Wednesday, December 30, 2020. Iraq, RISING, Hilaria Baldwin, etc -- we cover a great deal this snapshot.
A
lot to cover today. First, for weeks we've been noting videos on Jimmy
Dore's Force The Vote to force the vote on Medicare For All. Below the
videos, there is the description which usually includes the link to the
petition. We have not noted the petition in the snapshots so let's do
that -- click here to sign the petition to Force The Vote for Medicare For All.
Now
we're going to go personal business. As disclosed before, I know Alec
Baldwin (and like him, he's a smart person and a loyal person). His
wife is receiving some bad publicity. He defended her and now he is
receiving bad publicity. So I am going to weigh in. I went back and
forth on it. This site is not about promoting my friends. But this
'news' 'story' deserves a comment or two. And had RISING not decided to
trash Hilaria, I probably wouldn't be commenting.
Hilaria
Baldwin, for whatever reason, created an identity for herself. She is
not a Latina. Why did she do it? Krystal Ball insists it was to profit
and to make money.
I don't think so. I think Hilaria wanted to be Latina. I think that was a driving want in her life.
Why
did Michael Jackson want to have plastic surgery? Because Joe Jackson
abused him and destroyed him and, in Michael's mind at least (I believe
Michael), didn't love him. So Michael could not take looking in the
mirror and seeing anything of the person who was so horrible to him.
The actress Merle Oberon? Why did she pass for Anglo White? Because
she wouldn't have had the career she had otherwise.
Why did Hilaria do what she did? I have no idea but it wasn't a prank or a lark.
Krystal
and her guest just ripped into Hilaria and it wasn't deserved. Hilaria
didn't steal any position or post by presenting herself as Latina. She
created a figure and she lived that life. Why? That goes to her
reasons which we might get at some point -- especially if we'd stop with
the scorn and the ridicule. She had a reason for what she did and
money and power were not the reasons.
Alec defended
his wife. For that he's being mocked and attacked. For that he's being
mocked and attacked? I'm going to guess by a lot of pathetic people
who have never known love and probably never will. If you've been in
love even once, you should be able (a) to understand what Alec did and
(b) to be proud of him for defending someone he loves.
Now
we've talked about Hilaria here and I know some e-mails will come in
and insist, "This is not a topic to cover!" You know what, you're
probably right. But I'm defending someone in the midst of a dogpile --
and I've always done that. Equally true, we've eaten our vegetables.
All week long, we've covered serious issues.
RISING?
When do they ever cover the ongoing Iraq War? When do they ever even
use it to note, for example, that the same Nancy Pelosi that balks over
the price tag of Medicare For All never balks at the much, much larger
price tag for the Iraq War?
And let's be really
clear. I consider Alec a friend and everyone who knows me knows that. I
had no idea until RISING what had taken place because people knew not
bring the story to me. I don't like gossip about my friends. So
yesterday, I'm trying to find political things to post and going through
everything e-mailed as well as anything I can find. And that's when I
stumbled across the segment on Hilaria. I don't like gossip about my
friends. All RISING did was gossip. And what's even worse than that,
they did it poorly.
Rachel whatever was the co-host with Krystal and they went to town on Hilaria.
They
brought in some supposed feud with Amy Schumer -- but never explained
what that had to do with anything other than getting Amy's name in a
sentence -- apparently to star power up their gossip item. They showed a
clip of Hilaria asking the (English) name for a cucumber. Strangely,
they didn't credit the person who made that a major issue on Twitter . .
. last week. I found all sorts of things after their 'report.' They
scavenged the work of others while mocking Hilaria.
Hilaria
is a self-made businesswoman. She was given no credit for that. It
reminded me, honestly, of the attacks and glee of the attacks that the
press offered on Martha Stewart in the early '00s. Those attacks mocked
Martha and mocked what she did. It wasn't 'manly' enough to focus on
food and home and they made that very clear as they trivialized Martha.
Never once did they point out the skills and the knowledge Martha
possessed that allowed her to succeed.
Krystal wanted you to know that Hilaria was body shaming pregnant women.
What
a dumb idiot Krystal was in that moment. And she's probably not going
to get listed on a praise feature at THIRD next week as a result. We
discussed that feature and started it and she was going to be noted as
an important voice. I don't think so now. We'll note others, but not
her.
Hilaria posing with her child or without her child
in some stage of 'undress' (I have no idea, I'm not on Instagram and I
never will be -- I have a thing called a life, maybe Krystal could try
getting one) is not about body shaming pregnant women.
Let's pretend for a moment that it was about body shaming to show just how tiny Krystal's mind is.
If
Hilaria showing off her body -- if that's what she was doing -- is body
shaming, Krystal, you stupid idiot, then it's body shaming large women
who are large without having just been pregnant. Do you get it? You
threw a life raft to women who'd just had a baby while letting all other
large women sink and drown. That's how stupid you are. You're a
f**king idiot.
Why? Watching the segment, it was clear why: Jealous.
Jealousy, thy name is Krystal Ball.
Hilaria makes money from yoga -- instructor, studios, DVDs, etc. Her body is very much her work.
Years
ago, when Krystal was still wetting her diapers, there was one attempt
after another to regularly destroy Jane Fonda. At one point, they came
from the UK. A rumor to destroy her was that she'd had a heart attack.
Too much working out!!!!! What did Jane do to refute that rumor? She
invited the press in the next morning to watch as she did The Workout.
During those years -- when Jane did very little acting (THE DOLLMAKER,
AGNES OF GOD and THE MORNING AFTER -- plus playing a security guard on
one episode of the TV show she was producing based on her hit film 9 TO
5), Jane's business was fitness. She had her workout studios, she had
best selling books, she had best selling recordings (vinyl, cassette
and, yes, videos including the first one that revolutionized the video
industry). Her body was her work.
So if Hilaria is showing her body, she's showing what yoga can do. Her body is the advertisement for her work.
This
isn't, for example, Alyssa Milano and her hint of nipple posing.
Unless we're falling back to TEEN STEAM, Alyssa has nothing to do with
working out. But damned if that woman doesn't cheesecake her own ass
into oblivion. Now that I object to. A woman trying to ride feminism
-- Alyssa is not feminist and the set of CHARMED proved it -- in a
desperate attempt to revive a dead career while also posting cheesecake
photos? At 48, she long should have stopped posting her braless picks
-- and with the obvious difference in boob size (did she get lazy and
nurse one of her kids on just one boob, is that why they're so off now?)
you'd think she'd stop promoting her body.
Because
an actor is supposed to be about acting and, especially after a certain
age, you really shouldn't be doing cheesecake. By a certain age, your
talent should speak for itself. So that when you appear on a cover, for
example, someone says, "Wow. Not only is _____ a great dramatic
actress, she looks really good as well." Cheesecake might get you in
the door but if it's your selling card, you're probably not really an
actress.
Now I've never heard Krystal object to Alyssa
or anyone doing cheesecake. We do and we have. I'm very glad that a
woman in a man's circle jerk now has learned to put on a bra from time
to time and to also stop standing in front of the camera heaving her
tits as though she's Suzanne Somers in the opening credits and Mrs.
Roper just 'watered' Chrissy's back while watering the plants so Chrissy
turns over in shock and does a deep sigh so her breasts go up and down
(not a slap at Suzanne, she's a sweet lady and THREE'S COMPANY was
decades ago and when she was starting out -- and it was meant to be
funny).
But a yoga instructor she's going to shame?
Denise Austin, Joanie Greggains, Jane Fonda and many other women in the
fitness business grasped -- as Joe Weider and many other men did as well
-- that their own bodies were their best advertisement for fitness.
Never
having spoken to Hilaria once, not knowing one person who knows
Hilaria, not knowing anything, Krystal and Rachel did a gossip segment
and it was a segment where everything turned on conjecture and every bit
of conjecture could only be the worst possible reason. She lied for
this reason, she posed for a picture for this reason, she's body shaming
--
The hate and the scorn in that piece?
I'm sorry, wasn't it just last week -- yes, it was -- that I was calling Krystal out
because yet again she'd brought on guest that no one should bring on.
This was a 'writer' and a 'reporter' but, golly gee, this is the man THE
DAILY BEAST fired for repeat plagiarism. And, after he was fired,
turned out he was doing the same at his outlet right before that and in
his books. He was stealing constantly. And he lied each new time he
got caught.
Now you're going to go after a
fitness guru? You're going to attack her because she's not Latina like
she says and because she uses her body as a billboard for what yoga can
do?
But you're going to promote -- without apology and without remorse -- Gerald Posner?
You really need to take a look in the mirror, Krystal, and you did come off petty and jealous.
Again,
please show me the segment that RISING did in the twelve months-plus
about the ongoing Iraqi protests. Please show me where they spoke to
anyone about how the government forces were attacking the protesters.
They don't do the vegetables, they just do candy.
And
I'm getting really damn tired of their Whiteness. This goes to Jimmy
Dore too. It's past time that you invite on Margaret Kimberley and
Glenn Ford. Margaret especially has an audience that you all are not
reaching. Jimmy, it is a huge mistake to build a pro-Medicare For All
argument around White voices only. It's an issue that effects all
communities. And bringing on Margaret or Glenn (BLACK AGENDA REPORT
is their outlet if anyone's unfamiliar) would make the discussion
taking place as broad-based as the issue truly is. Brihana Joy Gray and
Nina Turner sprinkled into the discussion is not enough (a) because
they're not on that often and (b) they owe their fame to White outlets.
We were talking about Luther Vandross (Betty and I) in "Roundtable"
and the White music fans to this day don't seem to get just how
important and popular Luther was. That's because he really didn't
crossover. He was built by soul radio stations and the listeners saw
him as "their" Luther because of his lack of crossover (two top ten hits
on pop radio is not a crossover). By the same token, a Margaret or a
Glenn who has come up outside the White circle jerk and against the odds
is someone who rose on the strength of their talents and someone who
comes with an audience that you are not reaching. It's amazing that the
whole circle jerk -- and this includes Katie Halper on her own and with
USEFUL IDIOTS -- can't find Margaret or Glenn on their contact list and
invite them to be guests. Glenn and Margaret have a lot of important
information and analysis to share, reason enough for them to be guests.
But you're also opening yourself up to more viewers who aren't watching
right now. It's smart for discussion, it's smart for the issue and
it's smart in terms of building your audience. So what's the problem,
what's the barrier? Why aren't Glenn and Margaret invited on?
Betty's
daughter just walked in to show me something. This is so typical of
what I'm talking about right now. Betty's daughter found an RS feed of
Betty's site with comments. Betty's being attacked by several in the
comments. Why? For calling out the race hustlers -- the White men who
use racism and pretend they're not racists (Tim Wise, Paul Street, etc)
-- and the result? Betty, a Black blogger, is being trashed by White
commentators for calling out Wise and Street and others. That's the
circle jerk, boys and girls, it never died. Barack made them shut up
because they wanted him elected in 2008, but the racism of the left
never went away. And if you're not aware of that racism and if you're
not aware of how it impacts African-Americans on the left and how they
use social media, then you just might be someone who doesn't grasp that
failure to invite Margaret Kimberley and Glenn Ford to the party means
some may interpret it as Whites only party.
There has
been far too many attacks on bloggers of color over the years for
people to still not grasp how some are rightly wary when approaching a
new voice or program.
Hilaria created a character
that she wanted to be. Why she wanted to be that way is something she
should share. I don't see malice or profit in the equation. I'm sorry
she's been embarrassed. I'm sorry that Alec defending his wife is seen
as something to mock.
I'm especially sorry that day
after day we cover the Iraq War and we do it largely by ourselves in
this country. Joel Wing covers it. Margaret Griffis covers it. Did I
forget anyone? Probably not because that's how short the list is.
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos (INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE) notes:
What does
it look like when you “liberate” a country
that hasn’t asked for it, when you unleash a
violent chain of events creating the
conditions for an even worse tyranny than
before?
Those who witnessed Iraq in the wake of
the American invasion in 2003, the failures
of reconstruction, and the rise and fall of
ISIS, say one need look no further than that
country today to get your answer.
The Washington Post
last week reported that there are still
a million internally displaced Iraqis who
fled the 2014 takeover of ISIS and the
ensuing war to overthrow it — with many
living in soon-to-be-shuttered
government-run camps. Meanwhile, COVID has
sent an already fragile economy
spiraling toward collapse, with salaries
in the major cities left unpaid,
reconstruction projects stalled or
completely aborted. A new central government
is still trying to find its legs, more than
a year after
deadly street protests washed over the
country. According to experts who spoke with
RS, direct attention from the Western powers
that sent this country on its present course
is scattershot, with aid easily corrupted by
a
burgeoning kleptocracy across the
provincial governments and Baghdad.
“The trauma on Iraq has been despicable,”
said Abbas Kadhim, who spent his own youth
in an Iraqi IDP camp in the 1990s before
coming to the United States, where he
observed the 2003 war and its aftermath from
a distance. Now he is the director of the
Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic Council
in Washington, trying to rebuild broad
diplomatic and political bridges with
Baghdad.
“This is really the part we have to
reckon with when we talk about what happened
in Iraq and what it will take to build back.
There are things going on in that country
that will take decades to undo,” he said in
an interview with RS.
That's the
opening. It's an important piece and Peter Van Buren makes some
important comments in the article. The war is not over, just US media
interest in it. Tyler Olson and Audrey Conklin (FOX NEWS) report:
Georgia Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock spoke at events organized by a religious group that called on Christians to repent for military action in Iraq between at least 2007 and 2009.
Warnock, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, was part of a group called the "Christian Peace Witness for
Iraq," seeking to "foster a serious nationwide discussion on following
Jesus in matters of conscience and duty, violence and nonviolence, war
and peace" through its "Conscience in War" project.
Warnock spoke at a March 2007 Christian Peace Witness event at
the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., according to multiple
reports. One video from Fox 5 D.C. showed Warnock (time stamp: 2:05)
speaking at the altar of the cathedral during the event.
FOX
thinks they're shaming Ralphael with that report. I don't see how. He
seems a lot more serious to me because of the report. He's a person of
a faith and he's applying his faith. Isn't that what happens every
Sunday across the country in houses of worship. How is this
inconsistent? It's not. But I guess, to FOX NEWS, the war is trivial
and something to be mocked?
In other news, DEUTSCHE WELLE is concerned about possible violence in Iraq on January 3rd.
That is something the US media should be covering but they can't. The
only thing they cover is Donald Trump's pardons and pretend that's
coverage of Iraq. Three Iraqi community members in Iraq are wondering
if anyone in the US reads Arabic media? No, they apparently do not.
They apparently do not grasp that the pardons are not a major story in
Iraq. They were a 24 hour news cycle and Iraqis have much more to deal
with than something from 13 years ago. Americans don't grasp that in
part because of a trashy media (Hey, Amy Goodman, looking at you --
don't you wish you could still get away with publishing in HUSTLER each
month, I'm sure trash like you does) and because of the self-importance
that we Americans always embrace.
Now REUTERS is
reporting that someone at the UN says the pardons are a violation of
international law. So what? International law doesn't trump a damn
thing in the US. If that's news to you, you are deeply uninformed. The
pardons have been issued. It's over. People need to grasp that. "But
it's fun to beat up Donald Trump, right? And we get to pretend that we
care." They don't care a damn thing about the Iraqi people.
Jared Keller (INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE) notes:
Unfortunately, the average American
appears to have a relatively high tolerance
for war crimes abroad. According to a 2016
Red Cross report,
Americans “are substantially more
comfortable with war crimes than are
populations of other western countries like
the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, and
even Russia,” as The Week put
it at the time. “When asked whether ‘a
captured enemy combatant [can] be tortured
to obtain important military information,’
just 30 percent of Americans said ‘no,’ the
lowest of any country surveyed except Israel
and Nigeria.” Indeed, one 2018
poll suggested that a significant
portion of Americans believed U.S. service
members shouldn’t be prosecuted for overseas
war crimes simply because “war is a
stressful situation and allowances should be
made.”
That isn’t to say American’s aren’t
entirely immune to the perils of war crimes;
indeed, they care more about U.S. war crimes
abroad than they did during the Vietnam War,
according to research. In a December 2019
poll of more than 1,000 Americans,
researchers asked Americans if they approved
or disapproved of Trump’s decision to pardon
Lorance despite his 2012 conviction for
killing civilians in Afghanistan. Forty-one
percent approved of the pardon and 59
percent did not, the researchers found. “In
1971, Lt. William L. Calley Jr. was
court-martialed and convicted of murdering
22 civilians in the 1968 My Lai Massacre,”
the researchers
noted. “He was sentenced to life in
prison. A 1971 Gallup/Newsweek poll found
that 11 percent of Americans approved of the
verdict.”
Their research, published in the
Washington Post, reveals that war crimes,
like most other issues surrounding the
military, break down along partisan lines
when it comes to their impact on civilian
populations: just 12 percent of Democrats
and 45 percent of Independents approved of
Trump’s Lorance pardon, while 79 percent of
Republicans fully approved. But what’s more
telling is the written commentary from
respondents, which indicates that “many
Americans appear to believe that if troops
are fighting a just war, they should be
excused from responsibility for violent
acts, even war crimes,” as the researchers
wrote in the Washington Post.
“Our survey finds that respondents who
agree that the ‘United States was morally
justified in going to war against
Afghanistan when the war began in 2001’ are
significantly more likely than those who
disagree to support Trump’s pardons, by 52
to 22 percent,” the researchers
wrote. “As one pardon supporter
explained, the ‘Lieutenant was fighting for
our freedom.’ Another simply wrote, ‘soldier
is protecting our country.’ Those who said
the war was morally justified were 14
percent more likely to support the pardons,
even when controlling for party
identification as well as age, race, gender
and education.”
So do war crimes matter to the average
American? In the short term, it appears that
war crimes and their related pardons are
simply new battlegrounds in the
ever-expansive culture war between left and
right, liberals and conservatives, that
seems to have enveloped modern politics
rather than becoming matters of human
dignity in their own right. And that’s a
damn shame.
For the record, Keller's opposed to the pardons.
If
you're late to the party, I'm not opposed to any presidential pardon.
Henry Kissinger's a War Criminal but if he got a pardon, I wouldn't be
opposed. It's a presidential power and it's one that I think should be
used more. I would advocate for Leonard Peltier, among others. I don't
stomp and scream over a pardon because I don't want to be a hypocrite.
A pardon is an act of a president granted by the Constitution. Though
it provides legal protection, it does not wipe away the historical
record.
In terms of Blackwater, they served more time,
the four, than did any of other Americans who shot Iraqi people
(civilians). All of the other incidents are forgotten by Americans but
not by the Iraqi people. This wasn't uncommon. An Iraqi community
member pointed out that in 2004, the same crowd today was presenting
Blackwater as heroes when some of their members were killed and this was
used to justify an assault on Falluja. She's right.
When
Erik Prince, head of Blackwater, and the various people -- Republicans
and Democrats -- responsible for the war start facing criminal charges,
talk to me about justice. Until then, four people served a little bit
of time -- much more than should have considering the deal the US State
Dept made in the immediate wake of the assault. No one wants to discuss
that either, not in the US. We're going to pretend that the crime took
place, an immediate outcry universally followed (PBS mocked the dead
and injured, that's reality) and then a quick trial put them away.
That's not what happened.
The pardons have taken
place. They cannot be overturned. "Give it up, Jake, it's Chinatown,"
as they say at the end of the film.
Blackwater
becomes the story because (a) it lets a certain crowd trash Donald Trump
and pretend that makes them political and informed, (b) it was a story
in the news for years so they know something about it and can pretend to
be informed, (c) it's a way to call out US War Crimes without actually
calling out US War Criminals in the elected official realm and in the US
military, (d) it gives their pathetic lives some meaning.
"What
about the Iraqi people!" Learn to read Arabic. I don't know what to
tell you other than Iraqi social media is full of stories of murders by
Americans and pointing out that their family members are being swept
aside yet again while this one incident is covered and recovered and
covered again.
On the pathetic whose lives will apparently end on January 20th, Glenn Greenwald (IHC) notes:
Asserting
that Donald Trump is a fascist-like
dictator threatening the previously sturdy
foundations of U.S. democracy has been a virtual
requirement over the last four years to obtain
entrance to cable news Green Rooms, sinecures as
mainstream newspaper columnists, and popularity
in faculty lounges. Yet it has proven to be a
preposterous farce.
In 2020 alone, Trump had two perfectly
crafted opportunities to seize authoritarian
power — a global health pandemic and sprawling
protests and sustained riots throughout American
cities — and yet did virtually nothing to
exploit those opportunities. Actual would-be
despots such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán quickly
seized on the virus to
declare martial law, while
even prior U.S. presidents, to say nothing
of foreign tyrants, have used the pretext of
much less civil unrest than what we saw this
summer to deploy the military in the streets to
pacify their own citizenry.
But early in the pandemic, Trump was
criticized, especially by Democrats, for
failing to assert the draconian powers he
had, such as commandeering the means of
industrial production under the Defense
Production Act of 1950, invoked by Truman to
force industry to produce materials needed for
the Korean War. In March, The Washington
Post
reported that “Governors, Democrats in
Congress and some Senate Republicans have been
urging Trump for at least a week to invoke the
act, and his potential 2020 opponent, Joe Biden,
came out in favor of it, too,” yet “Trump [gave]
a variety of reasons for not doing so.”
Rejecting demands to exploit a public health
pandemic to assert extraordinary powers is not
exactly what one expects from a striving
dictator.
A similar dynamic prevailed during the
sustained protests and riots that erupted after
the killing of George Floyd. While conservatives
such as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), in his
controversial New York Times op-ed,
urged the mass deployment of the military to
quell the protesters, and while Trump threatened
to deploy them if governors failed to pacify the
riots, Trump failed to order anything more than
a few isolated, symbolic gestures such as having
troops use tear gas to clear out protesters from
Lafayette Park for his now-notorious walk to a
church,
provoking harsh criticism from the right,
including Fox News, for failing to use more
aggressive force to restore order.
Virtually every prediction expressed by those
who pushed this doomsday narrative of Trump as a
rising dictator — usually with great profit for
themselves — never materialized. While Trump
radically escalated bombing campaigns he
inherited from Bush and Obama, he started no new
wars. When his policies were declared by courts
to be unconstitutional, he either revised them
to
comport with judicial requirements (as in
the case of his “Muslim ban”) or
withdrew them (as in the case of diverting
Pentagon funds to build his wall). No
journalists were jailed for criticizing or
reporting negatively on Trump, let alone killed,
as was endlessly predicted and sometimes even
implied. Bashing Trump was far more likely to
yield best-selling books, social media stardom
and new contracts as cable news “analysts” than
interment in gulags or state reprisals. There
were no Proud Boy insurrections or right-wing
militias waging civil war in U.S. cities.
Boastful and bizarre tweets aside, Trump’s
administration was far more a continuation of
the U.S. political tradition than a radical
departure from it.
The hysterical Trump-as-despot script was all
melodrama, a ploy for profits and ratings, and,
most of all, a potent instrument to distract
from the neoliberal ideology that gave rise to
Trump in the first place by causing so much
wreckage. Positing Trump as a grand aberration
from U.S. politics and as the prime author of
America’s woes — rather than what he was: a
perfectly predictable extension of U.S politics
and a symptom of preexisting
pathologies — enabled those who have so much
blood and economic destruction on their hands
not only to evade responsibility for what they
did, but to rehabilitate themselves as the
guardians of freedom and prosperity and,
ultimately, catapult themselves back into power.
As of January 20, that is exactly where they
will reside.
Here's a link to Caitlin Johnstone -- I've been trying to work in a link to one of her articles for over a week.
We'll wind down with this from the Green Party:
Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
December 22, 2020
Contact:
Michael O’Neil, Communications Manager, meo@gp.org, 202-804-2758
Holly Hart, Co-chair, Media Committee, media@gp.org, 202-804-2758
Craig Seeman, Co-chair, Media Committee, media@gp.org, 202-804-2758
“The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the glaring inadequacies of the
nation’s current hodge-podge of insurance options,” said Mark Dunlea, a
New York-based Green Party organizer , co-founder of Single Payer New
York and former head of the Hunger Action Network. “This is not the time
to shy away from promoting Medicare-for-All. The Democratic Party had
the power to pass a genuine universal health care bill in March 2010 and
instead squandered the opportunity out of deference to private
insurance and other health-care lobbies. The height of the pandemic,
along with the promise of the vaccine, is the best time to correct this
tragic mistake.”
“Congress members who support Medicare-for-All should push for a vote on HR1384 now
as the tip of the spear for more comprehensive COVID-19 relief,” said
Gloria Mattera, Green Party National Co-Chair, who works as Director of
Child Life at a public hospital in New York City and serves on the
executive board of Physicians for a National Health Program — NY Metro
Chapter. “They should take the opportunity during the coming weeks to
educate the public about how we can improve medical care for everyone
while drastically cutting the cost of coverage and treatment,
eliminating co-pays, deductibles, out-of-pocket fees and surprise bills.
We can replace the private bureaucracies that keep denying and
restricting treatment and end the epidemic of bankruptcies over medical
costs.”
A Medicare-for-All vote will challenge Democrats and Republicans to
take action on a crisis that the two-party establishment keeps ignoring:
the lack of healthcare for millions of Americans who lack coverage, the
private insurance bureaucracy's restriction and denial of treatment for
those who have coverage, and the soaring cost of treatment and
prescriptions that has drained the savings of hundreds of thousands of
Americans.
“Corporate lobbyists and their PR departments are going on the
offensive and will spread misinformation, said Laura Wells, former Green
candidate for California state controller. “The healthcare industry
front group demonizing Medicare for All and a public option has amassed
$36 million for its campaign heading into 2021." (The Green Party
supports Medicare-for-All, not the public option.) According to a
recent poll conducted by the PEW Research Center, an increasing majority of Americans support government-provided health care coverage for all.
“The Green Party has run and will continue to run strong candidates
for the US House and Senate, all of whom support Medicare-for-All and a
Green New Deal,” said Trahern Crews, Green Party National Co-Chair and
Green Party National Black Caucus Co-Chair. “The country desperately
needs people in Congress who don't have to answer to the leaders of the
two corporate-money parties. Both major parties are in the pockets of
Wall Street, ensuring more of the same corruption and exploitation. The
Green Party and Green candidates don't accept contributions from
corporate PACs. Having Greens seated in Congress and every other level
of government will end the dynamic in which Democrats and Republicans
compete bitterly over political power but are in consensus on leaving
economic power to the 1%.”
For More Information
Green
Party Petition at GP.org: $600 and No Medicare-For-All Vote?
Bah-Humbug! Tell Congress, Trump and Biden: "Don't 'Scrooge' us on
Medicare-For-All and COVID Relief!"
A New Congressional Budget Office Study Shows That Medicare for All Would Save Hundreds of Billions of Dollars Annually,Bruenig, Matt. Jacobin, December 19, 2020
The Next War Against A Public Option Is Starting, Sirota, David and Andrew Perez. The Daily Poster, December 9, 2020
“Every. Single. One.”: Ocasio-Cortez Notes Every Democrat Who Backed Medicare for All Won Reelection in 2020, Queally, Jon. Common Dreams, November 7, 2020
Increasing share of Americans favor a single government program to provide health care coverage, Jones, Bradley. Pew Research Center, September 29, 2020
COVID 19 and Medicare for All, Physicians for a National Health Plan - PNHP
Green Party Platform on Single-Payer Health Care
The Hawkins Healthcare Plan, Green Party 2020 Presidential Candidate Howie Hawkins
Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org
202-804-2758
Newsroom | Twitter: @GreenPartyUS
Green Party Platform
Green New Deal
Green candidate database and campaign information
Facebook page
YouTube
Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
Green Papers
The following sites updated:
