I simply am unable to fathom the rationale of people, especially
women, who will go to the wall to defend an unborn fetus, but sit on
their hands when programs such as CHIP are underfunded or forced to
shut down. And where are those who gather in their neighborhood
churches and sing, "Jesus loves the little children of the world...",
and never lift one hand in protest of the slaughter caused by the
multiple bombings.
And where are those outraged fetus defenders when those unborn
children come into a world that allows Wall Street to saddle them with
heavy student loans in order to attempt to gain an education that will
lead to a decent job.
Where are these fetus lovers when the Sperm Donors skip out and leave
the women to bear all of the responsibilities? When teachers are laid
off and school buildings become hazardous, and little children come to
school hungry only to find that the school breakfasts have been cut.
Following is an article about two monsters who passed themselves off
as human parents. Where were those outspoken defenders of Life when
these 13 children were being tortured? Where are they now?
Carl Jarvis
*****
A California couple, David and Louise Turpin, accused of keeping their
13 children captive in their home pleaded not guilty Jan. 18 to
multiple felony
charges. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
What started as neglect, officials said, became dangerous and
pervasive child abuse over the years.
If they misbehaved, the 13 siblings living in a Southern California
home would be tied to their beds as punishment — first with ropes,
until a child whose
limbs were strung together was able to wriggle free. Then, the parents
began using chains and padlocks, officials said.
Over time, the periods in which the siblings were confined grew
longer, and they would not be released to use the bathroom, officials
said. The family
dogs, however, appeared to be healthy.
These disturbing living conditions for years went undiscovered, police
say, until a 17-year-old girl escaped from the Perris, Calif., house
this week.
Her 12 siblings were freed soon after, and her parents were arrested.
On Thursday, David Allen Turpin and Louise Anna Turpin were charged
with multiple felony counts of torture, child abuse, abuse of
dependent adults and
false imprisonment. David Turpin is additionally charged with
committing a lewd act on one of the female children by force. The
couple,
initially arrested
on charges of torture and child endangerment, could face up to life
in prison if found guilty.
Each defendant is being held in lieu of $13 million bail — $1 million
per child, Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said at
a news conference
Thursday.
"This is severe, emotional, physical abuse," Hestrin said. "There's no
way around that. This is depraved conduct."
A public defender for David Turpin said outside the courthouse that
"our clients are presumed to be innocent — and that's a very important
presumption."
The lawyer, David Macher, told reporters that "the case will be tried
in court. It will not be tried in the media." But he added that
defending Turpin
against so many serious charges "is going to be a challenge."
[ Social workers allegedly failed to save a boy from abuse. Now they
will face trial in his death. ]
Authorities on Thursday provided their first detailed account of the
siblings' condition and treatment.
The siblings, who range in age from 2 to 29, were severely
malnourished, according to police. When they weren't chained they were
fed very little food
on a schedule, Hestrin said.
The parents would buy food for themselves but prohibit the children
from having any, with the exception of the 2-year-old, who was getting
enough to eat.
Sometimes, authorities said, the parents would buy apple or pumpkin
pies, leave them on the counter and let them go uneaten, prohibiting
the children from
tasting them.
One 12-year-old is so malnourished that his weight was that of an
average 7-year-old, and the 29-year-old female victim weighs 82
pounds, Hestrin said.
The siblings rarely left their Perris house and did not go to school.
Instead, they were taught at home, Hestrin said, but were forced to
sleep all day
and stay up at night, typically going to sleep at 4 or 5 a.m.
The Turpin children were permitted to bathe just once a year, Hestrin said.
If they washed their hands above their wrists, they would be chained
up as punishment for playing with water, he said. Other punishments
for misbehavior
included beatings and strangulation, Hestrin said.
On 1/20/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> © First Look Media. All rights reservedTerms of use
> WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 19: The U.S. Capitol is seen reflected in the
> windows of the Capitol Visitors Center as lawmakers work to avert a
> government shutdown January 19, 2018 in Washington, DC. A continuing
> resolution to fund the government has passed the House of Representatives
> but faces a stiff challenge in the Senate. (Photo by Aaron P.
> Bernstein/Getty Images)
>
> Republicans Plucked Out CHIP but Let a Slew of Other Health Programs
> Languish
> Aída Chávez
> January 20 2018, 8:16 a.m.
> Getty Images
>
> Congressional Republicans thought they had hit on a foolproof plan to force
> Democrats to vote for their spending bill to keep the government open for
> another month. Democrats, they reasoned, love government health insurance.
> And Democrats love children. So surely if they plucked out the Children's
> Health Insurance Program from the expiration pile and offered to renew it
> for six years, Democrats would leap at the chance — or at least not be able
> to resist it.
> "I cannot see the Democrats voting against the Children's Health Insurance
> Program," said Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama.
>
> The plan, though, proved too clever by half. It wasn't even enough to sway
> Republicans. Four of them, Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jeff
> Flake of Arizona, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky all voted
> against the measure, joined by 44 of the 49 members of the Senate Democratic
> caucus. It fell nine votes short, not remotely close.
>
> A major flaw in the GOP plan was its transparency. Strenuous effort to paint
> Democrats as heartless ran up against two basic questions that had no good
> answer. First, the program expired in September, so where was the urgency
> until now? But perhaps more importantly, CHIP has been a key part of
> bipartisan negotiations that involve a slew of popular health programs for
> the nation's most vulnerable people that also expired at the same time, and
> negotiators had long assumed all of the programs would move together.
>
> Plucking out CHIP may have only added to the uncertainty rather than
> diminished it. And it was a cost-free offer from Republicans: a new score
> from the Congressional Budget Office determined that by making it a six-year
> extension, it would actually reduce the deficit. Extending it permanently
> came with much larger savings, but that was apparently too much government
> health care for the GOP rank-and-file to swallow, so leadership went with
> the six-year bump. That wasn't enough of a bargaining chip to persuade
> Democrats to cave on the demands of 800,000 young immigrants — a demand that
> President Trump simply follow through on a DREAM Act promise he had already
> made.
>
> Yet the move will have real consequences around the country. There are only
> days of guaranteed CHIP funding left and states are scrambling to make sure
> children, many of whom are chronically ill, keep their insurance.
>
> The continuing resolution Congress passed in December came with a small band
> aid, giving CHIP a new $2.85 billion so the program could scrape by for a
> few more weeks. But it's not even the only critical health program Congress
> has failed to allocate funding for. A home visiting program to help out new
> mothers and their infants, known as MIECHV; community health centers
> nationwide; teaching health centers; and even a special diabetes program
> have all been forced to scale back services or in some cases, shut down,
> because of congressional inaction and disagreements over funding.
>
> Eleven states are on track to run out of CHIP funds before the end of
> February and the situation gets bleaker in March when half of states are
> expected to completely run out of guaranteed money, an analysis by the
> Georgetown University Center for Children and Families found.
>
> Community health centers, like CHIP, can't wait another month for Congress
> to resolve the funding crisis – these centers serve anyone who needs care,
> regardless of their ability to pay or health condition. The National
> Association of Community Health Centers said they were "extremely
> disappointed" with the House bill and warned "health centers and their
> patients are facing considerable damage with each passing day while this
> matter remains unresolved."
>
> "Centers are being forced to execute contingency plans resulting in staff
> layoffs and site closures, and are scaling back critical services including
> prenatal care, dental services and opioid treatment programs," NACHC said.
> "If not resolved soon, this funding cliff will result in a loss of care to
> approximately 9 million patients, closure of over 2,500 care delivery sites,
> and a loss of over 50,000 jobs."
>
> Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., cited the lack of funding for community health
> centers as a chief reason she voted no. "In addition to seriously harming
> our Armed Forces, this bill fails to adequately support Veterans or fund
> community health centers, and it leaves hundreds of thousands of Dreamers in
> a state of uncertainty. Enough is enough," she said.
>
> Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told reporters before the vote on
> the House-passed CR that "if you're gonna shut her down for 300 million
> Americans, you better have a damn good reason."
>
> "And you better understand what you're doing…checks to military widows and
> widowers will stop, we're have to close down community health centers, we'll
> have to close down opioid treatment centers," Kennedy said. "Nobody wants
> that, unless there's an emergency and we don't have an emergency, we have a
> manufactured crisis."
>
> Another health initiative, the Special Diabetes Program, expired in October.
> By failing to renew its funding, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
> said, Congress is putting promising research on new technology and treatment
> advances in "serious jeopardy." The research foundation opposed the House
> CR, and instead urged Congress to bring a two-year renewal of $150 million
> for the program to the floor for a vote. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and
> Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles created the program in
> 1997, specifically for Type 1 diabetes.
>
> There's nothing controversial about the Maternal, Infant, and Early
> Childhood Home Visiting program either. It's relatively small and lawmakers
> from both parties laud it as a model of evidence-based policymaking. Around
> 98 percent of participants showed improvement in areas, like maternal and
> newborn health, crime, domestic violence, and family economic
> self-sufficiency, according to data from state and nonprofit grantees.
>
> Home visitors provide a number of services to families, including guidance
> on topics like breastfeeding and safe sleep practices, and providing
> referrals to address postpartum depression, substance abuse, and family
> violence. Grantees reported serving about 160,000 families in fiscal year
> 2016, and many of the participants are young teenage moms or other
> vulnerable parents.
>
> "For the past year, as we worked with members of Congress to reauthorize
> MIECHV, they voiced support for home visiting programs, but what we need now
> is action, not more words of support," Karen Howard, vice president of early
> childhood policy at First Focus, said Thursday.
>
> "The farther Congress kicks the can down the road, the more children and
> families in this country will be harmed. If Congress can't act immediately
> to allocate funds, continuing uncertainties could cause programs to freeze
> enrollment of families, defer training of home visitors and delay
> operational improvements."
>
> The U.S. Capitol is seen reflected in the windows of the Capitol Visitors
> Center as lawmakers work to avert a government shutdown January 19, 2018 in
> Washington, DC.
>
>
>
> 👆
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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