Sunday, January 26th, 2020
Jon Queally, Staff Writer - Common Dreams
Stephan: Physicians are finally getting it, and coming out on behalf of single-payer universal healthcare. I think they are beginning to realize that their own healthy future is tied to changing the American illness profit system.
More than 2,000 physicians announced an open letter to the American public, prescribing single-payer Medicare for All, in a full-page ad in the New York Times that will run in the print edition on Tuesday, January 21, 2020. On Monday, in a separate but related move, the American College of Physicians (ACP), a national organization representing 159,000 internists, officially endorsed single-payer Medicare for All reform. The ACP is the largest medical specialty society and second-largest physician group in the country after the American Medical Association (AMA).
Credit: PNHP
The fight for Medicare for All received a two-handed boost from tens of thousands of doctors on Monday when the American College of Physicians—in a move described as a “seachange for the medical professions”—officially endorsed a single-payer system as among only one of two possible ways to improve the nation’s healthcare woes.
Representing 159,000 doctors of internal medicine nationwide, the ACP is the largest medical specialty society and second-largest physician group in the country overall after the American Medical Association (AMA).
“All over this country, a growing […]
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Sunday, January 26th, 2020
Jeff Cohen, Associate Professor of journalism at Ithaca College and founder of the media watch group FAIR. - Reader Supported News
Stephan: I have an increasing problem with American mainstream media. I don't mean the propaganda disinformation operations like Fox, Infowar, Breitbart, Daily Caller; that's not real journalism. I mean CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, and some of the major papers.
On television cable it has become so formulaic that there are usually only three blocks of coverage and a fourth which quickly glosses everything else. If you want to get real coverage of world news you have to go to BBC, CGTV, or newspapers like the Guardian.
But that is only part of it. Even when a story does get covered, most of the coverage is not real news it is bloviation between people, like competing teams in a game, and many questions never get asked at all. Here is an example of some of the obvious questions that should be getting asked, but rarely are.
Why don’t you refer to our current healthcare system as a “corporate-run system?”
At Democratic presidential debates and elsewhere, network TV journalists have aggressively challenged the notion of “abolishing private health insurance” — without discussing what health insurance companies actually contribute to healthcare beyond bureaucracy and profiteering. At last June’s debate, NBC’s Lester Holt asked candidates to raise their hands if they would “abolish private insurance in favor of a government-run plan.” Over and over, when mainstream journalists refer to Medicare for All — wherein the government would be the provider of health insurance, while doctors and hospitals remain private — they mislabel it “government-run healthcare” or a “government-run system.” Yet they never call our current system “corporate-run healthcare.”
2. Why don’t you provide actual data on the public’s attitudes toward health insurance firms?
A 2016 Harris poll found deep disdain for health insurance companies, with only 16 percent believing that these firms put patients over profits. In a 2018 Forbes article on “The Top 5 Industries Most Hated by Customers,” […]
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Sunday, January 26th, 2020
JOSH GERSTEIN, - Politico
Stephan: There are certain constants about criminal Trump. One of the strongest is that in every instance where money is involved his greed and grifter nature always prevails. Just look at the thousands of lawsuits from upaid contractors, cheated partners, and grifted customers, as well as the multi-million dollar settlements Trump has had to pay. He is the very definition of a thug.
In the middle of the impeachment these "little" stories, which in more ordinary times would be massive scandals, just get lost, so I am going to feature just two of them today to make this point.
The Trump International Hotel.
Credit: Gabriella Demczuk/Getty
President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee and his private business empire were hit with a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that his luxury hotel in Washington illegally received more than $1 million from inauguration-related event space rentals that were grossly overpriced and in some cases not even used.
The suit filed by District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine alleges that city’s laws governing nonprofit organizations were violated when the Trump International Hotel charged the Presidential Inaugural Committee inflated prices to use ballrooms and other spaces during the festivities surrounding Trump’s swearing-in three years ago.
In a conference call announcing the suit, Racine accused the committee, the Trump Organization and the hotel of “blatantly and unlawfully abusing nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family.”
While donations to the inaugural committee were not tax deductible, the organization was a nonprofit and received tax advantages […]
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Sunday, January 26th, 2020
Igor Derysh, Staff Writer - Salon
Stephan: Here is another of those "little" grifter stories that float around criminal Trump, like turds in a river. We, the taxpayers, have pumped millions, probably tens of millions of dollars into Trump's personal pocket through schemes like this.
Remember the military planes that were re-routed to the airport near his Scottish golf course so that the airport, which was essential to the resort would stay open? Or the hundreds of thousands he made from housing the aircraft crews overnight at the resort?
And that's just the beginning of it. There are also the hundreds of millions spent for his vacations, and the vacations of his children. Nowhere have I seen a real calculation of what Trump has cost America in grift, but I am looking. There is simply no precedent for this in our history. It is more like one of the Louises in 18th century France.
Credit: Michele Eve Sandberg/Getty
President Donald Trump’s Doral resort more than doubled its rates before his Thursday visit to the property for a Republican National Committee gathering was announced by the White House, HuffPost reported.
The RNC decided to host its annual winter meeting at the Trump National Doral last year in the days after Trump backed off his plan to host the next G-7 Summit at the resort. Trump was not originally scheduled to attend the gathering, but he began to consider heading there last week, according to the report.
Around the same time, the rates for the least expensive rooms at the property shot up from $254 to $539 for the dates leading up to and during Trump’s visit, according to HuffPost’s price tracking. The new figure is exactly $7 lower than the maximum “per diem” rate, which the federal government requires government employees to follow.
Though Trump is only scheduled to be at the property for several hours, dozens of Secret Service agents and White House “advance team” aides typically arrive at properties […]
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Saturday, January 25th, 2020
Stephan: Criminal Trump is constantly touting America's wonderful economy, and how everyone is doing better, look at the Dow, look at the stock market. I have several Trumpers who regularly post comments, particularly on the Facebook edition of SR, about this, and there is no question the rich are doing better than ever. But, for the vast bulk of Americans such claims and statements are nothing but disinformation and crap. Here is the reality.
There is no question, the data is clear: If you voted for Trump in 2016, and for Republican senators and representatives you voted to degrade the quality of your life and make yourself more financially insecure. That's not a partisan statement, it is a factual one.
Many of us would be in trouble if we had to foot the bill for an unplanned expense.
Bankrate’s January Financial Security Index survey reveals that just four in 10 U.S. adults (41 percent) would cover the cost of a $1,000 car repair or emergency room visit using savings. The findings echo what previous Bankrate studies and others — including the Federal Reserve and the Pew Charitable Trusts — have found about Americans’ lack of rainy-day savings.
The higher your household income, the more likely you would be to use savings to pay for unanticipated costs. That’s true for nearly six in 10 (59 percent) households earning $75,000 or more annually.
Men (45 percent) were more likely than women (38 percent) to say they would draw from savings when faced with the unexpected. And when their backs are against the wall, just 36 percent of younger millennials would turn to emergency funds to pay $1,000 (compared with 41 to 44 percent of older folks who would say the same).
Key findings:
- Bankrate reports indicate that the percentage of U.S. adults […]
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