With a litter of tactics, scientists work to tame cat allergies Science News. I suffer from a terrible cat allergy.
Can Historic Preservation Be Saved? American Conservative
Colorado River flow shrinks from climate crisis, risking ‘severe water shortages’ Guardian (furzy)
The Decline of Religion May Be Slowing Religion in Public (re Silc)
A Search for the Source of Italy’s Malaise Der Spiegel
TurboTax Is Still Tricking Customers With Tax Prep Ads That Misuse the Word “Free” ProPublica
To stop locust plagues, we must copy locusts Asia Times
China’s green zombie fungus could hold key to fighting east Africa’s plague of locusts SCMP
Class Warfare
The Internal Emails Big Tech Executives Never Wanted You to See Jacobin
Julian Assange
We’re Asking One Question In Assange’s Case: Should Journalists Be Punished For Exposing War Crimes? Caitlin Johnstone
Assange appears in British court to fight U.S. extradition bid Reuters
Roger Waters on Julian Assange Craig Murray
Waste Watch
Grocery stores may soon offer your favorite brands in reusable containers TreeHugger
Report argues most plastics, especially #3-7s, falsely labeled as recyclable Waste Dive
Big Brother IS Watching You Watch
Should Government Halt the Use of Facial-Recognition Technology? WSJ
Homeland Security Algorithm Revokes U.S. Visa of War Crimes Investigator Eyal Weizman The Intercept
On JFK, Tulsi Gabbard Keeps Very Respectable Company Counterpunch
Trump Transition
Tapping Trump’s Anger About 2016 Surveillance, White House Seeks Overhaul of Spying Law WSJ
Syraqistan
Five things to know about emerging US, Taliban peace deal The Hill
2020
Sanders eviscerates conventional wisdom about why he can’t win Politico
Bernie Sanders: The 60 Minutes Interview CBS
Bernie Sanders Says Won’t Attend AIPAC Confab That ‘Gives Platform to Bigotry’ Haaretz
MSNBC in ‘Full-Blown Freakout’ Mode as Bernie Sanders Cements Status as Democratic Frontrunner Common Dreams
Bernie Sanders Isn’t the Left’s Trump NYT. Paul Krugman grudgingly accedes.
Here is Democrats’ last chance to get this right WaPo. Jennifer Rubin does not, instead clutches pearls
Anand Giridharadas on Sanders’ Victory in Nevada: ‘A Wake Up Moment for the American Power Establishment’ Common Dreams
Chris Matthews compares Sanders winning in Nevada to the German invasion of France – does he not have loved ones to tell him how this sounds? Are there no executives at NBC left with any sense? https://t.co/l7MQHPt3x6
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) 23 February 2020
#nCOVID-19
A Chinese biotech partners with GSK to boost its coronavirus vaccine development Stat
World is approaching coronavirus tipping point, say experts Guardian
Fear of coronavirus pandemic grows but China eases curbs as new infections fall Reuters
Iran’s holy city Qom sends SOS as virus spreads Asia Times
Italy towns wake to quarantine, queue for food in coronavirus outbreak Agence France-Presse
Don’t Send Them Here: Local Officials Resist Plans to House Coronavirus Patients NYT
Coronavirus outbreak causes supply problem for India’s drugmakers FT
World Economy Shudders as Coronavirus Threatens Global Supply Chains WSJ
“Uncertainty Is the New Normal” Der Spiegel
Malaysia’s Mahathir submits resignation, ‘quits’ his party Al Jazeera
China?
WSJ’s Beijing bureau chief has this to say about the paper’s often-toxic editorial page:
“We find the argument that no offense was intended to be unconvincing: Someone should have known that it would cause widespread offense.”
Scoop via @farhip
https://t.co/YQJUQWgNQt— Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) February 22, 2020
Inside The Wall Street Journal, Tensions Rise Over ‘Sick Man’ China Headline NYT (dan k)
Wall Street Journal reporters protest ‘sick man’ headline in Wall Street Journal WaPo
737 MAX
Now Boeing 737 MAX Fuel Tanks Have To Undergo Inspections Simple Flying
India
What superfans in India are doing to welcome Donald Trump Economic Times
The Political Fix: What will Donald Trump’s big visit to India actually achieve? Scroll
How Trump and Modi have raised the profile of Indian-Americans India Today
Antidote du Jour (TH):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
203 comments
Comments are closed.
“Chris Matthews compares Sanders winning in Nevada to the German invasion of France”
Translation – Old Man Yells At Cloud.
Time to be packed off to the Old Talk Show Host Home.
Ah, same scheiss different day. Or is it? Last time Bernie peeps were Commies lining up the Matthews ilk to execute in the town square. Now it’s National Socialists. Which is it Chris? Does he have a mind left to make up?
Clearly Bernie is a National Bolshevist! /sarc
There used to be a party in Russia called the National Bolshevists, whose ideology was a bizarre fusion of Soviet communism and Nazism. Their party flag was the nazi flag with the white circle on a field of red, but the black swastika replaced with a black hammer and sickle. Putin banned them years ago for, well, being Nazis.
I’m actually going to defend Matthew’s a bit here. I think the point he was making was that some of the French leadership saw early on that they would lose. He’s saying even though there are 47 states left to count, he’s seeing the writing on the wall and sees Sanders rise as inevitable and unstoppable.
He’s not actually saying Sanders is a Nazi.
He could have used any number of examples to make that point. The Nazi reference was intentional.
The actual words used and the actual events were the success of Germany over the armed forces of France. And How quick it all happened (blame Rommel). It gets complicated here. Was every german a Nazi – no. Was every member of the military a Nazi no. In the 1933 election the Nazis did not get a majority. On the other hand in a plebiscite in 1940 – 90% of Germans (of the entire population of voting age) did pledge loyalty personally to Hitler. Who knows what Matthews meant. Given that Sanders is a Jew, I find his remarks problematic. The kind you get fired over. Either Matthews is a racist or stupid or both. As stupidity has no cure, fired he must be. We all get emotional, but we don’t become racist as well. Shows a mean streak as well.
Guderian, not Rommel, masterminded the fall of France.
I’d concur that he was simply drawing a parallel to make a point about ‘defeating’ seemingly impenetrable defences by simply going around them. The fact that this equates Sanders with the German armies of 1940 is imposed on this by the hearer and is going too far.
That said, it was inept and while tolerable in an exchange in a pub Matthews as a professional entertainer should have realised it was a parallel too far and it diminishes him, particularly that I very much doubt that even 10% of an American audience in 2020 know anything about the Battle of France.
Chris Mattews History Grade.
Right War, wrong analogy Mr Matthews. I’m thinking your rant should have been “Hitler reacts to Bernie winning Nevada” with the scene from Downfall. I mean equating a left wing Jewish politician as a Nazi, is just terrible, it makes me wonder if you even understand the source material, clearly painting Sanders and his cohort as the Red Army hell bent on revenge after the early war losses to Field Marshall Clinton would have been much better. Overall grade D.
In my mind’s eye, I now picture Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Warren as immobile lumps of uselessness like a kind of human Maginot Line impotently trying to stop Bernie’s blitzkrieg.
Bernie blew up the Dem establishment like the Death Star blew up Alderaan.
The French kind of gave up, the Donkey Show’s old guard effort was more of a Kamikaze attack (imagines Matthews wearing hachimaki) where they attempted to crash their craft into Bernie, but to no avail, leading the to ruin of reputation.
Strange Defeat by Marc Bloch, really lowers the boom on the French military of 1940.
They didnt take into account that Bernie’s support is an Iowa class battleship and the establishment’s kamikaze plane was made of balsa wood.
I really never understood why the Allies always thought “the Ardennes is impenetrable to a modern, mechanized army.” We made the same mistake again in the runup to the Battle of the Bulge. I mean the Germans went through there in 1914, and again in 1940, and then again in 1944. There are highways through the forest. Anybody who went there for a picnic would know it isn’t the Forest Primeval.
Let’s not forget that Comcast owns NBC, MSNBC and Chris Matthews is doing what the Oligarchs at Comcast want.
You should see what they think of Comcast over at slashdot. Hint: I didn’t know humans could go that low. Their issue revolves mostly around monopoly pricing, T&C, lack of service, enabled by lawyers with zero shame.
Thanks Bubba! (Telecom Act of 1996).
Even worse here in Australia, where the country’s owner (R. Murdoch) told his
employees“government” to squash actual working national broadband in favor of a dog’s breakfast of obsolete technologies that favored his telecoms companies.People to billionaires: Can we please have our countries back now?
Ah, Brian Roberts & his mom (RIP) are friends of mine, and they are Jewish. Brian is not amused.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6J3ROV4IPc
Democracy Now with Richard Wolff and Paul Krugman. Amusing discussion of Matthews meltdown. Also, lots of Krugman coming across as ridiculously squeamish about the term ‘socialism’. He sounds like he’s saying, “oh I’m in favor of driving to this destination, but oh we should take a different road to get there”. He just doesn’t seem to understand that the Sanders movement has moved the center of gravity in the Democratic Party and in the country.
Meanwhile, Wolff gives off a vibe of someone who feels like his time has finally arrived after decades of preparation. I suspect he’ll be getting more phone calls and doing more interviews soon.
He does appear to be confused as he previously suggested Sanders was a communist whose supporters would hang Matthews in Central Park.
I’m no Matthews apologist but jeez folks, get a grip! The guy made an analogy, an apt one if truth be told, and the Twitterati have lost their minds! Filling air time is hard, and much as I dislike him sometimes, Matthews is good at it, so grow up.
Good at it? Yeah, naaah! The guy should have retired honourably when he was at the top of his game. When I see him in videos, I wonder how he still has a job. He features in a lot of Jimmy Dore videos and never in a good way-
https://www.youtube.com/user/TYTComedy/search?query=Chris+Matthews
OMG. The Rev is a Jimmy Dore fan.
Kev, one of these days, I’m going to come to Australia and shake your hand.
PS: Slim also is a huge fan of Jimmy.
A Jimmy Dore fan? Absolutely. Have given quite a few links to his videos over the years. His show is a refreshing splash of reality which is not bad for a self-described jagoff night club comedian. Love it too when he interviews people that the MSM will not touch.
Ok. Jimmy Dore is awesome and my life is better this morning. Thanks all!
It’s not just an analogy though. It was an unflattering analogy.
To quote Wikipedia “The (Maginot) line has since become a metaphor for expensive efforts that offer a false sense of security.”
What is he scared of?
He could have used the Normandy invasion as a metaphor, right? So he is revealing his bias, his subconscious. He noted over and over how afraid he is of socialism in other comments. So his metaphor manufactures consent and is a dog whistle that we should be afraid of Sanders.
That wasn’t how I interpreted it. As far as I know he didn’t mention the Maginot Line. He’d been reading about a famous conversation between Churchill and Reynaud in 1940, where the latter said the battle was effectively over and France had lost. Churchill could not believe this was true, given that France still had millions of soldiers in reserve, but Reynaud insisted. (The French military, afraid of domestic revolution, were refusing to fight on). I suppose the analogy here is to suggest that the situation is actually much worse than the Democratic establishment believes, and that people who say Sanders has already won are essentially right. I can’t judge that, (and TBH I had never heard of Matthews before) but it doesn’t seem to me to be a particularly insulting comparison. Indeed, just as the Germans had been perfecting techniques of warfare to which the French had no answer in 1940 (and neither had anyone else) so Sanders has used techniques of organisation which have wrong-footed the Democratic establishment. I can’t immediately think of another good comparison, except perhaps the end of the Cold War, but that’s a bit different. I suppose if you really work hard you might be offended by that, but in politics most politicians have to put up with a lot worse than being compared to the French High Command in 1940.
Yes, I just saw a brief clip, but if I’m trying to be generous to Mathews, he was trying to make the analogy of a war that was over even though the defeated army was still apparently viable and in the field. He could have used Germany in 1918 or…. the US today in Afghanistan – he just chose the inappropriate one for the child of holocaust survivors.
Its nowhere near the worst thing that’s been said this week about Sanders. What gets me is that people like Warren have been let off the hook with anti-Semitic wolf whistling (Sanders is apparently ‘too shouty’). If the roles were reversed there would be a Corbyn like piling on.
A more apt comparison would have been to Publius Scipio’s capture of Novo Carthago in 209 BC. Tweety would have stayed out of trouble then (even if maybe .000001% of his viewers would have know what the hell he was talking about).
Publius Scipio’s capture of Novo Carthago? Ah, a thing of beauty that. Scipio saw that they had too many Carthaginian eggs in the one basket and took out the lot.
Thank God. +1
The “too shouty” thing seems to be sticking with moderate white women, especially those who love Hillary and Warren. I see a lot of them posting about how they don’t like Sanders voice, etc.
I wonder what is their opinion on policy?
My immediate thought regarding Hillary’s “voice”:
“We came, we saw, he died!”
Followed by a cackle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DXDU48RHLU
Warren herself is often accused (incorrectly, in my opinion) of being ‘shouty’ herself, so I don’t feel like Warren supporters can really throw stones here.
For whatever it’s worth, I talked to two middle-class white women over fifty yesterday, while walking the dog. One was already in the bag for Sanders, and the other liked Warren more, but was clearly not opposed to Sanders, and what she really wanted was a Sanders/Warren ticket. And the one already committed to Sanders vocally hated Hillary Clinton.
I think even among the cohorts most stereotypically opposed to him he’ll do okay, especially once he gets the nomination. Any bat to beat Trump, if nothing else. The diehard Clinton cultists will screech and rage, but they’re silly and irrelevant.
That depends on how many or few of them there are. I have always assumed there are millions and millions of them.
What a relief it would be to find them melting away to thousands and thousands by November. Dare we hope?
“I’m no Matthews apologist but” perhaps if he had used anywhere near the amount of words you have to explain what he meant, there wouldn’t be so much room to interpret it otherwise? What he said was much more flippant, especially considering the historical knowledge of his audience.
Of course Matthews’ point was that the DP Establishment has been defeated and Sanders has secured the nomination. Now Matthews may have been trying to get the Establishment to focus and push all the other candidates besides Biden or Bloomberg out. More likely, although still unlikely, he is executing on the Pelosi strategy that it is better to lose the election than lose the party.
He actually suggested that another Trump term would be preferrable to Sanders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhJxW2QTWVE
So continuing the analogy, if Sanders loses in November, Matthews can pronounce it the fall of Berlin to the RUSSIANS!
Okay, since we’re interpreting, why did another anchor on the same network call Sanders’ supporters “brownshirts?”
Oh, because that guy is an idiot scumbag.
What he is scared of is called “totalitarianism” and “Dictatorship”. Usually that is what they mean when they start spouting off about socialism, nazism, and communism. Because all those things are the same in their minds, their wealth is being taken and they are being made to do whatever…
I know many if not all conservatives who think exactly in the same manner, especially those of the Cold War generation… it usually comes as a shock to them that not having money is the same thing as not having Freedom, and they are shocked, shocked that class warfare is going on in their country. In the same way that they are shocked when some huge corruption scandal breaks out ala 2008… they truly believe there is no danger in removing all regulation etc. Because Markets!
It would be nice to know where Sanders stands on scientific socialism . Also, if he acknowleges a leading role for the CCP in international socialism. Or maybe he is just a running dog.
We need better people on air. This kind of upset is what makes it happen. Over the last couple of decades right wing outrage moved The Window considerably to the right. This is a much needed restorative. If the network gets rid of him, or considers this on their next hire, all to the good. Yeah, he sure is good at filling up air time – but with what?
And here’s Slim with four suggestions:
The Humanist Report – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Q4rvzJDbHeBHYk5rnvZeA
Secular Talk – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCldfgbzNILYZA4dmDt4Cd6A
The Jimmy Dore Show – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3M7l8ved_rYQ45AVzS0RGA
Redacted Tonight – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyvaZ2RHEDrgKXz43gz7CbQ
And here are three more:
The Hill – I highly recommend the “Rising” show – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPWXiRWZ29zrxPFIQT7eHSA
TBTV – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjRXO-HSl5XpuF-cWvtMV_g
MCSC Network – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFAQyZq0NqfCwVkRQoXpx0A
I’ll second The Hill, Jimmy Dore, Redacted Tonight, Secular Talk and The Humanist Report.
and is there another way to watch any of these for those of us avoiding google? how does hooktube work? or vevo, which Yves seems to use to post videos?
I don’t really have a daily news source, though Democracy Now is good some days. In fact today they feature a debate between Krugman and a socialist economist (sorry forget the name) on what the label social democrat means. It was okay as an intro to a few talking points but no real depth, just Krugman wishing Bernie wouldn’t use the term cuz it makes the lift harder and the other guy telling him to get over it, the Overton window is on the move and it’s okay to own it.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/484330-rising-february-24-2020
Skip YT and go directly to the site. Works for Jimmy Dore too.
Hook tube is easy to use, just search it as you would youtube.
bummer, I guess Google went after hooktube and now it’s functionality has been altered so the privacy factor is gone
https://youtube-alternatives.fandom.com/wiki/Hooktube.com
I wasn’t aware of that… bummer.
I find Information Clearing House a good source of ‘daily’ (it often isn’t) news reports you won’t see in the MSM. Not the featured articles, which are usually more exhortations to something or other than news, not that I disagree with the likes of Caitlin Johnstone and John Pilger very often. And certainly not the comments, which remind me how grateful I am to NC’s moderation monster, even when it sends a long comment I’ve forgotten to save into purgatory or worse. But the international news items at the bottom of the page are from a wide range of sources, and well worth a browse, I find, though sometimes best with a pinch of salt unless otherwise confirmed, like all news.
thanks all. re comments…and to think I thought our hosts had trained us so well over the years that we now engage in civil discourse all on our own with little need for a mod monster!
We might, but I pity poor Jules and whoever else filters the submitted comments so that we don’t get to see the more ridiculous or repugnant. I recently watched “The Cleaners”, a documentary about social media content moderators in the Philippines, and their job looks horrific. I guess Jules has an easier time of it, as trolls and conspiracy theorists probably give up trying on NC, but I still think he’s the unsung hero of this site.
Thanks for the recognition! Thanks to the long-time standards of NC, content moderation here is generally rewarding though sometimes ridiculous. Despite occasional outbreaks of incivility, concern trolling, and other infractions I enjoy getting to know the readers here and their intriguing observations and opinions
I’m glad to hear you’re less of a hero than I feared!
Personally, I am glad y’all remove my more obtuse and combative rants. Thank you.
With apologies to people who work to make good on air presentations, we need to recognize the importance of literacy is not having to rely on memory and access to information. On TV or even fantasy versions of NPR, ,review and challenges of claims is exceedingly difficult.
The Holocaust denier and the holocaust expert will seem too much alike on TV.
Experts can easily come across as nit-picking ivory tower pedants on TV, while deniers are often much more skilled at propaganda and presentation.
apt? Medicare for All the same as Nazis? so no, not at all apt. Especially repulsive seeing as all of Sanders’ family on his father’s side were murdered by Nazis. And Matthews is bad. seriously awful.
But at the same time all of this suicidal hand wringing is going on with MSDNC etal., Fox News is totally losing their stuff over little Mike! From Bannon on down they seem to be in a breathless panic. W.T.F?
I think especially for the nominal liberals a Sanders win will usher in a culling. What good is MSNBC to Comcast if it can’t lobby on Comcast’s behalf?
FoxNews’ audience is largely in diapers. Do Rupert’s kids care? Family businesses shut down all the time because of disinterest, and they don’t have a young audience or expectations of growth.
There is no regional news outfits to fall back on anymore. It’s NYC or freelancing. Freelancing isn’t paying the mortgage in Chevy Chase. Even for the wealthy personalities, DC is Hollywood for ugly people. Like actors desperate for relevance, losing the audience is frightening.
that right there is what i hope and pray to see.
that’s what Neera pushing a shopping cart is all about.
i have come to loathe the chattering class.
blind to the pain i see all around me, as if it either isn’t happening, or it’s all our fault that the world is so fubar.
let them eat catfood.
chevy chase is not a defensible position.
I can’t help but repeat it because I’ve been waiting for it for 50 years:
Grace Slick, “Greasy Heart” (audio link)
If Matthews is looking for an “apt” analogy from the WWII era, it’s more that the DNC is like Hitler ordering divisions that no longer exist to hold their positions on “die Ostfront” …
wrong. see Krystyn Walentka above…
I’m calling this snowflake blowback.
msnbs has spent years manufacturing the perception of all kinds of cultural slights and insults, stoking gross overreaction, and broadcasting it relentlessly as legitimate “news.”
It was only a matter of time before one of their idiot on-air “personalities” crossed the rhetorical line and triggered the same mindless, knee-jerk “outrage” that’s been their bread and butter 24/7 for the last several years.
A guy with a pretty basic social democratic platform won a primary in a state and may get the nomination. To put it in those terms is insane. This same person recently talked about being executed in Central Park by the reds, doesn’t know if Bernie wants the US to be like Cuba or Denmark. If this was my uncle at Thanksgiving I would think he looks nuts, couldn’t take him seriously. Matthews is rich, on a national network, has a huge platform. How can I take him seriously on anything if this is how his brain works? I mean, maybe comparing it to Henry Wallace getting replaced as VP by Truman or Mitterand winning in the early 80s, fine. This is disturbing.
“All analagies are flawed…” was something a mentor taught me. Matthews’ analagy was mostly flaw.
Analogy! Analogies! (sigh…)
“An apt analogy” ?? Only for someone with Zero knowledge of history. Reynaud was a sleazy Radical-Socialist Prime Minister, not a general though as incompetent as one. Churchill didn’t need to be told that it was all over in the midst of his desperate endeavor to withdraw the BEF from Dunquerque. The actual dialogue went something like this:
Churchill to Weygand–you must immediately send in the strategic reserve.
Weygand to Churchill–THERE IS NO STRATEGIC RESERVE.
Actually, Paul Reynaud was a right of center politician belonging to one of the many conservative parties of prewar France. He was never a Radical Socialist.
Well, yes and no. If you listen to the whole clip, he’s talking about a situation in which one entity has been suddenly and astonishingly overwhelmed by another entity. So that’s fine.
But the particular reference used is something that an old hand like Matthews should easily have realized would be yanked out of context. More important, though, is the possibility that Matthews intentionally used the Nazi blitzkrieg in France to ramp up the fear factor. And in that case, it’s both comical and inexcusable.
As for myself, I hope Matthews sticks around, even though I’m a Sanders fan. I find Chris’ over-the-top fuming entertaining and, I suspect, either harmless or possibly helpful for Sanders.
I’m all growed up, thanks — Matthews is a hack, full stop.
Re Tulsi and the JFK book. Questions about the validity of the JFK narrative and the book’s theories aside, I am having trouble following the point of the article. What conclusions or assumptions can reliably be made about her being seen with the book and stating that she hadn’t read it through yet? That could mean everything from some random person handed her the book, she politely accepted, read the dust jacket, then gave a generic politician non-answer ‘it’s interesting’, to she is intently studying the book, agrees with its full thesis and is being coy. In other wards, concluding its significance would (with facts stated) have an error rate of +/- 99%.
Regarding Gabbard, Morley’s point was that even possessing such a book opened her up to the usual “conspiracy theorist” dismissal. Morley’s larger point, of course, is that plenty of people — even “important” ones with access to information — have believed, or known, that the official narrative about the Kennedy assassination is bulls**t. By extension, smug “authorities” like Sabato don’t know what they are talking about.
I’m not sure Morley’s comment was really about Tulsi, though the impenetrable hostility to honest discussion of foreign policy in mainstream media and academia mirrors that of the Kennedy assasination. Morley is a respected journalist who has studied and written about the assassination; he does know what he is talking about.
Interesting to see this in Counterpunch, which has historically been a champion of the Chomsky school of Kennedy CT bashing.
I highly recommend Douglass’ book not only for it’s rundown of the JFK assassination, but also for his situating it within Thomas Merton’s concept of the “Unspeakable.”
I’ll second the book recommendation.
Also, I find it curious that a majority of Americans continue to believe there was a conspiracy in JFK’s death, a belief that has persisted for decades, and yet it scarcely registers in any measurable way politically or otherwise. Maybe I’m taking it too far, but it seems we’re living in a country in which most citizens profoundly question the very legitimacy of government (given the gravity of the assassination event and widespread suspicions) and yet still are content to live under what only purports to be a democracy.
Although maybe, finally, we’re not quite as content as we used to be.
Working link for “Italy towns wake to quarantine, queue for food in coronavirus outbreak” article at-
https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/italy-towns-wake-quarantine-queue-food-coronavirus-outbreak-doc-1p81yn3
Fixed it – thanks!
Covid19 talking point to elect Bernie,
ask supporters of other candidates:
“Are YOU one of the hundreds of millions of Americans who love their insurance and medical care?” ™ Democratic National Committee
Are YOU one of the hundreds of Americans …..
There, fixed. Bit of a scale problem wit the DNC, conflating like of their care-person, with the $$$ and for profit insurance companies.
Did anyone watch the 60 Minutes interview? Centrists are acting like, “Aha! We got him now!”
Yeah, well this too will likely backfire as it will open up the discussion about why we never care about where the money comes from for tax cuts for the wealthy or obscene levels of defense spending.
That has been one of the more remarkable things about this campaign season. Every attack exposes the rank hypocrisy of the establishment. Wonderfully revealing.
What a horrible format with all the editing.
I did notice Sander’s face wasn’t bright red like the clip released early to youtube.
That was the first thing I noticed. I couldn’t finish it.
Edited in such a way that there was no rhythm to Sanders words.
Maybe Sanders needs to just do live interviews where his people can record the whole thing.
Great idea but I don’t think the networks would allow that. They want control of the narrative, editing and censorship by omission are important tools for that.
The proper response in that case is to decline to interview, saying that you would rather deal with actual reporters.
OR leave you cell phone on “record” and keep talking…. last I heard the networks have no exclusive rights to interviewees comments, only to *their* production of them.
They don’t make you sign away your copyrights before they interview you , and then pay you thousands of dollars for it.
The test audiences who saw the whole thing turned into Maoist guerrillas, so they had to dilute the effect.
It was a nicely summarized laundry list of every criticism ever leveled at Sanders.
10K versions of “How you gunna pay 4 dat?!?!?!”
His lack of self-promotion by not putting his name on congressional bills means he ‘doesn’t get things done’.
“You said nice things about Fidel Castro!!!” – well, yeah, he taught people to read. Kinda bad how he locked up opponents.
Sanders has seen it all before and parried all the blows. It’s hard to see AC 360 as having landed anything.
Really, isn’t the only response to Cooper: didn’t you get the job on celebrity mole because someone thought hiring a Vanderbilt would make them richer or get them connected to old money?
There’s a video circulating around of Obama praising the Cuban education system.
The USA’s incarceration rate surpasses Cuba’s. (And China’s, even including 2 million Uighurs, a number I think it was Bloomberg suggested.)
the question is not so much how does Bernie expect to pass his program as how do you expect to get elected this November when you oppose healthcare?
Yes the coronavirus freakout can really be re-fashioned into a cudgel for Medicare-For-All.
Because the big question for self-obsessed white males (like me :)) is “hey do you want somebody without healthcare getting you sick?”.
The higher up the economic chain you go, besides the “behind every great fortune is a great crime” psychology, you will find almost exponentially increasing levels of hypochondria. You want a rich man to open his wallet, convince him that if you wipe your nose with his money, the dye used on a $100 bill will kill the germs. Works in any elevator.
Maybe it’s the cocaine residue on the bill that does the job?
Yes, do you want a sick person, whether apparent or not, handing you your plate at the Michelin restaurant?
Said server has no health insurance, no savings, and won’t get paid if he she stays home from work.
In 2 districts with GOP reps in upstate NY, 2 separate dem primary front runners are NOT in favor of M4A.
https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/local-news/2020/02/cobb-explains-support-for-medicare-public-option/
https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/02/democrats-move-toward-center-by-picking-francis-conole-to-battle-rep-john-katko.html
Both are trying the Obama better PR nonsense-
“Cobb explains support for Medicare public option”
“His support for making Medicare for All an option, allowing people to keep their private health insurance,”
My takeaway; the Democrats suck and this is why they can’t beat a party with a deeply unpopular platform nationally. In any other developed country, those types of policies would be non starters. If up to 68,000 die now every year, will only 40,000 die with their plan? 25,000? I think they would call that pragmatic. No thanks. It wouldn’t fly on Canada or any other halfway humane society, shouldn’t here. Maybe we can be halfway humane someday. The public option is a horrible idea too.
Are those politicians getting any money from healthcare interests or big pharma?
My Representative in Congress, CA 6th District (Sacramento area), is Doris Matsui, D. (matsui.house.gov) She’s held office since 2005. She will easily win the primary and re-election in the fall. Her record in office is in some ways commendable. On healthcare though she has the standard DNC line – the ACA was a landmark achievement that we are proud of but need to build on, blah blah blah.
There is a candidate opposing her in the primary, Ben Emard, who supports M4A, but his entire campaign is his website and social media, AFIK. Maybe this kind of social media campaign could work; someone could pull a Billie Eilish in the political realm. It isn’t working for Emard.
For M4A to pass Matsui needs to switch to supporting M4A, or needs to be primaried for real in two years. I wonder how strong support for M4A is in this district.
I’m thinking of writing “M4A” on the write-in line on my ballot.
How Democratic is the district? Could Emard make it through the Top Two primary, riding M4A as his key difference with Matsui from then on until November? That might get her to pay some attention to the issue — and all the more so if nominee Sanders got an invitation to come to the district. . . .
Do you think this mornings dip in the financial markets is really about coronavirus, or is it more about the Nevada result?
https://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/europe/
“European markets are sharply lower today with shares in France off the most. The CAC 40 is down 3.72% while Germany’s DAX is off 3.70% and London’s FTSE 100 is lower by 3.28%.”
But yeah, I’m sure we’ll see this blamed on Nevada results too.
The 1% have a lot of worldwide paper assets they need liquidate and move to tax havens. It might take a while.
So, we get to see Jim Cramer waving his hands, sounding buzzers, bells, and klaxon horns about the once-a-decade “buying opportunity”?
He can’t sell if you don’t buy. Sorry, I meant “invest.”
Gleaned this tidbit from just a bit ago:
The shelves were all stocked full as always @ Wal*Mart yesterday, but imagine all of the sudden consumer goods get raptured, and there’s panic buying of anything, everything, just before ‘prohibition’ in a dry goods way.
Reply ↓
p.s.
The tell that the shit has hit the fan, will be the main stream media calling us citizens again, in lieu of being consumers, ha!
Spot on. China is producing at vastly reduce rate. This has to be a baked in reality that has not been acknowledged by the stock market.
Also, China is probably close to the point where the choice is trillions of $ of economic damage OR a few million dead. Not hard choice for most Chinese government. Ship it.
Question will be can the rest of the world with elected governments be able to make the same call? No, because elections.
Goldman is right.
Step out of equity markets on long side.
China is producing at vastly reduce rate.
No problem – prices rise, Walmart and Amazon profit as ever…
What was $10 is now $50. Got to keep those profits up.
2013 Korowicz paper re pandemics and supply chain failure, cascading failure of the complex linkages involved in current industrial practice:
http://energyskeptic.com/2014/david-korowicz-2013-catastrophic-shocks-through-complex-socio-economic-systems/
Given that most generic drugs are now manufactured in China and India, with the potential supply chain disruption I’m beginning wonder to how easy it will be to refill my prescriptions when they run out in a couple of months. A couple of them I could live without but there is one I that really need.
I’ve been thinking for some time that if Bernie looks to maybe be potus, that could be a trigger for a market crash. Pharma, insurance, big banks, tax on trading, etc affects many sectors.
But CV is a logical reason, too, as news gets worse daily, affecting Apple, other internationals, autos, builders etc. Double whammy… and with market so high a 50% decline is not beyond belief. Not much looks safe, explaining 30-year surge. 1.8%!?
Might not be a good time to buy the dip.
But will be hard to blame Bernie if CV news continues bad, plus even some of my older friends opposing m4a might be changing their thinking,
Re the freak out of MSNBC, I’m riveted to their coverage lately in a gawking-at-a-crash-scene kind of way. I would hope this is just stages of grief playing out and not a permanent malignant pathology. If this is just grief stages, they have been flailing wildly for a long damn time.
I am particularly amused by the “squeaking, angry minority “ framing. Are they referring to that “minority” that received more votes than the supposed “majority moderate candidates”, and more than double the 2nd place Biden?
BTW I noticed that the NV caucus has been conceded to Sanders, but for some reason there is (as of the moment) only 96.23% of the votes counted. Why so slow finishing up? Could it be because the final numbers expand his lead further, which would be too much to bear for the DNC, MSNBC, Et al?
PB campaign has alleged problems with counts, and it might be that the remaining 3.73% (of precincts, I think) are related to that.
The original motive for PB campaign’s protests, which seems to have been to try to get 2nd place in the 2nd alignment vote totals, is now plainly out of reach.
RCP is reporting that PB will eventually (after county and state conventions) realize at least 1 national convention delegate. At this point, per RCP they are assigning Sanders 13, and Biden 2. There are 20 other non-super delegates for NV not yet assigned and evidently it is not clear to the media how the details of the county and state conventions will work out, but I expect that Sanders must get a disproportionate share of those, too. But maybe not.
I’m guessing that DNC now wishes that it had set the “viability” threshold much lower, so that votes of people for whom Sanders was the 2nd preference would not have migrated to him. Sanders seems to have done significantly better than JB and PB in terms of gaining vote share in the 2nd alignment.
Funny how policies designed to frustrate “Sanders take all” …. erm …. I mean “winner take all” can backfire.
Well, they can always revise the formulae for 2024.
re: > “I’m guessing that DNC now wishes that it had set the “viability” threshold much lower, so that votes of people for whom Sanders was the 2nd preference would not have migrated to him. Sanders seems to have done significantly better than JB and PB in terms of gaining vote share in the 2nd alignment.”
It occurs to me that this might suggest motive for NOT consolidating the “not-Sanders” “lane” of the D primary.
As candidates drop out, it seems that a disproportionate share of those who would have voted for them may migrate to voting for Sanders. Bernie may do better in a less crowded field, in terms of % of votes cast.
He is, after all, the most highly regarded politician in the country, and one can be pretty confident that he is regarded more highly among D primary voters than among Rs.
So the D establishment may be faced with a “pick your poison” dilemma:
a) consolidate the primary field, but risk thereby enlarging Sander’s share of votes cast
b) don’t consolidate the primary field, but thereby guarantee that Sander’s wins a disproportionate share of pledged delegates.
The thought occurs that the state of mind of D establishment leaders may resemble Matthews’ anguished expression.
I’m guessing that their hope might actually be “b)”, in the hope that they can thread the needle by i) keeping Sanders below half of pledged delegates and ii) holding down his share of votes cast.
But if Sanders wins most of the primaries, (and does anyone doubt at this point that he will?), it’s going to look very fishy if he is denied the nomination.
The D establishment must be hating the primary voters at this point. Why are D primary voters voting preferentially for someone who “isn’t a real Democrat?”
My theory is that many of the primary voters are “FDR Democrats” and they recognize that the current D party is closer to the “Party of Hoover” than it is to the “Party of FDR”.
So the question “who is a real Democrat? is two- edged
interesting times ….
Both Sanders and Gabbard are highly regarded by Republicans of my acquaintance, unlike the rest of the field. The Don himself met Gabbard while still President-elect, and regards Sanders as a formidable rival he’d rather not face.
Another question I have is with the approx 3% of precincts outstanding. Not all, precincts are equal in size. What percentage of the caucus voters (and delegates) are in the not yet counted pool? Does anyone know?
I have no idea, but in Iowa it was Des Moines, the most populous city in the state. I bet it is Reno or Las Vegas.
Agree with the “gawking-at-a-crash-scene” characterization.
And speaking of “squeaking and angry,” arguably the squeakiest and angriest of the msnbs family is nicole wallace herself, so she knows where of she speaks.
Whenever her name comes up, I always like to remind people that, in her previous life, she was the political “consultant” tasked with grooming and selling sarah palin to the public as prepared to be president–of the united states–if creaky, old, warmongering john mccain didn’t make it through.
That’s always made her relentless shrillness on Trump’s lack of “presidentialness” and all her other commentary on just about everything political seem…..er…..”ironic.”
Thanks Katniss. It’s important to keep track of the members of the elite club of pundits and consultants and who they have worked for in the past. Most are for sale to the highest bidder and people need to be reminded of that.
Sanders’ press secretary adopted “Squeaking Angry Minority” for her Twitter handle :)
The expression on Matthews’ face at the beginning of that clip reminds me of the people in Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” who are being cast or carried down to Hell.
I’m trying to not experience schadenfreude.
I must be a bad, bad person.
Oh, no, you are truly evil!
Just like me. (Grin.)
What Chris Matthews likes: GWB strutting off the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED aircraft carrier with a sock stuffed in his crotch.
What Chris Matthews doesn’t like: health care for all Americans.
And MSNBC is the “liberal” news channel?
“Homeland Security Algorithm Revokes U.S. Visa of War Crimes Investigator Eyal Weizman”
Having read that article and heard the embedded video, all I can say is that that is no loss. No wonder they talk about another prominent open-source researcher, Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat, in this article. When you compare them tweaking computer graphics as compared to engineers and technical experts who actually visited the damn place, you see a huge difference. If he went into a court of law to testify, any good lawyer would make mincemeat out of him.
For those of you suffering from low blood pressure may I suggest that, instead of taking medication to raise it,
you instead listen to this NPR interview with a Dem insider:
Democratic Front-Runner Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Have A Lock On The Party
I think the link title is enough to guess the content
Of course Senator Sanders doesn’t have a lock on the Party! That’s why he’s been calling for 4+ years for “a political revolution”
How long is it going to take Party insiders to understand what he means by that?
And how long will it take them to realize that “the Party” doesn’t have “a lock” on the large segment of the population that doesn’t approve of the R approach to governance and policy?
Where else are they going to go?
Sanders is showing them precisely where.
Common Dreams article: MSNBC in ‘Full-Blown Freak-Out Mode …”
Recommend comments on CommonDreams site regarding this article. Especially those that reference MSNBC and Comcast (our cable provider in NYC). One of the features is supposed to be making live streaming available on subscribers’ computers. It has been obvious for some time (and noted by others online) that Comcast/Spectrum blocks those who are making pro-Trump comments they apparently don’t want to air. Now are we seeing the same blocks to pro-Sanders comments? Blockage varies from extensive buffering, to freezing, to blacking out with outright messages saying ‘something’s wrong etc.’. There should be a class action lawsuit against Comcast for blocking coverage we’re paying for.
Correction to Common Dreams comment:
Comcast/Spectrum appears to block ANTI-TRUMP comments on MSNBC, not pro-Trump comments.
They don’t want competition and their viewers to know why Trump is bad, mostly for being too much like never trump republicans.
Not saying that Comcast wouldn’t do this, but I wonder if the problem is the continuing crapification of their “service” whereby you pay for a certain amount of service that’s being slowly degraded [sort of like the size of the bag of food you are purchasing slowly being reduced by ounces while you still pay the same price]. I’ve been noticing this more and more on all media streaming sites, including nonpolitical ones.
Perhaps it’s a combination of crapification + censorship.
“Now Boeing 737 MAX Fuel Tanks Have To Undergo Inspections”
Would you believe that the head of the Australian airline Qantas is thinking about picking up some cheap Boeing 737 MAXs when they are cleared for service?
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/qantas-boeing-737-max-2020-2
Idjut!
Hopefully, your fellow countrymen will put paid to that idea by refusing to fly on them.
From MSNBC Freakout story:
Nicolle Wallace: “I have no idea what voters think about anything anymore”
Let me tell you, Nicolle. They think they want healthcare. They think they want a living wage, housing they can afford, air they can breathe and water they can drink. They think they want all the things you have and take for granted as your due, Nicolle. There. Does that help you out? (I know: how dare they?)
Thank you, Carla.
I would also suggest that Nicolle never really did have any idea what voters think about. She was just too self-absorbed to realize it until she was hit over the head with a metaphorical 2×4.
I think Nicolle’s confusion related directly to the Nevada voters’ disregarding of the Boogeyman Button deployed the night before. After all, she’s a Bushie, and the Bushies’ go-to answer for every situation is to press the Boogeyman Button. In fact, they sat on it non-stop for seven years upping the threat level and putting pictures of OBL on the TV whenever they needed a little political boost. When the WaPo story came out early Friday evening with the “Putin loves Bernie” kicker, that crowd was ecstatic, even triumphant on-air. “Now we got him,” they thought.
When the vote came in, and when Democrats frequently moved to Sanders in the second alignment (unlike Iowa), it was a clear message that the Boogeyman Button had no effect. Nicolle cannot understand why. She still has no clue that people need healthcare and a decent wage. She’s a Bushie.
Chris Floyd- Shades of 68: How Far Will Our Elites Go to Stop Sanders?:
http://www.chris-floyd.com/mobile/articles/shades-of-68-how-far-will-our-elites-go-to-stop-sanders-22022020.html
Perhaps this is why Tulsi was carrying a copy of James Douglass’ book.
“JFK and the Unspeakable“?
That thought crosses my mind from time to time, too.
Good pickup!
BS: “Not me, us.”
JC: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
The accountant in me: “Mr/Ms Small-Businessowner, what is your succession planning?”
Noted and move on. Fortune favours the prepared.
Washington State Primary time for me. Vote-by-mail here, so its easy as pie to get it done and in the mail. Why, if I didnt feel like wasting a stamp I could even walk 3 blocks up the road and put it into the box at the grocery store. How civilized.
Not sure the polling #s most recently – I think Bernie is a few points above Biden and gaining. My vote is to Bernie, of course, so he can wring every possible delegate out of this soggy state.
ON TO RICHMOND!! Or, well, on to somewhere anyways….
I just voted by mail for Bernie.
Before I mailed the ballot, I blew numerous kisses toward my neatly filled-in oval, right next to Bernie’s name. THAT was fun!
I come across a lot of Bernie signs on my way to the bus stop. It seems there are even more after the Iowa Laughing Stock-us. I always give a thumbs up to the house and say right on.
No stamps required on our WA State primary ballots…if mailed in the USA…
Just got back from dropping my ballot off for Bernie here in WA State too.
“Five things to know about emerging US, Taliban peace deal”
Looks like the Pentagon is seriously worried about premature withdrawal again like with Syria. There is only one thing to know really, not five. Afghanistan keeps its reputation as “the graveyard of empires.”
And the USA as the empire of graveyards.
Point!
I’m going to use both the previous comments in song lyrics.
Ezra Klein has what I think is a pretty good piece up on what Bernie’s socialism really means
https://www.vox.com/2020/2/24/21149460/bernie-sanders-2020-democratic-primary-socialist-socialism
Helped me put my own leanings in perspective
Pretty good indeed. Thanks!
I think you need to reread that article. It is just another thinly disguised hit piece on Sanders. Ezra Klein has always been a Clinton Democrat and this article is no different.
For instance:
He tries to equate the Sanders movement to the Tea Party because of anger – as though that is all Sanders is about.
He claims Biden talks about Obama’s successes along with Obama’s failures while Sanders only talks about failures.
He claims Sander’s vulnerabilities are his plans to increase taxes (but he doesn’t say WHO Sanders plans to increase taxes on) and the fact that 160 million will lose their private insurance while not saying how many people will actually get access to healthcare – and that includes those 160 million who will loose their private healthcare. Vulnerabilities to who?
And I could go on.
Ezra was also an admirer of the wit and compassion of Paul Ryan. Most Clintonistas aren’t that sick.
Obama had successes?
I realize I am being snarky, but off hand I can think of only a few things I would consider to be worth anything and they got blown away pretty easily. The pull back in Syria that the military put a kibosh on in days And the Iran treaty that got slow walked so it could be killed. Same with the Consumer Protection Bureau.
I am at a loss for anything else that wasn’t forced on him.
Obama’s legistative successes were IMO largely policy failures, though of course, given that the outcomes were more or less what was intended, from the “inside” I’m sure they looked then and still look like “policy successes.”
“Success” is most certainly in the eye of the beholder.
Have we started sanctioning Cuba again? If not then I think that counts.
Of course you have:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/466550-us-imposes-new-sanctions-on-cuba-over-human-rights-venezuela
Krugman v. Richard Wolff on Democracy Now this AM.
Also, my wife had a conversation with Chris Matthews at a “Pete” rally in which Matthews stated that Bernie was a Communist, but today I learned that he thinks Bernie’s campaign represents the Nazi conquest of France. So which is it, Chris? I don’t think MSDNC should fire Chris — just change the name of his show to “Curveball” and put him in the 3AM Sunday slot.
“Pete” should change his last name to Peterson, since he apparently thinks the deficit will prevent us from getting any nice things!
Soon they’ll solve the Communist/Nazi dilemma by reverting to ‘un-American’.
Well, you see, the Nazis had the word “Socialist” right there in their name, so there really is no difference.
(note: this is sarcasm)
thumbs up emoji
3J
(that is my candidate for the text version)
It’s too bad that the terms National Socialist and Worker’s Party got stolen by the N@zis.
RE: Anand Giridharadas on Sanders’ Victory in Nevada: ‘A Wake Up Moment for the American Power Establishment’ Common Dreams
I want to recommend the video in this article as “must watch.” I happened to catch it live yesterday when I was “gawking at the crash scene” that is msnbs after Bernie’s Nevada win. A totally unexpected bonus. Giridharadas was there to “discuss” his nyt op-ed on billionaires that was linked here yesterday.
His takedown of the nitwits brought in to defend the “good” billionaires like soros and bloomberg was merciless, made all the funnier for the fact that they seemed not to know what hit ’em. He also went after msnbs and the media in general.
PS. If you’re in the market for reading material, I can also highly recommend Girid….’s book Winners Take All.
hate to sound skeptical, but about this guy (gir.) and his form of expression, i am. i see his pro-sanders performance (on msnbc) immediately post-nevada as some very skilled positioning of self out in front of a coming great repositioning. i did not read his nyt piece yesterday and have not read his book, but i did just read his long piece for time magazine earlier from the sanders campaign trail. in that article, as with what i just saw on msnbc, he seems in love with his own eloquence, and his observations of ordinary people seem to miss a basic understanding of the situation on the ground. i so much prefer the grounded style of sanders and his team. they are doing the work of challenging the mystique of the media, whereas gir. seems like a creature of it. if he is as shallow as he seems, he’ll do well ($$ and glory) with his new act.
at any rate, it seems i must now prepare to practice acceptance, myself, of a new reality: that all kinds of characters heretofore repellent must be welcomed into the big tent with sanders as the unifier. i’ll probably end up hiding out in the woods to the left of him, eating turnips and griping about his centrism. i sure hope i get that opportunity!
I’m in the same position as you; haven’t read the book, but I did listen to Giridharadas’ description of it. He seems like a critic of the meritocracy from within, which might be worthwhile for people who would never pay attention to a Thomas Frank. At the very least, he has the distinction of having staked out his position long before anyone knew that this Sanders wave was coming.
Re: Roger Waters and Assange:
That video clip is – infuriating. The interviewer interrupts constantly, claims not to have an opinion, never indicates she understands what Waters is saying. Waters holds his temper but it is obvious he is getting frustrated.
Just terrible.
Well another trucking company closes the doors.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/peca
Another Private Equity buyout fail… sad for the employees
New Rising video with Matt Stoller:
Matt Stoller: How the Democratic Party functions as a monopoly
I follow Craig Murray’s writings, but I have no interest in what Roger Waters thinks unless he holding a fund raising concert in support of the cause.
Murray is someone with decades of experience in the area.
Waters is a talented musician.
Hi Matthew. Is this you? https://profile.typepad.com/msaroff
Yes, and I got a blog, https://40yrs.blogspot.com.
I know what you mean, and I wouldn’t turn to Waters as a source of analysis or information. But people like him can, and hopefully do, help lead many to the ideas of writers such as Murray.
Murray’s readership – ?
Pink Floyd’s record sales – over 250 million.
I take it you never listen to his music.
Now im going to animals.
Pink Floyd “Animals” would seem to be a must for every NC reader’s awareness. That speech, not so much. I like that he’s taking a public stance, but he does that so often it’s not worth so much anymore, and like everyone, his views are not always in agreement with my own.
Anti-war to the core though, so go Roger Waters.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/yosemite-fisher_n_5e533bffc5b629695f5c74e1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’ve seen a couple of Fishers in Sequoia NP, the first time I glimpsed one it was coming down a trail towards me, and they kind of resemble a Dachsund in the way they walk.
The reality of a Bernie Presidency is starting to sink in. Health Care Insurance Stocks are diving.
https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=211&f=ind_healthcareplans
Could also be the result of fear of covering potential costly care of Covid19 patients. Or maybe both.
BoyOhBoyOhBoy…
CoViD-19 might be an existential threat to the for-profit-insurers. If claims exceed their reserves and their re-insurance (and that is conceivable — what sensible ROI-minded risk manager is going to advocate hedging against an event the like of which hasn’t happened for over 100 years),… that’s a kind of insolvency, isn’t it?
And who would sign up in the ACA marketplace to a company that
1) didn’t have the funds to pay existing prior-year claims
and
2) was massively jacking up premiums to try to earn its way out of the
hole?
So their customer base would collapse at exactly the wrong time.
The Federal government would enact programs to bail out too-big-to-fail insurers, but would there be anything demanded in return? It would from a public finances perspective amount to nationalization, but in practice one can anticipate that it would be a massive gift to the managers and shareholders of the insolvent organizations.
2020-21 might rhyme with 2008, but with many more fatalities.
History repeats itself, first as easy-listening, and then as death-metal.
History repeats itself, first as easy-listening, and then as death-metal.
I have just stolen that.
So companies who exist solely to earn huge profits by charging people for the service of denying them access to the means to stay alive thus fabulously enriching a handful of their top executives are starting to crack.
Maybe we are making some progress
‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished …
Both TurboTax and HR Block seem to pulling bait and switch schemes. HR Block advertises their “Deluxe Online” product at $29.99 (Fed only), but at the end, I was getting billed for “Deluxe Online Assist” for $59.99. Had to call them and wait 40 minutes in order to get that knocked down to the advertised $29 price. In the meanwhile, I filled out TurboTax and was ready to file there, but noticed a $10 price discrepancy between the advertised and final prices.
Wow this is… absolutely gross.
>https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/23/utterly-shameful-pelosi-slammed-boosting-koch-backed-texas-democrat-over-progressive
As the new left keeps pointing out, Pelosi et. al. are greater impediments to a better world than anybody the Rethugs can throw at us.
“World is approaching coronavirus tipping point, say experts”
The real tipping point is when the credit card, auto loan, mortgage and interest only payments stop arriving.
I don’t have any numbers, but I think a lot of them have stopped already. Especially the auto loans and credit card payments. Student loans too.
When I stop getting those “I want to pay you cash for your house!” offers, I’ll know that the tipping point is near.
+10
Regarding Mattews’ comments on France, German invasion, and Sanders…I’d like like to respond to Mattews by paraphrasing something Clint Eastwood once said in a movie to a black guy:
“Thank you, that’s very Aryian of you, Chris.”
But Eastwood used White instead of Aryian.
The Decline of Religion May Be Slowing
Reminds us all that foxholes bring people closer to God.
One of my Tucson friends was a USAF officer. And, shall we say, he didn’t make his atheism a secret.
It doesn’t, actually. And the idea that it does is an incredibly Western-centric one. Aside from the fact that vast numbers of the Red Army were atheist (there’s a good book called Ivan’s War that covers this a bit), millions upon millions of soldiers throughout history have come from backgrounds that had religious beliefs that were very different from those of the Abrahamic religions. No one in the Imperial Japanese Army fought with any expectation that they’d get to live forever beside the God-Emperor in a heaven, for example. And most of their Chinese opponents had even less of an afterlife expectation.
Reminds me of a story. In the midst of battle, an Army grunt dives into a foxhole. Turns out the unit’s chaplain is already taking cover there. They acknowledge each other, and during a quiet moment the chaplain says “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at my services.” Grunt: “Yeah, I’m an atheist.” Chaplain: “Well you know what they say, there are no atheists in foxholes…. [beat] So get out!”
That said, I am a Methodist, part of that dying mainline tradition we’re all reading about.
I always thought that there were nothing but atheists in foxholes, all the believers having raced to glory with their holy armor and all. Wrong again, I suppose.
WHO says no longer uses “pandemic” category, but virus still emergency
https://news.yahoo.com/says-no-longer-uses-pandemic-075517581.html
Dr Tedros at W.H.O. *taps temple* “Cant have a pandemic if we don’t use that classification anymore”
Having just defended Chris Matthews in another comment, I’ll now undermine it by saying that his recent behavior in general (he’s been quite clearly drunk on live TV multiple times now), and that of the liberal media as a whole, has been eye-opening for me. I thought I was already cynical after four years of unhinged conspiracy mongering. But I’ve reached a whole new level.
Perhaps Matthews fear about being executed in Central Park has validity. Because I’m increasingly understanding the logic of Stalinists and Maoists executing ‘enemies of the people’.
No, of course we shouldn’t kill them. But forcibly firing them and seizing their assets becomes more appealing with each passing day…
Perhaps he is just afraid of losing his job and his paycheck. A fate worse than death.
And perhaps he is afraid of being laughed at by the young people whenever he shows his face in public.
A fate worse than a fate-worse-than-death.
I don’t think he is really literally afraid of being firing squadded in Central Park.
About the antidote . . . is it Costa’s hummingbird? Is it Anna’s hummingbird? The color looks a little closer to pictures of Costa’s hummingbird . . . but I can’t really say. Maybe our host will tell us.