PARTY LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW
Before adjourning to the White House Rose Garden for their celebratory ‘kegger’, the House of Representatives managed to pass the American Health Care Act (AHCA) by a very slim margin. Virtually all of the provisions of this $800 billion tax-cut masquerading as health care reform are incredibly odious and worthy of discussion; perhaps the most odious are the provisions, or lack thereof, for addressing pre-existing conditions.
Do you recall when Sarah Palin was claiming that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) included ‘death panels’ that would decide who would live and who would die? What she was referring to was a provision in the ACA that would allow health care providers to discuss end of life care with their patients. Clearly she had misinterpreted the language, either from ignorance or the desire to mislead. In short, ‘fake news’. While speaking nonsense for political effect, she was, however, prescient. The GOP AHCA, if enacted without substantial change, will have turned the Republican caucuses in the House and Senate into their own “death panels” for people with pre-existing conditions.
| Pre-existing conditions | |
| ACID REFLUX (GERD), ADDISON’S DISEASEALCOHOL ABUSE AND RECOVERY, ALS, ANEMIA, ANEURYSM, ANGINA PECTORIS, ANGIOPLASTY, ANOREXIA, ANXIETY, AORTIC ANEURYSM, ARRHYTHMIA, ARTHRITIS, ASTHMA, ATRIAL FIBRILLATION, ATRIAL FLUTTER, ADHD, AUTISM, BARIATRIC SURGERY, BASAL CELL CARCINOMA, BERGER’S DISEASE, BENIGN PROSTATIC HYPERTORPHY, BIPOLAR DISORDER, BLOOD CLOT, BLOOD PRESSURE, BRADYARRHYTHMIAS, BREAST CANCER, BRONCHIECTASIS, BRONCHITIS (CHRONIC), BULIMIA, BUNDLE BRANCH BLOCK, CANCER, CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE, CELIAC DISEASE, CEREBRAL ANEURYSM, CEREBRAL EMBOLISM, CEREBRAL PALSY, CEREBRAL THROMBOSIS, CHOLESTEROL, (COPD), CHOLITIS (ULCERATIVE), CLAUDICATION, COLON CANCER, COLON POLYPS, CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE (CHF), CORONARY BYPASS , CROHN’S DISEASE, DEPRESSION, DIABETES TYPE 2, DIABETES TYPE 1, DIGESTIVE TRACT DISORDER, DISABLED, DIVERTICULITIS, DOWN SYNDROME, DUI/DWI, DUODENAL ULCER, DRUG ABUSE, EATING DISORDER, EMPHYSEMA, ENDOCARDITIS, ENDOMETRIOSIS, ENLARGED PROSTATE, EPILEPSY, EROSIVE ESOPHAGITIS, FELONY, FIBROMYALGIA, FOCAL SEGMENTAL GLOMERULOSCLEROSIS, GASTRIC ULCER, GASTRIC BYPASS, GERD, GASTROPLASTY, GENERAL DISABILITY, GENETIC FINDINGS, GLAUCOMA, GOUT, HEART ATTACK, HEARTBURN | HEART DISEASE, HEART MURMUR, HEART VALVE, HEMOPHILIA, HEPATITIS, HERPES, HIGH CHOLESTEROL, HODGKIN’S LYMPHOMA, HYPERLIPIDEMIA, HYPERTENSION, HYPERTHYROIDISM, HYPOTHYROIDISM, HYSTERECTOMY, INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE, INSOMNIA, INTESTINAL POLYPS, IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME, KIDNEY STONES, KIDNEY TRANSPLANT, LEFT-SIDED COLITIS, LUPUS, MARIJUANA, MIGRAINES, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY, MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION, NARCOLEPSY, NASAL POLYPS, NON-HODGKIN’S LYMPHOMA, OBESE, OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER, ORGAN TRANSPLANT, OSTEOPOROSIS, OVERWEIGHT, PACEMAKER, PAGET’S DISEASE, PARKINSON’S DISEASE, PANCOLITIS/UNIVERSAL COLITIS, PANCREATITIS, PANIC DISORDER, PEPTIC ULCER, PERIPHERAL VASCULAR DISEASE, PREMENSTRUAL DYSPHORIC DISORDER, POLYCYSTIC KIDNEY DISEASE, PTSD, PROCTOSIGMOIDITIS, PROSTATE (ENLARGED), PROTEINURIA, PULMONARY EMBOLISM, RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME (RLS), RIGHT BUNDLE BRANCH BLOCK (RBBB), SCHIZOPHRENIA, SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER (SAD), SEIZURES, SICKLE CELL DISEASE, SLEEP APNEA, SLEEP DISORDERS, STENT (CARDIAC), STROKE, SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA, SUICIDE (ATTEMPTED), TACHY-BRADY SYNDROME, TACHYCARDIA, THORACIC ANEURYSM, THROMBOSIS, THYROID, TRANSIENT ISCHEMIC ATTACK (TIA), TUBERCULOSIS, ULCERATIVE COLITIS, ULCERATIVE PROCTISIS, ULCERS, VENTRICULAR ARRHYTHMIA, VENTRICULAR SEPTAL DEFECT, VENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA, ZOLLINGER-ELLISON SYNDROME |
Let's Have Fun Making Fun
Golf Balls to Trump
An Indivisible group in Miami has come up with what sounds like a fun idea. They're writing messages about Trump's agenda on golf then sending them to the White House. Here are a few examples:
Trump chips away at science
Trump chips away education
Trump chips away at the arts
Trump tee’d off at response to budget
Trump shanks his first swing at budget
There are dozens more. We'd be writing them directly on the balls or else on slips of paper that we then glue to the balls.
If there's enough interest in this project, we will find a day/time for a golf ball party with pens, and food, and drinks, and laughs. To let us know whether you'd like to come to a golf ball party, register your interest at the linked page below and we'll get back to you.
Join Us to Defend Democracy
All over the country, people are taking actions to Defend Democracy and Fight Fascism. Grassroots North Shore is joining the effort by encouraging all of our supporters to take part. For a full explanation and instructions about how to participate, visit our Defend Democracy page and sign up.
Olmsted Deserves Recognition in Milwaukee
A postcard with an idealized view of Lake Park, with a carriage crossing the Lion Bridge, from the early 1900s.
Landscape architect left massive legacy in three jewels of county's park system
Frederick Law Olmsted, the guiding light of American parks and landscape architecture – and designer of Manhattan’s Central Park – left a prodigious legacy in Milwaukee. We would do well to celebrate our precious Olmsted heritage.
Starting 128 years ago, Olmsted master-planned what he named our “Grand Necklace of Parks” – Lake, Riverside and Washington parks and East Newberry Boulevard, which gracefully links the first two. His Lake Park layout also envisioned a “Shore Drive,” which became Lincoln Memorial Drive and a road through the park connecting the lake to the bluff (Ravine Road).
These public spaces were all envisioned as a “system,” a network of parks with varied qualities. Olmsted and his partner, architect Calvert Vaux, introduced that concept in 1868 in Buffalo. Milwaukee County’s stellar system, which evolved over many years, reflects Olmsted’s ideas about complementary urban parks.
Olmsted and Vaux also conceived “parkways” as scenic drives approaching or linking parks, meant to extend green space and enhance nearby property values. Charles Whitnall’s 1923 plan for parks and parkways to encircle Milwaukee County was modeled on that concept. Milwaukee’s greenway boulevards, planned earlier, were likewise influenced by Olmsted’s parkway ideas, according to documentation about the Sherman Park Historic District.
Christian Wahl, Milwaukee’s far-sighted park commissioner, recruited Olmsted in 1889 to design three parks, for which land was being purchased. Olmsted visited Milwaukee several times while he was chief landscape architect for the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exhibition – a project vividly described in Erik Larson’s 2003 bestseller, The Devil in the White City. After Olmsted retired in 1895, his firm, led by sons John Charles and Frederick Jr., continued supervising the Milwaukee parks’ development.
Read moreThe United State of Women
Now for something uplifting:
If you marched on January 21, 2017, with millions of women (and also boys, girls, and men) all over the world — or even if you didn't but you support the spirit and the goals of the Women's March, you know how powerful it is to join together with such joy in such solidarity. But it's hard to keep the spirit going day after day when each one brings news of another setback for women, for LGBTQ friends and neighbors, for the environment, for the healthcare system....
That's why joining groups like the United State of Women is valuable. But it is even more important for those who are so distressed by what is happening to take IMMEDIATE ACTION, over and over again. Join with Grassroots North Shore supporters by taking the IMMEDIATE ACTIONs for the week of January 24-31, 2017.
Reserve Judge Kinney Resigns from the Wisconsin Ethics Commission
Reserve Judge Robert Kinney has resigned from the newly created Wisconsin Ethics Commission, the partisan body created to enforce elections, lobbying and ethics laws when the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board was destroyed by our Republican legislature last spring. Here is letter of resignation:
December 12, 2016
For Immediate Release
At last week’s meeting of the Wisconsin Ethics Commission I announced my resignation. At the time I accepted the appointment to the Commission I was fully aware of the recent, unfortunate history of the failed attempts to enforce Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws, and the abolition of the former, but non-partisan, Government Accountability Board.
I was also fully aware of the deep skepticism among many seasoned observers, media representatives, and government watchdog groups regarding the creation of the new, partisan Ethics Commission.
Nevertheless, in accepting appointment to the Commission I was among those who wished the agency would succeed, and, as a 31-year etera of Wis o si ’s non-partisan, independent judiciary, I was committed to the goal of enforcing the law regardless of political party or partisan agenda.
By law, the Commission is made up of six members, three selected by Republicans and three selected by Democrats. Any action taken by the Commission requires the vote of four members. Many had observed that this structure seemed to be a built-in prescription for intransigence.
To be sure, the fledgling Commission did make several administrative and operational decisions on a bipartisan basis.
The essential work of the agency, however, relates to enforcing campaign finance, ethics, and lobbying laws. In these areas Wisconsin at one time, and for many years, enjoyed a stellar reputation among the states.
During the October 10, 2016 public meeting of the Commission a telling vote was taken which, in retrospect, foreshadowed what was to come. As a new agency, we were required to articulate a mission statement. The staff of the Commission hearkened back to Wisconsin's reputation when it proposed the following as our mission statement:
"The mission of the Ethics Commission is to enhance representative democracy by furthering Wisconisn’s tradition of clean and open government through the administration of Wisconsin's campaign finance, lobbying, and ethics laws, and through dissemination of information to the public."
At the October 10, 2016 public meeting of the Commission, incredibly, three members – one-half of the Commission's membership – voted to strike from the mission statement the aspirational language, "furthering Wisconsin’s tradition of clean and open government." The handwriting was on the wall.
The rules under which the Commission operates are less than helpful. They require too much secrecy and too little transparency. The public is almost completely shut out of the process.
The non-partisan staff of the Ethics Commission consists of some of the most competent and dedicated civil servants I have had the pleasure of working with. If the people of the State of Wisconsin could see these people in action they would be so proud of our State. In addition, Chairwoman Peg Lautenschlager deserves considerable credit for trying to steer the Commission in the direction of even-handed enforcement of the law. But the staff has had to deal with many obstacles – erected by Commission members. To begin with, there exists among several of the commissioners an observable lack of commitment to the underlying purposes of the agency. On top of this, staff are confronted with overbearing nit-picking at virtually every meeting. Over time (if it hasn’t already happened) this disrespectful treatment will erode staff morale and we will lose these talented people. Perhaps that is the goal.
At a time when public confidence in elected officials has been deeply eroded, we should be doubling down on our efforts to enforce campaign finance, ethics, and lobbying laws. When charges of financial or ethical improprieties are leveled, or allegations of quid pro quo corruption are made, they must be thoroughly and timely investigated, and, if warranted, aggressively prosecuted. Sadly, it appears we have created a system which almost guarantees that this will not occur. It would be an enormous injustice to the People of Wisconsin and to the success of our government in serving them if this agency is relegated to shuffling papers.
Robert E. Kinney Reserve Judge Former Member,
WI Ethics Commission
[email protected]
Let's Talk About: Medicare
HERE WE GO AGAIN
Republicans have realized their most fervent wish: control over all three branches of government. And, in their rush to obliterate the progressive gains of the last eighty plus years, they are as busy as a hive of little worker bees. Do not be surprised to see more activity by the Right in one day than they have produced cumulatively in the last eight years.
Paul Ryan has gleefully resurrected his plan to transform Medicare: first turn it into a voucher program and then do away with it completely by the year 2022. Most of us are probably pretty familiar with this government program. It’s certainly one that enjoys widespread popularity. But it is also frightening to realize how many recipients of its benefits don’t really understand much about Medicare. Apparently many Americans don’t even understand that it’s a government program! The goal of this article is to touch on some of the serious impacts the changes Mr. Ryan is suggesting will have.
First, there’s Medicare’s impact on longevity. Just based on observation, doesn’t it seem that people today are living longer than in the past? When you were a child, how many of the elderly were living well into their eighties, even into their nineties? Every day we hear of more and more people who have attained the age of 100! Is the implementation of Medicare alone responsible for this trend? Probably not: advances in technology and changes to life style in general have had an impact. “Data on age-specific death probabilities every 10 years since 1900, that is, before as well as after Medicare was enacted, provide an alternative way to test for the effect of Medicare on longevity. They also provide strong support for the hypothesis that Medicare increased the survival rate of the elderly, by about 13 percent” (Effects of Medicare on Health Care Utilization and Outcomes). Since that article was published in 1998, there have been even more advances. But the bottom line is that new, lifespan-increasing technologies will do no good if people cannot access them!
But longevity is only a piece of the picture. Here are some of the most harmful changes the Republican proposal may entail.
Read more