Things I've Thought About Recently

It's been a while since the disastrous events of Election day and I haven't felt much like being even mildly humorous, but It's time to get back on the horse, so to speak.

        In no particular order:

        Choosing Rick Perry for any position which entails  responsibility for thoughtful policy advice (never mind Energy Secretary!)  is much like assigning Wile E. Coyote to baby-sit your Roadrunner. The man has proven his ignorance on various public stages so often, that we  are numb to his dumb.

        Saw a commercial yesterday for "Opdivo" a treatment which has been shown to, among other things, increase life expectancy by a relatively small percentage in some cancer patients. In the first place, it asks, "Who wants to live longer", as if there is some doubt as to the answer. Second - who makes up these names?  Is it the same savant who names Asian car models?  By the way, the "other things" include a list of side effects which might well make one wish they'd just hurry up and die.

        This is, sadly,  all too common these days as new therapies created to make  Big Pharma even richer show us the  small print afterthoughts of possible consequences which are as bad or worse than the condition being treated. Your night leg cramps may lessen, but, by the way,  your lungs may  fill with fluid, or something equally heinous. Sadly, there is usually an afterthought to these commercials which ballyhoos either low or no copays, but with an asterisk which tells us that this is for privately insured users only.

         The dirty little secret here is that Medicare will only pay full retail (and consumers the full co-pay!) price for any medication, while private insurers often negotiate significantly lower  prices. This legislation was the Bush 43 concession  to Big Pharma in order to obtain Medicare part D passage in 2006. One quick example: Anyone with private insurance is welcome to use the $300 Epi-pen coupon to reduce the cost of the drug. Medicare, however will only pay the full inflated price Mylan Pharmaceuticals asks and Medicare patients will be stuck with the full co-pay.  Anyone for national single payer health care?  

        Finally, enough already with the flood of e-mails telling me what new scheme is afoot and what petition I should sign to prevent a Trump inauguration. Wake the hell up. As I said immediately post election that it would , the Electoral College did what It was chosen to do, i.e. vote strict party lines. It was never going to be otherwise, but a slew of well meaning persons wasted a lot of energy and bandwidth in vain.

        Face it, we're gonna be stuck with this flaming arsehole for a bit, but there are real world,  reasonable things to do to minimize the pain. essentially none of them involve moaning, petitions, or Facebook rants. What to do?

        First, recognize that there are elections in less than two years. Every member of the House and 1/3 of the Senate will have to run for reelection. Start right now working your Congressman, flood them with letters. work for the good ones and against the poor ones. Likewise, we only need two sitting Republican Senators to lose and be replaced with Democrats to change the entire picture.  Just two! Be an advocate and persuader to those friends in labor who, for whatever reason supported Trump. He is demonstrably not a friend to labor,  organized or otherwise.

        Second, to effect real change, realize that there is no need of  a Constitutional Amendment to "do away with" the Electoral College. I am constantly amazed by the ignorance exhibited by both sides when considering this issue. Many, if not most, Americans apparently believe that current election law is determined by the federal government and ordained in the Constitution, when, in fact only the age of voters at 18 (26th Amendment), separate votes cast for President and Vice president (12th Amendment) , and the date of Presidential elections (first Tuesday after the first Monday in every other even  numbered year)  is specified. All other election law is determined at the state level. While the Electoral College is specified in print, the manner of choosing/allocating  Electors is not.

         So what? Well, Sparky, only two states -  Maine and  Nebraska make any attempt to allot Electoral votes in any manner other than "winner takes all."  If, however, all states allotted Electors in accordance with the popular vote percentages by party, the electors would at least be chosen in an equitable manner. While not, by any means a panacea,  it is well within the power of state legislatures to "fix" this issue without touching the Constitution,  yet many believe lobbying Congress is the only way to do this. Not so.

        Finally, choose electable candidates, work for them and get out the vote. The lamentable events of last November, had some aspects of self inflicted injury. If you read this and voted for either "third party" candidate, I hope you're delighted with the result.