Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

The NPR program, This American Life and Student Loans

Interview Request:  The NPR program, “This American Life,” is looking for people living outside the US to interview about their student loans.  They have done surprisingly strong journalism in the past.  If this is you, please send an email to: [email protected] If you are outside of the United States and have Student Loans, “This American Life” […]

No Free Lunch Ignoring Social Security’s Timely Cheap Fix Costs You

Dale Coberly Talks Social Security . . . For over ten years I have been telling anyone who would listen . . . about ten people . . . that the great “Looming Unfunded Twenty-Two Trillion Dollar Deficit! . . . stealing our children’s future,” reported in all the high-end news sources by all the […]

Jimmy Kimmel and Candidate Jimmy McMillan said rents were too high. What about drug prices?

Excellent take on Drug Pricing as written by Dr. N. Adam Brown at MedPage Today. In 2016 the 21st Century Cures Act was passed by the House. The intent was to make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to bring new drugs to market and short cut the clinical trial processes. Health Affairs had this to […]

Coronavirus update: the virus is back; everyone should return to their prior precautions and get boosted this fall

Coronavirus update: the virus is back; everyone should return to their prior precautions and get boosted this fall  – by New Deal democrat At the beginning of this year, I indicated that I anticipated only writing about Covid if something significant was happening.  It is, so let’s look at the data. Almost all State and Federal […]

Now I’m angry with Gmail

Sorry to be so boring, but now I am angry with Gmail. It seems to me that Alphabet has adopted Elong Musk’s approach to customer service, programming, and destroying value. I wanted to send an e-mail and surfed to gmail.com. I was directed on to mail.google.come/mail/u/0/#inbox screenshot below. Notice there is no otion to use […]

What makes ultra-processed foods so bad for your health?

Not too much has changed in the process food industry. Baloney, salami, hot dogs, sweet rolls, etc. are still the same. Process foods consists of any “raw agricultural commodities that have been washed, cleaned, milled, cut, chopped, heated, pasteurized, blanched, cooked, canned, frozen, dried, dehydrated, mixed or packaged or anything done to them altering their […]

Marking my Beliefs About Weapons to Market 4/N

I have written about my disagreements with the pentagon about military procurement here, here, and here, April 11 2022 I wrote “5. some relatively cheap weapons are highly effective. They include Javelin, NLAW, Stinger, and StarStreak shoulder fired missiles. They also include Bayraktar drones. They may include Switchblade suicide drones (not depoloyed yet). They have […]

Chrome Messes Up

Is anyone else having trouble with Chrome. I get a page not private error when I tried to open this page. I am now using Firefox. Chrome seems to have added a popup which, first of all, demands attention, but second of all causes older Chrome to correctly note that Chrome has become malware and […]

Impact of low-value care received by Medicare beneficiaries outside of their health systems

The topic is important as too much resource and funds may be being spent on care with little return. Eighty-one percent of combined low value care was by out of network clinicians of which 90% was by specialists. There is some issues here. If I can find more detail, I will revise this short blurb. […]

Giving Farmworkers a Significant Raise in 2020

How much would it cost consumers to give farmworkers a significant raise? A 40% increase in pay would cost just $25 per household, Economic Policy Institute, Daniel Costa and Philip Martin, October 15, 2020 A 40% increase in pay would cost just $25 per household . . . This was up in 2020 at posted […]