LXVII. The Pigs Are Flying

The world has never been more wealthy.

The United States currently has the strongest economy, able to set trends and roil markets on the power of a few words.

Somehow, in a WTF moment of economic voodoo, Americans have been cowed into believing that cutting public service jobs will strengthen our way of life.

Or else they thought we wouldn’t care enough to stand in the way.

It didn’t start with DOGE.

The American corporate model has shown us for decades that the dismissal of tens of thousands of dads, moms, weekend referees, recent graduates, ex-Marines, cancer specialists, mental health providers, forest service workers, disease detectives, and nuclear experts is a normal aspect of a functioning, fair, and free economy.

Complete covfefe.

This is a con job worthy of Charles Ponzi, sold louder and better than P.T. Barnum, presented as a magical black box with Elizabeth Holmes's straight face, and carried out by “real winners” better than Lance Armstrong. 

History will remember this as the Era of Alternate Reality, a time when friends were cast as enemies, Putin graced the dollar bill, and Christ was orange. If George Orwell were alive today, he might write a book and call it "The Apprentice Nation", where governance was treated as a game of survival, and the "contestants" (i.e., citizens), played along for a chance to sit on the golden toilet or get shit on.

This sudden and arbitrary culling of federal public services echoes a troubling pattern that Americans have accepted: the misguided belief that mass layoffs are an ethical business practice and improve economic outcomes.

A closer look reveals that such drastic measures inflict lasting damage on workers, communities, and even the organizations implementing them. For the last half of the twentieth century, American companies have repeatedly turned to mass layoffs as a quick fix for economic challenges. Between 1979 and 2019, manufacturing employment in the United States plummeted by 7.5 million jobs, with industries like computer and electrical products shedding 43% of their workforce. Over the last five years, several American companies have cut jobs despite making profit, including tech giants like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta, as well as Walmart and Bristol Myers Squibb. These companies have implemented layoffs as part of cost-cutting measures, restructuring efforts, and shifts towards AI and automation, often citing the need to increase efficiency and meet investor expectations, even as they continued to generate substantial profits.

Remember the case of the U.S. auto industry? In the early 1980s, major automakers like General Motors implemented massive layoffs in response to increased foreign competition. While these cuts provided short-term cost savings, they also damaged the social contract, downplayed institutional knowledge, and said goodbye to skills that proved difficult to recover. Such terminations devastated the families of cities like Detroit and Flint. When the industry faced renewed challenges in the 2000s, it found itself ill-equipped to innovate and adapt, and what did it do? They ultimately turned to the government to survive.

The short nature of our genetic fight-or-flight mindset allows us to skip from one travesty to another, to move away quickly from any type of death, yet like a stone thrown into a pond, the effects of these cuts will ripple outward, touching entire communities and regions.

Expect to see a cascade of secondary job losses in supporting industries and services from daycare to boutiques, a resurgence in bankruptcies and defaults, more shutdown of small business and local providers, more health crises, and more crime.

To illustrate this point, consider the analogy of a human body. Just as removing a major organ would put the whole body in danger, eliminating a significant number of jobs will disrupt the entire economic ecosystem. Local businesses lose customers, tax revenues decline, mistrust rises, and social services become strained - all while unemployment and associated social problems rise.

Chaos is the goal here, a beneficial disorder to keep and stay in power.

The administration has effectively painted this as ridding the government of waste, but it will do nothing to combat the real problem of economic inequality. We are heading toward a dual America of the 1%, and the rest of us.

One of the most troubling aspects is the ease with which people conduct themselves while doing this. Americans must understand that Musk, Trump, and his deep-pocketed supporters are independent of the public services that 99% of Americans depend on. Whether it’s law enforcement, clean water, electricity, flying on commercial airlines, finding a doctor, or having an escape route, all can be purchased by Musk and Trump, so why would it need to be provided as a public service?

The prioritization of financial or political gain over the well-being of workers and communities should be a scandal. We’ve been here before. In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the global economy, numerous companies engaged in mass layoffs while simultaneously rewarding top executives with substantial bonuses. For instance:

We are long past the need to realize that the problem is never the workforce but always the leadership, and now this mindset is working to cash out the American government, the bedrock for supporting basic freedoms and rights to everyone, no matter religion, look, party, or ability to pay.

Rather than eliminating positions, the administration could have achieved something Americans would get behind, such as offering to retrain workers on the use of AI. This approach would have preserved the institutional knowledge and been supportive of workers and their families.

While many elected officials, public servants, and concerned citizens are finding their voice and their feet, what is also of interest is who is staying muted. Those who have the most to win from the hollowing out of American public services are corporate CEOs, tax evaders, lawbreakers, and the interests of adversarial nations. The fact that Peter Thiel, Jamie Dimon, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and other corporate leaders have accumulated vast wealth during the existence of this supposedly dysfunctional federal government should not be overlooked by Americans. Some such as Musk have even received federal bailouts when their companies were in trouble.

Throwing people out of work is not a proven business strategy. It is especially insidious for public service, which is not in the realm of making a profit. If any good comes from this, it will be the awakening of a majority of the population to how vulnerable democratic government is to a feckless choice of leaders.

Too many Americans willingly handed the keys to our future to the gilded elite who view public services as a nuisance and workers as expendable and interchangeable. This is the graveyard of the middle class, fueled by our complacency and love of the spectacle. The game is now even more rigged, the referees have left the game, and the clock is still ticking. There are no rules, and the goal is to brutalize people into submission.

This is not America.

This is not America.

Wake up before there’s nothing left to write about.

Decades ago, I noticed how banks began charging fees for the convenience of using ATMs, though the technology certainly didn’t cost as much as building brick-and-mortar banks. This was especially sinister around universities and places where youthful spenders will nonchalantly pay a fee for the convenience of getting their parents’ money quickly. The convenience of technology is progress, but this also highlights another common trend: companies don't share the savings with customers. Make a comparison between the bills of two generations ago to the bills of today and you’ll see the difference.

Now that we are a credit-based economy, the amount of fees that we have become used to paying has quietly become entrenched. Articles like this are a reminder that the job of an administration is to do the most good for the most people as much as possible. What we are experiencing today is an anathema to real leadership.

In doing this newsletter, I’ve worked hard to present things in a manner that engages and provokes thought. I want this to be an authentic effort and not get labeled. I’m including this piece here and hope it will get beyond political corners.

The truth matters. Maybe more than it ever has in our country. From our neighborhoods to corporations, we are dealing with a flat-out assault on the American psyche.

There was a day when journalists and newscasters were fewer celebrities and more sojourners of truth. In the last thirty years, the rise of Fox News has displaced truth and fact-finding for sensationalism and innuendo masquerading as fair and balanced. Walter Cronkite was the most famous newsman of his day. People believed him when he spoke. His integrity cut through what was being portrayed as “winning” in Vietnam.

No one has ever really replaced him.

Difference of opinion is vital in a democracy. Selling lies as truth is not. If a company is supposed to be known for journalistic truth, it can’t then hire an employee and put them side by side with those who seek “truthiness”. We’ve lost a lot of standards of truth, honor, and decorum for a while now, so I was very glad to see this kind of pushback.

It’s a shame no one appreciated it.

Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is.

I had the privilege of hearing and meeting Oleksandra Matviichuk last week. She is the second Nobel Peace Prize winner I’ve had the good fortune of interacting with. Though I’ve kept up with the war in Ukraine, I fear the average American has not, and we are about to undo decades of supporting the fight for freedom because of some real treacherous behavior from this administration.

The Ukrainians have fought valiantly to defend their homeland, much as any American would do if another country invaded us. The US and NATO strengthened their relationship during the Biden administration and Russia’s economy is teetering on collapse with this war. To make a comparison, we spent a trillion dollars and seven thousand soldiers’ lives in the Middle East after 9/11 with not much to show for it. We’ve disbursed much less in Ukraine with no loss of American lives to not only advance democracy but weaken Russia.

Don’t believe any of the lies about Ukraine.

The real reason this is occurring goes back to the first Trump term when he tried to shake down Zelensky for dirt on Biden, in exchange for economic help. Zelensky declined to collude and the effort was reported by retired Army officer Eugene Vindman. What’s happening now? Yet another shakedown of Zelensky to trade Ukraine’s mineral wealth for continued offers of assistance. Remember the high school bully who wanted your milk money?

Russia overestimated its ability to take down Ukraine and has fought a war for one man only, and now we have an American President way out of his ability who treats Putin with admiration. Why? Because he wants to be Putin here. It is almost as if the Manchurian Candidate has occurred.

If you can handle the truth, you need to hear Ms. Matviichuk, who has helped to document the killing, raping, and torturing of thousands of Ukrainians by Russians.

I really cannot believe I have to write this.

The Russian leadership is not a friend of America. Their interests are to see the end of democracy and the United States.

Our cowardice in defending democracy will not go unnoticed by the world. We are entering an era of grave danger. Just as one small event set off WWI, we have in a matter of weeks caused purposeful strife and created openings for troublemakers to stir disorder and ultimately drag us in.

We stand firm now to support and defend freedom-loving people everywhere.

Here is Ms. Matviichuk speaking recently at the Ronald Reagan Institute.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

For over 25 years, Jose Alberto Gutierrez worked as a garbage truck driver in Bogota, Colombia. During his early morning shifts, he collected thousands of discarded books and turned his home into a free library. The library's fame spread, and now books come from all kinds of sources, not just garbage. Jose and his family also distribute books to remote and disadvantaged areas, helping 235 locations across Colombia. He said his love for books came from his mother, who read to him and his siblings every night.

This story is a reminder of what we take for granted, our public libraries, a free press, and reading whatever we want. We’ve worked hard to keep it that way for over two centuries.

Don’t lose it to someone who doesn’t read.

And Now….

While you must always work to find and promote peace in your life and your community, peace will not come by complacency or prayer. Words without works are not enough. Act as you know how with your head and your heart. I don’t see this era passing without doing some hard work to assist others, and to make some good trouble.

Hope to see you next time. Keep reading, practice your gratefulness, and remember: Be a good human.

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