Month: May 2025

Cognitive understanding and realistic awareness regarding the numerical designation, “one billion”, are contextually relevant to the theme of this writing. Stated in simple arithmetical terms, one billion is one thousand million, a concept that, like the abstruse conception of “light years,” eludes facile comprehension. According to our readings, a stack of one billion dollars would attain the height of a 30-story building. The same source relates that if one spent one dollar every second, it would take 31 years to reach one billion.

The amount of money conceivably required to acquire a lifestyle in the ultimate zenith of luxury is “light years” less than the magnificent sum of one billion dollars. We wonder, therefore, as to the motivation of those individual Americans in the highest level of wealth, viz., the “billionaires,” to acquire yet further monetary assets. It can not be attributed to the ubiquitous human desire to improve one’s standard of living; the bizarrely ambitious drive must necessarily be perceived as having an alternate purpose or aspiration.

An abbreviated listing of the prodigious number of American billionaires includes Elon Musk, 342 billion, Mark Zuckerberg, 216 billion, Jeff Bezos, 215 billion, and Larry Ellison, 192 billion. The inscrutable question posed by this writing relates to the source of their systemic impetus to acquire yet additional wealth; i.e., why these enormously monetarily successful individuals appear to eternally evince an often competitive desire to augment their pragmatically unneeded and surplus wealth.

Observably, when growing up, the noun/adjective “billionaire” did not appear as a reference or designation of business magnates as Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie, and others. In fact, we cannot recall any employment of the designation “billionaire.” By contrast, in today’s media, the appellation is as common as the copious articulation of the written expressions of terms like “tax inequity” and “political influence.”

Our thematic question, irrespective of temporal designation, concerns the bizarre motivation of such extraordinarily wealthy individuals to garner yet more unneeded wealth, often in competition with other similarly inclined, super-rich personalities.

In the case of Donald Trump, the insatiable lust to acquire limitless wealth legally or otherwise appears to be analogous to narcotic addiction, as being is only temporarily gratifying; his systemic addiction seems to exacerbate with exponential toxicity. It is our perception that his egoistic ideation of personal superiority is neurotically perceived as confirmation by his continued acquisition of ever greater riches.

In Trump’s case, as undoubtedly common to others of the extraordinarily rich, similarly motivated, such efforts are destined to certain failure; the fundamental etiology of feelings of insecurity is not empirically relevant to the acquisition of assets, but has an unrelated basis of an emotional or psychological nature.

The narcotic nature of the competitive “Clash of the (financial) Titans,” while affording awe to the mainstream citizen, is a revelation of life perceived in competitive material. terms. Admiration of these asset-accumulating superstars should be aware that happiness is the ultimate feeling of a fulfilled life, and not the acquisition of a copious inventory of assets.

It has been the fundamental and dedicated purpose of this blogspace to encourage those aspiring to an ultimate life of fulfillment to actively pursue wisdom and a mature perception of the self and the world through contemplation, self-advancement, and learning experiences. Such acquisitions are life’s ultimate measure of success.

If given one billion dollars, we would face the dilemma of what to do with it. Elon Musk is reportedly the possessor of 342 billion dollars, and, from appearances, we are skeptical as to whether he enjoys the sense of satisfied accomplishment.

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• Title borrowed from the moving picture, based on Greek mythology.

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Anti-Semitism, the prejudice against or hostility toward Jews, has perniciously endured since the 4th Century Holy Roman Empire, coincident with the advent of Christianity. Its origin has been authoritatively attributed to the”obstinate” refusal of the Jewish people to convert to Christianity (See:”Constantine’s Sword” by the Catholic Priest, and religious historian, James Carroll.)

The universal and ubiquitous hatred of the Jews has manifested itself in various, temporally relevant forms since the time of the Holy Roman Empire, ranging from bizarre ideations such as drinking the blood \,of Christian children on the holiday of Passover (N.B. under Hebrew Dietary Law, it is forbidden to eat meat containung any small residue of blood) to being the cause of presenting plagues, dry wells and poor harvests. Jews have been slandered and caricatured as being usurers, or else powerful bankers, engaged in secretly manipulating World affairs, and, conversely, being Bolsheviks or Communists. The ubiquitous compendium of mythological and hateful ideations has been every bit as colorful and diverse as the temporal occurrence of natural disasters or the extent of ingenuity of the bigoted and reductive mind. Our maternal grandfather, a tailor living in pogrom-ridden White Russia in the early 20th Century, was prohibited from belonging to a trade guild because of his Jewish ethnicity (despite that, as advised, because of his skill, he was often engaged to make the official robes for local Russian Orthodox Priests.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the period of the Holocaust, in response to the general sentiment of America, refused entry to a ship (see: the film, “Exodus”) and thereby sent to their certain execution, in German death camps more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany’s death camps. Only too frequently, in the free and equal American Nation, Jews were denied entry to country clubs, institutions, various employment opportunities, and universities (N.B., including Harvard and Princeton).

The October 7, bloody and sadistically barbaric attack by Hamas was not only an unjustified and medievally cruel incursion into Israel, but served as an effective catalyst for a new and updated version of such ancient hatred of the Jews. The aggressors kidnapped Israelis and, as planned, retreated with them to previously constructed tunnels under the shield of the Palestinian hospitals; with the tactical consequence that the military response would, by empirical necessity, be wreaked against such hospitals, patients, and staff; thus, causing Israel, international abhorrence and moral disdain. Hamas, which knowingly lacked the military capability to destroy Israel, intended, by such a pathological tactic, to shield itself and, additionally, to cause Israel to suffer international disdain.

Hamas’ cold-blooded tactic was successful in thus securing the uniform condemnation of Israel (albeit, the victim of the attack by the aggressor, Hamas) for the unavoidable killing of innocent Palestinians. As the response continued, many Jewish Americans, including ourselves, became appalled by the extent of the right-wing Prime Minister’s (Natanyu’s) administration’s response.

The World was only too willing to express its opposition to what appeared to be an overresponse to Hamas’ unwarranted attack, despite the latter’s unjusdtified attack and sadistic cruelty to Israelis, ranging from rape to barbaric dismemberment of even the elderly and babies. We, ourselves, as Americans and Jews, vociferously opposed Netanyu’s apparent over-extensive bombing, resulting in the killing of many of Gaza’s innocent civilians.

Notably, the perceived excesses of the response, visited in part on the innocent Gaza population, supplied flamable kindling for the bonfire of anti-Semitism, which, as stated, was eternally in the stage of smoldering conflagration. Characteristically, rock-ribbed haters of the Jewish people were the perceptive beneficiaries of an opportunity to re-energize and promote their systemic hatred and spared no chance to do so. It is instructive to note the existence of systemically reductive conflation between Israelis and Jewish citizens of other countries. Indeed, as American citizens of Jewish ethnicity, we, and many others, spoke out against the excesses of Netanyahu’s response. However, it is empirically indisputable that reductive bigotry has little appetite for distinction; any conceivably identifiable victim will suffice.

The impact was especially disturbing and impactful on America’s University campuses, where, at times, young, inexperienced, or sophomoric idealism has empirically proven to exceed pragmatic reality, and has been fertile ground for incidents of student rebellion and demonstrations.

Such stereotype gains further impetus and energy when infused with the eternal subject of anti-Semitism. Huge student demonstrations against Israel’s excessive bombing of Gaza were conflated with an unjust perception relative to the general image and responsibility of American Jews; a short reductive leap for those who were inclined to bigotry regarding the thematically ethnically religious, non-Christian, “other.” Anti-Semitic, non-student inciters on the scene had fertile ground for the tactical planting of students’ sophomoric impressions.

The meme of “anti-Semitism” providentially afforded the Trump Administration and its sycophants with a disguised vehicle for their errant lust for authoritarian control; in this instance, relative to their reductive perception of the liberal inclination of the Nation’s institutions of higher learning, like Columbia University and Harvard. MAGA conspirators, who conceivably, never in their lifetimes, uttered the word or articulated the conceit of “anti-Semitism,” now, tactically employed the concept to disguise their malignant efforts to control University education as an integral part of their desire to achieve a fascist Nation. Donald J. Trump, an inveterate bigot and practiced charlatan, tried to disguise himself as a sympathetic replication of Anne Frank, in aid of his underlying intention to be a Mousellini.

We presume that the average, “dyed in the wool” antisemite received some measure of support for their adamant bigotry against Jews, based upon their erroneous faith in the faux merit of the Trump government’s falsely represented efforts to eliminate antisemetism.

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The latter part of May has eternally articulated a consummate declaration of the metaphysical and elemental joy implicit in Man’s invaluable franchise of life.

At this time of year, we awaken to a renewed awareness of the privileged life franchise on Earth, albeit with its concomitant challenges and disappointments, by the Planet’s eternal floral emergence.

From our earliest years, we have maintained a reverent and aesthetic love of plants and flowers, and their nurturance, to the extent of our emotional need to salute them in verse. We have recollections of early childhood and placing a cut carrot top or lima bean in a saucer of water for hopeful germination. Later in married life, we delighted in growing and nurturing plants; first in pots, and later as homeowners in a coveted flower garden.

Warm recollections reappear of a lifetime of passion for growing floral plants, which display their colorful bloom from late Spring until Autumn. We can recall the joy of kneeling on knee pads while installing starter plants, bulbs, and corms, watering them, and later, enjoying and taking some personal reaffirmation in their mature bloom. Our notable favorites have always been May’s “late tulips,” shooting up from
simple, onion-like bulbs containing requisite nourishment pending the flower’s emergence, enabling it to dine on photosynthesis. We have warm memories of a trip to the Netherlands in the second week of May and being flabbergasted at the beauty of the colorful tulip exhibits at the internationally famous. Keukenhof Gardens. (See: “True Love and Tulips,” our perennial Valentine’s Day publication.)

We always had a penchant for the “art” of pruning floral shrubs. The properly considered technique in pruning and guiding the growth of such beautiful shrubs may be included among the most aesthetically rewarding skills in horticulture.

Nevertheless, with the natural progress to our later years (notably inclusive of the need for a walker), our physical capabilities have been attenuated, including, sadly, the capability to continue to perform the enjoyable physical activities associated with maintaining a flower garden. Similar to our ubiquitous physical adjustments, contextual to the later years, we have, as necessary, abridged our physical activities to accord with the features of the octogenarian era of life; nevertheless, we have endeavored to, as much as possible, replicate the pleasurable activities performed at the earlier stages of more efficient physical capability.

Today is the happily anticipated annual trip to the flower farms for the exciting and joyful purchase of seasonal floral beauty for installation (with the aid of a hard chair), the purchased Spring lovelies for maturation and display in our extensive outdoor flower boxes and planters.

We count ourselves extremely fortunate to be enabled to reprise, to the extent physically possible, our lifetime enjoyment of Spring’s glorious floral abundance.

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We are alarmed about the propagandistic deceit practiced by the Trump Administration upon an apparently haplessly naive American public. The tactics amount to a tactical reprise of a model, stereotypically employed to achieve the ultimate goal of fascism. A recent illustration of this mode of nefarious tactics was demonstrably successful in creating the authoritarian government of Hungary, where the proponents of authoritarianism used a similar pretext of “the immigration problem” to destroy Hungarian democracy and install the tyrant, Viktor Orban. History recounts a plethora of tactically enunciated counterfeit issues, such as preventing the growth of “communism” and scapegoating the Jews as responsible for Nazi Germany’s economic adversity in 1930’s.

It is the present theme that analogous dynamics are contemporaneously employed relative to the sub rosa intentions of Trump and his MAGA sycophants in the pernicious incitement of the issue of immigration, and in their sham concern relative to the subject of antisemetism. Underlying the purported issues of preventing the entrance of undesirable immigrants, and that of combating “anti-Semitism” (which itself is productive of a responsive anti-Semitism), is the disguised motive for the program of destruction of American democracy and the establishment of an authoritarian government under the Orange Hazmat and his MAGA lemmings.

Any rational observer of the current political scenario is aware that Donald Trump has demonstrated no political, economic, or sociological doctrinaire belief, and has empirically demonstrated a personal interest, solely in himself and the acquisition of ego-enforcing political power. All public and governmental issues, sincerely supported or opposed by him, are seen through the limited and exclusive lens of his lust for unlimited power and demonstrated wealth. His inequitable support of the richest people in the Nation, to the detriment of the middle and poor economic classes, is not doctrinal but transactional, based upon their financial support.

Trump’s catering to xenophobic bigotry, his faux concern relative to anti-Semitism, his catering to the religious lobby by the opposition to abortion, his approval of censorship, derogation, and financial withholding of funds for higher education, his encouragement and support of the Washington insurrection, his support of White Christian Militias, his criticism of NATO, his reprisals against political opponents, his derogation of truth in favor of conspiritorial ideations and promotion of the propriety of “alternate facts,” his castigation of the free press and institutions of enlightenment are all, irrefutably, founded in his excess of hybris concerning his entitlement to power and nothing else.

Particular notice is to be taken of his contextual failure to recognize the Constitution and the accepted rule of law. Judicial determinations are not adhered to by him; rather, the Nation’s Judiciary is maligned, and Constitutional, statutory, and precedential law is seen as subject to personal cancellation by the egoistic and hubristic employment of his felt-tipped black “Sharpie.”

The would-be autocratic tyrant, in his reductive ignorance and half-vast egotism, presumably looks down, from his singularly myopic bubble, on all Americans, (inclusive of his submissive MAGA cultists), as incapable of discernment of his singular and reductive hubris, which should be as empirically evident as the repulsive sight of highway roadkill.

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We find ourselves ruminating on an empirically terrifying conception of the words “displacement” and “replacement; indeed, one more rational than the nouns tactically employed by America’s horde of ignorant and un-American, White Christian Nationalists. Our dread concern relates to a predictable result of the inventively capable, but thoughtless and ultimately suicidal, computer industry.

Although we recognize the pragmatic value of Silicon Valley’s ubiquitous accomplishments in speed and efficiency relative to scientific research, medicine, manufacturing, and data storage, we fear, analogous to the fictional danger evinced by Ducas’ “Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” that the apparently, thoughtless, and irresponsible race for innovative profit will result in existential tragedy to humanity.

We have expressed our concern, which is affirmatively not “Luddite” ( i.e., against technical innovation), that the exponentially monofocused race for enhanced development of digital robotization of human functioning portends the nightmarish possibility of the ultimate replacement of the admittedly less efficient humanistic society by appliances of mechanically digitalized efficiency. A giant step toward such dehumanization, as we have repeatedly declared, is the insalubrious substitution of societally natural interaction by the impersonal “smartphone.” We have far less concern regarding voice-activated appliances, robotized vacuum cleaners, and the “smartwatch

We fear that the observably irresponsible lust for profitable advancements in technical “improvements” ultimately portends a resultant dystopic society, indeed, a digital Armageddon-like planet inhabited by robotic appliances, perpetually activated and eternally operative, per installed algorithmic instructions.

“Artificial Intelligence” (“AI”) in its present application is utilitarian in many practical applications, such as organizing health data and self-driving automobiles. It has also been found, negatively, to be useful in the perpetration of fraud and deceit and in mass manipulation. Instances of its perverse applications have been seen in the perpetration of “deep fakes,” such as false voice replication, tactically reconstituted photos, including the inclusion or exclusion of subjects, undetectable dissemination of propaganda, fraudulent replication of sculpture and pictorial art, as well as copyright infringement of written property. These acts of robotic replication render it difficult to detect the difference between the original and the identical copy.

In our view, the most nightmarishly dystopic “advancement” is demonstrated by the drone and other military weapons, operated robotically, without the mitigation of human sentiment or empathic discretion. The conception of robotic bombing and destruction of human lives and property is chilling. More chilling is the empirical reality that such egregious monstrosities have become the weapons favorably used in contemporary warfare.

Additionally, and most disturbing, is the ultimate creation of robotic facility, superior to the capabilitiies of Homo Sapiens; which carries with it the implicit danger that the robotic actor will have the ultimate capability to act, independent of control and supdercede the hapless, less capable human being,

We can imagine a dystopic, nightmare scenario, in which obsolete human beings on terra firma have been replaced by robot engines, but war, nevertheless, continues perpetually, between the obsolescent nations by insensate robotic machines.

Based upon our long and disappointing experience with the human lust for profit, we have little expectation that the business of advanced computer science will be responsibly limited; however, the pragmatic enactment of relevant, strict regulations, as soon as possible, would certainly be appropriate.
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Having attained the aged status of late octogenarian, may somewhat qualify to comment on the several developmental stages of the individual’s developmental progress ( the “Odyssey”) in the desired destination of Man’s learning. The contextual question,” When is a Man old enough to learn?” we would respond with the following empirical answer: in the period between his birth and his funeral.

To once more reprise the declaration of the English empirical philosopher, John Locke, “Man is born with a ‘tabula rasa'” (a blank slate), and all of his knowledge is acquired by his experience. We would point out the implicit ingredient of objective reality.

The dynamics of experiential learning are normally sequential and governed by the developmental stages of life. The newborn learns about light and dark, warmth, safety, comfort, discomfort, nurturance, feeding, and, as advised, has an instinctive fear of falling. Ironically, the cogent awareness of such phenomena (in addition to his accumulated, experiential lessons) is notably reprised in Man’s elder years. In sum, while Man’s natural impetus in his lifetime, of necessity, prioritizes survival and safety, life’s presenting experiences afford the fertile ground for knowledge.

As observed in previous writings, we accord existential importance to the development of one’s personal identity and stable self-image, and the resultant acquisition of a referable basis of perception. The same provides the foundational platform on which learning is perceived, acquired, recalled, and to which it is accordingly responded..

We have previously declared that the experience of “meaningful” social interaction may be credited with the reactive development of such requisite personal identity and stable self-image to be receptive to cumulative, experiential learning so vital to the individual and his society. For this reason, we have consistently castigated the errant choice of unhealthy impersonality and humanistic failings attributable to the current, widespread use of impersonal smartphone interaction.

The possible retrospective conclusion of perceived success, by the individual as to the acquisition of a fulfilled life, is best achieved employing a stable persona, enhanced by the personal acquisition of wisdom. from life experience, when enhanced by the development of a personal elective interest (*see earlier blogs). Well-informed, knowledgeable, and contemplative citizens, in addition to their personally achieved sense of personal fulfillment, ultimately constitute the most valuable natural resource in the success, endurance of a democratic nation.

However, it is notable that many people do not enjoy the ubiquitous benefits of informed personal reflection and choose to exclude the pursuit of knowledge and thoughtful, philosophical inquiry from their life experience. It is to be recalled and considered that Thomas Jefferson presciently stated that an educated and well-informed population is mandatorily required for the successful endurance of a Democratic Republic.

The elevation of the dystopic persona of Donald J. Trump to the American Presidency is inarguably symptomatic of many of the diverse American population’s failure to knowingly and willingly heed the disastrous lessons in history, evincing an oblivious, “populist” inclination, contrasted with empirically knowledgeable reason.

Participants in the developmental journey to enlightenment obtained by the human journey or odyssey, towards experiential wisdom are capable of the restoration of America’s venerated and humanistic tradition of governance; many others, not so inclined, nevertheless, have more recently experienced, and possibly, learned, that life under autocratic power is not as acceptable as one salubriously grounded in liberty and democracy.

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We, in common with a great many traditional American citizens, have been alarmed concerning the current threat to our Democratic Republic posed by the autocratic policies of Donald Trump and his cavalcade of cultish sycophants. It would seem superfluous to reiterate the previously noted myriad of fascist policies and executive orders promulgated by this declared, “would-be” dictator.

In earlier writings, we have expressed our view that the Nation will, ultimately, recover from this present nightmare, as it has at other times of National stress, and return to its uniquely humanistic democratic policy.

Further contemplation has led us to another (non-historically based) foundational basis for such optimism, notably possessing metaphysical and sociological resonance, and significantly furnishing an additional sense of positive expectation.

Trump has presented the American citizen with an unfamiliar and unorthodox pattern of executive policies and unfamiliar expectations, contrary to the experiencial understanding, of his citizenship experience accumulated over the one-and-a-half centuries of the universal and expected American way of life; singularly featuring liberty, legal equality, and, notably, limitations on governmental authority as provided in the Constitution’s “Bill of Rights.”

Donald Trump’s famous (and infamous) public declaration of intention to be a dictator, communicated from his singularly egoistic and impenetrable bubble, reductively and thoughtlessly omitted to consider America’s historical record of democracy, freedom of expression, and opportunity; a reductive assumption, consistent with his characteristic denial of empirical reality.

From the limited view of his impenetrable, bubble, Trump looks eastward at the oligarchic government of his bromantic friend, Putin, and other like autocratic polities existing in China, North Korea, Hungary, and Saudi Arabia, and longs to enjoy their status as “Supreme Leader” of a downtrodden and doggedly obedient population. Donald Trump wants power, unlimited by the Constitution or the rule of law, and religious-style admiration from blindly “loyal subjects.” He, like other tyrannical leaders, wants full military parades, large pictures of himself at prominent venues, and unlimited monarchial wealth, albeit simultaneously with the denial of the basic needs for life and health of the ordinary citizen. He has taken executive action to eliminate scientific research and humanitarian assistance, to intimidate Universities and other institutions of learning, to assure himself of a more docile and compliant population, and has surrounded himself with a veritable menagerie of loyal incompetents to serve his needs in the running of the country. When added to the striking plethora of impropriety and criminal behavior, as mentioned in earlier writings, the mainstream American citizen has sufficient cause to be concerned. Moreover, legal action to date has not been sufficiently effective.

Nevertheless, we are fully confident that, from a metaphysical perspective, the American way of life will doubtlessly prevail over the potential unfamiliar and constricted future of hapless fascist worship accompanying an autocratic despot. It is our pragmatic expectation that the history and expectations of the salutory franchise of personal agency, a cultural concomitant of the American democratic lifestyle, will doubtlessly prevail; no diner will choose a limited menu of watery soup and stale bread when he has had a prior lifetime of more acceptable and savory menu choices.

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There are few experiences, singularly capable of revulsion and disgust, comparable to the shocking highway sight of a wild animal crushed by an automobile (often further enhanced by the impact from later autos). The futility of our unsuccessful attempts to look away or avoid the nightmarish sight is beyond our rational understanding.

For analogous reasons, we have failed, of late, in our determined attempts to avoid commenting on the revolting subject of Donald J. Trump and his repulsive MAGA acolytes. It appears that we have been haplessly drawn to the allure of his dystopic persona and behavior, with the comparable inability to look away from the nauseating appearance of mangled, bloody animals on the highway.

It appears that we cannot look away from the sight of the malign, deceitful, and harmful activities of the Orange Presence, energetically supported by his demonic, T-shirted, baseball-capped, billionaire autistic confederate, in a purported mission to eliminate “Waste and Abuse” from the government.

The American public has sadly witnessed the virtual carnage of its Federal Civil Service, including the existentially vital health research facilities of the NIH, CDC, and others, the reduction in tax enforcement personnel of the IRS, elimination of the essential Education Department, hobbling of the FBI, and the Nation’s intelligence services, the reduction of services of the Veteran’s Services, already significantly backed up, the threats to citizen health and safety by the curtailing of health, food, water and medicinal regulatory agencies and the basic superstructure of our utilitarian Federal Civil Service.

It is to be frustratingly noted that these vitally important agencies were legally created by Congressional action, not the Executive, and, notably, that no evidence of “Waste and Abuse” has been proffered, no relevant Congressional Inquiries or Hearings convened, but simply, Trump’s authoritarian acts, accomplished with the arbitrary wave of his Royal Scepter (Trump’s “Sharpie”). The crippling effect on the operation of government, the loss of employment by thousands of dedicated civil servants, the inconvenience and hazard caused to the American public and its environmental health, it appears, was deemed less important to this egoistic President, than the overt demonstration of authoritan power. Any contemplative observer, with requisite information, can easily determine that any possible savings are far outweighed by the pragmatic hampering of the Nation’s day-to-day operation. and notably, Trump’s cruel demonstration of autocratic power,

Trump, a billionaire, improperly employing his office to accumulate millions of dollars for himself and his family. has insensitively expressed the intention to curtail Medicaid and Medicare, the vital health services of the poor and middle class, as well as the Nation’s program of social security. Marie Antoinette may have been less heartless when she famously declared, “Let them eat cake.”

Our “snake oil,” authoritarian, Chief Executive, who ubiquitously purports to be of unique service in “eliminating governmental waste and abuse,” has officially expressed the desire to have a full Military Parade (in the style of his fellow dictators) to celebrate his birthday. The Parade, as reported, is estimated to exceed Forty-Five Million dollars in cost, not including the extensive repairs to the roads caused by the birthday celebratory military tanks and heavy military artillery.

So much for “eliminating waste and abuse” and the nauseating aesthetics of roadkill.

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We have elected to take a brief, needed break from the exhaustive subject of the orange, “would-be” King, arbitrarily dispensing ego-driven Monarchial decrees with his soft-tipped “Sharpie,” and, for the moment, consider the pleasant subject of the arrival of the pleasant month of May. The “Merry Month of May” (Thomas Dekker, 1572-1632) is singularly delightful: sunshine, emerging daffodils and tulips, scampering woodland critters, newborn pups, warm rain, and kind breezes.

However, May is officially designated as “Mental Health Awareness Month,” and we find ourselves obliged to reprise an alarming subject to which we have frequently made reference.; namely, the recent reports of widespread mental disturbance, depression, and anxiety, particularly observed relative to the young.

We do not profess the adequate competence to discuss those cases having their etiology in matters other than those perceptively societal; yet have consistently maintained that most of such empirically observable health conditions, in our view, are the proximate result of society’s change from identifiable, personal and emotionally rewarding interaction to cold, impersonal, digitalized “smartphones.” We humbly acknowledge the risk that this generalized observation may, initially, be perceived as overly ” reductive.” Nevertheless, we are of the view that this impactful cause has been anecdotally and widely demonstrated.

To avoid misunderstanding, we affirmatively endorse the view that the exponential development of computer prowess has had ubiquitous utility in industry, media, scientific and medical inquiry, in business, and in countless other applications, but is societally and personally neither emotionally satisfactory nor salubrious in place of personal communication, as in person to person, telephone communication or written correspondence. In sum, it is our view that the need for human communication, restricted to the “smartphone,” depersonalizes and isolates the individual. We will elucidate further.

A referential “self-image,” or personal identity, is existentially vital to participation in the societal milieu. The healthy, societally adjusted individual, in the course of his personal interaction with others, relative to his perceived effect on others, and, the nature and effect of their responses to him, in time, develops a referable self-image and a consistent identity, i.e., comes to know himself, His acquired and developed personal identity is the “home office,” or perceived identity from which he speaks and chooses to act. The development of personal identity and self-image is, in large part, the reflective product of personal interaction with others. This requires the recognition of the voice on the telephone, nuanced expression, singular point of view, and other referential qualities that render such interactions personally meaningful and referentially notable. It is our view that our persona, in notable part, is colored by the observed consistency of other persons’ perceptions.

When society chose, for facile convenience, to eschew societally existential personal, familiar, and expressive interaction in exchange for cold digital images, reflected on a small, handheld screen, temporally exchanged at some random, possibly irrelevant time, it sufferred the impersonality of solo conversation, lacking identifiable personal nuance, spontaneity, and emotional expression; thereby, the route to the natural and useful acquisition of persona and identity was sadly and unhealthily eliminated. For the young generation, particularly, not having the personal experience of years of interactive communication, this facile but emotionally harmful “progress” has resulted in personally devastating and unhealthy results.

The curtailment of vitally required developmental, interactive relations took its toll in the myriad reported cases of anxiety and depression, most notably, among the young. Loneliness, feelings of isolation, and lack of the interactive benefits of personal development, of the security of personal identity, and social status.

Numerous essays and reports appearing in the Atlantic and other reputable sources, re that in recent years, adults have been socializing less, having fewer neighborhood backyard barbeques, parties, even marrying later; which we presune to be the by-product or consequence of the modern “benefit” of communication by computer particularly, the use of handheld phones, in place of meaningful social contact.

We do not Pollyannishly expect a return to the previously more healthful forms of personal communication; life seems to instruct the contemplative observer that conveniences, regardless of their observably negative toll, will nevertheless persist. We might, however, recommend more salubrious social get-togethers, town meetings, dances, club activities, backyard barbeques, book clubs, and other social engagements for adults, and more interpersonal contact, team sports, clubs, dances, and considerably less “smartphone” interaction for the young.

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• Title borrowed from a book by David Riesman

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For years, we have been entirely and frustratingly unable to comprehend the contemporary political scenario, which bizarrely features an incompetent, immoral, and neurotically egocentric individual who succeeds in getting elected to the august office of the American Presidency, and despite committing heinous criminal offenses against society and the Nation, remains in office uncensured and officially blameless; who causes hordes of individuals to be arrested, cdeported and incarcerated on little or no evidenced of wrongdoing?

Can the American law and tradition of “equality under the law,” or the system of due process entitlement of every person, be universally applicable, but with the singular exception of Donald J. Trump? This conundrum has severely vexed us for several years until our present bizarre conclusion.

Trump is remembered as demagogically causing a large audience to cry out, “Lock her up!” “Lock her up!” referencing Hillary Clinton, his political opponent in his first race for the Presidency, for the technical offense of having some official data on her private server. Yet there is no cry for punishment and incarceration regarding Donald Trump, who has committed a plethora of offenses of personal and National implication. Notably disturbing is the fact that much of Trump’s criminal actions have actually been revealed to the public on television, inclusive of vote extortion and corruption. treasonous liaison with enemies of the Nation, feloniously withholding top secret documents, dangerously storing the latter in accessible places, payment of “hush money” to prostitutes, and fraudulently covering up such acts, treasonous liaisons with, and support of Christian White National Militias, incitement and support of a violent insurrection against the United States Capitol Building, resulting in death and serious injury to Ca;pitol police and others, in addition to death threats to the Vice President and the intimidation of legislators and others in the beseiged Capitol Building, disgracefully praising and then officially pardoning the offenders, gross and numerous violation’s of the Emolument Clause of the Constitution by various nefarious but personally profitable transactions, virtually transmogrifing the reverenced Oval Office into a virtual shopping mall ( including sneakers, bibles, baseball hats, cologne, viodka, etc.), profiting from leasing Trump owned hotel rooms and other Trump owned facilities to foreign representatives and the public, publicly revealed tax and corporate conspiracy and fraud, consistent official mendacity, libel and slander, extortion (including that nefariously practiced against the beleagured Ukraine), and a virtual cornucopia ((more aesthetically stated, “a full dumpster”) of other reprehensible misbehavior.

Such an illegal morass of criminal and improper record of palpably evil behavior was incredibly exacerbated by the recent intended acceptance gift (“bribe”) of a $400 million airplane from Qatar.

In the distorted fun house mirror of Trump’s own ubiuquitous criminality, where scores of individuals can be arrested and deported to a foreign torture prison, without due process simply for sporting assorted tattoos, the only conclusion possible is that Trump (himself with multiple adjudged felonies and standing criminal indictments) is as effective a mass hypnotist as well as a snake oil demogogue; and the American population finds itself in a state of deep hypnosis.

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