Hall of Shame Induction

Although the year is not quite over, here are the nominees for induction this year into the Weekly Bystander Hall of Shame.

First: Hillary Rodham Clinton. She earns the nomination not for her second failed attempt to become President of the United States. That can happen to anyone. She earns the nomination this year for her refusal to accept the outcome of the election, even after conceding on election night. 

With a word she could have put an end to all the recount nonsense and just accepted the verdict. She could have dissuaded Democrats from supporting Jill Stein’s recount attempts, or the even more nonsensical attempts to persuade members of the Electoral College to ignore the will of the voters in their states.

In 2000 Al Gore wisely acted for the good of the country when he accepted the decision of the Supreme Court in the Florida recount dispute. Forty years earlier in 1960 Vice-President Richard Nixon also acted in a very statesman-like manner when he refused to contest the election results in Illinois where the Daley Democrat machine in Chicago was believed to have stuffed the ballot boxes to win the State and the election for John f. Kennedy. However, Hillary Clinton has steadfastly refused to step forward and help to unite a deeply divided country.

Second: John Kasich, the current Governor of Ohio. Kasich earns the nomination not for his failed campaign to win the Republican nomination nor for his refusal to support the party’s nominee to the bitter end. He is nominated because on Election Day he wouldn’t even vote for himself. He chose to cast a write-in vote for Senator John McCain. After spending all that time and effort asking people to vote for him, he couldn’t even vote for himself. The people in Ohio voted for Donald Trump despite their Governor. Kasich began the campaign as a man of dignity, experience, and accomplishment but ended looking like a foolish has-been.

Third: Anderson Cooper of CNN, the so-called Cable News Network. Actually, Cooper gets the nomination on behalf of all those political commentators who got it wrong in 2016. They are nominated for the Hall of Shame not because they failed to predict the outcome. Anyone can make bad predictions. They get the nomination because of their refusal to open their eyes and actually report on what was happening in the country.  It is amazing to consider how shocked these pundits were when Trump in one of the debates declined to say that he would accept the result of the election.

Now that the election is over and Trump has won, where is the shock and amazement of these same commentators over the Democrat refusal to accept the outcome of the election?  Such hypocrisy. Who blames Jill Stein, a candidate who got 1% of the vote for demanding recounts? Who blames demonstrators in front of Trump Tower? Who blames those politicians still plotting to overturn the election results by manipulating the electors in the Electoral College? Do these people actually think the country will accept peacefully an overturn of the election result?

Fourth: Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme Court Justice. RBG gets the nomination not so much for threatening to leave the country in the event of a Trump election, but for failing to follow through on that pledge now that the election is over. Actually, this is also a group nomination since RBG represents all those celebrities who have said that they would depart from the USA in protest against Trump.

And the winner is: Hillary Rodham Clinton. It is fitting that she gets to join her husband, William Jefferson Clinton, in the Hall of Shame. They deserve each other. I’m sure this year’s award will not tarnish Hillary Clinton’s reputation or damage her in any way. Like her husband, she will eventually rise from the ashes.  

The Clintons have always reminded me of Monsieur and Madame Thenardier, the sleazy, conniving innkeepers from the hit Broadway show, Les Miserables. The show was based on Victor Hugo’s famous novel of the same name. In both the book and the theatrical adaptation, the Thenardiers play leading roles. No matter how often they get exposed, knocked-down, or humiliated for their nefarious behavior, they always get back up again and rise to new heights.

Here is a link to a 5 minute clip from the concert performance of the play featuring the Thenardiers singing the hit song, "Master of the House." At the four minute mark we can see what Madame Thenardier thought of the scoundrel she married.The video can also be viewed below.

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Health Care and Tort Reform

Dr. Tom Price

  

One of the signature issues of Donald Trump’s campaign was the repeal of the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. However, I noted in an earlier post that Obamacare was actually repealing itself. Premiums are increasing at double digit rates and already high deductibles are getting even higher. Also, the number of insurance companies participating is getting smaller and smaller.

Just this past week Connecticut announced that HealthyCT, one of its most promising non-profit health insurance coops, would go out of business on December 31. In the past couple of years the enrollment numbers had not met expectations despite lower than average premiums, and claims had skyrocketed. At the same time, the Federal funding that was designed to help these coops get off the ground has now run out. The State announced that existing claims would be paid out of an insurance industry fund designed to rescue insolvent companies. HealthyCt’s remaining customers will have to find new coverage.

I suspect that the fate of HealthyCT is being replicated all over the country. Premiums are increasing all over and claims continue to rise. Apparently, some states are now down to only one health insurance provider. A recent article in the Wall St. Journal suggested that about 40 different proposals to replace or change Obamacare have been proposed by Republicans in Congress in the past four years but not one has been able to get past President’s threat of a veto.

This week President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination of Representative Tom Price of Georgia to become head of the massive Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As a Congressmen, Price has championed a replacement for Obamacare based on 20 years of experience as an orthopedic surgeon and on his belief that the less government interferes in healthcare the better.

What can the new administration do to rein in rising health care costs? I’m sure that the will be many different suggestions and plans but I would just like to mention one. If the government or Medicare can regulate what hospitals, physicians, and drug companies receive for their services, I don’t see why it can’t pass significant tort reform and limit the size and extent of medical malpractice awards to attorneys who typically get 33% of the claimant’s award. I also don’t see why enormous punitive damages that do not benefit the actual claimant should be permitted.

Medical malpractice insurance makes up a huge part of the expenses that hospitals and physicians must pass on to their patients. Why should this be a political issue? Why have liberals and Democrats always opposed tort reform? The doctors and hospitals that actually provide the medical care must accept what Medicare and Medicaid allow but there is practically no limit on what lawyers, who add nothing to medical care, can charge.

Just recently I read that a commuter train conductor who crashed his train into the landing platform in New York’s Grand Central station was suing the rail line for $10 Million. He had fallen asleep on the job and his train crashed after hurtling through the Grand Central tunnel at over 80 miles per hour. Nevertheless, his attorney claimed that the rail company should have installed fool-proof braking devices in all trains to protect against conductors like his client.

I am not saying that all medical malpractice claims are like this one but even if they are not, what reasonable person would think a lawyer should get over $3 Million for one case? Anyone on Medicare who looks at the monthly claims report knows that the medical insurance company, following Medicare guidelines, typically reduces the hospital or doctor bill substantially. When I had radiation treatment for prostate cancer, the hospital billed my insurance company over $120000. I have no idea how the hospital arrived at that figure but it accepted the insurance company allowance of about $14000 of which I had to pay 20%.

It will not surprise me to see tort reform in the medical proposals emanating from the new Congress. The lawyers have a powerful lobby and taking it on will be a test of the dedication of Donald Trump and the Republicans to reforming health care.

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The Leopard

Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale 

  I've been meaning to include the film version of "The Leopard" in the Masterpiece section of the Weekly Bystander for some time but the contentious Presidential election took most of my attention in the past few months. But the reaction to the election results brought to mind the most famous line from the book and the movie. 

                          "Everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same."

The DVD version of “The Leopard”, Luchino Visconti’s masterpiece, gives us an opportunity to view a great film and get a history lesson at the same time. The film stars Burt Lancaster in perhaps his greatest performance as a world weary, nineteenth century Sicilian aristocrat. He is surrounded by an outstanding supporting cast that includes the young and beautiful Claudia Cardinale, and the noted French actor, Alain Delon.

The film is a faithful adaptation of the novel of the same name by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, himself an Italian aristocrat. It tells the story of an episode in the “Risorgimento”, the name given to the movement for Italian unification in the nineteenth century. In the background is the invasion of Sicily by a small army of red-shirted revolutionaries led by Giuseppe Garibaldi that successfully overthrew the ancient monarchy of Naples and Sicily in 1860.

Both Lampedusa’s novel and Visconti’s film make it clear that Risorgimento is a nice word for the conquest of the rural, feudal South of Italy by the urban, industrialized North. It is interesting that the events depicted in “The Leopard” coincide with our own Civil War. “Gone with the Wind” could well be the American version of “The Leopard.” In both epics the members of an aristocratic household are trying to keep their heads above water during and after the calamitous events that engulf them. In both cases an old world is fading away and being replaced by a new world full of schemers and parvenus. Only those who can adapt to the new circumstances will be able to survive.

“Gone with the Wind” centers around Tara, the beautiful Georgian estate of the O’Hara family. “The Leopard” centers around Donnafugata, the equally beautiful Sicilian estate of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina. In both films we see the families, the neighbors, the servants, and the peasants or slaves who combine to provide a picture of Southern life.

In GWTW Scarlett O’ Hara, the family’s spoiled daughter, is the central figure, but Visconti’s masterpiece revolves around the father of the family, Don Fabrizio. He sees himself as a leopard who will only be succeeded by hyenas and jackals. Burt Lancaster plays Don Fabrizio to perfection although one of the commentaries in the DVD set notes that the aristocratic Visconti originally considered Lancaster as little more than a cowboy actor.

The DVD set comes in two versions: an Italian language one with English subtitles, in which only Lancaster’s voice is dubbed; and an English version where Lancaster speaks English and everyone else’s voice is dubbed. I prefer the Italian language version especially since Italian movie makers do such a great job of dubbing. You would swear that Burt Lancaster is actually speaking Italian.

The film is beautifully photographed both inside and out. The DVD commentary explains the extraordinary efforts Visconti took to recreate even the minutest details of Sicilian life. The ball scene toward the end of the film is magnificent. While the film can be enjoyed on its own, the various commentaries on the DVD set add to the enjoyment. There are also interviews with some of the participants including a still beautiful Claudia Cardinale, as well as an historical introduction to the background of the Risorgimento.

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