Current Events Write-Up:7/28/2018

The Nation: “An Audacious Proposal for a US-North Korean Alliance,” by Tom Shorrock

I am not entirely clear what this article is recommending, but I still find it interesting.  This is the third article in The Nation that I have read that sees a silver lining in, or at least some rationale behind, President Trump’s foreign policy.  I wonder why this is.  The Nation is a very left-wing publication.  It has anti-Trump articles.  Even on this one, you can sign up to “join the resistance!”  Yet, it can be somewhat positive about Trump.  And it leaves the impression that Trump is doing something outside-of-the-box and groundbreaking.

The Nation: “Democrats Shouldn’t Defend Bad Policies Just to Resist Trump,” by Robert L. Borosage

I read this one just now!  This article is critical of Trump towards the end.  Yet, it has this gem: “The tempest over the Fed illustrates what is becoming a repeated syndrome. In his chaos presidency, Trump clearly relishes disrupting established convention and institutions. Often—as in his vile slander of immigrants, his racist pandering to neo-Nazis, his incessant attacks on ‘fake news’—he spreads poison and division, seeking to delegitimize checks on his misrule. But in some areas—particularly those central to his populist posturing—he challenges entrenched institutions and policies that are long overdue for transformation. In many cases, his targets are those that progressives have criticized for years.”

The New Yorker: “Donald Trump’s New World Order,” by Adam Entous

This article could have been shorter, but it was still an informative, enjoyable read.  It chronicles President Obama’s relationship with Israel; the developing relationship between Netanyahu and candidate, then President-elect, then President Trump; and the growing alliance among Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates against Iran, and how that can impact U.S. policy towards Israel and the Palestinians.  It has a lot of “behind-the-scenes” stories: people are alleged to have said things, but they deny saying them.

Global Research: “The Expansion of U.S. Military Installations in Argentina and Their Implications for Argentine Sovereignty,” by Dr. Birsen Filip

This article is about current U.S. pretensions for its presence in Argentina (i.e., combating drugs and terror) and its historical pretensions for its presence in South America (i.e., the Cold War); how the U.S. Defense Department assumes the reality of climate-change and desires access to Argentine water; and why a number of Argentines do not appreciate the U.S.’s presence and view it as deleterious.

National Review: “Trump Tackles the Art of the Drug-Price Deal,” by John Fund

What the FDA is doing to bring competition and lower prices into the realm of pharmaceuticals.

John C. Goodman: “ObamaCare Can Be Worse than Medicaid”

I have long appreciated John C. Goodman’s analysis of health care issues.  I noticed that I had not been receiving his NCPA e-mails for several months, and I found that he has started the Goodman Center for Public Policy Research.  I cannot say that I agree with Goodman on everything, but he does have ideas about reducing the cost of health care in this twenty-first century technological era that, in my opinion, deserve consideration.  This article details some of the usual problems about Obamacare.  Not enough healthy people are paying into the system; a lot of sick people have signed up for it; Obamacare’s attempts to get money from the healthy to the sick have been inadequate; and a number of places are simply not accepting Obamacare insurance.  I may sound like I am seeing this as an abstract policy discussion, but I understand and appreciate that this issue involves real people, with real-life, even life-threatening, problems.

Mother Jones: How the Hospitals Serving Trump Voters Are Closing—-and He’s Letting It Happen,” by Becca Andrews 

Essentially, some of the red states did not accept Medicaid expansion.  Uninsured people come to the emergency room and hospitals have to treat them.  This taxes hospitals’ finances, and rural hospitals close.

R.J. Rushdoony on Native Americans

Reading this again, I cannot entirely endorse the tone of this status.  Still, it was interesting to me that Christian Reconstructionist R.J. Rushdoony had a heart for the plight of Native Americans, based on his experience working with them.

SFGATE: “Meghan McCain a Feisty New Presence on ‘The View,'” by David Bauder

She has certainly grown as a pundit!  I remember watching her on “Real Time with Bill Maher” and “ABC This Week,” and she was not very impressive.  On the View, however, she speaks with confidence and knowledge.

Fox News: “John Schneider on indicted ‘Smallville’ co-star Allison Mack: She was ‘wonderful, very levelheaded’,” by Sasha Savitsky

I haven’t said anything on this blog before about this.  It’s been a few years since I have watched Smallville.  I have still been saddened by all this.  Chloe was my favorite character.  She is the sort of character who would expose something like NXVIM, not join it and become its junior ringleader!  I read another article a while back about why she joined: she had not gone to college and she wanted wisdom and a mentor, and she thought she found that in Keith Raniere.  I remembering visiting her web site, years before all of the legal issues erupted, and people were warning her about him.  I watched one of his videos and I could see his charisma: he calmly talked about how our failures and insecurities can actually make us more creative.  That may sound like pop psychological mumbo-jumbo to some, but I can understand how one can be a sucker for that kind of spiel.  But to become a ringleader in the activities that Raniere was promoting behind the scenes?  How would a person degenerate to that?  Anyway, this line in the article stood out to me: “Schneider said his own legal troubles have made him take Mack’s case with ‘a grain of salt.’ He was recently released from a five-hour jail stint over unpaid spousal support in his ongoing divorce battle with his estranged wife.”