OBAMACARE CONVERTED TO TRUMPCARE, OR WHATEVER.
I really do not understand it.  The people running our country must be totally and irreversibly stupid when it comes to replacing Obamacare and how to go about it, Republicans as well as Democrats and everybody in between.

First and foremost in solving the problem is to remove the insurance companies from the equation.  They do absolutely nothing to help the situation and are in it for one thing only, what they can get out of it.  You do not need the insurance companies in order to make it work.

Second, you do not have to re-invent the wheel and if you have something that works, then by all means, use it.

What am I talking about?  Simple.  I’m talking about a single payor system that utilizes what we already have on the shelf, Medicare.  Yes, Medicare.

All you have to do is to extend it downward so that it includes all ages.  Duh.  In so doing, it would apply to anyone who is on a legitimate payroll, period, end of story.  This would take into account the younger people who would not normally seek to have health insurance.  The rates could be modified somewhat so that either older people or people that earn over a certain amount would pay a little bit more than everyone else.  It should also include all of our veterans that now have to rely on a bloated boondoggle known as the VA where they have to wait and wait and wait for an appointment, during which time they could drop dead.  You say that such an approach does not cover enough benefits for some, then that’s where the insurance companies could come in by providing the supplementary coverage that would vary by geographical area.  You still need some more financial assistance to make it all happen?  Then get after all of the promotors of Medicare fraud that costs the tax payers anywhere from 50 to 100 billion per year and finally to permit Medicare to be allowed to negotiate the cost of drugs with Big Pharma, saving even more billions.

You don’t believe me and you think that our elected officials know how to fix the problem.  Why don’t you check with the people who really know, the Actuarial Community?

WIRETAPS.
Wiretaps going berserk?  So what else is new?  I say big _______ deal.  It has been going on since Alexander Graham Bell, or maybe it was Don Ameche, invented the telephone.  You really think that the Big O or even Trump would order a wiretap?  No way.  They would simply indirectly imply to one of their flunkies who instructs a lower flunkie who instructs an even lower flunkie that such and such should be done, like in the movies when a mafia boss orders a hit.

HACKS.
You mean to say that the Russians hacked us?  When our country first considered going into the spy business sometime after WWI, one of our politicians or officials stated that “gentlemen do not read other people’s mail” or words to that effect.  Well, a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then.  At the outset of WWII, the US and the UK, formerly Britain, were able to read the Japanese and German intercepts and have them decoded faster than the Japanese or Germans. What we did with the information is another matter.  To say that everyone reads everyone else’s mail today is an understatement.  No matter what, this will not go away.

Getting back to what the Russians may have hacked into, if anyone and I do mean anyone, has any proof whatsoever that the Russians were able to somehow change or manipulate the vote count then they should, immediately if not sooner, bring it to the attention of the media, whether they promote so-called “fake news” or not and if it is sufficient to have changed the outcome, then an entirely brand new election would be in order.  If not, then shut the ___ up.  Who cares if they hacked the DNC?

DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS.
Are the Democrats angry?  I would say “extremely pissed off” is a better description from what I’ve seen.  I don’t think that they have been more pissed off than when Lincoln, a Republican, took away their slaves.  All I can say to that is that I do not think that the Republicans would have resorted to burning cars, destroying private property, having temper tantrums, attacking police officers and be the cause of so much mayhem if Hillary had won.

TWEETING.
Tweeting all day and night?  I say enough already.  The time that it takes to do all of that Tweeting would best be spent in running the country.

INTEREST RATES.
Higher interest rates?  Whatever for?  Having worked as an Actuary for most of my life and having worked on countless retirement plans of all sizes, I can tell you that lower, not higher, interest rates are in the best interests of the country.  The only ones who may suffer from lower rates are those who have all or a lot of their assets tied up in interest bearing accounts.  Aside from giving a boost to the stock market, lower rates help not only the consumer but also those industries that revolve around interest rates such as housing and almost all businesses that include manufacturing or need a loan.  Who benefits from higher rates?  Why, the banks, of course.

GUN LAWS.
Congress just passed a new gun law that permits disabled people to buy guns.  What were they smoking at the time?

NORTH KOREA.
North Korea acting up – again?  If our media as well as our government are totally correct in the matter, then the North Korean leader is definitely certifiable.  If so, I say that this is a problem that belongs to China because they either promoted it or let it happen and said nothing about it nor did they attempt to curtail it which they surely could have before it got totally out of hand.

IRAN.
Unless our government has not been completely forthright with us and there is a lot more to this situation than meets the eye and that we do not have the entire picture, then I would have to say that it will go down in history that it is without a doubt the biggest ______ since we heard the now historic statement, “I bring you peace in our lifetime” or something like that.  We all know what happened next.

SOROS.
I read all about that name every time I check out the internet.  He is being accused of single-handedly trying to subvert our country and all that it stands for by converting us into something that is alien to what our Constitution stands for.  How?  By buying his way in and around everything that we do not believe in such as: promoting those regimes and organizations that are definitely leftist and who may have some terrorist connections, hiring out of work people in order to disrupt political rallies and to fund all manner of semi or quasi-legal organizations and think tanks that work against the policies of the US.  Who the _____ is this guy?  If he is such a disruptive force in the world, then something should be done about him.  Like what?  Like in the movies, where someone would say, you know, “take him out