Koch-Backed Think Tank Finds That “Medicare for All” Would cut Health Care Spending and Raise Wages… Whoops

Stephan:  This is a very interesting and embarrassing story, but I am surprised anyone is surprised by its conclusions. The United States is the only developed nation in the world that has a healthcare system that is not really about healthcare instead it is all about profit, and is by many multiples the most expensive national system in the world. Even worse although Americans pay many multiples of what a person would pay in those other countries we have rotten healthcare outcomes when compared with those countries -- 37th in the world. What is interesting to me is how christofascist politicians are going to deal with this data, given it comes from an alt-right think tank. My guess is they will just ignore it, and gaslight the country when pressed to talk about it, if the media even bothers.

Credit: The Intercept

A new study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University is making headlines for projecting that Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for All” bill is estimated to cost $32.6 trillion — a number that’s entirely in line with 2016 projections, and is literally old news. But what the Associated Press headline fails to announce is a much more sanguine update: The report, by Senior Research Strategist Charles Blahous, found that under Sanders’s plan, overall health costs would go down, and wages would go up.

The study, which came out of the Koch-funded research center, was initially provided to the AP with a cost estimate that exceeded previous ones by an incredible $3 trillion — a massive error that was found and corrected by Sanders’s staff when approached by AP for comment.

But despite that correction, the report actually yields a wealth of good news for advocates of Sanders’s plan — a remarkable conclusion, given that Blahous is a former Bush administration economist working at a prominent conservative think tank.

Blahous’s paper, titled “The […]

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The world’s first “high-tech eco village” will reinvent suburbs

Stephan:  While the United States under Trump and the Republicans is being taken back to the 1920s and the Age of Herbert Hoover, the rest of the world is moving in a very different forward-thinking direction.  And here is a wonderful example of what I mean. This is not only good news, it is a practical  blueprint for a future that fosters wellbeing.

ReGen Village
Credit: ReGen Villages

A half-hour commute from Amsterdam, a piece of farmland is slated to become a new kind of neighborhood. Vertical farms, along with traditional fields and orchards surrounding homes, will supply food to people living there. Food waste will turn into fish feed for on-site aquaculture. Houses will filter rainwater, but won’t have driveways. A “village OS” tech platform will use AI to simultaneously manage systems for renewable energy, food production, water supply, and waste.

The 50-acre neighborhood, which will be nearly self-sufficient as it collects and stores water and energy, grows food, and processes much of its own waste, was initially planned for construction in 2017. The developers, called ReGen Villages, struggled with red tape–the area, on a piece of land that used to be underwater but was reclaimed in the 1960s when a seawall was constructed–has regulations that make it difficult for someone other than an individual homeowner to build on land that is mostly used for farming […]

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Hackers break into voting machines within 2 hours at Defcon

Stephan:  The election technology of American democracy is in real trouble. This story is very alarming.

A hacker tries to access and alter data from an electronic poll book in a Voting Machine Hacking Village during the Def Con hacker convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. on July 29, 2017.
Credit: Resuters/Steve Marcus

Hackers from around the world had the rare opportunity to crack election-style voting machines this weekend in Las Vegas — and they didn’t disappoint.

After nearly an hour and a half, Carsten Schürmann, an associate professor with IT-University of Copenhagen, successfully cracked into a voting machine at Las Vegas’ Defcon convention on Friday night, CNET reports.

Schürmann penetrated Advanced Voting Solutions’ 2000 WinVote machine through its Wi-Fi system. Using a Windows XP exploit from 2003, he was able to remotely access the machine, CNET reports.

Voting technology was thrust into the political spotlight when election systems in several states were targeted by Russian cyber attacks. The convention purchased more than 30 voting machines for the event, although, organizers didn’t specify how many models those units represented.

“The exposure of those devices to the people who do […]

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To Betroth or Not to Betroth: When Courtship Took the Homeschool World by Storm

Stephan:  I have been following the development of the christofascist movement for over 30 years, and I have to confess the willful ignorance, the fear, the resentment and the racism often leave me gobsmacked. It is very weird to see people in the 21st century living a life based on early Iron-Age thinking. But even by those low standards I found this jaw-dropping. As I have said many times, the four characteristics of all fundamentalist movements -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, it doesn't matter -- are: 1) A sense of being special superior and chosen by God; 2)  an aggrieved sense of persecution; 3) an obsessive emphasis on male dominance; and, 4) a desperate need to control all humans with vaginas. You can see this clearly in this article.

Christian fundamentalists
Credit: Alamy

In looking for a specific article on the No Greater Joy website, I stumbled upon an article from 2000 titled “To Betroth or Not to Betroth? That is the Question.” In it, Michael Pearl, a fundamentalist Christian homeschool speaker and guru, made a case againstbetrothal. Here is what I find fascinating: by 2000, betrothal had become a common enough idea in his circles that Pearl felt the need to write against it.

Several years ago I attended a lecture on betrothal. Since then I have heard quite a few testimonies from those involved in it. Many of you have sent me your favorite book or tape on “betrothal.” I have read or listened to all of them and studied the Scripture carefully. We asked for testimonies concerning betrothal, whether good or bad. We received quite a few letters from people that had sour experiences through betrothal, some of them now married. As of the writing of this article, two months after publishing the request, we have not […]

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Domestic Workers in Seattle Win Most Comprehensive Bill of Rights in the US

Stephan:  In the midst of the toxic politics of the christofascist Republican Party and the corporate corruption of the Democratic Party, the states that make up the West Coast, California, Oregon, and Washington are moving in a happier direction, and these policies which foster wellbeing are transforming those states. It is happening almost without coverage by national media. I see all this as part of the Great Schism Trend, and I think these changes represent what is going to be a fundamental change in how the United States operates, with power shifting away from the constipated and corrupt federal government to the states resulting in a growing disparity in the health of Reed and Blue  state societies. Already the christofascist Red states can be seen as failing societies by almost any social outcome measure you can name, from child mortality to longevity. The stock market may be doing great, but for most of the people in the Red states, life is tough. The Blue states of the West Coast, in contrast, now are actively moving into a post-carbon energy era, exploring universal healthcare, taking climate change seriously, and passing labor policies fairer to workers. Here is the latest development in this good news trend.

Domestic workers rally on March 2018 after sharing their stories with the Seattle City Council members to make the case for the city’s first Domestic Worker Bill of Rights.
Credit: Domestic Workers/Twitter

On July 27, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan signed into law the city’s domestic workers’ bill of rights. The ordinance, which passed the Seattle City Council unanimously on Monday, establishes protections for the city’s more than 30,000 nannies, caregivers and housekeepers, who have historically been excluded from labor laws. Seattle is now the only city in the United States with a comprehensive domestic workers’ bill of rights. The city joins eight states that have adopted a domestic workers’ bill of rights.

Against a grim national backdrop in which traditional labor unions are being drained of any remaining power, the persistence of the domestic workers’ movement throughout the country is indicative of how labor organizing may continue to evolve, incorporating workers’ efforts to exert pressure directly on local policymaking bodies.

Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who was just elected to her position in November, was instrumental to the ordinance’s […]

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