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In legal lexicon, the common law principle of “force majeure” [or, alternatively, “Acts of God”], if proved, is a determinative, equitable defense to any lawsuit alleging breach of contract. The term, itself, relates to the precedential rule that parties to a legal contract are released from the obligation to perform when extraordinary circumstances, beyond their control, prevent the fulfillment of the contractual obligation, viz., war, epidemic, riot, or disaster. In this short essay, we have taken the liberty of extending said term, somewhat, to include, overriding, or existential, priority.

It would require but little argument, to declare that the Nation is sharply, divided on many issues, such as exist between those who would deny women, the right of abortion, and those who support that right as a matter of personal liberty, the acts of State Republican majority Legislatures, enacting legislation aimed at  abridging the vote of minority citizens, the disputed existence of the need for gun regulation, the paramount importance of science and global warming, the subject of vaccination, on immigration, on the unsupported claims of irregularity of the previous presidential, election, on redistricting and “gerrymandering,” on questions of basic, universal equality, on taxation, infrastructure, excesses of police behavior, reform  of the criminal law system, on the environment,  free trade versus commercial protectionism, on women’s opportunities in the corporate marketplace, on free tuition for State Universities, on privacy, unionism, religious influence in government, the internet, capital punishment,  government responsibility for needy citizens, on health and safety regulations and various others.

Contesting parties have disappointingly and uselessly, eschewed the healthy, productive practice of peaceful, citizen debate, in their preference for the useless, divisive, practice of tribal, insular groups of identical opinion in acrimonious relationship with similar groups of opposite opinion. Influential lobbyists, seek to fashion  law and regulations to  suit their sponsor,[ conceivably, contrary to the interest of the American voter], members of the judiciary are improperly selected, based  upon their known views, rather than the appropriate criteria, of legal prowess and impartiality, big corporations undemocratically, enfranchised by SCOTUS, to make unlimited campaign contributions, and delusional conspiracy wonks, fervently peddling their paranoid ideations. The foregoing is but an incomplete list of the present subjects of National acrimony and division. The most shameful and dangerous expression of discontent was the large, delusional, horde of [Trump invited] election conspiracy stooges, which went so far, as to stage a violent and deadly insurrection at the Nation’s Capital Building, June 6, 2020.

The fractious and divisive character of the nation was significantly, exacerbated, by the entry into the political arena of Donald J. Trump, an ignorant but effective, demagogue, capable, somehow, of the acquisition of, a large and remarkably vocal, “populist” following. Trump, awarded the singular distinction, of Congressional impeachment twice, in his single, four-year term as President, bizarrely, has continuing appeal to the populist underbelly of our country, who seek to perversely influence and control voters and  Congressmen; which influence continues, unexplainably, despite his electoral defeat.

The Democratic Party has been repeatedly roadblocked in The U.S. Senate, in its numerous attempts to enact legislation in the public interest, by the Trump sycophantic Republican Senate, fearful of losing their seats due to the cultish appeal of the autocratic Trump. Outstanding among these un-American censors of Democratic-sponsored, needed legislation, has consistently, proven to be the canny, tactical Leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, Senior Senator from Kentucky. This wily and tactical, Donald Trump supporter,  has publicly dedicated himself to block proposed Democratic legislation; included in which is “Build Back Better,” legislation providing, among other things, substantial financial support, for infrastructure repair and development, McConnell had previously, in arrogant, partisan manner, in like manner, blocked, a deserving Democratic nominee for Justice of the Supreme Court; and subsequently, as contrived, had three, unequivocally, conservative Justices appointed to the High Court.

The concern based upon the possibility of loss of their Congressional seat, due to Trump’s bizarrely continuing influence, has, apparently, influenced U.S. Senators and Representatives to support or oppose, Trump favored legislation, contrary to the foundational tenets of our Republican Democracy. In the immediately preceding essay, [ #627 “Bonfire of the Lemmings”], we stated that the salutary concept of a two-party system, has, of late, declined, as a practical reality, to one party,[ Democratic] supporting the principles of democracy and the other, [Republican] endeavoring to demolish them.

Last week, while the national teapot continued to boil, vigorously, and with great divisive rancor, an unusual confederation of powerful tornadoes struck the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and broad swaths of the adjoining, Mid-West. The unusual meteorological conglomerate of storms blasted Kentucky to absolute smithereens and effected commensurate damage in surrounding States. The devastating and unprecedented happening reduced all structures, including homes, to rubble, and was tragically responsible for the loss of life of many Americans, of all ages. This cataclysmic event, added to the existing contemporaneous persistence of Covid, unquestionably, constitutes a historically, dark, and epochful event.

There would appear to be, little vocabulary, sufficient to adequately, express the depth and quality of our empathy, for the victims of this vast meteorological tragedy. Nevertheless, the reader may find the following personal predictions, of the consequential alterations, to previously held political views, interesting and thought provoking. These predictions are founded, upon the eternal and pragmatic, political aphorism: “Your stand depends upon where you sit.”

• We anticipate a complete change of direction in Senate Leader, Mitch McConnell’s previous, obdurate resolution, to politically block President Biden’s “Build Back  Better” Infrastructure Bill. The Senator from the State of Kentucky, the latter, the bullseye center, of the enormous meteorological holocaust, will find, on further consideration, that the Bill is not far too costly.
• The voters in Kentucky and other affected “red” States may realize that Global Warming, in fact, is not a conspiratorial canard, perpetrated by the left wing, for political purposes.
• The affected citizens, needing substantial financial and other assistance from the Federal Government, may, at long last, experience the epiphany that governmental assistance is not the dreaded “apocalypse” of “Socialism,” [whatever their meager understanding of that economic-political theory may be].
• The uncomfortable realization by Evangelical Christians, that such severe meteorological events have natural causes and are not expressions of displeasure of the Deity [Ex: “The Great Flood,” “ The Destruction of Nineveh,” “The  Egyptian Ten Plagues”]; and perhaps, in addition, a learned, respect  for the environment, and understanding of the aspiration of a green, sustainable Planet.

To be clear, we do not wish to express any personal belief, whatsoever, in the desperate aphorism, that all bad things have some positive benefit, of one kind or another. We do not believe in such a nonsensical and Pollyannaish aphoristic rationale. There is no good side of the Holocaust, or, more recently, the pandemic. We merely seek to predict the possibility of the acquisition of some useful enlightenment, resulting from this horrendous event.

-p.

[N.B.: Lemmings, are a species of short-tail rodents that assemble for mass migration, and develop some kind of compulsion and, carried along by such unreasoning compulsion, or mass hysteria, fall into step for a march, that will take them to a strange destiny; they are victims of obsessive thought, e.g., “move on, move on,”…. then, reach a precipice, and go over.]

Our Nation has, by and large, enjoyed a two-party political system, each party, customarily and usefully, in mutual contention on controversial issues such as, fiscal and public policy, citizen rights, the extent of governmental participatory responsibility in the commercial and private arenas, and a virtual myriad of presenting subjects, both domestic and foreign. Such relationship of contention, as originally conceived, salubriously, assures necessary consideration and balancing of the equities. Moreover, consistent with the intended dynamics of representative democracy, it, significantly, affords to the citizen by use of his voting franchise, the opportunity to weigh in on legislative and executive policy.

Despite discrete historic episodes of hiccoughs and temporary roadblocks, the American Nation has been, discernably, successful in its slow, but continuous, progress towards its avowed aspiration of true and universal equality; such democratic goal, however, eternally hobbled by a portion [“underbelly”] of its citizens, clinging, like mindless lichen, to their atavistic prejudices.

Such slow, but steady advance, was road blocked, by the surprise elevation to the American Presidency, of Donald J. Trump; the latter, a demagogic snake oil vendor, and the perverse darling of the Nation’s underbelly. Demonstrably incapable and corrupt as an executive, he is a former part-time host, of a second-rate television game show, and widely reputed full-time real estate grifter. In view of his ignorance, egotistic self-promotion and overt rejection of mainstream standards of morality and decency, it is difficult to conger up rational reasons for his bizarre elevation to the venerable, Oval Office; the exceptions, being the eternally discontented “underbelly” and the financing by certain air- polluting industries, which, sociopathically, value profits over human health.

Trump’s first [and only] four-year term, in addition to attaining the singular distinction, of two Congressional Impeachments, proved to be a National disaster, domestically and internationally, by reason of his colossal ignorance, serial mendacity, and empirical incapability. It resulted in a major loss of American prestige, an exponential increase in National divisiveness, [to the point of development of insular cults in mutual tribal conflict] and a stalemate in racial justice, the latter, affected by his public encouragement of America’s Christian White Supremacy Groups. His autocratic attack on newspapers and the media and on the existence of factual truth [“alt. facts”] were frighteningly analogous to the perverse tactics employed by fascistic Hitler and Mussolini.

Trump’s most impactful autocratic program, was his “Big Lie,” viz., his false claim of election theft conspiracy, relative to his election defeat for a desired second term. This ploy was no less than catalytic for his tribal, compliant, cult, and the lemming-like, right-wing asylum, of delusional conspiracy mongers, leading to their notorious and shameful, violent insurrection at the Capitol Building.

The pathological falsity and effect of Trump’s delusional charge [The Big Lie”] of election tampering were metastasized by various State [Trump- Majority] Legislatures. Contrary to the provisions of the Constitution, they enacted legislation to eliminate or make difficult, the votes of communities of color, as their articulated, reaction to the latter’s widespread support of Biden. It is no less than maddening, to note that such actions were perversely intended to alter or distort the results of the popular vote, in an illogical and clearly, hypocritical reaction, to the [patently false] “ Big Lie” claim of unfair voter irregularities. [More bizarre, Alice-In Wonderland reality or Franz Kafka justice].

Autocratic tactics were employed, including, voter and citizen intimidation, denigration of truthful facts, in favor of those, subjectively, deemed more useful [“alternative facts”], a continuous assault on the public media, the inculcation of tactical and conspiratorial ideation, of prejudicial beliefs and bigotry, against “others,” the degradation of science and learning, and many anti-democratic, memes were validated by a large number of cultishly hypnotic followers. This has led, to the present, bizarre phenomenon of having two parties, one of which, in practical effect, supports democratic governance, and the other, essentially opposed to it. There are miscreants, who, for personal and sundry motives, effectively, plot the destruction of our democratic way of life and civil society, with the loyal support of lemming-like citizens, uniformly complying in a perilous, unaware and thoughtless trek to tragedy.

We are completely nonplussed and enormously alarmed, at the substantial number of lemming-like, thoughtless individuals, faithfully responding to the orange-haired huckster,[ analogous to the Hamlin town rodents, hypnotized by the fluted notes of the Pied Piper, or, applicably, to the tragic hypnotic attraction of the German people to demagogic Adolph Hitler in the 1930s]. Such misguided and delusional, Trump acolytes, evince tribal belief, in the false, conspiratorial allegations of Trump’s “Big Lie,” and to perceived governmental secret conspiracies of every nature, including, tiny, government installed, tracking computers in Covid vaccine, rockets sent, by laser beams, to Earth by Israel, a flourishing, left-wing, child sex enterprise, a plot to take away all gun ownership, a government plot to morph into Socialism, the control of banks by Jews, the dedicated evangelical capability of homosexuals, democratic party voter fraud, and secret plots of the Federal Government; all of which can only have their origin in Trump-inspired paranoia.

These deluded hordes of conspiracy mongers are, unsurprisingly, Trump confederates,  in his autocratic,  “Big Lie,” supporters of [Trump inspired], legislative interference with the vote [notably, with respect to communities of color], opponents of immigration, castigators of newspaper and other media, opponents of empirical truth, and, in contrast, supporters, of “alternative facts” and consistent with autocratic theology, staunch opponents of enlightenment, freedom of artistic expression, universal equality and the traditionally accepted criteria of democratic republicanism.

It is certain, in fact, inarguable, that the lemming is not celebrated for his predictive acumen.  Should the violent anti-democratic lust, and “group think,” of the rare species, of American lemming- citizens, conceivably, be successful, they will have achieved, by such thoughtless insular tribalism, entirely altered life-styles under autocratic rule; predictably, portending a plethora of State control and a contrasting, dearth of personal liberty. Their faux “patriotic” means, for the moment, may seem to them, exciting, even inspirational, [albeit distorted and delusional], but the ends predictably, achieved would lead such “lemmings,” to the dark, unforeseen, cliff’s edge of autocratic existence.

-p.

Any possible reluctance to criticize the current Supreme Court of the United States [“SCOTUS], by the accusation that it has become “political,” will predictably be further diminished, by its expected decision on the issue of abortion [Dobbs v. Jackson Woman Health Org.]. In the latter matter, the [“traditionally enlightened”] State of Mississippi, by Statute, banned legal abortion after fifteen weeks of pregnancy. The foregoing expectation is fundamentally, based upon the unbalanced political composition of the contemporary Court, which now contains three additional partisan, conservative Justices, appointed, based on their past expressed views by the Trump Administration.

We would choose to highlight three cogent considerations, two of which are legal, the third, societal, in favor of a definitive reaffirmation of the natural right and liberty of a woman to make the personal decision to abort her pregnancy; as decreed in the fifty-year-old precedential case of Roe v. Wade. Such considerations are: (a) The societal stabilizing benefit of recognized legal precedent, (b) The absolute proscription against religious preference under the “Establishment Clause” of The U.S. Constitution, and, finally, (c) the danger to life and health implicit in the obligatory resort to non-professional and illegal, {“back alley”] abortion providers.

• The sanctity of established legal precedent. The concept and application of recognized legal precedent is consequential in effect. It references a final, determination by an Appellate Court [viz., SCOTUS], which establishes the applicable legal rule or authority, for the future, on a previously controvertible issue.  Such determination is legally and societally, recognized and is productive of stability based upon its recognized resolution and universal acceptance.  The issue, previously contested, and resolved is a determinative source for relevant reference.

The Supreme Court, more than fifty years ago, established the Nation’s legal precedent, regarding the issue of a women’s right of choice as to abortion. The celebrated case of Roe v. Wade, determined the previously contested issue, by ruling that a woman had the personal and legal right to have an abortion. This was and is the settled legal precedent on the subject, and has been recognized and referenced, as stated, for upwards of one-half century.

The subject parties, who would seek to overturn established precedent, by making abortion illegal, vociferously, argue that legal precedent has in fact, been beneficially overturned in past American jurisprudence. citing such cases as, Plessy v. Ferguson [1896], which approved segregation in schools, if they were equal, and Brown v, Board of Education [1954] which indeed, overturned the precedent of the Plessy case; the latter Court, determining that all school segregation was unconstitutional, under the 14^th Amendment, and that’ “separate is not equal.” They could as well cite the overruled Dred Scott case, in which the determination was that a Black slave was just agricultural property (a “chattel”).

However, it is rudimentary legal analysis would reveal that when the [properly constituted] Supreme Court, overturned such precedent, it was, specifically for the express purpose of the protection of individual rights, and, manifestly, not their destruction.

It might be argued, as well, that the alteration of precedential law, concurrent with the shifts in Judicial membership, would necessarily lead to the public perception that the application of our Constitution is political and not impartial.

• The overturn of the Roe case, and the legal banning of abortion, would directly violate of the “Establishment Clause” of the U.S. Constitution:

Article 1, of the U.S, Constitution, among its other provisions, prohibits the making of any law, establishing or affecting the practice [or non-practice] of any religion. A review of “(c),” below, will result in the logical deduction [or the process of elimination] that the underlying motivation and evident purpose of the anti-abortion proponents are necessarily religious, if at all rational. We would refer the reader to “(c)” in support of this conclusion, in order to avoid unnecessary repetition.

• The proposed denial of a women’s right of abortion, would be a blatant deprivation of her rights to privacy and personal liberty, and result in her necessary and perilous relegation to non-professional, or “back alley” services, and amount to a personal and societal danger.

The avowed, motivational purpose of anti-abortion proponents is a purported reverence for “Life.” This tactical misrepresentation is irrefutably, belied by their empirically demonstrated beliefs and actions, which include denial of benefits for the needy child, after the event of birth, apparently, only valuing life, in utero [the fetus], supporting unregulated gun ownership, favoring the death penalty, denying refuge for desperate immigrants, ignoring, or opposing the existential threat of global warming.

Such evident sentiment and lack of human empathy belie their tactical choice of name, “Right to Life,” as well as their sub-rosa motivations; the latter, by logical elimination can only be based on religion [see (“b”) above and be unconstitutional.

Until the procedurally, troubling case of Bush v. Gore, an Appellant was required to prove, in a prerequisite proceeding [“Writ of Certiorari”] that the case, for which acceptance was sought, by SCOTUS, for determination, was “entirely free” from any political issue, nor had any indirect political impact. This requirement, constitutionally required to avoid the violation of its bedrock principle, ”Separation of Powers,” had been the rule since its inception.

SCOTUS’ steadily declining record of impartial jurisprudence and less than institutional excellence, reached its low point in the entirely political and democracy threatening, “Citizen’s Union” case. In the latter [political] case, SCOTUS, bizarrely, chose to extend the contractual business use and fictional concept of corporate “personhood,” to apply to actual, large corporate political donors; the members of the once, highly venerated Court, thereby sanctioning substantial damage to our representative democracy.

The disappointing and alarming decline of SCOTUS empirically seems explainable by the shifting, and unfortunately partisan, appointments of Justices, based upon their respective political leanings, rather than their excellent record of jurisprudence.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor relevantly and alarmingly stated: “Will this institution [SCOTUS] survive the stench created, in the public perception that the Constitution and its [interpretation] are just political acts?”

-p.

The advent and persistence of COVID [almost, two years to date] has had an undeniable, ubiquitous effect upon our seminal folkways and psyche. From our deemed most significant viz., the restrictions on interactive personal relationships, to the less impactful, but eerie and dystopic, wearing of masks, life is not, and may never again be, the same it was, pre-pandemic. Lifetime routines, including commuting to work, attendance at school, daily social interaction, food shopping, travel, seeking entertainment, and public assembly are included within the universal prohibitive list.

We have predicted that the extended and significant alteration of our traditionally ingrained routines has resulted in a somewhat more conscious self- awareness of the dynamics of life and of meaningful purpose and, conceivably, may never again be unquestioningly, and automatically, replicated. Some have acquired a new respect for empirical scientific research, others, especially with the rapid development of vaccines, have had their long-standing confidence, in scientific research ratified.

In an early essay, “Florence’s Lamp,” we noted the eternal and existential importance to Mankind of the nursing profession, and of its eternally dedicated and hard- working core of professionals. The celebrated efforts of Florence Nightingale, the venerated nurse- hero of the Crimean War, resulted in the development of proper sanitary and generally healthy conditions of hospitals and of patient care [not to mention, her practice of compassionate and encouraging night visits to the seriously wounded soldiers], has been recently and deservedly, extended to contemporaneously serving nurses.

It had long been our critical observation, that, despite the incalculable and valued contributions to society, rendered by members of the nursing profession, appropriate professional recognition and societal status, traditionally, was not afforded to them; with the possible exception of patients who have been hospitalized and noted the long hours of duty of such seemingly, tireless, devoted professionals.  In-hospital services encompass, bedside patient, ICU, floor, Surgical, Emergency, Maternity, Lab, Pediatric, Geriatric, Infectious Ward, Hospice, and other needed services. There are, in addition to hospital and clinic nurses, office, travel, and home visit nurses.

This public perception has at last, appropriately changed by the horrific events of the Covid pandemic. Despite the pernicious and ignorant efforts of an incompetent and unhinged President, to downplay and dismiss the existential danger of the unprecedented, worldwide pathology, hundreds of thousands of human beings lost their lives and millions succumbed to this virulent epidemic. The World was, in effect, at war, having been unprepared for this unprecedented surprise attack, by this virulent microscopic enemy. Hospitals were overcrowded and challenged, hundreds of thousands were sick and dying, and, in fact, the population of the entire planet was mortally, challenged by this pandemic; a contemporary analogy to the pathological nightmare of the Medieval Dark Ages, the Black Plague

To the unparalleled credit of American medical science, effective vaccines were developed in comparatively, “blitzkrieg” time [approximately, one year], to aid in the prevention of this viral disease. This was only after multiple millions had been infected many of whom died from the disease. At the time of this writing, Covid-19 and its relatives [mutations] are still undefeated and many people [especially, those who for non-objective, political and atavistic reasons still refuse vaccination.

Since the beginning of this global attack, it was the nursing profession that constitutes, and still does, the courageous and tireless foot soldiers, boldly, defending Mankind from this egregiously dangerous and widespread invasion. Our Medical profession, of course, deserves great kudos as well; but it was the nurses who attended, and still attend, by the sick patient’s bedside, day and night, rendering care together with whatever assurances were possible.

The future will, no doubt recount the multitudinous hordes of people requiring immediate medical service from the finite number of overworked and overwrought nurses. The high tension, the  intense responsibility, the number of mortalities, the overworked and overstressed, infection- outpaced nursing staffs, took, and still takes their toll on the exhausted health provider; many nurses ultimately, and predictably, present the characteristic symptoms of PTSD.

Regardless of the plethora of inexorable challenges wrought, and still persisting, of the pandemic, the stalwart dedication, empathy, and competence of the American Nurse is nothing short of heroic and, inarguably, worthy of commemoration in the annals of our American History

-p.

Now that the ephemeral distraction of the Thanksgiving Holiday has come and quickly gone, one might reasonably inquire, with what remains are the grateful celebrants left?  There is no quandary, whatsoever, concerning the ample, sumptuous remains of the celebratory meal. We have learned from long positive experience, that if a meal has been excellent, its leftovers will predictably, present further delectable enjoyment. However, the holiday celebrant’s resumption of the prior awareness of the less than delectable issues roiling the Nation is not a positive or encouraging experience.  

The frustrating realization, that the current constituent panel of the Supreme Court of the United States [SCOTUS], has unconstitutionally morphed, and descended to a politically partisan branch of government and, accordingly, is expected, this term, to undermine or overturn, decades of historical precedent  established by Roe v. Wade, as lobbied by the Republican right, that an unhinged serial felon, with substantial populist support, is bizarrely, once more seeking election as President, that such populist thugs have recently engaged in a bloody and mortal insurrection against the Washington Capitol Building, at the latter’s  bidding,  based upon his officially  passed legislation, which, are designed to limit the votes of people of color [by sheer contrast, a factually true interference with the vote], that “anti-vaxers” argue for the absolute freedom of the body from governmental  interference  [despite the danger of infection spread], that such staunch defenders of body liberty, are, shamefully, the opponents of a woman’s right to a needed abortion, the intimidating interference by such people with the National sentiment, regarding gun regulation  [responsible for a plethora of school and church shootings] and the many ignorant and delusional, paranoiac conspiracy advocates, who unfailingly, have delusions of universal governmental cover-up.

The tasty Thanksgiving remains, or leftovers, do share an item of commonality with the Thanksgiving Day remains, that phenomenon being one of predictable consistency; the pre-Holiday, distasteful political and social phenomena, remain equally as ugly and reprehensible, as before.

-p.            

We have little sympathy for companies like The Hallmark Card Company and their fellow “cardeologists,” nor with the entities that perennially produce traditional, pictorial calendars. These enterprises, reasonably, should have expected, that one day, their claptrap version of the “First Thanksgiving,” was fiction, like the Legend of “Sleepy Hollow” [the “Headless Horseman”], and would be revealed as the mere product of tiresome, National deceit, or Pollyannaish inspired imagination.

The main efforts of the standard American education system, to blindfold its students from the Nation’s dark periods, such as the malevolent enslavement of black human beings, and the greedy decimation of its indigenous peoples and their ancient culture, could, conceivably, last only so long,  before it was, ultimately, uncovered, by a  Nation benefited by so large a number of literate and inquisitive citizens. Accurate history thus, eventually wends its weary way through the dense fog created by imperious censors of historical experience and those autocratic managers of human knowledge, to reveal its truth. Self-serving propaganda conceits such as “Manifest Destiny,” and of an evangelical obligation to “save” the “savage peoples” by converting them to Christianity, are shameful matters, permanently, included in our National Historical Archives.

In the Hallmark Card Company version of the annual, November 24 holiday, representatives of the First Nations, amply portrayed in feathers and Indian regalia, and the new Colonials, in 16^th Century, Quaker-like costume, are portrayed, celebrating their mutual friendship sitting along a large rectangular table, visibly and meaningfully, loaded,  with New World eatables, such as corn and squash, and of course, cranberry and wild turkey; dining and participating in the context of a warm, neighborly and amicable interaction. The foregoing depiction contains as little truth, as the doggerel printed on the inside of the greeting cards, manifests any poetic characteristics.

We recently read a scholarly essay, recounting the above revelations and referring to such adverse contemporary matters as, the Covid-19  pandemic, the boondoggle of the Trump Presidency, the perilous rise of White Christian Supremacy groups, the National divisiveness, global warming and the general disinterest in the environment, the immigration crises, the multiple tragedies caused by gun-toting psychopaths, the persistence of Jim Crow mentality, especially, among Municipal Police, the economic disparities, the conspiracy freaks, the insurrection at the Capitol Building and the threats implicit in computer fraud. The essayist questioned whether there was anything for which to give thanks on the Holiday.

The pessimistic essayist might also have, in such context, referred to the present international turmoil, including the perpetual war and famine in the Southern Sahara, the aggressive posture of Russia toward Belarus and Ukraine, the tensions with Iran, the pervasive corruption of Central America and the ensuing refugee crises, the tensions between China and Taiwan, the saber-rattling of North Korea, the political riots in Myanmar, our disastrous 20-year adventure in Afghanistan, and countless more subjects of far less than celebratory nature around the World.

Yet, looking around our well-populated Thanksgiving dinner table, we were, nonetheless, especially thankful, irrespective of the plethora of less than fortunate, contemporary problems, domestic and international. We were thankful for being citizens of the U.S., despite its present imperfections, the World’s freest and safest domicile. We were especially thankful for life, itself, and reasonably good health [even in a time of pandemics], for the love and bonhomie interactively, exchanged between the loving celebrants, and for the momentary reprise of realization of the eternally valuable celebration of good friends and family.

-p.          

Of all its admirable and unique revelations, Mankind may never attain the ultimate comprehension of the transcendental dynamics of the “life force” itself. What is the energy source of the implanted seed or spermatozoon that affects and governs its progressive development and maturity? What is the nature of the specialized and tenuous spark of life and its too often-unexpected extinction? What fuel powered the evolutionary process and the empirical course of its mutational progress?  Such are deep and conceivably, unanswerable mysteries, ignored, or alternatively, simply accepted, like the “given,” in a geometry problem. In the latter mathematical discipline, the demonstrated solution is attained by the process of orderly and deductive reasoning from the general mathematical proposition as presented; but what is the primal source of that presented proposition [“the given]? The comforting attribution of non-rational or superstitious [ex., religious] explanations, to these profoundly ultimate questions are, in our view, useless and merely, facile admissions of the absence of such knowledge.

In view of the fact that Mankind merely may initiate [switch on] the human life process, but remains thoughtlessly ignorant as to the basic or primal source of the dynamics of the ensuing process, any punitive termination of its mature end product at the very least, is ignorantly presumptuous, or, at worst, maliciously, counter-anthropological. Such acts, albeit, empirically sanctioned by legal fiat, remain, nevertheless, acts of shameful anthropological trespass. In sum, humankind’s attempt to disturb dynamics that it does not understand is disgracefully immoral, as well as, hubristically offensive.

We briefly list below, the popular, valid arguments against “retributive State punishment” for intentional murder, known as “Capital Punishment.” We wholeheartedly, and without reservation, endorse them all; however, as intended by the specific theme of this essay, would additionally declare that the death penalty is far more profoundly, errant. The practice amounts to a blatant violation of man’s overriding and primal sacrament to Nature, implicitly given, in moral and contractual exchange, for the special gifts afforded to him, to preserve and enhance the quality of his life.

It is noteworthy that there can be no ultimately persuasive religious argument against capital punishment, since it is inarguable that, historically, in Western society capital punishment had its inception and support in Judeo-Christian Biblical Law.

The popular, cogent arguments against capital punishment as summarized include:

• It is imposed arbitrarily; racial prejudice playing a major role
• It is final and irreversible, so that mistakes cannot be rectified
• It has not proved to have its intended deterrent impact
• It is wastefully and enormously expensive
• It is often procedurally unreliable, causing horrendous suffering
• It prevents the opportunity of rehabilitation
• It is “cruel and unusual punishment”,  specifically prohibited by the U.S. Constitution
• Long waiting times prior to execution, are excessively cruel and inhuman
• The “eye for an eye,” rationalization is cruel and atavistic
• It has been abolished in every advanced Nation, except Japan and the United

It is our considered view that in addition to the foregoing popular and meritorious criticisms of capital punishment, a more profound and fundamental offense exists in the implementation by the State of the death penalty, albeit, relative to the most heinous psychopath. Common-Law precedent and legislated Statutes, prohibiting and criminalizing the intentional taking of human life, are appropriately, founded on the universal acceptance of the precious and irreplaceable sanctity of human life. Yet, it should be is notable that many members of the race of humankind, whose moral perception has evolved sufficiently, feel the identically indistinguishable, cosmological guilt, applicable to the existence of the State death penalty, as an equal trespass against Nature and our eternally evolving species.

-p.

We remain fearful that the mainstream American citizen has perilously and irresponsibly, allowed to himself, a state of comfortable complacency, in the face of a potentially clear, predictable and possibly, imminent tragedy; one, consisting of the unimaginable and tragic destruction of our Democratic Republic and his cherished, American way of life.  He does so, by unwittingly, ignoring the current configuration of the identical presenting pathological symptoms, which, in the 1930s, resulted in Hitler’s destruction of the democratic, Weimar Republic. Ellie Wiesel declared that the opposite of love is not hate; it is, in fact, disinterest. By political analogy, the insidious ally of a country’s slow march to autocracy and fascism is citizen complacency.

 It is our considered view that there were two salient, phenomena, responsible for the tragic death of the Weimar Republic. The first was the demonic persona of Adolph Hitler, an incapable failure in life, with neurotic pretentions to greatness, supported by a neurotically delusional egocentrism, an insatiable lust for power, the absence of normal perception and the tactical skills of a demagogue. His was not a love of country, nor an adhesion to any particular political or economic ideal; it was simply a deranged, insane, passionate love of himself. The second element was the eternally unfathomable operation of a discontented human nature, inclusive of its mundane complacency and its unpredictable tendency to shifts in tribal sentiment.  

The persona and inclinations of Adolph Hitler and Donald Trump are strikingly and ominously identical. Despite their known devastatingly, horrendous impact upon mankind in maturity, they have each been described as failures in their early life; Hitler as a third-rate painter, Trump as a real estate grifter, an accumulator of bankruptcy petitions and as an inconspicuous host of a poorly rated, glitzy television game show. They both are reputed to be inadequate conversationalists on every subject except themselves; each, identically, possessing an overweening sense of self-love and an immense [neurotic] and entirely unsupported sense of personal greatness.

They are identically known as draft dodgers, as abusers of females, as derogators of learning and education, as racial and ethnic bigots, as completely lacking in empathy or minimal regard for others, both regular purveyors of “alternate facts,” as an alternative to empirical truth and both ruthlessly power hungry at all costs. In their respective assaults upon reality and the facts, they each launched spirited public attacks upon the free press and media outlets. Trump, like Hitler, is a staunch opponent of immigration and a promoter of xenophobia.

We simply have no rational explanation for the phenomenon of attraction of so many members of the public, [largely, but not exclusively, of the lower economic class,] for egocentric, ignorant, demagogic demons such as Hitler and Trump. It seems to be a weakness in the persona of the modern Homo sapiens, to revere the false and showy imperial presence of a convincingly majestic orator, promising snake oil remedies for universal problems. The reverence for Trump by so large a portion of the American voter -ship, seems hard to rationally, comprehend. He, like Hitler, possesses none of the traits normally lauded by society, capability, candor, honesty, faith, morality, intelligence, apathy, dignity, observance of societal mores and dignity. Neither Hitler nor Trump can honestly accorded credit for any of these characteristics; yet they seem to have an attraction for the discontented, particular the portion of society that we have termed the “underbelly.”

Trump’s summons to his people for action on January 6, based on his self-serving fantasy of a stolen election, was not truly identical to Hitler’s lies about the burning of the Reichstag but sufficed to have fed the conspiracy mongers’ insatiable thirst,   for the revelation of sub-rosa fraud and responsively led to the major insurrection at the Washington Capitol Building. Despite two shameful impeachments in his four- year term of office and the reality of his awaiting criminal indictment for serious Federal and State felonies, Trump is imperiously, seeking restoration to the Oval office. This would-be autocrat seems to be relying upon the propensity of his cultish supporters to push him over the top, together with the help of many sycophantic State Legislatures, which publicly, and intentionally, are legislating tactics, which are interfering with the American vote; amounting to, unlike Trump’s tactically false claim, a non-fictional, undemocratic manipulation.

It is of existential importance that the Nation realize that the horrific problem of the Weimar Republic was not that the Nazis were inhuman, but that they were, in fact, human; like Trump and his supporters who must, unequivocally, be seen as a clear and present danger to the continuance, of our democratic Nation.

-p.      

In the cast of the populist circus, functionally misnamed, “Fox News,” the part of the reluctant, put upon, intellectual is played by a grumpy middle-aged man, Tucker Carlson. Tucker, impervious to the concept of hubris, and like the apocryphal, Oracle at Delphi, renders Deity-inspired wisdom to such supplicants as loyally invoke it.

Simply out of idle curiosity, we decided to attend at his Delphic Greek Temple situated atop the amorphous clouds of Fox News,” by watching it on the appropriate, television channel. Initially, we would refer to his revealed persona and style of unholy pontification, prior to the revelation of the substance of his invaluable, and irrefutable revelations, then heard by us. Carlson’s face seems to reveal the attitude of profound injustice that he be unfairly taxed with the singular responsibility to simplify and explain things to the lesser gifted television viewer. While one is confident that he did not read at Oxford, he nevertheless effects that stereotypical exterior, viz., retro hairstyle and sports jacket (looks like tweed), and far too often wears a sardonic and patronizing smile of condescension. Our take on T.C., who, in populist reality, is an ardent supporter of another great and reliably wise Oracle, Donald J. Trump, and that he is as candidly an intellectual, as the Wizard of Oz was an effective Sorcerer. Tucker is known by many legitimate newscasters as an exaggerator, a prevaricator and a mere dilettante, in the misleading and false trappings of a sophisticated guide to empirical wisdom.

By example, Carlson is known to be a down player or denier of climate change, despite the universal agreement of its existence by world’s recognized climatologists and scientists, an avid supporter of the former incapable, immoral and shockingly ignorant, President, Donald  Trump [ rated, “his highest-profile proponent] and of Trump’s Wall separating U.S. and Mexico, a Member of the Dan White Society, named after the killer of the Mayor of San Francisco Mayor, George Moscone and of Harvey Milk, a propagandist as to the lack of severity of Covid-19, apologist for the January 6, 202l insurrection, an opponent of immigration, and has, generally, been described as a racial bigot, anti-feminist, a follower of “White Grievance” politics, and practitioner of delusional conspiracy theories.

Carlson, in his petulant-pedantic manner, speaks, as the inaugurated, scholastic authority of Fox News [News ?] to its audience, largely composed of the mal-informed underbelly of the Nation, in an effort to “explain” the causes for our Nation’s problems.

During that single observance, made out of idle curiosity, mentioned above, we observed a typical example of the Tucker emphatic screed; this time, on the purported cause of the contemporary high prices and possibly ensuing danger of inflation. In sum, he imperiously and confidently placed all the responsibility [as expected] on the Biden Administration. Apparently, Biden is destroying the entire American economy by furnishing [modest] monetary relief to needy and hungry families. “It is entirely the fault of Biden!” We were satisfied on this one occasion that we had serendipitously occasioned on a stereotypical example of a prime Tucker Carlson [Trumpist] Oracular revelation. Did no one notify T.C. of the Pandemic?

It appears that most accredited economic experts did not consult the Carlson Delphic Oracle, and, authoritatively instead, attribute today’s high prices and threat of inflation to the Covid pandemic. As usual, despite his arrogant patrician delivery, Tucker Carlson, as usual, was not only, incorrect, but faithfully and obnoxiously, spewing right-wing Trumpian alternate facts.

As to the specific, empirical reasons for the present Covid-caused, high prices are, strained shipping routes around the globe, restricted supply lines, lockdowns,  pent-up revenues caused by the pandemic, the closing of a great many factories and businesses, the latter, resulting in less availability of products, the pent-up price demand, and the consequent price increase; the latter, one hopes, will find itself in the slow process of normalization.

Tucker should take notice, and honestly acknowledge the empirical fact that the length, as well as the severity, and the numbers of mortalities of Covid, were significantly exacerbated by Trump’s public downplaying of its importance and his interference with the prophylactic measures professionally recommended [masking, distancing, and vaccination].

Mr. Carlson, in his characteristic pseudo-intellectual style of Trump sycophant, no doubt, privately realizes that the Covid-19 epidemic, in truth, is the guilty perpetrator of the concerning price increases and not Joseph Biden [ Trump’s opponent]. Snake oil salesman, grifters and propagandists come in all conceivable costumes, from populist garb, like overalls, religious robes or tweed jackets; their similarity resides in their propensity for shameful and potentially dangerous misrepresentation.

-p.

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Those of us old enough to make an accurate, recollected comparison of the character of our Nation, during the period 1940’s to that of the Nation in 2016, would find it challenging to discern the empirical identity. Not unlike the contrast, expressed by Charles Dickens, in the opening words of his classic novel, ”Tale of Two Cities,” [referring to 18th Century, Paris and London,] “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” For the purpose of conveying empirical authenticity, we have elected to recount such analogous theme, as recalled from the perspective of our personal life.

In a much earlier series of essays, we endeavored to portray our lives as young offspring of Eastern European immigrants in the 1940-50’s Brooklyn. We were also inclusive of other ambient immigrants likewise engaged in valiant attempts to learn a strange language, adjust to new folkways, and establish, the intended, safer, and better life, for themselves, and notably, for their future American children. We described the old brick apartment houses, the mix of exotic cooking smells, the streetlamps, the electric-powered trolley cars, the food stands and pushcarts, and the still extant, clip-clopping, horse-driven wagons. We especially highlighted those ardent efforts of rag-tag poor, insecure, survivors of European nightmarish oppression, poverty, and weekly pogroms, to convincingly morph into American citizens; at which they ultimately succeeded in nuanced and dedicated fashion. However, above and beyond the foregoing aspirations, their uniformly essential preoccupation, was to see their future children educated and materially successful.
As growing children, we sometimes overheard whispered Yiddish conversations, between our parents and others, about their arduous lives in the “old country” and, thus, early on, acquired feelings of gratitude and good fortune, at having been born a citizen of the United State.

During the war years, we listened to the regular, uplifting “Fireside Chats” delivered by a much admired and beloved President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and, despite our parents’ accented speech, began to identify ourselves as American citizens. Together with relatives who served in the military, we participated in the war effort; by, devoting many after-school periods to the search and collection of discarded rubber, metal, and electrical objects, in aid of the war effort. As bona- fide Americans, we proudly participated in the neighborhood block parties, celebrating America’s great victory and the end of the war. If there, conceivably, existed a positive feature of war, it would be the internal citizen unity confirmed in an innocent participant Nation.

During this first, of the two comparative periods, we noted the persistent love of Country, despite the divisive and troubling McCarthy hearings and the hellish, twenty-year, Viet Nam War. We observed that the the Nation, continued to demonstrate a universal respect for the Constitution, the Law, and American mainstream morality. Newspapers flourished and the media grew exponentially. As a general matter, respect for the government and for legal edict, abided. For children, media Superheroes were created, whose mission was the defense of justice, moral rectitude and loyalty to our exemplary, red, white, and blue Nation.

Unfortunately, however, the progress of Civil Rights, most especially race relations, continued to plague the Country [and most especially, the victims], but some progress, was being [slowly] made; a Federal Civil Rights Law was passed during the term of President Lyndon B. Johnson, notwithstanding which, unfortunately, despicably bigoted feelings seemed to persist among many atavistic citizens.
We would notably emphasize, that, during this era, aside from all other considerations, the traditional existence of the Democratic Republic was universally, assumed to be eternal and not subject to threat.

In succeeding decades, militant positions on hotly contested issues seemed to cause American society to become manifestly divisive. The issues included a woman’s right to abortion, gay rights, gun control, and the persistence of racial and gender inequality. As first-generation, Americans we innately favored equality of rights, [except for gun ownership], and voted and debated, accordingly. What we disappointingly observed, was that, rather than freely debating the issues in good fellowship, a great many citizens formed insular groups of identical opinion, overtly hostile to other like groups of differing views. This development was shocking to those of us who were schooled in the Nation’s freedom of speech; here, it bizarrely appeared to us, speech was not assaulted by autocratic leadership, as in the U.S.S.R. but by citizens.

Our second thematically contrasted era, [circa. 2016] seem to waste little time in evincing its contrasting, singular and bizarrely non-traditional, character; personified and catalyzed by the ignominious, incompetent, and shockingly immoral Presidency of Donald J. Trump. During the single four-year term of Trump, the Nation saw the disparagement of science, education, the media, especially newspapers, a dystopic and disgraceful attack on factual reality and knowledge, by Trump’s serial mendacity, his demonstrated disparagement of the moral standard of “truth,” in favor of a new “alternate reality”, his neurotic egocentrism, pitifully aggravated by his fundamental ignorance. Many thousands of citizens died because of his thoughtlessly ignorant dismissal of an epidemic watch entity [because it was created by Obama] and thereafter, his ignorant denial of the seriousness of Covid-9, which, to date, still ravages and kills a great many inhabitants of our planet.

Trump’s colossal ignorance, his disparagement of education, science, environmental concern, planetary warming, human advancement, mainstream morality, and his winking encouragement of bigoted and dangerous White Christian Supremacy groups, was loudly applauded by that portion of our population termed, “The Underbelly,” which played a material part in his election and his continuing support.
It appeared to us that a dark and ominous cloud had suddenly descended upon our lifetime worship of America, the last hope of the oppressed and the only safe shelter for the world’s vulnerable. But the worrisome and disappointing nature of our beloved America was to get even worse, following the loss of the Presidential Election by Trump after one term of office [ featuring two disgraceful impeachments].

Trump’s usual serial mendacity was exceeded by his refusal to publicly acknowledge his evident loss to Joseph Biden, asserting instead, his neurotic and unsupported, claim of fraudulent election; in unprecedented rejection of the historically, democratic, policy of peacefully stepping aside for the elected successor. Trump persists in this autocratic style, “Big Lie,” to date, despite the ratification of the election procedure and its ultimate count by several certified audit agencies.
Idealistically dedicated to truth, we were non-plussed, not only by the mendacity of the errant, former president, but in the further observation of Trump’s countless believers of his unsupported and disproven assertion. We were further confused by the plethora of paranoid conspiracy adherents, among his sycophantic cult, viz., government tracking mini-computers in Covid vaccine, rockets shot down to Earth from Outer Space by Israel, the suitability of veterinary horse wormer to avoid Covid, the bi-coastal, liberal conspiracies to traffic children for sex, and so many other delusional beliefs [in addition to the “Big Lie”], as to profoundly, disturb our early- installed, optimistic expectations of societal rationality.

We were devastated when the Trump “underbelly,” [notably, including America’s Christian White Supremacy Groups] saw fit to mount a violent and deadly insurrection against Washington’s Capitol Building. We have also read about threats, defamation, and physical violence, on the part of members of the large Trumpism underbelly, hatefully and illegally perpetrated against Members of Congress and School Boards, local Officials, and others, who maintain views perceived to be in opposition to theirs.

It is impossible, in meaningful words, to describe the reactive, subtle, and unconsciously motivated, chill of instantaneous, recollection, of the many horrific accounts, haltingly related by our immigrant parents of life under autocratic and fascist rule.

We simply must do better.
-p.