Not your usual Friday afternoon news day. The press has been on fire since a federal magistrate decided to release the search warrant and the inventory of what was removed from former president Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. I will take the weekend to wade through the reports and draw my own conclusions. All that has happened leads to my Question of the Day: What was President Trump thinking when he chose not to return all the boxes he took from the White House? Did he think no one would notice that documents were still missing?
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While out to dinner, the restaurant had the Little League World Series Regional Tournament games on one of the big screen TVs. In the hour I was watching the game, over half of the time was used to review instant replay on calls made on the field by the volunteer umpires. During this time the kids were just standing around waiting for the decisions to be made on the calls in question. On one call, the game was delayed on a call at third which was appealed and overturned. Immediately the coach who lost the replay appeal, made a second appeal on the same play questioning where one of the runners should be placed. Again. the placement of the runner on the field was overturned and the runner was returned to first base from second base. All of this took nearly 10 minutes, totally killing the momentum and flow of the game. This was just one of the times the game was delayed. There were several other major delays.
I question the wisdom of using instant replay for 12-year-old kids’ baseball games. It seems to me that it is totally out of place. What is it teaching the kids?
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Per the NY Times, Congress gave final approval on Friday to legislation that would reduce the cost of prescription drugs and pour billions of dollars into the effort to slow global warming, as House Democrats overcame united Republican opposition to deliver on key components of President Biden’s domestic agenda.
With a party-line vote of 220 to 207, the House agreed to the single largest federal investment in the fight against climate change and the most substantial changes to national health care policy since passage of the Affordable Care Act. The bill now goes to Mr. Biden for his signature. The legislation would inject more than $370 billion into climate and energy programs aimed at helping the United States cut greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 40 percent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade. It would also extend for three years subsidies to help people afford insurance under the Affordable Care Act, as well as fulfill a long-held Democratic goal to lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to directly negotiate prices and capping recipients’ annual out-of-pocket drug costs.
This is a victory for the Biden administration, but it falls way short of Biden’s Build Back Better Act, which was not passed. Named the Inflation Reduction Act, time will tell if it lives up to its name, or if it helps slow down climate change. It sounds like it is a good start.
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Next week I will be taking a week off from blogging. I am travelling back to Ypsilanti to have dinner with my sister Nancy on Monday, who is in for her 50th class reunion over the weekend. On Tuesday, Leah and I will attend the Alicia Keys concert at Michigan Lottery Amphitheater at Freedom Hill, which was originally scheduled in 2020. On Wednesday, I will be having three different medical tests and traveling back to Petoskey, where Katy and her family will be with us for the remainder of the week. It will be a busy time with golf, swimming and all the usual stuff during the day. On Thursday evening all of us will attend the Young American Dinner Theater. In addition, we will be celebrating Katy and Brad’s 14th anniversary, a belated birthday celebration for Katy, and most importantly Leah and my 49th anniversary. By Sunday I will be exhausted.
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Elections Matter. Pray for peace and tolerance. What are you doing to stop the violence and mass killings?
Orchid of the Day: To all the congress people who voted for the Inflation Reduction Act. It contains some important funding related to climate change and health care. I hope it can live up to its name.
Onion of the Day: The overuse of instant replay in the Little League World Series. It is only 12-year-old kids, and it is amateur umpires. It is not about perfection and winning, it is about the experience that kids are having and making memories.
Quote of the Day: “This legislation represents a dramatic turnaround from misguided efforts in the last 18 months to pass sweeping, ill-designed legislation that tried to accomplish too many things through budget gimmicks,” said Representative Jared Golden of Maine, the only Democrat who opposed the $2.2 trillion package in November.
Video/Image of the Day: To Hall of Famers having a great conversation.