POLITICS -- The NYC Election; Bono, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama hold ceremony for the end of USAID; EMS funding -and other stuff too

Strange times indeed but there is hope

Greetings, the world has gone to hell in a hand basket and American Democracy and our traditional way of life is in danger. Not only that, it’s hurting me personally in several ways.

So how do I react? In part by taking my “Mostly Asian History” column and adding a Tuesday political column where I share my views.

As you know an out of control, drug-crazed, delusional, racist billionaire who talks of living on Mars and has publicly asked if we are all part of a giant computer simulation (yes, you can verify all this easily) was unleashed upon the federal government a few months ago by a convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender and swindler who favors Putin and the Russians over the traditional allies and friends of the USA such as the leaders of the Western democracies in Europe and Asia, as well as Canada and Mexico. They then destroyed USAID. The convicted felon, adjudicated sex offender and swindler had the ability to allow this because he had somehow been elected president of the USA. These actions increased the standing of China and Russia in the world and led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people through loss of food and loss of health care and seriously hurt the standing of the USA in the world.

I’ve mentioned before that while this is a very difficult event to understand, it actually does begin to make sense, if one understands that several prominent members of Trump’s regime, including JD Vance, Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk, among others, follow the ideas of Curtis Yarvin, an obscure blogger who advocates the destruction of the US government in order to replace it with a network of dictatorships led by tech oligarchs.

And, you know what, I don’t think I have written such an extreme, weird-ass statement in my life, then double checked it, then said “no, this is fair and accurate writing.” (except maybe when I wrote something this last week.) ‘Nuff said. We are living in very strange times indeed. Let’s try to understand what is going on.

The “Big Beautiful Bill” is a terrible thing! Among other subjects it will hurt ambulance and EMS service across the country.

Long time readers know that I am an EMT - “Emergency Medical Technician” -basically a trained ambulance worker with hundreds of hours of training in taking care of the sick and injured and responding to emergencies. (Actually at this point, I am an Advanced Emergency Medical Technician, which means I have even more training with a few days more of training in responding to active shooter and terrorist attacks at the end of April. ( see https://peterhuston.substack.com/p/fdny-search-and-rescue-conference?r=as7cl ) )

Now honestly, you just can’t do that kind of thing and remain a classical, ivory tower, knee jerk liberal. It just doesn’t work. You see too many people behaving very badly and being very stupidly and you just too often finding yourself walking into places wondering if they are safe and thinking “It’s nice the police are here.”

And a sizeable chunk of your co-workers are arch conservatives. So what do the ambulance publications say about this “Big Beautiful Bill”? Surely they are not taking that left wing, "bleeding heart” socialist left trope that it’s a bad thing, are they?

Well see for yourself . . .

The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’—And the EMS Revenue Collapse No One’s Ready For June 23, 2025 By Daniel R. Gerard, MS, RN

How ‘One big beautiful bill’ could break EMS MedPAC, Medicaid cuts have EMS at a financial crossroads June 05, 2025 02:38 PM • Rob Lawrence

Just as context, one issue in EMS care is that in many places it is structured with the idea that patient’s insurance payments for services and transportation rendered should be a major funding source for the EMS agency. And a lot of ambulance calls come about either from or about low income patients. Sometimes they call themselves, and they tend to do so at a disproportionate rate than middle or higher income people. This is because they often lack cars (Medicaid will usually pay for ambulances but never taxis), they often have chronic health problems or other conditions, including behavioral or substance issues, as there is a correlation between these things and inability to hold a job, and many of them lack coping skills and call ambulances for things no one would imagine unless they have been an ambulance worker.

i.e. real conversation:

Me: “Hi, my name’s Pete. I am an EMT. Why did you call the ambulance?”

Them: “Because I have a tooth ache. I’ve had it for a few days now.”

Me (noticing the person is clearly breathing and speaking fine and shows no sign of real distress or medical emergency): “I see. So why did you call us for this TODAY?” (sometimes people forget to mention sudden changes in their health or well being when they call the ambulance. If they appear fine, it is a good idea to check and see what motivated them to call for an ambulance at this exact time.)

Them: “Because my mom and my case worker said I should get it looked at.”

Me: “I see. Okay, we can take you to the hospital, but we do have to check your blood pressure and ask you a few questions about your health. It’s a rule that we do that.”

Them: “Okay, thanks.” And they climb in the ambulance and hold out their arm to get their blood pressure checked.

And who pays for that? Well, the ambulance budget and the town budget are structured with the premise that Medicaid will. And, no, the ambulance really can’t say no in such cases although sometimes they can politely try to find a way to get the person to find their own ride.

And it’s even more awkward if the indigent person did not call the ambulance themselves but someone else did and the option of leaving them where you found them is not an option. Picture your classic skidrow drunk sleeping on the sidewalk in front of somebody’s nice restaurant stinking really bad and make awful snoring noises and covered with who knows what from however long ago. Someone’s got to take them somewhere, and the public plan for this often involves sending a bill to medicaid afterwards and then hoping their paperwork is in order so that the agency actually gets some kind of reimbursement to pay for gas, labor, and time spent airing the smell out of the ambulance afterwards.

Is it a perfect system? No, not at all. it’s not even a very good system. But it’s the system we live in. And if you just break the system without warning and thought, things will stop working somewhere somehow.

By contrast, from what I have seen the proponents of the “Big Beautiful Bill” seem to think that these people, people who need to call a case worker about a tooth ache and unconscious stinky drunks who pass out in public places, will somehow get jobs immediately and keep those jobs and those job will somehow include a good, affordable insurance package that will cover their ambulance rides.

Just as a reminder, how many people do you think have told a stinky, homeless drunk lying in a public place to get a job or else offered to help them find one? Oh probably about two a week at least or more? Which would make at least 104 people or more each year telling them rudely or nicely to get a job and somehow they sill don’t have one. And let me remind you, people who make health, safety, and comfort a priority do not pass out drunk in public places, at least not regularly to a point where the local cops and ambulance workers recognize them.

So, criticism of the Big Beautiful Bill is coming from all directions. We will see what happens . . .

This week I begin by offering the New York Times story on the end of USAID, a proud institution that many dedicated professionals dreamed of having the chance to be part of. I’ve offered the full article here. Normally considered bad journalistic practice but I hope they consider this free advertising and will thank me. Regardless, it portrays people living the way I think they should and made me feel good about some thing even in the worst of times.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/us/politics/usaid-staff-obama-bush-bono.html

Bush, Obama and Bono Commend USAID Staff Members on Their Last Day

Two ex-presidents and a rock star thanked the outgoing workers of a doomed agency.

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The U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington.Credit...Eric Lee/The New York Times

By Christopher Flavelle

Reporting from Washington

June 30, 2025, 8:40 p.m. ET

As most staff members at the U.S. Agency for International Development marked their final day with the agency, they got thanks from two presidents and a rock star.

The Trump administration has eliminated most U.S. foreign assistance programming, saying that it fails to advance American interests. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the former Trump adviser Elon Musk worked to dismantle U.S.A.I.D., arguing that its staff was insubordinate. But in recorded messages shared with employees on Monday, former presidents painted a very different picture of the agency and its place in American foreign policy.

“You’ve shown the great strength of America through your work, and that is our good heart,” former President George W. Bush told the staff in a video message played during a videoconference. The video, a copy of which was viewed by The New York Times, was reported earlier by The Associated Press.

Mr. Bush cited the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which he initiated, and which has been estimated to have saved 25 million lives. That program’s future, like much of U.S. foreign aid, is unclear.

“Is it in our interest that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is,” Mr. Bush said. “On behalf of a grateful nation, thank you for your hard work, and God bless you.”

Former President Barack Obama, in a separate message, said the decision to dismantle U.S.A.I.D. would “go down as a colossal mistake.”

“Ending your presence and your programs out in the world hurts the most vulnerable, and it hurts the United States,” Mr. Obama said, citing the agency’s efforts to prevent disease, fight drought and build schools.

“To many people around the world, U.S.A.I.D. is the United States,” Mr. Obama added. He encouraged the agency’s staff to take pride in their work, even as they looked for new jobs.

Bono, the U2 frontman and longtime advocate for developing countries, offered a lyrical send-off in a video of his own.

“They called you crooks — when you were the best of us, there for the rest of us,” he said. “And don’t think any less of us, when politics makes a mess of us.”

“It’s not left-wing rhetoric to feed the hungry, heal the sick,” Bono added. “If this isn’t murder, I don’t know what is.”

Christopher Flavelle is a Times reporter covering how President Trump is transforming the federal government.

See more on: Bono, George W. Bush, Elon Musk, Agency for International Development, President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

Some people who read this think I am a Democrat. Actually, although I am a registered Democrat, for most of my life I was proudly an independent, but I only became one in 2016 so I could vote for Bernie Sanders in the primary and then Andrew Yang in 2020. (2024? Was there a Democratic primary? Um, I guess so. I skipped it. Obviously, I do wish Kamala Harris had won but I think it’s interesting to see that whats-his-name whats-his-name — Zohran Mandani? — is that how you spell and say it? The guy who just won the New York City mayoral primary. I’m curious to see how close I came. I mean, I don’t even know what kind of name that is, and I am the guy people usually look at and ask “Hey Pete, what kind of name is that?” and 95% of the time I can give an intelligent, thoughtful, usually correct answer but in this case I shrug and say “You got me? Some brown guy with a funny name and socialist ideas who no one ever heard of before —It’s a New York City thing I guess - I even heard he’s a Muslim - so I guess he’s the Anti-Trump, Cool!” Apparently, the folks in New York City looked at the direction Trump was trying to take things and voted for the exact opposite in every way they could.

And many of those voters who did that exact thing were also former Trump voters.

Yes, gess what? MAMDANI (I checked the spelling) won the primary in large part because he, like Trump, determined what voters wanted to hear and promised it to them. Things like lower rent, jobs, better access to opportunity and quality of life for ordinary people. The difference is that Mamdani appears sincere. Trump is and always has been a pathological liar. And Mamdani seems to understand that wealth disaparities have reached a point where for ordinary people to get a good quality of life, they need government protection from the ultra-wealthy, predatory class.

Just as I wrote about several weeks ago here, he was voted in by many of the same people who voted for Trump!! It’s not Trump that people want. It’s someone who will help them build a better life.

GOTHAMIST -How voters in Trump districts helped Mamdani win the Democratic primary By Brigid Bergin, Joe Hong and Elijah Hurewitz-Ravitch Published Jun 26, 2025

From the article”

A Gothamist analysis found that Mamdani won 30% of the primary election districts Trump won in the 2024 general election and garnered over 35,000 votes in districts that went for Trump. Around the Jamaica Hills, Queens intersection where Mamdani filmed last November, voters in 2024 moved toward the GOP by nearly 25 points. On Tuesday, Mamdani won there with 84.2% of the vote.

In addition to Hillside, Queens, Mamdani won Trump-leaning districts in Tottenville on the Republican stronghold of Staten Island, College Point in North Queens and Bath Beach in South Brooklyn.

But, Pete, surely since you think so badly of Trump and what he’s doing, you MUST be a Democrat!

If you feel this way I answer you thusly . . .

Below you can see a 2016 photo of four rich, sleazy, corrupt people hanging out together and enjoying themselves. ‘Nuff said . . .

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/magazine/when-hillary-and-donald-were-friends.html