"Only I Am Always Right” vs Science – Pick One

 

“Only I Am Always Right” vs Science – Pick One

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

For cultlike followers, it is difficult to deny the powerful expression of a “stable genius” who has been “anointed by God” to lead and direct the path for the United States. But the champion of the mega-rich – who, by the way, have never trickled down any savings from tax cuts – has assembled a cabinet of unqualified, unquestioning Stepford loyalists and outsourced the former jobs of trained fraud-seeking Inspectors General in “fixing the bloated federal government” to a biased billionaire to create the greatest conflict of interest in American history. In complete denial of the advice of the vast majority of credible economists, poo-pooing the rising tide of retaliation from his targeted nations (mostly our “allies”), Trump has embraced tariffs both as a revenue source to reduce traditional taxes and a barrier to our buying foreign goods and resources.

What he has got in return, even by his own admission, is a crashing stock market, retailers projecting falling revenues, an increasing likelihood of a recession and global animosity that is isolating the United States to a level not seen since the Revolutionary War. All that good will – from our saving Europe and WWI and WWII, the Marshall Plan, USAID, incredible trade agreements, mutual defense pacts in an increasingly hostile world, containment of the “Axis of Evil” (a Republican term), etc., etc. – gone, perhaps never to be retrieved. Would you trust making a treaty with the United States, knowing a new US president can erase binding commitments in an instant? His leadership, if analyzed objectively, creates a war on the poor and middle class. Blaming the Biden administration, which left Trump with an extraordinary rising economy, is Trump-pathetic.

As good as Trump believes he is at forcing his way against defenseless and vulnerable Americans or small countries that quiver in fear that his “Gulf of America” might soon engulf them, there is one force that defies bully Trump, unfortunately very successfully, Mother Nature: the laws of physics, medicine, chemistry, astrophysics, climatology and biology. There is this reminder, every time a major volcano erupts, or a hurricane decimates an entire region, or a wildfire consumes several communities at the same time, that Nature is more powerful than an egomaniac with a thousand nuclear missiles launched to kill his enemy. Nature started with nothing and could give a rat’s posterior if the planet self-destructed.

When a failing political system tries to repeal scientific facts, deny what will not change, we reduce both our preparation for Nature’s wrath and any reasonable measure to contain the harm. Case in point is our former success in totally eradicating measles from the United States followed recently by a science-denying, antivaxx Trump administration policy that has managed to reintroduce that highly contagious disease, creating hundreds of new US cases, even a fatality, with the head of HHS suggesting that it would be “good if everybody got the measles.” Next.

Farmers, pilots, anyone who sails for a living (or for fun), whose property might be vulnerable – where accurate weather forecasts are essential – is going to be out of luck, as DOGE is decimating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – which is the national body that tracks supplies all the underlying data, builds predictive models – all used by your local weather-casters and those who need to know and plan for severe economic reasons. PhD climatologists in government, the few who remain, are now required to delete words that the stable genius has determined contradict his edicts. Hoax. Leftwing bias, etc. “Drill, baby, drill.” Yet the cost of property insurance everywhere is rising so fast that in some areas, like coastal Florida, property insurance is beginning to exceed the mortgage costs for so many homeowners, if they can find coverage. Want to know what we are giving up? Smart people with the guts who care!

“Last September, as Hurricane Helene barreled toward the coast of Florida, Andrew Hazelton was in a plane flying into the eye of the storm. The plane was collecting crucial data to help understand the path and intensity of the hurricane—and Hazelton was simultaneously watching to see how the real-time data matched what scientific models predicted.

“At the time, he was working at a NOAA lab at the University of Miami; in October, he was promoted to another NOAA job focused on helping the government’s computer models of hurricanes continue to get even better… At the end of February, Hazelton became one of hundreds of NOAA employees to lose his job through cuts pushed by DOGE, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.” Adele Peters for the March 11th FastCompany.com

What’s worse, Elon “Boom Boom” Musk has been anything but subtle in his attacks of social programs (like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid). He calls the recipients of such programs, even those who paid into the system for a lifetime, the “parasite class.” The US is the only developed country on earth without universal healthcare. In the words of Canada’s well-educated economist and new PM, “In Canada healthcare is a right; it the United States it is a business.”

Musk’s cuts in medical research, both within the government and in grants to dedicated professional research institutions, guarantee that thousands, if not more, Americans may be infected by another pandemic that would otherwise have been prevented or eradicated. This is what happens to parasites. Perhaps Trump’s more honest mantra might have been, “die, baby, die.” Trump tells we will go bankrupt if we do not slash these social programs. Guess being raised in South Africa where the “parasite class” is simply ignored, DOGE-meister, hate to tell you, you are on the wrong side of the ledger. Want to prevent that looming insolvency you predict? Stop looking at the cost side and focus on the revenue side. Billionaires do not need tax cuts!

Even those “benefitting” from private insurance seem to have no way out: Phillip Reese writing for the March 10th Los Angeles Times, explains: “‘Insurance premiums have been going up faster than wages over the last 20 years,’ said Miranda Dietz, a researcher at the UC Berkeley Labor Center who focuses on health insurance. ‘Especially in the last couple of years, those premium increases have been pretty dramatic.’…Dietz said rising hospital prices are largely to blame. Consumer costs for hospitals and nursing homes rose about 88% from 2009 through 2024, roughly double the overall inflation rate, according to data from the Department of Labor.

“The rising cost of administering America’s massive health care system has also pushed premiums higher, she said… Insurance companies remain highly profitable, but their gross margins — the amount by which premium income exceeds claims costs — were fairly steady during the last few years, KFF research shows. Under federal rules, insurers must spend a minimum percentage of premiums on medical care… Rising insurance costs are cutting deeper into family incomes and squeezing small businesses.” Simply, our “healthcare” system prioritizes profits for huge corporations over reasonable healthcare for American citizens.

I’m Peter Dekom, and that conspiracy theory you ate for breakfast and lured your vote just might be coming to devour and kill you!