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... of any contemporary democracy from being totally eliminated (for anyone not in the 1%). It was a mixed blessing at best.

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Thank you for clarifying. I run across a ton of quite reasonable folks, even leftists, who see McCain through a "redemption arc" lens after that amazing (totally stage managed) moment of saving the ACA with a thumbs up - or down or whatever. Still, he saved the worst health care system...

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Solomon mentions this, if you want to follow up. This year, no more significant news article on healthcare politics has appeared than the August 4 story in the Los Angeles Times under the headline “Obama Gives Powerful Drug Lobby a Seat at Healthcare Table.”

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I'm sorry you can't accept this narrative but it's been widely reported. Clinton, Obama, and Biden all had filibuster-proof majorities for two years. Healthcare is still, 30 years on, the worst in the world here. But deify who you need to. Make heroes out of the servants of CEOs.

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Neither did Bill Clinton. But people always fall for it. Biden did the same thing. Offered a M4A "universal style public option". Campaigned on it. Then crickets. Look at the Senators under Obama who took the most healthcare lobbying $. Hillary Clinton was one. Remember Hillarycare? Same mechanism.

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Don't attack. It's cheap. Show evidence. Make an argument. We've got the worst healthcare system at twice the price of any democracy on the planet. There are no steps to make that aren't in the right direction from the absolute bottom. Obama never "intended" the public option. >

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Leading Political, Legal Blogger Glenn Greenwald on Afghanistan, State Secrets, Healthcare and the Media

What you're sharing is the PR line from the democratic apparatus. What was reported at the time by analysts and critics was that behind the scenes the dems killed it to serve helathcare corporations. Start here: www.democracynow.org/2009/10/30/g...

democracynow.org

One of the leading political and legal bloggers in the country, Glenn Greenwald, joins us to talk about about the war in Afghanistan, the Obama administration’s use of state secrets, the healthcare de...

Also, the history of elite, corporate Dems playing to progressives and then pulling that legislation after being elected is long and documented. Carter, Clinton, Obama, and even Biden did it on Gun Control. Are they better than outright fascism, yes. For sure. Should we pretend they're heroes? Nope.

... ineffectual politician, no? Can't get what 75% of voters are in favor of but includes a provision barring the government from negotiating drug prices (also without discussion) when that was disapproved by 85% of the electorate? The "fight" is a "he chopped down the cherry tree" myth. Research it

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John Zibell @jzbrooklyn.bsky.social · 21h

Not remotely - and it's not a controversial position. The public option was dropped without any real consideration. There's no evidence that he fought for it - show it if there is - It was supported by 75% of the population but Lieberman was allowed to stand in the way? Makes Obama a ridiculously ->

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We need some journalists willing to follow up with, "Sir, that sounds like a load of absolute horseshit, are you aware of that? Because a six-year-old recognizes it when their parents try it."

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John Zibell @jzbrooklyn.bsky.social · 22h

Um. The do-nothing Dems? Nope. They'll never "effectively block" an Alito replacement. People keep mistaking the Dems for the opposition party instead of the other right wing, which is what they've been for almost 100 years. Did some do great things? Yep. Did they pave the way for Trump? Absolutely!

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Yep. I'd vote for him if I lived there. But I'd keep pushing him left.

Absolutely. When and how we do this needs to be determined by voters, not Congressional reps who largely accept that money willingly. I meant to write Hillarycare. Which is what Obama built off of. Bill Clinton got it from Jesse Jackson's platform and tossed it within weeks of taking office.

Obama 'Road' Film Takes Some Detours - FactCheck.org

There's always been debate on how much he fought for it. www.factcheck.org/2012/03/obam... Scroll down for the fact check on the public option. Remember that the ACA was the biggest payday insurance companies ever had. The public option was "never a line in the sand" according to Obama himself.

factcheck.org

An Obama campaign film, narrated by actor Tom Hanks, casts the president, not surprisingly, in the best light. But the 17-minute video lacks context and take liberties with some facts on health care a...

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I remember. But I'm loath to deify McCain for a single action that first and foremost protected insurance industry profits and, only secondarily, the insured.

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Sure. The president is always a passive bystander boondoggled by GOP (or independent) opposition when it's in service of Wall Street. Witness Hillarycare's failure in the early 1990s. But with a filibuster-proof supermajority that he had for 2 years, miraculously the Dems still do nothing for voters

Obama killed "the public option" before the ACA handed the biggest payday ever to healthcare CEOs. Respectfully, you're going to need to walk the walk Doctor because we see the centrists pulling you to the right & you're not even in office yet. The electorate is clear: We need UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE.

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"Trump considering firing Kimberly Guilfoyle for Being More like Kimberly Guilfoyle With Each Passing Day."

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And blocked me! I'm declaring victory.

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Brooks is fine with the new WH press secretary calling democrats "cannibals" though? How many MAGA politicians call Dems "demons" or claim they have lizard DNA? It's not zero, so... Centrist pundit pushes a center/left Pol to move to the right as overt fascism takes over in the US. That tracks.

Exactly. But some people don't care. They want what can be repeated. It's a central thrust of propaganda. And it works. This guy is a stellar, shining example. Both Red and Blue MAGA are guilty of replacing truth with performative lying - if you don't accept it, you're not in the in group.

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Socrates disagrees with you. The arrogance with which you defy the history of linguistics, law, philosophy, politics, with one childish cry is amazing. Walk into a bank unarmed and say, "give me all the money" and see where that lands you. Those words. Argue in court that they're not an action.

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Which is why the second was proposed by Lori Wilson. Read her critique of Newsom's veto. It's how this whole ridiculous argument started. At a time when anti-trans hatred was at its peak, Newsom killed a trans rights bill to show he sided with republicans to up his national profile. Period.

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But you're accepting Newsom's PR line - his words. Your claim about why he killed the bill isn't accurate to his own published rationale. AB 957 would have explicitly directed courts to consider parental affirmation of gender identity. Existing law's general best-interests standard was broader.

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See? I didn't call you a bot, did I? I didn't say he was anti-trans, did I. I said he threw trans kids under the bus with two key actions he made. Your support for your claims comes straight from Newsom's own pronouncements about his record. The Kirk thing doesn't give you pause cuz it's just words?

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And the license itself, the laws that underpin it, the declarations made by judges that adjudicate on cases are all examples of speech acts where words and actions are indistinguishable from one another. That you can't understand false binaries while arguing Newsom's LGBTQ record is fucking surreal.

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I've rebutted you all the way. You simply don't see it. Kind of like a bot. I'm sure you're human tho. Few bots are as daft.

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... and who wants to kill the billionaire tax by the way, you double down on the words/actions binary. Are you five? Do you know anyone who is married, someone said, "I now pronounce you married" in what's called a speech act.

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I'm done with you. You think Newsom is the savior of LGBT rights even after he demonstrated he'll throw trans folk under the bus in a public forum with Charlie Kirk. That's a special kind of denial. And while fighting for your neo-liberal hero who serves corporations first...

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"Not an action ?" That was meant to be a rhetorical question. You can skip the Austin book and just look up speech/act theory. It's nothing new. Shakespeare writes about words being actions. Especially when spoken publicly.

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Read J.L. Austin's book "How to do things with words". It's about the myriad ways in which the false binary of words/actions falls apart under even the most shallow scrutiny.

When a judge says, "I sentence you to death." Is that not an example of words being action? A lover says, "I don't love you any more." Not an action. You're trying to make a point and I get that. Newsome is better than MAGA. No argument. He's not a champion of LGBTQIA+ rights. He was for a while.

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Um, yes they are. Buying every piece of propaganda from his public relations department is an action too. Well done there.

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Vetoing AB 957 trans youth custody bill is an action. Publicly opposed trans youth in sports siding with Charlie Kirk. Words ARE actions when you're a lawmaker. Laws are fucking made of words. His ideological support for Kirk's dangerous positions is reprehensible. He flip flops. That's an action.

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4. Has committed and/or covered up SA, domestic violence, and/or pedophilia.

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Gov. More empty rhetoric coming from you. No surprise. You throw our trans siblings under the bus. You fight the billionaires tax. You hand Trump's main propagandist a victory in the anti-trust suit. You're a fucking joke. Don't run for president. We need a fighter not another BlueMAGA sheepdog.

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Yes. He's a liability for sure. And the clown show may not get what it wants - a maga dynasty without end - but the fallout will leave wreckage that we'll be tunneling out of for decades. We, the people, not politicians.

It's not Trump running this shitshow. Never has been. Russ Voght, Miller, & other creatures of the night absolutely have the tools for the job of instituting a coup using their dancing monkey as a distraction. Trump himself can't keep shit to himself. He gave Voght's plan a shout out last week.

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Putin has ruled Russia for 25 years; Orban ran Hungary, for 16. The fuckery promised by GOP shit-stains in Nov is modeled on dictatorships. The Dems are too busy trashing Hassan Piker to respond. Fascism isn't new in the US and isn't going anywhere without a resistance. Elite, neo-con Dems ain't it.

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Someone called it the latest innovation in birth control.

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John Zibell @jzbrooklyn.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Why is every MAGA pol a world-class, corrupt cartoon villain only bathed in real blood?! Their war crimes make war criminals blush. They're all misogynistic pedophiles. Must they try so hard to out evil Hitler, Stalin, AND Ghengis Kahn? Come on MAGA pull back on the stick, Make Evil Great Again.

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That's not a stress ball. It's his left testicle. Trump just handed it back to him and he's not yet figured out what to do with it.

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John Zibell @jzbrooklyn.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Except it's a genocide. Scholars, NGOs, and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concur. How courageous is this response if it sidesteps all evidence and relevant expert analysis? This looks like borderline apologia.