Hurricane Irma hit Florida in 2017, Hurricane Michael in 2018, and in 2019 Hurricane Dorian just missed Florida. If it had hit Florida, the state would have held an unfortunate record of getting hammered three straight years by a hurricane. And there still is a lot of time left in this hurricane season.

There were warnings that Dorian was going to be a Category 4 when it was reported how warm or hot the Atlantic Ocean was off the east coast of Florida and it became a Category 5. Two years ago the Gulf of Mexico set temperature records likely because of Global Warming, and this season the Atlantic off of Florida may be hotter. And in the future because of the cumulative nature of Global Warming, the Atlantic and the Gulf maybe even hotter and set the Southern United States for the first Category 6 hurricane in history (if that is possible) with winds that could destroy everything in front of the hurricane.

Working to get a Category 6 hurricane is President Trump with a methane gift to the oil and gas companies. Methane is 80 times as powerful as Carbon Dioxide in destroying the planet. Big oil does not want this gift, while the mom and pop oil firms do. Trump wants to undo Obama’s methane regulations because Obama set it and because Trump believes Global Warming is a hoax. If Florida gets hit with the most destructive hurricane in history you will know who to hold responsible. And the FEMA costs for such a storm would break the $124 billion record of Katrina. The FEMA costs would be paid by you and I.

Drug death came close to home
I have questioned why so few local opioid deaths are printed in the local newspapers, when an opioid death occurred from a family I know. I got the notification on Facebook. And while the death is being handled by a local funeral home, you will not see the obituary in local daily newspapers because the family of the deceased would not pay to have the obituary printed. Newspaper wise it was as if the death never happened.

The death was out of town, when for some reason the deceased decided to buy heroin. He did and it was laced with fentanyl. Suddenly a healthy young man was dead.

His family was shocked. I spoke with one family member who was recovering emotionally from losing a nephew, who he expected would be burying him, and not he burying his nephew.

I did a favor for the family and I got an emphatic thank you. That was unusual. A thank you, yes, but not an emphatic one. That family may never recover.

Voodoo Economics refrain
When Ronald Reagan was first running for President, he proposed a massive tax cut, that would pay for itself. George H.W. Bush, who was running against him, and then became Reagan’s vice president, called the tax cut Voodoo Economics. The Reagan tax cut never paid for itself as it left the country with a huge hole to fill.

The Trump tax cuts is a replay of Reagan’s voodoo economics, as it is increasing the deficit at a rate of over a trillion dollars a year. Reagan corrected his error with seven tax increases, while Trump does nothing as he belongs to the do nothing Republican Party. The Trump tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires should be rescinded. Reagan would have done it, but he was a conservative.

Trump tariffs are largest
tax increase in history
On September 1, 2019, President Donald Trump put a tariff on top of a tariff for Chinese goods, which will cost the average American family $1,000. The $1,000 is a regressive tax as it will have almost no impact on millionaires and billionaires, but $1,000 means a lot to middle class families. We all will be learning the hard way as it is we Americans who will be paying the tariffs, and not the Chinese. The tariffs will cost the rich 1/10th of 1% of their income, and us, 2.5% of our incomes. If an equivalent tax was approved to cut the deficit, the numbers would be reversed. Because of the tariffs, we are subsidizing the millionaires and billionaires.

Maurice Hinchey should be honored
for his role of Minnewaska State Park
More than 40 years ago New York State Assemblyman Maurice Hinchey took a lead role in getting New York State to purchase what is now the 22,275 acre Minnewaska State Park, most of it from the Phillips family.

Initially there was a plan to have Marriott own Lake Minnewaska and Hinchey and others led an effort to have the state take it over. Hinchey, a Saugerties resident, later became a long-term Congressman. He died in 2017.

The state park has many trails, paths, water falls, ponds, lakes and ice caves, one of which could be named after Maurice Hinchey. There are locations in the park where a person can feel close to God as hawks are soaring above and one can see all the way to Connecticut. The park is special.

Correction
Last week in an editorial about former Ulster County District Attorney E. Michael Kavanagh and his son, Assistant District Attorney Michael J. Kavanagh, who is the candidate for district attorney, I said that Monique Dibble of Marlboro had been convicted of selling heroin laced with fentanyl to 24 year old Celina Maldonado of Plattekill, who died from using the drug. Monique Dibble was arrested and will be tried for homicide. She was not convicted. Also I stated that when E. Michael Kavanagh came to Ulster County that he worked for District attorney Joseph Torraca. He worked for District Attorney Frank Vogt.