Does any one ever wonder if the Statue of Liberty was really a secret spying device sent to spy America? Perhaps there is a secret compartment within which generations of French agents have bred and watched Americans and transmitted their collection of American secrets to France ! I mean, do they have to change the hands to make a big “L” gesture on the forehead or print on her crown the words “Trojan”?

But honestly, I’m having trouble producing thoughts other than these xenophobic conspiracy theories. For all the mean things president Trump says, he really has set my mind into a spiral of despair. What if America loses this trade war with China in Q3 of 2019? What if the measure to block use of Huawei equipment actually fails and America and it’s Allies end up buying a lot of Huawei equipment? This is a horrifying outcome. I hope Trump has a good technical advisor. This telecom technology is pretty esoteric, not every person walking on the street has the proper intuition to reason about them.

Of course, without cheap Chinese alternatives, American companies can charge a lot more money for their routers and firewalls and phones and tablets. But that’s only a secondary side effect that next president can deal with when ever he arrives in the Whitehouse.

I binged The Good Doctor season 2 to get my mind off of the stock market crash and fear of spies. It is wonderful to see a show about Californian hospital. Honestly, the problems addressed in season two are very real problems… Honestly, this had to be one of the most successful and diverse cast. Even more so than Trek Discovery. The other medical residents working beside Shaun, their attending, get a lot of screen time ! It’s like, the good doctor has his special place among a lot of special people and everyone is special in this hospital and yet it gels.

Let’s see, they found a Chinese-American Actress to play Dr. Lim and she actually has a dialogue in fluent Mandarin with a hospital in Beijing, very very nice! Thank goodness we are finally past that older generation of Supposedly Chinese-American actors that neither speak Mandarin nor English, and I’m really not sure about their Cantonese. I mean c’mon! Seriously? You can’t find a single fluent speaker of either language until 2019??! I can’t wait until Melendez breaks into rapid fire Spanglish with a Mexican doctor! Let this mosaic of culture speak proudly! (But for dramatic effect, perhaps they’ll have Lim do Spanish too)

The show put on display some things America, at least Californians face every day. A Chinese women shows up with a pump for heart. Said heart is Made in China™ and also installed there. In the real world, Either due to law or funding or politics or racism or general imbalance of talent, Asia often have us beat on the good stuff like making a heart that pumps blood with no beat, or, for a more real example, genetically modifying babies to be disease resistant. The show does it in a very smooth and apolitical way, intertwining it into the story, no shame and no envy, slight bit of curiosity, it’s just a problem to be solved. Just a reality to be faced. Just another 3rd world problem thrusted upon America.

I have blogged here some sentiments similar to those of dr. Han’s–he actually says it straight out: shouldn’t keep Shaun for Diversity sake if he jeopardizes patients and family management. He is not really an independent doctor with high rate of communication success like Hans expects. Moving Shaun to diagnostics (Dr. House’s department?) seems the sensible thing to do.

But the trouble is this: nobody is an independent person in the hospital system. They work as a team. If Shaun needs a team to function as an effective surgeon, then he is no different from other doctors all of whom also needs a team to fully function.

The rational thinker will quickly start upon the cost-benefit analysis and conclude that Murphy is more cost than benefit. The show clearly dismissed that believe and insist that Shaun is more benefit than cost. So given that premises, Shaun is a keeper. In real life, you don’t always get a clear cut definition. And there are a lot of people of lesser talent than portrayed Shaun who must also survive the same trials.

I am conflicted regarding this matter. On the one hand, Schaun was obviously a good decision. On the other hand, it seems more likely that the disproportionately abnormal character in question can be artificially propped up as a diversity puppet. Mindless drone controlled by puppeteer Glassman. Sometimes the diversity puppet even has to act out of her real personality in order to fit the profile of the puppet required for the situation.

And, as always, I do hereby disclaim that I judged or caused any real life situation similar or identical to what I describe.

But the saving grace of the show is that we are made to believe the other doctors who risk their careers to do “the right things” and to “help patients” and to “do no harm”, do these things in genuine sincerity, that they wouldn’t all take bull crap together. None of these very professional people have ever question his diagnostics and surgical skills. It also seems his success rate is very high–not as reported by his mentor and potential puppeteer, but as measured by alive and healthy bodies walking out of the hospital.

Which brings us back to the fact that his peers have all objected to and acquiesced to him being a doctor with underdeveloped social and emotional maturity.

Those facts being clarified, it seems the decision to fire Han to keep intact an excellently functioning team was a justifiable decision.

With the one possible objection that it was indeed the job of the president to lead Han and convince him of the matter presenting evidence and balancing liability in a reasonable way. It shouldn’t be stuffed in his face like that.