INTRODUCTION

June   7 2020

Precipitated by the killing of George Floyd by Officer Darek Chauvin on May 25, our country has first faced an aborted attempt for President Trump to assert rule by decree, which was aborted by resistance from many sources described in this N.Y. Times article.  This same spark, led first to marches in the the locale, to spread across the country and the world.  The two sides are so embattled that I attempted a long view analysis in the developing article linked to the right.  

This article I wrote on American Humanist Assoc.web site, is entitled  "The Profound Damage of Trump's "Cure" for Covid-19"   The most dire damage of the President personally promoting this cure is that it will exacerbate the already simmering political divide.

The research on pharmaceuticals are based on defined objective international standards, one that removes emotional response from the therapeutic efficacy of the medication. 

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On the right side of this page are some current essays 

Below are the listing of selected essays starting around 2010.  Those that are indented are less important than others.

Last Day at the Zoo 
    I savored my freedom with man and beast  on what could be my last such pleasure. 

My Dailykos Experience- Banned after 700 essays 

Antibody research and Creationism - Scantibodies Laboratories
     A personal day long tour to a different world that merges modern science with ancient religion, 

Review of article "Green New Deal, An Historical Prospective

 In God We Trust"- The Established Religion of the U.S.A.


             A work in progress:  "Resistance" Then and Now

            This article takes off on one by a man who noticed the commonality between Trump and                      Hugo Chavez, Trump the Messiah of our times-  in all its connotations.

Reversal of Time,  a spoof by physicists who love science fiction

A rejection of partisan extremism (is there any other kind) and the dangers thereof

A week to remember, hope on the day Trump becomes President (Dailykos essay)

             White House Correspondents Dinner- A critical analysis of the tradition

Atheists are screwed-- Republicans want to convert us and Democrats won't expend political capital to stop them

             How Google directs reader to his existing position on separation of church and state

             Wikipedia v Twitter- Why the Outcome Matters
             In the age of fake news and instant response by the President elect

 Depression- being tested for it no longer optional


 Essay on liberal blog Dailykos to goad President Obama to demand Director Comey defuse what I argued was a fatal blow to HRC's election.  It illustrates how this group mindset treated what would be my accurate fear, that she would lose, with contempt. She has now stated that this release is what caused her loss.

 Chronicle of correspondences re: the lN.Y. Times distorted paraphrase of 5th court of appeals decision. Shorter version of First person essay about  this with link to longer personal reflections. 

              The Night I became a Trump Deplorable 

               N.Y. Times ombudsman packs it in- defeated by Institutional Hubris


This article,  Marriage Equality among Primates.   is a criticism of the tendentious nature and distortions of a recent N.Y. Times OpEd.  It includes response from the author.


           Candidate Trump: "Women who have abortions should be punished"  what this means  


A fictional account of a landmark Massachusetts decision from 2005, that may provide some understanding of underlying forces that elected Donald Trump.  Addendum includes only full transcript of the dissent on the internet.

Healthcare Beyond Partisanship   This is a website of studies and polls I undertook  during the legislative process for the ACA (Obamacare)   It has links to Dailykos article, ACA Passage Means Democrat Suicide  showing 2 to 1 Democrat opposition at one point in time. 

Candidate Romney defines USA as "nation bestowed by God"

Anne Frank, Edward F. Green and Donald Trump

Guest Poem by Sheila-  The Swallows

Fareed Zakaria, "I am a Muslim" and then paying the price.  

DailyKos Blog Article on my participation at UCSD Lecture, "The Physics of Free Will"

Article and discussion on California's new Medically Assisted Suicide Law, including reference to other societies where this leads to unintended consequences. 

This is on Dailykos, on "they" for "he or she"-- but comments ignore the most important "begging the question" for political discourse

Science and Mysticism - the excesses of some theoretical physicists (read the addendum- will be a public discussion on January 26th.


On normal memory loss, one essay many links


After "Obergefell" -- Questions for the Era of Marriage Equality
Note the addendum that refers to the dissent against the first state decision on this issue.


Humanism and the danger of awe looks at how science, the touchstone of secular humanism, can also become its cultish antithesis.  This Amazon review looks at a recent book with the same point of view.

"All Global Warming deniers paid hacks" - my refutation poking a hornet's nest in N.Y. Times. 

Waco, Two Metaphors for America    Two sides of due process

Hoi Polloi,  More than a term from Ancient Greece, this essay goes into depth hot links of how this phrase provides a perspective on caste, class and how they affect the most valuable product of civilization, language.


"Negro, the word, gets a reprieve"
May 2016,    This is a three part essay, all interconnected written over the course of a year, prompted by different events.


An essay by this atheist who found he is being prayed for, and wonders whether it is working during this Christmas season. 

Islam and Secular Democracy, is it compatible based on its religious tenets? As we are about to possibly embark on a major war against ISIS, the violent group that has a an attraction that we can't understand, it becomes necessary to breach the principle of protecting all religions, and look at whether Islam is a central source of this movement.  It is not something to do lightly, so my hope  is that readers take this developing article seriously, and make their own contributions.

This is the link to , Focus on Encinitas-  including this article describing why I resigned from my Commission seat..  On the right are lists of articles if anyone is seeking any topic, especially the one about my opposition to "Peak Democracy."  This story of my transition is continued here

More than a book review of "Divide, American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap" 
And this NY Times comment, expressing the same sentiment of the book review, (written before)  that garnered wide approval on the perversion of our legal system. 
This book pre-dated by a year the killings of black people by police that has sparked a national movement to end the easy violence among law enforcement.

An academic website where I challenge their liberal bias, an extensive comment- warning heavy going 

The Pledge of Allegiance: A Personal Perspective

And this article just written,
 The Pledge, including "under God" added in 1954 is now routine to our population that no longer remembers when this was added.  


          The Arts in America, Today and Yesterday. 
           Written early in the morning of Independence Day

Sectarian Prayer in City Councils-Town of Greece v. Galloway    My article from October of last year when this Supreme Court case was argued. This comment, that I agree with is from Scotusblog that depicts this as tearing down the wall between church and state brick by brick. With links to the decision. 

          Chelsea King and Rachel Morrison- two tragedies two reactions 

Addendum to "The Humanist" article Normal Aging or Disease, ......

CA, Obamacare, the long and short view.  A valiant courageous effort to help the needy sick, or a continuation of the the war between the haves and the have-nots? For archival interest of  evolution of the ACA is this essay from liberal Dailykos, that shows a surprising majority opposition in a poll of 400 readers .

Here is annotated article on Traffic Fads and Older Driver from my article in the Coast News-incorporating some concepts from articles below on dementia.

NY. Times: Data Mining comes to medical care- public health--


This article, MCI or CRS, why the diagnosis of a decline of memory matters. is based on a new law relating to cognitive evaluation of Medicare patients.  It is an unknown aspect of the ACA. that impacts the culture of aging in this country.

                Enlightened Christianity, is Secular Humanism up to the Challenge


                This is a story of how the renovation of a McDonalds is affecting a three decade old            Informal after tennis social group--and a whole slew of toddlers.


The real clash of civilizations-
No longer economic ideology, but secularism  against religiosity


               How Concierge Practice defeats  The Promise of Medicare

                Progress on Immigration reform, and my reality check. 

              "Facial features of dangerous criminals"  an unfounded "science" presented at our own      county library.

               Breaking the Code of the Presidential Oath of Office,

                Response to N.Y.Times "The Stone." Notes on Pop Cosmology and it's consequences

Medicare and the ACA, Obamacare, will fail without a change is societal values, as this essay based on a rather shocking poll of doctors describes.  Comments include first person experiences of several physicians.

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The following are old essays that are mostly for my own reference




Article on mass killing in El Paso Texas on Aug 5, 2019


A Timely Thanksgiving Message to on World Peace and Tennis Conflicts

On returning from a local band concert, I initiated an exchange with the music director.  It's about the "war on Christmas"

Alzheimers, or dementia, or just plain memory loss of aging?  These are medical biological issues but also reflects our culture, how we handle the infirmities of aging.  Here's a first person participant research of a major research program at University of California San Diego.

Aunt Lena, 1903-2012
A personal remembrance,

End-of-life care in America
Some ruminations on hospice the hope and illusions of ACA

I have been active The Soledad Veteran's Memorial issue for several years now, and report on the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not to review the appeals court decision that the existing monument, a 42 ft high Latin Cross, that as of now is deemed an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.  The blog, Soledad War Memorial goes into detail of the current court action with links to court decisions and it's history since 1989.

I opposed the comprehensive health care reform referred to as Obamacare, as described in this comprehensive essay, complete with multiple references. These represent multiple essays on the liberal web site, Dailykos.com, that were usually met with a respectful discussion.   One article referenced from the N.Y. Times was from 2011, the next article from June 2012.  Same conclusion with different focus, interesting in itself.

My report on UCSD conference referenced in the "Reader" Political Civility and Scientific Objectivity: Science, Technology and Public Policy in Democratic Societies is in this ongoing chronicle of my engagement with the issues raised there.  There is an element of confrontation with what I view as the entrenched ideological goals of the institution having an adverse effect on open inquiry.

This essay, My neighbor, the inventor of the personal computer, is a narrative of one of the less controversial issues of the conference, the effect of government research funding on major technological advances.

"Chelsea's Law, an Opportunity Lost"  is the story of a how a multiple rape murder became the impetus for a law that continues the counterproductive responses to a terrible, but thankfully rare, human aberration.

This is a discussion of my experience surrounding the 2012 Successful Aging Expo, focusing on my interactions with two speakers, research scientist James Brewer and talk show host Mike Slater.

Here is annotated  "Coast News" article on Darrell Issa, with links to sources
It is referenced above in contrast to my article on a Democratic Representitive
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The archive list by date is to the right -feel free to browse

Thanks for dropping in.  And be sure to leave a comment after reading.

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I have over sixty reviews of films on this list from IMDB, most are those that I enjoyed, or really loved for those who are looking for some recommendations.

Lincoln would not have prosecuted Trump

"And the war came" is a phase from Lincoln's second inaugural address shortly before the end of the war and of his life, that looks back on the words of his first.  Four years before he expressed hope that differences between the confederacy and the states united by the federal constitution could be resolved by compromise.   We are at a similar place right now, with failure to foresee the future consequences of such an internecine war making such a tragedy possible.


War and politics are different domains of positions and of public discussion.  In reality it is a  continuum, something not realized until a transition between the two occurs. Opposing groups in the form of political parties are designed to allow their divergent interests and values to be determined short of actual combat by a structured periodic plebiscite to determine which shall prevail. Politics can be enjoyable, a club that brings people together against a common enemy. It has this carnival quality of an intoxicating unifying institution -- that is until the music stops.

We may actually be closer now than even the prelude to the Civil War.  The current President has articulated only somewhat less than an overt threat with words such as these: "I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad."

The escalation of this saber rattling occurred recently from other side of the political divide from the presumptive Democratic candidate for the Presidency, Joseph Biden  It was  response to a question whether he would promise to "not pull a President Ford” by pardoning Trump “under the pretense of healing the nation.” Biden emphasized his concurrence  with, "Absolutely, yes. I commit.”  In this response was a tacit assumption that he condemned Ford's pardoning of President Nixon.  This has not been the universal judgement of history, which is illustrated by the words of Ford's 2001 Kennedy Center Profiles in Courage award.

Lost to our public memory is the lesson that could be learned from the similarity between the Nixon presidency and that of Trump.  This 1983 Atlantic Monthly article sounds familiar: "I'll tell you what," the prosecutor says. "They'll run for cover. One third of the country still supports him, (Nixon) and we're on the verge of civil insurrection. If he told the Joint Chiefs, 'I want the troops out and I want to dissolve Congress,' they would have done it."  The article expresses that while Ford did not specifically agree to pardon Nixon, he did convey his belief that this was the preferable course of action for the country. . 

Biden's glib statement is meaningful; as the question was an opportunity for him to define a direction for his administration that would have been a reversal of the hatred, both  by and against the incumbent.. He could have responded without denying that his opponent deserves to be punished for his actions, for example, "This is a difficult subject, as the expectation of endless prosecution could energize Trump to foolishly try to prevent the constitutional transfer of power."

It would have been bad enough if he had stopped with this vow not to pardon, but he went further, and in doing so betrayed his lack of mastery of the structure of the executive branch of our government. He continued with “It’s hands-off completely. Look, the attorney general of the United States is not the president’s lawyer. It’s the people’s lawyer.” He is accurate in as far as traditionally, once an attorney general is appointed there is a high degree of autonomy in specific choice of cases.  Yet, as in all cabinet positions, it is the elected president who defines the broad outlines of policies. The AG is the "peoples lawyer" only to the degree that he follows the principles that are determined by the elected president. 

Biden may have been trying to convey that he would not use the justice department to advance partisan goals, but in doing so he went too far.  He passed on the opportunity to express a higher goal, to reverse the pathological hatred of one party of the other.  Rather, he signaled that he would adopt an approach to lead his party to the destruction of the enemy, defined in the person of Donald J. Trump. No prominent Democrat has publically questioned his statement, so the full extent of the consequences of  Biden's promise has not even been aired.  Hatred of Trump is what unites Democrats to the degree that anything short of making him suffer for what he has done to the the country is blasphemy. 

The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese became Japs, to be destroyed after great carnage in a war that ended in a flash that unleashed the specter of nuclear Armageddon.  Our country demanded minimal retribution and no reparations. We only required that they become a democracy, which resulted in their becoming a stalwart of the "free world."

The ending of the Civil War was only a cessation of armed conflict; as the residue of slavery was deeper and broader than could be erased by Reconstruction. The resistance began with the KKK the same year the war ended continuing in many forms to this day.  The current Democratic party, in proposing destroying the life of the deposed leader ignores the reality that Donald Trump would never have attained power if he did not reflect a movement much larger than himself.  The challenge is greater than winning an election, and certainly not to be achieved by seeking retribution on the one who brought the stresses of our country to a head.

Addendum-Alternative laws that would allow presidential rule by decree

Congress, after the shock of  9-11, chose to redefine the Presidency in the "John Warner act of 2007" It enhanced the power of the federal chief executive over that of governors.  It was to sunset in five years, but it appears to have been reactivated as recently as 2018 and still is the law of the land. 

In spite of many Americans fearing the President becoming a dictator, over the last half century or so, the mood of the country was to enhance the power of this office, whether escorting negro children to school after Brown v. Board or preventing the encroachment of "evil empires." Trump possesses all of the plenary authority that has been enshrined in f,ederal law that can not be negated, even by the high court if it were so inclined. 

My article, "Lincoln....." without being explicit, proposes that the Democrats negotiate with Trump, assuming that a fair election would require that he leave the office he holds.  "The deal is you accept the will of the majority of the electoral college, and in return you get a federal pardon, which will allow you to continue to build your political base as a citizen leader, and maybe even return after the Dem's screw up their term."

So far little support my suggestion. Let's give it a description, "appeasement"-- forgetting how this word is now equated with cowardliness.  It is really making the best of a crisis by opting for compromise instead of a predictable catastrophic outcome.  The British public appreciated Nevil Chamberlain's efforts using this strategy, and only a revisionist interpretation makes it seem his doing his best faced by the complex challenge is to be condemned. 

There is another side of the nefariousness of Trump. It is what I view to be the profound defects of the coalition that forms the current Democratic party.  The chaos in the streets we are experiencing is only partly by those who want to revise the laws that define acceptable behavior of the police.  For many it is overtly radical, with posters such as "Eliminate the Police" similar to those who chant, abolish, rather than reform, ICE. 

These events have shifted Biden's "probably choosing a Black VP" to he damn well better, and will do so.  The vast scope of presidential responsibilities is ignored when a single identity becomes the primary criteria. The single black woman with experience in the federal government is Senator Kamala Harris, who is one of two candidates castigated in this Washington Post article for accusing the officer who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson. While every list of people of color who were wrongfully killed by police include this event, the article goes into detail why the officer, Darell Wilson is innocent, following the mandate to use lethal force when appropriate. 

Police officer Wilson and George Flowd are both victims of our times.  While I have no viable prescription for a solution, the first step is transcending the toxic partisanship that is certain to lead to a catastrophe we dare not imagine.


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