I have been thinking about Roy Moore. It is not pretty and I nearly took an ice pick to the brain when I thought about this creepy guy scoping out the Mall, but what happens if he wins? I mean for the people of Alabama how loyal is he going to be to the "establishment in control of Congress?" He has repeatedly attacked Mitch McConnell and so how many votes can he be counted on to toe the party line? Unless it is a vote against abortion, some attack on immigrants or refugees or some stripping of the rights of members of the LGBTQ community, is he going to support the Republican doctrine? Now, maybe this is good enough for Alabama voters, a solid vote on extremist judicial candidates and hate filled legislation, but a wild card on anything else supported by Mitch and his cronies.
There was an amazing interview with the US Surgeon General Jerome Adams on NPR today. He proved to all that he is sympathetic to addiction issues with his brother and other relatives struggling, but what is he going to do to reduce the opioid crisis in America? The reporter asked him over and over how he was going to reduce the overdose deaths in the United States and he did not answer. Adams talked about his past, but could not identify where the money was going to come from to add additional treatment beds. He could not say that there would be help for his brother in prison to kick the addiction. When pressed, the Surgeon General said that the changes proposed by the Trump administration to gut healthcare would have added funds for treatment. This was just an outright lie besides the fact that it did not pass, so why bring it up?It brings up an interesting topic for the next high school debate club. Which is the greater evil: the administration that denies that there is a problem or the administration that admits there is a problem but does nothing to solve that problem? For example, which was worse the Reagan administration denying that HIV was a real issue or the Trump administration denying funding to fight a crisis that they proclaimed was a health emergency? It is one thing to allow people to die of a new disease that is associated with a politically radioactive group compared to allowing people to overdose because you prefer giving tax cuts to corporations. Both will put you in hell, but in my opinion there is a special place with 23 hours a day rotisserie pitchfork spinning for the tax cut over helping with addiction crowd.
Melissa Mark Viverito was on Nicolle Wallace's show on MSNBC yesterday to talk about Puerto Rico. She is the current New York City Council President, but has been one of the strongest advocates for Puerto Rico on the mainland. She was recently back from the island and gave some good information about the on-going crisis. She said that only half the power generation was restored but that does not mean that half the people of Puerto Rico had their power restored. She said that if you leave San Juan most of the rest of the island is still struggling with water and power issues. In stating the obvious, Ms. Mark Viverito said that we all know that most businesses rely on electricity in the modern economy (since about 1910 I believe.) She also pointed out how the grid is still unreliable. Puerto Rico still needs help, and it is crazy that the military is drawing down. In other news on the island, Whitefish has stopped working on repairing the grid claiming they are owed $83 million. We sure miss having someone in the White House who cares for people living in the aftermath of a Hurricane. I believe at this point we would take the inept initial response of the GWB II over the current administration. After all, after the criticism the Bush administration assigned a competent military guy who went to work to save lives and restore the infrastructure.
From "Everybody Hurts" by R.E.M.
"If you feel like you're alone
No, no, no, you are not alone
If you're on your own in this life
The days and nights are long
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on
Well, everybody hurts sometimes
Everybody cries."
by Brian Davis
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