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The Republican health care bill is continuing to receive harsh criticism, especially after they released a 142 page draft that proposed cutting almost a trillion dollars from Medicaid and to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The day the draft was revealed, protesters in wheelchairs were arrested for protesting outside of Mitch McConnell's office, and photos circulated the internet showing those individuals being removed from their wheelchairs and arrested.

Highlighting the cruelty of the healthcare bill, in perhaps one of the most heartbreaking ways possible, Ali Chandra wrote a Twitter thread explaining the costs and complications involved in her young son Ethan's rare medical condition, called Heterotaxy, a birth defect that affects the heart and other vital organs.

"I was immediately shocked at how cruel it was," wrote Chandra, in a comment to The FADER, speaking about the recently released draft. "And how it seems to reduce our children's lives to lines in a budget."

"I would tell [Republican lawmakers] that politics are always personal," wrote Chandra. "That the laws they write will have real, tangible consequences for living, breathing humans. I would ask them whether they would be able to vote yes for this bill if it were their own child's life or their own financial security [were] on the line. Honestly, I just want them to look me in the eyes and explain how they can justify creating and passing a bill that would say to my son that his life is too expensive to save."

You can read Chandra's full Twitter thread below. With the vote on the bill most likely coming this week, activists and everyday citizens are organizing to fight against the passing of such a harmful piece of legislation. For ways to contact your senator to tell them that you don't support the passing of the health care bill look to The FADER's guide to stop the Senate from taking away healthcare from 23 million people.

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This Twitter Thread Shows Just How Bad The Republican Health Care Bill Could Be - The FADER

President Trump whipped out an afternoon tweetstorm Saturday, railing against the Obama administration and boosting Senate Republicans for their healthcare reform efforts.

Since the Obama Administration was told way before the 2016 Election that the Russians were meddling, why no action? Trump asked at 4:28 pm. Focus on them, not T!

Almost 20 minutes later, he posted, Obama Administration official said they choked when it came to acting on Russian meddling of election. They didnt want to hurt Hillary?

The tweets seemed to refer to a Washington Post story about the Obama administrations knowledge of Russian interference during the 2016 election campaign and its passive reaction that failed to stop it.

At 4:50, Trump took up a new theme.

I cannot imagine that these very fine Republican Senators would allow the American people to suffer a broken ObamaCare any longer! he wrote.

Five GOP senators have voiced opposition to the Senates Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017. Passing the bill will require all but two of them to vote in its favor.

Finally, he wrapped up with his signature line MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! at 5:23.

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Trump rails on Obama admin and republican senate opposition - New York Post

To illustrate why she believes everyone should have access to comprehensive health care, Rep. Maxine Waters said she and her 12 siblings never saw a physician or a dentist their entire childhood.

I was born at home in St. Louis back in the day when it was hard for minorities to get into hospitals, she said.

To soothe cavities, Waters said her family relied on turpentine and cotton. If it was really bad, the tooth was yanked out using string and a slammed door.

The California Democrat, who spoke Saturday at a packed town hall meeting in Gardena, said she worries some Americans will be forced to do what her family did if the Republican health care bill passes. Senate Republicans have pledged to pass a bill before the July Fourth holiday.

Some GOP senators have said they want to review the analysis of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office before making up their minds. The budget office has said it will release that assessment early next week.

Waters said the existing bill would deny access to people with preexisting conditions, cause millions to lose their healthcare and penalize millennials.

We can do better than this, she said.

Supporter Gwen Bailey, 59, who works doing admissions at a hospital, said she worries especially about the people who could lose their insurance and the strain it would put on hospitals.

Its a lot that people would be losing, she said.

Inside, chants of USA! USA! could be heard from around 80 protesters who paced back and forth outside the venue.

Waters opponents were dressed in pro-Trump garb and called her Dirty Waters.

Chanell Temple said she lost her job a few years ago and hasnt been able to find a new one because she doesnt speak Spanish. She said Waters has destroyed the black community by supporting immigrants.

Waters criticized key members of President Trumps cabinet, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. She said Housing Secretary Ben Carson should go back to being a surgeon and that shell take him apart when he goes before the House Committee on Financial Services, of which she is the ranking Democrat.

Waters said some Republicans might vote against the health care bill.

She told the crowd that they deserve a president who will represent everyone. A woman in the audience stood up with a sign that said Impeach Mad Max and began walking through the rows and up to the foot of the stage, yelling that Waters needs to go.

Waters didnt skip a beat. She led her supporters in a chant to Impeach 45, repeating it over and over as her supporters turned to face the woman and narrowed in on her, clapping to the beat. The chant lasted more than four minutes.

A short while later, Waters closed by repeating a phrase that millennials, who call her Auntie Maxine, taught her: Stay woke.

andrea.castillo@latimes.com

An earlier version of this article said Rep. Maxine Waters had 13 siblings. She had 12.

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Rep. Maxine Waters speaks out on Republican health care bill at packed town hall meeting, as protesters gather outside - Los Angeles Times

When voters cast ballots for state representatives last fall, millions of Americans essentially had no choice: In 42 percent of all such elections, candidates faced no major party opponents.

Political scientists say a major reason for the lack of choices is the way districts are drawn gerrymandered, in some cases, to ensure as many comfortable seats as possible for the majority party by creating other districts overwhelmingly packed with voters for the minority party.

"With an increasing number of districts being drawn to deliberately favor one party over another and with fewer voters indicating an interest in crossover voting lots of potential candidates will look at those previous results and come to a conclusion that it's too difficult to mount an election campaign in a district where their party is the minority," said John McGlennon, a longtime professor of government and public policy at the College of William & Mary in Virginia who has tracked partisan competition in elections.

While the rate of uncontested races dipped slightly from 2014 to 2016, the percentage of people living in legislative districts without electoral choices has been generally rising over the past several decades.

About 4,700 state House and Assembly seats were up for election last year. Of those, 998 Democrats and 963 Republicans won without any opposition from the other major political party. In districts dominated by one party, election battles are fought mostly in the primaries; the winner from the majority party becomes a virtual shoo-in to win the general election.

Some states had a particularly high rate of uncompetitive races:

In Georgia, just 31 of the 180 state House districts featured both Republican and Democratic candidates, a nation-high uncontested rate of 83 percent. Republicans hold almost two-thirds of the seats in the Georgia House of Representatives.

In Massachusetts, just 34 of the 160 state House districts had candidates from both major parties, an uncontested rate of 79 percent. There, Democrats hold four-fifths of the House seats.

About 75 percent of the state House races in Arkansas and South Carolina lacked either a Democratic or Republican candidate. Under an Arkansas law passed this year, the names of unopposed candidates won't even have to be listed on future ballots. Unchallenged candidates will automatically be declared the winners.

Voting for unopposed candidates "just seems like an extra step in the process that we could eliminate," said the sponsor of the Arkansas law, Rep. Charlotte Douglas, who hasn't faced any opposition the past two elections.

She added: "You hate to say that it doesn't count, because any vote counts, but it's unnecessary."

There are far fewer uncontested U.S. House races. Less than 15 percent of the 435 districts lacked a Republican or Democratic candidate last year.

But some of the same states were atop that noncompetitive list: Five of Massachusetts' nine U.S. House districts lacked Republican candidates. Three of Arkansas' four districts lacked Democratic opponents. And in Georgia, which has 14 U.S. House districts, four Republicans and one Democrat ran unopposed by the other major party.

There are reasons for unopposed elections aside from gerrymandering. Some states, particularly in the South, have political cultures that place less importance on partisan competition. Incumbency also poses a deterrent to potential challengers.

University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock said the large number of uncompetitive districts in his home state may be due less to gerrymandering than to naturally segregated demographics, with Democratic-inclined black residents living in different areas than Republican-leaning white voters.

Yet Georgia's Republican-led Legislature has continued to tinker with the district lines they drew after the 2010 Census in what some Democrats contend is an attempt to lessen competition.

A 2015 law, which was recently challenged in court , altered the boundaries of 17 Georgia House districts, including two narrowly won by Republicans the previous year.

This year, Georgia Republicans again sought to change the boundaries of several state House districts, including a couple won by Republicans by single-digit margins last November. Some of the proposed shifts sought to move heavily black precincts where voters overwhelmingly support Democrats from Republican-held districts into ones occupied by Democrats. Although the bill passed the House, it died in the Senate.

Republican House Speaker David Ralston has said lawmakers were merely "trying to put communities of interest together." Democratic House Whip Carolyn Hugley criticized it as gerrymandering intended to create safer Republican seats.

"Every time our candidates get close to winning in these areas, then they come in to readjust them. It's the same as moving the goal post further and further back," Hugley said.

Several Democratic Georgia lawmakers teamed up with Republican state Sen. Josh McKoon this year to propose a constitutional amendment creating a bipartisan citizens' redistricting commission. But the measure never made it beyond a House or Senate committee.

McKoon said Georgia's current redistricting process "is horribly broken" and believes a commission could draw more logical boundaries.

"When you're drawing the districts with an eye to representing communities of interest rather than partisan strength, you're going to have more competitive districts," he said.

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Follow David A. Lieb at: http://twitter.com/DavidALieb

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Democracy with no choices: Many candidates run unopposed - Enid News & Eagle

Once, at least a few young people celebrated the origin of democracy in Thailand, but no more. (Bangkok Post file photo)

The vast majority of Thais may not have been aware that yesterday marked the 85th anniversary of the day their country first tasted democracy.

The efforts of those who risked their lives to achieve the stunning success of the bloodless coup of June 24 which overthrew the absolute monarchy and put Thailand on the path to democracy has been almost erased from the public's memory.

Even a plaque commemorating the events of Friday, June 24, 1932 mysteriously disappeared recently.

There was public outcry about that, of course, and after a weeks of intense pressure to investigate who was behind the missing plaque, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered a probe on April 19. But two months later there is still no word on how far the investigation has gone or where it is heading.

Umesh Pandey is Editor, Bangkok Post.

But, this is precisely what we can expect from authorities who are quick to crack the difficult cases, such as the spate of bombings across the capital. However, when it comes to simple cases like the vanishing plaque -- which few Thais even knew existed -- they are unable to get to the bottom of it.

June 24, 1932 was not just another day for most Thais. Now, more than eight decades later, the country's progress as it marches toward democracy has been as unsteady as when Khana Ratsadon -- a group of military and civil officers that later became a political party -- moved to usher in democracy all those years ago.

In the intervening years Thailand has seen nearly two dozen constitutions and as many attempted coups. Some were successful and others weren't. This has left the country weak in terms of its functionality, with the powers-that-be, especially the military, quick to take a heavy hand.

In fact, few countries have seen as many coups as Thailand -- a regrettable pattern that has stalled its attempts to settle on democracy. This has put it behind other countries that moved toward democracy at a later point in time but stuck with it. Some of those nations, like India or Indonesia, have even become regional powerhouses.

Thailand's role and importance on the world stage has also been gradually dwindling. The country that was at the forefront of the formation of the now 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is now mired in obscurity and notable for its lack of progress in areas like human rights.

However, Thailand is strategically located and its role as a key broker in regional geopolitics can be restored. It can continue to play an important role in the development of the region, but only if its leaders show the will and determination to let the country develop as it should.

As long as the military thinks it needs to intervene in political matters, the country will not be able to learn from its mistakes and will remain stuck in time.

As Thailand enters the 86th year of its transition toward democracy, one hopes the military government that seized power on May 22, 2014 will stick to its never-ending roadmap and restore basic democracy by next year at the latest.

Although there are indications that a general election may take place sometime late next year, history has shown it is not wise to take anything for granted. We had such hopes before, but the 2014 coup shattered many of those. Now, whenever the military regime makes a promise, we know we have to take it with a pinch of salt.

The recent decision by coup leader Gen Prayut to ask the public a set of questions about what kind of people should lead the country in the future took many pundits by surprise. Some have taken this as an indication that the roadmap to the election may be delayed again.

Hopefully, the spirit of those who orchestrated the events of June 24, 1932 is respected and we get the chance to choose who our future leaders will be.

After 85 years of stumbling on the path to democracy, now is the time to make sure we don't deviate from it. Maybe then Thailand can become a respected player on the world stage and also in regional affairs.

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Respecting the spirit of democracy - Bangkok Post