DL Open Thread: Thursday, December 1, 2022

Medicare Dis-Advantage.  Just remember–this is what Carney and DeMatteis is trying to sell to state employees:

Medicare Advantage plans, which are private insurance plans for seniors paid for with federal dollars, originated as a government savings strategy, on the theory that the private sector could improve on government performance at a lower cost. But over the past two decades, it has become clear that Medicare Advantage does not result in improved care for less money. Instead, it will come as no surprise to Americans familiar with the health insurance industry that insurers found a way to turn it into yet another profit center, while putting bureaucratic roadblocks in the way of patients.

…As a result, multiple studies have found that seniors on Medicare Advantage cost the government more than those in the traditional program, exactly the opposite of what is intended. A government advisory panel recently estimated the overpayment was $12 billion in 2020.

 Could Election-Denying Rethug Officials Flip Races–To Democrats? Why, yes, yes they could:

It’s a strange and surreal place where up is down and black is white and the two Republican members of the Cochise County Board of Supervisors have lost their ever-living minds.

It seems Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby had this bright this idea that if they just declined to certify the election results in their ruby-red county that …

Well, I’m not sure what they thought would happen, but their decision to essentially disenfranchise their own voters – most of them Republicans − seems to be a protest of Maricopa County’s election. A protest that, if it stands, could actually land the supervisors in jail and another Democrat in Congress.

That would be so–sad.

Why Moore v. Harper Might Not Be The Disaster We Expect. We’re talking the law of unintended consequences The conclusion:

A similar phenomenon could occur if the Republicans prevail in Moore v. Harper, at least when it comes to redistricting. Harvard law professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos ran a series of simulations recently that projected voting outcomes if each state could gerrymander at will. He concluded that “nationwide, North Carolina is more the exception than the rule. Overall, Democrats would modestly benefit from a holding that state legislatures’ ability to draw congressional districts can’t be limited by state courts.” He projected that Democrats would net two to three congressional seats. If that turns out to be true, what’s good for North Carolina Republicans may not end up being good for all Republicans.

Police Helicopter Units A Waste Of Money?  It’s a waste.  The only question is whether it’s a total waste:

The federal government continues to fund local law enforcement helicopter units. The Justice Department has given more than $2 million to such units since 2008. The Department of Defense has also donated more than 300 “demilitarized” helicopters, originally valued at $94 million overall, to sheriff’s, state police and highway patrol departments in 30 states since the 1990s. Florida, Alabama, California, Tennessee and Texas sheriffs have received most of those helicopters.

Los Angeles’ police and sheriff’s departments now maintain at least 17 helicopters each and keep those choppers in the air for regular day and night patrols.

Paul Whitehead, a sociologist and professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario, agrees that the early studies were flawed. Whitehead was invited by the city of London, Ontario, Canada, to conduct a more recent study of helicopter patrol effectiveness in 2000.

The early studies had “very poor research designs,” Whitehead said, which “lead to serious questions about the validity of their findings.” Many were “done with the purpose of finding the evidence that helicopters improved policing. And everything was aimed at reaching that conclusion even before the first piece of data was collected,” he said. 

Whitehead found that helicopters did not reduce crime rates and, because they were so expensive to buy and operate, any cost savings that came from using them for patrols did not come close to equaling their expense.

Jim Vaughn’s Son To Retire From Delaware Supreme Court.  Good fucking riddance.  Yet another cynical political appointment, this one by Jack Markell:

“Like his father, Justice Vaughn has served our State and its citizens with great distinction,” said Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz, Jr. “As former Chief Justice Veasey has remarked, ‘Justice Vaughn has a straight-forward/no-nonsense approach to the Rule of Law.’ The Court will miss his hard work, steady hand and unflappable nature.”

Sen. Vaughn’s only ‘distinction’ was to help incarcerate thousands of folks on bullshit possession charges.  He was a proud bullet-headed know-nothing.

Of course, it was Tom Carper who cynically appointed Vaughn to Superior Court back in 1998.  His way of buying Vaughn’s vote on whatever he wanted.

What do you want to talk about?