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Diane

@dianefurst.bsky.social

341 followers 434 following 164 posts

Interests include democracy, nature, science, Bay Area, and travel. Former small-town mayor. Please no complaints about potholes.

Posts Replies Media

Diane @dianefurst.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

This study does not include additional savings from liability claims and insurance. No more medical claims on auto, home or business policies for accidents or “slip and falls”.

Text excerpt from Yale School of Public Health report: “The model identified five major sources of savings: lower pharmaceutical prices, Medicare-level payments to providers, reduced administrative overhead, less fraudulent billing, and fewer avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Even under more conservative assumptions about drug prices and fraud reduction, the researchers projected that the savings would reach at least $663 billion a year. Both figures account for an estimated $304 billion in additional spending to meet unmet medical needs, reimburse care that now goes unpaid, and provide universal dental coverage.
A universal healthcare policy would also save tens of thousands of lives, the researchers project.”

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Diane @dianefurst.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Excellent article about how sociology threatens fascistic, fear-based “us vs them” thinking

Most people, everywhere, struggle to get through life safely, in reasonable material comfort, while caring for those around them. They are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, romantic partners, workers of all kinds. If their culture or social organization is different from ours, sociology teaches us to study these differences as adaptations to history and circumstance. Sociology makes human variation, built atop our species kinship, fascinating, not threatening.

This lesson, of course, upsets fascists, who would rather their followers adopt an us-versus-them mentality, seeing difference as something to fear, something to stamp out. Likewise, fascists want to restrict the circle of empathy among their followers to only those who are not different, who look, talk and act the same. Sociology moves minds in the opposite direction; it widens the circle of empathy. When we recognize our common humanity and treat difference as something to be understood, it becomes harder to harm others. Sociology, in short, opposes the dehumanization fascism relies on to divide and weaken the masses of people who have no stake in exploiting others for profit, let alone harming them in the service of would-be dominators.

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Diane @dianefurst.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

WaPo deleted the post. Here’s the screenshot:

Screenshot of a post by the Washington Post reads: “The Supreme Court will hear arguments today about whether President Trump’s order on birthright citizenship violates the constitution. Many legal scholars believe it does, but this court has shown a willingness to upend expectation and precedent.” Below it is a link to an article, “This 5-month-old was born on US soil. She may never be a citizen. The Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a case that could…”

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Diane @dianefurst.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

TL/DR: minority enrollment down at the most selective schools but up at public flagship univs. “Highly qualified Black and Latino students, who might have been admitted to the Ivy League and similar schools before the SCOTUS decision, enrolled in less-selective schools as a result of the decision”

Screenshot from NY Times Article:

The Supreme Court ruling in 2023 banning race-conscious college admissions led to declines in Black and Latino admissions at highly selective universities. At many other schools, the opposite occurred, according to a new analysis.

Overall, freshmen enrollment of underrepresented minority groups increased by 8 percent at public flagship universities. The analysis, by a nonprofit organization, Class Action, concludes that those schools were among institutions that benefited as a result of higher rejection rates for Black and Hispanic students at the nation’s 50 most selective schools.

At those top 50 schools, Black freshmen enrollment was down by 27 percent and Latino enrollment down by 10 percent.

The data from Class Action, which works to promote equity in education, was based on 2024 federal enrollment figures released in January covering more than 3,000 colleges and universities.

Continued text from NY Times article:

Data released publicly by a smaller number of schools have hinted that highly selective schools admitted fewer Black and Latino students following the Supreme Court decision, but the report was one of the first efforts to analyze the impact of the decision on enrollment demographics across a broad swath of the nation’s colleges.

While the data covers only freshmen enrollment the first year after the Supreme Court decision went into effect, it bolsters the prediction by some education experts that the decision would create a chain of consequences. Highly qualified Black and Latino students, who might have been admitted to the Ivy League and other similar schools before the Supreme Court decision, enrolled in less-selective schools as a result of the decision, potentially leading to a “cascade” of less qualified minority students enrolling in even less selective institutions.

Some research suggests that the phenomenon, called a “cascade” effect and identified in California following a statewide ban on affirmative action in 1998, may have long-term effects on employment opportunities and earnings for the students who ended up in the least selective institutions.

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Diane @dianefurst.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

When a sociopath develops dementia: “increased aggression,” “paranoia,“agitation” and “delusion”

Screenshot of an AI overview to the Google query “What happens when a sociopath develops dementia?”:
When a person with sociopathic traits develops dementia, their existing lack of empathy and impulse control, often tied to frontal lobe damage, can worsen, leading to increased aggression, manipulation, pathological stealing, or disinhibited behavior, but it's different from psychopathy as they lack the core manipulation/deception; the dementia itself causes personality changes by damaging brain areas that control social behavior, making behaviors like paranoia, agitation, or delusion common, often requiring medication to manage symptoms, notes research on sociopathy in dementia.

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Diane @dianefurst.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Now up to $40B, and all to bail out wealthy US investor buddies of Scott Bessent who face big losses if their Argentina bets go bad, according to this article (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/u...

But the administration’s decision to rescue Argentina’s economy is raising concerns about whether the real aim is to help rich investors whose bets on Argentina could falter if its economy sinks.

Those efforts have been complicated by the fact that major hedge funds, including those led by friends of Mr. Bessent, stand to benefit financially from an Argentina economic lifeline. Funds at investment firms including BlackRock, Fidelity and Pimco are heavily invested in Argentina, as are investors such as Stanley Druckenmiller and Robert Citrone, both of whom worked with Mr. Bessent when he was an investor for George Soros.

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Diane @dianefurst.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

TL/DR: “This isn’t a call to smash the machines. It’s a call to govern them…to put portability… auditability…sunlight…and civic consent ahead of vendor convenience and political convenience. Because if we don’t…the arrangement will govern us…the quietest tyranny ever engineered.”

This isn’t a call to smash the machines. It’s a call to govern them…to put portability… auditability…sunlight…and civic consent ahead of vendor convenience and political convenience.

Because if we don’t…the arrangement will govern us. Not loudly. Not with boots and fists. But with settings…the quietest tyranny ever engineered.

If you want a free country…don’t just defend the ballot box. Defend the admin box. That’s where this fight is headed…and Ellison is already there waiting…with the keys in his hand.

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Diane @dianefurst.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

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Diane @dianefurst.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

Received a CA Redistricting hit piece in the mail yesterday featuring a prominent quote from the CA LWV president calling to reject mid-cycle redistricting to “protect the integrity of our democratic process.” Paid for in part by Republican mega donor Charles Munger Jr.