Wednesday, September 6, 2017

summer news 2017

It has already been two months since I've noted the news here. But that's because that's been terrible. The fires and floods overtake the imminent and exacting wars by so much, that the stories of massacres and refugees become whispers, interrupted by disaster bulletins.

Backing up to when people talked like they wanted to do something in the US Gov. the media had spent much of June and July talking about a repeal and replacement of the American HealthcareAct (ACA) known as Obamacare. But Congress could not find enough votes to pass something that only a few were allowed to see or discuss, and that in fits and starts.
There was no direction (but a few simple commands and reprimands, by tweet) from the new White House of Trump, so, the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) KY, brought out the worst possible bill they could muster. John McCain voted against the resolution coming before the floor and that was it. No more talk about repeal and replace, for now. And after seven years that had been a primary goal as a party. The Republican party wanted power to 'repeal Obama's agenda' and then when they got it, found a way it can't use it to do what they said they wanted, when eventually they've found at last that they don't want to do it. At the very least, not a recognizable form of leadership. But they're not the only branch vying for the award for 'Least Viable'.

White Nationalists in the US decided that the year of Trump would be a good time for them to recruit. The country recoiled in horror.
________________________________
Career government officials have been retiring and quitting in droves because they can't or won't work with the new administration and its collective maladroit flailings. And frequent self-lacerating lungings.
It's bad when it takes this sort of thing to bring a smile to the face.
Meanwhile, North Korea is terrorizing everyone with its multiple successfull missile launches - one of which flew over the Japanese island of Hokkaido - and this week, a major underground explosion which was called a hydrogen bomb detonation.

_________________________________________

Besides the major fires out west (especially in L.A. and Oregon), Hurricane season is battering the US and the Caribbean now, with Irma, one of the largest hurricanes ever recorded. But for the last couple weeks the news has swirled around the destruction and effects of what's been called a 500 year flood, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey that made landfall on the west coast of Texas August 25.

Behind all the disasters in Washington looms another waiting to make landfall. In July, the Wall Street Journal asked the President of the United States to come clean on what it knew about the involvement of Russia in last year's campaigns. This week, the presdient;s son, Don Jr is supposed to testify before Congress on Thursday.

There's so much more, but time feels wasted on news in such terrible times. Yet that is also so troubling since it is during disasters that other criminals elsewhere can get away with much worse. The reports out of Myanmar are few but horrifying as well, as ethnic Royhinga and others flee that country.

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)