DC has highest percentage of heavy drinkers, according to the Center for Disease Control (WTOP)
Detox.net used that data in their own report, which has some nice, illustrative graphics (linked here).
DC has highest percentage of heavy drinkers, according to the Center for Disease Control (WTOP)
Detox.net used that data in their own report, which has some nice, illustrative graphics (linked here).
Articles chosen with care. Comments welcomed. Linked articles in bold purple
◆ The aftermath of Comey remains “He said. He said.” One he is Comey, the other is Trump.
Other than Trump’s foolhardy bravado in offering to testify under oath to Mueller, nothing really happened.
The newspapers generally covered the testimony honestly. The outlier was the New York Times. Here’s my blog post on that:
How Five Newspapers Headline Comey’s Testimony: Four are Fair, One is Not
Comment on Conspiracy Theories: The Comey testimony and its aftermath underscore and reinforce a larger shift in public discourse that is very troubling: the rise of conspiracy theories.
America’s media in tandem with the Democratic party and progressives are now playing a constant drumbeat of conspiracy theories, mostly about secret collaboration between the Kremlin and Trump to throw the 2016 election.
We haven’t seen anything like that since Joe McCarthy.
Trump does not come to this with clean hands. His claims about Barack Obama’s birth certificate were a major conspiracy theory for years.
◆ Britain’s Tories face a trainwreck. Their call for a snap election has produced a hung Parliament and likely a shaky coalition government
The headline in The Independent: Theresa May tries to move on after humiliating result as critics begin to circle
A chastened Theresa May is attempting to move on from her botched election gamble, under intense pressure from members of her own cabinet and Tory backbenchers to dramatically improve her game. . . .
Ahead of what is promising to be a bruising meeting with Tory backbenchers next week, MPs publicly questioned Ms May’s position and her campaign, with one even branding it “madness”, while others demanded changes to her Brexit strategy and raised concerns about a deal with the Northern Irish DUP [Democratic Unionist Party] . –The Independent
May met with the Queen and said she intends to form a government. But there is considerable question about her future.
The Tories could toss her out before the next election, which is likely to come fairly soon.
Meanwhile, here are the main effects of the British election. It
◆ Spain’s Catalonia region (Barcelona and surrounding area) will hold a referendum on leaving Spain (NPR)
The Spanish central government sees the vote as illegal, so this sets up a confrontation.
The Washington Post story is here.
“There is not going to be any illegal referendum that goes against the Constitution,” the government’s spokesman . . . said after a weekly cabinet meeting. “We are facing an increasingly radical strategy that has less and less support.”
[But Catalonia’s regional president] Carles Puigdemont said the decision to call for the vote was reached after more than 18 months of efforts failed to establish a dialogue with Madrid.He also said the vote was nonnegotiable because Catalans backed his plan for secession by voting for his coalition of pro-independence parties at the end of 2015. –Washington Post
Comment: The region has a long history and its own language, Catalan, that is related to Spanish but different.
◆ Repealing Obamacare puts the Senate’s centrist Republicans in a bind. An example from Ohio, in his USA Today story:
Rob Portman’s dilemma: How to repeal Obamacare without undermining opioid fight
The key problem: any cutbacks in Medicaid, which Ohio expanded as part of the ACA, would harm addicts’ ability to get care.
Comment: Repealing and Replacing Obamacare depends on solving very hard problems like this.
◆ Meanwhile, Politico reports that “Conservatives near revolt on Senate health care negotiations”
Comment: Staunchest opponents appear to be Rand Paul (R-KY) and Mike Lee (R-UT).
Skepticism about the bill voiced by Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AK)
Republicans have 52 votes. They would need 50 votes plus the Vice President to pass a bill and send it to a reconciliation committee with the House.
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Articles chosen with care. Comments welcomed. Linked articles in bold purple
◆ US anti-missile success over Pacific is a huge technological achievement.
The tasks now: keep improving the technology, keep testing, and start producing them for deployment
These anti-missile systems are not designed to deal with a massive attack, such as one China or Russia could launch.
They are meant to deal with rogue nations or, conceivably, an accidental launch.
Snarky Comment about those who fought hard to stop these systems: I don’t agree with those who say that the West Coast and Hawaii should not be protected since their Senators and Congressman–and their voters–have opposed missile defense every step of the way for 35 years. True, if they had succeeded, their cities would be the first ones at risk. But leaving them defenseless, as they actually wished to be, would be very ungenerous.
Still, it will be interesting to see if their Senators and House members will vote for these systems even now. After all, they might end up voting for a defense bill.
And while the folks on Nob Hill and Pacific Palisades look down their noses at the rest of America, they might want to pause and remember who worked so hard to save their sorry butts from their ill-considered judgments.
◆ Illinois, which models its finances on Greece and Puerto Rico, enters the last day of the legislative session without a budget. This is getting to be a habit. (Chicago Tribune story here.)
Comment: You can guess the story. Who controls the legislature? Mike Madigan and the Democrats. Who is the governor? A republican. Who wants few cuts, big tax increases, and no reforms to a system that has been running on fumes for years? Oh, go ahead, guess.
Odd, isn’t it, how the low-tax states now have public services as least as good as the high-tax states? What that means is that you don’t get more potholes fixed if you pay higher taxes. You just get the same number fixed but pay higher wages and benefits to public-sector unions and to a paving contractor who knows a guy.
Meanwhile, Illinois’ neighboring states of Wisconsin and Indiana have put their financial houses in order. Indiana is especially well run and has been for years.
◆ “Kathy Griffin apologizes for severed Donald Trump head photo after backlash“ (Washington Post)
Would she have apologized if Hollywood applauded (as they may well have done, privately)?
In fact, everybody condemns it, as they should. It is disgusting. And it shows how low our public mudslinging has gotten.
Even CNN is “rethinking” Ms. Griffin’s participation in their cash-cow show on New Year’s Eve.
Comment: But I was more struck by how CNN presented the episode on its main web page. It illustrates what corporate fecklessness truly is.
Here is the ONLY thing CNN has to say about Kathy Griffin there (early morning 5/31/17). She’s just “political.” Gosh. And we learn that she begs forgiveness (from whom, I wonder?).
A reputable news organization would have headlined the vile act, not the apology, and they would not have worked so hard to protect their asset by spinning it as “political.” But then again, they are CNN.
Kudos to Anderson Cooper, who did the right thing. Griffin’s co-host on New Year’s Eve publicly tweeted that he found it disgusting and unacceptable. Exactly right.
Btw, ask yourself what would have happened if she had done this with the head of Pres. Obama. I can tell you. She would never work another day in her life. And she would never attend another dinner party or reception. For Trump’s head, she will suffer some, especially on TV, where advertisers will shy away. But she won’t miss a single cocktail party in Hollywood and, after a month of apologies, she’ll be working again and telling funny stories about how “shocked” people were but were privately giving her high-fives.
◆ Opioid Epidemic spurs race to find safer painkillers (ScienceNews.org)
The need for new pain medicines is “urgent,” says Nora Volkow [director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse].
Scientists have been searching for effective alternatives for years without success. But a better understanding of the way the brain sends and receives specific chemical messages may finally boost progress.
Scientists are designing new, more targeted molecules that might kill pain as well as today’s opioids do — with fewer side effects. Others are exploring the potential of tweaking existing opioid molecules to skip the negative effects. And some researchers are steering clear of opioids entirely, testing molecules in marijuana to ease chronic pain.
Comment: Lots of research but no breakthroughs, so far. US prescriptions for opioids have fallen a bit since 2012 but are still around 250 million annually and have been since 2006.
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Today’s ZipDialog Roundup included a story about violence by the notorious MS-13 gang, originally from El Salvador, now entrenched across the US. Engaged in a wide range of crimes, it is still mainly a drug cartel.
Today’s story was about several bodies, tortured and mutilated, found on Long Island. Police attribute to crimes to the MS-13 drug gang.
A friend wrote that she knew judges in the area and that are reporting large numbers of rapes and other violent crimes by the El Salvadorans.
Comment: These drug-selling gangs are a scourge. It is stunning that, for so long, it was considered bad form to even talk about them because they were “immigrants.”
That’s when PC becomes truly dangerous: it blocks a serious discussion of the problems. The problems don’t disappear; it just means the most extreme voices speak about them and, sadly, find a hearing.
We need good people to come here from all over the world, not cartels selling drugs. And we need to be able to talk about the issues honestly, without slipping into racist generalizations or, conversely, being falsely accused of them.
Here is some vital data, in a few charts based on official sources (the Drug Enforcement Administration, Centers for Disease Control, and so on). To see a more complete report, go to the 2016 National Drug Threat Assessment (here) It is painful reading, but it is essential for an informed debate on these issues, which range from drug treatment to sanctuary cities.
The increasing use has led to increasing deaths, not only because “regular” heroin is deadly but because it is increasingly dosed with lethal opioids, particularly fentanyl.
While violent deaths from other sources are steady or declining, those from drug poisoning are rising.
The “demand side” is obviously an internal US problem.
The “supply side” are gangs who bring the drugs in, mainly from Mexico.
It’s not just heroin coming across the southern border. It’s also cocaine, mostly from Columbia.
The fentanyls come from legitimate drug manufacturers, who products are channeled into illegal uses, and, increasingly, from China. Some is smuggled directly into the US. Some comes across the US border after being shipped through Mexico or Canada.
There are a number of competing Latin American gangs who sell these drugs, as the data from Texas clearly show.
But no one should think these gangs are limited to border regions. They have spread out across the United States. Rooting them out is, quite rightly, a high-priority issue.
Thank you to Marcia Sukenik Weiss, whose thoughtful comments prompted this outline of the epidemic.
Topics and articles chosen with care. Linked articles in bold purple
◆ Michael Flynn’s lawyers float an idea: he’ll testify if House and Senate investigators give him immunity. At issue, Russia’s influence in the 2016 election and their contacts with the Trump campaign.
The Wall Street Journal broke the story.
Flynn’s lawyer confirmed it; and now everyone is reporting it.
Comment: The Senate will take the lead here, in cooperation with the FBI. The committee on the House side is tied up in controversy over ties between its chairman, Devin Nunes (R-CA), and the Trump White House.
◆ Trump begins trade-policy review “as he levels new threats at China” (Washington Post)
◆ Historic first: SpaceX launches a satellite into orbit on a reused rocket booster. A tremendous technical achievement for Elon Musk’s company, one that dramatically lowers costs. SpaceX is aiming to launch new payloads every 2-3 weeks. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ firm, has also reused rockets but has done so on suborbital missions. (Space.com)
◆ Opiates: Ohio officials, led by Gov. John Kasich, working to restrict painkiller prescriptions (Toledo Blade)
Calling the proposed rules a “done deal,” Gov. John Kasich said these actions, coupled with a crackdown on the law enforcement side, will eventually reverse Ohio’s distinction of ranking first in the nation in overdose deaths.
“We’re paying the price right now for a lot of the neglect that happened in the past,” he said.
In battling their patients’ acute pain, doctors and other health-care providers could prescribe no more than seven days’ worth of opioid dosages for adults and five days for minors. The potency could not exceed an average of 30 morphine equivalent doses per day.
Physicians could prescribe more than that only after they’ve justified it based on the patient’s medical records. Exceptions would be made for cancer, palliative care, end-of-life, and addiction treatment. –Toledo Blade
◆ Dumbest comment of the Day: EU top bureaucrat, Jean-Claude Juncker, says he will urge “Ohio and Austin, Texas” to secede from the US if Trump doesn’t stop praising Brexit Story here.
Comment: Looks like ole Jean-Claude’s been in the liquor cabinet again.
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