This year, all around the world, would-be autocrats have seduced gullible voters into casting ballots for charlatan politicians. In the United States, a would-again-be-president and many members of his party are using The Strategy of Liars and Lies to pervert democracy by making their strongest appeals to the generally less well educated half of the electorate. If they succeed, the oldest large democracy in the world will have become captive to a man who has frequently boasted, by both hints and overt promises, that he will become a dictator if he is elected. In that, ironically, he does not lie.

The truly tragic aspect of the 2024 election is that if Trump wins, there will be blood. If Trump loses, there will be rivulets of blood. No one wants either of those outcomes, except Donald Trump and his most devoted acolytes. If Trump wins, bloodshed is guaranteed. How much and whose blood is spilled remains to be seen

Current polls declare that ex-President Trump has a small lead over current-President Biden. However, neither candidate is close to being truly popular with the American electorate.

Why would the parties support either of these politically unpalatable candidates? The overarching answer is that it was not “the parties” that chose them; it was “the people” who did. Primaries are the primary explanation for why we have two old unpopular men.

This essay is prompted by an essay about various books that have been written about the origin of our species, Homo sapiens. To avoid being sexist, that Latin genetic term should be “Humans of Wisdom,” or Wise Humanity,” rather than “Man of Wisdom.”

The demonstrations on dozens of American college campuses in the spring of 2024 technically are not issues of free speech. Instead they are provoked by conflicts over academic freedom. It is an important distinction that may be little understood by nearly everyone except those affiliated with higher education, and only by a minority of them, especially the students.

Opposition to the student demonstrations seems to be rising, in part because many suppose that antisemitism is being invoked. That may be true for a small minority of the students, but their opposition to the Israeli government is certainly not synonymous with antisemitism. It is a deliberate slur to imply that opposing the actions of the Jewish state is the same as opposing Jews. Were that correct, it would like saying the opposition of Americans or anyone else to the American government is the same as opposition to the USA. Trying to silence criticism violates the notion of free speech that is enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Personal rights shall be diminished as long as the Supreme Court has the present nine justices who comprise it. Four to six of its members seem oblivious to natural human rights, depending on what cases they accept for adjudication. Until some of those who decide legal precedents on personal morality rather than constitutional concepts of natural rights resign, die, are impeached, or are removed by term limits (which will never happen if the Supreme Court is allowed to have anything to say about it), then natural individual rights shall continue to be trampled on by justices whose personal thinking on Culture War controversies shall take precedence to rights that are inherent in the US Constitution.

Economics is often called “the dismal science.” It attains that negative description for two basic reasons. First, economists usually see far more dark clouds than sunshine in their predictions regarding the economy, and second, there are so many varied factors that effect the economy that it is impossible to keep it on a steady upward course.

Prophets do not point out our personal or corporate errors simply to attack wrongdoing. They firmly believed that errors are a means of teaching us. The prophets remind us that when we are good we can still do better, and that when we are bad we must do better. Their words are not intended to make people feel guilty; they are meant to encourage them to turn away from evil and to do good.

Three essays explore disparate topics: “Swing States” Distort Democracy; Should Joe Biden Debate Donald Trump?; and Trump and Netanyahu: Partners in Crime.

Politics is far too important for the selection of presidential candidates to be left up to a populace who, as well-intentioned as they might be, are amateurs regarding what to a necessary extent must be THE professional position of all positions in American politics. Only the leaders of the national parties have the acquaintanceship and necessary means of observation to know who the best candidates are who represent the ideals and broadly affirmed political values of their particular parties.

There are some similarities between Chinese religion and Western religions, but there are many more differences than similarities. Therefore, because almost everyone who might read this essay grew up in a Western civilization and nation, let me first begin by trying briefly to describe Eastern religions.

The Freedom Caucus is not part of congressional government; they are opposers of congressional government. In fact, ideologically they are fundamentally opposed to any government of any sort, but especially the federal government, of which they are but a tiny fraction of the 535 Senators and Members of the House. Those who are as far to the right on the political spectrum as the FC are truly beyond the pale.

Because of partisan polarization, if bills are rejected by the courts, the politicians commission public polls to be taken to determine the preferences of the body politic, hoping that may sway the courts. It is bad politics to pass dubious legislation and then to poll the public to see what they think when proposed laws are struck down by the courts.

Both of the major American political parties have stymied the production of much-needed new policies because neither is willing to move toward the center.

Are presidents or Vice-Presidents governmental officers, or are they in a different category or class? Does the 14th Amendment omit them from consideration? They undoubtedly are officials. Does that mean they are in the same category as officers? If it is ruled that a president is not an officer, is that a distinction without a difference?

Because of these factors, the word “state” means different things to different nationalities, but only Americans perceive “state” as Americans perceive “state.” To everyone else, state equals nation or country. It is an epistemological puzzle.

It is impossible to believe that Hamas planned to achieve the astonishing success it has had by means of its bloodthirsty incursion into Israel on October 7. In a few hours they killed 1400 Israelis, almost all of them civilians, and took as many as 400 people hostage, some of them Americans and other nationalities, but most of them Israelis. However, that is not the success to which I refer in this essay. That vengeful terrorist military exercise was nothing other than a carefully-executed massacre. Many people around the world think it was justified on the basis of how they perceive the Israelis to have treated the Palestinians since 1948, but many others considered it to be what it was: a blitzkrieg outrage. 

This country does not need to hear another barbed word emerge from the pursed lips of Donald Trump in the August 23 debate. It would be a great blessing to the USA and the entire world if he were prevented from ever saying anything else in a public forum. It would be a greater blessing if Mr. Trump does not succeed in gaining the presidential nomination of the GOP in 2024 or any other year.

Back when Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, but he kept insisting for almost two years that he didn’t lose and that the election was stolen, I remember writing an essay where I said that it would be too dangerous for him to be imprisoned if he were convicted of any criminal charges. I thought that some of his most ardent followers are so zealous that they would take up arms against police and soldiers all over the country.