New Day 1130 OMG! omg, omg, omg What’s Happened to Us?
Friday February 21, 2020
254 Days until the election on November 3rd
334 Days until the election on January 20, 2021
Will there be anything left of our government?
As many of you know I’ve been on a trip to Northern India and reporting has been sporadic. I came home sick, once again, and am finally on the mend. I’m not back in this timezone yet, but I’m working on it. BTW I didn’t realize that India is ten and a half hours different than east coast time. A little fact I failed to realize while there. Why? The country would have been split between two time zones and rather than do that they decided to split the difference and have everyone on the same timezone.
Okay. since the last Trumpican countdown report the president has been acquitted of impeachment charges. The senators who voted to acquit can know that on the headline of their obituary that little fact will be noted. (It was with every Senator that voted to acquit Nixon.)
Trump then went after anyone he deemed to have not been fully behind him. Firing them.
He’s now fired the head of all the intelligence agencies and replaced him with a stooge of his liking. A guy with no experience in this area. Why was the previous guy fired? Trump didn’t like the facts that he reported. The facts are that Russia is interfering in our 2020 election to help Trump. Why not? We’ve done nothing to protect ourselves. Kick us in the balls please. In fact, don’t you do it; we’ll let Moscow Mitch do it.
There’s a stack of legislation about three feet high that McConnell now proudly displays as bills from the House that he had done NOTHING about. Meanwhile he’s been busy ramming through as many unqualified judges as possible.
Trump’s been busy too. He’s turning over as much public land as possible for drilling and development. He’s lowered the standards on pork inspections. Changed the standards on vehicle mileage. Gone after sanctuary cities by banning the use of global entry at those places. He has installed some of the most odious unqualified people at all levels of government. The guy in charge of the global entry stuff is Ken Cuccinelli. He was in Virginia politics before this gig. He’s a big right to lifer, forcing women to keep unwanted pregnancies and siting the Bible and crap for his mean spiritedness. My one regret on him was when we went to a Squirrels’ baseball game in Richmond and they announced Ken was there (that I didn’t quite hear it) – I would have stood up and booed.
Now William Barr has done so much terrible stuff that over 2,000 former Justice officials have signed a letter calling for his resignation. I mean what did anyone expect? His letter asking for the job said he believed in being a lap dog.
Speaking of lap dogs did you like Elizabeth Warren’s comment when asked who she was going to find to look at her adoringly like Mike Pence does of Trump? She said, “I already have a dog.” Love it.
And then the other night at the debate? Wow. She came out swinging.
Saying that Mike Bloomberg called women “horse faced lesbians” and “fat broads.” In fairness to Mike, the reference to “horse faced lesbians” was apparently talking about Princess Margaret who is rather horse faced but nothing compared to Charles’ choice of Camilla. Whether Margaret is a lesbian, I don’t know. I do know that it has been reported that her table manners are revolting.
Speaking of which Emily Post’s great-great-grandchildren are coming out with a new book on etiquette. I may buy a dozen copies. Boy do we need manners, etiquette and polite restraint.
On to the Democratic debate in Nevada, which was the first one worth a hoot. Warren, as I said, landed some big blows on several people. I liked Amy’s response to Warren’s Post-it note comment about Klobachar’s health care plan. “You know the Post-it note was invented in my state.”
But in fairness to Any, if her health care plan is to expand Obama-Care to what it was originally meant to be (before Barrack made changes to pacify Republicans who didn’t vote for it anyway) than one sentence will do. That’s Joe’s plan too. And Warren’s to some degree. Bernie made a strong point to the question “Why can’t they keep their existing plan” which was “I’ll give you something better.” Bernie’s central argument, which is never really stated centers around the history of health care in this country. After WWII Truman tried to pass universal health care and failed. Instead he went with the Republican plan of letting employers offer health care. This led to the mess we have today, which was modified by Nixon to allow more middle managers in between to gum up the works and take money for themselves.
Britain on the other hand went for a universal plan, as did Canada. Both have been criticized by the Republicans and the right wing nuts in this country, and the insurance industry. However, the arguments they make don’t stand up to the facts. Their points are either minor or out
right lies. Are there wait times for some procedures? Yes, voluntary ones that aren’t life threatening. When I’ve talked to people I know in Canada about their system, and I’ve done it a number of times over the years, they have no idea what I am talking about when I ask about such things as wait times etc. It just isn’t a factor. Same in Britain. A number of years ago a study was done to see how well doctors in Britain and the U.S. used stethoscopes. Turns out U.S. docs aren’t very good, while their British counterparts are. So what? You might ask. Well, in the U.S. a doctor will order up an expensive test rather than trust his judgement and the potential of being sued. So what’s cheaper: a doctor listening to you breath or going for an MRI or Cat Scan?
Bernie’s plan is basically – More, Better, Cheaper. There’s lots of yelling about 35 trillion dollars, which it might cost, but that is much cheaper than the alternatives when you consider all the costs that it would be replacing. But like gun safety – every other nation in the world has figured it out, but we can’t seem to be able to.
Ah me.
254 Days until the election on November 3rd
334 Days until the election on January 20, 2021
PS A picture of me at the Taj Mahal. This is 98 years after Richard Halliburton stood where I did. Were there other people around? Yeah. But when you hire one of the local pros they yell at everyone to get out of the shot.
Money well spent.
- Thanks to Laurie Nardon for this pic!
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