He Got 70 Million Votes

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So what drove the ascent of Donald J. Trump? I have teased out six main reasons why some 63 million Americans voted for him in 2016. Approximately 70 million did this time around. Despite every failing, he got 70 million votes! Diana C. Mutz, in her 2018 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pointed out the most crucial reason – cultural anxiety. Daniel Cox and his group came to the same conclusion in their Public Religion Research Institute survey of more than 3,000 Read More…

Individual Freedom & Negrophobia In The Land of The Free and Home of the Brave

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My five year old son has a mortal fear of spiders and has elected me as the spider assassin-in-chief. I have however failed terribly in this assigned duty. Our conversation on this problem usually goes like this. “Daddy, there is a spider in my room!” I will go into his room. There is usually a small spider in some corner that he wants me to kill. “Well, what do you want me to do?” “I want you to kill it!” He usually has this incredulous look on his face as if wondering why that question was Read More…

Maceo Snipes he voted for freedom and posterity

A Vote For Maceo Snipes, A Vote For Posterity!

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Have you ever wondered why there are so many Civil Rights Acts in the United States? There is the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (CRA) then there is CRA 1870 and 1871! Subsequent acts were passed in 1875, 1957, 1960 and in the 1960s came the big ones CRA 1964 and 1968! In 1965 they had to pass the Voting Rights Act which was not made permanent but had to be renewed ever so often! Our vote cannot be taken for granted, vote for freedom and posterity It’s like members of the privileged Caste see frRead More…

“I am the Only one Who Can Fix it”: Did he Really Fix it?

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As we get closer to November 3rd I keep looking at the steady approval of Trump’s handling of the economy. Over the course of his first year Trumps approval for his handling of the US economy has never gone below 40%. His overall approval when compared to his most recent predecessor does suggest that his approval ratings trailed Obama’s. He is however not very far below in approvals when we compare them towards the end of their first terms. Approval ratings though do not always tell the cRead More…

Make Coroners Great Again! A Campaign Speech

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Despite its faults, the United States remains by far the greatest and most powerful democracy the world has ever known! That I a mere Shithole has the opportunity to stand for county coroner on the Republican ticket is a testament to America’s greatness! I stand on the Republican ticket because I am a true “American patriot.” My opponent on the other hand is a democrat, a communist who will play into the hands of communist China and make the very paper that we print our death certificaRead More…

Did Columbus Really Discover the New World?

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Columbus was definitely a man of vision and courage. He sought to prove Galileo’s theory of a round earth by sailing west to get to the Far East. This venture led to his most memorable life achievement. Today I ask the question “did Columbus really discover the New World?” This is a question that has become relevant today as many raise questions around the legacy of Christopher Columbus. Very little is known about Columbus’ background, he is believed to have been born in Genoa, Italy in 1451Read More…

Saving America From The Liberal Agenda one Justice at a Time

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Since the Obama presidency US conservatives have become more concerned about the country’s demographic trends. Many of these individuals have a nolstagic attachment to a way of life which albeit a fantasy appears to be quickly slipping away. To gain more control conservatives are working to drive our courts towards a more right wing conservative bent. The purpose of these efforts are mostly to push back cultural ideals that they believe are trending more liberal. Some of these changes includRead More…

Learning To Enjoy The Waves and Ripples of Our Time

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Many of us consider the United States as a fairly advanced country with a stable legislative system. The truth however falls very far from that accepted belief. A legislature with a 244 year history is still very young in the grand scheme of things and still developing. The nation would thus benefit and increase in stability and strength with the recognition of this fact by our senators, congressmen and women. It is the duty of the legislative branch of government to use opportunities and eventRead More…

Synopsis of the Stanford SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in Dialysis Patients Study

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Dialysis patients are a group with several risk factors ( advanced age, non-white race, poverty, and diabetes) for contracting SARS-CoV-2 and developing sever COVID-19. Therefore, they form a good group for studying the spread of the disease in the country and thus of seroprevalence. Seroprevalence is the percentage of people who have been infected with a pathogen and have developed antibodies to that pathogen. A group at Stanford did just that and published their results in the Lancet recenRead More…

Annual West Coast Fires; Will It Ever End?

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Last November the state of California and a coalition of 22 other states and cities including Washington DC challenged the Trump administration’s move to take away their ability to set stricter emissions standards. Antecedent to that; the state challenged the administration’s threats to revoke California’s waiver. This waiver had allowed the state to set tougher vehicle emissions standards. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) granted CA this waiver in July 2009. Since California got tRead More…

Rest In Peace; Notorious RBG

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg!What a life! What a woman! What a lawyer and judge! What a legacy! In 1996, she wrote the majority opinion in “United States v. Virginia”. The all-male admissions policy at the Virginia Military Institute was being challenged. This sentence in the opinion encapsulates most of her beliefs and work: “As earlier stated, see supra, at 24, generalizations about “the way women are,” estimates of what is appropriate for most women, no longer justify denying oppoRead More…

What if I were the President?

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My father died in 2014. Without a will! That was a remarkable thing for a well-educated man who always threatened us in childhood that for playing the fool, he was going to take us out of his will! To this day I continue to blame myself because as a medical doctor I knew his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was a death sentence! The culture in Ghana forbade such discussion with a sick patient, so as I watched him on his deathbed, I had an ongoing battle in me as to how to avoid the advice of the Read More…

Effective Covid-19 Vaccine: What is the Way Forward?

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The Covid-19 pandemic has taken the US through a wringer. Many believe without a vaccine the US would not achieve pandemic control. This is surprising for a nation with world renowned public health institutions such as the CDC and USAID. In many nations though, simple public health policies have been used with varying degrees of success. The poor pandemic control has been attributed to many problems in the US. One that comes quickly to mind is the American love for individual freedom above Read More…

The S Word; Suicide Say it

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The “S” Word: Say it❗ Say it aloud to yourself, “SUICIDE”! Don’t whisper it. If you are embarrassed to say it, you won’t be able to speak about it. If you are embarrassed to say it, you won’t be able to discuss it with your family, your children, or peers. Do you still believe “attempters” “committed” a crime? Do you believe they are “weak”? The highest risk for suicide is a previous attempt The No.1 cause of Suicide attempt is a (Clinical) Depressive Episode Would Read More…

Exercising Freedom in the Land of the Free

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All human societies develop and advance through different experiences and upheavals. Over four centuries American society has evolved from chattel slavery to systemic racism. The underlying reason for this system has always been about economics and power. Over the centuries many have accepted this system as sacrosanct. There are those who have actually built a religion around this system and would die protecting it. At this time all Americans black or otherwise who want to address issues of rRead More…

Is She American Enough For You ?

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As a naturalized American I can stand for any elected public office position with the exception of the presidency. The highest public office in this country has been reserved for only natural born citizens. This requirement is simple but can quickly descend into a rabbit hole of complexity when one considers some special situations. The Constitution states that “no person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shRead More…

Racism in America; Can we Erase the Legacy?

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In 1619 the foundations of racism in America was laid down in the purchase of 20 captured Africans from Angola. This foundation started out as a form of indentured servitude. This was similar to what some poor Irishmen who had to work to pay for their passage experienced. For blacks though this eventually evolved into chattel slavery. Around this bedrock we developed a fictional narrative of white superiority and black subservience. Today very few of us acknowledge the color or the nature of thRead More…

Leadership & Knowing What is Right

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One of my favorite Presidents once said “A president’s hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right” Lyndon Baines Johnson. Born in Ghana in the 1970s one may wonder how I know so much about LBJ? LBJs life inspired my father so much that he named his oldest son Lyndon Baines Sowah. So I pretty much grew up with LBJ. As an immigrant in America I got the opportunity to read Master of the Senate by Robert A Caro. This book which chronicles the life and works of President Read More…

America the Beautiful

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This evening, like a lot of evenings, I sat down to write. Today, I could not. I was overcome with a deep sadness for my adopted home, the USA, and the way she is being devastated by COVID-19. The first Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine was awarded in 1901. By 2019, 110 prizes have been awarded to 219 scientists in Physiology and Medicine. 94 of these have been Americans.We have the CDC, the ultimate authority on epidemics. We have all of the NIH. There is a biotech firm at every streeRead More…

Racism in America Today; Is It All About Race or Should We Follow The Money?

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In 1619 a Dutch sheep landed in the Virginia colonies with 20 Africans captured from Angola. This was the first recorded shipment of slaves to any of the lands constituting present day USA. This however was not the first instance of slavery in the New World. The Portuguese were the first to bring Africans to the Americas to mines in the Caribbean and South America. The island of Hispaniola, present day Haiti and Dominican Republic received its first shipment of enslaved Africans in 1525. The eRead More…

Epidemic Control Using Science or Wall Street Ideology

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Many countries have seen their peak in cases of SARS-CoV-2 in the rear view mirror. Unfortunately the United States is still forging ahead in this epidemic. I wrote a previous post about preparing for a post Covid-19 world. As time goes on this seems less and less likely to happen in the near future. Since February there have been more than 3.2 million cases and 132,382 deaths. Initial attempts at control appeared successful with a peak in April followed by a decline, daily cases have howeRead More…

The Christian Gospel Used As A Tool of The Imperialist

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As a boy I always had a fascination with cultures other than my own. This was a curiosity that sought to understand what these cultures believed and how these beliefs had developed. I remember my grandmother’s stories of how our people, the Ga ended up on the eastern coastal plains of Ghana. A recent ancestral DNA placed my sequences to be about 60% related to the Yoruba peoples of South Western Nigeria. A finding that may support the oral history of my Ghanaian ethnic group. Among the cultRead More…

Does Black Lives Matter not care about “Broken Fatherless Black families?”

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I have realised that anytime BLM and protesters react to police brutality, detractors always point to various “whataboutisms”. Many would ask “what about black on black crime.?” “What about aborted black babies?” “Does BLM not care about broken black families with absent fathers?” These irritating questions as noted by an astute journalist are as annoying as me asking Americans “what about Americans killing other Americans” during the 911 attacks?” American history hasRead More…

Racialized Policing, Is it a Societal Problem or a Police Issue?

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As a physician I have taken care of many recently incarcerated persons. Most of these guys were not armed robbers or even drug offenders as the media may suggest. These were almost all black or brown men who lost their freedoms from nuisance infractions that did not need to end up in an arrest The death of Rayshard Brooks brings to light how some of these arrests occur. The only reason we know about Rayshard Brooks was because he ended up dead in the course of this arrest. Garrett Rolfe, theRead More…

Good bye Alex, Tribute to a Friend and Medical Colleague

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‘Teach us good Lord to number our days that we will apply our hearts to wisdom’ Psalm 90:1-2 For many of us our journey with Alex started in October 1991. This was for us, the beginning of an arduous path to become healers. Healers of broken and ailing bodies and sometimes of the mind as well. For a good part of seven to eight years we shared this journey with its joys as well as numerous trials and adversities with Alex Ire.  Most of us remember Alex as the ever-smiling young geRead More…