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Percentage of Health-Uninsureds in U.S. Rises by 1.7% Since Obama First Promised to Lower It by 100%
Eric Zuesse
On 23 June 2015, Bloomberg news bannered "Uninsured Rate Falls to Lowest Since Obamacare Implementation” and reported that, "Last year, 16.3 percent of adults under age 65, or about 31.7 million people, lacked medical coverage, according to a CDC survey published Tuesday. That’s down from 20.4 percent a year earlier [2013, when Obamacare started].”
However, back at the start of 2008, when Barack Obama was campaigning against Hillary Clinton and they were both promising Making health insurance universal“” (The New York Times said that Obama “aims for universal coverage”) or a 0% rate of uninsureds, the most-reliable figure at that time for the percentage who had no health insurance was Gallup’s: 14.6%. Comparing that with the just-released figure from the CDC of 16.3%, there has been a rise in uninsureds, of 1.7%. (However, the latest figure from Gallup is from March 2015, 12.9%, which is a decline of 1.7% from that initial 14.6%, instead of an increase of 1.7% from it.)
Bill Gates’s Idiocy (or Is It Psychopathy?)
Eric Zuesse
Bill Gates was interviewed in the Thursday June 25th Financial Times, about global warming investments, and he said some remarkably stupid things, but explaining what he said requires a lot of intelligence; so, maybe what he said isn’t actually that stupid. Might he be an idiot savant? Perhaps there’s a deeper truth here.
After all, idiot savants should be respected in the areas where they have their gift, but not outside it. Occasionally, distinguishing between an idiot savant and a genius can be hard to do.
For example, at the beginning of the 20th Century, Henry Ford was considered to be a genius of industry and of technology, and he was sometimes America’s wealthiest person, but he was also a bigot, and no one can be stupider than that; so, he was just an idiot savant, after all. He was additionally famous as a philanthropist, having founded the Ford Foundation, but his donations to Hitler’s Nazi Party and his propagandizing in the United States against Jews and for the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” hoax, might have done the world more harm than his Foundation ever did good. It certainly helped to produce World War II, Hitler’s war to exterminate all Jews.
Malaysian Pressure Forces MH17 Investigation to UN
Eric Zuesse
Malaysia, frustrated by the refusal of the official international investigation-team to produce any clear evidence yet of whom to blame for the downing of the MH17 Malaysian airliner over the Ukrainian civil-war zone on 17 July 2014, has finally forced the team to request the UN to investigate. They’ve forced the original four nations on the team to accept UN adjudication of any final report. This will enable a court-proceeding to make the ultimate determination of guilt (upon which judgment penalties and compensation will be assessed), and this court-determination would inevitably allow whatever party is being blamed by the five-member official investigating team, to present its own evidence in the case, so that the court will make the ultimate determination — the official investigating team will not be performing that crucial judgmental function.
US and Israeli ICC Prosecutions? Don't Bet on It
by Stephen Lendman
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established to prosecute culpable individuals for crimes of war, against humanity and genocide. Its mandate calls for "end(ing) impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern."
US and Israeli officials are guilty of the highest of high crimes. Yet none of their officials ever were held accountable - not by their own courts or the ICC.
The international body operates on the principle of complementarity. It can only prosecute when governments won't or can't - even against officials of non ICC-member countries like America and Israel.
RussiaNATO Provocations Blasts Increasing
by Stephen Lendman
US-dominated NATO heads increasingly closer to direct confrontation with Russia - reckless imperial madness risking possible nuclear war.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced deployment of US troops and heavy weapons (including nuclear ones) in Eastern European countries closer to Russia's borders than ever before - an unprecedented belligerent act.
A US-dominated NATO 40,000-strong rapid reaction force is being established to counter a nonexistent Russian threat - including falsely claiming it may use intermediate-range nuclear weapons, an outrageous charge officials making it know is blatantly false.
Greece Announces Referendum on Bailout Terms
by Stephen Lendman
Greece has a choice: renounce its odious debt, exit the Eurozone, reinstitute the drachma currency, end austerity, regain national sovereignty including monetary and fiscal policy control, accept transitional pain, or stay trapped in the euro straightjacket assuring endless debt peonage, greater austerity and virtual indentured servitude of the entire population to Troika diktats.
Following an emergency Friday cabinet meeting, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced a July 5 national referendum to decide up or down on accepting or rejecting harsh new austerity measures Troika officials demand.
"After five months of hard negotiations, our partners unfortunately ended up making a proposal that was an ultimatum towards Greek democracy and the Greek people," he said on national television.
Troika Rejects Greek Bailout Extension
by Stephen Lendman
Rape involves violating the physical integrity of another person's body forcibly. Washington and Troika powers do it to nations.
They target ones they control or intend to. Greece is in the eye of a financial storm. Its June 30 bailout deadline approaches. Eurozone finance ministers rejected Athens' extension request until after a July 5 national referendum to decide up or down to accept or reject Troika terms.
Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem/Eurogroup chair said "(t)he Greek government has broken off the process. However regrettable, the program will expire on Tuesday."
Previous articles explained Troika officials made demands no responsible government would accept.
Attempted US Color Revolution in Armenia?
by Stephen Lendman
On June 19, Armenians began protesting an announced 17 - 22% electricity price increase amounting to about $85 more annually for most Armenians.
Utility and other price increases happen often in countries worldwide - not generally a cause for large street protests continuing for days, at times violent resulting in police using water cannons and making mass arrests.
So-called Electric Yerevan in Armenia's capital bears disturbing similarity to Ukraine's EuroMaidan uprising, recent Macedonian protests, ongoing Ecuadorean ones, earlier ones in Venezuela, and numerous other past US attempted color revolutions - some succeeding, other failing.
They're staged for the same reason - wanting independent governments replaced with pro-Western ones Washington controls.
Leaked US-Led Iranian Nuclear Deal Sweeteners Less Than Meet the Eye
by Stephen Lendman
On June 25, AP News headlined"Iran would get nuclear help in proposed deal." Ahead of a June 30 deadline likely to extend into July, AP reported obtaining a leaked document offering so-called US concessions claiming aid for Iran's nuclear industry.
Details are in one of several technical appendices. It has numerous points on which parties disagree.
An eight-page Civil Nuclear Cooperation document includes ways P5+1 countries are willing to compensate Iran for closing parts of its nuclear program Tehran finds unacceptable.
On Tuesday, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected unacceptable terms - including freezing nuclear research, inspecting military sites and gradual sanctions relief instead of immediately if and when final agreement terms are reached.
Some Good News from Palestine
by Stephen Lendman
There's precious little any time. Vicious Israeli persecution horrifically affects life in Occupied Palestine creating intolerable conditions for millions.
In the Negev alone, Israel destroys 1,000 Arabs homes annually on the phony pretext of building without permit permission.
Israeli security forces kidnap Palestinians for wanting to be treated like human beings. Hundreds of Palestinians are imprisoned uncharged and untried. Others are tortured to extract confessions for crimes they didn't commit.
Soldiers target farmers in their fields, fishermen at sea and children at play or going to or from school. They commit cold-blooded murder with impunity.
Israel wages wars of aggression at its discretion. Thousands of Palestinians harmed don't matter. An endless cycle of violence and oppression continues without letup. The world community does nothing to stop it.
Over the past year, investors reacted with their pocket books. The UN Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) World Investment Report indicated foreign investment in Israel plunged nearly 50% in 2014 - hitting the lowest level in more than a decade, from $11.8 billion in 2013 to $6.4 billion in 2014.
Naked aggression on Gaza along with BDS effectiveness are key reasons why. Report co-author Roni Manos said "(w)e believe that what led to the drop in investment in Israel are Operation Protective Edge and the boycotts Israel is facing."
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