led to Cassandra stopping several costumed villains and even a terrorist plot, she decided that vigilantism was her true calling. She does not have a brand or specific city she haunts. She is more brutal and frightening than Batman ever was. Criminals all around the world know her, and fear her, as The Rook.

Bruce can only hope that Lady Shiva is half as proud of Cassandra as he is. He wishes someone had been there to remover her from the situation earlier, as he had done in his own world (timeline?). He also wishes that she wasn’t so alone.

Without his Batman persona and the internal darkness from which it was born, Bruce Wayne was not intriguing enough to catch Talia Al Ghul’s interest. As such, Damian was never conceived.

Bruce isn’t sure how he feels about that.

But he does know that without the Batcomputer and the connections he forged as Batman, he’s going to need help if he’s going to figure out where he is, how he got here, and how to set things right.

The Justice League doesn’t exist in this world. Superman does, so does Green Arrow and Black Canary. Some photos and descriptions on assorted alien conspiracy sites lead Bruce to believe that the Green Lantern Corps does as well but aren’t known to Earth. He can’t find anything concrete on Wonder Woman or Aquaman. He chooses to believe that they exist but have remained hidden and he’ll leave them that way. Barry Allen and Barbara Gordon are police detectives in their respective cities without any alternate identities as far as Bruce can tell.

He has no way to get in touch with Oliver, Dinah or any of the Green Lanterns. Bruce would rather avoid bringing in Clark until he knows more about the situation and who exactly <i>this</i> Clark is. Barry, Barbara and Commissioner Gordon would likely write him off as eccentric if he tried telling them what was going on.

He didn’t want to disrupt their lives in this world, but he’s going to need his children’s help to solve this case.

Jason and Tim were the only ones currently in Gotham and they would be the easiest to approach in any case. Bruce could just walk into the soup kitchen and ask to speak with Jason about expanding or contributing to his charity. They’d also be able to locate Cassandra while Bruce went to see Dick at Haly’s.

-------

“I can’t take the risk. If I got caught, they’d take Timmy away from me. If I got killed, I’d be leaving him all alone. I made a promise when I took him in, to be there for him. I won’t break that promise. I won’t do anything to hurt him.

“Besides, he’s my responsibility. I don’t take that lightly. And I love him too much to put him at risk.” Jason offered a kind smile. “Maybe one day you’ll have kids. Then, you’ll understand.”

Bruce couldn’t tell Jason that he actually had five kids, including him. Wouldn’t tell him that’s he’d just unintentionally schooled him on his failures as a parent.

-------

Bruce leaves them together, a new formed family. And goes to reunite his own.

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mastcomm · 5 years

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A $4 Million NICU Bill: The Price of Prematurity

Eric Brown and his wife, Stacey, were stunned to learn that Stacey was pregnant again and even more surprised that not one — not two — but three more babies were on the way.

“They were naturally conceived, so this was a complete and total surprise,” said Mr. Brown, 37, a high school special education teacher. He and his wife, who live in College Station, Texas, about 90 miles northwest of Houston, already had two children.

The second trimester did not go smoothly: Ms. Brown developed infections that led to an unplanned cesarean section at the Woman’s Hospital of Texas in Houston. The triplets were delivered at 28 weeks and 5 days in September 2017 and stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit for months.

[Advice on how to handle your baby’s stay in the NICU.]

The Browns had good insurance through Ms. Brown’s job as a pre-K teacher at a public school, but their hospital bills were staggering: Their triplets’ care had cost more than $4 million, leaving them with thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs.

To make matters worse, Ms. Brown had no paid maternity leave and used up all of her sick days by the time the triplets were 2 months old. She eventually left her job to care for them, in part because her take-home pay would have been wiped out by child care costs.

“Yes, your life is always turned upside down when you have a child,” Mr. Brown said. “But with us, it was with the snap of a finger and a minute and a half we essentially doubled the size of our family and cut our income in half.”

The number of preterm births, or babies delivered earlier than 37 weeks, rose for the fourth year in a row in 2018, according to a November report from the National Center for Health Statistics.

And as the number of preterm births rises, so does the number of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. Even full-term babies of normal birth weight are increasingly likely to be admitted to the NICU, according to a 2015 study of babies born between 2007 and 2012.

“I’ve been to a lot of NICUs and we’re partners with a lot of them. It’s rare to hear that a NICU is not at close to 100 percent capacity,” said Stacey D. Stewart, the president and chief executive of March of Dimes.

The March of Dimes estimates that the average societal cost of each preterm birth, which includes medical care, early intervention services and lost productivity, is $65,000. But there is very little research on the costs shouldered by families.

For many families, Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income, or S.S.I. (a program administered by the Social Security Administration that pays benefits to disabled adults and children), help cover the medical bills.

“It would literally crush families if it were not for the support of Medicaid and S.S.I.,” Ms. Stewart said.

For families with private insurance, the good news is that plans compliant with the Affordable Care Act prohibit a cap on lifetime and annual benefits.

But coverage in the private insurance market has shrunk so badly over the last several decades that “nothing can guarantee that these families are protected,” said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University.

Costs that those covered must pay, including deductibles, coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximums, have risen in recent years. And for families who do not qualify for Medicaid — the rules of eligibility differ depending on where you live — the out-of-pocket costs of NICU care, as well as maternity care and any necessary at-home rehabilitative services, can become a huge burden in the midst of what is already a stressful and exhausting ordeal.

Regardless of what type of insurance a family has, the nonmedical costs add up, too. Parents who live far from the hospital need to pay for transportation, meals and child care costs for older siblings. In the meantime, they are often bringing in less income because they are either unable to return to work or are working fewer hours in order to care for their newborn in the hospital.

The Browns’ babies each weighed more than 3 pounds when they were delivered, so they didn’t qualify to receive S.S.I., which would have automatically allowed them to receive Medicaid in their state.

Although Ms. Brown’s insurance, Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas, paid the bulk of the medical bills for herself and her babies, the Browns were still responsible for thousands of dollars — they quickly reached their out-of-pocket maximum, which is currently $13,000 for in-network providers in their plan. In addition, they are still paying off a bill from one of their neonatologists.

Their transportation charges also increased. During the two months the babies were in the NICU, Mr. Brown drove about 6,000 miles to and from the hospital in Houston.

Their community offered to help in ways big and small. Ms. Brown, who wasn’t allowed to drive after her C-section, stayed with a retired couple in Houston who drove her to the hospital every day that Mr. Brown was not in town. Friends and family held fund-raisers and sold T-shirts to raise money. Sometimes Mr. Brown would come home to find gas cards sitting on the porch. A friend of a friend helped them negotiate Ms. Brown’s nearly $44,000 air ambulance bill (she was flown to Houston from College Station) down to zero.

After Ms. Brown resigned from her job at the end of 2017, the Browns’ reduced income made the children eligible for Medicaid, which helped cover the coinsurance bills, among other costs.

But their new Medicaid coverage could be backdated only three months, so it did not cover September, the month the triplets were born, presenting “another double whammy,” Mr. Brown said.

Even so, with some careful budgeting, and help from the fund-raisers, the Browns expect to have all their bills paid off by the end of this year. The triplets, all girls, are healthy and “absolutely wonderful,” Mr. Brown said.

For some families, the nonmedical costs of prematurity are the biggest hurdle.

“It was a lot. It was a big toll on me,” said Kathy Canarte, 28, of Waukegan, Ill., whose daughter, Dahlia, was in the neonatal intensive care unit for three and a half months last year after being born at 28 weeks.

“I’m a person that likes to plan ahead,” she said. “So when I found out I was pregnant, I started planning financially — so the fact that she came so early was like, ‘Oh. Oh, no.’ Everything that I had planned was kind of like bumped away.”

[Read more about the ongoing trauma of prematurity.]

Her finances began to deteriorate at the beginning of her pregnancy, she said. She was so nauseated she had to quit her job as a waitress.

Ms. Canarte and her boyfriend were living with his parents at the time in Highwood, Ill., and eventually managed to save up enough to move to a home with enough space for their growing family — but not without sacrifices. After their daughter was born, gas money to visit the NICU in Evanston, Ill., was expensive. While her boyfriend was at work, Ms. Canarte took the train, then walked for 20 minutes, to visit their daughter.

“We couldn’t afford for both of us to be there all the time,” she said.

As soon as she was cleared to go back to work, she found a part-time job as a cashier at a grocery store.

Ms. Canarte applied for S.S.I. funding last July, which helps cover household expenses, but she didn’t receive any money until January.

“We had to kind of scrape by until then,” she said.

The Colette Louise Tisdahl Foundation, a nonprofit based in Chicago, helps families with children in the NICU pay nonmedical bills. Ms. Canarte received help from the organization for Lyft rides to and from the hospital and to pay the first electric bill in their new apartment.

Michelle Valiukenas started the organization in 2018 after her daughter, Colette, was born extremely prematurely and died after nine days in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The foundation “came about as a way for us to work through our grief and to keep her name and her memory alive,” she said.

In 2019 her organization helped more than 200 families in 32 states. Grants typically are about $500 to $700, Ms. Valiukenas said.

As families struggle with the costs associated with NICU care, the cost of giving birth has also risen. For women with employer-based health insurance, the average amount spent out of pocket for maternity care increased to $4,569 in 2015 from $3,069 in 2008, according to a study published in January in the journal Health Affairs. During the same time period, the standardized cost of maternity care remained stable, the study found, which means patients were paying a higher proportion of costs on average.

“Most of my patients don’t have $4,500 just waiting around,” said Dr. Michelle H. Moniz, an ob-gyn at Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital at the University of Michigan and the lead author of the study.

The rise in out-of-pocket costs was largely driven by an increase in deductible payments, the study said.

Alison Tiedke, the president of the National Association of Perinatal Social Workers, recommended that families contact the medical assistance ombudsman in their state or county to see what kind of financial help might be available. Many hospitals also have a financial support plan to help families manage bills like the out-of-pocket deductible, she said.

Several other organizations similar to the Colette Louise Tisdahl Foundation can help families cover costs associated with prematurity, including NICU Helping Hands and Graham’s Foundation.

Finally, even if you have private insurance, don’t rule out the possibility of programs like Medicaid.

Even if a child’s parents are not eligible for Medicaid, the child might qualify for either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides health coverage to children whose families earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

In addition, because Medicaid eligibility is typically based on the poverty level and poverty level income varies based on family size, the addition of one or more children can change a family’s eligibility, said Dania Palanker, an assistant research professor at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute.

Ms. Canarte relied on Medicaid to pay their medical bills, and her daughter, now 9 months old, is thriving at home with regular visits from physical therapists. But Ms. Canarte won’t soon forget the stress of the neonatal intensive care unit.

“It haunts you for a while, definitely,” she said.

From negotiating family leave to wrangling your budget after baby, visit NYT Parenting for guidance on dealing with work and money as a parent.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/a-4-million-nicu-bill-the-price-of-prematurity/

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blogparadiseisland · 6 years

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Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals http://www.nature-business.com/nature-trump-attacks-democrats-at-rally-but-mostly-steers-clear-of-scandals/

Nature

President Trump’s rally in Charleston, W.Va., on Tuesday is among the many midterm campaign stops he is expected to make over the coming weeks.CreditGabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Trump invoked on Tuesday fears of immigrant crime and angry mobs as he began a weekslong push to try to preserve the Republican majority in Congress as the party braces for midterm losses amid a cascade of scandals involving members of his inner circle.

“A vote for any Democrat in November is a vote to eliminate immigration enforcement, to open our borders and set loose vicious predators and violent criminals,” Mr. Trump told thousands of supporters during a rally in Charleston, W.Va. “They’ll be all over our communities. They will be preying on our communities.”

In a wide-ranging, more than hourlong speech that touched on the potency of his political endorsements, his love of coal and promises to build a border wall — with a paean to his mother’s turkey recipe thrown in — Mr. Trump worked the crowd into a frenzy, repeatedly demonizing Democrats as coddlers of lawbreakers who would take the country down a dangerous path.

“The Democrat Party is held hostage by the so-called resistance: left-wing haters and angry mobs,” he said. “They’re trying to tear down our institutions, disrespect our flag, demean our law enforcement, denigrate our history and disparage our great country — and we’re not going to let it happen.”

On a day that his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of financial fraud and Mr. Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations that he said were directed by Mr. Trump himself, the president mostly steered clear of those subjects.

But the rally offered a vivid tableau of an extraordinary period in Mr. Trump’s already tumultuous tenure. The president is growing more defiant by the day even as the scandals appear to pose an increasingly serious threat to him, embarking on a cross-country tour in an urgent push to bolster his party’s chances of keeping control of Congress.

It was Mr. Trump’s sixth visit to West Virginia, and the leading edge of an intensive effort in which officials say he will headline rallies intended to stoke Republican enthusiasm and hold fund-raising events to stock the party’s campaign coffers. The state is home to Senator Joe Manchin III, who is facing a competitive race for re-election despite breaking ranks with his party and becoming the first Democrat to meet with Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court.

As Mr. Trump made his way to Charleston on Air Force One, news of Mr. Manafort’s conviction and Mr. Cohen’s plea dominated Fox News on the in-flight monitors. The president touched only glancingly on the issue in front of his enthusiastic crowd and never named either man. But he did denounce “fake news and the Russian witch hunt,” and taunted the team run by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, which secured the convictions against Mr. Manafort.

“Where is the collusion?” Mr. Trump shouted as his supporters cheered. “You know, they’re still looking for the collusion. Where is the collusion? Find the collusion.”

But he quickly pivoted to border security, which he said was “at the beating heart of this election.”

“Democrats want to turn America into one big, fat sanctuary city for criminal aliens, and honestly, honestly, they’re more protective of aliens — the criminal aliens — than they are of the people,” Mr. Trump said.

He led the crowd in a chant of “build the wall,” repeating his false claim that the wall along the Southwest border was already being built — Congress has banned the allocation of border security funding to construct anything but existing barriers — and promising that it would soon be finished.

“That wall is coming along,” Mr. Trump said. “All of a sudden, it’s going to be finished, and it’s going to be very, very effective.”

When Patrick Morrisey, the state attorney general who is Mr. Manchin’s Republican challenger, led a chant of “lock her up” — referring to Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s former campaign rival — the president egged on the crowd, pumping his fist rhythmically with the shouts.

Mr. Trump repeatedly denounced Democratic congressional leaders and said supporting Mr. Manchin would hand them control of Congress.

“There’s no worse nightmare for West Virginia this November than Chuck Schumer running the Senate and Nancy Pelosi, with Maxine Waters, running the House,” the president said, naming the top Democrats in the Senate and the House, along with Ms. Waters, a 14-term congresswoman whom he has derided as crazy and “low I.Q.”

But Mr. Trump also added new material to his stock of well-worn rally staples. He regaled the crowd with the story of how, he said, he had jawboned NATO allies into paying more for their own defense. In doing so, he confirmed reports — which the White House had previously refused to do — that he had privately threatened to withdraw from the trans-Atlantic alliance at a summit meeting in Brussels last month.

Mr. Trump said an unnamed leader of another country had asked him, “Would you leave us if we don’t pay our bills?”

“Now, they hated my answer,” he said, adding, “I said: ‘Yes! I will leave you if you don’t pay your bills.’”

Then, he added, “you could see those checkbooks came out for billions of dollars.” But while NATO member countries have increased their military spending over the past year in part as a result of Mr. Trump’s relentless focus on what he calls their delinquency, none pledged any additional money after his closed-door outburst in Brussels.

And Mr. Trump’s frequent claim that NATO allies are in debt to the United States for the cost of the alliance is a misstatement. The funding in question is a target agreed upon by all member countries in 2014 that each should move toward spending 2 percent of their own gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

Still, Mr. Trump used the story to underscore a familiar talking point, saying, “We are a country that has been ripped off by everybody, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore.”

Mr. Trump also threw in some bizarre flourishes, at one point comparing the time it takes to cut a good trade deal with the patience required to roast fowl.

“We’ve got to take time — it’s got to gestate, right? The word gestate. It’s like when you’re cooking a chicken,” the president mused. “Time, time, turkey for Thanksgiving. My mother would say, ‘Oh, eight hours.’ I said, ‘Eight hours?’ She made the greatest turkey I’ve ever had. It takes time.”

Before Mr. Trump’s visit to West Virginia, White House officials outlined what they said was an aggressive midterm campaign effort that would capitalize on the president’s ability to draw crowds to rallies — held largely in deeply conservative states where he is already popular — and put his muscle behind the Republican National Committee’s fund-raising efforts.

In a phone call with reporters, multiple senior officials familiar with the president’s plans for the midterms said Mr. Trump would be participating in at least eight rallies over the next six weeks and as many as 16 fund-raisers, which officials said had raised more than $227 million for the Republicans so far this election cycle.

Mr. Trump will visit at least seven states — and as many as 15 — in the next six weeks, the officials said, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Kentucky and Tennessee. Most are not traditional battleground states, but several are home to Democratic senators who face difficult re-election fights. At recent campaign rallies, in stops in places like Indiana and North Dakota, the president has seemed to relish taking punches at those vulnerable Democrats, with the constant rallying cry that they are obstructing his agenda.

On Tuesday in Charleston, Mr. Trump lauded the power of his endorsement, claiming that he single-handedly turned around the fortunes of Republicans whose popularity had been lagging before he announced his support.

“Look, I don’t want to brag about it, but man, do I have a good record of endorsements,” Mr. Trump said.

He cited as an example Representative Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is facing Adam Putnam, the state’s agriculture commissioner, in a primary contest next week for governor.

“I gave him a nice shot and a nice little tweet — ding ding! — and he went from like three to 20-something,” the president said, adding that with “my full and total endorsement,” Mr. DeSantis was leading his primary opponent by about 19 points. In fact, while Mr. DeSantis had opened a lead in the race after Mr. Trump’s endorsement, a poll released by Florida Atlantic University on Tuesday actually showed him roughly tied with Mr. Putnam.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis reported from Charleston, W.Va., and Katie Rogers from Washington.

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Skirting Scandal, President Stokes Fear to Stay on Message for Midterms

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Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/us/politics/trump-rallies-west-virginia-midterms.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/julie-hirschfeld-davis, http://www.nytimes.com/by/katie-rogers

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals, in 2018-08-22 08:43:57

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