…because liberals rock
This week, a group of scientists from Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and other institutions published the final results of a randomized study of community-wide masking behavior in Bangladesh.
Their conclusion? Masks work, period. Surgical masks are particularly effective at preventing coronavirus transmission. And community-wide mask wearing is excellent at protecting older people, who are at much higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
“The ERs are so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting to facilities where they can get definitive care and be treated,” Dr. Jason McElyea said.
For the sake of society at large, something must be done about right-wing madness.
Texas anti-abortionists have passed a harsh new anti-abortion law in Texas. To circumvent existing law, they’re offering a “bounty” of $10,000 to any private citizen who files a civil lawsuit against any woman obtaining an abortion after ~6 weeks.
Opponents are encouraging others to clog up the Texas reporting hotline…by going here.
This year, the federal government ordered hospitals to begin publishing a prized secret: a complete list of the prices they negotiate with private insurers.
The insurers’ trade association had called the rule unconstitutional and said it would “undermine competitive negotiations.” Four hospital associations jointly sued the government to block it, and appealed when they lost.
They lost again, and seven months later, many hospitals are simply ignoring the requirement and posting nothing.
But data from the hospitals that have complied hints at why the powerful industries wanted this information to remain hidden.
It shows hospitals are charging patients wildly different amounts for the same basic services: procedures as simple as an X-ray or a pregnancy test.
While Republicans give lip service to respecting our veterans, they prove the validity of the axiom “talk is cheap”.
Senators this week left Washington for a month-long summer break after Republicans blocked consideration of a Democratic bill to expand voting access across the nation, arguing that it would give the federal government too much power in local elections that should be controlled by the states.
But some veterans argued that refusing to move the bill forward is actually an attack on those who served in uniform and risked their lives to defend the right to vote.
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
An excellent recounting of events of January 6, when right-wingers rioted at the Capitol.
