I took a week of vacation to relax, clean my head and stopped to darkens for new depressors.
I frequently hear people who say that, for their tranquility of mind, they settled the news, so I tried it for a few days. Opened a book. Wait the dog.
Steve Lopez
Steve Lopez is from California who has been a columnist for Los Angeles Times since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is a quadruple finalist in Pulitzer.
But I am in the news sector, and I felt like a hypocrite, so I continued to take a look. It turns out that it was not healthy.
You cannot follow a single 24 -hour information cycle without questioning your own mental health.
Do we really live in a country in which the The president publishes false videos of a predecessor be arrested?
In which a dead Sexual traffic crimes Dominate news from the White House for days?
In which the federal government has made a priority to Stop tamale sellers What about fire meteorologists?
President Trump has a hammer after signing the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 4.
(Brendan Smialowski / Pool / AFP via Getty Images)
In which the Social Security Administration sends us emails Make the president and make false complaints, the White House jokes and memes Regarding immigration raids and the Ministry of Internal Security triggers a dragging war with publications on social networks on its national heritage version?
I have a weekly goal of avoiding alcoholic beverages on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, but in this political culture, what luck do I have?
With a long time to train, I picked up my guitar, but the events of the past few weeks have continued to haunt me.
The “Big Beautiful Bill” that Trump signed on July 4 will add thousands to national debt, heaps of tax reductions on those who need it the least and RIP health care coverage far from the most necessary. Consequently, the county health services of the federal reductions in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
“”We cannot survive this great cup“, Barbara Ferrer, head of public health, told The Times for a story by Rebecca Ellis and Niamh Ordner. She added: “I have been a long time. I have never seen so much disdain for public health. »»
Dr. Jonathan Lopresti, who worked in County / USC for decades and is an associate professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the USC, is alarmed. He sent me a copy of an article of opinion which he writes, which includes a warning that the county hospitals could “be again invaded by the poor … and without shelter, which leads to hospital overcrowding and emergency errors, delayed discharges and a reduction in routine health interview … which could lead to an increase in cases of community TB and more serious complications.
He added this:
“How many public deaths are ready to accept?”
There is no limit, to judge by crystalline signals from Washington.
I think we can all agree that historic rainstorms, hurricanes and forest fires in the United States and the rest of the world will continue to kill thousands of people.
Here is a synopsis of the Trump answer:
The United States Climate change website was closed.
The demonstrators meet on the National Mall for the protest “Hands Off” against the administration of President Trump on April 5.
(Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)
The administration says that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be eliminated and the urban The research and rescue chief resignedCiting chaos and delays in response to dangerous disasters.
Layoffs and buyouts have National weather service reduction 14% despite warnings from disastrous consequences.
So I swam tricks, thinking that my head under my head could help, but it only felt like drowning.
Hundreds of probation workers from the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration have been dismissed and the Full -time staff will be cut by 2,000.
These cuts and the elimination of federal support for scientific research are obviously damaging. But when I asked Professor Alex Hall of the UCLA what was most worrying, here is what the director of the Center for Climate Science had to say:
“I have the impression that the most frightening thing is the way the word” climate “has become a dirty word.”
In other words, the politicization of the subject – Trump and the supporters insist that climate change caused by man is exaggerated or a hoax – has created a form of censorship.
“This is where we really start to face dangers – when people cannot talk about something,” said Hall, who was Study the link between climate change and California forest fires.
I may be a little biased on this subject. My daughter has just completed her university studies with a diploma in earth sciences. What she and thousands as she is said essentially is: “Good for you, but the health of the planet is neither a concern nor a priority. If you are looking for work, the border patrol hires and cryptocurrency could be a good career path. ”
So there you have it. This is how I spent my summer vacation, failing miserably in my attempt to look in the other direction.
But everything was not lost.
I played pickleball several times, in Glendale and Los Feliz, and I had no major injury. I took my Beagle Philly to Rosie’s Dog Beach in Long Beach and I watched it run like the happiest dog in the world. And, borrowing from Trump’s penchant for the cuts, I cut my list of days without alcohol from three to two.
Steve.lopez@latimes.com
