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As a follow-up to our discussion a couple of weeks ago about what President-elect Biden’s cabinet picks say about his upcoming Administration, we’ll focus in on the Secretary of Defense nominee and some people’s expressed concerns about how recently he retired from the Navy.

The discussion will be centered around this Op-Ed piece by Dennis Blair, former DNI and a Navy man himself. In the attached PDF, I attached both Blair’s commentary and some of the comments in response.

If you haven’t re-joined the Beyond Labels discussion (for now, via Zoom), you can register on the Blue Hill Public Library’s events calendar to get the Zoom link. We meet from 10:00am to noon every Monday.

On Dec. 14, we’ll explore the paths to implementing “universal healthcare” in the U.S. We’ll assume that “universal” coverage is the consensus goal, and discuss how to get there.

Paths

• Should it be done with a giant leap? Strong advocates seem to think so, but there are lots of unknowns (changes in behavior of providers, patients, others; cost; etc.).
• Should it be done incrementally, such as by expanding Medicare to cover broader age groups?
• Should a single system be implemented nationally, or should the details (or even adoption) be left to the individual states?

To Where?

• Should the U.S. create a unique system? <How would it be different from others? Why?>
• Should it copy one of the existing models of other countries? <Which one?>
• Should it expand an existing program (like Medicare)? <Does Medicare currently “work” for the country?>

I’m sure we’ll have a robust discussion and will hopefully gain some insights into the risks and opportunities with such a transformation.

Next week, we’ll revisit this topic that continues to be relevant and has recently returned to the headlines.

• Do we think, as some have asserted (NYT), that the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist was intended to complicate any Biden Administration efforts to rejoin the Iran Nuclear deal?
• Or will it actually make a renewed Iran Nuclear deal more likely, as at least one other has speculated (WaPo)?
• Or will it expose vulnerabilities (NYT) within the Iranian government and its people?
• What should be the U.S. approach to Iran (and Israel)?
• And how will it all play out?

If there’s time and interest, we may also discuss Afghanistan (again)—another area in which the Trump Administration appears to be taking significant action before the end of the Trump presidency. Who’d have thought the New York Times Editorial Board would credit the Trump Administration with “laudable steps toward a U.S. exit?”