(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post, and a mighty shebeen sall-ooot to Labs avatar, the late Sister Rosetta Tharpe, for her recent—and criminally belated—induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which should be in Memphis, dammit.)

There seems to be one of those periodic Cruelty fronts sweeping across the country these days and, tracking it, we begin in Louisiana, where it’s getting tough to be getting old. From KALB in Alexandria:

Over 37,000 individuals would no longer be eligible for Medicaid under the budget passed recently by the Louisiana House, and 20,000 of those would be forced out of nursing homes, according to Robert Johannessen, the Health Department’s communications director. The proposed budget cuts health care for the elderly, poor and disabled heavily to compensate for the state’s projected $648 million budget shortfall. Johannessen said the remaining 17,000 individuals affected are those with developmental disabilities who reside in group homes and people who receive nursing and other services in their own homes. The Republican-controlled House failed to pass any revenue-raising measures during a special session earlier this year, and the Legislature cannot vote on any revenue-raising measures during the current regular session.

Remember when people thought Bobby Jindal was the great young conservative hope? This is his legacy, and that of his pet legislature, right here. And the current governor, Democrat John Bel Edwards, isn’t bluffing, either. From the Times-Pic:

It is possible that someone some of them would qualify for another type of Medicaid that isn't being eliminated, but many of the other Medicaid programs that could accept them would not cover long-term services, like nursing home stays, group homes slots or at-home health care, health officials said. This is just one of the health care cuts the state is facing because of a budget shortfall that is scheduled to kick in July 1.

In addition to scrapping these Medicaid programs, Louisiana would also be closing hospitals, eliminating out-patient drug treatment programs for Medicaid recipients, reducing prisoner funding, reducing mental health treatment for Medicaid recipients and slashing the TOPS college scholarship program to make the current budget proposal work. The House approved a budget plan with $1.8 billion of health care cuts -- including the elimination of these four Medicaid programs -- last month, and the Senate is struggling to find enough money in other places to pay for the programs. Senators, who haven't voted on the budget yet, say they can't fund them while also providing enough money for hospitals, prisons, law enforcement and the TOPS college scholarship program.

Where in the hell do they think these old folks are going to go, or do they figure they’ll just drift off into the bayous, like the elves going to the West, never to be seen again? I’ll believe that Republicans are serious about jettisoning Trumpism when they decide that, yes, occasionally, some taxes have to be raised somewhere. This is never going to happen again.

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We skip on up the Mississippi, hang a right at the Twin Cities, and we find ourselves in Michigan, where the Republicans in the legislature are actually knuckling Governor Rick Snyder into finding new ways to be cruel to the people of his state, even to the ones who don’t live in Flint. From The Detroit News:

The Senate on Thursday approved a $56.6 billion budget that would suspend salaries for Director Nick Lyon and other top officials in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services if the Snyder administration does not request and secure a federal waiver to implement Medicaid work requirements. The provision follows last month’s Senate approval of a controversial 29-hour weekly work mandate for able-bodied adults. The legislation is now before the House, and “we just want to send a message that it’s important for the administration to also take it seriously,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman Dave Hildenbrand, R-Lowell. The budget includes a separate provision directing the state to end expanded eligibility for residents who earn between 100 percent and 133 percent of the federal poverty level after they’ve been on the Healthy Michigan plan for 48 months, eliminating an option to extend coverage by completing healthy behaviors.

I’ll believe the Republicans are serious about jettisoning Trumpism when they stop treating poor people and sick people as though they were the true parasites in our land.

Elsewhere in Pure Michigan, the federal government is in court explaining to the resort town of Bay View that it can’t demand that only Christians live there, no matter what the Methodists think. From Interlochen Public Radio:

In 2016, more than 15 people filed complaints against Bay View with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, says Don Duquette, one of the complainants. Together they argue Bay View is violating the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act, which prohibits things like religious discrimination for housing. Bay View counters that it can limit homeownership to Christians because it is exempt from fair housing rules as a religious organization. But now HUD says Bay View has failed to prove it is exempt.

In the interest of fairness, and courtesy of Michigan Radio, here are Both Sides of this debate:

Prescott said some of her clients on this case have shared stories of being unable to pass down their Bay View homes to non-practicing children or spouses in their wills. This is an “obvious First Amendment problem," she said. Crossland said Bay View residents joined the community "knowing that those were the requirements and that they're very important requirements." Residents, he said, are familiar with the Christian mission and bylaws of the town.

Prescott said the town is currently operating as both a state and religious entity. "You can't have both," she said. Crossland said if the town becomes a "quasi-government entity," then they'll have to end religious programs. "The religious program area, which a lot of us consider to be the strongest and most important of the four program areas, would completely be gone, and I think that is throwing the baby out with the bathwater," he said.

Dude, your town is, you know, a town. It is a governmental entity. There’s nothing quasi about it. It’s not a monastery or Vatican City. It is a town in the United States, a country with a secular constitution that allows religious groups to build and maintain their own facilities free from government interference. The exception to the rule is that they can’t build and maintain a government free from government interference.

Meanwhile, in related news over in Wisconsin, Attorney General Brad Schimel took a little over four-grand to speak at a local meeting of the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is an anti-gay hate group. (Don’t ask us. Ask the SPLC.) For his part, Schimel conjured up an excuse for the AP that was last seen limping painfully off towards Lake Monona.

The attorney general fought back on Wednesday, telling WTMJ-AM radio that ADF isn’t a hate group. An ADF spokeswoman didn’t reply to an email Wednesday seeking comment. “I’ve never gone to a conference where there was frankly so much love,” Schimel said. “This is a Christian organization, kind of an alliance of Catholics and evangelicals, getting together to focus on issues about how we build better love in the world.”

He said the Scottsdale, Arizona-based group works to support religious freedom. As an example, he pointed to a lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court from a Colorado baker who says he should not be required to create a cake for a same-sex wedding. “There’s nothing anti-gay about (ADF),” Schimel said. “Your liberty and freedom ends at the tip of someone else’s nose. ... That’s the question we’re asking to be addressed in America. Just recognize religious liberty is not dead. Nobody hates anybody at the Alliance Defending Freedom,” Schimel said.

Some of the ways that the ADF has demonstrated the better love that it wants to build in the world is by telling its members that gay activists are pretty much like Nazis, and that gays and pedophilia are “inextricably linked.” So much love. You're oppressing my bigotry again!

Speaking of sex, and we’d rather not, all things considered, we have to pop down to Missouri, where Governor Eric Greitens is still hanging onto the job by his fingernails while his trial on felony invasion of privacy charges gets underway in St. Louis. This is the case where Greitens allegedly took photos of his lover in flagrante and then used them to blackmail her. Luckily, he will not be missed. From The St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

As a defendant in a criminal case that has cast a cloud over the Capitol since January, he is expected to be present when the trial is underway. Unless the governor declares himself unable to serve, dies or is impeached and removed from office, there are no provisions for the lieutenant governor to take over when a governor is absent.

Lawmakers, who are heading into the final week of their legislative session and are planning to consider impeachment immediately afterward, say the governor’s absence during the hectic final week of the session is of little consequence to them. “He hasn’t been here all session, basically,” said Rep. Nate Walker, R-Kirksville, who has called on Greitens to resign. “I had dialogue with him last session some, and he didn’t seem to want to listen to anything. It was more or less his way or not. This governor has really never figured out the political process. He’s a wonderful campaigner, but he hasn’t learned to govern yet. That’s a serious flaw that he has.”

Well, one of them, anyway.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, where Blog Official Calf Roper Friedman of the Plains brings us a tale of how simple compromise can bring simple people together in a complex time. From KJRH in Tulsa:

Monday he and other community members stood before the TPS Board of Education begging them to reconsider. "I honestly think they made a poor choice." They came up with a compromise, taking the advice and research of a Lee Elementary Ad Hoc Committee it voted with the 60 percent of survey respondents to change the school's name to only Lee School.

"When I heard about it I was just like let's do what we need to do to make it right," said Lee School Parent Holly Hill. Most Lee parents agreed the name should change. "I think it's great that we can move forward and keep that going, and keep Lee as the tradition it's been for almost 100 years now," said Lee School Parent Christian Tolen.

Yeah, brilliant. It could be Pinky, Peggy, Cliff, or Stagger.

This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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