Can We Stomach Bad Food? Should We?

How do you like your food? Would you want your morning coffee to contain bone? How about pouring milk thinned with dirty water over your cereal? Better yet, would you want that milk preserved with formaldehyde? Would you give your children cocoa packed with sand?

Before you ask what craziness I have come up with, these were among the finding that government chemist Harvey Washington Wiley confirmed during the late 19th century. His findings led Congress in 1905 to agree "that regulations were needed. With the passage of the Food and Drugs Act and the Meat Inspection Act, the United States created the framework for a federal system to test ingredients, inspect food factories and recall unsafe products," according to an op/ed piece in The New York Times ("The Return of the Great American Stomachache").

The article, written by Deborah Blum, author of "The Poison Squad," goes on to state, "This system has been criticized as seriously underfunded and often overcautious. But it has prevented a return to the fraudulent and poisonous food supply of the 19th century, which one historian called the 'century of the great American stomachache.' That is, until recently, when the Trump administration began to unravel that safety net." She also states that the Trump administration has been "chipping away" at food safety measures.

To read the article in its entirety, click here.

Showing Florida's Rick Scott the Door

Does Florida's incumbent U.S. senator Rick Scott deserve another term? Not according to an opinion commentary in the South Florida SunSentinal ("It’s time to part ways with Rick Scott").

According to the op-ed, "It is time for Florida voters to elect a senator who will fight to enact policies that build a prosperous future for everyone, not just the wealthy few. That person is Debbie Mucarsel-Powell."

The reasons are many as to why Florida voters should replace Rick Scott with Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. For starters, Rick Scott's 12-point Rescue America Plan "advocates for the expiring Donald Trump tax cuts to be made permanent." Studies conclude that these "would add trillions to the deficit and would disproportionately benefit wealthier Americans while middle-income Americans become worse off."

Meanwhile, Democratic policies are working: Inflation is down, GDP is growing, insulin prices have been capped, and more.

The op-ed piece, written by Kirk Orr, goes on to explain point-by-point why Rick Scott should be shown the door and be replaced by Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. To read the piece in its entirety, go to https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2024/10/27/its-time-to-part-ways-with-rick-scott-opinion/.

Dying and Homeless: Who Cares for Those Forgotten?

How often do we think about the homeless? How often do we think of those who are dying, in need of end-of-life care?

How often do we think about those who are homeless and in need of end-of-life care? Who cares for these forgotten people?

An opinion piece in The New York Times on Sunday ("Who Will Care For Society’s Forgotten?", by Theresa Brown and Leah Nash) discusses this problem, describing "how and whether we treat these patients, especially at the end of their lives, is a moral measuring stick that is all too often missing in our discussions about health care in America."

Housecall Providers, a Portland, Ore. home care organization, cares for these vulnerable patients. The Op/Ed piece describes the care, as well as a thumbnail bit on several of their patients.

To read the Op/Ed piece in its entirety, click here.

Dr. Brown, a clinical faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, is author of "The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives." Ms. Nash is a photographer.

Response Needed for Trump's Racist Rant

President Donald Trump targeted four U.S. House members on Sunday in what can be classified as a racist tweet, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

"Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done," Trump tweeted. He followed this on Monday with more attacks, tweeting about "a bunch of Communists," adding that "they are Anti-Semitic, they are Anti-America..."

The four House Democrats who were urged to "'go back' to countries they came from are U.S. citizens," the Times wrote. While Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota was born in Somalia, she came to this country with her parents when she was 8 years old, becoming a U.S. citizen at 17. (Her parents were fleeing Somalia's civil war.) The other three House members were born in this country: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-D) "born in the Bronx to parents of Puerto Rican descent. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (MA-D), who is black, was born in Cincinnati. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-D) was born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrants," the op/ed continues.

While these four representatives have caused divides within the Democratic part, which the Times mentions necessitating a reminder that defeating Trump, as well as continuing Democratic control of the House, might call for a more centrist appeal.

"Yet none of this excuses Trump’s racist attacks or the silence from most Republicans in response," the article continues.

To read the Tampa Bay Times Op-Ed in its entirety, go to http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/trumps-racist-rant-requires-a-collective-response-editorial-20190715/.

Insulin or Death

If one were to hear the words drugs and risky behavior, the first thought might be someone using/abusing street drugs or pain-killing opioids.

But an Op-Ed article and video in The New York Times states that many Type 1 diabetics are frequently having to resort to questionable measures in order to obtain their life-saving insulin.

Why would this be? The reason is simple, according to the article: "Patent laws and existing regulations allow the top three manufacturers to continuously increase prices without consequences."

So, while diabetes is considered "a perfectly manageable autoimmune disease" for which a nearly century-old drug is available, many diabetics are finding their insulin more and more difficult to afford.

To read the Op-Ed article and view the video in their entirety, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/opinion/insulin-price-costs.html.

Dismantling Roe v. Wade is a Death Sentence

In the 45 years since becoming the law of the land, Roe v. Wade has saved countless lives.

While many might argue the validity of that statement, mentioning that "babies" are dying during the procedure, Roe has, in fact, saved lives, making abortions in medical facilities safe, according to Gary Woodcock in this morning's Tampa Bay Times ("Column: This is what back-alley abortions were really like")

In his years as a Baltimore police officer, Woodcock saw his share of horror bestowed on women who wanted (or, in many cases, needed) to terminate a pregnancy in the pre-Roe years. Before you rush to call Woodcock a liberal in a cop's uniform, he acknowledges that he is "a moderate conservative or, equally, a moderate liberal, depending on the issue du jour," who grew up as a staunch Catholic, then served his country as a Marine, before becoming a police officer.

He wrote that he saw what having an illegal abortion in a non-medical setting frequently does to a woman. On a good day, she may end up in the hospital for several days recovering; on bad days, if she survives, she may become unable to have future children. (And if she dies? Who then cares for any of the children she may already have, children now left motherless and without being able to look forward to future siblings yet to come?)

While there are many reasons a woman might need to terminate a pregnancy - possibly the result of a rape or incest, possibly lovingly conceived with a partner before finding out a difficult medical diagnosis that, without treatment, means certain death, but with treatment would leave the fetus with severe birth defects and/or deformities (think cancer or zika) - how can one, in good conscience, say that sentencing women to death for what should be a private decision between that woman and her health care provider is the right thing to do? For who?

There are many reasons to keep abortion legal, as well as overturning the Hyde Amendment, which makes it difficult to receive a federally funded abortion.

Start by reading Mr. Woodcock's article, then have an honest and open-minded conversation with someone who has needed an abortion. You'd be surprised how many women have needed one, and count on Roe's continued existence.

NRA and its "Hysterical Teen"

The students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida have presented themselves as a strong, cohesive, intelligent force in confronting the National Rifle Association and other gun rights' activists in their fight to bring about intelligent gun control measures aimed at limiting death and destruction due to gun violence.

In today's Tampa Bay Times, columnist John Romano asks the question, "Okay, Now Who Sounds like a Hysterical Teen Talking About Guns?". (Hint: it isn't the aforementioned intelligent Stoneman Douglas students, who have shown amazing grace under pressure.)

Romano points out that Former NRA President Marion Hammer, who has watched over Florida legislators for decades, is upset to find more and more Florida legislators backing away from the NRA's stance that everyone should be allowed ready access to guns, "ominously suggest(ing) some may never again get an 'A' grade from the NRA."

While many may argue that the Second Amendment allows for gun ownership, it is not a blanket "everyone deserves one right now, right here," as Romano points out.

To read John Romano's editorial in its entirety, click here.

Health Care in a Free Market

While House Speaker Paul Ryan is a believer in free-market medicine, a New York emergency medicine physician writes that "in a totally free market health care system, you must be willing to let some patients die."

House Speaker Ryan said that with health care, "You get it if you want it. That's freedom." But according to Dr. Farzon A. Nahvi in The New York Times (“Don’t Leave Health Care to a Free Market”), being given medical services that one does not consent to and getting saddled with a bill of thousands of dollars "is nothing like freedom."

Nahvi gives examples of several patients who were found unconscious by passers-by who contacted 911. These patients were then transported to New York emergency rooms and treated, then saddled with huge medical bills. He likens this to having Verizon adding extra services to your bill and charging you thousands of dollars for the bill.

In the end, Dr. Nahvi writes, "Deep down inside, we all intuitively know that health care is not a free market, or else society would not allow me to routinely care for people when they are in no position to make decisions for themselves," concluding that if we believe in truly free-market health care, we would acknowledge that we might have to let the next unconscious person we find in the street remain there, rather than getting that person medical help.

Click here to read the op-ed piece in its entirety.

Medicaid Cuts Will Adversely Affect Fla. Hospitals - and Citizens

In a decision that will adversely affect many of Florida's hospitals, state lawmakers decided Thursday "to cut $521 million from hospitals." Nearly one-fifth of those hospitals affected are in the Tampa Bay area.

According to Tampa Bay Times ("Lawmakers are cutting $92 million from Medicaid in Tampa Bay. Which hospitals are hardest hit?"), the cuts will "mostly impact the facilities that take on the largest number of Medicaid patients, including the state’s safety net hospitals." Under this plan, hospitals in the Tampa Bay area will lose $91.7 million.

This plan is expected to pass the state House and Senate today.

While state legislators are trying to balance the budget, this short-sighted plan to cut Medicaid payments will not only hurt hospitals, but those people that these hospitals serve. And it won't hurt only those people on Medicaid - it will adversely hurt all Floridians.

How? Simple. When hospitals - say, St. Petersburg's All Children's Hospital, which serves children from all over the state, including critically ill children - receive less Medicaid money to treat those receiving treatment, the hospitals then have less money to distribute in its system for treating others with more conventional insurance (or those without any insurance at all).

Less money equals less time in the hospital for those who may need longer recovery times from surgery, critical illness, and other long-term recovery in the hospital setting. It also means cut-backs in personnel, including in emergency rooms, which, again, will adversely affect patient care.

What will it take to wake the legislators up to their short-sightedness? Maybe nothing. Maybe a call to your state senators and house representatives.

To read the article in its entirety, including the list of hospitals (which includes Tampa General, All Children's, Bayfront Health-St. Petersburg, and Moffitt Cancer Center), click here.

Click here to call or email your Florida state legislators.

Trump's HUD Cuts Would Hurt Pinellas, Hillsborough Counties

For the past few decades, several programs implemented by the federal government, have helped to "improve (the) living conditions for the poor" while rebuilding America's cities. These programs have "made a real contribution" in the Tampa Bay area.

However, these programs are in jeopardy due to President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts for 2018, according to an editorial in the Tampa Bay Times ("Editorial: Tampa Bay Would Lose in Trump's HUD Cuts"). The Department of Housing and Urban Development would lose roughly $6 billion (13 percent) under Trump's proposed budget cuts. Half of that amount would eliminate the Community Development Block Grant, while another $1 billion cuts would come from eliminating Choice Neighborhoods and the HOME Investment Partnership program. The money would be redirected for a military buildup and his Mexican border wall.

The Times argues that Trump "is wrong that these housing programs have not proven their worth," citing ways in which Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties, as well as the cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa, have improved the lives of the homeless and helping neighborhoods.

To read the editorial in its entirety, check out "Editorial: Tampa Bay Would Lose in Trump's HUD Cuts".

PSTA, HART and Declining Ridership

In recent months, the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) and the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) have been seeing declining ridership, while running on “smaller budgets than most major metro bus systems in the country.” (“Editorial: Innovative bus systems still need more money”; Tampa Bay Times, January 30, 2017). While I'm not in a position to address HART's problems from a rider's point of view, I am in a position to address some of the problems I've seen with PSTA that affect riders.

In February 2016, PSTA did away with the bus hub surrounding Williams Park in downtown St. Petersburg. (“PSTA bus hub no more, Williams Park braces for change”.) While some people feel that the move might be good, giving the city a “better look” and making it difficult for the homeless to panhandle, it also makes it difficult for those using the bus system to get to and from work, home, shopping, etc.

When PSTA did away with the Williams Park bus hub, many bus routes were re-worked, but not necessarily for the better. Many of the bus routes that came nowhere near Williams Park were also redrawn around the same time.

A brief aside: At one point, PSTA had 1.2 million riders a month (https://ridepsta.wordpress.com/category/transit-data/). That averages out to 40,000 a day. If half of those people ride in the south-end of the county, with only, say, 10 percent of those people having to change buses at Williams Park, that still figures out to 2,000 people who changed buses at Williams Park. One of the reasons I had heard from several drivers was that there were homeless people in Williams Park. I seldom observed more than 50 – 75 people at any time in Williams Park who might have appeared homeless. Let me get this straight: PSTA displaced an average of maybe 2,000 daily riders over maybe 75 homeless people? (And yes, I did observe some of the homeless people scrape together bus fare to go places – hospitals, doctors' offices, homeless shelters, etc.)

Several years ago, I took classes at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (USFSP), located at 140 7 Ave. South. There were several days when my first class started at 11:00 a.m. My trip began on the Pinellas Park Shuttle (Route 444) at approximately 9:50 A.M.. After making several connections, beginning at the Shoppes at Park Place (the 70th Avenue side, between U.S. 19 and 49th Street), I would get off the Route 4 at USFSP. The entire ride took one hour and ten minutes. The ride home tended to be a little longer, as the 444 only runs in certain areas three times a day, the last time being shortly after 5:00 PM.

Recently, I decided to meet someone at USFSP. While I can (and do) use DART, the meeting was set up shortly after 5:00 p.m,, the cut-off time for scheduling DART. No problem, I thought. I'll take the buses in. What a fiasco! That 70-minute bus ride is no more. It took an hour and 40 minutes to get there! This included several places where I had to walk a couple of blocks to make connections.

Then there's the trip planner on PSTA's web site. Nice idea – if it really worked. Yesterday, I plugged in my address (less than a half-mile walk to the nearest Route 444 bus stop) and used several times varying between 5 and 20 minutes before the 444 is scheduled to arrive at that stop. (I used USFSP's address as my destination, since I had gone that way in the past – when it was a nice 70 minute trip.) You'd think (as I did) that the trip planner would have me go to that nearby stop, since it was at the right time, and could get me started in the right direction. But you'd be wrong (as I was).

The trip planner had me walking 8/10ths of a mile to 66th Street to catch the 79 to Tyrone Square Mall, then catch the Route 20, which only runs once an hour and would deposit me half-a-mile from USFSP. This would have me on the bus (including wait time at Tyrone Square Mall) an hour and 20 minutes, not including the walk to the 79 and from the 20 to USFSP. The other option listed entailed a 1.4 mile walk to catch the Route 34. (I'll leave it at that). Had I been completely new to bus-riding and relied on the trip planner, I would have been stuck with those options.

There is also the fact that many of the buses only run once an hour. This makes it difficult for anyone who relies on public transportation to get to use the buses for shopping, going to doctors' appointments, jobs, etc. Besides the Route 20, which serves 9 Street South at Pinellas Point Drive to 4 Avenue So., ending up at Tyrone Square Mall, there are:

7 (Tyrone Square Mall to Downtown St. Pete, including St. Pete Public Library, St. Pete College – at 1300 22 St. So, etc.);

11 (PSTA facility to 25 Way So, & Roy Hanna Dr, including PTEC in St. Pete, Lakewood High School, and Crystal Lake Manor);

15 (Gulfport Casino to Downtown St. Pete, including Town Shores, Gibbs High School, Johnnie Ruth Clark Health Center – a walk to the stop from 1344 22 Street So);

16 (Downtown St. Pete to Gateway Mall, including Northeast High School & Meadowlawn Middle School);

22 (Tyrone Square Mall to 4 St & 22 Ave N, including Crossroads Shopping & Northwest Community Center – 1 hour 5 minutes);

38 (Tyrone Square Mall to Downtown St. Pete, including St. Pete Medical Center Hospital, Disston Plaza, Northeast Shopping Center & Coffee Pot Blvd.);

58 (Seminole Mall to Gateway Mall; includes St. Pete College's Seminole Campus – west bound trips only; Franklin-Templeton, Bryan Dairy Rd./102 Ave from 113 Street past US 19 & Roosevelt Blvd, with no service between 9:35 and 12:40);

61; 62; 65 (includes Largo Medical Center & Diagnostic Clinic); 66L (very limited; sponge docs to Morton Plant Hospital); 67; 68 (Tyrone Square Mall to John's Pass); 73 (Clearwater to Tyrone Square Mall); 75 (Gateway Mall to Tyrone Square Mall, including Five Towns & Rutland Plaza); 76.

These routes do take people to what might be considered leisurely activities (malls, John's Pass), they also serve a larger purpose than that, taking people to and from schools, college and university campuses, medical facilities, and yes, to work.

Finally, most bus routes don't run late into the evening, and those routes that do are few and far between, some with routes ending between ten and eleven p.m., but only on certain days – either weekends or during the week.

If someone depends on public transportation and gets a job working the third shift (11:00 P.M. To 7:00 a.m.), that person would either have to take a cab most of his or her way to work or lose the job. This may not seem like a big deal, as many places pay slightly more for someone to work third shift. But if it's a new job, it's easier to scrape up money for an all-day bus fare until the first paycheck comes in than money for cab fare. The routes that do run late tend to be the trolley system (Central Avenue Trolley, the Downtown (St. Pete) Looper, the Jolley Trolleys (mostly on weekends), Suncoast Trolley (mostly weekends), and only a handful of other routes which only run late on weekends, or, as with the 34, only during the week. This lack of late-night transportation leaves those working third shift without other transportation options having to either take cabs (expensive), bike riding (not safe, especially at night), or asking neighbors for rides.

While it would be easy for PSTA to point fingers at voters who voted down the Green Light initiative to help fund more buses, there are other ways to fund the bus system to help expand service. These could include using part of the Penny for Pinellas (http://www.pinellascounty.org/penny/) or raising bus fares by, say, 25 cents.

Also, if bus routes were set back to using Williams Park as a place to change buses, PSTA might see an increase of ridership, back to the 1.2 million seen in June, 2014 (https://ridepsta.wordpress.com/category/transit-data/). This would make it easier for people needing to change buses to get to where they're going (yay, 70 minute ride!)

While buses stopped at Williams Park might make it more difficult to view the park from the road, thereby causing possible policing problems, there is a solution. There is a building on the north side of the park, behind the band shell that PSTA used for years to sell bus passes, pass out schedules, etc. An extra room could be built onto that building for a police sub-station, with two or three officers per shift assigned to the park area. This could solve a safety issue, as well as being great public relations.

Finally, if PSTA wants to be a viable bus system, rather than something to be bemoaned, along the lines of “At least it's something,” it first needs to sit down and get serious about funding (Penny for Pinellas), then realize that if it wants to maintain ridership, it has to make riding the bus easy, convenient, safe (did I mention a police substation at Williams Park?), and that won't take riders two or three hours to go a distance that could be covered in 15 to 20 minutes by car.

Trump's Presidency Must Be Legitimized Before Gorsuch is Voted On

Neil Gorsuch: Love him or not, his nomination should not be voted on until Donald Trump's presidential legitimacy is established.

According to Robert Reich in a recent Newsweek posting ("Robert Reich: Gorsuch Must Wait Until Trump Is Legit"), "[T]he Senate intelligence committee and FBI must first conclude that Russian operatives were not responsible for Trump’s electoral victory, Trump must reveal his taxes and he must put his assets into a blind trust."

Reich points out that Mitch McConnell would not allow Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama's pick for the Supreme Court, to be voted on "on the ground that Obama’s term would end in 10 months. Here, we have a president whose term itself may not be legitimate."

The opinion piece, which first appeared on http://robertreich.org, brings up many valid points which need to be looked at closely.

Click here to read Robert Reich's article in its entirety.

A Call to Action

Many of us are still reeling from Donald Trump's November win by use of the electoral vote, despite Hillary Clinton's winning the popular vote.

In a special issue of Ms. Magazine, the feminist publication issued a letter titled "This is a Call to Action". An excerpt from the letter was posted on the magazine's blog.

In the letter, Eleanor Smeal and Kathy Spillar point out the gender, age, race and class differences in casting votes: "The majority of women voted for Clinton, the majority of people under the age of 45, the majority of low-income workers and the overwhelming majority of African Americans (88 percent) and Latino/as. The gender gap was large - 12 points - with 54 percent of women voting for Hillary and 53 percent of men voting for Trump."

The letter goes on to state that the electoral college system "favors states not people" and "gives more weight per vote to citizens in small states than those in populous ones."

To read the letter/editorial in its entirety, click here.

Trump: 'Terroristic Man-Toddler'?

Apparently, it isn't only Washington Post columnists who have a deep dislike for Donald Trump ("Trump as President Would Erase Civil Liberties, Voting, Reproductive Rights", "Trump - 'Just Plain Crazy?', "Is There Something Wrong With Trump? Robert Kagan Says 'Yes'").

In his latest New York Times column, Charles M. Blow called Trump "a domestic terrorist; only his form of terror doesn’t boil down to blowing things up ("Donald Trump: Terroristic Man-Toddler")."

Blow goes on to write that "[Trump is] fickle and spoiled and rotten," a "toddler who knows nearly nothing, hurls insults, has simplistic solutions for complex problems and is quick to throw a tantrum. Also, in case you didn’t know it, this toddler is mean to girls and is a bit of a bigot." And then Blow really gets into it, writing his reasons for his dislike of Trump.

To read Charles M. Blow's Times column in its entirety, click here.

Trump as President Would Erase Civil Liberties, Voting, Reproductive Rights

Think a Donald Trump presidency would "Make America Great Again"? Think again.

Unless you happen to be a rich white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) male, a Trump presidency would spell disaster, according to Colbert I. King's opinion piece in Friday's Washington Post.

In his column ("President Trump would reconstruct our racist past"), King warned, "The prospect of a Donald Trump White House presents African Americans with the most consequential presidential election since the 1876 race between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. That 19th-century contest ultimately derailed efforts to extend the full rights and privileges of citizenship to freed African Americans. Unless folks of color get off our duffs, history may well repeat itself."

King goes on to write that Trump "is, without question, an ignorant, undisciplined, ranting bully who exaggerates and lies without shame. He wears a tough-guy masculinity but is actually a coward who picks on women, demeans minorities and is thoroughly lacking in human decency." He reminds the reader that this is the make who likes "stop and frisk."

Since the death of Antonin Scalia, Republicans have vowed to block any Supreme Court nominee that President Barack Obama picks. However, Trump's wish list of possible replacements is far from favorable for minorities.

For anyone debating whether to vote in this upcoming election, ask yourself this: Are you willing to throw away any (or all) rights that African-Americans, women, the disabled, and any non-rich WASP men have obtained over the past 100 years? That means voting (for minorities and women), the right to own property or hold a job equal to what a white man is entitled to with the same education, the right to an education...the list goes on. Then read Colbert I. King's column, and plan to vote as if your life depends on it. Because it does.

Trump - 'Just Plain Crazy?'

Apparently Robert Kagan isn't the only opinion writer with The Washington Post who is wondering whether Donald Trump is fit to be president.

Eugene Robinson, opinion writer for The Post, wrote in his column ("Is Donald Trump just plain crazy?"), "During the primary season, as Donald Trump’s bizarre outbursts helped him crush the competition, I thought he was being crazy like a fox. Now I am increasingly convinced that he’s just plain crazy."

Robinson goes on to write that Trump "lies the way other people breathe. Telling a self-serving life...seems to be a reflex for him." Robinson then goes on to offer instances where the blatant lies even contradict when Trump has already said in the past.

Robinson goes on to write that Trump is "alarmingly thin-skinned," as well as "the worst kind of bully," having belittled Ghaza Khan, wife of Khizer Kahn and mother of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq.

To read Eugene Robinson's opinion piece in its entirety, click here.

Is There Something Wrong With Trump? Robert Kagan Says 'Yes'

Is there something "very wrong" with Donald Trump, the GOP's presidential nominee? Robert Kagan seems to think so. In an opinion article in The Washington Post ("There is something very wrong with Donald Trump"), the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for the Post wrote, "One wonders if Republican leaders have begun to realize that they may have hitched their fate and the fate of their party to a man with a disordered personality."

Kagan goes on to write, "You don’t take a crack at every single person who criticized you. And you especially don’t pick fights that you can’t possibly win, such as against a grieving Gold Star mother or a general. It’s simply not in your interest to do so."

He also writes that Trump "cannot control himself." That, in the Oval Office, can be an extremely dangerous scenario; say the wrong thing to the wrong world leader, and there's a good chance of WWIII. (Has anyone read Pat Frank's novel Alas, Babylon?) There are times when one simply does not get a "do-over", when "Oops, my bad" just won't cut it.

To read Robert Kagan's opinion piece in its entirety, click here.

Florida Successful in Fighting Pill Mill Deaths

During the height of Florida's pill mill crisis, "as many as 11 people died each day from overdoses and 90 of the country's top 100 most prolific opioid prescription writers called Florida home," according to an editorial titled "Success in fighting pill deaths" in the December 29 edition of the Tampa Bay Times.

A study conducted by Johns Hopkins University showed that besides reducing pill deaths, Florida's "multipronged approach" to getting rid of pill mills has also prevented new addictions. The Times' editorial went on to both praise the state's efforts to save lives, as well as advise that the state should not let up its efforts to protect Floridians from pill mills.

To read the editorial in full, click here.

Do We Still Need Planned Parenthood?

The way Congress has been arguing over the "manufactured controversy" over Planned Parenthood, is it possible that we've hit a new low? According to Katy Sorenson, a former Miami-Dade County Commissioner and president and CEO of The Good Government Initiative, we have.

In an op-ed piece in The Miami Herald ("Why we continue to need Planned Parenthood:), Sorenson writes, "It was shameful for members of Congress to threaten to shut down the government over funding for Planned Parenthood. And yet attempts to slash federal funding for Planned Parenthood health centers across the country are lurking."

She goes on to write that while, yes, Planned Parenthood performs abortions for women who need them, they provide more than that.

"Defunding Planned Parenthood is more than an attack on reproductive rights," she writes. "It’s an attack on women, men and families, the one in five who have been to Planned Parenthood during their lifetime...Planned Parenthood has provided a full range of healthcare services — including life-saving cancer screenings, breast exams, contraception, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs)."

To read more, go to http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article38010636.html.

Ted Cruz and the GOP Nomination

George F. Will discusses Ted Cruz's "audacious 'base plus' strategy" for the Republican nomination in his Washington Post opinion column.

In it, Will discusses how voter turnout affects national elections: non-Hispanic white turnout increased by 10 million between George W. Bush's 2000 election and his 2004 reelection; Barack Obama's election produced a surge of African American voters with a decline of white voters, with a higher African-American voting rate in Obama's 2012 reelection over white voters. Will states that turnout may very well put Cruz and Florida's Marco Rubio as the top two Republican contenders.

To read Will's entire piece, click here.