Voting Story

 A voting rights bill was drawn up recently, and yesterday....it was put to a vote in the House.....it failed (125-302).  Curiously, the 125 in favor were all Democrats, and 93 Democrats voted with the Republicans to fail the measure.

The basic agenda?  Allow the voting age to go down to 16.

If you walked into a bar to bring this idea up or sat down on some neighbor's porch....it's probably about a 99-percent chance that you wouldn't exactly see any wisdom in this idea.  I would imagine ten-percent of the population, after a decent bit of pondering....might even agree that the age ought to be raised from 18....to 20 or 21.  

My thought would be...if 16 is legal for voting, then it ought to be legal for buying booze, cigarettes', and getting married (without consent).  I don't see anyone running out to legitimize other adult 'pleasures' for the 'kids'.

My other thought here....why select 16?  If this was such a swell idea.....it seems like 15 would be just as good an age as 16.  Plus those 14-year-old kids would want their chance as well.  

I'm all for flipping the age downward....even to 14....if you just allowed the booze, cigarette and no-consent marriage deal to be part of the landscape as well.  For some reason, I don't think the Democrats want to discuss that situation. 

A Limit to Joe Chatter

 At some point yesterday (Wed), President Biden had a virtual presentation, with Speaker Pelosi with him....talking to Democrats (call it a pep-talk).

At the conclusion of his pep-talk....he then announced that he'd take questions....from the Democratic folks on the virtual deal.  Note, there were no journalists involved.

Then....suddenly....the feed to the whole thing dropped....before any questions could be posed.

Explained?  No.

Whoever controls the feed....felt that questions were not on the 'to do' list.   Fear of Joe talking?  More than likely. 

Just get used to this type of situation.  

Explaining Cuomo's Little Problem

 I've spent a fair amount of time looking over the NY governor issue.....moving Covid-19 patients into nursing homes back in May, June, July, etc.

At some point, I discovered that there are five states where governors issued the order to allow this: California, New Jersey, New York, Penn, and Michigan.

Right now, Governor Cuomo is under investigation and likely to be drawn into charges.

So what likely drove this?

Well....money.

If you live in a nursing home within NY City....your cost level is $250 to $450 per day.  However, if you were a patient in a regular ICU bed at the hospital....it's around $1,500 a day.  

I've spent a fair amount of time in the last couple of days trying to find the rate for a quarantine ICU bed situation, and it's just odd....no one publishes the rate.  Generally, an ICU bed with the ventilator deal.....is around $1,550 per day. But intensity of care and quarantine requirements?  That might push it to $5k easily.

I suspect that the folks who run 'some' of the NY City nursing homes....came around to the Cuomo crew, and suggested an order take place.  Lets say that this group of folks had 1,000 ICU beds possible in the nursing homes, and would charge $5k per day.  That comes out to $5-million per day.  For thirty days.....$150-million in extra income. If you did it for three months....$450-million.  

A quick infusion of cash.

So did all five states run something like this?  And the bundle involved for three months is around $2.5-billion?

The payback to the governors for signing the orders?  I don't think the cash came to them....but to political groups.  

So if you were in an election year as a PAC and you had $250-million, how would you use it?  Send it straight to candidate Joe Biden, or would you invest it in a harvest-votes scheme in five particular states?

Virus experts who should have stood up?  Well...in those five states....they did mostly nothing.

I'm certainly not saying all of the nursing home operators did this in the five states....but once you start talking money, and getting $250 to $450 for a regular nursing home bed, or $5k a day for a special ICU quarantine bed (with services)....that's a major flip in terms of profit.  What do you do with that type of profit?

Somewhere out there....I'll suggest that $2-billion minimum of profits exist from mixing nursing home folks with Covid-19 folks.