Assorted News on Various Topics
A collection of interesting reads, news, and articles from the last week.
Healthcare
“Fauci to Retire by End of Biden’s First Term” (medscape.com), “Biden’s chief medical officer (Fauci), who has also been director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, told Politico he is not planning to wait for COVID-19 to disappear before retiring.”
“Three Key Strategies for Combatting Nurse Turnover” | MedPage Today, Nat’e Guyton, RN, MSN, “with more than 900,000 nurses expected to permanently leave the profession during that same period due to retirement, burnout, or career change, over half of U.S. states (29) will not be able to fill the demand for nursing talent.”
”Another Likely Effect of the Roe Reversal: Higher Health-Care Costs” | The New Yorker, Sheelah Kolhatkar, “risk of dying in childbirth is significant, especially in the United States, where maternal mortality rates are shamefully high: the U.S. ranks as the worst of wealthy, developed countries by this metric, and fifty-fifth out of all countries, right behind Russia.”
“Health Care Spending Effectiveness: Estimates Suggest That Spending Improved US Health From 1996 To 2016″ | Health Affairs, Health care spending is a leading focus of attention and concern in the United States. The key question is, How much does the US spend per unit of health gained?
“HCCI_2020_Health_Care_Cost_and_Utilization_Report” (healthcostinstitute.org), Per person health care spending decreased 4% in 2020, the first decrease after 12 consecutive years of growth as described in earlier versions of this report. Average prices grew just over 4% in 2020. Cumulatively, prices were 16% higher in 2020 than 2016. Prices grew most for inpatient services (25%) and least for professional services (9%) over the five-year period.
xpostfactoid: How prevalent is underinsurance among ACA beneficiaries?, The average deductible on a silver-level plan on the A.C.A. exchanges rose to $4,500 in 2021.
Ukraine v. Russia
“The War in Ukraine Is Dividing Lifelong Friends” – The Atlantic, Ruth Madievsky, “distance and time seem like quaint obstacles to me now, compared with the pain of being on different sides of the war in Ukraine. “
“Ukraine says with new offensive, it can reclaim territory lost to Russia” — but is that realistic? | CBC News “Putin has repeatedly scaled down his stated objectives for his invasion of Ukraine.”
Substacks
“Lessons from Lidice” – by Steve Schmidt – The Warning (substack.com), “There is a grass field with a gentle slope outside of Prague. A village called Lidice once stood there. Lidice became world famous in 1942 when the world learned what happened there. The Nazis wiped it off the face of the earth”
“July 18, 2022″ – by Heather Cox Richardson (substack.com) “Maggie Haberman and Luke Broadwater of the New York Times reported that yet another right-wing lawyer was urging former president Trump to overturn the election in late 2020.”
“July 19, 2022″ – by Heather Cox Richardson (substack.com) “Today, the Secret Service said it had only one new text to provide and that any other texts from its agents around January 6 have been deleted and cannot be recovered. Agents were supposedly told to upload their messages to an internal agency drive before a general reset of cell phones, but many did not do so. A Secret Service spokesperson said that the deletion was not on purpose,”
“Hate Will Only Win If People Like Me Stand By And Let It Happen,” Rachel Bitecofer, (substack.com), My Conversation with Mallory McMorrow, “I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme because you can’t claim you’re targeting marginalized kids in the name of quote ‘parental rights’ if another parent is standing up to say no.”
Politics
“Black Districts Gutted as Suburban Flight Reshapes Congress Maps” (msn.com) (Bloomberg), Gregory Korte, “There are 22 majority-Black districts in the current Congress. Next year, there will be as few as nine. The lost seats are a casualty of highly politicized redistricting wars, with state-by-state showdowns bringing dramatic change to electoral maps . . . “
“S&P 500 rallies 2.5% for its best day since June 2020, Dow soars 650 points” (cnbc.com), Maggie Fitzgerald, Tanaya Macheel “Stocks posted sharp gains on Wednesday as recently surging commodity prices, especially oil, cooled off while the war in Ukraine continues. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 653.61 points . . .”
“Merrick Garland’s Memo on ‘Election Year Sensitivities,” (msn.com), Darragh Roche, “policy requires investigators to obtain written approval from the attorney general before opening any investigation into declared candidates for president or vice president, a presidential campaign or a senior presidential campaign member or adviser.”
“What the Garland memo really means for investigating Trump,” The Washington Post, Aaron Blake, “A party base anxious for Jan. 6, 2021-related criminal charges against former president Donald Trump has long been suspicious of the moderate attorney general. And the limited peeks they’ve gotten behind the Justice Department curtain have often left them wholly unsatisfied . . . “
Mylan EpiPen antitrust $264M class action settlement – Top Class Actions, “Mylan hasn’t admitted any wrongdoing, but agreed to pay $264 million to resolve these allegations. Pfizer agreed to a similar settlement of $345 million in 2021. Mylan like Pfizer has established a fund to reimburse customers and insurance companies.”
The Funnies
“Despite vitriol from his own party, Joe Manchin proves he was right once again” (msn.com), The Hill, Opinion by Joe Concha, “currently at 57 percent approval in West Virginia, Manchin’s record climbed to this impressive number in a deep red state by defying President Biden and almost all his party on everything from the multi-trillion-dollar spending boondoggle ironically called “Build Back Better,” blowing up the filibuster to federalizing voting laws earlier this year, and climate change legislation this week.
So much to be proud of here! Not a Democrat, or a Repub, or interested in his constituency This is an opportunist.
“Secret Service Tells House It’s Still Seeking Lost Jan. 6 Texts” (msn.com), Bloomberg, Chris Strohm, Erik Wasson and Billy House Secret Service failed so to provide Congress with any substantial new agency text messages from Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, 2021. It assures the House committee investigating last year’s Capitol attack it will continue searching for the lost material. The House needs to check Secret Service toilets.
Was Trump ‘detached from reality’ or calculating? Jan. 6 committee to cap case against ex-president
Boston Globe – July 20
Russia restarts gas shipments through a key pipeline to Germany, but the pressure is still on. Image
NY Times – July 21
Paul Krugman: I was wrong about inflation
NY Times – July 21
Well, y’know, covid disruptions led to food prices going up a lot and other shortages. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine doubled gas prices, and this was all over the industrialized world. That continues to have quite an impact, no?
Fred:
Dan and I am trying to kick start a weekly column which reviews events of the week. As you can see, I filled the Healthcare side of it. If you would like to contribute, I can add yu to this.
Sure. Add me to this, whatever that means.
Fred:
Go to “Contacts” and find my “addy.” Send me the internet links. I will incorporate your links into various subjects like “Politics(?).” I will add short one or two liner to them to explain (or you can) and also credit your contribution. I am thinking of every Wednesday for now. Dan will back you up too. We talked about this.
Thanks, but I must decline.
Fred
NP. I have not talked with Dan on other details yet. I am assuming just like the posts are, this will be topical according to the topics listed. If you listed a topic in the post, you could expand upon it in the comments section. Just clarifying a bit.
Angry Bear like other places is not supposed to be a free-for-all where you can post on other things except on open threads.
I have a tough time adding you to the posts if you can not get them to me some how.
Applying the Groucho Marx rule, I must decline to join any organization that would have the likes of me as a member.
Joe Manchin is a loose cannon Dem Senator, undoubtedly, but WVA has some history in Dem politics.
JFK wins WVA Dem presidential primary in 1960
However, he ostensibly took on the legacy of Robert Byrd, who died in office in 2010.
Manchin was elected to serve out Byrd’s senate term, had been WVA guv’nah, has been a WVA senator ever since.
Wikipedia: Robert Carlyle Byrd (November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010. A Democrat, Byrd also served as a U.S. representative for six years, from 1953 until 1959. He remains the longest-serving U.S. Senator in history; he was the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Congress. …
Having fewer majority Black districts might increase Black political influence. If it takes serious “packing” to get to majority level, maybe fewer is better. It would take more analysis (and explanation), but maybe something like percentage of Black American living in districts at some significant composition above their state average population percent. Maybe 133%. I’m not totally clear who the beneficiary is supposed to be. If it is an individual benefit, then “superpacking” would be good, even if group political influence might decrease.
Eric:
You are a bold “shit.” I can not tell if you are just plan ignorant or a protected racist.