What I’m Reading: TED

David Brooks is one of the few conservative Republican voices on the regular New York Times "op ed" staff. We corresponded some a long time ago. He was the speaker at last year's Dartmouth College commencement. I do not always agree with him but he is always intelligent and rational. He is also comfortable putting "love" at the center of our business and social lives. He sounds a bit like Mal on Firefly when talking about what keeps his ship flying.

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_brooks_the_social_animal?language=en

http://now.dartmouth.edu/2015/06/david-brooks-commencement-address

David Brooks' favorite writer is C. S. Lewis. If you are ever bored enough to decipher part of Grid, you will find a discussion of C. S. Lewis and Tolkien which describes the moment Tolkien convinced Lewis to become a Christian. If you read enough Brooks, you will find a reference to the Lewis and Tolkien conversion experience. David really should credit me.

 

What I’m Reading: Becker's Hospital Review

As hospitals continue to close around the country, at what point do CMS and congress decide it is a problem?

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/plumbing-repairs-push-tennessee-hospital-to-close.html

 

 

What I’m Reading: USA Today

 

Why more than half of hospital bills don’t get paid

http://usat.ly/1pdG3XO

What I’m Reading: The New York Times

I tend to break political thought into two camps: rational and irrational, not liberal and conservative. There are a number of voters who have said they are either going to vote for Sanders or Trump. There is no rational political position that supports both Sanders and Trump. It is an emotional impulse. I understand the impulse. It is not rational but I understand it. It is an impulse to reject the status quo as violently as possible, hoping to reset the system by wiping the slate clean with blood if necessary.

The rise of authoritarianism Brooks mentions is another symptom of the frightening, irrational, "mob" emotion rising in the U.S. and across the world. Trump has tapped into both the impulse to wipe the slate and to find a bully willing to do it. Fascism and uber nationalism were this popular most recently right before World War Two. I suppose it is something hard coded in our DNA. The human race is genetically programmed to keep population under control by whipping our "tribes" into an irrational frenzy that can only be satiated by attacking another tribe, thus ensuring we kill off enough people to reset the total population at a lower, more sustainable level.

I just wish they would wait to start the inevitable conflagration until after I shuffle off this mortal coil.

Donald Trump’s candidacy is the culmination of 30 years of antipolitics.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/opinion/the-governing-cancer-of-our-time.html

 

 

What I’m Reading: Becker's Hospital Review

I am putting the bad stuff all in one email so all this water will clear the slate for a new beginning in 2016.

 

Happy New Year.

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/philadelphia-hospital-to-close-up-to-675-workers-may-be-laid-off.html

 

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/cms-to-expand-rac-program-to-medicare-advantage-6-things-to-know.html

 

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/hospital-cfos-top-concerns-for-2016.html

 

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/hospitals-face-payment-cuts-at-outpatient-sites-under-budget-deal-10-things-to-know.html

 

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/new-york-hospital-to-close-this-week.html

 

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/plan-to-close-ohio-hospital-gets-go-ahead-after-11-months-of-debate.html

 

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/dallas-hospital-closes-after-failing-to-make-payroll.html

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/a-state-by-state-breakdown-of-57-rural-hospital-closures.html

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/31-mississippi-hospitals-at-risk-of-closing.html

 

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/10-hospital-bankruptcies-so-far-in-2015-september15.html

 

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/9-hospital-closures-so-far-in-2015.html

 

 

 

What I’m Reading: The New York Times

 

The Experts Were Wrong About the Best Places for Better and Cheaper Health Care

 

http://nyti.ms/223u0ec

 

What I'm Reading: The New York Times

 

Facilities for older adults are overwhelmed and unprepared for increasing numbers of very heavy residents.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/health/rising-obesity-rates-put-strain-on-nursing-homes.html