Healthcare Self(ie) Destruction

Obamacare Survives Round 2: Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the so-called ‘skilled tactician and strategist’ with clandestine and surreptitious moves rivaling Emperor Palpatine, has badly miscalculated the healthcare bill. Two more Republican senators defected from a proposal that would strip many Americans of their healthcare. One criticized the bill as too harsh for the American people while the other balked at a proposal that seemed to just be ‘Obamacare-lite.’

Obamacare stands for now, and the Republican trifecta of Trump, McConnell, and House Speaker Paul Ryan face significant battles (tax reform, infrastructure funding, etc.) in the coming months to pass any major piece of legislation, as the healthcare debacle has laid bare the lack of Republican unity. Trump and McConnell are now both calling for a complete repeal of Obamacare. Doing so would be less a Carthaginian peace and much more of a Pyrrhic victory, as voters without any insurance would very likely lead a revolt against the Republican party in 2018 and 2020.

Peace in Our Time, Peace in the Middle East: President Trump reaffirmed the Iran nuclear treaty for the second time, despite calling it a “terrible” deal during his campaign. And though he is keeping the accord in tact, Trump and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson both view Tehran as one of the most “dangerous threats to US interests.” This past weekend, The New York Times reported on the winner of Saddam vs. G.W. Bush. It’s Iran. Oh yeah, that’s the reason so many Americans were not in favor of an establishment candidate: Billions of dollars thrown into a literal and metaphorical Sarlacc pit known as the Middle East. Jeb wasn’t low energy(Trump–to his credit–is an expert at naming, framing, and gaming), he just had a last name that Americans weren’t ready to forgive and forget.

Mahmoud Abbas in China For Talks: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is in China for a four-day visit and will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping today. Abbas Zaki, a Fatah official, said the meeting comes at a “crucial” time: The 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress will take place this fall. “The party congress will set Chinese policy regarding the Palestinian issue for the coming years. It is important for President Abbas to convey our positions to [Xi] before it convenes,” Zaki stated. Abbas will likely request that Xi continue to support Palestinians in international forums and increase investment in the Palestinian territories.

China has a long history of backing the Palestinians. In the 1960s, Mao Zedong supported Yasser Arafat with weapons and cash and in 2012, China voted in favor of making Palestine a UN non-member observer. China also has interests in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited China in March, where the two countries signed multiple bilateral agreements aimed at building cooperation in technology and innovation. “I believe this is a marriage made in heaven,” Netanyahu said of Chinese-Israeli relations during his visit. That’s an interesting comment because Zaki, the aforementioned Fatah official, used similarly glowing words to describe the Chinese-Palestinian friendship: “China is a gift of God.”

…Meanwhile, Taiwan Probably Does Not Think of China as “A Gift of God”: On Monday, China said it had lodged a stern complaint with the United States after the House of Representatives passed The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Friday. The NDAA is the House version of a large annual defense bill that would increase exchanges and expand training and military exercises with Taiwan. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang stated that the bill’s “negative content” with regard to Taiwan went against the “one China” principle. China opposes any form of official contact between the American and Taiwanese militaries.

China considers democratic Taiwan to be a “wayward province” that is part of the Chinese mainland. The US has no formal ties with Taiwan, but is bound by law to defend the island and is Taiwan’s main supplier of weapons. China regularly refers to Taiwan as the “most sensitive and important” issue between it and the United States. Beijing’s relationship with Taiwan has been especially tense since President Tsai Ing-wen (Taiwan’s first female president) won in a landslide last year. China suspects that Tsai, who heads the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, wants to declare formal independence from China.

Self(ie) Destruction: The smartphone is an incredible invention, and the world just celebrated a decade of the iPhone. Despite the benefits of omnipresent and seemingly omniscient (oh hey there, Alexa and Siri) technology, the smartphone, like everything, has a yin to its yang. Even one of the iPhone creators at times expresses regret over his invention. His wife “likes to remind him when their three children’s eyes are glued to their screens that it’s at least partly his fault.”

Texting, Driving, and Destruction is a major problem with perhaps the only fix being more technology that will enable us to simply be continuously plugged into our devices while we get whizzed around in our autonomous vehicles. The future looks more and more like Wall-E’s dystopia. Until technology can cure us of our inability to manage technology, we will be self(ie) destructing by walking off bridges and damaging artwork.

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