Month: October 2024

The soil curates small slips of man
His life, his work, his resume
The petit detritus of his life
A library of tales, again retold.
No need to search with system code
Items are best secured by chance
With lucky use of spade and rake
Close searched where man did live and die
A rusty nail, a piece of tool
Both witnesses to man’s resolve
To raise a shelter for repose.
A fragment of a printed page,
Reveals a ken that there’s yet more.
Old cans and jars and rusty spoons,
Betoken, victory over want,
And man’s resolve to live out life.
The grassy fields perforce are doors,
Enclosing bits of lives past lived—
Far warmer than some research “App.”
With cold results in digit code!

Leonard N. Shapiro, N.Y. 9/1/16

-p.

We have elected to start this mini-essay with an apology. With an unlimited universe of potentially more rewarding, thought-provoking subjects, we find ourselves again constrained by the extant, foul political atmosphere to write about its most conspicuous pollutant, Donald J. Trump. We presume that we have, by now, sufficiently commented on his neurotic self-love, utter and complete ignorance and startling incompetence, his serial mendacity and lack of moral compass, \ all-encompassing bigotry, criminality (adjudged and multi-indicted), his treasonous relations with the Nation’s enemies, his unconstitutional acts, including election denial and sponsorship of an insurrection plus, a full litany of tax fraud, bribes, extortion, violation of the emolument clause, and notably, his ominous public declarations of intention to be a dictator.

Notwithstanding the above, we feel constrained to highlight three of the many acts of Trump’s cruelty which ruminatively rankle us with feelings of shock and exasperation. In our view, such three acts are especially revelatory of his innate, cruelly and systemic pathological nature.

[ STRIKE 1] “Suckers and Losers”:

Trump famously visited America’s most revered shrine honoring its military, killed in the defense of the Nation, in the company of his Chief of Staff, four-star Marine General, John Kelly. During their visit, Trump repulsively referred to the abundant gravesites of the fallen American warriors, as “suckered” and “losers.” He in his systemically pathological fashion, remarked to General Kelley. who himself had tragically lost a son in war, “What was in it for them?” The statement speaks as an eloquent revelation of his atrocious character.

[ STRIKE 2] “Paper Towel ” burlesque” to Puerto Rican Deadly Hurricane Victims:

Puerto Rico, our American “Incorporated Territory,” was devastated by a historically enormous, hurricane on October 11, 2017. All-pervasive flooding, and tragic destruction of homes, churches, and major infrastructure were tragically accompanied by a substantial and tragic loss of life. Much of the Caribbean island was underwater and in dire need of assistance.

As required of a President of the United States, Donald Trump officially paid an official visit to Puerto Rico and, in the face of the horrendous tragedy and dangerous privation of the Island’s population, demonstrated the extent of his empathic recognition of the colossal tragedy by the ludicrous act of publically tossing out rolls of paper towels to an assembly of Puerto Ricans, sheltered in a hotel. He later praised himself for this saintly act of emphatic assistance, stating proudly, “They were soft, beautiful [paper] towels and the people at the hotel lobby loved them.” In our view, this delusional, cruel, and unfeeling show of faux empathy can objectively be seen as a toxic instance of pathologically sarcastic and cruelly demonstrated indifference,

[ STRIKE 3] Ridicule of a palsied T.V. reporter :.

We have chosen to evaluate this particular ingredient in his large cornucopia of pathological cruelty, as the most reprehensible and demonstrative of Donald Trump’s systemically mean character.

The shameful event occurred during a televised program on one of the major television news channels. Immediately following the televised remarks by our saintly protagonist, Donald J. Trump, several news reporters rushed, as usual, to the podium to ask questions. One of the reporters was a middle-aged man with Cerebral palsy who bravely, and with all available dignity, despite his visible handicap of systemic and uncontrolled “shakes,” common to persons so afflicted, held out a small microphone and proceeded to ask some newsworthy questions of Trump. Trump thereupon, in shameless, cruel view of the struggling, disabled reporter and kin view of the vast television audience, widely performed a cruel and shameful comedic ape show mocking the uncontrolled movements and clinically nuanced voice of the disabled, courageous reporter. This ugly, unforgivable satire of the unfortunately extreme symptoms, in our perception, is the most cruel of all the trademark sadistic behaviors of the orange-haired, would-be autocrat.

When we add Trump’s egregious quality of pathological cruelty to the [plethora of his demonstrated lack of moral compass, ignorance, and utter incapability, the bizarre nature of the universally predicted “close race,” becomes completely incomprehensible. In the coming presidential election, the em empirical facts emphasize that in this singular Presidential election, it appears to be more important who one votes against, than who one votes for.

-p.

It is our opinion, that the time-worn aphoristic chestnut, ” Awareness of history is necessary to avoid repetition of past mistakes,” has little utility. As we read the classic literature and study history we discover that Man’s mistakes are universally replicated since they are the product of the unchanging universal human persona; each successive crop of Homo Sapiens seems to display an analogous persona to their predecessors.

Regular readers of this blogspace know that we suffer from an eternal penchant for selecting words, most descriptive of the writer’s feeling or intended message. We confess to a demonstrable and excessive concern for using the applicable descriptive adjectives, adverbs, and selected nouns in pursuit of the accuracy of the author’s expression of intent.

Despite the imminent possibility that our particular selection of (nouns) objects for lexicographic distinction may be perceived as frivolous, we see utility in its instructive demand for exactitude and its contextual application to the above-cited aphorism.

In the course of our evaluation of recent history, it has seemed to be appropriate to distinguish the references to discarding superseded events and retrograde concepts, by the classic use of the neutral and non-judgmental expression: “relegated to the dustbin or (ashbin) of history,” from, when relevantly applicable, a felt emphatic and expressive, “Tosserd in the historical dumpster.”

Regarding those events or concepts in Man’s history that have become useless and archaic; i.e.,, superseded by better thought or more utilitarian devices or equipment. we would appropriately approve phrases such as ” relegated to the dustbin of history, ” or the like. However, events and beliefs that are ignorant or prejudicial. and historically been noxious or injurious to civilized society, we find it appropriate and meaningful to discard them by “tossing them in the dumpster.”

In the more recent category of “relegate it to the dustbin of history,” we would include such items as, hand-held and transistor radios, kaleidoscopes skeleton keys, galoshes, pencil boxes, knickers, box cameras, derby hats, vests, snap-on suspenders, tie pins, women’s hats and veils, bobby pins, long-handed (“safety”) razors, hair creams, hot cocoa, “egg creams,” ice cream sodas, gumball and peanut vending machines, baseball cards, stamp, coin and photo albums, vinyl records, postcards, yo-yo’s, spinning tops, and “spauldeens” for youngsters and a veritable universe of memorabilia that have become “retro,” and properly, denominated as, “swept into the dustbin of history. “

Contextually, the “dustbin” reference merely implies that the subject has become useless or inapplicable in the normal progress of development or revised understanding. It is temporal and informational, merely indicating relevant advances in awareness or technology. By contrast, there exist reprehensible memories of Man’s recent history, regarding which the neutral analogical reference, “relegated to the dustbin of history,” would be an insufficient, non-empathic, and non-humanistic reference; these matters are analogically expressed, more appropriately, as tossed in Man’s shameful and repulsive analogical historical “dumpster. “

If it were possible to look into the depths of such mammoth-sized despicable “dumpster,” we would nauseatingly observe a plethora of rotting debris deposited throughout American history. The historically reprehensible contents disposed of since the Nation’s early inception would include, among other horrors, chattel slavery, Jim Crow, Andrew Jackson’s cruel and heartless removal of Indigenous peoples from their traditional, fertile homes to forced resettlement to the arid plains of Oklahoma and elsewhere, the kidnapping of the latter’s children to “Christianize the savages,” the Nation’s bloody Civil War, the numerous instances of indefensible racial killings, such as Edmond Till, the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy, the human privations of the Great Depression, the participation in the Viet Nam War, the shameful; internment of innocent Japnese American citizens during World War 2, the American rejection and return to their death of Jewish refugees in the Nazi holocaust, the dangerous fascism of Joseph McCarthy and many other past abominations; all rotting in various stages of odoriferous decomposition.

The U.S, Department of Health recently determined that the referenced dumpster has become dangerously overloaded, and, in its responsible effort to support and protect the health of the ambient American population just last month, established a supplementary, enormous dumpster for the continued deposit of discontinued pernicious devices and offensive policies, wisely condemned to such official and ignominious storage.

We would, personally and, more significantly, in the interest of our Democratic Republic, suggest further suitable items for ignominious discard in the newly provided dumpster: the Electoral College, the Presidential right of pardon, censorship of all kinds (to include educational limitations and book banning), voter interference (gerrymandering, purging of voter lists, reduction of voting places, election denial), religious influence in governmental matters, governmental influence in abortion, prevailing, racial, religious and gender preferences, unregulated gun ownership, fossil fuels, robocalls, misguided interference with legally approved immigration, consequential tax inequity, and the pragmatic provision of a specially allocated garbage disposal area for White Christian militias and for Donald J. Trump and the latter’s delusional and deluded, MAGA cult.

“Dumpster” occupants are to be resolutely and universally despised, while, by thematic contrast, items simply “swept up into the dustbin of history” may be remembered and utilized as a historical reference in the developmental and moral progress of humanistically aspirational Mankinmd,

• Title taken from a 1993 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson

-p.

A poignant account of our early venture into the unknown and exotic world of romance may be contemporarily humorous, nevertheless, it serves our thematic purpose of contrasting the style and context of romantic interaction in our 1950s High School days, with that, observably prevailing today. Our intended purpose is societally empirical and not morally judgmental.

After some weeks of surreptitious surveillance, we summoned up our potential for valor and hesitantly, after class, succeeded in breathlessly asking our attractive and, maturely endowed, classmate, “J” for a traditional,) Saturday night, movie date; after that attempting, perhaps in vain, to hide my feelings of fear and heart-beating happiness, upon her smiling acceptance and compliance with my request for her telephone number and address.

For the balance of that week, we felt our heart beat excitedly at the prospect of the coming Saturday evening and tried not to make further eye contact with “J” for the remainder of the week, with the sole exception of two weak and diffident waves in class when she casually chose to look my way. We ventured a conspiratorial wave on Friday, at the end of classe to which she, we worrisomely, perceived, did not respond.

When Saturday evening at last, arrived, at precisely 7:30, we took a quick shower,, dressed (in our new brown wool sweater and tan-colored chino slacks), checked our hair (two times), and then traveled by city bus to the apartment house address previously furnished by “J” (Apt. 2B). For some unknown reason, we had contracted a light cough which had seemed to persist throughout Saturday afternoon but mercifully ceased its assault at approximately 6 PM, just before to the pre-date shower and did not recur until reaching her apartment door.

We knocked awkwardly and unnecessarily loudly in response to which, a pleasant-looking, middle-aged gentleman appeared at the door, and after routine greetings and perceived concentrated scrutiny, articulated some precautionary inquiries, and stated that his daughter, “J” needs to be home no later than twelve o’clock, midnight.

Yet unnoticed and still standing in the entranceway of ” Apt. 2 B” we were pleased to see “J,” adorned in a pretty baby blue argyle sweater and color-matching skirt, smiling an assurance to her father that she would be home early. Her father, still scrutinizing us, withdrew to the living room, sat down at an essay chair, unfolded his newspaper, and commenced reading.

After arriving at the bus stop, we were happily surprised to be the beneficiaries of a small peck on the cheek from “J” and, in time, mounted a city bus bound for the neighborhood theater. Tickets were purchased and we were then guided in the dark interior of the movie theater, by a movie theater employee with a flashlight, to our seats, she sat to my left.

As customary, the traditional two features were preceded by”The Movietone News,” and succeded by an animated cartoon,. in this case, a loud “Tom and Jerry,” At this point, neither “J” nor we, said anything to the other, although “J” did, silently submit to my courageous intention to lightly hold her hand. The latter franchise was exciting and hopefully perceived as permission to go further in our youthful, and fearful desire for further, more ego-rewarding physical contact.

We had difficulty concentrating on the first movie being excitedly distracted by her close proximity and the lovely enhanced reflection on her half-smiling face from the reflected cinema screen, Instead of attempting to better concentrate on the movie, we bravely aspired with the courageous intention to put our right arm around the back of her movie chair. By furtive and minute degrees we began to move our right arm toward her accompanying seat, which stealthy undertaking singularly occupied our anxious mind. It was not until a time, just before the conclusion of the first feature that success was attained in resting a now aching right arm on the back of her movie seat, following which, with cautious and respectful stealth,. moved the aching limb judiciously and lightly to the top of her right shoulder where it valorously remained, without comment, during the better part of the final feature,

It was getting late, so we quickly proceeded to the nearby diner for the traditional “black and white” ice cream soda (a traditional scoop of vanilla ice cream in a chocolate soda) and then bundled off to the bus stop for her, pre-midnight return home, On the bus, “J” softly expressed her thanks for a nice evening, and shortly (too short for us arrived at her home. After again thanking us for a nice evening, we successfully braved the ultimate challenge of kissing our date, lightly, on the lips, which mercifully, she accepted and said good night, We happily set out for home with a sense of proven valor and personal confirmation.

• [ This mostly accurate autobiographical account was prompted by our recent surprised reaction to a televised program on the subject of the mandatory requirements for the modern woman’s wardrobe, in which the celebrity interviewee stated that a particular item of intimate wear, was identified as her “dating panties.” How times have changed! ( N.B.–Query: for the better or the worse?)]

-p.

Our systemic obligation of candor obliges us, uncomfortably, to make the following confession of signature hypocrisy, possibly attaining the empirical level of shameful and abhorrent cognitive dissonance. To acquire some measure of relevant expiation, we have ventured, albeit, painfully, to make this honest, written confession. But, first, we feel the contextual need to offer some clarifying and explanatory personal observations.

Over the decades, we have been avid promoters of animal rights. In addition to our consistent ownership and nurturance of no less than two cats, we have eternally experienced feelings of love and respect for the animal world. We have admired and relished the sight of woodland fauna seen at our Kingston, New York residence, deer, bears, foxes, birds, squirrels, and rabbits; indeed, all of the observable woodland creatures. We have also been on two African safaris where we were privileged to encounter and greatly admire many exotic members of the planet’s animal kingdom.

Our outrage and aversion to demonstrated animal cruelty, such as is shown in televised programs of ASPCA, seeking financial support for animals suffering from cruel and negligent treatment, causes feelings of horror and heartfelt empathy. In this context, we confess to an emotional inability to bear the imagined horror and murderous cruelty daily existing at the nightmarish animal slaughterhouses.

Relevantly, we are opponents of gun ownership, given the empirical fact that guns have the sole and limited utility of killing or maiming. We have also been ardently and moral opponents of Capital Punishment, which we perceive as atavistic State murder.

There is no possible scenario in which we could acceptably engage in the insensitive “sport” of hunting, even in the explanatory search for food; the empirical sight of warm-blooded animals in bloody distress is morally abhorrent and not emotionally acceptable to us.

Despite the previous statements of empathic and sensitive abhorrence of the participatory or visual homicide of the planet’s warm-blooded animals, we have experienced various levels of personal guilt when the popular subject of cuisine is discussed with a confirmed vegetarian; an event from which, if socially possible, we aesthetically refrain.

Concluding with our thematic admission of contextual hypocrisy, our exercise of the abominable sin is performed by our subjective morally convenient, and tactical perception that the serving of beef, chicken, or other protein, accompanying our meal is simply, “dinner” rather than a portion of a killed and cooked animal. This admittedly sinful and hypocritical observation is morally and philosophically false but is a rather utilitarian sin.

-p.

For some time we, presumably, in sync with other American mainstream citizens, have been bewildered (and agonized) by the bizarre media reports that the race for the American Presidency, (given the contenders) continues to be close. Such reports have caused us to doubt the wisdom of the American democratic foundational message of “one man. one vote.”

To avoid misunderstanding regarding our previous statement, we would emphatically declare our firm beliefs in the following democratic principles: (1) All people are equal, despite their nuanced individuality (2) The proper aspiration of our democratic republic is to be a government ” by and for the people.” (3) A Republican Democracy is the most just and humanistic form of polity. (4) And notably, for the above principles of equality and democracy to be successful, ( as Thomas Jefferson, presciently declared) a literate and well-informed population is required, It is with this “4th” mandated principle that this writing is contextually concerned.

The nomination of Donald Trump for a second Presidential term, supported, by millions of fiercely loyal voters, despite his known perverse character, incapability, and demonstrated lack of moral compass, inarguably constitutes a popular demonstration of cognitive disorder when measured by the accepted principles referred to above; and, notably, with the beneficial aspirations of our Nation’s Founders. piously inscribed in the Constitution and systemically applied in its legislation and judicial precedent.

We have for some time, attempted to empirically reconcile Jefferson’s admonition, with our inherited national aspirations, however, under the circumstances of the contemporary political scene, we find it necessary, albeit, difficult. to question the prescience of Jefferson and of Benjamin Franklyn ( “…it is a Republic, if we can keep it,”) The political polls bizarrely continue to show the potential electability of Donald Trump, despite his publically known criminal and immoral record and notably, his public declarations to be a dictator.

We would thematically acknowledge the wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson: ” A foolish inconsistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.” In keeping with such unassailable advice, we would dare to make the following radical declaration: the one man, one vote principle, while unassailable as a democratic principle is not pragmatically suitable to our Nation, which, unfortunately, counts among its citizenry, a large population of inadequately educated and poorly informed citizens. We suffer the eternal threat of dangerous incompetence or tyrannical rule, by traditional adherence to such admittedly democratic, but, nevertheless, hazardous, principle; at least without some supplementary change in our system of electing a Chief Executive.

We have long and unsuccessfully ruminated on the existence of democratically feasible solutions to the enunciated, but problematic impact of one man, one vote viz., the existence of a large population of poorly informed and educated populist citizens, No sort of educative or cultural solution appeared to be pragmatically feasible or free of the possibility of tactical misuse. For better or worse our Nation is populated with a sufficiently ample number of poorly informed “populist” citizens. Consequently, to remove the hazard of political or policy disaster, a procedure must be beneficially devised, consistent with the traditional tenets of a Democratic Republic.

Relative to the empirically diverse nature of the American population, it is our view that the endurance of the democratic Republic may, prudentially and salubriously be assured by the following suggested procedure. If all prospective candidates for the August office of Chief Executive were mandatorily and thoroughly vetted (perhaps by a balanced or non-partisan panel) the selection of judgmentally acceptable candidates presented for selection for voters of every description would be far more suitable than that now presented which includes the celebrated, unhinged, and perverse Orange-haired reprobate. It may notably be observed that positions, we daresay, of the most mundane description, require previous scrutiny and acceptance; why not, perforce, America’s august and impactful office of the Presidency?

-p.

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Selwin T. Kluggermench, the sole progeny of Tandelaya and F. Throckmorton Klugermench, 32 years of age and still living with his parents, sat up on the early morning of his birthday, July 4, parted the window curtains and ruminated on the miraculous turn his life has taken from its former awkwardly introverted and frustratingly meaningless state to his present fortuitous, widely celebrated success.

His life changed at the mere age of 22, because of the discovery of his innate, unique, and previously undisclosed, talent for computer lapboard research. Lately, he has regularly been consulted by leading research institutions, governmental and civilian, including, the U.S. Censorship Bureau, the National Weather Service, the U.S. Departments of State, The Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Geographic, The Boy Scouts of America and a virtually unlimited clientele, who, at times require the most arcane and abstruse data, empirically unattainable even by the most highly recognized researchers available in the digital world.

Sartorially unkempt and remarkably skinny, the previously non-assertive, Selwin Kluggermench’s subsequently revealed. life-changing singular data crunching capability was fortuitously discovered by the brother of an inspector employed by the home inspection service, engaged by Kluggermench Senior, as part of the customary exercise of diligence concerning the prospective purchase of a suburban home in Wistful Vista, New York. The resultant discovery of a substantial infestation of Eastern Subterranean Termites necessitated the pragmatic termination of the real estate transaction. but by fortunate happenstance, opened the window to the world-class digital genius of our then-youthful, introverted, and markedly introverted protagonist.

Selwin, with lapboard, writing pad, and two, freshly sharpened Eberhard # 2 wooden pencils, after breaking off a soft 6-inch piece of the infested wooden building frame, simply as personal amusement, thereafter successfully calculated the precise extent of the realty’s termite infestation, inclusive of the yet visibly undamaged portions of the wooden structure. The signature event, performed simply for his own casual amusement, was by chance observed by the visiting manager of the house inspection company and excitedly reported to his brother, Milton; a highly placed civil servant in the State Environmental Commission. Milton, after painstaking confirmation of Selwein’s computer calculations, related the facts to his paternal cousin. employed, locally, by the United States Department of the Interior.

To summarize a long subsequent and eventful series of events, the singular capability of our protagonist as an undiscovered lapboard genius of recondite intelligence, became a household word in the arcane world of academic and political investigation. Remote and valuable areas, previously inaccessible despite the expensive employment of known capable and innovative researchers, were, at last accessible through the singular and seemingly “occult talent” of the fortuitously discovered, maestro of lapboard research and analysis, the unique and brilliant, Selwin Kluggermench.

Subsequently, Selwin went on to amaze the multi-disciplined academic research world with his exceptional prowess in research analysis, relative to any variety of ubiquitously submitted subjects, ranging from the optic impact of the bumble bees’ yellow coloration on the daytime seductive properties of the pistols of the tea rose, to the secret articulated language visibly implicit in tree rings, the quantum of chewing gum masticated by teenagers, below the age of seventeen, the dynamics of the innate circular curling prowess, empirically attributable to Eastern earthworms and the standard, acceptable diameter of center holes in the average, commercially produced bagel. Nothing was pragmatically unattainable with the benefit of the miraculously utilitarian services of Selwin Kluggermench. the international aficionado and exotic guru of recondite computer lapboard research.

It may be enlightening to note however, anecdotally, and revealingly, on last Tuesday’s typical rainy morning, after serving her Selwin his customary milk-toast and cocoa breakfast, Tondelaya Kluggermench advised her son as follows: “Selwin, dear, we received a letter for you this morning,” Selwin, uncomfortably confused, but preternaturally inquisitive, responded, ” Momma, what’s a letter?”

-p.

It is not possible to overemphasize the empirical fact that our Nation is entirely populated with immigrants and their descendants (with the possible exception of its Indigenous peoples). Yet the controversy over the admission of new Americans from foreign countries seeking safety or a better quality of life for themselves and their families is productive of non-empathic and determinative controversy

The word “xenophobia,” is universally understood as a fear of strangers or of someone from a different place of origin. It is our considered view that such a mindset is, at the same time, similar to such phobic pathologies as “claustrophobia,” the fear of confined spaces, “agoraphobia,” the fear of being in places where escape is difficult, “pathophobia,” the fear of disease, and “astraphobia,” the fear of thunder and lightning, but as a singular and distinctive aberration, it can be taught, as in the case of the universal dynamics of human bigotry.

We perceive the pathology of ” xenophobia,” as constituting another example of the toxic plethora of irrational bigotry, as morally inappropriate and, sadly, like many other pernicious forms of prejudice, or intolerance, has become a subject of intense disputation and enmity.

It was Emma Lazarus, who referenced the Nation’s institutional and empathic welcome to needy foreigners, by the empathic designation of the Nationally representational, Statue of Liberty ” as the “Mother of Exiles,” and in poetic terms reference it a symbolic colossus, standing tall in the East River, facing Europe with the open invitation, “.Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to be free,” Her aesthetic message articulates the Nation’s traditional humanistic welcome to all new Americans, as legislated in the Nation’s Immigration Laws.

We, with much discomfort, recall the deplorable declarations of Donald Trump on the subject of immigration, “They (?) send us their (?) bad people, their criminals, their rapists…murderers, et cetra ad nauseum. Before we proceed with our contextual theme, we would inquire as to whom Trump refers to when he accusatorily refers to “they” (as in “they send”) and “their.” Foreign refugees from dire peril are universally in flight from their former government and certainly are not “sent” by their respective authoritarian or criminal leaders from whom they flee. By empirical contrast, immigrants universally, escape from dire poverty and famine, seeking a better life for themselves and family.

It is infuriating to hear Donald Trump’s gross and defamatory exhortations, to the delight of his loyal horde of America’s huge underbelly of populist acolytes, concerning these vulnerable souls, desperately fleeing from a dismal existence, yearning, in the words of Emma Lazarus, “to live free.”

The defamatory words, “rapists,” criminals” and the like, neurotically ascribed by Donald Trump to the poor, desperate, and brave heroes who venture to brave great vicissitudes in their desperate march across untold miles of boiling hot desert wasteland in desperate search of freedom, are especially hateful, false and especially obnoxious for the persona of Donald Trump, who has been shamefully a declared an adjudicated rapist is a recognized multi- indicted and convicted felonious criminal, and incidentally, himself, a first generation American citizen (son of a German immigrant) whose all three marriages were celebrated with immigrant wives.

Donald Trump,. with the cultish compliance of his populist base, would likely prefer a change the Nation’s emblematic motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” to a less inclusive expression such as “In Trumpus Verbatim.”

For all those xenophobic descendants of immigrants, we would earnestly inquire as to what makes current immigrants any different or worse than the population of Americans, who, irrefutably are children of immigrants?

-p.

The two terms of Barack Obama’s presidential administration buttressed our faith in the future of Republican Democracy. We were confirmed in our belief that the errant Presidential terms of Richard Nixon and George Bush, like that of history’s Andrew Jackson’s, were anecdotal and not empirically representative of the historical traditions of that August office as exemplified by the esteemed service of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Needless to say, the elevation of Donald J. Trump, whose primal malevolence, incompetence, and egocentric desire for autocracy have been previously observed, was a shocking and disheartening epiphany. The events during his administration elevated the folk aphorism regarding the “rotten apple in the barrel” creditability and emphatic ratification in an unprecedented putrified and disturbing evolution of sentiment concerning our Republican Democracy and its systemic regard for citizen liberty and equality, A foul mist of autocratic political pollution suddenly invaded the historically fresh air of ” liberty and equality of all,” inspired in by our American constitutional principle and dynamically proclaimed in our free way of life,

Most puzzling and systemically devastating was the resultant outbreak of a toxic National pandemic of viral Trumpist support, sweeping the Nation, most especially inclusive of the inadequately educated and poorly informed hoards of populists, financially supported by the self-interested profit-loving, anti-health regulation, industrial orthodox devotees to the Deity of profit.

The inordinately large number of anti-democratic political office holders visibly in fear of Trump’s sway over the voting power of his cultish sycophants permitted, even, encouraged, a vile metastasis of anti-democratic and antisocial elements to perniciously invade our traditionally healthy body politic and infest it with self-hatred and the denial of principle. An egocentric, orange-haired, proverbial rotten apple had, incredibly and tragically, spoiled the National barrel of historically established, unique republican democracy. The prevailing sentiment sadly making its rounds throughout the Nation became fear and distrust rather than the stable and prevailing efforts toward, mutual confidence in one another, regardless of physical difference, and ultimate faith in the ultimate benevolence of the Nation. Frustratingly, nightmarish was the consequential decline in honor and principle of its highest Court, The Supreme Court of the United States, the existential judicial guardian of citizens’s constitutional rights..

In this toxic morass, the political identity of the Republican Party, one of the two parties in our essentially two-party balanced political system, ceased to exist as a utilitarian and doctrinal opponent to the Democratic Party, bizarrely transmogrified into an obedient Trump cult. The mainstream American citizen had empirically accrued significant, cause to fear for the very endurance of the Democratic Republic and to be in fear of a nightmarish replication of the 1930s Munich Germany; especially considering the large populist, underbelly support, for the proclamation of the unhinged contemporary day unstrung. orange-haired Roman Emperor Nero’s frequent proclamations of his intention to be a dictator,,if reelected,

We especially intend this writing to articulate a “fanfare” and salute to the several members of the Republican Party whose patriotic dedication to our mutual American Nation, and its foundational principles overrode their future concerns of political career to ethically, articulate their opposition to the anti-democratic, would-be dictator, Donald Trump.

With all grateful and respectful sentiment, we award our kudos to all such patriotic, career-endangering American Republican politicians with our highest official medal of honor, the ” Red Badge of Courage.”

• Title borrowed, with appropriate gratitude from, “The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane

-p.

Moist ethereal breezes intimately whisper
Cooling balm to sunbaked foliage.
Trees, now attired in military raiment,
In styles bespeaking revolutionary riot,
Proclaiming in eye-sparkling manifesto,
The swift advent of seasonal overthrow.
-There’s no time to lose!

Boughs strain heavy with seasonal fruitage.
The bounty, tho’, forsaken by large mammals,
In search for safer havens
Alas, no time for juicy gorging,
Time’s to be spent for seasonal survival.
Smaller ones, storing food, burrowing deep.
Instinct warns, dalliance spells disaster!
-We must not tarry!

Winged creatures depart aloft
Huge flocks with little hesitation,
Escaping to safer geography.
Could one but hear beneath the forest floor,
The excited chatter of woodland critters,
Anxiously nose-wrinkling rodent reconnaissance
-Is there yet time?

Darkening clouds bespeak woodland calamity
Soon, winter gales, storms, sheets of ice,
Snow, that covers safe niches and hide-outs,
Cold that delights in shivering death.
All must forsake the Fall magic.
– And again, we will be ready!

-p.
(Leonard N. Shapiro, Sept. 2018)