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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 39m

Yeah agree though I think the bigger impediment to restoring constitutional government is Dem willingness to pursue necessary reforms, prosecute ICE goons, etc.

It's unfortunately easier to see a world where Dems win congress and declare victory without purging Trumpism and repairing the damage

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1h

I don't really understand what winning the Senate gets you other than judicial confirmations (which at this point don't really matter, as SCOTUS is all in for Trump)?

Controlling the House alone let's you stop legislation, vote down Trump's budgets, etc.

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1h

He could be nice to work for, who knows. Abusing staff seems to be on an entirely different dimension than other morality. Clarence Thomas is known for being incredibly kind to the court staff, etc.

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1h

This pack of spineless weasels is too gutless to pull it off, I suspect. Luxon will pry ably just lurch on, getting increasingly unpopular...

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1h

Andrew fucking Cuomo is very famously more abusive than Porter or Klobuchar, and huge portions of the Democratic establishment rallied around him just 6 months ago!

That said, I'm not going to defend Porter here. Don't abuse your staff, this isn't hard.

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 10h

He has no insight or ability for self-reflection. He thinks he's doing a great job and everyone else is wrong. He will only leave when he is dragged out, either by his own MPs or after losing the election next year.

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 12h

They didn't just run the story, they made it the lead story on the whole RNZ homepage.

Some editor there thought this bullshit was the single most important thing going on in NZ today...

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

The US is an outlier in terms of physician pay (IMO more related to high levels of debt, low resident salaries, and restriction of supply).

But fundamentally, doctors do critical work and require a huge amount of skilled training. They're always going to be paid multiples the median wage.

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

So actually, this doesn't actually save any time. In countries where medicine is an undergraduate degree, it tends to be 5 or 6 years, and training pathway are longer.

On average, US trainees complete surgical training at a younger age than NZ trainees, for example...

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

What the fuck. Just a horrendous human...

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Reposted

Lea Ypi @leaypi.bsky.social · 1d

no words

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead

Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive

www.theguardian.com

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

Didn't know that it was associated with lower rates of PTSD, but that probably helped me get through surgical training haha

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

The one saving grace is that it does seem like it's quite unpopular among most people who aren't super into hating the kids-these-days.

And the fact that it's so poorly designed makes it easy for Labour to bin it if they win

(trying to see the positives here...)

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

Yep I'm the same way...

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

PE firms* (sigh where's my edit button)

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

Doesn't help that a ton of anesthesia practices have been bought up by PR firms...

And yes, when I was practicing in the US, I was acutely aware that it actively cost me money to decline to do unnecessary procedures. Fee-for-service is a plague.

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

Indeed, and yet NZD is at near record lows against it!

(the idiot right-wing government here implemented mega-austerity and fucked the economy 🤷🏾‍♂️)

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

Somehow I missed that. I mean it's in keeping with his (lack of) character, but wow...

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

I'm sorry he did what??

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Reposted

Russell Brown @publicaddress.bsky.social · 1d

Fucksake. It's quite clear now that they only looked at this benefit policy as political marketing and took no advice on who it would impact – which includes young people with serious health issues and disabilities. Just feckless and cynical. Shame on them. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Hundreds of teens with a health condition, disability may be cut from Jobseeker benefit

The government is ending Jobseeker payments to 18- and 19 year olds whose parents earn more than $65,000.

www.rnz.co.nz

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

This is exactly what Republicans in the US say to people they don't like (especially immigrants) .

Their strategy over the next year is going to be to import American culture wars more than ever

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Julie Blommaert @drjulieb.bsky.social · 1d

If Nicola Willis thinks we “shouldnt be so precious that we can’t use metaphorical speech” can we go back to why Chlöe Swarbrick was punished so heavily for her comments on the government’s spinelessness?

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

The disparity between fields in the US is also absurd. Ortho, neurosurg, interventional cardiology, etc can easily make 3-5x more than medical docs because of fee-for-service payments. Flattening that would help a lot, and also remove perverse incentives for students/residents.

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

You're absolutely right that there will need to be tradeoffs for single payer though. Cutting out insurance companies will get you about ~15% savings in administrative overhead and profits, but you'll need to find more, and reducing doc salaries (esp. surgical fields) will need to be part of it

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psheth.bsky.social @psheth.bsky.social · 1d

The US physician pay structure has a LOT of problems: surgeons are paid too much, medical subspecialists (esp pediatricians) are paid poorly, fee for service has bad incentives, etc.

But looking at a median GP salary of 200k (only about 3x median income) and saying "that's too high" isn't it

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