Not the Usual (literary recommendations for pandemic days)

 

Not My Usual Stuff,

(Literary recommendations for pandemic days)

         Right off the top, I confess to being an unashamed junkie for good crime fiction. Hard boiled private eye, world weary cop, intellectual crime solver - just doesn't matter, I like 'em all as long as they're well written. That’s what all the following is about. If you don’t read for pleasure stop reading now. But if you do, stay the course and I’ll introduce you to some new addictions, in all probability. 

         Of course, the genre as we know it, at least in English, may be traced back to Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." Poe's brainy, logical, Auguste Dupin, provides the prototype of what Conan Doyle superbly fleshed, out 47 years later, in Sherlock Holmes, as the "consulting detective" inn his seminal short novel “A Study in Scarlet.” (Holmes remains the most widely published detective in all of English literature!)

        Between Poe and Conan Doyle, English novelist, Wilkie Collins, expanded the genre from short story to novel. Collins is generally credited with the first great mystery novel, 1859’s "The Woman in White."  Dorothy L. Sayers singled out Collin's second crime novel, "The Moonstone," (1868) as "probably the very finest detective story ever written". “The Moonstone” is still, even today, a great read!

         In support of that, even though Collins is unknown to most American crime fiction fans, "The Moonstone" contains a number of ideas that have established, in the form, several classic features of the 20^th/21^st  century detective story:  The "inside job," red herrings, skilled, professional investigator, Bungling local cops, detective inquiries/ methods, large number of false suspects, the "least likely suspect," a "locked room" murder,  reconstruction of the crime, and a final twist in the plot. Collins brilliantly incorporates all these in "The Moonstone." As mentioned above, Conan Doyle later elevated the short story genre to popular art form with Sherlock Holmes, the protype of the analytical, quirky “private eye.”  

        The genre has been broken down into several subtypes. From the quirky eccentricity of Miss Marple, Nero Wolfe, Hercule Poirot - all civilians drawn into mysteries, to the equal eccentricity of some fictional cops, from Inspector Morse, John Rebus, Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast, Columbo, Thomas Pitt, and quadriplegic savant Lincoln Rhyme, to Tony Hillerman's Navajo master detective, Joe Leaphorn. All have been portrayed as TV gumshoes except Pitt, whose exploits in his stomping grounds in Victorian London have been chronicled in 35 (so far) novels by the prolific Ann Perry.    

        On the other end of the spectrum, we are presented with world weary, jaded cops, exemplified (in my humble opinion) to its very finest example in Michael Connelly's iconic Harry Bosch, with James Lee Burke's Dave Robichaux a close second.  This group includes Law and Order’s Lennie Briscoe and, Bobby Goren, and Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone. Current (and prolific) UK authors well worth a read include Ian Rankin, Val McDermid, Peter Robinson and the Anne Cleeves. Ms. Cleeves’ works have spun off two much acclaimed current TV series, “Vera” and “Shetland.” The others, one series each.

        Private detectives in American fiction tend to be descendants of Philip Marlowe and Mike Hammer. Examples include Sam Spade, Spenser, Lew Archer, and Elvis Cole/Joe Pike - jaded, sarcastic running to smart ass, and generally chick magnets. Some atypical exceptions such as Easy Rawlins, VI Warshawski, and Kinsey Milhone and the decidedly oddball Stephanie Plum, also occupy a place on the "private eye" roster, different in demeanor and method, but effective, nonetheless. In the corner all by himself, because he defies definition, is Lee Child's terrific Jack Reacher, not a detective or a cop, but you have to call him something. A recent and very readable new face in this group is Cormoran Strike, JK Rowling’s war wounded, amputee, detective penned under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

        Recently, (actually over the last several years) while I constantly look for and read books by the staple group above, I have been immersed in Scandinavian crime fiction. There are some terrific authors and some amazing characters to be explored if you are unfamiliar with this treasure trove of great writing. I started with Norwegian, Jo Nesbo, whose protagonist Harry Hole is an Oslo homicide cop. Read them in order, as Nesbo develops the character sequentially.  A close second place is actually a tie between Jussi Adler-Olsen, a Dane, and Henkell Manning, Swedish master author.  Adler Olsen's Karl Morck has been relegated to the equivalent of the Copenhagen cold case squad. All you need to know is that there are (so far) five terrific novels.

         It was with almost a sense of loss that I recently finished Henning Mankell's final Kurt Wallander novel, "The Troubled Man" There are 11 novels and 1 volume of short stories in the series, again best read in order. All the novels were feature length movies, played on BBC in Swedish with subtitles, and so loved in the UK that they were all remade in English starring Kenneth Branagh in the title role.  A second superb Swedish series are the novels of Helene Tursten, featuring Stockholm police inspector Irene Huss.  These have all also been made as films with subtitles. (all the above authors are available in English)

        A final recommendation is Icelandic Author Arnaldur Indridason, whose series set in Reykjavik and environs (pretty much all of Iceland) features Inspector Erlandur. There are 14 books in the series, the last 12 of which are available in English.

        I have found all these authors extremely refreshing in their great detail to character development and international connections.  Henning Mankell's death in 20I5 was a great loss to the genre, but most of the others mentioned above remain productive, I urge you to give them a try. 

I Can't Believe it Either!

 

    For once, I agree with John Stossell. There I said it. It will likely never happen again, but his column today (correctly) touts Nuclear power as a far better “green” energy source. What interested me is that he significantly echoes this essay I wrote several years ago. The essay, significantly edited/updated, follows:

        I am sick unto nausea of seeing a Pam Bondi lookalike on TV exhorting me to vote "for energy," followed by a multi-ethnic panel of paid actors who parrot the same party line.  What is saddening is that this is presented as if it was just a common sense, non-partisan, effort sponsored from the largesse of the energy industry.  Make no mistake - we are held captive by these people to a large degree. The fossil fuel purveyors are the money behind these ads. Dig deep enough into the background of this commercial (for that's what it is, in truth), and the Koch Brothers, “frackers” too numerous to mention, and the coal industry are lurking there. Note: hopefully there is change on the horizon in the coal fields as mining unions have recently committed to supporting retraining in clean energy fields.

        Sadly we, as a nation of sheep, were frightened away from nuclear power by an accident which has had zero measurable effects on the general population or the environment other than the higher cost of electricity as the utility recouped their self-inflicted monetary loss over the following years. A film further exacerbated the resultant wave of “anti-nuke” sentiment.  The accident site was Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pa, for those with short memories or too few years to remember.  The film was “The China Syndrome.” A 37 year public health study in the wake of Three Mile Island was closed after finding zero health effects attributable to the accident on the populace of the region.

        I worked in a nuclear industry, the Submarine Navy, for 26 years as an educator and operator/supervisor. Our hundreds of thousands (more likely millions, by now) of nuclear accident-free operating hours under conditions far more challenging that stationary power generation, are testimony to the safety of the types of reactors used in US nuclear facilities. The Chernobyl tragedy was largely due to the abysmally flawed type of reactor involved, not the nature of the use of nuclear power. Even the more recent Fukushima catastrophe in Japan was caused by inadequate backup provision for power, and would not have been licensed in the US, nor would a US plant have been authorized for construction where there was a risk of even a "once in a lifetime" tsunami. What passed unnoticed, is that no one died because of nuclear issues of any sort, but several were killed by the initial event (earthquake/tsunami) itself.

        Since its inception in 1948, the U.S. Navy nuclear program has developed 27 different plant designs, installed them in 210 nuclear-powered ships, taken 500 reactor cores into operation, and accumulated over 5,400 reactor years of operation and 128,000,000 miles safely steamed. For some perspective that's over 550 trips to the moon! Additionally, 98 nuclear submarines and six nuclear cruisers have been recycled. The U.S. Navy has never experienced a reactor accident. By comparison, there have been more than 100 fatalities in the US involving Liquid natural Gas (LNG) one of the "safe" fossil fuels hyped by the Energy Lobby. Between petroleum, LNG and Coal industry accidents, thousands have died, including the flattening of one square mile of Cleveland and 132 dead by an LNG explosion in 1944, and 362 in a W.Va. coal mine explosion. This of course ignores the litany of cancers caused by carbon fuel off gassing, especially earlier coal fired plants. 

        Both solar and wind powers are attractive no fuel, no carbon, options, but at great price for the initial installation, and for wind power, as the Danes are finding out, a lifetime intense maintenance commitment, in the current state of wind technology. Oh, and by the way, their electricity costs around twice as much, per kilowatt /hour as US averages!      

        Unfortunately, but predictably,  the farther north we go, the shorter the daylight hours and in winter, when we need power the most for "green" heating, they are shortest. Solar ...well, it only works when the sun is up, and current technology options for energy storage for later use are in their infancy. In truth, battery tech will almost surely never be adequate for national power grid support. It will also almost assuredly be shown that while initial solar installations are less costly than wind energy, storage will be far more so. Battery technology is far from adequate in the foreseeable future to support metropolitan areas with solar, if ever (can you say Seattle?)

         Hydro is, of course, fuel free but requires significant altering of the natural course of rivers and the accompanying loss of various habitats, while having the obvious downside of needing constant high volume flows to maintain output. Hydro is also subject to the effects of changing weather patterns on the amount of water available. The recent record low levels in Lake Mead, threatening Hoover Dam’s ability to continue power production, are exemplary.

          In the meantime, safe nuclear energy offers a far better alternative than coal (no carcinogens) and fracking (fewer drill induced earthquakes).  Meanwhile Nuclear is sustainable, safe, and yet the US is lagging in the development and application of even safer and almost infinitely refuelable liquid salt cooled (LSC) reactor plants, whereas India and China are pioneering such work. We (the US Atomic Energy Commission) actually built an operating high power, small profile LSC reactor at Oak Ridge in the 1960s. Sadly, after more than 6000 effective full power hours and proof of the technology, it was scrapped in favor of fast breeders – because the military wanted more “weapons grade” Plutonium.  Fast breeders are relatively safe, but considerably less so than Liquid Salt designs, which are essentially fail safe and meltdown proof. Added to that, is the need for less plentiful Uranium as fuel.       

        LSC reactors can be fueled by plentiful thorium and we have, within our national borders, by conservative estimates, over 500 years’ supply if all US power production reactors used Thorium. Finally, there is much less nuclear waste when thorium is used as a fuel in a liquid fluoride thorium reactor —up to two orders of magnitude less. This eliminates the need for large-scale or long-term storage. Recently Chinese scientists have claimed that hazardous waste will be a thousand times less than with uranium."

        Added to these factors is the fact that Nuclear plants can be sited in remote locations and produce only electricity and heat.

        "Be an energy voter" is partisan to the max while pretending not to be. Don't be suckered.

The Elephant

 

The Elephant

 

        Last week, Punchbowl News (not what I’d call “mainstream media, but…) reported that the semi-psychotic Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Arizona Congressman Paul A. Gosar were preparing to announce their involvement in the launch of an “America First Caucus.” A detailed document laying out the caucus’s platform suggested that it would focus on promoting “Anglo-Saxon political traditions” and warned that mass immigration would have an impact on the “unique identity” of the country. Unsurprisingly, harsh and immediate criticism from some of her own party, including, in a brief show of character, minority leader Kevin McCarthy, quickly resulted in “blame shifting” to staffers.

        Having followed Green’s record to date, I find both the plans and the subsequent denial to be totally in character. Hell, if you are crazy enough to even utter the words “Jewish Space Laser” as Green has, the sky’s the limit. More directly, here’s a picture of who she is: On February 29, 2020, Greene attended a gun rights rally in LaFayette, with American Patriots USA, a far-right group, then attempting to further its influence with Georgia Republicans. At the rally, she held up an American Patriots USA banner while posing for photos with Chester Doles, a 5th generation Ku Klux Klansman and “Grand Klaliff” (they love those funky names, huh?) leader, who has nearly a dozen assault arrests and served two separate prison sentences in Maryland—the second, and longest, for the vicious 1993 beating of a black man he and a fellow Klansman left for dead. Lie down with dogs…?

        Part of the supposed aim of the “America First Caucus” apparently revolvers around this concept:

“common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions” and a return to architectural style that “befits the progeny of European architecture.” (“Architecture?” Just what the actual hell is that even about?)

        Well, and this is the “Elephant” (in the room) referenced in the title, it is primarily about race and racism. It is about the Klan with a cleaner shirt. It is fascinating to me that Americans whose ancestors fled oppression from “Anglo-Saxon” oppression all over Europe and were, in some cases, not even considered “white” (Irish, Italians, other Mediterranean groups) by those who got here first, have now become oppressors, less violent but by “legal” manipulation.

         Fans of “Outlander” (and most historically literate individuals) will be aware that the poor Scots and Scots/Irish, themselves fleeing Anglo-Saxon (as in English) domination and oppression, were among the earliest settlers of the American South, and many were relegated to the lowest rungs of society in those colonies by the English whose assured primacy was determined by huge Crown land grants and control of such legislative bodies as were permitted by the crown.

        Sadly, in many cases, their descendants, themselves just several generations removed from being poor white “clay eaters”, (look it up) are the same folks bemoaning the recent election results and saying everything but “We don’t want persons of color to vote.” The southern elite are enabling and encouraging them.

        Populist politician and Georgian, Tom Watson, summed it up thus in the 1890s: “You (Caucasians and Blacks) are kept apart that you may be separately fleeced of your earnings. You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both. You are deceived and blinded that you may not see how this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system which beggars both.”

        Recent Georgia election law changes make it seem that not as much has changed as one might hope.

        On a similar track, since the departure of Lou Dobbs from daily airtime, the loathsome Tucker Carlson recently upped and reaffirmed his claim that Democrats want more immigration because they hope to “replace” native-born U.S. voters with “more obedient voters from the Third World.” Carlson routinely condemns the addition of immigrant voters to the body politic as an inherently bad thing. He has said, in various dog whistle ways that local culture all over the United States is succumbing under a tide of migration, with some states becoming unrecognizable.”

        Also flagrantly playing the race card, Carlson was openly disdainful of the George Floyd murder verdict, even as several other of his Fox “News” applauded it as a valid decision.  

        These two controversial points of view (Carlson, Green, et al) occupy somewhat different places on the spectrum of despicable nativist and white nationalist viewpoints. But they are related. With the “Anglo Saxon traditions” controversy drawing more attention, we are also seeing versions of Carlson’s viewpoint edging into the realm of Republican “respectability”.

        What is happening here is the great Republican unspoken: The fear that “Someday, us white folks won’t be the majority and in charge.”

Its Much harder Now

 

It’s Much Harder Now!

    Once upon a time (the last four years, to be more precise), all I had to do to be inspired to rant on the political scene was open the local newspaper or read the Washington Post online. I was guaranteed to see Trump’s latest outrage writ large. Sadly, for my creative process, but happily for the nation, Joe Biden is acting Presidential, conducting himself as a gentleman and dealing with the Media as simply the media, not Sargon’s minions. As a result, I can’t and won’t invent reasons to criticize, as I actually believe he’s doing an honorable job which doesn’t include self-aggrandizement or sheer stupidity on a daily basis.

    The same cannot be said for the Republicans wallowing in the despair of Trump’s fair election defeat. Several have elevated themselves to national attention in ways which defy any logical/sane examination.

    Mitch McConnell leads off the batting order, with his mind-boggling statements related to decisions by several major corporate entities to support the move of  the Major League Baseball All-Star game from Atlanta, where it was originally scheduled to be played, to Denver. First some background: The game, originally to be hosted by Truist Park near Atlanta, was moved by MLB from Atlanta, in protest of the Georgia State Legislature's passage of the controversial the controversial Election Integrity Act of 2021, which overhauls voter access in the state.

    Why? The Election Integrity Act of 2021, originally known as Georgia Senate Bill 202, is a new law overhauling elections in the state. It is critical to understand that there is not a scintilla of evidence or data showing that Georgia’s electoral process was flawed or that there had been any impropriety on the part of the State Supervisor of Elections. Rather, the bill is simply part of a broader nationwide push by Republican lawmakers to make voting laws more restrictive following unsuccessful efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, which focused in particular on Georgia and several other swing states using false (and proven to be false) claims of widespread election fraud.

     It is reminiscent of a “kinder, gentler” Jim Crow era voter suppression, since it is aimed to large extent at minorities and rural areas which, in Georgia are majority Democrat. It imposes voter identification requirements on absentee ballots, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, expands early in-person voting, bars officials from sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms, reduces the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot, makes it a crime for outside groups to give food or water to voters waiting in line (although poll workers are still allowed to), gives the state legislature greater control over election administration, and shortens runoff elections, among other provisions.

    In fact, the only true attempts to violate the process in Georgia were phone calls by both Trump and Lindsey Graham attempting to sway the Georgia Election top official, a Republican, from ethically carrying out his duties, which he did, in the process becoming a pariah in his own party for his ethical behavior.

    But what about ole Mitch? After the MLB decision to pull out of Georgia, he was further incensed by reports of a Zoom call which reportedly included senior leaders from Delta, United, Starbucks, LinkedIn, Target, and Levi Strauss, with some executives dialing in from Georgia’s Augusta National Golf Club as the Masters tournament was underway.

    This meeting, led by Merck chief executive Kenneth Frazier and former American Express chief executive Kenneth Chenault, was convened in an effort to “unify companies that had been issuing their own statements and signing on to drafted statements from different organizations after the action in Georgia.” McConnell’s response was a dire warning about “Dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government” by speaking out against voter suppression. “Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order!”

    Understand this: Mitch McConnell warned corporate America that acting in support of Democracy was dangerous! Of course, when the former President funneled our money to Trump organization facilities that was OK. In McConnell world, apparently those corporate entities who fatten Republican campaign war chests are “righteous dudes” whose counsel and opinions matter, but those who support moral, non-violent actions in support of Democracy are Corporate children of a lesser God. Wow, just wow.

    On an equally mystifying, but semi-related note, we continue to be bombarded with the carping criticism by those of the Right that those “damned Hollywood types” and media darlings should keep their opinions to themselves. I have even heard this from one sometime golfing partner.

    It amazes me and, to some extent, troubles me, that these same folks who, to be honest, echo the same sort of uni-dimensional thinking as Donald Trump, have blind spots the size of Alaska in their ill formed “logic” on the subject.

    Trump was critical of, for example, Meryl Streep, George Clooney and a host of entertainment/arts folks for being critical of his actions and policies. The red hat hordes followed suit, with equal contempt for those Hollywood types. Where this becomes farcical (to me at least) is when the reason for disdain is phrased as a rejection of the individuals “right” to speak their mind on the subject, because they aren’t “qualified" to do so.

    I’m not sure how one determines the “right” or experience, but let’s look at several examples.” Roseanne Barr, Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Rush Limbaugh, and the (alien?) Marjorie Taylor Greene (who once alleged that 9/11 was a “hoax”) had the “right” to speak publicly in support of Donald Trump, but Meryl Streep, Tina Fey, Bradley Cooper, George Clooney etc., needed to just shut the hell up. Really?

Finally, congratulations to Rush Limbaugh for two months of sobriety!

Before you Firebomb my House

 Before you firebomb my house, back away and read this using your critical thinking skills, ok?

I have an acquaintance who, as I am, is a military retiree. Like me, he has one of the best double barreled medical insurance plans available to anyone, anywhere. As a retiree, I am required to have Medicare part B deducted from my Social Security each month.  Unlike non-retirees,  my wife and I are covered by both Medicare, having paid into it, and Tri-care, which was our military health care provider and now serves as a Medicare supplement  for her and for me  for the rest of our lives. Is this a good plan? Hell yes, it is! I have a $33,000 new hip for which I have received no bill.

    It is of no financial benefit for me (or my friend) to use any Veteran's Administration facility or service, as Tricare covers everything that Medicare doesn't. My friend however, frequently sees VA doctors and uses VA facilities instead of using private resources, even though it makes no monetary difference. I would estimate that Tricare has a realistic value to us of probably over $12,000 annually. If we need more rigorous care, it will be worth even more. 

    The sole reasonable exception to this is in the case of those non-retirees or veterans who are on outrageously priced prescription drugs, which the VA gets far cheaper, because they are allowed to negotiate drug prices, while Medicare/Medicaid cannot. I referring here to those on Medicare and Tricare who, having the same (basically no-cost) options as all retirees, continue to clog the VA, not because they must, but because they can.  

Many believe that the military is alone in providing this kind of extended medical coverage to retirees, but I assure you this isn't the case. Some public sector retirees are able to retire on as few as 20 years service with 20 to 25 more working years ahead of them, but only if they so choose, since in many cases their retirement will be sufficient and their health care is essentially free if they so decide. A teacher in Albany, NY for example might  retire at age 59 (for example) with a cash in hand annual retirement pension of about $68,000, they may also elect to continue to keep their same health care coverage until Medicare kicks in, at which time, it converts to a "Cadillac" Medicare supplement program. This healthcare additional coverage has an estimated value of $14,000 annually for a 25 year NYPD retiree.  

I know, "Good for you, so what?" - well here's what. We hear today a lot of concern over the log jams at Veteran's Administration hospitals. Hospitals in Arizona are backed up to the point that we are outraged that veterans aren't able to get treatment immediately. Unfortunately, we rarely hear anyone question why that is and even less frequently does anyone suggest any action other than "build more facilities."

There is, however, plenty of room to discuss this issue in a factual, rather than emotional, manner.  First of all, the VA as we know it was established in 1930. For WWI vets, the government's obligation once discharged was as follows: Congress established a new system of veterans benefits when the United States entered World War I in 1917. Included were programs for disability compensation, insurance for servicepersons and veterans, and vocational rehabilitation for the disabled. By the 1920s, the various benefits were administered by three different federal agencies: The Veterans Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions of the Interior Department, and the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. Note that this includes absolutely no provision for lifetime medical treatment for non-service-related health problems.     

Following, (actually still during) WWII, Veterans benefits were greatly expanded for active duty servicemen, while in the years since 1930, the increasing number of older WWI vets was already becoming an issue.  Remember one critical factor here; all (or the vast majority of) these vets were draftees. They had involuntarily been taken from whatever civilian occupation they may have been pursuing and forced into military service. The GI Bill of Rights greatly expanded veterans benefits again, this time as a means of avoiding the usual post war economic doldrums as former soldiers were cashiered out and became gluts on the job market.

     The GI Bill college, job training and zero down mortgage guarantee benefits were aimed specifically at this issue. Meanwhile, the VA became a "go to" source of health care for all veterans, even if they had absolutely no service-connected disability. And why not? We were one of the few industrialize nations not bombed or fought in/on/or over. we could afford it.

  At this point I must come clean and admit that my brother, a two-year draftee, received medical care for his several cancers at the VA in Washington. He had been out of the military for well over 40 years, but because the United States, unlike most developed nations, has no universal healthcare and he was a self-employed musician, what insurance he could afford would have been inadequate in any case. Am I glad Steve had access to the VA? Of course, I am, but I remain unconvinced that he should have. The fact remains, however, that he was a draftee and not a volunteer. 

All this still begs the question, "Why do we provide perpetual  healthcare for any person who serves two years, statistically has a <10% chance of ever seeing combat,  and leaves the military  in good physical condition with no service connected health issues?  Why do we continue to house and treat a man who leaves the service  and works 45 years at a civilian job with medical benefits, and, after he develops a heart condition , treat him as if he is different from, say, a retired 40 year  mechanic who has to pay for his own healthcare?"

Of course, no one in Government will address this issue because it's a political hot potato. There is a simple solution in the near and long term.

  First of all, a military retiree with Tricare for Life, has zero need for VA medical facilities, unless they were separated with a service-connected disability (and yes, PTSD is a service connected issue!). Even then, Tricare and Medicare will cover all their medical expenses after aged 65. Stop non-disabled retirees from using the VA hospital system.  Period. Stop it!  Even an underachiever who retires at 20 years as an E-6 will have about $25,000 annually for life in actual compensation, ($625,000 by age 65) plus medical coverage worth at a bare minimum, $10,000 more per year!        

Additionally, and obviously, current non-retiree users of the system would have to be grandfathered in even if their health issues are not service connected. 

We are now an all volunteer military and have been since 1973, so persons entering the military are doing so because they choose/want to. If these persons are careerists, they will have Tricare upon retirement and should use civilian medical providers. Many will work after separation and, like I was, may be covered under an employer's plan until they retire again and are Medicare eligible, 

Persons enlisting or being commissioned who leave the service before retirement with no service connected medical issues should receive a pat on the back, a job reference and, perhaps as much as 2 years' health care coverage extension, just not at the VA.  Upon becoming employed they should receive coverage under their employer's health plan. At 65 they will become Medicare eligible and can buy a supplement if they wish. 

    Since they left the military voluntarily and in good health, they should not be VA eligible for medical care unless it can be shown that there is an underlying service-connected reason to the contrary. Of course, exceptions could be made for proven indigence. The retiree I previously referred to, who  uses the VA, vice civilian medicine, is retired from the military on 24 years, retired from another  government  job on another 20 plus, has Medicare and Tricare and, with Social Security,  has  a household income in the $120,000 per year range.  

  This should (would) free up a slew of beds and appointment times for veterans with real issues, mental and/or physical which are now lumped in with persons who should have other insurance. 

The large scandal which rocked the VA hospital system in 2014 was far worse in Phoenix that elsewhere. Why do we think  that is? Well, take 37,000 military veterans, some retirees  many not, in Sun City alone, of the roughly 200,000 retirees in the area, many of whom are draft era short service people, and it becomes obvious. People retiring to Arizona are, as a group, not poor, not homeless and have worked for a living. many of them use the VA because they can, not because they need to. Unless specifically diagnosed with a service-connected disability, they should use Medicare and a supplement like non-vets.

This may sound harsh, especially from a long time military member, but when we don't have  beds for soldiers with traumatic brain injury or PTSD, or missing limbs, or other line of duty issues because a 75 year old who left the military in good health at age 24 has  lung cancer from smoking for 50 years after he left the service, our  priorities are skewed. In most states a cop or firefighter who isn't a retiree gets no follow-on health care unless disabled, yet they are exposed to severe hazards on the job, too.

A Republican book I Might Just Have to Read

 

Since the majority of you can’t read the entire article (WaPo is a subscription service) I’m going to share several quotes from (former Speaker of the House) John Boehner’s soon to be released book. They are from a lengthy article/review. Bear in mind, Mr. Boehner is a Republican.

Here' s the headline:

“In new book, John Boehner says today’s GOP is unrecognizable to traditional conservatives" (italics, where added, are mine) and dishes on his time in politics.

Boehner writes that he was “Happy to be away from Washington on Jan. 20, 2017, when Trump was sworn in as president and completed his hostile takeover of the party” to which the Ohio Republican had dedicated decades of his life. “That was fine by me because I’m not sure I belonged to the Republican Party he created.”

“I don’t even think I could get elected in today’s Republican Party anyway. I don’t think Ronald Reagan could either”

“Trump incited that bloody insurrection (the attack on the capitol) for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the b------- he’d been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November. He claimed voter fraud without any evidence,” Boehner writes. “The legislative terrorism that I’d witnessed as Speaker had now encouraged actual terrorism.”

There’s some bit of praise for almost everyone, mixed in with digs about their politics. Everyone except Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). Boehner has nothing but harsh words over Cruz’s actions dating back to a 2013 federal government shutdown where the Texan played a starring role.

Boehner met the future president during a golf outing at Trump National in Westchester, N.Y., when he joined Boehner and two insurance executives for a round. He doesn’t say the date, but notes he was House minority leader then, so this encounter would have been between 2007 and 2011.

Before they set off, Trump asked a young Boehner staffer the names of the executives. It was only after 18 holes that the two men summoned the courage to tell Boehner and Trump that they’d been calling them the wrong names all day. Boehner laughed, but Trump turned angry. “This sort of glower fell across his face,” Boehner writes. Then Trump got in the staffer’s face and berated him. “What are you, some kind of idiot?” Trump shouted. “You want to know how to remember somebody’s name? You f-----g LISTEN!”

There “was something dark about” Trump’s reaction, Boehner observed. “I’d never seen anybody treat a staffer like that — not in politics, not ever, this was more than New York bluster. This was real anger, over something very, very small. We had no idea then what that anger would do to our country.”

And:  “I know what we all said at the time: Bill Clinton was impeached for lying under oath. In my view, Republicans impeached him for one reason and one reason only . . . Tom DeLay believed that impeaching Clinton would win us all these House seats, would be a big win politically, and he convinced enough of the membership and the GOP base that this was true.” “Clinton probably did commit perjury. That’s not a good thing. But lying about an affair to save yourself from embarrassment isn’t the same as lying about an issue of national security,”

 

Before he was Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows was a thorn in Boehner’s side while serving as a Republican congressman from North Carolina. As founder of the Freedom Caucus, a group of far-right Republicans, Meadows was often in Boehner’s way. Boehner had campaigned for Meadows in his first election, but in one of Meadows’s first actions as a freshman congressman, he voted against Boehner for speaker — “a vote that like many of the Freedom Caucus’s efforts ended in abject failure,” Boehner writes.

Soon after, Meadows asked for a private meeting. Within a few minutes in Boehner’s office, the congressman “dropped off the couch and was on his knees. Right there on my rug. That was a first. His hands came together in front of him as if he were about to pray,” Boehner recalls. He asked Boehner to forgive him.

“I was so startled I can’t remember exactly what the hell he was saying. For a moment, I wondered what his elite and uncompromising band of Freedom Caucus warriors would have made of their star organizer on the verge of tears, but that wasn’t my problem,” Boehner writes. So Boehner took a “long, slow draw” of his cigarette and left Meadows there on his knees waiting. Then, after an extended silence, Boehner looked down at him asked, “For what?”

Boehner reflects that even after becoming speaker, he saw where the party was going. He calls 2008 GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin “one of the chief crazies” in the party but says he understood Sen. John McCain’s motivation in picking her as his running mate to fire up the base. Boehner says he was already living in “Crazytown,” and “when I took the Speaker’s gavel in 2011, two years into the Obama presidency, I became its mayor. Crazytown was populated by jackasses, and media hounds, and some normal citizens as baffled as I was about how we got trapped inside the city walls. Every second of every day since Barack Obama became president I was fighting one bats — t idea after another.” Boehner’s disregard for these elements has been well-established — and particularly his disdain for the man he describes as the ringleader of the tea party movement. In a Politico op-ed adapted from the book last week, Boehner describes how birtherism and other maladies infected his party, and in audio leaked from his audiobook recording sessions he directs vulgar insults at Cruz.

Boehner urged people who want to actually fix Washington to “send people there to represent you who actually want to get things done instead of hucksters making pie-in-the-sky promises or legislative terrorists just looking to go to Washington and blow everything up.” Which eliminates a significant number of junior Republican Congressmen(and ONE woman especially!) and Senators. I think I might have to read ol’ John’s book!

 

Material re: the Book taken from The Washington Post, 9 March, 2021