Danielle Ofri, MD, - The New York Times
Stephan:
No one dislikes America's corporatized illness profit system more than the doctors and nurse who man this system, as this article written by a physician describes.
Doctors and nurses
You are at your daughter’s recital and you get a call that your elderly patient’s son needs to talk to you urgently. A colleague has a family emergency and the hospital needs you to work a double shift. Your patient’s M.R.I. isn’t covered and the only option is for you to call the insurance company and argue it out. You’re only allotted 15 minutes for a visit, but your patient’s medical needs require 45.
These quandaries are standard issue for doctors and nurses. Luckily, the response is usually standard issue as well: An overwhelming majority do the right thing for their patients, even at a high personal cost.
It is true that health care has become corporatized to an almost unrecognizable degree. But it is also true that most clinicians remain committed to the ethics that brought them into the field in the first place. This makes the hospital an inspiring place to work.
Increasingly, though, I’ve come to the uncomfortable realization that this ethic […]
2 Comments
Ron Brackett, - The Weather Channel
Stephan: Water is destiny, as I have been telling my readers for a decade now. If you live in one of these cities, I would plan accordingly.
Sitting in the Chihuahuan Desert, El Paso, Texas, receives only about 9 inches of rain annually. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty
It’s hard to imagine a city running out of water, but it could happen. Cape Town, South Africa, came perilously close to running out in early 2018.
Aggressive conservation and efficiency efforts got the city through April 12, the day taps were going to be cut off, CityLab reported. Then in June, the area saw average rainfall for the first time in four years and reservoirs rose.
Cape Town is not alone. Many of the world’s major cities face water stress. They include Mexico City, Tokyo, São Paulo, and Melbourne, Australia. The United States is not immune to water problems, either. Here are five U.S. cities, in no particular order, that could run out of water if the changes they have undertaken aren’t continued.
El Paso, Texas
About 1,000 people arrive in Texas every day. The state’s population is expected to double by 2050 to more than 50 million people, according to the Associated Press. With drought […]
No Comments
Steven Rosenfeld, - Independent Media Institute/truthdig
Stephan: I simply don't understand why Americans are not out demonstrating, forcing Congress to do something about our electoral system. Of course, to those in power they don't want to do anything that disturbs their hold on power and status because many of them would lose their seats if the system was cleansed. But why aren't the voters crying out? Maybe we have just gotten to a point where democracy is so poorly understood by an ignorant populace that they don't comprehend what is at risk.
As 2020’s elections edge closer, recent troubling developments are casting new light on an old question—what will it take for the results to be trusted?
The emergence of powerful forms of online political propaganda, the absence of progress in 2019 state legislatures on improving audits and recounts, and new revelations about the extent of Russian hacking in 2016—accessing more election administration details than previously reported—all point to the same bottom line: what evidence can be presented to a polarized electorate to legitimize the results?
To be fair, some policy experts who network with senior election officials—who have authority to order more thorough vote-verification steps without new legislation—say there is still time to act. But as 2020 gets closer, there are fewer opportunities to do so.
The question of what additional proactive steps could be a public trust counterweight is not theoretical. There are many signs that 2020 will be very fractious, starting with the emergence of new forms of political propaganda. The latest is doctored videos, such as one recently of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—slurring her words—that drew millions of views, or another
2 Comments
Oliver Milman, Environmental Reporter - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Keep the peasants ignorant seems to be the policy of schools all over America. Read this report in the British newspaper The Guardian, and see what is happening at graduations around the country.
Teen demonstrators on climate change
Schools and colleges across the US have been accused of censoring students who have attempted to use their graduation speeches to speak out on the unfolding climate crisis.
A youth-led movement called Class of 0000 is encouraging students to read out a prepared text at their graduation ceremonies that warns of “catastrophic climate change” and tells elected leaders to “have plan to get to zero emissions, or get zero of our votes”.
More than 350 students set to speak at ceremonies as valedictorians, or in other roles, have pledged to read the message, but many have complained that educational authorities have barred them from doing so as the global climate emergency is deemed too political to mention.
In the US education system, a valedictorian is typically a student with the highest academic performance in the class. This student delivers a farewell speech for the class at its graduation.
Emily Shal, an 18-year-old senior, was told by her school that the climate message was “too controversial” for her […]
No Comments
MATT FORD, - The New Republic
Stephan: I got an email today from a Republican reader who said, "You are constantly badmouthing Republican governance, but you never show that there is any difference when Democrats come into power. I think that because there isn't any, and you are just being partisan. I don't believe you can give an example."
Well, I beg to differ, and here is an example of what I mean.
Nevada Democratic governor Sisolak at a rally with Obama
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak received national attention last week for vetoing a bill aimed at reforming the Electoral College. State lawmakers approved a measure that would have added Nevada to the popular vote interstate compact, pledging its six electoral votes to whoever wins the nationwide popular vote. Fourteen states plus the District of Columbia, comprising 189 electoral votes, have signed the compact. Once the compact reaches the threshold of 270 votes, it would theoretically render the Electoral College obsolete.
Sisolak said he opposed the bill because it “could diminish the role of smaller states like Nevada in national electoral contests and force Nevada’s electors to side with whoever wins the nationwide popular vote, rather than the candidate Nevadans choose.” Proponents still weren’t thrilled. New York magazine’s Eric Levitz wrote that it was “rather dispiriting to hear a Democratic governor echo one of the dumbest arguments in contemporary American politics.” ThinkProgress’ Danielle McLean Read the Full Article
