Healthcare’s Groundhog Day
Well, we’re back to the Groundhog Day fire drill about access to health care again. I’m so glad. Really. I was getting so complacent thinking that we’d all be fine since maybe the Affordable Care Act covers radiation poisoning. You know, just in case the Rocket Man gets mad enough at the dotard and launches a missile our direction. This may be that “sick of winning” feeling we were warned about. Strangers are emailing me to tell me to urge Sen. Lisa Murkowski to vote against the newest death panel offering called the Graham-Cassidy bill. Jimmy Kimmel is begging people…
Alaska’s Two Senators Need To Stand Up To Their Party
Have you noticed how the most recent crop of mosquitoes have the attack and dodging capabilities that you really only see at a military air show? The swallows have fledged and baby ravens are screaming, “WHAT?” at the top of their lungs. WHAT? WHAT? Well, for starters, could you babies give it a break until at least 6 a.m.? The blueberries have some strange blight and the salmonberries are dragging their heels. After their amazing performance last year, well, it’s fine that they slept in this year. An eagle got laid on his back by a mama sandhill crane. Protective…
Send in the Clowns, the Circus is in Session
Are you still following the news? It’s OK if you’ve glazed over. You’ve got a life and it’s pretty frustrating if you’re trying to live it at the same time you’re following the latest national crisis. Every few hours feels like opening one of those Russian nesting dolls and a new “are you kidding me?” pops out. Special counsel convening, subpoenas turned down, leaked secrets, you’re fired, who knew and when did they know it, and then you realize it’s almost lunchtime. When you try to catch up on local news you get the dreary prospect of the state going into…
From ObamaCare to Trump Don’t Care
Well, it’s a brand new day for my white Alaska friends who have been under the oppressive regime of “Obamacare,” otherwise know as the Affordable Care Act. Finally, after promising for seven years to repeal and replace it, congressional Republicans have introduced Trumpcare as a solution. Included in the pushback is the 10 percent tax on tanning beds. As a person of such blinding whiteness this time of year, I feel liberated. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that just this change will cost $600 million over the next 10 years. For those of us who nerd out and actually read bills,…
Missing Uncle Ted
I’ve been nostalgic for the great political patron saint of Alaska — Ted Stevens. Lord, how I miss that Incredible Hulk tie and his fearlessness. Oh, it’s not like I’ve forgotten the arguments he and I got into. But we didn’t question each other’s love of country or state. With Russia making bold motions toward the United States this week — planes buzzing our destroyer in the Black Sea, a spy ship patrolling within 30 miles of the coast of Connecticut — and the installation of illegal missiles around their country, I feel nervous. I haven’t dug a bunker yet,…
Sen. Murkowski, Stand True To Your Word
Many of us are counting the days down for America to be great again. I still haven’t heard an answer to the question of when it stopped being great, but being great sounds, well, great! So let’s do it. First things first. We have got to get rid of that health care disaster that has enslaved millions of Americans by creating access to a doctor. Enough! Because of Obamacare, college-age kids have been rafted up to their parents’ policies like parasites. Those pre-existing conditions — the warning flags to companies that don’t want your sick behind dragging down their profits…
UPDATED: Breaking the Law for Lisa Murkowski
[Updated 4:13pm AK Time] So it seems that Lisa is not breaking the law… just being really slimy about it. She has claimed her staff as ‘excepted’ aka essential. Thus they need to show up to work – but don’t get paid until the shut down is over. Mean while 800,000 Federal Employees are deemed non-essential – and don’t get paid at all. Here are some people that are considered “non-essential” – while the person that get’s Lisa’s coffee is considered essential. The Doctors at the Center for Disease Control that run the flu program Employees that run the Department…
Springtime for Goldman Sachs
You just knew it had to be one of those brie-biting, Sartre-spewing, overly-garlicked Frenchmen who pushed the Earth’s finance system over a cliff. This week, US prosecutors finally began the trial of the only person on the entire planet whom they have charged with the financial crimes that sank worldwide stock markets by trillions in 2008 and left millions homeless and jobless, from Detroit to Manchester. By Greg Palast for Vice Magazine Amazingly, say prosecutors, it all came down to a single Frenchman, Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre, only 29 years old at the time. Even Julius Caesar waited until he turned 51…