The Weekend

Socialism

Why Call it "Socialism"? - Tim Taylor at the Conversable Economist is right

Thus, my modest proposal is that unless someone wants to advocate government ownership of the means of production, it's more productive to drop "socialism" from the conversation. Instead, talk about the specific issue and the mixture of market and government actions rules that might address it, based on whatever evidence is available on costs and benefits.

but, the power elite, Rs, Trump, Corporate Ds, most media folk, and especially the Fox Propaganda people throw "socialism" around as a scare word to drive people away from social programs for political reasons.  It's going to be hard to change that.



Media - Fox Propaganda

NYT Columnist: Fox Propaganda Is A Much Bigger Threat Than Facebook



Healthcare

Single-Payer Reform—“Medicare for All” - Read it all but, the main take-away is,

Halfway measures are politically attractive but economically unworkable. The $11 559 per capita that the United States spends on health care could provide high-quality care for all or it can continue to fund a vast health-managerial apparatus—it cannot do both.

Some other good stuff.

According to official estimates, insurance overhead is projected to cost an estimated $301.4 billion in 2019, including an estimated $252 billion for private insurers, approximately 12% of their premiums.1 In contrast, overhead is 1.6% in Canada's single-payer system and 2.2% in Medicare’s fee-for-service plan. Reducing US systemwide insurance overhead to 2.2% could save an estimated $238.7 billion.

A 2014 report suggested that [hospital] administration consumes 12.4% of hospital budgets in Canada (and 11.6% in Scotland) vs 25.3% in the United States,3 a difference of an estimated $162 billion annually.

A 2019 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report7 concluded that single-payer reform could lower administrative costs, increase incentives to improve health, and substantially reduce the number of uninsured individuals.

American Corrupitalism

How Payday Lenders Spent $1 Million at a Trump Resort — and Cashed In

At the Trump Doral outside Miami, payday lenders celebrated the potential death of a rule intended to protect their customers. They couldn’t have done it without President Donald Trump and his latest deregulator, Kathleen Kraninger.

Israel and US States

That didn't take long. (From a tnb post a few days ago)

Florida is not far behind.

The Wednesday afternoon meeting will mark the first time a US state cabinet has held a formal governmental meeting at the US embassy in Jerusalem.

and now this.........

Florida’s Governor just signed a bill that will censor criticism of Israel throughout the state’s public schools

Two days before DeSantis officially signed HB 741 into law in Florida, he carried out a symbolic signing during a ceremonial state cabinet meeting in Israel. 

US Media - Israel

Here's an article in Haaretz, a (the) major Israeli news source, that you would never see in US media. For some reason, the discussion about Israel's descent into fascism is allowed in Israel but not in the US.

Neither Israel's nor Germany's Slide Into Fascism Was Accidental

The Zionist attempt to create a secular-national movement based on Jewish identity could not help but have a religious messianic component. From there it was inevitable that it would turn racist By Yoav Rinon Jun 06, 2019