AcidicBasicGlitch

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/59911929

If Medicaid is unsustainable that means healthcare cuts.

When you're looking for where you should be making healthcare cuts what makes the most logical sense to you?

At least having a discussion about how these administrative salaries and positions are actually justified?

Or

•Slash and burn policy eliminating doctors that were already accepting Medicaid

•Reducing care offered to patients so that the patients will then indeed become less healthy, rely on emergency services and require more costly care in the long run

•Claiming Medicaid is unsustainable bc "no doctors want to accept Medicaid patients."

If you abruptly eliminate all the doctors that do accept Medicaid and then claim you need to increase the Medicaid budget to incentivise doctors in order to get them to accept Medicaid patients, then yes, by default it becomes easy to make the argument that no doctors in your hospital "want to accept Medicaid."

I saw someone on Mastodon mentioning Musk and the Wisconsin election and decided to do a quick dive into Wisconsin government to get things started.

Anyone from Wisconsin (or anywhere) that sees this please feel free to take the wheel and pick up where I leave off, or go somewhere else completely. The point of this is just to give you an example of how easy it is to find the corruption links in the massive SPN network.

So starting from scratch and knowing nothing about Wisconsin politics:

Wisconsin here's your SPN (and totally not the Heritage Foundation 😉) small government loving affiliate:

https://will-law.org/

I have to admit they seem to have their shit much more together than the majority of these places:

https://will-law.org/will-unveils-open-records-guide-to-promote-transparent-government/

Transparency is apparently very important to them, but not a whole lot of DOGE talk like most affiliates.

Oh wait, nvm, apparently Wisconsin's DOGE goes by GOAT, Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency, how cute goat 🐐

https://www.wpr.org/news/wisconsins-version-of-doge-called-goat-getting-started

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/17/what-to-know-about-wisconsins-doge-inspired-goat-efficiency-committee/82337215007/

From these two articles I learned:

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos created GOAT.

The committee chair is Rep. Amanda Nedweski, R-Pleasant Prairie. The co-char is Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers.

Also on the committee: Rep. Tyler August, R-Walworth; Rep. Nate Gustafson, R-Fox Crossing; Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard; Rep. Dan Knodl, R-Germantown; Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, and Rep. Angelina Cruz, D-Racine.

I started searching around for any of those member's names on WILLs website and on the first try, I found Amanda Nedweski mentioned in an article talking about how much she liked some education research WILL did in 2021.

The "research" these institutes do is usually how they justify the money SPN throws at them, so this is also usually a good place to find corruption if you're wondering where you should start.

(Side note:I included this information in another post, but this is a really great resource to get a quick overview of SPN shady nonsense. From the SPN source watch page: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=State_Policy_Network

SPN groups operate as the policy, communications, and litigation arm of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), giving the cookie-cutter ALEC agenda a sheen of academic legitimacy and state-based support.

SPN groups increasingly peddle cookie-cutter "studies" to back the cookie-cutter ALEC agenda, spinning that agenda as indigenous to the state and giving it the aura of academic legitimacy.)

So anyway, back to Wisconsin, WILL's research director is William Flanders. Looking at his LinkedIn it looks like 4 weeks ago he helped present some data about why Medicaid expansion is wrong for the state. Not surprising, this is sounding very typical for an SPN affiliate.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/wilawliberty_statebudget-medicaidexpansion-healthcarereform-activity-7300621776840007680-7Qvv

Presenting that data with Flanders was Robin Vos, creator of GOAT as well as Senate President Mary Felzkowski.

A quick search of Mary Felzkowski shows she's a member of Alec 🚨🚨🚨

Specifically, she's an Alec Health and Human Services Taskforce chair, so her involvement with this SPN affiliate peddling "research" about why Medicaid expansion is bad for everyone in Wisconsin checks out 100%

https://alec.org/person/mary-felzkowski/

If I were any Wisconsin citizen looking for low hanging fruit in order to expose some corruption and point out hypocrisy (and probably more direct ties to the Heritage Foundation and big corporations) in government officials promoting "accountability and transparency" I would say this is a great place to start. And that's coming from somebody who has never been to Wisconsin or heard of any of these people before making this post.

Imagine what Wisconsin citizens with insider knowledge can dig up in no time.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/40897823

Because the existing workforce keeps getting deported.

Somehow completely missed this plan that has been in the works for a very long time.

And in completely surprising twist of fate, turns out we're not the only state 🙃

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/59677728

The State Policy Network (SPN) is a network of conservative and "libertarian" think tanks hiding behind claims of transparency and small government while all promoting the same White House policies across all 50 states.

I won't link it here, but they are very easy to find. To find out who is pushing these policies in your state, you can go to their homepage and scroll down to their convenient drop down list to search for members by each state.

If you want to avoid going to their website, there's a good chance you can just find one near you by typing the name of your state + "policy institute" in a search engine.

These people are really not the most creative and the names and logos used by these network affiliates are nearly identical across several states.

As of March 2025, most are pushing the same copy paste messages, praising Musk and DOGE for doing such a great job cutting through ::insert:: "red tape" "bureaucracy" and/or "government bloat."

While SPN has tried to downplay their connection to the Heritage Foundation in recent years, an archived copy of their 2015 history page provides a much more transparent and direct account.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150626172710/http://www.spn.org/about/

SPN's founder, South Carolina businessman Thomas Roe, was an early funder of the Heritage Foundation and served on the board of trustees for two decades.

Here is a 2011 article discussing Roe, SPN's "freedom centers" across all 50 states, and the Union busting tactics they were pushing at a state level even back then.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/state-policy-network-union-bargaining/

Although for some reason SPN's website does not mention this information in the dedicated section to their late founder, you can read more about the insane number of controversies tied to Roe and his shadowy money here: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Roe_Foundation

I guess this got removed from the first place I tried to post it. Not sure why, but sorry if I broke a rule. This is not disinformation. All of my sources are always cited in a references list at the bottom of each blog post, but I will go ahead and add them here too.

I'm not trying to spam, but this is my home and I'm sick of watching corruption being carried out in public and ignored because it gets lost in all the noise. There is a reason they are quietly pushing these policies at state levels across the country while hiding it behind claims of small government and transparency.

By the time the federal government completely collapses they will have everything in place to start over with their new network of support built and ready to go. There will be just as much bureaucracy and bullshit as before, but we'll also lose the few rights and protections we had to fight like hell to achieve. I found this shit happening in my state, but I promise it is happening everywhere. It is growing so fast each day. Post what is happening in your state, because I guarantee it's something. Even if you live in a blue state, they have people there pushing for these same policies. Help me call this shit out!

Original Post with references list from blog added.

This all happened a week ago on the same day, but neither story really got much attention. Somehow nobody seemed to realize the order grants authority to the director of the office that is being absorbed by the national guard.

The former director is being given a new title and the interim director is National Guard Brig. Gen. Jason P. Mahfouz.

So, Louisiana, heads up I guess?

https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/comparing-edwards-original-state-of-emergency-cybersecurity-incident-with-landrys-renewal-2/

I also have been pointing out the odd timing of an allegedly bipartisan bill being put forward to liberate FEMA from the department of DHS.

The bill is being proposed by Florida Rep. Moskowitz.

If this bill succeeds, it means that FEMA no longer responds to an emergency situation as an agency. It will be changed to a cabinet position and under the control of a single cabinet member who answers to the president.

Given that the National Guard was just granted full control in any emergency situation, this means in an emergency, Louisiana loses protection of the civil rights office within FEMA that ensures full enforcement of federal civil rights laws before, during, and after disasters.

Its pretty scary to consider, and there are actually several reasons to find it suspicious.

I wrote a blog post about it: https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/states-continue-to-push-law-and-policy-that-coincidentally-aids-federal-government-agenda/

As well as a shorter plea on Lemmy to people in Louisiana desperately trying to get their attention: https://lemm.ee/post/59618046

You might be asking how a governor can have so much executive power over an entire office like that. Well it turns out that Louisiana's emergency management office has existed since the 1970s.

Funny thing about that, I just learned that it used to be the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness and was under the direction of the Louisiana National Guard adjutant general from 1990 to 2006. However, if was changed to a cabinet position in the Governor's Office and became GOHSEP after Hurricane Katrina.

So, America, heads up I guess?

References:

Governor shifts GOHSEP under National Guard:

https://www.nola.com/news/politics/jeff-landry-restructure-gohsep-under-louisiana-national-guard-fiscal-responsibility/article_7e9e08f2-ee67-463c-a2b3-424f6165a087.html

Governor Renews State of Emergency granting GOHSEP director authority to act:

https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/acadiana/2025/03/21/gov-landry-louisiana-omv-emergency-software-failure/825908

Original 2019 Order for State of Emergency:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190726183751/http://gov.louisiana.gov/assets/EmergencyProclamations/115-JBE-2019-State-of-Emergency-Cybersecurity-Incident.pdf

Landry's Executive Order Renewal:

https://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/newsroom/detail/4810

Florida Rep. Moskowitz bill to "liberate FEMA" and make it a cabinet position:

https://moskowitz.house.gov/posts/fema-independence-act-2025

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/congress/2025/03/lawmakers-introduce-bill-to-break-fema-out-of-dhs/?readmore=1

Office of Civil Rights within FEMA:

https://www.fema.gov/about/offices/civil-rights

Department of Homeland Security Secretary announcing plans to eliminate FEMA the same day the Moskowitz bill is released:

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5213057-noem-plans-eliminate-fema/

Department of Homeland security plans to cut back civil rights offices due to immigration. Only 2 of the 3 offices deal with immigration:

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/03/homeland-security-makes-cuts-to-offices-overseeing-civil-rights-protections/

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/59635227

Y'all come on now... If anyone in Louisiana is actually seeing this, there is no way y'all are ok with that right?

The main link is a comparison of both John Bell Edwards original declaration and Landry's most recent renewal from the 20th.

One obvious difference seems to be that Landry grants to the director of the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) authority to take whatever action he deems appropriate in response to declaration of emergency.

https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/acadiana/2025/03/21/gov-landry-louisiana-omv-emergency-software-failure/82590867007/

Allegedly it has to do with the office of motor vehicles. Wouldn't be a big deal, except on literally the same day, he announced GOHSEP is now under control of the National Guard.

According to Landry "This move not only delivers significant cost savings but also aligns with my belief in the importance of relying more on our National Guard to strengthen our state's resilience."

According to this article https://www.nola.com/news/politics/jeff-landry-restructure-gohsep-under-louisiana-national-guard-fiscal-responsibility/article_7e9e08f2-ee67-463c-a2b3-424f6165a087.html

"GOHSEP Director Jacques Thibodeaux took on a challenging role and served our state with dedication under difficult circumstances. We deeply appreciate his service," Landry said in the announcement.

Thibodeaux said in an interview that, over the next 30 days, he will help transition GOHSEP from a stand-alone agency to one under the purview of the National Guard in a role titled special assistant to the adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard.

His plans after that are currently undetermined, Thibodeaux said. He noted that he's worked in emergency management for 40 years and is also a retired army soldier and retired U.S. Marshal.

"I'm gonna take (a) well-needed break and enjoy my family, and then I'll determine what's gonna be the next chapter," he said.

So it seems like the director named in the order, no longer exists. If I'm just dumb and misunderstanding this please explain it to me.