Call it what it is.
People need health care. There is no way in Hell the US economy can support what the people could use, so the only question is how much is “enough” to be worth the trouble. The issue with Obamacare is not a question of health care, but was always meant to plunder the nation for the sake of Big Healthcare (which includes Big Pharma). The term “health care management” refers to an added layer of bureaucracy that gouges the price and scrapes off a big chunk of the money passing through its hands. Big Healthcare designed and wrote Obamacare; it’s sucking healthy people dry to pay for a medical welfare program. Don’t get bogged down in the alleged moral questions here helping the needy: It’s too big of a drain on the economy and it was failing as soon as it was signed into law.
This works about the same as Big Defense. It’s always been a huge drain on the economy; the productivity of human economic activity is absorbed by massively expensive boondoggles that profit only a thin slice of our nation’s population. The whole thing becomes outrageously expensive, with prices further inflated by the artificially high demand. Further, the actual quality of what you get for all that money is frankly very low in broad terms. Again, it has nothing to do with alleged moral questions of whether our military money is doing anything useful. It’s true of Obamacare and Defense both. The problem is our economy is going broke because the drain is too big and the economy is stumbling under the load.
Whatever you may think of him, I’m convinced Putin got this part correct:
In the West, voters cannot change policies through elections, because the ruling elites control whoever is elected. Elections give the appearance of democracy, but voting does not change the policies that favor war and the elites. Therefore, the will of the people is impotent.
People are experiencing that they and their votes have no influence on the conduct of affairs of the country. This makes them afraid, frustrated, and angry, a combination of emotions that is dangerous to the ruling elite, who in response organize the powers of the state against the people, while urging them with propaganda to support more wars.
I find it highly unlikely we’ll do anything much in North Korea. I believe it’s a distraction from the real plans. I feel certain we’ll invade Syria and I’ll try to paint a picture of why.
1. One original issue that got us involved was two competing gas pipeline proposals, both supposed to run across Syria. The one favored by the US could run north from Jordan up through Deir Ezzor and into Turkey. Compare that with the tactical situation on the ground right now. The US bombing of the Syrian enclave in Deir Ezzor and helping ISIS shows the intent to seize the whole corridor, because ISIS will deal — it’s supported and funded by the US. Assad rejected that pipeline in part because of his alliance with Russia. It’s not merely the Russian gas company’s profits at stake here. This is part of a much bigger problem Russia has with attempts by the US to isolate her.
2. The other issue at stake is Israel’s interest in breaking up Syria: Oil under the Golan Heights. Of course, we know that Israel has a much broader interest in supporting Sunnis at the expense of any majority Shiite government (Syria, Iran, parts of Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, etc.). This business of the Sunni-Shiite conflict is bigger than most Westerners comprehend, but the Sunnis generally will deal with Israel, while the Shiites generally will not. ISIS and al-Qaeda are Sunni extremists. You cannot simply ignore the Zionist agenda if you want to understand this mess. Israel is who drew up the plans for destabilizing Syria a decade ago, and the US pretty much followed those plans.
My point is that the US economy won’t support this our involvement. Something’s going to break and it could happen any day now. It could be the smallest thing that sets it off. To be honest, I’m frankly expecting a computer-related disaster to be the kick-off. Think about all the things government and big business do that require the Internet, and then imagine that something disrupts that networking. It would precipitate a crisis that is just waiting to burst open and spill out.
I still insist it won’t be Armageddon, but the plutocrats would like us to believe it is because it will be for them. The manipulation and abuse have pushed the “little people” to the brink. The frustration with Trump’s betrayal is starting to boil, but the people who feel the most pain aren’t the rioting type. When crisis hits they will demand sensible action, and they won’t compromise much. Nobody can predict how much, but there will be bloodshed, in part because the plutocrats are so freaking stupid about it.
Meanwhile, the rioting types harassing the majority will exacerbate things and get themselves shot. Most of them have been hired, and they don’t know/don’t care that they are being used to protect the status quo. But they aren’t a big enough problem to prevent a broad right-wing uprising that will remain mostly peaceful.
Once again: The main point about Trump’s election was never what he said he would do. It’s what his administration will permit in terms of keeping a peaceful uprising possible. His flaccid performance will ensure it’s not necessary to slaughter a bunch of Feds to change things. Don’t expect the world to be a better place; do expect major changes.
I’ve never been one to infuse real-life politics into the fictional stuff, but I like what you’ve been doing so far.
I take the position that fiction can reflect real-world possibilities without taking any particular position.