Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues harmonica player and singer Sammy Myers. Enjoy!

"Neither Biden nor Trump will obstruct the Establishment, because they are at its very heart. The Republican and Democratic leaderships are there to ensure that, before a candidate gets selected to compete in the parties’ name, he or she has proven they are power-friendly. Two candidates, each vetted for obedience to power."

-- Jonathan Cook

News and Opinion

Worth a click and a full read:

‘Bernie Bros’ Were Invented as Sexist, Racist and Anti-Semitic

The establishment is no longer worried about who stands on stage – so long as that person is not a Bernie Sanders in the U.S., or a Jeremy Corbyn in the U.K. It really isn’t about who the candidates are – hurtful as that may sound to some in our identity-saturated times. It is about what the candidate might try to do once in office. In truth, the very fact that nowadays we are allowed to focus on identity to our heart’s content should be warning enough that the establishment is only too keen for us to exhaust our energies in promoting divisions based on those identities. What concerns it far more is that we might overcome those divisions and unify against it, withdrawing our consent from an establishment committed to endless asset-stripping of our societies and the planet. ...

The subtle dynamics of how the Democratic nomination race is being rigged are interesting. Especially revealing are the ways the Democratic leadership protects Establishment power by policing the terms of debate: what can be said, and what can be thought; who gets to speak and whose voices are misrepresented or demonized. Manipulation of language is key. ... Remember this all started back in 2016, when Sanders committed the unforgivable sin of challenging the Democratic leadership’s right simply to anoint Hillary Clinton as the party’s presidential candidate. In those days, the fault line was obvious and neat: Bernie was a man, Clinton a woman. She would be the first woman president. The only party members who might wish to deny her that historic moment, and back Sanders instead, had to be misogynist men. They were supposedly venting their anti-women grudge against Clinton, who in turn was presented to women as a symbol of their oppression by men.

And so was born a meme: the “Bernie Bros.” It rapidly became shorthand for suggesting — contrary to all evidence — that Sanders’ candidacy appealed chiefly to angry, young, entitled white men. In fact, as Sanders’ 2020 run has amply demonstrated, support for him has been more diverse than for the many other Democratic candidates who sought the nomination. The weaponization of identity politics is even more transparent in 2020. Sanders is still Jewish, but his main opponent, Joe Biden, really is simply a privileged white man. Were the Clinton format to be followed again by Democratic officials, Sanders would enjoy an identity politics trump card. And yet Sanders is still being presented as just another white male candidate, no different from Biden. ... But it is not just that Democratic Party leaders are ignoring Sanders’ Jewish identity. They are also again actively using identity politics against him, and in many different ways.

Bernie Sanders’ supporters have been complaining for some time – based on mounting evidence – that the Democratic leadership is far from neutral between Sanders and Biden. Because it has a vested interest in the outcome, and because it is the part of the power-Establishment, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is exercising its influence in favor of Biden. ... As should be clear to anyone watching, the nomination proceedings are being controlled to give Biden every advantage and to obstruct Sanders. But the Democratic leadership is not only dismissing out of hand these very justified complaints from Bernie Sanders’ supporters but also turning these complaints against them, as further evidence of their – and his – illegitimacy. A new way of doing this emerged in the immediate wake of Biden winning South Carolina on the back of strong support from older black voters – Biden’s first state win and a launchpad for his Super Tuesday bid a few days later. It was given perfect expression from Symone Sanders, who despite her surname is actually a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign. She is also black. This is what she wrote: “People who keep referring to Black voters as ‘the establishment’ are tone deaf and have obviously learned nothing.”

Her reference to generic “people” was understood precisely by both sides of the debate as code for those “Bernie Bros.” Now, it seems, Bernie Sanders’ supporters are not simply misogynists, they are potential recruits to the Ku Klux Klan. ... In her tweet, Symone Sanders showed exactly how the power elite seeks to obscure its toxic role in our societies. She neatly conflated “the Establishment” – of which she is a very small, but well-paid component – with ordinary “black voters.” Her message is this: should you try to criticize the Establishment (which has inordinate power to damage lives and destroy the planet) we will demonize you, making it seem that you are really attacking black people (who in the vast majority of cases – though Symone Sanders is a notable exception – wield no power at all). ...

There is a final use of weaponized identity politics that the Democratic Establishment would dearly love to use against Sanders, if they can get away with it. ... The Establishment has been testing the waters with implied accusations of anti-Semitism against Sanders for a while, but their chances were given a fillip recently when Sanders refused to participate in the annual jamboree of AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a prominent lobby group whose primary mission is to ring-fence Israel from criticism in the U.S. ... Where might this head? At the AIPAC conference last week we were given a foretaste. Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi of the U.K. and a friend to Conservative government leader Boris Johnson, was warmly greeted by delegates, including leading members of the Democratic Establishment. He boasted that he and other Jewish leaders in the U.K. had managed to damage Jeremy Corbyn’s electoral chances by suggesting that he was an anti-Semite over his support, like Sanders, for Palestinian rights.

His own treatment of Corbyn, he argued, offered a model for US Jewish organizations to replicate against any leadership contender who might pose similar trouble for Israel, leaving it for his audience to pick up the not-so-subtle hint about who needed to be subjected to character-assassination.

Keep Up The Fight: Electoral Politics Was Never Meant To Be The Solution

The primary race is not looking good for Bernie Sanders. After Obama worked behind the scenes to coalesce the entire Democratic establishment behind former working brain owner and vice president Joe Biden for Super Tuesday, along with wildly suspicious election shenanigans, glaring discrepancies in exit polls, and months of manipulation by the billionaire media, Sanders appears to have suffered a pivotal loss in Michigan tonight.

Biden is exhibiting signs of cognitive decline on a near-daily basis now and the coronavirus pandemic adds a whole new layer of unpredictability to pretty much everything, so it’s technically possible that Obama’s appointment of his right-hand man as his successor (perfectly normal thing in a perfectly normal democracy) will fail. But things as they are don’t look good for Sanders, who has failed to come close to shoring up a dominant lead much less the huge numbers he’d need to prevent a brokered convention.

Which is not a surprise to even the most optimistic of Bernie Brothers. But it is disappointing. The despair and deflation I’m seeing online right now is similar to what we saw after Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party failed to secure a win last year following years of egregious mass media propaganda. And understandably so; pretty much everyone on the left understands that we’re coming up to a do-or-die point as a species right now, and they were hoping that they’d be able to use electoral politics to tilt us toward “do”.

But that’s just it: the electoral politics in this empire are not designed to benefit humanity, they’re designed to give us the illusion of control while the people with actual power run things. Elections are like the unplugged video game controller you hand your little brother so you don’t let him have a turn playing.

The real goal here was never to “win” at electoral politics, it was to get more people to wake up to the fact that they’ve been handed an unplugged controller.

And to that end Bernie’s primary race has been very successful. The Democratic establishment was pressured so hard that it was forced to engage in a brazen coordination against the most popular candidate right before Super Tuesday, in order to install an actual, literal dementia patient whose neurological deterioration will be brought to mainstream attention in the coming months.

They’ve been forced to do this all out in the open, and it was necessary to make them do it. If there had been no anti-establishment candidate running and no forceful grassroots movement behind them, they could have slid in a nice fresh-faced empire loyalist like Elizabeth Warren or Pete Buttigieg with no difficulty instead of settling for the former veep who they themselves were all calling senile in 2019.

Now people can see them. Now #DemExit is a top trend on Twitter as progressives realize that they were sabotaged by the party’s leadership. This will only get more obvious as rank-and-file liberals realize that a clearly unqualified candidate was installed to thwart the candidate with a functioning brain, and that neither their party’s leadership nor the news media responsible for informing the populace ever told them that this was happening.

Which has only ever been the real goal of the 2020 primary for those with an ear to the ground. Not the delusion that the nice oligarchs would maybe allow the people to have a president who works against the interests of the oligarchy, but that by pushing an anti-establishment candidate so hard into the mainstream that his campaign had to be openly sabotaged they could awaken the public to the fact that they live in an oligarchy.

The problem is not that the system is rigged against the people, the problem is that the system is rigged against the people and the people do not know it. If they were aware just how badly their interests were being actively sabotaged by the loose alliance of government agency leaders and the plutocrats who own the political/media class, they would immediately use the power of their numbers to force real change. But they don’t. Because the political/media class who are paid to protect the status quo upon which their employers have built their respective kingdoms keep assuring that this is all normal and fine.

The more people wake up to the reality that everything they’ve been told about their nation and their government is a lie, the closer we get to the possibility of the people discovering the power of their numbers and shrugging off the mechanisms of control and exploitation like a heavy coat on a warm day. ...

Electoral politics is not the real fight, waking the public up to reality is. And toward that end Berners have been very successful this year. They should hold their heads up with pride. And keep fighting.

The Taliban is allowed to read classified documents related to the Afghan peace deal, but you can’t

The details of how the U.S. military will withdraw from Afghanistan – including the types of attacks U.S. troops and the Taliban have agreed to not conduct – are part of two classified annexes to the recently signed withdrawal agreement, according to the New York Times.

While some members of Congress will be able to read the annexes, the vast majority of the American public will have no idea what their government has agreed to as part of the deal to end the war in Afghanistan, which is in its 19th year. ...

So far, the only publicly released information about the withdrawal deal has been a four-page agreement that was signed on Feb. 29. Nothing in those four pages explains whether the U.S. military and the Taliban will share information to fight terrorist groups or whether the Taliban will agree to stop attacking the Afghan security forces, which the U.S. military has pledged to defend. ...

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) recently said the annexes do not include verification measures for the agreement nor do they require the Taliban to renounce Al Qaeda, despite Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s public comments.

US commander says Taliban are not keeping 'their part of the bargain'

The US commander for the Middle East and Afghanistan has said the Taliban are not keeping “their part of the bargain” from the deal signed with the US earlier this month, saying the insurgents were continuing to launch attacks.

Marine Gen Frank McKenzie was giving evidence to Congress on Tuesday, hours after US forces began pulling out of Afghanistan as agreed in the 29 February deal, and as talks between Taliban and government representatives were due to begin.

“The Taliban need to keep their part of the bargain, and they are continuing attacks,” McKenzie, the head of US Central Command, said. “They are not directed against coalition forces, they are not occurring in city centers, they are occurring at isolated checkpoints. But those attacks are occurring, and they’re not consistent with a movement toward a negotiated settlement, and they’re not consistent with the undertaking they made.”

The US-Taliban deal followed a week-long partial ceasefire, but it did not include an agreement to continue that ceasefire. Trump administration officials have said that the withdrawal of the 13,000-strong US military presence in Afghanistan, due to happen over 14 months, would be “conditions-based”.

“We’re going to go to 8,600 by the summer,” McKenzie said. “Conditions on the ground will dictate if we go below that. If conditions on the ground are not permissive, my advice would not be to continue that reduction.”

Nurses on the Frontlines of Coronavirus Pandemic Demand More Protection & Medicare for All

Shifting guidelines on coronavirus treatment in US could be ‘catastrophic’

While frontline healthcare workers fighting the US coronavirus outbreak continue to struggle with what they have called a dramatic lack of preparedness, ever-shifting guidelines on treatment are raising concerns that America’s response is dangerously inconsistent. Nurses working amid this outbreak – which continues to see increasing numbers of diagnoses and deaths – maintain that the guidelines keep shifting due to fluid federal mandates and continued staffing and supply shortages.

Of more than 6,500 nurses across 48 states, Washington DC and the Virgin Islands recently surveyed by National Nurses United (NNU), just 44% said their employers had given them information on novel coronavirus and “how to recognize and respond to possible cases”. A mere 63% of nurses surveyed had access to N95 masks in their divisions, while just 27% had access to powered air purifying respirators. Less than one-third – 30% – of survey participants reported that their employers had enough personal protective equipment (PPE) in stock should there be a quick upswing in potential coronavirus patients.

An emergency room nurse at a private hospital in New York City’s Bronx borough told the Guardian last week that access to certain respirators had been curtailed, and said available masks would not necessarily fit. “We are starting to see all the hospitals get in line to undermine the precautions that should be in place,” said David Pratt, a New York State Nurses Association health and safety representative, explaining the growing pushback against inconsistent information. “There are different things being said.”

Pratt claimed that a whistleblower told his organization that healthcare employers were pushing the federal public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to loosen protection guidelines – which, in turn, would change them. “It’s not just coronavirus, but a virus that can spread through contact as well as through droplets,” Pratt said. “Employers have been pushing to get the CDC to back off on the requirement that, for example, the nurses and other staff use N95 respirators.” ...

Initially, federal guidance said that nurses caring for a coronavirus patient could only deal with that patient; now, nurses are permitted to work with other patients, Pratt said. “There’s not enough clear, strong directives coming from anywhere,” he said. “It’s extremely dangerous – it could be catastrophic,” Pratt said of the lack of steady guidance.

Federal Coronavirus Contract Requests Show the U.S. in a Desperate Scramble to Catch Up

First the good news: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just put out a request for contracts for 500 million face masks. Now the bad news: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just issued its request on Wednesday for contracts for the masks that can give health care workers some measure of protection against a new coronavirus — more than three months after the virus, now sickening and killing people worldwide, began to spread in China. And the proposals aren’t due back until March 18. The mask request is just one of several efforts on behalf of federal agencies to round up basic supplies for dealing with the new coronavirus that should have been made much, much earlier.

After cutting much of the infrastructure necessary to protect the U.S. from the virus, officially known as SARS-CoV-2 and which causes a disease called Covid-19, the Trump administration is now scrambling to play catch up, according to a survey of recently released documents. A request for information from the Domestic Strategic National Stockpile’s Office of Resource Management asks vendors of medical supplies how much protective gear they have in stock. The survey, which went out to government contractors on February 24, queries the companies about their current and projected inventory of “N95 Respirators, Surgical N95 Masks, Coveralls, Tyvek Suits or equivalent Coverall, Gowns, Non-Splash Goggles, and Face Shields” to assist with the outbreak. Responses are due on March 24.

Some of the recently released announcements about federal funding opportunities are what you might expect from any government racing to keep up with a fast-moving crisis. On March 5, for instance, the FDA modified an existing contract with Stanford University that was to do Ebola research and will soon include “a near-term analysis of 2019 Novel Coronavirus.” As the notice of intent to change makes clear, it “leverages the technology and methodology for examining Ebola sequelae and Zika immunopathology” that was already in place. The just-added work entails characterizing the new virus “using samples from non-human primate (NHP) animal models and human tissues (pending availability) to empower future regulatory decision making.”

But the requests for contract and spending proposals are only now beginning to trickle out while the Trump administration is facing an avalanche of criticism for its delayed and bungled response to the virus, which as of Tuesday afternoon had caused at least 794 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the U.S. and more than 116,000 worldwide.

New York sends in national guard as US coronavirus death toll hits 29

New York’s governor announced on Tuesday he is sending national guard troops into a New York City suburb to help tackle what is now believed to be the nation’s biggest cluster of coronavirus cases – one of the most dramatic actions yet to control the spread of the illness in the US.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a “containment” plan for New Rochelle, the city at the center of the coronavirus outbreak in the New York metro area, in what he called a “breathtaking” outbreak that is “a significant issue”.

The news came as Donald Trump said he saw “no reason” to get tested himself, despite coming into close contact with two Republican members of Congress who have put themselves into quarantine after encountering an attendee at a recent conservative conference who tested positive for coronavirus.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal. I would do it. I don’t feel any reason. I feel extremely good. I feel very good, but I guess it’s not a big deal to get tested and it’s something I would do,” Trump told reporters in Washington. ...

The number of people in the US confirmed to be suffering from coronavirus, and the death toll, are being regularly revised and by Tuesday afternoon there were at least 900 cases, a number which has more than doubled in the last three days, and the death toll had risen to 29.

'We're not prepared': coronavirus could devastate homeless communities

The lack of a coordinated coronavirus strategy for homeless communities could be catastrophic for sick and older people already struggling to survive in tents and overcrowded shelters in California, advocates warned.

Homeless organizations in California, which now has the highest numbers of reported Covid-19 infections along with New York and Washington state, say they lack the resources and government support to effectively stop the virus’ spread in encampments and shelters, and that the shortage of tests and beds could have devastating consequences. California is home to the largest homeless population in the US, with a housing crisis that is already a public health emergency in Los Angeles, the Bay Area and other regions.

“We are not prepared yet for a crisis like this,” said Rev Andy Bales, who runs the Union Rescue Mission (URM) at Skid Row, the epicenter of homelessness in downtown LA. “Individually, we are doing everything we can … but we will be losing precious souls out on the street if we don’t take immediate action.”

The coronavirus death toll in the US was at 26 on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins’ tracker, with more than 700 confirmed cases and significant outbreaks on the west coast. California declared a state of emergency after authorities reported cases in LA, the Silicon Valley region and elsewhere, and on Monday, the Grand Princess cruise ship, which had infected passengers on board, also docked in Oakland, where officials were preparing to move people into quarantine.

There have been no reports yet of cases among California’s homeless populations. That lack of confirmed cases is expected given how sparse the testing has been so far, but advocates are bracing for potential outbreaks as some experts have warned that the US is past the point of containment and must look toward mitigation.

'Stealth Attack on Social Security': Trump Condemned for Exploiting Coronavirus Crisis to Push Payroll Tax Cut

Economists and progressive advocacy groups are warning that President Donald Trump's proposal to cut or temporarily suspend the payroll tax in an effort to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus is "a Trojan Horse attack on our Social Security system" that will do little to help most U.S. households.

Slashing the payroll tax, the primary funding mechanism for Social Security, "is the wrong way to go," said Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).

"Trump and the Republicans in Congress cannot be trusted to protect the Social Security trust fund," Baker said. "They have frequently proposed cuts to the program, and under President Bush, sought to privatize it. They may well use a temporary tax cut as an opportunity to weaken the program's finances so that they can then push for cuts or privatization."

Trump met with Senate Republicans on Tuesday to discuss possible economic stimulus measures, including a payroll tax cut, amid fears of a recession sparked by the coronavirus outbreak. The meeting ended without any "consensus over how to proceed," according to the Washington Post.

"At the meeting, Trump proposed having a temporary payroll tax cut that could last a period of months," the Post reported. "The cut could amount to $40 billion per month, people briefed on the discussions said, which would make it quite substantial."

Nancy Altman, president of progressive advocacy group Social Security Works, accused Trump of "using the coronavirus crisis as an excuse to propose a reduction in payroll contributions." Last Thursday, as Common Dreams reported, Trump said he plans to cut non-discretionary government programs like Social Security if reelected in November.

"Other proposals to stimulate the economy, such as restoring the Making Work Pay Tax Credit or expanding the existing Earned Income Tax Credit, are more targeted and provide more fiscal stimulus," Altman said in a statement Tuesday. "They are fairer in their distribution and place no administrative burdens on employers."

"The only reason to support the Trump proposal above those others is to undermine Social Security," Altman added.

Social Security Works on Tuesday circulated a petition urging Congress to reject Trump's payroll tax cut proposal and push hard for policies that would actually "put money into the pockets of those most impacted by the coronavirus," such as paid sick leave for all workers.

AT&T workers upset jobs slashed despite Trump tax cuts

The day after Paul Lorenzano found out he was being laid off from his job in January as an AT&T technician in Arcadia, California, the company sent out an email to all employees congratulating the workforce on AT&T’s profits and fiscal performance in 2019. “We met or exceeded all of our commitments for the year. That’s thanks to a lot of good work on your part,” Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s CEO, said in the email.

Lorenzano was devastated. “That felt like a complete slap in the face, saying how great we were but here is your final pay stub because we did so great last year so we’re going to keep this money and not invest in back into the employment force like they said they would,” said Lorenzano, who worked at the company for over four years before receiving his termination notice, along with dozens of other AT&T DirecTV technicians across California.

It was not meant to be like this. Huge tax cuts, supported by AT&T, were meant to allow companies to hire more and pay better. But instead AT&T has cut 37,818 jobs in the US from when the Trump tax cut bill first went into effect in 2018 to the end of 2019, with more than 4,000 jobs cut in the last quarter of 2019, based on the company’s quarterly reports. The company strongly supported the tax cut bill and promised workers a $1,000 bonus ahead of the bill’s passage amid claims of a hiring spree.

The bill, passed in December 2017, cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, saving AT&T an estimated $21bn initially, with an estimated $3bn in annual savings. Despite AT&T’s promises to invest these savings back into their workforce, the company has shed employees since the bill went into effect, while capital investments have declined. In 2018, AT&T’s capital investments declined to $21.25bn, and the company announced plans to reduce it further in 2020 to $20bn, while rolling out a three-year plan to spend $30bn on stock buybacks.

“Let Dairy Die” Activists May Face Jail Time, Sex Offender List for Protesting Bernie Sanders

The animal rights activists who protested Sen. Bernie Sanders ahead of the Nevada caucus last month could face up to a year in prison and risk being added to the state sex offender list. Activists from the group Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, have dogged candidates throughout the Democratic primary, interrupting or picketing campaign events hosted by Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and former Vice President Joe Biden. The stunts are intended to raise awareness for DXE’s animal rights agenda and, more specifically, cruel conditions at dairy industry facilities. ...

The action began when Priya Sawhney, a DxE activist, walked onto the stage and seized the microphone from Sanders and declared that she was the Vermont senator’s “biggest supporter,” but said she demanded that he “stop propping up the dairy industry and stop propping up animal agriculture.” Moments later, Sawhney was joined on stage by three other DxE activists, Carla Cabral, Audrey Rees, and Rachel Ziegler, who were topless and poured pinkish liquid, representing a mix of blood and milk, on themselves “to protest the dairy industry’s abuse of female bodies,” as DxE stated in a press release.

The crowd began booing and the group of activists were escorted off stage, where Sanders officials were seen conferring with local law enforcement. Cabral, Rees, and Ziegler were booked and charged with indecent or obscene exposure under a law passed to curb lewd sexual conduct. The activists were released later that night after each posted $2,500 in bail. They will return to Carson City for a court hearing later this month. If convicted under Nevada Revised Statutes Section 201.220(1), the three women could face up to a year in prison and a five-year listing under the Nevada sex offenders registry. The statute was designed primarily for penalizing intoxicated tourists, but the enforcement of the law over political speech has worried activists. ...

The Sanders campaign, in a statement to The Intercept, said that Sanders opposed the Nevada prosecution of the activists and has never sought to prosecute activists involved in campaign interruptions, as long as they are doing so with nonviolent tactics. In the past, Sanders has been targeted by Black Lives Matter activists who shut down a 2015 campaign rally. “Our campaign opposes, as Senator Sanders’ policy reflects, overly-punitive approaches to public safety,” said a spokesperson for the campaign.

It’s unclear if the senator’s statement will impact negotiations between the activists’ attorneys and Carson City prosecutors.

Forget the Gaffes, What About Biden's Lies?

Hiding Behind False and Misleading Claims, Biden Refuses to Commit to Signing Medicare for All Bill as President

One of corporate Democrats' most common talking points against Medicare for All is that such a proposal would never make it through Congress. But Joe Biden, in an interview that aired Monday night, admitted that even if one did—with the approval of his own party—he would not necessarily jump at the historic chance to sign it into law.

Validating Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for a debate with Biden on the details and merits of Medicare for All, the former vice president described Sanders' plan as a budget-busting proposal—without mentioning studies showing it would save the U.S. trillions of dollars—and refused to commit to signing Medicare for All legislation if Congress sent it to his desk, claiming it could delay coverage expansion.

"I would veto anything that delays providing the security and the certainty of healthcare being available now," Biden told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, who asked Biden how he, if elected president, would handle a situation in which Medicare for All legislation passed a Democrat-controlled Congress.

Biden's remarks were widely interpreted as a suggestion that he would consider vetoing Medicare for All, which—under Sanders' version—would be phased in over a four-year period, lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 55 in the first year and covering everyone in the U.S. by year four. A public option would also be established during the transition period.

"If Democrats passed a Medicare for All bill through the House and Senate, it would be one of the greatest legislative accomplishments in American history. It would realign American politics for a generation or more... and Joe Biden suggested that he might veto it," tweeted journalist Walker Bragman.

Joe Biden just said he would veto Medicare-for-All because it would "delay" healthcare coverage.

His own healthcare plan leaves 10 million people uninsured.pic.twitter.com/mpW6Z58miB

— jordan (@JordanUhl) March 10, 2020

Biden insisted that he supports the "principle" behind Medicare for All—providing healthcare as a right—but opposes the policy because he believes it is impractical and would raise taxes on the middle class, a right-wing talking point that ignores the savings most U.S. families would see via Medicare for All's elimination of premiums, co-pays, and deductibles.

"My opposition isn't to the principle that you should have Medicare," Biden said. "My opposition relates to whether or not, a, it's doable, and, two, what the cost is and what the consequences to the rest of the budget are. How are going to find $35 trillion over the next 10 years without having profound impacts on everything from taxes for middle class, working class people, as well as the impact on the rest of the budget?"

A Yale study released last month showed that Medicare for All, contrary to Biden's depiction of the policy as prohibitively expensive, would save the U.S. $450 billion annually in overall healthcare spending. The study also found that Medicare for All would save 68,000 lives each year.

Biden Wins, Sanders Lags: Naomi Klein & Alicia Garza on Calls to Shut Down Primaries & Debates

Gabbard slams 'the DNC and their corporate media partners' for shutting her out of next debate

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) slammed the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and "their corporate media partners" on Tuesday for not allowing her to participate in next week's debate that is slated to feature former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The pushback from Gabbard comes after the DNC announced new qualifying standards on Friday for the March 15 Arizona debate that will be broadcasted on CNN and Univision.

The new standards leave the Hawaii congresswoman off the stage.

"You hear a lot of talk. We just celebrated International Women's Day and the progress that women are making around the world," Gabbard told anchor Shannon Bream on "Fox News at Night."

"But when it comes to actually making sure that — in this presidential primary — that the only woman candidate left in the race, the only woman of color, and the first female combat veteran ever to run for the presidency has a voice, the DNC and their corporate media partners say, 'No thanks. Actually, that's not what we want the American people hear,'" she added.

Krystal and Saagar react to results, Michael Moore's dire warning for Democrats

'Even a Fox News Audience Agrees': Sanders Makes Case for Broad Appeal of Progressive Ideas on Eve of Michigan Primary

During a Fox News town hall Monday night in Dearborn, Michigan on the eve of the state's crucial Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders made the case that—far from being "radical" or "extreme"—progressive ideas like raising the minimum wage, guaranteeing healthcare to all as a right, and boldly fighting the climate crisis have broad appeal across the U.S. electorate.

"I reject the idea, I really do—it's one of the things that bothers me, and I hear it every day, I hear it in the media, hear it from my opponents—[that] 'Bernie is an extremist, Bernie is too radical,'" Sanders said. "OK, let's deal with it. Is raising a starvation minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which has not been raised in 10 years, to $15 an hour, a living wage, a radical idea?"

The question was met with a resounding 'No!' from the audience, which responded similarly when Sanders asked the same question of tuition-free public colleges and universities, Medicare for All, and the Green New Deal.

"I live 50 miles away from the Canadian border, this is not a communist society up there in Montreal—they guarantee healthcare to all, they spend 50% of what we spend," said Sanders. "Is passing a Medicare for All, single-payer system a radical idea?"

Sanders went on to address President Donald Trump directly—"Donald, you're probably watching, how are you?"—and slam the president for failing to "understand or respect science" as the climate crisis wreaks havoc in the United States and across the globe.

"Trump thinks that climate change is a hoax," Sanders said. "I believe that climate change is an existential threat to this planet. I will listen to the scientists who tell us that we have got to move aggressively to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. And through a Green New Deal, by the way, we can create up to 20 million good-paying jobs. I just don't think any of those ideas are radical."

Even a Fox News audience agrees that our progressive ideas are not radical. These are the ideas we need to bring to the general election to defeat Trump. pic.twitter.com/KaFvHjYD8z

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 9, 2020

Krystal Ball: The left doesn't owe Joe Biden their vote

Joe Biden Just Destroyed Bernie Sanders in Michigan

Bernie Sanders went all-in on Michigan — and came up short.

Former Vice President Joe Biden soundly defeated Bernie Sanders in the Michigan Democratic primary on Tuesday night, thumping the Vermont Senator in a state that Sanders had won to turn around his campaign in 2016.

Biden led Sanders by 53% to 41% at 9:06 p.m. EST, when the race was called by NBC, the Associated Press, and several other networks, giving him the inside track on Michigan's 125 delegates. ...

With a loss in Michigan — a state where his attacks on Biden over NAFTA, Social Security and his Iraq War should be especially effective — it’s hard to see where he can come back in the primary.

‘Adorable grandpa’ Biden attacked by ‘Russia-backed’ opposition

Biden Snaps On Union Worker: “You’re Full Of Sh*t!”

'You Wanna Go Outside With Me?' Joe Biden Tries to Fight Union Worker After Disagreement Over Gun Control

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, told a Detroit union auto-worker on Tuesday as Michiganders went to the polls that the worker was "full of shit" and threatened to fight him.

"You want to go outside with me?" Biden asked the auto-worker during a tense exchange on gun rights in which the former vice president referred to "AR-14s" and asked why anyone would need "100 rounds" in a machine gun.

WATCH: "You’re full of sh*t," @JoeBiden tells a man who accused him of "actively trying to end our Second Amendment right."

"I support the Second Amendment," Biden adds while vising under-construction auto plant in Detroit. @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/sueOSBaY9P

— Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) March 10, 2020

The auto-worker referenced comments he claimed Biden made in a "viral video" that he watched, but it was not exactly clear what he might be referring to.

Union worker cursed at by Biden responds

Ecosystems the size of Amazon 'can collapse within decades'

Even large ecosystems the size of the Amazon rainforest can collapse in a few decades, according to a study that shows bigger biomes break up relatively faster than small ones. The research reveals that once a tipping point has been passed, breakdowns do not occur gradually like an unravelling thread, but rapidly like a stack of Jenga bricks after a keystone piece has been dislodged.

The authors of the study, published on Tuesday in the Nature Communications journal, said the results should warn policymakers they had less time than they realised to deal with the multiple climate and biodiversity crises facing the world. ...

The paper concludes: “We must prepare for regime shifts in any natural system to occur over the ‘human’ timescales of years and decades, rather than multigenerational timescales of centuries and millennia. “Humanity now needs to prepare for changes in ecosystems that are faster than we previously envisaged through our traditional linear view of the world, including across Earth’s largest and most iconic ecosystems, and the social-ecological systems that they support.”

The paper says this could be the case in Australia where the recent Australian bushfires followed protracted periods of drought and may indicate a shift to a drier ecosystem. ...

“What we are saying is don’t be taken in by the longevity of these systems just because they may have been around for thousands, if not millions, of years – they will collapse much more rapidly than we think.”

Kenya's rare white female giraffe 'killed by poachers'

Kenya’s only female white giraffe and her calf have been killed by poachers, conservationists have said, in a major blow to conservation of the rare animals found nowhere else in the world.

The bodies of the two giraffes were found “in a skeletal state after being killed by armed poachers” in Garissa in eastern Kenya, the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy said in a statement.

Their deaths leave one surviving white giraffe – a lone male borne by the same slaughtered female, the conservancy said.

'Corporate Socialists' Denounced as Trump Considers Fracking Industry Bailout Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Critics are denouncing as 'corporate socialism' the Trump administration's reported consideration to offer oil and gas companies in the U.S. fracking industry a massive bailout amid a drop in prices that comes amid the global coronavirus outbreak.

"Corporate socialists seek welfare from Trump administration," tweeted journalist David Cay Johnson, in response to reporting by the Washington Post on Tuesday. 

According to the Post, the administration is looking to bail out the fracking sector due to its instability in the wake of the ongoing financial downturn:

White House officials are alarmed at the prospect that numerous shale companies, many of them deep in debt, could be driven out of business if the downturn in oil prices turns into a prolonged crisis for the industry. The federal assistance is likely to take the form of low-interest government loans to the shale companies, whose lines of credit to major financial institutions have been choked off, three people said.

Alex Doukas, lead analyst for Oil Change International, predicted Monday that such a move was likely on the horizon.

"With oil prices in free fall, expect oil companies to turn to their age-old tactic of bullying governments for even more subsidies on top of the hundreds of billions they benefit from annually," said Doukas. "Instead of more handouts to polluters, governments should make big investments in high-quality green jobs that will put people to work and ultimately end our dependence on the volatile fossil fuels that create climate chaos."

Progressives pushed back on the administration's rationale, pointing out that the fracking industry has been in trouble for years and that executives are now exploiting the coronavirus outbreak as an excuse to get a government bailout.

"This is insane—shale companies have been struggling for years because their product never made economic sense in the first place, never mind environmental sense," tweeted journalist Amy Westervelt. "Now we're gonna use coronavirus as an excuse to bail them out? Unbelievable."

In a statement, Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter called the administration's proposal "a desperate move to protect corporations and billionaires."

"The fracking industry has been on the financial ropes for years because their business model is to flood supply and then push for artificial demand," said Hauter. "Using a worldwide public health crisis to bail out the fracking industry now would be a disgraceful waste of taxpayer dollars, and would spell further climate calamity."

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Intercepted podcast: We Need to Talk About Joe

PEPE ESCOBAR: How Black Swans Are Shaping Planet Panic

There Was a Bloodbath in Wall Street Banks and Insurers Yesterday

The Ukraine: Things Fall Apart

'It was just left to the people': behind a chilling documentary on the Flint water crisis

'Project of death': alarm at Bolsonaro's plan for Amazon-spanning bridge

Saagar Enjeti: This moment is why Biden will lose the election

Biden Says 'The Bernie Bros Are Here' as Protesters Disrupt Detroit Rally to Denounce NAFTA, Champion Green New Deal

New poll provides a clue, will young Bernie voters show up for Joe?

Cenk Uygur suggests establishment will replace failing Biden at convention

GOP establishment FREAKS after domestic policy expert appears on Rising

Journalist Blake Zeff: Dems will lose if they take young voters for granted

Rising: Clyburn floats cancelling debates to protect Joe Biden

Rising: Does Joe Biden actually stand for anything?

Democratic primary delegate count – latest

A Little Night Music

Sammy Myers (with Elmore James) - Little Girl

Sammy Myers - Sleeping In the Ground

Sam Myers - Sad, Sad Lonesome Day

Sam Myers - You Don't Have To Go

Sam Myers - Gold Tail Bird (alternate take 2)

Sam Myers - Let You Slowly Bring Me Down

Sam Myers - Sweet Home Chicago

Sam Myers - I'm Tired Of Your Jive, Ninety Nine

Sam Myers - You're So Fine