I was in physical therapy the other day (hamstring, no big deal), when I realized that the vibrant facility I was in, part of a large orthopedic surgery practice, is one of those thousands of healthcare-related businesses that were made possible by the Affordable Care Act. It brought to mind the ongoing fragility — the sheer precariousness — of these businesses, as the bullies ride into town. Obamacare is surely in their sights. We’ve always assumed Trump and his rubber-stamp Congress were still determined to repeal the ACA, but it occurred to me that with Elon Musk and his cyber-vandals screwing around with government computers, repeal is hardly necessary. All they need to do is cut off the funding, which, they would have you believe, is a matter of a few lines of code. If Musk can actually pull that off — and make it stick — it would quickly kill off PT centers like the one now stretching my hamstring, and wreak havoc on the ecosystem of surgery centers, spe...
L et’s not sugar-coat it. Let’s call it what it is: a coup. It’s not a policy shift, a government shake-up, or a peaceful transfer of power. It’s not something Americans know much about, or are prepared to deal with. We’re witnessing a full-on fascist takeover. It would be right out of the Hitler playbook, except Hitler had nothing like the computer skills and gargantuan financial resources of the “tech bros,” Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. These two immigrants are, quite ironically, riding a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment to launch a hostile takeover of the federal government. It’s hard to know what to do about it, and better minds than mine are now pondering it full-time. But one way to start is to get over this ridiculous notion that Democrats are somehow responsible, or asleep at the switch, or should have seen this coming. A lot of them did indeed see it coming, long ago. Elizabeth Warren, Adam Schiff, Jamie Raskin, and dozens of other elected Democra...