Category: Uncategorized

We, together with upwards of seventy-five million voters, are profoundly relieved that the aberrant,  unprecedented term of office of Trump-Pence, was ended by the results of the recent Presidential election. Nevertheless, it is disappointing and truly disheartening to be reminded by the observed composition of the result, that slightly less than one-half of our population, loyally and tribally, voted for the losing administration, despite its demonstrated four- year record of undisputed incompetent, shameful and immoral performance. We had attempted until now, to resist the realization, that in this Nation, created as a  “representative democracy,” structured and intended to be guided by the will of its people, slightly less than of one- half is found seriously wanting in the Jeffersonian mandate, for the success of a Democracy viz., an educated and informed citizenry.

Simultaneously with our feelings of immeasurable relief and joy that the ticket of Biden-Harris has successfully supplanted the disgraceful and unprecedented rule by Trump-Pence, we retain a bit of regret, supplemental to that profound relief and celebratory inclination.

Those who worked for the re-election of Trump ( separate and apart from its natural appeal to the anti-health regulation, air polluting industrialists) focused the old demagogic snake oil Trump promises on his “base,” generally containing the Nation’s insufficiently educated, flat earth cohort. The Republican Party campaigners seemed to speak, exclusively, to that portion of the population. Our observation is that the Democratic campaigners spoke, likewise, almost exclusively, to their generally more literate, Democrats and the result was merely a matter of  simple arithmetic. There was absolutely no prevailing doctrinaire principle involved; either a voter was for Trump or against him. By good fortune, pursuant to that observation, the votes against Trump, simply, were arithmetically more numerous.

In the interest of clarity, we would emphatically and sincerely reiterate that we are overjoyed that Biden won and that the Nation will now awaken to normalcy, from the  nightmare of Trump and repair, as possible, the damage caused by that epitome of incompetent immorality, The situation, historically, closely replicates the context and setting of the Jimmy Carter election. At the time, America desperately desired to return to normalcy following the aberrational Presidency of Richard Nixon. Like Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden represents a safe assurance of normalcy and desired restoration of the traditional American moral compass, as well as required judgmental competence. Yet, as the title to this writing expressly indicates, we do have some principled regrets.

Since the time of the Democratic Nominations, we have enjoyed a preference for a Bernie Sanders Presidency, as predictably the most pro-active in moving our Nation towards the ideal of equality, intended and expected by our founding fathers. His failure to be nominated, in our considered opinion was a combination of two factors. Senator Sanders, a brilliant man and apt politician might have realized that, in this Nation of so many inadequately educated and reductionist voters, his choice to label himself as “Socialist”, would be, to their nuanced perception and reductive understanding, a profession of not championing the American way and desiring to install a foreign-based ideology.

The word, ”Socialism,” perceived by the inadequately educated voter, apparently, has negative and unpatriotic associations and Senator Sanders should have been cognizant that the use of words such as  “compassionate” or “empathic “ capitalism would have been tactically preferable. Neither Bernie Sanders, who chose to employ the misunderstood label, nor the Democratic Party itself, (as the second factor) dedicated sufficient (or, any) time to clarify the term, in its American (Sander’s) context.

History clearly demonstrates that the  practice of completely unregulated  laissez- faire, as proclaimed by the 19^th Century English philosopher, Adam Smith, ineluctably led to lives of suffering  and extreme privation on the part of the classes of working people in newly industrialized England. Empirically, the practice of relegating the survival of lower economic families to the cruel and inhuman vagaries of his “Natural Law,” was a predictable  assurance of hunger, sickness, privation and a short, miserable life.

Following the Great Depression of the1930’s, the Administration  of President Franklyn D. Roosevelt, entered into a “contract” with America, by which the Federal Government assumed the empathic responsibility, to render needed assistance to its citizens through programs, such as social security,  survivor’s benefits, disability insurance, workmen’s compensation, health regulations for the general public and safety regulations for labor plus a plethora of other compassionate governmental undertakings, still needed and fortunately existing today. No known, recipient citizen has ever, to our knowledge, publicly labeled the wide array of government life- assisting programs as “Socialism.”

It takes no great leap of faith to assume that all such ill -advised voters who misunderstand and feared Sanders’ use of his description, “Democrat-Socialist” have been lifelong, grateful beneficiaries of a great many such programs of American compassionate capitalism. Programs of needed governmental assistance, in the context of our capitalistic infrastructure do not merit the designation of, nor are related in any way to “Socialism.” In effect, such programs, by their principled empathy and morality conceivably, prevent foreign theories of government rule from establishing a foothold in our Nation.

In a past essay, “American Socialism,” we commented on this identical, ignorant and reductionist misuse, of the word, socialism, and asserted that it is essentially, an academic term principally used in the study of political science and economics. Socialism correctly understood, means the complete ownership and control of business and industry by a central Government. Observably, there is, and has never been, an American Presidential candidate who has espoused that theory.

But, observably, the “S” word was tactically and cynically re-engineered as an epithet for the reductionist, under-educated voter, causing  Sanders to be rejected by such misled voters due to his  employment of that label. He is a brilliant man and should have known better. While we certainly look forward to the expected return of American normalcy, a President with the platform of  Bernie Sanders could have, in addition, promoted reasonable policies of sorely needed economic equity and social justice, morally called for by the American tradition of equality, in our lop-sided, astronomically divergent economic nation, and to do so, utilizing means, properly within the American tradition.

-p.   

The first time Lorna Allison Appelkuchen, better known by her fellow villagers as “Lorna Apples,” attracted any public notice, in the small, verdant village of “Wistful Vista, Inc,” was when the local newspaper, “Wistful Living,” in a front page headline, proclaimed her selection by the Mayor ( who happened to be Lorna’s second cousin on her father’s side) as Chair of the Decorating Committees of the Meeting House and the two Village libraries. She had been, reportedly, a geranium and day lily specialist, and was selected over another disappointed applicant, Elvira Swine, herself the author of a coffee table shiny paged volume, “ Life Among Green Leaf Borers and Nematodes.” [The latter book published and distributed by the local, Oblivion Book Company which, according to the public notice, which appeared less than one year later, in “Wistful Living,” officially filed for final bankruptcy]. Miss Swine, disappointed and outraged, at her perceived personal rejection, initially set about, to vociferously contest such selection on the angrily stated grounds of unethical familial nepotism, until she was (mercifully) reminded by a neighbor who knew the back history of the family, that she was also a second cousin of the Mayor, but on the maternal side.

Commencing with that anguished disappointment, Elvira Swine angrily declared “ Lorna Apples, or whatever her name is,” arch-rival and a sworn personal enemy, despite such recent revelation that they were related. She scrupulously clipped and filed by date, every article and reference to Lorna Apple, appearing in the Village Newspaper in her obsessive search for some possible avenue to her personally perceived, justly deserved, revenge.

When Lorna’s two year term mayoral appointment expired she, having grown accustomed to and actually enjoying her first taste of public attention and status, relative to public position, decided to throw her green ribboned straw sun bonnet into the ring, to run for the expired term of the imminently retiring, Town Clerk. Elvira, despite this newly developed opportunity to request the now vacant, previously sought position (Chair of the Decorating Committee of the Village Meeting House and the two Village Libraries) and based on her desire to lock horns with her perceived enemy, publicly declared that she too, is tossing her artificial fur red fox muffler in the ring, to assert her earnest desire to oppose the candidacy of her deeply despised Lorna.

Ms. Swine, from the start, began a tactical program of political campaigning including, telephone calls to villagers, and distribution of her excellent home baked goods to neighbors; including many dozens of chocolate chip cookies to random Village children, in exchange for their solemn, lisped, promises to request that their parents vote in her favor.

For unknown personal reasons, conceivably including shyness, Lorna decided, perhaps in error, to refrain from public campaigning. The sole, indirect exception related to those chance Villagers who, from time to time, happened to appear at the front garden of her modest residence for a neighborly chat, while observing the labors of the expert geranium and lily gardener. The forthcoming election, taking place in two months was seldom discussed.

The Village’s total eligible voting roster numbered nine-hundred and fifty, including college offspring, over the age of 18, home on holiday break .The election itself was agreed to be conducted by the voter’s personal appearance and his act of dropping a glass marble (from the open cache of free glass marbles, near the public entrance to the Village Hall) into one or the other of two identical glass canning jars, each displaying in green, identically printed lettering, the name of the respective candidate. The candidate to be declared, winner, logically, was the one receiving the most marbles.

The site of the election, publicized on several occasions, was noticed to take place between the hours of 10:AM and 6PM, on the advertised date. As agreed by consensus, official counting was to be done by the Village Mayor, himself, and personally witnessed by both candidates. The two- month pre-election wait seemed to pass by quickly, during which period, the highly motivated Elvira, tactically distributed no less than twenty dozen chocolate-chip cookies, several dozen home-baked pies and cakes, and made copious campaign telephone calls, too numerous to count. Lorna, by contrast, and perhaps, foolishly simply carried on with her routine life, gardening and chatting with whatever Village people chose to come by mid-mornings, when she habitually tended to her front flower garden.

Election day weather was, fortunately, bright, sunny and comfortably cool and evinced, during the assigned voting hours, a huge number of voters, generally estimated at close to the total roster of reliable Village voters. The election went smoothly; the singular incident, occurring on election day, being the foiled attempt to vote twice, by Elvira, wearing an entirely different afternoon outfit, (and a large-brimmed hat) from the attire, worn for her vote in the morning; but fortuitously spotted by the same villager who, years ago, had revealed the parties’ mutual familial relationship. Elvira, firmly holding the large- brimmed hat behind her back, defensively, asserted that it was simply an innocent error of mistaken recollection.
The (witnessed) votes were counted at the conclusion of the election period and the final tally was as follows:

Apple: 796 (marbles)
Swine: 11 (marbles).

Elvira, however, irrationally and neurotically refused to concede her resounding and undeniable loss. She and the 9 or so others, who voted in her favor, at Elvira’s hysterical insistence, jointly protested the election results to the Village Mayor, on the spurious grounds of allegedly switched jars, moving and positioning of jars as to augment the light illumination, clandestine shifting of marbles from one jar to the other and an outrageously paranoidal account of a secret, tactical elimination of decisive marbles.

The annoyed and outraged Mayor and Villagers uniformly expressed complete frustration at Elvira’s deplorable and irrational response to the outcome of the demonstrably fair and unassailably transparent election. The local newspaper, “Wistful Life,” in addition to its dutiful, official affirmance of the results of the Village election, carried an Official Notice, stating that, pursuant to the Charter of Wistful Vista Village, Inc. the recent executive decree of the Village Mayor, was to the effect that Ms. Elvira Swine shall remain permanently ineligible to run for Village office.

-p.

ADDENDUM: It would appear that the defeated Donald J. Trump, has an analogous problem with his misplaced marbles.

The feeling of grateful and profound relief, consequent to the merciful and long- awaited defeat of Donald F. Trump, is a felt timely impetus for a proffered analytical perception of the persona behind the unprecedented, embarrassing and dreadful period of his (thankfully) single term in office. Any attempted comparison between Trump and any of our historic Presidents, would seem to be a fruitless endeavor; we have had Chiefs of State that varied from excellent to poor, but the term of this President, elevated to Office  by the unpredictable, nuance of the popular vote, has been determined by expert political scientists, to be singularly dangerous to the institution of democracy and to the Nation.

Considering the number of our past writings on Trump’s demonstrated incapacity, ignorance, serial mendacity, neurotic egocentrism and innate dishonesty, any further treatment of his perverse incapacity to serve as President, would be duplicative and unproductive. We have also written on the subject of his majestic transmogrification to the Oval Office, generally ascribing the causes of his victory, to to the insufficient numbers of Democratic supporters for his opponent, Hillary Clinton, the unprecedented large vote of the dissatisfied, inadequately educated, “flat earth,” reductionist portion of our population, vulnerable to the “snake oil” promises of Trump and his minions, and financed by the anti-regulation, mega-rich industrial air polluters who psychopathically value profits, over human life. In the present writing we would prefer to concentrate on the persona of Trump, as we see him, and the ensuing Sophoclean Tragedy of past four years of his Presidency.

At the end of the first two years of his Presidency, the Gallop poll reported that his approval was the lowest of any American President since World War 2. His serial mendacity popularly became a distinctive part of his personal identity. In fact, the responsible media utilized the word “lies,” reportedly, for the first time in history, in reference to an American President. Indeed, political experts, throughout his term in office, often designated Trump’s performance emphatically, as an imminent danger to democracy.

 Based upon our cursory research efforts, it would appear that Donald J. Trump (and offspring) inherited a familial sociopathic persona, going back reportedly, to no less than three successive generations. This innate trait consistently exalted the importance of profit making and financial success (“winning”) far above mainstream morality, business ethics, familial fidelity, and respect for other human beings (especially, other racial groups). Considerations of empathy and societal morality was usefully absent and would have interfered with their sole, innate and overriding inclination toward monetary success.

Falsely holding himself out to the general public as a business guru, he has in fact, suffered six bankruptcies and innumerable lawsuits for non-payment to contractors. He has been legally censured regarding several public fraudulent enterprises, including his licensed brand name enterprises, such as liquor and a sham school, based upon his misrepresented record of purported real estate successes, arrogantly named, “Trump University.”

His misrepresented persona and business record led him to be accepted as a principal in beauty contests and a second rate television  show (2014-2015) the “Apprentice,” where, as to both, it is to be noted the underlying and sole issues were “winning and “losing,”  the totality of his narrow conception of meaningful reality. Trump got himself deferred from the military by successfully alleging two “bone spurs” with the assistance of a well- paid physician. He has often publicly referred to members of the military as “suckers” and to those captured, tortured or killed as “losers,” including the Nation’s celebrated hero, U.S. Sen. John McCain. Referring to the captured and extensively tortured McCain, he shamelessly and revealingly stated: “I don’t respect losers who let themselves be captured.”

No one need wonder at the infantile, noisy merry-go-round of absurd defenses and fictional accusations, asserted by the ego crushed, mortally wounded Trump, and his deluded sycophants, resulting from his resounding loss to Joseph Biden. To this undeserved but formerly transmogrified, know- nothing palooka, former host of a second- rate television game show and real estate gonif- extraordinaire, value in life consists solely of two reductive phenomena, winning or losing. We are joyful that this obnoxious disgrace to  American manhood has lost; and that America has won.

-p.

Pale early moonbeams
Espied thru a Kingston window
Shine a yellow effusion that
Mimes fresh snowfall
On the nocturnal rocks
And illumine petite acorns
Dreaming of stately oaks
And cast moving shadows
On close-in tree trunks
To waken them from leafy sleep

An unseen, feathered stage boss
Will soon trill the diurnal cue
To, as ever, hoist the dark curtain
And commence the beginning…

-p. (Leonard N. Shapiro, 11/9/20)

We have understandably arrived at a meter reading of “Empty,” on the gauge of our reserve tank of vocabulary, relative to the characterological and universal unsuitability of Donald J. Trump, to occupy America’s Oval Office. Accordingly, we will refrain from further remarks on that painful subject and focus on the recent bizarre, humorous, one-time departure, from the normal political polling process.

The predicted outcomes, declared by America’s professionally consulted political pollsters, [such as the Gallup Poll, Marist University Poll, Harris Poll, Monmouth University Poll, Pew Research Center, the Quinnipiac University Poll and many others] have a reasonable measure of utility as an indication of the preferences and sentiments of the voting public. Certainly, it would be foolish to quixotically attempt to assay individual, preferential sentiment in a Nation of approximately, 145,000,000 potential voters. Accordingly, by practical necessity, we look to the Nation’s professional pollsters for their predictions of sentiment, such as in the present context, the likely winner in our current Presidential election.

Prodigious time, effort and expense on the part of these companies is necessarily devoted to compliance with the proclaimed universal and undertaken mandate and ethics of objectivity; by maintaining impartiality in the selection and wording of questions, including their interrogative sequence, as well as the vital selection of representative and relevant model test groups. Nevertheless, despite the existence of universally proclaimed and undertaken strictures, it is at times disappointing and confusing to discern nuanced, or even completely disparate reported result as between pollsters.

At this juncture in the present writing, by the unavoidable need for contextual rationality, we are obliged to painstakingly extract whatever related words, are empirically still extractible from our above- referenced, depleted Trump lexicon tank. We need only just enough to remind the reader that he, falsely and tactically, underplayed the significance of the advent and the virulence of the pandemic of coronavirus. He did so, initially, by denying its evident seriousness and potential mortality and then by ridiculing the recommendations of  the esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci and virtually all responsible medical practitioners, doctor and nurse alike, that Americans must prophylactically distance themselves, from each other, if possible, by quarantine, and strictly mandated the wearing of protective masks.

Trump’s many loyal followers, due to Trump’s tactical nonchalance, refrained from taking such prudent preventative measures (masks, and distancing), as a perceived political statement of support for Trump and thereby increased the danger to themselves and, (selfishly) to other Americans. But this fact has already been exhaustively treated in past writings and is only tangentially related to the theme of the present writing, intended as a nuanced observation on the recent political polling.

Americans, enthusiastically following the daily election returns and relative electoral standing of the incumbent Republican Presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump, and the challenger, former Vice-President Joseph Biden, Democrat, have observed the nuanced phenomenon, relative to our main theme. Early computation of returns from votes personally cast, showed a significant and undeniable lead for Trump. However, the absentee, mail-in votes, undoubtedly necessitated by voter’s prudent observance of the recommended distancing precautions, regarding the infectious nature of the pandemic, were reportedly, seventy-five percent of all cast ballots and decidedly favored Joe Biden, the Democratic challenger. We may by deduction, in this nuanced Presidential election, have uncovered a  new and unique model of predictability, worlds apart from the universal, traditional polling measurements of professional political pollsters.

As stated, President Donald Trump, was negligent and irresponsible by his discouragement of the protective wearing of masks and in the observance of the distancing cautions, urgently recommended by the American medical establishment. In fact, the non- observance of mask wearing seemed to irrationally morph into a clear partisan, political statement supportive of President Trump. From this empirically observed fact, it becomes logically acceptable to assume that the numbers of individuals who voted in person  (partisan non- observers of the physically restrictive precautions) were Trump voters, which assumption was proven true by the demonstrated early returns, themselves.

As the mail-in absentee ballots (reportedly, ¾ of the voters) began to arrive over the next few days, the tide dramatically turned to, and then surged, in the challenger’s direction, ultimately to the point of his numerical success. In accordance with the empirical reasoning, as set forth in this mini essay, we can logically conclude that the write-ins, doubtless compliant mask wearers, were (the successful) democrats.

This anecdotal confluence may merely be a uniquely nuanced event; nevertheless, for the historical moment, it constitutes an inarguable upheaval or revolution, in the prediction of electoral outcomes, by traditional polling methodology.

It might have done sufficient service as an effective and accurate weather- vane, pointing in the direction of probable success, to merely arithmetically calculate the number of affirmative responses to the simple inquiry, as to whether the respondent was wearing a protective mask.

-p.   

One could fairly describe Stewart (“Stuey”) Pfulph, as a small, unassuming, and generally introverted person, who, in an effort to look his true age and, conceivably, improve his disappointing social life, had been only moderately successful in his attempts to grow a man-size mustache. Modest in stature, but passionate by nature, he projected his potential ardor onto the lifestyle of a passionate lover of small, domesticated animals. Consequently, after the truly crushing disappointment of flunking out of veterinary school in his freshman year, he sought employment in some field, related to the care of domestic animals. Positions in this limited and unspecific area being extremely scarce; but he, as an intelligent, educated and self-respecting person, could not possibly accept the available lowly, part-time assignments as a dog walker. After much frustrated effort, Stuey was finally obliged to accept a nighttime position as an “Airport Canine Hygienist,” specifically consisting of the sanitary removal of dog droppings from narcotic- sniffing dogs, at the “Airport Arrivals” tarmac at LaGuardia Airport.

Thus, five nights per week, and, occasionally on weekends, he would routinely commute by bicycle to LaGuardia, arriving, promptly at 6:30P.M., and, with the exception of a 9:30 coffee break plus an early morning meal break, would continuously alternate, from one landing area to the other, toting a yellow, airport plastic bag, dutifully attending to his undertaken canine investigation responsibilities.

On one Tuesday evening, following the arrival and “deplaning” of a Pan American Airlines flight from Aruba, he espied a small leather bag, on the tarmac, apparently left behind by a traveler. The small bag had an identification ticket which read: Emma Ipecac, 13 Valentine Street, N.Y.C., Apt. 6B. Stuey, a bit nonplussed, since he resided at the same building address, in apartment 4B, decided, as a favor, to personally return the found bag, rather than delivering it, as usual, to the overstocked and disorganized, Airport “Lost and Found,” department, and carefully inserted the small bag in his jacket pocket, with that neighborly intention.

The following morning, Stuey, after a short nap and quick, nervous shower, arrived at Emma’s door, at 6B, and rapped softly. Emma had just had breakfast and was busily engaged in putting away the balance of her unpacked clothes from the previous evening. She answered, “Who is there?” Stuey, nervously replied, “Is this the residence of Emma Ipecac?” She answered in the affirmative and so he identified himself as a downstairs neighbor and related the details of his find, the previous evening.

Upon being admitted to Apt. 6B, Stuey, while handing Emma the lost small leather bag, was immediately smitten by her exotic beauty. Emma, happily relieved to recover her property, invited Stuey in, and if “he had time,” for a neighborly cup of coffee. To be candid, the petite, demur Emma Ipecac, felt a general and unspecific attraction to Stuey; conceivably, it was the appearance of the off- beat mustache, like her late father. They sat at Emma’s plain chrome kitchen table for coffee, each slightly blushing.

As Emma poured the coffee, she said,” I am sure you must be curious about the contents of the bag,  assuming, correctly, from her initial impression of Stuey, that he did not, out of mere curiosity, inappropriately, open the small bag. In addition to some clean tissues and a soft moistened cloth, the opened bag revealed, three small, soft tan orbs, identified by Emma as marine turtle eggs. She confessed to her impulsive act in taking the three eggs from an exposed cluster of thousands laid by their maternal source. She stated that she now regretted the impulsive act, which was probably illegal and swore Stuey to secrecy.  Stuey, still blushing from internal excitement, of course, agreed. They very gently, placed the three turtle eggs on a clean, soft towel, inserted as a liner in an empty shoebox, in Emma’s clothes closet, in close proximity to a warming lightbulb. Their remote hope was that the purloined eggs would successfully hatch, affording the opportunity for the hatchling turtles to be transported to the nearby shore and, thereby, perform a kind act and additionally, relieve Emma’s ailing conscience.

The joint and daily enterprise, of responsibly curating the turtle eggs for the required two months was successfully rewarded by the eventual appearance of three little green hatchlings. It was further rewarded by the hatching of the nascent love affair between Emma and Stuey. As the relationship happily matured, Emma, had been advised by Stuey, of his great love for animals and his negative and disappointing experiences in that endeavor. Emma excitedly advised him, that Mr. Horton Ipecac, her paternal Uncle, is the head curator of the nearby State zoo, and she, being his favorite niece, would certainly be willing to secure a position for him at the zoo, caring for and working with animals.

During the drive to the local seashore, in possession of the three hatchling turtles, destined to live a natural life in the Ocean, Stuey, clumsily, but effectively, asked Emma to marry him, which she joyously accepted. Thereafter, by virtue of the political connections of Emma’s influential Uncle, permission was secured to hold the wedding ceremony, meaningfully, at the waiting plaza, adjacent to the Pan American Airways “Arrivals Area”. The newly wedded, Mr. and Mrs. Stuart Pfulph’s lavish wedding, was momentarily interrupted by Stuey’s studiously ignored, declaration, he thought he “saw something” on the tarmac.

The newlywed’s honeymoon was enjoyed in Aruba, the West Indian Island Emma had originally visited, however, this time, no turtle eggs were taken. Eighteen months later, the married couple joyously announced the birth of healthy triplet human hatchlings.

-p.

In his classic novel, “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens dramatically portrays the intertwined lives of people, living in London and Paris, during the turbulent times of the French Revolution. In analogous fashion, the voter results of the recent Presidential election were a confirmation that the narrative history of the so-called, “United,” States is, effectively, a tale of two Countries, each fundamentally differentiated in culture and perception. The advent of the pandemic resulting in substantial damage to our previously questionable economy and the consequent disruption of normal interaction, was a clear demonstration of the eternal nature of the distinct dichotomy between our two categories of voter.

One Nation of voters, based upon its observation of Trump’s demonstrated incapacity, serial mendacity, profoundly demonstrated ignorance, unconstitutional behavior, and widely publicized and unabashed moral misbehavior, fully expected a complete blow-out victory for the societally mainstream, former Vice-President, Joe Biden. Should such citizens be questioned as to Trump’s incapacity, moral failings, mendacity and ignorance, there would be no reasonable expectation of re-election. The very substantial voter support on the part of the other segment of the population, voting for Trump who, as President, never evinced any doctrinaire position, demonstrates, by logical elimination, a wide-spread “cultural” inclination, empirically unrelated to the subject of virtues of the candidate.

What virtues, in fact, are the millions of loyal Trump supporters voting for, is the compelling question to be posed by understandably perplexed observers. We will cautiously and modestly, venture our considered answer to that compelling question, based solely, and admittedly, upon our decades long, personal perception and understanding of human behavior and affairs.

In a previous mini essay, we attempted to comprehend and portray that large segment of the dual-faceted population who observably, support Donald Trump. As stated above, such support is not at all doctrinaire nor related to the demonstrated level of efficacy of his four- year term of office. In our view, such empirical considerations to Trump voters, are irrelevant; they vote upon their personal perception of who is perceived to be a member of their tribe, or, put another way, on the “home team.”

In addition to those pathological air polluting, industrial giants, who value mega-profits above human life, and thus oppose health regulations, the large segment of the Nation which supports Trump, sees him in one of several possible imaginary subjective contexts, conducive to its respective personal fantasies. Perhaps, as a “strong leader,” a heroic fighter against the “system,” in which the voter has experienced failure, an unabashed opponent of the elite or highly educated class, an opponent of “foreigners who take away jobs,” a champion of white supremacy and of “law and order,” an unorthodox opponent of societal propriety,  a xenophobic patriot, protecting the Nation from foreigners and Socialism, a non-conformist outré, the champion and protector of masculine autocracy, the roadblock to liberal thinking in civil rights and immigration, the curator of an imaginary “ better old order,” the small- town common opponent of arrogant big cities, or some other abstract, neurotic or bizarre preconception.

The other segment of the Nation, clearly abhors the previous criteria and traditionally supports a Presidential candidate who demonstrates the expected, polar opposite of such enumerated characteristics ,such as capability, mature perception and demonstrated judgment, practical as well as academic knowledge, determined morality, ethical awareness, and rectitude in the proper application the Constitutional principles of equality and justice, viz., the “American Way.”

We have previously written on the subject of the death of civic amity, resulting, not only  in the absence of  amicable citizen debate,  so very useful in a representative democracy and as expected by our Founding Fathers, but the total absence of (friendly) social interaction between citizens of disparate opinion. This unfortunate situation is responsible for that portion of the nation, properly concerned with standards of rectitude and capability, to erroneously and naively assume that every voter makes his selection based upon demonstrated merit, and not on fantasied, neurotic perceptions as outlined above. Accordingly, such citizen-voters may be, understandably, bewildered by the substantial numbers of voters supporting the lack of professional and societal values characterized by Trump.

We have always been of the empirical understanding that any election is, essentially, a contest between competing and disparate portions of the electorate, every bit as much (or perhaps, more) than the representative candidates standing for election.

-p.

While the global population anxiously and impatiently, awaits the development of a safe and efficacious vaccine against the disease of Coronavirus, our attention may be diverted to an ancient and dangerous pathology, existing back since the reign of Emperor Constantine, the ruler of The Holy Roman Empire in the 4^th Century. James Carroll, an ex-priest who authored the enlightened and fascinating book, “Constantine’s Sword,” which, in addition to the illuminating revelation that it was Constantine’s sword which, no earlier than the 4^th Century, was the actual model for the symbol of the Christian Cross,  guides the reader through the origin of the historic hatred of the Jews by the Catholic Church ( including  the reigns  of Popes, Augustine, Innocent 3^rd, Paul IV, Pius XII, John 11 and John Paul 2^nd ) and an understanding of the historic origins of anti-Semitism.

To summarize the salient theme of the footnote referenced scholarly work, consisting of more than 500 pages, the pathological hatred, identified as anti-Semitism, had its actual birth by virtue of a tactical and  intensive program by Emperor Constantine and his Mother, Irene (creator of the myth of the “Robe”) with the express tactical intention to divide the age’s large extant population of Jews, using divisive propaganda and  slander, in their (successful) program to attract 4^th Century Jews to  Christianity.

The eternally slanderous pathology and hatred (especially in Europe) as known, lived on and metastasized, exponentially, to cause, virtually uncountable and indescribable, egregious results, over the entire course of World  history, encompassing in addition to the well- known relatively recent “Holocaust,”  eternal generations of pogroms, inquisitions and other hateful tragic and homicidal travesties.

Occurring with the most virulent frequency in Europe, Jews were wrongfully blamed and prosecuted, as being responsible for plagues, most famously, Europe’s Medieval “Black Plague,” famine, absence of rainfall and other irrational and paranoid conceptions, viz., poisoning well water, abducting Christian children to drink their blood, of evil control of all the banks, and a great many other absurd and mob inciteful charges, all energetically bubbling up from the wide-spread primeval ooze of antisemitism.

The deadly pandemic of coronavirus set the entire World back on its rational heels, to the absurd extent of  evincing attempts by extremists from all facets of the political and social spectrum  to cast blame on the Jews, also blamed for the recent wrongful constabulary killing of George Floyd, akin in irrational absurdity to medieval charges of poisoning well water and the absence of rain. In Los Angeles, law enforcement was contacted after White Nationalist stickers from the right-wing, Patriotic Front movement were found on lamp posts adjacent to the Museum of Tolerance. In New York City.it became necessary in several instances, to affirmatively take official action to safeguard Jews and speak out against racism and hate.

An apparent rise in violent attacks on French Jews, motivated the French Government, recently, to station military troops at Jewish neighborhoods, schools, Synagogues and community centers. Recently, in Argentina, public lurid and revolting caricatures of Jews, have been shown as being responsible for the pandemic; many stating, hatefully, “Jews are the Virus, and “Argentines Awake to The World Jewish Dictatorship.” In our closest neighbor, Canada, the virulently anti-Semitic, Canadian Nationalist Party, publicly libeled all Jews, “Liars and Deceivers,” and as if that were not hatefully sufficient, as a “tribe of parasites,” “ police brutality is an Israeli export,” and finally, “Zionists are Nazis.”

We, at plinyblog, would take the liberty to conclude this writing, instructively, by the recitation of a few of the sage quotes from the brilliant writer, philosopher and death camp survivor, Elie Wiesel, who died in 2016:

“We must always take sides, Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the oppressed.

“Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

“The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.” and,

“Human suffering anywhere is the concern of men and women, everywhere.”

[Who can say it better!]

-p.

Amidst an ongoing, virtually endless debate as to how to represent the darker periods of American history, the frequent media reports of despicable police brutality and homicide, shamefully practiced against unarmed black Americans, has empirically provided a catalyst for protests (by black and white citizens), popularly known by the heart-breaking mantra  “Black Lives Matter.” It has also reignited the movement by citizens of conscience to remove existing public statues and monuments which evince  racist, or discriminatory reference.

Unquestionably, the darkest and most shameful period of that history, existed throughout the 17^th and 18^th Centuries, when black people were kidnapped from the Continent of Africa and brought in chains to this Country to be relegated to hopeless lives of cruel slavery. The acrimonious debate over slavery was the primary subject leading to the bloody and tragic Civil War.

The morally required progress toward universally equal status for people of color has eternally been resisted by those in our Nation, who seem to have a need, neurotic or otherwise, to irrationally and shamelessly adhere to the bogus belief in the purported superiority of people born with light skin over those gifted by nature with darker color skin. This irrational and dystopian Gulliver’s Travels or Alice in Wonderland predilection, has nevertheless, robbed millions of people born with black and brown skin of equality of treatment and opportunity in virtually every area of life.

Efforts by right thinking Americans, commencing with the nightmarish, post- bellum Reconstruction Period, to date, has resulted in substantial but insufficient, progress. Disappointingly, and admittedly, it appears that much of the empirical progressive change has had its impetus in mandatory legislation and legal precedent. A veritable Herculean challenge exists in evolving the atavistic and immoral mindset of too many “flat- earth” people to the emblematic American aspiration to universal equality.

The ongoing National desire for historical repentance and attainment of universal equity, catalyzed by the recent horrific uptick in police manslaughter of unarmed black Americans, has led to a more active National reckoning including a closer, more sensitized perception of public statues and monuments, deemed capable of memorializing or extolling the racial underbelly of the American past. Debates which seem to be occurring Nationwide, especially in the former Confederate States, seem to us as resolved into two camps: those who support the maintenance of these statues and monuments on arguments in favor of maintaining their historical value, versus those who believe that such claimed historic value, if any, is outweighed by their public insensitivity to the descendants of the victims of the memorialized historic period.

It is our firm opinion that the arguments for the preservation of these monuments on historical grounds are either specious or beside the point. We maintain that public monuments such as statues are empirically, a visible statement of the sentiment and current values of the community. The descendants of victims of America’s most egregious immorality, should logically and justly be vested with the decisional authority, concerning public monuments and statues, reasonably capable of perception as extolling the immoral institution of slavery.

Our stated view that public monuments articulate existing statements of community sentiment and values, is easily confirmed by the existence of the Statue of Liberty standing in New York harbor, since 1886, representing the Nation’s shared sentiment of express welcome to all fugitives of unjust governance and people who simply desire to immigrate to our land to find a better life. The Statue is an evident confirmation of our welcome hand (notwithstanding the opinions of our errant and unprecedented Presidential Administration) to all who desire to come to America.

The final determination of the contested public monument issue, appropriately and  logically, belongs to the people, who, in relatively recent American jurisprudence, were valued and determined, by its highest legal authority, the United States Supreme Court, to be mere “agricultural equipment,” or “chattels,” mandatorily returnable to their “owner.” (Dredd Scott v. Sandford, 1857, J. Taney).

-p.

Our eternal preoccupation, as confirmed in our writings, has been with the moral necessity of mankind to recognize and appreciate of the unique and generous award by Darwinian Evolution to homo sapiens of an advanced brain. We have maintained that such derived appropriate acknowledgement is to be impliedly expressed, (consistent with nature’s dynamic in the direction of progress of the species) by regular and continuing efforts towards mankind’s continued personal growth and maturity. The motivated individuals who have recognized such goals and availed themselves of the substantial abundance of varied pathways tending in that direction, have empirically found life to be fuller and more satisfying.

In our industrially- oriented society, the drive for commercial profits by the production and sale of goods and the delivery of services, has morphed into a perceived existential necessity, like the ancient mandatory obeisance to the ubiquitous Sun God. Individual human beings, in this evolved business context, accordingly, are pragmatically and coldly, evaluated in accordance with their perceived potential for the generation of profits for their employer. In man’s private life, disappointing to say, prestige is usually awarded dependent upon one’s personal accumulation of material reward, derived from work or business enterprise. The unvarying tempo of industrial society, in its eternal unyielding and grinding routine, results in the manufacturing of both, merchandisable goods and as a by- product, workers who functionally are semi-automatons, living their day orchestrated by the immutable exigencies of hourly production, scheduled meals and bedtimes, with meager time for family or elective, personal pursuits.

Individuals who nevertheless choose to judiciously use whatever leisure time is available (after performance of employment and family responsibilities) to ardently pursue elective interests, (such as writing, reading, painting, hobbies and crafts, music, collecting, gardening or one of the many others)  reportedly, experience a fuller and more satisfying life. From a more comprehensive perspective, engaging in such activities leads to self- advancement, growth of perspective and a sense of personal efficacy, resulting in substantial enhancement of mind, mood and joy of living. It also is responsible for the production of valuable and useful citizens in a representative democracy.

There are certain individuals who are devoid of any impetus toward pursuing an interest or activity, are disinterested in their surroundings, that dread leisure time and feel that each unstructured day not occupied in work is dull, meaningless and wearisome. Such an individual predicably retreats to the familiar predictable security of a soft couch for perpetual zoning out. He watches sports or inane television gameshows in the empty periods between suddenly occurring naps and may indulge in the excessive use of alcohol or drugs in aid of emotional survival during the unbearably empty voids between meals and bedtime. This not-uncommon vegetative varietal of the sapient species of homo sapiens, is anthropologically and functionally classified under the genus and species, “Couch Potato.”

The regular life- style of the chronic couch potato’s sedentary athleticism, often is predictable of various useless and negative concomitants. These may include,  extreme ennui, abusive behavior, anger and frustration with the (chosen) quality of life, rationalizing the same by fantasized attribution to some contrived explanation, the  inclination to irrationally and hatefully cast the blame on unrelated groups of people, or perhaps, assume imagined pseudo- status through bigotry. These individuals are useless as citizens, totally undesirable for social interaction, and as advised by the medical and psychiatric professions, especially prone to illness of all kinds and briefer longevity.

The cataclysmic advent of the present and ongoing pandemic of coronavirus, aside from its exponential threat to human health and life, may serve as a social laboratory in further confirming the efficacy of the subject principle. The call for prophylactic limitation on social interaction and medically recommended quarantine, predictably will result in its confirmation. The pandemic, spurred on and exacerbated by a shameful catalytic boost furnished by an incapable and ignorant Presidential Administration, has raged on for many deadly months with, reportedly, no signs of slowing down. The mandated limitations on social contact and quarantine programs consequently will continue as reported, for the foreseeable future. Those individuals whose lifestyle has valuably and wisely included, time permitting, elective life interests and pursuits, have the emotional capability, furnished by their developed inner resources, to patiently, perhaps, somewhat enjoyably, endure infinite the pandemic’s unpredictable course. We are generous in our decision to afford some sympathy to the chronic couch potatoes, who understandably will find the extensive period of time-out, virtually unendurable.

The contemporary pathology of coronavirus will in time be preventable by vaccination. However, the waste of precious life due to chronic couch potato syndrome, may never be curable.

-p.