Dr. X's Free Associations

"A Throne of Lies"

The Bulwark:

Let’s start with the obvious: Every president lies. Maybe it’s a little fib. Maybe it’s “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” Maybe it’s actual perjury. After all, we live in a fallen world and saints typically don’t run for president.

All of that said, the sheer volume of falsehoods, fabrications, mistruths, and prevarications from Trump and his administration collected in the Mueller report should be disconcerting to pretty much everyone in America, regardless of party or creed. He lies to the press. He lies in official communications. He lies to his staff. He tries to get others to lie for him.

Here’s a small sample (all page numbers are from Vol. II): continued

Lying or dementia or both?

NBC News:

President Donald Trump told acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan last week to close the southern border and that he would pardon him if he faced any legal challenges, according to The New York Times.

The paper, citing three people briefed about the conversation, reported that they spoke when Trump visited the border town of Calexico, California, last week shortly before he named McAleenan acting homeland security secretary.

One of the officials briefed on the conversation said they did not know whether the president was joking. But Trump's remarks alarmed officials at the agency who were briefed on it, The Times said.

College Admissions

Harvard class of 2022.

It's possible that some students belong to more than one of these categories and, presumably, some would have been admitted without membership in one of the categories, but a more meaningful analysis would reveal the percentage of students who would not be part of the class if not for their category membership.

What's also hidden from view is the advantage accrued by students whose parents paid a fortune for daily tutoring, SAT/ACT prep and application coaches. I've known parents who've spent $100k or more on such assistance. Without a doubt, it made the difference between admission to a top tier school and a middle-of-the-pack institution.

And how many students have had a university presidents visit their home while they're in the process of applying to college? I know of two such cases, both of which involved wealthy parents who are big donors. Maybe they're represented in the "Dean or Director's Interest List" category.

So as the Trump administration launches attacks on racial diversity as a consideration in college admissions, we should not leave consideration of the above categories out of discussions of fairness and merit in admissions. By the way, 6% of the student population identifies black or African American, 10% Hispanic or Latino.

Daily Beast:

During a trip to Mount Vernon, Donald Trump was reportedly amazed that George Washington had not named the historic property—or anything else—after himself. Politico reports that the president was perplexed why America’s first president was not prescient enough to name any of his vast estate in his own honor. “If he was smart, he would’ve put his name on it,” Trump said, according Politico, citing three sources. “You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.”

"They're sending us their worst."

Son uses the money he earned from developing his first app to surprise his parents by paying off their mortgage pic.twitter.com/f3vUNTlduU

— Kevin W (@kwilli1046) April 2, 2019

The young man's name is Joe Riquelme, and this is his app.

A group of teens taught a 5-year-old New Jersey boy with autism how to ride a skateboard on his birthday.

“I can't even put into words the joy that I felt to see the kindness that young kids at that age could show my son,” his mother says. https://t.co/CPbYI7VsFG pic.twitter.com/ugP0u9Zs6j

— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2019

Bernie Sanders Emerging as the Trump of the Left

WaPo:

In politics, as in physics, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Hence, Sen. Bernie Sanders’s emergence as the Donald Trump of the left. Fundraising and polls show that many Democrats think the best answer to an angry old white guy with crazy hair, New York accent and flair for demagoguery is, well, another angry old white guy with crazy hair, New York accent and flair for demagoguery. It’s not difficult to picture a scenario in which Bernie captures the Democratic presidential nomination with the same formula that worked for Trump with Republicans in 2016.

On paper, the independent from Vermont doesn’t make sense: Democrats are a party of youth, and he’s 77; they are majority-female, and he’s a man; they represent the emerging multicultural America, and he is white. Statistically, he is the worst option against Trump: An NBC News poll this week found that there are more voters with concerns about Sanders (58 percent) than there are for former vice president Joe Biden (48 percent), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (53 percent), Sen. Kamala D. Harris or former representative Beto O’Rourke (41 percent each).

I think some people confuse thick-headed big mouthery with authenticity. Kinda of like a stupid drunk ranting while his drunk friends nod in assent.

Today,

the president said:

My father is German, right, was German. And born in a very wonderful place in Germany, so I have a great feeling for Germany.

He's  made this claim on other occasions. His father was born and reared in New York.

And the president said of wind turbines:

They say the noise causes cancer.

No they don't say that.

The president also struggled repeatedly to say the word origins, saying oranges instead.

Hospital Pricing

Last November, I had imaging done in a local ER. My statement showed an uninsured price of about $1500, but the hospital's deal with my insurer brought the price down to about $600 of which insurance paid nothing because my deductible was $6500.

On January 1, I changed insurers, raising my premium from $800 a month to $1100. I changed because my old insurer wouldn't pay for a $530 a month medication I was prescribed and it's clearly the safest appropriate medication for me. With the changed, my deductible was also reduced from 6500 to 1000. There are other considerations that figure into the switch, but this is a post about hospital services pricing.

I had the same imaging done in the ER at the same hospital on Feb 1. The hospital only billed the new insurer $250 for the imaging, of which they were reimbursed $120 by the insurer.

So for the 100% identical procedure at the same ER:

Charge to ininsured patients: $1500

Charge with MyInsurance 1: $600

Charge with MyInsurance 2: $250

I have no idea what they charge Medicare/Medicaid but I bet it's on the lower end.

Got to be a better way.

Back of the cocktail napkin: uninsured patients can be charged no more than the average annualized billing to insurers for any procedure. Not simple averaging of the deals with each insurer, but total billed to insurance for the procedure divided by number of insured patients who had the procedure.  If my two visits occurred in one calendar year and represented the only 2 patients who had the procedure, under this formula the max chargeable to an uninsured patient would be (600+250)/2=$425. This would effectively bring average group market leverage to the uninsured patient.

To Republicans who've been inclined to acquiesce in a Trump re-nomination in 2020: Read his tweets this morning. Think seriously about his mental condition and psychological state. Then tell me you're fine with him as president of the United States for an additional four years.

— Bill "Slightly Dangerous" Kristol (@BillKristol) March 17, 2019

Trump is using his platform to defend Judge Jeanine, who recently suggested that wearing a hijab might mean you don't support the Constitution—two damn days after 50 Muslims were gunned down by a terrorist who cited Trump as an inspiring figure. Every day, he sinks lower & lower. https://t.co/uT95NVVE8A

— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) March 17, 2019

Mysterious Brain Injuries Suffered By Government Employees Stationed in China and Cuba

According to this report, a hostile foreign government is suspected of inflicting the injuries through high tech means, and neither China nor Cuba is the suspect nation. That leaves Russia and North Korea?

Madison Grant:

We Americans must realize that the altruistic ideals which have controlled our social development during the past century and the maudlin sentimentalism that has made America “an asylum for the oppressed,” are sweeping the nation toward a racial abyss. If the Melting Pot is allowed to boil without control and we continue to follow our national motto and deliberately blind ourselves to all “distinctions of race, creed or color,” the type of native American of Colonial descent will become as extinct as the Athenian of the age of Pericles, and the Viking of the days of Rollo.

Madison Grant was a popular early 20th century writer who was panicked about Southern European and Jewish immigration. He was highly regarded by many of the most influential Americans of his day, his work praised by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt. Grant significantly influenced American discourse on immigration leading to a virtual shutdown in the early 1920s. America's doors were still locked tight 15 years later as desperate European Jews were denied entry to the US.

More from Grant:

These immigrants adopt the language of the native American, they wear his clothes, they steal his name, and they are beginning to take his women, but they seldom adopt his religion or understand his ideals and while he is being elbowed out of his own home the American looks calmly abroad and urges on others the suicidal ethics which are exterminating his own race.

Candace Owens

The NZ Mosque Killer:

I guess he got over his aversion to extreme actions. Meantime, Candace Owens laughing so hard she's crying while pretending that she has merely been saying that black people don't have to be Democrats.

I don't think the NZ mass murderer was thinking about black Republicans when he cited Candace Owens as an inspiration.