While progressives pointed out that it would have been worthy of more applause if the offer of support had come back when he had the actual power to do something about it, Medicare for All proponents applauded the huge paradigm shift denoted by the newest high-profile endorsement of the popular proposal: former President Barack Obama.

Speaking at the University of Illinois in his first explicit rebuke of President Donald Trump and what was seen as his first major campaign speech for Democrats in 2018, Obama said that progressives “aren’t just running on good old ideas like a higher minimum wage, they’re running on good new ideas like Medicare for all, giving workers seats on corporate boards, reversing the most egregious corporate tax cuts to make sure college students graduate debt-free.”

The speech, noted journalist David Sirota, was a clear sign that in the two and a half years since Hillary Clinton predicted that single payer healthcare would “never, ever” happen, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) and other universal healthcare advocates’ efforts to push the Democrats to embrace the proposal have been a success.

Sanders himself expressed appreciation for Obama’s support:

New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also praised Obama’s statement, and focused on what the endorsement means for the future of Medicare for All and the success of the grassroots groups that have led the charge demanding universal healthcare for decades—like Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and Healthcare Now.

But a number of progressives expressed deep frustration at the former president—who said in 2003, “I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program”—for casting Medicare for All as a “new” idea.

“Respectfully, Medicare for All isn’t a new idea,” tweeted Bonnie Castillo, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU). “Union nurses have been campaigning for universal health care for years, but we are thrilled that Medicare for All is a mainstream issue now.”

While working to reform the U.S. for-profit healthcare system as president—and with majorities in both the House and the Senate—Obama hastily rejected the possibility of adopting a single-payer plan, claiming it would “represent a radical shift” akin to right-wing proposals for all Americans to take on 100 percent of the responsibility of their healthcare costs. Medicare for All advocates have also argued that Obama and other Democratic leaders did not push hard enough for a public option to be included in the Affordable Care Act. 

As Shane Ryan noted at Paste Magazine, Obama’s vocal support Medicare for All comes after the majority of Americans have already expressed approval for the proposal. Two weeks ago, a Reuters poll found that 70 percent of all Americans now favor such a program, including nearly 85 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans.

“Look, sarcasm aside, this is fine—Medicare for all is a terrific policy, and maybe Obama’s support will whip the last of the recalcitrant congressional Democrats into shape,” wrote Ryan. “It would have been nice if he could lead from the front on an important issue, for once, but hey, that’s life at the top of the Democratic party.”

Recognizing that his 10,000-word essay was potentially “a lot” for some consumers, Nathan J. Robinson, editor-in-chief of Current Affairs magazine, has created a video version with the same title—”How We Know Kavanaugh Is Lying”—for those who might find it easier to digest.

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Robinson first published his essay on Saturday, after the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, but the video version was posted online Monday evening.

If you have 15 minutes and want to hear a good explanation of why Kavanaugh proved himself a liar whereas Ford came out of her testimony more credible than even before she went in, you can watch the video below:

UPDATE

A right-wing, anti-semitic shooter opened fire during a baby-naming ceremony at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday, killing 11 people and wounding six others, including four police officers, authorities said.

The FBI named the suspect as Robert Bowers, 46.

Bowers has an active license to carry a firearm and has made at least six known firearm purchases since 1996, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CNN. On September 29, Bowers posted photos of his handgun collection on his Gab.com account, which included multiple clips and sights. Shortly before the shooting, Bowers posted on his Gab account that he “can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”

BREAKING

Pittsburgh Police says there are ‘‘multiple casualties’’ in a mass shooting near a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The shooting was reported Saturday morning near the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood. Early reports say that 12 have been shot, including three police officers, and that eight are dead.

When a scientist who studies the essential role insects play in the health of the ecosystem calls a new study on the dramatic decline of bug populations around the world “one of the most disturbing articles” he’s ever read, it’s time for the world to pay attention.

“Climate warming is the driving force behind the collapse of the forest’s food web.”
—Bradford Lister and Andres Garcia

The article in question is a report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing that in addition to annihilating hundreds of mammal species, the human-caused climate crisis has also sparked a global “bugpocalypse” that will only continue to accelerate in the absence of systemic action to curb planetary warming.

“This study in PNAS is a real wake-up call—a clarion call—that the phenomenon could be much, much bigger, and across many more ecosystems,” David Wagner, an invertebrate conservation expert at the University of Connecticut, said in response to the new report. “This is one of the most disturbing articles I have ever read.”

Authored by Bradford Lister of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Andres Garcia of National Autonomous University of Mexico, the study found that “[a]rthropods, invertebrates including insects that have external skeletons, are declining at an alarming rate.”

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“We compared arthropod biomass in Puerto Rico’s Luquillo rainforest with data taken during the 1970s and found that biomass had fallen 10 to 60 times,” the researchers write. “Our analyses revealed synchronous declines in the lizards, frogs, and birds that eat arthropods. Over the past 30 years, forest temperatures have risen 2.0 °C, and our study indicates that climate warming is the driving force behind the collapse of the forest’s food web. If supported by further research, the impact of climate change on tropical ecosystems may be much greater than currently anticipated.”

As the climate crisis intensifies, Lister and Garcia continued, “the frequency and intensity of hurricanes in Puerto Rico are expected to increase, along with the severity of droughts and an additional 2.6–7 °C temperature increase by 2099, conditions that collectively may exceed the resilience of the rainforest ecosystem.”

Hundreds of thousands of people participated in coordinated protests in cities and towns across the United States on Thursday evening to voice their collective displeasure with President Donald Trump’s move to install Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General—a man openly hostile to executive oversight and the Special Counsel probe into 2016 election interfence—after firing Jeff Sessions less than 24 hours after this week’s midterm elections.

“These protests were pulled together by sheer determination on the day after Election Day. People came about because no matter how tired we are, we will always put our country first. The efforts of these activists are amazing and inspiring. Tonight, they made it very clear that they do not intend to stop until our democracy is no longer under siege.” —Izzy Bronstein, Common Cause

Photos and videos flooded social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram all night long as people celebrated the energy and size of the turnouts in large cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco as well as scores of smaller ones like Madison, Raleigh, Plymouth, Omaha, Orlando, Doylestown, Alexandria, Bellingham, and countless others.

“If you have any doubt about the resiliency of our democracy – especially in the wake of a bruising election – then go type in #ProtectMueller on Twitter and you will be heartened and inspired by the pictures and videos of protests across the country,” said Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn.

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Climate campaigners on Monday responded to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2019 Justice Agenda—which includes a pledge to pursue a Green New Deal for the state—with demands that the Democratic governor push for even bolder policies than those he is promising.

“Cuomo calls the climate crisis a matter of life and death, but unfortunately his policies don’t match the lofty rhetoric.”
—Alex Beauchamp,  Food & Water Watch

The governor’s office claimed that by making the state’s electricity carbon neutral by 2040, “New York will be the most progressive state in the nation in moving to renewables and growing the new sustainable green economy,” but green groups say that’s not nearly detailed or ambitious enough.

“Cuomo calls the climate crisis a matter of life and death, but unfortunately his policies don’t match the lofty rhetoric,” Food & Water Watch Northeast region director Alex Beauchamp declared in a statement. “A vague pledge of carbon neutrality by the year 2040 is not the bold action necessary to move New York off fossil fuels.”

Betámia Coronel, a native New Yorker and 350.org U.S. national organizer, concurred—warning that “empty rhetoric and lip service is as dangerous as inaction.”

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“Cuomo must go much bigger,” Beauchamp said. “A true Green New Deal for New York must include a moratorium on all new fossil fuel infrastructure and a commitment to transition New York to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.”

“If he’s serious about a Green New Deal for New York, Cuomo will take concrete action now to stop all fossil fuel projects, including fracked gas pipelines like the proposed Williams Pipeline and dirty power plants wreaking havoc on our communities.”
—Betámia Coronel, 350.org

Coronel also charged that “if he’s serious about a Green New Deal for New York, Cuomo will take concrete action now to stop all fossil fuel projects, including fracked gas pipelines like the proposed Williams Pipeline and dirty power plants wreaking havoc on our communities.”

Their demands come amid surging national momentum in favor of the incoming Democratically-controlled U.S. House working toward a federal Green New Deal as well as mounting international pressure for countries around the world to take more rapid action to curb planet-warming emissions in the wake of a disappointing agreement out of COP24, which concluded in Poland over the weekend.

New York climate advocates, meanwhile, continue to urge Cuomo to pass the Climate and Communities Protection Act (CCPA)—legislation they have pushed for the past three years.

The measure, as NY Renews noted Monday, “would put New York on the path to 100 percent renewable energy—not just in electricity generation, but economy-wide—while mandating fair labor standards for green jobs and targeting investments in low-income communities and communities of color.”