Trump reveals he has not written a concession speech: 'Losing is never easy -- not for me'
November 3, 2020, 1:31 PM ET
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Hypersensitive Republicans who complain about 'triggered' liberals are the ultimate 'snowflakes': journalist
June 05, 2023
The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro is fond of saying, "Facts don't care about your feelings," while others on the right have a more in-your-face slogan: "F--- your feelings." Liberals and progressives, the argument goes, are easily "triggered" and need to grow a much thicker skin.
"Real Time" host Bill Maher, himself a liberal with libertarian leanings, believes that liberals per se aren't the problem, but argues that "wokeness" is a departure from traditional liberalism — and that Americans are sick of having to "walk on eggshells" because of "woke" people who are constantly offended. Maher, however, is also a scathing critic of MAGA Republicans he considers hypersensitive.
Right-wing hypersensitivity is the focus of an op-ed written by journalist Joe Berkowitz and published by the Daily Beast on June 5. Berkowitz emphasizes that "the same MAGA Republicans who once wore 'f--- your feelings' t-shirts to Trump rallies now exist in a perpetual state of emotional outpouring."
"Being a conservative these days sounds emotionally exhausting," Berkowitz laments. "At any given moment, you might find out, for instance, that your favorite light beer sent a brew to a transgendered influencer and get so mad about it you have to film yourself using that beer for target practice. Or you might discover —gasp! — that Target is selling t-shirts with little rainbows on them for Pride Month and simply have no choice but drive to the nearest Target, threaten employees with violence, write a song about it, and whine that the song is being censored.… That's just how it goes in the United States of Wokemerica: another day, another space that is not safe."
A common MAGA argument, Berkowitz points out, is that being easily offended makes liberals "unfit to hold the majority in a tough world that demands a thicker skin."
The journalist, however, observes, "January 6, (2021) proved once and for all that 'f--- your feelings' never meant that feelings themselves were frivolous signs of weakness, only that yours are…. The years since the insurrection have seen conservatives retreat into constant, shrieking victimhood."
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A woman in Tennessee paid to hire a hitman to kill the fiancee of a man she met on an online dating site, ABC News reported.
Melody Sasser is accused of transferring about $10,000 in bitcoin to a site named "Online Killers Market" to order the murder of the man's wife.
She'd met the man on Match.com and they had been for hikes together, ABC reported. But she soon learned that he planned to move out of state with the woman who he was soon to marry. That's when she turned to the "dark web," using the pseudonym "cattree" in her online request for a hitman.
"It needs to seem random or [an] accident. Or plant drugs, do not want a long investigation," Sasser posted on Jan. 11, police say.
The couple was also harassed by Sasser, who showed up unannounced at their new home in Alabama in the fall of 2022. "I hope you both fall off a cliff and die," Sasser allegedly told the couple. The woman the man planned to marry also reported that both sides of her car had been "gashed" by an unknown person.
When her target was still alive after a few months, Sasser messaged the website, saying, "I have waited for two months and 11 days and the job is not completed... What is the delay. When will it be done."
On May 18, Sasser was arrested.
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Hundreds of thousands of poor Floridians have been kicked off Medicaid in recent weeks as their Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, travels the country for his 2024 presidential bid and rakes in campaign cash from big donors.
Florida is one of more than a dozen states that have begun unwinding pandemic-era rules barring states from removing people from Medicaid during the public health emergency. Late last year, Congress reached a bipartisan deal to end the so-called continuous coverage requirements, opening the door to a massive purge of the lifesaving healthcare program.
A dozen states have released early data on the number of people removed from Medicaid as they restart eligibility checks, a cumbersome process that many people ultimately fail to navigate.
So far, the statistics are alarming: More than 600,000 people across the U.S. have been stripped of Medicaid coverage since April, according to a KFF Health News analysis of the available data, and "the vast majority were removed from state rolls for not completing paperwork" rather than confirmed ineligibility.
Nearly 250,000 people who have been booted from Medicaid live in Florida, whose governor is a longtime opponent of public healthcare programs. As HuffPost's Jonathan Cohn wrote Sunday, DeSantis "has refused to support the ACA's Medicaid expansion for the state, which is the biggest reason that more than 12% of Floridians don't have health insurance."
"That's the fourth-highest rate in the country," Cohn noted.
But DeSantis, who has said he wants to "make America Florida," appears unmoved by the staggering number of people losing Medicaid in his state as he hits the campaign trail. The governor relied heavily on large contributors to bring in more than $8 million during the first 24 hours of his presidential bid.
Prior to formally launching his 2024 campaign, DeSantis traveled the country in private jets on the dime of rich and sometimes secret donors, and he is currently facing a Federal Election Commission complaint for unlawfully transferring more than $80 million from a state committee to a super PAC supporting his White House bid.
"Families with children have been erroneously terminated, and parents are having trouble reaching the DCF call center for help with this process."
Late last month, DeSantis' administration insisted it "has a robust outreach campaign" aimed at ensuring people are aware of the hoops they have to jump through to keep their Medicaid coverage, such as income verification.
In Florida, a four-person household must make less than $39,900 in annual income to qualify for Medicaid.
The state's early data indicates that 44% of those who have lost coverage in weeks were removed for procedural reasons like failing to return paperwork on time.
The figures have drawn outrage from local advocates, who urged DeSantis late last month to pause the Medicaid redetermination process after hearing reports of people losing coverage without receiving any notice from Florida's chronically understaffed Department of Children and Families (DCF).
"One of these individuals is a seven-year-old boy in remission from Leukemia who is now unable to access follow-up—and potentially lifesaving—treatments," a coalition of groups including the Florida Policy Institute and the Florida Health Justice Project wrote to DeSantis. "Families with children have been erroneously terminated, and parents are having trouble reaching the DCF call center for help with this process. Additionally, unclear notices and lack of information on how to appeal contribute to more confusion."
Citing Miriam Harmatz, advocacy director and founder of the Florida Health Justice Project, KFF Health News reported last week that "some cancellation notices in Florida are vague and could violate due process rules."
"Letters that she's seen say 'your Medicaid for this period is ending' rather than providing a specific reason for disenrollment, like having too high an income or incomplete paperwork," the outlet noted. "If a person requests a hearing before their cancellation takes effect, they can stay covered during the appeals process. Even after being disenrolled, many still have a 90-day window to restore coverage."
The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that, nationwide, around 15.5 million people are likely to lose Medicaid coverage over the next year and a half—including 5 million children—as states resume eligibility checks made necessary by a system that doesn't guarantee healthcare to all as a right.
"Many people don't realize that they've been disenrolled from Medicaid until they show up at the pharmacy to get their prescription refilled or they have a doctor's appointment scheduled," Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told The Washington Post last week.
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