Bill Moyers: Back With a New Series

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Bill Moyers: Back With a New Series

Bill Moyers, Truthout: "The lack of civility and common sense that has paralyzed our democracy, the vast economic and social inequality that sends both left and right raging into the streets, the corrosive influence of money in politics - we're in a tailspin with little hope for a course correction from our elected leadership or corporate-dominated media. The need for voices of reason, simple and eloquent, has rarely been stronger."
Read the Article

"It Was a Sunny Day"
Jason Leopold, Truthout: "A former Guantanamo guard ... reflects on a decade of lawlessness.... Neely did not know it then, nor did the public, but a vast majority of the prisoners who populated Guantanamo during the prison's first year in operation were innocent bystanders sold to US forces for hefty bounty payments or were captured and sent to Guantanamo because they wore the same style Casio watch that members of al-Qaeda wore."
Read the Article

GOP Candidates' Tax Cuts for the Rich Are Up to 270 Times Larger Than Their Tax Cuts for the Middle Class
Pat Garofalo, ThinkProgress: "According to an analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, the average tax cuts received by the richest 1 percent of Americans under the Republican plans would be 270 times as large as the cut received by the middle class ... Even the meager tax cuts that would go to low-income and middle-income taxpayers under these plans would almost surely be offset by the huge cuts in public services that would become necessary as a result."
Read the Article

Romney Looks Like the Nominee, but His Flaws Could Hurt Come Fall
Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers: "[Romney] has received an often-tepid response from Republicans, even in his own New England backyard.... And he's shown a tendency to utter politically tone-deaf quotes that signal difficulty connecting with working-class voters who appear ripe for the picking from the Democrats.... 'Very few people actually like Romney,' said Tim Fortier, a car salesman from Hollis. 'If he's the nominee, people will hold their nose and vote for him, but you'd be amazed how little enthusiasm there is for the guy.'"
Read the Article

The Battlefield and the Barracks: Two War Fronts for Women Soldiers
H. Patricia Hynes, Truthout: "The distinction between military support and combat roles [for women] vanished in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars of occupation.... These same women have found themselves, concurrently, caught in a second, more damaging war - a private, preemptive one in the barracks. As one female soldier put it, 'They basically assume that because you are a girl in the Army, you're obligated to have sex with them.'"
Read the Article

Confrontation Between Pakistan's Army, Government Spark Coup Concerns
Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers: "It is thought that the military is maneuvering to remove the president, Asif Zardari, by using the courts. But his determination to hang on could result in another coup, analysts believe. There is speculation that, to head off the military's plan, the government will try to sack the army chief."
Read the Article

Push to Reform Prison System Brings Unlikely Allies Together
Rose Aguilar, Truthout: "The push to reform the prison system has brought unlikely allies together. Earlier this year, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People joined forces with ... Newt Gingrich who is part of a new prison reform initiative called Right on Crime.... Never before have so many legislators, governors and advocates from all sides of the aisle come together with a single unifying theme on criminal justice: we need to end our addiction to incarceration."
Read the Article

Live From Guantanamo
J. Wells Dixon, The Center for Constitutional Rights: "Today marks ten years since the opening of the prison at Guantanamo Bay.... There is no visible recognition of today's anniversary, except an oblique reference in the local paper to marking 'ten years of progress.' Progress toward what? Perfection of lawlessness? Indifference to human suffering? ... Guantanamo Bay has been open for ten years too long. It is illegal and its continued existence demeans us. It must be closed."
Read the Article

On the News With Thom Hartmann: Mitt Romney Wins New Hampshire, and More
In today's On the News segment: Mitt Romney wins New Hampshire with 39 percent of the caucus vote, Occupy Wall Street is back, the "Doomsday Clock" ticks one minute closer to midnight, and more.
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

Congresswoman Accepts Money Tied to For-Profit Colleges, Then Touts Schools' Efficiency
Danny Weil, Truthout: "Rep. Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican who heads the House Subcommittee on Higher Education, stated during a panel discussion ... that for-profit colleges have done a better job 'of being mindful about efficiency and effectiveness' than their nonprofit peers.... A simple look at Foxx's campaign contributions for the 2011-2012 campaign finance cycle suggests why Foxx is energized on behalf of the for-profit colleges. This representative of the ruling 1 percent has stuffed her pockets with for-profit college monies."
Read the Article

How Media and Pollsters Pundify the Public and Marginalize Actual Ideas
Sam Husseini, VotePact.org: "The compulsion to vote for electablity rather than actual belief in the ideas being expressed by a candidate ... morphs into something perhaps even more insidious: lesser-evilism.... Many of these people would find they actually agree with third party and independent candidates ... But most of them don't even consider voting for them because they feel an overriding compulsion to stop the other major party at all costs."
Read the Article

In 2012, the Real Conversation Will Be in the Occupations, While Corporate Candidates Have a False Conversation
Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, October2011.org: "Already, the Occupy Movement it showing its political independence: protesting candidates from both parties who are part of corrupt money-based elections. The irrelevance of the political debate, primarily between two-corporate approved candidates, will become more evident as the voices of the people grow.... The main job of the Occupy Movement during this election year will be to change the conversation from a mostly irrelevant debate between two corporate approved candidates to one relevant to the American people."
Read the Article

Guantanamo Detainees Launch Hunger Strike to Protest Prison's Tenth Anniversary (Video)
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!: "Detainees at ... Guantanamo Bay launched a hunger strike today marking the prison's 10th anniversary, inspired in part by U.S. activists who have called for a national day of action.... And they're always very moved by the fact that Americans stand in solidarity with what they're going through and what their families are experiencing."
Watch the Video and Read the Transcript

Click here for more Truthout articles

TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

When patients become profit centers, all our health is at risk.

First, for those who are lucky enough to have private insurance, we are at the mercy of claims adjusters and benefit managers whose prime objective is to minimize health insurance company payouts for care. On top of that, until health care reform is fully implemented, you can still be denied health insurance for pre-existing conditions or pay exorbitant premiums, leaving many people who might hurt the profits of health insurance companies left to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars each for uninsured care.

In short, the corporate goal of health insurers is not the medical well-being of policy holders; it is profitability - as pointed out many times on BuzzFlash at Truthout. Illness and treatment reduce profitability. Why spend money on an expensive procedure for a cancer patient if they are going to die anyway?

This is the de facto death panel that exists in a world of privatized health insurance.

But a recent commentary by Philip Caper posted on Truthout poses the other side of the double threat to our health care in the current health insurance climate. The providers of medical care are increasingly employees of corporations that are out to maximize profits - along with Big Pharma that produces our medications:

Large corporations, many of them for-profit and publicly traded now dominate the financing and delivery of American medical care ... pharmaceutical companies have become huge marketing machines. They now are focused far more on their profitability than on their healing mission. Producing medicine that cures diseases instead of just treating symptoms has become a bad business model. Once a disease is cured the customer disappears and profits decline....

[Meanwhile,] the culture and vocabulary of health care underwent a remarkable change. Where hospital directors used to be called "administrators," they became CEOs. What used to be called "hospital services" became "product lines." Those who used to be called "patients" became "market share." Advertising by doctors and hospitals, once considered unethical, became commonly accepted.

Caper concludes: "In today's corporate health care industry, physician 'productivity' is often measured not by patient health but by profit."

So, it's not surprising that politicians such as Rick Scott and Rick Santorum, who are apostles of "free market" health care, have both benefited financially from such a system. Scott, the governor of Florida, was CEO of the for-profit Columbia/HCA chain when it committed the most massive Medicare fraud scheme uncovered as of that time. Santorum became a millionaire, in part, after being defeated for re-election as senator and "joining" the board of Universal Health Services.

If you value your life, do you want all the medical decisions about your care made by corporate hospital chains and care providers, Big Pharma and private insurance companies?

That's risky business when it comes to health.
ends

© Scoop Media