The opioid crisis in America is real, it is lethal and it may be killing the nice family that lives next door to you.

Senator John McCain of Arizona sequentially played the role of superhero, villainous traitor (to Republicans), and savior (to Obamacare) as the McConnell “skinny repeal” lost by one vote—his.

In 1984, the movie “Red Dawn” depicted a Russian invasion of the U.S. Tensions were high during the Cold War. The Defense Intelligence Agency’s annual publication "Soviet Military Power" depicted the awesome threat posed by the Evil Empire’s superpower status. However, as I recall, the “mainstream” media was more worried about the threat of American weapons. The Nuclear Freeze movement was popular.

The reported success of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) is based on enrollment numbers. Millions more have “coverage.” Similarly, the predicted disasters from repeal have to do with loss of coverage. Tens of thousands of deaths will allegedly follow. Activists urge shipping repeal victims’ ashes to Congress—possibly illegal and certainly disrespectful of the loved one’s remains, which will end up in a trash dump.

Syrian President Bashar al Assad is being read out of the human race, and the Trump administration seems to have done a 180-degree turn on the necessity for “regime change” in Syria because Assad used horrible, horrible! weapons against civilians, including helpless little babies.

The attempt by House Speaker Paul Ryan and other powerful Republicans to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”) has run into a buzz saw of opposition from both sides. Most proponents of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) concede that the Act is “not perfect.” But there is “political reality” to consider—what can make it through the congressional sausage-making machine? Already Congress is telling us the most important consideration for them: staying in power.

A 90-day ban on travel from seven countries has sparked tremendous outpourings of “worry” or outright opposition by some 33 medical organizations.

As Republicans contemplate repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA or “Obamacare”) -- seriously, not just as a political gesture -- alarms are sounding about millions of individuals losing coverage.

Republicans say they are going to “replace” Obamacare, but they will come up with something very similar and at least as bad if they start with the same misguided objective: “universal coverage.”

The congressional echo chamber, on both sides of the aisle, constantly talks about the great reform fad: “payment for value” and “quality” care. And the Medicare version called MACRA passed nearly unanimously, with cheers from the marbled halls of the AMA tower. Obamacare too constantly harps on “quality.”