The war has been going on for 2 months now....

 

I find it hard to believe that after 2 months, the Orange Monster is claiming that the war (oops, police action, according to government doublespeak) is over.  Doesn't the GOP understand that the war isn't over until Iran agrees that it's over?

Lately, I'm finding the Iranian propaganda videos to contain more truth than what is coming out of the regime in power in Washington.  No one of sound mind believes what the monster is saying.  Yet, the GOP is enabling his irrational actions.  Americans have been both wounded and killed in a war that is resulting in hobbling the world's economy for the sake of Israel and its war criminal prime minister.  But then, war criminals have an interest in sticking together, lest they are held accountable by their citizenry.

What have we gained from this war?  Higher gas prices, and likely disruptions in the food supply caused by a lack of fertilizer impacting this year's crops in the field.  Without our normal supply of grains, we will also see shortages of meat, as farmers will not be able to support the herds of cattle, pigs and chickens we depend on for animal protein.  It's only a matter of time.  

So, what can we look forward to this year?  I see rats leaving the ship - the same people who enabled the monster to gain power are cutting off their support as his ratings tank.  They see the need to keep the attention of their audience, and the only way to do so is to reflect something more resembling the reality their audience is experiencing.  

If the GOP wants even a small chance of staying in power, it must find an acceptable off ramp for the Orange Monster to "gracefully" leave office and keep his illicit gains.  But will they do so?  Right now, no one is able to get the monster to see anything that resembles an objective reality.  The monster lives in a bubble of his own creation, and more weaknesses in that bubble are showing up every day.  His mental and physical health is failing, and it's only a matter of time that someone has to act.

But back to the war....

We will likely see a real deal cut behind the scenes, where the monster gets to claim victory, but no one will believe him.  Iran will get control of the Strait of Hormuz, as the US will not be able to block Iran with America's obsolete technology. Israel will be a riskier place to be, as the war they started couldn't bring down the Iranian regime.  The whole mess saddens me, as what would be my children's generation will be paying for this war long after I'm gone.

America gets the government it wants to pay for

 

Today's post will be short and sweet.  Around 10:45 am, I called Social Security to see about having Federal Taxes withheld from my monthly payments.  One problem - they do not have enough staff available to man their phone lines.  As a result, people can be kept on hold for over an hour.

Normally, I would find waiting 60+ minutes to reach a human inexcusable.  At least, SSA has a system where they will call a person back on the same number from which they made the original call.  Yet, I find this a little off-putting, and quite understandable given how many Americans think of the role of government and its funding.  

Americans like to think that we can get good things by paying prices for items that "fall off the back of the truck."  This helps to explain why government does so many things and does them in a half-assed way. It is much easier to say that we fund a wide range of services than to say that we fund none of them particularly well.  For example, let's talk about Social Security.  We charge employers and employees 7.5% of each employee's salary to fund future retirement benefits.  Yet, by 2040, the Social Security Trust Fund will run out of money, and benefits will need to be cut by 20%.  Instead of explaining to the public that longer lives require that we put more into the trust fund to pay for longer retirements, we keep passing the buck into the future as if we will get something for nothing.  So, we will likely find ourselves getting benefit cuts when we need them most.

At the end of WW2, the United States found itself as the dominant super power.  We invested in global military superiority for the sake of our prosperity - by fostering peaceful trade with our currency being the world's exchange standard, we could buy things cheaper than if another country's currency was the exchange standard of choice.  Yes, we made the mistake of exporting production to countries where labor was cheaper than in the US.  But we were able to maintain a standard of living as long as the domestic job market kept growing.  Unfortunately, it did - but in ways that didn't benefit the American worker.  Part time jobs without benefits became the norm, and both our government and its citizens started living on credit.

Sooner or later, we will have to pay the bill for borrowing more than we can afford.  Hopefully, our children and grandchildren will be able to do so.