The Rise and Fall of Businessman Rick Scott - 2/2

by Nomad

In Part One of this two-part series we took a close look at the rise of Rick Scott who, through its aggressive business tactics built the largest for-profit healthcare provider network.
Before the scandal which was to rock the company to its foundations, the corporation had grown to more than 340 hospitals, 135 surgery centers and 550 home health locations in 37 states and two foreign countries. 
And then, in a matter of months, it was out of Scott's hands.

Scott's Sudden Fall 

Scott's prestigious empire all came a-tumbling down when, on March 19, 1997, FBI agents, in conjunction with the Internal Revenue Service, the Health and Human Services (which oversees Medicare), and the Defense Department's Criminal Investigation Service raided Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso, Texas. Eventually the seizure of documents regarding the case would expand across the country. At issue were allegations that Columbia/HCA had knowingly bilked Medicare and Medicaid.

The Rise and Fall of Businessman Rick Scott 1/2

Businessman Rick Scott, 
the Face of 
Corporate Healthcare

by Nomad

The story of Rick Scott's career before entering politics is a fascinating one. How a person with such a background would even consider the public scrutiny of a campaign show something about the audacity of the man.

When businessman Rick Lynn Scott decided to throw himself into the Florida governor’s race, he had one significant problem to deal with. 

As a candidate with absolutely no prior political experience, his sole qualification for being the Sunshine State’s governor was his shady history in business. 

A Very Aggressive Corporation

Before he lost his empire, Rick Scott had much to be proud of. At the young age of 34, he co-founded what was to become the largest private for-profit health care company in the US, Columbia Hospital Corporation. 

According to his supporters, Columbia was a wonderful example of how the free market system could be applied to health care, an idea that conservatives have gushed about for decades. Columbia, like Bain Capital, became known for its aggressive business tactics and since its founding had embarked on one of the most aggressive and successful buying and takeover sprees ever seen.

People Power to the Rescue

by Nomad

I saw this video clip the other day. I don't have much information on it. It appears to have come from Brazil but that could be incorrect. The information only reads:

About 30 Dolphins stranded and saved by local people at Arraial do Cabo (Brazil) in the morning at 8:00 AM on March 5th 2012.

Besides, it really doesn't matter where it came from. I'd like to believe it could happen on any day and on any beach.
I hope you feel as inspired as I did by this understated example of people power.

Related articles

• Dolphins Stranded, Rescued (leftperspectives.com)

Dr. Dodd and His Warning about Hidden Fascism in America

by Nomad

"Fascism is on the march today in America. Millionaires are marching to the tune. It will come in this country unless a strong defense is set up by all liberal and progressive forces. ..."

These words, apt as they are today, were actually said by Franklin Roosevelt’s ambassador to Nazi Germany, William E. Dodd, in an interview upon his return from Europe on January 7, 1938. 

Having seen first-hand the threat of fascism, he believed, with all of the connections between the industrialists and bankers, that time was running out for liberty in the United States. 

Soft-Spoken Historian from the Carolinas

Dodd had not been Roosevelt’s first pick for the ambassador post. The other candidates for that position understood the challenges and realized what kind of political equilibrium would be required to make everybody happy. With varied excuses, each had politely bowed out of the running. Finally, in June of 1933, Roosevelt offered the post to Dodd and he accepted.

Fascism's First Steps: Heywood Broun's Warning From the Past

by Nomad

The name Heywood Broun has largely been forgotten by most people today. That's a real pity too.

As a newspaper writer, he was a forerunner of the great journalists like Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite. Sadly it seems as though the era of the great reporters has come to an ignoble end and we’ll probably not see a new Broun or Murrow anytime soon.

So I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to Mr. Broun.

Born in Brooklyn in 1889, Heywood Campbell Broun was a child of fairly well-off circumstances, and with his father’s wealth from business, was privately educated at the Horace Mann School. In 1906, he entered Harvard University but never finished his studies there because, the story goes, he failed to pass an elementary French course.

As a columnist, Broun worked for a number of different papers, including the New York Tribune and the New York World. His career also took him abroad as a foreign war correspondent with General John J. Pershing in Paris during World War I.

He was certainly a character and many stories were told about him. One story revolves around his acknowledged sloppiness.The magazine article made this observation about his appearance

In the country, he affects a proletarian costume, consisting of a sweatshirt and pair of frayed trousers, offset by a considerable expanse of unrelieved Broun in the middle. He wears shoes cracks with age and socks that look as though they might be a continuation of long winter underwear.

His appearance was such that when he first met General Pershing in Paris, the General asked him in all seriousness, "Have you fallen down, Mr. Broun?"