The heart of the matter.
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Websearches, here and here. YouTube, here, here, here, here, and here.
Blowin' in the Wind? Medical care for all? Medicinal weed for all? Foot-draggers step aside? This is for you, Paul Ryan? For you, Mike Pence?
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Cooption as an option? Trump having proven lying works. Better at lying than Ms. Clinton was, proved what? Talking and looking sincere to a least common denominator "trumps" being sincere - with actual sincerity a/k/a Bernie being a media-mediated liability? Trump got free network attention while Sanders was frozen out; networks thereby proving their power? Cory Booker's game plan is what, exactly? Selling HOPE? Or CHANGE?
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FRANKEN: In an awful hodge-podge locally written Minnesota Strib item; ending paragraphs suggest even Al Franken has gotten off the dime:
Franken joined a growing number of Democratic colleagues in the Senate in aligning with Sanders’ single-payer proposal. In coming out for the plan, Franken invoked the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, a longtime advocate of a single-payer health care model.
“Like Paul Wellstone, I’ve always believed that health care is a right for all Americans — not a privilege — and that every person in our country deserves access to the care they need,” Franken said in a statement. “Establishing a single-payer system would be one way to achieve universal coverage, and Senator Sanders’ ‘Medicare for All’ bill lays down an important marker to help us reach that goal.”
Presumably constituent din finally was heard. Little, late, but Al it is good to see you better than previously. Now, income disparity is what is next for you to move forward on. And student debt. And minimum wage. And on-and-on, Al. How about "Legalize It?"
Al, leave the corporations to fend for themselves. Become a progressive populist. A democratic socialist. The troglodytes are calling you one anyway, so be one. Please, Al, do not let Cory Booker pose as more of a progressive than you. Please.
FURTHER: Al is seeing a light, brightly, at the end of the tunnel. Bravo, and keep on truckin' Al. [MORE: Kudos to Al. This link.]
FURTHER: Who to primary? Is a litmus test afoot? This Time item, this excerpt:
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declined to give his specific thoughts on Sanders' proposal.
"Democrats believe that healthcare is a right for all," Schumer said. "And there are many bills out there. Many good ones."
The strategy favored by Democratic leadership is a bipartisan effort spearheaded by Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, which would continue to subsidize insurance companies that reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-income Americans.
It is a far cry from the universality of Sanders' single-payer system.
Patty Murray, time's up. Senator from Boeing, from Microsoft, from Amazon and Bezos, step aside for single payer and other progressive things outside of your worldview. You are broken, being too corporate-Clintonian, and fixing is needed.
FURTHER: Apologists for a sick and failed status quo, the op-ed opening about sitting down with the nub of the problem:
At a meeting in California this spring, we sat down with a number of insurance company chief executives who are major participants in the Affordable Care Act exchanges. They asked us to carry back a message to Washington: Put partisanship aside and end federal uncertainty about support for the ACA; otherwise, they will end up setting premiums higher than necessary or withdrawing from markets across the country.
Mix it up with unwholesome dogs, you'll get fleas.
So --- Get the broom and sweep these creeps aside and into the dust bin of history. Single Payer rocks.
And Strib prints the advocacy piece with its imprimatur of approval. When considering the arguments of the obstructionist foot draggers you should judge Glen Taylor's Strib by its policies and friendships. I.e., judge harshly. It's a shill for the status quo.
[More] Readers are urged to read that Strib Op-ed. Nowhere does it say cut out the blood-sucking profiteer-privateer insurers from their fat city payday. Not even to curb such abuse in any sane way. Instead, pump in federal money so that they've more blood to suck. They are leeches and should be disenfranchised. Anybody defending the insurance companies and their lustful levels of greed and self interest should be regarded as what they are. Shills for a bad thing, for it to continue unabated while to the north Canadians have cradle to grave healthcare benefits, as a right, and as a responsibility of government to fund credibly. The Canadians are not hostage to insurer greed or employment lock-in based on need of ongoing family coverage. They are a civilized people. Our nation is less so. And intentionally so, which is sad.