Thoughts of a retired physician

  In truth, I am not really in the mood to write much. That said, an experience this week is probably worth relating. If you got this link it is probably off my Facebook page or my Twitter feed. I subscribed to both about ten years ago with the hope of keeping up with family and friends. I need to tell you a story about a friend. The friend in question is a medical school classmate. I have known this person for 50+ years. Over time, on Facebook, our political differences came out. I am liberal; this person is conservative. I am an atheist; this person is religious. In the era of the Trump administration, we exchanged posts and replies disagreeing with each other. We always came back to an equilibrium that acknowledged having met each other in our youth while attending medical school. This was disrupted by the seditious behavior of Trump, the Republican Party, and the MAGA cult that the Republicans have become enthralled to. We all went through the Big Lie put out by Trump and echoed by

  I have been impressed by what a competent President, backed by a competent team, can do in a few short days. The political winds continue to blow in Washington with confirmation of Cabinet secretaries and other essential personnel, fallout from the failed insurrection of January 6th, pushback from Republicans on the relief package for Covid-induced economic woes, and the curious musings of Representative McCarthy (R-Gaslighting) that we all are to blame for what happened when the U.S. Capitol was invaded. Oh, there is an impeachment trial too. But President Biden and his team have begun to tackle what has consumed us in 2020: a pandemic of coronavirus with still untold consequences. The full plan is both wide in scope and detailed ; it is the work of months by experts in many fields. My wife and I have been giving updates on the pandemic since its start in our community. This will definitely be part of our next talk this week. We have been following the creation, testing, and now

  It has been 10 days since a seditious conspiracy attempted to overthrow Congress and prevent the Constitutionally mandated requirement for Congress to count the Electoral votes for President. From the Ellipse where a mob formed listening to incitement from Donald John Trump and his minions, to the Capitol Grounds , and into the halls of Congress , we were witness to the closest our democracy has come to being toppled since 1861 . We are 4 days from inaugurating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Washington has become a locked-down fortress with 10,000 National Guardsmen currently deployed, likely to be 25,000 by Inauguration Day . To say this is a national embarrassment is trivializing the issue. As a nation, we should be ashamed and enraged that Trump’s cult has brought us to this. It is fair to say that the perpetrators of this travesty, from Trump on down to the least of his cult at the Capitol, all bear a heavy responsibility. One amazing thing is that all of them were recorded in

  On 24 August 1824, a British force led by Major General Robert Ross ransacked and burned the U.S. Capitol building. Confederate forces under Lieutenant General Jubal Early never made it to the Capitol Building, with the closest penetration on 12 July 1864 repulsed by Union troops . It was with horror, sadness, and rage that this image appeared after an armed insurrection and assault on the Capitol Building on 6 January 2021: I am going to guess this photo wins a Pulitzer Prize. We have experienced a true gut-punch that will rival those of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. 6 January was the date for Congress, in joint session, to count the Electoral Votes already certified by the states and the District of Columbia, a Constitutionally-mandated requirement of our democracy. After four years of propaganda from Donald Trump undermining the legitimacy of our democracy, and a crescendo of lies since Election Day, he ended with a rally at the Ellipse on 6 January immediately before Congress performed

  Well, 2020 (thankfully) is in the rearview mirror but its slimy tentacles still hold us in thrall. The coronavirus pandemic continues to rage with a new variant, B.1.1.7, that appears to be more transmissible . Here in Los Angeles County , the news is grim with cases, hospitalizations, and deaths all rising at a rapid clip. The Christmas surge is appearing and hospitals are forced in some cases to put patients into gift shops as they have filled all other spaces. Across the United States and in other countries too , irresponsible people continue to party as though there is nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, while we have developed safe and effective vaccines, the final step (getting vaccine into people’s arms) has faltered because of… lack of federal leadership. Here in California, the state has received (as of 31 December) 1.48 million doses, of which 300,696 were administered. There is a long way to go and the Biden administration has lots of work ahead.  And what of Donald Tr

  So, I ought to know better but obviously I don’t. Facebook is a bizarre environment where your “friends” are often not your… well, friends. The story is simple but it prompted me to write this post on my blog rather than directly on Facebook. Here goes. I saw a post on another FB page and copied it to mine. This is it: I am not a religious person. In today’s America, polarized over religion and politics, I thought the message had some importance. The story of Christ is 2000 years old. He was a resident of the Middle East and I am certain he did not look anything like the White appearing person depicted in evangelical Christianity in the United States. In my mind this meme makes sense. We are told that Christ was a proponent of peace and tolerance. I guess socialism is the idea that we all care for each other. No sooner had I posted it than a “friend” commented that Christ wasn’t talking about government. I was told by this “friend” that government defined socialism was different an

  A metaphor for the behavior of Donald Trump since Election Day 2020 might be found in Ernst Haeckel’s biogenetic law of Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny . The lifelong evolution of the phenomenon known as Trump was one of narcissism, sociopathy, and criminality. We may view his obscene actions since Election Day as a reprise. And such behavior has never been seen since the republic was founded. There is of course the constant refrain that he actually won the election, despite the popular vote difference (7 million fewer votes than Biden) and the electoral vote difference . Donald Trump cannot believe he would lose anything, ever. His team of inept lawyers, led by Rudy Giuliani and joined by such miscreants as Sidney Powell, have lost overwhelmingly when they have tried to bring frivolous suits to courts at all levels. When the obvious hit Trump in the face, he went deeper into delusion, inviting Powell, Flynn, and Giuliani into the Oval Office to discuss other methods of overturnin