There is a use for torture in authoritarian regimes. It is used to instill terror in the citizens as a means of controlling an unfriendly population. One of the best examples is Argentina after their Freidman economics inspired coup egged on by the CIA, Ford Motor Co., et al. The new regime tortured labor leaders and other progressives where the screams could be heard by other members of the city as intimidation.
Remember that similar tactics worked very well for Hitler. One doesn't need the approval of reasoning citizens to corrupt a democracy. To convert the US into an authoritarian state may only require the support of authoritarian followers.
Two things about health care. One, congress wrote into Medicare that it cannot negotiate drug prices. This is insanity. Two, health care is now a for profit industry. That wasn't always the case, nor do I think it should be. When public institutions are taken over by private business one of two things have to happen---either the service suffers or the price goes up.
I don't know what neo-liberalism is. In the rest of the world neoliberalism is what we call neoconservatism---Milton Friedman's extreme view of free market capitalism. We have been enjoying Friedman lite ever since Reagan's supply side economics. (Reagan was photographed holding a Friedman book.) The American worker bought into the propaganda that their jobs were destroyed by unions and environmentalists when, in fact, wages stagnated from 1980, well before the big moves to offshore manufacturing. Wages stagnated because of planned moves to kill unions both to lower wages and to prevent unions from funding democratic candidates.
The troubling trend with the tax code started before Reagan---back in Carter's administration. It was also in Carter's administration that we saw the fruits of the Powell letter and congress allowed itself to be openly bought by business interests. The tax code, since then, facilitated the movement of half of the wealth previously held by the middle class into the coffers of the 1/10th of 1%.
As to D King's comment below, consumerism is the current opiate of the masses. This has been pointed out by Noam Chomsky, among others.
There is a use for torture in authoritarian regimes. It is used to instill terror in the citizens as a means of controlling an unfriendly population. One of the best examples is Argentina after their Freidman economics inspired coup egged on by the CIA, Ford Motor Co., et al. The new regime tortured labor leaders and other progressives where the screams could be heard by other members of the city as intimidation.
Remember that similar tactics worked very well for Hitler. One doesn't need the approval of reasoning citizens to corrupt a democracy. To convert the US into an authoritarian state may only require the support of authoritarian followers.
Two things about health care. One, congress wrote into Medicare that it cannot negotiate drug prices. This is insanity. Two, health care is now a for profit industry. That wasn't always the case, nor do I think it should be. When public institutions are taken over by private business one of two things have to happen---either the service suffers or the price goes up.
I don't know what neo-liberalism is. In the rest of the world neoliberalism is what we call neoconservatism---Milton Friedman's extreme view of free market capitalism. We have been enjoying Friedman lite ever since Reagan's supply side economics. (Reagan was photographed holding a Friedman book.) The American worker bought into the propaganda that their jobs were destroyed by unions and environmentalists when, in fact, wages stagnated from 1980, well before the big moves to offshore manufacturing. Wages stagnated because of planned moves to kill unions both to lower wages and to prevent unions from funding democratic candidates.
The troubling trend with the tax code started before Reagan---back in Carter's administration. It was also in Carter's administration that we saw the fruits of the Powell letter and congress allowed itself to be openly bought by business interests. The tax code, since then, facilitated the movement of half of the wealth previously held by the middle class into the coffers of the 1/10th of 1%.
As to D King's comment below, consumerism is the current opiate of the masses. This has been pointed out by Noam Chomsky, among others.