Thursday

Medical Cost Inflation

Those who think Obamacare screwed up our health care system should note that medical cost inflation has been above overall inflation since mid-70s with screaming high levels (relative to CPI) in the Reagan, Bush1 and Bush2 years, and bursts of high levels under all others.

found here: CPI vs Reality: Medical Care Costs Soar Out of Control

Also, Government of the Corporation

Politics

Corbyn’s Defeat has Slain the Left’s Last Illusion

Like the rest of the British media, these outlets are machines, owned by globe-spanning corporations that sell us the illusions – carefully packaged and marketed to our sectoral interest – needed to make sure nothing impedes the corporate world’s ability to make enormous profits at our, and the planet’s, expense.

Take Back Our Party: Restoring the Democratic Legacy - not sure that possible.

America’s Two-Headed One Party System

Media - Propaganda

“Anyone to my left is an antisemite”: Jews as a Weapon: Coming to your election...soon!

Those who tried to trace these wild allegations quickly found out that the supposed antisemitic takeover of Labour under Corbyn was a massive media fabrication. The actual real-life incidents boiled down to some trolls on Twitter and a few racist comments by real-life rando Labour members — a tiny set in a big national party. (If you want to get deep into the lack evidence and the media campaign surrounding it, read this free book by Verso.) And as far as Corbyn’s personal antisemitism? Well, that was really about his leftwing politics on the Palestine-Israel question, which had actually gotten a lot softer after he became leader of the party. It’s that old conflation of anti-semitism with anti-zionism that I’ve been writing about this week.

This weekend I saw several "Bernie has an antisemite problem" tweets. Most were called out as the BS they are but I expect we'll see more. 

Also, there was a NYT hit piece on Cenk Uygur that was also called out and eventually retracted.

Corporate media are not in any way "for the people". 

Trump as Jim Jones? How America drank the Kool-Aid

“Trump’s behavior has become both more disturbing and yet increasingly familiar. He relies on phrases like ‘fake news,’ ‘build the wall,’ and continues to spread the divisive mentality of us-versus-them. He lies constantly, has no conscience, never admits when he is wrong, and projects all his shortcomings onto others. He has become more authoritarian, more outrageous, yet many of his followers remain blindly devoted…. His need to squash alternative information and his insistence on constant ego-stroking are all characteristics of other famous leaders – cult leaders.”

Fox and conservative news built the cult. Trump, the carnival-barker TV star, took over the leadership in the Obama years.

War

The next war in the Middle east may be about natural gas. Turkey forces Israeli Ship to leave research on Cyprus Undersea Gas

Greece has longstanding differences with Turkey over the exact demarcation of the maritime boundaries between the two countries and over overflight rights. On Nov. 27, the two countries had a spat over the signing of a Turkish-Libyan maritime boundary agreement that cuts across a part of the sea claimed by Greece. Egypt and Turkey are at odds over Ankara’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and the Gulf state of Qatar. Egypt also quietly sides with Bashar al-Assad in Syria while Turkey backs Sunni Arab fundamentalist militias.

and  

The Israeli plans also exclude any claims by Palestinians or the Lebanese. Both have sea front on the Mediterranean and therefore a presumptive claim on part of the gas field that stretches along the shore, but Israel is claiming it all for itself.

Israel, Palestine and Seminoles?

The Miseries of Settler Colonialism: Jeff Goldberg thinks Israelis are the Seminoles