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@ellebfree
New(ish) blog
Here by unpopular demand: My political, economic, legislative and civics blog. Follow me for pearl-clutching political takes, experiences in orangising and information on US elections (mostly related to Georgia and Pennsylvania for now).
Ok so my kid had an ear infection, right? As kids often do.
The doctor scraped out a bit of earwax to have a better look inside.
I was sent a bill for $200 PER EAR for this 5 second procedure which I did not give permission for them to do.
That was key- they did not ASK me if they could do this "procedure". And, as I OWN a medical practice (it's me. The medical practice is me, sitting in my house on video calls) I knew to call them when this bill came in to be like "You did not obtain informed consent for this procedure, and it was not en emergency procedure. You had full ability to gain my consent and didn't. I'm not paying."
And the massive hospital who owned the bill said "yuh-huh you do have to pay."
And I said "I own a practice. I know these laws. I do not owe you money for this."
And they conducted an "internal review" and SURPRISE! Decided I totally owed them money and they had never done anything wrong ever.
And so I called my state's Attorney General office, and explained the situation because, as I mentioned, I know the law. The AG got in touch within a couple days to say they were taking the case and would send the massive hospital conglomerate a knock it off, guys letter.
Lo and Behold, today I have a letter where said hospital graciously has agreed to forfeit the payment.
"How not to get screwed over by companies" should be part of civics class.
Know your rights and know who to call when they're infringed on. This whole process cost me $0 and honestly less effort than I would have expected.
May this knowledge find its way to someone else who can use it.
This post is super cute and all but like.... This isn't practical advice. I called the AG???? And they got involved over a $200 bill. Maybe because you yourself are a medical practitioner. Not just your knowledge but also your status.
Civics class wouldn't help most people in this case because the AG will not take on all these cases and most people cannot afford an attorney in this instance or more importantly, the hit to their credit.
The issue is not education over the system, it is the system
I agree the system is a mess but I think education does matter because people seem not to know that this is actually perfectly routine AG office stuff. I’m not the only person who’s done this- this is just what they do?
Were they going to get into a lawsuit over my $400 bill? No obviously not. But they printed up a letter on fancy letterhead to say to stop and it worked. They followed up with me the next day to be sure, and so ask how much money they had saved me.
They use dinky cases like mine to track habitual misbehavior of large scale companies to build cases they could actually go to court over.
And because people are shocked- I never spoke to the AG of my state directly. He operates mainly by overseeing a whole crew of people. And this is what those people do.
This didn’t happen because I’m special because of my tiny therapy practice.
This happened because this is what the AG office is for.
“The problem is systemic” doesn’t mean “and there’s nothing you can do”.
This is a systemic problem but that doesn’t mean there are no resources to help.
Thank you for clapping back on this. I'm here to reinforce. Yes, you CAN call your state Attorney General office when an entity is doing something illegal, even if it's "only" for $400. You think they don't care a hospital is doing a crime because it's not a big enough crime?
Then you've been trained well by "The System".
Yes, that System you say can't be fought? Where did you get that idea, huh? Who taught you that "small" acts of illegality don't matter? Who made you think that there's no point in fighting back because it will all come to nothing?
Might it be the same entities that benefit if you believe all that?
Gonna pause and let you ponder.
Never. Ever. EVER.
EVER.
Let companies or corporations or hospitals or organizations or any business big or small get away with screwing you over without a fight. Maybe you personally don't win every fight, but you lose 100% of the time you don't try. You'll win more often than you think you will. I know cuz I've done it.
So have others. Attorneys General offices bring lawsuits against businesses all the time. They do so because citizens contacted them to say "someone is doing a crime" and the crime doers did not stop when told and got into way more trouble than if they'd just stopped. FAFO. The Find Out can't happen if you don't even bother to report the Fucking Around.
On that note, as OP said, please know your rights! And, in a situation where you don't but suspect something is hinky, ask! The people of the internet can help! So can librarians! So can many others. Find out what is and is not okay for them to do. If it's not okay, report them! See something, say something.
Don't let the System win by default.
Fight, damnit!
Additionally, pay attention to State Attorney elections! Here in Minnesota, our AG Keith Ellison has made it a POINT to go after slumlords, has created an entire UNIT in the AG office dedicated to wage theft, and gone after debt relief for people who were conned by those scummy fake universities. And despite MN being a blue state, one of his elections was a fucking NAIL-BITER.
Absolutely fight the system, absolutely go to your AG office if you’re being screwed over, and also pay attention to the people running for AG in the first place.
Government of the people, by the people, and for the people only works if the people make it work. That's you! You're the people.
"Don't bother doing anything because nothing will happen" confused cause with effect: it's really "Nothing will happen if you don't bother doing anything." Yeah, I know, it's a travesty that they don't hand you psychic powers when you take your oath as a civil servant, but until we fix that clear defect in our democracy: you're serving the public, too, when you report fuckers like this.
Not gonna leave this in the tags:
Suspicion of The System™️ is one of the ways The System™️ perpetuates itself.
If you believe The System™️ is only for Them™️ and not you, it will only ever be so.
Know the rules so you can make them work for you. Or better, how to break them in ways that hurt The System™️ and help you.
Illinois made history as the first state to outlaw book bans once and for all. Marginalizing people, ideas, or facts has no place in our state — and they have no place in a democracy. This National Library Week, we continue our commitment to free thought and free speech.
In light of the First Amendment, coming to this point is surreal.
Community members face retaliation for trying to spread the word out, a lawsuit alleges.
Ice operations have moved to harassing folk in Memphis
From the article:
The case in Memphis also challenges Tennessee’s Halo Law, which criminalizes anyone who gets within 25 feet of an officer after they’ve been warned to step away. Task force agents are invoking the law against observers who are not interfering, and sometimes forcing them back even farther than required so they can no longer see or hear. “It unconstitutionally burdens people’s ability to engage in gathering information and recording what task force agents are doing,” ACLU attorney Scarlet Kim told me. [...]
The surge has not gotten much national attention in part because Tennessee’s Republican governor supports it—he has said it will continue indefinitely. And the Trump administration has framed it not as an immigration crackdown, which would get a lot of press coverage, but as a crime crackdown. (Task force officers from other agencies are arresting people primarily for traffic violations and crimes, but they call DHS officers when they encounter immigrants.)
Demster also believes Memphis has yet to grab the nation’s attention because people like him who want to get the word out are facing retaliation. It’s all part of the task force’s plan “to operate in the shadows,” he says.
California is phasing in a program to give free diapers to new parents over the first few weeks of their baby’s life so on the off chance anyone has a new family member coming in soon and lives in California you might wanna see if your hospital is one of the first ones on the program. I think there’s 25 participating right now and they’re looking to expand it to almost every birthing center in the state in the next few years.
The republicans that were against this were like “we have an affordability crisis why are you spending state money on diapers”
Well maybe free diapers can help some of the people affected by the affordability crisis, genius.
A lot of local and state governments in the US are willing to do good things believe it or not. California and other states like Florida, Oklahoma, and Vermont also have universal free preschool and New York City and the state of New Mexico are in the process of implementing universal free childcare.
This is why I keep telling people to pay attention to their local and state politics. The US is a federation. The federal government has a lot of power but it doesn’t rule us directly. A ton of stuff is fully determined at the local and state level.
If you care about issues like providing services to new parents or better urban design and transportation or affordable housing or providing homes for the unhoused or quality of education especially you should get involved in local and state politics.
Really wish we'd, on the left, stop laughing and assuming this is ACTUALLY about strippers. I'd be willing to bet this ISN'T about some one with the actual job of stripper being somehow hired and sent to a school, that indeed DOESN'T happen - instead it will be used to target any female teacher who, like, wears a bikini on social media one time. She'll be called a "danger" to children and fired, as a cover for the fact that she's pro-queer or too far left or doesn't support ICE enough on that same social media. The bikini pic will just be the legal tool used to ruin her life
A friend helped me out by looking up the actual bill and YUP, it's to target queer people and sex education. NOT. STRIPPERS. STOP MAKING IT ABOUT THE FUCKING "STRIPPERS".
Anyone who thinks ladyshinga might be off track, here's the breakdown.
Actual bill name: Stop the Sexualization of Children Act.
Purported purpose: "to protect children from being exposed to explicit material in the classroom".
How it's sold in the press: "Ban strippers and porn from classrooms!"
Actual text of the bill: Expands the meaning of "sexually explicit content" to include the words "or involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism".
Not and. Or. Meaning "involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism" is in and of itself enough to be classified as sexually explicit.
Actual result: Illegal to mention the existence of trans people or admit to being trans in a classroom under threat of being prosecuted as a child sex offender.
I’ve got several questions in my inbox about why I would willingly live in a highly red state like Tennessee that is trying to take our rights away, and I’m sure I’ve answered it before, but it’s been a while.
Anyway.
I like the weather here and the mountains and trees and the biodiversity and I’m not going to let literal pieces of shit displace me from my natural habitat (the temperate broadleaf and mixed forest biome of the Appalachian–Blue Ridge forests.)
I mean sure, I could gross the border to Georgia or North Carolina and stay in the same biome, but that would just isolate me, put me out of a job, and my raccoons would be illegal.
I also don’t have to mask so much here, because folks at the grocery store will just randomly start telling me about the raccoons on their porch. It is good for metal health that I can mask less without feeling weird.
And finally, there are so many queer, trans, and POC folks who don’t have the luxury of just going to a new state. If all of us who have the ability to leave do so, where will that leave them?
This. This. This.
People need to stop acting like queer folks, leftists and vulnerable minorities living in red states all have the option and desire to move somewhere else. We aren't 'accepting our oppression', our very presence in our communities is resistance.
Did you know they're removing all librarians from federal prisons in Canada
Read more:
The Correctional Service of Canada is finalizing plans to cut all prison librarian positions at federal institutions, in a move that advocat
There is an open letter that you can sign here if you're a resident of Canada:
Book Clubs for Inmates 400-192 Spadina Avenue Toronto, Ontario M5T 2C2 OPEN LETTER The Honourable Gary Anandasangaree, Minister of Public Sa
@teaboot
Indigenous people make up 1/3 of the prison population of Canada, and HALF the population of women's prisons, despite making up only 5% of the population.
official EXTREMELY IMPORTANT library post
The legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
Deep fucking sigh. The SAVE America Act, or the voting rights overhaul that restricts mail-in voting and voter registration, requires presentation of a passport or birth certificate to register and a state ID at the polls, and now Trump wants to throw in anti-trans stuff just because, is in the Senate, and it's unpopular even with Republicans.
You know what you need to do. US citizens, call your Senators. ESPECIALLY if they're Republican. Republicans are balking and your voice is crucial to get them to stand strong.
Always remember: if voting didn't change anything, they wouldn't be trying so hard to make it illegal.
Updates February 11, 2026: The House has passed the SAVE America Act by a vote of 218-213; Rep. Cuellar (D-TX) was the lone vote that crosse
AS ALWAYS:
-Calling your reps takes less than five minutes
-5calls autoconnects you and provides a quick, easy to deliver script
-They usually don't pick up you can just leave a quick voicemail
-If you really don't want to talk to someone call at night
-They HAVE to listen to you, you can stutter, stumble, misspeak, cough, whatever
-You only have to provide your first and last name and zipcode
The government is asking for public comments on whether banks should be able to deny you from buying legal goods at their own whim (i.e. how they're cracking down on art, subscribestar, itchio) TELL THEM you don't want to be told how to spend your money.
THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO GET YOUR VOICE ON RECORD. AS OF NOW THERE ARE 214 COMMENTS AND IT CLOSES APRIL 27 (2026). LETS GET THAT TO 1,000
COMMENTS FOR US ONLY but please share
TLDR: AGREE WITH THE PROPOSAL BC IT PROHIBITS THE DENIAL
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington DC.
I'm not seeing a lot of posts with links to Minnesota Mutual Aid Funds so here's a post
Extra info was provided by a local friend I wont name because shit is scary for our Minnesota friends. But here's some valuable orgs and funds that are on the ground helping right now
MN Freedom Fund - bail org for arrested protesters
TCMAP - mutual aid project
Powderhorn Families - direct donation to families in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood so their rent and utilities are paid while they are sheltering in place during ICE deployments
Fe y Justicia - Latine aid organization that is managing rapid response in St Cloud
MN CAIR Minnesota - assisting with representation for Muslims in
Minnesota Minnesota Interfaith Coalition (ICOM) - accompanying people to USCIS appointments and on errands to keep them safe from ICE
MIRAC - THE immigrant rights org in Minnesota, doing a huge amount of rapid response and protest work in the TC
Sip of Silk - Palestinian and Salvadoran coffee house in the university neighborhood doing a direct food and hygiene products drive
Smitten Kitten - sex shop in on Lyndale and Lake doing a direct food and hygiene products drive
All of these and more here
A directory of places to give to as Minnesota defends itself from ICE occupation
Adding the Midwest Immigration Bond Fund to the excellent resources above. They provide bonds to individuals in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Kentucky, and expanded to Minnesota in response to ICE's aggression there.
Ways to Give > Legacy Giving In-Kind Giving More Ways to Give Sponsorships FAQs There are more ways to give to Neighborhood House Your inves
Neighborhood House has been here for 130 years actively helping immigrants, and they are FIERCELY organized. They're providing food support especially right now and could use any donations they can get.
If you're in Maine or Philly or wherever the fuck Vance claimed DHS is going next, I BEG you to look at the rapid response and mutual aid networks and how they've been built in Portland, Chicago, and the Twin Cities, and start building your own version NOW.
Download signal if you haven't already. Pick a resistance pseudonym. Make a proton email that has no indicators to your real name. Start buying and printing whistles and whistle zines.
Organize your school patrols and foot patrols NOW. Talk to your community and your mercados and your Hmong and Somali grocery stores, ask them what support they need. Get "ICE are not welcome here" signage for businesses and homes. Familiarize yourself with the difference between an administrative warrant and a judicial warrant.
Learn how to take down a SALUTE report. PRACTICE salute reports. Learn, memorize, and embody radio etiquette for rapid response work.
Pick your lane: rapid response or mutual aid-- you can't do both, because rapid response often puts you in direct contact with ICE. They've been taking down plate numbers and leading responders back to their own homes here in the Twin Cities.
Remember that being under siege is a marathon, not a race. Try to remember that while your neighbors are being kidnapped in their underwear, from their own homes.
Meet your neighbors. Attend your city council meetings and demand separation ordinances NOW. Tell your congress people and representatives not to give ICE more money.
Prepare yourself to see high school children being stopped and harassed. 5 year olds being used as bait for their mothers. Old men being dragged out of their houses in underwear and Crocs simply because all of them are not white.
Be flexible, be ready to pivot on a dime as situations change. Be ready to be paranoid. Be ready to be distrusting of every Texas, New York, California, or Illinois license plate. Be ready to be suspicious of EVERY out of state license plate. Dark sedans and SUVs with extremely illegally tinted windows. Unreadable or missing plates.
No one will save you, save us, or save our neighbors but ourselves. No one is coming to help or protect us but us.
Signal for Beginners
MN Community Response Resources
ICE Are Not Welcome Here sign
Private Property Sign
Know Your Rights Sign
Judicial Warrant vs Administrative Warrant
SALUTE Report Graphic Rapid Response Patrol Handbook
Legal Observer Basics MSP Whistle Hub
Whistle 3D printing File
Talking to children about ICE actions
OG Whistle Zine in ENGLIGH || SPANISH
MSP whistles which also have zines in Somali, Amharic, Oromo and Mandrin
Hmong Whistle Zine
Karen Whistle Zine
Hey, Angeleno here to add: look for or start mutual aid groups that buy out your vendors, jardineros, tradespeople, helping support the most vulnerable members of your community from making the choice to stay home and safe or provide for family. We’re still doing this here and it helps.
“ICE NOT WELCOME” signs are great for solidarity and breaking morale, but please make and help pass out signs stating a home or business is private property. Make sure your business has an area explicitly for employees only. What we’ve seen in the last week makes all this seem like sticking a post-it on a viper and none of us know where we’re headed now, but it’s easy to do and could make a difference. It’s made a difference here.
Stay safe and take care of each other 🫡
CALL YOUR SENATORS!!!
I don't usually make political posts on here but please call your senator if you're in the USA.
I think the solution to kids on the Internet is to have specific, kid friendly spaces on the Internet. Kids wouldn't come across "adult content" on YouTube if barbie dot com still had flash games and this is a hill I will die on.
Oh! Then I know the EXACT person you should be mad at! Michael O'Rielly! He's the one that gutted the Children's Programming Rules, which covered internet as well as television.
HELLO?
#so the death of the Saturday morning cartoon is THIS motherfuckers fault?????
Indeed it is! The FCC controls how much of broadcasting has to cater to children and that includes how educational that programming has to be, and exactly how much and in what way you are allowed to advertise to kids. That's why for the entire 90s and up to the early 00s, kids shows had shorter commercial breaks, and ads that talked about a website had to say "ask your parents before going online", and those websites had to be non-commercial--i.e. they could not be shops, and could not have any way you could spend money or were encouraged to spend money. That's why Barbie.com was flash games, and O'Rielly LIFTING that ban is why Barbie.com now takes you directly to a storefront instead.
If you're mad about Saturday Morning Cartoons, dark patterns in ads targeted at children, online protections for kids, or wondering why educational children's shows aren't as much of a thing as they used to be, get mad at the FCC and the person in charge of it who is gutting the Children's Brodcasting Rules (sometimes called the Kid Vid Rules), because those rules control all of that!
While O'Rielly is responsible for gutting the rules in 2019, he was replaced in 2020 by Nathan Simington as head of the FCC, and Simington resigned in June of this year. The post remains vacant as of the time of this writing (August 31, 2025).
And a side note: Things like KOSA and SCREEN and all those other censorship bills that use "think of the children" are not going to protect children at all; if you want to protect kids online, there is already a way to do that it's called the Kid Vid Rules and the FCC is the one that can update and change them to keep up with the times! It doesn't need a congress vote, it already got voted on in 1990!
wait who my governor
why tf is it still Brian Kemp
WE'RE WORKING ON IT
LOOKS LIKE THE NORMAL BORN AND RAISED MONTANAN BEAT THE WEIRD MAGA GAL FOR MAYOR IN MY CITY
My city's elections for mayor are required to be nonpartisan, which I love! So it's not as simple as R/D. There were four candidates, and my guy--a born and raised Montanan who is pro-parks and public development, downtown improvement, beat the MAGA "the police should carry AKs" gal (even the police chief was all, what?)
BY .6 OF A PERCENTAGE POINT. DO NOT EVER DOUBT YOUR VOTE MATTERS.
Eta: OH WAIT IT'S EVEN LESS THAN THAT. BY
200
Fucking
Votes
