Manchin explains why he won’t expand Medicare from deck of his yacht – National & International News – MON 4Oct2021

Manchin opposes Medicare expansion from his yacht. Whistleblower: Facebook promotes profit over public good. 3000+ pedophiles in French Catholic Church. Pandora Papers: World’s elite hide trillion$.

NATIONAL NEWS

Manchin explains why he won’t expand Medicare from deck of his yacht

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (W.V.) explained to protesters from the deck of his yacht why he won’t support expanding Medicare coverage as part of his own party’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better bill. You can see the video here.

Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi postponed a vote on a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure package after Progressive Caucus members in the House vowed to shoot it down until an agreement was reached on the larger package. The Senate has already approved the smaller bill. Sen. Manchin said last week that he supported more than halving the price tag for the larger bill to just $1.5 trillion. Progressives in both houses of Congress have ruled out this lower figure as a non-starter.

Manchin’s own multi-million dollar holdings in coal companies and his daughter’s ties to Big Pharma company Mylan will make it hard to get his support for the Build Back Better plan. The plan’s provisions include incentives for more power utilities to incorporate clean energy sources and would allow Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.

Read more:

Manchin’s million$ in coal company stocks.

E-mails reveal Manchin’s daughter conspired to nearly quintuple price of life-saving EpiPens.

Manchin received huge campaign contributions from daughter’s company amid EpiPen scandal.  

Whistleblower: Facebook promotes profit over public good

Data scientist Frances Haugen has revealed her identity as the previously anonymous whistleblower who leaked documents shedding light on Facebook’s dubious corporate ethics. Haugen will testify before Congress this week that Facebook’s leadership consistently prioritizes the company’s profits over the public good.

Haugen’s attorney says that the misconduct revealed in Haugen’s disclosures constitute a breach of the law. This is because Haugen alleges that Facebook misled its shareholders about the company’s efforts to combat misinformation and hate speech on its platform.

The internal documents reveal that Facebook decided not to alter its algorithm which blatantly favors inflammatory, controversial and misleading content. The company’s justification for this is that this kind of material generates more hits and therefore more ad revenue. According to Haugen, Facebook’s decision to knowingly promote this type of content contributed to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and numerous hate crimes. 

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

France: 3000+ pedophiles in Catholic Church since 1950

In 2018, the French Catholic Church commissioned an independent inquiry into allegations of pedophilia by its clergy and lay staff. Commission head Jean-Marc Sauvé says the committee has found evidence of between 2500 and 3000 active pedophiles operating within the Catholic Church since the 1950s. Sauvé emphasized that this was a “minimum estimate”. The commission will publish its full 2500-page report tomorrow.

The commission interviewed victims and witnesses and examined internal church documents as well as court and police reports. Sauvé said the report will illuminate the cultural and institutional mechanisms the church used to shield pedophiles and ultimately allow them to remain within their ranks. The report will also offer proposals to promote greater transparency and accountability.

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Pandora Papers reveal world’s elite hiding trillion$ in assets

Yesterday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published leaked documents revealing how global elites hide assets totaling trillions of dollars. The documents come from 14 global financial services companies. The 600 journalists who cooperated to publish the documents have not revealed how they came by the documents in order to protect their sources.

The Pandora Papers reveal how elite asset managers disguise assets to evade taxes and launder money. The documents trace the assets back to about 35 current and former world leaders and more than 300 public officials. Some names featuring prominently in the documents include former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

While it’s no surprise that rich people dodge taxes, the sheer scale of this global asset shell game is alarming. As European MP Sven Giegold put it, “The new data leak must be a wake-up call. Global tax evasion fuels global inequality. We need to expand and sharpen the countermeasures now”.

British charity group Oxfam says of the trillions in lost tax assets, “This is where our missing hospitals are. This is where the pay-packets sit of all the extra teachers and firefighters and public servants we need. Whenever a politician or business leader claims there is ‘no money’ to pay for climate damage and innovation, for more and better jobs, for a fair post-COVID recovery, for more overseas aid, they know where to look”.

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