If Democrats survive the onslaught that’s coming and emerge victorious at the federal level, the first order of business next year must be to strip the cancer of dark money out of our body politic...
I remember how a big money ad blitz killed the Clinton healthcare reforms that Americans were aching for (some literally so). I'm surprised how easily voters' minds get changed, owing to a lack of information and/or a lack of conviction. There must be some way to challenge these disinformation saturation bombings of voters' minds!
You are right Daniel. The Clinton's were not of the entitled Class, and had no wealth of their own, but knew who had the wealth and kow towed to them.
When Bill left the Presidency they were essentially broke, the powers that be subsidized her by buying up great quantities of her memoir, and probably recycled them, and they set up Bill with his own non profit from which he and Chelsea draw a handsome salary
Mr. Farrar, I attended NAFTA conferences as part of my academic work decades ago. Since those years I have been telling people that Bill Clinton was the best Republican President since Grover Cleveland. But because Americans are so politically naive and historically uninformed they, don't get it. Perhaps sarcasm and irony are not the best way to convey ideas. "The days of big government are over."
I totally agree Mr Dobbertin. Clinton's charade was assisted by Newt Gingrich who tried to have him removed from office over a blow job.
The liberals reacted to Gingriich's Jihad,, as they usually do,, played into reverse psychology, as voiced by Lenin. Oppose what you propose, propose what you oppose.
Gingrich attacked and Democrats reacted by defending while Clinton gave away the farm.
I was a shop steward and part of the contract bargaining team, and was not very welcome when at a union lunch featuring Angela Davis, I blurted out that Clinton was betraying his base of labor, gays, women and minorities.
I wasn't very popular after that. I am not a team player
To what extent was it to be privatized. I read the article. It was heavily opposed by PhRMA and AHIP. As usual, this is a piss poor WP article as it always is when it comes to religion and politics. The article mentions subsidies for the poor who can't afford insurance, then in the same paragraph it leads you to believe that the states will take care of it,, and Doctors will have a fixed fee per procedure.
As I understand it the British NHS is a mess because it is run by the government, Denmarks is excellent because it is single payor for all.
America would go for single payor,except for the racists who don't want people of color to get anything, including SNAP, and the middle class Fox addicts who swallow the propaganda of AHIP, about taxes.
Boobs think that when the Republican party talks about cutting taxes, that means for themselves, but the actual tax policies of Republicans (and some
Democrats) is to raise middle class taxes and cut corporate and millionaire taxes.
The whole thing was based on successes of HMOs, health maintenance organizations. They were in many cases not feasible economically and many of them were fraud laden. The most famous here in Baghdad By the Sea was International Medical Center. https://www.gao.gov/assets/t-osi-88-1.pdf
I was co-chair of an ABA task force. My pitch then is same as now; eliminate the collateral source rule and the cost of virtually all insurance would drop. Medicare for all could have been installed in segments based on age. If people can retire under SS at age 62, start with the population between 62 and 65 for Part A.
If done in that way, Big Insurance would have had less of an incentive to oppose.
________________________________________
The collateral source rule (CSR) is a common law doctrine and evidentiary rule in American case law that prevents the reduction of damages awarded to a plaintiff in court by the amount they have already received from a third party. This third party could be an insurer, such as health insurance or workers' compensation, or someone else who is not the defendant. The rule generally states that benefits received from a source independent of the wrongdoer do not diminish the damages the plaintiff can recover.
HMO's are the worst. Many of the Medicare disadvantage plans are HMO's.
I pay for CalPers, even though I have Tricare, because it is no hassle and I can afford it I pay some and my former California Employer pays most. However between the $169.40 I pay Medicare and the $300 I pay for Regence Blue Shield via Cal Pers I pay 500 a month, which is a deal, because my cancer treatment and diabetes visits alone would have cost over $2 mill.
CalPers has an HMO plan if you live in California. I'm on their Platinum plan for Medicare supplement.
I've heard of people dying because HMO's want authorize their treatment or visits.And Kaiser is among the worst.
What was Rep Grayson's comment? The Republican insurance plan is get sick and die quickly.
Perhaps you can review Hillary Clinton's proposed healthcare reforms, they weren't exactly what Americans were hoping for. This is when she told Bernie Sanders there was no way we could have a national healthcare system because insurers would not allow it.
On this we agree Barry. America is better described as America, Inc, run by corporations, CEO's and Boards of Directors, but having said that, I much prefer America with all of it's faults and deficiencies over the faux Democracies of Hungary, Transnistra, and most of all imperialistic, genocidal Russia.
The right is a bottomless well of infectious despair - that's their not-so-secret weapon.
Getting out the Democratic vote this November largely hinges on keeping up morale in the face of perceived unimaginable odds.
The maga GOP - party of ugly yesterdays - is going to do anything and everything they can to crush belief, hope, and our trust in reality itself.
I'm breathing easier these days with the absolute joy Harris-Walz are bringing to America following decades of Republican-inflicted despair - but my eyes remain open and my head on a swivel for the inevitable blowback building on the horizon. The right will stop at nothing to demoralize us. Don't fall victim, we're all in this together, and we'll make it to the other side - if we show up.
Corruption begets corruption . And the trail of corruption from the Heritage Foundation to the Federalist Society to the Extreme Supreme Court, to Congress , both House and Senate, the Far right judges of Republican descent. State and local governments, militias. All corrupted by the fact that the wealthiest people have been allowed to go tax free and use their entitled butts to ruin this Democracy.
It galls me that the shift has occurred and appears to be imbedded in the most corrupt political system ever , the Republican , Maga movement , where money is EVERYTHING.
Spot on Patricia, I was just thinking of the term Neo-Liberalism and how this term had an aspect that really sets it apart from Capitalism. That is Neo-Liberalism focuses not on the rights of people, but on the rights of money. Citizen’s United made money literally equal to free speech. It was at that point when Democracy took the hit from which I’m afraid we will never recover.
Dark Money should be purged from every part of society. The problem I see is that any/every law that is passed to curtail that money will wind up before the Supremes & will be found to be unconstitutional in a 6-3 vote. Unless Roberts & maybe Barrett grow a conscious it's going to be very hard to eliminate Dark Money from anything, especially now that the Supremes have turned bribery into tips!
Extreme wealth is a cancer that is infecting the soul of this nation. This cancer destroys the health, safety and well being of ordinary working class citizens. It has destroyed the Republican Party who stands for nothing other than protecting the wealth of a handful of billionaires. The unrestrained pursuit of wealth is destroying the livability of this planet through climate change, toxic food, and oppressive policies that hurt women and minorities. They have corrupted the Supreme Court and placed bought judges throughout the justice system. They buy politicians who will do their will and undermine those politicians who seek to help ordinary people and protect our constitutional rights and freedoms. We can unite and elect representatives who will prevent this. Representatives who will tax the wealthy fairly, who will restore the health of our planet, who will restrain the powerful and their monopolies.
I don’t know what is the greatest evil confronting this nation. The press has pursed corporate profits instead of their role of informing citizens. An uneducated public is one that is easily duped!
This is indeed depressing. And we can’t make changes until we vote out the republicans. We need to get this info out at the grass root level, door to door as a preemptive strike at the misinformation. It will be difficult.
The money and the attacks are not new---it's the amounts. It's the billionaires.
Part of what Bernie did was expose this. He also practiced what he preached. I hope we hear from him and Senator Warren during the convention and in it some ads.
The legislative work absolutely needs to be done after the election, but isn't this also a prime time to educate the public using what is happening in real time? Once again I say that using Governor Walz's teaching skills and Vice President Harris's ability as a lawyer to present an argument should be used to give a less complicated version of what is happening with dark money.
During the upcoming months, Harris/Walz could be out there telling America the GOP doesn't care that Trump is literally nuts and JD has no experience running anything but money. It's because Republicans know the billionaires will be the ones giving the orders, just like they have picked and bought-off many of the Justices on the Supreme Court.
Warren and Bernie need to be highlighted in her campaign. They were heavily trivialized by BOTH political parties and sent to the corner to wear the extremist dunce caps for their silly scope of big, dark money.
I can only hope that people NOW realize that the single biggest threat to their democracy is the complex of that big money influence. Would love to see Warren appointed to a very strong position that would give her the power to influence change, money-wise. She knows it to her bones.
Senator Sanders and Warren didn't take it lying down and it sure as hell didn't work, Gerald. They were on late-night shows, weekend shows, and people went listening all along the way. Truth will out, and I think Harris/Walz knows exactly that.
I do believe in good people and good karma. Bring the light.
You're right, the Amounts are the killer here, given those charts. In every election, the money spent on the losing candidate was effectively wasted. It was all for naught.
Whenever the GOP loses, more had probably been spent on the loser than on the winner due to dark money interests trying to preserve their vast wealth.
What whittles my walking stick is the thought of how much good that could have been done if the billions spent on Trump's loss this Nov. had been spent on Americans instead.
How true about the good they could have done, David. Sadly, some of these misanthropes are convinced they have taken the moral high-ground. Others are just having fun and the money is only a means of keeping score. Very sick people!
Indeed. And research shows that a very small portion of their philanthropic charity donations actually go to the recipients. The rest goes right back into their coffers.
Kiind of off topic. But I just received an email from Mona Charen of the Bulwark,with Walz, Harris can pivot to the center.
Which begs the question, that I have asked Charlie Sykes. What is it about the left that you don't like
Freedom of choice
Diversity
Equity
Inclusion
Universal Health care
Regulating and taxing the corporations that use the commons free of charge, and leave behind pollution, extortion, empoverished people and sometimes even murder
What is about immigration that you don't like.
I want to know exactly what is it about the left, liberals, progressives, that frighten them.
I never get an answer, and if you watch conservatives on TV, you won't find one there either, their tactic is to overtalk, deflect, distract, change the subject spout lies and false statistics and filibuster.
Which means that they don't have an answer
The real reason is visceral, they perceive liberals as a threat to their dominance.
Mr. Farrar, I do not think your comments are off topic. They are right on. Conservatives realize that they cannot sell their oligarch-friendly policies to the voters. So they "overtalk, deflect, distract, change the subject, spout lies and false statistics, and filibuster." They cheat and go negative. That is the only way they can win.
William as a lifelong liberal, I agree with all of the above, except with you on immigration. As a left wing environmentalist, I find overpopulation caused by religious leaders opposed to family planning worldwide, to be a threat to the existence of mankind! IE, immigration.
There are multiple reasons to be opposed to immigration, but the maga cult are just racist and their minds are broken, they do mess up just about everything they pursue like Trump.
Immigration has benefited the billionaire class the most by busting unions and helping to overthrow democracy by driving the wages low and infuriating the racists!
When America's leaders take care of the homeless situation and can provide well-paying jobs so that one spouse can work and support a family, then I will support immigration of all races, as long as they have over a 135 IQ.
Till then, it is just plain stupid, to allow every uneducated, religious, Tom,Dick and Harry into this country! What is your limit William? In the United States would you be happy with a billion population or 2 billion population or 4 billion or 8 billion or 16 billion, just where is your freaking limit?
Bob I have my own illiberal position on immigration. The big problem with liberals is that, if something is tagged liberal, they are like fish who see a lure.
Before I precede I believe that everyone should have the same rights, freedoms and opportunities, not restricted by others, be that a cult, a religion, or a nation and it's laws and leaders, provided that they do no harm to others.
My question for conservatives is What is it about immigration that you don't like? I held no position, just a question.
The north (America and Europe) can not absorb all of the people that want to migrate north. The weak minded, call them asylum seekers. There may indeed be some seeking asylum from death squads, gangs, even starvation, but most are not seeking asylum, but simply looking for jobs, economic refugees, and they are economic refugees because of the culture in which they were raised, and they are bringing that culture north, overwhelming the cultures that are absorbing them and changing them, and eventually their host cultures will also changed their character and become as destitute and non functional as the culture they left.
It is ironic that the culture of the American south, interweaves and intermeshes so well with that of the Christian nationalists, in that it is also intrinsically homophobic and misogynistic (family values)
On top of that with unrestricted immigration, the north cannot absorb all those who are fleeing the south. It doesn't have the resources, food, jobs, housing.
And finally there are serious cultural differences and threats.
Western culture and Islamic culture are incompatible, it is not just religion it is culture, way of life.
The threat is manifest in Europe and accounts for the rise of the right. Orban took control of Hungary because it was being flooded with Muslim immigrants from Afghanistan, Syria. North Africa. Italy has elected a fascist Prime Minister in part because of immigration, Germany is trying to fend off the Alternative for Germany (AFD), a neo NAZI threat, France narrowly missed, a neo NAZI PM, but elected one to represent France in the EU. Liberal Holland has elected Gert Wilders a neo NAZI, Norway and Sweden are going the same route.
And it isn't race, though if you listen to TV, that is what you hear. Europe doesn't have the same attitude towards race as America, but that is changing, It is culture, and you hear charges of Islamophobia.. A made up word.
Many of us here are what could be called Christophobic, considering the statements made about the theocratic right, but Islam is the same threat if not greater.
However we in the west are told to see them as victims of irrational hate.
I doubt that there are many queers for Palestine, who would survive a 24 hr period in Palestine or an Islamic country, not even "Democratic" Malaysia. Jews wouldn't, unless they consigned themselves to 2nd Class citizens, and how would this heart rendered libel women, like having to wear an Abaya, Chador, niqab or burga, not being able to travel unless accompanied by a male, and have a social role solely as a sex doll, domestic servant and a nanny. Well that is the life of women in an Islamic country, and will be the life of a woman in America if the Republicans win in November.
South to North migration in America is driven by the backwards culture promulgated by the domination of the Catholic Church and the Spanish overlords, but that is the economic and agrarian culture which they created.
The crime and violence, sprang out of the soil, because it squashed individual initiative and promoted a serf and superstitious mentality.
Then along came American corporations like United Fruit, Coca Cola, which have financed coups and death squads to squash the likes of labor organizing.
The flight of middle class Venezuelans is a consequence of Exxon Mobil using the political and military resources of the US to reclaim the oil fields which Chavez so foolishly thought belonged to Venezuela, and not Exxon. the Resulting sanctions have destroyed an economy which with their own oil, should be able to provide the citizens with a decent standard of living.
We forced Chavez into the Arms of Iran, Russia, China, just as we forced Fidel into the arms of Russia.
The United States hasn't been imperialistic since the Spanish American war, but it has been a tool by which very wealthy men, have been able to use their power and influence and wield the government as a tool, by which to gain control of world resources and wealth.
And to a degree the people have both paid a price and have benefited. But that is the way of the world, not just America.
The current, active imperialist is Vladimir Putin,he is slaughtering his own people by the hundreds of thousands, by putting them in uniform and using them as cannon fodder, so he can eradicate the Ukrainian language, culture and identity. and he won't stop there.
Christianity and Islam are two triumphalist ideologies. Triumphalist and exclusionary.
Both seek domination and submission. Christianity has been reformed, schism ed, secularized, but trying to regain its supremacy, at least in America.
Islam has not been reformed, it was beaten back in 732 by Charles Martel at Poitiers and at the gates of Vienna in 1682 by King John Sobieski of Poland, and instead of taking over Europe by force, it is now doing so by peaceful migration and you can see the effect of Europe reacting with the rise of the right, but the right has an agenda much greater than halting the spread of the Islamic culture, it is as fascistic as was NAZI Germany and Mussolini's Hitler.
My question for all, is what culture do you want to live under?. So many to choose from.
Maybe we should quit overthrowing Democracies like Iran was, and bombing places like Iraq to try to get their Oil so that the people have to flee North for their lives. We've been poking a beehive then complaining about being stung. In the meantime our Corporations have gotten all the honey.
I agree in part. Iran was overthrown by the British MI6, because Mossadegh made the same mistake Chavez made in thinking that Iranian oil belonged to Iran, and not British Petroleum (BP).
France gave the Ayatollah Khomeini sanctuary and the DGSE (its' CIA) sent his cassette tapes into Tehran,via French diplomatic pouches.
Iraq's oil was not the reason for Bush's invasion, though Dick Cheney, former President and major stockholder of Halliburton had his eye on the oil.
Saddam posed a threat to two countries which are important to the U.S.
Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Saddam claimed that he was Nebuchadnezzar incarnate, and then he was a new Salah al Din, (Saladin), this posed a threat to the leaders of the Arab World and to Israel, Dubya had his own motives, to best his father, finish the job his father started of deposing Saddam, and becoming a victorious war time president so he would get re elected. He had his peeps in the intelligence agencies fabricate evidence and lie, and he got what he wanted.
And it just isn't our corporations that control governments, it is an international problem. It started with the Dutch West India Company, then the British East India Company,
In Russia, the head of the Oligarchs has a tight working relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church (and always has as it was an adjunct of the KGB) and controls the KGB as FSB, It's head oligarch is Vladimir Putin, he owns palatial dachas, four of them, and at least one is for his mistress, He and his oligarch friends bleed Russia, like Xi bleeds China.. Trump bled America and plans to bleed it even more, not so much the first time, but he has bigger plans for 2025.
By the way Exxon Mobil is responsible for the problems in Venezuela, when Chavez had the audacity to think that its oil belonged to the country and not Exxon. And took over extraction and production of oil, from Exxon who was siphoning off all the profits.
Exxon was piqued, deprived of profits, it used it's influence with the government, to employ the CIA to overthrow the Chavez government with coups, including sending in mercenaries,
That failed and sanctions have been applied.
It is not just oil, but United Fruit was behind the overthrow of central American governments, (the Banana Wars) and the Bush family bought United Fruit, now Chiquita Banana.
In Nicaragua, Antonio Somoza was put in power by the U.S.Marines which occupied Nicaragua at the time. Then he was recognized by the Truman Administration and used the country as his private corporation. , he reorganized and streamlined his business empire, founding a merchant marine company, several textile mills, a national airline (LANICA, short for Líneas Aéreas de Nicaragua) and a new container port on the Pacific near Managua, which he named Puerto Somoza, but the people were kept ignorant. There were no street signs in Managua, the capitol, because the people could not read, not even gas station attendants could read a map.
The Sandinista's overthrew the government, and the CIA financed the contra's, which they used as a conduit, to smuggle in cocaine, which they used to buy arms through Israel, to give to Iran, as part of the deal the Reagan administration made with Khomeini, when Reagan offered to supply Iran arms for his war with Saddam, if he kept the hostages until he was sworn into office.
The war on drugs courtesy the CIA.
There is a lot of bad shit that has happened in the world because of men with money, seeking more money and power.
Yet rather that, than the totalitarian and/or religious regimes of Russia, China, N. Korea, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indoneisa, Malyasia
If Trump wins in November, if he pulls off the coup this time, then America will be religious authoritarian.
Outing the billionaires whose PACs are trying to destroy American need to be passed around in memes everywhere. Thom, keep shining the light in those dark places.
I'm curious why more MSM haven't picked up on the fossil fuel funding behind Project 2025, or how Fox and other propaganda outlets amplify culture wars in service to (Murdoch's) big oil interests.
Reading you today, Thom, and the comments, I am left thinking that if dark money wins in November, we hoi polloi may have nothing left but resort to something like France’s “National Razor”;of revolutionary times. Sadly, as divided as we are, we will probably just destroy ourselves, and too many of the morbidly rich and their progeny will escape to the safe havens they have established in other parts of the world. Avoiding that is another huge reason we have to have a blue November.
Look at the fundamentals. Trump lost 2020 by 7 million votes. This time, Gen Z, who are 25% of the electorate, trend 70% Democratic. Seniors, who voted 51% for Trump in 2020, have passed away at high rates, due to, among other things COVID. So there should be more Harris voters and fewer Trump voters.
Women are 52% of voters, trend Democratic. 34% of the U.S. population are renters, trend heavily Democratic.
Trump is the worst candidate of all time. He's now the oldest in history. The craziest, and every day, he gets more bizarre.
Meanwhile all politics is local. If we win the blue wall and one other state, we win the presidency. Down here in Baghdad By the Sea, a new poll in our county shows Harris ahead by 14 %...." found Harris winning several key voting blocs in Miami-Dade, including 55% of women and 52% of men. Among non-Cuban Hispanic voters, 58% said they plan to support Harris compared to 38% who are backing Trump. Trump still holds the lead among Cuban Americans, who have historically backed Republican candidates; 61% said they will vote for the former president, while 33% plan to support Harris, according to the poll."
Considering that 84,000 Democrats were removed from the voter rolls here since 2022, and we are in the process of re-registering them, we're hoping we can swing the state. Trump won in 2020 by 3.1 %.
We hope to flip the senate and 2 house seats on the strength of the trend.
Advertising is not actually a science, relies on tendencies. Stats show that Gen Z do not watch mainstream anything.
Doesn't men we should rely on the fundamentals. As Simon sayz, worry less work harder. Register more Democrats to cause a blue tsunami.
Mr. Solomon, what you are talking about is Demography. As the demographic make-up of the voting public changed slowly but inexorably in favor of the Democrats; the republicans realized their policies could not win elections. So they made it a matter of policy to both cheat and go negative on their opponents. People like Rove and others saw this demographic trend over two decades ago. I was teaching Population
and Demography at the time. The trend was already clear.
True to a certain extent. I didn't address race. 90% of Blacks trend Democratic. Whereas most Asian Americans were Republicans, no longer.
I'm in data groups that evaluate voters in detail. Too many variables to detail but some people have a threshold that can be triggered. E.G. in Hispanic community, big difference re religion, re nationality, etc. They can tell, for example which precincts yield the best chances for success in persuasion, maybe entirely on a local issue. In some places, "down ballot" races can lead or hurt the presidential race.
The best example I can give you is in N. Carolina the Republican candidate for governor is Black. You'd think that fact would swing the vote. But that thinks women should lose the right to vote, would execute people involved in abortion, etc. We have to educate that to Black voters predisposed to support Black candidates. Harris is now down 2 points in NC.
As I alluded previously, advertising doesn't work on many people. On some, it has an opposite effect.
Without a doubt, the U.S. government is bought and paid for with oligarch money. What's worse, is that AIPAC is doing all it can to buy up as many democrats as possible in order to secure continued funding for the Zionists in Israel. The American experiment is on its last legs and it doesn't look like it is going to recover back to what it once was. But then, what it was, was a colonial power so maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing if the U.S. could remake itself into a multipolar power somehow and eliminate all of the corruption. I think it all has to fall down first and then remake itself out of the ashes. For those of us who will still be alive to witness this great fall, you better start preparing right now because it won't be a soft landing.
Overthrowing democracy is a lot cheaper than paying their fair share of taxes, unfortunately. They have so many billions a few million is nothing to them. I wonder why Putin didn't just purchase a lot of land in the Ukraine and they both could have got along hunky dory? And I think that would have been cheaper than this war he is waging. Speaking of Alzheimer's I think Putin has it?
I remember how a big money ad blitz killed the Clinton healthcare reforms that Americans were aching for (some literally so). I'm surprised how easily voters' minds get changed, owing to a lack of information and/or a lack of conviction. There must be some way to challenge these disinformation saturation bombings of voters' minds!
HRC killed the healthcare reforms. I was there!
You are right Daniel. The Clinton's were not of the entitled Class, and had no wealth of their own, but knew who had the wealth and kow towed to them.
When Bill left the Presidency they were essentially broke, the powers that be subsidized her by buying up great quantities of her memoir, and probably recycled them, and they set up Bill with his own non profit from which he and Chelsea draw a handsome salary
He left the Presidency 16 million in debt https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/04/the-clintons-erased-16-million-in-debt-and-accumulated-45-million.html
The Board of the CGI
OARD OF DIRECTORS
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON. Founder and Board Chair. ...
CHELSEA CLINTON, DPhil, MPH. Vice Chair of the Board (2011-present) ...
ROLANDO GONZALEZ-BUNSTER. (2013-present) ...
ROBERT S. HARRISON. ...
BRUCE LINDSEY* (2005-present) ...
CHERYL MILLS. (2004-2009, 2013-present) ...
JANET MURGUÍA. (2019-present) ...
NIMA TAGHAVI. (2018-present)
Hillary and Chelsea are among the 50th Richest Democrats (none of which are billionaires
https://www.celebritynetworth.com/list/top-50-democrats/
Bill Clinton signed more Republican legislation, than any Republican before or since.
Just like only Nixon could have gone to China.
Mr. Farrar, I attended NAFTA conferences as part of my academic work decades ago. Since those years I have been telling people that Bill Clinton was the best Republican President since Grover Cleveland. But because Americans are so politically naive and historically uninformed they, don't get it. Perhaps sarcasm and irony are not the best way to convey ideas. "The days of big government are over."
I totally agree Mr Dobbertin. Clinton's charade was assisted by Newt Gingrich who tried to have him removed from office over a blow job.
The liberals reacted to Gingriich's Jihad,, as they usually do,, played into reverse psychology, as voiced by Lenin. Oppose what you propose, propose what you oppose.
Gingrich attacked and Democrats reacted by defending while Clinton gave away the farm.
I was a shop steward and part of the contract bargaining team, and was not very welcome when at a union lunch featuring Angela Davis, I blurted out that Clinton was betraying his base of labor, gays, women and minorities.
I wasn't very popular after that. I am not a team player
Despite the fact that Medicare for all or a variation was feasible, "Hilarycare" was based on privatization. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_health_care_plan_of_1993
Virtually all HMOs are now defunct.
To what extent was it to be privatized. I read the article. It was heavily opposed by PhRMA and AHIP. As usual, this is a piss poor WP article as it always is when it comes to religion and politics. The article mentions subsidies for the poor who can't afford insurance, then in the same paragraph it leads you to believe that the states will take care of it,, and Doctors will have a fixed fee per procedure.
As I understand it the British NHS is a mess because it is run by the government, Denmarks is excellent because it is single payor for all.
America would go for single payor,except for the racists who don't want people of color to get anything, including SNAP, and the middle class Fox addicts who swallow the propaganda of AHIP, about taxes.
Boobs think that when the Republican party talks about cutting taxes, that means for themselves, but the actual tax policies of Republicans (and some
Democrats) is to raise middle class taxes and cut corporate and millionaire taxes.
The whole thing was based on successes of HMOs, health maintenance organizations. They were in many cases not feasible economically and many of them were fraud laden. The most famous here in Baghdad By the Sea was International Medical Center. https://www.gao.gov/assets/t-osi-88-1.pdf
I was co-chair of an ABA task force. My pitch then is same as now; eliminate the collateral source rule and the cost of virtually all insurance would drop. Medicare for all could have been installed in segments based on age. If people can retire under SS at age 62, start with the population between 62 and 65 for Part A.
If done in that way, Big Insurance would have had less of an incentive to oppose.
________________________________________
The collateral source rule (CSR) is a common law doctrine and evidentiary rule in American case law that prevents the reduction of damages awarded to a plaintiff in court by the amount they have already received from a third party. This third party could be an insurer, such as health insurance or workers' compensation, or someone else who is not the defendant. The rule generally states that benefits received from a source independent of the wrongdoer do not diminish the damages the plaintiff can recover.
HMO's are the worst. Many of the Medicare disadvantage plans are HMO's.
I pay for CalPers, even though I have Tricare, because it is no hassle and I can afford it I pay some and my former California Employer pays most. However between the $169.40 I pay Medicare and the $300 I pay for Regence Blue Shield via Cal Pers I pay 500 a month, which is a deal, because my cancer treatment and diabetes visits alone would have cost over $2 mill.
CalPers has an HMO plan if you live in California. I'm on their Platinum plan for Medicare supplement.
I've heard of people dying because HMO's want authorize their treatment or visits.And Kaiser is among the worst.
What was Rep Grayson's comment? The Republican insurance plan is get sick and die quickly.
Perhaps you can review Hillary Clinton's proposed healthcare reforms, they weren't exactly what Americans were hoping for. This is when she told Bernie Sanders there was no way we could have a national healthcare system because insurers would not allow it.
On this we agree Barry. America is better described as America, Inc, run by corporations, CEO's and Boards of Directors, but having said that, I much prefer America with all of it's faults and deficiencies over the faux Democracies of Hungary, Transnistra, and most of all imperialistic, genocidal Russia.
The right is a bottomless well of infectious despair - that's their not-so-secret weapon.
Getting out the Democratic vote this November largely hinges on keeping up morale in the face of perceived unimaginable odds.
The maga GOP - party of ugly yesterdays - is going to do anything and everything they can to crush belief, hope, and our trust in reality itself.
I'm breathing easier these days with the absolute joy Harris-Walz are bringing to America following decades of Republican-inflicted despair - but my eyes remain open and my head on a swivel for the inevitable blowback building on the horizon. The right will stop at nothing to demoralize us. Don't fall victim, we're all in this together, and we'll make it to the other side - if we show up.
And the next should be to restore the Fairness Doctrine and expand it!
Corruption begets corruption . And the trail of corruption from the Heritage Foundation to the Federalist Society to the Extreme Supreme Court, to Congress , both House and Senate, the Far right judges of Republican descent. State and local governments, militias. All corrupted by the fact that the wealthiest people have been allowed to go tax free and use their entitled butts to ruin this Democracy.
It galls me that the shift has occurred and appears to be imbedded in the most corrupt political system ever , the Republican , Maga movement , where money is EVERYTHING.
And the people are NOTHING.
Spot on Patricia, I was just thinking of the term Neo-Liberalism and how this term had an aspect that really sets it apart from Capitalism. That is Neo-Liberalism focuses not on the rights of people, but on the rights of money. Citizen’s United made money literally equal to free speech. It was at that point when Democracy took the hit from which I’m afraid we will never recover.
Dark Money should be purged from every part of society. The problem I see is that any/every law that is passed to curtail that money will wind up before the Supremes & will be found to be unconstitutional in a 6-3 vote. Unless Roberts & maybe Barrett grow a conscious it's going to be very hard to eliminate Dark Money from anything, especially now that the Supremes have turned bribery into tips!
Don't forget Trump is going to eliminate taxes on those "tips" and he's not talking about waitresses either.
Extreme wealth is a cancer that is infecting the soul of this nation. This cancer destroys the health, safety and well being of ordinary working class citizens. It has destroyed the Republican Party who stands for nothing other than protecting the wealth of a handful of billionaires. The unrestrained pursuit of wealth is destroying the livability of this planet through climate change, toxic food, and oppressive policies that hurt women and minorities. They have corrupted the Supreme Court and placed bought judges throughout the justice system. They buy politicians who will do their will and undermine those politicians who seek to help ordinary people and protect our constitutional rights and freedoms. We can unite and elect representatives who will prevent this. Representatives who will tax the wealthy fairly, who will restore the health of our planet, who will restrain the powerful and their monopolies.
In my humble opinion, buying the press has undermined democracy even more than the judicial system?
I don’t know what is the greatest evil confronting this nation. The press has pursed corporate profits instead of their role of informing citizens. An uneducated public is one that is easily duped!
This is indeed depressing. And we can’t make changes until we vote out the republicans. We need to get this info out at the grass root level, door to door as a preemptive strike at the misinformation. It will be difficult.
The money and the attacks are not new---it's the amounts. It's the billionaires.
Part of what Bernie did was expose this. He also practiced what he preached. I hope we hear from him and Senator Warren during the convention and in it some ads.
The legislative work absolutely needs to be done after the election, but isn't this also a prime time to educate the public using what is happening in real time? Once again I say that using Governor Walz's teaching skills and Vice President Harris's ability as a lawyer to present an argument should be used to give a less complicated version of what is happening with dark money.
During the upcoming months, Harris/Walz could be out there telling America the GOP doesn't care that Trump is literally nuts and JD has no experience running anything but money. It's because Republicans know the billionaires will be the ones giving the orders, just like they have picked and bought-off many of the Justices on the Supreme Court.
Warren and Bernie need to be highlighted in her campaign. They were heavily trivialized by BOTH political parties and sent to the corner to wear the extremist dunce caps for their silly scope of big, dark money.
I can only hope that people NOW realize that the single biggest threat to their democracy is the complex of that big money influence. Would love to see Warren appointed to a very strong position that would give her the power to influence change, money-wise. She knows it to her bones.
This would be hope and faith in karma come true.
Senator Sanders and Warren didn't take it lying down and it sure as hell didn't work, Gerald. They were on late-night shows, weekend shows, and people went listening all along the way. Truth will out, and I think Harris/Walz knows exactly that.
I do believe in good people and good karma. Bring the light.
You're right, the Amounts are the killer here, given those charts. In every election, the money spent on the losing candidate was effectively wasted. It was all for naught.
Whenever the GOP loses, more had probably been spent on the loser than on the winner due to dark money interests trying to preserve their vast wealth.
What whittles my walking stick is the thought of how much good that could have been done if the billions spent on Trump's loss this Nov. had been spent on Americans instead.
How true about the good they could have done, David. Sadly, some of these misanthropes are convinced they have taken the moral high-ground. Others are just having fun and the money is only a means of keeping score. Very sick people!
Indeed. And research shows that a very small portion of their philanthropic charity donations actually go to the recipients. The rest goes right back into their coffers.
Kiind of off topic. But I just received an email from Mona Charen of the Bulwark,with Walz, Harris can pivot to the center.
Which begs the question, that I have asked Charlie Sykes. What is it about the left that you don't like
Freedom of choice
Diversity
Equity
Inclusion
Universal Health care
Regulating and taxing the corporations that use the commons free of charge, and leave behind pollution, extortion, empoverished people and sometimes even murder
What is about immigration that you don't like.
I want to know exactly what is it about the left, liberals, progressives, that frighten them.
I never get an answer, and if you watch conservatives on TV, you won't find one there either, their tactic is to overtalk, deflect, distract, change the subject spout lies and false statistics and filibuster.
Which means that they don't have an answer
The real reason is visceral, they perceive liberals as a threat to their dominance.
Mr. Farrar, I do not think your comments are off topic. They are right on. Conservatives realize that they cannot sell their oligarch-friendly policies to the voters. So they "overtalk, deflect, distract, change the subject, spout lies and false statistics, and filibuster." They cheat and go negative. That is the only way they can win.
William - Yes, exactly what is it that is so horrible on this list. Everything if you are a Neo-Liberal Fascist Loving Billionaire
William as a lifelong liberal, I agree with all of the above, except with you on immigration. As a left wing environmentalist, I find overpopulation caused by religious leaders opposed to family planning worldwide, to be a threat to the existence of mankind! IE, immigration.
There are multiple reasons to be opposed to immigration, but the maga cult are just racist and their minds are broken, they do mess up just about everything they pursue like Trump.
Immigration has benefited the billionaire class the most by busting unions and helping to overthrow democracy by driving the wages low and infuriating the racists!
When America's leaders take care of the homeless situation and can provide well-paying jobs so that one spouse can work and support a family, then I will support immigration of all races, as long as they have over a 135 IQ.
Till then, it is just plain stupid, to allow every uneducated, religious, Tom,Dick and Harry into this country! What is your limit William? In the United States would you be happy with a billion population or 2 billion population or 4 billion or 8 billion or 16 billion, just where is your freaking limit?
Bob I have my own illiberal position on immigration. The big problem with liberals is that, if something is tagged liberal, they are like fish who see a lure.
Before I precede I believe that everyone should have the same rights, freedoms and opportunities, not restricted by others, be that a cult, a religion, or a nation and it's laws and leaders, provided that they do no harm to others.
My question for conservatives is What is it about immigration that you don't like? I held no position, just a question.
The north (America and Europe) can not absorb all of the people that want to migrate north. The weak minded, call them asylum seekers. There may indeed be some seeking asylum from death squads, gangs, even starvation, but most are not seeking asylum, but simply looking for jobs, economic refugees, and they are economic refugees because of the culture in which they were raised, and they are bringing that culture north, overwhelming the cultures that are absorbing them and changing them, and eventually their host cultures will also changed their character and become as destitute and non functional as the culture they left.
It is ironic that the culture of the American south, interweaves and intermeshes so well with that of the Christian nationalists, in that it is also intrinsically homophobic and misogynistic (family values)
On top of that with unrestricted immigration, the north cannot absorb all those who are fleeing the south. It doesn't have the resources, food, jobs, housing.
And finally there are serious cultural differences and threats.
Western culture and Islamic culture are incompatible, it is not just religion it is culture, way of life.
The threat is manifest in Europe and accounts for the rise of the right. Orban took control of Hungary because it was being flooded with Muslim immigrants from Afghanistan, Syria. North Africa. Italy has elected a fascist Prime Minister in part because of immigration, Germany is trying to fend off the Alternative for Germany (AFD), a neo NAZI threat, France narrowly missed, a neo NAZI PM, but elected one to represent France in the EU. Liberal Holland has elected Gert Wilders a neo NAZI, Norway and Sweden are going the same route.
And it isn't race, though if you listen to TV, that is what you hear. Europe doesn't have the same attitude towards race as America, but that is changing, It is culture, and you hear charges of Islamophobia.. A made up word.
Many of us here are what could be called Christophobic, considering the statements made about the theocratic right, but Islam is the same threat if not greater.
However we in the west are told to see them as victims of irrational hate.
I doubt that there are many queers for Palestine, who would survive a 24 hr period in Palestine or an Islamic country, not even "Democratic" Malaysia. Jews wouldn't, unless they consigned themselves to 2nd Class citizens, and how would this heart rendered libel women, like having to wear an Abaya, Chador, niqab or burga, not being able to travel unless accompanied by a male, and have a social role solely as a sex doll, domestic servant and a nanny. Well that is the life of women in an Islamic country, and will be the life of a woman in America if the Republicans win in November.
South to North migration in America is driven by the backwards culture promulgated by the domination of the Catholic Church and the Spanish overlords, but that is the economic and agrarian culture which they created.
The crime and violence, sprang out of the soil, because it squashed individual initiative and promoted a serf and superstitious mentality.
Then along came American corporations like United Fruit, Coca Cola, which have financed coups and death squads to squash the likes of labor organizing.
The flight of middle class Venezuelans is a consequence of Exxon Mobil using the political and military resources of the US to reclaim the oil fields which Chavez so foolishly thought belonged to Venezuela, and not Exxon. the Resulting sanctions have destroyed an economy which with their own oil, should be able to provide the citizens with a decent standard of living.
We forced Chavez into the Arms of Iran, Russia, China, just as we forced Fidel into the arms of Russia.
The United States hasn't been imperialistic since the Spanish American war, but it has been a tool by which very wealthy men, have been able to use their power and influence and wield the government as a tool, by which to gain control of world resources and wealth.
And to a degree the people have both paid a price and have benefited. But that is the way of the world, not just America.
The current, active imperialist is Vladimir Putin,he is slaughtering his own people by the hundreds of thousands, by putting them in uniform and using them as cannon fodder, so he can eradicate the Ukrainian language, culture and identity. and he won't stop there.
Christianity and Islam are two triumphalist ideologies. Triumphalist and exclusionary.
Both seek domination and submission. Christianity has been reformed, schism ed, secularized, but trying to regain its supremacy, at least in America.
Islam has not been reformed, it was beaten back in 732 by Charles Martel at Poitiers and at the gates of Vienna in 1682 by King John Sobieski of Poland, and instead of taking over Europe by force, it is now doing so by peaceful migration and you can see the effect of Europe reacting with the rise of the right, but the right has an agenda much greater than halting the spread of the Islamic culture, it is as fascistic as was NAZI Germany and Mussolini's Hitler.
My question for all, is what culture do you want to live under?. So many to choose from.
Maybe we should quit overthrowing Democracies like Iran was, and bombing places like Iraq to try to get their Oil so that the people have to flee North for their lives. We've been poking a beehive then complaining about being stung. In the meantime our Corporations have gotten all the honey.
I agree in part. Iran was overthrown by the British MI6, because Mossadegh made the same mistake Chavez made in thinking that Iranian oil belonged to Iran, and not British Petroleum (BP).
France gave the Ayatollah Khomeini sanctuary and the DGSE (its' CIA) sent his cassette tapes into Tehran,via French diplomatic pouches.
Iraq's oil was not the reason for Bush's invasion, though Dick Cheney, former President and major stockholder of Halliburton had his eye on the oil.
Saddam posed a threat to two countries which are important to the U.S.
Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Saddam claimed that he was Nebuchadnezzar incarnate, and then he was a new Salah al Din, (Saladin), this posed a threat to the leaders of the Arab World and to Israel, Dubya had his own motives, to best his father, finish the job his father started of deposing Saddam, and becoming a victorious war time president so he would get re elected. He had his peeps in the intelligence agencies fabricate evidence and lie, and he got what he wanted.
And it just isn't our corporations that control governments, it is an international problem. It started with the Dutch West India Company, then the British East India Company,
In Russia, the head of the Oligarchs has a tight working relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church (and always has as it was an adjunct of the KGB) and controls the KGB as FSB, It's head oligarch is Vladimir Putin, he owns palatial dachas, four of them, and at least one is for his mistress, He and his oligarch friends bleed Russia, like Xi bleeds China.. Trump bled America and plans to bleed it even more, not so much the first time, but he has bigger plans for 2025.
By the way Exxon Mobil is responsible for the problems in Venezuela, when Chavez had the audacity to think that its oil belonged to the country and not Exxon. And took over extraction and production of oil, from Exxon who was siphoning off all the profits.
Exxon was piqued, deprived of profits, it used it's influence with the government, to employ the CIA to overthrow the Chavez government with coups, including sending in mercenaries,
That failed and sanctions have been applied.
It is not just oil, but United Fruit was behind the overthrow of central American governments, (the Banana Wars) and the Bush family bought United Fruit, now Chiquita Banana.
In Nicaragua, Antonio Somoza was put in power by the U.S.Marines which occupied Nicaragua at the time. Then he was recognized by the Truman Administration and used the country as his private corporation. , he reorganized and streamlined his business empire, founding a merchant marine company, several textile mills, a national airline (LANICA, short for Líneas Aéreas de Nicaragua) and a new container port on the Pacific near Managua, which he named Puerto Somoza, but the people were kept ignorant. There were no street signs in Managua, the capitol, because the people could not read, not even gas station attendants could read a map.
The Sandinista's overthrew the government, and the CIA financed the contra's, which they used as a conduit, to smuggle in cocaine, which they used to buy arms through Israel, to give to Iran, as part of the deal the Reagan administration made with Khomeini, when Reagan offered to supply Iran arms for his war with Saddam, if he kept the hostages until he was sworn into office.
The war on drugs courtesy the CIA.
There is a lot of bad shit that has happened in the world because of men with money, seeking more money and power.
Yet rather that, than the totalitarian and/or religious regimes of Russia, China, N. Korea, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indoneisa, Malyasia
If Trump wins in November, if he pulls off the coup this time, then America will be religious authoritarian.
And Putin will be one happy mother fuckah.
Outing the billionaires whose PACs are trying to destroy American need to be passed around in memes everywhere. Thom, keep shining the light in those dark places.
I'm curious why more MSM haven't picked up on the fossil fuel funding behind Project 2025, or how Fox and other propaganda outlets amplify culture wars in service to (Murdoch's) big oil interests.
Every time Harris or Walz talk about how things should be fair, I imagine another 100 million being spent to re-elect Trump.
Reading you today, Thom, and the comments, I am left thinking that if dark money wins in November, we hoi polloi may have nothing left but resort to something like France’s “National Razor”;of revolutionary times. Sadly, as divided as we are, we will probably just destroy ourselves, and too many of the morbidly rich and their progeny will escape to the safe havens they have established in other parts of the world. Avoiding that is another huge reason we have to have a blue November.
And Putin will smile, as well the rest of all the dictatorships. The maga will steal everything they can, and kill for it! In my humble opinion.
Some one please write something hopeful. I cannot .
“ Not that I loved Caesar less,
but that I loved Rome more .”
Look at the fundamentals. Trump lost 2020 by 7 million votes. This time, Gen Z, who are 25% of the electorate, trend 70% Democratic. Seniors, who voted 51% for Trump in 2020, have passed away at high rates, due to, among other things COVID. So there should be more Harris voters and fewer Trump voters.
Women are 52% of voters, trend Democratic. 34% of the U.S. population are renters, trend heavily Democratic.
Trump is the worst candidate of all time. He's now the oldest in history. The craziest, and every day, he gets more bizarre.
Meanwhile all politics is local. If we win the blue wall and one other state, we win the presidency. Down here in Baghdad By the Sea, a new poll in our county shows Harris ahead by 14 %...." found Harris winning several key voting blocs in Miami-Dade, including 55% of women and 52% of men. Among non-Cuban Hispanic voters, 58% said they plan to support Harris compared to 38% who are backing Trump. Trump still holds the lead among Cuban Americans, who have historically backed Republican candidates; 61% said they will vote for the former president, while 33% plan to support Harris, according to the poll."
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article290877469.html#storylink=cpy
Considering that 84,000 Democrats were removed from the voter rolls here since 2022, and we are in the process of re-registering them, we're hoping we can swing the state. Trump won in 2020 by 3.1 %.
We hope to flip the senate and 2 house seats on the strength of the trend.
Advertising is not actually a science, relies on tendencies. Stats show that Gen Z do not watch mainstream anything.
Doesn't men we should rely on the fundamentals. As Simon sayz, worry less work harder. Register more Democrats to cause a blue tsunami.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Mr. Solomon, what you are talking about is Demography. As the demographic make-up of the voting public changed slowly but inexorably in favor of the Democrats; the republicans realized their policies could not win elections. So they made it a matter of policy to both cheat and go negative on their opponents. People like Rove and others saw this demographic trend over two decades ago. I was teaching Population
and Demography at the time. The trend was already clear.
True to a certain extent. I didn't address race. 90% of Blacks trend Democratic. Whereas most Asian Americans were Republicans, no longer.
I'm in data groups that evaluate voters in detail. Too many variables to detail but some people have a threshold that can be triggered. E.G. in Hispanic community, big difference re religion, re nationality, etc. They can tell, for example which precincts yield the best chances for success in persuasion, maybe entirely on a local issue. In some places, "down ballot" races can lead or hurt the presidential race.
The best example I can give you is in N. Carolina the Republican candidate for governor is Black. You'd think that fact would swing the vote. But that thinks women should lose the right to vote, would execute people involved in abortion, etc. We have to educate that to Black voters predisposed to support Black candidates. Harris is now down 2 points in NC.
As I alluded previously, advertising doesn't work on many people. On some, it has an opposite effect.
Without a doubt, the U.S. government is bought and paid for with oligarch money. What's worse, is that AIPAC is doing all it can to buy up as many democrats as possible in order to secure continued funding for the Zionists in Israel. The American experiment is on its last legs and it doesn't look like it is going to recover back to what it once was. But then, what it was, was a colonial power so maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing if the U.S. could remake itself into a multipolar power somehow and eliminate all of the corruption. I think it all has to fall down first and then remake itself out of the ashes. For those of us who will still be alive to witness this great fall, you better start preparing right now because it won't be a soft landing.
I can't help but think, reading these amounts spent by the oligarchy, that it would be cheaper for them to just pay their taxes.
Overthrowing democracy is a lot cheaper than paying their fair share of taxes, unfortunately. They have so many billions a few million is nothing to them. I wonder why Putin didn't just purchase a lot of land in the Ukraine and they both could have got along hunky dory? And I think that would have been cheaper than this war he is waging. Speaking of Alzheimer's I think Putin has it?