politics

Are the Complaints Behind the “TDS” Label Accurate? : A Plain-Language Guide

Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

The author posed a series of questions on domestic policy, international agreements, public safety and public health under the Trump Administration to review criticism the President’s supporters assign to his critics: Trump Derangement Syndrome or TDS. This article is presented for a general audience. The information presented here was researched and prepared using Ai tool Claude. The sources Claude used were current through mid-2026; court rulings and policies in this area change fast, so this article is not a finished assessment but a starting point for the American public in policies affecting us.

The short version

Many criticisms of the Trump administration rest on documented facts, and some are overstated. This guide sorts them by how well the evidence supports them, as of October 13, 2026.

  • Best supported: Congress’s nonpartisan watchdog (GAO) has found more than a dozen violations of the law on withholding approved funds since January 2025. Court fights over these actions are still unresolved (Part 2).
  • Overstated: Predictions that elections would be cancelled have not come true, and blaming specific disasters or deaths on policy cuts is often not backed by evidence (Part 1).
  • Foreign aid cuts and disease: HIV prevention and testing services dropped where US-funded programs were cut, and a large Ebola outbreak in the DRC has passed 9,000 confirmed cases with no US cases. Record US measles cases (4,080) are mainly a domestic vaccination problem, not an aid-cut result (Part 3).
  • Both sides have a point: Supporters are right that earlier presidents also expanded their power and that border crossings fell. Critics are right about court rulings, budget estimates, and measles data.
  • Still changing: Court cases and policies keep moving, so future articles will cover more focused analysis and findings.

How this document is organized

  1. Part 1: The main complaints, by topic. A quick tour of domestic policy, public safety, international agreements, and public health, with the supporters’ best response to each.
  2. Part 2: Case study on withheld funding. What GAO found about the administration holding back money Congress approved.
  3. Part 3: Case study on foreign aid cuts and disease. Which diseases are rising, whether they reached the US, and whether the cuts plausibly caused them.
  4. Glossary and sources. Plain definitions of the terms used, and the links behind the numbers.

How to read the labels. Well documented means confirmed by court records, government data, or watchdog reports. Disputed means the facts are agreed but their legality or meaning is contested. Unsupported means the claim lacks good evidence. Figures marked as my count or my background knowledge were not independently verified.

Part 1: The main complaints, by topic

“TDS” is a label for criticism that supporters see as reflexive or irrational. It doesn’t tell you whether a particular criticism is accurate, and some are well documented while others are overstated. Below, complaints are sorted by how well they hold up, along with the strongest supporter response to each.

Domestic policy

  • Executive power and spending (well documented, legality contested). Impoundment of appropriated funds, firing of independent-agency officials, and large federal workforce cuts all happened, and the GAO found some impoundment violations. Supporters argue the unitary-executive theory, an electoral mandate, and precedent from past presidents. Courts have split, so “unlawful” is a legal question still being settled, not an established fact.
  • Tariffs (effects documented, authority litigated). Most economists find that importers and consumers bear much of the cost. Legal challenges to the use of emergency powers (IEEPA) went to the Supreme Court. Supporters point to negotiating leverage, revenue, and reshoring goals.
  • Immigration enforcement (both sides have evidence). Critics cite due-process problems, including third-country removals, Alien Enemies Act litigation, and some wrongful detentions of citizens. Supporters correctly note that border crossings fell sharply. Both claims are true.
  • Use of the Justice Department against opponents (documented, interpretation disputed). Prosecutions of Comey and Letitia James drew criticism, and at least one was dismissed over the prosecutor’s improper appointment. Supporters call it reciprocal accountability for earlier cases against Trump.
  • Election claims (the claim that the 2020 election was stolen is unsupported). Courts, audits, and Trump’s own officials found no fraud sufficient to change the outcome. Complaints about this are substantive, though predictions that elections would be cancelled have not materialized.
  • Fiscal effects (CBO-scored). CBO projected the 2025 reconciliation law adds trillions to deficits and reduces insurance coverage through Medicaid changes. Supporters cite growth effects and tax relief.

Public safety

  • National Guard and federal deployments to cities. The deployments are documented, and legality has been contested under Posse Comitatus and the Insurrection Act, with mixed court rulings. Supporters point to reported crime declines in places like DC.
  • January 6 pardons. The pardons and commutations included people convicted of assaulting officers, which critics say undermines law enforcement. Supporters say the prosecutions were excessive.
  • Enforcement tactics. Masked agents, aggressive operations, and fatal shootings during enforcement actions (including in Minneapolis) drew sharp criticism. Supporters say agents face rising assaults and doxxing.
  • Rhetoric and political violence. Critics cite language like “enemy within.” Supporters cite the two attempts on Trump’s life in 2024 and the killing of Charlie Kirk in 2025. Violence has come from multiple directions, and causation claims are hard to establish.
  • Lethal strikes on alleged drug boats. Many legal scholars call them extrajudicial killings. The administration frames them as counter-narco-terrorism.
  • Disaster preparedness. Cuts to FEMA and NOAA staffing were documented. Claims that they caused specific harms, citing the response during the 2025 Texas floods, are much less established.

International treaties and alliances

  • Withdrawals (documented and legal, so the dispute is over wisdom). These include the WHO, the Paris Agreement, UNESCO, and the UN Human Rights Council. Supporters cite sovereignty and disproportionate US funding.
  • Alliances. Critics cite doubts about NATO’s Article 5, pressure on Greenland, and pressure on Ukraine. Supporters note allies agreed at the 2025 summit to a 5% defense-spending target, which they credit to Trump.
  • Trade commitments. Critics say tariffs strain WTO and USMCA obligations. Supporters say those agreements were unfair or poorly enforced.
  • Arms control. The first-term exits from the Iran deal and the INF Treaty continue to be debated, as do the future of New START and the 2025 strikes on Iran.

Public health

  • Foreign aid cuts. The dismantling of USAID and PEPFAR disruptions is documented. Death-toll figures (some in the millions) are model-based estimates and vary widely. Supporters cite waste and fraud.
  • Vaccine policy under RFK Jr. The changes include replacing the vaccine advisory committee, revising recommendations, and cancelling mRNA contracts. Measles outbreaks reached record levels in decades, and experts widely criticized the 2025 claims linking Tylenol to autism as poorly supported. Supporters point to food dye and nutrition reforms and to distrust of institutions that has some basis.
  • Research and agency turmoil. Grant terminations, the attempted cap on NIH indirect costs (blocked by courts), and CDC leadership upheaval are documented.
  • Insurance coverage. Medicaid changes and the expiration of enhanced ACA subsidies are projected to raise the uninsured count.

Where the “TDS” charge sticks

Criticism tends to be weakest when it:

  • predicts imminent dictatorship or cancelled elections that haven’t happened
  • attributes specific disasters or deaths to policy without evidence
  • makes personal or medical diagnoses of Trump
  • treats every action as equally alarming, which hides the better-documented concerns

Supporters are on firmest ground in noting that some critics responded to policies they would have tolerated from other presidents, and that previous administrations also expanded executive power. They are on weaker ground when the label is used to dismiss documented facts, like court rulings, CBO estimates, or the measles data.

Part 2: Case study on withheld government funding (impoundment)

In plain terms: Congress passes laws saying how much money agencies must spend and on what. Impoundment means the executive branch refuses to spend that money, or lets it expire unspent. A 1974 law lets a president ask Congress to cancel funds, but the money must be released if Congress does not agree. GAO, a nonpartisan agency that works for Congress, checks whether that happened. The details below are current as of October 13, 2026.

How the process works. Under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA), a president who wants to cancel funds Congress appropriated must send a special message proposing a rescission. Funds can be held back temporarily while Congress considers it, but if Congress does not act, they must be released. GAO reviews impoundments and reports violations to Congress. GAO states that its role is procedural and that it takes no position on whether the underlying programs are good policy.

Timing caveat. Most of GAO’s 2026 violation findings concern conduct from fiscal year (FY) 2025. Only the September 29 letter concerns FY2026 funds. Federal News Network reported that the September decision was GAO’s first ICA decision in about a year.

Tally

  • As of the September 29 decision, reporting put the number of GAO-identified ICA violations at 12 since January 2025.
  • Two further violation findings followed on October 7 (AHRQ and EPA, below). By my count that makes 14, but that is my inference, so check GAO’s Impoundment Control Act page for the official list.
  • In 2025, GAO testified that it had opened 39 impoundment investigations.

In October 2026, GAO issued two major Impoundment Control Act (ICA) decisions: one on presidential rescission proposals and another finding HHS illegally withheld $78 million in health research funds.

1. Presidential Special Message Review – September 25, 2026

On September 29, 2026, GAO released B‑338788, reviewing the President’s special message proposing rescissions from 11 appropriation accounts U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO).

  • Key finding: Under the ICA, the President may propose rescissions to Congress, but cannot withhold appropriated funds beyond their fiscal year expiration unless Congress enacts a rescission bill.
  • GAO concluded the President may not force the expiration of budget authority already enacted and not rescinded, regardless of size, because doing so subverts Congress’s constitutional “power of the purse” U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO).
  • The decision is procedural, not a policy judgment, and reaffirms GAO’s role in protecting congressional prerogatives.

Full report: GAO B‑338788 – Impoundment Control Act of 1974: Review of the President’s Special Message of September 25, 2026 U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO).

2. HHS AHRQ Withholding – October 7, 2026

On October 7, 2026, GAO issued B‑337872 finding that HHS violated the ICA by withholding over $78 million in FY 2025 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) grant funds U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)+2.

  • Context: AHRQ staff responsible for grant administration were laid off under an executive order, leading to reduced grant awarding.
  • Violation: HHS withheld funds without submitting the required special message to Congress, making it an unlawful impoundment rather than a permissible programmatic delay     political.orgpolitical.org+1.
  • GAO stressed that agencies must prudently obligate or expend appropriated funds for another permissible purpose; they cannot simply withhold them because of lump‑sum appropriations U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)+1.
  • The decision notes ongoing litigation and states that the Comptroller General may bring a civil action to compel obligation if funds remain improperly withheld U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO).

Full report: GAO B‑337872 – AHRQ Application of ICA to Grant Funds Availability U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO)U.S. Government Accountability Office (U.S. GAO).

Summary

These decisions reinforce the ICA’s core principle: Congress must approve any rescission or withholding of appropriated funds; the Executive Branch cannot unilaterally block them.

GAO actions in 2026

1. Pocket rescission special message (B-338788, September 29, 2026).

  • On September 25, 2026, the President sent Congress a special message proposing rescissions from 11 appropriation accounts, and OMB simultaneously issued a reapportionment letter withholding those amounts from obligation. The OMB letter was addressed to the Departments of Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, and international assistance programs.
  • All 11 accounts expire at the end of FY2026 (September 30). The congressional consideration period ends no earlier than November 9, 2026, after the funds expire. That is why the tactic is called a pocket rescission: the funds lapse before Congress can act.
  • GAO concluded that the ICA does not allow the withholding of funds past their expiration date, so the special message does not authorize withholding beyond FY2026. GAO relied on the ICA’s text, its legislative history, Supreme Court precedent, and the constitutional framework, and cited earlier decisions including B-330330 (2018) and B-337805 (September 2025).
  • GAO added that any withholding past expiration, regardless of size, undermines Congress’s power of the purse. It declined to examine other legal issues the message might raise.
  • The amount is reported inconsistently: about $810 million in The Hill’s coverage, and nearly $1 billion in Federal News Network and AcademyHealth reporting. Housing Counseling Assistance is among the affected funds, according to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and AHRQ funds were also included.
  • OMB Director Russell Vought responded that the finding was not a surprise.

2. HHS, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (B-337872, October 7, 2026): violation.

  • HHS did not obligate or spend more than $78 million of AHRQ’s FY2025 appropriation before the fiscal year closed and sent no special message.
  • GAO found this was an impoundment rather than a mere programmatic delay. It reasoned that by removing a large share of grant-administration staff shortly before year-end, HHS eliminated AHRQ’s capacity to carry out its authorized functions.
  • AcademyHealth estimates AHRQ lost about 80 percent of its staff. Grant Witness data cited by Inside Higher Ed show AHRQ grant spending of $41.3 million in FY2026, versus $216 million in FY2025 and $419 million in FY2024.
  • Litigation over the delay of AHRQ grant funds is ongoing.

3. EPA, Community Change Grants (B-337485, October 7, 2026): violation.

  • Under the Inflation Reduction Act’s Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants program, EPA paused payments and then terminated the Community Change Grants. Press coverage put the terminated grants at more than $1 billion.
  • GAO found two violations: withholding funds after deciding to end the program, and withholding them from obligation by terminating the grants, in both cases without a special message to Congress.
  • GAO noted that Congress later rescinded the unobligated program balances in Public Law 119-21. It still found the earlier termination was an impoundment.
  • GAO also relied on a court’s reasoning that the statute did not let EPA withhold funds simply because it disagreed with the program’s purposes. Related litigation continues, including a Fourth Circuit stay of an injunction and a remand asking the district court to consider whether the rescission mooted the claims.

4. Department of Education, Child Care Access Means Parents in School (B-337813, October 7, 2026): no violation. This finding is a reminder that GAO does not rule against the administration in every case.

Earlier decisions (2025), for context

MatterDecisionResult
DOT, National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) programSpring 2025Violation
HHS, Head Start2025Violation
HHS, NIH grants (B-337203)Summer 2025Violation
DOE, Renew America’s Schools (B-337208)July 31, 2025Both violation and no violation
USDA, Environmental Quality Incentives Program (B-337209)August 5, 2025No violation
DHS, FEMA FY2025 assistance (B-337204.1)September 15, 2025Both violation and no violation

Assessment: how well do the complaints hold up?

  • Strongly supported: GAO, a nonpartisan legislative-branch agency, has formally found repeated ICA violations, including the specific dollar amounts and mechanisms above. The core factual complaint, that appropriated funds were withheld or allowed to expire without the statutory process, is well documented.
  • Limits of what GAO’s findings show: They are statutory conclusions, not court judgments. GAO’s opinions are not binding on the executive branch. The Comptroller General may sue to compel release of funds, but reporting indicates GAO has never filed such a suit and has taken no enforcement action on its conclusions. Several related cases remain in the courts, and whether the ICA itself constrains a president is a question the administration has contested. That background comes from earlier reporting, not the sources retrieved for this section.
  • Where critics overreach: Describing the whole pattern as unprecedented lawlessness skips over GAO’s own mixed results (Education, USDA, and the mixed FEMA and DOE findings), and over the fact that earlier presidents of both parties also had disputes with GAO over impoundment.
  • Supporters’ strongest responses: Contesting GAO’s interpretation and authority; pointing out that Congress itself rescinded the EPA balances; and arguing the programs were wasteful or mismanaged. GAO deliberately does not weigh those policy arguments.
  • Source caution: Statements from DeLauro, Murray, and Boyle are Democratic officials’ press releases. The primary sources are GAO’s own decisions.

Sources for Part 2

Part 3: Case study on foreign aid cuts and disease

In plain terms: In 2025 the US dismantled USAID, its main overseas aid agency, and cut many health programs. Researchers warned this would increase disease. This part checks, disease by disease, which outbreaks are actually rising in 2026, whether they have reached the US, and whether the cuts plausibly caused them. The details below are current as of October 13, 2026.

Scope. This section covers diseases (1) detected inside US states or territories in 2026, or (2) rising in 2026 compared with 2020, and asks how strong the evidence is that US foreign aid cuts contributed. Evidence on the cuts’ effects is much stronger for service disruptions overseas than for disease detected in the US, and several US trends have mainly domestic causes.

What the cuts were, and what modelers estimate

  • USAID was dismantled in 2025. KFF found that 71% of HIV-related awards it identified were terminated, and about 80% of USAID malaria awards were terminated. Congress nonetheless kept appropriating money: $4.8 billion for PEPFAR and about $805 million for PMI and other bilateral malaria work in FY2026, and the US pledged $4.6 billion to the Global Fund through 2029. US funding for HIV in low- and middle-income countries still fell from $6.7 billion to $4.6 billion between 2024 and 2025, according to a report cited in Nature.
  • Death estimates are model-based and vary widely. A Lancet study (ISGlobal) projects at least 9.4 million additional deaths by 2030 if aid cuts continue at recent rates. A separate Lancet analysis co-authored at UCLA projects more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030 from USAID cuts, including 4.5 million children under 5. The Center for Global Development estimated that USAID cuts alone may have cost 500,000 to 1,000,000 lives in 2025, while Ireland’s government has cited 500,000 to 700,000. These are projections or estimates, not counted deaths.
  • Observed effects are clearer for services than for deaths. A Lancet Global Health study at four NGOs in Uganda and Zimbabwe found HIV prevention services down by about a third to nearly two-thirds from 2024 levels, PrEP use down as much as 72%, and testing down as much as 64%. A 14-country analysis cited by KFF found significant drops in access to HIV services from early 2025 to early 2026, with limited recovery.

Diseases detected in the US or its territories in 2026

Measles (confirmed US increase; aid link weak).

  • As of October 8, 2026, CDC reported 4,080 confirmed cases, the highest annual total since 1991 and above 2025’s 2,289. There have been 42 outbreaks, and about 95% of cases were in people who were unvaccinated or of unknown status.
  • Measles elimination status (held since 2000) is at risk, and reporting says the US technically met the criteria for losing it earlier this year because of continuous transmission.
  • Compared with 2020, the rise is dramatic:  In 2020, the United States reported 13 confirmed measles cases, according to CDC’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.

Source and data

  • The figure comes from the CDC’s National Notifiable Diseases: Infectious Annual Tables (Table 2k), which compiles confirmed measles cases reported to CDC through the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) CDCCDC. This is the official national dataset for notifiable infectious diseases in the U.S.

Context

  • Elimination status: The U.S. had declared measles elimination in 2000, meaning no sustained community transmission has been detected for at least 12 consecutive months. However, occasional importations occur, and outbreaks can happen in under‑vaccinated communities CDC.
  • 2020 situation: The 13 cases in 2020 were consistent with the low baseline level of measles activity in the U.S. after the 2019 outbreaks, which had temporarily threatened elimination status.
  • How to access the full dataset
  • You can view the complete 2020 measles case table, including breakdowns by region and reporting area, in the CDC’s public domain PDF: CDC 2020 Annual Report – Table 2k (Measles)
  • In summary: The USA recorded 13 confirmed measles cases in 2020, reflecting the country’s-maintained measles elimination status but also the ongoing need for high vaccination coverage to prevent outbreaks.
  • The surge is driven by domestic undervaccination in specific communities (Utah, Arizona, South Carolina, Pennsylvania). Foreign aid cuts could matter indirectly through global measles surveillance and vaccination support, but at present there is no quantifiable data.

Clade I mpox (increasing in the US; aid link indirect and weak).

  • The first US Clade I case was reported in November 2024. CDC counted 15 cases through March 2026, and the PAHO regional report listed 50 by August 27, 2026. CDC states that clade I cases were increasing as of July 2026, and the US reported its first Clade I case with no travel history.
  • There was no Clade I in the US in 2020, so any detection is an increase.
  • Link to aid cuts: CDC says the DRC is no longer the epicenter of Clade Ib spread. Of 33 exported Clade Ib cases worldwide in January to March 2026, 24 originated in Europe and only 8 in Central or Eastern Africa. That weakens a direct aid-cut explanation for US cases.

Dengue in US territories (ongoing; no aid link established).

  • Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands declared dengue outbreaks in 2024. American Samoa declared an emergency in July 2025, identified 409 cases from June to November 2025 (76% in children), and as of mid-April 2026 its outbreak declaration was still active.
  • I did not retrieve complete 2026 case counts, so a 2026 versus 2020 comparison is not verified.

As of 2025, the United States reported approximately 2,096 confirmed dengue cases, including both travel-related and locally acquired infections.

In 2025, dengue activity in the U.S. has been notably elevated, with 2,096 confirmed cases reported nationwide through the CDC’s ArboNET system, reflecting both travel-associated and local transmission States with significant local transmission include Florida, Texas, California, Arizona, and Hawaii, where climate and mosquito populations create favorable conditions for the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes

Historically, most dengue cases in the continental U.S. occur in travelers returning from endemic regions. However, recent years, including 2025, show increasing local transmission, particularly in southern and coastal states. For example, Florida reported 91 locally acquired cases, California 18, and Texas 1 by early 2025. Travelers returning from high-risk countries can introduce the virus to local mosquito populations, potentially triggering new outbreaks

Comparison to Previous Years

The 2025 case count represents a continuation of elevated dengue activity compared to prior years, with a notable increase in local transmission in traditionally low-risk areas

Diseases rising abroad in 2026 (not detected in the US)

Bundibugyo Ebola, DRC and neighbors (largest aid-cut debate).

  • First reported May 14 to 15, 2026 in Ituri Province, DRC. WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern on May 16. CDC reported 8,750 confirmed cases and 4,208 deaths as of October 6, and Al Jazeera reported more than 9,000 confirmed cases on October 13. It is the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, caused by a species with no approved vaccine or treatment.
  • In 2020, the DRC’s Equateur outbreak was about 130 cases (per Claude), so the 2026 outbreak is vastly larger.
  • No case has been detected in the US as of October 6. Two Americans infected in the DRC were treated in Germany and recovered. CDC calls the risk to the US very low, and on October 11 it extended a 30-day entry suspension for travelers from the DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan after Kenya reported its first imported case and death.
  • Aid-cut link: Experts including Craig Spencer argue the outbreak spread undetected from about January to May in a setting of reduced global health support, and a September 2026 paper in Frontiers in Public Health argues the USAID closure weakened outbreak detection (it cites USAID’s STRIDES program, an estimated $245 million investment in partner detection capacity). This is a plausible mechanism but not proven. Initial tests also detected only the Zaire species, which is a diagnostic gap, and Ebola outbreaks arise from many factors.

HIV (service declines documented; infection surge projected).

  • Testing, PrEP, and treatment access fell where US-funded programs were cut. Models (Burnet Institute) project 4.4 to 10.8 million additional infections and 770,000 to 2.9 million additional deaths from 2025 to 2030 under the most severe funding scenario.
  • Caveat: when testing falls, fewer cases are diagnosed, so reported cases can drop even if true infections rise. Rises in measured incidence are not yet documented in the sources I retrieved.

Malaria (rising for years; cuts add risk).

  • Global malaria cases have risen for six consecutive years, so the trend predates the 2025 cuts. Sources describe cuts, drug resistance, insecticide resistance, extreme weather, and population growth as combined drivers.
  • A CIDRAP report cites a researcher who said the malaria death rate at some DRC clinics in January was three times higher than a year earlier, attributed to anti-malarial drug shortages. That is a single-source account, not national data.

Cholera (a counterexample).

  • WHO reported 163,031 cholera and acute watery diarrhea cases and 1,686 deaths from January 1 to June 28, 2026, a 49.5% drop in cases and 57% drop in deaths versus the same period in 2025. This does not fit a simple story that aid cuts increased every outbreak disease.  

Assessment: how strong is the evidence?

DiseaseIn US or territories in 2026?Rising vs 2020?Evidence linking to US aid cuts
MeaslesYes, 4,080 casesYes, sharplyWeak; mainly domestic undervaccination
Clade I mpoxYes, about 50 casesYes (none in 2020)Weak; DRC no longer the main source
Dengue (territories)Yes, ongoing outbreaksNot verified for 2026None found
Bundibugyo EbolaNoYes, far largerPlausible (detection delay), unproven
HIVNot applicableProjected; services downStrong for service disruption, weaker for case counts
MalariaNot applicableYes, rising for yearsMixed; cuts one of several drivers
CholeraNot applicableDown vs 2025Not supported
  • Where critics are on strong ground: Documented terminations of HIV and malaria awards, measured drops in HIV services, and a plausible mechanism (weaker surveillance) for the late detection of the Ebola outbreak.
  • Where the TDS charge has more force: Attributing US measles or US mpox cases to foreign aid cuts is poorly supported, and headline death totals are modeled projections. Cholera’s 2026 decline also undercuts blanket claims.
  • Supporters’ strongest responses: Congress kept funding PEPFAR, PMI, and the Global Fund at or near prior levels; the administration’s America First Global Health Strategy aims to shift costs to partner countries; and models rest on assumptions that may overstate harm. Critics reply that terminated awards and staff losses disrupted programs regardless of topline appropriations.

Sources for Part 3

Glossary

  • Impoundment: The executive branch refuses to spend money that Congress approved.
  • Rescission: A formal request asking Congress to cancel money it already approved.
  • Pocket rescission: A rescission request sent so close to the end of the fiscal year that the funds expire before Congress can vote.
  • Special message: The formal notice to Congress that a president must send to propose a rescission.
  • Impoundment Control Act (ICA): The 1974 law that sets the rules for withholding or cancelling approved funds.
  • GAO (Government Accountability Office): A nonpartisan agency that audits government spending for Congress.
  • OMB (Office of Management and Budget): The White House office that manages the federal budget.
  • CBO (Congressional Budget Office): A nonpartisan agency that estimates what laws will cost.
  • IEEPA: A law giving the president emergency economic powers, used to justify some tariffs.
  • Posse Comitatus Act and Insurrection Act: Laws limiting, and in some cases allowing, the use of the military for domestic law enforcement.
  • USAID: The US Agency for International Development, which ran most US foreign aid until it was dismantled in 2025.
  • PEPFAR: The US program that funds HIV testing and treatment overseas.
  • PMI (President’s Malaria Initiative): The US program that funds malaria prevention and treatment overseas.
  • PrEP: A medicine that prevents HIV infection.
  • Clade I mpox: A family of the mpox virus that is generally more severe than the one behind the 2022 outbreak.
  • Measles elimination status: A country has this status when measles has not spread continuously within its borders for a year or more. The US has held it since 2000.

Public health emergency of international concern: The World Health Organization’s highest alert level for an outbre

when veterans were President -Teddy Roosevelt

Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

Dozens of biographies have been written by historians on Theodore Roosevelt, from his upbringing to Rough Rider to President. Over a hundred years ago, this visionary and military veteran, outdoorsman, nationalist and the arguably the first Progressive, Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States. Following the end of the Spanish-American War, in 1898, he was elected Governor of New York state. And became Vice-President following the death of McKinley’s Vice-President. Becoming President following the assassination of McKinley, Roosevelt earned the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering peace between Russia and Japan. In the 1902 coal miners strike, he had a federal commission investigate and force changes to the industry averting an energy crisis. He ended the railroad industry and beef producers’ monopolies. And he initiated oversight of food and drugs to standardize safety and end misbranding of products. As a conservationist, he created the Forest Service and approved creation of several national parks**. From his speeches and writing, many of this century’s polarizing policies and loss of the United States’ influence in the world, might have been averted had they still been considered by its leaders.

We can have no ’50-50′ allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all.

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

cit. 1917 letter to S Mencken

The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.

TR

It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president… is morally treasonable to the American public.

TR

** summary of accomplishments, from https://learnodo-newtonic.com/theodore-roosevelt-accomplishments; quotes from http://www.brainyquote.com

One Sailor’s view of American democracy

Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

It might just be an inaccurate recollection on my part, but I recall someone saying life aboard a warship, (or by extension, life in any military branch, means the rights and freedoms- the democracy we defend for civilian Americans, is not really what we experience ourselves in uniform. A military system runs on rules and obedience to the “Chain of Command”. Committees, convoluted language in instructions, back-room deals, and courting favor of those lead seem ludicrous to a military mindset. Yet this is what precisely motivated sufficient numbers of Americans to elect an outsider, without experience and without an emotional or ‘decorum” filter, to the Presidency. To half the country this was a threat to our democracy that had to be opposed by any means. To the other half of the country, his election was in response to the callous indifference, inattention, and elitist behavior of legislators, courts, and supporting institutions to “working Americans”. For years each side has warned that the other is destroying the constitutional democracy that was established by our Founders in 1787.

What does “democracy” mean to any of us? Or “Constitutional republic”? Why do these terms stir up such passions between election winners and losers and each’s supporters in the United States? It may depend on your culture, knowledge of history, experience, education and political ideology. An article on democracy written eight years ago and an opinion piece in the New York Times, published in 2019, illustrate how American democracy might be characterized.

The Principles of American Democracy

Author Joel Hirsh, writing in The Huffington Post (April 2, 2012) reminds politicians and laypersons that understanding American democracy requires context. Asking the average person on the street what they understand ‘democracy’ to mean and you might get any number of misunderstood concepts. He writes that Abraham Lincoln described democracy as having no slaves nor masters. Mahatma Gandhi believed democracy could not be imposed but required an individual’s guiding principles to change government positively. Aristotle thought that equality for all came by everyone governed to be actively involved in governance.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

Winston Churchill

The idea of representative government was to promote consensus among differing majorities in all the States and eliminate factions who might control Government to their benefit. As for the President, what the Founders envisioned in the Electoral College, the writer continues, was a system to obtain a competent and popular Executive that all the States could work with. Hirsh notes that America and democracy seem woven into our American identity. However, in the last half-century, what was once understood by every schoolchild devolved to slogans and bumper stickers. Today, we can add Twitter rants, Facebook memes, and street protests whose participants cannot attach context to nor define democracy. However, the entrenchment of career politicians, bureaucrats, and partisan media (social media and conglomerates) increase disenfranchised citizens. In the Huffington Post, Hirsh described five elements of democratic governance.

The first element is the mechanism of representative democracy. Hirsh goes on to describe how the term “direct democracy” came into being, where segments of a society unhappy with their elected leaders, “mob rule” he called it. These countries, like Venezuela, Ecuador, and Russia are run by strongmen who have “opportunities” for their citizens to participate in governance, but in practice tends to be only the well-connected and well-funded individuals and organizations that have access. However, he also applies this to groups and caucuses in the US, illustrating how some conservative groups exert more influence in certain areas and policies than others. But the progressive groups have exerted a great deal of controversial influence during their control of the Congress and the Executive, and in opposition, during the term of President Trump.

A second element to aid the citizens’ representative government, is a professional, non-partisan civil service that provide these services to the people. Hirsh states “Governments in unstable democracies all too often confuse and blur the lines dividing party, administration and state. This is bad for democracy. Activist governments attempting to socially engineer their citizenry using their civil service as partisan soldiers for their political project have been a serious cause of recent misery.” Depending on one’s political ideology, this might be applied to either Party. In recent memory, Americans have witnessed groups supporting tax reform described as hate groups, groups supporting legal immigration as racists, and social engineering particularly in gender and identity. Regardless of one’s opinion, the use of partisan bureaucrats, and the extraordinary focus of the House of Representatives to investigate a President, which revealed nothing substantive, after several years is a textbook illustration of Hirsh’s critique.

In a 2019 opinion piece published in the New York Times, Jamelle Bouie wrote about democracy envisioned by the Founders as flawed. The writer of the NYT opinion, states that the Founders feared popular rule, using the Greek interpretation of “democracy”, a classical Athenian model where a small minority of citizens govern, in person. This lead to the Founders to incorporate representation where the interests of all the citizens would devolve to a representative. In practice, representatives often represent the views of the more well-funded and connected constituents and business interests than the majority. This is often illustrated by career politicians, who still win reelection after 20, 30, or 40 years in government through well-funded campaigns.

Hirsh continued with the third element of American democracy: the principal of separation of powers. In the United States this means three separate but equal branches of government, each with a clear role and with an equal claim to legitimacy. The Congress makes the laws, the Supreme Court interprets them (with an eye on the Constitution), and the president implements them. But his criticism of a President exceeding his authority – issuing Executive Orders and statements, conflicts with history, in that every President since Washington has issued them. That the Congress funds the operation of government and legislates is often at odds when the Legislators manipulate legislation to include unrelated, pet projects, or refuse to deliberate on them- to thwart their political rivals. As for the Judiciary to decide whether legislation is in keeping with the Constitution, “bench activism” has replaced constitutionality in decisions.

Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.

James Russell Lowell, poet d. 1891

The fourth is the principal of limited government. This is something which, in 2020, neither political party representatives in Government pay lip service. This is at the center of much political tension in the United States. The author candidly states that the Government spends sums of money overseas to help foreign governments become more decentralized while in the USA, we become more bureaucratic and centralized. He pointed out that increasing federalization goes against the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which says the States have responsibility for activity not expressly granted to the Federal Government (foreign policy, trade, war powers) .

The key to achieving a democracy that meets these elements successfully is a democracy built around a bill of rights, for every citizen that protects them from an overreaching government. Hirsh is correct in that he writes the American democracy has a foundation on a unwavering civil and political rights – “inalienable rights” — such as life, liberty, property, speech, assembly, religion, due process, and others. Other “rights”, such as the economic, social and cultural values, are all negotiations between free citizens as to what extent the Government provides them. He goes on to say, all inalienable rights compel duties from the federal government; and the duties these rights would compel directly interfere with the free market system as well as the bill of rights (such as the 10th amendment).

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.

Plato

The American democracy, has to resist the demands of those who continue to press for change, for loose interpretation and re-interpretation of an “outdated” Constitution. The institutional changes brought about by today’s social engineering may upset a system that has function albeit with mistakes and failures for two centuries. In contrast, other countries have weakened, become unstable, or worse, succumb to despotic rule. The necessity instead is for all Americans to be better educated about local, state and national issues, economics, foreign policy, trade and the mechanics of government. When citizens fail to become even moderately involved in their own government, we get the representation we have permitted. To blame democracy, the Constitution, capitalism, or social injustice only serves to enable a strongman to step in – and disenfranchise opponents.

Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.

Kofi Anan, statesman (fmr UN Gen Secretary)

politics and Pine Sol

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See the source image

The slightest whiff of pine oil cleanser is enough to bring the Navy instantly back to life for me. One of my earliest memories of military service was as a Recruit, the culture-shock of boot camp where civilians were turned into military – Sailors, in my case. We were daily required to clean our barracks top to bottom. Our performance in that task indicated how the remainder of that day, or subsequent days, would go. Most memorable, is that the “head”, what other services call the “latrine”(restroom to civilians), was scrubbed even more intensely. Not a speck of dust, nor urine stain, pubic hair, razor stubble or soap scum escaped notice during inspection. After two decades using Pine Sol as disinfectant and deodorizer aboard a military installation, that smell is indelibly stamped in my brain. Clean. It is still a pleasing aroma.

Politics have no relation to morals

Niccolo Machiavelli 

If politics had an aroma, the stench would be offensive to any military-trained nostril. And despite the eloquence of some Twentieth Century statesmen and pols – Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan come to mind – politics now entering the third decade of the Twenty-First Century, is nothing short of gag-inducing rotten garbage. I do not join either side in the American spectacle that is President Trump and his camp, or the Democrat-socialist- progressives and theirs. Politics needs a complete “field day”. And so does the would-be electorate.

I think all the garbage in the world is thanks to a very small handful of idiots.

Jeff Dunham, comedian, ventriloquist

As a military veteran, I think, as many do, we need to get rid of all the career politicians and their allies. Twenty, thirty or forty years of politicians complaining the other side is not fixing < insert the problem here> as the reason why they need to be elected or re-elected. Or incessantly being in opposition to the other camp, without having well-thought out solutions to real short-comings. The whole of education, arts, social media, and governance, in America and elsewhere has elevated minority opinion and practice while condemning the society, history and individuals who as a unified country, created medicines, landed people on the Moon, and put cellphone computers in every hand in the world.

We need a deep cleansing. Perhaps we put the military veteran in charge of all institutions, bring back idealism, respect for law and order, freedom OF religion, and family values. Put everyone in the country through a unifying experience of military service. Get into the dark and dank corners. And use lots of Pine Sol. We desperately need a top-to- bottom renewal. We need to take out the garbage. We need “field day”.

How Long Before the Regime Falls in Iran? – Quillette

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Art Keller has written an article, published in Quillette, that introduces some of the complex issues inside Iran, that the New York Times, Washington Post, and MSNBCs of journalism have overlooked. His introductory paragraph is poignant.

The death of Iranian Quds Force commander General Quassem Soleimani has produced some truly bizarre media coverage. Some Western media outlets are framing Soleimani’s death as the loss of a deeply beloved hero, such in this January 7th episode of the New York Times The Daily podcast. The podcast spends more than 20 minutes describing how Soleimani was a beloved totem, a living security blanket that Iranians believe protected Iran from instability (by fostering instability in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen, apparently). The closest thing in the podcast to an acknowledgement that Soleimani led a group of armed thugs that viciously suppressed dissent in Iran, including turning their guns on Iranian protestors less than two months ago, was a single sentence in the podcast: “To be clear, there are plenty of Iranians who did not love or respect Soleimani.”

Read the article here.

bureaucracy

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Any seasoned veteran of the U.S. military who has served overseas, dealt with foreign military allies, patrolled in a war zone, had liberty in many regions where English was not well-understood, or stationed at a U.S. military installation in a foreign country, understands many of the benefits and shortcomings of “Home” better than most.

The reason many 16- to 29- year olds in the United States today embrace “socialism” is due to their ignorance. Without long personal experience of the more mundane aspects of Government bureaucracy, they have only what they were taught and limited exposure. These might be obtaining a driver’s license at the Department of Motor Vehicles, and perhaps a simplified annual income tax filing. Young military members (especially those who marry early in their careers) are exposed to misfiled paperwork, outdated computer systems, confusing terms, differing support for ‘sponsors’ and ‘dependents’, procedures, and the overwhelmed administrative staff inherent in large bureaucracies. Utopians talk of modeling Swedish-style and European Union socialism – without really understanding the development, successes, drawbacks, and requirements. Ignorantly, many promote Government as the best delivery of human needs and wants when they haven’t yet experienced much of what is already under Government administration.

Big Government inefficiency is evident in every aspect of Government-provided services: obtaining vehicle registration and drivers’ licensing; real property titles and building permits; and in family trusts, wills and probate court filings. The limited experience of many, influence the mis-characterized belief that Government harass racially-targeted innocents (police maintain order and enforce laws), disenfranchise non-citizens and “formerly incarcerated” persons (per local, State, or Federal statutes), or limit the living standards achievable to low- or unskilled labor due to “unregulated” employers’ wages and benefit plans.

For others, Government should be reformed to accommodate cultural and social practices of the day, from gender, sex, race, citizenship, language, culture and criminal or civil conviction and incarceration. Policies are very slow to change, requiring many years to make minor improvements. Away from politics and media ballyhoo, Bureaucracy is what the governed are directly affected by and not politicians. Five ordinary examples of Government bureaucracy as it exists today should give some pause to embrace further Government control:

  • Probate: an old woman dies without a “valid” Will. With negligible assets and few bills, selling a home should be a simple affair. But Probate is not simple and not inexpensive. The State Court system is a labyrinth of procedures and calendar entries; an inexperienced layman is doomed to failure.
  • A stolen vehicle is recovered, and one seized for a traffic or criminal violation, are towed away. The towing company applies towing charges, and daily storage fees payable by the registered owner, but requires owner identification and registration validation before releasing the vehicle. When the vehicle owner has lost cash, debit and credit cards, or misplaced a state-issued identification, it becomes a Catch-22 where the vehicle cannot be released to the owner until valid ID is presented and payment made. Until such time as ID can be presented, storage fees continue to accrue. Sometimes, the value of the impounded vehicle when sought is less than the accrued fees.
  • A person with an employer health plan, pays biweekly insurance premiums. In an “emergency”, he visits an in-network hospital Emergency Room for a major health issue. Though the State mandates many “guest” workers, the unemployed, and under-26 year old adults have healthcare, paid by a legal resident taxpayer, the suffering taxpayer waits in line with all the rest who still primarily use ER services (they cannot be turned away legally).
  • A sixty-year old home requires upkeep. A forty-year old, improperly built “retaining” wall collapsed. The solution? Start excavation and proper reinforcement of a new wall in the same location. A homeowner’s decision to follow county regulations: permit, payment of fees, submission of plans and wait for inspections were far more onerous than expected. After project completion an added bonus: An unexpected (higher) property re-valuation and corresponding property tax increase issued by the County.
  • Transportation infrastructure: the Government is authorized by its citizens to maintain and upgrade. While citizens continue to pay higher fuel taxes, fees, and other taxes and fees to pay for maintenance, the Government executes over four to five years, a 25-year old improvement plan which then fails to meet the needs of the community. Bureaucrats and politicians redirect new transportation funds into special projects that overrun budgets by billions. Many of these pet projects are public transit measures that lobbyists favor but 2 percent will ever actually use.

the reason the Soviet newspapers, Izvestia and Pravda, were always sold out was not due to the news content. Toilet paper was chronically limited throughout the country.

interview with a resident of the former Soviet Union (1983)

But the merits of employment, housing, public transit, and basic health care in a so-called Socialist system do not justify an even more complex and inefficient bureaucracy than that which presently exists. Limiting the choices available for services to that provided by State-approved operators only, resulting delays, greatly simplified care, and regulation will disappoint everyone.

The American Experiment

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“These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been devoted to their attainment. They should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civil instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety.” Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address

https://nccs.net/blogs/our-ageless-constitution/will-the-great-american-experiment-succeed

In 2019, the United States of America has never been more dis-unified. And the quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin, about America as a republic – if we can keep it, never seemed more germaine. In the history of the world, war and subjugation has only maintained unity and “peace” for a matter of time. Through trade, common language, governance, science, cultural, religious, and philosophical ideas were passed down to the western world. Babylonians, Persians, Greeks,Romans and Ottomans spread a unifying message cemented by armies. In Asia, empires of China, Japan, India, and in Southeast Asia rose, fell and spread their influence. In the pre-Columbian New World, native empires rose, spread their influence across the continents. All rose, declined and were conquered by war, famine, or the petty squabbles and self-interest of people.

Since the first settlers and explorers from western Europe came to the New World, the same forces have been at work. The United States of America, was forged out of all these ideas, and expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and through conflict. It took a Civil War, two World Wars, and nearly a century for words enshrined in these documents to be embraced by the majority in America. Ideas that subjugated people based on skin color or religion still exist in the world, but in the United States, power-seeking politicians, academics and lobbyists are the ones now who threaten America’s future. For 243 years, America has welcomed immigrants, and as “Americans”, their talents and ideas helped the United States remain independent and unique in the world. Despite all the voices to the contrary, America is still exceptional; while many risk hardship and death to emigrate to Europe or to the USA, few seem willing to do so, to leave America to go in the opposite direction: into China, Russia, Sudan, or Iran.

The United States has indeed wandered from the creed that bound us together in the crucible of war. Many of those today, who have served in uniform, seen horror of war and the oppression of people around the world, are more committed to preserving our unity, our nation and our culture- our great American experiment, than those proselytize for socialism, rights without responsibilities, and demand reparations for our “shameful” history. Let us not listen to the voices that crave power, or those who condemn America, or those who use violence to silence American patriotism and nationalism. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and move together along the road toward peace, liberty and safety.

lies, damn lies and politics

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http://www.americaslibrary.gov/

I started to think about Mark Twain this week, how I am at the same age when he began writing some of his most biting satire about politics, religious hypocrisy, bigotry and the nature of people.
Whatever he was as a critic of Government, he always believed in supporting the nation and his writing made people think. While I still see the fundamental good in people and role of a loving God to help change flawed humanity, I am sorely disappointed by and feel a powerless spectator to, the downward spiral caused by politics and politicians. What can a journalist do?

expose arrogance of power

A Senator chastised schoolchildren visiting the Congress who urged her to support legislation proposed by a ‘socialist’ Freshman Congressman and one of her colleagues. It could have been a moment to explain that legislation needs to be carefully studied as to the impact on the governed. But she would not be dictated to. In prior years, letters I sent her as a constituent in the Senator’s district, specifically urging support for issues she opposes, generated form-letter responses. A one-time Political Science graduate, I am angry that important issues are not often acted upon by our elected representatives. Increasingly, actions are opposed ideologically, becoming a test of wills between Legislature members and the Executive Branch. While many support “Progressive”national politics and condemn “capitalists” or “conservatives”, there are no substantive debates of the merits and the failings of policies, but often incoherent and confusing ‘sound bites’.

highlight ethical and unethical governance

Government agencies specifically charged with protecting the safety and sanctity of the nation’s citizens respond instead to political power brokers, lobbyists and vocal opponents of the nation’s fundamental principles. Elected representatives and un-elected bureaucrats refuse to operate on Constitutional and nationally-unifying principles, but at other times defend their positions using the same principles they previously refuted. Most unsettling, is that some politicians will use the formerly apolitical agencies of Government to investigate opponents or enhance political agendas, and when opposed, conclude that the victorious majority must either be “deplorable” and bigoted, clinging to outmoded ideas and philosophies, or have colluded with extra-national agents.

train people to “think” and debate

Public education over fifty years has steadily replaced literature, debate, and ‘controversial’, i.e. unpopular, topics like physical education, wood shop, and trades-based career preparation, for gender and sexual identity accommodation, activism, and uniformity. Children who are raised to question classroom stances on topics that contravene their parents beliefs (prayer, football, ‘binary’ genders, or other ‘conservative’-supported subjects) are subject to administrative penalties and peer abuse. Colleges, once institutions that provided the foundations for an educated population in everything from arts to zoology, produce impoverished liberal service-industry workers with billions of dollars in student loan-indebtedness. But teachers, professors, and college coaches have wealth and comfort regardless of student success.

expose incompetence and waste

Local and state government may demand revenue (taxes and ‘fees’) for actions that do not materially benefits those taxed. Transportation projects that incur billions in wasted dollars for “trains to nowhere”. Bureaucrats demand ‘carbon credits’ exchanged those who use personal transportation to go to work. They charge higher fees for delivering power and water to residents, due at first to ‘climate change’ which others perceive historically as periodic drought. But then the government raises fees when residents conserve too much. In the intervening years, there are no projects to collect additional water or energy.

Courts rule against voter-supported legislation that a minority oppose. Or they issue injunctions that increase the cost and delivery time of a particular resource for years. Politicians and bureaucrats deliberately obstruct law enforcement officers, both state and federal, when executing their duties. Others release dangerous criminals into the community based on alleged racial bias at sentencing, only to have them offend and be re-incarcerated.

journalism: be not a tool of politics

What, if anything, can journalists do to help expose the failures of politics and Government? Ideally, journalists are the agents of the governed, investigating and exposing fraud, incompetence, and abuse of power. Journalists must elevate their craft, to withhold biases and favoritism toward a politician, an ideology, or ‘sacred’ conclusions, and report everything that may support or refute the subject. Of course, the twenty-four hour media business is a profit-driven business, and ego, power, and prestige are just as driving influences for journalists as is determining fact from fiction. When actors create false scenarios, or others rush to attack (like the MAGA hat student and the native American) that became widespread calls for violence and condemnation, the lack of proper investigation fortunately only resulted in embarrassment and lack of journalistic credibility. It may still result in a civil judgement in favor of a maligned victim. Journalism as the vanguard of the public suffer a loss of integrity in reaching conclusions before investigating the facts.

use of Mark Twain’s image: no copyright infringement is intended

“Lies, damn lies, and statistics”, popularized by Mark Twain, was his restatement of the quote by the Nineteenth Century English Parliamentarian, Benjamin Disraeli

just Coexist they say

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Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God. Franklin D. Roosevelt


https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/franklin_d_roosevelt_101223?src=t_infamy

Every generation has those who believe morally (spiritually) or  intellectually in  “world peace”. That coexistence of disparate ideologies are obtainable goals for mankind.  Others believe that economic interdependence among nations is the key.  Redistribution of wealth -generally that of political and social opponents – to those who have much less – by a paternalistic governing authority is a popular theme.  And still others believe that superior military firepower will thwart aggression.    In the last decades of the Twentieth Century and through the first two of the new Millennium, people have thought that accommodation, neutral stances and open-mindedness on everything from language to social services, gender and religion would bring about “coexistence”.   

It doesn’t matter what the topic is, but what is disturbing to someone raised in the last years of the American post-WWII  “Baby Boomer” generation,  that discernment, wisdom, dialogue, and critical thinking have been tossed away.  Feelings and hypersensitivity to the possibility that people may encounter ideas and attitudes that run counter to what they have been taught, have resulted in redefining “free speech”.   And in an age where the leader of our country is hypersensitive to criticism, narcissistic and uses social media to incessantly comment on his political adversaries,  we have other elected representatives refusing to obey legal statute, convention or address public safety concerns.  These highly insulated folks pander to an audience who are not citizens of the nation.   Judges do not rule on the merits of a statute based on the founding documents of the nation, but on interpretation and personal feelings.   In Government, universities, public education (K – 12), and almost all information and entertainment mediums,  the end goals of the broadcaster are fixed and unwaverable – with supporting data, “expert opinion”, and “statistics” found and scrubbed to present support for the “conclusion” reached.  Dissent is met with ridicule and occasional violence.

The latest examples of how improbable it is to coexist, except on the bumpers of socially conscious Western Europeans and North Americans vehicles, is the perpetual state of violence: against Jews, Kurds, Ukrainians, Syrians,  people in the Horn of Africa, Central Asia, and the Central and South America.  With warlords, drug cartels, extremists, zealots, and criminal gangsters,  there has been only violence, sex trafficking, child slavery, murder and anarchy, but no  peaceful coexistence.   International groups bring relief to hurting or starving refugees, risk being kidnapped, murdered, raped, or at best, had their aid looted and mission closed.   There are nation-states like Iran, North Korea,  Saudi Arabia, and Russia, who support groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Taliban, or the now-splintered Al Qaeda and ISIS. 

Sixty years after the world went to war over geopolitical ideology, and rallied to oppose and end genocide in the process,,  an ideology that has in its core tenets, an open hostility and warfare with Jews, Christians and – infidels,  executes a malevolent plan against the United States, resulting in the deaths of nearly three thousand people. Whether the barbarism of a faction or yet another example of how people cannot coexist with differing ideologies, this was only the last of several attacks prior to September 11th which killed numerous military members and civilians of many nations, carried out under the banner of “fundamentalists”.  And even as recently as today, more funerals, more anguish and more antagonism between rivals indicate that peaceful coexistence is as difficult to obtain unless one side is being buried and the other,  performing the eulogy.

I think, in the wake of Sept. 11, it’s important for the American public to understand that to the extent that there are individuals within the United States who would undertake terrorist attacks, that we are doing something to address that. Robert Mueller


https://www.brainyquote.com/search_results?q=quotes+on+Sept+11th

How the Clinton sex scandal shaped Brett Kavanaugh — and could give clues on his thoughts on Robert Mueller

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Politics, power struggles, and scandal,  not necessarily altruism, common ground and ethics, fuel Progressive versus Conservative debate in America and elsewhere.  In this article published by CNN in the month prior to the sexual misconduct allegation in his high school years, brought against Judge Kavanaugh,  the article provides insight into his stance on prosecuting misconduct by a President.  It may be more of an indictment of his critics,  whose aggressive opposition of a sitting President’s exercise of his office, is far more bellicose and histrionic than prior Administrations’ critics.  It may well be that the critics are concerned that a more strict Constitutional-focused Supreme Court Justice, may rule for example, such that the Executive Branch has the Constitutional authority to set immigration policy,  or that the Court rules on cases based on established law and Constitutional basis, not by public opinion or lobbyists.  For those opposed to an elected member of Congress or the President,  the ballot box is appropriate venue for voicing a citizen’s disapproval. 

via  How the Clinton sex scandal shaped Brett Kavanaugh — and could give clues on his thoughts on Robert Mueller

Who better to lead

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When I chose to make the military my career,  I vowed to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  Never in my nearly sixty years of age, did I think that, disagreements on policy priorities and governance aside, that our two-hundred forty year old nation would be so divided internally, and so poorly governed.

Since the first Gulf War, in 1991,  the members of Congress in particular, and the Government bureaucrats and advisers, generally, with military service -especially wartime combat service have declined.  With a world view fueled by lifelong academics with little to no experience abroad,  the men and women who are seeking to “fundamentally transform America” ( then-candidate Barack Obama) do not have American interests, nor practical American foreign policy concerns at heart.

Whether it is the shortsighted foreign policy objectives  or the politically-encumbered execution of military operations in the Middle East and Southwest Asia,  military men and women have been sent into harm’s way.  And the bureaucrats, industrial lobbyists, politicians, academics, and news media corporations, all vie for primacy while the American soldier, sailor, airman, marine, and our border enforcement agents all are treated shabbily.

When I heard today that Jeff Bezos of Amazon donated millions to a PAC, With Honor,  I started to look into it.   The idea that military, particularly combat-veterans, should run for political office and senior bureaucratic offices at all levels of government, cheers me.  It sounds intriguing.  I have served with some who have held offices in state governments and have brought a lot of wisdom and value to serving their constituents. But with electoral campaigns running into the millions of dollars, few can compete without well-connected benefactors.  There needs to be effective support systems that are independent of party affiliation.  And with veterans in the workings of government, there may be better opportunity to provide well-earned services to our veterans,  and to provide some sober judgement about policies that may send others into harms way.

More to come.

maybe I shouldn’t

Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

 

32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;  – Proverbs 1:32

Another blogger I follow published a story of a workman in a farming community who ignorantly, but purposely, set a blaze to burn cut brush in very dry conditions.  It was a day with a light breeze.  And it was next to fields that provide this blogger’s animals’ feed.   Another quick-reacting farmer cut a fire-break that minimized the destruction that would have been – to the surrounding fields and forest.

My wife recounted by phone to me mid-day a terrifying encounter on a highway with a fool speeding behind her by inches, screaming, throwing the “finger” around, and swerving around and slamming on brakes.  Worse still, he was taking pictures of her with a cell phone.  A maniac on a mission to kill himself or others.  She was shaken but unscathed.  And her passenger, returning from a cardiac treatment, safe as well.  And the often-maligned law enforcement officers were not present to intercept “road rage”.

A train operator in a large metropolitan center on the U.S. East Coast was distractedly using a cellphone while a train was traveling through an area too rapidly to navigate a turn.  Of course it crashed.  Because the automated speed-control feature of the track had not been installed at that time.  In the IOT (Internet of Things),  we are not yet at the future our futurist movies depict.  But then fallible humans design them.

A Navy ship with a highly-advanced navigation console, but relatively unfamiliar operators and overly confident command authority, collided with a commercial ship. It resulted in death, destruction, and ruined lives and careers.  This week, a social media post by a popular American television star, blatantly and undeniably abhorrent, resulted in firing and the show’s cancellation.  A  fool’s big mouth resulted in lost jobs for all those behind the scenes.

Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil. – Plato

People are often responsible – or irresponsible – for many problems that beset us.  Many times, of course, the things that plague mankind including influenza or wildfires, earthquakes or volcanoes are beyond human control.   But then, building a community on an active earthquake fault or on an island (Hawaii) created by an active volcano is by human design.

These behaviors and consequences are reasons to find comfort and instruction in the Proverbs of the Bible, wisdom of the ancient Greek philosophers, or other contemplative authors.   Human behavior has been the same for thousands of years. Only the technology has changed.

Technology… is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ~C.P. Snow, New York Times, 15 March 1971  via http://www.quotegarden.com

Quotes courtesy of http://www.brainyquote.com except where noted