But in America thousands die from gunshot wounds each year. People doing good, people behaving badly, people making a mistake, mass shootings, school shootings. Each a family tragedy. Each in a way preventable. (Compare our gun deaths with other industrialized countries if you doubt this)
Medicynical Note: You would think from the funeral service, the mass mourning of this good man, the attendance of dignitaries that all of these folks would be looking to find a way to decrease gun violence. You would be wrong. That’s America.
Putin is the guy Trump likes and wants to emulate. Trump’s surrender of Ukraine would be one of Trump’s first acts as President. Sort of like Chamberlain in the run up to WWII.
He not only attempted to overthrow an election, he’s setting up to do it again and then appease Putin.
It’s a disgrace that this reporter and others have been jailed in Russia.
And:
Medicynical Note: Trump and his top supporters really abhor a free press. That’s a fact.
It’s hard to believe that even Wyoming considers this as a possible “freedom.”
Even the delusionary originalists on the Supreme Court could not have thought this a rational idea. Though who knows?
Medicynical note: America’s blind allegiance to what a few Supreme Court Justices invent and interpret as the “founders” intentions is insane. In their hands it has become a dumbed down shortcut to indoctrination. Rather than think and use their brains and consider modern America, some justices/judges mumble something about the founders and then simply apply their financial and political benefactors biases to their judgments. Whether we are talking guns or separation of church and state or women’s rights or racism or opposition to gay rights or money=free speech our conservative justices have distorted America and its values into an unrecognizable mess. That this was even considered is an insult to intelligence. I’m not sure what it implies about Wyoming and it’s lawmakers..
“Olavarria assumed a mass attack was underway by an adult. In a sense, though, what actually happened turned out to be even more unsettling: A 6-year-old first-grader with a handgun had shot his teacher, Abigail Zwerner, in a classroom at the Newport News, Va., school.”
Medicynical Note: Our politicized somewhat corrupt Supreme Court did this. They are to blame. On one hand the court doesn’t hesitate to undermine and reinterpret the long accepted Jeffersonian concept of separation of church and state saying in essence that they know better than the founders. But on the other hand it believes it must not and cannot in anyway adapt the second amendment to modern society, because, you know, the founders. And in doing so is, in a way, responsible for this shooting and many other gun deathsin America.
It’s not rocket science. This court has worked to facilitate gun ownership. It claims this was the “intent” of the founders second amendment written during the musket era 250 years ago. And that they, the founders, would not have wanted availability, ownership or open carry of guns restricted. So, in modern day America we now have frequent mass shootings, school shootings, guns used in homicides and suicides and inexplicable accidental shootings. We lead the industrialized world in all categories of gun deaths, it’s not close. The crowning achievement of our gun laws IMHO, is this innocent six year old (I consider any six year old to be an innocent) bringing his mother’s gun to class and shooting his teacher, who almost died.
Yet, this court, the enthusiastic facilitator of our open carry gun laws, is the same group that has members who have complained about and demanded protection from peaceful protesters because they might be carrying a weapon. Because they feel threatened. That’s kind of pathetic when you consider the terror of kids nationwide being drilled on how to respond to a shooter in their schools— an event that was almost never an issue prior to this court’s gun rulings.
Medicynical Note: Congress is the tip of the iceberg. Our political system is influenced by rules that legalize corruption. The notion that money=“free” speech has made bribery legal by giving influence and access to large campaign donors. We also have a politicized radical Supreme Court. It too is compromised by a lack of ethical standards and the will to follow them.
The apex of our government corruption was the attempted coup on January 6, 2001, which is continuing. A group of Trump’s January 6th supporters, current members of congress, are trying to impeach Biden who is by all accounts only guilty of beating Donald Trump by several million votes in the last presidential election.
Trump refused to accept those results. From November to January of that year he encouraged and it is alleged participated in the scheme to interfere with the electoral vote on January 6th. On that date on TV he encouraged an unruly mob to attack congress and prevent the electoral college vote.
And now three years later Trump remains free while many of the perpetrators with the exception of those who are in congress, are in jail. It is these alleged unindicted congressional co-conspirators who are attempting to impeach Biden.
That’s America today. A shadow of itself with mass shootings everyday; a lawless candidate for president who led a failed coup attempt still running free and a congress (House of Representatives) that allows a fringe group to continue an attempt to overthrow our government. Lawless and ugly, American politics today.
“Over the last decade, insurers and employers have pushed more cost-sharing onto individuals and families. Now, squeezed by medical costs and inflation, more than 100 million Americans have medical debt and roughly the same proportion report avoiding a prescription because of it.”
Medicynical Note: Americans pay more for healthcare, by a wide margin, than folks in any other industrialized nation. We pay more for doctor visits, hospital stays, medications, medical devices, insurance, everything.
We are also the only industrialized nation where there is medical debt. Why? It’s not rocket science. In a for-profit healthcare system everyone involved wants to make……. a profit.
Why doesn’t the “marketplace” in our for-profit healthcare system work to control prices? Here, for a variety of reasons providers don’t have to compete on price, i.e. efficiency and value. And in any case, prices are not advertised or easily accessed. When you ask a hospital how much an operation or procedure will cost you will get a vague mostly inaccurate estimate or be told it “varies.” You literally can’t get an accurate total price for care. And lastly health care is not descretionary. When you really need it, you don’t have time, ability or motivation to shop for the “best” most economical option.
Adding insult to injury, one political party is planning make things worse and cut the already limited government supported health insurance programs if they win the next presidential election. They literally have no alternative plan for health care. Hint. That political party’s logo is an elephant.
Medicynical Note: Meanwhile in the U.S. our former President and current, oh so very devout, Speaker of the House continue to refuse to say that he lost the last election. This, despite the fact that he lost by several million votes; despite the fact that he also convincingly lost the electoral count; despite the fact that his attempted coup d’etat failed; and despite that fact that he lost over 60 cases in various courts contesting the election.
And that former president despite the fact that a Colorado Court recently ruled that he led an insurrection against the government of the United States is not in jail and is running again for the presidency.
What is more Banana Republic/Third World than that! (Apologies to all Third World nations)
Wikipedia notes that in the United States “Equality before the law, also known as equality under the law, equality in the eyes of the law, legal equality, or legal egalitarianism, is the principle that all people must be equally protected by the law.[1] The principle requires a systematic rule of law that observes due process to provide equal justice, and requires equal protection ensuring that no individual nor group of individuals be privileged over others by the law.”
The ruling from Judge “rejects a bid by a group of Colorado voters to disqualify Trump under a rarely used amendment to the U.S. Constitution that bars officials who have engaged in “insurrection” from holding federal office.”
“The judge found that, as president, Trump was not “an officer of the United States” that could be disqualified under the amendment.”
Medicynical Noter: This ruling is certain to be appealed but remember Trump is the guy who once said in 2016 “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
On January 6th 2021 he stood in the middle of the Capital Mall and actually did his best to shoot his Vice President (verbally at least) and skewer the constitution. So far he’s getting away with it thanks to a politicized legal system which is paralyzed by money, infinite motions, and biased compromised judges even at the highest level.
One would think that no one is above the law. Maybe, but apparently not now in the United States. Kind of pathetic.
I guess the founders, in their wisdom, as interpreted by Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and others have achieved their finest hour. We have guns available literally everywhere, for everyone.
Medicynical Note: I’m sure the writers of the constitution in the era of the flint lock rifle did not anticipate handy little Berettas and Glocks or the world of UZIs and AK47’s. Our Supreme Court in their wisdom believes the founders would approve of easy access by literally everyone to those weapons. And now American children bear the consequences.
Meanwhile those same Supreme Court Justices claim they need more protection from protesters who march near their homes because one might be carrying those same handy murderous weapons that are killing our kids.
I recently had an outpatient medical ultrasound procedure. It took all of 30 minutes and was performed by a skilled technician. The bill came to something like $3900.
I don’t know how to value such a procedure but apparently my insurer does.
Below is the accounting of payments and “adjustments” to the price.:
Medicynical Note: Pricing of healthcare in the U.S. is more opaque and difficult to understand than the pricing at a new or used car lot. My sincere apology to car salesmen for the comparison.
Actually, hospital pricing makes the car dealers look good. But, unlike a car purchase, healthcare is not a discretionary expense and when needed, shopping for the best “price” is impossible because of time constraints and because the bottom line price is obscured.
In this case my insurer paid a total of around $900. The rest of the balance, something like $3,000 was an adjustment/discount. My total co-pay was $50.
A person without insurance, however, would have been billed the full $3,900 and would have had to pay that total or enter into some type of bargaining.I may be wrong but I doubt that the hospital would offer the same magnitude of discountevenifa patient was savvy enough to ask for it.
In this case the medical facility used was one of the Catholic “non-profit” PeaceHealth facilities in the Northwest.
I’ve noted similar huge adjustments to bills ($25,000 bill discounted to $12,000 for example) in the past. These “adjustments” appear to be the standard operating procedure in hospitals in America.
Medicynic 