Op-Ed

President Biden left behind an economy that was pretty healthy, conventionally speaking. Unemployment was low and wages were rising, but stubbornly high costs of living opened a door for Donald Trump’s political comeback.

Robert Kennedy, Jr. (RFK), the new Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Marty Makary, the new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner have pledged to remove industry conflicts of interest (COIs) from government agencies. But little has been released so far about their plans for the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reportedly rife with industry influences.

Homelessness and substance use disorder often occur simultaneously — but many people struggling with both are unable to get the help they need. That puts homeless service providers on the front lines of the battle for reversing overdoses while also trying to end homelessness, one life at a time.

As the CEO of a large homelessness service provider, I’ve seen first-hand how helping someone overcome substance use can lead directly to helping them overcome homelessness.

Ending homelessness is a long process. It isn’t all about lifting someone off the streets and finding them a job and a place to call home. There’s a spectrum of steps and successes along the way to help someone build confidence and independence so they can make long-term positive lifestyle changes.

Overcoming substance use is one of those steps. We have a number of strategies to approach substance use that have offered positive results. The first is the overarching principle of harm reduction, which we use because it saves lives.

Tax policy experts and lawmakers have long circled 2025 as a year to prepare for. What makes it so significant?

For one thing, Federal COVID money to states is expiring, straining state budgets at the same time the economy is starting to weaken. For another, Republicans in Congress are working to increase and extend President Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations — while cutting trillions from health care, housing, and education programs for everyone else. And it all up and you get a fiscal tsunami.

While major tax policy changes are being made and discussed in Congress, this is also happening in the states.

From Gulf of America to mass expulsion of “illegals” (people of color) to continuing genocidal complicity in Gaza to whatever the daily news brings us , , , welcome to Trump America! Welcome to the small-minded, white nation so many long for, free once again from those large, inconvenient values – e.g., the Declaration of Independence – that keep disrupting the way things are supposed to be.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . .”

On Friday, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and the self-appointed dismantler of the United States government, was to have been given a top secret national security briefing at the Pentagon. He was going to be shown our military’s plans for how we would fight a war with and conquer China — should there ever be a need for that. A nuclear war with China! Musk could barely contain his raging male hormonal ecstasy that he was going to be taken into the TANK, the most massively secure room in the country, a fortress on the 2nd floor of the Pentagon typically used only by the Joint Chiefs and the President, surrounded by soldiers with the most lethal of weapons. A supreme bunker that simply cannot be penetrated.

There, behind three-foot thick walls, Musk was to see the End of the World: the U.S.’s actual war plans for an attack on China.