It is hard for someone of us to grasp where we are. I do not have that problem. Perhaps it is because of my seeing death so often in my professional life as a cancer doctor. Perhaps it was traveling to far away places and seeing human beings deformed by the violence of war, but then again, I saw that in caring for soldiers devastated by warfare during Vietnam.
Maybe it was seeing truly malnourished human beings on their last legs at LA County-USC Medical Center (LAC-USC MC) during my internship and residency. Or was it the woman in Moscow who I saw in secret whose chest was unrecognizable due to radiation burns.
In these Orwellian times with Trump, and his cabinet (please point out any errors), I cannot grasp the level of amorality and incompetence as well as the danger of having these in charge of the lives of millions. This is monstrous and inconceivable-- not that such pathology exists, but that millions in this country cannot discern shit from shinola. This is what I find hard to believe as "real."
Trump's Cabinet as of May 2025
Secretary of State - Marco Rubio
Secretary of the Treasury - Scott Bessent
Secretary of Defense - Pete Hegseth
Attorney General - Pam Bondi
Secretary of the Interior - Doug Burgum
Secretary of HHS- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Secretary of Transportation- Sean Duffy
Secretary of Education - Linda McMahon
Secretary of Veteran Affairs - Doug Collins
Secretary of Homeland Security - Kristi Noem
Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency - Lee Zeldin
Director of National Intelligence- Tulsi Gabbard
Administrator of the Small Business Administration- Kelly Loeffler
Secretary of Commerce - Howard Lutnick
UN Ambassador- Mie Waltz
Some quotes that seem applicable:
▶︎ "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." — Isaac Asimov
▶︎ "Sir, the motor car is dangerous if used improperly...Human stupidity and ignorance is the only danger human beings face in this world." Response by Timothy Leary to question about LSD posed by Senator Ted Kennedy in 1966.
▶︎ "If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other." -President Ulysses S. Grant
▶︎ “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Thomas Jefferson
Mike: I do not see how we get ourselves out of this mess. We seem immersed in a tragic comedy. Perhaps Laurel and Hardy were actually visionaries: "It's a fine mess you have got me into, Ollie."
Will it not be ironic if we were led back to the path of decency and more towards normal, per the outspokenness of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert. Who could write such a script?
While it's immensely valuable to chatter around these points, to get us toward a same page, doing makes a bigger impression, even if it's a little off and we have to amend our actions. As you so ably suggest, the present moment, in all its raw plainness, is the one that makes any damn difference.
(I hope people get the Nine Inch Nails reference)
Nope, sorry I didn’t. Can you give me a clue?
It is hard for someone of us to grasp where we are. I do not have that problem. Perhaps it is because of my seeing death so often in my professional life as a cancer doctor. Perhaps it was traveling to far away places and seeing human beings deformed by the violence of war, but then again, I saw that in caring for soldiers devastated by warfare during Vietnam.
Maybe it was seeing truly malnourished human beings on their last legs at LA County-USC Medical Center (LAC-USC MC) during my internship and residency. Or was it the woman in Moscow who I saw in secret whose chest was unrecognizable due to radiation burns.
In these Orwellian times with Trump, and his cabinet (please point out any errors), I cannot grasp the level of amorality and incompetence as well as the danger of having these in charge of the lives of millions. This is monstrous and inconceivable-- not that such pathology exists, but that millions in this country cannot discern shit from shinola. This is what I find hard to believe as "real."
Trump's Cabinet as of May 2025
Secretary of State - Marco Rubio
Secretary of the Treasury - Scott Bessent
Secretary of Defense - Pete Hegseth
Attorney General - Pam Bondi
Secretary of the Interior - Doug Burgum
Secretary of HHS- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Secretary of Transportation- Sean Duffy
Secretary of Education - Linda McMahon
Secretary of Veteran Affairs - Doug Collins
Secretary of Homeland Security - Kristi Noem
Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency - Lee Zeldin
Director of National Intelligence- Tulsi Gabbard
Administrator of the Small Business Administration- Kelly Loeffler
Secretary of Commerce - Howard Lutnick
UN Ambassador- Mie Waltz
Some quotes that seem applicable:
▶︎ "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." — Isaac Asimov
▶︎ "Sir, the motor car is dangerous if used improperly...Human stupidity and ignorance is the only danger human beings face in this world." Response by Timothy Leary to question about LSD posed by Senator Ted Kennedy in 1966.
▶︎ "If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon’s, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other." -President Ulysses S. Grant
▶︎ “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Thomas Jefferson
Mike: I do not see how we get ourselves out of this mess. We seem immersed in a tragic comedy. Perhaps Laurel and Hardy were actually visionaries: "It's a fine mess you have got me into, Ollie."
Will it not be ironic if we were led back to the path of decency and more towards normal, per the outspokenness of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert. Who could write such a script?
Nice! This reminds me of a wee poem I wrote once.
Raise a Glass to Entropy
If past is an illusion, if it’s all a flash of NOW
I hope that I can make the best of what the rules allow
I’ll tip my glass with gusto, as I drain my drop of time
And I’ll praise the magic moment when all the world was mine
For universes foaming, like bubbles float in wine
say every day's a birthday, though men and stars decline
Let’s raise a glass to entropy, that makes the stars to shine,
and drink a toast to the singular coast that swallows space and time
When you can't tell where you're going and you don't know where you're at
it's like Heisenberg's dog chasing Schrodinger's cat
You learn to live in spite of it, as you’re walking on your track,
for every hill's a downhill, and the light gets lost in black
We’re surfing on the gradient, we burn a scarce resource
And living on a budget is a hazard of the course
So spend the present gently, without distressing force
And make a pleasant memory, to recall without remorse
Not gonna lie. I’m not much for poetry but I like reading you. And Keats. And Robert Arnold, here on Substack, whose voice is part of the poetry.
Antonio Gramsci — 'The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.'
Superb piece btw.
You might enjoy Lee Smolin's Temporal Naturalism, where physics meets your poetry:
https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/9781800613737_0001
While it's immensely valuable to chatter around these points, to get us toward a same page, doing makes a bigger impression, even if it's a little off and we have to amend our actions. As you so ably suggest, the present moment, in all its raw plainness, is the one that makes any damn difference.