CityWatch LA - Important Reads

ACA Cutoff Date Missed … Dems, GOP Point Fingers

EASTSIDER-Largely uncovered by our 24/7 news media, Wednesday, June 21 marked a critical date for next year’s health care premiums under the Affordable Health Care Act. The 21^st is the revised cut off for health insurers to say whether or not they will participate in the ACA Marketplaces, which are federally subsidized, and what their premium increases will be for 2018. It’s a very big deal, since millions and millions of people are enrolled in these plans.

The Donald: Under His Own Bus

THE COHEN COLUMN--Trump has always cultivated the reputation of been excessively vengeful. Back in New York he would brag about getting even, multiple times over, against anyone he perceived to have slighted him.

The Opioid Crisis in Black and White

URBAN PERSPECTIVE-On March 29, 2017, the mood at the White House was somber when #45 Trump signed an executive order establishing a commission charged with making recommendations on dealing with the opioid crisis. At the signing, all the talk by Trump and other administration officials was about a big ramp up in treatment, counseling, addiction recovery programs, and health services to alleviate the crisis. They and the media used the term, “epidemic.” This suggested that it’s an illness, a sickness, a condition, but not a criminal offense. There was not one word from Trump or White House officials at the signing about more arrests, tougher sentencing and incarceration for offenders.

Unwanted Influence: The Real Cost of PBS

COMMUNICATION POLITICS-Anyone listening to National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) can hear no more insightful, well-produced, or entertaining news programming anywhere...except when it comes to reporting anything that might contradict the perceived financial or political interests of one of NPR's large corporate/foundation donors.

What’s Really Behind the Dem’s Special Election Losses?

SPECIAL ELECTION POST-MORTEM-Democrats around the country were hopeful that they could win two special elections Tuesday in what had long been “safe” Republican districts in Georgia and South Carolina. Instead, both Democratic candidates — Jon Ossoff and Archie Parnell (photo above) — narrowly lost. Why did they lose?

An Assault Weapon in Civilian Hands is a Massacre in the Making

THE COHEN COLUMN-We condemn without equivocation the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise and three others last week.

Humpty Trumpty

SEMANTICS, SCHEMANTICS-“‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master-that’s all.’”

— Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll.