DeSantis/GOP Florida: Prefer Unhealthy Workers and Residents
April 1, 2021 Leave a comment
COVID-19 Lessons from the US Healthcare System
March 4, 2021 Leave a comment
These are some of the main thoughts and lessons about healthcare in the US:
- The US has the worst healthcare and health indices of advanced economies, and getting worse.
- The US healthcare excludes from participation or provides low quality service to important segments of the population, including the unemployed, the poor, black and brown people, the elderly…
- The US, as demonstrated by the mass vaccination failure, doesn’t have a public health system, it has a highly segmented, for profit, private health system, with limited access of the whole population
- The US healthcare system is well known to have the most expensive system in advanced economies
- The best healthcare systems in the world are national publicly-owned or directed systems.
- One of the political parties doesn’t care about the serious deficiencies of the US healthcare system, and have no intention to improve it.
AGENDA FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION: 14 Policy Priorities
December 21, 2020 Leave a comment
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival policy agenda and analysis brought to public a recognition of the depth of poverty, low wealth and income status of a very large growing share of the US population. It is estimate that there are 140 million poor and low wealth people in the US and the COVID-19 pandemic increased this number by 8 million people.
The poor population has been publicly hidden from view in recent years, whereby, the national GOP political agenda has strongly favored the ultra-wealthy, large corporations with a huge tax reduction program that cost the government $1.7 trillion. Also, the owners of enterprises and stocks that are benefiting from the pandemic have greatly increased their share of the wealth.
The 14 policy priorities elaborated as a moral and economic agenda for the first 100 days of the Biden Administration are as follows:
- Enact comprehensive, free and just COVID-19 relief
- Guarantee quality health care for all, regardless of any pre-existing conditions
- Raise the minimum wage to $15/hour immediately
- Update the poverty measure
- Enact a federal job program..
- Protect and expand voting rights and civil rights
- Guarantee safe, quality and equitable public education, with support for protection against re-segregation
- Comprehensive and just immigration reform
- Ensure all of the rights of indigenous peoples
- Enact fair taxes
- Use the power of executive orders
- Redirect the bloated Pentagon budge towards those priorities as matters of national security
- Work with the Power People’s Campaign to establish a permanent Presidential Council to advocate for this bold agenda
This agenda reminds of the task ahead in working against the huge inequities that have arisen the US over the last 50 years, and which have become much worse in the last 20 years.
Florida 257!
July 31, 2020 Leave a comment
Florida’s Department of Health on Friday confirmed 9,007 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 470,386. There were also 257 Florida resident deaths announced, breaking a fatality record for the fourth straight day. The statewide resident death toll is now at 6,843.
Florida sees 257 COVID deaths, breaking another record | Miami Herald
COVID-19: FLORIDA 5,500 NEW INFECTIONS–FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP
June 24, 2020 Leave a comment
Here in Florida we have a weak Governor DeSantis who is willing to sacrifice the health of residents to business interests, rather than opening the state slowly with enough testing and contact tracing to control the infection rate.
Mayor Gimenez of Miami-Dade County, the state leader in COVID-19 has weakly followed the lead of the state and federal government.
The University of Miami is opening its campus in the City of Coral Gables, which will surely add to local community Covid infections.
Our Brutal Capitalism
June 2, 2020 Leave a comment
- No universal healthcare–growing millions of people with no access to healthcare and worse during the pandemic and the high unemployment of those depending on employer-based healthcare.
- Concentrated wealth and income in the upper 10 to 1 percent of people.
- Concentration of political power in corporations and high wealth groups.
- Broken presidential voting favoring small, rural, poor states with undemocratic local voting and the electoral college.
- Low minimum wages and declining value of median incomes.
- Racially segregated education, healthcare, employment, housing and public services like clean water, internet access, clean air, equity justice.
- Socialism (meaning government benefits and subsidies) for big corporations and the wealthy, and the free market competition and harsh capitalism for the workers, poor and underprivileged.
- Unchecked monopoly power of large, powerful corporations.
- Exploitation of undocumented immigrants in low-wage dangerous work.
- “Great wealth flows from great power; great power depends on great wealth. Wealth and power have become one and the same.” (p. 10. Robert B. Reich. The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. 2020)
- Economic growth now mostly favors the rich.
- Weakening social safety net of social security, medicare, medicaid, unemployment insurance, SNAP (food stamp) benefits…
COVID-19 CONVERSATION: Not Wearing a Mask is Anti- Social
May 15, 2020 Leave a comment
Friend (with social distancing) if you don’t wear a mask in public you are threatening me and others with sickness and possible death. You are not protecting yourself, because that depends on me and others using our masks. Also, you are forcing threatened groups with pre-existing conditions and older populations, i.e. vulnerable populations, to stay at home. (More than 20% of the community in the City of Coral Gables.)
If you don’t use a mask at all times in public YOU ARE ANTI-SOCIAL.
You may take off the mask, perhaps, after almost all of us effectively have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
Coral Gables Watch 