The Commonwealth Fundâs August 4 report says that the US health care system ranked dead last among 11 wealthy countries, despite spending the highest percentage of GDP (17%) on health care.
The report considered 71 performance measures in five categories: access to care, the care process, administrative efficiency, health care equity and health care outcomes. The countries analyzed in the report include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the US.
America ranked last on access to care, administrative efficiency, equity, and health care outcomes. We performed well in rates of mammography screening and influenza vaccination for older Americans, as well as the percentage of adults who talked with their physician about nutrition, smoking and alcohol use. But we had the highest infant mortality rate and lowest life expectancy at age 60, compared with all the other countries.
Eric Schneider, the lead author and senior vice president for policy and research at the Commonwealth Fund:
âThe US has two health care systems. For Americans with the means and insurance to have a regular doctor…reported experiences with their day-to-day care are relatively good, but for those who lack access, the consequences are stark.â
Our poor performance is nothing new. The US has been in last place in all seven of these studies that the Commonwealth Fund has released since 2004. This is another failure of our political system. Our politicians talk but never act.
On to cartoons. There were lots of Cuomo cartoons, little on Covid, the Olympics or infrastructure this week.
Someone should tell Cuomo the “I Grope Everybody” defense is a terrible defense. A good rule in life is not to touch people youâre not supposed to be touching. Keep your hands to yourself:
Gov. DeSantis explains Florida manâs definition of how to end Covid hesitancy:
The GOP also predicted Sharia law in America, the end of Christmas and death panels:
Remember when Obama wore a tan suit and Republicans went nuts? This week, Biden wore a tan suit to announce the big jobs increase. It was also Obamaâs birthday week. Itâs an obvious attempt to troll conservatives:
Ars Technica reported that on Wednesday, the USDA released a survey of the wild deer population in four states that found large numbers of the animals have been exposed to the virus that causes Covid. The study shows that the antibodies ranged from a low of 7% of the samples in Illinois to a high of 60% in Michigan. Overall, a third of the deer tested had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid.
This means that there’s a very large population of wild animals in North America that may serve as a reservoir for the virus, even if we manage to contain its spread among the human population.
Why check deer? The USDA is studying a variety of species to identify which may serve as hosts for the virus, and like mink, deer show evidence of wide-scale infection. It’s possible that these numbers came from a rare transmission by humans to deer, followed by extensive spread within the deer population.
Scientists think that understanding how the transmission took place is critical to determining whether the existence of a large viral reservoir in deer poses a threat to humans. But the truly bad news is that deer are notoriously anti-vaxx. On to cartoons.
Itâs not just deer, itâs the sheep, but Charles Darwin approves:
This is why the job is so difficult:
GOP thinks that the Capital Cops who testified in Congress were weaklings:
New disclosures about Trump and the election make it harder for the GOP to hold the line:
Conservatives ought to walk the talk against Biles. Gotta love that right-wing crop top:
Can Democrats move their agenda forward? Will we ever see an infrastructure bill, or a voting rights bill signed by Biden? How should Democrats deal with the voting restrictions that several states are putting in place to make it more difficult to win elections, and possibly cause the Dems to lose both Houses of Congress in 2022?
Even though most of the Partyâs voters say that their representatives in DC should be willing to do whatever it takes to eliminate the filibuster, Democrats in Congress seem hamstrung by what some in Congress say is a need for bipartisanship on fundamental legislation, like the filibuster and voting rights.
This hamstringing is occurring throughout America. Consider New Jersey: Their Congressional redistricting process is technically bipartisan; but like in prior decades, itâs in a completely partisan place.
New Jersey has a bipartisan redistricting commission. Leaders from each Party appoint six members to the 13-member commission. Those 12 members then pick a 13th member who serves as a tiebreaker, and a safety valve to prevent partisanship. That sounds well, bipartisan. This is the fourth redistricting cycle where this process has been used for NJâs Congressional redistricting.
The commission members picked an academic as the tiebreaker in 1991 and 2001, and a former state attorney general in 2011. Last time, the tiebreaking member sided with Republicans. Despite that, the resulting district maps worked out well for Democrats, as they currently hold a 10-2 edge in the NJ Congressional delegation.
New Jersey is a great example of how the Congressional map can change over a decade. The tiebreaker initially helped Republicans 10 years ago, but the demographics in those districts have changed, And Democrats now over-perform in their local Congressional races.
This time around, the 12 members of the commission were unable to agree on the 13th member of the commission. Both sides proposed a retired judge from their respective Parties. So now, according to law, itâs the state Supreme Courtâs job to pick one or the other. The court has until Aug. 10 to decide on the tiebreaker.
âThe State Constitution puts the burden of settling a tie-vote on the tiebreaker on the Supreme Court, who must now choose between the two candidates advanced by the commission: former Supreme Court Justice John E. Wallace, Jr., a Democrat, and former Superior Court Judge Marina Corodemus, a Republican….Make no mistake: this is an election. There are as many as seven voters. The winner will either be a Democrat or a Republican. Election Day is August 10.â
All Supreme Court decisions are elections, elections with consequences. And some decisions are more consequential than others.
In NJ, Democrats and Republicans have never agreed on a map without employing a âbipartisanâ tiebreaker. But since this the first time the two Parties couldnât agree on a 13th member for Congressional redistricting, itâs the first time the Supreme Court option will be used.
If this isnât unusual enough, the NJ Supreme Court will vote on the Congressional tiebreaker before the US Census Bureau transmits the census numbers to the state. This year, itâs delayed. It wonât happen until September 30, so the process of redistricting canât begin until then.
Even though three of the Jersey Justices are Republicans and four were nominated by GOP governors, itâs unclear if the Supreme Court will vote in line with their Partyâs choice. When state Republicans went to the Supreme Court to fight a Covid-related borrowing plan, the Court unanimously backed up a plan approved by Democratic Governor Murphy and the Democratic-controlled legislature.
This standoff is a reminder that even in states that donât have an outwardly partisan redistricting process, bipartisan disputes are hard to avoid.
Time to wake up America! In these times when there is little to no trust between the Parties, there is no such thing as bipartisanship.
To help you (and President Biden, along with Sens. Manchin and Sinema) wake up, here is a band from Russia and Ukraine, Leonid & Friends, featuring the Rox Bros, doing a cover of Steely Danâs âMy Old Schoolâ from SD’s 1973 album âCountdown to Ecstasyâ.
The song’s lyrics tell the story of a drug bust at Bard College (named “Annandale” in the lyrics) while both Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were students there, and how a female acquaintance had inadvertently betrayed them to “Daddy Gee” (G. Gordon Liddy, then a local prosecutor):
Steely Dan tunes demand absolute precision and attention to detail, and these guys nail it!
âIn the United States, this pandemic couldâve been over by now, and certainly wouldâve been by Labor Day. If the pace of vaccination through the summer had been anything like the pace in April and May, the country would be nearing herd immunity. With most adults immunized, new and more infectious coronavirus variants would have nowhere to spread. Life could return nearly to normal.â
More:
âWhen pollsters ask about vaccine intentions, they record a 30-point gap: 88% of Democrats, but only 54% of Republicans, want to be vaccinated as soon as possible. All told, Trump support predicts a stateâs vaccine refusal better than average income or education level.â
Wrongoâs patience is nearly at an end with these people. It will be fully at an end once vaccinations are available to the 12 and under crowd. Then, let the anti-vaxxers go one-on-one with the virus to see who wins. Wrongo will say to them, “mask up if you want to live, or donâtâ. On to cartoons.
GOP tries on a new vax message:
And even Fox tries walking it back:
And itâs not just at home:
McCarthy rolls his ball of dung back to the GOP caucus:
The Summer Olympics start next Saturday in Tokyo. Nobody knows how they will go, but the Olympic village just reported its first case of Covid. And Tokyo reported a six-month high in cases.
That doesnât sound like an auspicious start for an event that has already been postponed for a year.
The reason itâs taking place at all is money. NBC and the International Olympic Committee agreed to a $7.75 billion rights deal in 2014 thatâs designed to keep the Olympics on NBC through 2032. And there are hundreds of sponsors signed up for commercials during the more than 7,000 hours of coverage scheduled across its variety of networks from July 23 to August 8.
As Felix Salmon writes, the Olympics haven’t made financial sense in decades. Host cities spend billions preparing for the games. They inevitably suffer massive cost overruns, and go deep into debt, with a lasting legacy of little more than a group of buildings that are a monument to failure.
The 2008 Beijing summer Olympics cost $45 billion; its revenues were $3.6 billion, most of which went to the International Olympic Committee. Russiaâs Sochi winter Olympics in 2014 cost about $50 billion and had even lower revenues.
The Tokyo Olympics will cost about $28 billion and the decision to ban spectators means foregoing another $1 billion in ticket sales. So, while winning an Olympic medal represents the pinnacle of athletic achievement in most sports, the edifice that supports standing on the podium is crumbling. On to cartoons.
Biden may need to choose his words better:
Bidenâs tune is nice, the words are true:
GOPâs attacks on culture wars hit a new low. Itâs always the one on the left:
Recent books say the Former Guy attempted a coup. Republicans say not so:
Most Republicans are happy to excuse TFGâs behavior:
The Right is in hysterics over âcritical race theoryâ (CRT) possibly being taught in public schools. Theyâre using it as an excuse to try to take over local school boards.
Weâre seeing headlines saying, âRepublicans push back against critical race theoryâ. Social media has photos showing âparentsâ being loud and stupid at school board meetings. Youâd think they were protesting because their kids were being forced to eat vegan in the cafeteria!
But instead, what they were protesting is the remote possibility that their kids could be exposed to the truth: that thereâs a great deal of racism in Americaâs past. Sadly, most of those who are making a stink about CRT are either ignorant of what it really means, or simply want to whitewash racism.
In other words, while the use of the expression âpushing backâ makes it sound as if people are on the defensive against some odious assault; that isnât the case at all. These people are on offense.
When the press reports Republicans are âpushing backâ, in reality, they are launching a batshit campaign of disinformation and hysteria about whatever the subject is: vaccine policies, fake news, election fraud or, this time, teaching about the impact racism has had on our society.
They have conjured another imaginary monster to scare the American people and project themselves as the nationâs defenders from the fictional monster.
Timothy Snyder, author of âOn Tyrannyâ, had a column in the NYT looking at the current brawl about teaching US history. He sees American conservatives creating what he calls âmemory lawsâ, something that is familiar to students of Russian history:
âThis spring, memory laws arrived in America. Republican state legislators proposed dozens of bills designed to guide and control American understanding of the past. As of this writing, five states (Idaho, Iowa, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma) have passed laws that direct and restrict discussions of history in classrooms. The Department of Education of a sixth (Florida) has passed guidelines with the same effect. Another 12 state legislatures are still considering memory laws.â
And this isnât the first time. For many decades, conservative southern school boards have put great pressure on textbook publishers to favor “Intelligent design” over evolution/natural selection (and before that, the Biblical version of creation), and to downplay slavery and emphasize states’ rights in discussing the origin of the Civil War.
Should we âforgetâ the compromises in the US Constitution, like the 3/5 clause that southern states required in order to formally ratify it?
Should the reality that the zip code you live in greatly influences the quality of education you receive, also be ignored? These things are all part of the nationâs history. All should be examined so that we can continue moving toward the ideal of being a nation with liberty and justice for ALL. On to cartoons.
The Republican plan:
How their plan will look in the classroom:
The GOP slavery curriculum:
The Supremes remove another monument:
Memories of Saigon return as we leave Afghanistan:
âIf we look at the collapse in Florida, there is a simple lesson about infrastructure. A report has just emerged that shows that the building had many compromises â but presumably, the costs of rehabbing the structure were prohibitive. We have deferred maintenance costs for so long across the US and one can see the results in bridges and tunnels across the US. So, what is needed is more money, not the shell game of making something look like it wonât cost more money.
But real money means taxes.â
Terryâs right, the Florida condo is a metaphor for the failure of our legislators to legislate. Hereâs a view of the horrific damage:
A 2018 engineerâs report cited by the NYT found major structural damage to the concrete slab below the pool deck and âabundant cracking and crumblingâ of the columns, beams and walls of the parking garage. And two and a half years later, before a repair project was scheduled to begin, the building pancaked without warning.
The city released that report saying the damage was caused perhaps by years of exposure to salt air and water intrusion: (brackets by Wrongo)
âThough some of this damage is minor, most of the concrete deterioration needs to be repaired in a timely fashion…[in order to maintain]…the structural integrityâ [of the building]â.
Prior repairs to cracks were failing. Concrete on many balconies were also deteriorating. This building isnât a public property. Responsibility for its maintenance is on the shoulders of the owners, the condo association, which will probably declare bankruptcy and move on.
But the collapse is an object lesson for our DC pols. First, it reminds us that our public infrastructure is deteriorating and in need of replacement. Second, Republicans who lecture us about personal responsibility and that there is no free lunch, nonetheless are always fighting to cut taxes and limit funding for maintaining our infrastructure.
They would also support the right of the condo ownership to declare bankruptcy.
Third, it shows how important it is not to turn over public goods to public/private partnerships to build, own and manage, and then expect them to stay safe and intact. The economic incentives for private parties maintaining public goods will be all wrong. On to cartoons.
Wrongo went to his local power equipment repair place on Saturday. It was the first time he consciously didnât wear a mask in a public setting. Two weeks ago, he went with son Sean to watch a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. While we had seats in the vaccinated section, it was wonderful to be a human among a large gathering of humans, doing very human things.
Connecticut has a new Covid infection rate of less than 2 per 100,000. Our county has zero hospitalized Covid patients and a vaccination rate of more than 70%. Thatâs not true for much of Red America. An MD friend wrote this on her Facebook page: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âEngland just delayed their full re-opening by 4 weeks as Covid cases are rising again even though 80% of adults are vaccinated. 99% of their cases are the Delta variant nowand a vast majority of their new cases are in children and young adults who have not yet been vaccinated. 10% of hospitalized patients with the Covid Delta variant have been fully vaccinated (Pfizer is 96% effective in preventing severe illness w/Delta variant while Astra Zeneca is 92% effective). We are usually about 3-4 weeks behind Europe.â
As the  Delta variant becomes more widespread in the US in the next 4 to 8 weeks, it will be a real challenge for our poorly vaccinated states. No one really knows how to reach those who refuse to get vaccinated. But Wrongo no longer cares what happens to them. If they donât want to take basic health precautions, itâs on them:
If you are fully vaccinated, go outside. Be around other people. Bask in the sun. Draw energy from sunlight and the other people.
The Supremes upheld the ACA for a third time. Not everyone is happy:
Juneteenth is now a national holiday:
We should never underestimate the importance of symbolism. And as symbolic gestures go, who exactly could be insulted by celebrating the emancipation of enslaved people in America? A national holiday might not be as substantial as a voting rights law, but everything doesn’t have to be judged through the same lens.
Putin Summit wasnât fun for somebody:
GOP is not happy with the Summit. They fail to see the irony:
On Saturday, the NYT editorial board wrote about voting and vote counting. Read it if you have the time. The Times concludes that the House bill HR1 which will be taken up by the Senate later in June, is:
“…poorly matched to the moment…The legislation attempts to accomplish more than is currently feasible, while failing to address some of the clearest threats to democracy, especially the prospect that state officials will seek to overturn the will of voters.â
More: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âBecause there is little chance the bill will pass in its current form, Democrats face a clear choice. They can wage what might be a symbolic (and likely doomed) fight for all the changes they would like. Or they can confront the acute crisis at hand by crafting a more focused bill, perhaps more palatable for more senators, that aims squarely at ensuring that Americans can cast votes and that those votes are counted.â
The bill should also establish uniform rules for vote counting, vote certification, and challenges. It should also clarify Congressâs role in certifying the results of presidential elections to prevent the possibility that a future Congress would overturn a stateâs popular vote. That would prevent another Jan. 6. HR-1 doesnât address these issues.
The present situation has been years in the making with bad actions on both the part of states, and the US Supreme Court. Ultimately, SCOTUS will have the last word on voting rights laws. Democrats need to craft legislation that they believe passes the strictest Constitutional muster. On to cartoons:
The GOP is all about the air quotes:
Jan. 6 looms over America:
Bipartisan negotiation with Biden continues:
Biden ends drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge:
Why do Americans need incentives for vaccines?
They tossed Bibi overboard. Heâs still confident:
Both Houses of Congress have finally agreed to set up a committee to investigate the causes of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Democrats wanted a Congressional investigation to reveal the causes of the insurrection so Congress could pass laws to prevent it happening again.
Republicans had been blocking its creation. Initially, they wanted to investigate all political violence in the country, including that caused by “Antifa”. Their strategy was that could water down the committeeâs report and possibly obscure the role of Trumpâs supporters in the insurrection.
The 10-person bipartisan commission will be evenly split between the parties. The Speaker of the House and Senate Majority leader will together appoint five commissioners, including the chair. The House and Senate Minority leaders will appoint the other five commissioners, including the Vice Chair.
Commissioners cannot be current government appointees and must have significant expertise in the areas of law enforcement, civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, intelligence, and cybersecurity.
This might look like a victory for the Democrats, but it isnât. The Republicans can control the investigation through the committee’s subpoena power. To issue any subpoena, at least 6 members of the committee must agree. This gives the GOP the power to veto calling any witnesses.
It will probably result in a milquetoast committee report. The GOPâs inherent veto over the subpoena process is a flaw that potentially dooms the investigation to failure. On to cartoons.
Same as it ever was:
If the elephantâs trunk was like Pinocchioâs nose:
How businessâs view changed from stimulus #1 to #2:
Fox keeps the anti-vax message going:
Market for fake IDs seems to be the gas hoarders:
Will this ever end?
Israel is losing control of the narrative because there are only so many viral videos of brutality that it can dismiss by saying, âActually this is way more complicated than it looks.â As Caitlin Johnstone says, a nation that cannot exist without nonstop warfare is not a real nation, itâs a military operation with suburbs. This map should tell you that there is no possibility of a two-state solution. Palestine wonât be viable unless large numbers of settlers are removed, and that’s not happening:
More: Back in the Nineties, Netanyahu said that then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was âagainst Jewish valuesâ for offering to withdraw from some of the occupied territories in exchange for peace. He led a mock funeral at which his followers brandished signs with Rabinâs head in the crosshairs of a gun. And when Rabin was assassinated by one of Netanyahuâs followers, he said he never condoned violence.
Heâs also the guy who hasnât been able to form a government after four tries, whoâs also in danger of going to prison for corruption, assuming he canât somehow cling to power.
The US has to think carefully about what our role should be in this conflict.
