@snoopydawg

NEWS: Biden quickly backed off enforcing a key provision in the stimulus bill - and that has let GOP lawmakers now use federal stimulus money to finance giant tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. https://t.co/gNyDqBUJV9

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) July 15, 2021

And the theft continues unabated and still the Biden bros are stuffing their faces at brunch. Not hearing much about it from Bernie or AOC. Imagine that.

use the money for cops or to give rich people more tax cuts. Sirota has the story on it. It’s written in the bill that they can’t do either but Biden says they can. But it’s hard to go to work when you’re living on the street. Not one state is affordable on minimum wage and from what others have said it’s much higher. House prices went up in Utah by $105 k last year and now average prices are high $300-400k and that is for fixer uppers. Landlords are raising rents very fast too. Gee if only we had some person in congress that could address it.

Utah did expand Medicaid tho. It’s just not as good as what we voted for.

@Pluto's Republic @Pluto's Republic The states where Medicaid was expaded are all so expensive that few who can afford to live there are eligible for Medicaid.

I'm sure thats intentional. Its often like that with means tested benefit eligibility, there is a Catch 22 that nullifies the benefit.

Hee is an example of what I mean. I was watching a video on Aushwitz the other day. Buried in there was a converstion overheard by one of the narrators, between gurd and a prioner in one of the extermination through labor camps.. The gist of it was that people were supposed to die within few monthsand any who lived too long was almost certain to be stealing something an so such people were investigated. In North Korea the way people in similar situations stayed alive is by eating, raw every animal or bug they saw immediately.

So, would such a regime attempt to classify say a brood of cicada (which are edible and qite nutritious, I understand they can be cooked in a number of ways and actually are a delicacy in some parts of the world. But would such bugs be counted as income?

In North Korea's political prison camps in order to determine who is starving and whois not they weigh people and measure the conditions of their buttocks and anus. When people are starving their body eats its large muscles to sustain life. Making it impossible to sit comfortably because the seat cushion is gone. Also since there is nothing in the stomach or colon the anus becomes a hole that wind blows in and out of. And I am noi talking about flatus.

Many people die in large numbers in these places and those who survive must shed their food scruples or die of starvation Basically this forces people to live like animals.

rats are supposed to be particularly delicious when one is starving. so are the maggots that multiply inside a dead human body. Children in particular prize them.

...break-up of the US projection-maps — where the US is divided into somewhere between 9 and 13 autonomous states/countries. There are already strong natural connection between US regional areas and specific foreign allies/partners/influencers/helpers.

I am firmly of the mind that, apart from the slavery issue (which was never properly resolved due to our retrograde constitution drafted by slave-owners) — the original US Civil War was won by the wrong side. This unfortunate error has caused grave evil around the world, and it drove the ongoing Civil War underground.

For decades, analysts in the geopolitical world have concocted and revised US maps that predict how the US will be broken apart, and every passing year seems to accelerate this inevitability. The anti-consensus frenzy in the US grows more radical over time. Corruption has become patriotic.

My hope is that everyone will look at the breakup in a positive light (and as a blessing upon the rest of the world) rather than descending into the Civil War that will destroy the nation's vulnerable infrastructure and kill most of the population. Now is the time to introduce the idea with sane discussions and well-researched articles and proposals at the regional levels. The coming environmental devastation will force these issues, in any event, and in some ways make this break-up easier to accomplish. There are some states that will not survive without regional commitment. The Federal Neocon government will not come to their rescue. They are busy spending our tax money making the United States the most hated nation throughout the World. It is a fact that is what we are.

This is a positive opportunity to spread the Human Right of self determination across this land. To me, it seems like ancient history. It has already happened.

@zed2 It will take me days, but I will read every link.

We cant expand Medicare (unless its actually a reduction overall) Especially we cannot explicitly expand the scope of our (US) Medicare (which is only legal under WTO annex on financial services rules if its part of our statutory system of social security AND doesnt overreach the bounds that existed in 1998 for retired people because thats the only reason the WTO must allow it, so pushing up the date it begins for people even if it begins just one second before Social Security would enable it to be successfully challenged probably by India who sees it as a constant reminder to its millions of subcontractors that it offers no such program, and also they feel its in the way of their plans to outsource tens of millions more jobs, becoming "the back office of the world" as they put it, and helping us eliminate the dead wood of countless "zombie" US companies that are unprofitable. They se themselves as disruptive entrepreneurial types who are doing us favor by taking jobs and destroying entire industries as career choices, (because their firms business model is hiring most or even all their staff under special visas that are (according to government cables readable on wikileaks loaded with visa fraud and keep workers trapped with no possibility for getting raises, for years a period which is really an eternity to young workers in a tremendoulsly discriminatory industry obsesed with youth. In five years a US IT worker (before the capture of IT by outsourcers), workers might have gotten five yearly raises and because of their new skills, easily doubled their wages or more, doubled their starting wage. Thats fair because the work is very complex, difficult and often stressful. The new Mode four approach leaves them in a difficult position, while destroying public services and decimating public (previously the most stable) jobs. . while precious career advancement time is going by, time they wont get back. We are creating what amounts to a system of modern slavery designed to funnel billions of dollars to well connected body shopping firms not to workers, while lowering skilled wages and standards of care in professions throughout the world to suit business interests throughout the world. his hurts everybody who wants eventually to be a "professional" and it also creates morale problems, because everybody is happiest when they are doing a good job, doing a bad but more profitable job is not a pleasurable way to spend ones time.

the workers presence in the country is dependent on the whms of their employers. And abuses of the system in various ways is common, their workers complain. Sometimes their parents must pay their employers a lot of money under the table merely to have them placed here in the US. at least as far as the US. (At least when I was told this, probably more than two decades ago, they claim that they get that money back in a reduction of their dowries - or "bride price" which is much lower if they have secured an important sounding US job with a US employer. )

Anyway, in both GATS and TISA neoliberals are pushing very hard to remake the world to please their grandiose ambitions, including replace tens of millions or more of jobs here, basically administrative jobs and many others. and they would and can. A third of India's GNP comes from providing all sorts of services remotely and on site. They hire the outgoing workers for their last nine months and have them train their replacements. This also makes them ineligible for retraining benefits under the WARN Act and renders that particular trade related layoff invisible in the statistics. This practice is very widespread but completely under the radar because the way the law is written has this huge loophole in it. This is the main goal of GATS to vastly increase what they call "Mode Four" (link to paper on Mode Four) intra-company transfer. Even though they still must pay a legal US wage, that requirement is likely to be struck down by a WTO panel if challenge because of GATS Article XVI whichalso would prohibit a single payer system because it effectively acts as a zero quota keping foreign insurance companies with attenuated products for the poor which might be more affordable, out. Fir example, supposed you are terrified of coronavirus, you could buy coronavirus inurance. Or catastrophic plans that would pay up to $50000 but only kick in after the first $10000 was spent. Or plans that excluded all pre-existing conditions, as was the norm in 1998.

Its highly probable that very restrictive plans which "relate to" employer health benefits also get a free pass from any actions that restrict their unless they are really criminal limitations. State law is typically preempted by Federal law i employer benefit schemes to keep down their costs. This is the main reason perhaps why non group coverage may be several times more expensive than group coverage, But in some situations, this is not a good policy, even though it may reduce the cost of this coverage, employer coverage in the US varies so much that many people think they are covered when they really are not. A patchwork of different laws comes into play and the loser are American workers ometimes. In particular the pushing down of the medicolegal standard of care may be the reason that the US seemed to stop progressing in terms of health care quality and live span (or continued progressing very slowly, while other countries lifespans shot up ahead. . Commercial health insurance companies around the world seem to be working with the US government to push countries into adopting the US approach which is going to leave millions more with indaquate healthcare insurnce and health care they cannot afford (curative care is insanely expensive but if thy (lie?) and say theyare fine then the visit gets paid for, this is very bad policy that seems intended to hide public health problems - really., more like the US approach. In contrast to coverege delivered by government sickness plns in Europe we're not getting good value. Two American friends who became eligible for healthcare while working in an EU country for a large EU software company ound it and its policies and cost to be so much better than US offerings (by a factor of more than ten) that they were able to remain covered by it for quite some time after returning to the US. I don't know if they ever were able to afford it back here..

Some people spend thousands of dollars a month for high deductible plans so they cannot even afford to go to the doctor when they are seriously ill. Thee is only one word for this situation, a an intentional genocide of the poor.
Almost nobody can afford decent nongroup coverage here in the US, unless they are wealthy.
The wealthy and those not covered by employers group plans who here in the US get to supply only the care delivered by a monly the care delivered by a mythical medicolegal standard of care Thats being continually pushed lower, a process the government working with health insurers seems to be trying to accelerate. People should know this and that this hidden agenda is a large factor n healthcare planning. The cost o Obamacare is very high for what it is and its goal seems to capture healthcare, not improve it. Like GATS and likely soon a resurrected TISA, Were trying to capture the entire world's healthcare especially the remaining public healthcare and compel countries through pressure to attenuate their offerings so more people buy for profit healthcare. As often as not we try to accomplish this through what I would call "dirty tricks" like the GATS in a battle which is largely invisible to the general public, in the world of trade agreements and policy. The US carries a lot of weight and if it asserts that the American people are firmly behind these activities, people need to know we don't agree. Its as if a large bill - a theft of others good will relating to us is being run up and turned into money in the pockets on the form of dividends in profits to our very rich who load their portfolios with these dirty high dividend paying stocks. They seem to claim they represent us inthee affairs of state, while keeping them out of our view.

This is a bit like identity theft, this running up of debt in our names. The US used to be seen as an honest and good country, are we still?

As far as healthcare and especially Rx drugs, on key issues, we increasingly are not It would be good if we made that clearer and spoke out more. Its just incredible that the various Democratic politicians have been successful in lying to us as they have to keep all this under wraps.

Nobody expects anything from Republicans (thats another issue that people should consider changing, as we should expect much more of them because a lot of them are being bankrupted too in the same problems that effect Dems. They are suffering and its likely together much worse and foreign companies will be much less accountable than American ones once the globalization of healthcare gets underway. It all amounts to a tremendous misrepresentation to all of us one that is most certainly intentional. This is shown by what they have been trying to hide and when. My own blogging activities seem to have come under pressure recently. And its because I have been painstaking iin trying to document what I post better. They really do not like this. Please write your Democratic legislators and point out to them when they make misleading statements about "their support for Medicare for all" First tell them the ugly fact we gave control over healthcare insurance policy to the WTO in geneva, and that they are deceiving us. Then tell them that expanding Medicare under the applicable WTO rules dooms it's subsidization and will make medicare unaffordable to the poor as it will be forced to be insurance, perhaps one that doesnt even insure the third of US families who have a family member with uninsurable health conditions (thats a very longlist of potentially expensive conditions they used back in 1998, which is the regulatory status quo we must return to if somebody brings a case against us. (probably India would be the country because of what they are asking for in the proposed TFS agreement they are shopping around.To make us comply with the many rules they say we're ignoring especially the visas issue but also many other things, protectionst measures they claim are directed at keeping them out like our minimum wage laws(The really thnk this is all about them and denying them of the benefits of the global agreement, since it quite possibly involves huge changes in our workplace arrangements. ) - Thats what trade facilittion means. and outsource the areas they want. ) . So they should only touch it after we have been successful in withdrawing ourselves from the GATS (we need to get started ion this ASAP or we could find it impossibly costly, imagine how hard it would be if it comes at the cost in jobs that they will demand. A similar negotiation involving South Africa has dragged n for almost a decade and people want the PHI they voted for more than a decade ago. The legislators, like here embarrassed to tell the truth are among the most corrupt in the world by all accounts (even their own) , but they hhave not been able to have the frank discussion they need to have about the WTO. so far as health insurance commitments made under the apartheid government as a parting gift to the country..Even revolutions do not discharge this burdensome obligation.

So we need to modify our Specific Committments now so as to not end up continuing another 26 years with 219 of our people dying each day because they dont get healthcare they would in the civilized world.

We need to withdraw from health insurance - actually the entire world needs to modify ARticle I:3 c so that the whole world cannot be forced into giving up public health insurance. all the other services committed in the GATS, like hospital services. Otherwise as soon as foreign providers (this may already have happened)enter the US market the cost to us to buy our freedom goes up exponentially. We will likely have to make other equivalent concessions in other areas to do this successful that is- if other countries are willing to unmask themselves as what they are to all Americans, maybe they will decide to just put the GATS ugliness behind them is better than joining the betrayal of the entire country by use of this cloak of mass deception, pretending to be our friends. .
Huge companies can take great advantage of low wages in developing countries to offer to replace entire departments for the cost of one or two workers. This frees Americans up for the important jobs like building rocket ships and military aircraft and trade agreements on services and working as IP lawyers and all the other expensive things America is known for. . Thats because of a requirement we committed to in the WTO so it is completely different than our US procedure and laws, it supersedes them in these approximately 20 broad areas. Financial services like insurance is one of them. Other relevant services are committed also. Its important to stress that this is a potential trap if we were to do what politicians are suggesting, perhaps because they dont know that the Clinton and Obama-Biden Administrations were so busy in making these commitments and planning new ones, respectively, which set up globalization of health care permanently and possibly irreversibly - becase the cost to get out would be based on te potential lost profits and might be huge. So the sooner we get going on that the better if we ever want to have affordable healthcare without moving to other countries. This is important becuse the ACA must as far as I can see have been limited as far as time the emergency was allowed to continue. (I think the emergency was based on the earlier Financial Crisis) Why do foreig countries want it to end? Because of the jobs the various US service sectors represent, currently held by Americans at tremendous costs, they argue. Training is a moving trget in this day and age and ither countries make the point that they can do these jobs for a much lower cost, freeing our expensive workers up for various grand actiities. They want the bread and buttere jobs that require college degrees and the WTO sets up cross-recognition of professional qualifications. We must allow other countries doctors to practice here if they llow it at home. This will vastly reduce the cost and comlexity of healthcare by changing the world's medicolegal standsrd of care to a lowest common denominator whenever government funds are involved.

See Ellen Gould discussing this in her talk here. . And we could lose the ability to even subsidize Medicare if we break the controlling WTO law, do people realize that in 1995 we committed to this?

I would like to go piece by piece and understand it but on other sites people would come into the conversation and confuse everybody every time I tried to explain this.

Here is why they did this. They wanted foreign investor corporations to have certainty for their investments, and not be forced to compete with governments. So they declared certain conditions across the board which you can read a short course about GATS from the UNCTAD here (important to read!) Disregard what politicians are telling you to understand this, they will not be helpful because they want you to think they still have power they no longer have, they cannot give us things, they can only mess things w have now already up.. Sorry to be so blunt but its important to learn. Weve been brainwashed over 25 years. Lots of what we know is wrong.

There is a standstill on doing anything more with FS regulation except under the most narrow conditions in emergencie Then how ere they able to enact and use the ACA I think it was because it was within a few years after the last financial emergency?
But you can see the "standstill" that blocks any new FS-regulation here.

That means the ACA likely is just temporary band aid on the problems which they may (I think so) intend to fix by the neoliberal means, market based approaches. Hypergloblization only.

I think medical tourism is their plan. Outsourcing o the medical care. You can read some critical comments about doing that in the healthcare context in this paper

A better working approach would be to modify withdraw our commitments to the General Agreement on Trade in Services Schedule of Specific Commitments by following the GATS Article 21 procedure. We would have to pay compensation roughly equivalent to the expected lost profits. The procedure can be read here. Please understand that I am not a lawyer or a trade lawyer, just somebody who wants to see our healthcare fixed. As a little boy I experienced high quality public healthcare briefly in Europe.

We have been trapped in for profit healthcare here by a sleazy trick.