The last debate moderators panel framed their questions in right wing terms

It has been noted in many places that the Democratic debate held last Wednesday was the first to feature all female moderators. Unfortunately, Sarah Lazare writes, rather than being a victory for feminism, this did not lead to ay improvements in the nature of the questioning.

The idea that women’s representation in itself — regardless of who those women are — is a boon to women everywhere is hardly new to US political discourse. But what makes the fawning over the November 20 debate particularly tone-deaf is that the moderators’ questions were both inane and right-wing. Their inquiries were almost entirely premised on defending the benevolence of US empire, marginalizing political positions deemed too far left, and asking “gotcha” questions from the right on issues from health care to immigration. Trapped within these ideological constraints, the debate actually struck a blow against feminism — and was a blessing to the forces of chauvinism and austerity.
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Carrying a metaphor just a little too far

Metaphors can be great things. But at some point, you have to stop dragging it out and return to the reality, something that this coach of a rugby team after they lost a match seems unable to do.

Why Brexit endangers the British National Health Service

American actor Rob Delaney has experienced both the private American health care system and the British government-run National Health Service (NHS) and says that there is no comparison. He describes the NHSas “the pinnacle of human achievement”. He says that it would be crazy to vote for Boris Johnson and the Conservatives because after they get Brexit they would break up and sell the NHS to the private sector as the price of getting a trade deal with the US to make up for the losses of no longer being part of the EU.
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Behind the Bolivian coup

Leonardo Flores writes that all manner of reactionary forces were behind the coup that overthrew Bolivian president Evo Morales and they are now targeting the rights of the indigenous people of whom Morales was one as well as members of his party MAS (Movement Towards Socialism).

[Morales’] resignation has yet to take effect, as it must be approved by the legislature. This did not stop opposition party member Jeanine Añez, the senate’s second vice president, from declaring herself interim president, further proving that what’s happened is a coup.

MAS legislators, who have a majority in both chambers, have been unable to attend parliamentary sessions as security forces have not guaranteed their safety.
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Currently, indigenous and labor movements are on the streets in several Bolivian cities, demanding that President Morales be reinstated.
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Meanwhile, police forces are ripping the Wiphala flag, a symbol that represents the indigenous peoples of the Andes, from their uniforms and from government buildings.
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Coup leader Luis Camacho entered the government palace with a Bolivian flag and a bible; upon leaving, one of his supporters, a Christian pastor, declared that “Pachamama will never return to the palace… Bolivia belongs to Christ.” (Pachamama is an Andean goddess representing Mother Earth.)

The coup and its aftermath are not just a rejection of President Morales, but of Bolivia’s indigenous majority and the social gains of the last 13 years.

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Grifters are drawn to each other

That many televangelists are vampires who suck the blood out of people who are gullible enough to believe the tripe dished out that their god will richly reward those who give money to these grifters is, or should be, obvious to anyone who gives these bloodsuckers even the most cursory look. Of these Paula White is a particularly vicious specimen so it should be no surprise that Donald Trump has recognized a fellow grifter and hired her as the White House faith advisor.

Samantha Bee exposes her.

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Key features of Labour election manifesto

The Labour party has released a radical manifesto (what is called in the US a party platform) for the December 12th election and this article discusses its main features.

The Labour leader has launched the most radical and potentially transformative manifesto published by a mainstream party in decades in what is potentially a make-or-break moment for his party in the election campaign. The plans in the 105-page document (pdf) would fundamentally reset the relationship between the state, citizens and business, adding about £80bn to the amount government spends every year by the end of the next parliament, taking tax levels to their highest sustained numbers since the end of the second world war, unleashing a blizzard of investment and providing citizens with a plethora of attractive services, like free full-fibre broadband, free university tuition, free adult learning, free personal care, free prescriptions and free dental check-ups.

You can read the full manifesto here and a more detailed analysis of it here.

Here are the highlights from a speech given by Jeremy Corbyn when the manifesto was released.

The menace of private equity firms

Luke Darby explains how venture capital and private equity firms are responsible for destroying otherwise healthy companies, killing jobs, devastating communities, while reaping fat rewards for their investors. Once they take over a company, the private equity partners take out huge fees for themselves, burdening the company with large debts.

The quick and dirty explanation of private equity is that these are firms that buy other businesses. They restructure acquired companies in order to increase short-term profits or otherwise make them look more appealing to a buyer, and then sell them at a profit. While that means a nice chunk of cash for the investors who made the sale, it can be a chaotic and disastrous process for the employees of the companies being bought and sold, and they might get laid off or see their company broken up and sold out from under them.
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Ok, that does it. I’m done with Pete Buttigieg

I have been increasingly disillusioned with the candidacy of Pete Buttigieg who is revealing himself to be yet another standard-issue Democratic party establishment candidate, seeking money from big financial interests and sniping at the progressive policies of people like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in favor of the ‘middle ground’ that is so favored by the oligarchy. He is increasingly becoming a smug defender of the status quo. But it was his statements about Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden that drove me over the edge. These comments were made back in March but I was not aware of them until yesterday.
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The making of a ‘best seller’

Reporter Nick Confessore has been digging into how Donald Trump Jr.’s book became a #1 non-fiction bestseller an it appears to be exactly as I suggested in a previous post, that the Republican National Committee purchased copies in bulk to the tune f $94,800. Confessore has the documentation to prove it.

See also the follow up tweets.

Books-a-Million is selling the book at a discounted price of $23 so the $94,800 would have purchased more that 4,000 books.