I retain the belief that the motivations of Bernie Sanders’ voters – a fair society with decent pay, healthcare, working conditions, immigration justice and the ultra wealthy paying their share – will not be affected today by the massive media hype of the right wingers coalescing around the corrupt and inept Joe Biden. I therefore expect that in 24 hours Bernie will be well down the path to becoming the Democratic nominee.
I should like to believe that the leaked DNC emails of four years ago will yet have a vital effect. By exposing the way Hillary and the DNC rigged the primaries and cheated Bernie out of the nomination last time, they have already made people far more alert for procedural cheating this time. That background will also make it far tougher for the right to mobilise unelected superdelegates to undemocratically prevent Bernie from getting the nomination. It is not a good look to cheat him again. If people did not know about the hidden cheating last time, fixing the Convention would be a simpler sell.
I maintain the hope that the novel coronavirus will prove less virulent and less potent than generally feared. If I am wrong, the USA will shortly experience the massive difference in ability to control an epidemic when ordinary people are not covered by an adequate public health service. Similarly, we in the UK will understand that the Tory policy of running the NHS at 99% capacity as a norm is ridiculously improvident; the expense of carrying a substantial spare capacity for emergencies ought to be part of any decent planning, a principle which has been scandalously neglected.
Here is an interesting irony for you. Almost everybody on the left in the UK, and certainly anybody who has expressed the slightest concern at the appalling repression of the Palestinian people, has been slurred and falsely abused as an anti-semite these past four years. Yet every friend of mine who has been falsely slurred as an anti-semite is, like me, rooting strongly for Bernie Sanders to become the first Jewish President of the United States. Meanwhile the Guardian, which in the UK has led the charge against the left with an average of over 8 articles a week in 2019 accusing left wing figures or the left in general of anti-semitism, is pulling out all the stops to prevent Bernie becoming the first Jewish President of the United States.
The Guardian has rebranded as Joe Biden News. When Kath Viner became Editor it targeted the Clintonite identity politics right for its much needed online revenue increase. Last night its US Politics livestream ran 16 straight items gushing about Joe Biden, his rallies and his endorsements from Buttigeig, Klobuchar and a stream of other irrelevant right wing figures.
Today’s Guardian Online Front Page: The Guardian is Rebranding as Joe Biden News
I am personally pleased that the right has finally settled on the hopeless Biden as its standard bearer. I wonder if we will now be allowed to ask why Burisma paid Hunter Biden $850,000 to be non-executive director of a Ukrainian gas company which he never even visited? It is a fine example of the complete departure of rationality from political life that, even when appalling corruption is laced with geopolitical implications touching on issues of war and peace, you are not allowed to point out the stinking mess without being labeled as a supporter of Trump.
Finally, after the Russiagate 2 “Bernie is a Russian Puppet” effort fell rather flat, those united US intelligence agencies are still attacking with a message which scarcely pretends to be anything other than an attempt to damage Sanders by gross libel and insinuation. The curious involvement of Pompeo and Barr in this tells us one thing fairly plainly. Trump would much prefer to face Biden than face Sanders. He is of course right. If the Democrat establishment block Sanders in favour of another bought and paid for Wall Street puppet, they will end up with Trump until 2024 – and then Ivanka.
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I generally don’t favour long-distance non-professional diagnoses, but I think it’s safe to say Biden is suffering significant cognitive deficit. He should be enjoying whatever years are left to him in the quiet of home with his loved ones. Putting him up to bluster and blunder in public forums is, IMHO, elder abuse.
He also suffers from significant integrity deficit as per his activities with his son Hunter in Ukraine. These two buffoons are like something out of blazing saddles.
“He should be enjoying whatever years are left to him in the quiet of home with his loved ones.”
He should probably be doing time.
Do you think the DNC would prefer another four years of Trump rather than see Bernie in the White House ?
Yes, beyond doubt.
In that, the DNC have much in common with the PLP and much of the Labour bureaucracy Corbyn had to wrestle against.
The failure of Starmer to disclose his donors provokes fears of another Levy-financed, top down party – and we know where that led us.
At the last election the DNC invited John McTernan over to give them all a presentation on how to win an election.
Of course
Not logical: why did the DNC manipulated Bernie out of the 2016 nomination – with the help of US deep state? Sanders is a known and soft quantity, Trump is much harder to control and is not so soft. Tulsi Gabbard would be the hardest nut to crack, so she has been outed.
They were cocksure Killary would beat Trump.
And she did in the popular vote
– “why did the DNC manipulated Bernie out of the 2016 nomination – with the help of US deep state?”
Because what you call the “deep state” is in fact the power of capital. Political theory makes better predictions than conspiracy theory.
@ Clark March 3, 2020 at 18:37
Did the DNC ‘conspire’ against Bernie? Yes or no? So ‘conspiracy fact’.
Conspiracy ‘Theorists’ do not deny the use of wealth in the conspiracies they espouse, far from it. Conspiracies have been around since ‘Adam and Eve’, according to the Bible.
But lest you don’t believe the tale of ‘Adam and Eve’, (I certainly don’t), common sense should tell you conspiracies are the meat of history. They surround us in every sphere, day in, day out.
Yes, the DNC conspired against Sanders. That they did so in the service of capital is political theory rather than conspiracy theory; they conspired against Sanders to protect and maximise their capital, even at the expense of their party losing to Trump, and that was predictable.
Theory is not inferior to facts; superiority versus inferiority is not the relationship between them. Rather, a theory is a method for making sense of facts such that things can be predicted. It’s appropriate that you mentioned the Adam and Eve story because it’s the creationists who claim that “facts from the Bible” are superior to “the mere theory of evolution”. But the Bible contains stories rather than facts. Facts are found in the historical, archaeological and palaeontological records, and in genetic material, and evolutionary theory and political theory are attempts to make sense of such facts.
The conspiracy theorists’ failing is that they assume they know the objectives of their purported conspiracy – to make war, or to cull the population, or set up the New World Order etc. They should look instead to capital. Currently, capital is the predominant power; that’s why the system is called capitalism.
– em>”Conspiracy ‘Theorists’ do not deny the use of wealth in the conspiracies they espouse, far from it”
Yes, conspiracy theory says that conspiracies use wealth, whereas political theory says that wealth uses conspiracies.
If you want to name it as a god, it is known as Mammon.
How right you are Craig. Sanders’ achievement in bring the word ‘socialism’ and ‘social democracy’ in from the political cold, sends shivers down the spines of the cabal who control the Democratic Party. The rich and powerful who run both parties, recognise Trump, despite everything, as one of their own; Sanders, in contrast really is a political outsider. But never underestimate how corrupt US politics are. Sanders could easily win the popular vote among the Democrats and still be shoved aside as their candidate in favour of Biden. Trump will wipe the floor with Biden. But the Democratic establishment can live with that.
Totally wrong. The DNC preferred Sanders over Hillary in 2016, as Bernie’s campaign manager Jeff Weaver confessed to me when it wasn’t supportping his retirement with money after the election. He had got the DNC to give him over $500 that I had sent it.
.
Your hatred of Hillary has no limit!
We don’t know shit, Trow.
How could a dumbass American Colonist understand their own political culture?
Its Unpossible!
Damn right. The political intelligence of Americans is bein’ misunderestimated.
– “How could a dumbass American Colonist understand their own political culture?”
The same way a whole load of the English electorate just elected Johnson, and a load of supposed Labour supporters became convinced that Corbyn is an anti-Semite.
Whoever we are and wherever we’re from
We should have noticed by now our behavior is dumb”
if you think the dnc preferred sanders over clinton, you don’t know anything about the subject. emails, lost votes, rigged primaries and caucuses, a biased media coordinating with the dnc to torpedo sanders.
Pretzelattack: – “emails, lost votes, rigged primaries and caucuses, a biased media coordinating with the dnc to torpedo sanders.”
Yeah, but. Russia…
And that was all they had to say; “Russia”. Suddenly no one was interested in the contents, the issues. It all became who rather than what. That’s the utility of conspiracy theory. It moves attention away from the information, onto who might be responsible for it.
People must learn what conspiracy theory is, so as not to be drawn in by it.
totally right. the dnc rigged the contests against sanders, in iowa, california and new york. i can’t believe you would even try to sell such crap.
The failure of the media to explain Mad Joe carrying the South, what happened because their state legislatures were raising the pathetic minimum wage to a living standard was simply ignored. Sanders was an alleged socialist and Biden was a miracle man.
Now Mike Bloomberg spending. dropping out of the race, and endorsing covert operator Mad Joe in”false flag’ excert in important foreign missions assures his nomination..
If elected, there will be war in East Asia over North Korea’s alleged nuclear weapons.
Some democracy with two men with their connections, money and endorsements determining its result.
@ Trowbridge H. Ford March 3, 2020 at 13:37
‘..Your hatred of Hillary has no limit!’.
Hatred is a strong word, but to believe she is a despicable, detestable, revolting, murderous apology of a human being who should have been locked up decades ago and the key thrown away, is to let the Hildabeast off lightly. I doubt if you or Ben (or any other of her fan club) know a fraction of her and her hubby’s history.
If you do, and you still support her…I’ll leave it at that.
@tartanfever at 10:41: analogous to the Parliamentary Labour Party preferring another five years of Tory mis-governance to a progressive, Corbyn-led, Labour government.
It is a fine example of the complete departure of rationality from political life that, even when appalling corruption is laced with geopolitical implications touching on issues of war and peace, you are not allowed to point out the stinking mess …”
Proficiat! How beautifully written. One can reuse these lines anytime when the powers that be, again try to dupe its citizens, to lie to them and dream that they can get away with it!
Thank you so much, mr. Murray.
Yours Sincerly, Edmond V.O. Katusz
@ Edmond V.O. Katusz March 3, 2020 at 10:45
‘..and dream that they can get away with it!….’
Only problem is, the vast majority of the time they do just that, and get away with it.
And even in the cases where the truth leaks out, they still get away with it, and make a packet to boot.
The history of viral diseases is that their virulence declines with time. If as a virus you kill or disable too many of your victims, especially socially well connected ones (elderly people have grandchildren) you reduce the chances of your spread in the environment (the population of humans).
The only question with Covid19 is how quickly or slowly this process will take. The news from Italy that the virus there has mutated and did so quite soon after its arrival in the country is interesting from that p.o.v.
I’m technically asthmatic though living above the beach in Dundee I do not have an in date inhaler as I don’t need one. I’m not worried about Covid19 but neither do wish to be ill with it. It is already beyond Sars and as such seems less and less likely to be controlled. Sars was much more virulent which made it easier to detect.
Many, many people infected with Covid19 have mild or undetected symptoms. This feature is why it has outspread Sars. If you can be symptomless and infected you can spread the virus so much easier (in ignorance of course). I might be infected and not know it* and thus infected everybody in the charity shop I volunteered at all yesterday, manning the till.
*I’m very sure I’m not. I exercise daily and am in tune with my body to the extent that noting I seem to be sluggish (because my immune system is fighting something) is detectable to me.
Keep yourselves as healthy as you can, take capacity enabled exercise, don’t exhaust yourselves. Assume you will get this so will need the body capacity to ride it safely.
Ukraine is very interesting, this is essentially why the Democrats will lose.
Biden and his son are corrupt, Donald Trump helped to point that out, then they tried without much success to have Donald decapiotated,
now bankrupt Ukraine, with Coronavirus are starting to re-cosy up to Russia.
Machinations put in play by the Democrats, seem to back fire on themselves.
I expect Bernie, will win the nomination
however if Trump can hold off on any outside adventures and his economy keeps more or less on track, he might keep it.
If Coronavirus rips through the poor in America, all bets are off.
From what I’ve observed, Trump’s ratings go sky high when he bombs an ‘official enemy’ – so I would expect a full scale military campaign somewhere or at least a pretty serious bombing campaign. Middle East maybe too hot, so possibly Latin America for a smaller scale foreign intervention.
So really, the complete opposite of ‘hold off any outside adventures’
Coronavirus could easily be used by Trump to attack China and blame them for a full scale, bio-chemical attack. Americans love that stuff, the only time they come together as a nation is usually when they’ve just bombed another country.
Biden praised Bush’s handling of 9/11. That is to say that he praised the man who ignored all the warnings from Putin, the Taliban and the CIA in its daily briefings.
Bush should have been impeached for his shameless failure to act but all Biden could do was to praise him to the skies. The man is a total disgrace.
Interesting that RLB is the only Labour leadership contender to support Sanders.
A more pressing likelyhood, is that in many countries, referenda and elections will be cancelled, as precautionary moves.
michael norton. many Bernie supporters voted for Trump rather that Hillary. If Bernie gets the nomination, Trump will lose that protest
vote. With Health Care and cancelling student debt, one would would think he had it in the bag. But then again Hillary won the popular vote and Netanyahu PM of Israel and Boris PM here….The sad fact is the majority of folk, keep voting against their own interests, not bothering to spend time investigating the issues and prefer the easy lazy option to be spoon fed.
@ Muscleguy March 3, 2020 at 11:03
There are virus, and there are weaponised Bio-warfare virus. Plenty of info on the web.
Much of the radio 4 today program was taken up by the Biden gushing. The BBC calls Bernie a radical lefty, we see the same attack dogs that destroyed Corbyns chances, bar the cheating, being wheeled out in support of the US supremacist, military or otherwise, who could not stand having to pay more taxes under an attempt of a socialist US Government.
This addiction to report US electoral shenanigans here in the UK is like a crescendo that is followed by a call of ‘why don’t we just join them? they are so wonderful, just listen to what we say, lets become a US state’.
Politics is finally in its death throws, flaying arms/issues everywhere, Turkey, Syria, with Russia as the praying mantis waiting to pounce, Iran pummeled by a much stronger already mutated Corona virus, we are watching the four horsemen drunk with success waiting for the final libretto.
I wish Bernie well and wish that iot would change our politics here, but should he be elected, he will be ridiculed by the neocon right wingers, the BBC and most the the unchanged establishment.
This Corona virus would not be too bad and forgotten with if it killed poor people and their children, regardless of the 2500/day that die of hunger in the world, but it is likely to hit those who have underlying illness and are old and fray and should not be running the lives of younger generations, it is like a sociological change of guards.
China is recovering and so will we, after it has run its course. Whether, in the case of more than 100 UK infected cases, with very likely more having the disease, but showing no symptoms, we will be able to shut down towns and keep people indoors, organise logistics to feed them all, have enough Oxygen supplies to keep those in acute stages alive in hospital, I very much doubt.
America will struggle to contain it, as nobody is interested and a public health service as we understand it does not exist. China has shown us how a very large society is coping when all are understanding the importance of working together.
I would advise you to get some food in, so you can stay at home should it be required, if you and family are not af/infected, cheer up, you won’t have to go shopping for rice and or noodles for a while. Buy a bottle wiski, just in case, because keeping up morale matters as much as staying healthy and alive.
And here is the UK’s new national anthem, complete with jets flying overhead and machinegun staccato starting at.1min.10 sec.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezI1uya213I
@ nevermind March 3, 2020 at 11:07
‘…Buy a bottle wiski, just in case, because keeping up morale matters as much as staying healthy and alive….’???
A bottle? I suspect that wouldn’t keep Craig’s, or many commenters here, ‘spirits’ up for very long!
Now, a cellar full, and you’re talking!
Thank you for publishing the absolute pure truth and unmasking The Guardian.
Under this pretence of being ‘progressive’ the Guardian has kept slandering Mr Corbyn ever since it was appointed Labour leader, tries now to do the same with Sen. Sanders and, after trying to depict Mr Assange as a sex-crazy fiend, though he behaved irresponsibly indeed in Sweden, is now ensuring that no news over the special court set up to try to pressure Mr Assange to suicide filters out…
They are, of course, still ‘at it’.
‘California’s Rules for Independent Voters could Suppress the Bernie Vote’:
https://www.gregpalast.com/how-california-will-steal-votes-from-bernie/
‘…The Democratic National Committee chiefs, who created and uphold the rules, show little sympathy for the millions of non-Democrats who want to exercise their right to vote in their primary but refuse to register as Democrats.
And that could be because they will continue to back only establishment candidates. Notably, Joe Biden is endorsed by the California official who directs this tragi-comic voting process, the secretary of state, Alex Padilla.
By contrast, in Colorado, another vote-by-mail state, the secretary of state simply ignores the DNC, sending every independent voter both a Republican and a Democratic party primary ballot – providing an easy way to vote as they choose.
Will California’s voters choose the Democratic candidate … or will the DNC obstacle course bend the outcome?’.
– Greg Palast has investigated vote suppression for 20 years for the Guardian, Rolling Stone and the BBC’s Newsnight
Buttigieg was the choice of the Spook ‘ABC’ agencies, with whom he was associated as a minion.
Yes, “the right”, so sick of Biden, Buttigieg etc being called centrists and moderates. Nothing remotely centrist or moderate about them. Excellent insight and analysis as always Craig.
The parallels between the campaigns of Sanders and Corbyn are quite extraordinary, down to their previous narrow defeats and the similarity of opponents they have faced in both contests. I fear the US election will go the same way as ours, with a heavy Sanders defeat to ‘show the world’ Americans don’t want social democracy/socialism but nevertheless, I will certainly be cheering on Bernie (although, for the record, do not think Trump is anything like the worst President the US has ever had).
I wish I could share in the confidence that Sanders can win the Democratic nomination. The DNC has engineered the “centrists” in coalescing around Biden. If Biden wins the Democratic nomination he will of course loose to Trump. Trump’s mental capacities are impaired but Biden is incapable of forming cogent sentences. The DNC is wholly aware of the inevitability of entering a GE with Biden as their candidate and yet they proceed. Sanders represents change and change is unthinkable.
Craig, independent Internet media puts the corporate media to shame, but there is a substantial portion of the population who simply do not know. I am always sad when I see this sector of society dismissed as stupid, brainwashed or ‘sheeple’; these are, in the main, hard working people, many very short of money and consequently working long hours, who simply don’t have the time or energy for the active approach to news gathering that Internet news requires.
It is time that keyboard warriors who post so many comments here and elsewhere got up, pocketed their devices, went out and started actually talking to people.
Even by its own hopeless strategic terms centrist-liberal “identity politics” is a dishonest scam, exemplified by their fanatical opposition to the Jewish Bernie Sanders. But consider too their latest hero, Joe Biden, whom they represent as the champion of Black America:
— tried to pass a constitutional amendment against busing (ie, racial desegregation of American schools.)
— still brags of personal friendships with arch Southern segregationists.
— a grotesque fervour for Bill Clinton’s welfare and criminal justice ‘reforms,’ which disproportionately hammered Black Americans.
— his recommendation of Obama to white Americans on the grounds he was “clean” and “articulate.”
That is before you even get into a career devoted to pursuing anti-human legislation on behalf of the most parasitical and destructive sectors of Corporate America (credit card companies, pay day loan firms, fossil fuel industry); his long devotion to cutting social security; his refusal even now to rule out a Republican running mate…)
No, all these centrist-liberal claims to be champions and protectors of minorities – their only claim to the moral high ground – are patently BOGUS.
Take that away and you have a “Democratic” Party “Resistance” in Congress that voted for Trump’s trade deal, for his record military budget, to fund his concentration camps on the Mexican border, who supported his coups and attempted coups in Latin America.
As for the neoliberal Guarduan, it is showing exactly where it would stand if an NHS were first being proposed in Britain today.
“Above all, remember that conservatives and liberals are joined together in the interests of capital against labour” —- Kier Hardie.
Sanders even if by some slim chance super delegates are unable to scupper his leadership bid, Like John Smith, like Robin Cook, like Donald Dewar, will suffer a heart attack, or like Willie Macrae, will be shot twice through the head, and then throwing the keys out of the window, then closing the window, before dying.
An example of Uk and USA democracy.
Just my two cents, but I imagine the DNC gameplan is for Biden to win the nomination, and to choose Hillary as his running mate, but if that fails, Plan B to sabotage Sanders’ chances, in the event that he unavoidably wins the Democratic nomination, would probably be for Bloomberg to then run as an independent, splitting the anti-Trump vote.
The DNC would almost certainly rather see Donald Trump win the presidency again than Bernie Sanders.
@ Roger Ewen March 3, 2020 at 11:30
I don’t think even the Yanks are thick enough to buy a successful Presidential bidder ‘committing suicide’.
Dear Craig,
I think most of the civilized world is rooting for Bernie. But, they’ve narrowed the field so that they can get a brokered convention and screw him again. As Kyle Kulinski has been saying he needs to ‘overwin’. He’ll need close to 2100 delegates so that they can’t diddle him. But, they’ll try. Wouldn’t it be ironic for wikileaks to publish the leak that documents the mechanism they used to do it.
PS: Thanks for your wonderful reporting on the Assange mistrial.
‘they will end up with Trump until 2024 – and then Ivanka.’ NO! Not Ivanka. Please. That would mean Jared!
Q Why are the candidates for the presidency geriatric? Haven’t had a younger one since Obomber.
Why are you calling Sanders geriatric?
glenn_uk,
Sanders is 78 years old. He had a heart attack last October.
“What age is a geriatric patient?
Geriatrics refers to medical care for older adults, an age group that is not easy to define precisely. “Older” is preferred over “elderly,” but both are equally imprecise; > 65 is the age often used, but most people do not need geriatrics expertise in their care until age 70, 75, or even 80.”
oh so he’s the same age as trump and biden and bloomberg.
I know Sanders’ age, and of course I know he had a minor heart attack.
What I wanted to know was why the sainted Mary referred to Sanders as a ‘geriatric’ – which was by no means a compliment.
Naturally, she is above providing any explanation for the slurs and hatred she likes to sling around.
She referred to ALL of them as geriatric. She is correct that they are all pretty old I don’t know how relevant it is, I suppose a certain level of physical fitness is required in the job.
But Mary didn’t make it about Sanders you did!
@ 19.45
Having just read back, I see you are as vituperative as ever. What is your problem? Never mind. I’ll invite you to my funeral and you can come and cheer.
Mary, you replied! I am honoured! But you didn’t actually answer the question.
*
Andthick: Since Sanders was included in the description, of course he’s being referred to as a geriatric as well. The point is hard to make any more simple for you, but here goes – why is Bernie Sanders being dissed with the term “geriatric”?
Today @12.18
Get off my back. I had enough from you before.
If you didn’t dish it out so much, you wouldn’t get anything back.
Besides, all I’ve asked is why you decided to insult Sanders by calling him a geriatric just above. Hardly a “gotcha”, is it?
It’s easy to answer. Bernie had the most to gain by working out some compromise with Warren. He should have agreed to quit and endorse her, knowing he would be the Vice President on the Democrat ticket. He would get credit for boosting the left-wing agenda, and breaking the glass ceiling for women to be PO
SAnders refusal makes no sense. He looks like something is wrong in his head.
Warren just finished the race by not endorsing Sanders. That will teach him for calling her a liar, not ,akin an effort for a compromise and giving her state to Mad Jor!
What’s that saying about the vengeance of the rejected woman?
Timeline of the US election
There are months more of it until next January.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2020_United_States_presidential_election#March_2020
Wonder if little Simon Bracey-Lane of the Integrity Initiative will be volunteering for Bernie this time round? But seriously, I think this time round, the Sanders campaign is significantly better organised (without being a cash fuelled, soulless machine populated by hired Washington insiders). A racially diverse cadre of highly competent Bernie surrogates have been active across the country for some time now.
People see Bernie Sanders as some great beacon of hope, and for sure, I think he’d be a better choice than the other likely candidates, but he’s no Jeremy Corbyn. As the article mentions the plight of the Palestinians, it’s worth noting that while Sanders has criticised Israel, his record is against allowing BDS and he has consistently supported increasing US ‘aid’ to Israel. In that light, his stated support of the two state solution starts to look less convincing.
On the domestic front, his policies look impressive, but his voting record on foreign issues doesn’t fill me with hope. Tulsi Gabbard was the real threat to the status quo, and she’s been safely and quietly neutralised now. Even if Bernie were to get in, his lack of fight over the way he was cheated last time around makes me think he’d be easy to hamstring over any meaningful domestic change.
que sera sera
he can appoint tulsi as vp if he chooses. he chooses his battles, too.
Craig wrote:
> I maintain the hope that the novel coronavirus will prove less virulent and less potent than generally feared. If I am wrong, the USA will shortly experience the massive difference in ability to control an epidemic when ordinary people are not covered by an adequate public health service.
Absolutely:
A cautionary tale: A Miami man doesn’t have the coronavirus but may now owe thousands of dollars for being tested — Business Insider — Feb 24, 2020
https://www.businessinsider.com/miami-man-doesnt-have-coronavirus-but-could-now-owe-thousands-2020-2
———
“Ambulance call out? $2,500. Childbirth? $30,000.
“Our NHS is not for sale, @realDonaldTrump”
British people guess how much US healthcare costs
[21.4 million views video]
PoliticsJOE — Twitter — Dec 3, 2019
https://twitter.com/PoliticsJOE_UK/status/1201826927520161792
JMG…it was mentioned in a Moon of Alabama piece that the bill for the Miami man’s test came to $3,270.
@ jmg March 3, 2020 at 13:00
Recently a woman in the States fell between the gap between the platform and a train, and was dragged along some way.
A leg bone was sticking through her skin, but she begged people not to call an ambulance, because she couldn’t afford it.
So why did the population give Johnson a majority of 80 when it was obvious what the Tory plan was for OUR NHS?
Have they all got their credit cards readied if the worst befalls them?
The huge majority is down to our dopey af fptp system exaggerating a slight swing to Tory. Remember the Tories got less than half the votes
The BBC just said that ‘Bernie Sanders is promising a revolution.’ They called him a ‘radical.’ In truth he’s a pretty normal, middle of the road, social democrat, a moderate. The Guardian is even worse and, frankly ridiculous in their caracterisation of Bernie Sanders. I don’t see how the Guardian can survive in the longterm when their stance and writers are so much further to the political right than their readership.
It’s classic triangulation. Where else does the readership have to go?
@ RogerDodger March 3, 2020 at 14:19
Here, Moon of Alabama, Global Research, Voltaire Net, Black Agenda Report, Information Clearing House, Iraq Occupation Focus, RT, Press TV, they are spoilt for choice.
Just your usual optimism.
The fucking Americans never vote for their interests, just what they are told to do like Black Uncle Tom Representative leader Jim Cleghorn telling blacks, who often receive the minimum of $7.25 an hour, to vote for the Democrat Joe Biden who follows John Bolton, and they did.
It’s Mad Joe’s Day.
@ Trowbridge H. Ford March 3, 2020 at 13:08
Like Lord ‘Uncle Tom’ Patel, telling Muslims to vote for Jack Straw in Blackburn.
I can’t decide whether the creeps at the Guardian are really as ignorant and obtuse as they appear to be, or if they are just pretending, or if their gross partisanship simply blinds them to reality? Alternatively they could be crass propagandists.
The Democratic Party’s establishment and the corporate donors will never accept Sanders as the candidate, never. They’ll do what it takes to stop him. One way or another. Biden’s rivals were only in the race… pro forma. It was to make it look like, give the appearance of a crowded field and a democratic process, so people didn’t have the simply choice of Biden or Sanders, because Sanders would have won even more convincingly. It’ll be interesting to see if Warren drops out now and gives her support to Biden. Her role seems to have been to suck votes away from Sanders to the other ‘left.’
What’s extraordinary is the so many black voters have been turned into a ‘firewall’ protecting the Democratic Establishment, from a reformer like Bernie Sanders, who’s policies would, if implimented, benefit black voters massively more than Biden’s business as usual. That black voters are so easily, at least in South Carolina, swayed by the Democratic leadership, is really depressing.
The Guardian and its UK intelligence bosses will get it wrong again. This time they cannot construct another piss dossier type smear as their DNC debacle is out in the open and Bernie Sanders will annihilate Biden. Viner’s right wing storm troopers will consume the hapless rag, leaving egg and other stuff over their faces.
This is all part of a large worldwide campaign against the left. Globalist neoliberals own all the means of production, all the means of information, all the tools of violence against the individuals by sheer violence or pseudo legally as seen in the trial of Assange, and by controlling the currency.
As we have seen in the case of Corbyn, there is no room in this neoliberal world for anything vaguely socialist. To profess to be a socialist is now tantamount to profess to be a traitor or worse. This is even taken for granted. A quote from the BBC Today Radio 4 says “Sanders, the self-styled socialist” in a barely suppressed sneering way. Even when the left is elected as in Spain and Greece they are very quickly neutralised.
There is no hope for socialism within this manipulated so called democratic system where the more money you have, the more votes you get. Craig very well knows in the case of Scottish Independence.
Two potential mechanisms by which the Coronavirus could impact the US election.
Without wishing to be ghoulish, the impact of the virus could be significantly worse in the US than any other industrialised country for several very solid reasons associated with their “unique” healthcare system. Getting the healthcare your insurance policy entitles you to rather than the healthcare your medical condition demands is likely to lead to a disproportionately disastrous outcome with underinsured carriers spreading the virus unchecked (MoA is reporting that the Coronavirus test in the US is being charged at $3,000 a pop). Would this outcome render the population more amenable to Bernie’s, socialised healthcare proposal? They appear to be able to live with regular mass shooting events without recognising the logic that change is necessary.
The demand for aviation fuel is plummeting and with it, the circulation of the Petro$. Will dollars feeding back into the US economy fuel inflation and damage the US economy to a greater degree than the rest of the industrialised world?
“Would this outcome render the population more amenable to Bernie’s, socialised healthcare proposal?”
Unlikely. Those who already favor that proposal will continue to favor it. Those who don’t will blame the disaster on government control of health care for the elderly (the deaths will tend to fall in the over-65 category who are already in Medicare) and it will harden their opposition, if that’s possible.
I’m also not sure “socialized” is a good description of his proposal. Multiple private bureaucracies would be replaced by a single non-profit bureaucracy at the administrative end of the process, but the profit motive would still be in play at the point of delivery. We won’t have anything like the NHS over here.
As a practical matter, for those of us in the States of limited means, the devil will be in the details. Medicare mostly works without financially destroying lower-income patients because aid is made available to the poor to assist with copays/deductibles/premiums. A Medicare expansion without a corresponding expansion of Medicaid would be a mess, and as we’ve seen recently Medicaid expansion is a very hard sell in some parts of the country. I trust Bernie to propose something workable but I don’t necessarily trust the legislative process.
A long standing historical political fact is; “A major crisis is a major opportunity – never let it pass by un-utilized!”
It has been my belief that Mr. Trump, family & associates have used their time to consolidate a hold on power – they now have no plan to relinquish this voluntarily.
Be it Mr. Biden or Mr. Sanders, IF it appears there is a chance of being unseated by the machinations of the electoral system, a major crisis will come in handy to stop this. It would definitely be messier (for Trump Inc) if Mr. Sanders was the standard bearer for an alternative government, but the probability of any of the current leaders surviving a virus that has higher fatality rate in this high age group is higher than say, Mr. Trump’s younger family members.
Democracy is NOT a given and it is foolish to think that it is the only form of public management available to those in power. A read of Roman history will show that life will continue when democracy breaks down and the elites & military agree on how things should be governed.
The current/near future matrix of virus, corruption, financial manipulation, world turmoil will be a political opportunity/crisis that any egotistic, power loving political group will not let pass by.
An aspect of the situation in America which might not be so obvious to those of us in civilised countries is how their shambolic healthcare and welfare system will cause outbreaks to be so much worse.
People don’t go to the doctor just because they’re feeling a bit unwell. That costs money. It takes away time when they should be working. They certainly would not go to the ‘Emergency Room’ (Casualty) because if they’re not admitted, their insurance won’t pay the $500-1000+ a tiny consultation will cost them. If they are admitted, there will be costs for their treatment (“co-pay”) up to the maximum “non-deductable” for that year – typically $6000.
(The Emergency Room is the only option for those many millions of citizens lacking any health coverage)
Every interaction with the US health system – however small – incurs the risk of significant financial outlay, and lengthy ordeal of paperwork and telephone disputes concerning cost. You have to experience it first hand to believe it, and Americans have to experience our system first hand to understand it doesn’t have to be that way.
Americans would rather wait until they’re really ill before committing such a large sum of money. Unless they’re very well off indeed, of course. But even then – taking time off work is deeply frowned upon, and for the more casual workers, they simply will not get paid, and might not keep their job.
Missing a shift might mean missing a rent payment for people already bumping along the bottom. In turn, restaurants are going to be staffed with people who are actually ill, but dare not fail to show up. See this CDC report from a few years ago:
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/ehsnet/docs/jfp-mgr-practice-ill-workers.pdf
Just read the abstract from the above if nothing else, then reflect that a huge proportion of Americans eat out far more regularly than we do in the UK (largely because it’s far more affordable there compared with the UK, but that’s another story.)
An outbreak of Covid-19 is going to show up very significant cracks in the US system generally.
As an American, I can state that you are quite wrong about me going to the emergency room have gone twice, once at the urging of my doctor .brother who said I would not have to pay anything for having fallen down for some unknown reason. And he was right for 21 days as Medicare paid for it. I ended up in a rehabilitation center which cost a $164 per day, and couldn’t get out, costing me some $6,000
Then we discovered that the Veterans Administration would pay for all treatment of my ailments.It apparently cured my lung cancer except for some cheap medicine. Then I got pneumonia. and was called by my oncologist to go to the emergency room which I did, and was dealt with quite well for nothing.
You should stop acting as if you know everything.
I’m guessing you’re not of working age, Trow, so the experience of someone benefiting from MediCARE and the VA will have a rather different experience when it comes to bills.
But you say I’m quite wrong about the huge costs of going to the ER, and then say it cost you $6000? Which is exactly the sum I posited that someone admitted following a visit to ER would incur.
You appear a little confused, no offence intended.
According to the best statistics, nine out out of ten Americans have some kind vof medical insurance, That’s over 300.000.000 people. Seems you are the one most wrong and confused.
Trow – I was specifically talking about people with insurance. That’s why I mentioned deductables, co-pay and so on.
Would you mind actually reading what you’re criticising, before you reply?
Why you’re flailing around trying to defend an indefensible health insurance racket like the one being perpetrated in the US is a mystery.
The Guardian’s impact on the US election will be as imperceptibly small as that of the Facebook ads four years ago. I live in the US and can’t name a single acquaintance who could say what the Guardian’s position is; precious few are even aware of the paper’s existence.
The US media onslaught that’s reflected in the Guardian is a different matter, of course.
Unfortunately my (American) wife is one who has long been in their thrall. Despite her not agreeing with their editorial line on anything, they constantly twist her understanding of the facts, and even moreso of which issues are important and worth discussing.
News mentioned Michael Bloomberg, so, it’s obvious for me who to bet on.
Mr. Trump is rich and has jewish son-in-law.
Mr. Sanders is jewish.
Mr. Bloomberg is jewish AND rich.
Call me anti-semite, but I see it’s vital for the state of Israel to have “their man” in the US. Because as soon as they lose US support, they would be destroyed by neighbouring arabic countries.
Tatyana. Israel has chosen to live by conquest and squat the land of others. It could have gone back to its pre 1967 borders, but its founders wanted a greater Israel. Now a two state solution is a sick joke and a wise US should force it to adopt a one state solution ‘Israel Palestine’
where Palestinians have full equal citizenship, right of return and return land and property stolen. This might seem to be a dream, but would go some way to bury the hatchet and safeguard the future of settler Jews among the indigenous Semites. To carry on crushing as they are and depending on US money and protection is not wise. What happens when the US Empire falls and Israels neighbours become truly independent ?
I don’t say Israel goes in the right direction, I condemn the way they do with Palestine. I only hold in mind the difference between politics and ordinary people.
If Israel loses US support, then their vip-persons would be safe, somewhere in UK or US, and it is ordinary citizens who would face all the anger and retaliation.
@ Tatyana March 4, 2020 at 14:23
It is often the ‘ordinary settlers’ who kill and harass the Palestinians, not just the IDF and police.
I have a friend whos daughter lives in Israel. That girl has 2 kids and soon wil have more, twins expected. I’m sure, if it comes to anger and retaliation, nobody would investigate if she harassed Palestinians. Angry people need a target to pour out anger, they don’t sort .
This happens to me when I meet on the Internet, for example, an angry Ukrainian. He/she doesn’t care that I have never been to Ukraine. Or, I may bump into another Russophobe.
It’s enough to be Russian to get a portion of hatred for Stalin, Communism, Putin, Gasprom, detained journalists, dope-spotted athletes, poisoned russian ex-spies and british drug addicts, etc etc
Approval is given only to activists nailing their scrotum to the pavement or singing on the church altar, well, maybe gay people suffering in a tyrannical undemocratic regime.
A simple Russian housewife doesn’t deserve respect by default. I sing only to myself, I’m not gay and I have no scrotum, alas 🙁
Rather flawed thinking there.
Nixon was definitely anti-Semitic but very pro-Israel.
According to one of Roger Stone’s books, it was Nixon who acted to save Israel from defeat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Stone says that he was opposed on this by both Kissinger and Schlesinger. He does not mention that both are Jewish.
Also there is this important fundraiser started by Christine Assange. Dig deep for victory. That might not be original.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-my-son-julian