8 hours ago, The guy in France said:

Come now, Trumpski has pushed the envelope so extremely AND so often he is the news. Shock and awe that he gets away with it and should dominate the news, thats not pontificating. They are pointing out how useless our governments checks and balances work if  professional etiquette is inferred and assumed. I think it’s right that it dominates the news cycle

CNN is prone to grabbing hold of one news story and bludgeoning it 24/7.

Their coverage of Prince's passing away became beyond ridiculous.  After about 4 entire days of constant coverage I had to look back and check, because I remember him having one good album -- figured I must be out of touch -- nope, one good album 30 years before his death.  Meanwhile, David Bowie and Glenn Frey both passed away a few months before to very little news coverage, at least comparatively.  Both musicians were a million times more influential than Prince.  CNN International is a much better view than CNN in the US

I used to enjoy Don Lemon's work, now he's gone way too far into editorializing.  Anderson Cooper is still pretty good.  I like Brooke Baldwin but she gets way too emotional.  Chris Cuomo I can only handle in small doses.

10 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Then we better hope Epps has improved. Only Ss with speed to play single high regularly are McLeod, Epps and Wallace.

In a normal year I would say year 2 of Epps we should see improvement.  He showed potential but no off-season isn't helping him.  Safety is going to be so interesting.  Another thing to consider is what if Sidney Jones just takes CB2 and owns it.  Maddox is then without a home.  Do you try him back at safety again?

36 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

Hopefully in a couple of years that organization will cease to be relevant.  A couple of 6-win seasons and retirement for most of them.

History will remember them much more favorably than I would like, but to me they will always be Counterfeit Bill, Shady Brady, and "John" Kraft.

 

There was a parody song on youtube years ago I think it was titled Shady Brady and Bill Belicheat.

and here it is

 

6 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Great idea.  If we license claim adjusters, beauticians and barbers and require continuing education, we should for police officers. Pretty sure PA requires the latter. They certainly do (and should) for firefighters and EMTs. 

Law enforcement officers typically need to be certified on annual basis.  So there is a licensing process and training that is typically set out by statute.  

The penalty for players breaking the rules gets more severe each time. Any players complain about it?

34 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

USA is the largest destination medical provider by far. Rich from the world over come to US seeking medical care.  Suspect that and pharmaceutical costs play a part in that 18%. 

The only way to get medical malpractice insurance down is with tort reform.  It works. Look at the reduction in medical malpractice rates in CA since Medical Compensation Injury Reform Act went into law.  Premiums decreased every year.  MCIRA and its kin are hated by plaintiff attorneys because it caps awards for non economic damages, pain and suffering and the like.  CO does that in all cases and has lower insurance costs that other states because of that.  It really takes the guesswork out of it for a jury.  I also like that a portion of punitive damages goes to the state in CO.   Now the best economic caps should have and do have limitations for deliberate and with malice behavior.  The caps should have an automatic adjustment for inflation.  

Since the progressives want to have the government place limits on what doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies can charge with Medicare for All and kill off medical insurers after limiting the amount of profit those insurers could make in the ACA, they should be all for taking the tort tax down a few notches.  All of a sudden American manufacturing can be profitable.  Most folks don’t realize it but if a Chinese manufacturer has no location in the US, they can’t be touched. Plaintiff lawyers don’t care, they go after the distributor or the retailer. Fine if it is Amazon or Walmart.  Not so great if it is Bob’s Hobby Shop.  Another reason it is cheaper to manufacture some things overseas.  Let’s see Progressives get behind non economic caps.

Now AFan argues that the litigation acts as a way of regulating industry.  That is true but to what extent?  Plastic bags that items come in have warnings they aren’t toys and are a suffocation risk.  Really, we needed that?   I have a thirty year old aluminum ladder.  The tool shelf says, this is not a step.  So does the top of the ladder. I have a relatively new ladder that must have a dozen warnings on it.  We needed that?  Have you ever bought something that had a warning on it where you thought nobody could be so stupid?  We need that?  My mother-in-law had COPD and a bunch of other things wrong with her. In 2019 she was hospitalized.  They wanted to perform tests on her she had literally had performed a week before.  Why?  Because if they trusted those tests and didn’t perform new ones, they could be sued for not having performed those tests if something went wrong. This is from a patient and her family that are acknowledging she had for conditions and the real question was which one was going to take her. Those tests weren’t necessary to her treatment.  She went in for a respiratory illness and they were seeking stress tests for her heart condition.  Nonsense. There are a few lawyers and handicapped people that target small businesses in CA for ADA compliance. Toilet not 100% compliant, letter with threat of violation cost per day.  Ramp a degree off? Same deal. Are handicapped people really being denied access? No, but the regulations are specific and allow for private attorneys general.  It is a shakedown scam.  We need that sort of regulation?  Now we are seeing the ADA being weaponized against masks.  Right ambition, wrong law.
 

 

Everything I have read recently suggests that the cost of tort per se is less than 1% of healthcare costs. If you add defensive medicine, then the costs rise to around 2-3%. If we consider defensive medicine, then it fair to ask how many doctors/hospitals are invested in testing centers?

My casual reading of the literature suggests there are far too many middle men in the healthcare system (I am including pharma here) each taking a bite of the pie.

 

1 minute ago, ManuManu said:

 

I wonder what they mean by "2nd half of games 2019". Are we talking Quarter 3 and 4 each week, or Week 9 through 17? If it's the latter, he played one game, albeit his best of the season. 

3 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

I wonder what they mean by "2nd half of games 2019". Are we talking Quarter 3 and 4 each week, or Week 9 through 17? If it's the latter, he played one game, albeit his best of the season. 

Quarters 3-4

45 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

USA is the largest destination medical provider by far. Rich from the world over come to US seeking medical care.  Suspect that and pharmaceutical costs play a part in that 18%. 

The only way to get medical malpractice insurance down is with tort reform.  It works. Look at the reduction in medical malpractice rates in CA since Medical Compensation Injury Reform Act went into law.  Premiums decreased every year.  MCIRA and its kin are hated by plaintiff attorneys because it caps awards for non economic damages, pain and suffering and the like.  CO does that in all cases and has lower insurance costs that other states because of that.  It really takes the guesswork out of it for a jury.  I also like that a portion of punitive damages goes to the state in CO.   Now the best economic caps should have and do have limitations for deliberate and with malice behavior.  The caps should have an automatic adjustment for inflation.  

Since the progressives want to have the government place limits on what doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies can charge with Medicare for All and kill off medical insurers after limiting the amount of profit those insurers could make in the ACA, they should be all for taking the tort tax down a few notches.  All of a sudden American manufacturing can be profitable.  Most folks don’t realize it but if a Chinese manufacturer has no location in the US, they can’t be touched. Plaintiff lawyers don’t care, they go after the distributor or the retailer. Fine if it is Amazon or Walmart.  Not so great if it is Bob’s Hobby Shop.  Another reason it is cheaper to manufacture some things overseas.  Let’s see Progressives get behind non economic caps.

Now AFan argues that the litigation acts as a way of regulating industry.  That is true but to what extent?  Plastic bags that items come in have warnings they aren’t toys and are a suffocation risk.  Really, we needed that?   I have a thirty year old aluminum ladder.  The tool shelf says, this is not a step.  So does the top of the ladder. I have a relatively new ladder that must have a dozen warnings on it.  We needed that?  Have you ever bought something that had a warning on it where you thought nobody could be so stupid?  We need that?  My mother-in-law had COPD and a bunch of other things wrong with her. In 2019 she was hospitalized.  They wanted to perform tests on her she had literally had performed a week before.  Why?  Because if they trusted those tests and didn’t perform new ones, they could be sued for not having performed those tests if something went wrong. This is from a patient and her family that are acknowledging she had for conditions and the real question was which one was going to take her. Those tests weren’t necessary to her treatment.  She went in for a respiratory illness and they were seeking stress tests for her heart condition.  Nonsense. There are a few lawyers and handicapped people that target small businesses in CA for ADA compliance. Toilet not 100% compliant, letter with threat of violation cost per day.  Ramp a degree off? Same deal. Are handicapped people really being denied access? No, but the regulations are specific and allow for private attorneys general.  It is a shakedown scam.  We need that sort of regulation?  Now we are seeing the ADA being weaponized against masks.  Right ambition, wrong law.
 

 

The most ridiculous notion that insurance companies have fostered in the tort reform debate is that they are passing along cost savings to premium payers.  The reality is that cost savings is only "passed on" through regulation of the premium paid.  

Caps are hated because they are arbitrary and it impacts the patients that suffer the worst impact of malpractice. So you take the worst victim of a doctor's acknowledged mistake and place an arbitrary value on that person's life.  You may view it as good for the system but you show little empathy for the victims of the mistake.   Moreover, what changes insurance rates is regulation of insurance rates.  There's no evidence that these changes do anything other than impact victims.  I mean cases like this: 

Twelve years old today, Steven Olsen is blind and brain damaged because, as a jury ruled, he was a victim of medical negligence when he was two years old. He fell on a stick in the woods while hiking. Under the family's HMO plan, the hospital pumped Steven up with steroids and sent him away with a growing brain abscess, although his parents had asked for a CAT scan because they knew Steven was not well. The next day, Steven Olsen came back to the hospital comatose. At trial, medical experts testified that had he received the $800 CAT scan, which would have detected a growing brain mass, he would have his sight and be perfectly healthy today.

The jury awarded $7.1 million in "non-economic" damages for Steven's avoidable life of darkness and suffering. However, the jury was not told of the two decade old restriction on non-economic damages in the state. The judge was forced to reduce the amount to $250,000. The jurors only found out that their verdict had been reduced by reading about it in the newspaper. Jury foreman Thomas Kearns expressed his dismay in a letter published in the San Diego Union Tribune.

"We viewed video of Steven, age 2, shortly before the accident. This beautiful child talked and shrieked with laughter as any other child at play. Later, Steven was brought to the court and we watched as he groped, stumbled and felt his way along the front of the jury box. There was no chatter or happy laughter. Steven is doomed to a life of darkness, loneliness and pain. He is blind, brain damaged and physically retarded. He will never play sports, work, or enjoy normal relationships with his peers. His will be a lifetime of treatment, therapy, prosthesis fitting and supervision around the clock. . . Our medical-care system has failed Steven Olsen, through inattention or pressure to avoid costly but necessary tests. Our legislative system has failed Steven, bowing to lobbyists of the powerful American Medical Association (AMA) and the insurance industry, by the Legislature enacting an ill-conceived and wrongful law. Our judicial system has failed Steven, by acceding to this tilting of the scales of justice by the Legislature for the benefit of two special- interest groups. . .. I think the people of California place a higher value on life than this."

In 2001, Steven had 74 doctor visits, 164 physical and speech therapy appointments, and three trips to the emergency room. And his parents say that was a good year because Steven was not hospitalized. Steven's mother Kathy had to leave her job because caring for Steven is a full time job. She has to struggle constantly with the school district for Steven to receive special education classes. One day, Steven ate part of a light bulb, not an uncommon problem for children with brain injuries. He has to be watched constantly. Insurance executives that seek to limit jury awards for the individual's pain and suffering claim society must do so to save money. Yet these executives typically make millions every year without any of Steven Olsen's pain and suffering. Limiting their responsibility for the pain of individuals reduces not only the corporation's accountability, but the worth of the individual to that of a mere object.

Kathy Olsen said this about Steven: "It has been 10 years ago this month when Steven came home from a 5-month life changing stay at the hospital. He was only 2 years old. When he went into the hospital no one asked his party affiliation. He was a casualty of the system. The system that he had no say in. Which lawmakers were looking out for him? Now with all his disabilities he will never see, do things that the average person gets to do in their lifetime, or vote in an election. Please look out for all the Steven Olsens in this great country. Don't let this happen over and over again." https://www.consumerwatchdog.org/feature/statement-scott-olsen-regarding-his-son-stevens-medical-malpratice-story-january-2003

In NC, children are prohibited from including a future wage loss claim in negligence claims.  So a child victim who has life altering economic impact from an injury cannot include those expected earnings as an economic damage.  Thus, the only potential recovery is through a pain & suffering claim.   So if you limit a jury's ability to award those damages you do nothing to curb the behavior.  You simply grant insurance companies savings and those savings are not passed along to premium payers.  

 

 

 

 

39 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

I wonder what they mean by "2nd half of games 2019". Are we talking Quarter 3 and 4 each week, or Week 9 through 17? If it's the latter, he played one game, albeit his best of the season. 

They aren't talking last drive of games in the playoffs

46 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

Quarters 3-4

Interesting. I think everyone on the team probably graded higher in Quarters 3 and 4, but I wouldn't guess Alshon was in the top 4 of WR's

Love the football talk but ,unfortunately,  imo , I dont think we will have a season. 

Which sucks ,because as a bucs fan , I think they are primed for a hell of a season .

 

6 minutes ago, Original Sin said:

Love the football talk but ,unfortunately,  imo , I dont think we will have a season. 

Which sucks ,because as a bucs fan , I think they are primed for a hell of a season .

 

There will be a season, but few or even no fans  at the stadium IMO.

Iverson over here at Harrahs Cherokee casino

 

Moron

Which combo will have a more difficult adjustment, Brady in Arian's "no risk it no biscuit" offense or Newton in New England's timing based finesse pass game?

Hey guys, wanted to apologize a bit.  No more political posts from me for awhile.  Doesn't help pass the time and I realized it really doesn't matter here.  More important things to worry about.  

Im excited as I'm finally getting a haircut today.  Done with the Tom Hanks from Castaway look.  Way too much food caught in the beard.

35 minutes ago, TEW said:

There will be a season, but few or even no fans  at the stadium IMO.

That works for me.

9 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

 

Moron

Nothing wrong with that. I hate Dallas too, but that’s no big deal. 

2 minutes ago, WentzFan11 said:

Nothing wrong with that. I hate Dallas too, but that’s no big deal. 

There's nothing wrong with it, but if you are a star athlete and want to get high, you should probably not admit it while streaming

13 minutes ago, DEagle7 said:

Which combo will have a more difficult adjustment, Brady in Arian's "no risk it no biscuit" offense or Newton in New England's timing based finesse pass game?

Brady will run whatever plays he wants, he has never played with the receivers he has now.

46 minutes ago, TEW said:

There will be a season, but few or even no fans  at the stadium IMO.

I think there will be... something. I'm not so sure everything will go as smooth as they are hoping.

3 minutes ago, Original Sin said:

Brady will run whatever plays he wants, he has never played with the receivers he has now.

He's much more likely to dictate the offense than Cam for sure, and much more likely to be an overall success.

It's just interesting to see both go to places that had fundamentally very different offenses in place than where they came from.