Unless (1) there is a major catastrophe and (2) Obama badly mishandles the response to it, he is going to be re-elected easily.
Mano Singham
Just another Freethought Blogs site
The singer will undoubtedly raise the ire of those who devoutly believe that “America is the greatest country in the world in every single way, always has been, and always will be and anyone who doubts that is a an anti-American Islamofascisticcommie” by comparing Canada’s single payer health care system favorably to the US system.
The Canadian-born Bieber never plans on becoming an American citizen. “You guys are evil,” he jokes. “Canada’s the best country in the world.” He adds, “We go to the doctor and we don’t need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you’re broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard’s baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby’s premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home.”
He’s not the only celebrity thinking that the present health care system in the US is evil.
There is this odd notion that the public sector employees are living off the largesse of the rest of us, i.e., the taxpayers, and that they have used their union power to somehow pull a fast one. This is false. As David Cay Johnston points out, the pension benefits that unionized workers get is not something that is a gift to them from us. It is essentially deferred compensation that was negotiated with employers. In other words, part of the wages they were entitled to was deferred until their retirement.
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Susie Madrak points out how the biggest corporations are avoiding paying any taxes while the federal and state governments are demanding that ordinary people pay more. She also highlights the movement USUncut that highlights the tax inequities and is based on a successful UK model.
Some of you may be wondering what has happened to my series of essays on why atheism is winning. Do not fret, it has not been forgotten! It has just been displaced as the focus of the daily essay by the more immediate and timely issues of labor and the struggles in the Middle East. It will be continued.
But until then, here is Marcus Brigstocke in a debate arguing in favor of the proposition that religion has had its day.
The response by the Christian is pathetic. No wonder the largely young audience overwhelmingly agrees with the proposition.
In Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo there is a scene were two men are being taken out for a public execution for crimes committed independently of each other. At the last minute, a pardon is received for one of the men. The other man, who had been resigned to his fate, becomes outraged and angrily demands to know why the other had been pardoned and not him, and insists that the other man must be executed as well and fights with his guards until he is killed.
On observing this scene, the Count notes the curious and deplorable psychology at work in humans where we seem to delight in dragging others down to our level, even if we do not benefit in any way by doing so. He tells his companions “Do you not see? that this human creature who is about to die is furious that his fellow-sufferer does not perish with him? and, were he able, he would rather tear him to pieces with his teeth and nails than let him enjoy the life he himself is about to be deprived of. Oh, man, man – race of crocodiles, how well do I recognize you there, and that at all times you are worthy of yourselves!”
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Hastings reports how the US military in Afghanistan wanted to use their Psy-Ops team on visiting US politicians to get them to support the war.
The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in “psychological operations” to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.
Like his previous article that led to the dismissal of General Stanley McCrystal, this one is proving to be another embarrassment. Glenn Greenwald reports on how the major media once again seem to feel that their role is to be defenders and protectors of the powerful, and they have turned their guns on Hastings.
Incidentally, this puts the lie to the Village media’s earlier claims that because Hastings was not deferential to the top military brass in his article on McCrystal, Hastings would never be able to get others people to talk to him.