2019-12-26: News Headlines

Staff (2019-12-26). Michael Moore: Americans Pay More for Healthcare Than Others, But "We Don't Call It a Tax" democracynow.org We continue our interview with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore about election 2020 and some of the major issues for voters. Long before Medicare for All became a rallying cry in the Democratic Party, Moore's 2007 film "Sicko" diagnosed the shortcomings of the for-profit American healthcare system and called for a system of universal healthcare. "The real question never gets asked. They always want to pin them on how much is it going to cost in taxes," Moore says of debate moderators who ask whether Democratic presidential candidates will raise taxes to pay for Medicare for All.

Staff (2019-12-26). Michael Moore: US Pays More for Health Care, Doesn't Call It a Tax. truthout.org We continue our interview with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore about election 2020 and some of the major issues for voters. Long before Medicare for All became a rallying cry in the Democratic Party, Moore's 2007 film "Sicko" diagnosed the shortcomings of the for-profit American healthcare system and called for a system of universal healthcare. "The real question never gets asked. They always want to pin them on how much is it going to cost in taxes," Moore says of debate moderators who ask whe…

teleSUR (2019-12-26). McDonald's Franchise Violated Safety Laws: Peruvian Watchdog. telesurenglish.net Peru ¥s labor watchdog has found McDonald's Corp ¥s Latin America franchisee Arcos Dorados guilty of six "very serious" violations of local safety and health laws following the deaths of two employees in a restaurant kitchen. | RELATED: | Peru: McDonald's Shuts for Inspection After Employee Deaths | The Labor Ministry's regulating body (Sunafil) prop…

Binoy Kampmark (2019-12-25). Medical Opinion, Torture and Julian Assange. counterpunch.org On November 27 this year, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, delivered an address to the German Bundestag outlining his approach to understanding the mental health of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. These comprised two parts, the initial stage covering his diplomatic asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy, the second dealing with his formal detention in More

Staff (2019-12-25). In 2020, It's Time to Make Universal Health Care a Human Right. truthout.org I don't know about you, but everyone I know these days is struggling with something: with their health or the health of a loved one, with their finances or their career, with an addiction or a relationship — even with the nature of existence itself. That's life, right? True, but something more is fueling these struggles, something harder to define, something that makes already difficult problems feel impossible to bear. Most of us put on a brave face each morning and attempt to be cheerful, but an unde…

Colin Todhunter (2019-12-25). The Right to Healthy Food: Poisoned with Pesticides. counterpunch.org Environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason has just written an open letter addressed to three senior officials in Britain: John Gardiner, Under Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the British government; Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England; and Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and More

Staff (2019-12-24). Sanders and Omar Call on OSHA to Release Amazon's Injury Records. truthout.org This story was originally published by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast. | Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota are calling on the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to provide…

Staff (2019-12-24). In Medical Billing, Fraudulent Charges Weirdly Pass as Legal. truthout.org Much of what we accept as legal in medical billing would be regarded as fraud in any other sector. | I have been circling around this conclusion for the past five years, as I've listened to patients' stories while covering health care as a journalist and author. Now, after a summer of firsthand experience — my husband was in a bike crash in July — it's time to call out this fact head-on. Many of the Democratic candidates are talking about practical fixes for our high-priced health care system, and…

WSWS (2019-12-24). Trump slashes Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico. wsws.org President Trump personally intervened in last week's spending talks to reduce funding for Puerto Rico, which has been plagued by recession and ruthless social inequality.

Jake Johnston (2019-12-23). Sanders report shows how Millennial generation is 'being punished with crushing student debt and low-paying jobs'. mronline.org "In the richest country in the history of the world, we have an obligation to turn this around and make sure our kids live healthier and better lives than we do." | Source

Staff (2019-12-23). "The First Cell": Dr. Azra Raza on Why the "Slash-Poison-Burn Approach" to Cancer Has Failed. democracynow.org Slash, poison, burn. That's what a leading cancer doctor calls the protocol of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. We spend $150 billion each year treating cancer, yet a patient with cancer is as likely to die of it today — with a few exceptions — as one was 50 years ago. Today we spend the hour with renowned cancer doctor, Dr. Azra Raza, author of the new book, "The First Cell: And the Human Costs of Pursuing Cancer to the Last." She argues that experiments and the funding for eradicating cancer look at the disease when it is in its later stages, when the cancer has grown and spread. Instead, she sa…

Colin Todhunter (2019-12-23). The Right to Healthy Food: Poisoned with Pesticides. dissidentvoice.org Environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason has just written an open letter addressed to three senior officials in Britain: John Gardiner, Under Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the British government; Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England; and Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and …

news.un (2019-12-23). Quality immunization and surveillance help stop polio outbreaks in three African countries: WHO. news.un.org Three African countries have halted recent polio outbreaks which indicates that the disease can be stopped elsewhere in the region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

WSWS (2019-12-23). Australia: Toxic air from bushfires rated a "public health emergency" wsws.org Health professionals have called on governments to take action amid record levels of bushfire haze in towns and cities.

RT (2019-12-22). 'Both are venomous snakes': Surgeon who performed 1st lung transplant on terminally-ill vaper says it's as bad as cigs. rt.com A teen athlete terminally ill from vaping has been saved with a double lung transplant, the first of the epidemic's victims to receive the procedure. The doctor who did the surgery tells RT that vaping is as deadly as smoking. | "Both of them are a type of venomous snake," Dr. Hassan Nemeh, surgical director of thoracic organ transplant at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit told RT. "I don't know if a snake is more venomous than the other — if a bite kills someone by a mamba or a cobra I'm not sure which is worse. I think both of them are bad for you, though." | Nemeh performed a life-saving double-lung tr…

Binoy Kampmark (2019-12-21). Medical Opinion, Torture, and Julian Assange. dissidentvoice.org On November 27 this year, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, delivered an address to the German Bundestag outlining his approach to understanding the mental health of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. These comprised two parts, the initial stage covering his diplomatic asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy, the second dealing with his formal detention in …

Mark Gruenberg (2019-12-20). Sanders, Warren keep class central to debate; raise opponents' reliance on billionaires. peoplesworld.org LOS ANGELES—It took an hour and a half for them to warm up and stop being too polite, but seven Democratic presidential hopefuls spent the last half of their Dec. 19 debate in Los Angeles mixing it up over campaign financing and health care, while one—Tom Steyer, the richest—made an unexpected (and unconvincing) bid for …

news.un (2019-12-20). Friday's Daily Brief: Pope Francis, Lesotho, Iran, world corruption. news.un.org Our top stories for Friday include: Pope Francis receives the UN chief in Rome, Lesotho famine threat, concern for jailed Iranian protestors, and strengthened global action to prevent corruption.

Staff (2019-12-19). Headlines for December 19, 2019. democracynow.org President Trump Impeached for Abuse of Power & Obstruction of Congress, Trump Slams FBI, Democrats & Impeachment at Battle Creek Rally, McConnell Pushes Through 11 Federal Judge Nominations, DOJ Inspector General Testifies About FBI's Carter Page Surveillance, 7 Democratic Presidential Candidates to Take to Debate Stage in L.A. Tonight, Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Part of Affordable Care Act, Australia Protesters Pitch Tents Outside PM House over Climate Crisis, Report: U.N. Peacekeepers Fathered & Abandoned Hundreds of Children in Haiti, DRC: Families Sue Apple, Google, Microsoft over Children's Deaths in…

Melissa Grant (2019-12-18). A Tennessee City Banned Surgical Abortion Within the City Limits. We're Taking Them to Court. aclu.org For 30 years, I have | worked in reproductive health care. In my current role as Chief Operating | Officer of carafem, a nonprofit with a national network of health centers, I | know the difference compassionate and comprehensive reproductive health care | makes in the lives of our clients. I have witnessed the personal impact when | people who have the legal right to have a child or to have an abortion are denied | those rights due to outrageous societal barriers. Abortion providers are used | to opposition, but we've never experienced the kind of explicit targeting we | received from politicians in the city…

Nick Goodell (2019-12-12). Teaching assistants in Decatur, Il. struggle for better healthcare. liberationnews.org "DFTA all the way!"

Martin Fleck (2019-12-09). On Human Rights Day, Let's Abolish Nuclear Weapons. progressive.org A nuclear war would create one of the worst humanitarian crises imaginable, one for which no nation would have an adequate emergency or health response.

Liberation staff (2019-12-04). Bronx speakout demands closure of fake abortion clinic. liberationnews.org Dozens stopped to listen and speak with the protesters about reproductive justice and the need for affordable public healthcare.

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…

John Pilger (2019-10-24). Julian Assange's Extradition Case is a Show Trial. zcomm.org Interview on the lack of mainstream media coverage of Julian's persecution, his health and conditions in Belmarsh prison, CIA spying on Julian Assange and more…

Bernie Sanders (2019-10-15). We Will Make History. zcomm.org Sanders rededicates himself to the struggle to the struggle to guarantee health care for all, make public colleges and universities, tuition free cancel student debt, and deal with climate change, criminal justice reform and immigration reform…

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 …