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TechnoratiPractically on the Table
A few days ago, a citizen asked the progressive legislator from California, Congressman Henry Waxman why he took his name off the list of about Eighty House sponsors of single-payer health insurance? Mr. Waxman replied: "it [H.R. 676] isn't going to happen."
In early January and last year, Americans who believe in Presidential accountability for constitutional, statutory and treaty violations asked Democrats in Congress-"If not impeachment, why not at least a resolution of censure of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney?" The uniform reply was "It's not practical."
These lawmakers-Democrats all, who are the majority in Congress and who agree with these questioners-keep saying "It's not going to happen" or "It's not practical."
"It's just not practical" to provide a federal minimum wage equal to that in 1968, inflation adjusted, which would be $10 an hour.
"It's not going to happen" to get comprehensive corporate reform at a time when a corporate crime wave and the Wall Street multi-trillion dollar collapse on Washington, on taxpayers and on the economy is tearing this country apart. A little regulatory tinkering is all citizens are told to expect.
"It's just not practical" to give workers, consumers and taxpayers simple facilities for banding together in associations with their own voluntary dues to defend these interests in the corporate occupied territory known as Washington, D.C.
Last year, the excuse was a Bush veto. So the Democrats didn't even try to advance reforms they believe in, knowing Bush and his Republican Party would stonewall. What's the excuse this year with Obama in the White House?
After all, it was only a year and a half ago when nominating and then electing an African-American President was "not going to happen, was not practical."
But since it did happen, why aren't these and many other long overdue beneficial redirections and efficiencies happening for the American people? Why aren't there rollbacks, at least, of the Bush-driven inequities and injustices that have so damaged the well-being of working people?
Why isn't a simpler and more efficient carbon tax more "practical" than the complex corruption-prone, corporatized cap and trade deal driven by Goldman Sachs and favored by most Democrats? The avaricious tax cuts for the super-wealthy are still there.
The statutory ban on Uncle Sam negotiating volume discounts on medicines purchased by the federal government are still there. Taking the huge budgets for the Bush wars in Iraq and Afghanistan off their annual fast track, and putting them a meaningful House and Senate Appropriations Committee hearing process has not happened.
Face it, America. You are a corporate-controlled country with the symbols of democracy in the constitution and statutes just that-symbols of what the founding fathers believed or hoped would be reality.
Even when the global corporate giants come to Washington dripping with crime, greed, speculation and cover-ups, and demand gigantic bailouts on the backs of taxpayers and their children, neither the Republicans nor the now majority Democrats are willing to face them down.
The best of America started with our forebears who faced down those who told them "it's not going to happen," or "it's not practical" to abolish slavery, give women the right to vote, elevate the conditions of workers and farmers, provide social security and medicare, make the air and water less polluted and so on. These pioneers, with grit and persistence, told their members of Congress and Presidents-"It is going to happen."
To paraphrase the words of a great man, the late Reverend William Sloan Coffin, it is as if those legendary stalwarts from our past, knowing how much more there is to achieve a practical, just society, are calling out to us, the people today, and saying "get it done, get it done!"
102 Comments so far
Show AllFrom now on when anyone questions me about reelection for a Democratic Senator (my D Senator is Limp wrist Leahy) who won't support single payer but always votes for war money, I'm going to answer, "IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
It will be very difficult to force the government to operate in the interest of the people as long as the government (i.e., Congress) has handed over the authority (unconstitutionally!) to create our nation's money supply to the private banking industry, that includes the the Federal Reserve, a private banking corporation. These private bankers achieve a huge transfer of wealth to themselves and use this wealth and power to continue this egregiously immoral system and keep the people ignorant, manipulated, and enslaved.
"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws." -- Mayer Amschel Rothschild
In our current (unconstitutional) system, private banks create money out of thin air (bookkeeping entry) whenever anyone, including the government, takes out a loan. The private bankers make huge wealth and power from interest collected for doing nothing to earn it!!!! (They create US-backed currency out of thin air!) THE AUTHORITY TO CREATE MONEY BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE (i.e., CONGRESS) and any benefit derived therein in terms of interests and/or fees belongs to the people to FUND HEALTH CARE, SOCIAL SECURITY, ETC., IN LIEU OF TAXES!!!!!
The private bankers do everything in their power to make sure that the public remains ignorant of this racket by using bank-double-speak. (The Federal Reserve is neither "federal" nor has "reserves.")
The public must educate themselves to the immoral, unconstitutional, and highly egregious transfer of huge wealth to private bankers.
See also
TAKE BACK THE POWER TO CREATE MONEY FROM THE PRIVATE BANKING INDUSTRY http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/3648-4049
Recommended reading:
"Web of Debt," by Ellen Hodgson Brown. This book reads like a fascinating novel, explaining how our monetary system works and the ominous role the private bankers have played in shaping US and world events. See www.webofdebt.com. Read the reviews at amazon.com!
"The Lost Science of Money," by Stephen Zarlenga. The book was originally written in German with the appropriate title, "The Mythology of Money -- the Story of Power." While amazon.com states that this book is out of print, one can buy this book directly from the author at http://www.monetary.org/. Zarlenga has also proposed "The American Monetary Act of 2008," which can be found here: http://www.amiwashington.org/general-news/hr-7260-transparency-in-the-creation-of-wealth-act-of-2008-f...
"It's not going to happen" is a cop out.
It's their fault it's not happening.
The people that are saying it won't happen are directly responsible.
They have the power to make it happen but they don't care to. They care about a handful of constituents that give them big bucks for their campaign chests, employ their children and furnish they them with perks.
Anyone that gives that response should NOT be returned to congress.
Well, right until the point you say:
| "a handful of constituents that give them big bucks for their campaign chests"
It's the corporate network of funders that determine most primaries, nearly all final elections, and the agenda to be followed once in office. Even so-called progressives get an earful of "survival skills" once they manage to slip accidentally into Congress.
"It's not going to happen" is a cop out.
It's their fault it's not happening.
The people that are saying it won't happen are directly responsible.
They have the power to make it happen but they don't care to. They care about a handful of constituents that give them big bucks for their campaign chests, employ their children and furnish they them with perks.
Anyone that gives that response should NOT be returned to congress.
Every time I hear "it's not practical" or "we can't afford it" as the answer for any progressive initiative, I ignore it. What they REALLY mean is "we don't want it, so f**k off."
We CAN always afford wasteful "defense" spending, unnecessary wars, bridges to nowhere, banker bailouts, etc. etc., so as far as I'm concerned it's all a sham.
Aredee,
The American people do not yet realize the power of the masses. There is only one way to fix this problem, and when the American people have had enough, the Second American revolution will have begun.
Stimpy:
My contemporaries were calling for revolution in the late 60's and early 70's, when the Vietnam debacle, race riots, and the 1968 Chicago Dem convention were fresh in the public memory. It didn't happen then, and I don't think it will happen now. We certainly should continue to press our demands: there should be a "million person march" on Washington for single-payer health care and a national living wage, among other things.
I think the closest we'll ever have to a revolution in this country will be akin to the street protests of the 60s/70s or other civil unrest, all of which MAY convince the "powers that be" that Americans are fed up. My biggest fear about any serious unrest, however, is that it may very well wind up strengthening those who we don't want to assume power.
Single payer experience (when I lived in Canada for 10 years):
I had a card.
That's it. No rustling through papers as if I'm preparing for a court hearing!
Recently this sweet card fell out of some belongings onto the floor. The sight of it---the sense of simplicity struck me so, that I nearly cried!
Since I'm back in the States, it feels like I'm always doing paperwork. I feel like every home needs a secretary. What is this?
I miss the simplicity. I took it for granted in many ways. I'd walk into the clinic (no appointment) with my kids anytime and no, there were no terrible waits. Here, even with an appointment I wait as long or longer!
Where are the strong arguments for single payer here? Show us the numbers, someone! How many die for lack of medical attention here vs Canada?
Here the multitude "choices" alone make a person sick. Choose a "plan"? Putting my bet on a spinning wheel in a casino never struck me as a "plan".
Some people in the comments suggest buying a Canadian plan. Sorry, it doesn't work like that. You have to live there. Let's get it together here folks! Here in the USA. On second thought, it might be a great publicity event to get Americans lining up at the Canadian border asking for their plan!! LOL! eh?
The Democrats are outdoing themselves - their universal fits-all line is "I don't support it because it can't pass", or "because it isn't going to happen". Taking the logic further, we have, it can't pass, or it isn't going to happen because I don't support it. Good grief! I believe that the Dems have discovered a way to return the Repubs to power in 2010 and 2012. They're not governing, they're merely occupying power.
And we need an actual government. Perhaps we can import one from Canada, or a European country?
As a last ditch effort on health care, we do need to hit the streets. Everyone should make every effort to get to Washington D.C. on July 30 for the Medicare/single rally and lobbying day. We have to let them know we will NOT be suppressed or silenced. It's supposed to be government ..."for the people". That's us, not health care profiteers.
Healthcare Now website has all the information. Let's go!
When questioned about Single Payer system, Sen Chris Dodd
who is from Ralph Nader's home state, replied,
"IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN" This from a politician who recieves
hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies like AIG,
the banking system and the rest of the insurance racketeers.
Nader for Senate!! Run against Dodd
True progressive need to scare the hell out of members of Congress getting fat off of lobbyists. Every two years we need to run progressive candidates against them until they actually start to listen. Six year terms are too long for Senators. They have to know they can be replaced too. To this end we need to support the organizations that are helping real progressives. Some even do so by running adds embarrassing to candidates who are democrats in name only. We need to send them what money we can.
"The best of America started with our forebears who faced down those who told them "it's not going to happen," or "it's not practical"...."These pioneers, with grit and persistence, told their members of Congress and Presidents-"It is going to happen.""
If my history knowledge doesn't fail me I think they did talk at first but then they GOT IT DONE.
Read this frightening causality of what HAS TO BE DONE: “Collateral Damage” by E. P Heidner, part I and II.
>>> www.scribd.com/people/documents/2169400-ep-heidner <<<
Using insights into how and in what areas of motivational response humans are neurologically hard-wired to run in fearful herds, Madison Ave has managed to create a national, chronic stampede of consumer addicts who are also (as it must be) politically passive. And if not technically 'passive,' certainly 'active' only in the sense of a puppet's movements being active.
If the sociopaths of the advertising world (and of the US conservative political world, following suit) can figure out how to adequately manipulate the perceptions, the 'consciousness,' and the individual conduct of a nation of 300 million people -- especially toward ends which are otherwise self-evidently self-destructive -- then these Establishment controllers must know something about human motivation that most progressive theorists and political operatives don't.
But the US left never wants to address this uncomfortable and quite demonstrable fact about itself.
As good and decent as Nader and many other progressive theory leaders in the US are, they never want to go into the underlying creature psychology of mass mis-motivation; forsaking that inquiry always for mere and endless descriptions of the Right's wrongness, and/or for mere generic exhortations of the Left's need to 'get organized.'
So then: Why is it that the US Left can't get organized?
And why is it that the Left's best spokespersons rarely if ever focus on-- and probe deeper -- into this crucial underlying, self-organization question?
Moreover: What is it about the psychology of the US Left that allows the US Right to continuously get away with, (so utterly easily!) pushing the elemental Fear/Authority buttons in the US population, first in the individual psyche and then in the mass psyche?
It's not as if the US Left has no public voice at all, by which to identify and challenge such manipulation.
One understands that the US Right cynically appeals to elemental self-interested fears which all humans have about their bodily existence --and thence to ITS own alleged saving Authority -- to jigger public emotions against the common persons' interested consciousness.
One understands, too, that the US mass media are dominated by the manipulating dogs of such fear-based privilege.
But even given all that, it still doesn't explain why the US Left fails to achieve any enduring, energized contact with the average person on the street -- decade after decade.
How is it that the Left political parties of virtually all post WWII west European capitalist democracies have done so?; sufficiently-so that the average person in any of these countries would never tolerate for a moment the kind of elitist economic abuse USAan's so-hypnotically do?
USA progressives don't even pretend to be interested in, let alone understand, this cultural-cognitive differential.
And unfortunately, I would have to include Ralph Nader in that category.
terry a, intriguing questions. My only guess is that the suffering of the people has to be so acute that the message of people like Ralph Nader would motivate them sufficiently to act. I also think (and hope) that there is a growing awareness among the public that all the cr*p they are being fed about the free market and capitalism is just that. If people like Nader keep speaking out, I do think there will be an effect - hopefully in his lifetime.
O says "it's too disruptive".
The elderly, National Guards, Soldiers; they all have single-payer.
They also are the ones who require the most care! We have soldiers coming back who will need a lifetime of intensive care and prosthetics to make up for lost body parts. Taxpayers are already paying this expense!
It's stupid to let insurance companies get the cream of the crop. Then they (big pharma, insurance, hospitals) milk it for all it's worth.
They milk medicare too!
Stop the corruption, eliminate the middleman, bring it into the light!
Medicare should not be growing broke. It's the raid on Medicare by administrations, fraud perpetrated on it by elements of the medical industrial complex, and it needs to be broadened to cover everybody, plain and simple. People should not have to get Medicare supplemental insurance. That's just plain crazy.
NMBill July 12th, 2009 1:38 pm....The hospitals sure as hell milk Medicare, Medicaid and the insurance companies for all they can. Greed against greed and the consumer is the one that ultimately pays for it all. It took a hopital here in north central Florida, four days and $13,000 billed to Mdicare and BC/BS to tell my 85 year old father he had hemorrhoids. Just a small example of what happens when they know you have good coverage...otherwise, they give you some damn pain killer and you are on your way out the door.
Lack of leadership is to blame for this.
With 500+ legislators , leadership on these matters should be shared. There cannot be a wait time for a single leader to tackle all of these crucial confrontation within our society.
Taking leadership position requires lots of work. Current assumed leaders are picking their fight. Congress needs to find new leaders among their ranks.
toophat for you!
Oh, but there IS leadership. Lots of it. TOO much of it, in fact, because it's the wrong kind.
How do you think Single Payer got left "off the table", unmentioned -- unmentionable -- by a newly empowered Democratic Congress and President? Leadership. How do you think impeachment for high crimes was "off the table"? Leadership. How do you think the war funding goes on, and illegal detentions go on and on and on .... Leadership!
To do all that requires energy, organization and leadership.
Congress is like an orchestra. The conductor is corporate America. They write the score, and rehearse the performance. WE get lead around by the nose.
Time has proven again and again, there is no individual "leadership" within the Democratic Party that could ever successfully counter or undo the orders coming from the leadership which already exists. Forget about it! Stop wasting your breath, hope and dreams. If elected progressives can't change it from inside, neither will you or I. Give it up already
Any REAL leadership, with a human face and human goals, will have to come from the People! From outside. Period.
Question: How, then, will Democrats & Congress know what we want (as if they cared)?
Answer:
One political party that HAS a People-Centered Agenda right now (end the wars, Single Payer, living wage, investigate Wall Street, Investigate BushCo, end corporate 'personhood', no-nuke real sustainable energy, stop the phony drug war, expose the Fed, stop torture, etc.) is the Green Party. Support it ($$ and registration), and stop complaining that it isn't something else, or isn't as big as it should be, or that we don't have an alternative way to organize politically. It's way past time to build the alternative and stop trying to patch that leaking corporate ship.
Massive Green registration now would say to Congress WHAT you want and WHEN you want it. Let them scramble to decipher the message and see if some of them can follow the People's lead.
As always, Ralph is on the money!
>> Mr. Waxman replied: "it [H.R. 676] isn't going to happen."
He's right, of course, if the American people don't get up, get organized, and en masse, SHOW those SOB's that we actually CARE about some things like Single Payer -- that we WANT it, NEED it and demand that the majority view creates the legislation. We must TAKE the seat at the table, and, better, take the whole damned table to ourselves who pay the bills and know what we want!
Making rational arguments to those insurance and pharma fat cats is a complete waste of time and brain-power. Same is true for they own and Congress they lead around by their noses.
"Not practical", "not politically viable" are not merely phrases -- when describing issues with the backing of over 50% of the public -- as polls have shown about ending the war, single payer, impeachment, and more -- they are the tacit public ADMISSION to the FACT THAT WE DO NOT HAVE A DEMOCRACY. There. They've now said it out loud! THAT's what "not practical" means.
It says WHO CARES what you think? We have our marching orders. It can't happen. You don't matter!
So what else is there left for us? This is no minor issue -- this is the whole ball of wax. We must do whatever it takes so the phrase "it is not politically viable" is banished from use.
Third party -- the only way to shake things, change things. No hope for Dems who when forced to look at a progressive person or idea (much less candidate) chews 'em up and spits 'em out. Go register Green (no matter how you actually end up voting) -- far better than going "independent, which for Dems is just your "time-out" box 'til they collar you again at the next election. Greens (gp.org) are already up and running and have a holistic, sustainable, progressive vision for politics and national remedies -- THAT'LL shake Dems up: they count on all non-Republicans to be on their side.
We need a catchy slogan to express our belief:
How about
"HEALTHCARE IS NOT A BUSINESS -- IT IS WHAT EVERY AMERICAN IS ENTITLED TO!"
"OUR TAXES SHOULD GO FOR THE HEALTH OF OUR NATION -- NOT WAR!"
"AMERICA IS A FOURTH WORLD COUNTRY WHEN IT COMES TO HEALTHCARE"
"DOWN WITH WAR! UP WITH HEALTHCARE!"
"OUR PRESIDENT PROMISED US HEALTHCARE!"
Good idea. Awkward slogans.
A few notions--some in use already:
"Healthcare For All IS National Security."
"Single Payer: Everyone IN, Nobody Out"
"No Pre-Conditions. No Denial of Care: Single Payer!"
America, the Failed State.
Oh well, soon enough the Chinese will swoop in and bring democracy.
What's Holding Us Back?
"Ourselves."
"Based on?"
"The one about this is just the way it is, there's nothing one can do about it, so don't even try."
"Even though everyone knows that what it's about is the rich getting richer, the poor poorer?"
"Even though?"
"What'll it take?"
"One victory."
"For example?"
"Medicare for all."
"What about troops out now?"
"Most definitely."
"Carbon 350?"
"That too would do it."
"Any one such victory?"
"Any one."
"The start-up?"
"Online, whereupon, we rise up en masse."
"And then what sort of world?"
"It'll be up to us."
I think it time to hit the streets for government single payer health care. It is time! It is time! It is time!
Out here in the Magnolia, the conservative Democrats are so good at saying "It's practical and winnable to be tough and conservative". No wonder most of us can't even tell if they're Republican until they're up for reelection or if we're told. I have a bad feeling that Washington is going the way of Mississippi slow but steady.
The Democrats have so badly botched the roll-out of the "public option" plan that, for most USAns, there will be no benefit to be derived from passing a bill anywhere close to the current form.
Join Canada's system?--get real.
The best that could be achieved at this point would be to abandon current efforts, and push for a lowering of the age for Medicare enrollment down to age 50.
Those who choose to enroll under age 65, would have to agree to a maximum of 15 years coverage. After that--you're on your own.
To extend the years of coverage, one could "opt out" for a private plan for a period of time of at least three years.
A one-time re-enrollment would be allowed, unless you're over the age of 70.
It seems to me that Uncle Sam will have carried out its duties or pledges by providing 15 years of medical coverage.
Who would benefit?--those who suffer from poor health at an early age, many of them minorities. Those who can't change jobs because their tied to their current company's plan.
Who would pay?--rich white Americans who have already done everything imaginable to suck the system dry.
You're right, we shouldn't just join Canada's healthcare system, we should become Canadians, and Europeans and Australians and Japanese. It's obvious that the only hope progressives in this country have to live the sort of lifestyle they want to live is to move to some other country. We clearly have zero chance of reforming the U.S. government. The majority of Americans - even most on the far left - are never going to vote for third parties and independents, and it is impossible to reform the bought-and-paid-for duopoly. The only choice we have is learn to live and be happy in a fundamentally conservative country or else get out. "America, love it or leave it" might be a RW slogan, but I'm beginning to think it's actually good advice.
I think I may be with you on this. I'm so sick of being accused by conservatives of being unpatriotic that I've decided to dispense with the claim entirely. I'm not a patriot and won't even pretend to be. I have refused to say the Pledge since 1988. I am ashamed to be an American. Like a lot of people I believed Obama when he said he supported the Constitution and civil liberties. But just like Clinton he didn't mean it or care about that kind of stuff. I'd like to move to a civilized country also, but I think I'm stuck here, so I'll make the best of it. I'll just vote and express my opinion, if for no other reason than to piss off the rest of America.
I agree. I'm moving out of California. But, I may move out of the nation. One recalls who the intelligent Germans and Jews were before 1936...
Face it, life is too short, and your nation is much bigger than you. If it wants you dead, you're better off leaving, than fighting it.
ubrew12 July 11th, 2009 8:18 pm.................I visited Cebu, in the Philippines last year for about a month. The city itself is insane, but the mountains (80%) are lush and gorgeous. The fruit is from another world. The food is fabulous. Malls, the likes of which I have not seen here. The dollar goes very far...last I checked, 46 Pisos to the dollar. The natives absolutely love Americans...sincerely, not superficially. After what we have done to them, I could never figure out why. You can live like a king on $1000/mo....with servants (expected). The city is pretty polluted, but all the cabs do run on propane. It's these things called Jeepneys that do the polluting. Very few private cars. Virtually no lanes or speed limits within the city. Five star hotels on the beach and an outrageous casino in the middle of the city.
The mountains are totally different...a lush paradise where everything grows. The mangos are ambrosia as are all the fruits...some of which I have never seen here. So cheap...pineapples and mangos...25 cents.
You cannot own property without marrying a Filipino. I believe you can buy a lifetime Visa for 20K, otherwise you must go to Guam (the closest) to renew your visa every year.
It would be a pleasure to live there. I hear that the medical facilities are first rate.
I won't move because I don't think the death grip of corporations can squeeze us any more here. As things are, the corporate boards must be going ape shit about the exploding PR budget while the masses increasingly equate corporate to evil. Remember that, unlike the old communist dictatorships, the bottom line for our corporate crooks is profit. A reasonable cost benefit analysis of corporate behavior will reveal that, even with all the PR pig lipstick, they are losing market share and overt fascist repression will kill their profit and create a violent populist underground.
Waxman is wrong. They are going to throw the single payer bone at us and try to game it later. They've done this with social security by distorting cost of living data to effectively DECREASE the buying power of retirees each year as the nominal amount of dollars increases. We have our backs to the wall and they know it. They are scared shitless of us. Think of what you could do here with 20K for the Green Party or Kucinich or Nader instead of heading for Cebu. If you want to go, fine. But we need you here.
Hmmm.... thinking...
Really. We need to sweep Washington clean of everyone who's been there more than a year. It's because they've bought into the "way it's done" that they can't conceive of a process where anything actually does get done. Change is most often effected by people too young, or too naive, to realize that it "can't be done." With regard to health care, we have only to look around the world at nearly every western-style democracy (except us) and there is proof that it can be done. So many civilized nations have civilized policies regarding minimum wage, mandatory paid vacation, maternity leaves for both parents, etc. I don't know where we in this country get off claiming to be #1 at anything worth being #1 at.
This is an invaluable articles for people of both parties to be reading and thinking about. I remember everytime I asked an Obama supporter about his take on Obama switching to a Republican version of one issue or another his reply would be "Well, he has to be practical and cautious." But ask him about what's so practical about bombing Afghanistan and Pakistan and he violently replies "Look f***er ! We gotta keep that Mccain/Palin from entering the office. You're being a f***ing nuisance ! WTF do you want, a Mccain/Palin destroying America? At least Obama gives me hope and a feeling of change so you shut the f*** up and stop joking Obama !!" He was a typical black Democrat voting so I could understand his anger but he would never answer the questions on what he knew about Obama's positions. This is the same kind of response I would get from die-hard Palin supporters when I asked them why they don't vote Libertarian instead of Republican if they really love libertarianism. I predict that next year around election time, most of the progressive boards possibly including this one will be bombarded with people telling us to vote Democrat or else it's the end of the world or some bull*hit.
Bennett Miller
Shreveport, LA
Even if Ralph ran on a single-payer ticket, he would have no chance. The media would ignore him and slander him. The Americans who find M.J.'s funeral more important than our political system, would fall for the MSM ads telling them that there are only TWO choices, the Democrats and the Republicans. America is one of the most politically ignorant countries in the world due to a very successful campaign over the last 50 years to dumb down the population.
How amny Americans have you seen before that say... "I don't care about politics!"? Yet they complain that their private healthcare company has bankrupted them or else they grieve for a child who has lost a leg or an arm in the corporate adventure known as the "War on Terror". They bitch about the fact that they're only making $7.50 an hour. They complain about their lost pensions, crime, poverty and dilapidated public schools.
It's all politics, but FOX, CNN and all the other major news networks have convinced the public that it's the governments fault and not the corporations who are pulling the strings.
How many articles did all of us read here on CD's before the election that argued that there was a huge difference between the Democrats and the Republicans? How ridiculous those writers look now as our defence budget increases, single-payer healthcare is off the table, taxpayers continue to bail out the corporate banks (but not the poor!) and 7.1 million Americans still linger in jail or are on probation/parole over such terrible crimes like smoking a joint.
I'm afraid the general public got sucked in again big time and the next election won't be any different.
Sadly, you're right.
Obama and the Democratic majority will finish the Democratic party. People are seeing already that the Democrats are no different than the Republicans - both serve the bankers, corporation, and Israel.
I hope you're right.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Yep, but watch (and please don't shoot the messenger)- all that will happen as a result is people will vote Republican next time, and the most disgruntled Dems and progressives may just stay home.
Oregoncharles
All by design. You have just described the duopoly's MO. The two parties collude, trading back and forth, depending on what is needed. The grooming and vetting of Obama has been going on for far longer than we realize. Many think he wrote the self-serving books just to air his patriotism and humble - yet audacious! - personality. Yeah, right. Those corporations who supported Bush with campaign cash did the same for Obama. You thought they were just stupid?
Our progressive movement has few leaders who will stand firm and help build a movement. For years, most of them have been supporting the bought and sold Dems in the "hope" that someday their agenda will move to the top. Sorry guys, that ain't gonna happen, haven't ya heard? The pundits and activists - Solomon, Hayden, Lindorf, etc. - are too easily jerked around by Democrats. I should think their heads would be spinning by now. In the meantime, the Green Party is waiting for a groundswell of new Green voters.
"Whenever we compromised, we lost."
-- David Brower, founder of Friends of the Earth and Earth Island Institute and the first president of Sierra Club (he left when the club supported nuclear power).
Oregoncharles,
Right on! I spoke to Hayden about 2 1/2 years ago about the same thing and about his CD article about withdrawing the troops from Iraq within a year. (3 years ago.) I've always voted for him in California elections as Tom's heart is in the right direction, but you are correct about that zealous allegiance to the Democrats who are unlikely to offend the Republicans.
I'm in the Green Party and also encourage people to join us for real progressive change we can benefit from.
My conscience is clear. I have been voting for Ralph for 20 years - writing him in when he wasn't on the ballot.
It is not too early to start his next campaign. Campaign slogan, "Save 18,000+ lives per year. Nader will give us Single Payer. Vote NADER."
I just love this guy. Nader is right about almost everything, but I see no way to get there. The only way is public financing of elections but this Supreme Court (which will formally overturn McCain Feingold in the coming term) will not permit any significant regulation of the corrupting influence of wealthy individuals and corporations buying public policy through purchasing elections. As they put it, money equals free speech. What utter garbage. From now on I'm voting for independent and/or third party candidates only. Or I may just go to the ballot box, pick up my ballot, and light it on fire.
I wonder if we could appeal to Canada's healthcare system to treat us? I mean, if enough Americans got together and simply said, 'we are going to buy into Canada's healthcare system. We'll send our money to Canada every month, and they will treat us when we are ill according to their protocols.' If ENOUGH Americans said this, the government would have to go along, wouldn't they? If, say, 50-100 million Americans just said, 'I'm buying Canadian healthcare', we could negotiate our way out of the corporate-dominated American system altogether, and let them fight over the scraps that were left.
I've had the same idea. Remember in Michael Moore's Sicko when his Canadian relatives visited Sears in order to buy health insurance before they made a trip to the US? Hey, why can't we go to Sears in Canada and buy a policy? If US citizens can go to Canada to buy meds cheaper, why not go there to get a policy? A policy that actually covers you and won't be take away if you actually need to use it!
Maybe I'll write to Wendell Potter, the former Cigna PR executive who is now a whistle-blower telling the world about the evil scheming that his industry does to exploit people. Maybe he might have some ideas of how to get Canada involved. With NAFTA, it should be legal to have a Canadian company set up shop in US and compete with the big US companies. Yeah, they would LOVE the competition!!! And, as long as the Canadian company didn't get greedy and sell out to a US company it might work.
I think you've got something there. Mr. Potter knows what not to do. He could start a real non profit health insurance company endorsed by Michael Moore which would be a resounding success. He could keep it from going public so that Goldman Vampires didn't take it over. We don't need to go to Canada. We just need to get good health insurance.
This is actually a great (and very interesting) idea from the economics perspective, because many Americans could offer the Canadians more per person for Canadian health care than the Canadians themselves are paying, but still save a lot of money over what they would pay in the grossly overpriced American system. In other words, many Americans could more than pay their way into the Canadian system and still come out way ahead of where they are now.
To a limited extent, Americans buying into better health systems is already going on. For example, some Americans buy drugs from Canada. And more and more Americans are getting critical health care by simply travelling to any one of numerous other countries to get it. Anyone up for a European vacation that pays for itself, laugh out loud?
This would not work for the impoverished Americans, though, because they can not afford even Canadian health costs. And I don't have a clue as to how you could get the Canadians to politically agree to this though.
A related alternative to this is for a good number of American health practitioners to opt out of the failed insurance system and then simply form health co-ops that would be miniature single payer systems, with the cost control achieved by consent of the buyers and sellers rather than through the Government. The practitioners would lose only a small amount of income and possibly nothing at all if they did this, since they too are heavily burdened by the needless costs, delays, paperwork, and denials of care of the health insurance industry and of the malpractice insurance industry.
Again though, this would not work for the poor in the US unless they could find some practitioners who were willing to become truly progressive and offer price for health service schedules that were sliding based on income.
Note that these kinds of solutions are solutions based on "free market theory". Such solutions do not work for the poor, and they are also, ironically, ignored or quickly shot down by the fake right wing proponents of "free markets".
If laws and/or regulations forbid doctors etc. now or in the future from offering their services outside of the health insurance system, then we are truly living in a very unfree society.
Yeah, I hadn't thought of how the poor would pay for it. Another problem would be the future lack of choice: buying single-payer health insurance from Canada, you'd have to commit to it, preferably for the rest of your life. The cost of getting out of it would have to be VERY steep (nationalized healthcare lowers risk by demanding the insured be broad both geographically and over time; they pay a risk premium if you have the future option to get out of it). I'm beginning to realize that we pay a risk premium in America for the right to choose, and that premium is one of the reasons we have such high healthcare costs.
So Canada (if they went for this) would have to demand a 5-10-year (or lifetime) commitment from Americans buying in so they couldn't pay for one year, get all kinds of care, and then quit. There would have to be a non-profit American company that pooled all of the Americans who wanted to pay Canada for care, and which would be responsible along with the individual American customers for this and any other Canadian requirements.
Would someone please start up the American-Canadian Co-Op Health Care Company (a non-profit organization) immediately? I could do it I guess, but I'm no good at marketing or politics, laugh out loud. Thanks in advance.
Don't know quite what you mean by the "risk premium" in your last sentence. That term is normally associated with the profit-making insurance industry. If health care is done by private health insurance companies, there are all kinds of forces which conspire to balloon out the costs (of both the care and the insurance). One of them is the actuarial risk calculations, which of course the insurance companies distort in their favor extensively.
By the way, in a true free market economy, health care insurance would be a very risky business to be in, and some health insurance companies would lose money in some years. But since almost all American health insurance companies rake in fortunes every year, we know just from that that the US does not feature a free market economy, at least insofar as health care is concerned.
Commonly added to premiums resulting from these distorted (upward) actuarial calculations would be a "risk premium" which, loosely translated, means "safety margin surcharge added on to make sure that our insurance company can not possibly lose out on the care we actually intend to pay for". Then on top of all that more surcharges are added, most notably one for a profit for the shareholders and another one for extra money so that the executives can be paid obscene salaries.
And then even after making it a 100% certainty that they will make a killing in the business (excuse the pun) the private insurance companies engage in all kinds of denial of and reduction of care schemes that endanger and sometimes wreck the health of their customers.
Whereas, in a single payer system, scratch out just for starters the obscene salaries, the profit surcharges, the risk premiums (profit insurance premiums) and the distorted upward actuarial calculations. Limited time does not permit me to go through the list of other elements that increase the cost in the present system that go away in a single payer system.
In any single payer system, the actuarial calculations are reasonable at the least, not unreasonably excessive as in they are in the US. In the US, a good chunk of health insurance premiums go not only to making the insurance company profitable, but to insuring the insurance company is profitable via various surcharges, as ironic as that may sound, since most people think insurance companies can possibly lose money, or at least they used to think that.
Where cost control is especially prized, such as in Japan, actuarial calculations are intentionlly conservative, the precise opposite of the situation in the US. Then, in countries such as Japan, if actual demand for health care exceeds the calculated projected demand by a substantial amount, pressures to rein in hypochondriacs and to increase the supply of hospitals, doctors, MRI machines, and so forth, are automatically generated, and the Government, in conjunction with private industry, makes sure that the supply is quickly increased. Occasionally, someone with a serious problem in Japan during unexpected high demand might have to be transferred to a nearby prefecture to get immediate health care.
This means that unless the Government is incompetent, even if the Government underestimates the demand for health care a little, which might happen in a conservative and carefully managed system such as Japan's, all people who really need care still get all the care they need, with at worst small and almost always ultimately trivial waiting times.
Don't get me wrong, I love single payer for the reason's you gave. It's just NOT going to happen with this (or ANY corporate-controlled) Congress. Is buying it anyway, but from Canada, an option? Partly, I mention this because it is clear that our 'vote' doesn't count on this issue. Can we vote with our feet? That might knock some sense into Congress.
(I mention risk premium just to say that if American customers of Canadian healthcare were signing up for one-year policies, Canadian administrators would be obligated, in fairness to the Canadians, to charge something extra to cover the risk you mentioned.)
ubrew12 July 11th, 2009 2:07 pm ............. Right now, the only thing I believe you can get 50-100 million Americans to agree upon is Evangelicalism.
Politicians are worried about polls that indicate that if a public option were made available, about 100 million Americans would go for it. I believe the movement in Washington is to prevent this, to deny this option. Either there will be no public option, or it'll be a public option in name only. Leaving these Americans who want one out in the cold. But what if we all signed a petition to the Canadians, saying we'd buy into their system (insurance is really just a digital system, we could buy insurance from anywhere if we wanted to). If they would be OK with it (i.e. that we didn't all just have cancer), I believe Washington would have to respond positively, otherwise they would be in the position of denying the people a choice. One of the arguments against single payer is that it denies choice (it works by mandating coverage for everyone). But this would work the other way: by buying into Canada's pre-existing system, we would be DEMANDING choice, NOT shutting it down. And as long as enough of us sign up, Canada would see that, statistically, we wouldn't be sick at rates any higher than they already cover. At that point, its just a matter of them figuring out what to charge us. Politically, that would be very hard for corporate-dominated Washington to deny. And it would get harder the more people who signed such a statement of intent.
The premise of single payer is that enough people join hands and jump into healthcare insurance together. This lowers the risk of any one person being sick. The corporations don't WANT people joining hands. They want to deal with them as individuals so they can wean the sick from the healthy and deny the former care. Divide and conquer. As long as its up for debate, this is the perfect time for those of us who want single payer to do an end-run around our corporate-compromised Congress and simply DEMAND to be allowed to appeal to the Canadians for healthcare. If enough of us sign up to this end-run, both governments would be FAR more likely to accept that petition, or accept the political consequences of denial. Then Congress can continue to hash out its 'vision' of corporate-dominated healthcare for all, and can stick it to those who weren't smart enough to jump ship when they had the chance.
ubrew12 July 11th, 2009 3:20 pm...My friend, I cannot but agree....BUT as I said, to get so many millions of Americans to agree on ANYTHING...even for their own good...is practically impossible...See, THEY have bred and conditioned us to be INDIVIDUALS...and believe me...they knew what the outcome would be....BUT, hell...go for it....I have one year left before I go on Medicare/Medicaid....I'll sign the darn thing...
Waxman, Pelosi, Reed - They all act progressive and say progressive things because they know most people have progressive ideas. That gets them support and trust!
So you trust them and they say "it's not possible". Kind of takes the wind out of the sail doesn't it?
It's all a scam, these people never were anything but professional politicians who never fought for the people in the first place. Don't expect them to either!
They have the exposure to really make a statement but never step too far out of line.
Ron Paul, and Gravel do a lot better but you don't see much of them do you?
"They all act progressive and say progressive things because they know most people have progressive ideas. That gets them support and trust!"
I wonder if that's what Pelosi did in SF to lure people to reelect her over Sheehan.
"Ron Paul, and Gravel do a lot better but you don't see much of them do you?"
Last year, our cornfed electorate didn't give either of them a chance. Those may be libertarian but they offer better ideas and solutions compared to Waxman, Pelosi, Reid, etc ... and in fact Paul and Gravel depending upon the issues could even be considered progressive or liberal ! I voted for Paul in the Republican primary, Kucinich in the Democratic Primary. Other than Gravel's support for VAT, I thought that he was great too. Then again, maybe a VAT is needed to get our gluttons in society to cut down consumption.
THANK YOU again Ralph Nader. I cannot tell you how many times I come across such fake "practical" excuses from the Democrat Party apologists in all these years. To get them to sit down and listen is as easy as carrying a mountain. Sometimes I would even scream to them that our kids will HATE US for selling their futures out for inventing another "practical" excuse but then they think I somehow have a "mental" problem.
Maybe more people are waking up and realizing what a fraud Obama really is but only the voting results in the next presidential election in 2012 will confirm or deny that.
The way I see it though, the definition of the word "practical" has been fudged to promote more window dressing to pretend change and yet keep the status quo. Our cornfed electorate is in total denial mode to admit that they really are getting screwed by the duopoly. Thankfully, I am finding ways to verbally challenge those who try to tell me that the Democrats are moving in the right direction by asking them to actually prove it. All they can give are very minor events and nothing more. Anyone who tried to misuse the words compromise and practical to sell you short is a criminal in my book. As someone who takes the word practical seriously, I vote for a candidate based on the ISSUES and not on personality unless it relates to the issues, party affiliation, money, faux "electability", etc ... I am sick and tired of people telling us that we should just shut up and vote Democrat or else the big bad GOP will screw us. Well, all I have to tell them is to KISS OUR ASSES ! Most of the Democrats are already doing exactly what the GOP would have done so why should we listen to such anti-GOP baloney. No, I am not a Republican and I do not support their agenda but I am sick and tired of lame brain excuses and dishonesty from the fake opposition preaching "practical" and "compromise". It's high time more voters woke up, voted with their hearts and minds on the issues, and not continue the political dysfunctionality that never ends in Washington.
Remember the Taiwanese took to the streets holding protests until their gov't gave them health insurance.
Americans are too busy watching "American Idol" and believing Fox News. Even bombarded with the facts and statistics on health care in America faced with rising premiums and deductibles (or fighting with their insurance companies to get what they need), too many of them fear "government-controlled" health care.
Yes, but that's the Taiwanese. We Americans have been zoned out for quite some time.
Shouldn't we be trying to get Henry Waxman's name back on the list or at least find out what he means by "not practical" - sounds like someone threatened him to get him to change his mind about this.
If he needs a war chest brimming to the top with loot to win the next election, it would not take much of a threat.
Who does the Health Insurance Industry have in their corner besides the usual Big Pharma/Pesticide/Air freshener industries - we need to know that.
"Shouldn't we be trying to get Henry Waxman's name back on the list or at least find out what he means by "not practical" - sounds like someone threatened him to get him to change his mind about this."
Nah, he's corrupted by power. His constituents need to threaten to primary him.
As I've noted ad nauseam, the health care issue reveals plainly that our elected officials in all branches of the federal government have abandoned their traditional roles in favor of becoming technocratic managers and executives running a para-corporate service-delivery system in a symbiotic partnership with corporate Amerika and the banksters.
And it's all strictly legit, dontcha know.
Exhibit A*, May 5, 2009: the normally articulate and forthright Russ Feingold reduced to foolish stammering when asked politely but pointedly by Amy Goodman WHY single-payer was DOA in Congress. He practically ducked his head and scratched the tip of his shoe back and forth while nervously responding that it was just "impossible" to get through Congress. I was mildly embarrassed for him, though not sympathetic.
Congress was simply too skittish-- "afraid", was the word he actually used-- of criticism for supporting what might be perceived as a new (and implicitly ineffective and draconian) government bureaucracy. Real Profiles in Courage, huh?
He couldn't very well say, "Look, Amy, you know and I know that we in Congress serve other and greater Masters than We the People-- and on this one, our true Masters made us an offer we couldn't refuse! And hell, I think we all know that the Amerikan people sort of understand this, and accept it.
But it's still not something we like to talk about in public, Amy. Thanks for understanding, and on second thought, please erase this portion of the recording."
Instead, he mumbled a preposterous silver lining promoting the bogus "public option" as a stepping-stone to single-payer. I respect him, though, for disclosing in spite of himself that the only obstacle to single-payer health care is that Congress is collectively too chickenshit to dare attempt it-- and not overreaching and trying to sell Amy the deed to Natural Bridge State Park.
To sum up: the bought-and-paid-for soldiers in Congress got the word to simply STFU about single-payer, and straight-arm any citizen resistance with a bold my-way-or-the-highway rebuttal, with a few jimmies sprinkled on top. Have a Nice Day.
* http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/5/senator_russ_feingold_on_obamas_escalation
· Yr Obd't Servant
"Exhibit A*, May 5, 2009: the normally articulate and forthright Russ Feingold reduced to foolish stammering when asked politely but pointedly by Amy Goodman WHY single-payer was DOA in Congress. He practically ducked his head and scratched the tip of his shoe back and forth while nervously responding that it was just "impossible" to get through Congress. I was mildly embarrassed for him, though not sympathetic."
Just a few minutes ago, I pointed out this very example to one of my Democrat friends who continues to believe that Obama is going to save the day. As you stated in your post, I, too, was somewhat embarrassed for Feingold when Amy was interviewing him -- though, NOT sympathetic.
And, Bernie Sanders continues to fight on, persistently, alone. I have so much respect for the man and I wish he were my senator.
But with respect to economic reforms, with single payer health care at the top of the list, there can be hidden quasi deadlines. Every year that single payer is not enacted is another year where health costs rise higher than general inflation, is another year where the gap between health costs and peoples' incomes becomes wider, is another year where people are ruined due to lack of health care, and is another year where in general the rich get richer and the large and growing number of relative poor get poorer.
The wider the gap between rich and poor, the greater the poverty rate, and the bigger the per capita income gap between the US and the other countries (that do have single payer) the more economically difficult it becomes to implement single payer, and the less the expected payoff becomes, in economic terms, from enacting single payer. For one thing, the ever growing number of relative poor people have less and less taxable income, which means that a higher and higher tax hike on the rich is necessary to finance single payer as the years of delay accumulate. For another thing, as the years go by, the gap between the actual health costs being charged within the failed health insurance system and the costs that a reasonable single payer system could support is growing.
In general of course, the US economy as a whole, and the average person in it, is being damaged worse and worse every year that health costs run out of control due to lack of single payer.
At the same time, in economic terms (although not in health terms) the "rescue beneifits" of single payer are being gradually reduced every year that single payer is delayed. People going without health care are becoming sicker and sicker, and thus more expensive to treat if single payer were ever enacted. And the damage to the US economy is mounting year by year and has apparently already reached the point where it can not be fully repaired by single payer.
The victory of the reputable, single payer countries over the US with respect to the health care and the overall economics systems is due not just to the existence of single payer in those countries, but also due to correct timing, specifically the fact that most of the single payer countries enacted single payer many decades ago, when the economic benefits for doing so were truly large.
Meanwhile, the US keeps delaying, and the potential economic benefits are gradually going down. It is possible that the US has already reached the point where its citizens could not possibly be as well off, in the next few decades at least, even if single payer were enacted in 2009, as for example citizens of Europe will be with their well established over many decades single payer (and unemployment relief) systems.
On the other hand, it will be at least 50 years before the economic benefits from enacting single payer in the US will become small or trivial; all I am saying right now is that the benefits are gradually being reduced, and that the benefits are already substantially less than the benefits would have been had single payer been enacted 20, 30, or 40 years ago.
In summary, in economics (unlike with most social reforms such as abolishing slavery) sometimes you can delay a needed reform to the point where the benefits of it become much smaller than they used to be, and the costs much higher than they used to be.
What I am talking about is why single payer systems are completely out of the question in very poor countries, such as for example many countries in Africa, Central America, and South America. The best a truly poor country can do is a partial, modified single payer system, with for example free care clinics that are partially subsidized by the Government playing a role in increasing health care access. But no truly poor country (unless it becomes a dictatorial left country in the Cuba mode) can successfully maintain a true single payer system in the European/Australian/Japan mode.
Although most of the right wing is too dumb to understand economics concepts such as these, you can bet at least a small number of influential right wingers are aware of these things, and as a result are supporting the fake "health reform" that is being talked about in 2009, which when all is said and done is nothing more and nothing less than a delaying tactic against single payer.
Sorry, Waxman can not be called progressive if he REMOVED his name as a cosponsor of HR676. He's clearly kowtowing to moneyed interests in Washington. It's not going to happen BECAUSE you took your name off the list, not the other way around, dickhead.
The only way the people will get the puppets to dance to the people's tune is to hook 'em with our own puppet strings, which requires a mass movement. So who's going to build the mass mvoement? There are tens of thousands of "progressives" who can organize it, but they don't really want universal justice, equity, solidarity. They're mostly interested in the adventure and the business they can build around the pursuit. When they are ready to get serious, they will build an alter-economy that supports all people, not just the privileged left.
Bring America Back !!!!..........!..The good Ralph Nader points up the feeble cries of failed legislators whose lame excuses include...'it's not practical.
***Nader does not give us credit when 'We The People', including many Republicans and Democrats, rose up to rid ourselves of the Tyrant w. Bush !
***We were revolutionary when we elected black American President Obama on his promise of massive Change; Hope; Inspiration; rejection of the prevalent DC culture of corruption ; and Ending this War!
***Obama has failed intentionally to keep so many of his promises, that in a mere 6 months, most of us realize he lied to us to get elected ! What other conclusion is there ?
The policy of Obama is not to look back----because in that same mirror stands the likes of Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Democratically controlled intelligence committees.
***The Reforms Nader lists are "not practical" NOW because Obama does not want them reformed. Obama has taken ownership of the massive problems of BUsh, and kept them in place instead of delivering on his promises.
****Ralph Nader needs to become a Progressive rather than a Green, jump up and start campaigning on the realities we now face..and making sure we only have 4 years of the Obama lies, rather than 8 years !! Wake up Ralph, and get goin!
One modest suggestion, not intended to be a complete solution; the FOCUS of every progressive candidate in the next election should be on the Corrupting Influence of Money in Politics. That it doesn't matter what positions a candidate espouses if he/she has acquired a pocketful of IOU's on the way to office, because, as we've seen, they will betray any promise once their paymaster demands it. Stress that... Every 30 second tv ad, every slick brochure in your mailbox, every pre-made lawn sign, is an IOU to the special interest that paid for it. Focus the message on How Many of those IOU's your opponent has. I'd love to see a campaign characterized by home-made signs, neighborhood meetings, door-to-door citizen blitzes. This isn't just possible, it's how campaigns used to be run!
That's why you've got to have federally funded elections. Take the big money out of political campaigns so that campaigns can be based on ideas, not slick TV ads. Congress needs to pass a law declaring that federal campaigns belong to We the People, not corporate donors, and that giving a candidate millions of dollars is not a form of "free speech." It costs so much to get elected nowadays that Senators spend a whole lot of their time fundraising. I remember former Senator Hollins from South Carolina or some southern state talked about this after he resigned. I was astounded by how much money a Senator has to raise every week if he is to have any chance of getting reelected. I think it's something like 70,000 a week?
Memory_Hole July 11th, 2009 10:38 am...............Do you seriously believe the CONgress is not a part...an integral part...of the corporate structure?
So organize a General Strike already. Nothing will change unless The People unite and take action. The demands? Single payer healthcare for all; a cut in military spending of 50% (at least) over the next decade; publicly financed federal elections. Maybe one or two more things but I think all progressives can agree on these at least.
Something must be done about the corporate media. The media monopolies must be broken up, and PBS/NPR must be recreated with the idea of living up to the Public Broadcasting Charter of 1967 or 68. Its programming must be decentralized, and its funding greatly increased through a means that takes funding away from the Congress, so it is depoliticized. Jerry Starr has a group that has been calling for this change for years but to no avail. But truly, the corporate media is one of the country's biggest problems. It is so utterly rotten and corrupt. If we ever do get a real investigation into the events of 9-11 and justice for the victims, the TV news producers for CBS, CNN, Fox, et al will have a lot to answer for in their systematic lying and non-coverage of this issue.
Isn't It Self-Evident That There Is No Alternative?
"To capitalism?"
"No, to our rising up en masse."
"And then what sort of world?"
"It'll be up to us."
"But if we don't rise up?"
"Doomsday."
"Based on?"
"Perpetual war + global warming + economic collapse."
Bill Moyers and Ralph Nader share an unwavering determination to keep struggling against the odds. Moyers interviewed Wendel Potter, former CIGNA public relations wizard, who told it like it is. It's a class war: the privileged closing their eyes to the facts so they can keep lying in good conscience.
The solution? Like Nader & Moyers, stay on message. Eventually, the pain will become so unbearable for the largest number of people that the corporate pr flaks will be unable to spin it and real change will happen.
Would be nice if Obama had some cohones....
Long before William Potter, there was Linda Peeno. If I can recall, she testified before congress in 1996.
I agree -- Bill Moyers and Ralph Nader are so important to the progressive movements.
I posted this link on another article - Bill Moyers talking with Wendell Potter - though not surprising, still worth watching:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html
Oh, he's got some. They're goldman sacks.
The interview with Potter was very powerful stuff. A lot of people in the system can be co-opted when they can no longer ignore the harm they are doing, especially if they identify with ordinary people instead of seeing us as things to be exploited.
The footage from the health care fairs perfectly counters the "rationed care" charge. We have rationed care now. I agree, we've got to stay on message, not back down, not accept pleas for patience or that our struggle can only be won on some distant day (which is the problem I have with Sanders calling health care a civil right). The time is now, and all we can do at this point is to keep letting the complacent know that we won't be appeased. Critical mass is very near.
I know a family who owns a small local cafe. As a new, fledgling business, they cannot afford to pay for a healthcare policy. One member had a severe pain in her gastrointestinal tract, which she had experienced on and off for several years. This time, they decided to take her to an emergency room in a larger town, hoping they would have better facilities for diagnosis. They arrived, after a one and a half hour drive, at 5 PM. At 1 AM in the morning, they finally saw a doctor. She was given what later turned out to be an over-dose of morphine after an earlier dose of Percaset while she was waiting. They left for home at 5 AM, twelve hours after arriving....no diagnosis...no answer...no serious help, other than symptomatic relief. How many times must this be repeated on a daily basis throughout this country?
They're moving toward diagnosis as "intellectual property" that commands a premium price if the patients really wants to know. Keeping the diagnosis secret allows the system greater control over the people.
An analysis of 'democracy' -
"His ultimate goal in this stage is the victory of 'democracy,' or, as he understands it: the rule of parliamentarianism. It is most compatible with his requirements; for it excludes the personality-and puts in its place the majority characterized by stupidity, incompetence, and last but not least, cowardice."
From ????
Would that it were possible to organize "one big union" (apologies to the IWW) totally seperate from trade unionism, American citizenship the only qualification for membership, with the most general of aims acceptable to right and left, particularly the demand to respect the Constitution. More people every day have the conviction that we are being pissed on in broad daylight; our collective sense of injury and loss could be the cement that might bond such a union.
Tony Vodvarka
abvodvarka@yahoo.com July 11th, 2009 8:49 am..............To what purpose? To march enmasse to DC....do we need that sophisticated an intrument to simply get the people off their asses and away from indifference to demand their rights that are already SUPPOSEDLY protected by our Constitution? Organized or spontaneous, you still must get MILLIONS....TENS OF MILLIONS involved to make a dent in THE ELITES defenses.
BUT, I do believe we are getting to a tipping point and the truth of 9/11 may be what it takes to break through the concrete wall of stagnation.
Dear Cynical, The purpose being to develop candidates and elect them, to organize boycotts, to organize passive resistance, to develop a nation-wide REFUSAL. As you note, it seems a daunting task, especially with the deep-seated anti-social attitudes among many groups in our country but 9-11 IS in plain sight and if our fellow citizens ever use their eyes for something other than TV, we may have a genuine paradigm shift in this country.
Tony Vodvarka
abvodvarka@yahoo.com July 11th, 2009 9:26 am...All we may do is continue to spread the information. Personally, I pass out DVDs supplied by my friend at the 911dvdproject.com. (for free, BTW) and run around with signs all over my car. I have a DVD/CD duplicator, so that helps....TV IS the killer. We need a free and independent station, other than Link or whatever. They, because of funding, will only go so far.
BUT, we need to act now...tomorrow is too late.We went are are still going through eight years of hell and cannot afford another year...much less eight more years of the same!
Incidentally, here's a fairly new development, with a meeting to announce it in Arlington today.....
http://www.twf.org/News/Y2009/0702-Flight77.html
Civil rights legislation was "not practical" and "not going to happen" until the heat of activism made putting it off any longer impossible. Politicians, especially democrats, are motivated by political opportunism heavily influenced by corporate backing. Without the kind of intense "street heat" and popular pressure that threatens them and business as usual no real progress will be made on this or other vital issues.
Jaded Prole July 11th, 2009 8:34 am.............Any ideas to get us started?
While the weather is good, an extended protest/vigil/encampment in DC wouldn't hurt. It would create visibility and allow time for consistent lobbying and pressuring of Congress.
Democrats have to begin to understand that both parties are beholden to their corporate masters. Voters only have value as consumers and slack-jawed pawns that salivate on command when the leaders ring the bell or cower in fear when they identify the enemy.
In a Republican economy (do you see any difference since January?) those survivors that still have jobs take on the work of those that were discarded before and are terrified that the same will happen to them. Not real candidates for any activism or risk-taking.
I don't understand how anyone believed that having a more solid majority in Congress could promote spine-growing in the spineless. Straight and upright spines are developed through exercise, not through round-shouldered hangdog stooping fear.
The congressional Democrats and Republicans will never start refusing the K-street money that lines their pockets and keeps them in office as long as they can take it with impunity. Votes must be counted and must count for more.