The Progressive Wing

https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/1022885952799236096

We can’t keep getting more of the same. We just can’t!

polarbear4

Amazon’s Face Recognition Falsely Matched 28 Members of Congress With Mugshots

I was going to have a good laugh, but “The false matches were disproportionately of people of color.”

Amazon wrongly IDed 28 members of Congress, and they’re not happy about it

In the wake of the American Civil Liberties Union’s test where 28 members of Congress were wrongly identified as arrestees via its Rekognition facial recognition service, some of those lawmakers have now raised serious concerns to the tech giant.
For now, Amazon has neither answered their questions, nor Ars’.
“We request an immediate meeting with you to discuss how to address the defects of this technology in order to prevent inaccurate outcomes,” wrote Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), in a letter to CEO Jeff Bezos.
Those two members of the House of Representatives were among the 28 that were falsely identified as being amidst a group of 25,000 mugshots.
The 28 also included Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), who separately wrote to the company on Thursday and asked the company to answer specific questions and requests, with a deadline of August 20.

Works perfectly say the old R keep off the grass types that are looking to buy this for business use

Hey Democrats: Take a Hint from Labour and Ocasio-Cortez and Try Moving Left

On July 18, House Democrats unveiled their new campaign slogan ahead of the 2018 midterm elections: For The People. At first glance, the message may appear similar to “For The Many, Not The Few,” the title of the manifesto put forward in 2017 by the UK’s Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn. And while both slogans place the public as the center of political action, the Democratic Party still has much further to go in comparison to Labour, which embraced a bold, redistributive agenda as a means to grow its power.
The Labour manifesto called for such policies as nationalizing rail and electric utilities, getting rid of tuition for public colleges, banning fracking, investing in clean energy, controlling rent increases and massively taxing the rich and corporations. The Democratic Party establishment, meanwhile, has so far steered clear of adopting such unabashedly left proposals.
Yet the recent primary victories of democratic socialist candidates such as Summer Lee and Sara Innamorato in Pittsburgh and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York against powerful incumbents within the Democratic machine signal that the energy and enthusiasm within the party lies on its left flank. These candidates, along with many other democratic socialists across the country, have run on platforms that are largely in line with Labour’s manifesto.
In response to the victories by candidates such as Ocasio-Cortez, many U.S. pundits and political insiders have either written off the rise of democratic socialism as marginal or warned against the Democratic Party embracing “extremism.”
Such a reaction is familiar. Soon after UK Prime Minister Theresa May called for a surprise general election to take place in June 2017, pundits across the political spectrum repeated a narrative reducing Corbyn to a scruffy, unelectable old-school socialist who would return Labour to the electoral obscurity of the 1980s rather than a viable alternative to the Conservative status quo.
The accidental leaking of the Labour Party’s manifesto during the 2017 general election seemed to give Corbyn’s critics another chance to accuse him of disorganization and incompetence. However, the leak ended up working in Labour’s favor, as the electorate was able to understand Corbyn’s vision of a progressive Labour-led Britain at face value and without spin. The manifesto proved popular: Labour’s poll ratings instantly rose, with 7 in 10 voters welcoming its pledges.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: Bail has criminalized poverty and undermined the tenet of ‘innocent before proven guilty’

n a country in which we pride ourselves on the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” we should not be keeping hundreds of thousands of people locked up before they have actually been convicted of a crime.
And yet in 2016, more than 65 percent of the over 700,000 people in county or city jails on any given day in the United States were “unconvicted” — meaning that more than 400,000 people were in jail who had not been convicted of a crime, often because they lack the money to pay bail. In other words, we have criminalized poverty.
That is not acceptable. Pretrial detention should be not based on how much money a person has, what kind of mood the judge is in on a given day, or even what judge the case happens to come before.

Last night I watched the documentary, “The Queen of Horses”, which was about a muni fraud case. $53M was embezzled from the town of Dixon, IL (yes, the hometown of the St Ronnie) for a time period of 21 years. The town was $21M in the hole at the time of the woman who kept the books. No one caught it.

The woman who was caught paid a bail of $4500 for a $53M white collar crime. At the time she was caught, only 2-3M was discovered.

The film is available on Netflix, Prime, and google play, I believe. The forensic accounting used in the discovery phase actually pretty interesting. Huge failure on the bank, the city, the city council, the accounting firm, and the lack of an independent audit. I’m certain this will be a case study for accounting classes across the country.

How Bernie Sanders Evolved on Criminal Justice Reform

I was very disappointed in The Root this morning when I saw this:

Bernie Sanders explains how to deal with racist economic systems like cash bail, but still doesn't make direct connection to institutional racism: https://t.co/XytuiZTDBm pic.twitter.com/x2JBymluOZ
— The Root (@TheRoot) July 26, 2018

The piece is written by Terrell Jermaine Starr who, of course, has been very critical of Bernie for years.

Bernie Sanders Takes on Unjust Cash Bail System, but Still Doesn’t Make Direct Connection to Institutional Racism

Obviously everyone, even Bernie, always has room for improvement. But what does the article actually accomplish?? Will Bernie read it? I doubt it. So all it achieves is to drive a wedge between Bernie and the black community.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of evidence that the premise of the article is just downright wrong. Even if you only have time to watch the first 30 seconds…

And, of course, even Bernie admits that he’s still learning and evolving on issues involving racism. Wouldn’t it be more effective and productive to encourage Bernie’s evolution, rather than to try to tear him down?

From Shaun King:

“It’s disgusting, Shaun, that our country is basically criminalizing poverty. I’ll be honest with you. I really didn’t know this was happening. I had no idea hundreds of thousands of Americans, particularly African-Americans, were being held in jail, for months or years, even though they’ve never been convicted of a crime, simply because they can’t afford bail,” Sanders told me in a tiny dressing room backstage before the event.
“I’ve learned a lot,” he continued. “I see the racial disparities clearer than ever. I want to help – just tell me how I can best help and we’ll do it.” I was touched. He wasn’t reading from a script. He was admitting to me, as he soon would from the stage, in front of thousands of people, that he hasn’t always gotten this quite right.
Moments later, Sanders met with Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and a brilliant organizer around justice reform in Los Angeles. When she told him that the city was planning on spending $2.5 billion on constructing a new jail, Sanders was instantly appalled. “What a waste. Imagine if that was spent on education and job training,” he quipped.
Cullors then welcomed to the room the most amazing, fierce, experienced group of activists in Los Angeles – all black and Latina women – who immediately communicated to Sanders how essential it was to have him firmly speak out against the construction of the jail and the horrible use of cash bail as a tool of oppression throughout the city. When Sanders asked about the impact of cash bail on families in Los Angeles, organizer Ivette Ale immediately interjected, “Not only are people losing their jobs because they can’t afford the bail for a crime they haven’t even been convicted of, they are often losing their homes, and even their children. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. If a single mom is arrested — she could be completely innocent — but if she can’t afford bail, her kids are going to be home on their own and sometimes become wards of the state.”
Sanders was clearly listening to Cullors and Ale. In his speech just a few moments later, he skillfully integrated their very thoughts on the outrageous cost of the proposed jail and the horrible consequences of cash bail right into his message.
Sanders is primarily known for speaking about how unfair and unequal the nation’s economy is, but his critics have frequently said that he has communicated this message at the expense of race and racism in America. I’d tend to agree with them and have said so publicly. This was not the case at our event in Los Angeles. Backstage and before the audience, Sanders openly identified race and bigotry as essential primary factors in why two very different justice systems exist in this country.

humphrey

It appears as if some fact checking is in order for the Root article.

The very-viral article from @TheRoot – claiming evidence that Russians changed actual votes, and referring to them several times as "Soviets" – has been taken down pending review pic.twitter.com/EM8Yvw6s3D
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 27, 2018

Ouch!

polarbear4

Here’s another one about the formulas and breast feeding, mags.

Trump Has Found a Way to Make Enemies of Breastfeeding Mothers (Although AFAIK, most admins have favored formula, just bc corpses make it and this article discusses some of the history.)

I also have close relatives whose family line seems to have that same milk shortage. I think that if breast feeding were more easily discussed and supported by the government, rather than pressure women to do this on their own by one group, which can lead to the harm to the baby that you described, we’d have specialists in lactation who would be one of the first people a medical team might call if the baby is crying too much. And just helping mothers with babies that do have problems of any kind.

In helping out with babies, I’ve seen moms home alone with the baby + and it can be so overwhelming to even know everything they’re expected to know on their own and then to understand that the crying is not their fault and the baby and/or they need help, sometimes professional. And that accepting help is natural and good, not a sign of weakness. Community is soooo important. I know that I want to build it up more in my own life.

Breast-Feeding or Formula? For Americans, It’s Complicated

Thanks polarbear. I’m the oldest sibling and my mom says she made all of her mistakes on me, poor dear. She was not in a helping environment when she had me and would have greatly benefited by being nearer to my gram at that time. She resented me for years because she said I cried all the time and it made her feel inadequate.

My friend is very skinny, as I mentioned, no excess body fat and could be described as ‘flat’ if you know what I mean. Do people ever use wet nurses anymore? Imo, that should be an honored profession.

This NYT article pretty well lays out a summary of the history of formula.

Wet nursing, which began as early as 2000 B.C., was once a widely accepted option for mothers who could not or did not want to breast-feed, but it faced criticism during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The profession eventually declined with the introduction of the infant feeding bottle in the 19th century.

In 1977, labor, religious and health organizations boycotted Nestlé, one of the biggest producers of infant formula, in response to rising infant mortality rates in developing countries.
Then, in 1979, at a conference sponsored by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, the baby food industry agreed to ban the promotion of infant formulas that discouraged breast-feeding.
A couple of years later, in 1981, the W.H.O. voted 118 to 1 to adopt a nonbinding code restricting the promotion of infant-formula products. The United States, under President Ronald Reagan, was the lone dissenting vote.

Mrs. WI had already made up her mind when we decided to have kids to breastfeed. She was able to do that for all 3. Their were way to many benefits for the infants not to. Nature can do a lot better job by far than anything corporate America can make up with artificial this and additive that. I’m glad that she was able to pump and produce enough milk during that time of our babys life as we realized that some moms couldn’t and had to resort to the other option.

My mom was unable to breastfeed.

Sometimes that happens. Things not always so..simple. But you certainly seemed to have turned out great! 🙂 (thank goodness for you & for us)

Yay for Mrs. WI. {hug} to her. So awesome that she was able to do that.

Child-bearing SO underrated.

Damn right it is ,and in Benny’s case I don’t think their are any other options but the Mom is so important in those early years. Just thought I would throw this out their
Breast feeding Dads
https://youtu.be/aBnW2EO144I

Boy, 6, Has Skin-to-Skin Contact with Newborn Brother After Mom Previously Suffered a Miscarriage

Big bro wanted a brother so badly. I imagine that being exposed to his brother’s immune system didn’t hurt l’il bro, being brothers after all. Baby a preemie in this pic, was born less at less than 2 lbs. But he’s doing just fine now.

The Elite Fixation With Russiagate

No single act of Donald Trump’s presidency has engendered more criticism than his performance at the Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin. For declining to endorse US intelligence claims that the Kremlin meddled in our election and faulting both countries for the poor state of US-Russia relations, Trump was roundly accused of “shameful,” “disgraceful,” and “treasonous” behavior that has sparked a full-blown “national security crisis.”
But does the American public at large share the prevailing elite assessment? Save for a White House vigil led by two longtime Hillary Clinton staffers and a few scattered rallies—and in stark contrast to mass protests over Trump’s misogyny, Muslim ban, and zero-tolerance immigration policy—Americans have not poured into the streets to confront the “crisis.” A poll by The Hill and the HarrisX polling company found 54 percent support for Trump’s now-scuttled plan for a follow-up summit with Putin at the White House. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that Trump’s post-Helsinki approval rating slightly increased to 45 percent. While the uptick does not necessarily signal an embrace of Trump’s behavior, it is not difficult to see why his numbers did not plummet. In a recent Gallup poll on problems facing the country, the “Situation with Russia” was such a marginal concern that it did not even register. While an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that 64 percent believe Trump has not been tough enough on Russia, it also saw a near-even split on whether Putin is a foe or an ally, and 59 percent support for better relations.
The gap between elite and public priorities highlights an endemic problem that long predates Trump. Since his election, however, the elite fixation on alleged Russian meddling and the president’s suspected collusion has exacerbated that divide.
..
Amid fervent speculation that Trump may be a Kremlin asset, Israel’s brazen (and actually documented) foreign meddling barely registers, joining an innumerable number of critical issues that the Russiagate frenzy has sidelined. It has gotten so extreme that even Trump’s new threats of war on Iran, coupled with an escalating administration campaign to destabilize its government, has been ignored or even downplayed as an effort to distract us from his Russia woes. But in the absence of publicly available evidence, and an outburst of both panic and chauvinist warmongering, it is arguably we who are distracting ourselves. Under one of the most dangerous administrations in US history, that willful and heedless diversion may be the far most serious national-security crisis we face

While these allegations are somewhat serious, it’s deflecting on what else is going on in Congress. Plus, the elite still can’t believe that their candidate lost. They’ve not gotten over it.

Should Dems play up Russia in midterms?

Democratic strategists say party candidates running in the midterm elections should up the ante and highlight President Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the hope of appealing to independents.
Strategists, pointing to recent polls, say voters are increasingly frustrated with Trump’s handling of Putin, particularly at last week’s Helsinki summit, as well as Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
“This is a huge issue,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster. “There are a number of Republican members of Congress squirming over this issue because they don’t know how to handle it.”
Lake said emphasizing the Russia debacle accomplishes three things: It persuades older voters who lived through the Cold War with the former Soviet Union; energizes Democrats; and depresses enthusiasm among Republicans.
..
But former Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who heads up the Fight Back California superPAC aimed at winning seven competitive districts in the Golden State, said her goal is to highlight domestic issues that matter more to voters.
“Local local local,” she said when asked about the focus of the races. “When you ask voters what the most important issue in their area in the Orange County Congressional districts they say homelessness, nothing about Russia or foreign policy.”
Democratic strategist Eric Jotkoff agreed.
“The most important thing I tell every candidate I speak with is: ‘Let the Russia probe play out in D.C. and on cable news. Don’t try to be a pundit,’” Jotkoff said. “‘Instead, focus on the issues important in your community. Address the issues that Republicans in Washington have tried to tackle as they spend all their time and energy protecting Donald Trump. Talk about health care, education, economy and environment. And to the extent that the Russia probe comes up, speak about it in a way that focuses on restoring accountability to Washington and highlights what Republicans haven’t gotten done as they use their power to defend Trump rather than help Americans.’”

LoneStarMike

Democratic strategists say party candidates running in the midterm elections should up the ante and highlight President Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the hope of appealing to independents.

That’s what the Democrats always do when they don’t have any policies to offer the American people.

View post on imgur.com

Don midwest

you forgot about their main line

VOTE. VOTE.

without making a huge deal about election integrity

in other words, VOTE and keep me looking like I am legitimate, but don’t expect me to attend to the destruction of democracy

as long as the dem party is not totally committed to know solutions to election integrity, they continue to be a sham

LoneStarMike

VOTE. VOTE.
without making a huge deal about election integrity

View post on imgur.com

polarbear4

iirc, it was lee camp who compared voting to a toddler “driving” a fire engine. AND i forget if it was camp or englehardt that we still MUST vote bc we need overwhelming numbers to even have the possibility of winning. I agree. That’s why I worked so hard for Obama. And of course, Bernie. And will work harder if we get a true progressive anywhere that I can help elect.

If anyone cares to recd this diary at TOP, do drop by: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/27/1784077/-Tad-Devine-CT-and-Suckers-on-Daily-Kos

I might add I tipped the diarist because it was a gutsy move as a Clinton supporter to write the diary. I did not rec’d it.

I think that all Dems should use Henry Kissinger to justify talking about other important issues, as opposed to this current litmus test vis-à-vis Russia, and explain to voters in a direct, non-condescending, way why just hating on Russia all time is unproductive.

Per the article I posted yesterday, Kissinger is now pushing Trump to ally with Russia to contain China (who seems to be seen nowadays as a rising threat to the U.S. global interests).

I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with Kissinger, myself.

But I think that talking to voters about how our relationship with Russia is far more of a complicated matter than many think might help many people gain a wider perspective that would hopefully include room to discuss other issues!

All politics is local and if an Russian influence question comes up? The most simple response for me is that their are a lot of hackers out their that are not friendly to the US. We need to do a better job with cyber security at the local,state and national level and protect our voter machines not only from hacking but have a verifiable paper trail for them.

The missing photo from the 2hr meeting

The United States Was Failing Long Before Donald Trump

The American experiment in democracy may be coming to an unseemly end.

Don midwest

yes

TomDispatch.com

part of The Nation project (magazine)

2 to 3 posts per week. Mostly on foreign policy. Many on war and international relations.

We’ve had several warnings since Ike warned us of the MIC, So will what ultimately happen? Allowing the corporate controlled govt continue and let it eat itself from within until collapse. Rule 1 of empires they all collapse and are replaced with something else. The wild card is climate change if we don’t address that, the something else wont be mankind.

Former top Sanders adviser assisting in Manafort prosecution: report

Tad Devine, a consultant who served as the chief strategist for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential bid, will assist federal prosecutors in the case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Devine previously worked with Manafort on behalf of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. A partner in his current consulting firm told BuzzFeed News in a statement that Devine had been asked to assist in Manafort’s prosecution.
“The Special Counsel has asked Tad Devine to assist in the prosecution of their case against Paul Manafort regarding his firm’s work on media consulting on past political campaigns in Ukraine,” reads the statement provided by Julian Mulvey, a partner at Devine Mulvey Longabaugh.
“When the Special Counsel sought assistance from us in its ongoing investigation, we readily provided it,” it adds.
..
The statement provided to BuzzFeed by Devine’s firm says that it had been “assured by the special counsel’s office that we have no legal exposure and did not act unlawfully.”

Oh noes! Devine convinced Bernie to not concede the primaries and a Bernie staffer was caught with the data breach in Dec 2015! That means Bernie worked with the Russians to make the baroness lose! (this is what the kiddie pool at TOP is discussing this morning–I am not linking to that piece of fake news/commentary/lack of analysis garbage diary).

polarbear4

unfrackingbelievable.

Diarist got bojo’d. Thank goodness. I think it was a zombie–possibly Sally allbright.

polarbear4

lol.

Sadly some at the TOP will believe it as gospel☹

TheLeftistheCenter

Its so hard to keep it all straight because I thought she was behind the Uranium One deal and so was cool with Putin and now he wanted her to lose?

Truth is I dont think Putin cared who won, but I wouldnt put meddling in way to stir discord beneath him either.

I think her hawkish statements on wanting a no-fly zone over Syria edged Putin’s preference to Trump. Not that I think that made much of a difference in the election (other than with people like me who didn’t appreciate her apparent willingness to bring on war with Russia..).

Connecticut Is a Mess. Can Ned Lamont Clean It Up?

Twelve years after his epic battle with Joe Lieberman, he’s running for governor.

Obama at the Hamilton Project, 2006: “This is not a bloodless process.”

I sent Ned a donation 12 years ago as I despised Lieberman for wrecking the Dem Party.

Don midwest

one of the big disasters of Obama was to campaign for Joe Lieberman after he lost the primary to Lamont.

obama had sold out long before the pulled this crap.

I may have posted this before, but this is a rhetorical analysis of Obama’s speech to the founding meeting of The Hamilton Project and thanks bob rubin for teaching him about economics. Will we ever find out how this manchurian candidate came to be selected?

the author is one of the 2 main bloggers at Naked Capitalism. Note the use of color coded ways to highlight the rhetoric

rhetoric was zapped by Plato, One of the reasons was that rhetoric could be used in the agora (assembly) to sway people. The truth was in mathematics, not in rhetoric. After Plato, in Aristotle’s academy, half the day was on rhetoric.

not bloodless

fuck you

the future is on the way

globalization and finance are the future

so, not only fuck you, but bloodless killing you

which is what we have seen.

***

As is my way, Bruno Latour is being read by people in rhetoric. There is a book Doing Rhetoric with Bruno Latour which I don’t own because it is too expensive, so far.

***
In any case, the rhetorical analysis of Obama is insightful for understanding how politics speech works, or speech in general.

***
crap. cannot stop without more from Latour. He views political speech as a circular, not linear, not a pure rational process. Politicians are given the right to lie because they have to bring together various groups. How to learn to move beyond the rationality of the Enlightenment to open up space for more diverse views like learning from indigenous people and their ways.

That is only a snapshot of his work. Along with the political theorist Hannah Arendt, these are the two who present politicians in what they really do and how important they are.

polarbear4

Obama was a master. Even this fairly jaded old timer spent so much energy and money on the hopes that he would be a new FDR. Used to play Les Miserables songs on YouTube and feel the feeling! Prolly why I can’t stand him now.

orlbucfan

Obama was a master orator. Still is. After that, he’s pretty transparent. Definitely a Raygun fan and a YUPPIE. I always had questions and doubts about him from the time he ran in 2008. Wish I had been wrong, believe me.

I had the same hopes but that was extinguished quickly. He could have been so much more.

https://ctmirror.org/2018/07/25/bond-commission-oks-10m-tolls-study/

Don’t even get me started!!! If Lamont loses, it’ll be mainly because of Malloy!!!!!

I hear Malloy is taking another look at highway tolls. He just got a plan to spend more money to ‘study’ the issue, at a cost of $10 million dollars!!!!

This is electoral suicide, and I’d bet that you couldn’t find ONE voter who thinks tolls, or wasting $10 Million dollars, is a good idea, but what does Malloy care?? Is he getting paid under the table? I’ll certainly be watching for where Malloy lands after he FINALLY leaves. He’s been a nightmare for the state of CT.

This is from one of those who voted No on authorizing the bond to fund this ‘study’:

“That’s what we have heard time and time again from the people of Connecticut: They don’t see a need or a desire to have a $10 million study,” Davis said.

The Republican Davis is right!!

“People in Connecticut don’t want tolls,” Fasano said

That Republican is right too!

Just last May the CT General Assembly voted down a similar proposal to ‘study’ the tolls. So for Malloy to just go ahead and do it anyway?? right before midterms??? Why? 🙁

Lembo was the only constitutional officer on the bond commission seeking re-election. And while the comptroller did not raise the campaign as an issue, other Democrats questioned privately whether Malloy had hurt his own party by putting an unpopular issue before the public in an election year.

At least Lamont had the spine and good sense to issue a statement:

Democratic gubernatorial contender Ned Lamont issued a statement before the bond commission meeting even had ended, calling the study “a wasteful way to reinvent the wheel.” Lamont noted the state had commissioned a study in 2009, though Redeker said that analysis was more limited in scope than the latest one would be.
“Given our financial challenges, we need to instead be investing in solutions, not studies,” Lamont said. “We already know our roads are congested, our infrastructure improvements are underfunded, and Connecticut residents have paid the bill for far too long.”
Lamont said he would “utilize existing data to determine how much revenue Connecticut can generate from tolling the out-of-state trucks that are damaging our roads at taxpayer expense.”

The comments under the article are brutal.

Whom Is the DSA Reaching? The Teens.

Since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprise primary victory late last month, there has been a renewed interest in the Democratic Socialists of America. Outlets have run pieces exploring the group and its positions, and thousands have signed up to join its ranks. Across the country, DSA-endorsed candidates like Julia Salazar are challenging the status quo of party-backed incumbency. Even Cynthia Nixon has embraced the socialist label.
This has also been a banner year for high-school organizing, from the students in Parkland, Florida, taking on the NRA to the high schoolers organizing against Chicago’s $95 million police academy. High-school students’ getting involved in organizing and activism is nothing new, but some students are taking their resistance even further—they’re calling themselves socialists. Like Ocasio-Cortez, Salazar and thousands of people across the country who have joined DSA, these students are committing themselves to a politics that imagines a world where everyone can live comfortably with access to free education and health care, where no one lives in fear of immigration agents or police, and where poverty has been eradicated.
Decades ago, a generation of students learned to fear the specter of communism as public schools bore a purge of teachers at the Cold War’s height. Now, in high schools across the country, teens are not only joining the Democratic Socialists of America, they’re starting up chapters in their schools.

Democrats Shouldn’t Defend Bad Policies Just to Resist Trump

When Trump strikes a populist tone, expose him as a fraud—don’t back the corporate stance.

polarbear4

If only. They believe in the corpse stance.

polarbear4

American Society Would Collapse If It Weren’t for These 8 Myths

Lee Camp. Too chock full to even try to pull out of AND fairly short. Go Lee. 😉 So glad to see him in CD.

An Unhappy Birthday for Medicare and Medicaid

Nice link PB sad but true.

polarbear4

The importance of Medicare as a source of women’s health coverage can’t be over-emphasized.
Older and disabled women make up more than half the total beneficiaries, and two-thirds of those 85 and over. This budget from hell takes a giant step toward privatizing the program by allowing insurance companies into the Medicare marketplace, which means benefits could be caught in a race to the bottom and become too paltry to cover all but the barest of medical needs.
Medicaid is the joint federal-state program that provides low-income people with health care. The proposed Republican budget repeals the Medicaid expansion that came with Obamacare, which will cause 14 to 17 million people to lose coverage.
The Medicaid remnants that survive would be turned into block grants, allowing states to pick and choose who gets covered and what kind of benefits they get — no doubt with little or no federal oversight. That approach makes it easier to cut the program without saying how many people would be dropped, or how much benefits would be lowered.
Since poor women under retirement age and their children are the biggest group of beneficiaries, it stands to reason they’d also be the biggest losers.
But there’s more. Because women have more chronic health conditions like arthritis, hypertension, and osteoporosis, they’re more likely to need institutional care. Since Medicare generally doesn’t cover nursing home care, Medicaid provides such care for those with disabilities and/or very low incomes — and 60 percent of those folks are women.

polarbear4

A World Designed by Playground Bullies

And Donald Trump, malfunctioning cog or not, has contributed to the Deep State’s invisibility simply by accusing it of being the cause of his troubles, thus making it possible for the president’s opponents — almost two-thirds of the country — to dismiss the whole thing as a conspiracy theory and maintain the feel-good assumption that the United States is still a darn-good democracy.
The reality, however, as Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens point out in their book Democracy in America? (as quoted by Paul Street), is that government policy “reflects the wishes of those with money, not the wishes of the millions of ordinary citizens who turn out every two years to choose among the preapproved, money-vetted candidates for federal office.”
Back to the border, then. Back to Yemen and all our other ongoing wars. Back to the 800-plus U.S. military bases located around the world. Back to our militarized police departments. Back to every political and bureaucratic cruelty “our team” commits in defiance of the likely wishes of a true democratic majority.
One consequence of this game is to keep humanity on the surface of what’s possible. We’re living, I fear, in a world designed by playground bullies, with institutions focused primarily on self-perpetuation and indifferent to the harm they create. Rules matter. Values don’t.
Life is sacred? Not at the border. Not across the ocean and “over there.” And if life is only sacred for some, it is, in fact, sacred for no one.

polarbear4

139 House Democrats Join GOP to Approve $717 Billion in Military Spending

“How are they going to pay for this? Oh wait, that question only gets asked when it comes to social programs that benefit the working class.”