Too Much Trivia
Houston, we have a problem. Correct that. We have problems, many problems.
Just look at the headlines. Russia interfered in our election. Members of Trump’s team contact Russian officials. The FBI Director fired. President obstructs investigation. Nancy Pelosi claims thousands will die if Obamacare is amended. Hawaii’s Attorney General asks district court to interpret Supreme Court’s dissolving injunction on Trump immigration hold.
Do not be surprised when a headline pops up soon with a warning. A bad day is in the offing because the President got up on the wrong side of the bed. Not only that, he started the day off on the wrong foot. All this useful information was leaked by a trusted member of the White House staff and, since it involves Donald Trump, it must be true.
This list is obviously part fact and part fiction. There is not, however, any doubt that, with one exception, there has been no attention or interest by either the media or politicians in the real problems of the country.
The exception is curing the ills of The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. As mentioned here previously, the title of the law is a misnomer. The Act has nothing to do with the affordability of medical care.
The Act is the primary cause of soaring medical care and medical insurance costs. The skyrocketing costs are exactly what those who wrote the law wanted and expected. They are laying the foundation for what Senators Bernie Sander and Elizabeth Warren and Representative Nancy Pelosi want.
As Warren said recently, the answer to the Obamacare mess is a single payer system. That indicates she does not know that we already have a single payer system. It’s called the VA or Veteran’s Administration. Does she want to put the whole country into those month long waits for appointments and inadequate care when you finally get to the head of the line?
Two other odd facts about The Affordable Care Act is that it is the law that Nancy Pelosi said they had to pass before we could know what was in it. Then, a few years later, when Senate Republicans were drafting a bill to amend ACA, Democrat leaders cried false tears about the secrecy of the process.
Finally, within hours on the day that the Senate Republicans published the draft bill to amend ACA, demonstrators appeared in front of and in the capitol to protest the bill. Some were echoing Nancy Pelosi’s claim that its passage and implementation would kill thousands. Isn’t it amazing that those protestors appeared immediately out of thin air with signs and rehearsed speeches.
While our media is fixated on the silliness of the Russian influence, the Trump Tweets, and the battle over socializing American medical care, the rest of the country and the world is spinning with real problems.
When will the spiraling national debt be addressed? How?
How can the real threat of Russia be addressed? That country’s possible meddling, along with others, in the November election is child’s play when compared with its other grabs around the world. It’s meddling in Ukraine, Syria, Iran, and parts of Eastern Europe should be front and center in the media and government circles.
On the other side of the globe, what can be done to curb China’s expansion, both in the islands it is building and in asserting its political influence further east? Will it take effective action to curb North Korea’s mad dash for intercontinental nuclear weapons, or will we have to take some action to put those weapons in a deep sleep?
Can we restore the underpinnings of Israel that were ripped out by President Obama?
What about those nuclear weapons being developed in Iran under cover of the so called Iran Nuclear Deal? Are there any counter measures to Iran’s continued expansion into other areas of the Mid East?
Can stability be restored in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria as a prelude to the abolishment of ISIS?
So here’s the perspective.
Nine years ago, the U.S. was considered the leader of the world. Today it is in second or third place.
If there is any interest in returning to a leadership position, the media and politicians are going to have to get off the trivia of why the Attorney General was fired and what President Trump tweeted this morning.
It is recommended that you not hold your breath while waiting for this to happen.
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