February 2016

The Man in the KKK T-Shirt and the Yellow Star By Leonard Zwelling http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/02/27/donald-trump-protester-kkk-shirt.cnn          If you want to see what the country will be like should Donald Trump become President, look no further than this video clip from CNN.          A young man showed up at a Trump rally standing near the podium wearing […]

EXTRA: How? By Leonard Zwelling          If the GOP debate on February 25 at the University of Houston taught us anything, it displayed the foolishness of Donald Trump. When he and Marco Rubio got into a punching match about health care reform, Marco kept asking about Donald’s “policies” to replace ObamaCare and Donald kept talking

Falsification, Fabrication and Plagiarism: Research Misconduct Right Here in Bayou City? (New Link on bottom re: MD Anderson) By Leonard Zwelling          The journal Biochemical Pharmacology has retracted 7 papers by MD Anderson investigator Bart Aggarwal: http://retractionwatch.com/2016/02/22/journal-retracts-7-papers-by-md-anderson-researcher-long-under-investigation/          This story of allegations of research misconduct has been around for quite a while now and perhaps

Magic Sells: Donald, Bernie and Ron (They Are Not Abraham, Martin and John) By Leonard Zwelling https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sanders-and-trump-magic-sells/2016/02/11/bc5e4df6-d0e8-11e5-b2bc-988409ee911b_story.html          In a particularly insightful op-ed in The Washington Post (sent to me by a blog reader, thank you), conservative paragon Charles Krauthammer makes the point that along with popularism, there is a certain strain of anti-Obamaism to BOTH The

CPRIT: Who’s Accountable? By Leonard Zwelling          About 20 years ago, a series of research grants were made available through the state of Texas and the competition for the money was fierce. I cannot even remember what the program was called, but we on the faculty called it the Texas State Lottery. It was never

EXTRA: Where Can Bernie Win? Where Can The Donald Lose? Nevada, South Carolina and Beyond By Leonard Zwelling          The results from Nevada were in early and Hillary Clinton significantly beat Bernie Sanders 52 to 48%. What this means is that in a fairly good-sized state of real diversity, Senator Sanders, despite his clear message

The American Prosperity Gospel And Its Relationship To The Cancer Community By Leonard Zwelling http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/opinion/sunday/death-the-prosperity-gospel-and-me.html?_r=0          This is one of the most gripping and informative op-eds I have ever read (Sunday, February 14, NY Times). It tells two stories. The first is about mortality and the fact that a 35-year old assistant professor of history

Solving the Supreme Court Quandary: Appoint Biden By Leonard Zwelling          Antonin Scalia has died. Thus there is in fact a “balance” on the Supreme Court—4 Democratic appointments (Ginsberg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan) and 4 Republicans (Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kennedy). If a decision is made by the Court under such circumstances and the vote is 4

The Many Faces of Joy: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Bernie, Donald and Leon By Leonard Zwelling          The pundits are really struggling trying to explain the results of the New Hampshire primary and in fact the entire course of the Presidential campaign to date. I am not sure that it is all

New Hampshire EXTRA: Why The Donald and The Bern? In the Rest, No Trust By Leonard Zwelling          How does a thinking follower of American politics reconcile the fact that Donald Trump, a man who has never held office and is famous for being a reality star and a rich person, and Bernie Sanders, a