A picture book taken off the market after Scholastic apologized for its depiction of slavery.

If Bernie is the nominee, and runs on a platform of replacing Obamacare

with his version of Medicare, including the $14 trillion cost structure he is advocating, then both the Democrats and the Republicans will be running against Obamacare.

To the average voter, who doesn't spend a lot of time on DU, that will send the message that the parties agree that Obamacare is bad and needs to be tossed out. The only question is, which replacement plan is better.

There is a serious risk that they will believe the Rethugs that their fantasy plan is better because they're not talking about spending $14 trillion or raising middle class taxes -- no matter what cost-saving disclaimers we put out there.

Adding a Medicare OPTION to the ACA would be building on the ACA and making it better.

Saying that it needs to be completely replaced risks losing all the gains we so painfully made.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/17/bernie-sanders-new-health-care-plan-is-his-biggest-attack-on-the-rich-so-far/

Last fall, the Wall Street Journal estimated Bernie Sanders' single-payer health care plan would cost the government a whopping $15 trillion over a decade. Sanders' campaign objected - loudly - over that price tag. On Sunday evening, just before the Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina, Sanders finally released details of his plan, including a headline price tag. It was $14 trillion.

Picture books that call slaves "servants" and show them smiling?

If more African American people had jobs in the industry, would this kind of mistake (or deliberate action) have happened?

On edit: Scholastic has apologized and taken the book off the market.

http://www.salon.com/2016/01/18/smiling_slaves_at_story_time_these_picture_books_show_why_we_need_more_diversity_in_publishing_too/

We will not be able to argue in the General that nominee Ted Cruz isn't eligible

unless we want to lose the Latino vote.

So as tempting as that may be, we should forget about this. If the Rethugs use it to kill off his candidacy, fine. But if we pick up this weapon it will just backfire on us.

Bitcoins: today's preferred form of ransom payments.

This happened to a friend. Fortunately he had backed up files so he could just tell them to Fk off.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/business/dealbook/for-ransom-bitcoin-replaces-the-bag-of-bills.html?action=click&contentCollection=DealBook&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=Marginalia&pgtype=article


In a modern day version of a mob shakedown, hackers around the world have seized files on millions of computers, taken down public websites and even, in a few cases, threatened physical harm. The victims — who have ranged from ordinary computer users to financial firms and police departments — are told that their only way out is through a Bitcoin payment that is sometimes more than $20,000.

SNIP

Bitcoin has made the delivery of ransom more seamless and untraceable for criminals because the virtual currency system is run by a decentralized network of computers that collects no personal information about users. Unlike the days of bulging briefcases, Bitcoin payments can be made without an in-person meeting. What’s more, Bitcoin transactions are designed to be irreversible, so victims cannot reclaim their money as they could with a credit card or PayPal transaction.

Early Bitcoin users quickly realized that the currency could be useful for ransom payments. But in late 2013, the threat spread far beyond the virtual currency community when the first version of Bitcoin-fueled ransomware, known as CryptoLocker, began to spread around the globe.

The software encrypted all of the files on a computer and offered a key to unlock the files in exchange for a Bitcoin payment. Victims were directed to several websites where they could buy Bitcoins through a bank transfer.

Where has Sanders said that his Medicare for all plan would expand Medicare

to cover 100% of expenses, both medical and hospital, versus the 80% it currently covers?

Right now, Medicare recipients who don't also qualify for Medicaid must buy private insurance to cover the remaining 20%. So Medicare-for-all wouldn't be enough for many people who couldn't afford the additional private insurance. Where has he addressed how the 20% of costs would be covered?

Trump's strong support in the south may make it hard for a tea party person

to break through, if Trump does well in the earlier primaries.

He's doing especially well in cities with large numbers of minority voters. Not among the minority voters, but among the white Republicans who live in these areas.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/12/21/some-strong-signals-for-donald-trump-in-the-south/

The unique base of support that has pushed Donald Trump to the top of the Republican presidential field in national polls is also likely to give him boost this spring when the campaign shifts to the South.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has drawn wide attention for his own efforts in Southern states, many of which will vote as part of the big, March 1 “SEC Primary,’’ when more convention delegates will be awarded than on any other day. Mr. Cruz, who is surging in the polls, is focusing on evangelical Christian voters and other social conservatives, which form the cornerstone of his support and are plentiful in those states.

But a breakdown of recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News polling shows that Mr. Trump also has a likely base of support in those Southern states. And it comes with something of a surprise: Mr. Trump’s likely strength can be detected by looking at Republican primary voters who live in counties with large African American and Hispanic populations.

The celebrity businessman does particularly well in counties that the American Communities Project calls Minority Centers. Data from the last three polls show Mr. Trump has the support of 34% of Republican primary voters who live in those communities, the highest share seen in any of the seven county types that the communities project is studying for the 2016 campaign.

"Inside the Fandom of Sanders and Trump"

“The White Man Pathology: Inside the Fandom of Sanders and Trump”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/10/white-man-pathology-bernie-sanders-donald-trump

You feel your whiteness properly at the American border. Most of the time being white is an absence of problems. The police don’t bother you so you don’t notice the police not bothering you. You get the job so you don’t notice not getting it. Your children are not confused with criminals. I live in downtown Toronto, in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in one of the most open cities in the world, where multiculturalism is the dominant civic value and the inert virtue of tolerance is the most prominent inheritance of the British empire, so if you squint you can pretend the ancient categories are dissipating into a haze of enlightenment and intermarriage.

SNIP

I’ve never been to a place as white as Iowa. That’s the honest truth. . . .

SNIP

The Bernie Sanders rally in Davenport was the precise opposite of the Donald Trump rally in Burlington and yet precisely the same in every detail. “Make America Great Again” was replaced by “Feel the Bern”. Hawkers sold pins, three for $10. They read “Bernie Sanders is my spirit animal” and “Cats for Bernie” and “I supported Bernie Sanders before it was cool.” Davenport, at least near the Adler Theater, is the same Brooklyn-outside-Brooklyn that has conquered every corner of the world that is not a strip mall. The tattoo artists of Davenport do not go hungry. The cornfed hipsters at the Sanders rally look like they have probably attended a party at which somebody played a bongo. They may even have attended a literary reading.

There were hype men as with Trump, too, although in this case they were twentyish women in glasses screaming “Feel the Bern!” and “We’re Going to Build a Revolution!” Somebody with a camera from NBC asked a group who has brought their precocious children because they want them to be engaged in the political process “Can I get you guys to look like you’re excited about Bernie?” They carefully placed their drinks on the floor, out of sight, to oblige.

The same specter of angry white people haunts Saunders’s rally, the same sense of longing for a country that was, the country that has been taken away. The Bernie crowd brought homemade signs instead of manufactured ones, because I guess they’re organic. They waved them just the same. They were going to a show. They wanted to be a good audience.
The fundamental difference between the Trump and Sanders crowd was that the Sanders crowd has more money, the natural consequence of the American contradiction machinery: rich white people can afford to think about socialism, the poor can only afford their anger.

SNIP

Sanders’s exasperation was the principal fact to be communicated, more than any political content. Trump was about winning again. Sanders was about having lost. The vagueness of American politics is what astonished the outsider. It’s all about feelings and God and bullshit. Sanders actually uttered the following sentence out loud: “What we’re saying is when millions of people come together to restore their government we can do extraordinary things.” Nobody asked what he meant. Nobody asked for numbers. They applauded. Better to take it in the spirit in which it’s given, like a Catskills resort comedian.

SNIP




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Marche

Stephen Marche (born 1976) is a Canadian writer. In 2005, he received a doctorate in early modern English drama from the University of Toronto.

He writes a monthly column for Esquire, "A Thousand Words about Our Culture". In 2011, this column was a finalist for the American Society of Magazine Editors award for columns and commentary.[1] His articles also appear in the New York Times and The Atlantic.[2]

Marche wrote an opinion piece published by The New York Times on August 14, 2015, titled "The Closing of the Canadian Mind".[4] In this article he was critical of Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, linking him with Rob Ford, former mayor of Toronto who was involved in a crack cocaine scandal.

Do Trump's supporters not care about his wife's Internet porn photos,

are they unaware of them, or what?

And I'm not just talking about the one on the rug -- there are more, full frontal.

If our candidate runs against Trump, is this a fair issue to bring up? Or do we just pretend the photos don't exist because we're better than the Rethugs are, and why shouldn't a former porn star make a great First Lady?

P.S. Some of the nude photos included another beauty, too. I wonder what Kim Davis would think.

ON EDIT: And they're positioning her as the next Jackie Kennedy.

http://www.tampabay.com/incoming/shed-be-the-only-first-lady-to-have-posed-in-the-buff/2247950

"She provides great balance" to Trump, said Roger Stone, the candidate's former political adviser who has known the couple since before they were married. She is smart — "not just an armpiece," Stone said. "She would be the most glamourous first lady since Jackie Kennedy."

Hillary has specific healthcare proposals. Bernie's site is silent on the issue. How come?

If he's proposing single payer, how come he doesn't say anything about healthcare on his website? He lists his stands on many other issues.

Or is he simply satisfied with the ACA the way it is? Why doesn't he address this on his website, so people can know where he stands?


www.berniesanders.com on HEALTH:

* * *

www.hillaryclinton.com on HEALTH:

Hillary led the fight to expand access to quality, affordable health care for decades—and she’s not going to stop now. Throughout her career, Hillary led the fight to expand health care access for every American:

In 1979, Hillary chaired the Arkansas Rural Health Advisory Committee, which focused on expanding health care access to isolated rural areas of the state.

As first lady, she refused to give up when Congress defeated health care reform. Instead, she worked with Republicans and Democrats to help create the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which now provides health coverage to more than 8 million children. Senator Ted Kennedy said that if not for Hillary, the Children’s Health Insurance Program wouldn’t be in existence today.

As senator, she introduced legislation to reduce the cost of health insurance expenses.
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Hillary pushed the Bush administration for $20 billion for recovery and to address health care needs of first responders who suffered lasting health effects from their time at Ground Zero.

Going forward, Hillary will build on these efforts and fight to ensure that the savings from these reforms benefits families—not just insurance companies, drug companies, and large corporations.
Defend the Affordable Care Act. Hillary will continue to defend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) against Republican efforts to repeal it. She'll build on it to expand affordable coverage, slow the growth of overall health care costs (including prescription drugs), and make it possible for providers to deliver the very best care to patients.

Lower out-of-pocket costs like copays and deductibles. The average deductible for employer-sponsored health plans rose from $1,240 in 2002 to about $2,500 in 2013. American families are being squeezed by rising out-of-pocket health care costs. Hillary believes that workers should share in slower growth of national health care spending through lower costs.

Reduce the cost of prescription drugs. Prescription drug spending accelerated from 2.5 percent in 2013 to 12.6 percent in 2014. It’s no wonder that almost three-quarters of Americans believe prescription drug costs are unreasonable. Hillary believes we need to demand lower drug costs for hardworking families and seniors.

Transform our health care system to reward value and quality. Hillary is committed to building on delivery system reforms in the Affordable Care Act that improve value and quality care for Americans.

Hillary will also work to expand access to rural Americans, who often have difficulty finding quality, affordable health care. She will explore cost-effective ways to broaden the scope of health care providers eligible for telehealth reimbursement under Medicare and other programs, including federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics. She will also call for states to support efforts to streamline licensing for telemedicine and examine ways to expand the types of services that qualify for reimbursement.

Hillary is continuing a lifelong fight to ensure women have access to reproductive health care. As senator, she championed access to emergency contraception and voted in favor of strengthening a woman’s right to make her own health decisions. As president, she will continue defending Planned Parenthood, which provides critical health services including breast exams and cancer screenings to 2.7 million women a year.