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We, at plinyblog, would prefer to write on matters of societal or philosophical (and metaphysical) themes. However, we are unremittingly drawn, contrary to our resolve, (analogous to unsuccessfully resolving not to look through an automobile window at the noisome sight of “roadkill”) to the multi-faceted and egregious subject of Donald Trump, The latter, subject is too often, reprised, like the ephemeral images, recalled from a frightening nightmare, incessantly plaguing an otherwise peacefully contemplative state of mind. As a member in good standing of “mainstream” American citizens, we seem to perseverate on the unprecedented and tragic potential deductible from Trump’s singularly egocentric, skewed persona. His infamous actions taken a mere three weeks of his four-year term, speak volumes about his neurotic grandiosity, and pathologically driven, persona.

Like the misery observed among individuals, prone to migraine headaches, the early identifiable signals of the inception of the distressing experience continually preoccupy the conscious mind. In fearful anticipation of the incipient agony, they find themselves haplessly distracted from their quotidian routine and former optional contemplation. In analogous anxiety, we find ourselves haplessly diverted from elective thoughts and comments on matters, inarguably, more intrinsically metaphysical and humanistic.

It is ou v iew that we have adequately commented on matters relevant to the enormity and wide scope of Donald Trump’s pathologically miscreant acts and statements and that it would appear to be more useful to present a list of many of the tragic and malign consequences of his current Presidential policies, remarkably and shamelessly performed in the short span of his first three weeks in office. inclusive of the perpetuation of his past errant policies. Our great and fearful apprehension is exacerbated by thoughts of the predictable balance of the 206 weeks of his term.

It is empirically astounding the orange-haired, would-be autocrat, has been able to malignly continue or newly accomplish a veritable tsunami of harm in the brief scope of his first three weeks:

Granting pardons to 1,500 felons who violently participated in a bloody insurrection against the capi notably, at his invitation and his support relative to his spurious claim of “stolen election,” and his general support for White Christian Malitias

Arbitrarily selecting a Cabinet of unprincipled, inexperienced, socially undesirable, and pathological stooges, whose sole and mandatory credentials consist of loyalty to him, including, assistance with his fascistic intention to seek “retribution” against his political opponents.

Acts to initiate the dismantling of the FBI, and, in addition, the punishment of identified prosecutors, assigned by Federal and State authorities to investigate his multifarious criminal activities,

Acts in pursuance of his monomaniacal ambition to disband the Constitution, ignore and deprecate the established rule of law, when contrary to his personal interest,

His continued acts in violation of the American constitutional right to vote, notably, respecting minority citizens,

Treasonous affiliation with our National enemies, opposition to America’s assistance to Ukraine, in the defense of its homeland against the illegal military incursion by his close friend, Vladimir Putin, and his theft and secretion of National top secret documents and their treasonous disclosure,

Autocratic control over the constitutionally established, financial authority of the House of Representatives, as fundamentally and historically prescribed by the Constitution, in league with the unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, including the cruel cessation of support to AID,

Irrational imposition of punitive tariffs on our most significant trading partners, Canada and Mexico, and others, including Chinas, thereby inviting retaliation and empirically certain to raise prices. [N .B. It is thought that Trump was elected, in large part, on the issue of “high prices of consumer prices],

Draconian policies regarding immigration, including family separation, and the deportation of thousands of Americans who have residents of the United States for decades,

Homage to the fossil fuel lobby which contributed millions to his election, by withdrawing from the Paris Accords and opposing environmental clean air policies, such as windmills and solar panels.

Public statements concerning his intent to incorporate Greenland, portions of Canada, and the Panama Canal and to rename the Gulf of Mexico: The Gulf of America,”

His perverse and bigoted attribution of the horrific airplane helicopter collision at Reagon Airport to DEI and Affirmative Action programs.

What is on his indigestible menu for the fearfully anticipated future?

The above theatrical display of Trump’s egregiously typical first three weeks of horribles, as our mis- a scene of the current tragic scenario, should suffice to evoke sufficient cathartic response in every mainstream American. who is enabled to look forward to contemporary relief from the modern version of Euripides’, “Deus Ex Machina”, not in the person of Medea, but in relief to be granted by the appearance of the voting booth.

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If, conceivably, we were taxed with the patriotic duty to design three (3) commemorative postage stamps in honor of next February’s “President’s Day,” we would comply with the following three suggestions: 1. a traditional depiction of George Washington and his troops, crossing the Delaware, 2. a dramatic picture of Abraham Lincoln, arm raised, passionately delivering the Gettysburg Address and 3. the cosmetically tanned, orange-haired Donald J. Trump with pursed lips, squinting with erotic pleasure as he majestically wields his black, soft-tipped “Sharpie.”.

Universally accepted history demonstrates the fine character and wise stewardship of the Nation under the respective Presidential terms of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. By bright contrast, it would be mind-boggling to anticipate the nature of the future evaluation of the outre Presidential service of Donald J. Trump.

Historians, as objective students of the empirical past, will predictably dismiss the distorted favorable sentiments of the misguided, inadequately schooled, ill-informed populist mob, expressed during his time in office;.In truth, little can be objectively judged worthy or admirable. Following the proposed, thematic assignment, we have fashioned, one of such three stamps in his image, conceived to signify his aberrant behavior and egregious lack of moral compass. The analogical distance in character and performance, between our first two Presidential choices for depiction on the theoretical postal stamps and the third would require a measurement calculated in “light years.”

Trump’s lifestyle is characterized by the neurotic ideation of exemplary and god-like, rectitude. His perception of himself has been demonstrated to delusionally reside as the sole and exclusive tenant of an impenetrable bubble; impervious to criticism and gifted with a false sense of self-rectitude and eternally invulnerable to the critique of empirical reality. From the interior of this neurotically perceived bubble, he has been a remarkably effective source of toxic systemic injury to our precious Republican Democracy, despite our 150-year-long vaunted history as unique and exemplary

Donald Trump’s, initial tactical step was his autocratic-style attack on the societally existential importance of “truth,” aggravated by his populist derogation of the significant role of the media, his tactical divisiveness of our ethnically and racially nuanced National population (“E Pluribus Unum”), unrestrained by his royal disdain of moral compass, This perverse charlatan has been successful in disrupting not only the functioning of the American polity but has, with the assistance of the cultish obedience of a large horde of the inadequately informed underbelly of grievance, neurotically threatened by the accepted metaphysical basis of innate human rationality. The vast legion of demonstrative cases of Trump-orchestrated, appalling populist efforts to uproot the maturely developing tree of human enlightenment and societal progress and render to him homage have been copiously described in past writings.

To reveal our ultimate intention regarding the characterologically selected stamps, we would appropriately have them manufactured so that the first two (Washington and Lincoln) would be usable simply by lifting them from the paper to which they gently adhere and effortlessly placing them on the top right corner of the relevant envelope; in the case of the third (Trump) stamp, we would specify a mode of fabrication in which the user is obliged to painstakingly remove the needed stamp from its sticky adherence from the paper to which it was attached, and then, be obliged tp wett the same by applying saliva to its bitter glue and then, forcibly pressing the same down with the thumb for adherence to the right corner of the envelope.

In the case of the stamp, commemorative of the Presidential service of Donald J,. Trump, the same should be demonstratively reminiscent of his causation of societal injury and divisive. chaos. We humbly and patriotically suggest that the thumb used in affixing this stamp be soemployed with heavy, punitive pressure.

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A virtual tsunami of substantive criticism has been expressed amply revealing the ubiquitous nature of the immoral, incompetent, and inappropriate performance of the Presidency of Donald J. Trump; inclusive of a notable and rare official record of felonious criminality. Trump has inarguably demonstrated meretricious, bizarre, and improper conduct, such that no historical predecessor, however nuanced, can be perceived as his comparative.

In our view, sufficient has been written in exemplification of Trump’s lack of moral compass, neurotic egocentrism, and his principled danger to our constitutional Democratic Republic. Yet, there is a singularly identified, and starkly inappropriate feature of his persona that, conceivably, could not be imaginatively created. by the abstruse genius of Franz Kafka or the child-like fantasy of Lewis Carroll. Contextually stated such bizarrely inappropriate and shameless feature is his perverted use of America’s Oval Office as a retail sales market.

It is public knowledge, that despite the empirical, impact, and historical significance of the Office of the American Presidency, Trump’s bizarre persona has, shamelessly, and inappropriately guided him to, unapologetically, inappropriately, and egregiously, hawk merchandise to the American consumer,. What could be less acceptable than the conceit of the Chief Executive of the United States, from his August, politically and historically August perch, to shamefully, in the analogous manner of a retail supermarket, publically advertise and conduct the commercial enterprise of retail merchandising?

The shocking and undeniable record shows that President Trump has publically offered for sale, items of merchandise, including, MAGA blankets, Coffee, Makers, Vodtka, Steaks, Bling Clutch Bags, Bibles, Wristwatches, gold colored sneakers, guitars, and a veritable cornucopia of “junk” items. [in addition to tactically and profitably, using his hotels, golf courses, and business establishments to enrich his coffers by multiple violations of the “Emolument Clause” of the Constitution.

Residing in his impenetrable and schizophrenic bubble, the orange-haired, smiling hazmat, sees, as his singular aspiration, the acquisition of wealth and perceived admiration; regardless of principle, moral, or professional. It has been a moral travesty, that he has the irrational assurance, regardless of the bizarre or despicable nature of his actions and pronounced statements, that his impactful number of America’s insufficiently educated and poorly informed, populists will not fail to ratify.

Were we invited to engage in bizarre and highly irrational ideation, we would posit the following analogous and fictional conceptions for rational consideration: President Monroe offering bungalows for sale in Boca Raton, Florida, Theodore Roosevelt, selling camping jackknives, or George Bush Sr. offering tailored jeans for sale?.

The salutary end of Donald Trump’s inappropriate and unprincipled term in office, will, mercifully, permit him sufficient time and franchise to build a magnificent, personally profitable, and gratifying shopping mall, The Nation and its democracy will be existentially safer and better off, when his efforts are limited to the world of selling useless merchandise on a full time and exclusive basis,

-p,

Notwithstanding our “dyed-in-the-wool,” Lochean “Empiricism,” we confess to some fleeting thoughts concerning the possibility in symbolic metaphysical significance to the serendipitous confluence of Donald Trump’s Inauguration, and the international commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day (“Yom Ha Shuah”).

Barely one week in office, Democracy’s orange-haired, political hazmat, proved (to unforgivably pervert an old adage) that the arrogant employment of a felt-tipped “Sharpie” is mightier than the Constitution by, among other travesties, commencing the fascistic implementation of rounding up of American immigrants, most, seeking refuge from foreign venues where their lives have been threatened, hired loyal stooges to enforce his fierce appetite for fascistic-style retribution to be exacted against his political adversaries, eliminated the societally essential Department of Education as part of his attack on human enlightenment by, for example encouraging ,censorship and book banning and approval of tactical editing of history, publically evidenced his support for White Christian Nationalist militias, his proclamation of insular and “protectionist” policies (ex, imposing high tariffs on countries doing business with the United States, attacks on the historically, peacekeeping, NATO, and withdrawal from the Paris Accords and The U.N. World Health Organization,) . We could continue thus, ad infinitum, ad nauseum, but, presumably., the reader, has gotten our thematic point; and the understandable source of our fear concerning the balance of Trump’s four-year term; predictably in sync with the horrors of his first week, continuing to the balance of his long and personally agonizing, four-year term.

The gut-wrenching, prayerful cry of the Jewish People (“Never Again!) perennially repeated on Holocaust Memorial Day may, now be empirically, disproven; this time, impacting all of America’s diverse citizenry; by the actions and statements of this, a suicidally elected, delusional despot with aspirations to be a” bobble-head” of Germany’s infamous “Fuhrer;” losing no time in initiating his draconian program of neurotically- self-affirming, dictatorial commands, Mark Twain sagaciously stated, consistent with our present context:: “History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

As the days proceed. and Trump feverously continues to wield his omnipotent “Sharpie,” we predict that many misled voters who love our Nation, but inadvisably voted for him, will be able to perceive the presenting danger to our Democratic Republic and their grave and remorseful error. ( please see : preceding plinyblog. com. # M.208 ” BUYERS’ REMORSE.”

The salient and relevant pragmatic question is:” What should mainstream, traditional, Democracy -loving citizens do? We would humbly suggest the following:

(1) Do not despair or lose hope in the timely restoration of our traditionally democratic way of life which has survived many existential threats in its history,

(2) Do not resignedly acquiesce in the extant program of autocratic (fascistic) invasion of human rights, but eternally retain the traditional American principles of equality and liberty.

(3) Remain well informed on current events, by watching the legitimate news media, viz., MSNBC, CNN, and CBS, and reading legacy newspapers, viz,. the New York Times, The Wahington Post,

(3) Maintain frequent and mutually supportive social contact with other traditional, freedom-loving Americans,

(4) when timely and appropriate emphatically and confidently speak out, write, to express your ardent views on the rectitude and eternal justice of freedom and liberty; vociferously oppose all attempts to inculcate bigoted and autocraticly stereotypical assertions.

In the human experience, we have observed the endurable quality of resilience and the later acquisition of increased support and appreciation following times of societal deprivation.

-p.

We perceive two basic distinguishable categories of the concept of “Buyer’s Remorse.” One is the feeling of regret after making a useless or foolish purchase; the other amounts to a state of cognitive dissonance ultimately occurring when one had expected something different.

The first category of regret is the consequence of a foolish purchase, which may be illustrated by the following examples of regretted purchases made during a recent “Black Friday:” Irma Fool from Hackensack, New Jersey, bought a teapot that emitted the sound of rude coughing, rather than “whistling” when at the boil. Selma Ipecac, a tenant of a fourth-floor apartment in a large metropolitan building in the Bronx, purchased a gas-powered hedge trimmer, I.P. Daily, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, purchased, at “Final Sale” a sealed box of irresistibly priced set of dishes, which, on later examination revealed itself to be abundantly gifted with chips and cracks. Yono Say, of Brighton bought a Beach Umbrella which, when later opened, revealed gaping holes on one side of its canopy.

With thematic reference to our second category of “Buyer’s Remorse,” viz., the state of cognitive dissonance brought about when one expects something entirely different from his choice of action. In this category, we would confidently declare that the citation of one notable example amply suffices for illustration, viz. the voter’s predictably remorseful choice of Donald J. Trump for President of the United States.

Barely one week after his official inauguration, the autocratic and atavistic Chief of State, elected in large part by his showman’s demagogic “snake oil” representations to the haplessly manipulated population of inadequately informed, systemically grievance-ridden, anti-establishment populists, has begun the implementation of his (previously denied) perverse and draconian 2025 program.

It will not be long before his misled, supportive MAGA lemmings realize that their temporal, tactical significance has become obsolescent and their incited choice of President, was an extremely painful opportunity for feelings of painful and regrettable buyer’s remorse. (see: early blog, “LEMMINGS”)

The deplorable MAGA program is identically demonstrative of a tribute to Trump’s programmatic menu of governance, a la Hitler, Mao, and Mousellini, and an ultimate disaster for the Nation; notably its formerly supportive underbelly of MAGA populists. Among its numberless, atrociously inhumane goals, antithetical to 200 years of American liberty and way of life, and, a sweeping program of change in economic and social policies; most especially in curtailing the existence, of Medicare and Medicaid and a plethora of humanistic policies, vital to the subsistence of many of Trump’s misadvised MAGA acolytes.

Unfortunately, as is the case of mundane commercial transactions the latter instance of tragic “buyer remorse” there will not be available any process for return and possible refund.

-p.

It has been barely one week since Donald J. Trump has returned to the Oval Office, yet traditional, mainstream Americans have already found themselves in a state of dread that our precious “Republican Democracy” is slated to experience the proverbial, “death of one thousand cuts”

The aggressive, heartless wielder of the aggressive and disfiguring machete is an egocentrically neurotic and tyrannical, psychopath, whose personal ideation of imperial grandeur outweighs any conceivable scintella of humanistic or moral principle. Such “wanna-be” Monarchwas, installed by the Nation’s copious horde of ill-informed voters, has pathologically and gleefully, plunged into the deep quagmire of an atavistic and malodorous swamp of tyrannical governance. We are candidly obliged to confess an equal error.

In the first days of his monomaniacal rule, the orange hazmat has lost no time in chilling the traditional expectations of the Nation ‘s progress toward universal liberty, equality, and humanistic polity by his reprising his previou articulated intentions to eliminate programs of assistance to the needy, promotion equality of opportunity for all Americans, of every diversity; his summary discharge of officials taxed with beneficial oversight of governmental propriety, the discharge of non-MAGA federal employees, reduction including withdrawal of the Nation from the salubrious Paris Accords as part of his denigration of programs of environmental protection, human health and welfare, pardoning hundreds of violent insurrectionists who, invitation, based upo Trump’s false, propagandist assertion that the earlier presidential election was “stolen,” his disavowal of the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution, together with its grant of rights and imposition of governmental restraints, restoral of his pathologically draconian policies regarding immigration, misuse of the Executive Office in illegally and irresponsibly garnering for himself and his immediate family, ill-gotten enormous wealth, and in stereotypically Nazi fashion, appointing to Cabinet positions, incapable, but reliably complisant sycophants and willing agents of his program to wreak retribution on his political opponents.

It was the identical electorate that put in place a uniformly inept, but Trump loyalist, .conglomerate of legislative officials and ultimately responsible for an unprecedented and historically shocking corrupt Supreme Court. The hapless American Nation is nightmarishly in anticipation of its reeling far off-course with no appropriate compass or effective guard rails. We too are admittedly disquieted and fearful anticipation concerning our Ship of State’s voyage in the next four years.

It is of existential importance that American citizens of goodwill and salutary purpose, fully recognize the dangerous quagmire of the Nation’s foreseeable topography and relentlessly maintain and uphold, by words and actions, the traditionally appropriate democrastic ideals of the Nation’s mantras of “E Pluribus Unum,” ” Liberty and Equality for All, ” “One man, one Vote,” and “Government by and for the People.” We can not let the possible reactions of lassitude, denial of reality, or hapless resignation be our responsive reaction. The recognition of the extant hazard to the State of the Union must, be met with the empirical recognition of its presently imposed impediments, salubrious hope, and dedicated actions for its full restoration,

We are somewhat dismayed at the haplessly repeated complaints in the acceptable liberal media,”This is not who we are.” Pragmatically, it must be realized that this, realistically and unfortunately “is” who we now are, We would find more appropriate and useful the statement,” This is what we are now, and what we should do about it.”

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America’s newly re-elected and inimitable Chief Executive has proven himself deservant of referential descriptions, such as inept, or serial transgressor of accepted humanistic and societal standards of behavior, possessor of a monofocused and inflated ego with delusions of singular greatness. In the didactic lexicon of the discipline of Political Science, these traits might be assigned the historically repugnant designation of “tyrant.” In the context of the traditional mainstream American citizen, his statements and actions are  conceivably seen as the egregious product of self-indulgent ignorance, aggravated by a characterological lack of moral compass. We share in such adjectival descriptions but would differ as to the perceived description of his depravity.

In earlier writing [M.202, NERO’S VIOLIN] we chose to declaratively “diagnose” Donald Trump’s singular persona as a stereotypical model of classic mental illness. Contrary to the popular perception of his singular persona as simply, uniquely, arrogant, and supremely confident, is his publica demonstration of symptoms normally associated with definitional schizophrenia and delusional paranoia. Stated otherwise, contrary to many citizens who, understandably and justifiably perceive Trump as a definitional example of the classic style of an autocratic tyrant, we have for some time, arrived at the contemplative conclusion that his bizarre acts and grandiose proclamations are more relevantly ascribed to cases of classic delusional mental illness.

Referring in temporal order to some of Trump’s diagnosably aberrant acts, we begin with his publically proclaimed conclusion that his earlier election loss to Joseph Biden was fraudulent, since “as Donald J. Trump” he would definitionally and unquestionably be the winner. In this Napoleonic state of mind, he summoned hundreds of his misled supporters to Washington, to mount a violent insurrection. Many of the Trump-inspired participants, who rioted, inflicted mayhem, injury, and acts of  homicide, were thereafter tried by a jury, found guilty or confessed, and appropriately, awarded jail sentences. Trump publically and distortedly portrayed the members of his compliant mob as “political prisoners,” and “hostages.” When Trump was thereafter (surprisingly) elected to the Presidency, as promised, he immediately, pardoned the convicted criminals, who had acted out their criminal behavior in accordance of his insane invitation. This unprecedented, singular, and factually detestable exercise of arbitrary presidential power is inarguably, consistent with his systemic paranoid delusion, most notably as he was complicit in their criminal behavior.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, his irrational delusion aggravated by his profound ignorance, was responsible for tens of thousands of unnecessary mortalities. In Mad Hatter fashion, this bizarre Chief Executive publically advised the American people to ingest bathroom cleaner and to employ a veterinary horse-worm preventative as effective medicine appropriate to the horrendous COVID-19 pandemic and repudiation of vaccination was responsible for the unnecessary mortality of tens of thousands of American lives. This travesty was coupled with his subsequent arbitrary and shameless denigration and threats of criminal persecution directed at the knowledgeable and humanistic Dr, Anthony Fauci, who effectively halted the epidemic.

We would, in further support of our conclusion, refer to Trump’s pathological indifference to the still raging wildfire holocaust in Los Angeles as causative of the destruction of forest land, thousands of homes, businesses, and personal property. Despite the scientific attribution of the historical tragedy to the hazardous state of the carbon-polluted atmosphere, the disoriented Donald Trump has repeatedly persisted in his publically repeated maniacal mantra, “Drill baby drill.” The disoriented President has also, bizarrely called for the elimination of FEMA, the agency specifically created to ameliorate such tragedies. This dangerous, grossly distorted view of reality is inarguably pathological and was evident as in the example of his bizarre actions and statements during the pandemic.

Need we refer to Trump’s clinically diagnosable solution to the Nation’s immigration problem utilizing the inhumane and psychopathic separation of immigrant families as a deterrent and resolving to deport millions of long-time resident, immigrant families. Trump, a proven rapist, jury-convicted felon, briber, fixer, tax cheat and as demonstrated a systemic persona characterized by a total absence of a moral compass, as justification for his unhealthy and bigoted xenophobia, deludedly accuses immigrants of universally, being rapists and criminals.

Irrefutable evidence of his pathological delusion of “Napoleonic” grandeur is his issuance of a mere, handwritten, “Presidential directive” eradicating the portion of Article 14 of the Constitution which, since the 19th Century of American Constitutional history, provides the legal status of citizenship to all persons born in the United States. The clinically diagnosable and delusional exercise of such a sophomoric exercise of authority, without more is empirical proof of Trump’s schizophrenic delusion of omnipotence and god-like majesty.

As we have suggested in earlier writing, the application of ARTICLE 25 ( Presidential removal because of incapacitation) would, in our view, be more relevant and appropriate to the presently sitting President than the otherwise applicable, Criminal and Civil Law. If more clinical bases were conceivably be necessary, we might refer to his universally pronounced desire to take over the Panama Canal, Greenland and portions of Canada and rename the Gulf of Mexico, “The Gulf of America,” We rest our case.

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In the obscure and ethereal dimension of our inner consciousness,, it is not unusual to ruminate on metaphysical reality in the inner search for answers to ubiquitous phenomena. There are presenting questions that are acceptably answered, and other subject matter obscurely unattainable, Among the commonly identified dilemmas, is for example, the so-called conundrum as to “which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ This question, proffered as a dilemma, is nevertheless, logically answerable; we solved the so-called mystery as young high school students. The egg came first, laid by the creature immediately preceding the chicken’s appearance in the course of the developing dynamics of Natural Evolution; viz., the hatched egg was the first chicken.

The “Riddle of the Sphinx” appearing in the classic Greek literature, was solved, metaphorically, centuries ago. The challenging question “What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night?’ was revealed to represent “Man,” who crawls on all fours in his infancy, walks with two legs as a man and requires a cane (the third leg) at old age.

By contrast, there are questions considered for which acceptable answers, disturbingly, elude us, despite continuous efforts, There, conceivably, are a full plethora of such disturbing subjects, agonizingly unanswerable for others; but for us, the singular and prevailing issue is the dynamics and practical definition of the directional designation, “Up.” We will elucidate our eternal difficulty.

We, affirmatively understand the systemics of the directional word (“up”) as designating the vertical direction or comparative venue as contrasted with another chosen position; we have little problem with the spatial conception intrinsic to the comparative or directional word per se; what we do find agonizingly elusive is the specific application of the directional observation as applied in the context of empirical gravity. May we explain.

It is universally understood that our planet is configured in the shape of a huge ball; i.e,, round. Looking at a modeled configuration of the Earth, one can obviously and irrefutably observe that, for example, the Northern Hemisphere is observed to be above the Southern. It is incontrovertible that when Man stands on the ground in his own hemisphere, say, the Northern portion of the round global apparition, his feet necessarily are planted downward, i,e,. on the ground surface. It would empirically follow, by necessary geometric observation that the bottoms of his feet are located at a venue, necessarily pointing downward towards the conjoining Southern half of the planet. He is, without question, “Standing Up.” Let us now envision an individual standing, fully erect at his respective venue in the Southern portion of the planet, his feet also simultaneously on the surface of his ambient ground. He too, is “Standing Up.”

If we return, for convenient comparison, to the identical, mechanical configuration of our global planet, it follows, as night follows day, that both members of the species, Homo Sapiens, are, definitionally and geometrically, standing “Up” but miraculously. the soles of their respective feet are mutually facing each other, footprint to footprint. How, conceivably and empirically, can they both be standing ” up” yet simultaneously facing in opposite directions? Among the variety of our disturbing ruminations, this paradoxical conundrum remains, agonizingly, inexplicable.

Another disturbingly unanswerable, but objectively conscious, question is how is it possible that freedom-loving voters chose to elect a pathological tyrant to the American Presidency. We are at least. comfortably assured in our understanding, however, that such an undesirable event, pragmatically and philosophically can easily be understood and directionally identified, as moving, “Downward.”

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If the now apprehensive American citizen were painstakingly able to discern some benefit in the extant Trump-orchestrated societal dystopia, notably, the apocryphal state of our traditional democratic polity, the same, conceivably, would reside in its singular potential as a metaphysical teaching moment.

The concerned citizenry has sadly witnessed the growth of a guileless populism encroach on a disproportionate number of his fellow citizens, simultaneously with a proportionate decline in desire for culturally enlightening advancement. Its former success has been despoiled by a crass desire for material symbols of wealth such as expensive homes, automobiles, boats, and wristwatches. “Cool” has popularly displaced “sophisticated”” hockey has displaced theater, museums, and opera, and, sadly, computer games and televised sports have rendered literature passe.

Mainstream American citizens have unhappily witnessed a populist-oriented world in which individuals who are proficient at shooting a ball through a hoop, located on a pole, or hitting a small round object out of a stadium, are compensated with bonuses and seven-digit annual salaries while earnest, post-doctoral scientists, dedicating their careers to ridding Mankind’s of dread disease are compensated modestly; where fine educators are mundanely unappreciated and “rock stars” are popularly adulated, and where hand-held video games have popularly replaced the many ubiquitous benefits of reading. In the extant milieu the desire for power and influence, rather than dedication to service, motivates our politicians, and dressing “smart” and appearing confident is more effective than innate ability, expensive cosmetics are deemed vitally important to deny a felt undesirable appearance of natural aging, and where mundane “talk” and digitized electronic messaging has easily replaced the social and psychological benefits of personal conversation. In such a populist-oriented and witless society, contrasted with one that would, salubriously, aspire to growth, wisdom, and mature perception, deceitful demagogic purveyors of ubiquitous “snake oil cures” thrive, and a consequential decline in democratic humanism consequently eventuate.

To eliminate the impediment of a tyrannical government and its undemocratic practice of government, as now confronts the Nation, we must take the necessary steps to increase the practice of the enrichment of meaningful citizen interaction, and, in the interest of societal advancement take up rewarding activities, like reading good literature, involvement in the arts, or an elective and personally enriching elective interest, We must also maintain appropriate criteria to reward actual merit, and above all, exercise our capacity for reason and development of enlightenment, by keeping ourselves well-informed and voting for our own perceived interest and the corresponding interests o our Democratic Republic.

A return to the former state of well-informed and enlightened citizenry is the effective panacea to the present onset of populist, autonomous tyranny and its shameful degradation of our traditionally admirable Republican Democracy. The same would be desirably productive of a true renaissance of freedom and liberty and constitute the reinstatement of our Nation as the avatar of humanism, and equal and appropriate opportunity for self-fulfillment.

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Just outside of the Great Hall
Cold winds blew disapproval
Affronted thunder and sporadic lightning
Black ice attendant on eaves and doorways
Lights quickly flickering dark foreboding
The fearful apocalyptic coronation of Cain

The dreaded Coronation of Cain
Within that cavernous edifice
Flags, merriment, pomp and ceremony
A blast of bugles, the tattoo of drums
Cain looked on, lips dripping with glee
Head held high in miscreant entitlement
Beholding the pomp and raucous celebration
Awarded, at last, and long-awaited
The triumphant day has come at last
His time to be worshiped, and to get even
He will show the world and himself
The echoing victory of the drums

Outside the Great Hall
In a dark corner, by the big rock
A tiny strand of a light green shoot
Seemed responsively to appear
Reminding the ambient winter season
That Spring is eternal and will soon appear
And in joy redeem the season.

1/21/23 (N YC). Leonard N. Shapiri