[Note before this posted Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House]
Jim: This is a Medicare For All roundtable. Remember our e-mail address is thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com and we can also be reached at common_ills@yahoo.com. Participating in our roundtable are The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review; Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.
Jim (Con't): Medicare For All. We're the laugh of the western world because the United States does not have it. We are the joke. It wasn't supposed to be this way. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt planned for us to have it. From Stephanie Buck's timeline at MEDIUM:
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt planned for federally sponsored health insurance to be part of Social Security. It was thrown out in order to hurry the bill through Congress. [. . .] In his final State of the Union address in January 1945, FDR promised to communicate with Congress regarding expanded health security programs. Three months later, he died.
Jim (Con't): One thing that led many to support Senator Bernie Sanders was his support for Medicare For All. It's an issue that many have worked hard in the last decade to address and popularize -- including -- and especially -- nurses in this country. They are the true heroes as well as people like the late Kevin Zeese and Dr. Margaret Flowers who have also worked hard to champion it.
Jess: As has the Green Party.
Jim: Yes, as has the Green Party. And the efforts of all of these people and many more working together resulted in Democrats having to give lip service to Medicare For All in their campaigns in 2019 for the party's presidential nomination and to raising awareness of what was possible among the American people.
Dona: Public Citizen: "Recent polls indicate that six in ten Americans support Medicare-for-All. In addition, more than 60 percent believe that government is responsible for ensuring health coverage for all Americans. And nearly 70 percent of all voters, including battleground voters, identify health care as an important issue in upcoming elections." Pew Research Center: "A majority of Americans continue to say the federal government has a responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage. And since last year, there has been an increase – especially among Democrats – in the share saying health insurance should be provided by a single national program run by the government." Betty?
Betty: Yet despite this groundswell of support, our Congress, our public servants, are not demanding it for us. Now they have it, let's be clear, whatever you want to call it -- single payer, government funded healthcare, whatever -- they have it. It's important enough to them that they have it and that they give it to themselves -- for life. One term in the House, one two-year term, and you've got it for life. But We The People? The ones they're supposed to serve, we're not good enough for it, it's not important enough to share it with us. If we're not going to get it, I say it's time to pull it from members of Congress. Maybe if that happened, maybe if they were in the same boat as the American people, they would realize how badly Medicare For All was needed.
Jim: Jimmy Dore. This is from C.I.'s "2020: The Year Long Walk Of Shame:"
So knowing how hated he was becoming may have been a gift to Jimmy and may have freed him to do what no one else could or would do: Press for a House vote on Medicare For All.
It's needed, it's 100% needed.
But
no one thought of how to do it before Jimmy did. ("No one" includes
me.) Jimmy came up with it and he's led on this issue and, in the
process, he's kept the fight for Medicare For All alive and the issue on
the minds of many Americans.
Jim (Con't): Jimmy Dore. The comedian. That's who thought this up. Jimmy's much more than a comedian but as he likes to point out, he's a comedian and it came to him. Why didn't all the political operatives and the various pundits who present themselves as smart and informed think of it?
Jess: "It" is that Nancy Pelosi refuses to allow new leadership. The vast failure that is Nancy -- who represents me in Congress, or is supposed to -- wants to be Speaker of the House again -- for the yearbook credit, apparently, because she's never done anything with the post to better the lives of the American people. To get their votes, Jimmy Dore is asking for progressives in the House to state that they will only vote for her if she pledges to bring Medicare For All to a floor vote in the House at the end of this month.
Jim: There are --
C.I.: Interrupting to note that we need to put in a link to Force The Vote, the online petition.
Jim: Thank you, we do need that in here. But this proposal, it's not even saying that Nancy can't be Speaker. It's saying, "You want our votes? This is what we need." This is what we, as voters, are supposed to do with our candidates. Jimmy Dore has a great idea. But he's being attacked by many. Let's start with the ridiculous Cyberdemon531 -- a YOUTUBE non-personality due to her flat affect.
Rebecca: F**king idiot. I wrote about her in "sad, sad, sad."
Ava: Let me say to Cyberdemon, welcome to womanhood, we're glad to have you. But, bitch, when you say things like Jimmy Dore is a "beta male"? Excuse the f**k out of me, but you were a man. I'm not insulting you for it. I'm not questioning you for it. But as a woman who started as a man, I really don't get where you think you're calling him a "beta male" isn't begging for an aggressive pushback against you. Can you imagine all the names you could be called? I'm sure you can remember all the names you have been called. Jimmy is making an important proposal so you choose to respond with name calling that insults his gender? Now you're not just a bitch, you're also an idiot. When you get called out, like when Rebecca called you out, you immediately turn tail and run, and back off your position which clearly means you don't think anything out. Maybe you need to work on your analytical skills. And, since C.I. and I cover media here and since you do videos, let me help you out with one more thing -- you're highly unattractive. That hair color? If it's real, ditch it. Get a new hair color. You also need a make over -- stat. I don't feel the need to be kind to you because (a) we need Medicare for All and you're standing in our way and (b) you are ripping apart Jimmy Dore who is fighting while you cower. So let me repeat, you're a dumb idiot and you're an ugly idiot. Work on your looks and work on actually thinking before you speak. And after that? Kiss my Latina ass, you White privileged piece of trash who'd rather slime Jimmy Dore than help the American people.
Rebecca: Amen.
Ty: Sadly, it's not just Cyberdemon who's trashing Jimmy. There's also the hideous Ana Kasparian and her sewer dwelling partner Cenk Uygur. It's important to remember that Cenk, like a lot of Republicans, crossed over to Democrat only after they realized that they could make money that way. Cenk is a failure. He's failed repeatedly at weight loss. He failed when he tried to get into Congress -- he only got 5.9% of the vote. He's failed in his efforts to deny the Armenian Genocide. He failed at MSNBC which got rid of him because of his aggressive manner -- making his trashing of Jimmy for 'tone' all the more ridiculous. Ana needs to go from JACOBIN. It's past time. Then we can go back to enjoying that site but at present most of us have walked away.
Jim: And we'll deal with that in another feature this edition -- or we plan to. Ryan Grim. Trina?
Trina: I love C.I.
C.I.: Love ya too!
Trina: I do. And when she gets mad? I think of Marilyn Monroe. She was on a set filming and the scene wasn't working and she stops and says something like we need to fix the script, we need to fix the lighting as she's walking off the set to her trailer and adds, "And put a rinse on the blonde in the secod row." I always loved that story and I've probably mangled it. But it's like -- boom, boom, boom. And that's how C.I. is in the December 22nd snapshot where she's not that RISING still can't female guests but they can and do bring on Gerald Posner who is a serial plagiarist of many decades and then, oh by the way, "And you're also a visual medium. Meaning? Maybe tell Ryan Grim that the dye job's not working as is. He needs to go to a lighter shade and he needs to do it all over his hair because the black shoe polish on top with the white sides does not look real -- it makes it look like the dark part is a toupee." I just loved that. And somebody needed to say it because it does look like a bad toupee.
Dona: And we're not Ryan Grim fans here.
Marcia: Oh, no, we are not. We can't stand that creep. He reports on Tara Reade and then drops the story while she's being attacked? No follow up, no nothing.
Ann: And there needed to be a follow up. Assholes like Michael Tracey were smearing her and, Ava and C.I. put it well, your credit score doesn't determine whether or not you're going to get raped. I'm pulling this from the May 7, 2020 snapshot:
"I believe Tara Reade, yes I do," Lucy Flores told PLANET AMERICA
(Australia's ABC). Tara has stated Joe Biden assaulted her in 1993.
And the mainstream media has largely ignored the story. Kelly McBride weighed in with her conclusions on why NPR waited forever to cover the story.
The media's reluctance to cover it has allowed some like hypocrite
Alyssa Milano to argue that the claims must not be true because the
press isn't covering them and it allowed the attacker -- and his attack
squad -- to set the terms of the conversation. Why? The people who set
the terms of the conversation are people who experts in the topic.
Twitter is full of Tucker Carlson's applying 'standards' that are not
standards. As we noted yesterday, it was C-SPAN that brought on RAINN's (Rape, Abuse &
Incest National Network) vice president Heather Drevna.
Heather Drevna: What I can say is we shouldn't dismiss someone's
allegations of assault merely because their story has changed or what
they have told audiences has differed at times. You need to take into
account her explanation for why the details she described last year
don't all match what she's alleging now, why the complaint might not
match what she's alleging now. You also need to take into account that
she told some friends and family members at the time of the alleged
assault. It's not unusual for a survivor to take years to process the
trauma that they have experienced and just because they've not come
forward publicly immediately after events may have occurred doesn't mean
that they did not happen.
C-SPAN, not CNN. Not CBS. Not PBS. Not NPR. Not . . .
Survivors are being smeared by idiots who know nothing about the topic.
Ann (Con't): And I will add: Not Ryan Grim. He was required to do that but he didn't. He didn't pushback against the attacks on Tara Reade. He did nothing. He just folded like the useless piece of crap he is. What he should have done, having covered the story, was respond to the attacks on Tara by interviewing experts, like Heahter Drevna, about survivors of rape. That was his job. He failed because he's a coward and he's so damn useless. And as a survivor of rape, I take this very seriously and, yes, very personally. I loathe Ryan Grim.
Cedric: And as Jackson Hinkle points out, now Ryan's attacking Jimmy Dore. And since Jackson Hinkle recorded his show, Ryan has repeated his attacks on Jimmy. Why? Because Ryan Grim is a whore that slaves under Betsy Reed. Gotta make sure Mama's happy, right, Ryan? Gotta whore that ass because that's all you are and all you ever will be -- a whore -- in an ugly toupee.
Wally: He really is a whore. And he's a lousy reporter. It's forgotten now but when Tara read his reporting that's when she found out about Time's Up's connection to Joe Biden. She was completely taken aback. That shouldn't have happened. Ryan owed it to her to let her know about that connection. And he didn't. Because he's a lousy whore posing as a reporter. THE INTERCEPT needs to fold. It's not journalism, it's press releases for the Democratic Party.
Isaiah: And what is it with Canadian Naomi Klein? She also works for THE INTERCEPT and she can stay there, trash belongs in a trash pile. But why the hell does Klein keep butting into the US? She grew up in Canada because her dad fled the US military. She's not an American -- don't give the b.s. of dual citizenship. Her father left the country to avoid prison. He never came back to avoid prison. Now if Klein had bothered to lead on War Resisters in Canada right now, I wouldn't have as big a problem. But she's never written about them -- she did manage to sign a petition. She's useless and, by the way, another who profited off the Iraq War but fled the topic when Barack Obama got elected. She made money off that war and she walked away when it was embarrassing for the US Democratic Party. She's a whore. But what I can't figure out is why this whore can't shut her damn mouth about the US? She's got a chair at Harvard. I'm sorry, we don't have people in the US that we can give a chair to? We have to go with some whore from Canada? And she can't hold Canada accountable? Where's her writing calling out Justin Trudeau and all he's done to harm the environment? She's a fake ass. That's why she attacked the documentary that Michael Moore produced. She's a useless piece of trash who needs to get her ass back to Canada and keep it there.
Stan: Agreed. And I agree that this nonsense of attacking Jimmy needs to stop. We need Medicare For All. We need it. We're in a pandemic and we especially need it. But no American should lose their job and also lose their healthcare. We need to stop tying the two together, it's left far too many vulnerable and it's something we need to fix now.
Ruth: Yes, we do. And it is appalling that we are this far into a pandemic and our Congress has not acted on it. It is appalling that people are running defense for AOC and trying to justify her inaction. She is a member of Congress. She needs to stand up and stop lying that she is being threatened with violence. She is a spoiled brat, that is all she is. A functioning adult would say, "You are right. I need to be held accountable. Thank you." But we do not get functioning adults in our Congress.
Elaine: AOC looks awful. In 2018, while campaigning for Congress, what was she saying? We cannot wait on Medicare For All. Yet she is willing to wait. This is holding her and others accountable. This is what is needed. The people who are fan club members and not citizens are the ones defending her. I don't belong to your fan club -- or as Ava and C.I. always say, "We don't fall in love with politicians, we're not that desperate." She is a public servant and needs to be treated as such.
Betty: But those who hero worship can't stand up for themselves. They're too busy putting together fan clubs instead of demanding our rights. Medicare For All is a need, not a want, a need.
Ruth: Good point.
Mike: I'm a big Jimmy Dore fan. I've noted before that he's probably going to disappoint me at some point. When that day comes, I'll just move along. Why do I think he's going to disappoint me? Because so many have been brave or acted brave or pretended they were brave and fooled me. I used to love Amy Goodman. She was telling the truth about the Iraq War. But they paid her off, didn't they, she got paid off with foundation grants and DEMOCRACY NOW! was no longer the war and peace report -- hell, she was pitching war on Libya and on Syria. She's a fake ass. She's not the only one. I'd love to be wrong and find that Jimmy's going to be a truth teller all of his life. But I'm trying to temper my expectations based on past experience. So while I don't know what Jimmy's going to be supporting in five years, I do know what he's doing right now: He's fighting for Medicare For All. And I don't see the need to attack him for that. If useless piece of trash like Ana and Cenk want to offer that they don't like his style? Okay, heard you. Now what are you doing to bring Medicare For All to the American people? Oh, that's right: Nothing.
Wally: With some of these people, it seems like the most important thing to them is making sure Jimmy's plan doesn't work because they're jealous and don't want him to get credit. Ana's been carrying a grudge against him for how many years now?
Elaine: I think you're right, Wally. A lot of the attacks on Jimmy right now do seem to be about jealousy and these petty fools feel it is more important to damage Jimmy than it is to fight for Medicare For All.
Marcia: They really are that petty. And, let's be clear, we don't think Medicare For All is going to pass in the House. If it does, great. But we don't think that's going to happen. The point of the plan is to get on the record where people stand on the issue. If you're giving lip service to Medicare For All but aren't actually going to vote for it? We don't need you in Congress, we don't want you in Congress and we can primary you to try to get someone better in office.
Betty: And let's also give Jimmy credit for making Medicare For All an issue that everyone's talking about. Cenk couldn't do it, he could never do it. But Jimmy did it.
Jim: That's a good point and a strong point to end on.