Medicynic

My candidate for president must:

1. Be electable, no cringeworthy moments in the past. No apologies.

2. Remember McGovern. No over-reach.

3. Be a Democrat liberal/progressive and pledge to support eventual Democratic nominee.

4. Not be an “independent.” Their run assures a Trump election.

5. Under age 65, see post on candidate age.  Some room on age.  (I’m 77 and know that over 70 years at election is too old)

6. Support funding for and the concept of a safety net for citizens, i.e. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, support for disabled

7. Propose achievable short term goals along with longer term aspirations.

8. Have a long term goal of national health scheme for all citizens that includes right of access to contraception and access to abortion services

9. Support the civil rights of all citizens.

10. Be committed to the reimposition of environmental regulations

11. Recognize the risk of global warming and commit to joining other nations in solving the problem

12.  Support the separation of church and state.

13. Release tax returns so effect of any future policies on candidates wealth can be discerned.

13. Not be named Trump

It’s sadly true and may explain her attitude towards rape on campuses.

“Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is making life a lot easier for campus rapists across the country, and back at home in Michigan, the private Christian high school she attended is way ahead of her. Holland Christian High School faces a lawsuit over its handling of the rape of a 15-year-old girl by her 17-year-old boyfriend, both students at the school at the time of the rape.”

“The rapist has since referred in a text message to “the way that I’ve raped you” and has pleaded guilty to a “

This YouTube is Aaron Carroll’s (Healthcare Triage) take on Medicare for all. It does not include the President’s current hidden from sight health care plan, which may or may not exist.

Medicynical Note: Of the plans Bernie Sander’s is the most grandiose and sounds frankly like the one least likely to ever come into being. It sounds like the ranting of a grandiose, unrealistic 79 year old with no understanding of legislation, our economy, or the current health care system. To put it bluntly what he is proposing sounds as unrealistic as our current President’s various rantings.

The other plans offer different ways forward with more doable and practical ideas that may be acceptable in our country.

Meanwhile our President is touting a hidden plan that promises everything without any details. He assures us that everyone will be able to get insurance but provides no details on how it will be funded and how much penalty those with pre-existing illness will pay in order to get insurance. He will likely rely on block grants to states to fund Medicaid and coverage for those with pre-existing illnesses–in the past when proposed, the block grants were inadequate to cover the population needing care. Unstated but quite likely will be a move to destroy Medicare as we know it. That of course is the republican strategy–undercut Medicare and ration care to the needy and those needing it most.

As noted here and here the laptop keyboard problem persists in the current MacBooks. It’s clear that for Apple the computer hardware business is an uninteresting burden.

Medicynical note: The IMac is still a premo machine but their laptops are stagnating with such a bizarre feature as the touch strip, their un fixed faulty keyboards since 2015, the lack of a touch screen and their ridiculously high prices. Is it just a matter of time before they start licensing their system to other computer makers–would make sense..

This explanation seems to work better than the devil made me do it trope, or that it was the Twinkies.

It’s the I’m nuts defense.

“InfoWars host Alex Jones, who is being sued by several parents of Sandy Hook victims, said in a deposition released Friday that he now believes the massacre was not a hoax. In the deposition posted on YouTube, Jones said he believes 26 people were killed in the 2012 shooting, but that “a form of psychosis” made him believe it was staged. “

Medicynical note: Another Trump “real news” media type. Speechless.

The republican plan isn’t and our President hasn’t a clue.

Boeing prepares update for 737 Max: “As part of the update, the company said Max pilots would need to receive an additional 30-minute training program on the software.”

Medicynical note: This entire fiasco has a recurrent theme. Cut corners to save money. When faced with a superior Airbus design Boeing opted to try and update the 1967 737 airframe with disastrous results–an unstable plane requiring software to keep from crashing. Two planes have crashed and almost 400 souls perished and now Boeing proposes 30 minutes of training to master a new software shim. To save money there will be no time on a simulator; no more extensive orientation; just a 30 minute training video or some sort document . It’s really too little too late.

“Schiff was having none of it. His five-minute response was blistering, with a recurring phrase said so often that it served as spikes on the road to redemption that the Republicans thought they were cruising down. Each time Schiff said, “You might think it’s okay,” he hit them and the president with specific facts that might not meet the high standard for criminal conspiracy, but they are certainly objectionable on moral, ethical and patriotic grounds.”

“The problem is that an airplane is a big, complicated network of interconnected parts. To get the engine under the 737 wing, engineers had to mount the landing gears higher and more forward on the plane. But moving the landing gears changed the aerodynamics of the plane, such that the plane did not handle properly at a high angle of attack. That, in turn, led to the creation of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). It fixed the angle-of-attack problem in most situations, but it created new problems in other situations when it made it difficult for pilots to directly control the plane without being overridden by the MCAS.”

“On Wednesday, Boeing rolled out a software patch that it says corrects the problem, and it hopes to persuade the FAA to agree.”

“But note that the underlying problem isn’t really software, it’s with the effort to use software to get around a whole host of other problems.”

Medicynical note: A poorly engineered fix for an inherently unstable plane.

Coal plants close faster than before under Trump.

“The vanishing of coal plants from the American landscape began years ago, but it has persisted under President Trump, who came into office promising to revitalize the coal industry. He has rolled back environmental regulations meant to curb pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, installed a former coal lobbyist as head of the Environmental Protection Agency and tweeted in favor of keeping certain units operating. And yet, utilities have continued to shut down plants.”

Medicynical note: Another campaign promise falls by the wayside…….maybe the Mexicans will pay.