All Posts By

bubmag

“Medicare for all” and the art of political branding Scottish National Party

“Medicare for all” and the art of political branding

LAST MONTH Ronnie Cowan, a Westminster MP from the Scottish National Party, wrote to Britain’s Department for Work and Pensions on behalf of some incensed pensioners in his constituency. Pensioners are often incensed, but these complaints were not about inflation-indexing or retirement ages; they were linguistic. The irate retirees did…
bubmag
March 12, 2020
Venezuela Doctors Fear Pandemic Will Overwhelm Wrecked Hospitals Venezuela

Venezuela Doctors Fear Pandemic Will Overwhelm Wrecked Hospitals

(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela is suspending flights from Europe and Colombia to slow the pandemic that threatens to overwhelm its crumbling health system.Authorities have administered “tens” of tests for the new coronavirus, all of which were negative, President Nicolas Maduro said.The government will also ban large events and may shut land…
bubmag
March 12, 2020
Brazil communications secretary, who met Trump, has coronavirus: government Bolsonaro

Brazil communications secretary, who met Trump, has coronavirus: government

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s communications secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, has been diagnosed with coronavirus following a second confirmatory test, the presidency’s communications office said on Thursday. Wajngarten accompanied Bolsonaro on a recent trip to the U.S. and posted a photograph on Instagram standing next to Donald Trump. In…
bubmag
March 12, 2020
Winning the argument? Tories and Labour

Winning the argument?

The reaction of many on the left to the big spending rises in yesterday’s Budget is that they show that Labour has “won the argument” for higher public spending. This is partly true. On current plans (pdf), total public spending will rise to 40.8% of GDP by 2024-25*. That’s a…
bubmag
March 12, 2020
Masha Gessen on the ‘Cold War framing’ of Bernie’s foreign policy Cold War

Masha Gessen on the ‘Cold War framing’ of Bernie’s foreign policy

Photo: Gage SkidmoreAt various points in his presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders has faced questions and scrutiny about his past associations with controversial leftist regimes and groups overseas.  Last year, he almost cut short an interview with the New York Times podcast The Daily when Michael Barbaro, the host, mentioned Sanders’s…
bubmag
March 12, 2020