I'm fortunate enough to have decent medical insurance, a good salary, and a large number of medical providers nearby. However, even I find the US healthcare system to be really bad. The lack of integration, the poor communication, the mistakes on records.

It's honestly pretty dire, especially considering the costs.

I miss having a medical system where the goal was your wellbeing rather than mediating a business transaction.

“To Chinese Catholics, I ask you to be good Christians and good citizens."

Is this the pope subtly telling Catholics in China not to replay the Catholic approach to residential schooling of indigenous people?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/4/good-christians-good-citizens-pope-appeals-to-china-in-mongolia-mass

It's almost 9 years since the Scottish Independence referendum in which Scotland voted 55% to remain in the UK.

Since then, Scotland has been dragged out of the EU single market that had swayed so many voters in the Scottish Independence referendum to remain in the UK in order to avoid leaving the EU even temporarily.

How much longer must Scotland wait before becoming the kind of place it wants to be?

Fascinating discussion hosted by the redoubtable Ruth Wishart

https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/kezia-dugdale-lesley-riddoch-once-upon-a-time-in-holyrood/player

From Stewart Rhodes and Donald Trump to this guy. It's easy to mistake the wheels of justice as broken when it takes several years for them to even budge a little, but I have to say I've been enjoying watching consequences be a 'thing' in 2023.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66678562

"This is a clarion call to come to Washington” - Maybe they should ask Stewart Rhodes how things panned out for him the last time he responded to a Republican's call for an overthrow of the "administrative state".

Although they might need to wait a decade or so to talk to him in a studio.

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/national-international/conservative-groups-draw-up-plan-to-dismantle-the-us-government-and-replace-it-with-trumps-vision/3123708/

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/john-eastman-vouching-clarence-thomas-integrity-rcna102466

Tomorrow, we'll see Tampa with 7ft sea level rise as a result of the storm surge.

When Thwaites glacier goes, we'll see 11ft sea level rise and unlike the storm surge it'll be permanent.

Anyone think it'll be a climate wakeup for folks?

Jenna Ellis on her smiling mugshot:
“I smiled because I am resolved to meet this process with courage and acting in faith. They cannot steal my joy.”

That's OK. My joy isn't contingent on whether she's experiencing joy, but in watching her receive justice. So yay. We both win!

Trump really did expose a deep flaw in America's epistemology. As a country, we're just not very good at examining how the truths we believe are actually true.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66589065

Given that it will be considered indecorus to say this after Rudy kills himself, I'd like to take this opportunity to get out ahead of this and say right now that the world without him in it will be a marginally better world for humanity.

Tim Scott's position on climate change seems to be - I'd rather govern to be the last stable country five decades from now than govern to be one among many stable countries five decades from now.

When asked to account for having agreed with the angry mob that Mike Pence should be hung, what's the odds that Trump will say he only meant that Karen Pence deserved a well-endowed partner?

I hope this kind of thing catches on, especially among the young folk who will have a larger portion of their potential lives impacted by climate change than those currently in power.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66505659

This article beautifully captures why I believe faith is an indulgence we can no longer afford as a species.

Beliefs inform our actions or lack thereof.
Those actions have consequences that impact on the planet.

https://onlysky.media/ccassidy/meet-creation-care-the-evangelical-substitute-for-environmental-activism/

#ClimateChange

I'm giggly and high and cooking. I love this life.

Which would be more damaging for the US: that a former president would be in prison after attempting to thwart democracy, or that he'd escape any consequences having attempted to thwart democracy?

How crazy is it that there's a non-zero chance that Trump will flee the country to a state without an extradition treaty?

As a reminder, 1.5 degrees of warming is the tipping point beyond which the effects of flood, drought, and wildfires will cause food shortages, migration and resource wars like we've not seen in our lives.

So I figure that if I don't invest in this stuff, my money will be worthless anyway due to societal collapse.