Trump reminds me of Mr. Mayhem on the Allstate commercials

 Shock and Awe.  The DOGE.  Have Musk and Trump showered together yet?  Do we really need cancer research?  When am I going to get my tax refund?  Will Trump change the street cleaning days in Yonkers?  Layoffs of thousands of federal workers.  When can I expect my first DOGE check?  Will Medicaid still cover nurse visits?  When is ICE coming to Yonkers?  Trump wants Zelensky to pay the money back with rare Earth minerals.  Like what?  Hannity was more interested in what Musk had to say.  Why does Musk want the personal details of millions of Americans?  When are we going to Mars?

Chaos.

Hide the Lucky Charms RFK Jr. confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services

 If RFK Jr. were a veterinarian would he advise against getting shots for your dog or cat?

Tariffs on Greenland?

 I'm not getting it.  Nobody wants to retire and move to Greenland.  It's a strategic military location and is said to have rare mineral resources.  OK.  25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting today but Trump cut China some slack with only 10% tariffs.  His endgame may be to end the federal income tax and fund the government with tariffs.  Is he shifting the Overton Window?  What's the deal with Greenland?  Can't really put a golf course there.  The subject never came up on the campaign trail.  Look every president does things we disagree with.  Biden didn't do enough to protect the gray wolf.  There was his covid authoritarianism.  I always thought it would be interesting to have one of the Star Trek spinoff shows do an episode on the crew encountering the race of Covidians who always stand six feet apart and worship a Fauci-like figure but I digress point being Trump is taking things to another level and how did the National Review become part of the MAGA cult?  When he's done deporting can he get back to the price of Fancy Feast?  Health care?  Families shouldn't have to go bankrupt because somebody has cancer.  Homan is in his glory but can we take a breather?

BTW can Trump at least slip in a stimulus check or two to my direct deposit?

The RFK Jr. confirmation hearings

 

Rather intense.  Dems didn't warm up to him but no Repubs really came out against.  Said he's not anti-vaccine but pro-safety.  Not against the measles or polio vaccines or kids getting their shots.  Says he'll keep more in line with Trump's views on abortion mainly being an issue for state control.  Appeared at points to confuse Medicare and Medicaid.  No discussion of roadkill recipes.  Another day of questioning. 

Thoughts?

What happened to the drones?

 Lots of assorted topics out there not really coalescing into a blogpost per se.  The LA fires and the politics of the LA fires.  Elon Musk opiner-at-large now wading into British politics and the groomer gang scandal which is at least ten years old.  Melania's outfit at the Jimmy Carter funeral.  Congestion pricing in NYC.  TikTok.  Just off the top of my head 17,000 doctors signed a letter opposing RFK Jr.'s nomination to be HHS Sec'y.  That one kind of surprised me.  Diddy updates.  Mangione.  My God it's COLD outside!!!  The Trump Follies.  News cycle going too fast for me.

The drone thing.  Wha' happened?

Building a better blog

 Cats?  Pipe smoking?  The Middle East?  No foreign policy post for Dennis Rodman in a Trump Administration?  My drone is better than your drone?

Recent case in Yonkers.  A couple brought a very young cat which was severely injured to a local vet clinic and dropped it off without giving their names or phone numbers.  Anonymous good Samaritans but there's a bad twist.  Cat later died and tested positive for rabies.  The County Health Department is desperately trying to track the couple down to have them tested for the virus.  Got me googling rabies again with my hundred other topics.  Rabies is still generally considered fatal but...

As always though talk about anything you like.

RFK Jr. meeting with the Senators this week

 To shore up support for being confirmed as Secretary of HHS.  Possible topics of discussion:

Dead bear cubs.  Whale heads.  Cap'n Crunch.  Chocolate Twinkies.  The benefits of drinking raw milk from a bucket after squirting it from a cow's udder.  Under his tenure where to go for a tetanus shot if you step on a rusty nail.  How he seduces so many women (is it the croaky voice over a romantic candlelit roadkill dinner?)  Will we all have to shop at Whole Foods from now on?

Not a shoe-in by any stretch.  I give it about a 50/50.

Health insurance is great until you get sick

 That's the sentiment of many.  In the wake of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last Wednesday outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel many folk have gone on social media and unleashed a torrent of vitriol against the health insurance industry in general and Brian Thompson and United Healthcare in particular.  Seems some ai-driven program denied the claims of at least one-third of United Healthcare subscribers who actually had to use their insurance.  The wonders of our health insurance system - you pay into the program your whole life, you get really sick one day and finally get a notice in the mail "Claim Denied" and have to foot the bill yourself.   You're not Diddy.  Never understood how so many cancer survivors and their families use up their entire life savings and eventually go bankrupt.  I thought that's why we have health insurance.  Hannity would probably say at least that's not socialism.  Health care in America.  I thought Obama fixed all that.  I can't wait for the Singularity.

The Democrats and their hurricane-making machines

 Latest conspiracy theory being peddled by Marjorie Taylor Greene.  I'm beginning to think she might be a left-wing plant to make conservatives look bad.  The Democrats can't even make health care affordable for most Americans how are they gonna control the weather?

On to Trump.  The New York Times is taking his latest campaign rambles and rants, lies and misinformation very seriously indeed but they're missing something big time here.  Let me illustrate with an anecdote.  Back in the day we lived close to an older couple.  The elderly husband eventually developed Alzheimer's.  The wife asked my sister for a favor if she could just take him out and walk him around the block.  Nice day and a group of black guys hangin' on the corner.  As my sister and her ward got closer he started using the N-word.  Why this even came out in an Alzheimer's state is itself an interesting question.  I mean why not "look at the pink elephant"?  Anyway he was like "look at the (N-words)" etc. etc. They were naturally getting a little upset, just a tad mind you until my sister explained to them he had Alzheimer's.  They completely understood and let it go.  Last time my sister took him out for a walk btw.  Now my point about the Ole Gray Lady and the mainstream media in general.  IMO Trump has some cognitive issues.  Something is off.  Don't think it's weed.  Might be pre-Alzheimer's, dementia or something else.  DO NOT treat Trump's pronouncements and latest utterances as you would a normal person.  You don't fact-check some old guy in a nursing home say who's rambling on about when are the elves gonna bring in his food.  You let it ride but that's the problem with the msm they're missing the bigger picture.

Having said that I don't know what the problem with MTG is.

Kamala Chameleon

 Kamala Harris was once against fracking now she supports it.  She was once in favor of a looser immigration policy now she advocates for tighter border controls.  She now agrees with Trump's idea of no taxes on tips.  You have the right to adjust and tweak your views but this smacks of political opportunism.  Speaking of tweaking Trump is now playing around with the abortion issue instead of just sticking with his state by state approach thus potentially alienating that part of his base.  He wrote on Truth Social a second Trump term would be great for women's reproductive rights.  Maybe Trump nephew Fred is right he's showing early signs of dementia.  The Hulkster can't save him at this point.  His proposal to require insurance companies to pay for IVF treatments is hardly in line with smaller government.  I don't think Trump was ever a true conservative in the first place.

This election can best be summed up as Make America Confused Again.

For a man who refused anesthesia for a colonoscopy

I don't understand his vacillation over the proposed debate with Kamala Harris slated for Sept. 10 hosted by ABC News.  According to the new book I'll Take Your Questions Now by Stephanie Grisham Trump's former WH press secretary then President Trump made a visit in 2019 to Walter Reed Medical Center for a routine colonoscopy but refused being put under so as not to give temporary power to VP Mike Pence.  WOW.  I mean a lot can happen in 20-30 minutes a war could start or something .  FF to now and I still don't know if there will be a debate.  It's on again off again on again off again.  He would still prefer Fox News to host the debate I guess with Sean Hannity as moderator.  He still wants to campaign against Joe Biden, he's stuck in a reverie about it and can't seem to adjust to new circumstances.  He had his nursing home jokes all lined up.  This whole thing makes him look weak and shows his campaign is still dangerously off course.  Meanwhile JD Vance continues to defend his cat lady comments like give it up already.

I wish I didn't have to write this stuff.

Doctors

I asked my doctor once how often should you eat red meat.  He said twice a month.  If everyone followed that the beef industry would go out of business.  Then I asked him how much coffee should you drink in a day.  He said one cup.  Look I'm paying for the visit I may as well pick his brain.  Why do they say drink 8 glasses of water a day?  He says nobody knows how that started just drink water.  What causes tinnitus?  It's mostly related to hearing loss as you get older but he did bring up RF hearing once which is an actual noise so he can think out of the box a little.  Insurance didn't cover my Colovantage blood test for colon cancer.  Oh well.  Spanish chef at work said flip the questions back to him.  If he asks you how your bowel movements are ask him how his movements are.  Asked him once what's a good sleep aid.  He said melatonin.  Gotta agree with him there.  Another time he suggested brisk walking is better than regular walking.  Just be glad I'm walking.  Was in the waiting room once and glanced at the table with the reading material and next to Golf Digest was Heart Failure magazine like am I dead and don't know it yet?

Doctors are ego-driven.  They want you to respect their expertise.  Never be afraid to question them.  If you catch them googling leave.

I'd rather watch an Omega XL commercial or a Steven Seagal movie

DNC kicks off tonight in Chicago.  Biden to deliver keynote address, Obama the orator on second night and Bill Clinton on third.  Kamala Harris big night on the fourth and final night of course.  Out of all the candidates for her VP pick Tim Walz is probably the most socially radical but doesn't look it.  He looks like the friendly uncle who gives you a 5 dollar bill in the alley after your parents yelled at you.  The economy and the working class will be a big theme Biden's attempted but failed vax mandate on companies with over 100 employees already having been memory-holed.  Immigration, crime and safety, health care.  Trump has the edge on some key issues but Dems are better on health care as you'll be paying less for colonoscopy.  I've heard Harris isn't too swift on foreign policy which is half the presidency.  Of course oiling up the abortion machinery will be peppered in whenever possible. 

I'm gonna check the movie listings.

What the CIA couldn't do old age did

Socialists are in mourning today. Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro dead at the ripe old age of 90. In this fast-paced and ever-changing world we're definitely talking a retro channel in History here, pre-Internet dictator, blast from the past cigar-chomping revolutionary. I had to laugh at an Onion parody once where they had "Candid Camera" host Allen Funt calling up John F. Kennedy saying the Cuban Missile Crisis was all a hoax and the photo of JFK all relieved. Castro outlasted the power of what 10 U.S. presidents? Political tortoise crawling through the ages, a perennial figure in the pages of the past all yellowed and tattered. I know Michael Moore has said the Cuban healthcare system is the best in the world. I guess you don't get a bill in the mail for colonic polyp lab analysis, dunno. All those Hollywood celebs who hate Trump here's a great place to shuffle on over;)

The implosion of Obamacare?

With major insurers opting out of the exchange and premiums going up is it still worth keeping or even tweaking?  Will it eventually be replaced by HillaryCare and how would this differ from DonaldCare?  How are our nation's part-timers holding up those kept under 30 hours/week because of the original mandate?  Finally whatever happened to if you like your colonoscopist you can keep your colonoscopist?

Why didn't Yogi say that?

Hillary told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press "the unborn person doesn't have constitutional rights."  I pass a Planned Parenthood on my way to work every day and they have a big banner "Health Care Happens Here."  Makes it sound like I can walk in and maybe they can treat my catastrophic tinnitus and premature waking.  This is not really a pro-life thread, you can discuss what have you.

Hippyfied health care

CVS won't sell tobacco products but medical marijuana dispensaries seem to be sprouting up everywhere these days.  Alcohol continues to be heavily demonized (e.g. nearly every insomnia website warns don't drink before bedtime) but hemp use is actually being medically encouraged within a limited for now framework of course.  Granny don't smoke, Granny don't drink, Granny light up a joint in the cancer ward.

Planned Parenthood, fetal harvesting and a roomful of beagles

Liberals have always acted like you're emotionally, morally and spiritually obligated to support Planned Parenthood. Actually that's not true, it's up to you. I'm not against birth control but I am personally against abortion so for me to support Planned Parenthood is a logical impossibility and the extended topic of fetal harvesting is definitely out of the question.  Doesn't make me a bad person. It's a larger issue for me than the latest undercover viral video made by the pro-life group Center for Medical Progress showing PP not in the best light. We can discuss that and folks are sure to bring up PP health clinics are big on breast cancer screenings, STD prevention and whatnot but now we got a little beagle problem on our hands. Let's say your local animal shelter does exemplary work for the most part, placing adoptions of pets, spaying and neutering and shots but in the room in the back they gas beagles maybe once a week. Some will support the shelter 100%, some will support part of the shelter and pretend the other room doesn't even exist and some may not go there at all because they're morally opposed to cat/dog euthanasia on principle. The grisly room in the back overrides everything else for some people. In my view that's perfectly valid and needs to be respected. Ditto those who withhold their moral support for PP because an integral part of their daily work is they do provide abortions. Again I'm not getting why I'm a bad person if I don't support the organization.

Take me to your 9 Leaders

Thoughts on the SCOTUS' latest rulings on ObamaCare and gay marriage...

Are you ready for Ebola?

It must have something to do with gay marriage. I'm not a medical authority but I do support a travel ban until it's contained. CDC Director Frieden is way over his head since the most serious thing he had to do as NYC Health Commissioner under Bloomberg was to try to ban big sugary drinks. The Drudge Report lately could be more accurately titled the Ebola Report and on the flipside the other school of thought that's been developing is that the media is talking about this way too much, a journalistic preoccupation or obsession or overkill. Then again I can understand it too since we have a decent chance at a real medieval plague here especially since nobody's on the same page. I myself get instinctively cranky whenever a subject is ground into a fine dust. As Saty once said everyone knows about the tits and I feel the same way about Ebola at least for now or I was but the CDC doesn't inspire me with confidence so I'm beginning to worry. FDNY now can't say "Ebola" over the dispatch for fear some nerd might be listening in on some scanner. OK so BB, Saty and maybe Dave can respond:)