009: An Apple A Day . . .

On this episode, Jesse & Matt discuss the third most important element of The Golden Square which is so simple and obvious, that it's remarkable this idea is even contested as a human right in the Yankee-lands of Ol' Red, White and Blue: the absolute right to healthcare for every human being on Earth. Matthew will provide a surprising prologue about what's suddenly taken place in his personal life since this episode's initial recording and open up about his mother's life-long illness; in call & response fashion, Jesse will then talk about what it was like to get healthcare in Sarah-Palin-Land as a child. The co-hosts will also explore their personal relationships to this essential cornerstone to The Golden Square, and their own anxieties about having access to healthcare as middle-aged men with pre-existing conditions. And lastly, Matt & Jesse will look at healthcare systems around the world, and offer up a poignant portrait of the very near and immediate struggles facing activists as they fight for a momentous Single Payer bill in California (SB-562).

Mentioned In This Episode:

Matthew's Heavy-Breathing Prologue:

What Is a Double Pulmonary Embolism? Wikipedia Wants to Help.

The Speaker of the State Assembly, Anthony Rendon, Blocks SB-562

Why Is Single Payer in California Being Blocked? Money in Politics.

The Start-Dates for Universal Healthcare in Other Nations: A 20th Century Invention Ready for America's 21st Century?

Prologue Over & Now for the Actual Show!

Kathy Griffin / Reza Aslan: Why Free Speech Is for Everyone! We Believe In It!

Jehova's Witness & Blood Transfusions: Wikipedia Provides Bloodless Triage

The Hanford Reservation, Plutopia: "The Bomb and the Explosions of U.S. Suburbs"

Neil Burton in Psychology Today: "A Short History of Bipolar Disorder"

The Fat Man & Little Boy Bombs: "The Men Who Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki" 

Ronald Reagan's 'Strange' Gift: COBRA: Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985

PBS Newshour: 70% of American College Teachers Are Part-Time/Adjuncts

Explaining Neoliberal Tourette Syndrome (NTS): Michael J. Sandel's What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets

George Lakoff's Don't Think Like Elephants: Know Your Values & Frame the Debate

George Lakoff's Metaphors We Live By

YouTube Clip of George Lakoff: "Idea Framing, Metaphors and Your Brain"

Salon Interviews Psychologist Gail Saltz: "Study: Liberals and Conservatives Have Different Brain Structures"

Prefrontal Cortex Last to Form in Humans & Why Teenagers Do The Craziest Things

Saul D. Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Practical Guide for Realistic Radicals

Saul D. Alinksy on Being Your Own Witness & Why the Right Hates Him So Much

Why the Left Falsely Thinks Logic Will Win the Day: "Keep Losing Arguments? A Psychologist Explains Why Emotions Are More Persuasive Than Logic."

Western Society's Classic Understanding of Rhetoric: "The Three Means of Persuasion: Pathos, Logos & Ethos"

The U.S. Metrics For Healthcare Delivery Are Both Dizzying & Sad:

We Spend 3 Trillion for Healthcare Annually

U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective

National Health Expenditures 2015 Highlights

The United States Has Lowest Life Expectancy in the Industrialized World & the Rate Actually Went Down for First Time in Decades

We Have the Highest Infant Mortality Rate in the Industrialized World

62% of US Bankruptcies from Healthcare Emergencies

Medical Bankruptcy accounts for majority of personal bankruptcies

Top 10 Reasons People Go Bankrupt

Warren Buffett: America's Healthcare Costs "the Tapeworm to American Competitiveness"

What Is a "5150"? A Wikipedia Working Definition.

Time Magazine: "Here's How Much the Average Worker Has to Pay for Healthcare"

Business Insider: Map of the Biggest Employers in the US: UC System Is #1 for California

The Rich History of Workers Compensation

Obamacare came from Heritage Foundation & It's Essentially a Nixonian Idea

The Affordable Health Care Act for America

Michael Moore's Masterpiece: Sicko (2007) - (At the Time the Documentary's  Release, France Had the Best System in the World)

Top Ten Healthcare Rankings By Nation: Denmark Has #1 Healthcare System in the World; Not Surprisingly, Mostly Scandinavian Nations Are in the Rankings.

Worldwide Spending on Healthcare

Political Scientist Corey Robin's Book: The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin

Irony of Ironies: World Health Organization's Study on Healthcare Efficiency Ranked America's System 37 and Communist Cuba's 39 (with Cuba Having a Lower Infant Mortality Rate).

The New Zealand Herald: "New Zealand Reclaims Title as World's Least Corrupt Country"

Rose Ann Demoro, the Executive Director for the California Nurses Association Says, "There is a conspiracy of silence on Single Payer."

Daniel Marans in The Huffington Post: HR-676 - Medicare-for-All - Representative John Conyers' "Bill Has Never Been This Popular"

Pew Research Center: "Currently, 60% say the federal government is responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all Americans, while 39% say this is not the government's responsibility."

The Economist/YouGov Poll April 2 - 4, 2017

Once Something Might Be Taken Away: TrumpCare Actually Made Obamacare More Popular and More Well-Known as to Its Benefits

President Obama Jokes that Obamacare Is More Popular Than Trump

Tragic Nostalgia Time: "Bernie Sanders for President" Website on Medicare for All:

• Save U.S. $5 trillion over 10 years;
• Families would pay $466 and save $5,807;
• Businesses would save $9,000 a year on average.

Democracy Now!: "Report: Senator Max Baucus Received More Campaign Money from Health and Insurance Industry Interests than Any Other Member of Congress"

Democracy Now!: "Baucus's Raucous Caucus: Doctors, Nurses and Activists Arrested Again for Protesting Exclusion of Single-Payer Advocates at Senate Hearing on Healthcare"

The Problem with President Obama Thinking Like a Community Organizer: Unions Make Impossible Demands and Then Move to the Center, Whereas Community Organizers Start in the Middle: Jane F. McAlevey's No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age

YouTube Clip: Rahm Emanuel Sold Us Short for Bad Healthcare Deals: "Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste"

Curtis Black in the The Chicago Reporter: "Emanuel Is the Last Person to Give Democrats Advice on Strategy"

YouTube Clip: During a Rare Townhall Appearance, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein Calls Medicare for All a "Government Take-Over"

YouTube Clip: Lauren Steiner (from Robust Opposition) Questions Dianne Feinstein About Townhall Response Concerning Medicare for All.

Healthy California's Website for SB-562: Healthy California Act

Inland Empire: "The New Jersey of California"

The 28ers: An Original Affinity Group from Occupy Riverside & Its Swarm Campaign for SB-562

Norway: #1 Is Now the Happiest Place on Earth - Very Strong Public Financing System: 74% Public Funds; 26% Party Memberships Dues

Organizations in Support of SB-562: Healthy California Act

California Nurses Association's Main Website

Nurses Most Trusted Profession Again in America: 15 Years & Counting

Bernie Sanders Gives a Shout-Out to SB-562 and Nurses Created the Biggest Ovation and Response at Chicago's People's Summit

New York Quite Close to Getting Single Payer in the State: One Vote Short

Vermont's Attempt to Establish a Single-Payer Healthcare System

2016 Colorado Care: "Single-Payer Health Care Dream Dies In Colorado"

Previous Single Payer Bills in Calfornia

"Dirty Little Secret: Insurers Actually Are Making a Mint from Obamacare"

California Senate Passes SB-562

"Single Payer Would Save Us All a Lot of Money"

Economic Analysis of the Healthy California Single-Payer Health Care Proposal (SB-562) - UMass Amherst

Tommy Douglas: "The Greatest Canadian"

Breaking Bad: All You Need To Know About The American Health Care System

List of Countries with Universal Health Care

Nina Turner's Keynote Speech in Sacramento for SB-562: "Dear Democrats: Stop Talking About Russia & Tell Us What You're Going To Do About Healthcare." "Just when you think you're in a tomb, remind yourselves you're in a womb."

How The Labour Party Created Britain's National Health Service (NHS)