Congress

Insanity 2.0
May 28, 2026
“In 1962, President Jack Kennedy warned that ‘the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Half a century later, this captures well the pernicious impact of America’s Iran mythology . . . More ominously, they are conditioning the political climate in the U.S. for an eventual war again...
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A Different Deadly Species
February 19, 2026
The “murder hornet,” the world’s biggest species of wasp, has an MO that reminds me of a particular human species. The murder hornet feeds on other insects and kills off the worker bees until the workforce is severely depleted. Sounds like the MO of the U.S. health insurance industry. Here is a recent photo and clip of the “profit over people” gang before the U.S. House Ways and Means...
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Let’s Make a Deal
October 28, 2025
I believe that saying what you think without self-censoring in order not to offend someone has never advanced a person’s sense of self. I also believe that people can respectfully disagree on important topics and remain colleagues and friends. Maybe one way to do this is to find commonality before simply discarding the other person. But, these days, that has been lost to righteously choosing a s...
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Thank You
August 6, 2025
It’s been awhile since I wanted to thank a member of Congress. I imagine that I’m like many Americans, tired of this “august body” ignoring what Americans say they want or need. I haven’t seen a poll that says Americans want forever wars and government corruption.  But recently,  Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, held a significant...
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The WHO Debate
July 23, 2025
If it hadn’t been for Covid-19 and the role the World Health Organization played in mandates, lockdowns, and the vaccines, this specialized UN agency might not be in the news. As a result of the Trump administration, a sharpened focus is on the attempt of the WHO to take primacy over individual nation states when/if another pandemic occurs. But first, a quick reminder of WHO’s history. WHO�...
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100 Million People
July 15, 2022
I thought I’d read it wrong when I saw this heading in a recent posting from Kaiser Health News (KHN). I looked again and saw that the full title of the well-researched article was as follows: “100 Million People in America Are Saddled with Health Care Debt.” This is slightly less than one-third the estimated population in 2022. This 100 million includes 41% of adults “beset by a health ca...
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Ideas for Change
February 17, 2025
As Americans, we love our country, want the best for our families, a voice in deciding our future, and for elected officials to honor our needs and interests. After several stressful years, this is a bright moment when new Ideas could create the energy needed for important changes in our healthcare system. Following is the first in a series of Ideas gathered from a variety of sources. I’m...
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The Iron(y) Age
November 1, 2024
As we bid farewell to 2024, I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that the year was rich with irony. I often heard myself saying “how ironic.” In writing, there are three types of irony – verbal, situational, and dramatic. What I wondered as I started this post was - Is situational hypocrisy irony? Yes, according to several sources. There are situations where it is hypocritical for someo...
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The More the Merrier?
September 15, 2024
By the time this is posted, who knows what Americans will have lived through. The 2024 state and federal elections will continue to use Plurality Voting which comes with enormous problems. Here’s an example: You’re a new congressional candidate (usually Dem or Rep) and get enough notice and support to begin to challenge the incumbent, the party’s favorite. Next, words like “spoiler” and ...
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Mind Changing Events
May 1, 2024
1956 I was a sixth grader at Thomas Jefferson elementary school when our two sixth-grade teachers decided to hold a “presidential election” just like the grownups. The week before November 6th, we made patriotic themed art and learned about the role of voting in a democracy. At home, politics was a frequent topic. My father was an ardent Democrat; my Grandma Rosie said that “If Stevenson c...
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How Sausage is Made
November 1, 2022
As a kid, I watched my Grandma Rosie make link sausage (all that gross fat and pork). Gross! Remembering that experience, I am thinking about the midterm elections on November 8th. Like who can ignore them? I thought since we have candidates promising us the sun and the moon, it would be a good time to brush up on how our laws are actually made. We’re told there might be new sausage chefs eager ...
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Working for Something Better
December 15, 2024
Imagine kicking over a rotting log and finding all manner of centipedes running to escape the sunlight when darkness is their life. This is how I have come to view the healthcare industry we’re living with today. Just that, it’s become an industry rather than one of the elements committed to creating good health and promoting wellbeing. For more than a dozen years, beginning in 1982, I work...
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Genius Loci
November 15, 2023
When Jack and I moved to the farm, our first holiday was Thanksgiving. We relaxed and after an early dinner I took Holly out for a walk and met our neighbor Pat. As we walked along he asked me if knew the history of the wet-weather creek that formed the southern border of our farm. “Let’s walk down there,” he said. “You can tell me what, if anything, you sense about that part of your prope...
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Social In-Security
October 15, 2020
We all face risks to our economic security throughout our lifetime including loss of wages, outliving one’s savings in retirement, and high health care costs at any age. In the US, we claim to meet these and other personal disasters through various social insurance programs – including the Social Security Act of 1935. According to various scholars, the Act was the “foundation on which modern...
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Moral Injury
August 29, 2020
If I ever find an agent and/or publisher for a book I’m working on, this is how it will open: Imagine kicking over a rotting log and finding all manner of centipedes running to escape the sunlight when darkness is their life. This is how I view the healthcare industry we’re living with today. Photo by Viktor Talashuk For more than a dozen years, beginning in 1982, I was a sales and marketing ...
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Just 90 Miles Away
May 24, 2020
In 1997, I joined 150 Americans and Canadians to violate the decades-old U.S. embargo of Cuba. My reason for going was to see Cuba’s healthcare delivery system and after working in Miami to satisfy my curiosity about the island just 90 miles away. My trip was organized by IFCO, the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization/ Pastors for Peace. Our Pastors caravan, the 7th, was dedicat...
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Elections belong…to the people
March 1, 2024
Up until the Supreme Court gave us George W. Bush as President, I didn’t give the process of voting much thought. I assumed it was fair and uncorrupted—with one exception. In 1960, I was living outside of Chicago and thrilled to vote for JFK. At the time, there was a rumor that Mayor Daley had “made sure” that Kennedy carried the state. I’m ashamed to admit, election corruption—alleged...
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