President’s Day is a good time to reflect on where your alliances lie.
Today we celebrate President’s Day, a patriotic holiday that is normally a time when we commemorate our history and our democracy, and we honor those who have served to lead it. But this year is different… it comes as an opportunity to contemplate the horrific reality that We the People have created for ourselves, and to reflect upon how we might move forward as a nation to remedy the situation.
America had been comfortable for awhile. The country went through a golden age of sorts in the late 20th century, making significant improvements in terms of the health, education, and affluence of its citizens. That age has ended and those trends have seen dramatic reverses in recent years. Life expectancy is declining in America, and the American system of healthcare available to all but the wealthiest of Americans lags that of many other parts of the developed world. Much of America wallows in deep ignorance and embraces alternative facts and shuns science. (See: Let’s Make America SMART Again.) The income divide between the have’s and the have-not’s grows on an ongoing basis. The secular values of our founding fathers are under assault.Continue Reading >>
Why do so many Americans stand in such stark denial of reality?
The August 2, 2017 Quinnipiac University National Poll found that 61% of American voters disapprove of the job Trump is doing, while 33% approve. With 200 million registered voters in the United States, that means that 66 million people still approve of President Trump.
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Six months of observation and analysis has allowed me to identify the 10 key motivational factors at play in this situation.Continue Reading >>
From Left: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, President Donald Trump and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, the morning after the firing of FBI Director Comey. Photo via TASS. American media photographers were not allowed to take photos.
We are not making this up.
In case you were somehow off the grid for the last two weeks, let’s briefly recap just a few of the more salient and perfidious events of the past fortnight before we take a look at how the dominoes may fall in the near future.
On May 9, 2017, United States President Donald John Trump fired F.B.I. Director James Comey, who was also leading the F.B.I.’s investigation into Russian tampering in the 2016 US presidential election as well as the possibility of collusion between Russia and members of Trump’s campaign and administration. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, reportedly urged Trump to take this action.Continue Reading >>
President Trump and Russian Ambassador Kislyak, the morning after the firing of FBI Director Comey. Photo courtesy Russian Embassy. American media photographers were not allowed to take photos.
May 15, 2017
Open letter to the Honorable Mitch McConnell 317 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Fax: (202) 224-2499
Re: Termination of the Presidency of Donald John Trump
Dear Majority Leader McConnell,
We are writing to you today to discuss the pivotal and immediate role that you personally play in the very future of the American experiment in democracy, as well as the singular power you have to facilitate the possibility that the Republican Party will retain its hold on the Oval Office and Congress for more than one single term.Continue Reading >>
America has a pre-existing condition, and it’s name is Donald John Trump.
As this column goes to press, there are 1353 days left. Now that all the efforts to review the Trump administration’s first 100 days are behind us, today we look deeply at how we can use what we have learned over the first 108 days to make educated predictions at what lies in store for the American people over the remainder of Trump’s term.Continue Reading >>
The author, preparing for the March for Science in San Luis Obispo, California.
The climate is changing.
This past Saturday I joined an estimated 1,200 other people in the March for Sciencein San Luis Obispo, California. Our march was one of more than 500 such marches that took place around the world on Earth Day, April 22, 2017, likely involving more than a hundred thousand people world-wide.
Father, son, and “alternative cat” participating at March for Science, San Luis Obispo. Photo by Cliff Kurtzman.
It was a day for celebration. Celebration of the benefits that science and technology have brought to each of us to improve our quality of life and our ability to understand the universe in which we live.Continue Reading >>
There are some things that transcend party politics.
These are perilous times, and looking past superficialities to see deep repercussions is important. The current US administration is treading into territory far removed from anything we’ve seen within our lifetimes, from either Democratic or Republican administrations. When basic liberties are threatened and the possibility of nuclear conflict edges closer on a daily basis, it is incumbent on each of us to seek truth, to look at world events with real depth, and to use our voice to say, eyes wide open and with love for America: “No, this is not okay… I will not go quietly into the night.”Continue Reading >>
He wounds the autumnal nation. A corroded knife, plunged and twisted into the very belly of our Republic, leaving us hemorrhaging from our core, pushing to the front the very worst of what We the People represent.
Donald John Trump has given us a mirror, and what we see in it isn’t remotely pretty.
And amidst the writhing and the screams of the agony inflicted, the casualties are our dignity and our honor and our pride; along with truth, justice, and the American way, all of which he has made a mockery of in the very worst ways imaginable.Continue Reading >>
Strategies for taking command of our lives through seeing "deep repercussions" in world events and realizing how chain reactions can produce future outcomes.
