The 2020 Crash and Failed Response to Corona virus

So the Virus we knew was coming a decade ago finally hit us and the USA is woefully unprepared. Pay attention and please share these talking points as we still have a chance to reduce the damage the next time this happens, and it WILL happen again.

Why its so bad

• Trump disbanded the emergency response unit that was put in place to protect us. Standard Conservative policy, cut govt programs because individuals and corporations should be able to fend for themselves.
• Trump has made things much worse by not taking it seriously from the start and worrying more about the stock market than human lives. So he kept telling people it was contained and over rated, nothing to worry about. So it spread further.
• He waited to long to restrict travel and then exempted countries where has hotels.
• Testing kits were offered by WHO early on but Trump admin refused, so an American company could get exclusivity. Except of course the kits were made in China because of our disastrous trade agreement and turned out to be contaminated. This put us way behind the rest of the world.

Trump and Republican "Solutions"?

• Bailouts to major corporations.
• Payroll tax cuts which of course wont help the people sent home without pay or laid off.
• Finally after more than a month persuading insurance companies to not charge copays for testing and our taxes covering their costs. Meanwhile treatment wont be covered, and of course millions of workers will lose their insurance because there no longer working.

The Corporate Response

• Lay off workers because consumer demand in many industries is down.  Honestly you cant blame the companies, but rather than put people on leaves of absence so they keep their health insurance (If they can afford the premiums without a paycheck) their now out of work for an unknown length of time.

The Biden Plan

• This is what the status quo with our health care system looks like.Once you lose your job you lose medical coverage. Even before that happens your discouraged from getting testing (when available) or treatment because for many people the copays and deductibles are too high.
• Taxpayers by the way foot the bill when these people use the ER after it gets serious because they could not afford to go.
• Think about that come election time, The AHCA was better than what we had, and certainly better than the nothing Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnel came up with but it was not enough.

The Sanders Plan

Had Sanders won in 2016 and managed to get his Medicare for all plan through Congress (yes it was and is a long shot and hard. But anything worth doing is hard, and the alternative to not even trying is failure) we would simply not be in this mess.

• You have no Health Insurance now or its too expensive? Under Sanders plan you and all those healthy young people would have been paying into the same healthcare pool everyone uses.  Yale did a study and showed it would save $45 Billion a YEAR. Yes it costs 30 trillion over 10 years as the health insurance companies and the talking heads on TV tell you.  But were already spending 54 trillion in that same time period according to a REPUBLICAN study by The Heritage Foundation. In other words even they know it saves money, they just don't want YOU to know so Health Insurance companies will keep paying them off. Every researcher knows it saves money, they just tell you the costs in taxes but not the savings in your wallet with no more premiums, deductibles, and copays.
• Imagine if everyone who gets sick could get tested (Neither Sanders or Biden would have botched the testing kit thing) and would get tested because they could afford it. Maybe they lose their job for being sick, thats sad but they would still get medical care and maybe quickly find another job.Especially since companies would still be doing a good business.

Summary

Its really too late for this outbreak, we should have elected Sanders in 2016.

However there will be another one, maybe in a few years, maybe a dozen, we do not know when but we know it will happen. In the meantime 45,000 Americans die each year and thousands of newborn babies because people cant afford the current system. It works great for the upper class, lousy for everyone else. And do you really like your insurance company? Not talking about your doctor, but the company you pay every month to help with your medical bills when you need it - are they there for you when you need them? Or do they delay payments and string you along with paperwork?

Getting rid of a business that only makes a profit by not paying out what you pay them for just makes no sense. Of course we have the worst health care in the entire modern world!

Biden is winning the Dem election, not because people like his policies, exit polling in every single state so far proves that. He is winning because the millionaires on TV and the Radio, as well as those in D.C. are telling you everything is fine, lets not rock the boat. Ask yourself, is it fine for you? Would you like it to be better? Sanders can still win if people come out and vote not on nostalgia over President Obama, not over fear of stupid buzz words like socialism but because they want a better future. If Sanders loses America loses, simple as that.

Its true he may not get his plans through Congress and we may lose anyway. But the other side is telling us we certainly will lose of they win and Sanders is defeated because they will change nothing.

I fought for America in the USAF, I'm not surrendering now. My country and generations after me deserve better!

Right Wing Challenge!

So if you read this blog you know I am a humanitarian and thus Left Wing in my politics.
But one of the biggest personal goals is to get money out of politics. Efforts to do this seem to mainly be from the Left, with Take Back Our Republic the only group I know of on the Right.
On the Left we have Wolf Pac, Brand New Congress, and Justice Democrats.

Why so little effort from the Right?  If its really a populism movement and not just corporate manipulation of some of our population how come there is so little effort to get money out of politics?

If you really believe in privatization because you think its good for America how come people have to pay politicians to do it? If Americans really believe deregulation why do corporations have to buy Congress? If you prefer private insurance and those who are in between jobs, laid off, work for small business, or simply cant afford it why is so much of the money coming from insurance companies?
Shouldn't the individual voter and American citizen be able to matter and influence their politician if the numbers are really on their side?

So my challenge to the Right Wing is start an organization like Brand New Congress or Justice Democrats and help Take Back Our Republic.
If your goal is to get rid of elitist control of our government put thepower back into the hands of the individual American!

Article V Testimony in WA

So I watched a committee hearing on SJM8001 and SJM8002 for a call for a convention to overturn Citizens United and reform our campaign financing.
By far most were for it but some were opposed.
In watching the entire testimony I have to first compliment the Committee and participants fora great example of Democracy and civil discourse.
Second, every single person who spoke wanted money out of elections and feel corruption is a serious problem.  The only dispute was a few feared that a constitutional convention could get carried away so prefer to wait for Congress to resolve the issue.
On the one hand that is heartening, on the other its discouraging that a few allow themselves and the country to be paralyzed by fear.
We need to get examples and precedents out there to deal with that fear if were to move forward.

Wolf Pac

So some news on the political side of my life as we wind down 2018.

• I was recently made a State Organizer for Oklahoma Wolf Pac.
• Democrats won 40 seats in the House, a record year! A significant number of those were true progressive candidates, several Justice Democrats and Brand New Congress reps whose campaigns I worked on.
• A lot of Progressive grass roots candidates lost, but more won than mos people expected. True grass roots candidates are at a huge disadvantage because they dont accept corporate or foreign money so they are at a huge financial disadvantage. This is made worse because big media tends to ignore them and talk about the candidates with the biggest war chests. Also most of these were first timers and up against incumbents. So any win is a big deal, and we had 11 of them! Next time it will be a little easier as we learn from mistakes, improve our resources and volunteer base and candidates name recognition.
• I was unfortunately wrong in my prediction that Trumps impeachment proceedings would start by end of 2018. However I was fortunately wrong in that he would have us n WW III by now.
• The GOP has shown time and time again that they are Anti-American and more people are waking up to that every day. Despite one of the most favorable political maps in history they took a huge beating in 2018 and the 2020 map will be less favorable as more Republicans than Democrats will be up for reelection. Plus they will still have the Trump effect to deal with, even if he resigns or is impeached it will now be part of the 2020 election cycle,

So for 2019

Wolf Pac and Brand New Congress will have my focus. Other groups and candidates I volunteered for in 2018 and 2017 are free to reach out to me as needed. I will help wherever I can and there are a lot of issues I believe we must effectively address to keep America strong and improve every Americans lives. Climate Change, Universal Health Care, Living Wage, Voter Suppression, National Security, Economic Security, Criminal Justice Reform, Immigration Reform, Tax Reform, and more are all important! However the number ONE issue is election Reform and Campaign Finance because until we fix those problems our politicians will continue to put the desires of the Special Interests, Corporations, Billionaires, and even Foreign Governments that pay for their election campaigns instead of the American People!