This is Democracy Now. Today is the story of. 4 years ago the drugs a product called. Program the one you like being Bill you don't believe people if it. Is a 4 year period told 6 people about the park the 40 the 30 this is gone as Democratic presidential candidates debate overhauling the nation's health care system we look back 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the bill creating Medicare and Medicaid despite massive pushback from the health care industry then we look at the rapid melting of Greenland's ice sheet and what it means for the rest of the year into law. A 160000000000 tons of proof surface melting that the equivalent of 65000000 and then pick size swimming pools but 1st we go to Dallas Texas to look at the tragic death of Tony temple a mentally ill man who died in 2016 after 911 for help. Police body and video has just come out Dallas police officer Shackleton and laugh as he die. All that and more coming up. Democracy Now democracy now got the war and the War and Peace Report I'm Amy Goodman the Senate has sent President Trump a 2 year. A budget that would increase both domestic and military spending by raising the debt ceiling and rolling back spending caps Trump's promise to sign the deal which would increase government spending by $320000000000.00 of the next 2 years with the Pentagon set to receive a staggering $738000000000.00 for the coming fiscal year according to the National Priorities Project the u.s. Spends more on its military than $144.00 other countries combined the trumpet ministration has formally ended u.s. Participation in the landmark Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and a statement responding to the u.s. Withdrawal Russia's foreign ministry called the i.n.f. Treaty formally dead President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the treaty in 1907 to ban all nuclear and non-nuclear missiles with short and medium range has President Trump's withdrawal from the deal has sparked fears of a new nuclear arms race President Trump Thursday ratcheted up the u.s. Trade war with China saying he'll impose a further 10 percent tariff next month and $300000000000.00 worth of Chinese goods including clothing and i Phones the u.s. Has already slapped a 25 percent levy levy on $250000000000.00 of Chinese goods prompting reciprocal tariffs on u.s. Products economists have refuted Trump's claims China will bear the economic brunt of increased tariffs saying u.s. Consumers will in fact suffer the most Puerto Rican legislators have delayed a vote to confirm outgoing governor Ricardo Russia as possible successor has promised to step down at 5 pm today was forced to resign last week amidst massive protests and cross Puerto Rico calling for his ouster our c.e.o. Has nominated attorney Pedro Pierre Lucy who as secretary of state which would make him next in line to replace Ross seo But during a special session Thursday Puerto Rican leg. Slater's decided to postpone debate on peer Luis's confirmation until next week Pierre Louis sees the law firm represents progress of the unelected federally appointed control board with sweeping powers to run Puerto Rico's economy many lawmakers oppose this nomination citing a conflict of interest if a new secretary of state is not confirmed before Rajjo leaves office the next in line Puerto Rico's justice secretary Wanda Vasquez who was appointed by Rajjo would likely take office in recent days there have been protests demanding Vasquez's resignation she announced via Twitter she would not step down and would assume the responsibility imposed by the Constitution and the law to replace Russ aoe a warning to listeners and viewers this story contains disturbing footage and Texas newly revealed police body cam video shows Dallas police officers laughing and joking as an unarmed man having a mental health crisis lay dying and their custody the incident occurred in August 2016 after 32 year old Dallas resident Tony Tempa called 911 for help reporting he had taken drugs and was off his medication for schizophrenia the video shows the officers pinning Tempa face 1st into the ground for 14 minutes as he pleaded to be released after temple became unresponsive the officer stood over his unmoving body mocking him as though he had fallen asleep. They're saying to him 1st day don't be late its 1st day of school no time to the officers check to see if temple was breathing or had a pulse by the time paramedics arrived on the scene and began administering c.p.r. Tempo was dead the video directly contradicts claims made by the Dallas Police Department defending the officers behavior after headlines will go to Dallas to speak with a lawyer representing Tempus family in Yemen dozens of people were killed Thursday in 2 separate attacks in the southern port city of Aden in the 1st attack suicide bombers targeted a police station killing 11 people the self-proclaimed Islam mix tapes affiliate in Yemen later claimed responsibility later in a separate attack with the rebels fired a missile into a military parade killing at least 40 government troops the aid group Save the Children says the u.s. Backed Saudi led war in Yemen has sparked a food crisis that slowed as many as 85000 children to starve to death since fighting began in 2015. And soldiers opened fire with live bullets on a crowd of peaceful protestors Thursday killing 4 people in the latest bloody assault on pro-democracy activists the attack came as thousands of demonstrators heeded the call for a 1000000 man March to protest previous police killings including a massacre of up to 130 people in June in the killing of 4 schoolchildren earlier this week the latest killings came as opposition leaders met with Sudan's military leaders for talks aimed at finalizing a power sharing deal that would see a civilian government elected in 2022 Rwanda has opened its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo after a brief closure that followed the 3rd death of the patient with the a bowl of virus in the Congolese border city of Goma since the latest outbreak began exactly a year ago the World Health Organization says at least $2700.00 people have been infected with the bolo with more than 1800 deaths in the Washington Post reports the trumpet ministration is nearing a deal with the Taliban to withdraw 1000. Of u.s. Troops from Afghanistan and exchange for a cease fire agreement which was described by unnamed administration officials would also reportedly see the Taliban renounce its support for al Qaeda in return the u.s. Should reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan from about $14000.00 to somewhere less than $9000.00 roughly the size of the u.s. Force in Afghanistan when Trump took office this comes as the State Department is reportedly slashing its presence at the u.s. Embassy in Afghanistan with plans to cut half of all personnel by the end of September and climate used the World Meteorological Organization said Thursday July was the warmest month in recorded human history it followed the hottest June on record as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels climbed to a record high of $415.00 parts per 1000000 earlier this year scorching heat waves have put 200-1000 track to be one of the hottest years ever measured the current record holders are by rank 201620152017 and 2018 Meanwhile a new study finds even modest shifts in government subsidies away from fossil fuels and toward renewables could lead to a dramatic drop in greenhouse gas emissions the International Institute for Sustainable Development says governments spend some 372000000000 dollars each year subsidizing coal oil and gas and as little as 10 percent of that money was invested in wind solar and other renewables countries could see a nearly 20 percent drop in carbon dioxide pollution later in the broadcast we'll talk about what's happening in Greenland the Senate has confirmed 13 more of president trumps nominees to the federal bench in a flurry of votes this week before lawmakers left for August recess among those newly confirmed as federal judges or Texas Supreme Court justice Jeffrey Brown and Texas Attorney Brantley star both are hostile to immigrant rights reproductive freedom voting rights and equality the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said in a statement quote Senate Republicans will stop at nothing to. Stack the courts with partisan judges who will push their radical agenda through at any cost in doing so they're not only degrading our courts but also endangering our democracy they said a federal judge has temporarily blocked a New York law that would allow the House Ways and Means Committee to obtain President Trump state income tax returns Judge Carl Nichols a trump appointee to the federal district court in Washington d.c. Said Thursday the injunction will remain in effect while Trump's lawsuit challenging the law proceeds the court will hear arguments August 29th Democrats say they need to see Trump's tax returns to investigate any potential conflicts of interest or self dealing related to trump sprawling business empire. On Capitol Hill senators grilled leaders of the Federal Aviation Administration Wednesday amidst reports they failed to ground Boeing $737.00 Max passenger jets even though they knew about software flaws that led to a pair of deadly crashes This is Rhode Island's Jack Reed the ranking Democrat on the Senate Transportation Subcommittee addressing Raimi the f.a.a. As head of Aviation Safety Office. We expect you to basically be the 1st. To open their curfews who's completely safe before there are no further corrections little suits or being undertaken but it does not appear to be the case which were on Thursday the mother and brother of 24 year old Sami is to know who died in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March held a protest outside the f.a.a. Headquarters demanding justice the crash of the $737.00 Max plane which kills 2 men 156 others came just months after 189 people perished one Lion Air flight 610 crash minutes after takeoff in Indonesia. Mother Jim Miller on question why f.a.a. Safety chief. Didn't ground $737.00 Max jets after the 1st crash even though the f.a.a. Knew another malfunction was likely. Did he let those planes go back in the air so we could make money that's the only reason he is the safety commissioner and he exposed the public to an unacceptable risk which he used the word than his testimony to see our interviews with the family of. Including consumer activists Ralph Nader her great uncle you can go to Democracy Now dot org The trumpet ministration separated more than 900 children from their parents at the Us Mexico border since the San Diego federal judge ordered a halt to the practice last summer that's according to the a. And Civil Liberties Union in a court filing Tuesday which claims the federal government is abusing its discretion to determine what makes a parent unfit and his motion a.c.l.u. Attorney legal learnt said quote This issue has reached a critical juncture hundreds of children some literally just babies are being irreparably damaged because their parent may have committed a minor offense in the past even a traffic offense he said in Mexico a Salvadoran migrant was shot to death in front of his 8 year old daughter by Mexican police in the northern state of Coahuila on Wednesday night according to witnesses the father and his daughter along with at least 8 others were waiting for a train to continue their journey to apply for asylum in the United States when Mexican immigration agents and federal police raided the group and started shooting agents also separated a 2 year old toddler from their mother according to a local migrant shelter in a statement the shelter says quote The persecution of migrants in Mexico has reached an unsustainable extreme We demand an end to this institutional cruelty which is taking lives and leaving children orphaned as well as separating families and causing so much suffering provoked by the Mexican state they said. In Texas Congress member Well heard said Thursday he will not seek reelection in 2000 and 23rd is the only black Republican in the House of Representatives last month he was one of just 4 House Republicans to vote in favor of a resolution condemning President Trump's racist attacks on 4 freshman Congress women of color and 971 audio recording made by Richard Nixon has been made public revealing then California governor and future President Ronald Reagan calling African people monkeys as President Nixon laughs in agreement and the recorded phone calls Reagan is heard using the racist slur about African delegates to the United Nations who voted to seat representatives from the People's Republic of China rather than the u.s. Backed government in exile in Taiwan. Her but rather for her. Murder. In other taped phone calls recorded the same day President Nixon's twice heard referring to African delegates as cannibals the National Archives released parts of the tape conversations in 2000 but edited out racist portions allegedly to protect Reagan's privacy under a court order the tapes should have been made public by 2013 but only entered the public domain 2 weeks ago and those are some of the headlines This is Democracy Now Democracy Now dot org The War and Peace Report I'm Amy Goodman we begin today's show looking at the tragic death of Tony Tampa and August of 2016 the 32 year old Dallas Texas man called 911 for help during the call Tempest said he was scared and told the dispatcher he suffered from schizophrenia and depression but was off as meth cation for schizophrenia the police responded and within 20 minutes Tony temple was dead. In the past 3 years the city of Dallas has fought efforts to release police body cam footage showing what happened but the video was finally released this week after a prolonged legal battle the shocking video constrains disturbing footage when officers arrived on the scene they found temple was already handcuffed by a private security guard in the video temper repeatedly pleaded for his life. With the on the ground for the children of her children her children. The body can video shows officers pinning Tempa face 1st into the ground with one of them jamming a needle into Tempus back and pressing down hard the officers Swat pant cuffs and zip tie Tempus feet together as well as re handcuffed Tempus heard pleading Will you let me go please after Tony temple became unresponsive the officers stood over his unmoving body mocking him as though he had fallen asleep for the. First date that relate. To what's in their SUV the person is cool cannot. Be right or the bit with the. Productivity for it will. Result in the. Right Way. All of us are. Very. The Dallas police officers keep Tony temper restrained on the ground they don't check to see if he is breathing or even has a pulse. Aura. I think it is. This video then shows police taking Tony Tempa to an ambulance where a paramedic to Clare's Tempa dead the video directly contradicts claims my made by the power Dallas Police Department defending the officers behavior we go now to Dallas where we're joined by Jeff Hanley lawyer representing the 10th a family thank you so much for joining us before your national news conference that you're holding today Jeff can you explain what this video how you got ahold of this video again this happened 3 years ago and what exactly it shows. Good morning Amy thank you for having me. Well this story began 3 years ago as you're indicating and we actually our law firm had sought. Public Information requests and they were declined and we eventually filed a writ of mandamus because the city had violated the Freedom of Information Act statute here in Texas ultimately they did produce the video to us but it was predicated on a confidentiality order and contemporaneous with that we had actually filed our federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the family as we began to unearth more details. The video itself has been under wraps a. Well as you've indicated this week and it was released solely because the criminal actions against the 3 officers Dillard Baskin as Sergeant Mann cell were dismissed a few months ago by the district attorney here. And there being no pending criminal action Judge David God be determined there is no basis to keep this matter a secret anymore and be found quite the contrary and said that there is a compelling public purpose for the people to ascertain what happened between one man and law enforcement as you've indicated the video itself is horrific for some 14 minutes Dustin Dillard has his name lodged directly in Tony's back Tony's face is mashed into the ground his words become increasingly garbled as he's unable to breathe and as his blood begins to become more acid Donek his heart begins to race and as you indicated in your broadcast earlier. One of the things that is absolutely troubled me the most is that Tony temple was handcuffed by private security guards before the Dallas police officers arrived there he thus there was no need to switch the handcuffs that they employed and what why was that significant Well number one of the idea that they would remove his handcuffs in the 1st place tells you something extremely important under federal civil rights laws and that is he was not a threat but number 2 in this particular instance it prolongs the period of restraint and the period of time when he would have his diaphragm compressed his lungs smothered and his face smashed into the ground these were critical moments that resulted in his death and and were needlessly prolonged by the officers so he was head and have by security guards the police came took the handcuffs out put their own handcuffs on ads and shackled his feet face zip tied his feet with plastic zip ties but yes the video the body cam footage from 2 of the officers Well at least one of the officers depicts the kid the handcuffs being switched and you can hear them commenting on you know the difficulty they're having switching the handcuffs but again there was no need to remove the handcuffs in the 1st place and it's further evidence that Tony Temple did not present a threat. These 3 officers in fact they would ultimately be charged what were they charged with and why were these days are just dropped. They were indicted. Dallas County grand jury handed down indictments for 3 of the officers for the charge of reckless conduct or deadly conduct it's a class a misdemeanor carries a. Penalty of maximum of one year in the county jail and up to a $4000.00 fine. They were indicted by a Dallas County grand jury and about a year and a half later the district attorney dismissed the case and what was so troubling for the family of course is it created some significant expectations that they were going to get justice in the criminal courts but compounding the problem is any time you have a criminal prosecution typically the defendants seek a stay of the parallel so why action that had been previously filed you know bear in mind we had filed our own lawsuit on behalf of the family back in 2016 and our case got stuck in a block of ice during the pendency of the criminal action so not only was the body cam footage under wraps during that period of time but our civil action was frozen so I want to go back to that day and again Tony had called the police himself saying he was struggling off of taking his medication he asked them for help when they came. Were these officers that we then see not only do they I mean is it essentially hog tying they shackle again his hands and then his feet and they are straining him putting their knee into his back on the ground for 14 minutes. They didn't mock cannon. It's certainly the functional equivalent of a hard time and probably more severe because of the name and the back. What the autopsy reveals is photographs of severe hemorrhaging and his upper upper scapular region a pretty significant pool of blood that pools at the very top in the area of where the name was placed. You know again you've got the weight of a single officer who's probably between 16180 pounds being driven into the back of this man while he's on the side of the road Meanwhile you have another officer on his left shoulder who's periodic Lee pressing pressing him down though not as consistently as Dillard was for in excess of 14 minutes then as you've indicated his ankles were zip tied with nylon zips and his legs were sometimes elevated. It would be a virtually impossible for somebody who is you know on cocaine and in mental crisis to effectively breathe now what is it they are saying to hand as they mock can and laugh on top of hand saying wake up. Well so the ridicule actually even began before your your tape their sergeant man cell is heard off camera kind of making cracks about Tony's relative wealth. He purposely mispronounces Mercedes they take shots said. Tony. Ties or or yacht club membership at some it's actually not so much of a yacht club it's more of a boat club down here in Texas we don't really have. But that that sort of begins this sort of you know gallows humor and then a few minutes later when you're talking they're there they're making this phony or fallacious notion that he's asleep and they they act as though hey he's you're going to be late for school Tony it's your mom let's wake up we've got some new shoes we've got you some waffles and Rudy Tutti Frutti waffles. And you know. Now. I think he's probably I mean obviously I'm not a path all just but he's completely unresponsive and despite the claims of snoring you don't hear snoring what you see is with the closer footage is you see kind of reddish purple Stan and Tony in the lead up to that lack of complete responsiveness begins to become increasingly incoherent it's like his tongue has swollen or he's just becoming more disoriented and during that process it's kind of a garbled mumble and then the officers take a shot at that and begin to mimic that sound where you hear that move noise or something to that effect and it's. It's despicable now one is administered to him who is giving him a shot so the paramedics actually administer belatedly Bearse it which is a known sedative and they and is designed to lower a subject's heart rate because one of the conditions that you're really trying to avoid from respiratory distress is the heart begins to race so fast faster than the the longs can really oxygenate and the blood eventually becomes acid da tick and so what you're trying to do is slow everything down. Because despite the fact that Tony's not moving inside his heart is you know working like overdrive It's like a car that's you know red lining and if the police had come and they come with the medics and that ik had given him that shot at the very beginning would Tony 10th of the alive today I'm not an expert in Path ology but I firmly believe that he would be. And these officers who would ultimately be charged but then those charges dropped one of them served in Afghanistan did he go off to serve in Afghanistan or did he serve before. We were told that he actually was deployed in Afghanistan and. Actually yes that's right I actually raised that his shoe because the case had gotten stayed once as a result of that deployment there's an automatic stay when an officer is deployed and but I it was represented to me by the city that he was deployed to Afghanistan and and of course we you know we want our. First responders are we what we certainly don't want to stand in the way of service to their country but it was the 1st day and then short of almost a couple of months right after he returned the case got state again as a result of the criminal charges so good then sequence was they killed Tony temple and then he went off to Afghanistan then came back yes what should officers do were these officers trained how do you deal with the mental health crisis someone who from the beginning who made the call to 911 said I am suffering from a mental health crisis. So this is a ongoing problem in law enforcement I've represented other folks. Who've and frankly have lost cases that have been thrown out where deadly force was employed against somebody in the middle crisis the judiciary for the last decade has been struggling with this because everybody knows this just creates horrific situations . And the bottom line is. Cops are not the best medics and they're not the they're frequently not the best people to talk people off of ledges or deescalate situations and this particular case of course Tony temple should have been flipped back onto his back if you listen closely to the tape the officers don't complain that he was fighting aggressively with them they use the term squad. If he was squirming and again this is the same him to be and by the way this is while somebody is on your back. You know it's quite natural and easy to be and to suppose that if you've got 862180 pound man or more on your back you're going to squirm. And so putting placing him on his back giving him the verse said. These are things that you know or process believe in waiting I'm out a little bit one of the things that the officers maintained at least a couple of years ago is they were saving his live by preventing him from rolling into nearby Mockingbird road or Mockingbird Lane and the idea is that to just the risk of that was I would use the word remote but certainly unlikely So what are you calling for what do you demanding in your last say that you'll be holding this news conference with there is that right. Right well so we filed this lawsuit some 3 you know virtually almost 3 years ago more than 2 and a half years ago and it is a classic 983 4th Amendment excessive law excessive force lawsuit and we are seeking monetary damages for Tony's mother and Tony's son and for Tony's former wife we are seeking a very significant sum of money because that is the only thing that gets not just the family justice but gets civil actors to change their conduct and tell and tell they spend money on lawyers and and making claims and satisfying claims they don't tend to spend money on the front end to prevent tragedies like this just like anything else you have to make. You have to hit them in the pocketbook to make them change their conduct chance Henley we want to thank you very much for being with us Dallas attorney with the law firm Henley and Leahy is representing the 10th Sam Lee and we'll continue to cover this of course this is Democracy Now when we come back 54 years ago this week President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed off on Medicare and Medicaid will look at this as a top issue in the presidential campaign right now Medicare for all how did it get past then what will happen today. I. I. This is Democracy Now I mean a good many Democratic presidential candidates remain deeply divided on how to expand health care to the 10s of millions of Americans who are uninsured or underinsured Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren of both pushed for abolishing private health insurance and establishing Medicare for all their rivals have pushed a number of different more incremental approaches during Tuesday's debate Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper smart over the best way forward I think opposing a public option that allows some form of Medicare but maybe a combination of Medicare Advantage and Medicare people shows that that is another people choose it it spans the quality approves the cost goes out or people choose an eventual a good 2 years you could get there but it would be an evolution not a revolution Thank you Governor Senator Warner we have tried this experiment with the insurance companies and what they've done is they've sucked billions of dollars out of our health care system and they forced people to have to fight to try to get their health care coverage that their doctors and nurses say that they need why does everybody why does every doctor why does every hospital have to fill out so many complicated forms it's because it gives insurance companies are tranced to say . That. They're patriots during the debate Senator Bernie Sanders pointed out the country's taking sweepin action before to expand health coverage to millions of Americans interest today is the out of the 1st story I'll bet a chill 64 years ago the drug should have a Democratic Congress placeholder to a new program if the one you had 19000000 elderly. People that it plays go told me that it is a 4 year period we cannot go from 6 people I doubt that the people are the 45 to 35 this is not radical there's what virtually every other country on earth so what we all think you said you don't want to know in fact let's go back 54 years ago this week to 1965 this is President Lyndon Johnson signing Medicare into law July 30th 1965 joining him at the signing was former President Harry Truman this is how big check. There are more than 18000000 Americans over the age of 65 most of them have low income most of them are threatened by illness for medical expenses but they cannot afford and through this new law almost broke them every citizen will be able and he has got give yours what he's earning to insure himself against the ravages of illness and his old age this insurance will help pay for care in hospitals in skilled nursing home. Or in the home and under separate plan it will help meet the ease of the doctor and just think Mr President. The goals of this document. And the OEM years of struggle which so many put into. Creating it. In this town and a 1000 other towns like. There are men than women in pay the. President Lyndon Baines Johnson July 30th 1965 we turn now to Jan a cold and professor emeritus at Rutgers Camden University and historian of us medicine a recent piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer is headlined happy birthday to Medicare and Medicaid Welcome to Democracy Now let's start Janet Golden by you telling us what were the forces then that were working against Medicare and Medicaid who are the forces working for it and then compared to what we're seeing 54 years later how did Medicare and Medicaid get established well Medicare Medicaid have really have a long history in 1930 s. During the Great Depression there was a push by the Committee on costs of medical care to extend health care we then had a push in 1935 in the Social Security Act there was a health insurance piece of that. That was removed Harry Truman as you saw in that clip pushed for health care beginning in 1945 and it took until 965 when we finally got to Medicare and Medicaid and interesting only the forces against it are the same ones we're hearing about from today the people who stand to make money for health care although in those days it was more the physicians than the medical establishment in the in the insurance companies and the rhetoric was so wonderfully familiar it was all about socialism and bankrupting bankrupting America and all the threats that choice would be taken away and health care would be rationed so in many ways the debates remain the same although the partisans on each side have shifted a little bit in part because of course our health care system is changed medical education has gotten more important and more extensive and more expensive our hospitals are now sucking up a large part of our health care budget and then of course the drugs and devices the big pharma that are playing a role now and they're all basically saying no I like the profits as they are now as Senator Warren has said. But the forces then those that fought against it and no how did it get through the Senate and the house were the charges of socialism being charged back then how did it ultimately when it won because we had with the election of President Johnson a broad coalition of Democrats who worked to make this happen. Basically you had a mandate from the American people through their electoral process to say yes we need health care and the forces were there the a.m.a. Fought it extensively and I hope you know that clip of former President Reagan before he was president oh wait let's go they are heading for that yeah it's against it to 1961 this is actor Ronald Reagan who would become president of the United States who recorded an album titled Ronald Reagan speaks out against socialized medicine now what reason could the other people have for backing a bill which says we insist on compulsory health insurance for senior citizens on the basis of age alone regardless of whether they are worth millions of dollars whether they have an income whether they're protected by their own insurance whether they have savings. I think we could be excused for believing that as x. Congressman friend said this was simply an excuse to bring about what they wanted all the time socialized medicine we can say right now but we want no further encroachments on these individual liberties and freedoms and at the moment the key issue is we do not want socialized medicine so at the time that's after Ronald Reagan then he became president who was you paid by to do that it Merican Medical Association and some other trade groups so fascinating because the American Medical Association with then go on to. Push doctors and Canada to fight against me. To care for all health care for all and Canada as read if the contagion spread north that it would then influence people in the United States we're also joined by Wendell Potter who is a former top executive for health insurance companies Cigna and Humana at Cigna He served as head of communications He's author of Deadly spin an insurance company insider speaks out on how corporate p.r. Is killing health care and deceiving Americans He's now president of the nonprofit business for Medicare for all one don't take us from then back when Medicare and Medicaid was fought it was then passed became one of the most popular programs in the United States. And then your own trajectory what you were doing as the top executive at Cigna and at Humana one of the top executives what you were saying about Medicare and Medicaid. Well in my 1st career I was certainly saying that less privatized Medicare let's see what we can do to get as many people into private plans as we possibly can and when I 1st went to work for Humana and 989 Humana I was selling private managed care plans for the in the Medicare program and that has become a big cash cow by the way for the for the insurance industry but what happened after the Medicare program was an act that in 1965 we just kind of stopped it was the intent to bring everyone into the Medicare program eventually but what happened instead was that we allowed private industry to create and construct what has become a Rube Goldberg contraption that exists to make money for big corporations like the ones that I used to work for and the reason that we have ever increasing prices in this country is because all the players now are working very symbiotically. Insurance companies cannot control health care costs nor do they want to so I left my job in 2008 as Head of Corporate Communications says Cigna after a crisis of conscience I realized that what I was doing for a living was making it unnecessary for people to go without insurance or even if they had insurance not being able to go to the doctor because of high deductibles it's only gotten worse that's then even after the enactment of the Affordable Care Act we're saying once again the number of people without insurance go back up and the number of people who are under insured who have health plans that are in adequate is really skyrocketing so we are at a point in our history in which we absolutely have to say this isn't working for anyone except big corporations and their executives and their shareholders we've got to do something more than just tweak the Affordable Care Act to get to a system that is more like countries in the other the other countries in the developed world. As I was leaving today right before the broadcast. C.n.n. Was doing yet another piece this one was why how Finland's socialized medicine program is failing Bernie Sanders pointed out 2 nights ago in the debate he was taking on you know not only some of his Democratic these other Democratic contenders for president but c.n.n. Itself and how they framed this discussion and that he pointed out in a few minutes they would be running for sure a pharmaceutical ad So talk about how this is being framed today. It's being framed in the way that I used to frame it myself in my old job because I used to be a part of the effort to get people to believe things that were not true about the system in Finland or Canada or the u.k. I spent a lot of time developing relationships with reporters and producers at places like c.n.n. To frame get them to talk about health care in a way that we wanted them to talk and to ask questions and to say things that just simply were not true or that taking out of context would get people to believe things that it was just not an accurate portrayal of a health care system we focused a lot by the way in Canada and one of the things that I'm doing in particular is apologizing to the American public for all the misleading that I did in Iowa career to get people to think that people wait and wait long a long time to get care in Canada and other countries is just simply not true but the insurance industry and its allies are spending enormous sums of money and that money is your money by the way if you get if you have private insurance you're spending money to pay for the propaganda campaigns the insurance industry the big hospital companies the big drug companies have come together are pulling money to create a front group called the Partnership for America's health care future it's the latest front group that the industry has created over many years I used to be a part of that from other firms to work with these front groups and they are they exist to mislead people and to get the media to say things and frame questions the way that they want them to be framed I wanted to try it's that I had. I want to turn to. The administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services she spoke at the Federation of American hospitals 200-1000 you will meeting earlier this year Medicare for all in reality is Medicare $39.00 this is that hyperbole. As the administrator of one of the largest government run health care programs in the world I see every day its shortcomings it's true that our present system needs improvement. However doubling down on government and mimicking the failed socialist health care systems of Europe that rationing and were strict to care for patients face long periods of time for care is not be a answer. That seemed a very trying to point to your response Wendell Potter. Well she's she's using the same talking points but the industry one sort of use is just a continuation of what we heard Ronald Reagan saying 54 years ago or longer I've often call these talking points evergreen they trot them out to scare people every time there is a threat to profits and we're seeing that again it's not going to work this time because increasingly people are not spooked by terms like socialized medicine people are realizing day in and day out that they've been sold a bill of goods by the insurance industry what we do in this country is rationing care based on ability to pay there are Americans all over this country who do not get the care that they need not because we have a socialized system like another country we don't and there's even that term socialized medicine is is used purposely to scare people we don't let people get the care that they need because people don't have the money to get the care that they need and which. Cuellar we're talking about people who have who are some called middle income individuals and families they just simply in many cases cannot afford to get the care that they need because they in many cases can't afford insurance the formal Care Act did some good but it provides subsidies for people who have relatively low incomes it doesn't do much of anything to protect people who are in who have middle called middle income let me ask people who are my mission people who are who are in are doing Ok we just have a few seconds and of course we'll continue this discussion and many months to come but when you were an insurance industry executive head of communications and you work with Humana and Cigna did you find the networks more receptive to you because you were pouring millions into advertising. No doubt about it you see a lot of the ads from not only the insurance industry will certainly the drug companies but absolutely are they're not going to have stories are not going to do investigative pieces on an industry that that pays them a lot of money absolutely I we're going to leave it there today I want to thank you so much for being with us one don't Potter former executive for health insurance companies Cigna and Humana He served as head of communications at Cigna author of Deadly spin an insurance company insider speaks out on how corporate p.r. Is killing health care and deceiving Americans now president of the nonprofit. Organization. Of a nonprofit organization around health care and Janet Golden is professor emeritus at Rutgers University and historian if us medicine will link to your piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer happy birthday to Medicare and Medicaid This is Democracy Now in 30 seconds we're back talking about Greenland it's July was the hottest month ever recorded Stay with us. We are right now the beginning of time and. Crisis. And we need to call it what it is. An emergency. Must acknowledge that we do not have. Under control and that we don't have all the But homo sapiens have not yet failed. Yes. There is the music from the 1975 with gratitude very world renowned 16 year old Swedish climate activist who sparked a global movement of weekly student strikes for the climate This is Democracy Now I mean the good men in her latest investigation waste only. We're going to turn right now to the issue of Greenland the World Meteorological Organization said Thursday that July was the warmest month in recorded human history it followed the hottest June on record as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels climbed to a record high of $415.00 parts per 1000000 earlier this year the massive heat dome that shattered all time temperature records across much of Europe last week has settled in over Greenland driving temperatures across a vast region to as much as 30 degrees Fahrenheit above normal in July Greenland's ice sheet lost 197000000000 tons of ice the equivalent of around 18000000 Olympic swimming pools writing in Rolling Stone in an article titled Greenland is melting away before our eyes the meteorologist or a cold House warns Greenland's ice was expected to melt at its fastest ever rate ever recorded on Thursday when quote more than 12000000000 tons of water will permanently melt away from the ice sheet and find its way down to the ocean irreversibly raising sea levels globally For more we're going to Copenhagen Denmark where we're joined by Jason box professor and ice climatologist at the Geologic Survey of Denmark in Greenland Jason box Welcome to Democracy Now in these last minutes we have together can you just lay out what is happening in Greenland what it has to do with the climate crisis and the heat wave that we've been experiencing around the world. You mention this heat this hot air that is parked over Greenland that same air mass started in the Sahara warm air drifted on to Europe it set records there across Europe as I'm sure you've heard about that warm air mass then drifted north setting records across Scandinavia it then in a bizarre kind of circulation drifted to the west normally the flow is the opposite direction so this warm blob of air drifts over the ice sheet and actually Greenland was already well above average temperatures melt on set started 3 to 5 weeks ahead of normal in early May We saw this big Mel era coming and then this recent drift of warm air over the ice sheet is just a conspicuous example of how ice and climate change in the Arctic has been steadily rewarming we see an acceleration of loss from Arctic Canada from Alaska from Greenland the ice it has a lot of downstream effects it's flooding the North Atlantic with fresh water disrupting ocean circulation in ways we don't fully appreciate probably increasing storm activity for Northwestern Europe and. It's part of our climate system which is kind of getting unhinged as carbon continues to accumulate in the atmosphere the ocean effect is a delayed response to the enhanced greenhouse effect and we're really just starting to see as their climate system punches out of the noise of the last century a very clear steep rising temperature in the Arctic has actually affecting weather patterns around the hemisphere. What is happening right now the extreme temperatures that are in goal thing Greenland what will this mean for the rest of the planet and can you talk about the issue of climate refugees the symptoms of the climate crisis from food shortages to thousands and thousands of people fleeing from regions affected by drought and water sort of shortage such as throughout the world. The key factor for green lines and the other land ice loss is sea level rise now that will take decades to really be felt in earnest between now and when we really have large sea level rise it's during high tide storm surge thermal expansion events like Superstorm Sandy that flooded the New York subway that you get when you combine sea level rise with thermal expansion and high tide and storm surge but more immediate and I'm glad that you mentioned that is that actually the continents are heating up about twice as fast as the global temperature just like the Arctic is heating twice as fast as the global temperature the continents are driving this is undermining food security we are seeing more drought and that will be a more immediate consequence of enhanced greenhouse effect the migration of people that lose their food and water security and that effect being disruptive for political systems as as these people seek a better livelihood reluctantly leaving their homes and going going elsewhere I'm convinced that that will be a more immediate consequence elevated greenhouse effect sea level rise is urgent huge issue which ultimately will force. Really uncountable people numbers of people to forfeit their land in coastal areas that we cannot justify or afford to build sea defenses and those displaced people will add on top of food refugees and drought refugees which we're already seeing today we want to thank you so much for being with us I mean a good man Jason box is our gas Professor nice climatologist at the Geologic Survey of Denmark and Greenland well do particle and posted on line Thanks so much. Well oiled. Democracy now is made possible by. Yourselves as the generous. Contributors to k.z. If far and by signs in graphic design your sign is your image and signs and graphic design takes pride in making you look your best when there were 25 years of architectural. In the architectural design industry signs and graphic design is dedicated to creating signage that works make your sign count by visiting signs of Chico dot com or call 3432543 where they love Chico and they love signs. 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After our own George Winston is coming to the Chic a women's club for 2 shows August 29th and August 30th of the 29th is sold out tickets for the 30th still on sale but going fast to get him at the cazy a far usual outlets Achilles wheel is coming to Chico Women's Club It's Friday September 20th bandaging Kyle and the real serious will be at the Women's Club on Friday September 27th touch of Chico will be at the Chico Creek Nature Center on Sunday September 29th then inside studio 416 it's Stephen English.