On behalf of all staff and community members, may we wish all Americans a very happy Independence Day (and weekend!). Importantly, stay cool and safe!
And everyone, Americans and others (and assuming you didn't get an invite to Taylor's wedding celebrations), tell us what you will be doing and how you will spend the weekend!
I will try to keep the stories flowing to allow the Usians to party appropriately.
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Americans! Enjoy Your 4th July Celebrations
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by AnonTechie on Saturday July 04, @07:50AM (3 children)
A very happy 250th Independence Day to all Americans ... I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend with delightful fireworks ! All the best ...
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by turgid on Saturday July 04, @08:56AM
No kings, a democratically-elected head of state, all people born equal, freedom of religion, separation of church and state; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness... There are a few rough edges, but the foundations are good. When I visited a few years back, I was made very welcome. Happy 4th July. Toss another burger on the barbie and open another cold one.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Sunday July 05, @05:36AM (1 child)
Not a bad run really, nearly 250 years between getting rid of one mad king and electing another one.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05, @08:18PM
They say this one's health is declining rapidly.
(Score: 2, Informative) by pdfernhout on Saturday July 04, @01:35PM (3 children)
Currently here, but the quote changes every day: https://www.humorproject.com/ [humorproject.com]
"The most revolutionary act one can commit in our world is to be happy. (Patch Adams)"
Something Patch Adams posted on his blog around 2009, sent to me by someone else in 2009:
"(Patch Adams wrote:) I came home from Israel and found an invitation from a Republican congressman for Susan and me to come to their weekly theme breakfast hour to discuss health care reform. I was shocked and asked them if they had the right person. The two previous speakers for their hour had been Dick Cheney and Karl Rove (who I keep thinking should be imprisoned, along with Bush and Rumsfeld, for war crimes so that our country could maybe have the world's respect again). The event was packed with Republican members of Congress and interns and we felt very well listened to as we spoke of health care as a human right and the inexcusability that we don't care for all people, equally. We suggested that we must immediately have single payer (see Congressman Conyer's HR 676 bill), and let the costly expenses of the effort to pay for our vulgar greedy uncaring system be an invitation to spark real reform (since all the media and spokespeople of any party do not address health care or reform, only the paying for this horrible system). We saw their heads nod as we mentioned many things never addressed in discussions on health care reform like: (1) burnout, (2) enough time with patients, (3) hierarchy of money and power-over in medical settings, (4) malpractice, (5) wellness, (6) palliative care, (7) social, educational, environmental health problems, (8) hegemony of pharmaceutical companies (9) cost of medical education, (10) complimentary care. We then offered Republicans solutions like: (1) stimulating re-creation of old community hospital ideas with 21st- century form—and use them to help re-create community; (2) asking for 1000 models for them to fund that would create local facilities but not consider them unless they cut 50% of the cost; (3) scattered comprehensive wellness centers; (4) Cuban-style medical schools where schooling is free for students who will go out and serve underserved communities (we like that these could be placed in big cities connected to the large dumping ground hospitals of that city)."
More recent stuff related to Patch Adams on How to have a "revolution" in US health care:
https://www.patchadams.org/re-designing-us-health-care-system/ [patchadams.org]
====
Re-Designing the US Health Care System: Think Universally, Design Locally
by Dr. Susan Parenti
This paper picks up the dialogue started by Paul Starr with The Social Transformation of American Medicine, in which he noted “The dream of reason did not take power into account.” With gratitude to Patch Adams MD, Gesundheit! Institute, for conversations on health care system design and political activism.
We see two positions that already exist in the dialogue around the crisis in the US healthcare delivery system.
The first position is the status quo: the health care system as developed by entrenched health system industries (hospital, insurance, pharmaceutical, information technologies—with government primarily acting as their watchdog). The medical profession of doctor—its history of professional sovereignty—now no longer provides the bottom line in health care. The bottom line belongs to a different bottom: Big Business.
The second position is single-payer/universal coverage, functioning as a challenge (perturbation) to Big Business–dominated health care. Single-payer’s premise fundamentally differs from corporate-controlled health care: access to health care is a right for all people (a premise we whole-heartedly share). It proposes a system of health care financing/delivery that alters the financial incentives alive in American health care and provides access for all: one payer, single tier, universal access.
If enacted in legislation, single payer/universal coverage would be a crucial macro level policy change in the US. While single-payer is a much needed mechanism that would enable all people to have access to health care, it is not meant to serve as a design of the whole system, itself.
We add a third position—whole system design—our frontline, can-do position: Do it local, do it now, do it small, link with all.
Whole system design considers the big question, “What is it we want in a health care delivery system?” and then applies can-do-ism to the next question, “What can we do, now?” These questions unearth possibilities for change in the whole that are often neglected by focus on the part (funding/access).
Meant to work side-by-side with single payer/universal coverage efforts, whole system design is a call to think universally, design locally: to design local contexts that protect the distinguishing core of the health care relation—that simple relation between doctor/nurse and patient, with some tools. We need to design so that the health care relation is protected by the health care system.
We want to wrest neglected aspects of health care delivery out of the control of market capital, into designs of pockets of care. These local pockets of variety would run parallel to mainstream market care and be loosely linked with one another to act as perturbations to the system.
This brief position paper, and its more fulsome 30-page background paper, describes this third position and the contexts of our thinking. ...
We take our cues from an historical analysis made by economist Robert Kuttner, reintroducing the term ‘passive intervention’. Kuttner writes:
"In 1965, armed with a rare working majority, the Democrats were able to enact both Medicare and Medicaid. . . Though the AMA was implacably opposed to the whole idea, Congress and the Johnson administration offered doctors a costly sweetener—and found sugar coating for the hospital, insurance, and drug industries as well: The government would do almost nothing to alter the existing structure of the private health care system. It would simply pay the cost of bringing new subscribers into it—creating new profit opportunities for these powerful industries… All this created a huge new market for the medical-industrial complex, and increased the inflationary bias. My colleague Paul Starr terms this characteristically American approach to social reform ‘passive intervention’. Organized business has immense political power in the United States. Occasionally, reformers muster enough countervailing power to extend social benefits to new groups of citizens—but not to challenge the structural power of dominant industries. This brand of reform, then, comes at a terrible price, since it reflects and inflates existing inefficiencies. In the 1960’s, this failure to challenge entrenched provider groups and the structure of their system led the Johnson administration to enact a medical-insurance program with a profound inflationary bias. In the 1990s, the same failure to confront entrenched industry structures led the weaker Clinton administration to a spectacular political failure. "
... Talking Points ...
4. We rename the health care system the ‘disease management system’. When a person gets into the medical system, that person is getting disease management not health care. Disease management is a far smaller domain than the domain of health care. Health care is a huge domain of interactions, happening primarily outside the medical system, available to all, only not organized. John Glick, MD says, “Every moment is a health care moment”. When does health care start?—when you decide to take a walk early in the morning? When you feel like you’re getting a cold and a friend gives you echinacea drops in a cup of tea?
What is health care at its indispensible minimum? Against the noise tunnel of the expensive and complicated disease management system we need to keep in mind the simplicity of a desirable health care relation: it’s a bi-directional relation of care, always available, always findable—as a matter of fact you don’t have to look for it, it looks for you. One has a sense of being inside caring, of being nested in care—there’s someone to turn to, to talk to, they suggest a few things to do, you do them, you turn to them again.
The protection of this simple relation, of its friendly permeating steadfast thoughtful presence, is the primary function of any system/culture built around it. Thus the system/culture would be so designed that this relation is either freely offered or offered at a low cost (supported by communal and social structures in a variety of ways); that the formation of any bureaucracy around it would be a sign of malfunctioning or predators, and steps would be taken to eliminate that; that creativity and variety would go into the design of the supporting nest into which the relation is put, and into the relation itself. So einfach. ...
====
Surprisingly as I reflect on it now, I am finding this sort of "Patch Adams" health care on the web, on Reddit and YouTube comments and elsewhere (even here on SoylentNews occasionally). Not perfect, and not "hands-on", but much better than not having such information and not being able to contribute to it too via comments myself (like this one).
Random recent examples that have helped inform and/or inspire me:
"Not sure what doctor to follow [on a plant-based diet]"
https://www.reddit.com/r/PlantBasedDiet/comments/xs4egn/dont_know_which_dr_to_follow/ [reddit.com]
"What a Fan Can Kill You [on wet bulb temperature]"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc_Y9Fb-g5s [youtube.com]
"McDougall's Medicine: Colonoscopy - A Test to Refuse"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA_qUxC-ucA [youtube.com]
"Whole Food Plant-Based Doesn't Work Like They Say | 4 Year Update"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuiOPPubJPU [youtube.com]
Websites:
https://www.drmcdougallforums.com/ [drmcdougallforums.com]
https://www.wholeearthcenter.com/community-programs [wholeearthcenter.com]
https://recipes.eatingforyourhealth.org/ [eatingforyourhealth.org]
https://www.deadlymedicines.dk/deadly-psychiatry-and-organised-denial/ [deadlymedicines.dk]
https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/sciatica-gentle-stretches-to-help-relieve-pain-and-improve-mobility [harvard.edu]
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
(Score: 2) by pdfernhout on Saturday July 04, @01:43PM (1 child)
One more random Patch-Adams-like "health" search and link I was looking at yesterday:
"how to cook potatoes dr mcdougall"
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+to+cook+potatoes+dr+mcdougall [duckduckgo.com]
"Roasted Potatoes"
https://www.drmcdougall.com/recipes/roasted-potatoes/ [drmcdougall.com]
"Directions
1 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2 Scrub the potatoes and cut them into wedges or chunks, depending on their size. Toss with seasonings of your choice (I like various no-salt seasoning mixtures) and place in a single layer on a non-stick baking sheet (or one lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking liner). Bake for 30-40 minutes until potatoes are tender."
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
(Score: 2) by pdfernhout on Saturday July 04, @08:43PM
I ended up using an Instant pot air fryer instead of a toaster oven (to reduce indoor heating in the summer) to cook 1 inch or so cube potatoes and got them cooked in about 15 minutes. They came out great -- probably a little sweet though as the potatoes have been in the fridge for weeks.
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
(Score: 2, Funny) by srobert on Saturday July 04, @02:09PM
YOU SHUT THE F*** UP!
(Score: 4, Funny) by looorg on Saturday July 04, @02:23PM
It's so hard to take it serious when they celebrate 250 years as if it was some kind of massive accomplishment. Happy freedom day younglings!
My invitation to the Swift wedding must have been lost in the mail. So I had to enjoy a day in the sun with an icecream between doing laundry and grocery shopping.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by srobert on Saturday July 04, @06:38PM (1 child)
If it feels like an oppressive environment within which to celebrate liberty, think of it this way, today you can celebrate the triumph over tyranny of the past and of the not too distant future.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Saturday July 04, @06:57PM
Remember, it's a republic and they get to elect a Head of State and a government. What's four years in the grand scheme of things? Wait and see.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04, @07:09PM (2 children)
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05, @01:01AM (1 child)
> ungrateful
Really? To make up for that tea in the harbor, we saved your Royal ass a couple of times in the 20th century...or have you forgotten?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05, @02:38AM
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 05, @01:40AM
> ... how you will spend the weekend!
Started out early morning watching the F1 Sprint race, back to bed for a bit, and then final Qualifying at Silverstone (thanks UK, and, go Lewis!)
Then a friend had a nice little noon gathering in his backyard - hotdogs, a few potluck sides and beer. Wide age range, (25 - 85) and no strife. It's easy, we are all smart enough to not talk politics.
Too much traffic at the local fireworks displays these days. It just got dark here and we are listening to the firecrackers and similar being lit off around the neighborhood. A nice relaxed 4th this year.
Years ago we were invited to 4th of July parties by a friend who practiced family law (the good kind of lawyer, imo). He was an excellent orator and would read the Declaration of Independence--that was memorable.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by canopic jug on Sunday July 05, @02:04AM
There is an interesting analysis about independence [substack.com] over on NBTV's [odysee.com] Substack account.
The EFF, however, has lost both its way and its fire in the years since Barlow died. I'd like to think that the organization could be salvaged, despite what the late Pieter Hintjens had to say about needing to start over through founding new institutions when the old ones go bad. However, in order to restore the EFF it'll first be a big task to not just wean the it off of GAFAM money but rehome the board members and staff who thought such funding sources were a good idea in the first place.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.