As if my Mom’s broken hip drama wasn’t enough, my wife Charlie decided to weigh in with her own health issues. So, the day my Mom was shipped from Vista to Murrieta for rehab, Charlie ended up in the hospital with chest pains. She had to stay the night for tests and observation, and, by the time we next talked the following morning, she had been shipped a few miles down the road to another hospital…where they had a bed.
Anyway, Charlie has been there for a couple of days now, and is expected to be released today (Friday). Initially, we thought that she might have some heart issue, or a pulmonary embolis (blood clot). But, it now appears that her chest pain might be either pleurisy (inflammation of the sac around lungs) or an intercostal muscle strain. Either one of those latter conditions have similar symptoms, like chest pain, difficulty breathing, etc.
It’s been a couple of crappy days for Charlie. She got virtually zero sleep for the initial 24 hours, and was in a lot of pain. But, today, she seems a bit perkier. I want her to come home and take a lengthy nap or two.
I’ve been killing time in hospital waiting rooms a lot lately, due to my Mom’s and my wife’s afflictions. The news has been interesting: the GOP replacement for Obamacare is up for vote; more street violence; goofy NBA antics; and, more wacky Trump news.
The Republicans had seven years to come up with a better health care package than Obamacare. The proposed replacement plan, introduced by House Speaker Paul Ryan and backed by President Trump, appears to be a steaming turd that no one likes. It’s going to offer less coverage and millions of Americans, previously insured through Obamacare, won’t be able to afford it. Even GOP conservatives don’t like it. As of this morning, after a day of furious lobbying by Speaker Ryan and arm-twisting by President Trump, the bill doesn’t have the votes to clear the House of Representatives. Congressmen are very cognizant of the fact that, if they vote to support this piece of shit, they may not be re-elected in two years. So, there’s a lot of teeth grinding and counting-to-ten going on in Washington D.C., as the deal-making prowess and prestige of the Prez is on the line (while ex-President Obama is probably high-fiving his buddies).
Some wacko in London killed a bunch of people. The perp was a British citizen who, apparently, was a young Muslim who had been radicalized in recent years. The event was used by some populists, including President Trump’s son, to point out, “There they go again!”, as if it was happening everywhere. Meanwhile, in the United States, a black man was savagely sliced to death by a white supremacist, who proclaimed his hate of black people. There was not a peep of outrage by politicians here, including total silence by the President or Donald Jr. That seems to be commonplace in our country: we get worked up about the threat of Muslim terrorism in our country, although we’ve experienced relatively few incidents here; but, at the same time, very little publicity or public outrage accompanies hate crimes in America, which are so commonplace that the public practically yawns when another one happens. Hate crimes, under the guise of law enforcement, are what generated the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Speaking of our strange society, how about the latest “winning at all costs” tactics in the National Basketball Association (NBA)? Some teams have begun to rest superstar starters in regular season games so that they will be healthier when the playoffs begin a month or so down the line. It has never been uncommon for a player to sit out a game, occasionally, due to fatigue or to let some soreness heal. But, for teams to rest several otherwise healthy players…typically the team’s stars…in the same game is highly unusual. Because…why? Well, professional basketball is entertainment, played for the enjoyment of the ticket-purchasing attendees or fans using some sort of media to experience the game (like radio, TV, or streaming video). Lots of money is involved, whether it be fans paying to enter the stadium or a TV network paying the team to broadcast the game. When healthy players sit on the bench, laughing and cheering on the second-rate players who have taken their place, they are cheating the fans who support the sport. What kind of a message is the NBA sending to its fans when it allows this type of treason? Can you imagine a hard-working guy who pays hundreds of dollars for tickets to a game, long in advance, so that he and his son can see, in person, the great LeBron James in action…only to find out, at game time, that Mr. James, as healthy as a racehorse, will also be watching the game from the bench, because he wants to rest up for the playoffs a month down the road. What kind of marketing lunacy is this? How likely is Mr. Joe Sportsfan to advance purchase tickets in the future? Duh…probably not going to happen after he’s been rear-ended by LeBron James and Company.
The endless comedy show that is the White House got wackier and wackier this past week. Almost every day there are new revelations in the news about President Trump’s unusual connections with Russia and its leader, ex-KGB/kleptocrat/dictator Vladimir Putin. A stench arose during the campaign, got even more ripe when Trump was elected and began assigning jobs to people who had helped in during the campaign, and has fermented into Limburger cheese as more info has been leaked to the press about strange liaisons, communications intercepts, “buddy” deals between Russia and some of Trump’s advisors, etc. There is going to be some sort of government investigation about the issue of election tampering by Russia (at Trump’s behest?), but it’s not a sure thing yet who will do the investigating. The President has tried to sidetrack this matter by claiming (without any proof) that former President Obama tapped phones in Trump Tower. No evidence has been forthcoming, so another embarrassment for the Prez. Probably at his behest, the GOP congressman who chairs the House Intelligence Committee (how about that for an oxymoron?), tried to give Trump some cover by claiming that the NSA might have accidentally spied on Trump’s gang. But, today, after being ridiculed by everyone in Washington D.C., Congressman Nunes backed off of that claim, leaving the President to dangle in the wind.
Donald Trump should save face by using President George W. Bush’s tactic, with regard to his Obamacare replacement effort, by simply declaring “Mission Accomplished”, and move on to his next project…the Federal Budget. Of course, that is where things will get very dicey…where the rubber meets the road in Washington D.C.
Remember that Donald Trump was not a darling of the GOP when he campaigned for President. In fact, many Republican electeds declared their opposition to him or simply declined to support him or campaign with him; they had their own campaigns to run and win. Every Congressman who was elected made promises to voters, and those promises (and goals) could be very different than the red-button issues that populist Trump campaigned on. A Congressman’s first priority, since he must run again in two years, is to support, via the Federal Budget, things that his constituents want to occur. President Trump is going to find that his grand dreams (like building a 30′ wall at the Mexican border, increasing military spending, defunding the U.N., and savaging the budgets of many federal agencies) may not sit that well with GOP congressmen, who control the government’s purse. Most elected officials in Washington D.C., including both Republicans and Democrats, have declared the President’s budget submittal “Dead on Arrival”. So, it should prove to be a very interesting Spring and Summer for Trump and Company, as they learn a thing or two about how “The Art of the Deal” plays in a governmental setting.
It should be interesting.