Private equity companies should not be in health care

Mike Ervin is a disability rights activist who has a monthly column in The Progressive magazine where he discusses disability issues, a subject that gets little attention in most mass media. He also writes a blog Smart Ass Cripple.

In the October/November 2024 issue of the magazine, he describes how private equity companies have entered the business of selling and servicing motorized wheelchairs. Two such companies Numotion and National Seating & Mobility (NSM) are owned by private equity firms and they have gobbled up a lot of the other companies.
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Is the food still good to eat?

In the US, much of the food that you buy in grocery stores have labels such “sell by” or “best before”. Buy those terms lack specific meaning and as a result, much perfectly edible food is thrown away because people feel that you should not eat it if the date is past. This is estimated to make up to 20% of the food waste or about 6 million tons of unexpired food is thrown away.

California has just passed a law that seeks to rectify this problem.
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Harris proposes that Medicare cover in-home nursing care

As people age, the question arises of whether they can live independently at home. Much research shows that it is best, both physically and mentally, for old people to continue to live in their own homes as much as possible, rather than moving into homes they are unfamiliar with in new areas with, where they don’t know anyone, and out of touch with their social network. But as they deteriorate physically, they may need some forms of assistance with some day-to-day activities, and this can be done with aides who can come in for brief periods to take care of things. and to check in on them.

But most health care insurance does not cover this and so families have to take care of it. But if they cannot find a way to personally do so, either because they are physically unable or working or do not live close by, that results in older people being forced to move into nursing homes or other assisted living facilities.
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Sally Field talks about her own illegal abortion when she was 17

The two-time Academy Award winning actor talks about how she became pregnant around 1964 when she was just 17. She was desperate and didn’t know what to do but a family friend who was a doctor drove her across the border to Tijuana to get an abortion which was illegal then. It was a traumatic experience and, as she says, we are now seeing a resurgence of the same conditions that are forcing women to undergo similar harrowing experiences.

It is a powerful testimony and I hope many people see it and realize how dangerous is the threat to women’s reproductive rights posed by creepy Donald Trump, weird JD Vance, the misogynistic GOP, and a US Supreme Court that wants to take us back to those dark ages.

Harris-Walz media strategy

If you follow political news, there have been some criticisms from some of those in the pundit class (even those considered to be Democratic supporters) about the paucity of media interviews given by the Harris-Walz team. Some of this is self-interested. They like to portray themselves as at least partly above the partisan fray and in trying to appear even-handed, they look for things to criticize and this is one of them. Other popular topics are her alleged lack of specifics about her proposals and how she will pay for them.

Noteworthy is the fact that creepy Donald Trump seems to get a pass on all these things. It is as if he is so out there, that there is no point in even trying to find fault with him or, if they do, it is to indulge in ‘both siderism’. A good example is this exchange between a so-called conservative Bret Stephens and a so-called liberal Gail Collins, two columnists for the New York Times.
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Georgia supreme court reinstates six-week abortion ban

Last week I posted about the ruling by a Georgia superior court judge who said that the Georgia law that bans women from getting an abortion after six weeks, which is so early in the pregnancy that many women will not even know they are pregnant, was unconstitutional. His ruling meant that abortions could be done until fetal viability, which is around 22 weeks.

Sadly, the Georgia supreme court has just overturned that ruling, thus re-instating the six-week ban.

Recall that Georgia is the state where two women Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller recently died because they were unable to obtain timely abortions. More women are going to die because of this new development.

That is not all. In Florida, the state is threatening criminal prosecutions for media outlets that are playing ads in support of that state’s abortion rights Amendment 4 that is up for a vote on November 5th.

False rumors about hurricane relief

Hurricane Helene has been devastating for the southeastern part of the US, especially parts of Georgia and North Carolina, leaving a trail of over 200 people dead, many still missing, and massive damage to property. This has necessarily put a strain on emergency relief efforts. Add to that Hurricane Martin is headed towards Florida and is expected to arrive on Wednesday.

But relief efforts have not been helped by false statements issued by creepy Donald Trump and his new sidekick Elon Musk that the Biden administration has been slow to provide assistance, suggesting that this is because the states involved are GOP-leaning. This has been flatly contradicted by the governors of those states.

The falsehoods started quickly and came from the top. Donald Trump, freshly landed in Georgia on Monday to see the storm’s devastation, claimed that the state’s governor, Brian Kemp, had not been able to reach Joe Biden to talk about disaster aid. Kemp had already said earlier in the day that he’d spoken to the president, who offered any help the state needed and said to call him directly.
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Harper Steele and Will Ferrell talk to Seth Meyers

I reviewed the excellent documentary Will and Harper a couple of days ago about the cross-country journey taken by Will Ferrell and Harper Steel to see what Harper’s experience would be like now that she has transitioned.

The two of them were interviewed by Seth Meyers on his show where they discussed how the documentary came about and their experience making it. Meyers worked alongside the two of them on Saturday Night Live (and made a cameo appearance in the film) and it was really nice to see three funny people who seem to genuinely like each other bantering with one another.

The tax games that rich people (and companies) play

Rich people and companies have all manner of ways to avoid paying any taxes at all, let alone their fair share, all because of so-called ‘loopholes’ in the tax laws. These tax evasions are facilitated by giant accounting firms, especially the largest known as the Big Four: Deloitte, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), and KPMG. These accounting firms are not just passively looking after the books, they are often key to setting policies.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reveal one such massive loophole that is being exploited and how Deloitte played a leading role in doing so.
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