Card check union election authorizations can elevate both DSP and the #PwDs they serve as HCBS neighbors

   Although bright spots of some organizing exist the effects of banning required fees or dues paid by workers to unions weakens labor organizing to the point that it only remains where workers are either desperately trying to keep the living standard they have or have been pushed to the ‘breaking point’ by, in some cases, 70 years of corporate funded anti worker laws.   The laws date back to the Taft Hartley Act in 1947 that started the ‘right to work (for less)’ law  movement by pre-civil-rights era Dixiecrat Democratic Governor William Tuck in Virginia where worker rights were pitted against the commonwealth retaining a AAA bond rating to reduce recurring budget deficits caused by higher interest rates.  The retelling of the 2017 primary issue difference between Ralph Northam and Tom Perriello, by WRVA fiscal conservative Republican commentator Norman Leahy for the benefit of owners of Virginia Talk Radio Network radio stations, among other businesses, exploits Democratic moderation on worker rights that cost them working class support nationally.  

  Card check bills were written, like the 2009 EFCA, to fix a part of the 1947 Taft Hartley Act to allow workers to authorize union elections.

  Future President John F Kennedy’s brother Ted tried to correct the Taft Hartley Act after then-50 years of slow union busting




It has been a decade since Sen. Ted Kennedy first filed the Employee Free Choice Act.
He filed the bill on Friday, November 21, 2003 – almost exactly 40 years after the death of President John F. Kennedy.
A coincidence? Not likely. Here’s the back story:
The Employee Free Choice Act would restore union organizing rights that were taken away by the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. John F. Kennedy was a member of the Congress that passed Taft-Hartley.
“The first thing I did in Congress was to become the junior Democrat on the labor committee. At the time we were considering the Taft-Hartley Bill. I was against it, and one day in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I debated the bill with a junior Republican on that committee who was for it . . . his name was Richard Nixon.” [from a 1960 recording of President Kennedy reflecting on his career]

 to allow forming unions more easily than having at least 2 elections.  Supporters of the secret ballot election process to authorize a union have made false attacks on card check alternative to a secret ballot. 
  Inclusion's enemy isn’t union workers 

 "Best outcome is a closed institution with better paid workers providing care in home and community based settings supporting #PwDs earning higher minimum wage"


 in institutions. The enemy of social and economic inclusion for #PwDs is taxpayer (local property taxes paying for the state part of medicaid) and private insurance company greed that cuts labor costs.  That greed of inadequate HCBS funding, and fears for resale and rental value growth expressed by owners of existing homes who resist permits for group homes in municipal and county zoning plans, created the institutions in the first place. 

  It isn’t only group homes low income/affordable housing is also resisted in the same local zoning plans if it’s planned near market-rate existing single family housing.  Group homes get conflated because people with disabilities generally have lower incomes
particularly if they need to live in group homes instead of finding individual roommates or living alone. 


  The owners of existing homes and commercial landlords fear that the proximity of poorer people to richer people will lead to at least one horrific crime that will stigmatize the area for 10 years or more until ‘redevelopment’ AKA gentrification and displacement.  Failings of group homes in communities are also the result of not enough money to hire support staff (direct service providers) with enough judgment and discretion to allow more individual autonomy.  


  Homes are paid for with private donations from families of residents, SSI or SSDI of residents and medicaid waivers that austerity and income inequality cut.   Which funding stream should be a target to demand increasing by activists/self-advocates likely with inclusive rhetoric for exclusive benefit that fails to equitably help autistics without intellectual disability at a higher risk of suicide?  @DragSyndrome show reporting demanding the same freedom in personal lives for group home residents with ID (Down syndrome/trisomy 21) was simply elevating a few people empowered with judgment and discretion.  That discretion can only be replicated everywhere by explaining how more people with ID/DD, like Down Syndrome, can avoid their support staff stealing money from people with ID and DD as well as the greater danger of staff on patient sexual assaults. 
 
  

Washington Post elevates deinstitutionalization by dividing DSPs income and #PwDs inclusion needs

   It should not be surprising that the WaPo would elevate any criticism of unions as a backhanded clapback at their own unions

 with content written by independent (freelance) reporters to cut the Post’s labor costs despite increasingly protecting their online content with paywalls as print content is protected by shoplifting and loitering laws limiting time skimming print copies in stores.


  The Washington Post was not alone in reducing the pay to journalists in its local circulation area. That reduced pay forced journalists to use new distribution models and e-payment vendors of patreon, substack and email newsletter distribution direct to readers.   Email newsletter distribution directly from journalist to readers also provides a series of authenticated user link clicks to raise pay from publisher to journalist if the journalist is paid by the click.  If paid by the click journalists are the 21st century version of Triangle Shirtwaist (some killed in an infamous factory fire) garment workers paid by the piece as clicks leading to page views or impressions are the practical equivalent of pieces produced.  

  The Washington Examiner expanded its circulation to Maryland by buying the Journal Newspapers in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties in Maryland and shifting all the employer workplaces 


 A union representation election scheduled for Dec. 12 [2002] at Journal Newspapers Inc. in Maryland was postponed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild obtained an emergency injunction following the layoff of eight newsroom employees, described by the Guild as union supporters, at The Prince George’s Journal in Lanham and The Montgomery Journal in Rockville. In dueling press releases, the community papers complained the union had chosen “to block the democratic process” by asking to halt the election, while the Guild highlighted “unlawful firings and other employer actions aimed at spreading fear among Journal employees and making a fair election impossible.”






to right to work for less Virginia.  



  Journal Newspapers and later Washington Examiner publisher Ryan Phillips insisted on a secret ballot election he likely knew his business would lose without firing pro-union workers to intimidate the remaining workers.  It’s why unions later supported EFCA or card check, as an alternative to secret ballot elections that was banned in 1947 by the Taft Hartley Act, to authorize a union instead of an election back in 2009. 

now that ADU expansion has passed into law how to mitigate past opposition to more ADUs

   When the Montgomery County, Md county council passed a law allowing more accessory dwelling units to be built over the objections of the county executive the news was reported here among other news organizations.


Council Passes Accessory Apartment Zoning Change


This link has died since the original post. 


https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/government/council-passes-accesso=
ry-apartment-zoning-change/


A commenter with a privacy-protecting username 

Kabardino-Balkaria


viewable here

wrote this comment:


There is no "me and Elrich" unless you can cite where he is advocating for what I am calling for: YES on ADUs, with incentives 
to rent them out for under $1500/month. How on earth is this not being for affordable housing.




What I am afraid will happen is the following scenario:
a) a wealthy Chevy Chase family who wants to make even more money builds a high-end, freestanding unit on their property and rents it out for $2200/month, which will be out of range for any middle income young renter who takes transit, but will instead go to the Booz Allen associate who brings his car.
b) An entire family moves in with children and vehicles, making the unit functionally a duplex - which would be all well and good, except for the resulting crowded conditions in schools and on roads (since there is no way to prevent the ADU residents from bringing their cars) and increased impermeable surfaces which lowers the quality of life for both the new residents and the existing residents.





 Did what Kabardino Balkaria call "incentives" mean
rent stabilization Elrich promised in the 2018 primary?   Marc Elrich promised to create a countywide rent stabilization program and dropped the idea after he won the primary. Kabardino Balkaria may be distancing their personal past support for Elrich, at least on part of the affordable housing issue, by leaving out rent control/stabilization and rebranding it as incentives. 

 And Kabardino Balkaria's objections to the now-passed ADU bill leading to more cars in the single family zoned neighborhoods with larger impermeable surface driveways leading to storm runoff (a return to the 'nimby acting like an environmentalist' trope that is partly why building any housing in Montgomery County is so difficult unless it's market-rate housing) can be answered by
requiring driveway expansions to be done with water permeable pavement technology like what is used in parking lot of the Vienna, VA community center.  Reserve a shared car from car2go or zipcar, if one is priced out of car ownership to afford housing costs, and take a weekend drive to the Vienna, Va community center and observe it.  Take a few pictures to share on social media and in one's planning and land use activism with local electeds.  



  Both potential tenants in the examples used by Kabardino Balkaria, the family and the Booz Allen associate, may stop owning cars to pay higher housing costs.
The working class family may not replace their car if it breaks down.

Less parking and traffic will result in either case but more tenant turnover in the ADU will likely result if the tenant's job changes. People are more willing to drive farther to their jobs than take longer bus and rail commutes to their jobs.  Turnover rent increase opacity and one tenant at a time deciding after a visit not to rent is free market rent control without public information on past rents. The affordability problem persists as no public information on what the change in rent at tenant turnover is. The owner-occupied housing market has a sales price record, at least for the last 3 deed changes, in property tax records that are publicly available.

  The pace of progressive change of speeding up bus trips, to increase ridership, with transfers is too slow but for the poorest who cannot afford any other transportation choice, as well as the class descending poor, desperate to save money as COL (cost of living) rises faster than individual incomes and assets. Give up owning a car to spend the savings on housing costs is unpopular to say publicly and directly. Changing land use and transportation policies to limit parking slowly forces the same choice in many people already living without owning cars. 


 The costs of changing infrastructure to support a carless (car-free brand) lifestyle is usually privatized more than socialized.  The only exception is building and operating the bus and rail transit.  Getting the 'last mile' from destinations to bus and rail stops/stations is usually privatized.  That privatization of supporting a car-free (car-less) life shows in the growth of car, bike and e-scooter sharing (renting) services. Ride sharing services lower taxi fares below a living wage to the point that legacy taxi drivers publicly set themselves on fire.  And Montgomery County, MD has started weekday-only on-demand bus service between Wheaton, Glenmont and Rockville WMATA stations because of a free-market failure of not enough uber and lyft drivers getting ride requests to the same areas and drivers consequently not lingering there to enable their driver apps to be matched up by the GPS-locating 'dispatcher.'  "Ride share" drivers have 'red lined' the area as legacy taxi drivers 'red lined' east of the Anacostia River DC.  That lack of taxi service across the Anacostia river created higher fares for the few taxi drivers willing to pick up or drop off passengers 'east of the river' that led to DC's zone fare system (flat fares unless crossing fare zones) that has since been abolished for the distance fare system. 
   

AAGW meeting topics and mission flaw- too much individual improvement not enough advocacy for systemic improvement

     In June 2019 the discussion topics for the next 4 AAGW meetings were unilaterally decided by the group co-founder and president.  This unilateral decision followed a prior process of members of the AAGW board of directors picking 6 topics at a time for the previous two years as well as soliciting topic suggestions at meetings themselves.  Few suggestions were received beyond finding help finding and keeping a job.   




On Sat, 6/22/19, 'J. Willardston Smith' willardston@[address redacted to protect privacy] [dcaspie] <dcaspie@yahoogroups.com [moved off of yahoo to groups.io]> wrote:

Subject: [AS] Discussion topics for the next four AAGW meetings
To: "Autistics Association of Greater Washington Inc." <dcaspie@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Saturday, June 22, 2019, 9:54 PM





   
   





     
      July
27th [2019] Employment

August 24th [2019] Social acceptance of autistics

September
28th [2019] How to manage your disability - on your own or getting support

October
26th [2019] How to speak up for yourself




An email reply to the announcement of the next 4 topics shows an unmet need for assistance with transportation to Teaism restaurant at 8th and D streets, NW.   Two other members have this need met regularly or semi-regularly  by building peer relationships with AAGW leaders or their friends.  

Pat McCoy p.a.mccoy@[redacted to protect privacy] [dcaspie] <dcaspie@yahoogroups.com>
To:dcaspie@yahoogroups.com

Jun 23 [2019] at 7:20 AM


I wish I could attend, especially about
the one on manag[ing] disability.

Unfortunately, my health issues make
it impossible to travel alone because
of additional disabilities such as
dysautonomia.

Pat McCoy, M.S.
Addiction Psychology

Slow Down and Enjoy Your Garden!
Plus a quote from Leonard Nimoy:  A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.  LLAP



  The AAGW discussion topic pickers and leaders failed in what should be one goal of peer-run or autistic self advocate-run organizations.  Focusing only on individual 'empowerment' (individual supremacist or social model of disability perspective) is a recipe for failure and stagnant organizational growth. Autistic-led self-advocacy organizations can be more effective for their members if leaders can recognize that some individual member problems are individual manifestations of systemic failures (mostly bad public policy choices because of the consequences of local, state and federal government elections).   Meeting disruption by desperate people with pressing needs unmet by the self advocate leaders of the self advocacy organization also is a consequence of focusing too much on individual peer-based help and not enough on accessing systemic help ('big guvmint' that autistics on the political right seek to avoid).  Benefits counseling and where to find it, within local governments and federally funded centers for independent living,  was ignored in the Dec 2017 and likely September 28, 2019 AAGW discussion topics.  Funding needs for self advocate run organizations could be obtained by designating them as additional CILs under the 1974 Rehab Act.



 particularly to jointly advocate for funding (expand the 1974 Rehab Act funding stream to state and local governments) local CILS for people with intellectual and physical disabilities as well as wellness and recovery 'drop-in' or 'clubhouse model' centers for people living with mental illness.



 Or CILs could donate, or hire a willing volunteer for training in benefits counseling, as reciprocity for referrals.  Those two suggestions meet the unmet need if the CIL benefits counselor is ‘too busy’ to take on any more work.   Stagnant growth can be measured by real life meeting attendance or small online platform user increases and little ‘traffic.’  




  The topic of the September 28, 2019 meeting (how to manage your disability- on your own or getting support) was a repeat topic from December 9, 2017 in the first image below.  

The discussion subject "Autism Resources" (number 133) was the prior occurrence of an inadequate attempt at benefits counseling, replacing it with peer to peer referrals instead of referrals to Centers for Independent Living or Departments of Human or Social Services at a local government (DC, MD or VA county) level, by AAGW leaders and discussion topic selectors. 

 

   There was also a living arrangements (housing for adults with the disability of autism) topic November 2018.  Most comments were individuals considering or who had bought homes.   One person who had recently moved to a shared house sponsored for people with disabilities (hope-house.org) shared their individual experience that was unlikely to help anyone else because of lack of housing availability.  Little discussion happened about PHA (locally-based public housing authorities) and federal HUD housing choice (formerly known as section 8) voucher wait list process.  Special set-aside units, varying by town, city or county (local government jurisdiction) one lives in, for people with disabilities are rent-subsidized living options that local governments intentionally do not publicize well to avoid demands to build more such units and protect confidentiality of occupants.  Confidentiality conceals inequity and inequality.   


   Finding a CWIC (certified work incentives counselor) at a federally designated and funded Center for Independent Living could be of more immediate individual help than going to a 'dinner and a support group meeting' of Autistic (formerly Asperger) Adults of Greater Washington.
  

   To start one's search here are some links.

ssa.gov/disability


servicesource.org/service/benefits-counseling

drswm.org/services_menu/independent-living/ssi_benefits_counseling
   
  These two links are focused toward people over 65 who have acquired disabilities as a result of aging.  People with disabilities may also qualify if they are receiving SSI or SSDI. 
  
www.benefitscheckup.org

www.benefits.gov or 800-333-4636

  The ban on nonprofit organizations from 'political advocacy' is not an excuse for lack of advocacy for systemic improvement to 'do more good for more autistics at a faster pace.'  The test that the IRS uses is that nonprofit advocacy be more about issues than candidates or legislation.  All a nonprofit organization needs to do to keep its 501c3 deductible status for donors on their individual income tax returns is avoid anyone authorized to speak for the organization speaking the words 'vote for' or 'vote against' candidates or legislation.  Even letter writing campaigns are still allowed to direct people to say in their own, or a template letter, 'vote for' or 'vote against' legislation. 

ignorance of available resources is bad fiscal policy

    The problem of 'where do I go for help' plagues anyone with any type of need to pay a cost of living who cannot afford it.  Local governments, whose accountability and proximity to constituents is perversely counterbalanced by lack of 'tax base' compared to state and federal levels of government, maintains an opacity that restrains growth of spending by ignorance that services are even available.  


   Maryland medical assistance (Medicaid) cut adult dental benefits out of its medicaid program in 1976 to save money (fiscal conservatism or 'limited government.')  By 2018 the Md Dept. of Health disbursed $825,000 in grants to providers of dental services to as part of an Adult Dental Pilot Program.  $4.2 million, with half federal spending, was the 2019 budgeted amount.  The program would need $26 million if all poor people eligible knew the help was available and used the maximum benefit.  

Having a dental benefit in Maryland’s Medicaid program isn’t a new concept. Maryland offered comprehensive dental coverage to adults on Medicaid until 1976, when state lawmakers decided it cost too much and cut all services except emergency care.

The Maryland Department of Health dispensed $825,000 in grants last year to hospitals and organizations to provide some dental care for low-income people. The budget for the Adult Dental Pilot Program in its first year is $4.2 million, with half coming from the federal government. If every poor person with disabilities eligible for the coverage used the maximum benefit, it would cost more than five times the money being allotted — about $26 million, according to state budget estimates.

   from this link which may not load its original content:

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-dental-program-for-poor-pays-to-remove-teeth--but-not-replace-them/2019/08/24/9fae8f30-c4f6-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html



Ignorance among the intended beneficiaries was all that restrained spending.   

   Little outreach is usually done except for occasional newspaper articles like at this link (which may have died since August 2019)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-dental-program-for-poor-pays-to-remove-teeth--but-not-replace-them/2019/08/24/9fae8f30-c4f6-11e9-b72f-b31dfaa77212_story.html

 and end of fiscal year 'fairs' to spend all of an agency or department budget to prevent cuts at the end, or middle, of a fiscal year.  Wait lists are left long enough so that people waiting are forced to move and become the fiscal burden on another jurisdiction.   The frustration of not receiving needed help by those in need could go a long way to explain why poor people often vote against their economic interests on the basis of social issues and prejudice/hatred/bigotry against others who 'look differently.'  Those people not helped outwardly perceive, and resent the inequities represented by, those helped to be receiving more financial aid from some 'welfare' (safety net) program.     

Dignified retirement and affordable housing It's a win-win

    Back in the day (in 2000) people under 35 were called post baby-boomers or gen x.  Now the same 18-35 year old age cohort is called millenials or gen y or z.  Your humble blogger rustedaspie was within the 18-35 year old cohort in 2000. 

  One book of public policy prescriptions released in 2000 was called "We've Got Issues" the Get Real, No B.S., Guilt-Free Guide to What Really Matters" by Meredith Bagby. 


  One policy discussion on page 112 of the paperback edition discussed the basics of defined contribution (with an employer match to attract people to accept job offers)  401k accounts, IRA accounts and Roth IRA accounts that were replacing defined benefit pensions.  


   The jury is still out on whether these new investment vehicles encourage savings.  But assuming they do, many politicians are lobbying to extend the amount an investor can contribute in order build our overall savings.  

                                                        page 112

 in this book "We've Got Issues"

   By 2016 the separate independent reporting of 2 journalists had found the same conclusion.  The defined contribution retirement plan, sometimes matched by employers, was a failure as a replacement for defined benefit pensions. 


  Hedrick Smith in 2006 "Can you afford to retire?"  and David Dayen in 2016 found that the 401k retirement revolution wasn't working.
People compensate for lack of savings growth in higher demands for resale housing (with renovations to kitchens, bathrooms, patios, basements think ‘man caves’) if people keep living in a house longer.  Housing sale and rental prices become unaffordable to people now with higher student loan debt trying to qualify for a steady job not multiple freelance consulting gigs in the sharing (renting) economy.   I wrote earlier about how the sharing economy uses excess capacity well while inequitably distributing the income growth in another post on this blog.

  Labor (workers or workforce) were paid less of new income (GDP) growth particularly since the 2008 'great recession' or crash of stock and securitized debt (home mortgage) markets. Lower top tax rates on the increasingly unequally high end of earnings leave less income tax revenue at all levels of government taxing income.  

 Scrapping the FICA cap in order to tax all income for social security will strengthen it.  A compromise is to radically raise the cap that rises annually by small amounts (one of the annual CPI inflation rates).  People will feel less pressure to replace retirement savings losses or low increases by demanding 'top dollar' when selling a primary residence.  Unbundle home equity growth from retirement savings growth.  Housing will remain more affordable without seller pressure to get a big capital gain for two needs, retirement and buying new housing to move to. 


   

From stem cell research to CRISPR fiscal intersectionality is more important than social forms of intersectionality

    ASAN founder and former president, until 2017, Ari Ne'eman was one of 63 nominees confirmed in 2010 after anonymous holds were released.  


   The hold releases likely followed individual nominee meetings with Senators to address concerns that somehow never were addressed in committee confirmation hearings. 

 In this link that died by 2015

 http://www.examiner.com/article/first-ever-autistic-nominee-confirmed-to-national-council-on-disability





Earlier today, after several months' delay due to an anonymous hold placed by one or more Senators, Autistic Self-Advocacy Network president Ari Ne'eman was unanimously confirmed to the National Council on Disability, along with at least 63 other nominations that had holds placed on them.  Out of all of President Obama's nominees for the National Council on Disability, Ne'eman was the only one who was not immediately confirmed to his appointment, one of the youngest ever to be appointed to a presidential advisory council, and the first diagnosed autistic to be appointed to the NCD.  The National Council on Disability makes recommendations to the President and Congress on disability issues and policies, and it has been speculated by some that Ne'eman's insistence that autism should be accepted and embraced as a part of the individual's identity rather than viewed as a "disease" to be "cured" was the impetus behind the anonymous hold, which was lifted just as anonymously.  Others have noted that Autism Speaks has been rather vocal in their opposition to his appointment, and their founders, Bob and Suzanne Wright, have been significant campaign contributors for several years to at least 5 US Senators.  It has also been confirmed that Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo, secured enough votes to change the Senate rules so that anonymous holds are now no longer permitted.  Should this occur in the future, it will be known exactly who has placed the hold, and the public will be able to demand answers.

where the content had been posted by

Marc Rosen
Long Island Autism Examiner


Marc Rosen is a Dowling College graduate, autistic rights advocate, and autistic. His first article back in 2007, about how autistic people don't want to be "normal", illustrated seldom-discussed prejudices which began his fight for autistic rights. Marc is devoted to ensuring a better future for autistic people through his work on Examiner.com, as well as by providing educational advocacy services in the greater Long Island area. He also makes various speaking appearances to talk about the concerns of the autistic population.
   Rosen speculated the founders of Autism Speaks had donated to 5 (unnamed by Rosen) Senators.  Rosen speculated that one of the 5 senators could have placed the hold.  Concerns over what 'cure' meant (a broad or narrow concept) by applying new technologies from stem cell research may have motivated the hold and the Senator (former Senator Claire McCaskill), who by whipping up the votes to eliminate the legislative tactic, may have tacitly revealed she placed the hold.  The prior relationship between Claire McCaskill and Michael J Fox, that resulted in Fox's consent to use video of himself in a campaign ad testifying to demand more money for stem cell research on neurological conditions, may have been the bigger 'influencer' in placing the hold, if former Senator Claire McCaskill indeed placed it, as well as preventing future senators from having the anonymous hold option.



    The confirmations come after news earlier this week that Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., secured the votes to change the Senate rules to bar holds from being placed anonymously.

  Any campaign donor influence from Bob and Suzanne Wright, founders of Autism Speaks with CEO pay from NBC Universal before the Comcast merger in 2010, was likely a lesser 'influencer.'    


 Ne'eman is in 2019 at work on a book about the history of disability in America as well as working for the ACLU and @mysupportworks a private business (twitter account @mysupportworks) that expedites Medicaid waivers to pay for LTSS in HCBS in California, 

New York,

and Virginia

 only. 


In New York and Virginia, probably to comply with state or federal medicaid regulations, guardians for the person with a disability are allowed to manage the mysupport.com user account to communicate with support workers.

  If a person with a disability needs a guardian/caregiver to manage the support services that person with a disability is an individual manifestation of what the NYU 'Ransom Notes' ad campaign was marketing its services based on.  The NYU Child Study Center "Ransom Notes" ad campaign was based on parental fears of who their child with a disability could 'grow up' into - life with a disability severe enough that they couldn't 'take care of' themselves.  Not finding a way to continue advocating, perhaps by mysupport.com donations of some of its profits to nonprofit (NGO) self-advocacy organizations to help advocate for a reintroduced CLASS Act or Disability Integration Act with regulations that allow inclusion in medicaid eligibility for individuals without 'intense needs' (formerly known as 'low functioning') such as individuals with situated functioning (formerly known as 'higher functioning') issues is almost as unethical, on the part of mysupport.com, as the NYU "Ransom Notes' marketing campaign. 



 No other states than California, New York and Virginia have contracted with @mysupportworks to solve the 'institutional bias' problem that the CLASS Act fixed nationally, before its 2011 repeal, and the Disability Integration Act, if reintroduced, could fix for all Americans with disabilities poor enough and impaired severely enough to qualify for Medicaid. 

   In August 2020 Ari Ne'eman and several founding partners of mysupportworks sold its platform to Rise Services.  The DSP (direct service provider) and Medicaid beneficiary matching service mysupportworks changed its name to mysupport.com.   Less student loan debt for Ari to pay off for his PhD program if tuition wasn't privately paid by scholarships and personal savings. Depending on Rise Services qualifying for a Medicaid Home care waiver in the state Ari and his spouse live in the platform sale possibly allows his spouse Rabbi Ruti Regan to have supports, as parents with disabilities, raising their child together. 



  Now former Senator Claire McCaskill D-MO, who lost her reelection to R-MO Josh Hawley (former Attorney General) in Nov 2018 likely placed the anonymous hold and vote-whipping to change the rule to eliminate the procedural tactic to promote open and accountable governance procedures (political populism) was likely a face-saving gesture.  New Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) was able to defeat Claire McCaskill despite his AG record of joining a multi-state lawsuit seeking to overturn the ACA ban on pre-existing condition exclusions after the 2017 #Trumptaxscam repealed the tax penalty for not buying a qualified health insurance policy with or without an APTC (subsidy) on private, state or federal exchanges. 



   By the end of 2018 a federal District Court declared the ACA unconstitutional.  Appeals up the federal court system could overturn the ACA and render over 30 million more people as uninsured as they were before their enrollments since mostly 2013.  A supreme court decision, on a case orally argued Nov 10, 2020, was released in June 2021 that rejected the case for lack of standing of the plaintiff.  The ACA is still vulnerable to another challenge if plaintiff lawyers can shop for another plaintiff with standing in a jurisdiction with a corporate-friendly judge. 

  Originally posted at this link as dead as 2018 will be as it ends

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15408508/

and retrieved at this link that also no longer links to the original article I again 'bore' anyone reading this blog post with a copy and paste of content that formerly loaded.  "Anything posted on the internet" is only "online forever" if someone else saved the content offline and re-published the content somewhere else. 



Limbaugh mocks Michael J. Fox political ad


Conservative talk show host accuses actor of faking Parkinson's disease
By David Montgomery
The Washington Post




Updated: 2:05 a.m. ET Oct 25, 2006
Possibly worse than making fun of someone's disability is saying that it's imaginary. That is not to mock someone's body, but to challenge a person's guts, integrity, sanity.


To Rush Limbaugh on Monday, Michael J. Fox looked like a faker. The actor, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, has done a series of political ads supporting candidates who favor stem cell research, including Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin, who is running against Republican Michael Steele for the Senate seat being vacated by Paul Sarbanes.


"He is exaggerating the effects of the disease," Limbaugh told listeners. "He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act. . . . This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting."


Limbaugh, whose syndicated radio program has a weekly audience of about 10 million, was reacting to Fox's appearance in another one of the spots, for Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill, running against Republican Sen. James M. Talent.
 

   Actor Michael J. Fox made an ad in the 2006 election cycle for Claire McCaskill and also made ads in the 2008 election cycle for Congressmember and since 2016 US Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).


  Temporarily stopping medications to show the symptoms (or traits) of Parkinson's Disease as a messaging tactic, to advocate the election of legislators/lawmakers/'politicians' who will vote to appropriate and authorize more funding to solve the individual problems that individuals need the 'role of government' to help solve, is what Republican syndicated radio show creator Rush Limbaugh (Limberger as his politics stink like that type of cheese) mocked in order to persuade his radio listeners to vote for more Republicans in local, state and mostly federal elections.  
Parkinson's Disease can be treated with medications that people suffering from it need insurance to help pay for as well as future treatments that relieve symptoms/traits long enough that a person starts to regard themselves (and others regard them) as 'cured.' 

    Ari Ne'eman built his activism career pushing back against 'worst case scenario' messaging tactics to socially include people with the disability of autism.  Michael J Fox stopping his medications to show the worst symptoms/traits of Parkinson's disease were 'worst case scenario' messaging tactics to advocate for help paying the costs of living with lifelong chronic neurological conditions. 
  What are called "stereotypes" of autism are actually autistics left behind in the pace of positive social change that has not been equitable enough to give the most impaired people the help they need.  The problem with the "social constructionist" model of disability preference over the medical model of disability shows in the unequal pace of positive social change that has resulted in autistics left behind in progress toward inclusion disrupting 1 autistic-operated self advocacy organization (aagw.net).

(restricted group readers need yahoo account and list serve membership to read private content start of thread in image below)

 Autistics Association of Greater Washington (formerly called the Asperger Adults of Greater Washington aagw.net) is one of many organizations that participated in a 2016 National Summit of Autistic-Operated Self-Advocacy Organizations.  It was held on November 20-21, 2016 at 2013 H St, NW (former HQ of autisticadvocacy.org ASAN before they moved to 1010 VT ave, NW suite 618).
   The organizations that accepted AAGW.net leader invitations to participate in the Summit focus too much on individual, self-paced, improvement and not enough on systemic improvement (demands for more money to pay the costs that individuals cannot pay themselves) to do more good for more individuals more quickly.  

    All the person 'disrupting' (showing the inequality of progress toward inclusion leading the person left behind to 'lash out' desperately) was to be asked introductory 'small talk'/'getting to know you' questions that didn't relate to paid work.  


 From:  Tyrone [redacted by post author]
<[email address redacted by post author]>
Date: Mon Mar 18, 2013 1;25 PM

Subject: Re: [AS] Re: Tonight’s Drama

A concern I have is people PREJUDGING others. In the DC area people typically ask questions such as what do you do for work.  I get asked where do you work.  Is it too much for ask for people not to make assumptions, such as inquiring, bugging me about where I work?  Also please do not Assume, I go to the meetings looking for a date.  These are my concerns and I would appreciate it, if you guys would show respect.  There were two people on the last Sat. meeting that really prejudge me.  I expect for this behavior stop, before I call names out.  Thank you.

Tyrone [redacted]





   The person 'disrupting' by 'raising their voice' also stated a need for transportation assistance to see a romantic interest ("girlfriend").   The desperation led to the person being escorted out of the aagw.net meeting venue (Teaism restaurant that allows use of space in return for attendees creating an increase in food sales revenue for 2 hours).  Rustedaspie, the author of this post, witnessed the March 13, 2013 meeting disruption and writes from personal memory of the experience supported by relevant list serve posts (anonymized for confidentiality).  




Subject: [AS] Tonight's Drama
To: dcaspie@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, March 16, 2013, 10:08 PM


In the roughly four and a half years I have been attending AAGW support group meetings I have found our group to be a wonderful resource for sharing the highs and lows of being an Aspie. I've found it to be a wonderfully supportive resource and I hope others have seen it in the same light.

Tonight, however, I do not believe that it worked in its intended capacity. Tonight we had a member who was upset seemingly about a lot of things and, in my opinion, inappropriately took it out on other members of the group.  believe that this group is an acceptable place to be mad and frustrated, believe me there is much in this world for an Aspie to be frustrated about. Our group is not a place insult or disparage other members. In my opinion, I know that I, and the majority of members of our group hold themselves that standard and I believe that I was doing so this evening.

However, I know that some may believe that I did not act in that manner. To the member who was very upset, I am terribly sorry if you feel I acted in that way. Believe me, I was never laughing at you or making fun of you. I genuinely wanted to help provide some guidance with your struggles (which I and the rest of our group have shared). I was deeply hurt when the word "evil" was used to describe me. I was never laughing at anybody's pain, I would never do that. Instead I was trying to project myself in a way that would reduce the tension, I am sorry that failed.

We have all been where you are before but as the famous internet video says "it does get better." Unfortunately, I believe that today was difficult for our group to have a productive session. There are no magic bullets to dealing with all of our issues, sometimes, what it really takes is time, patience, and a willingness to look at things in a new perspective (I know this last one is very difficult for me too). 

I hope that you are okay, that you made it home safely, and that you are not planning or taken any rash actions. If you come back I know that you will find an open and accepting forum. In fact, if you do come back I will purchase you the beverage of your choice, be it tea, a soft drink, or (if you are of legal age) a beer. If you don't want that, at least let me shake your hand.  



https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/dcaspie/conversations/messages/18851


Mar 17, 2013

After Saturday's meeting I accompanied the distressed member part way home on Metro. We had a good conversation and exchanged contact information. We parted ways feeling positive and with plans to meet up again.

The practice of saying "Thanks for sharing" and NO CROSSTALK after comments is a good one. I have also attended ACA [Adult Children of Alcoholics] support groups.

Thank you all for sharing! 


https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/dcaspie/conversations/messages/18852

Mar 17, 2013

Glad to hear that he's fine. Having had the night [t]o reflect, I believe that the best way to avoid issues like this is or all of us to assume that feedback is meant with good intentions, not bad. Yes, I can seem harsh and blunt, but I think one of us (I know I get this way) have a hard time even with constructive comments. So, perhaps the group should have an "assume good faith policy."
 

   Leaders of autistic-run self advocacy organizations also fail to see individual member problems as individual manifestations of systemic problems.  


On Mar 20, 2013 at 4:17PM
linda[redacted by post author]@[redacted by post author] wrote:

I noticed that no one who commented on how the meeting[s] are supposed to go came from anyone on the Board.  If nothing else, watching how this unfolds is rather enlightening.

Linda

——Original Message——

Sent: Wed, Mar 20, 2013 3:34 PM
Subject: For AAGW Board/Officers only


Hi Chuck, Linda, Jon, Alex and Stan,


….

I missed the March and February meetings but have been in touch with Chuck and Alex about Saturday evening’s meeting.  It’s likely that the person who had the meltdown on Saturday night is Tyrone [redacted].  Tyrone joined our e-mail group in May 2012.  In June 2012 I put Tyrone on moderation --i.e., started screening his e-mails — after Tyrone started using the e-mail group to solicit dates. At the time I warned Tyrone that he should not to use our e-mail group as a dating service. 


On Monday Tyrone sent the following post; I haven’t published it on our discussion list:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/dcaspie/message/17886


From:  Tyrone [redacted]
<[redacted email address]>
Date: Mon Mar 18, 2013 1;25 PM

Subject: Re: [AS] Re: Tonight’s Drama

A concern I have is people PREJUDGING others. In the DC area people typically ask questions such as what do you do for work.  I get asked where do you work.  Is it too much for ask for people not to make assumptions, such as inquiring, bugging me about where I work?  Also please do not Assume, I go to the meetings looking for a date.  These are my concerns and I would appreciate it, if you guys would show respect.  There were two people on the last Sat. meeting that really prejudge me.  I expect for this behavior stop, before I call names out.  Thank you.

Tyrone [redacted]


....
I am very concerned that Tyrone will disrupt our April and other future meetings.  Chuck mentioned that Earl “Baltimore Buck” -- who is helpful and compassionate -- took Tyrone to the Metro.  Should we ask Earl for advice on how to proceed with Tyrone?

Or should we immediately make clear to Tyrone (in as kind a way as possible) that there is nothing more our group can do for Tyrone and that Tyrone should seek help elsewhere.

How can we assure order at our meetings? (This is not easy.) From posts made on the list since Monday, it seems that some people raised their voices at both the February and March meetings.  I am concerned that if we have people raising their voices at meetings, Teaism management might ask us to leave. 

Should the next few AAGW meetings be highly structured, perhaps with handouts?  This would provide less space for some members’ aimless bitching and moaning. 

Finally, I am mildly irritated with Carlos and “Terry” -- two people who have vowed never to attend another AAGW meeting — clogging the discussion list with posts telling us how to improve our meetings. Carlos -- who loudly proclaims that he has foregone his well-known habit of offering unsolicited advice -- has been e-mailing countless posts offering unsolicited advice…



The president and founder of aagw.net (Mark Bernkopf) had the lack of empathy to call inequality and inequity in progress to social, and economic, inclusion “aimless bitching and moaning.” What AAGW president and founder Mark perceives as “aimless bitching and moaning” is actually autistics who are left behind in progress toward social and economic inclusion.  They need help and don’t know where to go or whom to ask for help.  A weakness of aagw.net, and of the self-advocacy movement, has been exposed.  Systemic improvement is necessary to solve more individual problems than self-advocacy organization leaders, like Mark Bernkopf or Ari Ne’eman, acknowledge or advocate for.


   To repeat, viewing individual persons' problems as manifestations of systemic problems can more quickly assemble a group of people who can organize to do the most good for the most people at the most equitable (as people need help achieving full inclusion) pace.   

   In neurological and communication disabilities such as autism (spectrum disorders) cure is a more ambiguous (and to some vocal autistics an undesirable) concept.  Solving (often on a daily basis) regular problems performing activities of daily living such as eating, drinking, bathing, dressing, finding paid employment or income support if one is unemployed or underemployed (major life activities identified by the ADA) with the help of 'someone else's money' (taxes for means-tested 'entitlement programs' not to include earned benefits like Social Security or Medicare) such as personal care assistance, PT or OT (occupational therapy) training to help a person with a disability 'help themselves' is how 'curing' autism should be defined in public discourse.  Republican candidates for legislative and executive branches of government have collectively assembled a record worse than their Democratic opponents on helping people pay the costs of inclusion in money and time that individuals cannot pay.  


   Including a wide range (from neurological disorder Parkinson's Disease to autism) of possible medical treatments from stem cell research is necessary to get votes to fund particular applications of stem cell technology for cures, or issue improvement if cure is an individually trauma-triggering term <trigger warning> from stem cell research.   Journalism like this ('inspiration porn' and individual disclosure of disability) or this have flaws of generalizing possibility of replicated success by other people with disabilities, without organizing from the paradigm of fiscal intersectionality, that more money from a 'social safety net/welfare state' may be needed from 2 or 3 levels (state, local and federal) of government to administer competently to each recipient's satisfaction.  Temporarily able-bodied is an old term the physical disability community used to remind people that anyone can acquire a disability as well as being 'born this way' as the intellectual/developmental disability community members are.  The neurological diversity (neurodiversity) of human beings for non-disabled/neurotypical/temporarily able-bodied people to accept socially more than support solving independent living problems fiscally is an economically neoliberal message.  Such a neoliberal (or anti-government and excessively pro-individual) message of social not economic supports ignores individual variation in class privilege or race privilege that confers on an individual the ability to compensate for (pay the costs of in money and time) poverty or oppression by race or other protected classes in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ADA of 1990. 



   The struggle continues with moral objections to CRISPR research that also fail to build the fiscal intersectionality to help (with money provided as a 'role of government in peoples' lives') pay the costs to include the person with a disability acquired by birth, illness or accident in major life activities or reduce the impairments enough to allow the person to pay the costs of inclusion themselves.  Ultimately as Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said in November 2015 'there is no individual freedom without individual economic security.'  








More disability rights activists, including Ari Ne'eman and his twitter account conversation partner Michelle Appel,

 should IMHO include fiscal intersectionality in their activism to support people with disabilities that includes the now stigmatized and triggering terms 'high functioning' and 'low functioning' (replaced by 'intense needs.)' The consequences of living in poverty are so great that people seek more certainty to avoid it rather than having faith that 'all will work out for the best' by avoiding gene editing technology as 'playing G-d.' 'Higher functioning' should be replaced with the term 'situated functioning'
to (end inclusive rhetoric for exclusive benefit in the disability rights community) start to make the disability rights activism as inclusive in benefits demanded as the rhetoric used to demand the benefits.