This week some 80 world dignitaries including Presidents Putin, Trump, and Chancellor Merkel are gathering in France to mark the culmination of year-long remembrances of the centenary of the end of “the Great War” on November 11, 1918 – later labeled and known to every American high school history student as World War I.
On the morning of November 11, 1918, fighter pilot and leading American ace Eddie Rickenbacker quietly ambled to the hangar of his aerodrome in France. The night before, in anticipation of the Armistice, all Allied flights were grounded. But Rickenbacker was not known as a rule-follower. He told his crew to roll out his SPAD XIII fighter plane “and warm it up to test the engines.” He climbed into the cockpit, took off, and headed to the trenches of the Western Front. Low clouds kept him low, around five hundred feet.
The midterm elections continue to play themselves out in various races throughout the country. The fight going on in Florida and Arizona over newly discovered ballots brings to mind the line attributed to Joseph Stalin, “It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.”
While it may be too soon to come up with official vote totals for a few senate races, there is one election night conclusion we can be certain about: America needs more states.
Canadian healthcare has become something of a byword for the “ideal” in healthcare among certain activists in the United States. Bernie Sanders, for example, has relentlessly pressed for a Canada-style healthcare system, and many left-of-center Americans advocate for the same.
A New York City federal jury has spoken, and its message is ominous: federal prosecutors are empowered to criminalize actions for which there is no statutory prohibition. To put it another way, the government has pulled criminal charges out of thin air – and journalists are cheering.
US states continue to expand Medicaid, and it’s happening even in so-called “red states.” CNBC, for instance, reports how voters in “red states” Utah, Nebraska, and Idaho all approved ballot issues to expand Medicaid under new Obamacare provisions. Meanwhile, the voters in these states also handed control of state government to Republican governors and legislators.
Last night’s midterms were the odd political event where both sides left seeming reasonably happy with the result. While it was no blue wave, Democrats will now have two years of using the House to investigate the Trump Administration, while the GOP has strengthened its hold of the Senate and held on to several governorships.
