There have already been massive attacks against whole countries with successful breakdowns that lasted for hours and days. Ukraine, Lithuania, and Georgia were targets over the last year. My memory is that suspicions fell to the Russian government because the attacks, in these cases massive Denial of Service assaults, appeared to originate from within Russia.

At any rate, add this to your terror worries.

Go see them.

Don’t miss the Italian themed exhibition with lots of good phots, many by Italian photographers unknown to me. I particularl liked the many works by Mario Giacomelli (1925 - 2000).

No, it won’t be a dirty nuclear device. It will be a bio bomb.

I guess my prescience is not infallible.

But, for the modern era, post WW2, Bush is clearly the worst, most destructive President.

In the international sphere, we will be digging out from the morass of his crazed policies for a decade. This will most prominently feature the disaster of Iraq. A particularly problematic consequence of Bush’s policies is the increased militarization of our foreign and domestic security strategies.

On the home front, we have the staggering debt, degradation of civil rights and government practices, and lost time dealing with health care, infrastructure, income inequality, education, housing and more. I do not particularly hold him responsible for the global economic meltdown. That is really the result of a global infatuation for ” free markets” in which both US parties and numerous others worldwide have indulged themselves for more than three decades.

Though I am concerned that the present problems facing us may be beyond the present political system to navigate let alone solve.

Just to mention one. Our overseas empire with almost 800 military bases (see the Base Structure Report from the Pentagon for the data) on every continent proves Eisenhower’s point about the military industrial complex, though in truth this confirms what he is said to have wanted to say, “the military-industrial-Congressional complex”. This monster that consumes almost a trillion $s every year (my calculation includes the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, Energy, and other secret intelligence/military enterprises a;long with the budgets for the War on Drugs and Homeland Security) continues to grow with no evidence that our security is actually improving. To the contrary, it appears that in some quarters our security may be significantly diminished.

The healthcare crisis in the US is growing in severity and yet is not the subject of any real public debate. More than 44 million Americans are without health insurance and almost 65 million will experience a lack of coverage during the year. Emergency rooms are the primary care provider of necessity. All of this despite the fact that, as a nation, we spend more than any other country in the world; 11% more than the next closest country; 90% to 100% more than countries like Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, and France. Yet the outcomes for our healthcare system are completely second tier and nearly third world.

You may be shocked to see exactly how poorly our phenomenally expensive health system is performing. Just to add some further context, note that Sweden (1st in Infant Mortality to the US 41st position) has a per capita income roughly equal to that of Mississippi (the poorest US state) and spends almost exactly half of what the US does per capita on health care. Examine the Comparative Health System Data in which I have color-coded a few countries for quick comparison.

During our quadrennial presidential personality sweepstakes, neither candidate offered real solutions, really not even a discussion of the issues. We are stuck in a political environment in which neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are offering, and I would argue, are capable of offering real solutions.

Lets make a one basic observation about the situation:

This is not a money problem. As demonstrated by the data on the Comparative Health System Data chart, we clearly are spending enough money in aggregate.

But, this crisis is about money, namely, who gets it and what do they do with it. And, starting from the last serious attempt to tackle the problem during the first year of the Clinton administration, it is very clear that the political system is completely in the pockets of the various interests who have the money now, namely insurance and drug companies, hospitals, and doctors.

It seems obvious to me that we just need to look at any of a number of the top performing countries for the solution. Then, we need to have the political forces in place to tell some of the current participants that the rules have changed.

Central to any solution will be the participation of all US residents in the system. Healthcare is a basic human right and we should not be treated as “risk” factors in insurance company profit calculations. If everyone is part of the healthcare system, then we can effectively share the individual risks and expenses of healthcare across the whole population. Healthcare should not be an actuarial game to derive profit. It should be a system that delivers a reasonable level of service to everyone in the society.

Two players clearly are at the top of the hit list. First, most assuredly the insurance industry, which adds no value to our health care, but consumes by many estimates 15% to 20% of the resources, must go. Second, the drug companies can be brought into reasonable competition for prices that will bring market forces to bear.

Ironically, given the long history of doctors opposing national or single-payer systems in the US, doctors have now been reduced to the status of wage slaves like the rest of us. Many, if not a solid majority of doctors, will support real reforms to the system.

I close here with two basic notions:

• our healthcare problems are not about a lack of money, and
• we need to develop political forces that can overcome the control of government (Federal and state) health policies by the current players in the healthcare system.

Given the current Bush administration, I believe the focus of reform must be at the state level. It seems feasible to envision a single-payer system that covers all residents in a state like Massachusetts. We should try it.

We are here at Nantasket Beach for our annual “week at the beach”. Some of the regulars are here - Ed, Meredith, Maggie & Parker. Jonathan and Nan are here from Hong Kong with new baby Jessie. Esther will appear for the end of the week.

Perhaps I will figure out how to get a photo in here. The photo below is from a Nantasket gathering five or six years ago.

Dedicated to Willie Joe Namath

We didn’t really have a plan.
We ended up here.
A cold brook gives the place its name,
Runs clear along a stony, sandy bed,
So cold it makes the bones ache.

He held my hand
So I wouldn’t slip and break a hip.
When he was little he loved bananas
Couldn’t get the word out
I became Naner for always having
Naners in the kitchen for him.

Even though I was under strict orders
Not to climb anything at all
We climbed the hill where the young girls
Are buried and it made him quiet.

Downed by Tuberculosis, Malaria,
Redundant Diphtheria, sounding like Latin
Names for flowering killers that might have
Pursued Marie Antoinette if
She had not already been spoken for.

He grew alarmed-
We were alerted to danger by an oncoming
Swarm of mosquitoes.
Such desolate graves might be contagious.

Running for the car, I turned my ankle, and Otha
Practically carried me, we abandoned the
Tombstones, with their fading carved-in-stone dates, that
In a few lifetimes will be gone altogether.

His real going-away party was that evening.
He would be deployed for nine months.
We stopped at Cock of the Walk,
A catfish house on the Ross Barnett Reservoir.
My grandbaby toasted the Mississippi Legends
With Rolling Rock…
“Forrest! Van Dorn! Pemberton! Davis!
Brilliantly outfoxed even Ulysses and Tecumseh!
At least for a spell. “

I reminded him
The pride of Dixie and
Its Sons
Sleep under the red clay
We stand on.
Don’t you fall asleep!
Don’t you fall asleep!

I had never told Otha
I had buried his shot
Dead in the back
Father and what a farce his
Daddy’s death had been–
Killed in an accident
In another misguided war–
I brought this one up on
Honor and sacrifice!

We salted our beers,
And it was the bubbles
Not the South
That rose again,
Tickled our noses and
Made us laugh.
I had to laugh.

Letting him go like this
Behind a lie…
His whole life
A let’s pretend.
Whatever happens
To my little one in Iraq,
Black umbrellas or no
I’ll wear that smile like a flag.

We drank up,
And he drove his Naner home.