Ok. I promised a short Thursday post, so here it is.
First, there’s a new episode of our sister podcast, Privacy Tips, that’s out for you to listen to here.
This one explains how you can save money — and liberate yourself from the grip of our authoritarian regime — by changing what programs you use. Like your web browser.
Yes. Seriously.
If you’re doing any sort of activism, you must migrate away from as many of the American tech companies as soon you can.
How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos — which you can read for free here — goes into more detail to explain why.
Second, above is one of two brand new Kathy Hochul advertisements that are rolling out for her re-election campaign. You can see the second one here. It’s not as interesting as the one above.
You might be wondering why I’m inflicting this horrible torment upon your eye balls and ear holes.
The reason is this: I believe, and this is my opinion, it’s not fact, we are living through a national emergency.
People can’t afford to live. Let alone thrive.
The Federal Government has repeatedly told the states they don’t like, which includes New York and the 3.5M people who voted for Trump in 2024, that you don’t matter.
(If you don’t believe this yet, just wait you will.)
Despite this national emergency, if you listen to Kathy Hochul, you’d think everything is normal right now.
People aren’t getting explosive diarrhea because the federal government cut the number of food inspectors.
People can’t afford hamburger meat because of a shortage that is exasperated by the screw worm epidemic. A shortage that is directly attributed to Trump and Musk cutting staff and defunding to the program overseeing management of the screw worm.
Data Centers are jacking up your utility rates. Hochul watered down what was supposed to be a three year moratorium down to one and then lied to everyone calling that some kind of win.
And if you have Medicare, you don’t need me to tell you that Medicare doesn’t cover vision, dental, and hearing. Instead of offering assistance with this and the cost of prescription medication, Hochul’s plan is … What exactly?
Oh, right. Nothing
The New York State Democrats — and the New York State Republicans — have no answer to what should be a very simple, fundamental question:
How are you going to use the power of the State government to fill in the gaps left by the federal government?
Pretending Trump is the problem, and that the problem will just “go away” when he’s gone is not a plan.
But it’s Kathy’s plan.
Consider this:
The New York State Department of Health could be staffed and funded to make sure the food that enters New York State has been checked appropriately since the FDA can’t be bothered to do so.
(They can also make sure all the vaccinations you need are available no matter what RFK does.)
Letitia James could use the power of her office to go after food monopolies, meat monopolies, and grocery store monopolies that artificially jack up the price at the grocery store, which would save you thousands of dollars every year.
We can just ban data centers entirely. The AI thing is a bubble and we don’t need anywhere near the number of these data centers as the tech bros like to claim.
And, of course, Hochul can do the right thing and sign the New York Health Act, which would simply replace your current insurance company with New York State.
(Meaning, you pay the state your premium each month, and that premium would be based on how much money you make. The State provides your health coverage. So no more co-pays. No more deductibles. You can see whatever doctor you want and ou can get the medicine that you need.)
Right now, as I write this, many State employees are getting jerked around by United Healthcare in our region because United Healthcare couldn’t squeeze Columbia Presbyterian for as much money as it wanted. So those State employees now won’t be able to see their doctors at Columbia.
Where’s Hochul — or Skoufis, or Brabenc, or Maher, or Eachus — on that one?
Oh right, no where.
The best part about the New York Health Act is this: If you have Medicare, you keep your Medicare coverage AND New York Health Act would pick up the cost of things Medicare does not cover.
Shit, listen, my Mom needs hearing aides. They’re like $6,000. Medicare doesn’t cover that. But you know what will? The New York Health Act.
Instead of saying or proposing any of that, Kathy Hocul is going to try to convince you that she’s “just like you,” struggling to get by, while this year alone, raking in over $7,000,000 in campaign contributions.
Do you have an extra $7M laying around? Because I sure as fuck don’t.