"Why Do the North Koreans Hate Us?" asks Mehdi Hasan at The Intercept. "One Reason -- They Remember the Korean War." Mostly we experience the Korean War through M*A*S*H* reruns, but it's a little different for North Korea, since our carpet-bombing killed one in five North Koreans. Try to imagine every fifth person you know dead, or contemplate the fact that one-fifth of the American population would comprise over 60 million people, and you'll be on your way to understanding why June is "Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism Month" in North Korea -- though, obviously, you won't be closer to appreciating Korea's leaders, since they're bat-guano insane. Odd how often that happens in the wake of such destruction.
The House's Obamacare repeal may not be "DOA" in the Senate, as some have reported, but Senate Republicans are reportedly working on their own bill. And for once I think Senate Republicans are being politically stupid -- the best political move, for them, was to pass the House's bill on Friday and give Americans 18 months to get used to it before Election Day 2018. But Senate Republicans seem ready to prolong work on this monstrosity well into early 2018, by which time voters won't forget. I'd say there's no putting lipstick on this pig of a bill, but that'd be insulting to pigs.
The incomparable David Dayen calls the House Obamacare repeal bill "single-payer for dummies" and "the stupidest possible version of government-run health care." Essentially the bill blows open holes in the marketplace by allowing health insurance corporations to jack up prices based on your pre-existing conditions -- then plugs those holes with government subsidies funneled, of course, directly to insurance corporations. I expect that Republicans' response to these criticisms will be to blame Obama. But we could do worse than to whisper in Tea Partiers' ears that the Obamacare repeal bill is actually a Big Gummint bill.
Speaking of single-payer, Donald Trump gets caught saying Australia's single-payer program delivers better health care than our system. Of course he's absolutely right about that, and though Sen. Sanders was also right to pounce on Mr. Trump's hypocrisy in failing to demand a system like Australia's from Congress, you know why Mr. Trump said it, right? To make his votaries think they're getting a good health care system like Australia's, that's why. (In that light, his later statement that he thinks all countries, not just Australia, have a better health care system than we do is a bad political calculation, but one his votaries likely won't remember.)
CBS finds that President Trump got "personally involved" in finding the National Parks service employee who posted photos comparing the Trump and first Obama inaugurations on Twitter. The issue isn't that someone in the Trump Administration tried to find the employee -- every organization, including our government, gets to set rules about what you can and can't post on social media -- but that the President himself did it. So add that to the list of reasons you should blame Mr. Trump when we endure another 9.11-sized terrorist attack. (As of now, that list is: skips intelligence briefings, guts the State Department, retreats to play golf in Florida nearly every weekend, no cybersecurity plan as promised, no plan to defeat ISIS as promised, hasn't staffed very much of his government, and, of course, generally acts like an arrogant prick.)
Finally, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi not only won't back Medicare-for-All, single-payer health care, she says "the comfort level" of the American people with single-payer "is not there yet." But all the polls tell us the exact opposite -- and these polls get conducted by "liberal" media news organizations with a decided interest in proving Ms. Pelosi's right! Anyway, it doesn't matter what Nancy Pelosi wants. It only matters what we want.
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