I can’t find an article to point to that is written by an “authority” that will make the point I want to make. I’ll just have to write it myself.

To start a (political) negotiation, ask for at least as much as what you want. Asking for anything less is the road to failure. The discussion on single-payer health care is the current example that is most important.

It is easiest to discuss this in terms of the failure to negotiate that brought us to Obamacare. Many of the “experts” wanted a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system. Actually, the article Some Experts, Like Krugman, Supported Single Payer Until Bernie Sanders Put It in His Platform provides the evidence.

Apparently the political calculus was that we couldn’t get a single payer system passed into law. So let’s just go for a public option. Surely, even the Republicans couldn’t be against that. It is merely an option that would compete against private insurance. Republicans at least pay lip service to the idea of competition in the free market. Well, the Republicans fought tooth and nail against the public option. The opposition was so fierce that Obama dropped the public option very early in the campaign for health care reform. We didn’t end up with what we wanted, and we were even afraid to fight for our fall-back position.

So, to me, the lesson learned is not to negotiate with yourself before you even take the negotiation to the opposition. Just be brave enough to ask for at least what you actually want. Notice that I say “at least”. Even that is giving in before you start. You really need to ask for more than what you want to have any chance of getting what you want.

Here is an excerpt from the article mentioned above.

Ezra Klein, 2009, interview with Sanders

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/06/will_single_payer_supporters_h.html

[Klein] Lastly, you’re the author of one of my favorite pieces of legislation: The bill to create a prize process for pharmaceuticals. Want to say a word on that?

[Sanders] That makes single payer look like a conservative bill! [Laughs] All that that does is take on the entire pharmaceutical industry and say that everything they’ve been telling the world for many years is simply not true.

Bernie Sanders knows this lesson in Political Negotiation 101. Ask for something so outrageous, that what you actually want seems conservative by comparison.

The trouble with this knowledge of negotiation when it comes to a political negotiation where you need public support is that first you have to get public support. If, in this negotiation process, you already start to bargain down from what you want, you end up with an Obama type negotiator. The public has to learn the process of negotiation so that they don’t demand that their leadership bargain down just to get the public on board. Hillary Clinton and her team have already taken us too far down the road away from what we really want.

The mere fact that I have to explain this in public is already a step in the wrong direction. I’d rather not have to repeat this explanation in public.

Tim Canova Democrat For Congress is challenging Debbie Wasserman Schultz in a primary election in Florida.

Tim Canova has been challenging Wall Street banks and political corruption for most of his adult life.

As an activist, attorney, educator, and frequent commentator on the rigged economic and political systems that put Wall Street and multinational corporations first while leaving ordinary Americans behind, Tim is uniquely positioned to shake up Congress.

If you thought you had no way to pay back Debbie Wasserman Schultz, head of the Democratic National Committee, for screwing up elections for Democrats nation wide, then you have thought wrong.

The Broward/Palm Beach New Times has the article Tim Canova, Onetime Bernie Sanders Adviser, Is Running Against Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

It’s time for the Bernie Sanders revolution to take action to make this a national campaign election to replace Bernie’s nemesis, DWS.

I just received an email from the Sanders campaign. Do you really expect Hillary’s supposedly more powerful Wall Street regulation plan to be more effective than Bernie’s plan?

Bernie’s plan is to break up the big banks so that no matter what nefarious scheme they come up with next, they won’t be big enough to be able to damage the country and the world like they did in 2008/2009. Hillary and her advisers seem to be under the delusion that they can anticipate the next scheme and put in specific regulations to prevent it. Even if that worked it would only be protection against that one scheme. Over thousands and thousands of years of human history, many nefarious schemes have been invented. That is why we need general laws about fraud, not just specific laws for each and every possible fraud. The laws against fraud won’t work, of course, unless we enforce them and mete out meaningful punishment for violators of the law. A fine that is a tiny fraction of the profits of the fraud is not a meaningful punishment.

Naked Capitalism has the post Sovereign Spending in a Market Economy.

My idea is this: if we did what I just suggested, then, when the next recession hits—and the central bank finds that its traditional strategy of lowering interest rates is still not available (which is likely to be the case) and Congress is thus forced—against all its entrenched phobias and market ideologies—to appropriate another huge chunk of emergency sovereign spending, we’ll have a long list of ideas about how those new dollars can be spent to rapidly put them exactly where they most need to go. And once we’ve experienced how well that works, once we see that sovereign spending can expand the market economy rather than destroy it, we’ll have made a big step toward a general acceptance of, and appreciation for, the realities of modern fiat money.

Sorry, you’ll have to read the post to find out what he suggested. The article is a bit like a shaggy dog story. It takes a while to get to the point, but there is one, and it is worthwhile to contemplate.

YouTube has the video Activist Arrested at MLK Breakfast in Worcester.

Published on Jan 18, 2016

The MLK breakfast at Quinsigamond Community College was interrupted when a man at the back of gathering began handing out pamphlets and was confronted by authorities.

Chris Horton, a Worcester resident and member of the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team, was escorted out in handcuffs after passing out pamphlets that read, “Bring Our Wealth Home!” and “Black and Brown Wealth Matters!” Mr. Horton was brought to the ground while being taken into custody. An ambulance was summoned.

Mr. Horton, of 10 Tower St., Worcester, was charged with assault and battery on a police officer. The arrest was made by the campus police. According to a QCC spokesman, Mr. Horton told officers “he had a previous injury and asked to be taken to the hospital.” He was transported to UMass Memorial Medical Center.

Video by Rick Cinclair

Do you think there may have been any witnesses as to what happened here? Do you suppose their testimony could clear up whether or not Chris assaulted a police officer? If we let police officers behave this way in front of a huge audience, but do not hold them accountable, what message is society sending to police officers?

I have been wondering, do you think that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have wanted his life’s work to be commemorated at decorous little breakfasts where someone would be arrested for standing up for the rights of the poor and the powerless?

Public Integrity has the article Court case shows how health insurers rip off you and your employer.

The fees came to light when Hi-Lex Controls, an automotive technology company, took Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) to court in 2013 after becoming suspicious that the company had been systematically cheating it over 19 years. After reviewing evidence in the case, a judge ordered that BCBSM stop charging the hidden fees and pay Hi-Lex $6.1 million.
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The Court of Appeals affirmed the $6.1 million fraud judgment, agreeing with the lower court that “BCBSM committed fraud by knowingly misrepresenting and omitting information about the disputed fees in contract documents.” This misrepresentation, the court said, “helped sustain the illusion that BCBSM was more cost-competitive” than its competitors.

It seems obvious to me that employers (except for health insurance companies) should be thrilled at the idea of Medicare-for-all. It would relieve them of the burden of having to pay for employee’s health insurance to the tune that they already do. They wouldn’t have to do their own investigations and wage their own lawsuits to get back what they are losing to fraud by the insurance companies. Talk about waste, fraud, and abuse – many private companies seem to be masters at it.

You don’t suppose that Hillary Clinton understands this, do you? Neither answer you can give reflects well on Hillary Clinton. If the answer to the question is “No”, then what has she learned from her years of trying to “fix” the health care system? Why would we want a person who has learned nothing after years of deep involvement with the issue?

If the answer is “Yes”, she knows about this, but refuses to allow us to try to fix the problem, then why are we even thinking about electing her as President? Do you suppose Hillary gets some of her funding from the health insurance companies? Do you suppose bears do it in the woods?

The Democratic National Committee is trying to hide this from you, but you can take matters into your own hands by watching it here. You might call the act of watching this as part of the political revolution.

You might also want to thank Debbie Wasserman Shultz, chair of the DNC, for her deliberate mishandling of the debate schedule by reading The Hill article In primary challenge, Wasserman Schultz faces unprecedented test. It could be payback time for DWS if we all give her challenger all the financial support he needs. Don’t get mad; get even.

The Boston Globe has the story 71-year-old activist arrested in Worcester.

Worcester Magazine has the story as UPDATED: Worcester activist hospitalized after incident at Quinsigamond Community College.

Worcester Anti-Foreclosure activist Chris Horton was taken to the hospital Monday morning after an encounter with police at Quinsigamond Community College during an event honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Witnesses tell Worcester Magazine Horton was handing out flyers about foreclosures at the annual MLK breakfast, which had drawn hundreds of people, including state and federal officials, when he was asked to stop. Horton allegedly pushed or shrugged off a campus officer who had approached him, before he was wrestled to the ground, according to witnesses.

Jamie Eldridge, State Senator Middlesex & Worcester District, posted about this on his Facebook timeline.

Outrageous treatment by the police of the aggressive arrest of one of the most peaceful persons, and most committed to social justice that I know, Chris Horton of Worcester, at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast at Quinsigamond Community College this morning. And what a further injustice that Chris was detained for handing out flyers for the repeal of one of the worst laws passed by the Mass Legislature this session, a bill allowing banks to more easily clear title on homes that were often illegally foreclosed upon by mostly big banks, and fraudulent title insurance companies. Perfect example of how property is often more valued over people in American society.

Here is a picture of Chris Horton at his release from the Worcester city jail.

The crowd assembled at the release consists of his friends and supporters who had heard about the incident in time to be at his release. I was not there, but I would have been if I had heard about it in time.

This stooped over 71 year old man doesn’t look like he would be able to assault anyone, let alone a police officer and certainly not physically. I call Chris the brains behind We Want Bernie – Worcester. That is how I came to know him and to work with him.

Being of his age myself, I could certainly understand how he could easily lose his balance. That is a report that I heard third or fourth hand from one of his friends as the cause for the charge of assault. So I am not attesting to the fact that that is exactly what happened.

I am always afraid that if I ever get stopped by police, they might interpret my instability as my being drunk. Not being a heavy drinker, my last alcoholic beverage could have been consumed weeks ago, and I still doubt I could pass a field sobriety test that required me to walk a straight line in sobriety test style as I have seen on TV. I can sometimes lose my balance just standing still.

Some people are spreading the lie that Bernie Sanders has not been able to get any legislation passed. To be charitable, maybe they just assume that because he does not belong to either party in Congress that he must be ineffective. It would be good to look at his legislative record before spouting things that are not true.

The image of the first page of his record shows that there are 6,199 items in the list

New Economic Perspectives is running a series of tutorials on Money and Banking by Eric Tymoigne. This is important information especially for any one who thinks a politician (I mean you Ron and Rand Paul) knows anything about the subject.

Money and Banking – Part 1 – balance-sheet mechanics
January 9, 2016

Money and Banking – Part 2 – Central bank balance sheet and immediate implications.
January 16, 2016

Money and Banking – Part 3– Monetary Base and the Balance Sheet of the FED.
January 24, 2016

Money and Banking – Part 4 – What does the Fed do in terms of monetary policy and why?
January 30, 2016

Money and Banking – Part 5 – FAQs about monetary policy and central banking
February 7, 2016

Money and Banking – Part 6 – Treasury and Central Bank Interactions
February 14, 2016

Money and Banking – Part 7 – Leverage
March 6, 2016

Money and Banking – Part 8 – The Private Banking Business
March 12, 2016