Residents of flood-ravaged Appalachia, having been hammered by a hurricane, are suffering further because of the MAGAts among them. Goosed by Russians working through Elon Musk’s propaganda platform, they’re spreading rumors about nefarious activity by FEMA that has their local officials, almost all of them Republican, begging them to knock it off. They’re country people, I would have expected them to know that chickens come home to roost. Or that when you dance with the devil, he calls the tune.
In a somewhat related story, it turns out – who would have guessed? – that Donald Trump’s social media venture is a happy hunting ground for scammers, some of whom have lost staggering sums to the kind of swindles that Bernie Madoff pulled. They form a congregation of the conned.
America’s love affair with oversized vehicles has real human costs. Pedestrian deaths high a 40-year high in 2022 – 7,805 people. A proposed rule would impose limits on the shape and size of these monster trucks and SUVs. Automakers are, naturally, fighting it. I’d like for Democrats bring back the surcharge on oversize vehicles, ownership of which I’m sure skews heavily Republican.
Drug overdose deaths are, at last, declining – but only among whites. Black, Hispanic and Native populations have seen no decrease, and in many places it continues to increase. Nobody’s sure why fatalities are dropping, but one expert posed a stark possibility: Those most susceptible to overdoese have already died.
The floor’s yours.