May 29, 2019

Opinion: Amazon Government contracts become Amazon's new target market

( ugh )

Companies complain that the tech giant may take their business as it has in retail




Rana Foroohar
May 26, 2019


Should Amazon be the US government’s Everything Store? It’s a question being raised as a small but seismic tweak has made its way into the legislation governing how the federal government buys its annual $50bn-worth of commercial goods — from machinery, to potato chips, to toilet paper.

Thanks to what has become informally known as the “Amazon Amendment” to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, government officials must come up with an ecommerce solution for all purchasing — and wholesalers are complaining it will allow Amazon to eat their lunch, just as it has in retail.

Amazon started courting government business a few years ago, and in 2017 signed a lucrative deal with 1,500 local public agencies, which was criticised by non-profit advocacy groups like the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, alleging that the deal would leave the public sector paying more, rather than less, for goods. Last year, Amazon almost nabbed a $10bn Pentagon cloud computing contract before the deal was squashed, in part due to complaints from competitors that Amazon had hijacked the bidding process. It is now a run off between Microsoft and Amazon.

The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, a group that represents the biggest companies in a sector worth $5.6tn in sales a year, is waging a public relations war to try and ensure that its members don’t lose government contracts to Amazon. In particular the trade group is upset that the General Services Administration, the part of the government tasked with figuring out which ecommerce model to use, is piloting only an “e-marketplace” version that they, and a number of others, including ILSR, believe will favour a single player. Other ecommerce options, such as a government-managed portal for multiple suppliers, were discarded.

“By designating one, and only one, channel to reach the government customer, core antitrust and broad competitive precepts are assailed,” wrote NAW president Dirk Van Dongen in a February letter to lawmakers. His members’ businesses could be under threat, too. The GSA has said nothing about capping the fees Amazon could charge sellers. Wholesalers and the ILSR worry that sellers could be hit with as much as a 15 per cent fee on the value of goods sold. Amazon would not confirm or deny that number, saying that “fees vary”.

https://www.ft.com/content/401adbe8-7e31-11e9-81d2-f785092ab560?emailId=5ce80e2321432400048aad1b&segmentId=7d033110-c776-45bf-e9f2-7c3a03d2dd26

May 29, 2019

Opinion: Nurses Know the Human Costs of Care.That's Why Many Want 'Medicare for All.'

( Please share on social media )

Critics say universal health care will penalize providers the most. These nurses are undeterred.

By Jeneen Interlandi

Ms. Interlandi is a member of the editorial board.

May 27, 2019

The experiences that have turned the members of National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union for nurses, into vocal advocates for a universal, government-run health care system are numerous and horrific.

Renelsa Caudill, a Washington, D.C.-area cardiac nurse, remembers being forced to pull a cardiac patient out of the CT scanner before the procedure was complete. The woman had suffered a heart attack earlier that year and was having chest pains. The doctor wanted the scan to help him decide if she needed a potentially risky catheterization, but the woman’s insurance, inexplicably, had refused to cover the test.

Melissa Johnson-Camacho, an oncology nurse in Northern California, remembers a mother who had to ration the special bags that were helping to keep her daughter’s lungs clear. The bags were supposed to be changed every day, so that the daughter did not drown in her own fluids, but they cost $550 each.

And Karla Diederich, also from California, remembers saying a final goodbye to her friend and fellow intensive care nurse Nelly Yap in their hospital’s parking lot. Ms. Yap was dying of metastatic cancer. She was scheduled for another round of chemotherapy, but the hospital had changed owners while she was on sick leave and she’d lost her job — and insurance — as a result. “Nelly spent most of her life taking care of other people,” Ms. Diederich says. “And when she needed that care herself, it was not there.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/opinion/nurses-medicare-for-all-health-insurance.html

May 29, 2019

Six Children Have Died While in ICE Custody - Why?

May 29, 2019


Undocumented immigrants seeking asylum are being separated from their children and detained in prison camps as more restrictive racist policies are being imposed by Trump. We discuss the policy with ACLU attorney Astrid Dominguez

https://therealnews.com/stories/six-children-have-died-while-in-ice-custody-why

May 29, 2019

( Justice Fighter ) Sen. Warren intervenes in North Liberty mobile home dispute over rent spike

Aimee Breaux, Iowa City Press-Citizen Published 5:20 p.m. CT May 28, 2019 | Updated 7:03 p.m. CT May 28, 2019


Sen. Elizabeth Warren weighed in on a local dispute between residents of a North Liberty mobile home park and a new out-of-state landlord imposing rent hikes of up to 58%.

The presidential hopeful and Iowa Rep. Dave Loebsack, sent a letter to Havenpark Capital Tuesday. The company acquired Golfview Mobile Home Court in March. Upon hearing news of their rent increasing, residents formed an association to advocate against what they call price gouging.

Warren's letter cited reports of residents having to choose between basic necessities and abandoning their homes after investment firms, like Havenpark, have purchased manufactured housing communities, like the one in North Liberty.

It was one of several notes on Congress of the United States letterhead sent to various investment firms who own mobile homes across the nation. The senator posed the same list of questions, including “what was the rationale for those rent increases?” and a derivative of “how many manufactured homes have been abandoned since Havenpark Capital took over the community?”

https://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/2019/05/28/sen-elizabeth-warren-intervenes-north-liberty-mobile-home-dispute/1257710001/

May 28, 2019

100,000s of Kids Hold School Strike for Climate Action

( Our future leaders, leading now. )


May 24, 2019


Students from 2,300 schools across 150 countries held their second global climate strike. Next time, they want adults to join in
https://therealnews.com/stories/100000s-of-kids-hold-school-strike-for-climate-action

May 15, 2019

The Making of a Medical Insurance Spin Doctor - RAI with Wendell Potter (3/7)

( If you use social media, please share.)

May 10, 2019

Wendell Potter, author of ‘Deadly Spin: How Corporate PR is Killing Healthcare and Deceiving Americans’, traces his life from growing up poor and Republican in Tennessee, to radicalization during the Vietnam War, to cynical journalist who just wanted to make money - on Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay

https://therealnews.com/stories/the-making-of-a-medical-insurance-spin-doctor-rai-with-wendell-potter-3-7


Part 4

Medical Insurance Companies Can Decide Who Lives and Dies – RAI with Wendell Potter (4/7)

May 15, 2019


Whistleblower Wendell Potter says the death of a young woman denied care by the insurance company he worked for was a turning point in his life; he says these practices are still taking place under the Affordable Care Act - on Reality Asserts Itself with Paul Jay

https://therealnews.com/stories/medical-insurance-companies-can-decide-who-lives-and-dies-rai-with-wendell-potter-4-7

May 8, 2019

Trump and Mnuchin Break the Law By Refusing to Release President's Tax Records

May 8, 2019


White collar criminologist Bill Black explains how the administration's stance on Trump'’ taxes is illegal and what the possible consequences could be—or should be


MARC STEINER Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Marc Steiner. Great to have you all with us. So here we go. Congress wants Trump’s tax returns. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal requested them all, or six specific things, but then Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, sent this letter in response. As he’s saying, no deal. You’re not going to get that from the IRS. The IRS, of course, now being run by Charles Rettig, who is one of the nation’s leading attorneys for people some people might call “tax cheats,” will not turn over Trump’s tax returns, writing that the committee’s request is unprecedented, is constitutionally questionable, and may have lasting negative effects for taxpayers countrywide. Yet, the 1924 Anti-Corruption Act says that Congress can ask for anyone’s tax returns at any time. Now this may go immediately to the Supreme Court or wind its way up to the Supreme Court. We don’t know what that means, so what gives here? Well our guest, who has been a financial regulator and is a Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri- Kansas City, should know something about all this and can shed some light. Of course, we’re talking about Bill Black. Good to have you with us, Bill. Welcome back.


BILL BLACK Thank you.

MARC STEINER I should also say the title of his book because I love the title of this book, The Best Way To Rob A Bank Is To Own One. That is one of the best titles in American history, I think. So let me just start with this. So both the chairman of the committee in trying to get some tax returns from Trump, and Secretary Mnuchin, talk about Section 6103—both using that as a defense why they should get the tax returns legally and the secretary saying, no you shouldn’t have these tax returns because this is politicized, and you don’t have a legitimate reason. So what is this Section 6103, and what does it mean?

BILL BLACK Well, it means that Democrats win, is the short answer. I was also litigation director of a major federal agency, you know, and I’m a law prof as well. So, what it says in the statute is while—it isn’t all of Congress that can request. It’s the key committee chairs in the House and the Senate. This is the appropriate one in the House. So this is one of the consequences of the Democrats getting control of the House, that they’re now in a position to make this request. And while the word I’m using is request, the statute is mandatory, it’s not discretionary. It says when you receive this request, you shall provide those documents to the committee chair. So the Democrats have a clean winner. What’s the origins of the statute? The origins of the statute are in the Teapot Dome Scandal. And so, in history there used to be a debate about the most corrupt administration in the United States, whether it was the Grant administration or the Harding administration.

https://therealnews.com/stories/trump-and-mnuchin-break-the-law-by-refusing-to-release-presidents-tax-records

May 8, 2019

7 Bold Elizabeth Warren Proposals That Would Remake America

May 05, 2019


The spotlight has escaped her thus far this election cycle, but Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has nonetheless distinguished herself in a crowded Democratic field as a woman of substance.

Buried by student debt? She has a plan for that. Want to work but can’t afford child care? She’s got you covered. Victimized by a rigged economic system, corporate greed and income inequality? Check, check and check, Warren’s on it in a big way.

Throughout her nascent campaign, the Massachusetts senator hasn’t just presented an aspirational vision of the country but furnished a detailed roadmap how we get there. This begins with her proposed wealth tax, which 60 percent of respondents in the most recent Quinnipiac University national poll said they supported.

Taken together, these policy ideas are revolutionary in their scope, with a particular emphasis on creating an economic playing field that benefits more than just the rich.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/7-bold-elizabeth-warren-proposals-that-would-remake-america/

May 6, 2019

An Insurance Company Denied a Life-Saving Treatment. A Judge Just Called It An "Immoral" Decision.

( The time for Medicare for All is now. )


May 1, 2019

In a stunning court filing, U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. made it very clear how he felt about United Healthcare.

Abigail Weinberg


When a personal injury attorney had to pay $85,000 out of pocket for a life-saving prostate cancer treatment, he filed a class-action lawsuit against his insurer, United Healthcare. On Monday, the judge assigned to hear the case recused himself: not only had he been recommended the same treatment for his own prostate cancer, but a friend of his had paid $150,000 for the treatment when United Healthcare denied him coverage.

Proton beam radiation therapy has been an accepted cancer treatment method since the 1980s, according to the Washington Post, but United Healthcare denied the treatment to Miami-based attorney Richard Cole on the grounds that it was “experimental,” Cole said. Although Cole was able to afford his medical care, he filed the lawsuit on behalf of the potentially thousands of others who had been denied treatment as well.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. recused himself from the case because he felt that his personal experiences with prostate cancer prevented him from viewing the situation impartially. He wrote in his order of recusal that although he opted for surgery rather than radiation therapy, medical experts’ positive opinions toward radiation still resonated with him. (Cole’s case has been reassigned to another judge.)

Two other judges had previously recused themselves, saying they knew Cole too well to judge his case fairly.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/05/united-healthcare-immoral-barbaric/

May 1, 2019

Apple Plans to Buy $75 Billion More of Its Own Stock

(Expect to hear candidates like Warren talk to the public about this insanity.)

By Jack Nicas

April 30, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO — Shortly after Apple used a new tax law last year to bring back most of the $252 billion it had held abroad, the company said it would buy back $100 billion of its stock.

On Tuesday, Apple announced its plans for another major chunk of the money: It will buy back a further $75 billion in stock.

“Our first priority is always looking after the business and making sure we continue to grow and invest,” Luca Maestri, Apple’s finance chief, said in an interview. “If there is excess cash, then obviously we want to return it to investors.”

Apple’s record buybacks should be welcome news to shareholders, as the stock price is likely to climb. But the buybacks could also expose the company to more criticism that the tax cuts it received have mostly benefited investors and executives.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/technology/apple-stock-buyback-quarterly-results.html