Hello, my friends, this issue is a month late but hopefully not a dollar short. The heat is stifling and so is all the political turmoil. I'll do non-dental stuff and end with dental.
The all out war on Trump continues, though their repeated failures and frustrations are fun to watch. The Dems are over reaching so much that they could possibly save the spineless, pathetic GOP from its feckless self. People are getting more and more pissed off at a party that only does resistance and witch hunts, while they see robust jobs creation, an unemployment rate at a 16-year low and a growth rate in only 7 months higher than Obammy had in all his 8 years. That said, I've come to the conclusion that Trump lacks the temperament to be POTUS. His failure (or outright refusal) to make the transition from CEO to a manager who has 2 equal partners who can stop him is evident daily and being seized upon by his enemies. For a guy who's a lifelong winner and supposedly has a good eye for talent, Trump's cabinet choices, their screw ups and revolving door stints are a mind boggling show of poor judgement. Does that mean I'm no longer supporting Trump? HELL NO! Just think of what the alternative was, talk about gloom, doom and economic collapse. We forget that when we went out of our way to elect a non-politician, we also got a guy who has no clue about how to deal with adversity and enemies in the political jungle. As usual, the GOP is much to blame for not shutting down most of the BS. Can any of you imagine the GOP going after Obama in both House & Senate when Pelosi & Reid were in charge?
The GOP's refusal to repeal Obamacare is paralyzing the process. The 7 GOP Senate traitors are all on record for supporting a clean repeal in the past, but now they got busted when the time came to do it. This piece shows their very words, which were clearly worthless when they needed to back it up with actions:
http://www.freedomworks.org/content/freedomworks-presents-freedomfraud-awards
Aside from these RINOs lacking the spine to see if the moochers outnumber the taxpayers and who will show up to vote, I believe the DC Establishment simply doesn't wanna give up the power that comes with controlling 1/6 of the US economy. I'm sure if we look at their contributions, Big Ins. & Big Pharma feature prominently. I'd love to remove every damn one of these frauds, they richly deserve it, but that's very difficult to do. Eric Cantor was removed by a true conservative who won the general, a rare exception. The loathsome Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was also removed in her primary, years ago, but changed to Independent and won the general. I guess the Eskimos, meth heads and other Alaskan spongers turned out to keep their "free" stuff.
I'm convinced we no longer have 2 parties and the GOP side of this Uniparty is so desperate to be liked & admired, that they go along to get along. Up to now I've feared the GOP could easily lose the House in 2018 and the Sen. in 2020, which may still be possible. Only the extreme lust for revenge and disconnect of the Dems could sufficiently anger the voters that they turn out and hold their noses for the GOP, as well as the Dem base staying home in frustration with lack of the pound of flesh they were promised. The 2 things that mostly enrage the GOP base are: 1) Failure to act on the issues that got the GOP elected to House & Senate majorities. 2) Refusal to investigate the Obama & Hillary criminals, whose true violations are far worse than any fictitious, asinine collusion, Russian meddling or other BS squirrel chases. We shall see in 2018 if there's enough economic progress that it distracts them from taking their revenge on the pitiful GOP. Meanwhile, Trump advances his immigration, climate change hoax and military reform agendas, while the Dems & liberal media play echo chamber pocket pool.
Last week Trump wowed a WV rally audience and WV's Dem Gov. announced he was done as a Dem and switching to GOP the next day, watch the reaction he got:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1ixut031UU
This angered and prompted a WaPo reporter to reveal the true snobbery and condescending hubris of the DC liberal elite club:
http://www.dailywire.com/news/19342/political-journalist-stu-rothenberg-blasts-west-john-nolte#
Locally, our friend and ally, Jose "Pepi" Diaz, easily won his primary, getting more votes than his 2 primary opponents, combined. Pepi faces Annette Taddeo in Sept. and should have little trouble beating her. The best part of this is that 1 of those 2 Pepi beat was none other than retread, career pol wannabe, Alex Diaz de la Portilla, part of the DLP clan so hostile to dentistry. This guy served ages ago in both FL House & Sen. then tried to do and end around in 2012, only to be defeated by then newcomer, Jose Javier Rodriguez, whom I've nicknamed "JJ the DLP Slayer", LOL. Remember, JJR also knocked off Miguel DLP, the most anti-FDA of the three. I hope this stinging defeat means we won't see the DLP Bros. run again, but sometimes these guys have no other game and just aren't busy enough as attorneys. JJR is running for FL27, the seat to be vacated by the retiring Ileana Ros Lehtinen in 2018, so he's now in ADPAC territory. I hope he wins, especially if the only opponents the RPOF can throw at him are the annoying Raquel Regalado & lightweight Bruno Barreiro. It makes me think the RPOF is simply writing off this district, which I suspect is the real reason for Ileana's sudden epiphany that it was time to move on. Don't get me wrong, I won't miss her in any way and am not worried about JJR winning this seat. He's certainly been a trooper for our dental issues.
The dental issue that concerns me the most is the looming threat of mid level providers and the liberal do nothings like Pew & Kellogg's Foundations who back them. This unholy alliance is made even worse by the collaboration of former UFCD dean, Frank Catalanotto. He and other dentists who've done nothing dental that isn't academia or public health, seem to think that the P.H. model is the solution to all dental access issues. Why is it so many of our dental schools are run by dentists (or non-dentists, in the case of LECOM) who've never run a practice, made bottom line or had to be competitive in the real world or dental marketplace? I think it's a combination of ultra liberal regents, a Big Brother dental umbrella obsession and the fact most programs are now nothing but farms for McDentist fodder, all of which lead to a perfect segue "solution" via DHATs. Millennials who often lack the confidence or drive to be exceptional and loan debt that's a kettle bell around their necks, are also an essential part of this mediocrity soup. Their professors have convinced many of them that DHATs are the solution to all the problems of access to care. What these snowflakes will find out, as the years pass, is that their more motivated, can do classmates who didn't settle for the lowest rung on the ladder will succeed wildly and the dental success/income gap will become a chasm, as it has in other fields and society in general. The problem is they don't know what they don't know and there's often little urgency. BTW, this is not exclusively a dental problem, I've heard the same from established attorneys and accountants, with respect to their young colleagues. I'm glad there "wasn't an app for that" when I had to deal with life's hurdles and git 'er dun! FL is the big prize for these meddlers and if we don't fight them tooth & nail (pun intended) we're gonna wake up to a dental profession we'll no longer recognize. If you doubt me, look at AK, MN, ME, UT MT, all of which have been saddled with either DHATs , denturism or both. Next issue will feature my Glossary of Liberal & Millennial Terms.
