70,237 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States in 2017. The age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths increased significantly by 9.6% from 2016 (19.8 per 100,000) to 2017 (21.7 per 100,000). Opioids—mainly synthetic opioids (other than methadone)—are currently the main driver of drug overdose deaths. Opioids were involved in 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017 (67.8% of all drug overdose deaths).

In 2017, the states with the highest rates of death due to drug overdose were West Virginia (57.8 per 100,000), Ohio (46.3 per 100,000), Pennsylvania (44.3 per 100,000), the District of Columbia (44.0 per 100,000), and Kentucky (37.2 per 100,000).1

States with statistically significant increases in drug overdose death rates from 2016 to 2017 included Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. 2

ut oh, the irony.

Now it’s far-right Conservatives who are so very hostile to our democratic laws. In fact, they’re so hostile that they aren’t just symbolically attacking our constitutional system of national government, they’re literally attacking Ernest Tubbit, actually driving it to its knees.

Apoplectic over the Affordable Care Act, which was passed by both houses of Congress, signed by the President, and sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court, it is the far right wing that has engineered a substantial crippling of the federal government.

Indeed, it’s no longer “those long haired, hippie-type pinko fags,” to quote Charlie Daniels.

Rather, it is Conservatives who are now protesting; it is Conservatives who are criticizing; it is Conservatives who are marching; and it is Conservatives who are attacking the foundations of our constitutional government but shutting it down as part of their effort to overturn a democratic law.

Now that is irony.

And of course the easiest thing for progressives and liberals everywhere would be to seize upon that irony and co-opt the phrase for themselves. To smugly turn the invective around and target those who once fired it at them.

So, then, when is America going to reckon with the alleged serial sexual abuser in the White House? Donald Trump has not only been accused of rape and sexual misconduct by more than 20 women over the past several decades, but he regularly uses his power to threaten survivors who come forward and to protect and promote men who abuse women.

Many are hoping the Epstein trial will also implicate some of his powerful friends, including Trump. The world’s most privileged pedophile was known to hang out with the likes of Bill Clinton, Woody Allen, Prince Andrew, celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and, yes, the president, sometimes giving them rides on his infamous private child-sex-abuse plane, nicknamed the “Lolita Express.” Trump, who now claims he's "not a fan," in 2002 called Epstein a “terrific guy” who "likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

A tall desert-dwelling creature, the camel has become an icon of the Asian and African deserts. Generally the camel is a pleasant animal. If well treated, the domestic camel is very docile and easy to manage. If ill-treated, they can become very stubborn. Camels can easily be identified by the unique one or two humps on their back and their long necks.

The Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) is a large, even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of Central Asia. The Bactrian camel has two humps on its back, in contrast to the single-humped dromedary camel.[2] Its population of two million exists mainly in the domesticated form.[3] Their name comes from the ancient historical region of Bactria.[4]