I learned, quite late in life, that I have Asperger’s. I have vacillated between accepting and rejecting that diagnosis. All said, the diagnosis does explain why I have been mostly excluded from society.
This is important because while I read widely and can write reasonably well, my style of writing is generally found to be of interest to few readers. And this is important because these web pages have some extremely important concepts.
Our democracy is in grave danger. I think, and hope, these web pages make the case. But I need help. I need someone to help write these essays such that more people might be inclined to read them. If you find that there are some valid ideas here, and you share my concern about the future, then please consider working with me to get these ideas out and into the minds of the citizens. Please contact me at this email: president at ca23rd dot org
As this is being written, a draft opinion of a Supreme Court ruling has been leaked and has attracted extensive nationwide attention. There are many saying the draft opinion is outright wrong. But if it is wrong, what can be done? At this time, essentially nothing.
This essay presents a possible amendment to the constitution to remedy the current situation.
Please find the web page here
and a MS Word version of the document here
As this was written, 3 May 3, 2022, the word is out that SCOTUS plans to overturn
Roe -vs- Wade. That will be a truly major problem. Bypassing all those discussions,
this site now presents some concepts for federal legislation that should be enacted.
The basic concept is this: If you, each state, prohibit abortion, then you, the state,
must accept the financial consequences of that prohibition. Please find the HTM
version of that document
here
And the MS Word version
here
Your inputs are strongly requested. Please email to: president at ca23rd dot org
This item introduces myself to the public and introduces a series of essays about
the path this country has taken.
We reccomend you right click the link and open in a new tab.
The YouTube video is here
The text is here: here
The MS Word document is here: here
The video is my first, and not done well. But it anyone responds indicating that videos will be better received than the text, I will work on improvements. The email is at the bottom of the page.
I have started a series of articles that I loosely call blogs and presentations. Our country has taken, and is taking, the wrong path through history. If we continue down this path, it may well result in the destruction of our republic.
My choice of actions is to create a few blogs, written and video, and post them. I will endeavor to publicize them, but have no experience or knowledge on how best to accomplish this. I do not present well in the two videos I have created so far. You, dear reader, can almost certainly do better. Please consider joining me, or telling me how to join you so we can work together.
April 2022
The second essay is titled: The Enlightenment and Early Conservative Beharior
The essay begins with two periods of history known as the Scientific Revolution and
The Enlightenment. These overlapping periods were a time when many citizens of the
world began the process of understanding two distinct yet intertwined concepts of how
the world works and recognizing the rights of the citizens.
The word began is used cautiously as many people much earlier in history did
strive to understand the world. But they were, to a very large extent, deliberately
held back by those in power. Behaviors that continue to this day and are expected to
continue for a long as members of humanity amass and consolidate power and strive to
keep that power.
The essay is
here
A MS Word version is available
here
An examination of recent Republican behavior indicates that it is quite bad. The last Republican administration attempted to overthrow the election. While they have reached a new low, this bad behavior is not completely new behavior. Their behavior has been bad for quite some time.
The first essay reviewed behavior of those who may be called conservatives. That behavior has been consistent over multiple centuries in that the conservatives have strived to separate the population into classes, even castes it you will. Part of that behavior is a dislike of what we may call The Sciences. Why might that be?
A significant part of it is that sicence, more precisely, the scientific process, leads us to to concepts. It tells us about how the world really works. This is a problem for conservatives because they want to tell the world how things are and how things are to be. The next essay will be about how the Republicans strive mightily to ignore any science they don't like.
This essay, titled Republican Behaviors, examines some history of the Republican party. It is found here
A MS Word document of the essay is here
These essays are not proceeding as quickly as they should. This is due, in part, to my inability to get anyone to read them. I have posted comments and links on Facebook and Twitter, all with no response and feedback. Still, I will continue.
We don’t have immediate control over the climate or Putin. But if we lose our democracy,
we may lose the chance to control those two items. The essay: No Time For Politics
was written to address our serious problem of losing our democracy.
Please read the web page version
not_now.htm
The Microsoft Word version is
not_now.docx
This is my first attempt using video and video editors. It is the first time I have attempted to create a video. I am certain there are many things that could and should be done better. If you wish to suggest or maybe help, please send an email: president@ca23rd.org
Nonetheless, the first two have been completed.
Humans are a unique species. We extremely self-aware. The way we make our decisions has evolved over millions of years. This essay presents a few things that we should keep in mind when considering our political positions. Please check that essay here: https://ca23rd.org/blogs/on_human_nature.htm
The Constitution was written under the concept of Checks and Balances. The reason for that was, at least in part, to prevent one branch of government from obtaining too much power. The result would be a tendency to move towards authoritarianism. Further, the founding fathers, in the Federalist Papers, were quite worried about the tyranny of the majority[1]. Now, in 2019, we are seeing the Executive Branch explicitly and actively denying the authority of the Legislative Branch to peek into what they are doing. This is contrary to the words and the spirit of the Constitution. This president is striving mightily to be as authoritarian as possible. The Republicans in congress and many of them in the public will not do anything to criticize this much less apply the reigns.
The federal government is in a crisis. And that crisis does indeed extend to each and every citizen of these United States. The Legislature is questioning the behavior of the Executive. The Executive is rejecting all attempts by the Legislative to obtain information about what the Executive is doing and why. Many, certainly not all, in the Legislative claim that Trump is running amuck and is violating the constitution. The Legislative branch is not of a single mind.
What are the rules of this game? There are differences of opinion. But here are some facts.
The first place to go for the facts is the U.S. Constitution. We all know what that is, but I suspect that remarkably few have read it, and even fewer have read it in the last few years. I reviewed the Constitution with the specific goal of understanding the separation of powers and the oversight that one branch might have over the other. The reasons for how the constitution was written are embedded in its design, but are not explicit. To be explicit would be more than it should bear.
An analogy may be found in the writing of a story or a book. As the author you would not begin chapter 1 by stating: "I am telling you this part to explain the situation between the two protagonists and to set up the conflict which is the core of the book." You would just tell that story such that the words do that.
The same concept applies to the Constitution. Those words that I have found to be related to the concepts of checks and balances are here: https://ca23rd.org/blogs/check_and_balance_constitution.htm
The second place to look for information is the Federalist Papers. The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 papers written by those close to the creation of the Constitution. The purpose was to convince the people of New York state to adopt the constitution. They spread well beyond New York and are now a treasured documentation of the founding of the country. There were many concepts presented in them, one of which is that of Checks and Balances.
A prevalent theme in these papers is that the government is divided into three branches with the clear purpose of preventing one branch from amassing too much power. Before jumping into the Federalist papers, here are a few words about each branch of government with regards to checks and balances.
Congress, and only Congress, the Legislative branch, can create laws. However, they cannot enforce the law. They cannot implement their directives. From time to time the Supreme Court (Judicial Branch) does declare that Congressional laws, and sometimes state laws, are in violation to the constitution and therefore not valid. The Supreme Court cannot be appealed therefore Congress's only resort is to write the law again making it legal or to abandon that law.
The Executive branch, headed by the President, implements the will of Congress. It can be said to be the only branch that "does something." But it cannot create laws, cannot adjudicate them valid or not, and incredibly important, it can only spend money as allocated by Congress. And yes, that is explicit in the Constitution.
The Judicial branch of the Federal government cannot "do" anything. Its sole purpose is to make determinations as to if a law is legal and to decide if a behavior is legal. It does not make law, it does not enforce law. It has no enforcement agency, and does not conduct any business other than that of deciding about law and behavior under law.
Please keep in mind that this discussion is about the federal government, the federal judiciary. It is not about the state and local governments that hold trials and enforce the law.
Now we get to the Federalists papers. They were written by people involved in shaping and writing the Constitution. As lengthy as they are, Brevity was important. When considered as a whole the Constitution does not carry the words of why is was written in that specific manner. For that we can look to the Federalist Papers as a primary source[1].
Note that this review of the papers was limited only to those that discuss the concepts of checks and balances.
That review is here: Checks and Balances Federalist
Having spent many hours on this project over a couple of months, there is some basis upon which to create a summary and conclusion. Please read the conclusions here: Summary and conclusion
Shortly after waking on this 4th of July, 2019, the thought to consider this day a bit more deeply found me. After pondering the meaning of the day and its importance, these words seemed appropriate. Please read them here: The 4th of July
While in the mood from writing the above noted words, I recalled a story about a Congressmen advising Trump to ignore a Supreme Court ruling. His remarks are indicative of serious problems within the Federal Government. That paper is here: Open Letter to Congressman Roy
Your input is actively solicited. Please write to the president of the CA23rd: president@ca23rd.org