• About
  • Contact
  • Editorial
  • Policies
  • Archives
Angry Bear
Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.
  • US/Global Economics
  • Taxes/regulation
  • Healthcare
  • Law
  • Politics
  • Climate Change
  • Social Security
  • Hot Topics
« Back

Open thread April 3, 2018

Dan Crawford | April 3, 2018 1:35 pm

Tags: open thread Comments (17) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
17 Comments
  • Denis Drew says:
    April 3, 2018 at 7:16 pm

    Can veterans, under the VAs program, go to an urgent care provider? I’ve needed urgent care, not for life threatening conditions: bit my tongue for instance — couldn’t wait three weeks to go to a regular doctor’s office.

    Does veterans’ benefits cover ER?

    Big part of solution to vet care could be — should (must) be — coverage for immediate care.

    • run75441 says:
      April 4, 2018 at 7:04 am

      Denis:

      In an emergency, a veteran can go anywhere. The veteran must report it to the VA. If I go to the doctor, I am always asked if the VA will be paying for this visit or for any other care. I can get into to see the VA in less time than going to my commercial PCP.

  • coberly says:
    April 3, 2018 at 11:13 pm

    Denis

    i don’t know. hope i am wrong, but i don’t think anyone is going to take up your suggestion.
    long time ago there was big fight about whether agent orange complaints were legitimate, or due to “non service related” causes.

    i wrote a letter suggesting that part of the benefits a vet should get just for signing up and serving should be lifetime health insurance for all health needs… just to eliminate the haggling about whether an illness is “service related.”

    i had seen some have that haggling when i worked as a volunteer at a VA hospital. watched a team of doctors cross examine an older man (i am now older than he was) about a back problem…. he had been injured during service, but the doctors decided his problem was mental because he couldn’t answer what year it was… and of course, not service related.

    my letter actually got an answer from the white house. referred it to the VA who wrote me a short rude letter telling me not to bother them.

    today i learned that VA does not regard dental care as part of health care.

  • Joel says:
    April 4, 2018 at 7:13 am

    “today i learned that VA does not regard dental care as part of health care.”

    Yeah, my non-VA “health” insurance has never covered dental care. For some reason, in America, dental care isn’t considered healthcare. Very odd.

  • CoRev says:
    April 4, 2018 at 8:15 am

    Police fail again in another mass shooting. The youtube shooter was identified by her family and the police notified she was a potential danger to herself and others.

  • EMichael says:
    April 4, 2018 at 9:43 am

    Porn stars and escorts. Kind of interesting the kind of women these people have around them.

    “Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A Russian oligarch, a top Russian government official, and a high-end escort take a trip together on a yacht. Months later, after being thrown into a Thai prison, the escort claims she knows about secret Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. And she says she has tapes.

    It sounds utterly absurd. And, to be clear, Anastasia Vashukevich (who also goes by the name Nastya Rybka) may not actually have anything close to what she claims she does. She’s clearly self-interested — she’s trying to avoid deportation back to her home country of Belarus and is asking the US to extradite her in exchange for her information. She also has a history of bizarre self-promotional stunts.

    But Vashukevich’s claims have been getting a surprising amount of attention from mainstream media sources — and for some understandable reasons.

    For one, that wasn’t just any oligarch she traveled with. It was Russian aluminum magnate and former Paul Manafort employer Oleg Deripaska. That’s the oligarch whom Manafort wanted to privately brief and with whom he seems to have surreptitiously communicated, through an intermediary, while he chaired Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

    For another, it wasn’t just any top Russian government official who accompanied them on Deripaska’s yacht — it was Sergei Prikhodko, Russia’s deputy prime minister, a longtime Putin ally who has a foreign policy portfolio and is a very high-ranking official indeed.

    Finally, the idea that Vashukevich might have secretly taped their conversations isn’t just hypothetical. At least once, she clearly did it, recording the two men as Deripaska discussed US-Russia relations. She later posted the video on her public Instagram account, where it sat for many months, essentially unnoticed, until anti-corruption political activist and Putin critic Alexei Navalny discovered it and explained its import in a YouTube video, accusing the deputy prime minister of accepting bribes from the oligarch.

    Now, whether Vashukevich actually has 16 more hours of such recordings, as she says, and whether they are as damning as she claims, are different questions — ones we can’t answer yet. But this saga has already had major ramifications — it spurred the Russian government to block Navalny’s website just weeks before Russia’s presidential election, and to threaten to block YouTube and Instagram entirely in Russia as well.”

    https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/6/17083720/trump-russia-news-nastya-rybka

  • EMichael says:
    April 4, 2018 at 9:48 am

    Ya gotta watch the you tube by political activist and Putin critic Alexei Navalny. Subtitles but beyond bizarre

  • Denis Drew says:
    April 4, 2018 at 11:02 am

    Run,

    My question is whether a vet can go to an urgent care/immediate care place — in between ER and PCP? If you get poison ivy or a fever with a sore throat (need to be checked for strep throat) you can’t wait three weeks.

    When I was a kid in the Bronx every GP was immediate care — no appointments — you just went to the doctor’s office and waited in line.

    • run75441 says:
      April 4, 2018 at 4:41 pm

      Dennis:

      You can show up at a VA hospital ER also. To be more direct, you can go to those places in emergency and just report it to the VA as soon as possible. They will pay for it then.

  • sammy says:
    April 4, 2018 at 11:53 am

    CR,

    I was wondering how many “tips” law enforcement receive on a daily basis. The answer seems to be quite a few:

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/11/10000_potential_maniacs.html

  • coberly says:
    April 4, 2018 at 12:38 pm

    Joel

    i think the theory is that dental care is not hugely expensive and is a regular expense better paid out of household budget than by insurance.

    i wasn’t thinking about that when i questioned VA not counting it as “health care.” But since even “routine” dental care is likely to have a major and expensive impact on health if neglected, it might make sense to cover it with insurance… especially in the case of what amounts to “single payer,,” if not a reasonable partial compensation for military service.

    i never liked the idea that soldiers get paid by the hour*. even the Romans knew better than that.

    I was also thinking at the time that making VA full coverage would lead the way to “universal” single payer.. which is the only way to pay for medical care that makes sense.

    *back in the day when I was new to Social Security I was sent a comment that reported with approval the refusal of Congress, led by one Davy Crockett, to pay a general’s widow a pension. The congressmen all offered to donate privately to the poor widow, but felt that a government pension amounted to theft from the taxpayers.

  • coberly says:
    April 4, 2018 at 12:41 pm

    just to be a little more clear:

    there is a very widespread belief that any pension paid by the government is a “gift”, an act of charity at the expense of taxpayers.

    the concept that workers could bargain to receive part of their compensation for work in the form of a pension seems to be beyond the comprehension of those who think of all taxes as theft.

  • CoRev says:
    April 4, 2018 at 4:12 pm

    Sammy asks: “I was wondering how many “tips” law enforcement receive on a daily basis.” My impression is actually few daily complaints. My son works in the mental health field and with the police directly associated with this type of client. He has never mentioned these kinds of client issues, although he does talk about suicides, hostage, and family originated complaints, etc.

    In many instances these are known and repeat clients off their meds. It might be interesting if the local mental health/police community were allowed to talk about their experiences with this shooter.

    The Parkland FL shooter would clearly fall into the known/repeat client category, but the big differences is in the gun control laws between CA & FL at the time. CA has most if not more of the laws FL just enacted, with active confiscation of guns for those deemed a danger performed by a dedicated team of officers.

    I think it is an interesting study to compare CA’s efforts and the success of those laws. Clearly they failed preventing in the Youtube mass shooting.

    Do we know how she got her gun? Was it a legal buy?

  • Joel says:
    April 4, 2018 at 5:42 pm

    “Eleven hours before she shot up YouTube headquarters and then killed herself, Nasim Najafi Aghdam chatted with police.
    At no point during our roughly 20 minute interaction with her did she mention anything about YouTube, if she was upset with them, or that she had planned to harm herself or others … she was calm and cooperative.
    So officers notified her family and let her go.”

    ” . . . Mountain View police said they received no warning that Aghdam might do anything violent.”

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/04/us/who-is-nasim-aghdam-youtube-shooter/index.html

  • Joel says:
    April 4, 2018 at 5:45 pm

    Dale writes :” But since even “routine” dental care is likely to have a major and expensive impact on health if neglected, it might make sense to cover it with insurance… especially in the case of what amounts to “single payer,,” if not a reasonable partial compensation for military service.”

    Agreed. That’s why I said the current practice is “very odd.”

  • CoRev says:
    April 4, 2018 at 6:50 pm

    An often repeated side effect of stricter gun laws s an increase in sales before they go into effect. https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Gun-sales-spike-as-California-tougher-2017-laws-10823684.php

    Included is a summary of the CA 2017 laws:
    “New laws for 2017:

    •Limit whom gun owners can lend their weapons to; allowing only for lending to family members.

    •Create new criminal punishments for falsely reporting a gun lost or stolen. Lawmakers said the law is needed to fight gun traffickers who claim guns are lost or stolen when a weapon is linked to them.

    •Require gun owners, starting in July, to report a gun lost or stolen to law enforcement within five days of realizing the weapon is missing.

    •Make it illegal to possess a large-capacity magazine beginning in July. Previously, only buying or selling large-capacity magazines was illegal. The new law will make it illegal to possess magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Anyone who owns a large-capacity magazine will be required to destroy it, surrender it to law enforcement or take it out of the state.

    •Require law enforcement officers to lock their firearms in a box in the trunk when exiting their vehicles.

    Many aspects of new gun-control laws and the voter-approved Proposition 63, also known as Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “Safety for All” ballot initiative, will go into effect in 2018 and 2019.

    Beginning in 2018, for example, ammunition dealers who sell more than 500 rounds a month will be required to apply for a license from the state. Also, people who want to purchase ammunition will have to undergo a background check beginning in 2019.

    Also in 2018, the state will update a law that requires people who are barred from owning guns, due to serious or violent offense convictions, to provide the court proof that they got rid of their weapon.”

  • CoRev says:
    April 5, 2018 at 7:45 am

    Fossil Fuel depletion used to be the cry for the past generation, at least since the 50s. Shale Oil has dramatically changed that claim. here’s even another find: Shale Revolution 3.0: Bahrain Hits (Black) Gold With Biggest Shale Discovery In World https://www.thegwpf.com/shale-revolution-3-0-bahrain-hits-black-gold-with-biggest-shale-discovery-in-world/

    Has anyone else noticed the change in oil/gas reserve commentary over the past few years?

Featured Stories

Black Earth

Joel Eissenberg

Macron Bypasses Parliament With ‘Nuclear Option’ on Retirement Age Hike

Angry Bear

All Electric comes to Heavy Equipment

Daniel Becker

Medicare Plan Commissions May Steer Beneficiaries to Wrong Coverage

run75441

Contributors

Dan Crawford
Robert Waldmann
Barkley Rosser
Eric Kramer
ProGrowth Liberal
Daniel Becker
Ken Houghton
Linda Beale
Mike Kimel
Steve Roth
Michael Smith
Bill Haskell
NewDealdemocrat
Ken Melvin
Sandwichman
Peter Dorman
Kenneth Thomas
Bruce Webb
Rebecca Wilder
Spencer England
Beverly Mann
Joel Eissenberg

Subscribe

Blogs of note

    • Naked Capitalism
    • Atrios (Eschaton)
    • Crooks and Liars
    • Wash. Monthly
    • CEPR
    • Econospeak
    • EPI
    • Hullabaloo
    • Talking Points
    • Calculated Risk
    • Infidel753
    • ACA Signups
    • The one-handed economist
Angry Bear
Copyright © 2023 Angry Bear Blog

Topics

  • US/Global Economics
  • Taxes/regulation
  • Healthcare
  • Law
  • Politics
  • Climate Change
  • Social Security
  • Hot Topics
  • US/Global Economics
  • Taxes/regulation
  • Healthcare
  • Law
  • Politics
  • Climate Change
  • Social Security
  • Hot Topics

Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial
  • Policies
  • Archives