Blog #17 Announcement: Denver SaveTheBillionairesOrNot Memorial Walk for Kidney Dialysis Patients coming up!!! Sunday December 3rd, 2023

Details

Written by: Super User

• Tag: BillionaireRedemptionOrNot Blog

Petition (and see our visit to DC and DC Press Conference + Rally)

!!!P.S. The following History and recent Children's stats linked to, need to be emphasized!!! Update: And it gets worse:  KIDS!!!!

The Walk is scheduled to start in front of the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse in Denver and will end at DaVita's World Headquarters Towers.  It is about a 1.3 mile walk.  Written and audio stories concerning loved ones and general dialysis stories (including staff's) can be gathered during the Walk and will be put up on this site and Spotify.  At the end of the Walk flyers and more can be taped to DaVita's buildings.  Contact information will soon be provided for those who can't make the Walk, we need to remind DaVita that people are more than numbers on a spreadsheet!

You can see the previous blogs and articles on this site for what has so many of us upset!  (it is suggested to start with the red highlighted link above concerning child mortality rates)

First earlier Denver Walk:
On YouTube (the drive over)
On Spotify (the Walk)

Summary:
Sunday December 3rd, 2023 SaveTheBillionairesOrNot Denver Walk:
Starting When: 2pm
Starting: Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse
               901 19th St.
               Denver, CO 80294
Ending:  DaVita World HQ Towers
              2001 16th St Mall
              Denver CO 80202
Distance: 1.3 miles
Objective: Gathering of written and audio stories of patients, taping of flyers etc... on DaVita buildings
(this and the Omaha Walk info are available here)

(!!!!Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come!!!!)

Petition (and see our visit to DC and DC Press Conference + Rally)

Blog #16 Denial isn't a River in Egypt

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Written by: Super User

Petition (and see our visit to DC and DC Press Conference + Rally)

!!!P.S. The following History and recent Children's stats linked to, need to be emphasized!!! Update: And it gets worse:  KIDS!!!!

No, we aren't talking a river in Egypt.  But denial can be something that could put a person in a half-sleep for years and years.  It could put a kidney dialysis advocate with 20+ years of experience into a half-stupor who became somewhat contented to rest on his laurels.  But then along came a NYT's best-selling author who shook that dialysis advocate awake!  (see the author's interview with Northwest Passages)  The advocate had dreamed of a Camelot not far from his Denver Colorado home, now he has been told that dream isn't real!  He has been told that "King Arthur" and his court are more interested in mundane things like earnings and revenues than proper medical care!  The book author with his new book had fanned the flames of a fire that had been burning for decades!  He lit up a burning in the advocate's soul that caused him to join hands with the Washington D.C. organization M.I. Mother's Keeper!  It caused him to put up a YouTube channel!  (ok, I took down the colorful language version).  It also caused him to put up a Spotify Audio podcast channel where he took a Walk in downtown Denver!  He(me) found it so enjoyable he planned another Walk on Sunday December 3rd, 2023!  (corrected)  Join us!! - or pick one of nine+ ways to help

This blog will end with a couple of quotes:

From the article 'Warren Buffett: America's Folksiest Predator' by Matt Stoller (author of the book Goliath - part of this Reading List)
"One of the more important figures in American capitalism over the last forty years is Warren Buffett (aka the King Arthur of capitalism), the legendary investor who is now the fourth richest man in the world. Buffett is an icon, the ‘Oracle of Omaha,’ who lives a simple lifestyle based on folksy wisdom, eating Dairy Queen ice cream, and drinking Coca Cola. Or so goes the myth. In this issue, I’m going to do an interview with an author who presents a very different side of Buffett, the side that is key to his wealth and power. Specifically, the monopolist side, and how Buffett’s way of investing has been a multiplier force for dominant corporations."

Arundhati Roy, Indian activist and writer:
"Like me, you could.....be unfortunate enough to stumble upon a silent war. The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing,becomes as political an act as speaking out. Either way, you're accountable."
(could it be she is telling us it is up to us to help a vulnerable population who has had problems advocating for themselves due to illness and terminations?)

P.S. The Denver Walks were preceded by an Omaha Walk this last May

Petition (and see our visit to DC and DC Press Conference + Rally)

 

Blog #15 Stock Guru Jim Cramer Part 2

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Written by: Super User

• Tag: BillionaireRedemptionOrNot Blog

Petition (and see our visit to DC and DC Press Conference + Rally)

The following was emailed to Jim Cramer at CNBC.  Another Hail Mary?  I don't know, it seems worth a shot.  Here is the first email sent off to him.

Jim Cramer can be emailed at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

!!!P.S. The following History and recent Children's stats linked to, need to be emphasized!!! Update: And it gets worse:  KIDS!!!!

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Mr. Cramer,

I heard you recently grumbling about Lina Khan, Chairperson of the FTC.  I understand your perspective, people rarely agree totally on everything - especially anymore!  However I have to wonder if there just might be some common ground between you two!  To put it in cold analytical terms, I wouldn't be surprised to find out you both believe in the best "product quality"!  And at a reasonable price.  To put it more bluntly, I imagine you both believe in not killing the "customers" for the almighty dollar!  (in this case patients)

I wrote you earlier this year and put up what I had to say in a blog. I was urging you to help a couple of our favorite billionaires on the road to redemption!  We just want Buffett and Munger to break up DaVita, the huge dialysis company - they could do it with their pocket change.  And on their road to redemption, if they helped save thousands of kidney dialysis patients on the way wouldn't that be nice!  Ok, I'm trying a little sarcasm to keep from saying what I really want to say.  But the rich do seem to get more attention, don't they?  And Buffett and Munger aren't getting any younger are they?  As I'm fond of saying, they might be getting visions of the Grim Reaper and might be rethinking their monopolistic capitalist ways (I can only hope).  I wouldn't say I'm a socialist, but if capitalism is involved I sincerely believe there ought to be SOME choice - there is little of that in kidney dialysis (little monopolies turned into two near-monopolies).

Here is chance for you and Ms. Khan to get together for a common cause!  Bust up DaVita!  This could be much like the Republicans and Democrats getting together for the good of the country! (as of this writing, that dream seems far off)

And just to let you know, you are now number 4 out of 9 ways to help kidney dialysis patients.  The ways I mentioned seem to be gaining some traction.  And I should mention NYT's best-selling author Tom Mueller's book "How to Make a Killing: Blood, Death, and Dollars in American Medicine" is now out.   It doesn't paint a pretty picture.  Looks to me to be throwing a log on a fire that has been burning for decades.

If I missed anything, you might find it in a Reddit post I recently put up.  (AND THINK IT CAN'T GET WORSE!!!!!!)

Blog #14 Email to FTC Chairperson Lina Khan

Details

Written by: Super User

• Tag: BillionaireRedemptionOrNot Blog

Petition (and see our visit to DC and DC Press Conference + Rally)

A link to this blog has been sent to FTC Chairperson Lina Khan as part of an email.  Feel free to do the same!  Or of course come up with your own message!  Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

!!!P.S. The following History and recent Children's stats linked to, need to be emphasized!!! Update: And it gets worse:  KIDS!!!!

----------------------------------------

Chairperson Lina Khan,

I've been an admirer of your antitrust work, but thought I should let you know there is some low-hanging fruit I should make you aware of.  That low-hanging fruit would be kidney dialysis.  I'm the father of a daughter dealing with kidney disease (transplant now) and I've been a kidney dialysis advocate for over twenty years.  One highlight has been helping head-up a group that got a bill through the Colorado Statehouse for the certification of kidney dialysis technicians. (passed in 2007, renewed in 2012 and 2019)

The duopoly of DaVita and Fresenius control about 80% of the free-standing dialysis units in the US.  Their for-profit ways have resulted in numbers that can only be described as horrific!  And to top it off the per capita costs of dialysis in the US have been quoted as being "the highest in the industrialized world (about $35 billion per year)"!¹  Throw in all the scandals that have plagued this field of medicine over the years and I think it would be safe to say there isn't a much better candidate for being busted into pieces!  They have gotten away with this for years by staying under the radar with buying up small clinics with values too tiny to set off alarm bells.  But then take all these little monopolies (clinics) and combine them into two near-monopolies - you now can see the results!

I'll let you know there are organizations such as M.I. Mother's Keeper out of D.C. and Dialysis Advocates being motivated to move on this by a book that just recently came out: 'How to Make a Killing: Blood, Death, and Dollars' by NYT's best-selling author Tom Mueller.  This book is a log that has thrown on a fire that has been burning for decades!  Add in the fine media pieces that have been done over the years and I'm seeing no better time for this to come to the forefront!

Also I see you take complaints about business conduct that harms competition, limits products or services, destroys innovation, or raises prices.  You might add to that list conduct that kills people!

Regards,
[name]
DialysisEthics2.org

P.S. Numbers can have a habit of putting some people to sleep, here are some that could cause insomnia (and nightmares):

Since 1991:
children age 10–19, mortality due to infection – up 19%
(children age 10–19, cardiovascular mortality – up 62%)
2006 ADR pg. 160²