26 June 2026
Why We Needed Trump
Did we really need President Donald Trump to remind us all around the world that lasting personal happiness only occurs when we strive to maximize the common welfare? Sure, the President believes he has attained his best personal results by ignoring everyone else’s goals except when they achieve his own. But his win/lose strategy only works in a zero sum game,
16 June 2026
AI Won't Replace Wisdom
Resistance to the use of Artificial Intelligence is a common reaction to this new technology. It can liberate mankind from engaging in repetitive intellectual tasks for earning economic rewards with which to obtain more pleasurable experiences. Some of those activities directly compete with performance of the simple tasks that AI can do. However, people also enjoy the act of performing some of those simple tasks. Preventing loss of the pleasurable feelings created by that performance as a result of substituting AI as the task’s agent is the political challenge that AI makes. In other words, being able to accomplish certain tasks affirms one's mastery of particular skills, whereas using a tool instead to perform those tasks is considered by others a relief that allows the pursuit of other more desirable activities.
15 June 2026
Recapturing the Original Congressional Design
When the U.S. republic was initially designed, its Congress was split into two Houses for
the purpose of balancing the immediate preoccupations of the public with
keeping the republic true to the overriding goal of protecting its democratic
government from domination by an autocrat or by special interests. Since then, one special interest that was not
anticipated by the founders of the republic has overtaken the others—the money
needed by politicians to follow their careers.
The search for financial support has made many congressmen, and
particularly those in the House of Representatives, advocates of special
interests. Their original mission has
been corrupted by the expense of winning their election every two years. Not only has the cost of political campaigning grown far beyond the
parameters of campaign finance at the end of the eighteenth century, but the
importance of political party affiliation, its simplification to two
predominant parties, and the close affiliation of the Congressional parties
with that of the President, the head of the administrative branch, have made
the legislative branch more likely to serve other interests than the will of
the public.
Among the ways that under modern conditions, the HR may be restored to its original function are
the following three changes:
- Use modern communications
technologies to make direct democracy possible, without the need for
elected representatives to legislate on behalf of the collective
constituents.
- Transform the legislative
personnel lor each geographic district into civil service staff who
are professionally qualified to understand the various preoccupations of
its constituents and to draft legislation for their consideration in
electronic adoption polls.
- Redefine House representatives as managers
of those professional district staffs, subject them to periodic elections by the public in each district
and finance their audited campaigns exclusively with public funds.
The Senate will be needed as currently structured to act as the arbiter of the legislation
proposed by the HR to assure its
conformance with the overriding political goals of the republic.
Of course, such reform of the Congress will never occur; but
congressional candidates may incorporate some of its principles into their campaigns. For example, they may consult regularly with
their constituents through electronic means; they may also focus attention on
the quality of their and their opponents’ staff; and they should advocate and vote for replacement of private
election finance with public funding.
05 June 2026
Forced Labor Tariff Shows Contempt
The Donald’s latest transparent unilateral tax revenue scheme (requiring no Congressional authorization) would affect virtually all imports and penalize all US consumers, rich and poor, including his own family. Nevertheless, it would constitute a more burdensome drain on lower- and middle-income budgets.
The President’s advisers are, no doubt, proud that they have found a way to disguise new funding for one of Trump’s self-glorifying monuments that doesn’t directly raise graduated income taxes. Not only does the White House believe that the MAGA Crowd will stupidly ignore the inequity of billing them disproportionately more in comparison to his wealthy friends. They are convinced that feeding Trump’s ego will solve many others of their goals. Moreover, they blindly accept Trump's contempt for anyone else's self-interests.
This is an anomaly of liberal democracy with a written, but debatable, Constitution that was not anticipated by the founders of our republic. Their good intention to liberate themselves from monarchic autocracy ironically made us victims of economic abuse not seen since the gilded age.
24 May 2026
Purported Iran Deal
The agreement in principle reported between Iran and the U.S. constitutes an advance of both the Islamic regime and the Trump administration towards conventional international political behavior. In other words, both sides will have acknowledged that the law of nations only exists among countries that tacitly accept certain norms, such as keeping open straits like Hormuz and not resorting to punishing military attack when trying to modify each other’s policies.
International relations is not a zero-sum game. It is encouraging that someone seems to have convinced the negotiators of that.
19 May 2026
Resignation Deal
Trump’s settlement of his billion-dollar suit for compensation from the I.R.S. for its release of supposedly confidential information on Trump tax returns shows how, in his view, government is all a game. He and his acting Attorney General have concocted a trade-off that withdraws his threat of an unlikely award of $10 billion to him in exchange for creation of a slush fund of “only” 20% of that amount to fund thank-you gifts for the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol at his request on January 6th, 2021.
09 May 2026
Adopting Old Country Foods
Rich American cuisine begins owing to immigration. The people who came from foreign lands because of low opportunity, repressive discrimination, adventurism, and even slavery have brought their eating styles with them.
My children’s ancestors continued to compose their meals
of whatever they could afford that matched the selection they were used to.
The items they ate became part of the local menu wherever they settled, if
only by default.
Usually some of those dishes persist in the habits of
subsequent generations. Intermarriage
between separate immigrant populations produced unique blended cuisines, like
the Eastern European Catholic/Jewish meld which my close relatives share. Among the foods placed on the dinner table
were the following:
Polish
dishes
Kiszka
Czarnina
Pierogi
Head
Cheese
Kolats
Kolacki
Golomki
Oplatki
Kapusta
Uzka
Jewish
dishes
Latkas
Brisket
Hamen Taschen
Matzoh brei
Chicken soup with matzoh balls
Challah
Blintzes
