scharrison's blog

Tuesday Twitter roundup

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Yep, next year's R Primary is going to be carnival show, but the D Primary might be pretty painful too...

Profit before patients: Staffing problems plagued nursing homes before COVID

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It's all about the Benjamins:

The group has spent more than $30 million lobbying Congress and millions more through its state affiliates since 2010, according to a review of state and federal lobbying data by the Investigative Reporting Workshop.

The long-term care industry has long used its political influence to push against reforms that would have increased staffing requirements, training, transparency and oversight. Now, the industry is pushing for — and in some states, successfully passing — legislation to shield nursing home owners from lawsuits during the pandemic.

In the early 2000's my father succumbed to the latter stages of Alzheimer's, and we had to put him in long-term care. Most of the staff we dealt with were really good people, dedicated to easing burdens for their patients. But there was never enough of them on duty, especially after normal "business hours." And 2 out of the 3 facilities he was placed in had corporate headquarters in another state, so straightening out billing problems became a constant nightmare. My mom provided adult diapers to save money, but every month she was charged $500-$600 erroneously, and I had to make several calls to the headquarters each month to get that fixed. Back to the staffing problems:

Pandemicking while Black: The racial disparity in vaccine distribution is stark

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Exposing some deep flaws in our healthcare system:

Communities of color, which have borne the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, have also received a smaller share of available vaccines. The vaccination rate for Black Americans is half that of white people, and the gap for Hispanic people is even larger, according to a New York Times analysis of state-reported race and ethnicity information.

“People of color are getting vaccinated at rates below their representation of the general population,” Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the chair of President Biden’s coronavirus equity task force, said at a recent forum on the vaccine. “This narrative can be changed. It must be changed."

A quick perusal of the 10 worst states (highest minority populations, largest gaps) shows that 7 of them have not expanded Medicaid. It's not a big surprise, I kind of expected it. But it also demonstrates clearly that African-Americans suffer greatly from Republicans' refusal to expand. And it also goes a long way in explaining "why" they refuse to do so, although they would deny it with their dying breath. Here are some other factors that come into play:

Nazi for hire: Ukraine refuses to extradite NC man wanted for murder

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If it walks like a Nazi, talks like a Nazi, you know the rest:

As he fought with Right Sector in Ukraine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas, he mentored Jarrett W. Smith about fighting with far-right paramilitary groups in Ukraine. Smith, who also served in the U.S. Army, later pleaded guilty to explosives-related charges.

Federal prosecutors in Kansas said Smith spread information about bombs and recipes for homemade napalm on the social networking site Telegram, while discussing plans to kill a Democratic Party politician and blow up a media company headquarters. The indictment did not identify the media company, but CNN reported that it was the target.

First of all, this article describes him as an Army veteran. He was booted out after going AWOL, se he doesn't deserve that "veteran" designation. But even if he had stayed in and was honorably discharged, plotting acts of domestic terrorism makes him guilty of treason, another reason to not refer to him as a "veteran." But aside from all that, the Ukraine has no business protecting a cold-blooded murderer:

Charlotte balks at doing away with single-family zoning

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You'd be surprised at how many people have torches & pitchforks in their garage:

Charlotte City Council members on Monday hit the brakes on the city’s ambitious 2040 Comprehensive Plan over its call to eliminate single-family-only zoning.

The city has been holding public meetings about the plan for months. But as the deadline approaches to approve it, some council members are hearing concerns from residents who are worried about the changes.

Of course they're hearing concerns from residents, because anything you try to do will result in concerns from residents. Hell, I tried to change the route of our fledgling public transportation system so it would run through a densely-populated middle-class area (because people had complained there weren't any convenient stops), but I was told, '"We don't want those types of people coming through here." That being said, both sides of this issue have valid concerns:

Tuesday Twitter roundup

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Republicans got a hard lesson last night: "token" bi-partisanship (a handful of Dems) isn't going to cut it, they need to craft legislation that both sides can agree on.

Fact-checking the fact-checkers

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Stop trying to read their minds, there's nothing there:

Budd said about 9% of Biden’s stimulus plan “is actually going to COVID, meaning 91% of it is not even COVID-related.” In the first part of his statement, Budd accurately describes the proposed spending on efforts to combat the virus itself.

However, he’s wrong to suggest the rest of the bill isn’t related to COVID-19 at all. He may disagree with how much the bill would spend on unemployment insurance and other financial relief efforts. But the bill does aim to address the financial cost of the pandemic. His statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. We rate it Half True.

Understand, the second clause of that sentence is a conclusion of what is exposed in the previous clause. The word "meaning" proves that was his intent. Yes, people can draw the wrong conclusions from a set of facts, but that's not what happened here. The fact-checkers themselves concluded that Budd meant the following:

The fight against Climate Change is weakening

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Possibly a vestige of Donald Trump's irresponsible behavior:

New climate targets submitted by countries to the United Nations would reduce emissions by less than 1 percent, according to the latest tally, made public Friday by the world body.

The head of the United Nations climate agency, Patricia Espinosa, said the figures compiled by her office showed that “current levels of climate ambition are very far from putting us on a pathway that will meet our Paris Agreement goals.”

I do not envy Joe Biden at all. His plate is so full food is spilling over the sides. Not only does he need to get back to fighting Climate Change with a vengeance, he's got to drag these countries with him:

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