Ian56 Tweeted:
Wut????? Tulsi Gabbard suspends presidential campaign, endorses totally corrupt Wall Street Corporate Puppet, War Criminal, #CreepyJoe Biden who has Senile Dementia rt.com/usa/483521-tul Joe Biden should be in Jail for Corruption, War Crimes and Treason
Good for Ian for breaking with the stupidity of the Michael Traceys. What Ms. Gabbard did was outrageous.
Joe Biden is a fake and so is Tulsi Gabbard. Timothy Faust (THE BAFFLER) examines Mr. Biden's healthcare 'plan' and finds it lacking:
This was supposed to be an analysis of Joe Biden’s health care plan. Except—Joe Biden doesn’t have a health care plan. Not really. His campaign website has a section labeled “HEALTH CARE,” but it offers little of substance or meaning. Instead, he stays true to his promise that “nothing would fundamentally change” and puts forward a policy slate so useless that analyzing it feels like trying to teach a dog to play checkers.
Biden’s health care plan mirrors the rest of his campaign in that it presents no new or useful ideas; no fix for what’s broken; no vision; no hope; no future. In its place, Biden presents a mishmash of nostalgic flotsam—ideas that haven’t worked in the past, intermingled with stillborn iterations of proven-ineffective corporate-friendly policies, all wrapped in the vague promise of, “Obamacare, but this time, we’ll do better.” But new versions of failed ideas are still failed ideas, and Joe Biden’s aping of Obamacare returns a still-unsatisfactory health care model.
There are two core issues in American health finance: coverage and cost. The question of coverage is straightforward: “How many people are covered by your insurance model?” Biden aims to cover an estimated 97 percent of Americans through a hybrid public option plan—leaving nearly ten million people uninsured. That’s more than the population of New York City or Michigan. Tens of millions more will remain underinsured, as they are today—at least 56 million as of 2018—with little relief from Biden. (To be underinsured means that the cost of using one’s insurance is prohibitive enough to prevent a person from seeking health care when they need it.) Even in the Biden camp’s most ecstatic campaign-promise fantasy, he will let lack of insurance and underinsurance kill tens of thousands of Americans a year. And these are, of course, rosy estimates—even the Congressional Budget Office reckoned in 2013 that a public option would have “minimal effects” on the total health insurance enrollment rate.
The question of cost is: “How do we pay for health care?” Health care costs are a function of two things: how often health care services are used, multiplied by the unit costs of each service. In America, we use health care less often than our peers in other countries; our skyrocketing medical costs are driven by our insane prices. (“It’s the prices, stupid,” said patron saint of humanistic American health policy Uwe Reinhardt.) These prices are set by pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, fanged hospital corporations, and the private equity firms that increasingly own them.
Without system-wide price-setting, the more payers in a health care market—the more private insurance companies; the more state programs; the wider the spread—the less ability payers have to negotiate prices, and the higher the overall systemic costs. The smaller a given insurer’s patient base, the weaker its ability to negotiate prices, and the higher its costs. To bring these prices to bear, Medicare for All uses monopsony—a model in which Medicare, the single payer in “single-payer health care,” sets the price it’s willing to pay, and health care providers can’t afford not to accept it.
What Joe Biden’s plan offers is weak by comparison, even compared to the plans of other former 2020 Democratic candidates. Instead of letting his public option use Medicare prices, in turn giving Medicare more cost-setting power, Biden posits that it will have to separately negotiate its own prices with hospitals and health care providers. And if his public option is small, those prices will be high. Biden’s plan leaves the runaway costs of private insurers unchecked. Under it, our approximately 4 percent yearly health care spending increase—more than twice the rate of inflation—will continue unabated.
Biden’s public option is born to lose. His promises are vague by design—empty, platitudinal horse shit that will keep private insurance companies profitable. His plan is both self-defeating and disastrous for its users.
We need better than Joe.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Friday, March 20, 2020. What's more stupid: Someone betraying you or
zombies insisting that you weren't betrayed as they offer lies to
justify and minimize the betrayal?
Starting in the US where the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues. Tulsi The Fake Ass Gabbard.
The anti war candidate Tulsi endorsed the war monger Joe Biden. Profiles in courage.
Yesterday, Tulsi dropped out. She also endorsed Joe Biden. That didn't surprise me. See the August 1, 2019 snapshot if it surprised you. When I argued for her to be on the stage (March 4, 2020 snapshot) at the debate, I noted she wouldn't be there helping Bernie:
Unless she drops out before March 15th, she should be on the stage at the CNN debate. That's basic fairness and she's earned her spot. The DNC was more than happy to break the rules to let Bloomberg on the stage. They should have the decency to allow Tulsi on the stage.
I am not a Tulsi supporter. I'm also not a Joe Biden supporter and I'm aware that Tulsi on stage likely means Tulsi making excuses for Joe -- as she did in the debate that took place at the end of July. There is no benefit for the candidate I'm supporting (Bernie Sanders) for Tulsi to appear on the stage.
But this is about democracy with the little "d" and about the people's right to be informed. Tulsi deserves to be on the stage.
She did deserve to be on that stage but she was never going to help Bernie. July 30th, she made that clear in a debate where she also made it clear that she was going to lie and whore for Joe Biden. Which she did in interviews on August 1st and August 2nd.
The Michael Traceys -- online idiots -- were so thrilled that she took out Kamala Harris in the July 30th debate. They love their woman-on-woman action. The reality was that Kamala was not in the lead. The poll released right before the July 30th debate would find Joe Biden in the lead, followed by Elizabeth Warren and then by Kamala Harris.
Going after Kamala was nonsense. Her support was usually in the single digits -- though not as low as Tulsi's support. Had she gone after Joe Biden in that debate, she could have stopped him. Instead, she wanted to go after Kamala.
That's because Kamala voted for the Iraq War and overturned the Iraqi people's 2010 election in order to give thug Nouri al-Maliki a second term which led to the rise of ISIS in Iraq.
Huh?
Kamala didn't do that? Oh, that's right, it was Joe Biden.
And when Tulsi offered her excuses for him even moderator Jake Tapper was shocked and made a point to go back to her on the topic of Iraq one more time. Tulsi repeated her nonsense.
Let's deal with some reality.
Jai Gabbard -- or someone posing as him -- has been all over the internet since yesterday with claims that Bernie was mean to Tulsi and didn't even want her endorsement anyway.
That's what Jai Gabbard says.
Who the f**k believes or cares what that piece of filth says?
The Gabbards are homophobic. They get that from their father and his long career of homophobia and they helped him with his fights against gay people.
Now Tulsi was fine with Daddy's homophobia until she was trying to become president and then, in 2019, she finally has a statement where she loves the gays, some of her best friends are the gays, she wants the support of the gays.
Whatever, Tulsi.
Maybe she was telling the truth, maybe she wasn't. Nothing in her campaign ever suggested she was telling the truth. In interview after interview, she never acknowledged any issues that might be effecting gay Americans -- this despite that in some states a gay person can still be fired because they are gay.
But while Tulsi made a statement insisting she was not homophobic we never heard from her sister or Jai who were both part of the campaign. They stayed silent with Daddy.
So Jai's a homophobe and I really don't give a damn about the opinion of a homophobe. I don't. They're liars and they're creatures of hate.
But if you embrace homophobes like Jai Gabbard -- and maybe Tulsi, let's be clear -- then look at what he's claiming.
Oh, no, Tulsi wasn't treated fairly by Bernie. Since when? Since she began campaigning for Joe on July 30th?
I thought Tulsi was about politics, was about issues.
Apparently, she's just a bitchy little girl who can't do big thoughts and who just knows how to play catty. Thanks, Tulsi for preaching steroetypes.
Some Tulsi apologists -- and homophobes because that's what you are if you embrace Jai -- are insisting Bernie Sanders will endorse Joe Biden at some point.
He very well may. If he drops out, there will be no one else in the race. If he drops out, he may endorse Joe as he announces he's resigning.
That's not what Tulsi did. Tulsi was never going to be president -- and saw her support fall in half after July 30th when she was so ridiculous on the debate stage.
But Tulsi dropping out still left two candidates in the race -- the only two who ever mattered in terms of having a shot at the nomination.
Two candidates.
Tulsi was not required to endorse anyone. Elizabeth Warren still hasn't and I've noted over and over since she dropped out that Elizabeth is probably not going to endorse until one of the two men drops out. There's nothing in it for her and she knows that.
Endorse Bernie and she risks that wrath of the DNC establishment. Endorse Joe right now and she'll look like a hypocrite.
Tulsi could have stayed on the sidelines like Elizabeth.
Especially after she quickly dropped her support for Medicare For All, Tulsi was a one-issue candidate. What was that issue?
The never-ending wars. She wanted to stop those. She believed they were hurting the American people.
She never voiced real concern for the Iraqi people -- a point many of us made including me. It was a funny kind of opposition to war that, please note, could be overcome and will be when we use robots in battle. But as long as American humans are used, Tulsi cares -- not enough to do anything, but enough to flap her useless lips over.
You don't give a damn about ending endless wars and then endorse a man who has made them possible (Joe Biden). And if you give even two s**ts about endless wars, you certainly don't use the 17th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War to endorse War Hawk Joe Biden.
Tulsi's homophobe brother Jai wants us all to know that Tulsi endorsed War Hawk Joe because Bernie was mean to little Tulsi. If you buy that garbage, register that we're being told that Tulsi has no beliefs, has no core and just cares what other people say about her.
She leaves the race an embarrassment. Unable to stick up for the only issue she supposedly believed in, she betrays her supporters and she betrays what she claimed to stand for.
On the positive, Tulsi has demonstrated that a female candidate for the presidential nomination can be just as much a whore on the national stage as a man. You've gone a long way, Tulsi, backwards.
The liars can't stop lying. Aaron Mate? Wouldn't allow that sexism was at play in the primaries at all. Now he's rushing to defend his Tulsi Gal and he wants you to know the DNC went after her with sexism. No, they didn't. There was a time when the press was being very sexist towards Tulsi. Seth Moutlon was in the race then. A number of us pointed out to various outlets the way they were covering Seth versus the way they were covering Tulsi. That took care of most reporters for corporate media. But it's interesting that Tulsi betrays everything she believes in and suddenly Aaron Mate is interested in sexism. Welcome to the new world, Christopher Columbus.
As for his new found interest in sexism, where was Aaron when Michael Tracey was in the midst of his sexist rage at Kamala Harris? Sitting there silently. Pathetically.
If you're not able to look at your own self and take accountability, don't point the fingers at others. Yes, Amy Goodman is a huge disappointment but don't pretend, Aaron, that you aren't as well.
Michael Tracey's sputtering like only a fool like him can as he tries to justify what Tulsi did. The primaries are over! He screeches and bellows -- like he did when Maxine Waters 'beat' him up, remember that?
It sure is nice that Michael can speak for the states who have yet to vote and announce the primaries over.
These little dicked boys got into their heads that Tulsi was their wet dream angel and they whored for her and they lied for her and now they're working overtime to keep from looking stupid. Too late, boys, too damn late.
None of them note the Iraq War. 17th anniversary but they can't note the Iraq War. They're too busy with fluff and lies.
Actually, over a million Iraqis were dead before Bully Boy Bush left the White House.
You never hear Joe talk about the dead Iraqis and you never heard Tulsi talk about them either.
They don't exist, apparently. Or maybe it's just that the Iraqi people didn't matter to Joe and Tulsi when they were alive so why should they matter in death?
In Iraq, the people continue to fight.
Starting in the US where the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues. Tulsi The Fake Ass Gabbard.
The anti war candidate Tulsi endorsed the war monger Joe Biden. Profiles in courage.
Yesterday, Tulsi dropped out. She also endorsed Joe Biden. That didn't surprise me. See the August 1, 2019 snapshot if it surprised you. When I argued for her to be on the stage (March 4, 2020 snapshot) at the debate, I noted she wouldn't be there helping Bernie:
Unless she drops out before March 15th, she should be on the stage at the CNN debate. That's basic fairness and she's earned her spot. The DNC was more than happy to break the rules to let Bloomberg on the stage. They should have the decency to allow Tulsi on the stage.
I am not a Tulsi supporter. I'm also not a Joe Biden supporter and I'm aware that Tulsi on stage likely means Tulsi making excuses for Joe -- as she did in the debate that took place at the end of July. There is no benefit for the candidate I'm supporting (Bernie Sanders) for Tulsi to appear on the stage.
But this is about democracy with the little "d" and about the people's right to be informed. Tulsi deserves to be on the stage.
She did deserve to be on that stage but she was never going to help Bernie. July 30th, she made that clear in a debate where she also made it clear that she was going to lie and whore for Joe Biden. Which she did in interviews on August 1st and August 2nd.
The Michael Traceys -- online idiots -- were so thrilled that she took out Kamala Harris in the July 30th debate. They love their woman-on-woman action. The reality was that Kamala was not in the lead. The poll released right before the July 30th debate would find Joe Biden in the lead, followed by Elizabeth Warren and then by Kamala Harris.
Going after Kamala was nonsense. Her support was usually in the single digits -- though not as low as Tulsi's support. Had she gone after Joe Biden in that debate, she could have stopped him. Instead, she wanted to go after Kamala.
That's because Kamala voted for the Iraq War and overturned the Iraqi people's 2010 election in order to give thug Nouri al-Maliki a second term which led to the rise of ISIS in Iraq.
Huh?
Kamala didn't do that? Oh, that's right, it was Joe Biden.
And when Tulsi offered her excuses for him even moderator Jake Tapper was shocked and made a point to go back to her on the topic of Iraq one more time. Tulsi repeated her nonsense.
Let's deal with some reality.
Jai Gabbard -- or someone posing as him -- has been all over the internet since yesterday with claims that Bernie was mean to Tulsi and didn't even want her endorsement anyway.
That's what Jai Gabbard says.
Who the f**k believes or cares what that piece of filth says?
The Gabbards are homophobic. They get that from their father and his long career of homophobia and they helped him with his fights against gay people.
Now Tulsi was fine with Daddy's homophobia until she was trying to become president and then, in 2019, she finally has a statement where she loves the gays, some of her best friends are the gays, she wants the support of the gays.
Whatever, Tulsi.
Maybe she was telling the truth, maybe she wasn't. Nothing in her campaign ever suggested she was telling the truth. In interview after interview, she never acknowledged any issues that might be effecting gay Americans -- this despite that in some states a gay person can still be fired because they are gay.
But while Tulsi made a statement insisting she was not homophobic we never heard from her sister or Jai who were both part of the campaign. They stayed silent with Daddy.
So Jai's a homophobe and I really don't give a damn about the opinion of a homophobe. I don't. They're liars and they're creatures of hate.
But if you embrace homophobes like Jai Gabbard -- and maybe Tulsi, let's be clear -- then look at what he's claiming.
Oh, no, Tulsi wasn't treated fairly by Bernie. Since when? Since she began campaigning for Joe on July 30th?
I thought Tulsi was about politics, was about issues.
Apparently, she's just a bitchy little girl who can't do big thoughts and who just knows how to play catty. Thanks, Tulsi for preaching steroetypes.
Some Tulsi apologists -- and homophobes because that's what you are if you embrace Jai -- are insisting Bernie Sanders will endorse Joe Biden at some point.
He very well may. If he drops out, there will be no one else in the race. If he drops out, he may endorse Joe as he announces he's resigning.
That's not what Tulsi did. Tulsi was never going to be president -- and saw her support fall in half after July 30th when she was so ridiculous on the debate stage.
But Tulsi dropping out still left two candidates in the race -- the only two who ever mattered in terms of having a shot at the nomination.
Two candidates.
Tulsi was not required to endorse anyone. Elizabeth Warren still hasn't and I've noted over and over since she dropped out that Elizabeth is probably not going to endorse until one of the two men drops out. There's nothing in it for her and she knows that.
Endorse Bernie and she risks that wrath of the DNC establishment. Endorse Joe right now and she'll look like a hypocrite.
Tulsi could have stayed on the sidelines like Elizabeth.
Especially after she quickly dropped her support for Medicare For All, Tulsi was a one-issue candidate. What was that issue?
The never-ending wars. She wanted to stop those. She believed they were hurting the American people.
She never voiced real concern for the Iraqi people -- a point many of us made including me. It was a funny kind of opposition to war that, please note, could be overcome and will be when we use robots in battle. But as long as American humans are used, Tulsi cares -- not enough to do anything, but enough to flap her useless lips over.
You don't give a damn about ending endless wars and then endorse a man who has made them possible (Joe Biden). And if you give even two s**ts about endless wars, you certainly don't use the 17th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War to endorse War Hawk Joe Biden.
Tulsi's homophobe brother Jai wants us all to know that Tulsi endorsed War Hawk Joe because Bernie was mean to little Tulsi. If you buy that garbage, register that we're being told that Tulsi has no beliefs, has no core and just cares what other people say about her.
She leaves the race an embarrassment. Unable to stick up for the only issue she supposedly believed in, she betrays her supporters and she betrays what she claimed to stand for.
On the positive, Tulsi has demonstrated that a female candidate for the presidential nomination can be just as much a whore on the national stage as a man. You've gone a long way, Tulsi, backwards.
The liars can't stop lying. Aaron Mate? Wouldn't allow that sexism was at play in the primaries at all. Now he's rushing to defend his Tulsi Gal and he wants you to know the DNC went after her with sexism. No, they didn't. There was a time when the press was being very sexist towards Tulsi. Seth Moutlon was in the race then. A number of us pointed out to various outlets the way they were covering Seth versus the way they were covering Tulsi. That took care of most reporters for corporate media. But it's interesting that Tulsi betrays everything she believes in and suddenly Aaron Mate is interested in sexism. Welcome to the new world, Christopher Columbus.
As for his new found interest in sexism, where was Aaron when Michael Tracey was in the midst of his sexist rage at Kamala Harris? Sitting there silently. Pathetically.
If you're not able to look at your own self and take accountability, don't point the fingers at others. Yes, Amy Goodman is a huge disappointment but don't pretend, Aaron, that you aren't as well.
Michael Tracey's sputtering like only a fool like him can as he tries to justify what Tulsi did. The primaries are over! He screeches and bellows -- like he did when Maxine Waters 'beat' him up, remember that?
It sure is nice that Michael can speak for the states who have yet to vote and announce the primaries over.
These little dicked boys got into their heads that Tulsi was their wet dream angel and they whored for her and they lied for her and now they're working overtime to keep from looking stupid. Too late, boys, too damn late.
None of them note the Iraq War. 17th anniversary but they can't note the Iraq War. They're too busy with fluff and lies.
17 years ago today, George W. Bush started dropping bombs on people in Iraq, based on lies and just for oil, in a war that Joe Biden supported.
The largest protests in human history against that war and Biden didn't care.
At least 288,000 people died.
Actually, over a million Iraqis were dead before Bully Boy Bush left the White House.
You never hear Joe talk about the dead Iraqis and you never heard Tulsi talk about them either.
They don't exist, apparently. Or maybe it's just that the Iraqi people didn't matter to Joe and Tulsi when they were alive so why should they matter in death?
In Iraq, the people continue to fight.
While people in many countries are literally fighting over toilet paper, this is the scene in Iraq, where people have put food supplies on the street overnight, so anyone who needs them can pick them up! That’s what God-consciousness does. Via
""
On the coronavirus, journalist Jamie Dupree Tweets:
Here's a sale about the same time by Sen. Dianne Feinstein D-CA. In terms of price, Allogene Therapeutics was around $22/share for that sale. It's now $20.29/share.
Show this thread
If that's accurate, she needs to go.
Senator Richard Burr needs to go. Julie Conley (COMMON DREAMS) reports:
A look at financial records reveal that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr last month—just as he was warning big-dollar donors, but not the general public about the looming threat of the coronavirus—personal stock holdings worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, many of them in industries now seriously impacted by the outbreak.
According to Open Secrets:
Burr and his wife Brooke sold between $581,000 and $1.5 million in publicly traded stocks on Feb. 13 and didn’t buy any new positions, according to a recent financial disclosure filed with the Senate.In an audio recording obtained by NPR, the North Carolina Republican was heard telling donors at a luncheon on Feb. 27 that the coronavirus, officially called COVID-19, would likely spread through the population aggressively—and suggested it could kill hundreds of thousands of people.
Around the time that Burr sold his shares of major corporations, including several hard hit hotel companies, he publicly expressed confidence about the U.S. government's ability to fight the virus. However in late February, Burr privately warned that the virus is "much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history," according to a recording obtained by NPR.
Between the Burrs’ two accounts, they sold up to $150,000 worth of stock in Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, which lost almost two-thirds of its market value since Feb. 13. They sold up to $150,000 in Extended Stay America, another hotel company that lost half its value over the last month. Burr also sold between $15,001 and $50,000 of stock in Park Hotels & Resorts, which saw its stock price drop from nearly $24 to under $5. The hotel industry is asking President Donald Trump for a bailout as Americans increasingly avoid travel.
"It is much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history," Burr said.
"It is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic," he added, referring to the flu pandemic which killed more than 600,000 Americans.
What Richard Burr did was unethical and a massive betrayal of the public trust. People are outraged right now. As the death toll mounts from the coronavirus in this country, that outrage will only increase. He needs to resign. Barring that, he needs to be kicked out of Congress. I take no pleasure in saying that. It's very sad that anyone in Congress would do what he did. He needs to go and anyone else who did the same needs to go as well.
Dianne? She's been skirting ethical requirements for years to enrich her husband.
Dom Calicchiou (FOX NEWS) notes:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and three of her Senate colleagues sold off stocks worth millions of dollars in the days before the coronavirus outbreak crashed the market, according to reports.
The data is listed on a U.S. Senate website containing financial disclosures from Senate members.
Feinstein, who serves as ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and her husband sold between $1.5 million and $6 million in stock in California biotech company Allogene Therapeutics, between Jan. 31 and Feb. 18, The New York Times reported.
When questioned by the newspaper, a spokesman for the Democrat from San Francisco said Feinstein wasn’t directly involved in the sale.
“All of Senator Feinstein’s assets are in a blind trust,” the spokesman, Tom Mentzer, told the Times. “She has no involvement in her husband’s financial decisions.”
Reports identified the three other senators as Richard Burr of North Carolina, Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, all Republicans.
The following sites updated:
