ICYMI

Cosmic Jokesters Buy Cesspool of Hatemongering Psycopath Who Is Not Taking It Well


Alex Jones on Infowars
Screenshot from Infowars

FURTHER
Abby Zimet
Nov 19, 2024
COMMON DREAMS


Oh sweet justice. We salute the supremely ironic sale of Alex Jones' vicious Infowars - now bankrupt thanks to the $1.4 billion he owes Sandy Hook families for claiming the massacre of their children was a hoax - to the satirical wise-acres of The Onion, working with those families. Aptly,The Onion's most iconic headline is on gun violence - "'No Way To Prevent This’, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens"; it has run 37 times. They call their new buy "probably one of the better jokes we’ve ever told."

Surely there could be no riper moment for such schadenfreude than in these surreal times, when a sexual-assaulting Fox host may be running the Defense Department, a child-trafficking clown could be A.G., a road-kill-eating anti-vaxer might be making our health decisions, and the timeless question will resonate ever more deeply: Is this (mostly terrifying, occasionally uproarious) story real, or from The Onion? Of course the loopy meltdowns and fever dreams and new world order conspiracies of Jones' venomous show always seemed too weird to be real. Fake moon landing! Machete race war! Sex with goblins! Illuminati linked to Hillary and Lady Gaga! Often sobbing, he ripped off his shirt - Watch this! - screamed 1776 WILL COMMENCE AGAIN IF YOU TRY TO TAKE OUR FIREARMS, ranted the lining in juice boxes was making our children gay and the Pentagon-tested gay bomb on Eye-raq and our troops was doing it to adults and PUTTING CHEMICALS IN THE WATER TURNS THE FRIGGIN' FROGS GAY. "I'M SICK OF BEING SOCIAL ENGINEERED!" he shrieked. "ITS NOT FUNNY." No, it's not.

It was also not funny when he claimed America's bloody, ceaseless shootings - Gabbie Giffords, Boston Marathon et a l- were staged propaganda using "crisis actors" in order to wrest Americans' guns from their cold dead hands. Most grotesquely, he repeatedly claimed 2012's grisly murder of 20 first-graders, along with six educators, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax, as were all those small bodies mutilated beyond recognition and the grieving, ravaged families who had to endure them. Faced with those impossible losses as well as Jones' lies and threats from his followers, the Sandy Hook families sued him, for years keeping up a legal fight for "true accountability," aka "an end to Infowars and an end to Jones' ability to spread lies, pain and fear." Under relentless pressure - and after eventually acknowledging the shooting was real - he offered them more and more money if they'd let him stay on the air spewing vitriol; they rejected each offer because not doing so "would have put other families in harm’s way."

This fall, after the families won a $1.4 billion defamation judgment against Jones' "willful and malicious" actions, a U.S. bankruptcy judge finally ordered Infowars and its assets be sold off at auction, from its Austin studio, equipment, trademarks, video archive to its snake-oil nutritional supplement store. Last week, The Onion announced its parent company Global Tetrahedron was the winning bidder; they plan to relaunch a parody version of the site in January, thus seizing a fetid platform for hateful, right-wing skulduggery and turning it into its own mordant, smart-mouthed, big-hearted soapbox. In an "especially sweet bit of justice," they worked with Sandy Hook's non-profit Everytown for Gun Safety, which will contribute gun violence prevention stories to the site. "We thought it would be hilarious if we bought this thing," they said of a choice to leave Jones "unpunished for what he's done to these families, or we could make a dumb, stupid website, and we decided to do the second thing. We hope (the) families will be able to marvel at the cosmic joke we'll soon make of InfoWars."

It's a sublimely bonkers pairing for "America’s Finest News Source," which boasts of "rising from its humble beginnings in 1756" to grow into "the single most powerful organization in human history," with "a daily readership of 4.3 trillion people" supporting "over 350,000 journalism jobs in its news bureaus and labor camps around the world." Its headlines, often witlessly taken at face value, are its macabre crown jewels: "Planned Parenthood Opens $8 Billion Abortionplex," "Trump Boys Have Slap Fight Over Who Gets To Run Foreign Policy Meetings," "RFK Jr. Vows To Ban Soaps That Smell So Good You Eat A Little," followed by "RFK Jr. Performs "Self-Surgery To Extract Big Mac," which he ate on Trump's plane. They also offered civic lessons for Democrats from the last sorry election: "Lock in John Legend’s endorsement earlier," "Try to not already hold the presidency when a thing happens that voters dislike, "Appeal to other demographics beyond the Cheney family," "One more fundraising text would’ve done the job," and the reminder, "The soul of America is a black expanse."

They offer books - "Our Dumb Country" - and many videos: "Expert Explains Why Essentially You're Fucked," "U.S. Deploys Socially Awkward Men Along Border to Deter Migrants," "Neo-Nazi Pulls Off Surprise Victory In Longheld KKK District," "Conservative Man Proudly Frightened of Everything," from cartoons to Chinese babies to big coastal cities to languages that aren't English." There's even a horoscope - for Scorpios, "Stop avoiding conflict just because you're afraid of killing again" - and FAQs. "How can I bring The Onion to my event? The writers and editors are available for speaking engagements at universities, conferences and meet-ups for disgraced veterinarians." "What if I want to sue The Onion? Please do not do that." "Where can I find The Onion? The Onionis all around you." Given the nation's bloody history - at least 125 people a day killed by guns, twice as many wounded - their famous "No Way To Prevent This" headline was published "entirely too often," including the day after the Uvalde shooting, when its entire front page was plastered with reprints of 21 earlier iterations.

The gun-obsessed Jones was a frequent target. For the resolute, grieving families of Sandy Hook, his downfall is "the justice we have long awaited and fought for," said Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting. The families' attorney Chris Mattei called them "heroes" intent on bringing down Jones, "the perpetrator of the worst defamation in American history." John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown, praised their new partnership, including a multi-year advertising agreement. "It made all the sense in the world," he said, citing their access to gun violence research and data. He also nailed "really the bottom line here, and that is poetic justice." Having resumed his rabid show from a new studio and on X, Jones has reacted as gracefully as you'd expect, raging the sale is "a total attack on free speech," the auction was "rigged" with "money that isn't real," he's working with "good guy bidders" to keep him on the air, and with the inexplicable arrival of Elon Musk on the scene, "If you want a fight, you got one. "Trump is pissed," he snarled. "The cavalry is here."

Thursday, in a new legal wrangle, federal bankruptcy judge Christopher Lopez ordered a hearing to review the sale after a lawyer for the only other bidder alleged "fraud and impermissible collusion" in the auction. The bidder, First United American Companies, runs Jones' snake-oil business; their lawyer said their bid was higher, and auction trustee Christopher Murray violated earlier court-ordered rules by skipping an optional final round of bids. Calling the allegations "baseless" and "bullying from a disappointed bidder," he acknowledged their bid was higher: $3.5 million to The Onion's $1.75 million. But The Onion offered incentives by Sandy Hook families to forego up to 100% of the proceeds, enabling other Jones creditors to recover far more than under First United’s larger, but smaller-minded bid. "The sale is currently underway, pending standard processes," insisted Onion CEO Ben Collins, who used to write for NBC about paranoid quacks like Jones. "The idea he was just going to walk away (without) doing this sort of thing is funny in itself." Along with cash, he added, "We also accept Bitcoin."

In a Monday "editorial" about buying Infowars, Global Tetrahedron's "CEO" Bryce P. Tetraeder celebrated their "new addition" to the Global "family" whose members, like all families, are "abstract nodes (of) interchangeable assets for their patriarch to absorb and discard according to the opaque whims of the market." Buying Infowars was "an easy decision," he said, with its "true unicorn" mix of "delusional paranoia and dubious anti-aging nutrition hacks (to) make life both scarier and longer," and "a well-deserved victory for multinational elites." On Bluesky, Collins noted real media had requested interviews with "Tetraeder," who alas was "on his superyacht (to) do a quality control check at one of our 43,000 global puppy mills.” But The Onion is still churning out news. On Tuesday, it reported, "Trump Locks Bathroom Door So Elon Musk Can't Follow Him In" after "an audibly frustrated Trump" earlier stood up from the toilet to throw Musk out. "Bad Elon," he said. "Now, go to your kennel and lie down." Later, Trump reportedly sent Musk "to be neutered after he got out of his crate and impregnated dozens of female aides."


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Abby Zimet  has written CD's Further column since 2008. A longtime, award-winning journalist, she moved to the Maine woods in the early 70s, where she spent a dozen years building a house, hauling water and writing before moving to Portland. Having come of political age during the Vietnam War, she has long been involved in women's, labor, anti-war, social justice and refugee rights issues. Email: azimet18@gmail.com
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BE AFRAID, VERY AFRAID

'Cast of dangerous clowns': Columnist claims Cabinet picks reflect 'allure of Trumpism'

Kathleen Culliton
November 19, 2024 9

RAW STORY

People dressed as clowns attend the Zombie Walk, October 20, 2024. REUTERS/Pablo Sanhueza

The kind of man Stephen King would depict luring unsuspecting children into sewers is the kind President-elect Donald Trump would pick for the secretary of education, a political columnist argued Tuesday.

Salon writer Amanda Marcotte on Tuesday made the case that Trump is actively seeking out men accused of sexually assaulting women for top positions in his administration or, as she calls it, his "cast of dangerous clowns."

"It's not just that Trump doesn't care about sexual assault," wrote Marcotte. "He appears to see it as a bonus if one of his nominees or allies has faced such allegations."

Three men Trump has tapped for Cabinet have faced sexual assault accusations, reports show.

The congressional Ethics committee investigated whether former Rep. Matt Gaetz sexually assaulted an underage girl, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been accused of sexually assaulting his children's babysitter and Fox News personality Pete Hegseth has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room, reports show.

The three men have publicly denied the accusations.

Marcotte argued Tuesday that the denials — and the accusations — don't matter to Trump or his voters.

"He expects his base voters to see these ... like they see him, as an aspirational figure," Marcotte wrote. "And not because they believe they're innocent men done wrong, either. The ability to commit crimes — even sex crimes — and get away with it is part of the allure of Trumpism."

Marcotte argued Trumpism came as response to the #MeToo movement that sought to hold men such as film mogul Harvey Weinstein — the convicted rapist Trump recently complained had been "schlonged" — accountable for attacking women.

"Defending a man's 'right' to have sex with underage girls would be making good on a campaign promise," she wrote. "It's tempting to hope this will anger the public and result in consequences for Trump, but frankly, that's unlikely."

'Apparently not a joke': Critics stunned as WWE co-founder reportedly expected for Cabinet as Education Secretary
Matthew Chapman
November 19, 2024 8:01PM ET

Donald Trump is reportedly expected to appoint Linda McMahon, the former co-founder of WWE and the chief of the Small Business Administration in his previous presidency, to head up the Department of Education.

The appointment, which swiftly followed Trump's announcement of TV personality and former Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz to head up the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, prompted an instant reaction from commenters on social media.

"Linda McMahon being tipped for Trump’s education secretary," wrote Telegraph editor Gareth Davies on X, attaching a clip of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's famous "Stunner" finishing move. "Another senior US politician who has been Stunnered."

"Cause nothing says educating our children like being an ex-professional wrestling performer and running the @WWE, which has allegedly failed to protect employees from workplace harassment and sexual misconduct," wrote Kendra Barkoff Lamy, a former spokesperson to President Joe Biden while he served as vice president.

In addition to the reaction on X, others commented on the site's growing competitor, Bluesky.

"And, in further 'apparently not a joke' news, Linda McMahon of the WWE for Secretary of Education. LULZ PWNED as a theory of governance, I guess," wrote McGill University professor and Niskanen Center fellow Jacob T. Levy.

"Sort of like Oz at CMS, it’s not clear to me that McMahon would have an agenda of her own, but that might not be a problem for an administration that wants to shrink and eliminate much of DOE," wrote Yahoo Finance's Jordan Weissmann.

"I wonder if Linda McMahon will allow Jim Jordan and @timgill924.bsky.social [to] settle education policy disagreements in the ring?" wrote Michigan State University professor Brendan Cantwell.

'Betsy DeVos 2.0': Trump education pick raises alarms

Jake Johnson
Common Dreams

November 20, 2024

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced late Tuesday that he intends to nominate Linda McMahon, the billionaire former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, to lead the Department of Education, a key agency that Republicans—including Trump and the authors of Project 2025—have said they want to abolish.

McMahon served as head of the Small Business Administration during Trump's first White House term and later chaired both America First Action—a pro-Trump super PAC—and the America First Policy Institute, a far-right think tank that has expressed support for cutting federal education funding and expanding school privatization.

Trump touted McMahon's work to expand school "choice"—a euphemism for taxpayer-funded private school vouchers—and said she would continue those efforts on a national scale as head of the Education Department.

"We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort," Trump said in a statement posted to his social media platform, Truth Social. (McMahon is listed as an independent director of Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social.)

The National Education Association (NEA), a union that represents millions of teachers across the U.S., said in response to the president-elect's announcement that McMahon is "grossly unqualified" to lead the Education Department, noting that she has "lied about having a degree in education," presided over an organization "with a history of shady labor practices," and "pushed for an extreme agenda that would harm students, defund public schools, and privatize public schools through voucher schemes."

"During his first term, Donald Trump appointed Betsy DeVos to undermine and ultimately privatize public schools through vouchers," NEA president Becky Pringle said in a statement. "Now, he and Linda McMahon are back at it with their extreme Project 2025 proposal to eliminate the Department of Education, steal resources for our most vulnerable students, increase class sizes, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for disabled students, and put student civil rights protections at risk."

"The Department of Education plays such a critical role in the success of each and every student in this country," Pringle continued. "The Senate must stand up for our students and reject Donald Trump's unqualified nominee, Linda McMahon. Our students and our nation deserve so much better than Betsy DeVos 2.0."

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, took a more diplomatic approach, saying in a statement that "we look forward to learning more about" McMahon and that, if she's confirmed, "we will reach out to her as we did with Betsy DeVos at the beginning of her tenure."

"While we expect that we will disagree with Linda McMahon on many issues, our devotion to kids requires us to work together on policies that can improve the lives of students, their families, their educators, and their communities," Weingarten added.

McMahon is one of several billionaires Trump has selected for major posts in his incoming administration, which is teeming with conflicts of interest. During Trump's first term, McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon, made at least $100 million from dividends, investment interest, and stock and bond sales.

The Guardian noted Tuesday that "in October, [Linda] McMahon was named in a new lawsuit involving WWE."

"The suit alleges that she and other leaders of the company allowed the sexual abuse of young boys at the hands of a ringside announcer, former WWE ring crew chief Melvin Phillips Jr," the newspaper reported. "The complaint specifically alleges that the McMahons knew about the abuse and failed to stop it."

'Declaration of war on expertise': Experts explain danger of Trump 'MAGA zealot' nominees

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump is interviewed by Fox and Friends co-host Pete Hegseth at the White House in Washington, U.S. April 6, 2017. 

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

David Badash

November 20, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump has surprised and even alarmed many across the country, and “puzzled” and “baffled” some within his own party, with his Cabinet and other top White House nominations. Critics on the left have denounced his picks for their apparent lack of experience or qualifications for the roles they are expected to take on, noting some hold controversial or even false positions in the fields they may soon direct policy on. Meanwhile, experts in the fields of government, fascism, and democracy, are raising serious concerns about the potential “danger” some nominees represent, drawing comparisons to the “professional propagandists” often found in authoritarian regimes.

Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an NYU professor of history and a recognized expert on fascism and authoritarianism, on Wednesday pointed to this report on one of Trump’s most-recent nominations, Linda McMahon:





McMahon was Trump’s former administrator of the Small Business Administration, and is a former CEO of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), a major GOP donor, and has recently been the chair of a pro-Trump Super PAC, the board chair of a pro-Trump think tank, and the co-chair of Trump’s second transition team.

“Trump’s cabinet picks are a declaration of war on expertise and facts (that’s why there are several Fox hosts in the mix). The con artists, fraudsters, and professional propagandists that populate authoritarian governments see facts and laws as impediments to their goals,” Dr. Ben-Ghiat wrote.

READ MORE: JD Vance Accidentally Reveals FBI Director Wray Is Likely Being Replaced

Trump, announcing McMahon’s nomination, claimed, “Linda will use her decades of Leadership experience, and deep understanding of both Education and Business, to empower the next Generation of American Students and Workers, and make America Number One in Education in the World.”

McMahon’s only brush with the field of education came about 15 years ago, when she served on the Connecticut State Board of Education. She resigned after 15 months. At the time, her appointment was controversial, with one lawmaker lamenting, “her depth of knowledge regarding education is lacking.”




McMahon is far from the only controversial nominee.

On Tuesday, the vice chair of the powerful House Rules Committee Jim McGovern (D-MA) blasted Trump’s nominees as “beyond insane.”

“Someone who is credibly accused of having sex with an underage girl. Someone who sucks up to foreign dictators and has attracted major concern that they can’t be trusted to protect America’s secrets from our adversaries. Someone who paid hush money to cover up a sexual assault accusation, you know, to lead our military, he’s picked because Donald Trump likes him on Fox News? Someone who says that tap water turns kids gay? I mean, this is the dream team? This is the dream team? Really?”

He appeared to be referring to Attorney General presumptive nominee Matt Gaetz, Director of National Intelligence presumptive nominee Tulsi Gabbard, Defense Secretary presumptive nominee Pete Hegseth, and HHS Secretary presumptive nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The Democratic Association of Secretaries of State posted video calling Trump’s nominees “a trainwreck.”

“Gaetz, Gabbard, RFK – none of them have the experience or qualifications for the positions they’re seeking, in addition to the fact they’re all dangerous MAGA zealots,” the organization declared. They posted a video clip (below) from MSNBC with a chyron that noted opposition from the right to Trump’s Attorney General nominee, Matt Gaetz.

MSNBC’s justice and legal affairs analyst Anthony Coley told viewers that Gaetz, the recently resigned U.S. Congressman, “has no national security experience—not anything meaningful—little anti-trust experience, and he certainly has no experience with criminal law, except for being the target of a federal criminal investigation looking into inappropriate sexual contact, allegedly, with a minor.”

Trump has also just appointed his former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, a strong Trump loyalist, to be the U.S. Ambassador to NATO.

“Whitaker has little evident foreign policy or national security experience, making him an unknown to many in U.S. security circles,” The Associated Press reports. “Previous ambassadors to NATO have generally had years of diplomatic, political or military experience.”

“Before serving Trump,” Mother Jones notes, “he helped a company hawk bizarre products like a ‘masculine toilet’ to help ‘well-endowed men’ avoid unwanted contact with water.”

But The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols, a former U.S. Naval War College professor and an expert on Russia and nuclear weapons, served up this warning: “This is just hilarious, but the danger here is that it makes him Senate-confirmed and available for other stuff later.”

In other words, assuming Whitaker is confirmed, Trump could nominate him to another, even more critical role, declaring he’s qualified because he’s already been Senate-confirmed.

Last week, Nichols declared that Trump’s “nominations for intelligence, defense, and justice were revenge on people he thinks are his enemies. This is just endangering millions of innocent people.”

On Monday on MSNBC, Nichols went much further, delivered a scathing analysis of Trump’s nominees, calling them “an all-fronts assault on American democracy,” in another warning.

Trump, he said, is “trying to break the institutions of American government and American society, and what you’ve been seeing for the past few weeks is an all-fronts assault on American democracy, especially with these nominations.”

“I think the most dangerous of these nominations is actually [Pete] Hegseth,” Nichols explained. “And I’m kind of startled that we’re not sitting here talking more about taking a morning Fox [News] host and sticking him in the nuclear chain of command, to lead the largest—one of the largest—bureaucracies in the United States, in the world, including the person that’s supposed to look after the most powerful fighting force on the planet.”

And he concluded, “it’s also important to recognize that we could be in the first phases of a major constitutional crisis, even before Trump is sworn in.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

Dr. Oz nomination seen as potential boon for Medicare privatization

Donald Trump looks on as Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks at a pre-election rally to support Republican candidates in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 5, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
Donald Trump looks on as Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks at a pre-election rally to support Republican candidates in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S., November 5, 2022. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

Eloise Goldsmith, 

Common Dreams

November 21, 2024

Dr. Mehmet Oz, whose unsuccessful 2022 Pennsylvania Senate bid included pitching voters on a plan to expand the privatized Medicare Advantage program, is now in a position to potentially actualize that plan.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Oz, also known by his TV personality name Dr. Oz, is his pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

"Dr. Oz—a massive investor in Pharma—told the voters of Pennsylvania his plans to privatize Medicare… and they rejected him. Now Trump is giving him the authority to see his industry-approved plan carried through," wrote the progressive-leaning outlet The Lever, which covered Oz's support for Medicare Advantage back in 2022.

Through Medicare Advantage, which has been promoted by Trump and other congressional Republicans, seniors can opt out of traditional government-run Medicare health plans and instead choose plans administered by private insurers, such as UnitedHealthcare and Cigna.

According to The Lever's 2022 reporting, Oz pushed Medicare Advantage plans on his show The Dr. Oz Show and co-wrote a 2020 column for Forbes with a former healthcare executive in which they argued that a "Medicare Advantage For All" plan can "save" our healthcare system. In the column, Oz and his co-author articulated a plan to expand Medicare Advantage by imposing a 20% payroll tax.

Oz "is not a good pick for a very powerful position in charge of a trillion dollars of healthcare spending," wrote Matt Stoller of the American Economic Liberties Project on X, in reference to The Lever's investigation.

The Lever also reported that Oz's plan to expand private plans under Medicare Advantage could "boost companies in which he invests." For example, Oz and his wife owned up to $550,000 worth of stock in UnitedHealth Group, at the time of reporting. UnitedHealthcare and Humana account for nearly half, or 47%, of Medicare Advantage enrollees nationwide, according to the health policy organization KFF.

Additionally, a 2022 investigation by The New York Timesfound that major health insurers have exploited Medicare Advantage to boost their profits by billions of dollars.

Project 2025, a list of right-wing policy proposals led by the Heritage Foundation that Trump has tried to distance himself from, calls for making Medicare Advantage the default option for Medicare beneficiaries, which, if enacted, "would be a multibillion-dollar annual giveaway to corporations at the expense of Medicare enrollees and taxpayers," according to the liberal research and advocacy organization the Center for American Progress.

Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, offered a related critique of Oz: Americans "need someone who will crack down on insurers who want to deny care to the sick, providers who skimp on quality healthcare, corporations that want to privatize Medicare, and Big Pharma profiteers and ideologues who want to slash Medicaid and refuse care to low-income people. What they do not need is a healthcare huckster, which unfortunately Dr. Mehmet Oz appears to have become, having spent much of his recent career hawking products of dubious medical value."

In addition to the potential boon for private insurers, some researchers, news outlets, and members of Congress have also raised concerns about the quality of care administered under Medicare Advantage.

A 2022 government report found that "[Medicare Advantage Organizations] sometimes delayed or denied Medicare Advantage beneficiaries' access to services, even though the requests met Medicare coverage rules" and also "denied payments to providers for some services that met both Medicare coverage rules and [Medicare Advantage Organization] billing rules."

In October, a group of three Democratic lawmakers wrote to the current CMS administrator about increasingly widespread abuses and care denials by for-profit Medicare Advantage insurers.

"We are concerned that in many instances MA plans are failing to deliver, compromising timely access to care, and undermining the ability of seniors and Americans with disabilities to purchase the coverage that’s right for them," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), and Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) wrote in a letter.

"We continue to hear alarming reports from seniors and their families, beneficiary advocates, and healthcare providers that MA plans are falling short, and finding a good plan is too difficult," they wrote.


In particular, they pointed to Medicare Advantage plans' growing reliance on prior authorization, a complex, barrier-ridden process whereby doctors must demonstrate a proposed treatment is medically necessary before the insurer will cover it.

"Overuse of prior authorization is not only harmful to patients, it hinders healthcare providers' ability to offer best-in-class service," they added.

Social Security Works, a progressive advocacy group, warned in a social media post Tuesday that "Dr. Oz wants to fully privatize Medicare."

"That's why Donald Trump put him in charge of Medicare," the group added. "We will fight to stop this charlatan from getting anywhere near our Medicare system."

Trump nomination of crypto banker Howard Lutnick another 'win for the billionaire class'

Howard Lutnick, Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, gestures as he speaks during a rally for Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, in New York, U.S., October 27, 2024. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

Julia Conley

Common Dreams

November 20, 2024

Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen feigned surprise on Wednesday over President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Wall Street CEO Howard Lutnick to lead the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"Oh look, another billionaire has made his way into Trump's Cabinet," said the group, noting Lutnick is also a promoter of cryptocurrency and a Trump megadonor. "The conflicts of interest are almost too many to count."

Among the conflicts are Lutnick's involvement in the crypto industry and federal and state cases against Cantor Fitzgerald.

In addition to running the Wall Street firm, Lutnick is a banker for the "stablecoin" company Tether; purchasers receive a Tether token for $1, with the proceeds invested in reserves and Treasury bonds managed by Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald.

As Public Citizen noted, New York Attorney General Letitia James found in 2021 that Tether and another crypto firm "recklessly and unlawfully covered up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines."

The company is also reportedly under federal investigation over alleged criminal violations of anti-money laundering rules and sanctions.

Public Citizen also said that while co-chairing Trump's transition team, Lutnick "may also have helped arrange a meeting between Trump and Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong," who "helped steer a record amount of political spending from the crypto industry into the 2024 election."

Crypto firms poured over $119 million into directly influencing the 2024 federal elections, Public Citizen found in August, making the industry's spending second only to that of fossil fuel companies.

As Politico reported in October, even other members of Trump's inner circle have accused Lutnick of using his transition team co-chair position to take meetings on Capitol Hill and "talk about matters impacting his investment firm, Cantor Fitzgerald—including high-stakes regulatory matters involving its cryptocurrency business."

Lutnick's nomination, said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, serves as a reminder that "Trump serves the oligarchy, not the people."

"Debris from crypto's political spending tsunami will jam up more halls in Washington than ever before if Lutnick is confirmed as secretary of commerce," said Bartlett Naylor, a financial policy advocate for Public Citizen. "The president-elect, who once correctly called bitcoin a scam, now surrounds himself with even more crypto enablers. Cryptocurrency won't return good jobs to the heartland or reduce food prices; it will only thin the wallets of those vulnerable to a now government-legitimized con."

Government watchdog Accountable.US pointed to more than $19 million in political donations Lutnick has made since 2009, nearly all of which went to GOP candidates and political action committees. He contributed $6 million to Trump's super PAC, Make America Great Again, Inc., in 2024 alone.


"Howard Lutnick's questionable qualifications to lead the Department of Commerce begin and end with his loyalty to the president-elect," said Accountable.US executive director Tony Carrk.

Tether isn't the only Lutnick-linked company that's been investigated for wrongdoing. The Securities and Exchange Commission fined Cantor Fitzgerald $1.4 million in 2023, saying the company repeatedly failed "to identify and report customers who qualified as large traders." The company also agreed to pay $16 million in fines to the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2022 for using unauthorized communication channels.

Should Lutnick be confirmed as commerce secretary, Accountable.US said a "major regulatory conflict" could arise due to a dispute between the BGC Group, a spin-off brokerage of Cantor Fitzegerald, and futures and commodities exchange CME Group, over a competing trading platform BGC Group is launching.

"Lutnick's company's violations resulting in financial regulator fines and millions in right-wing political donations shows that political devotion takes precedence over actual experience to do the job in Trump's Cabinet," said Carrk.

Trump campaigned as a champion of working people as he railed against high grocery prices. As The New Republicreported on Tuesday, Lutnick has showered Trump's plan for across-the-board tariffs with effusive praise—even as leading economists warn the plan to impose tariffs on foreign imports will pass higher costs onto consumers, not foreign countries.

"In September, Lutnick told CNBC that 'tariffs are an amazing tool for the president to use—we need to protect the American worker,'" wrote Edith Olmsted. "Lutnick also gushed about tariffs at Trump's fascistic rally in Madison Square Garden last month, claiming that America was better off 100 years ago, when it had 'no income tax and all we had was tariffs.' His high praise for tariffs came even as he admitted Americans would face higher prices as a direct result."

Lutnick's nomination, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), "is a win for the billionaire class at the expense of working people.


"The across-the-board tariff plan," she said, "is a distraction from the MAGA scam to extend tax giveaways for giant corporations and billionaires like Howard Lutnick."

Trump's Cabinet of horrors exposes his totalitarian drift

John Stoehr
November 19, 2024 

Former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard attends a campaign rally of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S. October 22, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Donald Trump nominated an alleged rapist and sex trafficker to be attorney general. He picked a Russian asset to be director of national intelligence. He chose a religious fanatic and Kremlin stooge to be secretary of defense. And for secretary of health and human resources, he selected an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who once had a literal brain worm, and who habitually takes (“legal”) steroids to maintain, at the age of 70, the appearance of a physique of a man half his age.

There are the obvious things to say about this motley crew. Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr are , respectively, not qualified to lead the agencies they have been chosen to lead. None has managed anything larger than an office. None has the expertise required. Gaetz has never worked in law enforcement, Gabbard in intelligence, Hegseth in military leadership or Kennedy in public health. Their only qualification is their loyalty to the man who picked them, and how they look to him when they are on television.

Right now, the discussion seems to be concentrated on the Senate Republicans, who will have majority control of that chamber in January. They will be responsible ultimately for vetting Trump’s cabinet picks. The question is whether they will find the courage to restrain the President-elect or roll over, either by approving them or by letting Trump have what he wants through recess appointments.

Among liberals, the discussion seems to be limited to the absurdities each of these people brings to governance as well as the dangers they pose. “Yes, shake your head at the seeming absurdity of these picks,” wrote MSNBC’s Jen Psaki. “But don’t stop there. These choices aren’t just controversial; they require us to stay vigilant about how each potential new Cabinet member could negatively affect our lives.”

But I think we’re missing the bigger picture. These nominations signal the totalitarian drift that’s coming to Washington and the country. Yes, that’s right. No, I’m not exaggerating. It’s time to start using that word.

Totalitarianism seeks dominion over the individual to the point where individuality is erased. That’s what happened to the Republican Party. Individuals have looked the same, talked the same, acted the same and thought the same for a long time. (The men sometimes literally dress the same as Donald Trump, with a blue suit and a long red tie.) After the election, however, Republican behavior has finally been totalized.

As one GOP congressman said, Trump “is the leader of our party. … His goals and objectives, whatever that is, we need to embrace it. All of it. Every single word. If Donald Trump says jump three feet high and scratch your head, we all jump three feet high and scratch our heads.”

The objective is forcing the rest of America to conform the way the Republican Party has conformed. This can be seen in the anger expressed by some MAGAs. It wasn’t enough to win. Losers must now shut up and get in line, too. As a Trump attorney said recently: “You’ve got to own when you lose and say: this is America. We have to stand behind President Trump.” Senate Republicans are likely to approve his picks, no matter how bad, because the losers must be taught a lesson.

Totalitarianism also seeks to dominate the individual’s mind by going to war against facts, reason, science and any useful meaning of the word “proof.” In normal times, pre-Trump, we could expect the Senate to have a spirited debate over a President-elect's cabinet nominations, beginning with whether they’re qualified. Such debate is going to be impossible now, because “being qualified” is a meaningless term.

It is a stone-cold fact that Kennedy’s views on vaccines are not only insane, but in direct opposition to the moral principles of public health. But that fact won’t be accepted as fact. It will be taken as evidence of Trump’s enemies trying to sabotage his presidency. And there’s no way to break through this "conspiracist mindset," as Lindsay Beyerstein calls it. It is impervious, she said. “When scientists or the government or journalists come forward with evidence that vaccines save millions of lives and prevent untold suffering, the conspiracist answer is: Well, that’s what conspirators to kill our children would say.”

Because there’s no empirical anchor to conspiratorial thinking, totalitarians can make reality into whatever they want. Up is down, left is right – or in the words of the totalitarian regime in George Orwell’s 1984: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

Therefore, the Republicans are likely to see nothing wrong with his picks. His nominee for the law is anti-law. His nominee for national intelligence is anti-intelligence. His nominee for national defense is anti-defense. His nominee for science is anti-science. But there’s no dissonance in the world of conspiratorial thinking. Up is the new down, and the only measure of morality is whether it pleases the dear leader.

The drift toward conformity and away from individualism isn’t limited to the GOP. Thanks to the right-wing media apparatus, which is global in scale, totalizing groupthink has also been growing in the culture at large. The trick is that it comes disguised as subversive individualism.

During his interview with Trump, popular podcaster Joe Rogan said, “the rebels are Republicans now. They’re like, you want to be a rebel? You want to be punk rock? You want to, like, buck the system? You’re a conservative now. That's how crazy. And then the liberals are now pro-silencing criticism. They’re pro-censorship online. They’re talking about regulating free speech and regulating the First Amendment.”

If you are listening to liberals directly, you know there are no such efforts. But if you are listening to the right-wing media apparatus, or if you just feel the conspiratorial ambiance that it generates, it’s possible to cast yourself as a person who’s bucking the system, as if the party of billionaires is the party of the common people, as if people who look the same, talk the same, act the same and think the same are punk rock.

But the strongest evidence of totalitarian drift is the plain awfulness of Trump’s cabinet picks. They have not earned the right to be called on. They haven’t studied or mastered their disciplines. They haven’t built reputations among leaders, peers and professionals in their fields. They haven’t overcome adversity and hardship. They haven’t reached high and achieved. They certainly haven’t followed the road toward the American dream, which asks us to work hard and play by the rules.

And that’s the point. Totalitarians fear individual excellence, first because they can’t understand it, and second because excellence threatens their goal of totalizing conformity. They are not humble enough to admit that they are mediocre people but they are arrogant enough to believe they can force the rest of us down to their level.


With this cabinet, Trump can pick up where his second campaign left off, which is a movement toward “the consistent persecution of every higher form of intellectual activity …” as Hannah Arendt once wrote.

“Total domination does not allow for free initiative in any field of life, for any activity that is not entirely predictable,” she said. “Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty” (my italics).

Absorption pits necessary but hazardous for Gaza’s displaced


Amjad Ayman Yaghi The Electronic Intifada 12 November 2024
A girl picks her way through raw sewage water in a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip in August. 

Omar Ashtawy APA images

It’s not a pleasant job.

But it is a vital one.

In February of this year, Abdul Salam al-Aswad dug an absorption trench or pit near his tent in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and placed a homemade toilet with a wooden board raised on bricks to act as a seat over it.

With Israel’s war on Gaza lurching into its 14th month, Gaza’s 1.9 million displaced people – who have found shelter mostly in tents and temporary structures erected to shield them from the elements – have had to prepare for the long term as they come to terms with the fact that Israel’s sponsors have so far shown no interest in reigning in their genocidal ally.

One crucial need is the safe disposal of sewage and waste in a territory where Israel’s destruction of infrastructure has been near total.

Going to the toilet has become “psychologically concerning,” al-Aswad told The Electronic Intifada in late October.

“We relieve ourselves in a pit that smells and certainly causes us disease, but we have no choice but to use it.”

Every overcrowded shelter in Gaza increasingly relies on such absorption pits to mitigate what is a growing health hazard, and digging tools, pipes, barrels and materials to build toilets are being sold in markets and by street side vendors.

They are needed.

Spread of disease

Muhammad Mansour, 39, said many absorption pits in his shelter west of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip have started to collapse due to oversaturation of the ground with wastewater.

His 5-year-old son fell into a pit in August while walking with other children. The child was immediately taken to Shuhada al-Aqsa hospital for tests because of the imminent danger of infectious disease, his father said.

But it’s impossible to take precautions. Sewage water is present everywhere in Deir al-Balah, Mansour said, flowing freely in between tents in shelters and in streets everywhere.

“It’s very ugly, and we have to use these pits knowing they are harmful to us,” he said.

He himself developed scabies and skin rashes from the sanitation issues, he said.

“We know the causes of the diseases that afflict us. But we can’t avoid them,” he told The Electronic Intifada.

Ahmed Shaheen, an environmental engineer with the Palestinian Water Authority, warns of a possible major health disaster.

“Absorption pits can lead to the seepage of sewage into groundwater. Increased humidity and foul odors from these pits can promote the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera and typhoid fever,” Shaheen said.

International organizations have long warned of the effect of Israel’s genocidal aggression on Gaza’s infrastructure and have reported a “rapid spread” of infectious diseases.

In October, the British Medical Journal, BMJ, noted that Gaza now has 40,000 cases of Hepatitis A, compared to just 18 before war started.

The territory has seen the re-emergence of polio and is enduring, according to the World Health Organization, one million reported cases of acute respiratory tract infections, half a million cases of acute diarrhea and over 100 000 cases of jaundice.

“Without an immediate and permanent ceasefire and unrestricted access to humanitarian aid for all of Gaza – including a vaccination campaign focused on young children, and the protection and rebuilding of the health system – people will continue to die from preventable diseases and treatable injuries,” the BMJ authors concluded.
No privacy

Shaheen was even more downbeat. What is happening in Gaza will have ramifications, “on humans and the environment, that may be felt for decades because of the amount of explosives and destruction.”

He pointed out that Gaza’s infrastructure had been inadequate for years as a result of Israel’s 16-year blockade on Gaza before last October that prevented entry for the necessary materials to fix the territory’s aging infrastructure.

As far back as 2018, well water samples indicated that pollution levels had risen to the point that 97 percent of Gaza coastal aquifer was contaminated with sewage water, according to UNICEF.

And it is not just a health hazard.

Jamileh Omar, who was displaced from Gaza City to Deir al-Balah, said many women are uncomfortable relieving themselves in absorption pits, so they often go early in the morning when fewer people are out and about.

“There are very few bathrooms provided in tents by international organizations to use,” she said. “It’s very crowded, and there is frequent movement of displaced people, so people have dug pits.”

Shaheen said people in Gaza perceive the response of governmental and international non-governmental organizations as insufficient and that improving the health and environmental conditions of displaced individuals is not just a pressing need but “a fundamental right.”

Amjad Ayman Yaghi is a journalist based in Gaza.

Greece Arrests Master for “Drunkenness on Duty” and Causing Shipwreck

Master is charged with drunkenness when vessel ground on Makronissos off Greek coast (NASA_)

Published Nov 15, 2024 1:05 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

What would otherwise have been a minor ship casualty is now drawing attention after the Hellenic Coast Guard reported today that it has arrested the master of the vessel involved in the incident. The 46-year-old master of a Bahamas-registered cargo ship is being charged with “disturbance of security,” and “causing a shipwreck” in conjunction with “drunkenness on duty.”

The small unnamed cargo ship reported on Monday, November 11, that it had run aground on a rocky point on the southeast side of the island of Makronissos. It is a small island less than two miles long and just a third of a mile wide lying off the mainland and across from Kea southeast of Piraeus in the Aegean Sea. A busy shipping channel passes between the two islands.

The ship had loaded in Turkey and was reported to be carrying 4,100 metric tons of melamine pallets bound for Piraeus. It had a crew of nine aboard all from Ukraine including the master.

The vessel was refloated with the assistance of a tug and moved to the Piraeus anchorage. An initial survey reported a crack above the waterline with no water ingress, but the Greek authorities issued a detention order until the vessel was repaired and certified by class.

The Second Port Department of Keratsini of the Central Port Authority of Piraeus, however, also began investigating the incident that led to the charges that were filed today against the master. They did not report the level of inebriation or further details of the incident.

It is the latest in the series of reports of incidents involving apparent consumption of alcohol either just before or while on duty. In January, a pilot in the UK reported that he had smelled alcohol when interacting with the captain of an MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company containership arriving at the port of Felixstowe which led to a guilty plea and the captain losing his position while in 2023 the UK MAIB issued a report saying a watch officer was likely asleep on the bridge after consuming alcohol. Denmark in 2021 convicted an officer who had consumed alcohol prior to his watch and was then involved in a fatal collision.

Dutch Fisherman Hit Tanker After Leaving Bridge for a Head Call

Joris Senior / ARM-18 (Joost J. Bakker / CC BY 2.0)

Published Nov 11, 2024 3:12 PM by The Maritime Executive

The Netherlands' disciplinary court for mariners has fined a fishing vessel's helmsman for leaving the bridge unattended to go to the head. While he was gone, the vessel hit an anchored tanker off IJmuiden, causing damage and a small spill.

On September 28, 2022, the 150-foot fishing vessel Joris Senior (registry number ARM 18) had finished up a week of fishing in the North Sea and was returning to IJmuiden. There were six crewmembers aboard, and a substitute skipper was at the helm for the transit. No additional crewmembers were on lookout duty. 

At 2200 hours, the helmsman chose to deviate from the captain's voyage plan. He steered Joris Senior out of the traffic separation scheme to cut through an anchorage area "because it was not busy, and that way you come in a little earlier," he told investigators. While transiting towards the anchorage at 10 knots, he spotted the nearby tanker Golden Daisy, and the closest point of approach appeared to be 0.3 nautical miles. He determined that the larger ship did not pose a risk of collision, and at this point, he decided to go to the bathroom.

"I definitely did not fall asleep. I really had to go to the toilet and then left the bridge for about five minutes, without anyone else there," he told the disciplinary board.  "When I came up I was sitting against [Golden Daisy]. I do not know what went wrong."

At 0026, Joris Senior struck Golden Daisy's hull above the waterline, punching a hole in the tanker's sludge tank and releasing about three cubic meters of sludge into the water. The fishing vessel's bow was damaged as well. 

The board concluded that the charges against the helmsman were well-founded, that he should have called the skipper to relieve him before leaving the bridge, and that he had "seriously failed in his responsibilities."

"It should have been clear to him that when sailing through the anchorage, constant alertness on the bridge was required," the disciplinary board concluded. "The person concerned could not assume that no risk of collision could develop with a CPA set to 0.3 miles. . . . It could have ended much worse."

The helmsman was fined 1,500 euros. The fine could have been larger, but the board noted that the defendant had a family to provide for and could not work because of injuries he sustained in the allision. The board also took into account a 1,500 euro fine that had already been levied for the helmsman's decision to serve as an unauthorized substitute skipper. 

The board noted that accidents on port-bound fishing vessels after a week of heavy fishing "are unfortunately not an unknown phenomenon." It advised operators to pay extra attention to fishing crews' watchstanding practices in order to ensure a safe return home. 

Top image courtesy Joost J. Bakker / CC BY 2.0

UK

Top 5 Unite the union wins over the last month

Basit Mahmood 

11 November, 2024 

Left Foot Forward 

The fight for better pay and conditions for workers is continuing, with Unite the Union securing a number of pay deals and actions for its workers over the past month


The fight for better pay and conditions for workers is continuing, with Unite the Union securing a number of pay deals and actions for its workers over the past month. Here are some of Unite’s biggest wins over the last 30 days.

1.Unite delivers pay win for First Bus workers in Aberdeen

Unite has delivered a new pay deal for around 200 First Bus Aberdeen workers.

Drivers, coach drivers and administrative staff at First Bus Aberdeen overwhelmingly backed an enhanced 7.2 per cent pay offer from the company which will take effect over two years.

The successful negotiations resulted in an enhanced 5.2 per cent offer from August 2024. A further two per cent increase from August 2025 will then run until the end of July 2026.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite has successfully negotiated a pay deal at First Bus Aberdeen for around 200 workers. It’s another example of Unite delivering better jobs, pay and conditions across the bus industry.”

Passenger Carrying Vehicle licence holders will receive a driver rate of £14 per hour after one year while administrative staff will receive either a flat-rate increase of £1007, or up to 5.2 per cent in year one and a minimum 2.2 per cent in year two, whichever is greater.

2. Jiffy dispute ends with pay increase for Cheshire workers

Workers at the Jiffy packaging plant in Winsford, Cheshire, are celebrating after securing a four per cent pay increase. Staff also maintained all existing terms and conditions that had been under threat.

Over 50 members of Unite, Britain’s leading trade union, had taken 36 days of industrial action in their dispute with their employer.

Workers had originally been offered a one per cent pay increase or a three per cent increase with dramatic reductions in sickness benefits. Following strike action that crippled production at the plant workers won a substantially improved offer, of four per cent backdated to 1 March. They also maintained their sick pay at current levels and got Jiffy management to remove the degrading fob system in place that monitored workers’ toilet breaks. Further assurances over redundancies and retraining have also been guaranteed.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This shows the power of Unite and the power of the union movement. We backed our members at Jiffy in their fight for better pay and to protect their terms and conditions and because they fought hard for what was rightfully theirs they won the dispute.

“They should be applauded for standing firm against this household name who tried so hard to short change them.”

3. Unite takes pay dispute to Iceland in support of striking Spalding food workers

Unite activists and members have taken the fight for fair pay to Reykjavik, Iceland as part of the industrial dispute with food processing company Bakkavor.

Over 700 workers are currently taking part in continuous strike action at the Bakkavor production plant in Spalding, Lincolnshire after years of real terms pay cuts.

Bakkavor’s biggest shareholders are Icelandic “tycoons” Agust and Lydur Gudmundsson. Lydur Gudmundsson was previously convicted for financial fraud against the people of Iceland. Now he and his brother are making millions on the backs of poorly paid workers in the UK.

Together they own half of Bakkavor shares and have huge power over the company. Bakkavor made £94 million in profit last year. In the last five years it has paid out £158 million to shareholders. But most workers in Spalding are only paid £11.54 an hour, just 10 pence above the minimum wage.

The workers have seen their pay decrease by 10.6 per cent in real terms over the last three year. Unite members are demanding a pay rise of 81 pence an hour on average. This amounts to just two per cent of Bakkavor’s profits.

Protests took place across the Icelandic capital last week, including at the homes of the Gudmundsson brothers, at the headquarters of their holding company and at the Icelandic film school owned by Agust.

Unite representatives were joined by comrades from the Efling Icelandic trade union as they made noisy protests, handed out leaflets and projected images onto the sides of buildings.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Bakkavor is an incredibly profitable company and has paid out millions to the Gudmundsson brothers and other shareholders. This is a company that is fully able to make its workers a fair pay rise but is cynically choosing not to.”

4. Unite secures wage win for dock workers on the Clyde

Unite confirmed last week that Clydeport dock workers on the River Clyde have secured an overall pay package worth approximately 9.3 per cent.

Around 100 workers based at the King George V dock in Glasgow and at Greenock Ocean terminal, overwhelmingly backed the wage offer.

The deal covers crane and terminal operators, pilots who move vessels around the Clyde along with engineers, estuary and vessel deck hands. The accepted offer amounts to a three per cent basic pay rise, two days extra holidays, bonuses worth up to £1000 if absence and profit targets are reached along with a 50 pence an hour rise for crane operators.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham, said: “Unite has successfully negotiated a good pay package for our Clydeport members on the Clyde. It’s another important win and demonstrates how Unite is delivering better jobs, pay and conditions for dock workers across Scotland.”

5. Million pound plus legal claim for Oscar Mayer Wrexham workers launched

Unite is launching a multi-million pound legal case on behalf of its members affected by the disgraceful decision by ready meal maker Oscar Mayer to fire and rehire them.

More than 500 Oscar Mayer workers in Wrexham initially began four weeks of strikes in September over the company’s plans to fire and rehire them to reduce wages by up to £3,000 a year.

The strikes were due to conclude this week, but the union has extended industrial action for a further two weeks due to the company’s refusal to enter into negotiations to resolve the dispute.

The workers, many of whom speak English as a second language, are being threatened with dismissal without compensation if they refuse to agree to the detrimental terms by signing new contracts.

In response, Unite has now written to the company informing it that it is now pursuing Oscar Mayer for legal action on behalf of its members. Unite will mount a series of unfair dismissal cases (where workers have been dismissed) and protective awards cases on behalf of all its members for a failure to correctly consult with the workforce, prior to fire and rehiring them. The protective awards claim alone could be worth in excess of £3 million.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

BARBARISM

Bleeding and in pain, a woman endured a harrowing wait for miscarriage care due to Georgia's restrictive abortion law

THE STATE NOT THE COUNTRY

Avery Davis Bell was devastated when her long-awaited second pregnancy ended in miscarriage (Courtesy Avery Davis Bell via CNN Newsource)

Jen Christensen
CNN
Published Nov. 11, 2024 

In early October, Avery Davis Bell learned that she was about to lose the baby she and her husband very much wanted.

The 34-year-old geneticist had been hospitalized in Georgia after repeated episodes of bleeding, and she and her doctors all knew exactly what was needed to manage her miscarriage and prevent a life-threatening infection. They also knew why she wasn’t receiving that care immediately.

In an instant, the impacts of her state’s restrictive laws on abortion care became clear: Had Bell been bleeding from a car accident or a burst appendix, doctors could help her right away. Had she had a miscarriage in Boston, where she lived until 2020, doctors could snap into action. But because she was having a miscarriage in a hospital in Georgia, surgery had to wait.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision eliminated the federal right to abortion, miscarriage management has become trickier and in some cases, deadlier.

Many miscarriages take place at home without medical intervention, but cases like Bell’s can be treated with the same medicines or surgical techniques used for abortions.

Thirteen U.S. states have total or near-total abortion bans. Several others restrict it to certain points in pregnancy, including Georgia, which limits abortion to the first six weeks of pregnancy. Bell’s pregnancy was at 18 weeks — too early for her fetus to survive outside the womb but well past Georgia’s limit.

Doctors told Bell she’d have to wait, unless her condition grew worse: Georgia makes people wait 24 hours before they can have an abortion except in medical emergencies.

Bell switched into crisis mode.

“I was breathing, I was recording everything that was happening in my mind, and I was thinking ‘I just need to get through it,’” Bell said. “I even told my wonderful husband, who obviously was very sad when we got this news, I said, ‘I love you. We’re going to be sad, but right now I have to get through this medical emergency, and I’m sorry to ask you, but I need you to pull it together until I get through to this surgery.’ ”

Bell and her husband, Julian, endured an agonizing wait for her surgery (Courtesy Avery Davis Bell via CNN Newsource)

Bell said shedoes not blame her doctors at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Rather, she blames the law itself.

When Georgia’s six-week abortion ban went into effect in 2022, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp promised pregnant women that the state was “ready to provide the resources they need to be safe, healthy, and informed.” But Georgia, which has long had one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country, has also had at least two deaths of pregnant women who couldn’t access timely medical care or legal abortion.


It’s not the only state facing such issues. Texas enacted an abortion ban in 2021, and the rate of maternal deaths there increased 56% from 2019 to 2022, according to the Gender Equity Policy Institutes’ analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This year, a woman died after being told it would be a “crime” to intervene in her miscarriage at a Texas hospital, and a pregnant teenager died after trying to get care for pregnancy complications in three visits to Texas emergency rooms.

In states with abortion restrictions, the maternal death rate increased twice as fast between 2018 and 2020 than in states without such restrictions, according to a 2022 report from the Commonwealth Fund. The inequities have deepened racial and ethnic gaps in health outcomes, as women of color – particularly Black and Hispanic women – generally have higher maternal mortality rates.
A troubled pregnancy

Bell and her husband, Julian, could have stayed in Boston, where she got a doctorate in genetics and genomics from Harvard University and he got his degree from MIT. But Bell grew up in Georgia, and they wanted to move closer to family as they expanded their own.

They were thrilled to have their first child, a son, in 2021.

This July, she learned that she was pregnant again. When she was 12 weeks along, she told her son he’d soon have a sibling. He was ecstatic.

“He talked to the baby and hugged the baby every day in my tummy,” she said.

By September, Bell had begun having trouble with her pregnancy. Her condition was stable, but she was hemorrhaging. Doctors diagnosed a subchorionic hematoma, a condition that causes bleeding between the uterine wall and the amniotic sac. It often clears up on its own, but Bell said she had one of those rare cases where she continued to bleed.Sign up for breaking news alerts from CTV News, right at your fingertips

Doctors eventually advised Bell to go on bed rest. She said she left the house only to vote early and to make regular trips to the doctor.

But in early October, Bell’s bleeding got worse, and she had to take three trips to the hospital in two weeks.

At first, doctors told Bell that the baby was still doing well. On her second visit, they warned that if the bleeding didn’t stop, it could be too much for the fetus and dangerous for her own health.

At one point, she passed a clot the size of a dinner plate. She scooped it out of the toilet and put it in a takeout container to show the doctors.

“It was so scary,” Bell said.

On October 17, on her third trip to Emory, the doctor who had delivered her first child was on duty. She ran tests and told Bell that her water had broken and that her pregnancy needed to end.

“She’s been with us for a lot, and we got hugs,” Bell said. “You know when you get hugs from your doctor, it’s serious.”
Waiting periods and paperwork

Bell was crushed. She knew that at 18 weeks gestation, the fetus could not live outside the womb.

Her doctor called in a complex family planning specialist to help. A procedure called dilation and evacuation would be necessary to control the bleeding and clear out Bell’s uterus and prevent infection.

But because the fetus still had a heartbeat, the procedure would be an abortion. Georgia law criminalizes abortions past six weeks except when “necessary in order to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or the substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”

The doctor “was telling me ‘because we’re in Georgia, we can’t move immediately to the surgery,’ ” Bell remembered.

Georgia’s 24-hour waiting period frightened and frustrated her.

“It’s just so hard because it’s a wanted pregnancy, to feel like this was really inevitable and that waiting period that I was put into made that harder,” Bell said. “We couldn’t just move from emergency to done. We just had to sit in limbo. My fetus is dying, and I am stable this second that I’m thinking this, but in 10 minutes I may not be, and that’s just a time no one should have to extend, that limbo.”

The law also required Bell to fill out paperwork she found distressing. It spelled out medical risks of abortion, the probable age of the fetus, the presence of a human heartbeat and details about potential economic support, had she been able to give birth.

“I had to sign a consent form for an abortion, which has some sort of garbage language about heartbeat and fetal pain and stuff that’s clearly put in for legislation reasons rather than scientific reasons,” Bell said.

The hospital transferred Bell – still bleeding and in pain – to another location that was better equipped to do the surgery but where she expected to wait again for doctors to figure out when they could schedule her procedure.

Later that day, tests showed that levels of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in her blood had reached a dangerous low, putting her life at further risk. That new signal meant that doctors could finally help her.

Bell was grateful to finally get the care she needed but angry on behalf of her doctors, who she felt had not been allowed to use their best judgment.

“My doctor had over a decade of post-college education to be able to navigate those situations, and yet the law hamstrung her,” she said. “It makes doctors jump through hoops written by elderly men who have no medical knowledge and have an ideological position inconsistent with how biology works.”

Emory University declined CNN’s request for an interview but said in a statement, “Emory Healthcare uses consensus from clinical experts’ medical literature and legal guidance to support our providers as they make individual treatment recommendations in compliance with Georgia’s abortion laws, our top priorities continue to be safety and well-being of the patients we serve, no matter where patients or doctors live.”
‘We’re adding insult to injury with this law’

Dr. Sarah Prager, a fellow with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a professional organization that represents more than 26,000 physicians, says abortion laws like Georgia’s are inhumane.

“You have people who are not clinical weighing in on a medical decision, which is asinine,” said Prager, who was not involved in Bell’s care. “The whole purpose of modern medicine is to prevent illness, so to push people to the brink of death and pull them back because of some law is wrong, and if nothing else, we’re not always successful.

“It’s cruel, and it devalues the life and the health of the person,” she added.

There’s also an emotional toll that comes with prolonging the situation. It will take a while to heal physically and emotionally, said Bell, who had to get another iron infusion after the surgery and is only now starting to take walks again.

Eventually, she expects to create a scrapbook with her ultrasounds, the notes she got from friends and family, and a print of the tiny footprints that she got from the hospital. She hasn’t been able to look at those yet.

What’s left is a mix of emotions. The entire family is sad for the loss of the pregnancy. Bell and her husband still hope to have another child. And there’s anger that Georgia’s laws prolonged her painful experience.

“Even if everything had gone perfectly, this still would be one of the worst times of my life and the hardest times for my entire family,” she said. “And then we’re adding insult to injury with this law.”

Having family around her and having a science background made it easier to advocate for her care, she said. Her doctors reassured her throughout her hospitalization that they would not let her die. They treated her like a peer, communicating clearly and pushing to help her. But not everyone has the same circumstances, and she worries about others who miscarry in Georgia.

“I have immense, great gratitude for my doctors, sadness for our expected child and anger at the ways this was made harder for me and for my care team because of laws and policy that’s not based in biological reality,” Bell said. “Nobody should have to go through this.”