Health Care - where is it going?

The health care proposal in the House was quickly scuttled, the Senate version of the American Health Care Act is next with some tweaks. Moderate Republicans are going slower in states with constituencies that might be slightly miffed if they just rid of the whole ACA thing aka "ObamaCare." This is an arcane subject for me. One of the keys of the Trump Agenda seems to be undoing anything in the Obama legacy arena. Next up is Cuba and a return to the Cold War days. I guess there were no casino/hotel deals in the offing. There goes my cigar. How can I lose weight again?

The James Comey Testimony

This is the biggest thing to happen to bars since the O.J. Simpson trial. On balance it would seem the Comey testimony is at least partially damaging to the President. He has already gone on record as calling Trump a liar five times. The New York Times took a hit when it appears their reporting of the Russia investigation may have been off base to some extent. John McCain had some daffy moments and people are tweeting he should more or less retire at this point. None of this will sway the Trump partisans however and they'll only hunker down more. I never voted for Trump and I never voted for her so I don't have that anxiety in the back of my head over when I should actually jump the Trump ship or not. This is a great lesson imo of default voting against your hated candidate which political reasoning might work most of the time but this was a special case which should have caused most to jettison that logic. I've been hearing the RNC is calling Trump the Messiah and he's going to save Christianity in this country. Scary stuff. We'll see how it all plays out I'm just saying have a lifeboat ready is all.

The Manchester Attack - the new normal?

At last report there were 22 dead and at least 100 injured including 12 children in that suicide attack at the Manchester Arena Ariana Grande concert. ISIS is now claiming responsibility which was almost a foregone conclusion. The lone suicide bomber a 23-year old man by the name of Salman Abedi. So nobody's really talking about it at work today just the normal grind. I brought it up a little and there was a small discussion but it's like these things are now accepted as part of the day's news just a normal and inevitable element of the news cycle. President Trump in Saudi Arabia said to Muslim leaders you need to drive the extremist elements out and likened the War on Terror to a battle between Good and Evil. Not much to disagree with there. I felt maybe the security in Britain could be better but others see it as no matter how good your security these tragedies can and will still happen. NYC Police were on a heightened state of alert last night as to be expected which begs the question why does it take an incident for police departments across the nation to be on a heightened state of alert? It seems only a matter of tragic time before this gets imported here and becomes a part of the nightly news. One thing I see though Obama's intellectual decision to refuse to call radical Islamic terror radical Islamic terror has done absolutely nothing to defeat extremist ideology.

The bizarre and trendy world of theoretical physics - go quantum!

Here's the thing, even if all this stuff is true what difference does it make? What would be the purpose of a parallel universe or several of them aka the multiverse? If Hitler were bad in each universe it's just a variation of a tragedy. Many redditors have talked about the JFK assassination and how in the original timeline as they call it the JFK car was a 4-seater with four occupants and in this reality it's now a 6-seater with six people (just go along with this for the sake of argument). This is literally just one of hundreds of examples of what believers call "the Mandela Effect." Again though even if this were true what difference would it make? It's still the same tragic event with some critical details changed. Maybe in another version Lee Harvey Oswald forgot to brush his teeth that morning. Biocentrism is another yuuuuuuge idea and all the rage now and one of its controversial propositions is when you die say of a sudden heart attack or car accident you automatically get shifted over into an almost similar dimensional experience and continue with your life as such. Even Charles Manson? Whatever happened to Hell? Don't expect Pat Robertson to get on board with this. The New Age Movement is now inextricably linked with quantum mechanics and have greatly expanded on the ideas of theoretical physics but in the way they like. A prime example is life coach Cynthia Sue Larson who to be fair does have a degree in physics but she posts some fairly startling things. She and many others say you can literally reality shift your life into more positive directions as in literally quantum jump to other more favorable alternate realities. Now even if this is true (did you pick up on my theme yet?) you'd still have to go to the same job in the morning. So the name of your favorite breakfast cereal might be slightly off it would still not be enough to make a difference imo. Getting back to biocentrism for a minute if you go to YouTube and type in "we're all dead" at least 50 and probably more videos come up. Only on YT can you have a cabdriver with no college degrees expounding on quantum physics. The death theory is interesting on certain levels but again why would we still have to go to work in the morning? Some redditors have made another issue of the human anatomy evolving over time (if only Charles Darwin were alive today! Oh wait maybe he is) but again what difference would it make? still get the same crappy constipation and make the same 3AM bathroom trips. I can't wait for the next PBS special on all of this:)

The bogging down effect of social conservatism

I've been reading a lot lately from various conservative writers what they consider bad social trends. It could be millenials delaying marriage and then further delaying having children. Some couples don't want children at all. Another conservative opiner will note the to him disturbing trend that Americans don't move as much as they used to (as if it's easy), go to other better jobs across the country. This leads to ossification and lower wages etc. etc. The list of social concerns for these writers/pundits run the gamut and is quite long but I always find myself asking what does it matter? Why are they bothered by these things? Modern conservatism should stick to the pillars of limited government, free speech, economic growth, a strong defense, lower taxes etc. etc. What matter how people choose to live their lives? Is that really of our concern? Naomi Schaeffer Riley and Kyle Smith are two of these social-type commenters. Another common complaint is people especially the young'uns are on their gadgets too much. My friend and I were walking around White Plains one day and practically everyone was walking but looking down at their smartphones. Yeah you wonder what the hell are they looking at to the point where they can fall down an open manhole but again this is what people do. IMO conservatism has strayed heavily off the straight path into these by-roads of cultural concern which can actually lead to other conservatives feeling alienated if they don't share their complaints. Laura Ingraham too has done this in books and whatnot heavy on the social commentary, trends that bug her, social quirks and patterns that don't meet her approval. I think this is where the word "reactionary" comes from as in reacting to everything. The conservative movement seems to be stagnating at the moment with everyone having their disparate concerns with no common thread except things like hatred of Obama, hatred of Hillary, hatred of whoever. Despite all this I think we won the last election by accident. You won, what are we complaining about?

President Trump, following through on Obama's Red Line

Some are no doubt already making the case that Obama's shifting red line encouraged Syria and President Bashar al-Assad to attack a small Syrian village with chemical weapons killing and injuring scores of children. One can use the word "allegedly" but for all intents...President Trump followed this within 24 hours with 59 air strikes with Tomahawk cruise missiles of a Syrian airfield believed to harbor chemical weapons. Now things get complicated with Russia refusing to cooperate with the U.S. over avoiding air conflicts over Syrian airspace. Russian warships have already moved into the region closer to our fleet so you have the seeds of a major world crisis in the making. Trump is getting bipartisan support on this one from Marco Rubio to Charles Schumer usually a critic but the base is mighty unhappy with these developments. There's that Pat Buchanan strict non-interventionist/isolationist wing to deal with. Obama was too much the Hamlet intellectual with this aspect of our foreign policy. Trump of course is taking some flack for not consulting with the UN Security Council and Congress first but if first showings are any indication we may be dealing with a very militaristic and action-oriented president on the world stage. As long as he stays away from the nuclear codes.

Famous people dying

It gets confusing after awhile.  Don Rickles just passed at 90.  Now he's insulting St. Peter.  Some people remember Billy Graham having 3 funerals.  For some reason I thought Jimmy Breslin had died some time ago.  Larry Hagman is gone as well as Farrah Fawcett but Kirk Douglas is still 100.  Prince, George Michael gone too soon but Betty White is still alive, 93 I believe.  If you're a multiverser John Glenn might die again in a few years.  CRAZY EDDIE I think is gone but it's best to google.  Unfortunately Charles Manson is still alive.  Hef I'm sure they got the obits all ready to roll.  Please don't give me a test on this;)