Politics and Science

            According to the book about Constitutional law of which I read parts of tonight, the three branches of government have different roles and responsibilities. The legislative branch creates laws, the executive branch enforces them, and the judicial branch decides individual cases and interprets law. Three reasons are provided that President Trump’s executive order from the date of February 18 th , 2025, regarding independent agencies is risky. President Trump suggests moving independent agencies to the executive branch because of lack of accountability. Since the agencies were created by the legislative branch, they may be accountable to the legislative branch. The order seems to imply that the independent agencies would have more legitimacy if they were a part of the executive branch because of the election of the President, however, the officials in the legislative branch who created the agencies also won elections, which is also a source of leg...

             President Trump, with collaborators in the Republican Party, on the Supreme Court, and support from business, wants to prevent changes that would improve democracy and capitalism in the United States. In their efforts to prevent these changes, they have decided to make everything worse, so that any improvement is only to a return to a previous status quo, and not a genuine improvement. From my understanding, the actions of Trump and Republican Party are only another step in an effort that has continued for decades to undermine civil rights, women’s reproductive healthcare, and worker’s rights, among others. Decisions from the Supreme Court have undermined voting rights, decreased women’s reproductive healthcare, increased the influence of wealthy donors in politics, and given the President legal immunity. Income and wealth disparity continues to grow.             If wealth accumulati...

             A quote often attributed to Mark Twain is, “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.” The United States federal government has immunity in certain cases, and law enforcement has qualified immunity, and the Supreme Court decided that the President of the United States has immunity from prosecution for core powers. I thought of a similar saying, “There are criminals, damn criminals, and the government.” To clarify, I'm saying that I don't trust people to have legal immunity because legal immunity can be misused, not that every person who has legal immunity misuses it, or that every person who works for the government is immoral.

Best Books that I Read in 2024               After reading parts of, “Why Nations Fail,” by Robinson and Acemgolu, and “The Politics of Place,” which is a description of Montesquieu’s writing by Baudoch, I have two concerns. “Why Nations Fail,” describes how extractive or exclusive political and economic systems slow innovation as current systems do not benefit from new technology, but the new technology could lead to more inclusive political or economic systems. “The Politics of Place,” describes that societies often promote security, liberty, and prosperity. After reading parts of these two books, societies must determine security, liberty, and prosperity, but for whom and when? Security, liberty, and prosperity immediately, but for people who are already safe, already well-educated, already free, and already prosperous? Books with parts that I enjoyed: Why Nations Fail by Robinson and Acemoglu The Politics of Place...

            I was reading Fight for Liberty, which is a collection of essays that attempts to defend democracy and human rights, sometimes from a neoliberal perspective. I briefly read an excerpt where one of the essays defends globalization. Globalization is the increasing interconnectedness of trade across the historical borders of nations, and globalization contrasts with protectionism. Protectionism is the preservation of business interests by using barriers to slow trade across borders, sometimes with tariffs or other measures, that prevent the money or business interests of one country from being harmed by the money or business interests of another country. Globalization, as it is currently practiced, represents that the people with money or business interests in different countries do not have to protect their interests from each other, are not in competition with each other, and have more in common with each other than the p...

             I read the Federalist Paper #2, which was published on October 31 st , 1787, and written by John Jay.   The essay starts:             “Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights, in order to vest it with the requisite powers. It is well worthy of consideration therefore, whether it would conduce more to the interest of the people of America that they should, to all general purposes, be one nation, under one federal government, than that they should divide themselves into separate confederacies, and give to the head of each the same kind of powers which they are advised to place in one national government.”             Jay clearly states the necessity of governme...