Politics and Science

In a news article that I remember reading from the 1980s, my dad seemed to imply that the United States was fighting, “On the wrong side,” of the Vietnam War. A possibility is that people think that he meant the wrong side of the conflict between capitalism and communism during the Cold War, intending that the United States was fighting for the capitalist side, which was the wrong side, and they should fight for the communist side. I visited France with Mom and Dad, and I remember seeing parts of the film, All Quiet on the Western Front, in a museum. If I remember correctly, All Quiet on the Western Front depicts trench warfare for World War I. A historical anecdote is that opposing forces played soccer around Christmas in No Man’s Land during World War I. During the United States’s Civil War, some people fighting for the Union had family in the Confederacy, and some people fighting for the Confederacy had family in the Union. From my understanding of my Dad, when he said that the Unit...

While I did not read much from books that directly regarded politics, philosophy, or international relations, the study of insurance brought a different perspective to understanding the climate crisis and war. The climate crisis, war, civil resistance, and repeating patterns, all have costs and benefits. First, the climate crisis is expected to increase costs from weather events in the United States and internationally, at this time, according to an internet search, the losses from weather events is of the same order of magnitude to costs from smoking cigarettes in the United States. Damage and harm from weather events is expected to increase in the future, and policies or technology might decrease harm from future weather events. The political values of places that profit from the export of carbon-based fuels sometimes conflict with the historical political values of the United States, so political values-based reasons might exist to move from carbon-based fuels. If the total costs ...

             In the past, people who are politically liberal have moved from rural areas to cities, and then from smaller cities to larger cities, or perhaps as people move from rural areas to cities to larger cities, people become more politically liberal. Since the House of Representatives is apportioned by population, and the Senate is apportioned with two senators per state, then polarization between the House of Representatives and Senate might occur. Economic opportunities exist for living in large cities, and millions of people who vote for Democrats live in states that often vote for Republicans at the state and federal level, and millions of people who vote for Republicans live in states that often vote for Democrats at the state and federal level. I am not suggesting changes, however, a possibility of polarization between the House of Representatives and Senate might occur.

The following is a summary of Federalist Paper No. 3, which was authored by John Jay. The third Federalist Paper hopes that a union of the states would be more peaceful than a group of states, and notes that, at least at the time of publication in 1787, that conflict with the American Indian tribes was between states which were unable or unwilling to to prevent violence by European settlers, and not American Indian tribes and the United States government. The essay identifies two common causes of conflict between two nations, with the two causes being the breaking of a treaty and direct violence. Jay states, “The number of wars which have happened and will happen in the world will always be found to be in proportion to the number and weight of the causes, whether real or pretended , which provoke and invite them.” If there is a cause for war, a strong union of states, “will also be more in their power to accommodate and cool, in that respect, as well as in others, will be more in ...

            The New York Times reported that law firms agreed to give President Trump’s administration $600,000,000 in legal services. According to Google, the law firms can charge $800-$2000 per hour, say $1000 per hour, and also according to Google, the total number of lawyers employed by the law firms is probably between 10,000 to 20,000 lawyers. $600,000,000/$1000 = 600,000 of lawyer work hours. If the law firms employ 10,000-20,000 total lawyers, then that’s an average of about 30-60 hours, or about a week to a week and a half, of free work per lawyer.          The work that these lawyers complete for President Trump could allow him to target other people more easily, or some lawyers could target other people on President Trump's behalf.

            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...

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...

The first Federalist Paper warns, “A torrent of angry and malignment passions will be let loose. To judge from the conduct of the opposite parties, we shall be led to conclude that they will mutually hope to evince the justness of their opinions, and to increase the number of their converts by the loudness of their declamations and the bitterness of their invectives. An enlightened zeal for the energy and efficiency of government will be stigmatized as the offspring of a temper fond of power and hustle to the principes of liberty. An overscrupulous jealousy of danger to the rights of the people, which is more commonly the fault of the head than the heart, will be more pretence and artifice, the stale bait for popularity at the expense of public good. (Some text omitted.) The noble enthusiasm of liberty is too apt to be infected with a spirit of narrow and illiberal distrust.” (Image from Wikimedia.)             Hamilton warns that...

Here are some songs which I listened to tonight. The songs might or might not applicable to recent political events in the United States. Here It Goes Again by OK Go Down We Go by KALEO Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne How Far We’ve Come by Matchbox 20 Fast Car by Tracy Chapman Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater I Am Defiant by The Seige (Spelled “Seige” not “Siege”) I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables Confident by Demi Lovato Crazy by Gnarls Barkley (Added 5/16/2026) Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes (Added 5/16/2026) Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down (Added 5/16/2026) Correction: I fixed the name of the song by OK Go.

            The frequency of my posts tends to decrease when I’m stressed, when I work, or when I don’t feel that my posts will matter much. I am confused by the election results, not because I trusted the polls and thought that Vice President Harris was certain to win, but after Trump has been President for four years (2017- 2021), and his policies clearly target other people, while the Democratic Party, both President Biden and Vice President Harris, worked to expand opportunity. If a person says something that is racist, sexist, or antisemitic, but they did not intend to cause harm, then letting them know about the harm, and comments like that might be less likely in the future. If a person makes a comment that targets another group, but their intent is to cause harm, then letting them know about the harm could increase the likelihood of those comments in the future. I am of two thoughts about Trump. I do not know whether to le...

I was not yet born for the presidency of Ronald Reagan, but from what I can read, I see that President Reagan, with the help of the Heritage Foundation, started many of the policies that President Trump intends to implement.             The parts of American history of which I am proud, such as the abolition of slavery except as punishment for a crime, the New Deal, and the Great Society, suffrage for women, and suffrage for people of other races, I consider progressive or liberal parts of American history.             The parts of American history of which I am ashamed, such as the displacement of Native Americans starting with the arrival of the colonists, the preservation of slavery at the founding of the United States, and the internment of the Japanese during World War II, the Tuskegee experiments, I consider authoritarian parts of American history.    ...

            In June 2023, right-wing influences on the Supreme Court weakened affirmative action, and so I am thinking about under what conditions discrimination is justified. Discrimination can be used in a couple senses. In the first sense, there’s discrimination in the sense of finding some group or quality less valuable than another group or quality. In previous centuries, only white men were educated. Now women and people who are not white can also receive education. Previously, women and people who are not white were discriminated against in education, meaning they were found less valuable or unable to be educated. In the second sense, there’s discrimination merely differentiating between two things, with no claim in difference of value. I can divide all quarters into those minted before 1979, or those minted in 1979 or later, but they are all still worth 25 cents. Only one person can be President, and we try to choose the...

            As long as some feel that they can maintain their social status by excluding others from education, others will work to increase equality of opportunity, particularly through education. As long as some people lack adequate healthcare, others will work to increase healthcare outcomes. As long as there is slavery, others will work to abolish slavery. If you care about increasing access to education, healthcare, and abolishing slavery, be prepared to support these issues by voting, donating, and volunteering, as long as people are being excluded from education, healthcare, or are enslaved. With the Presidential election this year, I am reminded of how I felt under the first Trump administration, which was mostly anxiety and fear for the future. No one person, whether President Biden, or Vice President Harris, will be able to completely solve these problems, but if we work together, we can move forward.

            On July 1 st , 2024, just over a week ago, the US Supreme Court decided in a 6-3 decision that Presidents have immunity for official acts. Since an “official act” doesn’t seem to be clearly defined, the check-and-balance on an American President’s power is unclear. So I started to read about the judicial system in Nazi Germany. I learned that antisemitism in Germany started out gradually with the first antisemitic law passed in 1933, and then rights were continually taken away, until by 1941, very few people who were Jewish remained in Germany, because they fled or were sent to concentration camps. I learned that there were official and unofficial methods in the justice system, particularly for people who were Jewish, dissidents, opponents, or other people who the government decided were undesirable. The Weimar Republic existed from 1918 to 1933, but I read that judges were mostly put in place before 1914, when Germ...

There is a bird nest over the light by the front door. When returning from walking my dog, Lilly, I noticed a dead bird chick was on the doorstep under the light, and I buried it in the backyard. My mom said that she would move the nest after the other birds’ chicks left.   A Poem For Baby Birds   Growth is a process, A process of change. And prepares us to fly.   Whether we fly or not, The process keeps going.    

            Today, I re-read parts of a book that I bought probably at least 10-15 years ago, Lasker’s Manual of Chess. Lasker was the chess world champion in the early 1900s, was a person of the Jewish faith, and left Germany in the late 1920s or early 1930s in response to the rise of the Nazi party. Of the parts that I read, and I really enjoyed this line, “Of my 57 years, I have applied at least 30 to forgetting what I learned or read.” In this quote, I think Lasker has an idea similar to Albert Einstein’s, who said, “Education is what is leftover after one has forgotten what one learned in school.”

               The White House Correspondent Association’s (WHCA) Dinner is a testament to political freedom in America. In more authoritarian governments, satire and political comedy is monitored, discouraged, or suppressed. That President Biden is willing to sit through jokes about him, his opponent, and politics shows that the political system can face its imperfections with good nature, and jokes can be made about falling short. (Also, there is a difference between jokes and bullying. Some but not all jokes are bullying, and not all bullying is joking.) Authoritarians find themselves too serious and important to be the target of a joke. As President Biden toasted at the dinner, to a free press and an informed citizenry! Since 1924, only President Trump hasn't attended  any  WHCA Dinners. Edit: P.P.S. In my haste to comment on US politics, I didn't compliment Colin Jost, who I thought was funny. I particularly enjoyed the joke ab...