Category: Uncategorized

Winston Churchill, whom we often find suitable to quote, said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, aside from all the other forms of government.” In this writing, we modestly suggest certain alterations to the fabric of our traditional American democracy, intended to smooth over its historically demonstrated wrinkles. Our emphasis is on achieving the avowed aspiration of our benevolent Founders, to create a polity “By and for the People.”

The contextual imperfections are diurnally revealed in the public media and thus presumably require no repetition. Additionally, for the dual purposes of brevity and clarity, we have chosen to categorize and briefly reference each category, arranged in the order of our perception of their empirical consequence:

(1) [Vetting of Presidential aspirants]: We have often suggested the thorough vetting of all politicians aspiring to be nominees for the Presidential election. We have noted the mandatory existence of prerequisite interviews for the most mondane of jobs, but bizarrely, no such vetting for aspiring nominees for the most consequential and historically impactful position on Earth. A non-partisan or bi-partisan review would pragmatically be essential to filter out inept, immorally neuritic, and inappropriate candidates like Donald J. Trump.

(2) [The Electoral College]: To assure the Nation’s avowed representational goal of “one man, one vote” (i.e., representative democracy), the anti-democratic institution known as the “Electoral College” must be abolished. Voters do not, as appears, vote for their choice of candidate for Chief Executive, but rather for delegates from their State, committed to the candidate. A majority of the 270 Electors is required to select the President. Each State has the same number of Electors as Congressional delegates, plus two Electors for the Senate. The record evinces a notably substantial number of instances of elected Presidents who, in fact, lost the popular (“one man, one vote”) standard of American election but were successful by the nuanced operation of the vote of the Electoral College.

(3) [Presidential Pardon and Executive Immunity]: Another existential feature of a legitimate Republican Democracy is the consistent and unvarying application of the foundational atavistiv principle that “No man is above the law.”

Despite America’s 18th-century repudiation of Monarchy in favor of Republican Democracy, the arbitrary right of pardon has been inappropriately and atavistically retained. The same, on its face and as applied, is inconsistent with the tenets of a Democratic Republic as analogous to a toxic vestigial organ that, by reason of its principled unfairness and notable record of blatant abuse, must be excised.

So too, should the recent aberrant decision of SCOTUS, granting immunity to a sitting President for all “Official” acts be overturned; the President as a citizen and no citizen is above the law; said correction is especially appropriate to the hubristic, Donald Trump.

(4) Presidential Vote Count] : The voter in Presidential elections does not effectively vote for the candidate of his choice. His vote is procedurally cast for an Elector designated for his State who supports the candidate. By reason of the allocation of Electors among the States, too many Presidents have been elected to the higher office who have, factually, lost the popular (democratic) vote. This historical procedure has evidently been inconsistent with, and violative of, the essence of democratic polity, ” one man, one vote

Our experience over the decades assures us that the above four adjustments will result in a more effective democratic system and democratic republic.

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Our frequently enunciated concerns regarding the societally negative impact of the cell phone on human interaction, by some Joycean stream of consciousness, led us to the thoughts of the man who revolutionized the Nation by his invention of wireless communication; most particularly to his apocryphal statement: “What has God wrought?”

The latter exclamation is bizarrely representative of the traditional dark cloak historically thrown over the bright light of Man’s capacity for empirical reason, and which has eternally led to atavistic strife. It would seem that, without such pretentious expression of religious modesty, a genius like Samuel Morse, successful after an arduously long course of frustrating failure, would be aware that “he”, not his culturally created deity, is to be empirically credited as the inventor.

As we have often declared, Man’s deistic attribution of natural phenomena constituted the early etiology of religious belief. The “Sun God” who seemed to die in the Fall, was, by virtue of ritualistic observances concerning the “magically green” evergreen trees, resurrected in the Spring months, together with the deciduous trees and the bunny rabbits.

It would appear that for the greater portion of the world, in one fashion or another, the “sapient” product of Evolution, adamantly clings to one form or another of “faith” in the existence of a determinant “Higher Being.” Such an empirically non-enlightened mindset has been eternal, predating the commercial days of the “Silk Road” and enduring to the contemporary genius of “Silicon Valley.”

We will readily concede certain social and individual benefits of religious belief: the spiritual salve for the fear of inevitable death, the social identification and interactive cohesion of members of society, the inspiration, and the courage often needed in trying times; however, these, admittedly salubrious benefits of societal faith in the existence of a “higher being” have historically been a proximate cause of eternaL social, disparity, prejudice, injustice and ultimately, warfare. History has eternally revealed the nuanced inclination of religious believers to aggressively seek to impose their beliefs on others; the latter, empirically, an eternal source of human suffering and tragedy.

Moreover, the historic advancement and improvement of humanity have been inarguably hobbled by the urgent need for a dogmatic answer to empirical questions; the latter best accomplished by the process of rational trial and error and human expertise, in contrast to the divination of superstitious belief. Empathic treatment of human suffering is vitally important, humanistic, and societally appropriate, but not relevantly a proper or ethical source of information.

The Earth does, indeed, travel about the Sun, despite pre-Copernicus ( pre-heliocentric) religious edict that “Man is the center of the Universe.”.

Nor are questions which are beyond the ken of the evolved human brain, those concerning outer space and planetary origin, useful or proper vehicles of construed fictional belief; Man must modestly confess to the natural limitations of his cognition and the pragmatic realization that there are no available answers to every conceivable metaphysical question.

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Numerous past writings have dealt with the blatant illegality and material harm caused by the prertnicious rule of Donald J. Trump, the latter, a demonstrated autocratic sociopath, motivated solely by an egocentric and hubristic perception of the extent of his executive authority.

The traditional American citizen has been shocked, bewildered, and intimidated by Donald Trump’s derogation of the constitutional and statutory law, as well as the societal moral compass. American citizens have been terrified by his hubristically neurotic disregard for truthful (empirical) fact, atavistic repudiation of societal propriety, and his evident lack of humanism and moral empathy; all in perceived service to his overblown neurotic aspiration for personal adulation and publicly acknowledged success.

As newly elected President, Trump appointed a Presidential Cabinet, characterized by scant qualifications for their designated governmental roles, but mandatedly evincing lemming-like, submissive loyalty to the abhorrently neurotic Chief Executive. The inappropriately bizarre nature of such dystopic appointments has resulted in domestic and international embarrassment and principled danger to the salutary navigation of our Ship of State, as lamented in copious past writings.

Regrettably, many of his policies, in addition to their adverse effect on our Nation’s economy, military security, and historically venerable standing, have been blatantly criminal. It is with reference to the illegal and criminally repulsive acts and the obedient functionaries that are thematically expressed in the present writing.

Among the many shamefully egregious policies, such as Trump’s Gestapo-like treatment of peaceful Hispanic Americans, his authoritarian prosecution of perceived political rivals, his illegal and un-American use of the military for domestic purposes, his deceitful self-enrichment, contrasted with his simultaneous elimination of food and medical relief to the poor (which we consider to be deceptively criminal) his many felonious convictions for insurrrection and treasonous behavior, we find most shockingly dystopic and criminal,. his policy of unauthorized and inhumane bombing of small, seagoing boats on the high seas, killing their cre upon the unproven supposition that they are conveying drugs from Venezuela to the United States. We are obliged to conclude that such action is an international crime, shamefully redolent of the crimes adjudicated at Nuremberg; the deliberate murder of the relevant crews. (see # M.409, “Murder at Sea”).

It is to be emphatically noted that the Nuremberg case established the humane, universal precedent that the alleged defense of “just following superior orders” was insufficient to avoid the well-deserved hanging of the guilty Nazi perpetrators. Thematically, such a casual and indifferent response is relevantly insufficient, as well as morally repugnant in established American jurisprudence.

Despite the unjust and democratically questionable ruling by SCOTUS to the effect that an America President is immune from prosecution for official actions, such a bizarre ruling, most notably, does not shield those individuals who actually perpetrated the egregious crimes against humanity, notably inclusive of the homicidal bombing of Venezuelan vessels at Defense Secretary Pete “Whack-a Mole” Hegseth’s military directive to again bomb the stricken ship to kill the floating survivors is worthy of Nurenberg reference.

America’s Code of Military Justice officially demands that servicemen do not obey patently illegal orders; a standard directive, ignored by the draft-dodging President Trump’s deluded prosecution of certain celebrated American war heroes for supporting such a legally established prohibition.

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There is a stark difference between the mystery novels, “whodunits,” of writers like Agatha Christie, ex., “Murder on the Orient Express,” and those regarding the dynamics of murder by the Trump Administration. In Agatha Christie’s stylized fiction, the killer is unknown but ultimately identified by characters such as the doughty Miss Marple or the elegant and suave Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot.

In contrast, relative to the plethora of criminal acts of Donald Trump, the criminal perpetrator is never in doubt, and the ubiquitous acts of horrific crime, bizarrely televised to the viewing public. The felonious telephone call to the Georgia Secretary of State, illegally requesting an alteration of the State’s Pfresidential vote count, the unprecedented incitement and support of a violent and bloody insurrection against the Washington Capitol Building, the illegal and seditious purloining of top secret government documents for irresponsible storage in his country club’s accessible bathroom, the improper association with foreign despots, like Putin and Orban, as well as with unsavory personalities like Jeremy Epstein and with seditious leaders of White, Christian Militas, Trump’s revealed payments of “hush money” to evade public notice of his brisk business with prostitutes. The publicly televised revelation of these and other morally reprehensible acts makes the sensitive citizen hesitant to imagine the full dumpster of Trump miscreance, “off camera.”

Of all of Trump’s malevolent, heinous, and calamitous acts, displayed on public television, his direction of the bombing of small sea-going vessels, killing their crews, is the most dramatic, and conceivably, the most demonstrative of the extent of his pathologically monarchical hubris. The deadly bombings have been condemned by legal experts as a war crime and plain murder. Notably, Trump’s alcoholic and incompetent Secretary of Defense ordered the “killing of everyone on board.”

There would appear to be scant need for the investigative services of a Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, since the psychopathic miscreant is once more publicly identified and empirically recognizable.

It is our contemplative assumption that the leading manufacturers of cookware products remain anxious to ascertain the chemical composition of the Teflon-like substance that ubiquitously prevents overdue, appropriate repercussions for Trump’s criminal and homicidal malignity.

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We have chosen to assume that almost nine decades of life (the maturer years being ubiquitously dedicated to serious contemplation) buttressed by the foregoing relevant citation of recognized wise men, will attenuate the reader’s predictable reaction to the present offering as being reductively hubristic. After having, to date, published slightly short of 1,500 blogs, we will optimistically assume that a relevant, metaphysical statement would be deemed acceptable. Our perpetual theme, and, ultimately, that of the present writing, is Man’s aspiration for a fulfilled life.

For many, the attainment of a “successful” life is founded on the accumulation of conspicuous wealth and a privileged lifestyle; for others, it is recognized accomplishment, viz., the development of a proven cure for a disease or, perhaps, the creation of a utilitarian and highly profitable mathematical formula; for yet others, like ourselves, “fulfillment” is attained by the ultimate acquisition of a mature, rational understanding of the nuanced course of one’s life..

Over the course of modern history, demagogues have suggested dogmatic transmogrifications of existing political-economic systems or the installation of laudable rulers as the sine qua non for the societal attainment of an improved and desirable life. Wiser commentators have maintained that it is not the hapless alteration of the extant polity or ruler, but rather the personal acquisition of citizen wisdom that ultimately leads to self-betterment, and ultimately, to appropriate rule. In the sage words of our oft-quoted savant, Winston Churchill: “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal division of misery.”

Wise commentators have eternally articulated the principle that it is not the radical alteration of the polity, nor the installation of a proposed, lauded ruler that provides good rule and societal fulfillment, but rather the societal wisdom and discernment of the citizenry that fundamentally provides successful rule. The aspiration for good governance is implemented by the actions of a wise and discerning society in its selection of a suitable leader. The eternal metaphysical basis of good governance is the beneficial existence of a wise and informed citizenry.’

The adequate development of a natural, utilitarian, and referable self-image appears to be the metaphysical sine qua non of healthy and recognizably fulfilled life and of the useful citizen. It would appear that such accomplishment is developed from the earliest perceived responses and discriminating observations of others, notably, members of one’s young peer group, with whom they daily interact. This dynamic is the principal cause of our relentless opposition to the smartphone as the alternative to natural human interaction; its inadequacies reportedly have significantly increased the mental health problems of a large population of its immature users. Other “mindless” digital facilities have augmented the deleterious illnesses and social isolation of today’s youth.

The media has reported on students’ emotional isolation and the clinical aftermath of the impactful loss of natural, spontaneous interaction. Schoolteachers and administrators suffer unprecedented setbacks in the quality of learning of American students, as well as the stated, unprecedented growth of anxiety and depression in the young. Such impairment has its sequelae in later life and in the stultified dynamics of human society.

The metaphysical panacea for the political ills of society and its disgruntled citizenry is obtained, not by demagoguery or theory, but in empirical practice. It all begins with the citizen’s beneficial desire to understand himself and the consequent development of a referable self-image calling for right action.

Analogous to the instruction of a treating physician, the prescription of appropriate and regular doses of good literature, the fine arts, the conduct of intelligent discourse, and the exercise of an open and unprejudiced mind, constitute the eternal prescription for the efficient route to a rewarding life, a discerning citizen, and, thematically, good governance.

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This year’s Thanksgiving Dinner was notably “Blog-worthy.” Unlike the fictionalized Hallmark Card or “pictorial calendar version of the apocryphal, “First Thanksgiving Dinner ( see” M.405, “Turkey, Cranberry and Cognitive Dissonance”), it was singularly meaningful and thus was memorable, as well as a savoury experience. As declared in the cited writing, we have much to be thankful for as Americans.

Seated at the holiday dinner table, in addition to immediate family, were six American diners, of Persian extraction, related to us by the marriage to our son-in-law, a neurologic academic and research scientist to his Persian -American wife and licensed physician, her father, a Persian-American physician, and mother, a retired University lecturer, two recently arrived Pakistani physicians, husband and wife, awaiting American certification, our Step-Son’s wife, a Persian- American physician, in-laws, a Persian-American physician, his wife, a retired University professor; a close family friend, a the latter, a computer-assisted stock investor, as well as the author of a hard-covered Persian cookbook, an American born and educated Doctor of Education and Doctor of Nursing, partly retired from her long standing position as Vice-Dean of the Columbia UIniversity School of Nursing, and we, as American born retirees with 50 years of New York law practice.

The conversation throughout the holiday eating orgy was spontaneous, friendly, and varied, relative to such esoteric subjects as ethnic cuisine, family, and notable personal experiences. The thematic event may fittingly ranging be described as spontaneous, effusive, and warmly intimate, ranging from the prolix logistics of the admission of foreign-born physicians to American practice, nuanced cuisine, personal experiences, and the experience of owning domestic cats. In sum, we found this year’s Thanksgiving Dinner experience, warm and significantly memorable.

We continue to be eternally unable to locate Trump’s caravans of criminals, drug dealers, and prostitutes” invading our Nation as ubiquitously declared by our adjudicated felonious President. We have given up the propagandistic and fallacious search for quite some time.

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If it were empirically possible to construct a huge spinner wheel on which to painstakingly list, along its wide circumference, the countless facets of miscreance and delusional incapability of Donald Trump, we would propose that the selection du jour indicate Donald Trump’s singular delusional conception of the extent of hisrole as Commander-in-Chief of the Nation’s Armed Forces; unmitigated by his personally selrcted menagerie of incompetent, but sycofantic cabinet; members, notably his alcoholic, macho-, mentality, womanizing Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth.

Consistent with his profound ignorance, exacerbated by a systemically hubristic delusion of unlimited power, Trump recently called for the imprisonment and even the “execution of six Democratic legislators for ‘seditious behavior” resulting from a video advising military personnel that they should responsibly refuse “iIlegal Orders.”

It is difficult to restrain our emotional response to such evident ignorance of the Nation’s definitional “Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces,” whose delusion of unlimited power and relevant ignorance exceeds the most pessimistic judgment of his inapt and egocentric performance.

For “starters,” the U.S Uniform Code of Military Justice, Articles “10 ” and “92” direct serving members of the military to refuse orders that seem patently illegal. Analogous to Trump’s ubiquitous denigration of the United States Constitution, he is sight-challenged as to this Statutory grant of ethical franchise.

Empirically sickening and bizarre are the ambient facts surrounding Trump’s uninformed and delusional charges of Sedition. All six of the accused legislators, notably, have distinguished military combat records; for example, Mark Kelly is a recognized military hero, having flown 39 combat missions and, as well, is a distinguished American astronaut. Jason Crow has served the Nation as a multi-decorated combat-experienced Marine.

Remarkably, the orange-dyed, ego-centric Chief Executive who bllithly and ignorantly assailed these war heroes is, in fact, inarguably guilty of sedition in organizing and maintaining a violent and bloody insurrection against the Washington Capitol Building. It is, additionally, a matter of record that Trump wangled a Doctor’s letter alleging that he has “heel spurs,” which enabled him to be a draft dodger.”

It is additionally revealing to recall Trump’s obnoxious televised remarks on Memorial Day, referring to the thousands of marked graves of military dead who sacrificed their young lives for the country, as “suckers” and “losers.” We can unforgettably recall his egocentric question, “What was in it for them?”

It might amount to a personal badge of honor to be charged with a perceived offense by Donald J. Trump.

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It appears that the traditional holiday of Thanksgiving is upon us; the festive occasion is calendared for the fourth Thursday of each November. The celebratory occasion features family and friends assembling for the traditional celebratory meal of turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and harvest vegetables.

On this occasion, we perennially find ourselves inclined to disturbingly ruminate on the nationwide acceptance of the holiday’s “Hallmark Card Company”-style,” convenient, comforting, contextual, but cognitively dissonant version of its historical etiology and significance.

One does not afford the American Nation’s convenient concept of a quasi-religious duty of “Manifest Destiny,” to expand to the Pacific, to the Spanish and Portuguese Conquistadors, for their murderous quest for gold and wealth in South America, to the Belgians, for their rubber-rich travesties in the Congo, to other countries like England and France, for their ubiquitous colonization of foreign indigenous peoples. What is the conceivable magic that sanitizes our Nation’s expansion at the cost of the indigenous North American peoples?

Those who care to study history will undoubtedly be aware of the tragic history of the indigenous, “First Americans,” who, under the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, were wrongfully evicted from their traditional tribal homes in fertile Southwest America ( “The Indian Removal Act” of 1830) to “more suitable” “injun” lands in the arid infertile lands of Oklahoma (‘Trail of Tears,”)

There is a clear and disturbing cognitive dissonance between a nation that has practiced a history of repression against its conquered national predecessors and the exaltation of the fictional portrayal of “The First Thanksgiving.” It is undeniable that our great and traditionally moral and empathic Nation has had its shameful moments. These should not be removed from our textbooks or curricula by sophomoric critics, but certainly not celebrated, or indeed, replicated; nor should they be whitewashed in the interest of moral advancement or discomfort; they are teachable. history

Americans have much for which to be recognizably thankful and celebratory on Thanksgiving Day, without coloring its (otherwise commendable) history.

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The demagogic “Snake Oil” salesman, presently squatting in the Nation’s Oval Office, has eternally employed the tactical meme, “Make America Great Again.” Far more misleading than its demagogic implication that the American Nation has ever been less than “Great” have been his dystopian and self-centered policies, which in empirical reality make our American Nation less potent and morally influential.

History has shown that a nation’s most impactful resource is not its oil, minerals, terrain, or geographic location, but, empirically, its people. Recent history has confirmed our thematic observation by the instructive example of World War II Germany; the latter, a relatively small or medium-sized country, came frighteningly close to conquering the World. Its strength and military prowess were attributable to its educated, well-organized, and readily mobilizable population.

In contrast to its tactically employed, “snake oil” assertion: “Make America Great Again” (“MAGA”), the Trump Administration has ubiquitously damaged the Nation’s historic standing, reputation, and capabilities, including its military prowess, by, inter alia, attacking the Nation’s institutions of learning and, thereby, weakening its systemic strength and security.

The Trump Administration’s assault on higher education, inclusive of the malign threats of withholdfing federal funding and the assertion of regulatory power to influence socially beneficial institutional policies, especially diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), academic freedom, as well a perceived campus political life, its cutting off of research grants, and the harebrained act of elimination of the National Education Department, are policies and actions inarguably antithetical to the strength and well-being of the Nation; and, sadly, consistent with its hapless incapability and profound iignorance.

The Trump Administration’s attack on higher education involves a multi-pronged approach using federal funding and asserted regulatory power to politically influence the Nation’s existentially vital University system. Such an inappropriate and unwise attack on the nation’s institutions of higher learning has included the arbitrary, political threat of the withholding of federal funding and other inimical and asserted detrimental regulatory policies. These assaults upon academic freedom and the Nation’s Constitution have been employed by the current Administration to deter salubriously utilitarian and morally appropriate policies of “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI). Such unfair and unwise extortionate policies have included the suicidal cutting off of funds for medical and scientific research, as well as the ubiquitous elimination of academic. research grants.

The unwise and perverse practice of politically driven governmental influence on the Nation’s academic life and progress is fundamentally inconsistent with Man’s aspirational advancement and inimical to the strength and endurance of the Nation.

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An apprehensive woodland waits,
The onslaught of Winter’s war machine
The iron-hard soil, the numbing cold
Gales, chanting pitched manic arias
Snap-crack sounds of arbor amputation-
Dull, snowy thuds of severed limbs.
The cold, perennial taker of life
Points its icy fingers downward-
To the hapless, shivering critters,
Left behind by the Autumn Exodus.

Evergreens, tho’ seem tranquil no doubt,
In meditation on the coming Spring
The blue skies, the billowed clouds
Empathic breezes heal winter’s wounds
Small green buds that manifest eternally,
Making solemn vows of new life and increase

With wisdom taught by evergreens,
We too await the coming Spring,
Woodland’s lover and restorer
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(Winter, 2018, Leonard N. Shapiro