Misc Babble...

                           This is an 84 year old patient's daily medications schedule. The person suffers from Dyspnea, diabetes, COPD, obesity, sleep apnea, coronary heart disease and was a smoker until 25 years ago. The paper medical records for this person measure 6 inches thick. This is just one of the 40-50% of people most responsible for the high cost of health care. You draw your own conclusions; mine have been articulated in earlier posts.
                            My thoughts on Mr. Trump 2 years on are as follows:
     A master at manipulation and self promotion who will do what it takes to accomplish his agenda regardless of moral or ethical considerations. For that reason he relates well to similar leaders in the world; they understand one another on a visceral level.  There are Trump supporters who believe the entire government is corrupt and that Mr. Trump at least is stirring the pot. His detractors believe he is destroying all civility for decades to come. Unfortunately, support for one side or the other has 'trumped' the search for Truth as an ethical scientist would describe it-with verifiable facts and repeatable experiments. As one recent example, Mr. Trumps rhetoric has stated that "If you want your Stocks to go down, I strongly suggest voting Democrat." In truth, Binky Chadha, chief strategist at Deutsche Bank, noted that the three-month period running from a month ahead to two months after the (midterm) election has produced a median 8% gain, (regardless of party affiliation of the winners and losers) And that includes only one decline, a 4% drop in 1978, over that period in the last 21 midterm elections.") Personally, I think Trumps most lasting legacy will be the supreme court nominees; they alone will survive several election cycles. The tax changes, EPA decisions and other policy commitments may or may not survive depending on the choices of voters in the future.
                         Overall, what happens in the back rooms affects the planet as much as what we argue about publicly; there is a big wheel rolling secretly that nothing is going to change.  Do I believe democracy will survive the present commotion? Yes. But the planet and humanity are bigger than democracy and human nature is very messy thing.