[Peace-discuss] NfN #421 notes

Sat May 25 22:36:44 UTC 2019

News from Neptune #421
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFOOen0pllw

A "Trade War for Profit" edition

Barbara Gregorich on "Walt Whitman – labourer, journalist, poet, social 
radical"
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/05/01/walt-whitman-labourer-journalist-poet-social-radical/

https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism/2019-April/289268.html -- 
Post on Marxism mailing list
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/listinfo/marxism -- Marxism mailing list 
(subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, etc.)

Associated Press on "Nancy Pelosi to be awarded JFK Profile in Courage Award"
https://apnews.com/262594f1de234b1989fa2a15745579de
https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/04/07/nancy-pelosi-to-be-awarded-jfk-profile-in-courage-award/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nancy-pelosi-is-awarded-the-2019-kennedy-profile-in-courage-award/2019/04/06/51386298-5883-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/massachusetts/articles/2019-04-07/nancy-pelosi-to-be-awarded-jfk-profile-in-courage-award
and many other copies of the same story.

Police expected to seize Julian Assange's belongings from the Ecuadorian 
embassy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XIG8XGHvFc -- RT report from RT UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwI1YmXl_yk -- George Galloway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNbX0QM_fU8 -- WikiLeaks editor Kristinn 
Hrafnsson

"War on Journalism" mentioned in RT report on Assange case and new charges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnZQzgZWyJs

Eric Fisher on " Cubs Signs Three-Year Deal With Boeing That Includes 
Series Of Military Recognitions"
https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2018/01/12/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Cubs-Boeing.aspx

Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FPhCEMXHJ8 -- "NBC's Bernie 
[Sanders] Bashing Segment Sponsored by Defense Contractor [Boeing]" from 
Jimmy Dore

Rickets (weak or soft bones in children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickets

Marshall Auerback on "Boeing Might Represent the Greatest Indictment of 
21st-Century Capitalism"
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/04/boeing-might-represent-the-greatest-indictment-of-21st-century-capitalism.html 
-- which points to 
https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/aviation/how-the-boeing-737-max-disaster-looks-to-a-software-developer

Recent Dean Baker articles on Trump's trade war with China
https://fair.org/home/dean-baker-on-trumps-trade-war-leo-fitzpatrick-on-wireless-merger/
https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-trade-war-with-china-is-waged-to-make-the-rich-richer/

MMT (Modern Money Theory) debate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3TdbaMf38Y -- The Real News debate with 
Dean Baker & Randall Wray
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/02/modern-monetary-theory-isnt-helping -- 
Doug Henwood on "Modern Monetary Theory Isn’t Helping"

Medicare for All (American implementation of single-payer universal health 
care) costs
https://pnhp.org/resource/single-payer-faq/ -- Physicians for a National 
Health Care Program (PNHP) has multiple entries on costs in their 
frequently-asked questions (FAQ) list including:

https://pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq#aging_population -- How will we 
contain costs with the population aging?

https://pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq#40percent -- Since we could finance 
a fairly good system, like the Norwegian, Danish or Swedish system, with 
the public money we are already spending (60% of health costs), why do we 
need to raise the additional 40% (from employers and individuals)?

https://pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq#administrative_costs -- The 
insurance industry says that PNHP’s figures on administrative costs are 
outdated. Is this true?

https://pnhp.org/resource/single-payer-faq/#malpractice -- What will happen 
to malpractice costs under national health insurance?

https://pnhp.org/resource/single-payer-faq/#raise_taxes -- Won’t this raise 
my taxes?
> Currently, about 60% of our health care system is financed by public
> money: federal and state taxes, property taxes and tax subsidies. These
> funds pay for Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, coverage for public employees
> (including police and teachers), elected officials, military personnel,
> etc. There are also hefty tax subsidies to employers to help pay for
> their employees’ health insurance. About 20% of health care is financed
> by all of us individually through out-of-pocket payments, such as
> co-pays, deductibles, the uninsured paying directly for care, people
> paying privately for premiums, etc. Private employers only pay 21% of
> health care costs. In all, it is a very “regressive” way to finance
> health care, in that the poor pay a much higher percentage of their
> income for health care than higher income individuals do.
> 
> A universal public system would be financed in the following way: The
> public funds already funneled to Medicare and Medicaid would be
> retained. The difference, or the gap between current public funding and
> what we would need for a universal health care system, would be financed
> by a payroll tax on employers (about 7%) and an income tax on
> individuals (about 2%). The payroll tax would replace all other employer
> expenses for employees’ health care, which would be eliminated. The
> income tax would take the place of all current insurance premiums,
> co-pays, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket payments. For the vast
> majority of people, a 2% income tax is less than what they now pay for
> insurance premiums and out-of-pocket payments such as co-pays and
> deductibles, particularly if a family member has a serious illness. It
> is also a fair and sustainable contribution.
> 
> Currently, 47 million people have no insurance and hundreds of thousands
> of people with insurance are bankrupted when they have an accident or
> illness. Employers who currently offer no health insurance would pay
> more, but those who currently offer coverage would, on average, pay
> less. For most large employers, a payroll tax in the 7% range would mean
> they would pay slightly less than they currently do (about 8.5%). No
> employer, moreover, would gain a competitive advantage because he had
> scrimped on employee health benefits. And health insurance would
> disappear from the bargaining table between employers and employees.
> 
> Of course, the biggest change would be that everyone would have the same
> comprehensive health coverage, including all medical, hospital, eye
> care, dental care, long-term care, and mental health services.
> Currently, many people and businesses are paying huge premiums for
> insurance so full of gaps like co-payments, deductibles and uncovered
> services that it would be almost worthless if they were to have a
> serious illness.

Dean Baker on "Can We Pay for Single Payer?"
https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/can-we-pay-for-single-payer/
http://cepr.net/publications/op-eds-columns/can-we-pay-for-single-payer

Related: I'm still trying to find the source for this so I'll summarize the 
point rather than quote it: Doug Henwood once wrote that business leaders 
might object to Medicare for All on the basis of Medicare for All being a 
government take-over of an industry and thus fear for their own industry -- 
the cost savings and reduced administration inherent in a proper Medicare 
for All system are trumped (no pun intended) by the fact that any proper 
Medicare for All system would mean relegating HMOs to non-medically 
necessary work (cosmetic surgeries, for instance). Any plan that competed 
with medical care which is also covered under Medicare for All would be 
made illegal. Business leaders might look at that and conclude "Is my 
business next for the chopping block?" and then object to being nationalized.

Cedric Johnson on "The Panthers Can't Save Us Now"
https://catalyst-journal.com/vol1/no1/panthers-cant-save-us-cedric-johnson

Cedric Johnson on "What Black Life Actually Looks Like"
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/04/racism-black-lives-matter-inequality

Steven Colatrella on "Capitalism in the United States and in Europe"
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/12/24/capitalism-in-the-united-states-and-in-europe/

-J