The Maskless Rich (Are Laughing At You)

Facebook has had a two-tiered system where famous people won't be censored or suspended for posts normal people would be. Politicians and celebrities freely ignore mask rules while their servants are forbidden to. They all think they're better than us, and our systems agree with them.  --Caitlin Johnstone, Propaganda Scrambles Our Minds: Notes from the Edge of the Narrative Matrix

The Maskless Rich (Are Laughing At You) 

by Coast Watcher

She wore that dress and all the rich assholes had a good laugh before returning to stuff their faces with champagne and caviar.

That pretty much sums up the impact Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had on the Met Gala the other night. Since then she’s worked overtime--not to force the vote for Medicare for All through Congress--but in a futile attempt to explain away her actions leading up to and after the gala. That dress is now a token of parody with anything from Tax the Proles to M4A blazoned across the young Congresswoman's curvaceous rump courtesy of Photoshop. (You gotta admit--these memes of AOC with various messages scrawled across her backside are hysterically funny. Surely she's smart enough to know this would happen. --Editor.)

So, for thousands of dollars a ticket (Upwards of $30-35K a ticket--Ed.) and meals costing thousands more the rich get to swank their stuff before a world that’s on the steady slide down to disaster. 

COVID-19 deaths in the US are skyrocketing.  Some  ICUs are jam-packed to the point that they’re seeking out beds in other states thousands of miles away. Oh, and the health insurance companies now say they’ll no longer pay for a COVID hospitalization. Yet a cursory study of the Met Gala event AOC attended in that dress demonstrates how the rich aren’t even worried about wearing masks. Undoubtedly they're laughing at us working stiffs who have to wear one or risk death.

Hmmm...Does their wealth and power somehow protect them from a rapidly mutating virus? 

The staff on the other hand, those hewers of expensive buffet meats and bearers of expensive drinks, are most certainly masked.  Check out any of the videos of the gala to see how the workers are masked. The rich don’t want to catch cooties off the plebs, do they? Besides, it’s a handy-dandy way of identifying said plebs so you don’t have to puzzle out whether they’re someone worth talking to or not. You're free to ignore the masked slaves and laugh behind their backs.

Meanwhile, outside the Met Gala venue, protesters were arrested for exercising their constitutional right to free speech and carted off to jail. Their protest signs were in their hands--not on their cabooses. Their masks were on their faces because there's deadly pandemic happening currently. The working classes don't arrogantly assume their status will protect them magically the way AOC and her posh friends do.

 

I’d have a lot more respect for AOC if she’d joined the protesters outside and led them into the event to confront the rich assholes who are totally insulated from reality by their vast wealth and arrogance. Maybe, just maybe, she could have tried to prick that bubble the 1% dwells in and forced them to see and experience some of the harsh world that so many of us dwell in. 

But, nope. AOC was having too much fun noshing with her rich buddies and posing for the cameras in that dress and laughing at all who fell for her faux-leftist posturing. Why would we have expected any better of a bought-and-paid-for neoliberal?

BIO: Coast Watcher always wears his mask in public and doesn't believe that wealth and status magically keeps the "COVID cooties" away. He also doesn't believe neolibs who pretend they're for the people while hanging out with the 1%.  Actions speak louder than words, don't they, AOC? What about that vote on Medicare For All?

Related Articles:

The Masking of the Servant Class: https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-masking-of-the-servant-class

What You Aren't Hearing About AOC's Dress Scandal: https://youtu.be/SryNJSASHdg 

Big Pharma Secrets Revealed: https://scheerpost.com/2021/09/15/big-pharma-secrets-revealed-as-group-uncovers-portion-of-pfizer-vaccine-recipe/

Nancy Pelosi and her rich supporters obviously don't need masks (short video): https://youtu.be/E4xxPdgGonM

pic.twitter.com/Y4OZZZCnD2

— March for Medicare for All (@M4M4ALL) September 15, 2021

Singing: one of these things is not like the other... https://t.co/RfR0v88ZVz

— C.A.M. @ TheRevolutionContinues.com (@cynthianna3) September 16, 2021

So, @AOC’s “Tax the Rich” shirt are Union Printed not Union Made, which is a huge difference.

And they are made out of cotton. India, the world’s biggest cotton producer pays its workers 50 cents a day to pick cotton.

Textiles is not covered under made in America.

— NonVoting Felon 💤 (@MichaelTanuvasa) September 18, 2021

‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ #TaxTheRich #aoc pic.twitter.com/F3YjcZ4NBe

— Rose✨McGowan (@rosemcgowan) September 19, 2021

***

Your teeth are part of your body, right?

Not according to Medicare. Medicare doesn't cover basic dental services, such as cleanings, fillings, dentures, and more. That could all change -- unless Joe Manchin gets his way.

The Senate's $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill includes the largest expansion of Medicare in decades, lowering the eligibility age and including dental, vision, and hearing care.¹ It's a huge step toward Medicare for All.

But Joe Manchin has been on record this year opposing Medicare expansion.² Just yesterday he vowed to slash the size of the $3.5 trillion plan, for no good reason, alongside a handful of fellow right-wing Democrats in the House, jeopardizing Medicare expansion and putting seniors' health at risk.

The fight to expand Medicare is one of the most important battles of 2021, and it will be decided in the next few weeks. We need you to send Congress a message right now that you want this to become law!

Sign the petition: Teeth are part of the body! Congress must expand Medicare now.

ADD YOUR NAME

Every year, millions of Americans file bankruptcy due to medical bills.³ One in four Americans avoids medical care due to cost.⁴ Recent studies have shown that the cost of care with insurance varies widely--and is sometimes greater than the cash price of certain procedures.⁵ Things don't have to be this way.

Medicare expansion would change American healthcare. It would help senior citizens get hearing aids, ensure that Medicare patients have fair prices for prescription drugs, and that millions more Americans get quality healthcare.

Right now, the biggest obstacle to expanding Medicare isn't coming from Republicans. It's Joe Manchin and his fellow right-wing Democrats in the House and the Senate who are obstructing the path to better healthcare.

Although President Biden and Speaker Pelosi have agreed that the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the reconciliation plan both need to pass, Manchin and these other right-wing Democrats are trying to undermine the reconciliation bill that includes Medicare expansion, demanding huge cuts and threatening the deals that made these bills possible.

These conservative obstructionists collected over $1.2 million from pharmaceutical companies that stand to lose profit from fair negotiations with Medicare providers.⁶

We need to make it clear to everyone in Congress: Medicare expansion must happen. If we are not loud enough, Manchin and the conservatives will get their way, and we will lose our best chance to expand Medicare.

Tell Congress: Don't listen to the obstructionists! Expand Medicare now.

Thank you for speaking out,

Tal and the team at Watchdog -- a project of Demand Progress

DONATE

Sources:
1. CNBC, "Senate approves framework of $3.5 trillion budget plan that would expand Medicare, tax credits and climate initiatives," August 11, 2021.
2. Washington Post, "Democrats seek to push Medicare expansion as part of Biden’s $1.8 trillion families plan, defying White House," April 29, 2021.
3. CNBC, "This is the real reason most Americans file for bankruptcy," August 11, 2021.
4. CNBC, "Nearly 1-in-4 Americans Are Skipping Medical Care Because of the Cost," March 11, 2020.
5. New York Times, "Hospitals and Insurers Didn't Want You to See These Prices. Here's Why." August 22, 2021.
6. Daily Poster, "Dem Obstructionists Are Bankrolled By Pharma And Oil," August 23, 2021.

 ***

In the months following George Floyd's murder in May 2020, Americans watched as local and state law enforcement officials deployed military vehicles and weapons in the streets of America.

As service members and veterans, we know better than anyone that these weapons and vehicles should only ever be used in the theater of war. Most certainly, these weapons should never be used against unarmed civilian protesters.

Yet, in the summer months of 2020, we saw the police militarize and arm themselves against peaceful, unarmed protesters fighting for their right to live and thrive free from police abuse and trauma. The police then used grenade launchers against the press and unarmed civilians, leaving countless protestors injured and some blinded for life.

Is this the America we fought for as service members and veterans?

Today police departments currently receive surplus military equipment from an obscure Pentagon program called the "1033 Program." This program has enabled the transfer of $7.4 billion worth of surplus military equipment to over 8,000 local law enforcement agencies around the country.

This is not the equipment that belongs on the streets of America.

Will you join Common Defense and a coalition of allies demanding that Congress and President Biden act now to end the militarization of police departments?

Common Defense is proud to support the work Reps. Nydia Valazquez, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have put in to amend the National Defense Authorization Act so as to demilitarize the police and make our communities safer.

The solution is simple and right in front of our eyes:

• First, we must place a moratorium on the transfer of military equipment and weapons to law enforcement agencies.
• Second, we need to prohibit the transfers of firearms, ammunition, destructive devices, and MRAPs, and grenade launchers to law enforcement agencies.
• Finally, we need to repeal the 1033 Program, which enabled these abuses to take place.

It's time to stop this. It's time we apply pressure on President Biden and Congress to act and demilitarize our communities NOW.

President Biden has done a lot in keeping his campaign promises, but this issue is one that we can't afford to let slip by.

Will you join us at Common Defense and sign the petition to demand Biden and Congress to act now to demilitarize the police?

SIGN THE PETITION

Common Defense

  ***

Over 10,000 Haitian migrants seeking safety from political turmoil and the aftermath of a devastating earthquake are trapped in makeshift encampments in Del Rio, Texas as they wait to claim asylum. At the same time, the Biden administration completed its 37th deportation flight back to Haiti and plans to up the ante to deter others from entering the country.

Deporting people back to danger when they have the right to asylum is irresponsible and flat-out wrong. We cannot continue playing political football with human lives and pretend like the only choice for children and families is between further suffering or deportation. 

We have every means to prevent such egregious acts and inhumane conditions. Join us to demand the Biden Administration HALT all deportations to Haiti. 

TAKE ACTION

Since Biden took office, Haitian families have been torn apart and left vulnerable at alarming rates: By March of this year, the Biden Administration had removed more Haitians since taking office than during all of 2020.

In the wake of the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the U.S. did the right thing and granted thousands of Haitians Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and earlier this year, they extended TPS to protect Haitians from danger after pressure from advocates to uphold his promise to Haitians.

If we don’t do something now, our immigration system will continue to fail, children and families will continue being detained and getting separated, and people will inevitably die on our watch. Haitians shouldn’t have to decide between suffering and being sent back to the danger they’re trying to escape--we can do better and we must.  

From Haiti to Mexico to Afghanistan, it is unconscionable to send families and children back to such unsafe conditions, and place them at further risk of poverty, instability, and death.

We are capable of doing more. Call on Biden to issue a moratorium on ALL deportation flights headed to Haiti now.

TAKE ACTION

The lives of Haitian people are at risk if we don’t do something now. We need comprehensive solutions now. Biden must do the right thing and welcome people in urgent need of safety with dignity and compassion. 

Thanks for all you do,

Paola Luisi, Director

Families Belong Together