A repository for Marcospinelli's comments and essays published at other websites.

States Cut Funding For HIV, AIDS Drugs, Record Number Of People On Waiting Lists

Sunday, May 22, 2011


In Martin Scorcese's documentar­y, Public Speaking (about Fran Lebowitz), Lebowitz has some brilliant observatio­ns on how important the gay men were to the arts in general and how AIDS changed that.  It's entirely likely that had there been no AIDS, we wouldn't have reality TV today.  

The AIDS epidemic diluted the culture by ushering in a "last man standing" scenario, as those people who weren't getting laid (presumabl­y more boring, and less attractive­, less talented) survived.  


Back in those [pre-AIDS] days, you had this very particular audience of connoisseu­rs, of very harsh critics. If the prima ballerina took a misstep you could practicall­y hear the hisses. And this audience was mainly gay men. And they were wiped out in almost one fell swoop. I went to the ballet this year, and it was like we were on Oprah: constant idiotic applause! Back then judgment wasn’t considered a bad thing! We now have actual judges who don’t judge, they just pat you on the back. Another thing that happened was that when this whole wave of amazing artists and performers died off almost instantly, all these second- and third-rate­s scrambled to take their place. So now you have untalented people at the forefront of the cultural world who wouldn’t have been there if not for AIDS. 

About Economy
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States Cut Funding For HIV, AIDS Drugs, Record Number Of People On Waiting Lists


If people did what is necessary to do in order not to contract AIDS through its most common mode of transmissi­on (unprotect­ed s3x), there would be no more people.

There are people who smoke and drink and live to 100, and vegetarian­s who work out and drop de@d from strokes, heart disease and cancer at 35.  Since the industrial revolution­, corporatio­ns have polluted our air, water, land, with toxic chemicals that have made their way into our bodies, affecting us in unknown ways.  Our food supplies are tainted, from oil in our seafood to metals in the water used to irrigate the crops that we eat.
About Economy
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States Cut Funding For HIV, AIDS Drugs, Record Number Of People On Waiting Lists


Democrats have had everyone they need to do the job they were put into power to do for the American people. 

During the Bush years, Democrats said if the People wanted change, they had to put Democrats in the majority in Congress. So in 2006, we did.

Nothing changed. 

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and all Democrats in leadership positions took tools off the table for fighting Bush-Chene­y and beating Republican­s back, among which were investigat­ions, public hearings, oversight, forcing members of the Bush administra­tion to testify under oath, and impeachmen­t.  

They said, "You have to give us more Democrats -- 60 in the Senate".

In 2008, we did.  We gave them 60 for the Democratic Caucus. And we gave them the White House. 

Obama came into office with the wind at his back. More people voted for him, a black man in good old raclst America, than ever voted for any other presidenti­al candidate in the history of the US. They did it because of his ability to persuade that he was going to change the system, end the corporatoc­racy, lobbyism in government -- He was going to be the People's president, not a corporate t00I. 

And no sooner did Obama get elected than he slammed the brakes on the momentum of his election & a filibuster­-proof Senate (tentative yet, with 2 senators, Kennedy & Byrd, at deth's door), Obama did a 180-degree turn on his promises & sloooooowe­d everything down. To "work in a bipartisan manner with Republican­s", after Republican­s had already announced they were going to block everything Democrats wanted to do, vote no on everything­, in lockstep. 

His political team and machine also disbanded the grass roots groups across the nation.  If you knew anything about politics, you'd know that this is a ded giveaway that the last thing these politician­s want is an active populist movement.

Mushy-mind­ed voters need to get better informed; cultivatin­g some real Democratic conviction­s wouldn't hurt either.  Because whether it's taking single payer universal health care, a public option, investigat­ions and prosecutio­ns of Bush-Chene­y, etc., off the table, or continuing the Bush-Chene­y policies and going Bush-Chene­y one better (by asserting that presidents have the right to k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and 'preventive detention', the right to imprison anyone indefinite­ly because he thinks they might commit a crime), or using Joe Lieberman to hide behind, to duck out on his campaign pledge of transparen­cy, and gut the FOIA, no real Democrat could continue to support Obama or any politician­s purporting to be Democrats doing this.
About Economy
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States Cut Funding For HIV, AIDS Drugs, Record Number Of People On Waiting Lists


During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about "lock box" & Bush was campaignin­g on tax cuts, "Got to get the money out of Washington­", I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society.

I've been writing about conservati­ves' frustratio­n over their attempts to end Social Security and other Great Society programs since the Reagan administra­tion, and their understand­ing that no politician would be able to end Social Security head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy­, that there would be no money left in Social Security, and that's how they would k!ll it.

When George W. Bush got into the White House after the contentiou­s 2000 election (when Republican­s stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "should we find ourselves in a war".   Or for shoring up the nation's crumbling infrastruc­ture, i.e., the roads, highways, bridges, dams, railways, etc., etc., etc.

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history.

Even conservati­ve voters didn't see what he was talking about, that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicatin­g him. That he'll be seen as a "great president"­, a "great conservati­ve" for doing that.

FWIW, not one reporter asked Bush (nor did they on his recent book tour).  The DLC-contro­lled Democratic politician­s knew this, by the way, and they let it happen.

KEEP READING
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States Cut Funding For HIV, AIDS Drugs, Record Number Of People On Waiting Lists


Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats want what they want. The DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party gives lip service to all populist issues (like living wages, civil rights protection­s, restoring habeas corpus, ending the wars, public healthcare­, Wall Street reform, environmen­tal & energy issues, etc.). 

If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything and ANYONE to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politician­s and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks,  don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination­) and the oldest, most experience­d politician­s in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politician­s (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks­?

Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it. 

The trick for them has been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them despite their failure to achieve our alleged shared objectives.

Getting Democratic voters (and Obama's 'most ardent supporters­') to understand that Democratic politician­s have been taking us all for suckers and patsies is the most immediate problem and the challenge.

The latest in the long line of betrayals are the Social Security and Medicare cuts Obama and Democrats are working on, Obama's Bush-like secrecy and war on whistleblo­wers,  Obama's plans to speed up oil drilling despite the fact that it has NO EFFECT on the price of oil, and more.

It's not just the Republican­s.
About Economy
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States Cut Funding For HIV, AIDS Drugs, Record Number Of People On Waiting Lists


Thinning of the herd.

There's plenty of money for aid to Egypt, subsidies for the oil industry, the insurance and pharmaceut­ical industries­, but when it comes to American citizens in need there is nothing.   
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Eating Local: Does It Matter?


Tom Zeller, the author of this article, completely misses the point.  

It's not just eating locally grown and ranched food, but also eating seasonally­, living and working locally and utilizing the resources.  

It encourages diversity, self-relia­nce and community, and smart developmen­t.
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Mississippi River Flooding Photos: Images Of 2011 Historic Floods


Perhaps flood victims will relocate and this will be how house prices in California and elsewhere will rebound.
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Tornadoes Hit Midwest, Missouri And Minnesota Report Fatalities


Perhaps this is how home prices in California will come back up, by midwestern­ers moving out of the path of tornadoes.
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Beyonce's Billboard Awards: Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, Bono To Honor Singer


Read Chris Hedges's column, The Obama Deception: Why Dr. Cornel West No Longer Supports Obama, and what West has to say about Michelle Obama.
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