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Why is Trump playing the Communist card?

Columns

Trump has run out of cards to play in the midterm elections, which is why he’s now talking about the “communist menace.” He can’t talk about the economy, because prices continue to rise faster than wages, which means most Americans are getting poorer. He can’t talk about foreign policy, because his war in Iran has been a debacle, his tariffs are an utter failure and he obviously hasn’t settled the war in Ukraine on “Day 1.” He can’t talk about immigration, because his raids and mass deportations have become so unpopular. So, facing the midterm elections, what’s ...

Itchy skin tags appear after switching a medication’s dosage

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: About four months ago, my doctor switched me from a combination of 5 mg of amlodipine and 100 mg of Losartan daily (which I’d been taking for several years) to 10 mg of amlodipine only. Things went just fine until very recently, when I started developing some annoying skin problems. I’ve noticed wart-like growths and itchy, small white things that look like skin tags. They bleed when I scratch them, and my whole torso and neck are itchy. I don’t tolerate antihistamines, so I’m using hydrocortisone cream, which is helpful. Would switching back to my old dosage of ...

Are you chasing false gods?

Columns

My sadly departed friend, Frank, was a unicorn. He lived 89 years in the town he grew up in, a village on the Connecticut shore. A reporter at his local newspaper for over half a century, he had turned down offers to work for more glamorous publications, among them Sports Illustrated and The New York Times. Frank had considered the priesthood in his youth. He stopped going to church and claimed he wasn’t part of it anymore, but the church’s moral teachings clearly stayed put. Frank approached reporting as a kind of ministry, spending much time talking with his “flock.” His ...

Mamdani’s twisted view of America

Columns

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani delivered a Fourth of July message that sounded like America is on its death bed. Immigrant citizens standing on each side of him as he sat at a desk used by George Washington, were even more stoic. July Fourth is supposed to be a celebratory time. Not for Mamdani who looked as if he had lost his best friend. After some obligatory praise for the nation to which he immigrated, Mamdani said that for “the powerful, America is an arena of supremacy, where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal. America, if you ask them, ...

Explaining peptides and the ways that they’re currently used

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m curious about peptides. I read that they’re incredible health cures and effective at lowering weight and high cholesterol. People say that major pharmaceutical companies are suppressing them because they offer better cures at cheaper prices. Is there any credibility to these claims, and should I take them, mainly by self-injection? — S.W. ANSWER: A peptide is a string of amino acids. Long peptides are called proteins, and they play many diverse roles in most of the structures in the human body, as well as the enzymes that our bodies use for ...

America’s momentous birthday

Letters to the editor

I consider it an incredible blessing to have witnessed two of America’s great milestone birthdays: the 200th celebration in 1976, when I was a rising second grader, and now the 250th anniversary as an older, seasoned adult. Looking back to 1976, as a kid, I enjoyed the fireworks and the parades I watched on television, and for me, this was a time of innocence when I began to learn about our country’s principal ideals of freedom, individual liberty, opportunity and democracy. Although the suffering of Native Americans was glossed over in school, and the contributions and achievements ...