If only there was a better health care system to deal with emergencies …

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.
[Read more…]

The Bernie bro myth has no empirical basis

The myth of the so-called ‘Bernie bros’, that the supporters of Bernie Sanders seem to be particularly prone to making nasty misogynistic attacks on rival candidates and their supporters, seems to be one of those things that will never die. But what evidence is there for this idea? Part of the problem is that the criteria for being a Bernie bro is very vague and getting vaguer with time. Right now, it seems to consist of just two necessary and sufficient conditions: (a) that one must be a supporter of Sanders and (b) one has to have said something bad about other candidates and/or their supporters. Neither gender nor age nor ethnicity nor any other demographic feature seems to be required to be thus classified. This is indeed a wide net that has been cast and it should not be surprising that it should catch people in it. As Robinson Meyer, the person who coined the term later wrote, what we are witnessing is ‘category collapse’, where something that was intended to have very narrow usage has become so elastic as to cease to have any meaning since it could be applied to pretty much anything and anyone.
[Read more…]

The next debate and primaries

This coming Sunday the 15th there will be a debate between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden starting at 8:00 pm Eastern time and it will be a good occasion to compare where the two candidates stand on key issues, especially now that chronic interrupter Pete Buttigieg has bowed out and we will be able to hear what each person says. Unfortunately, the debate will be hosted and moderated by CNN which has not covered itself with glory so far in its political coverage, so we can expect the questions to be inane and slanted in a way that disparages Sanders, just like the last time the network moderated a debate.

Then the following Tuesday the 17th there will be four primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio for a total of 577 delegates. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won all four of them suggesting that this will be difficult terrain for Sanders before the subsequent primaries where he has a better chance.

Live by the stock market, die by the stock market

Up until now, Donald Trump felt that he had a sure-fire way of deflecting criticisms of his performance as president. He would point to the record levels of the stock market as ‘proof’ that he was the greatest president ever, despite the fact that the markets have been steadily rising since April 2009, soon after Barack Obama became president and long before he took office in January 2017. Trump also found that he could boost stock prices by making promises about actions he would take concerning trade or China even if those actions did not materialize. These are his favorite tactics, combined with labeling any bad news as fake manufactured by an adversarial press, He gloated over the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high of 29,568 just a month ago.
[Read more…]

Using common sense about the coronavirus

Donald Trump has suspended travel from the European Union starting Friday and lasting for 30 days. Meanwhile the NBA has suspended its season after one Utah Jazz player tested positive. And in other news, Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive while filming in Australia.

As is often the case when some kind of epidemic appears on the horizon, especially if it originates in a foreign country, a lot of people flip out with a “Oh my god, we’re all going to die!” response and start stocking up on supplies for a long confinement, somewhat like preppers do. But there is no need to panic if you cannot find hand sanitizers and face masks. If you are worried, there are some very simple things you can do.
[Read more…]

Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison

The sentence was handed down after he was convicted on counts of a first-degree criminal sex act for forcing oral sex on an assistant and third-degree rape of another woman .The judge rejected a plea by the 67-year old former media mogul’s attorney for a minimum sentence of five years based on his supposedly poor health (he came to court in a wheelchair).

Lawyers for Weinstein pleaded with the judge for the minimum sentence of five years in prison. Donna Rotunno, his chief defense attorney, cited his work in the film industry as well as his failing health as mitigating factors.

The sex offender also addressed the court personally in a rambling address in which he expressed remorse as well as implying he had been “confused” in his dealings with the women. “I’m totally confused, men are confused about all of this issue.”

Weinstein went on to say: “I really feel remorse for this situation, I feel it deeply in my heart,” adding: “We may have different truths.”

At the end of the proceedings, Weinstein was cuffed to his wheelchair and led away. Several of the accusers who had testified could be seen at that moment sobbing.

Within a few hours of the stunning sentence being delivered, Weinstein was hit with a further withering blow. The district attorney in Los Angeles announced that it has begun extradition proceedings to bring him to face two charges relating to two additional west coast accusers.

It may be true that some men are ‘confused’ by some aspects of their relationships with women, but the things that Weinstein was accused of doing were so egregious and took place on so many occasions with so many different victims that the idea that he was confused as to whether his conduct fell within accepted norms of behavior is hard to accept.

The once and future Taliban

The longest war in US history is in the process of finally winding down, at least as far as the US is concerned. The US has begun the first stage of the process of withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600, one of the elements of the peace deal signed by the US with the Taliban. Another element is that the Taliban begin negotiations with the US-backed Afghan government to begin today in Oslo and that the government release 5,000 Taliban prisoners it is holding. The Afghan president signed a decree yesterday authrorizing the release of just 1,500 prisoners. It is not clear if this will satisfy the Taliban enough to start the talks.
[Read more…]