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Saturday, July 10, 2021

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OPINION: - The Ascension of Bernie Sanders

BY MAUREEN DOWD

I want to talk to Bernie about Balenciaga. And Britney. And Dua Lipa, Sha’Carri Richardson and Joe Manchin’s houseboat. And whether he prefers red or white horseradish on his gefilte fish. And the state of capitalism, and the absurd price of a Birkin bag.

We settle into a retro yellow booth at Henry’s Diner and I pull out a thick sheaf of questions. Eyeing it suspiciously, he asks with that booming Brooklyn accent, “You givin’ a speech?”

He reaches into his shirt pocket and pulls out his own piece of paper, a list of items written in his loopy scrawl. These are the only things he’s here to talk about.

At 79, Bernie Sanders is a man on a mission, laser-focused on a list that represents trillions of dollars in government spending that he deems essential. When I stray into other subjects, the senator jabs his finger at his piece of paper or waves it in my face, like Van Helsing warding off Dracula with a cross.

“Maureen, let me just tell you what we’re trying to do here,” he says. “We’re working on what I think is the most consequential piece of legislation for working families since the 1930s.”Sanders, long a wilderness prophet in Washington, a man who wrote a memoir bragging about being an outsider, admits that it is strange to be a key member of The Establishment. As the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, the democratic socialist is now pulling the levers in the control room.He has changed the whole debate in the nation’s capital. He is the guy trying to yank his party back to its working-class roots and steer President Biden in a bolder, more progressive direction.Mirabile dictu: A president and senator who are both pushing 80, men who were underestimated and dismissed for years in Democratic circles, are now teaming up to transform the country. It’s the Bernie and Joe show.

Sanders passionately believes that the only way to undo the damage done by Donald Trump and Trumpism is by showing that government can deliver, that good policy can overcome dangerous conspiracy theories and lies.

“I would have loved to run against him, to tell you the truth,” he says of Trump. “He’s a fraud and he’s a phony. That’s what he is, and he has to be exposed for that.”

Even with Trump out of office, Sanders feels we are still on the precipice. Democrats need to speak to the struggles of the white working class, he says, something that “sometimes part of the Democratic elite does not fully appreciate.” He adds: “We’ve got to take it to them. I intend, as soon as I have three minutes, to start going into Trumpworld and start talking to people.”

“It’s absolutely imperative if democracy is to survive that we do everything that we can to say, ‘Yes, we hear your pain and we are going to respond to your needs.’ That’s really what this is about. If we don’t do that, I fear very much that conspiracy theories and big lies and the drift toward authoritarianism is going to continue. You got all these folks out there who are saying, ‘Does anybody pay attention to me?’”

Sanders is a purist who doesn’t like to acknowledge how intertwined the personal and political can be. Yet he and Biden have a bond that could have a profound effect on the lives of Americans.

While the two men disagree on a lot of things, the former Senate colleagues and 2020 rivals share a mutual respect. Sanders has easy access to the White House. It is a big difference from the way he was treated in 2016 by Clinton, Inc. Not only did Hillary’s henchmen run a nasty campaign and try to rig the primaries; Hillary herself would later say about him in a 2020 documentary: “Nobody likes him. Nobody wants to work with him.”

Sanders says he gives the president a lot of credit for looking at the budget not just as numbers on a spreadsheet but as a chance to reshape the American identity.

“Who denies the realities of what he is taking on?” Sanders says, digging into some eggs over easy and white toast. “Does anyone deny that our child care system, for example, is a disaster? Does anyone deny that pre-K, similarly, is totally inadequate? Does anyone deny that there’s something absurd that our young people can’t afford to go to college or are leaving school deeply in debt? Does anybody deny that our physical infrastructure is collapsing? Does anybody except anti-science people deny that climate change is real? Does anyone deny that we have a major health care crisis? Does anyone deny that we pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs? Does anyone deny we have a housing crisis? Does anyone deny that half the people live paycheck to paycheck?”

Sanders, who has talked about spending up to $6 trillion on the reconciliation package, says he will not support a two- or three-trillion-dollar bill. “That’s much too low.”

What about grumbling coming from members of the progressive wing that they want Sanders to stay a hell-raiser, not be a bridge-builder who gives Biden and the center-left cover?“You know politics,” he answers with a shrug. “You can’t please all of the people all of the time.” He adds that he sees this moment as a chance to “address concerns progressives have had for decades.”

Sanders was a lonely voice on democratic socialism for decades; now he has a squad to keep him company.

He lights up talking about “Alexandria, Rashida, Ilhan, Pramila, Ayanna from Massachusetts,” noting that “they really came from very much the same place that I was coming from, and they all came from different parts of the world.” Still, Sanders is not in lock step with the most progressive members of his party on everything. He says, for example, that he prefers “fundamental reform” to defunding the police.

“A cop’s life is a difficult life,” he says, sounding like the mayor he once was. “Schedules are terrible. Salaries, in many cases, are inadequate. It’s a dangerous job. It’s a job with a lot of pressure. We need to significantly improve training for the police. In certain communities, what is going on is absolutely unacceptable. It must be changed, period. We cannot have racism in policing. If you go to Black communities or Latino communities, they want this protection.”

When I ask Sanders if he thinks A.O.C. could be president someday, out comes the list.

“That’s not what I want to get into,” he barks. “I want to get into what this legislation is about.”

“You don’t want to discuss ‘Free Britney’?” I ask.

“No.”

But I get him on the American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson being suspended from the U.S. Olympics team because of marijuana use.

“I think it speaks to the problems of the so-called war on drugs,” he says. “So I have a problem with that.”

Sitting across from Sanders in this little diner in this little town, it’s wild to contemplate that the 79-year-old has become an icon of popular culture, beloved by people under 30, featured in this month’s Vanity Fair cover story as a friend of pop star Dua Lipa, and that he was an inspiration for a Balenciaga show in Paris in 2017.

He rolls his eyes at fashion. “I’m not chic,” he says. “I’m the least chic person in the world. Trust me.” He’s also unimpressed by billionaires and their toys.

“You have the richest guys in the world who are not particularly worried about earth anymore,” he says. “They’re off in outer space.” People are sleeping on the streets, but “Mr. Bezos is worth $200 billion and now he wants to get a spaceship. That’s very nice. That’s what this legislation is about, Maureen. I want to talk about this legislation.”

But wait, what does he think of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s lurking around A.O.C.’s office and calling her “a little communist”?

“You’re getting off the subject here,” Sanders chides, before relenting: “Look, she is the future of a segment of the Republican Party which is delusional, which tends toward violence.” He adds: “It’s not just Jan. 6. It’s taking place at state capitols. There’s people walking around with guns.”

If he were not a senator, he says, he might want to do something in media, helping journalists relate to the working class and correctly define political terms like “liberal”: “Liberals want to do nice things. And progressives understand that you have to take on powerful special interests to make it happen.” Before the senator leaves to work the phones, he returns to his list with one last directive: “Tell people what we are trying to accomplish.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/10/opinion/bernie-sanders-interview-maureen-dowd.html

Joe Biden, 20th Century Trustbuster

Antitrust lesson 101: Big government often makes big business bigger.

President Biden has modeled his spending agenda on the Great Society and New Deal. Now he wants to take antitrust policy back to the early 20th century. Or at least that’s how it looks from his executive order on Friday to regulate competition and impose more government control over the private economy.

“In the early 1900s, Teddy Roosevelt’s Administration broke up the trusts controlling the economy—Standard Oil, J.P. Morgan’s railroads, and others—giving the little guy a fighting chance,” his summary states. Mr. Biden now wants to use regulation to break up Big Tech, finance, agriculture and healthcare companies, among others.

At least two parts of his order are encouraging. He directs Health and Human Services to let hearing aids be sold over the counter, which would offset federal rules that make the devices more expensive than necessary. He also encourages the Federal Trade Commission to ban unnecessary occupational licensing, which is long overdue. These are the government barriers to entry that stymie entrepreneurs, often minorities, in services like hair-braiding or plumbing.

These are deregulatory actions, but the rest of his order is about enhancing government power. Courts for more than a century have applied antitrust law based on the “rule of reason.” Scholars and judges across the political spectrum, including Phillip Areeda and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, have shifted antitrust focus from market concentration to economic analysis and consumer welfare.The new Brandeisians in the Biden Administration led by the National Economic Council’s Tim Wu (godfather of net neutrality) and FTC chair Lina Khan want to replace the rule of reason with the rule of politics. Mr. Biden’s order includes 72 directives that mostly aim to shackle businesses.Consider railroads. Government regulation of railroad rates was among the great failures of the 20th century. It reduced private investment and service and drove many carriers into bankruptcy. Congress abandoned it in 1980, but Mr. Biden wants to revive it. His order summary says there are only seven Class I freight railroads compared to 33 four decades ago. Yet freight prices have dropped 44% since 1981. Mr. Biden wants to force railroads to hand over freight traffic to competitors, which would reduce private investment and shipping efficiencies.

He also instructs the Federal Communications Commission to restore the Obama -era “net neutrality” rules that regulated broadband providers like railroads. Investment fell after the FCC imposed net neutrality, then surged after the Trump FCC liberated carriers. Broadband last year cost 20.2% less and was 15.7% faster than in 2015.

One reason is fierce competition. Democrats opposed the T-Mobile-Sprint merger in 2018, but it has boosted wireless competition and investment. The tie-up shows how business consolidation can improve consumer welfare. Economies of scale can reduce prices. Size also gives businesses more leverage to negotiate lower prices with suppliers.Prescription drug prices have fallen 2% since 2018 as the Food and Drug Administration has approved more generics and second-line therapies. Competition is working. But Mr. Biden nonetheless orders Health and Human Services to “issue a comprehensive plan within 45 days to combat high prescription drug prices and price gouging.” Translation: Government price controls, which will reduce innovation and investment in new treatments.

It’s no coincidence that consolidation has been greatest in the two industries that have experienced the biggest increase in regulation over the last decade—finance since Dodd-Frank and healthcare since ObamaCare.

Bigger businesses can more easily absorb regulatory costs. After ObamaCare limited insurer profits, Aetna and Cigna merged with more remunerative pharmaceutical benefit managers. Medicaid expansion and low government reimbursement rates have driven hospitals to consolidate to augment their pricing leverage with insurers.

ObamaCare’s “accountable care organizations” gave hospitals an incentive to acquire physician practices. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, primary-care-practice market concentration in metropolitan areas increased 29% between 2010 and 2016. A bigger government makes big business bigger.

Mr. Biden especially has Big Tech in his bull’s eye. His order decrees “greater scrutiny of mergers, especially by dominant internet platforms.” But many tech acquisitions increase competition and benefit consumers. Amazon’s purchase of PillPack drove retail pharmacies to offer free prescription drug shipments. Specific Big Tech behavior, such as Google’s digital ad practices, may deserve antitrust scrutiny. But breaking up companies merely because of their size will take years to litigate with uncertain consequences and could help foreign companies more than consumers.

That was the hard-earned antitrust lesson of the 20th century, and it appears Mr. Biden wants to doom us to repeat it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-20th-century-trustbuster-11625869633?mod=trending_now_opn_sf_pos2

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Video Report - International Media Reacts to Afghan Situation: CrossTalk | Saigon in Afghanistan

World Media Reports: #Afghanistan #Taliban Afghanistan🇦🇫 on The Brink: Taliban Advances as a Defeated US Withdraws (Ex-Afghan Amb. To China)

Pakistan: Why RSF deems PM Khan a 'press freedom predator'

Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific director at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told DW that Pakistani authorities are trying to censor and intimidate journalists who dare to not toe the government's line.

Pakistan, After Rooting for Afghanistan’s Taliban, Faces a Blowback

By Saeed Shah

Islamabad wants a negotiated agreement, fears that outright Taliban takeover would galvanize Pakistani jihadists.

For two decades, a large part of the Pakistani security establishment rooted for the Taliban in the Afghan war. Now that the Taliban are taking over vast tracts of the country and seem to be on the cusp of seizing power, panic is spreading through Pakistan’s halls of power.

Ever since the 2001 U.S. invasion ousted the Pakistani-backed Taliban regime in Kabul, Pakistan’s powerful military has unofficially provided carefully calibrated support to the group, allowing Afghan insurgents to operate from its territory. Pakistan wanted to bolster the Taliban as a counter to the influence of its enemy—India—in Afghanistan and to have a potent proxy there after a U.S. departure.

Formally an American ally since 2001, Pakistan’s government denies backing the Taliban, but says it has some limited influence over the group.

With the Taliban sweeping through a third of Afghanistan’s districts following the U.S. military withdrawal and surrounding the country’s major cities, Pakistani authorities have to grapple with the unintended consequences of their policies. A total takeover by the Taliban or a new civil war in Afghanistan would backfire against Islamabad’s national interests, senior Pakistani officials say.

“We are so closely intertwined with Afghanistan, ethnically, religiously, tribally, that whenever there is civil war, Pakistan gets sucked in automatically,” said Pakistan’s former defense minister, retired Lt. Gen. Naeem Lodhi. “Civil war [in Afghanistan] is the last thing that Pakistan would like to happen.”

The fear in Pakistan is of a flood of refugees across the porous border that would add to the 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees already living in the country. Worse, a triumphant Afghan Taliban would galvanize Pakistan’s own Islamist militants whose power has waned as a result of successive military operations in the country’s tribal border areas.

“Our jihadis will be emboldened. They will say that ‘if America can be beaten, what is the Pakistan army to stand in our way?’” said a senior Pakistani official. “War does not suit us at all. We’ve seen it for 40 years.”

Islamabad says it no longer wants to be the main backer of a pariah regime, as it was when the Taliban controlled Kabul from 1996 to 2001. Instead, Pakistan is aiming for a negotiated peace settlement that would see the Taliban handed a major share of political power in Kabul, along with international legitimacy and funding. Peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government and politicians in Doha, Qatar, have largely stalled, with Afghan officials saying the insurgency seeks to use negotiations to legitimize its military conquests.

“Pakistan is a bit stuck,” said Laurel Miller, a former acting U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan who now heads the Asia program at the International Crisis Group.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pakistan-after-rooting-for-afghanistans-taliban-faces-a-blowback-11625822762?mod=searchresults_pos2&page=1

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@BBhuttoZardari - کسی بھی پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے کارکن کو مریم شریف صاحبہ کیلئے غلط زبان استمعال کرنے کی اجازت نہیں ہو گی -

آج کل مریم شریف صاحبہ کشمیر الیکشن مہم پر ہیں
کسی بھی پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے کارکن کو مریم شریف صاحبہ کیلئے غلط زبان استمعال کرنے کی اجازت نہیں ہو گی
مخالف کی خواتین کو نشان بنانا گالم گلوچ کرنا پیپلز پارٹی کی سیاست نہیں @BBhuttoZardari pic.twitter.com/kjbesh4Pnc
— Raja Sheryar (@sheryarppp49) July 9, 2021

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Women’s access to family planning and reproductive health services in Sindh have increased in rural and remote areas by an addition of more than 1 million users – Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

In a statement issued from the Media Cell Bilawal House, on the occasion of World Population Day scheduled to be celebrated worldwide on Sunday, July 11, PPP Chairman felicitated the people of Pakistan on commemorating the World Population Day. The theme of the event this year is, “Rights and Choices are the Answer: Whether baby boom or bust, the solution to shifting fertility rates lies in prioritizing all people’s reproductive health and rights.”

Discussing issues relevant to changes in population, Chairman PPP stated, “On one hand, there are countries that witness low fertility rates. In these countries, the older population is more,” he explained. “On the other hand, a large number of developing countries are facing the challenge of high fertility. This means there is a high number of dependent population; adolescents and young people. The result; issues of unemployment, education, and an absence of health services,” he added.

He also said that 18 more women in this category intend to use contraceptives but do not have access to them. “Pakistan People’s Party and its government in the Sindh province have reservations on the Census results,” Chairman PPP declared. “However, as far as balancing the population growth is concerned, we have been providing support on fertility and family planning issues on a country level,” he stated. Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari further said that PPP was committed to initiatives like Recommendations of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) i.e., establishing federal and provincial taskforces; ensuring universal access to family planning and reproductive health services; committing finances; introducing legislation; initiating advocacy and communication; inculcating life skill-based education through curriculum and training; ensuring contraceptive commodities security; and support of opinion makers and ulema.

“It’s disappointing that the selected Prime Minister has been avoiding chairing the Federal Taskforce on Population, despite the Supreme Court decision on suo moto,” he stated, condemning PM Imran Khan’s lack of interest in controlling the population of Pakistan. “The President of Pakistan chaired all four meetings of the Taskforce,” he continued. “Thus, the Council of Common Interest (CCI) recommendations in terms of resources and implementation have not materialized. Out of the allocation of Rs. 10 Billion of the population fund by the Federal Government, only Rs. 1 Billion could be allocated.”Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also said that PPP and its government in Sindh are leading from the front on initiatives regarding population growth and maternal and child health. The Chief Minister Sindh, too, chairs a multi-sectoral Sindh Taskforce on population. He added that Sindh was the first province to formulate its flagship Costed Implementation Plan (CIP) on Family Planning in 2015 due to the global FP2020 initiative announced at the London Summit, 2012. The CIP is being implemented and transformed into FP2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and FP2030 global agenda.

He further reminded the nation of PPP’s stance to control the population and help women in need by mentioning the Lady Health Worker’s program introduced by Prime Minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. This workforce has been refocused on family planning, whereas the health and population departments are functionally integrated after the landmark 18th Constitutional Amendment led by President Asif Ali Zardari.

“Sindh has since then, enhanced its allocations more than 8 folds by its Population Welfare Department,” stated Chairman PPP. “Women’s access to family planning and reproductive health services have been increased in rural and remote areas by more than 1 million users thus, doubling the rate of annual women who use contraceptives. Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey shows a four percent increase in FP in Sindh during five years.” Appreciating the Progressive laws such as Reproductive Health Rights Act, 2019, Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, and the Prohibition of Domestic Violence passed by the Sindh Government, Chairman PPP highlighted that a Marital Counseling Bill is underway.

“PPP is committed to the empowerment of women, gender equality, their right to have access to informed choices; and the rights of adolescents and youth,” concluded Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, assuring the nation that PPP will introduce such reforms in Pakistan when elected. https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25247/

Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s message on the occasion of World Population Day

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that balancing resources and the population is crucial in developing a nation. Population control transforms a country into a vibrant equal-opportunity society with peace, tranquility, and prosperity.
In a statement issued from the Media Cell Bilawal House, on the occasion of World Population Day scheduled to be celebrated worldwide on Sunday, July 11, PPP Chairman felicitated the people of Pakistan on commemorating the World Population Day. The theme of the event this year is, “Rights and Choices are the Answer: Whether baby boom or bust, the solution to shifting fertility rates lies in prioritizing all people’s reproductive health and rights.”

Chairman PPP pointed out that Pakistan is one of the countries with a high level of fertility and low use of contraceptives. This results in population growth. “The Census result of 2017 (though disputed) has shown that Pakistan’s population has grown at a higher level of 2.4% per anum with more than 208 million people,” lamented Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. “One of the major factors is that out of 100 married women of reproductive age, only 34 are using contraception.”He also said that 18 more women in this category intend to use contraceptives but do not have access to them. “Pakistan People’s Party and its government in the Sindh province have reservations on the Census results,” Chairman PPP declared. “However, as far as balancing the population growth is concerned, we have been providing support on fertility and family planning issues on a country level,” he stated.

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari further said that PPP was committed to initiatives like Recommendations of the Council of Common Interest (CCI) i.e., establishing federal and provincial taskforces; ensuring universal access to family planning and reproductive health services; committing finances; introducing legislation; initiating advocacy and communication; inculcating life skill-based education through curriculum and training; ensuring contraceptive commodities security; and support of opinion makers and ulema.

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also said that PPP and its government in Sindh are leading from the front on initiatives regarding population growth and maternal and child health. The Chief Minister Sindh, too, chairs a multi-sectoral Sindh Taskforce on population. He added that Sindh was the first province to formulate its flagship Costed Implementation Plan (CIP) on Family Planning in 2015 due to the global FP2020 initiative announced at the London Summit, 2012. The CIP is being implemented and transformed into FP2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and FP2030 global agenda. He further reminded the nation of PPP’s stance to control the population and help women in need by mentioning the Lady Health Worker’s program introduced by Prime Minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. This workforce has been refocused on family planning, whereas the health and population departments are functionally integrated after the landmark 18th Constitutional Amendment led by President Asif Ali Zardari.

Appreciating the Progressive laws such as Reproductive Health Rights Act, 2019, Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, and the Prohibition of Domestic Violence passed by the Sindh Government, Chairman PPP highlighted that a Marital Counseling Bill is underway.

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25249/