Catching up to China's surveillance state

Dear Friends,

CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM, WITH CHARLES, KATHY, AND ED:

(01:36) Celebrating aquatic terror, "Jaws" turns 50 - LISTEN
(07:17) Catching up to China's surveillance state - LISTEN
(22:46) Mamdani is what the Democratic Party needs - LISTEN
(30:18) Trump's executive order lowering drug prices - LISTEN
(40:15) Republicans usher in massive deficits - LISTEN
(53:44) July garden Q & A, with Kathy Byrnes - LISTEN

JAWS TURNS 50. Every serious public policy program needs an occasional light-hearted conversation, yes? Well, here ya go. Although Charles lives in land-locked Iowa, he is deeply galeophobic (i.e., terrified of sharks).

Charles blames his condition on "Jaws," which he admits to having seen six or seven times. We discuss the movie's old-school technology, the unfortunate carnage inflicted on great white sharks in response to the film, and how Ed's favorite deadly-animal flick, "Night of the Lepus" (featuring giant carnivorous rabbits), just doesn't cut it in terms of inflicting terror.

CATCHING UP TO CHINA'S SURVEILLANCE STATE. China has used the collection of personal data to track people they suspect might cause trouble for the country's authoritarian regime. A recent NYT opinion piece says we're not close to that level of government surveillance in the US.

Charles disagrees, and points to Elon Musk's brief stint at DOGE, which probably landed him access to all our personal data.

Regarding the growing secrecy of law enforcement, Charles says, "We're becoming accustomed to people hiding their faces, refusing to hand over credentials, refusing to have warrants to enter people's houses. This is becoming the norm. I don't know how that's not a police state."

AI will potentially make it even harder to fight increased surveillance. But here's a positive development: Congress just defeated an amendment that would have prevented states from regulating AI.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S UNWANTED SAVIOR. Zohran Mamdani's big win in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary has sent the Party elite into all kinds of pathetic hand-wringing. From what I've seen over the three decades just here in Iowa, Party elite would rather lose than allow a progressive populist to gain power.

I saw it in my 2008 run for Congress, where the establishment pulled every trick they could muster to tank my campaign.

I saw it in 2006, when one of the biggest Democratic Party donors refused to support the progressive nominee for Secretary of Ag, Denise O'Brien.

I saw it in the 2014 governor's race, when another prominent donor backed Republican Terry Branstad over progressive Democrat Jack Hatch.

In 2016 and 2020, Bernie Sanders shook the Party to its core, but couldn't unseat the corporate elite running the show. With Mamdani's victory, the writing on the wall may be more than the elite can stave off.

DRUG PRICES. Sporting his M.D. hat (and scrubs), Charles sees President Trump's executive order lowering drug prices as "long on aspiration and short on execution and detail," like many of Trump's actions. We'll have to see how that plays out.

SO MUCH FOR FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY. The "Big Budget Bill" has passed. Besides knocking millions of people off food assistance, besides ending Medicaid for millions of Americans, besides potentially stalling advances in clean energy, besides continuing tax cuts that will further grow the income inequality divide, the bill exposed the core hypocrisy of the GOP: fiscal responsibility.

Sorry, Repubs. You don't get to call yourselves fiscal conservatives when you vote for a bill that adds $3.3 trillion to the national debt. That's TRILLION, with a "T."

JULY GARDEN Q & A. Kathy and I kick off each month by answering garden questions. We could do an entire program on this, but then we wouldn't have time to manage our own crops and critters.

Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action.

Ed Fallon

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