2019-12-01: News Headlines

Lynda Carson (2019-12-01). Pop Up Care Village at Oakland's Frank H. Ogawa Plaza on Wed. Dec. 4, 2019. indybay.org The Pop Up Care Village includes free food, clothing, showers, haircuts, acupuncture, art & music, animal care, mental health services, social services, medical services, legal aid, and harm reduction.

Staff (2019-12-01). Last-Minute Loophole Could Undermine Texas Law Against Surprise Medical Bills. truthout.org Texas' bipartisan effort to shield patients from surprise medical bills could be weaker than lawmakers intended when it takes effect Jan. 1. | Earlier this year, lawmakers from both parties came together on legislation to protect people in state-regulated health plans from getting outrageous bills for out-of-network care. The new law, known as Senate Bill 1264, creates an arbitration process for insurers and providers to negotiate fair prices in those cases. The intention of the law is to estab…

Julie Hollar (2019-12-01). We're Still Waiting for 'Early and Often' Climate Debate Questions. commondreams.org Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former Vice President Joe Biden, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raise their hands during the Democratic Presidential Debate at Texas Southern University's Health and PE Center on Sept. 12, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Julian Rose (2019-12-01). Poland Proposes Raising Carcinogenic 5G Emission Levels as a "National Norm" globalresearch.ca Hundreds of letters are pouring into the office of Polish Minister of Health, Lukaz Szumowski, from Polish citizens and people all over the world, responding to Mr Szumowski's proposition to exponentially raise the officially recognised limit for cell phone …

The Canary (2019-11-30). Labour pledges to make England more cycling-friendly. thecanary.co England would become one of the best countries in the world for walking and cycling if Labour wins the general election, the party has promised.A new healthy streets programme, modelled on towns in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, would aim to make towns and cities cleaner and greener.Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: I love walking and cycling so I'm proud of the policies we've announced today to give millions of people the freedom to walk and cycle along convenient, attractive routes, safe from traffic danger. | These policies will slash carbon emissions, tackle air pollution, save our NHS billions and boos…

F. William Engdahl (2019-11-30). China's African Swine Fever (ASF) "Spreading Globally"? globalresearch.ca The worst outbreak of fatal African Swine Fever disease ever has devastated the world's largest pig population, that of China, over the past months. Now it is spreading to neighboring states and even threatens the United States pig herds. The …

Jessica Corbett, staff writer (2019-11-30). NHS Staff to Lead Protest Against Trump During His Trip to the UK Amid Rising Privatization Concerns. commondreams.org Nurses and doctors from the United Kingdom's National Health Service are planning to lead a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump next week amid mounting concerns about potential privatization of the U.K.'s decades-old public healthcare system. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Barry Mayhew (2019-11-29). The American Health Care Dilemma. dissidentvoice.org That the U.S. is a nation divided is a statement few knowledgeable individuals would challenge. These divisions have been exacerbated, to some degree, by the impending 2020 election wherein Americans will go to the polls to elect their next President and a cadre of senators, congressmen and a multitude of lesser known local politicians. These …

Bill Boyarsky (2019-11-29). Unions Dig In to Protect Hard-Fought Health Plans. truthdig.com Deep under Los Angeles, laborers are busy digging more subway lines to connect a complex and diverse populace, with whom they have sometimes conflicting goals. While changing the city, union workers like those from Laborers Union Local 300 will also have much to do with rebuilding a health care system that is presently unfair, overpriced and cumbersome. | Local 300, with more than 8,000 members, is affiliated with the 100,000-member Los Angeles/Orange County Building Trades unions. Together, the unions are a considerable political force in Southern California. Union leaders, believing they have already negotiated…

United Nations (2019-11-28). Armed groups kill Ebola health workers in eastern DR Congo. news.un.org Deadly night-time attacks by armed groups have once again claimed the lives of frontline healthworkers helping to confront the deadly Ebola virus in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

Eds. (2019-11-27). Australian bushfire crisis spreads as PM denies climate change link. mronline.org Even before summer has begun, bushfires and toxic smoke have threatened the lives, health and homes of millions of people in nearly every Australian state and territory this week. The fire emergencies that first erupted two weeks ago in two states have spread across the country, worsened by dust storms, asthma alerts and electricity blackouts. | Source

United Nations (2019-11-27). WHO working to save lives following powerful earthquake in Albania. news.un.org Staff from the World Health Organization (WHO) are assisting authorities in Albania following an earthquake which killed at least 25 people and left more than 650 injured.

United Nations (2019-11-26). Empowering people living with HIV 'will end the epidemic', says AIDS agency chief. news.un.org When people living with HIV actively participate in their own care, new infections decline and more affected people access treatment, according to a new report launched on Tuesday by UNAIDS, the United Nations agency leading the fight against the disease.

Roger Bybee (2019-11-26). Riding Out for Medicare for All with a Back Full of Arrows. progressive.org The barrage of false narratives being fired from influential Democrats, including Barack Obama, is obscuring Medicare for All's unique programmatic strength and broad political support in rhetorical smoke.

Staff (2019-11-25). Headlines for November 25, 2019. democracynow.org Navy Secretary Ousted amid Dispute over Accused War Criminal Eddie Gallagher, Released State Dept. Emails Implicate Pompeo in Giuliani Ukraine Plot, Bloomberg Jumps into 2020 Race by Buying Millions in Campaign Ads, Sen. Graham Blocked Armenian Genocide Resolution at White House Request, Ruth Bader Ginsburg Released from Hospital in Good Health, Hong Kong: Pro-Democracy Candidates Win Nearly 90% Seats in Local Elections, Security Forces Raid Offices of Egypt's Last Independent Media Outlet, Iraqi Security Forces Kill 13 Protesters amid Anti-Government Demonstrations, Israel Deporting Head of Human Rights Watch's…

Ahmed Abdulkareem (2019-11-22). In WWII-Era Fashion, the Saudi-led Coalition is Weaponizing Disease in Yemen. mintpressnews.com TAIZ, YEMEN — Beyond the devastation it has caused on the back of tens of thousands of airstrikes, a crippling blockade and the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure, the Saudi-led coalition supported by the United States has sparked an outbreak of disease and epidemics in Yemen in a manner not seen since World War II. | Yemeni activist Aseel Sweid told MintPress News how a young boy, Abdulkarim al-Ma'amari, "died of dengue fever after it spread with alarming speed in Taiz, threatening many innocents." Sweid added that three of his own brothers had been infected with dengue. "There are a huge amo…

Neema Singh Guliani (2019-11-21). Congress Just Temporarily Extended the Government's Spying Powers. aclu.org Congress today temporarily extended the NSA's spying powers that time and again have been used to violate our rights. Disturbingly, this three-month extension was snuck into a broader funding bill, forcing members of Congress to choose between extending this program and causing a government shutdown. The extension is an unnecessary lifeline to spying programs that are plagued with compliance violations, have no proven intelligence value, and violate our rights. | Under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, one of the spying | powers extended, the government believes it has the right to collect our | personal inform…

Jess Pernsteiner (2019-11-20). Make Dental Care a Health Care Benefit. progressive.org Dental care is not a luxury—it is essential for overall health.

Fight Back (2019-11-19). All out for relaunching of the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression. fightbacknews.org Fight Back! interviews Frank Chapman on the November 22-24 Chicago conference to refound the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression. | Fight Back!: Could you say a few words about what the conference to relaunch the National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression will look like? | Frank Chapman: The most powerful incentive for the relaunching of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is the national epidemic in police crimes and state violence being perpetrated against Black and brown people, LBGTQ and trans people. Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than th…

Matt Bruenig (2019-11-17). Warren's Head Tax Is Not More Popular Than A Payroll Tax. peoplespolicyproject.org As we know by now, Elizabeth Warren's Medicare head tax proposal is a regressive mess ( I, II, III, IV). Warren's team knows this. The goal of the proposal i…

Matt Bruenig (2019-11-17). CAP's Topher Spiro Is Trying to Deceive Journalists By Lying. peoplespolicyproject.org It's been fun to see how the Center for American Progress (CAP) navigates this year's presidential election. For insider political reasons, they can't support Biden or Sanders. But for a long time, it was unclear who the alternative candidate they could support would be. | When Kamala Harris was rising, CAP's staff was doing overtime boosting her on Twitter and in the press, including boosting Harris's absurd health care proposal. But Harris's collapse put an end to that strategy. Recently Warren has risen as the alternative and so CAP has been working to promote her campaign, which puts CAP in the comical positi…

Matt Bruenig (2019-11-03). Warren's Medicare Head Tax Would Be About $9,500. peoplespolicyproject.org On Friday, I wrote a piece arguing that Elizabeth Warren's use of an employer head tax was not a good way to fund Medicare for All and that instead the more conventional choices of income and payroll taxes would be better. The reason they are better is because income and payroll taxes are based on how much income you receive while a head tax charges the same dollar amount for every worker regardless of their income, making it much more onerous on the lower and middle classes. | This point holds…

Matt Bruenig (2019-11-02). What Is a Middle Class Tax Hike? Am I Losing My Mind? peoplespolicyproject.org I have been swimming in the Medicare for All waters for over a decade now, going back to when I worked on the Ralph Nader presidential campaign that made Medicare for All its number one issue. And during this time, I developed a specific understanding of what we might call the M4A Financing Problem. | The Problem: | The M4A Financing Problem, in simple terms, is that even if you bring in existing federal spending on health care, existing state spending on health care, and a bunch of new rich-people taxes, you still fall short of financing the program. Thus to actually complete the financing, you have to u…

Matt Bruenig (2019-11-01). Warren's Perpetual Medicare Head Tax Is Unworkable and Bad. peoplespolicyproject.org Elizabeth Warren released her Medicare for All financing plan today. The main purpose of the proposal appears to be to find a plan that you can message as "not increasing middle class taxes," which is of course a nonsensical goal insofar, as Warren herself has said, what matters is middle class health care costs, not whether you categorize those costs as premiums, taxes, or out-of-pocket expenses. | Nonetheless, bowing to the stupid media discourse on this, Warren put forward a financing pro…

Matt Bruenig (2019-10-24). New Poll Finds Voters Strongly Oppose Employer Insurance. peoplespolicyproject.org Many centrist pundits have convinced themselves that Medicare for All (M4A) is unpopular because, when you include certain details about M4A in polling questions, support levels drop significantly. But in convincing themselves of this, centrist pundits seem remarkably incurious about whether this same thing occurs for employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) when you include certain details about it in polling questions. | Earlier this week, Emerson Polling helped answer this question when it aske…

Paul Kawika Martin (2019-06-19). House Casts Historic Vote to Repeal Authorization for Endless War. peaceaction.org Washington, D.C. — June 19, 2019 — In response to the House of Representatives passing H.R. 2740 (Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Legislative Branch, Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2020), which includes language to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) eight months after …