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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Trump is continuing to ask the American consumer to eat the cost of his illegal wars after his spectacular under-delivery on campaign promises to make America more affordable again.
What is waiting around the corner is even worse.
Southern and eastern Asia have been hit harder than the United States so far, by the energy bottlenecks created by the war in Iran. There, the impacts have been more devastating; the resulting shortages are bubbling up to crisis proportions.
In this world of delicately interconnected supply chains, scarcity of one item has a grand slam domino effect on everything else
The United States found that out during Covid. Yet didn’t heed what was learned from the consequences. Today, the seeking out of ways to save pennies has extended many of those interwoven logistical schemes even further.
So not only will the shock this time round be felt by Americans in the cost and availability of goods coming in from the factories of China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, it will also eviscerate availability of raw materials needed by our country’s own manufacturers.
When just one fragment of the supply sequence is missing, everything on the other side grinds to a halt. Nothing to sell equals layoffs. Layoffs in one sector of industry can spread like a wildfire.
Trump's cruelty has already made a mark around the world – in the Caribbean, Africa, Gaza… And now the United States. The results of one man’s megalomania come home to roost.
$40 a gallon gas? That was on the black market in Cuba before the first fuel-bearing ship breached the American blockade of the island. That’s if any could be found at all.
How soon could that hit home here?
Especially as United States’ producers vying to profit from selling their output overseas, where sky-rocketing costs have significantly surpassed American pay-at-the-pump prices.
Life without oil in Cuba meant much more than not being able to drive to the beach or the store. Shortages of oil, gas and diesel slammed the brakes on distribution, refrigeration, and the entire food supply chain for millions of people.
Competition for the limited supplies of fuel continues to gravely impair the health care system which struggles to provide life-giving services, with hospitals having limited abilities to treat patients, ambulances too often inoperable, and dialysis machines idled by the lack of electricity. Not to mention the inability of staff to commute and the ongoing dearth of life-saving pharmaceuticals.
Pain. Suffering. Slow and miserable deaths.
With our for-profit healthcare system, when will that hit home here?
All because an American madman fed by the grievances and pocketbooks of his wealthy Castro-refugee neighbors wants to conquer Cuba and turn the clock back to the 1950s, when the millions lived in abject poverty under the boots of those refugees and their American-gangster backers.
The current U.S. blockade of Cuba is the mirror-image of Netanyahu barricading delivery of basic subsistence and medical care to Gazans.
A war crime perpetrated by criminals as vicious as any cartel overlords.
International law does not allow deliberate attacks on civilian energy infrastructure, which is protected under the Geneva Conventions. In 2024, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrests of four senior Russian military officers involved in attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid for crimes against humanity. Which only increased.
Netanyahu has been nailed with a warrant for his genocidal scorched-earth destruction of Gaza. Although propped up by America’s president for now, Bibi is a pariah in much of the world.
Will Trump with his relentless and mindless attacks on the people and infrastructure of Iran be next?
What beleaguered nation, what terrorist organization, what ally-turned-enemy will first put American infrastructure in its crosshairs?
And which of the foregoing is the most dangerous to the American people?
Supply chains shredded by the Strait of Hormuz blockade? Billions wasted on bombing countries on the other side of the world? Erratic support for Ukraine – but business-as-usual for foreign despots? Making the United States an international pariah? Promoting personal vendettas?
How about all of the above, with every exit slammed shut by this administration’s compounding policy misadventures?
Consequences hailing down so hard on the ordinary Americans who elected this government which is now providing the diametric opposite to what they went to the polls for – hell and damnation instead of fostering beneficial change, improving the economy, increasing self-sufficiency and providing a future for their kids.
Now potentially bringing upon themselves the pain and suffering, and slow, miserable deaths visited by the Trump government, directly or indirectly, on Venezuelans, Iranians and Cubans, on Iraqis, Gazans and Syrians, on Yemenis and Lebanese and Nigerians and more.
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)
