Blogpost # M. 453 A TALE OF TWO MEGLOMANIACS

If one were to ignore differences in appearance in height, orange versus sparse brown hair, sun tan, and swarthiness compared to pale and rodentlike, one might say that Donald J. Trump and his wily “bro-mate, apearance to have much in common.

Trump, an aspirational dictator, and Vladimir, an accomplished mafia-style tyrant, visibly share an arcane personality disorder (among a few others) of megalomania, mutually presenting in a context of hubris and profound ignorance, the latter, a roadblock to empirical observation and a catalyst to abysmal judgment. In the mutual sharing of such empirically demonstrated lack of judgment, they may be said to be compatible, albeit unequal in tactical intelligence; Trump is beset with the myopic blinders of a neurotic, lifelong quest for adoration, and Putin, more for the primitive demonstrative power and masculinity (Ref: photos of shirtless horsemanship).

In common with the demonstrated persona of all historic autocrats, they are intrinsic megalomaniacs, each suffering from the neurotic ideation of their personal singularity and inherent potential potency, which, history has shown, results in unforeseen and/or disastrous consequences.

In the classic Dickens ‘ novel, “A Tale of Two Cities,” the esteemed Victorian author brilliantly demonstrates the temporal differences between Paris and London, during the French Revolution; notwithstanding the same, the contemplative reader can discern the essential commonalities in the human psyche and personal motivation.

In the contextual observation of our two thematic protagonists, both being authoritarian leaders of their respective Nations, one can easily see significant personal differences between them, yet discern the traditional flaws common to autocratic leaders, viz., flawed judgment, distorted by their egocentric megalomania. So it was, for example, in Napoleon’s disastrous assault against Russia

After publicly declaring that i would be over ” in a few days,” Putin launched an aggressive war against Ukraine (again). Such a boastful declaration, the Ukraine-Russian War is, at present, in its fifth year, with Russia affecting only incremental successes at enormous cost to Russia’s treasury and military forces.

Donald Trump’s ill-advised war against Iran is demonstrably consistent with our present theme, viz., that megalomanic hubris is the precursor of disastrous decisions. In predictable contrast to Donald Trump’s assurances of facile victory, his (and Israel’s) attack on Iran has been costly and, to date, arguably ineffective. It is our reluctant expectation that the war with Iran, under the bizarrely incompetent tutelage of Pete Hegseth, will not be soon resolved, as prognosticated by our delusional President, and, unfortunately, l continue for an extensive period at minimal benefit and great cost to the Nation.

A seriously complicating factor is Iran’s de facto control of the Strait of Hormuz. a relatively narrow (30-mile) waterway through which commercial ships, including our own, must pass. The narrow passage is of vital importance to commercial shipping, notably of oil and seasonally vital agricultural fertilizer. Trump’s aggression has been responsible for Iran’s responsive blockade of this crucially important waterway.

Despite the bellicose threats of our Orange Warrior in Chief, such as “I am going to bomb Iran into the Stone Age,” the blockade and aggressive existence of Iran persist.

Analogous to Ukraine, in the prolonged Russian-Ukrainian War (5 years), it is a pragmatic fact that America is losing the Iran war by not winning it, and Iran is winning the war by not losing it. Donald J. Trump, indeed, has much in common with his Russian Bro-mate and autocratic counterpart.

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Blogpost # M.452 THE UBIQUITOUS STRAITS OF HORMUZ

The misadventure into Iran, imprudently initiated by the myopic Trump Administration, has directed the world’s klieg lights to the Strait of Hormuz. The latter, as known, is a narrow body of water (30 miles wide) connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. It is controlled by Iran and presents a potential bottleneck to its prodigious shipping activity, notably for the transport of oil and agricultural fertilizer. The Trump Administration’s inept, empty-headedness has exposed the flow of shipping to the military control of the attacked Iran, causing universal economic hardship.

Analogous to said conundrum, we have chosen to use the tactical potential for blockade of the Hormuz Strait by the besieged Iran as a contextual and thematic metaphor relative to the ubiquitous failure or inability of the human persona to seek reason and empirical understanding; the same due to the personal blockage by atavistic or preconceived beliefs and assumptions, usually instilled at an early age, by well-meaning parents and associates. It has been our dedicated intention to encourage, where relevantly applicable, the removal of irrational, limiting, and potentially harmful mental roadblocks or bottlenecks to the natural progress or flow of human reason.

As readers of this blogspace are, presumably, well aware, we are among the countless rational believers in the epistemological theory of John Locke ( and the plethora of empirical philosophers), that Man is born with a clean slate (“tabula rasa”) and that his knowledge is solely and exclusively acquired through empirical experience or instruction. Accordingly, any and all pre-conceptual assumptions of naturally instilled beliefs or non-empirical conceptions are more than inaccurate; they are effective roadblocks or ocean-going blockades to the acquisition of knowledge and Man’s most singularly precious, s evolutionary gift, that of the capacity of empirical reason.

Human reason dictates that solely, sense experience, observation and experimentation, rather than innate intuition or preconception (“felt” or intuitive knowledge or awareness), are useful and enlightening.

Nevertheless, the blockades to human reason and intellectual enlightenment, like the narrow, confining geography of the Strait of Hormuz, have atavistically persisted (viz., religious, superstitious, prejudicial, attitudinal) into the present digital age and have continued to unnecessarily stifle Man’s potential for evolutionary advancement and the pursuit of ultimate wisdom. The geography of the Persian Gulf is fixed and unalterable, unlike Man’s potential for the development of empirical reason; it is hoped that the extant blinders to reason and reality-altering pre-conception, superstitious beliefs, human prejudice, and other irrational and limiting blockades to human advancement, will soon be but a matter of an atavistic past.

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Blogpost # M. 451 “STRAWBERRY FIELDS”

We feel obliged to share a salubrious thought which has recurred to us on several of our ruminative excursions. We would deem it equally reasonable for the reader to accept or reject the same; either way, it is interesting, albeit a measure, surreal.

The two problems constituting the contextual scope of this writing are each existentially significant, although empirically diverse, in that they are unrelated, but of paramount significance to the happiness and fulfillment of the individual, and, as well, the enduring health of the planet. The effective solution to both relevant but diverse problems is conceptually significant yet identical. We would humbly call upon your patience with this admittedly exotic, dual panacea. Permit us to explain.

Medical science in this digital-electronic era has observably grown beyond the most optimistic of predictions. Countless lives have been saved or improved by modern diagnostic and treatment devices. Our thematic conception relates to the life-altering and potentially dangerous element of anxiety, the pernicious, life-altering malady of ubiquitous mankind, often bearing the effects of a lifestyle of prolonged anxiety. In addition to its non-productive element of fear, it can lead to serious medical conditions such as arthritis, chronic pain, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and chronic ulcers. Would it not be salubrious and beneficial to medically erase such a life-limiting condition?

The second challenge is the limitation, or at least, the significant amelioration, of the present march toward planetary Armageddon, i.e., global warming; inarguably, the ultimate result of the ubiquitous use of fossil fuels. While widely disparate in nature, but not in toxicity, our nuanced inclination to perseveration seems to have furnished us with a panacea in common for both disparate, albeit existential problems, which, if pragmatically successful, would result in a human life experience more like a “strawberry field, forever” than in the precarious one.

Contextually, we would refer to the remarkable salutary advances in life-changing and life-enhancing technical advances in scientific medicine, prolonging and improving the quality of life, through diagnostic, genetic, and treatment methods and appliances. Blood exchange, genetic engineering, the use of the MRI, CT scans, CPAP, oxygen and respiratory equipment, prosthetics, and an extensive menu of diagnostic and curative developments. The speed of development, analogous to that of the digital world, may, fittingly, be described as exponential.

Consistent with the above observations, our thematic conception amounts to the life-altering, salubrious development of an electronic medical appliance capable of rendering treatment for severe anxiety by siphoning off the harmful excess nervous energy and transferring the same to storage cells for the pragmatic purposes of clean energy for machines, autos, heating, cooling, and otherwise. The health benefit and lifestyle of the treated patient would be enhanced, and the aspiration for “clean energy” on behalf of the health of the planet would be achieved in a predictably plentiful and non-polluting supply.

Life on the green planet would be “Strawberry Fields.”

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Blogpost # M. PAPERWORK PROVENANCE

For countless eons before Christopher Columbus arrived in the Western Hemisphere to infect indigenous mankind with the ugly scourge of European disease and plunder their wealth, Mankind had been a nomadic hunter-gatherer, in existential pursuit of food and shelter. Long before the anthropological-social development of tribal and later, more modern “society, the “City-State” and then the “Nation.” Man was, by existential necessity, obliged to eternally seek safe and nutritional habitation.

The growth and advancement of Homo Sapiens was made possible by the socio-ethical sharing of empirically developed skills and the mutual exchange of experience. The historical record demonstrates the ample salubrious and protective benefits of shared civil existence and of its cultural growth and development of singular, culturally -nuanced character, language, and belief regimen. Peaceful interaction, commercial and otherwise, between such societal entities served to promote alternative ways of solving problems through the exchange of experience, as well as spiritual conceptions.

We have read that the elements of social interaction, intermarriage, the sharing of responsibilities, including the existential need for food and mutual protection, spontaneously led to the phenomenon of preferential change of society or social group. Whatever the extant cultural mode of change or alteration may have been, it is safe to say that the phenomenon of societal change was no doubt ceremonial, but notably, socially recognized and societally acceptable. Loyalty to his newly altered societal identification was often ceremonially demonstrated.

It is extremely difficult to rationally comprehend the so-called “Modern” Man’s rejection of the thematic change of societal ambiance and loyalty, occasioned by the need, or desire to change to another society than the one of his birth, for perceived reasons, including nuanced insecurity or simply to improve the immigrant’s lifestyle. The American Nation, populated by foreign immigrants and their respective progeny, has the tradition, statutory procedure, and social experience to welcome those who elect to change their nationality to American;; it, notably has the overt, welcoming symbol, “Lady Liberty,” colossally raising her welcoming lamp as a warm invitation to prospective new Americans.

Even more dystopian is the eventful distinction between officially designated “legal” and “illegal” immigrants. The difference, notably, is as crucial a distinction as it is frustratingly petty. The immigrant who has registration papers is safe from being attacked, arrested, or incarcerated, and summarily banished to foreign torture jails, without due process, by a horde of masked (ICE), Gestapo-style Trumpian hoodlums. The paper-recorded immigrants, by bright contrast, are theoretically free from such un-American jeopardy. The history of civil service paperwork has never possessed such petty and arcane significance.

The Paleolithic man, if consulted, would have recommended two soft beats on the official Tom-Tom, as an acceptable alternative to the extant, officially recognized acceptability.

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Blogpost # M. 449 “GEORGE” AND “DONALD”

Man’s choices, we find, are initially based upon the perceptive consideration of the known, available, contrasting choices. In keeping with such empirical observation, it might be useful to compare the Nation’s venerated Chief Executive, George Washington, with the “hands down” ubiquitous choice for the worst of the category, Donald J. Trump.

It is relevant that George Washington served as the military leader of the colonial army in America’s “War for Independence,” and subsequently, refused an extended offer of monarchy, instead of being elected as the President. He proved to be enlightened enough back in the 18th-century America, to have the colonial forces inoculated against smallpox (a factor attributed by certain notable historians to its success against the British), set the stage for republicanism and the peaceful transfer of Presidential power, and presciently advised against “entangling foreign alliances.”

In honor of such superior character and faithful service, the Nation’s capital and a plethora of cities, towns, public venues, schools, bridges, and institutions bear his venerable name, together with the national currency. George Washington, one of the venerated “Founders” of our Democratic Republic, was also a spiritual avatar of its radically conceived, radical democratic future.

It is a viscerally arduous and intellectually challenging task to compare the character and record of George Washington, the acknowledged “Father of Our Country,” with the perversely neurotic, self-serving, hubristic Donald J. Trump; however, as noted above, the consideration of empirically demonstrated extremes is useful to our deliberations and ultimate choices.

“The abstract, conceivable, comparison of George Washington with the “beyond ‘the pale,” infamous and empirically cartoonish, Trump, easily yeilds a universe of difference between the historic leader of the American Colonial Army, and Trump, who. famously had\ used family influence to cause his alleged “bone spurs” in his ankle to attain the valiant status of “draft dodger,” publicly referred to the vast number of graves of soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery as “Suckers” and “Losers, ” revealingly stating,” What was in it for them?”

Unlike Washington’s solicitous concern for his army in his prescient (18th Century) program to responsibly have them inoculated against smallpox, the Trump-appointed Secretary of Health has engaged in a national policy to ban vaccination, an irresponsible dystopian policy that has already seen the reappearance of several mortally infectious diseases.

Unlike the avatar of Republican Democracy, who famously refused his country’s invitation to be a King, Trump has publicly declared his intention to rule as a “Dictator,” such an un-American intention evinced in his voter denial, disregard of the Constitutional tri-partite architecture, Separation of Powers,” declaring war and tariffs without mandated Congressional approval, interference with the right to vote, astronomical violation of the “Emolument Clause.” enriching himself and family, use of the military for perceived domestic need (posse comitatus) raising and generously supporting a private, masked army to arrest and deport innocent, law-abiding Hispanic emigrees,.

The potential choice of the Nation’s Chief Executive resides eternally with the voter.

-p.

Blogpost # M. 448 A PERSONAL MESSAGE

In this age of ubiquitous digital communication, rare personal messages are read with special attention. They are usually motivated by a sense of urgency or, to convey an intimate feeling, best expressed in real time in selective lexicon. Such an intimate mode of communication portends the desire to notify or inform the recipient of the extant immediacy, personal sincerity, or the notable occurrence of an event of mutual interest.

The functional dynamic of words is to serve as recognizable symbols of ideas, objects, feelings, and actions, allowing the communication of the meaning of things; not the things themselves, but abstract ideas that stand for relevant concepts or social understandings that give them meaning. It is empirically notable, however, that the empirical objects, alone, may adequately convey identical unarticulated feelings. The latter species of communication provides the thematic dynamics of this writing,

However, in the interest of conveying the contextual setting of our thematic message, we will briefly allude to its relevant background and empirical significance.

The putrid atmosphere engendered by the Trump Administration’s trashing of the Nation’s Constitution, traditional American way of life, the Nation’s economy, and its historically revered standing among nations, is only too well known. His autocratic mode of governance has given rise, among other nightmares, to a private, masked Gestapo to arrest and intimidate persons who subjectively resemble immigrants, the unauthorized imposition of tariffs on the Nation’s trading partners, the illegal waging of multiple wars against foreign sovereignties, including Iran (the latter resulting in the predictable closing of the existentially vital Straits of Hormuz), the trashing of our consumer economy and ubiquitous disregard for the Nation’s constitution, rule of law and of plain decency.

The resultant, dystopian nature of Trump’s unprecedented, autocratic rule has engendered fear, confusion, and doubt about the existential endurance of our historically venerated Democratic Republic. The traditional American citizen has been disheartened and confused concerning the autocratic nature of the Trump-MAGA rule, and has been depressingly fearful of an atavistic march to the nightmarish specter of tyrannical rule.

It is heartening and uplifting to note the vast “No Kings” demonstrations taking place throughout the Nation in public opposition to Donald Trump’s perversion of our uniquely revered polity, which the traditional American citizen maintains hope of restoration in the next Presidential election, unfortunately, a full three dystopian years in the future. What is vitally and emotionally needed is the encouragement and assurance of credibly reliable hope regarding the near future.

This writing is intended to notify the reader of an irrefutably authoritative message of renewed joy as to the imminent restoration of our traditionally venerated and humanistic Democratic Republic. The reliable but significant, inarticulate message (see above) was meaningfully conveyed to us last weekend at our Kingston, New York, residence.

The accumulated plethora of obscene gold leaf, tastelessly festooned throughout the White House, by Donald Trump, his ill-gotten bitcoin millions, gifted airplane, extorted millions, and his full hubristic inventory of black sharpies, do not in any credible, meaningful way compare to the intrinsic value of an approximately three-inch light green shoot seen emerging from one of our planted early spring tulip bulbs, joyfully noticed last Sunday.

Nature has once more assured us of the essential wonder of life and the comparative insignificance of transient human failings.

Wishing all readers a joyous (and hopeful) Spring!

-p,

Blogpost # M. 447 THE POTTERY BARN MANDATE

Based on the policies and actions of Donald Trump, to those who would creditably refer to him as a “Bull in a China shop,” we would add with equal verisimilitude that he eternally carries the “China Shop” with him.

Our singular Head of State, known for hybristically eschewing the Nation’s Constitution, its Rule of Law, accepted societal mores, and the human moral compass, nevertheless, inescapably is affirmatively bound by the immutable mandate of the Pottery Barn, viz., “You broke it, you bought it.”

The Trump Administration’s most recent and outlandishly clumsy destruction of world peace was the product of his deluded and illegal declaration of war against Iran, based upon Trump’s delusional assertion of its imminent military threat to the United States. We are advised that, based on the Defense Intelligence Agency’s assessment, no such imminent threat currently exists, and further, that it currently has no program to produce nuclear weapons for such purpose. Further, it has been determined that waging war against Iran would not constitute a suitable or successful way to advance human rights for its citizens.

Nevertheless, in March of 2026, the USA and the State of Israel chose to enter into a coordinated military campaign against Iran (“Operation Epic Fury”), marked by air strikes on Iranian facilities. Such declaration of war, however, lacks any exit strategy and has aroused retaliatory action against U.S. posts in Qatar and Bahrain.

As a predictable response to Trump’s bull-headed policy, Iran has closed the Straits of Hormuz, causing an international crisis and further sparking global fuel prices. The blockage of the waterway has halted virtually all oil tankers and shipping, resulting in a serious commercial world crisis.

The graceless Donald J. Trump, in accordance with the eternal strictures of the Pottery Barn mandate, has incontrovertibly broken the valuable asset and, as a consequence, fully owns it.

-p.

Blogpost # M. 446 THE PERIPATETIC FRANCHISE

The right to vote is, inarguably, the existential dynamic of a Democratic polity. It is the singular route to a “government by, and for, the People,” as envisioned and provided by our Nation’s Founders.

Electoral fraud or voter fraud involves illegal voting in, or manipulation of, the voting process. Objective history has shown, in fact, that voter fraud is extremely rare in the United States; nevertheless, false accusations do have an active history, especially relative to the 2016 and 2020 elections, evincing the singular denial and underhanded tactics of Donald J. Trump. One unforgettable and remarkable example is Trump’s (accidentally televised) telephone request of the Georgia Secretary of State to “find” an additional number of (empirically determinative) votes in his favor. The reader will, no doubt, recall the plethora of exotic conspiratorial ideations tactically conceived by Trump’s MAGA acolytes, some of which, conceivably, may pass muster at Louis Carroll’s “Mad Hatter’s tea party.

The “Will of the People” is a fundamental democratic concept that defines the collective preferences of a community on public issues, usually expressed through elections. It is thematically relevant, in this context, to recall that, in the concept of “general will,” it is the people who are sovereign.

Donald Trump’s bizarre autocratic rule and resultant National dystopia have resulted in an outraged public response. His derogation of the Constitution, trashing of the separation of powers, unilateral declarations of war, and sophomoric imposition of tariffs on America’s trading partners, leading to unbearable consumer prices, Gestapo immigration policies, and demonstrated immorality, have motivated millions of American citizens in New York, Wisconsin, Illinois and several other states, as well as smaller communities to effect a plethora of huge public demonstrations in the amount of millions of concerned citizens in demonstrated rebellion against Trump’s autocratic and hubristic rule.

Such unprecedented, enormous citizen protests are, inarguably, expressions of the will of the people as valid and articulate as the citizen voting franchise; they represent the peripatetic vote and will of the people, voting with their feet; which cannot be tactically distorted.

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Blogpost # M.445 CRIMINAL TRESPASS

Analogous in impatient agony to the (Greek) mythological “Tantalus,” frustratingly unable to reach his existential food, we have waited impatiently and in vain for the appropriate response to the egregious acts of Donald J. Trump in the virtual rape of the American Nation’s revered White House.

In hubristic and empirical disregard of the Nation’s history and tradition, and demonstrative of his sociopathic persona, Trump is guilty of committing historical blasphemy against the American Nation and its venerated history by his assertive and unauthorized destruction and maiming of the Nation’s venerated official residence and office of the Nation’s prior 45 Chiefs of State, and the historically celebrated symbol of the democratic Nation.

The first of such appallingly assertive, unauthorized, and psychopathic acts was Trump’s hubristic (and tasteless) paving over of the historic White House Rose Garden to inappropriately replicate the style of his beach resort patio at Mar-A-Lago. The historically significant White House Rose Garden had been the traditional venue for the practice of diplomacy, conduct of major ceremonies, and historic events, and has borne a significant historical provenance

The second act of shameful vandalism by our protagonist, whose persona imbues the hybrid confluence of caveman ignorance and the imperial lust of Attila the Hun, has consisted, in a similarly hubristic and deranged manner, of Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House; according to recent reports, the historic East Wing has already been sacrilegiously reduced to a large pile of historic rubble.

The imperial project conceived by our grandiose Chief Executive is slated to cost the nation’s treasury upwards of four hundred million dollars at a time when, as a consequence of Trump’s ignorant imposition of tariffs against America’s trading partners, no less than 40% of American citizens are barely subsisting on a check-to-check basis. It may be of interest to remind the reader that Trump has egoistically and inappropriately festooned the Oval Office and other portions of the White House with gold leaf, a measure obscenely inconsistent with the expressed wishes of our anti-monarchical Founders.

We are especially gratified to note the huge citizen protests against Trump’s autocratic political rule, but remain, nevertheless, puzzled and dismayed by the relative absence of similar public outrage regarding his egregious vandalism of the Nation’s treasured historic edifice.

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Blogpost # M, 444 PUPPETS AND PUPPETEERS [“Free-Will”]

The classic debate over whether human beings reliably control their actions (“free will”) or if such actions are controlled or influenced by prior causes, such as biology and the environment, thus making the perception of free will an illusion, has become passe, having been notably superseded by our modern concern relative to digitalized modern reality.

As observers of the modern scene, we are obliged to relevantly obfuscate the age-old debate by cogent reference to the tactical development of the “algorithm.” As we perceive it, an “algorithm is a data system in which the individual’s search history and browsing habits are used to unfailingly present him with similar or related material. to encourage or discourage acceptance of a related material or conception. Its effects are subtly and tactually intended to encourage or influence one’s choice of relevant action

In addition to one’s naturally nuanced assortment of influencers, he is thereby confronted with such subtle prods concerning his choice of action, the resultant decision, conceivably, far less advantageous than another of his potential choices, by reason of the tactical influence of the subtle algorithmic process. The fearful prospect arises that mankind may, ultimately, become stringless puppets to manipulative political, social, or commercial puppet masters.

The panacea relevant to the vital preservation of our individuality or freedom of choice resides in the metaphysical message, eternally expressed in our approximately 1,500 blog posts in their fundamental purpose. Existentially vital to said narrative essays and observations is the salubrious promotion and maturity of the recognized discriminant “inner self” or stable self-image, eternally referable at times of choice, and resistant to the influence of self-serving and irresponsible others. We have eternally recommended the development of a stable, universally referrable and independent self-image; one, resiliently independent of puppet masters, human or digitalized programs by personal growth and advancement through reading, the arts, and personal involvement with the issues of the day.

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