After relentlessly attacking the idea of a universal, single-payer, health care system such as Medicare For All, that Bernie Sanders has been pushing for so long against even the opposition of the Democratic party establishment, as a Utopian, pie-in-the-sky, fantasy that would bankrupt the country, the corporate media is suddenly realizing that such a system would have resulted in a much better and more coherent response to pandemics that the utterly inept, confusing, and chaotic system than what the current US system is able to provide.
If only there was someone running for President who was advocating for this single payer system 🤔 https://t.co/4fIm3ks8jv
— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) March 12, 2020
I was listening to an interview with the Italian ambassador to the US on the radio today and he said that in Italy, which has been hard hit by the pandemic, anyone who wants to get tested can do so free of charge, unlike in the US where the tests are in short supply even so long after the outbreak. Katie Porter, an excellent but under-recognized congresswoman from California, had to rigorously grill and twist the arm of the director of the CDC to use the power that he already has to grudgingly agree to make the tests free to people in the US.
I did the math: a full battery of coronavirus testing costs at minimum $1,331.
I also did the legal research: the Administration has the authority to make testing free for every American TODAY.
I secured a commitment from a high-level Trump official that they’d actually do it. pic.twitter.com/RmolCtmNbG
— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) March 12, 2020
Meanwhile, Donald Trump and his family have been in contact several times with people who have tested positive for the Covid-19 virus but for some reason he keeps saying that he has not been tested and seems proud of it. This leaves open three possibilities. (a) He thinks that just being tested is somehow a sign of weakness that undercuts the image he likes to project of being a manly man. (b) He has been tested and is positive, a result that he thinks is even worse for his image and so he is hiding the results. (c) He believes that this whole thing is a conspiracy to tank the stick market and make him look bad.
I am not sure which option is the worst.
Ah, but Mano, have you considered the fact that Krystal Ball has criticised people who have criticised Bernie? That, I am told, makes her a Bernie Bro and proves correct all statements made about Bernie Bros. And here you are quoting here, the nerve of you!
Mano, you might underestimate Trump’s megalomania. It could very well be that (d) he thinks his immune system is so superb that he can’t get COVID-19.
Perhaps we just have to back up a step, before we start making comparisons to Canada, the UK, Denmark, and the like. Maybe the message will sink if we point at other countries like ours, which don’t have some kind of universal healthcare system.
The red countries on the map, like the US, are easy to spot.
In South America, there’s Suriname.
Africa: Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and a few more small countries
Middle East & Central Asia: Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan
Southeast Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia
I think what the “reasonable moderates” need to explain is how anyone in their right mind could possibly believe that a big, powerful, wealthy country like the US can’t be one of the green countries. I will let countries like Iraq and Afghanistan off the hook for now, because they were fucking invaded by us in our multi-trillion-dollar wars. Somehow, we had the money for that. It just never ends. (2:14 of gold from Bernie, on C-Span in 1992)
I almost don’t want to mention it because it’s too perfect, but you mis-typed “stock market” as “stick market” lol! That’s such a great image (it’s a good day when the stick goes up, bad when stick goes down) and perfectly belittling that you should leave it in and begin calling it that from now on!
The stick goes up!
In the Fox Business clip: Trump sent Lou Dobbs an autographed chart of the Dow stick going up … if you only look at the brief time after he declared a national emergency until the end of the day. Dobbs rejoices that the Dow is “skyrocketing.”
In the real world, it’s still down over 6,300 points from where it was a month ago.
I just can’t imagine why the president would spend his time on such things. Didn’t he have a round of golf to play? Doesn’t he know Lou Dobbs will lie for him no matter what? Aren’t there some weather charts somewhere that need the sharpie treatment?
Mano,
Our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau has a wife who has tested positive for covid-19 and has not been tested.
Why? He says that the expert advice that he has received is that it would have no purpose unless he shows some symptoms. He is in self-quarantine at the moment and is working from home.
In Trump’s case, Jörg @2 may have the answer.
With the Republicans running things, soon all that will be left of the stock market will be a literal stick market. How can I catch a pigeon or rat for dinner if I don’t have a stick?
Let’s hope that, in tomorrow’s debate, Sanders can make the case for M4A by showing clearly how it would have worked much better to mitigate the current crisis.
It’s clearly a really good guess that the CNN folk will ask, “But how will you pay for it?”; so Bernie needs to have a good answer ready that doesn’t seem to be waffling.
Duh, of course these tests are free in Europe. In Latvia, people who want a test and own a car can drive to a specific location where they get a test for free. Those who don’t own a car can call doctors who will drive to their home and take samples for the test.
If the tests aren’t free, poorer people won’t get them, thus infected people won’t find out that they are infected, and the virus will spread more. That’s just basic common sense. Sure, not giving people tests can allow an Angry Cheeto to pretend that there are fewer cases in his country, but he can drag time only for a few days until everybody has gotten infected, and the whole country gets paralyzed.
Here in Alberta the pandemic is hitting just as our conservative government is preparing to make massive cuts to our healthcare system. I understand the desire for universal healthcare, but all I can think of is that the Republicans and their stacked courts aren’t going to let any such thing find the foothold that Medicare and Social Security found. If it does, then the GOP will have to do the long-term starvation of the system that conservatives in Canada and the UK have been doing.
Andreas Avester @10
I just heard on our local TV news that 127 people have been tested in Missouri. We have a population of over six million. Republicans and neolibs who don’t want to “pay for it” are going to kill us all. (That’s intended to be hyperbole. I hope it is.)