America has cancer
I have been working on my next special article for coffee buyers—one begun a long time ago, initially focusing on Biden's State of the Union Address. It has been taking forever it seems. But it is coming— evolving along with current events.
Here’s an excerpt from a draft of the Special Article—an excerpt which I may or may not use. But indicative of my approach.
Trump characterized Biden's address as the worst such ever. Which it was.
But, in some sense, it was the best ever—because it actually communicated the "State" of the Union as it really is.
Namely, that the US of A is in deep shit. And there is no fixing it.
“Build Back Better”?
Really”. America has cancer and Biden offers vitamins and “faith”.
Here in Japan, the country did build back a lot better after 1945. That is because everything had been destroyed. So presumably we have to wait for the US to destroy itself.
Not Hiroshima or Nagasaki – Tokyo 1945. Everything destroyed – except for the Emperor's Palace, which suffered minor damage thanks to a targeting error.
Of course, Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” isn’t much better! If only because the only time that America had a chance of achieving greatness was under FDR. Things went downhill after that.
Union? What union?
Biden made it really clear that his ideal union had no room for dissent. One party chosen by God— the other just wrong—worse, evil.
Another excerpt…
Biden's speech was remarkable for its detachment from reality—a tapestry of exaggerations, hyperbole, misinformation and disinformation, and outright lies.
Biden’s SOTU actually out-trumped Trump in an attempt to pretend that he is not senile, old man that he is but some kind of heroic figure, as I said, FDR and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one, fighting the forces of Evil, inevitably anything not American or if American – not a registered Democrat! Trump you can laugh at. But this was just pathetic. Worse. The mainstream media applauded it.
After his address, Joe finally got around to presenting a budget, normally announced before the SOTU address to provide the necessary context and define issues of concern.
What actually are those issues, at least for independent voters— the key element of the electorate?
Healthcare
Education
Infrastructure
Jobs / Income
Social Security
Inequality
Cost Of Living /Quality Of Life
Housing
Wait a second!
Where is stuff like “Crime”? “Gun control”? “Immigration”? "Abortion"? "Climate change", “Tax reform” and a few other things that Biden talked about duct taping. These are topics that Republicans and Democrats are continually arguing about – but I really just aspects of the eight issues I listed as being of the most concern to independents year in year out, but which politcos would rather not deal with honestly.
Aspects not issues
For example, the more poor people you have, the higher the crime rates – therefore the greater assumed need for arming yourself hence gun control debate.
Immigrants are usually poor also so —we assume social problems if not criminality, which is not necessarily the case. So Inequality is really the issue subsuming the others.
Abortion is as much a religious issue as anything else—but only one in eight voters is really concerned with it. People vote bread-and-butter not their conscience.
Nobody likes Climate Change—but doing something about it requires looking at implementing new technologies and repairing old ones. But investment in Infrastructure raise the Cost of Living and cannot be parcelled out willy-nilly to corporate donors.
Tax reform is an aspect of Inequality – so that to reform taxation, you need real – need we say – “populist” democracy – which represents ordinary people rather than moneyed lobbyists. America is an oligarchy. And since Congress is “peopled” by millionaires, they would pay more.
Both the Democrats and the Republicans represent what used to be called the "Establishment"—so both parties only want to make minor changes to a system-- which benefits established corporations and the established 1%.
Go figure —both parties are squeakers and tweakers— controlled by wankers and bankers.
It does not matter which party is in power – nothing will change.
Obama campaigned with the slogan "Change You Can Believe in". LOL.
He had a mandate so he proceeded to tweak.
Trump campaigned promising to drain the swamp — then went for a swim in the slime.
Obama did not even consider the “Public Option” for healthcare despite his promises; rather, he did a deal which was of immense benefit to insurance companies and Big Pharma, through a combination of greater subscribership and government subsidies in the form of tax write offs and so on.
So it is that the US still pays more for healthcare and has poorer outcomes than other countries —as we saw during the pandemic.
Biden. like every President, promised to fix things!
“Bidenomics” benefits only MICIMATT —not the economy as whole, which is increasingly noncompetitive with countries like Russia and China, even in the defense sector.
You cannot change that failure without changing the system radically – which would probably mean the breakup of the Union and a new constitution – an actually democratic one. A new American Revolution?
No matter: America continues to fall apart.
Bridges over trouble waters.
If you want to fix infrastructure, as well as to develop new technologies, you need STEM graduates and engineers.
You do not need people with expensive degrees in economics, political science, and business from over-priced academic finishing schools like Yale or Harvard.
In America, education is just a form of social certification, defining caste. Chinese eunuchs carried their balls in little boxes. Americans put their brains — and need I say — hearts in little boxes.
Of course. there are fewer and fewer “educated” people in general thanks to tuition costs.
Dumb and dumber. And necessarily more unequal for those unable to afford those little boxes.
Education of any kind is priced out of the reach of poor people. They are our untouchables.
In Russia, healthcare is free. As is tuition. Great efforts are made to encourage young people to study medicine, science and technology and engineering at the University level or technical skills at polytechnical institutes.
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"“Build Back Better”?"
Not easy if you've thrown away all the necessary tools.
The same week the near $100B "supplemental aid" billed passed, I saw articles regarding the failure to remove lead from drinking water in the US.
According to Brookings.edu, "The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill included $15 billion over five years to replace lead pipes and service lines across the United States. Although this figure was whittled down from President Biden’s original proposal of $45 billion, the effort is the federal government’s most ambitious on this front to date—and research suggests that the public health and economic benefits of doing so are extensive. In November 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed regulatory changes aimed at removing all lead water pipes within 10 years."
Ten years for a "proposed" regulatory change (I'll believe it when I see it) after dragging their feet for many, many years as young children continue to drink contaminated water. Of course, the Ukraine Destruction and Slaughter Aid, Taiwan arms and Joe's genocide press on with all matter of urgency. Yes, Joe, "This is America for God's sake!" Nice job you and Congress are doing with debt financed war abroad and neglect at home.