Thank you, Michael. It’s so good to hear your voice again. As disheartening as these statistics are, the fact that you are publishing them gives me hope. Please keep up the good work!
How about a scoring system for electing people that scores them against each other with their ideas on solving American problems, or at least improving the situations.
Top scorers get to be on the ballot.
Then we award the prize: a chance to serve America. 🇺🇸
Uh, not billionaires. (Elon doesn’t count, he’s not from America.)
Michael, your framing cuts deeper than you may have meant it to, because I grew up inside a country that called itself a democracy by every formal test you list—elections, a parliament, a free press for those who counted—while failing every substantive one for the majority who didn't. Apartheid South Africa would have scored brilliantly on your Round 1 through Round 4 if you'd only counted white South Africans, which is precisely the trick: a democracy's real score isn't the average, it's the floor. Who does the system fail completely, and how far down does that floor go?
By that measure, your Round 5 is the one that should keep Americans up at night, not just the maternal mortality numbers. A nation that incarcerates its own citizens at sixteen times Japan's rate, and does so with wildly disproportionate racial outcomes, isn't failing to be a democracy. It's succeeding at being a particular kind of one: a system that extends the franchise widely while quietly building a floor under a specific population that never gets to rise. I recognize that architecture. I watched it built, defended, and eventually dismantled once enough people refused to accept the scoreboard as fixed. The good news in your piece is also the true one: democracies that lose games get to retrain and play again. The only requirement is that enough fans actually show up and demand it.
And that’s the scorecard America is really failing at. Not enough of you are standing up to protest. Too many of you are changing the channel on the TV and looking away. Nations truly do get the government they deserve.
Michael, did you know that the number one cause of death in pregnant women in the US is murder? I keep asking various search engins because I just can hardly believe it. Here is what Copilot told me today when I asked again. And for some odd reason, the patriarchal order seems to think that women should want to get pregnant. Forget no heath care, or daycare, or family leave, or living wage. Her life is actually more at risk from violence than all the inherent biological dangers of pregnancy or childbirth. So much for men being the protectors of women and children.
ME: Is murder really the number one cause of death in pregnant women in the US? AI: Yes — the data really does show that violence (specifically homicide) is one of the leading causes of death for pregnant and postpartum women in the U.S., and in some analyses it is the single largest category of maternal death when combined with suicide. It feels unbelievable because it contradicts what most people assume about maternal mortality, but the numbers are solid.
What the latest research actually shows:
Two major recent analyses confirm this:
• A 2026 Columbia University study found that accidental overdose was the #1 cause, followed by homicide and suicide combined as the next most common causes of death among pregnant and postpartum women.
• A 2025 national study presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine found that homicide and suicide together were the #1 cause of maternal death, surpassing any single medical cause.
Both studies emphasize that violence — especially firearm-related homicide — kills more pregnant women than any individual medical complication like hemorrhage, infection, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease.
A few key details:
• Over three quarters of violent deaths involved firearms.
• Black pregnant women aged 18–24 face homicide rates nearly four times the national average.
• Many deaths occur during pregnancy, not just postpartum.
We need another film from you. Seen em all repeatedly. I remember standing in line to see Sicko at a local independent movie house. Recently, I watched an old interview with what appeared to be an unhinged, arrogant Wolf Blitzer. You were incredible. Every single thing you said in that particular interview came true and/or was true. I (we) love you dearly, and we desperately need your voice.
I remember that Blitzer moment! I shouted at the t.v. "A REAL journalist would have watched the film before interviewing the director!" Then I shook my head and crossed that halfwit off my list permanently. An odious watchdog for the chattering-class consensus.
thank you as always. and as you have so vividly explained often, most all of our discretionary tax money goes to make the MIC richer - and maintains an endless need for war. our business model. the people of the US are the enemy to the above mentioned. tax the rich, they'll still be rich. Share the wealth for the national health.
Call on Pope Leo XIV to do whatever it takes to save Gaza and stop the bombing, and end the starvation. Let him go to Gaza and stand with the suffering people who are being massacred by Israel and the Western posers. He can go to Gaza right now, and insist aid be allowed in. Then on to the West Bank to end the occupation and apartheid.
Is there anything more important in today's world than this?
More important than ever that the search for justice continues! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
This is the type of information that Dem candidates and elected officials need to put front and center. The GOP has decades of messaging experience that Dems have learned nothing from. They distract with issues that don’t touch Americans’ everyday lives and get them riled up and voting against their own best interests. But everyone here knows this. Our job is to demand we have candidates that focus on what matters, hold them accountable once in office, and get rid of the entrenched elites. I have my eyes on Jon Ossoff right now. We also need people like Michael advising candidates.
The point with Mocha is the (he/she) is that ... wait a minute "an old bull whale, of prodigious size and strength... white as wool"
.
OK just double checking,
.
The point is ... is that Mocha just absolutely loves to mash ships and their crew - just absolutely LIVES for that...
.
to satisfy it's primitive urge to lift its leg on a prodigious vertical thrusting yet static edifice of xylem and phloem in a prime-evil forest to mark territory when it used to- live on land and gimbol about through its long back and short legs and long toothy snout and jaws.
.
Such an itch and urge only sated by these modern contrivances of wood and tree and fleshy seal sized cloth-eared bi-pedal meat bags...
.
Above one's head - the ocean floor having no such trees and only by imagining the world tilted on its side... from stars and space to wooden ships a vertical interface of sea and water to those creatures large and small that live within its bounds - then sand and vent - then rock then magma.
.
Mocha is fully aware of the plight of his kin - past - present and future - screw propellor lacerations across their humps and warmer oceans and brain scrambling hydrophones and diminished habitats - but nothing compares to sheer and absolute JOY of ramming and smashing such wooden craft and dragging these inadequate be-cotton'ed meat bags to a high pressure crushing grave for the lamprey and toothed boring worms to en-cheesen.
.
I see what they carry aboard and their wash and wake is all a-flavor like a redolent finger print.
.
Each one pungently un-mistakeable and unique - each to their own a potentially delicious foam of tarred strakes - broken beams and wracked beer barrels and blood and cabbage...
All the best of success to your efforts. I think Melville would applaud them. I am sure that Ismael would. The love of the leviathan, and humanity, just shines through that book, my all time favorite. I have it next to my desk or on it, at all times. One never knows when the need might arise for a dose of brilliant humor, or a rallying cry to battle injustice, might be needed. "the eternal whale will still survive, and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial flood, spout his frothed defiance to the skies." Amen!
Thanks for the excellent score card highlighting some of the American misery indices. Too bad there are not enough Americans who can figure out even the simplest of solutions to solve one of the issues on your scorecard.
Such great info. I will share. And it's wonderful to see you writing again.
Thank you, Michael. It’s so good to hear your voice again. As disheartening as these statistics are, the fact that you are publishing them gives me hope. Please keep up the good work!
How about a scoring system for electing people that scores them against each other with their ideas on solving American problems, or at least improving the situations.
Top scorers get to be on the ballot.
Then we award the prize: a chance to serve America. 🇺🇸
Uh, not billionaires. (Elon doesn’t count, he’s not from America.)
Michael, your framing cuts deeper than you may have meant it to, because I grew up inside a country that called itself a democracy by every formal test you list—elections, a parliament, a free press for those who counted—while failing every substantive one for the majority who didn't. Apartheid South Africa would have scored brilliantly on your Round 1 through Round 4 if you'd only counted white South Africans, which is precisely the trick: a democracy's real score isn't the average, it's the floor. Who does the system fail completely, and how far down does that floor go?
By that measure, your Round 5 is the one that should keep Americans up at night, not just the maternal mortality numbers. A nation that incarcerates its own citizens at sixteen times Japan's rate, and does so with wildly disproportionate racial outcomes, isn't failing to be a democracy. It's succeeding at being a particular kind of one: a system that extends the franchise widely while quietly building a floor under a specific population that never gets to rise. I recognize that architecture. I watched it built, defended, and eventually dismantled once enough people refused to accept the scoreboard as fixed. The good news in your piece is also the true one: democracies that lose games get to retrain and play again. The only requirement is that enough fans actually show up and demand it.
And that’s the scorecard America is really failing at. Not enough of you are standing up to protest. Too many of you are changing the channel on the TV and looking away. Nations truly do get the government they deserve.
Michael, did you know that the number one cause of death in pregnant women in the US is murder? I keep asking various search engins because I just can hardly believe it. Here is what Copilot told me today when I asked again. And for some odd reason, the patriarchal order seems to think that women should want to get pregnant. Forget no heath care, or daycare, or family leave, or living wage. Her life is actually more at risk from violence than all the inherent biological dangers of pregnancy or childbirth. So much for men being the protectors of women and children.
ME: Is murder really the number one cause of death in pregnant women in the US? AI: Yes — the data really does show that violence (specifically homicide) is one of the leading causes of death for pregnant and postpartum women in the U.S., and in some analyses it is the single largest category of maternal death when combined with suicide. It feels unbelievable because it contradicts what most people assume about maternal mortality, but the numbers are solid.
What the latest research actually shows:
Two major recent analyses confirm this:
• A 2026 Columbia University study found that accidental overdose was the #1 cause, followed by homicide and suicide combined as the next most common causes of death among pregnant and postpartum women.
• A 2025 national study presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine found that homicide and suicide together were the #1 cause of maternal death, surpassing any single medical cause.
Both studies emphasize that violence — especially firearm-related homicide — kills more pregnant women than any individual medical complication like hemorrhage, infection, hypertension, or cardiovascular disease.
A few key details:
• Over three quarters of violent deaths involved firearms.
• Black pregnant women aged 18–24 face homicide rates nearly four times the national average.
• Many deaths occur during pregnancy, not just postpartum.
We own three copies of "Sicko." Thank you for making that movie and for promoting Medicare for All for so many years.
We need another film from you. Seen em all repeatedly. I remember standing in line to see Sicko at a local independent movie house. Recently, I watched an old interview with what appeared to be an unhinged, arrogant Wolf Blitzer. You were incredible. Every single thing you said in that particular interview came true and/or was true. I (we) love you dearly, and we desperately need your voice.
I remember that Blitzer moment! I shouted at the t.v. "A REAL journalist would have watched the film before interviewing the director!" Then I shook my head and crossed that halfwit off my list permanently. An odious watchdog for the chattering-class consensus.
Was that awful or what?? MM was masterful..Blitzer was desperately trying to shut him up. He was the freaking Oracle of Delphi!
thank you as always. and as you have so vividly explained often, most all of our discretionary tax money goes to make the MIC richer - and maintains an endless need for war. our business model. the people of the US are the enemy to the above mentioned. tax the rich, they'll still be rich. Share the wealth for the national health.
Kind of a sequel to yr fabulous “Where shd we invade next”! (Sigh)
Call on Pope Leo XIV to do whatever it takes to save Gaza and stop the bombing, and end the starvation. Let him go to Gaza and stand with the suffering people who are being massacred by Israel and the Western posers. He can go to Gaza right now, and insist aid be allowed in. Then on to the West Bank to end the occupation and apartheid.
Is there anything more important in today's world than this?
https://chng.it/gkvBfY44rq
Please sign the petition and share widely.
More important than ever that the search for justice continues! The work that the Hind Rajab Foundation is doing to track down and bring Israeli criminals to justice is one that is vital in the effort to hold Israel accountable. Let us hope they will also turn their sights on the criminal leaders of the countries of the west who are co-perpetrators of these crimes.
Find out what they’re doing here:
https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org
The least we can do is donate to help them:
Support the Hind Rajab Foundation
https://donate.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
This is the type of information that Dem candidates and elected officials need to put front and center. The GOP has decades of messaging experience that Dems have learned nothing from. They distract with issues that don’t touch Americans’ everyday lives and get them riled up and voting against their own best interests. But everyone here knows this. Our job is to demand we have candidates that focus on what matters, hold them accountable once in office, and get rid of the entrenched elites. I have my eyes on Jon Ossoff right now. We also need people like Michael advising candidates.
It would be treason to actually let Jannis Varoufakis have a say in any of this...
.
The Greeks are on another level...
.
That's why everything is "Redolent" of this or "Redolent" of that ~ with or without tons of garlic.
.
.
It may be a long time but as a major project rewriting Moby Dick from the Whale's point of view..
.
🐳🪑...
.
Based on the real life antics of Mocha the Whale (eventually immortalized by Herman Melleville). (sp)
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocha_Dick
.
The point with Mocha is the (he/she) is that ... wait a minute "an old bull whale, of prodigious size and strength... white as wool"
.
OK just double checking,
.
The point is ... is that Mocha just absolutely loves to mash ships and their crew - just absolutely LIVES for that...
.
to satisfy it's primitive urge to lift its leg on a prodigious vertical thrusting yet static edifice of xylem and phloem in a prime-evil forest to mark territory when it used to- live on land and gimbol about through its long back and short legs and long toothy snout and jaws.
.
Such an itch and urge only sated by these modern contrivances of wood and tree and fleshy seal sized cloth-eared bi-pedal meat bags...
.
Above one's head - the ocean floor having no such trees and only by imagining the world tilted on its side... from stars and space to wooden ships a vertical interface of sea and water to those creatures large and small that live within its bounds - then sand and vent - then rock then magma.
.
Mocha is fully aware of the plight of his kin - past - present and future - screw propellor lacerations across their humps and warmer oceans and brain scrambling hydrophones and diminished habitats - but nothing compares to sheer and absolute JOY of ramming and smashing such wooden craft and dragging these inadequate be-cotton'ed meat bags to a high pressure crushing grave for the lamprey and toothed boring worms to en-cheesen.
.
I see what they carry aboard and their wash and wake is all a-flavor like a redolent finger print.
.
Each one pungently un-mistakeable and unique - each to their own a potentially delicious foam of tarred strakes - broken beams and wracked beer barrels and blood and cabbage...
.
.
.
All the best of success to your efforts. I think Melville would applaud them. I am sure that Ismael would. The love of the leviathan, and humanity, just shines through that book, my all time favorite. I have it next to my desk or on it, at all times. One never knows when the need might arise for a dose of brilliant humor, or a rallying cry to battle injustice, might be needed. "the eternal whale will still survive, and rearing upon the topmost crest of the equatorial flood, spout his frothed defiance to the skies." Amen!
Thanks for the excellent score card highlighting some of the American misery indices. Too bad there are not enough Americans who can figure out even the simplest of solutions to solve one of the issues on your scorecard.