The turkey run – Illustration by David Crellen

November 2024 Blog

11/11: VETERANS DAY

I'm in the Navy now — I'm in the Nave now

I am proud to say I am a veteran of the US Navy. A Navy back when our supreme commander was not a draft-dodging felon and the prevailing political party did not consist of suck-ass cowards.

11/9: Welcome to the “Don’t Fuck With Me, I’m President” reality show starring Slime Bag Trump. Sponsored by X Industries and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

Episodes begin January 20, 2025. Let's hope it will be a short season.

11/7: In science, the Doppler effect from the color of light of a distant planet indicates its direction of movement relative to our earth’s position in the universe. A blue shift indicates a progression toward us. A red shift indicates it is retreating from us. I think that the US political parties represented colors, indicating a similar Doppler effect.

11/6: "The fact that Trump only seems to know how to win by denigrating others, and the fact that so many Americans knew this from his first time in office — and raucously welcomed the sequel — well, that bothers me. Because that kind of mindset and behavior is what leads to a full-blown breakdown in norms, and when the norms go, no laws will protect you. That’s when I get scared. That’s when I feel we’ve passed through some normative membrane into a new and very dark room." — Thomas Friedman NYT

We’ll give Beckett the last word: “The expression that there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express.” — Aron, NYT

“there’s something off about an educated class that looks in the mirror of society and sees only itself. … The vocation-attendant class needs respect. … we are entering a period of white water. Trump is a sower of chaos, not fascism. Over the next few years, a plague of disorder will descend upon America, and maybe the world, shaking everything loose. If you hate polarization, just wait until we experience global disorder. But in chaos, there’s an opportunity for a new society and a new response to the Trumpian political, economic, and psychological assault. These are the times that try people’s souls, and we’ll see what we are made of. … Maybe the Democrats have to embrace a Bernie Sanders-style disruption — something that will make people like me feel uncomfortable.” — David Brooks, NYT

11/1: “I have to get a Y-ray of my hip tomorrow.”
Friend: “What is a Y-ray?”
Me: “It’s where they use radiation to view your bones.”
Friend: “Isn’t that called an X-ray?”

October 2024

October 2024 Blog

9/25: The Republican party embarked on its self-destruct journey when conservatives allowed the T-party to step into their doorway. Like a growing amoeba, it eked into the chamber, pushing out all the good conservatives. Kamala Harris and fellow Democratic candidates need to trounce the Republicans by a considerable margin this election cycle. This should cause the Republicans to implode into a has-been party, allowing a new, truly country-first, conservative democratic party to emerge upon Liz Cheney’s shoulders. The New Republican Party (NRP).

Meanwhile, as Harris will have been elected on the backs of disgruntled Republicans, I'm sure she will run a more conservative administration.

8/14: I write these letters because I love America. I am staunchly committed to human self-determination for people of all races, genders, abilities, and ethnicities. American democracy could be the form of government closest to bringing that principle to reality. And I know that achieving that equality depends on a government shaped by fact-based debate rather than extremist ideology and false narratives. — Heather Cox Richardson

September Harvest – Illustration by David Crellen

September 2024 Blog

Liz Cheney To The Rescue

Down with the old. Up with the new.

9/25: The Republican party embarked on its self-destruct journey when conservatives allowed the T-party to step into their doorway. Like a growing amoeba, it eked into the chamber, pushing out all the good conservatives. Kamala Harris and fellow Democratic candidates need to trounce the Republicans by a considerable margin this election cycle. This should cause the Republicans to implode into a has-been party, allowing a new, truly country-first, conservative, democratic party to emerge upon Liz Cheney’s shoulders. The New Republican Party (NRP).

Meanwhile, as Harris will have been elected on the backs of disgruntled Republicans, I'm sure she will run a more conservative administration.

9/12: Guess Who Does Not Know TAXATION 101?

U.S. distributer X buys finished clocks from a Chinese manufacturer Y. X pays Y $10 for each clock. It costs X 4 dollars for shipping, advertising, etc. so it adds these four dollars cost +1 dollar profit and sells the clocks to retail stores for $15. The retail stores sell it to you the consumer for $20. The 25% difference covers the stores overhead cost plus a small profit.

Now the US ads a 20% tariff on all products from China. That means company X’s clocks now cost $12. $10 goes to the Chinese manufacturer Y and two dollars goes to the US government coffers. Now Company X has to add that two dollars to its $15 wholesale price. And the retail store has to add that to its $20 price. So now that clock costs the consumer an extra two dollars which goes to the US government. China DOES NOT pay that extra two dollars.

The consumer paid it. I call that a tax. Who buys most of the consumer products we import from China? I don’t think mostly wealthy people by them. Isn’t this called regressive taxation?

This 20% tariff on items that are part of a larger end-product probably get magnified even higher for price of the final manufactured product.

8/28: In May 2016, South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham famously observed: “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.”

August Blog

August 2024 Blog

8/16:There is no real choice this November

"No one was ever born who agreed to be a slave, who accepted it. That is, slavery is a condition imposed from without. Of course, the moment I say that, I realize that multitudes and multitudes of people for various reasons of their own enslave themselves every hour of every day to this or that doctrine, this or that delusion of safety, this or that lie. Anti-Semites, for example are slaves to a delusion. People who hate Negroes are slaves. People who love money are slaves.

"We are living in a universe really of willing slaves, which makes the concept of liberty and the concept of freedom so dangerous.” — from James Baldwin in a 40-year-old interview with Ken Burns as presented by Burns in his Brandeis University commencement speech.

"He knew, just as Abraham Lincoln knew, that the enemy is often us. We continue to shackle ourselves with chains we mistakenly think is freedom." continued Burns.

"There is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route.

"The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids, an easy cure for what some believe is the solution to our myriad pains and problems. When in fact with him, you end up re-enslaved with an even bigger problem, a worse affliction and addiction."

"Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer."

This essential message was excerpted [emphasis is mine] from a powerful undergraduate commencement speech by honorary degree recipient Ken Burns delivered at Brandeis University's 73rd Commencement Exercises on May 19, 2024. Please listen to his entire speech here.

8/14: Costco is my least favorite shopping experience.

Once I zero in on something I really like and get to rely on, they discontinue it; the location of items are constantly being changed; the country of origin are not always shown on Kirkland products; the bumps in the exit walkway is a nightmare— always knocking around delicate items; I never get out of there for under $500!

8/9: China is economically a capitalist economy locked within a communist autocracy.

Because it’s populace can be totally loyal and dedicated they can be easily manipulated.

From ancient times to the present, they have contributed so much to the progress of the world. They are very ingenious and inventive engineering and producing great products. It is unfortunate that the government reins them into an adversarial position,, versus the Western world. Whereas working together in partnership we could quickly solve many of the worlds major problems. And we all would succeed in life.

On the other hand is the western world’s intensely competitive capitalism the reason for our adversarial situation?

“If they had the proper leadership, there are no limits on what they could accomplish,” Mr. Walz said at the time. “They are such kind, generous, capable people.” — Tim Walz 1990 upon return from a year teaching high school in Foshan, China

It’s no longer The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it’s The Chinese Authoritarian Party (CAP)

8/8: “I feel so part of the food chain.”

“You’re safe and top of the pecking order as long as you stay close and take care of your human benefactors. “ re: My Dog Talk & Outtakes

8/6: This quote from Graham Moore’s great best-seller, The Holdout

relates to the trial and jury of the primary plot but it also aptly applies to today’s politics.

“Maya wanted to tell Lou that this need for vindication had become the mire of their whole petty country. Every day, they woke up fervently hoping for the headline that would prove, definitively, that their guys were the virtuous ones and the other guys were the absolute worst.

“But news of that certainty would forever elude them. Every new revelation that seemed to damn the people with whom they disagreed would be followed by a new rationalization. For every failed prediction, there would come a mitigating circumstance. They would double down on their most weakly held convictions because the alternative felt unbearable, and the bums across the aisle would follow suit.

“She wanted to say that the only thing worse than being wrong was having a bottomless need to prove that you never were.” ― Graham Moore, The Holdout

8/6: Walzing Kamala.

It sounds like a down-under political campaign. And Vance Trumps his opponent sounds like a card trick.

8/1: Ethnic diversity

is an essential source of America’s strength. — Kamala Harris

David Crellen's July 2024 Blog

July 2024 Blog

7/31: Ethnic diversity is an essential source of America’s strength. — Kamala Harris

7/30: “Woman’s heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the male.” —Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Illustrious Client”. Does Sherlock Holmes presage the next four years? Is that the reason why we need a male vice president/interpreter?

7/29: If children are given the right to vote, my two family dogs should have that same right.

7/28: How to pass a hot Sunday afternoon: The beautiful thing about distant memories is that as the memories and your conscious mind, the process generally filters out all of the bad stuff. That’s why I love listening to older popular music; it brings back beautiful memories of the past. (While that memory was happening in real life, it probably was not as wonderful as I visualize it today.)

7/27: Intelligent beings, that is, workers who use AI as a tool in their work, define AI as Augmented Intelligence.

7/21: If dogs perspire only through their tongue, could they recycle their perspiration by swallowing it?

7/8: Most of us can trace our origins to Adam and Eve. Trump goes back to the snake.

7/7: Humans will remain the most intelligent beings on this planet. AI, on the other hand, may become the most knowledgeable.

Artificial intelligence is just that – artificial. I doubt a computer could dream up a Daliesque image if Dali had not existed. Likewise, it could not dream up anything that was not based on information and content it had already ingested. In other words, “the clear blue sky “will remain the exclusive domain of the human mind.

7/6: By then, we’ll live in a world transformed. It is now not a fringe view — some would view it as cautious — to forecast that by 2029, we’ll no longer be the most intelligent beings on the planet,

I resonate with the direction you're pointing toward, although I might phrase it differently. The crux of the matter is understanding the essence of intelligence. I concur that AI is poised to become the most knowledgeable entity on our planet, but the notion of it being the most intelligent is a different matter. This perspective could temper the fervor of social media debates. We must foster a more open-minded approach toward acquiring knowledge or, at the very least, comprehending it.

The world should accept superior knowledge but not superior intelligence. Until scientists merge silicon with biology within the human DNA, I don’t think we will be headed to a new multiple-human-species era. Furthermore, the human mind connects with the universal conscience, whereas this will not occur with machines until science fully understands how to harness quantum mechanics and dark energy.

I agree that this is our last election phase that will ignore the issues you raise.

Your articles always provoke deep reflection on current and impending issues. I eagerly look forward to your future work, David. Keep up the excellent work.

7/4: WHAT’S WRONG HERE:

At his confirmation hearing in 2005, now–Chief Justice John Roberts said: “I believe that no one is above the law under our system, and that includes the president. The law, the Constitution, and statutes fully bind the president.”

In his 2006 confirmation hearings, Samuel Alito said: “There is nothing that is more important for our republic than the rule of law. No person in this country, no matter how high or powerful, is above the law.”

In 2018, Brett Kavanaugh told the Senate, “No one’s above the law in the United States; that’s a foundational principle…. We’re all equal before the law…. The foundation of our Constitution was that…the presidency would not be a monarchy…. [T]he president is not above the law, no one is above the law.”

7/1: Unionism as we know it must go. In its place, the employees will have representation on the Board of Directors. One or more directors are elected by and report to employee support groups with national industry association mentoring.

Apple Intelligence Has Yet To Really Expose Itself! — Wednesday, June 12

Apple, of course, had a lot to show off on Monday. It was like introducing an exciting new sports car. They had to show off the style: how the revolutionary fender design cut the airflow, how the revolutionary paint protects from the sun and vastly improves the mileage. Plus, the breathtaking