‘Sire! The Peasants are Revolting! Updated

‘You can say that again’  ~ the Wizard of Id

*
Updated here.

Why aren’t we actually revolting (yes, we’re deplorable useless eaters, a different matter altogether)?  Our ruling Kleptocrats don’t care if we live or die, but most make noises as if they do.  ‘Elect me! I’m not him!’  Or engage in Congressional Virtue-signaling Tweets, but don’t vote as they Tweet.

The Peasants are useful only to serve their needs, pay taxes from the Fruits of Our Labor to fund our own further immiseration and precarity!

Are we dead or just asleep?  Do we keep on believing that Voting really matters?

‘If voting made a difference, it would be illegal!’

~ Emma Goldman

The wealth inequality (GINI coefficient) in this nation just keeps getting more grotesque, and millions of us are homeless or couch-surfing ten to a flat; many families are one medical health emergency away from death or bankruptcy. More millions are jobless, or are working three part-time minimum wage jobs with zero benefits…struggling to survive and feed our families.  And no: ‘Fight for Fifteen’ for a federal minimum wage is a con, as $15/hour isn’t close to a livable wage!

Is there such a thing as Lesser Evil Voting any longer?

The deepening depression will be blamed on the virus, but it’s been building for a long time now with many bubbles about to burst.  Wall Street and Sergeant Dow Jones must be fed hourly…or crash and burn.

There’s always plenty of money for US War, Inc.™, and the coffers of corporate makers of the weapons of war are always stuffed, yet we Peasants are the recipients of ‘grand bargains’, TINA austerity budgets, poisoned water (including sub-surface water), land and air.  Killings by Police are on track for 1000 in 2020.

I’ve been collecting some of the worst parts of the $1.4 trillion Omibus 2021 (along with Covid Stimulus $900 billion = $1.7 trillion) government funding bill, and it’s an utter obscenity of a pork-filled Christmas Tree bill, and whether the House increases one-time $600 checks to $2000 per family member or not tomorrow, or Donald Trump refuses to sign the Omnibus bill tomorrow or not, may not matter a fart in the wind.

Or are crumbs better than Zip?  I.e.: how pissed off does the Rabble Class have to get before they revolt?

Our rulers must believe that we can be schmoozed indefinitely and will never rise up, or they wouldn’t fuck us over so with such cavalier hubris, would they?  And yet how many of us commit thought crimes their way?

Joe Biden’s still Tweeting that folks can still buy into #ObombaDon’tCare, and has stuffed his cabinet with corporate hacks including and Obomba-era neocons and banksters.  He’s also on record saying that ‘Amerikans don’t want ‘handouts™!’

What would a revolt look like?  Yes, that’s by way of a rhetorical Red-Blue question, isn’t it?

But Tracy Chapman had it right back in Nov. 2015, didn’t she?

‘All you folks think you own my life
But you never made any sacrifice
Demons they are on my trail
I’m standing at the crossroads of the hell
I look to the left, I look to the right
Hands that grab me on every side

All you folks think I got my price
At which I’ll sell all that is mine
You think money rules when all else fails
Go sell your soul and keep your shell
I’m trying to protect what I keep inside
All the reasons why I live my life

Some say the devil be a mystical thing
I say the devil he a walking man
He a fool he a liar conjurer and a thief
He try to tell you what you want
Try to tell you what you need

Standing at the point
The road it cross you down
What is at your back
Which way do you turn

All you folks think you run my life
Say I should be willing to compromise
I say all you demons go back to hell
I’ll save my soul save myself…

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGwK1jjemgE&list=RDDGwK1jjemgE&start_rad...

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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Raggedy Ann's picture

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

wendy davis's picture

@Raggedy Ann

it's a great summation, these portions seem worth repeating:

Ever since 2016 people have been predicting massive upheavals which radically shift power from one mainstream faction to the other, but it never happens; the imperial machine keeps chugging along with all its parts working in well-oiled harmony.

Yes it is true that any and all measures which US progressives advance to bring Americans the same social safety nets afforded to everyone else in every major country on earth will be quashed by whatever means necessary to ensure the continuation of a ruling class to manage the global empire. But it is still very worthwhile to push for those things anyway.

Human behavior only changes when there’s an expansion of consciousness, whether you’re talking about individuals or a collective of any size. This might sound like woo woo New Age drivel, but I promise you it isn’t. It just means that people don’t stop doing crazy and self-destructive things until they can fully perceive what’s driving it and why it’s undesirable.

if i might turn this last one on its side (head?), when i'd recently been reminded of this tracy chapman glorious oldie, i'd thought of our ruling class and wondered: Would they change?

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bukXKdzyGEY]

for me, the best message poetry in music always the best delivery of describing and pushing back against the zeigeist. this one pierces my heart, causing it to swell and ache.

the folks at 'Playing for Change, World Peace through Music' have made such an estimable and noble effort with their joyous work.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

@wendy davis
I was traveling home all day. Pleasantry

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5 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

wendy davis's picture

@Raggedy Ann

went well, and thanks again for caitlyn's link.

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WoodsDweller's picture

That's always the question, isn't it?

Biden tells us his father said "people don't want a hand out". I couldn't pull up a birth date for his dad, but easily a century ago. Why are we taking economic advice from a dead guy born in horse and buggy days?

On the one hand, our leaders could be elderly, senile, out-of-touch aristocrats who have no concept of the struggles of the proletariat or understanding of the effects of their policies. Metaphorically a pair of bejewelled nobles riding through the crowds in their golden coach. One casts a handful of coppers into the mud for the peasants to fight over, the other berates her for wasting a handful of coppers. We call this "the Overton window".

On the other hand, they may know exactly what they're doing, forcing the transfer of remaining house equity and rental properties to favored corporations. Next they'll be coming for our gold teeth.

And the food hasn't run out yet...

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

@WoodsDweller

our leaders could be elderly, senile, out-of-touch aristocrats who have no concept of the struggles of the proletariat or understanding of the effects of their policies

Bingo!

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7 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@WoodsDweller

parroted? i'd forgotten that. and as to the Q of stupid or Evil, i might rephrase it as 'Clueless or Sociopathy'? and yes, i've wondered aloud if their particular Overton window might be living in the Congressional bubble that's been afoot for sooooo long now.

and yes, a blackrock sociopath's been appointed by biden, as have a couple banksters from Goldman Suxx.

food? oh, my: he's appointed tom 'Mr. Monsanto' vilsack as agriculture secretary, speaking of poisoned land, subsurface water and aquifers..(bill gates' & company's Green Revolution).

but as far as i can tell, the food banks in most metro areas are either empty or struggling mightily to keep up with Need.

thanks for your precision comment, woods dweller.

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17 users have voted.

It's been a great marketing strategy for the 1% since the 2nd century CE. Why stop now? The oligarchy has only upped their game since then.

1) Keep the downward spiral slow, like frogs boiling in a pot.
2) Grease the skids with cheap credit, so the working class doesn't know how badly they're being cheated.
3) Allow protests and even violence as a safety valve to let off some steam.
4) Crush any movement towards actual reform, painting them as the enemy of society.
5) Coopt and compromise potential reform leaders, rendering them useless as controlled opposition. (Thanks, Wendy!)

Most people are too tired from their daily grind to even think about fighting back. They just want to unplug and relax for a while before getting back on the treadmill. Not sure we can break out of this until the 1% seriously miscalculates what's needed to pacify the masses.

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wendy davis's picture

@AverageJoe42

but i'd add a 5. if i might:

all the best social movement are funneled into the D party. hence, this photo-op:

wearing kinte cloth and metaphorically kneeling on george floyd's neck for 9 seconds.

yes, the most cynical sort of performance art, and the killings go on...and on.

but i do hear you loud and clear on so many being too tired to fight back. that's always been part of the plan, yes? until, as you say: a gross miscalculation brings: Nothing Left to Lose: fight back!

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snoopydawg's picture

@wendy davis

wearing kinte cloth and metaphorically kneeling on george floyd's neck for 9 seconds.

They did that didn’t they? Tweeting that with the photo.

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11 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

#YesTheyDid! and then came Corporate Consumer Wokeness: no more Aunt Jemima syrup, no more Eskimo Pies, the disappeared Indun from Land O'Lakes butter, no more Uncle Ben's converted rice, Gone with the Wind i even under fire.

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@wendy davis Added above!

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wendy davis's picture

@AverageJoe42

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@AverageJoe42 As long as today is a little worse than yesterday us peons live with a sense of dread. Throw in a few recessions and NAFTA type deals to spice things up and we end up perpetually off balance. How can we make things any better when things keep getting worse? What can we do when all the bootstrapping in the world doesn't work? How can I worry about others when I am worried about me, my family, my friends?

Bonus is the creation of a resentment treadmill for the FOX consumers by telling their viewers it's all his neighbors fault he's at a dead end.

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earthling1's picture

All voting is voting for evil.
We're left with no alternative.
Voting has become a clear and present danger to the American people of all stripes.
The peasants are beginning to revolt in the streets. Witness BLM or Antifa
marching. But they are quickly marginalized at best, demonized if possible, to send a message that dissent will not be tolerated.
Only the American Brownshirts are allowed to brandish their weaponry with impunity. Cowards, all of them. They're to afraid to march publicly with no body armor and unarmed, like BLM does.

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18 users have voted.

Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@earthling1
They are the Huns.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@earthling1

but i suspect you mean voting for the legacy parties (duopoly) is evil. i've voted ineffectually Green the past three or four cycles, ineffectual, but in many states the Ds have made it all but impossible for Greens to get on the ballot.

oh, my yes; covid-masked Black Lives Protestors were kettle while armed, maskless Proud Boys in black and lemon yellow roamed free at some rallies for Boss Tweet.

to say the truth, i have no idea who/what Antifa even are.

thanks, earthling1.

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Shahryar's picture

anyone have an idea? The vague "people in the streets" is more of a hope that things get even worse, one that I hold to occasionally.

I can't help think, though, that we've seen massive gatherings bring down oppressive governments only to have them be replaced by different oppressors. The Arab Spring is now the Arab Winter.

Wikipedia:

The Arab Winter is a term for the resurgence of authoritarianism, and Islamic extremism evolving in the aftermath of the Arab Spring protests in Arab countries

The French Revolution led to Napoleon. Russians in the street led to Stalin.

Maybe our next one will result in something better, more permanent but unless we have some alliance with the rightwingers I think it would be doomed. Those people would resent a lefty revolution and counter it.

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wendy davis's picture

@Shahryar

What would a revolt look like? Yes, that’s by way of a rhetorical Red-Blue question, isn’t it?

meaning: i have no idea, but key would be common issues: poverty, civil and constitutional rights, access to medical and alternative medical care/insurance, feeding our families, affordable housing and transportation, the right to unionize, and i sure would wish for Ellen Brown-esque Public Banking (F the Fed).

we'd all have other items toon the list, but those are off the top of my pointed little head.

lots of people here recommend the movement for people's party; i'm agnostic on that, myownself.

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Shahryar's picture

@wendy davis

including, as of today, the MPP

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wendy davis's picture

@Shahryar

i'd forgotten to ask: post-1789, didn't robespierre's reign of terror come before bonaparte?

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Shahryar's picture

@wendy davis

maybe we were better off in the neolithic era.

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wendy davis's picture

@Shahryar

'western civilization' weren't bane to the planet. yeah, i know you likely meant hunter-gathers or close....but still.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Shahryar

The vague "people in the streets" is more of a hope that things get even worse, one that I hold to occasionally.

I thought people would take to the streets during Bush’s tenure because of the Iraq war.
I thought people would take to the streets during Obama’s tenure because of the spying.
I thought people would take to the streets during Trump’s tenure because of being screwed by government.

I’m not seeing any mention of protests over another cop killing a black man, but I’ve read about 4 of them this week. I’m betting people are in them. I wish I could.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

iirc.

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wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

was a pretty major social movement. Obomba: 'okay, kids; yoou've had your fun!' and his fusion centers shut down the remaining venues en masse.

and instead of a televised Pecorra commision, his Angelides commission lasted 3 whole days, plus untelevized.

and just for the 'ell of it, while cleaning out my out-of-control inbox, i found biden's Tweet:

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@wendy davis
Do you think that's an everyday word he uses? Or just window dressing?

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5 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

too closely, but i do remember that Obomba had different spoken dialects for different venues and audiences.

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travelerxxx's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

Folks is ObamaSpeak. It can be defined as: 1) The rabble; 2) The unwashed masses; 3) Deplorables.

Every time it's publically uttered by a major Democrat, the halls of Trust Funds reverberate with howls of mad laughter and the Fed shaves a quarter percentage point from overnight Fed loans to corporations.

Biden learned ObamaSpeak at the feet of the master.

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Shahryar's picture

@travelerxxx

on torturers:

It’s important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks had. A lot of those folks were working hard under enormous pressure and are real patriots

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usefewersyllables's picture

@travelerxxx

the revolution really getting rolling. I’ve got several militant MAGA ex-friends who have enormous and downright fetishistic arsenals, who’ve told me that they are really looking forward to ballistically freedoming me (and those like me, whatever that is) once it becomes open season. All the money I’ve saved not buying weapons and ammo over the years, I’ve spent on trying to get out of debt and on good food and wine. Once they finally achieve their hearts’ desires, immanentize the eschaton, and there’s widespread gunfire in the streets, I’ll just make a good drink and walk out the front door in front of ‘em to get this shit over with. Let the banks eat the unpaid balances.

Got some really good old, very old Bowmore earmarked for that outcome, just like I have some really good Bourbon laid in for a Manhattan on the back deck if whoever the empty suit du jour in the White House pisses off the Russians or the Chinese first. I’ll just keep watching the news to know what ingredients to mix, and when.

I don’t want to sound overly dark, but at this point I’m strangely okay with playing out the end of this string: this will definitely be the winter of our discontent, and there’s not a thing to be done about it. Next time around will probably be better...

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@Shahryar I think things will need to get bad enough for people to take to the streets specifically for economic relief. It can't be a rainbow of social issues - that will get funned into useless committees and PR statements. We'll need some combination of general work stoppage, Hoovervilles and possibly disgruntled veterans (Bonus Army) all fighting untenable austerity. We'll need to make very specific demands on wages, health benefits and housing - kitchen table issues. That's the only way we'll get real change.

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wendy davis's picture

@AverageJoe42

'kitchen table issues'.

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wendy davis's picture

i was just spelunking at a Liberal Dem site where i once posted, and found this, whatever it conveys:

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@wendy davis
Pass a simple one/ loans for business, checks for the rest of use. Not means teasted.
I'm happy that the limit for me is $150,000 not $75,000 as first reported. Median family income in my town is $84,000. But I don't care if J,B. Prittzker, Elon Musk, even Bill Gates gets the same. That's the idea UNIVERSAL Basic income. As soon as you put on limits, it's not a right, it's a handout.

likewise SS should never be means tested or taxed. Same with Medicare.

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6 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

meaning, but this is the possibility of pelosi getting a vote on a one-off $2000 per family memmber, not a UBI, which concept i'm leery about. and trump can't bring a stand-alone vote on the increase of a stim package, so i don't even know what maggie haberman and bernie, et.al. were talking about 'approving a separate bill providing for the $2000'.

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snoopydawg's picture

Must have missed this.

Anyone else remember her saying that?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

whew; it's a good think she'd voted against it, then./s

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RantingRooster's picture

[video:https://youtu.be/FdMHfZJ4j5w]

#RevolutionIsTheSolution

Until the oligarchs feel threaten with poverty or death, nothing is going to change.

While death might be preferable to some, I have to assume it's not an option on the table for consideration.

So, making the f-kers poor is the objective, no?

Maybe protests outside local Chase banks? Use some XR rebellion techniques?

I mean Chase is the US largest bank by deposits. It's been convicted of 5 felonies, and yet again under investigation for more crimes, all under the watch of CEO Jamie Dimon, whose BOD gave him a raise to 31.5 million a year.

Let's target this one guy, Jamie Dimon, and get him fired, if not prosecuted!

JPMorgan Chase leads the way in fossil fuels financing.
JP_Leads_the_way_2.png
JPMorgan Chase's policies will allow any fossil fuels financing.
JP_Zero_policies.png
JPMorgan Chase is serial felony offender and has an impressive rap sheet.
JPMChase_Rap_Sheet_0.jpg
JPMorgan Chase has received 1.34 TRILLION in subsidies since 2000.
JP_Subsides_2.png

We need to take down Jamie Dimon, CEO of America's largest Bank and serial Felony Criminal Enterprise! The epotime of American banking!

Drinks

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

wendy davis's picture

@RantingRooster

watching and listening to your peaceful revolution video, amigo. but at the best of times, (non-musical) videos give me nausea and vertigo. and these are the worst of times for me.

as for just targeting dimon, i'm not sure, as there are SO many banksters who've f'ed ordinary people. wish i had more, but i'm tired, and heating some good left-overs for dinner, but:

i'm trying to recall the 'Move Your Money Movement', and what it was about. local credit unions and such?

i could add a p.s. re: my having posed for years as a jilted lover of jamie dimon, but it would be...silly.

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5 users have voted.

@RantingRooster Although that's usually a weasel from Goldman Sucks.

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6 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

wendy davis's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

for Treasury is janet yellen, formerly head of the Fed under obomba.

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@wendy davis
https://tspsmartinvestor.com/2020/12/27/tsp-smart-the-predators-protectors

Carlyle Group ring a bell? IIRC, Clinton's secretary of the Treasury was from GS and so was Bush's.

Thank you, I knew about Warren selling out. I was being sarcastic, but it's true so ofyen that it's hard to tell.

Read the link. Just don't eat first.

Multiple edits. having trouble getting the link to show up.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

and he posited this: A poll said 1 out of 3 Americans had difficulty paying their monthly bills.
Illustrating how movements get derailed, he said stop with that 1 question, 1 issue, hook up with that 1/3 and take over with protesting and voting.
He INSISTED, 1 question to join the movement. Do not ask party affiliation, gender preference, racial identity, and so on and so forth. It is 1 question answered, solidarity achieved. Keep asking question after question, the person becomes remote and practically alone with no power. We may want a thing, but we also want other things and have completely different perspectives.
I loved that idea of just holding hands with anybody and everybody who just was healthcare.
If this would happen, we could get some true environmental change. Maybe money in politics. Maybe staunch wealth inequality.
Anyway, we should demand the most important thing for all. Move on to the next thing once we discover it works.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

wendy davis's picture

@on the cusp

politics, but i'm not seeing where 'not paying their monthly bills' would distill to one issue, nor how that might translate into 'protesting and voting'.

do i guess correctly that Medicare 4 All would be your prime issue?

as a side note: i think few realize (as i've shown) that IF jayapal's bill ever passes, it would take two years past being signed into law before it kicked in. and it may not be free insurance in any event, but i'd brought the sections in hope that folks her might help crowd source a few answers as to the mentioned 'buy-ins' and so forth.

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wendy davis's picture

you'll love the spin, i guaran-damn-tee it:

After Trump backs down on stimulus bill, Democrats aim for higher relief checks’, dec. 28, reuters.com (brief outtakes)

“WASHINGTON/PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. Congress on Monday will try to push through expanded $2,000 pandemic relief payments for Americans after President Donald Trump backed down from a fight with lawmakers that could have shut down the federal government.

In a sudden reversal late on Sunday, Trump signed into law a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package, restoring unemployment benefits to millions of Americans and providing funds to keep government agencies running.

It was not immediately clear why Trump, who has refused to concede defeat to Biden, changed his mind on the stimulus package. His surprise, last-minute resistance had threatened to inject further chaos into the final stretch of his presidency.

Despite that, Democratic lawmakers who have a majority in the House of Representatives and have long wanted $2,000 relief checks, hope to use a rare point of agreement with Trump to advance the proposal - or at least put Republicans on record against it - in a vote on Monday."

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wendy davis's picture

@krystalball 16h

Trump signs the bill making clear that his entire “strategy” was to generate maximum chaos with zero actual improvement in outcome. Disgusting to toy with people’s lives like this.

he objected to the pork in the 'package' and yes, did want a one-time hit of $2000 per family member. but most coverage reported that 'white house insiders swore he'd signed onto the 'deal'.

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