National, Regional and Local News

[ti-amie]

[dryrunguy]

I use a compression sock on my left ankle when I sleep at night. But that's just a band-aid to fend it off. I need to get off my duff and get moving more often than I do. (I'm now 56, so I'm right in the younger wheelhouse for CVI.)

[ti-amie]

I use a compression sock on my left ankle when I sleep at night. But that's just a band-aid to fend it off. I need to get off my duff and get moving more often than I do. (I'm now 56, so I'm right in the younger wheelhouse for CVI.)

No rush. Leavitt says its benign.

/s

Seriously start taking care of it. Several posters have said that when it looks like this its at an advanced stage and didn't start last week. I have a physical in November and I had a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) many years ago. I'm going to have that vein ultra sound done. My great grandmother's legs swelled up like this and she couldn't walk per my late aunt.

[ti-amie]

Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump.
The leather-bound book was compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell. The president says the letter ‘is a fake thing.’
By
Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo
July 17, 2025 6:45 pm ET

It was Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, and Ghislaine Maxwell was preparing a special gift to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein’s family and friends. One of them was Donald Trump.

Maxwell collected letters from Trump and dozens of Epstein’s other associates for a 2003 birthday album, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Pages from the leather-bound album—assembled before Epstein was first arrested in 2006—are among the documents examined by Justice Department officials who investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago, according to people who have reviewed the pages. It’s unclear if any of the pages are part of the Trump administration’s recent review.

The president’s past relationship with Epstein is at a sensitive moment. The Justice Department documents, the so-called Epstein files, and who or what is in them are at the center of a storm consuming the Trump administration. On Wednesday, after angry comments about how the files are a hoax created by Democrats, President Trump lashed out at his own supporters for refusing to let the matter go.

The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.

The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.

“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”

He told the Journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit if it published an article. “I’m gonna sue The Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else,” he said.

Allegations that Epstein had been sexually abusing girls became public in 2006 and he was arrested that year. Epstein died in 2019 in jail after he was arrested a second time and charged with sex trafficking conspiracy.

Justice Department officials didn’t respond to requests for comment or address questions about whether the Trump page and other pages of the birthday album were part of the agency’s recent documents review. The FBI declined to comment.

The existence of the album and the contents of the birthday letters haven’t previously been reported. The album had poems, photos and greetings from businesspeople, academics, Epstein’s former girlfriends and childhood pals, according to the documents reviewed by the Journal and people familiar with them.

Among those who submitted letters were billionaire Leslie Wexner and attorney Alan Dershowitz. The album also contained a letter from a now-deceased Harvard economist, one of Epstein’s report cards from Mark Twain junior high school in Brooklyn and a note from a former assistant that included an acrostic with Epstein’s name: “Jeffrey, oh Jeffrey!/ Everyone loves you!/ Fun in the sun!/ Fun just for fun!/ Remember…don’t forget me soon!/ Epstein…you rock!/ You are the best!”

Epstein was Wexner’s money manager at the time. The longtime leader of Victoria’s Secret wrote a short message that said: “I wanted to get you what you want… so here it is….” After the text was a line drawing of what appeared to be a woman’s breasts. Wexner declined to comment through a spokesman. Wexner’s spokesman previously told the Journal that the retail mogul “severed all ties with Epstein in 2007 and never spoke with him again.”

Dershowitz’s letter included a mock-up of a “Vanity Unfair” magazine cover with mock headlines such as “Who was Jack the Ripper? Was it Jeffrey Epstein?” He joked that he had convinced the magazine to change the focus of an article from Epstein to Bill Clinton. Dershowitz, who represented Epstein after his first arrest, said, “It’s been a long time and I don’t recall the content of what I may have written.”

The book was put together by a New York City bookbinder, Herbert Weitz, according to people who were involved in the process. Weitz, who died in 2020, listed Epstein as a client on his website in 2003.

It isn’t clear how the letter with Trump’s signature was prepared. Inside the outline of the naked woman was a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person.

“Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything,” the note began.

Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is.

Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is.

Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it.

Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?

Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you.

Donald: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.

‘Jeffrey enjoys his social life’
When he turned 50, Epstein was already wealthy from managing Wexner’s fortune and was socializing with Trump, Clinton and other powerful people. He often entertained at his Manhattan townhouse, Palm Beach, Fla., home and private Caribbean island.

A spokesman for Clinton referred to a 2019 statement that former President Clinton had cut off ties more than a decade before Epstein’s second arrest and didn’t know about Epstein’s alleged crimes.

Epstein and Trump spent time together in the 1990s and early 2000s and were photographed at social events, including with Maxwell and Melania Trump. A 1992 tape from the NBC archives shows Trump partying with Epstein at his Mar-a-Lago estate; Trump is seen pulling a woman toward him and patting her behind.

Trump, along with others including Clinton, also appeared several times on flight logs for Epstein’s private jet.

A 2002 New York magazine profile of Epstein quoted Trump. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump said. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Both men said that they subsequently had a falling-out. Trump has said their friendship ended before Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008, served time in a Florida jail and registered as a sex offender.

When Epstein was arrested again in 2019, Trump said he hadn’t talked to Epstein for about 15 years. “I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,” Trump said in the Oval Office at that time. “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”

Trump’s spokeswoman told the Journal in 2023 that Trump had banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club at some point in the past, without elaborating.

Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein’s sex-trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Maxwell didn’t respond to a letter requesting an interview sent to her in prison. Arthur Aidala, an attorney who represented Maxwell, said, “At this point, she is focused on her case before the Supreme Court of the United States.”

The FBI’s Epstein files
Epstein’s associations with Trump and many powerful people have been well documented. There remain questions about what the FBI possesses about Epstein and his well-connected friends. In 2019, the FBI confiscated evidence from Epstein’s properties in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York.

Earlier this week, after the Journal sought comment from the president about the letter, Trump told reporters at the White House that he believed some Epstein files were “made up” by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and former FBI Director James Comey.

He said that releasing any more Epstein files would be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release,” Trump said.

Allegations that bureaucrats covered up Epstein’s connections with participants in his trafficking scheme were fanned by people now in top roles in the Trump administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino.

In June 2024, Trump was asked in a Fox News interview whether he would release the Epstein case files. The Republican presidential candidate initially responded, “Yeah, I would.” But he also expressed some reservations. “You don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would.”

Soon after she was confirmed as attorney general, Bondi said she was preparing to release new Epstein files. In late February, Bondi announced the release of “Phase 1” of the documents. But the material contained few new revelations, drawing criticism from right-wing influencers.

Bondi initially blamed the FBI’s New York office for withholding information and promised to release the remaining documents after redacting the victim’s names. Patel also said, “There will be no coverups, no missing documents and no stone left unturned.” They tasked hundreds of FBI employees to review the materials and prepare them for release.

The issue took on new life in June when Elon Musk, amid a public feud with Trump, alleged that the FBI was withholding documents from the Epstein case because Trump was in the files.

“The truth will come out,” Musk wrote on X on June 5. He later deleted the message and said he regretted some of his comments.

On July 7, the Justice Department backtracked on Bondi’s pledge to release more Epstein files. The Justice Department said that after an “exhaustive review” it had found no “incriminating client list” or additional documents that warrant public disclosure.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee demanded this week that Republican Chairman Jim Jordan hold hearings on the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files and, if necessary, subpoena Bondi, Patel and Bongino.

At a cabinet meeting on July 8, Trump criticized a reporter for asking about Epstein. “Are people still talking about this guy, this creep?” Trump said. “That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time?”

That same day, Musk wrote on X: “How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?”

https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeff ... _permalink

[ti-amie]

Mueller, She Wrote‬ @muellershewrote.com‬
· 2h
Shout out to the
@wsj.com for publishing the Epstein story, even after being threatened with legal action by Trump...

[ti-amie]

Trump Administration Live Updates: President Orders Release of Some Epstein Material as Furor Grows
Where Things Stand
Epstein files: President Trump announced on social media that he was authorizing Attorney General Pam Bondi to release grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, a sudden turn that may not satisfy critics within the MAGA movement who have demanded the release of all F.B.I. files on Mr. Epstein. Earlier, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Trump would not recommend a special prosecutor to look into the case, and repeated the president’s claim that the backlash was a distraction.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/17 ... ws-updates

[ponchi101]

I really am amazed at one thing: Jeffrey Epstein's ability to cause amnesia.
Borderline hypnotic.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

DisruptSQ
MOD
•
4h ago
•
Stickied comment
Profile Badge for the Achievement Top 1% Poster Top 1% Poster
June 20, 2025
Summary

A Swiss teacher attempting to enter the U.S. with an ESTA authorization was detained at New York's airport and later transferred to a controversial detention facility in New Jersey. She was accused of intending to work despite her tourist visa, which she denied.

The detention conditions were harsh, with poor hygiene and no privacy. The case highlights the rigid enforcement of U.S. immigration policies since the beginning of Trump's second term.

A lawyer says Switzerland should take a stronger stand against the inhumane treatment of its citizens, warning that similar incidents could happen to other travelers.

If you are curious about the source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Z%C3%BCrcher_Zeitung

[ponchi101]

A Swiss?
I am going to be sweating bullets whenever I go back to the States.

[ti-amie]

U.S. deportee, freed from Salvadoran prison, describes ‘horror movie’
Julio González Jr., released last week from the Terrorism Confinement Center, said he was beaten, robbed of thousands of dollars and denied a lawyer.

July 22, 2025 at 7:32 p.m. EDTToday at 7:32 p.m. EDT


Arturo Suárez, a Venezuelan man deported by the United States in March and held at El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center for four months, is welcomed home Tuesday by family in Caracas, Venezuela. (Cristian Hernandez/AP)

By Teo Armus, Samantha Schmidt and Arelis R. Hernández
Julio González Jr. had agreed to be deported to Venezuela. When the 36-year-old office cleaner and house painter boarded the flight in Texas in March, he assumed it would take him back to his home country.

Instead, the plane landed in El Salvador.

“The horror movie started there,” González said Tuesday.

Still shackled from the flight, González said, he and dozens of other migrants were shoved off the plane, pushed onto a bus, driven to a massive gray complex, and ordered to kneel there with their foreheads pressed against the ground as guards pointed guns directly at them.

Welcome to El Salvador, you sons of b-----s, a hooded figure told them. They had arrived at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT. The United States has paid the Salvadoran government of President Nayib Bukele $6 million to hold hundreds of migrants rounded up in President Donald Trump’s mass removals — many without ties to El Salvador, many without criminal charges — at the world’s largest prison.

In the four months he spent there, González said, he was beaten repeatedly with wooden bats. Some guards would kick the detainees in the chest or stomach, he said. He was robbed of thousands of dollars, he said, and denied access to lawyers or a chance to call his family.


Venezuelans freed from the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador arrive at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía, Venezuela, last week. (Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images)

Early Tuesday, González returned to his parents’ home in Caracas, one of 252 Venezuelans released from CECOT and returned to the South American country in a deal between the U.S. and Venezuelan governments. They arrived on two flights in exchange for the release of 10 American citizens and permanent U.S. residents imprisoned in Venezuela.

Many of the former detainees began to reunite with their families in hometowns across Venezuela — communities that in some cases they left years ago. After 125 days denied contact with the outside world, some began to share details of their treatment.

“I practically felt like an animal,” González told The Washington Post by telephone from his parents’ home. “The officials treated us like we were the most dangerous criminals on Earth. … They shaved our heads, they would insult us, they would take us around like dogs.”

The Post was unable to confirm González’s account independently. In several details, it matched the account given by lawyers for Kilmar Abrego García, the longtime Maryland resident who was removed from the U.S. in March and returned this month under federal court order.

Asked to respond to González’s account, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said the U.S. had deported “nearly 300 Tren de Aragua and MS-13 terrorists” to CECOT, “where they no longer pose a threat to the American people.”

“Once again the media is falling all over themselves to defend criminal illegal gang members,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.”

González denies being a gang member or criminal. Neither the U.S. nor El Salvador has provided evidence that he is.

A Salvadoran communications official did not respond to a request for comment.

At CECOT, González said, Venezuelans were held in cells of nine to 15 people with metal benches for beds — thin mattresses were brought in for photographs and then taken away — and water buckets for drinking and bathing. “It looked like a cage,” he said.

It was uncomfortably hot during the day, he said, and frigid at night.

The detainees were awakened at 4 a.m. and given time to wash themselves, he said. If they were seen cleaning themselves with the bucket outside of showering hours, he said, they were taken to an area known as “the island,” where they would be shackled to a chair and hit with a stick.

An attempted hunger strike in April made conditions worse, González said. Guards fired rubber bullets and plastic pellets at some detainees. When they asked for a lawyer, he said, guards told them: That word doesn’t exist here.

They were served meals of tortillas and beans three times a day, he said. To pass the time, they played chess using leftover beans and exercised.

Few people have left CECOT, and fewer have spoken publicly about their experiences there. Bukele opened the high-security megaprison outside San Salvador in 2023 to incarcerate top-level gang members.

Abrego is one such survivor. The El Salvador native, now in U.S. custody, remains at the center of a court fight with the Trump administration. In a court filing this month, his lawyers said he and other detainees were severely beaten and forced to kneel for nine straight hours upon their arrival. Abrego was held in a crowded, windowless cell that was brightly lit around-the-clock, kicked in the legs and beaten with wooden batons. Guards had determined he wasn’t a hardened gang member, the lawyers said, but threatened to put him in with real gang members who would “tear” him apart, the filing said.

The Trump administration accused the Venezuelans it sent to CECOT of being members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. But a Post review found that many of the migrants the administration removed had entered the United States legally and were complying with U.S. immigration rules. At least two were approved by the State Department to resettle in the country as refugees; at least four had protections against removal through temporary protected status. Abrego was protected from deportation by a court order.


Family members celebrate the return of Julio González Jr., seen in a gray T-shirt Tuesday in Caracas. (Julio Cesar González)

As a teenager, González was a professional baseball prospect who attended player development academies and played on elite teams in Venezuela, his family said.

Unable as an adult to find work in Venezuela, he said, he traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border, waited months for an appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and entered the U.S. legally in April 2023.

But as soon as he set foot on U.S. soil, he said, he was accused of affiliation with Tren de Aragua and detained.

He was held for a year. He had no criminal record in any of the four countries where he’d lived and worked, he said. “They just never wanted to accept his defense against the accusations” of gang membership, said his father, Julio Cesar González, an attorney.

ICE released González to his sponsor in 2024. He cleaned offices and painted buildings while wearing an ankle monitor and conducting regular check-ins with ICE.

He applied for asylum, withdrew and then was unable to reopen his case, according to his family and records. Then he applied for temporary protected status.

He had not yet received an answer when he checked in with ICE in Tampa in October. He was detained again and signed documents agreeing to be deported back to Venezuela.

His parents expected him home on March 13, but the flight never took off. Bad weather grounded his plane on March 14.

He told his parents U.S. officials had said he’d be in Venezuela the next day.

“He relayed a message to me saying we would see each other soon,” said his mother, Nancy Troconis. “They lied to us.”

At 9 a.m. on March 15, González’s family lost contact with him. They later saw his name on a list of detainees deported to El Salvador.

One of the most painful parts of the experience, González said, was being robbed of his savings. While in U.S. custody, he said, he had hidden $6,400 in cash in his underwear. When he arrived at CECOT, he said, he was ordered to undress and put on the uniform the detainees would wear for the next four months: white sandals, socks and white boxers.

He stripped, he said, and never saw the money again. “They robbed me,” he said. “I arrived here without my phone, without my money, without anything.”

The detainees were never told their rights, he said, and never allowed to speak to a lawyer. Officials from the Red Cross came inside the prison twice and gave them the chance to handwrite letters to their families.

González said he was never told why he was being held there.

“They played with our minds,” he said. “They tortured us mentally and physically. The whole thing is indescribable.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... -beatings/

[Owendonovan]

Any picture that looks like he's closer to death is a good picture.

[ti-amie]

@GottaLaff‬ @gottalaff.bsky.social‬
· 7m
I know of 2 people this happened to, via friends.
· 6m
2/ Clarifying: We live in Canada now. Our Canadian friends told us about 2 families they knew personally that this happened to. They were banned from crossing into the US for 5 years.

James McLeod‬
‪@jamespmcleod.ca‬
· 11m
For what it's worth, many Canadians are reporting Border Patrol embracing the fascistic vibe, during routine interactions at border crossings.

I know of people who were asked what they think of Trump's "51st state" commentary, and then were denied entry for their answer.

[ti-amie]

Trump order pushes forcible hospitalization of homeless people
Trump’s executive order could increase hospitalization of homeless individuals with mental health and substance use disorders.

Updated
July 24, 2025 at 5:17 p.m. EDT today at 5:17 p.m. EDT

By David Ovalle
President Donald Trump has directed federal agencies to find ways to make it easier to forcibly hospitalize homeless people with mental illness and addiction for longer periods — an effort to fight what the administration calls “vagrancy” threatening the streets of U.S. cities.

An executive order signed Thursday pushes federal agencies to overturn state and federal legal precedent that limits how local and state governments can involuntarily commit people who pose a risk to themselves or others.

The order said shifting homeless people into long-term institutional settings will restore public order. “Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens,” Trump’s order said.

The impact of Trump’s executive order remains unclear because states set laws and handle the process of involuntary commitments. Critics warned that such a policy threatens returning the nation to a darker era when people were often unjustly locked away in mental health institutions, and does nothing to help people afford housing.

“The safest communities are those with the most housing and resources, not those that make it a crime to be poor or sick,” Jesse Rabinowitz, communications director of the National Homelessness Law Center, said in a statement. He called forced treatment unethical and ineffective.

Critics say cash-strapped states will not have the space to keep more people detained. The executive order, however, says federal resources could ensure “detainees with serious mental illness are not released into the public” because of a lack of bed space in jails or hospitals.

The order also instructs agencies to prioritize funding for mental health and drug courts — and to not fund “harm reduction” programs that the administration said facilitate illegal drug use. It also called for agencies to prioritize funding states and cities that to the “maximum extent” enforce laws on open-air drug use, prohibitions on urban camping, loitering and squatting.

The executive order was issued as the Trump administration has slashed more than $1 billion in covid-era grants administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and is proposing to slash hundreds of millions more in agency grants.

“There’s no question we need to do more to address both homelessness and untreated substance use disorder and mental health conditions in the U.S.,” said Regina LaBelle, the director of the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at the Georgetown University Law Center and a former drug policy official in the Biden White House. “But issuing an executive order, while disinvesting in treatment and other funding that will help prevent homelessness and untreated health conditions, will do nothing to address the fundamental issues facing the country.”

Homelessness — and perceptions of street crime run amok — has proved a potent issue for Trump and Republican leaders as the nation grapples with a mounting housing crisis.

The Supreme Court last year ruled that cities may ban homeless residents from sleeping outside, rejecting a constitutional challenge to a set of anti-camping laws.

Trump signed the executive order about three months after the Justice Department asked agency officials who oversee grant distributions to brainstorm ways to clear encampments and boost involuntary hospitalizations as part of an aggressive push to drive homeless people from public spaces.

Dozens of states have added to or expanded involuntary commitment laws during the past decade. That includes states controlled by Democrats, an illustration that political momentum has shifted toward a more aggressive approach to dealing with the inextricably intertwined crises of mental health and addiction.

Oregon state lawmakers, after years of contentious debate and failed attempts, are pushing forward with a bill that would make it easier to force someone who is a danger to themselves or others into treatment.

In California, a law went into effect this year expanding the criteria for who is eligible for involuntary commitments to include those suffering from substance use disorders. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a potential 2028 presidential candidate who is often criticized by Trump on the issue of public safety, said the law would “ensure no one falls through the cracks, and that people get the help they need and the respect they deserve.”

In New York, state lawmakers this year cemented earlier state guidance that allowed first responders to involuntarily commit people with severe mental illnesses who cannot meet their own basic needs such as obtaining medical care, shelter or food. The law was pushed by Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who has faced criticism regarding public safety against the backdrop of high-profile acts of violence involving mentally ill people in New York City and a push by Mayor Eric Adams for more forced commitments.

While there may be an uptick in police officers transporting people to the hospital, it is doubtful that significantly more people will actually be admitted for forced treatment, said Patrick Wildes, a former assistant secretary for human services and mental hygiene under Hochul.

“I don’t think that there’s all these people who are waiting around, looking unwell, who need to get picked up,” he said. “But I do think that it can make some members of the public feel better that, in theory, it’s easier for the authorities and for the government to try to bring people in.”

States’ beefing-up of involuntary commitment laws illustrates a growing recognition that officials had become too reluctant to employ laws aimed at the most severely ill who are not able to seek treatment on their own, said Lisa Dailey, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center. Those people often end up in jail or prison, or harm themselves or others, while conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder go untreated, she said.

“It does damage to your brain to remain in untreated psychosis. The longer you remain in an untreated psychosis, the harder it is to actually recover,” said Dailey, whose organization has become influential in pushing changes to state laws to treat severely mentally ill people before they succumb to homelessness or incarceration.

The nation has long grappled with how to handle forced hospitalizations.

In 1975, the Supreme Court in a landmark ruling cemented due process rights for people with mental illness, ruling that they could not be involuntarily committed without showing that they posed a danger. Four years later, the court imposed a higher legal threshold for committing someone for treatment against their will.

During the campaign, Trump claimed U.S. cities had been surrendered to the “drug addicted” and “dangerously deranged.” He vowed to put people “in mental institutions where they belong” and floated the idea of putting them in government-sponsored tent cities.

His rhetoric suggests an interest in “retrenchment and a movement back toward institutionalization,” said Jennifer Mathis, deputy director of the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.

“At a time when the federal government is making historic cuts to Medicaid services and housing, no state can afford to warehouse people with disabilities in costly institutions,” Mathis said. “Locking up more people is not a solution.”

But the federal government has virtually no power to force states to change how they handle involuntary commitments, said Keith Humphreys, a former White House drug policy adviser who is now a Stanford University psychiatrist specializing in addiction. While the order may be more for show, it will resonate beyond Trump’s conservative base, he said.

“Lots of Americans across the political spectrum are fed up with homelessness disorder and public drug use,” Humphreys said. “And they are right to be. There has been a lot of public policy failure in this area.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... ive-order/

Another distraction that will impact so many people.

[ti-amie]

So Trump cuts Medicaid then Trump mandates a program that basically requires the existence of Medicaid to function. Sure Trump understands how businesses function. Sure.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... link-share