For years Americans have just set back and accepted the lies that corporate-owned and sponsored mainstream media spoon fed us in their version of “the news”. We didn’t even stop to consider the why’s or the other viewpoints. We just accepted their labels and versions as “the truth” without even bothering to question them:
“Chavez is a communist who has Venezuela in his grip” — fact is that the government in Venezuela is NOT communism. It is a Democracy that may be even more democratic than our own government. Some of the mainstream media’s reaction toward Chavez is also reflective of a class bias. Chavez is a peasant and his statements often lack the polished smooth edges of right-wing Yale and Harvard graduates. But Chavez is no communist. Nor is he a dictator. He is a man who represents the majority of the people in his country–not the elite rich minority.
An example of a dictator would be Pinochet, the right-wing monster with his illegal government that the CIA helped install Chile in 1973 and ousted the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. [Much like the American government business interests are trying to do today in Honduras.] He shut down parliament, suffocated political life, banned trade unions, and made Chile his sultanate. His government disappeared 3,000 opponents, arrested 30,000 (torturing thousands of them) … Pinochet’s name will forever be linked to the Desaparecidos, the Caravan of Death, and the institutionalized torture that took place in the Villa Grimaldi complex.” [WIKI]
Many of the struggles that the people of other Nations have been put through because in part by the American people’s passive acceptance of the US corporate owned and sponsored mainstream media.
The formal media of a democracy should not be owned by the government OR by private business. The media of a democracy should be owned and managed by representative cooperatives of American Citizens who represent diverse interests.
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WHAT SUPPORTERS OF SINGLE PAYER ARE DEMANDING
Americans should remember that we are not promoting “socialism” as many right-wingers and the corporate media label it.
We do not want to make our country LESS democratic. We want to make it MORE democratic. What the hell is “democratic” about the fact that 18,000 Americans die every year because they can’t afford to pay “the man”–privatized health care insurance rackets?
WE ARE NOT ASKING FOR ADDITIONAL TAXES ON TOP OF WHAT AMERICANS ARE SUPPOSED TO PAY.
We are demanding a change in the way that our tax revenues are allocated AND collected.
First of all instead of trillions being wasted on supporting other countries and 835 military bases all over the world, we ask that some of this money be re-allocated for healthcare of Americans. It is OUR TAX DOLLARS AND WE HAVE A RIGHT TO DEMAND HOW IT IS USED. THE MAJORITY SHOULD RULE. 59% OF AMERICANS SUPPORT SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE.
Second of all, we are not asking that taxes be raised on the rich. What we are demanding is that the loopholes and offshore accounts for the rich and for corporate America be closed. What we are demanding is that the rich, instead of paying on average only 17.5% of their income in taxes while most of the middle class pay between 25 and 30% of our income in taxes that the rich pay the FULL 35% OF THEIR INCOME IN TAXES AS THEY ARE REQUIRED TO BY OUR TAX CODE.
IF WE DO THIS, WE DON’T HAVE TO RAISE TAXES ON ANYONE TO FUND SINGLE PAYER.
CLOSE TAX LOOPHOLES AND MAKE THE RICH PAY THE 35% OF THEIR INCOME IN TAXES THAT THEY CURRENTLY GRIPE ABOUT AS IF THEY PAY IT BUT IN PRACTICE NEVER DO.
MOST OF THE UPPER 10% OF THE WEALTHIEST PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY PAY A FAR SMALLER PERCENTAGE OF THEIR INCOME IN TAXES THAN ORDINARY AMERICANS.
A perfect example of this is that the administrative assistant of Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, pays a greate portion of her income in taxes than Buffett. He pays 17.5% of his income and she pays 30%.
THIS NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED.
BUT DON’T ALLOW RIGHT WING PUNDITS TO MAKE SINGLE PAYER ADVOCATE OUT TO BE SOCIALISTS OR THOSE WHO WANT TO “RAISE” TAXES.
Dilma Rouseff was elected October 31, 2010 as the official presidential candidate for the Workers Party, defeating Jose Serra, the candidate for the center-right opposition. It was expected that she would represent the poor, the working class and the youth. Had this been true, she would have been among the few world leaders who do. Brazil stands on the brink of becoming a world-class nation. Lately it is beginning to look like Brazil will become another colonial outpost for Wall Street. [Brazil Gets Ready for the Olympics by Getting Rid of those Troublesome Poor Folks; Removing Poverty in Brazil]
