Daily Archives: December 3, 2019

2019-12-03: News Headlines

David Ruccio (2019-12-03). Dying too young. mronline.org If there ever was an argument in support of Medicare for All it's this: despite spending more on health care than any other country, the United States has seen increasing mortality and falling life expectancy for people ages 25 to 64, who should be in the prime of their lives. | Source

United Nations (2019-12-03). Only one in five countries has a healthcare strategy to deal with climate change. news.un.org Protecting people's health from climate change dangers such as heat stress, storms and tsunamis has never been more important, yet most countries are doing too little about it, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

IMEMC News (2019-12-03). Two Hunger Striking Detainees Face Serious Health Complications. imemc.org The Palestinian Detainees Committee has reported that two detainees, holding ongoing hunger strikes in Israeli prisons, are facing serious, life-threatening complications, especially after they stopped drinking water three days ago. The Committee stated that the two detainees, Ahmad Zahran and Mosab al-Hindi, are held in the Nitzan al-Ramla prison, under …

WSWS (2019-12-03). Harvard University grad students set to strike over pay, grievance procedures, healthcare. wsws.org Harvard officials' hard line in relation to collective bargaining on grad students' pay is in line with a recent NLRB proposal that would curb the establishment of graduate student unions at private universities.

Sarah Jaffe (2019-12-03). What the U.K. Election Tells Us About Universal Health Care. progressive.org Across the political spectrum, the British are clear: American-style health care is a terrible idea.

WSWS (2019-12-03). Samoa: Death toll mounts in devastating measles epidemic. wsws.org The entirely preventable outbreak, which has killed 55 people, is an indictment of the governments of Samoa and also New Zealand, where the outbreak originated.

Eoin Higgins, staff writer (2019-12-03). 'So If You're Poor, You're Dead'? Watch These Brits Gasp When They Find Out Cost of Healthcare in the United States. commondreams.org "The cost of American healthcare is literally unimaginable to most British people." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…

Eds. (2019-12-02). Are numbers of species a true measure of ecosystem health? mronline.org A recent study that found no general decline in the numbers of species in individual ecosystems has sparked controversy. Some scientists see it as evidence of how species adapt, while others see it as a sign that common invasive species, such as rats and mosquitoes, are the real winners. | Source

United Nations (2019-12-02). Plants, the 'core basis for life on Earth', under increasing threat, warns UN food agency. news.un.org Plants, which make up 80 percent of the food we eat, and produce 98 percent of the oxygen we breathe, are "under constant and increasing threat from pests and diseases", the UN food agency, FAO, warned on Tuesday, at an event at the agency's headquarters in Rome, to designate 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health.

United Nations (2019-12-02). Political solution 'long overdue' to protect the children of eastern Ukraine. news.un.org Nearly half a million children in eastern Ukraine continue to face "grave risks" to their physical health and psychological well-being, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.

Dave Zirin (2019-12-01). Edge of Sports: NFL Health Care's Bitter Fruit. progressive.org Why lineman Trent Williams turned against his team not over the normal issues of money or managerial problems, but over health care.

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 …

WSWS (2019-11-29). Australia: Ongoing health fallout from 2018 toxic chemical blaze. wsws.org Firefighters and residents are continuing to suffer ill effects from the huge fire in Melbourne's West Footscray.

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.

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.

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…

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…

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 …

2019-12-03: Social Media Postees

Please be social by posting these 'POSTEES' on social media!

Dying too young
David Ruccio | mronline.org | 2019-12-03
If there ever was an argument in support of Medicare for All it's this: despite spending more on health care than any other country, the United States has seen increasing mortality and falling life expectancy for people ages 25 to 64, who should be in the prime of their lives. | Source…
mronline.org/2019/12/03/dying-too-young/

Only one in five countries has a healthcare strategy to deal with climate change
United Nations | news.un.org | 2019-12-03
Protecting people's health from climate change dangers such as heat stress, storms and tsunamis has never been more important, yet most countries are doing too little about it, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/12/1…

What the U.K. Election Tells Us About Universal Health Care
Sarah Jaffe | progressive.org | 2019-12-03
Across the political spectrum, the British are clear: American-style health care is a terrible idea.
progressive.org/dispatches/uk-election-u…

Two Hunger Striking Detainees Face Serious Health Complications
IMEMC News | imemc.org | 2019-12-03
The Palestinian Detainees Committee has reported that two detainees, holding ongoing hunger strikes in Israeli prisons, are facing serious, life-threatening complications, especially after they stopped drinking water three days ago. The Committee stated that the two detainees, Ahmad Zahran and Mosab al-Hindi, are held in the Nitzan al-Ramla prison, under …
imemc.org/article/two-hunger-striking-de…

Harvard University grad students set to strike over pay, grievance procedures, healthcare
wsws.org | 2019-12-03
Harvard officials' hard line in relation to collective bargaining on grad students' pay is in line with a recent NLRB proposal that would curb the establishment of graduate student unions at private universities.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/03/harv…

Samoa: Death toll mounts in devastating measles epidemic
wsws.org | 2019-12-03
The entirely preventable outbreak, which has killed 55 people, is an indictment of the governments of Samoa and also New Zealand, where the outbreak originated.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/03/samo…

'So If You're Poor, You're Dead'? Watch These Brits Gasp When They Find Out Cost of Healthcare in the United States
Eoin Higgins, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2019-12-03
"The cost of American healthcare is literally unimaginable to most British people." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files…
commondreams.org/news/2019/12/03/so-if-y…

Plants, the 'core basis for life on Earth', under increasing threat, warns UN food agency
United Nations | news.un.org | 2019-12-02
Plants, which make up 80 percent of the food we eat, and produce 98 percent of the oxygen we breathe, are "under constant and increasing threat from pests and diseases", the UN food agency, FAO, warned on Tuesday, at an event at the agency's headquarters in Rome, to designate 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/12/1…

Political solution 'long overdue' to protect the children of eastern Ukraine
United Nations | news.un.org | 2019-12-02
Nearly half a million children in eastern Ukraine continue to face "grave risks" to their physical health and psychological well-being, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/12/1…

Are numbers of species a true measure of ecosystem health?
Eds. | mronline.org | 2019-12-02
A recent study that found no general decline in the numbers of species in individual ecosystems has sparked controversy. Some scientists see it as evidence of how species adapt, while others see it as a sign that common invasive species, such as rats and mosquitoes, are the real winners. | Source…
mronline.org/2019/12/02/are-numbers-of-s…

Edge of Sports: NFL Health Care's Bitter Fruit
Dave Zirin | progressive.org | 2019-12-01
Why lineman Trent Williams turned against his team not over the normal issues of money or managerial problems, but over health care.
progressive.org/magazine/edge-of-sports-…

Australia: Ongoing health fallout from 2018 toxic chemical blaze
wsws.org | 2019-11-29
Firefighters and residents are continuing to suffer ill effects from the huge fire in Melbourne's West Footscray.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/12/03/fire…

The American Health Care Dilemma
Barry Mayhew | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-11-29
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 …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/11/the-american-…

Armed groups kill Ebola health workers in eastern DR Congo
United Nations | news.un.org | 2019-11-28
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.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/11/1…

WHO working to save lives following powerful earthquake in Albania
United Nations | news.un.org | 2019-11-27
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.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/11/1…

Headlines for November 25, 2019
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-11-25
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…
www.democracynow.org/2019/11/25/headline…

Congress Just Temporarily Extended the Government's Spying Powers
Neema Singh Guliani | aclu.org | 2019-11-21
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…
aclu.org/news/national-security/congress…

Warren's Head Tax Is Not More Popular Than A Payroll Tax
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-11-17
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…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/11/17/warr…

CAP's Topher Spiro Is Trying to Deceive Journalists By Lying
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-11-17
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…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/11/17/caps…

Warren's Medicare Head Tax Would Be About $9,500
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-11-03
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…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/11/03/warr…

What Is a Middle Class Tax Hike? Am I Losing My Mind?
Matt Bruenig | peoplespolicyproject.org | 2019-11-02
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…
peoplespolicyproject.org/2019/11/01/what…