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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The dystopic authoritarian morass in which our Democratic Republic is deeply embedded makes conducive a metaphysical examination of the general nature of the relevant relationship between citizen and the polity; i.e., between the governed and the government.

Winston Churchill famously (and wisely) said: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest.” Despite its vulnerabilities, the citizen-run form of governance, despite its systemic shortcomings, is inarguably preferable to other alternative, repressive and authoritarian forms of rule. We are confident that the concept, if not the words of Thomas Jefferson, that a literate and well-informed citizenry is requisite to the success of a democracy. It is obvious that a government “by and for the People” requires a capable and appropriately dedicated elected governance.

The wry reservation expressed by Winston Churchill and the prescient admonition of Thomas Jefferson were sadly confirmed by the “populist” election of Donald J. Trump to the American Presidency. The plethora of egregious results of such an election, as painfully and specifically discussed in our earlier writings, is obvious and empirically irrefutable. The fundamental Churchillian and Jeffersonian comments are indisputably relevant to the nature and quality of the millions of voters who put him in office.

It has long been our (expressed) view that the ignominious spate of governmental problems currently besetting the Republic has two determinate etiologies, one of which is readily curable, the other problematic, but, ultimately citizen possible

To take the second, more difficult problem, viz., the lack of adequate education and an informed state of mind, is fundamentally stereotypical of the populist, Trump supporter. The amelioration of the ubiquitous threat to democracy would require, in addition to willingness, a fundamental alteration in citizen persona and a long-term program of education; factors which, as a practical matter, if feasible, would necessarily take years of dedication.

The other panacea against the future election of an unsuitable President would be relatively easier and more effective. We have consistently urged a process by which, regardless of the state of success in increasing the educational judgment of the relevant voter, would be a shield against the election of another incapable, tyrannical, or otherwise objectionable Head of State.

We have, for years, emphatically recommended the fiduciarily responsible procedure of non-partisan vetting of all potential nominees for the American Presidency. An applicant for any mundane civilian job, such as a shoe or insurance salesperson, would necessarily need to submit to a mandated interview and be hired only if deemed acceptable. It is truly bizarre and tragically ironic that it has not been deemed necessary regarding the vastly more profound American Presidency. Such a vetting would presumably have averted a disastrous Trump Presidency.

On the assumption that the Jeffersonian standard is not fully satisfied, such fiduciary procedural responsibility to the Democratic Republic and its citizenry would avert the possibility of another miscreant interloper to the venerable American Presidency.

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Regular followers of this (approximately) five-year-old blogspace are undoubtedly aware of our adamant reservations concerning the surrender of humanistic capabilities to the more facile and efficient digital facilities. We have expressed our affirmative support of general advancement, but have expressed our profound concern regarding the irresponsible lack of attention accorded by Silicon Valley to the humanistic impact of their ubiquitous “advancements.” Plainly expressed, we have been concerned that the exaltation of capability is far above that of the empirical, humanistic impact; i.e., the vital concepts of “can,” and “should.”

Regular readers are, predictably, surfeited with our ubiquitous observations of societal and individual damage (especially to the personality-formative young) resulting from the surrender of salubrious, interactive, human conversation to the presumably more facile “smartphone,” resulting in a notably impactful lack of intellectual and communicative capability; the sine qua non of society.

To responsibly audit our expressed views on the subject of Man’s digital substitution of human activities, we performed some cursory, armchair research into various authoritative publications on the subject, and were profoundly shaken by the reported extent of adverse empirical impact ot such digitalized, algorithmic “advances” on society and individual sapient life.

Our previous writings emphasized the societal degradation and personal loss of humanism, specifically brought about by the use of hand-held appliances (“smartphones”); the context of this writing (with the aid of our aforementioned “armchair” readings) is relative to the authoritative findings of mental and intellectual regression implicated in the ubiquitous use of computers, especially A.I., on the human brain.

It has been reportedly determined, with the aid of electro-encephalograms, that the popular use of A.I.K. in the writing of essays and reports, lowers the activity in the brain networks associated with cognitive processing, attention, and creativity. An additional and worrisome finding is a notable lack of recall of what was written.Such external assistance reportedly limits the ability to synthesize information and that of weighing competing views to enable the formulation of an opinion. We are creating dystopic generations that have a limited capability of understanding, of relevant subject matter, nor, indeed, an empirical perception of the world and its place in it.

Professional sources advise that while the human brain likes shortcuts, it needs “”friction to learn. We must, in the interest of the salubrious existence of man and his society, responsibly consider the vital difference between “can” and “should” in the profit-making aspiration for innovation and profit; otherwise, we will harvest a bumper crop of haplessly ineffectual, stupid progeny.

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