hootchie heroines

director renee rutgrink's first film, hootchie heroines.

pizza

occupy detroit challenges the city to arrest them for sharing a meal with the homeless - which is now illegal.  there's a nice looking vegetarian pizza, too.  and on its way to philly with the occupy caravan.

nous nous éveillons

 courtesy of presstv

demonstrators march in montreal on june 2, 2012

"Ceci n'est pas une grève étudiante: 

C'est une société qui s'éveille" 

("This is not a student strike: 

This is a society awakening")

charest has another stick thrown into his wheels as quebec teachers join forces with striking students.  the student movement is expected to gain even more steam by the end of the summer.

also, the montreal international jazz festival kicks off with rufus wainwright announcing support for the student strikers.

he later responded to a reporter:  "I'm always going to go with the students and with the dispossessed and the, you know, angry mob.  It's just my nature." - and - "I will be wearing red. I don't know if I'll have the square but I'll be wearing red."  

the vancouver sun reports that wainwright joins a very long list of celebrities and artists who support the student protesters.

here is rufus wainwright at the festival, and in red, singing Je reviendrai à Montréal in a duet with his sister, martha wainwright.

the montreal jazz festival is the largest in the world.

points of view

poet and musician yussef ahmed and band, with singer Shaz Akira, in points of view.

 

student loans

meanwhile, behind all that hoopla over the u.s.s.c. decision, congress was quietly busy with the student loan mess, screwing students again.  

below, RT speaks with robert applebaum, founder of ForgiveStudentLoanDebt.com on how and why.

under the bus?

or over the edge, as the expression goes?  from truthout, more analysis on the u.s.s.c. ruling,  with respect to the so-called medicaid expansion.

While upholding the most hotly debated part of the health care overhaul law — a requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty — the Supreme Court said in its ruling on Thursday that states did not have to expand Medicaid as Congress had intended — leaving a huge question mark over the law’s mechanism for providing coverage to 17 million of the poorest people.

In writing the law, Congress assumed that the poorest uninsured people would gain coverage through Medicaid, while many people with higher incomes would receive federal subsidies to buy private insurance. Now, poor people who live in a state that refuses to expand its Medicaid program will find themselves in a predicament, unable to obtain either Medicaid or subsidies.

the article reports that medicaid has repeatedly expanded over the last 25 years, but this time may be different, and it's not just about red and blue.  illinois, for example, a blue state in deep financial trouble, is delaying Medicaid payments to health care providers - and Dennis G. Smith, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, states, “Virtually all states are struggling to sustain their current Medicaid programs.”

meanwhile, other citizens joyously celebrated the court's decision - below, an enthusiastic Missouri rally attended by seniors, women, students, and health care activists.



single payer supporters appear divided on whether the court's decision represents a step forward or backwards on behalf of Medicare for All.  (continue backwards in blog time from that link to more information on the topic.)

day after

economist paul krugman weights in on the u.s.s.c. ruling.

democracy now! (youtube below) speaks with guests robin lunge (activist in the drive for vermont's single payer system), health industry whistle blower wendall potter, dr. oliver fein (past president of physicians for a national health program), and jodi jacobson (rh reality check). 

democracy now! also spoke yesterday with film maker michael moore as the decision came down.