Archive: Opinions

Two stories in Wednesday's news: a baby boy was impeached -- removed -- from his mother's womb Wednesday when Ukrainian ear, nose and throat doctor Alena Fedchenko answered a request from a Qatar Airlines flight crew for a doctor on a flight from Doha to Bangkok.  Fedchenko delivered a baby boy to a Thai national who was lying on blankets on the floor of the airplane.  After months of angst over the impeachment and trial of Donald Trump, news of this birth -- or, really, any other news is most welcome.  Wednesday was a day of two cases of impeachment, both of which involving Ukraine, one of them uplifting (after all, it took place in an airplane) and the other just disgraceful.

BBC News reported Wednesday that the doctor was flying to Bangkok for a vacation when she was called into service.  After an unscheduled stop in Calcutta, where the mother and child were whisked to a hospital, the plane resumed its flight to Thailand.  Fedchenko was offered champagne and a seat in Business Class.  Huh... that's surprising.  Business Class.  I guess open heart surgery would have gotten her into first class.  Nevertheless, she reported she felt euphoric after the flawless birth.

Meanwhile, the US Senate affirmed that the US is suffering from what may be a terminal tumor -- politics.  Maybe it's time to bring Dr. Fedchenko to perform surgery on our government.

"The delivery was quick, and thankfully, without complications," Doctor Fedchenko told BBC News. "The woman did not yell at all. I kept telling her everything would be all right, that I was a doctor and she was in safe hands."

In our American impeachment story there was quite a lot of yelling.  I don't think any of us felt we were in safe hands.  Senators and Congressmen acting like a bunch of babies, and not the kind who are delivered by Ukrainian doctors at 35,000 feet.

The impeachment and trial were a colossal waste of time and taxpayer dollars.  It was no surprise when the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives impeached Trump, and equally no surprise when the Senate Republican majority acquitted him on Wednesday.  I could have saved everyone all that trouble by simply saying "don't bother" if anyone had wanted to listen.

Evidence one way or the other had no apparent impact on the outcomes.  If it had there would have been more votes one way or the other instead of clear party-line votes on the outcomes each party had decided would benefit them most.  Our elected officials in both houses shamed themselves and failed every American citizen they represent by putting politics before truth, justice, and the American way.  Evidently those things are only upheld by comic book characters and not by the elected members of one of the three branches of the highest government in our country.

That's why, of the two big stories Wednesday, I preferred the Ukrainian doctor story.  Ukraine was one of the fall guys in the Trump saga, so it was nice to see positive news about the country for once.  Also the impeachment -- removal -- of a baby from his mother's womb is a positive outcome, unlike the murky and sleazy outcome of the President's impeachment.

One of those outcomes is that some Republicans reportedly want to expunge the impeachment.  As if it never happened.

I conditionally favor that action, but with conditions.  I'd go along with expungement if all the Senators and Representatives of both parties pay for the whole impeachment and trial that then will not have happened.  From their own pockets, plus a 20% surcharge.  Because that would have two positive outcomes.  First, this political travesty would never have happened, and second, it would not have cost the millions in taxpayer dollars that it has cost.

The 20% is just to teach these Bozos a lesson that might make them think twice before pulling that kind of nonsense again.

The other story affirmed the very American value that monopolies are bad, and that we don't have to worry about at least one monopoly. Doctor Fedchenko proved that UPS and Fedex and the Coronavirus do not have the monopoly on airborne deliveries.

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