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Post by doctork on Nov 8, 2016 23:25:36 GMT -5
I don't see any reason that your remark would start a war. I think the majority of Americans don't like either candidate. I think that Clinton's unpopularity is 55% and Trump's is 60%.
I don't know anything about the American Solidarity Party, and they are not on the WA ballot, but I like the idea of more than two parties. The Democrats vs Republicans duoply is tiresome. I wish everybody who dislikes both candidates, and lives in a "safe" state, would cast their votes for either a third party or a write in.
If I were voting in North Carolina I too would have to vote for Clinton.
I pout my ballot in the drop box last night so tonight I'm watching the returns on TV.
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Post by doctork on Jan 27, 2017 9:33:15 GMT -5
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists had moved its clock 30 seconds closer to midnight, so it is now 2.5 minutes until nuclear doomsday. First time in several decades they have done that, motivated by our president's idle threats about nuclear arms use, and denial of climate change influenced my activity of human beings.
Perhaps I should reconsider relocation to New Zealand, as threats to the southern hemisphere are less and NZ is quite isolated. It is harder for US citizens to gain access there as other than touist (30 - 90 days) visitorss, but they do need doctors and nurses for "short-term" stints - 6 - 12 months assignments are easy to come by, and open to possible extension. It is so far away though. I am hoping Ecuador is far enough; its capital is about 10 miles south of the Equator, and Cuenca and Villabamba are further south.
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Post by joew on Jan 27, 2017 10:24:37 GMT -5
I've never considered the doomsday clock meaningful. Maybe it's because nobody ever explained how they quantify things, but it seems to me that this sort of thing isn't quantifiable anyway. What would it take, for example, for us to get back to 11:00? How far did the clock move when North Korea got the bomb?
It seems to me that after 60+ years of the nuclear age, it should be clear that the mere existence of the weapons does not mean that we're minutes away from annihilation. They need to take into account the decades of non-use.
In short, it's always seemed to me like a meaningless gimmick.
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Post by Jane on Jan 27, 2017 16:31:10 GMT -5
I'm terrified of the damage t-rump can do. Has already done.
As you know, my daughter works with a dyslexia organization overseeing tutors in the public schools. A five-year-old Latina girl told her tutor she was afraid because "Trump is coming." As the tutor was walking the little girl back to class, two white boys saw her in the hall and started sing-songing, "Trump is coming! Trump is coming!"
He has unleashed the most vile of emotions in the most vile of people.
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Post by doctork on Jan 27, 2017 21:52:05 GMT -5
I'd have to do some research to review the origin of the doomsday clock, but I don't think it is a gimmick. I think it is meant as a reminder of how bad a nuclear explosion can be. Most people alive today do not remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even doctors who learned the late effects in medical school, if they bother to teach that any more. When the movie "Pearl Harbor" came out in 2001, most adults surveyed did not realized the historical significance of the date December 7, 1941, the related it just to Hollywood. The number who know the meaning of August 6 must be minuscule. Chernobyl was kept a secret; estimates by a college classmate a few years ahead of me who was instrumental in the American health response were that thousands died and hundreds of thousands sustained life-threatening damage or life-long illness. Fukushima was made to seem like a big tidal wave, though my understanding is no one is allowed near there any more, other than protectively garbed maintenance people. Both of those were minor power plant incidents compared to a nuclear bomb several thousand times more powerful. In a nuclear bomb explosions, an area of several square miles will be incinerated, and the power of the blast will extend concentrically for 4 - 5 miles beyond that (think of the human blast damage from IED's in Iraq, no nuclear involved). Thermal (heat) damage goes still further, and of course radiation damage travels longer distance. I happened to be driving west on I-80 in Wyoming on the morning Mt St Helen's exploded in 1980. The darkness caused by the ash was visible to me several hundred miles away, and had radiation been involved (bomb instead of volcano), I'd likely have sustained injury, maybe some thermal burn, probably an increased risk of thyroid, breast and skin cancer. When I worked for the Navajo I saw many "downwinders" who lived on reservation lands downwind and of uranium mines and test sites in Nevada, and developed thyroid cancer as a result - from the amount of radioactive dust carried 50 - 100 miles or more. I had never heard the term, nor was I aware that hundreds of Americans were damaged by living "close" to a mine or test site, until I began working for the Navajo. I also remember grade school "Duck and Cover" classes, An actual bomb would incinerate when we were told that if a nuclear bomb struck the US, all we needed to do was hide under our desks at school and we'd be protected. Here's the link to the Bulletin's announcement of the clock change. thebulletin.org/press-release/it-now-two-and-half-minutes-midnight10432The concerns are that North Korea is working hard to develop a nuclear weapon head that will reach California, and that President Trump's statements about possible use of nuclear weapons are pretty loose, and he seems prone to speak and act without much thought. That's why I am worried about careless remarks by our current President. We have tentative plans to move - at least part-time - to move to the southern hemisphere anyway.
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Post by Jane on Jan 28, 2017 12:27:40 GMT -5
Scary times with such an unsteady hand on the nuclear button.
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Post by joew on Jan 28, 2017 14:29:58 GMT -5
It's not a question of the destruction which a nuclear war would cause. It's a question of how they can possibly quantify the closeness of one — to say that such and such gives you an hour, this and that is worth ten minutes. What gives you another second? What gives you ten minutes? It all seems arbitrary.
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Post by doctork on Jan 28, 2017 20:24:35 GMT -5
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Post by joew on Jan 28, 2017 22:54:35 GMT -5
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Post by BoatBabe on Feb 2, 2017 18:59:20 GMT -5
I See By The News, that my craw gets pretty darn full, pretty darn quickly; off it goes, and the music comes on. CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY is very fun, but more fun with more than two people. Our Cribbage Board is smokin'.
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Post by doctork on Jun 3, 2017 1:09:19 GMT -5
The bomb that was exploded in Kabul this week was quite close to the guest house where I stayed when I worked in Kabul in 2003. The situation had improved a lot by the time I returned in 2008, but it looks like it has gone downhill.
I have wanted to go back to Kabul again, but given the nature of my current job, as well as the political tensions in Afghanistan, I've restrained myself. One of the aid agencies I traveled with WON'T go there any more, the other still does.
So I've gone on all the APHC cruises, and most of the Star Mega DO trips instead.Equally interesting, more fun, but somewhat less rewarding. Lots safer, I guess.
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Post by BoatBabe on Jun 3, 2017 19:14:49 GMT -5
Lots safer. And lots more relaxing, smiling and rejuvenating, I hope and expect.
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Post by doctork on Jul 20, 2017 12:43:12 GMT -5
I was genuinely saddened to read of John McCain's malignant brain tumor. There are so few heroes in Congress any more, and he is one of the last.
I echo the rubric "I may not always agree with him but..." And President Obama who said to the effect "Cancer doesn't know what it's up against with John McCain."
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Post by joew on Jul 20, 2017 20:24:18 GMT -5
I was genuinely saddened to read of John McCain's malignant brain tumor. There are so few heroes in Congress any more, and he is one of the last. I echo the rubric "I may not always agree with him but..." And President Obama who said to the effect "Cancer doesn't know what it's up against with John McCain." His conduct as a prisoner of war earns him the admiration of all of us. His independence of thought and action as a senator — very much on display recently — exemplify what a legislator should be: a loyal member of a party whose philosophy he largely agrees with, but not blindly obedient when he disagrees with leadership.
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Post by Jane on Jul 21, 2017 7:28:58 GMT -5
Amen, Joe.
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Post by doctork on Jul 21, 2017 8:53:35 GMT -5
Can you imagine if even two-thirds of our senators were of McCain's caliber? We can dream.
Glioblastoma is nasty business, but let's hope he is in the 3 - 5% who are long-term survivors. Or even the first to be cured.
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Post by BoatBabe on Jul 21, 2017 18:27:14 GMT -5
I was genuinely saddened to read of John McCain's malignant brain tumor. There are so few heroes in Congress any more, and he is one of the last. I echo the rubric "I may not always agree with him but..." And President Obama who said to the effect "Cancer doesn't know what it's up against with John McCain." His conduct as a prisoner of war earns him the admiration of all of us. His independence of thought and action as a senator — very much on display recently — exemplify what a legislator should be: a loyal member of a party whose philosophy he largely agrees with, but not blindly obedient when he disagrees with leadership. AMEN from me, too, Joe/John!
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Post by BoatBabe on Jul 21, 2017 19:23:36 GMT -5
Can you imagine if even two-thirds of our senators were of McCain's caliber? We can dream. Glioblastoma is nasty business, but let's hope he is in the 3 - 5% who are long-term survivors. Or even the first to be cured. Yes. Even if FIFTY-ONE of our senators were of John McCain's caliber, we would have governance. If you recall, Thom's brother, Terry, died of that brain cancer. The week of Terry's 55th birthday, August 9th, his right hand suddenly stopped working and his speech became garbled. His long-time co-workers immediately called 9-1-1, and Terry spent the week in the hospital. He and his wife had just returned from a life-long wanted trip to Peru, so that "brain worm" from there was suspected. The docs said, "You have fissures in your brain. We don't know why. But we are going to give you a ton of steroids to decrease the brain inflammation so we can see what's going on." The steroids worked! Terry got all functions back. Terry went home. He was out on their acreage, cutting down blackberries, driving the tractor to move stuff, doing all sorts of fabulous things! By the 20th of August, he crashed: couldn't walk without falling, looked like he had had a stroke, completely garbled speech . . . Ambulance ride from Whidbey Island back to the Seattle hospital. But we could tell that he was still inside there. He knew, and he couldn't respond right. He could still think, and the words wouldn't come out, and his body didn't work. He flailed with frustration. The Docs did a brain biopsy. Whoops: Glioblastoma. On both sides of his brain. Even with radiation and the "Lazarus Drug" (a drug nicknamed for the Raising of Lazarus in the Gospel of John, and a complete abomination of naming, in our experience.) Terry was completely debilitated by September 20th, and dead by November 19th. Three months is all Terry got. We are not friends with Glioblastoma. My husband and I still have "Republican Registrations" somewhere. We registered as Republicans in Washington State so we could vote for John McCain in our primaries, the first time he tried to run for POTUS. We have always admired John McCain. Not much else is worth admiring in the Republican Party, except Lindsey Graham. We still refer to him as "My party has gone bat shit crazy," and we agree. We are less optimistic about John McCain's return to Washington D.C.
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Post by Jane on Jul 21, 2017 21:48:06 GMT -5
One of my dearest friends from my childhood had a grandson who died of the same brain tumor at six. Now another grandson (21) has a brain tumor and is in the hospital, but I don't know if it is the same kind. I can't even imagine the pain--not only the pain of losing a grandchild but also watching your own child go through such a loss. In my friend's case, she has two daughters and one has already lost a son, and the other is in the long and harrowing process of losing hers.
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Post by BoatBabe on Jul 22, 2017 11:39:55 GMT -5
We've always said that parents are not supposed to bury their children. We all don't get that choice.
Sending solace to your friend and her children and grandchildren.
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Post by doctork on Jul 22, 2017 17:11:50 GMT -5
Glioblastoma is indeed a curse - it also took Ted Kennedy, Beau Biden and many others. I thought of Terry with the announcement about McCain.
Some comments on my doctor sites suggest Senator McCain may go to one of the major research centers for various new investigational treatments. He'll do what's best for his situation, but it is somewhat reassuring to know there is a lot of ongoing research into new and better treatments.
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Post by Jane on Jul 22, 2017 18:19:30 GMT -5
I think if I were 80, I'd just say, "Lots of drugs please and let me be with my family."
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Post by doctork on Jul 22, 2017 19:42:17 GMT -5
A reasonable choice, Jane.
Some would opt for "full court press" because they want to try everything. Others because even if they know they won't likely be cured, they hope their case might contribute to the knowledge base for a future cure.
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Post by BoatBabe on Jul 22, 2017 20:05:27 GMT -5
I think if I were 80, I'd just say, "Lots of drugs please and let me be with my family." That's what Carolion did, wasn't it? She was not 80, dang it.
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Post by BoatBabe on Jul 22, 2017 20:13:07 GMT -5
A reasonable choice, Jane. Some would opt for "full court press" because they want to try everything. Others because even if they know they won't likely be cured, they hope their case might contribute to the knowledge base for a future cure. Yup. Hope. That's pretty much all there is . . . and hoping that you've helped others is a nice one.
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Post by gailkate on Jul 30, 2017 20:08:24 GMT -5
Not surprisingly, I'm late to this conversation. I thought of your brother-in-law, too, Babe, and wondered how much time McCain has left. We haven't heard that he's experienced the loss of mobility or speech that Terry did, but there was certainly that episode in one of the hearings where everyone could tell something was very wrong. And the doctors said something seemingly encouraging but I suspect very carefully phrased - to the effect that all the cells had been removed from that site. Do you remember, K? I thought they must mean that it had likely spread. Surely they wouldn't be proposing chemo, radiation or new procedures if they thought they'd gotten it all.
As I understand it, the House has begun its August recess, while the Senate has been sentenced to 2 more weeks by McConnell. After this week's debacle, I don't know what they're going to get done,so i hope McCain goes home for family time and whatever treatment they can begin. I also hope Mazie Hirono is back home. No one gave her the attention that's been lavished on McCain, even though she traveled from Hawaii with Stage 4 cancer to vote so her party would have all 48 votes counted.
When everyone's back in September, they'd better get moving. They'll have a month to agree on a budget or face a partial shutdown.
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Post by doctork on Aug 1, 2017 8:45:48 GMT -5
The standard thought is "you can't remove all of a glioblastoma." It does not metastasize elsewhere in the body hence it is I think technically regarded as a brain malignancy rather than a "cancer," but there are "always" bits of malignant tumor remaining even when the bulk is removed. They can respond fairly well to radiation and chemo (usually a drug called Temovar, said to be "not so bad" as other chemo), but the average life expectancy is still 12 - 15 months.
But there are exceptions, "miracle cures," and someone has to be the first person cured of GBM. I had a friend who went 6 or 7 years despite his GBM. He was treated at UCSF.
And every single day I realize how fortunate I was that my brain tumor was benign.
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Post by BoatBabe on Aug 5, 2017 10:02:36 GMT -5
AND, you are very fortunate, Doc, that your benign brain tumor wasn't the recurring type that just squeezes out your brain, like our dearly beloved Kathi Goertzen here in Seattle. You are charmed. And we love it!
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Post by doctork on Aug 6, 2017 0:13:58 GMT -5
It is unfortunately true that meningioma, though "benign," can sometimes recur. Our brains constitute valuable real estate so expansion or recurrence are not truly benign, even if they are not technically malignant. A small percentage of meningiomas are malignant. I was lucky - mine was the benignest kind of benign, and there has been no recurrence, most of which happen in the first 3 years after removal.
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Post by doctork on Sept 26, 2017 1:06:51 GMT -5
Have you noticed that this weekend there is ONE THING that seems to have united all Americans?
Everyone disagrees with Donald Trump in his anti-football remarks (especially since the white NFL owners are supporting their teams and it is not seen as just black v white). Most agree with the first amendment, and one's right to express one's beliefs, whether or not you agree with them. Will our the US President learn that he is not the CEO, and he does not get to order everyone in the NFL how to behave? Do you think he has ever read the Constitution? Sometimes I wonder if he knows how to read, though recently he has seemed to read Teleprompter speeches, even when they include big words like "egregious." I saw him read that and I was surprised.
I got very suddenly sick late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, bad enough that Howard called 911. They came very quickly and after a few hours in the Emergency Department it was declared that I am fine. Sometimes it takes a while to figure out what is wrong with me acutely because so many things are wrong with me chronically. One doctor told me "You have too many things in your brain." I am glad that I voted for the tax increase to support Emergency Medical Services.
Since I worked in the clinic on Saturday, I've had today (Monday) off, so I had another day to recuperate.
I have been watching the PBS series "Viet Nam" by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. It is powerful. Riveting. Emotional. Distressing. Shocking. I cannot now remember the name of the boy I dated in high school in NYC who was killed in the war; his younger brother, who was in my class, sent me a letter to let me know when he was killed, as that happened after I had moved to NOLA. And as skeptical of government proclamations as we youth were then, it is shocking to learn now that the lies were much worse than we thought.
I was in high school and college during the anti-Viet Nam War years; influential times and events shape the rest of our lives.
And yet, we are still at war, and in Afghanistan it's the longest ever - 16 years. I think things on the ground for the Afghanis are probably the same as they were for the Vietnamese - bombs dropping everywhere with lots of collateral damage. But because everything is high-tech nowadays, US or "coalition" casualties are fewer, we don't see it in technicolor blood and gore on the evening news every night. Also - the army is all-volunteer now, involving less than 1% of the US population in the military. Sentiment was much different when "everyone" was subject to the draft.
Tomorrow night the series episode will cover Kent State. I do not know if I will watch as that may cut a little too close to tolerate. One of my college-medical school boyfriends was there in May 1970, friends with some who were injured. Even though he graduated and moved to California, he was still called back to Ohio throughout the 1970's and into the 1980's to be deposed, and then to testify, in the trials.
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