Want to hear something really radical?

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[George McGovern]

1. Bernie's the Best! He Cares!

[myohmy2]

6. +1...

...

[leftstreet]

2. And yet there's nothing in the bill to lower RX prices

FFS these elected politicians wiTh leGisLative poWers will just keep tweeting until they're on their deathbeds

[mountain grammy]

3. I give Bernie lots of credit

for not strangling Joe Manchin. I'm sure he wanted to.

[Xavier Breath]

7. He might have to wait in a long line to do so.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Inhalers are extremely expensive.

The one I use is $221 - works much better than the one I used to get which was *only* $77, except the new one doesn't tell how much is left while the previous less expensive one did.

[sheshe2]

5. A letter is radical?

[betsuni]

8. It is a very strongly worded letter.

[sheshe2]

10. Aaah, strongly worded.

Indeed.

Link to tweet

[NurseJackie]

36. Ha! That's funny!

[Uncle Joe]

11. You're misconstruing the first tweet with the third.

The first two tweets are pertaining to the astronomical cost of drugs, and the third a letter from seven Senators supporting striking workers.

[sheshe2]

12. Not misconstruing really.

His first tweet is not radical, he has said it before.

It is the title of your thread and you added 2 other tweets. The letter is not radical and just a sternly worded letter and does not take us a step closer to getting this done for the American people.

[Uncle Joe]

13. No matter how many times anybody states it, this is radical

"The pharmaceutical industry can charge the American people $242 for the asthma inhaler – Flovent Diskus – that can be purchased for just $27 in Canada."

It's am extreme view of greed is good, screw everyone else so long as I got mine, believing in that is radical no matter how "normalized" it becomes.

Bernie nor I said the letter was radical, although it would've been nice if it had more signatures from other Senators.

I always take the first sentence of the first tweet and use it as the heading, I never thought that was confusing.

[sheshe2]

16. "Bernie nor I said the letter was radical "?

You guys talk?

[Uncle Joe]

17. ..

[lapucelle]

14. It's understandable, given that the third tweet is non sequitur in the context of the first two.

On a side note, I never noticed the Al Gore avatar. it's great.

Sometimes I can't help but imagine what the world would be like at this moment if Al Gore had won. With 20/20 hindsight, many folks now realize exactly how important that election was and how impactful a Gore presidency would have been. It's hard to believe that some had even tagged Gore as ideologically weak in the run-up to the 2000 general election.

Gore lost like a gentleman and then went on to work hard and actually accomplish meaningful goals that improved people's lives on a global level.

History will remember him well.

[sheshe2]

15. +1

[lapucelle]

20. And Al Gore delivered concrete accomplishments without grandstanding.

He never took to the microphones to signal his own virtue or berate his colleagues. He didn't alienate the folks who would otherwise be allies. Gore is not a "my way or the highway" politician. He is a genuine leader.

For Al Gore it was never about him. It was always about us.

[Uncle Joe]

23. I agree.

[lapucelle]

24. Another thing to admire about Al Gore is that his priorities are mission-driven.

Gore puts that mission above personal ambition, he does not self-aggrandize, and he certainly doesn't stew in imagined grievances and counterproductive personal grudges.

Al Gore understands that accomplishment is often achieved through concrete steps towards a broad and important goal, and he knows how to work with politicians in the service of us, rather than of himself.

It's what makes Al Gore a true leader.

It's heartening that so many naysayers and discounters have jumped on the Al Gore bandwagon in the decades that have passed. It's a pity they weren't on board in 2000.

[Uncle Joe]

25. One of the greatest leadership traits of Al Gore in my opinion

is/was his ability to move on for the good of the nation, some politicians could just never pull that off, it was always about them and their own selfish needs.

That's one of the things I respect about Bernie Sanders as well.

[lapucelle]

30. Al Gore deserves to be respected and admired for those traits.

They help to make Al Gore one of a kind.

[Uncle Joe]

33. Along with Al Gore's vision in both championing the opening of the Internet and

warnings against global warming climate change much against corporate media indifference do make him one of a kind and Al in turn was inspired by Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" which helped give birth to the environmental movement so she was one of a kind as well.

That's the wonderful thing about life, there's truly more than just one "one of a kind" if it weren't we would be running out of kind.

Likewise I respect Bernie Sanders for his passionate commitment and vision to my way of thinking, a more advanced, sustainable society with reduced emphasis on the dog eat dog aspects.

As they say respect has to be earned first and Bernie has earned mine so he is one of a kind as well.

[lapucelle]

34. Al Gore understood the crisis early on. Others, not so much.

It took a long, long time for some to realize the extent of the problems that Al Gore was already working to solve.

We missed a great chance for a better America in 2000. There was an irrational, faddish reluctance to support a candidate who a few years later would be a Nobel Peace Prize laureate for environmental activism.

Instead we got George Bush, 9/11, the Iraq War, the Roberts' Court, Citizens United, and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act.

It was bewildering back then exactly what the "problem" with Gore was. It's little wonder that some in political circles and the media are in backpedal mode, pretending that they admired Al Gore all along.

[Uncle Joe]

35. Al Gore challenged corporate power in his own way,

it was more like an end run with his promotion of the Internet that could/would by pass their much more exclusive hold on information.

There is a reason that our nation lags behind all the other advanced nations in regards to social services and the elephant in the room is corporate/oligarch domination of information sources, the Internet challenges this but it wasn't like a light switch.

So Al Gore in the great scheme of things was as Prometheus, the Internet (two way instantaneous mass communication) which by passed corporate filters was fire, the oligarchs and major corporate conglomerates feeling their stranglehold on society slipping were/are as Zeus sent their buzzard pundits to chew on Al's credibility pretty much everyday for a year and a half instead of giving him credit for his legislative achievement and potential.

The corporate media failed miserably as any kind of objective job interviewers for the people but they were successful for their own narrow, self serving, conflict of interest (s) agendas.

There were other problems as well of course Bill Clinton's actions were a major political headwind and while I believe Al to be brilliant, he wasn't a "natural" type campaigner.

[lapucelle]

38. If the explanation is that those who worked against Al Gore's election in 2000 were bad actors

and the tools (witting or unwitting) of power brokers, it's probably worth considering.

As for mythologizing politicians, I'll leave that to others.

[George II]

28. Hm, "For Al Gore it was never about him. It was always about us." Sounds like a great slogan!

Hope no one steals it.

[lapucelle]

31. And unlike another losing candidate (e.g. Trump), Gore didn't run around waving his arms,

bellowing about an apocryphal "rigged system".

[DemocraticPatriot]

18. The "radical" part is that the medicine costs so much more in America than Canada...

but I have to admire your obtuseness...

[George II]

32. Not a nice thing to say.

[DemocraticPatriot]

39. Pffffft.

So it is unkind to reply to sarcasm with sarcasm? My my, what a sinner I am....

[George II]

40. Calling someone "obtuse" is not sarcasm.

[DemocraticPatriot]

41. No, it was a valid observation of the response to the thread.

Saying that I admired it, WAS sarcasm.

[George II]

26. Actually "radical" is seven letters!

[DLevine]

9. K&R

[Celerity]

19. K & R

[BComplex]

21. Thank God for Bernie.

Fearless in calling things for what they are! Clarity. That's why he's always had such a huge following among progressives.

[betsuni]

22. Lowering pharmaceutical costs is a usual Democratic policy.

Nobody thinks it's radical except Republicans.

[George II]

27. It's in the 2020 Democratic National Committee Platform, the platform on which Biden ran:

https://democrats.org/where-we-stand/party-platform/achieving-universal-affordable-quality-health-care/

We are going to at last build the health care system the American people have always deserved: one that finally provides universal health care coverage; reduces prescription drug prices, premiums, and out-of-pocket costs; reins in overall health care expenses; and tackles the deep-seated inequities in our health care system. We will build a health care system that is driven by the needs of patients and the people who care for them, instead of the profit motives of corporations. We will tackle entrenched racial disparities in health care, reduce prescription drug prices by standing up to big pharmaceutical companies, and make it easier to access mental health and substance use disorder treatment and long-term services and supports in metropolitan and rural areas alike.

Democrats will always fight to save Americans’ lives by making it easier and more affordable to go to the doctor, get prescription medicines, and access preventive testing and treatments.

[lapucelle]

29. Not everyone reads the party platforms.

They fall prey to narratives spun by politicians and media sources.

[mopinko]

37. reform the patent system.

there is no reason for simple asthma inhalers to require an rx. none.

i use an maintenance inhaler- fluticisone. $250 on my shitty insurance.
exact same ingredient as flonase nasal spray. just a dif package. $25 otc, cheaper for generic.
why?

but rescue inhalers. no reason for them to not be $25 otc. esp these days where you need to see a doc yearly or so to get refills.