Thoughts of a retired physician

I am still processing the conventions of the Democrats and the Republicans. Aside from saying that the Republicans spent four days spouting lies and hate, I don’t have anything to add to the gallons of ink (metaphorically) that have been spilled in documenting and commenting upon these two events. I continue to work at writing letters for VoteForward and postcards for MomsRising in the hope that I can aid the voter turnout in November -- and remove the stain of Donald Trump from the presidency.  In the meantime, here are a few books I have recently finished that I think are worth the read. 1877: America’s Year of Living Violently by Michael A. Bellesiles is the story of a forgotten chapter in American history. The election of 1876 was the most contentious in American history (and may be surpassed in 2020); it was accompanied by the worst depression in American history before the 1930s, the horrific inequality of the Gilded Age, severe labor strife with a nationwide strike, and the

  In the New York Times Magazine on 8 August , there is a long but important article about Donald Trump and his relationship with the intelligence community. It is worth the time it takes to read (or, if you prefer, there is an audio version in the link). The primary responsibility a President has is to keep our country safe. From well before he was even a candidate for the office, Trump was negative and dismissive of American intelligence services and their professionals. While it is true that there have been many times where our intelligence services have failed , there have been many more times where they have succeeded in delivering the information needed for ensuring our safety . There are times when our elected officials blunder despite intelligence assessments. Sometimes both the intelligence community and the Executive Branch err badly .  The Times article shows a radically different animal in Trump. The author, Robert Draper, spoke with more than 40 sources in the administ

  Saturday morning in Altadena, California and so much has been going on this week. There are a few things that I think bear discussion. As the election draws closer, voting in the midst of a pandemic is increasingly on the minds of many Americans. The prospect of standing in long lines, even masked and socially distanced, unnerves many people. As it should. With increasing evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is airborne , congregating indoors even with masks and social distancing presents a risk for acquisition of the virus, especially for those with preexisting medical conditions, the elderly, and people of color.  A solution to this problem is voting by mail. In California, my wife and I have voted by mail since moving here over 4 years ago. The system works. Not only is it convenient, but it also allows time to understand the candidates running for the various offices (judges are especially important and one can look at the candidates before marking the ballot) and has no risk of being expose

Rather than post this on my Facebook page, I thought a few moments writing out a set of interactions today I had with a FB friend would be helpful to me. First, the concept of a friend on FB is an interesting one. The woman in question, in my age group, I have never met or spoken to in person. She and I happened to post photos to a now defunct website in the past and by liking each other's work, became friends. Nothing unusual about that. What has been interesting over the past five years is how political differences play out on social media. As far as I can tell from her profile, she is retired and has a degree in English from a Florida university and seems to have been a teacher, although I am unsure of that. In any event, it is clear she has right-wing politics and is a devout Trump supporter, based on her posts and responses she has given to me and others on FB. As any of you who know me will attest, my politics are liberal and progressive and I view Donald Trump as the worst d

It has been an interesting week, between the pandemic, the Republicans wanting austerity and protection for businesses during a pandemic, and Trump’s continued slide to oblivion in November. As has been noted by many people, complacency is dangerous, because Trump plans to steal the election . It seems clear that Trump and his henchman Louis DeJoy, the total incompetent he appointed to be Postmaster General based on his multimillion-dollar contributions to Trump and the GOP and his absolute Trump sycophancy. DeJoy has instituted multiple processes that will do nothing but slow the USPS to a crawl . In the face of an uncontrolled pandemic (because Trump and the GOP refuse to act at a federal level, tossing all responsibility back to the states -- shades of the Articles of Confederation ), it is hard for any reasonable person to imagine that this is because of anything except voter suppression through hitting vote-by-mail. Despite his stupid rhetoric (absentee ballots are ok but vote-by-

Winston Churchill is reputed to have said, “Americans will always do the right thing, after exhausting all the alternatives.” It may not have been a Churchillian adage but it is certainly apt. The crazy experiment of this country, now well over 200 years old, has seen us do many things right but a good deal wrong. Corrections do occur. Slavery was abolished after almost 250 years in English North America and a great Civil War, but then it took another 100+ years to correct the wrongs that occurred after Reconstruction. The struggles continue with the Black Lives Matter movement and the worldwide protests engendered by the extrajudicial murder of George Floyd -- and many others. My hope is that the generations to follow behind me do better than my generation, the Baby Boomers, has done. The thought that came to me today though was about dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike many other polities, America has struggled with a lack of national leadership with a president who has no un

This post is just a personal observation about what works for me during the pandemic of COVID-19. Margan and I moved to a beautiful retirement community in October 2019 here in Altadena. It is a vibrant community with many retired professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds. Perhaps the biggest draw for us was the Life Enrichment program, with lectures, films, trips to museums that were part of our routine until March of 2020. March 2020 marked the start of social distancing which has persisted to the present and will persist in my view for quite a while longer. We are watching how our community responds to this and assisting where we can. Given that we are both infectious disease physicians and epidemiologists, we have been honored to help the community deal with what now appears to be the pandemic of the century.  I thought about how I have personally responded to this stressful time and what I do that helps reduce my angst. What does the 24-hour day look like? So, let’s start a