Low & Middle Income Americans – Your Country Needs You to Sacrifice!

Low & Middle Income Americans, Arise – Your Country Needs You to Sacrifice!

So That Our New Mega-Rich Aristocracy with Have More Money to Spend on ???

“We will end inflation and make America affordable again, and we’re going to get the prices down, we have to get them down… It’s too much. Groceries, cars, everything. We’re going to get the prices down.” 

Trump at a September Rally 

“We will cut your taxes and inflation, slash your prices, raise your wages and bring thousands of factories back to America.” 

Trump at another rally later that month.

“It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up… You know, it’s very hard.” 

Trump, in a Time Magazine interview. shortly after the election, conceding it would be impossible for him to single-handedly lower the costs of consumer goods.

We live in very different times. Urban fires where forests were irrelevant succumbed to massive walls of flames, mirroring the violent winds of hurricanes that swept walls of water into the destruction that decimated the South recently, were immediately blamed on Democratic leadership, leaning into the inane “uncleared forest floors” theory that was wholly inapplicable. The MAGA GOP leapt upon conspiracy theories as the basis to withhold FEMA money from California because of their stubbornness in their maintaining “woke” beliefs and practices, contrary to MAGA doctrines.

Even our mass and social media seem to be know-towing to our billionaire masters, fomenting “toxic masculinity” and purging fact-checking from the media-masters. These are necessary steps in any effort to unseat truth, a vigorous press, as conspiracy theories are necessary to transition away from representative democracy to a “watch your step and your mouth” illiberalized centralized government.

Yet with hard numbers showing stubborn and growing poverty, vast swaths of citizens without healthcare – vastly worse in red states than blue – MAGA was focusing on “incentivizing the job creators” again – the most disproven economic policy of the modern era – by cutting taxes for the big corporations and slicing waste (read: the pejorative term “entitlements”) from the federal budget. The lie: these massive programs of “growth through tax cuts” have never materialized; they just sound so good! No matter what Trump cuts from his “bad” list, the tax cuts alone would send the national deficit through the stratosphere. But we have “experts” (in the private government advisory board, the Department of Government Efficiency – DOGE) ready to slice and dice those federal expenditures, leaving the deficit exploding tax cuts in place.

Fear not hens and chickens, for the hatchery is well guarded by reputable and responsible wolves. Only wolves, with heartless efficiency driven by unbridled self-interest, can define the “wasteful” elements of that henhouse and set out a plan to implement its callous targets. I understand that many believe that these DOGE snarling wolves will act and recommend simply to eliminate wasteful government spends and cull the bureaucratic federal herd of those disloyal to the chief wolf in charge, but take a good look at the scenario, the economic necessities that are in the crosshairs of an oligarchical purge voters have initiated.

Why just “recommend”? It’s game-playing at its political best. By keeping these strategic planning wolves off any federal payroll – after all they can only “recommend” to the elected chief wolf in charge of what and who needs to be eliminated from the federal budget – they are not bound by any federal disclosure obligations or conflict of interest requirements (which often have criminal components). Even when the leading out-sourced recommending DOGE main wolf, the richest such wolf in the world, is feasting under massive federal contracts based on his global communications networks (most satellite enabled) or regulated by federal energy and trade administrators that can make or break (brake?) the automotive EV sector that made him so damned wealthy.

Indeed, as information about the specifics leads out, the rich can party as if there were no tomorrow, and the rest of us might as well dress up as servants catering to their rich masters and bring them the goodies they have given themselves on silver trays. Writing for the January 15th Los Angeles Times, columnist Michael Hiltzik, reveals some of the leaked Trump administration targets of that “waste”: “Now we’re beginning to see some meat on the bare bones of GOP policies, thanks to a ‘menu’ of fiscal policy reforms recently leaked to Politico.

“The one-page document, which Politico reports was produced by the House Budget Committee chaired by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), lists dozens of cutbacks adding up to supposed savings of as much as $5.7 trillion over 10 years… The main targets, moreover, are programs that the GOP has advocated paring back or eliminating for years, such as Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and food stamps. Cuts in some programs are described in the ‘menu’ under misleading headings.

“Proposals that would cut Medicaid benefits or eligibility for thousands of Americans are titled ‘Making Medicaid Work for the Most Vulnerable.’ A sheaf of proposals to raise costs for Obamacare enrollees comes under the anodyne heading, ‘Reimagining the Affordable Care Act.’

“Arrington hasn’t commented publicly on the leaked document. His committee hasn’t responded to my request for comment. But he has made his name as a budget hawk: ‘We ought to be able to unleash growth through tax cuts,’ he told the Wall Street Journal after the November election, ‘and we ought to be able to bend the spending curve.’ [Dekom Insert: Not again!]

“How many of these proposals can actually be enacted by the current Congress is unclear, since the GOP majority is narrow in the Senate and razor-thin in the House. Some proposals could hit hard in states and districts represented by Republicans. But the theme of the proposals is unmistakable — safety net programs and several Biden initiatives are on the chopping block.” As Hiltzik travels though the proposed “entitlement” cuts, it is clear that virtually no one from the middle on down the economic ladder will benefit, but monied class make out like bandits. With less oversight in favor of ordinary Americans, actual watchdog programs eliminated, educational, environmental and financial checks on the mega-rich will fade into oblivion. Money trumps democracy!

I’m Peter Dekom, and in the end, these proposals seem to reflect a pattern on how to transition a representative democracy into the handmaid’s tale where most of us are simply there simply there in order to benefit our oligarchical masters.

But They’re Our MAGA Billionaires!

But They’re Our MAGA Billionaires!

Take a good look at the above photograph. These are the folks who are positioned closest to Donald Trump on the dais at his Inauguration at the Capitol Rotunda on January 20th. Tech billionaires, even given preferential seating closer to Trump than his own cabinet appointees (which include a few more billionaires). It includes once Democratic Party supporters who rushed to Mr Trump to preserve their assets from attack and maximize governmental policies now that Trump was the winner. They could not contribute enough to his inaugural moment; it was clear that the new kids on top are the same as the old kids on top. Tech billionaires, crypto supporters and media moguls groveled at the feet of the new President (co-president with Elon Musk, right above). There could not have been a clearer announcement that the government had indeed transitioned from democracy to oligarchy.

But wait, there’s more. Amplifying on the Supreme Court’s determination of presidential immunity if the commander-in-chief’s actions have a colorable relationship to an official governmental function, that must include the pardoning of over 1500 convicted criminals, mostly felons, including many who clearly perpetrated violence (some life-threatening) against Capitol Police officers. Not to mention that the constitutional right to pardon is a presidential absolute. With some sentences running more than two decades for serious felonies, what Donald Trump seems to have created with this mass of pardons and commutations is a private army, loyal only to him, with no accountability to any other statute, constitutional provision or body of police governance. Trump’s message at its worst is: “If you do what I ask, no matter if it violates laws or constitutional proscriptions, I will pardon you.”

Even the police unions that backed Trump were aghast: “The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which endorsed Trump in September 2024, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) warned that the blanket clemency offered to rioters – including those convicted of violent offenses, and several leaders of the attack on the Capitol – threatened Americans’ safety.

“‘The IACP and FOP are deeply discouraged by the recent pardons and commutations granted by both the Biden and Trump administrations to individuals convicted of killing or assaulting law enforcement officers. The IACP and FOP firmly believe that those convicted of such crimes should serve their full sentences,’ the IACP and FOP statement said.” The Guardian, January 22nd.

In WWII Germany, the SS troops had Hitler’s blessing and protection. Extermination of “Jews and other undesirables” was sanctioned and protected by Nazi beliefs and belittlements. Millions perished, including 6 million people who only “crime” was a particular belief in God, per a book (the Old Testament) that was also holy to Christians. Back to contemporary America. Will we even have another election to alter the course of our nation? Trump squeezed a victory (the popular vote differential was about 1.5%) mostly based on economic malaise with his voters’ being unconvinced that Biden had “turned it around.”

Trump has already conceded that he is unlikely to bring grocery prices down, and his “drill, baby, drill” mantra (when the US is already at record-breaking oil and gas extraction levels) is unlikely to lower prices at the pump. Without workers to harvest crops (traditionally the vast majority have been undocumented aliens) or remotely enough construction workers to build housing at affordable levels (again so many are undocumented aliens), food prices are poised to soar, and the issue of housing affordability will soon be dramatically worse. LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik (January 22nd) notes that the Trump administration’s statement that they would initially only pursue the criminal element couldn’t be farther from the truth.

“On Jan. 7, the phones of immigration advocates in Bakersfield [an oil and agricultural region in Central California] began lighting up with calls from immigrant farmworkers. The messages said the U.S. Border Patrol was conducting an indiscriminate dragnet in the area, pulling over vehicles presumed to be carrying immigrants to work and taking dozens into custody… To the advocates, this didn’t seem right. The Border Patrol — a unit of U.S. Customs and Border Protection — had not been seen operating in anyone’s memory in Bakersfield, some 300 miles from the patrol’s California offices in El Centro, a few miles from the Mexican border.

“Although there are two detention centers in Bakersfield run by ICE — Immigration and Customs Enforcement — none of the detainees could be found in either one. The Border Patrol, a sister agency of ICE, staged its raids not at ICE installations, but out of a parking lot at a facility of the Interior Department, which has nothing to do with immigration or border security… The Border Patrol eventually asserted that it had conducted a four-day ‘targeted enforcement’ operation aimed at undocumented immigrants with criminal records, ultimately detaining 78 individuals mostly for crimes such as drug trafficking, burglary and child abuse.” Those witnessing the events saw hundreds of individuals loaded into busses and taken away. Food costs, here they come!

But Trump had more than kitchen table, bread and butter issues to justify his victory. Gen Z male voters, particularly those without higher education, reacting to toxic “woke” feminine values seemingly rising to usurp male dominance, dislodged young Hispanic and white college-educated men from the Democratic Party, unlikely to return to the Dems anytime in the foreseeable future. Picking on LGBTQ+ people, a tiny minority, seemed to work too. Since Trump cannot deliver on the basic economic issues, he needed “culture wars” and “gender confusion” to apply his politics of blame.

After being beseeched by an Episcopal Bishop at the National Cathedral to show mercy to vulnerable and terrified minorities (particularly in gender cohorts), Trump reacted by reversing longstanding policies that restricted immigration enforcement at sensitive locations such as schools, churches, and hospitals; as of January 21st, these venues were now open game to ICE officers.

All this as Trump’s billionaire buddies were chaffing at the bit to get the debt ceiling raised enough for them to get the massive tax cuts Trump promised corporate America and the wealthiest class. Everyone knows that incurred massive increases in our deficit to serve no purpose other than to reward Trump’s cronies (the notion of “job creation” from tax cuts has never worked)… may destroy the global strength of the US dollar. So what, say the MAGA billionaires, we can always cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, educational support and other “entitlements” so we truly entitled billionaires can buy more homes, jets, yachts… and M&A our way to bigger and more powerful companies, soon to be free of regulation.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if this is too stressful for you, how about a cruise in the Gulf of America or, perhaps when summer comes, go to Alaska to visit Mt. McKinley.

Waist v Waste

 

John in the Bible’s Revelation 6:1–8

Waist v Waste

Plastics – Love ‘Em/Hate ‘Em// Climate Change: So What?

“Our world is drowning in plastic pollution… By 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean… Microplastics in our bloodstreams are creating health problems we’re only just beginning to understand.”

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, November 25th.

From greenhouse gas emissions to microplastics everywhere and uneaten food rotting in dumps and landfills generating lots of methane… Mother Nature, humanity has a self-inflicted problem. Mother Nature’s response, invoking her immutable laws of physics: “So what, I specialize in global catastrophes and species extinction! See any dinosaurs anywhere? LOL. Maybe, you’re next?!” Hey Mother Nature, that’s so callous and cruel! “Yeah, but it is what it is. Deal with it!!!” But among deniers, marginalizers, austerity buffs, those who place commercial interests above any environmental concerns, small nations who expect big nations to fund it all, science skeptics, those who are wildly misinformed, it is abundantly clear that the necessary change or pace of change is way too little, way too late. Mankind seems destined to face its hardest lessons!

Perhaps, maintain those fearing Malthusian overcrowding, this is a just mechanism – joining war, plague, petulance, famine – as the overpowering population control overseers. We are witnessing demographic vectors in the severe and general population contraction as birthrates plunge in developed and educated nations, from China, Japan and Korea in the Eastern Hemisphere, to the United States and Western Europe in the Western Hemisphere. What do they fear? Impoverished nations claim an economic inability to take corrective action, while in rich nations, business interests pour billions (legal and illegal) into making sure that corrective regulation will not impact their bottom line at all… or at least slow the process to a crawl. It’s often simple missteps that do not make the headlines, added to the mega-climate disasters so many believe are simple “natural cycles.”

Writing for the November 28th Los Angeles Times, Kate Linthicum addresses one of those ignored realities: “Each day, an army of trucks delivers tens of thousands of pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables to Mexico City’s Central de Abasto, one of the world’s largest wholesale food markets… Most of the produce finds its way to people’s kitchens, and eventually their stomachs. But around 420 tons goes bad each day before it can be sold. It ends up, like so much food around the world, in a landfill.

“Globally, a staggering one-third of all food that is produced is never eaten. That waste — more than 1 billion tons annually — fuels climate change. As organic matter decomposes, it releases methane, a greenhouse gas that is much more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to warming the planet… The United Nations estimates that up to 10% of all human-produced greenhouse gases are generated by food loss and waste. That’s nearly five times the emissions from the aviation industry.” As cattle are among the greatest emitters of methane, “Dairy farmers in Denmark face having to pay an annual tax of 672 krone ($96) per cow for the planet-heating emissions they generate.” CNN, June 27th. One tiny step from a small, rich country.

The 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) climate change warning metric is already toast. No matter how much we have conferences and pollution directed international treaty gatherings, not much happens. The 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 29) held from 11 to 22 November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan – ironically in a nation that extracts massive levels of fossil fuels as its core industry – produced little in the way of meaningful climate change progress.

Likewise, delegates from 175 countries met in late November, in Busan, South Korea, to consider increasing policies and restrictions to contain pollution, with a heavy emphasis on plastic waste. This conference represented the “fifth and final round of negotiations … for a United Nations-led treaty that would regulate plastic’s full life cycle, including its production, design and disposal.

“Many hoped the initiative, which began two years ago, would result in the most consequential environmental accord since the Paris climate agreement in 2016… Yet over the course of four rounds of talks, sharp divisions emerged, stirring concern that the session in Busan [ended] with a watered-down treaty far removed from those ambitious goals.

“The biggest disagreements center on whether the treaty should focus on reducing overall plastic production or whether it is sufficient to simply improve recycling practices… Meanwhile, the commitment of the U.S., which is one of the world’s top producers of plastic waste, has been cast into doubt after the outcome of the presidential election.” Max Kim for the November 28th Los Angeles Times. Indeed, the same President who pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Change Accord in 2016, has assembled a cadre of senior nominees to cabinet and subcabinet posts who are hardened climate change deniers and dedicated disruptors against any regulations that would rein in corporate polluters at any level. Nature does not care.

Plastic waste represents an environmental catastrophe – from the massive floating gyres of ocean debris (like the 620 thousand square mile Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch) to the microplastics are present in almost all forms of life, significantly including humans – of alarming proportions. Health threats, killers and often unrecyclable toxins. “Few disagree that the level of pollution has reached alarming heights… Between 2000 and 2019, annual production of plastics doubled to 460 million tons. It is expected to reach 736 million tons by 2040, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“Very little of the world’s plastic waste — about half of which comes from single-use plastics such as packaging, straws and disposable utensils — is recycled. Just 9% of the 353 million tons of plastic discarded in 2019 was recycled… That figure is even lower in the U.S., where each person generates an average of 487 pounds of plastic waste each year: Just 4% was recycled in 2019, with the majority incinerated or dumped in landfills… Because it does not biodegrade, much of the plastic we throw away ends up leaking into the environment as microplastics — tiny particles less than 5 millimeters in size that have been found in water, food and even in human placentas.” Max Kim.

And it can kill, slowly or with dramatic speed. While individuals seem to be able to make sensible decisions on frequent occasions, the major leaders of our entire planet struggle to deal with the most existential threats to life itself. A slow, miserable strangulation of inaction. There is no Ozempic for self-deluded stupidity!

I’m Peter Dekom, and while humanity does not seem to care much about these existential threats, Mother Nature actually doesn’t care at all!

Current Events – Not So Obvious and Even Less Pretty

Wildfires are exceptionally visual and hard to ignore. So are the growing number of increasingly powerful hurricanes, mostly focused on red states. Flooding vs drought meet drying aquifers in our nation’s Midwest. What is less visible but perhaps more globally impactful on nations bordering the North Atlantic Ocean is the potential of losing an essential Atlantic current. It’s all part of the massive impact that climate change is imposing on so many natural global patterns.

Scientist are waking up: “Forty-four of the world's leading climate scientists have called on Nordic policymakers to address the potentially imminent and ‘devastating’ collapse of key Atlantic Ocean currents… In an open letter published online Monday (Oct. 21), University of Pennsylvania climatologist Michael Mann and other eminent scientists say the risks of weakening ocean circulation in the Atlantic have been greatly underestimated and warrant urgent action.

“The currents in question are those forming the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a giant ocean conveyor belt that includes the Gulf Stream and transports vital heat to the Northern Hemisphere. Research shows the AMOC is slowing down and could soon reach a tipping point due to global warming, throwing Earth's climate into chaos.” Sascha Pare, October 22nd, on LiveScience.com. We’re not sure exactly when, but the signs are evident to scientists tracking the phenomenon. Most agree, the event is not too far off. The above map, from physics.org, illustrates how these currents work when properly flowing.

Not only does this current system allow Europe to enjoy relative moderate winters, but the sea life ecosystem, their food sources and the underwater vegetation (plants that scrub greenhouse gases and lie at the base of the relevant food chain), could be severely decimated if that current stops. Writing for the February 9th CNN News, Laura Paddiso, adds some specifics, including the surrounding ambiguities: “A 2021 study found that the AMOC was weaker than any other time in the past 1,000 years. And a particularly alarming — and somewhat controversial — report published in July last year, concluded that the AMOC could be on course to collapse potentially as early as 2025.

“Yet huge uncertainties remain. Jeffrey Kargel, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, said he suspected the theory of a potentially imminent shutdown of the AMOC ‘will remain somewhat controversial until, one year, we know that it is happening.’… He likened its potential collapse to the ‘wild gyrations of a stock market that precede a major crash’ — it’s nearly impossible to unpick which changes are reversible, and which are a precursor to a disaster.

“Modern data shows the AMOC’s strength fluctuates, but there is no observed evidence yet of a decline, Hirschi said. ‘Whether abrupt changes in the AMOC similar to those seen in the past will occur as our climate continues to warm is an important open question.’… This study is a piece of that puzzle, Rahmstorf said. ‘(It) adds significantly to the rising concern about an AMOC collapse in the not too distant future,’ he said. ‘We will ignore this risk at our peril.’”

Eric Ralls, writing for the November 27th Earth.com, explains this current: “It starts in the Gulf of Mexico, where warm, salty water flows northward along the eastern coast of the United States and across the Atlantic towards Europe… As this warm water reaches the North Atlantic, it cools down, becomes denser, and sinks deep into the ocean… This sinking process pulls more warm water north to replace it, creating a continuous loop that helps regulate the climate by distributing heat across the planet…

“Humans rely on the AMOC in several important ways. By regulating global temperatures, it helps maintain stable weather patterns, which are crucial for agriculture, ecosystems, and our daily lives. Researchers point out that the… AMOC… is now weaker than at any other time in the past 1,000 years… The research team from several leading universities explains that global warming is behind this slowdown… Their new modeling suggests that meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet and Canadian glaciers could be the missing piece of the puzzle….

“The Earth has already warmed 1.5ºC since the industrial revolution, and the Arctic has been heating up nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet… All that heat is melting Arctic sea ice, glaciers, and the Greenland ice sheet… ‘Since 2002, Greenland lost 5,900 billion tons (gigatons) of ice,’ notes the research team. ‘To put that into perspective, imagine if the entire state of Texas was covered in ice 26 feet thick.’…All this fresh meltwater flowing into the subarctic ocean is lighter than salty seawater, so it doesn’t sink as much.

“That messes with the southward flow of deep, cold waters from the Atlantic and weakens the Gulf Stream — the same current that gives Britain its mild winters… ‘Our new research also shows the North and South Atlantic oceans are more connected than previously thought,’ the team states… Changes in one part of the ocean can quickly affect distant regions. When the oceanic circulation is strong, it transfers a lot of heat to the North Atlantic… But when it weakens, the surface of the ocean south of Greenland doesn’t warm up as much, leading to what’s called a ‘warming hole.’ Meanwhile, the South Atlantic ends up storing more heat and salt.”

And yet, our nation is dominated by climate change skeptics and hordes of people who believe scientists are woke elitists. They embrace conspiracy theories over facts and often believe if they pray hard enough, God will bless them by recycling the Earth to fonder times. As I like to repeat, Mother Nature started with nothing, is governed by the laws of physics and is thoroughly unimpressed with politicians who believe they can legislate climate disruptions away. Preferences to rich business interests over responsible environment polices persist. Simply put, Mother Nature just plain does not care. Humanity also is still unwilling to care enough to contain this existential threat.

I’m Peter Dekom, and facing reality seems to me to be the only path to sustain life and the planet we all hope it can remain.

Trump Junior in Argentina… Sort Of

 

“My contempt for the state is infinite” 

Argentina’s President Javier Milei

Argentina has a long history, a checkered past if you will, with populism. On the heels of WWII, “[a]fter a campaign marked by repression of the liberal opposition by the federal police and by strong-arm squads, [Juan] Perón was elected president in February 1946 with 56 percent of the popular vote… Perón set Argentina on a course of industrialization and state intervention in the economy, calculated to provide greater economic and social benefits for the working class. He also adopted a strong anti-United States and anti-British position, preaching the virtues of his so-called justicialismo (‘social justice’) and ‘Third Position,’ an authoritarian and populist system between communism and capitalism…

“If Perón did not structurally revolutionize Argentina, he did reshape the country, bringing needed benefits to industrial workers in the form of wage increases and fringe benefits. He nationalized the railroads and other utilities and financed public works on a large scale. The funds for those costly innovations—and for the graft that early began to corrode his regime—came from the foreign exchange accumulated by Argentine exports during World War II and from the profits of the state agency that set the prices for agricultural products. Perón dictated the country's political life by his command of the armed forces. He severely restricted and in some areas eliminated constitutional liberties, and in 1949 he arranged a convention to write a new constitution that would permit his reelection.” Britannica. Cronyism and patronage were Perón’s currency for years. Even as a popular “hero to the people,” he was a brutal, arrogant populist tyrant… but finally deposed in 1955. His policies have risen and fallen over the years since.

Unlike the United States, which financed its “guns and butter” deficits through an internationally accepted sale of US bonds with the US as the effective guarantor, populist programs in Argentina over the years were funded by devaluing the peso into oblivion and facing IMF and global bailout lending… and repeated defaults, all sorts of failed price controls and currency limitations. Argentina has become a trope for banana republics rife with populist mega-inflation. And last year, they elected a government hating populist strongman: Javier Milei. Starting with the phrase “Argentina’s president is idolised by the Trumpian right. They should get to know him better,” the November 28th The Economist looked at this antigovernment paradigm, often erroneously cast as the Latin American equivalent of Hungary’s PM, Viktor Orbán:

“Many people in America hope that the new Trump administration will take an axe to a bloated and overbearing government, cutting spending and rolling back regulation. Whether this goal is even plausible any more is a crucial question for America and the world, after two decades in which government debt globally has risen relentlessly, fueled by the financial crisis of 2007-09 and the pandemic. For an answer, and a case study of taming an out-of-control Leviathan, head 5,000 miles south from Washington, where an extraordinary experiment is under way.

“Javier Milei… campaigned wielding a chainsaw [pictured above], but his economic programme is serious and one of the most radical doses of free-market medicine since Thatcherism. It comes with risks, if only because of Argentina’s history of instability and Mr Milei’s explosive personality. But the lessons are striking, too… The left detests him and the Trumpian right embraces him, but he truly belongs to neither group. He has shown that the continual expansion of the state is not inevitable. And he is a principled rebuke to opportunistic populism, of the sort practised by Donald Trump. Mr Milei believes in free trade and free markets, not protectionism; fiscal discipline, not reckless borrowing; and, instead of spinning popular fantasies, brutal public truth-telling.

“Argentina has been in trouble for decades, with a state that handed out patronage, politicians who lied and a central bank that printed money to paper over the cracks… It is so far the only country in modern economic history to have tumbled from rich-world status back into the middle-income bracket.

“Mr Milei was elected with a mandate to reverse this decline. His chainsaw has cut public spending by almost a third in real terms, halved the number of ministries and engineered a budget surplus. There has been a bonfire of red tape, liberating markets from housing rentals to airlines. The results are encouraging. Inflation has fallen from 13% month on month to 3%. Investors’ assessment of the risk of default has halved. A battered economy is showing signs of recovery.

“What is fascinating is the philosophy behind the figures. Mr Milei is often wrongly lumped in with populist leaders such as Mr Trump, the hard right in France and Germany or Viktor Orban in Hungary. In fact he comes from a different tradition. A true believer in open markets and individual liberty, he has a quasi-religious zeal for economic freedom, a hatred of socialism and, as he told us in an interview… ‘infinite’ contempt for the state. Instead of industrial policy and tariffs, he promotes trade with private firms that do not interfere in Argentina’s domestic affairs, including Chinese ones. He is a small-state Republican who admires Margaret Thatcher—a messianic example of an endangered species. His poll ratings are rising and, at this point in his term, he is more popular in Argentina than his recent predecessors were.

“Make no mistake, the Milei experiment could still go badly wrong. Austerity has caused an increase in the poverty rate, which jumped to 53% in the first half of 2024 from 40% a year earlier. Mr Milei could struggle to govern if resistance builds and the Peronist opposition is better organised. Investor confidence will be tested if he finally removes capital controls and shifts an overvalued peso to a flexible exchange-rate regime: a currency slump could test nerves and push inflation back up. Mr Milei is an eccentric who could become distracted by culture wars over gender and climate change, and thus neglect his core mission of restoring Argentina’s economy to growth.” Like Milei, Trump’s success depends most on economic success, even eclipsing his main theme “immigration” detain and deport extremism. And if indeed Trump forces his economic policies down America’s throat (and more than a few trading partners), his chainsaw could indeed sputter and die… and perhaps be turned on him.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we can learn a great deal by watching how the policies of elected autocrats rise, fall or truly collapse the nations that elected them.

Too Big to Succeed?

 

The United States is the third most populous nation on Earth. Only India and China, culturally profoundly different and despite language issues oddly homogeneous compared with the United States, have more people. Each nation struggles with governance, China with repression, India with a strange balance between powerful local rule (Chief Ministers – the US equivalent of governors – exercise near total control over their designated state) and less powerful central national power (currently under PM Narendra Modi of the Hindu Nationalist BJP Party). The forms of government in these two Asian powers were only created in the middle of the 20th century, while the US form of government was created 200 years earlier.

Simply, the ability of the US democracy to govern effectively has recently unraveled to the extent that deep “irreconcilable differences” – mutually inconsistent visions of governance – have rendered that historic pattern of legislative compromise a vestige the past that has slipped by. Butterfly effects have redesigned our nation. As Canada has contained the cost of higher education, producing STEM candidates at reasonable costs, the average educational level has risen proportionally. With no real healthcare issues, Canada has avoided having classes of healthcare haves and haves not (or have a whole lot less). As an extension of these realities, Canada is now leaning less on religious foundations and increasingly on fact-driven scientific realities.

That Canadians are looking at fundamentalist religion and aversion to reliance on empirical facts as a uniquely American phenomenon which actually scares them, and those Americans holding what would be radical minority views in Canada are anti-democratic, pro-autocracy really, and represent a growing sentiment where democracy cannot be sustained.

That America has risen to be an economic monolith with bully tactics and a clear desire to extend her borders into nearby nations is sending political shudders across the Great White Northland. As discussed in the January 13th The Conversation by Canadian academics Galen Watts and Sam Reimer, organized religion’s brand is becoming decreasingly popular, just as liberalism and secular science have become culturally dominant: “In 1961, less than one per cent of Canadians identified as having no religion. In 2021, 43 per cent of those between 15 and 35 considered themselves religiously unaffiliated… Organized religion — and especially Christianity — is in decline. Secularization is advancing apace. Most sociologists of religion agree on this. What they disagree about, however, is why…

“To understand branding’s role in shaping views of ‘religion’ we drew from recent survey data on young Canadians’ shifting sentiments toward the term, as well as our own interview data with 50 Anglo-Canadians born between 1980-2000 who identify as ‘spiritual but not religious’ — a phrase claimed by around 40 per cent of Canadians.

“Our findings indicate that the decline of organized religion in Canada is caused by a significant shift in the country’s religious imaginary: while ‘religion’ was once widely seen by Canadians in positive terms, among younger people especially, it is increasingly seen in a negative light.

“Many of the Canadian millennials we spoke to tended to view the word ‘religion’ as:

(1) anti-modern;

(2) conservative;

(3) American; and

(4) colonial.”

But we Americans now live in a world where if the Americans who seem out of power (liberals) do not admit they are wrong and that red states are the only correct political voice, the blue Americans cannot receive benefits, like disaster relief, from the political party in power. And that includes denigrating scientific thought, decrying our finest institutions of higher learning as woke and out of touch with “reality” and elevating obviously inane conspiracy theories above empirical facts. Even as we are a nation of immigrants, dependent on poor immigrants to harvest our food and build our homes, as the local population no longer has babies anywhere near replacement value, we have turned on immigrants with no sensible policy ready to right our ship.

Addressing the recent fires in California, all sorts of “blame” has been heaped on our elected leadership. Trump himself could not fathom how local firefighters could not put out a fire… not remotely understanding that red state leaders could no more stop water carrying hurricanes than fires facing the same level of winds. MAGA officials continue to blame California for not cleaning up their forest land as the cause… even though these were not “forest fires,” and it is federal forest land that needs the clean-up.

There is no fault here except our “woke” refusal to face climate change as the underlying vector of power. 2023 as the warmest year on record was just a repetition of a string of warming records. But once those “theories” are uttered in MAGAland, they become immutable truths. “Obviously there's been water resources management, forest management mistakes, all sorts of problems. And it does come down to leadership and it appears to us that state and local leaders were derelict in their duty in many respects… So that's something that has to be factored in. I think there should probably be conditions on that aid. That's my personal view." House Speaker Johnson, echoing the opinion of his most rightwing faction, some of whom simply want to withhold fire aid entirely.

As the United States grew, mostly from immigration, it got rich. Scientific facts and good old fashioned American engineering exploded economic growth. But as economic equality began to slip away, as a new class of billionaires rose, complaining about high taxes and too much consumer and environmental regulation, excoriating extending healthcare and retirement benefits to ordinary Americans as “entitlements” and “creeping socialism,” those oligarchs used religion and fundamental “American values” to stop those benefits to the American who paid into the system.

Canadians are happier these days, even with their own political turmoil, than are we. Why is that? How does a democratic government function when even the basic “facts” around us are refuted and replaced with vacuous conspiracy theories? I guess it doesn’t. It used to be that we were big enough to tolerate markedly divergent views… we were the great mixing bowl that accelerated growth and prosperity. But today, that very bigness has created such strong factions that we are slip-sliding in the wrong direction… and the piper is en route to our shores.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if we cannot build our society on reality, how can democracy survive… or does that matter anymore?

Blame, Don’t Solve and, Above All, Protect the Super-Rich

 

“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snow melt from the north to flow daily into many parts of California, including the parts that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Donald Trump. That water restoration declaration never existed.

“I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to flow into California. He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster.” 

Trump fabrication.

I live in a rightwing, pincushion, spear-catching state that is the major vegetable growing and technology creating state in the Union. California. Far from perfect, California is the most important part of our national economy. According to the Calif. Public Policy Institute, in 2023, California's gross domestic product (GDP) was about $3.9 trillion, comprising 14% of national GDP ($27.7 trillion). Texas and New York are the next largest state economies, at 9% and 8%, respectively. California's economy ranks fifth internationally, behind the US, China, Germany, and Japan. What’s more, California contributes significantly more to the federal tax base than the aggregation of any benefits it receives. And there are rather large areas of California – from farm country to the wealthiest enclaves of Orange County – that are politically as red as Idaho.

Fact: we are facing “natural” (actually, man-induced) disasters that are escalating in number and intensity as virtually every year, the average global temperature exceeds that of the previous year. Hurricanes, wildfires, coastal erosion, rising seas, severe drought in some areas, severe flooding elsewhere. Above all, demon winds of unprecedented ferocity are decimating our way of life. And no, this is not God’s punishment to anti-Christian/woke Americans for embracing diversity (isn’t that the tolerance set out in the New Testament?) or the “hate thy neighbor” anti-immigrant wave that throws the baby out with the bathwater. Who will rebuild our losses? Harvest our crops? Do the work local Americans cannot or will not do?

From my window in my home office, I can see massive smoke enveloping the Westside of LA and the hills that rise above the city. I am getting texts, emails and phone calls about who, in my group of friends, folks I work with every day, have lost their homes, cars, possessions and memory-laden personal effects. I have cried solid tears for their losses… and while I know they will come back better than ever, unlike so many leering at California, grasping at Schadenfreude as if it we the elixir of gods, delighting in our misery, I feel their pain, even as I struggle to recover from my own major surgery.

At a time when Americans should pull together, the death and destruction around me has become wildly exploited by the religious right – that punishment motif – MAGA for some purported compromised competence because there are too many DEI first responders (raw racism) and a complete misunderstanding of the largest urban American firestorm (with winds at hurricane strength supercharging embers of destruction to attack new targets) in the 21st Century. Simply, no one has ever had to deal with a firestorm of this magnitude. While a small portion of our water reserves were being updated and repaired, no one at any level of understanding thought we were lacking enough water to feed hydrants everywhere. But we were. One of our essential water-dropping aircraft was taken out of service when it collided with a civilian drone that had no business being there.

We’ve had virtually zero rain. Atmospheric rivers may have doused Northern California, but they missed us. Everything here is profoundly dry. We are lumbering past that 1.5 degrees Celsius red alert level, facing a future of increasing damage and intensity. And this will hardly be relegated to California. Climate change denial is all the rage in so many demographic segments of America… and “drill, baby, drill” will neither reduce prices at the pump nor restore America to greatness again. Rightwing vituperatives solve nothing, in fact lead people not to act in order to “teach those lefty Californians a lesson.”

Californians have fought fires all across the US, leaped into action when hurricanes decimated vast regions and voted to increase disaster relief without limits or question. We’re Americans! We only ask that we be treated and cared for as we have treated and cared for other Americans in their time of need.

I’m Peter Dekom, and apocalyptic Los Angeles is not a disaster that we be relegated to the history books; it is the vision of the world of the future that just couldn’t give up fossil fuels.

A Hack is a Cough, an Amateur or, in China, a Hero

 

"China has built the world's most comprehensive ecosystem for capture-the-flag (CTF [hidden pieces of data (the ‘flags’]) competitions—the predominant form of hacking competitions, ranging from team-versus-team play to Jeopardy-style knowledge challenges… China's CTF ecosystem is unparalleled in size and scope—something akin to four overlapping National Collegiate Athletic Associations, each with a primary government sponsor just for cybersecurity students to exercise their skills… Many of these marquee competitions include talent-spotting mechanisms for recruitment." 

 Per a report from the D.C.-based Atlantic Council think tank.

Donald Trump’s unabashed priorities – as evidenced by his cabinet picks – focus heavily on making clear that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is America’s primary enemy. Tariffs. International waterways. Technology security. Social media control (like TikTok). Maybe even Taiwan. Trump’s continued relationship with Russia’s Putin and his closeness to Israel’s Netanyahu suggest that the wars in Ukraine and Gaza will be relegated to sideshow distractions as his administration focuses on marginalizing, isolating and containing Xi Jinping’s global ambitions… particularly challenging that Chinese President’s effort to marginalize the United States, create workarounds against the domination of the dollar and US trading platforms, and cement international ties to limit American influence outside of our traditional allies.

Traditionally, the United States has been wary of cozy relations between Moscow and Beijing. That entente has recently witnessed a strange move of those two powers to work together more, particularly in joint efforts at countering the United States in her own Arctic backyard. But Russia’s engagement with North Korea, including that small nation’s sending thousands of troops to fight against Ukraine, seems to be a threat to China’s unique and primary relationship with Pyongyang. China’s ground forces truly outnumber ours; her air power dominates her region well beyond any countermeasures we might mount, and while still not as advanced as out naval capacity, the PRC has a larger total fleet and an overwhelming sea-based advantage in China’s neighborhood, including a new naval base in the Spratley island chain. Missiles, jets and nukes? Oh yeah!

Even as China’s economy is still suffering from a real estate, banking and unemployment crisis, US tariffs are a genuine threat to her recovery. But Xi has been preparing for years to trip up and contain US economy and military dominance in anticipation of this ultimate showdown. She has engaged in industrial espionage on an unprecedented scale and has created one of the most effective and highly substantial programs that hack our most sensitive private sectors (from medical, social media, power grids, financial to cutting edge technology) and our government. China’s capacity to spy and misinform through hacking may be the most sophisticated on earth.

As the above quote suggests, “Hacking competitions in China have surged over recent years, supported by strong government backing and rising public interest, raising alarm in the U.S., where officials are warning that the widening cyber skills gap is placing America at a strategic disadvantage and posing national security risks.

“China has made great strides since President Xi Jinping's call for the nation to become a ‘cyber powerhouse’ a decade ago. University programs in cybersecurity have been standardized, a National Cybersecurity Talent and Innovation Base capable of certifying 70,000 cybersecurity experts per year was established, and hacking competitions—many touting their alignment with Xi's ‘powerhouse’ ambition—have proliferated…

“Jessica Ruzic, deputy associate chief of policy at the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), pointed out during an Atlantic Council event streamed on Saturday that the long-term focus of China's authoritarian, one-party state model has afforded it more continuity than the short-term approach seen in democracies like the U.S.

“‘China's mentality is that they are building something structural, and the U.S. mentality is that we are trying to solve a problem that's right in front of us,’ Ruzic said during an online event hosted by the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub. ‘The U.S. government as a whole is not set up for long-term strategic thinking. That's just not the way that term limits work, right?... Frankly the time to establish a foundational strategy for countering PRC… malicious cyber activity was 20 years ago…”

“Dakota Cary, co-author and nonresident fellow at the Global China Hub and co-author of the Atlantic Council report, pointed to a difference in focus between Chinese and American CTF competitions… ‘The U.S. CTF ecosystem generally hosts defensively oriented competitions designed to assess participants' ability to secure their systems against attack. For many of China's CTFs, offensively oriented skills are tested and prioritized,’ he said.

“When asked about the U.S.'s cyber capabilities since whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency's global surveillance programs, Cary said perceptions of U.S. dominance are outdated… ‘Large-scale, back-end collection is now incredibly difficult due to pervasive encryption,’ he said. ‘The U.S. system was previously unparalleled, but many in the field now admit that China is the more capable actor. The scale of its research community dwarfs other nations, both due to China's size and its focused effort over the last decade.’” Newsweek, November 12th. With China’s ability to throw hundreds of thousands of operatives at targeted hacking, the aggregation of bits of hacked “flags” can be monumental.

What are they looking to do (or might have already accomplished)? “FBI director Christopher Wray and other intelligence officials have warned Chinese hackers seek to lay the groundwork for the country to disrupt critical infrastructure when the moment is right, as well as engage in intellectual property theft… ‘The PRC has a bigger hacking program than every other major nation combined,’ Wray said in a Congressional hearing earlier this year. He warned that hackers are laying the groundwork to ‘wreak havoc’ on American infrastructure when doing so would benefit China.” Newsweek.

They can also subtly sow dis- and mis-information into social media at an unprecedented rate, often exceptionally difficult to trace, but quite capable of planting credible conspiracy theories that are quickly lapped up by gullible Americans seeking evidence to support their political leanings. Are the Chinese better at this technological challenge than we are? Vastly. Is their cyber hacking capacity larger and more effective than ours? Vastly. Just look at how “vast and influential” TikTok is today. Red (literally) alert!

I’m Peter Dekom, and the raw political ambition of a Chinese autocrat, who has disposed of term limits a long time ago, is thoroughly focused on unseating the United States from its primacy in global influence, military power, technology and economic domination.

Dementia, Bravado or Unparalleled Narcissistic Personality Disorder

 

Dementia, Bravado or Unparalleled Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Greenland, Panama and Even Canada?!

As the richest person in the world ranges and forages among Europe’s rising rightwing – we believe in efficient autocracy – among major and often governing political parties, alienating liberal governments as if he were immune from retribution, US Co-President designee, Elon Musk deploys his vast wealth and influence first and foremost, on his own investment holdings, and secondarily to destabilize liberal forces that refute his vision of who should rule… and who should bow down in absolute fealty to him. Is Trump becoming less mentally stable – just think what the rightwing would have said if Biden had uttered such Trump Greenland/Panama/Canada territorial “claims” – or is he otherwise protecting his center-stage in global politics by making demands and observations far more bullying than Musk.

For Trump, is this the Monroe Doctrine reboot on steroids turned on its megalomaniacal head? The world is watching. Trump touted a sale of Greenland by Denmark (it is semi-autonomous Danish territory since 1953 and could not be sold without a local vote anyway) during his first term, but the initial response this second time around was met with a belief that this was Trump’s attempt at humor. Yet as this claim was repeated with increasing seriousness, as Donny Trump (above) traveled to Greenland (a huge Arctic land with under 100,000 people), people began to take the elder Trump’s threat (a little hint of saber rattling behind the offer to buy) seriously. On January 7th, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders” and that the island is “not for sale.” Not now. Not ever.

Trump did his usual double-down – coupled with his seemingly equally serious threat to Panama (which acquired the US-built Panama Canal in 1977 during the Carter administration) to lower canal fees and give US vessels a preference or else expect a US takeover. The Canal recently incurred billions of dollars in investment to modernize and widen the passage, and ships are allowed to enter the Canal with no built-in preferences. Cost to traverse the Canal? Generally, between $300,000 and $1,000,000 depending on size. Nobody gets a discount. But President-elect Trump hinted that he would use economic and military force to take back the Canal if Panama does not steeply discount passage to US ships (cargo and military) and accord such ships a priority. Panama stiffly resisted. Greenland too?

"There is obviously no question that the European Union would never let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are… We are a strong continent." French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told France Inter radio in response to a hypothetical question addressing a US invasion of Greenland. Arctic power Russia made its own intentions clear “Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Russia is closely monitoring the situation, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military action to take Greenland from Denmark… Peskov said the Arctic was in Russia's ‘sphere of national and strategic interests and it is interested in peace and stability there.’" BBC.com, January 9th

Yet Russia might love the US imitating Russia’s efforts to take Ukraine by annexing it neighbor to the north. After all, why stop at sparsely populated Greenland or at Panama (which doesn’t even have a standing army), when Canada has so many more riches… Even greater than the industrial wealth that Taiwan offers China, which is threatening to take that independent nation by force. Hopefully in jest, Trump suggested that Canadians would love to become the 51st state. Don’t bet on it… but for existing US citizens, adding Canada to the US would be a blessing… finally bringing national healthcare to our shores and blunting the harsh rightwing MAGA vector that brought Trump back into power. With Canada’s population slightly above that of California, adding Canadians to our voting mix would definitely move the United States to the left. Prime Minister/US Governor Wayne Gretzky?! Yup, that’s what Trump suggested.

But there is another parameter rising here, the standard Trumpian distract and blame when he obviously cannot deliver on most of his pledges. Like: cutting food and gas prices, funding government just based on tariff income, ending the Ukraine War in a day, dropping inflation can cutting taxes for the rich while reducing the national debt and installing his incompetent cabinet picks to run the country. It does seem that de facto co-President Musk is getting what he wanted… even if Trump cannot deliver on his promises.

I’m Peter Dekom, and even if Trump makes a little headway on immigration deportation, even that will add costs to just about everything.

Climate Change: The Reigning Power of Water

 

Water destroys and kills. Yet, no life on earth can live without it. It keeps us alive. As water rises and falls, it redefines civilization, agriculture and life at every level. It is the subject of religious doctrine – from Judeo-Christianity’s description of the Great Flood to the Hindu sacred Ganges River – that is often a spiritual determinant, used for blessings and part of essential rituals in reverence to God. But one of the greatest impacts of climate change is the dramatic reconfiguring of water’s placement, power and perseverance. Most of the planet is completely unprepared for the obvious and inevitable.

For example, in the recent torrents in the Valencia region in Spain: “In a matter of minutes, flash floods caused by heavy downpours in eastern Spain swept away almost everything in their path. With no time to react, people were trapped in vehicles, homes and businesses. Many died and thousands of livelihoods were shattered.” Associated Press, November 4th. In fact, hundreds were killed. Can mankind adapt fast enough? Will that adaption ultimately fail? How will other forms of life on Earth respond? And in particular, how is a purportedly modern and educated nation like the United States dealing with these realities? Simply, it isn’t, as climate change deniers literally prevent us from dealing properly with this extraordinarily obvious and accelerating reality.

As Christopher Flavelle, writing for the October 22nd The Morning NYTimes newsfeed, explains: “America has a flooding problem. When Hurricane Milton hit Florida, the images of inundation seemed shocking — but also weirdly normal: For what felt like the umpteenth time this year, entire communities were underwater. Since the 1990s, the cost of flood damage has roughly doubled each decade, according to one estimate. The federal government issued two disaster declarations for floods in 2000. So far this year, it has issued 66…

“The reasons are no mystery. Global warming is making storms more severe because warmer air holds more water. At the same time, more Americans are moving to the coast and other flood-prone areas… Those conflicting trends are forcing people to adapt. Advances in design, science and engineering — combined with a willingness to spend vast amounts of money — have allowed the United States and other wealthy countries to try new ideas for coping with water…”

For starters, we need to stop building in obvious flood-prone areas or near sites where coastal erosion is promising to take back land… into the sea. Insurance companies are sending that message rather clearly. In coastal Florida, there are uninsurable areas and others where increased insurance costs exceed mortgage payments. Flavelle suggests three approaches that flood-control policies address, which mostly involves not doing anything today: fight the water, live with it, or pack your bags.

When you add a belief that government can contain flooding – as the Netherland’s mega-expensive engineering systems hold back the Atlantic for a nation that is mostly below sea level – to climate change denial, you foster a reactive vs a proactive approach. Used to finding someone to blame or pay for our folly, Americans expect either for climate change to end or for government to build the required technology to stop the damage. Simply put, most of that effort is a losing battle.

“Behind those options is a puzzle: With so many tools available, why does flood damage in the United States (which cost more than $180 billion last year, according to one estimate) keep rising? I asked Chad Berginnis, head of the Association of State Floodplain Managers. ‘Two things,’ he told me. ‘Irrationality and elections.’… People struggle to assess the danger when disasters are infrequent but incredibly costly, he said. And politicians realize they won’t become popular by raising people’s taxes to pay for colossal infrastructure projects.” Flavelle

With open hostility towards educated elites, a strong minority of Americans are guided by their interpretation of the Bible: God promised the world, after the Great Flood, that he would never again wreak global destruction on mankind… and that the Earth’s resources were provided so mankind can do whatever they want to extract them. They actually believe that efforts to contain these natural forces defy God’s “pledge.” Other Christians, notably Roman Catholics admonished by Pope Francis to take responsibility to care for God’s gift of the environment, take a more realistic tact. But Mother Nature, not swayed by legislative votes or large gatherings of religious groups certain God will save them, does not care. She’s armed with the laws of physics… she started with nothing and no has issue with going back to zero.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the assuaging yet angry words of sheep-like politicians saying what their flock would like to hear are likely to be drowned out… quite literally.

Hello World, I’m Back!

Hello World, I’m Back!

What I Saw, What I See… Who We Seem to be Becoming

From the cloistered view from a hospital room (post-surgical and then rehab), surrounded by caring people overwhelmed with bureaucracy, red tape, equipment in dire need of updating, I witnessed the American political landscape migrating into a really huge swamp, a deep state run by plutocrats and a scared nation with demographic segments wondering where they belong. I witnessed the quicksand of insurance company approvals, which have sucked millions into sometimes terminal soup of easy answers no one seems willing to make. My treatment was first rate, more than I can say for many lost in a healthcare system designed to make profits.

As years have passed, with consumers who even have healthcare insurance being denied coverage for obvious ailments in need of treatment, I have learned of doctors spending as much as half their time fighting insurance giants over rejected treatments, just as we face a doctor shortage. Better to waste doctors’ time to support mega profits of insurance giants that to deal with the treatment so many people need. I witnessed nurses, doctors and specialized treatment personnel use handwritten notes (where streamlined ultra-thin tablets could translate handwritten notes into text for subsequent charting and data entry) and then re-type them into the main data repository, highly regulated by HIPAA federal requirements.

On my hospitals’ limited channels, I witnessed Luigi Mangione, the suspected killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, treated as a hero by a huge demographics, just as mass media (of all kinds) carefully tip-toed around aggrandizing his success in refocusing the nation around a failed healthcare system, the least effective and most expensive in the developed world. We remain the only developed country in the world without universal healthcare. We pay fortunes for prescription drugs, often a multiple of what other countries pay, even with the recent Biden adjustments to Medicare coverage for some vey routine drugs.

Republicans, who use the word “entitlement” to describe earned and vested benefits (like Social Security and Medicare), suggesting that these entitlements need to be trimmed so that the richest in the land can receive the vast portion of the renewal and expansion of Trump’s first term tax cuts. The completely disproven notion “trickle-down economics” – where if the rich get gobs of newfound money, they will immediately turn around and create wonderful new jobs – is the GOP axiom that underlies their planned tax reduction for the rich initiative (the bedrock of their platform). But TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMICS HAVE NEVER, EVER WORKED TO CREATE JOBS OR BENEFIT ANYONE BUT THE RICH! EVER!

If the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson had not happened, would the outrage over “delay,” “deny” and “disapprove” – the seeming cry of major healthcare insurers often pushing treatment off to allow death to eliminate claims altogether – ever have been so heavily featured? I seriously doubt it, and, no, I do not condone murder. What a sad commentary on our system. Sadder still since those who face a world without insurance or “delay,” “deny” and “disapprove” with higher premiums, soaring deductibles, more caps and exclusions and escalating co-pays… with a disproportionate number being MAGA adherents in red states hoping to terminate government support for healthcare. They believe their lots will be improved, that trickle-down economics will boost their livelihoods and still allow for a balanced budget.

Not the prediction of most credible economists from both sides of the aisle. They project $4-$7 trillion of resulting deficit borrowing to service the tax cut. Hence the GOP frenzy to raise the debt ceiling during the waning days of the Biden administration. That would allow Republicans to blame Dems for the deficit increase. Now, with control of the presidency, the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court, the damage from that debt ceiling increase to accommodate that tax cut will belong solely to the Republican Party.

And with Musk’s seeming success in pushing deregulation and tax cuts – crying creeping socialism if we do the only effective solution to our crumbling healthcare system: stop prioritizing corporate profits over having an effective healthcare system in the United States… we become an oligarchy where the ordinary citizens are expendable to foster a society where only the rich are comfortable. Healthcare is no more socialism than is government-provided primary and secondary education. For those who tell us that if we adopt universal healthcare, we will only get long lines and inferior medical care, that happens only if the system is badly designed. Perhaps we should look at the German and Swiss systems to see what happens if the design is done right.

My greatest disillusionment through all this is that the religious right (98% of registered Republicans are self-described “Christians” accorded to Pew Research) either believes that the Bible is a menu or that virtually the entirety of the New Testament is simply too woke to be believed and followed. We need to care about each other again. We need to understand that our choice to support a profit-driven healthcare system vs embrace viable universal healthcare is an either/or decision. These alternatives are profoundly mutually exclusive.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I will try and add more blogs as I continue with a long recovery, so bear with me!