The general public often misunderstands the progress of science, at best buying into the standard explanation that a theory is constructed to explain a lot of data and then tested over time as more data accumulates to prove the theory right or wrong, ad infinitum. That’s the so-called “scientific method,” and any child in a basic science course might hear or read that much without really experiencing it or understand what it means.

I suppose that explanation is okay as far as it goes, but it doesn’t consider the role of imagination, even among scientists—children are brainwashed to believe that advances just flow from cold, experimental facts, if that. The reality is that a theory originates because one or more imaginative people look at data and say, “How do I explain this?”, and then go about imagining an explanation. (Some people polish that up by calling it “creative thinking,” but imagination is the better word!) Same for new data especially if it contradicts aspects of an old theory.

We should perhaps consider sci-fi as an important way to use imagination as an effective tool to stimulate all creative thinking, a filter for determining what might be possible, which is why so many scientists (or ex-scientists who are still thinking like scientists) read (and even write) good sci-fi. Extrapolation of current science, often far into the future, is what makes that tool so effective. (I’m excluding fantasy and space-opera authors here, especially screenwriters, who rarely worry about contradicting even current science: “Full stop, Mr. Sulu!” or “Warp 9, Mr. Sulu!” are examples of their foolishness; ninja-like warriors fighting with light sabers are others; time-travel romances and cannibalistic ETs; etc., etc. In fact, most of what Margaret Atwood called “speculative fiction” is excluded!) The sci-fi author has to be prepared to win a few and lose a few, though. (Phasers were very much like today’s smart phones; but the transporter is beyond the impossible, albeit necessary for screenwriting purposes in Star Trek.)

I began writing the “Chaos Chronicles” trilogy, my version of Asimov’s Foundation  trilogy, long before my first novel Full Medical was published. (All three novels of that trilogy are bundled now—see below.) Unlike my hero Asimov, who basically swept FTL-travel and ETs under the rug (the first simply is accomplished by “jumps through hyperspace” and is never explained beyond that; the lack of the second is eventually explained in the extended Foundation series as a trick performed by the time-travelers in End of Eternity, but time travel is never explained), as a physicist I worked harder on my extrapolations than Asimov the biochemist wanted to do, at least for the FTL-travel and certainly for ETs. (The ETs might eventually be explained by congressional inquiries actually studying UFO phenomena! One should probably ignore the “mummified ETs” in Peru that excite the Mexican government, and certainly all the tales of abduction and seduction UFO nuts prattle about.)

A few weeks ago in this blog, I wrote an obit for an old professor of mine, James Hartle. (No, he wasn’t any more an ET than I am, but he sure was a hell of lot more intelligent.) Some of his work was with Hawking, and that motivated me when writing my sci-fi trilogy to consider what’s now called the multiverse, the idea that our Universe is only one among many quantum states of an infinite collection of universes. (Much later, this was the basis for my novel A Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse, a sci-fi rom-com.) I also knew something about zero-point energy. In standard quantum electrodynamics, that’s what allows a froth of virtual photons to give spin to the electron, for example, and the idea has been extended to the entire zoo of elementary particles, including the mysterious Higgs particle, that are, after all, just quantum states themselves (perhaps of only one particle?). In other words, there could be virtual universes as well.

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One item proposed in the GOP Senate’s “Better Care Act” was more cuts to mental health care. Fortunately that didn’t pass, but these cuts have been going on for a long time. Mental hospitals have closed and there never seems to be enough competent staff. People with mental health problems have nowhere to turn. Some have worried families and friends who don’t know where to turn either. Others live homeless on the streets of America’s cities. And others have come home from wars broken in mind and spirit.

The shooting in NYC of policewoman Miosotis Familia by mentally disturbed Alexander Bond is an extreme example of the tragedies that can occur. One congressman was attacked by his own son; the father hadn’t been able to find a facility for him. An obviously deranged fifteen-year-old girl encouraged her depressed boyfriend via cellphone texts to commit suicide (she received a 2.5 year sentence but she should have been committed). These are only three cases that made the national news where persons with a mental illness didn’t have the care they needed. Too many don’t.

And I’m talking about quality care, not more copies of that cuckoos’ nest immortalized in the movie. While no modern mental ward seems as bad as that or Salieri’s in Amadeus, they can be bad. Patients in care are often treated inhumanely with drugs and shock therapy instead of being cured. These “cures” can be easily ordered by mental health professionals and applied by an army of nurses and barely qualified technicians, so the cost is low. The institutions still functioning often sacrifice good care because of budget cuts. Add to that the closing of mental health facilities everywhere, you have a crisis.

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So we have another horror story associated with the current White House AKA the DC Dark Place. The Warlock-in-Chief is championing his new healthcare bill, although people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have also pranced around the bubbling cauldron to conjure up the best poison they can find for the infirm and elderly in America. Let’s first analyze the chief features of this wicked potion.

The individual mandate of the ACA will be repealed. While even that wasn’t enough to drive millennials and other youthful citizens to participate in ACA and thus increase the healthy people in the insurance pool because in some areas the ACA insurers had stiffer premiums than the fine, instead of fixing the latter, Trumpcare will make it worse. The employer mandate will be repealed. Larger companies will now be able to tell people not to look for healthcare as an employee benefit. Subsidies for out-of-pocket expenses—deductibles and co-payments, will be repealed. Insurance companies will have a field day with that. Medicaid expansion will be killed. Planned Parenthood will be defunded (why aren’t anti-abortion activists more worried about the lives of the living?).

Premium subsidies will be eliminated and replaced by tax credits. Let’s consider the implications of that one a bit further. Will the GOP send money to a poor person if her or his tax credit is more than what s/he would pay in taxes (sometimes zero)? If the answer is yes, that’s a subsidy. If the answer is no, that person won’t bother with healthcare insurance and return back to the old days when s/he went to an ER after getting too sick, virtually eliminating preventative care, increasing death rates and lowering lifespans, and driving up hospital costs—not to mention the evil implicit in penalizing the poor and rewarding the rich. The latter is consistent with the overall reverse-Robin Hood policies of the GOP, of course. Until every American has the same healthcare as a congress person, America will still have a healthcare problem!

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Believe me, I want to give Mr. Trump a chance. At least he speaks out against the Washington insiders. In spite of disgruntled naysayers, he is our legitimate president. He played by the rules and won fair and square. Yes, I understand these rules are rigged: the GOP has twice lost the popular vote in recent memory and won in the Electoral College. But those are the rules; he won.

Mr. Trump, a newcomer to the political scene, is an unknown factor, although we’ve had strong and troubling hints in his rhetoric. This business mogul and reality TV star goes his own way. Unfortunately, unlike on “The Apprentice,” the American people can’t fire him very easily. First among my worries about the new administration is his role in foreign policy and as commander-in-chief. A person who shoots from the hip doesn’t belong in that role. That said, I find Congress and the Supreme Court more worrisome.

Congressional Republicans have been waiting to wreak revenge on liberal policies for years. Now that they control both houses, the Supreme Court, and the White House, expect fireworks displays of pent-up anger. They might even go against Mr. Trump who has occasionally shown signs that he will stand up against congressional rancor. The bullies in Congress, though, are the most vociferous about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) AKA Obamacare. Their mantra has been to repeal it in spite of having zero viable alternatives. In many ways, they now should be called congressional death squads.

McConnell and Ryan are their leaders; Price their hired assassin, and maybe Trump; and they’re all sycophants of the insurance companies and Big Pharma. I’m talking about a Republican takeover of our government that is going to result in early and needless deaths for millions of Americans as the ACA is dismantled and Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid become dismembered. The GOP administration will be willing agents of the Grim Reaper marching to battle with their scythes swinging. Here are the estimates, courtesy of the Urban Institute:

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That’s what I often say about incredible current events, especially those associated with political machinations and criminal actions: I can’t write this because no one would believe me—real life is often stranger than fiction. But, in the case of my first published novel, Full Medical, maybe I was prescient, except that things could become much worse than what I portrayed in that dystopian thriller. The theme permeating the entire novel is about the rich elites ensuring the best medical coverage available on Earth at the time at the expense of everyone else. “Full Medical” means full medical coverage, and in that novel only the rich can afford it, but they go far beyond anything seen up until then. I’ll not go into details because I don’t want to spoil the story for you. (It’s the first book in the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy,” by the way.)

The book starts in 2053, so the first thing to point out is that I probably got the date wrong: the healthcare coverage apocalypse described there might occur much sooner. Not only is the GOP talking about doing away with Obamacare (most GOP leaders don’t even like its coverage of preexisting conditions and children up to twenty-six living at home, in contrast to Mr. Trump—who would have thought that he would be more “liberal” than the rest of his party?). GOP members are out to destroy Medicare too, the closest thing we have to single-payer (the correct way to do things).

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First off, let me advise my readers right up front that I love Broadway.  I’d much rather go see a bad Broadway or even off-Broadway play than watch any reality (far from it) show on TV.  In fact, if I were rich and had the energy, I’d be in NYC every week.  Both cost and energy keep my attendance down, whereas I won’t watch reality TV even if you paid me to do it (well, I suppose I do have my price—something like the last Megamillions jackpot would be nice).  I even enjoy regurgitated Disney schlock like Mary Poppins and The Lion King. My favorite show was the off-Broadway classic The Fantasticks, although I saw Phantom twice, once in NYC and once in Boston.

That said, last Friday I was struck by a segment of ABC’s Good Morning America where they had the cast from the revival of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes doing the musical number “Anything Goes.”  This music is so old that I played it in dance band in high school.  Right after or just before there was an ad for the new Broadway show The Book of Mormon, written by the South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, with music by Robert Lopez.  This is new, very new.

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Amidst the discussions to-and-fro about the Iraq War, the slovenly state of VA hospitals became a hot topic.  The moldy and dingy state of Walter Reed, the top VA hospital in the country, only emphasized the deteriorated state of a system that was a big news story in 2007.  The VA system had languished ever since WWII.  Veterans were calling the state of their hospitals their Katrina moment.  The system was incapable of handling the wounded vets that were returning home, first with Iraq and then with Afghanistan.  Although steps were taken after 2007 to improve the system, it is still woefully inadequate to treat veterans’ mental health issues.

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