Maybe it's my imagination, but clumps of political dirt in Washington, D.C. seem almost always to pile up late at night.
This time, it was GOP sweetheart Senator John McCain, arriving late, but arriving just in time, nevertheless, to dump a mountain of Obamacare-saving crud all over the Senate floor merely by voting no on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. McCain, a true American hero for his military bravery during the Vietnam conflict, and now enduring the trauma of a brain tumor, had the power to vote Obama's major artifact of evil legacy into dust -- but decided instead to betray his own past promises to Arizona constituents and voted to keep a quickly failing health care plan on useless life support.
A swing vote? Yes, but probably considerably more. We would almost bet the farm on McCain voting as he did to strike back at Trump, who questioned McCain's hero status during the presidential campaign and after. Nice comeback, Senator McCain, except if this was a case of payback, he also dumped on his Arizona constituents, who, like the rest of America, now face the prospect of doling out much more for health care in premiums and deductibles. Will John McCain and Barack Obama share a similar legacy of progressive hype?
Disgusting, too, that other senators who also promised on numerous occasions to repeal and replace Obamacare likewise voted not to kill off the ACA beast.
Liars lie, and party affiliation means nothing. In a past blog entry, we likened Republicans to lazy house cats who let the mice (Democrats) do as they wish. The failure to repeal and/or replace the ACA by this time actually puts those effete house cats into a coma, rather than a mere dozing posture. The only true cure may lie with GOP and Independent voters, who need to take a second or third look at truly conservative government, as opposed to progressive ideals which, though popular, can only lead a society into socialism and worse.
A 16-year-old high school student from Mexico dies after border agents allegedly ask him to drink substances he was transporting in bottles as he entered the United States. Unfortunately, the bottles of liquid contained a deadly suspension of highly dangerous methamphetamines. Now the family in Mexico has lawyered up for big money, and the U.S. media (of course) is holding a pity party for the dead teen while attacking border agents' versions of what happened. But we do know what happened. Too bad nobody cares that the kid was trying to bring in enough drugs to kill other teens and destroy families on this side of the border. As we continue dripping with compassion, may we just add that we don't care that he was 16 or a Mexican high school student. He was a drug peddler, maybe a "mule" without maturity, but who cares? A drug shipment was stopped, perhaps saving other young prople, and that's really all that matters.
In a related matter, Rep. Luis Gutierrez continues to blast Trump, calling him a criminal, and insisting that illegal immigrants are not criminals. Even more of a laugh, Gutierrez reportedly put his wife on his congressional payroll years ago and she has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from campaign funds.
Hitler Youth Who? Crazed leftists, outraged about President Trump's speech to some 30,000 Boy Scouts, likened his political comments to attempts to build something akin to "Hitler youth." Funny -- we feel the same about Al Gore's new movie, a second video attempt to hypnotize young people into sticking with his often rather dismissible environmental inconvenient "truth." If you have kids, make sure they know the "other side" cries out to be heard -- and the other side has the real facts, not at all inconvenient. Meanwhile, anybody building a "Gore Youth" program for the kiddies?
The Sky is Falling Department: We love the media frenzy over Trump joking with law enforcement folk that they don't need to bother putting their hands over suspects' heads when escorting them into police cars. Somehow, this was interpreted as "police brutality," giving the usual media bigmouths something else of pure fiction to hype up and squawk about.
As health care options continue to sink beneath the surface of affordability, legislators need to take a really, really close look at employing enlisted military medical personnel departing the service to help provide care when "basic care" is the word. Military medical corpsmen often know as much as their civilian counterparts, it's just that hands-on training and experience with living patients suffering various forms of trauma took the place of classroom education. These folks are ready NOW to take some of the strain off a patient care crisis, inexpensively and competently. This solution make so much sense that you can bet it will never-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r happen in the U.S. Insurance companies, paid-off legislators and "professional" medical organizations, established like predatory tree roots, will never entertain even the mere thought. Too bad.
Your personal assistant robot may kill you, but it will be great around the house in the meantime: We applaud Elon Musk for attempts to set Mark Zuckerberg straight about the potential horrors of artificial intelligence. Zuckerberg apparently dismisses any thoughts of AI eventually turning against humans, believing it instead to be our beneficial assistant in every way.
Me? I'll take my robot with an on/off switch and easily detachable extremities, thank you. One can't be too careful.
