Like a (failing) business…

For decades, maybe for centuries, the American business elite has called for the American government to be run “like a business.” Well, by golly, in (powerless) President Trump and (all powerful) Prime Minister Musk, they’re finally getting their wish. They’ve got a Chief Executive who thinks like a CEO.

The kicker? A country isn’t a corporation. A corporation needs to think in quarters…three months is about as far out as it can see into the future. It needs to satisfy its stockholders and Wall Street, but not necessarily its “population,” i.e. employees. It doesn’t have citizens, each of whom have a vote and none of whose votes count more than others because they own more of the company. It can consider, if need be, going gracefully bankrupt. 

None of that is true for a country. 

There is thus a terrible possibility that running a country “like a business” is a disaster in the making and we will all suffer for it sometime soon.

If there is a straw to pluck at, maybe it is that after all is said, and we’re very lucky, the egotists of the corporate elite will be regarded with something less than adoration, and will never again be trusted to run the nation.

Will Business People Wake Up?

So by the time you read this, it may be out of date. However, last month, the online publication Semafor ran an article entitled, “American business leaders are turning on Trump — fast,” by

Liz Hoffman and Rohan Goswami. In it, Hoffman and Goswami reported on American business people becoming increasingly disillusioned by Trump and his ever more destructive impact on the economy. 

True? False? Well, hard to say. These are the same people who heartily supported Trump on the theory that he would run the government “like a business.” It is hard to see them abandoning him now, just when he is acting most like a predatory raider conducting a hostile takeover.

Still, it would be interesting (and helpful) if they did wake up and notice that the Trump Administration is a total disaster causing no end of harm to no end of people.

But…the question remains. Even if they are convinced of Trump’s fundamental evil, will they do anything about it? I must confess, I kind of doubt it.

Getting Their Attention

Now here’s a useful piece in The Guardian. My $30,000 health insurance claim was denied. Then I tweeted about it,” by Miranda Yaver, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh. In it, Professor Yaver writes about how her claim was unfairly denied for no other reason than that the company wanted to save money. She finally used social media to actually get the company to take her, and her claim, seriously. 

This is the kind of thing we all need to know about…unfortunately. The fact that consumers have to use social media to get the attention of their insurance providers is not a good thing. It means, as Professor Yaver points out, that the health care system is broken…maybe beyond repair.

What frightens me is that increasingly social media platforms are owned by the same large corporations that own so much else in the United States. Would, say, a Twitter/X have allowed Professor Yaver a place to state her problems under its current management?

A head full of mush…

It’s always weird when you find yourself agreeing with people you detest. Case in point: John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser and arch-enemy of pinko-liberals everywhere. Like I say, I’ve got very little love for the man. As in none.

Yet…late last month he said bluntly that his former boss was basically dumb as a brick (okay, dumber) and has, in effect, a “mind…full of mush.”

Colorful. I like it.

Okay, I still don’t care for him much. But, well, just this once, I’m willing to make an exception. He does have a good turn of phrase.

Heads Exploding

 There was an encouraging article in Politico a while back, “Congressional Republicans start backing away from Musk: The tech mogul hinted he might wade into spending negotiations again ahead of the next government funding deadline” by Lisa Kashinsky and Mia McCarthy.  In it, Kashinsky and McCarthy say that Republicans in the Senate and the House are getting enough pushback from their constituents that they may be, finally, slowly losing their patience with Musk and DOGE. In fact, they could…at last!...discover the courage to oppose him.

I hope this is true, but…well…I’ve not seen a lot of evidence for it on the ground. I’m very much afraid that the GOP will continue to be cowed by Trump’s MAGA and Musk’s money. I’m guessing that they’ll make a few vaguely defiant gestures, and then kiss the whip as they’ve done before.

Still…it would be wonderful if something like that did happen…and if the Congressmen and -women somehow found that they had a spinal column after all.

I mean, really, it would be worth it…just to watch while heads in the White House, the House, the Senate, and the Republican National Committee exploded with all the force and color of an outtake from a cheapjack ripoff of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

Follow Up to RFK Jr.

So now, I read, RFK Jr. is calling the measles outbreak a “priority” and is actually going to do something about it. What actions he might take are, at least at the moment, unclear. But at least he says he’s going to take some kind of action.

The problem is that this is far too late. The trick in public health is to stay ahead of pandemics, not to catch up with them.

And, frankly, anti-vaccine Robert is already way late to the game. The terrifying question is what will he do, or not do, if something worse…and quicker…comes along. 

They Can Change

Here’s one encouraging piece on antivaxxers. It seems that they can, after all, change their minds if given the right information in the right way. Check out this piece in the Guardian, “Formerly anti-vax parents on how they changed their minds: ‘I really made a mistake’.” The authors cite the case of several anti-vaccine parents who woke up one morning and realized they were being lied to…and that those lies were putting their own children at risk.

Give the piece a read. It offers some useful techniques for the ways that communities and families can confront the (incredibly dangerous) antivaxxer movement. 

He is deadly.

 Now, as I say, I wrote a short, witty, comic post about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on 26 Feb. The very next morning, I discovered it was no laughing matter. Here’s what happened…

On 27 Feb, I saw this article in the New Republic: “RFK Jr. Has Horrific Response to Measles Death: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s comments reveal the terrifying new normal.” 

A child has died of measles. When confronted by that tragedy, Robert F. Kenney Jr. basically shrugged his shoulders and said, in effect, Yeah, so? Or, to be more precise, what he said was ““It’s not unusual…We have measles outbreaks every year.”

His indifference is horrible.

Let us hope that, someday, in some better time, antivaxxers will be in court…

On trial for crimes against humanity. 

JFK jr.’s small comforts

Okay, there are two posts today. The first one I wrote on Feb 26, 2025, just after I saw the referenced article about RFJ Jr.’s inactivity regarding the recent measles outbreak. I thought I was being witty and somewhat tongue in cheek. I was wrong. The second posting, which follows this one, reflects what has happened since then. 

Interesting and disturbing article in Vox the other day, “What RFK Jr. has said about the ongoing measles outbreak: The new Health and Human Services secretary is facing one of his first public health crises. Will he blow up the typical protocol?” by Dylan Scott. In it, Mr. Scott looks at what the administration’s favorite antivaxxer is doing in response to the measles outbreak currently raging in Western Texas and Eastern New Mexico.

The fear is that he will interfere in some fashion with vaccination programs, and thus make the situation much, much worse. However, so far, he hasn’t done much of anything, for good or bad. That means that he has left the problem in the skilled hands of local authorities – which is a very good thing, indeed.

There is, however, something terrifying in the knowledge that the best you can ask from the new Health and Human Services secretary is that he remain inert, and so not hurt anyone.

Thus we have a whole new meaning of the term “competence.” In the case of this administration, it means immobility, so that the individual involved does not actively and vigorously engage in genuine evil, but instead remains safely asleep at the switch, and is thus only passively harmful.

As I say, I then discovered I was oh so very wrong. For that, go to the next post.  

They are not listening

 So I saw this disturbing article in Politico, “House Republicans unfazed by protests: ‘We’re moving forward with the cuts,’” By Ally Mutnick and Lisa Kashinsky. Basically, it says that the GOP Congressmen and -women are ignoring the protests and demonstrations breaking out in the country. They simply don’t care what protestors, or you, think about what they’re doing. 

But that makes sense. They haven’t represented ordinary voters for such a long time. They represent Great Power, particularly great economic power. They are owned by Musk, now. What you want, or what anyone without a billion to their name wants, simply doesn’t matter.

Which means, unfortunately, that the traditional methods of influencing our government and its policy no longer work, at least not when you’re dealing with House Republicans. Demonstrations, messages, email, letters, and so on are useless. They couldn’t care less.

The question now is what do we do instead. I’m not sure. But, I notice with some interest that the one thing that does seem to be impacting the GOP is angry confrontations at town halls and meetings. That’s unfortunate. I wish there were a way to get our message across in a polite, civil, and controlled sort of fashion.

But if there isn’t…?

Well, one uses the tools one has at hand.

Including rage. And fury. And confrontation. 

How Much Danger Are We In?

Sometimes, when I’m writing these things, I worry about just how much trouble I could get into because of them. Trump and MAGA are not known for their mercy. They have consistently sought revenge on anyone who, they think, has not shown them sufficient deference.

I tell myself that I’m relatively safe. No one reads me, for one thing. So it’s not like I’m a serious thorn in their side. And even if I did have a massive audience, what does that matter? People are protesting and writing and speaking out all over the country, and the Trump/Musk administration still just does whatever it damn well wants to. 

But, still, maybe there is some small danger. Dictatorships have long memories and short tempers. They do remember their critics, even the smallest, even decades later, and act accordingly.

However, I’m hoping that there is safety in numbers. If we all of us…all us Democrats, Progressives, Centerists, and Never-Trump Republicans…continue to speak out and continue to protest, then we will number in the millions. Maybe far too many for even the most efficient secret police to track and imprison. 

And maybe…maybe…in the end…

In our teeming multitudes, each of us alone but joining so many others…

We, and not they, will inherit the earth.

They’re “sick” of Musk…as are we all

Amusing article in the New Republic today, “All of Trump’s Appointees Are Sick of Elon Musk: Donald Trump’s appointees are growing frustrated with DOGE’s dangerous shenanigans” by Edith Olmsted. In it, Ms. Olmsted reports on how Trump’s Cabinet members have had it up to here with Musk and his DOGE-bros and his meddling. And they are telling their staffs to ignore his notes, directives, and diktats. 

Which is doubtlessly true and understandable. Musk is a dork with all the people skills of a cherrystone clam, and I don’t care how many great companies he is “managing,” because he seems to have no idea how to run a government. 

But the thing is: will the Cabinet be able to find enough power and courage to stand up to Musk, who paid good money for Trump and owns him body and soul. I’m guessing that will be hard. Musk says sh*t. Trump is going to say what color and round or cubical?

On the other hand, here’s a question. Just for sake of supposing…well, what would happen if Trump were no longer in the picture? Suppose for reasons of health or the 25th Amendment or whatever, he were to retire or otherwise become less involved with the running of the government?

What happens then? And would some Cabinet members, and some staffers, be looking for a little revenge?

This summer I hear the drumming, Four dead in Ohio … Oryol

This summer I hear the drumming, Four dead in Ohio … Oryol 

Here’s an interesting article on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) site, “Exclusive: Russian Defector Leaks Files Revealing Shocking Scale of War Casualties.” It seems that RFE/RL has obtained files showing just how many Russians (and others) have been killed or wounded in the war. It is a staggering 700,000 people.

That is a tremendous loss of population for a country which already has demographic problems. I keep wondering how long Russia will keep it up before finally facing the grim reality that taking over Ukraine is simply not worth the cost in blood and treasure. 

Alas, knowing how easily pride gets in the way of reason, I fear the Russians never will make the kind of calculation that, say, they did in Afghanistan, and which the United States did in Vietnam. 

Which means…Russia as a nation, and a society, may well be wounded for generations yet to come.

Native Americans Harassed By ICE

From the Department of Extraordinary Irony, we have this story “Alleged ICE harassment of tribal members in New Mexico concern lawmakers,” by Julian Resendiz. It seems that some border patrol members can’t tell the difference between illegal immigrants and Indians. 

In other words, yes, Native Americans…the first Americans…are being told to “go back where they came from.” And given the fact that the Bering Strait hasn’t been open to pedestrian traffic for quite some time now, that’s kinda out of the question. 

This story would be funny if it weren’t so sad. If you are supposed to be guarding the border, and you cannot tell the difference between, say, a Navajo (i.e., Diné) person from a Guatemalan, you’ve got a problem.

I’ve always suspected that the whole Mass Deportation thing was more for show than anything else. It gives the illusion that the Administration is doing something productive, when in fact it is just smashing things. 

But, if you are going to make an effort to “close the border,” you darn well better know what you’re doing.

And right now, the evidence of anything like competence is fairly minimal. 

She's a lawyer from Albuquerque, you idiot.

The Next Sino-Russian War?

In January of this year,  Sarah C. Paine, a Professor at the U.S. Naval War College, authored an extraordinarily interesting article in The Kyiv Independent,  “The question isn't if China will turn on Russia, but when: Putin’s war on Ukraine blinds him to Russia’s real threat: a hungry China waiting in the wings.” In it, Professor Paine argues that it is only a matter of time before the (already somewhat shaky) alliance between Moscow and Beijing comes apart. Simply put, she says, China has more to gain from opposing the Russians than it does from supporting them – as in significant chunks of Siberia and the Russian Far East.

True? False? I’m afraid I have no idea. I’m not sufficiently versed in the field to make that kind of judgement. But, I’m old enough to recall the border clashes of 1969, when it seemed some sort of Sino-Soviet conflict was a distinct possibility. We no longer have a Soviet Union any more, and – at the moment – it seems that the Russians and Chinese have vastly more to gain from standing with each other, and against the United States and the West, then they do from pursuing any ancient quarrels.

But, the tensions that led to the 1969 clashes are still there. And one wonders if Beijing might not feel a certain temptation to make up for lost time, and lost territory, at a moment when Russia is distinctly weakened. After all, eastern Eurasia would be a marvelous addition to anyone’s real estate portfolio.

Frankly, I’m guessing a Sino-Russian conflict isn’t in the cards. I’m not sure what China stands to gain from a war with its neighbor. Russia is already China’s economic satellite. China controls Russia’s economy. Whether Putin likes it or not…or knows it or not…his country now dances to a Chinese tune, and will do so for the foreseeable future.

Still, perhaps that could change. Maybe China will see some sort of advantage in territorial expansion someday. Maybe…

Or to put it another way: if there is no honor among thieves, there is still less among dictators.

He's coming for you, Ivan.