January 2018

Healthy Conflict: A Lost Art By Leonard Zwelling The Sunday Review section of The New York Times on January 21, 2018 contained a host of opinion pieces expressing the difficulties the various authors had in coming to terms with the Trump presidency and its effects on America. I found this to be the most interesting, […]

The Real State Of The Union: Disunion By Leonard Zwelling Tonight is the State of the Union Address by the President of the United States. We can all guess what this president is going to say. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/30/trump-state-union-address-375577 First, things have never been better than they have been during the year since his inauguration. I am

Obstruction By Leonard Zwelling Harry Litman, a former US attorney, has written an opinion piece in The NY Times on Saturday, January 27, 2018 that does as good a job at outlining the case for obstruction of justice against President Trump as I have seen. But this should be no surprise. Since the Trump campaign

Nudges And Burnout By Leonard Zwelling It is increasingly difficult for me to understand the subtleties of the articles in the two journals I continue to read—The New England Journal of Medicine and Science. This is my shortcoming not that of the editors or authors. I simply have not kept up with modern methodology and

The Government Shutdown And Health Care Reform By Leonard Zwelling The major sticking point that led to the government shutdown that has now just ended, was immigration. The Democrats wanted to make sure that 800,000 Dreamers could stay in the country, the only one these young people really know, and the Republicans wanted more guarantees

Contrition By Leonard Zwellling It appears that Mr. Bannon has it. But not fast enough. He’s out at Breitbart. He apparently regrets some of the things he told Michael Wolff that were retold in the new book Fire and Fury in which Mr. Bannon is reported to have besmirched the president, his family and other

Does A President’s Denial Have Meaning? By Leonard Zwelling Mr. Trump says he is not a racist. Yet, his utterances belie his disclaimers and his past remarks about people all over the world as well as his fellow Americans (remember the “Mexican judge” who was born in Indiana?) suggest otherwise. His history and that of

Supporters Of Trump Speak Up By Leonard Zwelling On January 18, 2018, The New York Times printed a series of letters from readers who voted for Donald Trump AND who still support him. There is great heuristic value in reading these letters and I have attached a link above. The reasons they voted for Trump

Can Republicans Govern? By Leonard Zwelling This is a reasonable question after a year of 24/7 GOP dominance in Washington. The tax bill gives the Republicans something to crow about. Whether it is good for the country or not remains to be seen. The stock market is way up! But half of all Americans own

Doctor, How Old Are You? By Leonard Zwelling The attached says it all. I was wrong. Younger doctors do have a lot to offer and I better get used to it, because many of mine will be retiring soon. Haider Javed Warraich, a cardiovascular fellow at Duke (where else?), has written the piece and has