Closets full of cash and jewels in Ben Ali’s palace in Sidi Bou Said, via Tunisia TV:
Category: Class War
Good
My problems with the death penalty have much more to do with its uneven application by race, leaning heavily on coerced testimony and shaky evidence and depending on the actions of politically ambitious prosecutors. Far too often, this leads to the conviction of the wrong person.
But this one? I think we have it nailed, and if anyone deserves to die, it’s her.
Tom Morello
Of Rage Against The Machine with a story about why he had to go to Madison. It made me feel warm all over!
100,000 in Madison today
Despite heavy snow:
UKUncut
Activists have staged protests at more than 40 bank branches across the country in protest at executive bonuses and cuts in public services.
UK Uncut said demonstrators set up creches, laundries, school classrooms, libraries, homeless shelters, drama clubs, walk-in clinics, youth centres, job centres and leisure centres at branches of RBS, NatWest and Lloyds across the country.
In other words, all the services that are being cut under the new austerity plan.
At midday in Islington, north London, 50 activists set up a laundry in an RBS branch in reaction to alleged council moves to cut services to the elderly, including a much-needed laundry service.
They set up washing lines, clothes horses, buckets for handwashing and a team of window cleaners on the outside. The protest was attended by over 15 pensioners and local Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.
Anonymous
From a nurse
I had a patient cry yesterday.
A tough-guy.
Young guy with several kids.
Working-class. Uninsured. No sick time.
Will need hospitalization for a week.
Will not make rent.We collected to make his rent.
What the fuck have we come to, folks?
Go, unions. Make these bastards who have created this fiasco come to their knees.
Do it for the rest of us.
The good news
Is that somewhere upwards of 700 people turned out for the Philadelphia union solidarity rally today — and only four or five people turned out for the Comcast USUncut action. Oh well!
I was standing out on the street with a bunch of teachers holding signs that said “No cuts” and I quickly got bored with that. So I flipped mine over and wrote “Eat the rich” and made a point of getting it in front of every Beemer, Lexus, Escalade and Benz driver who passed by. I enjoyed watching them pretend not to see it.
You Should Have Stayed At Home
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s shocking documentary about the Toronto G20 protests:
Wheee
Well, there goes what’s left of my health care! Oh, wait, I just know the Senate Democrats will stand up for this, right? RIGHT?
The proposed federal budget in the U.S. House of Representatives would cut $1.3 billion in funding for community health centers from President Obama’s budget proposal.
According to the National Association of Community Health Centers, the measure would deny health centers the ability to serve at least 3.3 million patients within the next few months and 11 million over the next year. The budget is less likely to pass the Senate, where Democrats are the majority, and then would be subject to negotiations between the chambers.
“Fiscal responsibility may be the intent of the proposed costs, but what they will accomplish is precisely the opposite,” said Tom Van Coverden, president and CEO of NACHC. “This shortsighted proposal will force millions of Americans to seek non-emergency care at already frequently overcrowded hospital ERs.
“Thousands more will have to put off primary and preventive care and management of chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease — with the end result being much higher healthcare costs to our overall system. These substantial costs will be passed on to taxpayers, employers and employees alike through increased premiums.”
According to an analysis by a collaborative at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, affected patients will include: 10 million patients with incomes less than 200% of the federal poverty level, 7.4 million racial/ethnic minority patients, 1.4 million low-income children under age 6, 2.3 million low-income patients with cardiovascular disease, 2 million low-income uninsured patients who will likely forgo care, and nearly 1 million uninsured patients whose spending on essential healthcare services will require them to spend less on food and other basic needs.
The policy research brief also notes that the affected patient population is at elevated risk for serious and chronic health conditions, which can result in higher national healthcare costs.
“Health centers provide cost-effective care for high-risk patients,” said co-author Peter Shin, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy. “Reducing health center funding impedes improvements in population health and limits the potential for significant savings in healthcare costs.”