Politics and Science

            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, 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 let Trump know about the harm he causes, because if his goal is to ca

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.             Many of the previous authoritarian examples were before my lifetime, but I remember watching the Twin Towers fall o

            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 them carefully. So in some sense we discriminate between

            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 Germany was a monarchy, and they were accused of dispensing “cl

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.